Bloodlines of Archaea I. Afira
A Confrontation and Then a Truth

“Haha, fire scares people into telling the truth,” I said, grabbing my cloak from the table.

“She still could’ve told everyone that we were here, though,” He said, bitterly.

“Well, we’re about to replace out,” I said, taking a beautifully made blade, and a holster from its perch on the wall. Akuma looked at me, surprised. “What?” I asked, “I can’t do much with this tiny dagger,” I said, defensively.

“Yeah,” he laughed, “but you can shoot balls of fire out of your hands,”

I laughed, “oh yeeeeah,” I said, remembering his point. “Alright, we should get going, remember, be nervous,” I whispered.

I stepped out of the armory and into the hall, I looked up and down the walls before stepping out. We walked along the sides of the hall, glancing quickly at items in the room, walking in the direction opposite the one we came, hoping it would lead to the exit. We made it down the hall and into a large room with big double doors. What seemed like hundreds of lizards were gathered together as a female human barked orders at the bowing creatures. Each and every head in the room turned towards us, their unblinking eyes jumping from place to place.

“Maybe they’re looking at something else,” Akuma whispered, leaning towards me. The creatures stared for a moment, before slithering across the floor, towards us.

“Bring them to me,” Yelled the queen. We turned, thrusting the doors open, and running as fast as we could away from the mass of scaly reptiles.

We ran as hard as we could, not stopping, even after our feet began to ache and our breathing became raspy and overworked. We managed to gain enough space between us and the lizards, that we found a place to hide in the large gardens. Statues of the same person dotted the green area, each with a gold plaque, which read, “Chief Ola, our savior,” The statues were done with exquisite design and care. The creature held a spear in his outstretched talon, and his scaly tail pointed at the sky.

“Look,” Akuma said, pointing to a tree which hung its branches over the clay wall.

“Big deal, someone is behind on their trimming. Why is that important?” I said, leaning on my knees to catch my breath.

“No, its a tree from the forest,” he said, then seeing I was still confused, he continued, “that means that just over this wall, is our way off this dreaded island.”

“Oh,” I said, panting at the thought of more work. Akuma hopped up on one of the planters, and began reaching for the top of the wall, just as hundreds lizards realized where we were. I ran to the planter, and hopping up, thrust my hands over the edge of the wall. I used every last drop of my strength to pull myself over, and drop safely onto the forest floor.

“Run,” I yelled, bounding off through the forest, following the the sound of the ocean. I had never been more grateful to see our tiny boat, than I had been at that moment. I drew my sword, yelling to Akuma to start paddling off the island. I ran over to where we had tied our boat to the tree. I fumbled with the knot, wishing I knew how Akuma made these “miracle knots,” as I called them. The lizards came towards me, clawing at the ground.

Hundreds of lizards stood before me, but they were not brutal, or harsh, instead, one stepped forward. He was a different color than all the rest, a blackish red, instead of the light green the rest were. This gave the impression that he was far more important than a commoner of his kind. “I am sorry for startling you at the beach, we had been using the same form and names to greet travelers for years. You see, my people have been enslaved for one hundred years, we have awaited your arrival, and sung songs of it to keep the hope alive for a century. Our queen gave the order to use such names and forms. She said that if anyone reacted strangely, they were to be brought back as prisoners for questioning,” he paused, then continued to speak, saying, “when you defeat the great evil which lurks in the shadows, don’t forget to come back for us,” I nodded, bowing.

“A favor for a favor. I will return, and when I do, the war will be over,” I said, turning towards Akuma, who sat on the boat, waving his arms.

“Are you ever coming?” Akuma yelled, a ways away.

“Yeah, this is a little bit of an issue,” I said, looking out at the rushing waters of the sea. I walked into the ocean, readying myself for a long swim. I turned to look back at the lizards, the chief walked back, shaking his head and chuckling to himself.