A memory of origin
A memory of origin
Chapter 163
Ruby’s POV
I was just about to turn around and walk off when from the corner of my eyes I sighted a black shadow suddenly evaporating from the body of the dead dragon.
It didn't just drift away as it first floated as it came out in thick tendrils that twisted and curled like oily smoke as it began to form into a tight ball and float away. But I was not having that.
My hand stretched forward before I even really thought about what I was doing. My flames blasted out, but they didn't just burn like my regular flame which would have burn everything in its part.
Instead it took the shape of a massive human hand with five long fingers, immediately grabbing at the shadow in mid-air and then dragging it back closer to me so that I could have a closer look at what was trying to sneak away.
The shadow bubbled and shook violently, vibrating against my hold like it was a trapped animal trying to force its way out of my grip, but I wasn't letting that happen for anything in the world.
Somehow, by just staring at the shadow, I could feel exactly where it came from. It so cold, and I could see that it didn't belong to Tautia nor Thane. This was something else entirely. So one of the shadow wielders then... some other coward shadow weilder hiding behind this now dead dragon’s skin to cause chaos.
With one thought, my flames surrounded the trapped shadow, closing in tight until there was no room for it to move.
‘’Burn,’’ I commanded. My voice didn't even sound like my own as it was way too cold, sounding like a stranger was speaking through my mouth. Just as I instructed, I watched the shadow suddenly catch flames like I was burning a piece of old and dry fabric.
The shadow seemed to squeal in pain as it let off a very high-pitched sound that seemed to bypassed my ears and went straight into my skull, making my teeth vibrate as the intensity of my flames increased.
I didn't know if it was my eyes playing tricks on me because of the rainbow horns, but I could see streaks of rainbow dancing in the fire as it ate the blackness away. In the next second, the shadow which had been about the size of a small bag was just gone.
‘’Shadows are like soot… it needs to be cleaned out,’’ my voice echoed again, sounding deep and empty in the silent street. At that moment I didn't feel like myself at all. I just stood in place staring into space, my mind feeling totally disconnected from my hands and feet as my energy buzzed under my skin and my core spun faster.
‘’Ruby… that was Gerald… Thane had accidentally killed his mate some centuries ago… we shouldn't have killed him…’’ I heard Lucas say weakly behind me. The sound of his pained voice should have made me panic but instead, I slowly turned to face him, my head tilting to the side.
He was speaking, but it was like he wasn't speaking a language I could understand anymore.
‘’I do not care who he was. No one attacks the people I care about and lives. I don't plan to be nice from here going forward,’’ I said, my voice flat wanting to end the topic immediately.
As soon as those words left my mouth, I could feel the adrenaline spike suddenly crashing and leaving my limbs feeling like they were made of heavy wood. My eyes rolled back into my head and all I could see was darkness and in the next second, it felt like I was floating away from the ground entirely.
I wasn't even shocked anymore to see I was in that dark space again. It was beginning to look like a norm as almost anytime i used my power excesssively i was ablways brought here. But my most favorite part of it was the dark space that was filled with memories, mostly Auxoria's own and that was where I was now again.
My eyes danced past the lines of moving pictures that floated all around me, showing different faces and even familiar ones that I couldn't quite place. But something else caught my eyes this time, something that made my heart do a nervous flip.
It was a picture of me, but I was much younger…I mean way younger, I was still a baby wrapped in a tiny bundle of blankets. My father was there too, looking much younger with less grey in his hair and a face that wasn't covered in stress and deep lines of age.
But there was a woman there with us there who was smiling down at me with so much love it made my chest swell. I didn't hesitate as I moved as fast as I could to touch the memory so it could play before it floated away from me into the dark. My hand sank into the still picture and it soon enlarged like I was watching a movie.
‘’I have tried as much as I would to understand you Red! but it all makes no sense to me. Just admit you had an affair and stop making me look like a fool! I can’t have kids Red. I have no active sperm, the doctors were clear, so how in the world did you get hit with a child!’’ I watched as a much younger version of my dad snapped in frustrated anger.
He was pacing the small clean and white hospital room, his boots squeaking on the floor like it was newly mopped. He kept looking at the woman I assumed to be my mom, who just sat quietly in the small hospital bed.
She didn't look angry, she just looked very exhausted as she was slowly rocking me in her hold as if the rest of the world wasn't even there. I looked so incredibly tiny being wrapped in layers of those standard hospital blankets.
‘’You disappear for three whole months without a word and then here you are, back with a child in your arms? Talk to me Red…’’ Dad said, his voice getting lower and cracking at the edges as his hand dragged across his face, pulling at his skin like he was physically running out of patience and sanity.
‘’You know deep in your heart that I will never let another man hold me the way that you do,’’ the woman said softly. I was sure now, looking at her that this was my mother. Her bright red hair was plastered to the side of her face, damp with sweat from the labor of pushing me out and she stared down at me like I was a jewel no amount of money could ever buy. I noticed there was something glowing about her, she wasn’t human.
‘’Red, you are not making things easier for me. Where did you go and how did you come about having a child if you didn't fuck another man? Or don't tell me dragons are miraculously blessed with a baby, haha! Is that how your goddess works? What was she named again? The rainbow horn dragon?’’ My dad blasted out the words, his voice thick with sarcasm and hurt but just one sharp glare from my mom had him shutting up instantly as he slumped back against the wall, looking defeated.
‘’I don’t have much time anymore. My essence is almost completely absorbed by the child and I shall leave her in your care. Protect her for me… I love you…’’ My mom’s words trailed off into a whisper that seemed to vibrate in the air. Before my eyes, her body began breaking apart like starlight.
It was blinding for a moment with the light filling the entire room until I had to squint, and then she vanished completely. She didn't leave a body behind… just an empty bed.
‘’Wait!! no!! Red! Red!! Don't go, I didn't mean to… please come back! Don't play such pranks on me! I nearly died being apart from you for those three months… just come back… I’ll take the child as mine, please…’’ My own eyes teared up in the dark space as I watched my father scramble around on the hospital bed. He was ruffling the sheets frantically, throwing the pillows aside as if he expected her to be hiding under the thin white fabric.
He looked pathetic and broken with his fingers clawing at the empty space where she had just been sitting. But no matter how long he scrambled or how many tears streaked down his cheeks to wet the bed, Red never came back. All she left behind was the loudly crying baby wrapped in white sheets with a head full of red hair and bright green watery eyes.
The peek into my past was so much for me to take in at once. It felt like something heavy was pressing down on my lungs. So that was why Dad never mentioned mum. There were no pictures of her too. Was that why Trish hated me to the bones? Was that why Dad cherished me so much and favored me more while I was growing up? It was all because of Mom’s last words.
I looked just like her now, almost a perfect mirror image of the woman who had left with his heart. But if Dad hadn't fathered me…then who had? There was that sucking feeling againtugging at me and then I went falling downwards with that suction force as the hospital room from the memory blurred into darkness.