~Part Three ~ Afterthoughts~

~Chapter Twenty Five~

Just stay alive, the voices echoed on endlessly in a constant chant. Everything was cold and dark, I couldn't tell where I was, all memories of it were stripped away and everything I knew now was the dark gray haze that seemed to envelop me. I tried to remember, but I was given only a blank slate and a sharp pounding headache for my troubles.

Just keep breathing, the voices told me, beginning to echo louder now, changing its tone and message, a bit more urgent now. It was the voice of a stranger, I knew it was not my own, but past that I couldn't recollect much of anything. Slowly reality began to seep in, I could hear myself breathing in short, shallow gasps, unable to get enough air with a single breath, but too tired to take another. My lungs burned with a faint, constant pain. A strange smell swept over me, blown by some wayward breeze, a familiar sickly sweet smell assaulting my senses.

Keep breathing, the chant changed once again; it was becoming faint as if it had moved farther away as reality began to take over. I struggled with unconsciousness, fighting for reality to come and reassert it's control. Finally my eyes opened to reveal a brilliant gray hovering above; the edges of my vision blurred and my perceptions were frayed and broken. Again I tried to remember, but all I received was a collection of broken images, broken fragments far too small to make any kind of picture inside the frame.

Remember the path, those were the voices final words as they left me, I felt suddenly alone. Reality had come back; the pain was a part of me once again. The numbness brought on by death had faded and I could move, painfully so, but I felt more in control now. Turning myself slowly to find a the blurred shadows of a snow covered forest to my right, a set of tracks leading to where I lay, I could feel the warmth of my own blood as I smelled its all too familiar fragrance.

Slowly I could feel my strength slowly returning to my body, I sat up painfully, a paw holding the wound to my abdomen. Groaning a little, I took my paw from it to find it stained red with my own blood. Looking around some more, I found that I was more or less alone, a few stray birds sitting in the white crested trees as I sat in the very center of a snow covered meadow. For a few seconds I admired the beauty of the freshly fallen snow before the pain came back as a reminder of my wounds.

"Why?" I asked a tree, getting up carefully I went over to the tree and as I leaned on it I began to question it about all my mysteries.

"What happened?" No response save for the gentle groan of the wood as it swayed in the wind.

"Who am I?" Silence and nothing more.

"What am I?" Even that he didn't know, glancing at one of his frostbitten foot paws, his long furred tail flicking idly.

"Where is this?" Somewhere a bird called out, sighing I slid down the side of the tree and sat in the freezing snows as I tried to sort through the broken pieces. The wind blew through the trees bringing with it a cold chill; still confused I leaned back against the tree, trying to remember. My eyelids suddenly felt very heavy, the feeling of cold snow stinging at my body faded into the background and I felt myself slip away into unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Images whirled past, different scenes from different times, different place. They seemed almost too many for them to be all from a single lifetime, scenes of happy times and scenes of disasters. The flow of images slowed and I found myself alone in a small room, once the part of a happy little home, watching as a squirrel stood over a bed, staring into his wife's eyes as she lay dying under the sheets. I walked through the room like a ghost, unnoticed by its inhabitants, they were blurred and their voices were muted, but it was clear to me what they were talking about.

She was trying to warn him in her last moments, her eyes had already fogged over as she fought for life on some other plain, while her husband could only watch her struggle, his paw firmly grasping hers. She whispered something as her sightless eyes looked through a wall at something unseen by anybeast living and then eyes wide in terror she died with her last words frozen in the air.

Run…

She said run…

From what…? Voices began stirring once more as the squirrel let his wife's paw drop to the bed, confusion and fear both plainly obvious in his demeanor. Then I saw it, the shadow of a beast passing through the room's door and stand next to the squirrel, whatever it was nobeast knew it was there, it's presence went unnoticed by the squirrel. It whispered something in his ear softly and the squirrel's eyes suddenly lit up with determination.

