Prologue: The Abandoned Child

  Beneath a moonless night sky, two people flitted past the dark landscape filled with an undisturbed canopy, their figures indistinct as the trees blurred past. They were both cloaked in black garb, the fabric whistling as the wind whipped against it.

  Although their identities were hidden beneath deep hoods, the shapes of their bodies gave them away. One was tall, and the other was slim, barely visible in the shadow of their companion.

  They didn’t emit a single sound as they made their way through the terrain, leaping from one branch to another. The trees did not sway an inch, nor did a single leaf fall, even as they rushed through the area.

  The two made it through the forest, arriving at a mountain range. They paused for a few seconds to observe the surroundings. The eerie silence of the night, coupled with the darkness of the path in front, caused the hairs on their necks to stand. Yet, they were unable to discover any signs of power fluctuations. Just as they were about to continue through the pass, numerous masked individuals emerged from hiding, surrounding them.

  At the forefront of this new group was a man clad in crimson robes, his black hair partially tied up in a bun. A small smile played at his lips as he gave a signal to the masked men while lifting his right hand high up. A swarm of flaming spheres, blistering the air, painted the dark sky with color. Swelling until they rivaled the size of a waterwheel, they lit up the area in a radiance that bleached all color from the nearby trees.

  The masked men jumped into action, drawing their weapons and charging at the two figures in the middle of the encirclement. The tall man jumped forward to meet the incoming ambushers, roaring with thunderous might. The roar was almost tangible, the rippling air reaching the men in front of him in a split second. The torrent crashed into them like a physical wall, and high-pitched screams rang out. They clutched the sides of their heads as they were thrown away by the sound waves.

  He then stomped hard on the ground, shooting in the opposite direction. He blurred past his partner and arrived next to the men at the back. During his movement, his body expanded rapidly until his head brushed against the lower branches of the canopy. The cloak concealing his features ripped apart, revealing a torso full of tempered muscles. A greatsword half the size of his enlarged body appeared in his hands. Spinning on the spot, he cleaved through the masked men as though they were mere parchment.

  His hooded companion remained at the same spot. However, they weren’t motionless. They pointed at the robed man in the distance with a slender hand. No magnificent display of might was released by this gesture. Yet, the balls of flame floating in the sky began shrinking in size before being snuffed out. Darkness blanketed the surroundings once more, returning the silence and stillness from before to the area.

  The ground beneath the giant cracked as he disappeared, leaving only a faint afterimage as his enormous frame emerged in front of the robed man. Tightly grabbing both of the robed man’s arms, he twisted, shattering the bones with a sickening crunch. Grasping the man by the head, he hoisted him into the air.

  “Who are you? What are you after?” he shouted, his chest vibrating from the volume. His wide hands tightened around the robed man’s crown.

  The robed man did not respond, the amused smile still gracing his lips. It had not disappeared, even after the bones in his arms were crushed. The smile extended further, turning into a harrowing grin. At this moment, his body began to shrivel and shrink, turning into a desiccated corpse.

  The giant threw the body to the side, embedding it into the nearby cliff. Heavy breathing escaped his mouth as his chest heaved. On his red face, his blazing eyes were framed by furrowed brows. The hooded woman approached him from behind, placing her soft palm on his leg. The giant looked down and sighed, shrinking back to his regular size.

  “What should we do now, Lesa? They keep finding us. We don’t even know who they are!” He grimaced as he pulled at his short black hair with both of his hands. With his stomach churning nonstop, he had to constantly swallow the acrid taste that came back up his throat.

  “You must maintain your composure, Atlas. If not for yourself, do it for me… And our little boy.”

  The woman pulled back her hood, revealing delicate features tarnished by a deep frown. Her dark braided hair draped over her shoulder, trailing down to her waist. From beneath her cloak, she raised her left arm, revealing a small bundle of cloth. Nestled within this bundle was a baby, suckling on his own thumb as he remained in a peaceful slumber.

  “I know, Lesa, I know. It’s because they keep coming. This isn’t the end. I can feel it. This thing rotted away before I could get it to talk, just like the previous ones. I still don’t know what they are.”

  Atlas paced back and forth. He ran his hand through his jet black hair, his thick eyebrows knitting to mirror his wife’s. The sharp jawline framing his face was tightly clenched as he tried to calm his breathing. His green eyes flickered as he tried to figure out a solution to their predicament. The tightly packed muscles covering his dense body and broad shoulders were currently quivering as he clenched and unclenched his fist.

