Chapter Twenty
Theo
When the world fell to pieces in the war 200 years ago, a lot was lost. Most of the knowledge that was written in books disappeared. Some were kept and saved. I was lucky to be the son of a woman who had some of those books in her possession. She owed it to Bernard, and he owed it to the king. I never knew who the king owed his knowledge to, but I guess it was the men who wrote the books a long time ago.
Matilda had told me that people once knew a lot about the world. About the earth, the water, wind, and fire. They even knew nearly everything about how our bodies worked. She said that the brain and the heart were our life givers, and both owed it to blood and water.
Our hearts controlled everything, from the stiffness of our muscles to the boiling of our blood. But even without all the knowledge that the world had before, I could easily figure out that life was all about the beating of our hearts. I didn’t need knowledge to know that, just a little bit of observation.
Life was like the pulses in our hearts, ups and downs, beating out of and into our chests. The night and day were also witnesses of that, with every sun rising, a moon following, and darkness coming just to be eaten away by the morning sun again.
Completeness wasn’t in a single moment—maybe for only the lucky it was. But for me, I only found completeness in my life when I reflected on the wholeness of it, on the whole journey. None of my destinations were ever a heaven. They were all mere places that lost their charms once I got used to them.
On that night, as I held Elise in my arms and walked toward the village, her heart was melancholic and afraid. I felt her trembling at times, and all I wanted was to end that right away. Still, we had shared in only one moment two of the most genuine things people can share with each other, a promise of devotion and the nakedness of both body and mind.
The walk wasn’t long, but as soon as we had reached the village, I felt an eeriness flow into my veins. Something was off, and it showed in the desolation that took over the village. I began hearing the shouts of the Hawks roaring. I grabbed Elise’s arms and took several steps back, hiding behind a tree that was right at the edge of the village.
I feared for my mother and father back at home, and so at once, I got out of hiding and started running toward the house. I thought that the sound of the Hawks was the sound of them attacking, but it wasn’t. When we arrived a little before the house, my father was fully in his dragon form, fiercely attacking all the Hawks in the area.
He was launching fire from his mouth, burning the cottages nearby. He had gone insane, and I didn’t know what to do. He was killing some of the people of the village by accident. The Hawks were flying around, some of them caught in his teeth and others on his claws like rings.
He was angry, maddened, and before I could come near him, he took off flying and headed over the range of mountains. For a brief moment, I couldn’t tell what was happening. I walked slowly glancing at the graveyard of bodies that my father had left behind.
“What on earth happened here?” I said turning to look at Elise, but she wasn’t there.
I turned toward the house and there she was, standing by the body of my dead mother, crying.
I rushed toward her, unable to hold my tears before I was even sure that she died. I wouldn’t hear any last words from her or see another glimpse of her comforting eyes. There was only the coldness of her body. I lifted her off the ground, hugged her as her soul rose from where we were.
I was crumbling and my world was falling. Elise stood there frozen after many tears had escaped her eyes. It was my fault that she was killed. I knew that the king was looking for me. He must have known that I was the one who attacked the guards back in the castle and I was the one who took Elise away.
I was furious. Not a single cell in my body was at rest. I had lost her for good, and there was no way I could get her back. I remembered everything. She had told me that before a man dies, he sees his life’s most valuable moment flash before his eyes like comets in the sky. Every moment I had with my mother flashed before my eyes, as if a part of me had died.
“The sun rose,” I told Elise, with my face turning into a frown of rage, “He won’t live to see it set.”
And that was the beginning of the end.
Bernard had told me that my powers increase with the intensity of anger inside of me. And he was right. I felt that every muscle of my body was aching to turn. I didn’t fail my body, and in seconds I turned. For the first time, too, fire began flowing through my breath involuntarily.
Elise’s body began turning into her dragon form. Even in her dragon form, she was the most beautiful thing my eyes could see. Her skin was golden, and her wings shone as they stretched to shadow the village from the rising sun. We both flapped our wings and soared next to one another, heading toward the king’s castle.