Duncan felt the despondency in the air affecting him more and more as time passed in the region.
He could feel his thoughts become stagnant. The desire to walk was slowly beginning to wane. A kind of laziness was seeping into his body. His heart became unmotivated as well. It was a bizarre feeling to describe properly.
His mind started thinking about various incidents in his past where he personally experienced loss and became disheartened. The day he realized that as an orphan he had no one to support him in the world flashed through his mind.
The day he figured out that Becca only slept with him because of money and not because she had any affection towards him also reappeared in his mind. The days he spent toiling in the mines day after day, trying to earn the meager coins that were awarded were also remembered.
Duncan began to feel as if he had experienced a tragedy that had left him despondent. No matter how he tried to move past it, it seemed to cling onto him. He could barely rouse the motivation to walk across the region.
Duncan looked at the dark sky and felt even more dejected in his heart. He knew that this was the effect of the environment around him. But, it didn't make it any easier. The dark sky above him clung onto him like a dark cloud breeding thoughts of despondency in his heart.
He didn't know how much time passed. His lips became parched, but he felt too lazy to open his spirit ring and drink anything from it. He knew he had all the required food. He knew he had prepared for it. But, something prevented him from taking them out. It was as if eating or drinking didn't matter to him at all.
Duncan's legs felt like lead. He had to drag them to make them move. It took tremendous willpower on his part to just make his body move. Countless times the thought of just sitting down and resting appeared in his mind. But, Duncan stubbornly forced his body to move with a dogged determination.
He knew that if he took a rest even for a minute, he wouldn't get up at all. If his body began to rest and his will began to waver, he would never be able to muster the motivation to move afterward. It was as if the surroundings were sucking away all his energy.
Looking at the dark sky above him, Duncan wondered how long it had been since he had entered this region. To him, it felt like several weeks at present. But a sane part of his mind rebutted it and kept reminding him to walk out of the region at any cost.
Just then, Duncan's foot slipped. His feet tripped over a jutting bone causing him to fall down. Duncan felt his mind clear for a second before the lethargy once more occupied his mind completely. He lay there on the ground without any intention to turn over or get up.
Even turning his head felt like a huge effort.
Duncan didn't know what prompted him, but he somehow wriggled until he could see what had caused him to fall. The vision of the jutting bone from the ground came to his eyes.
Duncan stared at the bone blankly. His stare didn't have any emotions in it. He felt that even feeling emotions was too much hassle at this moment. No anger or disappointment emanated from his heart. He merely stared at the jutting bone for a while without any thought passing through his mind.
Right now, he felt like sleeping here and forgetting about anything and everything. His mind which had been on constant alert and operation since he left Leia welcomed the reprieve and began to shut down slowly.
Duncan felt completely at peace at this moment. There were no worries about what his master and the sect were planning. There were no pursuers to be ahead of. There was no immediate need to do anything. There was no motivation to become stronger so that he could roam freely.
In short, nothing felt like a burden anymore. He realized that these burdens were things that he took it upon himself. He realized that he needn't care about them at all. They only affected him if he paid attention to them.
Here and now, none of those things mattered.
He could finally rest his body and pass away the time. It had been ages since he had a proper sleep. Just this once, having a good sleep wouldn't be much of an issue, right? He could just sleep first. Later, he could wake up and worry about all these things. Everyone deserved some rest.
Just as Duncan's eyelids began to close, he heard a voice from a distance yelling at him to not close his eyes. The voice was so irritating that he couldn't help but frown. No matter how he tried to evade the voice, it kept echoing in his mind. Duncan just didn't want to deal with that voice at this moment.
Every time his eyelids closed slightly, the voice appeared causing him to be irritated. So, Duncan kept his eyes open just to appease that voice but did nothing after that. He lay there on the ground with his eyes wide open for a long time.
Duncan didn't realize the passage of time.
To him, everything felt the same. There was no difference between this moment and the next moment. He was kind of in a limbo. His brain had begun to shut down as well. No thoughts appeared in his mind as he stared blankly at the jutting bone and lay there limply.
After a long time, Duncan's eyelids started itching from the effort of having to keep it open. Duncan began to close his eyelids once more to relieve the itch. But, that infernal voice once more appeared causing him to become irritated.
It was peaceful here. No worries. No pressure. He could just rest here for a while. But, this infernal voice kept disturbing this peace for a long time. He couldn't help but become irritated with it.
Duncan tried to shake his head, even though he was face down on the ground. What resulted was his twisting unnaturally and assuming a strange position where his eyelids remained open and his entire body twisted into itself.
Due to his recent movement, Duncan's field of vision had changed slightly. So, after getting rid of that infernal voice, what Duncan saw this time wasn't a jutting bone. Rather, what appeared to him was a pile of bones that were littered in front of his eyes.
Duncan watched the pile of bones without blinking for a while. He didn't feel anything. Normally, he would be curious as to the pile of bones that appeared in his vision suddenly. But, right now, his mind had shut down completely and no thoughts appeared in it.
Duncan lay in his unnatural position for a long time.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a thought appeared in his mind to investigate the pile of bones. Duncan lifted his head with lethargy and looked at the pile of bones. They all seemed to belong to some kind of animal. To be exact, they looked like the remains of a dead animal.
Duncan felt uneasy looking at them. His mind seemed to be telling something to him when his eyes landed on that pile of bones. But, no words seemed to be forming in his mind. It was still blank, but the uneasy feeling existed for no reason at all.
Duncan didn't like it one bit.
So, with great effort, Duncan turned his head and tried to not look at that pile of bones. But his movements destabilized his unnatural position, causing him to flip over and lie on his back.
Now, his vision was filled with the dark sky. Duncan didn't like that either. But, compared to the uneasy feeling the pile of bones gave, he preferred this and thus lay there lazily not moving his body.
Looking at the dark sky for a long time didn't seem very difficult either. It didn't make it hard on his eyes as well. So, Duncan relaxed as he looked at the dark sky hanging above him.
The dark sky gave him a sense of peace that no other visual had given him. The slow thoughts that were beginning to form in his mind were soon extinguished as Duncan forgot everything around in looking at the dark sky.
Time passed. Duncan lay there staring at the dark sky in a daze. He had no movements. Even his heart started beating slowly. It was as if his entire body began to shut down slowly.
Duncan was unaware of the danger he was in.
Right now, all he could think of, that too even if he could form thoughts in his current situation, was that of how peaceful everything looked and felt. He had no clue as to the dire situation of his body beginning to shut down.
As time passed, Duncan's body began to shut down slowly. His limbs turned limp. His muscle movements stopped. His breathing grew shallower. Even his heartbeat became slow and irregular. Only his wide-open eyes and the light of life left in them were indications of him still being alive. That too, for now.
More time passed and Duncan's eyelids began to close as well. This time there was no voice to warn him of it. His eyelids began to slowly descend and with time they completely closed.
Duncan's breathing became non-existent as well. His heartbeat was nowhere to be found. Duncan's mind entered a state that was just a step above that of death. It began to slowly move towards the state of death as well...
