They walked onto the third path, and dark shapes passed by them. Movement in the thrush from unknown animals. His ear's perked, and a scent wafted into his nose. A rotten smell permeated the air. David wrinkled his nose. Rot and death, like plague bodies. The forest centered upon them, closing off exits. His eyes straightened to the path's front. There lay a dead sheep. Lacerations covered its head, and flies crowded around its stomach. Crimson stained it's fleece, and gentle feet collapsed underneath flesh. Mud had dirtied its mane.
Darrell put a toe forward, but took it back. David squinted, but all he saw was a haze of flies. Then the haze glowed red, and his vision filled with orange.
It grew from his mind, blurs and streaks, then buzzing in his ear. A high-pitched noise that reverberated through his ears. He held his hands tight against his ears, and shook his head, trying to get it away. But, the noise continued.
Then, it faded away, and the colors ran from his eyes. The night covered what he could see, but the clouds moved a little, and moonlight streamed through. When he looked up, he saw the silhouettes of soldiers. All carrying bronze swords and wearing bronze helmets, with symbols carved on each one. A red ear, red eyes, and a snake crossing all of them, carved in lines on the helmet. They stood behind the dead sheep. None of them spoke, and neither did the soldiers.
A tall one stepped forward, but didn't speak. Darrell shrunk back, and hid himself from their eyes. David stepped forward, he tried to meet with them eye to eye.
"....", David exhaled, "Can you move... across... away... maybe from each other... space out.... We need to pass."
They advanced forward with swords raised and helmets gleaming. None heard him, and he tried again.
"Can you part away from each other? We need to pass...", David's words grew slurred and rapid.
Bernard tried to step past them, but they blocked his way. He ran back and threw pebbles at them. The rocks bounced off their helmets, and away.
"Stop! Bernard, stop!" David grabbed Bernard's arms and pulled him away. "Stop it, Bernard, stop it... "
He pushed Bernard away, but something behind him.... He turned and felt streams pour from his ear and a bronze sword lift itself up. His head whirled, and the soldier who'd hit him stared with nothing in his eyes. A dutiful look, a look of absolute command, and none else. He tried, but stumbled backwards. The forest reeled, his vision spun, and his hands tried to grab and hold.
He heard Osmond's feet pound away as Osmond ran. Darrell pulled bronze out, and stabbed the front soldier, again and again, slice and cut, stabbing again and again until he gasped. Then, Darrell ran into the trees and faded into them.
He dragged Bernard behind him, who'd collapsed on a hit, and dragged him away into the forest, colliding with the trees and spinning with the leaves. The soldiers ran to them, marching their way forward, cutting paths into the forest. Charging without words, but duty, with automatic movements.
David yelled for Darrell and Osmond, he tried to yell for the others. But the thick forest drowned out the noise. The only sounds he heard were the same steps moving towards him.
His feet pounded in dead leaves, and sometimes almost stuck there, but he pulled them out. He shivered while he ran.
Wind blasted into him and pushed him back to the soldiers, but his legs sprinted and he passed cliffs, hills, and a lake. The sound of pounding feet and eternal chanting faded with distance. When he ran and ran further, there was nothing.
But, eventually, no sound, and no soldiers. Only him and Bernard.
Osmond and Darrell were gone. If they were dead. If they were lost...
He dropped Bernard onto the mud.
"Stay here, I'll come back later...", he ran back and to Osmond and Darrell.
The trees went past him, and his legs spun around them. He yelled for Osmond and Darrell, but it echoed back to him, mocking him. When he stopped running, he rested at a stream and sat under the red moon.
He straightened, hearing footsteps, crowding, all around. He jumped into the mud, and he sank into it. Bending to hide himself, then quieting his breathing. He hid his head under a thick clump and blended into the river. Mud gurgled, and soldiers surrounded the stream.
He closed his eyes, and soldiers crowded around him. A streak of air, a needle of wind, an arrow, flew past him. Then, someone stepped over him. They sat around him, rubbing their hands, not talking, silent. Staring at him, but not waiting. His heartbeat quickened, and mud seeped into his nostrils and ears.
Warmth covered him, and leaves rained down upon him. Pebbles ran past, and then one stung him. He bit his tongue, and clenched his teeth. Nothing.... Nothing.... Footsteps fading away, then rest.....
Light filled his vision.
The Prophet stood as high as the mountain, looking upon them, then tossing the soldiers away. But, they continued, flooding the forest in a fleshy mass. The soldiers writhed past one another in infinitely expanding crowds. Trees bent under his feet, and the Prophet cast magic upon them, leaving smoking remnants. He smiled and waved at the Prophet. Then the Prophet lumbered and left footsteps bigger than houses. The Prophet climbed to the mountain. With it, the Prophet split apart into three shapes, then white, dancing across his vision, spots of light, splotches of red, blue, and gold. Then, his eyes fluttered open.
He woke up.
He lay on his side, away from the mud, and Darrell shivered and sat near him. A bloody sword lay between them. He patted himself free of dust, and stood up.
"Anything to eat?", Darrell grumbled and shivered. "A cold, cold morning. Cold, cold, cold, too cold."
"What?"
"I said, have you got anything to eat?"
"No. Wait... Yes, I mean, yes. Yes, I do have something."
"Great, give me some."
"Wait... Wait, first we must set off to find Osmond and Bernard. I left him in the forest, but we'll find them... We'll find them..."
"Give me some."
"Later... Later... Wait until we reach them. "C'mon, stand up, face forward, and walk", David stood up.
"What about food?"
