Covenant Ceremony

"Look behind you,'" she told me. And so I did. And behind me was a tiny creature just the size of my palm hovering in a clumsy manner. A fairy? Not quite as it doesn't have any wings. It has a humanoid feature but not quite. As its head was a fiery blob of orange and it doesn't have any hands and feet nor fingers and toes. Just oval limbs as though it was drawn by a 5-year-old. It was emanating a warm orange light.

"Myu?" The tiny creature spoke to me. Its grasshopper-like eyes looking at me. "Myuuuuu!" And then it hovered towards my face. I don't understand a thing from what it's telling me.

"That's a mortema. A sacred creature that will be both the witness of your oath and your executioner once you broke it." Iksha told me.

"So you mean to tell me that this seemingly harmless creature will kill me?"

"Yes."

"But what about me? You said you'll turn me into a peculiar."

"Of course. You'll become one after the covenant ceremony." After she said that, the room suddenly turned into a mosaic as it slowly collapsed. Replacing it was a place so vast I couldn't see where it ends. The ceiling was like a starless night sky. So dark and a tad suffocating. It's as though I was staring into the void. And hundreds if not, thousands of eyes are looking back at me. I've never been this uncomfortable all my life.

The floor was replaced with dark rippling water. And oddly enough, I'm standing just fine on the surface without drowning. It has a gelatin-like consistency. Making me bounce whenever I move.

"Myuu!" The mortema behind me spoke as the warm orange light around it flickered excitedly.

"Welcome to the land of promises. We'll do the covenant ceremony here," she said.

The land of promises? More like the land of the dead. There's nothing in this place that represents promises at all. If anything, this place has a special effect that would make anyone standing here feel like he's naked and stripped of any will to fight back.

"Are you ready, Sean?"

"Uhh… I think so?"

As soon as I said that, the water beneath my feet rippled violently. And without any warning, I sank. Deep into the waters.

At first, I didn't panic because I know how to swim. I began paddling my arms and kicking my legs to stay afloat. But the gelatin consistency isn't helping one bit. It was freezing too.

Iksha and the mortema creature were nowhere in sight. My thighs and my legs are beginning to hurt.

'Oh! Shit! Please, not a cramp.'

Panic slowly overtook me until my limbs have finally given up on taking orders from me. And I sank into the seemingly bottomless waters. I held my breath for the longest I can possibly do but it didn't last long. My lungs felt like they're gonna explode at any moment. They're burning.

My mind went blank. The last thing I remember was the rippling sound of the water before the pressure popped my ears. The piercing pain as I inhaled more water.

Cough! Cough!

"Myuu?"

Cough!

Despite the burning sensation in my lungs and ears as I desperately inhaled some oxygen, I opened my eyes only to be assaulted by the bright yet warm orange light. And by my front was the tiny creature from earlier, mortema.

"Myuuuu!"

My back was cold. No. My whole body was freezing as I'm soaking wet. It's just that I'm lying on a cold stone floor. I stared at the ceiling for a while and couldn't hold back my shock. The ceiling that was supposedly solid was liquid. No. It was the gelatin-like water from earlier suspended in the air.

"Myuuuuuuuu"

I stared back at the mortema. It was hovering above my head and the orange light around it was rippling excitedly. Looking at me with its grasshopper-like eyes.

"Myuu!"

"I don't understand you."

"Myu! Myu! Myu!"

And suddenly, it began pulling my sleeve. But it can only do so much due to its size. Still. I can hardly believe this little thing will be my executioner once I broke my words.

"What?"

It stopped for a while and pointed in one direction with its one limb before it continued to pull my sleeve.

"You want me to go there?"

"Myu!"

"Okay. Okay. I will go. But please, you can stop pulling my sleeve already. I'll follow you. Don't worry."

"Myuuu!" And with that, it distanced itself from me.

My ears are ringing and my head is still a bit muddy from my drowning earlier. 'No good.'

I forced myself to stand and follow the mortema as it leads the way. The place has barely any light at all. And it really helps that this little thing is emitting an orange light lest I'll easily lose him.

I don't know what will happen from hereon but I'm ready. I mean, things are already crazy as they are. It couldn't get any crazier, right?