Creation: The Primordial Era (Creation Series, Book 2)

It Starts With A Choice.

Oracion's POV

With each passing minute, the panic on those survivors slowly ceases as they notice the light from the sky beckoning closer to us. The once squishy platform that we stand on, almost perfectly solidified, leaving a spiral pattern behind as it blends itself into the stone that lays across the land.

A sickening verification hits me as I look onward to see the Veil, confirming that we were indeed outside of it. "Home? We made it?" One yells, setting them off as their worn out shoes carry them towards the inside of the Veil, giving them the safety they've used to.

"You did that, nobody else." Freya comments.

"Did what?" I respond.

"You put those smiles on their faces" She smiles, gesturing to them with the energy of enthusiasm that she has left.

A smile to an emotion, a level of happiness that I brought to them, but what Freya misunderstands is that, "They're not smiling for me. They're smiling that they're home. A happiness that I'm beginning to forget.' I think to myself, blurring my vision the more I'm left alone to my thoughts.

Almost like clockwork, as they enter the Veil, they fall to their knees. "What's wrong!?" Requis shouts to them as they look around, cluelessly.

"Oracion!?" They all yell towards me.

"Quickly, we shouldn't be outside!" Akira extends his hand out to me through the Veil.

My stomach twists along with my emotions as I force myself to walk forward to them. Each step I take only feeling heavier than the last. Eventually, I stand before Akira's hand. Unbeknownst to me, my friends have already entered and are waiting for me. But here I am, hesitating.

"C'mon" he encourages, and so I fill his hand with my own.

He attempts to pull me in but I remain solid as my eyes lock down onto something. "What's wrong, did he get sick from something?" He asks the others with genuine confusion. "Is there something on me?" He points at himself.

I however, wasn't looking at him in the slightest. But instead a bit off behind him, there was something earning my full attention. The trees that bended to the breath of the beast within Xandier's story. A sight only visible from outside of the Veil, the same side from where Indura was being taken. I look behind me, realising that previously gaping hole was what we came up from.

"Give his hand to me." Freya bumps him out of the way, grabbing me and pulling me in forcefully, causing me to fall to my two hands as I stare at the floor with a blank face.

"You...were all walking fine. Moments ago." I look around at him, slumped and almost helpless like a toddler seeking attention from their carer.

"We wer-e leaning on y-ou?" One tries to answer with a weak voice, different than before.

"You weren't." I deadpan.

"This isn't something to discuss out here, let's all get back to the village." Requis advises, lifting me up with a hand and encouraging the others to walk on their own as best they can.

-

"Guys they're back!" Letha calls out from the gate, standing beside Casei.

Looking back at them, I can't help but see them as nothing more than lifeless zombies. They ran to the Veil, full of life and energy. But now look at them, barely able to take step forward without stumbling towards their loved ones.

Embraced by the ones who swore to stand by them no matter what, wanted and praised by those who admire them. I stare around at them, jealous. "Where were you?" Letha asks me.