Autumn Faith

Chapter 3 - The Morning

"... May you grant me what I pray for", she said. Just as she finished, a woman walked into the room.

"Oh, you woke up with a prayer? How nice. Okay, it's time to get up. Time for a nice, yummy, tummy-filling breakfast."

"Where am I?" asked Autumn Faith, noticing she was laying in a soft, cushiony bed. Her body felt comfortable and relaxed. Rather cozy, in fact.

This is unusual, she thought. Not like the conditions she was used to. Tough, rigorous, harsh. That's what she knew. What she'd been accustomed to.

Suddenly she burst out of the comfort of her bed, flinging the thick, puffy duvet halfway across the room, as she jumped off.

"What's the matter, girl?!" said the woman.

Autumn shouted an expletive! Then continued shouting, "Kaltarad! And his Monster!"

The woman had a shocked expression on her face in reaction to Autumn's words.

Something felt odd to Autumn, aside from the obvious transition to a completely new surrounding.

It seemed as if her voice had become... younger. She felt... smaller. But none of this was like the life she remembered.

"Kaltarad and his Monster have escaped", said Autumn, "And his minions intend to help him enslave the world. Kaltarad must have done something to me to prevent me from stopping him".

The woman looked at Autumn and said, "Maybe, if you come and have your warm breakfast before it gets cold, it'll help you forget that bad dream..."

"Don't you get it?!" exclaimed Autumn. "Kaltarad is winning. The evil mage." She looked out of the window at the richly green, grassy fields... noticing that her horse named 'Hope' was not there. "Kaltarad has practically won already... even Hope has gone!"

Just then she realised the literal meaning of what she had just uttered. Things did not sound bright. For what she could see now, despite the brightness of the morning and the beauty of the fields was in fact the horrid darkness of an imminent doom. She felt a deep unease, unsettling her, in a way that she had never felt before.