Lost in a Fog

[NirAntae]

Maggie moved through the fog rolling in thickly off the sea, walking along the beach to the east of Varshikar. She had started out merely to go to the spot that she and Revlen had visited the night before, but for some reason, her feet kept carrying her along the edge of the water.

As she walked along the shore, out of the fog came the dim, ghostly shape of a tree. It was not a particularly remarkable tree; just a cherry tree, or fairly average size. But for some reason, it struck her as... familiar. It was a vague tingling sort of sensation she was beginning to get used to. She walked up to the tree, and ran her hand lightly over the rough bark. With a fleeting smile, she traced a few grooves over the thinner bark of one of the branches, just above the height of her head. Why did this tree seem so familiar, why did it evoke such a feeling of connection?

She sighed, leaning her head slowly against the trunk of the tree; then after a moment, she turned with her back to it, and slid down to sit at its base, looking out into the fog.

It was an odd sensation... nothing but vague, ghostly hints of objects around her, hardly making any sense... and inside her, there was nothing but vague, ghostly hints of memories, single foggy images without a frame of reference. It felt as if her mind had been a neat drawer of papers, and someone had spilled them out on the floor, and just left them scattered there.

Who would have thought that losing nearly every detail of a few years of one's past would be so incredibly difficult to deal with?

She was the Deputy Leader of a town she only vaguely remembered... and in her memory, it belonged to another man entirely. She was with a man, a man she knew she loved deeply; she had known his face even through the fog, but she had no tangible memories about him, no recollection of why they were together, or of time they had spent with one another. She had an adopted son whose face had triggered only the vaguest sort of recognition, like someone met only briefly years before. Friends and enemies were all around her, and she had no way of telling one from the other. Already she had been lied to at least once about the unknown part of her past, made to feel guilty beyond description.

But, there were a few shreds of hope to cling to... her earlier memories were still intact, at least mostly. Even of what was gone, didn't seem to actually be gone, just jumbled and fuzzy; all except for the months she had been missing, which to her had seemed only an instant. So, there was still hope she would regain her memory with time. And of course, there was the possibility.... the precious possibility that Samantha suspected about what had happened to her during those missing months. Oh, if only she were right...

She thought about it for some time, sitting in the damp air at the base of that cherry tree. It was a truly wonderful, precious gift she stood to gain; but it was a horrible price to pay. She sat, and thought, pulling up what memories she had, and wondering at the stories and names and details behind them she didn't have...

She remembered standing in a crypt, watching as a man with a scar sealing one eye was overwhelmed by the undead there, undead she felt the certainty he should have bested with ease, but for some reason... he did not.

She remembered standing on a tower overlooking a town, standing next to a man with a shock of red hair, pervaded with a sense of calm, of peace.

She remembered kneeling in her garden, rain and lightning crashing down, embraced by the elf with the haunted blue eyes, tears making both their cheeks far wetter than the rain could have managed.

She remembered standing in the garden again, this time in front of a woman, pale and sickly looking, being carried by a man... these two, at least, she had managed to place, knew who they were, now.

She remembered... her body, and that of another man, laying in a field of ice and snow, very obviously lifeless.

She remembered laying nestled against a man amongst the roots of a sea-side pine tree, simply talking quietly.

She remembered being cradled in the arms of an elf, in an underground chamber; though it seemed to her that she was far too small, held in his arms as a child might be.


As her mind pulled up these few precious glimpses of memory, she began to cry softly. There were a few more, even more vague... but had years of her life been reduced to these few images? Was that vague promise of hope really worth having nothing but these scraps to hold on to?

Yes. A thousand times yes. She would have given that and more, for that precious gift, had she been given a choice.


But oh, how it hurt....





She continued to cry at the base of that tree, the sobs soft, but each one feeling as though it pierced her very heart. Eventually, her sobs subsided, not in peace, but in sleep.

[Kevin Lightdot]

Kevin sat on a chair in Varshikar, overlooking the square quietly and in thought.
Wasn't there anything more he could do for his beloved mother?
He sighed softly, gazing out into the fog for some seconds more before standing up and deciding to go for a walk.
He headed out to the east, towards the shores of Gobiath.

Simply walking somewhat thoughtfully he after a while stumbled on the sleeping, golden haired woman.

At first he frowned , unsure wether she was asleep or something else, Kevin hurried a bit closer, kneeling down next to her to see wether she was okay. He could no longer see wether it where tears on her face, or simply fog that had settled there, sighing relieved.

When he had found that she was relatively okay.. but perhaps, just a small chance she was discomforted by the cold of the night.
He wanted to do what ever he could help, any discomfort for his mother was to much if he could help it.

Kevin quickly undid the coat he was wearing over his plain clothing, he layed it down over her body, not wanting to wake her.

And as he tucked the edges of the coat under her he finaly began to wonder what had brought her to sleep here.

He didn't know this place... Was it another one of the secrets she kept from him?
Yes, it probably was in his mind, another thing she didn't ever bother to tell him about, just like that garden of hers.

He frowned, grumbling softly, sitting there by her for a while, wondering, thinking.

Should he confront her with it?
But what help would that be? She had lost her memories.
She seemed to remember most things vagely...
Did she really remember him as much?
She did seem care for him...
But was she as interested in him as she was in the other people,
Did she care as much for him as she cared for 'mere friends'?

Arg, he didn't know it all anymore, was he truely worth *anything* to her? Anything!?
His mind started to rage furiously around inside him, untill the point where he stood up and shot a punch at the tree, making it shake a little and making a few leaves drop out of it...

If he thought with a clear, 'non-teenage' mind he would obviously have seen that he meant a lot to her, and if he would just try and recall some previous events that had happened, he'd know she cared.

But there where times, where he just didn't do that, times where he just lost eye to many things.

And those times... those times where the ones he regretted once he had came to a clear mind once more.