Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was a human who had a bright yellow soul, almost as bright as the setting sun. They embodied the aspect of Justice.
Unfortunately for the human, for as bright as the colour of their soul, the same cannot be said for the life that was given to them. Their life was a dull grey monotone. with barely any sign of colour in what the human should have experienced in their age. One can say their life was led in darkness, with no light to be seen at the end of the road unless given to them.
For every day, the human is required to do many tasks listed by them if they want to see the light.
The human had to cook for them .
The human had to make sure the house was clean as clear glass before they came back.
The human had to get food and necessities for them by whatever means necessary.
The human had to always keep a good grade, to always be near the top of class, even if they didn’t want it.
The human had to build the facade that they were cared for, they could not let onlookers see past the rose tinted veil hovered between them.
If the human fails to complete any of these in time everyday, punishment awaits for them.
Sometimes they get beaten black and blue.That’s why most of their clothes cover the skin, they can’t let anyone know the murky colours beneath it.
Sometimes they get locked out until the next day. There were times where it was bitter cold or scorching hot, times that they wished death would take them. But it was fine, they could handle it.
Sometimes a colourful bottle would smash against their head. It was colourful, so they chose to count the shards of many shades of colours. It distracts them from the aching red liquid spilling from their head.
Sometimes they had to do their task again but with growing pains of hunger. It’s okay however, the smell of food that comes in many scents is enough for them, even if their stomach says otherwise.
However, just because the human can handle it, doesn't mean they want to go through with it. And so, they kept up doing their chores, even if they were tired, hungry and sad.
They kept at it, in a clockwork manner…
Over and over and over…
Unstimulating and unchanging….
Until one day, something happened.
During one of their trips to the grocery store, they decided to go on a different path , away from the usual road they used. And then they saw it, on the dull red brick wall.
A missing poster. It looked like it had seen better days.
The human tore it off the wall and read it. On it says,
5 Children Gone Missing
Last seen heading to Mt Ebott
Below it was a picture that showed the children's appearance prior to their disappearance. They all wore a variety of accessories on them, which seems to be the last thing they wore. And they all had different eye colours on them ranging to cyan, orange, indigo, purple and green.
And the human realised something else.
They knew one of them.
More accurately they know the one with the indigo eyes. They were the star of their school. They were always nice and polite to everyone they greeted. And they were no pushover either; whatever they wanted, they would get it.
They were honestly such an inspiration for them. It made them want to be that person, someone who is always kind yet stubborn to keep to their values.
Which is why they asked in their head, “What happened, was everything not what they seemed? How did they go missing, what led them to go to Mt Ebott of all places?”
Mt Ebott, as far as the story goes, is where anyone who goes there is never found again. There were even rumours that monsters live there, or are rather kept down there.
From what the human heard from the elderly around them, there was a monster that came from there holding a human child in their arms. Many assume the monster murdered the child, and that the monster was about to attack everyone who witnessed them.
Strangely, the monster stopped their attack and returned to the mountain, although not unscathed, courtesy of the humans that fought back.
Since then, the monster never came back, but that didn’t stop people from worrying about it.
So the government had to close off Mt. Ebott from the public, making it a restricted area. Which led to many rumours and speculation about it.
Not that the human bothered listening.
Although, the human guessed that it was a pretty shoddy job since five kids went missing and maybe even more. The thought of that made the human angry, like something burning up within them.
Like the desire to put the truth to light, to bring closure.
The human realised then, that the feeling was Justice. The human wanted to bring justice to the missing children.
And with that, the human took off, the missing poster in hand and the groceries forgotten.
When they reached back home, the human went upstairs to the attic, also known as their room and opened up a chest.
Inside it was a brown hat with a clover patch sewn on it, a brown vest, a brown sweatshirt, a blue pair of jeans and most importantly, their toy gun set together with a box of rubber bullets.
Altogether it creates a cowpoke look, just like the heroes that the human would see in the western films that they occasionally rented.
After they equipped themselves, they realised something else.
They might not come back.
The human wondered if they should leave behind a note for them to read. But then they decided, “No, it’s better this way, it’s best that I move on from this part of my life. They won’t miss me anyways”.
With that, the human went out the door, changing the trajectory of their life for good.
No longer would they be a slave to them.
Now, they can be someone important.
A real cowpoke.
A real hero.
And so, they set off, trudging into the wilderness to the evergreen forest, until they see it. The path leading to the mountain, where the missing kids were last seen.
