The Ashland's

The Ashland's...

A never ending stretch of sulfuric rocks covered from by a never ending flurry of ash from the sky. Although the clouds above were dark grey, the sky behind them was pure white giving this otherwise ominous realm a bright undertone. Amongst the rubble and ash lied a young man by the name of Darius...not breathing, heart still...but not dead.

What he was now...was something else entirely...

The sound of a raspy cough came from a distance...

Within the shroud of ash traveled a man with long black hair that swung past his knee's and a black, bowl rim hat with a matching trench coat that was buttoned from the top of his neck to the last button down at by his shins. Although he traveled through the flurries slowly, patiently, he remained clean...unstained by the ash surrounding him. His skin was a russet brown color that resembled the autumn leaves.

His eyes...deep grey, the color of solid steel...and searching for something...

He coughed again...

Louder and more aggressively than before...

The ash buried Darius until only the tip of his nose was visible...

The coughing man scanned the ash aimlessly, unknowingly drawing closer to his goal with each step. He stopped for a moment and looked to the sky, shaking his head with a grin on his face.

"It's always something with you, you always have to make a game of things..." he said with a chuckle before he continued onward "...luckily for you, I'm a big fan of games, or this would have gotten old a long time ago."

As the words left his lips the mans foot hit a mass in the ash. It was Darius, or rather his shoulder. The impact knocked a large pile of ash of the young man's face, so when the coughing man looked down to his feet, his grin evolved into a full blown smile.

"This is why I like games..."He knelt down and placed his hand on Darius's chest "... I always win, sooner or later."

The man coughed twice into his free hand it began to glow a bright green color, then placed it over Darius's mouth and nose.

"Let's get some air in those lungs."

After a few second's Darius popped open his eyes, they glowed the same vibrant green color as his saviors hand before slowly dimming and becoming pitch black. When they closed the coughing man removed his hand and Darius took a deep, dry breath in and immediately began coughing uncontrollably as he exhaled. Darius jolted up sending ash flying about as he rose but his skin remained stained grey even after the dust settled.

"Easy boy, you'll waste what little life is left in you." The coughing man patted Darius on his back lightly.

When Darius coughed ash flew from his mouth, he looked up to the man who knelt beside him in this long black coat, smiling like all around him was not destitute.

"Wh-where..." Darius wheezed as he spoke."...Where am I?"

"Your where all soul's go when touched by pure darkness, luckily for you I found you before the process was complete."

"What are you talking about? Who are you?" Darius asked, his breathing de escalating from a wheeze to a heavy pant.

"An unlucky bastard, much like yourself, but when I was fortunate to call myself "alive" my people knew me as Aslan."

"Aslan..."Darius echoed this name to himself before taking a look at his surroundings

The dark grey clouds stretching endlessly, the smell of sulfur thick in the air...

And the ashes...

Endlessly stretching across the realm...

"...am I..." Darius turned to his savior and looked him in the eye."

"...am I dead?"

Aslan chuckled a bit, then strained a bit to keep his laughter from turning into a full blown cough.

"No I'm afraid you're a bit worse off than that." Aslan answered still smiling

"I see...things...images...words...this place...it's a punishment...my punishment." Darius looked to his hands as he spoke

They were stained grey, when he rubbed his fingers together rather than reveal his skin the tips of his fingertips began to slowly flake and float away.

"If you were this solemn in your former life then it's no wonder you ended up here, perhaps it was better to leave you buried." Aslan said as he stood up

"Why did you save me? Is me being erased no punishment enough?"

"That is a long talk. One which I'd rather have next to a warm fire..." Aslan released a few raspy coughs before lifting Darius up by his shoulder "...come now, the ashes are quick to claim what doesn't move."

Darius pushed off the ground with ease, his body felt light...almost as if he were empty. Aslan turned and began walking, coughing into his fist along the way.

"I don't walk fast but you should still stay close, distance doesn't exactly the same as you remember...if you can remember anything that is."

With one final glance at the ominous clouds above Darius rushed to Aslan's side and they walked in relative silence. Aside from the occasional cough from a strange man who seemed to defy the very nature of the realm he lived in. Whether for hours or minutes. neither could tell how log they were trudging through this perpetual blizzard of ashes, but with every step Darius felt heavier, as if the ground beneath him was slowly pulling him down.

Beckoning him to just give in to this haunting fatigue and rest...finally.

"Ah, there it is..." Aslan spoke with the relief of a man who returned home after too long away.

Although home in this case was a wide stone perimeter with a campfire in the center. The rocks that surrounded the campsite were large obsidian stones that remained unstained by the ash and polished to perfection. Each stone had bright gold veins that spread wildly across the surface but never overlapped. When Aslan stepped over the stones those veins began to glow, illuminating the area around the "camp" similar to glow of a ring of candles. When Darius stepped into the ring the heaviness he felt was lifted, his being felt a bit more solid...sustainable. It was only after stepping into the ring did he realize that the ash that fell endlessly around them did fall within the bounds of the obsidian. The ground beneath him was just that, soil, not immeasurable amounts of ash. Although this soil was black and coarse it did not pull him down, nor drain what little mental capacity he had available.

