The past
1019 Words
"Hazal, this way. Keep running. Fast. "
It was her father, long before , when everything used to be very unbiased. She had just developed her Shifter abilities and had been training mercilessly for hours. Not that she complained, but it was a lot for a little girl. She had been quite the star of their little pack. Not everyone developed their streak so early in their life. But the sooner the better. Her father carried her home on his back, both stinking with dripping sweat from their soaked hair to toe.
" You two go right to the river and don't even think of coming near the food before you are changed, " Hazal's mother would yell, throwing them their clean set of pants and vests as the toddler Cara would peek from her behind and laugh.
The Shifters lived on the fringes of the big cities. They mostly offered their labour to the Night Crawlers, comfortably controlling the government chairs. The world as it was still wasn't completely over ruled by the supernatural, but who pulled the strings was clearly visible.
" You too, come join in. Do you plan to stand and keep staring? " Hazal's mother reprimanded the little Night Crawler boy, stationed at the corner in rugged clothes and named, Darian.
He was an orphan and was abandoned by his kind. Hierarchy and Patriarchy were dominant in the Night Crawlers gang. They would swear by bloodlines and easily dispose of kids unimportant to them. Hazal's family had taken Darian in when he had entered one night into their tent with the intention of stealing. They had pitied the innocent looking child who had confessed to them about being an orphan. Their pack, however, was very much against the notion, but they too eventually accepted the lad as he proved to be useful, running various errands.
Hazal and Darian were almost of the same age group. Though their lives spanned differently from humans, the growth rate in the initial years of life was identical to homo-sapiens.
" Come on boy. Keep moving. If you don't want me to complain about you to father, you better keep listening, " Hazal would sneak out in the middle of the night, taking Darian along, literally k********g him. She would make full use of his night vision to scale the depth of the sea.
" Watch out, " Darian would protectively become her shield whenever any trouble attacked. Be it on the fields or in the darkest pits.
He would get stung by the deadly hornet bees just so she would be safe and it would be easy for her to flee. He braved the bites of tigers and fought with the wild bears endlessly as she watched amused and then clapped away excitedly.
They were an odd pair, but it seemed they were always in harmony. Untill the fated night appeared and nothing was any more as it seemed.
" Father! Maaaaa! Cara! Darian! " Hazal had scanned frantically. The smoke and the gore numbed her senses as bodies fell in galore. Hazal had hardly reached her teens when the Great War broke. There was m******e after m******e as the Packs left for the moon, but everything was so chaotic, good could not be separated from the goon. Before Hazal was dragged away by the Scouts, she had made one last attempt at finding her family in the burnt out haze. But she found nothing. Not even a single trace. She had thought she had lost everybody for good, but after a few years, working in the Elite Scouts, she had found her sister in the moon.
" I thought i had lost you forever, " She had showered her with kisses on her head and all over. But Cara's eyes weren't the same. She looked at her with a blank expression as if unable to comprehend. Let alone be happy to be reunited with her sister, she didnt quite even seem to recognise her well. Hazal had been devastated but she kept her hopes high. Years after years went by till Cara finally came by.
It hasn't been easy. There were the first batch of serial deaths when some failed to adapt to their new environment. Collapsing as they gasped for breath or crashing ones head due to miscalculated landings. Hazal had been through it all. It had helped her become the being she was and kept her standing. But Cara wasnt the same. She needed constant care. She had been very young when they had been separated. Nobody knew what horrors her little eyes had captured. Even after coming around and being Hazal's little sister once again, she would shriek and cry out in her dream and wake up very agitated. It was impossible to talk to her about the past. In fact, telling her they had a life beyond the Moon was too much for her to wrap around her fingers. Hazal had hence left it as it was and had concentrated on her physical well being. She would have to push her to get together with the same aged peers or even move her butt out of their house.
Hazal's parents' death, as it was assumed that they were already dead, wasn't documented. This had left a faint glimmer of hope somewhere deep in Hazal's chest. She longed for the life she had long left behind, whenever she looked at the Earth and it bleamed back at her with its azure hue.
" Hold on, Father. Hold on Ma. I haven't given up on you. I will find my way back. "
Her silent promise filled her empty heart where there was another pin, lodged deep in a burrow.
" Darian should be alright. After all, they are all his kind. Does he even remember me? Did he even try to find me? Did he meet Father and Ma by any chance? Huh! He would keep them safe if that were to ever happen. "
The little whispers sung her a lullaby to sleep when her thoughts would run too wild or too deep.
- Writer
