Epic Dreams
Chapter 2
Endo was a grown child, capable of discerning danger from threat.
When he saw the reddish wolf, he was frightened.
But fear did not develop inside him, as there was something to control that emotion.
Ignatius, that was the name of the psychotropic. Ignatius was his father, and Endo liked him on an incredible level.
For him, there was nothing his father couldn't solve. In his perspective, he was an undefeated hero.
Instead of looking at the frightening monster before him, Endo looked at his dear father, who was on his left.
Ignatius pulled out a dagger from his pocket.
He threw it with all his strength at the wolf emerging from the wreckage of the cart.
Ignatius aggressively pulled his son's arm. Endo didn't notice when, but suddenly, he was in his father's arms, on top of the larva.
He looked at his father's face and became frightened. Ignatius had a terrifying expression, something Endo had never imagined seeing on that face.
The wolf realized its prey was fleeing. It jumped—just one leap.
With a single jump, the wolf managed to cross the larva and stop on the other side. It opened its mouth, showing sharp, frightening fangs.
Ignatius's face grew even more serious. He turned and looked at his son in his arms.
"I want you to run in that direction! From the sound, there must be a river. You need to jump into it," he said severely, frightening Endo.
Ignatius had never spoken to his son like that before.
"But... but... but..." The boy couldn't finish the sentence. His father stared at him intensely.
"But nothing! Do what I say and nothing else." Ignatius was visibly angry.
Endo was confused, but he immediately left his father's arms and started running toward the indicated spot.
The wolf disappeared.
It was sudden. Ignatius thought he could track the monster's movements, but he was mistaken.
Where had the monster gone? That wasn't a logical question at that moment. Having lost sight of the monster, the ideal thing would be to make sure it didn't come within 30 meters of his son.
Ignatius ran with all his strength to catch up to Endo.
He saw the wolf coming closer quickly.
Ignatius panicked. The wolf opened its mouth, and Endo's torso was between its jaws.
Ignatius kicked his son's body with all his might. The wolf closed its jaws.
Kimmmmmm...
Incredibly, the sound of metal being struck echoed.
Endo got up. His nostrils and mouth were bleeding heavily, and his shoulder was dislocated.
Ignatius felt his body grow lighter. He sensed both cold and warmth simultaneously in his shoulder.
He tried to raise his hand, but it didn't obey him. Then he looked.
He saw a lot. His entire arm had been torn off. He looked at the red wolf and realized it had his arm. Ignatius knew he hadn't been injured when saving Endo.
So, where was his arm? A blue wolf emerged behind the red wolf.
This one was more imposing. It had an overwhelming size, an oppressive presence, silky, shiny fur, and a well-groomed appearance.
In its mouth was Ignatius's torn-off arm.
A slight smile appeared on Ignatius's face.
"Hahaha... hahaha... hahahahaha..." He started laughing uncontrollably.
"This makes a lot of sense." That was his conclusion to the illogical situation.
"It makes perfect sense for mythical creatures to be hunting me." He turned around and picked up his son, who was still trying to regain his strength.
He started running.
The wolves split: one went to his left, and the other to his right, following him.
Ignatius prayed.
He didn't question whether he was lucky or unlucky.
Ignatius didn't feel anger.
These emotions would be a burden.
He simply ran with everything he had. He ran, he ran.
Nothing mattered at that moment. Not even his consciousness, which was weakening due to the bleeding.
Not the pain from the injury, nor the feet pierced by thorns.
The place he needed to reach wasn't that far, only 200 meters, but due to his inferiority before those creatures, it felt like an eternity.
The wolves enjoyed watching that creature crawl desperately to save itself.
Ignatius's body collapsed.
So close. That was the real meaning of "a bucket weighs more when it's near its destination."
Endo got up.
He looked at his dear father lying there. Everything became blurry. His heart beat irregularly. He became feverish.
He opened his mouth and started breathing through it. He couldn't understand what was happening in that place.
Ignatius raised his head and whispered in Endo's ears:
"If you get up and take three steps back, you will wake up from this nightmare."
Those were Ignatius's words.
The wolves approached.
It was impossible to know what was going on in the minds of those creatures. However, looking into their eyes, it seemed like they regretted seeing such fragile creatures die so simply.
Endo quickly got up and turned around. He took three steps back, as the comforting voice had said, to wake up from that horrible nightmare.
Upon taking the three steps, he lost his footing and fell off a cliff.
From the beginning of our lives until the end, we experience many things.
Happy things, sad things, and irrelevant things.
We make the right choices and the wrong ones.
Throughout Endo's life, Ignatius would have five regrets for his choices, which would haunt him for a long time. In that moment, he made the first.
Listening to the voice of doubt and abandoning the father who gave everything to save him.
How cowardly and worthless Endo felt at that moment. As he fell off the cliff, he looked sadly at his father, who was facing two mythical monsters, and felt disgust for himself.
There was a difference between what actually happened and what Endo believed had happened. But the important thing was not the absolute truth, but the truth interpreted as true by the people who experienced the events.