The Lord of the Night - part 1

The day had ended as the sun sinks beneath the horizon, into the deep darkness of night. The bleeding sky was invaded by waves of gradual darkness, and the last rays of light vanished under the arrival of night. The cold night air descended from the skies and the stars slowly revealed their distant lights, shining like dusts of diamond, providing dim illumination to the heavens.

The three moons of arkhaia emerged last, celestial pearls who immediately dominated the night sky, with only faint clouds to slightly filter their light. Creatures beneath begin to rest and sleep, while others awaken to the silent world. Fireflies and luminescent algae come to life, providing wonders in the dark as others with their own light soon joined them in brightening the darkness.

In a miracle, a bridge of light descended from the sky and a road of rainbow shone in the night. The Mother of All had descended from her waiting and in the night, her form shone like the coming of glorious dawn. As she reached the ground, her feet lightly stepped on the damp, soft grass. Fireflies and crystalline butterflies flew around her, welcoming her into the gentle night.

She returned their greetings with a wave of nourishment, filling their stomachs to the full and providing them with as much food as they can hold on to. Amanah then strode forward upon the grass, walking deeper into the smooth plains for hours, admiring her creation upfront. Omniscience did not bore her, for all in her image satisfied her and the world she created reflected that.

On the perfect hill she stopped, overlooking a lone willow tree, an oddity in the middle of the plains. She knew that this was the perfect place to build upon her first children. She walked a single step and found herself before the tree, gently swaying its leaves to the rythym of the cold breeze.

She stroked its leaves and out came blossoms of pink, with streaks of glowing blue. She leaned to the ground with her left hand and gathered soil, then called upon three creatures to her side. A black serpent, large and muscular, able to devour her lithe frame whole with a single chomp answered her call.

The serpent was then followed by a batlike creature, a gigantic creature who stood like a pterodactyl, its wings folded as its thumbs held the ground. It easily rivalled the willow tree in size, with brown and black fur and its massive ears was most distinct. It waited beside the hissing serpent for the arrival of the third creature.

The third creature was a white wolf, a fearsome creature whose claws could turn walls into shambles. Its frame was large enough to topple a house and only the serpent surpassed it in length.

Amanah plucked the blossoms and mixed it with the dirt she collected, blowing upon it and forming it into a miraculous child, created from nothing but pink blossoms and damp soil. 

"You are my first, you will rule over the night as the night has been before day." Said Amanah. The child then began to cry as all newborns did as she carried him in her arms. She calmed him with a mother's kiss to the forehead and his bright ruby eyes, innocent, pure and beautiful eyes gazed upon the All-mother in curiosity. She carressed his smooth raven hair and said to the child softly, "Do not forget, I am your mother and you are my eldest child."

She turned to the creatures she summoned and commanded them, "There shall be no serpent, bat or wolf who shall harm or hinder him. The creatures of the night will welcome and serve him, and all beasts who rebel from this shall be extinguished by the will of nature."

Turning back to her child, she continued, "The three of you have been chosen to serve him for eternity. There is no order you shall not carry out if he wills it and nothing short of my will can nullify his commands. To perform your duties, I shall bless you and your kind."

"The serpent will grow large and the ends of the earth are within the reach of his tail." The snake grew to massive proportions, large enough to swallow mountains, but by the grace of Amanah, the serpent shrunk to its current size before entire forests could be flattened by its impossible bulk.

"For his kind, I grant the serpent protection from their own venom. Let no venom formed in their fangs be used against them, but rather heal them from ailments." Nature carried out her word and all serpents in the world immediately received the gift, embedded in their flesh.

"The bat will grow till the flap of his wings will level towns and another pair of wings shall emerge. The screams of the bat will shatter the blood vessels of creatures and even the most quiet sounds it could hear." The bat transformed immediately, sprouting a pair of wings and growing to the height of a small mountain.

"For his kind, no creature of the night shall hurt any one of his kind, or else a pillar of fire shall rain from the heavens at night and destroy them." Amanah then blessed the wolf at last, whispering the blessing of him and his kind, for in her wisdom, she had known their importance for the creation to come.

Amanah then sat down, leaning on the tree, watched by the three blessed beasts and she cradled the created child in her arms. She rocked the child to sleep and commanded the beasts to sleep too as she stared into the night sky, watching the world with her omnipresence.

"I think I'll name you Ravel and Nox is the name of your lineage, and I will call you Vel." And then, she remained still for the night and raised the child at day.

Daevel grew quickly as a baby, only taking several months to reach the body of a six year old's. She fed him a special soup broth, vibrant red in color and sprinkled with unknown herbs. He grew to like the broth, his first words being, "I wont more!"

Amanah prepared more portions because of this, using her omniscience as the creator of all things to cook with only wooden logs for a fire and a turtle shell as a cooking pot. She did not have much to do as Ravel was a relatively silent child, rarely crying or disturbing her unless it's for the broth, and this gave her time to experience collecting wood from a forest several miles south.

