My school year has finally ended! Sorry again about the wait guys, but here's the next chapter 3
Ellegaard's heart pounded as she ran deeper into the forest, still cradling Emilia's satchel in her arms. She had no idea how long she had been running, but every moment counted if it meant getting farther away from where she had just watched Emilia turn into a wandering soul. Her boots stomped on the dry dirt with each quickening step and the musty air filled Ellegaard's lungs with each labored breath, causing her to cough and sputter as she ran.
Escape, she needed to escape.
Soon, the engineer tripped over a root from one of the many trees in the area. She fell onto the ground, her body colliding with the dead, colorless grass, and let out a pained moan.
Ellegaard lifted her head and looked at her surroundings; though she was still in the forest, she was far from where she'd met Emilia. The black trees were thicker and closer together, causing the branches to block the sky. As Ellegaard moved her flattened hands on the ground, she noticed the grass was taller and darker.
She sat up and felt a stinging sensation on her knee. Ellegaard saw she had torn a hole in her auburn pants and scraped her knee. It wasn't the worst injury she could've gotten, but that didn't mean it wasn't unpleasant, and she was bleeding a bit.
"Dammit," the engineer mumbled to herself. She didn't have any bandages, water, or potions to treat the wound. All she could do was put a hand over it to stop any more bleeding.
As Ellegaard looked down at her hand on her injured knee she noticed that the dark gray substance that Emilia had pointed out had moved down halfway to her fingers.
That's when she remembered the curse.
She still couldn't believe what she had just found out; all this time Ellegaard thought she was dead and in some bizarre purgatory. In reality, she was summoned by some twisted individual who wanted to steal her humanity for their selfish gain.
A wave of guilt crashed down on her as it sunk in that all of those beings she called monsters were victims of this sick realm.
Ellegaard buried her face in her hands, "I'm such an idiot," she said, "how did I not realize sooner? There were so many of them and now-" her voice began to crack, "Emilia's one of them too."
The engineer stared at the palm of her hand in silence. She couldn't save the girl from a fate considered worse than death; what kind of hero was she? Though there was nothing Ellegaard could've done to prevent Emilia from dying in the first place, perhaps if she hadn't been so fearful of the realm she could have found her sooner and they could've helped one another out.
She felt like a coward and a failure.
Ellegaard closed her eyes and sighed sadly. No matter how much she wished she had found Emilia sooner, the curse was out of their control and Emilia was no longer the human the engineer had briefly encountered.
She could not change that.
Ellegaard opened her eyes and again looked at her graying hand; she could suffer the same fate. Her lips slimmed.
She could change that.
All Ellegaard needed to do was find Iris and take back her heart; if she succeeded, the curse would be lifted, and she'd be back home, back to the life she missed so dearly.
The engineer closed her hand, stood up, dusted the grass and dirt off her clothes, and put the bag over her shoulder.
She took a deep breath, tightening her grip on the satchel's handle "C'mon Ellegaard, you can do this. You just need to get out of this forest."
The engineer began to walk down the path she was previously headed, though this time she traveled slower to prevent another injury.
This part of the forest was darker compared to where she had stayed for most of her time in the realm. There was no day or night cycle so the only answer to this change could've been due to the trees blocking out the sky.
The realm had always been somewhat dark; there was no sun or moon which were the primary light sources back home. Even in places such as the Nether, which had the entire sky blocked by a thick layer of bedrock, large pools of lava and fire would light up the hellish dimension. Ellegaard had only been to The End once, and that was during the "battle" with the Ender Dragon with the rest of the Order.
Nine years ago.
She hadn't had the chance to spot any natural light source on that fateful day. However, the end crystals that protected the beast glowed brighter than any daylight sensor she'd ever programmed.
Ellegaard paused to rummage through Emilia's satchel to see if she had packed any torches; she did not. She sighed sadly and began walking once more.
Ellegaard never liked the dark; though it had never been a paralyzing fear, there was something about the lack of ability to see her surroundings that made Ellegaard feel uneasy. As a child, she'd had a habit of checking that the walk-in closet in her bedroom was shut so she didn't have to stare into a black void as she tried to sleep. Even when she had outgrown that habit as an adult, darkness still unnerved her to an extent.
