Chapter Two: The Quiet Forest

Ty was terrified. The brutish men who had captured her had been eyeing her ever since they knocked out her hero and dragged him off somewhere. She wished she knew where he was. What they had done with him. She wish she’d known who he was. She didn’t know who he was, and was sure he didn’t know her.

She never even told him her name. Nor he his name.
Of course none of that mattered as there was a high likeliness either one of them would be dead in a moment, if not already. The savages were moving about quickly, and she was being carried over the shoulder of the very same who held her in the death grip before. She hated the position she was in. Both being unable to breath and unable to walk.
She had nothing else to do, so she began to beat upon the back of the brute who held her, trying to get him to let her down. This merely produced a grin from him, and he swung her around so that her face was next to his. Ty shrunk away as best as she could. Which was rather hard, considering she was on him.
“Hello, michie,” the vagrant said thickly, his grin apparent through his thick, black, and messy beard. He was showing some of the most despicably yellowed teeth, some with holes in them. She merely scowled at him. He laughed and then pushed that disgusting bearded mouth onto her cheek. She screamed. Of course, this only produced yet another laugh from the man.
“Let me go!” She shrieked. It was worth a try, right? Not that it did anything. Though the brute must have gotten annoyed with her screams in his ear, so he shifted her around again. And patted her oh-so-cute little bottom. Which was despicable. She flinched violently.
Ty managed to completely surprise the villain. Which caused him to lose his grip, sending her to the ground. She blinked, surprised that she was finally free of his unbreakable grip. Which apparently, wasn’t
so. He too, was shocked.
Thankfully, Ty grasped her senses long before he, got up, and ran. This too managed to surprise the brute. Though he did run. At first, for some unknown idiotic reason, he ran the other way, but then gathered his own senses and ran after her. By this time, Ty was already getting herself lost in the dense forest. She felt no fear for it, only the man. Of course, she had no knowledge of the forest.
It seemed the man did, for he stopped just before the first great trunk of the trees. And so he turned around and went in the opposite direction.
Ty realized there was no one following her, eventually, and stopped. She looked around suspiciously and found nothing to fear. The brute must have been afraid of the dark scary forest. Boo hoo. Ty chuckled and walked carefully through the roots and leaves.
This forest wasn’t so bad. She really had no clue whatsoever of why the man ran back. She actually found the forest quite boring, as long as she could ignore the darkness. You’d think after walking through a pitch black tunnel for nearly a day she wouldn’t be afraid of the dark anymore. Of course, when they walked through the tunnel, it was a they and not she.
Poor little Ty was all alone now. Apparently, this was beginning to scare her. So at the sound of every leaf cracking, she jumped. Of course, it was her own feet causing the leaves to crack. Idiot. Ty was becoming self-critcal in order to attack her fear. She didn’t like being frightened. It caused bad things to happen.

