Zeais felt like he had made an awful decision. Not bringing anything to stave off his
hunger was clearly not his brightest idea.

I’m an idiot, I should of at least brought something to trade with.

He rubbed his stomach as he walked down the almost endless dirt road. He looked around for any tree that may have bore fruit, but he was unfortunately surrounded by the plains. The only food he saw was grass and wasn’t nearly desperate enough to do that yet.

When he gazed into the sky, he couldn’t see the sky or clouds, all he could see was the same blanket of gray that covered everything around him.

At least it’s nice out, this wasn’t a bad break at all.

The air around him filled his nose, it smelled of fresh grass and dirt. The sound of nature was his favorite, excluding the cries of animals in hiding. The feeling of peace was a rarity whenever he stayed home, he’d much rather be out than help take care of the smaller children.

I’m glad we got enough to live off for the next week though, it really hel-

Zeais suddenly stopped in his tracks.

An unimaginable occurrence for him would usually be a left out cart of food or a random pile of weapons. What he saw in happening in front of his eyes though, was on a completely different scale.

Is that? The color… yellow?

It was strange. It was the strangest sight he had ever seen. The only colors he knew of were the eyes of children, but never once did he see it else where.

“What?” He shook a hand in front of his eyes, confirming if it was an illusion. He was awestruck, it was real. What he was seeing was indeed color. A wave of light was moving through the sky. Neither straight or thick in width, it stretched against the entire sky, as far as he could see.

“How is this possib-”

A feeling like he had been struck in the back of the head caused him to fall to his knees. As if the air was knocked out of his body, he let out deep gasp and grabbed his chest. With a grimace, he turned around slowly trying to look for the reason why, but he could see none. His vision blurred the more he tried to find the answer and his reasoning became more muddled.

What? Why is- My head-

Panicking, he attempted to stand, but the ground beneath him felt less stable than when he was just walking.

Is-Is the ground shaking? Wha-?

Breathing became harder the more he tried to control it. An earthquake was all he could think of, but it didn’t explain the brain bursting pain he felt in his head. The only sound he could hear, was a loud rumble, he thought his ear drums would rupture. His thoughts were cut in half when another large burst of pain assaulted more areas of his head. Unable to bear the pain, he tried to crawl forward, looking for something to rest on.

As the world twisted and shook, the faint outlines of something that looked sturdy, sat in front of him. Slowly, one hand after another, he crawled on hands and knees. Soon even crawling was a hassle, his legs felt like thy were made of lead. Dragging himself along seemed to be the only thing left.

Foot after foot, he painstakingly gripped what ever he could touch with his palm and pulled. He wanted to stop his pain. Everything hurt, but the most painful was the migraine. He couldn’t help but want to rub it away. With one hand on his head and another that dragged him along, he felt like he was so close to reaching a point of rest. What he didn’t expect, was the feeling of falling, as he was mid pull.

The sudden drop made him flip forward, he shot his hands out in spurprise to try and break his fall. With closed eyes he didn’t even want to attempt to see where he’d land. The landing was of little concern to him, he only wanted it to be quick and painless. To his surprise, it was rather short.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the sea of yellow lines that spread across the sky. Laying on his back against some type of rock, he was stuck, and could only watch the world overhead. As if he were looking at the ripples of a puddle, he couldn’t help but gaze into mystery unfolding above. The more he stared, the less pain he felt. The longer he tried to burn the color of light into his memory, the more the sounds of the world disappeared around him.

Low and faint, he heard an inexplicably clear voice. The words were softly spoken but he couldn’t understand the meaning behind them. It wasn’t a conversation though, in fact, it wasn’t even formed into coherent sentences. When he tried to listen more, the words sounded like gibberish and more drawn out that a normal person would talk.

Singing? But, who would-

Abruptly, voices of dozens of people screaming into his ear jerked him from his lull thoughts.

He tried plugging his ears, but it made no difference, the voices still pierced his ear drums.

An urge to grab anything, anything at all, gripped his mind. The feeling of immense pain I his head and the wild shake of the world, rattled his brain. His heart was racing a thousand miles an hour, his panic was at his limit.

I can’t… I can’t… I can’t… It hurts. It hurts so much! I- I-

His hand stretched out into the air, he looked at it, as he reached toward the sky. The moment he couldn’t stretch any farther, a sudden sensation gripped his hand. There was nothing he could physically see, that was touching him. He tried to pull back, but his hand would not return to him. A sudden tug from his hand raised him up slightly. His eyes widened with fear as nothingness pulled him toward the unknown. The last thing he could see was one last large ripple of yellow light pass by, before lost consciousness.

——————————————————————————————

The feeling of dreaming usually felt strange, but what he saw, was the most vivid dream he could ever imagine. Visions of people he did not know, stood in massive groups, they all stared into the sky with wide eyes.

What are they looking at?

He tried looking behind for what they were so shocked about, but when he tried, a sudden migraine ensued.

Trying to peer back was impossible, it felt like his neck would be snapped if the more he turned. The feeling of his migraine felt different. The pain never came from his temples or on the sides of his head, it was more “Inside?”

