OatSW: Short Stories

Trepidation

Life. It is a winding, malleable road of time, expanding and shrinking based on many variables. It doesn't matter how much power one holds over oneself and others, nor how long one lives. Life will always have them in check. There is always something keeping others in line, something that even those in the highest echelons of society are beneath...

Fate... or so people think.

What is fate other than a simple tale of one's actions and consequences, leading to a conclusion of untold prophecies? Like the lives in which one hopes for a better life, every shift in the soul creates implications yet to be revealed in the eyes of life's most fascinating and dangerous styles of surprise. Be it a minor shift or a significant quake, no one is unaffected by fate's strings.

But... if every decision the world makes changes some people's fates... then can you even call it fate? Does destiny make sense when a simple change might possibly ruin that path?

Well, it doesn't really matter... at least not to one particular specimen.

His fate was on his mind for quite a long time, remembering exactly how he ended up on this path he travels today. His life was changed; he knew that, and there wasn't any power he could wield that would change the course of history. But... did he really wish for things to be different, to deviate from the chains of fate keeping hold of his soul? Or was it simply his wish to remain as is? He honestly didn't know, and he didn't really care. All he wanted was to live and breathe without those thoughts, keeping himself open to the future and what may come from it.

Well... if he was awake, that is.

Unfortunately, he was lying under a luminescent tree among many in this vast forest. The skies were clear, say for a few large and puffy clouds covering the blue space above. His eyes were closed, yet sight still held a grasp on him as he peered into a land of dreams. What lies in one's dreams are fabrications within one's mind. To the depths of one's soul, one could understand not only themself but the world in which one lives. The visions of the past, the realities one could forge, or just the oddities that lay within themselves, a dream is all of them and more.

It seemed that his dreams were... pleasant on the surface. A slightly windy day in a plain, grassy field with some aids to help him on a journey to who knows where. The dream then flickered a bit, showing them a trip beyond the grassy landscapes, through the rocky trenches, over the swampy bogs, a trek to some unknown destination, one his mind had yet to show him. All his companions seemed to be having a good time, and he was too. He just wondered where this journey was taking them.

However, that destination was soon revealed to him, a dazzling and immaculate sight of... darkness.

There was just... nothing.

Darkness seeped around him like an oozy slime covering its victim, a darkness not found commonly. An odd parallel to occurrences, happenings he's seen before yet never dwelled on. Thinking nothing of it, he turns around to see the path behind him gone, along with the friends he traveled down this road with. The world's sounds had deafened. No wind, no creatures, not even the pattering of his feet as he searched around. Only his breathing remained.

"..."

Typically, one wouldn't be able to see the plain truth of being in a dream, as the fabrications would let you live a fantasy you couldn't have seen before. However, the appearance of this darkness kindled a certain fire in his mind, a light that became all more apparent with the sudden appearance of a blistering white light on his face. He shielded his eyes, but it never hurt him. The light shrunk and moved away, keeping its harshness and intense power as a similar light appeared next to it. Right then, he felt a piercing gaze stare from it, crippling him to a degree. The eyes began darkening until it was nothing but two black voids with a harsh white outline around each. No irises, just black.