It was hot, and humid, beads of sweat constantly poured down Solstice's face, sunburns had also started developing on his bare skin. After about an hour of walking with seemingly little progress, the red sun was finally setting, which meant it was time to make camp for the night.
Solstice didn't really have anywhere to sleep except on the warm dirt beneath his feet, he felt like he was going to itch all night from laying in the grass and dirt, then be bitten by some nasty bugs. Nevertheless, Solstice just had to deal with the sleeping situation whether he liked it or not, anyhow this will all end as soon as he finishes the Chain Trial or if he at some point winds up dead.
Before he decided to rest for the night, he wanted to go try his luck and see if the knights were generous enough to give him some food, he felt like he had been starved for countless weeks. As Solstice started walking over to a group of three nights that were huddled around a small campfire, each enjoying what seemed to be some sort of soup, they noticed his approaching presence and gave him an unfriendly look.
One of them spoke up. "What are you coming over here for?"
Solstice felt uncomfortable under their gazes but he forced out an answer. Even if it would be only a spoonful, he would gladly accept it. "I was wondering if it would be possible to have a bowl for myself, of course, only if you would allow."
The three knights all collectively glanced at each other with confused expressions, with the bravest one speaking up. "Sure, I'll make you a bowl."
The knight got up from his resting spot and went over to the pot and prepared a bowl for Solstice. The knight preparing his food was a short woman, black hair, hazel eyes and you could tell by the way she moved that she carried herself confidently. She reached forward with the bowl of soup in her hand towards Solstice.
"Thank you." As Solstice stared at what looked to be a type of bread soup with hungry eyes he hesitantly spoke up again. "Do you mind if I join you all for a meal?"
In complete synchronicity, all three knights jumped, this time their confusion was mixed with a slight feeling of fear. The woman who handed the bowl of soup to Solstice, her pupils dilated ever so slightly for a split second then went back to normal. She looked up at Solstice's face, steeling her resolve. "I'm sorry but may I ask why?"
'Are they afraid of me because of my height? Do I look scary or something? Probably.' Solstice replied. "I just thought it would be nice to have some company, isn't it normal to eat a meal with others?"
"Yes it is, I suppose." Now the woman was completely frozen in fear. The two knights behind her were also trembling but they were not frozen like she was. Eventually, after an unruly amount of silence, one of the other knights who had been trembling previously, began to finally regain his ability to speak.
"Ceres." One of the male knights spoke to the female knight.
The woman snapped out of whatever it was that had instilled so much fear in her and smiled reluctantly. "You can eat with us if you'd like."
With that, the woman turned around and sat back down where she had been before she prepared Solstice a bowl of food.
'So that's her name huh….I'll remember her kindness. Then again, this isn't really real, so it doesn't really matter all that much whether I do or not. But wait a minute, you have your own giant friends! Those 4 powerful knights, what's different between me and them! I'm truly not scary, I have a soft heart.' Solstice rubbed his temples in frustration.
He plopped down on the ground next to the fire, there was a weird tension in the air as he began to devour spoonfuls of his soup like a savage dog. The knights warily ate their meals as well, reluctantly entertaining any conversations Solstice started with them. After he finished the soup, he handed the bowl back to Ceres and thanked her for the food which awarded him even more confused and fearful looks from her and her other two companions.
Solstice walked back to where his sleeping spot was and finally laid down for the night. He was tired and although he was very appreciative of the food he was given, he still felt like he could easily eat another five bowls of soup before he could feel somewhat satisfied.
After drifting into sleep, besides the itchy grass, he had a somewhat decent night of sleep.
Solstice opened his eyes slowly and stared blankly at the open sky, not bothering to get up just yet. It was a bit warmer than the day before, making it a bit uncomfortable for him so he woke up, but in the end he closed his eyes once more as he didn't hear any commotion, it was likely that the knights weren't up and running again just yet either.
He hadn't really given it much thought but, how much did he really know of the Wyrd?
He had acquired a few years of education, although he only remembered some of the rudimentary things taught at a younger age. He only attended the city academy for a few years as a young child after all, and was relatively uninterested in the subject, before he ultimately was forced to stop attending due to his false indictment due to that horrible incident.
The Wyrd was an unnatural force that descended upon the world many years ago, causing havoc. People's sanity began to waver and undergo oppressive changes due to the maddening effect the Wyrd had on everything it violated.
There was little humans could do until the 1st generation bested their own Chain Trials and emerged with unworldly abilities.
Even then, the amount of people who struggled and failed ended up becoming bridges for the Wyrd to enter and spread its malevolent chains of fate, bestowing fates on other unsuspecting victims while simultaneously releasing its beings to ravage the untainted world, was immense.
While the majority of the Wyrd is still vastly unexplored and its truths still hidden, some discoveries were made.
The Wyrd's realm was found to be constructed of memories, corrupted ones by many peoples all congealed together in an amalgamated mess. Who were these other people? How did they come into contact with the Wyrd? Where are they now? What turned that amalgamation of memories into a seemingly omnipresent force? What is the true origin of the Wyrd?
These corrupted memories are the landscape, the heart and soul of the Wyrd. The Chain Trials are suspected to be handpicked by the Wyrd itself, its selections and reasonings aren't really understood either, if it was ever intended for the Wyrd to be understood in the first place.
