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T he scent of blood assaulted my nose. I cringed at the sounds of breaking bones and squelching flesh. Thick grey smoke swirled around me and I shielded my eyes from the glint of fiery flame in the distance. I struggled to breathe, the smoky air searing a trail of pain down my throat. Clenching the hilt of the tarnished longsword I held in my bloodstained hands, I ran. Tendrils of black hair escaped from the plait hanging down my spine and tickled my cheeks. Every muscle in my body throbbed in utter exhaustion.

With every crack of bone beneath my boot, I advanced closer and closer. Just as the pyre came into focus, the sky shifted abruptly to a deep, endless black. Darkness entrenched me. The great flames roared higher, but no light radiated across my face.

I fell to my knees.

It had begun.

Suddenly, cold, rough hands wrapped themselves around my ankles and pulled me back. My skin screamed as the hands dragged me against dead flesh and bone. The earth of the battlefield rushed past me. Claws pierced the tops of my feet with a pain so excruciating my vision blurred in crackles of black.

Sobbing, I raked at its grip. I begged it to let go; the words poured from my mouth in waves of frantic gargles. The unseen force stopped short and I skidded to a halt. I couldn’t breathe through the pain of my raw skin and mutilated feet.

The temperature dropped around me and a pair of menacing red eyes glared at me from the surrounding blackness. A silent sob escaped my lips as I tried to pull my limp body away. With an inhuman speed, the beast leapt at me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I shielded my face with my forearms from the impending death racing towards me .