Irony. A grand plan. Balance. These perhaps might very well be good descriptions for what has happened in the last... We'll call it eight years.
There I was walking my usual commute to the grocery store to get a few things for the family. I passed through this shabby neighborhood quite a few times, never an issue to be seen. I wasn't aware of any gang activity, but that didn't mean it wasn't there.
Suddenly, a blue Cadillac on large shiny rims came by with a fully automatic submachine gun firing every bullet it had as it quickly passed by this neighborhood and me. That was all it took. Riddled with at least five bullets, probably more, I fell onto the street and bled until my death. It was sudden. No warning.
My mother at the time, wife, daughters, and my father could not help that I was gone. Spin the clock forward, I've been reborn, given a new family, a new life, a fresh start. But, without warning, I was left alone and helpless as everyone I loved was swiftly taken from me. There was nothing I could have done to stop it.
Do you see the irony?
The balance?
I do.
A grand plan?
Not sure about that one.
To make the scene worse, as flames flickered violently from my eyes and my hands and feet were spewing a violent crackling fire, the sky cracked a bolt of lightning, the wind burst through kicking the ash off of me and around me into the air, and then it began to rain turning everything else into an ash based sludge. I stood there angry, hurt, but oblivious at first as the storm continued to pick up strength.
"Zi... Calm down please... We need to seek shelter..." Sehaela pleaded which broke me from my trance.
It was then I realized two things. One, the fire I'd had spewing from me was not called into existence by my command. Two, the three elements that suddenly made themselves known were ironically or purposely the very same elements my now deceased family had once wielded.
My mother was a wielder of lightning. My grandfather was a wielder of wind. My grandmother was a wielder of water. This could have been a sign to leave this place. It could have been them somehow telling me I must not dwell on this loss. But I didn't want to leave. I couldn't bare the thought of leaving everything I've come to love just to rot.
The storm kicked up harshly and suddenly I realized that Sehaela was tugging on my hand and was screaming at me.
"Zionai! Please! This way!!!" She yelled at me, pulling me to the wood line of a hardwood forest that bordered what was once my home.
I came to reality and started sprinting with her into the tree line. We must have gone nearly fifty meters in when we came up on a very crude, makeshift shack that looked like it was made of mud and pieces of scrap wood. We eventually ducked under it's canopy.
"What is this place? How did you know it was here?" I panted still weak from today's horrific events.
Sehaela managed to smirk a very weak grin, "My brother and me made this together about four moon shifts ago."
The moons rotated around this world every fifty days or so, and would swap places with one another. One would be in the east and the other in the west and fifty days or so later it would be the opposite. The planet rotated but not the moons.
The darker colored one was named Psiron, named after a legendary water god. The lighter one was Laeyona, named for a legendary wind goddess. There was a story about the two.
Supposedly there were two powerful lovers. Their love for each was rivaled in strength only by their personal quests to become deities. It was unfortunate that as the two finally simultaneously achieved godhood they were turned into the celestial bodies we see as moons.
Their love is so strong they say that they race around the world trying to catch each other again and be with each other once more, but, alas, it seems they may never embrace each other again.
I heard her words, but it only took a moment to see it in her teary eyes, that her brother must've been killed in the attack too, along with the rest of her family. I wasn't the only one who'd just lost everything tonight.
Without a second thought, I embraced her in a hug. No, it's not what you might think. I hugged her because not only did she need comforting but so did I.
As tears flowed from both of our eyes, I was surprised to feel her reciprocate the hug. We held each other in the hug for how long I do not know, but we soon separated.
"Zi... do you think we will ever find out who did this?" Sehaela sniffled.
"I don't know, but I will spend the rest of my days growing in strength, searching for the answer, and someday, I will avenge our families." I stated confidently.
"That confidence..." Sehaela managed to laugh weakly.
"It may just get me hurt..." I laughed with her for a moment.
Finally I said, "But no matter what happens, I will never admit defeat again."
"That's the spirit..." She whispered as she too recalled the common words of wisdom and encouragement of Captain Dalragon.
"Where do we begin?" she asked as she looked up at me.
"We'll try to rest here. Wait for the storm to pass, and in the morning, we'll begin to travel to my father's estate." I stated trying to be a leader.
"Fine... but I don't want to leave without something."
"What's that?"
"My mother's staff. It's fireproof because she too was a fire Warmage at one time."
"Very well. I also need to retrieve my war axes."
She elected only to nod in agreement as she laid up against me as I leaned into the corner of the shack. I suddenly felt so tired. In fact, it wasn't long before I was sleeping only to be haunted by nightmarish images.
They were terrible repetitions of seeing my mother's fear, my grandfather's desperation, my grandmother's shock and fatal end, and the final moments of Captain Dalragon. Then suddenly I dreamed of a mighty fiery green dragon swooping in with a blast of white fire straight at my face. The shock of which rattled me awake.
My eyes slammed open and Sehaela woke as I shifted into an upright position. I then heard something distinct that overtook the fact that it must have been mid morning already.
I heard voices...
I quickly and quietly stood up, followed by Sehaela. I was still very sore, but my senses were more alive than ever. I gestured for her to follow me as we quietly walked to the edge of the wood line to find the source of the voices.
"PUT YOUR BACKS INTO IT! THERE'S GOTTA BE SOMETHING LEFT!!! THESE PEOPLE WERE RICH!!!" A dingy dirty man with worn out armor and a rusty greatsword draped over his shoulder yelled down from atop a piece of stone rubble.
He was accompanied by several uncouth individuals who were digging through the debris of my home.
"Marauders..." I whispered angrily.
"We're unarmed and out numbered." Sehaela warned in a whisper, immediately knowing what I was thinking.
"We'll sneak through the rubble. Find our weapons... Then we'll take care of these scum..." I replied quietly.
Sehaela looked apprehensive to say the least.
"Come don't be scared... I won't stand for these low life's to plunder my home."
Sehaela managed to muster up her courage and nodded. I then turned and lead us out of the woods and quickly to a piece of rubble.
"My axes are just around that corner and should be in that pile of rubble. I left them there before we left the arena." I whispered.
Sehaela sighed, but didn't speak.
"On my word..."
"Go..." we quickly moved forward to the next spot of coverage.
"Boss! I found a ruby necklace!" one of the marauders yelled who was eeriely close to us, but I heard him take off to give the item to the leader.
We quickly ducked under a fallen column now very close to our destination.
Heart pounding, I finally saw my axes, surprisingly still stored in the rack I left them in which was over turned and under a slab of a stone wall. If I was right there I could easily grab them, but there was a major issue. The gap between us and those axes was so open that it was impossible to not be seen.
Sehaela knew the situation and did something I never expected. She went back the way we came a good few meters before...
"Help! Please! Mommy! Where are you!?" She called out with a sincere sound of despair.
The leader of the Marauders instantly turned towards her position.
"Go! Get that child! She might can lead us to more treasure!" he commanded with an obvious disregard to the calamity that a lost child in this situation had just endured. His greed was atrocious.
I feared for Sehaela, but there was only one way I could help her now. I quickly tucked and rolled over to the rack as the group of them were distracted.
Grabbing my axes, I did something confident but stupid. I tried to summon my magic which came to my aid but I couldn't control it as my eyes lit a fire and my hands poured liquid fire over my axes. I jumped up onto the broken wall and yelled...
"Hey you Grimey Hoglins! Come and Get It!"