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Yup that's me, the noobie writer! It originally started with just wanting to write a few paragraphs to explain how my character survives 250 years into Guild Wars 2 but soon a few paragraphs turned into more. It's ripe with grammatical errors I'm sure but I thought I would share it anyway hehe. The whole thing will be about ten chapters, more or less. Stay tuned! (lol)
Preface
In the advent of the end of the era a girl was born, her name was Izzy.
She lived a relatively peaceful life until one day her and her parents were captured while traveling to Lions Arch from Ascalon. They were all held in captivity by a gang of low life bandits who stole their belongings and eventually killed Izzy's parents in cold blood. One night they decided to finish the job. They came at Izzy with a knife hoping to kill her in her sleep. What they didn't realize is that she was laying awake thinking about her parents deaths. She rolled off her sleeping matt right before they ran the knife through her, she grabbed a broken bottle and smacked it hard against the first guys temple. He rolled to the ground holding his head and moaning, the other bandit tried to grab her but she had already grabbed the knife from the first guy. Right as the second bandit was trying to grab her Izzy ran the knife through his chest as hard as she could, with fire in her eyes she finished off the first guy and then ran into the wild.
She learned how to craft her own bow and arrows, how to cook whatever happened to be around, how to make a shelter, and how to survive in the wild. She was a natural with the bow and soon became an expert shot. She destroyed enemies with vengeance but always kept her mercy and honor, rarely attacking first.
She soon met her best friend in the wild, a tiger who she named Susumu. She met Susumu in a dragons lair where they were both outmatched by the overwhelming strength of a bone dragon, but together they used their combined whit and might to destroy the dragon. Normally the tiger would have tried to attack and kill Izzy but this was different, they both had a common enemy and their only choice for survival was to work together to kill it. Susumu and Izzy have been together ever since and hopefully will be into the foreseeable future.
[edit] Chapter 1: Sliver of Fight
I awake, like many times before only this time I felt different. I couldn't feel my legs or any other part of my body. Looking down I could not see my feet but I knew they were there. There was something off and I was not in control of my movements. The feeling of cold and darkness was overwhelming, closing in on me and towering above like twisted monoliths of evil. I had only a sense, of what I was and memories of the past that seemed intensely vague now, as if my mind was in a fog. My heart was numb but thankfully I could feel it beating. Then, instant struck! Realization and consciousness took over my body as if it was never lost. Like my soul was now back inside my being, I could feel my own warmth again. I sat up, I was in pitch black and there was nothing above or below me, like I was drifting off into space alone. But there, I saw something! A reflection of light perhaps, off in the distance twinkling like a star. The light was not white, in fact the colour of the light can not really be described. But it was there, alone in the dark like me. Just a reflection, as if something was casting light on to it from nowhere. Suddenly it was closer, and closer, and closer until it was right on top of me. Hovering in front of my eyes very closely, but it wouldn't let me touch it. There were a million of the lights, everywhere, swarming around me twirling around. Then they started joining one another as they formed a figure right in front of my eyes. It became brighter and brighter until it enveloped my entire body, then all I saw was blackness as I passed out.
