The Journals of the Ruins: River of Lost Memories

Chapter 4

It's dark. It always seems to be every time Trynar comes around. It's almost like he is draped in the darkness, you can just feel it on him. The evil eyes that just glare at you, it burns all that is pure and good inside of you. His eyes are as black as his hooded robe. When people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, with him it totally is. Some people have said that his eyes are black because of all the evil things he has done in his life. He is full of darkness. Nothing good about him. His greasy hair is the part that makes me want to puke. It looks like his hair hasn't been washed in about seventeen years, which is gross. The blonde is no longer blonde, it's now a shade of brown and not the nice shade of brown like Paisley's, but the shade that looks like he had kept his hair in mud for fourteen years and it stayed on his hair. His boots shake the ground from over twenty-two metres away from us, like a start of an earthquake. You can tell it is him because of the silver chains hitting the big spikes on his boots every time he walks. Many people say that he uses the chains to choke out any person who comes across him and kills them with the spikes. I'm pretty sure that that is not true because if it was, I'm almost positive that I would've been dead. Some people even say that he eats the dead corpses of the people he had killed. His teeth are like shark teeth, sharp and big. In some towns, the village gathering stories would be about this man-shark who was said to have metal fins and sharp shark teeth that would be covered in blood. The man-shark was said to bask in the darkness, he was covered in it. Some villages would even tell that story, but say that it is Trynar, while others would say that Trynar's name is roughly translated to 'the shark of darkness'. Now whether or not that is true, I'm just not willing to find out. I don't really feel up to risking my own life to see the truth.

***

We have been running through this forest for what seems like ever. The trees all look the same. Green, needily, and tall. It's getting dark out and we can't stop for the night until we are a safe distance from Trynar, Mavac, Anathora, and their army of Skinchuggs. My chest is in pain. I can feel my lungs give up on me at any moment. I am so dehydrated that I can feel the last bit of saliva dry up completely. We stop for a second to catch our breath.

"Do you," Paisley begins to say through heavy breathing. "think we lost them?" She gasps for air.

"I don't know, maybe." I try and catch my breath. I look behind me and I move my hair out of my eyes. "It's too hard to tell." I tell them.

"We can't stop for the night," Tallan says huffing. "it's too much of a risk for us, we may not be able to see the bright of day in the morning." I walk beside Tallan.

"What? You think we are going to die if Trynar does catch up to us?" Paisley asks Tallan. "The worst thing he could do is steal Kiplin away from me, uh, I mean us, and throw us into his dungeon." I find it really adorable how she covers her love for me. I know she loves me, I love her too, except she just doesn't know that yet.

"Actually the worst thing that could happen is," I begin to say. Paisley and Tallan look at me. My voice shrinks to a whisper. "you guys would be dead, all of Derishan would be in the dark times and would hate me. All of this because of me. I just had to fall for the evil girl chasing us, I don't even like her anymore. Honestly. I really love you Paisley, I just didn't realize it until we were being pulled into this adventure to your death and all the regret I will be feeling." I look down at the ground. I look up at their eyes. Nothing. Just blinking. Did they hear me?

"Sorry, Kiplin, what was that?" Tallan asks me. I clear my throat. I guess not.

"It was nothing." I say with a catch in my throat. I shake my head. I can feel the tears form in my eyes just from the thought of it.

"Kippykins," Paisley squeaks as she sees me begin to cry. 'Wait, Kippykins? Well, that's a new one. Whoa. My chest. It's...doing something. Something I've never felt before. It's like shivers down my spine, but it's going down my sternum and creating goosebumps all over my body. This is different. Maybe I really do love her, I'm not just telling myself that I love her, I really do! It's not fake. She gave me a cute nickname, but I don't have one for her. Maybe something that reminds me of her. Well, she's a walking angel. I can't call her my angel, that's too cliche. How about my cupcake? My beautiful cupcake. Haha. That's cute, but it doesn't seem to remind me of her. I'll have to spend some time and think about this.' "are you alright?" I don't move a muscle. She moves a bit closer to me.