Islands of the Sky

Chapter 5- The Beast of the Night

"Every person has their own demons..."

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I jumped out of the way as Micros charged in his beast form, clearly aiming to kill me from where the horn ended up.

"Please Micros, stop and think about what you're doing. I know I should have come to this island more often, but I didn't and that is my fault. I'm sorry." Micros turned to me, pawing the dirt with the hooves of the animal form he was in.

"Kiero, get down. I can help." Frinnick jumped in front of me and closed his eyes. I could feel a shift in the energy around him. It all flowed forward instead of bouncing around him like it had before. He opened his eyes along with his fist and a small ball of flame formed in his hand. He threw it onto the ground and the fire roared to life. He reached his hand into the fire and when he pulled it back, it looked like a sword, but made of burning hot flames.

Micros' beast form seemed to hesitate with the fire and Micros changed back to human only to say this. "If we fight here, it will only lead to more damage and I don't want any more damage to my island." Micros looked into the dirt and it was clear that he wanted us to leave. Pain struck my heart like a bell on the day of someone's wedding.

"If that's what you wish, I can only hope to abide by your wish. I do apologize for any disturbance we have caused your land." I grab Frinnick's shoulder, pulling him back and I bow to Micros, waving my hand over the fire. It dulls down soon vanishing.

"I'll take you home. It's getting dark soon, come on." I motioned to Frinnick to get on Griffin. At first, he only stood there and opened his mouth to protest, but I shot him a look to shut it and get on.

"Okay, fine.  Just drop me off at Fire Island. I can make it home from there." He swung onto Griffin's back whom had been tense and ready for a fight.

" Again, I'm sorry, Micros. I hope one day you will understand I'm not the bad guy. I'm just flawed like everyone else." I stared at him desperately in my last attempt to reach for him to understand.

"Just go, Kiero. Whether you're the bad guy or not, I don't care. You weren't here." Micros turned away and walked toward the hills where I'm guessing all the flocks lived.

I sighed in defeat and grabbed Griffin's neck, half to get on and the other half to support myself. Griffin reached over and nuzzled me with his snout. Swinging myself on, I took one last look at Animal Island and gently tapped Griffin's sides with my heels, cuing him we had to go.

"Kiero, you know my dad once told me this and I feel like you could here it now. Not every person in this world will like you." Frinnick gently grabbed my shoulder as his way of saying, I'm here.

"That's a solid piece of advice. I thank you for it." I sighed and shrugged his hand off and waited calmly in the gloomy silence for us to land on Fire Island.

*****

I heard the familiar sound of the back wall being opened so we could enter my house back on the Core Island. Sitting up, I found that my ears hadn't tricked me and we were home.

Griffin walked and bent close to the floor so I could get off easily and I did just that. I petted his snout and let my desire to be alone tonight flow into him through the link so he would know what words never seemed to express the right way.

I walked down the corridor, my mind racing on the day's events and on the fact that I found two descendants of the Beast's of Balance. Most importantly, why now ? What could be coming that their power would surface again or could this all be a coincidence? No, it can't be a coincidence, so why now? What have you thrown my way now, Shazo? All these thoughts raced through my head as I began to let my mind wander and trusted my body to take me to my room.