The darkness, take Nana and run, I barely heard its soft whispers, but it was obvious that the squirrel had as he immediately left the room, his movements steady and determined. I had backed myself into a corner while this had happened, I was afraid of the shadow, but I didn't know, or at least didn't remember, why. It didn't seem all that threatening, unnatural and mysterious yes, but not threatening as it stood over the now dead maid collecting something from her body before in disappeared through the door again.

What is all this, I wondered, it felt far too real for this to be just a simple manifestation of my imagination, it felt as if it were a memory I was now reliving. It was just far too real. Curious I stepped into the middle of the room glancing at the dead squirrel before I stepped out into the hall, passing straight through the door as the shadow had just moments before.

I came into a hall where a small window was the only source of light, casting the moon's pale light across the hall to land on my foot paws. The air was stale, the hall felt as if it were ancient and full of history despite it's new wooden floors and walls, but most of all it was cold. It felt as if somebeast paw had wrapped itself around me, it was an almost suffocating feeling to be in the hall.

I walked down the hall until I came upon a door leading outside, stepping through the threshold I found myself in the middle of a light snowfall, the moonlight glinting the fresh white surface. A cold wind swept through my fur as I stood, admiring the freshly covered landscape until I heard it. A piercing scream cut through the night air, turning I found that I was on the outskirts of a town, a town that was now engulfed in flames.

"What's going on?" I watched as one home collapsed, a ferret mother and her kit running for their lives as the father lay breathing his last beneath the smoldering wreckage of what had once been a home. Many creatures were out around the town; I could hear screams of pain and war as a group of beasts ran through lighting building aflame, cutting down innocent towns beasts as they ran for their lives. A rain of arrows fell, bringing death to all below, both innocents and those of the horde, the snow seemed to pick up speed as I stood in shock.

The storm seemed to pick up as I felt flurries of stinging cold snow sweep around my ankles, then it turned to red as the once beautiful landscape was died red by blood and fire. Quickly I shook myself from my shock as the house behind me burst into flames and ash began to fall, I ran away from the town alongside a young ferret maid who carried with her the bundled form of a dibbun. My breath was a rapid series of ragged gasps as I ran, tripped over my own foot paws, fear giving me the wings to escape.

Then I tripped and fell, the wind knocked out of me I lay there for a moment, eyes shut, trying to keep out the sounds of the carnage I had just witnessed. I opened them and there I saw it, the clouding stare of the ferret maid, a small trickle of blood running from her gasping mouth as she took her last breaths, paws still clutching her child. I lay, rooted to the spot, staring into the child's eyes; it was a little boy whose life had just begun. He did not cry for his fallen mother, he had no concept of death, no concept of the fact that he was now an orphan, alone. I heard his mother take a last breath, a sort of half sigh, resigning herself to her fate as the babe looked on, a confused look upon its young features, oblivious to death around it.

Suddenly a pair of bloodstained paws reached down and lifted the child up from the snow, carefully brushing off flecks of snow, holding the babe in a careful grip. I watched as the babe reached out from it's bundle, grasping at the fur of an old wolf maid, her weathered features making her seem older, ancient and wise in the ways of the world. She held the child, a stray tear falling from her eye as she glanced back at the town, the flames silhouetted by darkness and smoke. Ashes fell from the sky among the snow turning the landscape into a patchwork of red, gray and white, fallen beasts scattered everywhere.

I stayed perfectly still, untrusting of the wolf as she sighed heavily before making her way back towards the town. The screams had been silenced almost as soon as they had begun and the flames began to die down, but still an eerie glow hovered over the town. As soon as the wolf had left I rose, trying to keep quiet I shadowed her, dodging between the cover of the smoldering ashes of the town, a half burned tree or bush sometimes providing a hiding spot.

