Everything Has Changed

The Black Death

Linh was seventeen and she was running.

Racing through the dying trees of Wildwood and leaving the imprints of her Exillium boots embedded in the dry, cracked earth covered with days and days of leaf litter, she felt like her breath was going to catch any moment.

Fallen leaves drifted through the cold air and gently touched down onto the ground. An air of dread filled the air, and it mixed with her increasing panic, urging her to run faster than her legs could carry her.

She passed through a grove of black swiftly, rifling through the blackened, charred trees. A tree branch from above her cracked and snapped, plummeting down and missing her head by a hairsbreadth. Linh ignored it and continued.

She could hardly recognise this place now. The plague had taken everything from her grasp, and the gnomes had already evacuated out of here, most unfortunate enough to catch the feverish plague. It not only affected the gnomes, but it also affected the greenery around her, the greenery that the gnomes were so closely affiliated to. The plague had taken them all down by one shot.

She broke out through the other end of the grove and reached the clearing, making her way up the crest of a hill, where she could see the span of the narrow valley. A river the colour of her eyes emerged, the only sign of life left in this once-beautiful forest. Cutting down the centre before disappearing into the jagged grey mountains, it flowed with a fierce current, racing along with Linh as she reached the riverbank.

An enormous iron gate barred the pass beyond the foothills, but Linh spared it little attention, partly because she was intimidated by it. Besides, the gnomes had warned them that it was dangerous as it was the capital of the ogre cities, Ravagog. She and Tam had spent countless nights unable to fall asleep to the marching sounds coming from there.

They had also seen white flashes for weeks just before the plague hit the woods and drove the gnomes away, but there was no way to investigate further- they had been coming from across the ogres' borders.

Raising her hand with a practised grace, Linh lifted the water into a sweeping arc that towered over her head. It was like the river had chosen to hold in her breath as she crossed the now-dry land quickly. After which, she dropped her hand, causing the river to fall back with a splash, peppering her face with little droplets, before continuing to surge forward with a newfound vigour.

Having crossed to the other side of the river, Linh lifted her head to the azure sky and sighed. She walked over to a thicket of gnarled trees, where the plague was unable to reach. At least for now.

"Tam," she called out into the darkness, hearing her voice echo a little, am am am.

A clump of shadows vanished, revealing a gap hidden in the branches. Linh squeezed her way through and walked into the place they were currently residing in. Tam was sitting on the threadbare quilt they had patched together with spare bits of fabric they'd found lying around in the gnomes' homes after they'd left. He had already changed into his Exillium uniform, and he looked like the Shade the Waywards and the Coaches at Exillium were used to seeing.

Rebellious. Defiant. Dangerous. He wasn't the Tam Linh used to know, but Linh could still see little glimmers of the old him inside. The three years they'd spent in Wildwood had softened and hardened him at the same time. For Linh, it had hardened her. Some nights, she would think back about Quan and Mai, especially Mai, and wonder if they ever missed them. Maybe. Maybe not. Tam didn't know she still missed her family, and for good reason. If he knew she still missed them, he would be mad. Linh knew why. She was mad at her parents. But secretly deep down, she felt like she was empty inside.

"You ready for another day in Exillium?" she asked Tam. Tam took her offered hand and nodded. Then the light from one of their beads whisked them away to an unknown future.