Ralem sat on the marshy grass, running his hand through his black hair. Why would this happen? He had risked his neck for what- a rock! Everything was so confusing. It was like his world had been turned upside down. All these strange creatures, and almost laying his life down for a rock. Was he insane? Was it all just a bad dream? He slumped against the tree and winced. Definitely not a dream.

          One thing he knew for sure was that those creatures with the strange collars were after this rock. Ralem took a closer look at the rock. It was studded with many diamonds, through the fractured surface it seemed that the rock was swirling. It reflected the newly risen sun in tiny lights that rested in the trees like little fireflies. It was truly beautiful. But was it worth the lives of his men? This thing had been responsible for their deaths! In anger he grabbed the rock to throw it as far as he could, his fury swelling like a great tidal wave.

But it stuck.

He couldn’t throw it. Once again the rock seemed to be clinging to him. His anger turned to fear as pain overwhelmed him, penetrating like a hot, stabbing knife to his very bones. He fell to the ground unable to breathe or think, his only reality the anguish that screamed from every part of his body. It seemed as if someone were cracking through his skull with a hammer. His muscles writhed under his skin like snakes, jerking and convulsing on the forest floor, the only thing not moving was his hand, glued to the rock that seemed to suddenly weigh a billion tons. His atoms were rearranging, his whole body being molded into something not quite human.

The seconds seemed like years and he longed for death for the first time in his short life. Just kill me already, he thought, anything to stop this awful pain. Through the haze of terror, images rose from his mind like forgotten ghosts. It was short memories of the smell of warm tarts his mother would bake when he was but knee high, the warm smiles of his boyhood friends, the sense of pride when he disarmed his first opponent, the aching hole in his heart when his mother was no more. All his memories flooded his mind, from forgotten fights with his siblings when he was small, to training to be soldier, to his treetop days with his brother, Aren. Is this what it feels like to die? He thought. Suddenly the rock let go of him and it felt like an elephant had stepped off his back. The memories faded like wisps of the wind, leaving a strange new feel like there was something in him that he didn’t have before. He jerked away from the rock, gasping for breath, trying to clear his mind. Sweat dripped into his eyes as he shot a glance at the awful rock in fear.  

The rock began to fracture. Little cracks appeared in the glassy shell? It ruptured and a smoke began to spill out of the open hole. Ralem watched in amazement as the smoke began to lazily swirl and billow, becoming larger by the second. It spilled into the grass, condensing into a long cloud-like form. Colors rose to the surface of the hazy shape, glinting in the hesitant sunrise. The shape sharpened, limbs forming ever so slowly until a humanoid form appeared. It shuddered as it took a deep rasping breath. An arm started to curl backwards to supports its body, which was mostly hidden by a swirl of mysterious mist.

 Ralem gasped. Another monster! This has to be the most bizarre week in my life. I can’t take any more monsters!  He slowly got to his feet, forgetting to breathe, drawing closer to the thing. A small part of his brain thought drily, Curiosity killed the cat. But the larger part was too interested to stop his approach. It was only when the mist drifted away that he realized that it was not just a humanoid creature, it was a human. And it wasn’t an ordinary human.

 The man took a deep breath again and used its shaky arms to pull itself up, twisting its head in Ralem’s direction. His heart leapt, but not in the good way.

 It was unmistakable. The arched eyebrows, black hair, and strong jaw.

The man was a mirror image of himself!

Ralem jumped back. I don’t believe it! The man’s unfocused eyes finally drifted to Ralem and tried to concentrate on him, but it appeared to be blind. The eyes were the only thing that weren’t exactly the same as Ralem’s, they glowed so bright you couldn’t see the pupils and gave him an inhuman look. Ralem’s eyes were pale green and could be mistaken for brown without the right light. But this was scary green.

Rider a voice said in his head as the spine-chilling green eyes finally focused on his face.

At this turn of events, Ralem suddenly found his feet could actually move, and he turned tail and fled as fast as he could from the man. Like a scared dog, he bolted and tried to run as far as he could from this dastardly forest. He jumped over roots, his feet almost flying over the ground, previous exhaustion and pain forgotten, not knowing or caring where he went as long as it was far away from that man.

Rider? The voice said in his head, sounding hurt and confused.

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Ralem screamed as he plunged through the undergrowth. He tripped on a rock and found himself sputtering in a puddle. He jumped back up and kept running. If he wasn’t so scared he would have wondered how he could run so far so fast. Maybe it was adrenaline.

He didn’t know how long he ran. It all seemed like a blur of trees, murky ground, and ghosts of the men he had left behind. He charged on, trying to forget all that had transpired that day, all the failures that seemed to linger around him, reminding him of the men he had failed to protect. The gnarly trees seemed to grow leering faces as they reached for him with crooked fingers, trying to draw him into their wooden grasp. Thorns scratched at his flesh as he blindly tore through the woods. The forest grew dark and menacing, foes at every corner. Ralem thrashed with his sword like a mad-man, creating deep rents in trees and shrubs alike, jumping at every little noise, his terror fueling his pounding feet.  

After a while he started to slow down from exhaustion. Then pure sunlight fell on his shoulder like a forgotten friend, the soft rays warming his body for the first time in a week. Finally he stopped, panting, to take in his surroundings. It was a lush field of rolling hills, grain waving slightly in the wind. To the right in the distance was the beginning of a country, the buildings reaching toward the sky, some of them belching dark smoke. A large wall surrounded it like a proud guardian, tall spikes black against the azure sky. People, as small as ants from Ralem’s position, were gathered at the gates, getting admitted in by the watchful eyes of the guards stationed on either side of the vast drawbridge, which connected the city with the countryside over a large moat. Baroke he thought. He started to walk toward it, for to him it was like a beacon of hope. Maybe the ambassador made it after all he thought hopefully, trying to push all other thoughts to the back of his mind.

Suddenly the wind picked up. The fat heads of grain were almost flattened against the earth as the gust gained intensity. Oh no, not another strange thing, he thought shouldering his pack and picking up his pace to his destination.

He never did make it.