A/N: Wow.. some reviews…. So I'm putting the next chapter up (I have about three more, then I stopped writing this story, about three years ago. *swallows* I feel old. I'm only 15, well, 16 in like a month…) Anyway. I'm not a big fan of this story, and I don't think this chapter's very interesting due to complete lack of dialogue, but I figured I'd post it anyway…

I felt a great sense of relief, almost when I found that that the girl was gone. She had made me extremely uneasy.

It was just something about the way she acted, something about her eyes that un-nerved me, something that made me uncomfortable.

'She's just a girl.' I told myself. 'A strange girl, no doubt, but just a girl.' I did not believe myself. I touched my scar as I often did when I was deep in thought, running my finger across the raised welt down my face.

I felt slightly confused about a few things I had seen yesterday, and to be honest the girl just baffled me completely.

A girl so pale and thin could surely not last long in the wild. Although there was no law or rule woman should not travel alone; it was just not done. Few People travelled anyway in this day and age and Woman just didn't. Apart from the discomfort it was dangerous and Thryn, the water season was just one of the perils. Almost every traveller carried a sword and, though it would (possibly) be a crime to kill a law-abiding citizen of most towns there was a great many thieves and travellers frequently disappeared if they did not prepare themselves suitably.

It really was a kill or be killed world, and I hated it.

Laws? The idea seemed almost comical. For a long time there had been no laws or control of the people. They had all divided into their own towns and any strength had vanished. If a war was to come there would be no way of reuniting the people. That worried me sometimes, for War had been on the Horizon a long time, and it only seemed to be coming closer.

Aside from thieves and bandits there were several races who would kill humans on sight, most of whom worringly dangerous and although meeting other beings on these desolate roads was rare it was always wise to be listening and waiting all the time. Even at night-time, especially at night-time you still had to be on your guard.

I wondered why she travelled. Many wanderers were exiles, or people who could not stay in one place, like me. Most wanderers were strange people, people whose sleepy lives had been interrrupted. Either that or criminals, petty or otherwise, both looking to get rich off other's misfortune.

The land once been great, it had to have been, at some time. I hated it now. It was so primitive, so backward; the people not caring about anything except themselves, the land unruly, the threats getting closer and I seemed to be the only one who knew, or cared about anything.

I sighed, and started gathering my things, chewing a lump of unwholesome bread.

I wondered if I would see her again. I half-hoped she would not be at the side of the road in a ditch, but I supposed that if it did happen I wouldn't care. I shrugged and quickly packed Gyn's bags onto her back. The rain had delayed me but now I must make up for time. The village was probably not far away now.

I patted my horse's neck, talking softly and I led her outside.

I looked up, at the sky beyond the trees, but the clouds gave me no sign to when they would strike next. I saw a hawk spiral upwards into the sky, screeching trumphiantly as it went and it gave me a brief feeling of hope.

The day passed almost uneventfully. The weather was cold, as it usually was after the Thryn rainfall but dry, as most of the water had been taken from the air and sky. I found my way back to the road quickly enough but the town was almost 8 hours away. I found myself tired, though I tried not to show it.

The road seemed immeasurably long; a flat stretch of mud trailing off into the distance. Now I had come out of the shelter the trees and plants seemed so incredible beautiful after seeing nothing green inside the shelter, except the girl's haunting eyes. There was so much detail in every leaf. So many different colours in every flower. Even the wind seemed to smell different than before. The sky was intense grey, instead of a pale, limpid-white grey. The clouds had so much depth.

I laughed at myself, then stopped. abruptly. It wasn't worth it. I shook my head.

I reached the town a while after midday and followed the instructions the Woman had given to me "Ya take the third street on the right after ya come in the main gate, then tha's a cottage with 'is big wooden door." I knocked hard on the door before anyone answered, which made my hand reopen a small wound, then they took the package without a word of thanks. I put my bleeding hand in my mouth and tried to smile.

In the town a few people saw and stared at me, in awe of the strange man who moved among and above their sleepy lives. Barely aware such people existed beyond their own village it was a special event to see someone.

They begged me for news and I told them all I knew, barring the rumours of darkness and death I had heard.

Shutters opened and faces peered out. They seemed very small to me, riding past on Gyn, who was slightly agitated at the crowd of children who had appeared gabbling, to stroke 'the nice pony.' I heard a young child ask his mother, loudly "Who's the strange old man?" She hushed him and I smiled. I was not old, though I felt and looked it sometimes.

The sun shone a pale watery sunshine through the clouds, and I turned and asked directions to the nearest inn. It was barely midday but I knew it would do Gyn good to have some proper food and I had the money I had been paid in my tunic pocket. I needed to buy food, I needed to find jobs, I needed to sleep.

The people of the town had gone in now, the novelty having worn off. Up ahead a sign, swaying in the breeze read: Dark Horse Inn.

I approached the Inn and entered the courtyard. It had cobblestones and the light shined off them, through the mud.

A man with a long straggling beard greeted me.

"You be wanting a room to stay?" I looked down at the man, who was considerably shorter, he squinted back.

"Yes, and good stabling for my horse." The man looked up and down at me.

"It shall be arranged." He agreed. "Follow me." I followed the man.

The stables were a beautiful stone building adjoined to the Inn. There was a creak as the door opened. The man held the door and I led Gyn inside.

The other horses greeted her with a whiney of delight. After turning Gyn into a stable, untacking her and preparing her food I returned to the Inn-house, carrying her tack and my saddlebags. They were bulky but I was pretty well used to it by now.

