Last Scion Of The Sun

Tragedy

Year 147 of the imperial calendar of sun.
Inside the gutter of the Surya empire, a young boy who barely seemed to be the age of thirteen was scavenging for the crumbs of food and occasional coins dropped by the people above the gutter.
With no light whatsoever, the place looked as dark as the night sky. And the only occasional light illuminating some places of the gutter was the light from the above barbed manholes.
One would faint by the stinking smell of the gutter, let alone roam freely inside the gutter. Yet the boy roamed around the gutter as if he was taking a stroll.
Despite the pitch black darkness of the gutter limiting his vision, his eyes seemed well adapted to the darkness. Unaffected by the darkness, he searched for the fallen food crumbs and coins lying around the gutter while humming a sweet melody.
As the luminous glow of the moonlight entered through the tiny holes of the manholes.
At a certain distance away from him where the moonlight casted it's shadow, a shiny object caught his attention. He hurriedly rushed towards the source of the light.
"A silver coin? It's my lucky day"
He let out a euphoric roar as he began to jump in ecstasy while holding the silver coin in his hand.
Boom! Bam! Bam!
Suddenly a loud noise prolonged from the surface above, interrupting his joyous moment.
"What's that?"
He staggered as the sudden noise from above startled him.
Immediately the loud noise was followed by screams of people. Some begging for help, some asking to be saved, some begging for mercy and some mourning the death of their loved ones.
Unable to endure the painful screams of the people above the surface, he immediately covered his ears and crawled over the floor. The painful screams of the people horrified him.
He continued to stay rolled up inside the gutter while covering his ears. He dared not to inspect the surface above.
Dust fell from above him, while the ground above him violently shook. He could vividly feel the footsteps of the people running for their life. The sound of the bodies falling apart and the sounds of the methodical footsteps of an organised groups of people.
For the whole time, he laid down covering his ears and closing his eyes, he could feel the horrible screams of people begging for help.
The horrible screams of people haunted him as he continued to ignore their plea for help. Unconsciously he started to tremble.
After sometime, the screams of the people died down. And so did the footsteps of the people faded away. He slowly lowered down his hands, uncovering his ears. His hands trembled as he rested it on his laps.
An ethereal silent followed through after the horrifying screams.
As he strolled his head to the manhole above him, a lifeless body of a person laid atop him. It's widely opened eyes and the grim expression on it's face gave out a impression of it watching over the cowardice of the boy all along.
The horrifying expression of the person atop him, terrified him. Terrified by the person who laid atop him, a chill ran down his spine. He then staggered and fell down on his ass.
"No, no, no. I didn't ignore you. Please don't hurt me."
He mumbled in desperation as he shrinked in a corner.
Yet the person above him kept his mouth shut and continued to look at him. The person neither moved nor talked while the boy continued to plead for his life. A long silence followed through.
Unable to hear a response from the person atop him, he slowly raised his head above to peek at him. This time too, he was scared by the person's relentless gaze.
But upon seeing the unresponsiveness of the person and the same expression which the person exuded since the moment he met his eyes. He assumed the person to be dead.
The height of the gutter made it possible for him to reach the manhole just by jumping. To test out his assumption, he jumped and touched the face of the person. Yet the person didn't even blink his eyes. Just as he touched the face of the person, droplet of blood fell on his cheeks.
"What's this?"
He wiped the blood of his cheek and scanned his hands.
"Blood!"
Apathetically, he exclaimed.
His eyes showed no signs of fear as he calmly evaluated the blood in his hands.
While living in slums, he had witnessed countless dead bodies of people. And the appearance of blood to him wasn't a new thing at all.
The only reason he got scared previously was because of the guilt of not helping the man when he cried for help.
He had been living his whole life in slums with only his mother. He's not aware of the whereabouts of his father. Infact he doesn't even have a clue on who his father is, as he has not seen him from the time he was born.
But it's not like he wasn't curious about his father either.
Once, when he tried to inquire about his father, his mother harshly scolded him. Sensing the anger in her, he naturally stopped inquiring further about his father.
After that, neither has his mother ever mentioned anything about his father and nor had he further inquired about him. Thus he naturally assumed that his father died or left them. And he considered himself as a fatherless child.
His mother, a cheerful young lady who looked too beautiful to live in slum was his only relative in the whole wide world. She meant the whole world to him.
While thinking of his mother, he staggeringly ran towards the exit of the gutter. The gutter stretched far from the city towards hills of the slum.
As he reached the exit of the gutter, he glanced  at the city beneath the hills but what awaited him was a sight of complete disolation.
The whole city was tattered and torn down. The streets, the houses, the trees everything was burning. As the fires raged, the whole city was covered in smoke as if a war took place in that short span of time when he was inside the gutter.
Bodies of people laid everywhere he looked. Rivers of blood flowed all around the drainage of the city. The torn down city gave an impression of a soulless barren wasteland.
What once seemed to be like a lively city was reduced to nothing but ashes.
"What in the heavens, happened here?"
A grim look overshadowed his whole face, as he looked down the city.
Quickly regaining his senses, he stormed towards his home. His house being in slums, he anticipated it to be untouched by the tragedy which had befallen upon the city. But how wrong he was, nothing escaped from the clutch of the war. Even the slums was flattened out.
As he walked down the dirt paths of the slums, bodies of people laid everywhere. Tattered structures of the already tattered houses. Walls dyed with blood. And soulless bodies of people laid everywhere around the slums.
While still hoping for his mother to be alive, he hurriedly ran towards his home. With tears in his eyes and hope in his heart, he ran as fast as he could.
Finally, he reached his home. As soon as he got there he found the whole house run down as if bulldozed by a crane.
"Mother! Mother! Mother"
He cried in desperation, calling out for his mother.
His loud voice filled with sadness reverberated all around the neighborhood. Yet nothing could be heard beside his voice.
While trying to clear the rubbles of the torn apart place, he desperately searched for his mother. As he cleared the rubbles of the tattered house, several cuts appeared all over his hands. His hands were covered in terrible cuts and abrasions.
Despite that he continued to look for his mother. Finally after a desperate long search, he found a hand stretching out from one of the debris. He looked at the tender hand stretching out the debris. As soon as he glanced at the hand, tears started rolling down his eyes.
He could no longer contain his emotions. He started to weep like a child while he continued to remove the debris atop the hand.
His measly strength being too inferior to lift up the heavy debris, he couldn't lift it. With all his might, he pushed the debris, but it refused to bulge even an inch.
His bruised hands bled as he continued to push the massive debris.
Unable to move the heavy debris, he looked around him to find something to remove the debris. His teary eyes made it hard for him to properly look around him. Yet he found a log around the corner. He quickly grabbed the log and placed it under the boulder.
As he pushed the log with as much might as he could, the boulder finally moved. After continuous pushing, finally the boulder rolled aside.
Beneath the heavy boulder, there lied the crushed body of his mother. He could instantly recognise the body of his mother.
"No, no, no. Noo......"
He let out a dreadful scream.
Grieving over the death of his mother, he lifted her head and placed it on top of his laps as he ran down his finger while caressing through her silky smooth black hair.
While staring at her brownish eyes, he wept like a kid. He couldn't believe the sight which was unfolding before his eyes.