Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

There is nothing but darkness, a large black void. When looking straight at it, it looks like endless blackness, but it also seemed to be like a source of light. You can still see yourself as if you were in the light of day. A cold feeling lingered in the air. The feeling that you are being watched. It sends chills down your spine. No matter what you do, no matter where you go in the endless void, it follows you. You cannot escape it.

You cannot escape the eye’s sight.

It watches your every movement. You feel as if it is mocking you without words. A slight feeling of pure hatred grows within you as you look up to meet its glare. It stares down at you, not blinking. A gold rim outlines the eye. Its single pupil is contracted with a blood red iris.

You hear a faint voice in the back of your mind. “It’s your fault...”

You feel your heart skip a beat at those words. Your body grows weak as you become overwhelmed with guilt and fear. You try to speak but your words get lost in the nothingness.

“It’s your fault he’s gone…”

You cover your ears and close your eyes, hoping, praying, that it would go away.

“How does it feel knowing what you’ve done…”

You feel the pressure closing in on you and curl up. It’s just a dream, you tell yourself. The voice returns with the three words you wanted to hear, but they still filled you with grief.

“Wake up, Lore.”

Chapter Text

You wake in a cold sweat in an unfamiliar location. Although you do not know where you are you feel a sense of safeness as you lie on the soft bed you awoke on under the warm covers. You take a deep breath. The smell of autumn leaves is in the air. You feel as if you could stay in bed forever, but that wouldn’t be right. You have a mission to complete. Find Baron and go home.

You sit up in bed and look around the room. There are small shelves and a dresser on the far wall and a bedside table. Soft rays of light spill in through the window giving the room a warm glow. You turn and put your feet off the bed. They land on a soft rug that takes up most of the wooden floor.

You stand up and head over to the door. On the other side you hear the slight sound of voices. They are speaking of “the human found in the forest outside the village.” You wonder if it is you they are speaking of. Curious, you open the door and peek out.

In the other room you see a group of strange animal like creatures. You think you must still be dreaming, or have gone crazy and are seeing things.

Before you can react to what you see, one of the strangers, a mole-like one with glasses and a turquoise jacket, says, “oh they’re awake!” and rushes over to you. Another calls out to them. You don't know which of them called out because without a second of hesitation you scream and slam the door in the mole’s face. A pained squeak escapes from the mole. Your confusion and fear overshadows any guilt you feel from hurting the creature as you scramble to push furniture in front of the door. You slide the dresser towards the door, struggling to do so due to the weight and your constant slipping in your socks.

You push yourself against the far wall of the room and face the door, watching and waiting for an attack. The door swings open but hits the dresser before it can open wide enough for anybody to fit through. “No the door is blocked!” a voice cries from the other side as they try to shove it open.

“alright everyone back away from the door!” a demanding voice calls, “you all are scaring them.”

“we don't mean to.” you hear the mole say, “we just want to see them.”

“you're being too assertive.” the other one says, “give them time and they'll eventually come out.”

“I was excited…” the mole says, “I'm sorry…”

“it's okay Avocado... “

Another voice speaks up. “alright everyone go home!” a chorus of disappointed “aww”s fills the room. “you all may come back later, right now we need to give the human their space.”

Once everyone leaves there's silence. You take this moment of peace to recollect yourself. You bring your knees to your chest and wrap your arms around them, letting your head sink into them. There is a small knock on the door.

A young, boy-ish voice speaks up, “Hey, I know you're scared,” he says, “but it's okay, we don't want to hurt you. We just want to help.” he pauses, “May I come in?”

You hesitate for a moment. You wonder if this stranger is just playing you. Trying to trick you into opening the door so he can whip out a knife and stab you without a moment's notice. No, stop that. Don’t let those dark thoughts take over. If they wanted to hurt you they would have seized the opportunity while you were asleep.

You take a deep breath and shuffle towards the door. You place your hands on the dresser and push it away from the door, slipping in your socks while doing so. Once the dresser us out of the way you reach for the doorknob. With a small twist and click you open the door slightly and peek out at the stranger.

The first thing you notice is the sharp resemblance to a rabbit. They had long ears that stood up on their head round fuzzy cheeks. Small buck teeth poke out from their mouth (a common trope for rabbits). Goggles sat atop their head, flattening small parts of their hair, or fur. A yellow bandanna is tied around their neck and they have a plain red t-shirt.

“Oh!” he seems surprised to see you. He looks away somewhat embarrassed. “I honestly didn't expect you to open up…”

“Where am I?” you ask him before he can say anything else.

He looks back at you, ears twitching a bit. “You’re in Animus.” he says, “Cirsi and I found you in the forest just outside the village. You looked hurt so we brought you here to help. My parents happily let you say in their home,” he pauses, “or my mother was happy about it, my father not so much…”

“Oh…” you decide that you don't want to meet his father anytime soon.

