Qadira - Rebirth

Her eyes snapped open for the first time in what felt like years. She strained to look and observe her surroundings but realized there was nothing to see; it was pitch black. She moved her arms around and felt wood all around her. Where she was lying, where her feet touched, Only a few inches above her, and the same distance to either side. She was boxed in.

Darkness.

The woman’s eyes opened for the first time in ages to find herself lying in utter darkness. Straining, she glanced about to try and assess his situation to no avail. She couldn’t see a thing. She tried to move her arms outward, only to meet a wooden roof barely inches from her face. She traced her hands along the confines of her prison to find two walls pinning her in, not inches from her sides. Her feet felt a similar wall at her feet, and she was able to reason that she’d find another above her head. She was boxed in.

"Where the hell...?" She muttered to herself. How had she ended up in this predicament? "I've got to get out of this god forsaken prison..." She uttered as she kicked her foot up. To her surprise the wood broke away easily; to her dismay, dirt started to crumble away above the hole she had made and fall into her own prison. "What the fuck is going on!? Where am I? Why is there dirt on top of this...this..." she cut herself off. The word she was looking for was coffin. "Oh my god i've been buried alive!" she shrieked. She felt a chill run down her spine and her breath started to draw very short. Her body began to shudder uncontrollably and she felt the urge to cry. "N-No get it together. You have to get out of this". She took a deep breath and felt the urge to cough on the stale air that filled her cold lungs. She managed to compose herself and her body relaxed.

"Okay think! Speak aloud to yourself so you can keep your mind clear. Let's list the facts..." She closed her eyes and visualized her own hand in front of her, counting each finger as she listed what she knew. "One, you have been buried alive," the thought made her feel uneasy, but she quickly moved on so she wouldn't slip back into shock. "Two, you only have so much oxygen left and you're going to run out fast". She pondered for a moment. What did she know? What could possibly get her out of this situation? "Three, there's already a hole you've made. You can't have been buried more than six feet below the surface…” She paused. “With your arms stretched out you could break through the top". She nodded to herself and decided she had to try something; something crazy cause if she didn't she'd be dead anyways.

She tucked her arms in close and squirmed as much as she could. Her goal was to try and get her head closer to the hole she had previously made. If she made anymore she risked having all the earth collapsing on top of her. She prayed the soil above her was still loose from her burial . She reached her arms out at the pile of dirt that had fallen in and scooped it closer to her. She pulled it close and continued to move it in that direction, getting it behind her and pushing it agains the wall at her feet, packing it in at the same time. She reached her arms up into the earth through the hole she made and pulled more soil in with her. It was risky moving the earth around above her but she needed to try and pull as much of the dirt above her to her level to make as much room as possible to get out. She would spend what felt like an eternity pulling as much soil as she could manage into her own coffin. She refused to think about anything other than the task she was doing, one mistake could mean her life.

She was running out of room to pull in dirt. Now was her chance, while she could still move, she had to push herself through as much dirt as she could and try to pull herself out. The idea seemed crazy and was almost certain to lead to her death, but she was dead if she didn't do anything. She clapped her hands together making a makeshift drill to pierce through the earth. She inched forward, forcing her arms through the hole and struggling to get her legs underneath her. "Just a little more damnit! You've worked so hard!" She yelled to herself. Sweet relief, she managed to get a foothold underneath herself. "Yes!" She yelled bringing her other leg beside the first. She used all her strength to push herself up, taking one last deep breath while shutting her mouth and eyes tight. She felt her sides scrape against the splintered wood through the silk of her shirt, and she felt the dirt collapse around her head. Had her hands not broken through the topsoil, she would have panicked. She was filled with hope and determination. She grasped the dirt above her and started to claw her way to the surface. The soil was filling the spaces around her and she was terrified she was going to get stuck. She desperately flailed her body trying to get as much room as she could around her and pulled harder, attempting to dig her feet into the dirt to gain more leverage. She felt her body pull up through the soil; she couldn't believe she was actually escaping. Her face longed for the feeling of fresh air and forced itself through the top, exposing itself as the cold night's air nipped at her cheeks.

She laughed.

She laughed so loud it hurt her sides, but she was ecstatic She’d survived something unbelievable. She took a moment to compose herself. After she settled down she continued to wriggle to break herself free, struggling to bring herself any further up. She was frustrated, she had come this far only to have trouble finishing the job. It seems her laughing fit had caused the dirt to wiggle loose and fill in around her body. She was stuck, and that's when it started to rain. "Oh fuck," She looked around as much as she could with half of her still buried. She realized she was near the bottom of a hill, and with the water coming down she noticed the mud starting to form and slide directly at her.

