Tanare Theogoulus: Out of the Marsh

Unknown power

  I stayed and watched, not wanting to be seen. Suddenly, I felt a knife press against my throat - I was pulled back against another robed man. A dark, tall mer, like his brethren. He whispered into my ear, "Don't try anything." I felt a hand shove me forward, he was pushing me out into the open. He shouted, "HEY! Drop your weapons, or the hatchling gets sent back to the Hist!" My parents halted their efforts and gazed on, eyes full of dread. I didn't know what to do, terror gripped me. I saw them slowly put their weapons down onto the ground, which only built more anxiety in my stomach. The armored ones forced their hands behind their backs, began tying them in place. Everything was going so fast that my mind couldn't keep up, and that fiery feeling continued boiling over. It felt... hot.

  Then... a memory came to me. A raw feeling in my gut that brought this nostalgia to the forefront of my mind.One day, when I was but eight cycles old, I was walking outside after a thunderstorm. My parents always told me to not touch any metal during or after a thunderstorm, like the metal was dangerous. After a few hours of wandering, I stumbled across a large chunk of seared metal, it was resting on top of some scorched branches and vines on the dry ground. Dry ground was unusual after a storm, especially in the marsh, so it caught my attention. I thought about it, swearing I had recognized it from somewhere. As I looked up I saw it must have been separated from the nearby temple, this temple having been abandoned by our people for a long time. I heard it had been hit with lightning from the nasty storms before, but never has a piece just... broken off. I assumed it had been a while since it was struck, maybe from the previous rain. I reached out to it, egged on by some unknown force, like I was going to move it or something, but when I touched it... 

  I felt a jolt of pain, and a searing heat bled through my body like none other. I was held in place by it before somehow ripped myself from it, my limbs shaking and shivering with shock as I twitched on the ground for a while. My hands, the scales on them were charred, I could hardly feel them for some time after, even when I stumbled home and had the burns cared for. That feeling though, the shock, the burning, it was exactly like what I felt now...

  Then, in an instant, it exploded forth from my body. A massive, viscous and unshapely wave of energy, a substance that felt like lightning and fire. The person holding me was sent flying into a tree, but the knife he was wielding left a nasty cut on my neck. I began losing blood, all too quickly. As it gushed, I instinctively reached my hand out to fling this unknown power towards the dark mer. A blue, crackling fireball erupted from my hands. He raised his shield, but not in time to even hope to deflect the mysterious force that engulfed his body. The rest of what happened was blurry; My parents rushed to my side, I know that, but at the time my mind was consumed by the magics I bathed in. It writhed, over and beneath my skin, as I threw out bolt after bolt of unbridled... something. 

  The blood I was losing, though, proved more grievous than my body could handle. Everything went dark, followed by a murky, watery abyss - though there was no water. Only dry air, or, a lack of air.I looked up and saw, what I could swear on my life, were...The stars of the night sky.

  I thought I would wake up. Then I didn't. I was still in the abyss.As I looked around I noticed the same bright blue lightning covering my body, but it didn't feel any different. I floated around what felt like... A whole day? Hours or weeks or maybe in between? I cannot tell... But I suddenly violently jolted upright in my bed. My neck hurt, I reached up to feel it and found a damp, bloodied cloth.'What... What happened?' was all I could think as I sat, hurting and weak, feeling like all of my energy had been sapped directly from my body.