The wolf moved all the way to the center of the town where a bonfire burned brightly, a ring of beasts standing around it. Oblivious to the cold weather and the carnage about them, they stood with eyes intently staring into the flames as if they were waiting for something. I moved along the shadows, my eyes still upon the wolf maid and her stolen bundle, she didn't move to the circle, instead she kept to the shadows until suddenly she disappeared into the thick darkness. Quickly I followed, going to where she had disappeared before stopping, something was wrong, definitely wrong.

I glanced back to find the town gone, only a snow covered wonderland in its place, the ash and the blood absent from the scene. It was the perfect glistening scene I had witnessed before. It was completely devoid of all creatures, only rolling hills snow going on, unbroken into infinity as they disappeared into the dark, I then turned and found myself elsewhere, at the steps of a long forgotten stone building. The stones were weathered and ancient, glancing up I could just make out the outlines of a stained-glass window, but I couldn't see the glasses' design.

Go in, A voice told me, it almost felt as if the building were calling to me, I glanced to the door, an old wooden door stained a dark brown by time, it was open a crack. A bright light shone from the small space, cutting through the dark, slowly and nervously I made my way towards the door. Stopping I examined the door to find symbols carved into the wood, pictures of events I could not decipher though they felt familiar, I ran a paw over the symbols. They were so familiar.

Truth lies within, A voice echoed softly, I felt something pulling me to the building; something inside was waiting for me, some purpose I had to serve. I pushed through the door and heard it slam shut behind me as I stood staring at the interior in awe; it was very different from the exterior. The building was nearly pure white on the inside, the windows he saw now depicted strange creatures, almost demonic looking beasts, all dressed in flowing black cloaks save for one figure at the very top of the door.

I stared up at the design, it looked as though a pretty otter maid was kneeling, arms spread wide in welcoming, she wore a simple white cloak, stained red with what could have been blood. Behind her stood a shadowy figure, a very familiar looking beast dressed in a simple black cloak that hid it's features, it wielding a strange looking blade. Confused by all of this I turned away from the picture, glancing down the building, it was long and narrow, rows of white benches ling a long aisle that lead to a great shapeless statue of white.

I suddenly had a headache, stumbling down the aisle a ways I moved to sit on a bench, my eyes staring at the statue, I almost felt as though there was something inside, yearning for freedom. I tore my eyes away from it and stared straight down at the floor, busying myself with watching the progress of a speck of dust as it moved across the floor. Then I heard another beast enter, paw steps walking down the aisle of the building.

Your task awaits, The same voiced echoed, raising my head I saw that a vixen had entered, a look of shock and confusion upon her features, plainly present in her eyes.

"What is this?" She asked, still having not noticed my presence.

"What happened?" I asked, the vixen jumped as she noticed me. Calming down a bit she moved towards me, asking a question of her own.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone is gone now."

"I . . ." She began, but I cut her off, something inside myself had the words, as if this were just me running through the same scenario for a second time.

" . . .Don't know." I finished her statement. "No beast wants to answer that. You should go as well, join the others." I pointed back towards the door; some power had seemingly possessed me as I went on, pointing back towards the buildings door.

"Others?" She asked, curious. "Where have they all gone?" The vixen demanded, making her further towards me, but I had no answers, I could only smile a strange twisted smile. "Who are you?"

"Me?" I pondered the question, I didn't really know the answer, but then I felt myself respond anyways as the answers seemed to discover themselves. "My name is Avel." I stared at the vixen for a moment before another answer came to light. "Riala?"

"Yes." Riala answered, a bit confused and scared by fact that I seemed to know her, but then her fear took over. "Where have they gone?"

"Away, where you should be. The shadows are coming, you should escape while you still can or your fate is sealed." Another answer I didn't know came from me, my tone was sincere, but it was obvious that I was worried for the vixen, but I couldn't tell why.

"Why?" She asked again, putting her paw on my shoulder, her paw felt cold, an almost deathly feeling.

"That is a question no beast seems to be able to answer." I smiled again and then there was a loud crash, I looked to find that the statue had crashed, sending up a great blinding light. My vision turned to white and then to black as consciousness found me.