Slowly regaining consciousness, I found myself in the infirmary of Citadel Abyss. I barely made a move to return myself to my feet when my body immediately rebelled against me. Moaning I fell back into the bed and endured at least ten minutes of throbbing. Before that time was up I heard a voice in the background saying, “I wouldn’t try to do that again if I were you, unless you enjoy the thought of more pain than what you’re probably feeling now.”
“Verex? Is that you?” I asked weakly without moving my head to look at him.
“No, I’m the Queen of England here to congratulate you on being Citadel Abyss’ luckiest member.”
Smiling, I responded, “Flat sarcasm, now I know you are Verex.” Ignoring his advice—and the renewed protest of my body—I moved again to try and hoist myself from the bed, this time more cautiously.
Shocked, Verex exclaimed, “Etxel, what are you—?!” He stopped himself in mid-sentence as he found that I had managed to sit myself upright.
Cutting him off before he had a chance to scold me I explained in a strained tone, “I have to go…and…find her…I have to—ugh!”
“Not if I have something to say about it!” Forcing me back down on the bed, he quickly inserted a needle into my arm. “There…now do yourself a favor and heal up before you do anything stupid.”
“Xa—Xa…” Completely subdued by the spell of the drugs Verex had just used on me, I breathed the name of the one I love one last time before returning to the corridors of my memory.
~*~
Ignoring the screams of dying men, I ran has fast as my small body could carry me into the woods. Never in my life had I witnessed anything so frightening, so violent, and yet…
I do not recall how long or how far I had ran into the woods before I tripped over a massive root and went careening into the earth. I noticed that my forehead was stinging, but I did not care. I wanted to escape. I needed to escape the thing that I had just witnessed. Not even bothering to brush myself off I picked myself back up and continued running deeper into the woods.
Sooner or later I came across a clearing that, for all intents and purposes, had to have been one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen in my short life. Utterly absorbed with the splendor of this place, I halted myself to take in this glorious sight; In this clearing was a bed of white and blue wildflowers, all of which were covered in dew, whose colors were so vivid I thought for sure they were touched by a deity. The warm, gentle moonbeams that came down on this place made the area sparkle like the purest silver. Cutting straight across this clearing in a horseshoe pattern was a stream so clear you could see everything that was at the bottom of it, despite how incredibly deep it was. But perhaps the most stunning part of this place was the giant, ancient tree that stood directly across from me. Covered in vines that gently spiraled across its trunk, this old oaks branches spread off for what seemed like an eternity and was so wide it looked as if it could house a whole family with plenty of room to spare.
Dumbfounded at what I saw, it finally dawned on me after a while that the thing that I had been running from was no longer behind me. Sighing with relief, I walked up to the ancient tree and rested myself inside a collection of its roots that greatly resembled a hammock. My moment of peace, however, was shattered when I heard the wailing of my apparition catch up to me. Yelling something in a strange tongue, it summoned its demonic power and ushered in a huge wave of darkness to consume me before I had a chance to escape again.
This time, I did not scream. And how could I? At that moment, fear had gripped me so tightly that if any sound could be produced from my lungs it would be that of death. Helpless to spar myself from fate, dark thoughts entered my mind. So this is it. I am going to die before I ever get a chance to make a name for myself. I will die before I ever get a chance at reclaiming honor for my father…but I deserve it. “Etzel, son of Randwulf the Gallant?” I do not deserve such a title, for having run away a coward. Death is all I have earned…
But just then, right before I had given into the darkness of my soul indefinitely, I looked up to see the face of my killer and noticed that they were crying. Completely forgetting about my own situation, I asked them wearily, “Is there anything I can do to help you?” When they jerked up I saw something even more beautiful than what I had just bore witness too which, to this day, could not be trumped. What I saw as my assailant gazed into my face were the most spectacular set of eyes, the right being as dark and deep as midnight and the left the silver color of frost.
