Kass awoke with a start. She was cold, and wet, and thought that this must be the beginning of what it was to be dead. There was no pain, like most people thought it would be like when death came, but she wasn’t expecting the cold, wet, weightlessness.

A moment passed and Kass gasped for air, not noticing she had been holding her breath. Still have to breathe in the afterlife? Wait… She opened her eyes and saw a halo of light above her. It seemed to move closer to her as she watched, although very slowly. Oh I see, I’m on my way now. She closed her eyes, strangely tired from dying. Tired from dying? Ugh don’t tell me this is what it will always feel like…

Her head bumped into something then, interrupting her reverie and causing her to open her eyes again. She moved her arm naturally to balance herself and was surprised by the splash it made. Huh? Kass jolted upright in the water and found she could sit up. She looked around quickly, finding her surroundings very dark. The sunlight from above helped a little this far down, and she could at least make out the shapes of things.

How did I survive that? A brief memory flashed through her mind, legs buckling unnaturally under an enormous pressure, a wet pop, pain. Unable to understand the situation Kass began breathing heavily, on the verge of losing it. She wanted to cry but found that she couldn’t. The tears wouldn’t come. All the pain she had been in was gone, and now she was at the bottom of some cave sitting in a lake.

Something bumped against her again as she sat there and she jumped. Literally jumping back and skidding backwards onto the shore. She glanced at what had touched her and saw the limp form of the ogre she had slain. Its arm had brushed up against her as it floated there, unmoving. She couldn’t make out many details at first, but the longer she stared at it the more her eyes pieced together. She saw it then, the sword, sticking out of the chest of the monster, sunk to its hilt. She immediately went for it, not thinking of where it was or even caring, as if it was the only thing that would protect her from dying, again. Which, technically, it would be.

She waded into the shallow water of the lake and climbed onto the chest of the ogre, slightly sinking the huge body as she did so. Once up, she crawled over his grotesque form towards the blade, still tired from everything that had happened. Something she had done must have shifted the body from the bank and soon it was sinking away, with her atop it. Kass quickly snatched the blade and tried to tug it free. It was stuck fast and didn’t budge. The body of the ogre scraped against the bottom of the lake, which declined into deeper water. She stood and was up to her waist in water. Gripping the blade and planting her feet on the monster’s chest she pulled with everything she had. Still, the blade held fast.

“Argghhh!” she yelled as she pulled. In seconds, the water reached her shoulders and she began to panic. No. No no no! She wouldn’t let her lifeline go that easily. Taking a deep breath, she plunged under the dark water and used the blade to pull herself down into a deep squat. Once there she pulled again, twisting and tugging. What in the world is this thing stuck on? Come out dammit!

Just then the blade slipped free a bit, then stuck again, but her momentum broke it free again almost instantly and the blade finally was released. Now quite deep, she pushed off the body and towards the surface, blade in hand. She gasped for air as she broke through the membrane of water, coughing for a bit afterwards.

Kass hauled herself back up on the rocky shore and collapsed there, having exerted herself too much. The thoughts of what had happened and what she had just done floated around in her mind, but they were pushed away by some unseen force, replaced with fond memories of her past. She made sure she still had the blade, then drifted off into unconsciousness with a weird smile on her face.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she woke up again, but the sky above was dark, which in turn meant that Kass couldn’t see at all. Instead of standing, Kass decided it was best if she just crawled. She felt much better now, and had more than enough energy to move around. She didn’t really want to, but also wasn’t sure how good it was for her to stay in the same spot. She decided to find something she could put her back to, in case she needed to defend herself again.

It didn’t take long. After crawling through the pebbles and over a few mossy rocks, her sword scraping against the ground the whole way, she found a big rock formation and leaned her back against it. Now feeling slightly more safe she relaxed a bit. Thinking back on this later she knew that was a mistake. Relaxing allowed her to think, and thinking made her not feel relaxed anymore. Her insides felt like they were tearing her apart as she fought the emotions. Lost in a dark unknown place, alone, cold and hungry, Kass finally wept. It was a quiet cry, as she was too afraid she would attract some other evil monster that wanted to kill her.