Like when the men came, in the first place. In the city. Well, it was really before that. And it was her own want that caused it all, she knew it. No one else did.She told George she was thirsty. They were out of goats and there were no cows to drink the milk of. In fact, there were no more animals. Only people. So of course, she wasn’t about to drink the blood of fellow humans to quench her thirst. George wasn’t either.
“Wait here,” George told her, and grabbed a pail.
“Where are you going?” Ty asked.
“To fetch a pail of water,” George responded quickly, throwing on a dark coat.
“But there are bad men all around the city, you told me so.”
“I know. They won’t see me. Oh! Do you have a black shawl?”
Ty nodded.
“Well, give it here then, I need it.”
Ty made a face, but went into her trunk to find her shawl.
“What do you need a shawl for, you’re not a girl.”
“It’ll hide my face in the night. I’m too pale.”
“Too pale for what?”
“For sneaking about in the dark.”
“Oh.”
Finally Ty found her black shawl, stuffed under a pile of things at the bottom of the trunk.
“Here you go,” Ty said, holding the shawl out. George took it and wrapped it around his head. He looked ridiculous. So Ty laughed.
“What?”
“You look funny.”
George stuck his tongue out at her. She laughed again; the tongue sticking out from the mass of cloth around his head was quite a funny image. He shook his head, and a smile could be seen between the cloth.
George was quite a sight at the moment. He had brown hose on with dark blue breeches and a rust colored jerkin with a black coat over it. And then there was the shawl. Oh the shawl. If anyone were to see him passing in the night, they’d either scream “Phantom!” or fall over laughing.
Quite ready, George went on his way, once again making Ty promise she would stay. So she did. Ty got hungry while she waited and found a loaf of bread, which she cut a few slices from. She waited for twenty minutes more, and then heard the shouts that the barbarians were making their way in.
Ty ran outside, and screamed for George. She hoped he was alright. A woman running for her life was just about to pass by her, but realized Ty was only a child.
“Child! Come with me, you can’t stay out here or you’ll be killed!”
“I can’t, I have to stay here,”
The woman shook her head and grabbed Ty’s hand and ran. At first Ty struggled, but then realized if the lady were speaking the truth that she wouldn’t see George again if he did come back. She’d be dead. So she ran as fast as she could with the lady. The lady saw the barbarians running around the city, slaughtering anyone in their path, and screamed.
They spotted them immediately.
“Quick child, this way!” the lady whispered frantically, and darted to the left, and then left again down an alley.
At this point, Ty couldn’t run anymore.
“Please, lady, I can’t run anymore,” she whimpered, squatting down to relieve her legs.
“Just a little further and you can stop,” the lady replied, grabbing Ty’s hand and running. Ty followed her clumsily, and finally the lady stopped.
“Hide here, and don’t make a sound,” the lady told her, shoving her behind a few crates. Ty nodded, and
the lady ran off.
Soon after, Ty heard the lady scream. Roars and demonic laughter came from the street next to the alley.

She could only imagine what was happening the lady. Biting her lip, she cringed behind the barrels.

Finally, the raucous died down and she heard no more men outside the alley.
Ty moved out from behind the crates and slowly trudged into the street looking around frantically for the lady. Then she looked down and nearly vomitted.
The woman was cut from the middle of her breasts down. One straight line all the way down. Her guts spilled over her body onto the ground. Her head was snapped as well, and her arms bent at odd angles.
Having taken in more of it, Ty turned and vomitted until she could no longer. Then she huddled to one side of the street and sobbed. Ty was unsure of how long she wept, but eventually that man, her savior, had come.
But now he was somewhere. Probably dead. And George.
She was happier not knowing and imagining he got away safely. It could be true, right? Again, she didn't want to kow. Really didn't want to know. Not only could two males be dead, but the poor woman who helped her away had died right after saving her. Ty was beginning to think she was extraordinarily bad luck for everyone she ever came in contact with. She should die. This led her to wonder if there were any fierce animals in the forest.
Oh. Well, she thought, that might have ben the reason the villain ran off so suddenly. That settled it, she thought, she was supposed to die.
The Gods should have killed her by now. Why wasn't she dead? Ty wondered if they had more people they wished to kill off with her, or if there were more things in store for her. Torture, in particular. It was either that or the Gods wanted her to live. Ty really wasn't sure which to believe. So she trudged on, utterly confused.
Hours later, she began to get groggy. So, of course, she found a nice pile of leaves to fall asleep upon. If she was eaten by an animal in her sleep, then so be it, since that was what the Gods wished.However, Ty woke up hours later, the only unfortunate occurence was the countless bugs who had found their way over to her. Ew. Some of them decided to crawl on her, dissatisfied with the wet, leafy ground.

She, of course, let out a lovely shriek upon realizing this and brushed them all off as rapidly as she could.
A mass of colors, black, green, red, speckled yellow, all fell to the floor of the forest. Which is where they belonged.

They disgusted her. Some of them had these disgusting pincher fangs. They were really hard for her to look at without wanting to convulse. To prevent any convulsions, Ty walked away briskly. On her war path away from the bugs who crawled on her, she managed to trip over a log.

It was squishy. Which made her twitch.

