Eternity's Bane

I

The glowing sun hits my skin. I am alive.

But how?

I feel the emerald grass around me.

How is it possible?

Not even hours ago, I was fighting for my life. And I lost. Or, at least I thought I'd lost. I rouse from the ground and looked around.

By Maara! How did this happen?.

It feels like more than only a few hours. It feels like decades and centuries. Maybe even millenniums. I remember fighting in a desert. But around me stood, tall and proud..Trees?

I am in forest?

That doesn't make sense. At all. Maybe, someone threw a grave spell for the forest to appear? That was possible. I tried to look around for Florenia's corpse. But nothing. Then, I saw something strange at the base of one of those trees. It did look like a body. But it was incorporated in the tree itself.

How?

 An idea rushed through my head.

No..It can't be..

So all of the brave knights I had fought beside were dead. And they had turned into trees. Though their memories would have to fade, the trees would help me remember them. Standing proud and tall. And beautiful. But a question still remained.

Since how long was I there?

I didn't know. I really had no way of answering about that particular question. I closed my eyes to try and approximate it. As I did so, my mind recalled the battle. Day by day. Hour by hour. Minutes by minutes. Seconds by seconds. In the middle of an arid desert, we stood. Two armies. One dressed in rusty metal and looking like a militia. I mean, that's what we were. Just a couple thousands citizen and rebels who stood in front of an imperial army. Millions of armed and trained soldiers. And we had to fight them. We were dying and loosing. Or wining and living. Not both. And we'd lost and died. Every single of our warriors had became some kind of blood-thirsty creatures. We were throwing ourselves in this hell. Running into the smoke, knowing damn well the fire's near. But it was our liberty, our families, our lives we were putting on the table. In this exact moment, we all felt invincible. And it all felt great. You'll rarely be feeling like you are on the top of the world and that nothing could stop you in life. But we did. And I guess that is why we all ran to our death like blind hounds running toward the scent of meat. I slowly roused from my seat in the grass. I gazed around me. I was in a jungle. Nothing made sense in my head. If someone had thrown a grave spell, it must've been an extremely powerful magician. Because the jungle seemed to be immense. Usually, forest grave spells covered only a few kilometers of ground. But I couldn't see the end. I started to walk toward the trees. Once I reached where Florenia's dead body should have lied, I grazed my fingers on the rind. My fingertips caressed to the wood. But nothing. Me being an heir of a magicians' family, I could sense magic where it was. But nothing happened when I touched the tree.

Nothing.

Tears welled up in my eyes. If no traces of magic could be found, that meant I had no chances of bringing them back. Before I started bawling my eyes out, I walked away.

I should explore this place.

And so, I started walking in the direction of the Sun. After what felt like hours of desperately wandering in between the trees, I heard a voice. More like voices. There were people.

Finally.

A hope. My only hope.

-Hey, anybody here?!'' I yelled. The voices stopped in the distance. I swallowed a lump in my throat. I waited for an answer, hoping it wasn't just in my head that the voices were.

-My name's Samiaa. I am lost. Do you hear me?'' I yelled again, a little louder this time. Then, almost inaudible whispers were heard before I got an answer.

-Over here!'' Yelled back a rather masculine voice. I looked around and saw a figure moving. I started running towards it. The closer I got, the clearer I saw. It was two young men with bows and arrows in their hands waving at me. Once I reached them, I collapsed on my knees, breathless. One knelt beside me as the other stayed standing, distrust evident on his face. I probably looked exhausted and like I had fought for hours. I mean, I just had. The one who was kneeling fumbled through a bag before pulling out a metal flask and handing it to me.

-Here. It's water.'' I almost rip it out of his hands while muttering a shy 'Thank you.' Now that I had moved, all of the uncomfortable sensations that came after a fight came back. Pain, hunger, thirst. As I handed the flask back to its owner, I felt something fall on my thigh. Looking down, I noticed a large rip across the fabric of my pants. A drop of blood followed the first one. A violent pain spread from my left cheek. The wails of pain that escaped me came with the warm flow of blood rolling down my face.

Both of the men stared at me in horror before one of them reacted, the one kneeling down pulled out a small, dagger like knife.

That was worth it, asking for help only to get killed.