"Wake up human!" came a voice that woke me up. Things were in clear view and nothing was in a fog. Had I just had a bad dream? But then again there was a being staring down at me and it had just spoken something, and I'm sure I would have remembered a creature this ugly. "Follow me." The creature said. "Who, who are you?" I replied. "Do no speak!" it said in a drawn out tone that sounded like a machine grinding. "We are being watched." It lunged out from the dark and jumped into the sky as if it defied gravity. I could see it's shadow above me and then zooming off into the distance. I didn't see many other options so I hauled myself up and started walking towards where the creature was waiting. As I got closer to the being I noticed things were getting lighter and lighter around me. Even my own body seemed to be less transparent looking. I finally caught up with the being and by that time everything was pretty much in normal lighting. I was in a swamp forest and there was fog all around us, hiding the ground. I could see the being for what it was now. It stood towering above me, it must have been at least twenty feet high. It had no arms but instead six tentacles that shot out from it's back. They were pitch black and they seemed to expand to great lengths at will. It's head was inside it's chest area and it had no eyes, only a sliver where light came out. It's mouth looked like metallic fangs and pointed painfully upward straight through it's own body. All other features would require a closer look and I decided against that. "We can speak now human, for a short time." it said. "Where am I and where is my tiger, Susumu? He was with me a few moments ago" I said. "Human, this place exists in another time, there are no 'moments' ago and I do not know where your tiger is." "Why should I trust you?" I responded. "If you want to wander the swamps, be my guest but I think you'll find the wildlife less than friendly." At that the being lunged into the air and zoomed into the distance again. This thing sure isn't much for conversation I thought to myself.
It led me to a camp with ghostly humans. They had shelters and the camp was surrounded by steel walls that were glowing with some sort of protective magic. There were about twenty-five to thirty ghostly humans in the camp, I couldn't tell for sure because some would come and go, bringing back supplies in baskets from outside the walls. They called the camp and it's surrounding area Rhodorok. The ground was black because of bad magic and everything there looked like it had been burned. They gave me a shelter of my own and some food that was hard and stale. Yummy, this will make a good weapon I thought to myself.
I was laying inside my tent when I began to hear whispers coming from outside. I leaned in closer to the thin torn walls to better make out what they were saying. "You brought a human here? You fool! The human is not a ghostly, this is a clear breach of rules!" Said an unknown voice. "Quite I will deal with it. She will never make it out alive." The familiar metallic sound hissed. Make it out of my shelter? The camp? I thought to myself. Where is Susumu? It hit me then. I had no idea what I was doing before I woke up in the darkness. I must have some kind of amnesia or be under some kind of spell. Well at least I had some sense of myself, I knew who I was and that I needed to find Susumu and get out of here. "A mortal even! She will never be able to make it out of the The Rift. She will be trapped here forever. You better be sure though, kill her quickly while she sleeps." At that I whirled around and kicked the side of the shelter that was opposite from the ghostly and the creature. I sneaked around the side of the shelter and looked around. There were about fifteen shelters in all, scattered about. I jackknifed it to the nearest one and crept my way along the edges being careful not to be seen. "She's escaped!" The unknown voice said as it lifted the flap to my shelter. "She must have heard us, find her! Now!" Okay, I've got to figure a way out of this camp to start with I thought. The ghostlies take supplies in and out of an exit to the east end, that's probably my best bet. I ran to the next shelter and repeated until I had gotten close enough to see the exit. It was closed, damn! "Over there!" The metallic creature lunged into the sky and started twirling downward probably hoping to kill me in one pounce. Okay I've got to play this right I thought. I waited for what seemed like forever, then the instant before the being landed I lunged to the right and somersaulted onto my feet running. Some sort of explosion launched me into the air and into the dirt. The being was stunned but not for long, how am I going to outrun this thing? Who knows when that door was going to open. Shit, I'm going to have to open it manually. I had to plan this exactly or I was going to be dead. I ran over to the door and shouted, "I'm over here ugly!" As planned it lunged into the air and I could see the shadow move over me and become larger and larger. Inhale, exhale, the world seemed to be in slow motion and the shadow was nearly on top of me. With springs in my feet I lunged again and hit the tainted dirt full force, grinding my hands into it to slow my fall. I turned my head around, my plan had worked! The door was blown out of it's robotic like hinges and fell right on the being. I could see a few crushes tentacles laying around the door. Time to go I thought! "What have you done!" Yelled the unknown voice that I could now see as being a ghostly figure. "You've just killed a guardian of The Rift!" He fell on his knees and he screamed in a terrible voice as something huge appeared before him and ran him through. I started running and didn't look back. I ran like there was no tomorrow, using my hands to grab everything I could push myself off of, leaping over dank swamp ponds and streams. By now my adrenaline was peaking and had no idea the extent of any injuries I had.
