A Wanderer's Lies

Chapter 6: Fetoh [1]

A boy could be seen in between two tall white buildings, leaping a few times from one patch of solid ground to another amongst the limitless plant life engulfing every inch of his surroundings.

Wearing baggy cargo pants and a large jacket, both with peculiar patterns on them, he carried a sharpened bone and kept his body extremely compact, avoiding contact with anything around him.

The heavy fog in the air and darkness made it hard to see 10 metres ahead, yet the boy continued, only looking at the ground and peeking at his surroundings every so often.

It wasn't long until he came to a stop, breathing heavily as he struggled to take in a long satisfying deep breath, looking toward the compass hanging from his neck and noticing the needle pointing to his right.

Glancing around a corner to his right, he crouched down and held his breath despite his lungs feeling as though they were on fire.

Around the corner was a humanoid sphere-headed being walking away from him.

It walked slowly, swaying from side to side as if it barely knew how to walk on two feet.

The boy looked around, picking up a small pebble and throwing it around the corner, over the creature as it landed on some plant life.

The creature darted its head erratically toward the place of impact but kept walking after a few seconds.

It had been a few days since Isaac had arrived in this world.

Well, he thought it was a few days.

The truth was, Isaac had nothing to indicate how much time had passed. He wasn't even able to see the sun.

Wherever this place was, it was in a neverending state of eerie darkness that never failed to make Isaac nervous.

At this time, Isaac had done everything he could to find even a crumb of information that may allow him to survive in this hell.

He had made, what he now called, the Cranium his top priority.

Being the biggest threat to his life, he made it a mission to understand everything about this being.

It was only because he had recently discovered the connection between the plant life and the Craniums that he was successfully able to elude them.

Despite looking like humans, most of their senses were dulled and they relied on using the plants as their eyes and ears.

'Great. It's not like this whole place isn't coated in vines and moss.'

Isaac sighed, staring at his compass till the needle darted away from the right, pointing toward south, the opposite way he was going.

He still hadn't figured out what the needle was pointing to and he didn't want to know.

He made sure he always travelled in the opposite direction.

He was barely surviving the Cranium even while knowing its weakness, he wasn't going to dabble in anything that Isaac could only assume to be a vastly more dangerous monster.

Releasing his breath, he breathed heavily and rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a berry glowing blue and quickly popping it into his mouth.

He quickly chewed and swallowed and it wasn't long until he felt a warm feeling rush through his body.

His breath softened as the fatigue in his muscles instantly disappeared, as well as any hunger or exhaustion he was feeling.

As this soothing feeling coursed through, Isaac felt a hint of nostalgia upon remembering the Senzu Beans that had the same effect.

He stood up, staring at the next patch of solid ground, almost two metres away from him.

He tucked his knees, leaping like a gazelle and barely making it.

Isaac recognised the Craniums as his greatest enemy, however, this still didn't distract him from the fact that escaping was vastly more important.

From what he could understand, he was in an abandoned city. And from his surroundings, it looked as though the last time humans were able to walk freely here was ancient history.

Ancient history he knew very little about.

The only piece of history to indicate what had happened was the carvings in his hideout, and he was still no closer to fully understanding the story that was trying to be told.

Not to mention the small paragraph of a language he had never seen before.

Isaac didn't think much of his terrain at first, other than it being all green.

But after exploring, he quickly noticed the confusing layout of the city. It was like navigating through a maze or a labyrinth.

Dead ends, never-ending paths and even some routes he couldn't pass due to the sheer amount of plant life.

'Even the damn city is my enemy. I'll never escape at this rate.'

Preparing for another leap, Isaac paused.

He had put most of his trust into the compass when detecting threats, therefore he unknowingly lowered his guard when seeing the needle still point south.

Because of this, he failed to notice a figure standing in the path to his left before it was too late.

Without looking at what this was, Isaac jumped back, tumbling over some plant life before making it to solid ground where he crouched and calmed himself.

Before running and leaving, since he had now alerted the Cranium, he peeked around the corner to catch a glimpse of whatever was able to elude his senses and the compass while holding his breath.

But upon seeing what was before him, he couldn't help but freeze slightly and lower his guard.

'A girl…?'

