"The battle must go on until the storm hits…we cannot let the 'Redblades' slip through the forest!"
"We'll end up losing our men too if we wait for the storm to come and strike us to our deaths."
"Then so it shall be. If the gods of the storm so desire, we shall lay our lives the same as our enemy."
…..
Gods be merciful.
…..
"Make the bastards bleed! Make them pay for the insanity they brought along!"
"Falter now and our wives and daughters may never see light again."
"For them, if not for yourselves!"
…..
Gods be gracious.
…..
"Swim Evarius! SWIM!"
"Grab onto the rope! C'mon now, hurry!"
"The Knights have already advanced, we cannot wait any longer!"
"You better make it out alive. We'll be looking for you!"
…..
Gods be forgiving.
…..
The sounds of rushing water and clashing swords, the screams, and the screaming winds, all suddenly stopped. He woke up with a stinging pain in his ears and an even worse headache, all he could hear was a loud ringing, shrill and almost deafening.
"Argh." He groaned, his head splitting in two, the ringing, thankfully, fading away slowly.
He tried to look around, but he could not see anything, yet he could somehow feel his head spinning. Did an enemy blind me, he thought to himself, with a sense of disbelief in the question.
He looked down, trying to find his hands, but he could not feel them. Did they also severe my limbs? He was sitting on something, "A boulder perhaps", he thought. He wanted to get up, but he could not feel his legs.
"Am I in hell?" He spoke to himself, thinking that he had been killed, not sure if he should be expecting an answer.
For no particular reason, he had had the feeling that he was in a forest, but there was not even a single voice around for him to determine so. No sound of a water-stream running nearby, no chirping of birds, no howling of wolves, no sound of insects, no anything. It was quieter than Evarius' liking.
"The gods have finally taken me, it would seem." He whispered, in a tone almost as if someone was listening to what he was saying.
"Not yet, your time is afar son." A soft voice replied, breaking the silence, strange yet oddly familiar.
Even with the dead quiet, Evarius could barely listen to the voice. "Is anyone there?" He asked, trying to make sure of his sanity. But upon receiving no reply after waiting a considerable amount of time, he concluded that he had been hearing things, and that his mind was toying with him.
Evarius waited and waited, for anything to happen, but nothing did.
Just when he thought that there was nothing at this place he was, he heard the sound of oceanic waves in his ears. The sound seemed to come from a great distance, or so it seemed to him at that moment. For a man who had grown up near the ocean all his childhood, he had never been so pleased with the sound of waves. But the satisfaction of hearing a sound didn't last very long, for the waves reminded Evarius of the terrible misfortunes he had seemed to have forgotten. A sudden grief filled him. He could not very well remember the exact events that had led him to wherever he was at the moment, but he could remember the battle that had gone down at the 'Red Sea'. The screams, the horrors, the suffering, and the bloody images of the battle were all coming back to his mind.
"How could I forget my brothers?"
Evarius was furious at himself, he found it utterly disrespectful and ungrateful to forget about his comrades for even a fraction of a second. They had given everything in the battle for their people, his memory was the least Evarius could give them, he thought. He wanted to remember more about the aftermath, but his head hurt whenever he tried to. Then after a while, the expressions of his face changed, the grief and dismay turned into realization.
"The storm, I remember."
He said to himself in a grim voice. Just the thought of the happenings filled him with more despair.
Everything was clear to him now, but he still could not remember what had happened that had rendered him in such a state.
His senses started coming back to him slowly, he could feel his arms and legs, but not entirely. It felt as if his body was being released from chains that had tightly bound him till now.
"They await you son, go on ahead." Said the same voice from before.
This time he could hear it better.
"Who is it?" He asked. There was no reply, as he had expected. But this time, he was almost sure that this voice was not inside his head.
"Where am I?" he asked, but there was no reply yet again.
Evarius waited for a few minutes, the ringing had completely vanished and now he could feel his entire body. His limbs which he thought had been severed were intact and he could feel the ground below his bare feet, covered in moist leaves. He could finally hear his surroundings. The sound of birds, the sound of flowing water and distant waves, the sound of the wind striking the leaves, the sound of frogs and insects, all the 'forest-y' sounds. But for some reason, he still could not see, the darkness of his eyes persisted. He tried to get up, but he was too weak to do so.
Putting all his body's weight on his right leg, and applying a force against the boulder with his left arm, he somehow managed to balance himself up on the ground. As his hand rested against the rock, he felt something slimy and wet below his palm.
"Algae?" He thought.
The touch of the algae and the wet leaves on the ground gave him hope. He drew out a conclusion that he must be somewhere with a moist atmosphere and usual rainfalls for algae to grow on rocks, and what would better suit this than the 'Cursed Green-forests' of Nordencia, his home kingdom.
