Chapter 18: Chapter Eighteen: A Fragment of the Past (Part V)
"Caelan! Wake up!"
Ayra whispered, daintily tapping on Caelan's shoulder.
Her best friend groaned and shifted slightly. Ayra's eyes lit up, wondering if he was going to wake up. But when he stopped moving, Ayra wanted to scream.
It was like any other normal night inside the shelter. Quiet and calm. Delicate and lush.
But for Ayra, it was different. Not today, not yesterday. But the night was seemingly disturbing for the past few days.
"Caelan! Wake up!" She attempted once more, a little grin blossoming on her face when Caelan slowly and gradually opened his eyes to the darkness.
"What..." He mumbled rather incoherently.
She silently snickered before she lowered her voice to his ear and screamed,
"A ghost! There's a ghost!"
And that did the trick.
Caelan immediately jolted awake and frantically looked around, eyes and heart ostensibly jazzed and wary.
"Where?! Where?!"
Ayra wanted to guffaw out loud. His soft ash brown hair looked unfathomably messy and his eyes looked droopy, yet they had a mindful, vigilant glint in them.
When he saw Ayra's teasing grin, his shoulders drooped forward.
"Ayra, you scared me."
She shrugged before slightly poking her tongue out.
"Sorry."
Ayra felt slightly bad for waking him up but Ayra needed him for whatever they were going to discover tonight. And whatever that was going to follow.
"You're hearing those weird sounds again?" He questioned in a slightly languid tone, gently scouring the sleep away from his eyes.
Ayra swiftly nodded her head.
He blinked at her.
"What if it's just some rodents scurrying around?"
She shook her head, pulling the blanket a little more closely around her cold form. Winter was creeping it's way through the arteries of the large town, giving wake to a stretch of merciless but splendidly chilly nights.
Ayra sighed in response to his earlier question.
"No, I don't think it's the rodents, Caelan. The breeze won't inform me of such irrelevant things. Besides, the barrier I laid out downstairs has been rippling a lot lately."
Her voice turned acrid,
"Every single day at the exact time, Caelan."
The wind blew quietly.
Caelan blinked yet again, his half-asleep state taking all that information in.
"That's weird." He looked up at her, eyes slightly surprised.
"Wait, you can make barriers now?"
Ayra eyes delicately lit up. "Yes! I learned it from my lessons and I've been practising a lot lately. But it's not really effective."
She looked down, fiddling with the soft material of the blanket.
"It's just a thin layer of my power but it does address me when a large presence walks by it."
It started a week ago. Immediately after Ayra learned to create barriers, she made a point to practice it each and every day. She decided to spread out a cover of her power every night, focusing to check whether she would be able to detect something without utilizing her vision to do so.
But when she started to practice her power into strength, strange things began to take place. Or, to be exact, her power had started to pick out the strange event that has been taking place for who knows how long. When the clock strikes three in the dead of the morning, a shudder rips through her barrier. A rousing disturbance, it was, that gently forces her to pressing consciousness when it takes place.
Its been happening for three days already and Ayra warily wondered at what point did this really start happening.
Caelan pondered over her words for a few heartbeats.
"What if it's one of the ladies? Lady Antoinette has a habit of rising really early in the mornings, you know."
"I'd know if it's her." She stated confidently.
"How?
Ayra wavered, deeply mulling over her next words.
"I...dodon't know how to explain this. But, my wind...has this unusual and bizarre way of remembering everyone I know. It distinguishes each and every one of you with a peculiar sense that helps me identify that person without me even looking at them. So, the wind would've informed me if it was Lady Antoinette."
Caelan stared at her in pure wonderment.
"That's...woah."
Ayra just beamed.
"Wait, if it's not her, then who could it be?"
"I don't know but-"
She sighed.
"I trust my wind, Caelan and it's definitely not someone that my wind is familiar with. I'm scared if it's a burglar breaking into the shelter every day."
"Then we must immediately tell this Leorah.''
"We can't do that just yet since we don't have anything to prove its a burglar. And what if we do that and the burglar runs away. That'd be a problem too since we won't be able to catch him."
"Or, " she continued, her voice turning shudderingly low,
"What if...its not a burglar at all?"
Silence. Heavy, disturbing silence.
Caelan nervously twiddled with the soft fabric of the coverlet on his lap. Seeing that action of his made Ayra nervous too.
"What...do you intend we do?"
"We wait."
Caelan looked up at her and she bowed her head.
"Because any moment now, my wind would notify of a presence."
And just then, just right then, a small shudder broke through her barrier.
The wind stirred, her power quivered. Ayra straightened.
Caelan watched her for quite a while before delicately inquiring,
"Now?"
Her icy eyes steeled.
"Now."
They both nodded at each other before forcefully pulling the door open and quickly hurling themselves out.
Ayra silently went down the stairs, Caelan hot on her heels. When they reached the bottom, they swiftly hid behind a wall.
And slowly, very slowly and very quietly, peeked out.
A dark hallway met them. Yet, in the center of the hallway, amidst the cold darkness, a little figure stood.
Ayra looked at Caelan, silently directing his gaze at the figure. His eyes considerably widened.
The figure slowly moved towards the door,
however, he abruptly halted and turned around.
Ayra swiftly pushed Caelan far away from the edge of the wall.
Silence kicked in.
She shut her eyes and held her breath.
Nothing happened.
She peeped out again.
