#he's the mosy precious boy and i stand by that | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

elodjole · 4 years

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Flower bud There was a bright flash of light, a familiar one. Akari rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the light. The room he sat in was twenty five meters tall with marble columns lining the ends of it from one end to the other. The walls had tapestries of great battles, coronations and other important events from the past, hanged form solid gold bars on the celling. One of the tapestries showed a large number of Kalashtar facing a god like creature that towered over them. Akari couldn’t get his eyes of it. He had so much left to learn about his people’s culture and history, like why were they facing those godly creatures, was that what led to their downfall?

The room was full of people, most of them with pale white hair, red eyes and dark skin characteristic for the Kaleshy. Directly in front of him there was a group of two dozen men and women, clearly not Kaleshy, dressed in fine clothing and adorned with numerus precious gems. He sat on an elevated platform about five meters of the ground, looking down at them. As he turned his attention toward them, each of them bowed their heads in consecutive motions, like a sudden wave of power suddenly pushed them one by one into the ground. As each head fell, Akari could see a battlefield behind the bowing person. Countless men and women, both of Kalashtar and other peoples, lay lifeless on the ground. As the last head fell, he could see the once golden glistering throne room now full of blood and death.

-“I don’t want this!” Akari yelled, but no one responded. “Look at them all, look at how they suffered. This is not how it should be. I don’t want to be like you!” His voice echoed through the halls. He had jumped up the throne, staring into his reflection in it.

The man in the reflection had a stern look on his face. He had a square chin and short trimmed beard. Adorned atop his head was the traditional pharos garb, and his piercing red eyes stared right back at Akari with disappointment and regret.

“Then what is it, what do you want Akari?!” The reflection spoke with a booming deep voice, a voice that could command a thousand armies. It echoed throughout the room getting louder and louder. The ground started shaking, the entire hall started falling apart and all that Akari could hear was his name echoing over and over again.

Darkness washed over Akari again, as he heard the sound of a warm motherly voice, yelling his name.

-“Akari! You get up this instant young man, Mosi will closes the bakery in twenty minutes. Hurry or you won’t make it in time!”

Akari opened his eyes, as the sunlight, peeking ever so slightly through the drapes of his bedroom window, washed over his face. He sat up and rubbed his forehead. He was back in his bed, and felt the ruff and scratchy fabric of his blanket itching his legs. It was nothing like the throne room. Barely two meters tall and made out of sand stone. The room was very small but somehow still managed to feel empty. A desk in one corner a wardrobe in the other, a bed across from the two, and a small window with thin cotton drapes on the western wall.

-“I’m coming mom!” He yelled back. ‘No echo this time’, he sighed. He got up and leaned on his window sill. The city streets were always busy even in this sector. It was almost midday and it was starting to get hot. His window looked on to the main street of the sector, where countless merchants and street performers would spend their days trying to outdo each other in tricks, prices, and anything else really, that would earn them a little bit of gold. Most of the people of the sector were Kaleshy, apart from the guards that constantly roamed the sector, and the very poorest citizens of the new Egi Empire. This is where most of the Kalashtar people came to live after…

-“Akari if I have to call you one more time, I’ll come up there with a bucket of water.” Akari heard his mother yell from downstairs.

-“I’ll be right down!” He put on brown linen pants and a white and red sleeveless shirt, he didn’t like sleeves obstructing his tattoos. He ran down stairs and splashed his face with some water from the bucket his mother threatened him with moments ago. As he raised his head he caught his own reflection in the water and it was him this time. His curly white hair resting just above his kind red eyes. His narrow chin and hairless face making him look like a child compared to the reflection from the dream.

He entered the kitchen. A woman, half a head shorter than him, with long white hair pulled into a tight braid that brushed past the small of her back was chopping carrots. She turned around revealing kind red eyes, not unlike Akari’s. She looked tired, the large bags under her eyes and pores on her face made it seem like she hadn’t slept in a while. She wore a modest white dress that looked a little stained from cooking.

-“I’m here mom, what’s the rush?” Akari said with a calm face.

