A few hours before Yians Arrival

I woke up to what felt like soon after I had passed out. My sense of time already distorted in the darkness of the ruins. I knew that it probably had only been a day or so since I had left the cabin, but that already felt like a lifetime ago.

‘I wonder if Uncle is looking for me…’

I shook my head violently to wipe away my negative thoughts.

‘He’s definitely coming… Definitely.’

The chains jingled as my body struggled to get up. Still tired from the past few days of constant running and stress, my knees trembles as they attempted to hold my bodies weight. Using the wall as my only support, slowly but steadily I was able to stand up. Little by little my will came back to me, the lessons engrained into my body and Uncles lectures flowed through me.

“Never allow your quandary to make you feel like its impossible. The only moment to give up is when you’ve given your last breath. Till then you must try every single option and exhaust yourself to survive. The moment you give up, if your still breathing, you might of as well have dug your own grave.”

‘Uncle is an amazing hunter. I’m sure he’ll be able to find me if I can buy him a few days… a few days with the creature… They won’t kill me, not yet. They had said they were going to play with me and that I was the first in a long time. That means that they have no intention of killing me just yet.’

Steeling myself to hold out until Uncle Yian could find me, I began to steady my breathing. After what felt like an hour had passed, I began to feel the familiar rumbling of stone tremble throughout the room. The ends of my shackles fell from the walls to the floor. For the briefest of seconds, I felt joy as I tried to figure out how to escape from the maze-like ruins. But much like the sudden elation of freedom the tendrils of roots swarmed the room. Slowly the began to slither their war towards me. Soon my cage became smaller and smaller and I was once again enveloped in that familiar bark enclosure.

In the darkness I felt the movement of the floating bark drag me through the winding corridors. My resolve waning the more I sat there awaiting whatever was in store for me. The image of the sickening hag floating through my mind. My skin crawled and my imagination, once my best friend who showed me the wonders of the world, turned its fangs on me as I imagined all that would happen to me as I waited for Uncle’s rescue. Broken bones, ripped skin… strangulation.

“HIHIHI, the toys arrived, the toys arrived. Oh joy, the fun to be had, so sweet and deprived! KAKAKAKA!”

From within the wooden cracks a red glow shone through. My chains became taut from a quick second and then loosened as the sound of crumbling rock echoed the room. The screeching laughter barely allowing any other sound to be heard.

“AHHH.”

My feet lost their footing as the roots that surrounded me gave way. The brightness in the room hit me right after my arms were pulled and I hung in the air. The icy handcuffs dug into my skin, pain shooting through my nerves, but I held. I would not entertain the hags, not anymore.

“Well, well, well. Sisters, it seems we might just be able to enjoy ourselves after all! The little manling seems to have grown a pair since it last relieved itself all over our floor.”

The pink eyes ridiculed as they began to circle around me.

“Well little boy, is that all? No show of bravery? No threats or predictions on what will happen if we don’t let you go? Honestly, although this is slightly more entertaining than a sniveling child, it is not by much. Although it is quieter.”

Slowly, the hag would come in and out of my vision as she taunted for a reaction. But soon, it seemed she grew bored as she moved over to the corner of the room that lay just within my vision. Taking this time to observe the room I saw the familiar globes of light that illuminated the room. Over by the corner of the room where the hag was fidgeting, a table with various shadows of instruments I had no idea of their use, along with what seemed like empty containers. Her hands dexterously grabbed various oddly colored powders and herbs. Smashing, grinding and these herbs the hag hummed an ominous tune. They seemed to be muttering to themselves as the kaleidoscope of colors in their brew slowly faded into a jet-black bubbling mess. An indistinguishable scent wafted through the room and rapidly disappeared.

The hag kept her attention on her brew as she began to slowly speak while her pink eyes were fully focuses on her task.

“Well, no matter, time will tell how long you can hold your rebellious manner. Although this is part of the fun. It’s been so long since we’ve had to break anyone down. We’re actually glad you made a quick rebound after yesterdays little… playful greeting from our youngest. While Sheryl might say she dislikes misbehaving children, she actually enjoys the sight of rebellious tenacious little upstarts breaking down once they accept their hopeless situation.”

Once the brew had all been transferred into the container, the hag picket up a few of the items on the table. Carrying the items, she spoke out loud as she began to circle behind me.

“But seeing your display yesterday, I can’t I have much hope for you.”

A prickling sensation traveled across my back. I could feel the wet brew as the hag drew some cryptic design with her fingers. Tracing the image with my mind I attempted to understand what she was doing. However, whatever this runic design was, it was so complicated that I lost the image forming in my mind soon. The mumbling of the hag along with what I could only assume was a magic rune on my back did not bode well. My nerves already fried from the lack of sleep, my already weak resolve struggled to keep a brave face.

