Chapter 5- The World of Darkness

Oliver was on the battlefield.

The air was filled with the sounds of swords clashing and people screaming. A scream from behind him made him whip around, sword in hand. His breath caught in his throat.

This was his dream, the one he often had since his childhood. But this time it was different than always. He had an unusual feeling, something that he hadn't felt before in any of his dreams. He could feel the wind blowing caring dust and death. He could smell the blood in the air, he could hear people scream in anguish. He could feel his body tighten all over and the exhaustion wearing him down. It felt real.

Just as Oliver was trying to make the head and tail of the situation he saw a young man was glaring at him with hate-filled eyes as another soldier slid to the ground with a large gash on his chest.

Oliver stepped back involuntarily, stumbling over the guy's dead body and fell over the uneven ground.

The other man raised his sword.

"Die!"

[Fffwwwwwwhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeee]

Just when the young man lifted his sword, an arrow whistled through the air and pierced right through his chest before he fell.

The young man's body fell directly over Oliver who had already stumbled upon the ground. This scene shocked him to no extent. Just as he was about to push away the dead body from over him his head throbbed so much as if someone stabbed multiple burning hot needles right into his brain. Before he could even scream, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Just as his pain subsided, Oliver found himself in a world with no light. Everywhere he could see was pitch black and he was floating right at the centre. In this endless world of darkness, he was only a human shapes wisp. He had no definitive features and looked like a general outline of a human, slowly emitting dim light blueish light. Suddenly he felt another batch of pain. This one was totally different from his previous session. It felt like someone had ripped his heart out directly from his chest. Next, he saw a fist-sized ball of blueish light coming out of his body. This ball just like Oliver's current body, shedding dim light blue light in this endless world of darkness. Just as the ball of light came out of Oliver's body it slowly floated away from Oliver until he couldn't see it anymore. He didn't know why but this gave him a deep sense of loss. Due to the pain, Oliver clenched his chest tightly watching the ball of light floating away into the distance.

After a couple of seconds, he saw another wisp slowly floating towards him. That wisp just like him was human-shaped but was smaller in size. It looked more like the body of a teenager than a full-grown person. The human-shaped wisp came into contact with Oliver and suddenly merged into the body as a river merges into the sea. Only after the merge did Oliver was finally relieved from the pain. In fact, quite opposite he felt a kind of pleasure, he felt satisfied. He felt like he had finally been able to eat his full after weeks of not eating anything.

Suddenly a blinding light ingulphed the whole world of darkness and Oliver found himself back on the battlefield.

"uuh" Oliver grunted

Seeing a dead body over himself he was stunned for a second but then he pushed the body away with all his might. He steadily stood up and looked around. Seeing the ocean of dead bodies and the river of blood made his stomach churn. He turned his face away but no use because of the same scene on the other side too. He finally couldn't hold himself back and puked his guts out. The foamy vomit was full of his stomach acid showing he hadn't eaten for some time. Vomiting made him even more tiered plus his empty stomach didn't provide him much energy either. He was at the end of his ropes. The last 20 minutes of his life was so confusing that he now couldn't tell up from down. So much stress was put on his mind that now his brain was shutting down, but suddenly...

"aah," Oliver grunted again under his breath. Sudden sharp pain from his rightsholder made him focussed again and prevented him from fainting. He saw an arrowhead stuck inside his rightsholder and blood constantly pouring out of it. The pain helped him calm down. He tried to steady his breath as much as he could. Oliver had always been a smart guy, so as soon as he calmed down he started using his brain again. He looked at his shoulder again " This can't continue, the blood loss is too much. At this rate, I will end up dying from blood loss. The arrowhead must be the one from the arrow that was shot into that guy. It must have pierced me when he fell over me. Well anyway, I have to take out the arrowhead and wrap my wound with something."

Oliver took a couple of deep breaths and pinched the tail of the arrowhead with his left hand. Then with all his might, he started pulling the arrowhead out of his shoulder. "aaaaa" Oliver tried to suppress his voice as much as he could. He knew that this might not be the best place to scream. Trying to hold back his tears due to the pain caused by pulling the arrowhead, he tried to find something to wrap the wound with. Even after a couple minutes of searching, he didn't find anything. So then he looked at the dead body right in front of him. He knew what to do because if he didn't, he would die. He went near the dead body and tore a large piece of cloth from the ones the dead body was wearing. Then he tried to tie his wound to the best of his abilities.

"This will do for now, but where exactly am I? Is this a war? How the fuck did I get stuck here? And what was that world of darkness? I am so confused." Oliver had so many questions but no answers to go along with them. "This is definitely a battlefield. I should get out of here. I have no idea which side won but if they are the enemy side and they caught me then I don't think that I will have much future left to get any answers."

Oliver made his decision and got himself mentally ready. But just as he was gonna run away he stopped. "Wait what if there are more enemies. Won't they just kill me?" Seeing around he saw many dead bodies and lots of weapons lying around with them. "I should take a couple of weapons just in case. Even though I don't even know how to use a kitchen knife properly at least these weapons will give me some sense of security if nothing else."

He went towards a body " This guy seems to be wearing the same vest as mine but his is thicker and even covers more. Mr Dead Guy sorry for your inconvenience but I would be borrowing your vest and your sword for some time. It's not like I am looting I am just borrowing yeah borrowing... This definitely is looting isn't it. Well, whatever I will just pray for your soul to reach for heaven that way we will be equal."

After 'borrowing' the vest and sword from the dead guy Oliver wore the vest and hung the sword on his wrist. After that, he 'borrowed' a bow and a quiver full of arrows from another dead guy. He strapped the quiver to the other side of his wrist and the bow to his back. While he was collecting the arrows he saw a pouch hung on the wrist of the dead person.

When Oliver opened the pouch he saw a couple of coins in it. 7 silver and 9 bronze coins to be exact. Seeing this Oliver realised that this dead guy must be a hired mercenary because if not why would he bring a pouch full of coins to a battlefield. After seeing the pouch full of coins Oliver, of course, hid the pouch inside his vest.

Then he just picked a direction and started running. He was really lucky that after just 20 minutes he reached a road. Seeing the road he decided to go down the road so that he could find a city or something where he could check his wound up before he ends up straight dying because of blood loss.

.............

The sun was setting and the blue sky filled with clouds loomed over the heads of an old couple riding a carriage. "Hahaha, wife you must make a great dinner tonight. After selling all the chickens we must buy lots of stuff with today's money. We are going to make a big income today with such high-quality chickens." The old man driving the carriage said to his wife sitting next to him.

"Yeah yeah I know you and your fat belly." The old woman replied with a big smile on her face. But suddenly she shouted, "Ben stop the carriage." Hearing her shout the old man named Ben suddenly stopped the carriage and asked," What happened Martha?"

" See there" Martha pointed towards a body lying on the ground with blood near it," hurry he seems to be injured" Hearing this Ben quickly stepped off the carriage and ran towards the body. Who else would it be other than Oliver? Too much blood loss made him faint on the side of the road.

" He is alive just fainted. There is a wound on his shoulder that caused massive bleeding. This must be the reason he fainted. Martha fast, make space in the carriage we will take him to the town." Ben carried Oliver into the carriage and lie him in the most comfortable position he could. Then he rushed the carriage into the distance.