Blood as black as coal he drinks
Homes of warmth and comfort he burns
Lives full of joy and love he poisons
Hearts pure and noble he strikes

Chapter 3

Awaken

My eyes slowly began to open, the first thing they saw was mist covering me as I laid on the ground. I picked myself up and noticed the steamy mist around my ankles; it was so thick I couldn't see the ground I was walking on. There was only the mist, everything else was darkness, just me and the mist.

"Anyone, Help!" I shouted, it echoed several times, no one answered.

I repeated again and again but nothing happened. I walked forward and that was when I made my first discovery, I could walk without limping. I checked over my body and couldn't find any cuts or bruises from my fall, in fact I also notice as I kept walking, I was nowhere near the tomb where all this started. I’d taken a few more steps when a cold chill was felt on my neck, with a sound like someone breathing heavily. I stopped moving and placed my hand on my blade slowly, then as quickly as possible I pulled it out of the strap on my back and span round to point it at the things neck. I dropped my sword in horror. It wasn't a thing, more like a person, a mirror image of me but totally different. Every few seconds he would twitch, his clothes were torn and coated in dirt, he kept gasping for air, his eyes were blood shot, he was covered in scars ad burns but the worst was the stale vomit down his shirt. He started to open his mouth and slowly speak

"I....I'm.....ss..soo...soorryy," gasping for air once he finished.

"Sorry for what?" I asked.

Just then he collapsed on to his hands and knees, he vomited twice and then started screaming. Blood started trickling from two long scars down his back, he kept screaming in pain then stopped. He started gasping for air till he screamed again as something started crawling out of the two scars, my ears felt like they were bleeding, he was screaming so much.

I tried to help him but he pushed me back, I could tell what was on his back, wings. Two huge sort of bat’s wings, he had now stopped screaming and started crying. I slowly walked towards my mirror counterpart and placed my hand on his shoulder, he grabbed it and showed me his demon self. His teeth sharp as flint, his eyes pupil-less and his arms covered in scars from shoulder to wrist. He threw me back and stood up, he put his hand to his heart and roared as he slowly pulled out a sword. The blade burned in black fire with distorted faces on it. He held it up, over his head. I tried to pick myself up as I could see the blade come down toward my chest; I thought my life was over as it pierced my skin. Everything glowed white for a while, the glow stopped and it revealed a warm room with pictures of landscape all over the walls. My bedroom.

I was sitting there in my bed with bandages covering my forehead and a broken leg, Rytner was sitting beside my bed on a stool.

"Welcome to the land of reality," he said as a joke.
"How....did you......find me?" I croaked slowly.
"Thanks to local villages, we found you just lying there," he replied. "Did...you see....the tomb?" I croaked again.
"Tomb?" he wondered "What tomb? You were just lying in a cave. Anyway you better rest up".

He walked to the door and said, "I knew that gem would come in handy," with a smirk on his face as he walked out the door.

One of Rytner's inventions, if you chant E na ecanea, it will glow in dark places. It’s one of the inventions that hasn’t either blown up or leaked giving me a rash; it’s the only invention he insists I take with me on my journeys, I can see why now.

I must have been a dream; well that’s what I thought, so I tried my hardest to get on with the day and forget what happened. I hate being stuck inside with so much beauty in the world to be drawn, even if it rained I would still go outside and draw. I didn’t really care that I had a headache and my leg felt like an anvil was dropped on it, I just lied on my bed staring out of the window at the blue sky and green grass. Instead I took to doodling on my sketch pad, drawing circles, cubes and made up creatures. One had a long horn on its head; it was called a rhino. Another had a long neck, it was called a giraffe and the last one, my favourite, had bushy hair round its neck and I named it a lion.

I started drawing the outline of a human intending to draw another made up creature but then, for some reason, I went into a cold sweat. My hand was shaking as I drew torn clothes on the body with scars and gashes on the person’s arms. The eyes I drew pupil-less then added two huge black wings to its back. I stared at it, I started hearing chanting in my head. It didn’t make any sense but I kept listening until I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“More creatures I see.” Rytner said behind me.

I turned my head to face him, then I looked at my sketches. The demon thing I drew wasn’t there, it was like I never even drew it. I Must have been dreaming again.

“I still prefer the dolphin thing you drew,” he said heading to the door. “Supper’s nearly ready,” he added as he left the room.

I didn’t really feel like eating so I grabbed my blanket, pulled it over myself and went straight to sleep.

This dream I’ll remember forever, it started as my normal dreams. I would stand in a black room then click my fingers for the walls, floor and ceiling to show different moving scenery pictures. The floor was a golden beach, the walls were yellow cornfields and the ceiling was the sky with the clouds moving gently. I would keep clicking to see different pictures in an instant. The clicking would get faster and faster till the pictures would become real, so real I could feel the wind of the sky, the fields and the coast, then I would wake up. Well that’s what usually happens, it was different this time.

Everything went normally up to where the pictures became real, as I did the final click the room went black. All there was, was steamy mist covering my ankles, I now realized where I was. I could feel the same cold chill on my neck, I slowly turned my head and saw the demon from my nightmare. I thought he was going to kill me but instead it flew up and opened its mouth. A ball of light started growing in its mouth getting bigger and bigger, until a beam came from the demon’s light and hit some building. There was a long pause. Finally, the building exploded taking me in the blast with it.

I woke up from my nightmare and noticed it was the next day. I could hear the whole town was outside for some reason, so I tried to get out of bed but fell as I couldn’t stand yet. I crawled to the window and pulled myself up and looked out. The people were crowded around rubble, bits of broken wood, glass and stone scattered on the ground.

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