18 Chapter 18
Kapha felt the vision go dark. It was peaceful darkness, one that made him feel the kind of peace he assumed he will feel when he died. And although there was nothing in the darkness, it wasn't oppressive.
Warmth flooded his body and slowly, Rey began to stir. He opened his eyes and found himself in some kind of wooden house surrounded by 2 familiar figures that made him cry.
//"Ru, Phu,"// he whispered to himself as tears began to roll down his face. Kapha could feel the emotions that Rey was experiencing when he saw the two again, and was so caught up in it he almost failed to notice the third person in the room.
The person cocked his head to the side and looked at Rey in confusion. Kapha could see the resemblance he had with the humans and was shocked.
//"You speak yeme?"// the man asked, drawing Rey's attention away from the two figures in the room and towards the last one.
Hearing the man's voice, the two figures turned to look at Rey and bright smiles filled their faces. The smaller figure immediately left what he was doing and ran towards Rey, trying his best to engulf Rey in a hug despite his small size.
Rey smiled back and hugged the small figure back, picking him up and placing him on his lap. The other just stood were he was, watching the two interact with a smile on his face. The third person studied the situation that was playing out before him and smiled slightly.
//"You haven't answered my question,"// the person said, interrupting the intimate moment between Rey and the other two, //"I asked if you speak yeme?"//
Rey was a bit suspicious of the third person in the room, but the other two were pretty comfortable with him and Rey could tell. //"What's that?"// Rey asked in return.
//"The language I made for these two, you speak it, and rather fluently too."//
//"Of course my brother knows how to speak it."// Phu declared as he sat on Rey's lap. //"He's my brother, is he not?"//
The person laughed. //"That's true."//
The room became silent, and the third person picked up a cup and took a sip of whatever was in it. He dropped the cup back on the small table before him and looked at Rey with a smile on his face.
//"To be honest,"// the person began with the cup in his hand, //"I didn't expect you to actually make it to the top of the mountain. I had already prepared to stop Phu if the situation got too bad, then drag you the rest of the way up."//
Kapha could feel the shock that was felt by Rey in the vision. He looked at the small yeme in his laps then back at the person who was still holding his cup.
//"Wait, Phu you were the one the caused the…"// Rey struggled to find words to explain what had happened, only to experience the short comings of language, reverting to wild hand waving and symbols to try and capture what was on his mind.
Phu seemed to understand what he was trying to say and smiled sheepishly. Showing Rey his palm, a strange glowing symbol manifested, floating in the middle of his palm, before dissolving into a ball of fire that warmed him a bit.
Rey rubbed Phu's head playfully, before saying, //"I hope you were careful when you did it, or big brother could have died in there."//
Phu face showed a sign of indignance like there was no way he could have failed, then his expression twisted into one of immense fear. He rushed to speak, //"There's no way that could have happened. Ru said that the chance was very low,"//
The normally quiet Ru spoke up, //"99.387% chance."//
Phu hurriedly continued, //"And besides Timothy is here. He promised that if anything went wrong he would have used his power as a Ten Man,"// he looked towards the so called Timothy for confirmation before carrying on, //"To save you. You were definitely safe. I'll never do anything to harm you, I swear."//
Timothy laughed. //"I was less concerned about whether you'll die during the test and more about whether you'll be able to recover by the time it was ready. But you proved more resilient than I assumed."// He took another sip from the cup.
//"So Ten Man,"// Rey eyed Timothy, imperceptibly holding Phu tighter, //"What's that about?"//
Timothy eyed him back. //"Its sort of like a job title, if you understand what I'm saying."//
Rey nodded. //So what are you meant to do?"//
Timothy was a little taken aback but he answered truthfully. //"Well according to what I was told, I'm supposed to bring about the rise of the new races, that I create. I currently have only one named race, the yemes, that's the name I gave you guys, I hope you don't mind?"//
Rey shrugged and Timothy continued.
