Jak's Tale

Father Chotty oversees a large congregation of the Church of the End in Port Breigh. He preaches fire and brimstone each morning without fail. Father is a very hard-line believer and anti-nether, as he's of the faith that the End Dragon will someday come into the overworld, and rule has prophesied. One day, the wife of Captain Kadek, Shelly, came to him with an unusual rumor. While Shelly is a very devout congregant, she's known for being very gossipy. Knowing that; he dug a bit deeper into the disappearances of people just outside the City of Travill.

Entering Port Breigh's Adventurer's Guild, he asked some of the rangers if they had heard anything else regarding the rumor. One of the taller rangers nearby the table confirmed what he had heard. Ranger Corps go where they feel are needed, so they are called Free Walkers. And after a long record of help, they earned a great deal of trust.

Enlisting the help of a ranger named Mattol, Father Chotty left at once for Tanis. After a few days, the duo reached Travill and soon departed for Tanis. As they walked the path leading towards Tanis, the closer they got to the small village, the fewer the birds chirped. Silence soon fell between the two. Although it was midday and the sun was high in the sky, few rays of light could penetrate the foliage creating a somber atmosphere enveloping the village.

Nearing Tanis, the ranger stopped mid-stride. "That wasn't there last time I passed by," he said, "the walls quickly were constructed to keep something out."

As the duo moved through the town, they found it completely deserted while odd, the fact that some houses had food and were locked was even more so. It wasn't until the nearly last house they chose to search that they came upon a living soul, and it was a boy. The boy seemed to be around eight years old and went by the name of Jak. Jak would break down and start sobbing when Father Chotty asked questions.

It wasn't until some time later that Father Chotty got an idea of what transcurred. A few weeks prior, several people disappeared in the middle of the night, one was sleeping next to their partner, one was baking bread, and the last one was a child sleeping in her crib. There seemed to be nothing in common among the disappeared, and since that first time, every following night, more and more people vanished.

It has been three nights since Jak was the only one left in the village. The duo felt that it all had to be related to the cabin from which only Jak returned. A few days after the two found Jak, the cabin appeared again, and it seems that it's not done yet with the boy. The next couple of nights, they accompanied the boy as he talked about what happened inside the cabin. He only talked about how he and his friends had broken in, how his friends were, and how they fell into the dark.

While Jak told the pair about the events, the small group moved back to Travill, and they took lodging in an inn. During these days ranger Mattol walked to the cabin more than once each day and always found a simple small three-room cabin, with nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn't until the third night at the inn that something unexpected happened.

As Father Chotty awoke in the middle of the night, he noticed that the room was empty. Glancing around, he found the beds void of his two companions with the room door slightly ajar. Panic started to well up inside the priest and so sprang into action. He dashed out of the room, and as he neared the end of the building, he saw the Free Walker crouched behind the corner wall leading to the road.

The ranger looked behind and signaled for the priest to be quiet. As he got into position beside his friend, he noticed that Jak was ahead of them moving down the road. The strange part was that the boy was not walking but instead floated, one could tell he still was asleep. Mattol stopped the priest before he got the opportunity to yell at the boy.

"He's not awake, perhaps even unconscious," the man whispered, "I've never seen anything like this. From the direction, he seems to be going back to the village."

"Hell, maybe the damn cabin is calling him."

The duo quickly decided to keep a safe distance as they followed him back to Tanis. It was hard to keep up with Jak as the boy sped up. The duo slowly transitioned to a jog, and at some point, they started running. As they followed, the ranger told what happened. The night of the third day, Jak rose in a trance from his bed and started walking back. Mattol managed to catch the scene due to the noise alerting him.

As they tried to keep up, the priest asked, "Are we just letting him go to the cabin? The place seems cursed."

"He's going to keep going back, so we better watch over him," responded the Free Walker, "Besides, he made it out once, so he surely found a way out."

After a few minutes, Mattol pulled out his bow and knocked an arrow in it. He raised the tip of the arrowhead to the sky, and slowing down his breath, let the arrow fly. One could faintly see an arc appear in the night sky due to the force the arrow carried. As the arrow got farther and the arc bigger, Father Chotty couldn't help but wonder how long it would take until it lands and where would that be.

"Keep the boy in sight," said the ranger, " I'll catch up with you in a bit."

And with that he was gone, vanishing in the night like a ghost. The blur that was Mattol blended with the night as he moved off-road, and in mere seconds he was gone. The priest wondered what he was seeing now at nearly seventy years, and while his eyes weren't what they once were, they could still see well. Chotty, while following the boy, noticed that while the moon was up in the sky and its silver rays fell into the surrounding illuminating them, there was something else.

As he kept following the boy, the silver rays of the moon seemed to fail to disperse the encroaching darkness. Soon the surroundings descended into heavy darkness that made him wonder if the night was like this. Some minutes later, he discerned a light just off to the side of the road. It gave the impression that the light was fighting against the creeping darkness but slowly getting overwhelmed.

When he got near to the light source, the priest noticed that it was a small campfire with a figure near it. The figure seemed to be motioning him over, and once he focused his eyes, surprise washed over him as he didn't expect to see the Free Walker there. As the Father neared the flame, he noticed corpses that seemed to be from adventurers with arrows sticking out of their chests. "Did you kill these people?" asked the priest as he gestured around.

"I did," responded the ranger.

"Why? They look like simple adventurers," said the Father outraged at the scene.

"Bandits, using dead men's clothes," answered Mattol.

Speechless, the priest went around the camp and found two more inside the tent. Checking the hand of the nearest corpse, it had the tattoo of a dagger, which only criminals had. Walking out of the tent, feeling a bit of shame, he noticed the Free Walker keeping an eye on Jak. Without saying anything, they resumed trailing Jak.

