Chase hadn't had a dream in over a year, and the last one that he had, he could not remember for the life of him; however, he did recall waking up in a cold sweat, followed by watching his village burn to the ground.
So, when he woke up standing on a rocky cliff, overlooking the beautiful image of towering trees, and a faint red glow in the far off horizon- His heart naturally skipped several beats.
He remembered, although only barely.
The sun was about to rise over the tree line of The Dark Forest.
Chase was hungry, tired, and scared, but most importantly he had no one, no friends, and no family.
He was truly alone.
In his torn clothing he had worn to bed several nights ago in his own bed, he stepped forward, the sound of his quiet footsteps echoing across the peak of the cliff.
He had recently stayed the night inside of a small niche, that hung from the side of the cliff. That was until a mighty vulture with demonic wings had tried to rip his head from his shoulders, as he slept.
Chase did not really have an idea of how long he had been in the forest, but he knew that his food was running scarce, and he had no way to purify water.
His body ached in almost every part imaginable.
If hell truly existed, then that was where he had spent his time, since everything had been taken from him.
If he wasn't dying from dehydration, then tears would be streaming down his numb face, and his body would be sweating furiously.
Yet he wasn't.
He had lost most feeling in his frail body, and his hope had been long dead.
He took another step.
Then another... Until he was finally overlooking the beautiful sunrise before him.
For the first time, Chase felt as if he was seeing the entire continent around him, as the height he was at was truly fear inducing.
Mountains lined the far distance, in the direction he could only guess was Northeast.
Even farther North, at the very edge of the horizon, he could see a vast city, with a mighty obsidean tower scraping against the very sky itself.
His breath stopped for a short moment, as he observed the extremely pretty view of the world that he would probably never get to see.
A dessert was to the west, and to the south was a vast sea, that only the gods could know where it led.
Chase limped another step forward, finally paying attention to the wound on his shoulder.
It wasn't a bad one, but in his current state, he would surely bleed out.
It was at this moment, that he had somewhat became aware of the fact that he was in a dream, because at this very moment, overlooking the view- he remembered blacking out...
But shivers ran down his spine, as a dreadful realization hit him.
He took another step forward, this time a much shorter stride, that seemed to awaken a primal instinct within the boy.
Whispers demanded the boy to turn back, and run away from the view he had been gazing at.
However, his body did no such thing...
He took another step, now Chase was fully in panic as he could not even see the ground below him, blocked by the towering trees that spanned across the entire forest.
'Stop, what are you doing!'
He frantically tried to speak, but of course, his body would not listen.
And how could it, this wasn't just a dream... It was a memory, and one he had naturally drowned out, at that.
Finally, a tear streamed down his cheek, as a his dry eyes began to finally water.
He took another step.
Everything went quiet for a second, and then he took another.
Finally after he had stopped for what felt like an eternity, he took the last step...
He had walked off of the cliff.
Wind blew angerly in his face, and his body he no longer had any control over, as he plummeted to his inevitable death.
'Surely this isn't the end? Right!'
His mind, although scattered, screamed at him as the sound of a powerful gust of wind pounded on his eardrums.
It was all coming to an end.
The suffering, the loneliness, all of it...
But then it didn't
His body awakened, and everything seemed like a blur, and it all happened so fast.
He reached to his withered belt, and pulled a topaz dagger from it, and tried his hardest to turn his body toward the cliffside that was ever so slowly growing farther away.
He dived downward in the direction of the face of the cliff.
The ground became visible as his body passed through a clearing in the tree tops.
With all of the will that he could muster up, he thrusted his dagger into the side of the cliff.
Sparks flew in every direction, as at first his heart stopped, because it looked as if the blade was not going to penetrate the rocks.
He had thought that all hope was lost... Until it wasn't
With one last push, the blade pierced the base of the cliff, and with it came a terrible scream of agony, as his entire body protested against the action.
His shoulders were radiated with a sharp pain, as he felt they could have been ripped off at a moment's notice.
When he gained at least a little bit of his consciousness back, he realized he was hanging only a couple of meters above the muddy dirt below him.
Sobs escaped his throat, as he dangled from the handle of his father's dagger.
He was only a couple seconds away from having took his own life...
Another scream escaped his lips, as he looked up, not even being able to see the towering cliff above the tree tops.
This time, it wasn't a scream of pain, but more as if it was the primal instinct to survive, that had come with a scream of anger.
None of this was fair, he never asked to be stuck in this damned forest, and he surely didn't want to lose everything that made him, who he had been.
Something drew his attention away though... Resting on his arms were hundreds of black runic markings, that were in an unreadable language. Scenes were also engraved into his arms.
A set of tally marks, marking the number twelve, A crown made of skulls was sitting on the inner skin of his elbow, and an ancient dragon was embedded on his left wrist.
However, neither of those were the ones that had truly made his bones quake out of fear.
A vibrant phoenix rested on his right wrist. The same phoenix that he had been giving from the cobalt blade that he and Gemini had forged almost an entire year later.
'What the hell...'
With that he jolted awake in his hospital bed, lying in a puddle of his own sweat.
His face was drenched from both cold sweat, and tears that had escaped his eyes as he had lied asleep within the world of dreams.
He was gasping violently for air, as he had been giving a part of his memories back that he truly did not want.
How was he supposed to go on, knowing that in the darkest of times, he had tried to rob himself of his own life.
The hospital was dark, and quiet, as he pushed himself out of his bed.
Bandages still covered his body, as he took painful steps out from behind the curtains of his small room.
Limping toward the far end of the healer ward's halls, all he could look at was the intricate marble floors.
Eventually he reached the far end of the hospital, where a large window stood.
Outside, rested the beautiful night sky of the world outside.
Chase looked up, and observed the constellations painted in the dark abyss above him.
Millions of stars went from one edge of the sky to the other.
However, the only constellation he could even bother to look at, as tears still streamed down his face... Was the constellation of Orion.