Dark Link

Six

I stumbled to my feet as I awoke groggily. I flinched slightly as a sickening pain left my head in a dizzying state. Somehow all of my wounds had healed but had left huge scars. My vision was still blurred but could tell I was surrounded by an immense collection of trees. An unearthly fog hung across wrapping the entire area in a velvet white duvet that had swallowed everything in its path. My master must have teleported me here perhaps?

Wincing and cursing I wobbled up onto my feet. I noted the sword still resting on my back, thankfully. I gazed around with much agitation. I knew where I was now. Ugh.....the Lost Woods. I was stood in some sort of clearing.

There was a reason even a person like myself avoided it. Entering could be classed as suicide, once in, there is no way out, you just keep wandering endlessly until some forest beast eats you alive or you simply die of exhaustion. Strange.....this was much further than I expected, this must be the very edge of the cursed wood.

I could still fell the same draining fatigue eating away inside of me. I knew if I didn't get out soon I wouldn't have the strength to defend myself. It was humiliating even the idea that I couldn't look out for myself, my teeth were clenched with anger as I surveyed the forest for any sign of a path. After about a minute of searching I noticed a dim azure coloured light in the distance.

I followed it. It's not like I had any other options, if I stayed put I would die. I wasn't going to die, not now! The blue light glittered as I limped through the undergrowth. It moved! The light disappeared into the distant trees. Exhaustion continued to eat me alive but I managed to speed up. I stumbled over old roots and rocks. My breathing quickened into desperate gasps.

I continued to run on and on and on at last I was catching up to the enigmatic light mocking me with its own illusiveness. Until I tripped over an unseen obstacle and landed flat in my face, I groaned from the pain that followed. My tunic was dowsed in dirt and moss, my black cap had flown off into a bush directly ahead.

I fought up into my knees reaching forward to my cap. The blue light! There is was in the corner of my eye. The source of the light could only just be seen in the fog. It was a figure....dressed in a long brown cloak but the blue light seemed to cover their face. I focused harder and the distorting blue light transformed into a pair of sapphire eyes. The creature, to my upmost dismay,
.....it looked an awful lot like
......me?

It had the same dark grey tinted skin as I did. The hair long and braided in a foreign fashion with beads and small sparkling things woven in.....small gems of some sort maybe? It's hair was a pure gleaming white that shone in the moons cold light that broke through the forest. It's eyes glowed.....much like mine but with the azure light I had followed. It was undoubtedly a Drow...

The Drow didn't move, who ever they where they didn't seem shocked by my own appearance as every other being had. Instead they stood in complete stasis, it's glowing blue eyes fixed own my own crimson. I stumbled forward slightly and the undergrowth crunched beneath me. It fled.

I opened my mouth to yell but the blue light vanished and the Drow with it. I let out a frustrated sigh. For the first time in my life I began to question about my kind.....there were more out there like me. What could have been the answer to that question was now gone. I stood in the ashes of who I used to be but now who I used to be and what I was now....was what I was never truly sure of.

***

I found myself wandering aimlessly through the woods now, I had no idea what to think anymore. I had one job; to take down the hero and had failed, I wouldn't be showing my face back at the castle any time soon. I didn't bother trying to find my way out, I was already lost.

I grew numb from the cold, shivering as the bitter inclement weather nipped at my nose and ears. I had never felt cold before....I had never felt anything before. Some sort of illness must have taken hold as I grew evermore languid. The night endured and the moon rested high in the heavens above now. I suddenly heard a faint melody in the distance. It was probably me hearing things.....

But I wasn't. It got louder. It was familiar, yet I was certain I had never heard it before. I wearily stumbled towards it. I clambered up a great bank of earth and rock clumsily. I peered over to find the source of the sound but the fir trees sullied my view. I leaned forward grasping onto a branch in front.

I slanted further still. A sharp snapping sound followed as the branch gave way. I hurtled earthwards each branch full of leaves swiping across my face. I landed on the cold hard ground. Everything went black as I lost all consciousness.