The Fellowship of the Fourth Age (Part 1): A New Beginning RPG

[Tevildo]

As the minutes and hours dragged by, the young girl had remained locked within her dreams, seemingly unable to try and escape. Kwell’s gentle attempts to bathe her with a few precious handfuls of water had met with scant success. Her skin burned hot with fever, her eyes open and staring outward but registering nothing.

Though unable to speak or move, Azhar still drifted from one nightmare to the next. Her tangled dreams were filled with images of prisons and bars and the sensation of being held back against her will. Sometimes these were actual physical restraints; more often she had the feeling that she was being trapped inside her mind and that she would go mad unless a path opened up to allow her to push down all the barriers and somehow reach the other side.

She had no idea what was on the other side of that barrier. But in all her years of captivity in Nurn, she had never felt such an intense desire to throw everything behind and claim some fragment of herself that had always been denied. Her body shuddered and gently swayed side to side under the sharp reality of her unmet need. Yet all the while this was going on, she could see and hear things that were taking place about her, even though she could not communicate anything to anyone.

Her heart sank down to her toes as she sensed Kwell trying to help her and afterwards sitting off by himself, alone and despondent. She could even make out the small hole that unexpectedly appeared at the back of the tunnel and the bright eyes that shone through the tiny opening. Part of her accepted that image as a given. She already knew this. Their rescuers were coming. But at the exact instant of that sweet revelation, Azhar’s mind was assaulted by yet another sensation, this one far more insistent than the first.

A great cat sat beside her, first motionless, then snarling and springing forward towards its prey. She should have been afraid of such a fierce creature, but she was not. The cat belonged here. There was a natural goodness in its fierce presence that she could not deny. Rather than fearing its wildness and instinctively drawing back, Azhar found herself strangely attracted to the beast, wanting to share its experience. She tried and tried to do something to break through to the beast, but a tiny warning bell sounded inside her head that this was not to be her way.

Then, out of nowhere, came a great explosion. Glittering flecks of fire and light were spilled out into the heavens, the display visible even through the prisoners' grate. Outside all was chaos. Inside Azhar lay in a silent heap, quiet and unmoving.