Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
Invisible to the Visible

I pulled the obsidian black boots with crimson straps up over the rose red leather pants. Once I was finished with the process, I stepped back to study myself before I left. The rose red cotton thin-strapped shirt with obsidian black leather straps and charcoal ruffles at the bottom which hung over the pants just slightly worked very well with the crimson red cloak and the tiger orange glowing necklace. Maktu had been right. I allowed my now wavy dark hair to sit nicely over the shirt and under the cloak hood. I looked like my mother, but the cloak made it unique to me. Finally, I looked fit to rule. I walked from the room and back into the main part of the hut, listening to the sound of my footsteps, powerful and bold as they had been highlighted with the heel of the boots. I met Akuma, ready to fight for my island. He too walked more confident than ever before, as he now wore the armor of his father, looking much like the island’s royal guard.

I drew my sword and tossed it to Zanshi. “Here,” I said. “This’ll work better than a torch,” I said, a slight smile growing on my face.

She caught it, looking down at the handle. “Thank you, Afi,” she said quietly. She smiled for the last time, before running back to the center of the city, where the most shadow creatures had gathered. I did the same, smiling at Akuma, I brought a flame to both hands and followed, my footsteps light on the soft white sand.

The sight was worse than anything I could ever imagine. Not only was there an entire swarm of shadow creatures, but on the ground, there were trolls, lizards, even animated bodies of the dead slaughtered the people of my island. I grew the small flames into raging balls of fire, which I circled above my head, hoping to draw the attention of a few of the shadow creatures from where they fought. It worked. Every deep wine colored eye in the swarm turned to face me. I smiled and threw one of the now gigantic flames into the center of the shadows, turning every shadow from the center outward to flame, leaving only the unformatted creatures left. The shrieks of the swarm still ringing across the beach. It seemed no matter how many times this would happen, I would never quite get used to this awful sound, for it was the song of murder.

The light display I had done seemed also to have attracted a troll, as he stomped angrily across the beach, seeming to wish he was anywhere else. I hesitated for a moment, before taking aim with the the ball of fire. Once I had it in position, I let it fly, covering my ears and clenching my eyes shut, hoping not to listen to his screaming, but I was just barely too late, it had hit him and I had witnessed the beginning of his death, the agonizing sound still rings in my head.

I ignored this and searched the village. Tao fought with a torch in both hands, each torch had both ends lit. She was up against three large trolls, each with swords in their hands. I tried to move to help her but couldn’t run. I was stuck to the ground. I looked down, realizing why I couldn’t move. A slimy tar had glued my feet to the sand. I realized with terror that it was slowly moving up my leg. I cursed and looked behind me. Nothing but two little black eye holes could be seen. Confused, I called out, hoping to attract someone’s attention, but it was only Tao who heard and it the short moment she had shifted her attention, the trolls were upon her. I cursed again and tried to free my legs. No success. I brought another flame to my hand and shot it at the tar. No use, my flame was absorbed. “Help!” I yelled, but at that, the tar sped its way up my leg. I watched Tao try to free herself from the grasp of the trolls, but prevailed none. I felt the tar now at my waist, but feared to look down. I tried to wiggle free, but my efforts were pointless, the tar was hardening. I gasped and searched around for Akuma. I yelled his name and was lifted off the ground, the freezing tar now at the end of my rib cage and speeding faster up my body. I frantically searched for him, needing at least to see his face. I watched Tao as she was beaten try to continue her fight. I tried to wiggle free once more, beginning to lose hope in my situation, but wait, my heart rate quickened. Excitement began to warm my blood. Sand was kicked up as something ran across the sand. “Akuma!” I yelled, “Akuma help!”

He looked up at me, a confused look on his face. He was visible now. I looked closely at his face, realizing something wasn’t right. I looked behind me, terrified. I gasped, now knowing what had kept me. It was a giant, mountainous creature made completely of the tar that kept me where I was. I turned my head back to Akuma, who was now running as fast as he could across the beach towards me. My heart skipped a beat. He held his sword out in front of him as he charged.

Now just below me, he looked apologetically at me, before disappearing from view and so did the creature. I couldn’t see anything from where I stood, but I could hear the sound of Akuma’s blade as it sliced into the hardened tar, cracking it just a little every slash. It felt like an eternity, before he had done enough damage to affect me. By the time I was lowered to the ground, the tar was working its way up my neck. Eventually, I was close enough to the ground for Akuma to begin slashing at my feet. I could hear the cracking, but was unsure of how much had been broken. Suddenly, I fell to the ground, landing in a numb lump on the beach. I cursed as Akuma pulled me to my feet. “Looks like you were right,” he said quietly. “I did save you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh yes,” I said, “congratulations, that makes the score ‘Akuma one, Afi…’ what is it now? Five?”

He laughed and loosened his grip on me. I began to fall to the ground. “Now it’s ’Akuma two, Afi five,” he said, grabbing my hand and steadying me before I landed.