Bell was looking up at a sky with a setting sun, perfectly spiraling clouds covered the sky, then slowly dissipated the closer they got to the darkness of a starless night. She laid down for a small while, enjoying the slight warmness of the air around her, and the slight coolness of the ground beneath her.
Around Bell were thousands of tall stalks of wheat, allowing Bell a natural barrier against most of the warm breeze above. Some of the wind still swept into the small opening anyway.
She found herself to be wearing a long beige tunic and a longer beige skirt that fell to just below the midpoint of her calves. After Bell got bored of simply resting and doing nothing, she sat up slowly, then got to her feet.
She patted herself off of any loose grime and dirt, only to find that none had afflicted her clothes with dirtiness. Standing at full height, Bell was able to take a proper look around.
The land Bell found herself in was entirely flat, and extended thousands, if not millions of kilometers in each direction. The only thing that broke the horizon was a tall hill with a giant tree with black leaves resting atop it. The hill seemed to be the only area within this strange realm devoid of the tall golden wheat that seemed to propagate everywhere.
'How calm.'
The warm breeze caressed her face just as it caressed the stalks of wheat all around her. Bell looked up in search of the sun and moon, examining the sky as she did.
On one end of the horizon, at the source of the spiraling clouds was the sun, the normal one that had reigned over the sky centuries ago. On the other end of the horizon was a starless dark expanse where the clouds dissipated, there was the singular moon that shared reign over Earth's sky long ago.
Around the moon were five others connected by a pale iron chain. A pale, crimson, golden, blazing, and silver moon hang around the "normal" moon. They, for some unknown reason, seemed to be locking the moon in place.
Around the sun was a similar situation, but there were six suns. A pale, crimson, golden evaporated, silver, and blue sun hang around the "normal" sun with a similarly pale chain connecting the outside suns.
White clouds colored by the various suns hanging just above the horizon spiraled around, never touching one another. As they grew further and further from the suns, they started to thin and dissipate until it looked like there was simply a thick fog hanging above the sky.
Bell stood in awe of the sky, unaware that she could look directly into the suns with no damage to her eyes. It was instinct driven into her flesh and bone preventing her from looking into the suns too closely.
'There's one missing, though.' Bell thought, looking back towards the moons.
There were only five moons, and Bell couldn't find the one belonging to her goddess.
'Where is her blue moon?' Bell questioned.
Bell looked further around the starless sky in search for her moon. Bell's guiding moonlight was missing from the night's sky, and signs of worry crept onto her face.
"Kuhaldia, my lady! Where are you?!" Bell shouted into the air. "Where are you?!"
Bell felt panic settle in her heart, her breathing grew rapid and heavy, her hands started to shake slightly. Her voice had been carried into the wind, slowly dissipating into nothingness the further it traveled.
Bell had been offered to an orphanage set in a church of the Blue Moon. The teachings of their goddess had been given to Bell, but over time, their ways started to fade from her memory. However, Bell still called herself a devout follower of Kuhaldia, goddess of magic and wisdom.
Bell hadn't ever seen the blue moon outside of images from around the world, but she still believed in her lady.
But now, she was missing.
Just as Bell was about to yell in search of her goddess once more, lightning struck further into the distance.
The sky turned darker, with the suns barely peering through the thick dark clouds that had appeared. They had spiraled rapidly the moment that the lightning had struck and began to rain lightly.
Soon, however, the rain would grow into a disastrous storm.
Bell found an endless ocean cut into the field of wheat, its depth unknown and its waves turbulent. No ship, no matter how strong, would be able to cut through these disastrous waves.
Bell stood on a large shore, her sandals sunk slightly into the deep sand.
A speck of light in the distance drew Bell's attention, she squinted and raised a hand to her brow. She looked deeper and further into the speck of light.
Her eyes went wide with terror.
Standing... no, hovering above the turbulent waves was a deer. The poor things limbs were broken in seven different ways and its chest was puffed out. It looked like someone had broken its legs and hung it from a tree by the neck. The carcass was dripping some sort of liquid from its abdomen, like it had been bled and was stopped early.
In the middle of its antlers was a glowing eyeball, and that eyeball was looking directly at Bellona.
A slight pressure started building around Bellona, as if she were being slowly submerged in water. Her body screamed at her to run, to scream, to fight, to do anything.
But she couldn't, she was struck with fear and some sort of force that prevented her from moving. Above the heavy rain, crashing waves, and howling winds, Bellona heard a roar that shook her to the very core.
It was screaming in pain.
The pressure around Bellona started to build more and more until it hurt to breathe, until her bones started to crack, until her body was convulsing in pain. Bellona couldn't do anything; she was forced to sit and watch as the thing in the distance tortured her dream's incarnation.
