Awakening

"Coward, coward! Come on, nothing's gonna happen.", called a girl to her brother.

"But Laura, it's close to midnight and our father forbids us to go to the woods when it's dark outside. Besides it's dangerous in the woods.", replied her brother Marcus.

"We won't go into the woods but rather to the ring of the ancestors. It's not dangerous there."

Laura tried to convince her brother for some time. He was stubborn, but in the end he gave in. He demanded, "Well, alright. But not for to long." Laura agreed with him. Very soon after that they were heeding towards the Stargate. When they reached the Stargate they stopped and stared. Both of them had been intrigued by the symbols of the Stargate for a long time. The surface was even and cold, but different than normal metal. They also were intrigued by the DHD that stood near the Gate. They especially liked the big, orange stone in the middle. While Marcus was gazing at the DHD, Laura went closer to the Stargate. Suddenly the symbols started to glow. One after another.

"Marcus! Come on, let's hide in the shrubberies!", Laura called out to her brother. As soon as they arrived at the sheltering shrubberies their eyes went wide. It literally looked like there was water horizontally coming out of the ring! But very soon there was only a shimmering, blue surface left where some moments ago only was air. Marcus and Laura had been thrilled what would happen next. After some moments a group of 5 masked men stepped out of the gate. One of them shouldered an unconscious but unharmed woman. All of the men wore black cloaks and, as mentioned, masks. They couldn't make out how they looked like in particular because of the darkness. As soon as the men were complete, the Stargate closed.

The man who carried the woman lay her on the ground. Not to gentle. Some moments elapsed before one of them broke the silence.

"What now? Well, great, we took her away but what are we supposed to do with her now? Leave her behind? Kill her?" - "I have to say, I think the latter is the best idea. Let's gill the demon.", another man replied. And yet another man said, "No, we cannot do this! If we kill her then we wouldn't be better than her. Our leader will surely agree to me. Am I right? Maybe we should let him decide what will happen to her."

The one who talked next was slightly taller than the rest. "How wonderful that I, your leader, are allowed to speak too. Anyway, the question about her fate is irrelevant. Our king whom we all esteem has sealed her fate just before we brought her here. He said she doesn't fear death nor pain. Due to her origin she's only able to live in peace on our home world. Anywhere else she would be hunted and possibly killed. She cannot an doesn't want to go to the Wraith either. Therefore, my fellows, our king said that exile would be far the worst punishment for her." - "Hold on a second, does that mean we should just leave her here? With all the information she shouldn't have?", the second speaker asked nervously.

"Basically, yes. However, members of our...special forces erased her memories. She cannot remember anything. Hopefully I could erase your concerns. Now it's time for us to go back home."

They disappeared as fast as they came. The only thing that proofed that somebody was here at all was the still unconscious woman lying on the ground.

Marcus and Laura were to afraid to look after the woman, so they ran back to the village.

The woman awoke the following morning with horrible a headache. Still a bit numb she tried to sit up. As soon as she could see clearly again, she looked around. And was very confused.

What happened? And where the hell am I?Why can't I remember anything? Shelter. I need a save shelter before I do anything else.

She attempted to stand up but her legs were still a bit shaky. After a short amount of time she finally managed to stand straight and ran into the woods. As she ran trough the woods she skilfully eluded branches and jumped over every stone and every root in her way. Not once did she fall down. While she was wondering about her very good reflexes she found a cave. She was looking for a relatively long time but eventually she found shelter.

The cave was uninhabited. It was also pretty dark inside, so she felt around for firestones. Suddenly her vision changed into a strange blue. She could see everything in detail but, as mentioned, blue.

What's going on now? Is that normal? Okay, calm down. Don't go ballistic. Let's see what you can still remember instead. Hm...my name! My name is Althea. My age...no idea. Friends maybe, or a family...no, can't remember. Where am I and why am I here?...don't know, again. Well, at least I know my own name. It's not much, but it's a beginning. So, how do I get rid of this strange "blue-vision"? I mean, well, it's quite useful now, but I can imagine it's not very comfortable to go into the light of the day.

Suddenly there was darkness again. It seemed like she just needed to concentrate to change visions. After that Althea realized that she had no water, food or at least a weapon. So she explored the closer surroundings. She couldn't name it, but she had the feeling that if someone should attack her now, she could deal with it. Inexplicably she was absolutely sure of that.

After about an hour Althea made out a village. She was very happy to actually see anybody so she went straight to the village. That was the first and last time she went to see people without hiding herself behind a mask or something similar. She first didn't recognize how the people were looking at her. But when she met their eyes, she saw fear, confusion or pure hate. Sometimes even all at the same time.