However, her ears prickled and her body tensed as she heard a familiar voice utter, “Lass?”

Ty blinked. That sounded like her savior. She moved her leg off the squishy log only to find she should replace the o with an e.

“Little lass!” the man exclaimed happily, assured it was her. She finally comprehended that it was indeed her savior she had tripped over and got up quickly.

“My name’s Ty,” she said, brushing herself off, with a smile.

“Ah, I’ve been wondering! My name is Vladmir Khat, by the way. I insist you call me Khat, though,” said her hero, getting up slowly, unused to his legs.

“What happened to you? How’d you end up here? Did you run off too?”

“Er, no…Rather, I was piled on a horse while still unconcious and only realized I was even in the forest or on a horse somewhere back there,” he explained, pointing blindly behind her. Ty nodded. “You wouldn’t happen to know before they sent me off into the forest, would you?”

To this, Ty also shook her head.

“Oh, well it was worth a try,” Khat muttered.

Khat. She wasn’t too fond of that name. When she pronounced it she immediately thought of a furry little animal that attacked villages in the middle of deserts which George had told her about. They didn’t sound too pleasant.

“Can I call you Vlad?” she said bluntly, unable to use Khat. He sighed. And rolled his eyes. The second action was acted out very slowly and dramatically.

“Fine,” he grunted. She gave him a cheery smile in response.

It occurred to Ty that Vlad seemed to have been sitting for quite some time. “How long have you sat there?”

“Ever since I tripped and got my foot stuck in the roots. My horse just…walked away…slowly. It was rather painful to watch since I was stuck.”

Ty winced. He didn’t even know for how long he sat there. It couldn’t have been more than a day, since they had only been separated for that long. She then realized that there must not be many dangerous creatures about the forest if neither of them had been eaten yet. Which was a good thing.

“We should continue on our way,” he said, slowly getting up. As he attempted to rise, he faltered and fell back to the cradle of roots he’d been nestled in.

“Vlad! Are you alright?” Ty asked quickly as she rushed to his side. He merely winced and nodded. Then he attempted to rise again. This time he succeeded, mostly. It would have been a complete success if he hadn’t fallen against the trunk. But atleast he managed to stand again, however weakly. Ty just stood there, staring at him, unsure of how to help him, especially since she lacked to strength to keep him up away from the tree.

He finally decided to speak. “It was just because I had been sitting for so long, I think. My legs stopped working, thinking they didn’t need to.”

Ty nodded. She was beginning to think that Vlad was a bit cracked in the head. How could legs possibly think? Oh well, she shook it off.

“Can you walk now?” She asked. He took a step forward, unfaltering, and grinned.

“Aye.” He replied. He took her arm in his and rushed her forth. Of course, Ty couldn’t understand why he was moving so quickly.

“Why are you going so fast?” She asked.

“The Gods don’t like me and I figured now that you’re here I may as well try at life since you’ve got no one else to turn to.”

“Oh.” She would have stopped, to think better, and because she was utterly confused over how the Gods could hate him and he still be alive, but she tripped on a hollow log which crushed under her weight instead, producing an “oof” from Ty.

“Are you alright?” Vlad asked, bending down to help her up. She nodded, and rose quickly as she could. She then brushed herself off, and they went on their way again.

As they went on, countless twigs entwined themsleves in Ty’s ever-so-golden hair. Eventually, they decided to steal a few strands.

“Augh!” Ty screamed, fed up with the torture these twigs were inflicting upon her poor, tender head.

“What is it?’ Vlad responded swiftly, frightened at her wild scream.

“N-nothing. My hair, the twigs pulled out my hair. It hurt.”

“Oh. Well, it’s alright, lass, it’ll grow back. Eventually.”

Ty couldn’t help herself, something about the way he said that made the tears rise to her eyes and spill out relentlessly. This brought the delightful Vlad to hold her until the tears relinquished their reign over her cheeks. Which happened, eventually. At least they stopped before her hair grew back. That would have been quite a while to be crying.

“Are you alright now?” Vlad asked softly.

“Aye,” Ty sniffed.