'This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real.' Bell chanted to herself like a mantra.
She was able to avoid some of the immense pain that she felt, but the pressure kept on building. It had gotten to the point where she was screaming as well. In pain, at the world, and at the deer, she screamed, her own voice carrying little power above the cacophony of the disastrous storm.
Then, Bellona heard the sound of a sword unsheathing above the storms wails. In another instant, while Bellona watched, the deer was severed in half diagonally by a thin silver line.
The deer then started to split and fall into the ocean, but its blood, or something other than that, started to stitch the demon together. It wailed again, the relieving pressure starting to grasp Bellona again.
This time, however, it was growing much more rapidly.
The sound of five more swords unsheathing covered the sky. Five more silver lines cut through the deer.
It wailed in pain again, louder than it had ever been. The pressure stopped gripping Bellona entirely, and she gasped, falling onto her hands and knees in the wet sand.
She then heard something wet and flesh-like fall into the ocean, the sounds of the storm seeming to part so that Bell could hear the actions.
A voice appeared behind Bell, and it reminded her of a dream from a few days ago.
[Bellona Finley, you had nearly died. Please be more careful next time.]
Bell turned to face the source of the voice and saw the figure with a black mask and cloak from a previous dream.
"This is just a dream, though?" Bell replied in question.
The cloaked figure, Hunter Soul, as Bell recalled, shook his head and explained.
[This isn't just a dream, your soul was transported here to the Field.] The figure turned around to look at the clearing sky. [I do not know why The Deer had appeared here, and do not know how. But you must be careful.]
It looked at Bell, then two illusory purple arms appeared to sprout out of the figures back. The hands then grabbed Bell by the sides and stood her upright, even though she grunted and attempted to wiggle out of their shockingly firm grip.
A third arm sprouted from Hunter Soul's back, it then bent around with a thin sword still in its sheath.
[I am giving this to you so you can defend yourself against the Vestige.] It said in its consistently monotone voice. [You will know when you face the demon.]
Bell didn't feel like she needed a reminder of what just happened, her body still ached in dull pain from the deer.
"That was... what did you call it, a vestige?" Bell inquired. "What's that?"
[A Vestige is a remnant memory of the Great One, this one had broken in three from madness, though.] Hunter Soul explained calmly. [It seeks the destruction of the threads, and it's my job to kill it. I had six of these swords forged to fulfill such a task.]
Bell nodded, slowly trying to comprehend all of the new information being fed to her.
"So, who's the Great One?" Bell asked next.
[I can explain that later. For now, you have one more thing to do here.] Hunter Soul stated matter-of-factly. [I cannot stay in this realm for too long, use the sword when in danger.]
Then, three more arms sprouted, the one with the sword put it haphazardly in Bell's hand, then joined its five siblings. The six arms pushed into open air and ripped a tear in the fabric of space.
Bell saw a pitch-black void, similar to the one from that dream a while ago. Before she could bid the kind figure goodbye, it entered the tear and vanished from view. Bell wanted to join Hunter Soul, but thought that would be a bad idea.
The tear continued to exist for a few moments before a needle with golden thread started to stitch the hole together.
After it closed, Bell started to look around once more. The area had been restored to how it was before the deer had arrived and attempted to kill her. There was no ocean, there was no shore, and there wasn't even a deer!
'Great Lady above...' Bell swore. 'Actually, I should have asked him about her...'
Bell sighed at her own folly before patting herself down in a futile attempt to get the wet sand off of herself. She didn't even attempt to get the area around her shins and sandals, that would have just been too much of a hassle. It took quite a while, but Bell found herself quite comfortable and free of most wet sand.
Bell had a hunch about Hunter Soul's last few statements, though. She felt like she knew what last thing she had to do before waking up.
'I'm gonna check that tree out,' She thought to herself. 'It probably has the last thing I need.'
However, one thing was strange, Bell was currently further from the tree than she was before the deer had struck. An idea slowly dawned on her as she started to walk towards the hill where the tree rested.
'Was it trying to drag me to it?' Bell questioned. "No... I was still on the beach when it did that crazy stuff!'
Before Bell knew it... which was quite a long time, actually, Bell was at the foot of the hill. Bell waded through the last of the golden wheat stalks before continuing up the hill.
As it turned out, the hill wasn't all that much, just a short incline for a few hundred meters. She slowly walked up the hill, careful not to unintentionally step on one of the strange black petals that were currently raining from the tree.
The petals were all pitch-black and looked to actually absorb light from the area around it. Of course, the area was barely a quarter of its size, so Bell didn't have much to worry about.