Around the corner stood a female facing away from him, wearing a green suit jacket with blue trimmings. It adorned a circular pattern, a spiral of sorts that all connected with each other, branching off to smaller circles.

They were the same patterns on Isaac's clothing he had found off the corpse.

The female wore pants similar to the jacket, however, despite the peculiar attire, it was the first thing Isaac noticed.

Instead, it was the female's shoulder length silky green hair that added a hint of colour to the bleak and bland surroundings.

Isaac had never seen anyone with green hair. It was the type of thing you would see in cartoons and comic books.

His thoughts were soon cut off as a gentle voice reached his ears.

"You can come out. You don't have to hide." The female slowly turned around, meeting Isaac's gaze as he hid back around the wall.

For a second, he had caught a glimpse of her face. Her fair smooth skin and bright green eyes stood out the most, making her appear healthy and full of vitality.

However, this wasn't what Isaac had his mind on.

'Why am I surprised she saw me? I'd be more afraid if she didn't notice the ruckus I made.' Thought Isaac, releasing his breath.

"Please, you need not be afraid." The female continued, however, Isaac was already turning around.

'Hell no. Standing in the middle of this nightmare casually without a care? This girl is not normal.'

Without any further thought, Isaac bolted away, running at full speed without worrying about the surrounding plant life.

He had learned long ago not to trust people so casually. Especially if they were as shady as the female he had just left.

Isaac kept running, quickly running out of breath as he turned a corner every so often.

Luckily, he hadn't come across any Cranium and soon arrived at a white building with a hole in the wall.

Climbing in, he made sure to avoid a piece of cloth in the open, stretched between the hole in the wall, one end attached to a skeleton beside the wall and the other end buried under a pile of rubble.

Although it was nothing fancy, Isaac found this to be an adequate alarm system for now.

Seeing as how the Cranium couldn't see, he had no need to conceal the self made tripwire.

Landing on the ground, Isaac walked toward the back of the room, removing his baggy jacket and sitting on the ground, staring at what looked to be a map scraped onto the ground showing countless paths branching off of each other like a maze, and off to the right was a small circle labelled 'Home'.

However, if one looked closely, they could notice the faint white chalk that seemed to be erased.

'Its like the paths keep changing.'

Placing his compass down beside the map, he began to draw new paths where the old ones ended on the west side of the map.

On the opposite side, the east, the maze seemed to be vastly more scarce when compared to the south, north and west.

'The long way, but also the safest. I have enough berries to last me a while. Now that I know the Craniums weakness, I can search till I finally escape…'

As Isaac focused on the map, a fleeting thought constantly hung on his mind.

'Why didn't the compass pick up on the girl. Does it not work on humans?'

Since finding the compass, Isaac hadn't once asked himself how it worked.

He didn't care.

As long as it continued to save his life, he couldn't care less whether it was alien magic or witchcraft and voodo.

'This is a problem for another day. I need to focus on…' Before Isaac could finish his thought, a chill ran down his spine as a familiar voice broke the silence.

"You'll never leave the city by simply roaming aimlessly."

The voice was soft and warm. The thought of simply letting the soothing voice echo in his mind came as a slight temptation to Isaac.

Despite the alluring feeling the voice presented, Isaac stayed focused, hopping to his feet, gripping his bone sword and facing the intruder.

It was the same female as earlier, standing before him with a slight smile.

Isaac lowered his guard slightly. Not because he felt comfort after seeing her bright smile, but because he was confused.

She seemed too…innocent.

Isaac had seen every type of scumbag one can come across.

The fake friend, the benefactor trying to manipulate you and even the true friend who took advantage of you just because they could.

He could tell the good from the bad and the bad from the badder. But this female seemed as if she was too perfect.

Like she had no flaw. Like it was easy for Isaac to put all his trust in her and not think twice.

But that didn't assure him at all. Someone so harmless in a place like this only made him fear her more.

He glanced slightly to his alarm system, seeing it was still standing, as if she passed right through it.

"Don't be so surprised. I'm not blind, after all." She chuckled, prompting Isaac to raise an eyebrow.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Asks Isaac, trying his best to get some answers before they proceed any further.

The girl stood without moving a muscle, continuing to speak with a smile.

"My name is Fetoh, and I can help you escape."