One-eyed Raven

Vokunfei looked darker than anyone could expect. Black pines towered over each soul that dared to walk among them. Greyish sky seemed endless, and so did the faraway horizon filled with thick forest. Something about Vokunfei made your stomach churn and throat tighten. The sky, the woods, the beige ash-like snow...it felt wrong. The whole forest //was// wrong. Jet black pine needles danced in the air, although no wind was blowing. Their shuffling like an an evil giggle of a malice that had to live among those mahogany trees. You noticed their peaks could well pierce clouds, if the grey firmament had any. No matter where your curious eyes wandered, it seemed as if something hid from you right when you were about to see it; an old evil that lived in these woods before human race was distinguishable from apes. You stood in a forest clearing, closest pine tree maybe 20ft from you. The clearing was shaped in a circles, as if deliberetly cut out for a now unknown purpose. The trees grew on the circumference of a perfect circle. Some might say "magic" but something told you that greater powers were involved in the creation of this awful forest. How did you get here in the first place? You couldn't remember. In fact, you couldn't recall anything in particular; memory but an empty vault. There were no footsteps around you. Or anywhere else, as far as your eyes could see. The ghastly beige ash continued to fall from the grey sky, maybe all other footsteps were covered by it? You looked around and saw no footsteps behind you. How long have you been standing here? Afraid but curious, you noticed two path-like clearings among the trees. Neither of them lead to anywhere particular. The only difference between those devilish, twisted paths was the dim light somewhere along the one on your right. You thought it looked as if someone lit some candles as left them to burn. With each passing second, you could feel the air around you thickening. Your fate might be dire if you do not move forward. [[Go right->Path on the right]] [[Go left->Path on the left]]

Apprehensively, you directed your feet to the right. The primal need for light seemed to have won over your mind. You notice that the drifts made of beige flakes were not difficult to walk through, as if they were nothing but some otherwordly powder. Can you be sure they even were there? You have arrived at what best could be described as a shrine. Unsculpted stones placed atop one another creating a pedestal and a small altar before it. On the pedestal stood a handmade figurine. It was maybe 12 inches tall, made from a dark, green stone. Although it looked rather crude, you noticed its surface was perfectly polished. The figurine was taken good care of. The figurine on the shrine's pedestal represented a sitting human with six arms: first pair pointed upwards, second forwards (you felt nauseaus thinking it could be pointing at //you//), and third downwards. Its eyes were carved-out, hollow sockets. You noticed the style of the figures appearance didn't resemble any you were familiar with. It could well be Indian, Thai, Native American or Himalayan but at the same time couldn't have been any of those. The figurine looked like every deity you knew of, and so it looked like neiher of them. The candles on the altar were all red, shaped like teardrops. Some of them had unknown to you symbols carved into them. Maroon wax was dripping on the cool stone altar. Your gaze wandered towards a rectangular, vertical parchment that had the same sickly beige colour as the powdery flakes the forest was drowing in. The same unknown symbols covered its surface but they weren't carved. Instead, they were dilligently written with something hard and black, charcoal probably. Your trembling hand touched the unfamiliar markings. The parchment felt unbearably delicate on your fingertips. When you lifted your gaze, your breath died in your chest. To your horror and disbelief, the once-hollow sockets of the figurine were now filled with molten red wax that slowly dripped down the height of the figurine, leaving a sticky trail. The parchment was now gone. Your heart was racing and so were you thoughts. What should you do now? [[Return to the clearing->Back to the clearing]] [[Take the candle ->You took the red candle]] [[Go forward->Onwards on the right]]

You felt as if it were miles that seperated you know from the forest clearing. But could you trust your judgement? Was it miles? Or maybe mere few steps, just few minutes? In the forest were nothing changes, how can you be sure you even made a one step forward? You wondered how long it's been since you left the clearing. Five minutes? An hour? Three days? You looked at the grey sky and notice that there were no stars, a moon or even a sun. The grey sky was the only natural source of light in the woods, and you weren't quite sure what //exactly// made it so. A sound grabbed your attention: the first sound you have heard so far. For a forest, Vokunfei was too quiet. You stopped in your tracks and awaited a consequtive sounds. //creek// Something was...walking? You frowned at that thought. You couldn't decide which hypothesis was scarier: that you were all alone in the forest on the edge of reality, or that you weren't alone at all. At that moment you noticed two blue orbs in the far distance. You squinted your eyes and realized those "orbs" were more almond shaped rather than circular. They belong to a white triangular mask that floated maybe 7ft in the air, beside a tree trunk. Whatever that mask truly was, it's blue gaze was glued to you. [[Approach the blue-eyed mask ->Sfindvaal]] [[Go back ->Back to the clearing]]

