Paths

Prologue

"Get him out of here, we can't lose another!"

Cy was being carried away by his fathers strong arms, he didn't know what was happening around him other than people screaming and running. 

He could feel heat surrounding him as sand hit him in his eyes as he opened them. The constant bumping and people running made it hard to see in any direction, but when he got far enough and the people moved away, Cy could see what had happened to his town.

His once-known home was torched in a scorching ball of bright, yellow fire. 

Cy, only being a few months old didn't know much about the world around him at the time, but when he heard the first warning bell ring, around a months ago, everyone had to run inside their small, pitiful houses to wait out danger. 

But this was different. 

This time nobody was hiding, nobody could hide. 

Five figures stood in front of the ball of fire that was his home. As the figures walked off and the flames roared and danced, Cy watched it until he couldn't see it any longer. 

As Cy was taken away, he watched the sky and didn't even notice when they got on horseback.

Cy closed his eyes and dreamt of the heat and flames that engulfed his house, his home.

"Did you get the one?" someone said to his left, "the youngest one."

~

Cy yawned and opened his eyes to be greeted by a warm orange canopy above him. His father rested him, head-first, onto a neatly folded, stained sheet.

"Yes," his father replied, "he's alive, thankfully, Seeva."

Cy's father kissed his head, whispered something and left him in the tent.

Cy looked at the strange woman who his father was talking to. She was a young woman with a sword in hand, probably one of the guards who had helped the fleeing people escape death.

She crouched down to look at him, only to have her eyes close.

Her hair was a calming brown, and skin the color of the sand. 

The woman dropped the sword, and held one of Cy's small hands with her own. He looked up. 

She was crying now, the tears falling from her face and onto the dry sand, making it wet and sticky. 

"I know you don't understand me yet," she said, sobbing, then took a deep breath, "but you have an amazing future ahead."

Cy patted her head with the unoccupied hand and the woman smiled, her tears still falling down her face. 

"Good luck little one," she said, putting her hands under Cy's, "you're gonna change the future."

And she left, leaving Cy alone for a wild sleep of dangers and mysteries.