Have you ever felt dozens of eyes, staring, digging into your skin?
"....haa."
Have you ever felt the wind, merging into voices as it ran past your ears?
Shhhhhrrhhhh!Shhhhhrrhhhh!
Have you ever seen so much blood, that the air smelt like a blacksmith's forge?
Splosh!
The ground rippled as Riven dashed through a pair of trees.
He ran.
Ran with no objective through this bleeding labyrinth.
"Saphira!"
No answer.
'Where is she....'
THUMP!
His heart bounced like a drum, striking his ears as the wind whistled.
"...This place," he whispered, grey eyes narrowing. '...How is there so much?'
The question lingered for what seemed eternal.
The flowing of its crimson could not be understated.
Splosh!
The trees leaked its essence.
The ground laid its purity.
Blood was everything.
"...haa!"
His breath plunged as he raced.
Thump! Splosh! Thump! Splosh!
The cold carried here in this space, but other senses overpowered its feel.
"...Saphira!"
Again he called out.
Shhhhhrrhhhh! Shhhhhrrhhhh!
Again the wind whistled, as hairs prostrated from his nape.
Riven was alone again.
He'd followed Saphira before he'd taken his first life.
He'd ran across the Veil, escaping from death itself.
He'd killed the Scavenger hunting for food.
He was trapped in the Whiteout against the Stalker.
His mind had darkened hearing the Rhyme.
Splosh! Splosh!
And now...
Now he was lost in a labyrinth of Blood.
Splosh.
Each step dragged, longer than the last as he slowed.
The forest swam, its pillars bending, bleeding into one another.
"...haa.."
His breath rattled, shallow, as though the air itself refused him.
The constant smell of metal plagued at his throat, harassing him internally.
...He couldn't tell if he was moving forward anymore.
"...Stop... watching me..."
His lips hardly moved, the words trembled loose from his throat.
Shhhhhrrhhhh! Shh--give... up...
His grip on Mael's Fang tightened at the whisper.
Veins crept along his skull, running atop his hands.
The forest was alive...
"Not real... not real..."
But he told himself it wasn't...
His voice rasped, but even still... the trees seemed to lean closer.
Splosh...
The ground breathed with him, as his heart pumped loudly.
THUMP! THUMP!
The rat from earlier threatened to expel out as his stomach groaned.
His chest heaved, as the veins extended along his forearms. His teeth ground until his jaw ached.
Shhhhhrrhhhh! Shh---give....in.
The wind called again, serenading in cruelty...
"...Shut up..." he muttered, but the hiss pressed closer.
Shh---Bleed for Him...
Thump!
"I said stop!"
The shout tore from his throat, hoarse and jagged, like it had been brewing forever, as an echo tore through the trees.
"...Haaa...haaa.."
His chest rose and fell in succession.
Silence.
It fell heavy and lasted long as Riven stood, hand tightened on his blade.
It truly is a wonder....how in silence, new sounds emerge:
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
Gentle.
A lower percussion that he hadn't heard till now.
It crawled into his ears as the silence seemed to elevate its sound; it pressed against his skull as if something inside had started to boil.
Was it coming from the trees?
The ground?
No.
All around.
Each bubble carried weight, as though the forest was breathing liquidity.
Riven's gut tightened.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
It was another sound that gnawed at the edge of his sanity.
...But it wasn't just a sound.
It was a reminder...
A reminder he was drowning, and not just walking.
"..It won't stop...none of it will stop..."
Was it the simple sounds of bubbling?
Or was it the endless cycle of everything that plagued him?
Had it not been for Mael's Fang held tight in his hand, both palms would have clutched his skull...
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
As the bubbles pressed on, his mind lurched back to the church.
A sanctuary as such, had been tainted his mind:
That face, those dead eyes, the corpses that rose, they all flashed through his mind. It all lapped until his mind settled on one image, the image of long limbs floating through a haze of white.
"Drenn...." The name clawed out of his throat, bitten through his weight, coated with bite.
"Is this you?! Come out!"
His voice tore raw against the silent expanse; it bounced between the trunks, swallowed by the bubbling all around.
Nothing answered.
...Besides the sound of blood.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
Quiet.
For a heartbeat, nothing moved besides Riven's chest.
The wind was quiet.
The trees stood rooted.
The bubbling had stopped briefly.
That was all until:
Sploorrshhh...
The ground heaved, sluggish and wet, as if the blood had stirred.
A ripple spread outward, sending a low thrum that shook up the tree roots.
Everything seemed to lean closer, as shadows bent where they shouldn't.
A breath.
"Vluhhhhrrrhhhlllssshhhkkk--"
Long, hollow, it dragged through the forest.
Too vast to belong to anything human.
Riven's grip on Mael's Fang cut deeper into his palm as a bead of sweat rolled.
"...Show yourself," he rasped.
The forest went quiet.
The drop of a pin would sound like a shock.
The breath lingered, running across his skin as he stood there.
Those grey eyes stared through the dark as his chest heaved...
"Show yourself," he repeated.
The words were far from steady. His throat was raw, his breaths short; yet in that trembling sound, something stood.
Something real...
It seemed that if the forest meant to break him, then it would have to stand before him and try.
His thoughts weren't his anymore.