The blackness snapped away as Mikayla abruptly came to. The feeling of fainting had been odd-- it was almost like her mind had a secret pause button that could only be activated in a certain way. Recalling the way circumstances in which she had been knocked unconscious, she felt her pulse quickly beginning to rise and her breathing deepen.

Where am I now? Wanting to prolong the silence, to allow herself time to think before these horrific events continued, she squeezed her eyes shut, going against her curiosity. Those men...

Picturing them in her head, she was struck by how tall she remembered them being. Yes, she wasn't particularly tall herself (in fact, she was quite often the shortest person in the room, although she wasn't keen to admit it), so most people were indeed a little above her height, yet those men... they were probably the tallest people she had ever seen.

Faukaran. The word rang in her head, as if she was supposed to understand it, to recognize it, yet she couldn't. It had an air of familiarity about it, almost as if she knew it in a past life, had even said it before-- faukaran. It felt oddly natural in her mind.

If she did believe in past lives, Mikayla would certainly have thought that she had been living among the trees, saying strange words and being an expert on different types of wood, but she didn't. Although, saying that, she also didn't believe in strange men who tapped staffs and caused people to go unconscious without touching them, yet she was certain that had happened.

And the vines-- had one of the men been controlling them? It seemed unfathomable, but Mikayla just couldn't think of any other explanation.

I'm going insane.

With that final thought, she opened her eyes to bear the world around her.

Next update: Monday 16th April 2018