Tormented

Prologue

AD 1095

       Auphrey walked down the stone path as a new sense struck upon her. ‘What am I doing’ she thought to herself. She couldn’t tell anymore. As Auphrey walked, the end of her pale blue kirtle dragged along the path. She looked up and she was walking to… nowhere.

       Then, something sounded beneath her feet. It sounded like leaking puss. It sounded like mashing food. It sounded like walking through water. Auphrey briefly looked down and on the end of her kirtle was a new vibrant color no one could deny. The dark crimson that was bolder than the red of a rose, thicker than the water of a craggy glen.

Blood

Auphrey let a shrill cry as she backed away from her next step. She was no longer on a stone path, but ankle deep in a sea of blood that surrounded her. Her bodice tightened as she breathed heavy and she fixed her chemise so it sat modestly on her shoulders.

Auphrey gathered herself and exhaled as she pushed back her dark ebony hair back uselessly as it fell over her shoulders again as she bent down to gather her kirtle in one hand and sat up again. The blood managed to sink up the skirt of the kirtle up to a foot so her hand touched wet fabric… cold, wet fabric.

Blood isn’t cold. This has to have been here for a long time. She shivered, not just from the coldness of the blood, as she walked through the dark sea. Ripples of movement encircled her ankles as she trudged along. When she looked up once again, she wasn’t in the same landscape of trees and buildings. It was vast, empty. And there was no sky, just black… and a bright full moon. She felt an urge to smile as she looked up at the moon.

Auphrey then heard shuffling in the water that wasn’t from her. She dropped her kirtle that created an unpleasant splash of blood up her skirt and around her legs and arms and she protected her face.

She looked down to investigate where the sounds had come from and she saw… a little wolf. It was small and fairly cute.  The blood was up to its belly and the bottom half of its muzzle was drowned too, leaving its nose to breathe. She then could see bulging in its mouth.

“What do you have there?” she cooed at the wolf forgetting about the blood, vast nothing, and bright moon that illuminated its bright… silver eyes.

She held out her hand and it seemed hesitant. It tilted its head to the side making a little more blood reach its face. It then placed its muzzle in her hand and almost seemed to gag and regurgitate as it opened its muzzle and out came… teeth.

Pretty, clean, human teeth

Auphrey gagged at the pile of things in her hand. A set of canines, front teeth and molars set in her hand. This was a whole set of human teeth.

She squirmed, but refused to let the teeth drop. She them went to speak, but her mouth felt weird, inanimate almost. With her other hand, she brought them to her mouth and poked her fingers past the lip and found nothing but a tongue. Her teeth were gone. Quiet panic settled in as she slowly looked down and had a quiet realization. These were her teeth. Her hand had an involuntary spasm as she dropped all the teeth into the pool and stared at the young wolf. She felt tears stream down her face. Then the wolf seemed to glow. Then, its whole body began to glow a bright, beautiful, yet frightened white as it faded to hues gray, white, and pale blue. And from the blood, three more figures came slowly out of the sea. She stayed still as the figures started as shadows and slowly morphed into shapes and their natural colors faded in; three more animals: a bobcat, bear, and a fox.

The fox stepped forward pawed at her feet in the water. Auphrey was hesitant but held out her hand. The fox opened its muzzle and in her hand spilled out a pile of coins. The fox then stepped back and its body began to glow a bright white and then faded to brilliant shades of green and forest brown.

The bear stepped forward and lightly nipped at her flank. Auphrey dropped the coins just like her teeth and held out her hand. The bear grunted and lazily spit out something into her hand, a dart that she could clearly tell was poisonous. It stepped back and started to glow a bright white and then started to glow to a glorious reds and oranges that swirled and contrasted.

The bobcat stepped forward and whined hysterically. Auphrey dropped the dart into the blood just like everything else and held out her hand once more. The bobcat stopped whining and playfully stepped forward and literally spit into her hand, a ring. A ring she too strongly recognized, her engagement ring. She glared at the bobcat persistently.

And it almost seemed to smile as it stepped back and it too glowed and the glow dissipated to the softest blues and sapphires. 

       Then she heard a snarl. She looked at the wolf and it snarled again, but this time she realized it was all too different. It started as a snarl whine as the shadow group to a disfigured shape and in the snarl she heard a voice. It whispered within the snarl.

“Aer,”

Air…

It’s Latin.

       The fox slowly started to shrill cry as it morphed into a smaller form of the same morphing. Inside the cry, she heard a very child-like voice.

       “Terra,”

       Earth…

The bear then hollered and as it groaned it snarled a barely audible noise.

“Ignis,”

Fire…

The bobcat whined and screamed. It morphing was a lot more graceful and its shape almost represented something humane.

“Aqua”

Water…

Then, they all burst within light. And four children, two girls, two boys sat before her.