Chapter 3: Revival

It was a humid afternoon. The briskly breeze of the northern winds touched Karina's face, waking her up from her noonday dreams. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but the rocky ceiling of the cave that was about twice her height in distance.

She tried getting up but suddenly felt a burning pain that quickly ran from her stomach to her heart – excruciatingly weakening her whole body. She clutched her hands into the ground, enduring the pain she felt and tried maintaining her focus on trying to stand.

While letting the pain run all over her body, she remembered how the Nuskars wounded her with their poisoned spears and how the man of her kind helped her. She touched her wound and groaned because of the excruciating pain. The burning sensation was caused by the poison from the fire scorpions of the abyss.

She moved her sight around and wasn't able to see a single shadow. The man who helped her was nowhere to be found. She got up and felt dizzy all of a sudden, making her legs crisscrossed while trying to walk towards the opening of the cave. The light rays pinched her eyes, causing her to blink so fast and fell down that made her wound bleed so much.

The noise of the forest grew louder as she got nearer to the mouth of the cave. She could see the glowing butterflies softly sucking the nectars of the luminous flowers. The beauty of the scenery amazed her. It reminded her of her mother's garden – a place where she used to play all day. While indulging herself with the scene, she found a crimson flower that could be used to ease the pain caused by her wound.

She took the flower, squeezed the petals and got the extract. The pain she felt was gone after drinking it and she was able to move normally. It was a nice day, not until she found out that her weapons were gone. She went back to the cave but couldn't find even a single trace of it. The only thing she found was the burnt footprints of the Urgon messing the plain soil.

As she was about to exit the cave, she heard a rumbling sound coming from the opposite direction. She tried running away but found no escape. She was trapped and surrounded by the Nuskars. She was unable to fight without her weapons. Her strength wasn't fully recovered but still her movements were fast and managed to keep the monsters from getting her.

The surroundings became darker and the monsters grew in number, making it difficult for her to fully escape. A Nuskar threw a spear that hit her leg, causing her movements to slow down and gave the monsters the chance to catch her easily. She crawled towards the cave but the Nuskar who hit her with his spear stepped on her back and putting much weight that made her fall down to the ground – unable to move a muscle.

A man with a familiar voice came near her, chuckling as if what had happened satisfies him. "I thought a brave woman like you can fight without depending on weapons." The man clutched her hair and pulled it which made her look up. She could see the face of the man. It was the one who helped her, but now it turns out that all was just a part of a plan.

"You stole my weapons, aren't you?" Karina forced her voice to sound normal despite being in a difficult situation. Her hands were tied at her back and her legs were immovable. The Nuskars were making sure that she's unable to make a single move.

The man laughed and spitted on her face. "Funny how everyone can be fooled with a single act of kindness." He smiled evilly, making him look like a demon that lives under the shadows of fear. " I was looking for this orb for years and now, I finally got it in my own hands." He took the flute from his pocket and broke it. The orb glowed a reddish color and he placed it in the blank hole in his sword's handle.

Karina's eyes were covered with anger. If only she could loosen her hands, she would instantly cut his esophagus in a blink of an eye, but she couldn't. She felt hopeless, thinking that her life would end without even making her plans fulfilled.

A Nuskar came to him like an Elid ( a wolf with golden fur that is trained to hunt different monsters) waiting for a prize. "Hashim, this woman is nothing for you anymore. You already have what you wanted. Now give her to us." The Nuskar's saliva was dripping to the ground, which gave Hashim the idea that they wanted to eat the woman.

"You can't eat her my dear friends. Her body is contaminated with the poison coming from the fire scorpions. Just kill her and let a group of Agris finish her body." Hashim gave a dagger to a Nuskar and left after warning them. The Nuskars were dismayed and left nothing but the choice to kill her.

Karina was mercilessly stabbed a hundred times, making her blood covers her own body. She was slowly killed by the Nuskars and threw her body into the deep pit of darkness. They left right after throwing her body. A group of Agris smelled her blood and landed into the pit, trying to make her their dinner. But before the Agris could eat her, thousands of Lira ( a butterfly that has a severely luminous colors and known to live a hundred years) showed up, giving bright lights to the deep pit of darkness.

The Agris flew away, scared of the bright lights emitted by the Liras. The Liras covered Karina's body, drying her blood and changing the color of her skin from pale-white to luminous blue. Her white hair glowed and her red ayes turned into bright white. She was reborn – revived by the glowing butterflies. Her breath was fast as if chasing death away. Her whole body absorbed the light from the butterflies.

The Liras became dull and died after offering their lives to Karina. She stood up, looked at her skin that glowed brightly in the dark. Her vision became clearer than before. Her body was as light as a single Lira. She jumped side to side in order to get out from the pit. When she got out, she felt new. Her luminous body became brighter when hit by the moonlight.

She got the ability to be invisible for a couple of minutes. Her movement was faster and she was able to transfer from one point to another in less than a second. She looked up to the moon and breathed in the cold rays of it. The night became colder and silence dominated the place.

She walked gracefully under the moonlight, unable to feel the pain of her death an hour ago. Her want for revenge grew bigger, and bigger. She was completely different. Her urge to kill the Nuskars changed, now she wanted to kill whoever wants to kill.

"No one can really be trusted. They killed me once, now, the real killing begins."