Step by step he walked towards the edge of the waterfall, his mind was in a daze, the night sky did little to hamper him. The most foolish boy in Hoto Village, it was a nickname he had garnered from the villagers for his absentmindedness, for his unfocused eyes, he did what others asked him to do, nothing more, nothing less, it was akin to a puppet. He had no self-preservation instincts, no instincts notable at all and so when an army attacked Hoto Village, he was stowed away in a basket and carried by his mother and father together. His father died fending off soldiers at the base of a hill, his mother dragged the basket with him inside and ran up to the crest. When the soldiers caught up with her she pushed him over the edge and told him to run and he did so for six hours straight until his legs couldn't run anymore and so he started walking. Step by step he approached the edge of the waterfall with the same dazed eyes and he had no intention of stopping. His mind was foggy and occasional random thoughts would pop into his head and then fade away. From the moment he could remember he had only had a few bursts of occasional sanity which would fade. He never felt anything, no sadness nor happiness, for him it was all just motions of life and therefore there was heart wrenching sadness, no crying nor anger when both his parents had dropped dead to soldiers, nor when his village, the village he had grown up in was destroyed or the people that called themselves his friends were killed. For him it was all just moving through the process of life, like a fool and so he waded through the plant life and trees and finally appeared on the edge of the waterfall and he stopped, the moon shone bright above his head, witnessing the happenings. His glazed eyes recalled a hint of life and he remembered a name 'Arthur' but the fog swallowed it up, for all his life he had been called…what had he been called? He had been called a lot of things, fool was a word most used when people called him, perhaps that was his name and his eyes glazed over again as he stepped onto air and fell into the dark waters. There was no scream, just rushing air and the water broke his fall with a crash and he sank into its icy depths as his life
Leneus Venestus had sat by this tree for the last week, hunting the occasional animal that would come by for a source of food. He was waiting for the falling star, the one person that could save their dungeon. He was instructed by his lady grace to find the boy and bring him back to the Blue Lands and so he travelled from Sky-Blue Plateau to the edge of Clovent Kingdom to wait for the boy. He had seen the Hoto Village massacre and tails of a great fool that lived in Hoto Village had circulated into his ears the past week he had resided in the surroundings of Hoto Village, he was curious as to this fool but he had a mission, assigned to him by his ladyship and he must complete this mission to ensure not only his continued survival but also Blue Lands' continued survival. If he could not complete this mission then his father would climb out of his grave to beat him to death with the same shovel that had been used to put dirt on his grave and so after a week's worth of travel, a week of resting near the borders in a shabby but cozy inn and finally waiting out in this forest hunting wild game, this night was the night and atop the waterfall he saw a boy walking in a daze towards the edge of the waterfall. He laughed nervously, surely this couldn't be the falling star, the boy seemed fine but at the same time there appeared to be some off about him. He wore clothes, no rags would be a better description for them, rags, brown, dirty and torn, his hair was cut unevenly without any sense, his entire person was dirty, covered in brown and there were cuts across his face and hands, this was all Leneus Venestus could see with his extremely focused eyes, granted a human would only be able to see the silhouette of a human perhaps a boy walking to the waterfall from where he was standing, below the waterfall, covered by a tree but Leneus Venestus was no human. He looked towards the flames in front of him and then sighed. He grabbed the bucket of water next to him and poured it on the flames and then he left the cover of his tree adjusting his traveling cloak and saw the boy stand at the edge of the waterfall and then he looked skywards to see if there was a falling star, no none and finally the boy jumped off to Leneus' shock and he watched the boy crash without a scream into the water and then sink.
"What on earth…?" he muttered and suddenly the runestone that her ladyship gave him started shining. "Are you kidding me?"