"Perhaps I have not been stranded very far from home", Evarius was optimistic.
Now that he had a rough idea of where he could possibly be, he decided no longer to stay. I have to go back to them. But an obstacle still stood before him, the blindness of his eyes just won't go away. He looked around vigorously, blinked his eyes, squinted them, rubbed them, closed them tightly and opened them again, all in the hopes that the light of his eyes would return, but it didn't, no matter what he did.
He didn't remember being injured anywhere near his eyes, nor did he feel any pain in his eyes, which became all the more reason for his confusion.
"Why can't I see?" he cried, not very loudly.
There was silence for a few seconds and then the voice spoke again. "Do you wish to see?" it asked.
"Yes." Evarius replied instantly. He knew better than to ask questions this time, there wouldn't be any reply even if he did, he had thought to himself.
"Very well then, why don't you open your eyes?" The voice replied.
Evarius could've sworn that his eyes were wide open when he had heard the voice, yet somehow he found them closed at that very moment, tightly shut. He opened them slowly, letting the light in steadily, not all at once.
Upon opening his eyes, he found himself standing in the middle of a forest. He saw algae on the rock he was standing against and the moist leaves lying on the ground. It was exactly as he had guessed it, he was in a rainforest, except that it wasn't very similar to the 'Cursed Green-forest' back home. Truth be told, it wasn't like any forest he had ever seen in his life. But his conscience was convincing him otherwise, scared, perhaps, to accept the fact that he was lost.
The unknown surroundings made Evarius ask himself, "Where am I?"
He looked here and there, but all he could see was a dense growth of flora. He looked up and saw sunlight seeping through the tall canopies. One ray of sunlight hit his face, the warmth felt good, and somehow soothing.
He was so lost in making sense of his surroundings that he completely forgot about the voice. When he suddenly came to remember, he looked around anxiously, even though he had looked around plenty already. What if it is an enemy observing me from a distance, he thought to himself. But then again, him being stranded somewhere with an enemy didn't make much sense.
"Is anyone there?" He called out, he had not seen a single living being yet, except birds and insects.
"I know you talked to me. You can come out!" He shouted at no one.
As he had half expected, no one showed.
"It could all have been a dream." The thought struck him, and made much more sense than any other notion.
He had been standing in one place all this time, and decided to walk, to take a look around and find his way out of the dense forest.
"I'll follow the sound of the water", he decided. He was thirsty, his throat completely dry, and soon hunger started to take over. He slipped on his boots and went on ahead, still wary about the voice.
On his way, he tried his best to remember how he had ended up wherever he was. Having known the place might have helped him remember, but Evarius knew nothing. Then he thought that the person behind the voice might have been able to help him, whom he had been unable to find. The worry of his people and his comrades was eating him up.
"How many days has it been since the battle at the Red Sea? Did anyone survive the storm? Is everyone safe? Is mother safe? Did we win? Or did the 'Redblades' take control? What if my comrades need me? Would they be looking for me even in these dreadful times?" The questions pierced his mind like arrows. He knew that he couldn't escape them, not until he had all the answers.
"You're not WORTHY!!" the loud scream echoed in his ears, as he walked towards the sound of the stream, facing downwards in desolation.
When he finally found the stream, extremely thirsty and tired, there was no change in his mood, no cheer, and no happiness.
He stood near the bank and saw his own reflection in the water. He was wearing his shiny white armor, seeming as new as the day he had been sworn a proud 'White Knight'. It bore not a single scar from the various battles he had participated in, for the legendary 'Zaldorian' armor was believed to heal all its scars, at least the ones made by a blade. His cape fluttered in the wind with all its glory, and his majestic Dragon-head sword, which he had paid no heed to until now, rested at his waist, unsheathed, and shining in its might.
"False glory! False pride! False might!"
One ripple, and he saw his naked self in the reflection. The thought of everyone and everything back home had snatched away all his shiny clothing, and had left him stripped, feeling utterly shameful and helpless.
One more ripple, and he saw his clothed self again. He put away his sword, and bent down, washed his hands in the water, then washed his face. The water was cold, but extremely clean. Finally, he drank the water, one handful, then another, then another, and so on, until his thirst was satisfied.
He took out a small, corked, container meant for wine, and filled it with water.
He got up and looked at the sky. "Night is close", he whispered.
He went on to hunt and collect some woods and logs for a bonfire, having decided to rest for the night.
He set up a camp and lit a fire. He had hunted a bird, for he couldn't find anything else, but he had no wish to eat, his hunger had vanished.
He stared at the flames, rising and dying down constantly.
In all of his life, Evarius had never felt so alone…