The allure of the abyss is inescapable. Even so, no one has managed to reach the end. A golden city that sleeps at the bottom of the abyss. Relics that surpass understanding. For 1900 years we have ventured into the darkness hoping to make greater and greater discoveries. The romance of a lost age and the arcane. Drawn to the great unknown, the abyss devours us.
Four days ago
The afternoon sun shone down on the city of Orth just like any other bright summer day. The city was bursting with people, the business of selling artifacts and equipment went on as thoroughly to keep up the supply and demand of the mercenaries gathered at this specific city just for one thing. Artifacts, they were not only popular in the city of Orth but around the whole world as well. People came from far and wide to get their hands on the most precious of artifacts resulting in a mixed group of people from different cultures. They weren't only here to get a look at the artifacts but also to salvage them from the abyss. Rivaling delvers went down there everyday to find the most precious of artifacts despite the great danger. And then we are not even talking about the dangers of the abyss but the danger of their own greed. Once you go down in the abyss to discover its secrets it keeps getting harder to get back up again. Yet, there are still individuals who seek to find the most hidden secret of the abyss. What is down at the bottom?
A soft dim of light shone through the sun-sided window, the small particles of dust scattered themselves down gently all across the room as the orange hue of light eliminated the whole room. It was quiet, only the faint sound of pages flipping over one by one every time another page had been finished and the soft yelling of kids playing outside. A young small girl dressed in a simple brown dress gazed over the pages as time ticked on. She was sitting with her small frame against the bookshelves on the ground as she was quietly reading the day away. She found herself lost in the words of the book, the many drawing that had been made of various never seen before things. It was like a fairytale but despite that it was real. It was just under her feet, thousand of meter beneath the soil was a whole different world unexplored by most. She flipped another page, and another. It didn't stop, she could not take her eyes of the book. There were so many pretty and special things in the abyss that she wanted to see with her own eyes. The way it was described was unique, it actually felt a little like she was there when she was reading any book or text… In the abyss, close to a gentle warm fire spread across her body sitting next to an adventurer whilst he was reading a story to her and showed her many different things. It was great, the sun reached the point that it would hit her eyes. She swiftly closed them in annoyance as she turned her head away, she was taken out of trance.
"Oh right..."
She softly muttered as she put the book on her lap and softly rubbed both her eyes. Her eyes were as square as a box from having read so long. It was getting a habit to be reading all day in the small library they had at the orphanage. She could just sink herself into a few books for a few hours and come back up as hungry as an ox. The black haired girl leaned herself against the bookshelf while she took the book on her lap by the cover up with her. Her legs were shaking lightly as she was standing straight up still supporting herself by the bookshelf. Her legs seemed to be sleeping. She growled a little in annoyance as she softly took a few steps and put the book back where it belonged. Her legs had regained their blood back a bit as she stood up a bit longer and eventually she got some pace back in her steps as she made her way to the main part of the building. It was all silent in the building, her gaze passed over to the windows at her side as she timidly made her way through the hallways of the building with her dress softly fluttering after her in every step. The others were playing outside in the sun, that was always the case when it was sunny. The whole orphanage would play outside. Karen wasn’t so playful however. She would have life just a little more serious, a bit more grown up. It has exactly been two years ago that her sister had died. She remembered this day well, her sister was coughing in bed, she did barely respond to the things they said to her. It… no, she shouldn’t think back about it. Her sister wouldn’t want it either that she would dwell on things like this. Her pace quickened, her dress lightly jumping up and down. Only happy thoughts, she would be getting dinner, chat a little and go to bed. Just like any other normal day.
