Hey, wrote two chapters in one day. I am on a roll! Hope you enjoy.
Chapter One - A Unnerving Awakening
“KADEN” A haunting and mysterious voice cried out in the echoing darkness, one that sounded like that of a woman, but this was not my Sandra. “KADEN, WAKE UP.”
Suddenly, I felt strange all over. My body seemed... paralysed, like I was no longer in control, and the darkness that surrounded me seemed to stretch into an endless expanse.
“KADEN.” The voiced called back again, “YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP, KADEN.”
I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn’t. I tried to call out in response, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t seem to do anything at all. However, something within me held the resolve to fight this, whatever it was, and that resolve boiled up within me every time I heard that voice.
“KADEN, WAKE UP ALREADY!” She shouted again, but this time the echoing voice filled the emptiness with a dominance like I never felt before, and the darkness rippled like water against this voices echoing.
I suddenly began to feel warm, my senses started to return, and I could feel my limbs coming back under my control again. I continued to fight against this... Apathy, for lack of a better word, I fought and I pushed, and finally, like taking breath after being held underwater for a time, I sprung through the darkness and shattered its hold over me in a release of sheer relief and life.
And then I awoke.
Opening my eyes, I came to find a strange fur-covered creature hanging over me, one that had pointed ears and a muzzled face like that of a dog or fox, yet, despite this... thing being entirely alien to me, she seemed oddly... familiar for some reason. My body still felt numb, however; I could not move or speak a word and my hearing was little more than low muffled humming broken only by this woman’s voice; but I seemed to have communicated something since her initiate expression of relief was quickly clouded with a sense of horror.
“Kaden, you are finally awake.” She said to me, “Remain calm and we will have you out of here shortly.”
As my hearing slowly came back to me, the low ruffled humming of the background noise cleared to reveal that something was happening somewhere in this room beyond my view, sounds of grunting and scuffles telling me that there was something of a battle happening in here.
“Kaden, try not to move just yet.” The woman tells me, “You will soon regain sensation with the rest of your body, and you should be able to move. Try to ignore your surroundings and just focus on me.”
Focus on her?! Is she crazy?! People are fighting in here while I lie helpless on the floor, and she tells me to focus on her and her alone. Looking at her, though, she is unlike anything I have ever seen before, covered in blue fur while dressed in clothing presenting as robes of some sort, almost like what I used to dream up at the game company.
And, as that thought entered my mind, I drew suddenly cold. Sandra, Kyle, Carly, and everything else in my life. Where is it?! Where are they?! And how did I end up here?! What is happening to me?!
“Kaden, calm down.” The woman shouted at me, “Don’t panic. Everything will be fine. Just stay calm.”
How can I stay calm?! I am with a person who should logically be impossible to be in the presence of and everything I knew has seemingly vanished. I want to go back! I want to be to Sandra! I want to go back to my kids! I want to go back to the real world! I want to go back NOW!
“Oh, no you don’t.” the women thought aloud, “After all the hell we went through to find you and wake you up, I am not letting you slip away again, no matter what.”
Then I saw a greater impossibility than the being hanging over me. She stood up, revealing to me that she also had animal like limbs, hands, and feet, and she held her hand out, if you can really call it a hand, and strange blue energy appeared from nowhere and bloated in her palm hovering over me.
“I am not letting you sleep again, Kaden.” She told me, “Not ever again.” Then the creature waved her hand and the energy shot down, enveloping me, before I was jolted up with an unbelievable sense of vitality. I had suddenly regained command of my body, and everything in the world came into focus all at once. As I gingerly picked myself up, I came to find where the battle was taking place, and who was fighting it.
Over off some twenty feet away from me, two other creatures like this woman were fighting some grotesque monster akin to some of the villainous demons in the games I made, and I could even hear them speak as clearly as I did hear my attendant.
“Katelyn.” One called over, “Get Kaden out of here. Now.”
“NO!” A monstrous howl rang through the cuddling remains of this ancient-looking room, “I WILL NOT SURRENDER MY MEAL; NO MATTER WHO TRIES TO STEAL IT!”
