I awoke again in another place. Completely unaware of being taken to Everything was clearer, I felt like my breath came with ease now. Breathing. Breathing. In and out my lungs expanded and deflated. The idea of breathing was shocking me. A narrow woman parted the shades and walked into the space. What was this space? It was small and wooded on all the walls. The roof was thatched and hung little lanterns at each corner. I sat up startled. I hadn't spoken to someone friendly other than Caligo ever since I shifted. Then Caligo walked in all silver and his gaze cloudy. His grace was a needed comfort. He looked enough like an angel for me to almost believe he could be my savior. His silver hair with the slight tinge of emerald. I knew his features contrasted with the darkness of his lashes and the cloak he wore, I found comfort in his smell of moss and fresh rain that flowed in with him. Everything about him spoke about life and purity. Unlike me, that just felt like a shallow husk of decay. But I didn't feel that right now. Something felt off.
"I brought you to my homeland, I hope this residence is okay. I had to find the best witch to ease your pain and to tell me what was wrong." He acknowledges the pale woman and she bows to him,
"Thank you, Prince, for entrusting me with your," she glances at me with pure yellow eyes, it was like staring into the sun, "project". Her words were acidic but I waved it off. She reminded me of the little sprite on the volcano. Colors that were natural but unnatural in their placement. Sky blue hair, sun yellow eyes, dusty yellow skin.
He doesn't even glance at her while she is bowing towards him, he only acknowledges me.
"How are you feeling ghoul?" My species rolls off his tongue and the witch leaves the hut. His strides reached me slowly and he knelt for me again and caressed my face. His hand was cold and smooth like metal. I grabbed his wrist and held it there in surprise. I no longer had long bloody talons or shriveled grey skin. The skin that had taken me so long to get used to was gone, just like a bad dream.
"What is this?" I gasp examining the flesh that I once owned before I changed into the monster that slaughtered my mother. Pink pale skin, anxiety-bitten nails, traces of blue veins, not black rotten blood. I was human again. "How is this possible?" Cal studies me closely, almost as amazed as I am.
"We need some more studies, but the witch told me that you have two forms, human and ghoul. The transition between them is very painful and distorting." He stated. I was reminded of how my skin felt tearing stretching, arms elongated, and breaking in angles not normal for humans. I shuddered. I was lucky to be unconscious for my last transition into my human body.
"I was just a human before, why does this happen to me? Is it a curse?" Caligo laughs. More of a huff but still, I sit confused.
"In a way you are not wrong with your guess, but in many ways it does not apply to your specific situation."
"What is that supposed to mean?" I ask and he draws away, sitting on a flat pillow. I studied his clothing, a long cloak pooled on the floor around him dark and shiny as a beetle. The shoulders were stacked with dark green moss, and his shirt was thin silk with a wooden chest plate over it. Almost looked like it was purely for decoration except for a deep glow in the natural cracks.
"There are too many things that you do not seem to understand. It was not my understanding you had no knowledge of Hell." He states calmly putting his hand on the bridge of his nose pinching in frustration.
"Hell? Like as in fire, death, pain and suffering? How what are you even telling me." My mind stopped, which was rare lately. Hell being real was not as big of a shock since I already saw demons and souls and monsters like myself. But Hell?
"Yes there is all of that but also much more here."
"Here? Where am I right now?" I tried to get up and stumble, my limbs were weak and could not hold me up.
"Du liebes kind, this is the realm of the Erlking my father."
"Where on Earth?" The Erlking, what even is that gibberish?
"No, we are not on Earth, we are in Hell, somewhere much, much older." He stands quickly and brushes his hand on the wooded wall. A small branch grows and solidifies in his hand. Magic, life, something wonderful. He strides back over to me steps light as a feather and leaves a spot of dirt exposed.
"The universe begins with order and chaos, we are somewhere that exhibits a perfect form of both. Here, this is what you would see if you understood Hell. This star shape," he draws a perfect pentagram in the dirt.
A place much older than Earth? It makes sense if I can transform into some crazy ghoul that there was something else out there, but a whole new world? And we were in Hell right at this moment? Is that what that tar-. "This point is the realm of Hades, the king of souls who delivers all of the sentences to mortals passed." He pointed to the point that was at the top. "He brings the most order to the realms. Then here is the Fae, my cousins that are sly and cunning. They value purity and hierarchy along with their tricks. We are here," his arm waves around me displacing my long thin black hair.
"Smell the air and tell me what we are." I did, or I tried at least. I breathed in for the first time in a long time. The scents of the world were muted compared to when I was in my ghoul form. Even my eyesight was worse, I couldn't see into the night outside or past the edges of leaves. "I am not sure what you mean." I said and a look of disappointment flashed across his face. Another breath and I did smell nature, full and humid, a richness that seeps into bones.
"My kingdom is one of poisons and the hunt. My father rules, and me under him. Since he never leaves home, I really have all the errands to run. We specialize in hunting and capturing souls, and lost souls like you." He smiled with the most perfect teeth that were somewhat off-putting and sharper than humans. If he bit my lip it would surely make me bleed, not that I was thinking of that in this specific moment.
"You are the son of the ruler? So that means you are a prince?" I knew I heard it earlier but all of the facts were catching up to me. There was to much information to process.