[edit] Chapter 2: The Raven
The trees in the forest were dead and the limbs of the trees twisted down, grabbing you. They were low to the ground and scattered about like they were searching for a spot to survive. This barren land was hardly inhabitable. I came to the top of a hill and stood still for a few minutes to looked around me. I noticed giant black spires to the east of me and they looked very man made. There were six of them, each one curved toward the center. They looked like skeleton fingers pointing to something. I cocked my head sideways and wondered what could be in the middle. Well, I have no where else to go I thought. Might as well take a look, maybe I can find something down there that will help me. I took a step forward, "Ahh!" I shrieked and fell to the ground. I looked down at the back of my leg and saw a charred burnt section of flesh, "Well that certainly doesn't look healthy" I said out loud. Best patch that up the best I can until I find some way to clean it, I thought to myself. I tore off the bottom part of my shirt and wrapped it around my leg, making sure to cover the burnt parts. "C'mon Izzy it could be worse." I thought and laughed through pain, trying to make light of the gruesome situation.
Trecking down the slope that led toward the spires was slow, often painful. Once I got down towards the flat terrain the dead trees became thicker and eventually they started becoming fuller and some of them even had leaves, dead and brown though they were. *Caw... Caw!* I head overheard. Startled I looked up to see a raven flying above me, It seemed to be circling me. "At least I'm not the only thing in these woods." I said as I tried to smile. "Though I imagine one must be in pretty bad shape to find a raven circling your head comforting." Still, at least I wasn't the only living thing in this wretched forest.
On I went, as the woods got thicker I had to move the limbs out of the way to keep going. I wasn't even sure I was going to right way now, I was following an old trail where the ground was less black but now everything was overgrown. Then I saw something, I brushed the branch out of my way to get a better look and there it was. The base of the giant pitch black twisting spire! I got closer and the trees suddenly ended, I looked up and there they all were. Four spires staring upwards, curved toward the middle, I wondered who built them and why. There was nothing in the middle except dirt, "Wait a second... dirt?!" I involuntarily spewed. Up until now the ground was damned and black but in the middle of these spires the ground was light brown. That must mean something was living here... Or these pillars are keeping out the magic. As I walked toward the center I felt a cool breeze pick up and vanish then pick up again. The wind became so strong I had to hold onto one of the pillars. I watched in awe as the wind picked up some dirt and started to shape it into a figure. It was a ghostly! "Not again..." I thought. Then as suddenly as the wind had arrived it had left.
"Hello Izzy." Said the ghost comfortably.
"How do you know my name?" I asked daringly.
"Oh where are my manners, I am Erand and I know your name because we've been watching you." Said the ghost.
"Now why would you want to watch me?" I replied.
"Because... well this is a little hard to explain." The ghost said.
"Try! I'm not exactly in the mood for games." I snapped.
"Okay, I suppose I better start from the beginning." He said sighing.
"I am part of a council. A council that oversees and keeps order inside The Rift. We make all of the decisions here. What we will to be done, is done. Just like how I formed in front of you, this is only part of the magical capabilities that we possess."
"Okay, but why am I here?" I interjected.
The ghostly sighed again. "I'm getting to that. See, with all of this magical power comes corruption. Some of us have reason to believe there have been abuses of power within the council. However, we are powerless to do anything, even if we had evidence. It would break the rules set by the gods of the rift. We are no more capable of breaking their laws anymore than you are of breaking the rule of gravity."
"How can there be corruption in the council, wouldn't the gods have made a rule against that?" I asked.
"Though The Rifts may seem harsh and unforgiving, the gods made sure that everyone here have free will. Even if they choose evil, that is their choice that must be dealt with. That's where you come in." The ghost said. "A ghost can never harm another ghost, so we needed a loophole. You are a human being that exists outside the rules." Said the ghost.
