Hi everyone, I'm starting a new story. I have anxiety and in the past month, it's been eating at me. During times where I'm consumed by intense waves of stress, existential crisis, and a lack of sleep I find comfort in a particular story, show, or movie. These times of comfort from a particular story are what inspire my works, and this is one story that came to mind during a night with little sleep.
This will be based on the films primarily. I'm sorry if all of my facts are not precise. I hope it can still be enjoyable!
Thank you
Her mind was blank, her breath taken, and her strength stripped from her at the cold hands holding her under unforgiving ripples of water.
Bubbles escape her lips and reach the surface in the hopes to deliver the urgent message "I'm dying." However, the plea was ignored as the only one near was the owner of the hands wrapped around the young woman's neck. His response to the last sign of air escaping from her lips was to shove her further into a watery grave.
Unnoticeable tears meshed with the waves around her and cool water was sucked into the woman's lungs. A once strong, hopeful, and joyful human was now nothing more than ocean debris that would be washed ashore one day.
"This was my destiny?" the woman thought as her vision was turning dark and her lungs burning.
"What a pitiful death" her lips moved slowly to the words she wished to speak. Her body became stiff and her movements ceased before her eyelids could even close. Her body was sinking and forced to watch as the light of the moon on the water's surface began to disappear.
"Pitiful death? No child, a joyous rebirth"
The melodic voice followed by brightness, and the woman welcomed what she believed to be the end of her life. What she didn't expect was to awaken to blue skies, ancient trees, and soft calls of birds in the air.
_
She felt heavy. That was her first thought as she suddenly woke up. Not heavy as in having a few extra pounds from Christmas dinner, but heavy as if her bones were made of lead. Alora struggled to open her eyes for what felt like ages. When her stiff lids finally softened, she was able to push them open to view the bluest sky she has ever seen.
"I must be dead," she thought to herself. The soreness of her body said otherwise, a corpse shouldn't feel pain or even have consciousness. She sucked in a deep breath at this realization and was met with a burning feeling in her lungs, which was most likely the result of water having rested in her airway for far too long.
It took what felt like half a day for Alora to completely sit up and take in her surroundings. The sun was going down at this point and she was becoming more and more worried about her predicament. Shelter or some kind of comforting place was a number one priority at this point.
Alora's focus was on finding shelter, yet she was distracted by one jarring detail of her current predicament, she had awoken by a stream. From the vague memories of the past 24 hours that Alora had, she was certain the body of water she was in was an ocean. The salty taste that lingered in her mouth confirmed her thoughts, yet did not provide her with any answers.
As she forced herself to walk along the riverside, her mind would stray to the night before which caused her heart rate to spike and her eyes to water. Alora could not recall much of the night apart from the pain she felt, and heartache in her chest.
"What happened to me?" She whispered as her feet scraped against the ground and her eyes stole glances at the stream.
Alora could not recall much of what happened in the past 24 hours, but she did know that her boss was probably questioning why she wasn't at work and when her parents found out she was missing they would be terrified.
The thoughts of their fear caused her to spur forward in her step, in the hopes that moving quicker would lead her to find answers sooner.
After what felt like hours of walking, Alora slowly approached the stream to get a drink of water. Her approach was apprehensive, the depths of the stream frightened her so she planted her knees firmly on the found and reached her arms to the water so the chances of falling in, or getting dragged in, were smaller.
She took a few much-needed sips that her chapped lips and dehydrated body desperately needed. Afterward, green eyes locked with green as she stared down at her reflection.
Her hair was wild with dirt and leaves trapped in it, and her skin looked so frail it was almost translucent. Shaky hands felt chapped lips that were tinged purple from the icy water she was submerged in for an unknown length of time.
The part of herself that evoked a gasp was the marks around her neck. A sob tore through her throat as the reality of what happened took hold. Around her neck were very painful-looking bruises from hands that were much larger than her own.
Alora's palm swiped at the water- an attempt to erase what she just saw as she backed away and got to her feet. With the night creeping in she knew she needed to make it a bit farther in the hopes to find some type of civilization, but needed to be prepared to sleep outside.
Though the thought of civilization always coming up by a river might be a less modern notion, it's the best hope she had in this very moment and with her sense of direction lacking and the height of the trees around her covering the stars, it was the only reasonable option.
As the air grew colder and darkness started to set in, Alora's survival skills were put to the test as she began looking around for a spot to rest for the evening. She settled with a spot around 15 yards from the water and began to make a little bundle of sticks in the middle of the dirt circle she created.
"Let's hope one of these is flint," Alora pleaded as she knew it was a darker colored rock but not much else, therefore she had a number to test as she collected a number of them on her walk.
