My name is Ghost and my life sucks. No, Ghost is not my real name, but when no one knows who you are, you can be whomever you want. At one time my life was not good but it was normal. I had an apartment, a bike, a girlfriend, a job, cigarettes, clothing that was made in some country I had never heard of nor cared where it was, and 6,346,639,921 other humans that not only looked like me but where well, HUMAN.

I woke up that morning, sat up in bed, (I miss my bed) and reached over to grab a cigarette from my nightstand. Picking up the pack I knew it was empty before opening it. So I got up out of bed. Dressed and got ready for the day, I left my apartment. Walking down the three flights of stairs I was thinking of my day. (Got to buy smokes, a newspaper, take the bus and meet Tracy at her work for lunch.) Coming out of the corner store with a new package of cigarettes, I started for my bus that was four blocks away. I stopped to light a smoke and fumbled with the pack. I took five steps and blinding white. That’s the only way to describe it, blinding, hot, and white. Not the kind of thing you’d expect while walking down the street. My eyes went blind with the pain of being exposed to pure white light, then they started to clear and I will never forget the sight of what came next. The small park that was to my left, the sidewalk, the cars, the noise of the city, and the smell of rotting leaves in the fall, gone and replaced with a large fist clad in armor propelled by an even larger Elf at my head.

The air was thick and sweet with the smell of wood and leather and blood. My blood, pooling in my lap. I tried to stand but my hands were tied to the chair my assaulter had placed me in. The wind, cold and filled with the smell of spring, was blowing through the tent I was in. At the tent door sat a short, barrel-chested man with long gray hair and a beard. The man stood, and stared at me for a long time with small black beady eyes while a single yellow and white ball of light fluttered and zipped about his head. This, man, was no more than 5 feet tall but built like an oxen. His face was like old leather that had seen to much sun, cracked and scared from years of hard work. He wore a wool shirt under a chainmail vest. The links were broken and dull and in the center of the vest sat a single plate of polished bronze. It shone like the sun breaking through the clouds on a winter day.

"Brogo, brogo ag en ecalt’ck!"

I saw his hand move for what looked like a pouch on his belt. From the pouch he pulled out a glass vile with another yellow and white ball of soft light. The old man unlocked the vile and whispered something into it. The light came dawdling out towards me as if it was not sure I would love it like a pet or place it in a jar to light my way to an outhouse. It finally settled near my left ear. No matter how I moved my head it stayed as if under "punishment of death".

"Water." The man and his light stopped and stared, (If light could stare) and waited.

"Do you have water? I’m thirsty, please I need water."

"Brogo ag en ecalt’ck!"

"I don’t understand you. Water, I need water."

I pleaded with this guard but he didn’t understand.

"Go’hk ag auni water verlco gafni."

I froze, was that English I had heard? So I tried again.

"Water."

It was unbelievable but my guard reached into his pouch and pulled out a leather sack that sloshed and gulped like the sweet nectar of the gods. The sack seemed larger than the pouch it had emerged from? My sentry walked to me, pulling the cork from the sack with his teeth, he pulled my head back with my hair, and he poured the contents into my mouth. This was not water but bitter tasting piss of the devil. I choked and coughed until he stopped and walked away laughing, deep and rolling. The tent flap opened and in came my original attacker. This one stood over 6 and a half feet tall, with skin like milk and honey. It seemed like the sky was in his eyes, large and unforgiving. The dwarf stood to attention as if the hounds of hell were at his back. My assailant had the confidence of a General clad in full battle gear shining in the sun that came from the open flap door. I coughed to clear the burning heat out of my throat when the Elf’s long ears perked up while 15 lights buzzed about his head.

"Who the hell are you ‘people’ and where the hell am I?"

The General came to me grabbing my seat by the arms; he lifted me with ease to his face and whispered into my ear,

"Halee valcam’r understand, you are comoh ech hell."

"What have I done? I don’t understand what’s happening. Where am I, and what is going on? Oh God please don’t let me die"

The General slammed my chair to the ground, kicking me in the chest I fell to the ground with a thump as my head bounced off the dirt floor. The pain of it all was not my breaking point it was the finger. That single finger lying on the ground staring back at me like a message of my fate to come.

I screamed. Not a loud manly roar that echoes through time to defy his tormentor, but a panicked scream as a monkey is about to be eaten by a large feral beast.

The General placed his steel boot on my head and leaned. My face smeared into the blood soaked dirt.

And finally. Salvation.

The tent flap swung open to reveal two of the strangest and wonderful things I had ever seen. My soon to be executioner stopped and stared at them, what looked like brother dwarves wearing finely polished silver armor that shone in the light. It was almost painful to look upon, all my sins where being pulled from me through my veins to be shown to the world for all there pitiful truth.

"Remove your boot Commander, before I remove it from your hip."

The now demoted Commander about to protest, lowered his head and did as he was told, not before forcing my head a little deeper into the ground.

One of the brothers came forward, lifting me off the ground and placing me upright. He smiled and said,

"You look like you could use another drink."

"Water."

"Water? What do you take me for, a bar whore. You can order your own drink."

He smiled at me and my fear melted away into my work boots.

"My name is ‘Sky Noise’ and this is my Brother ‘Skylight’ and we are the Gods of Thunder and Lightning. Welcome."

This is me unconscious.