Twenty-three years earlier…
A select group of people were craning their heads to see the newborn child. The birth of new life was something very exciting for this particular group of people. The baby was only a few weeks old; it was common for the parents to stay a few weeks with their child before they present it to the world.
"Come on now, let us see the babe!" One of the bystanders whispered.
"Soon enough, soon enough." The father said nervously, walking out of their tent like home.
The reason the parents got to stay a few weeks alone with their child is because their child would be judged as soon as it was presented. It was judged if it were to be a strong child. It was judged if it would be a smart child. It was judged if it were to be a beautiful child. Of course, every parent was nervous for this. But this couple, they knew the fate their child was destined to.
Their first child would be killed…
"Rorrick," the wife whispered disdainfully when he came back inside, "I do not wish to present her!" She was sitting by their fire, cradling their baby.
"We have to Camella." He whispered back. "I heard most every family goes through a loss of a child, we will have to go through it sometime. It might as well be now."
"How could you say that?" Camella whispered harshly, she looked down at her child in her arms. The babies' soft features and round cheeks were adorable.
"Camella, it will be ok. We were able to pick the people that judge our baby. Remember? They're all friends of ours!"
"But Rorrick, when it comes to new additions in the tribe, they all have no mercy!" Tears started to brim up to the edge of her eyes. "I won't be able to take our child to De Athe!"
"Camella, we have to do this. There is no way we can avoid it." He knelt down next to his wife and child.
Camella turned towards him; Rorrick's thumb gently wiped her fallen tears away, and kissed her on her lips. "I love you, no matter what happens today," he looked down at their child and crooned, "and I love you too, Elliah."
Rorrick helped Camella up, and they headed for their tarp flap door. As soon as they came out, the sunlight of day greeted them cheerily. So did the group of judges.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" One said giddily.
"I bet you had a burly son, eh Rorrick?" One of Rorrick's friends laughed, punching him in the arm.
"No," Camella forced a small smile, "It's a girl. Her name is Elliah."
They ooo'ed and aww'ed at the interesting name the couple had chosen.
"Elliah is a gorgeous name, for I am sure a gorgeous baby. Now come along Camella, let us see her!" That was Camella's friend. Who ran up to Camella's side and adored the sleeping baby.
"Oh, she's stunning! So cute! And look at those cheeks!" Her friend started talking to the baby.
The rest of the group approached them closer, able to all look in awe at the child.
Camella and Rorrick had a sense of relief wash over them.
"May I hold her?" The friend asked.
"Sure go ahead!" Camella smiled, more cheerfully this time. Maybe they won't notice. Pray she won't wake up.
Rorrick looked at his wife, a cheerful glow radiated off of his face. "Gorgeous." He repeated.
The group talked to the couple, asking questions, while Camella's friend, Andrina, held the baby.
Andrina looked at the child lovingly; she was even more excited because Elliah was finally waking up. Elliah yawned and opened her eyes to the very bright new world.
"Welcome to the new world, lit-" she would have finished with little Elliah, but was cut off. Andrina stared at her right eye and back to the left. One eye was fully red, the other a gorgeous green. It wasn't normal. The other thing that wasn't normal was that Andrina saw herself through a foggy picture. She was standing on the edge of the land, looking at a rocky floor below.
Elliah giggled, and Andrina snapped out of her reverie. "What is wrong with you?" she screamed.
Camella heard Andrina and reached for Rorrick's hand, grasping it tightly. "Rorrick." She whispered frantically.
"Look at this child!" Andrina shouted.
The group had all stopped talking with the couple and walked towards Andrina whom was now looking at the child in disgust.
"This is no child! It is evil! Look at its eye! It tried to kill me!" Andrina screamed, pressing the child in someone else's hands. Andrina ran back to her own home.
"Andrina please!" Camella screamed.
Rorrick quickly walked to his child, trying to protectively take it from their hands. But everyone else looked at the child, gasping in horror.
"What is w-wrong with its eye!"
"It's not an it!" Rorrick demanded, he pried the child away from their greedy murderous hands.
Camella was going into a state of shock. "All those long months, carrying a child," she started to hyperventilate, "that's my baby, don't take away my baby! Don't you kill my Elliah!"
