The Tenth Story: The Bleeding Ground
Title: The Bleeding Ground
Word Count: 1497
Authors Note: This is what I like to call Bad Fantasy. Honestly, I have no idea what this is...
Allyn laid the cloth over the young man’s eyes and turned away. This was the fourth death today and there seemed to be no end to the people coming for help. The Healers looked ready to drop and the assistants were no better. Allyn’s throat burned and her eyes were bloodshot, it had been days since she had last slept.
The plague had started slowly, just a few unconnected cases of what seemed to be a bad cold, but far too quickly the cases worsened and after the first death everyone knew. Over half the population of the small mountain village of Wint was either dead or dying. The King wouldn’t help them; the King wouldn’t get within two hundred miles of Wint. They were on their own.
With an exhausted sigh Allyn pushed her long black hair out of her haunted hazel eyes and slumped against the wall. Healer Domai placed a large hand on her tiny shoulder, his black eyes seeming tired and kind.
“You need sleep Allyn; I know how hard you’ve been working. Take a break; we can’t afford to lose you. “
Allyn nodded wearily to her master and stumbled outside. She didn’t return to her desolate home, it was too painful there. She couldn’t bear to see it so empty. Her mother, her father, her sisters, all… Instead she headed to the archives. She knew the answer had to be in one of those books, it just had to be!
Cole found her there, half asleep over a huge old tome. He gently laid his sensitive brown hand on her back.
“Killing yourself isn’t going to help anyone Allyn. Come home with me and get some rest.”
Allyn felt his tender hand run down her hair and she broke. With a chocked up sob she burrowed her face into his strong chest and cried. He held her tightly as if afraid to let her go.
“Cole, the answer is in here, I know it! It has to be! If only I could find it…”
“Allyn, I love you. I can’t stand to see what you’re doing to yourself! You can’t stop this; you’re going to destroy yourself! Allyn, it’s not your fault your family died!”
Her body stiffened and she pulled away.
“I will find the answer Cole, and if you’re not going to help me you can leave me alone.”
Coles large brown eyes faded and his curly head drooped, but Allyn hardly noticed as he shuffled away, she was already buried in the next old volume.
The candle burned away to almost nothing and the stack of useless books piled higher. The words soon seemed no more then blurs to her tired eyes as the night disappeared. She new she would have to go back to the infirmary soon but she just couldn’t abandon her search, not when she knew she was so close.
“Plagues are unstoppable forces that…”
“Burn a plague from your village with Hell fire…”
“When the Book of Death is touched by the hands of the ignorant then plague will reign down through the blood of the innocent.” Allyn was about to move on when a memory stirred. She was standing in the most sacred hall of the temple and the cleric was showing her the large old, crumbling book in the only glass case in the village. He had told her that this was the book of the dead and it was kept in under very close surveillance… With speed she hadn’t known she had possessed Allyn rushed out of the archives and straight for the temple.
The Cleric showed her in with concern as she blurted out her message.
“Has anyone touched the Book of the Dead?”
He seemed alarmed but nodded slowly.
“That new boy, Chilo, touched the book. He had been so curious for so long… The instant he touched his hand was incinerated.”
Allyn gripped his shoulder hard.
“Show me the book.”
The Cleric led her to the sacred room and there was the book, just like it had always been. With trembling hands Allyn opened the case and took out the sacred book of death. She gently opened it. The pages were blank, all of them. She frantically searched through the blank pages till she came to the last. Written in blood red letters was the only writing.
“The Book of Death has been disturbed. The blood of the innocent shall flow until the Sacrifice is brought to the top of the Fiery Mountain.”
“Allyn, what does it mean?”
Allyn shook her head and turned to the Cleric.
“I need to get to the top of the Fiery Mountain.”
Within an hour Allyn was climbing the base of the large mountain. She knew what had to be done and she knew she was the one to do it. Why else would she get the clues? She had to be the Sacrifice, whatever that might mean. No one else would die. The slope was steep and she was grateful for the thick boots the Cleric had given her. There was no snow, even on the top.
She toiled slowly up the slope hoping beyond hope that the answer awaited her at the top. Slowly the ground leveled out and the heat began to rise. She had been told that it was always hot on Fiery Mountain, but she had never been there before.
A large cave opening called her in and she carefully entered. A white robe hung on the wall and, with trembling finger, Allyn took it. Almost immediately she knew that she had to put it on. Cold deeper then the deepest frost entered her soul as she place the robe over her head.
She began walking again, the feeling of cold fear growing with every step. A glowing red light led her onward down the tunnel despite the urgings of her mind to flee. She knew she couldn’t. She entered a large chamber, the floor bubbling with liquid flame. A fierce wind whipped through the chamber though there was nowhere it could have come from.
Suddenly the wind picked up and Allyn felt herself being thrown backward. The robe tore in the ferocity of the wind and whipped around her. Her hair tangled and flew backward even as she struggled to keep to her feet. The fire in the bottom of the fit began to form itself into a shape, a vaguely human shape, and began rising to meet her.
“Why have you come here?”
Its voice was like rotting leather and it rubbed her soul raw. Sheer terror coursed through her veins but she stood her ground.
“I have come to stop the plague.”
The thing laughed, the most chilling sound Allyn had ever heard, and walked toward her.
“You wish to be my sacrifice? You have no idea what I shall demand of you.”
“I don’t care. I will do anything if the plague stops.”
“Anything?” A flaming hand gripped her wrist and Allyn screamed in pure agony. She could smell her flesh burn and feel she skin bubble. “You would endure this for eternity?”
Allyn screamed again as the other hand gently caressed her cheek, leaving blood filled blisters in its wake.
“If you stop the plague,” Allyn managed to gasp out, “I will stay with you.”
The thing laughed again and took her into its arms. The agony went beyond screaming, beyond pain, beyond conscious thought, and Allyn knew this was death coming to claim her. A terrible scream, like the death of a hundred innocent children, filled the air, and it took Allyn a minute to realize it wasn’t hers. The thing was writhing and she began to fall down toward the fiery pit. Consciousness thankfully left her as she plummeted downward.
“Allyn… Allyn…”
The voice was heavenly, kind, gentle. Allyn knew she was safe with the voice forever. Why move, why wake, when it could only mean pain.
“Allyn, wake darling. You’re alright.”
Slowly she opened her eyes. She was in a beautiful green field full of flowers and sunlight. She didn’t hurt. She looked up into her mother’s kind, smiling eyes.
“Mama?”
“You did it darling, you stopped it. You’ve saved them all. Look.”
Allyn looked into the pool her mother pointed at. She could see the people of Wint rejoicing, Healer Domai, The Cleric, all of them. No one seemed sick.
“But the creature, what happened to the creature?”
“Your sacrifice was so pure, so unselfish, that the creature was destroyed. Nothing that is pure evil can survive pure good.”
“Oh mama! But, you’re dead!”
Her mother nodded sadly and gave her a hug.
“You saved them Allyn, but nothing could have saved you.”
Allyn tried to feel sad, she was dead after all! But she couldn’t manage it. She smiled broadly and embraced her mother once again. Her father and sisters came over the beautiful hill and together they walked toward the beautiful, glowing palace that awaited them.