It was tiring to say the least. Getting here has been a workout. In fact, Clover could say that it's comparable to doing a few laps of a marathon and now, they have to walk up a long, long, winding path up to the top of the mountain which may take days, mind you.
Clover sighed, they really should have expected this, but justice doesn’t wait for nobody and the kids up there are waiting to be found. There is no turning back from this after all.
Even if that means having to climb up an hours-long walk to the top after having to just reach here from miles away from “home”. Welp, that’s on them for accepting this mission. Hardships would be found, be an obstacle and that just happens to be one of them.
Regardless, they went up the, if one can excuse the language learnt from them , long-ass path that would be estimated to take nearly a day at most without rest. Though again, they really shouldn’t be complaining, heroes don’t complain about every minor inconvenience and they should follow that example.
And after many painstakingly long hours, they’ve done it. They finally reached the top of the mountain. Their legs may ache from the climb but the feeling is liberating, they never went this far, not of their own accord. Heh, take that “adults”, who say kids like them shouldn’t stray too far. Look at them, they're doing quite fine if they do say so themselves.
And as they turn to the light for one last time, the sun is setting and from afar, they see the little black silhouettes of the city in the distance.
They wonder if they can see their “house” from here, but a part of them has moved on.
They turn away from the light and see, a really, really fucking (excuse their language), large hole in the ground almost like a giant maw waiting to swallow anyone that falls in.
Mt.Ebott truly does fit that monster aesthetic, what with the giant hole over there, assuming that monsters actually exist and aren’t just some scare from the adults to make kids not bother them from whatever adults do at night. They don’t want to know, it’s adult stuff, it’s probably boring and not something kids would find fun in.
Ugh, no, focus Clover, giant hole in ground is priority right now. There’s that hole bigger than the elephant in the room right now. Mainly, did all the missing children really go missing here, with the obviously giant void in the ground ?
Like surely, they didn’t all just trip into the hole right? But the other answer would imply that they all jump into the hole by their own choice, which they think that’s kinda sad to think about, so you stuck with the first answer no matter how impossible it is with obvious thing in the cave right now.
Still to enact proper justice, evidence is needed and that requires investigation, so they did it. They check every nook and cranny around the cave, maybe one of them left a note or something.
Except there's nothing but dust particles here, no sign of human presence. Maybe they’re at a different part of the mountain, maybe they’re not even here at all.
Although there’s a nagging temptation in their head to lean closer to the hole, despite the risk of falling into a void where there's no end in sight. Still just to be sure, Clover threw a rock into the hole and…
Ok, sure enough, they don’t hear anything so that only means it's a very deep hole, in other words, whoever even falls in here would not survive and if they did, their body would be broken beyond saving and they'll die alone, cold and bleeding.
They really hope that none of the kids actually fell in here because that’s a really sad way to go out. And as they pace around the cave,
….Their foot snagged onto a stray vine, right next to the hole, Clover tried to keep their balance but failed and now they got consumed by the void, falling into it.
And like any rational person who’s falling into a metres deep hole at high speed, they screamed and wondered if they had made anyone mad to deserve this fate.
Ugh, this would be a very embarrassing way to die, now they think about it. Like what if someone asks how they’d die and they answered, “Oh, silly me tripped into an obviously large gaping hole in the ground because I got too curious, hahaha”.
How lame.
They can’t let that be their story on how they die, they absolutely can’t.
So in the meantime that they’re falling to their doom, they’ll just have to embellish the story to make it sound cool, surely god would be forgiving for lying here a bit.
So the story goes, a lone cowpoke wore a cool hat and carried with them their trusty iron and headed to Mt.Ebott, a place known for where the rumoured monsters reside. In their hand holds a paper, specifically a missing poster of five missing children. As for their mission, they were to find them and bring them back home safely, but if not, they’ll have to enact JUSTICE.
When they reached the mountain, there it was, a gaping maw in the middle of the cavern. This must be where they’re held imprisoned, the cowpoke thought. And so without hesitation, they jumped down the hole, braving into the maw of the beast.
Now this should be a good retelling, Clover thought. This is way better than telling the heavens, they tripped and fell like an idiot. Hmm, this fall is taking quite a whi-
And suddenly, they felt a lot of pressure pushed on to them, like the sensation of being crushed, squished from all directions. It’s intense,it's cramped, scary and they felt like passing out and so they did it.
Unbeknownst to them, after the long fall, they landed onto a soft bed of golden flowers, saving them from an untimely death just like the rest before them.