"Oh god help me! Please anyone help me!" the panic had set in again. Her arms flailed about, desperately looking for something to grab hold of The ground was too slick to serve as leverage to pull herself out, and she was too weary to brute force her way through it. "Help me now!" She shouted and felt a tingling spark through her body. She assumed she was losing the feeling in her limbs and was struggling to keep her morale up. She had lost. She was filled with dread and despair as the mud began to slide down, clinging around her and slowly burying her once more as she flailed about and sank into the muck once more. Her sight was obscured as she sank deeper, taking one last gasp as she was enveloped by the earth. Eventually she was so uncomfortable she couldn't hold her breath any longer and she gasped for air. The mud flooded into her mouth and she began to choke on it. She choked and began to thrash about expecting to pass out at any moment. She was in so much pain she couldn't bear it... but she didn’t lose consciousness. She was surprised to see she was still alive and was so terribly confused. She had no time to ponder this and let her fear grow, for a hand plunged into the muck and grasped hers.

Her whole body was ripped from the mud, her legs screaming as they were sucked from their prison. She struggled and fell before the force that pulled her out, on her hands and knees. Her eyes were filled with tears as she vomited as much of the mud out of her body as she could. After several moments of puking and convulsions, she wiped her face and looked up at her would be savior. Before her stood a very handsome soldier. His face was and armor were caked with mud, seemingly from having dug the young woman out. "T-Thank you so much. I thought I was dead" She said pulling her hair away from her eyes. "Who are you-" She wanted to finish her thought but on closer examination she realized what exactly it was that stood before her.

A corpse..

She stumbled backwards afraid of what this creature was going to do, and was going to beg for her life. Until the creature, kneeled down and offered a hand to her. "Thomas" It replied quickly. She was hesitant to take it's hand but it had saved her life and seemed to not want to do any harm. This Thomas, as he had identified himself as, helped her to her feet and they stared at eachother in the rain for what felt like a very long time until the zombie gave a confused look and spoke again. "My Lady..." its voice grumbled with a low growl; it seemed like talking hurt the creature, almost as though it hadn't spoken in a long time. "Why have you brought me back? What service do you need of me?". She offered only a confused expression and looked around. There was a tree nearby in the middle of the graveyard so she took his hand and led him there, seeking shelter from the rain.

It was the first time she had the chance to examine her surroundings since her daring escape and she began to feel oddly at ease. She was in a dreary graveyard that seemed to be mostly intact save for a few rundown buildings scattered sparingly around the grounds. Looking beyond the fences of the graveyard she saw nothing but ruins and destroyed architecture. She had no idea where she was, and felt so terribly confused. She looked to Thomas again and examined him closer. He seemed like a nice young man. She would have possibly even considered him handsome if it weren't for the fact that half of his face had rotted away. She could make out parts of the bones that made his handsome facial structure, but felt oddly at ease now that the panic was gone. She felt a strange sense of comradery with the creature that had saved her life. "Why did you save me? How are you alive" she asked. She wasn't sure she was even going to get an answer; Thomas waited so long before responding.

"You... brought... back to life" he said and gestured to her hands. "Nec..Mancy" he tried to speak the words but was frustrated when his voice could not convey his thoughts. She held his hand and nodded in understanding, correcting him and giving him sympathy. He relaxed and blinked and continued on, dreadfully slow. "I... was a sol-dare..." he muttered "I remember... dying. It was so dark... until I heard voice" he looked into her piercing violet eyes. "I felt urge to save you...".

She thought for a long time. It made sense if he was resurrected to have to follow the orders of whomever raised him. But her? She couldn't begin to comprehend the thought. It was the only explanation she could think of however. They sat under the tree for what seemed like an eternity, and soon the rain stopped. When she went to look to Thomas again she reeled back in horror. His body oozed and rotted at an unnaturally quick rate.

He was... melting?

She wasn't sure that was the right term to describe it but the body quickly reduced to an ooze before she, recoiling several paces away from the body, felt the urge to vomit again. The spell must have worn off. She looked down at her feet and saw a puddle. She was so thirsty she didn’t have the right to be picky. Kneeling she cupped a bit of water and raised it to her pale lips, pausing as she caught sight of her reflection.

"I-I'm..." she muttered to herself terrified. She would've turned pale... if she wasn't already. "I'm dead myself..." She was mortified at the thought. Suddenly several memories rushed to her. She had been necromancer, seeking some way to become stronger beyond the shackles of mortality . She must have failed, or so everyone had initially thought. They had buried and forgotten her.. She looked back into the water lightly tracing her fingers along an unsightly scar across her neck. She’d slit her own throat. This would explain why she didn’t suffocate on the mud. She was already dead, she didn’t need oxygen and didn’t even have a heart beat. Suddenly she recalled that even in her panic, she had never felt her heart pounding in her chest. She sat in silence for a couple minutes.. and then laughed. She’d fought so hard to save her own life, and she couldn't have even died from the circumstance she’d been in. She felt so foolish for forgetting. The laughter stopped.

Forgetting…

What else had she forgotten? She pried her mind for every excruciating detail; her home, her family, her dreams, why she killed herself, why she needed power, why she became a necromancer... none of it came back to her. She began to cry feeling as though she had lost all sense of identity. Then it hit her… The only real thing that she could remember...

"My name is Qadira Uthman..."

Qadira receives 480 EXP and 65 GP.

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All EXP and GP have been added!