He started sweating, his falling star had jumped into a waterfall to drown. He quickly stripped himself to his underpants and jumped in after the boy, clutching the shining runestone in his hand and as he swam towards the boy the stone started heating up, even in the ice-cold water, the heat was apparent. He swam towards the boy and lifted him up and swam to the surface and hoped upon every god he had ever prayed to in his life that the boy was fine, a lot of lives apparently depended on this boy, despite how he looked. He flipped the boy up onto the land and climbed up himself and looked at the boy with closed eyes and an unmoving body.
"Water…" murmured Leneus. "He must've swallowed water."
Leneus looked over the boy as he slowly pressed down on the boy's lungs and he spat out the water right into Leneus' face.
"Bloody scaly balls!" cried out Leneus tumbling back wiping his face vigorously.
The boy coughed twice and Leneus waited eagerly, the boy flopped over sideways just as unmoving as before. Leneus coughed twice as he looked at the runestone again, it was shining just as brightly, and it emitted more heat. He then looked at the boy that at the very least appeared to be breathing now. The boy seemed cleaner though Leneus but he still doubted the veracity of this particular falling star, despite this he could never doubt her ladyship's excellence and so he pulled the boy up and put him on his shoulders and then with his other hand he piled and picked up his clothes and he moved back to the way he had set camp before and soon he came upon his old clearing hid by a huge tree. At the center of the clearing was the remains of a fire, and twigs set in a fashion to roast meat. To the side hanging on a tree was a burlap sack in which Leneus Venestus had resided in. He started up the fire again with a breath from his mouth as he saw the boy freezing and lay him next to it. He himself sat on the other side in his underpants warming himself. Occasionally he would glance at the boy and then shake his head in disbelief all the while muttering to himself.
"Fallen star falling…almost drowned."
"How is this even possible?"
He had set the ever-glowing rune down next to him as he watched the fire dance in, illuminated all the more by the moon shining occasionally through the thickets of trees.
Arthur Halo had finally awoken from his reverie, his missing half had someway found his way back to him and memories compounded inside his mind, creating a jumble. Memories of him learning to ride his bicycle, memories of him standing behind a horse and getting hoofed, the painful memories, the happy memories, memories of both worlds had unlocked and were fusing, yes, he was Arthur Halo and he had led two lives. One up till the age of twenty-five and another in a mysterious new land in a village called Hoto where he was considered the greatest fool in the lands. He remembered walking up and jumping off the edge of a waterfall and he remembered his final day on Earth, trapped in his own car drowning, it was a horrible feeling trying to claw his way out of the car, his fingers bleeding, turning the water red, drowning was always a horrible feeling, no matter the world but he realized he was saved. As he had drowned inside the water a hand had reached out and grabbed him and pulled him back up. The memories replayed themselves, slowly becoming faster and then the shutter closed and he awoke with a start. He coughed as he sat up, he was in the strange lands he realized, and he turned to see fire and he rolled back.
"You're awake!" exclaimed a happy voice from the other side of the fire and Arthur looked around to see a man with somewhat long dark green hair, built well enough, in his underpants.
"Who are you?" asked Arthur frowning.
"My falling star," said the man running up and kneeling in front of Arthur and he clutched Arthur's shoulders. "You've awakened to save Blue Lands."
At this moment Arthur searched his memories, memories of both worlds and he remembered the girl that saved him from the car mentioning something about this and then he looked at the man in front of him, certainly, this man didn't seem like a woman, so then who was the woman that saved him and what about this man that called him 'Falling Star'.
"Who are you?" asked Arthur again, it was the only question that seemed sane enough for him to voice out.
The man who in the middle of a tearful monologue froze and then he looked tentatively at Arthur and then composed himself with a cough and stood up.
"I am your butler my liege," said the man and it would certainly have looked more professional had the man been wearing clothes, well something other than his underpants.
"Wonderful, you're my butler," Arthur agreed, to avoid any headaches. "Why are you my butler and what do I need to do?"
He had remembered the attack on his village by the army with the standard of a kite and he was aware, very aware. Though even now he did not have any familial feelings for the man and woman that had raised him up as their son in this world, he did feel some pain, they had after all taken care of him, even at the cost of their own lives.
