The Monk and Sleeping Spirit (Ava x Derg)

[Salvira Ava]

Introduction


It was like experiencing death, but never dieing yet still suffering. If only I was lucky enough to have it for a moment rather than eternity. Now days I cannot even recall the who's and how's of how it all started, it's not like I can just get up and start looking. My mind is no use either, I have finally learned everything in the process of the mind was a lie. It was strange to not be dead, yet very few people still see me. I'm ignored like a ghost, slowly withering away from existence. There is no comfort in reality. Till this day I still struggle to capture the attention of others but those who I have been 'lucky' with, quickly vanish due to those that haunt me.


Recently, the greatest comfort of mine is through an astral plain though mine never seems bright. Those closed minded would call it the imagination Through great relaxation, I lose my thoughts staring outside in whatever scene Nature has to provide. Like a robot with no emotional input. Though now that is more of a lie. I cannot see, nor relax. I am already eternally asleep. There I vision myself in a wary plain, gloom filled, shadows and cold but bright enough like...twilight. All I do is lay afloat above the ground frozen in time. Occasionally a 'spirit' will walk past me, less visible than I. A man in a black Hood lingers around me frequently. I know who he is or more of what. It's just darkness to you.


Drowning in the midst of nowhere or perhaps somewhere. The painful start enhanced by fear and anxiety, then the gentle fall wrapped by the internal currents of the water. Staring up into the fading light of the last sun you will ever see entering darkness. The glimmering bubbles flying past you, ones with your last bits of air encased inside. My body is only truly asleep. My mind takes place of the heart and destroys everything you once enjoyed. Crystallized in time.


Chapter One: She Only Tried For a Moment


Somewhere, yet nowhere was a land filled with sorrow. Darkening fog covered the ground hiding any possible pest that may be crawling around your feet. The land was quiet, so quiet that even silence had it's own sound. Occasionally, a crow could be seen gliding near ground then vanishing as if it were never there. Like the fog rose up engulfing the creature, a life of it's own. The land had a mind of it's own.


In the center of this sorrowful land was an empty plain, the fog was lighter but never the less haunting. To those rare sadden spirits who cross this plain consider it the Crossing, in belief that it linked different realms. But some never got to cross, they faded from existence due to the fog. There, frozen in time, was a young woman laying afloat just above the fog. She was completely still, no sudden signs of life escaped her but instincts told she was still alive.


A moment given, and a figure appeared before the sleeping woman. The figure appeared to look similar to the young woman, with her short cropped, ghostly silver hair matching the other. Minuets passed as the faded figure looked over herself, then raised her hand to examine it. I'm awake once more. I have to make it count for I do not know when I will wake again. A forest surrounded the empty plain and to the south, behind the faded woman, a low echo of a deep pain reached her ears. Looking back, she could only fear the pain that watched her in the distance. She must not head back. An sudden urge told her to make a run for it to the North, thus she did almost in panic. With each jolting step brought her closer to the shadowed trees that looked down upon her, once she made it to the trunk of the first lining, she took a look back. The southern forest was no longer there, now just an dark shadow towered over everything. Hang in there...Me.


The woman stepped carefully in the northern forest for it was known to be linked to reality. Occasionally you could see humans who were in deep meditation, wander around or perhaps sitting somewhere. She was able to see what they looked like to an extend though their faces may be blurred or be on a heavy grey scale. However, to them, she was nothing more than a faceless spirit. Deeper in the woods she came across a gentleman who was sitting beneath a tree, it appeared he was still in the process of "becoming full". There was a strong aura coming from him that draw her to, almost like force. She pranced around him, trying to see his face. Drawing close in almost like taking his breath away. She tried hard when she found someone, in hopes they could help her. False energy filled her spirit as she got close, then she sat in front of him....


Can you... me....


Her voice faded.

 

[DergTheDergon]

Deep in the woods, at dawn, a figure sat still beneath a tree, legs crossed, hands folded, breathing steady. this figure was Vallen, a bald man in his mid twenties, face and body marked with the tattoos of his order. A bo staff rested against the trunk of the tree, as the first bits of golden-orange sunlight peeked through the canopy, illuminating the stoic figure sitting as a statue below. This was a ritual Vallen partook in every morning, leaving the monastery before dawn, coming out here to meditate. Something about these woods drew him in... as he spent more time here, he felt more and more energies and emotional residues in the air here. This place had a heavy supernatural aura around it, and vallen found the atmosphere of this place more than suitable for meditation.


