Into The Frozen Forest (Part 5)
Chase found himself in a vivid dream, standing at familiar crossroads.
In the ruins of Willowmere, here silently gazed at the place where he and his two friends had parted ways for the last time.
It was terrible and yet beautiful all at once, he remembered hearing them talking about joining the royal army, or becoming adventurers and exploring the vast world that they never got the chance to see.
He tried to mutter a silent goodbye, but since it was of course a dream, no words escaped his mouth.
He was used to the binding of dreams by now, he never really had any power, and he supposed that was how the world truly worked anyway.
No matter how much rage pushed him forward, he would never truly have power over anything, no matter how hard he trained, or how much work he put, or even how many books he read, there would always be someone much stronger then him, who opposed his views or even just his blood.
Hell, even if he did get strong enough to take the throne, even Orion couldn't stand against the gods alone...
Suddenly, he felt his arm twitch.
Not his dream arm, but the arm that was laying lifelessly on his sleeping bag inside of the tent.
Then he seen an image flash by his mind... The topaz dagger that was lying underneath his pillow.
Then he remembered Dragon asking if he had ever taken a life before...
It was all so weird, that he started to panic, and shot himself awake with a start.
Reaching underneath the pillow as fast as he could, a hand shot over his mouth, and he was greeted face to face with a man wearing some sort of skull mask.
Chase's blood flurried to life, and his eyes were as wide as possible.
He muttered through the man's grip, trying to scream for help, but none came.
The man then whispered a curse, or maybe a prayer.
"Forgive me, but this is simply war..."
Chase felt a knife pierce his abdomen, and he tried to scream, even bite through the grip of the man in all black.
Then another stab wound, and another.
And soon his entire stomach was pierced by knives.
He was going to die...
He was going to die...
He was going to die...
He didn't know what to do, there wasn't much he could do...
He felt his life slipping from his hands, and out of sheer luck, his hand managed to grip the handle of the topaz dagger underneath his pillow.
With a violent thrash, he threw himself forward, and shoved the blade of the dagger into the throat of the man.
Blood gushed all over Chase, and the skull mask fell from the man's face.
His face was young, almost younger then Chase, as an existential dread fell over the tent, as he watched the life fade from the boy's eyes...
He had killed him, and the wound was not clean by any means, it was terribly gruesome, as the flow of crimson blood refused to stop.
Chase felt his insides turning, not just from the pain, but from the terrible situation he found himself inside of.
Using all of his adrenaline, he threw himself outside of the tent, with the man's body being thrown outside as well, with the dagger still gouged inside of the boy's throat.
Chase huddled over next to the nearby tree, and felt his insides escape through his mouth.
Cries and screams were blended in with the gasping for air, and constant gagging.
He truly felt lost, as if he had just committed a terrible sin.
He taken a life of course, which was considered a terrible sin, and most soldiers had taken countless lives, in fact if you asked any civilian of any small town if they had taken a life, chances are they have taken multiple.
But Chase was just a kid, but then again so was the one who he had killed...
Summer was the first to see the scene in front of her, and when she did, she put a hand over her mouth as if in complete shock that they had let an enemy into the camp, and had nearly taken their leader's life.
But Chase did not care for her presence, nor the circumstances that had taken place, all he cared for was slowing his rapid heartbeat down.
'I- I want to go home...'
He thought, frantically grasping at his torn up stomach.
Summer hurriedly stepped over to him, and... Embraced him in a hug...
Golden light radiated from her touch, healing his wounds, and somehow calming him down.
This girl was a mere stranger to him, and he couldn't help but feel the urge to not trust this woman any less then Onyx or Talon.
"Get away from me..."
He whispered, violence sitting on the edge of his tone.
Summer shook her head.
"No, you aren't okay... I'm not going to hurt you."
Sure enough, he did indeed feel his wounds closing swiftly, but not the internal ones, he felt that something inside of him had been broken, as if part of himself would never return.
He tried to not look at the lifeless corpse of boy he had killed, but no matter where he looked all he could see was the life draining from the boy's eyes.