Darkness surrounded me as I ran through the forest, my heart beat racing, my breath catching without every inhalation. Though my body burned, I knew I had to keep pushing myself further, and further, and further.
There was something in the shadows of this darkness, something lurking that I could not see. It was only showing its presence from behind the trees as I ran quickly past them, so I kept pushing myself to RUN.
Fear-stricken, the trees began to lessen and part. Beyond the tree line was a ledge, a ledge that was coming up far too quickly. Despite my efforts, my body could not stop in time and I spun off the ledge,
falling into a deep,
dark,
abyss.
The sound of the creature was the last thing I heard as I fell to my death.
"It's over kid," he stated calmly. "You won and you put up a great fight."
He stood up from leaning over me, stepping over to the wash bin. I sat up from my bedroll and rubbed my neck, my head was throbbing like I had hit it, hard.
"What happened?"
I mumbled as I tried to control the deep need to hurl all over the living quarters.
Owyn turned to me, a wet rag in hand.
"You passed out right after you dealt the final blow to the Champ... Err, former Champion." He chuckled as he handed me the rag.
Pressing it to my temple, and I nodded. "I remember..." Shaking my head, I continued, "I had a vision."
"A vision?"
I shook my head trying to remember the voice that I had heard and the image that had popped into my head before I had killed the Champion.
"It was a man's voice. I remember him saying 'Talisa' like he was calling to me."
He looked at me with a strange expression on his face. I am sure he must have been thinking that I had hit my head harder than he had thought. I didn't want Owyn to know that I had amnesia and if this were my name, that I hadn't heard it or known it prior to this instant.
"It doesn't matter." Smiling up at him, handing him the rag. "I am sure it was just the adrenaline getting to me."
I stumbled a bit as I urged myself to a standing position. I leaned against the wall to ease the throbbing in my head and the spinning of the room.
"Well, kid, you're the Champion now. How does it feel to have won?" He was smiling at me, hands outstretched in case I fell over.
"I didn't think it would hurt this much." I joked.
He chuckled and told me he would leave me alone to gain my bearings back. I thanked him as he turned to walk away, his reply was to wave his hand above his head as he turned the corner to his "office."
I stood alone for a minute, looking around the Blue Team's quarters knowing that it would be the last time I would be here. Sadness overtook me for a minute as I remembered the acceptance I had earned there, these people were proud to be part of my team, though I was unsure if they would miss me once I was gone.
I walked out of the quarters into the training room, walking past the other members training for their next fight. As I passed them a few stopped and congratulated me on my win and how they hoped to be as good as me some day. Yet another moment where I wondered where I had learned to fight the way that I had in The Arena. Shaking off the sinking feeling of not knowing, I turned into the offices to collect my earnings. Owyn was standing in his usual corner speaking with a combatant after a brutal fight he had just encountered. Owyn spotted me and shooed the combatant out of the way, telling him to get some rest and clean himself up.
"Ready for your coin?" He asked me as I stepped up to him.
I shook my head yes, saying, "I need to leave. My next destination is near Chorrol and I need as much light in the day as I can get." He nodded, understanding how adventures like these take up our lives.
He handed me a pouch jingling with coin and asked, "Is there anything that I can say to keep you here to keep fighting and being an inspiration?"
I took the pouch from him and stated "This is something that destiny has decided I must do. There are things happening in this world that I have to find a way to stop."
He shook his head again and told me that if I must, then he wouldn't keep me any longer. Before I left, Owyn told me about how the last step in The Arena is to become the Grand Champion and that he thought that if anyone could beat the Orc that it would be me. I thanked him again, turned and walked up the steps that had taken me down into a world I thought I might not be able to become part of.
Before I left for Weynon Priory I stopped by a couple shops to get the best armor, and weapons I could buy. I also grabbed a map of Cyrodil and marked Weynon Priory on it to help aid me in this adventure...
Rain started falling from the sky like teardrops as I ventured across the Imperial City's iconic bridge. I knew that this journey would be challenging, though then I did not understand how true that would be, but I hoped that during any part of it that I might find out who I was and where I came from. The voice saying my name came back to me.
That is where I would begin once I had a chance to investigate. That is where my beginning would be, the new beginning....
To be continued......
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