Aella (manxman) - ON HOLD

Good morning

Ceri

Cold...

Suddenly I felt the cold sneak into my body and reach my bones. This time of year, I usually don't use covers at night when I sleep. But it felt like I couldn't need them more right now. I folded my legs closer to me and hugged them. I waited to find some peaceful rest again, but the cold didn't subside.

I stirred in my sleep and I no longer felt the soft deer skin that Alev had given me to sleep on. Instead, the ground beneath me felt squishy and wet. I forced my eyes open only to see darkness. I pulled myself in a sitting position with difficulty and looked around me. I felt very dizzy for some reason and it was difficult to remain sitting.

Even at night, there was usually the shy rays of moonlight sneaking into Alev's den. But what alarmed me, was that I saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was the darkest I've ever seen. Not even a small shadow of anything around me.

"Alev?"

I asked hesitantly. When I received no response, I thought maybe he was asleep. I gulped and scolded myself silently for trying to wake my father from his sleep in the middle of the night. Yet the more I tried to calm myself, the more I got crept out by the obscurity that I felt was drowning me by the second.

As soon as the word 'drowning' came to mind, my hands and feet were becoming more and more soaked. I touched the ground around me and found it filled with water and mud. I couldn't see it, but somehow I knew the water was rising. It never reached my waist, but it felt like it was rising constantly making my breath quicken.

"A-Alev!" I yelled. Over and over, and yet no one answered me beside my voice that echoed to no end.

Still calling for him, I started to move my arms around me and reach to try and find him. My body felt too heavy to stand, and as soon as I was able to lift my knees off the ground, I slipped in the mud and fell right back down.

Finding it way too strange and starting to panic, I pulled myself across the mud, hoping to find the exit of the den. I only moved a little bit when my hands bumped into something.

A wall. Not the smooth wall of Alev's den. No, this one was harsh, uneven and covered with mud. I moved my hands alongside it. I kept following it for so long, but it never ended.

I decided to leave the wall and move away from it in hopes of finding anything that would lead me out. But as soon as I did, I was met with the same wall again. Confused, I tried again. But one step away from the wall, and it would slam into my palms once more. Terrified, I reached upwards as far as I could, but all I could find was more rough rocks and slippery mud. It felt like I was there for hours to no end and it was maddening.

I could hear the rain starting to fall down, but its voice didn't come from around me. It came from above. Droplets that sounded like angry rocks falling from the sky and breaking on a hard ground. But no matter how strong the rain got, no matter how much its noise drowned my voice, the rain itself didn't reach me.

And then I knew. I wasn't in Alev's den anymore. I wasn't in anyone's den. I was deep in the ground like a buried corpse. I was in some sort of a deep pit and it was closed.

"Ithel!!! Ithel help me, please! Ithel where are you"

I felt a sob threatening to break free, and just then, I heard something move. I lifted my head to see that whatever was blocking the pit I was in, it was being slowly pushed to the side. The rain broke free inside and with it a weak ray of sunshine sneaked in.

"Ithel?"

A shadow of a man appeared in the entrance above me. His face remained obscure to me. I reached my hand upwards for him