"I won't be living for much longer at the rate I'm going." I said, sighing. "Okay... say I take this little quest up, what would I have to do?" I asked inquisitively. "We need you to kill the corrupt members, there is no other way to get them off the council." He said, pausing. "Since you can't kill them with physical objects, you have to go to the temple on the hills over there." He pointed towards a tall golden pyramid shaped structure I hadn't noticed until now. "Inside you will find an ancient arcane staff. It is specially crafted and can destroy beings in the afterlife."
Wait a second, I said. "Not to sound rude or anything, I mean you obviously have issues here in err, The Rift but I just want to get out of here. I can't go on some crazy quest right now just because of some corrupt politicians." "I understand." Said the ghost. "However, there is no way out. You will die of old age and then be trapped here as a ghost under control of a corrupt council. The first camp you came to was just a taste of how bad it can get. Those guardians you met were evil doers controlled by the politicians thoughts." He said, nodding his head once.
"So let me get this straight, you brought me here on a one way ticket to deaths ville with no way back just to go on a scavenger hunt?" I said.
"There was no one else that could get to The Rift, it had to be you. You were broken..." His last words droned out, the wind swept by and blew him away into the wind and I was left alone again in silence. What did you mean by broken? My thoughts echoed inside my own head.
[edit] Chapter 3: Beauty in Despair
I've always thought the darkness was peaceful but tonight I was starting to wonder what lay ahead for me out there in the unknown. There was a silence enveloping everything now, even the trees. The sun had gone down and I sat shivering on the freezing ground where the former ghost had been, or was he ever really there at all? It all seemed so distant now. I hadn't moved since my last encounter, either because I was still trying to wrap my mind around what happened or because it seemed like the safest place to be. It was probably a little of both. My crippling wounds were stinging rather badly at this point to say the least and my problems got a lot worse from there. I had no bearing, no idea where Susumu was and no idea where to start looking. I thought back to how I got through most tough situations, just take it slow and try not to get eaten by anything.
Staring up at the sky I saw two moons rising from behind the mountains, one of them appeared to be cracked and there were bits floating around it. The moon had always given me energy somehow and tonight it seemed stronger than ever. I suddenly felt much better, I looked down at my wounds and they looked like they were healing much faster than before. I flung out my hand and grabbed one of the spires and climbed my way up it until I was at a hunched stance and finally made my way to standing. The moons lit the area well and I could see off in the distance the golden pyramid still sitting there, agelessly. I suddenly felt better and I felt as if some strange force was flowing through me. My wounds started to tingle and I unwrapped my former shirt to reveal a nearly un scathed leg. I felt less hungry now, though I still could have gone for a nice warm meal. "Well now, that's interesting." I thought. I stared at the two moons again and wondered if they held some sort of healing power. Feeling revived I started off into the forest, glancing back once and pausing to stare at the spot I had felt so weary in a few moments ago.
I walked most of the night, navigating by unknown constellations. I couldn't shake what the ghost's last words were to me, I kept playing them over and over in my head, what did he mean by broken? I could not see anything but trees now and the pyramid was nowhere in sight. Suddenly I felt like there was something alive in the forest besides me, I looked over my shoulder to see something white darting between trees. Instinct took over and I readied myself for a fight. Then I saw something else dart past, this thing was black and was much larger compared to whatever the other thing was. Then I heard a sound that made my whole body tense, a loud roaring sound of a tiger in a fight. I rushed as fast as possible to where the sound was coming from. There I saw it, my eternal companion Susumu wresting with a rift guardian. He had sank his teeth into the monster and it was now oozing a darkish thick looking blood. The guardian swung it's tentacles around like a whip, making cracking sounds as they snapped back. Susumu dodged each one and kept his distance. I took action and charged the guardian, laying a swift jab to the gaping wound Susumu had left. The guardian whirled around and shot it's tentacles at me, one of them nicked my arm leaving a clean cut. I rolled to the side barely missing the other tentacles. Susumu, seeing an opportunity to attack preceded to lunge at the beings back, dragging his claws all the way down the length of it's body. The guardian made what I suspect was a screaming sound and turned around to face his attacker. By now I was up and circled around to Susumu, I locked eyes with my companion for a second and you could see in his eyes he was glad to see a familiar face. The guardian whipped it's tentacles at us but Susumu had already acted, slicing one of the tentacles off with his razor sharp claws. The guardian shrieked and flew off into the night air.
