Monster

Fire Magic

... The Monster was alone this time. Beor saw him on an black island in the middle of a lava lake somewhere deep underground, his hands shackled to an obsidian pole with black chains. His head hung low as he seemed to be either unconscious or asleep.

"Hero?" Beor called out, already knowing that the Monster would not see or hear him, being just a vestige of the terrifying past life, which his strange child had left behind him.

"Atta!" Hero called out from behind him and Beor immediately felt the hug at his legs as the small human ran up to him. Beor patted his head and looked at the Monster in confusion, wondering what terrible punishment this was. The place around them looked like something straight out of scary stories about the Nether.

Again, Beor couldn't help wondering what terrible crimes this Monster had committed to deserve such treatment. A hint of pity stirred in his heart as he looked at him, tied and helpless, until he remembered the burning villages that he had seen in the child's dreams earlier.

"Hero, remember, this is not real. All right? Now, try to wake up. You need to wake up."

Beor said patiently, picking the child up in his arms. Hero only blinked at him in confusion, watching him with his eerie white eyes. In response, the child only pouted. Beor sighed in frustration. It seemed that something needed to happen in the dream before Hero could wake up. Another piece of crucial memory that had to snap back into place.

The child's memories were returning back to him, a piece at a time. Beor understood that much after being drawn into his dreams five times over the past 6 months.

The only thing he could make sure is tell him that these memories were not his own, to separate the child's current past from the terrible one that happened before, in hopes of preventing him from turning into the Monster that the witch threatened he was destined to become.

So far, this seemed to be working.

"Hero, what has happened here so far? What is going on?" Beor asked the child patiently, but Hero only shrugged and resentfully pointed at the lonely figure on the obsidian island in the middle of the lava lake, appearing confused.

"So, he is just there and that's it?"

The child quickly nodded, not appearing to be in much distress. If anything, he seemed slightly bored. Yawning, he rested his head on Beor's shoulder and closed his eyes.

A dizzying feeling and Beor found himself back in his living room again, still touching the child's heated forehead. For a moment, he stared at him in confusion. Then, his eyes strayed to the child's hands and widened.

Jerking violently away, Beor stared at the small flicks of flame that played around the sleeping child's fingers. The blanket was already blackened, with small embers eating away at the fibers around Hero's arms.

Not knowing what to do, Beor strode to the wash basin and, taking a pitcher of water, simply dumped it over the child in his bed.

Startled from sleep, Hero gasped and looked at Beor with wide eyes before his face made a an unhappy, hurt pout.

"Hero! No crying! Your hands were on fire!" Beor said sternly.

At that, the child lifted his small hands and looked at them in confusion. There weren't any flames there anymore, just slightly flushed skin. Beor frowned and quickly touched the child's small hands with his own, inspecting Hero's fingers. Turning his hands this way and that, Beor looked at him with concern.

"It doesn't hurt?"

Still confused, Hero shook his head. Just at that moment, Beor's brother peeked into the room. Glancing at the bits of water pooling on the floor around Hero's bed, he raised his eyebrows.