Terrified by what you have seen, your feet were quick to abandon their journey onwards and you came back to the circular forest clearing. The black pines hanged over your head as if they were laughing at your fear. Are you sure you know what you saw? Maybe your mind played a trick on you? You could swear the forest grew darker since you returned to the clearing. The trees grew danser, their needles giggled at your troubles. Although your fear grew by the second, you knew you had to keep going. There //must be// a way out of Vokunfei. But which way is it? [[Go left ->Path on the left]] [[Go right ->Path on the right]]

Leaving the horror of the heathen figurine behind, you directed your journey onwards. //The only way is through//, as someone wise once said. You took a glimpse behind you and noticed that your feet left no footprints. How could that be? If you left no trail, were you even walking? The shrine was nowhere in sight, so you must have moved. ...or did the shrine move instead? The longer you thought about Vokunfei, the more your head was aching. How can such place even exist? A realm on the edge of reality, maybe even behind it, where logic and natural laws were nothing more than a joke. A realm outside of realms...a realm between realms? You shook your head in you own disapproval. //Snap out of it!// Your fight wih your own thoughts came to a halt when you realized something was staring at you. And that //something// made your blood turn cold. It was 7ft tall and 6ft wide, with burning blue eyes and disgusting, unnaturally backwards-bent knees. The creature looked famined. Its face was but a white, triangular mask, with almond-shaped blue eyes and diagonal stripes on its cheeks in the same unknown shade of blue. //If you can't name that shade of blue, is it really blue?// The creature kept staring at you. Its four hands with three fingers could reach its knees but for now they hanged from the black body, waiting as if. The monster made a gurgling sound, turned around and disappeared behind a tree. You noticed that the tree was maybe 2ft in diameter. So how could the masked monster just disappear behind it? On what unholy laws did the nature of Vokunfei work? You felt sick to your stomach. This forest was sick, it was wrong. It made no sense. How can you get out of here? Your ears were reached by a quiet hum of waves. Their predictable crash against the shore calmed your heart slightly. Maybe you will find a boat there? [[The only way is through ->The sea]] [[The beast could be around, it's better to go back ->Back to the clearing]]

Slowly, you made your way through the beige drifts and stood no less than 12ft away from the mask. Now you could see the details of the peculiar object. The blue almond-shaped eyes took up the most of the mask's surface. Aside from those burning sockets, it had no other facial features. Not human, at least. On what could be its cheeks, the mask had diagonal stripes in the same pastel blue colour as the firey eyes. The mask, in width, was around the half of the tree trunk it floated besides. As if the mask could sense your fear, it started moving sideways, a series of creaks reaching your eyes. The mask was, in fact, a face. A face of a creature so inhuman and yet so humanoid you felt sick down to your core. The creature's body was 7ft tall and its width, from the mask to painfully backbending knees, was around 6ft. It made no sense that this creature hid behind that tree. It was impossible. The creature's body looked skeletal, famined perhaps. It had four arms that reached its knees, probably due to the monster's hunched posture. Skeletal hands ended in three thick digits. Its legs seemed to have been the longest part of its body: backbending knees, limbs ending in pig-like hooves. The creature tilted its head, made a gurgling sounds and started walking, only to disappear behind another tree which trunk was too thin to hide the massive monster. When the bizzare creature was gone, you saw another clearing on the horizon. A sense of thrill and fear occupied your mind. Could it be the end of this sick forest? Or maybe you have walked into a circle? Maybe there is no way out of Vokunfei? [[Go towards clearing ->The sea]] [[Go back ->Back to the clearing]]

You have escaped the suffocating hold of the dense, black forest. Your eyes landed on an outstreched horizon of ...purple waves? Not believing your own eyes, you rubbed them with your trembling palms. And yet the water was still purple. Are you sure it even //is// water? There was no sand near the water. Land ended in the same beige powder the rest of the forest was covered with. Walking towards the shore and the waves that calmly crashed against it, you saw another altar. This shrine was made of stones, seashells, dead sarfish and seaweed gathered into a circle. Inside said circle was a seashell with a red candle stuck to its inside. The candle was unlit. (if:$bag is "red candle")[[Light the altar ->Lit altar]] (if:$bag is not "red candle")[[Hmm...maybe you can find something to light the altar? ->Back to the clearing]]

