4 Part 1 (Past)

If one were to ask the history of the Realm Rogue, most would not have much to say. Personally, the name stuck out like a sore thumb. But no one knew who the person actually was. Was the person a he? Or a she?

Some argues female, some male and some even said it was something in between!

Where from where did he/she actually come from?

It was a difficult question to answer from anyone's point of view, since there were so many realms.

But Kristen of course, found to her uttermost joy and terror that she was not killed by the attack on the Ceylon-British World Trade Center. Joy because she didn't actually die.

Terror because, she believed that was already six feet underground.

It is quite a terrifying to wake up, after believing yourself that you were dead, stuck in the pitch darkness. Kristen could not feel anything; she could not feel her legs, her arms, her own neck. She just knew they were there, but she couldn't move it. For some reason, she felt warm and rather wet. It was as if she was submerged with only her face poking out of the water.

Maybe she was mistaken.

Maybe she really was dead. Was she in hell? It was a bit too comfortable to be hell. But she was so tired that she didn't care. She was comfortable enough to fall asleep once again and so she did.

The next time she felt her eyes peel open, there was light. Not much light, but it was strong and it made her eyes hurt. It was a bright orange light with the shadow of a person overhead. Warm calloused and wrinkled fingers gently pressed on to the left side under her chin. Kristen wanted to move her head. She had some amount of strength to do so. But instead, fingers clasped her jaws and pried her mouth open.

'Eat. Too weak. Death… near.'

Kristen frowned at the incoherent mess of words that popped out of her head as she heard whoever was up there speaking. It was a raspy voice, feminine in a sort. The words were chopped with long syllables, unlike any other language Kristen had ever heard.

She didn't have the strength to fight as something this and warm flowed into her mouth and down her throat. Kristen didn't know whether she was hungry or thirsty. She didn't want to swallow whatever that was poured into her mouth, but the fingers touched her throat, forcing her to swallow with whatever ounce of energy she had.

Kristen didn't know how many days the feeding continued. She would fall asleep in the dark after the bright light faded away but as the days (probably) went by, Kristen felt the strength return to her limbs. Some days, she could feel the liquid surrounding her slowly drain off and become replaced with more.

Until one day, she managed to sit up. Her hands touched liquid all around her. Everything was dark. As her hands weakly groped around, she felt stone around her. It was as if she were in a stone coffin. Her skin felt cold on the parts that were not submerged. Kristen shivered.

It was when she realized that she was stark naked. Panic overthrew her sense of logic as she tried to get up from whatever tub that she was submerged in. She tried to climb over, her legs weakly moving as she tried her best lift herself off from the strange pool she felt around her while clinging onto the wall. She failed miserably and fall right back onto the water.

Fortunately, the base of the strange coffin like confinement was cushioned with something. But the fall was painful, causing Kristen to cry out.

It didn't take long for her to hear footsteps. Bright light filled her vision and she felt multiple sets of hands pull her out of the coffin. Someone draped something soft and furry onto her shoulders, covering her. When Kristen looked around, she was surprised.

She was in a cave. In a cave filled with multiple stone tubs, lying on top of what seemed like furnaces with embers shining underneath the stone. On the ceiling, the firelight of torches illuminated cave drawings. Kristen could not make out much, for her attention was quickly taken away by the multitude of people around her. There were four of them in total. One man. Two young women and one old women. They spoke excitedly and Kristen's brain could filter out one or two words.

'Clothes...'

'Still sick...'

'Hurry...'

'Space…'

One of the young women held her on her feet, muttering words onto her ears. It felt rather comforting.

'Safe. No need scared. Safe.'

The old woman of the group approached her. She gave a look at the only man in the room and he left, leaving only the females. She poked around Kristen's body underneath whatever that covered her. Kristen looked down as she did, surprise at the healed cuts and bruises that littered her once blank canvas like skin. The old woman turned her so that Kristen's back faced her. Kristen felt something was wrong with her back, something she could not see as the old women probed around, feeling her skin.

The old woman that looked straight in the eye at Kristen and said, 'You will live.'

It shocked Kristen onto how she could actually understand what the old woman was saying. She words actually made an entire sentence in her head. But there were bigger questions in Kristen's head.

Where was she?

Who were these people?

They didn't look like the Ceylonean locals. The females in front of her were tall and dark skinned. But there was something not Asian in their features. Kristen at to admit, the girls were very pretty. They wore clothing consisting of wraps around their chest and long stiff skirts. There were large feathers pinned onto their hair with necklaces and arm bands. The old woman instead was shorter, with white hair. She wore a robe with a red cloak wrapped around her. Instead of feathers, her white hair was entangled multiple beads and her ears were pierced and had stones and feathers dangling down.

'Take her to one of the rooms,' Kristen heard the old woman say again.

The girls obeyed. One girl held the torch and led the way while the other supported Kristen. Kristen expected them to step into broad daylight, but instead she was met with more caves; a whole corridor of caves. There were torches embedded onto the side of the wall, fixed on holes carved out of it. A few people passed by, making Kristen quickly to tighten the only item of clothing that covered her. Men didn't wear anything above their torso and it was quite an alarming sight.

A lot who passed by gave Kristen a curious look but the girl with the torch shooed them away and led her into another smaller cave. The entrance was covered with what seemed like long fibers and the girl supporting Kristen gently placed her down on what seemed like a cot carved into the wall of the cave and covered with hide and fur. The girl with the torch fixed her torch onto the wall and went out. She returned after a while with a wooden bowl that she handed over to the other girl.

Kristen spent the next few moments forced to swallow down what seemed like gruel. The light was no enough for her to actually see what was in the bowl, but she trusted it to be food none the less. She wanted to ask where she was, but she didn't know which words to say. After it seemed as if she had settles down, one of the girls, the one who carried the torch and had her hair braided with black paint over her neck and collarbone spoke.

'Where do you come from?'

Kristen really had no idea how to explain.

The other girl, who was shorter and more petite with shorter untied hair shushed the other and said to Kristen.

'Rest first. We will be here. If you need us, call us.'

Kristen had no idea how to call them. She wanted to be clothed and she wondered what she was supposed to do if she wanted to do to the bathroom.

There had to be some sort of a bathroom in this network of caves with a whole community living in it... right?