Author's Preface
Dian's eyes fluttered open as he awoke to the sounds of a boy examining his body. He propped his head up slightly as he examined the red haired boy.
His heart started beating faster.
The curly hair converging to black. The pale olive-brown skin. The golden eyes that shone one his. And that red scarf draped around his neck.
Dian's gaze fell on the red scarf, unable to hear the questions the boy was asking him. A deep ominous shudder ran down his entire body as he felt cold. Something terrible was in that scarf.
"Hey! Your alive aren't you?...Not a ghost are you?"
Naren took a step back as he made that last comment. Sticking his leg in to see if Dian would move.
Dian snapped out of his trance, now seeing the boy in full. He was certain.
"Oh honey! You're hair, those golden eyes... You're imaculate!"
Naren stared in confusion not knowing what to say.
Dian took a step forward despite the terrible pain in his left hand. Staggering to his feet as he closed the distance, putting his shades back over his eyes.
"Boy, you must tell me you're name!"
"Uhh, Naren..."
"Naren boy. What a beautiful name! I'm even more sure of it now...COUGH"
Dian hurled over mid sentence, coughing up blood into his hand. The only one he had left. He shook it off, careful not to get it on his clothes. Though, they were already dirty beyond repair.
Rising back up, Dian picked up where he left off:
"Honey I'm certain...Me and you are soulmates!"
Naren took a step back, chuckling to himself.
"Hey, you're scaring me man."
Dian closed the distance even more. Now examining the scarf around his neck. Touching it despite the feeling of dread it exuded.
"And this scarf...How...How great!"
Naren's personality took a full turn as he heard those words. He didn't know why. He was actually questioning it himself. Why he was so adamant on wearing this dull scarf. But the moment he heard the compliment he couldn't help but smile.
"Yeah you think so?"
"Oh yes. It's cut. It's length. Color. Everything is great."
"You get it man. You get it!"
A sudden surge of pain shot through Dian's severed arm. Sitting down on the cluttered alley floor to catch a break, his heartbeat began weaning.
He spoke, his breath exhausted already before the first word:
"Naren. I have to warn you...There is an ugly beast..."
"Oh yeah the Werewolf...Hold on that's not you is it?"
Dian shook his head.
"How do you...?"
Naren scoffed as he scowled.
"That damn princess sent me off looking for humans like I'm some servant...But here I am doing it. It's a great mystery don't you think? Figuring out this mysterious murderer."
Dian stared at the boy with a look of confusion.
'Great mystery? This boy...what kind of thought process is that?'
Dian coughed once more, squeezing his chest.
"Naren...I don't think you understand how terrible this is...We will all die soon."
Naren clicked his tongue.
"Why the hell's everyone saying that. What do you people know that I don't?"
Just then Naren's ears perked up. A deep gutteral growl flowed through the air. As a thick mist surrounded them.
CRASH
Naren winced holding both his ears while falling to the ground. His eyes shut instinctively as a feeling of dread vibrated through his bones with a second growl.
When he opened his eyes, two beading yellow eyes stared at him from the misty darkness. A bestial glare aimed at him.
Staggering to his feet while opening his eyes, he couldn't make out anything a foot in front of him. Everything was consumed by the grey mist. However...One thing peered through it, looking directly at Naren.
Two beading yellow eyes, hungry with a bestial glare.
Taking a step back, Naren's eyes grew wide in horror. Something completely unlike him. He froze up. Something about this beast had a tight grip over his heart.
A sudden smack to Naren's head pulled to the ground as an arm of exposed muscle swept at where he was a moment ago.
The princess pulled him to the side as another pair of claws swiped.
"Get ahold of yourself!"
The princess held Naren's shoulders shaking him out of his trance as she continued yelling:
"Two! Cendrine! Damnit you said that would work!"
Naren's golden eyes weaned as he opened his mouth.
In the next moment, a sharp claw pierced them both. Running straight through both their abdomens, like a tree trunk jutting out.
Blood spurt from Naren's mouth as his eyelids grew weaker.
"Cendrine...?"
Yuna grit her teeth as her pitch-black eyes stared at the body of Naren being drained of it's life. Her voice hoarse as she croaked.
"What did...I see in you...I'm...Yuna...Remember it..."
Then everything shot to black. A deep darkness that played around and caressed Naren's soul. A nightmare in a dream.
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Naren's eyes shot open. Sweat beading down his neck. He was breathing heavy without even realizing. His chest beating hard. It hurt. A deep blunt pain quietly pulsating in his heart.
Then, noises began flooding his ears one by one. Until it was flooded.
Naren squinted as a stray ray of sun struck him from the oceanic sky. He used his hand to cover it before looking around.
A vast city atop the plateau of a grand pale white mountain. It's side completely carved out into a half dome that hung over the city.
Houses and buildings clinging to the very edges of the dome, building higher rather than lateral. Narrow alleys jump roped between them, barely wide enough for two to pass. Spiraling and curving into a maze of branches.
dozens of people pushed and shoved past Naren. All of them wearing a mask of some woodland animal.
'What am I doing here?'
Naren stumbled around, his head beating like crazy trying to figure out what was going on. Why exactly was he here? What was he doing before he came?
Then from the breif holes left behind my crowds of people, Naren's gaze caught onto something.
A hunched over figure, with six arms. Something like a human, but not quite...It was a statue.
He tilted his head breifly, looking at the eight eyes of the statue.
'Oh right...'
That's right, he was here for a reason. How could he be so silly. He was in Lastlight, how could he have forgotten. It's like he was taught since he was little. There was only one reason for him to be here in Lastlight. For him to be alive.
He was here to hail Atlas.
But a nagging sensation cut deep in his heart. His voice coming out on it's own, surprising even him.
"Who's Yuna?"