Chapter 3 : Birth of a hunter

I live inside District Z. It extends throughout all of Arkanoth like a ring, acting as a mysterious frontier between our city and the rest of the world... the rest of the world is so mysterious, some say its lands are a barren wasteland (I don't really understand what it means but it's supposed to be bad) and air outside is toxic, and yet humans lived there long ago ! That is why I took a great decision, that is, to explore those lands ! It was a day like any other day when I was walking through the streets when I found a hole in netema, at first I did not dare approach it because of all the bad and scary things big people say about it. (one of which being that anyone crossing netema, the big wall that defines the entirety of District Z from the rest of the world, will die!) I had to go ask my parents if the rumors were true, but after they told me their only purpose was to scare off children a little too curious for their own good, (which I was not at all) nothing could possibly stop me anymore!

I was in front of the hole, I put my sleeve on my forehead, removing the sweat from anticipation and not at all from me being scared (although I may have been a little scared, just a tidbit). The hole was narrow, too little for a grown-up to pass through it but perfect for a little boy crawling inside of it (which I was!).

The ground was dirty, streets touching netema were poor, the ground consisting of a constantly wet dirt, creating a large and smelly puddle of mud that never went away, no matter the heat. The houses were all destroyed and way uglier than mine (which was a great feat knowing how ugly mine was), it had been so long since they were abandoned that the other kids said they always were like that, which is totally stupid, after all why create a house if it's not to house someone, right? Oh, and there wasn't any street lamp, which wasn't that much of a surprise, after all why would they have any street lamp when my street didn't have any, huh?

Stopping my train of thoughts, I lied down and started crawling, it was way longer than I had thought, it would probably take a good minute for an adult walking, but for a kid crawling it was much, much, MUCH longer. Contrary to the rest of the street, the floor inside of the wall was made of stone that seemed to glow in the dark, what could it possibly be made of? After all it wasn't just any wall but the one protecting us from the outside world, it had to be unique in some way ! Middle way through the path, the air started to distort itself, like when it was really hot, I think that's what grown-ups called a 'heatwave', but it wasn't getting any hotter and there still was a gentle breeze lightly touching my skin. Anyhow, I also felt some tickling all across my body, but it rapidly went away just like the distorted air, so I paid no attention to it. Soon enough I was outside.

The air was... normal ? My lungs didn't burn me and my eyes didn't melt from the sunlight, it was true they were lying!

Ahahaha!

Honestly I still had a little doubt concerning those rumors, but I was right, I'm still standing on my two legs, they were wrong, nothing can stop me!

However, my totally valid thoughts were cut short. In front of me stood death; some sorts of long, thick as my fist mandibles abruptly came out from the ground, dividing themselves into more little mandibles much thinner than the first one, all of those things did not move, as if paralyzed, and were as black as the buildings of district K after last summer fire. A cold shiver ran down my spine, what had happened here? The ground was the same black as the things trying to reach the sky, everywhere I looked the same show was displayed, this place is scary. What should I do? I was scared, I'm scared. Should I go back home?... No, I'll keep exploring, after all I haven't done all that exploring, all these preparations, just to turn back at the first discovery!

I felt like I was entering the lair of a terrible beast, the air stank of death, it wasn't the smell of blood, no, it was something else, surely the reason behind the gruesome scenery.

After a while I found a lake... I think, are lakes supposed to be green or is there a problem with this one?

Later on I made a great discovery, a gasp full of wonder escaping my mouth.

"Is that... a city?" big buildings were reaching for the sky among a hive of smaller, identical houses. So much for thinking Arkanoth was the only city to exist. I could still see the weird-looking lake from afar if I turned my head, they probably used it as a source of water, it would have been smart if the water wasn't green (after some reflection I had reached the conclusion that, no, green water probably is not good).

The buildings weren't anything like in Arkanoth, they were tall, very tall, they were also broken in some kind of way; some had weird yellow-ropes growing on them; others were partially destroyed, only leaving a wreckage of long metal tubes and concrete to observe. They were all a slightly different color from the other, although time seemed to have slowly but surely taken that away, it almost looked like what they had at District S... paint? They must have been damn rich to be able to spread some over all of the city!

Mmmhh, that was good, very good, after all, I was the first and only one to have ever come out of Arkanoth since it had been created! And yet something was missing, something of utmost importance that I didn't seem to remember.

"That's it!" I exclaimed to myself, "I must take a trophy back home, or else nobody is going to believe me!" First I have to find an interesting place... a house! All the houses I could see were boring, they all looked the same, no doubt they possessed nothing the rich from District S or any other well-famed District didn't already have. So I went to the border of the city, leaving the wreckage of old cars and buildings that lost their glory to the past.

That was when I found it, in the middle of vegetation, an almost invisible dirt path leading to it, this was the perfect house.

