Time Beyond A Dream

Chapter 22-Wasteland Vnee Medea

Wasteland

Nathan's eyes fluttered open, blinking against the soft dawn light. He glanced around, as he'd done many times before, but it was pointless, as it had been each time before. He was alone up here. There was no one around. Not a soul, human or animal. Nothing at all, as far as the eye could see but the pungent stink of the air was making him dizzy, his stomach churning, unbelievable, repellent and, gut-wrenching, numbing foul stink. 

And that's when he saw the mysterious canyon, cutting across the wasteland terrain dead ahead of him with s******c inevitability, a vast limestone trench snaking across the landscape like something from the dark Wild West movies, but this one is the black and way more apocalyptic scenario, the ones he'd seen in countless dark cowboy films and had hoped to visit someday but hadn't though, the one he now knew with a savage certainty, that he had never gotten a chance to see.

That moment there was a reverberating voice inside his head, something was threatening about the voice, something out from the horror films, something so sinister and finally welcoming.

In this barren land, he felt a rising unease in this desolate place, he'd sensed a more ominous ring to the words in his brain, menacing. And then it came. A question that sent a straightening spasm shooting to his spine.

“Are you ready to obey, servant?”

His eyes fluttered open, blinking against the light. He was alone here, not a soul. Despite the morning chill, sweat droplets sprouted across his bald pate. He then swallowed hard, fear lurking, and yet he concentrated again. He hoped for this to be just a hallucination, but he fears it wasn't.

And then it came repeatedly.

The voice, the whisper, coming from inside his head. “The time of our Dark Lord will soon be upon us. Are you prepared to serve him?”

, with a tremor in his voice, Nathan opened his mouth and stammered, “Yes! Whatever you ask of me. I am your servant.”

There was no reply.

He doesn't know if he was crazy, he doesn't. Anyone who develops a new understanding of what was going on inside him was his doing, his decision to make. Maybe he was just a kitten in a box, none of him ever seeing outside it and assuming there is no “box.” 

He is wrong. He could grasp it. Furthermore, he felt the negative entity inside his head lurking in its shadow, ready for darkness. Yet it guides him and seeks to destroy. Their connection can't be used by anyone who wanted peace, only hatred, and revenge. Is he insane now? He hoped not.

So opening this door on his brain was a must, for retribution and the abandonment from his friends; unless he understands himself and knows the dangers of the deadly sins to come.

Still no reply at first. Nathan could feel the individual droplets of his sweat sliding down the dry rugged skin on his forehead, one after the other, skating across the ridge of his brow before dropping onto his cheek. He could almost hear them trickling down, slow, tortuous progress across his tightened, weather-beaten face.

Then the voice inside his head came back. “Are you ready to avenge your abandonment? Are you ready to hate those whom you love? To show them the error of their ways, even though they may not want to see you?”

“Yes,” he cried out, his voice cracking with equal dossed of hatred and fear.

A suffocating silence gripped the wasteland, then the voice returned, and told him, “Soon, very soon, we shall remain... we shall hang for them to return.”

When a deafening and ear-splitting sound can be heard from the distance? A creature of the wasteland. Unknown and ancient. Nathan panicked. He doesn't want to die here. Not now or ever.

The creature was thin and woman-like, grotesque with matted long white silver hair and huge twisting horns protruding upward into the sky. The contorted figure eclipsed his view. It stood on its knotted haunches and stooped as its wrinkled face stared at him. 

It gave off an aura of pure hate and evil expressed in its dull black eyes. The ancient creature of the dark has a look of a powerful sorceress, and yet its misshapen appearance says otherwise. She appears to possess the ability to manipulate any magical energy for many effects, from healing to teleportation and can affect any non-living objects with her magic. She is after all the most powerful sorceress of her time. Vnee Medea.

She has also been seen to remotely access another magic user's strength, as she did when she channeled the power of almost all magical beings on the Land of Nod, through her to the Dark Lord, to aid him in his battle with the Mark a thousand years ago, and again with though all the sorceresses she came into contact with allowed her to tap into them. 

The oddest thing was the monstrous nature of those who came in contact with her. They become the 'dark mirrors' of herself- seeking to destroy what was within. For she had no empathy, no love or kind spirit to guide any hands and hearts, to fashion their thoughts in compassionate ways. Instead, it will corrupt anyone who dares to befall in this barren Wasteland.

Vnee Medea a sorceress of the ancient and the third prophecy coin keeper.

In ancient times she aids the first Mark (Allan) in the Land of Nod in his search for the Coins out of love, assisting him with her magic and saving his life in several quests, playing the role of a conventional helper-maiden, before abandoning her native land 'The Land Of Love' (and now Wasteland). Marrying him and fleeing with him westwards where they settle in Cold Mountain. 

But the betrayal and a tragedy depict the ending of said union with Allan when after a hundred years of marriage, He abandons her to wed the king's daughter of Grassland a Fae Warrior Michelle, while Vnee Medea and her son with Allan were banished from the Cold Mountain. 

In revenge, she murdered Michelle and the king with poisoned gifts, and afterward murdered her offspring, before fleeing to the Land of Love. 

And thereafter it was transformed into a wasteland; with her magic, she made sure that the Wasteland was inhabitable to anyone with unforgiving-ruthless weather. The Wasteland has been feared by many Nodders and creatures of the Land of Nod, since then, no one had dared to venture in this godforsaken land.

She became the keeper of the third coin after he took it from the First Mark. From then on, the gods had punished her one so alluring beautiful face, turning her into the hideous horrible heartless creature of the Dark.

Nathan tried to hide how fearful he was. He could control the tremor in his voice to a degree. He could his body movements to be less stilted. Furthermore, he could make himself smile somewhat, even if it looked pasted on, and he is beyond scared. The fear lurking from his mind and suffocating him. 

And now he was running out of pure adrenaline, his survival instincts choking him in his grasp, and irrational escape propelling him forward, and just then, in the middle of his panic and fear something shifted, something changed and he senses the creature pulling up slightly out from his view, then it vanished from nowhere, just maybe he might make it out of this nightmare alive. 

--

Cold Mountain

“What the hell was that, Sean?” Catherine asked him in a panic. “What? The kiss?” He smirked and looked down at her lips with an irritated frown before his eyes briefly went back and forth to her lips.” I'm asking about that yes, why the hell did you do it.” Catherine's head shot up at Sean's intense glare. However, the kiss they'd shared earlier was beyond her expectation. It didn't matter, she told herself, but she didn't need to contemplate how wonderful it was.

Some things matter at most or least, but somehow she doesn't desire to think about it. Not yet. Her brain cleared, the feeling in her head came back, her vision blurring, and most of nausea melted away. She felt light-headed. That kiss made her feel something more, besides she wasn't expecting more from Sean thought. 

He was the guy who doesn't want a relationship or commitments. As her rational mind returned, she realized that she was thirsty. Her fire was blazing inside her. “Sean, I'm burning! We need to leave now or go back to the actual world.” Her stomach protested its endless emptiness, and she struggled with the impulse to place her hand on her belly and shush it. Her body was on fire, she can feel it. 

The burning sensation hurrying from her heart to her palms. It wants out. She felt it running towards her outreach hands. The sudden instinct to cover her ears were imminent. “Sean, now! I don't wish to burn this mountain I don't know if I could hold it any longer, or this fire inside me will flare, and it might make an avalanche and I don't prefer that to happen,” Catherine said. Sean stares at her. The chaos in his mind overwhelmed him with its mess. Then she vanished. Gone, like she was never there in the first place. He needs to follow her immediately. He was confused about what happened then he visualizes his bed. He has to go now! he needs to follow her as early as possible.