An Unexpected Journey

Asui had gotten more than a bit bored with simply sitting around with the other new Bachiatari recruits and doing absolutely nothing at all with his free time. While he could make the best out of almost any situation, and find a way to have some fun doing nearly anything, he had more than exhausted his creativity in such situations. That is what lead him here, to the Land of Forsaken's Wetlands, adventure. Or at least a change of scenery. He loved the marshes and bogs, a trait carried over from his Terra Tribe heritage. He moved through a swamp quickly, stepping across the roots of the trees to make a pathway for himself. As he moved along, he kept his eyes out for anything unusual in the area, keen to find something to interest him.

As he walked, things grew stranger, the world seemed to grow more still. Sounds faded and animals disappeared from sight. Within the space of a blink the wetland had gone from a vibrant marsh teeming with life and vigour... To silence and emptiness, devoid of anything but Asui. The wind died and as it done so, whispers started. They were soft, barely on the edge of hearing and yet so obviously audible, scratching at Asui's mind, clawing at the far reaches of his thoughts. They were unintelligible but seemed to hold so much wisdom and knowledge within them. Only one message could truly get through though; a direction. It pointed him southwest, deeper towards the heart of the wetlands, the whispers wanted him to go there, they had something for him, a prize, a blessing. They wanted him to claim it and save them. Yet Asui would get only the most vague impressions of this, tiny snippets of thought and emotion laced among his own. Would he follow the direction he was given? That tugging on his soul that drew him towards the end... Or would he flee and escape this awful stillness?

Asui noticed the progressive...pausing of everything around him, until very thing seemed to stand frozen around him. He stopped and looked around at how everything seemed to be frozen in time and he was the only thing truly active. He supposed others would be put out or worried by this stillness, but he was just...fascinated with it. Curiosity wasn't really in his personality, but he was wondering if he could bottle whatever caused this and use it when people around him were being obnoxious and annoying. Then the whispers came and he turned his eyes southwest. This was niggling at what little curiosity he had, drawing him in the direction of the voices. Quite literally it would seem, he noticed his legs moving of their own volition "Here goes nothing, kero." He moved in the direction of the voices more quickly, wanting to get to the bottom of this. Maybe it was the cause of this stillness, and if it was it was welcome in Asui's company.

As he walked closer to the heart of the wetlands the whispers grew more insistent and they grew louder. More things became understood even though the language was one that Asui had never heard before. The whispers told him about the prize, they told him that he would free them and make them whole and pure again. As he walked, he'd swiftly find himself dragged under their spell and forced to walk, unable to change his route, unless he had the natural mental fortitude to ignore the effects of course. Eventually he'd come across a patch of what appeared to be briar. The thorns extended farther than the eye could see in all directions but there was a tiny little tunnel to crawl through and the voices would force him into it and wade through the water on hands and knees to get within the briar. Thorns like iron would claw at his body, cutting him, wracking his body with pain if he couldn't resist their sharp machinations. During all this he would still be trapped in the spell of the whispers which were now coming close to snarls and growls.

Tier Checks:

Asui found himself put under the spell of whatever was deeper within the wetlands and in the back of his mind he regretted following this. In the forefront, however, he was consumed with finding whatever this was. He listened to the voices and found the desire to find whatever was trapped and make it pure again, cleanse it and undo its binds. He was forced to crawl through the briars but he was sure he would've done so anyway if he was able to move of his own accord. The thorns raked his skin as he crawled through the thorns, raising wounds that weren't exactly fatal but highly painful and rather annoying. He pushed on, though, both through his own will and this outside force that was pulling him through.