Throne room:
I sighed as I leaned back into the throne,
The white robes Adam wore clinged to my body like a second skin.
The coldness permeating from the throne seeped through it bringing a chill down my spine.
The throne room grew eerie and silent, the shadows and lights grew stranger and stranger, the kneeling figures started distorting and the distance between the drawn door increased.
Staying here may seem frightening but I would choose this over marching like a corpse anyday.
I gently touched my stomach, the hollowness was gone and the creeping hunger had disappeared.
I was finally free from starvation.
I smiled, how long has it been since I genuinely smiled?
Safe.
I felt safe.
When was the last time I felt safe?
When?
Oh I remember when..
My body jolted, I stood up.
How long..
How long has been since I started observing Adam?
My barefoot made contact with the chilling floor, the demons raised their heads as they flared at me.
The flesh lump looked similar to those ancient humans.
Hair, teeth, mouth, tongue, ear, nose etc.
An amalgamation.
Nature nor god had any hand in the creation of those creatures.
The flesh squirmed on the ground, I stepped over it.
The shadows on the ground made for the illusion of a great pit threatening to swallow me whole, I stepped over it.
The demons glared at me, waiting to rip me to shreds as I approached them, I walked passed them.
When was the last time I felt safe?
The cocoon.
But was I truly safe inside that cocoon?
No.
Not at all.
So what would be the difference between this place and the cocoon.
I ran towards the door, even if it is not real, I will break these walls to escape.
What happened to my body?
Is it marching on like a dead soul, wandering without purpose?
Or has it been turned into a lump of clouds?
Or did the starvation shatter my mind and all this is a fragment of my imagination?
Who knows.
I ran.
The shadows loomed over, trying to stop but I didn't surrender.
Just as I was about to reach the door, I stepped on a shadow.
No it wasn't a shadow, not a normal one.
A pit of darkness.
I fell.
The momentary confusion forced me to look up, my eyes glued to the last bit of light coming from the surface till they all disappeared.
I landed with a splash, sticky liquid dripping all over my body.
A metallic and rotten smell wafted my nose.
A smell I was a bit too familiar with.
The smell of corpses.
The fragrance used to decorate the blood well.
It was complete darkness, the cold liquid constantly forcing me to swim for air.
The well wasn't fully filled, if it was I would be dead.
Only the bottom was filled and the depth was more than thrice my size.
Torture.
You'd have to constantly stay awake not to drown and the eternal darkness would shatter your brain.
But I don't have any time to waste here, this is nothing but a dream, a vision.
I need to return to reality.
Escape from this dream.
But how?
Dream...
If you sleep you will at times dream.
I can wait.
I'm patient.
But not now.
I closed my eyes, trying to fall asleep maybe I can sleep in my dream to wake up?
I don't even know.
I'm desperate.
If I lose my body in the reality I will lose everything.
I haven't built my legacy yet.
I haven't satisfied my curiosity yet.
I can't stop here.
The freezing liquid which I assume to be blood doesn't seem to get the idea.
Just how am I supposed to sleep here.
I just want to return.
I can endure the starvation and thrust just..
Just let me return.
Trapped.
I'm trapped.
My legs constantly paddled, keeping me afloat, the water sometimes accidentally leaks into my mouth.
The rotten blood was awful.
I can taste..
If.
What if, what if this actually was my body?
No no let's not go there.
I'm desperate but delusions won't solve it.
Just how can I escape this?
Nothing is here to save me?
What am I supposed to do now!?
Pray?
Beg for a god that would waste his time on something else rather than helping their subjects?
Beg?
Beg who?
Fight?
How?
Succumb to it?
Surrender..
Surrendering seems nice.
Doesn't it.
A temporal releif for eternal suffering seems nice, doesn't it.
I raised my hand from the water and gripped my throat tight.
I gritted my teeth and ripped my throat off.
It hurts.
The sleep deprivation and starvation from before had kept my brain distracted during the fight with those undeads.
But now?
I was completely awake.
Not completely.
I'm still trapped inside a vision.
A vision of the past.
Blood rapidly gushed out from my throat, warm blood met cold blood, my eyelids seemed heavy and they dropped.
No regeneration.
The blessing of the horned god was nowhere to be seen.
My body lost control as I slowly fell to the bottom.
Losing consciousness..
Or so I thought.
'Why aren't I dying yet?'
It was still there.
Even when the cold blood covered my open eyes, when my whole body sunk, it was there.
My body was still working.
I inhaled the cold and pungent blood, drowning myself.
But despite that, I was still alive.
Oh, how I envy those who died during the sacrifice.
And thus Cassian sunk deeply, into the cold and deep well, hidden by darkness.
He was lost in time.
He was lost in a vision of the past.
He was drowned by it.
********
Marching clouds:
Callon sighed, the constant reminder for food ringing in his stomach has been unanswered for a long time.
His shoulders were slumped, his knees were sore from walking but he knew he can't rest.
Rest equals death.
...
Cassian was nowhere to be seen.
And I think I won't be able to find him too.
A shame really.
He was a good ally and he knew when to keep his silence about the incident regarding Elgor.
Truly a shame.
The scent of apples around here frustrated me to no end.
You can consume it but death will follow afterwards.
What a messed up place.
The lands of no return, truly a force of destruction and death.
The fog started to clear, the layer around me has expanded upto 6 meters and I could see the giants before they can't even enter the layer.
The fog was that thin.
I have to hope for a safe zone after passing this area.
I hope the safe zone isn't nothing like the starry dunes or anything like that.
They have no resources.
Well you can enter th kingdom of Astreaea from the starry dunes but not all could be said about the others.
And the chances of me getting a safe is zone close to zero.
I wouldn't mind an area filled with people too, either they would 'accidentally' stumble upon me and offer me help or I'd start pillaging.
There's no other options.
Just as I was thinking about pillaging, a figure appeared in the distance.
A single marching figure.
Excitement rose in my heart, there's only one person and I can dispose his body easily too.
I walked towards him but he didn't react.
The fog concealed his noticable features unless I got close.
I approached him with slow steps.
Him?
Still the same, the same rhythm, the same pace and no change in posture.
Paranoia kicked in, that thing seemed a bit inhumane to be moving like that.
It was too late for realisation as it came face to face.
And yes it was inhumane.
It made me speechless.
A marching corpse with no resemblance to an alive human.
It started to walk past me but I stopped it from moving forward.
My hand gripped it's shoulder, I could feel the skin sticking to the bones as if it's a part of it.
It's face turned towards me.
A face I could never forget no matter how little time we spent.
Cassian has lost it.