Tears slid down from my eyes, all I could feel was the sensation of sharp pain that tore at my left arm. The area around me was a wasteland of corpses coated in blackened blood and rotten organs, the air tainted with a stench that was fouler than anything I could recall. My body was covered in a combination of my blood and the remains of what had splattered onto me from the Plague.

eat?

The voice continued to persist with more urgency as time passed. I could feel Her, I knew She was here but at the same time there was nobody else save for me. Like a ghost that should not exist there was a presence of another, one who lingered around me with soft hands and a beautiful voice. Over and over she requested me to do something, she wanted me to do something so simple. My Shatterblade fell from my arms with a soft noise, yet it was unimportant to me.

Eaaaat

The more She said it the less I started to hear aside from Her voice, the wind that blew and the rustled leaves became inaudible and the sound of my own heartbeat no longer roared in my ears. It seemed so simple, really, if I did what She wanted I could probably stop suffering, couldn't I? The tears kept coming yet how little that mattered, my gaze lifted toward the heavens while from my chin the tears dripped.

Eat!

Her tone became more demanding, the volume increased and soon that singular word started to be spoken so fast I could only hear Her. I felt Her ethereal hands gripping my face, and She pulled my gaze down to look ahead of where I was. It was in that moment I realized that I could almost see Her. The body of the Woman was pure white, yet somewhat mist like, and even with what I saw I was mesmerized. She was beautiful to the point that I couldn't tear my gaze away, She was flawless to the point of impossibility. Her red eyes stared at me, Her white hair spilled out behind and around Her nude form like a glorious frame to a work of art.

Eat! EAT!

She had stopped pleading, she was commanding and I began to listen. It made perfect sense to me, if I ate then everything would be better. I didn't know why I thought that way, it was simply a fact that entered my mind. I had stopped crying by then started to rise as She guided me into standing.

Eat! EAT EAT EAT EAT!

The pain in my arm could no longer be felt, at some point it had gone from sharp pain that made me want to crumple into a warm sensation. It had turned comfortable and warm, to the point that I wanted it to always be there. The vine had crept up almost all the way to my shoulder, and as I took a step forward it seemed to grow even more.

Her voice had grown absolute, and as I walked forward another step my world started to change. All I saw was Her in front of me and it was all I needed to see. All I heard was Her and it was all I needed to hear. She guided me with Her hands, She pulled me where I needed to go. I did not need to worry anymore because She was there.

Without warning a Plague was in front of me. His hands gripped my shoulders tightly, his mouth swung open and closed. He looked at me with his crimson eyes and pure white skin, the clothes he wore were tattered and destroyed. Up his left arm ran a vine that mirrored my own, while on his barely visible chest I could clearly see a blooming rose.

I struggled, She wanted me to struggle and so I did. I swung my hands out, frantically, I attempted to push him away and get some space. I could not let him take Her from me, I needed to stop him before he ruined everything.

Blood flew everywhere, the Plague's face and body were coated in blood that was his own. His hands dripped freely, his mouth had blood that dripped continually from it. He looked surprised at my actions, then his eyes narrowed and he yelled. I heard nothing, She was the only voice I needed to hear and I did not want to ever let it stop entering my ears.

The next thing I knew I was shoved to the ground, hard enough that the air rushed from my lungs, and the Plague crushed down onto my arms with his knees. He straddled me while he used his hands, one shoved down onto my shoulder to pin me and the other to grip my face. I cried out in horror and frustration, I yelled and struggled as hard as I could yet could not get free.

His mouth lowered and I knew it was over, before I could even make Her happy I was about to lose my life. I had never known what failure was as I did in failing Her, and there was only intense shame in that moment. The Plague brought his mouth down and I knew I was to be eaten alive, and as he shoved his mouth hard against my own I could only be confused.

