A stray zombie wandered alone through the woods. It made little sound aside from the occasional groan. It kept a steady rhythm, moving slowly but surely through the dark underbrush of the forest.
It carried no thoughts. no consciousness.. It merely existed for one purpose: "to kill people"... One singular blood curdling purpose drove it onward. To kill, to devour, to do it over again and again.. Not that the lifeless husk of a man could ever remember how many innocents it killed, or even how it wound up a zombie on the second trial of the Fain..
It held its arms outstretched, decayed, black and green.. Ahead, something bright illuminated it's hollow eyes.. A blue light.. The brilliance of it danced in it's vision, only for a moment..
"Flee.." a voice commanded. It seemed to come from the blue light, and the zombie instinctively obeyed, turning around and wandering away from the light.. away from the two humans sitting there.. back into the Fain...
...
Ward and Liza sat huddled around the flickering blue lantern. The air was cold, and bit through their meager clothing, but they didn't seem to notice at all.. Their attention was elsewhere as Liza spoke,
"Looking back.. I'm not sure how I managed to escape, it's all a blur" she began,
"I remember pain, and falling to an arrow, only then.. there was a flash and I don't have any memory, then I opened my eyes to see you being chased down by two of them..
I didn't see Dane. I guess you two split up" she questioned,
Ward nodded before she continued,
"I followed behind, and hid my lantern so they wouldn't see me..
But then one of them died, and you kept running.. The other one spotted me and I fought him. I swung my lantern and bam! He burst into flame and died..
Then I lost you.. it wasn't until I saw two more ravagers that I started following them..
They were dangerous. I could tell they weren't anything like the others.. Something in the air I guess..
But they didn't spot me, and I kept on following until eventually they stopped for the night, and so did I...
Back then, I should have kept going. I regret that..
But we're here now, together... I just hope Dane is okay too..."
She stopped talking for a moment, Ward sat across from her, unsure of what to say. He didn't know how to comfort her, and to be honest, it wasn't in his personality.. he awkwardly pat her on the hand before she continued again,
"Right.. so they woke up sometime in the early morning and moved through the woods. Eventually, I saw that they were on top of you, and you went with them..
I didn't think I could take them both.. Again, they were dangerous.. or at least I thought they were.."
Ward nodded solemnly and said plainly, "you made the right choice Liza.. they would have killed you, no hesitation.."
He saw her shudder slightly.. It became clear then just how much they had gone through separately over the year...
Ward gripped the wooden staff in his lap and lowered his head,
"I've changed haven't I?" He thought
It wasn't until Liza spoke up that he snapped out of it, "Anyway they didn't kill me, and they didn't kill you either! I saw what you did back there, to that one.. You get that fire from me huh?"
She smiled, and his worries faded for a moment. He looked up and smiled back, loosening his grip on the staff..
"Oh yeah, anyway.." she started, "I followed them and saw them take you into their camp... I'd assumed they killed you, or put you in prison.. But I stayed in the woods and kept an eye on the camp..
I knew you weren't dead.. I knew one day you'd escape.."
He looked her in the eyes, and her words did more for him than he could say..
"I don't have any memories..." he thought to himself, "but I have something better now... True friends..."
They sat in silence for a moment, and Ward shuddered in the cold before Liza asked,
"Anyway, look at you Ward! You really have gotten bigger and stronger... It's your turn, I want to hear all about it!.. I've been staring at those ugly wooden walls for nearly a year, it's time I knew what was inside.."
He laughed and then sank into his thoughts, pouring back through the memories..
He told her if getting taken by Rold and Mary, of becoming a ravager and being trained, the painful imitation and subsequent abuse by Mary..
"That bitch!" Liza said, interrupting him.. "I'll get her back if I ever see her again.."
"Me first.." Ward said, "But I hope we never see any of them again.. Especially the commander.."
He then explained the countless days of repetitive training, and eventually getting paired with Rold and Garen..
"That's pretty much it.." He said, shrugging, "If it weren't for the thought of returning to you and Dane I would've given up a long time ago.."
He blushed a little as he said the last bit, embarrassed at his expression of emotion.
"Dane.." Liza said, "I wonder where he is.."
"Don't worry.." Ward said, as if he was trying as much to convince himself, "he's alright, we will find him..."
...
"Drip... drip....." the steady sound of water falling in a still pond resounded throughout the wood.. The air was dark, and the rest of the wood quiet and still...
An old man yawned as he leaned against a tree. He looked high above, through the tree tops, and into the grey sky above..
"Hmph, never a star.." he mumbled to himself, scratching his beard with one hand.
Nearby, a boy sat.. His eyes were closed, and he listened intently for something.. Anyone who were to walk up on him would assume he was deeply concentrating.
They would be half right, he was TRYING to deeply concentrate.. "clear your mind, FEEL the world around you.." the old man had said...
"How am I supposed to do that? How do you stop your own thoughts??" He wondered, getting irritated as time went on.. "what kind of training is this anyway???"
The old man looked down at the boy and sighed, rubbing his head "ok.. enough of that then... this clearly won't work..."
The boy opened his eyes and made a sigh of relief. Looking at the leaf full of water that had made that infuriating "plop..plop.." into the pond below, he swatted it with his hand before standing up.
He turned and began to open his mouth to speak before the old man interrupted him,
"Clearly this isn't the training for you.. Looks like you learn best through experience, rather than contemplation... ok then..."
He stroked his beard and fell into deep thought for a moment, which served only to irritate Dane further.. He was hungry, tired, and they hadn't stopped to rest since he started following the old man..
"Ok.. close your eyes.." the old man said.
"What? Why?" Dane replied,
"Just do it.." the old man commanded..
"Fine.." Dane said, as he closed his eyes.. He stood in the cold, his eyes shut.. The absolute quiet burned his ears, and put him on edge..
"Thump.. thump..." his heart beat steadily..
The old man interrupted the tranquility, saying in his gravel voice, "I'm going to hold up an object.. without opening your eyes tell me what it is.."
"How.." Dane began to ask, but the old man cut him off,
"Don't ask questions.. pretend this is life or death if you need to, just feel it.. and focus.."
Dane nodded, not understanding the point of any of it, but he wanted to try...
"Ok.." the old man said, holding out a worn golden locket in his hand.. "what am I holding?"
Dane focused, wracking his brain around what it could be, "a stone?? A stick?? Did I see him carry anything??.."
His thoughts began to grow out of control and his heart beat faster, then something else came.. a command from deep within himself: "no more thoughts..."
He sank then, into the feral side.. into his instincts, and he focused on the stillness in the air, the crunch grass and old leaves beneath his feet.. The pond nearby, the sky above..
But.. something else... Two things he couldn't quite put his finger on.. It was like they lingered just out of sight, just around the corner.. Bur he had no way to reach them...
"What is he holding, what is he holding" he told
Himself.. It was more like he demanded the answer from the world itself, and then it came like a hammer to the head:
"A locket.. small, with a simple chain.. round.." he wondered briefly why he knew that... But he did, as sure as he knew he had two feet..
"You have a locket in your hand.." Dane said with surety.
The old man opened his mouth in shock,
"How... so fast.." he thought, "this kid..."
"That's right" he said to Dane, "let's keep going then..."
Dane smiled, he still didn't understand what was going on, but he couldn't wait to find out...
...
Meanwhile, deep in the woods, a figure moved slowly... Nothing interrupted it's path, and the air around it seemed to be plunged in a deep fog...
It seemed at one with the grim reality of the Fain.. Yet deep inside, it screamed in agony, while outside, no sound breached the tranquility of the wood.. of the stone.. of the dead forest and the monsters within...