Running From Shadows

Twenty-five years earlier
Smoke and fire filled the once clean air. Plowed fields were scorched and blackened until nothing could grow. Homes no longer stood proudly watching over their farms; instead the homes lay in piles of rubble watching the food supplies die. The humans scattered running in all possible directions in hopes of finding a secure hiding place, but shadows filled the lands coming up from the ground and down from the sky.

“You attacked my people first,” Eoryon shouted over the panicking humans.

“You soiled my daughter,” the mayor screamed.

The two men stood facing one another. The mayor’s stormy eyes bore into Eoryon. Both men glaring at the other, the mayor stood holding his battle ax close to his chest while Eoryon wielded clenched fists. His fists loosed as his fingers began to wiggle quickly toward the sky. The wind gusted over the humans just before rain pelted the ground. “I loved her!”

Fire exploded across the skies. The land shook with a never before seen fury. Trees crumbled. Eoryon screamed as loudly as he could which caused the sound barrier to shatter.



Present
“Dreigon,” I screamed through the darkness. Panic set in as I began to wonder if Hyphron lied to me. Why couldn’t I find the only other human I’d seen in this god forsaken forest. “Dreigon,” I called weakly, letting myself slide down a smooth trunk of a nearby tree.

“Why didn’t they attack you,” his stubborn voice echoed around me. I looked above my head, but I couldn’t see anything.

“I don’t know!”

“You just let them kill Urielle.”

“Dreigon, I didn’t know. I was getting food; I didn’t realize they were even close to us.”

“Stop saying my name.”

“Please, just explain to me what’s going on,” I begged as my knees buckled. I crashed on the hard blackened earth. “Tell me why they keep coming.”

Dreigon slowly walked out of the shadows holding a small handgun that must have been attached to his belt. The barrel of the gun was pointed at my forehead, but that gun was not the reason for the tears streaming down my face. I lowered my eyes before putting my face in my hands to cover the weakness of crying.

I barely noticed the wind picking up, or the small droplets of rain sneaking through the thick leaves. I didn’t notice the shadow of the sun disappearing. I did notice the strange sound. Laughter echoed around me.

I wiped the tears from my eyes. I forced my lungs to take a few deep breaths to slow my racing heart. I looked in the direction that Dreigon was standing, but his face was solemn and the gun was by his side. The laughter continued.

“They say you are the one that will kill me,” the wind sang. My heart stopped as the blood in my veins froze. “I cannot believe that you will kill me; you are weak just like your mother!”

My muscles wouldn’t move, and my head felt like it was going to burst. I felt something wet on my ears as sound faded away. The smells of burning ash and death loomed in the air. My eyes were locked on Dreigon’s face; he looked tortured and saddened, but his eyes glazed over as if he was dreaming. I could taste the rising bile in my throat prepared to exit at any moment.

“Don’t worry. I’ll allow you to keep your new pet…for now. Just know, you’ve faced four of my circle, and there are four of us left. You’ll die soon enough.”

The wind suddenly stopped. My muscles ached as if they had been under a lot of pressure. I swallowed hard to keep myself from losing the small amount of nutrients that my stomach contained. I put a hand to my ear only to find that the wetness I felt was blood. Dreigon was on his knees, both hands were on his temples, and his body was shaking with silent sobs.

“I have to get away from you,” I whispered to myself. The meaning of what the voice said hitting me. I was going to be killed, and I haven’t seen the worst of those creatures yet. If I stayed with Dreigon he wouldn’t have a chance of survival. “I’m the reason Urielle is dead.”

I didn’t bother to try to make nice with Dreigon. He was pointing a gun at my head five minutes ago, so there was no need for a nice goodbye. I forced my body off the ground. Running was my only option. I had to get away from any innocent person that would be hurt because of me.



The memory of Morphyne’s fangs digging into Urielle’s ribs filled Dreigon’s eyes. It repeated on a loop, each time he tried to pull her away from the beast, but Morphyne was too fast. Urielle’s brown eyes pleaded for help…

He felt his knees hit the hard ground. He felt the cold steel of the gun’s trigger by his left temple. “Please, stop!”

As if his wish had been granted by some unseen genie, the vision left his sight. His body was too devastated to move right away. Sounds of the woman’s movements floated through the calm air to his sensitive ears, but he couldn’t move yet. Shock still held his heart.

“The rebel leader has fallen,” a voice to his right questioned. Fear rose in his chest. His eyes scanned his surroundings, but he saw nothing. He almost missed the softly moving shadow.

“No,” Dreigon croaked.

“The woman, whose name is Neya, is very important.” The crystal blue eyes appeared in the darkness before the shape of the wolf.

“Neya,” Dreigon questioned. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

“You will recognize the name soon, with your knowledge of Sérieux history, but now you must go after her. She thinks she is going to be the cause of your death.”

Dreigon’s eyes widened as his lips dove into a grimace, “will she?”

“She is the reason that you will live.”

He didn’t need more information. Dreigon ran after her, silently praying that he could keep up. The vision of his memory was to show him that Neya didn’t kill Urielle. There was nothing he could do to save her because her death was ordered. He’d been lucky that he heard Neya screaming to get higher, or he would’ve died in that tree too.