2 Return home

When he awoke, light filled the tunnel signalling it was already well into the day. Daegon's head was filled with pain, he was thirsty, hungry and itching all over. Slowly gaining consciousness Daegon remembered the nightmare of last night, and felt fear.

Standing quickly he took a guarded stance, but realized that there was no threat imminent. Observing his surroundings he noticed he still in the underground cave, the walls had been roughly smoothed out and there was dried blood all over the floor.

Whilst observing the cave Daegon found a rotting body, stripped and with cuts all over, deep gashes filled the chest area of the dead man, bones protruding outwards where skin had fallen off.. Only noticing the stench of the rotting corpse now, Daegon threw up all over the floor.

'Wait a minute, where is the rock? It should be right here' After coming to his senses Daegon's thoughts turned to last night. How did he survive? What was that thing that gave him so much pain?

It was only then that he noticed that his left wrist was in extreme discomfort. A feeling of stiffness and heat, permeated from his wrist to his elbow.

Not wanting to stay in the damp cave with a putrid corpse, Daegon carried himself up the tunnel and back into the forest. After carefully inspecting his surroundings and finding no traces of any dog-beasts, Daegon adjusted his direction using the sun and headed towards home.

'Was it always this loud in the forest?' Noise today seemed especially sensitive to Daegon as he picked up the ambiance of the forest. Birds chirping seemed like horns blaring, and cracking in the trees from the swaying of the oak in the gentle summer breeze hit his ears like the impact of hammer on anvil. 'The headache must be making my ears tender'

It was a full three hours before Daegon eventually began to see familiar surroundings, passing by favorite climbing tree, the stream in the forest where he would take swims with his friends, and old Tom's shack.

Daegon finally made it all the way back to his home. The trees of the forest thinned out considerably, where the outline of a small barn house emerged. Thatch roofing capped a simple beige colored mud-stone walled house bathed in an ocean of golden wheat fields. Daegon remembered, the spring harvest was yet to take place as it was the beginning of the summer months.

A man tending to a small horse by the back of the house, his weathered hands gripping an aged brush that danced over the mane of the patchy brown horse. His movements fluid, yet his brows were furrowed. Sighing the man looked to forest to discover a walking towards him.

Instantly the mans brows parted, his cheeks puffed out and a smile enveloped his face. "Daegon, you're home!"

"Dad!"

Father and son embraced, tears rolled down the cheeks of Daegon, who was after all just a boy.

"Don't ever do that again, you hear me?" Holding the shoulders of his son, the man sunk to look at Daegon directly in the eyes.

"Ah... Daegon!" Shocked the man exclaimed. "What...your eyes! They've turned red!"