She was only really quite skeptical of the petals, everything else on the hill seemed to be fine. It was just those petals that didn't have a vibe that Bell personally agreed with.
Bell inevitably reached the top of the hill, and the base of the tree by proxy. The tree looked ancient, and there were a few marks from the previous people like Bell who had reached the tree.
On the bark of the tree were various thin and shallow markings, all from people who had also credited their initials. Unfortunately, Bell didn't have the slightest clue as to who was truly interesting versus who was uninteresting.
Bell didn't bother to mark her initials, seeing as how she didn't even have a tool or utensil to actually do so.
So, she elected to walk around the huge tree trunk. As she continued around the tree, more and more markings were seen wedged deeper and deeper into the tree. The words and phrases slowly made more and more sense to her.
It was as if the markings on the other end of the tree were made hundreds of years ago, while the ones closer to the other end were actually nearer to her age. Bell didn't mind, however, seeing as how she could actually understand what a few of them meant.
"Kilroy was here." Bell didn't personally know Kilroy, but respected the man anyway for reaching the tree.
"I abandon here my love." Bell didn't know why a person would abandon their love at a tall tree with pitch-black leaves. There had to be better places to do such a morbid thing, discarding a core part of one's humanity.
"Raaagh!" Bell chuckled seeing the roar.
At the other end of the tree was a dagger stuck in a tall tree trunk stuck in the ground.
The dagger was made of a pale metal that had no sheen. However, the knife still looked entirely deadly and sharp. In fact, the dagger seemed to be sharp enough to actually dig into the tree trunk.
It had a strange pattern on it, as if it were coiled before being morphed into the shape that it currently held. Like a long lance were twisted into a spiral formation before being shrunk and reforged into the shape of a dagger.
Bell would have missed it if there wasn't a wide wooden pedestal that the dagger rested on.
Bell grasped the knife and felt a strange memory enter her brain.
***
The point of view that Bellona saw through was that of an actual person. He was wearing a blazer with a simple t-shirt underneath. From the looks of it, he was working on the blade itself, as there was no handle yet.
The man wore a thick leather apron, yet had no gloves on. Bell found that slightly pepostrous.
'How are you going to work with metal with an apron, but no gloves?!' Bell yelled at her incarnation.
The person that Bell was so rudely riding the perspective of walked around his workshop and gathered several materials of various shape, quality, and look.
The perspective of the strange memory shifted to a person looking at the dagger, likely appraising its quality. It looked like the creator of this dagger was simply creating a knife to sell.
However, this wasn't where the dream ended. Instead, the dream continued to show Bell the entire path it took to reach the end of its sequence. Through the hands of many, through the hands of poor, rich, virtuous, sinful, and hundreds of other types of people.
It ended in the hands of a man creating some sort of strange meal by throwing hundreds of various materials into a cauldron and stirring.
The man tossed the dagger in, which then made the cauldron start to bubble and fizz. After several moments, the entire cauldron bubbled and fizzled until there was only enough liquid for a small vial, and the dagger itself.
The man lifted the dagger carefully to avoid any of the strange liquid touching him, and slashed at his palm with the dagger. His blood pooled around the liquid, then, in an instant, both liquids turned pure radiant white.
He grabbed a small ladle and scooped a small amount of the liquid and pulled the ladle to his mouth. After a few moments of contemplation, he sipped at the white liquid.
He then yelled in pain before grabbing the dagger and slicing into the air. However, the air that he ripped apart truly tore, revealing a field of endless golden wheat.
The man, still groaning in pain and holding his head in one hand, looked up towards the tear and entered it.
***
'Oh...' Bell thought.
Bell turned to face the phrase: "Raaagh!" and thought for a moment.
'Did he inscribe his pain into the tree?' She crossed her arms and looked down towards the rest of the inscriptions. 'There's a few that look like poems...'
A few of the other inscriptions, the ones that Bell understood, looked like people stating their desires, their wills, and what they felt.
'Are people simply writing their feelings?' Bell questioned.
She looked at the knife once more, pulling it out of its oversized wooden sheath. Bell looked just above a few of the other inscriptions and found an open space large enough for her to write something.
She then kneeled to reach it comfortably with the dagger, and started scratching at the thick bark with the dagger.
It had taken quite a long time, with the bark constantly fighting back against her writing tool. However, Bell had all the time in the world, so she was patient.
She felt the bark where her next etching would be, then trace it with her dagger, and slowly whittle away at the wood. As she got closer to what she found to be a good depth, her etchings grew in power before she chose another spot to write.
With what felt like several hours, Bell had finished her statement.
And thus, Bell felt consciousness return to her body, and she slowly began to awaken.