This update certainly took a while. There's been a lot to do in the last couple of weeks. I'm really behind in school thanks to some unexpected things occurring. Trying to get caught up is like trying to write with no muse. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm thinking of putting out a new story soon about my druids, btw.

Also, we are now in part two of this story: Survive.

You had never felt so much pain in your life. When you opened your eyes, everything seemed to be swimming in the air around you yet zooming past at the same time. The buzzing, grinding, humming sounds added to your misery, when you tried to lift your hands to cover your ears you found they were bound behind you. You were laying on your stomach on a metal floor to some sort of... cart, or so you guessed it was a cart. A cart that ran on its own, too, for you could see no wolves or Talbuk or Elekk pulling it. You could have been wrong, though, for your vision was still off and you couldn't fully see the front of the cart. But what animal could move so quickly without ever seeming to tire? It was disturbing, even more so because of your fuzzy mind and the confusion of how you even came to be on this cart to begin with. Through the grated bottom of the cart, you could see the road, a blur of pale stones and red dirt. You stared at it for a while, your mind feeling empty, almost blissful in its confusion. But you couldn't shake the underlying feeling that something was wrong. Almost involuntarily you tried to heal yourself as you lay in a daze, but the cart flew around a corner so fast you were nearly airborne for a second.

Something warm rolled and crashed into you as the cart settled back onto the road again. You twisted around, trying to free yourself from the corner you were now pinned into. Your eyes fell on a familiar face, and suddenly you remembered why you were on this cart and everything that had happened. And you did not think you would ever stop crying.

It had been Kaurin who crashed into you, his tan face marked by curling, twisting black bruises and the long, crusted over cut that slashed across his forehead. And you felt bad for him instantly, but you couldn't focus on it. The sorrow inside you was too great. Mother was gone... Dead... For there was no way she could have survived that attack. Her throat had been torn open completely... There had been so much blood. Suddenly working in the spice gardens with her did not sound so bad. Suddenly you longed for the smell of spices. Suddenly the sound of her screaming-turned-gurgling invaded your ears though she was not there to make it so... And it would never leave...

I can still hear it, even now.

Father was gone too, that was something you knew as you remembered the attack. You could still feel the warmth of his hand as he dragged you through the forest, as he tried to save you. You had always been close to Father for he had always been there. He was the one to wash any wounds you had, he was the one to measure you for the tailor, he was the one who held your hand at the market as a small child. He was gone but it did not seem real to you, the pain at the thought of losing him was unbearable, but when you tried to make yourself realize that it had happened- that he was actually gone and you were not just imagining a world without him- it did not seem real. The horrible pain that accompanied Mother's death was not here, it simply did not come. All you felt when you thought about the loss of Father was a stunned emptiness. The world didn't seem real, for a moment you wished it wasn't.

You cried for what seemed like forever yet no time at all. The world had no meaning now, time and distance were nothing while you laid in that cart. Your parents were dead, your body ached, you could not go home- if there even was a home to go back to, your world had been tossed into war and chaos, and now you were in a horribly fast cart headed for who knew where. You certainly didn't.

Every part of you seemed to hurt in some way. Your cheek was shoved against the grate floor of the cart, Kaurin's broad body pinned you into a corner, your bruised head throbbed and pulsed with the beating of your heart, your wrists and ankles were raw from being bound, your very mind itself was in pain as you tried to make sense of everything that had happened. The sky was gold, the sun setting again. You were reminded of yesterday, of everything you'd just lost. You imagined that if you were an old tower the seed of fear that had planted at your base would be weaving the thorn-covered vines of Danger and Unknown all about you, its roots tearing apart your foundation, beckoning you to crumble into a thousand little pieces. You felt like crumbling, too.

The cart bounced on over the road, the sky grew darker and darker, the trees above looked twisted and gnarled with the death of daylight. You wondered where the Light had gone. Why were you abandoned? Why were your parents dead? Had you not served faithfully enough? Was a lesson to be learned and taken from these tragedies? Was it simply your time to go? Or was the Light not strong enough against this foe? Did it struggle, just like you? You found no answers, only more questions, as the night continued its dark march across Talador's sky.

Some time later that night, as you lay there in a hazy existence that was somewhere between awake and dead, you felt droplets of rain on your aching flesh. It seemed that the Night wanted to mourn with you, that the land felt just as hopeless as you. You cried with the rain, cherishing the way that it accepted your tears and washed away the dried blood and anguished hurt of what was your life now. The air grew cold, a harsh chill joining forces with the wind, but you felt little of it. Kaurin was unknowingly keeping you warm, even in this weather his skin was like fire. You worried for a moment that maybe he wasn't supposed to be like this. Perhaps he was sick. Was it the cut, had it become infected? Was there simply so much injury to his body that he was sick in trying to repair himself.

You suddenly noticed that the cart had been going steadily along the road for a while now. You took this precious moment of clarity to try and cast a quick healing spell for the both of you. You pressed yourself to him, not hard to do with the way his blunt weight pinned you against the cart walls. You searched for the Light, you dug deep into yourself to try and dredge up what little hope was left in you. You tried and tried to cast, but each time you flickered out like a fire with no air. It was like the rain had truly dampened you, though you knew it had been something else entirely that put out the Light's flame. You'd lost your connection, you'd lost your flame, your spark.

You'd lost your faith.

You wailed your grief into the night, your voice lost in the whir of the cart and the thrashing of the wind. You didn't care if the cart's driver heard you, though it seemed he didn't. You didn't care that it was useless to scream, or that it didn't make you feel any better. In truth you couldn't really stop yourself. You cried and sobbed and howled your grief into the storm that pummeled you. But then, through the tide of tears that surged from you, you caught sight of something warm in the darkness, something gold, something soft but sharp. Kaurin was staring at you, gold eyes glistening even in the thick darkness. You stared back and your wailing stopped, replaced by a hollow sense of exhaustion. Kaurin shifted, moving back from you, trying to give you space, but coming up unsuccessful. It was good that he couldn't move though. You needed him at that moment. He was your last lifeline, or so you felt. You wondered if that had been how he felt about you after that morning at the lake. You wished you could pull your arms free so that you could pull him to you. You had nothing but him now, this orc who you hardly knew yet seemed so familiar to you now. For a moment you thought you might cry again. You were surprised when you didn't.

You don't remember when it was that you fell asleep exactly, you just remember lingering there for a while as you had earlier. It felt good to rest, though you felt truly pathetic and helpless lying there finding comfort from not being able to fight anymore. All the same you couldn't fight what you were feeling. Toward the exhaustion or toward the orc at your side.