I walked around snow fields for many sunsets. My lips were dry and the skin under my heels was leaving a trace of reds and browns on pure whites. The little clothing that covered my body against storms and deserted lands disintegrated gradually. The discomfort raised once it became clear to me, I was lost.
I was so stupid I decided to find a person I was stolen from by firmly walking towards the sun. It was no help, the sun appeared and disappeared without any regard for me. The cold was starting to feel like I should just drop dead. I was ambitious to even bear the thought of finding him. He could be anywhere.
I walked along without a plan, without any sense of direction because I was stubborn and because I was crazily optimistic. I walked further up a hill to a barren tree. leaned on it and let my body fall to its roots. If I could get clothed and fed, it would be nice, but instead, I'll just wait for someone to find me or abduct me, whichever happens first.
I stayed still wondering if I should move around to not appear dead and remembered mother said once beldams had good hearing. I thought I could sing but being tone deaf could get me killed, so instead I muttered the names of those I remembered. I started with Lochlyn and Kylo. My brother and sister. They were killed among many others at the time of the witch hunt.
The whites were suddenly corrupted by a moving something. it smelled similar to mother, which was unsettling to say the least, In the past I had encountered a woman like that, mother used to call them golden maids. She said they were not to be trusted, regardless of the similarities between them, there was something you could not mask. The smell of an eater.
When a carrier of a soul interrupts others life span, they terminate a contract with the third Guardian. Your soul is marked to never be reborn again. if you were to die, it would mean the end. Golden maids were different to other creations, they had no aging effect or need for consumption, they lived gracefully and eternally. But they were ambitious, so they were punished and denied their very own sun.
The beginning of the end was a proper display of power in realms much more delicate than their own. They became an invasive species, destroying any form of life they could find, proving their superiority. They demonstrated how if they could not feed off the sun, they would swallow the very soul of others and continue to live freely.
The goddesses hunted them down and made it a law among all realms, any creation who were to attempt any harm to the goddesses' creations, would be terminated at once. Some of them to this day, other than the golden maids who were completely eliminated, were cursed and turned into beasts that would later guard the portals.
Eaters smell like rotting fruit, but golden maids smell like burning wood. That was the smell of that woman who could probably smell my soul unaware I could not be eaten by someone like her. I am not a creation; I was sawn into hollow woods. Before that, I was a mortal creation, but death naturally got to me.
I wondered if she was approaching me, if she had heard me, but she didn't move further than in circles. I walked towards her until she noticed me, then I looked into her eyes. I could tell she was pleasantly surprised.
"Are you lost?" She said with a caring smile.
I tilted my head and mocked her smile. "Haven't you lived long enough? What have you been doing this whole time, dragging out the day of your death as if it held any value"
Her smile faded with realization. She sighed in exhaustion. "Are you one of those? I thought that was a lie we told them to do things right."
"I'm not like that, I suppose I'm special"
"Hm, thought so." She seemed bothered by the light. The snow reflected it vastly. I noticed the color of her lips was dull, she might have been starving.
"Why are you here, there is nothing. you won't find what you need." I said looking for her eyes.
"I just scaped from the beasts, I entered the wrong portal, but I doubt i'll make it if I step in there again. I guess I reached the end of the path."
"Which way!? I'm trying to find my portal."
"You won't find it; you'll die before you can reach it. There are more beasts everyday"
"I don't mean a door, a person"
"I have heard of one with that magic, I heard he died recently."
She said those words so easily. Castles collapsed in mere seconds, but she walked it off.
"I heard he had a son, he is in Ryomen, it could be helpful to find him, they say he looks just like his father."
She continued to crack the land below my feet with words. out of it completely I walked along the footsteps in the snow tracing the forest with no desire of reaching it. I wished I hadn't heard that.
When the Clouds began to turn grey and grew darker as I walked. The smell of rotting fruits made it certain. I had arrived at the land of the damned ones. Eaters that got turned into beasts. I was standing before it.
I thought of just running into it, the witch made it sound dangerous, but it might have been her weak hungry body. I stepped up gathering courage when I noticed a boy.
"You are the Guardian."
"Are you thinking of trespassing?"
"I'm just trying to find my portal, he is in Ryomen."
"Your portal, there is nothing and certainly no one that belongs to you."
He was intimidating, he walked towards me, and I didn't have the strength to back up.
"Not mine, I mean my friend"
"A friend!? Thats precious. Where is he? What is his name?"
"Ryomen.. his name is Agari" I said looking down.
"Agari? He is not in Ryomen." He said and then turned his face to the howls of the beasts." Wait a minute, I'll return once I'm done."
"He disappeared behind the trees, and I stepped into the forest."