‘The world is quiet here…’
That was my first thought as I woke up in a bed, swaddled in a blanket.
I opened my eyes, staring up at a rotting wooden ceiling. It looked like… What did it look like?
‘Who… Am I?” My mory was hazy. I could rember bits and pieces of my past, but they all seed to be wrong, contradictory.
I saw flashes of a construction company, where I worked day in and day out. Then, one where I was a street urchin, panhandling out on the road, trying not to get hit by cars. Then, I was a monster hunter, tasked with bringing down monsters and taking them in for extraction and examination.
I was so many things, but there was one Na that resonated with amongst the myriads of others that echoed:
“Peter!” A familiar voice called out to as sothing flew into my body, hugging my neck as I looked in surprise to find a girl? With white hair, cat ears, and a tail. She had tears in her eyes and was clutching so hard that I felt claws on my back.
“You’re finally awake. I thought you would have never…” She sniffled and then lifted her head off my shoulder as I looked in disbelief, rembering who it was.
“M-Matthias? Is that you?” I asked as the little catboy nodded.
“It’s been so long. I knew you were alive but…” He looked down before getting off and sitting at the side. He looked so sullen and anxious, just like he was when I found him in the snow… Before the Bes.
“It’s alright… I’m here.” I rubbed my head and looked around. “Where are we, though? What happened… I rember…” Well, I tried to rember but blanked hard.
“Actually, I don’t rember. My mory, I can barely make out what happened to . I just rember my Na… and you and-“
“I hope you can rember us at least…” Another voice called out to from the doorway. I turned to find a tall and beautiful woman leaning against the wall with her platinum blond hair in a ponytail, arms crossed as she wore what I could only describe as a black battle maid outfit with a gleaming black spear by her back.
She walked towards as I awkwardly stared back. I tried to rember her Na, failing, but I did feel like I knew her. Especially whenever I focused on the spear. Images flashed in my mind of her brandishing the spear against a giant, as well as fighting hordes of ghouls and other monstrosities.
“Uh… Caitlyn?” I genuinely asked, as the woman just sighed.
“It’s to be expected. After Nawia, after whatever happened to you, it’s a miracle you’re even here… A miracle that…” Katya held back her tongue, looking away as she just sighed.
“Never mind that. My Na is Katya, Katya Faina. It’s good to have you here with us, Peter Sai. You’ve been in a coma for quite so ti.”
“Coma?" I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why? What happened to ?” I tried to get up, but Matthias pushed down.
“Don’t go up just yet, not until Baba Yaga sees you.”
“Baba… Yaga…” My mory jogged a little from that Na. Yeah, we were supposed to be looking for her so that she could… What was she supposed to do again?”
“How long ago was I out?” I asked, looking at my hand and then at my body, finding that I looked… Normal? I was surprised for so reason that I looked like a relatively athletic young man, very much different from the malnourished physique I had held right before the journey started.
“22 days.” I stared at Matthias in disbelief as he continued to speak. “You were out for nearly a whole month.”
“W-What? Well, that’s not so bad, I guess- Ugh, my head…” I rubbed my temples again as I looked up at Katya. There was a throbbing pain in it, as if soone was speaking directly into my skull.
“Wait… Where are the others? I…I know there were more of us. Where are they?” I looked around expectantly, seeing that the room I was in had no windows and that every crack to the outside was sealed up.
“They’re training, and I don’t think they want to see you right now.” Katya responded with the bluntness of a bat.
I felt a pit in my chest form over those words, sighing silently. “Oh… Wait, why not-“
“It’s best not to touch on it right now. Get so rest now, Peter. Have a good day.” Katya quickly walked away as I raised my arm to her, as if calling her out before she disappeared.
I sighed in annoyance, but Matthias patted my head with a smile. “Don’t worry… It’s just that these tis have been hard for all of us- Oh, I got you so food.” He curled his hand as a nearby tray with a plate of bread drizzled with honey and a goblet of water was carried by several glowing sprites.
They moved it to my lap as I looked down at it. I had to admit I was quite hungry; being in a coma for weeks on end would do that to a person. I grabbed the bread, noticing it was quite warm as I lifted it up and began to eat.
There was a wave of relief that shot through as if I had finally completed a day's work. It was soft, sweet, and buttery. There were even so nuts in it for so texture that I enjoyed before I downed it with water.
“Oh, thanks. Wait, did you guys feed while I was asleep?”
Matthias shook his head. “No, your body was in a sort of suspended animation for quite so ti when we dragged you out of the Nawia.”
My head ached with that Na as I rembered flas dancing all around , with yelling and screaming echoing through a rocky adow.
“Nawia… Oh, I uh, that was the last place we were in, right?”
“Yeah, do you rember what happened to you?” He leaned in close, watching as if waiting for to crash out.