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After awhile she calmed down enough and decided she should try and get her bearings. It’s best to at least have some sort of plan, right? I have no idea where I am, no idea how I got here....and I have no idea what to do. I have a sword though… She looked at the sword in the darkness, but she couldn’t even make out its outline. She held it in her right hand and reached out to touch it with her left. Carefully she ran a finger across the flat of the blade and down onto the hilt. She followed the weaving metal with her finger until it came to an end near the pommel. She was pretty sure that this thing had saved her life. It was the only thing that made sense, even though nothing really made sense. I know I broke at least one of my legs…

She touched both of her legs then, setting the sword to the side and running each hand down each leg. There wasn’t even a scab on her, after all that running through the forest. She knew she wasn’t dead because that made even less sense, since the ogre was dead and death didn’t feel like this. At least I don’t think it does...or should. So she was alive but had no explanation for it. She moved her thoughts along. I need to get out of here, but how? I can’t see so I have to wait for the sun to come up at least. Then I’ll maybe be able to climb out? She doubted that she would ever climb out of this place, even if she would have been a professional rock climber. She was just too far down, and the walls of this cavern bowed towards the hole, so she would basically be climbing the ceiling for forever if she even ever made it to there. Okay so I can’t climb out...maybe there is a tunnel that leads to the surface? She knew she was being optimistic, but she had to stay positive somehow.

Kass sat there for what seemed like a day, but she knew it had only been a few hours. Her mind tormented her with all sorts of thoughts, taking on a darker and darker tone the longer she sat there. She shifted and stretched occasionally, even curled up on the slightly wet floor, trying to distract herself with other things to keep her mind off the futile situation she was in. Any way she looked at it she couldn’t help but think she would be dead soon. In no way was she prepared for something like this.

Soon the circle above her began to glow with the morning sunlight. Shapes began to form around her as her eyes soaked in the small amount of light. Kass stretched out both of her legs then, having had them tight against her chest for the most part of the last few hours trying not to freeze. They were stiff and she groaned a bit, stretching her body in her usual routine before a race.

After she was done, Kass grabbed her sword and stood up. She looked around and found that she could see pretty well here. She saw the lake, which dimly reflected to sunlight above it. She saw lots of jagged rock formations throughout the cavern, both on the ground and above on the ceiling, which she guessed were stalactites or mites or something. To her right, slightly across the lake she saw the dark outline of an opening in the wall, which she really hoped meant it was a tunnel.

After surveying her surroundings Kass decided she should probably check the ‘hopefully a tunnel’ she had spotted while she had daylight. She picked her way across the rough landscape and after ten minutes and a short swim later she made it. It was indeed a tunnel, but of course she couldn’t see more than a few feet into it because of the poor light. She shied away from the utter darkness and moved back down towards the lake.

Unsure what to do now and feeling slightly discouraged she sat down again, back against a large stalag-something. Only now did she realize what she was wearing. She had on her short running shorts and a tight running t-shirt that she liked because it wicked away sweat. She had her trusty running shoes on thankfully. Otherwise that run through the forest would have gone much differently had she been barefoot. Both her shirt and shorts seems to have held up pretty well, though she could see some holes in the side of her shirt and felt at the ones on her back. Just another confirmation I should be hurt…

Kass picked the blade up from the ground next to her and looked at it in the light. It was still so beautiful to her, especially the hilt with its intricate design. I lost the holder for it...the..the scabbard. I didn’t even think about holding onto it at the time… Maybe it is around here somewhere? She glanced around but didn’t see anything, which didn’t surprise her. Looking back at the weapon her eyes suddenly flashed causing her to blink. Opening them again she saw a faint inscription on the flat of the blade. Looking closer she realized the inscription was glowing a dark orange, instead of reflecting light. Amazed by this she tried to read what it said as the light began to thicken on the blade.

Whisper. The Silent Blade.

Woah… Kass was frozen there, looking at the words. For starters, she could read it, and then, it was glowing. She doubted it was glowing from a battery either. The glow felt more as though it were alive, fading in and out like breathing.

A sudden shriek from the other end of the cavern snapped her attention away from the magical blade. There, across the way, a large cat-like animal had pounced on another type of creature. The cat was easily eight feet long and four tall. It thick legs ended in what looked like sharp claws, and it had a long tail that Kass was pretty sure had spikes on the end of it. Its prey was still screaming as the cat bit into it with its large maw, sharp teeth digging in deep and silencing the screams.

Kass watched in horror and suddenly wished the ogre had come back alive to chase her. At least that way everything else seemed to stay out of the way. She heard a sickening crunch and then flinched as the beast looked up at her, and she knew it could see her there, across the way. Ah shit, not again… She turned tail and sprinted towards the dark tunnel behind her.