Aron opened his eyes. He couldn't see anything. "Where am I?" he thought, but then he felt a sudden burst of pain racing through his ankle. And with the pain all of his memories came back. The terrible things his uncle had done to his town, his people, his family! They were all slaughtered, Aron was all alone now. That last fact struck him so hard that he even forgot the pain in his ankle. He jumped up, and then immediately fell down again. He might have forgotten the pain, but the pain hadn't forgotten him... For minutes, hours, days - who could tell? - Aron just sat there, surrounded by complete darkness and - as he could only imagine - all kinds of terrible ghosts and haunted creatures, because he was in the middle of that horrid and haunted forest.
Not knowing what else to do, Aron started crying. Soundlessly the tears ran down his face, like a river from it's source: the teardrops finding their way down like water does, on their way forming small streams that combined to become bigger streams. He closed his eyes, but the tears kept flowing. Then suddenly, the tears stopped. He was out of tears. Aron felt very empty. As empty as he had never felt before. He opened his eyes expecting the same unbearable darkness, but to his surprise he could see. Not much, but due to some soft yellowish light he could see some trees around him. Ghastly black trees, in the most horrible shapes imaginable. "Well, I guess I was better of NOT seeing anything after all", his irony prevailed over his fear and emptiness for just a short second. He looked around to see where the light came from, but he couldn't see his source. Then he looked down, only to see it beaming from his necklace. The strangely formed necklace he got from his mother at birth. He never knew it glowed in the dark. Actually, it had never glowed in the dark, since he wore it day and night, and had never seen it do this before.
"Ah well, no sense in discussing that now", Aron thought as he was happy that he could actually see something. He took the opportunity to examine his ankle. It was swollen, as he kind of expected. He silently cursed the root that lay besides him motionless and unaware of any evil it had done. He tried to walk, and decided he couldn't. When he looked around, he saw a stick at the side of the road. It was long enough and looked strong enough to be used as a walking stick. So he got over there and picked it up. With the stick he could actually walk a bit, although the pain didn't completely disappear. But it was better than nothing. So Aron decided to start walking. But what he hadn't decided yet was: which direction? Back to where he came from? Most likely the soldiers would be waiting for him, or at least one or two guards would be left behind. Further in the forest then? He didn't like that one bit, but he figured he had no choice. So onwards he went, slowly and softly illuminated. By the scarce light he had, it looked like the path went straight ahead, but since he could see so little of it, it could as well have been a perfect circle and he wouldn't have noticed it.
After walking for a very long time - it felt like a very long time, because real time had somehow lost it's meaning in such a dark and deserted place as this forest was - Aron started to get hungry. When he thought about it, he had not heard a thing move or stir in the forest at all. No birds, squirrels, not a thing. He did not have any food on him either. So Aron decided to ignore his hunger as long as he could. He hobbled along some more. After a while the young boy got tired, but he bravely kept moving. And then suddenly, he stopped mid-step! Because out of nowhere facing him was one of the scariest creatures he had never hoped to encounter in his still short life: a fearsome wolf!
Aron instantly froze, paralyzed by fear. The wolf also stood perfectly still, his green eyes twinkling from the soft light emanating from the necklace. It was as if time stood still, and all of reality was focused on this encounter. Hardly a breath passed either creatures lips. They just stood there, watching each other. The one watched the other in stiffened fright, the other just stood perfectly still and watched. After a period of time that could have been a second or a century, the wolf came into motion. It slowly approached Aron, focusing on his face. Or no, not his face, focusing on something just below his face. Aron was still frozen in place, although his eyes were somehow able to move, to see his fate coming silently and graciously closer. The wolf however did not bite at him or attack him, but merely sniffed the necklace around Aron's neck. After sniffing it for several moments and staring deep into the boys terrified eyes, he suddenly let go of a highly impressive and spine chilling roar! A roar that both seemed to be muffled by the forest, and was carried as far as the wind would and could bring it. By that majestic sound even Aron's eyes froze into place. Somewhere in the distance, ahead of Aron, the roar was answered by another roar. It sounded far away and different from the wolf's roar, but Aron couldn't place it.
The wolf growled a bit, and then started to move around Aron. Aron still couldn't move. Arriving at his back, the wolf gently nudged him in the back, as though pushing him forward. With that single touch, the stiffness was broken, and Aron fell over. He instantly turned around so that he could face the wolf and be prepared for everything, reaching for the stick he had dropped when he himself had dropped as well. But the wolf showed no intention - again - of attacking him, and waited patiently, looking both ahead and at Aron, as if to tell him to move that way. When no response came, the wolf lay down on the path, and expectantly looked up at Aron, like a dog expecting a treat from his master. Not exactly knowing what to do, but in lack of a better idea, Aron got up and started walking in the direction the wolf had apparently pointed out. It wasn't for long that the wolf joined him, walking casually by his side. As they walked on, Aron - or better, his ankle - remembered that he was getting tired. He slowed down his pace and had to start breathing more heavily.
As if the wolf understood, he also slowed down. But soon it became too hard for Aron to walk on. He was still very hungry and couldn't suppress the feeling anymore, and his ankle was starting to hurt more and more. It was the wolf who came to the rescue. It knelt down before Aron, and thankfully Aron climbed on the wolf's back. Maybe the wolf had bad intentions after all, but at least Aron would meet his fate comfortably. As he sat on the wolf's back, holding on to it's manes, he slowly felt himself falling asleep. He started dreaming about all kinds of things: at first about what had happened today (if it was today), the brutal slaughtering of his family. But later on, his dreams turned to a more pleasant subject: his childhood, where he could roam the fields surrounding his town freely, with not a care in the world. Just as he was feeling more happy than he had felt in a very long time, he was brutally wakened from his dream world, when he was thrown of the wolf's back. There were a lot of growls and roars, and they were not only the wolf's... Blocking the path was a ferocious and gigantic bear. In the dim light - did he imagine it or was there more light than just from his necklace? - he saw that the bear was covered with many battle scars. It missed a piece of it's ear, and a big red ugly scar ran over it's belly.
Suddenly the bear attacked, and lashed at the wolf with it's mighty claw. The wolf could barely escape the attack, and then with an almost impossible speed charged a counter attack, biting the bear in it's unprotected right flank. A ferocious battle engaged. It could have gone either way, at one time you'd think the wolf wouldn't stand a chance to the bears sheer force, at another time you wouldn't give anything for the bear's life when you'd see the speed and aggression with which the wolf charged. The battle went on forever! Both animals didn't seem to tire at all. But then suddenly, when the bear took a step back to evade another wolf's attack, he stumbled over a root, that had - also - decided to cross the path above ground. The wolf did not hesitate for more than a fraction of a second, and immediately went for the kill. His giant jaws went straight for the bears throat, and with some powerful bites he ended the bears life. The wolf lay down besides the dead bear, tired as he was from the epic battle, now that the battle tension was gone. But then they heard a huge roar from nearby, straight ahead. The wolf answered it, and pushed Aron towards his back again. The frightened young boy mounted the wolf again, and they continued their journey.
Aron had not been mistaken, there was more light now. After a while he actually saw a light ahead of him. The wolf ran faster, towards the light. Soon they reached the light, which came from a large clearing in the forest. Arriving at the clearing, they were greeted by an old man, with the words: "Welcome my dear boy, I have been expecting you. My name is Do'ruth." Before Aron could answer the old man, his breath was taken away by something he saw behind the old man, and once again he froze. "What the..."
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