The rising sun sent a hazy orange glow through the dying trees. The light reflected off the fallen leaves that covered the forest floor like a brown and orange carpet. The occasional cloud covered up the bright orb in the sky, sending the forest into semi-darkness. With the clouds gone the shadows stretched like monsters looming over their prey.

It was the light that woke Eli from his fitful sleep, the rays shining on half his face and in one eye. He groaned, trying to twist away from it, forgetting where he was. He flailed his arms about when he realised there was nothing under one of his legs, feeling for anything to grab a hold of so he didn't fall from the tree.

He braced a palm on the trunk, using it to push himself back into a sitting position on the branch of the tree. He was surprised he hadn't fallen from it in his sleep, it wasn't exactly wide enough to hold him. He groaned again as he looked around, both in pain and fear. He had been hoping it was all a dream and he would wake up back in his bed at home. That obviously wasn't the case.

He hadn't slept well, probably the worst he'd had in his life, and he was not one for exaggeration. Every time he closed his eyes he was haunted by images of the two men who attacked him, of them catching him. Images of him not escaping his room like he had, of being stabbed and cut and having limbs sliced off easily like a knife through butter. And always in the background was that face, his face, staring at him with that shark-like grin as he bled.

Eli shivered, cold despite the warm morning light, wrapping his arms around himself. He hissed as his injured hand brushed against the fabric of his jacket. He had completely forgotten about the deep cut. Looking at it, he couldn't tell if it was worse than it had been the night before. There was still a lot of blood and dirt on his hand, but when he gently brushed it away he could see the redness surrounding the wound.

Not knowing what that meant, but knowing that it couldn't be good, Eli climbed gently down from the tree, wary of his arm and opposite hand. He would have to find someone who could help him fix his hand and help him get home.

He trudged slowly through the woods, kicking up fallen leaves and sticks. While to most it might seem a little brighter and less dangerous, Eli was even more terrified than he had been the night before.

It was his first chance to actually see where he had ended up, and it wasn't pretty.

He had never seen a forest as dead as the one he was in now. Barely any of the trees held leaves, most being on the forest floor, crumpled and brown. His first instinct was to make the excuse that it was autumn wherever he was, but looking at the trees themselves told him otherwise. They looked like shrivelled husks, like they had been burned, but not the white-grey colour of burnt tree he was used to seeing. No, these were completely black, as if the life had been sucked out of them.

It made him uneasy, a heavy feeling sitting in his stomach that made him nauseous. The pitch black branches of the trees he passed reached out like skeletons begging for help. He shivered again, more from fear and uneasiness than the cold.

The thin skeleton-like trees certainly wouldn't provide sufficient cover if he were to run into the two men again. It was something he doubted, as it had been a few hours since he first climbed the semi-healthy tree to safety, but he couldn't be completely sure. They could have been wandering the woods all night in search of him. He could walk right into them any minute.

His dirtied grey sneakers caught on a root, making him stumble and nearly collide with a tree. His legs were weak, arms shaking, stomach rumbling and head pounding. He needed to find people, and quickly. Although looking at his whereabouts it didn't seem like that would happen any time soon. No one could live in a place as lifeless as these woods.

He wandered for many hours, trying to ignore the pain and the hunger, never once hearing the sounds of life. No birds chirped, not animals bounded between the trees. There was nothing. The sun beat down on him relentlessly, the clouds had disappeared not long after he woke. The cool breeze from the night before had disappeared too, leaving him to overheat as he walked. He had wrapped his jacket around his waist, scared that if he dumped it, the men who attacked him would find it.

It wasn't until the sun was starting to dip towards the west that the trees started to thin out, that the leaves started to become just that little bit greener. Most had still fallen, but the edge of the woods looked a lot healthier than the rest.

It ended on a hill covered in dying grass, the blades crunching under his aching feet. He stopped to catch his breath, looking out from the top of the hill. Knolls and hills stretched out as far as he could see, the occasional lifeless tree dotted about haphazardly. Most of it was the same familiar brown he had seen the whole day, but the further from the forest it got, the greener it became until the horizon was a pale green mixed with the bright blue of the sky.

As he watched, a bird glided across the top of a faraway hill, the first living thing Eli had seen since he arrived in the forest. A faint squawk reached his ears as the bird flew down a hill and disappeared.

Eli took off down the hill before he even realised he was doing it, his legs shaking and aching so much that he nearly tripped. If he went in the same direction as the bird, he might find someone to help him get home. It was a long shot, but it might just work. It would be a lengthy walk, and he was exhausted, but part of him knew he would make it.

