Iron angel (Book 1 of IA)

[1] Illriya

Illyria.

That name meant everything to me; but at the time, there was very little I could do but sigh. It was near the end of July, school was set to start again in a little more than a month and that meant one month sitting on this bench contemplating the sky. It was an afternoon, cloudy as I recall.

Why?

I thought again. Then sighed dismissing further thoughts. Below me cars streamed passed, people walked by, and a few occasional punks flew by on their hover boards. The usual busy atmosphere of Ayre hadn't changed, as it continued to be the center of action in the world. Tall lean sky scrapers, patterned streets lights, people buried in their phones. All seemed normal, all was good; but I wasn't. I felt like crap, even though there were no major natural disasters and the world was at peace, mostly. I still felt like crap. And the cause for my symptom was very simple:

Illyria.

She was the center of all my troubles and happiness. Going to university meant separating from her, not that we were in a relationship; well it was kinda of one way. Heck she made me lose more sleep than an interrogated subject with absolutely no effort.

The pain! The pain!

All the pain that could not be described except by the word pain itself. But if I were to be angry, there was no one I should be angry with except myself for liking her in the first place. If only I knew that we can never be...

Curses!

I squinted my eyes in pain at the thought. But beyond anger, I was more confused than ever. Confused about what I should do, and what I should do from that point. I had a life, or at least I thought so. For the past year my life has been entirely involved around Illyria, whatever volunteer she signed up for, I signed up for. Whenever there was a peer student tutor opportunity I signed up for it, hoping one day for the chance to tutor her. For devil's sake, I even tried blending into her social circle, which was surprisingly complex and random. In the end however, I became more adapted for her social circle then herself. None of my efforts paid off though, and one by one, my friends around me who encouraged me to go after her in the first place were telling me to give up. But the problem was, even if I wanted to forget about her, I only found myself doing more harm than good to myself. Because in my world, her image was inerasable and my feelings undeniable.

If only I could go back in time and stop all of this...

A childish thought, I knew. But I was more than willing to accept anything other than the truth at the time. I buried my head into my hands and tried to calm myself. I wanted to scream, I wanted to strangle someone and it hurt. It really, really hurt.
And that's when I heard the explosion.

***

For a moment, I didn't raise my head. And when I finally did, I saw this long black trail of smoke rising up into the sky like an ancient dragon. Seeing the accident from afar, I walked over to the railing and peered down; below me the streets were in chaos, cars jammed against one another, people were running away like a swarm of headless ants, and the hover board's kids...well they just kind of flew above everyone else. Around me people began to get up and head over to the exit, it was a messy sight honestly, people tramping over one another like ants trying to get into their hive before disasters hits. To be honest, at the time I was interested of what was happening what was going on below and I wanted to get a good view from there, so I decided to stay and watch for a bit.

BOOM!

The second explosion was louder and closer. Even the building I stood on shook the slightest bit as I saw another trail of smoke rising just a couple blocks away from me. Eyebrows arched, lips tight, I walked over to the adjacent side of the railing to get a better look. And Out from the ash and dust I made out a vague giant humanoid shape, long thin legs and bulky torso. I immediately knew what it was.