Awakening

It was nearing six months. Six months spent in a small village with nothing more than the basic tools and supplies to survive on. Six months banded with other survivors who, like me, knew absolutely nothing beyond the six month mark. My mind just went fuzzy whenever I tried to recall anything. A lover, a fight, my parents. Nothing. It was like the mist that curled around in the air was just an external piece of my own mental state.

Although our village numbered greatly, I didn't connect with many. Save five others, like me. They each had something strange about them. Wuyi's little pot never seemed to run out of food, and I've seen a large purple spider crawling on Kelly's shoulder and the girl doesn't react. Tal and Ben talk and chatter with their birds like it was second-nature, and Rupper, well ... the man's a god with the guitar.

The down-side to our merry misfit band was that Wuyi, lovely as she is, is prone to somehow exploding, losing, or (in this case) catapulting grain into the river. That usually knocks us up with chores. Like water-hauling. I loathe water-hauling. I decided Wuyi wouldn't get a single wink or flirt for at least the afternoon. A fitting punishment.

When we took a break on the hill that led back into the village (and that's what's worse. Lugging the water UP HILL, UGH!) the boys got into some tissy over smoke they'd spotted in the north. I wasn't looking north, I had been gazing south and nearly spilled my own water bucket lunging to my feet when something in the forest moved. Something that had the noticeable fleshless grin of a skeleton. I brought it up to the others and while the smoke was a concern... we all decided that the body in the woods was much more interesting.

Sure enough, it was a body. Gnawed on, chewed on ... I think Tal or Kelly said it was a fellow villager. Poor sod. We had to go in. If not to kill whatever did this, then to find out what did this and flee for our lives afterwards. It was a sound plan. Most exciting thing since Wuyi managed to light Joshua's beard on fire without an actual flame. Kelly was being hesitant. The girl's so timid sometimes, it's hard to muster up any sort of tease without her flashing the dark doe eyes and making you feel guilty. However, even Kelly followed us into the dark spooky woods and sure enough, it was me again who spotted the creepy, bloody skeleton-feet tracks that led even deeper in.

And I thought Tal was supposed to be a hunter. Huh.

At the clearing, my good mood dimmed for a moment. It was more than obvious what had happened there. The place reeked of rot and decay. And while Tal was trying to redeem herself by finding the next bit of the puzzle, the wind died. We were surrounded by creatures that had ghostly green eyes. They spoke to us, said we had three questions. Naturally, the three questions were used up with the summary of "what, who should, and huh?" Obviously, Kelly and Wuyi had not listened to the storyteller's fairy tales. Ah well.

The creatures admitted to being the ones that eat people coming through their forest (just lovely) and that we were to be protected because we honored the ancient treaties and were somehow different than the other villagers. We went back, determined to find out the 'why' of the cover-up. We ignored the smoke, but it became apparent what the cause was when we got back to the village. A neighboring village had been attacked and crushed. A lone boy - the survivor. Ah, well, the village lasses would take care of him. We, on the other hand (actually, for the record Wuyi) manhandled Joshua into his cabin and got the truth from him.

Or a creepy from a book of human skin (how the HELL does Tal even know that?!) leather filled with stories about ancient evil and mysterious power and lost memories locked away in a ruins in the woods sort of truth. Well, guess Tal had found the next puzzle piece. It was off to the ruins.

Once there, Wuyi (again, noticing a pattern here?) charged up and demanded entrance. Whatever stone creature that was the guardian didn't deny us entrance, but next time we're giving a test of wit ... we should be more wittier than "a hole". The stone exploded and like I was existing in slow motion, I just... side-stepped ... and it all fell around me.

I have to admit, I was feeling a little smug when the others all jump up covered in dust and with more or less injured from the rock. They must have forgotten the meaning of the word 'duck!'. I digress. I stepped first into the stairwell (and thinking back on that, maybe should invest in more than a tiny jaged coral knife if I'm to do that often.) and the light unleashed some sort of sleeping puff spores onto us. Ben, Rup, myself, and Wuyi all managed to ignore the drowsiness, but as I'm covering my face, I hear two 'thumps!' behind me.

Kelly and Tal had no tolerance it seems. The others dragged Tal out to the fresh air, but I uncapped my water canteen, figuring to splash the girl to get her up. Worked when she drifted off on chores... only when it was chores, the water didn't explode on her face in pain and explosions. I couldn't feel more terrible. Kelly was a trooper, though, and pressed on down the stairwell with us, running as fast as she could with that pain.

It was pitch-black, but Ben had a night-vision scope and relayed the room. Well, we weren't getting through the hole in the ceiling. It was the dark pit of water for us! I had us all grab the rope I'd brought, it was dark water and we didn't need to lose one below the surface. With a breath, I plunged into the cold water ... and stumbled out the other side of a wall.

What the hell? I'd ended up in some bizarre room, with six glowing orifices around a pool of water with a very, very lovely woman floating beneath it. If she was evil, then evil was hot. Just saying. Behind me, I heard the others coming across ... and then the sound of more exploding water! What. The. Hell?! I'm grateful that I don't explode with pain but I'm really curious as to the why I get to miss out on the agony.

Well! That passed and we all grabbed a crystal. I chose green. As soon as my hand touched, I just knew I'd never experience anything more intense in my life again. It's ... like the world grew to a tiny pinprick of sensation and then just exploded inside me.

The churning surface above me, the rope getting snagged on the rock. The tunneling dark as air leaked out of my tank. Radio crackle fading out. The flash of fish scale and sharp teeth. The neigh of a horse and the rough snag that hauls me onto dry land. He ... my father ... cradles me as I come back from that dark tunnel and I know that one day, I'll be able to hold that staying power of death myself.

The boys shout as the temple fals around us. It's pitch dark but I can see everything perfectly. I look at them, than myself and for a split second, I want to scream. I don't though. It's not the time and as we rush back out of the crumbling temple, we drag Tal and Ben out the last couple of yards. Out in the light, now that danger has passed, they question the woman and I get ogled by Wuyi. Excellent.

I let the others take charge of the questioning. I need to think how I'm going to tell them that we all registered as quite-possibly dead to my senses. Or even if I should. Should I?