The monster swung out one of its scaly, clawed arms out to swipe one of the two creatures, but the other threw itself in front of the monster with a metal shield, and the claw sank straight into the metal forcing the holder to abandon it.
“Go. Now.” The former shield-bearer ordered, “Everyone. Out. Now.”
Suddenly, I was grabbed by the woman and forced to start running with her, all the while maintaining a vice-like grip on my arm, and the other two followed us while being chased by that monster. It was not long, however, that I was led to the outdoors and we cleared the building only to be met with the stunning, if terrifying, scenery unlike anything I had ever seen before just beyond a very long drop off a cliff.
All I could do was stop myself was plummeting off the cliff while the two male-characterised creatures took hold of me suddenly, and pulled me down to the ground with a hard landing. The woman, however, was behind me; as was our foe.
As I turned to look at what was happening, I saw the woman standing in front of the entrance and raising her hand up to the stone of the ceiling and, just before the monster could reach her, the ceiling instantaneously slammed down on top of it, killing the villain within a fraction of a second.
Calm suddenly descended, no one moved or said anything for a moment, simply staring at the wall of stone and the one loose hand that managed to escape that lay on the floor, twitching slightly. Then, the woman swooped down and took the hand, still twitching, and then turned to stare down on me.
She came marching pasted the other two and stood right in front of me before she yelled with passion, “What the hell do you think you were doing in there?!”
“Do you have any idea how unbelievably reckless and stupid it is to face a being as powerful as that alone?!” She roared, “This is way over the line, Kaden! You have disappointed me and our Guild on a scale unprecedented in our Guild’s history, and, once we return, you will be paying the ultimate price for your disgraceful foolishness.”
I did not say a word. I was speechless, in more ways than one, but this woman’s words bit deep down into me, for some reason, and I knew not to say a word almost with instinct. As I lowered my head, looking to the grassy ground beneath her, the woman turned from me and said to the other two, “Grab him. Be sure he does not slip away. And there is no need to be gentle.”
These two other creatures walked up to me, and this time I could get a good look at them. One was a knight wearing brilliantly silver full-body armour, and the other was a roguish type with leather armour and a black hood that hung over his head. Both of them were male, and both had the same strange animal-like characteristics; fur, pointed ears, nose with muzzle, and hands and feet like that of an animal. The knight had red fur and the rogue had black fur.
They both took hold of one arm each, roughly pulled me up to my feet, and they locked my hands behind my back before binding them tightly together. This woman told them not to be gentle, and they certainly weren’t. They then took my arms again, one each so they both flanked me on both sides, and we started to march onward with the woman, Katelyn I think her name is, leading.
At this moment, I looked out to my left and took in the truly breathtaking view before me. It was quite unlike anything I had ever seen, in the distance stood mountains that stretched higher into the atmosphere than where we were, and, just before them, was a deep and startling drop that fell into a great chasm that held a huge valley filled with rolling meadows and forests and even signs of civilisation. If you look closely, you can see rivers and streams that fall from the mountains and down into bodies of water, much like lakes, that then snake off into rivers and streams that break up the landscape below. Truly stunning, but also truly alien.
Then I glance at my captors, for now I am surely their prisoner, and I wonder what these creatures are and, far more importantly to me, what they could possibly want with me. Despite this being a shocking experience, I was still somewhat convinced that this was something of a dream, a truly real and vivid dream, but this must surely be a dream, right?
When I look down to my own body, I am shocked to find that I seem to have been given my own furry, animal-like body as well. Though, it did not feel any different from what I remember, I still felt myself despite this revelation, and it seems that I too wear robes similar to that of the woman.
I look towards the woman leading us down from this plateau, from what I can gather, and I call out toward her, “E-excuse me, miss?”
“Daniel, Jacob.” She storms, “Keep our ‘friend’ quiet, will you?”
“Shut up, Kaden.” The one on the right barked at me, “We don’t want to hurt you, but we will if we have to.”
“I just wanted to know-” I began, but, before I could finish, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my head before everything suddenly went black.
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