"What an impolite druid!"
"He thinks he can raise his voice against his ancestors!"
"I guess we'll have to teach him some more manners!"
Alator was trying to use water and wind energy to resist the staffs flying to come down on his body. He preferred to resort to this method when he realized the first large-scale attack he carried out didn't affect the protective shields formed by the ten druids.
His snow-white skin was adorned with bruises, with dark yellow rings formed over contusions, but in return, he had managed to render five of the ten druids unable to stand up again. He thought he would die on the first try; everyone except the druid he attacked with all his might was hitting him with all their strength, and the violence, which seemed like it would never end, would only stop when the druid he attacked collapsed to the ground.
Of course, the druid, defending with his shield on which the glimmers of the four main elements floated, managed to block Alator's attacks for almost ten minutes. Perhaps if he could hold out for ten more breaths, the one falling to the ground could be the young druid.
Interestingly, the nine druids, who stopped attacking when their friend passed out, chose to remain motionless for a while after carrying him to his place in the circle they formed. Seeing this as an opportunity, Alator got off the rock he had been on since the beginning, which resembled a turtle shell with a two-pace diameter, leaned his back against the tree a breath away, and began to meditate.
He had a few hours; even though he had his eyes on the fruits, since he didn't know what reaction the other druids would give, he was only busy resting and healing without them realizing it. Obviously they weren't aware, but if Alator hadn't died, he owed a lot first to the rock he stood on during the beating, then to the tree he leaned his back against to heal himself.
When the standing druids started humiliating him, he climbed onto the rock and endured by clenching his teeth until he brought down the target he set his eyes on. If it weren't for the rock taking some of the damage caused by the blows landing on his body upon itself, it would be impossible for this tactic to work; he would pass out before he could even create a tiny crack on the target's shield.
Fortunately, he was managing somehow and had taken care of half of the ten druids; even if the effect of the blows he received hadn't decreased a bit and had even increased, it wasn't a problem, after determining a target he could finish off, all he had to do was run to it.
He wasn't the only running druid either; there was another one who had been running in the darkness for days without stopping, without sleeping, or even without resting. Siomha's eyes hadn't gotten used to the darkness, maybe it was impossible, but it had been a day since she stopped falling while running; even though she still didn't have enough breath, at least her knees were no longer full of bruises.
"Hello!"
The same voice again, and the same word again; after the word she heard at least hundreds of times, if not a thousand, she started running, but it was as if her steps weren't as fast as before this time. Perhaps because her physical endurance was broken, perhaps out of despair, she couldn't run fast enough, and there was always the same word in her ear.
"Hello!"
After taking a few more steps, Siomha stopped running and sent the scream she had held inside for days onto the darkness that didn't lighten by even a shade.
"Hello! Hello! Hello! Whatever you are going to say, whatever you are going to do, do it already! Enough, I'm sick of it!"
When the scream, echoing and advancing for ten seconds, ended, the Deputy Leader of the Elemental Ten would hear something different for the first time since she entered the Reward Dungeon.
"Nice to meet you, but why are you running away from me?"
When the sticky and dark voice whispered right by her ear, Siomha's hair stood on end, but this time she didn't even think of running. She had broken the cycle once, and she knew nothing bad would happen as a result. Knowing was perhaps the thing that went best with fearing because once you know, you wouldn't feel the bitter taste of fear on your palate.
"You are speaking from so close that I'm afraid!"
The dialogue between Siomha and the person, who or what she didn't know, had begun, and the thing chasing her for so long had no intention of cutting it short.
"This is the farthest I can get away from you! Your mind is so full, your body gives such extreme reactions that I can only speak after waiting for them all to end!"
Even though she couldn't see anything due to the darkness, Siomha's eyes opened wide. Since the moment she stepped into the magic circle and came to this weird place, was the thing she was running from actually inside her, and was she trying to run from someone she could never leave behind?
"Why should I believe you? I can't even see what you look like, show yourself first!"
"Close your eyes!"
The answer corresponding to the request was so fast that it was whispered before Siomha's own words reached her ears. What's there to lose, the young druid thought, it was certain there would be no harm in knowing a little more.
She stopped where she was, took a deep breath, and slowly but resolutely closed her eyelids, which she had exerted a superhuman effort to keep open for days. Her body, dealing with fatigue up to that moment, couldn't hold out any longer and drifted like a feather, lying down on the ground. She had physically flipped the switch, but the inside of her mind was perhaps working busier than ever before.
When Siomha opened her eyes, she was in a place she was used to and in a brightness she was used to. There was a massive dome covering the sky, a tree rising inside it, and fragrant jasmines she tried to reach with her tiny hands.
Her small fingers with three knuckles were about to grasp the flower when she suddenly stopped and rose to her eye level. Siomha involuntarily reached for her hair and found it extending down to her waist. Long, silk-like, and radiating their blonde color all around, they were shining.
"Where are you? Why did we go back to my childhood?"
Her body might have shrunk, but her mind was still a member of the Elemental Ten; she knew what was happening was taking place only in her own dream world.
"I'm here!"
The voice was coming from behind her, and Siomha turned there within a breath but found nothing.
"I'm here!"
The voice was coming from behind her, but this time she didn't turn in a single move; she put her hand in the pocket of her cardigan she never took off at those ages and took out her small mirror with worn edges. Raising it over her right shoulder, she closed her other eye and cast a glance towards the area remaining behind her.
It was there; the owner of the voice that made her run for days was hiding in the shadow of her ponytail-like hair falling on the ground. How could the shadow of such bright hair be so black?
"I thought you could only get as far away from me as to whisper in my ear? Look, aren't you quite far from me right now?"
Speaking without thinking due to the expression created by being scared for days, Siomha covered her mouth with her right hand a second later realizing what she said, but the entity in her shadow wouldn't be able to stay without answering.
"The day you decided to fight by attacking, you cut your hair, and I was condemned to live only in the shadow of your body. Later, there were so many bright energies around you that I had to retreat to the tiny dark spot under your foot!"
While going to the Orc Military Academy, Siomha, like her other female friends, cut her hair short enough not to get in her way while casting spells and never grew it out during her education. Even if their surroundings were full of orc warriors with their long hair braided, gathered, or let loose, they had never considered this.
There was no wrong in the words of the thing calling out to her inside the Reward Dungeon; she was talking to someone trapped among the glitters of the elements, and she had understood she needed to listen a little more from this moment on.