[edit] Chapter 4: Striped Sky
"Susumu!" I shouted gleefully. Susumu ran towards me and playfully pounced on my stomach, giving me a loving lick on the cheek. "I missed you too!" I laughed. I wondered how we had been separated and if he had been as disoriented as me when he had woken up in this place. I sat up to pet Susumu and maul over the events that that had occurred since my arrival. I was brought here against my will, that much was sure. Why bring my companion though, and just how does a ghost bring someone or something into the rift in the first place? I wondered if I could use the same way in, as an out. I thought hard and searched my mind to where I was before I came here, I started at the day before. I had been traveling to my Guild Hall for the annual Halloween event due in a few weeks, I was traveling by foot from the Hot Springs to Lion's Arch and from there I was going to catch a ship headed to the guild isle. I looked deeper into my mind for the answers but whenever I came close to what happened during and directly before the crossover, things became blurry and I lost my train of thought. "Ugh." I said in frustration. I gave Susumu one last pat on the head and stood up. There was a small stream under some fallen trees and I scooped some of the water up. It did not look like ordinary water, it looked like someone had poured white dye into it upstream. "Oh well..." I thought and splashed some on my face. It was cold but refreshing.
On I marched through the vast forest towards the location I thought to be the temple. Suddenly the trees ended and there was a massive plain standing before me. The trees had just stopped, all in a straight line and as far to the left and right as the eye could see. In front of me there was nothing but emptiness and sand with the occasional hill. Susumu looked back into the trees and I caught the feeling he was glad to be out of there too, at least we could see if something was going to try to kill us out here. There was a tall valley far off in the distance and I assumed it led to the temple. A new planet resembling the sun but much duller and silver in color was rising, giving off much more light than the moons. Thick dark clouds were rolling in over the plains and I figured I would rather face them than the forest again. "One foot in front of the other Susumu... err in your case it's one paw in front of the other." I said and looked over at my white striped companion. I glanced suspiciously one last time at the forest to make sure nothing was going to follow us out of there before me and my old friend braved the storm.
We made it about half way to the valley before things started getting bad. The wind was getting faster and picking up the dust and throwing it into our eyes. I made a makeshift mask from torn pieces of my shirt and wrapped them around my head to keep the dust out of my mouth, but it was still brutal on the eyes and it stung when the grains hit your skin. Before long the wind was picking up the sand so much I couldn't see but a foot in front of me. "Susumu!" I yelled. My friend was having a harder time than me, he had been lagging behind for a while and now I couldn't see where he was. I searched around and shouted his name again hoping he could hear me. I felt a sudden nuzzle on my leg, "Whew" I thought. "Lets bunker down in those dunes." I told Susumu and pointed to a nice hill rising up from the wind. I hoped it would give us some wind resistance. When we got there we both laid flat on the ground and waited for the wind to die.
It was a good two hours before the harsh winds finally let up. I had faced things like this before in the deserts in Tyria but nothing this severe. I slowly raised my head from the sand and got up to look around. We were closer to the valley now and I could see clearly inside. Something especially caught my eye, a glimmer, like a polished coin in the sunlight. It was resting itself on some rocks towards the entrance to the valley. I began double timing it towards the valley with Susumu on my tail, we made it there in no time but what I saw made me wish I was back in the wind storm.
