Darkness... Pure, unending darkness... Cold, lonely, soul shattering darkness...
It was kinda nice actually. A very, very, very rare moment of quiet had befallen me. And while I mostly didn't really enjoy those things, I had supposed that I had probably earned this one. After all, getting completely engulfed in hellfire tends to make you take stock it seems. I wasn't gonna complain. I mean, in most other times, I'd be rearing to head out and kick ass, but this particular time... I just felt content to stay where I was.
In the quiet, comforting darkness.
Unfortunately for me, fate had other plans.
The darkness crept away, the dimmed, blotted light replacing it and beaming from the other side of my closed eyes. Knowing full well the sun wasn't going to end its stubborn way of waking me up, I slowly regained conciousness.
Did I actually survive that? I thought to myself, my head still trying to come up with a legitmate reason as to how the hell I did. "Ughh..." was my first utterance. Profound I know. Next was the feeling of my limbs and the rest of my body... Which was just as sore and banged up as it was before I got enflamed.
Now, when I say 'banged up' I mean it. I was feeling many places around my body stinging from freshly made cuts, scrapes, stabs, gunshots, and whatever else you can tthink of, and it was likely I was still bleeding from the majority of them. Hell, I could feel the stinging sensation coming from my right eye, from the way it felt, it was likely a vertical cut from probably a machete.
At about this time, I had decided to try opening my eyes, and thankfully, said cut did little to no damage to my eye itself. Not so thankfully, though, the sunlight did.
"Ugh... son of a bitch..." I mutter to myself. Not five minutes awake, I'm already agitated.
So, after letting my eyes adjust to that damnable ball of fire in the sky, I finally sat myself onto my rear and tried to take in the blurry surroundings. And I gotta say, I wasn't expecting this.
First and foremost, I should probably state that it had been a loooooong time since I had actually seen a sky like I was seeing. The sky was actually blue, and dotted with differed sizes of white puffy clouds no less. The sun was also unusual (for me atleast). it was just up there in the center, shining down its warmth and light for the world's inhabitants. As I said before, not used to that kinda sight.
Looking down, I then found myself gazing down at a generous vista overlooking a small inner-country town. Judging from the sun's position, it was too unclear for me to make an accurate guess on direction, so the most I could do was navigate through observation. So, when I gazed down at the small town, I looked to its left to find a vastly dense looking forest basically right next door.
At first it seemed out of place to me, considering the fact there was nothing else anywhere near as big as that particular forest, I noticed another patch of trees on the oppisite side, though it looked more controlled. Hell, I could even see a dirt path going into it. And laziness on the Local's parts was tossed out before I could even suggest it. Why? Well, I don't think you'd a have an orchard the size that this town has if you were, in fact, lazy.
So either that forest is just too dense and too thick to control, or maybe its some exotic wildlife reserve.
Whatever the reason, it was quickly thrown to the back of my mind when the aforementioned cut on my eye was caught within a soft gust of wind, the cool air agitating the the fresh wound. With a pained hiss, I brought my hand up in the intinctual-but-futile fassion of trying to ease the pain by holding the wound... only to get thumped in the head.
"Ah! Sunuvabitch!" At this point the wound on the eye and the eye itself was in pain, it didn't help that the thing that caused it went ahead and made a loud CLONK sound when it happened, furthering the headache I didn't even realise I had.
"What the hell was that?!" I ask in a high ptiched whine.
Aaaand that's when I froze.
You see, I do in fact have the ability to give off a whiny voice when frustrated or agitated, but only when time calls for it. And even then, I try to avoid doing so. If I ever give off that kind of voice, it most certainly isn't when I'm around others. And it DEFINITELY isn't near as high pitched as this one was.
"Okay, what the hell?" There it was again! All too quickly, I shoot my hands up to cover my mouth... Only to, again, reaceive another painful shot to a peace of my face.