-“Don’t you play cool with me! Get on Mona, and get to Mosi’s, if you want to eat today.” She said sternly putting three coper pieces on the kitchen table.

-“He’s five minutes away mom. I don’t need Mona, and I’m not going to be late!” He picked up the coins of the table, kissed his mother on the forehead and stepped out on to the street.

It was a very hot day. Luxor was in the desert, so the populace was generally accustomed to the hot weather. Akari stepped into the backyard where Mona was tied to the fence, chewing on some straw. The mare was almost a golden shade of brown and had a long black mane and tale. Akari pet her on the snout as he passed her by. Whenever he saw her he was reminded of the long rides his father used to take him on when he was little. The memories filled him with strange feelings that he didn’t know how to process. His father was taken away when Akari was still young. He couldn’t do anything to save him. He didn’t even know if his father was alive. Mona licked Akari’s face stopping this line of thinking. He left Mona there and continued onward to the bakery.

The street was busy, it always was. Groups of people walked past Akari as he strolled down the wide walkway separating two rows of modest looking sand stone houses. The sector was clean enough. The people that lived here were poor but not uncivilized. As he walked some people waived at him, some said hi, others just passed him without addressing him, but he could notice everyone he passed staring at him. Suddenly he felt trapped. The light of the sun started to fade. The walls of the throne room started emerging around him. Everyone was looking to him. His people were looking to him. He stopped. He found himself struggling to catch a breath. He felt this enormous weight on his shoulders that wouldn’t allow him to move. He started gasping, looking around for a place to hide. He rushed into a small alley between two houses. The weight forced him down, as he sat clutching his knees with his back against the wall. ‘I can’t do this! I’m not strong enough! I’m not ready!’ The thoughts circled around in his mind, like predators stalking a prey.

Right as he was about to pass out, Akari felt hand grab his shoulder. He looked up to see a short haired Kaleshy boy around his age, with wide childish eyes and a big pointy nose standing above him with a concerned look on his face.

-“It’s ok Akari. Just try to breath.” The boy said with a nasally but calming voice. Akari came down and breathed in deep. It was his friend Emile.

-”What happened are you ok?” Emile asked with a bit of a shiver in his voice. Akari was usually the calm one out the two.

-”Everyone knows Emile. Everyone knows who I am and they’re all expecting me to…, I don’t even know what they’re expecting me to do. If dad couldn’t make everyone safe how can I. I’m not as good as him.”

-“As good at what?” Emile said starting to piece together what Akari was freaking out about.

-“I don’t know! Leading, being in charge, whatever I’m supposed to be.” Akari said in panicked voice.

-“But you’re not supposed to be anything. We’ve lived like this our entire lives, heck our grandparents did to. Nobody is expecting you to be anything you don’t want to be, and even if they are, fuck them, they can’t make you do anything. As for not being good enough, I don’t know what you got in your head that you have to do, but I think you’re pretty great. At least you’re better than me at, pretty much everything.”

Akari stopped shaking, and his breathing slowed. He had known Emile for fifteen years and never once heard him talk like this.

-“Well not everything.” Akari gestured at his tattoos. Emile smiled and helped him get up.

-“You’ve never snapped at me like that.” Akari said playfully.

-“Well you’re always defending me from bullies, the least I can do is protect you from yourself.” They both laughed.

-“I guess I was overreacting. It’s just these dreams. These memories that I see snippets of when I sleep. They’re all from this great emperor guy, who led hundreds of wars and had even his enemies bow to him. It kind of freaks me out you know.”

-“Tsk! You’re lucky everyone in my family was either a baker or a tailor. All I get are memories of ovens and needles. Sometimes though, if I’m really lucky a tailor ancestor will be making a suit for a lord and I get to see the great palaces of the past. I wish I could have seen those great halls.” Akari noticed a glimmer in Emile’s eye that reminded him of the first time he had a vision of the old palaces. Back before he knew what it meant. He looked up to see the sun almost at its peak.

-“Oh shit! Emile, I got to hurry. Do you think your dad will still be at the bakery?” Akari asked suddenly realizing he was late.