The building was as pretty as the stables, old and sturdy. The floor had neatly woven rugs covering them and the walls were strong. I arranged for a smith to re-shoe Gyn and left some money. I was given a room and, slowly making his way up the corridor I thought what all the people must think of me. They were curious, half in awe and half in disgust.

I looked down at myself. I was dirty with the mud from my journeys and from the torrential rain. I felt cold thinking about the never-ending water. I had only been out in such a storm once before and I had been too drunk and unhappy to care, or feel pain.

My hands were sore and tough and, touching my face, I realised I had a swollen jaw.

I closed the heavy door behind me and took off my mail shirt and cloak. It was heavy, though I had not noticed it and I felt a great weight lifted off my shoulders. The tunic I wore underneath was filthy and still wet.

My hair was a dark mass of tangled threads. They poured over my face, while my cloak hood was down. I closed my eyes, and breathed in, wiping my own image from my head. I did not like myself for anything but, away from other people it was easy to forget that. But then I did not care for what they thought, I did what he had to and I did it well.

I took the sword from his waist and cut off most of my hair with it, feeling relieved to get the greasy, sodden hair off of my head and face. I resheathed his sword and ducked my head in the bucket of cold water, washing my face, washing what was left of my hair. I wiped the water off my face and sighed, forgetting that I shouldn't care.

Replacing the mail I wrapped myself in the cloak and fell into sleep.

I was standing alone. So alone. There could have been no-one alive but me.

A breeze played with my hair and face causing my eyes to water and blink. I held up my hand over my eyes to gaze at the endless land surrounding me.

I was standing on the top of a cliff. One side led down steeply into the woods, the other to death.

I didn't feel anything, all my pain, all my constant momentum had stopped.

And here I was.

There was so much space, so much neverending land and sky surrounding me, so much light. I moved slowly over to the edge. A stone fell but I could not see where it landed because mist swirled the bottom of the Abyss. Inviting me, tempting me to jump.

I moved back quickly, finding, strangely, what I felt was.. hope? The grass was pure fine green, the sky was pale grey.

There were no clouds, only a never-ending bleakness.

I spun around hearing a noise behind me. There was no one there.

I felt for the sword at my waist or the arrows on my back. They weren't there.

Looking around I saw the scenery clearly. There was a forest below, and off, towards the other side of the cliff was nothing but sky. A pure bleak grey but no land.

I heard a bird fly overhead, but there was no bird.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, I spun around, mystified.

There was no one there. I backed away from the edge further and walked down into the forest, treading carefully and silently on the steep grassy slope.

I came to the edge of the woods. They were drab and dark and everything in him told me to go back.

What else could I do but go on.

The forest was dark and quiet and cold. There was no breeze here, only an icy cold, as if I had been plunged into a river's murky depth. The beautiful feeling of hope and power that I had got from the infinate landscape had been extinguished like a flame in the rain.

I walked further into the woods. The green was mesmerizing in all its shades, the sky grew further away and suddenly I shivered. I went along the path, and I knew I had to go on, I couldn't turn back. The light grew even darker, the trees bent over in an avenue till no light seeped between the gaps.

Soon the darkness grew until there was nothing.

There was still a path, though I couldn't feel it and, turning around I saw the light as the end of the path, from where he had just come.

I continued. Even if I wanted to I couldn't go back. I didn't know why, I felt that I had no control anymore, I was merely a spectator.

I looked around, hoping to hear something, but there was nothing. Not even the sound of my breathing, or of a mouse, or an owl. There was complete silence.

To me it was unnatural, with no light and no sound I might as well be dead.

Dead. The word echoed inside me or was it around me?

In this darkness I was blind, defenceless. I never knew a darkness like it. Even at night the moons' lights always illuminated the sky. The two moons had different cycles and the only time it could ever be dark was when they had both finished waning at the same time, but this happened infrequently and so rarely it wasn't thought of much. Someone I knew, a traveller, said that the last time there was a double darkness was four hundred years ago. From where he suspposedly 'knew' that I did not know. It was the same for a double full moon, but here I knew I was lucky, for when I was two years old the moons had been full together. That wouldn't happen again for at least forty years, or maybe a thousand. Here in the forest my eyes could not get used to the light because there was none.

I continued. I had to. I felt no pain. I felt nothing. I did nothing except exist.

I walked on. Or rather I didn't walk.

The darkness weighed upon me like stones. It was thick, very thick and at times I did not know if I could continue. But I did.

Around a corner I saw a light. It was not really a light, there was neither fire, nor sun but the darkness was gone, huddled at the edges, sulking at it's vanquishment.

The path stopped. Faces leapt out from the solid oak that blocked the dark path. There was thousands of them, some old, some young, some male, some female, each in vivid detail. They surrounded me. They didn't say anything. But I knew what they said.

Welcome.

I shook my head, but I had no head. I was there only in thought.

The faces spoke again, one more word.

Come.

I woke up, breathing hard and rolled onto my back. That couldn't have been a dream. Dreams were musty, hazy, not like it was real, like I was there.

I lay there. It meant something, I knew that. But what?

I turned on to my other side and looked out the window. The glass was frosted over with mist but I could still see the gentle, washed-out light of dawn breaking.

I hurried to my feet in alarm. I had slept longer than I had in years. I relaxed. I felt nothing inside. I had no family, no friends, no jobs to do, only my horse and then, suddenly, a purpose.

I knew what I had to do, but I had to make a single journey first.

To me there was no question of it; I would go at once.

Any reason would have challenged it, but perhaps all logic left me.

I got ready as quickly as I could.