Sleep comes and goes until someone shakes my shoulders, my eyes open to the blur of trees and grey sky. The forest is allowing more light to pass through than usual. Something has changed. Then Rell's face hovers above me, creased with something that was not quite his usual worry. I must have drifted off and sat upright by my tent.
''Are you alive?'' He asks.
''Unfortunately.'' I mutter back, voice croaky. ''What's happened?''
''Quite a lot, since you've been in dreamland. We must speak over by the fire.'' Rell replies.
I moved towards the inner part of the camp, I settled on one of the logs we use as benches. A cover wrapped around me to keep out the cold and bandages smelling of herbs I sit, and brace for the uncomfortable conversation waiting to happen.
I look over at Instructor Athea who is standing with one of the remaining Beasthold guards, low voiced and whispering. Orien approaches and sits next to me, a tense expression on his face as he asks me what I remember, from the moment I left to relieve myself to them finding me, ripped to shreds.
''Nothing much, I remember turning to get back to camp and there was nothing there, I remember the Nightmaw making a meal of me, and I remember the tall creature.'' I replied.
Rell's gaze shifts to Orien then to me, confusion lining his face.
''You were gone for an entire day, Veyrin, we spent plenty of time searching. My voice was gone before night's end.''
The words took a while to sink in, an entire day? Surely not. The vision, the ruins. How long did that last? How long was I stuck there for? I don't know what to say. The words didn't land at first, they floated in front of me like smoke, refusing to sink in.
''That is not…'' I shake my head, in disbelief. ''I was gone an hour, I feel like it was only an hour.'' My voice is low, unstable.
''Well, it looks like your feelings were wrong. Look where it got us. Some of us dead.'' Thorne speaks up, a cruel hurt in his voice, is he blaming me or blaming himself?
''Thorne!, you will be quiet. If you have nothing relevant to say you will keep your mouth shut or so help me gods.'' Orien snaps back with a fury I've never witnessed.
From the reports from the group, it seems like they only heard me grunting, probably from the Nightmaw before it ran from the creature. They were perplexed how they could hear me, apparently their voices were falling silent even to each other, so hearing me was impossible. They all noticed the Nightmaw run past them and decided to follow where it emerged from, and found that creature atop me.
''When you grunted, it wasn't just the noise. We could feel it. At first we thought it was another beast but we found you on your back. Dying. I felt like we had to be there in that moment, and the forest led us to you just in time.'' Seras adds.
Instructor Athea must have heard us talking, she finishes her conversation with the Beasthold guard and makes her way over, determination on her face. Weapon freshly sharpened. Is she going to kill me? For getting those people killed?
''We will not recount every detail at this moment, it is enough to know you are alive. Unfortunately the others are not. We must remember their sacrifice, you… should remember. Without them, I'm not sure we would be here, be grateful and learn from your mistakes.'' Instructor Athea says, sharp and direct while I breathe a sign of relief that she's not there to harm me. I stutter and whisper my apologies.
''You're sorry? For what? For being attacked and nearly dying? You do not apologise for surviving, Veyrin. You learn from it. You must only apologise when you fail to act, you however were not in a position to act. You will remain rested until the morning. You are of no use to us if you tear yourself open.'' She continues in a tone you would not dare question. She turns and marches off.
''You know, if you wanted some attention, you could have just tripped and fell in front of people in the academy. Getting mauled by beasts and strange creatures is a bit excessive.'' Rell blurts out.
A sound escapes me, I almost laugh but pain keeps it short. Rell wants to know there's anything I missed from my retelling of the events, I can't tell them about the hall or the vision. Not yet. Everyone is already looking at me as if the whole situation was my fault, there's no point adding visions of their childhood scary stories to add fuel to the already well lit fire.
From the moment I enter my tent for some peace and quiet my eyes feel heavy, like an anvil has been placed over my eyes to stop me from opening them. I still feel the pain, the numbness of my joints and limbs and the warm breath of the Creature, the smell. The breath of the creature… Why can I feel it again? My eyes wrench open, panic rising before thought. It was here, above me. Mouth wide open and ready to finish the job.
I scream, loud enough my voice shreds my throat to ribbons, I flail. Legs and arms responding to me while I beat down on the creature's strange fleshy chest, trying to get it off from me. It stays, like it's waiting for something, its mouth now inches from my head. Its breath smelled of death, like every bad deed inside of this forest has manifested into the creature before me. Its mouth lowers over my head, teeth dragging down my cheeks drawing blood, filling the tent with the aroma of iron. Its mouth clamps closed, I feel the teeth entering my skin. Before my skull is penetrated, I open my eyes and nothing. I am alone, in the tent.
I couldn't sleep after that. The creature was gone but I felt it could come back at any time, and leave with my head in its stomach. I survived, but for how long?