The sensation of the warm water reached up my body as I felt myself settle until it was resting above his chest.
Sigh.
The fatigue left my body with each and every breath he took, slowly bringing a calm over my body.
Slowly, the weight of my eyelids grew heavy as I tried lifting my head, bringing my gaze up to the soft light above...with it fading and fading...until all around me fell into the embrace of the growing darkness around me.
"What is going on here?" A throne room decorated with incalculable wealth filled my eyes, a place I had never seen before yet felt surprisingly familiar. This room, despite its splendor, sat in an unnatural darkness with not a light or candle in sight.
The moonless night settled heavily within the room, leaving only the adornments and decorations glinting in the faint light. The figure that was seated at the centre of the room rose to his feet, with two others stepping out of the shadows beside him
"Your highness…the sound came from the prince's chambers" The one on the left of the figures that flanked the one with the honorifics drew their sword before stepping in front of the one he spoke to.
"Remain here until the rest of the regiment joins us" But his words were ignored as the figure rushed past him, stepping through each of the maze-like corridors of the darkened holds, before reaching the stairwell.
Despite the figure's advanced age, they launched themselves from the first floor to the final floor with a single step, while the sound of clanging metal plates alerted him to the pace of the figures slow to catch up.
With the same speed, the advancing figure moved through the corridors to reach the sound of distress, coming to the door of the room, a strange webbing of shadows seeped out from under the door.
While the miasma did not stimulate any of his sensations, it triggered his instincts with a terrifying amount of bloodlust, enough for the figure to destroy the door when only meant to open it. From the destruction of the doorway, the other two figures found him after finally reaching the last floor.
"By the Twelve, who would do such a thing…my lord…I" Watching as the regal figure pulled off his cloak to cover the disemboweled corpse.
"Alert the castle and close the gates." The guarding figure rushed to the windows, searching the cabinets to the closets and under the bed, looking for anything suspicious.
"Know your place, Captain, do not think yourself so important as to address me in such a fashion!"
"And know yours, Lord Thandoril, command your forces in the castle to stand at the ready and brace the entrances. The criminal fiend who did this may still be in the castle. No doubt this pervasive darkness was their doing, an attempt at ensuring their escape. We must act quickly to protect the royal family and cut off their escape at once."
"Your majesty, this lowly commoner thinks they have the right to command me. While I do not dismiss the danger at present, I believe what we should do is to find a place of safety before …"
"They've slain my son! Believe me, Lord Thandoril, the last thing on my mind is your petty feelings. Captain Arkstein, secure the entire capital, not just the castle"
"My lord. It will be done."
"Son…I am…I have failed you for the last time. Send the royal guards to my family's chambers" Kneeling down after lifting the covered and lifeless corpse before rushing out of the room, joined by the guard Captain.
"Your majesty, I will bring the child to rest, please, join your family, and I will return to you soon."
"Ark…I abandoned my son, too many times in life. I will never do so again."
The strange thoughts vanished as soon as they came to me, leaving with nothing but a splitting headache and a sudden burning sensation in my gut.
Within the murky darkness that blinded every other sensation, my mind came to settle out of the dreams from the searing pain that filled my veins.
Snapped out of his daze by the sensation of a stinging cold biting at him, accompanied by the loud rush of a violent wind. As he forced opened his eyes, the surroundings quickly fell away into the great darkness speckled with dim flare-like lights all around him.
Spinning through the air and turning his gaze as his back was beaten by the stinging winds, he managed a glimpse of what was above:
"The sky! No, why am I even outside...am I falling?"
I wondered while the sound of the rushing wind and cold biting into my flesh fed even more distress into my mind. Trying intently to voice my thoughts but I found great difficulty in simply breathing let alone speaking, I am ashamed to say that I lost my nerve quite a bit...with my body refusing to move at my command, only my head possessing some dexterity.
As I continued to fall while struggling to express my distress, but after only twenty seconds or so, I started to feel the surrounding air fill my lungs, as it did...I frantically grasped his throat and forced out a strained cough, taking my first few breaths.
Once my breathing had regulated, it was easier to stop flailing about and instead turn my focus to wrap myself in my arms to try and preserve some warmth and brace against the winds while I continued to fall. With my focus affixed to the growing sight of the approaching ground, the image of the vast and somewhat alien landscape took hold.
Bright lights had been sprawled about with massive mountains that were accompanied by what looked like floating islands growing large trees and a desert of pink and gold sands to his west also caught his eye when....
Bright flashes of light appear randomly around me.
"They're...people, there are others here too. Was it because of that white light?"
They all seemed to be in a similarly dazed state before they came to grips with their sudden reality, a response that was followed with notably panic as they fell. The space around us filled with more and appearances of sudden bright lights before dropping more people out of nowhere. Some spawning right atop each other with others coming into the world through my horrific means.
That is, some bright lights spawned were intertwined with other lights revealing a shower of blood and viscera while those that spawned over the fully realized people would cause them to explode into a shower gore furthering the panic of those below.
To avoid the light birthed above me, I tried to dive faster into the fall in an attempt to reach one of the nearest people.
But before I could reach someone...
Bash!
"What the?"
Someone crashed into me from above, though they too were still dazed. After knocking into me and flying by, I rolled through the fall to see who it was. Though it was dark, I managed to see her shimmering bright hair fluttering in the wind.
"A girl?"
With her still flinging about, I couldn't get her to reach out, when the a light emerged between us, merged with us as we were consumed in the flash
"You…have to reach out to me…give me your hand, now!" With what strength I could muster, I called out for her. Thankfully, through the blinding light, I could feel her panicked hand reach out before grasping onto my arm…I quickly rolled over, entangling myself in her as we spiralled out of the light.
Revealing her glimmering golden eyes that left me stunned as soon as I looked upon her. But just as she woke fully, she held onto me even tighter, allowing me to see past her, quickly realizing that the ground was growing closer and closer, faster and faster...until we were barely from the ground.
Instinctively, I pulled her in and held her tightly, shielding her head before..