The queue of candidates stretched on interminably, and Dimm appeared composed, in stark contrast to the others who hastened their companions to plunge into the colossal rift before them.
The rift was designed to function as the gateway to their trial hunting missions. It is an expansive, swirling oval form, reminiscent of the shape produced when a cone is intersected by an oblique plane that appears neither to touch nor intersect the ground.
Dimm now comprehended why the game bore the name Ellipse. The rift before them perfectly encapsulated the literal ellipse he recognized from the world of the living. Though he never had the opportunity to become literate, it did not render him ignorant. He sighed at the thought.
The only difference he could tell between the rift and Ellipse as an object is the fact that the rift does not intersect with any other object. Plus, it possessed an otherworldly quality.
A close encounter with this rift will inevitably draw the candidate into its depths. However, this fate befalls only those who possess the game card, which, indeed, they all do. Rumors whispered that should one approach without such a card, the candidate would be pulled to a fatal end.
"Hmm."
The potent energy emanating from its vortex wielded the gravitational force that facilitated their entry. Thus, each participant was drawn into the game.
The atmosphere surrounding them was unforgiving, sweeping away any unsecured items in its path. Many of them lost their caps, headbands, and various other tools they might have wisely left behind in the hall. Who knew how long their adventure would turn out to be?
Dimm's sole sympathy was reserved for the girls standing in line beside them. The wind showed no mercy to their gowns and blouses.
Had the entire scenario not been an invention, functioning as per directives, he might have felt sympathy for himself and the young aspirant boys as well. For, the predicament would have been ascribed to a tidal wave. Nevertheless, the current scene is blissful.
It was his first time to see bare boobs, and if there were shameless girls around, he could have seen the one under.
"Brrr," he bluffed.
At last, it was his moment to take action, as those who preceded him had done.
The movement sounded easy: just walk carelessly toward the swirling rift, and allow yourself to be absorbed by its force and energy.
His heart was troubled. For others, it seemed a facile endeavor, yet for him, it was not. This was not the life he had envisioned. He yearned for life—true life! But not a life as a hunter of beasts or of hunters, or whatever their mission might entail.
The aspirants behind him seemed to be running out of patience for Dimm. The immediate boy behind his back took the first step by pushing Dimm with his might. It looked as if he was going to land on the ground, but, at the same time, he began to rise. Rise in the air.
Before he knew it, the rift had swallowed him as he speedily rallied down a hollow. But then, it was not exactly a hollow.
As he rapidly approached an end, he saw light piercing into the dim atmosphere of the enclosure he was in. In moments, he fell out from its end opening and landed on the ground with force.
He thought maybe he crushed his head or something since he traveled the hollow with his head in the direction of the opening, but he didn't. Instead, he had landed kneeling on his knees, and his head faced down, with his hands as support to the ground.
'How?'
A cloak brushed past him, causing him to raise his head up to be more surprised and possibly ask another, "How?".
This environment he had landed in bustled with humane people, moving all forward. None of them was moving in the opposite direction. He didn't know why it was so. That was not how people traveled on the streets.
The movement should have been to and fro, forward and backward, for and from. But in this case, it was a steady translational movement.
Since this was happening, he decided then that it would be best if he took the opposite direction to continue his hunt. Maybe that was the deal for them, candidates.
'How are we supposed to know what our mission was in this kind of situation?'
He thought and turned to move, but he couldn't. Why? His legs were chained.
Now he understood the reason he had landed on his knees.
He raised his head up to find someone dressed like one of these guards in an eastern setting. Without uttering any word, the guard signaled him to join others' movement with his head.
Only then did he realize the other beings were chained too.
'You should at least talk, you are not a lizard.'
If only he could say what his mind had thought without being hurt by the guard, he was going to be happy to do it. But he knew better than to obey the instructions.
Like sheep without a shepherd, or rather, like sheep with shepherds, the multitude, with Dimm inclusive, were led to the wharf of a sea. They were going to be boarding a ship.
Dimm's eyes widened. 'A ship to where?'
A pullback in steps was the answer to his thoughts. The pain of the cord that whipped his legs had forced him to do so.
They were asked to stand beside a platform that was supported by pilings that extended from the land into the water. That was going to be the ship's pathway, so, they were going to wait.
The whole scene was rather muting. Very serene and uncomfortable. Every individual in the environment was chained just like him, the only exception being that others were chained to hands and legs, but he was only in the leg.
Plus, he didn't seem to recognize any face here. He was hoping he did meet someone, a candidate like him, but the reverse was the case. He is here alone...or so, he thought.
'Why do I smell doom?'
They were instructed to board the ship that had just stopped on the pathway, just like how Dimm had assumed.
Each of them hopped like an antelope, getting closer to the ship and entering through its doorway.
Everything was just strange to Dimm. The ship was open-roofed, one of a kind he hadn't seen before. He was tempted to ask anybody around a question but on second thought, decided it was best to keep his reserve.
As they all entered the ship, it suddenly sped into the water before moving afloat in a steady motion. They were surely traveling to an unknown place; maybe somewhere, Dimm would face the rot of his mission. Or the rot of not doing anything in this environment.
If he was meant to do anything, he didn't know.
His mind in this environment became the physical, while his body became the mental. Everything he wanted to say, was done by his mind. While the capturing, the thinking, was done by his body.
The air was indeed cool.
But its coolness was cut by the words of the dialogue between two guards that stood Akimbo, closer to the corner where Dimm sat.
"Are we going to be taking them in as slaves, or…"
"Of course," the second guard interrupted. "They were handed over to us as slaves."
These were the two statements that ripped Dimm's body apart. It could have shattered if it were to be fragile.
'A slave?. Huh!'
The tone to which the guards had used to make their dialogue, and the movements from the start looked suspicious. Since they are refugees, why aren't the others reacting, or making any moves?
'I've clarified already. I will be going back to my fated life… But, that tone in speech? Well.'
Suddenly. Unknowingly. Dimm now wanted to continue life in this game. He didn't want to return to a life where he had nothing to offer. At least, if not for any other thing, he had mission accomplishments to offer in this game. That alone made him look important.
But there was still a chance. That he was captured as a slave didn't necessarily make him a slave.
He hummed softly with his eyes shut before he finally opened his eyes.
Everybody was alighting from the ship, with their legs and hands still bound. Magically, he was the exception yet again. His legs were now free, but the sudden movement.
The ship had halted by the river bank that led into a forest. 'Why are we stopping here?'
In front of him, every one of the refugees started producing crackling sounds. Sounds from the bone.
Soon, their hands, eyes, and faces morphed. Following was the appearance of fur, scales, and on some, armor-like stuff on their skins.
"Are they transforming?"
'No, they are not...' his mind tried to comfort his sight.
"Wait, they are..."
His body began to shake with the moment upon the realization. All this while, he traveled with beasts...?
He couldn't think of anything else to do except to run. So, he began to run.