The songs of a Songbird

[TorkaUmbra]

I don't think much of that night. sometimes I hardly remember it. Though that memory usually creeps up in the most terrible of times. It itches in the back of my skull, tapping the bone to make me remember each sound I had heard
because I didn't see much that night. It was the sounds that haunt me.
The first thing I remember to start that memory is the smell of earthy pine. It was faint and I heard a deeper voice while I was half asleep. It was close to my ear and I believed it kissed me goodnight.

Then after that, screaming. My mother's voice pierced my sleeping mind, calling my name and telling me to hide. I managed to crawl under my bed, stunned and trembling. I heard a heavy drag on the wood of my home, following my soft-footed mother. I heard the throwing of pots and furniture and the calling for help.
It was quickly ended by a heavy fall and a final desperate cry. After that, it was rather quiet. I laid there all night, frozen and covering my mouth to not let any sound escape. I listened to the wet sounds of chewing, mixed with the ripping of cloth and at times the snapping of bones. It ate so slowly, it wouldn't go away.
Furthermore, I heard the scutter of tiny claws near me. Rats had sniffed out their chance for food.
I remember them crawling over me as I was forced to lay and stay quiet. Any whimper I made would make the thing stop and sniff for me. Those disgusting rodents cared not what was going on, they were able to scurry safely along. Then there was one, A giant one. It was the worst one as it came to view with fresh meat that was dripping with blood. I could only guess it was a piece of my mother.

I stayed like that till morning. The guards managed to kill the monster that I later found out was undead. Academy students seemed to have used a scroll they were unaware of and caused it to rise. Fearing they would get in trouble they ran. So the shambling dead was able to sneak into my home and attack my father as he slept. My mother must have woken after the thing was eating him.

...apparently, I was lucky to be alive. That was what the guard had said. So very lucky.
-Naenia Songbird