The making
It had been raining for a few minutes, and the ground was hardly soggy, and taking in a deep breath, the smell of the earth would fill your nose.
The rain caught her still frolicking in the forest, at least that was what a forest was as she knew it. A dense cluster of airy trees with burnt barks, even decades later nothing had recovered. To the south lay her village, however everywhere else the forest span to the horizons as far as the eyes could see.
The thing about home,it is where we are most free, but it is also our prison. That lack of exposure that dwarfs our imagination. The world had ended and no one knew why, no one bothered with scientific knowledge anymore, they just adopted a new normal.
People developed these new mysterious abilities.
And along with it came tyranny, power was like a drug, most had already succumbed to it.
A fortnight ago, a village, a couple of clicks south had all its residents flayed to their bones and left bleeding to their deaths. Telena had watched it all happen from the mountain ridge, she had gone to pick herbs that grew on the mountain sides but now she was just one more scared child, a statistic.
"Run!"
Screamed the young boy as he watched the arrows whizz past their heads, every one concious of life would be terrified out of their mind.
1..., 2..., 3 arrows
Everything felt like dancing on the edge of the abyss, just a little less luck an arrow would poke into their skulls.
'Jump!'
Telena hissed, an arrow tearing into her side. For a second, she felt the world quake in her mind and a tear trickled down her face.
The next moment they were suddenly freed from the snares of gravity, feeling the wind blow her hair Telena just doubted how long she would last before it suddenly came for her, death that fiend.
Even a kid would know it, that feeling when the very life drained out of you and with every drop you would be one step closer, a goner.
She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath, someone watching from the side would know she had just let go of her worries. That sigh seemed to contain a myriad of emotions, all complicated but felt all at same time.
Telena then clasped her fingers even tighter in the boys palm and gave him an assuring smile, just a minute before they hit the side of cliff.
The impact with the mountain side could result in any number of bad outcomes, your ribs puncturing your lungs or your heart if they got deviously lucky, a splintered collar bone, or a twisted spine.
Tuba, the little boy shut his eyes tightly every time the rocks and soil came into his embrace each time knocking the wind out of his small lungs.
The pain was driving him crazy and the brink was just an impact away. He felt he would die the next minute, minutes every time they bounced on the side of the cliff.
The bruising all over their bodies made them feel like they were set on fire that dug into every sinew down into their bones.
Crying was not helping either, their tears had mixed with soil making them look even sorrier.
And finally came the last impact, their bodies hitting the protruded hill side.
It must have been quite the awful experience, they both lay motionless, only the rugged rise and fall of their chests would tell them apart from corpses.
One, two, three hours they just lay there, the setting sun ushering in the night.
" Hhghhahghaaa"
Finally came labored breathing, then followed a series of quiet pitiful sobs.
"Tel..."
Weakly uttered a feeble voice.
It would only take a touch, then it would be okay.
Struggling to get closer, Tuba felt like his whole body was falling apart, even breathing was painful, taking in too much air made it feel like blades were tearing into his sides and thus he was forced to take in air in long and short drafts.
The rocky ground was not making it any easier to his underside, every motion was to push him an inch forward and an inch closer to her.
By then snort and sweat had run amok on his face and with bouts of cold sweat.
Suddenly he was again rolling on the ground and he wondered just how messed up everything was with every bump as he rolled only to bump into something soft. He had bumped onto her.
"Merge"
He thought and with that everything went dark.
"Aishh! It has started." Sounded a deep voice.
Hearing those words, somebody wouldn't know what to make of them. Maybe some events had just been set in motion.
Under an old Neem tree that seemed to have seen it's good share of bad moons sat an old woman. She had a stubborn air about her but surprisingly the little bastards that sat before her ,did not pay it any mind.
They stared at her face, clearly captivated by her wild signing. Well, she could almost transport them to that distant land she was so vividly portraying.
There once was a legend about demigod like beings in the old world,.They were said to bleed fire and their bones were harder than imperial iron.
They had no known weakness and each of them could fight like wounded wildebeests.
They once walked the earth, and everywhere they went, tales of their great feats could be heard as far as humans knew existed.
They were last seen near a great lake that birthed a blue serpent that once slid across the northern barren lands.
