Stars

Stars - Part 1

Warning: the following story takes place before and after the events of the videogame "War is coming". Spoilers ahead.

10th September, 2518.

"Is it morning already?" Amphion asked while waking up. No one was there, though. He was in his bed, alone, covered by an orange blanket. It took some time for him to get up. When he did, he started his day. A totally normal day. His room, which he shared with the other orphans in the church, was on the last floor. Amphion's days usually started with a warm breakfast. While going downstairs, he looked at one of the church's windows. He wanted to watch the sun. He narrowed his eyes.

"I actually woke up pretty early..." he thought. The sun wasn't that high. Indeed, when he got downstairs, everyone was still having breakfast. A red-haired orphan saw Amphion, smiled and greeted him:

"Hey, Amphion! Good..." The kid stopped. Amphion was rubbing his eyes.

"Morning." He said, while yawning. The kid was staring at him. When Amphion opened his eyes once again, the kid started yelling:

"What are those things?!"

"Huh? What's wrong?" Amphion asked. The yell alarmed the other children who were around the table, having the first meal of the day. They all looked at Amphion. Some of them started yelling, others started crying, others made a disgusted noise, others simply exclaimed "What?!". Amphion looked at them with an annoyed face.

"What is this? Some kind of joke? Did you set this up to make fun of me just because I got up later than usual?" He asked. He thought the children were joking, Amphion used to take part in similar jokes as well. Still, those kind of jokes usually lasted for less than a few seconds, but in this case the kids were really overdoing it. Amphion got even more annoyed and raised his voice while approaching the red-haired kid.

"Hey! Knock it off!" Amphion stared at him in his eyes. He was about to shake him with his arm, but the kid hit him on the head with a spoon and ran away, still yelling. Amphion got hurt. He rubbed his head, he was about to cry, but didn't. His annoyance and nervousness grew even more instead. The ruckus his arrival had caused was really unnerving. And now this? He demanded an explanation. Amphion started chasing the red-haired kid. He didn't have to cover that much distance, though. The kid was right after the exit of that dining room. He was clinging to a nun's legs, crying.

"There you are! Why did you hit me?" Amphion asked. He looked up to the nun. The latter, after seeing him, gasped and covered her mouth in disbelief.

"What's wrong?" Amphion asked once again. At that moment, he realized that what had just happened wasn't just a joke.

"Amphion... your eyes..." The nun stuttered. Amphion was still confused.

"My eyes...?" He asked.

"They're red..." She replied.

"I've been rubbing them..." He replied, not yet having figured out the actual meaning of the nun's reply.

"Take a look at yourself in the mirror..." The nun said. That didn't help Amphion at all. But he did as suggested. He decided to go upstairs and take a look at himself in the mirror. In order to do that, however, he had to go past the dining room. It seemed like the children there had calmed down, but when they saw Amphion enter again, they started making a fuss again. In that moment, Amphion spotted Portia. She was crying too. Amphion approached her.

"Portia..." He tried to talk to her, but she yelled at him. Amphion didn't understand a single word. He just looked at the ground, a bit saddened, and went upstairs. What was wrong with his eyes, all of a sudden? He had to find out. He went to the bathroom upstairs, moved a stool and climbed it so that he could reach the mirror and look at himself. As soon as he saw himself, he almost lost balance, he was completely shocked. His eyes truly were red. He widened them. He immediately tried to wash them, but the color was unchanged. That color wasn't due to the rubbing. His iris was read. Amphion got scared and started breathing heavily. He punched the mirror, he didn't manage to break it. Those red eyes were still there, filled with despair, they were looking at him. He fell off the stool and started screaming out of fear... Amphion spent the rest of the day staring at his feet, even while walking or when talking to someone else: he didn't want to scare anyone. Putting aside this new action of him and the initial ruckus, the day had been an ordinary one, and just like any other ordinary day, it came to an end. It ended a bit earlier for Amphion, as he went to sleep earlier. In the middle of the night, he felt something pushing and shaking his body. It was dark, he couldn't see properly, he heard a familiar voice calling out his name:

"Amphion... wake up..." It was Portia. Amphion recognized her.

"Portia... what is it?" He asked, slightly raising his head from the pillow.

"Sorry for yelling at you..." Portia said. Even if Amphion couldn't see her, he could hear she was still sobbing.

"Don't worry... I yelled at myself too when I saw them..." Amphion remarked. Portia chuckled. Then silence.

"Amphion! I came here to tell you... red is my favorite color!" Portia was making an effort. She was trying to make Amphion feel better. She succeeded.

"Really?" He asked.

"Yeah! I love red!" She exclaimed. Amphion could only see Portia's silhouette, but that was enough. He jumped out of his bed and hugged Portia. She hugged him back. He made a request:

"Would you... watch the moon with me tonight?"

...

Then Amphion, the current one, Yark's young vice-commander, woke up. He gasped. He was in the tent reserved to Yark's vice-commanders only. He had fallen asleep on a pile of paper sheets. He raised his upper body from the pile, some of the paper sheets were stuck to his forearms, he picked them and placed them on top of the pile.

"A dream... o' insane mind of mine, what are you trying to accomplish by making me dream this?" Amphion thought to himself.