“Should we continue on then?”

“Aye,” Ty nodded, and Vlad released her from his consoling grasp.

The two continued on their way, at a slower and more careful rate than before, considering how swift Ty was to break into tears. No more tears arose from Ty’s eyes and no more twigs fought for power over her delicate hair.could.

Chapter One: Abyss

Deep within the tangles of a deep, dark forest, Khat struggled to get his horse through the thick tangles of vegetation. He wondered exactly where he was. All he knew was that he was in a forest a day’s walk from the city of Richbamon. Which meant that within a day, he could return to the city and the horrendous display of rotting corpses with the endless fear that the barbarian Gouls, the reason he’d left in the first place, would still be haunting the streets. He shuddered at the memory, and attempted to shove it out of his mind. Which wasn’t too hard after he found himself stuck between the roots of a rather large tree.
Just his luck. It didn’t help that his horse was much more cautious. And impatient. Khat dropped the reigns of his horse to tug at his foot.
When he came up after pulling his foot out, he found his horse trotting away slowly. It was already rather far away. He attempted to run after it, but managed to trip and get caught in more roots. Just his luck.
However, now as he squirmed and writhed to escape the roots, he managed to get himself caught in vines as well as roots.
Just Great.
He was having a terrific day, really.
It all began when he woke up to the chorus of screams outside his window. He of course woke up immediately and ran to view the street. He nearly vomited upon gazing upon the mass slaughter occurring outside. Bodies overflowed with blood as they were cut down by dark, fierce men with ragged beards and frightening eyes that scared every opponent into submission. Limbs lay in the street for all to see dismembered from their owners. Babies lay on their backs in the street: some wailing for help, others silenced by death. Children lay in various positions, as near to their parents as they could get before they too were hacked down.
Khat finally realized the horror he was witnessing and huddled into the fetal position beneath his window. It took him a few moments, but he eventually gathered his wits and ran to the bottom floor.
He hoped desperately no one was in the alleyways. At least no one hostile. Whoever else had been staying in the inn was apparently either screaming in agony and fear or splayed out on the floor in various pieces.
He grimaced at the image and swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. He opened the backdoor to the dark, quiet alleyway that the barbarians hadn’t discovered yet.
Anyone who recalled the exits of the alleyways that led out the city had apparently already made use of them. Not a single footstep joined his obnoxiously quick steps as he ran down the rather silent alley.

However, he soon heard the quiet sobs of a small child.
Khat knew he’d regret it, but he slowed to better calculate where the sobs came from.
Unfortunately for Khat, the sobs came from the street. Lucky him. It didn’t help that he felt guilty about merely the thought of just leaving her there.
So Khat slowly stepped toward the crying child, ready to run upon seeing any small particle of the gruesome beings ravaging the city. He was quite relieved when he made his way to the little girl without catching sight of the barbarians. So far so good.
The child peeked up from her crouched position slowly and would have screamed had Khat not been close enough to clap his hand over her mouth. It was a good thing he was rather quick about it. However, the girl still attempted to make muffled shouts.
Stupid girl. “Quiet! You’ll get us both killed if you keep up these useless cries…I don’t mean to harm you, little one. Please, follow me, stay silent, and don’t cry. Please. I know it’s heartbreaking that any form of parents you might have had are now…dead…but you can still live.”
He was a bit of an idiot. Of course this only made her hide her face and cry more.
“Oh, please don’t cry. I really would prefer to live.” He was a bastard. And not just any kind of bastard. He was selfish too. Shamelessly so. And somehow he had the belief that he was incredibly selfless.
But the girl did shut up. He took her hand and ran back into the alley, dragging her behind him. He feared the barbarians would begin to search everywhere for anything else they could kill. It was getting quiet.
Quiet is never a good thing in a battle. It means either everyone is dead or someone is scheming something.
He got annoyed rather quickly at the small underdeveloped girl who didn’t know how to run at the speed of light. So he heaved her on his back and ran. The girl’s heels dug into his stomach. It was rather painful and tempted him to drop her and run.
Damn guilt.
Finally he reached the end of the alley; a dead end.
“Hold a moment,” Khat told her as he sat her on the cobblestone. She nodded, seemingly shocked after all the trauma she’d been through.
And who wouldn’t be? Her parents both slaughtered violently, if she had any. He prayed she didn’t have any siblings, for she surely must have lost them too if they existed.
Massacres were awful.
Khat finally decided to quit musing and searched for the opening to the escape route he knew was somewhere near.
At least he thought it was near. No, he was sure. Pretty sure.
Finally the indecisive one found the weak boards that gave way for an opening in the wall next to him. He reached for the hand of the little one and pulled her in behind him as he entered the thin opening to the dark abyss.
“Umm…it’s scary in here,” came the small dry voice of the little girl.
“It’s okay. The darkness provides safety,” came the inexperienced consolation of Khat.
“I don’t like the dark.”
“Well, that’s too bad because it loves you. Now stay quiet, I need to remember where to find the escape.”
That shut her up. She must have been utterly confused. He had expected her to cry. Amazingly, she hadn’t.
So he began to feel his way around the dark cavern and his fingers found their way into a small crevice.