They were all causing a scene; more people joined the group, listening in on what was happening. So many questions flooded by them, 'what's happening, are they going to kill it, is it a boy or a girl, what is wrong with it?'
Andrina had come back, an old man hanging on to her arm. She shouted with authority, "I have brought the Shaman! I have brought the Shaman! He's going to declare if we kill the thing or not!"
"NO!" Camella screamed.
Rorrick ran to his wife before she fell over sobbing. The small family of three looked up at the Shaman. As the whole village cleared a path for him.
"Rorrick? Camella? May I see your newborn?"
Camella only continued to sob, hanging onto her husband's arm. Rorrick stood up, and gently put Elliah in the Shaman's arms.
The Shaman showed no disgust, but no happiness either. He remained unbothered with emotion. He stayed like that for a fair few minutes.
"Shaman?" Rorrick asked, gently touching the old man's arm.
"It seems to me, Rorrick and Camella that your daughter is born with one natural green eye and one very unnatural red eye."
Rorrick only nodded, he already knew this.
"Camella would you please stand up?" The Shaman asked sweetly.
She did, wiping at her nose and eyes.
"Your child can see things that other people cannot. She can look into a day many days ahead of us, but I believe you already know that."
The couple only nodded.
"There is record on our ancient scrolls of future seer's like this. In fact, our tribe used to be a proud people of future seer's. But we have slowly lost that art, or the gene, of seeing into the future. I believe your daughter Elliah is a gift to our tribe."
Camella's heart stopped, not only was the Shaman actually here, but he was telling her personally that she could keep her child.
Andrina cried out, "No! I saw the devil in that child's eye!"
"Andrina," the Shaman started, "we will only see what our future beholds. If it is a sacrifice you want, go jump to De Athe's home yourself." And with that the Shaman gave Elliah back and started to slowly walk back to his tent himself.
Half the village was at the step of Rorrick and Camella's home, they slowly all departed, a few congratulating and looking at their baby. Andrina never came to talk to them again. It only took a few days for news to travel back that Camella's dear friend Andrina was taken by De Athe…she had jumped to the rocky depths meeting him there.
12 years later…
Elliah was growing just as fast as the rest of the children of the village. She had a few friends. She was prone to fights while they play. Once Elliah was done with her school days, some families banned her from coming to their homes. It progressed, once she turned 14, to their village events and ceremonies. Elliah's friends had left her, no longer seeing her. Camella had died giving birth to their fourth child. Elliah's siblings didn't want to even be seen with her.
It seemed that as soon as Camella had died, the village stopped caring. Elliah no longer became a blessing, almost a burden. Once Elliah turned 16, it was common for the girls at that age to start searching for husbands. She dared not.
Elliah stayed home, she watched her younger sister's court men, bringing them home to meet the family, and the men wouldn't even take a glance at her.
Rorrick was busy taking care of the family; Elliah slowly became invisible to her younger siblings.
Elliah grew her hair for one purpose. To cover her eye so it would no longer scare people. She wanted to be normal. She slept as little as she could, her future seeing habit only became worse when she slept. She would dream of future occurrences, and would never dare to tell anyone.
"Elliah." Her father's voice said, shaking her awake. "Elliah!"
"What?" She sat up abruptly in the bed made from furs.
"You were screaming again."
"Oh…sorry." She muttered.
Her father sat at the end of the bed, staring at her.
"What?"
"You look just like your mother."
Elliah was shocked, she instantly detested his comment. "You married a hideous girl with a red eye, pale skin, and dark hair?"
"Elliah you are not hideous."
She only laughed.
"I don't know if you've noticed, father, but I am kind of a joke to this whole village. Like the new animal everyone can gawk at. Except they don't even gawk at me. You know I can't set foot out of our home? I haven't in a whole week!"
"You are not a joke to me." He said, ruffling up her hair.
She quickly cowered away from him, hiding her eye with her dark tresses.
"Elliah, don't hide. No child of mine shall ever hide. You are a daughter of Rorrick and Camella!"
She faintly smiled. "Is this supposed to cheer me up?"
"It should. I remember the day the Shaman said you were safe."
"You should have just let me died." She mumbled.
