It is about time... I got back to this... ugh... I am so sorry, you have no idea!
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Arrabalta- Eternity (Book II)
Chapter Four-
Foresight

As the night fell, all Aerobolt could think about were Xen, Eira, and the trip back to Hydyraen. He had not been to Hydyraen since he was rescued from it those months ago. Now he was going back. Back to the memories he wished he never had. He was going to undo the journey that had gotten him to Castla nu Craara. Back to the life he had never wanted. He was returning to hell. But unlike the first time he went to Hydyraen, he is not being cubnapped. He is not going to live there. Still, Aerobolt felt uneasy. Uneasy enough to prevent sleep. This made Aerobolt impatient; he knew he needed to visit Iridescence in his dream so he’d know the truth behind Eira and the mysteriousness that surrounds her. What did Thor mean when he said “strange power”? And how did he know she had a strange power in the first place if she does have one? Why did Thor want him specifically to mentor Eira? Many questions swirled around Aerobolt’s head, making him feel sick with confusion.
Aerobolt turned over. He knew that eventually he and Eira would find these answers. Tonight, he hoped. However, if he could not sleep, he knew Iridescence wouldn’t be able to reach him. He hoped she at least was able to reach Eira.
Aerobolt closed his eyes. When sleep did not come, he opened them to sigh in impatience when he say the familiar setting that Iridescence had visited him in the past. The foggy, dead forest that lied ahead seemed different somehow though. But Aerobolt could not discern what. Aerobolt began to hear whispers of voices he had never heard before as well as whispers from voices he remembered and sent chills down his spine.
“She is the one who can revive him?”
“Can I actually use this Hidden Force to make sure Aerobolt was never born?”
“No! I will not let you alter our fate!”
“No don’t do it! You have so much to live for!”
“Submit to who you are!”
“Never! Aagh!”
“I’m sorry Aerobolt… but this is for you…”
“Life will never be the same without her!”
“The entirety of Nyethra’s fate now lies with you, God of Justice…”
When the voices faded, Aerobolt reopened his eyes after realizing he had shut them. He saw Iridescence, her back to him, standing in her foggy silhouette. “I-Iridescence?!” But she did not turn.
“The one who wields eternity has fully control over fates that have long passed. She has the impunity to undo and redo life itself. She can sway Justice itself unto its historical forms. Her name matches where the clouds sleep and cry on the lands far below. But soon her name shall mean the definition of Eternity….”
And Aerobolt woke with a start. Not another word was spoken to him. And her words… cryptic as ever, but they mentioned nothing Aerobolt could understand clearly. He knew one thing, however, she was referring to Eira. Aerobolt lied there for a few moments longer to recollect his thoughts, then got up. Then he realized he heard many voices yelling many ominous things. All of them reverberated through his mind like a bell. Especially the last one “The entirety of Nyethra’s fate now lies with you, God of Justice.” Aerobolt knew that his death would mark the beginning of his afterlife as the deity of Justice as well as the fact that even though Arcane was gone, his story was far from over yet. Especially when he thought about the quote that said something about Arcane’s revival. The thought of that horrendous tyrant returning sent several chills down his spine.
Aerobolt started down the Spire with all of it on his mind. He paid little attention to other Guardians and he carelessly bumped into a few. None of them even bothered to call him out. He wondered whom he was to tell first, Eira or Fielra. Then he wondered if EIra had a similar dream. He decided he would seek out EIra first.
Aerobolt suddenly tripped over something soft and fell flat on his face. Another surprised yelp sounded with his own as two bodies fell over onto the solid marble floor of the Crossroads. Aerobolt looked over to apologize, and realized with shock who he just knocked over.
“Ow… this is what happens when I come down here… why…?” groaned the voice of none other than Xen Aura Ghoa.
“Xen?” Aerobolt was surprised to see the young, overly-shy cub in the Crossroads.
“I know that voice from yesterday. Savior?” Xen said next to him in a still persisting melancholic tone.
