Chapter 2 - The Village

Sorry, but no intro pic for this chapter. But, it is at least a bit longer than the first. Chapter 3's already started, so it should hopefully be up soon. *is hoping for sometime tomorrow*

Chapter 2 - The Village

Rhys walked slowly up to the door of the house and, after a moment's hesitation, knocked on it. There was a sound of creaking wood that issued from the house, but no-one answered the door. Again Rhys knocked, to no avail, and after a minute of consideration turned the smooth brass doorknob. With a click the door was open, gliding silently inwards in-to the near-dark room beyond its threshold. The room was sparsely furnished, having only a desk, two chairs, and a fireplace within it. At thr desk sat an old woman, and a lit candle upon the desk cast dancing shadows on-to her craggy face. The woman did not move as Rhys approached, and he was not entirely certain that she was alive until she slowly turned to face him.
'So. What brings you here?' the old woman asked with a chuckle, her voice hoarse and brittle but nevertheless possessing an undeniable force.
'I don't know,' Rhys replied, shaking his head. 'I don't know where I am, or how I got here. Where am I?'
'This place has no true name,' the woman said, her icy grey stare boring deep into Rhys' soul. 'But we often refer to it as "the Village". Not that we are truely a village, the Magistrate and I. We once were at the heart of a great empire, when the world was young, but no longer; now it is odd for us to see but one other a month.'
'The others, where did they go?'
'Some pass over the river to the other side, and the others return to that from whence they had come.'
'What is across the river? Why doesn't anyone stay here?' Rhys asked, puzzled.
'I would not as yet deign to tell what lies on the other side of the river, child. Suffice it to say that you must never cross the river; no-one who has done so has ever returned, save myself. Terrible things lurk there, out in those fields.'
'Has anyone ever returned to the village, after leaving it?'
'Only two: myself and one other,' the woman said cryptically.
'The magistrate?'
'Nay, not the magistrate,' she replied, a curious look in her eyes.
'Who, then?'
'He now stands before me, questioning me incessantly,' the woman said slowly, the slightest of smirks crossing her face. Rhys paused for a moment as this last statement sank in, and then slowly shook his head.
'No. It can't be me. I... I don't know where I came from, or how I got here but... but I know I've never been here before.'
'Oh, but you have child. I have known you, and well, for what seems like all your life. Though not physically, mayhaps, you have indeed been here for a very long time.' Rhys, though knowing naught but his name, still knew, somehow, that this could not possibly be true, but there was nevertheless something in the old woman's eyes, or perhaps in the firey spark behind them, that felt strangely familiar.
'Perhaps now it is time that you get some rest,' the woman said abruptly, bringing Rhys out of his reverie. 'You may sleep in the room up the stairs and to the right,' she continued, indicating a staircase that until that point Rhys had not noticed.
Slowly and deliberately Rhys moved toward the staircase, wondering what it truely was that he had seen in the woman's eyes. The flash had come... when? Ofcourse, Rhys now thought, that makes sense. Her eyes had flashed when she spoke of the river, and its other side. But what had she been feeling? Anger? Fear? Longing? Rhys could not guess, and as the stairs reversed direction he, too, decided to return his thoughts to the original dilemma that as yet remained unanswered. Nothing, however, came to mind before he opened the door to his room and stepped inside.

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