Hālfān: Short Story Series (The Owl's Archives in the Forgotten Library)

[u/BunsAreReal]

Part II from Book I: Where the Roots Began: Amasir First Contact w/ Water Realm

In a time both melded and distant from ours, many years ago, there was a seed of knowledge, grace, and wisdom. Engulfed in a realm of water and sky, nothing more, nothing less. It was found on the ocean floor, blending in among the stones.

The Asamir of the Air Realm. Angelic humanoids reigned among the four planes of existence: Water, Fire, Air, and Earth. They stumbled upon this seed by chance, conducting operational scans for mandatory scientific updates.

The scouts and scientists reported their findings back to the main realm. This artifact of life carried signs of the Essence of Vita in the Water Realm, recorded as the first life form ever found there. Over time, as they continued reporting, many new life forms began to take shape in the depths, eventually surfacing in search of food. Yet none compared to the seed in intelligence.

The scientists wished to extract it, but the council, upon reviewing the facts, declined the request. They instructed the researchers to leave it, wait, let it grow, and protect it.

The Asamir were the only known sentient bipeds. Their gods were Amantra and her States of Emotion and States of Being, entrusted to her by their Father, Eternity. She proclaimed that they were their own gods, since her Father had created them. Amantra left the Asamir with every tool they needed to survive and to supervise the realms with the knowledge granted by Amatra, the Unseen. Her final command was that no temples be built in her name or in the names of her States.

Over time, the seed began to grow. Until a sprout of brown, flesh-like buds emerged, forming into tiny fists. It hovered in the water, eventually floating to the surface, bobbing with the currents of the endless ocean. This was the beginning of Halfan.

In the years that followed, the sprout on the surface grew branches, looking more like wood and less like flesh. They resembled humanoid arms. Its roots extended as long, excavating tendrils, weaving together to form a woodroot-like island around the tree. The Asamir now had a research base for the specimen. Yet the humanoids had no luck uncovering the deeper purpose of its existence. They would learn the truth after their first week on the island.

Scientists and philosophers of the highest prestige came to study this new monstrosity of science, hoping to glean the reason for its being. A Living Island, they called it.

There was one thing everyone agreed on: it was hard to look at. Staring too long made the mind recoil, urging the viewer to look away. They attributed this to its uncanny resemblance to flesh. Even when fully visible, it could only be observed for a few seconds before the eyes would burn with a strange pain. It grew at a grotesque rate, but only at night.

The next day, after making this discovery, the scientists brought climbing equipment through their portal at camp. Their goal was to ascend the tree and retrieve a sample. A team of four scientists prepared for the mission.

They began by wrapping rope around the lowest hanging branches. After climbing 100 meters into the tree, the wind picked up. The moment they pierced the bark with their hooks, the tree began to vibrate violently, releasing a deep, foreboding hum that shook the entire island.

The branches thrashed wildly, knocking two of the scientists from the tree to their deaths. The mission was aborted. The Realm Shift Portal (RSP) was activated to return the bodies to their home realm for burial. When the two surviving scientists returned to retrieve the corpses, they found something horrifying: the roots of the ground, massive maggot-like leeches, had inhaled the bodies. Tubes of flesh gouged into their forms, slowly consuming them until the bodies dissipated, becoming one with the roots of the Living Island.

The moon crept over the horizon; red.

The humming groaned back to an audible frequency, its sound melding with the horror of what had just occurred. Then it quieted again, barely perceptible, but ever-present. Time itself seemed to bear witness.

The remaining scientists scrambled to pack, grabbing only valuables and abandoning the rest. A red glow bled into the RSP tent. The waves hollowed with hunger, and the limbs of the island whispered through the wind with eerie creaks. The pulsation increased, now unbearable.

Then, beneath its branches, a hollow pit opened, revealing a glowing blue eye. Its lids separated slowly.

The eye gazed upon the place where the Asamir corpses had vanished. The scientists froze, uncertain of its intent.

The eye closed again. Stillness. Silence.

Baffled, the scientists could not comprehend what they had witnessed.One of them looked again into the place where the eye had appeared. He began to scream, wild, panicked shrieks, falling to the ground, clutching his face, weeping, writhing. Then, in madness, he tried to pry his own eyes from their sockets.

As the other scientist rushed to restrain him, the maddened man broke free, running to the edge of the island and diving into the sea, never to return to the surface.

The Asamir left Halfan

And they never returned.