Climbing the hills was the hardest part, his legs shaking with the effort, but soon enough the forest was a thin line in the distance. The sun was quickly falling in the sky, and he knew if he didn't move faster soon enough he wouldn't have any light to see where he was going.

Coming over the crest of yet another hill, throat sore from breathing so harshly, he caught sight of something that would have made him cheer if didn't hurt so much to breathe. A dirt road, winding around the hills like a river, leading off into what he thought was the same direction as the bird.

A quick bound down the hill and he was soon kicking up dust as he walked. The road would have to lead somewhere; he just didn't know how long it would be until he reached that place. He just hoped it would be soon because he was sure he wouldn't last much longer.

A cloud of dust behind him and a winding road in front, Eli walked until the sky faded into the same shade of orange it had been that morning. For a while, he had seen something on the horizon that he couldn't quite make out. Hazy blobs of black and brown that grew the closer he got.

Plodding along like a sleepwalker, he didn't even realise that the blobs had grown to the size of buildings, or that he was barely two hundred metres from the town. Letting out a gruff cheer that made him sound more like he was dying than happy, he moved faster.

People wandered about the town, moving between stalls and shops built from dark wood that probably came from the woods behind him. Some towed small children along with them, others let the kids run around wild. All were wearing strange clothes he had never seen before in his life. It was like the stuff he had seen in his school history textbooks.

The men wore different coloured tunics and vests, most with belts around the waist to hold up the black or brown pants they wore. The women wore gowns and dresses that touched the dirt path they walked on. Most were of one colour, brown or green or blue. Some had sleeves of light grey, others had pale aprons down the front, nearly all of them had a grey or white bonnet to protect their heads from the beating sun.

They didn't seem to notice him at first, the boy standing on the dirt road at what looked to be the edge of the town, staring at them with wide, disbelieving eyes. Not understanding at all what he had walked into, Eli called out the nearest person desperately. No words came from his mouth, just tired groans.

Those nearby froze and stared at him, eyes like saucers. They stood like statues for all of two seconds. Just as Eli swallowed and went to say something properly a nearby woman let out a terrified scream.

That scream seemed to push the rest of them to action. They ran from him before he could even protest. The screams and wails, the most noise he had heard since he had arrived, filled the air as women and children were rushed away.

Eyes wide and mouth open, Eli moved forward, finally able to gasp out the words he needed. But the people didn't listen, only ran as fast as they could away from him as if he held some kind of disease. They yelled to each in a language he didn't understand or had ever heard before, but sounded vaguely European. Over and over again he heard something that sounded a lot like his name when there was no way it could have been.

Exhausted and sore, scared and confused, Eli wandered down the centre road of the small town as quickly as he could, watching and but unable to do anything as the people ran in fear from him. Children were picked up by terrified mothers and fathers. Women were ushered into buildings by men who looked over their shoulders as they did so. Again and again, Eli would try to speak, finding that his words went ignored and unheard by the terrified people.

He stopped, breathing in to stop himself from passing out. The remaining men took it as an advantage, circling him with makeshift weapons in shaking hands. He held up his hands in surrender, trying to tell them that he would not hurt them, that he just wanted something to eat and drink and a comfortable place to sleep.

He got through half a sentence before one of the men barked out something to the rest of them, an angry roar that had them all thrusting their spears and swords and whatever else they could get their hands on towards him. Eli shut his mouth, not wanting to anger them more, but it seemed that no matter what he did it would not work. At his silence, the men glanced at each other, identical expressions of terror and confusion on their faces. They advanced towards him, arms shaking so much that their weapons were never steady.

His mind flashing back to the night before, each weapon reminding him of the huge sword that had nearly killed him, Eli froze. He saw no way out, no way to convince them that he was of no harm.

A voice called out then, one that reminded him of his late grandfather. The circle of men stopped, all of them looking in the direction of the voice. An older man pushed his way between two men, eyes like the sky and hair and beards like salt and pepper. He talked loudly like he was addressing the whole town, waving his hands around, saying words in the unknown language the town seemed to favour.

Hesitantly they lowered their weapons, still staring at the eighteen-year-old boy in fear. The old man walked towards him slowly, hands out in some sort of reassuring gesture that did nothing to actually reassure him. He spoke even slower, still saying things that Eli didn't understand.

But there was one word that he knew was English. One word that he could hear and understand clearly, even if he didn't know what it meant to him. Reflection.