The butterfly flaps its wings with fright,
It flies away with all its might,
It dares escape into the night,
But sadly it will lose this fight,
The cat is swift and oh so true,
It scales the wall and then you're through,
For there is nothing you can do.
It tears the wings of what once was free,
For it is life and non can flee.
Waking up from his small cot with a start, the first sensation that Jon Farrow experienced was a psychological feeling that something was not quite right. If pressed to describe this sudden and overwhelming sensation he would be at a lose for words but as best he could understand it felt like everything around him had been shifted everso slightly off center.
The second sensation that his him was a physical one in the form of rain splashing down from the supposed waterproof tent above his small bed. Looking around he saw that the entire inside of the tent had been drenched and the once dry dirt floor had been reduced to a splashing puddle of murky color. Jon began to shiver as his body was soaked to the bone with the murky looking rain which quickly pushed all thought of the odd off feeling to the back of his mind.
Pulling himself together Jon reached under his wet blanket and pulled out the large knife he had pulled off the body of one of the fallen solders. Most people in the outer planes would have frowned on such an action but honestly anyone at the front would be considered a fool for not taking advantage of the free supplies presented at the end of each successful battle.
While most of the good equipment would he snached up by the higher ranking officers sometimes they would miss something like the twelve inch blade that Jon had come across. It didn't have any fancy design which was most likely the reason that it had been overlooked but Jon had worked with a blacksmith before being drafted to the front lines so he had recognized the quality.
strapping the blade to his side Jon pulled himself out of the soaked tent and into the pouring rain which lowered his line of sight to several feet in any direction. As the rain continude to pour he could see fog creeping in and quickly dismantled his drenched tent and packed it into a small bundle. The other solders in their tents near his had not stirred and when he lifted one of the flaps he found a bloated corpse covered in water. A pang of discuss and terror flashed through him and if he had any food in his stomach he would have lost it, but he had not eaten in several days now.
Walking slowly down the row of tents Jon found that around him all of his fellow solders were dead and bloated. Taking a closer look Jon saw that there was no sign of struggle from any of his dead comrades. It was almost as though they had simply not woken up and drowned where they lay still in peaceful sleep.
Running down the rows the water became deeper and deeper around him until he was wading through the murky water with his knife drawn at the ready watching for any sign of danger. The farther into camp he got the more deformed the bodies became and to his horror he saw that some of them had begun to decompose far faster than should have been allowed within the single night they had camped on this dark plane.
The fog grew thicker and an unearthly coldness began to creep at the back of his neck almost becoming him to turn around. A feeling in his gut was telling him looking back would be the last thing he ever did so he continued making his way towards the middle of camp as the fog finished wrapping around him so that he could barely see his hands when he pulled them toward his face.
Feeling his way through the water by the tent posts that feeling that something was off returned to his mind once more. He felt that his feet were walking more to the side of what he knew and that he was about an inch out of place from what should be.
It was a wrong feeling that made his skin crawl with discomfort and an overwhelming desire to return to his set corse began to tear into him mind. At the same time he almost instinctively knew that doing so would produce the same result as turning around to face the chill which was now bearing down on the back of his neck. So in this state of two wills he pushed forward on his off course until the water reached his neck and the only thing holding him down was the thick mud which seemed to climb his legs if he idled for too long.
The off centered feeling began to increase as did a burning feeling under his skin which was conflicted by the cold touch which was now wrapping around his throat. Just as it completed its hold on his throat he pushed forward through the mud once more and felt the waters around him beginning to recead. This continued for what felt like an eternity until he saw a light in the distance through the thick fog and began to make his way towards that light picking up his pace with a feeling of urgency.
The fog seemed to solidify and make it hard to breathe while the mud thickened and threatened to pull him under the murky blackness which the water had become. Once more the cold touch tried to wrap around his throat and his hunger began to catch up with him.
The water was now down to his knees and he fell to them continuing to crawl to the light which was drawing closer and closer until he stopped resisting the pull and fell into the mud which began to pull him under once more.
As the world began to fade around him he gained a sudden burst of energy and ripped himself free of the mud running to the light as the fog cleared around him.
He saw a scene of strange composition laying before him. No longer was he on a muddy plane cold and dark battered with rain. Around him spread out in full color was a town filled with flowers and the bright light of the sun casting its rays upon the smiling faces of people whom Jon could not recognize the origin of.
collapsing to his knees Jon released his hold on the knife which he had been holding in a death grip this whole time and looked around trying to process the situation. Several people saw him and he watched as their expressions of joy were instantly drained out of their faces and replaced with terror.