After the fall

Chapter 3

The gnome's eyes expanded and looked crazed, as if it had spotted a new plaything, a new prey. Lapisa suddenly felt very uncomfortable and slowly started to stand up on shaky legs, her sudden movement caused the gnome to let out a loud screech and the bushes the gnome came from started rustling again. Within short a whole group of crazed gnomes stumbled out of the bushes, all with different garden tools and all of them were eagle-eyeing Lapisa as if she was the most interesting thing in the world. In a state of unease and panic she sprinted on her unsteady legs across the clearing away from the gnomes. She dared not look behind her because she knew they were tight on her tail and kept her eyes forward. When she made her way closer to the trees she stumbled on a stray root that poked out of the ground and fell face first onto the ground. She groaned as her whole body ached and all of a sudden she felt tiny, hard feet jump onto her back and a high-pitched laughter was heard right by her ear. Terrified, she quickly got on her feet and reached behind her to grab onto the gnome and slung it towards the group of gnomes knocking them to the ground. Lapisa turned from the lump of fallen over gnomes as she started sprinting again towards the dense woods.

When she was almost by the edge of the clearing she suddenly felt a piercing pain spread around her shoulder. When Lapisa looked at her shoulder she saw a sickle sticking out of her shoulder. A yelp clawed its way out of her throat as the pain spread to her whole body and blood started seeping out of the wound, painting her shoulder red. She heard a loud screech behind her and saw multiple gnomes on their feet staring at her, rage showing through their eyes. They clearly did not appreciate being treated like bowling pins. In her panicked state, Lapisa took hold of the sickle and tore it out of her shoulder and threw it back at the gnomes without aiming for something specific. The adrenaline pumping through her lessened the pain a bit but it still hurt like a bitch. Lapisa began running again, this time clumsily jumping over a fallen log as she finally broke through the trees and into the woods. Her surroundings were dark, devoid of the little light she got from the moon as she stumbled through the trees to try and get away from the gnomes. Sprinting through the trees in darkness was quite difficult with Lapisa more often than not running straight into low hanging leaves and smacking them into her face as well as slamming her shoulders against trees to try and get past them to create a bigger distance between her and the gnomes.

The sound of the gnomes grew distant over time and the adrenaline slowly began fading. Lapisa began feeling lightheaded and slowed down her sprinting to a jog and continued jogging until she believed the gnomes had lost their interest in her and stopped the chase.

Making it to a small clearing, Lapisa searched for a log or a tree stump to sit down on. In a short amount of time she spotted a log and took a seat in her exhaustion as her mind was spinning as well as feeling lightheaded. The symptoms she thought she had because of the wild chase and exhaustion. Slowly but surely she remembered she got injured during the chase and that she probably should take care of the wound before it placed her in a difficult situation. She reached behind her with her hand and pressed onto her shoulder and felt a stinging sensation spread through her. As she pulled her hand away from her shoulder she put it under the tiny bit of light shining through the treetops and saw her hand covered in warm and wet blood, lots of it. Panicked, she tried to think of a way to stop the bleeding before she lost too much and in a haste ripped off a long piece of fabric from her shirt and did an amateur job at wrapping her shoulder. Feeling a little bit better she felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her and her eyes felt heavy. Moving from sitting on the log she sat on the ground while leaning on it and rested her head against the log and took a deep breath. A train of thoughts made its way around her head trying to make sense of what was going on.

Why was she still alive?

How did she get here?

What was she supposed to do now?

As more and more thoughts made its way into her head she closed her eyes and felt every ache in her bones and the weight of everything fell on her. Slowly she started losing consciousness to the sound of gentle wind and the smell of grass and trees until everything faded to black.

With a hazy mind, Lapisa slowly regained consciousness and was blinded by bright light that seeped through the trees and landed straight onto her face. Her whole body ached as she moved from her position against the log and sat up straight. She was in dire need of water because her throat was sore and she was severely dehydrated. Despite her body protesting she got up on her feet to at least try and find proper shelter where she can clean up and get some food in her stomach. Lapisa, not knowing where she was, began walking in a random direction while steering clear of the way she came from. When she was wandering aimlessly in the woods she took notice of how many trees stood bare, with no leaves to speak of, and how the ground was not only covered in grass but also a lot of mud as well as fallen branches. The forest didn't look entirely healthy, it actually looked quite sad and abandoned. The further she walked, well more like stumbled, the darker her surroundings became until finally she saw what looked like the edge of the forest.

Lapsia was sick of only seeing tree after tree for who knows how long and desperately began speeding up to get out of the gloomy forest, to finally take a look at the sun as it hung high in the sky. When she broke through the trees she didn't know what she expected to find but what she didn't expect was to lay her eyes on a barren field that looked to go on for mile after mile. The ground looked like it had been trampled to death with no sign of green grass and some places looked like it had been hit with fire, a blackened patch on the ground. As Lapisa walked further into the clearing she spotted something gleaming on the ground and upon further inspection she came to realize it was a helmet made out of metal that was reflecting the sun off of it. She reached out her hand to grab it and took a closer look at it. Some of its corners were rusty and it was scratched all over, indicating that it has been laying around for a while now. Lapisa looked up from the helmet and scanned  the rest of the area only to realize the helmet wasn't the only piece laying scattered around on the ground. Swords, bows and arrows, chest plates, chainmail and so on were littering the ground which gave the picture of a barren battlefield. In her confused state, Lapisa looked towards the edges of the field and saw a shadow moving swiftly between the trees with well navigated steps. Taking a few steps in the direction the shadowed figure was located, Lapisa with her hoarse voice called out in hopes of finding out where she was.

"Excuse me!"

The figure continued on its way as if they didn't hear her desperate call. By the time she was gonna call out again the figure disappeared between the trees and left the space empty of any other individual. Feeling frustrated Lapisa continued further in on the barren land. Around her were the remnants of a war with fallen tents scattered about, a flag or two laying forgotten on the ground that looked to have been trampled upon during a stampede, your usual weapon either laying on the ground or stuck to the ground. As Lapisa walked the wind suddenly picked up blowing through the thin clothes she had on, causing her to shiver and rub her dirty hands against her arms to try and warm herself up a bit.

"Well, you look like shit." A  man's voice suddenly said to the side of her.