Ashes of Elanor
Alex was now alone in the North Star Order's room. Every member left, one by one, by going out using the same slipthrough wall.
He was in a daze, his head ached and his heart was beating like nothing before.
Alex felt as if somebody tampered with his own mind, and subconsciously Alex was able to defend against it.
His body had gone into a defensive mode, which utterly surprised him, causing his heart to beat in the first place.
'Zivko told me…' He thought, trying to remember. After a few more moments of trying, he became quiet.
Slowly, he took a deep breath. He got up from his seat, and took one last look around the Order's headquarters.
In the distance, he spotted a wooden board which had papers pinned into the board. Perhaps, it was for their missions and targets.
He moved his head up, and silently gazed at the crescent symbol engraved into the stone wall.
The room felt chilly, and eerie. He shifted his gaze to the window, seeing the large city outside and the sea of clouds dropping snow upon these lands.
It was midnight, Alex was feeling very tired after everything that had happened, and he ultimately decided to just leave, and not think much about the matter earlier.
Tomorrow was a big event. He vowed to stay by the Princess' side.
As Alex walked towards the slipthrough wall, he narrowed his eyes. "I wish Ros and Lara were here." He spoke, somewhat regretful.
***
A day had passed, Alex was getting ready for the ceremony in his room. He took his old clothes off and wore a new, more formal black and white suit.
To top it off, he wore a hat that matched his black hair. He looked at himself in the wide mirror, a bit surprised by how it all fit.
But, outside of Alex's room that had been filled with an atmosphere of stress and uneasiness, and to a big balcony that towered above the city.
The winds blew, snow continued falling as the entire place was painted in a depressing grey color. At the edge of the balcony, a man stood. Reconciling his past, reaffirming his true goal.
He was thinking, bitterly, about what he had seen to reach this point.
Years ago, in the Quiet City of Elanor, the entire city was covered with ashes and smoke. The people were screaming.
Above the city was a large, dark purple circle with weird symbols drawn all over it.
All kinds of terrifying, painful screams were heard by women and men alike. They spared no one.
A small teenager, in his twelfth year of living, was running back to his home amidst the chaotic situation of the city.
He avoided and ignored the sorrowful screams and atmosphere… His family were more important.
Tears ran down his face as he continued running, barely able to catch his breath.
After running for what seemed to be forever, tiring him completely, he reached home. But, that place was no longer able to be called a home.
Everything was burnt down, ashes only remaining. He cried, desperately shouting his parents' names.
His vision was blurry, but it didn't take long until he noticed the tragedy in front of him, which was worse than his house burning down into ashes.
His own mother's head was impaled down on a large spear that was stuck into the ground.
The child froze, unable to even slightly move. He looked at his mother, his eyes widened. "Mom?" He muttered.
But that wasn't all. Slightly moving his head, he saw another tragedy.
On the ground laid down his own siblings' corpses. A pool of blood was made beneath their bodies, the state of their body was no more than horrendous.
Both his sisters, and brother were left in a shape that quickly made him vomit.
Tears overflowed, blurring his vision even more.
He turned his head a bit, hearing the sound of another person.
A Knight wearing armor cladded in iron stood behind the child on his knees, gasping for his life after what he'd just seen.
The Knight raised his sword high above in the air, holding it with both hands to stab the child from his back.
"I will take you out of your misery." Having said that, the Knight grinned. It was a disgusting grin that reached up to his eyes.
As soon as the cruel Knight was about to strike, a man behind him pushed him out of the way, barely able to do so.
After getting him off guard, the man quickly went up to the child and carried him with both hands. He instantly started running towards the burned down house.
In a fast pace, he put down the child. He got on both knees then started rubbing down the floor, cleaning off the ash.
A small basement door was seen as he rubbed the ashes off, the child still traumatized by what he had seen earlier.
The man opened the basement door, then quickly pushed the child into it, snapping the child back to reality after he had seen the figure that just saved him.
Tears continued running down his face, as he silently whispered, "Dad?"
The man painfully smiled, covering his emotions away. His entire body was shaking as he closed the door, then put the ashes back as soon as he could, the child hearing his hands rubbing the ash back.
A larger frown was seen on his face, his tear glands were already drained.
Above the basement where he was pushed into, he heard a big thud that followed with a sorrowful groan. It sounded as if something fell at the basement door.
The child, despite the horrors, still wanted to see his dad again. He tried opening the door, but it was too heavy.
He couldn't even budge.
The child sat down on the chair that was next to the door that would have led him outside, he hugged his knees and silently cried.
Before he knew it, he passed out of sheer exhaustion.
The next day, there were no longer the sounds of screams and the smell of ash was significantly reduced, however the smell of blood was as close as it could get.
He didn't even want to open the door after seeing what happened to his family yesterday, he was too scared to do so.
But.. He thought it might have been all a dream. He could have been hallucinating the entire time.
Yeah. It was an illusion. None of it was real.
As the child continued to convince himself, he wore a nervous smile as he pushed the door open.
Opening it, the smell of blood reeked. It was everywhere.
Sounds of iron armor clattering were also heard in almost every direction, making the child's heart flutter.
However, it was a bright sunny day. The houses were mostly burnt, barely any of the buildings were still standing. In the distance, he noticed what looked to be a camp.
Quickly, he ran. He chose not to look back at where he'd first seen the dead bodies and the remains of his mother and siblings.
As he was going to the camp that had tents and people, he crashed into a knight.
He hadn't seen him at all due to his panic. At that moment, he was reminded when his father used to always tell him to not panic in any type of situation, but his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest.
His face was struck directly into the iron armor, making his nose slightly bleed. He barely ignored the pain.
As he got up, he rubbed the mud off his clothes, then looked up at the knight and apologized, "I'm… sorry."
The knight gazed down at him, unbothered by the child crashing into him. He hadn't even felt the crash until the kid pointed it out.
All of a sudden, the knight threw his fist which was also covered in armor directly towards the child's face.
He punched him, throwing the child at least five meters away due to the impact of the punch.
"Watch where you are going, you wretched child. Had it not been for the orders of the General, I would have wiped your head off your body."
As he spoke those words with a disgusting face, he spat down at the ground, then continued walking forward.
The child was bitterly holding his tears back, blood leaking out of his mouth as his teeth broke apart.
Gritting through the sheer pain, he walked forward to the camp, still hurt, both mentally and physically.
His body was aching in pain, head to toe. His mind was overfilled with thoughts of the miserable scene he'd seen in his 'dream'.
As he reached the large camp, he instantly realized it. It wasn't a camp for the remaining civilians of Elanor. It was the camp the army had set up for themselves.