  “I have a hunch. I believe they are some sort of puppet. Someone is incredibly determined to catch us. I don’t know how much longer we can continue to flee. We may need to find a place to hide our precious son.” Alesaria gently stroked the sparse strands of soft hair on the baby’s head. Her jaw was set tight, the glow in her dark blue eyes sharpening.

  Atlas and Alesaria continued on their way, leaving behind the numerous corpses for the wild beasts. They made their way past different landscapes, attempting to put as much distance as possible between themselves and their pursuers in the hope of escaping their grasp. They did not pause to rest as the days and nights passed by in a blur. The only time they stopped was to feed the baby.

  However, it was to no avail. Their pursuers found them time and time again. With dark circles beneath their eyes and thick grime covering their clothes, they were surrounded once more. This ambush ended with another hard fought victory, with only one difference.

  “Who are you? Tell me!” Atlas roared, gripping a wrinkly old woman by the throat. She had the same amused smile on her face. This time, she actually opened her mouth in response.

  “I guess these things aren’t enough to catch you. I’m thoroughly impressed. Enough with these playthings. I shall come for you myself.”

  Cackling, the withered woman, just like the others before her, began shriveling up and turning into a desiccated corpse.

  Atlas’s face crumpled upon hearing those words and he turned to face his wife with trembling lips, unable to meet her gaze directly. His face was as pale as his tightly clenched knuckles, and his pupils shook as they darted around chasing every moving shadow.

  Alesaria looked for the mountain she had grown used to leaning against, yet all she found was this trembling wreck. Although she felt faint and her vision began to spin, she managed to push through by biting her bottom lip until it bled. She looked at her husband and said, “We must find a safe place to hide our son. Now.”

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  With his shoulders slumped and his gaze cast downward, Atlas squeezed out a question. “Which way do we go?”

  After a moment of thought, Alesaria pointed toward the south and opened her mouth to speak. Just as her tongue formed the words she was about to say, a mysterious voice echoed through her mind. It was telling her to go east. When she focused on it, she couldn’t hear it anymore. Although unexpected, the voice brought her warmth and comfort, as though her consciousness was being embraced in her mother’s bosom. She looked up at the heavens, attempting to figure out what it was.

  Is it fate? Destiny? Or a figment of my imagination?

  Shaking her head, Alesaria changed the direction she was pointing toward. “Let’s go east.”

  The couple streaked through the night sky, the bright light from the full moon above casting their fleeting shadows on the wilderness below. Now focusing on speed, rather than stealth, Alesaria flew through the air, whereas Atlas stepped on air itself to propel himself forward.

  As they were passing by a misty mountain, Alesaria came to a stop and looked down. Atlas continued onward for a brief moment before running back.

  “What is it?” Atlas asked restlessly. His lips were chapped, and his worried face was pale under the moonlight.

  “Wait a moment.” Alesaria raised her hand to silence her husband, then pointed down to a tiny village filled with dilapidated shacks. “That small village down there. See that couple walking down that dirt road?”

  Below, a couple with graying hair leisurely strolled down the road, their hands entwined. A woman’s voice drifted up from the village, laced with mock annoyance.

  “Atlas, we are out of time and better options. I think leaving our son in such a rural village might be good for him as well. I have a strong feeling in my heart… This is the place he needs to be.” Alesaria met her husband’s dark eyes, her own brimming with tears. Even through a watery gaze, the hopeful light shining within them was brighter than ever.

  “I trust in your instincts. Your decisions have never been wrong before. If only I could come up with another solution, we wouldn’t have to leave our son behind. I’m always dragging you down with me. I’m sorry, my love.” Atlas hung his head low, his shoulders drooping even lower.

  “It is not your fault. If this is what fate has planned for us, we won’t be able to change it. However, it is still not too late for this child. Let me go and place him in the old couple’s path. We must hurry and depart from this region, so we don’t draw our enemies here.”

  Alesaria stroked her husband’s face gently as she smiled at him. She then flew down to the large cypress tree at the entrance of the village and placed the bundle she was embracing safely between the roots. She withdrew a metallic badge from her robes and engraved a name into the corner before placing it inside the bundle. She caressed the boy’s face one last time with her trembling hands. Her stomach twisted, and a hot lump rose up her throat.

  The boy awoke, and he looked up and met her eyes. His large, round eyes shone as he stared at her for a while before a wide, toothless grin appeared on his face. She smiled in return, even as her tears ran down her cheeks. The boy stopped smiling and reached out with his tiny hands, as though trying to wipe away her tears. She leaned forward to give him a kiss when the crunch of gravel caused her to pause and fly back up into the sky.

