"Fuck!"
That was all Elijah thought as he felt the pain all over his body. Everything hurt. His back, his legs, even his arms!
He rolled onto his side coughing as he tried to catch his breath.
What the hell happened? Why did his body feel like this?
He kept trying to catch his breath as his lungs struggled to try and remember how to work. Mud was pressed all against his cheek and it felt like something wet was creeping up his shirt.
More than anything the pain did not want to go away. It was hard to focus.
"What the fuck man?" he asked himself.
He forced himself to slow down his breathing.
In and out.
In and out.
He kept telling himself this until finally he whispered to himself "Okay."
There was a small hope that the pain would just go away if he stayed on the ground, but the opposite happened. The ache in his back would spread quickly whenever he tried to move even a little bit. His arms trembled as he pushed off the ground. No matter what he did, his spine felt like someone had taken a hammer to it.
"Why does it feel like I've fallen off something?"
That was when he finally opened his eyes.
Green.
That was all he saw, way too much green.
Trees towered over him with thick trunks that rose into a ceiling of tangled branches. Vines hung in loops from the canopy with giant leaves blocking out most of the sky. Only a few strips of sunlight managed to break through the dark green wall above his head.
The air itself was heavy and warm. Elijah could hear the sound of insects buzzing all around him as he looked around in a daze. The ache in his back was not going away anytime soon. Every slight movement brought with it a sharp pain. He blinked slowly before he took a deep breath and centered himself.
"Okay, this is definitely not my room," he muttered.
He stayed there, staring up at the trees for a moment. Then he tried sitting up again.
"Ahhhh!"
His vision went white as pain shot up his back. He let out a small scream. He dropped back down to one elbow immediately and tried to catch his breath as his head was down.
Think, Elijah. What the hell happen? How did you end up like this?
The last thing he remembered he had just logged into his VR set and was waiting in a voice chat with his friends. Logan had just said something stupid and had been laughing for the last minute at himself. Selene was telling him to shut up while he himself had begun the countdown.
Yes! The countdown! They had all been waiting for new game to load up.
The Epoch Wars, a brand new VR game that was being released in North America. They had bought it out of boredom and planned on just trying it out briefly before heading to their usual superhero game.
He had hit finish the countdown when suddenly he had been engulfed in darkness. Then he had woken up here in pain.
He suddenly thought of something! Maybe he was in the VR game and this was just a weird introduction.
Elijah lifted a shaky hand upwards to feel the side of his face choosing to endure the pain. This was definitely the most realistic game he had ever played.
He actually thought that he was badly injured, not to mention the graph—
No headset.
He kept feeling around his face in disbelief. How could this be? No—there was no way that his headset was missing.
He grabbed his hair and ran his fingers through it. There was no resistance! No straps, no visor, there was nothing!
He took another deep breath. He forced himself to stay calm. He needed to get ahold of himself.
Elijah took another look around at his surroundings. There were no screens, no stats, no welcome messages. Only a jungle alive with who knew what.
He had to find out where he was. That was priority number one.
Forcing himself to sit upwards again, making sure to move more slowly this time, he finally got into a position where he was sitting upright and leaning slightly back in the mud.
His eyes dropped to his arms. That is when he noticed them.
"…What?"
Dark marking twisted across his arms all the way up to his biceps.
Not dirt. Not scars.
Tattoos.
It was clear as day that these were not ordinary or random markings.
The lines curved and twisted like roots wrapping around his arms in slow spirals. Some were thin and delicate, while others were thicker, branching out like veins beneath his skin.
They did not just sit on his body. Elijah had a strange feeling that they had grown there.
Faintly, just barely, the markings seemed to shift when he focused on them. A low warmth pulsed beneath his skin.
It coursed through his body, dulling the pain as it spread.
"Weird, but good," he thought. He did not know what was happening, but now at least he could move now. The warm pulse within him did not feel harmful, if anything it made him feel more stable.
Elijah stretched his arms out, flexing his fingers.
Something about his body felt off. It was not his injury. He felt different.
His gaze lifted as he twisted his body further.
He froze.
It could not be.
No way.
A body lay several feet away from him, face down in the mud.
All the warmth drained out of him as he struggled to his feet.
"…Logan?"
He took one step closer.
Then another.
There was no way it could be him. Right?
