Finding Hearts (Nanowrimo Entry)

Finding Hearts Chap. 1

The trek around the pond was insufferable. Over and over again, one foot and then another in an endless cycle. I had lost count of how many times I'd made the same loop along with any feeling in my legs long ago. Around the water there were piles of sand on either side of a knee deep trench. My feet had touched the same sand so many times not even the frequent sand storms could stop the formation of the ditch I was still traipsing through.

The sand in my lungs was painful, scratching at my insides and sifting uncomfortably with every breath. My throat was sore, also caked with sand, and my chest was heaving. I was utterly exhausted. This was a necessary evil, I knew instinctually that it was; as a Kappa, a demon of the sand, nearing my middle years remaining sedentary was not an option and I could no longer afford my awkward four legged gait. However, my increasing fatigue was beginning to outweigh even my common sense. I wanted nothing more than to collapse where I was and sleep until I could sleep no more.

Suddenly a dark voice rang loudly in my ears, "Get moving Fan, I won't allow you to stop now." The voice of my Patron god, Seraph, knocked me abruptly from my thoughts and back to my senses.

Confused, I saw that the world had stopped spinning and realized that I had stopped walking unknowingly. Mumbling begrudging thanks, I started up again, trying to ignore the protests of my overworked body. Rubbing the sand from my face, I went back to putting one foot in front of the other.

"That's my girl, a few more days of this and you'll be fully prepared. Just in time too." Seraph sounded proud and I couldn't help but smile despite my current state. However, I didn't share his faith in me.

I was worried, "I don't think I can manage this for another day, let alone a few of them."

The need to continue was like a fire in my veins, hotter than any sun, but the grief of my body had become too much quite some time ago and I could only wonder how long sheer will power would keep it running.

Though I could not see him, I felt Seraph shake his head and his exasperation in the breeze that followed, ruffling my hair and sweeping some of the sand from my body away.

"You must put more faith in yourself, this is not something I can help you with. In another week you will fall from my grasp and then you will hear of me no more. I need you to survive. It seems fate has had a hand in fashioning my emotions. I have formed a strange attachment to you. It seems I would miss you if you were to die." Seraph trailed off, his breeze stirring ever so slightly with his unrest.

It seemed as though he was truly worried for me, a feeling I was honored by. A patron taking further interest in his charges than necessary was rare, but I couldn't dwell on his words, something else had consumed my thoughts...

One week.

I had one week left and then I would be thrown out into the "real" world, whether I was ready or not. Once I saw my thirteenth moon I would be fair prey, out from under the patronage of Seraph where Kappa younglings were protected from all hardships, half way through my life and an adult. The older Kappa and other demons would besiege me, out to claim my territory, my treasures, things that I did not yet know how to protect. Kappa did not develop the knowledge of combat until 16 moons, until then I would be unable to fight back, all I could do was flee. But to even have the option of escape I needed to be able to run, something that I couldn't do instinctually on my doe legs; as a Kappa I had to strengthen them first. And so Seraph had commanded me to walk around my abode until I could walk no longer in a grueling attempt to build the necessary muscles. My territory was little more than a small desert oasis, its pool large enough for no more than a few elephants, an equally small cave, and several rocks and palm trees, nothing like what an adult kappa might own, but large enough that after more than 200 times around I could no longer see straight.