Heroes Beneath The Surface

Prologue

four years since i've written slugterra content jfc LETS GO

~~~

"It's okay, I've got you, okay? You're safe, don't cry!"

He's scared but he can't be. If he's scared, he'll start crying. If he starts crying, he'll stop running. And if he stops running, the bad men will get him. And if they get him, she will be alone, or they'll get her too. He can't let fear stop him, not now not now not now not ever. He can't let himself stop, not now, not ever. Mommy said so, after all, so he can't stop running, he won't stop running, don't stop running don't stop running don't stop running-

"Find them and don't stop running, we'll join you once we deal with these bad guys, yeah?"

Why were your hands wet, mommy? Why were they red?

Mommy is a liar.

He wipes his tears off his cheek with a shoulder before he holds the bundle closer to him, holding her head towards him as she runs. Why did the bad men come? How did she do it? Mommy says it should have taken years. But Mommy's dead now. She said Daddy would find them too, but Daddy never left Mommy alone. So Daddy's dead too.

He looks down at his sister, barely three months old, bundled tightly in his arms.

She's his only family now.

He wants to shut his ears. He wants to hide. He wants to scream. He wants to cry. But all he does is run, further away from his home, further away from all he ever knew. His playmate, the girl he was playing with, gasped between her sobs as she followed behind him, crying for her mother. Tears rolled down her eyes too, but she didn't stop, like him. Gasped. He learned a new word in school today, from his playmate, the one with the red hair and the eyes that looked like leaves. He was telling Mommy all about it.

The screaming started before he could finish.

Now Mommy will never know what gasped means.

He runs and runs and runs and everything is darker and he can hear the bad men coming, so run he does, his little legs burning and his lungs catching on fire: or was it the other way around, with the fire from his home catching onto his ankles? He loses his playmate somewhere in the dark, dense forest, but he has no more tears to shed for her because Mommy will never hear his story about the girl with the red hair and leaf eyes and Daddy will never meet them in the forest because they're both dead, they're both gone, she is all you have left and if you stop the bad men will get her-

He trips over a rock and he tries to twist his body, falling on his side instead of his front, he hears the bad men coming, screaming and kicking and holding her close when he feels something try to grab him. But the bad men's orders turn into screams of terror when shadowy whispers emerge from nowhere, and when he stops kicking, he looks up to see the Shadow Clan warding off the guards, the creatures Mommy told him about.

They're good, right? They'll keep us safe! Mommy always said so! We don't have to worry anymore-

Wait, what are you doing, why are you taking her from me you're leaving her there NO I NEED TO KEEP HER SAFE, YOU CAN'T LEAVE HER THERE SHE'ILL DIE LIKE MOMMY AND DADDY DON'T LEAVE HER THERE NO-

~~~

They say the death of a hero is honourable, but it's a story told and retold.

The flames rage on all sides, the bodies of their neighbours and fellow people painting the streets redder than his anger. The hero's bandoleer was almost empty: most of what remained of their arsenal protecting whoever escaped or dead, underneath the rubble. The hero, their own powers will weaken as the blood spewed from their wounds, which was just as fatal as he predicted.