The time was simply drifting by.
It was the week after my 12th birthday.
Many months had passed.
I had gotten really close with Avaron. The golden-haired man.
He told me foreign tales.
I vented my troubles to him.
He helped me live my life.
Although he must've been in his early 20s, it felt like he was exactly my age.
I think he was the man who I got the closest to in my life.
We really clicked, as a pair of brothers.
Today, was the final day.
I waited behind a village home discreetly, it was suspiciously dark outside.
In my hands, was a gleaming silver blade, a dazzling metal key for the chief's home, and a scruffy sheet of paper with instructions on when the chief went to bed.
A golden haired figure strolled into the scene calmly.
Avaron took the items graciously and thanked me as he made his way out.
'You've done really well, Sultra.'
I grinned humbly.
'It's fine. This is for both of our sakes.'
He dashed off, into the night, to return with my future in his hands.
In the plan, it was stated that he would find me in the fields after he got the key required to get out of here.
I merely waited in sincere hope within the middle of a golden hay field.
The moon wasn't blinding.
Rather it felt perfectly luminous on this silver night.
I think I had a dream.
A dream in which I escaped this damned place.
A dream in which I flew into the skies and pierced through the limitless blue.
Once I escaped this place, I was blind.
I couldn't see a thing.
And I was stuck in that dream for what felt like forever.
And then I woke up.
It was morning.
The sun was beaming vibrantly.
My skin felt hot, as if I had been shoved into an oven overnight.
The nostalgic orange sky seemed deranged when I focused on it.
'Hah. That's pretty weird.'
I looked around.
And I was no longer in a golden hay field.
I was in a golden hay field stained with dirty deep red blood.
Corpses had been dragged through the golden field, and they had formed a gruesome circle around me.
My mind froze up.
I recognized some of the bodies.
I saw my swordsmanship teacher.
His youthful face was bloody and crippled. One of his eyes had been brutishly gouged out by a hand-like structure.
I saw the village chief.
His innards had been torn out violently, there was a big bloody hole right in the middle of his chest.
I saw the girl, with silver hair and a not-so-pretty face now.
She too was coated in blood.
My mind was still frozen, refusing to let any of this become a certain reality.
I found the village children.
I found the village elders.
They weren't so sly and snappy anymore.
I found most of the people who I knew in the village as I walked around the circle.
And then my brain malfunctioned.
I was set back to 0. My mind was wiped clean in stubborn rebuttal.
I stood alone amid a hay field, littered with corpses and stained with dirty deep red blood.
The sun was roaring in silence, enlightening the golden hay majestically.
I was the only one left. It felt oddly surreal. Like a dream of sorts.
A few seconds passed, and only the whistle of wind accompanied me in my solace.
My eyes felt strangely soothed as they watched a sea of thick golden strands sail in the wind.
The nostalgic orange sky, which made me feel safe and content, was a witness to the atrocities that had just been enacted.
My entire body was trembling wildly, my mind was a frail, shattered mess and my hair was far too unkempt.
I wouldn't be surprised if my teacher's dead corpse stood up and started berating me as she fixed my ruffled black hair in frustration as she always did.
My father's deep, mature voice rumbled in my mind.
'A man cannot stay still when he has much ahead of him. Get moving, boy.'
I chuckled lightly.
My laugh felt broken and crippled when I heard it out loud.
My leg's wobbled as I strolled around aimlessly.
I had begun scratching myself in distress, I pulled my hands away from my skin and locked them behind my back, that solved the problem nicely.
Time felt like a sticky blur.
I thought back to the past grimly.
I could no longer dream of becoming the village chief. That was rather unfortunate.
I think I had a daydream as I ambled to wherever my eyes were looking calmly.
I couldn't really remember it.
But I knew it had something to do with spikes.
Black, villainous spikes.
A lot of spikes, the kind that you'd find on a scary caterpillar.
Thud.
I sat myself down on a small bump of grass, right before a peaceful pond.
Time passed, and I felt like sleeping.
Maybe I would feel better if I did that.
Yeah.
Let's try that.
Time passed, and I felt weird.
I couldn't fall asleep.
A strange source of energy was shooting through my veins constantly.
I stood up, and my legs were pumped full of power.
I felt like I could jump so high that I could leave everything behind forever.
And then my neck slowly began to tilt downward.
I looked deep into the pond that was right before me.
And in its reflective mirage, I saw a boy.
The boy was covered from head to toe in deep royal black blood.
Dong.
A clock tower rang out in my mind.
And everything came crashing down.
I began shrieking outwardly, like a witch being exorcised by the light as I was forced to accept my new reality.
Figures and emotions burst forth into my mind.
My mind was breaking down.
Would I just be a hollow shell of a person at the end of it all?
I didn't know.
All could do in that moment of horror and agony, was cling to the light.
And that I did.
And that light had pushed me away cruelly.
Now I was left with nothing.
I sneezed, it was warm outside.
But my mind was in a brain freeze state.
I found a fragrant strand of golden hair on the tip of my nose.
I plucked it off and it seemed to be alive.
It kept on wincing and nudging itself north.
Would this lead me to where I needed to be?
Wait...
Golden hair?
Only one man had golden hair.
"Avaron."
I hissed his name out.
I felt some of my goodwill rot away at that moment.
A deep bloodlust began rubbing itself onto me.
"Avaron."
He was the cause of all of this.
I walked in circles like a madman as I muttered maniacal things to myself.
"He said he wouldn't kill anyone..."
"He said he'd take me with him..."
"He shook on it."
I began panting in exasperation, my figure bent over in a crippled manner foully.
"Avaron."
No.
I should have never trusted Avaron.
Most likely, he had been set on this goal since he arrived.
I looked at the golden strand of hair in my hand.
"I..."
I was lost.
But an orb of fluctuating light returned within the corner of my mind.
I hugged it tightly.
It morphed into Avaron's sweet figure.
I rejected the light swiftly and pushed it away from me internally.
"I... will hunt Avaron down."
My anger brewed a storm within me.
I looked up at the beastly orange sky in despair.
"I will find Avaron and cripple him dearly."
"I will... Kill... Avaron?"
I didn't know about that last part.
All I knew was that I had nothing behind me anymore, so I could only move forward.
And ahead of me was Avaron himself.
"Why did he spare me?"
I shook my head foolishly.
He was a fool for sparing me.
I looked around myself one more time in deep confusion. My eyes were glued to the unspeakable sins that were silently screeching from the underworld below.
I felt like I had been truly abandoned.
Nothing had been left for me.
"I will avenge you all."
The words left my mouth dry and stale.
A pang of deep guilt erupted within me. I almost kneeled over in horror. Another bell of realization rang out.
I finally realized that I was partly the cause of their deaths.
I had given Avaron the blade.
I had given Avaron the key.
I had given Avaron every little thing that he needed to execute it all.
"And I will end my own life so that all of you can finally die at peace at the end of my journey of vengeance."
I felt the silent screeching weaken only slightly.
I thought back to the circle of the unjustly dead souls which had surrounded me when I woke.
Would this please them? Would this fix everything?
If I died for their sake, as they had died for my own?
I had my resolve.
Now I just needed to execute it, as Avaron had executed his own resolve.
My journey began that day.
That day that was executed by a silver blade.