Excellent. It was what he was looking for.
His fingers having found their destination now tugged at the crevice, grasping his fingers tightly to the edges.
It wouldn't give. Someone must have jammed the wedge in too tightly. He wasn't that weak.
Khat took a small break to soothe his red fingers.
The girl became frightened at the sudden lack of sound, causing her to speak up.
"Er...excuse me, but what happened? You're still here, aren't you?"
"Yes. I had to take a break. My fingers are sore."
"Oh."
Khat sighed, blew on his fingers one last time, and proceeded to tugging the wedge from between the crevices it lay.
Khat was surprised as he finally lifted the wedge. Unfortunately, he was so surprised by the weight of the wedge that he fell forward, causing him to smash his already raw fingers under the weight of the wedge.
"AUGH!" Khat shuddered from the sudden shock.
"Are you okay?"
"Ngh...I'm fine. I've almost got it open."
"Alright."
Khat slowly breathed in and out trying to ignore the pain shooting through his arm. Deciding he needed to get his hands out from under the wedge, he lifted the wedge with all his might and then some. With a grunt he fell over to the side. The wedge slipped out of his fingers and hit the floor with a rather loud thud which caused the little one to shriek in fright.
"It's alright...it's alright. I just dropped the wedge."
"Youcould have dropped it on me!"
"No I couldn't. You're on the other side of the hut."
Again, she was silent. He took the moment to recover from lifting the wedge.
"Alright. Onto the easy part."
Khat got up, brushed himself off, and stared at the wooden plank held together by metal crossings. His hand reached for the handle connected to the crossings and pulled. Khat was quite relieved when the planks lifted effortlessly.
While few specks of light shone into the hut, the pit the planks revealed was pitch black.
"We're not going in there are we?"
"Of course."
The little one whimpered. Khat sighed and held his hand out for her. She took it and he picked her up and set her slowly into the black abyss. She whimpered again.
Khat made himself move quickly to join her in the pit. Upon setting his foot upon the cold soil of the hole, he felt a soft presence gather itself around his leg. The girl was hugging close to him out of fear. Khat sighed once more.
"How about I carry you?"
"Would you?"
His hands grasped her waist and pulled her up. They then continued onward, to a place free of the mass slaughter, through the black abyss. A few steps into their journey down the black tunnel, Khat shifted the girl to his back and ran as fast as he could, becoming rather uneasy about the whole ordeal.