Suddenly, he found his concentration being pulled away from his thoughts. This had happened before, in fact many monks of his order believe such things to be a good omen. but this time, the feeling of being woken from his trance but something other then himself was the strongest it had ever been. He felt a presence that seemed to chill him to the bone... most would think this a bad sign, panic, perhaps run away screaming however, this intrigued vallen more than anything else. In spending so much time in these woods, thought to be cursed or haunted by superstitious peasants, Vallen had become attuned to unsettling presences in a way.


He focused on this strange presence, and found his eyes opening. before him, for a brief moment, he saw something- no, someone- that certainly wasn't "normal," though nothing in these woods were as they seemed. It seemed to be the figure of a woman, moving to sit in front of him. For a moment, he heard her voice, he was sure of it. Her words seemed mostly unintelligible, but he could simply tell from the aura of distress about her that she seemed desperate, in need of something. Of what, exactly, he was not sure. He breathed deeply, pushing away the fear he felt, focusing on empathy for her distress. He looked straight at this apparition, and spoke to it. Not through his mouth, but through his mind. Spirits hear thoughts, feel emotions, especially if said thoughts and emotions are directed towards them... at least that was what he had been taught 'I can sense you,' he thought, whilst focusing on the apparition before him. 'If you need something of me, show me a sign.'

 

[Salvira Ava]

Struggling, she tried desperately to attract this man's attention. He was still too difficult to see, his appearance seemed a lively grey. Deep down she felt as she will not be able to attract this man's attention like all the other attempts she had made in the past with others. But when he spoke out, she panicked. He can see me? She thought. No. This seemed impossible. "...show me a sign." Echoed to her. At first she pondered on it staring right back at him. Then, she faded out and back in a few steps away from the man. Standing there, eerie as darkness, she raised her hand towards him as if an invitation to take. Instead she turned her back and pointed back down south which grew harder and harder to see as the darkness overtook. The young woman begun to walk of towards the shadows where her physical body awaited for her. Though to her she was walking, to humans, she was floating off. She had yet to understand that their vision is going to be different to hers.


Pausing for a moment, she turned back facing the human who have asked her to give a sign. She attempted to smile but it seemed lifeless. The trees around them swayed gently, yet sorrowfully as if something made them weep. In her world, there was no sun to brighten the day nor moon to calm the night. It t'was twilight in it's cruelest form. Pain filled her body as she reached out towards the mysterious man. However, she could not keep her spirit there much longer. Gruesome shadows from the south finally caught up to where she stood now, slowly beginning to devour everything around her. With a silent painful cry, she could only let out a huff of air, her face stretching out fearfully. She tried so hard to pull herself away from the closing in shadow but soon, one by one, parts of her body began to seep through it's wall.


Once her spirit has been devoured, the wall of gruesome shadow dissipated revealing an nearly empty plain. Only fog to truly accompany it. In the center laid afloat a woman, forest surrounded the plain. Echoes of inaudible whispers, could be heard on occasions. The woman was lifeless, no emotion to accompany her pale face. There were some features that matched that of the spirit, yet at the same time they seemed like two completely different people. Maybe it was their energy.

 

[DergTheDergon]

Vallen watched in curiosity mixed with disbelief as the ghostly apparition of a woman held out her hand, then turned and pointed to the south, perhaps trying to lead him somewhere. He slowly stood, taking his staff in his right hand, slowly beginning to walk towards her with a quizzical look on his face, and a furrowed bow. He was entirely unsure of what to make of this. Where did she want him to go? What did she want him to do? Could he trust that she didn't have malevolent intent? So many questions, with the only possible answers lying wherever she wanted him to go. Something about her drew him to her, so he began to follow more closely. Just then, she looked back and him and smiled, the forest itself reacting to her presence. He had seen many strange things in his days, but this certainly took the cake thus far. The shadows began to grab for her, and he found himself reaching out to pull her away from them, to no avail. She was not grounded in this world. Then, the fog dissipated and he could not believe what lay before him- a bleak landscape of plains, seemingly molding itself from the surrounding forest, warping reality. He stood in stunned silence for a while, before moving forwards by sheer force of will. In the distance, he saw a woman, floating unnaturally in the air. The spirit? No, different... wait, was she? He couldn't exactly tell. He pushed from his mind thoughts that told him this wasn't real, and instead focused on learning more of this intriguing eerie apparition, by stepping forward.