Morrowind
By Louis Dimick
Prologue
Voryn screamed. His whole body felt like it was on fire. He writhed, the long jagged gaping wound on his torso spraying blood onto the rock cavern floor he lay upon. His spine-chilling moans resounded off the cavern walls. How can this be happening? Voryn slowly rose to a sitting position, growling from the pain. What remained of his clothes hung in tatters around his body. He gnashed his teeth savagely and looked down at his wound. He stared at the terrible laceration with disgust. His ribs could easily be seen through the wound. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. Then he raised his head and roared with rage at the ceiling of the cavern. Indoril! You betrayed me! Voryn coughed, spitting up blood onto the rock. His lungs felt mauled and bloody. Breathing was difficult. Voryn turned his head slowly from side to side, testing his neck. He winced as the skin on his throat cracked, sending trickles of blood down his chest. With a groan, Voryn moved his head up, and then back down, making sure the neck muscles worked properly. With every movement his body screamed in protest. He slowly moved his eyes, looking around the large cavern he lay in. A large pool of water lay about five yards away from where he sat. Voryn’s eyes grew wide. He had just realized how parched his throat felt. He hauled his body forward with a moan and slowly began crawling towards the water, leaving a trail of gore behind him as he went. After much effort, sweat and searing pain, Voryn reached the pool. He groaned and dropped his head down, slurping up water with desperation. He drank two liters before he forced himself to stop. Water had never felt or tasted so good. He slowly raised his head to look over past the little lake. Light shone down from a large hole in the cavern wall about a hundred feet away. The massive hole was about fifty feet in diameter, large enough to fit a mansion…and it was collapsing. As Voryn watched, he could see that huge rock boulders that made up the upper region of the massive hole were inching their way downward, making the hole smaller with each passing minute. He gasped, a croaking sound, and scrambled on his hands and knees along the side of the lake towards the direction of the large opening. He didn’t get more than a few yards before he had to stop and rest. He collapsed on the rock, sobbing with frustration. I’m not going to make it...I’m too weak… The wounds were taking their toll. With a growl he got back onto his hands and knees and inched toward the pool to drink again. It was then that he saw his reflection. In horror, Voryn kneeled frozen to the spot, the water displaying him like a mirror. His face was one mass of burns and scratches, his left cheek was torn off revealing his cracked teeth. His once pointed ears were half burned off leaving ugly scorched stumps. The hair that remained on his blistered scalp hung in small patches, singed black. His appearance resembled the most horrid demon spawned from the darkest corner of Oblivion. Voryn struck the water with his fist and howled with rage. “Curse you, Indoril!” He screamed, “Curse you!” He clawed at his face with his nails carving furrows into his burned flesh as he fell backwards onto the rock, flailing his limbs with inconceivable wrath. He wanted to die. All this pain, the horror, the betrayal; it was all too much. In his blind rage, Voryn got back onto his knees and clawed about looking for something to kill himself with. His burned hands closed around a jagged rock, and he began beating his head with it in a wild frenzy. The rock immediately ripped gashes in his burned flesh, sending blood trickling down his neck and to the ground below. Voryn screamed from the pain and re-doubled his efforts, trying to break through his skull. In his weakened state, however, he was unable to smash the bone, and gave up. The bloodied rock fell from his hands as his vision grew hazy. On the far side of the cavern, the huge stones above the hole in the wall gave way about five feet. The hole was much smaller now. It wouldn’t be long before it closed off altogether. Lacking the strength to remain upright, Voryn fell to the ground on his side in a pool of blood. Maybe I’ll bleed to death… He thought, and closed his eyes as the blood seeped from his broken body. The end had finally come. He was sure of it. As the life drained from his body, he waited for the world to fade away; and with it all the hurt. It was at that moment when he felt it. The warmth. It started with his chest, and then slowly spread to the rest of his body. Keeping him alive. Voryn eyes snapped open. The heart. A power coursed through his being, giving him strength. He could bear the pain; use it to fuel his anger. Voryn’s sight cleared, his red eyes gleamed fiercly. With a terrible will, he determined to live. A hiss escaped his lips. And living, he knew what he would do.
With a terrible crash, the boulders collapsed leaving the cavern in complete blackness.
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