It was not a kiss, let me say that here and now. It was too forceful and intrusive to be called something as gentle as a kiss. I'm sure to an outsider it might have seemed like one, but to me it was painful and unwanted. Then there was the metallic flavor that flooded into my mouth, the taste of something easily recognized.

Blood, warm blood, and it was not my own.

I felt a wrench, as though the world had been ripped halfway through the universe to a new location. There was a feeling down in the core of my being that shuddered so violently that nothing would ever be the same again. At that moment two things occurred.

The first was that I tore my arm out from under Taryn's knee and slugged him so hard in the face that he flew some five feet away. He hit the ground hard, smashed up against a corpse of one of the Plague. I coughed out some of the remaining blood, though most had invaded my throat and gone into my body.

The second was She was gone, and I heaved a sigh of relief. The pain in my left arm returned, far worse than before, as the vine started to tear itself away from my flesh. In truth that is what happened, the black vine that had invaded part of my body ripped away like a plant tearing away from the ground, and blood started to spill out from the new wound.

After all of it was gone I stared at the fresh cut that went down my left arm, then I looked toward Taryn with a look of shock and concern. I didn't know at that time what he had done, yet I still knew he had done me a favor I could never return. I stood back up and ran over toward him, in time to watch as he rolled over.

"Hey Lily," he said, a smile on his face. It was not one of his fearsome smiles, nor one of his childish smiles. It was an actual smile.

"Taryn, what did you do?" I asked, as I went to try and help him up. His body was still pale, his eyes still that crimson hue. The mark of the Plague clearly stood out on him, yet his eyes did not match with what normally was seen.

Taryn attempted a shrug, then he coughed up a bit of blood and closed his eyes. I thought he had died at that time and started to tear up, before my legionnaire training kicked in and I decided to check for a pulse.

It was there, it was weak but it was there. The fact that he was bleeding far worse than I made matters worse, though it gave me a goal for the moment. I had no bandages and neither did Taryn, all of those would have been on the wagon we had left prior to the battle. There was only one source of semi-clean clothing present, and I cringed at the thought of using it.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

By the time I was done I had been stripped to my underwear and Taryn had only his pants and boots on. I had dressed his wounds, and most of mine as well, though without the proper amount of material I could not get to all of the open cuts.

Taryn had not woken up, his pulse was steady but he refused to open his eyes. I looked around and found that the area was a wasteland of corpses. What had been a beautiful section of grass and trees had turned black with rotten blood and pale with the bodies of the Plague.

In the distance I could still hear the sound of a bell tower, barely audible at this distance, and I realized that Vicna was most likely still under attack. If we had fought as many as Taryn claimed then that meant even more would be there? So many more? An amount that staggered my mind. I could not move to Vicna for assistance, and if I went to the road there was a good chance either Plague or slavers would be there.

I began to gather some sticks together, and then used a few fabrics that had yet to be used in order to create a type of crude litter. I had only ever made a few in the past, during my training days, and found that it was much harder to do than I could remember. The finished product was shoddy, looked unreliable and had no wheels.

I scanned the area, and then realized I did not have my Shatterblade on me. I could not recall exactly when it had dropped, though I felt that it was probably related to Her and what She had been doing to me. I shuddered at that memory, and then focused on finding it. It was not a hard task, as all I had to do was lift my left arm up and snap my fingers.

I concentrated and felt something odd as I tried to command the Shatterblade, it slowly coalesced once more onto my arm like a pair of twin bracelets. I opted to have them on the same wrist again, I had begun to enjoy that style and liked the sound of the metal clinking on metal it generated.

The two bracelets formed, but what I saw shocked me. While one was pure silver and flawless as always the other was most definitely not. Instead that single ring that encircled my wrist, that twin sister to the first, was crimson in hue. I stared at it, severely confused, and began to worry about what might happen when I used it. I decided it would be best to not think about it for the moment and instead focus on getting Taryn and I to safety.

