ZINVUL VARIANCE

BY THE WAY, my name is Zinvul, fourteen years old, a young legionnaire of Chamenos.

My cherub sword is an average long sword. My grace uncloaks flame. This is my power, and some call me scorch master. Yet I’m still training and mastering how to use it, and what I can do more with this power.

Right now I could uncloak three types of flames: a mere red flame that burns and incinerates whatever it touches, then the blue flame, a fire blade that penetrates through everything, and the white flame, a fire burning light, but not for killing. This is a tier of fire that heals a man’s wound, a glorious one. But still, I could still behold that there is more power that my cherub sword can unleash. I could feel it. I still lack it. That’s why I train every day to uncloak more power that’s hidden within me.

Nine years ago when I was more than a little kid, I was living in an orphanage with other children. All I can recall is that we were all abandoned by our parents.

At that time, even without a cherub sword, my grace was already venting some flames in my body. I always burn my clothes and set ablaze anything that gets in touch with me. And before I knew it, other kids were afraid of me.

It was hard for me to live in the orphanage at that time as I was different among them. I was already aware of the reality of this world even at such a young age. About grace, about cherub swords, about legionnaires, and about wars. Yet I felt strange as I couldn’t see any other child like me having a problem with grace.

I could feel that they possess the same grace as I have. Yet none of them is acting bizarre like me.

I was always called out by the sister nuns and most of the time being scolded to control myself. I did everything I could. But the flame would ablaze in itself out of my control.

I was lonely, and I thought that this could have been worse than being abandoned by my parents. I didn’t even know who they were. I was only surviving in the orphanage, eating whatever is serve. Nobody dared to befriend me as I sometimes scorch up with my body and my hands, and I would hurt them.

Everybody was afraid of me. As a young boy burdened in such fate, I used to run to the woods at the west side of the kingdom where the orphanage was established.

One day I was running with haste while enduring the pain I always feel back in the orphanage, I was panting. There was a storm, and rain was pouring hard like how hardly I was crying. It looks like the heavens are weeping with me.

My feet are getting heavy as my boots are being stuck with mud. I’m tired. I have enough running like a witless kid for today. As I halted and caught my breath under a tree, I squatted and leaned my back against the giant roots of the tree. It took me a couple of minutes to breathe in and out to recover from exhaustion.

As soon as my lungs are ready to take another run it is already dark. The night has invaded the place. I pulled myself up and look at my way back. All I can see is pitch black. The trees and the road are eaten by the darkness, and I couldn’t tell which road should I go.

But I remember that I can create a flame. So I concentrate and lift my hand and focus and then it fired up boosh. I created a fire in the palm of my hands. Though the rain is pouring, this ain’t no normal flame created by woods. This is fueled by grace. It won’t die off by some rain. But the flame is not enough to clear my path, I keep forcing to flare it to make the fire big. But the darkness was enveloping me, it’s as if a fire is forbidden in these woods.

I could hear whispers from the trees. And that makes me aghast like hell. My legs were shaking, and I can’t track back the path where I run from. I’m lost.

I keep on walking. I convince myself not to be afraid because I’m confident with my flame that it will protect me. Until my feet led me to a cavern. And on the outside I could see a light reflecting from a flame. I could tell because I know how flame colors are! Without a thought, I enter to the mouth of the cavern. My legs feel a strength going inside the rocky tunnel, and my chest and blood got warm and comforted.

What is this feeling? Earlier I was so terrified by the dark wood’s tattles, and now I’m surmising a courage!

I’ve already taken more than ten steps. But still, this cavern seems so deep, and this light that is reflecting from a flame, how far does it come from? But it didn’t matter, my legs have been toughened and moving on its own . . . stepping forward.

I look back. I’ve realized that I’m already inside of this bottomless cave. But I gotta find where the flame is. My heart is pounding fast, not from the cause of fear, but it is of incitation. I thought for a second that there’s gotta be someone in there that I could find.

Finally, I find the dead-end of the cavern, but the light is being covered by a rock that is half of my height. There’s no one there, but what is that light? I step closer, and behind the rock as I peek, I see a sword standing—burning.

So it was this sword that was creating a fire, huh? A big sword for me as I’m a little kid. Then it rings a bell, I should be able to touch it as I am immune to flame. So I did. I brace the hilt with both of my hands as I expect it to be heavy . . . but as soon as my fingertips touches it, the fire kindles. And I was able to lift the sword and I was amazed because no matter how big it is, or longer than me, it's like I'm holding a stick! This sword is so light!

I started swinging it like I was swinging a piece of wood. I felt in the core of my flesh and blood a power in-surging. I felt angelic, and more like a man, I have felt, though I was in a boy’s body.

Marks on the sword shone and glittered with some old writing that I ignore it as I have no idea about what it says or means. The sword shimmer, and I grasp the pride of it. And I named it the ‘scorch sword’!

I rest on that cave and sleep over until morning comes, until daylight arises.

“I gotta go back. I know they have been worried and looking for me now,” I said to myself. But at the back of my head, another thought kicks in, “No, nobody cares for me, no one will look for me,” I mutter to myself.

I goes outside and decide to wander off, and choose to live on my own in the woods.

Days, weeks, and months have passed by. I learn how to live in the wildwoods. I learn to hunt with my sword and cook some wild animals with my flame. Some nights I only sleep under a tree, and some nights I sleep in a cavern that I could find.

The sword is alive as it would convict me and teach me how to do things, like hunting and surviving.

One day as I walk in the further midst of the forest I feel the ground shake a little bit and hear a clanging of steel. Those are the sounds of swords! I have a bad feeling, and my senses get sharpened as if something activated in me. I am in a fighting and defense mode. I hold my swords with both my hands and get steeled to what is to come.

Somewhere in me, I start to be afraid. Is it some legionnaires? I have thought for a second that I’ve never been into a real fight before, and I realize that I’m only a kid, after all. I’m going to die if it’s some real adult legionnaires who are after me!

My flesh tremble, and my legs curve like a little dog. And I look at the sword that I am wielding. There’s no fire in it! A burdening feeling makes me stand like a corpse and not able to run as I want to!

It could be that they have reported me to the regime of the kingdom. And now they are here to take me back to the orphanage. But I don’t want to! I could survive in the woods, besides I find my cherub sword that will protect me!

So I force my muscles to move. And I am able to. I run so fast to the opposite side where the sound of clanging swords was coming from. The grass is above me I have no choice but to go through this way to outrun them. I must not use my sword to cut the grass or else they’ll notice me. I am in a hurry while slipping these tall grasses, but I’m so terrified as if I’m being chased by a dangerous wild beast. When the next step that I take was an air, and empty, my balance is off. I feel like my body is without weight.

Oh no! I’m falling into a cliff! I am whooping as I am falling from a high cliff. I know I’m gonna die if I fall to the ground. I can’t see where I’m gonna fall. I’m scared to open my eyes, but I have to. I should do something!