Rorrick sighed, "You should talk to the Shaman in the morning."
"In the morning? Go out there? On Earth? People…people will look at me! They say things to me father! They throw things at me! Call me hideous! And freak! Even my own siblings!"
"Elliah, I have tried talking to them. I know. They will all be out of the house soon."
Elliah looked up at him, "Clearly you are happy I will still be here. Oh and-"
"Well, I think it's about time for me to leave."
"No, father, wait." Elliah said, pulling on his hand.
"Elliah." He complained, scratching his brown stubble on his chin.
Her small smile faded, "Dad, it is my seventeenth birthday tomorrow."
Rorrick smiled, "Just go to the Shaman in the morning, love. Goodnight."
Rorrick and his daughter have a good relationship. He hardly talks because she understands his body language so well.
Elliah waited for the sun to shine through her window, she got up quickly, not wanting to meet a crowd of people while she walked to the Shaman's house. "I wish I could predict what's going to happen to me today." She opened the door and ran to the house of the Shaman, meeting no one.
Elliah opened the flap door quickly and fell clumsily inside.
"Ah." The Shaman said, as if he was expecting her. "You're finally here." His voice was high pitched and shaky.
Elliah looked up at him from the floor; he was sitting cross-legged, eyes shut. "Shaman, it's me, uh Elliah?"
"I remember you child. I saved your life." He opened one eye and leaned forward, "You should be grateful."
"Uh, right."
His eyes flashed open, "You are not grateful?"
"I would have rather died."
"Ah yes. Death is an easy answer for a difficult problem." He chuckled. "Young Elliah, I think you are angry at this world for the way it has treated you. I will not lie, it has not treated you right. You are smarter than people here. Even smarter than me."
"Oh I don't think so." She laughed.
"You can see things I cannot. You can read people better than I can. You may not be good at it quite yet, but you will be. You will be very great."
"I am only seventeen. I cannot be great. I don't know the lands beyond this."
"Seventeen?" He shouted.
"Yes."
"Well, even better. You are no longer chained to this village. You can venture out. Explore."
"I read scrolls of how there are great and terrible beasts out beyond this village!"
"Well of course there are." He laughed, "They wouldn't call it the wilderness for nothing! It's not easy!"
Elliah reflected on his words.
"Ah, Elliah. I have waited for this day. I have practically rehearsed it in my mind over the years. What perfect timing you have as well, seventeenth birthday. Impeccable!" The frail old man got up on his wobbly knees and hobbled over to a cupboard. He extracted a long, thin, and heavy looking box from it. He handed the box to her, "Open it, please."
She did so. A thin and shiny black metal bar lay in the box. "Uh, Shaman, what is it, exactly?"
"Well it's a piece of metal."
"Yes, but what am I supposed to do with it." She asked, picking it up. It was very cold and hard.
He laughed, "You tell me! The last future seer told me to give this to the next one. He said he had made it for you. I was only twelve years old!"
Elliah looked at him blatantly, "A piece of metal? He gave me a piece of metal?"
The Shaman shifted uncomfortably. "Oh dear, I thought I had more time." He quickly ran to the back of his home and came with another wooden box. "I am sure you do not know what this-"
She already responded excitedly, "It's a red pendant. It's a sign of being able to leave the village, the sign of being an adult."
"Right." He handed her the box. "Elliah, it amazes me about you. I am curious-"
"Everyone is. But most are afraid. And wretched."
"Shush, Elliah. Let me Speak. I know our people have not been good to you, and that is why you cower at home. But right now, the last thing our tribe needs is someone as powerful as you to go against them. Something is coming, may it be in the next hour or the next decade. Something is coming here. It would be eminent that you do not turn against these people. You do not know your own skill yet, but you will find out."
"Shaman, what are you saying?"
"You must leave; they will think you killed me."
"What? How do you know more of the future than me?" Elliah's heart started to race as soon as he mentioned death.
The Shaman smiled, "Leave, Elliah, Now."
Elliah quickly did so, almost tripping on her feet on the way out. It was amazing, the sun was gone and dark thunderheads were clouding the morning blue. Elliah ran back to her house, clenching the boxes tightly. Ignoring the filthy comments people shouted at her. She bolted to her room once she reached their house.
