Deadlands + story

As the Masters servent led the student through the portal, hewn of stones the shade of night, formless and flowing in impossible patterns as if the structure had been born from the earth itself, the student paused...

"I'm scared..." he quietly uttered... It had been he that had insisted so strongly to see this place... understanding it was a part of a long lost past, that was his... The servent looked down at him, and took the blindfold in the boy's hand that he had used to shield his eyes from seeing the masters fortress... the sights he might have witnessed supposedly too much... he had been forbidden to turn, or look around the room the gate stood, and so the boy didn't... Instead he gazed into the deep watery green surface of the portal that stretched the skeleton of this gate...

"You know you don't have to do this... In fact it would be better if you don't." The servent trying once more to dissuade him... But he couldn't turn back now. He HAD to see this place that was once his.
"Let's go." The boy affirmed, the servent almost sneering at his final decision... One day, the boy would have to enter to find a certain relic from a lost age, the world beyond much too hostile for any normal beings... Even the servent would have died upon entry had it not been for his masters protection, and even if the pupil was far stronger than him, his magick would do him no good in that world. Once they crossed the threshold, all they had was themselves and their blades.

They entered, the servent first, holding the hand of the pupil, who followed.

The first thing the boy saw as he entered the dead world, as it had been reffered to him thus far, was grey red, and yellow haze. The first thing he thought was pain, as he followed example of the servent and pulled his shirt up to breath through the fabric, the corrosive air burning his lungs... He squinted his eyes, getting used to the sting of this aggressive land, eyes watering... but no matter where he cast his gaze it was the same... Wastelands...

Every here and there, what may once have been lakes and rivers, were now acidic putrid puddles... cracks and scars lined the earth, skeletal dead trees dotted the horizon, and far to the east was a greatly receaded and tainted acid lake, where he knew lived threatening life forms...

He took a few steps forward, the stoney earth beneath his feet breaking and crunching, brittle and dead... He turned back to the servent,
"this place.... It really is just... Death.... to think this was once peaceful land, harmless meadow..." The servent narrowly nodded,
"The devil himself cursed these lands black with plague, and poisoned with death. We should leave immediatly, you know not even the gods are safe here. Theres no way to heal you if you get hurt, you will die."
"I know!" The boy interupted... The fact he was as weak as the lowest shade here irked him... But so far there didn't seem to be anything threatening...

"Five minutes boy, and no more, those were his words remember! You can come here and risk your life all you want once you are strong enough to survive alone here, but until then you know you are to never come here again!" The servent said uncaringly. But they both knew, the servent did care for the boy... He did want them to leave already, fearing for the childs life. But the boy took more steps into the wilderness,
"Its strange to think, somewhere out there, there could be some book, or item I left for myself, sitting in a dead building for so many... So many years...." He couldn't even imagine how long it would have been... How many lifetimes had come and gone since he had been there?... Would it even count as him now.... Nothing but a name was left of that time... Nothing more... But if he found what might have been left... What he might have left for himself to find...

His thoughts broke as a buzzing, crackling filled the air... The crackle of an electrical storm?... No... They both turned to spy an INCREDIBLY rapidly approaching creature... Insectoid body, but impossible biology, propelled along by four wings, its long snout lined with deadly barbs and a body fat and bulbous... large enough for the both of them to fit inside...

Its crackling increased in volume as it gained more speed, targeting its prey... The boy stood motionless, watching it.

A silent, but booming voice entered his mind. He knew whos it was though, instinctually if nothing more...
"These are my lands, and here you will remember your mortality." Not knowing why, he felt suddenly... That... The rule would not apply to him... If he is who he was then... These were his lands... Then he would not know his own mortality...

The boy raised his right hand, forming a gesture, and reached deep inside his soul as he always did. Searching for that light, that spark, the place he always drew his strength from, and formed his attack. But where normally the lance of energy would erupt into existence, nought happened. The air was unchanged.
"YOU FOOL!" The servent shouted sprinting to get to his side, but the boy didn't even notice he concentrated so hard. His mind flitted from attack to attack, Lance to beam to ensnaring roots of energy, anything to attack the dangerously close insectoid, that was visibly drooling, sensing an easy meal.

Then as he attempted to shock the Creature with a bolt of what would look like lightning, it shuddered in flight, and vered off course, coming to a crashing landing, sending stone fragments spinning off into the distance.
'I DID IT!' The boy rejoiced inside! But... He never saw his attack strike it... The creature convulsed angrily, as alive as it was, making to throw itself at the boy who gasped seeing the dagger lodged in its compound eye, the servant landed upon the creature, his sword running right through its head...

He used his foot to push the monster off his sword, then grabbed the boy by the shoulder, who stood in shock that had he been alone... He would be dead...
"I-... I-..." He stuttered, but the servent only said,
"Save it!" As he practically dragged the boy, back through the eerie green gate that connected this dead world, to his mentors abode.

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for the first time in a long time i felt inspiration... i had to get these emotions out too... though the story doesnt help much...

this song really embodies what this place makes me feel~ [link]