"My name is Leneus Venestus and her ladyship Allura had asked me to find the falling star," said the man, Leneus Venestus.
He scrambled away and came back with a glowing rock.
"This rune with shine in the face of the chosen, the falling star, the one who has come to save Blue Lands."
Arthur frowned, he had seen this rock somewhere before, he closed his eyes to try and recall but for the life of him he could not. He reached out to touch the rock and the rock grew exceptionally bright and hot, so hot the man, Leneus dropped it. It landed on the grass, but the grass did not seem to sizzle from the heat, in fact it seemed perfectly fine. Arthur touched the rock again and the heat had vanished, and the rock let out a final burst of light as an exceptionally cold wind blew through and the rock turned grey once more. Leneus looked at him with stars in his eyes.
"You are the chosen one," said Leneus. "The contract pact is complete."
A wary feeling suddenly rose inside Arthur, a contract pact, had he signed something, no indeed he had not and then he looked at the rock again.
"What contract pact are you talking about?" asked Arthur looking at the green-haired man.
"Why, the contract pact to become the dungeon master of the Blue Lands Dungeon," said Leneus smiling widely. "That rune is the contract and you've sealed the pact when you touched it."
Shocked Arthur dropped the stone and then again, a sense of déjà vu struck, he had this feeling, this feeling that he had done this before, many times before. He looked at his palm and sure enough, as he had expected, there was a runic mark on his palm, seared in.
"I suppose we now travel to Blue Lands Dungeon," said Arthur examining the rune mark carefully, one of a cloud with a tail.
Leneus' eyes widened for a moment, whether it was shock or happiness, Arthur truly could not discern, there appeared to be something wrong with his face, it seemed scaly, at the edges anyway.
"That's correct my lord," said Leneus. "Once morn breaks, we set out, we must meet mistress Allura at once."
"Once morn breaks?" asked Arthur raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, you require some rest," said Leneus. "Unless of course you are fine with starting the journey now."
"I am fine Leneus, with starting the journey now," said Arthur and once again a sense of déjà vu struck him, there was nothing in his memories but this feeling of familiarity, he kept feeling it.
"Very well then," said Leneus, if at first his mood was happy then now it was fully exuberant, and he moved to his clothes, a shirt, black pants and boots. He put them on and finally layered it with a travelling cloak.
Arthur watched with interest as he grabbed a branch and wrapped a rucksack around it and then spat on it, the globule of spit was so huge that it made Arthur's eyes bulge, it had completely covered the wrapped up rucksack and then he proceeded to place the end into the fire and soon the rucksack caught on fire and they had a torch.
"Let us proceed then my lord," said Leneus pointing the way into the darker forest.
"Don't call me lord," said Arthur, it sounded far too pompous for him. "Just call me Arthur, my full name is Arthur Halo."
"Very well then," said Leneus. "We will compromise, I will refer to you as Master Halo."
Arthur nodded, it was passable and then he looked towards the roaring flames at the center of grass, threatening to burn the surroundings of as well and he pictured a scene where they left today and tomorrow by some chance came back to see a charred forest.
"Shouldn't the flames be put out?" asked Arthur concerned.
Leneus let out a chuckle, "The many cold breezes that blew through the night will ensure these flames don't last till sun up, you have no need to worry Master Halo."
"Ok," said Arthur not entirely convinced as he eyed the flames again.
Leneus sighed, "Hold this Master Halo."
Leneus handed the flaming torch off to Arthur who held it at a distance and he watched as the 'butler' picked up the bucket that lay to the side and moved through the thickets of bushes and trees. Soon he came back with a bucket of ice-cold water and poured it all on top of the fire and it sputtered out.
"Satisfied, Master Halo?" asked Leneus as he retook the torch from Arthur and he nodded.
Arthur then proceeded to follow Leneus inwards, into the woods through the many frightening sounds of howls and screeches from the nocturnal animals.