I wanted to sleep. I wanted to fall back into the dark embrace of oblivion and dreams. Slumber was calling out to me like the sweetest of lulling music, and yet a distant throbbing pain attempted to undermine it and pull me into wakefulness. Alone, it wasn't quite enough as my desire to sink deeper into senseless darkness was greater, but I could feel myself leaving the warm embrace because it wasn't alone.

Something was lodged in the back of my mind, and every other moment, it was digging a little deeper. A nagging annoyance that scratched at my attention until my only choice was to think. As I gradually became more aware of my surroundings, I distinguished the different irritants bothering me.

The most prominent one was that my body felt like I was actively being baked in an oven, but I pushed that aside. There! I realized as I heard the inconsistent hitching wheezing interrupting my blessed silence. Every time I dipped closer to sleep, the noise would sound again, pulling me slightly closer to consciousness.

"Eehhh~. Haaa~." The noise was annoying and sounded like someone was slowly dying as they struggled to take a breath. Cracking my eyes open, I was surprised that they only opened to a hazy slit before I couldn't widen them further.

I started scrunching up my face and wiggling my eyebrows as I strained to pull my eyelids apart, but nothing happened. Finally, I had to accept that I was not getting my eyes open without using another part of my body. Which was a real problem because I didn't want to move… as everything fucking hurt.

"Argh…" I groaned as I lifted up my right arm because it was the one that hurt less. Huh, the wheezing hiss went away after I… Oh. Shit. That can't be good. Rubbing the sleep and the grit out of my eyes, I was welcomed by the full spectrum of pain ravaging me.

The entire front of my body, from the tops of my feet to my scalp, felt like one giant bruise, with patches of bruises on my backside as the kicker. My left arm ached. I was pretty sure my right ankle was sprained at some point during my flight. My throat felt like… calling it sunburned wouldn't be wrong. Though, to be more accurate, my throat was raw, and swallowing felt like leaping into a salt pit while my body was covered in a thousand cuts. Which sucked because there was a burning thirst in my throat, making me long to drink anything to quench the feeling. Adding onto all of that, when I opened my eyes, it felt like two knives were shoved through those horrible organs and into my head.

"Ahh!" I screamed, covering my eyes from the blue-green light with my hands and clamping my eyelids shut. "By the Ancestor, that fucking hurt!"

Unable to stay where I was forever, I gradually opened my eyes and cracked my fingers, allowing the constant dull light into my little haven. Even after minutes of slow action, my eyes still stung with a dull pain, and if I moved them around too fast, I would get dizzy and feel a sharp jab in my head, but it was bearable.

Letting my arms fall to my side so I was in slightly less discomfort after long minutes, I took in the ceiling of the chamber I was in. Or I assumed I was in a chamber, but I couldn't be sure, with everything being one blur. I frowned in mild discomfort as my vision slowly resolved the different shades and blobs into objects.

There was no piercing pain in my eyes like I remembered when I was running through the forest, just a dull, ever-present one. Which was probably the best I could ask for, given the situation. As far as I could tell, I still had control of my whole body, which was more than I could ask for, given the situation.

Finally, after I didn't care how long, I found out the ceiling was covered in a dense carpet of blue-green glowing moss. It was something I had never seen, not that I was an expert on tunnels and the deep reaches of the world. It was interesting, though.

Flopping my head to my right, I could see that the walls were also covered in the glowing moss, if to a lesser degree. It was obviously less layered than the ceiling, but I still couldn't even determine if the wall was made of stone or dirt underneath. However, I would assume stone because that was what was underneath the thick dust I was lying on.

Trying to get up, I grunted in the effort as I dug my elbows into the ground, only to fall back to the ground in a coughing fit that made my ribs loudly complain. Discarding the idea of standing up, I devised a new strategy.

Slowly scooting across the ground, I got within arm's reach of the glowing moss. Then, I realized something about myself I had not been aware of until now. I had never encountered this situation before, so it was reasonable to not know, but more importantly, in my opinion, it was a logical suspicion.

I did not trust mysterious glowing plants. I know it was quite a flaw, but it's something I can't help. Nobody is perfect, after all. Squinting my eyes at the suspicious moss, I hesitantly reached out before swatting the mass.

At the impact of my hand, a cloud of tiny specks was flung into the air. I watched the specks with mistrust for long moments until they disappeared. But that didn't seem right, so I continued to search the air for several more seconds. After a moment, I noticed that the specks were still there, but they had stopped glowing.

