I Am Lightning

I shook my head, blocked the noise of people yelling from my ears, and started towards the door. Instantly three men blocked my path.
“Move aside,” I said.
“You just knocked him down!” one of them yelled, more intoxicated than incredulous.
“Yeah, and I’ll do the same to you if you don’t get out of my way,” I replied, keeping my voice cool.
“Where do you think you’re going all of a sudden, girl?” another of them asked me, clearly having been waiting a while to say that. I wonder how long he’s been holding that in. Stupid, drunken fools.
I decided to swing around another table to get past them, but they moved around, closer to the door, completely blocking my path. A few more of the men were standing up now. I was surprised that they weren’t all afraid of me. Or perhaps that’s because I was feeling such fear myself. I don’t know what had just entered the town, but it had that same aura that had flooded the ruins of the Element Realms 600 years ago, and all I could think of was the connection between that aura, and death. Blood and gore and despair and death.

As my fear spiked, so did the current within me. I could feel it boiling around inside me, to the point where it affected my eyes. I could sense when they were changing, and the men in front of me could see it. All three of them dropped their jaws with horrified expressions.
“What the hell are you!” one of the screeched at me while another yelled, “her eyes! Look at her eyes!”
“If you don’t get out of my way NOW,” I said, still keeping my voice calm but raising it at the end, “there will be serious consequences.”
The three of them stood there for a moment, then the one who had been silent stumbled out of the way, quickly followed by the other two. I stormed from the inn, pushing chairs away in my wake.

The aura spike had drifted further into town. I kept my right hand tight around the hilt of my sword as I walked up the road, following the tingling sensation flowing through my limbs. The current within me was going insane, beating with the thumps of my heart. I had never truly encountered this darkness face to face, I had always been too late. I don’t know how I was supposed to stand up to it... it had mercilessly slaughtered all of the Element Masters before me...
But now is my time to try. I won’t let it hurt anyone else.

I can see better than anyone else in the dark of night, but on a moonless night like this, it’s hard for anyone. There are flame-filled lamps about every now and again as I trot up the road between buildings, but once I’ve left a torch behind, its a while before the next one appears. Utter darkness ensues. I slip between two buildings, sensing the direction of the darkness has changed, and find myself going in the same direction it is, on a parallel road. I’m getting close.

I hear a noise and pause. Clop clop clop. A rider is near me. As I blink my eyes and locate the horse and rider by the current in their bodies, I freeze. The darkness is coming from them. But... how? This churning feeling in my stomach, the hairs on the back of my neck, the death and blood and gore I associate with this aura... from one man on a horse? This is not what I have been waiting several lifetimes for.

But whatever horrid force I was expecting, this is what I have found. I once again focus, only to realise that the noise has stopped, and so has the rider. I blink again, and my hand goes to my mouth in sudden fright.

The rider, even though two buildings separate us from sight, is looking directly at me.