****

Part of the old story, make sure to check out the remade Alteration here.

***

Rose stood in front of an eerie dark cave which was like an open wound in the beautiful mountain.The sight seemed surreal because of the clear border between the overgrown forest behind her and the seemingly colder bare rock ground that was just outside the cave. Even the trees that were next to the cave looked differently with their dry trunks that seemed like they might fall any moment.

She waited seemingly calm, but shivers ran through her whole body and the smallest sound that tore through the weill of silence that was covering the area would make her jump up. Rose took deep breath to calm her still racing heart. The excitement and terror from stealing and fleeing was too much for her. She tightly clenched the bag that she stole from the players and looked at it with curiosity.

She started shifting it from hand to hand and trying to guess what is in it. It seemed like it had some light enchantment on that didn't let it bend past a certain degree so she didn't actually come in contact with the content.

This is probably the plant that he wanted. I wonder how it looks like.

Rose placed the bag on the floor and turned her back to the cave. She put her hands together in front of her chest and gazed upon her surroundings with a new light in her black-green eyes that seemed like it saw right through the vibrant forest. A smile flickered up on her lips.

If he takes his precious time then I might as well do something a bit more productive. This area is bound to have some kind of story to tell.

Rose suddenly clenched her hands in front of her and energy seemed to pour out of her. On the outside only some light wind that seemed to come from nowhere could be felt.

From Rose's perspective however so many things were happening that she had trouble keeping up.

Whispers surrounded her carrying her thoughts away like wind that carries dry grass. Every bush and every tree seemed to want to share its story with Rose and the immense building power that was throwing her own thoughts around made her clench her hands even harder.

This is starting to hurt...

She felt like she stood right next to a raging tornado that threatened to blow her conscience away.

Now I have to get the rhythm right.

Her hands suddenly extended in front of her and her clenched hands opened suddenly only to close again in a way that looked like she was crushing something in her hands. Her thoughts were rushing and fleeing back from the vicious winds that surrounded it. The air around Rose started to vibrate ever so slightly as the whispering winds were trying to catch up to her. The leaves on her armor loosened a bit like it was losing the energy it used to stay stuck to her armor.

She took a deep breath.

Just a few more seconds.

*krhhh...*

Her clenched hands opened and the air around Rose seemed to reverse direction after a particular sound carried through the air.

C'mon me, you can do it!

Her thoughts changed direction violently and they were now seemingly splitting the coming waves of the collective forest conscience. With every passing second she went in deeper and deeper only to suddenly stop again and change direction of her thoughts. She was now once again fleeing from the oncoming current that threatened to sweep her away.

Rose didn't move from the outside perspective but in one moment her knees went soft and she nearly fell.

I nearly lost the momentum. I have to pay more attention to the sub rhythm!

She continued moving her arms and continued the two processes so many times that she lost count.

She managed to get consecutively deeper into the collective whispers and thoughts of the forest with every try but that also meant that her escape got more difficult.

The real wind also kept changing directions as she did this process. With every repeat it turned stronger and stronger shaking the nearby trees and carrying hundreds of leaves around her that were seemingly dancing as the directions changed. The whole forest started to take Rose into its embrace with the leaves being the hands that were gently caressing her.

Hidden whispers that were previously too silent to hear suddenly found their way into Rose's mind and told her tales of times long past. She did her best to listen to them as well as she could to listen to them but her constant match of catch with nature itself grew into behemoth proportions so one misstep could prove to be fatal.

...y...

...st...ime...nd

...ver...to...e...een

Wait I think...

The whispers grew into words and she was now hearing the stories clearer as she managed to progress deeper into the oncoming waves. The wind was now also making it harder to concentrate as he gained considerable strength after this many repeats. Small branches were now also occasionally being torn off trees, but just that much wasn't enough to bother Rose.

-''Umm Rose? What is happening?''

Her brother’s voice came from behind her and she glanced back seeing him and Teruna at the cave entrance with confused faces.

Rose immediately noticed her mistake and tried to keep her rhythm up but it was too late.

-''Oh shi...''

*GUHH*

The winds around her all changed direction and fell down upon her like a hammer, knocking her on the cool dirt and taking more than 95% of her health. She moaned painfully and turned her dirt covered face towards Blake.

-''Uhh... ''

Lore piece gained

Information gained

True listening +1

Major hit: -95% health

I will...make him pay for this...

***

Afterword

Hello once again. Thank you for reading and and please give me another second of your time to explain something.

As some old readers (if there are any) know I am very consistent in being inconsistent (in just about every way possible). For some reason Alteration is at the moment in this weird state where it isn’t dead, but you also can’t really call it active. As I have problems writing for prolonged periods of time (and doing it through many days requires me to catch just the right mood in which I left it) I thought of a way to speed things up.

Umm I don’t really want to beat around the bush for too long so here it is: Shorter chapters

I will do chapters that will be around this size ( less than 1k words but not by much I hope)

This will most probably speed things up considerably. My goal is actually a bit unrealistic so I won’t share it here. If I will do it you will notice.

Another thing: I will put a [C] next to the name of chapters that will be the end of a part (ones that would be the end of bigger chapters). People who dislike short chapters should only read after a [C] chapter appears so they get a whole part at once.

So let me just finish with this: I don’t promise you anything. This is just a plan of mine and not even I know if I will be able to keep it up.

If you are confused about anything ask in the comments or wait and see how it will go.