It was originally there from a thousand years ago, at the least, when the Bamonque people controlled it. The entire city was a humongous fortress perfected upon years of battle and passing of power between various leaders. The Richles dug the tunnel to siege the city. It all took many months to get it there, and many of the diggers were killed by cave ins and lack of oxygen. But it was worth it. When it got near the end a Richla spy began to dig a tunnel to coincide with the other so it wouldn’t end up in a random location in the city. When it was completed, the Richles attacked the outer walls while a small portion of their army trekked through the tunnel to siege the city from within and to open the gates for their fellows. Upon entering, of course, a glorious battle ensued. And what is meant by glorious is that the Bamonques were dragged out of their beds violently and many were put to death immediately. However, they surrendered as quickly as they realized the situation. The Richla prince, Geven, decided he would take the Bamonque princess Arayette as his wife. She, of course, demanded safety for her father, King Rayon, and kindred, and leniency to her people. The Richles decided to agree, and a happy marriage for Arayette and Geven ensued. Also upon overtaking the city, the Richles reinspected the city’s walls, and decided to create a greater fortress, one that would withstand all battles and wars for ages. And so over many, many years, a great wall was constructed about the city, the wall of Richbamon, which proved its stamina countless times in the future. At least, until the barbarian Gouls came upon the realization that the only water source was outside the wall. And so the Gouls set up camp about the city wall, which only openings were shut promptly upon realization of their arrival. Eventually, a few inhabitants made a daring attempt to retrieve more water. The Gouls discovered this, unfortunately for them, and promptly sliced up the poor people, and then a few Gouls donned their clothing, entered the city gates, killed off the guards and opened them for the Gouls to waltz right in.

Which made Khat quite glad knowledge of the passageway was kept secret or the barbarians would surely have used them. And then where would he be? Probably just like the rest of his fellows, dead on the ground. Though he wasn’t entirely sure that the Gouls didn’t know about the tunnel. Surely they would have blocked them off or used them to access the city instead? Khat prayed that the Gouls didn’t have a bleeding clue about the tunnel. Or he and the girl were surely dead.

Speaking of the girl, she was getting awfully heavy. Khat began to slow, as his back was burning with pain and the girl getting heavier with every step.

“Child…” He said for her attention. She didn’t respond. He groaned as he realized the girl must have fallen asleep. So Khat decided to take it easy. He was also considering taking a break. A nice nap would be wonderful. With that in mind, he walked forward a few steps before he gave into temptation and painful exhaustion and would walk no longer.

“Come on, lass, I need to sleep too,” he said as he shifted her around to his front to set her down more gently. She didn’t stir once during any of this. He made sure he was close enough for her to tell she wasn’t alone and therefore prevent her from shrieking in fright as she believed he had abandoned her and therefore waking him up. Finally assured that nothing would dare disturb his slumber, Khat slept.

When Khat awoke several hours later, he found his arms around the small form of the girl. He mumbled incoherently and then moved away from the girl. She stirred and woke up grumbling.

“Slept well, little one?” Khat asked, yawning.

“No. The floor is too hard.”

Khat chuckled.

“We should be on our way now.”
The child got up and reached for his hand blindly. He grasped it and they walked onward.

An hour passed when the girl decided she could no longer walk.

“Will you carry me again?”

“Lass, I’m weary enough as is.”

“Please, my feet will break at any moment now.”

“Urgh…As will mine.”

“But you’re stronger than I am. I’ll faint any moment now.”

“Ugh! Fine!” Blasted child. Why’d he take her in the first place? Unfortunately for him, the same force that drove him to take the girl made him decide to carry her. And so, with much pain planned for the future, Khat lifted the girl to his back again. She felt lighter this time, he thought. He was perfectly fine carrying her until of course the child decidd to dig her heels into his side once again.

“I’m not a bloody horse, you don’t have to dig your heels into my sides to make me go.”

“Sorry,” she said quickly, and if Khat could see her, he could see the blush in her face.

“That means get your bloody heels out of my ribs.”

“Oh,” She muttered weakly and immediately relieved Khat of the dent of her heels in his sides.

“Thank you lass,” came his relieved sigh. He felt her nod.

Khat trudged on , and once again the girl was getting heavier with every step. Another hour passed in this manner when Khat’s stomach growled fiercely. The girl shrieked in fright.

“What was that?” she said weakly, holding tighter to Khat.
”Calm down. It was only my stomach.”
”Are you hungry?”

“Aye, aren’t you?”