“Please, Xen, I am no Savior… I am Aerobolt,” Aerobolt replied sadly as he pulled the two of them to their paws.
“Is it you who does not want to be regarded in such a way? While I strive for a purpose?” Xen said suddenly.
Aerobolt was taken aback. He knew fox cubs were unusually intelligent compared to other species, but Xen shocked him. “Xen…”
Xen laughed ruefully. “Then I’d gladly switch places with you,” he said. “Yes. Even live in Hydyraen for the first decade and a half of my life,” he said with such a bitter determination it seemed almost counterfeit.
Aerobolt shook his head vigorously. “No, no Xen! You don’t want that! Nobody does! Trust me. Fame is not all that it is made out to be…” Aerobolt said. He knew it was true, but he felt guilty when he couldn’t recall any time that was actually true for him.
“Anything is better than being a nobody,” Xen responded. And Aerobolt had no effective answer to that. His mind was so racked by what he saw the previous night, he couldn’t concentrate.
“What are you doing down here, Xen?” he changed the subject curiously.
“Even nobodys need food once and a while,” Xen responded, not willing to change subjects so easily.
“And I am in a hurry to find either Fielra or Eira. I have important news to deliver to them,” Aerobolt stated.
“What is it? Something heroic and only heroes get to know about? It has nothing to do with that stupid journey you invited me to, does it?” Xen sounded almost angry when he said that. SO much so it made Aerobolt cringe slightly.
“I do not know yet,” and Aerobolt was truthful, “It is something that Fielra needs to help me discern.”
Xen did not say a word.
“Xen?”
“That secretive huh?” he finally said.
“Huh?”
“So secretive you can’t even tell me anything?” Xen said sadly.
“That is not it at all!” Aerobolt exclaimed. ‘Wow, what a strange cub…’ he thought privately. “I don’t know what it means is all! I had a dream I need help interpreting, okay?” Aerobolt was stunned at his own impatience spewing from his muzzle.
Xen looked up with a glare. “Well fine. I don’t want to know anyways!” he defiantly turned away and strutted into the Commons leaving Aerobolt standing there, utterly perplexed.
“Wow… what a strange cub,” Aerobolt stated aloud under his breath. He shook his head and remembered his objectives. He figured Eira would be talking with Fielra right now, so he slowly walked into the Commons hoping he could avoid Xen this time. Upon reaching Fielra’s quarters, he could barely make out Eira’s and Fielra’s muffled voices speaking behind the door. Without even knocking, he entered.
“…What does this mean Fielra?” Eira was saying.
“You indeed posses a greater gift than either of us could imagine—“ Fielra noticed Aerobolt. “Aerobolt! You are here at last. What kept you?”
Aerobolt shook his head, trying to clear it of Xen. “Nothing in particular. What is going on?”
“Miss Eira has confessed to me that she has seen Iridescence in her dreams last night. She claims to have been given a strange prophecy after hearing a series of familiar and unknown voices, speaking of ominous things such as Arcane’s revival and the implication of suicide.”
Aerobolt was taken aback. “I-I had the exact same dream!” he exclaimed. Fielra did not even call for his silence.
“I-is that so?” Fielra was equally surprised. “Then there is no doubt about it. Eira here is a very special vixen,” she declared.
“I knew it,” Eira said with gritted teeth. “I’m not normal. But why? Why me? And how?”
Fielra shook her head. “I do not know, nor do I even know the extent of your powers. What I do know is that Master Thor’s predictions, were correct. How he even came to obtain such knowledge, once again I am clueless,” Fielra said with disappointment in her voice. Aerobolt knew that it was directed at herself for knowing so little. “What I do believe however is that everything seems to suggest that Eira posses the Hidden Force.”
Aerobolt jumped slightly. One of the quotes in his dreams mentioned the Hidden Force. He looked over to Eira, who looked as though she had realized the same thing. “Th-the Hidden Force?”