Her legs hurted... that was weird. Wait, was her vision always this bad. She felt like it wasn’t suppose to be this way. Huh..., why was the ground so close. A heavy thud sounded through the orphanage. Oh… she fell, it didn’t hurt though. She just felt a little bad that she had fallen. With all her strength she pushed herself up again. She was sweating, no one had come to check on her yet. She pushed one of her hands up to her face and gazed at it for a moment. It was shaking like crazy. Her breathing became faster. She knew what this was. She knew it. This was bad. Karen pushed herself up slowly, no one seemed to be inside at the moment since no one had checked on her yet. Karen could still walk if she held onto something, it was just the dizziness and headaches that caught her off guard before she fell. She should get as far as she could right now before the pain became worse. Karen patiently made her way over to her room. She wasn’t fast but could still move at a fair tempo when she tried. First thing she did when she got to her room was pull out a few of her drawers and clothes and quickly stuffed them in her bag. Her head was spinning, how could she work with this. Numerous items went into her backpack making quite a ruckus while she was gathering her things. It didn’t take long before someone found out what she was all up to. The sound of something falling behind her pierced through her ears. In shock she turned around and fell against her own bed. Hazily she saw one of her friend standing behind her. Dinner dropped on the ground as he gazed in shock at the girl. She looked more like an animal right now than actual human. She was too focused on getting away.
”Y-yu-”
”WHAT ARE YOU DOING STUPID SHRIMP!”
Karen gazed at him in surprise as she was yelled at. She dropped a piece of underclothes as she dropped down the rest of her body alongside her in awe.
”YOU CAN’T JUST LEAVE FROM HERE YOU STUPID STUPID SHRIMP! YOU CAN’T JUST PACK UP AND DISAPPEAR!”
”Yuz-”
”YOU C-CAN’T DISAPPEAR AND JUST LEAVE ME AND THE REST ALONE JUST LIKE ELEN, RICK, JAM-MIE…”
”Yuzu I-I-”
Tears well up in Yuzu his eyes as Karen slowly collects herself and crawls her way towards the boy.
”ROSE, CASPER… Irmoni… Yozi…”
”Yuzu… T-Tomorrow is my birthday… My sister… she was 10 as well… Yuzu… I’m scared… I feel hot and my head spins. I heard it o-only occurs in Orth. P-please… I want to save myself. Ellie would want that… I-I want to go in the abyss. P-please help me.”
Karen her eyes well up as she speaks. Her voice growing quieter and more stuttering the more she goes on. Tears stream down her red cheeks as she tries to help her friend to understand.
Yuzu blankly stares at her as she speaks her mind. Words echo in his head as he hears the reason for her odd behaviour and mannerism. He can’t believe this is happening. Why does this keep happening. Why is the world so cruel.
”Y-yuzu… please.”
Yuzu brushes the tears from his eyes as he gives a soft nod with his head.
”I get it… I get it alright… We’ll go down together alright...“
Yuzu dropped to his knees to give Karen a huge hug to let her know she was gonna be alright with him at her side. That they both were gonna be fine and that nothing could stop them now. They sat there for a few minutes with Karen crying her tears out. She hasn’t vented like this since her mother had left them. It wasn’t till Karen had no more tears left that Yuzu stepped in and sat her down on the bed. Karen was as hot as a beet and didn’t seem all too lively. She was softly moving around with her head as she was panting softly. There was nothing to be done about this illness. It was just sitting out and waiting for the end. Karen was probably right though about the whole going out of Orth. It was their only hope at least.
Yuzu made Karen eat some breakfast before he prepared their bags. Karen had just stuffed random items into the bag but that wasn’t gonna help them. Yuzu carefully thought out a good plan and items for their upcoming trip. It was very important to get enough of everything when they would be going in on their own. The most important item they held was the artifact bound by stones. It was a communication artifact that allowed two users of these two stones to communicate with each other. They had left one on Karen her desk with a note of leaving. Karen had gotten somewhat weaker as time went on, time was drawing short. She could not even stand after a while, it was dramatic. It was a death wish but… Yuzu only had that deathwish to save her right now. He used sheets and ropes to bind her tightly on his back with the backpack strapped on her back. They sneaked out of the orphanage when the night had risen. It wasn’t the first time that Yuzu had sneaked out like this but it was still dangerous to go into the abyss on their own. Off course people of the orphanage had seen them pack and leave but… there was not much to be done apart from stopping blockhead Yuzu. Even then he would still go after Karen. Like a ninja Yuzu moved past the night guards and found a good spot to rock climb down. But before he could go down he was met by a local guard that had spotted him. Without a word Yuzu was picked up by the collar and taken back up a bit. The guard gave them a cheeky grin before he looked a little more serious and gave Yuzu a nod of trust while throwing him in the elevator down.
