"To awaken, one must open their eyes."
A lovely breeze blows across a face. Medium-length, silky black hairsails gently along the wind.
The Man finds himself standing high in the sky - getting a bird's-eye view of a soft green forest glade circled by thick bushes and lush trees. The breeze flows again, in harmony with a laughter - a very comforting one.
Bright red strands of hair dance with the wind.
The Man calms down.. to his last bone and muscle.. a peaceful surrender..
UNTIL!! in the very next second, a chill grips him...
He remembers...
The horror that is fated to happen here.
"This has happened before. But why… is it happening again?" - He wonders.
A girl sits - radiant and carefree, she laughs without restraint - at the sight of an abnormally large toad sitting before her making hilarious faces. She cannot stifle her amusement for even a moment, oblivious to the grave threat that creature hides within.
And so, the next hour in this glade reveals itself as the first piece of a great puzzle.
Hidden within some bushes... mesmerized azure eyes gaze deep into soft dark hazelpupils on the young girl's face dressed with an even more beautiful laughter… and somehow even more gorgeousred hair.
The azure eyes belong to a boy of similar age. His gaze fixed on the girl in the glade.
BUTthen ! - a glimpse of something ugly, a plot - falls upon his eyes.
In a sudden rush to protect, the boy dashes forward. The toad instinctively tries to step away, but it turns out - the boy was not after it.
He leaps - pushing the girl away. Both fall to the ground, the girl lies flat — the boy atop her with a bit of space between them. He quickly creates some more space between them.
Surprised and flustered, the girl commands- "Get OFF me! What are you trying to do ??"
The boy, under a similar chaotic swirl of emotions, retorts, "Stay PUT! I'm trying to save you here!"
The toad, however, enjoys this unexpected blessing - both prep time and distraction at once- and accepts it with glee. It wrings out its tongue - long, slick, dripping with a deadly beverage known simply as poison.
The Man desperate to intervene, holds out his index finger and thumb, between them- light shaped like a paper plane emerges...He launches it towards the frog.
He intended to eliminate the frog precisely without causing harm to the pair of kids.
But instead of stopping the scene, the plane - as fast as light[1] - passes right through the frog… and the boy… and the girl… and the air..... and faded away...
The Man however was shocked by something else, something much more peculiar, that - Somehow, none of them took notice. No one inside the glade saw it or The Man.
Now, The Man is truly terrified; not of what's happening inside the glade, or even outside it…
…but rather what is happening within himself.
He shouted out in fear with a voice so loud and scary that any creature would want to run away from : "HEY YOU FROG GET AWAY FROM THEM !!!"...
But... to his expectation, not even a single creature in the forest responded to the scream. He now understood what was happening , he was now in line with his fate , he now realizes what this place is..
It's the hardest test of all: The Trial of the Past...
And in this trial, The Man is powerless. He appears only as an observer - unseen, unfelt to others by any of the five senses.
¨Like a character of fiction, he stands surrounded by reality."[2]
Still instead of his fate , he frets over the fate of the young pair in the glade. "Come on, where are you!? — You should have reached till now!" he cries out loud, as if calling to someone.
The frog flings its tongue.
The boy tries to shields the girl with all the courage and manhood he can muster.
The Man screams...The boy screams... The girl screams...
But silence conceals all.
THUDD!! - a smacking sound is heard in a silent glade... but as the clouds clear the way of the sunrays to hit the glade... the frog's tongue halts mid-air, frozen in an arc -struck hard in the face by the sheath of a sword.
The blow launches the oversized creature flying backward, crashing into a bush.
Hair sails - deep silkyblack hair. Brown Eyes so dark you could lose yourself in them;
A third figure now stands beside them, seemingly the same age as the stunned pair lying on the grass.
There's a speck of arrogance and menace in him; yet with a calm and reliable presence…and the just to come of a smile.
The Man, breathless, finally stops shouting. He watches, silent.
The dark-haired boy looks down at the pair — and with a playful grin(sarcastic smile), says:
"I don't even want to know guess how you two ended up in that situation. ;) "
[1] Duh.
[2] This is quoted like someone is speaking , but who may it be ?? ;)