Erryd - Magic & Mushrooms

The forest was dark. It was late in the night and there he was, practicing magic yet again. But this time was different. When he got to this place, however he had gotten here, it felt...strange.

The frei's fingers glistened with dark red magical energy, and a smirk crept upon his face. From one hand, a plethora of that red energy shot off like lightning in every direction, lighting up the forest for a quick moment. Each of those small bolts turned into a bat-like creature, which all collected together and flew around overhead. Wicked they looked, but poisonous and powerful they were.

Then, in his hands, a ball of that same blood red energy floated between them. It grew and grew, his magic was becoming so powerful and he could feel it pulsing through his veins. The ball floated outward from him and continued to grow. His imagination magic was nothing in comparison to what it used to be. All those months of practicing had paid off. The ball then burst, and from it, a mighty dragon broke forth, opening his wings and letting out a terrifying roar as it landed in a thud against the ground.

The mushroom then turned around and another ball of energy formed within his hands. He allowed it to grow, just as he had previously done. From this ball burst forth a monstrosity unlike any other. A mighty tar-esque colossus, bubbling and gurgling upward as it stood over all the trees in the forest.

Suddenly, the frei began to feel this eerie power overcome him. It wasn't like anything else he had ever felt before. It was as though he began to have an out of body experience. The view shifted and what he could only describe as his very soul floated upward, looking down at the scene below. He looked at his body, and at all of the creations he had just formed within his imagination.

The forest was dark, but through this darkness, all of the creations stared down at the small creator on the forest floor. With his hands he motioned outward and with a cackling laugh, he let out the words:

"Destroy. It. All. Hahahahahahahahaha."

From the moment the words left his lips, the frei above watched as his creations began to spout fire, tar, and poison across the trees, shrubs, and grassland; burning, killing, and smothering everything in their wake until the forest, as far as the eyes could see, became a wasteland. The frei's heart sank. He watched as his body below continued to cackle and spout off words of power at the creations. What was happening? It wasn't him, was it? It couldn't be. He'd never use his magic to do something like this to a place he found so much solace in.

The forest began to further darken as the manifestations of his imagination began to dissipate into the nothingness, continuing to wreck havoc as far out as they could.

It was then that the soul of the toadstool could sense something watching him. He looked down at his body, and there it floated, staring straight at him with a smirk most wicked. Laughter filled the frei's mind, cackling laughter, a truly evil laughter.

The frei's heart leapt from his chest as he awoke in a panic. He sat up in his bed and took a look around the room, his sheets drenched in sweat. "It...it was all just a dream?" Ryder hung his head down into his hands, rubbing his eyes, relieved.

"You mean...nightmare," a familiar voice echoed within his room.

Ryder, startled, looked up quickly to see his reflection in the mirror across the room. But something was off about it. In the dead of night, the frei could swear that, even though he was obviously frightened, the face that stared back at him was smirking menacingly.

Then the reflection began to laugh that same maniacal laughter that he heard from his dream. Suddenly, his reflection from the mirror began to burst quickly into reality, and there he floated, at the foot of the bed, a dark, black and white reflection of Ryder.

Erryd.

Something within Ryder already knew him. He'd never met him before, he'd never even seen him before. But Ryder didn't even have to ask his name. He intrinsically knew it.

The frei's heart pounded within his chest. He could even feel it in his ears and throat. Was this some sort of twisted continuation of the same nightmare he'd been having for months? When would he finally wake up? He kept closing his eyes tightly and opening them, each time the darker reflection of himself still floated in the same spot. This all felt real, but so did the dream he had supposedly just woken up from. What was reality anymore? Was this really it?

"I'm so excited to finally be here, you have no idea."

That voice, the second time Erryd spoke to him, the frei placed it. It was his very own voice, the one he'd been hearing inside his head for months. The one that would tell him to keep pushing himself to the very limit of his magical power. The same one that would continuously tell him he'd never amount to anything great unless he practiced his magic from dawn until dusk. The one that pushed magical power and prowess over intelligence and studies. The voice he had, many times, tried to quell with books and other distractions. That voice.

Ryder pushed himself up against the headboard and took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing pulse.

"You can't escape from me now," the dark frei began, smiling as he floated upon the bed towards Ryder. "Erryd has finally come out to play."

Ryder shut his eyes as tight as he could and shook his head. "No, you're not real. You're just a dream, a figment of my imagination. Go away, go away, go away, go away, go away!" the frei stated, covering his ears, his tone increasing with each repetition of the words until he ended with were a quick scream. It wasn't until then that he felt some sort of relief.

The toadstool dropped his hands to his sides and relaxed the tightness of his eyes, slowly opening them only to see the dark, dim, lifeless eyes of his shadow self staring directly into his from only inches away. "Boo," Erryd cackled, floating up into the air as Ryder quickly flung himself off the bed and to the floor in a frightened mess.

"I told you, I'm not leaving. You can't just tell me when to come and go like you can with...oh, what's her name again? Alice?" the shadow spoke, drumming his chin with his fingers until he finally spit the name from his lips, leaving but a pursed smirk on them.

That name brought such strong feelings forth from the frei on the ground. "Don't even say her name," he said, defensively, finally gathering the courage, and now anger, to float up off the ground.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. You can't even summon her anymore, can you. Hmm...maybe it's just that she doesn't want to come out to play. You've probably bored her to death with all of your reading. Or maybe she just hates you because of how annoying you are. Just like how Reuben hates you for not being more outgoing. Wait, I know you've been trying to be more like him: outgoing, confident...but we both know that's not who you really are."

Whilst Erryd spoke, all Ryder could do was continue telling the shadow, "Stop. Stop it. Just stop." Anger building up inside.

"Actually, you've been pretty pathetic ever since he grounded you...that asshole. Can't even conjure up a decent looking story anymore. And even crafting a toadstool takes it out of you. Everything you do looks so...dim, dingy, blegh. What happened to you? At least you used to be a decent mage. Now look at you; a pathetic whelp. A simple shell of what you used to be. Disgusting."

"STOP IT!" the frei screamed, letting loose all the anger that had built up over the course of the small altercation. The fear was gone, and all he was left with was anger and frustration.

All of a sudden, his bedroom door burst open and the room was instantly illuminated. "Ryder! Is everything alright!?" a scared, confused, and worried Reuben called from the threshold.

Ryder quickly glanced between Reuben and his bed, seeing nothing, nobody. Erryd was gone. Great. Now he had to explain...or not. "I...I am so sorry Reuben. I was talking to myself," as strange as that sounded, it wasn't false.

Reuben took a deep breath of relief, he knew that Ryder had many imaginary friends come and go, and it was bound to catch up with the poor boy eventually. "Okay, I'm glad to know you're alright. Just keep it down, will ya? I'm trying to sleep. It's only 1AM. Goodnight," the guardian stated, turning off the lights and closing the door behind him.

Ryder took a deep breath following the shutting of his door.

"Why would you apologize to that prick after what he's done to you?"

The frei's eyes darted back to the black and white version of himself which, once again, floated above his bed. Anger built up instantaneously all over again, and just after he had calmed himself enough. Ryder simply ignored him and laid back down in bed.

"Alright, that's fine. Go to sleep. But just know I'll follow you into your...nightmares. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha."

The maniacal laughter continued to echo for the rest of the night far after Erryd had dissipated into the darknereO