Pure Anguish

Sentinel Island - Surathi Haven

Gonyaul suddenly jolted awake, the haunting echoes of his night terror lingering in the air like a malevolent specter. Gasping for breath, he found himself on the cold, unforgiving stone floor of the dark hut where he was held captive. His body trembled with the residual horror, the anguish of the nightmare etched into the fibers of his being.

A surge of overwhelming grief flooded Gonyaul, the weight of imagined loss of his beloved friends and promised life partner pressing upon him like a leaden shroud. His chest heaved with each labored breath, as if the air itself had transformed into a dense, suffocating fog. Beads of cold sweat clung to his furrowed brow, a testament to the intensity of the mental and emotional turmoil that had besieged him in the dream.

Tears welled up in Gonyaul's eyes, his vision blurred. His hands, still shaking, instinctively clenched and unclenched as if trying to dispel the lingering cruel vision. His body spasmed in rippling agony of emotional trauma.

A load guttural moan of despair escaped his lips, the sound reverberating in the confined space of the hut. His entire body seemed to ache with a phantom pain, a manifestation of the profound grief that the demon had unleashed. The emotional wounds cut deep, leaving him sprawled on the unforgiving stone, overwhelmed by a sense of loss that transcended the boundaries of reality and dream.

It took over an hour for him to gain any semblance of control. Even though, by the end of that time, he remembered that it wasn’t real … the acute and disenfranchised grief seemed to leave behind a cognitive residue that kept his mind occupied. It had been a bad dream, one he would put behind him; however, the perceived loss of being with his people and the life he could have had with Raerestrel was real.

Gonyaul desired to lament until fatigue once again took hold of him and he passed out. The only way to deal with this was to embrace the sadness.