[edit] Chapter 5: Remains of the Fallen
In front of me lay a tattered valley and the smell of death was ripe within it's walls. Skeletons that had once seen flesh now littered the walls in pieces. I guessed the bodies had been ravaged by the intense winds because further into the valley where the wind was no more I found full skeletal remains with their armor and swords still intact. There were at least a hundred good fighters dead and they had various markings from different guilds. A few of the guild capes were still stuck underneath a rock or caught in the blade of a sword, flapping in the breeze. Reminiscences of past glory now haunted this valley. I must admit it was a foreboding sight to see so many corpses on the same route that I was taking towards the temple, if it happened to these good warriors it could easily happen to me.
I moved cautiously and on full alert through the valley, making sure not to disturb any remains. Most of the bodies were strewn across the sides of the valley but the occasional corpse or stray bone would cause me to tense up and watch my footing. After a mile or so into the chasm I noticed everything became still, there was no wind or noise from any direction and all I could hear was my own heart beating. I became fixated on the sound for a moment and in a weird way felt comforted by it. Thump, thump thump... "Woah!" I yelped as I was swept off my feet, hitting the unforgiving terrain. The ground shook violently ahead of me, sending a shock wave of power through the death ridden valley. As I tried to regain my footing I caught another glimpse of a shock wave flying full force towards me. This one was at least triple the size and density and was picking up rocks like feathers, sending them hurling towards me. "Susumu, move!" I yelled and ducked behind the sturdiest looking boulder I could find, collapsing into the fetal position and covering my head for added protection. The wave raged past me with the intensity of a tidal wave, destroying everything in it's path. I immediately looked over to check on my companion who was safely tucked away in a small cave, hidden behind a cluster of rocks. The wave swept by but I had little time for thought as I felt yet another shock wave brewing in the distance. I took this split second to act and sprinted across the ravine, throwing myself into the small opening just as the viscous shock wave sped past. Whew, too close. I thought.
The cave Susumu had discovered was almost too narrow, leaving just enough room to inch my way inside and hopefully not get stuck in the process. "You sure know how to pick 'em." I said smiling to my partner who was looking up at me inquisitively. With no torches or lighting to lead the way I gently held onto Susumu's fur with one hand and felt along the wall with the other, sliding through the cave in a conga line fashion. Before long I was deep into the cave the only light was emanating from the entrance, which was now a tiny speck far behind. The darkness began creeping over me and I started to feel lost and disoriented. I started to wonder if the cave even led to anything and if I would get wedged trying to go back if whatever it led to was not inviting. I was panicking and thoughts poured uncontrollably through my head, but one idea stood above all the rest and I recognized fear is the enemy in tight situations like this. I halted my expedition to pet Susumu for a moment and cleared my mind of all thoughts, good or bad.
Before long reality snapped back in the form of an intense pain coming from my formerly injured leg. I reached down and felt a trickle of blood coming from the wound in my leg. "Well that's no good." I said as I realized the power of the moon was not healing, it was illusion. I had little choice now but to continue on, but as I stepped forward the cave walls abruptly curved outward and opened up into what I assumed to be a large cavern. My heart jumped as I spotted a faint green glow radiating from one side of the cavern. I strode quickly towards the light, then I stopped and stared at the amazing sight before me. Hundreds of crystal flowers were blooming from the walls and glowing a beautiful light green, illuminating the entire cavern. They were all different shapes and sizes, made of small crystals forming them into various shapes of flowers. I gently touched one of the flowers and they did not break, so I plucked one from the walls and fit it snugly into my belt. I extracted a few more and made a bundle to equal a torches light. I basked in the beauty for a few last seconds and then enthusiastically headed back out into the dark, knowing that I could probably find my way back to the cavern if I had to.
