Tales of the Aether: Book 1

Another Nightmare

"Wh- What? Where..."

Lightning followed by bellows of thunder was all that answered him. Caius sat up from where he lay. Rather than the familiar sight of the thick stone roof that sheltered him in the tower, he saw flashes of lightning. When those were gone, he was left with vague red shapes as his only light source. No bed was beneath him. Just ash that fell from the air above in slight sways. He wasn't in Illindar's safe walls.

Wait, ash?!

He scrambled to his feet as his heartbeat went into a panic. No source of fire was near him at a glance around, nor on his sown hemp breeches and shirt. However, he felt the ash as he took a step back. Looking down, Caius saw his feet buried underneath an ash layer. It was warm to the touch but not enough to hurt him as he glanced around again to take in the alien surroundings. Horrific sights were what he was given whenever the lightning struck. There were trees nearby, but only in the vaguest sense. Gnarled and twisted with branches that looked pointed enough to kill a person. As the only word that came to his mind, red veins pulsed as a heartbeat might within these nightmarish things. Rocks jutted out of the ash as twisting as the trees, their smooth and almost polished surfaces contrasting their bizarreness like one might see glass. The air was the worst of it, though. Each breath from him was hard fought as the ash would accompany it and nestle as a harsh visitor within his lungs.

Caius wasn't sure what to make of this. Trying to limit the ash entering his system as he held his forearm by his mouth, he timidly glanced about the sights before him. The area was open to him, trees notably apart from each other. Taking a step forward, he cried out as his leg nearly gave way before he could balance hesitantly. It felt like his muscles were both sore and locked in place. He tried again, only to fall into a heap on his side. Despite his efforts, the more ash he took in made this feeling intense, breathing slower as his eyes became blurry. Pulling himself up, he saw something on one of the slabs beside him. Its near-polished surface showed him his face, though not as he knew it. His blue eyes looked sunken or ill, while his ordinarily clean face was sporting what seemed a week without shaving across his usually sharp jaw. A mark resembling a scar ran from his right shoulder to right below his right eye. Heart beating, Caius saw that exact ill-nature of his eyes across the entire image. Was that even him? Only a stranger was looking back. One that was sickly and pale.

Another flash of lightning broke the momentary quiet. But Caius wished it hadn't. He shied away as he took in his surroundings again with more confusion than before. Adrenaline pumped into his system as bones met his sight. People. Skulls of humans and other humanoids lay in the ash like they were tossed like apples onto the street. A scream broke out of him as he weakly threw himself back, even as his body protested.

The skull's mouths were broken for the most part, but a few were not. Caius felt his lungs freeze as he saw the more complete ones. Fear. Not his own, but from them. Jaws open like his were a moment ago was what they relayed. Screams frozen forever. But what got to him were the eyes.

Empty black sockets where the eyes should be. The emotion they gave wasn't the fear. But blame. Caius felt as if they were looking at him, only him. As if he was the one who left them this way.

Still in a fallen mess of ragged breathing, he brought himself up to his knees. But the moment he managed it, something cold and hard clasped on his shoulder, like a hand might. Caius looked back only to scream.

The bones were all moving at him, grasping and clawing at him.

"You did this to us! You took away our choice, our chance to live! Why did you DO THIS TO US!!??"