Audaces Fortuna Luvat

Chapter 5 "Fortune Favours the Brave"

Wolves asleep amidst the trees . . .

Bats all a swaying in the breeze . . .

But one soul lies anxious wide awake . . .

Fearing all* manner of ghouls, hags and wraiths

. . . . . Quietus Awakened: Jormungandr . . . . .

***

Strange and eerie looming edifices reached above the darkened clouds littering with infernal forms, their unintelligible soul piercing screams echoed throught the entire place as they encircled a giant obsidian obelisk in the middle of it.

While a long and black coloured marble bridge went forth, out in the distance to the incomprehensible monolithic structure that stood beyond it with this incredible lines of circuitry glowing in a deep and crimson hue.

Corrosive black liquid escaped the outer planes of existence, It came and pooled around from an intricately designed gray cauldron that caused it to fly towards the darkened skies in a linear motion.

Reverberating static humming noise filtered the area that bellowed with this chanting like tone from hundreds of Cephalopod statues aligning along the bridge on top of enormous columns.

Red and Black thunder whirled in this unnatural wave, forming an tornado along the sides of deep black lakes at the banks of the bridge rear.

There at the fore front of it all, A small being stood with the size of the walkway engulfing it , Dizzy and shaken by all the vast trembling movements escaping around the lines of its eyes.

It wobbles back and forth towards the towering obsidian made structure while its irises turned from eclipse black; to white as a canvas.

The entities head and sockets bleed, black ooze as it struggled going to the end of the pathway, feeling this intense pain when it did continue forward.

Slowly everything turns into one big blurry apparition of an antidiluvian creature that had this deep grin on its features, It started to stare downwards to the shocked figure that sauntered towards it from below due to its humongous size.

And once it did that, after a long while, everything turns red as the images escapes, fading towards a door glowing with this chromatic starlight; It opened itself to the being that stood dazed by the final labour of the lucid nightmare . . . when it did.

Everything turned black . . . . . . then . . . Deep Violet glazing three eyes of a creature brightens beyond the darkness . . . its violet hands made of light willed up to distinguishable sights, hovering throught the darkness in this bent praising pose . . . . . . . . . . . *Claps.

*Boom

Multiple bright dots of stars bursts out in the horizon as the galaxy birthed itself to the small figures eyes, Vast amounts of unimaginable colors twirled around the cosmos taking in gas and liquid forms.

Specks of dusts glittered before all of it creating giant rock formations and shows of fire storms raining in accelerations around the universes halo.

Bodies of celestial creatures accumulated through the stars with its monstrous size, forming itself, yelling in this victorious and mighty roar.

While planets of all sizes appeared out in the distance, the peripherals of the lone being then zoomed further and further to a tiny piece of rock encircling around a sun in a small galaxy.

Holding fauna and flora, glowing in this deep blue color.

All of this went as the eyes beyond that stared at the person who was too mesmerized by what it saw . . . . .

And then everything suddenly disappeared into a hollow . . .

A Woman's eyes opened up as the images passed her mind.

***

Lars opening her eyes, felt this uncomfortable restrictions on her body while she lies down on bed.

Fear and mesemirization were written all over her eyes, But that subsides quickly for all of it was forgotten immediately.

Suddenly this unbearable pangs of dizziness to the point of it becoming painful bursts throughout her mind.

Causing her to sit up out of instinct, but when she did the weight of the numerous layers of blankets made her fall back down due to months of fatigue.

Dragging one of her hand upwards, Lars clasped her head, then started to rub out the dizziness by massaging the temples to ease the pain.

Struggling to push back up with the other hand still deeply covered by the folded heavy woolen sheets.

And as she did this, Lars begins to scan the area before her not liking the new environment that greeted itself at the moment, It is an unfamiliar yet nostalgic lofty bedroom gravitated the weight of her stress.

The pain was subsiding but it wasn't enough for Lars to not cry out in pain.

"Ouch ahhhh . . . What were am I, What Happened"

Exclaiming out of frustration, she tried to recollect of the past events that led her to this sorry state. But the memories are left vague which baffled her.

As the only thing that Lars remembered was that she was in a tent underground with a mysterious man assigning her with tasks about a illegal expedition group.

This task and archaeological study was a part of her assignments that was crucial for her career path. As she longed to get certified from it.

Yet as Lars tried to recall, the pain begun to increase again, making her gasp out of reflex from the hurting, exclaiming softly.

"Ouch ahhh . . . . . what the . . . What in the world just happened to me . . ." her soft crys went throughout the interior of the room, causing a commotion outside of it as it echoed.

This quiet demeanor of hers never lasted as her eyes widened from the realisation. This is her room . . . . .

Small but cosy, it was designed with this deep brown and red diamond pattern on the lower half and deep white at the upper half.

While brown paintings of tiny deers travelling around in a circle encompassed the white portion of the walls, the deers gave off this calm feeling to it whenever someone would stare at its design.

A fire place that crackled with gentle heat at the opposite end of it with a large tapestry of her family above.

Then there is this wooden dresser and a mirror outlined with silver swans to the left of her bed.

And to the right of the bed is a balcony enclosed by a glass door with red curtains fully opened. enabling the rays of sunlight to beam at her features.

Lars pondered over it for a while, as she was clueless on how she got all the way here, for the place she went . . . . . was a whole continent away.

It would take three months to get back to her place.

Unexpectedly, Lars doors at the far left end corners from her bed bursted open, Two feminine well dressed figures hurriedly rushed to Lars side to check her conditions out of worry.