I pushed on through the untouched cave and soon I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. The light led me to a small opening in the ceiling of the cave. I set my bouquet torch on the ground and set to work. First hoisting myself to the opening, then using the nearby walls to force my way through the opening. Once I was topside I saw I was only a stones throw away from my quest destination. The temple stood in full view and it's massive golden stairway led directly inside the mammoth structure.
[edit] Chapter 6: That Sinking Feeling
Looking at the massive temple wasn't just looking at a golden pyramid, I saw the temple as my possible salvation out of The Rift. The stars were shining brightly in the sky, twinkling to each other in the heavens and the night felt warm, but not humid. For the first time since I had been brought here I felt like everything was going to be okay. Sure the whole thing was crazy and I still had no idea what I was doing, but now I felt like I could do whatever it is I needed to do to escape.
Susumu bounded out of the cave and strode up beside me to scan the area for edible substances. My stomach growled. "I'm afraid you won't find anything here partner, this whole place looks void of wildlife." I knew we could both go for a hot meal and a warm bed, but there was still work to be done.
The entrance into the temple was hard to miss, two huge silver doors were fixed on the side of the pyramid. Each doorway had large, foreign glyph symbols deeply indented into the frames, bordering along the edges. Opening these massive doors could be a problem, especially since they looked like they were made of a thick metal of some kind. I sat down to contemplate the issue but I ended up dozing off and waking up several hours later to Susumu nudging me. I stretched my arms. "Yes, I'm up, I'm up." Susumu looked at me and then ran toward the doors and planted both tiger sized paws on them. "What on earth..." I thought and groggily walked toward the doors. I glided my hands across the main section of the door, then moved my hand toward the glyphs. As soon as my fingers touched the symbol it lit up like a burst of candles and I took a couple steps back. The light spread from one glyph to the next and to the other door as they lit up the night sky. Then the doors began to creak open. "Aha!" I looked at Susumu who had a smug expression on his face. I laughed. "You're too smart for your own good, Mr."
The doors came to a halt and we cautiously stepped inside the temple. I snatched a torch from the wall and lit it using the glyphs. Inside the temple there were a lot of side passages and I ended up with a lot of directions to choose from. I thought out loud, "Straight is always a good choice, right?" After walking a few feet into the temple I realized the place was infested with cobwebs. Tons of them, and not just the standard flimsy cobwebs either. These were more like the cobwebs I had seen Dune Spiders make when I was in Elona. I moved a cobweb out of my face. "Large spiders always give me the creeps."
We made our way into a new chamber with a marble tile floor and I swung the torch around the survey the area. The marble looked old and dusty but I could tell at one time it was probably glossy and shiny. It was a fairly large chamber with what looked like a statue in the center. We had been walking about thirty minutes into the temple and everything was completely quiet, which made me feel a little uneasy. In a place like this you have to trust your instincts and my instincts were telling me to get out of the pyramid. I looked over at Susumu who was eying the the object in the center of the room and I decided we couldn't turn back now, not when I felt we were so close.
I carefully stepped from tile to tile towards the other end of the room, but the closer I got to the object in the middle, the clearer it became and the more disconcerted I was with what I saw. Pretty soon the object was in clear view and I saw exactly what it was. A completely detailed sculpture, from head to toe, of me!
[edit] Chapter 7: Something In The Wind
"W-What is this, some kind of trick?" Is this really me, or is it another illusion like the healing powers of the moon? Whoever views the statue could be seeing themselves too. I wondered what Susumu was seeing as he eyed the statue carefully and then gave it a good sniff. I ran my fingers along the base of the statue and upwards to the face. It felt as real as anything. "It could still be powerful magic." I mused. "But then who is the wielder of such sorcery." It was disturbing to see myself as an icon in a place I'd never set foot in before, I felt violated in a way. "If this is really a statue of me, then who made it?" I thought.
Time seemed slower here in the pyramid. It had still seemed less than normal just walking around outside but now it was like everything around me was frozen on another plane of existence. The further into the pyramid I traveled the slower it felt and I was beginning to wonder what would happen if I went to the center, if I would be completely frozen in time. What would happen then, would I just cease to exist?
