Chapter 12: Can You Remember?

492 15 0
                                    

Ingressus shakes off his nightmare and tries to hide it from Tygren as they discuss their next course of action. Meanwhile Senn and Hubris make their way back to Ataraxia, but their journey is not without surprise

Author's note: okay so here is where my art is gonna start becoming inconsistent because I learnt so many new methods of drawing and I did not draw these illustrations chronologically XD

also, here you will see my background game is not as strong as my character game XD

we be referencing 'Circumstances of Our Upbringing' again in here as well

I shall...also apologise for the ending...again

[EDIT: 06/02/22] ykw, I make a deal about how crappy these illustrations are and that's why I enjoy redrawing them, but honestly, I don't think my art would be where it is now (albeit still amateurish) had I not committed to these illustrations. now imagine if I had done these chronologically XD

*****************

Ingressus was left unsettled by his experience from the night before and he couldn't get back to sleep after he awoke.

When he did wake, Tygren was gone, dawn had shone down on him and it became clear where he was. He stood to look around, but his chest cramped, this time harder and more painful and he stumbled on his feet as he pressed his hand against his head, spinning. He couldn't work out where the pain was coming from, but he wished it would stop.

He looked between the trees to distract himself and he found something he had not seen in years. He would recognise this path from anywhere. He had trodden it a thousand times, but typically he was not alone on his walks.

There was normally a small Nestoris boy alongside him.

And they would both be wielding wooden swords.

He felt the dirt beneath his feet and the feeling had not changed in all the years that had passed. He could smell the forest air and it slapped him with nostalgia as he turned to see the young Achillean Nestoris walking with him carrying one of the wooden swords he had held only the night before.

On reaching the end of the pathway, the clearing hoved into view, glinting in the sunlight as it always did; the dirt kicking up with the breeze and the pond just off to the side reflecting the golden light as it slipped between the branches of the trees. It was an area simply lost to time – nothing had changed, as though he'd never left.

He wished he'd never left...

On either side of the clearing, Ingressus could see two small children holding wooden swords, one more awkwardly than the other and he smiled, knowing all too well who those children were.

He watched as his younger self showed the young Achillean how to hold the sword properly before returning to the other side of the clearing.

"I'm going to come at you, and I'm going to come at you hard. You are going to try and stop me."

He remembered those words. He remembered them well. He was so confident.

Perhaps too confident...

Ingressus watched on, helpless as he saw himself batter Achillean until he was no longer standing. He wanted to cry out – to tell him to stop, to open his eyes, to put down the sword... But he knew that wouldn't change anything. In fact, it would only made it worse for he remembered his state in the Nether before he left.

What he did...

And how similar the two scenarios were...

"I'm not like you, Ingressus..."

AftermathWhere stories live. Discover now