Now,I need to get the Sun Staff.
End of Trial One
Trial Two
The island is dense with forest growth. It’s dry, but I’m drenched. My clothes stick to me, and my hair drips with water. The skin around my wrists is shredded. As I tear off a piece of my blouse to dress the wound, a blunt object bursts my head open.
By the time the enemies flank me, I’m already half dead.
As I bleed out, all I can think isI need to get the Sun Staff.
Trial Two
I open my eyes, and the same thoughts resurface. The island is dense with forest growth. It’s dry, but I’m drenched. My clothes stick to me, and my hair drips with water. The skin around my wrists is shredded. Except this time, before I tear off a piece of my blouse to dress the wound, I run to find shelter and forage for resources. When an enemy attacks, I’m ready with weapons made of stone.
I take out five enemies, and the sky gets so bright my eyes burn in their sockets.
As I’m transported to the next trial, all I can think isI need to get the Sun Staff.
Trial Five
This time, the enemies are more smoke than solid, and yet I still feel their bones crack beneath my hands. I still feel their flesh torn by my nails. This shadow world is nothing like the island I came to know, but maybe that island wasn’t the one I set foot on in the first place.
Scenery after scenery blurs together.
A figure made of smoke cracks my skull open, and it’s pain, pain, pain.
As I die again, all I can think isI need to get the Sun Staff.
Trial Two
I’m prepared to fight with my bare hands.
Trial Three
I make armor out of giant tree leaves. I cover my torso with them, remembering the blood rushing out of my sides. When the creatures throw me around, I protect my head with my arms, wrapped in a fetal position like a newborn.
As I barely survive, I thinkI need to get the Sun Staff.
Trial Six
This time it’s a drop. I know I’m dead before I hit the ground.
I don’t have time to think about a single thing.
Trial Eleven
I’m parched. It’s been hours or days or weeks of sweating under this unbearable sun. There’s no shade. There’s no fight here.
I fall to my knees. My dry skin cracks atop the rocks, and I feed the ground my blood.
Why am I doing this? What is the Sun Staff to me? A way to save the empire, or something to shine light on me so I am finallyseen. All there is here is light.
I miss the shadows. I miss Suyai’s look of exasperation. I miss Mare’s loud laugh. I miss Yanami’s flushed face.
I get up.
I need to get the Sun Staff.