-“Yeah don’t worry, he knew you’d be late. You better hurry though I don’t know how long he’ll wait.”

-“Do you wanna come with? He’ll get less mad at me if he knows I was talking to you.”

-“Maybe so, but then he’ll direct his rage at me. You’re on your own buddy. Besides I have to bring these materials to my mom at the stand. Come over later if you want to hang out.” Emile picked up a box of fabric. He was frail so he struggled with it a bit. Akari tried to help, but Emile brushed him of.

-“I’ll see you later then!” Akari said waving goodbye. ‘Gods, Mosi is going to kill me.’ He thought as he rushed down the street.

Mosi was starting to pack the shop in for the day when Akari got to him.

-“Don’t close up Mosi!” He yelled from the corner of the street. The fat Kaleshy looked in his direction and kept packing. He had a long messy beard and his clothes were stained from the flower. Although he was twice Emile’s size, you could clearly see the resemblance between father and son.

-“You’re late Akari! There’s no more bread for you.” He had the face of a disappointed parent. “I can’t keep my shop open overtime every day for you. You’ve got to start learning that there are consequences to your actions.”

-“But I’m only five minutes late, you still haven’t packed in completely. Common I can see you didn’t sell all the bread.” Akari tried to negotiate with the large baker. “If I don’t have the bread when I get back, mom’s not going to feed me for a month.”

-“Well that’s the hole you dug for yourself Akari. Seriously people expect things from you Akari, you can’t keep messing around for the rest of your life.” Mosi voice turned stern, but as he turned to face the boy he could see Akari’s expression darken. “Look,” he said putting a hand on Akari’s shoulder, “I know it’s a lot of pressure, but everyone just wants you to be the best you, you can be.” He gave a big smile.

-“And who’s going to tell me who that is?” Akari’s face was still gloomy.

-“Oh dear.” Mosi sat down on a stool right next to the bakery entrence. “Look Akari, it takes people years to learn who they are and who they want to be. I don’t know if your dad ever really knew.” Akari suddenly raised his head. “When I was leaving home, to try and see if I baking is what I wanted to do, no one in my family showed up. I sat next to the city gates alone, waiting for the caravan to the next town. The only person that came to see me off was your dad. I’ll never forget what he said to me that day: ‘Before a fruit ripens, before it even blooms, a beautiful flower has to grow in its place.’ That was what swayed me to go and see the world, and you know what I learned?” Mosi looked down at the youth now sitting on the ground in front of him, with a tier in his eye. “I learned how to make this bread.” He pulled out a huge loaf of dark crusted bread with sunflower seeds on it. He handed the loaf to Akari and took two copper pieces from him. “Now help me get this table inside.” He stood up and helped Akari on to his feet. They got the table into the shop and Mosi locked up for the day.

-“Mosi. Thank you.” Akari said, as they were walking back to the center square and main street of the sector. “I don’t remember much of what my father tried to teach me. I was a stubborn and I didn’t listen much. Now all I have of him are these little stories that people tell me.” He sank into himself a little bit.

-“Your dad was a great man kid. But he wasn’t what we needed. He wasn’t the type of leader to make a big change, you know? He never even took his own advice, he stayed here trying to make everyone feel like they belong. The fact of the matter is, we don’t belong. We’ve been relegated to a part of the city they deemed unfit for their own. We’re outsiders in our own home. That has to change.” Mosi’s gaze wondered of. He looked concerned, less confident than usual. He turned his head back to Akari with a big smile, “But that’s not for you to worry about right now. Right now we need to…”

He stopped in the middle of his sentence. His eye firmly fixed on something behind Akari. His smile turned into an expression of terror. As Akari turned around, he saw two guards standing in front of the tailor stand, where Emile and his mother were seemingly being questioned. Mosi started running towards them not paying attention to Akari anymore. Akari ran after him, he started having flashes of the time they came for his father. ‘What is their problem? Why can’t they just leave us alone?’ He wondered as both he and Mosi ran up to the stand.

-“What’s the meaning of this!?” Mosi yelled. Dozens of people around them were staring at the scene unfold. “What do you vultures want now?”

