A Misty Awakening

A Misty Awakening: Part 1

Thump-ta-thump-ta-thump...

    A heart beating wildly as the sounds of feet crunching on foliage rang out through an unnamed place. Breaths exhaling and inhaling quickly with each footstep and then—snap—a branch breaking as a small figure tumbles down onto the cold and damp ground. '...Die....your...going to.....die....' an echo rang inside the figure's head. The figure—a girl perhaps—holds their head as a soft sobbing is heard, barely a whisper in the silence of this unforgiving place. The figure rocks back and forth on the ground, trying to ignore this incessant and rather life-like echo whispering of foreshadowed death on the being's horizon.

Ravens cawed and flew up into the sky, startled by an unnatural noise in the dark, foreboding woods. "Awake, Little One.....your time is approaching..my dear..."

    A flurry of black feathers, some torn and broken, spun down from the frigid air and landed on the being's feet and legs. The voice echoed through the being's head, clearly bent on reviving some long forgotten memory. Alas the memory or fragment of one would not surface, leaving the girl to shake her head back and forth violently so as to rid her mind of this corruption.

Finding no method to soothe her madness, the girl crawled forward on all fours towards a darkened shape which gradually took the form of a blackened tree trunk. Just as she reached the base of the trunk, she lifted her right arm shakily and grasped hold of a low hanging branch. She pulled at the branch in a vain attempt to break it and when she could muster no more strength of what little she had left, the branch snapped off the tree and into the girl's lap. The girl felt a spark of victory in the back of her mind as she rested her head and body against the tree trunk. This spark would not last for long since the echo had returned with a more venomous whisper that spoke of distant memories and a life which was no longer hers. The girl's breath quickened slightly, her right hand curled around the branch as she scrapped her thin fingers against the blackened wood. 'Nothing will get better...unless I...end...it...', she thought to herself, this being her first coherent thought since she had awoken in these dreadful woods.

    The girl's hands shook with cold and fright. Taking a few minutes to still her freezing fingers, she tried to think of any reasons why she should not go along with her plan. 'Nobody is looking for me. I don't have memories of anyone either. I don't even know my name...or why I'm here...or why this damn voice is implanted in my head..!', these thoughts swirled around in the girl's head and only caused more pain and confusion for her already poor mental state. "That's right...you..have..nothing..to offer...", the voice replied in it's cruel and degrading tone.

Fed up mentally and physically from this torture, the girl raised the sharpened end of the branch to the right side of her head, just as one would raise a gun to their own head. Thrusting the pointed end towards her head in a quick motion, the girl felt...nothing. She felt no pain. She removed the branch from her right hand and, upon closer inspection, she saw no blood on her palm or fingers. Not wanting to think she had a hallucination, she raised her left hand to the side of her head and felt no wound or any evidence that the branch had even penetrated her head. "WHY...! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO WORK! WHY-WHY-WHY?!", the girl screamed into the frigid air, not realizing she had tears flowing from her eyes. She threw the branch a few feet away and looked at it disgusted.

The girl curled up on the forest floor and sobbed until there were no more tears left to cry. Her throat was raw and her hands were caked in mud and rocks. Feeling hopeless and alone, she lifted herself off the ground and as she turned her head to the right she noticed her dark grey cloak which laid in a crumpled heap a few feet away from her. Slowly, she moved her scraped and bruised feet towards the cloak and bent over to pick it up gingerly off the ground. She gave it a few hard shakes to rid it of debris which had collected on the faded ends of the cloth.

The cloak itself was marvelously handcrafted from the finest cotton one could acquire in these times. Although it wasn't water resistant, it provided shade from the hot sun and warmth in colder weather. Its color was ombre, going from a dark grey hue down to a lighter grey and almost white towards the frayed ends of the cloak. A silver and gold chain made of intertwined rope hung from one shoulder to the other, creating a clasp so that the cloak did not fall from the shoulders of the wearer. Golden stitched flowers and leaves created intricate patterns around the middle part of the cloak and travelled down to the ends. The cloak had an attached hood which also had small, golden, stitched flowers and leaves around the edges of the hood.

When she finished wiping the cloak of debris, she hooked the fabric upon her shoulders and attached the silver and gold clasp across her chest so that it hung loosely around her figure. Pulling up the hood to cover her cut up face and weary eyes, she began wandering through the forest in search of an exit or nearby place which could be inhabited by humans or creatures. 'At this point, who cares?' the girl thought to herself as she began stumbling over roots protruding from the dark earth. Streams of pale sunlight started to splinter through the tree branches, casting shadows on the forest floor.