"Now what the hell am I supposed to do?" She laughed, looking at the objects that were strewn across her bed. The metal reflected appealingly and the red pendant seemed to glow.
A name she had not heard in a long time seemed to call out to her.
"De Athe." She repeated. Of course, the name was a play on the word Death. The village believed that a small deserted path to a cliff was your road to it. It is where they would put the judged children who had failed they're first test in life, it is where they would put the villages dead; it is where you jump when you are at the mercy of your own mind.
"Am I at the mercy of my own mind?" She asked herself crazily.
Elliah remembered from a few of the scrolls, one talking about De Athe. She was always curious about that particular subject. It said De Athe appears to those in their own mind, the way they see De Athe, is their own way. A ruthless being, De Athe takes all life.
Elliah sat in her bed, "Tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, I will go to the cliff. Visit De Athe." It was against everything the Shaman seemed to have said. It made it sound like he wanted her to live, to almost protect these people. But that was the last thing she wanted to do. The only person she ever loved would be her father. The last thing she heard before her life changed was the rain hitting the roof…
Elliah equipped herself with a small kitchen knife, she grabbed her pendant and attached it to a string. If the De Athe is real, he might know what to do with the metal. She grabbed the wooden box as well. Elliah took one last fastidious look around her room, knowing she needed nothing else, she departed the home. Saying no word to her father. Since it was raining, only a sparse group of the tribe was out.
Elliah seemed to embrace the rain, the dark grey clouds were almost inviting to her intoxicatingly boring attitude. She walked with thunderous joy to the cliff, leaving the village boundary and fallowing the one lone path to it.
A thrill pressed against her stomach, she would hear her sisters describe this thrill as giddy love. But there was no man here. Elliah's new found love was this. This thrill of leaving everything she hated behind, the thrill of going for what she wanted. Rather it be her own death or not, she didn't care.
She thought of the Shaman as she continued her walk to the cliffs, how he said the village would need her, peh. They don't even talk to me. She thought of her mother, how she wished her mother made this walk to drop her at the end. Then she thought of her father, he would be devastated.
Elliah came to the cliffs, smelling the salty sea water. She approached the edge slowly, looking over it. It was a horrible jagged rock bottom. Small waves hit the edge. It looked inviting…promising for a quick demise.
"No more ridicule if I die. Oh Gods, let there be De Athe to catch my fall." Elliah held her breath, she through the pendant necklace over, along with the box. Slowly she approached the edge and fell into the pit.
Please let there be a spirit, please let there be a spirit, please let there be a spirit, please let there be a spirit…
A burning pain filled her mind. Water from the ocean's waves seemed to choke at her throat. A terrible booming tremor seemed to shake her awake. Wherever she was, it was dark. Pitch black.
"Oh fuck, I died."
There was another tremor; it took her awhile to realize that it was actually someone laughing.
"You think visiting the Man of Death would be easy?"
"De Athe?" She asked, trying to stand but she could not find any part of her body available to move. In fact, she couldn't see her body.
"If that is what you have learned to call me, than yes." The spirit said. "This is very different for me. Normally people just offer themselves to me but you didn't. You happened to through down a red diamond, a piece of black metal, and yourself. So I propose you are actually not here to die but to commune with me?"
"I did. But there is something about this blackness; it makes me want to…sleep."
Giant white eyes appeared in front of her. "Sleep you shall. I take anyone to my kingdom." While De Athe spoke, Elliah saw jagged teeth. They reminded her of the jagged rocks she must have hit to get here.
"How exactly am I here?" She asked the spirit, trying to wake herself up.
"You jumped." He said sounding bored. "You jumped, you hit the rocks, and you broke your frail little human body. You are here in spirit."
"What do you look like?"
"Whatever you picture me as, which right now seems to be large eyes and teeth. Careful with your questions, spirit of human, you do not have unlimited time down here."
"Time?" her spirit yawned, "I have plenty."
De Athe only laughed, "Not down here, in exactly, oh three minutes, your spirit will be fully mine."
Elliah searched her spirit mind for why she came here, "Do you know what I am?"
"You are a human."
"But, I am not like the other humans!"
