The first thing he noticed was the cold.
He rubbed his groggy eyes as his jaw chattered. Gooseflesh covered his skin. The harsh wind bit through his vintage suede fur-lined coat and the blazer beneath. His breath escaped him in steamy plumes. A gust of wind howled from the north, giving him an icy kiss. He shivered, huddling up to himself.
“What the fuck?” Julian groaned, looking around.
Tall, thick trees, sprinkled with thin layers of frost surrounded him in every direction. Their leafless branches reaching out like the crooked fingers of a thousand skeletons. Where am I? he thought.
One minute he was in London, and the next… This eerie forest. What was this place? Was it still England?
He reached inside his pocket for his mobile phone, but it was missing. “Shit…” Where had he put it? Did it fall out of his pocket when that eclipse happened? He couldn’t recall. His memory of those final moments in London came to him in fragments at best. Almost like forgetting a dream after waking.
Perhaps he dropped it. Or, knowing London, someone probably stole it.
“Julian…” Lucy’s voice called from the distance, though he could not exactly place where it came from. “Come here, Julian…”
“Lucy?” Julian yelled, his heart skipping a beat. She sounded close, yet far. He seemed very much alone. A shiver crawled through him. He recalled her telling him off for quitting his job. She seemed mad then. Lucy always got mad when someone underperformed, because it made her look bad. But she might have a better idea of where they are, so he pressed on.
Already, his hands were going numb, and he shoved them in his pocket after buttoning up his coat. He had never felt cold like this in England, and he thought it could get freezing there in the winters.
But it wasn’t winter in England…
“I’m up here!” she called again. “Follow my voice.”
He turned, shaking by the second, searching behind every tree. “I can’t see you!”
The dry, frost-bitten leaves crunched under his shoes as he trodded on through the forest. His leather shoes were possibly the worst footwear one could wear in a forest, he fast discovered. The hard edges bit into his ankle every time he stepped on a bit of uneven ground, which was near enough every step. He would probably get blisters later.
If he didn’t die of hypothermia first.
“Come, Julian…”
He followed her voice, one grueling step at a time, until it led him to a rocky cave. The entrance sat atop a small mound, and he climbed it with great reluctance, using the cold trees to balance himself as his shoes slipped over the leaves on the steep ascent.
“Come inside, Julian. Follow my voice.”
Staring at the entrance of the dark cave, Julian walked in, trying to watch his step, but it was impossible to see anything. As he stepped further into the dark, a dim, teal glow began illuminating the cave. Neon fingers spreading like thousands of thin vines. Perhaps it was some kind of fungus. Either way, he was grateful for the light.
Julian kept walking until he stepped into a wide chamber, at the center of which a still pool sat. It was so calm it looked almost like a mirror laid flat on the ground. At the center was a little island from which sprouted a small stone obelisk. Strange runes and letters in a language he could not recognise covered the obelisk.
“Julian…” the voice sang, louder and clearer now. A bright blue light glowed beneath the still water, getting wider and brighter until it shone white. From the water emerged the figure of a woman. Translucent and astral, she radiated a cold blue light. On her back, fast wings buzzed in a blur to lift her up like the giant wings of a wasp. Her white hair floated calmly in the air as though she were still under water. She wore a stunning silk robe, flowing down well past her feet, still glowing with that blue hue her entire form seemed to radiate. Patterns of flowers decorated the robe.
The woman was beautiful, with skin like porcelain. But his awe quickly washed away in a torrent of fear. Where’s Lucy? His chest tightened.
She smiled as he gazed upon her. “Hello, Julian. You have arrived at last.” Her voice had now changed. This wasn’t Lucy’s formal, usual snappy tone. This voice sounded softer, like an astral echo floating through the wind.
“Who—What are you?” he muttered, his voice bouncing around the silent rocky chamber. His reflection in the water below him was so clear it was as though he looked at glass. “What have you done with my friend?” They weren’t really friends, but that was the first word that came to mind.
“I used the voice of your companion to bring you here, but I’m afraid I do not have her. I am the spirit of this forest,” the woman replied, still smiling, her voice still ethereal. “In our tongue, they call me Arahka.”
“Arahka?” he repeated, unable to mimic the guttural, harsh sounding way she pronounced it. Worse was that whatever this creature was, it deceived him, stealing the voice of someone he knew. It must have some idea of where she is. It was one of the many hundreds of questions racing through his mind. “Where is my friend? How did we get here? Where are we? How do we get back to London?”
The ghostly woman, this ‘Arahka,’ tilted her head, her expression now stoic. “Those responsible for your coming are the Vakrul. Creatures of the void who corrupt the souls and poison the minds of those who accept their cursed power. Their tendrils have seeped into every great dynasty in this realm by now. The more they tore through the heavens and poured into our world, so too did they open the rift into your realm. I’m afraid the void has caught you in its grasp, and it will be quite impossible for you to return home while the Vakrul traverse the rift.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Suddenly, the cold had all but retreated from the chamber, and Julian felt hot under his coat as a sheen of sweat covered his palms. It was beginning to dawn on him just how far away he was from home. The sort of distance not able to be covered by his feet, a car, or even a plane. This talk of the void and that eclipse… Could I have been pulled through space time itself?
He was half convinced this was still some crazy dream. But it didn’t feel like it.
“Impossible?” he said, barely a whisper. The words struggled to crawl out of his tightening throat. “So that’s it then? I’m stuck here? I need to go home! My father will lose his mind if I go missing!”
The luminous woman smiled, hovering above the still water. “Then you must defeat the Vakrul, Julian.”
