The Apprentice's Journey

Desperate Times

I'm stumbling through the forest. As quickly as I can. It's never ending. I doubt I will ever find a way out. I stop. My head spinning. I look around. How am I ever going to get out of this situation. I can't even find my way out of this. I take a deep breath and plunge back into the thicket.

***

My feet ache, who knows how long I've been running for. I sit down, I can't continue. The sun begins to rise over the trees. Shafts of light swoop down to the floor. Who knows where Duncan is now. If he's even still alive.....

Though I can't afford to think like that. Not now. I have to keep going. Where do I go?

The sun warms me as I'm suddenly pulled into its comforting glow. Though that light isn't coming from above me.

I look forward. Coming through the trees ahead is the gleam of the sunlight. I crawl towards the trees and push my way through. Bramble scratch my skin, my dress and my hair. I must look like a mess, not that the flux helps. I finally break through. I'm on a a hill, out of that mess of trees. I stand and actually take a proper look around. I can see the giant S of Sips Co in the distance, I can see the castle towering above the clouds and mother. It's so beautiful.

No. Not now Kim. Think about Duncan. You have to do this for Duncan.

I run down the hill as quickly as possible toward Sips Co, I don't think it will take that long to get to. I can see it now. There is still a warning light in the back of my head telling me not to go, yet I ignore it. I run through the gates that are wide open. I swear they were closed when I came to the Jaffa Factory. I run towards the main building.

I push the door open. It falls off and lands on the floor in a heap. Blood is stained across the walls. Dirt strewn across the floor. The stone floor cracked. This place has been destroyed. I walk in and am scared of how much it reminds me of the Jaffa Factory. But as far as I know that has been like that since the war. This hasn't.

As I approach the back of the room, I begin to hear whimpering from behind Sips desk. It has been cracked down the middle, as if someone has been slammed into it multiple times. A voice cries out, "Please don't hurt me anymore, I'm sorry! Please leave me alone." I go round the desk to have a look at this voice I don't recognise and am shocked by what I find.

"Sips?"

He looks up at me, No wonder I couldn't recognise his voice, half his face has been bashed in. Blood drips down his mangled cheek. I want to be sick. What I knew of him isn't even there anymore. The life has been drained from his a face.

"Kim, what are you doing here." I can tell he tries to say it normally, but he chokes out the words. It's painful to watch, no matter what he's done to me.

"I'm looking for Sjin."

He looks down as if he is about to cry.

"Rythian took him, he came and attacked both of us. He left me and then ran off taking Sjin with him."

"Oh." I feel the final piece of hope leave me as slide onto the floor nest to Sips.

"Why were you looking for Sjin?"

"Because Rythian has Duncan too."

We both look down at the floor and a vacuum of silence surrounds us as the situation truly sinks in. None of us have hope, neither of us have anything. Maybe I could go back to the castle on my own. No more making bosses, no more portal guns, no more trouble. But suddenly that all seems really boring.

And lonely.

Though why we sit there, I see a small familiar spark appear in Sips' eyes.

"There is still one place we could try."