[indent]
[sub][sub]wake up[/sub][/sub]
[/indent][i]Just five more minutes...[/i]
                                                         [sub]Wake up[/sub]
                         [sub][i]Mmn, not yet dear...it's so early...[/i][/sub]
                                                                                          WAKE UP
                                                      [sub][sub][i]No...[/i][/sub][/sub]
[centre][h1][b]WAKE UP[/b][/h1][/centre]
[indent]
I started out of my trance. How long had I been walking for? So long that I'd zoned out on the road? Probably. This path was so awfully dull and uninteresting; only a pair of boots in the dirt that were leading me in circles, for all I knew. It'd already led me out of the forest of obelisks, fair enough, but a path was a path. Sooner or later I'd lose focus. Boring. Dull. Uninteresting.
[/indent]                                                                                                [sub][sub]like you[/sub][/sub]

[indent]In any case, the path had led me to a forest. The place was dead silent, quiet, no wind at all. The trees were large, with huge, thick trunks that extended all the way to places in the dark that I couldn't see past. Didn't even know if these guys had leaves, too dark to see up there. Whatever it was, the forest itself was dark, dank, mysterious and generally a nightmare. The path I was following was being laid, I knew this, by a big...knight-looking fellow, all clad in heavy armour with a shield and a stick with a sharp blade on it. I'd been following him for some time now, I didn't know how long. The road was, like I said, long, boring and mostly uninteresting. The forest had been a new sight, after what seemed like days upon days of walking and stalking. He'd stayed a ways away, keeping the armoured knight as a silhouette in the distance while he'd tracked him from behind. Nothing much honestly had happened. The knight was just like him, a wandering soul, lost, possibly confused, but where he was heavily armed and possibly a lot more experienced, all I had was a broken sword and a sickle. And a hat that had bells on it.

Actually, that was interesting to note; the bells on my hat were ringing, and had constantly rung and jingled throughout my "journey". They were soft, yes, but who in their right mind could ignore them? I felt that they were the only sounds in this...nightmare I was in. I stopped and they jingled to a halt, their haunting tones echoing through the trees. He'd stopped as well, a few paces in front of me. There was someone else there, and he was confronting the armoured knight. I couldn't hear the conversation, but in a split second the scrawny man charged and the knight cleaved him almost in twain with his blade. An end I expected, but the brutality of it shocked me. I held my breath and stooped behind one of the trees, one hand on the handle of my sickle, the other on the hilt of my broken sword that sat sheathed on my back. If combat were a possibility I, for one, was not the type to go down without a fight. I didn't even remember how I got these weapons, I only knew that they were sharp and they made good...weapons. And in a hellish reality such as this, any weapon was welcome.

Perhaps these were remnants of my previous life. I honestly did not know. My memories were too muddled.

I kept silent and trained my eyes on the knight, hoping to see where he went next. He wiped his blade on the dead man and then left, probably continuing on his lonely quest. I knew I had to follow. The only other sign of life in this huge hell-hole and it had to be a cold-hearted murderer. Funny. Ha ha. What a bloody joke.[/indent]                                      [sub][sub]like you[/sub][/sub]

[indent]What gods had put me in this position anyway? What was I but a mere jester? All I did was make people laugh by making myself look stupid. Maybe that's what I was doing now. I looked dead stupid in this stupid getup in this stupid forest, probably making the stupid gods laugh their stupid socks off, har de-stupid har. Stupid.

I passed by the corpse on my trail. He'd been cleaved in twain, almost; his head was in two halves that were still attached by whatever flesh and gristle held his neck together, split right down the middle between his eyes. They stared up at the sky, dull gray orbs, whatever life they once had now scattered to the wind. Was he like me? Another stranger in a strange land, driven mad by the sounds, the sights, the monsters, the darkness? Well I sure as hell wasn't going to give up just yet. What memories I had, I knew I had a family to go back to. A wife and a daughter. Their faces, indistinct as they were, still brought life to my step. I remembered their voices clearly as the day, a day which seemed never to come in this forsaken land. My memories of them beckoned to me, calling me, making me long for them like I longed for rest and safety. For a moment I thought all of this to be a dream, that maybe I'd wake up in a bed with my daughter right beside me, shaking me awake as if I were in the throes of a deep, dark nightmare.

Focus. This hellhole was making me go mad too. There was something in the air. Something horrible, evil. Eldritch.

Still, every step I took was another step closer to returning to them. I'd do whatever it took to go back home.[/indent]
                                                                                                                                     [sub][sub]even if it means giving up everything?[/sub][/sub]
[sub][sub][sub]jingle bells
jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun
it is to ride
on a one-horse open [b]slay[/b][/sub][/sub][/sub]