Chapter 3: Fresh air from the land and sky

Gasp! Terra jerks awake, as if he had a nightmare. He was breathing heavily, while examining his location. It was familiar. He tried to stand when the memories of the previous day washed into him. It came so forcefully that he nearly fainted. The encounter with the hoodlums, the pursuit, the tiger...as well as the excruciating pain that came before his death. He remembered them all.

He pulled off the multi-patched blanket and sighed. He wasn't wearing anything, but that wasn't worth worrying over.

'I still have my legs.' he thought. He looked up and saw the polearm and felt even better.

He rose up to his feet, and sighed again.

Terra was in his shelter. But the shelter hardly sheltered anything. The rays of the sun passed through the huge holes in his poorly constructed roof, and through the spaces left in the house's woodwork. Terra smiled as he looked around, he was proud of his shelter. He had always had one major problem, it was hard for him to tell the difference between something ugly or beautiful. Especially the works of his hands.

He was the embodiment of 'having eyes, seeing things and still blind.' Being a young and lonely teenager, it was inevitable that one would develop mental health issues.

Terra didn't dwell on the dark memories. He shrugged, "Well thank God I'm still alive, and I'm perfectly fine. Wow, even my old scars are gone." He said as he examined himself.

There weren't spectators at this part of the region, so he could do whatever he wanted.

He waded through the messy room to the battered door where he hung his decrepit towel. There was nothing to write home about in his shelter. He strode lazily out into the open.

His shelter was on a hill, behind a gigantic tree. The forest was just below, and the walls of the city could be seen from afar. A flaming eagle flew past, leaving plumes of smoke in its wake. He looked over everything with his chest raised, and if there were to be a caption, it would be: the king of the world.

The cool breeze hit him and he sighed with pleasure. 'this is freedom!' he thought, ' the air, the clouds, the sky...and the land.'

he strolled down the hill through a path. It lead him all the way to a stream. He lazed around at the stream for another two hours before returning to his shack.

"Oh no... forgot to practice today! And there's still so much work! I have to cook, wash, go hunting! How am I supposed to be able to survive like this? I'm tired of living! I don't want to work anymore! Why do I have to cook? Can't food fall from the sky-"

From the shed, the complaints kept going on and on, so steadily and constant that any passerby would want to beat him into a pulp.

*********************

Iloha, was in high spirits. Man fought god and prevailed! The city was bubbling, and everyone was happy, singing praises to Lord Gray and his might. The hype was really good.

However, the object of praise and adoration, the legend in the story, the man surrounded by hype men, Lord Gray, felt like a very special pile of cow poop. He couldn't stop thinking about the crocodile god, and the threat of annihilation.

The people were too happy to see the dark expression on Lord Gray's face. Some thought it was even necessary for him to look like that, so that when they were publishing the news, he'd look cool.

When Lord Gray couldn't bear it anymore, he coldly ignored every form of greetings and salutations, and walked towards his mansion. Ignoring even the chariot that was to pick him up. No one thought much of it anyway.

Lord Gray arrived home not long after. The servants were perceptive enough to realise that he was piping hot in the head. They all dove in different directions, each pretending to be furiously dusting one thing or another.

Lord Gray had to admit that they were smart, he gave them an approving nod. Had they come to him, they'd have been incinerated. Not finding a reason to lash out, he stormed further into his mansion, towards his study room, which was probably the place he could cool off.

As he reached a passage, a figure jumped at him. The red hot Lord Gray exploded.

"Who dares to t-", his face changed instantly.

"Diane....my precious star, it's you..." All the pent-up frustration and anger evaporated instantly. Even his anger reserves emptied out. The figure hugged him very tight, and he hugged her back. He loved his daughter more than fire.

The child's face was angelic. She had a spring-water blue hair. Lord Gray couldn't bring himself to be furious in her presence. This was Diane, the only princess of Iloha.

"Daddy? Are you okay?" She asked in a very pleasant voice. Lord Gray's legs weakened slightly. He said,

"Sweetie, Daddy had a very bad day, but your Daddy is fine now, since you're safe."

He stroked her hair, he kept forgetting that she was 14, not a 2-year old. He sighed as he knelt down. He held her hands and staring into her clear eyes.

"Daddy has something to do for now, okay? I'll play hide and seek with you tomorrow, okay?"

Diane hesitated, she seemed to wish to say something. Lord Gray noticed and he frowned.

" Um....Daddy?"

He stroked her hair, "you know you can ask me anything, darling." He said.

"I- I want to be a knight." She said weakly. She seemed to expect a harsh rejection.

Lord Gray's eyes narrowed, 'seems like those maids are filling her head with useless stories again.' he determined.

"Baby, don't be like this...the outside world is too dangerous, being a knight is even more dangerous." He tried to persuade her.

"But daddy, I've been practising the word of angel stirring waters, I-" she raised her hands and blue light like clean water became to glow. A strange symbol appeared on her forehead. But Lord Gray cut her off.

"No baby. It's for your own good. Go now, to your mother. Daddy loves you." He kissed her forehead before heading towards his study.

Diane silently sobs, as she balled her hands into fists. It was unclear what she was thinking.

************************

Terra dives into a bush by a path, intently staring a certain direction. A gang of men strolled along the path, shouting and gisting. They seemed to have gotten a huge spoil.

One of the men, who seemed to be a blabber mouth, proclaimed loudly.

"Aren't we the strongest men? We are the real men! We took down a thunder tiger and suffered no casualties. It is unfortunate that we couldn't find it's cub, if not, we would be the luckiest men in the world. Imagine the size of it's core! The core would sell for a fortune....we ARE rich!"

Terra watched the idiots stroll away out of sight, before coming out of hiding. If anything, he knew there was a carcass and a kitten to find.

Terra's business was to gather herbs and anything of value, which included animal hides. A thunder cat fur would help him live like a king for a few days...and imagine the meat....

Terra's eyes turned green with greed as he dashed off in the opposite direction of the travelling band. The unruly men left their tracks bare and made it easy to deduce where they were coming from.

It was obvious that these men were as careless as the men that nearly got him killed the previous day. He shook his head for the ignorant fools. They wouldn't last too long in this forest.

Before long, he got to a site that could be clearly explained as a battleground. The surrounding trees had been felled, copper trees... Those trees were just like growing copper metal.

Terra had to admit those guys were pretty strong. 'if only I could get those kinds of skills.. I won't be living like a bottom feeder here. I'll probably build 9 palaces and fill them with...ahem, let's not get carried away.'

He came to a broken copper tree and saw the thunder cat. It was as big as a horse, and it was yellow with black stripes and it had a strange symbol on it's forehead. The environment around it was charred black, giving an impression of a final attack. As he drew near, he saw a much smaller figure pushing the dead cat. It was yipping as if encouraging the latter to get up.

Terra stopped in his tracks. The kitten spotted him and dashed away.