Hello again, welcome to another chapter of A Primordial's Child!
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To everyone else, please enjoy, favorite follow and review!
When I opened my eyes again, it was dark out.
I sat up, wondering briefly why my shoulder ached so much. Oh, yeah. The pigeon thingy. It tried to eat me.
I quickly scrambled around, looking for the aforementioned killer bird-lady, when my eyes landed on something equal parts strange and horrifying. Creeping vines, which had before decorated the house, now coiled tightly around my restrained attacker.
She snapped, tore and squawked around in their grasp, but she was secured tightly to the rustic chimney.
"You!," she screeched, her glowing eyes promising murder. "I'll get you, I'll bite your throat out! You're little tricks won't stop me!"
I crawled slowly back, no quite sure about how long those vines would hold up. I winced when my back met the rail, and looked down over the edge.
The kids were no where to be seen, and I couldn't hear anything from inside either.
None of this was making any sense.
"Bird Lady!" I call, cutting off another string of curses in some weird language. "What the heck are you? Where is everyone!"
"I am a Harpy, delicious morsel, and I'm going to gobble you up like a snack! *squawk*!" Her struggling renewed, the vines beginning to stretch thin.
I was running out of time.
I looked over the edge once more, observing the creeping vines that snaked up the building. Maybe...
I struggled to my feet, barely keeping myself from blacking out again. God, it hurt! I slowly, gingerly threw a leg over the rail, then another, clutching the rungs for dear life.
I drew a shaky breath, gathering whatever courage I had. "Here we go," I whisper, then begin my unsteady, arduous descent.
It was slow going, especially considering I could only use one arm. Above, I could hear the sharp *snap* of a vine, quickly followed by more resounding 'snap snap's.
'Maybe I should speed this along,' I thought, only slightly beginning to panic.
I was passing down the second floor when I heard a sudden, final snap followed by a screech of triumph.
The pigeon demon was free!
I looked to the ground ten feet below, then back up, where the Harpy's head peered down at me. She was smiling delightedly, her fangs showcasing an evil grin.
I did what seemed like the best possible option at the time; I threw up Lucy's favorite hand sign with my afflicted hand, blood dribbling back down my arm, and let go of the vines.
thump
I landed with an "oof", recovering from having the wind knocked out of me. Above me, the harpy was slinking down the vines, her left wing curled gingerly at her side.
"I'm coming to get you, little Demigod treat! I'll snatch you up like those other little morsels, except you will be much more delicious!"
Well, on the bright side, she couldn't fly!
I turned tail and hobbled away as fast as possible, which, if you've never had to hobble before, wasn't that fast.
"You'll have to catch me first!," I taunt. I hear footsteps...talon steps? Pattering? What would it be?
It gets a lot closer, and suddenly I stop caring about what it is. I just wanted to outrun it!
In the distance, El Paso wavered like a mirage, but I knew it was there. I could get help, I just had to make it across a mini-desert. With a torn shoulder. And a monstrous Grackle in pursuit.
I hate my life.
She catches up to me, still too far from help, and drags me roughly to the ground. In desperation, I launch a kick to her wounded wing, eliciting a terrible, ear splitting screech.
She lets go, clutching her wing, and I take the opportunity to stumble towards a clump of cacti. Maybe I could stay out of her reach with pointy things every 3 inches.
Maneuvering to the center of the patch, I turn to face the once again pursuing Harpy.
"If you want me that bad, come get me in here!" I taint. She stamps her claw, before carefully hopping her way towards me. She didn't seem to be having any trouble, and now I was realizing I had trapped myself.
This was it for me. She was going to catch me and eat me! On my BIRTHDAY!
Not cool! I feel anger welling up inside me, numbing the pain in my shoulder. I stood tall, all 4'5 feet of me, and faced down my approaching doom in defiance.
"You finally give up!," she cried delightedly, excitedly moving forward. "You're ready to become my meal, troublesome little brat!"
"I'M NOT GETTING EATEN BY SOME DANG BIRD DEMON ON MY BIRTHDAY!," I roar. Around us, the cacti stalks begin to quiver, animating and aligning their arms around as if alive. I feel a tugging sensation spread my stomach, then throughout my body, a ringing in my ears.
I could only stare in disbelief as an army of thorny green plants dog piled the alarmed Ms. Celaeno, who screeched, squawked and screamed aloud in pain.
"This can't be! I'm the most famous of all my sisters! I can't be killed by some puny demigod and his cactus!" Her voice is muffled as the murderous cacti buried her, until oddly enough, a plume of golden dust billowed from under the pile.
The previously murderous cactus collapsed to the ground, once more only plants, and the monster was nowhere to be seen. Only a small pile of golden dust.
"That was..." I collapse before I can finish, utterly exhausted and feeling the burning of my shoulder once again.
Yet, despite the fatigue and pain, I manage to struggle to my feet, and shuffle out of the patch to the town once more.
As I stumble along, I hear a faint shift in the wind. A voice, barely a whisper, reached my ears as the wind buffeted my battered body.
