Wayfare to an Uncertain Asylum, Chapter II

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Chapter II - Return to the Unwelcome Beyond

Whisper’s pace quickened as he grew nearer to Walker’s Realm, the horrible dreams that have haunted his sleep since his descent into darkness intensified as he drew close to the darkened land. He had a growing feeling of peril as he continued his travels, yet a feeling he could not explain to himself lured him closer and closer. He kept his resolve, telling himself that it would soon be behind him, and then there would be nothing to trouble him. His master’s net stretched far and wide, but his master did no value what couldn’t give him more power, Whisper knew he could hide from his master if he laid low.

Weary days passed as he traveled through the eastern plains, silence was his main companion as he trudged through the wet spring fields. Whisper’s mood steadily declined as the rainy spring days passed until even the relatively simple company of Boko had annoyed him, few knew what Whisper did about his furry companion, and often the monkey’s thirst for blood and power disgusted him more even than the naïve, weakness of humanity. None the less, like many of his companions Boko had his uses, ones that would be especially important now that Whisper was alone again.

Whisper reached the boarders of Walker’s Realm at dawn, the morning after a strong spring storm. As Whisper crossed the threshold into the shadowland his caste mark briefly flashed, but quickly faded as the shadows of the barren land stretched around him. Boko crouched upon his shoulder sensing the need for silence, both the monkey and his master were on the edge as Whisper crept through the scattered forest. Walker’s Realm was a barren land where no mortal dare live; Walker in Darkness has grown weary of the mortal company that he could rarely keep. The curse left upon his mighty citadel left him unable to entertain even his own death knights, because of this Walker in Darkness was known as a lonely death lord who spent much of his time away from his citadel. Many people see this as a disadvantage for Walker in Darkness, but at the moment Whisper could think of nothing more terrifying than being discovered by one of his master’s rivals. This was only the beginning of what worried Whisper about traveling through the massive shadowland. Many of Walker’s servants patrolled the borders and open land that made up his Realm, at nightfall an entire community of ghosts would populate this area. For the most part Whisper did not fear that the ghosts would attempt to physically harm him, however he knew that if they discovered a foreign death knight in their master’s territory, it would only be a matter of time before Walker’s mighty forces came to bare upon him. The need to go unnoticed, to be untraceable was a feeling that Whisper knew all too well, he had spent most of his adult life masked by the shadows. He thought it was ironic that it was the sun that first taught him the safety of the shadows, and now after being cast into the darkness he found little had changed. Perhaps if they had understood that, they would understand what fueled his hatred, but they could never understand.

As nightfall arrived Whisper continued across the barren land at little more than a tense crawl, he was crouched low in the thin brush with the long shadows of the surrounding trees stretching over his body. He had not seen or heard a single living or dead creature during his day of travel though terrain, but he was grateful for he feared the inevitable creatures of the night. As he slowly stalked through the underbrush of the forest he was reminded of his training in the depths of the labyrinth. Hours, days, years, centuries passed all around him in the painful stillness of dusk; he opened his eyes and the sun had just sunken below the horizon. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow as he took a moment, still crouched low, to lean against the trunk of a tree as he gazed up at the purple sky of the underworld. After a short rest the night sky faded to a lightless black which seemed to extend from the sky to all around him. He continued his slow pace, his heart pounding and his nerves on edge, and so it would remain haunted by the echoes of screams and faint glow of distant ghost towns on the horizon. He dare not draw close, unsure if the screams and light were anything more than a delusion until finally he felt the first ray of sunlight warm his skin. He was reminded of his first exaltation at the moment, as if The Unconquered Sun was about to reclaim him then and there, but it wasn’t so and Whisper was left only with the comfort that he had survived the first night. Relief swept over his body, and exhaustion crept into his muscles, he was asleep before the sun was fully visible.

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