Hans decision
August laid in the Hans' room. Rare echoes of child screams were resonating throughout the cold stone walls of the castle. Dimmed light from the candles was the only source of light that illuminated the room.
August eyes snapped open with his pupils enlarged. Like a spring, he jumped from the bed and stood on his legs. With his hands bent, covering his head, he stood frozen.
A minute passed in deadly silence, before August dared to move agian. Slowly his hands lowered and his eyes wondered around.
His eyes stopped and relaxed when he noticed the difference.
[August POV]
What is happening?
Why everything is so bright?
Where is this lady? With…..
Wait with what?
Why I can't remember the way she looked… She had …. those …GREY colour hair and …. emerald eyes?
Why is all the world around so bright? Why everything is so loud?
Huh? What?
*Aaaaaaaaaa*
Who is screaming? Why this is so loud?
[End of POV]
August stood unmoved, covering his ears and eyes with his palms. Consequences of the trial were starting to show up.
His senses were going crazy, and that required time to get used.
He took a seat on the floor and passed his hand across the shaggy floor.
With a twitch, his hand went away from the stone as his face showed a grimace of pain.
"What in the world?" said August aloud, covering his hand with another palm softly. "Are those the effects of the trial?"
His eyes ran around the room before stopping at the candle.
He walked closer and blew it, stopping the fire. When the fire went away and the room enveloped in the darkness, nothing changed in the child's perception.
"Exceptional," muttered August under his breath. He bent down and picked us a small piece of stone from the floor. With no effort, he let go of it, making it fall to the floor.
Stone created an almost silent sound of dropping, but for August the sound of the stone was clear as a sky on the sunny, unclouded day, like someone's voice who spoke aloud.
"Marvelous" muttered August.
'What is that?' wondered August, hearing a faint sound of something.
He turned his head in the direction of the door and opened it, looking for the source of the sound. But there in the corridor he found nobody.
Waiting for several more minutes, a shadow of someone appeared. August immediately recognized it. It was Hans.
Hans walked from the corner and looked at August, whose eyes were looking at him.
Without any effort, Hans whispered, "So now you now"
On the distance of 100 cubits, August heard everything what Hans spoke.
Hans approached August and pushed him inside of the room, slamming the door close. He looked down at the boy with stern eyes, without a single muscle moving.
"So you are finally awake" spoke Hans staring inside of August eyes he continued "So this is an what are the consequences" he took a grip of his chin and closed the distance between them "Red" with a sign he concluded "Hopefully this does not cause anything too serious"
August tilted his head to the side and inquired, "What do you mean, teacher?"
"Your eyes" spoke Hans
August's face twitched in a clueless grimace. "My eyes?" he pointed his finger towards his face. "What about them?"
"They are," started Hans, before making an infinitesimal pause and finishing it with "different"
August brown furrowed as he inquired, "Teacher, you mean to say that they are red?"
Without saying a word, Hans replied with a curt nod and went to the shelf.
"So… I'm different?" inquired August, following closely behind Hans.
"Cut the crap!" said Hans, looking at August from the side without fully turning his head. "You are one of us now! Don't become like humans, we are different… we are family now"
"But why my eyes are red?" inquired August, making a slight pause before continuing with his voice slightly trembling "Did something…. went wrong? Will it… have consequences?"
Hans opened the shelf and took out a leather bag, pushing it against August's chest. "Here"
August took a bag in his hands and looked at Hans with mixed emotions. "What is the bag for?"
"Pack up"
"You didn't reply!" argued August and strongly threw the bag on the floor.
Both looked into each other eyes, neither of them spoke. You could feel how the temperature is slowly lowering, spiking the tension up.
*Sigh*
"You went under something I was not aware of," replied Hans with a tired voice, he picked up a bag from the floor and gave it back to August "There were additional components to the elixir that you were given during the mutation." Hans took an insignificant pause continuing "Now go. Pack up your stuff"
"What does that mean? Why do I need to pack up my stuff? Don't I need more of the training? Don't I need to pass one more trial? Why are you hiding things from me, Teacher?" bombarded August. He just woke up, and he was already ordered to pack up his things.
"We are leaving," stated Hans, with a voice that accepted no arguments.
"But my…."
"We are leaving," repeated Hans, interrupting August.
"What…"
"I said we are leaving. Right. Now" repeated Hans.
With a sharp move and furrowed brows, August turned his back towards Hans and left the room, slamming the door as hard as he could, almost losing his balance from the loud sound it created.
….
Few hours later, August was sitting behind Hans on the horse as they passed gates of Kaer Morhen and went into the forest, following an almost non existing track that lead them into the big world.
"Teacher" started August, when his emotions calmed down "Did my friends" he took a pause, swallowed a mouth full of saliva and continued "Survive?"
Hans replied shortly "Yes,they did"
You could hear how a deep and long breath escaped August's mouth as he leaned on Hans' back and fell asleep muttering, "Thanks god"
When August's body switched off to get more sleep and recover, Hans looked through the branches of trees and said, directing his words to someone he never seen. "You already abandoned this world, didn't you?"
Croaking of the crow sounded through the forest, but nobody replied.
"Just like I thought," said Hans, looking back on the road and directing his horse.
While diving deeper and deeper into the forest, Hans thought.
'I don't know why, but this kid is something. Why do I feel the way I feel right now? Why did those emotions never show themselves before? Why does this feeling is flooding me? Is this… Responsibility? No , it is not…. Maybe it is … L. Brrrr.
Hans stops thinking about that. His words were just some nonsense. Gods are not here, gods are not here to save our lives. They are there just to observe and enjoy our futile struggles, our desperation for things we can't reach, and fest on the bones of those that will never see this world again, snacking on our pain.
//
Update rate is low for 2 reasons. One me not being motivated enough to spend my entire free time writing and my lack of time overall. I have my studies starting, so release rate will depend on those things.