-“This does not concern you citizen.” One of guards turned around. It was Garai, he used to bully Emile when they were kids. He was one of the rare kids in the sector that wasn’t Kaleshy. He and Akari used to fight every day. Garai hated the Kalashtar, Akari always thought that it was because he needed to see someone as beneath him. “Go back to your home.”

-“Doesn’t concern me?! You know those are my wife and son! What’s the problem this time? Is the fabric they’re selling not soft enough for your pale ass?” A hushed giggle spread through the crowd.

-“As a matter of fact, your wife’s permit for this stand is out of date.” The other guard turned. He was much older than Garai, he looked measured, with wide cheek bones and a lordly demeanor. “We need to take her in and fine her accordingly.” His voice was snooty and he spoke with an upper class accent.

-“That’s the same reason you gave two weeks ago.” Mosi growled. His teeth were clenched and his face was red.

-“There are new regulations.” The snooty guard said, putting a hand on the hilt of his sword.

-“I don’t care about your regulations.”

-“Oh, but you should, if you want to keep living in this city, that is. Honestly you Kalashtar are so ungrateful. The emperor graciously lets you stay in this city and you can’t even follow proper stand regulations. There really is no help for you rotten redeyes.” The smirk on his face widened looking around at the crowd who were too scared to even approach. He seemed very pleased with himself turning around to face Mosi. Right as he did he was caught by a fist the size of his face. As Mosi’s giant paw connected with his nose breaking it and knocking him on to the ground.

The entire square went silent. Akari was frozen in shock, he didn’t know what to do. The snooty guard sat up clutching his nose, blood running through his fingers. His eyes widened.

-“What are you just standing there for do something!” He yelled at Garai, who stood bewildered at what had occurred. Garai turned to Mosi. The giant baker was just standing there with an expression of anger and acceptance. He seemed ready to weather whatever came next.

Garai took his sword out, and hit Mosi with the hilt knocking him to his knees. Garai then started kicking the old man in the stomach, forcing him onto the ground, and yelling frantically. No matter how hard he kicked Mosi’s expression didn’t change, which made the young guard very mad. Akari could see the faces of the people in the crowd change. Emile’s face hit him particularly hard. He looked just like Akari felt that day, when they took his father away. Finally fed up with just watching he stepped forward.

-“Stop!” Mosi cried out. Garai hesitated and turned his head to see Akari’s fist stopped just short of his face.

-“How do you expect me to just stand by and watch this again?” Akari cried out on the verge of tears. “Didn’t you say we needed a change?”

-“Akari…” Mosi’s voice shook a bit, “You’re just a flower bud right now little one. Don’t throw away your chance to bloom!” The fat baker said shooting a big smile at Akari, who couldn’t hold back the tears.

At that moment everything stopped. Time stood still, as Akari heard the sound of metal piercing flesh. A stream of crimson flowed from Mosi’s body. The baker’s face turned pale. His head fell hitting the flour, with a loud thud.

-“Father!” Emile screamed as his mother tried to hold him back.

-“What was that about a flower bud. Honestly, it’s true what they say. People do tend to ramble in the face of death.” The snooty guard acknowledged, pulling his sword out of Mosi’s back. “It was good you stopped when you did young man. Otherwise you might have ended up like that old fool.” He kept talking, but Akari couldn’t hear him anymore. He stood for moment facing the ground, then raised his head with a snap. Both guards jumped back. Akari’s eyes were glowing with a golden color. He felt a rage he had never felt before. Garai took one step in Akari’s direction, when all of a sudden two giant spectral arms appeared floating over Akari’s head. They fizzled with golden light, covered in sapphire rings and broken chains.

-“What in the stars is that!?” The snooty guard let out a terrified shriek. “Rookie go get him!” He screamed at Garai, who just stood there bemused by the picture forming in front of him. He took another step forward. In the same instant the right arm swung in wide ark blasting Garai into a fruit stand two meters away. Akari didn’t even look at him, his glowing gaze was set on the man who murdered his friend. The snooty guard turned to run, but the left hand extended, garbing him in one swift motion.

