Prophetess

Chapter 1: Sign of the Dark

The prophetess woke up covered in a layer of sweat. She threw back the covers and jumped out of bed, running from the nightmarish vision she had been given in the night. Her body shivered as it touched the cold night air, but she had no time to get back into bed. She went quickly to the writing desk on the other side of her small room at the inn she had been led to stay at two days ago.

It was a room saved usually for servants of high noblemen, but had been leased to her for almost nothing. She had been short on copper in the last few legs of her Journey, but had always been provided for in some way. Even when the stores ran low in her travel pouch, she somehow always found an innkeeper willing to let her room and board for helping out with the chores or serving drinks. Sometimes she was able to earn a few coins singing or reciting poetry for the inn guests, getting tips from the patrons as well to save up for the next Journey she still had to undertake.

She held the pen, letting it hover over the paper and closed her eyes. The dream had seemed too real, it replayed vividly in her head as she began to write furiously:

I was walking down a road in the days of old. I walked, but my speed could match that of 40 horses. As I sped by, I looked down at the black and crumbling road before me, decayed and cracking where it had been ridden for hundreds of years. My eyes were brought to the side of the road continually, as many objects lay on the right side between the blackness and the brown grass beyond. Old rubber, sometimes rusted metal bits and pieces, often trash still blowing in the wind. But every minute or so I would pass the corpse of a poor dead creature. These corpses lined the streets, crushed or decimated or torn in half. Some I could not tell what they were in life, some I saw more clearly. I saw the bottom half of a dog-like creature. I saw an armadillo, fully intact on its back and covered in blood. I saw a rabbit that was almost completely flattened, as if it had been crushed under a tremendous weight over and over. I saw what I believe was a mangled calico cat, it's fur and flesh splattered. I wanted to look away, I hated seeing the poor creatures and sent up a prayer for their peace and salvation as I passed them all. But I was not allowed to look away, I knew to keep my eyes on each and every small soul that had been ripped apart by humanity's cruelty. As I continued walking, the corpses grew and became more visible. Slowly I began to see the bodies of soldiers, then widows, then young men and women, then small children and orphans and other things much too terrible and I was allowed to look away at last.

When I had reached the end of the road, Lord spoke to me and said, "How many miles did you travel on this road?"

The answer came to me at once, "90 miles my Lord," I answered trembling and falling to my knees.

"These are the corpses from only this 90-mile stretch of one road in one city in one country on one earth. How many corpses of each kind did you see on the road?"

Again, bidden, "33 animal and 33 human."

"332 years ago I destroyed this earth and then chose to redeem my chosen people. I destroyed the core to pieces, I stripped the tribes of their glory and pride. I tore apart the seas and the mountains and the valleys and I brought fire and destruction. But I gave humanity a second chance at life, to prove themselves better than the arrogant fools before you. This vision comes from an average day in the life of one of those humans. The rotting flesh of their own conceit lined the streets for all to see. Every second they would be passed by and ignored like the trash thrown behind to rot and fester. These humans did not value life as I taught them. They did not value compassion, kindness, servitude, humility, and true godliness as they were commanded. Instead they made a mockery of the earth and abused the lowly creatures within it, both I entrusted to their care. Where they failed, you will not. Awake and write down what you have seen and heard. Fear no powers of the dark world, though they still hide at my command. You are protected, always, wherever you wander in my name."