Izchar's chronicles, Theria arc #0
This is the story of a young man, trying awkwardly to reflect his philosophical thought about humans and society in the midst of unbelievable stories.
A warm breeze. The moon is high in the sky, and the white sand is still hot from the warmth of the sun. You’re lying there, staring at the blueish sky. It’s almost like you can feel the earth pulsating through your entire body. Far from the green planet, stars look back to a distant past where you didn’t belong.
As time passes and bends through the distance, we might feel a sense of loss. The unknown sits there, dwelling in the darkest corners of the universe. But it’s the thrill that, whatever happens, will happen and cannot be predictable, that makes our lives worth living. You stand up. Like every night before an eclipse. You are doing this weird hand sign. The thumb and the little finger closed together, leaving 3 fingers up, aiming right at your heart. This is your way of driving out the evil eye.
No one ever knows what will happen in an eclipse, but one thing for sure, something will happen.
Eclipse
As I finish my prayer. My eyes settle on the black sea. At night I can hear more than I can see. The sounds of the waves crashing against the black shore stones is relaxing. As the moon soars higher in the sky, the sea starts to unleash its mighty powers.
Wind is starting to pick up, and the temperatures slowly decrease. I retreat and seat higher on the dune. The wind is harsher there, but I can also have a wide view on the abyssal amount of dark water. As the pace of the tide peaks up, the red tainted moon vanishes between the waves.
I sink my feet into the fine sand. It’s still hot, the earth is still warm. It gives me strength for what is about to come.
Far from the shore, in the middle of the ocean. Sea animals have already retreated to the lower surfaces, almost at the seabed. Down here, it’s quiet. Except for a few animals brushing the sand, there is not a single sound coming through. And suddenly it gets all dark. The eclipse has started.
I stand here, my eyes are closed. I can feel gusts of wind pushing back my body. Gladly I’m well anchored to the green planet. Soon enough, cold water and foam creeps up to my legs. Holding back against the furious raging waves, I can feel the salt burning my lips, my nose and my eyes. I can feel my entire body shaking against the near freezing cold black water.
Suddenly, the tide rushes back to the depth of the sea. “This is it, I’ve survived”. Trying shakily to clean my eyes from salt and dark water. This is with a still blurry vision that I see an enormous wave, 15 meters long, coming at me. It goes so high in the sky that the partially revealed moon disappears with it.
Time slows, gusts of winds suddenly disappear. There is only me and this monstrous wave. The last thing that I remember is the deafening sound of the wave crashing against the black shore stones.
Few hours later
This is with a dry mouth that I wake up, my head almost buried into the fine sand. My eyes are closed, glued together. I can feel the headache incoming. There is only one word coming into my head “water”.
My body starts to come back from the slumber. Slowly, my blood reactivate my vital functions. I can feel my lower body now, I can tell that my legs are all bruised from the clash against the furious waves and the stones beneath the sand.
I turn myself, my back against the sand. This is with a great effort that I open my eyes. A violet sky meets them, the sun will soon rise from its slumber too. Around me, insects move on my body, eating on my flesh, on my burnt skin. As the stars slowly vanish in the sky, I struggle to stand up. I have to replenish my body with food and water.
In the distance, I see the sailors' boat, setting up early in the day to catch fish coming back from the seabed after the nightmarish night. Surprisingly my clothes held up. My handmade silk tunic is dirty but holds no damage from what I see. I strap the purple belt around my waist, leaving minimum skin exposed to the soon-coming sun.
One step after another, I reach the outskirts of the city. My white tunic blends in the stone walls of Theria. Like a ghost haunting its own grave, I enter the city. Here it’s all colors, noises, and chatters. Theria survived another eclipse, this is a day of celebration. All its inhabitants will contribute to what will be the biggest party of the year. Musicians accord their instruments, bankers give “free” loans, childs run around the city playing funny games, delicious meals are being prepared, and above all, the royal family itself will make an appearance tonight.
Of course, this is none of my business. I’ve never been interested in the folklore of this town and now more than ever I couldn’t give a damn. Tired, starved, thirsty, I drag painfully myself to what I call my home. A tiny house shared with other people. At least I can have a personal space here. Theria isn’t that much of a rich city, and it already costs a fortune to have a private space for yourself.
As I shut the door behind me, the world became a little quieter. I dump my belongings on the table, which are composed of a sharp stone knife, and a leather collar. I throw myself on the wooden chair and fill myself a big glass of cold water. After a few mouthful gulps of water, I drop the rest on my head. It’s already hot there.
Magic
My room is a square shaped space with a high ceiling. Empty if it’s not for the wooden table and the black wooden chair. In a corner, a mattress of good fabric lies on the floor. After finishing the last straps of dried meat, I pull back the water in my cold storage.
I can finally allow myself to rest on my bed. Looking at the ceiling, I can see glimpses of my body reflected on the dark polished stone. It will slowly heal its injuries over the next hours as long as I don’t move. You see, if it weren’t for my violet eyes, anyone could have thought that I was a normal human.
But the universe thought better for me, and granted my body with weird occult powers.
This is the clamor of the city that woke me up, celebrations had already started. Taking time to appreciate my dreamless nap, I stretched my whole body. Oh this is good to have all my muscles back and my pains gone. Gods only knew how much I needed that after my resounding defeat in front of the eclipse.
Convictions shapes one’s mind. It gives strength. But it also makes us weak, easy to manipulate and blind to others' truths. In Theria for example, everyone is persuaded that eclipse is a synonym with disaster. For some reason Therian cannot hear and understand their inner-self. We’ve been hunter-gatherers for a while now, it is no surprise that without moon or sun we lose sight of the nearest threats. But it’s so much easier to craft those fears into some godly power over nature, and that, these godly threats won’t happen if we’re behaving well. Absolute bullshit. People confuse well-behaving and its benefits with a third-part mighty power. Classic of human’s doings if you ask me though.
But enough renting for now, In this city I present myself as a tailor for the high nobility class. This is what I’ve been doing for the past years, usurping identity and hovering around the highest social circles of society. You see, the higher you reach in the society, the more rotten it is. I’m kinda cleansing the evil you know, out of good will of course. Or because I’m trying to extinguish the flames of vengeance in my heart. Anyways we’re not close enough for me to tell you why I’m doing all of this.
Couple more hours passed until I lazily got up from the bed. Strapping the purple belt around my waist, I carefully hid my stone knife under my tunic. The leather collar was still where I left it, watching me from the table. With a sigh, I put it around my neck, hiding the deep red scar on my neck from the world.
From the black tinted window, the sun was slowly being eaten by the sharp mountains. It was time to act like a tailor worthy of the name.
Footnotes:
Since I’ve started writing, I’ve always flirted around philosophical subjects. Hardest thing was to connect it with decent subjects without looking too messy. But it’s really a hard task to do, and I don’t think I’ve always done a good job at it. The ideal scenario would be to come up with my own crafted story and start from there.
So here we are, trying to write a story. Honestly I don’t know where it will lead me, if people will even be interested in it. Doesn’t matter too much though.
There is no coming back now, I cannot really change the scenario. I will have to do with my characters and stay in line with a coherent story. For a non-native, self taught like me, it really isn’t the easiest challenge, but it’s also really exciting. We will see where this will get us.
PS: don’t ask when I will publish the next chapter because I have no clue for now lol.