CHAPTER 15: DREAMWORLD: PART 2

"My daddy said if someone is feeling weak, they need nutries," she announced, handing me a cracked wooden bowl and a spoon that looked like it had seen at least three lifetimes.

I squinted at her. "Nutries?" Did she mean nutrition? Nutrients? But I never had the energy to correct her?

Her eyes held an innocent certainty, like she truly believed food could cure all ailments and she made me seem smarter, a genius if you must.

"Say 'ah,'" she added playfully, lifting a spoonful toward my face.

I scowled. "Enough. You can stop playing nurse, I can feed myself."

She pouted but relented as I forced down a bite. The moment the food touched my tongue, my body erupted in white-hot agony. A searing pain spread through my veins, like someone had replaced my blood with molten lava.

Poison.

I barely had time to register her expectant smile. Was she waiting for praise? Or had she been sent to kill me?

Darkness swallowed me whole.

When I woke, she was still there.

"You're tougher than I thought," she said, arms crossed. "I really thought you were a goner, mister."

Mister? We were the same age! I wanted to correct her, but my skull felt like it had been used as a drum at a festival.

"Are you hungry? There are leftovers."

I barely kept my soul inside my body the first time. Who in their right mind would go for round two? I shook my head.

Forcing myself to sit up, I took in my surroundings. The cave walls flickered in the dim firelight, shadows stretching and twisting like they had something to say but were too shy to speak. Across from me, she sat with her legs folded, studying me like I was a particularly confusing puzzle she was determined to solve.

I started asking questions. She answered between absentminded kicks of a stray pebble. Apparently, she had found me unconscious and decided to "help"—which, in her mind, meant playing healer. And I had been the perfect candidate to play patient.

Then she mentioned something peculiar.

Xanthe's bird had taught her fire magic, as if that explained everything.

I blinked. "The what?"

She looked at me like I was the dumbest person alive. "You don't know? It's a phoenish!"

A what now?

Did she mean phoenix? Those were myths. Legends. Stories you told children to make bedtime less boring.

She continued, completely oblivious to my internal crisis. "It taught me the fire element. Pretty neat, right?"

Neat? She spoke about learning magic from an mythical creature like she'd just picked up a new hobby.

And then came another revelation.

She had no idea what a colossal was. When I tried explaining, she tilted her head. "Oh, you mean giants?"

I stared. Giants were a lost race, extinct, forgotten. No one alive had ever seen one.

Days passed. Every morning, she returned, slipping into the cave with the first light, her arms overflowing with books. I had lied about losing my memory, and she had taken it upon herself to fix me.

"This doctor here will help you regain your memories," she announced one morning, grinning as she thumped a heavy tome onto my lap.

I humored her, flipping through the pages. But what I read turned my world inside out.

This wasn't Caelum.

This world was called Terra.

There were no Colossals. And Novalie? She was what they called human. But humans weren't the only ones here. There were races, different colors, pointed ears, beings who wielded magic like it was as natural as breathing. Even the beasts of Caelum had counterparts here.

And Novalie's magic? It wasn't just fire.

She called hers Mother. A phantom, a woman wreathed in flames. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a ghost. But then it moved, flames surging from its spectral hands, burning with the raw power of a phoenix that had once taught her, it had evolved.

I stared at her, at the quiet reverence in her voice as she spoke of her magic.

She had no idea how much she had just changed everything.

Once, I was branded a freak, cursed, despised, and burdened by the weight of hatred. But now, in the vast world of Terra, I stood as ordinary as any other. No longer a colossal, but a human. Here, I could study magic, grow stronger, and, in time, claim the vengeance that was rightfully mine. Even Titus, the mighty and untouchable, would fall by the hands of the very outcast he sought to break.

I would find my sister, Xanthe. No force in Caelum would keep me from her, I swore it.

For now, I would remain here, sharpening my skills, honing my power until the moment was right. When my strength became undeniable, I would return to Caelum and reclaim all that had been stolen from me.

Rest easy, Mother. The day of reckoning approaches. I will avenge you.