Alora was lucky to have found an empty bird's nest on a tree and hoped it would be easier to light than her twigs directly, but she was quickly proven wrong by her lack of knowledge and practice of surviving in the wild as it was already dark and she was still struggling.
Groaning in frustration as the constant sounds of animals around her only added to her fear and discomfort, Alora looked up into the sky.
"Please help me, this has all been too much, and I'm here after having been drowned and I'm so scared. Please just help me get this lit."
She didn't know who she was asking for help, but apparently, they listened because a few more tries of hitting a couple of the rocks against one another brought a spark. Alora could have cried from happiness, but with the uncertainty of her surroundings, she decided to just continue on with building the fire.
Tears fell from Alora's eyes as a small smile came to her face, and pride welled in her chest. She felt like a survivor, with everything that happened she was sitting there alive and that was something to feel hopeful for apart from everything else.
Sleep was not easy despite Alora's body had never felt exhaustion like she had at this moment. She would closer her eyes, but her mind would keep her awake with images flashing of last night with everything but the face of the man than drowned her.
With little rest and fear knawing at her, the sun rose and Alora had to reluctantly put out the flames that provided her some comfort that night. She pocketed the two stones that helped start the fire and creakily got to her feet.
With a growling stomach, dirty and torn clothes, and aching feet Alora marched on.
She softly hummed to herself as she looked around at took in her surroundings. There were trees to her right and the stream to my left, while she would rather be anywhere else than wherever she was lost at least the scenery was beautiful. The slight smile that had graced her lips quickly slipped from her face when she heard horrendous screeching in the forest that made her heart stop.
Alora trembled as she didn't know where the noise came from and stumbled as she started to run without knowing, or caring, where she was going.
The screeching became louder as she ran and when realizing the noise was coming from the forest to her right, she reluctantly looked to the water as an escape. In a more shallow part of the river, Alora noticed rocks gracing the surface and used them as her means of getting across the water. Not having time to calculate her leaps, she jumped from rock to rock, almost having slipped in a couple of times.
After having only a moment to catch her breath on the other side of the current, the noise of hooves hitting the ground left her frozen. She saw amongst the trees multiple figures coming in her direction, so she ran to take cover behind the treeline on her side of the river. Weaving amongst various trunks, she staid within a small line of sight to the river, so she could keep an eye on what direction they would go.
Alora trembled on her hands and knees as she peeked her head out from behind a tree and watched as a horse suddenly came into view, rushing across the water. What followed is what made my heart drop. Following the horse carried what looked to be a woman and a child were a number of riders, all cloaked in black that rode monstrous beasts that looked as though they would crush anything in their path with a single stomp.
Alora feared for the riders on her side of the stream leaned closer to them as she heard sounds from both the cloaked riders. Her eyes became fixed as she would see the woman clearer, she was beautiful, and the child she was holding looked worse for wear. The woman suddenly raised something in her hand that lead Alora's head to cock to the side in confusion.
A sword? What century are we in? Why is she holding a sword, and as a matter of fact, why were they all wearing cloaks? Suddenly, before Alora could comprehend what was being said, the cloaked riders began to cross the water, and she heard chanting from the woman in a language she never heard before. Her eyes widened as the river's current began to increase and saw a massive wave come and wash away the terrifying figures.
With her jaw slack from shock, confusion, and fear, Alora was feeling even more lost. How could this be? This was a river, how could water rush from nowhere like that. She tried to think of an explanation, but nothing seemed to fit her current predicament.
The last two days felt like some strange curse, it was as if she was in a novel where mysterious being existed on hoses, and the natural elements could be controlled through spells or magic. "It's not like I'm in the fucking Lord of the Rings or something," Alora murmured to herself as she crept toward the woman and the child to get a better look and to see if she could approach them for help.
Alora's heart went out to the woman and she stopped all movements as she heard pleading for the sake of the child in her arms, whose condition must have been even worse than what she could see from her distance away.
"Frodo! Don't give in, not now."
Had she heard her right? Did she say Frodo? Aloras mind started swirling with memories of the movies and parts of the books she had read some time ago. The Lord of the Rings was just a story. These people were acting, weren't they? The way the cooked figures washed away like nothing lead her to think otherwise, and she was starting to wonder if the exhaustion, starvation, and dehydration were leading her to hallucination. Alora didn't care how much of a fanatic you were, the possibility of injury or even death was not a welcome part of role-playing if that is what this was.
The fear and exhaustion finally caught up to her and everything felt all too much as the sounds of more hooves could be heard in the distance, and vibrant figures ontop of even more vibrant horses came into sight.
"Oh fuck," Alora muttered to herself before promptly losing consciousness.
