Sorry this chapter is so short. More is in my head, this just seemed the best place to break. I know where the story as a whole is going, but I haven't worked out details yet, so that combined with kids and life, and updates will be sketchy at best. I'll apologize now.
I'm on the lookout for a beta if anyone's interested, and with that said, please be sure and bring to my attention any typos I missed in my proofs.
Happy reading!
Prologue
There's a lot that can be said about our past. It's more than just history. There are people back there; people that are more than names. More than a line to follow backwards in time. They give us our hair color, height, the size of our shoes and clothes, the color and shape of our eyes. They even pass down a certain amount of their demeanor. But there is something more than our physical and emotional features that they give us—something that most people don't even think about.
They give us a connection to the land.
Chapter 1
Karigan woke shivering from the cold stone beneath her, and the cold all around her. Her body throbbed, the cold not numbing her battered flesh nearly enough. Her wrist ached. Elbows, knees, legs, they all pulsed with a dull ache. Even her back was sore. Except her head. Something soft cradled her head. Her hair perhaps?She shivered, burrowing further beneath her thick blanket.
Blanket? Last she knew she was stuck in a stone box. How she did she get a blanket?
She woke up fully and expanded her senses around her. She was lying on a mat, what felt like straw or some other reed, maybe. The air was bitingly cold, but not severely so. She opened her eyes only to see nothing but darkness. She tentatively moved her limbs, testing mobility. She feared coming in contact with cold, smooth, unforgiving stone all around her, and discovered instead her right wrist to be bound and splinted. She couldn't move the joint at all. Probably for the best, she thought. She looked around, already knowing she wouldn't be able to see through the thick blackness.
Where was she? Where had she been before?
She started to get up, leaning heavily on her left arm, but fell back to the mat and pillow after a few grueling moments. She felt weak; disoriented. Trying to sit up only made her head spin. She couldn't seem to orient herself in the darkness, and trying seemed to make it worse. She lay back down, awake and restless, yet exhausted.
She lay there—for how long she did not know, breathing in the cool earthy air, and wondering where she was, how she got there, and who had found her.
Maybe she would be able to figure things out better with a little sleep...