On a warm sunny day, August was sitting on the wooden verandah turning the pages of a history book.
He focused on the letters and then quickly jumped to another page as his eyes began to hurt.
"Then… the de..mon king Za… Zare…oth?" He let out a sigh. "Ah.. why's this so difficult?"
After trying so many times for now he turned his gaze away from the difficult letters and leaned on the floor.
It took no time for the sight of white clouds to gather his attention. For some time he watched as those irregular shapes drifted aimlessly in the clear blue sky—simultaneously his eyelids grew heavier.
He was sitting on the verandah by himself because his mother had other matters to attend to today.
Not too far from there, in the living room she was teaching two children of the town about the way of essence and elements.
August watched the sight from the corner of his eye and made an annoying face.
However, that wasn't enough to keep his attention in one place.
Somewhere between his sight and the clouds a tiny creature has suddenly appeared, he only realised now.
Quickly he stood upright. It was a small, insect-like creature with two colourful wings.
The tiny creature flapped its wings and sat on a leaf nearby. For some reason August felt drawn to its beauty. Normally, he would've already diverted his attention to a different sight.
As it sensed him approaching the tiny creature flew up in the air and started to move as though trying to escape.
August, being a five year old, followed it behind.
He slid past his mother's attention and managed to sneak out of his house.
Just when he thought he had lost that beautiful tiny creature, it appeared before him in the very next moment.
August, without caring for anything else, continued to follow after the creature.
It deliberately avoided people and made sure no one noticed August running through the streets.
And also August never realised that he had arrived so close to the town's barrier. The rocky cliff of the west gate was before him. The golden sparks were to be seen in the transparent air occasionally.
As August was about to cross the protected vicinity of the barrier, mist started to appear in his wake but then it vanished like abandoning the idea of protecting August.
Passing through the golden sparks effortlessly, he stepped on the other side of the barrier and started to realise his mistake at the very moment.
As soon as the echoes came to know that the unclaimed vessel had come out of the protection they spared no time to overwhelm him.
His vision went blurry, sharp voices pierced his eardrums and his head started to hurt.
"AAAHH…" August screamed in extreme pain as for the second time in his life he was exposed to the superior elements of existence.
His heart started to beat faster, his breathing ragged. Veins bulged on his forehead and the blood vessels felt as if they were about to burst open.
BAM—
He fell down on the ground covering his ears in desperation—simultaneously a thin trail of blood seeped down through his ears.
The echoes weighed on him heavily, trying to make him go insane, trying to make him submit to their will.
However, the feeling of pain was all but familiar to him. Through all of his agony, if he had learnt something then it was endurance.
August gritted his teeth, refusing to fall unconscious.
The creature that had lured him out however, this wasn't its doing at all. It had yet to act.
Opening its mouth and revealing its deadly fangs, the tiny creature charged at August, aiming to take his life and presenting his blood as a trophy to the queen.
Before it could've reached the boy however, mist swirled, taking a humanoid shape.
A woman with pearl white hair appeared suddenly and crushed the creature in her palm,
"Know your boundaries, pest."
In the next moment, the noise of various wings flapping together was to be heard.
The woman turned to the sound only to see a horde of these creatures was approaching from the sky.
Only these weren't tiny like the one she had crushed.
"So you came with a plan after all," she heaved a sigh. Killing these creatures wasn't a difficult task for her, but to do that while protecting August from the superior echoes was nearly impossible.
The echoes were the wills of elements—the forces that had shaped the world. Not something someone like her would've had control over, on the contrary.
However, she did her best. The mist gathered around painfully groaning August like a shield.
A blurry figure of a woman appeared in his teary sight,
"Hey kid, try to hold on will you?"
As the strain of echoes on his mind grew somewhat lighter, he gasped for more air. He wasn't completely out of danger but the pain now was somewhat …bearable.
The woman watched as August's pale face started to show some response, she realised he would not fall unconscious at least for the moment.
Giving her some time to deal with the incoming threat.
The group of creatures flew towards her spreading into every possible direction. It didn't take long for them to surround August and the woman from all sides.
"Oh you're confident in numbers huh?"
She waved her hand in the air as the mist responded to her command. It swirled and concentrated. Hiding August completely from the sight.
Suddenly the air grew colder and the womanly figure dissolved into mist charging towards the group of creatures in the sky.
A wraith of mist moved through the numbers taking life out of many of them.
Killing many on the spot before moving on to the next.
However, there were too many of them who had managed to sneak past her into the mist one by one.
And sooner or later it was evident that they would definitely manage to find August, since her attention was diverted.
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