-“Let go of me you dirty redeye!” A terror filled squeal flew out of the coward’s mouth. The right hand grabbed him by the throat. The guard started to struggle, suspended half a meter of the ground. He started to thrash about and wheeze. Then the left hand also caught his neck squeezing even tighter. His face started turning blue.

‘Good! Suffer!’ Akari thought. The sky started darkening around him again, only he wasn’t in the throne room this time. Dead bodies started to appear around him. He was standing on one of the battle fields he saw. His vision started flashing between the real world and the hallucinations. He squeezed harder and harder and with every flash, he could see more vividly, right in front of him, a new body.

-“I don’t want this!” He shouted still squeezing.

-“What do you want!?” He heard the same voice from the reflection ask.

-“Akari! Let go!” A women’s voice cried out from the crowd. The hallucinations and the arms disappeared as suddenly as they appeared. The guard now blue in the face fell down. Unconscious, but still breathing. Akari looked at him in horror realizing what he had almost done. He felt a smack on the back of his head.

-“Are you crazy?! I send you out to get bread and this happens!” His mother’s stern voice rang through the entire square. “Do you have any idea..?” She stopped abruptly seeing Akari’s face. Tears rushed down from his eyes to meet the snot dripping from his nose.

-“I’m sovvy mum! I couldn’t pvotect Mosi! I couldn’t do anything! I was useless again!” Akari shouted through the tears. His mother scowl turned into a saddened frown.

-“It’s going to be ok sweetie!” She embraced him tightly. “Mama’s here.” She looked around. “Two knocked out guards, plenty of witnesses. Come on! We need to get you out of here!” She whisked him away onto the main corridor heading to their house. The last picture Akari saw, was Emile and his mother standing over Mosi’s lifeless body, looking lost.

Akari and his mother ran into the house.

-“Go pack your things, I’ll get Mona ready and pack you some food.” His mother was frantically running around the house, grabbing the saddle and darting of to the back yard.

-“Where are we going mom? Why am I packing?”

-“Are you kidding? A Kaleshy laying hands on a guard, let alone almost chocking the life out of him! They’ll come for you. You need to get out of the city as soon as possible.”

-“You’re coming with me mom, right?” Akari asked. The middle aged woman stepped into the house again. She was sweating, and there was noticeable worry on her face. Akari hadn’t seen her like this, maybe ever. “Mom, you don’t expect me to leave you here! If they come for me and only find you..., well they’ll do something horrible.”

-“I can handle them Akari, now go and pack your things.” Her stern voice had a little more softness to it, and yet she sounded urgent. The look on her face was begging him to go.

-“Mom I can’t. I can’t leave you here alone.”

-“Listen to me! You need to go alone, you need to find more of us, but more importantly you need to become a leader Akari. You’re never going to be able to do that with me there, we both know that. I’ll be ok, I’ll keep an eye on everyone while you’re gone. But you need to promise me one thing. Promise me, you’ll come back.”

Tears started rolling down Akari’s face again. He had never cried this much in one day up until then.

-“I promise, mom! I’ll come back and I’ll change everything just you wait!” His voice shivered and broke, but the resolution of his words was not lost. He raised his head to see his mother smiling tearfully at him.

-“Go pack.” She whispered tenderly, pushing him away toward his room.

Akari packed his books, his clothes and a little piece of parchment that had Emile and he painted on it. It was a birthday gift, Emile made specially for him. He stopped for a second thinking of Emile and his mother. ‘Is it really ok to leave.’

-“Hurry they’ll be here any minute!” Akari ran down the stairs with his backpack on his shoulders. “Here.” His mother handed him a satchel. “It’s a bit of food money and other essentials like bandages.” She gave him a big hug. “Don’t get into fights young man, or I’ll come find you!”

-“You realize that’s just going to make me want to get into more fights right.” Akari smiled kissing his mother on the temple. “I never thought I’d be leaving so suddenly.”

-“Leaving is never easy, that’s why it’s important you come back.” She straightened his shirt, and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “Now get on Mona and don’t stop until you’re out of the desert.” She pushed him out into the back yard, where the saddled steed was waiting. Akari put his hand on her snout, then jumped up onto her back.

