A Stranger to Our Legacy- Book One: Human Nature

Chapter Four: The Past

Rince did not like to think of the past. The past was a black hole full of regrets and pain he didn't want to remember. But he always remembered. He remembered the past when he wrote, when he walked, and especially around Tasha and Solva.

Solva.

Oh god Solva.

He hated remembering Solva. Although really, he didn't hate the memories; He hated himself for having to live with those memories. It was his fault really. It had all been his fault.

She had almost been on top of the world. For years she had fought her way to the top of the ancient earth, a queen with powers thought to be a gift from the gods. Both he and she knew otherwise. Rince had been by her side always, and known the deepest secrets of her mind and heart.

Everyone under her assumed that Solva's power to manipulate, to control, to conquer, came without consequence. She was practically a god herself after all. But, Rince knew. And what Rince knew would have horrified the minds of many. After all, he had been there when it started.

It had started with nightmares.

They were both only kids. Solva was neither a queen nor a princess. She was just Solva. And Rince was simply Rince. Yet both were inseparable.

Solva had been a native to the tribe that took in Rince, and she had been the one to find the boy buried in the sand. The boy, who knew nothing of his own past except for his name, was brought into the tribe and joined them. Solva taught him the ways to live in the vast desert, and he taught her and the others legends of civilizations that were nowhere near the tribes people. To this day he never knew how he knew what he did. It was simply there.

Solva and Rince bonded fast, and often times the chief would check on his daughter, only to find her and the strange boy from the sands curled up around each other, asleep and fingers entwined in a silent promise. A promise that had yet to be spoken aloud.

But, with how close the two were, it was only natural that he'd notice first when the nightmares started.

They began as small things.

Trickling into her dreams like claws of shadow, inching through her mind steadily. And then they stopped. But only for a moment.

Then they were back and running through everything, destroying her mind little by little each night. Rince was her only comfort. He was there, always, shaking her awake, squeezing her hand, holding her as she cried or until she calmed down. But, then, he would tell stories. Magnificent and beautifuls things that seemed to take away all of Solva's problems; at least for a time. He told of great heroes who would one day topple mountains and armies that attacked the sea. And that's what kept the girl sane.

For a long period of time, quite possibly years, Solva had taken to going days, even weeks without sleep before finally collapsing. The family and other members of the tribe had handed over most of Solva's care to Rince by that time, unsure really of what to do at all. And care for her he did. Even through the days where she was trapped in her mind with whatever horrors had snuck in, he was there. And as she went longer and longer without sleep, the nightmares grew stronger. And so did something else.

They were now about seventeen each. The tribe had moved on, taking them to a land north from the sand wastes. People known as Egyptians with vast and great cities hesitantly allowed the tribespeople in. After all, when the group appeared from a land previously untraveled for the Egyptians, it was wise to be careful around them.

Soon after settling in near the outskirts of a small village was when the physical changes started. It really began with a scratch though, on the back of her neck.