“Well, good things never last as long as we ever want the to. So I’m terribly sorry dearie, but you’ll have to blame whoever is looking for you for making us speed up this process. Seems they’ve already made it inside the temple.”

‘Wait, someone’s here?! Could it be Uncle Yian?! But… how would he have found me so fast…? Could this just be another trick to torture me?’

Before my mind could feel relief or more doubts the hag raised her hands and the globes of light dimmed.

“Retra”

It began slowly. No more than a small itch that begun at the center of my back, yet it soon began to spread and quickly grew too so much more. A pain greater than anything I had experienced in my young life. The smell of charred meat filled the room as a dreadful scream erupted from my already sore throat. The darkness soon overwhelmed my vision as the last things I could sense was the maniac laughter of the hag, and the taste of iron in my mouth.

---

I don’t know how long I was out for, but my consciousness came to me fleetingly. Blurring images of my Uncle standing before me, of the hag on the floor seemingly at his mercy. The dimly lit room now shining with tendrils of golden beams. Stinging pain still wracking my senses, my vision catching only glimpses of the scene in front of me.

BOOM

My eyes fought to stay open, the room around me crumbling to pieces. The roots distorted throughout the room, smashing indistinctly at seemingly random spots faster than my foggy consciousness could follow.

A soft crackling remained constant in all these moments my awareness returned to me. Streaks of golden lighting zooming constantly around the hag. Yet every time the hag was thrown around, the dark tendrils that surrounded her dispersed. The more the lightning destroyed these tendrils the hotter my back burned. Now an indescribable current of fire constantly scorched my mind as it would not allow me to pass out, but it would not allow me to remain awake either. As this limbo of hell remained at the forefront of my consciousness, convulsions took over me. Uncontrollable trembling as my arms became taut from the constant stress, my wrists bleeding from digging into the shackles that bound me. Tears and snot blending into the blood that painted my face from every orifice.

Suddenly, as if the strings that held the hag had been cut, the creature fell to the ground and the lave rivers that flowed through my back soon cooled. My lungs attempted to breathe in as much air as possible, afraid I would once again return to the horror of pain. Uncle Yian moved closer to the monster, lifting her effortlessly by the hair. Through a muted filter a barely audible mumbling came from their direction as the hags gleefully taunted.

“….. he will…. Betrayal…. You cant…. Zaranthar… Curse.”

Without waiting on another word Yian’s hand pierced the hags chest. Crackling lightning traveling across the monsters exposed chest. The black heart still beating while in the grips of Yian’s hand. In a loud maniacal holler, the creature fell with its last words.

“HE’LL NEVER FIND HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD. PUT HIM OUT OF HIS MISERY WHILE YOU STILL CAN LITTLE SPARROW, KAHAHHAHA”

Black bile spewed from its horrendous mouth, with its final breath the multicolored eyes shone once again. First amber, then red, and lastly pink. They shuffled quickly and settled itself on the light pink hue, and with that the hag was dead.

“Raiden! Stay with me boy…. you’re gunna be alright kid. You’re gunna be alright!.... No! NO! …Don’t close your eyes yet dammit! RAIDEN! Those fucking bitches if they weren’t dead I’d…”

Uncle quickly ran over to me. Even without being able to hear most of what he was saying his desperate please reached me as my eyelids became heavy. I could feel Uncle’s strong arms pick me up as he rushed my exhausted and tattered body outside. The dark corridors no longer eliciting a sense of dread. The temple no longer under the hags control, the ever present suffocating air replaced by nothingness.

“Ugh.”

Light hit my face unexpectedly quick, and irritated my sensitive eyes. A soft bed of grass soon became my resting spot as Yian dashed in and out of my vision, every time with a new herb. No matter how fast he gathered them, I could no longer bare to stay awake.

“Uncle…”

-----

Raidens weakened voice hit my ears.

“Raiden, please, save your strength. Your bodies been through a lot. Let Uncle mix some herbs real quick and you’ll feel a lot better.”

His eyes seemed to falter, he couldn’t even focus on me as he miraculously maintained his focus, even if just barely.

“Don’t worry, everything is gunna be alright, everything is going to turn out ok.”

I had lost count how many times I had repeated this since I had picked him up from the hags chamber. No doubt trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince him. The hags magic forcing him to stay awake during the torture towards the end, only giving him a respite at the beginning of the process. Whatever they had done had not only inflicted a lot of pain but also left a mark on the child’s back. Grabbing every healing herb I knew, I quickly began to mix a crude sedative to numb his pain, if only temporarily.

“C’mon Raiden. Here, it won’t be much longer.”

His eyes slowly closed, as his breathing became faint.

“RADIEN!”

“I’m sorry Uncle, for everything.”

Then I heard his weak breathing come to a halt.