“D-Defeat?” His heart drummed in his chest. He gulped. “You mean, like, k-kill someone?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t do that! I’ve never—”
The floating spirit-woman held her hand up, and from her palm shot multiple tendrils of blue light that enveloped Julian before he could react. The flash almost blinded him. A cold, yet calming sensation washed over him.
When the light faded, he was on his knees, the damp soaking into his designer trousers. He shot up, brushing them off, and then almost got a heart attack when he looked upon the palm of his left hand.
An eye. A feline looking eye.
At first glance, it looked real. But then, after a frightened gasp and a curious touch, he realised it was like a tattoo. The image of the amber, feline eye embedded into his skin. Yet it still moved around, as though it was looking at its surroundings. The narrow slit pupil dilated and contracted seemingly of its own accord.
“What the hell is that!” Julian yelled, shaking his hand as though he could flick it off. It made his skin crawl, the way it looked at him, how it blinked as though it was a living eye. When would this nightmare end? He looked up to the Arahka woman for answers.
“That,” the woman answered calmly. “Is power. You are Arahkin now. A piece of the great sky Arahka rests within you, and with it, the power to absorb the souls of those you slay, or those slain at your command. Man and Vakrul alike.”
“T-Those I slay?” his lips quivered, and he glanced down at the eye tattoo on his palm, staring up at him. “I don’t want to absorb anyone’s soul. I can’t kill anyone!”
“You will have little choice in that regard now,” the woman replied solemnly. “Each soul will give you power. The more power you acquire, the greater will be the weapons in your arsenal. Reap the souls in their thousands, and the power to destroy the great Vakrul will be yours.”
“What the hell is this!” Julian raged now, his anger bubbling up and blotting out his fear. It was so much to take in. And his home… How long would it take for his father and Cassandra to notice he was missing? They’d be on a wild goose chase forever.
That’s if they bothered looking at all… he thought sadly. More likely they’ll be happy I’m gone.
“Enough now,” the woman snapped, and then rubbed her hands together. When she released them, a small, gleaming violet gem hovered between her palms, floated into the air, and fell behind her. “On the obelisk behind me is an ancient power you can tap into. Take the gemstone. Once you have it, you may begin your quest by traveling south. There you will find a wide river. Your answers await there, along with your woman companion. But tread carefully, for shadows stir where light dares to linger. Good luck on your journey, Arahkin.”
“Lucy…” Julian gasped, and the woman faded into the darkness. “Wait, I have questions!” But she was gone, and he was alone in the dark chamber. The only light being the dim violet hue of the gemstone now sitting atop the obelisk. Only the water separated him from it.
“Ugh…” he moaned. “I have to swim to get it?” He couldn’t wet his clothes. Not if he had to go back out there in the freezing cold. But he had to hurry, because Lucy was out there and could be in danger. He felt his sudden concern for her safety quite odd for himself, especially after she just crushed his hopes of dating her earlier today.
But now, it seemed, she was all he had left.
He undressed, throwing his clothes in a pile by the water and slowly stepped in. It was warmer than he expected, and he swam to the obelisk and retrieved the gemstone, swimming back.
Holding the gemstone in his hand, he gazed at it. A smooth, perfectly carved, violet rock. It seemed to pulse its dim light in his hand. What do I do now, then? What power does this have for me?
In his other hand, he noticed his eerie—rather disgusting—eye tattoo staring at the gemstone. The pupil widening, as though it was excited to see the gemstone. “You want this, huh?” Julian placed the gem in his left palm and on instinct shut his hand.
He felt the gem crush under slight pressure, and a feeling of cold energy trickled under his skin, then coursed through his veins like an icy torrent.
A bright blue fire shot forth from either side of his closed palm, though it did not burn. Instead, in its wake, the flames left a wooden shaft that curved into an exquisitely carved bow. Dim lilac veins ran between the wooden pieces that collectively made up the bow now held tight in his grasp, and the string wove itself from tiny little threads until it was a hard line.
“This is Sarigen, the Ghost Bow,” a deep voice whispered from within him as though it were his own thoughts, like a sudden understanding, yet he knew it was something deeper. Something alive.
Great, now he was hearing voices in his head. Am I going insane? he thought, slightly worried.
And yet, he didn’t even need to ask what the voice was, because he already knew it was the spirit of the Arahka that merged with his soul. As though something had plugged a USB into his brain and uploaded information into his mind.
The deep, quiet voice continued. “You have power. The power of Sarigen. Forged from the fallen souls of the nomads of this land. Never will you wield a stronger, more accurate bow.”
He frowned, examining the exotic weapon in his hand. “Except that I’ve never fired a bow. You’d have been better off giving me a sword. Or a gun.”
A deep, thrumming laugh resounded within him, and Julian knew this voice in his head, and the eye on his palm, were somehow linked. “I’ve never heard of this ‘gun.’ But Sarigen is no ordinary bow. You need not a quiver, for Sarigen will conjure arrows at your command. And when they loose, your eyes only need tell the arrow where to find its mark, and the arrow will go. You could hit a man hiding behind a tree with this bow.”
Julian raised a brow, looking at the bow with renewed hunger. “Is that so?”
“Yes, and the more souls you feed the Arahka, the more potent your weapons become. Their abilities will surprise you.”
He pointed it towards the obelisk, pulled the string back, and sure enough, an arrow snapped out from nothing, purple and crackling, violet embers floating away from its shaft. He let it fly, aiming with his eyes, and watched the magnificent, magical arrow twist and turn through the air like a heat seeking missile until it disintegrated into the ceiling of the cave. “Well, I’ll be damned…”
Julian had always fancied hunting as a hobby, but never got round to it. Now he had to find Lucy and figure out how the hell to get out of here. Feeling more confident to brave the wilderness with his new weapon, he set out of the cave into the howling winter forest.
