I lay next to the fire, I watch it flicker and spasm, as I stare into it, I think back to the time that I was cursed with my mark, when my life turned from playing games and being happy, to hiding in a forest that people told scary stories about. I saw everything, I could see the entire world, I flew through the lush borderlands of Esior, the mud and rock of the Golden City, the land of Winter and it's Mountain Ring. The land of scorpions. The stone land and the Land of Blood and Ash. I was falling now, into the sea. Something took hold of me. An instinctual urge to escape, but I sunk nonetheless. The feeling grew, it felt like something was pressing down on me, I willed myself to move with every grain of my being. I don't know why I was scared but it I was terrified, something in me screamed that there was some incomprehensible horror waiting for me in the ashen darkness below. I had to leave. I had to wake up. It felt like something was holding me down. Wake up. Wake. Up. I awoke to the night's darkness. I felt a pain in my left wrist, it felt like a rock was being scraped against my skin. I saw it for the first time. Not knowing what happened and being only a child, I cry out for my mother, she runs in, torch in hand, my little sister I think she was five at the time, ran to me "are you okay?" she asked, I didn't know how to answer, I was silent. "Oh Shataska" she looked at the mark on my wrist, I didn't know why but my vision started fogging up, I knew whatever happened was bad. My mother left the room, my sister walked out with her. I heard the grunts of my groggy father and then arguing, I was frozen, I remember the legends of the Evil Ashen One and the mark given by The Ash God, I look at my mark I barely see it, I start panicking as my body starts to pulse with a sensation that left me slightly tingly. I was too panicked to notice that my sister wasn't in the room "Samai you need to leave" I heard my mother say through the wall, Samai ran towards me crying,
"what's wrong?" I asked her, my panic slowly subsiding as I held her
"They said they were going to send you away" the panic hit instantly once again, I knew I had to leave, my eyes were starting to fog up again, I get up and grab some stuff, I open up the window, the Skotashi chill wafting over me giving me goosebumps I move to climb through "I wanna go first" she said, her bottom lip was pushed out to make a sad face, I couldn't let her give up her life to have to hide, "I can't I need you to do an important job for me, get me my necklace, it's in the kitchen" I knew that she was too short to reach the window "I love you Samai, remember that"
"okay" she responds with a smile, I wait for her to leave and then I climb through the window, with a blanket wrapped around me, I hear her call for me, I still walk away from my home, crying, knowing I'll never see it again.
I stared into the fire as my mind drifted away from the past my eyes focus on the flicker of flames, the waves that reached upwards instead of sideways. I felt a scraping feeling in my wrist I looked at it, the pain started to intensify, I clutched it, the voice spoke to me "Someone is watching, someone is coming" the voice whispered over and over and over again. I looked at my mark to see it glowing an amber colour, the voice grows louder, as I get to my feet and grab the dirty blanket that I've outgrown years ago.
I kept running, but I didn't see a faint orange glow in the distance, I only saw darkness, the pain in my wrist and with relief came clarity. I was deeper in The Black Forest.