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Chapter 37: Past-man

I waited for many years for them to mature to become my soldiers.

When the day came, we confronted the corrupted.
"Why are you still believing this man?" we asked.

They avoided answering such a simple thing by questioning our loyalty to our race, when it was them that killed our kind because of the words of a man.

It was a mess.

I left my soldiers pure of sin and took the lives of the corrupted by myself.
One by one.

I don't know how, but I somehow found a strength within me that gave me the feeling I could do it, and I did.

After a bloodbath of my own creation I turned to face the true villain.

Without saying a word, I thrust my claws at the man to wipe his dumb smirk off his face, when suddenly, the surroundings brightened up.

A blue sky above and a seemingly endless field of grass all around.

Was it that man's doing?

No, it was too real.

We had "escaped" as the corrupted would have said, if they were still alive.

Now, it was clear that I had lost control of everyone. Now everyone who was on the fence about that man's words would become like the corrupted.
"The new generation spoke the truth but you killed them!" They would say.

I steeled myself to live a lie.

"The masters ordered me to take their lives in order to escape. It was a necessary sacrifice."
I told them.

They crowned me to become their queen.

Such is the truth of our people.

Many of our kind retreated under the ocean under my command.
Their arrival had startled many of the local men so that was the only place I felt they were save.

Many of them started to delude themselves into thinking that this world was their homeland and about "facts" the man had put in their heads about how they used to feel the gentle breeze run along their hair and the sea of green grass.

Lies.

All I wanted was the peace and quiet in the dark as we had for so long.

But there was something else.

Despite feeling lost, something was driving me forwards.

A mission.
The order of that dust cloud still persisted in my mind, fueling me with strength.
I am convinced.

If I want to return to that dark and very gentle place, I have to find a true hero.

A hero to destroy me.

To tear this fake world down.

To let us rest.

Then I met him.

He told me that I wasn't the real villain, that we should find a way to coexist.
I felt his words were true and the mission within me faltered.

Just who was this man to have shaken me up so much?

I felt like I could trust him.
Then the dust cloud, my master, spoke through me and gave smart-man advice about things I knew nothing about.

Then smart-man left for this  so called "realm between realities".
I wasn't sure about it at the time, but I think my master intended to show smart-man something.

Something to fuel his determination.

However, he left his turkey with me.
Was it to test my trustworthiness? I swore to myself to protect that turkey, even though I wasn't sure why I felt compelled to do so.