Nightmares from the past
It was twilight as a little boy ran barefoot along the beach not even minding how cold the water was. He was just laughing without a care in the world as the sun was casting its magic across the sky as it set.
The little boy stopped for a moment memorized to watch the magical skies painted with the differnet hues of golden orange, extraordinary purples and amazing pinks when a woman's voice called out to him from a distance. "Orus, don't go too far sweetheart!"
The little boy who was dressed in very thin scraps of cloths and little mismatch furs looked up to see a woman dressed just as poorly as him approaching him. Her own strawberry blond hair was down up in a braided bun on top of her hair and her pretty face was smudge with dirt but her attractive jade eyes were full of kindness and love.
"Mommy! Just look how beautiful the sunset is! Look how magical it is tonight! Isn't it a miracle?" asked the little boy who looked like he was only about 4 years old.
The woman paused for a moment to cast her gaze out at the endless rough seas and the glittering sunset that was being reflected upon its waters and sighed, "Yes, Orus, it is beautiful. We may not have anyone but the people of our little island to enjoy it with, but we do have beauty in our lives, even if we don't have others to share it with."
"I wish there were other people who could watch this magical sunset with us, Mommy. And there were other kids for me to play with," the little boy replied sadly as he hung his head.
"We all wish that there were more people, son. But we only have each other on this island. Since your great-grandparents and all who escaped the marauders from wherever they came from and then got caught in the terrible storm and shipwrecked them on this desolate land."
"But why have we never voyaged froth to find anyone else?" Orus asked as his mother led him away from the beach and back towards the village.
"Orus you know the story and the reasons why. When your great-grandparents escaped those evil marauders with the 40 others they already didn't have much for food or supplies and lost even more during the terrible tempest that followed.
Our people always seemed to have bad luck following us everywhere we go for the past century. Losing our original island to marauders then the ship that carried only 42 survivors ends up in a terrible storm that flung it off any know place on any map.
Then our people end up shipwrecked on this desolate island in the middle of nowhere. With almost no food or supplies and then the death toll was staggering as our people tried to make a home for themselves."
"But we have lived here despite all that, haven't we Mommy?"
"Yes, we have son. Even though the soil is almost impossible to grow in we have been able to grow just barely enough each year to feed us and though we have scare of wild game we feed ourselves and we may not even have a lot of fish either.
But we are survivors, we are strong and we adapt to anything. Because we never give up or in and we refuse to be knocked down no matter how bad our luck is. And even though each passing year we become more like a stone that the ocean washes away we won't die out no matter what," as they enter a very small village.
The village was indeed very small that was protected by a large wooden wall. There were only about a dozen houses, one well, and three other large buildings.
Not a lot of people and all of them didn't have very good clothes or look very clean. Though all of them shared the same strong loving and determined look in their eyes despite it was clearly very hard to live on this island.
"Maya! Maya! Where have you been?" called out a man who was very tall with his long hair in a braided ponytail. He looked much like Orus even though he had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.
"I'm alright, Grul, I was just trying to find our wayward son. He's always running off you know," as she glanced down at the boy whom hand she was holding.
The man Grul looked down at his son with a displeasing look and put his hands on his hip, but did this carefully as he was holding a scythe in right hand from working that day.
"Orus, you know better than to run off. And look how filthy you are! We have so little drinking water! And the state of your hair! Didn't we just give you a haircut last week?" his father scolded him in a tired voice.
Orus looked at his father with a little shame on his face. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I just was exploring and just wanting to see if somehow I could see beyond the sea and see something more," he confessed looking his big jade eyes into his father's chocolate ones.
"Son, we've told you so many times there is nothing out there to see. We are alone in this world. There not another living human settlement within our reach. We must do what we can by ourselves. We only have each other," his father reminded him in sad but firm voice.
"But how do we know that if we never try and seek it out?"
'We don't have the means to do so, Orus and besides between the unpredictable weather and ocean and other dangers? We are just safer staying put. Now get inside and put your shoes on before you catch cold. We don't have much for medicine either," his mother told him sharply.
Sighing Orus went inside a small little house and got his shoes on then laid in his bed. He could hear his parents talking and they're soon joined by the people of his village. All of them were adults of course; some were middle-age, on the other hand several were very old and not long for this world.
It was tough for him most of all since there were no other children in the village to play with. He was the only child left in the village has no other children been born in a long time.
The blood of their people grew thinner every year due to the harshness of their isolate island and that every now and then made it hard to have fun. Nevertheless they're still very strong, determined and loving close-knit people all the same.
The next day he was supposed to be learning the skills on how to survive in this harsh and unforgiving world and that it was survival of the fittest. It was always hard to remember that sacrifices sometimes had to be made and at times you could only count on yourself along with your wits and willpower to survive.
Still the people of the village had to teach him as he was the only child and still had to learn all this nevertheless as he was the future of their people.
His mother did school him in the basic of how to read, write and do math every day and she did her best to make the lessons fun and exciting. His mother was also the most amazing storyteller and every night as she put him to bed she'd always came up with the most amazing story to tell him. So his dreams were always filled with the images of the stories she told coming to life.
His father taught him the lessons of hard work, perseverance, determination and not to give up. Orus also paid close attention to his father who also showed him how to use the scythe he carried not as a farm tool, but rather as a weapon.
Grul could get very exasperated with his son when he wouldn't sit still and didn't listen and wanted to run off. Though he eventually got through to him that patience while it was very hard to master would come in handier.
In the end his father's lessons did pay off as did learning to become ambidextrous so he could fight with the scythe his father made for him to defend himself should he ever find himself in danger.
