The Curse of Sunderwood

Chapter 8

A swirling cascade of fire descended from the darkness. It reached out and dragged me deeper – deeper into the abyss. I reached the bottom, my back pressed against sharp stones and my face ablaze with heat. A burst of light came with my eyes opening to a desolate gray landscape of giant monsters and trickling lava.

"Behold, human!" a low and graveled voice shook the ground, "How you failed!"

Exhausted and in pain, I found my way to my feet. A dragon the size of a ten story building lowered its massive head through the ash.

Those glowing yellow eyes. Assuric.

"This land was once a place you called 'Sunderwood'. But now it is mine. Any life remaining here belongs to me."

Sunderwood? Endless desolation stretched to every horizon. This was not Sunderwood.

"Ah, yes. Hard to recognize. Especially without its pathetic inhabitants. Would you like to know how they all died?

"One by one, eyes brimming with terror, they were taken, mutilated, and corrupted. In the end they destroyed each other in animal brutality, hungry for the sweet taste of death. It was anything but sweet when their souls sunk into the underworld. There they will live out their death over and over."

"Liar!" I screamed, "I killed you! You're dead!"

"That is what you think! Once the doors of the underworld were open, I became immortal. I became what I was meant to always be. Soon, I will tower above the mountains and I will level them to the ground. There they will forever bow at my greatness."

It was true. He was no longer ten stories high, but twenty, thirty, forty.

I was alone. I failed. "Why am I the only one left? I wanted to help them, not... this."

"I wanted to choose the worst fate for your particular offence. I decided on the one where you watch this world and everyone in it burn for eternity."

The ground shook and a beast crushed me in its grip. I squirmed and screamed. Although I knew it was in vain, I fought. And I would never stop.

Flames reached once more and the darkness came. I refuse to open my eyes and see the hell laid out for me. Voices shouted as I was held down.

I won't.

"Meg! Stop!"

I won't.

"Even coming back from the brink of death, this woman won't listen to me!"

Dunlan?

My eyes flew open with a sharp breath and a flood of pain. Two faces loomed over me.

"She's awake!" Nathor grunted, clutching my left arm to his chest.

"About time! Now stop trying to murder us!" Dunlan's face was scrunched up as he pinned down my good shoulder and held my fist away from him.

I relented with a sigh. Nathor and Dunlan panted as they crawled off the bed.

My mind scrambled in questions and mixed realities. "Alive...? I thought... Assuric, he..."

"He's dead," Dunlan finished. He dragged a chair beside me and sat. "I don't know what you thought, but if it has anything to do with you thrashing in your sleep, I can assure you it was a dream."

Assuric is dead.

"Y-you're alright," my breath shuddered as overwhelmed tears filled my eyes.