Juliette yawned a few times, before rearranging herself so she was nestled more comfortably. Curled up like a dragon, or a contented cat, there was nothing for her to do as Dietrich took her away from danger. The silhouetted outlines of the dark forest flitted past, etching dark outlines upon her heavily lidded eyes. With nothing to occupy itself with, her brain settled down and finally began to sort out its own impulses and synapses.
There were two segregations that everything fell into – before awakening, and after awakening. Her before awakening life now seemed as if it belonged to someone else. The memories were still here and there, sketchy, but they had a distant air to them now, kind of like when snatching a dream and only managing to grasp meagre ethereal fragments. Juliette felt as if two lives were overlapping now, and thinking about that hurt a lot. Remnants of nursery rhymes flitted through her mind, twisting and turning like a musical stave.
On the other hand, the impulses from after awakening were completely sensory. There had been no time for thought. Juliette had been constantly bombarded with sensory input, some of which she had never even been aware of. She now knew she wasn't the same person as the one from before awakening. Her mind had been...in a sense, reborn, and with that, it was as if everything had been reset. Her thoughts were slow and dull, like those of a newborn. She clung to her senses, rather than these thoughts, in an effort to prolong the inevitable time when she would actually have to face her new self.
With a start, Juliette realised Dietrich had stopped. The swell of ancient power hummed around her and invaded her pores, scrutinisng every fibre of her being. It was not unpleasant, yet she disliked this intensely, and immediately began to thrash around in Dietrich's arms, eyes screwed shut. Her lucid mind hissed that screaming would be really bad for her, and this thought was so strong that she felt compelled to obey. It was all she could do to keep her mouth shut.
Before she knew it, the probing had stopped. A heavy grinding of stone against stone excited her curiosity, and Juliette opened her eyes. Swivelling her head around, she caught sight of the huge stone door swinging shut, effectively trapping them in here. This thought gripped her with the ferocity of a cornered animal.
"No way out," she whispered, burying her head into Dietrich's shoulder.
The darkness was absolute, so black that even her newly acute eyes could not detect anything in here. All she could hear, was the steady drip, drip, of water from one corner, which reverberated around the chamber. The air was not damp, which suggested other openings. A fern brushed softly past Juliette's arm, and she muffled a scream, but Dietrich just ignored her.
When he set her down, Juliette sank to the floor and began to shake uncontrollably. She'd had this feeling once before. Dimly she could recall a girl with long wavy dark hair, sat in the middle of an empty cavern by herself. The sun had set, and the wild animals would be out soon, but still no one came for her. Juliette unconsciously touched her left ankle, but unlike in the memory, it wasn't sprained at all.
Before she could recall anything else, she smelt the tang of sulphur, and then light flooded her eyes, restoring her sight in a kaleidoscope of colours. Her breath caught in her throat, as suddenly, scores upon scores of books were revealed. The walls were lined with bookshelves, effectively forming a horseshoe.
"We made it. This place is the enclave I found only a short while ago. We should be safe here if only for a while. And if I can, I could probably learn something. And certainly you could, too."
Her eyes widened in wonder. There were other passages, leading off, but they were quickly swallowed up by darkness and so she paid them no more heed. However, there was something else here, aside from the books, that arrested her attention.
Atop a pedestal, set in a corner of the room, there stood a giant hourglass. Crystal sand was gently trickling down, gathering in a pile at the bottom half, which was barely even covered. A sign below read:
Hourglass of Fire. One of the four hourglasses of the elements. Each one is reputed to contain the very sands of time itself, and it is told that once the hourglass runs out, then the world will end and the apocalypse will be upon us all, even the immortals themselves.
She gazed up in wonder, unable to comprehend the magnitude of that statement. She didn't feel as if she ought to be here. There was something ancient in the atmosphere, in every mote of dust. What kind of a place was this?!
