Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira

We faced one another, watching through a crack as the doors thrust open and two large, horribly smelling, one-eyed trolls stepped into the room, rocking unsteadily on their huge feet. I stopped myself from gasping, as I had never seen such creatures before. After studying them for a moment through a crack between the door and the wall, I slowly realized that they were inhaling and exhaling frantically through their noses. They seemed to be trying to pick up on our scent. I held my breath, hoping doing so would dampen our smell somehow, no matter how unlikely. He did the same.

Hands at our side, his fingers touched mine. I blushed but didn’t move for fear of making noise. One of the Cyclops pointed in our direction, grunting loudly. A sudden feeling of absolute and overcoming fear exploded in my stomach. I staggered quietly, balancing on one foot. Akuma reached his hand over, a worried look on his face as he helped regain my balance, but it was too late. The giant creatures had heard and were stomping loudly over in our direction. I tightened my grip on the hand Akuma still used to encapsulate my own. They bent beside us, still smelling wildly and blowing horrible amounts of snot in our direction. The one closest to us moved its huge wart-covered arm to the door we hid behind, moving slowly as if to build suspense. The creature wrapped its gigantic, meaty fingers with split nails around the door which hid us and with a terrible splintering sound, the ancient door flew off its hinges. I flinched as I looked into the creatures eye, but it seemed to stare right through me. I looked over at Akuma, but although he was right next to me, and I held his hand in my own, I couldn’t see him, I looked down at myself, terrified, but there was absolutely nothing there. It was like neither of us existed.

After examining us so closely for so long, they finally decided that there was nothing there, and stomped back through the doorway, slamming the ancient wood behind them as they left the room. I waited until I was absolutely sure they were gone to move once more, dropping Akuma’s hand and pacing around the room. Akuma suddenly popped back into my view. I held my hand in front of my face and studied it closely, mesmerized by the fact that I could once more see myself.

“What was that about? Where’d you go?” I asked quietly, paranoid of the return of the creatures.

“I was right there. And so were you. I mean I could still feel you. Of course, I couldn’t see you though.” He whispered in response, moving out from behind the doorway.

“What do you mean of course? We turned invisible,” I said, still pacing around the room.

He paused for a moment, thinking carefully of what to say next. Eventually, he said, “I have something I have to tell you. It’s uh, it’s-I don’t really know how to explain this but, it was me,” he said quietly.

“What do you mean it was you? You don’t mean you-” I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence.

He nodded shamefully looking down at his shoes. I stepped towards him, as he looked up into my eyes and said quietly, “it’s better if I just show you.” At that, he disappeared from sight I heard footsteps moving closer, I gasped as he reappeared standing right in front of me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, hanging his head.

I stared at him for a moment, unsure of what to say next, eventually saying quietly, “why didn’t you tell me? Do you know how lonely I felt when I learned I had these powers?” I said, balling a flame into my hand. “I thought I was a freak! I thought the world was going to be scared and run from me. I had no idea- and you just sat there, watching me struggle. You obviously know how they work. You could have helped me. I thought I just had to figure them out alone, and you-you could have helped.” A single tear broke free from my eye, rolling down my cheek, burning all the while.

“I was told to hide it,” he whispered, picking his head up. “And so I did. For fifteen years. Maktu helped me keep it hidden. He said there was a reason people in my family were all such good warriors. Apparently, it was because we were each born with our own unique ability which was passed down through blood but was different each time. Unlike your family, which we had to protect, you got your power because you were chosen by the gods and had the blood of them, too. In a way, you are a god, but we’re just half-gods.”

“So… you hid it from me because I had to discover our history myself,” I said quietly, watching his eyes. He nodded.

“Afi, I’m so sorry,” he said, taking my hand. I realized my flame had extinguished over the course of our conversation.

“It’s okay,” I sniffled, unsure why this meant so much to me. We paused for a moment, neither of us saying anything or moving. Until finally, I wiped my tear from my face, asking, “how long does it work for?”

He chuckled with a relieved smile, then said, “as long as I can keep concentration on staying invisible, why?”

“Because I think it’s our ticket out’ ta here.”