Too long asleep

Smoke, screaming, war cries, a hand holding on to her own, pulling her on, pain. She stumbled, but did not fall, tears were streaming down her face.

Running through the trees, an arrow whistling past her, confusing, utter chaos.

A raised hand, the sound of stone opening and a door, a thick dark wooden door with intricate metal work in the emblem of the kingdoms. A thick key coming from around her guardian’s neck, put into a keyhole, an opening. Inside, a stone room, a bunker, a stone table, fit for a coffin.

They were inside it, the sounds of the battle muffled, her grandmother and herself. Was her grandmother, the warrior, the fighter actually crying.? Her grandmother, the queen, looked down at her granddaughter with agony filled eyes and kneeled down from grief and clutched her granddaughter’s thin arms.


“Jen, you need to listen to me,” the queen said in a hardly controlled low alto tone. “I’m going back out there, to get a healer, you must not die.” she trailed off and her eyes flitted back to the fatal wound. The hole a dagger had made….how was she still standing? Adrenaline she guessed. The warrior queen put a hand out and touch the gore stain on her white dress. She stood, turned to leave, then froze. Jen followed her gaze and saw the little creature, sitting, glowing, pulsing, shuffling where it sat. The queen kneeled down and put out a hand in a kind gesture, alien in this place of bloodshed. The rabbit sniffed and came forwards, examining the fingers before turning to Jen, who had found herself leaning on the stone table without knowing how she had gotten there. She felt bad…was everything beginning to blur? Go fuzzy, darken? The rabbit jumped onto the table, it’s glowing light making the young woman’s skin look sickly and whiter than it already was.

“G-grandma?” Jen said, and began to collapse, but the warrior’s arms held her up as best as they could, then scooped her up into a bridal hold, laying her on the table. Jen felt the tear drops splash on her face as her grandmother looked back to the illuminated creature.

“Help her, please, that is why you are here, isn’t it?” The rabbit observed the situation before blinking, intelligence evident in its eyes and it crawled forwards, onto the princess and then settling on her chest. Jen tensed as its foot touched her wound, then her eyes closed and as her last breath began to leave her body, a stronger pulse was set of the small mammal throughout her body. The queen saw the wound close, the creature settle down for sleep, Jen’s breathing become even, and the pulsing of the rabbit match her granddaughter’s steady heartbeat. She stared for a time, until the sounds of violence started to move closer and she blinked back into reality. She went to the door and slipped out after taking one last look at her granddaughter.

   “I love you so much.” She said in a broken whisper before locking the door, snapping the key in half, throwing aside and rushing back into battle with a warcry, still crying all the while….

…

   What a strange dream. Jen thought, her eyes shut. It feels so real, but did it happen? What had happened? Where am I? Who… Her eyes tried to open, it was hard, very hard, like her eyelids had melded together. They did though, and all she saw was blackness, perhaps it would have been better to keep her eyes shut. But no...light was coming back, her eyes were adjusting. It wasn’t much light, just a few streams of the stuff shining through one wall. She sat up, and something tumbled off her chest into her lap. Pieces of something. She waited, she waited to see, but her hands felt. Long things, shorter ones, round and smooth, a piece of something furry. And what was this? She put a hand to her shoulder and pulled away a piece of something that disintegrated in her hands. She saw now what the thing that had been on her chest was...bones and pieces of fur of a small creature. Something that had been dead for a long time…

   She stood off the stone table, and found how weak her legs were. Also, a realization came to her, one that she already knew.

   That wasn’t a dream. That happened. Where was everyone now? How long had she been...

Jen went to the light, and found that what it was was the rotted door. The iron had rusted into dust and she could pry her way out. But what was this? Thick veins? Could she make it through? Yes, barely, she was so thin, when did that happen?

How long? Too long.