My Eternal

My eyes flutter open and I’m shrouded in darkness. The ground is rock solid and frigid. I scramble to my bare feet, my hand gropes around, suddenly I feel a sharp pain erupt from my fingers as they collide with stone. I yelp in pain and yank my hand away from the structure. Light shines from the end of the tunnel. Following the light, stumbling around. 

When I reach the end of darkness, I’m met with light shining through a multitude of leaves. I let the sun shine on my fair skin. My feet begin taking me down a very thin path. My fingers grab at different leaves and twigs, making clothes of sorts to cover my bare body. 

As night approaches I make my way back to the dark cave, hearing creatures roar and scream. I find the deep and dark cavern once more, I lay down leaves and things to sleep on. Only then am I okay with the darkness shrouding the cave. 

Early the next morning my eyes open to the sound of a large growl, flowing through the cave. My legs ache as I rush to stand. I scan around the entire cave, finding nothing, my eyes focus on the entrance of the cave. A monstrous creature holds itself high. The stone bleeds to coarse dirt as I rush forward. 

Kill, or be killed I suppose. Rushing forward, daggers tear through my flesh, blood runs down my fingers, my hands coat themselves in fur and I’m a large beast, ichor on my teeth from the creature. My furry limbs begin buckling, they make such a violent sound, bones snapping, twigs breaking. As I feel my legs failing me, the ground grows closer. My wolf shifts and I see everything sideways. Then, black. 

When I next awake, there is still ichor, frosted against my skin. I grope the loose soil with convulsing fingers. Rain pelts my skin harshly while clouds swim through the grim sky. Heavy laden with voices flailing through my brain, telling me what to do, or how to behave. Grey turns into black once more and I fall asleep to the sound of rain cascading down leaves. 

 In the next moment, the sky turns cloudy to clear, starry night. From darkness, to darkness, eyes closed to open. As they adjust they see more than most. Feet against soil, my eyes meet the ground, and I scrunch my toes. I begin my trek. Nowhere in particular. I don’t make it far before ferocious sounds meet my ears. Slowly my feet take me to the noise, peeling away from the soft soil, becoming closer and closer to the noise. 

Time waits for no one and the sky grows lighter. I continue my journey through the heavily wooded landscape. I reach a clearing, come mid day. Several creatures, walking, pacing almost. Fight one another. The same creature, now dead somewhere. They must not have noticed me. Walking around the clearing, my eyes comb the ground. I’m alone once more. 

——————————————

They look the same as me. I don’t know who they are but they look like me. I keep my distance out of self- defense. Scared. I change my look once more and I fit in better. Instead of my hair being white, it’s more natural with a rusty brown. My eyes are blue now instead of red. My pupils are normal and round instead of snake-like. 

For years I blended into the group. No one thought anything different from me. Even the weird people who had shown up randomly. They all had different colored outfits on. They could do things. They had a gold aura to them. There were 10 of them. One looked as though she was a child. They called her Sprite. The leader was Ajax. They fight the creatures that I had killed the first night I remember. 

“Hello”

My heart jumped, the male voice had snuck up on me. I turn to the direction of the voice and find the one not many people see. I nod at him and continue on with my garden work. 

“I haven’t seen you yet.”

I nod again, but don’t look back at him. I didn’t know who he was but I recognized him as one of the men who was what everyone called gods. I kept tending to my carrots, gathering them and taking them to a clean stream where everyone washed food. 

“What’s your name?”

His voice sounded weird in my ears. He sounded different than everyone else did. They all did. The one called Sersi sounded odd especially with her r’s. He sounded odd too. His black hair was cut at his ears and his eyes were cold and calculating. His outfit was red and black. 

“Koro…”

My voice sounded out without me really meaning too. I told this strange man, if you could call them that, my name. 

“What about you? What’s your name?”

I didn’t care. At least I thought I didn’t care yet I asked anyway. I could hear him laughing through my inner monologue. A low chuckle. Like he found it funny but not hilarious. 

“Druig. You would think with as much as your people worship us, you’d know our names.”

His voice held no humor or joy despite the smile on his face. He seemed almost as emotionless as me. Straight faced and stone cold. But on the outside he expressed fake feelings. 

“I don’t worship you. It feels as though everyone else does. Icarus seems cocky and overconfident. It annoys me.”

Druig looked up in slight surprise and shock. A mortal not worshiping us? How odd. At least he certainly thinks so. I rolled my eyes at his shock. 

“Most do. You're the first person I’ve met who hasn’t worshipped the ground we walk on. It’s….”

I thought he was going to say more. He started saying more. 

“Refreshing. It’s nice to know not everyone will bow down.”

My eyebrows scrunched up. He seemed a little like Icarus. At least that’s what I thought. Druig seemed nice. A flash goes by me and the fast one is next to us. 

“Ah! Makari, Koro. Koro, Makari.”

He signs over to Makari, introducing me. I wave at her. I hold my hand out and she reaches out and shakes it. I nod. 

“You don’t smile a lot. Do you?”

She signed fast with years of practice. I caught it but not a lot. Apparently my look was enough for Druig to translate. He told me and I nodded. 

“I don’t.”

Makari looks over at Druig with a look of confusion and apprehension. 

“She doesn’t talk a lot either.”

Druig chuckled at the speedy hero and nodded. They wave, say bye, and I’m alone again. I continued tending to my crops until I had all of the ripe produce. I took it to the creek where we washed food. I cleaned it and took some to the large ship the “eternals” used as housing. 

No one usually walked in but I did. I walked in and called for druig or even Makari a few times. A woman with gorgeous blonde hair and striking hazel eyes that pierced through my soul came through and suddenly I had a blade of gold energy to my throat. 

“Who are you”

I blink at her but shrug. The dagger doesn’t bother me. Usually I guess it would bother me but it didn’t phase me.

“I’m Koro.”

My voice was hard and dangerous. It sounded threatening even to me. I felt the blade dig into my neck. It stung and I could feel the warm, wet blood trickling down my throat. The blade seemed hot, like it was burning me. 

The blonde woman blinked at me and glared at me. 

Druig walked in with some sort of roll and his eyes widened slightly at the sight in front of him. 

“Thena. What’re you doin?”

We look in sync. He tossed his roll to the side to retrieve for later.

“She’s a friend. Sort of. Her name is Koro. Koro, this is Thena. Thena this is Koro.”

Thena turns to look at me at the same time as I look at her and nod. I hold the basket of produce out to her.

“I bring food. If you don’t want it, that's fine. If you do, that's perfectly fine.”

Thena retracts the sword and grabs the basket. She examines the food before nodding and walking away. No apologies. Nothing. So I merely bowed a small bow and I walked out. Druig follows me out after he once again grabbed his roll. I glanced back behind me to make eye contact with the eternal. Gave a curt nod out of mere respect and turned back to walk out.