Memories From a Shattered Past

"Hah. Don't make me laugh. A child like you wants to live freely?" The lich chuckled. "Let me give you some advise then. First off, you don't know anything about this world. You'll fall prey to beasts, humans, and even goblins before you manage to even approach the nearest city. Your situation is hopeless, brat. Now, follow my instructions and I will lead you safely home."

What the lich didn't know though, was that Terem listened to the first laugh before shutting out the extra noise within his mind. In fact, he found this method to be both simple and effective, allowing him to regain his composure enough to find his footing on the hard-packed earthen mound. Terem figured that it was easy to do because how could one voice compare to the five that used to plague his every thought.

"Are you listening? Brat? Don't ignore me! I am your God, the Archlich Davarose!"

And yet, Terem left the glen without a second thought about the lich, or archlich, Terem didn't care. Although he didn't enjoy having extra baggage, he knew how to regain his cool and keep his emotions in check.

As Terem was walking, the lich eventually dampened his faucet of a mouth, resigning himself to simple gripes about research and wasting time. Soon enough, Davarose went completely silent.

Hours passed in silence as the boy wandered his way through the thick forest. Occasionally, their attention was directed to a shifty fox or cowering rabbit who had long since shed their winter coats for the ruddy browns characteristic of summer fur. Finches hungry for a morning meal merrily chirped in the bowers while crickets lazily chirped the endings to their own nighttime soliloquies to the crisp morning breeze, each adding their own touch to the morning's cheery mood.

Wildlife appeared to be plentiful within the forest which Terem took as a good herald for the upcoming future. After all, the more animals there were, the less likely it was that many beasts were housed within the woods, tipping the ecosystem's delicate, delightful harmony.

Once, Terem found another small glen. Within the clearing, a herd of deer rested there weary legs while the young frolicked and nursed to both clear the excess energy they had within them or regain there strength. However, among the herd stood a majestic buck. Its antlers towered into the sky, branching out every which way. The buck moved with pride infused within every form and step.

That's when it looked towards Terem. Its gaze was steady and released a pressure that made even breathing difficult for Terem. The pressure only dissipated when the stag lifted its heavy gaze as if it deemed the boy not to be a threat to its herd.

Terem slunk away into the depths of the forest as quickly as he could manage.

Other than that, the day passed peacefully. Water and food, however, still rendered to be a hindrance towards Terem's survival, but with night rapidly approaching and his body not feeling dehydrated or hungry, he decided to seek shelter.

The problem was, where would he sleep? But he answered his own question by gazing up. Although not the most optimal solution, a sturdy tree branch usually proved to be an adequate spot to rest if one weren't picky. After all, it had a canopy of needles that provided shelter from rain and wind while offering its height as protection against nocturnal predators that hunted along the forest floor. The only drawback was that the branches were all knotted and thin, providing little comfort and requiring a rope or patchwork of interwoven branches to not risk falling out of the tree while sleeping.

However, this problem could be overlooked.

The trees in this forest appeared to be sentinels; their spires pierced the clouds, forming a bridge between earth and sky. So Terem resolved himself to climb.

The climb proved to be quite easy: handholds were solid and plentiful, the branches were large enough to support ample weight, and Terem only had to travel around 250 feet up the trunk before he discovered a suitable crochet of branches that could properly support his weight and prevent accidental falls. This was where Terem fell asleep.

And this was where Terem first dreamt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Ka~hahaha~-

A rattling cackle sounded out of the darkness followed by speech.

"Yes... Yes! I have done it! Eternal life, what will the others think?"

-Ka~hahaha~-

"They will think, no... they will all know you as the first being to attain the secret to everlasting life, sire. Your name will be sung throughout history." This voice was different from the first; the words rolled off the tongue like tainted honey. "No mortal man could ever compare to your sheer... brilliance, sire."

The first speaker snorted.

"Sire? What do you mean? I am your god now! Don't you even dare place me on the level of a mortal such as yourself!"

A stifling silence reigned for a few seconds before the second man decided to speak again, this time with a hint of acid staining his silky tongue and infusing his buttery words.

