Chapter -2
Part 1 | Where am I?
"Aaron – Aaron wake up p-please"
I felt immense pain in my body. It was like thousands of pins poking this small 12-year-old body. I tried to open my mouth but I couldn't. I tried to scream "Father", but the voices would not come out . I felt this burning sensation in my heart , like something burning me from the inside out.
Death , maybe that's what I was experiencing. I told myself it would go away , and was happy to have had such a caring family. But I didn't get any flash back of my life, unlike from what I heard most people say.
"Lord Bulard!!"- I heard someone scream
With that my eyes suddenly opened. "w-where am I?" , I was confused but not scared for some reason, rather It was calm. I could feel my heart pumping , It was peaceful , quite. Slowly I gained all my senses. I was in this beautiful cliff of a hill covered with red stones and red sand.
A huge castle , surrounded by two enormous volcanoes , lava flowing from both of them constantly. I was mesmerized. Where in the world am I ? I took a few steps and I saw this town , beautiful , amazing houses, It was as it the whole town was magical . I then took a moment to observe my surrounding. I looked back , and left and right, it was like a endless desert of red sand with random volcanic mountains. I was in the middle of this weird desert with a city that I don't know of. I sat down on the cliff and looked around . I was in this unknown territory yet I was not scared.
That's when I realized something. Something weird , strange . The people, walking in the streets . They were not humans. I was still far away so the vision might be clear, I told myself yet the more I concentrate the more I was baffled.
"what are those creatures "- I murmured
I saw human like creatures with giant tails , a lizard like creature which from what I have read they must be called lizard-men and many other strange creatures. A stone golem walking very slowly it was huge.
So In search for answers I thought of descending this hill. I looked around and noticed something . It was like a path or rather it was as if many people had walked this way to create a natural path.
I stood up and cleaned my dress and started walking towards where this path leads.
On the way I saw a wooden notice board pointing towards the direction of the city. What caught my eyes were that it had a writing , different styled writing, like a runes or something like that. So I continued further till I saw what seemed to be a lake. It was clean and fresh and I was thirsty so I ran not really noticing anything around me. I ran towards the lake. I made my hand bowl shaped and scooped water from the lake and drank the water.
"ahh this is refreshing" I said. I washed my face and that's when I noticed something different .My reflection, from the last time and now it looked so different. As if I had grown older. I am a 12-year-old boy but my face, and my body looks like that of a 15 year old.
"how long has it been since I entered the gate? , what year is it? , And really, where am I?"
Questions came to me but I didn't seem to have a reasonable answer. "I must find where I am and return to my village no matter what"
I continued descending. The path was fairly easy no difficulties. Although it would have been better if I had learnt some magic skills, the decent would have been more easier.
Once at the foot of the hill I could clearly see the village. But this time I got this weird feeling in my stomach. As if I am being watched. I frantically hid myself behind the rock near by. What I saw was quite surprising. Everyone , every-single creature talked in a friendly manner, and more to my amazement I was able to understand as if it were like my mother tongue.
"I heard you made it into the arena, how was that fight"
"I don't know but this human, he seemed to be more powerful than I expected"-
When I heard the second phrase I was shocked , there are humans here? , that means I still have a hope of finding what this place is and maybe i can go back home easily.
Although I was not scared I also was not sure how I could get inside the city and how would they treat an outsider. I had the sword that my father gave just in case, and it appears that carrying a sword was common.
So I slowly started walking towards the entrance of the city where there stood two giant statues holding what seems to be an axe stood. I walked and stood in the middle of the entrance. I saw strong and really strong people, lizard-men, golem. I felt a little nervous yet It felt as if I had been in the same situation before. The giant stone at the left statue moved , I was startled and the statue then spoke,
"who might you be ?"
I was nervous, millions of things were going inside my head.
"M-m-my name is A-Aaron"- I muttered.
"why is Aaron here?"- the statue at the right asked
"I am lost."- I said with a little confidence
"Nonsense , no-one can randomly end up in the underworld"-statue at the left added
"Underworld? What ?What is he talking about? W-whattt??" I was shocked, confused
" I don't know how , all I remember was that I went inside a gate to prove that I was not a demon and I ended up here"- I replied with growing nervousness
"gate ?" added the statue at the left
As the statue said that a lizard-man came close to me
I thought to myself, "ah shit I am dead"
"Boy, you got a pass?"- asked the lizard-man
"pass? N-no I am not from here."- I replied
"Ya I can see that , but I am asking whether you have a pass or not?"-he asked again
"N-no, I don't "- I said
He then proceeded to talk to the guards.
" I am afraid This kid has no pass, will it be possible for him to get one?"
The statue then did something, to me it seemed like a dance move but the ground began trembling , not like an earthquake but a small tremble. A crystal ball appeared and it was huge. More demons started appearing as to know what the commotion in the entrance was about" There were humans , lizard-men , someone who could turn into a dragon,elves, many ,to my eyes it seemed almost all races that I have ever known to exist appeared.
I thought to myself, "what is this place? This is not the underworld we are told in stories, this place is beautiful, everyone seems to know the differences yet they are together"
As i was getting lost in my thoughts
"place your hand in the crystal" -ordered the statue.
I got startled for a moment and I did what I was ordered to. For a while nothing really happened but all of a sudden I felt the immense pain that I faced previously, just this time in only my palms.
"Don't take your hand out"-said the statue
So I tolerated the pain. Tears coming from my eyes . Slowly it faded
"you may now take your hands off"-
I took my hands off and I saw a small mark. "Well, this was to be expected" I thought to myself.
The crystal ball then showed lots symbols. "seems like those symbol is the language they use" I though again.
"Aaron wanhitman, Affinity of the darkness and light, welcome to the underworld " said both the statues at once.
"affinity of darkness and light ?"-
" you don't know magic , do you?"- asked the lizard-man
"No , I knew I was old enough to learn but I never got the opportunity to do so" I said
I also noticed that now all people around me had slowly gone back to doing what they were doing , and the crystal disappeared.
"I am toka kino "
"nice to meet you toka-san"- I replied.
"Indeed , nice to meet you, but I am amazed you have, the ability of light and darkness, that's rare"-toka replied
I had no idea what he was talking about , and what this affinity to light or darkness meant. I had lots of questions . I was in this so called underworld which is not at all the way it was portrayed to me. I was A person who has no idea of whats going on.
"I have to go to work , I don't suppose you have any money so here take this zil and go the nearby inn. I will find you there and we can discuss what happens next." with that said toka gave me this golden looking coin, zil which I consider to be money in this city.
Before I could ask him why he so easily gave me coins to stay at a inn, he was gone and I was standing in the middle of an unknown city. -THE UNDERWORLD