Darkstory

Chapter 1 - New Champion

The grass was surprisingly comfortable. Well, enough to make do. The weather holding up helped as well. It was a sunny morning, with a cool breeze flowing through the air. Well, she thought it was sunny. It was somewhat hard to tell with her eye closed. Crimson lied there in the grass, not quite asleep, but not quite awake at the same time. Her training had taught her that there was safety in neither. The breeze has stopped. She no longer felt alone. She tightened her grip on the large warhammer that lie beside her. She never slept without it ready by her side. Her training taught her that, too.

"Wake up, Crimson."

She opened her eye, sitting up in a flash, hammer ready to attack. The area around her seemed normal, but beyond that was very odd. The world seemed to transfer to one of blackness, lines of purple outlining everything and serving as the only discerner. She looked to her right. Nobody. She looked to her left, having to turn her head due to missing that eye. Nobody.

"...above"

Reluctantly, she pointed her head skyward. There, hanging above her, was a large purple eye. It was suspended by nothing, instead hovering by itself, as if pierced into reality.

"Gaze upon my messenger, child, and listen. You are to become my champion, and you shall fight to spread my light."

The eye had no accompanying mouth to speak with, instead, the words were seemingly spoken into Crimson's mind directly. Crimson had no idea who this was. She didn't like the god talk. And what was this about becoming a champion?

"There isn't enough light here, child. Follow the girl to the nearest civilization, then, locate the gateway."

The eye closed upon projecting these words, and Crimson's vision darkened. She closed her own eye, and when she reopened it, the world was back to normal.

"Ahem?"

She turned at the sound of a voice. It was Jay, the girl she had been traveling with for about two days now. She was... interesting. Wore unconventional clothes for a girl her age, and fought with a knife. Crimson's training taught her to never rely on only a knife, but she wasn't being paid to train this kid. No, she was being paid to protect her.

"...hey," Crimson tiredly sighed. She had no idea what just happened, but thought it best to act like it didn't. She rubbed her eye and stood up, throwing her hammer over her shoulder.
"...run another supply check, then I should be awake enough to move..."

"Already on it!" Jay excitedly ran to her pack, dumping out all the contents and making note of them. Crimson didn't understand her energy. It was exhausting to even watch her. Crimson was trained to know that one should only expend energy when they need it. She sat down on a fallen tree, taking note of the woods they had decided to rest in. What had just happened?

"Done!" Jay grunted between attempts to cram everything back into her pack. "We're good on everything except food. Should be a town nearby, though!"

A town nearby, huh?

"that's fine. we can stop there and resupply. you ready to go?"

"Oh, I've been ready!"

"good." She put her hands on her knees, pushing herself to her feet and grabbing both her pack and her hammer.

Once they were both up, they began to trek through the forest in the direction of a small town, according to the map. They walked in silence. They had not been traveling long enough to know each other, and every time Jay would ask something about Crimson, she would only respond with a grunt or head motion. Or a shrug. That was one of her favorites.

Crimson herself had no interest in conversation. The kid didn't seem all to important to her. Probably was just going to some family and decided that hiring a hammer was a good idea. It wasn't. All it did was cut their supplies in half.

"So..." Jay attempted to make conversation again. "How are you feeling about this next town?"

"meh," Crimson grunted.

"...Right."

The awkward air between them died out as they stumbled upon the town. It wasn't very big, maybe 12 buildings in total, all wooden cabins. Seemed more like a rest stop than anything. A few people were walking by. They all looked like travelers.

"Doesn't seem much like a town to me. I'll go figure out where we can get some food, you uh..." Jay struggled to think of a job for Crimson. "You just, chill here, ok?"

"fine by me"

They parted ways, Jay heading inside one of the buildings that looked like an information place, and Crimson leaning against the side of a different building. She closed her eye, not to take a nap, but to see if the strange phenomenon would happen again.

"Open your eye, child, and see"

Sure enough, it did. She quickly opened her eye and saw that the strange purple effect was over everything. Stranger, the people outside seemed frozen in place. She looked ahead and saw the same eye staring at her.

"...what do you want?!" Crimson interrogated it.

The eye did not respond, instead looking to her left. She did the same. Beside her stood a large door of light, with the same eye on the knob. She looked back at the eye.

"...is this the gateway?"

The eye did nothing but stare at her. She got off of the wall, taking a few steps towards the door. She took a deep breath and, putting one cautious hand on her hammer, opened the door.

The other side was dark, almost impossible to see anything beyond the concrete floor that couldn't be behind the door. No, behind the door was foliage and nature, not this. She glanced back at the eye, which was gone. She turned back to the darkness.

"...ok."

She stepped in, and the door instantly vanished behind her. She was in total darkness, no longer even being able to see the ground, or her hands. She held out her arms to feel her way through this. Her hands hit something cold and hard on both sides of her. A wall. Concrete. She was in a tunnel of some sort.

A red glow began to illuminate the area.