Yes, definitely a ruin... It looks like I have found myself in a destroyed castle. The door I pushed open fell flat on its back about halfway out with a gigantic boom.
As I look around I see ruined stone wall, enormous wooden beams and debris filling my surrounding area. Walking over the loose chunks of stone en rubble I make my way over to a thick crumbling stone wall.
My foot slips as I try to climb up, I better watch out for loose stones if I am to climb this wall. Carefully making my wall up the wall, I slowly reach the highest point and stand up.
From my new view point, I can see what looks to be a small area of ruined building, or building? All the rubble is really close together. Could this be an old fort? As I look around I don't see much interesting going on. Mostly everything seems to be made equal to the ground. I climb down from the wall I am standing on and walk to my over to the most intact looking part of the fort.
As I make my way towards what must have been some kind of dinner hall, I look behind me. The only room left standing, covered in debris, is the room I came from. The walls don't even look that damaged! Why would the raiders leave this room standing?
They should have been able to destroy the room with ease! The whole caste is flattened to the ground! Silently debating the possible reasons for the room left standing, I arrive at the big double doors of what looks to be dinner hall.
This door won't budge, rocks are jamming the doors. Instead of wasting my energy removing the rocks, I walk a couple of step to the side and inspected the walls. There! Where the roof and the walls merge is a small hole, stones and rubble making a nice slope towards it. I should just fit, though.
I gracefully speed up the rubble, being careful to jump on top of the big stones. Putting my foot on the wall I jump, I press upwards and grab the edge of the hole. Quickly pulling myself up, my shirt gets cut up from the stones grinding over my chest.
"Ahw man, I should have been more caref-"
Suddenly, hearing my own voice of the quiet of my surroundings made me shut up and climb. Why was it so quiet out here, anyway? I've heard of animals and birds quieting down when predators are around, so this probably isn't a good sign. Trying to make as little sound as possible, I wiggle my way through the hole.
I turn my waist to hold onto the ledge above me, and try to get my legs out in front of me so I don't have to face dive. After getting my legs out of the hole i let go of the edge and catch the ledge of the hole I climbed through, Slowly lowering myself legs first I let myself drop the last meter and a half.
I land on a wooden floor, dust kicking up from my hard landing, the light of my passage way lighting up my surroundings good enough for me to see.
It seems I've landed in a dinner hall! Big tables spread out throughout the room, most of them still intact. The walls are adorned with banners depicting knights fighting other armies, legions of them shown on the banner.
I pull out a chair from one of the tables and sit down to look at the strange banners. Most seem to be about different groups fighting. They all have an undecipherable text above the images.
.....The text seems exactly the same on all the banners, maybe some kind of motto or motivational quote to get the soldiers going?
I make my way around the room, not finding much stuff aside from some rotten fruits and old bread. I spot the kitchen and pull open the door. not much to look at there either, I pull open some random drawers hoping to find something use full. As i open the bottom drawer of a cabinet, a whole range of different cooking equipment appears.
Now, this is good loot! Searching through the drawer, I find all kind of small knives, spoons and forks of varying sizes. One knife caches my eye, It's a big one!
I pull it out and study the handle and edge. The handle seems to be made of plain wood, but as I lay my finger on the edge of the blade I can feel its razor sharp, whoever was the owner of the knife took great care to keep it sharp it seems.
Knowing the owner was probably dead or nowhere to be found, i pocketed the knife, well not really because i don't want to stab myself in the leg. With my newfound knife in hand, I keep searching the kitchen drawers...
---
Bad luck, the knife was the big reward of the day. The rest of the kitchen was useless kitchen adornments, like uhh spatulas y'know.
With newfound confidence, I walk out the kitchen and noticed the room has turned really dim. As I look towards the hole I came from, I see the sun is almost under already!
It's still eerily quiet outside, I decide to make my bed in the kitchen. Walking back to the kitchen. I clear all the accessories off the kitchen table and put some table cloths i gathered from the tables on it. As for blankets, I grabbed two of the banners off the wall. Sorry, but I need to sleep warm.
I spend some time trying to decipher the wall banner texts, but ultimately give up. All the banners are different is someway, and it looks like the text doesn't even say something about the war unfolding beneath it.
I grow tired and make my way to the makeshift bed. On my way i grab another table cloth and cut a long cloth out of it.
I close the kitchen door and use the piece of cloth to knot the door handle to a support pillar of the kitchen. You can never be safe enough, I've seen bears open car doors online.
I climb up on the kitchen table and fall asleep within minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walk around the ruined castle, following a seemingly man-made path through the rubble.
In a dreamy daze, time flies by. My steps carry me faster than they should.
The path crisscrosses through the ruins, around collapsed walls and buildings.
I can't see far, and the air is thick around me.
Suddenly, the path ends. I stop at the moat surrounding the castle.
A girl stands on the other side of the moat,
Dark brown eyes, sharp eyebrows, long brown hair and a pretty face.
She looks confused at me and yells something to me.
"What are you doing? Suppress your mana, they will smell your magic traces!"
Confused but still weirdly calm, I yell back.
"What? How do I do that?"
She cocks her heads and stares at me
"Don't you feel anything? Look down! It's flowing in and out of your pores!"
I look down, I see nothing? I have difficulty focusing my eyes on my arms. Everything seems so blurry!
"Keep focusing on your arms! Don't get distracted!"
I faintly hear the beautiful girl speak, it all seems so far away.
The eerie feeling keeps growing on me, I must keep focusing!
I see streams of colors flow out of my body and into the atmosphere surrounding me, I feel the faint connection I have over the mass of particles.
The feeling of eerie silence suddenly turns into pressing fear. I can't move my body! I try to utter a scream, using all the force in my body. But all that comes out is a faint, low, pitched growl.
"Pull your aura in! DO IT NOW! "
I pull on my connection to the particles with everything I have, fear and desperation fuelling my pulling force.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I find my self back on my kitchen table, my surroundings are dark and the overwhelming feeling of dread and fear is still paralyzing my body.
Now fully conscious again, I don't try to yell. Still feeling the connection made with the particles in my dream, I keep pulling on them. Gathering them all inside my body.
The darkness increases, I can feel the emptiness increasing around me. Only me and the kitchen table are left. I can't see the door or the other cabinets anymore.
I'm paralyzed. I can't move. I can't yell
I can only watch.
And hope they don't find me.