“Nay, I had a slice of bread while you were sleeping.”

“You had food?”

“Aye.”

“Do you have food?”

“Nay.”

“You didn’t think to share?”

“You were sleeping.”

“It didn’t occur to you to save some?!”

“I didn’t know you’d want it.”

Khat grumbled simultaneously with his stomach. He would have slaughtered the sack of meat on his back were he not rather sure the light of day would soon be visible.

He hoped it was day, anyway. He was starting to miss the desperately annoying rays of light. Khat advanced dejectedly forward. Occasionally, he’d trip over his dead feet, nearly dropping the girl.

Finally, with about one more hour, trickles of light prickeld the walls that slowly became visible. As they continued on, the wall became more and more visible. Khat sighed in a grand relief as he recognized the sign that he was nearing the end of the tunnel. Apparently, the girl had fallen asleep again, and was beginning to wake.

“The light!” she exclaimed upon full consciousness. “We’re nearly out!”

“Aye,” he sighed happily, “nearly there.”

As he continued forward, the girl purposefully began to slip down his back. She apparently wanted to walk now, so he stopped so she could get off easier. The girl paused, squatting to get her legs working again after being unused for so long, and then sprinted forward.

“Child! Slow down!” The girl ignored his command completely, despite the demanding echo it had in the tunnel. So he grunted and ran after her, ignoring the unforgiving pain in his legs. Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, he was driven to stop and take in the glorious image of the dried dirt which, after 20 feet, rose into the gloriously dried and dying trees of winter.

Then Khat realized he had completely lost the girl. His head swung back and forth, he even spun around a few times, but did not see the girl. Where had the little one run off to?
”Child! Lass!” he shouted, lacking the knowledge of her name, “Where are you?”

There came no reply. Khat was quite worried, despite how much trouble he had caused her. The lass wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“Little lass?” he tried one last time. Then he heard the snap to the right of him.

And of course, Khat turned. His eyes were greeted with the image of a rabid Goul holding the little one in a very unforgiving headlock. She attempted to scream, but the Goul’s arm muffled it.

“Lass!” he shouted as a reflex. The Goul wore a savage grin as he held a gigantic hand under the lass’s chin. He didn’t have any weapons, but it looked as if he was prepared to snap her neck at any moment.
Khat wasn’t really sure what to do.

Of course, that didn’t matter as his consciousness was extinguished.


Khat awoke, finding himself thrown over a horse who wandered aimlessly. So he decided to attempt to control the horse. Of course, this was rather hard, considering the further he got into the forest, the harder it was for the horse.
Eventually Khat had to jump off the horse and lead it through. He’d have just left the horse, but he didn’t know when the next time he’d be able to get a horse.
Khat didn’t really know where he was going. He just knew that continuing through the forest would get him away from the city (hopefully he was going that direction) and to a nice, safe city.
It’d get him away from the Gouls too. And that girl. Who was that girl? He knew absolutely nothing about her. He never bothered to ask, though he had nearly a full day to ask. He also couldn’t remember what she looked like. Oh well, she was a selfish and whiny wimp. It was no loss of his that the Gouls had taken her. He shuddered thinking of what the Gouls may do to her.
Of course, lost in these thoughts, he got his foot stuck. And that was the last of his patience with this day. As soon as he was sure the horse was gone and that he couldn’t get out of the root, he plopped down and refused to move.

“Are you trying to torture me?!” He demanded from the Gods. “Must you impart every bloody bad thing upon me? What if I killed myself, eh? Where would you get your fun then? Hm?”

Khat sighed, feeling his shouts were worthless. And they were. So, finding nothing else to occupy his time with, and giving up on any attempts to remain living, Khat slept. So what if some animal came along and gobbled him up? He didn’t have much to live for anymore.

Procrastinating Already

I have wasted 3 hrs and 18 minutes and have somehow managed to actually write...167 words. Woo?

Come one, Come all

This shall soon be installments of my addition to the horribly stressful thing called NaNoWriMo.

Hurray, for it has started. And I've succesfully wasted 2 hours.