Chosen

Cursed

“Where are we going?” I ask. We take a sharp right, heading off the trail and, I was sure, heading in the wrong direction. Sora didn’t answer me, didn’t even glance in my direction.

Looking around, I noticed a drastic change in the terrain. We were now in a jungle, at least that’s what it looked like. The trees were tall and luscious, vines hung everywhere, and strange noises seemed to surround us.

And then I see a sign that read, ‘You have now entered No Man’s Land, turn back now or pay with your life.’ It wasn’t just that, a pile of skulls surrounded it sending my nerves completely on edge. “Sora…” I say, my voice cracking. Did he not see where we were headed?

“Scared?” He asks, his head snapping around and he settled those unwavering green eyes on me.

I began to understand why we were here. I swallow and mutter in a flat voice, “No.”

Sora smirked, “Good, because if you were I’d tell you to leave right now.” His eyes hardened, “You’ll face far worse things in the future, and you can’t be afraid and run out on then.”

I nod, not really surprised. “Would you mind telling me why we’re going this way?”

“I'm meeting someone, official business.” I open my mouth to say something, but he interrupted me, “That means it doesn’t concern you.”

I clamp my mouth shut and focus on the road, though I couldn’t help my gaze from shifting. I continue to see bones scattered around the side of the road and each time I had to divert my eyes. Sora noticed and nodded, “This place wasn’t always like this. It used to thrive with people. It was the kind of place you enjoyed visiting. You know, nice neighborhood, good people.”

“So… What happened?”

Sora smiled, though it was without humor. “Lorsan is what happened. Before he became king, he slithered around Juvalin looking for nothing but trouble. He planted distrust in people’s minds, changing their perceptions and making them believe what wasn’t real. He wanted them to go against King Durlan and Lorsan used that against him.” He gestured around him, pointing out ruined buildings. “Once upon a time, those buildings would be still standing tall and majestic. Yet, driven by his greed for power, Lorsan gathered his people and whipped out this city to show everyone an example of his supremacy.”

“Sora…” I begin cautiously, “how do you know all of this?”

“How?” He says slowly, glancing once more at the fallen buildings. “Because I was here when it happened. Actually I was visiting a friend when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a rock flew through the window. We both ran outside to see what was happening, but it was already too late. Lorsan had destroyed everything, there was nothing left untouched. We escaped when we had the chance and that was the last I ever saw of this place. Back then the buildings were on fire and people were running around screaming, I feel like it looks better now than it did then… more peaceful.”

We rode another hour in silence, and then Sora held up a hand as a sign for us to stop. “We’ll camp here.”

“Sora? There’s still another four hours of daylight.” I glance up to see the sun still high above us, probably more even. The truth was that I wasn’t looking forward to stopping to see what was lying in wait for us. After all, night time was when the creatures came out. “What are we stopping for?”

“Don’t question my motives.” He says flatly, “Besides, does it really matter? I say we stop and we will.” I shrug and move to join him.

He was already dismounting and untying his gear. My mind wondered to that business he was talking about and part of me wanted to bring it up again, but that would be a bad idea all together. “Does it matter?” he asked. “I think we should stop here, and we will.”