air should bring aid. Instead, it taunted. Just like everything else.
Especially, it thought, the female with all the delicious energy.
Moving forward, it opened its mouth wide, focused only on getting to the source. A female raised her weapon and a male rushed toward him with hate and the promise of murder in his eyes. The creature welcomed death and hoped the warriors were successful. Otherwise, there would be no stopping it from taking everything the small female had. It would drain her until her body was nothing more than a dried-out husk. To its shock, the male was propelled backwards by an unseen force.
“No!” the shiny, bright female yelled. “Not that one!”
Confused, hurt, and starving to the point of pain, the thing that was once a man paused, snarling all the while. The urge to inhale was strong. She shined like the sun and he wanted to feel the sun. He wanted to feel warmth and comfort and something good for once in its miserable, never-ending existence. But it stayed where it was, waiting for what, it did not know.
“Go,” the female said, looking directly at them. Followed by, “Go now.”
The creature snapped its mouth closed, the look of pity and understanding in the female’s eyes its undoing. It made it feel shame, and it made it feel hope for the first time in recent memory. And so, instead of consuming her life force as the horrific voices in its head pushed it to do, the creature commanded its body to fold in on itself and prayed the wind would answer just this once and take it far away from temptation.
It could have been mere minutes or years later, for all the creature knew. But one of the same warriors returned, this time with a new female and a male that made the creature’s skin tingle and the voices riot inside its head. Once fully manifested, it sniffed the air, trying to determine what was so different about the male. The creature had never felt anything like it before and it was even further disgruntled to learn there was no bright spark among them. That angered the creature enough that it moved quickly toward them, intent on causing harm. It received a jolt however, when the strange male lifted off the ground and his eyes turned a familiar black. The hesitation cost it dearly and it soon found itself trapped by small shackles of air. That pissed the creature off, having its own element used against them, but no matter what it tried it could not free itself. The creature was then forced to listen as its worst, most shameful characteristics were talked about.
“He’s a complete unknown. What’s more, his degeneration is far worse than yours ever was. Look at him,” the young male demanded. “He’s so white he looks like an albino, his hair is like limp black straw, and his mouth does that creepy unhinging thing.”
The creature hissed, taking exception to the words. It knew it was a lost cause, its mind had debilitated to the point of madness, but not quite to the point where it had lost all cognitive awareness. Life was incredibly cruel. After a while, the young one dared approach and the creature took a swipe, barely missing flesh and bone. Trying to advance again, it stilled when it heard something it thought never to hear again. Its name.
“Knox. That’s your name, isn’t it? Knox? You were once an Air Warden.”
The voices inside the creature’s head grew louder and the abyss grew colder and darker, causing the pain to writhe and wriggle once more. Giving in, the creature ignored the temptation of its old name and opened its mouth, prepared to kill the male even though its meagre energy would not sustain the creature for long. It was still better than nothing. Besides, they were taunting it. The male continued with its useless words for a time, and the creature continued to ignore them. It couldn’t afford the hope they wrought. That was, until the female spoke.
“Hey! Quit it! This guy here is your best bet. Either let him try or I’ll put you down right now. It would save us time and put you out of your misery. Choose,” she demanded.
The creature stilled once more, pushing aside the black pit of hunger and despair, and actually processed her words. They truly wanted to help? It wasn’t ignorant of who and what she was. She was an executioner. She would take its head if