I got up with a sharp inhale, cold sweat running down my forehead. Same dream repeating again and again. A vision of a burning Tree of Life, while a twisted laughter is heard nearby. What could this vision mean? Is it the future or just a warning? I could spend my day thinking about this, but I can not afford to do that now. I need to provide for my family.
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I stood up from my bed and put my clothes on - I picked the most practical clothes, since I was going for a hunt, tied my hair, took some medicinal herbs and said goodbye to my mother and sister, who were in the kitchen, preparing for a feast. On my way to the Hunters’ Lodge I met Kevin: “Hey Lana! Up so early?” Kevin is my ex-classmate. He is the same age as me - twenty-two, however our lives could not be more different. While he lays his head upon silky and soft pillows, I have to starve, hunt and provide for my family. He likes teasing me, because he knows I hate getting up early, even though the hunt fills me with thrill and adrenaline, which I crave like a junkie.
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“You know it.” I said, half-smiling and pushing him into a bucket of water behind him with telekinesis. “Don’t trip!” I said giggling and moved on from him - time waits for no one and the hunt goes the best early in the morning. When I got to the Hunters’ Lodge Clint was already waiting for me, magitech hunting rifle in his hand. Standing in the middle of a small cosy room where we always got ready. The whole Hunters’ Lodge is made out of wood, so the creeks of my steps would alert even the deaf.
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“Five minutes late, Lana.” Clint was always pestering me about not being punctual. He’s an old man, he pretty much replaced my father figure, since my father just does not care at all, who knows where he is now. Even though Clint did not show me much love, I still like him, he is one of the best and the most honest people in my life.
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“Sorry, old man, combination of nightmares and blubbering idiots on the street.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed my own hunting rifle, getting ready for the hunt. “Who’s joining us today?”
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“Nobody, it’s just us.” said Clint, patting me on the back and going outside. He seemed a bit under the weather today, which is weird, because hunting always made him happy, even if only I came. I finished getting ready and went outside as well. I came up to him and smiled, trying to cheer him up. He just sighed and went on. Leading the way into the forest. We always compared our hunt score, so I got ready to give it my best. What we hunted were no ordinary beasts, but beasts corrupted by dark energy. Some people call it Obscura, which means darkness, I believe. These beasts then need to be purified by our healers and only after that we can feast with our families. It is not a very rewarding job in terms of satisfaction, but it pays nicely and feeds me and my family, so I can’t complain. “Three. Two. One!” Shouted Clint and fired two shots, hitting the heads of two beasts precisely. I chuckled and started firing away, I would never let Clint win, even on his bad days - winner gets a free beer, and I’m feeling thirsty today!
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“Sorry old man, not letting you win. 50 - 42 for me.” I said, boasting about my victory, but his eyes were fixed somewhere else, as if he was looking through me. “Uh, Clint? Are you even listening to me?” I waved my hand in front of his eyes.
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“Quiet child, follow me, get your rifle and magic ready.” Said Clint, moving slowly and quietly deeper into the forest snapping his fingers to wrap us up in the magic of the forest, making us invisible to the human eye. I followed without asking questions and enchanted my gun with the magic of nature as well, he seemed too serious to be pulling pranks on me. As we went on deeper, the surrounding area got darker and darker, it seemed as if we were heading towards the centre of the corruption of the forest. Suddenly Clint raised his hand to stop me. As I peeked from the shadows, I saw two humanoid figures, they did not look human at all, the mass of flesh and tentacles on their bodies made them look grotesque and twisted. What was even more strange is that they seemed to be communicating. When we kill corrupted animals, they are just mindless, with no logic to their action, these two were plotting something. Clint took out his rifle and motioned towards the one on the right, so naturally, I aimed at the left one. One shot - one kill, their cold, twisted bodies fell to the ground. We jumped out of the shadows, inspecting their bodies. They were still moving and twisting on the ground, but they were dead, that’s for sure. Clint searched their bodies and found some ID cards. The IDs stated they were people from the Academy - Academy? Maybe some of the druids who got infected, but we should definitely report it. I tapped Clint on his shoulder and motioned a sign for retreat. We got back to the village with our game, took it to the healers, and then went home to feast with our families. I did not mention anything to my mother or my sister, so they do not worry about me more than they already do.
