Chapter Text
One hand clenched to his side, and small hisses escaping through his gritted teeth, a young man, maybe in his 20’s, maybe not even that, stumbled through the forest.
His free hand gripped the trees he passed by, leaving bloody handprints, and a trail to follow, along his way. Each stepped only furthered his pain, shooting from his hip down to his feet before trailing in the opposite direction.
Eyes solely fixated on the path before him, the man continued on, walking as fast as he could with the injuries he faced. His feet dragged along the cobbled stone, shoes mucked up and torn from however long he had been wearing them. Maybe days, maybe hours. Time started to merge together, he found in his experience.
The pebbles and rocks that laced the track like small inconveniences, dug into the dry soil beneath, merged together in the fogged up gaze he was provided with, every step causing his combining line of sight to swirl and twist in the dark dusk light that shone through the canopy of foliage above.
Blood dripped through his hand, the one supposed to protect the brutal gash from the cruel and bitter wind that blew slowly in the air surrounding. This slash wasn’t getting better any time soon, and the more pressure he put on it, in a failed and pointless attempt to halt the bleeding in it’s tracks, only caused a pounding sensation of pure pain to shoot into his chest, momentarily debilitating him, but never fading as he eventually pushed forth.
He continued one, having a set destination that he was going to stick to, no matter how injured he was, and no matter how far he had to travel to arrive.
Stumbling towards a crossroad, the man took the left path, leaving the right for nought, his sights set on one place and one place in particular. The small switch in direction sent a pain through his body, dragging a shudder and a slight trip forward as he went, the jagged stones and pebbles pummelling through his shoes and straight to the soles of his feet.
The tree’s thickened the further he got, turning from a slight cover from the sky to the equivalent of a direct protection, though it didn’t provide any of it’s supposed shielding when rain began to tumble from the sky. It fell in large droplets, splattering onto the ground with unpleasant smacks, and coating everything beneath him in a dark layer of damp.
The shower of wet beads landed on him, forcing his clothes to stick directly to his skin, including the few strands of longer hair that managed to brush his neck, connecting them to his body as if they were coated in glue, the drops tracing their way down his spine.
The rainwater attached the blood-coated shirt to the cut, soaking in the ruby-red liquid like a sponge, absorbing more and more than he wanted it to.
Soon, continuing to stumble his way through the forest, breathing speeding up the longer he went without a moment of rest, even walking felt like a chore. His limbs hurt to move, and time seemed to be slowing down.
He hated this feeling.
It meant he was failing.
Vision blurred and steps shaky, he pushed on, discarding the silver blade that had prior been hitched on his back, somewhere into the foliage, he wasn’t fully sure, leaving him with only his dagger for protection, that being hilted on his thigh, connected by a dark-toned belt. He pressed a hand onto it, as if reassuring himself that he wasn’t fully defenceless in his times, and that he was indeed able to protect himself if he were attacked.
He trudged along, the rain pelting down on him like bullets to skin, sending chills up and down his body like a circular spiral. The path stretched out, widening as it extended into the distance, before falling into a steady width, and remaining like that until it dipped over the horizon line.
Blood pattered onto the ground as he stepped, layering the stones and dirt in a fresh coat of the bodily fluid, dripping slowly from his mouth and down his chin, then gently trickling down his neck before falling below his shirt hem. The liquid tasted metallic on his tongue, swallowing the tell-tale fluid and pushing his body to keep walking.
The trail widened out into a clearing, the rough cobbles morphing into a neat, cream brick pattern that surrounded the open space, darkened by the rain and worn by the ages, by the millions of people that had walked these roads before him. Some of the ancient tiles had been removed, shifted to other places on the paving, for reasons unknown, and the contained area looked somewhat holy.
Glancing up with cautious eyes, he spotted what required such neat and honoured arrangements.
Sat in the centre, where the organized pattern against the flooring altered into rickety looking stones, held a section of spaced out pillars, all with their own respective carvings scattered along the edges. Stone slabs rested on top of each one, remaining in their perch for however long they had been there, with nothing obvious holding them up. Stairs, made from similar flat, natural pieces, led up to what appeared to be the main area, though there were clear indents in each one from years of usage, forcing a manmade dip in the middle of every one.
It flattened out at the top of the steps into a large, outstretched area, the flooring transforming into rectangular patterns made from stone, carved into their shapes by whoever had created this place. A circle remained on the floor, the centre pieces of the floor having been cut into a circular shape, creating a spiral design that led to a small, coin-sized hole.
It became ever clearer that he’d taken a wrong turn.
Forcing himself up the stairs with no less than a few groans at the pain that the aspect of moving caused, leaving a path of blood in his wake, staining the pale bricks. He made his way to the top, observing the view that surrounded him.
Rivets ran up each pillar in evenly spaced intervals, lining up almost perfectly with each other, but having enough room in between to make an obvious section between each one. The further he looked, the more visual it became that these pillars weren’t made from one, long piece of stone, but instead made from numerous, smaller, squished cylindrical shapes stacked on top of one another, making the sight all the more magnificent.
Exhaustion ran through his veins, hands drenched in blood, and a pool of the liquid forming beneath him like he was some grotesque corpse. His eyes fogged over, further than they ever had before, and the vision that filled his peripheral turned white, spreading into the rest of the sight that remained.
The last thing that raced into his mind was the impact as he hit the floor, the appendage prior holding the dripping wound falling from it, landing beneath his stomach. The other fell out in front of him, halting straight forward parallel to the rest of his drained body.
His knees hit first, sending a sickening shoot up his spine, before collapsing completely on the ground, eyesight fading from that blinding white to a sickening black.
And then, there was nothing.
Just nothing.
“Well, would you look at that.”
…
A hand fell around his own, cold, sharp and bony. It remained there for a moment, it’s grip tightening gently around his palm, no doubt entirely stained with the blood of his fatal wound.
The sensation filled his body, that cool, calming sensation that he had felt prior around his hand.
“Shh, now.”
The world fell black one more, the disembodied voice being the last thing his senses dared register, before everything faded out into nothing.
“I will protect you.”