03 - TOO MUCH TO TAKE I

It had been hours since Edgar came out of the dark room he had found himself in; however, the outside was just as dark, and it felt like he was walking in circles, with no light in sight.

The bronze plate wasn’t responding at all, as if it was sleeping through his struggles.

Though walking didn’t cost him much energy, he had to walk as silently as he could, trying to not alert any beasts wherever they may be lurking. It was a tremendous mental burden, proving to be much more difficult than cutting firewood, carrying water pots or sticks or sacks of grains.

He knew that the snake that had come to him must have used a way to get to him, but he just couldn’t find it, no matter where he looked. He was touching every inch of the wall as he roamed and inspected everything he could through touch and smell, but he found nothing credible. There was no wood, and what’s more, he felt suffocated in some places.

He wanted to be as silent as possible, but he kept mumbling in frustration.

Hours turned to days, and about seven days later, he looked terribly weak, and his skin was all shriveled up. He was still on his feet and walking in that dark, like a lifeless zombie that exercised greatest patience and perhaps a whit of hope.

Though there was no physical enemy he had to face these days, a disheartening enemy came in the form of hunger and rooted itself deep in the pits of his stomach.

Going hungry wasn’t a new thing for him; however, he never went this long with an empty stomach. Still, food wasn’t always on his mind. The only main thing he was worried about was finding an escape route. Hunger kept coming and going in phases, mocking him and his miserable life, but his sister was always in his heart. These days were anything but pleasant, but the drive of getting back to his sister kept him going.

Still and all, the horror of that place was too much to just push to the back of one’s mind.

There was no water.

There was no sun. There was no moon. There were no stars.

He could hardly breathe at times.

Above all, the loneliness kept hacking him from inside out. Depression grew in his heart like an aggressive tumor.

This experience put so much mental burden on him that as weeks added up he was afraid of forgetting himself and his sister. It was all just too much to take.

About twenty one days after he had fallen in that horror zone, his swollen feet had given up on him. “I’m sorry, Sister.” He fell forward and lost consciousness, while still holding onto the bronze plate.

A few seconds later, the fragile ground under him cracked, and he fell into a tunnel that took him somewhere deep before dropping him in a big chamber full of glowing crystal rocks, a pool, and fruit trees that were rather big.

At the center of the room, was a large crystal rock, and an old man was sealed up in it up to his neck. The rock itself was chained to the eight corners of the room. These were thick black chains, each the size of ten muscular men's thighs. With his head tilted down, he looked like he was long dead, and his hair was so many meters long that it fell down the rock and reached places.

About twenty hours later, Edgar woke up only to be shocked by the sudden change in the surroundings. His feet automatically moved toward the fruit trees in desperation, but while in doing so, he came across the old man who was bound in the center of that chamber.

Edgar froze right where he half-assedly stood. Though he wanted to go and grab the fruits, he didn’t dare. Minutes passed, but Edgar didn’t move an inch. However, since the old man didn’t move, he took a deep breath and stepped forward.

He quickly reached the nearest banana tree and tried to pluck a couple of them, however, to his shock, the fruits weren’t coming. They were so strong and sturdy that it required his full strength and tactics for some time to finally pluck one successfully.

He was relieved and excited, but to his stupefaction, he couldn’t peel it. It was quite rough and thick. His fingers just weren’t powerful enough to peel its skin off.

“What the heck?” his voice was weak. “I can’t believe that I’ve gotten so weak that I can’t even peel a banana!”

He got severely frustrated and wrestled with the fruit like a desperate foolish monkey, and in that process, he didn’t notice that shadowy hair that came up behind him and curled around his waist and pulled him away.

“Ahh!” Edgar cried in fear, thinking he was caught by a beast, only to realize that it was the work of the hair, whose ends reached the old man. “You are alive?” he was stunned.

“Freedom… “ the old man raised his head, exposing his bloodshot eyes. “A bud of hope has come to bring me freedom.”