I started this story back in 2012 as part of Nanowrimo and it has evolved to a world of it’s own. Basically I am giving the serialized novel a chance as it might help me not be controlled by deadlines or word counts or even plots. I can write endless stories about this universe. There is no schedule. I write as I please. I just want to enjoy the journey. And I hope you enjoy it to.

The rough draft is always published in Medium first. I will verify those drafts and publish them here a week after. Expected schedule is twice per month.

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What happens when all you know vanishes in an instant?

“Follow me… to the end of time.”

Your dreams, your hopes, your ambitions.

The letter you just wrote to your mother, apologizing for how rude the voice in your head was. Though she understands it is not your fault, you still want to apologize. But the chance of forgiveness is gone.

The chance for everything.

A tree on the far horizon.

“Come to us…”

“Who are you?”

“…to where you belong.”

“Where?”

“Out of the mind of time.”

Fire blazed. He held the honey colored baby in his arm. The rags he put around her soaking up the blood of her mother. Her screams silenced by the wreaking of the walls in flames. With the baby covered he ran away from the falling house. The mother was left behind. She did not feel pain. There was no need to look back. The baby cried in his arms. It was difficult to cover her from the smoke without suffocating her. But the baby was strong, he could tell, she would survive. She had to. The child, result of the tragedy, was safe away from the burning house. Orphaned by fire.

He did not meant to kill them. He did not intend to start a fire. But his instincts were to protect himself from Gallia’s attacks. Humans who would otherwise slaughter his kind. Who in fact, did. First it was her father. He had no combat skills. A human could not harm a mernian just as easy. Yet, he launched towards him ready to kill. In a defensive move he killed the human in an instant.

Little did he know, inside, the woman began to labor. Horror filled his mind with the realization of his actions. He just wanted to survive. It was not his fault. He broke in a thousand pieces to the sound of screaming children behind him. He did not know. He did not know a candle was ablaze for the child’s birth. He did not know the siblings played in a different room while their sister was born. He did not know it would have been better to die by the father’s hands.

This one thing he still saved. But for how long? How would she survive? Certainly she will die by sunrise. Anyone he could approach with the baby would attempt to kill him along with her. Not caring whether she was human or one of them. For his appearance in Gallia was different from that in his own world. A side effect of traveling to a lower dimension through the gates.

The rest of his people laid scattered, lifeless, all over the forest. The humans who hunted them were still searching for more and they would soon be alerted by the baby’s cry that here he was, probably the last of his kind.

He noticed a glimpse of gold among the trees. It was her! It had to be! The gatekeeper silently travelled around the forest, contemplating the horrors of her deeds. He tried to follow her amongst the darkness as the baby whimpered, tired of crying.

“Junnah!” He shouted in a whisper. The golden glow ceased to move. The pale figure turned around. Terrified eyes meeting terrified eyes.

Though nobody forced her, she was the cause of it all. Regret screamed through her now red eyes. The brightness of the blue pupils fading in sadness and guilt.

“Oono? Thanks the gates! What… what is this?”

Oono stared at the baby who slowly faded to sleep. “She’s still alive, but not for long. Not like this. Not thanks to what I did. Please let us return, please open the gate!”

“It’s pointless while we do not know where the rest are. If I open it once I won’t be able to do so again until the next moon. By then it will be too late for them.” Voices began to approach with sparks of lanterns noticeable in the darkness. “We need to hide for now.”

Before her hand reached to Oono, her eyes filled with fright and pain. Oono barely held on to the baby as Junnah collapsed on him. Silver liquid spilled from her back onto him. The baby began to scream, filling the voice of the night.

“NO!” Oono screamed in horror.

“Leave her,” Junnah commanded in a weak voice. “Save yourself…” she extended her hand behind him, “…go!”

He did not understood. But the heat behind him grabbed his attention. A small gate was formed from Junnah’s remaining strength. He could not think. He was too afraid to do so. He glimpsed at the baby in a silent apology for his cowardliness. He jumped into the portal, vanishing from the human world of Gallia.

The baby cried. Red stained her blanket. The cries faded as the blood flowed from her small body. Junnah stared at her only salvation while her own life poured out of the arrow wound. Her hand reached the baby girl with honey skin. By the time the attackers reached them they would only notice a silver gleam, like mist, vanishing t and a baby girl crying alone in the cold spring night.