Arynthe's Story

To clean a planet

15 br.

Back on Old Ashiria, my first love Keran once took me to the forest. 

"You know," he said, "at school they said that if you put blood on wood, it explodes." 
"Did you believe that?" I laughed. "No way it'll actually explode."
"Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?" Keran laughed.

He rolled up his sleeve and took a knife from his pocket. I stared at his bare arm. The little sunlight that pierced though the leaves reflected on his thin anteron.

"You're not actually going to do that, right?" I asked.
Keran laughed carelessly. "We need blood for this experiment," he said, "and I'm not stabbing a lady."
"I don't need you to stab me," I hissed, and snatched the knife from his hand. "I can stab myself! You watch!"

I smashed it into my right arm. Way too hard. The cold metal of the knife cut deep through the warm metal of my body. It hurt insanely, but I didn't show that. When I took the knife out of the wound, the blood started pouring over the edge of the cut. 

"Whatever," Keran said. He was trying to hide he was shocked, but he wasn't very good at hiding his feelings. "Let's find some wood." He broke a stick from the tree next to him.
Now I started to get doubts. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked, and covered the wound with my left hand. "I mean, what if it does explode?"
"Dashai kiregle anteri porillik," Keran replied, and held the stick under my wounded arm. "Now let it flow."

Dashai kiregle anteri porillik. I started to laugh. It was Tarinkhee for "I'm not armoured for nothing". I took my hand off the wound and let the blood fall on the wooden stick.

185 ar. 

I was not armoured for nothing. I shook the haze out of my head and got up. The explosion had sent me flying, but not even far enough to reach the army. They stood there as if they were frozen, just watching me trying to regain my balance. The dirt of the street stang like crazy in the wound on my leg. 

"Peaceful, right?" I suddenly heard a voice say. 

I turned and saw Zad walking up to me from another street. 

"You here?" I asked. "I must be hallucinating."
"I'm real," Zad replied. "Sit down. That cut there needs to be closed right now."
I sat down and glanced at the army. "What are you waiting for, you fools?!" I shouted. "Go take over the Team Tower!"

They needed that. Zad was sitting next to me just in time to avoid a wall of running people to come between us. He washed the wound and closed it. By the time he was done, the army had moved past us.

"Why did you come after all?" I asked.
Zad laughed softly. "You know," he said, "I've done some evil things. You know what I mean. So I asked myself, if I can do all that, why can't I fight for a good cause in some other ways?"
"Well," I laughed, "I'm glad you're not too late to miss all the fun. Let's go!"