The Loner and the Former King

The New Arrival

The breeze brushed against the wood, against the green.

The birds continued to chirp as the leaves swung to the rhythm of the wind, and the sun shone through the forest before the clouds started to cover, and the sun was starting to set. The clouds casted shadows for the animals that lived below, providing shade the trees did not but it was going to rain.

The clouds will cry over the forest tonight.

All normal but an unfamiliar, new step. A unique yet familiar scent, the smell of blood, sweat, and dust. A creature with beady red eyes, and flaming red stars over its skin. Bandaged up head to toe yet it still stood firm as they took their footing across dirt covered in grass and leaves, where no path belonged.

These creatures have crossed this forest floor before but in numbers. Never has this one step foot here. Never one, never less than two. It wasn't alongside its global cluster. It wasn't alongside a star at all. Not one nor more. Red stars like him can be harmful, they can be powerful. Magic lives inside of them, magic thrives in their blood.

Not something planet Munthy stores: Not something this planet stores.

This wasn't an ordinary man, he was a red star, this man contained power. One of the strongest the forest has come across, along with his skill. He was a danger, he was to be feared. He strode with his head high, high on his toes. He was alert. He was scanning his new surroundings with his bright red eyes, full of a magic glow reflecting across his face as the light in the forest darkened. Shadows were casted across his tan skin and black hair with tips of red. Blood red.

His feet swiftly and quietly made their way across the ground, across the leaves, leaving no less than a crunch. The forest was quiet, and the bird's calls calmed down, leaving the man to his thoughts with no sound around. Nothing was to be heard but the wind pushing gently against trees, the leaves, and the life that was the forest. It felt like a stealth mission, a mission to not be seen or heard. The man, the star, made it that way. He didn't want to be caught off guard, not in his state- "Augs!"

He turned his head, it was familiar to the man. The voice came from the other side of a river that he rested his eyes on, but no one was there. The river's current was slow, moving to the left, to the west. It was a dark green, with white forming when colliding with a small rock.

Not a word left the man's lips as he looked around. It was all trees, all nurture. No one in sight. But he continued to keep alert, and stealthy.

His senses were off but he kept trucking through, he made his way over the river in a swift leap. The river wasn't big but neither was it small enough to step across. His feet hit the ground softly on the mud below him and looked around. No one. Not a person in sight. "What do you thing you are doing!?" he heard another voice, that was now behind him, where he once was. I swiftly turned his head again, his body turning tense. But no one.

No one was here...

They were all in his head.

They all rang a bell, the voices sounded familiar, yet the star couldn't put a finger on it. This wasn't the first time this man had heard voices, voices that weren't around, weren't in the room, or even on the same planet as him. But the one thing that was real, was the sounds he should concentrate on, like the river hitting the rocks behind him, the wind pushing the leaves, and the crunch in his every few steps. That was what was keeping him from what is real and what is fake. What's real in this moment.

He tried to clear his mind, clear his mind from wandering, from creating what wasn't real. He was powerful, he was high class, and he was to be feared. He had a reputation, he can't let his state of mind take over.

He had a reputation.

But what was he now?

Walking from tree to tree ignoring the voices in his head it became more apparent the rain was coming. It had started to spit, signalling so. The clouds had turned dark, leaving very little to no light at all. The trees were his only shelter. As the rain started to dribble it soon began to pour and the star took shelter under the trees the forest provided, though their leafy greens didn't cover the man entirely, as his hair started to stick to his skin, along with a few patches of his clothes, and his bandages.

He was left in his damp beaten clothes without a destination, without a possible place to take shelter, or a person to lead a hand. He only had to survive, with his crumpled body in mind. He knew this would have to become his new home, because there was no way of him going back, no path from going back to Nightfall or his dear planet, Lianu. Without a place there, and unwanted, he was stuck here.

Augustus Hunts was stuck here.

He has lost his place.