Living The Nightmare

The loud yet muffled thumps of a gloved fist banging unto the wooden door startled the writer midway her sentence, the word she had just started writing becoming a scribbled mess in the process. Kenna cursed underneath her breath and slammed the pen down unto the book laying before her on the desk, pushing herself and the chair she sat upon back as she turned her head and glared at the door… or rather, the mysterious person behind it. A second salvo of what seemed to be an impatient knocking followed soon, causing the Etherborn to growl softly when inhaling as she readied herself to bark back at the impatient individual keen on ko’ing her door. ”YES YES, by the gods, have some freaking patience you jack--, Kenna barked at the door, getting off the chair and stomping her way towards the entrance of her humble room barefoot. Her hand clenched around she merely turned and tugged while keeping on ranting. ”It’s not like I sleep next to this door and wait for the moment someone might come kno- huh?” Kenna ceased her rant and blinked in surprise when no-one appeared to be in front of her door at all. She popped her head outside and looked left and right, scanning the corridor for any sign of life. Nothing. Not a living soul to be seen, although downstairs a myriad of excited voices could be heard coming from the mess hall of the inn she was staying at. ”Curious… and creepy. At least they didn’t leave some kind of suspicious package to… nevermind.” Kenna suppressed a sigh of disappointment when she gazed down upon the brown box at her feet. The letters “S" and “M" were carved into the box, while her name had been scribbled underneath the letters; looking at the unruly handwriting it had been written hastily, as if time was running short for whomever wrote it. Although she knew these things were best to be ignored, her curiosity got the better of her and thus lifted the box up. It was surprisingly heavy for its size. Not having noticed it sitting there until now she was incredibly pleased with the fact that she hadn’t stepped outside to see if someone was hiding in the corridor; gods forbid she’d stumped her toes into that.

With the cardboard box tightly tucked between her arms she turned around and re-entered the room, using the heel of her foot to close the door, and carried it over to the desk she had been writing at. She planted it down next to her book, cleaned the desk of anything she didn't need and put it away in their respective pocket dimension before attending to the contents of the box before her. From it she pulled a heavy hard-cover book, a large lacrima recorder and some other things that did not seem to have much value at first sight. Both the book and the lacrima showed signs of dark-colored stains she recognized to be dried-up blood. She opted to sit down first but changed her mind and instead remained standing, taking the book between her hands and started reading. The letters indeed were the initials of a name, or more precisely, the writer of this diary of sorts. Samuel Martin. Kenna could only wonder as to how his things had wound up in her hands, or why. Turning the page and reading through its contents she soon realised this might become more of an issue that she’d first thought it to be… a possessed love interest? Her curiosity however came to an abrupt end as the rest of the diary’s entries had been torn from the book, only leaving the torn edges of said pages at the heart of the book. Kenna closed it and frowned. If this was merely a runaway ‘possessed’ woman, then she doubted it would’ve been such an issue. But the bloodstains, hasty handwriting and torn pages were all a bit too shady a clue to disregard it as just that. She took the lacrima recorder in hand, hoping it could clear up some of the darkness that was shrouding this mystery, and pressed play. The male voice identified himself as a Rune Knight lieutenant named Jacob Lars, which she presumed to be Samuel’s friend at the corps, and listened intently as he explained the situation. The second entry came faster than expected however; only an hour later, unlike the weekly and daily entries of Samuel Martin. And with every new log the lieutenant made his panic became more audible, until the last one left even the Etherborn in a bit of shock. His raspy, exhausted voice audible between the static noises, the rushing wind as he ran and tried to hide, the pure panic in his voice and then the ultimate silence. One did not need to be a genius to figure out what fate the lieutenant would have befallen at this point. Kenna ended the recording and felt the silence of her room weighed many times heavier now the static noises had died down, took a deep breath and placed the lacrima recorder back unto the desk before her, leaning over it as she went over her options. Even though she was on a quest of her own, ignoring this wasn’t really an option. The consequences of this issue could become immeasurable, and god forbid someone else were to find these and head out to Spooky Forest to befall the same fate as those poor Rune Knights. She’d once been a Rune Knight herself in a past life, so the sense of duty springing from it also left her little choice. There was a reason these objects had fallen in her hands, so it was her duty as a mage of Sabertooth to find out what had happened to Samuel, Jacob and his men. She’d solve this entire ordeal and be on her way afterwards. Within half an hour Kenna had gathered up her things, paid for her stay at the inn and stashed up on provisions for the trip to Spooky Forest.

