Chapter 3: Heart of Water, Mind of stone
It burned. The water in her lungs, flipping and rippling in her chest, it burned. She coughed it out violently and flipped over onto her side spewing the cold water from the river out of her completely. She wipes her eyes and stands up slowly to get a better view of her surroundings. Her side ached, it was filled with bruises from the rocks she hit while tossing in the river. With every breath of air she drew the burning sensation spread from the inside out, causing her to cough more.
Surprisingly she suffered only minor injuries. A few scraps and bruises but nothing serious. She looks around seeing nothing but lush forest littered with sunlight and glistening leaves and water droplets resting on nearby flowers and small rocks in the dirt and grass. Erin walked away from the river. It had been throwing her around for a long time, dragging her body through the forest. The river took her far enough for her to no longer see the red desert. This soothes her for a moment. The cool breeze relaxed her body.
She walks toward a tree and leans against it. All she felt was pain. Emotional and physical pain. She began to cry, as images of her little brother bleeding in front of her, plague her thoughts. She screams. A loud and powerful scream that would raise the heads of anyone in close proximity. She lost him. She watched as her little brother took his last breath right in front of her. The idea of losing her brother was terrible enough as is and for it to possibly be fact.. her heart trembles. She knows that even if he did survive, it wouldn’t be long. Her brother would die a slow and painful death alone and she couldn’t be there with him. Once again she felt all alone and whales loudly as she cries into her hands.
Just then…far off in the forest past the trees was someone else. Screaming. Only for a second a loud voice hollered in distress. She quickly stands up again, gathering herself and raising her guard looking around trying to pinpoint the location of the yell.
Erin: “Hey? Who’s there?” Nobody answers. She yells again but this time louder. “HELLO!” and again she heard it clearly. The voice of a man yelling for help in the opposite direction, away from the river. Maybe 100 feet away, he yells again, and again she hears it.
Unknown man: “Help me!” He yells. Then silence.
Erin: “Kaleb!? Kaleb, it’s Erin! I’m coming, I promise I’m coming!” She starts running away from the river; she fights through thick branches, thickets of green and vines hanging from trees. She barreled through the woods and growth around her before spotting a clearing up ahead. Entering the forest clearing she sees a large stone pillar. It went about 10 feet up into the air and had metal chains bound to its base. She was shook. Confusion raced her mind. Near the boulder’s base were clothes. A white shirt and a large leather trench coat. On top of them rested a sword. Hidden in its sheath the blade was long and had a black handle that had a small green emerald embedded into its base.
“Hello? Who’s there?” She walks closer to the pillar circling around it to see someone on the other end.
Unknown man: “H-help me. Please.” His voice was weak. He was a tall man with shoulder length, silky, jet black hair that hung down covering portions of his neck and face. His dark umber-brown skin rightly gripped his toned and muscular body. He wasn’t bulky but rather shredded. He had highly defined muscles that sparkled from the sweat leaking down his face. He was covered in dirt with bleeding cuts along his chest, back and limbs. He had old scars all over his body. Including one lengthy scar across the right side of his face and eyelid. All of them being thin slashes. Scars only years of battling with a blade could bring upon someone. He sat at the base of the pillar bound in chains, unable to move or even stand.
Erin: She slowly backs away from him with a look of concern on her face. Completely taken by surprise to see this strange man stuck out here in the middle of a forest. For a second his appearance left her mind, “Who are you? How did you get here?”
Unknown man: He slowly lifts his head up to look at her and his long hair open like curtains to reveal his face. He was young, in his early 20’s at most, close to Erin’s age. His big emerald-green eyes lassoed Erin’s brown eyes. For a second the two just stared into each other’s eyes in complete silence. “Please help me.” Peeking from his dark black locs, on the sides of his head were pointed ears. They weren't long but they had the slightest sharpness to their raised tips.
Erin: “H-How do I help you?” Her defensive guard lowers. The fear and caution were replaced with nerves and true concern. The man looks over to the sword laying beside him.
Unknown man: “The sword. Use it to break the chains.” He says as he tries his hardest to maintain consciousness. He was visibly exhausted and could barely keep his eyes open.
She does as he suggests and grabs the sword by its handle. Despite its size it was surprisingly light and rested in her palm with fair and even weight. She removes the sheath that covered the blade to reveal a long, straight blade composed of a reflective black metal. It was dark and mysterious and near its base, engraved in its spine was the word “SONN”.
Erin: “Hey, Sonn? Is that your name? This sword belong to you?” She walks over to him kneeling down to his level.
Unknown man: “I…don’t…remember.” Each breath he took and each word he spoke was slow and heavy. He couldn’t fight the urge to rest much longer.
Erin: “Hold on, I’m gonna get you out of here just please stay still. I don’t know what I’m doing with this damn thing.” She holds the sword with both hands and like a baseball bat she swings its sharp edge into the chains. She grits her teeth as vibrations from the strike hurt and sting her hands.“Fuck! My hands. Shit!” She holds it tighter and again swings the sword into the chains over and over until it actually breaks through them. Leaving a clean cut between the metal links and the blade itself retained no damage. The chains drop to the ground along with the man bound in them who fell over to his side making a loud thud sound against the dirt.
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His face resting in the cool, damp dirt gave him relief. He hadn’t felt anything but hard stone and chain against his bare, bleeding skin for so long.
She walks over to him grabbing him by his arm helping him to his feet as they walk to a tree, cut down laying on its side. They sat on it beside each other.
Erin: “You said you don’t remember your name? Do you know who did this to you? How long have you been bound here?”