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When I laid down into my bed I thought about what we saw during the hunt. The forest was so dark and twisted, even the plant life looked as if hailing from a different planet. The cold, dead bodies could not leave my mind - the twisting of their flesh after getting shot, the tentacles pulsating along with their flesh. This shall provide enough nightmare fuel for this night. I tried to sleep, but I kept waking up. The same nightmare, but now a little bit different. It’s as if the author of the twisted laughter was talking to me? “Two peons down will not stop us, the Tree of Life will burn!” This sentence always woke me up, why would someone want to endanger the Tree of Life? It’s basically the source of all energy and magic on our planet. To destroy it would mean to destroy the planet. I’ve decided to get some information from the Dreamwalkers at the Academy in the morning, when we go to report what we found with Clint.
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When I woke up and looked into the mirror I looked like a walking dead. I splashed my face with water and slapped myself gently a few times to bring some colour into me. Entering the kitchen my mother and sister looked worried sick about me. My mother immediately touched my forehead to check my temperature. “I’m fine.” I said, “Just a nightmare, that’s all.”
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“My child, don’t torture yourself, take a break sometimes, you don’t need to push your limits.” My mother said, as if they did not need me to provide for them almost daily. I just scoffed and went outside. As I went outside I noticed Clint rushing towards my home.
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“Ready for Academy, Lana?”
“Few old sages, nothing I could not handle. Let’s get moving.”
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As we walked towards the Academy, my head got filled with the visions of yesterday again - I shook my head to snap out of it and suddenly we were in front of the Academy. The building looked like an old Greek building. It makes sense since these folks are pretty pretentious. They think themselves smarter than everyone, pathetic. As we entered we were met with the receptionist. We stated our query and she immediately led us to the main sages since our situation deals with Obscura.
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“Here we are, let me do the talking.” Said Clint. As we entered the hall full of sages and stood behind the counter, all eyes turned on us. “Dear sages, we come bearing worrisome news. While hunting in the Forest of Thaumaturgy - the Academy territory, we found two Obscura corrupted people. These people were, according to their documentation, of the Academy, therefore we decided to report this, and demand some action from your side. We start to worry for our families, since the Obscura is getting bolder and entering your guarded territory, corrupting your soldiers.”
“We appreciate your intel, hunter, however the Academy has things under control. We will contact the families and inform them of this unfortunate event. You may leave.” Said the sage standing in the middle of the group. Clint sighed and lowered his head in defeat.
“That’s it?!” I blurted out in rage. “Obscura corruption is getting closer to the common-folk homes and all you say about this is that it is an unfortunate event?! How dare you?!”
“Lana, that’s enough, let’s leave.” Said Clint trying to calm me down, but I would not let down, the common-people have suffered enough in the so-called guarded territory of Academy. I demanded them to act. I was in such a blind rage, that I got ready to attack the sages.
“That is enough, hunter!” Shouted the middle sage, and made a few hand motions. It felt as if something grabbed me under my throat and squished just enough for me to lose my strength. “You should know your place. Leave!” As he said so, the protectors came in and escorted me and Clint out of the hall. I never felt so defeated, but there is one more chance to persuade them to start acting - the Dreamwalkers. I said sorry to Clint and moved out. He looked disappointed in me, but I did not care, this situation is too serious to be ignored.
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I went to the Dreams and Nightmares Department of the Academy and knocked on the door. I explained the situation and my nightmare and lied down on the ground next to the first available dreamwalker. These mages specialise in dream interpretation and magic, they should know what these nightmares mean.
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I inhaled the smoke coming out of the dreampipe filled with herbs and felt my eyes getting heavy. Suddenly I was fast asleep. The dream began and ended as always - with the Tree of Life burning. Me and the dreamwalker both woke up with a sharp inhale. “Most intriguing, I shall report these findings to the sages. Your dream has all the properties of a prophecy, thank you for sharing it with us.” Said the Dreamwalker, bowing his head down and rushing towards the hall of sages. I went home to take some rest and recuperate.
