Hounds Rising

Myla walked into the bedroom with her sister, her head bursting with pain. Migraines happened from time to time, but this felt so much worse. Her vision blurred, so she sat on her bed and closed her eyes. She could hear Lyla breathing heavily across from her.

She opened her eyes and saw her sister clearly in front of her. The room had disappeared, and all she saw was darkness.

What happened?

I don’t know. Where are we?

She reached out and felt the cold stone wall beside her. As if her eyes were following her hands, she watched as the wall materialized out of thin air. She looked back to her sister, then around her. She was in a corridor of some sort, with three walls surrounding them. She looked to her right and saw that the passage kept going. Nodding to her sister, they walked forward.

For minutes or hours, she couldn’t tell, but they walked until they saw the gated exit of Moonbright’s wall. The doors opened silently in front of them, and she could smell some cooked meat. Out of Moonbright, she glanced to her left and saw a small cart with one horse and an auburn-haired eladrin cooking next to the cart. She watched the eladrin move her pots and pans, heating different meats and vegetables, while a squirrel moved back and forth from her shoulders.

“It’s almost done! Are you hungry too?” The eladrin asked the squirrel. It danced in a circle on her shoulder and squeaked a few sounds, which seemed to be enough of an answer for the young woman. The autumn eladrin smiled, then faded into the darkness.

You saw that, too?

Yeah.

Across the field, Myla could see the Arcana Emporium’s carriages and carts. They had finished packing everything, but she didn’t see anyone else around. They walked forward towards it.

Above them, causing her to jump, she watched as a storm cloud appeared and lightning struck the ground before them. The burnt grass caught, and a fire started, blocking their path forward. She looked to her Lyla, then around to see if there was a way past the fire, but it grew too quickly.

“Yla?” Lyla asked her.

“Maybe,” Myla answered back.

The world around them faded, becoming nothing but a dark expanse. She watched as the flames licked at her feet. It grew quickly up her body, and she looked at her sister, where ice started forming in patches across Lyla’s skin and clothes. Myla tried to reach out to her sister, but the pain was too intense. Lyla looked over, fear taking hold, and screamed into the darkness.

Myla looked around her, frantically trying to find anything that could help. The fire made it hard to see, blocking her vision and blurring it from the pain. She couldn’t find anything, so she moved forward and grabbed her sister, hoping that the fire and ice would cancel out in some way or at least slow down what was happening to them.

She cried into her sister’s shoulder, now unmoving as the ice had taken hold and covered her entire body. Behind Lyla, Myla could see another form growing in the distance, coming more and more into view. As far as the eyes could see to the left and right, a mountain range appeared in front of her.

She felt like she was spinning in place, nausea taking hold along with the pain and confusion, then…

Nothing.