--Auric is his name. He is not a person of great importance, to himself or the world. This is something that is going to change. Soon.--
It's was so dark. He couldn't see a thing, yet his eyes searched in the darkness. If there is one thing he should be able to see, it was what lurked in the darkness around him. Shadows shifted near him, whispers came from them, promises and threats. He turned his head one way, then the other. He searched around for someone. He was lost, alone, and scared. He glared at the shadows, starting to come into better focus now, he looked with as much hate as he could. He took a breath of the air, it burned like ice in his lungs.
"I hate you. I hate you so much."
The whispers continued, not seeming to notice him, yet address him. Then rage and fear began to pile up inside of him. Horrors began to show themselves from behind the shadows, if only for a glimpse. Beasts, insects, or things not recognizable flashed across his vision, much larger and twisted things followed. They began to move closer to him, he drew back.
"St-stay away from me!"
One came very close to him, reaching for his face with some sort of weapon or grooved, insect limb. Auric took several steps back to avoid contact, but backed right into another. He turned to face the new threat. It was still cloaked in smoky shade, but what he could make out, the extended yellow claws, glowing white eyes, the end of a snarling snout, terrified him beyond words. The new beast was nearly twice his size, and it was advancing. He fell back, landing on his rear. The multiple nightmares were coming closer, time was almost out. He threw his hands up to protect his face, some of the creatures were moving in for the kill--
"Wake up, AURIC!"
He jumped up into a sitting position in the simple bed. His breathing was coming in ragged gasps, his body wet from sweat. He threw the wool blanket off of himself, and drew his knees up to his body. He was all still there, completely unharmed. He gave a breathy sigh of relief. He stayed in that position for a few moments, trembling, when another yell blew through the silence.
"Auric, it's time to get up, we have work to do!"
Auric calmed his breathing, then called back,
"I'm awake, I'm coming."
When silence followed, he looked down, disgusted at himself. He removed his night clothes. He walked to his small chest across the room from his bed, he grabbed one of the outfits, his favorite actually, a simple, black wool shirt and dark grey leggings that were once black also. The sizes were a little off, he was small for his age, yet his facial features suggested he was older than he was. He looked at his bed, ruined through the night by his thrashing, contemplating on whether or not to fix it, he discarded the idea. He grabbed the handle of the thin, wooden door to his room, lifting slightly. The hinges were aged to the point of sagging and scraping the flooor as it was yanked open.
Sudden bright light flooded the room as he opened the door. The large window gave off enough light to fill the entire upstairs hallway, even before the sun rose. Auric was allowed to cover his own, small window with his extra blanket if he chose, but he got into trouble whenever he tried the same stunt with an other window in the building. He descended the stairs, the light from the window behind him now, even though it was before dawn, cast his shadow down the stairs also, reminding him of his horrid nightmares. He closed his eyes for a moment, not opening them until he reached the bottom of the stairs, where his shadow was now normal size.
He turned towards the kitchen/eating area. Though condensed down to a single room, it was very large. It held a table, easily large enough to seat twenty people as well as a very large oven, an equally large fireplace, and huge cabinets able to hold tons of eating ware, as well as any other cooking necessities.
Though all the chairs were wood, the one at the end of the table was more ornately carved, an elder lady sat in it. She turned the side of her head towards him as he entered the room, and spoke to him.
"Auric, I need you to go to the market with me today. I'm making something special, and I need to get some things."
Auric sighed, the old woman was always sending whatever extra money they had gathering ingredients or useless baubles that were 'needed' to celebrate some ancient and forgotten holiday or other. He learned to live with it. Still, he did not like to go out, unless it rained. The staring only stopped in the rain, where everyone had hoods over their heads, everyone looked down, and there were so few people. He sat next to her, looking down at his hands clenched on the table in front of him.
"Do I have to?"
She suddenly swung her eyes on him, like a hawk finding a meal, the foggy gray orbs pierced his soul, though he knew she couldn't really see him. She looked like she was going to get on him big time, but decided it wasn't in the 'spirit of the holiday',
"Yes"
She said it so simply, that it terrified Auric, she was going to get him later, he knew it. He immediately jumped up from the table to start his early morning chores, the elder taking only a few moments to begin as well. She was old, and she was blind, but that didn't seem to stop her, or even slow her down, Auric used to entertain himself by thinking she was a witch and could be in lots of places at once, that's how she worked so much. Sometimes he still thought it.
After burning through the chore list, even faster than usual today, the old woman came to Auric, as if knowing beforehand which room he was in. He was sitting in a wooden rocking chair, sweating from working so fast, yet still being beaten by the elder's speed. It frustrated him.
"Come on, lets go, we don't have all day!"
The energy coming off the excited woman made Auric's brooding stronger. Of course they had all day, they don't do anything but clean everyday. There was nothing else TO do. He sighed, but followed the woman back to the kitchen. She was digging through all of the different cabinets and drawers looking for something. The only thing she ever loses, actually.
Auric sighed again, walking past the frantic woman, and grabbed the red and black cloths off a counter in the corner of the room. He gave her's to her, she tied it around her head in a flash, the vertical eye stylized on the cloth showing she was blind. He covered his own eyes, he wasn't blind, just.... unsettling to look at. That's why he hated the city, they would look at him with pity for being blind, but if he didn't wear the cloth, it was disgust he saw in their eyes. And that made it so much worse.
He tried to tie the cloth, blindfold style, around his own head, but couldn't quite get the knot right. After the fourth try, he asked the old lady in a strained voice,
"Could you help me..."
The woman was there in a flash, tying the proper knot, making sure it wasn't too tight, and straightening it over his eyes. Her hands were soft but quick and soon they both had their "un-sight-ly" eyes covered. She grabbed a wicker basket from the corner of the room and they left the house. Though not as good as the old caretaker, Auric had learned the general layout of the nearby area, and could use his ears to substitute for lost sight. It had taken some unfortunate years to hone this skill.
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