He took one last look at his mother, the house he grew up in and his street, and took of motioning Mona into a gallop. As he rode through the town, people turned their heads.

-“Where is he going?”

-“Is he leaving us?”

-“What are we going to do now?”

Murmurs in the crowd quickly passed him by. He could feel it again. The enormous weight pushing him down, almost slowing Mona’s run. Everything started catching up with him. He hadn’t had time to process anything that was happening. He felt alone and scared, but most of all tiered and confused. Mona burst through the outer fence of the city that separated the Kaleshtar sector from the desert. The sand stone around him turned into dunes. Nothing but desert for miles. Mona kept running, but Akari’s head started to fall. Everything had gotten to him, and with no proper coverage from the blazing red afternoon sun, he soon passed out.

Akari opened his eyes. He was lying in bed with two Kaleshy women, one on each side. He got nervous and got up out of the bed. He was in a massive bedroom. The bed the girls were sleeping on was elevated a few steps of the ground. It was night time, and the light of the moon shun through the velvet curtains draping the room in dim purple light. This room had paintings on the walls as well. A brave emperor standing atop a concurred general with rays of light emerging from his crown, bringing light to the entire empire that was painted below him. The curtains, through which the room was illuminated, led to a balcony that had a perfect overview of the entire city. Akari stepped out, leaning on the golden railing of the balcony. He’d never seen the stars shine as bright as they did here. ‘But where am I?’ He thought looking over the city. Shock overcame him as he realized: ‘Those sand stone streets, the gigantic outer walls, even the pattern the buildings are arranged in! There is no way! Is this Luxor?’

-“Of course it is. Where else would we be?” A familiar deep commanding voice sounded of from inside. Akari turned around seeing a rather large mirror inside. He walked back in, stepping right in front of it.

-“It’s you again.” The man in the mirror was massive. Around two meters tall, with bulging muscles and tattoos that spread from his torso all the way to his fingers. He was naked and without his head gear. Finally Akari could see his entire face unimpeded. His square rugged chin was covered by a nicely trimmed white beard that contrasted nicely with the dark color of his skin. His nose was big but in a way that made him look more regal and godly. He had a scar over his right eye, that’s something Akari had never noticed before. His white hair was curly and extended down to his shoulders, which was the one thing they had in common. Despite it all you could see the resemblance if they stood side by side, but then again that could never happen.

-“Yes it’s me. Did you expect someone else? How many ancestors do you have visiting you?” The entire room echoed when he spoke. The women in the bed didn’t seem to notice, they just kept sleeping without even moving.

-“It’s just you. I just hadn’t realized I was asleep.”

-“Just me?!” Loud laughter almost shook the room. “You’re really ungrateful Akari, you know that? The greatest emperor of our line is here to guide you in these tough times and you don’t even seem to care.”

-“I don’t need anyone to guide me. I’ll be fine on my own.” He turned away from the mirror.

-“Is that so. Then why don’t you just take back our empire? If it’s that simple, if you don’t need anyone, just go and do it.”

-“I can’t!”

-“Oh! Why is that?”

-“What am I supposed to do just gather up the Kalashtar and start a war.” Akari angrily turned to face the reflection again. “How would I even do that?! Should I even do it!? I don’t know! I’m not the great Ozymandias, conqueror of the world! I can’t just march thousands of people to their death for no reason!”

-“I’m hearing a lot of I can’t, and I don’t know. I taught you said you didn’t need anyone.”

-“Well I certainly don’t need a war monger who forced people to fight and die for no reason. All you ever do is show me your great conquests and battles. What can you teach me?!”

-“War monger!?” It seemed as if the whole world was shaking as Ozymandias roared. “You insolent, ungrateful, weak…” He stopped himself and breathed in a deep breath. The reflection rubbed its nose. “I’m trying to impart to you the greatness of our people. I’m trying to show you what the Kalashtar can accomplish when they’re fighting for someone or something they believe in. You can’t keep moping around, hiding in corners your entire life. At some point you’re going to have to take charge of your people. That’s what it means to be a ruler.” Akari stood in front of the mirror without a word. He had never spoken to Ozymandias this much before. “The people that followed me weren’t forced to do so. They chose to follow me, because I showed them a picture of a better future. Of an empire greater than even the gods themselves. They followed me because they believed. You need to make the people believe in you.”