When I went to pick up Taryn and to place him on my poorly made litter his coloring had started to shift. No longer was he as pale as a Plague, but instead he had a hint of warmth that made him look slightly sick. I lifted him up and found that he was far lighter than I ever could have expected, and easily placed him on the litter.

How long had it been since the battle had started? I looked up and tried to see the sun through the sky, but the foliage blocked my line of sight. I could only guess it had been at least half a day of pure fighting, my body still ached everywhere from the over-expenditure of energy. I would likely feel it for days to come. With that uncomfortable thought in mind I started to drag the half-dead Taryn off to the west.

♪ ♫ ♬ ♫ ♪

Why the west? Because it was the way that Shorty had gone, and so I deemed it as the better way to go. I hoped to find a small farm house or perhaps a village at which to seek shelter. If I met anyone on the road and they were heading toward or away from Vicna the chances of it being a slaver were high.

Half-naked and tired I dragged Taryn through the forest for what seemed to be an eternity. Every second ticked by, and all I could do was think about everything that had happened. Yet every time my memory started to linger on Her I immediately rejected it. I would not think about Her if I could help it.

I had started to grow concerned about nightfall when I stumbled out of the forest onto a nice open section of land. There was a stream that ran gently from the north to the south. Most likely it originated from out of one of the mountains near the central part of the Kingdom. I placed the litter and Taryn down, as gently as possible given his condition, and walked over to investigate it.

The water was clear, it sparkled and when I sniffed at it I noticed no distinct oddities. The plants flourished freely around it, and there were no visible animal corpses anywhere. I put a finger into it, then flinched at how cool it was. I tasted the water that had moistened my finger and found it to be without any trace of toxin.

I spent the next hour getting a fire going. Some would say that taking an hour to create a fire when you lacked the proper tools to do so is slow, yet after having spent so much time in training I had watched men spend an entire day failing to create a spark. I was very happy as I breathed life into the fire, gently, and transferred the glowing sparks of hope onto the firepit. Smoke billowed out and I cried for joy, a smile plastered across my face.

Warmth poured out from it, and I then decided it was time to do something about my and Taryn's filthy state of body. I peeled the remaining clothes I had, my underwear, off and then did the same to Taryn.

It was easy enough to do, and I am not going to talk about how Taryn looked nor how I felt in regard to that scenario. What I will talk about is how horrifically cold the water of the stream was. As I soaked in it I carefully maneuvered the unconscious Taryn so that most of him would be submerged.

It was perhaps not the wisest idea, given our numerous cuts, but we were both coated in rotting blood and organ chunks from the Plague. Left alone we would be infected, and we needed desperately to be cleaned. If the water had been warm it probably would have killed us, but thanks to the cool temperature of the water our bleeding did not worsen.

When I dragged him out of the water I pulled him over to the fire, then washed our remaining clothes in the stream. I used some sticks and hung our clothing near the warmth of the flames so they would dry.

I noticed something while washing the clothes in the stream, my body had changed in a way that was potentially concerning. When I looked into the water I could see myself, and what I saw was my usual blue eyes and raven black hair, yet they were not the same. My left eye held a small sliver of red in them, a crimson that made me think of Taryn.

My hair had a streak of silver that ran down all the way to the end, a fact I had failed to notice up to that point due to being mentally busy. I pulled my ponytail away from my neck and looked at it, then frowned even more deeply. I glanced toward Taryn, inclined my head in slight confusion, and then wrapped my ponytail around my neck once more.

I studied the area, not caring about my current state of undress and instead more worried about what might be on the horizon. To the north I could see the edge of the forest as it curled and went west even further. The south was barren, it was only plains with a slight undulation of hills and nothing to mark civilization.

Far far off in the distance I thought I noticed some smoke to the west. I nodded my head as though to affirm my thoughts, that would be our destination in the morning. The sky had started to grow dark as the sun set, the cool of the night. I shivered as a cold breeze pushed in from the south, and then turned back to the fire.

At some point in the night I woke up and realized I'd curled up to Taryn for extra warmth.