For whatever reason, I was okay with the specks so long as they didn't glow. Carefully, I smacked the moss another time, going through the same process of watching the moss and floating flecks until they dimmed. Without the apprehension filling my thoughts, it was a rather beautiful sight. A bright point in my recent life.

Shrugging, I started flailing my hand at the moss wall, creating large clouds of floating specks. Because of my actions, I accidentally tore off a section of moss, revealing the stone wall underneath, proving I was right!

Eventually, the moss I was hitting stopped spewing out specks, and the area of the glowing moss dimmed before ultimately going dark. At the same time, my annoying wheezing breaths turned into multiple coughing and hacking fits as I breathed in the floating… whatever the specks were.

Once the nearby section of moss had stopped glowing, I turned and slowly lifted and shifted my body until I could lean back against it. Settling into my new position, I found it a surprisingly comfortable seat. Part of it was that my breathing became more manageable now that I was sitting up, but that might have been in my head. What I wasn't imagining was the softness on my back.

Now that my head was off the ground, I turned to my left and studied the stone archway I must have come through. Instead of a stairwell going up, a smooth wooden wall blocked the passage a foot inside the arch. An arm's length to the left of the archway, and the only other clear patch of wall, was a lever I vaguely remembered pulling down. I only studied the wall for a second before my gaze dropped to the ground below the lever to what was once a large pool of liquid.

"Once" was the right word to choose there. The dust on the ground absorbed the liquid, making a dark slurry. With the light I had, whatever liquid it originally was could have been anything. Or, if I was being realistic, any liquid that could come out of my body, as I didn't see any other water sources down here.

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With all my flailing around to move to my new position, I had partially cleared the slurry from some parts of the floor as I smeared the clumps about. Despite the greenish-blue light, I would swear I could make out a red tint to the thinnest patches of mud, but that could have been me seeing what I expected…

On the other hand, I was finding lines of dried and crusted blood coming from my nose and ears. It might not have been much of a clue for other people, but it was enough for me to guess that it was blood smeared across the ground… A lot of it. You never knew, though. I could be wrong.

Fumbling with the pouches on my belt, I opened some of them and started eating the jerky, cheese, and hardtack I stashed inside one, along with a few glorious swallows from my waterskin. I would like to say it was the most pitiful meal I had ever eaten, given my condition, but it wasn't like I hadn't eaten the same food a thousand times in the past. Legion rations weren't known for their variety or flavor.

Once I was done eating, I turned my head to face down the passage to my right. I had looked in that direction before, and it was the same then as it was now. A long hallway that receded into the distance seemingly without end, lined on three sides by the blue-green moss.

Putting my waterskin away and collecting my spear and the four arrows I had left, I mentally gathered myself to stand. With many groans and curses, I made it to my feet and felt a minor thrill of victory… making me feel kind of sad the next moment.

Limping over to the archway and shaking off my thoughts, I stared at the lever, then put my hand against the door… Or gate. It was one of them. I had to have come through something, after all. With my hand pressed against the wooden surface, I felt a slight warmth coming off it.

There was a forest fire raging above, but for it to have eaten away at the tree to the point it was heating up the wood down here didn't seem normal. But then again, what would I know about stairwell trees or forest fires? For all I knew, the tree was always this warm.

While I knew I probably had nothing to worry about, I could not stop myself from thinking, what if the fire makes it down here, filling the tunnel with smoke. The concern only lasted a brief moment, however. If the fire was going to make it down here, it probably would have by now. Though it felt like minutes to me, I would guess I was unconscious for most of a day, as recovering from the haze to any extent took time.

Turning from the archway, I started limping down the long hallway using the spear as a cain, but even with that support, I kept one hand on the wall as my movements were stiff, and my balance wasn't much better. By the time I lost sight of the archway in the murky green-blue tunnel, I could step away from the wall and only reached out to it to rip a section off to make an unmistakable mark of my passage. I had loosened up the bruises and sprains covering my body, letting me pick up the pace.

Not that I could go at anything close to fast. I was moving at what charitable people could call a walking pace, but the less generous would call it a stroll. If they did, then fuck them. I was moving at the best I could manage, and I dared anyone who could see me to say otherwise.

Mainly because those mysterious observers would be too preoccupied, cringing at how it sounded like something was rattling around in my chest with every inhale. And if they had any kind of heart, they would be sympathizing with me as I spent the occasional minute catching my breath when I became lightheaded. Under either circumstance, I doubted they would comment on my speed.