Aslan knelt over the stack of logs in the center of the ring, they were charred to the point where a simple touch should have crumbled them to bits. He coughed into his left hand and it began to glow as before, but this time a vibrant orange color, then he slowly placed his hand inside the stack from a hole in the bottom. After a few small crackles the logs began to smoke then ember.

"Come close, it doesn't really get too high...not exactly enough air to feed a good fire in this damned place so you'll have to be close to feel the heat." Aslan spoke whilst pulling back from the stack, he shook like he was extinguishing a lit match.

"I'm sorry there are no seats, but I have a feeling that won't matter much to you."

Darius approached the growing fire and took a seat on the ground, he crossed his legs into each other and stared into the flame. As the flames grew larger it seemed to become easier and easier to breath and his body, although still severely stained, felt a bit less foreign.

"Now, you had questions for me young one." Aslan removed his hat and placed it between them.

"I did? I can't seem to remember them...or much else for that matter," Darius spoke with no emotion, still staring into the fire with a blank expression

"That's normal, your going to have trouble remembering things for quite some time, what's left of your soul may be able to reform some what but I can't say if you'll ever fully regain all that was lost."

"What...happened...to me?" Darius asked, stunted by a mental delay

"I don't know exactly how your erasure began unfortunately, I don't exactly get the luxury of current events in a place like this. I know your body seems to be remarkably strong and survived a process that is usually instant...and quite permanent." Aslan removed his trench coat as he spoke, his shirt, vest, slacks, and shoes were all perfectly preserved and were the same solid black as his trench.

He placed the coat on the ground and sat on it with his legs crossed like Darius.

"Everything that was you was erased...mind, soul, memories, emotions removed and set a flame in a realm of complete lifelessness. The Ashes find their way here and scatter endlessly atop each other, normally your body would be among the things destroyed but as I said before...you are incredibly unlucky." Aslan spoke with a smile through his entire explanation, a gesture that could be seen as insensitive if his only audience wasn't a emotionless husk." Honestly when I was sent to find you thought it was a prank or something to keep me busy in between visits, but to actually find someone after all this time...most interesting thing to happen in quite some time."

Darius's mind, or what was left of it rather, shouted things at him. Voices, all different kinds all endlessly chattering in unison until they were all in full agreement what to say, and when they did his mouth acted as their medium.

"Who...Sent you?"

"We're not exactly on a first name basis me and her...I just know she shows up and gives me and apple to eat, but she never speaks...and she has these bright green eyes, the kind of glow against the dark..."Aslan spoke with such wonder and joy that one could easily assume he was in love."...the apple usually is the same color green, and when I bite it I hear a voice...I assume it's hers but I will probably will spend my whole existence without a direct answer. But anyway, this voice it tells me things, stories mostly, of other worlds and people...everything I had been missing in my time here. Normally she gives me one apple and then disappears as soon as I take it from her hands but this time..."

Aslan reached into his vest and pulled out a steel grey apple that was polished to the point where he could see his own reflection.

"..this time she gave me two."

Aslan presented the apple to Darius who stared at it blankly for a moment until the voices in his head unanimously agreed that he should "take it". When Darius touched the apple it was cold, the sensation was a pleasant change from unending numbness.

"I ate the Green one first of course, was gonna try the Silver first but I wanted to save it since it was such a rarity. Good for you, because when I ate it she gave me a task for the first time since we had met. She told me to "find the man removed from his beast, and give him this...an apple to feast." At first I assumed it was just a riddle to keep my mind racing until she popped up up again be then I saw you...falling from the sky in a shroud of green flame...so I started walking until I found you and here we are."

"So this...will...fix?" Darius stumbled on his words

"It will help, but WE will fix this, you and I...now eat up."

Darius stared into the apple, but no reflection stared back. The voice's all came together once again to give him yet another piece of firm guidance.

"Bite it..."

Darius bit into the apple, shattering a few weak teeth on contact. The juice's rolled down his face, wiping the ashes clean off his skin revealing the pale caramel skin that was once his in a past life. The voices silenced instantly, and slowly his body felt heavier, and more solid.

"We'll start with something simple...can you tell me your name?" Aslan asked softly

Darius took another bite and for a moment he could hear nothing but the sound of his own chewing in his ears. Then slowly the voices faded back into his skull all answering a question he barely heard. Some whispered softly, some spoke plain and firm...he could even hear one screaming from a distance the name he knew to be his.

"Axel...the name, in my head, I think it's mine."

"Well "Axel"...it is nice to finally meet you...now we start from the beginning...tell me everything you can remember about the life you lived..."