Chapter 6: The Black Bubble
The crisp morning air was pierced with pine and snow as Aria struggled through the thick woods. Black Heart lay quietly in the sling she had made for him to ride in, his small body cuddled against her chest. His silence was comforting, in a weird sort of way, yet it unnerved her, too. He never cried. Never laughed. His dark eyes merely watched the world around him-ever observing, ever quiet.
The snow had finally eased, and the sun peeked weakly through the thick canopy of trees, great long shadows across the floor. Aria's breath puffed out in little clouds as she trudged through the snow toward the river. Today, she had decided to fish.
These past few days, hunting in the forest had been difficult, its prey too scarce, traps yielding little. But the river... perhaps there would be something there. They needed food and she couldn't keep on relying on Darken to provide.
Darken had gone out early, leaving her alone with Black Heart. She wasn't sure where he'd gone-he never told her much about his comings and goings. He'd simply look at her with that secretive smile and disappear into the wilderness. Aria didn't ask any more. She knew some things were better left unknown.
She let out a long sigh of relief as she reached the riverbank.
The water was clear, cutting through the snow-covered land like a dark ribbon. Small patches of ice clung to the edges, but in the middle the current was still strong.
Carefully she lowered Black Heart from the sling, laying him down on a soft bed of moss near the water's edge, his tiny form swathed in thick furs against the cold.
His dark eyes, as ever, followed her every movement.
"Stay here," she whispered, though she knew he wouldn't move. He never did.
Aria picked up a long stick, elaborately sharpened into a makeshift spear, and peered at the water with due care.
She had never been much of a fisher, but Darken had taught her some ways of survival, and this was her chance to apply it. She approached the edge of the river with caution, her boots sinking slightly into the soft mud beneath the snow.
A while she just stood there, watching the water's surface for any sign of movement. Her hands tighten around the spear, her breath held in anticipation. A fish darts by, quick and sleek, but she missed the time. Another follows, but her spear comes down too late.
The frustration rose higher and higher as she tried and tried-again and again-finding each attempt met with failure. Cold water splashed against her boots as she cursed under her breath. She turned back, her glance rising to Black Heart, to find him seated in silence, his eyes deep and dark as they watched her.
"I'm trying," she muttered to herself, rather in a bid to stem the tightness in her chest than for any other reason.
Minutes passed, and nothing.
The fish would seem to taunt her with their rapidity, slipping through the water as though shadows, escaping her grasp at every turn.
She let out a frustrated sigh, her grip on the spear tightening. The exhaustion of the past few weeks was finally catching up with her. She hadn't had a proper night's rest since that day she had fled her village, Black Heart clutched in her arms.
Everything was now a struggle: to survive, hunt, and even keep her son safe.
Aria let the spear down and rubbed her eyes, fighting the tiredness which had threatened to engulf her. "Why is everything so hard?" she whispered to herself, her voice fuller of frustration.
Just as she was going to turn away with her defeated view, something in the air moved.
A strange tingling sensation rose at the back of her neck, like a static charge before a storm. Aria whipped around, her heart skipping a beat. There was no sound, no movement; just the air felt different-charged with something she could not explain.
Her gaze snapped back to Black Heart. He still sat where she had left him, but his dark eyes were no longer watching her; they were fixed on the river, his tiny brow furrowed in concentration. She frowned, stepping closer to him, her heart racing with a mix of curiosity and unease.
"Black Heart?" she whispered, though she knew he wouldn't answer. He never did.
The water's surface suddenly dimpled with a ripple. Aria's breath caught, and she was frozen in place, watching the river.
Another ripple, then another, as if something beneath the surface was stirring. Again, she shifted her gaze toward Black Heart and traced something that had escaped her notice-little wisps of black smoke curling from his fingers in the cold air.
An odd energy pulsed from him, subtle, and yet undeniable. Then, in an instant, and before she could fully apprehend what might be taking place altogether, the water in front of her started to bubble.
It was not normal fish or flowing currents bubbles; it was unnatural, dark. The surface of the river started to swell while a huge, ominous bubble rose from the dark bottom, as black as night.
Aria's heart was racing as she tumbled backward, clutching the spear tightly in her hand. She stared at the black bubble before her, incredulous, her brain stubbornly refusing to fathom what was going on. What was this? Sorcery of some sort? But how...?
The bubble grew and grew, pulsating with a strange light from outer space that seemed to quiver beneath its surface.
Aria could do nothing but stand and stare in dumbfounded silence as it floated to the top, the dark mass inside surging and taking shape. And then, in one instant, the bubble burst in a suddenly released pop, sending water splashing down toward the riverbank.
But it wasn't just water that was spilling forth.
Fishes-dozens of them-spilled out of the bubble, flopping and wriggling onto the shore. Large, silvery fish, their scales gleaming in the weak sunlight. Aria gasped, eyes wide with shock. And the fishes just lay there, gasping for air and bodies shimmering.
She twisted to Black Heart, and her breath caught in her throat. His small face was expressionless, his dark eyes staring at her with that same quiet intensity. The tendrils of black smoke were gone, yet the air still felt charged with the remnants of whatever strange power just manifested.
Aria dropped to her knees beside him, a jackhammer heart in her chest. "What... how did you...?" she whispered, shaking with the mix of awe and fear.
Black Heart didn't say anything. He merely looked at her, his little face set in a straight line, as if none of it touched him at all. His silence was what was unsettling, but it had been the power he had just shown that ran a shiver down her spine.
She reached out and her shaking hand lay flat against his cheek.
His skin was warm, almost too warm, and for the first time, Aria realized just how different her son truly was. This wasn't some demonic heritage lurking beneath the surface; there was something more, something extremely ancient and powerful, beyond her comprehension.
Her gaze fell once more to the fish, lying in heaps at her feet. The river flowed once more in its usual, peaceful current, as if nothing strange had just occurred. But Aria knew better.
She couldn't just turn one blind eye to what she had just seen. Taking a deep breath, she hunched herself over and began gathering the fish, flinging her hands in a spinning motion as she placed them into a makeshift basket. The food would keep them for days, maybe even longer, but her mind was elsewhere.
What did this mean literally to Black Heart? What kind of powers did Black Heart actually have? Aria's questions whirled, inundating her mind, but one fact was certain: her son was no ordinary demon. Something more, darker, and to consider what it might mean for his future was a thrill of coldness down her spine.
She turned to him again, his little body swaddled in furs, his eyes still staring back at hers in that unnerving silence.
He hadn't cried, hadn't uttered a sound. Yet there was the weight of him-one could feel the power simmering below.
Finally, she finished gathering the fish, stood up with a basket over her shoulder and eyes fixed on Black Heart. "We should go back," she whispered- more to herself than to him. Her hands were shaking as she reached down to lift him into her arms, cradling him close to her chest. She turned and began the long trudge back to the cave, her mind reeling with doubt.
She knew that raising a demon child was going to be tough, but this... this was something altogether different. Whatever the future might reveal for them, one thing was for certain: Black Heart was going to be meant for so much more and so much worse than she had ever perceived.
The weight of that realization weighed upon her shoulders as she trudged through the snow, her heart heavy with both fear and determination.
Whatever lay ahead, she would protect him. She had to.
But the longer the wind howled through the trees and the longer the shadows stretched on, the more Aria had this nagging feeling in her heart that there was something much darker coming soon to take her son away. And when it did, she was not sure if she would be strong enough to confront it.