  The husband and wife gripped hands tightly as the aging pair discovered the bundle within the roots of the cypress tree. Their vision followed their son as the village couple brought him back to their shack, watching until the very last moment as they entered and closed the door behind them.

  “We’ve wasted too much time already. We must go now. Otherwise, they might track us down here. We can only pray to the heavens to protect our son. May he live a peaceful and prosperous life as a normal village boy.”

  Atlas muttered a soft prayer before pulling Alesaria with him as he ran away from the village. Although she was being dragged away, she didn’t look away until the villager couple’s small shack disappeared into the distance. With her son’s fate now out of her own hands, she, too, could only utter a small prayer in her mind.

  May you live a long and happy life.

  Moonlight cascaded down, illuminating the figures of two adults walking down a shabby dirt road. They walked past the crude wooden shacks lining the sides of the street, as they chattered with their hands entwined.

  “I wouldn’t have rolled my ankle if we lived in the village, Benji.” A middle-aged woman, with a kind face and a firm voice, chided her husband. She was hobbling as she walked, having twisted her ankle just earlier on the uneven ground.

  “But it’s nice being isolated, isn’t it? Besides, if we lived in town, everyone would hear you when…” A middle-aged man with long, bushy, graying hair and a thick, prickly beard winked at his wife as he pulled her in closer.

  “Benjamin Fletcher! You!” Lyla yelled before gasping at the volume of her own voice. Her cheeks turned a deep crimson as she glared at her husband.

  After scanning the area to ensure nobody had been nearby, Lyla looked back at Benjamin and sighed, her forehead crinkling as she frowned.

  “How else would we conceive a child? It’s already been so long…”

  Lyla looked down at her hands, worn out by the passage of time. The small scars were a harsh reminder of the countless hours she had spent weaving and knitting for the child she had expected to come into her life. However, even as the years passed, the only thing that she received were more scars and stacks of baby clothes of numerous colours, prepared for both genders.

  The two walked in silence for some time. Only the sound of rustling leaves and the occasional scurrying of an animal could be heard.

  Benjamin looked down at the dirt road. The skin around his eyes loosened as he sighed. He thought about the crib he had made with his own hands over a decade ago, and all the random wooden toys he had carved piled up in the corner of their shack, gathering dust.

  Benjamin turned to face Lyla. Seeing the tears in his wife’s eyes, the woman he had sworn to protect from any worries, he quickly forgot about his own sadness and tried to brighten her mood.

  “Look, Lyla, if we can’t…”

  “Wait, hush for a second!”

  “No, Lyla…”

  “I said shut up! I can hear something.”

  The two figures stopped in their tracks and listened carefully. Wind rustling the leaves of the big cypress tree planted at the village entrance. An owl hooting as it hunted in the night. After filtering out the usual sounds, they found the irregularity. A soft cooing noise cut through the crisp night air, coming from the base of the tree.

  “What’s that? Quick, let’s have a look!” Lyla scurried with shuffling steps toward the tree a short distance away. Benjamin trailed behind her, keeping a wary eye on the surroundings.

  When they arrived, they saw a small bundle of cloth wedged between the large roots of the tree. Lyla gently picked up the bundle, peeling back the cloth to glimpse the face of a baby boy. His skin was pale and plump with a healthy flush. He looked up at the middle-aged couple with large eyes brimming with only curiosity and not a hint of fear or hesitation.

  “Aah! Aah!” The baby grinned and cooed at the sight of the two emotional faces.

  While the baby blew bubbles, Lyla looked at Benjamin with wide eyes and asked in a quivering voice, “Can we keep him?”

  “What do you mean, ‘can we keep him’? Stop being silly. Look at the quality of the fabric. Do you think anyone in this village can afford this? We need to ask around tomorrow and see if anyone has any information about him.”

  “Okay, fine. But if nobody knows anything…” Lyla pulled the bundle closer to her chest. “Can we keep him?”

  Lyla stared at Benjamin, her eyes shining brighter than ever before, and pouting while gripping her hands tightly. Benjamin looked back at her and couldn’t help but let out a wry chuckle. Almost 50 years old and still acting coy.

  Benjamin gave a single nod in response, to which Lyla grinned broadly. He had not seen this smile, the one he fell in love with, in many years, possibly even a decade or two.

  “But what do we name him?” As Lyla asked this question, she noticed something else wrapped up in the bundle. She placed her hand within and gently took out a small metal badge made from a heavy material, shimmering with fluctuating silver light. It was engraved with an elegant insignia, featuring an oak tree. She flipped the badge over and could make out a small word etched into the corner. Damon.

  Prologue!

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