The Warrior Of The Realms

Chapter 1

A woman smiles towards me, her wrinkles in the corners of her eyes crinkling more with her kind grin. I smile back, and a warmth spreads in my chest.

Large healthy trees and small plants circle our surroundings. The trickling of the nearby creek and the bouncing of my little sisters ball become apart of the beat of natures soundtrack. Looking away from mother, I continue to pick the ripe beans, plump tomatoes and carrots from our garden.

The trees rustle as a crisp afternoon wind approaches. It combs it's cool fingers along my scalp, sending chills down my spine.

The atmosphere gives me a feeling I haven't felt in a long time and its difficult for me to name it. Holding legumes in my hands, I look back up to the woman, but my smile faults.

Her once beautiful smile has sunk to a  large frown and her face a chalky white. No emotion present but disappointment. Her expression makes me shudder and balls of tears threaten to escape my eyes.

I watch as black spreads from her pupil into the whites of her iris. They say 'the eyes are the gate to the soul'; but they're just an endless pit of darkness in her glossy orbs.

My chest aches with despair and as I continue to look in her glassy dead eyes, I notice that the sound of my sister's ball can't be heard, as if all the beautiful sounds of our surroundings have silenced. I can't stop staring in horror at the woman. And I can see behind her that the once beautiful oak trees clothed in dew has withered away into black ash and darkness. Like death has sucked the life from every living plant around me.

I break the staring contest with the woman as I feel an unpleasant squirming in my hands. The ones behind the wriggling feel smooth and I feel if I were to close my hands all the way, I will eventually feel the crunch of the unknown thing.

I open up my hands with uneasiness to see large, plump cockroaches crawl up my arms but they're so heavy that they drop onto the ground.
I unfold my crossed legs and lift  my feet with disgust squaling with terror.

I slam my feet down, squishing the cockroaches. I look back up to the woman, still staring at me with that horrifying expression.

Suddenly, a large blast of wind blows and we are pushed to the right. Everything is happening quickly but it seems like it's in slow motion. Despite flying in midair, she retains her stare. She was the first to smash into our bricked house.

I follow, smashing into my home with the force of the wave. A pop in my shoulder and a crack of my collar bone calls in my ears before I fall to the ground.

I can't breathe, I wriggle, gripping onto my ribs, searching for air. I look over to the woman but she's...

"Gone".

~

I wake up. Sweating and gasping for air. My comrades staring at me with concern as I haven't even experienced our first mission yet. I look over at Grant and  Amara, my childhood friends who are on the other end of the air craft, closest to the exit and entrance. They give me a warm smile masking their concern, which reassures me and calms me down.

I replace the thoughts of my nightmare with the memories of our adventures. We would go out and fish for guppies at the creek on my families acreage, ride our bicycles through the town and we would climb trees to get the best possible view of the sunsets. Sometimes I would sneak out at night and run down the field, meeting up with them to watch the stars and see if we can find any of our zodiac signs. Sometimes we're lucky enough to find an occasional shooting star.

Like a sparkling orb that runs across the dark sky. It would mesmerize us every time.

I smile from the memories but my mind gets interrupted by a deep voice.