Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira

The sky was dark, completely and utterly dark, leaving nothing but the torches which had been spread out far too much. We had finished our long day of regular activities, ignoring the darkening sky and unable to shake the feeling that something awful was lurking just around every corner. Finally, as I stared at my favorite flowers, because the twilight leaders had not come, something inside of me cracked and I knew that it was time. “They’re here,” I whispered, holding Akuma’s hand tighter, unable to ignore the horrible feeling I had held in my stomach for far too long.

“What do you mean?” he asked, clearly terrified and beginning to look around. “How can you tell?”

“I… I just… I just can,” I said, dragging Akuma back into the forest and down to the village, beginning to run. He ran beside me, looking up, but the thick branches and leaves blocked our view of the sky. Akuma and I had gone here so many times that running back to the village from where we had stood felt normal and as if my legs were driving me back, leaving my head to think of something else. The way back was long, but we sprinted faster than ever before, not only wanting a look at what was happening, but needing to help my people. An ear splitting scream erupted from somewhere near the village, switching something in my brain, giving me the driving need to help. I dashed off in the direction I had heard the scream. Akuma groaned, but didn’t complain, as he followed.

“Help!” someone cried not very far to the left of us, their voice strained. I ran through the forest to them, always keeping in mind where I was and how we would get back to the village. Finally, we reached the area the scream had come from. Unable to see who had yelled, because of two giant single-eyed trolls who crowded around something, I listened silently as Akuma drew his sword. I cursed as I created a large flame in the center of my palm and with a single glance back at Akuma, jumped into action. I took aim at one of the trolls’ large, fat-rolled heads and let the flame fly, watching it hit its target before creating another. Akuma turned himself invisible and dashed up to the creatures, his sword slashing at them. Neither of them carried weapons, but had long enough nails to cut either one of us in half with a single, graceful swipe. I watched the flame explode the targeted area, scorching everything from the tip of its long ears, to the bottom of its well-hidden rib cage. It moaned agonizingly and fell to the ground. At such point, I put the flame in my hand out and drew my sword, hoping to kill it before it had the chance to get up. I ran up to the flailing creature and avoiding eye contact, dug my sword into the soft belly, taking its last breath away from its now lifeless body. A now visible Akuma looked at me, as if wondering how I had done this with such ease. The thought of his unknowing fear hurt to think of, so I ignored his glance and pulled my sword from the bleeding creature, moving on to the one Akuma fought. Even with blood gushing from slashes in its thick skin, it still stood. I took a moment to create and grow a flame that was larger than the one I had begun with. It was heavy and the weight pulled me down a bit, but I was eventually able to gain enough thrust by spinning the flaming ball around a few times, to hurl my newly created flame into the creature’s soft stomach, with such force, that a whole was left in the middle of the creature’s stomach before the flame had fully exited and burned out elsewhere. The creature looked down at its stomach with such agony, that the image remains in my mind to this day. The single-eyed troll attempted to scream, telling the world of its fate, but no words could be formed, and it fell to the ground, silent forever more. I looked sorrowfully at Akuma, almost wishing he didn’t have to witness the kinds of things I did while he wasn’t there that day.

I brushed this feeling to the side and looked down at the young woman, she looked about twenty-five years old and frightened as hades where she lied over what seemed to be an unconscious husband. “Thank you,” she said, looking up at us through her mangled blond hair.

I nodded, lifting the hood of my cloak and looking down at her leg, which was bloody and swollen. I wondered if she would walk correctly again. “What happened here?” I asked.

She seemed slightly shocked that this would be my first response, but I didn’t care. We didn’t have enough time for polite remarks and careless small talk. “My fiance and I were gathering food for the village when those… things attacked us,” she said. “He’s hurt bad, and I don’t think I can walk,” she explained.

I bobbed my head up and down, showing my agreement in her statement. “I would agree, I don’t think you can walk,” I said. “Now how did your fiance get hurt?” I asked, stepping closer.

“He tried to fight them off,” she explained, her voice wavering at the image. “But they… they were too strong. They just threw him to the side, against this tree,” she said, patting the large tree behind her. “I ran over to him, and I got real close, but they barely even flicked me and my leg went down. I fell right over him. Then you came and saved us,” she finished.

“Right,” I said, stepping closer and holding my hand out to grab hers. She reached for it. “How big would you say your husband is, miss…”

“Danny,” she finished for me, “my name is Daniella, but I go by Danny. And I’d say he’s about as big as your friend, there plus a little extra.”

I looked back at Akuma. He nodded as if to say, “I think I can do it.” I smiled at his courage and lifted Danny up over my shoulder, allowing Akuma to grab her fiance.

We began to walk as fast as we could back to the village, wishing we could run faster, but not wanting to harm Danny or (as we later learned from Danny) her fiance, Pasi. It surprised me how talkative Danny turned out to be. No matter how bad her situation looked, she continued to talk to both of us like we were her friends. In any other situation, I would have found her character to be quite annoying, but in this moment, I found it to be hopeful and a wonderful change of pace. She told us of her childhood, growing up the youngest of three sisters, she explained how she and Pasi had met, she asked countless questions of our journey and what we planned to do, and she even gave suggestions of things to try with our powers. After her fifth comment on how she hadn’t imagined the queen of the island of Skyfire to act this way, she thanked me for my selflessness. At such point, I started laughing hysterically. It seemed to confuse everyone around me, including myself. Looking back, I realize I was laughing at the irony of the fact that we had tried to rush back to the village to help our people but were now stuck walking at our slow pace, trying not to think of those who were dying because we had chosen to help. “I’m sorry,” I said after I had managed to calm my laughter and focus on what was happening now, and not would happen in the future.