Echoes of Forgotten

Memories And Guilt

A figure of an unknown blonde woman appeared before him as she woke him up, calling him by a name he couldn’t recognize. To him, it sounded like gibberish, but he responded to her anyway.

"Rise and shine, your breakfast is ready," the woman said, kissing him on the cheek. The man placed his hand on her face and asked with a smile, looking at her blurred figure, "Are you an angel?"

The woman chuckled and replied, "No, silly. I’m just your regular wife," holding his hand gently.

"So, you’re my wife?" the man asked, still unsure.

"Your one and only," she answered with a warm smile.

The man closed his eyes and reached out to kiss her forehead, but as soon as he opened his eyes, the scene shifted. Their peaceful bedroom was gone, replaced by the chaos of a battlefield. He was still holding his wife, but now she lay in his arms, bleeding. The sounds of swords clashing, screams of pain, and dying cries echoed all around them. The man looked down at his wife, who had an arrow lodged in her chest and a deep wound on her side.

"Hey, stay with me. You’ll be fine," he said desperately, carving a symbol on his hand with his blade. The symbol began to glow as he placed his hand over her wounds, trying to heal her. But the light faded. He looked at his hand, noticing that his own wound had healed instead. His blood, darker than usual, was poisoned—he remembered the arrow that had struck him earlier.

"No... no... no!" the man cried in frustration and grief. He realized that the spell had only healed him, and he could cast it only once. His tears began to flow as he held his wife tighter. "I’ll try again, I can do it again!" he sobbed.

His wife wiped the tears from his face. "Hey... I thought of a good name for our child," she said softly, her voice weak but calm.

The man continued to cry, listening to her last words. "It’s a combination of our names," she said. "It will be..."the sounds of the battlefield faded, and time seemed to slow. A familiar name echoed in his mind.

Suddenly, Veoford jolted awake from the dream, his heart racing. He couldn’t quite make sense of it, but what stuck with him most was the familiar name he had heard. Fina noticed him waking up, pale and drenched in sweat.

"A nightmare?" Fina asked, approaching him slowly.

"No... just a strange dream," Veoford replied, visibly confused but trying to shake it off. He glanced around and realized they were in a prison cell. Kollr was sitting in a corner, while Dianaim and Penrod were still asleep.

"Kollr, are you alright?" Veoford asked.

"Yeah, I’m good," Kollr replied with a reassuring thumbs-up.

"How are the others?" Veoford asked, looking at Fina.

"Penrod woke up earlier, but he got bored and went back to sleep. Dianaim hasn’t woken up yet," Fina replied.

Veoford stood up and walked over to check on Dianaim, but a sudden headache hit him. He held his head, trying to ignore the pain, and checked her condition.

"She’s not in any danger. I think she just got a heavier dose of the dart than we did," Veoford said.

"What even happened, anyway?" Fina asked, her brow furrowed. "Kollr said we got attacked by forest elves, but this place feels more like an underground prison than a forest."

"Kollr didn’t see them. They’re skilled at camouflaging in the forest. It was definitely the forest elves," Veoford explained. "They were alerted when we used powerful magic—specifically, when Dianaim used her magic."

"So, we got captured because of that?" Fina asked.

Veoford sighed. "It’s probably because of me. I’m sorry," he said, bowing his head in apology.

"You?" Fina asked, confused.

"I know them. I’ve been in this forest before. They became wary of me and attacked. In the process, I killed many of them, including the son of their leader," Veoford explained, his voice heavy with guilt.

Fina stared at him, speechless.

"We can’t change the past, can we?" Dianaim said softly, waking up from her slumber. "Let’s just face them and get out of here."

"It’s their fault for attacking you first, so no need to be sorry. Let’s make them pay," Fina said with determination, standing up to help Dianaim.

"More enemies, more fighting! Yeah!" Kollr said, raising his hand in excitement.

"But how do we get out of here? They took our weapons," Penrod asked, crushing the lively mood. Fina could be heard booing in the background.

"I might have an idea where our weapons are. As for escaping... we have those two," Veoford said, pointing at Fina and Dianaim.

Dianaim chuckled. "So the plan is to bust out and run, huh?" she confirmed.

Veoford smiled, giving the group a reassuring look..