Regions of Saleen

Regions of Saleen - Ch.2 - Part 3

<Sorry it's been so long since I've added to the story!>

I repeat his name back to myself, wondering what question I should ask first.

"How old are you, Illias?"                                                                                                                     

"Sixteen."

He was the same age as me. I was completely dumbfounded. How could there possibly be someone else like me, who taught him the ways and more importantly, were there even more?

"I'm also sixteen. Are there more of you?" I ask, praying that he couldn't sense my eagerness.

"None that I know of, I'm the last one in the village that knows the ways. I'm completely alone."

"That's not true!  I also know the ways. My mother was brought here before I was born and I've lived my entire life in the confines of these damp walls."

"Your whole life?" His voice was only but a whisper now, saturated in undeniable sorrow.

"Every moment."

I heard him move around on the other side of the wall and I pressed my ear against the cold, rough wall in attempt to hear what he was doing.

"Come over here, to my voice. I found a crack in the wall. I want to see you, Alura. "

It was the first time in my life someone had said my aloud. I was more commonly than not referred to by "you" or "girl." I followed his voice and ran my fingertips along the wall, feeling for the crack he had mentioned. Eventually I felt it and looked through it only to be greeted by a single sparkling blue eye staring back at me.

"Lilac eyes and blonde-silver hair," Illias whispered through the crack. "In the old text there is a story of a village cursed with an eternal winter."

"Snow was always on the ground and nothing grew. The village people slowly began to die off from starvation and many ended their lives once their bones began to show. Desperate to save his dying lover, a young man went into the snow covered forest."

"Within, he saw a fox with lilac eyes and a silvery coat. The man shot the fox with a single arrow, and it fell to the snow-blanketed ground, its blood staining the pure white a deep shade of crimson. Then, the snow began to melt and from the dead ground grew long green grass, and from the grass sprouted the most beautiful pink flowers with petals as soft as pure silk."

"The man came to the side of the fox and wept, realizing the beauty of the life he had taken. The grass and flowers spread and the eternal winter was transformed to a beautiful spring. The man's tears fell onto the ground and mixed with the blood to form a light pink hue. And from that pink puddle grew a large tree with lilac petals that casted a shadow over the man and the fox."

"A single petal landed on the head of the fox and its vivid lilac eyes opened, peering up at the man. The purity of the fox's life---and its sacrifice---had saved them all. So the village made a temple and prayed to the gods that the fox would come again to save then again one day."

"What are you talking about, Illias?"

"You have the same lilac eyes and silver hair of the fox."

I inhaled sharp breath. It couldn't be, it was impossible. But...I had also never been allowed to see my reflection. I was told knowing what I looked like would bring vanity and sin into my life.

"That's...impossible! It has to be a coincidence, right?"

"Alura, you could be the reincarnation of the fox.  You are meant to save people," His voice was strong and hopeful, he truly believed I had some greater purpose, one I was unaware of.

You are meant to save us all, is what he meant. 

"But Illias, what can we do from the confines of this prison? How am I to save anyone if I cannot even save myself?"

"Simple! All we have to do is just escape." 

With his bold words I could see a spark of mischief in his cerulean eyes through the crack in the wall.

"What are you waiting for, then? Let's go!"

I was sure he had some insane escape plan that involved the dramatic slamming of doors.

"Alright, so, here's the plan....."

And that was how our grand escapade began, with conspiracies and whispers through a prison-cell wall between two teenagers with the world against them.