After several days Kenna had finally reached the edges of Spooky Forest, that for some reason loomed far more dangerously at the horizon than the previous times she’d been here. Most-likely the pressure of what had gone down within its vast territories, unseen by human eyes and only known to the trees that had seen it all happen. For some reason she had loathed not telling anyone at the guild she’d gone off on her own, otherwise she could’ve asked for some back-up and eased her mind from this all. After all, she may wield a legendary steel but that did not mean her nerves were made of those as well. With Fiend’s Embrace, a sinister cloak she’d been gifted by her deceased love, draped over her shoulders Kenna pondered about the things she should watch out for now she did not yet have the darkness of the forest surrounding her; but with every step the forest drew closer until she found herself walking through the first rows of giant trees. There was still some light seeping through these, but further down the road she followed there were only shades and eerie thoughts welcoming her. She swallowed the lump that had been silently growing in her throat. Something felt off. The lump remained within her throat, almost feeling as if it was crushing her throat both from the inside and outside… her breathing became heavier, as did the feeling in her chest. Stronger. Painful. Kenna could feel her consciousness fading as she felt her knees tremble and give way, succumbing to gravity-- but she did not fall. Instead she dangled. Her mind too blank to react, she could finally feel nails dig into the front of her throat as she became aware of a large cold hand holding her neck from behind, squeezing unrelentingly. With the pain becoming too much, the ravenhaired maiden tried to scratch at the fingers holding her but nothing happened. The darkness crept onto her even further, and as she tried to call out for help she lost her battle. Within her fading consciousness she could hear a crack. Then everything went cold and dark.





The white-haired maiden jumped up with a silent scream, panting heavily as she stared around the darkness of her room. From behind the closed curtains a stray ray of light invaded her room. Kenna slowly grabbed her face with both hands and rubbed them against her face while trying to control her breathing. Again this dream. As of late she had been having it more frequently; it included herself, but not the her from the present; it was the her from the past. After she had left the Rune Knights, but before she had died at the hands of Vale. There were no clues as to why she had this dream, nor what it meant, but for some reason it scared her every time she had it.

With a groan the young maiden threw the covers off herself and threw her legs over the edge of the bed, letting her long hair hand freely over her shoulders. Knowing it'd be madness to try and get fall back asleep she figured it might be better to rise early; and by the looks of it it wasn't that 'early' at all. Probably just early by her own standards. After having opened the curtains she got dressed fairly quickly, throwing on her red skintight tunic and ditto-colored loose robe and left her room just as fast, moving to the main mess hall for a hearty breakfast. With a few toasts, some spread and a mango to complement things, Kenna sat down at one of the empty tables and absent-mindedly started munching one of her toasts, looking at the members of her guild that were starting their day early as well.




Wordcount: 1750
Total Wordcount: 1750 of 1500 [of 3000]

It had been months since Urania last went on a mission. After suffering a rather grievous injury at the hands of a dark wizard north of the beanstalk wizard, Urania had just barely managed to escape- and as consequence was out of commission for quite a long time. She was left with quite a few scars running up her left leg to her side from that battle, cutting through many of her tattoos which was the only real problem she had with them. Since that battle, she hadn't done much but catch up with an old friend of her she met on the road while traveling and do some research into a few magical relics she had heard off. But none of that really compared to going out and doing jobs- it wasn't exciting, dangerous, or thrilling in any way. Life was... peaceful for the first time since joined Sabertooth- but that felt wrong. She never had a problem with quiet time, with being uninterrupted, with not having anything to do. On the road that was all welcomed, they provided respite from the often tedious and maddening process of walking from place to place with no real go in mind. But ever since she heard of Sabertooth and their acquisition of a certain, ever-present tree from the legends of her homeland, her life had suddenly become chaotic and fun. The minute she started her journey to the Sabertooth guild, to the moment she fell at the hands of the dark wizard, she had barely had enough time to think- let along rest. It was a welcome change.

