Noctis felt himself falling all of a sudden, aaas if the earth split apart to swallow him for his folly.
It wasn’t long however as he felt himself landing almost a little too smoothly.
He looked around himself and saw almost the same atmosphere except that there was a ceiling here and an opening for him to get out of at one side.
Moving towards it he exited the place without worries. It seemed he had been lucky this time around.
Or so he thought before noticing the scene that he exited out of.
Apart from the brightly shining moon in the sky illuminating the place in a light almost blinding, nothing of the place looked familiar.
There were no trees, shrubs or rocks that he had grown accustomed to by the last week or so, instead in front of him was a sea of pristine blue water with a white bridge with no handrail to hold on to suspended upon it.
He called it a sea, no matter how out of place it seemed as he couldn’t see anything for miles upon miles ahead in any direction.
All this place seemed to have was the round moon in the dark sky and a body of water that rolled on into the horizon.
Noctis looked at the bridge suspended on the sea going forward, looked back at the cavern with no other opening and sighed ruefully.
After going back and inspecting the cavern one last time for some relief, Noctis with an owl perched on his shoulder started making his way towards the bridge.
The bridge itself seemed like a thick white rope, roughly the thickness of average trees in the forest albeit, tied from one end to another.
Lack of any support for his hands added to the worries of waking upon this rounding and sloping ’bridge’.
But owing to the thickness, the rope was just wide enough for him to walk with a little focus.
Walking on and on in the liminal space with nothing to look at except water, along with the chilling air weared upon Noctis much more quickly than he assumed and yet no sight of goal or novelty came across him.
As Noctis moved his head around in order to alleviate some of this, his gaze landed upon the water below the bridge.
He could see the reflection of the bridge, the long shadow similarly extending one horizon to another.
He also saw a shadow the shape of a giant drop suspended a little distance from the bridge’s moving in the direction they were moving.
After a little focus he could discern it to be his companion’s, however why would it be suspended in the water as he was floating in the water?
Thinking such Noctis looked towards the owl perched on his shoulder, certainly very connected, and looked back on the water below.
His heartbeat sped as he saw the eerie scene of the owl and bridge’s shadow in the water and no link between them.
Noctis stopped at this, staring at the place for some time before glancing back at the place he came from, only to see.. the same scene in his front path.
Only the sea and a white bridge suspended towards the horizon with absolutely nothing else.
His frown and heart betrayed a hint of anxiety for the first time in the night. The fear of the unknown clouding his heart.
Noctis looked up towards the still bright moon once again, emanating light to all equally, and looked once back towards the sea.
His heart skipped a beat as he saw his shadow suddenly appearing in the water this time, like an illusion, material one moment, immaterial another.
He put his hands on his temple, massaging it with his eyes closed so as to regain some calm before resuming walking once again when he noticed that his body refused to move forward.
He could move his arms but couldn’t move his legs. His muscles felt cramped as if glued together all of a sudden.
After constant attempts to move failed, in a bit of desperation Noctis tried to use his energy to forcefully move when he realised that he couldn’t access his energy.
He could still feel its presence in him, but couldn’t access it for some reason.
His heart pounded against his chest as sweat formed on his forehead, sending a chill down his spine as cold air hit his head.
Noctis looked at the shadow in the water, looking quite eerie in the wake of the incidents and tried to parry away his legs, seemingly stuck on the bridge with his hands.
As Noctis was doing this, he suddenly felt tremors reverberating on the white bridge.
Noctis stood straight up looking around for the source of it when saw something that shook his heart once more.
In the distance a arachnid double the size of him made his way towards him from his back.
"What do they eat around here!?"
Noctis’ shout sounded as the tremors became more and more intense as the arachnid came closer with its heavy sway.
The visual from his peripheral vision was just as dreadful as the possible outcome of the collision.
The fat body lay low on the bridge as its long narrow legs coiled around the rope bridge. How it was moving ahead was itself a wonder to him but what made the bridge shake was even more so.
As the spider kept moving towards him, the bridge shook up and down and eventually Noctis’ body slipped from the rope and down towards the sea below.
Noctis found himself splashing in the ice cold water as his body still refused to move even at this time.