Chapter 4: The Night Terror
The boys lay on the damp, moss-covered ground. They managed to build only a makeshift shelter, they covered the ground with leaves, unfortunately it was not enough to isolate them from the cold and protruding roots. The air was filled with the smell of moisture, and above them the leaves of large trees rustled, here and there you could see the dark blue sky breaking through the branches and crowns of trees.
Jason hoped that falling asleep wouldn't cause his pets to disappear, he wasn't entirely sure how the ability worked, but from the description in the System, he deduced that the pets would be active until he called them back.
Sleep came late but unexpectedly, one moment Jason could feel the root of a nearby tree digging into his ribs, the next he had already lost contact with the world around him. However, he did not realize that he had fallen asleep. He was in a similar forest, but he felt completely different, the forest floor was covered with fog, and it was also visibly colder. Shivers began to appear on his skin.
"What's going on? Lucas! Are you here?" Jason looked around, but he was alone, he could see neither his friend nor his summons.
"Damn, it's cold... it doesn't feel right," Jason began to look around vigorously. "I don't see our camp anywhere either." Jason realized that he woke up on the bare ground – "This place doesn't look quite the same either..."
"Krksz.. szzz"
"What was that?" Jason turned to the sound coming from the forest to his left. It seemed to him that the fog in the place he looked at began to move and swirl, as if something had just passed through there and disturbed the thick fog.
Jason tried to summon one of his beasts, but nothing happened. He tried to turn on his interface, but nothing came of it either. He suddenly felt as vulnerable as he had been in Sunnybrook.
"Tooo weak, muchhhh too weak, completely different from him" – a voice came from somewhere in the middle of the forest, muffled by the fog, as if the old person did not have the strength to speak"
"Who are you? What is going on? Be warned, I'll defend myself!" shouted Jason, growing more and more terrified. Maybe he would feel a little more confident if his new skills, which he didn't even have time to get used to, worked.
"What is... what the hell! A Swarm of Shadows! Raven Guardian!" Jason shouted both in real life and in his mind.
"He knows nothing... He can't do anything... weak and delicate..." – The voice from the fog continued
Jason began to run in the opposite direction to the one from which he heard the voice, his whole body shivering that only increased when he heard the voice. He could feel a cold sweat running down his back, his breathing getting louder the further he ran into the forest. His legs were heavier and heavier, he felt that he would not be able to run like this for long.
"Weak... gentle..." – he heard a voice coming from everywhere
"Luc! Where are you?" – He shouted, hoping that he was not alone in this place. Not so long ago, he felt that he had won a lottery ticket, gaining new skills, but now he was not laughing at all.
"Krtk" – Jason tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, flipped and hit his face directly into the ground. His nose hit something hard right away.
"Ouch, what the hell!" he exclaimed, and glanced at the moss-covered and rooted ground
He realized that he had not fallen over a root, but against a moss-covered bone, and what he had smashed his nose against was nothing more than a cracked human arm-bone. Jason lay face down, looking at the skeleton that lay beneath him. A moist smell hit his nostrils, not of leaves, but of rotten flesh. Suddenly he felt like vomiting, he turned everything he had in his stomach right under him.
"Damn, what is it, this skeleton has grown moss, so I guess it's been here for a very long time... there should be no more flesh left on it."
"Immature... He hasn't seen much yet," a quiet and disrupting voice came once again.
"Who are you and what's going on here?" – Jason thought that maybe someone had thrown something to drink or eat for him during April's Challenge. Everything that happened next was so incredible that the only thing that came to his mind was that he had been hallucinating since the beginning of that day. How else can you explain the appearance in a completely different place, new abilities, and now a strange voice from the fog.
Nothing answered Jason, only the soft rustle of leaves in the wind. The mist moved silently between the roots and moss-covered bones beneath his feet. Jason looked at the skeleton again, except for its height and odd proportions, he saw no other anomalies.
"How do I get out of here? I'll look for Luc, maybe together we can get out of this forest..." – thought resignedly Jason. "To think that not long ago I was glad that I was here, how could I have been so stupid. I could immediately think that it was all too cool to be true. Since when a loser like me gains new powers for free.
"I need to check... maybe he will grow up to who he is..."
"What? You're talking to me."
Suddenly, Jason felt a cold hand on his shoulder, he was covered in an icy post, but he was afraid to turn over his shoulder, when he finally did, he looked directly into the empty eye sockets of what looked like a desiccated old man. The old man wore the remains of a moldy robe that many years ago might have looked splendid and expensive, but now only patches of worn-out fabric remained, stitched here and there with gold threads.
Something like a white mist or maybe smoke flew out of the wraith's mouth, it went straight to Jason, the boy was paralyzed and could not react in any way. Smoke began to creep into his ears and nose, and when all the smoke was inside him, he suddenly felt a pain in his right arm, dull but as if distant. He did not know what could have caused it.
"Kraaa, kraaa" – he heard a muffled sound, but he had no idea where it could be coming from
"What's up? Are you talking to me?" – Jason shouted, half asleep, half awake.
"Kraaa, Kraaa"
"Jason, get up!" – Jason suddenly heard Lucas' voice quite consciously.
He quickly rose from the makeshift bed of leaves and glanced unconsciously at Lucas shaking one of his arms.