We Dream of Hope

Light

The light stretched miles away, the sun seemed like a candle compared to the supernova plume of energy in the sky. Seraphine felt a wash of relief upon feeling the glow in the sky. Laughing she turned to Aidan, "Well, you don't see that every day."

"Sera!" Aidan called out in disbelief, "That kind of energy isn't from some small-time half angel."

"Who said we were waiting for a half-angel?"

"You said it was-"

"I told you years ago, I never met the kid properly. I just knew she had one."

"But that's M-"

"Don't you dare suggest it Aidan." Seraphine flew a finger up to Aidan's nose, "That's Hope's last surviving child. That's the only one. With no one else tapping into the power source don't you ever assume they can't do something." She continued to watch as the light grew until as suddenly as it began it faded leaving no trace for the distance it was from their point. 

"My father will have seen this too you know."

Seraphine nodded, the kid didn't understand what they just brought on themselves and if they didn't get down here soon their future could be in serious jeopardy. "I'd make my way up there, but I know who's leading them here, so I have faith they'll get here soon."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Nadia could feel a clump of grass in her clenched fist, her ability to move was returning to her, albeit slowly. Her sense of smell was back after the sense of touch, she could smell smoke from a fire that had gone out. Then came the noise, it was booming at first but then dissolved into words. 

"How's Nadia?" 

"Don't talk,"

"Where's Odion?

"Please, stay still."

Then as Nadia regained the ability to open her eyes the world came back like a battlefield. She laid with her head next to a man's brown hair resembling something like hers. His face buried in the ground she was unable to make out any other features. One thing was certain the man was stark naked. She pushed herself farther from him and crawled back to Ma'at who had both hands on Warner's stomach surrounding the arrow still protruding from his frail body.

"Nadia," his voice grew with little excitement, but it was all he could manage, "Ma'at, she's fine."

Ma'at turned to Nadia and threw a concerned glance, "Di, listen he's not got much time."

"Where's Odion?" Nadia called out, he had been right there, "Did he chase after the demon?"

"The demon?" Ma'at looked around, "Di, I think that thing was killed, honestly. I didn't check but you can smell it."

The smell of burnt-out fire was all she could make out, but deep down she knew she didn't want it to be alive anymore. Every feeling she felt against him was forced into one blow she could deliver. She didn't want that thing to recover. It needed to die, but where was Odion?

She closed her eyes hoping this connection would allow her to find the giant wolf. Odion, please be okay. Please answer me. Where are you?

"I'm right here." 

Ma'at shot her head up, "Who was there?" 

"Wait," placing a hand on Ma'at's arm she heard Odion's voice, but this wasn't in her mind. Ma'at heard it too. There was one place it could have been coming from and Nadia didn't know how to feel about it. "Odion?" She touched Warner's le as she parted and carefully moved closer to the naked man. "Odion, if that's you-"

"It's me." He raised his head slowly, just barely off the ground, "I don't know how to exactly feel right now-"

"Warner needs you, can you get up?" She realized quickly what she was asking, and quickly closed her eyes as the man got to his feet. "Um, I think you need some arrangements on garments."

Ma'at motioned with her head the direction Odion needed to take and he found a spare set of clothes. They fit but only just they seemed to be made for someone much bigger than himself, but they worked for what they needed to do. 

After he got dressed he stumbled as he fell to his feet taking Warner's head in his hands. "Ba," swelling in his throat made the word choke out behind a fight to hold back tears, "You're going to be okay."

"Of course I am, don't you see." he winked slowly at Ma'at, "I've got a doctor here."

"Don't try talking." Odion smiled, he knew where that arrow was resting, breathing must have been painful let alone talking. "Do you remember the story you told me?"

Warner nodded, but remained silent.

