~Chapter eight ~
~Sand and dust~
"Hey, Maddox, check this out," a voice said.
"You see, Maddox, you and I had met before—you were my first true friend at the orphanage."Livana said.
"Eliza taught me how to do a handstand."a voice said.
"That's so cool, Livana! I wish I could do that. Can you teach me?" I responded.
"Sure! You just put your hands in the air like this, then go against the wall and push up."a voice said
We used to mess around with the dumbest stuff. Honestly, it was the happiest I think I've ever been. Livana explained
"Hey, Maddox, do you want to go find more bugs in the forest?" A voice asked.
"I told you I don't like bugs, Liv," I replied.
"It will be fun, trust me," she responded. "Bethany told me she saw a huge wasp the other day," she added.
"No, Liv, wasps actually attack back. I'm not going," I said, tears welling up.
This was when we were five or so. I remember you used to be a crybaby, Maddox. Well, not much has changed in that regard. Livana explained
"Why are you showing me this, Livana, and why don't I remember any of it?" I asked, mesmerized by what I was seeing.
Livana and I stood in what looked like memories, walking through them as they passed by, watching our kid selves playing.
"Keep watching," she said with a genuine, big smile on her face.
"Let's play Hot Potato again today," kid Livana asked.
"You're terrible at lying, Livana. You're just going to sulk when you lose," I responded cheekily.
"This way, Maddox," the present Livana said. "Let's go outside."
In the backyard, I saw kid Livana practicing magic.
"Look, Maddox, I'm doing it!" she said, twirling water droplets around.
"Wow, you're so amazing, Livana," I responded.
"You should try too," she said.
It's as if those words struck a chord with Livana, as her smile seemed to waver for a second.
"You put your arms out like this and wave, pretend to push out the invisible air from your wand like this," she explained, gesturing with her body.
"Like this?" I said.
"Yeah!" she replied enthusiastically.
"Nothing's happening though," I said, disappointed.
"It takes practice. That's what Mother Malinda told me."kid livana explained
"Why do you call her 'Mother'? She's not your real mom," I asked.
"She said I could, so I will," Livana answered, a bit annoyed.
"Let's go look for bugs again, Maddox," she said, grinning.
"No, I got stung by a wasp last time we did that, Livana."
"I'll protect you with my cool water magic," she said, smiling.
Livana and I continued walking through the memories. I could see her face light up—these memories were precious to her. Why was it that I couldn't remember any of it?
We walked through the forest alongside our kid selves, looking for bugs.
"You put your hands out like this and push out the invisible air," I repeated to myself as we walked through the forest.
"Don't you think we're going too far in, Livana?" I asked after a while.
"No, one of the kids said they saw a cute puppy running around here. We should find him and look after him," Livana said, looking at me with her big blue eyes.
"Why would a puppy be out here? Aren't those only in Veloria?" I said, not really listening, focused on pushing invisible air from my wand.
"No, I know he's out her—" growling interrupted her.
"D-Did you hear that?" I stuttered.
"Y-Yeah," Livana replied, backing away closer to me.
Livana's smile faded as we walked through this section of the memory. Her lit-up face turned pale as tears began forming in her eyes.
"H-Hey, you stay away!" I stuttered as a shadowy figure crawled out from the bushes.
It was an injured keeth, looked to be a young one that must have been separated from its pack.
"Look, Maddox, it's hurt," Livana said as she walked toward it. It snarled and growled.
"Stay away from it, Livana. It looks angry," I said, running to grab her shoulder.
The injured keeth let out a howl, as if screaming for its mother.
"Hey, shhh, it's OK," Livana said, inching closer to comfort it.
"Look, Maddox, its leg is broken," she pointed out, inching even closer.
The keeth child looked tired as it plopped down to the ground, no longer able to act scary.
"You must be thirsty," Livana said, pulling her wand out to cast some water. A round water droplet grew from her wand. The keeth looked at it intently.
"You are thirsty, right?" she said, kneeling directly next to it.
It began sipping at the huge blob of water quickly, not taking a second to breathe.
"It's OK, there, there, we will help you find your mother."
I stood there, watching Livana patting the creature as it got more comfortable with her.
A few moments passed as we sat with the baby keeth Livana loved animals and nature she had such a caring heart and treated everything with respect from skunks down to worms she had a gentle soft heart to the outdoors .
Before I could react I heard crackling from the forst as a shadowy beast leaped from the bushes and struck Liv sending her flying towards a tree.
The as I looked up I saw a large keeth beast snarling and growling stepping in front of her child it growled at me eyes filled with blood lust .
It seemed Liz had passed out form the blow her forehead looked injured.
"S...ss..stay away"I said backing up towards Liv.
"Hey liv wake up!" my voice said cracking.
No response.
"Liv?" I said tearing up
The mother keeth looked at its injured baby and then back at me growing more ferociously as it began walking towards me.
livana wake up said my voice trembling you said you would protect me I said crying.
I looked back and saw her still unconscious.
Stop I orderd at the keeth who seemed to be targeting Liv now.
It pounced up ready to attack.
It seemed Livana had passed out from the blow—her forehead looked injured.
"S...ss..stay away!" I said, backing up towards Livana.
