Nightmares

[Isilwen]

(( Closed for now ))

Trollsbane and the surrounding lands were a barren wasteland.

Buildings and walls lay in ruin, empty shells of their former selves. Dust and dried earth covered the streets in a thick layer of neglect. Trees were reduced to charred stumps, twisting upward to the vast emptiness above in hopeless desperation. It was not day, for there was no sun. It was not night, for there were no stars.

Nothing grew, nothing lived. Nothing moved, save for when the dust was disturbed by a moaning wind that passed over the land, leaving its mournful song in the air as it passed. At times, dried remains of a corpse were uncovered, only to be hidden from sight once more by the next wind.

The only sight left belonged to a young woman, standing alone in the midst of everything. Her clothing was reduced to rags, and she was cold. Her hair was mussed, her face was dirty and scarred. She could still feel the blood dripping from her hands, down her fingers and onto the dry earth. The wind sounded again, and the girl shivered.

Voices were carried over the barren plains, but she could not understand them, nor could she be sure that they were real. Nothing seemed real, but she could not remember what was. Her past seemed vague and distant, like a face in a dream that one cannot quite recall. Then she heard it. The voices melded into one, a cold call, full of malice.

"Come...to me..."

In a panic, the girl turned and upon seeing the source of her fears, she screamed.

Carinia's eyes shot open. She sat up from where she had been sleeping- a dark corner beside the walls of Trollsbane. Trembling, she placed a hand to her face, feeling the cold sweat that had covered her whole body. The girl closed her eyes tightly, attempting to forget, praying to any god that her nightmares would slip away as all dreams did...praying that it was, in fact, only a dream. And above all she prayed that all she had experienced in her past was only a fantasy of her mind, and not the harsh memories that deep down she knew they were.