To Each Their Own, and Their Own to Each

Refuge from Refuge

A feeling of immense fear overwhelmed Tommy as he sprinted through the fields. He could feel heat burning around him as he raced past flowers that were burnt to the crisp.

His safe haven had been attacked, burned to the ground in a second by some sort of God of Fire. He choked on the smoke that enveloped him in a cocoon. He just wanted to be safe. It seemed like every time he was close to achieving sanctuary, it was taken away in some shape or form.

His man-made meadow had protected his happiness for as long as he could remember. He had built the fountains and irrigators and grown the flowers it contained with his bare hands. It meant a lot to him, but now it was all gone, turned to ash immediately. He ran past the limit of his meadow, into the forest beyond.

He'd never had to travel far from the meadow because the area he built was so extensive. He didn't know the layout of the forest or the direction he was traveling. He had to find his way farther from the meadow, though, to ensure his safety.

The marks and tattoos on his arms glowed. They signified he was a god, but all Tommy could ever think was how useless he was. He couldn't read the marks or even begin to understand them. He didn't know what power he held. Nothing ever magically helped him.

Tommy didn't even understand how he came to be. One day he just woke up and was alive. When he was "born", his body wasn't built like a baby. He was more like a 7-year-old,his body already having been developed slightly. He couldn't exactly determine his age, but he assumed he was around 16 by now, judging how his voice had deepened and he had grown over a foot in height.

Tommy was a big man though, it didn't matter if he had power or not.

Who were those people that attacked him? There had to be at least 40 that surrounded his land. There seemed to be two at the head of the pack, and many around them as they fanned out over his meadow in their attempt at taking over. They gained control instantly, his lack of power and attempts to avoid it and fight back being useless.

Never mind them currently, he had to get away. Tommy's whole body stung and ached with each bounding step he took. The forest was pretty open so he didn't have to dodge trees very often, but it still hurt to move extensively like this nonetheless. He continued on anyway, ignoring the stinging.

After running for some time, the ache of the burns and cuts he had received while trying to fight back were starting to sap his energy. Each step felt like knives, each movement took too much effort.

The ground rose to meet his face as the world went dark.

When Tommy came to, his mind felt like it was filled with cotton. His whole body hurt, and getting to his feet was a grueling challenge.

He groaned, eyes darting to the side as he tried to get a hold on his surroundings. He was unsure of which direction he had come from. Stepping away from where he was laying, he trudged on through the forest, thankful that at least the strange small army of men had not found him.

Why had they ever attacked him in the first place? Tommy hadn't been a bother to any of the animals that passed through the meadow. Most of them left the plants alone, too. He didn't know of any villages around where he had built his meadow. Most were thousands of miles off. So, how did they find him? Where did they come from?

The persistent thoughts made his head hurt. He kept making his way through the forest, grabbing his knife from the satchel he kept hooked around his waist to slice away the undergrowth when it started to thicken. At one point, it got so thick that he had to stop.

Tommy stared at the trees that surrounded the thick brush, grabbing lightly into the soft bark. He didn;t understand how he was able to hoist himself up into the tree with his injuries, but he was able to leap over the growth, landing on the ground harshly.

"Shit!" He sputtered as he doubled over from the shock of pain the landing sent through him.

Tommy frowned and continued on slowly.

Soon he stumbled upon vegetation he couldn't climb over. He could hear tumbling water beyond it and scrambled to cut through it. He hadn't realised he was so thirsty, so he hastily tried to get to the liquid he heard running beyond. He had found a few safe-to-eat plants while walking earlier, so the only problem was water. He needed to get to it quickly before he died of thirst.

When he finally hacked through the brush, what he found made him fall to his knees in awe.

A giant crater had been made, creating a cliff that looked like at least hundreds of feet of drop-off. Inside the crater was a magnificent city. The building looked like something from the future, way beyond the development of the simple towns and villages he'd seen before. Birds, or maybe even something else, were flying across the city-scape. Water fell in certain pockets off the edge of the cliff to make a moat around the crater, constantly being filtered in the city below.

Tommy struggled at the sight of it. It wasn't just some random city that he had come across. It couldn't be.

It was a city of gods.