The impact was quite uncomfortable, and it left me a little pained. So much so, that I fell back onto my back, and writhed in the it for another minute untill it subceeded. "What the hell is going on?" I asked no one in particular. I decide to investigate this confusing turn of events, and held my hands up to my face to see if some smartass had possibly duct taped hammers to them... and what I saw leaves me to only wish that was case.
In front of me, where my hands TOTALLY should've been, were white-ish grey stubs. My first thought at this moment, Amputee?! My second, ...w..wha...wha-what?... And my third, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT?!?!
In total honesty, that third one lasted a little longer than just screaming a six-word sentence at the top of my mental lungs, but I'm pretty sure you know what I'm saying.
Rocking back onto my posterier, I continued to stare dumbly at the fingerless forearms I now have, one light leg twitch later, my eyes are drawn from my arms to my legs, and my mental breakdown begins anew.
In this state of utter panic, I picked myself up off the ground to stand, only to fall right back down. With a quiet curse, I attempted again standing up and pushing myself back onto two... stumped feet. Needless to say, it was an awkward situation. The awkwardness coming from the fact I couldn't for the life of me stay on my two feet for thirty seconds without falling back on my ass.
The more attempts I gave, the more fails I received, the more pissed I got. Untill finally, "What kinda bullshit is this?!"
Aaaaand again I froze.
That squeaky voice returned to the forefront of my brain, and slowly but surely, I was beginning to suspect that it was my voice I was hearing. "Uhhhh..." Yep, definitely mine.
"I need a mirror or something." I groaned
And then the countless number of bloody wounds on my body regain my attention. Screaming protests of every action I take to move. I must say, this day is going so well.
"C'mon, girls! I saw head just this way!"
And it just got even better. First responders, fan-fucking-tastic.
No longer paying any heed to the nagging pain my wounds are giving me, and even less to the fresh blood dripping to the ground, I quickly stood back up once again, and just as quickly fell once again. This landing, however, was a little more painful than the others, I can only assume the fact my head bounced back up an inch when I landed was the cause of it.
"Ah! Dammit! I yelled with gritted teeth
"D'ya'll hear that?" I heard a voice ask. It sounded almost country-like.
"It sounded like it came from that way." Another voice replied. This one sounded a little raspy
Oh, great job, dude. Now their heading straight for ya!
Whilst trying to make my inner asshole self to shut his face, I'm in a bit of a panic (as well as pain) trying desperately to stay upright. Unfortunately, given my situation, finding myself in a completely unknown environment, I'm hurt everywhere and bleeding out (not exactly the first time this one's happpened, but its still relevant enough to mention), I have absolutely NO IDEA what the hell's happened to my hands, feet, or voice, and by this point, I'm beginning to feel the vibrations of footsteps growing closer with every second.
I need to move. Now! With that logic, I could agree. But I was still left with the fact I couldn't stand upright without falling over. I held my stumped arms over my face and studied them with the reamining time I had, and now that I actually gave myself the time to look, they actually weren't all that stumped to be honest. In fact, it had an eerie fimiliarity to them...
The footsteps were growing closer. I felt one my ears swivel to their general direction. They were coming from the right side, all I needed was to figure this problem with my-Wait... Did my ear just... As if to answer, both ears rotated back and forth once, it was almost surreal how natural it felt to do it.
Come to think of it, while honed in on the sounds of the footsteps headed my way. They too held a familiarity to them... it was like it had a rhythm...
Of course! Those aren't footsteps, their hoofsteps!
At last, I had figured it all out... well... I thought I did atleast. As I turned back to my stumped limbs, my jubilation quickly turned into confused terror. The very limbs I had been categorizing as stumps from some amputation process gone horribly wrong, were actually hooves.
And this line of thought lead me straight to my next inquiry...
"I'M A HORSE!??!!"
"There it-" the feminine voice didn't finish that sentence, as it was probably interupted by the sharp breath it had taken. It wasn't alone, in fact, it's own gasp was followed by multiple otheres in short, quick succession.
I sat back up and turned towards the voices, and what I saw only worsened the migraine I had forgotten I even had.