His Descent To Madness

Chapter One

When I close my eyes I see her in my sleep, and when I wake thoughts of her fill my mind.

I think back to vivid memories of Maya and I lying down in picnic under the sycamore tree with her fresh loaves of bread, cheese and meat stuffed in a woven basket.

I remember clearly the endless patience she had when I spilled strawberry jam on the picnic cloth her grandmother wove.

She had summer in her long brown hair, and when the wind blew you could smell the faint scent of lilac and gooseberries.

Her laughter were like bells chiming in the air and music to my ears. My heart flooded with warmth whenever she smiled and how it melted when she giggled.

Her eyes were blue when skies are gray, and if you looked closely you could see the stars in them.

But her eyes were not blue that day.

They were green and cloudy, like a storm brewing in the horizon and just like that I realised it was perhaps the last I would hear her tell me how special I was to her.

#

There was a huge bump that threw me off my seat and woke me from my sleep.

The floor of the carriage was carpeted red, but the rain the week before had coated our boots with mud, and the earth had caked the red carpet brown now that it had dried.

The muscles of my arms protested in pain as I struggled to push myself upright.

A groan left my lips, a sound that did not escape the perpetrator of my abused body.

"What's that boy?" Telmar growled. "Did I just hear you groan like an old man?"

I looked up to see him glaring at me. His white hair was slicked back with God-knows-what and there was a scar that ran across his right eye which was clouded white. These features added together with the permanent furrow in his brows and the gruffness of his voice made Telmar seem like he was always angry and more menacing that he really was.

"No," I said weakly.

"What's that?"

Bastard.

I am sure that despite his old age Telmar's hearing was perfectly fine.

"No!" I said a little bit louder.

"Good!" Telmar grumbled. "Because I was gonna lighten your training load to let your muscles recuperate, but since you seem fine we'll add ten more sets to today's training!"

A giggle beside Telmar distracted me from protesting.

I finally succeeded in pushing myself up and resuming my seat, and the slender figure that Telmar's huge muscled body blocked from my view earlier was finally in my sight.

I'll be honest. When I first met Reia I was ecstatic to learn that she would be joining our party.

After all, an acolyte from the Temple of the Goddess Sha'Na was always welcome in any party for their ability to heal wounds.

But as our journey stretched from days into weeks, I learned more about Reia's personality, and her frail innocent look with her dark curls, pale skin and cloth covered eyes did not stop me from seeing how terrifyingly sadistic she truly was.

Every day for the past five months, Telmar had beaten me black and blue and within inches of death during training, and Reia would use her magic to heal me, but just enough so I could continue living to see the next day of more beatings.

Telmar said it was so I didn't get complacent, but I knew that Reia enjoyed my suffering.

It was at times like these that I missed Maya with her bowl of warm water and her wash cloth. She would wipe away my sweat and clean my wounds kindly and gently. But I knew those days were past.