Elmar opened his eyes to see a meadow. Deer were grazing serenely to the left, and a rabbit was showing its head from its burrow. The rabbit had on a vest.
“Would you like some tea and a story?” Asked the rabbit. Elmar blinked. He shook his head. He was here to find his mana core and gather mana into a crystal. Not only that, but he couldn’t do so if he stood in place.
He stood up and began to walk, following the North star. Polaris will take you home, the wind whispered and Elmar turned left and right trying to find who spoke. He saw the same rabbit from before, following him.
Tea and a story are the best offer there are, don’t miss out on them, boy, or beware more than your core you will find here.” Said the rabbit and Elmar saw a table and two chairs appearing from nowhere.
He sat down on one of the chairs, and he saw a tea set with biscuits. They smelled divine, but Elmar hesitated. There was this story he remembered that grandpa Thinker made popular. Of a faraway god named Hades.
“Will you tell me a story now?” Asked the rabbit, hopping on the opposite chair and helping himself to a biscuit.
“They are superb; I can assure you.”
The rabbit nudged a biscuit to Elmar, but the boy cleared his throat instead.
“How would you like the story of Hades and Persephone?” Asked Elmar, not even daring to touch the biscuit. Something blinked in the surroundings. They turned darker for a second. The birds quieted, and the deer raised their heads to stare at Elmar with an intensity that was almost human like.
Elmar could be imagining it, but the fur of the rabbit stood on edge. Something red appeared on his paws for just a moment, and his eyes blazed brown. Elmar blinked, and the rabbit had the same slick white fur as before, and his eyes were a soft red.
“Fine. Tell me of Hades and Persephone. But what will you give me if I don’t like the story?” Asked the rabbit.
A million suggestions flooded Elmar’s mind. He didn’t dare to voice any of them. Instead, he spoke.
“You’ll like it. But first answer me this, how long have you been here?”
“Story first, silly child,” the deer turned to look at the rabbit at the slip up, and he hissed at them. They began to graze again with a bigger urgency, as if they were afraid to look at the beast.
Beast? Where had this word had come to Elmar to describe something so harmless? Or was it harmful? The deer were afraid, perhaps Elmar should be afraid too.
“Hades was a God of the underworld. From the home world of grandpa Thinker. He didn’t exist,” said Elmar, and the rabbit frowned at him.
“No? How can you be certain? And where are we now, do you know?” Asked the rabbit, and smoke rose from the distance. The deer tried to run, but the rabbit send them a look, and they stood still, trembling.
“Grandpa Thinker said so. To keep us from being afraid. There are many stories of Hades, and this one is the tamest. Do you want to hear it or not?” The smoke was caressing Elmar’s nose now. He knew that he needed to find his core and wake up soon. The only thing he could do until then was to stall.
“My apologizes,” said the rabbit, not even the least apologetic. “Do continue.”
“Hades was very lonely, and so he looked high and low for a bride. One day, he saw the beautiful Persephone. She was the daughter of the goddess of the Earth. He kidnapped her, but she wouldn’t marry him. So, he tricked her with starvation…”
The rabbit chuckled at that and looked down at the plate with the biscuits. They changed into the finest roast Elmar has ever seen. The rabbit pushed the plate towards Elmar, and yet the boy still didn’t eat. He could feel something coming off the plate. Something like static, but he couldn’t quite name it.
“…after some time, Persephone ate from a pomegranate, and she got trapped in the underworld. Then Hades asked her to get married again, and she agreed. But her mother found out, and she placed the nature of the world in such a sorry state that things began to die in droves.”
“It is such a pity that your mother is not here to do the same,” said the rabbit. “Or to care.”
The fur ball was gloating, Elmar knew. Elmar took the plate with the roast with shaking hands as the thing smirked with a mouth full of shark like teeth.
“But she made a deal with Hades. Persephone would be in the underworld for half a year, and then she would go back to the living world for the other half. I offer you the same deal. My days in the living world and my nights in here.”
“And where is here?” Asked the rabbit.
“Does Persephone know you are trying to kidnap a child, Hades?” Asked Elmar stubbornly. He was gripping the plate now, but his grip was slippery. He looked down. There was a pomegranate on the plate with red juice dripping from it. But that wasn’t relevant. The plate was.
“She was not taken to this world with me. I am collecting souls to bring her here or to go to her, whatever happens first. Do you see the deer? Your benevolent grandpa Thinker led them to me. It was our deal for me letting him go and making him into a dungeon core. The question is, what can you offer me?” Asked Hades.
The limbs of the rabbit grew and a man with olive skin appeared in the place of the rabbit. He had curly jet-black hair and brown eyes. His dimples were improper in the face of someone who smirked more than he smiled.
“Freedom and a foothold in this world, if you train me,” said Elmar. Then he raised the plate, pomegranate and all, and smashed it in the table. He opened his eyes and saw a mana crystal on his chest. It was black.
