Of Gears and Humanity

| 21.2

[DAMIEN]

Eon tossed my sword to the side as if it were nothing. The metal landed on the grass. The sound it made was swallowed by the approaching stomps; loud, booming, dangerous.

I stumbled back out of Eon's reach. "You didn't have to do this," I said, catching my breath. My hand stretched out to a tree. It rumbled, vibrating with the oncoming steps. "You didn't have to!" The ground shook, and I pressed myself against the tree's bark. "I was just an hour away!"

"Oh, well, you know." Eon bent down, grabbing the broken piece of my sword. He examined it with a growing smirk on his face. "This atmospheric changes things."

"Atmosphere?" I squeezed my eyes shut as the trees to my left snapped. Broken branches landed on the ground. As I rocked to my left, I looked. I felt the color drain from my face.

"There is something about humans, Damien." Eon returned the metal to the grass and walked past me, towards the creature that broke through the trees. A monster. Eyes beaming red, fangs with saliva dripping down to its chest. It moved its small arms as it growled at me.

I shifted over against the tree, falling back against the grass. I focused on the beast as I crawled back on my hands, fingers digging into the dirt. "Eon, what—"

"Oh, this?" Eon slid his hands across the beast's metallic scales. It growled as Eon's fingers slid up its leg and the side of its waist. "This is a dragon, or dinosaur, or..." Eon waved a hand over his head. "Something the humans created from their imagination. Stories, Damien; what humans are good for."

The creature roared, the sound shattering the air. I slammed back against the ground, covered my ears, and I screamed. Its roar ripped through me. Pain erupted in my head.

"Eon..." Tears burned in the corners of my eyes.

I heard Eon move close. The sound of his feet crushing grass moved towards my head. I pried one eye one and a tear slid down my cheek.

Eon was crouched beside me. "This was easier when you were a child," he said, sliding a finger down my cheek. "The human before you made it to about the same age as you are now, but he was hard. Cold. And eventually lost the desire to repair us."

Eon's hand moved to my neck. His fingers close around me. As soon as I felt pressure against my skin, my eyes widened and my hands shot to his wrist. I tried to push him away but he wouldn't move.

He frowned. "Arvon thought, maybe this time, treating a human child as a son, gifting him a mother, would be easier. Make him loving." His browed pinched together. "I always thought he made the wrong choice."

As Eon squeezed, the beast behind him roared. The pain exploding in my chest paired with my inability to breathe terrified me. I was going to die. Eon was going to kill me right here, in the forest, without anyone around. I would go alone, just as I lived.

I gasped as another tear fell.

"But that isn't my place to decide, is it?" As soon as Eon let go, I gasped and sucked in air in gulps. I heaved, coughed. Spit slid down my lips.

"It's Arvon's," Eon said. "Possibly Unique's, too."

Mother?

I straightened my arms to push myself upright and wiped at my lip. But when I turned my head to look at him, I saw his fist, instead. It collided with my cheek.

My jaw cracked. My vision blurred. And before the pain spread over the side of my face, I saw nothing but darkness.

*