//"The race consists of two subraces, the Rus and the Phus. And as it stands I don't mind adding another."// As Timothy opened his mouth to continue speaking the vision ended and Kapha was transported back into his body, along with a splitting headache.
Kapha immediately felt like someone had planted an amari tree in his skull and it had immediately become fully grown. He looked up and saw Elder Yume saying something, yet the headache stopped him from hearing what he was saying.
His vision blurred and his balance was messed up. He couldn't stand up straight and had to lean on one of the trees nearby. Despite all these, the thing that worried him the most was the feeling that had been following him since.
If before the feeling could be described as a slightly chilly fog at that moment, it was a piece of pure ice stabbed directly into his bones, corrupting his marrow, causing his temperature to plummet.
If before it was a slight warmness that followed him, no it was a raging inferno that trapped him, burning him to ashes.
If before it was someone trying to stab him with a fruit, now it was a magically enhanced blade piercing directly through his heart.
And it was unbearable. His body was unable to handle whatever it was that was causing it, Kapha could feel it, or rather it was better to say that with all the mental energy that had saturated his cells, there was no way he could not feel it.
The feeling drew from him. The energy in his body quickly draining out, his cells dying at a rate that was faster than normal, and it was rapidly increasing! The energy levels in his body was quickly dropping, and his normal bodily functions soon began to shut down. His vision turned to pitch darkness, his ears were as good as gone and he couldn't feel the bark of the tree he was holding anymore.
His heartbeat slowed and the rate at which he thought plummeted. All the energy in his body was stripped and was being fed to the feeling that had attached itself to him. He used to think that it was part of his body, but now he realised how wrong he was.
It was a parasite that had attached itself to his body, feeding on his body's energy and leaving him as a dried husk. With every second that past, he could feel the thing growing more and more. He could feel it getting close to sentience…
To life.
The thought had barely been thought about when he heard something. But it wasn't something he wished to hear. It was the sound of someone, or rather something, breathing quite heavily. It came from behind him and it caused Kapha to freeze in fear.
The feeling had awakened.
And Kapha could tell that it was full of negative thoughts and energy.
Kapha fought back. He tried his best to draw his energy back into his body, but it was already too late. No matter how he struggled, there was no way for him to get back his energy, or stop it from gathering more.
Kapha thought that he was at the end of his wit and he had lost all hope, but after what happened next, he knew what true despair was.
["Your struggle,"] a voice spoke out from behind him, and Kapha felt his heart being wrung out. It was smooth and deep, filled with endless darkness. ["Is quite amusing, Kapha."] It spoke in a language Kapha did not know, or understand. Yet the meaning wasn't lost on him. He knew perfectly well what the voice was trying to communicate.
He felt a pull come from his back, and he could feel the feeling extract itself from his back.
["You're going to die, yet you still struggle,"] it laughed and when it spoke again its voice was just beside his ear. ["It's funny, is it not?"]
Kapha expected to die immediately after, but he didn't. The only thing he heard was the thing hmph and a singular sentence, ["Ten Man, eh? I will return and I will have you in my grasp."]
Immediately after Kapha regained his vision, hearing, sight and feeling. He had thought that time would not have moved in reality but, he was wrong. In his arms Elder Yume lay, his hair as white as undisturbed snow, his eyes were failing and his robust body looked like merely a bag of bones. The sight shocked him so much he didn't notice that his hairs had turned white too.
//"Elder Yume!"// he cried, raising his head to look at where he assumed the others where, only to find himself surrounded by trees. He turned back to the yemerey in his arms //"Elder Yume!"// He cried once more, //"What happened!?"//
In reply Yume smiled weakly. He was already dead, hanging on only by a strand of will and mental energy. Yet he didn't seem to mind this, instead he actively sent him a mental message with his remaining mental energy.
//"Release the yemephu. Send him away, even if its only temporarily. That's the only way to start the story."// And with that he passed away, in the arms of an aged young yemerey, in the midst of a rain storm.