They are both wearing uniformed dresses that were fitted for manual labor, maids.

"The Young Lady of the house has woken up! Quickly alert the Marchioness! and call the doctors!" One of them acclaimed, and as the maid said this the other nodded in notion and rushed back outside.

While the maid exited, alternately another figure hurriedly entered the room.

This person was more masculine in stature, that he gave off a very strong vibe of professionalism as he wore this deep black and white clothing, butler.

Approaching the bed ridden Lars, he had this very worried expression on his face, exclaiming that worry in a hoarsely german voice.

"My goodness Young Lady! Larissa, Thank the Gods that you woke up! Everybody has been so greatly worried ever since your disappearance, We thought you were kidnapped! So we called the 'Guardia Civil' to investigate and find you immediately . . . But to our grief we couldn't find anything about your whereabouts . . . so we assumed your death after the five month passed by."

An old and well dressed man wearing a silver monocle placed on the right of his eye expresses the sorrow he felt to Larissa.

The maid also wavered as the butler said that with tears building up and trickling down from her eyes.

"Please don't leave the protection of the manor again! That scared me to the doors of death, So tell me Lady Larissa . . . Tell me that you're not going to leave us, Tell me that you're not going to do that again" her cute russian voice broke as she said this.

Larissa was baffled, for she remembered these people, they never broke down like this before her . . . They were always strict to the point she couldn't take it anymore, to the point of her running away from home.

She called out their names as they expressed themselves, bewildered by what they said.

"Butler Wilson . . . Big sister Mina . . . You guys"

Three more figures entered the room in a hurriedly manner, Her eyes widen on their faces, the faces she dreaded to meet again for she could never ever look straight at their features.

Yet this notion was replaced by warmth and sorrow as she saw them in the same vulnerable state her caretakers were at.

The two rushed to embrace her with tears going down their eyes.

"Mother . . . Father . . ." Larissa could only murmur in shock.

But that shock was replaced once again by deep sorrow as she looked at them even deeper.

*sniffle

Both their hair which was once golden blond has turned almost completely white, While their eyes bags were deep with dark spots on them; Wrinkles visible as the stress of losing her was to much.

Larissa's soft heart broke.

"My child . . . my child is home . . . Young Lady don't do that again" Larissa's mother cried out trembling in her french voice.

"We are going to have a good talk about this once you have fully recovered young lass . . . for now recover" Larissa's Father exclaimed in a hoarse British voice.

She understood that they sounded like they were mad at her, But deep down she new they were just trying to put a strong front as they truly were nearly broken.

They thought they lost her and that was more then enough to cause a emotional break down.

Alas because of that short notion, She cried out and hugged both of her parents deeply, there was this slight pause on both of them, before they both trembled and broke down with her as they cried their hearts out.

***

Larissa sat at the chairs on her balcony, watching the few numbers of the houses caretakers going with their daily tasks while she recovered from her weakened state.

She pondered over herself about the good whole week of doing nothing that passed by.

For the entire time, her parents and caretakers never questioned what has happened to her, but scheduled it and proceeded to take real good care of her as they were too worried about her health to bother it any longer.

At first they tried considering to ask her, But when they heard her struggling to remembering things they discarded those thoughts and continued to get her back in shape.

They also took precautionary measures out of fear, Fear that bringing that thought up would trigger something hiding in her memories.

This was decided when they saw her dead eyes as she spoke, it saddened them immensely.

Larissa's mother would forbid her from leaving the room for the entirety of the current week while somebody watched and took care of her daily necessities.

They allowed her to do a number of things though like standing up as it was recommended by the doctors, or to eat more, and read romantic books instead of research as they didn't want her to be stressed nor bored.

She didn't have to act elegantly, or speak without manners. As they didn't care about it and told her to be herself.

And when Larissa thought of being herself . . . nothing comes into mind, because for her entire life she has done nothing but act in their favour.

So when she told her mother and father about it, they were more than shocked as they thought they have given her enough time to develop herself with her own hobbies.

To be specific 'three hours everyday' as they were afraid to be labelled as uncultured by the noble circle before, now not so.

They know being in a noble family is hard, but they never thought it would be so hard for Larissa, they put her first before them.

Since unlike any other typical noblemen who married for benefits, she is their love child it was out of love that she came to be . . .

But not knowing what to do they asked the doctor for anything that could help her.

But the doctor told them that he wasn't a psychologist, which is the newer branch of doctors that appeared twenty years ago during the next century.

So they went and look for one, But Larissa knowing the state of their household discouraged it, still they insisted knowing that their almost bankrupt.

So here she was trying to figure out how to get her family out of bankruptcy, again as she thought about for the last six months that passed, spending most of it in the illegal expedition.

"That expedition . . . Bollogs, why can't I remember correctly . . . its as if something is blocking thy brain from remembering . . . ugh this is so frustrating . . . At the end of that journey I don't know what happened and I didn't find any treasures to solve this family dilemma."

Larissa complained while clasping her head with both hands, laying her head on the smoothed quartz table on the balcony.

"Can't fret over it any longer . . . I guess poor me has to embrace the fall of house Crimsonheart within four months . . . How I wished I found something . . . . . Twas all for naught huh"

She then stood up and entered her bed room, going to the door leading outside of it.

And as she was closing this door she paused . . . thinking that there is something wrong with her . . .

But she dismissed that thought and exited her room.

Yet as she left the room, the rays of the sun light beamed over her the entire time.

If there were anybody in her room at that moment they would notice that there is something indeed wrong with her.

Because for the entire time . . . . . She made no shadows.