Ash-boss
A Thousand Stories: The uninhabited valley

The night is getting late. The moonlight was covered in clouds and the wind was moving so fast. Slashing curtains in the room Laras who instantly turned gripping when a black shadow without a form slipped and shadowed the dream Laras in his sleep.

The body is restless. Cold sweat poured out from all parts of his body. The hand held firmly like fear and the tightly shut eyes strengthened how bad the dream that haunted Laras was.

"Clearned!" call out loud the figure of Rein with a smile pinned on the girl's face.

Laras was aghast from his sleep. He sat down with an unusual look at his best friend.

"Home home?" in his half-sleepy state, Laras looked at the woman in front of him who now seemed ordinary.

"Where were you?"

"Not anywhere. I have additional courses." Laras replied with a smile.

"really?"

Rein suddenly had a gloomy face. Like a child who is dissatisfied with the answers he gets.

"You think?" The barrel breathes in slowly. Then set slowly to exhale it.

"What's up?!" Rein approached Laras and prepared to sit next to the girl. Baras was silent for a moment.

"Is anyone bothering you?!" that voice sounded like the voice of a heavy old witch.

Laras turned to his side quickly and found Rein's different figure and stared with a deadly look. A large black shadow stood behind Rein. Appearing a shadow that was more like a guard figure with the highest level of figure.

His eyes glinted in a blackish red. On the part of the pitch-black smoke shadow of his right hand, the black figure was holding a gray-black pearl. From within the grayish-black pearl came the sound of many roaring and terrified screams. Occasionally a hissing sound rang out from that pitch-black pearl.

The barrel immediately fell down beside his bed. The strength of his body seemed to be suppressed by something he could not fight against. Even to see Rein who was now standing in front of him, Laras was not able to do it.

"Rein! Return Rein!" Laras said with restraint.

His chest was attacked by an erratic sense of tightness when Rein's hand touched his face and raised Laras's face roughly towards him. A black mist loomed over Rein's hands and entire body. Making the girl's figure become unclear in the view of Laras. His eyes began to blur and were swallowed by the darkness.

"Sleep for a long time... The barrel!" the sentence echoed in Laras' ear at the last second before he completely lost all consciousness of himself.

Rein, who was under the control of a black shadow figure who showed the form of a guard of the highest level, left Laras' body lying on the floor. Strewing the girl's body with an exploding black spark glowed a fiery red.

The door of the room closed slowly with a satisfied look that accompanied Laras helplessness.

//

The gurgling sound of water woke Laras' body from his sleep. Throughout the sight of the eye, Laras only saw a very dense darkness. It took a long time for Laras to adjust his gaze in that place. He stood up slowly with a palpation and glared at the place where he was now awake.

Walking alone in the dark. Darker than what he passed with Eren yesterday, Laras stepped carefully.

Throughout the steps taken by Laras, a formless black shadow lurked his every move. It sank behind him and covered every little light that appeared.

Just in case his feet might step on something he shouldn't step on, Laras now focused his gaze forward when a squeaking sound was heard pointing towards him.

A black shadow flapped its wings in front of Laras. Reinforcing a pair of bright red eye shadows that directly lunged and attacked without warning towards Laras.

He was driven off by raising his right arm to cover part of his face from the attack or maybe the shadow was just passing through his flight path. The red-eye shadow instantly vanished exactly a few centimeters from the Baras hand.

But as soon as Laras looked again in front of him, Laras was made to not believe his view. The shadow of that pair of eyes changed with hundreds or even thousands and millions of other pairs of red eyes.

The sound of squealing filled the dark place. And from the direction of the sound captured by his hearing, Laras can make sure that the place he pitched is a large and endless place.

Focused barrel looks around him. Looking for a gap to be able to avoid the direction of flying or attacks that might be carried out by thousands or even millions of creatures before him.

To avoid something bad happening, Laras who realized what was in nature was not just a dream, chose to stay silent. Without making any movement, Laras took every corner of the darkness with his eyes.

"There is no gap whatsoever." Siss Laras.

Then the girl sighed softly and then refocused herself before him. Taking a good look at every pair of reddish glowing eyes numbering in the thousands or even millions were staring and moving rapidly towards him.

The barrel extended its hand forward slowly. It gave off a tinkling sound from a small silver bell that became a bracelet ornament on his right hand.

The clattering sound dispelled all the reddish-looking eyes and moved swiftly towards Laras. Millions of pairs of eyes are now starting to close one by one and disappear by exploding. It gives rise to a light of bluish fire that slowly flares up by hovering in a place that was filled with darkness.

Laras looked around him. The blue flame light adorned his view. Showing a shadow of a fragmented place is like a puzzle. His body turned to look at every light that displayed a shadow puzzle of a place.

A valley bridged by a path that drifts from one point to another. One shadow showed how beautiful the valley was. Another shadow shows the valley surrounded by dense forest.

Another shadow showed a darkness that slowly swallowed the valley. It showed scattered splashes of blood and buried the green valley into eternal darkness.

A blood splash that shows an event in Laras's memory. A very painful memory. A memory in which every part of his body was torn to shreds and drowned by the thousands of resentments that grew every time the strands of golden feathers were plucked from his back.

Other pieces show small parts of the barrel's memory of missed events. Where the figure is in the form of a central guard lost the golden hairy wings that had just grown on the bones that form the wings on his back.

Barrel hugged himself. Resisting the pain on his upper back, Laras shouted loudly and drowned in the bluish fire light that engulfed his body. The blue flame light drowned Laras in a long sleep that he was not aware of.

Carrying Laras' body in an endless dark valley, the bluish flame burst back into a dark figure that covered every part of the valley including Laras' body that was slowly consumed into the darkness.

//

In the morning, Laras awoke from his bed. Waving off the hair covering part of his face, Laras walked slowly towards the mirror next to him. The girl smiled in a knot at the mirror image before her.

"I'm ready!" he said in front of the mirror.

...***...