The Tomb of the Forgotten
To Live
CH.1 The Tomb of the Forgotten
I had found myself awake once more. The cold slab of my ‘bed’, with its dulled, faded and muted colors from a time that would forever be lost upon my weary mind. How long had it been? I wondered to myself. The very notion of timekeeping had lost its meaning ages ago. All that remained of this dark and dreary labyrinth of a world that now lacked the upkeep, and more importantly LIFE that such a grand place desperately demanded, was the dust and my own being.
To describe myself would be more of waste of time than my own continued existence. But if you must know, I believe I’m of the shape and form of the original owners and denizens of this hallowed place. With the lack of any others to compare and my fogged mind to grace me with a black void of nothingness, it would be more than difficult to confirm this. The only reference I have to go off of would be the scraps of literature and macabre remains of the towering statues that must have held great meaning to those that walked on this plane I reside in.
All I know, to include the words that formed in my throat and steps that were laboriously made during my infantile floundering in the dark, was what I gathered when I awoke so long ago in my ‘bed’. This place of sleep was of a hardened metallic material with many strange tubes, dials and panels providing a dim backlight and a constant humming drone that I have found to be one of the few sounds I have the pleasure to enjoy to this day. It was here that I saw the tomes of knowledge strewn about carelessly like so many things in this place, and it was here I had the urge to move, to read, to learn and, for what I continue to try and discover the meaning of, to live.
It was while I mused over these findings and information that I had noticed the dull sensation of resistance. You see, once I had exhausted the materials of knowledge at hand and tried to crawl like some sort of insect with a purpose in a vain attempt to learn more and seek refuge of my fellow creatures that I had naively believed to be lingering someplace. The tug at my back startled me with an instinctual panic as I noticed that something was keeping my body attached to a close proximity of my ‘bed’.
The connection was made along my slender back, having later found a moldy covered tome on anatomy I can confirm this with little doubt on the comparison and classification on parts of my form. It was cold but flexible as I reached back with grasping curious fingers and grabbed firmly where the line was at keeping me stuck in place like some sort tumor to the body. With much fumbling and sensitive twists, that made the thin pale hairs of my head stand on end, I had pulled the device out and felt a warm liquid splash on my back and render my legs numb.
Panic, panic is what I later came to know what to call this emotion as I gurgled painful grunts and screams from my mouth that had not been used and echoed all around me. The liquid continued to stream from, what I now saw as, a tube of small circumference. The smell invaded my nostrils causing me to gag; the smell…How something could exist to be so foul, so unnatural. And the liquid itself with its strange thickness and color that, to this time that I reminisce, I had never encountered before. But, before I took the time to let this discovery get the best of me, I found it to be in my best interest to investigate where this horrid contraption of filth was doing to my back.
Strange how my own body still feels as foreign as that original voyage of my flesh I made in that hovel that is now my home and shelter. I felt a smooth, warm brush of skin against my hand along my waist and posterior until I had located the origins of the tubes mating with my being. I swallowed deeply coupled with shallow panicked breaths as my fingers brushed against it. The same cold metallic feeling as my bed, a hard unyielding spot attached to the base of my spine, and a thick wet and warm splash on my fingertips. There was no hole though; no gap of flesh aside from the connector, my emotion at that time was relief. Later, with further studying, I discovered that upon removal a sort of seal on my connector had activated closing the transfer of that horrid fluid with my body immediately and has remained so since.
But there was still the lack of feeling to my lower extremities. They were completely numb and would not react to any form of stimulation. The panic washed over my pale frame once more, as I began to perspire greatly enough to the point where I was assaulted with a cold chill that reached the depths of my bones. Again instinct hit me with enough force that I found my hands balling into tightly clenched fists and saw as they mechanically assaulted my thin lower limbs. Beating into my dulled flesh repeatedly as I screamed fruitlessly to the wasted space of my new unwanted home.
Then I felt it, it was small but it was there. Pain. I was starting to welcome it as a savior to my panic and horror I had felt within these few hours of lucid beginnings. I had stopped my forced assault on the reddened appendages and began to gingerly poke and prod at the sensitive areas in an attempt to coax life back in the cold limbs. Time passed slowly as my thoughts focused on this mundane task. It was strange how comforting it was to have something to occupy my time, how it filled the void the tomes earlier had done for me.
And finally, using the ‘bed’ as support I hoisted my form off the dirty and cluttered floor. The shift of weight to my feet had me stumble and my knees buckle. The sudden shift of bodily fluids had my head feel as though it was submerged and my whole body ached to the very bone. With this heightened point of view I twisted my body and took in my surroundings. I was disappointed for aside from the refuse, dirt and tomes I had curiously read with much speed there wasn’t much to offer the wandering eye.
Perplexed by everything cold and alone I set out to try to discover what there was to offer my dulled empty senses. So, with labored steps I set out to find what my body told me I needed. To live, I needed to live…….How I regret that foolish decision.
(Elsewhere)
Princess Luna looked out at the crumbling facades that were before her presence and the dozen ponies that accompanied her. It was here, she knew for a fact, that this lost civilization that she had personally led an investigation into and now a full on expedition to discover would be as she motioned for her guards to begin their escort of the archaeologists. Top of their field in ancient history, each of them by their own right that would run Princess Luna for her own bits she was assured by her sister. She snorted at the thought, but still she was glad to be given any assistance at all. Since her becoming Princess of the night once more she had become more and more interested in the past, especially since she had missed out on a thousand years of it. A subject, that she was told, which had been filled with peace and love and had been especially boring.
But she knew better than most of the naive foals in Canterlot. It had all started when they found the device. A small metal sphere no bigger than an apple with a droning hum that was now getting slightly louder each step she took closer to the decrepit area in front of her. The metal could not be classified, nor broken or melted for that matter. It was surprisingly light and oddly enough felt frail to the hoof.it had been found at a quarry twenty miles south of the Everfree forest and rushed to every department at the magical academy in Canterlot with nary a clue to its origin. It wasn’t until being exposed to a strong concentrated beam of magic that a strange occurrence happened.
A map was displayed. Showing a detailed view of all of Equestria and beyond. Fascinated by the subject and becoming bored of her monotonous duties she took it upon herself, with permission from her sister, to head the team into tracking the whereabouts of the sphere and who had created it. Two weeks of scouring both the spheres map and their own it was found. One hundred and thirteen miles into the Everfree they delved and here they were. All their hard work had paid off and she was sure they were about to make the discovery of a lifetime…..