Unknown man: “I-I don’t remember my name. I’ve been trying to remember for days.” His face, confused as he pauses and his eyes dart and dance across the corners of his face. He anxiously looks around into the forest, paranoid, as if he feels eyes everywhere & all of them are staring back.
Erin: “Wait days?! Who left you out here for days?”
Unknown man: “Three days and two nights I’ve been bound to that stone. Six men in armor beat me and left me here, chained to this stone as punishment.”
Erin: “Punishment for what? What did you do? Or do you not remember that either? Listen you’re gonna have to start making things make sense alright cause what you’re telling me is sounding pretty fucking sketchy right now.”
Unknown man: “I’m sorry but truly, I don’t know. That’s the only thing I can remember. I know nothing about who I am or where I come from. Only where I am and who left me here. Who are you?”
Erin: “I’m Erin. I was swept down here by the river.”
Unknown man: “down the river? You come from the west? Tell me, Erin, what house are you from?”
Erin: “What house am I from? I-I don’t understand what you mean?”
Unknown man: “Your house, village, kingdom? Are you a ward? Daughter of a scribe?” He looks at her with complete confusion. Her strange clothing looked like nothing he’d ever seen before. suggesting she came from a far land. Her long and clean hair could only belong to royalty in these lands. He thought to himself.
“This woman is far too beautiful and clean to be a commoner. Then again how do I know I’m not a commoner? No. She’s dressed oddly and has no idea where she is or where she’s been.”
Erin: “Boy what? This ain’t no game of thrones! I didn’t come from a kingdom, I came from NewYork. There was this storm and rain and then next thing I know, me and my brother—” She stops. Thinking of her little brother’s face drilling his pain into her soul through her eyes. She felt useless, like a failure for not being able to save him. She fights the urge to cry and pulls herself together. “Me and my brother woke up in some type of red desert? Then we were attacked by bearded men coming out of the ground. Then I fell into the river and washed up here and heard your screams and you’re just— you look—” She gazes at him in awh at his appearance “Where the hell am I?”
Unknown man: “You mean the Red Desert? Miss the sand Dwarves live there. Wait! You came from the red lands?!” With complete shock and impressed he scans her entire body with his eyes observing her unconvinced that she made it this far without dying or at least some serious injury.
“How did you survive? Anyone who goes there either dies from the heat or the dwarves…& you came with your brother? Where is he now?”
Erin: Confusion molds her face as her eyes begin to water. Again she tries not to cry but can’t help herself. She speaks with her voice shaky and unstable.
“I-I don’t know where he is. There were these men, a whole battle, and he got hit in an explosion and we were separated. I need…I need to go back and find him! I can’t stay here. I'm sorry but I have to go find my brother.” She stands up and quickly makes her way back towards the river.
Unknown man: he stands up after her, trying to stop her but couldn’t even move from his spot due to his injuries. “A battle? Between whom? No wait! You can’t go back to that desert, you'll die— especially if they are at war. You must wait!”
Erin: “They looked like knights,” Erin’s face flushed to anxiousness, “at least that’s what Kaleb called them.” She knew she had to find him. “I don’t care! I don’t have a choice, my brother is back there and I have to find him!”
Unknown man: He sees the determination and struggle in her teary brown eyes. This woman has shown nothing but strength and honor since he first heard her voice in the woods.
“If you came from the desert by the river, then you can’t return that way. It’s impossible. You have to go further east and go around.” The man didn’t say anything about the knights, in the back of his head he knew something was terribly wrong.
Erin: “And how long will that take!?” She walks closer toward him.
Unknown man: “A day at least.”
Erin: “Can you show me the way? Help me find my brother. Please.”
Unknown man: “I can take you. You helped me. Saved my life. It’s the least I can do. I’ll join you and I’ll help find your brother.”
Erin: “You’ll take me? You’ll come with me?”
Unknown man: “May I? I wish to help reunite you with your brother safely.”
Erin: Overwhelmed with joy and hope that she can find her brother. “Oh my god— thank you thank you.” She grabs his white smock shirt and helps him put it on along with his long leather hooded trench coat. She takes his sword sliding back into the sheath and strapping it to his waist. He could barely help her, he was in so much pain but somehow still stood there. Both of them had gone through so much physical trauma yet still stood there tall and strong through pure willpower and motivation.
Unknown man: “Thank you. We must travel through the forest to the nearest village. It will be close since we’re near the river. We will find someone who can give us horses or a carriage to travel back west.”
Erin: “Alright, alright okay I hear you. You sound fucking insane but..I hear you.” She looked him in his eyes and for a brief moment forgot all of the aching in her body and weight in her heart. She was completely present with him at that moment. “You said you don’t remember your name. What do I call you?” She helps him stand supporting his back with her right arm around his back.
Unknown man: “What was that name you called me earlier? It sounded familiar somehow yet I know I’ve never heard it before.”
Erin: “It was engraved on your sword. Sonn.”
Sonn: “Then call me Sonn for now. And your name again?” He tilts his head downwards slightly to see her.
Erin: “Erin Skye Will. Just call me Erin please.” The two of them start walking leaning against each other while Sonn holds his side in pain and for the first time Erin sees a small smile lift on his face after hearing her name.
Sonn: “Well, Erin. I owe you my life. Thank you.”
The two of them slowly make their way deeper into the forest away from the clearing. Nothing but the sounds of wilderness and the leaves and branches snapping beneath their feet. They had no idea what awaited them and Erin had more questions now than ever. But she placed them aside as she is focused on finding and saving Kaleb.