“Anyway,” the rabbit says, attempting to change the subject, “What’s your name?”

You hesitate for a moment. “uhh… Lore…” you say. You are about to ask him the same question but he answers before you can even open your mouth.

“Well, Lore, my name is Ramul.” he says, “And I will be your tour guide!” You're taken slightly aback by this. You've never been one to really enjoy tours, you like to explore things on your own, or at least with Baron.

The thought of Baron brings you feeling of sorrow and guilt. Baron was more than just a dog, he was your best friend. You two were inseparable. Or so you thought you were. Images of that… creature… Baron was transformed into move around in the back of your mind.

~

The strange goop drips from the void-like purple face as the large disfigured dog-like body looms over you. You grip your axe tightly in your hand, tears in your eyes as you stare up at the horror that was once your best friend in front of you. The creature speaks in a familiar voice. “Don’t hold back…”

You held back.

Chapter Text

“Lore? Lore!”

You snap out of your thoughts at the sound of the voice. You look at Ramul, he gives you a worried look. “Are you okay?” he asks, “you spaced out a bit.”

“Oh…” you blink and look away, feeling a bit embarrassed, “sorry... just have a lot on my mind…”

“You want to talk about it?” Ramul asks you, just wanting to be a good friend.

You hesitate for a moment. It would be nice to talk about it but you feel as if you shouldn't get anyone else involved, for their own safety. You don't know what exactly happened to Baron but you don't want it happening to anyone else. You shake your head, “no… It's fine… I'm fine…” you pause and look up at Ramul with a slight smile, “so… how ‘bout that tour you were talking about?”

Ramul smiles, he tells you to follow before leading the way.

~

You're super tired after the tour. It was quite hard to keep up with Ramul’s pace. He got a bit too excited and started running around everywhere, calling back to you to keep up whenever you told him to slow down.

The townsfolk were ecstatic to meet you. You got a flower crown as a last minute welcome gift from a deer girl named Fawn. You weren't too big on wearing it but did anyway to make her happy. It surprisingly fit held together rather well, if only a tad bit loose.

Your tour ends at a potion shop near the edge of the village. Ramul tells you that there's someone you should meet there by the name of Cirsi. He mentions that she and he found you in the forest and brought you here. With that you felt obligated to meet her formally.

Ramul left you to alone to talk while he ran some errands and such. He said just to meet him back at the farm when you were ready.

“So, Lore is it?” Cirsi says as she stirs a bottle of potion of some sort. Cirsi is a pretty decent sized opossum girl. She looks as if she could take someone your size out in an instant if she wanted to. It could just be fur but you're unsure, so you decide it's for the best to try and stay on her good side. On top of that she is the village's alchemist so even if she can't physically beat you she can definitely use some crazy magic on you. She looks at you from behind the counter, “how ya likin the place so far?” she looks at the flower crown that's still on your head. “I see ya met Fern.”

“Oh, yeah…” you reach up and take the crown off your head, setting it in your lap and looking at it. “It's nice I guess…” you say, “the peop- er… animals? Are very welcoming… kinda…” you remember the whole incident with Reme.

The moment he saw you he slithered, as a snake like himself would do, over to you and started asking a bunch of questions like: “where did you come from?” “how did you get here?” then he started talking to himself about how you could be linked to some crazy conspiracy. It made you feel super uncomfortable. You honestly wonder if you are linked to something, with everything that's happened.

“Don't worry about Reme.” Cirsi speaks up, snapping you out of your thoughts. You look up at her. She continues, “he's known as the village's conspiracy theorist so it's pretty normal for him to get all in your face with questions. Especially a human like yourself.” she leans on the counter and looks at you suspiciously, “how did you get here?”

You're taken aback by the sudden shift in tone. Her change from cool to serious is some what intimidating to you. You can't seem to get any words out. “I… uh…”

Cirsi must have noticed your uncomfortableness, and leans back, “sorry, didn't mean to make you uncomfortable if I did.”

Your body sinks down a bit and you look away from her. “all of this is just so sudden…” you say,  “I’m still finding it hard to believe that any of this is real or not…”

“well that's what happens when you wake up on a new world.” Cirsi says, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

“but why me?” you snap, things still jumbled in your head yet falling into place, “out of all the other people in my world, why is all this happening to me?”

Cirsi is shocked by your sudden outburst. She collects herself a bit before speaking again. “tell me more.” she says. You look up at her, looking directly into her eyes. “I want to know exactly what happened. It can just be between you and me, but I want to know.”

