Lastlight

In the dead of night, a dim bioluminescent blue light was cast among a stone cut plaza. On it, a human like figure laid unconscious. The mask of a deer covering their face.

This particular human was bound by rope, their body laying in a pool of blood, lifeless.

Then came a grating noise. A deep gutteral growl that was felt deep in ones bones. A hazy mist of grey filled up the small lit portion of the plaza...

Then it left, the body remaining, without a head.

———————————

Cairo and Vera were adamant about not going on this so called detour Naren had in mind. Something they thought was completely useless. Vera surprisingly more outspoken than Cairo.

"I'm not leaving here until we go."

Naren sat down right by the skeletal remains of the woman. Rummaging through her pouch, trying to find anything useful.

"Naren, you mustn't be so stubborn."

"Ya kidding? What's your deal?!"

Naren didn't say anything more to them. Instead holding his ground no matter the persuasive tactics the two tried using. That was until Vera finally caved and gave in.

Though, Cairo wasn't as easy.

"Bet. If you two wanna go on yer little adventure be my guest. But I'm not wasting my time on some dead girl's wish."

With that, the three became two. Naren and Vera left alone, with only a box of matches between them to provide any light or even warmth in the pitch-black of night.

Standing up, Naren flipped through the notebook, tearing out the map and handing it to Vera. He had no idea what the crosses meant, but the house in the middle had to be of some kind of value.

"Whatever, not like we need that candle anyways."

Vera received the map with a look of contempt.

"For your information Naren, I don't agree with your choice."

It was all strange to Vera. He never seemed to have any qualms or specific tragectory before other than getting to Atlas. But even that was her wish, or at least as far as Naren knew. All to become a shaman, so why change now?

Vera stared at Naren, a cold indignation present in his tired eyes.

"Yeah yeah. I don't ever recall asking for your two cents."

With a loose commitment, Vera stared at the map Naren gave her. Her eyes faltering slightly. It was a map of Gaia no doubt. With one major distinction...

Half the island was gone.

———————————

The sounds of nightly beasts resounded through the lush foliage that contaminated every corner. To Naren and Vera's misfortune, the twilight rays of light began piercing through the oceanic sky. Slowly, giving rise to the heat emenating from the ground.

The two had been searching all night, but with the measly flame of a match, were more lost than rapt. The soles of Naren's feet protesting with every second they spent on the ground.

That was until they had finally made it to the pale white face of a mountain. It's tip ascending in a sheer vertical slope kilometers into the sky above them.

"I believe this is it, Naren."

Vera was sitting atop Naren's shoulders by now, protected slightly from the heat.

Naren, edged closer, looking around for any signs of the stairs they found on previous mountains. Even the one that spouted them out the top seemed to have a convenient set carved into it's face to get up and down every day and night cycle.

"Don't tell me the stairs on the other side...My shoulder's already killing me!"

Naren feet were beginning to blister as his voice grew more agitated.

"Surely not?"

Naren hoped that Vera was right. The ground was only getting hotter and there was nothing here that could be of use to remedy that. There was no way that they just made it to some useless dead end.

He began considering his choice of changing their route. Would they have been fine if they just ignored this?

He shook his head.

Who cared what was good for them. With the message he saw at the emerald lake and now the note from the dead girl. His sister had been here. And she could still...

Immersed in his thoughts, Naren didn't hear the creaking and rattling of wood, accompanied by the scarping of stone.

His ears perked as he looked up.

"Might you have heard something Naren?"

Naren's half closed golden eyes peered into the sky, a dark shadow adjacent to the mountain face was getting larger. A couple seconds passed and he could hear the rattling get louder, along with the faint sounds of breathing.

Then it became loud enough to identify by sight alone.

THUD

Naren stumbled back, balancing Vera on his shoulders as a wooden box gently fell onto grassy shrubs. A box with walls replaced with wooden bars, encircling the entire platform, five inch gaps in between each bar.

Naren wasted no time, opening the gate of the cage and getting in. His feet could only handle so much. Plus this cage came from the top of the mountain. That means this was where they should be.

"Woah, be cautious Naren!"

As they staggered inside, closing the door behind them, Naren let out a little laugh, a subtle smile unconsciously etching itself on his face.

"Lookit."

Leaned up at the furthest corner laid a certain unkempt man. A bandage reaching around one side of his face as he slept clutching onto a cloth scabbard.

Naren lightly kicked the sleeping Cairo, leaning against one of the bars.

"Guess you couldn't stay away from meeee..."

His words trailed off as Naren, fell over, pulling on something. In fact, what he grabbed to lean on wasn't a wooden bar at all, and instead a rope dangling from the roof of the cage.

"Eep! Naren, what have you done?!"

"Uhh, Ion know, but..."

The cage rattled as wood began grinding on stone. Slowly, the cage lifted off the ground, dangling upwards. And as it did so, a quick abrupt spike of sleepiness dug into Naren's exhausted body, pulling his eyelids down.

His words trailed off as he slunk to the ground in one unconscious beat.

Vera tried shaking him, but slowly her voice also began trailing off.

"How could you sleep...h..e..r..."

———————————————

Naren dreamt a quiet dreadful dream. A dark dimmed pale stone plaza lit up only partly by a blue bioluminscent glow coming from hung up glass lanerns. Small blue bugs floating inside.

He looked around, his vision hazy and his voice hoarse.

Until a sudden voice called out to Naren.

"Hey! I'm one! You're —!"

Naren's eyes shot open. Sweat beading down his neck. He was breathing heavy without even realizing. His chest beating hard. It hurt. A deep blunt pain quietly pulsating in his heart.

Then, noises began flooding his ears one by one. Until it was flooded.

Naren squinted as a stray ray of sun struck him from the oceanic sky. He used his hand to cover it before looking around.

A vast city atop the plateau of a grand pale white mountain. It's side completely carved out into a half dome that hung over the city.

Houses and buildings clinging to the very edges of the dome, building higher rather than lateral. Walls bleached into the color of old bones as terraces clumsily doubled even trippled over them. Piling into roofs that acts as someone else' street.

Narrow alleys jump roped between them, barely wide enough for two to pass. Spiraling and curving into a maze of branches that never lasted long, breaking off into staircases of less than a dozen steps ending at a door to another alley.

The whole city was folding on itself like something straight of a dream. All encircling one plaza that housed at least hundred people pushing and shoving past Naren. All of them wearing a mask of some woodland animal and oversized clothes covering every inch of skin.

'What am I doing here?'

Naren stumbled around, his head beating like crazy trying to figure out what was going on. Why exactly was he here? What was he doing before he came?

Then from the breif holes left behind my crowds of figures, Naren's gaze caught onto something.

A hunched over figure, with six arms. Something like a human, but not quite...It was a statue.

He tilted his head breifly, looking at the eight eyes of the statue.

'Oh right...'

That's right, he was here for a reason. How could he be so silly. He was in Lastlight, how could he have forgotten. It's like he was taught since he was little. There was only one reason for him to be here in Lastlight. For him to be alive.

He was here to hail Atlas.