The Obsidian Pillar

Chapter Ten

My dreams were severed by a darkness that I couldn't escape. It grasped at me and swathed itself around my body, wrapping me up into its inky embrace. I fought and pushed and pulled, scratching and punching at it, but it continued to caress me regardless. At the centre of the black mass was a ball of shimmering silver light, which focussed the onslaught as though it was its consciousness. I turned from it, attempting to run, but the blue-black tendrils caught my waist and dragged me back. I screamed, begging it to let me go, and then it spoke.

One day you will come to me willingly, and then I will be your servant. I will bow before you eagerly, it whispered. Its voice was a melange of power, arrogance and desire.

The sound of fractured and splintered twigs from the other side of the path woke me in the silence of the night. I was glad of the disturbance, though I wondered whether I was simply hearing things; perhaps my fears were getting the better of me. Sleeping outdoors was no easy task when the wildlife went about their business under the cover of night.

When Dalton sat up instantly, his hand finding the war hammer that lay at his side, I started to panic.

Without warning, several small figures burst through the bushes that surrounded us and crawled into the clearing, leaving us barely enough time to clamber to our feet. Dalton was the first to leap forward, hurling his war hammer as though it were weightless. I watched on in horror as the skeletal creatures were illuminated by Sebastien's hastily lit torch. They were silent, their movements were sluggish, but most disconcerting of all was their appearance.

They looked like lost children searching for their parents. Their rotting skin and rags of clothing hung from their bones like laundry floating in the breeze. Alarmingly, their eyes were missing from their skulls, and had been replaced by large, silvery, glowing orbs.

In my fear, I couldn't move, and as they approached me and reached for my hand, I allowed them to pull me, unconcerned by Dalton and Sebastien's warnings. Something was taking control over my body. Their childlike appearance and behaviour was stirring up compassion within me.

They led me to the path and I walked mechanically while the skeletal beings lured me further back through the woods. I fought against the pull of the creatures to turn around. They pleaded with me silently to follow, but as I turned to call to my companions, I was not prepared for what I saw.

Dalton struggled as several creatures climbed up his back and onto his shoulders, while Sebastien lay on the path, trapped by three of the skeletal children whose orb-eyes had transformed into a bright, blood red in the darkness. They were pulling something out from their rags; I saw the wicked glint of knives. I screamed at him to run.

Dalton roared, futilely wrestling the creatures away whilst they relentlessly pulled at his shirt, 'Use your sword, lad!'

Sebastien began to fight back, grasping his sword from his belt. I realised that I had not noticed it before, hidden underneath his cloak. The skeletal creatures raised their daggers in retaliation.

Still in the creatures' grasp, I panicked, and screamed Sebastien's name. The flame of his torch flickered out on the ground beside him. Without thinking, I raised my hands and the flame found its way into my palms. Rejecting the burning and the blistering heat, I threw it towards the creatures. The blast of light threw them to the ground. I watched, conflicted as they burned, opening their jaws in silent agony. All that remained of them, scattered in the dirt, was burning rags and daggers, as a pregnant silence fell.