A large crash came from one of the corridors and I darted around the corner towards the noise. I instantly knew that was a mistake as I rounded to corner and saw what made the noise. There was a gruesome looking skeleton, standing on all fours. It was a living carcass with an unnaturally sized head, with sharpened bones on it's sides and a face that resembled spikes. A hellhound! Many a man had been slaughtered by these unmerciful creatures. This hellhound had knocked over an urn that shattered on the ground, leaving the dusty contents in a small pile. "Susumu," I said hesitantly. "Lets just back away slowly and-" My words were cut short as the hellhound charged and rammed me into the side of the corridor. I let out what would have been a painful sound if the wind hadn't been knocked out of me. I tried to regain myself but realized I was pinned, the spikes from it's gruesome face had impaled me through my side. A look of shock, both physical and mental swept over my face. Susumu dove head first into the hellhounds side and now had it corned in the small room. There were roaring sounds emanating through the echoing hallways and the hellhound made snapping gestures with it's over sized jaws. I picked up the nearest weapon I could find, shards of the urn. I shot my fear and crippling pain aside and charged the beast. It tried to make a swipe at me but I was already too close. I sank the pointed shard deep into the only fleshy spot I could find. It howled but regained itself quickly with renewed anger. Before it could react again I wrapped my hand around one of the bones inside it's body and pulled as hard as possible. Snap! A sound that I never wish to hear again emitted from the hellhounds body as I tore a rib bone completely out. "Lets go!" I shouted and fled out of the room and back into the passageway.
The hellhound did not give pursuit, but I didn't give it much of a chance to. As soon as I knew it was safe to breath I looked down at the wounds it had inflicted. Two large holes near my hip bone were gushing and soaking the garments covering that area with dark red splatters. Adrenaline and shock flooded my system and I started to feel the immediate effects of mass blood loss. My vision started to fade and I felt dizzy so I leaned on the wall of a dark corridor for support. I felt very cold all through my body, starting from my head and ending at my toes. My hands were covering my wounds with as much effort as possible but I was too weak to do much. Darkness enveloped me and I sank to the floor.
"Question, answers. Questions, answers! No, no this doesn't make any sense! What do you think?" "Shush! I think she's waking up, stop your rambling." I slowly peeled my heavy eyelids back and stared at ceiling. As I became more aware I realized I was laying on my back, on very comfortable blankets. I tilted my head to the side to see a fireplace, the crackling sound and the aura of light were very relaxing. There were two dark figures sitting on stools beside the fire, their shadows flickering and dancing in the light. "Great, she's awake!" A deep, sarcastic voice uttered. Another voice emerged from the other stool, "Oh will you just be quiet, why don't you smoke that pipe of yours." At that one of the shadowy figures stood up from his stool, mumbled something, and loitered out of sight. The other figure stood, stretched and walked towards me.
By now I had realized the majority of what was going on. I was in some sort of bed, in a room with other people, and someone had wrapped up my injuries. How I got there was another question. As the shape of a human became more defined in front of me I felt sick to my stomach. The person in front of me was an exact mirror image of myself! I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, or it might have been butterflies. "Now don't panic, just let me explain." Came a voice identical to my own, but with more confidence. I really couldn't speak even if I wanted to, the extent of my injuries made it painful to move any part of myself. I could only hold a look on my face that said to carry on. "You're probably thinking I stole your body or some crazy drivel but I haven't. This may be hard to explain." she paused and sighed, "I suppose I'll just come out with it. I'm your twin sister."
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Updates:
Chapter 3 Added 29/09/10
Chapter 4 Added 10/11/10
Chapter 5 Added 29/10/10 - Happy Halloween!
Chapter 6 Added 12/02/11
Chapter 7 Added 07/20/11
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Finally got a chance to read this. Keep it up!
