The Quest for Normania #1: The Door of Andrios

38. Despairing Minds

Hamsa knew she was doomed the moment the grass rose from the under the ground and sand poured forth.

After the rather unsettling reunion with her teacher, however brief, Hamsa felt like a Killer Swan no longer, but like the scared little girl she had been when she had first arrived in Marina. She could no longer distinguish between right and wrong as clearly as she had just moments before, could feel her emotions splayed all over her chest and face, could not hide her own agony as she felt it piercing through her heart repeatedly.

'I must get away from here,' she thought suddenly, standing up. 'I have no use for a brain that won't work – I need to be able to think clearly... All this moral attitude going through it won't do.'

She went into her hut and gathered everything she owned: A pair of quick silver twin-daggers, the quick silver dagger she had killed her last assignment – 'Dani,' she thought with a remorse she never thought she had in her – with, and a flask she kept to store water whenever she visited the river. Then, she headed back outside.

It was precisely at this point that she felt the ground shaking beneath her. She hopped away and there, exactly where she had been standing, the ground rose, taking apart the grass like pieces of a puzzle, stood a giant monster she had never seen.

It roared; then, it spotted her.

At first, it continued to roar, before it closed its mouth and silence reigned.

Hamsa blinked, wondering what it was that made the creature still the way it did. Was she not the target it sought? She could sense the pit of Darkarous all over it and internally cringed. Whoever could be mad enough to summon a beast from a place worse than hell?

She stood her ground, though, ensuing a staring match with the monster.

And then, just like that, it made something like a bow and turned away.

Hamsa was more taken aback, though she recovered quickly enough. She contemplated asking the creature what it wanted, but refrained herself: 'Darkarous monsters better not be messed with,' she warned herself. 'Who knows what words pouring out of me would make me its next target? I'm not now, so that should be enough.' She tried not to let her rising curiosity get the better of her.

She stared as the lanky monster dragged itself away from her. 'It's going into the city,' she noted. 'What could possibly be there that would engulf it in wrath?' And then, it struck her and her eyes went wide. Images raced through her mind: of a burning village; flames rising higher than she could see with her short height; people she knew so well running helter-skelter; her own mother pushing her onward; out of the city and towards the forest, before collapsing in a fit of coughs, never to rise again.

"Go, child, go away from here," she had rasped. "Go, live your life in peace! Find a family you'll be safe with and who will never leave you! Go!"

Now, at the recollection, Hamsa's eyes began to fog up, but she rubbed the tears off of them, unwilling to give in so easily. She was raised to fight for survival and that was exactly what she would do, how she would tackle this. She wasn't going to let hope desert her just yet...

Her knees gave in and she collapsed. With a gasp, she wondered, 'How long ago was it that I had food? Earlier this morning? No, last night; I went on the assignment first thing after I woke up.' The sky above her was foggy and grey, despite it being just afternoon; it looked like the sun had already set. Her stomach growled and she doubled over. 'I have used up too much of my stamina. I can't... take... another step...'

And right there, she fell heavily on the grass, her eyes closing, and her mind going completely blank.

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