His father had carved a message into the curved blade that read. "The love of family is forever in my heart and soul"
The other things Orus learned was how to scavenge, hunt, make traps, identity plants and track his position by both the sun and stars. All in all the village was doing each its part to help him learn all the vital skills they could of what they'd all learned to live on this desolate land.
And yet at the same time he couldn't help but wonder if there were other things beyond the endless sea. Other people and places. He loved his parents and his people and he was devoted to all of them but why didn't they ever try to find a differnet home?
It was always nagging at the back of his mind of what was out there beyond his lonely little island even each day as he was taught to survive and be self-reliant and how to take care of himself.
Still what was the point of all this if they'd never leave this lonely place anyway? What good was it learning all these survival skills or how to fight and defend himself if there was nothing to really use them for? It was all pointless if they never went forth from their home and just let themselves die instead of daring to go back out to the sea and trying to see more of the world again.
It was a night like any other when it happened and the words be careful what you wish for couldn't be truer than that moment.
The seven year old boy was just sleeping soundly dreaming about a stunning, winged chestnut Reaping Mare named Sylt. Though her wings were brown on top they're black underneath. She was a gift to a new Valkyrie for her First Day Ceremony.
Or at least that was the bedtime story his mother had told him and thus that was his dream as he always dreamed whatever the story she came up with when she put him to bed.
Then all of sudden the world came undone. He was thrown from his bed as the strongest wind in his life hit his home and then heard cries of panic and fear as lightning seared the skies outside setting the whole island aflame.
And if that was not scary or enough for this storm you could already hear the loud and very large waves hitting their island from all sides at the same time and decimating their home all at once!
Earth, Fire, Water and Air all hitting them at once and none of the elements cared as this out of control storm was going to destroy their island and take them all to their graves.
The screams of bloody murder, the raging chaos and destruction and all death around him. The force of Mother Nature's fury as everything he had ever known and all the people who loved and cared for him were being killed or destroyed before his terrified eyes. The worst for the terrified 7 year old was not knowing where his mommy and daddy were as he tried to find them as the house was coming down and he was being tossed about in this chaos?
Then at the peak of the pandemonium when everything was literally ready to be devastated and he swore he could see the Valkyries coming to take them all he blacked out and could remember nothing.
When he came too it was daytime and somehow he floating in the vast open ocean by himself clinging to a large piece of wood. He was alone utterly alone and somehow in his heart he knew his home, family and people were all gone for good.
He didn't cry though, he refused to let himself grieve for them. He wouldn't let his emotions get the better of him. Instead he thought of what they'd taught him about how to rely on himself and survive and that he was now on his own.
He then swore at that moment as he drifted in the endless sea he wouldn't ever allow himself to become emotional attached to another place or human again. He'd never let his emotions control him again.
He do whatever he had to survive but he'd never let another human or place ever become important to him ever again. And after making that vow he passed out into blackness.
He was unconscious for a long while till his driftwood raft washed ashore another island and his small body was lying between the sand and grass. Dying from both dehydration and starvation.
As he laid in the hot sun unconscious slowly dying his presence drew the inevitable predators and scavengers looking for an easy meal. Both a pack of Speed Stingers and boars found him at the same time and were both willing to find over who got the boy.
But as they're getting ready to fight over who got the child for dinner a large shadow came flying in fast and gave both packs a reason to be sent packing.
Whom every the shadow belong to stood protectively over the boy till he woke up and he gasp.
And then Orus really gasped loudly as he felt someone nuzzling him affectionately and he wasn't a seven year old boy anymore. He was a 20 year old boy now not yet a man for he hadn't learned what it was to be a man yet nor had he'd won the heart of his true love yet.
"Oh Gods! Not again! Oh Sylt!" he spoke warmly to the Rumblehorn who was looking at him in a motherly fashion as she continued to nuzzle him.
She was a gold and lilac Rumblehorn with pretty blue eyes but the underside of her wings were black. Thus why he'd named her as such.
"I was having the nightmare again about the day my life ended," he confessed to her as she looked at him and made a sound and he sighed.
"I know, I've these night terrors all the time, Sylt and as your both my best friend and second mother your there to help chase them away. Since if you hadn't saved my life and well raised me I wouldn't be alive today. You're the only family I have and the only one I love."
She roared and seemed to hug him and return the overturns of affection both of motherly pride and friendship. "I know we've been through a lot in our years of travel. But you know we can't trust anyone but ourselves. We don't need anyone else.
You'll always be my best friend and my mother and I'll be both your best friend and son. Now I don't want to stay in this place much longer. I'm getting a bad vibe and there might be some pesky humans around.
So let's gather our meat and supplies and break camp and getting going while the moon still in the sky. I don't want to be around any place with humans. Never again. And we don't want any dragon trouble if we can avoid it.
So let's just get to the nearest island and make camp there for a few days and continue on our way, okay, Sylt?" Orus said to his dragon mother as he started to gather things and shoved his scythe he still somehow miraculous had in his sheath.
He was still trying to shake his night terrors away as he quickly was gathering the very few things he kept with him. But for some reason couldn't shake the feeling someone was watching him but didn't see anyone around, yet he still didn't like the feeling.
As for Sylt? She just roared happily and helped her adopted human son as they broke their camp as quickly as possible. She too could feel as though someone was watching them, though her senses couldn't smell anyone human or dragon anywhere near them.
Neither of them knew their fates were about to change and take them both were they're be a great deal of humans and dragons and their lives never be the same again. For the people watching them were very far above and about to send them a big message that was gonna change the course of a lot of people lives forever.