Child of prophecy

09 | Inferno

IYAN

"Humans aren't so bad Iyan, if you give us a chance, you'd come to realize that."

My eyelids blink open as rays of sunlight pour into the cave and jolt me out of the depths of my memories. I can almost feel her soothing hands on my head. I can see her slightly wrinkled face smiling kindly at me. I remember it all too clearly. The only bit of my past I'm grateful for. The only bit of my past that isn't filled with bloodshed and darkness.

Humans

I've never really given them much thought. It's true that I once hated them. Hated them enough to want to watch them all burn and wither away. At a point in my life as a guardian, I made sure to obliterate every single human and demigod that came for the teardrop. I believed they were the sole reason my mother never spared me an ounce of love, or rather, that belief was engraved into my soul. I had been entrapped by a cynical snare, crafted by someone so cunning. I fear that even now, as an adult, I may not be completely free from it. It wasn't until I met Alissa that I began to question what I believed.

I haven't thought of her in years since she left this land, but ever since I met that girl, Alissa has managed to creep back into my dreams.

Although she looks nothing like her, she somehow has the teardrop I gave to Alissa years back. I've been meaning to ask how she got her hands on the necklace. Did she perhaps steal it from Alissa?

The thought of someone stealing from Alissa causes my mood to dampen instantly, not to mention the intense heat that's flooding the cave and giving me a headache.

My eyes glide over the cave in search of the girl. Our things are safely positioned a few feet away from me, but the spot where she had been sitting last night is empty.

She's gone

We only just met yesterday, but her absolute naivety manages to amuse me. She almost got frozen to death, but that didn't seem enough to deter her from venturing out when I told her we had to stay in for at least four days.

In all honesty, I couldn't care less about what happened to her. The only reason I went back for her yesterday was because the necklace I gave Alissa was kept hidden somewhere in her uniform.

I can't have anything happening to that necklace, and I can't have it getting into the wrong hands either. She thinks the only thing that necklace can do is help her shape-shift, and I'd like to keep it that way.

Taking it from her would've been the best solution, but Mother's magic repels mine. It's always been that way for as long as I can remember. I could never harness the power of any of her teardrops. Its powers, rather, started to fade away the longer it remained in my possession. And so, I saw no reason to keep any with me, leading me to hand over the only one I had in my possession to Alissa.

My attention shifts to the entrance of the cave, where I sight the girl's petite figure staggering in with what seems like a rabbit in her right hand. She's drenched in sweat, and her breaths are coming out short and shallow, as though she sprinted all the way here. But for someone who spent most of his childhood in this land, I have an inkling as to what she may have encountered.

The seasons of this terror change by the day at the oddest of hours. It's quite contrary to what most people believe. They think the weather changes in the blink of an eye, but it doesn't. It follows a pattern, and today happens to be a day when the sun is blistering enough to skin you alive.

I reckon that the only reason she hasn't been roasted to death is because of the fabric of her uniform, although it's already sopped in the sweat that is continuously oozing out from her skin.