Seventy Seconds To Sunrise

Part -

Just as I reached his bench his head snapped up and he forced me to the ground as a stranger rammed his way into the tent. From my position on the floor I could only see his black-leather lace up boots and the swish of a dark blue cape around his ankles. But even that tiny view was enough. Every-one knew the color of this strangers cloak, it was the color of the royal guard, it was the color of death. I stopped resisting Adapa and fell to the ground with a muted thud. It seemed huge in my ears as every-one around me went silent and stopped working. For a moment everything was still until the stranger spoke, the harsh sound of his voice grated on my already tight strung nerves, his words in a language unknown to me made my blood pump around my body.

Taking my time to relax my mental barrier as he spoke, I stretched the tight cage I tried to keep around myself whenever I was here to include the guard. Thoughts are strange things. People think different ways, some in words, others in images or even just emotions or impressions. This strangers thoughts were the strangest I had encountered in a while, centering mainly in emotions I knew he was terrified and from the impressions I could find throughout his scattered thoughts he had been being chased by a black magician. Then I tried to do something I knew I would regret, something I hadn't tried in years.

I focused My energy on my thoughts, reaching for the magic I knew was hidden somewhere inside me I then focused upon Adapa, trying to send my impressions from the strangers thought into his mind. I knew I had succeeded, and to be completely truthful, was completely shocked when Adapa started pulling me up by the arm and telling everyone to get back to work.

Slowly the usual buzz from the people in the stall returned to normal and after trying for so long to avoid it, I had my first look into the strangers face. And was shocked by what I saw, because what I saw under the dark hood and shaggy hair was an almost identical copy of what I saw in the mirror when looking at my own face. We shared the same slightly diamond shaped eyes and blue irises surrounded by silver, he also had my puckered, tight lips and large slightly turned up nose. He was tall though, he must have been several inches over me with a muscular frame similar to my own but strangely unscarred skin. From where I stood several meters away I could see absolutely no evidence of the usual working scars most of the village folk had, but instead smooth, soft looking skin.

He stood there silently as I took him in, quickly doing the same to me and I saw shock widen his eyes before they narrowed down on Adapa. He lunged forward, his arms, outstretched in claws, barely missed my face. He dances around Adapa, ripping the clothes off his back and drowning everything in blood. I kept his mind in my cage, but for some reason I couldn't read him, his thoughts were too scattered. I hurried to send impressions to his mind, Adapa as a good man, a father, a teacher, and the shock registered on his face before he turned to me. All I saw was his fist coming towards me before I was falling into the blackness.

So I'm a Mind Reader? I think I just proved that wrong I'm a Phycic and for some reason I am completely dead.

Keeping my eyes closed I take stock of my body. Feeling the rough sheets beneath my bare skin, and the weight of the tough woolen blankets sitting almost discarded over my legs. I could sense the bruise on my face, it pounded in sync with each of my heartbeats. After the disaster of going to the market yesterday, I didn't want to go again but I knew I had to. So I get up slowly so as not to put any extra abuse on my sore muscles from all the manhandling yesterday. That's when the screams started, and these weren't the normal screams. These were screams of terror, and they were coming from Keres and Sero.

Suddenly forgetting my aching muscles, I raced down the stairs relying solely on my adrenaline to keep me standing.

Reaching the bottom of my tower my mental wall crashes down, absorbing into the empty air I can suddenly hear everything. Children playing in the cornfield at the opposite side of the town, an old man struggling to catch fish in a river somewhere, a group of women dancing in the bush, and the scattered remains of Keres' and Sero's minds.