The Legend of Aireta -- Ascending Shades

Part I: Contract Chapter 7: The Offer

The world was dim, even as Kinos opened his eyes. Where am I?

Leaves rustled as he adjusted himself. He groaned as he registered the soreness on his back. His neck felt stiff, too, and his head buzzed slightly. Everything else, however, felt fine. It was as if he'd never fought a legendary Kerean soldier and been blasted down the agora.

Kinos shot up, the leaves falling off him and his back cracking. It was dark, yet the sturdy forms of oak trees were visible. That was right. After being blasted away, Kinos had managed to sprint to the river and hop in. He'd let it carry him for a while until he'd emerged in the Notikeh Forest. Afterwards, he'd concealed his tracks as best he could, then had gone to a portion of the forest with a great cluster of trees. There was a little shade where Kinos gathered branches and leaves, which he'd used to cover himself in case anyone was on his tail. The whole ordeal had been agony. Even holding the red mageia, he'd passed out once his preparations had been completed.

Kinos opened his palm. The red stone glowed, giving a bit more light. He sighed in relief, then clenched the mageia. He felt its energy, but that didn't take away his back and neck pain. It can keep me active, but not heal me.

So why were his wounds mostly healed? Kinos leaned against a tree, resting the back of his head on the hard bark. This buzz in his head was like the fuzz he always felt when he escaped dangerous situations unharmed, only lighter. Kinos brushed his ear stud. At least you can help me, somehow.

He closed his eyes and smiled. Normally, it was always so bright that the light would seer his sight even with his eyes closed. It must be the week's tenth day where the Light Lord rested.

Kinos' eyes flung open and he shot to his feet, ignoring his sore back and neck. If it were the tenth day, then Kinos had been sleeping for at least twenty hours!

He began to move downhill. He had to leave the forest, and this direction would bring him to the river. Lord only knew what had happened to Aula. He hadn't meant leave her behind! What if those Kerean bastards had –?

Kinos tripped on a rock he hadn't seen. He latched onto a tree, holding himself up. Wait a minute...

The sky darkened on the tenth day, but never to this degree. Even beneath the shade of the forest, it shouldn't be this difficult to see his surroundings. And now focusing on the dark, a chill ran down his spine. It was so very like the one he'd sensed from Heles' governor.

"Hey," Kinos said, glancing about. "Anyone there?"

He'd run to this forest because the large shadow had been sighted here. He'd hoped it would scare away any pursuing soldiers who didn't want to meet a legitimate Shade. Clearly that had worked, as he wasn't arrested or dead, but maybe it had worked a bit too well.

"It's not nice to keep a guy waiting," Kinos said, touching his ear stud to calm his heart. "Especially me. I'm not used to being stood up."

"You're not in any position to make demands," a rasping voice said from the darkness. "And I hate passive-aggressive speech like yours."

Kinos stared at the source of the voice. Breathe in... breathe out... "And I hate people who are more dramatic than me. Looks like we're going to be the best of friends."

As if coalesced from the darkness itself, an elongated, translucent shape formed before Kinos. Its eyes were orbed and jutting like a bug and its teeth were shattered as it had been too smart to an ill-tempered smith bearing a heavy mallet. Hair fell down its body in thin clumps, like stretched worms that wriggled through mud. It stood tall, its limbs twice the length of its upper torso, each of its digits stretched and pointed like claws. A bracelet with leaf-like patterns wrapped around its left wrist. What looked like pieces of cloth covered bits of its upper chest and groin region and splotches of partially see-through skin were darker than others. A tight necklace clung to the base of its protracted neck.