Aeonia

Chapter One

Opening her eyes and squinting, the girl made out the faces of a boy and girl around 15. Her age. The girl had deeply tanned skin and black braided hair. Her eyes were a black so dark it was as if they held the night. The boy was different. He had startling emerald green eyes that stared down at her through the shaggy brown hair covering them.

"Jaspa, go get help. I'll stay with her," She heard the girl order the boy.

Footsteps rang in her ears, the sound making her head throb. All she could remember was a monstrous beast chasing her through the dense woods until she fell and hit her head on sharp rock. Remembering the monster injected adrenaline into her veins. The terror made her shoot her head up, but the ground swayed beneath her. The girl next to her slid a hand under her head and lowered it into a patch of soft grass to rest.

"Stay down. You've got a concussion and you're about to bleed to death if you don't get to help quickly." The young girl suggested softly, as if worried she would shatter like glass, "What's your name? Mine's Leilani."

It sounded like a flower.

"Aelia," She replied, closing her eyes as her blood began to pound in her ears.

"Ay-ell-ee-ah," Leilani repeated, closing her eyes and sounding out the pronunciation as if tasting the word itself on her tongue, "I was once told of a legend about a girl named Aelia," She whispered, "But it's unnecessary – no need to bother-"

Jaspa returned, gasping for air and notified Leilani that medical staff were coming to help get Aelia to safety. A tall man in around his late 20's ran in with a first-aid pack. He kneeled down with a needle and gave a small smile to Aelia. The doctor opened his mouth to say something, but she passed out before a word was said, her body slumping and eyes rolling into the back of her head.

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

A bright light shone into Aelia's eyes. She winced and tried to push it away, but her arms were too heavy. Blood pounded in her head with a loud throbbing sound which rang in her ears.

"You must have taken quite a fall for that concussion," A voice said from behind the torch.

They put it away and quickly left the room to get something. As her eyes came into focus, Aelia noted that everything in the room was white. The bed sheets the walls the tables and even her outfit. A flood of memories from earlier in the evening rushed into Aelia's mind. She roughly inhaled a stuttered breath and tried to understand what had happened to her, but the only thing she could focus on was her surroundings.

"I'm Doctor Finian Gordan. But you can call me Finian," The familiar man who had helped her in the forest told her as he came back from behind the screen.

He was startlingly tall, but muscular enough to have easily lifted Aelia and be the one who brought her here. The boy – Jaspa, did the girl say? – and Leilani were no longer with her, giving a sense of loneliness which for some reason disappointed Aelia.

"I've got your name Aelia, but I need your age and if you can remember; what happened to get you into that state in the woods."

Clenching and unclenching her jaw nervously, Aelia decided not to answer yet, but to ask a question of her own; "Will I have doctor-patient confidentiality?"

There was no way she would go back to the orphanage. Not after the way she had been treated. Not after all the nightmares and especially not after the others had disappeared. Even if after she was healed they forced her to go back, she would put up a fight and find another way to escape. But Aelia knew she needed to tell the doctor something.

"Of course," Finian replied, his deep blue eyes twinkling. He picked up what Aelia figured were some files and grabbed a pen to write notes.

"I'm 15, and I was running from my orphanage," She blurted out.

Great, so much for waiting to see if you could trust the guy, Aelia.

With a nod from Finian, she continued to speak, her voice starting to tremble with anxiety from oversharing.

"I'd made it a few miles into the forest until I heard this weird rustling coming from the bushes behind me. Some sort of animal jumped out at me. It had eyes as red as blood and it had tangles of fur and hair. It was hard to see it's exact colour because of the dark, but it was a brownish shade. It had long sharp claws, and it scratched my skin pretty deeply," Aelia searched her body only to find that the wounds had been healed. Looking up at Finian, she smiled gratefully and continued, "It was at least 1 and a half times my height and I'm like, 5 foot, 6! That beast could have simply picked me up and squashed me in it's claws!" She finished, shaking from the newfound panic that washed over her as she summarized her traumatic experience.

Finian's eyebrows were scrunched, as if he were deep in thought.

"I thought Perebus only chased beings of great light power..." He murmured.

Aelia twisted and gripped onto the white bedsheets beneath her, trying to breathe deeply to calm herself. The events she had witnessed and tried to escape from had been exhausting and completely distressing. Finian walked over to the side of her hospital bed and gripped her shoulder gently to show his support.

Another worry sent sparks of anxiety through her body.

"Will I go back to the orphanage?" Aelia asked, a frown on her face and tears welling in her eyes. "Please, I can't," She begged.

"I'm not the one to make that decision." Finian whispered, "Tomorrow we will find out more about your... situation. You've been through quite an ordeal this evening, Aelia. I suggest you take this medicine and sleep off the rest of your pain. It's Sunday tomorrow so we can check in on you again and get you settled before Monday. Everything is going to be alright." He reassured her as he handed Aelia the medicine.

It was a bright purple liquid in a small vial. The appearance was unusual, making Aelia cautious to drink it. Looking up at Finian, she raised an eyebrow, asking a silent question.

"It's a Regeneration Energizer. It will help you heal faster, as well as give you enough energy to not be tired tomorrow," He informed her.

After mouthing a silent, 'Oh,' Aelia downed the liquid in a single gulp. She sighed at the delicious grape flavour as it tingled as a flavour sensation on her tongue. The medicine must have been heavily drugged with sleeping medicine as well, as she immediately felt drowsy and longed for rest in the comfort of the surprisingly soft mattress. Her shock still lingered at the back of her mind, ready to re-enter her thoughts, but even the questions she had after the doctor's explanation left her confused departed her. As she snuggled into the blankets and dozed off, she heard Finian leave, whispering a few words.

"Get some sleep, Aelia. You'll need it."