Shattered Legacies: Book 1, Holo Change

💠Chapter 20: the Wings of folly💠

A small gust of wind was the first thing he noticed. It was stiff, regid somehow and empty. Lifeless like the air from a fan, being pushed out unnaturally focued. It slapped his face with a rude welcoming, and once he stirred, brought with is the slow creaking of something tight and unsteady. A stressed sound causing his eyes to peel themselves open upon the quickly growing feeling of unsettling swaying, and feeling an immediate pitfall of shock once his eyes caught glimpse of what was happening. Below him was a large, engulfing and ever stretching pit of black. A most unnerving sight, as his arms dangled above his head like limp noodles. It looked like it went on forever. Deeper and deeper, colder and colder, a bottomless pit if ever there was one. And when he pulled his eyes away from the void threatening to swallow him, looking towards his feet he saw something bizarre. Well, it wasn't like any of this was normal, but even so. His ankles were wrapped tightly together, tied by a deep dark green thorned vine as thick as a metal pipe, seemingly hanging from a tree. It creaked and groaned like it were on its last dying breath. Yet, if he'd have to guess, he would have said that it looked at the peak of health. The color was strong, the thorns looked like small knifes, as if so much as touching them lightly would result in you bleeding.

He was hanging out of a tree above a pit of nothingness. How did he get here? Though after the initial surprise he seemed pretty calm, everything about this situation sent off alarm bells in his head. A creeping feeling of paranoia begining to settle in, as if the lifeless air contained eyes peering into him. As if the abyss held something slowly reaching its hands up through the dark to grab him and force him into its depths. Urgency clouded his mind. Heartbeat speeding up as the dying sounds from the vines became more and more inhuman. Growling, croaking, snarling. Pummeling his senses with untold dangers waiting to eat away at his very core with such a disgusting force craving the agony as it ate him away from the inside. The green illumination blazed in his chest, that rich green glowing in place as it sent a warmth to his limbs. And with it, the slowly steadying base of strength pushing back against the flow of threatening panic.

With his mind clearing to properly think, and body regaining some level of strength, his next action seemed clear. He reached for the vine. Bending his body against the pressure of his position, reaching his hand out with a soft grunt of fatigue. The intent being to somehow untangle himself, and use the vine to climb the tree for more solid position and a look around. However, as soon as his fingers grazed the plant matter, it began to corrode in the very spot he'd touched. The green rapidly turning black and crumbling away, eating at it in a line like severing a rope and very soon snapping. Dropping him from the tree before he could react fast enough to do anything and, to his relief as much as surprise, landing on what felt like solid ground. The landing was nearly immaculate. With a grunt of pain his front met with the mixture of something smooth and something that felt like grass. It took him a moment to get up again, lying there allowing his body to feel and then come down from the shock of falling coupled with that ache of exhaustion his "light' was still fighting. To put it simply, he felt like he was hit with a blunt force object while having a shield spell over him. And it was frustrating.

Why did he feel like this?
His body was sore, stiff like he'd just gotten back into training after hiatus. Only it wasn't harsh, keep you on the couch, pain. It was more like.. something had squeezed his entire body so tight it was bruised. Especially his head. God his head. He didn't know if it was from being upside down, or whatever cause the rest of his body to hurt, but his head was hurting worse than all. It was light, but there was actually a throbbing in his skull, a low intensity pressure that made him wish he could just lay here until this dream experience was over. But even in his dreams, or nightmares, or whatever this was, he pushed himself back up.

Slowly but surely, gathering himself up on his arms and hands. Pushing himself up with an attempt at being quick about once he got some standing with his hands and knees, and then noticed what his hands were touch had a cool glassy temperature, but an inconsistent texture. He opened his eyes soon after, and though relieved it was the abyss he'd starred into, found what he was pressing on truly baffling.
It was...water.
Or, was is water?