The Fog of Airyll COMPLETE

Chapter 1

And it was at that moment that she noticed that she didn't, in fact, remember much of anything.

Did she have someone looking for her? Would someone from her family appear out of nowhere –worried about her well-being? Was she one of those people who had no one or that no one would miss? Was she a criminal, running away from law enforcement? Was she someone beloved or someone hated?

Would someone mourn her when she was gone?

She didn't know, didn't remember it.

Funny, she wondered as she watched the threes dance beneath the storm. She knew what each one of those trees were. She could easily recognize, even at distance, three different kinds of flowers. She remembered how they smelled and which ones of those liked more water or sunshine. She knew that her belly was burning and that that feeling was called hunger.

When a ray of light cut the twilight sky, she knew it was called lightning. She knew that it was as beautiful as it was deadly, and she knew that soon enough, thunder would follow.

But, even as she found comfort in the loud sounds of thunder, as she found pleasure in the noise of rain hitting against the ground around her and of the sound of trees dancing beneath the heavy wind, she also found despair in the fact she had no idea at all why she was there.

Why was she lying down on the road? Why was she so badly hurt that she didn't dare to move?

As the lightning grew more and more frequent, she wondered what she should do. Even now she could feel the cold seeping into her body from the cool, wet earth beneath her. Her clothes were wet – with a mix of cool water and the warm blood she knew were still seeping from the million little cuts she had everywhere.

She didn't know how long she had, but it wouldn't a lot. Either the hunger, the cold or the wounds would soon kill her or.... or, if the Gods were feeling merciful, perhaps lightning would strike the tree she was lying under and her death would be quicker.

And, maybe, less painful.

It was tempting – she felt exhausted down to the bones, sleep a sweet siren singing on her ears. Yet if she did fall asleep, no doubt about it, only death would follow.

She had to make a choice.

Did she have any family? She didn't remember and, at that moment, the loneliness she felt was like a sharp knife twitching inside her belly... or could be that was another bout of hunger. She couldn't tell.

If she had a family, she felt sorry for them. She hoped they didn't feel sad about her death – it felt like a rest. While she still pretended to debate, she knew there wasn't much of a choice. If she could get to her feet, then what?

She didn't know her name. She didn't know where she came from, what she did or why someone had tried to kill her. And, whoever he or she was, they had tried so hard that they almost succeeded. Was it worth it, suffering through all that pain only to discover the answers to these questions?

Decision made, she closed her eyes, ready to give into eternal sleep... To rest. When it happened.

She heard the scream.

It was high pitched, loud, and so painful that for a moment she wondered whether it had come from herself – was it some distant part of her soul? The stubborn part of her that kept telling her that she was making the wrong choice, that she couldn't die? She had wondered whether she was still sane at times.

But when the scream came again, she knew it wasn't hers.

"Leave me alone, please, I beg you!"

The male laughter that followed brought a feeling of cold that she hadn't been experiencing until them – even though she was freezing. The girl's cries for help became even louder, and she couldn't keep lying down.