The Heartstone Journey

Book 4 | Ch. 10 - Uncontrolled Nightmare

It was a long day for us all, with Hunter going off without us-.. partially because of me holding everyone back, sorry. With everything that happened so far it was definitely a day to not overstrain our bodies. Nick was flopped like a fish snoring away all the while using up about eighty percent of the blanket Cloudy graciously offered to him. As for myself- well.. I slept without one, it wouldn't affect me to be fair so I let them have it. After ensuring nothing was within the vicinity my next task was to form a sort of alarm that would wake me if something or someone were to get too close for comfort near our campsite. It took a short bit, a couple minutes max but by using my energy I put a thin dome around the camp and using what I learned recently about aura I stockpiled enough for it to last six to seven hours. If anyone enters it would alarm me, more specifically an annoying, belligerent ringing sound would go off constantly in my head to make it as obnoxious as possible.

"With everything set it's time to hit the hay.. *Yawn*."

Laying beside the other two I laid my weapon to the side not forgetting to sheath my blade before shutting my eyes. To my surprise it was quite warm, nowhere near freezing to my expectations. Nick was on the far side of the tent so it certainly wasn't him keeping me cozy. It was subtle yet felt right beside me. Before I could question it any further I opened my eyes to see I wasn't anywhere inside the tent and instead inside a cold room filled with debris and a single torch by my side. The place looked decrepit and torn up with a gaping hole at the end of the place but it was too high up to tell what was outside. Strangely enough the first thing I had done wasn't call out for Cloudy and Nick but instead examine the new area around me. There were armored statues just below Hunter's height if I were to say, torches planted to pillars on the walls that weren't lit and an eerie mood I couldn't describe. It became clear after spending about a minute that the place was actually a throne room, a broken down throne room. I walked down the hall with nothing but the torch by my side assisting me with walking forward until there was a split leading toward a two way staircase. At this point I would've started to question everything around me and the reason I just spawned there but I didn't for some reason. It was as if I was in a trance.

"Left or right?"

I told myself before answering my own question.

"Right."

I muttered before marching toward the right side and up the first step. The instant I hovered my foot over the step a sudden wash of pain took over giving me a gnarly headache. However it quickly subsided, making me only now question what really was happening.

"I should find a way out of here. Is going up really the only way out?"

I took a step back before another headache swept in forcing me to stumble from the pain.

"Whelp.. I guess I can't go back without that happening to me. Going forward it is then~."

I took my first step again then marched onto my second only to witness a torch on the wall lighting aflame right before me.

"Come~."

A soothing low voice whispered deep inside my ear canals sending shivers down my spine.

Another headache ensued, only worse this time making me think it would split my head in two if it continued.

"Argh~!"

I let out trying to hold back my moans of pain.

But like before the headache quickly subsided just as fast as it came leaving me with only one option. To climb the staircase. With each step taken a torch would light up, the color of the flame was abnormal being purple instead of red or orange. I've even seen black flames but this was new to me. Going up I ran into an additional set of stairs before the top, I wanted nothing more than to get out of there and so I made haste running up the stairs.