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There are whispers about the mountain. Legend has it at the top of the mountain is a demon who had the power to recreate, to rebuild.
Jayce, who has been constantly fighting to make something of himself, wishes for nothing more all his life. A man from a respectable family, albeit one low on the political structure of his community, he never felt like he was wronged necessarily, but he always felt out of place, out of touch of the likeminded folk who never tinkered with technology or physically pushed the boundary of their valley.
Instead, he recalls the blue material and intricate leather making, unlike any that he had seen the town artisans create, and has always tried to recreate what he saw, what he touched. He had been young, so young that sometimes he wonders if he made it all up, but he doesn't think his imagination is that good. He looks up and want to see what he saw that day. A shadowed figure looming over, not just him, but over their city, and using tools Jayce had never seen before. The items seemed to glow in the man's hands, moving fluidly, as if building upon itself. At the sight of the young boy, the figure beckoned him over, and trancelike, a young Jayce had followed and never looked back ever since.
Maybe it was a curse that met him that day because since then, all he can think about is creating, creating, creating. For some reason, the others in the village never felt that desire to make anything noteworthy. They never even ventured past the farmlands and inner ring of trees, claiming that all that they need is right there, with the lush grounds and beautiful lake and close knit community, and Jayce, don't you have just a little too overactive imagination? Why don't you channel that into the traditional arts or woodwork that the leaders can teach you? Why don't you use your handiwork talents for something productive? Jayce felt his armors go up with their judging questions. He never was one to push back, preferring to keep the peace, just like all the other villagers, but he still questions why, why, why don't they feel this way? Why does he have to keep wondering what else is out there?
Even now, on death's door, he plays with the wristlet from that very day so long ago.
It was his own selfish pride that got him here; he'd been making a machine to help him get up the mountain, inspired by the plows of the fieldworkers and blacksmiths. He secretly tinkered away in his family's forge, his mother none the wiser. Ever since his father died, it's not like anyone else was using it anyway. The leaders didn't know that he was creating something likely illegal, but there was nothing in the village's rule book about something like this anyway anyway. The technology had never been seen, yet Jayce knew to describe it as an engine.
Unfortunately, this engine has failed him not even a third up the mountain, and it has plummeted into a sunken hole. Hubris eats at the center of his chest as the machine weighs heavily on his leg, rendering him immobile and stuck and dying under a cloudy sky.
He stares up through the opening, wondering why he even did this in the first place. He feels lightheaded as the blood loss creeps up on him, and he lets his eyes drift close, thinking of the mother he left behind and how she might have always been right about him not being right in the head.
Jayce wonders if it's his overactive imagination that lets him feel the cool shadow of something blocking the view of the sky he wants desperately to be seen by that hooded figure all those years ago, so he tells himself it is that same being coming here to save him. Instead, when he opens his eyes, fear grips him by the throat as this new, spindly figure twitches as it looks at him, its body altogether humanoid and inhuman. Curiosity and caution, his brain starts to register these feelings, even as terror creeps up from his through and to his eyes, watering at the sight of the figure getting closer and closer. It moves in a way that suggests Jayce should lay very, very still.
It reaches Jayce at the bottom of the sunken hole, but because it is by his head, he cannot get a good look of it. Instead, he can only feel its presence watching him carefully.
This is why the villagers are afraid of the mountain. Nobody had ever dared come up to it, yet they all had the instincts to avoid...this. Instincts that Jayce never had, never did since that fateful day. He twitches to touch his wristlet once more.
As if the action alerts the creature, it backs up from his head and away, crawling back up and out of the hole. He releases an onslaught of tears and a quick, shuddery breath, grasping his wrist in reaction to whatever that was, feeling the pain in his leg more acutely than before. He wants to cry out, but he thinks it is useless now as he lucidity escapes him.
Suddenly, his leg shifts. The heaviness on him has disappeared and all is numb. Jayce thinks he is still imagining things as his eyes drift open to see what is happening.
The demon has come back, but with others that look just like it. Some are moving the machine off of him, some are so close to his face that he wonders if they are sniffing him. Impossible, there is no face of their own, just blank beings that seem to crawl. He cannot make out their forms fully, just that they seem to move, stilted and yet quickly. They sure are quick to work, too, on his leg that doesn't feel any pain anymore, and he truly wonders if he is now dying as he feels like he's floating.
He soon realizes he is floating through the center of the hole's opening and up above ground. It's much darker than before, the clouds making way for the dusky sky. Instead of floating out and down to the village, he finds the view taking him further and further from the foot of the mountain, climbing to spots that none other villager has reached before. He is too weak to comprehend the evidence laid out before, but his imagination runs wild as the world opens up once more.
Perhaps the demon has not been happy about Jayce's trespassing and will punish him directly. A death by falling is unbecoming for a sacrifice, after all. Jayce burns, thinking that perhaps the mountain demon singled him out for his technology. A silly thought, but where else did the folktale about the recreation come from? Jayce can barely recall where he'd even heard such rumors, the other villagers stamping down talk about the mountain in any capacity.
As he floats higher and higher, he is surprised to note that he doesn't reach the top before he is taken into a cave.
It seems to close in on him as he enters, head first, unable to see anything except for the glowing stone in his wrist. He catches glints out of the corner of his eye, a movement that is too surreal for him to understand, and he realizes that the creatures have been taking him here. He wonders if they have been with him all along.
Suddenly, lanterns glow around him, and Jayce looks around the cavernous opening.
It is a wet, stony room that is sparse with any rock formation, like it was carved into the mountain itself. He is on a slab, more comfortable than he realizes, given that he does not feel his leg. He shifts, though, under the gaze of the creatures that have taken him here. They all seem to stare him down, even though they are lifeless with no eyes. He stares back at the closest one.
All at once, they turn to Jayce's feet, and there is a man.
He was not there before. Even as shock and fear courses through Jayce, he can't help but register how ethereal the man is.
"Curious," the man says, getting closer and roving his eyes up and down Jayce's body. He heats up at the next words. "I think I can work with this."