1 The Banished (1): Cling To The Light

I stood alone amid a hay field, littered with corpses and stained with dirty deep red blood.

The sun was roaring in silence, enlightening the golden hay majestically.

I was the only one left. It felt oddly surreal. Like a dream of sorts.

A few seconds passed, and only the whistle of wind accompanied me in my solace.

My eyes felt strangely soothed as they watched a sea of thick golden strands sail in the wind.

The nostalgic orange sky, which made me feel safe and content, was a witness to the atrocities that had just been enacted.

My entire body was trembling wildly, my mind was a frail, shattered mess and my hair was far too unkempt.

I wouldn't be surprised if my mother's dead corpse stood up and started berating me as she fixed my ruffled black hair in frustration as she always did.

My father's deep, mature voice rumbled in my mind.

'A man cannot stay still when he has much ahead of him. Get moving, boy.'

I chuckled lightly.

My laugh felt broken and crippled when I heard it out loud.

My leg's wobbled as I strolled around aimlessly.

I had begun scratching myself in distress, I pulled my hands away from my skin and locked them behind my back, that solved the problem nicely.

Time felt like a sticky blur.

I thought back to the past grimly.

I could no longer dream of becoming the village chief. That was rather unfortunate.

I think I had a daydream as I ambled to wherever my eyes were looking calmly.

I couldn't really remember it.

But I knew it had something to do with spikes.

Black, villainous spikes.

A lot of spikes, the kind that you'd find on a scary caterpillar.

Thud.

I sat myself down on a small bump of grass, right before a peaceful pond.

Time passed, and I felt like sleeping.

Maybe I would feel better if I did that.

Yeah.

Let's try that.

Time passed, and I felt weird.

I couldn't fall asleep.

A strange source of energy was shooting through my veins constantly.

I stood up, and my legs were pumped full of power.

I felt like I could jump so high that I could leave everything behind forever.

And then my neck slowly began to tilt downward.

I looked deep into the pond that was right before me.

And in its reflective mirage, I saw a boy.

The boy was covered from head to toe in deep royal black blood.

Dong.

A clock tower rang out in my mind.

And everything came crashing down.

I began shrieking outwardly, like a witch being exorcised by the light as I was forced to accept my new reality.

Figures and emotions burst forth into my mind.

My mind was breaking down.

Would I just be a hollow shell of a person at the end of it all?

I didn't know.

All could do in that moment of horror and agony, was cling to the light.

And I found that light in my mind, in the form of the past.

So I locked myself in the past, and bore witness to the path that had led me to this very moment.

I saw something in the distance.

Was it a memory?

Whatever it was, it felt warm.

So I clung to it like a moth to a flame.

And my trembling shivers finally ceased as I did so.

Within the confines of a small hut, A younger, smaller, and much more innocent me, sat at a dinner table facing my swordsmanship teacher at the time.

I must've been no older than 5 or 6.

My swordsmanship teacher always had an air of humbleness engulfing him.

He was a swordsman at first glance, but a farmer at heart.

He loved working in the hay fields, and only picked up a sword when he trained me or his other pupils.

I could often see a look of deep regret engraved within his expression whenever he clung to a sword for too long.

He was not only my swordsmanship teacher but my Guardian as well.

Supposedly, I had been dropped off by a strange man one day, as a newborn and he had been the one to take me in.

He had a daughter, she had the exact same birthdate as me and she was also learning how to wield a blade.

We didn't speak much, me and her.

Ahem.

I sat across the dinner table from my swordsmanship teacher.

His face had a scarcity of wrinkles, and there was an admirable youth lingering within his eyes.

His long edgy black hair was a hassle, so he pushed it back behind his neck.

We talked a lot. Far more than we should've, I think.

He taught me everything. And I wished to become a carbon clone of him when I was older.

On this particular eve, I had gotten a whiff of that childish urge to ask questions.

And ask away I did.

"Teacher. Why is the world so small?"

"Outside the village, and the field, there is nowhere."

My teacher laughed weakly.

I felt pain in his laugh, it felt more like an exasperated wheeze now that I think about it.

"Ah."

"This is not the world, my student."

"One day, when you're older."

"You'll realize that there is far more out there than a field and a village."

I grinned childishly at the time.

"Really? Like what?"

My teacher looked up, he placed a hand under his chin as he thought deeply.

"Valleys of wondrous green. Forests of rummaging terror. A sky that expands endlessly."

"Alas. To those like us, the world outside is untouchable."

I was annoyed. I can remember steaming up like a mad kettle.

"What? Why? That's not fair."

My teacher gulped down guiltily.

A humbled smile lingered on his face briefly.

"It may seem unfair to us, but we earnt this. And we owe the world far more than we can ever hope to pay off."

"Those like us were banished long ago, and rightly so."

"We did far more bad than good to those residing in the world outside."

"After all, we are all the descendants of a certain creature."

"So they exiled us here, and since then, both the World and our community have lived calm and peaceful lives."

I grunted in stubbornness.

"But-."

"I want to leave."

"I really want to leave now."

"Didn't you say a strange man dropped me off?"

"What if he returns and takes me to wherever I came from?"

"Then, will I get to leave this place?"

My teacher chuckled humorously.

"Calm down pipsqueak. You'll be staying here for a while."

I remember leaving my teacher's home that day after consuming a hearty dinner and running as far out as I could.

In childish rebellion, I felt like escaping.

I must've walked around 300 steps before I reached something that was beyond my comprehension.

It was an invisible barrier of sorts.

When I pressed my hand against it, I felt cold and ostracized.

I tried all sorts of methods to get through it, but nothing worked.

I remember gathering a group of children from the village like myself at one point.

"Stop moving so much."

"I'm trying."

"My legs hurt."

"I don't think this is a good idea."

We tried stacking on each other.

But alas, we were all too well-fed for that to even be remotely possible.

"I give up."

"Wait what-."

"AGHH."

Thud.

We fell to the ground in unfortunate failure.

Many plans were carried out, but none worked.

I eventually had to reluctantly accept that this was my World.

A village and a field or two.

That was it.

But, it was still a pleasant world.

I couldn't imagine anything ever spoiling it.

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