You hesitate for a moment, taking in her words and hard stare. You take a deep breath. “Okay…” you say, “I’ll tell you… but only you.” Cirsi nods and lets you continue.

You tell her your story. About what happened to Baron, how he was turned to a monster and tried to kill you. About Binder and Guardians and Darksiders. You told her how you went to this other world and found a magic book, though your memory of actually taking the book is a bit fuzzy. You mention going to the dark world. How your head was filled with conflicting thoughts of “everything is all your fault” and “it's going to be okay”. How you found out what truly happened to Baron only after it was too late. How you had to sit and watch your best friend be stolen away from you and you could do nothing to stop it.

You get so caught up in the memories of your story you don't even realize that you're crying. Everything finally sunk in and you can't take it. You just let the tears flow as Cirsi holds your hand, telling you it's going to be alright.

As simple as they sound, those are the words that give you just enough strength you need to keep going.

It's going to be alright.

Chapter Text

The sun sets over the horizon giving the sky and clouds an orange hue. The cool autumn breeze feels nice as you take your time walking back to the farm. Even at this time of day the village is still lively. Residents going about their evening business, getting their last little chores done to get ready for the night. Some of them say hello to you as you pass by, while others don’t give you any mind.

You get to the farm and see Ramul waiting outside for you. He see you and waves at you, you smile and wave back. Ramul hops over to meet you halfway. “Hey, sorry I had to leave you guys back there,” he says, “I remembered I had plans to do something with Reme, so I couldn’t stay. I assume you two got along.”

You nod, “yeah we did,” you say, “Cirsi is pretty chill.”

“So what did you guys talk about?” He asks, curiously.

“Oh uh…” you hesitate a bit. You don’t want to tell him the whole of what you told Cirsi earlier, so you struggle to find the right words to say. “Just… stuff…”

“Just stuff?” Ramul says, seeing through your facade.

You feel a bit guilty for leaving Ramul out of the loop but you know it’s probably for the best. “Look, don’t take this the wrong way…” you say, “but I told her some things that I don’t really want anyone else to know.”

You can tell that Ramul is disappointed but he pushes it to the side and shrugs. “we all have our secrets.” He says in a way that seems like he’s trying to spite you or something, “If you change your mind and do decide to tell me, I’m all ears!” He points at his large rabbit ears as he says that last bit. You let out a small, nervous laugh and nod to him. “Well,” he says suddenly, “it's getting late, and I need my beauty sleep.” he turns away and starts heading down the path. He turns back and waves, “see ya around!” He then quickly hops out of sight.

Your head feels fuzzy with tiredness and stress. You head inside and go straight to bed hoping you’ll feel better in the morning. Though for you getting a good night’s sleep isn’t an easy thing to achieve.

~

You stand alone in an open field sprinkled with red Dahlia flowers*. The scenery seems peaceful but a feeling of dread looms in the air, almost suffocating you. You subconsciously walk through the field not really knowing where you are going but feeling as if it were important. You eventually encounter a figure in the field of flowers. You recognize the figure’s long ears and yellow bandanna.

You open your mouth to speak but Ramul interrupts you. “You trust me, right Lore?” he asks you in a solemn, quiet voice. You are some what surprised by his tone and words. You try to speak up but he continues before you can say anything, “Do you not want me to know your secret because you think I might use it against you?”

“What?” You finally get some words out, “No, that’s not-”

“Or is it because you don’t want me to suffer the same fate at him?”

Those words send chills down your spine. “W-what?” You take a small step back as you speak. You notice Ramul is holding a book. A very familiar book. You gasp at the sight of the Artifact and look back up at Ramul, who turns to face you.

You feel your heart stop at the sight of him. His face is disfigured in the same way as the Barghest, black goop dripping down from his face and soulless purple eyes.. You step back in fear as everything around you is slowly consumed with darkness. You are incapable of doing anything except watch in horror as your friend is transformed into a monster just like Baron.

“This is the exact thing you were trying to avoid wasn’t it. Lore?” the creature says in a dark, scratchy voice, “You’re too late to save them.”

“No!” you hopelessly cry out, “Stop! Please! I don’t want this!”

“You should have never came here,” the creature says, “ Your existence in this world will only lead to it’s demise.”

“No!”

“One by one, everyone you know and love will be consumed by the darkness that you brought upon them.”

“No! Shut up! All you do is tell lies!” You shout, gaining courage to stand up against the monster, “It’s not going to work on me so just give it up already!”

The creature chuckles. “Oh isn’t this cute,” it says, “you really think you can stop us?” The creature reaches up a clawed hand. You stare at it in horror, unable to run. “One day you’ll know the truth...”  Before you can do anything to stop it, it swipes down at you just as everything turns to complete darkness.