Demi-God: The Lost

Fourty-Seven

"You're joking." Flynn mutters. He stares at the man across from him in shock. The half skeleton man, AERON ETERNALIS, Flynn's actual father is standing across from him. What should he say? Or do for that matter.

"Malin." The man rubs the back of his neck, his gaze is stuck to the ground.

"He was gonna find out eventually." She shrugs it off and walks further into the tree. "How did you accomplish this?" She gestures to all of the open space. Both father and son accept the topic change gratefully and return to the problems at hand.

"We've been carving it out since the Tree's light began fading." The Skeleton-Aeron guides them deeper into the tree. "Since the Nightmares never come this far into the city we decided to carve a safe spot into the tree in secret."

It's dark and the few light sources barely fill the area of a candle. A faint light flashes in Flynn's eyes. He stops walking and looks around. "You okay?" A small tug on his shirt brings his gaze down. It's a little boy.

"Are you okay?" He whispers again. A relatively new gash is spread across his face. The blood he's losing is enough to kill any normal person within minutes. But he doesn't die. He's already dead. His legs are nothing but bone, cut off at his waist.

Flynn lowers himself and hugs the boy gently. "I'm okay. Do you have a parent here?" The kid shakes his head. "What's your name?" The boy stares at the ground and kicks the dirt with his foot.

He doesn't have one. None of them do. They're Lost after all. "You like the color blue?" Flynn asks. The boy looks at him, "You gotta have a favorite color." His large round blue eyes look at Flynn with a growing smile.

He nods his head quickly, "Alright, we can call you Sky." Flynn grabs a light blue scarf that has white clouds covering it. He wraps the scarf around Sky's head and gives him a tight hug. "You'll be okay." He whispers.

A large flash of light fills the entire area. Flynn stands up quickly and looks around. "What's wrong?" Aeron asks. The flash happens again.

"There's a flash. Do you not see it?" Aeron looks around for Malin and shakes his head.

"You're probably exhausted. Get some rest."

"No time for that." Malin walks over and pulls Flynn to his feet. She tugs his head back and forth while checking his temperature and face for god knows what. "Any tingling feelings?" Flynn tries his best to nod with her fingers practically up his nose.

The flash happens again. Flynn pulls away from Malin. The light appeared further away this time. Flynn walks towards the center of the tree. "Flynn?" Aeron mutters.

"I don't understand." Flynn whispers.

"Life.." A voice whispers. "Protection." The voice is harsher this time. Flynn blinks and rubs his eyes. Everything is fuzzy and the flashes are getting faster.

"Hemera." A man fizzes into view. Flynn had stopped at the very core of the tree. There's a rootlike structure going up the middle and into the trunk and very top of the tree. The man is transparent, his hair is dark and his eyes are bloodshot red.

"You do not understand, Riken. The people of Tartania will seek their revenge. The Nightmare Queen will not assist the City of Lost in surviving their inevitable attack." A smaller woman appears. Her long glowy blonde hair reached her lower back. Her eyes are a beautiful golden color.

It has to be the Primordial of light herself, Hemera. "I cannot alter my mother's decision. I have attempted to reason with her but her belief that Nightmares should remain in the walls is firm. She is not so willing to endanger our people for yours." Riken. He's the first born son of Nightmare Queen Sybil.