I woke up this morning to see a dark white something swaying above me blocking the light of the sun. I couldn't remember ever seeing that before so I closed my eyes and tried again. It was still there. The distance looked to be just barely above my head if I stood up. That was when I noticed my other senses. I could hear strange creaking noises, the plodding of unhappy horses at work, and voices speaking in an unrecognizable language. The smells were odd, as if only the most fragrant of plants in the Forest were put together in one place and died, covering the faint scent of human sweat. HUMAN sweat??!! As the ground beneath me suddenly dipped down to my left a little before dipping deeper to the right and leveling off, I scrambled to my knees and looked frantically around. The hard ground was really wood and from it sprouted a whitish "cloth", I think it's called, that went from one side of the wood box to the other, curling overhead. To one side I saw the back of a what seemed to be a person wrapped in a similar but dirtier cloth and holding the ropes to control four sad horses pulling this thing, lined up two by two. Out the other side I saw a person in similar garb riding another horse drawn contraption, wrapped so only its eyes were showing and even those were squinted.
Instantly I hugged my knees to my chest as I recalled the distruction wrought by people in similar garb but the cloths were black, a nearly pure black that warned too late of their intent. They were dead, all of them, Gazer, Moonbeam, Starlight, Student, Scholar, the Children, even the Seer was dead. I could still see the distruction around Starlight's dead body, the blood on thier metal as they rode off on the armoured horses, the blood silently screaming as it seeped into the ground, the body pieces laying all around as I collapsed to their screams in my head. So much pain, so much death, I thought as I again surrendered to the welcome darkness.
When I opened my eyes again, a human female was bending beside me saying something. She was trying to sooth me, I figured, but I slipped away from her hands, hands that can do damage at any second. But no, I felt no danger here, these people meant me no harm. Closing my eyes, I recalled what the seer had said the morning of the attack.
"'Tis time for you to return, Young One. The time has come for you to find your place among your people."
"I don't want to return, Most Wise One, they bring pain, you all bring peace and calm," I replied.
"Yes, love, I know you have no wish to return but you must. The stars call for you."
"Can you at least come with me?"
"I wish that we could, Young One. I know that would make it easier on you, but the stars say that this journey you must take must be taken alone. There is turmoil in the stars, this we have all seen. What little can be understood these days must be obeyed. You can help clear the stars, the confusion among them and bring harmony again. You must follow this path as the stars summon you to."
"I understand, Most Wise One. I just don't want to leave."
"Many of us are called upon to do things we do not want to do but we must obey the Fates," he had replied with a far off look in his eyes as if he too had been asked to do something he had not wanted to. Moments later the black wraiths had descended upon us as I reeled in pain all over my body. Defenseless and in shock, I had watched the gloved hands swing the sharp metal at my peaceful friends as the panic grew. Starlight had fallen on me, begging me to stay down until they left with her last breath. After the horses had ridden off I managed to push her massive body off me and staggered to my feet, her blood dripping down me. The screams of the dead bogged me down and I collapsed in the middle of the circle they had been herded into. That was my last memory before waking up in this contraption.
Opening my eyes, I saw the wizened woman again. More accurately, I saw her wizened eyes through the layers of nearly white cloth as she handed me something. It looked like reddish tree bark and felt much the same. She was saying something, trying to get me to do something with it but I didn't understand. Finally she pulled a smaller piece from her cloth and broke off a much smaller size and put it in her mouth before starting to chew it and pointing at the piece in my hand. Reluctantly I broke off a small piece of the meat in my hand and stuck it in my mouth. The taste was bitter and bland, nearly tasteless and I realized this single piece of meat, a little bigger than my hand, was tough enough to likely last the whole day. It wasn't like the sweet and juicy stuff the others used to feed me, the fresh squirrel or rabbit we got a few times a new moon. No, this stuff was old and dry but I sensed it wouldn't kill me so I ate it.
It was time to start my journey to find my place in my world. It was time to look foward and act as these humans act. No looking back. I can never look back.
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