Elemental Institutes: The Finding

prologue

Sometimes, during bad nights, I dream. I dream of my mother's face, surrounded with yellow light, looking at me, lovingly, happily. I see her hair, her cheeks, and then when I turn to her eyes, her piercing green eyes, they turn to fear. I try to hold on to the sight of those eyes and search them for what might be going on, but I don't find anything. Then something suddenly separates us, and then I am alone.

I push the door an inch, and a slice of light comes through. When I peek through the door, the first thing I see is the fire on the ground. It burns level with me, for I was on the ground, but the wooden floor doesn't scorch up. I hear voices, simultaneously chanting. They were three women, all with piercing green eyes.

The red flames seemed to outline a circle, and in the middle of it is thick black smoke and appeared as if it was being sucked together. A foul smell hung in the air as the pillar of smoke became denser and denser. The flames roared upwards and everything was on fire.

I ran, my shoes crunching on the pavement. I ran as much as I could, from whatever I was running from. I slipped on loose gravel but strong familiar arms caught me. She held me tight as she ran that I could not move. I struggled, but Dante would not let me go. I managed to get my head above her shoulder to see what she was running away from. There was dense black smoke rushing at us like a whizzing arrow. I was petrified, for the dark smoke had a face and yellow eyes.

A man with black eyes with no whites looked down at my five year-old figure. Dante was not holding me now, she was beside me. I saw my mother, her green eyes blazing, as she lashed at the man with some kind of weapon. The man screamed as he was engulfed in flames. Dante was not holding me now, she was lying beside me, her white buttoned blouse soaked in blood, and her eyes were closed.

These are the horrid dreams I get, so realistic that they seemed true. These dreams, I usually forget, but not this time.