-“And lead them to their death?” Akari sounded sad and defeated. He felt as though he was being forced to accept that the world was worse than he imagined it.

-“Those who die will be immortalized in spirit. It’s the price we pay for fighting for the things we believe in.”

-“Except we’re not the ones paying it.” Akari raised his head facing the mirror head on. “I won’t do it. I won’t put our people through a war, after everything they’ve suffered through. I will find another way to make a place where all Kaleshy can live in peace. A new Kaleshtar empire, built of the hopes and dreams of its people, rather than their blood!” The mirror shook as Akari exclaimed his impassioned cry.

For a moment there was silence. As though Akari had snuffed out all of the doubts in his mind. Then a gaudy laughter filled the room.

-“Ahh, to be young and idealistic again. How you do it is your choice, but I’m glad you’re finally starting to show some resolve, flower bud!” Ozymandias’s voice boomed and caused the ceiling to collapse.

-“Wait! What did you call me?! How do you know about that?!” Akari yelled as the room fell apart around him, and he was swallowed by darkness again.

He woke up. Mona was strolling along slowly and carefully, as not to drop him from her back. Night had fallen, but it wasn’t that cold. Akari looked around. They weren’t in the desert anymore. Lush green fields full of white and purple flowers that bloomed at night spread around them like an endless sea of color. Akari had never seen anything like this. He hadn’t yet seen wildflowers before. The breeze blew through his hair as it carried petals from a nearby cherry tree. Akari pulled on the rains, stopping Mona to get off. He took his shoes off, and started walking barefoot to the cherry tree. The tree stood atop a small incline a short distance away. He was mesmerized by the sight of all this green. He had spent his whole life in the desert, only ever seeing anything grow in artificial gardens made with some sort of magic.

Suddenly he heard the sound of hooves galloping in the distance. ‘Did they follow me here?’ He taught as he turned quickly to Mona. Mona stood in place where he had dismounted her. Her main glistering in the light of the moon. She stared longingly into the distance. When Akari turned to see what she was looking at, he saw a herd of wild horses running in the distance. As Mona stared at the majestic stallions galloping across the open grass fields, Akari walked up. He took off her saddle and her rains. Mona looked at him with visible confusion.

-“I know you want to protect me girl. But you have to be free to bloom too.” He said petting her snout. ”Go now! Be free. I’ll be alright.” He hugged her face tightly. Mona looked at him with indecision. She gave him a big lick on the face.

-“Eww!” Akari yelled. “Go before I get you back for that.”

Mona ran off after the herd, looking back as she ran all the way there. Akari stood alone, looking as the horses dashed away into the night. He picked his stuff up and walked to the cherry tree. He laid down under the rose colored treetop, looking at the stars. ‘Huh what do you know?’ He thought to himself, ‘The stars here are pretty bright too’. He opened the satchel his mother had packed for him. He started rummaging around to find something to eat. An unexpected metallic sensation intrigued him. He grabbed on to a small round object pulling it out of the bag. It was a ring, made of pure gold. A face Akari had seen before perturbed out of the band at the front.

‘The ring of Ozymandias, the only family heirloom not stolen from us. It’s supposed to be passed down the generations from emperor to emperor. Mom put this in my bag?’ He raised the ring to inspect it more closely. The light of the moon and the stars reflected of it with a golden color that made the ring glow like some sort of halo. ‘I guess it’s mine by right.’ The face on the ring stared at him with expecting eyes, as if it was itching to adorn his finger. He stood up and put on the ring.

-“On this day, I swear to this ring, to my mother, to Mosi, to Ozymandias and all my people, I will return one day! And when I do, I will bring change with me, the likes of which the world has never seen before!” Akari declared to the world as the rays of the first morning sun burst over the horizon and the flower buds on the tree above him started to bloom.

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