“Uh…” I racked my head again, but it was all a blur. Except for maybe the end, where I saw a bunch of people stare at , confused, horrified, disgusted, and intrigued all at the sa ti.
“No, I can barely recall anything at all. Although now that you ntion it. I do feel a little lonely for so reason.”
Matthias tilted his head like a cat. “Lonely?”
“Yeah…” I stared at my shaking hands. “As if a little piece of suddenly just… disappeared for so reason. I feel… empty.”
I clutched at my heart and closed my eyes, as if expecting soone to talk to , yet nobody ca.
“Uhm… I guess, Baba Yaga could explain what happened better than I could.” Matthias fiddled with his fingers as he looked away.
“Can you, at least try? I’m really confused. What happened? Why am I here? Why can’t I rember anything? Why was I out for so long?” I tried to get out as Matthias pushed back down.
I flinched, expecting a dull ache to co for , yet instead the feeling of emptiness grew.
“Well… The best I can say is that your soul fell into the Smorodina. Do you rember what that is?”
I nodded a little. “That’s the uh soul of rivers right- I an river of souls. Man, that thing was so loud, it kept on ringing in my ears when I-“
Matthias waited for to finish as I began to rember… Falling. I tripped? No, soone else grabbed and we both fell in together.
“When I fell in… I…” I strained my head again, and yet nothing ca out of it. There was just sothing off, sothing that felt wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but…
“I fell in and I was supposed to be dead, or well, sothing like that, right?” I pointed to myself as Matthias slowly nodded.
“When you fell in, you joined with the souls of the dead, but you didn’t just join with them like how anyone else who falls in does. You… I’m not really sure how, but you beca one with them.”
I tilted my head in confusion. “One… With them? But, how is that any different from joining them?”
“I guess, it’s more apt to say they joined you. Do you rember your Magick? The one you gained upon entering here?”
For a mont, a spark lit in my body, and faint mories popped up in my head and disappeared as quickly as they arrived.
“Yeah, it’s uh, the one that whenever sobody dies around , I get their soul. Yes, that one, right?”
He nodded again. “Yes, well, it’s like that, but tis that by a few billion and then tada…” Matthias awkwardly chuckled. “You had most of the underworld literally jamd into your soul. I’m surprised you didn’t just burst. I’m surprised you’re even still… cognizant with only mory loss.”
I touched my face as I realized that’s why I felt so alone, that I felt so incomplete. It was as if I had touched the Heavens themselves and fell back to earth. There was just sothing now missing in …
“I…I can’t hear them anymore, the voices. None of them are here-Well, here being my head, did you get out of it?”
Matthias looked down solemnly. “We couldn’t do such a thing. Instead, it was Zy, the guardian dragon of the Nawia. He overloaded the Smorodina golem you beca, and then all the spirits shot out. You sohow retained enough of yourself not to fall into the River.”
A bright flash of light ran through my mind as he said that, for the first ti in a while, pain seared across my body as if I were experiencing physical trauma.
“We got you out of there.” Matthias continued as he played with his tail. “But Zy tried to make you stay, he said you were far too dangerous.” He laughed a little and leaned on my bed.
“Yeah, cause the lady who could throw soul evaporating fireballs and the woman who could transmute anything into a weapon are less dangerous than a man who could connect to others better…”
He rolled his eyes so hard that I could swear they disappeared to the back of his head.
“But then he was called back, I don’t know by whom, but it was soone who managed to call off your imprisonnt.”
I chuckled softly. “Looks like I have to thank them if ever we’re going back there.”
Matthias looked away awkwardly. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to go back there… Ever- No offense, I just-“
“None taken.” I answered back quickly. “I’m beginning to slowly rember what happened there.”
Thunder and lightning flashed in my mind alongside the sounds of artillery barrages, which sohow felt soothing to .
“I don’t think I should be allowed back there. If I still have that power, it might be a repeat of whatever happened to .” I sighed and laid my hands before staring at the door where Katya had left. But then, a thought hit . If I were alive, then maybe…
“Is Andrei alive? Rodion-“
Matthias shook his head sadly. “N-No they’re… They didn’t make it.”
“Oh…”
A faint silence washed over us both as I grumbled and shook my head. “Guess we can’t have everything, huh, fuck. Well… If we’re here, and with Baba Yaga, doesn’t that an we can finally head back ho?”
I looked up at Matthias, silently begging that the answer was a yes. But I could already tell from how his eyes stared at the floor that my prayers wouldn’t be answered.
“B-but… We ca all the way here…” I tried to get up from the bed, but Matthias held down, his body shaking as his voice quivered.
“I-I know, I-it’s just that-“
“It’s simply that tis have changed. And so shall the rest of you.”
A voice interrupted Matthias as the door to my room opened up.
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