Kingdom of Sicarius: The Fight for Freedom

{Nine Years of Nothing}

An eh' chapter ahead. I might fix or add to it later, who knows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Every detail, every colour, every second seemed to pass by in a blur of inner chaos. I could feel a presence guiding me forward. My legs were moving and my arms were lead in the gentle grasp of another. Where was I heading? I did not know. Who was leading me? Answer: Unknown.

It was a strange sensation, moving but not realizing that you are. I suppose it was similar to dreaming, seeing without opening your eyes.

The erratic rhythm of my heart drummed in my ears. It was a loud and angry sound, or was it scared? Nothing seemed to be coherent, I couldn't understand which way was up, down, left or right.

Why had I agreed to it... it? What had I...? What was I trying to remember? An agreement of sorts?

At that moment, the world around me came to a screeching halt. Everything I knew was receding into a wall of fog and I was chasing and grabbing at the wisps of memories that were dissipating. Over barren land my bare feet ran, crisp patches of dry grass bent and broke beneath my racing legs. Cold plumes of air erupted from my mouth as I exhaled into the chilly atmosphere. The mist grew closer as my muscles pumped harder and faster. The tinkling of Silver's laughter filtered from one of the glowing clouds that escaped my grasp. Dark, angry shades of gray blurred by on either side of me. The fresh scent of dirt was steadily warping into the decaying smell of bodies. The harsh scents invaded my nostrils. Soon I was stumbling over growing mountains of corpses that threatened to block my way to the ever nearing wall of oblivion. Sticky blood slowed my progress and mud began to suck at my tiring feet. Just a few more steps I urged myself forward. A frigid gust enveloped my shivering body as I landed into the opaque vapor. Small, dimming lights flitted in random directions all around me. The sky was a distant speck of white that did nothing to soothe my racing heart.

Shadowy figures danced around my being giggling in delight. Two little girls raced through endless fields of pink. One had bright, blonde locks of hair and the other had a tousled mess of curly brown hair tied in a loose bun on the back of her head. They skipped through the glowing flower petals and pounced into mounds of Cameilera flowers. The scene vanished into a puff of smoke, leaving a cold, hollow feeling in my chest cavity.

I remember that day, Silver and I were of ten years. It had been my birthday and Silver managed to smuggle the both of us out of the castle at first light. Coincidentally, father was too busy to notice and we slipped by the half-wasted guards with ease. Silver had promised that she would gift me a bouquet of my favorite flowers, but instead, she found me a field of them. I was so overcome with happiness and joy, we played for hours and hours until it was dark, forgetting all our troubles, if only for a day.

Suddenly, it became increasingly difficult to recall my tenth birthday which I had just reminisced. A dull ball of light had darted forward and a wisp of smoke emerged from my chest and floated toward the singular orb. The white swirls wrapped themselves around the orb and it absorbed their forms and glowed brighter. Then another ball of light darted forward, then another two and then five... Soon they were all nipping at me, swirling around my body drinking in my memories greedily. I flailed and batted at them frantically while trying to claw myself away from the army of small fends.

However, my legs remained steadfast to the mud beneath me, the more I struggled, the deeper I sank into its' depths. Panic overwhelmed me and swallowed me whole. Icy claws of my own fear crawled at my skin and my cries echoed throughout the misty setting. My lungs collapsed in on themselves as I curled into a tight ball, willing everything to just disappear, wishing that this had never happened in the first place, dreaming of the time when I would go home. A vague image floated through my mind, but it seemed to dull and blur with every passing second until it was just an abstract piece of art that I could no longer decipher.

I realized too late that Gideon had played me for a fool. He had taken my memories but left the first nine years. I knew, as my eyes threatened to shut, that I wouldn't even recall the deal the next time I awoke.