Lunet opened his eyes expecting darkness, or walls pressing in close, but instead he found himself standing in a wide green field. Grass spread out in every direction, neat and even. Tall mountains cut across the horizon ahead of him in clean, sharp lines, and between them ran narrow rivers, the water so clear he could see straight to the bottom even from a distance. Above, the sky stretched open and calm, a soft blue.
He stood still for a few seconds, trying to place where he'd ended up. No sound but birds and wind. The quiet here felt strange, almost too complete.
He took a deep breath and noticed his chest didn't feel tight anymore, not like it had before he stepped through the door. A small wave of relief passed through him.
'If this is what's waiting behind the door, he thought, looking around, it's not what I expected at all.'
He tried to recall what he'd read in the book, something to help him make sense of where he was. He sat down in the tall grass, and it felt so good against his skin that he forgot himself entirely and lay back in it.
Minutes passed with him stretched out, eyes closed, just enjoying the breeze on his face. Then he remembered why he was here. He opened his eyes and tried to pull the details back into focus.
Not everything was clear. Most of what he knew about the ritual, the realm, even the history behind it, had come from unreliable copies of the book or rumors passed around by strangers.
Still, a few things stuck. One line came back to him clearly, something from page twenty one, about the first door a person walks through:
"Nothing you see there is real. Some are fortunate enough to land somewhere peaceful. Others find themselves on a long road of suffering. It isn't about who you are when you step through, but what the Blind Writer, who sees all things, decides to give you. And yet, there are recorded cases of those who received no story at all. Just emptiness, lifeless and silent, until hunger and thirst took them. These are called the Futureless."
A flicker of fear ran through him at the memory. Here he was, standing in an empty field, beautiful as it was, and his mind couldn't help but turn it into a joke: that maybe he was futureless too.
He laughed quietly to himself, then pushed himself up to go looking for something, anything, tied to his story. He didn't want to end up futureless in two different worlds at once.
He took one careful step forward, then another, watching the ground beneath his feet like he half expected it to give way. Everything looked ordinary, and somehow that bothered him more than if it hadn't. No path in sight, no houses, no sign that anyone else existed here. Just a forest ahead of him.
The fear crept back in, that maybe there was no future waiting for him here either, that everything he'd risked had been for nothing.
'Where is everyone?'he wondered.
He stepped into the forest after a moment's hesitation. The trees stood tall and close together, their leaves thick but not thick enough to block out all the light. Dry leaves and thin grass covered the ground, and there was no clear path between the trunks.
He moved slowly, glancing around every few steps, careful not to make noise. Before long, he caught movement ahead through the trees.
Someone was walking, unhurried, back straight, steps even. His clothes were spotless, the kind Lunet had only seen in old paintings of Roman gods: pale fabric, folded with care, no wear, no dirt anywhere on it. His build looked almost too perfect, too symmetrical to be real.
Relief washed over Lunet. He had started to worry this place held no life at all, and now here was someone standing right in front of him. He took a step closer, trying to make out the man's face, and opened his mouth to call out.
That was when he realized the man had no head.
Lunet froze. His whole body locked up, his heart slamming against his ribs. He backed away slowly, then ducked behind a thick tree trunk, pressing himself against it, trying to disappear.
He watched from there. The man kept walking like nothing was wrong. No turning, no pause, no reaction of any kind.
Lunet held his breath, unsure if the thing had noticed him, but certain that getting any closer would be a mistake. He stayed hidden, waiting until the figure faded between the trees.
Only then did he move, quiet and careful, putting as much distance as he could between himself and where the man had been, without breaking into a run. He didn't look back until he was sure enough space stood between them.
Eventually the trees opened up into a wider clearing. Green stretched out again in front of him, empty of any trace of people. No houses, no roads, no sound at all. No voices, no distant movement, nothing.
He stopped and looked the place over. It all seemed cared for, tended somehow, and yet not a single soul was around to enjoy it. That emptiness sat heavier on him than any danger so far.
'If this were a normal place,'he thought, 'I'd have found something by now. Anything.'
He was still scanning the clearing when a loud crash sounded behind him. He spun around on instinct, and his mind went blank for a second at the sight of a massive bear bursting out from between the trees.
He didn't think. He just ran.
His legs moved before the rest of him caught up. His chest clenched tight, breath coming in short, ragged bursts. Behind him, the bear's steps landed heavy and fast, gaining ground.
He pushed himself as hard as his body would go, but he wasn't built for this. Within moments his legs burned, and something hot spread through his chest. There wasn't enough air. He tried to scream, but what came out was broken, barely a sound at all.
One thought looped through his head, over and over
'It's going to get me.'
He caught his foot on a rock and nearly went down, but panic kept him upright, kept him moving. Tears streamed down his face without him noticing. There was no plan, no direction, just motion, away from the sound closing in behind him.
Fear had taken over completely. Nothing was left in his head except the simple fact that he was a child, and that he might die here.
He stopped short when the ground ran out ahead of him. Nowhere left to go. He spun around, heart hammering so hard it hurt.
The bear was closing the last of the distance.
Its full size came into view now, and the sound of it grew louder, closer, only steps away. Lunet's eyes darted around one more time, looking for anything, an opening, a place to climb, a rock big enough to hide behind. There was nothing.
His legs gave out from under him. He hit the ground before he even realized he'd fallen.
His whole body shook. His breath came in uneven gasps, his chest aching with each one. Tears kept falling and he didn't bother wiping them away. He couldn't think anymore, couldn't move.
He screamed, his voice cracked and unfamiliar even to himself
"I don't want to die!"
Before the bear could close the last step, two men broke through the trees.
They carried simple weapons, one gripping a long spear, the other a short, wide axe. They moved fast and sure, no hesitation in either of them, closing in on the bear from two sides and forcing it back.
Their clothing looked pulled from old storybooks, wide draped fabric, light armor, pieces that echoed different cultures at once, something Roman, something Greek, something that looked almost Japanese, all of it worn thin and frayed at the edges from long use.
The bear roared and lunged forward once, but one of the men swung his spear in a sharp warning arc while the other slammed the head of his axe into the ground in front of the animal. Neither blow landed on the bear itself, but it was enough. After a few tense seconds, the bear backed off, turned, and vanished back into the trees.
Lunet stayed frozen where he sat, unable to move, staring at the two men with wide eyes, breath still ragged, body still shaking.
He had survived. His mind just hadn't caught up to that fact yet.
Even with the danger gone, he could not settle. His chest kept rising and falling too fast.
One of the men walked toward him slowly, stopping a short distance away before crouching down to meet his eyes. His voice came out low and even.
"What's your name?"
Lunet heard the words, but nothing came out when he tried to answer. His throat felt dry, his tongue too heavy to move. He just stared, unblinking, eyes still wide with fear.
His legs wouldn't hold him, and his arms wouldn't respond either. Everything that had happened since he'd stepped through that door came rushing back at once: the headless man, the chase, the screaming, how close death had come.
The pressure built behind his eyes. The air felt thick, too heavy to breathe.
Then everything went dark.