It feels like, a warning? I don’t understand? What is this?

Zeais gave into the bidding of his head and looked forward. The blurry cloud of vision in front of him, looked as if he were only staring out of a foggy mirror, but there was no glass. When he tried reaching his hand toward the people, he could feel nothing.

Does this just stretch forever? It seems so, real.

Suddenly, their eyes widened and a couple of people stumbled backward. Others turned around completely and began to run. Few just stood there with their arms raised, as if calling out to whatever was in the sky.

Are those people… praying?

Within an instant, dust and what looked like debry covered their bodies. The cloud of gray consumed the surrounding structures and soon filled the entirety of the glass like screen he looked through.

“What the— I’ve never seen those people. What were those clothes?! What were they looking at?! I know theres someone there! I can just feel it!”

Zeais’s began hurriedly searching for something, looking wildly for any type of exit. Every time he tried to look past his shoulders, he took on the same pain as he did before. Movement of his shoulders was impossible, it was as if there was someone holding him down.

“What happened to them?! Where is this?!”

Nothing answered him. As he sat in the darkness, he couldn’t tell what drove him to want answers. More than anything he wanted to know where he was and why he was there. The feeling of his temples pounding his brain was the last thing he remembered.

Contrary to his situation, Zeais could not shake the yawn that escaped his mouth. His interest in figuring out why he was there, was fading. A wave of sleepiness began to eat at him. Trying to keep his eyelids open proved more difficult each second. The last thing he could see before letting go, was the gray fog disappear in front of him and be presented with an enormous inferno of orange.

The-- Sun?

Zeais’s thoughts collapsed, the only sight he could see was darkness. His consciousness was still present. Moving was impossible, so was opening his eyes or speaking. The only thing he could do was listen. There was no sound, except for the quit mumblings of an incoherent voice. Gibberish, is what his mind translated it to. At the time, he had no opinion on the matter, his thoughts were too muddled. He did have one thing pointed out to him from the mariad of voices, it was the word, ‘Selection’.

——————————————————————————————

Droplets of rain slowly pelted his face and body. He didn’t react to anything until the loud crack of thunder pierced his ears. His eyes quickly shot open in surprise. Having forgot where he was, he did a quick body check to make sure nothing had happened to him while he slept. When he checked his side, a sharp pain shot through him.

“What?” He uttered quietly.

He put a hand down to give himself a more comfortable position. The first thing he felt was his hand sink into a pool of water. The more he moved, the more he could feel the weight of the clothing that weighted him down.

I’m an idiot. Now I’m soaked and hurt, because of a… nap?

He felt around for anything that may of stuck him in his sleep, and to no surprise, he felt the sharp edge of a stone sticking out right next to him.

Of course. Why would I lay next to something like that?

He lifted his shirt slightly to confirm. A clean line of blood slowly dripped horizontally from his wound. A sigh escaped his mouth. He was too hungry to feel like thinking about finding a way to cover his cut. He felt his pockets, looking for the one thing that could help him until he reached town, herb wrap.

He wanted to reach for his pockets, but he soon remembered he had none to aid him.

His body suddenly lurched forward when a gust of wind dipped down into the hole. Dirt and droplets of water swirled around him. It was futile to try and look anywhere until the sudden draft died down. Once it did, he paid more attention to the surrounding area from where he was.

His ears picked up on the sounds of close and distant thunder. The rustle of trees and nearby shrubbery was loud enough. To include the curtain of rain approaching him, it felt like too much stimuli to try and pay attention to it all.

Cold wind once again traveled through the narrow hole and assaulted his skin. Shivers crawled down his spine and rendered him immobile briefly.

I should have payed more attention to the weather.

He coughed into his hands and stood up. Just as tall as the hole he slept in, the draft from the top rustled his brown hair wildly. He could already feel the storm begin to pick up as small amounts of dirt and rain flew over his head.

I’ve been through worse. Zeais sighed. But still… I have to walk through this…

Once he let out his complaints internally, he grabbed the ledge to lift him self out. When he did so, he could feel the cut on his side throb with every inch he lifted himself.

It’s not even that deep, why does it hurt so much? I feel like I had some other more pressing pain though.

Pulling himself out of the hole was not difficult, in mere seconds he was already free. He felt relieved that the hole wasn’t deeper, any more and a small cut wouldn’t be the only thing to worry about. The rain was getting heavier by the second, he needed to move. Preceding to walk toward the road, a large gust of wind pushed dirt into his eyes.

“Gah!” He rubbed his eyes vigorously until he could see. “I need to get somewhere safe or else I might end up sick. Even worse, I could-”

A flicker of light bobbed up and down slightly, far ahead of him.

Red? N-No, is that, orange? It’s not the same thing like before. Is it a child, maybe an animal, or an... Abnormal?

His body tensed and his heart felt like a steam engine. He didn’t expect to run into anything with the low sightings of animals and monstrosities, he felt dumb for not even bringing a weapon. Due to his complacency for having a week off, he may have to fight something that could kill.

Zeais, balled his hands into tight fists, ready to fight whatever or whoever, would walk through a storm.