Light Shadows

Chapter 14~Premonition

My breath rattles in my throat and radiates into my lungs. I am having a hard time breathing. My hands are braced against the rough ground, rocks cutting into my palms, and i cough. However, the feeling that there is no air is still there, still torturing me. My position is such a weak one. I am so vulnerable here on the ground. Anything could simply come up behind me and grab me. I try to push myself up using my hands but i fall back to the ground. Why was i so weak? I could barely move. Now, i felt the pain that coursed through my body. Shadows and darkness, what is this?

I focus on the ground noting how the sharp rocks are gray and lifeless. I find the strength to bring my head up and i find myself staring into a blanket of mist and fog. What happened? Was this the Backlands? I thought that i was in the Forelands. The last thing i remember was being up on that rooftop... Where was i now? All of these questions pound against the insides of my head and i feel as if my mind might burst. I close my eyes and center myself, breathing in, then out, then inhaling once again. I open my eyes. I feel more focused and everything looks clearer now that i took a moment.

This must be the Backlands. Where else would i be? The only question now was how did i get here? Well, i did not think that there was any turning back now so i just had to keep moving forward. Yes. If i just kept moving, someone would come for me. Although, who would know? Even if someone did know, they would be glad of my disappearance. I had no one coming for me. I was on my own. But that was alright. I did not need anybody else to help me. I could help myself; by myself.

I struggle to get to my feet but i somehow manage to stand up without falling over. I turn around in a circle to try to get my bearings and find any indicator as to where i might be in the Backlands. Nothing. There was nothing to determine where my location might be. I almost scream in frustration but something catches my eyes. There are spots on the ground. I bend down and touch the few drops. When i bring my finger up to my face to get a better look, i see red. Blood. It must be blood. I wipe it off on my pants. Studying the splatters of blood closely, i find a trail. A trail of blood. How fitting. Since i had no other option, i start to follow the trail of blood which leads off into the fog.

My progression is slow. I feel as if i might topple over to the side. I watch the blood splatters as i walk. If i look anywhere else, i might lose the trail and then i would surely be lost. I would just be another being that went missing into the dense fog. There had to be an answer at the end of this trail. There had to be. I was going to find that answer. Even if it killed me. I was going to find out what lay at the end of this trail of bloody splatters.

I stop for a second to catch my breath. I sigh and close my eyes. When i open them, the blood is gone. What? Where was it? Where was the trail? Shadows and darkness, i was stupid. How could i lose the trail? I did not even move. I had only closed my eyes for a second and maybe not even a second at that. I take a few steps in the direction that i think i was heading before i had stopped. It all looked the same to me, the mist, the fog, and the gray, rocky ground that seemed endless. It was all just a gray abyss with no ending and there never would be any ending. Just another abyss beyond this one.

Tears prick against the backs of my eyes when i see more splatters of blood on the gray ground. Thank the darkness. I was not lost. But then i notice how the rock suddenly ends to the right side of me. I reach my hand out and i can feel how it abruptly just stops and slopes straight downward. There was no angle to it. I was on a ledge. I scuffle back so that i am closer to the other side of the trail of blood. Then, i continue following it. One step after another, always aware of the ledge on the right side of me.

Minutes seem to pass. Then hours. Days and months. What feels like years later, the blood splatters stop. It runs into a ledge that slopes straight downward just like the one on my right side did. Now i was surrounded on two sides by these ledges. I turn around but, instead of the trail that i am expecting to find, there is another ledge. How did it get there? I begin to panic now and i let myself. What have i managed to get myself into? My heartbeat thuds in my chest and i put my hand over my heart as if i can conceal my heartbeat from the outside world. My heart seems to stop dead in its tracks. Time freezes. What was i going to do?

I look outward towards who knows what and i realize that the foggy mist is beginning to dissipate. I can see more than two feet ahead of me now. This was progress even if it was kind of slow. I could live with this. I reach out behind me and touch the solid wall of rock. Good, it was still there. I do not know what i would do if it also disappeared and turned into a mysterious ledge just like on the other three sides of me. I take a step back but refrain from leaning against the wall. I could not trust this place to not play another trick on me and have the wall turn into yet another ledge leaving me standing on a single platform. Unless i fell of with it, i guess, which in that case, i would fall into the abyss and lose myself in the foggy mist of nothingness.

I wait for the mist to clear but when i can finally see far enough to make out the landscape, i wish that the fog would come back. I could see the ground now. It was gray with lots of sharp rocks. However, there was a sun in the sky which was strange because the Backlands did not have a sun. The sun i saw was just as bright as the one in the Forelands. It blinded me for a second but not as long as it usually did. Maybe i was finally getting used to being in bright light after living almost my entire life in the shadows and darkness of the Backlands except for the occasional missions to the Middelands. But even then, the light was not as bright as the sun in the Forelands was. This sun here was just as bright.

Although it was not the sun that worried me. As my vision became sharper and more clear, i could make out what was on the landscape below because it was not empty, i could tell that much from where i stood atop this cliff. Below me were the bodies of Backlands. None of them moved, not even a twitch. They were all dead. Blood coated everything and the scent overpowered all else. I almost choked on the strength of the metallic smell of the blood of Backlanders. The blood of my people. Slaughtered.

My mouth opens in a silent scream, agony at the sight rippling through me. How had this happened? Tears stream down my face yet i still make no sound. I fall to my knees and my tears hit the ground beneath me. Who had done this? The Backlanders were people but they had been killed like cattle. Like they were animals. It was not their fault. But then again, most of them were not innocent. Most of them had committed atrocious acts. These were the creatures of nightmares but they were my creatures of nightmares. My responsibility. And while i stood high above on this cliff ledge, the realization hit me hard. 

My people were dead. Was it because of me?