"That's right. It is a little strange that you jump here to chit chat with me. How intriguing." The spirit formed thin skeletal hands and held the pendant in one and the piece of metal in the other, Elliah suddenly remembered why she came.
"What is that piece of metal for! What am I supposed to do with it?"
The spirit laughed, "You had a nightmare a night or two ago. You do not remember it now, but it was with me. It was me talking to you, this is what gave you the hunch to come here. I now know why! Why you are so interesting that is, you are a future seer!"
"I am." Was all she could say. "I don't remember the details of the nightmare but I remember having it. I suppose it is what led me here."
"I can spare you a couple more minutes, I realize you are going to come to more use than my last patient."
"Who was that?" she asked quickly, since he seemed to add more minutes to her life, she felt more energized.
"Milego. Your village's Shaman."
Elliah didn't say anything for a long while. "What am I of use to you?"
"You like killing people? I could do with a little more death around here." He asked.
"Uh, I don't believe I have killed anyone."
"Ah, a virgin to the way of the sword." He chuckled, "You brought a knife, but that won't help you against me. This metal however, is made from another future seer long before you. Unfortunately he never transformed it into a sword."
Elliah solely watched the mouth and eyes move around the black shapeless room.
"Fortunately for you, I can. And I can do much better than a sword. I can make it apart of you." The spirit seemed to sneer.
"Then do so!" She shouted.
"What will I get in return?" The spirit was now becoming bigger, small bits of red were approaching around it, it was dancing flames. The said flames were now roaring ones, with a sadistic face shining through it. Elliah could see that the metal was melting and dripping continuously in the flame. "Hold out your hands!" The spirit roared.
Elliah couldn't even see her own body to know what she was doing. But whatever she was doing, it seemed to be working. The molten metal was making an arm cast around what could be her arm, it stopped once it reached her collar bone. The boiling feeling slowly left, and she watched the metal become black and it slowly faded into whatever place she was in, no longer capable of seeing it.
"You can make those swords whenever you want," De Athe's fires were dying down and he slowly transformed back into a giant fanged smiled with eyes to match, "all you have to do is think about the connection from your arms to swords and they should transform back and forth."
"But what did you want in return?"
"Oh trust me, little future seer, I will get it someday." He chuckled. "I don't know when, but someday, I will."
"How do I get back?" she asked wanting to leave as quickly as possible.
"You want to leave so soon?" The spirit formed a white finger and seemed to press it against what would be her forehead. Like that, the spirit planted the thought of making barriers and teleporting in her mind. "This should quicken things up. I will send you back to life, but your body will be very weak. Wherever your body is out there, you will go back to it. So if it is underground, you will be terminated and back here in a matter of hours. Do not die again so soon, I do not want to see you so quickly." Those were De Athe's last merciless words to her before the spirit sent her soul back to her body.
Elliah gasped for air as if coming out of an exorcism, she was lying on her bed in her own room. "Was that all a nightmare again?" She ran her hands through her black hair. Wow that is one big bruise. She brought her arm down and looked at it.
"Oh Goddesses." She gasped. It wasn't a bruise; both of her arms were cool and steely black. It wasn't a nightmare! How did I get here?
"This is the first time in a long time, Elliah, that I can read your facial expressions." It was her dad; he had been leaning in the doorway the whole time since she woke. "Why did you jump? What happened to you?"
Elliah didn't know how she would answer, he didn't even sound angry, he just wanted to know. "It's, uh, future seer business. Uh, Mr. Herrick, once I am better rested I will be on my way."
"Mr. Herrick?" He repeated. "I hate it when you call me by my first name, but now my last name? And what is this 'being on your way?'"
"I am old enough to leave and I am going to. I am going to experience this world on my own!" She flashed a smile at him.
Rorrick pinched the bridge of his nose, he was about to say something but someone knocked on their door. "I'll be right back, you stay right here." There he did sound angry.
Elliah looked at her arms again, they were back to normal. Was she hallucinating that they were metal?
She heard her father's voice from a distance. "Yes, I will be right out." He ran back into her room.
"Father?" She asked, now standing out of her bed, looking at him questionably.
"Elliah, when I told you to visit the Shaman, what did you do?" He growled.
"I visited him. He gave me a pendant and the metal. That's it! Why?" Oh right, she had remembered, he died.
