Crimson Bloom (COMPLETE)

It started as a static in the breeze. An electricity that pulled me from my brooding thoughts. A shift that made my skin crawl, something dark was coming.                 An acidic ruby tide was rolling towards me in the blooms of the field before me. The violet flowers were quickly absorbing the deep red. I stood and heaved breaths, the day had come. The possible end to everything.                 As I turned to the city, I saw my violet shades had crept nearly to the top of the willows that surrounded the perimeter. My aura, which told everyone the forest was safe, always seeped beyond my person.                 The aura of most just writhed as a fog around them. But those of us with a stronger heritage were so much more. There was no anonymity. Who you were, good or bad, it showed.                 “Ander! Do you see the fields?” Ollie crashed through the low branches of the willows towards me.                 Her pale white hair seemed to flow around her blending into her iridescent aura. She was the only person I ever knew that seemed to make everything around her glitter. Her very skin was nearly translucent.                 Her most colorful attribute was her eyes. So pretty those pastel pink irises. They always glowed with a fickle mix of curiosity and concern, and when she looked at me, adoration. She was beautiful.                 “I see it.” I answered as she clung to my arm.                 “What does it mean? Is there someone out there?” She stepped slightly ahead of me with a vise grip still on my arm.                 “I’m not sure. With how quickly the aura is spreading, it could be a whole hoard of someones’.” I corralled her back towards the city and walked quickly with her following behind.                 “Well, what do we do? Are we in danger? Do we have to leave the city?” Her rapid-fire questions tended to grate on the nerves of others, but to me her voice was like soft bells and it soothed me.                 “We’ll start with informing the elders. They may know something about this.”                 “Do you think it will be like the time the Grey Man came? Or worse?” She asked softly.                 The Grey Man had come through the city the previous year. His aura had turned all our plant life, and to our horror some of our people, grey. While one’s aura doesn’t typically affect others, his not only changed the color of the auras around him but it crept into their very being and caused a widespread state of depression.                 “I really don’t know, Ollie. My instincts say this is much worse.”                 “So, you’ve seen?” Seph, another member of our pod, turned the corner breathless and eyed Ollie warily.                 For whatever reason he held a certain amount of animosity towards her. Especially when I was present as well. I always thought he saw me as a threat and questioned her reasons for being my friend.                 “We’ve just come from the fields haven’t we?” I answered with a sarcastic raise of my brow.                 His sea blue aura fluctuated as it tended to do when I spoke to him. It would go from deep indigo to almost black when we interacted. It fascinated me and I loved to poke.                 “So I saw. Let’s get to the Citadel before everyone starts to panic.” He rolled his eyes and led the way.                 “Ander!” Ollie’s mother came from her bakery, a towel at the mercy of her hands as she twisted and pulled it in her nervous grasp. “What is it out there? If you know you must tell me.”                 “Mother.” Ollie took her mother’s hands and pulled her back to the doorway.                 She gave me an apologetic look over her shoulder and went inside with her. I could tell her after, what I had discovered. Her mother had reason to worry. She lost her husband to the Grey Man.                 “That family always seems to think they’re entitled to so much more than they get. Doesn’t it weigh on you to always deliver?” Seph asked with a smirk.                 “What weighs on me is your ability to constantly make everyone your enemy.” I responded dryly and continued walking.                 “Making friends is so much harder though. I haven’t the energy.” He sighed.                 “Use less talking. That should do the trick.”