Arawyn's Gate- Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own CCS. Neither does anyone I know personally. However, I do know and acknowledge that CCS is owned by CLAMP.

/\ Arawyn's Gate /\

~Prologue

A sting. I felt it tap into my foot. I looked down, but there was nothing there. That didn't surprise me. Not here.

The pain quickly intensified, the epicenter of it in my heel, now slowly traveling upwards, brining a dull, tired ache to my ankle. I continued walking through it, heading ever onwards to the lights I saw in the distance. This was only my second night here, wherever here was, but I already knew what would happen once the sun was fully set.

I kept walking, the gash on my arm itching, and the ache in my leg moving steadily higher. I felt a slight pounding when it was just below my knee, like the pulsing of a heartbeat, yet it felt more round, like a marble made of pinched nerves and broken flesh. I kept on walking.

If they caught me out here, in the open, I probably wouldn't survive it. I barely did the night before, but now I had an advantage over last night. I knew they would be coming, which meant I could prepare. All I needed to do was find a defensible structure. Unfortunately, it would still take a while till I reached the edge of the forest. The hills wouldn't help; they'd just destroy them. I learned that last night.

A few minutes after the stinging sensations had first hit my foot, it had just reached my knee, and the worst part of it happened then. The marble entered my knee, and it locked.

I stumbled violently, falling to the ground in a heap. My knee joint was frozen up, stuck in a half-bend, and I was lying facedown. I couldn't get up on my own.

I took out my sword, stabbing it into the the ground, and, using it as a hold, dragging the rest of my body to it, despite the shocks of pain shooting through my locked limb. Then, with my good leg, both hands clasped around the hilt of my sword, I slowly, cautiously, stood up, making sure my other leg was barely touching the ground, for it would only be a hindrance by doing so. Slowly pulling my sword out of its earthen sheath, I resumed my trek once more, now using that sword as a makeshift crutch.

The sun was halfway below the horizon. Night was falling, and it was still at least a mile to those lights. I hadn't an idea what they truly signified, but I knew it could be no worse than what awaited me in the darkness.

I continued on. I had to. I could not, would not, give up.

The sun was but a line by the time I reached the forest. I knew I wouldn't make it to the lights by the time they were out. Staggering up to a dead-looking tree, I slowly kneeled down, as the shock still worked its way up my thigh. Reversing my grip on the sword, I stabbed it into the trunk of the tree, channeling most of my remaining energy into it. Slowly, the wood around the blade receded, and I crawled into the small alcove I had created.

I released part of the enchanted, which allowed the bark to cover the hole once more. I was sealed in now, and safe for the moment. I chipped a small hole into the tree, so that I could see outside, and so that my air supply wouldn't run out. Now fully exhausted, my leg numb with pain, I lay back against the hollow inside of the tree, drifting off into a fitful, dreamless, much needed, sleep...