"Once upon a time, there was a young wolf who was all alone. No one wanted to play with him. He let out a cry so loud calling for anyone to be with him. Every night he would howl, but no one ever came. Then one night he called and he heard a response. He traveled all night looking for the one who howled back but never found them. As he slept that day he grew scared that he would be alone forever. Then the next night he howled and again heard an answer, he rushed forward and found a mocking bird mimicking his calls. The bird saw the hurt of the young wolf, and took him in. He was wanting wolves to play with but the mockingbird cared for him like their own." He grabbed Warner's hand and brought it to his mouth, "Thank you." 

"But the bird was only his temporary home. There was always a wolf pack out there for him. He just needed to wait a bit longer." Warner stretched one last smile and his eyes wandered off as a final breath escaped his lungs. 

"Warner?" Odion dropped his hand and closed Warner's eyes. There was nothing else he could do, Warner was gone. He looked up ready to process the rest of the changes that took place. "can you help me bury him?"

"We can," Ma'at looked over at Nadia who was also trying to figure out how to ask her questions politely. 

"I can still hear your thoughts you know."

Nadia shook her head, "I'm sorry, I really don't mean to be insensitive."

"You're not."

"Then can we talk about this?"

"Any question you have if going to be met with an 'I don't know.' So you can ask, but I'll let you know now. I don't know." Getting to his feet Odion started to gather logs and rocks. In an ideal world, he would be able to do a proper burial, but the ground wasn't going to let his new human hands pierce the soil so easily.

Nadia was surprised how much she got right about his appearance, He was short, his hair was the same color as hers and his skin matched hers a bit too well. "What happened to you thinking you're taller as a human?"

Odion cracked a smile, "wishful thinking."

Ma'at tossed up a chuckle as she worked stacking the logs and rocks. "You are pretty short you know, for being such a large wolf."

"And you're rather weak for being a powerful Medjay." Odion fought back.

"What I'm surprised with is our little canon Nadia," She turned to her friend, "Who knew such power was stocked up there. You took out the demon, knocked out all the people, and I'm pretty sure turned Odion into a human."

"Yeah, crazy," Nadia didn't want to think about it really. She looked around all the people were still out cold. She checked each one and they were definitely alive, but this demon, it was nowhere. Could that light have had that much of an effect on the monster? 

Are you okay?  Odion's voice pounded through her head, but she brushed it off and ignored him. He had done it plenty of times to her, so why not?

The trio finished their hastily built grave, but it did its job. 

Ma'at turned to Nadia who had remained silent through most of the process, "We need to get going. If you guys are wanting to go to the town to the west it'll be a few days and the sooner we get away from this cursed place the better."

Nadia nodded, there was a growing storm in her head and there was no stopping it.

As the group got farther away it became clear Maat had a plan all in place but may have misjudged how many people would be with her when this time finally came. Her eyes narrowed when she had to look back to make sure Odion was there but softened when she saw Nadia. Her smile was still warm and inviting her hand kept a tight but delicate grip to make sure they wouldn’t be separated. The forest held its own against the night and cast its own uncertainty. Nadia had nothing on her but the clothes on her back and Maat held only a sword beyond Nadia. Odion seemed to fight over his feet with the forest. He was clearly more graceful on four legs but was not going to tell anyone of his troubles. Nadia started to slow and her arm stretched as the distance grew between her and Maat, but Maat maintained her pace.

“Where are we headed to first?” Odion stumbled over his words as his feet still struggled without the pair of front legs as stabilizers. “And exactly how much farther will it be?” 

“I hid some supplies up ahead.” Maat rolled her eyes and called back.

Nadia nodded and continued on. Maat and Nadia were quite a bit faster than Odion and he found himself very frustrated with his current predicament. 

“Can you two slow down?” He called out to them and Maat laughed back. “Not my fault it’s my first day walking.”

“First day walking, not going through these trees. If you thought harder about your shoes then maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much to walk.”

“I’m not a fan of things on my feet thank you very much.”

“You’re going to be less of a fan of splinters and twigs.” Maat being amused by Odion’s challenges made him angrier which in turn caused him to fumble even more over his feet and the ground beneath them.

As the trio walked Nadia had time to think things over. She thought about everything that Maat had said how Maat had supplies stashed away. “ How long did you know about everything?”

