ARC I - Chapter 1 Mwanzo

Coldness, Darkness, and Silence. That was the first thing he was exposed to.

BOOM!

"What?", the boy thought to himself.

"Where...am I?", he continued in his head.

"Need...warmth". He tried to stand up but found it very difficult, his whole body ached and his legs could not support him.

He looked around, he seemed to be in a cave of some sort but the strange thing were the crystals on the ceiling which released a soft glow of blue light that gave off a peculiar feeling of comfort when one noticed them.

"When did I get here? Who am I? I can't remember a single thing!" he started to panic as more of his thoughts started to form and make sense.

As he was trying to get a hold of reality his noticed a shimmer at the corner of his eyes, when he looked to see what it was he was shocked. The clear, liquid bubbled on the ground as if it was simmering. "Water!" he exclaimed in his thoughts. He hastily tried to run to the source of the water but ended up crawling to it while gasping.

When he reached the source he was surprised to see a large body of water, way more than he had initially thought would be there. "A lake?" he asked no one in particular. Yes, it was a lake but oddly enough it had a subtle glow of blue that seemed to originate from nowhere.

The boy quickly dipped his head into the water to take gulps of the enchanting water.

"AAARGH!" the boy screamed as he whipped his head back in extreme pain. He did not expect the water to be so cold and 'acidic'. He coughed violently as he tried to remove the 'acidic' water that burned his throat.

"Did I drink poison? But the water was clear and fresh!?" he thought in shock. As he calmed down he decided to check the water before interacting with it again. Maybe a colourless and odorless poison?

"Wait…", he wondered "Poison, what is poison?" when he thought this a mind numbing headache assaulted his head. He clutched his head in pain and tried to endure it.

"Focus on the water for now." he told himself. He looked at the water that almost seemed to pull him in to drink every time he was near it. He cautiously dipped his finger in the water at but as soon as his skin touched the water a cool and burning sensation spread through his index finger and slowly started to rise to his hand.

He raised his arm in panic in order to stop the weird yet familiar sensation of the water from moving through his body. "Familiar?" he was intrigued but a subtle ache in his head started to form. "Let's stop." he stopped himself from going down that train of thought as it would have consequences.

The boy was now unsure of what to do, he wanted to explore the cave and find a tunnel that led outside but was too tired to even stand on his own to feet.

As he lay there staring at the water he recalled a similar feeling of comfort he had felt earlier.

"Strange, the crystals were giving off a similar feeling." he thought puzzled by the weird coincidence.

The boy looked at the water again thinking of what could be the difference but stopped midway when he noticed something weird on the surface of the water. "Where is my reflection? The water is reflecting the cave but I can't see myself." he felt slightly disturbed by this creepy phenomena.

"Are my thoughts starting to become more coherent?" he wondered, "Aren't they more consistent too." The boy could not tell if his thoughts were starting to get better and more fluent.

"I also feel much better than earlier when I woke up" he noticed. He looked again at the water still simmering but now it was even releasing a small amount of mist. He leaned closer but as soon as he breathed in the mist he was exposed to the all familiar feeling of having his throat burned, this time though through his nose.

After the enduring the excruciating pain he gasped for the normal air. "Why is water so toxic? Toxic, but it didn't harm me the first time I drank it, it stung for a while but am fine after a few seconds."

Maybe the water was just painful but safe to drink?

"Most likely." but to just to be safe he cupped the water in his hands and sipped a minute amount. The cold feeling traveled from his throat down his gullet to his stomach. To be honest he felt quite shaken by the fact that he could feel the water moving down his body.

He waited for a few seconds bearing the stinging feeling of the water and after a while when nothing happened he was filled with delight "Yes! At least the water doesn't have any harmful short-term side-effects."

Slowly he took turns of drinking the water to quench his thirst and resting on the floor to try and regain his energy. Soon enough he felt that he could move around comfortably.

"I guess it's time to give it another shot."

The boy at first tried to stand up but wobbled unsteadily. He kept falling but that was nowhere enough to break his determination. After a few minutes of trying and failing, around the 14th attempt he succeeded and managed to balance himself and look around.

"On to part two." this time he tried to walk but miserably ended up planting his face on the cave floor. "Huh" he sighed with disappointment. He again stood up and tried to walk to other parts of the cave.

Weirdly enough this time it took him only four attempts to be able to walk normally and move around the cave.

He shortly reveled in this small victory as he walked around the cave looking at the crystal that released a steady glue blow that illuminated the cave.

"This isn't the time for sightseeing...Sightseeing?" but before he could continue he felt an ache start to develop and by now he knew of the consequences on going down that route of thought so he quickly pushed the thought aside as soon as it appeared.

"I need to get out of here."

Indeed, he was quite in a predicament.

As he was walking from place to place searching every nook and cranny he spotted a small opening on one of the walls. When he reached it and looked at it seemed like more of a hole than an opening, it was small, to be more specific it was suited for a smaller creature to crawl through.

"Should I take the risk? The water was painful but it helped me gain my strength." he thought, "Best case scenario I find an opening to a tunnel that leads outside, worst case scenario I find something in there."

"There's no point in wasting time thinking about it, how much time has already passed since I woke up."

He bent down and decided to crawl through the hole and find out what was on the other side, if there was even another side...