The two older men kept following the boy for more than an hour as he moved through the road covered by the night sky. Yet the night seemed to get, farther and farther away, as the darkness slowly crept forward inch by inch. The night is dangerous, outside the city walls, it provides cover for a wide range of beings. With the encroaching darkness more than once, Mattol had gone ahead to clear the road.

At some point during their walk into the village, the sounds belonging to the night vanished. It's as if the darkness devoured all sounds, letting none escape its grasp. The village now void of not only life but also sound, exudes a somber and eerie aura. Jak started slowing down as they neared the cabin, the duo used this opportunity to close the gap. Father Chotty watched as Mattol put his hand on the boy's shoulder. He then exerted pressure and forced him to face them as he asked, "Jak, why are you doing this?."

The boy's eyes while open were unfocused, which told them that he wasn't yet back with them. He didn't even move, it was as if he was just a puppet, and this disturbed the priest. The ranger took back his hand, and Jak stood still for some time before taking the last few steps towards the cabin's front door. The prospect of entering the cabin made the Father very fearful but knowing the weight and responsibility of his oath to help anyone in need filled him with some strength. Carefully he asked, "What do we do? You can't be thinking of going inside."

"I suppose," answered the ranger while raising an eyebrow, "It's our only path forward."

He watched as Mattol followed Jak inside the cabin, feeling fearful of the darkness outside and thinking that it must be safer near the Free Walker, Chotty also went inside. If anyone else had been there, they could have seen the trembling figure of the priest go inside, but alas, they were alone.

The few times they checked the cabin, it gave them the impression that it had seen better days. They found nothing out of the ordinary, which made the incident with Jak's friends seem unthinkable. Once inside, nothing seemed different from their memories except that now there was this oppressive feeling that made the air feel stale. The moment the priest entered the second room, the priest got goosebumps as his hair stood up. He didn't know why, but he had a gut feeling that Jak's trance-like state and the weird atmosphere of the cabin were to blame.

With each step they took, the lamps they carried from the city seemed to dim. Looking around, the Father noted that the whole cabin was well illuminated. Lit torches were sitting in their sockets. It gave a strange contrast to how dark the cabin looked from the outside. Mattol stopped Jak as he was about to reach for the door leading to the next room. "This is not right," he commented, "I feel a foul evil in here, can't explain why."

The ranger's words struck the suppressed fear in the priest and made it grow rapidly. The growing fear started to take hold of Father Chotty while a chilling scene played before his eyes. His companion was focused on Jak as the boy seemed to come out of his trance. Jak opened his eyes and looked around before he let out a whisper. "Here's the boy," Jak said as if he wasn't himself but something else. No more was said, but the whisper seemed to drip urgency.

That was the last straw Father Chotty needed before he renounced his responsibilities and wanted to run away. He let himself be swayed, by his fear, he made a run for the door behind, trying to get out of the cabin. "Father, don't!" he shouted while extending his hand. Mattol tried to stop the priest, but keeping Jak in check restricted his movements. Pulling the door open, the priest stepped through without checking.

As soon as his foot was about to step where land is supposed to be, void greeted him. Having nowhere to land, the force of the speed pulled him down. The fall left the priest stupefied with surprise, by the time he reacted to hang onto the floor, it was too late. Mattol couldn't believe what happened. He felt fear, as his friend fell and got devoured by the bottomless void.

The Free Walker got absorbed in the absurdity of the situation, and by the time he was aware, Jak was gone. Searching the room, he saw no trace of the boy. The only clue he got was that the door leading to the last room was slightly ajar. Before heading onwards, the ranger went to check the place where Father Chotty fell. Peeking through the door, he saw nothing, yet that was not what scared him the most.

Whatever lay beyond the door felt like a predator looking back at him. The void was black, and the light of the torches could only brighten a few meters down. The black sticky abyss below seemed to want to swallow him whole, as it did with his friend. Knowing that the void was not an option, the ranger checked the door that was now ajar. Once he opened the door, what lay beyond surprised him.

What should have been the outdoors didn't exist; instead, a long hallway that seemed to stretch forever lay there. It had doors and was well illuminated. The torches seemed to flicker at the mercy of an unfelt wind. Bracing himself, thinking that this was better than the bottomless abyss, Mattol set forth into the stone hallway. Standing before the first door in the hallway, he prepared to open when he looked at the door he came from in the corner of his eye.

The cabin room that he was in, inside which he lost both of his companions, was gone, leaving the same bottomless hungry void in its place. Knowing that there was no way back, the ranger opened the first door. Like that the search began, the ranger spent time frantically opening the doors and looking around. Feeling exhaustion, he stopped to rest and summarized some of his understandings.

First, time felt weird; he couldn't tell if he spent hours or minutes opening doors. It's as if time had neither course nor rhythm. Second, what lay beyond the doors was random. One room could be a sprawling jungle, but the next could be a cityscape, yet the next one could be a desert. There was simply no way to tell what the landscape was without opening them.

Mattol closed another door, this one like a couple of doors before lead to the bottomless void. Tired of the monotonous activity, he opened one last door. As soon as it was open, a freezing wind hit him in the face. As he focused his view, a vast white landscape lay there. The snow sparkled under the bright rays of the sun, that gave no comfort at the temperature. A trail of footprints could be spotted not far from the ominous door in the snow.

The Free Walker analyzed that they were smaller than an adult human, from the size alone, they seemed to belong to a boy. Having no other clue, and hoping, they belonged to Jak so he could get some answers. The ranger set forth, leaving the incomprehensible door behind. He thought that he must be far away from Travill, as the city was in the middle of spring, many months away from winter.

Reaffirming his choice, he continued suffering under the hellish cold, hoping that whatever lay at the end of the trail could help him.