Ch 0 : Brooding Over the Waters

The land below was dark, so dark that if you stretched down your hands, you could feel the shadows like they were water.

I only got a vague idea of what the ground looked like based on the red eyes that shifted around it, like fiery dots in a sea of black.

The cliff I was on was so high above the dark dwelling beings, nearly touching the sun. They’d never reach me even if they tried. It didn’t look like they wanted to either. Like shade, they hid where the sun couldn’t shine.

“Yalda, do you see them all down there?”

“Yes, daddy.” I nodded. “They’re scary.”

I shivered and clung to my father's leg.

“Don’t be afraid, this is why you were born.”

His hand suddenly started to glow. A rod formed in his palm. When it finished shaping, it looked like a spear, but all shiny and bright, like the sun above.

He handed the spear to me, then said, “One day, you will save them from their slavery to evil with this. Right now, they’re stumbling around in the dark. But every last one of them is a human being who doesn’t know he needs you yet.”

“Okay, daddy.”

When daddy was sure I had the spear tight in my grip, he let go. Then he started walking toward the edge of the cliff.

Where was he going? If he went any further, he'd fall...

He stopped at the edge. It sounded like he was trying to tell me something else, but his voice was muffled. All I could make out was, "...he'll be here so– then it's u- -o y-u to defe-t him."

"Who, daddy?" I was anxious, I needed to know who was coming.

His mouth moved, but very little noise left his lips.

I tried my best to get close to him, but the graceful arms of the sun reached out and held me back. I kicked and nudged, but nothing broke me free of it's hold.

“Daddy, I can't hear you!"

He turned away, gazing off into the depths below. Then one final step took him right off the edge, falling all the way down into the eternal darkness below.

"Daddy!"