"Sorry my God, Davarose. I would never dare to commit such a heretical mistake again. Please find it within your unlimited benevolence to forgive this misled old body."

"You know what? I think I will forgive you. But, I cannot allow people that could risk exposing the secret of eternity to remain outside of my... grasp. So instead, we will do this. You will offer your soul, your very life, in service to me, following my every command." Davarose cackled maniacally losing himself within the hands of power.

"Now for my first commandment. Die!"

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Terem bolted upright in a cold sweat.

'Davarose? Eternal life? What was I hearing just now?'

"Shit, how could a brat like you have access to the thoughts of my godly self? What did you discover, brat? Tell me or else..."

The boy snorted at this, finding the threat to be as innocent as the cadavers he used to examine, harmless.

'Or what? You gonna kill me? Yeah, I thought not, idiot. Now shut up and die alone.' Terem honestly had to change his mind about the lich at this point, now believing that he had stumbled into quite the windfall with his knowledgeable captive. In fact, his morning was already cheery since he could finally vent years of accumulated stress out onto the imprisoned Davarose.

While the two were having a merry little bickering contest, Terem clambered down from the tree and set off on his journey, continuing in the same direction as when he had arrived.

This day passed much more quickly than the last, but Terem couldn't cover quite as much ground since he chose to spend some of his plentiful time observing herbivores that he caught snacking upon a nut or a berry. Usually, Terem chose to scare off the animal and determine which plant each nut and berry originated from.

This test aided Terem in distinguishing some of the forest's edible foods from poisonous ones. After a couple hours of walking and interrupting animal meals, Terem had amassed together enough knowledge to begin gathering rudimentary foods to eat.

By nightfall, he had discovered a great assortment of berries in all possible realms of color: black to white, indigo blue to cherry red, monochrome to multicolored; all of which he ate upon finding.

The nuts and seeds he had discovered were all picked up and carried along to be roasted later and saved for a future date. This time, once Terem found a suitable spot to rest, he began to collect sticks for a fire. Once a suitable amount of dry sticks, twigs, and leaves had been gathered and deposited at his temporary campsite, Terem began to search for shrubs, grasses, and bushes. He prioritized the variants with long, full leaves rather than the short ones. He also didn't break off tree limbs since he couldn't utilize pine needles for what he was doing.

After gathering a large variety of leaves of all shapes and large sizes, he set to ripping them into thin strips along their fibers. These he collected and wound together to form a sturdy thread. Each thread he tied together or doubled back to strengthen the preexisting thread until he could call it a string.

In the end, Terem was left with a four-foot string consisting of twined-together plant fibers.

Next, he picked out two long, dry sticks from his wood pile. Bending one stick, Terem tied the string to either end to make a short bow. Oddly enough, he never intended to use the bow for hunting and instead searched for a sharp stone that would snuggly fit into his palm. With this, he slightly sharpened the tip of the second stick.

Finally, Terem walked over to the decaying remains of a large fallen tree and began to hammer it with the stone until a small indent formed on the log's exterior. Now, everything was ready. Terem lined the indent with a thimble of dried grass before grabbing his bow and rod. Wrapping the bow string around the sharpened stick, he placed the stick's sharpened tip on top of the plant matter and began to rapidly saw back and forth, stopping every now and then to check the grasses.

After a few minutes of this, Davarose voiced his first complaint, not expecting to get an answer.

"Uhm... So what are you wasting your time doing, brat?"

'I'm making fire.'

Another few minutes of silence passed as Terem continued to methodically move the bow back and forth.

"I guess I shouldn't have expected an idiot like you to grasp the rudimentary concept of fire magic. How woeful am I to get bested by a brat like you? Just put me out of my misery already."

This time, Davarose said something that caught Terem's attention.

'Fire magic? Never heard of it. After all, I was kind of stuck inside your lab my entire life until now. How do you do it?'

Davarose mentally gleamed.

"Well then, allow me to educate an incompetent such as yourself in the ways of magic."