IT WAS DEFINITELY NOT A DREAM.
Arthur awakened slowly, groaning from the hell his body was in. He felt pain everywhere; from the crown of his head, to the sole of his feet. Even his tongue was not left out from the pain.
He blinked, trying to make sense of his environment when the memories began to come back to him. They came slowly; the rabbit running off into the forest when he had been trying to kill it for dinner, him running after the rabbit and following its footsteps, finding it at the clearing, falling into the hole.
Arthur's eyes widened and he tried to shoot to his feet but the pain that ricocheted through him, pushed him back to the cold hard floor. His head felt like a battle had taken place on it and there were no survivors and his arms were broken – he had been right.
He groaned in frustration, wondering how long it was that he had been laying here, in this hole and how deep it was. He glanced up, noting the full moon overhead which stared down at him as if mocking the situation he was in.
His uncle would have been back home several hours ago and would probably be worried by now. Arthur never wandered off without saying where he was going and giving a good reason why he was leaving the cottage.
It was not that Arthur was a good kid whom Barnet could trust, no, it was far from that. It was that Arthur had no friends in the village and would rather spend all of his days training than socializing. He wondered if his uncle had gone in search of him and hoped the search brought him this way.
Would anyone even know he was in here?
"Help!" he shouted, coughing as the dry walls of his throat choked on the words. "Help!" he shouted once more. He froze as he heard the low, monstrous growl of an animal and the memory of what he had last seen before he became unconscious flashed in his vision.
Shit! He swore. Was that not a dream?
He tried to glance around the dark pit – even the light from the moon did not reach all the way here – but his stiff neck refused to move. He heard the low growl again, before he saw the animal, advancing slowly towards his limp body.
The animal was unlike anything he had ever laid eyes on. Its head was bigger than that of a tiger – and Arthur had seen tigers in various sizes, it was one of the perks of being a tracker – its mouth was large, almost as large as its head and it oozed spittle.
Arthur tried to lean back, to move away from this hideous beast but his body which was battered by the fall would not move. He thought of screaming for help, but something told him the beast would not like that, it was his nose which had caused the beast's anger just now.
He thought of playing dead? Was that not why the beast had not eaten him before? Maybe it did not feed on things which it thought was dead. But he couldn't take that risk. What if the moment he closed his eyes and pushed out his tongue to try and appear dead, he became a beast snack?
The beast kept advancing – Arthur was just now noticing how large the pit he had fallen in was – and he fell on a small stick. He gripped it immediately, wrapping his bruised fingers around it and pointing it at the beast.
"Don't come any closer." He shouted, as though the beast could understand the words he spoke. "Don't. come. any. closer." He repeated, gritting his teeth.
The beast roared in his face – Arthur wrinkled his nose from the stench – and knew that he had somehow angered the beast. It was now too close for his liking and with one swipe of its giants, Arthur found himself flying through the air and landing with a bone-breaking crunch on the wall of the pit.
He landed on the ground with a resounding thud and the beast growled once more, getting ready for another attack.
Arthur was not ready for what happened next and neither was the beast.
As the beast charged him, Arthur knew that this was the end. He closed his eyes, waiting for the blow which would knock him out, or the pain which would flood him as the beast's fangs dug into his flesh but after a while, he felt nothing.
He opened his eyes slowly, stunned and mesmerized by the scene that unfolded before him. The beast lay on the ground, lifeless, its body was as though it had been slashed by a thousand swords and there was something else.
A light which had not been present before in the pit. An energy which he now felt pulsating and throbbing through every vein and artery in his body. The foreign feeling which was seated in his stomach and most of all, the threads which seemed to be everywhere.
He closed his eyes, maybe the beast had eaten him or killed him with a skull-crushing blow and now, he was at the other side. The place they called oblivion where people went after they died.
Yet, something told him he was not dead. He could still feel the pain his body was in, the ragged state which falling from such a height had left him in. He could still feel his breath – which came out strangled – could dead men breathe?
And the burning in his lungs. He touched his head, noting the dried blood which had now stuck with his hair and was convinced that he was still alive.
Then what was this? His heart pulsated with the answer but he could not understand it. The light which not only emanated from the thread which seemed to pulse, following the rhythm of his heart, but also from his body, warmed him and he could feel most of his wounds healing.
Arthur closed his eyes and sighed.
Definitely, this was a dream. A dream which somehow resembled reality and he did not want to wake from that dream.