"Hey, Liv, wake up!" my voice cracked.
No response.
"Liv!" I called, tearing up.
The mother keeth looked at its injured baby, then back at me, growling more ferociously as it began advancing toward us.
"S...s...stay away!" I said, backing up further.
"You...you... put your hands out like this and push air out of your wand," I said to myself, desperately trying to form something that could protect us.
The keeth growled louder, scaring me as I tripped over a rock and dropped my wand.
Using my hands and feet, I pushed myself backward as the keeth inched closer and closer.
"You...you put your hands out like this," I muttered to myself as tears began falling from my eyes.
"Livana, wake up!" I pleaded, my voice trembling. "You said you would protect me," I cried.
I looked back and saw her still unconscious.
"Stop!" I ordered the keeth, which now seemed to be targeting Livana.
It pounced, ready to attack.
"Stop!" I screamed as it launched itself at her.
In that instant, time seemed to freeze—the keeth hung in the air, the baby keeth that had been barking at its mom stopped cold—everything just froze.
"I said stop!" I shouted, my hands thrusting out toward the keeth. Without warning, a swirling black cloud erupted from my palms, obliterating everything in its path. The keeth was thrown back, crashing into trees that shattered like glass under the force of the blast. In my anger or fear, I had unleashed a powerful wave of destruction..
But then I saw Livana caught in the storm. My heart dropped as she was hurled away with the debris, crashing against the ground .Dirt and splinters filled the air
In my panicked state, I failed to notice the baby keeth behind me as the attack blew it away uncontrollably. The area was reduced to rubble. "What should I do?" I cried to myself, not wanting to damage anything else. I raised my palms to the sky, letting the dark, murky shadow clouds shoot upwards. For what seemed like hours, but was most likely just a few moments, shadows shot into the sky, creating a dark, ominous cloud before I finally passed out.
As I fell over, I looked at Livana, reaching for her, and then everything went black.
"Why did you show me this, Liv?" I asked, suspended in a void of black, floating between nothingness.
Liv appeared—a white, ghostly figure drifting in the darkness.
"Why don't I remember anything? What did you do to me?"
She looked at me, smiling—a smile without contempt or hostility, warm and kind—before disappearing into the abyss.
For a moment, I was suspended in nothingness, weightless and disoriented. Then, I heard a voice echoing through the void.
"Sir, this is incredible! Nothing like this has happened since—"
"Yes, I know," a familiar voice interrupted, filled with joy. It was Magnus.
"This could be our way out. This boy..." Magnus said, his tone brimming with excitement. "Don't let them take it—or any of it's friends—until I say so," he ordered firmly.
My vision was still fuzzy, but I could make out the black smoke from my spell beginning to dissipate.
From above, something strange started to happen. Transparent substances fell from the sky, like shards of glass dissolving mid-air.
As the mist cleared, the sight before me left me breathless. The blue sky was fractured, and within the cracks, a fiery red sky bled through. A small section of it hung in exposed in red against the blue.
"What do we do with the girl?" the man asked.
"Leave it here. It's already dead," came the cold reply.
The younger version of me stared,weakly at Livana. Slowly, he reached out his hand. A strange, white substance began to swirl in the air before it was absorbed into my palms.
I snapped back to the present as if nothing had happened. It felt like a lifetime had passed, yet not even a second had gone by. My arms felt hot, just like they had that day.
Tears fell from my eyes but I quickly cleaned them way.
Melody stood by my side, in a fighting stance, ready to defend.
In a split second, Stone vanished and reappeared mid-air. Raising his arms, a wave of sand covered the sky, turning into a giant fist, larger than a mountain, hurtling towards us. There was no way we could dodge it.
It was as if my arms moved on their own. I know people say that a lot, but this was different. It felt as if a warm embrace had taken over my body, flowing from my arms to my legs and up to my head. That same warm embrace turned dark, violent, and cold as it lifted my arms. The runes on my hands began to glow red, growing hotter and hotter before vanishing. Suddenly, a violent, shadowy mist shot out from them. The mist struck the sand fist, eating away at it, reducing the sand to nothingness.
The mist—dark gray—pushed back the mountain-like fist uncontrollably, and it felt as if I was no longer in control of my own body. I watched, helpless, as my arms and magic acted on their own, fighting off Stone's attack.
The black mist engulfed the sand fist, slowly creeping around it until it was fully encased in a merciless shadow of mist.
"What... What is this? Impossible!" Stone roared, furious. "No, no, no, no!" he shouted. "I will not be bested by a weakling like you!" His voice cracked as he cried out, "Father is watching me, and I will not lose!" He forced more sand into his attack.
But in an instant, the shadowy cloud devoured everything, leaving nothing behind. All the sand from Stone's attack vanished into oblivion.
Stone fell to the ground, despair flooding his eyes. "How is this possible? Father is watching me..." he whispered.
Suddenly, my arms raised again, and this time, a black mist shot from my palms, catching him mid-air.
"Father..." Stone said, defeated. "I'm sorry."
The shadowy palm grabbed at his soul, and strangely, three human-like figures were pulled from his body, drawn into a portal that appeared beside me. Stone's lifeless body crumbled to the ground, a husk, nothing more, as it cracked and withered into sand and dust.