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Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 004 - Part 2

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Dassah Through The Looking Glass

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TheirWorld

...but then came alive as she watched the world around shift and change from one dreamlike setting to the next. Forests filled with trees as tall as skyscrapers turned into a peaceful seaside where she was suddenly watching teams of sea creatures jumping from the ocean waves.

Then it was a night time in the desert, filled with more stars than she had ever seen on her own planet, with ribbons of galaxies lighting up the night. Great beasts flew under those stars without wings or means to do so. Majestic animals that resembled sea creatures moaned as they seemed to float in the wind. Daytime came next, with three suns shining in a cloudless sky.

Dassah found herself standing on a high wooded cliff, watching as giant eagles danced with dragons over a white citadel. The air smelled of chamomile and river water, with a great water fall spilling off the cliff beside her. One of the dragons came up to her, it’s eyes leveling with her as it landed on the cliff beside her and spoke: “Why have you come?” The vibrations in the air and the majesty of the creature took her breath away.

From one scene to the next - she found herself on a bridge, the moon huge and high, and the air and mist around her in the evening light turning the world to a shade of silvery purple that her mind found hard to focus on. A silver falcon flew up over her head, and shot from one place to the next; from above to below, courting the waterfall that ran under the bridge she stood on. As it was flitting back and forth, Dassah could just barely hear a high pitched voice from it, asking her: “Why have you come?”

The scene flickered, and she was in the woods in the dead of night, and she became a part of a procession of people and monsters in masks carrying lanterns through the trees. The light of the lanterns snaked in front of her even as she became unable to make of what kind of creatures carried them. There was a warmth that grew in her heart as she walked among them, till she stumbled before one human shaped one with a fluffy white tail and fox ears. The creature chuckled and lifted her up, raising his mask to look into her eyes with his jet black ones. “Human!” he said, pulling a mask out from his sleeve and tying it around her head. “Why have you come?”

“Is this a wedding?” she asked him, fighting the urge to grab him.

He laughed with a nod. “A wedding indeed, one out of place and time. You should be going now, girl yet to be born; the world awaits you!”

With a shove from him, Dassah fell back into the bushes, and with a blink, she found herself looking up at the clouds, the sunlight warming her body and her face. Sitting up, she was in a little glade, face to face with a unicorn - or what she assumed was a unicorn, with a figure the size of a large horse, but lean and narrow like a deer. It’s silver, alien-like eyes took up most of it’s face, and it’s single curved horn looked thin and sharp like a sword. “Why have you come?” it asked her, as the world swirled around her again.

She stood on the beach. Somehow she had lost her shoes, and she could feel the sand between her toes. The smell of the salty water carried on the wind, and the sounds of waves crashing against the seaside made her feel at peace. Looking out over the vast blue, her heart longed to be a part of it, but at the same time, she felt weary of it. A seal appeared before her, and she looked into it’s intelligent eyes. Before her it grew into a girl in a seal skin dress. “Why have you come?” the girl asked.

But before she could think to answer, the world when white. It faded back into deep dimly lit mist. It wrapped around her, filled her with the presence of the fate - but this time, the damp felt sharp and cold and an unpleasant shiver ran up her spine.

The echoes from the words surrounded her as the Fate asked her: “Why have you come?”

“I-I’m here to… to…” Dassah's mind went blank. There was no window to help her this time. Just how was she supposed to respond? She was here to play the game - but that didn’t seem like a proper answer. “I’m here to have my fortune told?” she said hesitantly.

“Fortune? Fortune…,” went the breeze. It swirled around her; cool, clammy air seemed to paw at her skin as if she were naked and her clothes were nothing. Dassah shivered as the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. It came as a mild shock that something like this was in the first part of the game. It made her feel uncomfortable; violated even. “Human,” the voice came. “Human girl. Lost. Alone. Afraid. Fear. I feel your fear. Do you fear? Do you fear me, tiny human child? It is wise - wise, but I will not bring harm to you. To you I shall grant a power. A power to wield in this world. In this world, do you want power? Power to rule the world?”

This is… Weird… Dassah hugged herself as she answered, “I-I don’t know. I don’t want to rule the world, but, one needs power to live in the world, don’t they?” This is the fear test, she reminded herself. It's just a test...Though the forums talked about the fear test and how awful it felt, this was on a level that she hadn't considered.

The breeze seemed to laugh warmly. “Yes; to live in this world of monsters and demons, power is a tool for life - a tool for life that you must use to live as you desire. To live as you desire - you desire to live for others? Yourself? Conquest? Love?”

Remembering that this was how her character’s options would be granted to her, she thought carefully about how to answer. The Fates gave suggestions for answers, but you could actually answer in any way that you pleased. How did she want to play the game - that was the real question being asked.

“I desire to live freely,” she told the mist. “Whether for myself or for others. I want to be able to make that choice when I come to it."