With a feeling of disgust, you apprehensively took one of the red candles. Scary or not, a little light might save you one day. ...or just make sure all the predators know where you are. 'Tis difficult to decide. Candle in your hand, you pushed forward. (set: $bag to 'red candle') [[Continue ->Onwards on the right]]

The lint must have been dry, the candle started burning immedietely. A drop of freshly-melt red wax dropped on the polished inside of the shell. //Are you sure you made the right choice?// You heard an animal sound behind you. It didn't sound like any animal you were familiar with...In fact, it sounded so much like an animal and yet so not-animal, you could feel your chest tighten. There was something else with you on the shore. And it stood not far away, right behind you. Slowly, you turned around to look the evil in the eye. But the evil had only one eye. On a beige stag rode a tall woman. She was completely naked, her thick black hair covering her chest and groin. On those black waves, atop her skeletal head lied a crown: it was made of sticks and purple flowers you haven't seen before. To the crown were attached several red candles, six to be exact. They were all burning. You could see feathers and pearls attached to some hair strands. The one eye she did have was of a burning blue colour, identical to the beast you have previously encountered. A deep, pinkish scar run diagonally through her lips. Her lips were of the same sick purple colour as the water behind you and the flowers in her hair. She spoke in the most unholy, awful, hoarse voice you could recall ever hearing. (text-color:red) [//Why call upon the forgotten gods? The Raven listens closely//] Instinctively, you looked towards the candle you have just lit. Is this what she meant? Have you unknowingly summoned the Devil itself? What could you possibly ask of it...? [[//Who are you?// ->Raven]] [[//Where am I?// -> Vokunfei]] [[//Help me get out of here// ->The way out]]

//Who are you?// Your trembling voice was drowned by the crashing waves of the purple sea behind you. A silence fell between between you and the stranger. (text-color:red) [//Nothing more than a dream within a dream, the sound of silence, the scent of air, the shadow of the sun. I am travelling thoughts, the miriad of ideas lost among centuries. The eons before time.//] You did not understand her introduction. Your face has painted a frown. Could your sleepy imagination have created all those monsters you've encoutered? (text-color:red) [//I am what makes the mountains stand tall and autumn leaves fall. I am the force behind ocean waves. I am the one who taught birds to fly and wolves to howl. I am whatever the **Old Ones** tell me to be, the raven that holds unholy decrees. The keeper of the lost lore//] Her blue eye burned into your chest. You felt as if just one glance at your face sufficed, she already knew everything about you. She knew what monsters hid under your bed, what horrors make your skin crawl. (text-color:red) [//Do **you** know who you are?//] You swallowed hard. You were left disillusioned that the Raven knew the answer to her own question better than you. And it chilled you down to the marrow of your bones. Whatever she was, she //knew//, she //saw//. When your fear settled in and you felt you could speak again, you chose to ask another question: (if:(history: where it is "Vokunfei")'s length is 0)[[//Where am I?// -> Vokunfei]] [[//How can I get out of here?// ->The way out]] (set: $raven to 'visited')

//Where...where am I?// Your voice was hesitant, fear spilling at your seams as if an overflowing sink. (text-color:red) [//Nowhere...and yet everywhere. Anywhere. You are a step over the edge of the universe, a day before Time is born and a day after Death is gone. **You are**...what curious words. What makes you think you **are**?//] You weren't sure how to respond to the bizzare talk of the naked one-eyed woman. Bewildered at her strange question, you put a frown on your face. How can you //not// be? You're breathing, walking, talking. Of course you **are**. (text-color:red) [//Oh but isn't the dreamer as much **here** as someone awake? Does a corpse not appear identical to someone who is asleep? How can a dreamer know that they are dreaming? How does a fish know it swims in the water? Have you never woken up before death your soul in a dream? What if you were never dreaming in the first place? What if all dreams are true? The woods are no less real than the realm you came from.//] //But what **is** Vokunfei?// you wondered. (text-color:red) [//It may be that a thought escapes you but a new one finds you quickly and your life goes on. It may be that someone dies. What happens to the thought which owner is gone? Where do dreams go when the dreamer is gone? Vokunfei...the graveyard of dreams//] A shiver ran down your spine. What Raven said about Vokunfei seemed so ridiculous you would laugh in any other circumstances. But you **were** here, in the trans-universal graveyard of madness and cursed forests. How could a hellhole like Vokunfei exist? It couldn't be real. It simply couldn't. Shaking your head slighly, you regained your composure. Maybe there's something else you could ask Raven? (if: $raven is not 'visited')[[//Who are you?// ->The Raven2]] [[//How can I get out of here?// ->The way out]]