"I have got some very angry people on our doorstep; some say they saw you leaving his house. They said you ran from it! You were the only person in his home all day! You didn't kill him did you!"
"No! I would never!" Elliah shouted.
"Shush! Keep your voice down! I saved you from that pit when I saw you down there. I was the only one looking for you, I brought you back home, and now I am saving you again. I guess Elliah, you are going to have to be feeling 'better rested' right now. Because you need to leave here, otherwise they are going to kill you." Her father was now gripping her shoulders, shaking gently, the words into her mind.
"Alright!" She whispered back, this wasn't exactly how she wanted to leave town. Escaping it. Escaping from a crime she didn't commit.
"You can't pack anything; just get out of here now." Rorrick leaned down and kissed the top of her head, he grabbed her and brought her to the back window, opening it quickly and helping her out. He looked down at her face, trying to hide the sadness in it, "No matter what happens here, remember that I love you."
Elliah watched him close the window slowly and back away from her. So this was it. I am on my own. She could hear the angry villagers around the bend of the house, Elliah ran fast and as far as she could from their village. She wiped tears from her eye, "One day I will come back father."
~Three years after her seventeenth birthday…in Elliah's point of view
I seemed to have waltzed back into the village to only find the place burned to the ground with day old corpses lying around. "Great." I muttered, slowly walking by the charred tents. I knew a great battle had ensued over the land, but I never figured this little village to be a part of it.
"Someone was a little careless with their flame." I said as I glanced at a few trees smoldering in the woods. "If only I was a day earlier, I might have been able to save a few." A small laugh rose to my mouth, "Nah, I would've let them burn."
I walked with my casual gait as if I owned the place; pointing out the huts of people I despised the most. A familiar area flashed across my mind's eye, and I came to it. Was it fate that I stumbled across my old home? I thought of my father and how he must have been burned alive in this raging mess. A small pang of remorse fell over me on how I should have been here sooner only for him. I walked to the foundation of the tent-home, my hand dragged in the ashes. "No matter what happens, I will always love you." I repeated the words he had told me. No, I haven't forgotten them…
I realized now, I was a part of an extinct tribe of people here. "That just makes me more important." Yes, I had grown to love myself. I am the only being I can talk to. Just, if there was someone else around here…someone to play my mind games upon…I'm not going to lie, I did come back to this village to torment some folk. Unfortunately I didn't see that it was burned to the ground in my dream.
I walked to the cliff where I once had a run-in with the De Athe Spirit. I was physically capable of jumping to the floor and being fine, but I figured it was too much stress upon the feet, I teleported instead.
So many skeletons of children and adults lie here; I crunched upon them with my boots. "I pity the one's that had a run in with you." By you I meant De Athe, but he would not here me for I was neither dead nor dying.
After that day of being at the village, I rested. I began to teleport around farther, training myself harder until I believed there was nothing else left to learn that was planted in my time dreams no longer bothered me; I had nothing else to be afraid of.
Of course Not until a few days ago at least. My dreams consisted of: A new wooded area, it was the farthest I've ever traveled. I saw a mysterious being walking around, and I followed it for many days and nights. It called itself…
Ghirahim.
Finally, an amazing challenge had presented itself to me, and it would take me three more years to finally get to that place I saw in my dreams, fortunately he was still there.
A/N: Well hello everyone! LOOK AT HOW LONG THIS CHAPTER IS. WOWWWW! Ok, so I wanted to put this at the bottom, just so everyone would start reading the chapter. I hope this wasn't boring, because it is Elliah Herrick's history! Er, or life…pretty much how she came to be! Thank you for the reviews once again! ALWAYS AWESME! 3
to Amanda, you pronounce Elliah like:
E-Li-Uh :3
So, I hope you enjoyed this incredibly long chapter! It's about as long as my first three chapters combined! Oh also, don't worry, there will be some 'compassion' and less ruthlessness now, now that they're friends… thank you all for waiting I think five (?) days for the new update! Hope you enjoyed and don't forget to review! Also, there are probably grammatical errors in this, because I was so excited to put it up once I finished it! If you spotted any, tell me! I would love to fix it! Thanks!
~ArtyQ50