Page 3 of A Love of Wrath and Rapture

She scoffs. “Seriously?” Tossing me a glance over her shoulder, she sends me a quizzical expression, hesitating somewhat. “You’re not that terrible-looking. I’m sure you could settle down with a husband one of these days.”

“Nope.” I shake my head. “I’ll pass. I would never want to settle down in a place like this.”

I’m not sure if she’s still secretly upset. She’s still wearing a persistent scowl and she’s walking suspiciously quickly, but she seems more talkative than usual.

“So where would you want to go if you had the chance?” she asks. “If you could leave Oshta altogether, where would you go?”

I shrug. “I’d go where the dark elves aren’t.”

“That’s impossible. The dark elves are everywhere.”

“Then I’m shit out of luck,” I quip, which makes her chuckle.

“Yeah. I guess we all are.”

I can sense that she might still be upset, but I try to address the issue directly instead.

“We should stick together instead of believing Gareth’s stupid rumors. If we start turning on each other for dumb reasons, none of us will survive out here.”

I try to catch up to her increasing pace, not wanting to get left behind.

Renee and I start gathering plants and berries once we reach a safe patch of foliage. We know that the plants here are safe because we’ve scavenged here before. I focus on picking out the ripe bluefrost while she collects some scraps of wood.

And for a moment, I trick myself into believing that things might be okay between us. Just for a moment.

She came at me aggressively, but she’s not a bad person. She’s just a little insecure.

2

XEROS

Eons ago, they banished my consciousness to this dreamscape. For so long, I’ve remained stuck in a slumber, where my memories of the past are the only things I can cling to.

The Astreldi, my race… I might be the last of my species remaining on Protheka. Some days, loneliness consumes me. But now that I’m stuck in this prison, locked within my own mind, I can only trust myself to keep going.

“The trees,” I whisper, guiding my body in flight through the towering canopy that sprawls along the expanse of my surroundings. “I miss the trees the most.”

The awful part about this dreamscape is the fact I cannot interact with most of the world around me. As much as I want to thread my taloned fingers along leaves and the bushes, it never happens. My hands pass through as if I’m a breeze.

As if I don’t exist.

“I do exist,” I remind myself, redirecting my flight and heading towards the ocean instead. “The Astreldi once ruled these lands. We were beautiful once. And mighty.”

Our long black wings reached a span larger than most other creatures. Our dark skin allowed us to remain hidden in the midst of the night, taking out our prey easily before consuming them whole. The Astreldi mastered the art of stealth flying, allowing us to sneak on our targets before striking them down.

During the night, no other creatures liked to roam the world in fear of us. Here, in my dreamscape, I can fly freely without worry of detection. Because I am the only one here.

“When will I be given a chance to live again?” I ask myself. Really, I’m only hoping one of my captors is listening somehow, or that the dreamscape has a secret means of escape I can access if I only beg.

Every day, I’m surprised I’ve stayed sane.

Yet, that is what the dark elves decided would be an apt punishment for the Astreldi. They killed the rest of my kind. As for me, they condemned me to an eternal life of slumber deep within the confines of the rock.

Now I’m stuck here. Forever, perhaps.

Amidst my loneliness, I tend to conjure up images of the past. Of the other Astreldi who I used to spend time with.

Gonak was one of them. Before me, the landscape of Protheka fades away and the flap of my wings slows down as I descend. Once my feet are planted firmly upon the ground, I watch as the world around me morphs into the one in my mind. The one I know very well.

---