Chapter 4 – Light is fading.
A few days have passed since I found the girl, troubles never cease, she appears to have lived in a village stationed next to the forest I discovered her in, it appears bandits had raided to steal the family heirloom, as far as I can tell.
She hasn’t said much since, the first couple of days she obediently followed while looking solemn, she used to cry through the day, now she appears to only shed tears at night, it’s bothersome really, the sound draws those monsters nearer and I already have my own problems dealing with my own shadow.
Nora seemed to maintain a solid animosity towards me, I called her that after her original name began with the same letter and due to its utterly ridiculous pronunciation I decided to give her my own name, I don’t have time to learn the language, I need to return home, wherever that is, although the language barrier has been troublesome.
This evening we were camping in the trunk of an overgrown hollowed oak tree in the north of the forest, Nora’s village was situated further south east from our current location. I’d been out killing the standard game, which mainly included strange bipedal bird like creatures with beaks flooded with pearly sharp fangs across its diameter, strangely they have a slightly elongated neck and clawed feet, making it a cinch to snap the necks and prepare them for cooking.
As I finished cooking I handed one of the wings to Nora, who simply picked it from my hand while maintaining her gaze on the floor below and raised it to her mouth to take a bite. Lately she ad been eating, I’m not too interested in her mental state if she doesn’t die or pass out then she can do whatever she pleases. The past few days I had been trying to pry information of the gem from the girl, she didn’t show any response and so I gave up on the notion, that damn shadow does as he pleases anyway.
Today however, I figured simply easting when asked wasn’t going to cut it, not here.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Nora, I’m not bringing you anything tomorrow, you’ve cried long enough, it’s a pain in the arse feeling sad throughout the day, even I’m getting exhausted. Tomorrow, you either come along to catch your food… or you starve and die, I’ll manage the aftereffects of the gem.”
When I mentioned the name, I graced her with she seemed to twitch slightly, she then finished her meal and slid into the hides of some of the larger bird species I hunted earlier for makeshift beds.
That night was worse than most, I hate the nights, darkness always dulls the senses and allows you to dwell on needless things, when you close your eyes you give yourself to the mercy of your dreams, mine were never pleasant, today I remembered my sister, that smile on her face before my world went dark, the day everything was grasped beneath me and tugged to create chaos, like some old rug. My vision drifted to the time where I awoke in some strange land, Rex was with me then, apparently, he had caught up and saw me being enveloped by a strange shadow in my sisters room, which ended up transporting us both to this land.
At first, we got freaked out, naturally, we went to some villages and couldn’t understand a word anybody said, nobody seemed to welcome us and shunned us, we were thrown to the mercy of nature.
In this world, darkness lives, it isn’t a concept of a lack of light that can be relinquished with a torch or a fire, it moves, absorbs and gives birth to horrors. We trudged through and I used my combat training to hunt wildlife, whereas Rex was mostly useless until his 18th birthday, his flame was born then, I remember. Rex was ecstatic, grandeur about extinguishing the darkness with his flames, it was such a simple thing… a few weeks after his awakening, I was returning from a hunting trip, we were heading towards the sun to maintain some direction while searching for the means to return.
Most nights then I would think back to the shadow of that night, of that cat I saw that melded, it couldn’t be a coincidence that darkness is so unique in this world. After I returned from hunting, I had seen some creatures, faces shrouded in shadow, or rather the shadows face itself, Rex was sprawled out, dismembered, his lower torso missing, and a leg was being tossed between the two faces, slowly being consumed. His hand was charred from fire magic and she expression showed utter despair. That was the first time I met my shadow, I wanted to run at those faces and reclaim my friend, I wanted to grab the remnants of his fire and destroy those that destroyed me, however I couldn’t move at that time, just watch as he was slowly consumed, I couldn’t even scream, eventually they left and nothing of my friend remained, only my image of his expression.