Maat seemed more matter of fact to the situation and not at all concerned where this conversation was headed, “I was six when I was put on the block. I could never forget. It's a symptom of the Medjay.”

“Put on the block?”

“Sold, Di, I was sold as a prize to the highest bidder.” 

“You never told me this…” She trailed off now sad that her friend who had grown up with her never felt like they were close enough to share what happened. 

“Di... “ she knew she was defeated, “I wanted to. Honestly, I really wanted to tell everyone. Do you know how hard it was every day to just go along with what that demon was doing? He would have had me killed if I said anything. I couldn’t let my past put anyone especially you in danger.”

“It wasn’t your past though…” she glared at Maat emotions building that she couldn’t control, “You don’t seem to understand. He had me believing he was my father. My father-” she stopped suddenly her new memories flooding back, “my father has been dead and you knew! You let me live with a demon. You, you both did!” She turned back to Odion who was now caught up to them.  “You both did nothing to help! Nothing was done! Do you not get that? How can you two be so selfish? Were you going to tell me before or after you made your escape? What about everyone else at the camp? We’re just leaving them? Warner, he’s dead because of that creature!” Too many emotions were flooding into her mind she couldn’t think straight as her sight grew fuzzy, and her head started to pound loud with her heartbeat. It was too much too quickly and she fell to her knees with her hands clenched around her head trying to stop the pain. Her breath was there she knew she could breathe, but it hurt too much. Her chest didn’t want to accept the air and she felt sick. The more she tried the harder it was to breathe. Her breath felt like needles in her lungs and her head felt like it was being smashed by a thousand boulders. Everything was too much for her and she wanted it to stop. Life, freedom, it was all overwhelming her. After years of unknowing captivity, she couldn’t take it. Her thoughts were swirling around and she couldn’t keep up. The world was going to have to be shut out for a while. She needed a moment just herself, nothing else permitted in her life. She closed her eyes hoping for a sweet release of silence, instead, she heard a voice shouting her name. 

“Nadia, Nadia! Wake up! It’s okay. We’re here with you. You’re not alone. We’re doing this together.” The voice was inside her head fighting all the negative thoughts with its own precious light. “You’re just having a panic attack. It's withdrawal from the demon’s hold. You’ll be free soon. Just keep fighting this.  I almost lost him, I won’t lose you! Listen only to my voice. Breath in twice. Count your breaths.”

Nadia tried to do as the voice instructed, she tried as hard as she could to obey. Her breath came in and it was short. So she breathed in a second time this time it felt slightly better, the pain was still there though. 

“I know it hurts. The pain is temporary. Count with me. One…” 

She inhaled once and then exhaled.

“Good! Now, two.”

Again she obeyed.

“Slowly exhale. You’re doing great!” 

She exhaled slowly and relief was spread through her mind. She continued to listen to the voice tell her how to breathe. It was all she could hear and she was fine with that. “Inhale, exhale.” She did just as she was told until her pain passed and she was left exhausted. She opened her eyes to Odion hold her hands against her head eyes closed and breathing in sync with her. 

“Keep breathing.” His voice rang through her head. “You’ll be okay, just breathe.” 

She closed her eyes again just listening to him tell her how to breathe until her mind slipped into a dream. Her lungs filled with air and her cares seem to wash away. It felt like a ton of bricks were lifted off her chest. Odion seemed to feel her emotions slowly returning to a calm state and he guided her head to the ground. 

Nadia didn’t want to sleep, she wanted to wake up and stay apart of the world, but her strength was gone. Her consciousness faded and she found she was much more tired than she originally thought.

Odion looked down at her and smiled, he knew she was truly free from the demon and all his emotional control. His manipulation was over. He wanted to continue to protect her, she was hurt far worse than she had ever been in the past and he wanted to be there for her. He could protect her from the earthly harms, when it came to her mind, she was her own warrior. He allowed her to slip calmly into sleep and did his best to not disturb her.