“Ah,” it answered. “Freedom. Freedom to love. Freedom to die. Freedom to be like the wind. Like the wind you shall travel. You shall travel from here to there, there to here, in and out, you shall go. You shall go… where shall you go? Shall you go to the sea? To the forest? To the past? To the future? To the Veil?”

“I want to go everywhere,” Dassah responded calmly. “I want to go to the edge of the world and to the depths of the earth. I want to play with the spirits of the land, and speak with the wise men at the corners of the world!” She felt her voice waver; to her own ears it sounded as if she were being defensive. Laughing at herself internally she asked, Why would I be defensive about the truth?

“Oh!” said the breeze. “Oh, a complicated wish! A complicated wish to be one with this world. This world needs many kinds of people; there are many people who would master it and seek the glory of its riches. What riches do you seek to find, going everywhere? Everywhere has many, many riches.”

“Riches?” Dassah wondered out loud without thinking. “Treasure?”

The wind gave her no chance to correct herself, “Treasure! Gold! Silver! Treasure, seeks the human child. Human child who is born into the world - but who shall bear the child? The child who longs for freedom and treasure?”

“Wait -” Dassah started, then bit her tongue. She hadn’t meant to answer that way; she should have known her waggling tongue would get her into trouble. She had no need of treasure; but how to fix it without her answers being mistaken again? Her brain raced. “I am a child of the world - one of the spirits who rule within the lands!”

“Ah,” said it. It’s calm voice served as a stark contrast to Dassah’s own anxious insistence. “A child born to power, then. Then you should know that power is sought by other power. Power brings strength. Evil. Protection. Danger. Danger of others who hunt power; who feed off power and fear. Fear. Do you fear, child?”

“Huh?” Dassah blinked, feeling as if she had answered this question. This time, she didn’t have a chance to answer.

Letting out a yelp as, inches from her face, the mist swirled wildly. She cringed back as white mixed with strings of black, and suddenly a face made of scribbles appeared; eyes, black, swirling, and soul-less, mouth, opening to a black grin of sharp, pointed teeth - all in constant motion, like a child’s sketch on fast forward. “Do. You. FEAR?” the breeze’s voice went from soft to harsh in a word, and the wind picked up around her. The face hung, laughing in the air as the mists swirled into patterns, colors, and shapes. One moment Dassah’s feet were firmly on the ground, the next, the ground was swept from beneath her.

Falling! The mist changed into sky, and she fell from the clouds. Falling. Falling! Gasping, Dassah tried to grab hold of the clouds as she passed them. With her hand going through them like ghosts, she wrenched her body around to see the world below her. Green and blue. Patterns of fields could seen in the distance. Forests. Seas. Cities.

Suffocating. Mind going blank, Dassah began to panic, clawing at her throat. Her eyes burned, watching as the world came quickly closer. There was no air in her lungs for her to scream out - there was only fear. The ocean began to grow bigger and bigger. Slamming her eyes shut, she braced herself for impact - but she felt none. Rather, her body had stopped moving. It was floating. Suspended.

Confused, Dassah opened her eyes to see nothing but peaceful blue. Deep, peaceful blue. Her body grew cold. She wanted to breathe, but opening her mouth only let salty water in. She tried to swim, but against all her efforts, she sank. Deeper and deeper into the depths. She grew dizzier and dizzier. Her heart was pounding in her ears. She reached for the [LOGOUT] button in a haze, but then her feet touched ground. Air returned to her lungs as she coughed.

Darkness. Darkness returned too. Dassah collapsed. She had read stories about the fear test as they called it, but never in her life could she have ever been prepared for that. Slowly, she lifted her hands to her face. Her body and clothes were dry, her hair was as it had been before, as if nothing had happened. The cloudiness of her head, and the pounding of her heart against her chest served as the only evidence of the ordeal.

The darkness flickered, and she found herself in a cavern. A silvery, translucent fox - a ghost? - appeared before her, a wicked look on it’s face.

Dassah froze.

The face that now stared into hers was the same, black, squiggling countenance that had come within the mist.

“Do. You. FEAR?” the voice came, and the fox lunged at her. Dassah shrieked and covered her face as the fox’s clammy paw touched her arm - and turned to smoke. The surroundings changed again.

And they changed, and changed, a dozen times over. Different scenes. Different places. Every time the face appeared, her heart leapt into her throat. What the hell is this? Her mind screeched each time, her muscles so tense her her body was sore, and her head was pulsing in pain.

Left in the dark again, she hugged her knees, and couldn’t help but sob.

Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound of soft, echoing footsteps entered her ears. Grimacing, she looked up to see a man, beautiful, in flowing, white and silver robes. He had almond shaped, jet black eyes, a pair of white fox ears on his head, and a long, fluffy white tail flicking behind him. His face, though, was normal. Dassah flinched as he reached his hand out. Chuckling, though, he began to pat her on the head.

“You have done well, to get so far,” the man told her, his voice gentle. “But the path that you shall walk to the gates of birth is not yet over. The test has been completed, but choices remain to be made...”