The first thing I noticed was the sound of birds chirping—a symphony of melodies, vibrant and alive, resonating through the forest that stretched on endlessly in all directions. It was soothing, a melody that felt almost like it belonged to another world.
A river rushed downstream somewhere nearby, and the rustling leaves seemed to sway in rhythm with the strong winds that blew through the towering trees.
In the midst of it all, I stood alone. A boy? Or perhaps, a young man. Strange, though—I had no idea how I had ended up here. The forest seemed infinite, vast beyond my comprehension, and I couldn't shake the unsettling feeling that I was utterly, completely alone.
"𐩥𐩢𐩬 𐩤𐩧𐩥𐪊?" (Where am I?) The question came from me, but the sound of my own voice startled me. It was gentle, yet deep, reverberating in a way that felt oddly disconnected, like multiple voices layered on top of each other, as they echoed on top of themselves. Ethereal, almost.
"𐩥𐩢𐩬𐩦 𐪍𐩧𐩦𐪉 𐩤𐩧𐩥𐪊?" (Who… what am I?) The confusion grew, tinged with fear. I felt lost. Not just in the physical sense, but in a more profound way. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what I was.
I looked down at my hands as if they belonged to a stranger. The light brown color of my skin surprised me, even fascinated me. My eyes traced the lines of my palms with a strange sense of disbelief, moving up until the markings that ran across my forearms.
"𐩪𐩦𐩲𐩧𐩢𐪋 𐩤𐩲 𐩥𐩳𐪊?" (These... are my hands?) I muttered, marvelling at the sight of them. They were foreign yet familiar. How could that be? How could my own body feel so detached, so… new?
Strange markings and symbols that ran from my hands, all over my body, and on my wrists were these... pearls. All clear in colour, and something at the center of each, with six on each wrist and ankle, making a bracelet of sorts, and twelve hung around my neck, totalling 60 pearls.
It looked like small people within them, at least for the clear ones, but there were also the pure white ones mixed within the pearls, four in number, those that didn't show their interiors, and then there were the black ones, four as well.
Finally were the few that glistened in a myriad of colors, four more, but I my focus was never on them to begin with, it was on the world surrounding me.
"𐩦𐩪𐩧𐩦𐪊." (Incredible,) I whispered to myself. The word barely left my lips before I pushed myself to my feet, wobbling at first, but finding balance quickly. As I stood, the world around me seemed to expand. The trees loomed above me, their thick trunks stretching up toward the sky, their leaves swaying lazily in the wind. Everything felt surreal, like I was a part of it, and yet not.
I walked forward, my steps hesitant but growing steadier, my eyes drawn to one particular tree in front of me. It wasn't any different from the others, but something about it intrigued me. Like a child discovering something for the first time, I reached out, laying my palm against the rough bark. It felt… alive.
Subconsciously, I tried to feel the tree. Not just touch it, but feel it, as if I was trying to connect with its essence, its life force. I had no idea why I was doing it. It just felt… right.
Hummm.
A pulse. I felt it through my palm, a gentle yet strong confirmation of life. It was soothing and reassuring, yet it carried a powerful energy that sent shivers down my spine. My breath caught as my senses sharpened suddenly, like a switch had been flipped in my mind. My irises flared, glowing with a crystalline light, and in that instant, the world around me exploded into vibrant colors and sounds.
The wind, the leaves, the rushing river—it all became too much. The sounds bombarded my ears, the colors too bright for my eyes. I felt like a dam had burst inside my head, flooding me with more sensations than I could possibly process. My knees buckled as I gasped for air, desperate to shut it all out.
Huff… Huff…
I panted heavily, the air around me swirling violently as if it were reacting to my struggle. The intensity of it all threatened to overwhelm me, my mind spiralling out of control. Desperately, I grabbed handfuls of moss from the ground, stuffing it into my ears in an attempt to muffle the noise. To my surprise, it worked. The world became quieter, more bearable.
