at some point long ago, before you learned your first rune, before you felt the spark of magic in your fingertips, you were lost.

as a child, you found yourself deep in the thorn, fleeing some faceless malevolence. you sprinted into the sharp and twisted darkness until your lungs and your legs felt like fire. free from your nameless foe, you collapsed. but then you were lost, and perhaps worse, you were alone. though the merchants that visited your village had managed to carve their paths through parts of it, your parents spoke of the thorn in hushed tones, and held your hand tightly when walking those paths.

far from those paths now, your sweat stung in the long scratches you earned on your face and your forearms, having sprinted and panted and clawed deeper and darker into the thorn. you felt the blood trickle down your face and watched as a few droplets found their way to the prickly bed of the skeleton forest. as the thunderous beating of your heart subsided, you could hear the sound of running water somewhere amongst the clattering of the bare branches and brambles in the breeze. you lurched up and stumbled to find it.

you knelt and rinsed your wounds, none too deep, and drank deeply from the dark water. amid your gulps and gasps you thought you heard a very low murmur. fearful your foe had returned, you froze, though no further sounds but the creaking of withered trees and the rasping sigh of the small creek did reach your ears.

eventually, you mustered the courage to move again, and finished bathing and pulling burs and bits of branches from your cloak. a few times more you thought you heard a murmur, or perhaps a hum, or a very low song, but once you stopped to focus, there was no foreign sound, nor movement among the twisted mass of branches.

you stood and tried to gather your bearings. the treetops, though bare, were thick overhead, and there was no moon and no stars to guide you. you stood still for a moment, and then picked a direction to walk in, this time, covering your bare hands with the fringe of your cloak, pushing through the unfriendly foliage, collecting more twigs and burs.

you walked for what felt like hours, and the thorn merely became darker and denser. the dreary sameness became overbearing, and your steps became less sure. you still hadn’t shaken the sound of that song from your mind, and your gait began to match its melody. you started to feel the sharp pains of hunger.

among the brambles, you found some berries, whose juice was the same color as your blood, but were a familiar shape and tasted sweet. carefully, you plucked them one by one and placed them into your mouth. you continued down the sparse bush, stripping it barer, lost in hunger and thought, not noticing that the melody you believed only played in your head grew louder, and the trees began to reflect a strange glow.

without warning, suddenly, you were no longer alone – in the same instant you felt the hairs stand on the back of your neck, you felt something brush against your shoulder. you jumped, letting out a yell and spun yourself violently around to find yourself face to face with a large dog who, though standing as tall as you, seemed just as startled by your own sudden movements.

it retreated a few steps, and its expression grew serious, but its ears quickly perked up and it wagged its tail, panted and seemed to smile behind its beady black eyes. you felt your muscles relax, and the dog ventured a few steps closer. you were surprised to notice its large paws seemed to make no sound, treading delicately over the brittle decades of leaves and twigs.

it kept a polite distance, and bent its neck forward sniffing, with its tail still wagging with curiosity as it drank in your smells. you finally began to notice the glow among the branches of the trees - at first thinking the morning sun had found them. you extended a hand toward the dog, who eagerly placed its forehead underneath your palm. you scratched behind its ears as you looked around for its pack, or its owner.

the unnatural glow among the treetops started to quiver, and then dance, and the dog raised its gaze, watching the interest in the dancing of the shadows amid the canopy. you glanced upward as well, but this time, noticed a glimpse of the night sky and the crescent moon. you realized that whatever was approaching was not the morning, and again your blood grew cold.

the low melody that had haunted you through your journey, which you thought only played in your head began to grow loud - so low in pitch you began to feel it vibrate through your entire body. the dog's seemed aware of it as well, and it bolted from underneath your hand, out of sight amid the brambles. again, you found yourself alone.

fear and exhaustion gripping you, instead of running, this time, you shrank. you sat, pulling your hood over your head and the fringe of your cloak around your knees, hugging them tightly. you sought a private darkness away from the eerie glow that flooded the thicket. in this you found calm, and you sat, and waited, and breathed.

through the gaps in your cloak by your feet, you saw the dancing glow grow brighter, and the song reached its climax, shaking your whole body. suddenly, it stopped, but the strange light remained. it became silent save the same steady creaking of the trees, and your own shallow breaths. you dared not lift your head.

you began to hear short and curious sniffling, drawing closer, and a dog's nose poked underneath the gap in your cloak between your feet, and stopped. the nose seemed to recognize you, because it lifted its head excitedly, breaking your solitude, and toppling you over. you laid there stunned, for a moment, but relieved to no longer be alone. you scrambled back to your feet but froze again –

across the thicket stood the source of the light: an immensely tall man - was it a man? - with a round, lumpy mass on its shoulders, from which the eerie glow emanated. as your mind began to comprehend what you saw, you found a face in the shape of the light - two crudely carved eyes, and a wide, crooked smile, behind which the strange light danced.

not merely a mask, you saw the cavernous void behind the eyes and their smile - an otherwise emptiness occupied by a silent flame that flickered and flitted around, swirling and collapsing in on itself.

the man - the thing - lowered its hand and turned its gloved palm outward, and the eager dog trotted towards it to meet it with its forehead. you stood frozen, unsure of whether to be afraid, or brave, or merely curious.

it turned its gaze - empty as it was - from the dog back to you, seemed to ponder a moment, and very slowly took silent steps toward you. the dog remained at ease, staring up at the lumpy mass, occasionally nudging a gloved hand for attention. you remained frozen in place until it was mere steps from you - towering above you. it lowered its gaze to meet yours, expressionless aside from the eerie, frozen smile. the flame, however, shrank slightly and slowed its movement to all but a halt, quivering as it engulfed itself.

you matched its gaze and stayed perfectly still for what felt like minutes - until your stomach betrayed your hunger to the silence of the thorn. the thing turned its gaze then to the berry bush that you picked bare, and back to you.

it slowly extended an empty hand towards you, and you noticed bits of straw peek out from the sleeves of the gloves. where nothing was before, a large, red apple appeared. you dared not move, but, growing impatient, the dog nudged your hand toward the thing. your motionless finally shattered, you gasped, not realizing you had been holding your breath. giving the dog an uneasy, glance, not daring to meet the thing's gaze again, you took the apple from the gloved palm, and the thing made a motion as if to eat it. reluctantly, you raised it to your mouth, winced, and took a bite. you felt a warmth and a weight enter your body, and a faint, strange tingle in the tips of your fingers.

the thing reached out again, cautiously and slowly, and put its hand on your shoulder. it lifted its gaze, and with its other hand, gestured in a direction. the light from the hollow smile seemed to narrow, projecting outward in the same direction.

you nodded, still holding the apple, and set out.

Entered by: 0x2867…709E and preserved on chain (see transaction)