"Find me, child..." Find who? My body is too tired to formulate the question audibly. However, the voice seemed to read my mind.
"I am who you have always waited for. Who you have strained to remember since you were only young." My mind restarts, the distinctly feminine voice, brushing against my ears like a gentle breeze, and my thoughts focus on the single greatest question of my life.
Who are my parents?
"You know who I am, though not my name. Seek me, Mitchell. I await you..." The whisper faded to nothing, and the wind disappeared as though it had never been.
'Who was that...?'
My last vestiges of strength leave me as I reached the outskirts of the town, and I collapse face first into the dirt.
I hear footsteps as my sight blurs.
I'd never had a dream that felt so real you could SMELL, like, actually smell things.
Like dead bodies. It wasn't great.
I had thought I had awoken to a post-apocalyptic wasteland of horror. It was some city, huge and once grand, maybe New York, now laid to waste. The sky was a red haze, which bathed the city in a bloody tone. Buildings crumbled, craters ruined the landscape, cars flamed and everywhere, bodies littered the ground.
Some of those bodies were...bizarre. As I walked through the carnage, I saw not only humans, but bodies of half-human, half-horse monsters. Centaurs, I vaguely recall. Also, giant humanoid things with a singular eye, or several arms, or several heads.
Rounding a street corner, I came across the grizzly last stand of two fallen humans against a small army of monsters. Those monsters weren't all dead though.
I immediately ducked back in terror, peeking around to observe the scene.
"Humans dead?," a giant questioned. Next to him, a woman with the lower body of two snake tails slithered toward, jabbing the downed boy with her spear. He didn't move.
"It ssseeeemssss sssooooo," she confirmed. Next to her, I recognized a recent phobia of mine; Harpy. And she looked exactly like Ms. Celaeno, post Alfred Hitchcock transformation.
"It took many monsters to kill these two," she squawked in annoyance. "Lord -"
"Mitchell," a voice said directly behind me, startling a yelp from me. Behind me, a hauntingly beautiful woman wrapped in a celestial aura hovered slightly off the ground, staring at me.
She had flowing brunette hair adorned by a silver wreath, and beautiful glowing amber eyes. Her face was the most perfect visage I had ever seen, and the white dress she wore gave her the appearance of a Holy Spirit.
"I am a goddess, child," she chided, a hint of amusement in her tone. Had she just read my mind?
"W-who are y-you?" I stammer. She smiles softly, in fondness, spreading her arms as if to offer a gigantic hug.
"I am Phusis, the first Goddess of Nature, among the first, the Primordials," she proclaimed, and I couldn't help but believe her. Nothing could come close to this...goddess...
"Am I dead?" I ask. This certainly seemed like Hell. She chuckles, the sound like wind chimes, delightful and ringing.
"No, dear one, you are not dead. And no, this is not Hell. I am afraid that Hades would be a sight better than this." Phusis sounded sad as she said it, and I suddenly wanted to give the Goddess a hug.
"What is this?" I didn't understand what was happening, any of it.
"This is my gift to you, a vision of a possible future." She swept her hand out, indicating the vast destruction and death. "This is what is to come, if all should fail."
"If what should fail?" I blurt out before I can stop myself. I expected her to get annoyed, but she kept her smile and simply tilted her head. I had the feeling she was scrutinizing me.
"If all those chosen do not succeed in their purpose." Were all goddesses so vague? She must have read my mind again, because she giggled sweetly. "I am afraid so, but it is as it must be. Knowledge can be dangerous, even if it could be used to help."
"Why are you showing me this?" My ten year old mind was spinning, trying to comprehend, but I still couldn't help but wonder...why me?
"Why do you see things? Why were you attacked? Why does the world suddenly seem to have a secret side to it that you never realized?" I nod my head. "Because, Mitchell Roark, you are special. More so than you, or anyone else, will realize for a long time." Only more questions form, and barely any answers.
"But why me?" She sighs, tiredly, and I'm suddenly nervous that I pried too much.
"Because you are chosen, my child. You will help decide the outcome of the future."
Whatever I had expected, whatever horrific fate I had in store, none prepared me for that mind blowing truth.
I was gonna decide the fate of the world?! This should go down in history as the worst birthday that ever birthday'ed!
"C-hosen...m-me? But why? What makes me so special?!" I ask, half shouting in desperate need of clarity. Her form suddenly begins to fade, and the city around me loses focus.
Before I once again see only blackness, Phusis' last words reach me.
"Because the child of a Primordial holds the power to save everything."
"M-mother...?" I murmur, unable to speak properly.
Consciousness deserts me, and oblivion takes ahold.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I liked writing the dream prophecy sequence. Also, I didn't really know how else to introduce Mitchell's godly parent. This sets a plot and establishes parentage. Primordial parentage. Prime primordial parentage.
Im sorry, off track. Once again, please follow favorite and review if you wish, any and all requests and criticisms are welcome!