4 The fall

The Elders looked with terrified eyes, all the group were stunned gazing upon these two bodies falling with increasing speed. They could not believe their eyes, "there was no particular danger at this moment, how did it happen" was all that could be heard in their mind.

"Alix !!!! NOOO! " Eline and Restar were collapsing seeing their friend swallowed by the darkness. Eline was sobbing already, Restar was not in a particularly better state, dazed by what just transpired. A little moment of inattention was responsible for this catastrophic event for them, their small world was slowly collapsing.

A hand pressed on their shoulder "We must go, sorry, we can do nothing.." Elder Gur helped them in raising. They didn't answer, their mind blank. He pushed them gently and slowly the whole group depart in running, with darkness on all faces. It was for most the first time they lost someone they know, and they didn't know what to do. They would slowly discover in the future that you can't do anything.

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Alix was falling, he saw all the faces of his bosom friend, probably more terrified than him, he didn't realize yet what happened to him. They were smaller and smaller, blurring with the increasing speed at which he was falling. The air was pressing on his ears, he could not hear any of their cries, even his undistinguished cry feel just like a vibration for him. The wind was making his clothes swell, slowing just a bit his way down.

He could see the abyss creature not faring much better than him, it had already detached itself from Alix's shoulder and was shaking his limb as if wanting to fly but its fall was faster and faster, quickly disappearing from his eyes, it was probably much denser than a human body.

The wall around him was blurred, the darkness increasing, he was waiting for the end. "Well, sh*t, if I knew I would end like that... Ah such a poor death, no one will see my corpse. I didn't even win the competition in the village. Why was I so self-conscious about this, I should have lived my life to the fullest." Thoughts after thoughts were emerging in his mind, retracing his life choice.

This village was his birthplace, but his mother died when he was born, just the time to smile when she saw him. His father had died a month ago this event, a celestial beast had come from the mountain, trying to increase its territory. Several Elders and his father didn't make it that day, successfully defending the Ol'Tree village.

He was told his father was a great man and his mother one of the more caring people of the village and he was sure of it but he would have like in his small moment of selfishness that they didn't sacrifice everything for the village to enjoy their company. His mom was after all mortally wounded in the same fight with his father and she survived just with her mother's will to see her son well before departing.

Despite being an orphan, he didn't have a sorrowful past, he was educated by Eline's mother, with Restar whose parents were dead too in the same catastrophic event. With the two of them, they grow up, never far from each other, and you could say they had a great time. They soon perturbed the village's peace, always at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were the genius of their generation, thriving in each domain that they tried. A little bit of arrogance "Well more than a little bit for me" had taken place deep in their bones. They were persuaded they were the best of the best and that for people like them, nothing could happen, aside from great thing of course.

He hopes for his friends to accomplish what they dreamed a little about even without him, to explore the outside territory, climb the mountain, slay monsters, become a legend, save the damsel in distress, well except for Eline, she would have to save a squire in distress. "Much harder to do if you want my advice, men tend to don't accept help very well, damned oversized ego, I mustn't do this type of thing if I have a second life !"

"Such a shame that I understand what I'm lacking now when it won't be of used anymore". He was a little regretful of his past choice, he should have listened to always be concentrated, he thought it was always to others that it happens. If he was given a second chance, he wouldn't do it that way, at fifteen, he didn't truly have a life goal, he just wanted to protect his two friends, his village, and shine upon them with his success. "Well, shining wasn't an option anymore with this much darkness surrounding me, how come I'm not already dead, it should be a minute ago that I fall, is this canyon this deep?"

The wall had already disappeared, pure darkness had swallowed them, he could just see a little halo of light above him, or so he thought, the direction was a little bizarre to sense, the wind was still pushing him from under, continuing to fall in the black abyss. Strangely he didn't hear anything when touching his ears, he could sense a hot liquid flowing out of it, probably his blood, he could not see. The pressure had probably ruptured his eardrum, he must be incredibly deep and falling at a never seen before speed. He takes a little joy in probably breaking some records, "Not that there is anyone to see it..."

His return to his thought "Well I can't do anything, just waiting to die, such a strange death... If I could be like these heroes spoken in the book of our village. Yeah, just children books but some said that people capable of flight exist and that they saw one above the village years ago... I would love to be able to fly right now...Yeah, as in RIGHT NOW!" He screamed unable to hear if he didn't say it correctly "Well nothing happened anyway so who cares?".

