The Fifth World

Bo: I stared at the clearing. I am standing at the edge of an enormous, green forest. It is beautiful but I do not turn to admire it. I stare at the clearing. See the carnage that has been left behind. It looks like there has been a war and strangely I am not afraid. Further away there are horses and figures. They have not seen me.
I hear a yell, a voice that I could not forget even if I wanted to. I immediately run into the forest after it. It is dark beneath the shelter of the trees. I can feel my heart pounding. I know that voice, that precious voice.

"Bo! Bo!" the voice screams my name. "Bo!"

I keep running, my feet kept moving, my mind racing, my eyes become wet with tears. I suddenly trip over a log and my body goes flying. I grunt, quite loudly, as my hair fly's over my head and I crash down onto the ground. I feel the shrubs underneath my body flatten. I feel the twigs and sticks beneath the palms of my hands break through the flesh. I stand up, mechanically, and ignore the pain aching in my left wrist. I think I broke it or something. Hopefully it's just a strain. There are grass stains, dirt and twigs on my track pants and tee-shirt. I don't even attempt to dust myself off. I just know that I am covered in muck.

"Bo! Bo! Bo!"

I keep moving and find the tiniest clearing, only a few meters of clearing, there are a few fallen branches and even more bushes surrounding it. I see Cynric, his golden hair has muck in it, there is dirt on his face and he is sitting down, his back leaning on a log. I stare at him with wide eyes and creep a little closer. He stares at me, pain in his eyes as his hands are across his stomach. I fear what his hands are covering but I can definitely see a scarlet liquid. I close my eyes and breathe out heavily. Blood sickens me. It disgusts me. I hate it. Sometimes I feel like I can smell it. I usually faint on the sight of blood but somehow I keep going slowly towards Cynric as he pants heavily, clearly in pain whilst he keeps his hand firmly over his wound.

"What happened?" I whisper as I get down on my knees and looked over him, one hand on his shoulder, the other on top of both of his that are covering his injury. I don't even notice that he is naked.

"I think a Thorne got me," he says with a grunt. Oh my god. What do I do? I don't know anything about first aid. I know how to put band aids on but that's about it.

"Oh my god," I hiss, "just keep pressure on the wound. Hopefully the blood will stay there."

Gosh, I sound like a stupid twit. He adjusts the position of his hands and for a quick moment I spot the puncture in his chest, the gore mixed with flesh. Oh my god. I reach for my tee-shirt, ripped off the sleeve quickly and tell him to place it over his wound. His face changes, the expression, strangely. I don't know how to explain his expression because I don't see that expression on Cynric. It's a mischievous expression mixed with anger. Cynric is always serious. It's out of character for him to look at me like that.

"Bo!" I hear a voice, a woman's voice, my voice? I automatically stand up and turn around to see myself. I look the same. Nothing is different. I don't have a blond streak through my hair or anything. I am staring at myself like I am staring into a mirror. Except the reflection seems a lot more concentrated. She, or myself I am staring at, steps into the small clearing. There is dirt across her face, a few fresh bruises here and there and there is a thin cut across one arm. I gasp.

"Bo!" she yells at me, "get away from him!" I watch myself holding some kind of dagger out in one arm, it is gold and it has beautiful engravings on it. I instinctively do as I am told and step away from Cynric. He suddenly stands up and then he evolves. Or morphs or something. In a second he has changed into some kind of... athletic and built man. He looks thirty or something. He's old... well, definitely not Cynric's age.
A hand grasps mine and I turn around and see Cynric. What the hell is going on? I watch myself, the one from the future who had just commanded me to move, go up towards the muscled man who looked exactly like Cynric a minute ago. I hold the dagger out towards him.

"Cynric," I hiss as I turn around, he is holding my hand, a hard expression on his face, this is the real Cynric, "what the hell is going on? Was that a Shape Shifter?"

He nods his head, "I fought him earlier. He wants Bo - well, you. He thought that if he could Shape Shift into me then he'd find you. I just don't think he would have expected to lure the Bo from the past. He's not just a Shape Shifter, he's a Thorne."

I think I just came very close to death... and maybe worse... being captured by a Thorne.

"What? He's half?" I almost yell at Cynric.

Cynric turns his gaze to me, "it's hard to explain. You'll figure it out soon."

"Is there a war, Cynric?" I ask him quickly as I watch myself fight the Thorne. This is the first Thorne I have ever seen. But how can this Thorne be a Shape Shifter? He must be half... like me... but what kind of Shape Shifter would reproduce with a Thorne? Most Thorne's are hated, despised. They are evil.

"There is," he whispers and then I vanish.