”W-what are you… oh… t-thank you... “
Yuzu seemed grateful to the well known guard. He gave a small blush and a nod of trust back as the elevator went down. This was a start for them to get down.They had until dawn to get down as far as possible into the abyss. Yuzu had been climbing for hours but still managed to get quite far in little time. Karen still responded when he had been going at it for a few hours.
”Hey, Yuzu… do you think that… the abyss is pretty.”
”It sure is Karen, sure is.”
Future
A cloudy day, the sun hidden behind the puffed balloons of wool, shaded but despites still warm. Orth didn’t seem out of place, it kept going on with its everyday routine of cheerfulness, mass trading and the usual conversations about the abyss. There was only one tiny thing different about the city today. The orphanage was completely quiet, it has been like this since the second day of the young children their disappearance. There hadn’t been playing around the orphanage for a few days. The adults and children had been searching through the abyss to find clues and signs of were the two had gone off too.
This was the third day of their search but there was just nothing to find, through caves, between cravages there was just nothing. The boy alone had taken them further than the first layer it had appeared, one way or another. Despites everyone wanting to find them back it was too dangerous to descend down any further, it was a code to abandon hope when a red whistle goes down further than this but there was of course still a chance to find them back alive. They had enough experience as a delver to cook by themselves and have enough knowledge to survive if they did not meet any fatal encounters. It would off course still be horrible to imagine that they might have fallen down while they tried ascending but it was better not to think about a possibility like that. Chris, the lead of the orphanage yelled one last time to see if they might receive a response this time.
”Yuzu! Karen!”
The voices of the small children followed the leader his voice from multiple locations around the leader. They all put in their effort to find their friends, Chris gave a short sigh as he gazed down into the abyss. He lightly held the communication artifact to his ear that they had left behind as he gazed down.
”What would you two be going through right about now…”
He gazed into the abyss for a bit longer seeming lost in thought of them being in trouble and hungry. Their gear wouldn’t allow for easy ascending back to the surface and with the curse it was even harder for them to get back. The artifact didn’t show much sign of activation, the sound was usually soft so you had to keep it close to your ear, you had to talk loudly into it as well and wasn’t best at communication most of the time, the best bet he had was to listen to it most of the day to see if they would let their voice be heard. He only had heard Yuzu his breathing from time to time, he had probably be sleeping at the time. Two voices chirped in disappointment as they hurried back to their leader.
”They are not in section X8 either leader.”
”No not there either.”
”Sorry for not being able to find them you two, thanks for your hard work anyway… We wouldn’t be able to find them this quickly without you two. Let’s go back up for today. I bet you guys are hungry..”
”...Oh okay, yes, we can search tomorrow again right leader?”
”Right leader?”
”Sure kiddos. Come lets eat.”
The elevator softly rose back up from the abyss to the surface with the children and their superiors. Gears cranking and cracking as the elevator lifted up the weight of all the people and supplies on it, they had come back up to a soft wind blowing in their face, the harsh sun piercing through the clouds showing them clearly they had gotten back to the bright and safe surface. One for one the children stepped off the elevator and scattered a little as they made their usual way back to the orphanage. It was somewhat more easy going and less tense from when they are in the abyss. The surface did always give a tad more relaxation then the abyss did. Children peacefully chatted with each other about their lost friends and dinner as they made their way back to the orphanage. Aya and Suu were walking in the front while leader fitted behind the group as to not lose anyone out of his sight while they headed back.
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