The minutes were now long gone, he had difficulty knowing how much time had passed, but five or six minutes should be it. The wind surrounding his body was here, proof that he is still falling. "What can I do? With this much time, I should try something, yeah right, my clothes were swelling under the air pressure, I could use them to slow down me more! Will it even be useful? I don't care anymore, I just want to live, I should do something"

Taking his pants down, with always maintaining contact with it was not some small victory when you were falling at such speed, for his socks it was even harder, they were difficult to attach to his wrist but he ended doing it anyway.

If someone was able to see under this veil of darkness, he would be able to be the witness of a strange event. A man was falling in a never-ending depth while undressing himself. He would tie up his clothes to his arms and slowly when all was undressed, tie them up, slowly, without seeing anything. The fall was not finished so when he tried to let go of his clothes, just tied to his wrist, they instantly swelled above him, taking airs in it and slowing his fall. A red scarf could be seen flying above, the symbol of his normally soon to be graduation slowly fading away. He forgot to link it up to the hasty construct, or probably he didn't see it.

"The wind is no more so violent, so it should have slow my fall" without any mark, it was difficult for him to make sense of what he was sensing. "Not the best solution, but if someone finds my naked body, he won't make head or tail of why I would be like that, hey that could be fun!" Without anything to do, strange ideas were forming in his mind.

It should be around an hour or so of falling that suddenly his lower back made contact with something different than the wind. It was slowing him a little, it was as if he glides on a slope of snow "But why would there be snow there? No, it's not cold, more like sand, sand that's so thin that it didn't truly stop his fall. So he was approaching the end, he already touched some of the soil? What could it be, dust? Yeah, it has to be!". He was slowly stopping with a smoothness that was so different than what it should be that he was not sure he truly stopped.

The dust had accumulated for a millennium, even more, slowly falling and forming a mountain at the bottom of the cliff. It wasn't packed down so adding the low speed at which Alix had fallen, it allowed a smooth slowing without too much trauma for his body. Well, it was not a lovely experience, the friction wounded Alix skin as a destructive abrasive, but it was better than to be crush against hard soil for sure.

"I'm safe?" he said, there was no more wind, and his Proprio-perception made him aware that he was lying down on a soft fabric. He tried to raise but his feet were sinking in the dust like materials and when it stopped, he was buried, just his upper body above it. His hands were caressing the dust, making a smile of joy appears on his face "I'm alive, I didn't die from a fall in the Never Canyon? I knew it, I'm such a genius, just have to climb up to meet my friends...Climb up... Oh sh*t, How could I climb such a thing, I don't even see my nose and with the time it made to end my fall, I should be dozen of kilometers under the ground, perhaps a hundred... " His mind was assailed by a dozen different emotions at the same time, happiness, pride, sorrow, anger...

He slowly walks, more of a crawling really in this dust, trying to make sense of what's surrounding him, he couldn't see, couldn't hear, and there was nothing but this strange dust. "I don't know where is the up and down, I have to try, this cliff should have an exit no? How will I eat in this place, I'm screwed! What good did it make to learn all this martial art stuff just to die in a hole where I can't even see a wall to climb?"

Recuperating his clothes or more what was remaining of his clothes, he tried somehow to dressed up. His hands were aching of the fight that seems to be weeks ago. His shoulder was not moving correctly with the bite wound on it and his skin was flaring with just a caress on it. So, in the end, he just succeeds in putting his pants and tying his shirt on his shoulder to protect it. The temperature was a little low and he began to walk away at a slow pace.

He was in truth going down the mountain of dust lying in the depth of the Never Canyon and after an hour he at last sense the wall under his finger. He could have touch it much sooner but with the dark environment, he walked in the diagonal of the canyon, increasing its time. "Let's go, to the right, always to the right !!". And he began his much tiresome trip. Sometimes he would try to climb up the wall, only to be faced with a piece of terrible evidence, the wall was smooth like glasses without anything to hang on. So he resumes his walk and like that, a day passed.

"There is...nothing here, nothing to drink, nothing to eat, I'm thirsty !!!" Saying that aloud he suddenly slipped, no more dust under his fist, and splashed in.. "Water? HELL YEAH!" and as soon as he screams these three words, he began to drink, and drink... and drink.

The water tends to accumulate when there was rain at the surfaces, and there was not so much as evaporation without any light, and the temperature could be said to be a little chilly. It wasn't truly a surprise to have water here, but to drink without seeing what it was you drink was a little perturbing experience, but after what he just lived, Alix just didn't care.

The dust had dried the air, making his throat as dry as paper, he dives into the water without knowing the depth of this water which was a... Puddle. Crashing on the soil, his wound that the grey creature made when they fall reopened. Two things simultaneously appear in his mind "this is hard soil, it's the very bottom of the canyon" and "where was this damned beast!? "