Rane wakes up completely confused. She has woken up in a strange house. She notices that her burns are all gone. She looks at Dante gratefully with a smile. Dante is still asleep. Rane slowly gets up from her straw bed, but she looks around, confused. She had never seen a house like this before. It was so old. She had only ever seen or heard of such dwellings in novels and movies of the past. She was completely speechless.
She notices an older-looking man whose hair is grey and whose body is frail. He has a long grey beard. She also sees a young boy fetching a cane for his father. He has short black hair and a cheerful smile.
"That boy seems to care deeply for you," the father had said to Rane, "he carried you all this way alone for what must have been ages. Make sure you look after him as well, young miss.".
A troubled look had appeared on her face as the man spoke. She looked like she was going to say something, but was interrupted when Dante woke up.
"I h-hope you slept w-well", Dante says to Rane with a cheerful smile.
Rane tried to mask her pity for him with a smile.
In a separate room, the man had begun to set dishes onto the table. He laid wooden plates and cutlery for the two guests as well. The table looked old and like it had seen much of the family's history. It looked like it had been crafted poorly and was barely standing.
"Please, sit yourselves," the man had said to the two.
Rane had approached the table and slowly pulled out a chair, trying her hardest to be polite. Dante, however, pulled out a chair and sat strangely on it. His right foot was on the seat with his knee to his chest, and his left foot rested normally. The father had looked at the strange way he was sitting, but did not say anything.
The father then carried a large iron pot and placed it down in the middle of the table. It was steaming from the top. Rane and Dante could smell salt coming from the pot. It was not an overwhelming odour, but it was just enough to make their mouths water. They had not eaten for around two days, so they were desperate for some food. The child now ran into the house and joined them at the table, ready to eat.
The father then reached into the pot, "Help yourself, please," he said, pulling out a baked potato.
The excitement that had built up on Rane's face had quickly vanished. Dante was the first of them to grab a potato after the child. Dante was still excited; after all, solid food for him was a luxury. He did not use the cutlery and instead, grabbed the hot potato in his hands and began to eat slowly. The potato was still very hot, but this didn't seem to faze him. Finally, Rane grabbed a potato and began to cut it up with cutlery, along with the others.
The silence was awkward. The father had asked a question to help break the silence.
"What are your names?" he asked gently.
Rane replied almost immediately, as if also looking to break the silence, "I am Rane, and this is Dante. Please excuse his odd behaviour.".
"No, no, it's quite all right. We don't get many visitors in this village, you know." The father continued the conversation to avoid another awkward silence.
"Where are we anyway?" Rane asks.
"Ind", Dante says, immediately after hearing the question.
Rane looks at him with a serious expression on her face.
"After breakfast, may we seek an audience with the leader of the village?" Rane asks cautiously in hopes that she doesn't offend the father.
The father lets out a deep laugh, "Ho, Ho, Ho. Of course, dear, no need to be so formal.".
A high-pitched voice enters the conversation, "Just go to the Church", the child says.
Dante now finishes eating all the potatoes he can manage and waits for Rane, staring at her cluelessly. Rane notices this and begins to hurry.
Once breakfast was over, the two had said their thanks and goodbyes before ultimately leaving. They could see the Church as soon as they had left the house. The Church was not particularly large and also not very well maintained. It looked nothing like what the two were familiar with. They arrived and knocked on the two large wooden doors. A moment later, a Pastor had opened one of the doors. He had invited them in, confused. He had never seen them before, so he was slightly suspicious.
"What may I help you two lost souls with?" he asked calmly and sincerely.
"You who crave power and you who fear it,
A place called Ind awaits.
Whether you wish it or wish it gone,
Simply be here at dawn,
Come now, or in any era," the boy says, holding up his right arm.
The Pastor's look had grown more serious the longer the boy had talked.
"Come, exalted one", he said as he made his way to the altar.
Both Rane and Dante had followed him to it.
The Pastor had unsheathed a blade he had concealed within a cross and stabbed through his own hand. He placed his hand on the altar. The floor in front of them had begun to move. It had slid open to reveal many stone stairs spiralling downwards.
"Follow me", the Pastor said once more as he walked down them.
Before long, they had reached the bottom, where there was a stone tablet. Curious, the two of them had begun to walk towards it. When they looked back, the stairs had disappeared without a sound. The tablet was only visible because of what seemed like moonlight shining down on it.
Rane and Dante were both sure that it was still morning. They had no idea what was happening. The floor was barely visible to them. They could not make out where the room ended. It seemed like an empty void with only the floor and the stone tablet. The Pastor had indicated that they had to move closer to it. They did.
They could make out that it had some engravings. Dante had gotten close enough to touch it, and once he did, a voice from nowhere had begun to speak.
"I etch into here what I hope none will find.
I am frightened of my thoughts not sitting comfortably within the confines of my mind.
For without them here, what shall remain?
A world of darkness? Only pain?
For in this Monolith of Solitude, I know
The only contents are despair and woe.
Within this desert plain, the monolith stands
Knowing not the warm embrace of hands.
And so I etch and note in hope
In protest, so as not to promote
Construction of this Monolith of Solitude."
Almost immediately, neither Dante nor Rane could see anything. It was as if the space was now devoid of light. As if they were in an endless abyss surrounded by nothingness. Dante had begun to panic; he could no longer see Rane. Rane, on the other hand, seemed calm.
A single speck had now appeared. It had begun to grow larger and larger. Soon enough, the spec had grown to the point where the two could see it was a concrete pyramid. However, the base of it had been covered by a shadow. It was a pure white, nearly glowing. Slowly, the shadow had receded, revealing that the pyramid was not in fact a pyramid. But a huge concrete monolith. In this endless abyss, the monolith appeared incredibly large. Both Dante and Rane still could not see anything except this mysterious structure.
In almost an instant, the monolith, along with the abyss, had vanished. Everything had returned to how it was, except now, both Dante and Rane had lost their balance due to the abyss and its misleading sense of direction. While they both were still on the ground trying to process what had happened, a voice,
"Find it", it was a woman's voice, gentle and mysterious.
The pair had looked behind them as if to see if the Pastor had also heard the voice. He was nowhere to be seen.
They got up off the ground. Rane dusted herself off. Dante immediately began walking towards Rane; his behaviour resembled a trained dog rushing to its owner.
Slowly and cautiously, they headed back up the stairs. As they began to walk, they both felt a wave of fatigue hit. They felt like they hadn't slept for days. Dante, being the least affected, had hung Rane's arm over his shoulders and helped her climb the stairs. Once they had arrived at the top, they had felt as if something was wrong. It was unusually dark.
"Was it this dark here when we came down?" Rane had asked Dante, panicking slightly. They pressed forward despite their concerns; they were nearly at the door. Dante had tried to open the door carefully and slowly; however, due to his fatigue, he had failed to control his strength. The whole left door had fallen.
The door was the least of their concerns at the moment, however.
The sun, which had not long ago risen, was nowhere to be seen, and stars and the moon had replaced it.
"How long have we been d-down there?" Dante asked Rane with a pale expression on his face.
...