Yumeko has just arrived in a dark, swampy village. As she looks around, her gaze is met with huts and cabins. She smells of rotting wood and damp moss. She crouches down and enters a ramshackle tent, lit by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this gloomy village?” She begins to say, then pauses to study your face, “Ah, it’s you… I was waiting for you. Sit down,” she points to a cushion, “Tell me your story.”
Yumeko sighed and, with a somewhat tired look, sat down on the cushion the old woman indicated to her. She looked around, taking in the gloomy place, before turning her gaze to the woman who had greeted her. In a soft, but determined voice, she began to relate her story.
"My name is Yumeko. I come from a small village in an elven city . For years, my life was limited to the quiet forests and meadows I knew well, but I always felt a restlessness within me, a desire to explore beyond what I was used to. The idea of traveling the world, seeing other lands, meeting other beings… It called to me strongly."
She paused for a moment, searching for her words, before continuing.
"I decided that the way to escape that routine would be by boat. I took a ship heading west, seeking new lands, new adventures. The sailors assured me that everything would be calm, that the winds were favorable, and that the journey would be short. But it was not."
Her voice cracked a little, and she closed her eyes for a moment, as if she could still hear the roar of the waves in her mind.
"In the middle of the sea, a storm appeared out of nowhere. It was as if the sky and the sea had joined forces to destroy us. Lightning lit up the ocean, and the wind beat so hard that the sails tore like spider webs. The waves grew, as high as mountains, and the ship began to break apart. The screams of the sailors... the sound of breaking wood... everything became chaos. I remember the water dragging me away, the cold enveloping me, and then... then there was only darkness."
Yumeko closed her eyes for a second, as if trying to remember the last fragment of that anguishing moment.
"I woke up here, in this swamp. I don't know how I got here or what happened to the ship or the crew. I only know that I'm alive, although I don't know if that's what I wanted."
Her eyes scanned the old woman's tent, the memories still weighing on her. "This place... I don't know what it is, but something tells me it's not a coincidence. I don't know how I got here, or why. This all feels like a bad dream."
The old woman watched her in silence for a moment, before speaking in a soft, yet understanding voice.
"This swamp has its own way of calling out to those who must reach it, though not everyone understands why. But not everything in this place is as dark as it seems. Perhaps your arrival here is part of something bigger, something that even you yourself can't see yet."
Yumeko looked at the old woman, intrigued, but with the feeling that she still had much to discover in this strange and gloomy place.
