Chapter 3 Unfortunate encounter

'Round and round the whirlpool of darkness spins. The soul is truly a wondrous thing it does not lose hope nor despair in the face of death. It continues to yearn for life and experience, it does not rest nor does it stop. Always looking for a way out…'

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The boy was was abruptly pulled from the dizzying abyss as his consciousness awoke.

"Uhh" he groaned as he sat up. He looked around trying to recall what had happened, first of he had been changed location suddenly and he was now in a forest, the plants were strange and released a foul smell. He ate a harmful one and was paralysed and passed out.

He inspected himself to see if there was any changes in his body while he was asleep but nothing seemed amiss. He stood up dusting himself and thought about what to do next. He eventually decided to search around more and avoid any plants from now on. Thankfully, he did not die, heck he even felt better than before. Without wasting time he started to walk off when…

"Uma, Ilu keshi mini vi iyah kee" a cold and authoritative voice rang out from behind him.

The boy froze where he stood as cold sweat ran down his back. "How did I not notice someone behind me!?" he panicked. The eerily silence after threatened to engulf him as his knees grew weaker. The boy did not even move a muscle as it might spell his doom.

He could not understand what the feminine voice had said and he could not speak. He was between a rock and a hard place as the tension itself became so thick that it could be cut. Nothing happened for a while as the figure behind him waited for a reaction.

Suddenly, the boy felt an uncomfortable feeling invade his head and take root in the corner of his mind. He felt disturbed but it wasn't a physical feeling.

"I said, its better if you stay put, man cub" the voice rang out but this time in his mind and he could understand it. It was a peculiar experience as the words were still in the alien language he heard earlier but he could understand the meaning behind them fluently.

The boy though did not respond and just stood there.

"Pathetic, I despise weaklings like you." the person hissed in clear disgust. "TURN AROUND!" she shouted in annoyance, her voice booming all over the quiet forest.

With his eyes on the ground, he slowly turned. He kept his head down making sure not to view the person.

"Shouldn't you look at a person when they are addressing you?" she said. He lift his head and proceeded to look at the one who was emitting such an oppressive aura, but what he saw stunned him.

The woman wore a neutral expression but her deep set of black eyes had an unnerving trait to them that made anyone who looked at her avoid her strong eye contact. She sized up the boy and thought for a bit before opening her mouth. "First, go to the river nearby and clean up, also here are some clothes." as she said the last part she snapped her fingers and a pair of neatly folded thatch clothes appeared out of nowhere.

"Carry this also when you enter the lake, don't want you to die yet." she spat out as she threw what looked like a shell necklace. The boy caught it and wondered what it did. Seeing this, she gestured for him to wear it on his neck and when boy understood he nodded and when of to search for the river she has mentioned.

"I couldn't tell she was there yet when I noticed her I froze up and almost passed out again!" the boy had never felt this way, he clutched his fist tightly and wondered why he was so helpless.

He quickly bathed in the river with the necklace on and started to wear the thatch clothes when he was dry. After he was done he looked at the river water and this time he was surprised to see a thatch shirt floating in the air, the thatch shirt and pants were in the reflection but he still wasn't in it.

He looked at his olive coloured arms and wondered how his face looked like. "Huh" he sighed.

"Stop wallowing in self-pity, its off-putting, now follow me." She said in the reflection suddenly next to him. When the boy saw this he jumped back in shock tripping and falling down.

The woman clicked as she saw this and started to walk off.

The boy hurriedly stood and followed her but she immediately stopped when she had walked for a few minutes to her left. She looked up as if searching for something and closed her eyes.

Her brows wrinkled and she tensed up but nothing changed for a while when suddenly another eye opened up on her forehead, it was purple and had a subtle glow. The eye darted around as if following something but stopped and stared in front. The whole forest was silent as all of this was taking place. Nothing seemed to take place but… something had changed.

Yes, the very air itself was trembling and the boy could feel it, "What is happeni-" but before the boy could finish this thought a blast of cold air hit him and as he shut his eyes his body became weak and he started to wobble due to nauseousness.

When he opened his eyelids he was in a dark cabin, there was table in the middle that had a lamp that weakly illuminated the surrounding. He could barely see a desk filled with books and torn paper at the corner and a bookshelf on one of the walls stood tall with more books and what looked like ink in a glass jar.

The woman had already walked to the door by the time the boy realized where he was. She made a small swiping gesture that made the chair at the desk float to the middle of the room. Wordlessly staring at the boy she pointed at the chair. The boy submissively went and sat on it, the woman watched all this patiently at the door.

"Answer my questions or suffer in agony.", She hissed in a deep and dominating tone.

"Who are you and what business do you have in my territory?"