That was part of the reason she loved Redstone so much. In its natural state, the ore gave off a soft comforting glow, giving even the darkest of caves a small light source. When mined, Redstone could be used to make redstone torches and to power inventions like daylight sensors to light up the night sky.
To Ellegaard, it seemed as long as she had Redstone on her, she didn't have anything to fear.
The engineer glided her fingers on one of the tree trunks as she walked. The bark was cold and rough, just like trees back in the overworld, only they looked and smelt like burnt charcoal. With how dead and dry the environment was, it was a miracle to Ellegaard that trees grew at all.
As she continued to trek through the desolate forest, admiring the somewhat otherworldly scenery, Ellegaard felt a wave of nostalgia as memories of her days with the Order flooded her mind.
Before the Order built their temple, they frequently camped in forest biomes or hollowed-out caves outside towns and villages. Soren always insisted on using his architectural skills to glamorize the area, even if they only stayed for the night. This was much to the dismay of Magnus who argued that there was little point in trying to make the area attractive as they wouldn't be there for long. Ivor, on the other hand, appreciated the architect's efforts in making the space more livable. Gabriel didn't mind one way or another.
It was a sentiment that Ellegaard didn't pay much attention to all those years ago, but as time passed and her friendships drifted away, she began to miss those mundane moments with her old friends. Soren's information dumps to the group about his latest discoveries and interests during breakfast, Ivor hunched over a book in the kitchen as he attempted to learn recipes for a new blend of potions for The Order, and Gabriel cracking unfunny jokes as they were in the midst of a long, dull journey to lighten the mood.
And then there was Magnus, her old friend Magnus.
What could Ellegaard say about Magnus?
When the Order was together, it was as if he had made it his life's mission to pester the daylights out of her. Aside from pyrotechnics, the griefer's favorite thing was to enter her workshop back at the temple while she was working and bother her by asking the most absurd questions and comments. She would roll her eyes and tell him to be quiet or leave.
Though they had always butted heads back then, it wasn't until the Order was splitting, after the Ender Dragon incident, that things began to take a turn for the worst. Every day the smallest thing about one another seemed to set the pair off, whether it was Magnus's tendency to shout whatever he was saying even if he was in the same room as someone or Ellegaard's habit of giving out whatever unsolicited criticism came to her mind.
It was as if they hated each other, but she couldn't have hated Magnus. They were young and scared, the entire group was, and they took it out on each other.
Ellegaard wished they hadn't. Maybe if they'd been a bit older and smarter they could have worked things out and salvaged their friendship when they had a chance.
But the damage was done and all Ellegaard did with her life, until the Witherstorm ended it, was lock herself away in her Dome of Concentration in Redstonia and work on her redstone contraptions to distract herself from the painful memories of the past and the longing for what once was. Her longing for the old days only grew after her death and time spent in the isolating realm.
Ellegaard stopped to cut a pathway through a long trail of thick branches attached to trees blocking her way with a wooden sword.
Then again, she thought, perhaps being sent to this realm was a blessing in disguise. Before when she thought she was in the afterlife, Ellegaard believed that she would never get another chance to reconnect with her old friends again until it was their time to cross the rainbow bridge.
Now, realizing she had been sent to a different realm instead, she had a chance to get her life back, return to Redstonia, and finally reconcile with her old friends after only briefly seeing two of them after years of separation.
A hopeful smile grew on the engineer's face. It was a small chance, but a chance nonetheless! She had taken risks before as an inventor and a hero; how was this different?
Besides the whole curse thing.
Ellegaard swung her sword and made the final cut in the sea of branches. As she walked through, she had to shield her eyes to adjust to the world becoming somewhat brighter due to exiting the dark forest where she had spent the last six months.
When she unshielded her face, Ellegaard couldn't believe what she saw. Her eyes grew in shock and she nearly dropped her wooden sword.
In front of her was an old dilapidated wooden bridge over a deep, dark ravine, leading to another biome of this mysterious realm.