A quiet chilling wind announces the arrival of sun.
The sludge like light flows down to ruined earth, thick with hateful oppression.
Slimy with warmth it drips its first glow onto the long away lives beneath it.
Together they seem to sense the incoming radiance and lift their heads towards the sky for a split second before resuming the war to continue their life.
Morning has risen.
Below the all seeing light was a vast expanse of verdant forest that crawled into the horizon and further, the sight of the endless green lashed at the mind of onlookers with a fear of the infinity it contained. Thick with never-relenting hum of life, choked by the stench of decay.
Within the abyss of greenery and swamped ocean of flora there sat a rotted tree.
Its thick truck, riddled with holes, caked with foul black mud and coated in writhing pale maggots, split into three thick limbs that dripped crystal like drops of sap from their uncountable wounds, these three limbs sometimes stretched into different directions and other-times wrapped towards each other fusing into a single branch before separating once again, this fractal like pattern seemed to twist further into into the mind of onlookers the longer it was observed.
Throughout the rotting tree only two constants would be found, the festering and decaying damage on the trees every surface, this and the tapestry of webs that coated the rotting tree, the webs filled every hollow, were woven into every gapping hole and as the writhing maggots burst from the tree they fell onto the webs.
They would not be allowed to leave.
Within the web formed of layers upon layers of thread the maggots twisted and squirmed.
They were to die a silent death of futile struggle.
Atop the corpse like tree lay a spider.
For features it resembled any other arachnid that could be found in the vast universe, twitching limbs and beady eyes, however the arachnids size simply disgusted the mind and would be the prized discovery of any biologist to ever live.
Even the smallest of its lifeless eyes was as large as two clenched fists, the creatures legs were simply unmoving pillars for any who did not realise its true form.
From the spiders abdomen emerged a single silvery thread that gently waved towards the sky as if caught by some unseen airstream.
While it remained immobile in the same spot it gave a sense of grievous threat, such a being hat showed no sign of life was somehow, undoubtedly, alive in some way.
As the rot festered on the twisted branches, the falling sap that splattered from its gaping wounds crystallised into small teardrop like forms, the teardrops would solidify before they hit the ground and left a trail of sap that connected it to the tree.
This gave it a most unique appearance.
The rotting monstrosity of fractured branches and winding webs seemed to have countless thin but impossibly solid orange vines hanging from each wound inflicted on its dying form, at the end of each such vine was a rounded teardrop shape.
A fractal like willow tree of blackened wood and orangey ornate crystal vines coated in a delicate veil of thin sickly pale threads.
'Thump' A small squirming maggot fell from the willows body but this time it fell past the ensnaring webs, it finally hit something none of its predecessors could.
It reached past the tree and its web.
And from the ground it slowly crawled, in a wet squelching motion, towards a nearby tree, this one thriving with life, lushness almost vivid, it gave off the scent of fresh morning rain-dew.
The pale maggot having reached the roots of the tree began to drill inside, its bulbous white head quickly sunk into the now soft wood, within a few moments the fat maggot had completely vanished into the trees root.
What a peaceful forest, in its infinity. The swaying of greenery in the wind, the light hum of life and decay.
Would it not stand eternal?
* * *
Sccrch!
A small scratching sound rung out.
His finger twitched.
Weight seemed to press down.
So many, lights, sounds
A heavy buzz began to ring in his ears.
It would be so easy... to return to the comfort.
The lull of rest was so alluring. . .
PAH! "Lucius!"
His eyes snapped open, the wave of darkness was instantly washed away by the radiant light pouring into his retinas, the residual shock of the slap jolted him awake.
With the embrace of rough stone on his back he found himself leaned against a greyish yellow cavern wall.
Lucius groaned in annoyance as he shifted off the wall pushing the pressure to his left hand, while he did this his right hand rubbed at his face furiously as if scraping away all the residual sleep that could linger.
As soon as his voice returned he muttered in faint pain and mostly annoyance "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
The man half crouched before him finally came to view in his sleep blurred eyes. Magnus was garbed in a skintight combat attire that had shifted colours to blend into the surrounding cavern walls. Draped over him was a deep navy coat adorned with several well polished metallic badges on the left collar. However what struck Lucius the most was the deeply fearful and panicked expression that adorned the normally stuck-up mans face.
Magnus's hands gripped at Lucius's shoulders. "Lucius please just answer, Do you remember what your doing? Or why your here?" The panic swallowed Magnus's voice as light tremors racked the normally confidant mans fram- wait.
Lucius now fully awake began to run his mind back towards his memories, that he knew he had, it was impossible otherwise. So he must have been mistaken when he found... nothing.
Thats right... his name was Lucius, but why? and how? As Magnus continued his panicked glances all around them Lucius began to clutch at his head. Parents? A blank, Friends? White void, why did he even recognise this man before him as being called Magnus? Static was all Lucius received.
Lucius turned his eyes towards Magnus with a faintest glimmer of already extinguished hope. "Do you kno-"
Before he could finish his sentence Magnus seemed to come to some sort of plateau in his own panic. "So we both don't remember anything?" These words came rapidly as if not wanting to dwell upon their implications.
Lucius hearing the question forced himself to give Magnus a rather ridiculous expression, half smiling half withholding thoughts he feared to even begin to express. "No.. it seems not"
The two stared at each other.
A sense of doom settled over them both as they did.
What an... ideal situation.