Fielra nodded. “Legends spoke of an eighth Force that only a few Guardians can wield within the span of many generations due to the complexity of it, and the capacity it has to create cataclysms of epic proportions. The Hidden Force is rumored to be that of Time itself: the ability to control the flow of when everything happens. I personally know very little of the Force besides its concept. I’m sorry.”
“T-time…?” Aerobolt repeated.
Eira looked down. “That explains it then. I never told this to a soul, but when I was a little cub, I foresaw my brother Storm going out into Nyethra to rescue Aerobolt. I saw him plunging into a river and drowning. I-I thought I had lost him when he left. I thought I’d never see him again. When I did. When you brought him home safely, I-I—“ she broke down into tears.
“I-I see. You do indeed seem to have the Hidden Force… to have foreseen your brother’s potential death…” Fielra admitted. She seemed too surprised to speak.
“But why? And what does this mean?” Aerobolt asked looking down at the gifted vixen.
Fielra shook her head. “I do not know I’m afraid. As ironic as it sounds, at this point, only time will tell. But her gift may be something that may determine many things to come. They may even help determine the fate of Nyethra itself.”
Eira looked up and sniveled. “Determine the fate of Nyethra!? I don’t want to be the deciding factor of the fate of our entire land! No! I don’t want--!”
“Eira! Please calm down!” Fielra cried as Eira began to have fits of indiscriminate words of denial.
“But- but-!” Eira spluttered “Me! The one that can sway the fate of everything! I don’t want to be this special!” she cried.
“She doesn’t. But I do!” said a voice familiar to Aerobolt. Aerobolt felt redness flood his face as he recognized the source of that voice. He flung open the door that was opened just a crack and saw the anger boiling on Xen’s face.
“Xen!? You were eavesdropping on us!?” Aerobolt cried, outraged.
“Anything I can to find out what you were hiding from me!” Xen puffed up his chest indignantly. Aerobolt looked at the cub with fury, but he continued on before he could speak. “So that vixen is special? And she doesn’t want to be. And I am not special? But I want to be? Don’t we see that problem at all?” There was an almost arrogant tone within the jealousy that Xen was erupting.
Eira looked at him. “Are you that cub Storm told me we were traveling with?”
“And what if I am?” Xen asked rudely.
Eira looked at Fielra. “Can’t we do something!? I hate that I have to be so special! Why can’t I just give HIM my powers instead!?”
Xen nodded in agreement. “Yeah!”
Fielra sighed. “It is not that simple. It is impossible to trade around powers unless you deliberately train him. But no Guardian has been able to successfully warp Time until now! I strongly doubt that it is something you can just train a cub to do! I’m sorry, but this is the way it is,” she said with barely any sympathy.
“Not fair!” both Xen and Eira chorused.
“Life isn’t fair! Listen to you two right now; you sound like a bunch of toddler cubs! You are almost old enough to leave cubhood behind and this is how you handle something you do not like?”
“But Mistress Fielra, the magnitude of this is—“ Eira started.
“Don’t you ‘But’ me, Miss Eira. I understand yours and Xen’s frustrations, but there is nothing any of us can do by complaining about it!” That managed to shut up the two cubs.
“She’s right,” Eira finally conceded with a sigh. “I really hate the way things are now, but… what could any of us even do?” she looked more to Xen than anyone else when she spoke.
“I want there to be something we can do,” Xen said in a defeated tone.
“But there is nothing,” Aerobolt said. “Come on. We’ve bothered Fielra enough already. Let’s find Storm and prepare for the trip to Hydyraen ahead.”
Both Eira and Xen looked depressed, more so than Aerobolt was comfortable with. He hoped that there could be something that could be done to cheer them up, but he had the feeling that if half the party were going to be feeling this way, it wouldn’t end well at all.
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Full series: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5340298/
Book One: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11187661/
Chapter One: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15292987/
Failed Book II (If curious...): https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12848456