She used most of the wood for fuel to cook her meat broth but some of them were delegated to building, maintaining and expanding the hut she built for her and her child. She collected wood by manifesting herself an axe to chop it down and carved and polished the wood with a blade of sharpened stone. The floor of the hut was layered in dry mud collected from the forest to ensure that no one would be hurt by splinters from a purely wooden floor.

Normally, a mother would worry about her child wandering in the grass in the wilderness without supervision or any protection, but Amanah was not worried at all. Though she leaves at dawn and returns for lunch, then leave and return at dusk, she was not worried for Ravel's safety at all, for he was supernaturally gifted.

Ravel's abnormal growth stopped after a few more months, growing at normal human pace in a seven year old body. Amanah wrapped him in a fur blanket but at his current age, she would need to make him clothes. Of course, she could materialize it all at her will, but she prefers to show him the experience of mortal work.

She hunted down beasts in the forests and skinned them, using their meat for her broth and their skin to make pants for him. She spent the rest of the day and a few hours in the morning to make them, and put it on Ravel when she finished making them.

Then, she decided to bring Ravel along to collect wood and mud with her. She taught him to harvest wood with his bare arms, told him to choose a branch and chop it with his hand. Amanah was far faster with her axe, but that was merely because she was experienced in its use and Ravel could not climb up, having to stick to chopping off entire trees to collect their wood, taking several powerful chops to accomplish.

At the end of the day, they collected three trees worth of wood and Ravel's inherent strength was tested further as Amanah made him carry it back, tying all their cut logs into bundles which are tied into one massive bundle for him to carry. He struggled to carry but he did not complain or asked why, and she would help him if he stumbled, sharing the load when he's unable to carry it himself.

It was the first time he was tired of doing anything and upon reaching their three room hut, he collapsed into his own bed, laying on the soft fur of a slain and skinned panther. He snored for the first time and she decided to reward her son for his hard work by preparing more broth than usual for breakfast, an all you can eat.

She left earlier than usual in the morning, a dozen bowls of broth lay in front of his doorless room, for him to eat once he wakes up. She placed a spell inside the broth to keep it warm, as she knows that Ravel doesn't like cold broth at all.

She returns that day with a leather satchel full of wrinkly seeds and full of tiny eggs. Ravel watched his mother plant those mysterious black stones into the grown and having water be poured on where they were buried. He was curious to what mother was doing and watched as on the next day, she watered the same place, even burying some meat.

As for the white, tiny eggs, Ravel had never seen them again, but he notices that she had built a large wooden disk with concentric circles. Many leaves were also piled near it and even when visiting them while Amanah was away, he could not piece what the leaves were for.

Months pass and he finally saw the eggs once more, Amanah putting them on the disk alongside stuffing them with leaves and putting white worm like creatures on them. He had never seen them before and his curiosity built up over time. 

A year passes and he has reached the body of a nine year old, and since last year, Amanah had begun to invite him to collecting wood and taught him hunting with his bare hands while she used spears or threw sharp rocks at fast speeds. Each week they would leave their home together and they produced much more than what Amanah would going out alone.

Ravel would often get the urge to eat the meat raw, right after the kill, it seemed so appealing to him. It looked juicy, tender and full of life, beckoning him to eat it then and there. However, Amanah told him that he was not old enough, that his body couldn't withstand eating raw things. She told him to wait for eight more years and then she would let him eat raw meat as he pleased.

Ravel, though obedient in front of his mother, secretly ate some of the animal right when it was killed. His first time was quite messy and obvious but by stoning the corpse and mangling it before his mother could come and see, he managed to hide this from her. Or at least, that's what he thinks.

He perfected his method over time, being less and less obvious. His mother seemed none the wiser and months passed without any word of it. It quickly became a habit and its prohibition was quickly forgotten in tbe coming months as they were occupied with growing the new farm.

He finally found out the reason for the buried seeds and meat, to grow plants and fruits. He had not tasted fruits before but when he did, he instantly regretted it. Only a few of them, in his opinion, were even edible. He almost spat out his first fruit and Amanah laughed him off and decided to tease him with a harmless threat.

The mother of all leaned towards her nine year old, raven haired son and smiled more expressively to say the least, with a hint of slyness. She leaned to his right ear and whispered, "If I ever find out that you've been eating our hunt and hiding it, you'll be eating fruit for the week."

His face immediately lost its color and he nodded, while Amanah relaxed her smile and patted his head twice, then heading into the hut while playfully exclaiming, "That better not be a confession son! The recent harvest was quite fruitful to say the least."

His mind told him there was no way she could have known but his instincts tell him that she did the entire time. He didn't want to risk but the allure was so strong, so he devised a compromise with himself. He would only eat in large harvests, there's no way his mother would know if any were taken. At least, he himself wouldn't know if someone did the same.

As if to spite and belittle his self compromise, large harvests became increasingly scarce and rare. Oddly, a food shortage never occured. Even in the lowest harvest, there was just enough meat for the week. With no sign of good harvests becoming more common anytime soon, he decided to give up on trying.

As more years passed, he lost the taste of raw meat and on the age of twelve, the weirdest stage of his life began.