The Roar of Andora: Book One

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Into the Wild

The cold stinging splash of a hard raindrop woke Aaron up. And then a horrible aching reared through his head. The constant jutting of the galloping horse made Aaron feel like his skull was going to crack. He also felt an urge to vomit.

Once the light of returning consciousness lifted against the fog of his concussion, the pain took second place. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What the fuck?" he cried. "Heed! Heed! Hinder! Fucking stop!" Aaron tugged on the reigns with all his strength. The horse bucked and swashed its head side to side. Neighing madly, rearing its head, the revealed whites of its eyes terrifying Aaron when the animal turned to look at him.

Resisting the imminent temptation to black out, fighting against the horrible throbbing in his head, Aaron managed to steady the animal to observe his forest surroundings.

"What the fuck. What the fuck. Where the fuck am I?" Convulsing his head, looking all around. The sharpness struck through his skull yet again and he howled in pain. Aaron's vision began to beat red. At any moment he felt as if he could slip back into unconsciousness and his stomach kept collapsing.

The forest was shrouded by mist and the mist was damp and cold. Raindrops tattered against the barren trees. "Where am I?" Aaron said to himself aloud while attempting to place his surroundings. From where he was stranded in the deep wood was indistinguishable from anywhere else in the forest. For a second he thought he might've had an idea—for as a child he frequently explored the forests in the Vale of Catholina—but all of it looked the same.

With a sudden flood of memory he screamed, "The city!" and pulled the horse's reigns, starting the horse in a gallop that only served to blast another wave of pain through his head. Lifting his free hand to the centre of the pulsating point on his scalp, Aaron tugged the reigns again making the horse buck to a halt. Rocking Aaron's pounding face, irritating his throbbing stomach, Aaron threw up over the side of the horse's back which only aggravated his head even more. Once the palpitations of his vomit stopped, he laid down on the animal's neck doing all he could to mentally push past the aching that violently riveted through his entire body. After stilling himself, momentarily subduing the physical torment, Aaron finally came to grips with the understanding that he was lost. "What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck," he repeated under his wheezing breath.

A sudden wave of rain pummelled his back.

Aaron sat hunched over, digging the uninjured side of his head into the horse's neck, breathing his way through the bodily discomfort for a long time. Eventually the animal grew impatient and started kicking its head back, reintroducing Aaron to the pain he'd sedated himself from. The horse wouldn't stop, eventually making Aaron yell, "What do you want?"

The horse turned its head around to look at Aaron and licked its lips.

"What? You want water?"

The animal huffed through its nose as if responding and then swung its head forward.

"Fuck." The sharpness cut through his brain. "Okay, okay. I'll find you water," Aaron said, realizing just how thirsty he was too. Looking around for a clue as to suggest what the right direction may possibly be, Aaron got lost talking to himself out loud. "God damn, I'm talking to myself. I'm going crazy. Okay, no. No. Who cares? I don't care. I have to—" Aaron shifted the narration of his own voice. "Aaron Evershield's kingdom—well not really Aaron's kingdom, his father's that was stolen from him by his shitty uncle—got destroyed. Now, Aaron Evershield is lost in the fucking middle of nowhere knowingly talking about Aaron Evershield as if he weren't Aaron Evershield because Aaron Evershield is losing his fucking mind because he's lost in a fucking freezing forest with a horse." In the midst of his rambling Aaron started the horse into a gentle trot. "So," he continued. "Aaron Evershield now has to find this horse, whom Aaron does not know the name of, some water because—oh, how the fuck did I end up here?"