Forget Your Past
Chapter 4

Daniel had begun work immediately. He awoke rejuvenated and alive. Like most nights, he did not dream. He simply slept and woke up again. He preferred it that way.

He grabbed the sharp stone that he had designated to be sharp enough to be a knife and grabbed a large thick log no longer than 3 feet. It had likely been smashed off of a tree by a lightning bolt, because it was charred and burnt, but it would have to do. He began to swiftly skin the bark all the while shaping the log to somewhat resemble the shape of an axe handle.
Daniel was working slowly, and all was quite on the island. The filly was still asleep under the pillar, although she was not sleeping very peacefully. Daniel glanced in her direction several times to see if she had awoken, but saw the same scene over and over. A small orange filly snoozing silently and fidgeting uncomfortably under a ruin.

Daniel looked back to his work, and screamed out before dropping the objects in his hands and crawling back. He had been cutting the skin off of a child’s head. The open wounds flayed off of the skull like leaves on a head of cabbage. Blood was searing out of the cuts and began to form a river that ran towards Daniel. The blood was dark, thick and made squelching noises as it flowed. It was more like melting jelly. Much to Daniel’s horror, the eyes of the head shot a pained look towards Daniel. The eyes were practically begging him for mercy. The tongue was flopping out of the mouth and salivating over nothing. Daniel stood up and ran, unaware of what was real and what was not. He ran towards the ruined castle in hopes of sanctuary. A low grumbling sound erupted throughout the world. Suddenly, his path was blocked by a large wall of fleshy web that appeared out of nowhere. Daniel tried to rip through it, but it was like a giant spider’s web, and he was the helpless fly.

Soon after he realised his efforts were futile, Daniel turned around to see a different scene entirely. A solid, wooden bridge was leading from the island to the mainland. The island was covered in blood red roses and was soaked through to the soil in oozing red liquid. But the mainland was covered in bright, wonderful plants that made the dark forest look comforting. Daniel looked at it for a few more seconds before running towards it in joy. He could escape this prison! As he ran across, his joy was soon cut in two and replaced by fear as he fell through the bottom of the bridge. His screams were the only noise heard in the empty abyss. His arms were flailing as he fell down, down, down....

He landed on a concrete floor practically minutes later. His legs somehow withstood the fall. A corridor, similar to any corridor in Brennenburg, began to form. Light was pouring into the usually dark rooms through the windows and dust was clearly visible in the air. The air was thick and Daniel found it hard to breath. The floor was carpeted with red mats with weird shapes and symbols all over them. A door at the end of the corridor creaked open and silently beckoned Daniel forth. Daniel reluctantly complied. He slowly crept towards the mysterious door. When he reached it, he looked out of it and observed the area past the door. The room past the door was fairly big for a place like Brennenburg. There was a large water fountain in the middle of the room with an angelic statue standing on top of a small pillar in the fountain. The walls were covered from top to bottom with the banner of the castle and pictures of the past Barons. At the end of the pictures was Daniel's face. It was after Alexander’s. Daniel froze once he heard footsteps. He heard the distinct sound of a Gatherer. He turned to try and find a place to hide from the Gatherer only to see a large wall blocking his path. He was trapped. He banged the wall with his fists and willed the wall to disappear, but it was no use. He looked around to see the silhouette of a Gatherer standing tall above him. He cowered as it brought its metallic claw down on him...

Daniel felt a small hoof tap him on the shoulder. He looked up to see the orange filly looking at him curiously. He didn’t have to look up because he was at the same height as the filly whilst cowering on the floor. Once his confusion had dissipated and he realised what had happened, he sighed out all of his tension and let himself fall on his back. He immediately sat back up after his head hit nothing, indicating how close to the edge of the cliff he really was. Whatever was giving him these dreams knew of his past and wanted him dead or so traumatised, he wouldn’t want to be alive. Daniel, realising that he had worried the small filly, patted her on the head gently which seemed to kill all thoughts in her head that he was still in a world of his own.

Satisfied that he was back in the conscious world, the filly ran back over to the pillar and snuggled under Daniel’s ragged, green coat. Daniel smiled gently at the scene and stood up. He was sure that the longer he stayed in this forest, the more hallucinations would be fed to him. This was his theory anyway. Whether it was true or not, Daniel didn’t care, it was just another motive to get him out of the forest and fast. He began work on the log again, satisfied of course that it was a log again. He began to calmly slice away the wood in order to make it resemble a handle. He didn’t know how to balance the handle, and he didn’t know how to smooth it, he just hoped that it turned out alright. He once more looked over to the pillar to see the filly sleeping again, albeit she was fidgeting every now and then. He smiled and told himself, ‘Everything is fine. We will make it out of here alive.’

Author's Note

Sorry if the music isn't quite in time with the text, I tried my best. Also, this is actually in two parts, this is the first part.