A/N: Alrighty, another short I wrote and felt like sharing! Whoo! As the title may suggest this story was partially inspired by the song by Kenny Wayne Shepherd, which should actually be obvious of you look at the first little bit of the song and compare it to the first little bit of the story. Anyways, I do hope you enjoy reading this piece and don't be afraid to offer feedback -bows-
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The sun had set; the air cooling as the sky darkened. The cold blue eyes stared intently from the shadows of the black hood. My heart was racing in my chest as I tried to figure out what was happening.
‘Come with me,’ a pale hand reached out from the cloak.
I ran.
I didn’t know why, but I felt like a rabbit being chased by a wolf. Blinded by tears, thoughts stopped by confusion and heart knocking painfully against my ribs, I ran as if my very life depended on it. The sky was turning a dark blue now, the forest to my right was becoming black along with the waters of the river to my left. Not daring to look back I pushed forward.
Where am I? What happened? I didn’t recognize anything, I could barely think of who I was.
Coming to a skidding halt, I found myself peering at a bridge tied with rope and floored with wooden planks. I had not even noticed that I was moving upwards and that the river was now located far below me. “Rickety” was the word that came to mind, but when I looked over my shoulder, panting, I saw the cloaked figure a few yards away. I made a strange noise, not quite a whimper but not entirely a gasp.
I sounded like a trapped animal.
I had a terrible fear of heights, and this bridge was high and did not appear to be as stable as I would’ve liked it to be. On the other hand, a strange person was following me, and I couldn’t even see their face. Whether they were male or female was not certain, friend or foe wasn’t an answer even fathomable. They began to move towards me, slowly, carefully, always looking at me. When they were close enough that I could see their eyes clearly and the clouds of moisture of their breath in the cold air I finally turned and began to run. The bridge groaned a little, but I paid it no attention.
I heard something snap and I lost my footing; first I fell downwards and then forwards. Time seemed to have slowed as I landed heavily on the planks and heard more, ominous cracking sounds.
‘No!’ I could hear the hurried steps of my pursuer as they ran to me, but the wood gave way before I could even look up. It was a strange feeling, being suspended in the air with nothing beneath me, but it soon faded as I began to drop with the wood. I stared up at the bridge with wide eyes and saw the now un-hooded man staring after me, their arm extended through the gap.
It was too much for me; my emotions were overriding my body. A few tears made it to my eyes and the sound of the rushing water below was all that remained before I closed my eyes and blacked out.
When I came to, I felt warm and the hard ground below me. I opened my eyes slowly, trying to recall what had happened.
‘You’re awake,’ I felt exhausted as I finally got my eyes open and turned my head to look at the man who was laying on the ground not too far from me, poking the fire lazily with a thin stick.
‘Where am I?’ I sat up and felt sore, ‘how long have I been asleep?’
The man grinned but did not answer.
I furrowed my brow as I rubbed my eye. I looked down at the blanket that covered me and saw a black cloak laying on top. It came back to me in a rush and I whimpered and recoiled a bit.
The man frowned, looking more like a pouting child than anything, and he stood up. Brushing himself off, he walked over to his pack, ‘the thanks I get,’ he mumbled before he made his way towards me. I made to move away, but a pain shot up my leg and I whimpered again. ‘Ah, ah, ah! No moving around for you. Your ankle is sprained.’ I looked up at the man and noted that he had a friendly face, and the soft smile he gave me helped me relax.
‘Sprained?’ I watched as he pulled away the covers and revealed my ruined jeans. One pant leg had been torn halfway up the calf, exposing my skin where a bandage now wrapped around my ankle.
‘Yes, when you fell last night you sprained your ankle,’ the man bent over me and began to examine the bandages, ‘you’re lucky that’s all you got. Other than the chills.’ he grinned at me again.
‘Where am I?’ his grin disappeared and his expression became serious.
‘Htrae,’ he passed me a canteen and a bowl of somewhat warm stew.
‘Très? Isn’t that French?’ the man chuckled, although it wasn’t happy, and he moved back to his old spot.
‘No,’ he took his stick and began to write in the dirt. ‘First of all, there’s a silent “h” at the beginning,’ he wrote an ‘h’ in the dirt, ‘then you have the “t”…’ once he had “Htrae” written out so I could see it I felt a sudden chill and wrapped his cloak around me.
‘Earth,’ he nodded and we fell silent. ‘What happened?’
‘You died.’ he gave up the information so bluntly that it took me a while to actually process that he was telling the truth. His mouth was set in a grim line and he was staring at me; the firelight flickered and made him look eerie. I huddled into the cloak more as I contemplated my situation.
‘So, I’m…dead?’
‘Not quite,’ I looked up at him and he turned to the fire, ‘you are dead on Earth, but I took your soul and brought you here: Htrea.’ I tried to think back, tried to remember how I died, but I couldn’t. ‘You won’t remember. Not for a while, if you will ever remember.’ I looked up at him, but he was staring into the orange flames.
We remained silent for a while before I felt very hungry and I began to eat the now rather cool stew.
‘I’m Alec,’ looking up, I said nothing, mostly because of the spoonful of food in my mouth. ‘I’m a necromancer.’
‘I know generally what questions you have, and I will answer them willingly.’ he said after a long pause and I nodded. ‘in time, of course.’ he grinned sheepishly as he stood up. ‘C’mon, the frost is coming so we’d better get ourselves to the local inn.’ he began to pack away his things and I sighed.
I wasn’t certain what the future held for me in this strange place, but as Alec lifted me up and began to help me through the forest I knew that, somehow, I belonged. And even though the fact that I was, technically, dead made me feel somewhat empty inside, the warm feeling that was spreading through me helped me hold my head up and stare ahead.
I would take what my new life had to give and I would not look back.
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I really like the ideas you've presented here...you should continue it. I can see this becoming a great story. ^^