Requiem Of A Failed Hero

An endless space of stays arrayed in the sky beyond him, unlike the empty feel of the abyss he knew this was different. He would have almost called it beautiful if not for how odd the stars of this world were, they had different colors but red, purple, and green were the most prominent colors amongst this array, and following this array was a trail of red aurora that left the reflection of the icy plain he stood shrouded in a coat of redness.

[Welcome to Felfhiem]

'Un?'

Raith was dismayed and confused but he wasn't dumb and was quick on the uptake.

'Felfhiem...?'

The word sounded very familiar to him.

'From the book 'Many things we wished we didn't know'

Raith rubbed his chin as the holographic tab stared back at him with the same message, nothing more nothing less but soon disappeared.

"Isn't Many things we wished we didn't know written by the heretic Hallan Lamur, which was supposed to be his last book expressing his regret of how he spent his life because of a certain enlightenment he came by..."

Raith scratched his hair, trying to break into the lingering memories of the book with his thoughts.

'Felfhiem...'

The lines were still blurry but he was sure that it sounded very familiar and it was spoken about in that book.

He looked forward at the wide snowy plain immediately the cold breeze blew past him gripping him by his bones.

He shivered irresistibly and sneezed.

"I have to find shelter"

He said as he began to walk forward, with every step buried deep into the snow as he walked along a straight path following the lead of the aurora.

...

A while later, Raith reached a cabin that stood alone in the snow, the rooftops were covered with snow such it would easily be mistaken to have been purely molded by snow and the structure itself gave an ominous feel.

But Raith didn't mind, that was the least of his concerns right now.

He fastened his pace, still couldn't prevent his legs from going into the snow but made sure he was quick regardless. As he got closer to the cabin the depth at which his leg was buried drastically reduced and with a slight touch from him the door swung open as if it was expecting him.

Luckily what Raith sought after was already there–

'Fire!'

His eyes lit up and sparkled with the flames which reflected in his balls from inside the room's fireplace. The cold was unbearable for him, he was lucky because his jackets were thick to a certain degree thanks to Cavanaugh's cold temperature.

However, this place's temperature was far superior to that of Cavanaugh, a cold that gripped him by the throat and continually forced something out of it, but with every sneeze, nothing came out. Not to mention his bones, especially his legs, he could feel his toes frozen even though they were inside his chelsea boots.

He sat in front of the fireplace with delight and haste not caring to look around the house—he immediately stretched his toward the fire.

He never thought he would one day appreciate and love the presence of fire so much.

"I see you are quite the reckless young man"

'Un?'

Like a thundering clap, the bass tone snuck into his ears from behind as a massive figure occupied the doorway and its shadow was cast all over Raith as he entered the cabin.

He was wearing a very thick jacket with black furry edges. The jacket itself was brown and no outstanding designs could be seen on it apart from the pockets towards the lower base.

Raith's gaze slowly went up with a gaze. The man smiled back at him, his beard was white as well as his hair, and his face was filled with wrinkles that instantly gave away the fact that he was quite old but those murderous eyes hidden behind his smile and his awfully large body negated the obvious fact.

"You should at least close the door, shouldn't you... or you could get eaten."

Raith gulped as the man closed the door and walked towards what one would call a parlor but it was just two wooden chairs one of them was a rocking chair with a small stool in between the two and the man's wooden bed made with black straws towards the corner of the room and to the base of the bed was a rectangular table that the man's belongings such as books and wood carvings stayed on. Linear to that table was the fireplace which Raith sat in front of.

"Where are you from?"

The man said as he sat on the rocking chair with a deep exhale insisting that he had a long day.

"I-I-I..."

Raith's mouth shivered for the first few seconds, it could have been the cold or fear but he realized he didn't know exactly what to tell the man and paused.

First of all, he wasn't expecting there to be another human–at least human looking creature in the abyss.

'Or am I not in the abyss?'

The man with a stagnant smile awaited his response.

"Isn't this place the abyss?"

The man's gaze immediately changed, finally revealing his murderous gaze with eyeballs that glowed and exuded a purple aura. It wasn't a fluke, even the room's atmosphere bowed to his expression and the air was seized, the flames lowered itself so low that it could die any moment. The cold and pressure of the room terrorized every bit of Raith's body, his eyes couldn't dare to behold the man twice and stayed on the ground with beads of sweat forming on his forehead in this intense cold.

"The abyss? Hahahahaaa!"

The man immediately switched again to a peal of thundering laughter, ridding the atmosphere of the pressure—the fire began to burn high again and the cold slowly was eradicated and so was the tension on Raith's shoulders.

"I see, you came through the gate"

He said.

"Yes, yes the gate!"

Raith was glad to hear something he could relate with.

"How weird, you are human? How are you here?"

The man's voice came from Raith's side, he realized the man was not sitting on the chair opposite him before realizing he was already bending beside him, right at his blind spot.

Raith turned, flustered, and quickly backed away from the man hasten crawling.

"No need to be scared. A human in Felfhiem is going to be a big deal, you should be happy you met me first. The odd thing is... I can feel the gazes of the abyss on you."

"What is that? Isn't this place supposed to be the abyss?"

Raith asked.

"Well, it is supposed to be but isn't... the abyss is in Felfhiem but takes many forms, the abyss could be me, could be the air, or could be the fire staring back into your eyes."

The man shifted his gaze into the fire for a few minutes before he complained.

"But the abyss only reveals itself to the chosen..."

"The chosen?"

"Yes, the child of death and darkness, who will carry on the will of the ruler of Felfhiem."