"huh" Garen groaned as he struggled to open his eyes. He felt quite some weight on his body. His environment smelt awful a pungent disgusting odor waft through his nostrils. Some unholy liquid dripped down on him and felt what he laid on give out like a piece of rotten meat.
"f**k, no one said the netherworld smell this awful." as he opened his mouth and let out this words, some of the awful liquid poured into his mouth and with a sudden retch, he vomited the little content left in his stomach.
Even though his body felt like falling apart, he pushed upward and felt whatever that his on top of him give way. He crawled towards the opening as pieces of whatever it was lodge firmly. As he kept on struggling upward, soon he reached the opening and pushed himself out of the hole.
He looked around and was surprised at where he was. There was no inferno, no rotting pieces of flesh wandering about, no spirit flying overhead and no giant black gate piercing the heavens. The environment he was in was the one he had always been familiar with. It was no place other than the mine!.
"how come; How did I arrive here? Am I not dead?." he turned around and look at where he crawled out from; it was one of the plenty little craters that fill the back of the mine. The corpse where the source of the pungent odor and some suspicious looking liquid pour out of the rotting flesh.
He quickly put a distance between him and the craters. The whole place was silent, something that hasn't happened since the last revolt by the slaves; that was eight years ago.
He walked slowy towards the front of the mine. After a long excruciating walk, he finally got to the mine entrance. Littered around are bodies of mine guards and slaves abound. The slaves were unarmed and from the look on their face, the direction they faced,; he could easily deduce that they were attack by an external enemy and not killed by the guards.
The body of some of them was still warm; they haven't died for long. Even with pain racking through out his body, he ran as fast as his injured body can allow. He has to get out from here. Who knows whoever did this might come back and that would be the end for him.
He fled down the mountain and turned towards whichever direction he felt was the safest. Seconds and minutes went by and his body could no longer take it, he had to stop. He heard the sound of running water. Moving towards where he heard the sound, he saw a small stream and seeing he was the only one around, he did his head into the stream and drank greedily. After drinking, he jumped into the stream and tried to wash away the awful smell that's been on him. He did the same to his cloth and got out of the stream. Though the smell of got a bit lighter not fully dissipating.
Passing through the thicket as thorn pierced his skin, he found a slightly hidden cave near the stream. After cleaning up the cave and covering the entrance with twigs and vines. He lay down on the rough surface and drift into a dreamless sleep.
As little amount rays of the sun pass through the cave entrance into the cave; Garen woke up and everything that happened yesterday came back to him like a dream. His miraculous raising from the dead, the death of the mine guards and slaves. Inhaling the sweet breath of freedom for the first time, Garen felt truly alive for once.
Then he became confused. He knows no one in the outside world, no where to go and didn't even know where the road he will take will lead him to. Shrugging off his worry, "deal with it as it comes." he thought. He stretched out and the pain hit him again. "out. " he cried out loud. His face turned purple and his face was all scrunched up.
He pant heavily for a while ad use the wall for support. Finally the pain left him and he stood up straight and Cleared away the camouflage at the caves entrance. He strode towards the stream and drank some water.
Continuing his journey southwards, he had heard from the guards that they were some ferocious beast in this mountain and he pressed them while they were in good moods about the beasts habits and how to spot them. This knowledge finally came to use.
Soon he heard indistinct chatter, laughter and other indistinguishable sounds ahead. Hiding by a thicket a peeped. Ahead of him lay quite some number of people; with a simple glance, hey amount to thirty or so. They sat around a bonfire and wore leather gears. Sword, spears, axe and bows were scattered around the campsite.
One of male, who he assume is the leader, pushed the lady he held in his arms and stood send something he assumed funny since the others roared in laughter. He grabbed the lady and kissed her on her lips and chugged down whatever was in his cup.
The he felt a hand grab him by the cuff of his neck, he looked stunned and horrified at being caught. He tried to struggle out of the grip but the hand held him firmly and all his efforts were futile. "look what I found" a gruff voice said. Due to the how near the voice was to him, he assumed it belong to whoever sneaked up on him.
"That's the rat snooping up on us? Whatcha say uh? Let me carve him up uh?." one buff man stood up among the others, he grabbed an axe and swung it about. Garen went pale with horror "they are going to kill me" he thought. He only felt the joy of freedom for a day and he his about to die. "leave him, his my prey." the gruff voice rang out again. "whatever you say. " the buff man dropped his axe and shrugged his shoulders.
Garen felt thankful to whoever that gruff voice belongs to. At least he could leave for some more seconds. He was dragged to the groups camp ground and tossed to the ground like a piece of worthless luggage. He turned around and took a look at who the gruff voice belongs to.
A scar filled faced was reflected back at him.