A dream:

You are falling, there is fire all around you. You land with a thud on the ground, with a yelp all of the wind is knocked out of you as you land. You have missed all the wooden stakes that dot the ground around you, some of which are impaling your comrades who were not as lucky as you. You take a second to try to regain your breath, but struggle as you might for the moment, nothing comes back. Several more bodies seem to fall from the sky and land around you. Most land on the spikes with a sickening sound. Another man lands next to you, he too missed the spiked wooden poles. He lays there quietly his head facing in your direction, his eyes wide, a large bleeding wound across his chest and both of his legs severely broken from the fall. His eyes they flick around for a moment and settle on you, then he starts screaming, a single long drawn out tone of pain and fear, each time he stops for a second to take another breath you can see blood spurting from the gaping wound on his chest. You find your breath returning to you slowly as the pain in your chest subsides. There are several others you can hear in the distance screaming too, you cannot see them through the flames, the mix of smoke, stakes and other debris makes it hard to see beyond a few feet in any direction. A few more bodies fall around you, most of these from what you can tell were likely dead before they even hit the bottom. The man laying next to you is still screaming, he hasn’t said a single word of prayer or begged for his life but instead whatever sensation he is feeling has robbed him of any other sense. You look up and you can start to see orc warriors move cautiously to the edge of the pit. You look around and quickly grab up a shield that is next to you on the ground, and pull it over you as you attempt to push up against the side of the pit and try to make it look as natural as possible. Now all you can do is hope, you close your eyes and start mumbling quietly to yourself, holding the shield tight on top of yourself, as you cower your head down, you see another arm next to your own under the shield. The realization hits you that the arm tangled in the straps is likely that of the previous owner of the shield. You try your best to hold your breath and not make any noise, even the slightest movement of the shield might draw more attention than you can afford at this moment. You here a flutter then a small thud, then several more, arrows, it has to be arrows, but who are they shooting at. Just a few feet away the awful drone of the man’s screams continue almost uninterrupted. He is drawing attention in your direction.

Stolen novel; please report.

Several more arrows land and there is a crack as one of the arrows impacts the shield you hold over yourself. Did they spot you? Was it an errant shot?

The screams of your living companion are interrupted for a moment by the sickening wet sound of arrows entering flesh, it stops him, if only for a second before the incessant screaming starts up again. Then there are two more thuds as more arrows impact the shield, then after another second another volley of arrows lands. Now there is silence, all that you can hear is your own breathing and the sound of fire crackling as it burns and the faintest whisper of some orc grunts, from above you. You hold tight to the shield, still muttering silently to yourself.

One second passes then another, then another, and several more. No more arrows.

You can hear some shouts from above and then after a few more seconds only silence, its now just you and the roaring fire surrounding you. The heat of it has you sweating, and every bit of exposed flesh is screams out for relief from the heat. Each breath is a struggle as smoke chokes and burns, you try your best to breath slowly to you don’t cough or sputter. You can start to see wisps of smoke coming off the wood of the shield that you are holding over you. You can’t be sure how much longer before it too, like everything else around you erupts in flame. So the question becomes, do you move, do you try to find another place to hide or a way to escape and risk being spotted or do you continue to hide and hope that you don’t go up in flames while hiding. Maybe something in between, you peak out over the top of the shield and try to gather as much information about what is around you while fighting off the pain that exposing yourself directly to the flame causes. Bodies, bodies everywhere, burning, the smell hits you, you try not to vomit. The brightness of the surrounding flames dulls your eyes to anything that might be beyond it. You don’t see anyone up at the rim of the pit, but just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there ready to fill you with arrows. You duck your head back down behind the shield. You shake and use one hand to free your helmet from your head some of the pieces of it were starting to feel like red metal tongs burning into you. The world seems to shift and blur, and everything seems to go out of focus, you can still feel your limbs but its like the whole world has gone dark, you are still breathing, that you are sure of, the burning aching sensation of every breath reminds you of that. You struggle to get your eyes to open again.

You wake.