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It has been days. The Academy is doing nothing. Obscura corrupted animals are more numerous than ever and people are whispering about humanoid-looking creatures stalking our village. People are disappearing, but the Academy always brushes complaints off with “We have it under control.”
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I’ve decided to rally people to my cause, first I went to the Hunter’s Lodge and told Clint to get as many hunters as he can, I also went to the Academy and rallied people who were tired of the Academy’s consistent inaction. We’ve amassed a pretty impressive amount of people and decided to keep watch around the village, while we devised our plan to get to the Tree of Life as soon as possible. While people who were skilled in heavy armour fighting guarded the city, mages, hunters and druids decided to venture into the forest and save the Tree of Life. The plan was made. We were to go inside, try to cleanse as much corruption as possible on our way to make way for other people and hopefully cleanse the Tree with the druids as well. There was one flaw however, we had no idea what waits for us at the final destination. We all got ready, mages enchanted us with defensive spells, druids provided us with healing herbs and assured us of their protection during the battle and we decided to venture forth.
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As we went deeper into the forest, we noticed the flora and fauna changing drastically. Everything looked as if we travelled to a different planet. Flowers and animals no longer had colour and looked lively. Instead, they looked greyish purple, just slowly moving around, the air felt heavy and the atmosphere was uneasy. There were a few Obscura corrupted people who attacked us, but we had the number advantage, so we made quick work of them.
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After what felt like an hour of walking, we could already see the Tree of Life, its light-yellow colour was no more. The whole tree looked as sickly as the surrounding area of the forest. We picked up the pace and got ready for a fight. As we were a few metres away from the Tree countless tentacles erupted from the ground and hurled towards us. The fight began. Me and Clint used the situation with some of the druids to go and try to heal the tree. As we got to the tree, druids started to chant healing spells, but they needed time. We fought off all the monsters we could, but suddenly the ground started shaking and a terrifying feminine voice was heard throughout the forest. “My prey thinks itself clever? You have no chance, Lana.” A pale woman figure was levitating near the Tree of Life with a bow and arrow in her hands, dark energy was swirling around her - it was unlike anything I have ever seen. She took up her bow and fired shots precisely at me and Clint. Clint was able to weave a barrier around the druids healing the Tree to protect them as we jumped away from the position. I fired from my rifle, hitting the woman, but to my surprise it was as if nothing even touched her. She got lower, her feet touching the ground, and made her way towards me elegantly. Her charm was impressive to say the least. “Oh, my dear Lana, do you still not understand? You cannot stop what is already in motion. Your dreams told you so as well, have they not?” I frowned and got ready to fire again. “Fire away my child, you cannot hurt an Obscura Herald, my lord will not let harm come to me.” As she finished I fired at least ten shots into her heart, which made no difference. She still stood tall in front of me. I have never seen such resilience. She made a few hand motions pointing at the Tree of Life and suddenly it let out a shockwave, knocking away the druids and Clint. I stiffened. They did not move. Were they dead? They looked so. Their bodies laid unmoving on the ground. I looked in horror at the murderer in front of me. “Why looking so grim? Hmm, are we not on speaking terms? Perhaps a cat got your tongue. No matter, I will untwist your tongue, my little one!” As she said so, she extended her hand towards me, shadows lashing around me, twisting around my limbs and my neck.
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“Lana, no!” I heard Clint yelling.
“Silence, whelp!” Said the Herald, extending her second hand towards Clint, shadows rushing to him and choking him out. I looked at my body, I saw colour leaving my skin, corrupting me, I could feel my organs twisting in my body. As she let me go I started retching and changing. It was too late. I was too late and too weak. “And just like that a new Herald of Obscura has arisen! Rise sister and let’s wreak havoc upon the mortal realm!” I stood up, except it was no longer me. I am in this body, but this body no longer listens to me. I can feel my conscience fading away. My last thoughts are of my loved ones - my mother, sister, Clint, and all of the people who stood behind our cause. And just like this, I became the thing I fought against - Lana, a Herald of Obscura.
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