Status: Complete
Firelight
Blood and skull
It wasn't the place Jessel wanted to see the most though nothing could be seen. The forest was what one could call a deserted nest. No proof of the existence of life seemed to be there. The trees felt smooth in the darkness. A crunch-crunch-crunch of broken twigs and crisp leaves echoed with each step. The air was moist and the temperature was dropping with increasing speed. Jessel could sense something wrong. Her senses were more awake than ever but she saw nearly nothing.
Suddenly, Jessel heard something hit hard on the bed of mud, twigs and leaves. She bent down and picked it up. Blind in the pitch black darkness, she felt the object and figured out that it was a fruit. It was as terribly delicious and juicy as a fruit can ever be. It was just as hard to stop oneself from tasting it. But Jessel knew better than doing so. She knew that she should not eat it. She threw it as far as she could and felt satisfied only when she heard a great SPLASH!
It was now that Jessel realized that how thirsty she was. She came up with an idea. She could go towards where she threw the juicy fruit BUT there was a problem. She couldn't move! The mud was holding her still. All her joints were aching and couldn't be bent.
Suddenly, the temperature began to rise, the mud at her feet turned into a marsh and the smooth trunks of the trees roughened. Jessel fell down sobbing with pain. Blood rolled down her cheeks. She rose daringly and crawled away limping.
After a few minutes of moving ahead hopelessly, she saw a little light ahead. She did the very obvious thing anyone would have probably done. She followed it. The source was an enlightened spot. There were at least a dozen small huts surrounding the huge circular region with no trees at all.
The area would have been all dark too if it wasn't for the big hot flames of fire. Around it sitting were people in black hooded robes. The tallest one, who must have been the leader was chanting something which could have been anything from a song to a spell. One thing was for sure. The spell was in no language a human could understand.
The leader stood up and approached Jessel and a chilly feeling struck her. The surroundings began to change. The two were at the foot of a huge tree.
There was a piece of paper lying at its bottom. Jessel somehow knew that the paper was holding a secret and should not be fallen into wrong hands. She had to pick it up at any cost. A risk of losing it could not be taken.
This thought made her almost forget of the weird leader's presence. He kept making a sound which was very much like the clashing of two steel plates.
He came forward and unhooded his face to reveal the true meaning of horribleness. The face was a dirty cracked skull with numerous blood stains. There was some horrible pale skin too but it, being more than affordably old, was barely visible to her eyes.
Jessel picked up the worn out paper. As soon as she did it, she was back in the dark forest with the leader (or skull as she called him).
Now all of the Skull's companions rose and they were surrounding the poor little girl in the blink of an eye. They looked just like skull, only a hundred times more dirty, more bloody.And then, they started making sounds worse than the one Skull was making- the clashing of two huge steel plates. The holes where their eyes should have been, were letting out some glowing, blinding bright green light. Jessel's head was aching and she dropped down.
She woke with a start.
Suddenly, Jessel heard something hit hard on the bed of mud, twigs and leaves. She bent down and picked it up. Blind in the pitch black darkness, she felt the object and figured out that it was a fruit. It was as terribly delicious and juicy as a fruit can ever be. It was just as hard to stop oneself from tasting it. But Jessel knew better than doing so. She knew that she should not eat it. She threw it as far as she could and felt satisfied only when she heard a great SPLASH!
It was now that Jessel realized that how thirsty she was. She came up with an idea. She could go towards where she threw the juicy fruit BUT there was a problem. She couldn't move! The mud was holding her still. All her joints were aching and couldn't be bent.
Suddenly, the temperature began to rise, the mud at her feet turned into a marsh and the smooth trunks of the trees roughened. Jessel fell down sobbing with pain. Blood rolled down her cheeks. She rose daringly and crawled away limping.
After a few minutes of moving ahead hopelessly, she saw a little light ahead. She did the very obvious thing anyone would have probably done. She followed it. The source was an enlightened spot. There were at least a dozen small huts surrounding the huge circular region with no trees at all.
The area would have been all dark too if it wasn't for the big hot flames of fire. Around it sitting were people in black hooded robes. The tallest one, who must have been the leader was chanting something which could have been anything from a song to a spell. One thing was for sure. The spell was in no language a human could understand.
The leader stood up and approached Jessel and a chilly feeling struck her. The surroundings began to change. The two were at the foot of a huge tree.
There was a piece of paper lying at its bottom. Jessel somehow knew that the paper was holding a secret and should not be fallen into wrong hands. She had to pick it up at any cost. A risk of losing it could not be taken.
This thought made her almost forget of the weird leader's presence. He kept making a sound which was very much like the clashing of two steel plates.
He came forward and unhooded his face to reveal the true meaning of horribleness. The face was a dirty cracked skull with numerous blood stains. There was some horrible pale skin too but it, being more than affordably old, was barely visible to her eyes.
Jessel picked up the worn out paper. As soon as she did it, she was back in the dark forest with the leader (or skull as she called him).
Now all of the Skull's companions rose and they were surrounding the poor little girl in the blink of an eye. They looked just like skull, only a hundred times more dirty, more bloody.And then, they started making sounds worse than the one Skull was making- the clashing of two huge steel plates. The holes where their eyes should have been, were letting out some glowing, blinding bright green light. Jessel's head was aching and she dropped down.
She woke with a start.