Meant To Be

Chapter Eight

A much younger Hunter lay in bed, writhing in pain. At this time, she was maybe four or so years old. For several cycles now, she had been experiencing an awful pain in her stomach that caused her to be sick. She hadn't told No Significant Harassment yet, but she could hear the footsteps of one of his assistants coming towards the door to the room where she had her room set up. By this point, the great problem was still relevant and none of the ancients had yet ascended. Many of them still worked in service of the iterators. Hunter heard the door creek open and she tried to hide under a blanket in hopes that the ancient would think she was not in her nest. Unfortunately, her uncontrollable shaking gave her away and the blanket was lifted off of her. "Oh no..." the ancient said when she saw Hunter's state. "Rayoku, go tell No Significant Harassment that the pup is sick." Her apprentice ran off to fetch the iterator, their footsteps indicating how fast they were running.

"How long has this been going on for?" she demanded as Hunter began to cough violently. "About... four cycles...?" she managed to say between coughing fits. The person sighed and looked at her with disdain. She had never liked Hunter and was annoyed whenever No Significant Harassment gave her any task involving the child. "Why didn't you tell anyone? For the love of god, you need to say something when you're this sick!" Hunter tried to hide from the annoyed ancient among her blankets, retreating into their warm embrace. This is why I didn't say anything... Because it makes everyone angry. There was silence other than her struggling to breathe as they waited for Rayoku to return. "Urg, why is it always me who has to deal with you when you're sick? Someone else should take a turn for once..." Hunter felt guilty when she said that as if she was to blame for her current state. "I... I'm sorry..."

Soon, Rayoku returned with No Significant Harassment who ran straight to her side. "What's wrong?" He asked, picking her up and carrying her to his lab where he kept all his equipment. "It... it hurts. Why is this happening?" The iterator did not reply and instead began to check her heartbeat as well as handing her a small blue pill. He took a few scans as Hunter writhed in agony. She began to cry out in pain as she coughed up blue gunk, causing No Significant Harassment to stop everything and stare at her in shock. "The rot..." he said simply, shaking his head in defeat. "It wasn't meant to do this."

This chapter is a memory of when Hunter first discovered she had the rot. There will be lots of memory chapters. Cover art not by me.