The figure was already at the door. Metal against one another and they brutally squinted their eyes against the obscurity, trying to find out what was happening.
And a heavy heartbeat later, a sound,
Ka-chunk!
Moonlight immediately poured in through the wide-opened door. Their eyes widened when the light illuminated the figure to them.
It was the dark-haired boy.
He casually ventured out into the night, swiftly shutting the door behind him with a quiet lock.
Silence ensued, embraced by the heavy darkness.
Ayra and Caelan looked at each other for a long time before running towards the back door.
ווו×
Ayra and Caelan believed that they had ventured through each and every artery of this large town. But now, as they stood in this particularly dark and dirty alley, Ayra truly wondered if they were in an entirely different town.
"Ayra." Caelan softly called out from beside her.
"Yes?" She replied, still gazing ahead.
"What are we doing here?"
It was quiet for a moment before she replied,
"I don't know."
The back, dim-lit alley of the tavern reeked of old beer and acrid piss. Men and women lined against the walls of the dark alley, drinking and laughing and doing....other things that she would rather not speak or think about.
"Ayra, let's just go back." He suggested quickly, flinching away when a heavily sloshed woman almost crashed into him.
She swallowed.
"Too late, Caelan."
They quietly walked through the dark alley, sticking close to each other. Everybody gazed at them, some confounded and some making jokes about how it generally begins with the young blooded ones. Ayra didn't have the foggiest idea what they implied by that but she chose to not prod further.
She wondered what the dark-haired boy was doing in a place like this, somewhat growing considerably irritated at the thought.
A commotion suddenly erupted from the back entrance of the tavern.
Ayra and Caelan took an alarming gander at one another before pushing their way through the fastly developing crowd.
The sight that greeted them was shocking, to say the least.
The dark-haired boy was on the wet, murky ground. And in front of him, stood an enormous man with an equally large container of brew in his grasp.
"Get lost, kid." He sneered at the boy.
The dark-haired boy glared up at him and Ayra shuddered at the raw anger pooling behind those electrifying eyes. A raging fire burned behind that gaze and Ayra recalled how she was at the mercy of that simmering anger before.
He got on his feet and scowled up at the man.
"I earned that money. Give it back!"
The man guffawed out loud as if what the boy said was the most humourous thing that he had ever heard.
"Yer' money? What does a lil' lad like you got the need for so many bills? Get lost, rat. This money is mine now."
"No!" He stepped forward. "Give it back you drunk bastard!"
"I own this tavern, kid! And I own this money now. Piss off!"
The man turned to leave but Ayra and Caelan gasped when the dark-haired boy lifted his knee, curved his body to the front-
And brutally kicked the man on his butt.
"Ow!"
The man abruptly halted and turned around, looking very, very furious.
The boy stared back unflinchingly, and that seemed to anger the grown man even more.
Oh no.
"You little rat!" He growled like a feral beast before lifting his huge, grubby hand to smack the young boy in front of him.
Ayra and Caelan immediately rushed forward.
"No!"
She lifted an arm and aimed it at the man, zeroing in on her power to thrust a blast of wind through the center of it. But before the huge man's palm could even touch the boy's cheek, a sudden burst of energy ripped through the dark alley and to the night.
The crowd shrieked and cried and howled at the scene in front of them.
Ayra and Caelan stilled right behind the boy, eyes widening at the splendid blue fire that lit up on the tips on his fingers and all the way to his wrist.
Ayra was stunned at the scene in front of her.
The azure glow of the fire reminded her of the bright, ceaselessly mystic skies and the magnificent depth of the gargantuan seas. The striking glow of it illuminated his silver eyes and his dark hair, and to Ayra, at that moment, the boy looked truly otherworldly.
Like an angel.
He raised his blazed hand towards the man and the man roughly fell back on his feet, the large jug of beer plunging down and noisily shattering on the hard ground. But the man paid no regard to it. He crept back on the wet ground, with his hands uselessly high up in the air for protection against the ruthless burn flames.
"W-wait-" he stammered, eyes filled with raw dread as he took a gander at the scorching, bright blue flames dancing at the tip of the young boy's fingers.
"Drop the money in front of you, asshole." The boy demanded coolly.
And the man immediately did it, without a thought.
Ayra and Caelan looked absolutely stunned.
The dark-haired boy lowered his arm to the side before casually bending and picking up the money.
He turned around to leave but a voice stopped him.
"Boss! What happened!?"
Two men ran towards the man on the ground.
"Shit." Caelan and Ayra cursed quietly.
Furthermore, when the man on the ground quickly pointed at the kid before him, Ayra heart shot up with dread.
"Catch those three!" He cried.
And the men listened.
Three?
Ayra and Caelan looked at each other.
The dark-haired boy swiftly turned around, not even the slightest bit surprised when he saw Ayra and Caelan standing there, paralysed with fear, bewilderment and other furor of emotions.
The boy ran towards them, swiftly touched each of their shoulders to drag them to reality before shouting one word,
"Run!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
miwaknight
miwaknight Another update! Yay!
Phew, editing this chapter took quite a while ya'll but I finally managed to do it. :3
Also, thank you so much for all the power stones you guys have been showering this book with. Makes me feel so much more happy and motivated to give my best for this book. Thank you so much, really.
Last but not the least, happy reading loves.
*I gotta go take a shower now and get to my never-ending mountain of assignments. PRAY4POORME*
Until next chapter then <333
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone