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~ [i]Desperate Measures[/i] ~[/center]

The emptiness of the battlefield hit Joshua like a train. In all directions smoke billowed into the sky, pillars of destruction in a foreign land. He had barely been given time to breath, though the acrid air intoxicated with blood, decomposing bodies and burning wood made him wish he couldn't. Feeling another person's blood gushing from an open wound and across his flesh made him recoil, if only for a second, but he kept steady, doing his best to stabilise the man.

[colour=DarkTurquoise]"Don't talk, save your stre...ngth..?[/colour] he trailed off, watching the soldiers head lull against his armoured chest in a coughing fit before the last of his breathe leaked from his lips. Joshua grabbed his head, lifting up the limp body as best as possible, [colour=DarkTurquoise]"C'mon, hey, wake up, don't go falling asleep!"[/colour] he shouted, only to find himself confronted by the dim, open eyes of the recently deceased. 

In the spur of the moment, he felt himself fall backwards against the mud, splashing foul and tainted water against his already stained clothed in a brief fit of panic. Not once, up close, had he watched a person die. Watched the light and life filter slowly from their struggling body, and feel them go still and quiet under his grasp. A thousand thoughts danced a serenade cacophony in his head, spurring him to his feet, spinning around in a circle, taking in the desolate landscape in its unholy glory; what manner of worlds did had he found himself in? What happened to his-

The scared neigh of a nearby horse broke his attention, drawing his head away from the landscape and out of his tumultuous thoughts. The fact that something was still alive, on the fields of war, granted him some semblance of calm. But in his calm he didn't recognise the fear of the creature. He watched it scamper off, over piles of bodies, clearly disturbed by something. 

And the drumming. Joshua's body turned in the direction, glancing across the field. There was drumming coming from somewhere, off in the distance. A steady, repeating drumming, growing ever closer with every second that passed, thundering across the crimson soil, faster, and faster. A second past, beating, faster, faster, echoing the rhythms of his heart, faster, exploding, ripping up mud and soil and building faster and faster over the field.

A horse, decorated ornately in fine robes flowing in every direction from the wind. Beating its hooves against the earth directly towards him, the antithesis of its relative that had mere moments ago fled the scene. But in the next second, seeing the creature leap over a severed tree trunk and a mound of fresh corpses, Joshua saw the true face of the enemy; a soldier, a man, pulling tightly the taut string of a bow.

And instinct took over, forcing him to his feet. Things wouldn't be like with his father, never again; he wouldn't stand and take a beating when he could get away. Whatever world he had landed in, wherever he was, whatever foul event had taken place, his only priority was to survive. For Emily. He grabbed from beside him a blood and mud speckled sword, feeling its weight in his hand, before leaping over the dead horse in front of him.

[colour=DarkTurquoise]"I'm so sorry."[/colour] Joshua whispered, grabbed the robes of the recently deceased man by the neck and hoisting him in front of his as a make shift shield to protect against the arrow that would soon be loosed in his direction, [colour=DarkTurquoise]"What the hell are you doing?! I'm not here to fight you!"[/colour] he heard himself shout over the thundering hoof falls before him, barely able to see over the corpse in his hand.