The Demon Sword: Sorataki

Chapter 13: Front

Taking another gulp of his water he wipes his lips across his arms and hands his bottle to her. A little surprised at how he noticed she slowly takes the bottle and whispers thanks before helping herself. He's noticed her increase in drinking. Not only that she has been eating better too. And even taking more time to sleep that meant more time for him to stand watch. Even talking became a more frequent thing.

Sure he still had more sleep than her but baby steps were greatly welcome. He felt that she was on her merry way to getting better. Like the stress form, the last quest and the fact that they lived through it freed her somewhat. Not that she made a song or dance about it but he was content to witness it none the less. That things were on the eve of change.  

The year is 2764 and mankind find themselves in a far better off place than they did in the latter half of the twenty-first century. After the survival of the calamity of the twenty-first, an era now known to many as the great fall and later the fog wars men had gone through three hundred years of suffering and regression.

Although everyone could agree the great fall took place almost wiping out mankind the how and why of it differed from person to person. Some say the winds stopped and the remaining men battled for land clare from but the pollution that brung. Other say that the winds were stopped by an angel for there sins on the planet and so there was no war to have. Some even argue it was a combination of them and a host of other reasons. One thing all can agree on is that the earth back then for whatever reason was dying. The winds had weakened. Like it was on its last breaths, not so different than one on a deathbed.

Some three hundred years later, however, a pivotal moment happens. Now known as the second winds like its name imply the winds returned and the earth was now revived, alive... perhaps too alive. Like cells in our bloodstream, it began giving birth to strange creatures people know now as the will of the planet. From all elements that harbored the earth, they formed from within it and served as its living embodiment of will. Repairing and reshaping the land to the way it sees fit.

Meany wild an animal embodied it to differing extents. They say polar bears were perhaps the most affected by the changes even more so than the humans and that was saying a lot given the circumstances. In the end, however, with people able to mold there will with the planet it simply meant that if well disciplined they could bend their affinity to there choosing, enabling them to protect themselves from outward harm as well as shape it into a deadly weapon much like Andrew does.

The era of wonders came soon after. A time where men traveled the bearly recovering world reclaiming lands and ghost hucks of cities long abandoned from the fall as there own. It was a wild time but rather harmonies considering according to the scholars of Hallow peak, the only historians worth taking a word from nowadays.

It was truly an age-worthy of its title Natalie thought. An age where mankind of sat on the brink of falling into a second dark age only to come rising back up, to grow and expand in a blink of an eye. But this sudden revival of the winds and all the blessings that came with it did not arrive alone.

Along with this second chance came the demons from realms around and beyond there own. It was as if someone had turned the key and unlocked the doors to their horror. Like the drying well's of hope, to suddenly have them come bursting to the brim with water only then to see the shade of despair color it like a black taint. Even a thirst deprived person would bitterly uncup such hope from there open palms at first, only gingerly giving it a test after deeply reviewing the alternative.

That's how her mother use to discribe it. It was a bitter pill to swallow despite the perks of power over an affnity and extended youth but perhaps that was the trade-off for the miracle.