It wasn't like any other house, although it was colored, I had the feeling it wasn't paint, also, the texture of the walls was so very different from the ones inside the city; while the city ones were cold and smooth to the touch, this one was lukewarm and a little less smooth, but still as pleasant to the touch, even a little more. Also the wall seemed to be the product of adding several cylinders (finally geometry was useful at something!) on top of another, so strange. I've decided, this house shall be where I'll take my trophy!

The door creaked as I opened it, several spiderwebs were decorating the interior with some furniture adding to the charm; a table, some chairs, a skeleton, a shelf... a skeleton!?

"So people did live here." A short breath escaped my mouth as I held my right hand which started to tremble.

Surprisingly, after the first shock, I was more curious than terrorized, maybe knowing all those people had lived long ago before me made me forget they too were humans, living their life to the fullest, trying to fulfill their dream, then one day becoming part of their dream one last time. It didn't bother me, I knew I would die too one day or the other, just like how uncle Roger died, he was so young, I hope I won't end up like him.

I shook my head, making those thoughts go away, I wasn't here to think about uncle Roger. Rummaging through the shelves I found nothing of interest, just some weird rectangles - you could actually open them and signs inside of them were written.

Instead I decided to rummage through the skeleton's pockets (he wore an elegant garment that did not look touched by time), maybe he had something interesting on him? The first thing I realized upon glancing at the long-dead person was that some of it's fingers were missing, in fact, some scratches on other bones could be seen as well, as if someone tried to butcher him. I simply hoped it was made after he had become a skeleton... I found an object I had never seen before inside one of its pockets; it was round, a yellow and sparkling thing surrounded its corner, it had glass on the most part protecting three arrows, one big and a smaller one and an even smaller one, each of them pointing upward exactly at the same place and letters (mostly I and X's) were spread all around it. It was beautiful. I don't care if they don't think I got this from the Outside, I'm gonna take it, it's so shiny and funny looking!

However, as I headed back outside, air stirred once again but this time cracks appeared in front of me, rapidly forming an oval portal letting out a foot, then a head, a torso and two arms, and as the last foot touched the ground, the portal flickered out of existence.

"Greetings, little being," its voice was deep, an underlying of courtesy aligning well with its style which consisted of short cut hair, only falling to both sides of his head slightly, and elegant garments which I did not recognize, but sure did look fancy. "I see you've breached the walls. Honestly... that is a surprise, even for I. Now, Tezcatlipoca will be able to enter your realm, or at least what remains of it." He stayed silent for a while, seemingly pondering some conundrums that only he could see. "Say, would you appreciate the idea of a deal? After all, you've caused quite the disruption, it is only right you take responsibility for what you've done. Isn't that true?"

"Uhh... who are you mister, and why are you here, I thought there weren't any human here, also what was that thing you came out of, are you a magician?" I unintentionally emphasized the 'magician' part, I mean, I know my parents would tell me something along the lines of 'strangers ripping reality are demons and will kidnap you, if you ever see one, run as fast as you can and don't look back!'. But honestly, now that it happened right in front of me, I knew it couldn't be a bad omen, because this was clearly magic! And magicians are the best! So it's not like I had anything to be afraid of, really, also my parents weren't here, and if everything ended perfectly, they wouldn't know i ever was here. Ehehe.

"You are clearly awakened, or else you wouldn't have been able to pass through the walls, but yet you're not aware of it. Unless something happened to the siblings? No, that's impossible, unless Tezca came, nothing could possibly harm them," he spoke in a quiet voice, most of his sentence coming out as an out of order rumble that made no sense, but after a while, his head snapped back to me. "To answer your question, I am Ometecuhtli, but you can call me Omete, for the sake of simplicity. I am here because of you, see, exiting the city you call 'Arkanoth' has caused quite a ruckus, and I'm here for damage control, Nobody would like for that event to go out of hands, right? Also, you're right, there are no humans outside of Arkanoth, as a matter of fact, I am no human nor am I a 'magician' although I'm not totally sure what it is supposed to be." He stopped talking for a while, not that he needed to catch his breath, his speech was delivered at the same speed, not once slowing or accelerating, and I couldn't see his breath slowly fill out his lungs. Weird. "Now to return to the important part, do you like heroes, little being?"

To think he used such weird words to ask such simple question, of course I love heroes!

"Very well then, would you like to be one?... I see, of course you will not be poor, any hero deserves recognition, whatever the form, even sacrifice. What you must do? That's the easy part, truly," weird. It was weird. A little too much for my liking. I didn't say anything, yet he continued to speak, as if he read my thoughts and just kept the conversation going, truly an incredible magician. "Oh, you're quite perceptive, yes, I call that 'telepathy', however I must remind you I am not what you call a 'magician'. Anyhow, as I was saying, you need to sign a contract if you so wish to become a hero."

The conversation went on and on, but as his monologue neared its end, I started to see fuzzy and my head started spinning and spinning until I was too dizzy to make out anything from what the magician was saying and I collapsed as darkness swallowed my world.