For the past week, she had been looking for a job, deciding she'd finally recovered enough to get back to work. But just at that moment- the job board had been completely cleared off. There were no new jobs posted, nothing left over. Every day she would get up early and check the board before heading off the get something to eat, and every day she ended up disappointed at an empty board. She wasn't sure if she was waking up too late, or if for some reason the guild just wasn't getting any work. How were the people who actually owned homes supposed to pay for them when there wasn't any work coming in? This pattern kept up until the seventh day- she woke up and quickly hauled herself out of bed, making her way down to the Guildhall and gazing at the job board. Empty, just as usual. And, for the first time this week, so was the rest of the room. There wasn't a person there or any signs of life for that matter. No conversations heard down the hall, no plates of food left behind or books sitting on the table. Nothing. It was... eerie, and definitely something she wasn't used to. Shaking her head, Urania decided it would be best to get some fresh air and began to make her way to the guild entrance. As she walked down the hall, she got lost in thought. There had to be a reason why the job board had been so empty for the past week.

She thought about this for ten or so minute until she realized that she should have been at the guild's entrance by now. Looking up she found that she was no further down the hall to the entrance than when she had started walking, and turning behind her she saw something that made her heart skip a beat. Where there should be a large common room, was only more hall that extended into an eerie, dark fog- a fog that was quickly approached through the hall. Urania's eyes widened as she turned back and took off, running as fast as she could towards the exit but just as before she never came any closer to it. It was as if the hall was growing, extending as she tried to reach the exit- she could see the doors passing her as she ran, which confirmed that she was, in fact, moving so that could be the only answer. She turned back to see if the fog was still behind her, and much to her disgust and horror it was just feet away.

Long, black tendrils of smoke extended from the fog, reaching toward her before grabbing one of her legs, causing her to fall to the ground hard. The most bizarre thing about this was that she felt no pain, none at all, only dread and terror as she was dragged towards the smoke, another tendril creeping forward and wrapping around her neck, pulling tight until- she woke up. She sat up with a start, heart pounding and covered in sweat. Grabbing at her neck out of fear that the tendril was still wrapped around her throat. Nothing. She looked around her room, the scattered notes and musical sheets taped to the wall were all just where she had left them the night before. She blinked, catching her breath as she tried to make sense of what had just happened but the more she thought about the dream, the more vague and senseless it became. Details became murky, lost in translation, until they were forgotten completely. All Urania was left with was a vague, awful feeling of Malaise. The only time she had ever had a nightmare as bad as that was the night she was exiled from her homeland. The first night she had on the road, alone and sleeping beneath the stars on the side of the road. That was almost five years ago now, what had caused her to have another nightmare like that? The only excuse she could think of was the frequent trips she made to the spooky forest months ago for work but... that was so long ago, how could it be affecting her now?

Urania sighed and stood up, cleaning herself off before heading out to the mess hall. She didn't even think of checking the job board, heading straight for the kitchen to prepare something to eat, something to help her de-stress. It didn't take her long to prepare a quick, large meal of venison, potatoes, and salad- something she used to eat all the time as a kid. She sat out and looked around the common room and only saw one person awake- it made sense, everyone else was likely still asleep or had already left. She sat down across from the woman, and simply looked down her plate- she looked completely defeated and exhautsed, barely touching her food for a few minutes before finally starting to eat.

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Urania didn't even notice that Kenna had started talking to her. She couldn't stop thinking about the nightmare and the off lack of jobs recently. Maybe they were connected, the stress couldn't be good for her after-all. But she'd been just as stressed if not more the first week she couldn't work because of her injuries. She finally keyed in that someone was speaking to her by the time the white-haired woman had said she had a gut feeling. She shook her head lightly as she snapped back to reality, looking up to meet the eyes of the other girl. She knew Kenna had changed, heard it in passing conversations and the such but she didn't want to assume that this person was someone she knew- until, thankfully, Kenna confirmed her theory herself. Even then it was a little hard to focus on what she was saying, her whole being filled to the brim with this dreadful feeling of horror and malaise- vague shapes and sounds swirling around as she tried to think about the dream, find anything that could have caused it.

"I'm uh... uhm..." Urania said, words catching in her throat as she tried to figure out her to put what was troubling her into words. It's like everything about this nightmare was pulling her left and right, stopping her train of thought in its tracks whenever it got going again. "You're a guild ace right, so you've had to have been to the... the uh... The Spooky Forest right? Do you know if you can get like... cursed or something by going in there too often? I had the worst nightmare in years last night and barely got any sleep but I can't figure out why and well... that all I could come up with. I'm really worried, nothing like that has ever even crossed my mind let alone showed up in a dream." She said, finally admitting her worries. She didn't bring up anything about the job board, she didn't want to seem lazy or unambitious or anything. She did, however, say "I don't know, maybe it's just cause I haven't been on my feet much these past few months after my injury..."

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