Untitled - Chapter 3

- I don’t think I shall ever be able to … faithfully limn the events that followed.

She screamed with the most painful sob and before I could turn my head to see what had happened, she was gone from sight. Stumbling back to where she was, a giant hole now remained. I shouted after her but, after that instant, momentary sob that shall be branded on my soul forever and a day, no sound from her lips could be heard. The sound of rocks and gravel striking the walls as they fell into the black abyss was all that made its way back up.

Yet I screamed. And shrieked. And cried her name as tears streamed down my face. I tried to turn and lower myself into the darkness – to climb the walls, only to discover that no walls existed below the ground of the cave. And the longer I remained by the edge of the pit, the ground beneath my own feet began to crack and give way, leaving me absolutely lost and confused. However, it seemed that if I was not about to make a decision, the fates would.

Suddenly, a thick, blood-stained spear emerged from above, mere inches from my face, eliciting a fearful shriek, one that I didn’t even know I had in me. Instantly, I became aware of the thumps above me again and, more specifically, that the ones directly above me had stopped. While the world around raged on ever noisily, unsettling the dust within the cave, my little bubble was one filled with apprehension and a disquieting silence.

Before I could even shriek this time, a giant hand reached through the ceiling, grabbed my hair and yanked me out. The muffled sounds turned into a thunderous cacophony that stunned the senses, while I squirmed blindly in the secure grip of the hand. All I had was a vague sense of smell that was filled with the scents of blood and sweat and smoke from a million fires.

- What are ye doing here? Ye do not belong at a place like this!

The voice, presumably belonging to the hand bellowed in my ears, opening the floodgates for the rest of the world to rumble in like a tsunami of sensation. All at once, the sights and sounds became clear as I found myself in the middle of a giant battlefield, surrounded by perceivably millions of dead, living and disgustingly mutilated bodies all locked in mortal combat. A cursory glance to the distance revealed a vast fortress that ran the length of the horizon, smoke and fire rising from its grey, stone towers.

The hand that held me shook me once more till my attention was brought upon the long red beard that extended from a face so full of scars that it was hard to tell where an eye began and a scar ended. His thick red eyebrows were crossed under a furrowed brow – his eyes concentrating on my being, darting occasionally at sounds of a nearby twang of rope or clank of metal.

- SHIELDS UP! BLACK VOLLEY!!

A wild shout roared through the fields. I looked up to see the skies turn to black with countless dots that turned into lines and streaked towards me till everything turned to darkness again.