"C'mon, follow me."
"I will, I will, but I'm hungry, give me the food."
"Fine, here, have some," David tossed him a loaf, cracked and soggy, mud stained. But Darrell ate with relish, tearing apart the crust, then chewing.
Paths ran past them, and they walked for a day. They passed the road. In the afternoon, they found footprints, intertwining, going twice, and they followed them. Sometimes, their lungs would dry and they would feast and drink. Then, their feet stepped forward, and they moved into the forest. No birds, no animals, nothing. Silence emptied all life, all semblance of reality, from them. He walked under the silent sky and the silent world. He trudged through leaves, and then a clearing, and a cliff.
David yelled for Bernard and Osmond. The names echoed through the cliff, then reached an endpoint. Then, a reply.
"Hello?", it rustled the trees, and pebbles flew down the cliff sides.
"Bernard, wait! Wait there!" David saw them, two shapes, miniscule against the cliff. They waved and yelled. Darrell and David ran down the steep slopes, then to Bernard. Bernard stood near Osmond, who lay with an arrow in his foot.
"Poor, poor Osmond. Hurts like Abysian flames, does it?"
"Even worse", Osmond flinched and closed his eyes. He opened once again, but flinched, "Much, much, worse!"
David sat there in the silence of the forest as Bernard wrapped a bandage around Osmond's leg. Darrell stood there, disgusted and disapproving of the images before him. .
Their luck had disappeared. David looked down, frowning at the sight. Nothing stopped the chaos ahead. They'd survived by chance, and then the Abyss... The Abyss... The Abyss...
The fiery pits that spewed magma upon the earth!... The quivering of Wailen and the world... The Abyss...... He didn't know why... He didn't know why... All he wanted was to meet the Prophet... To see the robed figure high above, to finish his journey at last... But not now... Because of the Abyss, and now, he faced death doing so...
Death... Death... With the darkness covering them all, watching their every step... He could fly away from it all... Turn away from death... Turn away from mortality... Find a way to survive in this world that he lived in...
He tried, but chaos stood everywhere... He wished for everyone to live in the world forever... He wished for eternity. He wished for the absence of time. But Death faced him with a bronze sword in hand... Destroying all things... Destroying and leaving mounds of bodies... The Plague.... Those bodies, dumped without honor, and put into disarray...
The caged birds twittered around, waking him from his thoughts.
"Can you shut those birds up!", Darrell yelled.
"Sorry... Sorry... ", Osmond said, then clenched his teeth.
"Wait, wait.... I've got some wine... Helps with pain, have some", Bernard pulled it out, and poured it onto Osmond's lips, "Relax... Relax yourself... Relax yourself..."
"Yes... Better now... That arrow... Pull it out.... Please pull it out...", Osmond nearly flinched, but restrained himself, then slowed his breathing. "That's fine... That's fine... I feel better... No pain.... Look at that wound... No pain..."
"Rest now.... Rest now...", Bernard set the bottle near him. Then faced David.
"Well, you set me down, and here we are...."
"But, it seems as though we can't journey any further. With Osmond's foot, we'll camp." David nodded.
"Early?", Darrell blinked.
"Early, we can't hurry for today. But tomorrow, we'll make extra progress." Bernard closed his pack.
"Away from the Abysian's. You saw them, along with Darrell. The sigil of the Nalrath...", David nodded.
Darrell turned to David rapidly.
"The Nalrath? The tablet? Then, we're-", Darrell turned back and faced the forest, "-I'm going back. Let's go! Denton's dead, everyone's dead... We're all alone... C'mon! Let's go!"
Darrell attempted to drag Bernard, then Osmond, then David, but he failed. His arms fell to his sides, and he looked away.
"Then no one? Then no one...", Darrell walked to the forest, "Goodbye..."
"Darrell, Darrell!", Bernard ran to Darrell, "Darrell. Have you lost your mind?! The Prophet stands ahead. I can see him now, with light glowing upon us... Do you see him? Do you see him?"
"Hogwash", Darrell spat, "I'm going back. I can see home now... I can see home now!... Goodbye, Bernard..."
Darrell walked into the forest until he was swallowed by green. Bernard turned away and sat down in the dust.
"He'll come back...", Bernard said, "He's too afraid to go by himself."
"Let's set up -Ow...", David touched his ear, pain appeared, and faded away soon afterward.
"What?", Bernard faced David.
"Just my ear..."
"Your ear! I didn't notice that. Let me heal it up...", Bernard looked into his bag...
In the afternoon, they set up tents and a fire. Smoke rose in the air, and fragments of leaves floated along with the smog. They recooked the bread until it cracked. Bernard replaced breaking logs with twigs while David ate their food. The wind carried it's smell through the air and flies flew to it until a thick haze floated in the air.
With this, Darrell stumbled back to them with dirt clinging to his knees. He scooched near the fire, and warmed himself in its flame.
"So, did you reach it?", David asked.
"Why didn't you come with me?!", Darrell shivered, "By the Prophet, it was cold and nobody there... "
Darrell blew at the flames, and shivered some more.
"You went back then?"
"Those soldiers, remember them. I encountered them, horrible, horrible things. I didn't remember, so I went back."
"What soldiers?", Bernard faced them.
"Dropped swords, similar things...", David replied.
"Right... Right...", Bernard fanned the smoke away from him while coughing.
They waited silently as the moon shone itself and the sky glowed a slight red. Smoke glowed as it reached the clouds, but faded away. David saw smog swirl in the air, and he lay back on the ground, touching the grass.
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