Kite - Chapter 1: Creatures of Light and Dark

I would not speak. I absolutely refused to. Ivan apparently took my silence to heart and went off to a dark corner to sleep. His kind was like that. They could not sleep in the presence of light. It was their curse.

His ancestors were once spectres, ghosts roaming the distant haien, the distant worlds. Their lord was the mighty shadow-binder, known to his people as Noundele, the brother of shadows. Noundele eventually turned to the light and so too did his people. Since then, they have had an insatiable craving for the light.

The light kept them alive for it fed their very essences. The light made them immortal. It made them invincible. However, the power came with a cost. They began to lose all sense of pain, eventually, they became numb.

They felt emotions... They felt joy, anger, hope, pride and even love, but they felt no pain. They yearned pain.

Only pain can make a person feel truly alive. Only as they slept could every pain, every sore, every wound manifest. This was when they were happiest.

When morning came, everything magically vanished and I could always hear Ivan sigh when the sun rose into the sky. I never understood how it felt...

I never understood his curse. I mean, I would give anything to have felt no pain, to not have aged, to not have died like the rest of my kind. I was fae, one of the faeries of myth and legend. My kith and kin were untouchable by both blade and poison. Perhaps they were wrong... I do not know. After all, the fae were as infinitely arrogant as they were eternally old.

Perhaps I was just different. Maybe I was never meant to set foot upon the floating isles. Maybe... Just maybe... That was all a dream and I was never fae.

I sought to run away from the verdant lands of my birth. I flew through the endless day of the isles, the wind blowing softly across my face and throwing the wispy strands of my blonde hair into a fray.

I left the comfort of the wind and flew right into a forest fire, the glowing embers and licking flames cast a dim orange light upon my eyes. I was mesmerized completely, specks of yellow-orange dancing in the wind before me.

So entranced was I that I failed to notice the dragon that landed not too far away from me. I glided right into the middle of the fire, confident that my blood would protect me, but I was terribly wrong. My wings began to burn and my skin started to dry and crack.

Little later than I had realized my folly, I found myself staring into the vibrant green eyes of the azure dragon. At that moment, I knew I was staring straight into the eyes of death.

The dragon opened its maws to finish my wretched existence, but by benevolent or cruel fate, I don't know which, it faltered for a moment.

The wall of flame opened to my right and in the burning hole, I saw naught but a cloaked silhouette. The figure ran across the crisp forest floor and laid a hand on my forehead and another on the dragon's snout. A wave of lightheadedness washed over me and my vision darkened. When my eyesight cleared, I was staring into the stark green eyes of a badly burnt faerie.

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