These people obviously don't see visitor very often.

As Althea looked around she spotted an arsenal at the other side of the market place. As soon as she considered whether to get over there and get her a weapon or not, a bunch of tall, well built and well armed men stopped directly in front of her. The leader was about 40 and held a terrifying axe in his right hand. The rest of the men were armed with simple swords.

Althea had a very bad feeling about this and mentally readied herself for defending her life. She knew if the men started a fight she only had the opinion to run. She simply couldn't fight so many men. Especially if she herself was in no possession of any weapon. After the leader eyed Althea for some moments with a mixture of fear, disgust and contempt he finally said, "Who and what are you? You are as tall as my men. But still you are obviously a woman. Explain that! What are your purposes? And what's most important: Do you serve the Wraith?"

Althea wasn't sure if it was good that the man asked so many questions but she was almost sure that she knew these 'Wraith'. When she thought of these creatures she felt pure hatred arise inside of her. But, to some extend, also admiration and understanding. She was confused that she felt this all at the same time but decided that it would be wise to answer the men instead of thinking about the Wraith.

"My name is Althea. I swear I don't have any dishonourable intentions. I just want to look around and I don't think that I serve the Wraith."

The man stared at Althea wide-eyed. He obviously hadn't expected such an answer. Eventually he replied, "What do you mean with 'you do not think you serve them'?"-"In fact I cannot say anything certainly. I lost my memories and can only remember my name. Therefore, good man, I cannot tell you what I am. In fact I no not even know what you mean with that."

With an angry look on his face the man turned around and got her a mirror from the nearest booth. He gave it to her, still with an angry face. She looked at her image in the mirror and frightened slightly.

Well, that is...strange. I didn't know that I look differently. Especially not that much. Apparently I'm not even human!.

This realization left Althea baffled. She was not human, in deed. Even as she saw herself in the mirror she couldn't imagine from where she was. Or to which people she belonged. Her hair were tied up into a ponytail. It reached her mid-back and was snow-white. She also had cat-like eyes. The iris was yellow and Althea thought that they in combination with the vertically pupils looked in deed very dangerous. Apart from that she looked like a human.

After Althea stared at herself for some moments the man forcefully took the mirror and asked with an authoritative voice, "What do you say now? You almost look like one of these damned Wraith! You cannot tell me you don't have anything to do with them. And we do not want anyone in our village who has something to do with THEM! Neither for 2 weeks, nor for 2 minutes. Leave us, NOW!"

Sounds like he would kill me if I don't leave immediately. I can take him in a duel, but not with so many of his men around. They would kill me before I get a chance to only scratch their leader. Maybe I can convince him that I can stay here until I got something to eat.

"Good man, if you would allow me to stay a little longer, only a while I would be very grateful and..."-"NO! That was your chance to get away, now you'll stay here forever...beneath the earth!"

Without another word the big man tried to behead Althea with his huge axe. But her more-than-good reflexes saved her life. She instinctively ducked down. After that everything has gone very fast. Still ducked, she kicked his right knee frontally, stood up and gave him a hook to the chin. Meanwhile, she grabbed the shaft of the axe with her left hand and turned herself in. The man couldn't hold the axe any longer and let loose of it. In this moment Althea hit him in his face with her left elbow and broke his nose. He stumbled backwards while he covered his broken nose. Althea took the axe in her right hand, turned, boldly, right around her own axis and beheaded the man. Just in this moment she realized what she had done. She had killed a man. She killed the leader of the still armed men. The weapon slit out of her hand, turned and ran away as fast as possible. Luckily Althea was much faster than the watchmen. Some people tried to shoot her with stones but Althea avoided them easily. As she reached the edge of the woods Althea stopped to look for her persecutors. Nothing. She left them behind. She went back to her cave resigned. When she arrived she sank to the floor and stared at the wall across her.

What the hell am I!? I didn't want to kill this man. But I did. But...why? Everything happened so fast. Too fast. I have to leave this place as fast as possible. The villager will hunt me for sure. But how am I supposed to get away?

"Of course!" Althea said out loud and ran out of the cave. She ran the way back she came in the beginning until she found the place she had awoken at.

I remember. That is the 'Portal'. If I dial it I can go to another planet. Seems like my memories return in time.

Althea went to the DHD without further hesitating. She pushed the 7 symbols she liked the most and finally pushed the orange stone in the middle. After the Stargate was activated she went through. The path of exile lay ahead of her.