Role

Chapter 2

Walking at an incredibly slow pace to try and silently make his way through
the thickened brush, Theorendus controlled his breathing and knew that
patience could be the only thing to save him in this treacherous place.
Stalking through the web of branches, he'll never admit the strange sound
that froze him in fear.

Strange laughter, almost a muffled quiet giggle broke the eerie silence -
slowly turning his head to look behind himself, a small clearing was suddenly
present that wasn't moments ago. Two small beings that rose barely to his
waist stood with their backs to him in the middle and...they walked on two
legs! They each only had two legs! Dark-haired and shrouded in darkness, the
two were conversing in a foreign tongue and nudging each other before an
archaic stone fountain, yet another broken ruin. Terrified of what they could
be, in the woods which had already taken his mother, he stood petrified in
thought before a strange midnight void parted reality before them. As if
tearing the very air, this black swirl unfurled and the two small beings
calmly walked in and faded away.

Not truly understanding what he had seen, Theorendus thought he might be
going mad - something in the air... right? Cautiously after several minutes,
he stepped into the clearing as the swirling mass of blackness was hypnotic
with pulses and ripples to match a heartbeat. This was clearly the first
working thing he had ever seen and that fact along enticed him. It showed
life where everything he knew was lifeless.

Something shifted inside the portal, the motion stirring in reverse - a
direct reaction. As every fiber of his being screamed at him to pull back, to
run and survive, Theorendus didn't. Without a single sound, the void sprang
like a flower trap and encased him. Bright colors and senses assaulted him as
he howled in pain, his head pounding with pain where the only thing he could
hear was all too familiar.

"THEOOOoo......reEEENDUS....."