Here's the next post. Keep in mind: it's rough. Really rough. And very, very cliche. I'm almost ashamed, if I wasn't so proud of the story.
Chapter 2: Midsummer
In the village where Ailia and Jeb lived, it was Midsummer’s Festival, and the entire village gathered around Jeb. As the village elder, everyone expected Jeb to tell the story of how the world came to be ruled by Darkness. The crowd grew quiet as they settled round to hear the tale, and he could see Ailia with her friends crouching by his side.
The fire light cast half of her striking face in contrast, and the scar on her cheek where she was attacked by a starving mountain lion was visible as a crescent moon. Thankfully, she survived, but since then Jeb had been sure to keep close tabs on her whereabouts.
“Jeb, tell the story again. Please?” begged Ailia. He could not resist her ministrations and began the tale in a way that was new to everyone present.
“A long time ago, there was peace in our land. The rulers of the skies and the earth were at peace, and the Darkness was not yet alive. The Light was manifest in human form, and walked the earth ready to aid those in need. One such hero was the Dawn King. He saw that people were happy, and he was happy. Light shone from his face and all who witnessed his glory were amazed. His days were the happiest known on earth. The night did not hold horrors, and everyone dreamed wonderful things. However, it soon came to pass that a jealous guardian of the Light wanted to be as powerful as his brother the Dawn King. So, he plotted ways to cast him down from power. This dissenter had a name, but it is now un-utterable except to those of the Light, but being as a holder of Light has not been witnessed in all the years since the ruin of the Dawn King, the name has been lost. So, he has become known to us all as the Darkness. He haunts the night, and plots to engulf us all in misery and loss. All because he failed to win the love of the people. What was his crime, you may ask?”
Jeb paused in his story, and looked thoughtfully at the faces staring back at him. Each one different, some paying more attention than others, and some simply unaware of the truth in the tale. The light from the bonfire was starting to die down, and it seemed to Jeb that the flames had lost their ability to effuse heat.
He went on, “Well, one night, when the Dawn King was sleeping unsuspecting, the Darkness crept in and stole the Light from the Dawn King. He used dark arts that were whispered to him in his nightmares, and in doing so, he destroyed the Light by accident. He was enraged that the Light did not serve him the way it did his brother, and in his anger he smote the Dawn King in his slumber.”
Jeb looked up and straight into Ailia’s eyes with his next words, and she did not waver in her gaze. “In his last breaths, the Dawn King swore that Darkness would not thrive, but that his heir would come to return the Light to its rightful throne.”
Ailia shivered with the weight of those words, and it appeared that the fire grew dimmer in her moment of fear, but then it regained its vibrancy when she returned Jeb’s stare.
“Hope left the world when the Dawn King passed into the other realm, but I hold the hope that Hope will return to our world, where it is least expected. And in its triumph, return the night to its peaceful origin.”
Unlike the other times when Jeb had recited the story, Ailia did not jump up to dance with the others in celebration of the summer days. She merely sat in silence, staring at her hands long after the crowd had dispersed.
Ailia felt that something was stirring within her, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She also was aware that there was a tinge of danger upon the air, like how she felt when a terrible disaster was about to strike her village. She didn’t like any of it, not one bit. The world is shifting, and my soul feels lost. She thought as she worried about what was heading her way.
The Night was always searching for something. It didn’t know why its master wanted to find the thing called the Light, but it had to obey. The Darkness was angry, and in his rage, he turned the Night into a weapon. He gave the Night a form so that it might better find what he was searching for in the daytime. The process was painful, and once done, the Night shivered because it was the first time he had felt the cold.
He has seen humans shiver for ages, crying out in the cold. And he had never understood what having feelings meant. Now he knew. Humans could feel, and feeling made you simultaneously stronger and weaker than you are.
“What am I?” He whispered hoarsely to his master the Darkness. What am I? What am I doing? How can I speak? What is speaking? Where are these thoughts coming from? How am I having thoughts?!
The Darkness spoke. His voice was a slithery whisper, and the origin of fear in the hearts of man. It signified the danger lurking in the dark. “You are now a human. My pawn in the area of men. Go forth and find the human Light, and I shall reward you. If you fail…well, don’t fail…Ewen. My son.”
The figure that was once the night now appeared in the form of young man. He stood for the first time, looked at his creator-father the Darkness, and then at his body. He marveled at his hands, feet, and strong arms. The dark water of a deep lake was like a mirror in the moonlight, and he walked carefully to the edge to view himself through his eyes. My eyes. My body. My thoughts.
His skin glowed the color of milky moonlight and his eyes were the color of the night sky. His face was perfect, like that of an angel: A fallen angel of Darkness. He smiled at himself and laughed as he saw his smile reflected back at him. White teeth flashing, he turned back to the Darkness. “Where shall I start, Father?”
Giving a cold laugh like the chill of death, the Darkness disappeared into the night with the parting words, “Look where the sun shines the most brightly...Look where the people are happiest...”
Ewen, son of the Darkness, looked off into the distance where the mountains were covered in shadows. With a dangerous smile he set off on his journey, because he could feel that something powerful lay in that direction, and he was curious to test out his new form. I could get used to this. Maybe if I find the Light, I can stay as I am.