What really sucked was that it didn't matter how long I rested because I couldn't quite recover. Regardless of how hard I tried to fill my lungs, I couldn't get what felt like a full breath of air. My chest was tight, and my lungs burned every single second. I hated it, as all I could do was move forward one step at a time, hoping I didn't collapse from dizziness.

After what felt like hours, but was probably one… though it might have been three — I really couldn't tell or care at this point — I spotted what I thought was another arch in the distance, and I was right. Finally reaching it, I briefly stopped next to the lever and studied it and the archway before shrugging. Reaching out and pulling the lever down without another thought on the matter, I waited to see if I was going to die here or not.

My heart stopped for an instant as nothing happened, then there was a click, and the wall began lowering in silence. Behind the first lowering section was another wall slightly further back and taller than the first, which was also sinking, revealing another section behind it a moment later. The pattern repeated as every piece lowered in a cascade, each section forming a step six inches high until a spiral staircase led up before me.

Looking at the staircase in resignation, I started plodding up the stairs while pressing my hand against the outside wall for support. The glow of the moss quickly disappeared as I went up and around the tunnel, and for a while, I slowly climbed up the stairs in utter darkness.

After minutes of climbing, I stepped around the constant corner and saw the first wisps of light breaking through the darkness. Stopping mid-step, I stood still for a while as my eyes adjusted. I could barely see the next step, but even that slight amount of light made my temples pulsate in pain.

Walking through the darkness up the stairwell wasn't a trial for me. It was a blessing. For long, sacred minutes, I felt my eyes relax as the constant tension they were under began to lessen, though that was another agony all on its own.

I didn't realize how much the dim light of the tunnel was bothering me until it was no longer there, and now I had to embrace the pain of light again. Bracing myself, I slowly moved upward, adjusting to the growing light. With every stride, I could feel the mounting pressure and pricks of pain behind my eyes as the light level increased.

With my final few steps, I stepped into a hollow in a tree that looked strikingly similar to the tree I first entered. I looked around the area and stepped out onto the brush-covered ground, taking in my surroundings.

I was at the edge of a hillside again, but this one was reasonably gentle and led up to the valley's rim. The hill had significantly fewer trees than the rest of the valley, giving me a clear view of the night sky.

Though my head was tilted up, my eyes were closed as I enjoyed taking deep breaths of the night's fresh air. The cool air soothed my throat, and for the first time since I woke up, I felt a moment at the end of a breath where the need to breathe was sated. It only lasted an instant, but it was euphoric.

Opening my eyes, I looked across the valley to the far hillside and saw the moon peaking over its ridge. After a quick look at the heavens to find the Mother's Finger constellation and identify which way was south, I knew the moon was in the western sky, which meant it was rising. Sighing, I turned and took a step to the southeast. My journey would take me along the valley, eventually over the far hill, and then a few more valleys that would each flatten out a bit before dumping me into a grassland stretching to the Triad.

Before I could take more than two steps, I sighed, turned back, and leaned into the tree's hollow, looking around the opening until I found a crevasse. Feeling down it, I found another lump down the hole and messed around with it until I pushed it up, closing off the stairwell.

Taking one last look around, mentally marking the area, I started my way into the forest. As I made my way down the valley and to the far hill, I tried to make as little disturbance as possible, but compared to my best efforts, it was like I wasn't even trying. I might as well have been a child on his first hunting trip.

Anyone chasing me would only have to use half of their attention to follow my trail. Which could make them think it's a false trail, I hopefully thought, but I was hardly ever that lucky. I could only hope that no one would come across my tracks.

Eventually, I found a good spot to cross the eastern hill, but before I did so, I searched around for a few moments until I found a comfortable-looking tree and leaned against it before sliding to the ground. With the sparse number of trees on its slope, I needed to pick out my path so I wouldn't be spotted in the moonlight. Or so I told myself in justification for some rest.

Closing my eyes, I rubbed at my eyes and temples and tried to settle my head and chest by taking deep, slow breaths. The throbbing pain was well past the point that I was starting to get nauseous. All I wanted was to find a dark room to lie down for a few hours and suffer in silence.

Groaning into my hands, I sighed, "fuck—

"Well, well," A cold, husky voice said into my ear as a cold blade pressed into my throat, "what do we have here?"

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