Awake

The second installment of Mareth's adventures finds her where we left off in The Old Manor House Secret. She had managed to find the hidden door to the abandoned underground basement. After she entered, she was attacked by an invisible force that knocked her unconscious.

Track:Valhalla ~ BrunuhVille

Mareth floated for a time in a darkness so thick and dense that she feared that she had unexpectedly fallen into the depths of the world between life and death. She had read the texts but to experience this for herself was a marvel had she not been so afraid.

She lost track of how long she had been floating, time was different here. She could feel its flow and yet she could not quite grasp or understand its language. Even her body felt weightless, un-moored, cut from its very foundation. At first, when the darkness began to recede, she fancied she had imagined it, that her eyes, if she had them deceived her. Yet the light grew in size and intensity until she felt her feet land on soft ground. To her sight, it looked like fine sand. She knelt and scooped a handful, letting the grains fall through her fingers. It was then she noticed she had a body once more, the very body she remembered, the one she had cared for all these years. She raised her head and gazed out at the scene before her. Sand for miles and miles as far as the eye could see. An endless swell of it winding into oblivion.

Where am I? The thought formed in her mind and echoed around her, filling the space outside her physical being. And a voice answered.

Who are you? Why are you here?

She felt a sharp pull, a tug that she could not resist and then she was flying backwards, back the way she had come until the light and sand was swallowed up again, vanishing as if it had never been. She groaned. The sound was different, more present. Her body ached, her head pounded.

She pried her eyes open, first one, then the other. The soft glow of lit torches met her gaze and she blinked. She was leaning against cold stone, the rough texture dug into her back and a musty scent filled her nose. As she came slowly awake, the din of voices registered finally in her mind.

"Did you really have to hit her that hard?" it was a male voice, young and deep.

"I didn't mean to. I can't control this yet." the second voice was younger but also male. There was a tremble in his words.

"Well, let's hope we didn't kill her. That will be all we need. Another group of people hunting us down." there was a sigh and the sound of footsteps coming closer.

"Uh Jamal ... I think she's awake."

She stared at the two young boys. One tall, one short. They looked like any other travellers she had seen on the roads but there was a strange aura that surrounded the shorter man. There was something about him that made her shrink away.

She licked dry lips and swallowed. "Who - who are you?"



...to be continued...