The Lost Mark

Chapter 1: A new start

                                                                              Where it started was

                                                                              Dark and dreary

                                                                             The road that follows is

                                                                             Tough and hard, but

                                                                             The ending might just be

                                                                             Light and happy         

                                                                                        ***         

   If you had asked me an hour ago who I was, maybe I would have had an answer. This person I am, I don't know. I have no name. No home. No family. No memory and, let me tell you, it's scary. I'm lying on a log with no knowledge of how I got here or where here is.

I get up and survey my surroundings. I'm in the middle of the forest with no supplies and no one in sight. Just my luck. One step at a time, I start to walk. At least I am not injured. I snort at the thought. After walking for what felt like days, but could have been just a few hours, I managed to find my way out of the forest and onto a gravel road. I had no sense of time or place and was walking in a haze.

I continued walking while holding my stomach because only God knew when I ate last. I walked and walked and walked. My legs felt like they would give out on me at any second now, but I knew that if I stopped, I would not start again. I continued down the road, humming to distract myself from the pain I felt all over me.

I noticed the sun starting to set, showing me the prettiest colors of purple, orange, pink, blue, and yellow. I stopped, mesmerized for by its beauty and embarrassingly enough I started to cry. If only my life was better, then this falling sky wouldn't be the most beautiful thing I could ever remember seeing. I stared at it until the sky fell completely and the stars started shining, mockingly, at me. If only I could be as shiny or as brilliant as a star. There was no point in wishing for things that wouldn't happen.

My growling stomach brought me back to reality. I patted it to stop the beast from growling again, knowing I couldn't feed it any time soon. I was close to collapse. I've been walking since I woke up, which was probably in the morning. I honestly had no idea.

I sighed and continued walking. Maybe, I should have stayed in the forest. Maybe, I would have found food and shelter there. Now all I could see was a gravel road leading to who knew where. Hopefully somewhere with someone nice enough to take in a starving girl with a bad case of amnesia. That was a long shot.

After walking blindly on the gravel road for a long time, my legs finally gave out on me. I fell, barely feeling the scratches of the gravel, and all I saw was black. When I woke up the sun was shooting rays of heat and light on my fatigued body. I yawned and found that I have a dry mouth, thirsty for something to drink. Anything would do really, even a sip of water would do me wonders. I closed my mouth and started to stand up on my wobbly legs. I didn't remember how my life was before, but I had figured out that I had little muscle, which is why I was having such a hard time right now.

I took a step putting one foot in front of the other, hoping for the best. I had already pushed my body to its limits, but that didn't mean I was going to stop. Suddenly, a carriage flew right past me so fast that I got knocked to the side. I stared back at it, only to find another one following it just as fast. I shook my head, unsure about what was going on. Maybe I should have chased it down and asked for a lift, but that seemed like a bad idea for more than one reason, so all I did was put my hands on my knees and get back up, carrying on my way.

The gravel road was busier today, as a lot of carriages were going very fast in that one direction. I wondered if they were all together or if they were heading to the same place. Maybe they were heading for the forest, but why would they go there? I decided that walking on the gravel road was dangerous and opted to walk beside it so that I wouldn't get knocked over again.

Soon another day passed, and I had made no progress. I laid down next to the road to get some sleep so I didn't collapse like I did the day prior. If I did not find food or water soon, I wouldn't have to worry about my memory loss, because I wouldn't have any life to remember.

On the third day of my journey, I didn't have any energy to stand, let alone walk. I just fell over and over again until I eventually gave up and started to crawl instead. I hoped I wouldn't run into anyone today because I would feel mortified. My body ached all over in places that I didn't know could be sore or ache like this.

The sky began to cry, taking pity on a nameless girl who needed its tears. I let the water fall over me and wash away all the dirt and pain of the last few days. I sat on my knees putting my arms up in the air to clean them before cupping my hands together to collect the water for my hungry mouth. I drank and drank until I couldn't drink anymore. Anyone who saw me would have thought I was a madwoman, but I didn't care. This water gave me the energy I needed to go on. My stomach made a noise when I was done drinking, telling me it wanted something to fill itself up, as well.

I slowly stood up, trying to gain stability, before I started to walk again with a grin on my face. I thanked the sky for the gift, for without it...without those precious tears, a traveler would have found my shriveled up body dead beside the very road that gave me hope, three days ago. A hope that was hard to maintain.

*******

Author's Note

When I would read on Wattpad or on every other reading site I would always skim over the author's note, but now that I got up the courage to put my writing out there, here I am making my own. I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this book. I started writing this book over a year ago. in fact, it is finished, but I prefer to write on paper, so I am going through the pain of typing this story, all 267 pages. its a pain. I will try to post once a week on Sundays, but no promises because I love to procrastinate. I hope you have a fantastic day! thank you!

Edit:

I have redone this chapter so it is better grammatically and I have a friend who is helping me do this for the rest of the chapters. yay!