Granted, this was public information that Solstice knew, which was provided by the World Government, and he did not trust the World Government. Solstice personally believed that the majority of the information provided directly from the World Government was altered or fabricated. Perhaps, the only way to get the real answers was to seek them yourself.
This knowledge of the Wyrd while being good, if it was correct information, really was too basic to be of any help for Solstice when it comes to overcoming this Chain Trial.
'I wonder if I can really do this.' Solstice dreaded the upcoming obstacles he would have to face.
A gust of wind played with his hair as he continued to lay on the grass and glided over the rigid landscape of his rough face. Solstice seriously thought of continuing to lay there, shut his eyes, and go to sleep for forever, however there was something that was confusing him.
It was the smell of burnt meat being carried by the same wind that washed over him only a moment ago. Normally, this wouldn't be that much of a concern, as it was normal to have meat for breakfast, but this smell combined with something else. It was extremely hot, it was already hot before but now it was pretty unbearable.
Solstice sat up quickly and got to his feet. Shaking his head awake, his messy dirty blonde hair flailing around, he scanned around to pinpoint the cause of the burnt smell.
Strangely enough, he felt as if something was piercing every pore of his body, disregarding his muscles and bones meant to protect his soft organs and somehow even deeper than that, to his very being. He felt as if there would be absolutely nothing he could do to stop it and whatever it would do to him.
'What….I….' The dreadful feeling of absolute powerlessness seized his body and he froze standing. Solstice's eyes began to dilate, and tremors were clearly visible rampaging his body.
'I can be killed at any moment.' Stuck in place due to fear, he could not move his head, yet Solstice's eyes darted around to find the source that was causing this feeling. It only took him a short moment of frantic looking before he laid his eyes on the source.
It was the red sun.
It had just risen to start the day but nevertheless, Solstice noticed the change of appearance the star underwent just as it had begun to revert to only being a star. In the split second of that change, Solstice saw an eye.
There was a large eye on the sun that had been open only a moment ago. When it shut closed, all you could see was the sun, it was as normal as any other star with the exception of it being deep red. However, that was an experience Solstice would never forget. It was the feeling of utter dread, and pure powerlessness.
There was a sudden pain in Solstice's heart. It was not a pain in the physical sense, although it was powerful enough that it felt like his heart was being constricted making it strenuous to breathe.
It was the pain of despair.
Solstice lost the strength in his legs so he crumbled to the ground, falling onto his knees. His forehead dug into the dirt as he clutched his heart with his only arm. Beads of sweat trickled down his face and bare chest. Solstice started to become lightheaded as he had started hyperventilating.
'I'm going to die here.' Solstice tried wiping the thought of his death away but it was hard to disregard it.
What was he supposed to do in the Chain Trial? What kind of fate did the Wyrd assign onto him? How was he meant to come out on top of this, with absolutely no knowledge of his gift? These questions came and went in Solstice's mind, only to be replaced with more troubling questions and thoughts.
Forcing himself to sit up on his knees, still hyperventilating, he grasped his long hair and pulled. He pulled, pulled and continued to pull it, tearing strands of it off his head.
'I want to live.' The mental breakdown was brief, as Solstice picked up on the sound of approaching footsteps.
Shifting slightly to turn his head behind him, he found himself looking at the stoic ginger knight that had berated him the other day with sullen eyes. The ginger knight unsheathed his longsword and aligned its blade across Solstice's throat. "By the gods! You didn't warn us!"
Solstice's mind was everywhere at this point. It was too hard to focus on any one thing, it didn't help that he could feel tears building up in his eyes. The ginger knight shouted. "Look! Look at what your neglect to do the one thing we ask of you to do has done!"
Thoughts still hazy, eyesight still muddy, Solstice took a look around. The sight he took in was horrid with a smell accompanying the view just as terrible.
It was what was left of the victims that suffered the wrath of the red sun's piercing gaze. They were almost completely incinerated, with only burnt remnant pieces of their body left that ultimately melded together with the melted steel armaments.
How can such a large group of people be incinerated just like that? The smell of cooked human flesh filled the air, pairing this with the scene in front of him, Solstice could not hold back the vomit that shot out of his stomach and throat.
The ginger knight moved his blade out of the way just in time so as to not be touched by Solstice's vomit. Solstice continued to cough and vomit, he didn't know if he was still dreaming and just having a terrible nightmare or if this was his new reality that he would have to persevere through. 'This is a lot worse than I thought it would be.'
Wiping his lips clean with the back of his hand, still tasting the vomit on his tongue, looking back up to the ginger knight he spoke. "This is terrible."
The ginger knight's lips twitched in irritation but he did not lash out yet and continued to let Solstice speak.
'This guy really is itching to hurt me, apparently I was meant to sense this in advance, but I don't know how to do that.' Solstice resolved himself to finally speak again.
"I swear on my life this won't happen again, to be truthful with you I'm not sure what exactly is needed from me to do. Really, I seem to have forgotten…." Solstice stopped talking because the air around the ginger knight changed. He was furious. There was silence except for the subtle sound of the wind and the rustle of leaves from the trees. Then the silence was broken as a weighted footstep was made.
It came fast.
Solstice was not able to defend himself in time and a fist clad in a metal gauntlet struck his temple. Solstice's eyes rolled back as his head was turned violently from the powerful blow and he began to gradually lose consciousness, his body falling forward toward the ground over top where he previously vomited.
'Unfair…'. Solstice unable to gather his thoughts well as he struggled to hold onto himself to prevent going unconscious.