I spin around. But there's no one there. Just empty space. "Hmm..." I mutter. I turn back and start walking. The ground is more rocky than grassy. As I go further, it only gets worse. Dirt gives way to broken gravel and jagged rocks. I have to step carefully as I move. Eventually, I stop at the top of a low rise, looking out across the large expanse of land. It is mostly flat, but is covered with small areas where the rock was crushed or blown away. Off to the left side, there's a canyon that descends down along a narrow river.

I look far across the landscape, spotting the low rolling hills past the flatlands. There are lights over there. I raise my hands, breathing in and out steadily.

Those lights fly over the field. One after another, they fall around me. I stand, expectant. Those lights emerge from where they land. Humanoid in shape, but composed entirely of light.

The lights are aggressive. They surround me. I punch at them, but they press forward. One after another, the lights come, piercing through me, then vanish.

I look around. The field seems peaceful. I look at myself. There are holes in me. Fresh blood pours out where the lights pierced through. I fall backward. Everything is getting cold as my lifeblood drains away onto the jagged stones.

I stare up at the sky. This feels nostalgic. Staring at the black sky and full moon as my body gives in to the pain and suffering.

As my consciousness fades, I hear a bell.

The bell is a woman's voice. Each chime a single word ringing out through my mind.

"If. You. Fight. You. Will. Die."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"-get up!" I feel myself shaken roughly.

"Huh?!" I gasp, bolting up. I look around, somewhat frantic. Did I just die? No, I'm obviously still alive. Then what was that?! It wasn't anything like a nightmare. I look up, finding a new nightmare to be afraid of. Mister Fredricson is pulling me up from the floor with one hand, lantern in the other.

"What on Loqa are you doing now?!" He demands.

I blink rapidly. How do I explain this one? "I was just following a sound I heard, and I found this leaking bucket." That's all I've got in this weird situation.

"What bucket?"

I turn back to the bucket, but don't find anything in the spot it was before. "Gone?!" I gasp. Why would the random leaking bucket disappear? "But look, the puddle it left is still there," I point down at it. "I don't know what happened to the bucket though..." She must have taken it. But what would she need a bucket for?

"Uh... huh..." Mister Fredricson rolls his eyes. "Care to explain why you're passed out on the floor then?"

"Well..." I shrink as he glares at me. Then I say in a small voice, "I... think there was someone else here?"

"Someone else?" he raises an eyebrow.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"W-well, I don't really know, but I thought I saw movement, and it felt like there was someone behind me, and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor."

"Oh, ok, I get it." He nods. "So someone lured you downstairs with a leaking bucket of water, knocked you out, then took the bucket of water and ran away."

"Pretty much..." That's all I can say in response.

"Do you seriously expect me to believe that drivel?!" he shouts. I flinch back at the sudden shout, and he starts squeezing my arm angrily.

"Ow, that hurts, Mister Fredricson!" I say, but his death grip won't let me wiggle free at all.

"Tell me why you came down here!" he keeps yelling at me.

"I'm telling the truth, I swear!"

"No one can be that stupid!" he growls, shaking me as he squeezes. What can I do about this? As Mister Fredricson shakes me painfully, I think fast. That... dream. Vision. Premonition. Whatever it was, that must have been Reena's doing. I don't understand why she gave me that vision in the middle of the night, why in the storage room, or why she would go through the entire setup with the tapping sounds and the bucket of water. But that voice, the one before the vision... It said 'good', didn't it? Like she approved of me somehow? But why?

Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but maybe I was supposed to realize something was off. I only heard that voice after I noticed the issue with the bucket of water. Maybe there's another clue here too?

Another clue? I glance around as I'm shaken up and down. If it's a clue I'm looking for, then it would be the bucket again, wouldn't it? "That's it! I've got it, Mister Fredricson!"

"You... what?"

"I figured it out! That bucket was leaking. If we follow the drips, we'll find whoever took it!"

He holds a hand to his head. "I can't believe this..." he mutters. I look down at the puddle on the floor, glancing all around it to see if I can spot any more water nearby. In the light of his lantern, I manage to spot one and I point it out.

"Right over there!" I exclaim.

"This is what my life has come to..." he mumbles, releasing my arm. I go to the drop of water. It's kind of spread in one direction, like the drop of water hit the ground while it was moving. I try to follow the way it's pointing, soon spotting another drop in that direction. Mister Fredricson follows along behind me. I keep moving from one drop to the next as the light of his lantern illuminates them. The water leads us back through the dining room, the kitchen, the hall, and then right out the front door.

On the gravel outside, it's harder to spot the drops, but I manage to keep going. They lead south out of the orphanage, two blocks, then turn right onto another street. We go a little down that street, crossing over and then turning into an alley on the left.

Immediately, I see the alley is a dead end. Sitting in the short dead end alley is a bucket, now only partly full with water, sitting in a puddle. There's something stuck to the side of the bucket. We approach slowly, Mister Fredricson pulling off the thing stuck on the bucket. It's really thin, like the stuff I saw the handlers writing on before, and the markings on it definitely look like writing too. So it says something?

Mister Fredricson holds it in the light of the lantern and reads it. As his eyes scan the text, his face remains totally blank and deadpan. Then his eye twitches for some reason.

"Umm... what does it say?" I ask quietly. Mister Fredricson completely ignores me though. He just drops the thing on the ground at my feet.

"Go back to bed," he says. Then he just walks away. "What is this world coming to..." I barely hear him mutter as he disappears into the night.

"Umm?" I blink a few times. What could it possibly say? It's not like Reena would write out an explanation of everything, right? I pick up the thing, angling it so that the light of the moons illuminates the writing as much as possible.

I can't read it, but... I get the feeling this doesn't explain anything. I see the same few shapes repeating all the way across. It looks like the same thing is written over and over again. I wonder what it could say to get a response like that though?

"Hmmm..." I hum to myself as I start walking. Then I stop and glance back at the bucket. Should I really just leave it there? Well, it's Reena's bucket, so I guess she'll be back for it at some point? That kind of makes me want to wait and see if I can actually talk to her, but that would probably be really disrespectful to a god, wouldn't it...? So I just shrug and keep walking.

I make it back to the orphanage, and begin walking upstairs. As soon as I make it to the second floor, I can feel eyes on me. I think I spot some doors cracked open slightly, but whenever I look, I don't see anything out of place. Hmm... Even with the weirdness, I make it back to our room before long. I lie down in bed with Emily, snuggling up against her once more.

"Took you long enough..." she mumbles, half asleep.

"Yeah..." I whisper back. I'm sure she'll hear plenty of rumors tomorrow... Still, I lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. I should sleep, but that vision... If I fight, I'll die. That spells it out pretty plainly. I have to focus on not fighting. I'll put my all into avoiding combat and running away. I nod to myself.

Then there's the other thing I learned. I close my eyes and remember the scene once more. Staring up at the black sky, with its single light source. The full moon.

The battle will be on the last day of Filar. The Summer Solstice.

The day after tomorrow.