(text-color:red) [//The only way is through//] The Raven repeated what I had already known. A forest as weird and illogical as Vokunfei could well be endless. How should I know where to go, if everywhere looks the same? How could I tell those identical trees apart? Will I drown in the beige snow one day if I don't leave fast enough? (text-color:red) [//Although, which was is **through** exactly, I wonder?//] The Raven said what I feared the most. Could it be possible that even //she// didn't know the way out? Am I stuck in Vokunfei for all eternity now? Have I died and ended in my well-deserved hell? Or did one of the heathen demons who rule this realm decided it is my purgatory, a limbo for incosistent, lukewarm sinners? (text-color:red) [//'Tis curious that you do not seem to find your way back. By now, I thought, you could leave Vokunfei with eyes closed. But you keep forgetting, little wanderer, you keep forgetting...The only way is through but not through the forest. No, the way leads much farther, through the realms. Through all the dreams you have dreamt.Through all the secrets you haven't told, all the thoughts you haven't entertained. Through, little wanderer, you have to go **through**//] With great trouble she moved her right arm. You thought her movement looked as if her right hand was made of old, worm-eaten wood: slow, erratic, making a creaking sound. //Human body is not supposed to sounds like that.// Finally, her skeletal hand pointed at the water behind you. //The only way out is through// You recalled a dream you used to have as a child. A dream in which you fell from the sky, and when your body was about to fatally hit the grass beneath you, you always jolten awake. If Vokunfei is but a dream, maybe //this// is your way out? Nothing in this cursed wood made any sense to you, nothing in here could be real, so you cannot //really// die in the purple tide. Could you? With stiff legs, you involuntarly made your way towards the water. With each step you could feel the impending doom. Although every fiber of your being was against this madness, something made you feel as if you knew wher5e you were going, as if your legs had memorized this path by now...//As if you have walked towards the water before//. However, before the first wave washed your feet, you abruptly stopped. Are you sure this is the way? Can the purple tide hold the answers to your troubles? Or maybe your madness have clouded your judgement? [[Step into the water -> in the water]]

With breath hitched in your lungs, you felt as the cool purple water washed over your sore feet. You realized you felt so //tired//, as if your soul had lived for too long. As if your eyes had seen too many sorrows. The water was welcoming. If you didn't know better, you'd think it whispered something to you, between each crashing wave, there was a message the gods didn't want anyone to know. (text-color:red) [//I shall see you again, little wanderer. You will get lost again, you always do. You always have. The ravens will keep their cunning eyes on you but for now, little wanderer, goodbye. Remember me as nothing more but a feverish dream//] You didn't have the strength to look back at the Raven or to answer her. Your body was exhausted, your heart heavy and soul tired. The waves were so nice, so fresh against you sore skin. Purple water seemed to call out to you. Maybe you can finally go home... (text-color:purple) [[Surrender to the purple tides... -> die]]

#(align:"<==")+(box:"===XXXXX==")+(text-style:"bold","italic","strike","blur","expand")[[D I E ->awake]]

Gasping for air, you jolted awake. Your breath was heavy, you felt as if you were suffocating. You tried to come to your senses as few coughs escaped your throat. You were still in your bed. That's when you noticed a rythmic tapping. You looked towards the bedroom window and saw a black bird, standing on the outside windowsill. It had a blue bead in its beak, with which the bird tapped at the glass. Your throat was dry. What was the dream you had? You couldn't remember now. It seemed as if you had been far, far away for a very long time but weren't you in your bed the whole time? With a raging headache, you crawled out of the warm bed and made your way to the bathroom. You took the mug that was standing on the sink and filled it with cold water. Slowly seeping on the deliciously fresh drink, you looked in the mirror hanging above the tap. Your eyes were surrounded with painfully purple eyebags. How long have you been asleep? Still tired and confused, you ran your hand through your hair. And immedietely felt deeply sick. When you ruffled your hair, something fell out of them. Something beige and powdery like, as if otherworldy light. And you heard a voice, as if it was your own. You weren't sure if the voice spoke from across the universe, or whispered right into your ear. (text-color:red)[//Lost again, little wonderer. Remember a dream...//] How can you be sure you are //awake// if you were just as concious in the cursed woods of Vokunfei? How can you be sure you are //awake//, little wanderer? (link:"Keep on dreaming") [(restart:)]