Silverlight

The two young men standing opposed in the center of the forest path, partially illuminated by the oscillating moonlight flickering through the treeline. Lukas abruptly halts his progress before slightly turning his head to peer at his adolescent contender, his gaze makes Genryu uneasy but he stands his ground. "You don't scare me... you and your empty-minded goons pick on me because I can accomplish things that you could only dream of", a golden aura ignites around his body as he speaks. "You're right about one thing though, I'm not special because of my magic... I'm special because of who I am". Genryu matches the intensity of Lukas' gaze and says "I don't need to try to intimidate you, that isn't even worth my time", the light dissipates as Genryu stands under unfiltered moonlight.

Lukas shifts his body facing forward, and continues down the path without saying another word, eventually disappearing from Genryu's view. He breathes a heavy sigh of relief, before turning and continuing along the path. The night is quiet once again, the gentle sea breeze wafts through the trees carrying the salty smell of the ocean gliding up the mountainside, Genryu eventually reaches the peak of the mountainside and approaches the base of a tree. He places his hand upon the thick trunk of the tree, whispering "Hi Mom" softly, the moonlight reflects off of the leaves shimmering with a beautiful silver hue. Genryu lies beneath the limbs of the tree, thinking back to the first moment he came to this spot. He instinctually understood that he was connected to it, almost like it had its own gravity, he felt inexplicably drawn inward. The desire to be near the tree seems to only affect him as most would choose to avoid this place, after visiting the first time, it quickly became the only place on the island where he felt protected and safe.

When he was much younger than now, he came here with Basmet on a dreary rainy day. Basmet explained why this place was significant and important to the family, this was the final resting place of an incredible woman named "Namira Fukuda". She was a powerful mage, blessed with magic that was gentle yet strong much like herself but she was more than her powers. She had an inexplicable talent for befriending others, some said she could even turn raiders into clergymen after a single conversation. The tales of her exploits are numerous, one such story told of her great accomplishment, taming the great beast "Silver Tusk" with just her voice. Her most valued feat was giving birth to an astonishing baby boy, he revealed that this woman was Genryu's mother. Over the years, when everything felt too overwhelming, Genryu would escape to this safe haven and ask for his mother's guidance and protection. He never believed himself to be talented or personable like she was, he never understood how someone who was considered to be so amazing could sire a child as unexceptional as him.

Over the years, Genryu would slip out of the house to visit his mother's grave and spend whole days under the Silverleaf tree that grew out of the peak of the mountainside. The only location on that island that provided him succor against the cruelties of the world below. Even though he's never been off the island before and there have been numerous moments where he felt as though he would never escape, but this place always seems to cleanse him of those plights. He could spend hours in the shade of this miraculous tree, and just watch everything happening below. The sailors resting their ships on the dock, the children running around the village square, and the daily motions of the townsfolk. He may not have ever had real conversations with the people of the village but in moments like this, he truly felt connected to the island's people, even if it was only for a few short hours.

After ruminating while under the tree for about an hour, Genryu notices some falling leaves from the tree; he finds this odd since the tree has never shed its foliage before. He begins to examine the tree, as he steps around to the back of the tree he notices numerous leaves littering the ground and a large streak of black has traveled up the backside of the trunk. As he leans in to touch the black streak, he gets a sudden flash of the creature from his nightmare paired with a sudden surge of pain upon his fingertips. He recoils from the experience, almost simultaneously the ground begins to quake again the entire island begins to shake as it did before but only for a few moments. This was enough to awaken the townspeople and Genryu notices several torches ignite both down in the town and at Basmet's cottage.

"What was that...'' he ponders to himself, he looks to the tree and notices that the streak of blackened bark seems to be extending, spreading through the entire tree and rotting it. Genryu begins to panic as this event transpires, he presses his hands against the mark once more and tries to perform the same healing technique as before but his light-emitting is quickly consumed by the blackened bark when he comes into contact with it. The silver leaves on the branches of the tree quickly begin to wither as they drop one by one, softly floating down to the now blackening soil near Genryu's feet. It feels as if his heart has dropped into the pits of his stomach upon witnessing this, he frantically attempts to heal the tree; he doesn't understand why this is happening but before he can do anything significant another more powerful quake emerges and begins to split the ground where he stands. The earth beneath his feet cleaves itself open, ripping away any stable foundation, causing him to slip backward and crash into the dirt. He attempts to quickly recover and look toward the tree but it's already started to sink into the depths.

Genryu lays helplessly watching in horror as his most cherished place on the entirety of Kiah island was slowly engulfed into forsaken earth. "Genryu!" A stern voice calls out to him, this sudden shock rouses him from his paralyzed state, he manages to roll back to get some distance between him and the continuously growing pit quickly forming. He was able to get out of the range of the pit, after recovering and steps back onto the forest path with just enough time to witness the final flickers of the silver leaves crashing into a black pit of murky darkness. He drops to his knees horrified by the events that transpired, Basmet steps beside him muttering "It has begun..." before turning to face Genryu and clutching his shoulder. Basmet begins to shake Genryu rapidly with force as he states "We must go from this place, Follow me!" with a panicked tone.

Genryu wasn't responding to Basmet's words, he seemed numb to the world at that point. Watching the destruction of his haven was too much to bear, Basmet assists him to his feet and guides him through the forest. Several animals flee past the two as they're traveling, during this time Basmet was incoherently muttering to himself as Genryu stares blankly ahead. By the time Genryu realized what was going on, he was standing on an older wooden pier. It was smaller and worn down than the one within the village, it led to a small boat, Basmet lit a torch and stood next to the vessel before turning to face Genryu, "Get in the boat, it's time for you to go now..." he stated in a serious tone as he gestured toward the boat.