Fog thickened along the coast. Faint sunrays struggled through, turning everything hazy.
The crashing sound of the waves against the shoreline resounded in the vast expanse. The wind howled, insects chirped.
"Argh!" Czar's eyes snapped open.
"W-where am I?"
Hazy memories flashed in his head like a mirage. A peculiar scene struck hard — vivid, bloody, and unnerving.
"Noooo!" Czar jolted awake, groaning as he collapsed back to the ground. Beads of sweats coalesced on his forehead. His muscles sour and burning.
Straining his eyes, he saw the fog. It stretched out into the distance, obscuring the horizon. His joints ached, his throat, arid.
"Mum, Elira…"
"Ahhhh." He screamed, his body jerking.
"No, mum, Elira. "
"They are…"
"They are — dead. " Czar's teeth clattered, his body shivering as the cold wind grazed his skin.
"No, that's not possible, Mummmm."
"Eliraaaa. "
"I, I need to get up, Mum and Elira… they need my help." He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stand up, his elbow boring into the sandy terrain.
He turned, his belly facing the ground, a tiny figure entered his vision, bringing him to a halt.
"A-aliyah."
A drop of tears stroked down his cheeks, his body convulsing in pains, yet he moved. Crawling forward, inch by inch.
He reached Aliya, her face up, pale and lusterless.
His dirty fingers stroke her smooth face. Warm tears dropped on them like midnight dews.
'Wait… smooth skin.' Czar froze.
'The deep gashes?' His eyes narrowed, studying Aliyah's body.
Retracting his fingers, he brought them closer to his face, peering at them. He stroked his face — his fingers hovered, feeling the smooth skin.
His heart raced, tracing his glance down to his injured legs. The exposed flesh bled no more, leaving smooth skin and tattered trousers stained with blood.
Pat!
Pat!
He slapped his cheeks twice, then stared at his leg again. Still uninjured.
"Are my eyes playing tricks with me now?"
"No, something is not right. "
He looked around, eyes furrowed, body tensed. Drawing Aliyah closer, he inspected himself. The open wounds had vanished, like they never existed. Not even a minor scar.
However, his inside still burned. All muscles felt like they just escaped hell. His situation left him blinking, but he buried his muddled thoughts, fast.
'How did I miss this?' In his line of vision, Czar saw a trail of blood right at his previous position.
The blood — his blood, he realized with a chill — had been arranged into glyphs. Someone had been here. Someone had touched him while he slept.
He released Aliyah. Crawled back, his forehead throbbing from the stinging muscles. He gave the blood a few yards just in case.
The blood formed patterns — no, words. The longer he stared, the harder it became to look away, as if the words themselves were pulling at something inside him.
"One day, North. " The words crept out of his lips.
"Huh?"
"One day, North, what's this supposed to mean?" He frowned.
"Ma-ma"
Czar scrabbled, covering the bloody words with sand. Aliyah shouldn't see it. He faced her, shielding the heap behind him.
"Tadpole, you good?" He returned to her side, hugging her.
His heart weighed him down like a mountain, lost and defeated. He would be foolish enough to think that his Mum and his sister were still alive. After all, he had witnessed the cruelty of the undead firsthand. Jagged maws, unforgiving claws.
His body shuddered as Aliyah called him, pulling him out of his dark thoughts.
"U-uncle, where's mama?"
Czar gulped, forcing a strained smile. How was he supposed to answer her? How much did she see? And would she believe anything he said?
Questions upon questions, yet he was left with more unanswered riddles. The bizarre healing, the words carved in blood. No, if he thought about it from the moment he jumped off the cliff, his body should've been mangled into a pulp, dead. Yet, here he was with Aliyah.
"She-"
"She, went somewhere far with Mum, they'll soon be back, okay?"
"Uncle, are they dead?"
"Uh." Czar felt his throat stuck, forcing back saliva.
"Ah, Um, Aliyah."
"Uncle, bring ma-ma back." She tightened her grip on him, tears flooding her face.
"O-of course I will. Just be a good girl, uncle will bring them back later, okay?"
"Um." Aliyah released him, her gentle gaze meeting his.
'That went easier than expected.' He sighed.
'Now what?' he wondered, listening to the waves and seabirds.
'That blood.' He narrowed his eyes. 'Did the mysterious healer leave them behind?'
'But why?' A plethora of questions rose in his mind again.
'Heck, I don't even know where we are. Just fog and the sea." He spat.
"Hold on." His eyes lit up.
He looked around him for a few seconds before his eyes landed on an object. A stick.
"To think Elira's uninteresting lessons on the wilderness would prove useful now of all moments." He said in a hushed tone, his eyes dampening at the mention of his sister.
"Aliyah wait here."
He dragged himself up, staggering a few times, but he walked, maybe strained, but he walked regardless. Eyes looking left and right. Who knew when another undead would crawl out…
After what seemed like a torturous walk, he finally reached the stick, picking it from the ground. He inspected it a few times, nodding. He returned to their position, dug a tiny hole and fixed the stick inside.
"Uncle, what are you doing?"
"Mapping."
He picked a pebble and placed it on the stick's faint shadow.
"Fortunately, the fog hasn't blocked out the sun entirely." He sighed.
'Now we wait.'
He held Aliyah's hands. Eyes on the shoreline shrouded in fog. Seconds blurred. Ten minutes lasted like forever. Then he returned to the stick.
The shadow had moved, just as expected. He placed another pebble at the tip of the new shadow, and clenching his teeth he rose, spreading his legs between the two pebbles. His left foot stood on the first pebble and his right foot stood on the second pebble, his face angled adjacent to the shoreline from his left.
He observed the wave, noting their position as they crashed against the shoreline. He closed his eyes, feeling the wind brush his face.
"Gotcha." He clicked his tongue, walking back to Aliyah.
"We're leaving."