Unblinded Faithful

Chapter 2: Doll Homecoming

The feeling of increased sensitivity that had been afflicting Aide spikes sharply as something appears from behind the tree, causing a sudden feeling of pressure as if his own body weight is now heavier.
What seems to be a woman donning a tattered cloak black like the night sky and skin pale like a corpse, with strands of silver hair gently swaying, and eyes shining a vacant white, holding a menacing black war scythe, the figure looms over the boy like a demon ready to take him to the underworld.
Feeling a chill down his spine and sensing each singular droplet of cold sweat forming on his skin from the bizarre aura, Aide instinctively covers his head and drops to the floor yet again, screaming like a little girl.
After a few moments that felt like an eternity, Aide only now notices that nothing is happening to him. He slowly raises his hands from his face and opens one of his eyes.
The figure that he thought looked so menacing was simply staring blankly into the distance behind him. Eyes empty and devoid of emotion, she stands there without moving a muscle.
Finally sensing that his life isn't in immediate danger, Aide musters the courage to say "Uhhhm, are you oka-" before he finishes his sentence the figure moves "EEEK!" Aide winces and screams again, as the woman just sits down on the ground, planting the war scythe into the dirt bellow with a thud and letting go of it, her back resting on the tree behind her.
His face slightly red from embarrassment, Aide slowly gets back up and starts speaking again "H-hello...?" he says, his greeting being met with complete silence.
She remains motionless, almost like a doll resting in a room, abandoned. She doesn't seem to show any hostility towards him, maybe he could get a closer look, he thinks to himself.
As he gets closer, he notices that the overwhelming sensations from earlier have become slightly more bearable. Maybe he just had to get used to them?
No matter, he steps forward and faces the doll looking figure up close as he slightly trembles, still a little afraid from what had transpired. He tries waving his hand in front of her face, but there's no reaction other than her eyes following his hand for mere moments before stopping in place once more.
She looks... sad. There's a melancholy sort of air about her that makes Aide feel slightly less afraid and more sympathetic.
He takes in a deep breath. "You're not dangerous..." he realises, and plods to the side, laying his back against the tree. The air that was once stifling and the feeling of threat are now simply reduced to a feeling of tiredness.
Since the pain from the injuries he sustained was blown out of proportion due to the strange aura of the clearing, he doesn't feel any pain now as all of them were very minor.
"...And you don't talk..." he remarks. Aide sighs deeply and plops down, his senses now somewhat manageable, he sits next to the woman and takes in the beauty of the scene around him.
"It's super pretty... I can't believe such a pretty place made me this scared," he says. His eyelids start to feel heavy.
"I'm tired... I'll just... take a nap..." and with that, Aide drifts to sleep under the golden leaves...
The sound of the wind gently blowing can be heard in the clearing.
What was once a loud and coarse sound is now carefully waking up Aide with a peaceful melody.
Slowly opening his eyes, the boy is met with the sight of the beautiful flowers and grass once more.
He shakily gets up on his feet and rests his shoulder on the tree, lightly yawning as he rubs his eyes. It seems fear is quite good for sleep if you manage to calm yourself down before resting.
Beams of light shine in from the foggy exterior of the clearing, the smell of the flowers now wonderfully pleasant when it was horribly overwhelming before, some of the golden leaves of the tree fall down, making the air glisten and creating a surreal atmosphere.
Realising that he seems to have completely adjusted to the increased sensitivity of the clearing, the boy remembers the doll like woman that he saw before.
He looks around himself in a panic, but to his surprise, the woman is still in the same spot she was when he first fell asleep. Still resting her back against the pale tree, a precariously placed war scythe protruding from the ground and her emotionless, vacant stare into nothing. It looks like she didn't even change her position.
Aide sighs in relief, and tries to take a look at her once more. She doesn't look very... human, but he's not sure what she is either. While silver hair is rare, it's not impossible to find people that have it, but the eyes are very unnatural.
It doesn't look like she had lost her eyesight or anything, and a blind person has no business being in the middle of a forest on the outskirts of the city wall anyway, so that's probably their normal colour.
Aide places one hand on his chin and tilts his body, closing his eyes, pondering and sifting through his memories to try and remember if he had heard anything of the sort back home.
"Hmmm... Maybe she is just blind...?" the boy thinks, but as soon as he opens his eyes his gaze meets the woman's as she is staring right at him "WAH!" the boy is startled.
"Ok so you're not blind, got it," he presumes. "That being said..." the boy notices what appears to be a man-made mark on the tree just above her head, it's like the mark lumberers usually use to flag trees they want to cut later, but it looks different and uses a different paint.
It's a black mark made up of two strokes that almost resemble a scythe "...You're definitely the one that put that here, right?" he says.
"Well, no matter what you are, since you don't look dangerous and this place looks super pretty, and now even feels nice to be in, I'll be visiting again!" he proclaims.
"This is your home, right?" he asks. The woman stares with a blank expression, but after a moment she slightly droops her head in what appears to be affirmation.
The boy giggles playfully, "I'll take that as a yes then! I need to get back before sundown so I'll go for now, but see ya until then!" he says as he runs off, waving his hand.
The mysterious woman remains silent until the end, and the boy runs straight into the fog from the direction he had first came in from. The sudden drop of sensation leaves his limbs feeling slightly numb, but it's not nearly as bad as when he first entered the clearing and was bombarded with overwhelm.
The denizens of the city the boy is from, the city of Thalia, are adept at finding their way when they are lost. While the mist veil surrounding this forest is particularly heavy, something the people of Thalia consider a bad omen and steer clear from whenever possible, there is light mist covering the entirety of the city and its surroundings all year round.
This means the people must be adept at finding their way lest they get lost in the mist.
Running in a zigzag pattern to try and find landmarks that he remembers from when he first went into the forest, Aide slowly but surely makes his way through. The sounds of woodland creatures can be heard as he leaves the area of the clearing and the heavy fog lessens and dissipates until Aide can see a good ways into the distance, just enough to help him get closer to the city.
"I remember passing this tree... I'm finally here," the sounds of the ever busy Thalia reach Aide's ears, marking the end of his search.
After a few more minutes of walking, his eyes lay on the gravel path that leads back home
"No time to rest, now..."
The mist-covered sun is setting on the horizon. It's about time he gets back home...