Daughter of a Demon

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR - And it Starts

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

And it Starts

I woke up with a strange feeling. Something wasn't right.

Twigs snapped as I sat up in my nest-like bed and shadows murmured to themselves incoherently.

Hushed whispers that echoed around the dulled cave walls.

The feeling didn't go away and I felt suddenly nauseous as I looked upon Cuan's dead body lying beside me.

Death was not a good colour on him.

His skin had gone a milky shade of white and I could see the blackness of his eyes through his nearly transparent eyelids.

His once strong and muscular body had become weak and dead, with all signs of life long gone. I dry heaved as my eyes traced the way his skin was pulled taunt over grotesquely shaped bone.

And I stood up in a haze, stumbling to get away from death's friendly face.

But I froze midstep and fell to my knees as I saw that the world was pitchblack outside the cave and my father was blocking the entrance.

His ashen lips were smeared into a smile but it wasn't a happy one. More of a melancholy smile. It drooped slightly at the edges.

"What is this? Why are you here?"

I came back for you. I will always come back for you.

"What did you do?" I stood up and looked back at the sombre heap that was Cuan.

"What did you do to him?"

Nothing. It is always this way, and will always be this way when I visit you.

He turned around and looked out at the awaiting abyss outside.

It's strange isn't it?

"What?" I looked back at Cuan one last time and cautiously approached him. My father.

The shadows are always so quiet before the dawn. It's almost as if - he paused in contemplation - they're waiting for something.

For something to happen.

He turned to face me and I involuntarily took a step back. But he didn't seem to notice.

I ignored the way his figure loomed over me, as if he were a disfigured shadow, and looked him in the eye.

His eyes weren't really eyes. Just empty sockets that resembled two dark holes in his human-like face. The shadows saw for him and he could see whatever they did.

He was everywhere at once and, at the same time, nowhere.

There is a time of violence ahead and a time of great - he paused on the word as if to test it's quality or usefulness - sorrow.

I warned you of this in the river.

I nodded my head and thought of the strange cold feeling as the river water surged into my lungs and the sudden burning sensation that came after.

I will not let you wait for this violence unprepared. I will not let you die so young and inexperienced.

He looked away but I still heard the words escape his lips.

Your mother would have hated that.

"So, what? Are you going to teach me how to fight?" A smile tried to spread itself out across my lips but I held them tightly shut and frowned for effect.

I think he would've smiled as well.

Yes.

And he was gone as the first rays of sun peaked over the distant horizon like the feelers of a wary insect.

I opened my eyes and shuddered as a feeling of misplacement made my brain strangely blurry.

Cuan yawned and stretched and fell asleep once more as he sprawled his arm across my back.

His warmth was the best thing in the world and goosebumps rose on my arms. I snuggled deeper under his weight, trying to bury myself in twigs and leaves.

And for a moment, just for a moment, that was my entire life. Right then.

All I saw was darkness and the small fractions of light that escaped through my nest's protective layers. I felt safe and content. And I wanted this to last for an eternity.

I could smell the earth from the leaves and I could smell Cuan. I love how he smells.

I buried my nose against his skin and he shifted whilst mumbling something about the sun.

Sticking my head up above the safety of the nest, I stared at the suprisingly welcome white light.
It seared through my thoughts and they died as all I saw and all I knew was the sun.

This beautiful warmth that engulfed me and raised the hairs on my limbs.

I looked back down at Cuan's sleeping face and knew that I would have to see him dead every time Noctis came to me before the dawn.

I touched his cheek and stroked away a lock of unruly hair from his sleeping eyes.

The thought didn't really bother me now because it was morning and he was alive.