The closer he got the heavier his chest felt.
"Logan?"
There was no response. He forced himself to keep moving forward anyway until he was hovering right over the body.
He reached out his right hand, hesitating—
He rolled the body over.
It was the same face. Same stupid haircut he had joked about a millions time before.
Different clothes though. No hoodie or jeans. Instead, rough leather was wrapped tightly across his chest, held together with vines. Tattoos like the ones one his arm ran down the left side of his face.
"How did this happen?"
His best friend's eyes remained closed. His chest wasn't moving. Elijah just stared at him, his body refused to move.
Then it hit him.
There should be three of them. There was always three of them.
His head turned slowly, his heartbeat rising at the thought of what he might find.
It had always been the three of them.
But for once, he wished it hadn't been.
His eyes scanned the surrounding area and he quickly saw her. Only a few yards away, half hidden beneath a cluster of plants. She was propped up against the giant root of a tree.
"…Selene?"
Her name came out quieter than when he had yelled for Logan. Like saying it louder would make everything too real.
He did not run, he could not move another step.
What hell had he landed in?
The jungle around him was strange. The insects around him seemed to buzz louder and louder as his heartbeat rose. Without him realizing it, the markings on his arms began to glow as he gripped his temples with both hands.
Logan. Selene.
There was no way both of them could be gone.They had been together since pre-school.
Now they both were just…gone.
Why was the world suddenly so quiet?
His chest tightened. Elijah could not get any air. He tried again—the edge of his vision started to get darker.
Would he never hear Logan tell a stupid joke again? Or Selene rolling her eyes at them? No more late night game night sessions? What about the apartment they had just leased together?
He tried to breathe again. His own heartbeat felt distant. All he could see was them.
Not moving.
Something in him broke.
"Get up…"
The words came weak at first.
"Come on guys. This isn't funny anymore."
Nothing. Neither of them moved an inch.
"Get up!"
Pain flared behind his eyes as he roared at them. Sharp and sudden through his forehead.
"Ahh!"
Elijah grasp the side of his head.
Something snapped inside his head. His thoughts were being split apart as something else forced it way into it. He felt fear down to his bones but could do nothing to stop it.
Memories began to play throughout his mind.
His name was Elian Vael, a seventeen year in Kaltrava, located in the south west of the Suzox Continent. He was an orphan, the eldest of three. His younger brother, Kaal Vael, and twin sister, Sylra Vael, were still alive. They were the last members of the Vael Tribe, survivors of a massacre by the Juza Empire fifteen years ago.
His father, Chief of the Vael Tribe had died protecting the borders right before. Their mother, Saelith, the last Speaker of the Vael tribe had disappeared when her twins had reached four years old. Her disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries of the jungle tul this day.
They were currently in the care of their great aunt, an Elder of the Fang Tribe. She had been the one to vouch for them to enter the Beast Trials, in particular his younger brother.
The Beast Trials was a ceremony every tribe put their children through. It was rite of passage into adulthood. They had to survive five days in the jungle relying only on themselves and thier abilities. Within these five days they had to form a bond with a beast.
The beast of Suzox weren't simple. They were connected to the world in ways that humans would never truly grasp. To form a bond with them was to gain a fraction of what they were natural born with. These beast choose. They judged. And if they did not accept you— you would not return.
The memories stopped.
Elijah- no Elian sucked in a sharp breath while he grabbed his head still. Everything around him came rushing back in.
The jungle, Logan, Selene, the annoying buzzing of insects. They were still on the ground.
Not moving.
"No…"" his voice cracked.
None of this made sense. His chest tightened as he stumbled forward, dropping on the ground facing his friends.
"No, no, no. I'm not doing this alone—"
His hands washed our towards them both.
"Get up! Why won't you get it!"
At this moment he was not sure whose pain he was feeling. Elijah who had lost his friends. Elian who had lost his siblings. Nothing made sense.
All that did was that he did not want this to be his reality.
The marking on his arm pulsed. Faint at first as Elian repeated himself.
"Get up! Why won't you get up…"
The markings got brighter. He did not even notice. How could he care about anything right now in the world?
"Come on, just wake up. I promise I'll be a good brother/friend."
The gelund began to tremble and a dark purple light bled outwards towards the dead bodies on the ground. He collapsed on the spot.
Behind him…the bodies twitched.