2 Years Ago

Narya’s Arrival. Inside the catacomb underneath the citadel at Mountain Ard…

Heavy footsteps echoed in the cold corners of the ancient site. Passages were narrow and murky, but in a certain chamber, a fainting light was enough to lead the visitor on his way. It was an empty chamber at the very end of the unlit underground where a bare tree was surrounded by the glowing emerald water. Mysterious as it has always been, but on that day nothing more mysterious was ever seen. The visitor was puzzled by the unusual change, 'where’s the tree?', he uttered in silence.

The bare tree that extends its crown towards the ceiling, is now gone. And the monk who just arrived was late to witness how it happened and when. But the monk noticed a body drifting on the forbidden lake.

‘Why is her kind chosen by the spirits?’. It stirs hope in his heart.

"The summoned", the monk mumbled. The person he’s looking at was called noma in their world who belongs to the clannish tribe of white-blooded healers. But the new arrival is not someone from this world, but at first glance, she is one.

Atlas! The monk leaps with joy, for his hundred years since he dwelt on the mountain, guarding the hidden chamber and the citadel above it have brought the fated, according to his belief.

…

Earlier on Earth.

It was summer, and not a vacation for the fresh college graduate, Narya. She has a 10-hour-long night shift as a call center agent in the most crowded city in the country. She's a hardworking young woman, and although an amateur in the workplace, she made a lot of friends among her colleagues.

8 a.m when she arrived at her small apartment from work, all sweaty from the heat and humidity outside. Also exhausted, hungry, and sleepy. She put her things carelessly on the floor and dashed to her bed. She unhooks and removes her bra, and takes off her blouse and pants with a long sigh from the liberating privacy. She extends her arms to her side, then rolls to sleep in her most comfortable fetal position. Never did she know, it was her last sleep on Earth at the very least.

The young woman opens her eyes. Naked and confused. The feeble green light allows her to notice the rough ceiling above. She felt heaviness in her body, like being pulled down while feeling the warm viscous fluid suspending her body on the surface. She tried to move, starting from her toes - sensing what keeps her afloat.

A surge of uneasiness slowly overtakes from the unfamiliar surroundings compared to her minimal apartment. She could hear her rapid heartbeat as the silence remains in the dimly lit yawning space. It does not feel right and she felt taken. A lump in her throat starts to swell- unable to speak and stuck. The growing hysteria gives her shallow breathing with unexplained fear. She gasps for air- on the verge of hypoventilating. She could feel her bare body in the open space, untouched yet enveloped by the strangeness of the place.

Suddenly, a calling is tempting her to turn into the water. An instinct to face whatever presence, so strong, lying beneath her. Narya then took a deep breath and the sound of a splash from her act surprised the monk who recently arrived.

The monk staggers on his feet but then approached the edge of the underground lake, supposedly to welcome the summoned which he believed. Yet, another truth was revealed instead.

The monk paused, as if he gazed into Medusa's eyes, he stood there frozen, watching the struggling woman in the water. Until she finally drowns and silence once more conquers the room.

But at the last moment, the monk, who was now holding both ends of his peculiar scarf, kneeled on the shore and threw it into the water.

Narya almost choked from the sudden yank around her neck, but nevertheless, it pulled her up to avoid a meaningless death.

The monk quickly step back and hid his gigantic self in the dark corner of the cave-looking chamber. He left his scarf on the ground, already half-melted from touching the water.

The rescued young woman was luckily conscious, and coughing the water out as she tries to catch her breath. But on that corner not too far from the girl, the monk was watching, bewildered that her kind emerge from the sacred lake. And the brimming hope was short-lived and coldness filled his heart.

After recovering, Narya look around to find her savior but the glowing light of the mysterious water was not enough to illuminate the darkness of all corners.

Narya covers her bare chest with her palms while still roaming her eyes around. The surreality of everything left her speechless, too stunned to comprehend. She turned around to the water, and was unwittingly taken aback by the sudden recall,- Her body lying at the bottom of the lake, and the giant figure she saw while drowning. A flash of imagination is burring into her head, 'Am I dead? Did I just saw the reaper?'

“....”

She smiled.

Pfft

'What a dream!', she thought and the fear before immediately became a sense of thrill.

She shivered from the coldness of the empty cave-looking place like a hollow of a monolith as if she's alive to feel it so real. Even the eerie vibe is perfect for a horrifying hideout, but nothing else became frightful for the girl who was confident of having a vivid dream.

She picked the scarf on the ground and was astonished by the extraordinary details of the quilted black oval scales. She wrap it around her body, it was oddly soft and warm, but more surprisingly, it was enough to cover her petite body.

Despite concluding everything to be a fragment of a dream, she couldn't deny the surreal feeling that is riddling her sane.

She walk back and forth around the lake, looking for an exit but due to the faint light of the water that reached a few steps on the way, she had nowhere to go. However, among those pitch-black corners, she finally found her savior lurking in the shadow.

Again, she smiled…thrilled.