Chapter 2

I was an eagle, beating my powerful wings to move above a dense forest. I looked down at it and its inhabitants, alive and noisy. The trees reached up with branches as if to scratch the sky itself. Birds flew from branch to branch, calling energetically to each other. Everything seemed normal. Happy.

Suddenly I was pulled down into my own body. My gaze had focussed on an imaginary point straight ahead. The wind touched my skin, ruffled my hair. It spoke with a whisper, an urging encouragement. Then the whisper increased to a flowing stream of echoes, moving around me with wings of air, desperately calling out to me. Kira ... Kira...

Heart pounding, I ran through the forest, and with an agility I didn't possess when I was awake, leaped across a fallen branch and continued running on. Almost there, almost ... You can do it, I urged myself, pushing toward something I didn't know.

The forest, suddenly and strangely, became quiet around me, as if she sent away all her inhabitants somewhere else, as if she was a mother and understood that the lonely man charging forward was holding the key to a door which, if opened, would lead only to destruction. Her wish was to save her children from its deathly grasp.

Yet that lonely man had taken the risk, had known that the exact thing could end his life in a blink of an eye. Thus, she remained quiet and gave the only thing she could: peace.

I had no time to think about such matters though, this was my only chance – and this time, I would succeed. I knew I would. I had to.

But alas, my fate was of a different kind. My lungs were burning and every cell in my body screamed for a gulp of air, yet I continued running. A large oak came into view, its branches pointing like accusing fingers. It occupied most of the path in front of me, except a small opening to the left. An opening, which at my current speed was almost impossible to get through. I frantically tried to steer left ... But it wasn't enough. I wasn't quick enough.

With a horrifying thump, I crashed into the tree, the little air I had bursting out of my lungs. I seemed to halt in mid air for a moment as I flew backward, then landed on my back, gasping. A thought ran through my mind. Maybe I still have some time. I wouldn't need much. Just enough to find him and ... make sure that he hurts no one in the future. Then no one would have to suffer ... Not anymore.

A shadowy figure stepped out from behind the oak. Maybe it had been luck which had prevented me from going in that direction ... But no. There is no such thing as luck. Death was here for me, to take me, either way.

"All mighty, as they say," he hissed, pleasure pouring out of him like vapour. He had me. He knew.

"Aldrin," I whispered, trying to quiet my still gasping breath.

He came closer, his features more distinguishable: a tall man with silvery hair and green eyes, a midnight black cloak flowing around him. He could have been handsome, and I am sure he was a long time ago, but now he wore a sour expression on his face. "Who else? They left you. I can't blame them. Now get up and die with honour. I, after all, should reward those coming with such a haste."

I started to move. "honour? What do you know about honour, Aldrin? You, the outcast?"

"Better to be an outcast than an all mighty," he growled.

Yes, a sour expression indeed. It seemed to deepen even more. "If that is what you choose to believe." I slowly got up, gathering everything my exhausted body could lend.

"Ah, Kira taught you well," he mocked, as I swayed unsteadily on my feet.

It wasn't Kira, A voice that was not my own murmured in my mind, causing a memory, that was not mine either, to bubble up to the surface of the confusing mess that was meant to be my thoughts. A memory of a man, rising me with a bucketful of water, and asking me if I knew how to hold a sword.

"Calm," Kira's voice called to me from beyond the black, ominous shadows of peril. "To use your power, you need to be calm. Like the surface of a pond. Do not let others influence you. Listen to the whisper of the wind."

"I need no lesson to kill the likes of you, Aldrin," I said, trying to buy time. To regain some energy, even a tiny, tiny bit.

I focused my thoughts on him, trying to prevent the nimble feet of the child in my mind to find its way to memories. Bitter memories. Like how I had knowingly told her a pond with no fish to cause ripples on its surface would be no pond indeed. Like how she had smiled, and how it had lifted me to the moon.

Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks. The child in my mind had eluded my grasp again, after all, and I began to remember.

"We shall see, all mighty. We shall see." His smart retort pulled me to the present.

We stood in silence for a moment, then I closed my eyes and I was sure he did the same.

I let my surroundings fade away–the forest, Aldrin, his bitterness–focusing my mind on my will – a blade of flame. I felt its cool grip appearing in my hand and smiled: my body will not give up just yet.

I opened my eyes and looked at him questioningly. His eyes were still closed, but a blade of white fire glowed in his hands.