Chapter 4

By: Cat Paws

I wake to complete darkness. I blink my eyes, but nothing improves. I attempt to sit up, only to find that my entire body is sore. Despite this pain, I struggle and finally am able to sit up. I lean against something, not really caring what.

I notice that my armor is gone, and my head really, really hurts. I try to put my head in my hands, however my arms and hands are slow to respond. I decide that I'm fine the way I am and close my eyes, I think. With the lighting, it's hard to tell.

A strange odor drifts in and I can hear the clanging of steps approach. There is a short discussion that goes on outside the door, then the descent of more steps away. Must be a guard change. Could they not have picked a better smelling replacement?

Oww, my head is throbbing. What happened to me? I remember fighting, and being underwater. That seems to be it. When I try to remember more, the pain in my head becomes worse. I should just leave it at that, for now. I have a feeling that things will become a lot clearer very soon.

I glanced around my cell with my dead eyes. There is no use in trying to focus them, for there is nothing here to see. Nothing but four walls, a filthy floor, perhaps a shackle that they failed to place on me.

Wait a minute. I'm not tied up. It is then that I realize I am free to move about this pen as I please. They did not see the need to chain me up or restrain me in some other way? Why is that?

There has to be some reason as to why they don't see me as a threat. Am I that weak and they that powerful? True, I may not have my kanji orb- or do I?

I command my hand to crawl over who knows what on the stone floor a few inches to my side. There I find my orb. I grip it in my hand, its warm presence spreading itself over me. The throbbing in my head becomes less, and my eyes are beginning to clear.

I slowly manage to raise my orb to my forehead, my limbs still reluctant to move. I press it there and a cool sensation rushes through me like waves crashing on a beach. This surge pulses though me, cleaning out the poison that they must have pumped into me.

I drop my hand, still clutching the orb, too weak to keep it there. I may be able to cleanse myself from their poisons with the Torrent, but I can not heal myself like the Halo.

Halo? Sage. I wonder what happened to him. Did they capture him as well? He was at the battle, I'm sure of it. That lightning creature was him. It had to be him.

My thoughts begin to blur again, drifting away from that thought to something entirely different. To another time, but still the same place.

I am running through a field to my home. The sun is setting, and I am very, very late. I race with everything in me to make it home.

As I reach the front door, my friend bursts out shouting, "Hurry, hurry!! They're here! We're going to miss them!"

"Race you there!" I say, sharply changing my direction to aim for the village. I can hear my friend catching up to me, so I run faster. I may be a little tired from running home, but I can still beat him in a race any day.

I win, of course. My friend challenges me to a rematch after wards. We laugh and join the large crowd that had already gathered. We wriggle our way to the front and stop in awe.

There, on two great beasts, sit the warriors. Their magnificent armors catch the sun's rays, sending reflections over everything. One is in a deep green and black armor. The other is in a rich blue and cool gray armor.

As these two warriors ride through, they each look at me. The first in green has eyes that are a pale violet and could have been ice should someone stare at them long enough. The second in blue has eyes the color of the sea that are full of trust and caring.

All I can do is stare at them in wonder. These are the warriors who are going to save us from the evil lady in the tower. She has been bringing bad luck to the people of my village, destroying crops and causing sicknesses. But once those warriors get to her, she will pay. They will see to that.

Suddenly, I'm surrounded by flames, using my hands to dig though ruble. I'm screaming a name over and over again. Somewhere, outside the flames, I hear, "Forget him! He's dead! Get out, NOW!!"

"NOOO!!" I dig harder, my charcoal covered hands bleeding more. I feel tears streaming down my face as I continue to dig. I can't believe that he is dead, not my son, not my baby. He's too young to die, too young. Those words run in my mind as I dig.

I feel hands on me, pulling me away from my child. "Noo!" I struggle, fighting my carrier. I hear a snap, then I'm on the ground, burning. I don't try to save myself. My son is dead, and I will join him.

I'm now on a battle field, fighting along side my friends and comrades. We are losing. Losing to that witch's dark army of shadows.

Where is the lightning and the sea? Those two are suppose to be here fighting with us to stop that evil creature, Ocatan. Just thinking her name makes me cringe in disgust. That evil enchantress witch has spread her curse over the land. She must be stopped before she spreads her filth to the other worlds.

Where are they? Damn them for abandoning us when we need them. My men are dying here, but they don't care. I should have never trusted in those two or that myth.

They knew about the myth. The myth about the enchantress and the wakening of her evil. They say that it will scorch the land, bringing death and destruction in its wake. They say that this evil is extremely powerful. It has armies that come from this world, the After world, and the Mortal world. This much of the myth I know is true, because it's happening now. It's the other part I'm not so sure of.

Once this evil had come, soon would come the force to stop it. Two warriors, one of lightning and one of water, would come to seal the evil in a crystal. The crystal would then be smashed into pieces and scattered throughout the worlds so that it won't be able to come again.

Well, the supposed warriors have come, but they left before the job was finished. Those "boys" only dressed as the mythical warriors and ran scared when they saw that it was real. That witch Ocatan is real, so they ran away. Damn them!

I feel a sharp pain and burning cut across me from my hip to my shoulder. I fall on that pain, my face becoming submerged in mud and, is that my blood?

I blink my eyes and am back in the dungeon. Back in my body, my mind. I'm me, Cye. That's me. Then why was I seeing those things? Like I was looking through someone else's eyes and living their memories. Or were they mine? No, no, they were someone else's

My head is throbbing again. The clanging and opening of the cell door brings my thoughts back together. Two sets of hands roughly grab my arms and hoist me between them. I just hang there, my escorts having no problem carrying me.

"Where are you taking me?" I rasp, my throat dry, my voice not wanting to work. No answer. I ask again, a little stronger, as I attempt to walk, all though letting them drag me most of the way. I'm being taken down a hall dimly lit by torches every few yards. I still don't get any answer.

Hello, Cye. My head shoots up. Sage? I think with anticipation. You know it. I look at my escorts. Don't worry. They don't know. I quirk my head a little, Are you in my head? I don't get an answer for a moment. Am I imagining things? Let's get rid of the security, first, shall we?

A dark figure emerges from the shadows. It makes quick work of disposing the guards. I fall to my knees, disoriented. "Let's get you out of here." I'm soon supported by Sage. He leads me thought some more twists, and turns, and passageways. My mind blurs and I loose track of where I am. That's okay, because I realize that I can't do much to change our destination any way. I just have to trust that he knows where he is going.

The pain in my head is unbearable now. I don't think I can take much more of this. I let myself slip into the darkness of unconsciousness that awaits me at the other end of the pain, knowing that I'm in good hands.