I clung to the trees for guidance, moving from one to the next, relying on the gentle pulse of life within each of them. The pulse was like a beacon, helping me regain some semblance of control as I stumbled deeper into the forest.
That's when I felt it—a pulse unlike the others. Stronger. More… significant. It was coming from a tree up ahead, larger than any I had seen so far. Its trunk was immense, its leaves glowing with a soft, ethereal light. White leaves. Vibrant. Alive.
I approached the tree with a sense of awe, placing my hand on it just as I had with the others. But this one… this one was different. The pulse was more than just life—it was will. A desire to grow, to thrive, to live. It was as if the tree itself had a consciousness, a powerful will to survive that resonated with something deep inside me.
Without realizing it, I tightened my grip on the tree, a peaceful smile spreading across my face. The rhythmic pulse from the tree soothed my mind, calming the chaotic storm that had threatened to tear me apart. I felt… connected. Comforted.
Unaware of what I was doing, I let tiny amounts of my energy flow into the tree, feeding it. The more I connected with its pulse, the more I could feel the life force of every tree around me. The entire forest came alive in my mind, each tree sending out its own pulse, creating a map that spanned for thousands of trees in every direction.
And then, something else. Something deep beneath the ground, spanning for dozens of trees, a presence that intrigued and puzzled me. My curiosity spiked, and in my excitement, I released an overwhelming surge of energy into the tree I was holding.
The tree trembled violently, the ground beneath my feet shaking as I snapped out of my trance. I looked around in confusion, unsure of what had just happened.
"Huh?"
I had no idea that the energy I had given to the tree was enough to revive a dead continent— I had no idea of the power I had unleashed.
Suddenly, the trees in the surrounding forest began to retreat, sinking into the earth, their roots pulling back as if in response to the surge of energy. The tree I had been holding cracked down the middle, its trunk splitting into two. From the crack, a small white sapling emerged, glowing with a light so bright it nearly blinded me.
For a moment, everything was still. Then, the sapling began to grow—rapidly. The trees around us dissolved into pure energy, flowing into the sapling as it expanded. I stumbled back, eyes wide in disbelief as the sapling transformed into a massive tree, its trunk stretching toward the sky at an incredible pace. The tree's branches grew, casting shadows over miles of land, yet its luminous leaves bathed everything in a soft, glowing light.
I stared, slack-jawed, at the towering tree now reaching into the clouds, its branches spreading wide enough to cover the majority of the now created plains. And yet, despite its size, it didn't block out the light. Instead, the air seemed more alive, the ground beneath it brimming with energy and life.
"𐩦𐩪𐩧𐩦𐪉𐪋..." (Incredible…) I whispered, my voice barely audible as I gazed up at the towering marvel.
For what felt like hours, I stood there, mesmerized by the tree's beauty and the pulse of life that radiated from it. The land around me had transformed—vibrant, full of life. But then, my thoughts drifted back to the strange presence I had sensed earlier, beneath the ground.
"!" There was a sharp trill sound that pierced through the air, loud as ever, it sounded like... an echo? Except perhaps artificial. "!""!" It pierced through the air two more times, a lengthy silence following after, before the sound pierced sharply thrice. "! ! !"
"𐩲𐩧𐩳𐪊!" (Move!) An instinctual urge I felt was necessary as I hurriedly put some power in my legs, dashing straight to the side; a cavity like gash cutting through the grounds of where I previously was.
I barely managed to dodge, my heart racing, legs carrying me toward the base of the massive tree. Then I saw it. It was humanoid in nature, with razor shaped limbs that were as sharp as they appeared.
There was no fear—just an instinctual need to survive. Yet, more than that, something deeper called to me, as if the tree itself was guiding me. The creature, in its frantic pursuit, radiated agony, an unbearable pain that I could feel as vividly as if it were my own.
But in that moment, feeling the depths of it's pain, a memory... memories, of a seeming eternity flooded my mind, my eternity.