Frozen Memories

Prologue

*.~.* Prologue *.~.* 

"Run Naomi, run! Run!"

There was a bright white light, white as the falling snow on a Winter's day. My eyes fluttered open and my vision had succumbed to the bright light, making everything blurry. I felt vulnerable and lightheaded from a throbbing headache. Slowly my vision returned and I could see my surroundings clearly. I looked around. I was sitting at the base of a large weeping willow tree, it's leaves draping around the tree like a soft curtain. The willow was rooted at the centre of what looked like a grassy clearing surrounded by tall woods a few meters away. Beautiful, yet unfamiliar.

'Where....where am I? How did I get here again? Maybe I should look around for something to jog my memory...'

I tried to stand, leaning against the tree trunk for balance, but soon dizziness soon made me sink back down to the ground. After two more attempts, I gave up and sighed. Now that I was awake, I payed more attention to the clearing.

'Awake?....I must of passed out. What happened...'

I racked my brain, searching for an answer, but instead it just caused the headache to throb more violently. It's no use... I can't remember a thing, I thought. The clearing was peaceful, not a sound. The woods looked mysterious, and the grass looked a little dark now that I looked closely at it. Was the grass always this darkly coloured?  Maybe it was just the dirt, yeah its the dirt. After a few more minutes, my headache slowly cleared and I could stand. Pushing off from the tree trunk, I found my legs a little shaky. I gave them a few test steps but soon stumbled over my feet and collapsed back on the ground. Something sharp pierced and sliced my arm.

"Ow!" My voice came out hoarse.

I looked at what I had landed on. A sword. A sword?! What the heck was a sword doing there?! I sat up and took the sword's handle and looked at the blade. Crimson blood was at the sword's tip. My blood. I placed the sword on the ground and looked at my injury. It wasn't that deep but it was bleeding slightly. A rustling from the trees made me look up. From the trees, I thought I saw eyes watching me. I shook my head and stood up. Twigs snapping made me spin around and see those eyes in the woods again, my hair blew in my face and made me blink. The eyes were gone, again. I swallowed and slowly picked up the sword on the ground. I had no idea how to use it, but the feeling of it in my hand was comforting.

"Who...who's there!?" I shouted. What a stupid thing to do, I enternally scolded. Who knows what's out there that can eat me. And now I've just alerted it.

I took slow steps backwards, holding the sword in two hands. My eyes scanned the field in front of my, nothing seemed to move. I kept back stepping until suddenly, my back collided with something hard. Something warm. Something...alive. I spun around and in the shadows right behind me they were there, those green eyes looking straight at me. I opened my mouth to scream but a hand reached out of the shadows and covered it. I squirmed and shoved the hand away from my mouth, stumbling over my feet again and dropping the sword, fell on the ground. The creature belonging to the eyes took a tentative step forward but it's features were still shrouded in the shadows.

"Please don't kill me!" I said with a scared tone.

"Why would I do that? It would take all the fun out of it." A strong manly voice said from the darkness.

So it was human? More importantly, male?

"Wait...your...your not going to kill me?" I asked slowly.

"No." The man answered, stepping into the light of the clearing and bent down, picking up the sword. "What were you planning to do with this?" He asked quizically.

I didn't hear the question, I was too busy looking at the man's features. He was tall, taller than me. He had dark hair, slightly curly. Strong arms by the looks of it, but those eyes. His eyes were giving me a curious look, they were so green....almost glowing.

"Well?" He asked, sounding slightly impatient.

"...huh?" I replied dumbly, still staring.

The man rolled his glowing green eyes, leaned down and flicked me on the forehead

"Ow! What was that for?!" I said, touching the spot on my fore head.

"That was for being an idiot enough for being in the woods right in the middle of a war." He replied, crossing his arms and sounding annoyed.

Wait....war? I stood back up. "War....what war?"

"You haven't already noticed? Wow, your more of an idiot than I already predicted." He replied, with cold eyes.

I looked around the clearing and then I looked down. On my small shoes were some odd dark stains. I bent down to look at them and my heart skipped a beat. These were stains from the dirt...right? My heart began pumping in my chest. The grass was dark...it wasn't the dirt....it was Blood. I stood up quickly and my legs failed me as I took a few steps. I tripped over something and fell on top of something soft...and wet? I pushed my body up on my hands and looked at what I was lying on. A dead body. Blood pooling out of the body's injuries, the poor guy even had an arrow...shot in his face. It was horrific. I screamed and scrambled off the body, crawling away only to face plant into the sticky dark grass. I lifted my head and my face was in front of a skull. A human skull. With maggots eating away at the last bits of skin on its head. I let out a blood-curdling scream, jumped up and prepared to run. After three steps I stumbled again. But before I could fall, I was pulled back and held in strong arms.

"Bloody hell woman. You will wake the dead if you keep screaming." The man from before said, holding me in his arms.

Ignoring my instincts to turn and cry into this man's chest, I squirmed from his touch and tried to hide  tears.

"What... is this place." I said, my voice wavering.

The strange man gave my a cold stare. "You're in Lillipeth. Don't you know that?"

Lillipeth...somehow that name seems familiar. Have I been here before?

"You said this is the middle of a war?"

The man nodded his head lightly.

"What war? What is it about? Where are we?" I asked, my mind buzzing for answers. "Who are you? Where did you come from? How did I get here? Who...am I?" 

The man looked slightly baffled at the sight of a young girl pestering him for answers. He opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by a loud sound. Coming from deep in the woods.