Run

Auria finds herself figuring out her new powers while escaping from danger.

In the aftermath of the destruction, Auria felt calm. There was an auspiciousness to her serenity.

“What did I just do?” she asked herself in a hushed tone.

There were bits of rubble everywhere, covered in dust. She didn’t know she had this power inside her. This immense strength to destroy things came out of nowhere. To her, there was never any way out of the prison. It all seemed impossible.

But now that the dust has settled, she could see the path her fury had laid waste to. There was no more prison. There was nothing else keeping her from being free. When she had felt especially trapped, she dreamed about what the outside world was like. But not like this. She had no words to describe what she had just done.

Auria began to accept that she just broke out of prison. She was lying in the vast freedom of her own doing. The shackles around her wrists had broken apart during the explosion. Although she was worried about the ramifications, there was no more wall standing between her and her destiny.

She began to run.

The shoes on her feet were not designed for this adventure. All she knew was that she had to keep going. Keep breathing. There was no going back. Her power made sure of that. She didn’t even know what to call it because it was so weird-

“Hey!” shouted the prisoner from the cell next to hers. Auria didn’t know their name, but remembered they would clang the metal handcuffs alongside the bars of the jail cell every day. She had nicknamed them “The Clanger”. The prison cells were plain with nothing in them but cold concrete walls. Prisoners had their wrists held together with metal handcuffs, and The Clanger really knew how to use them.

Auria saw them running towards her. With a friendly smile, The Clanger asked, “I didn’t know you could do that! What do you call that power?”

Auria stopped running. She stumbled over her words until a few tumbled out, “Uh, yeah, I actually don’t know what happened back there. I really have to be going.”

“You mean you had this in you this whole time and never knew? That’s amazing! I wonder how-”

Auria interrupted them, “LOOK! I’m really sorry to break up the fangasm but I need to get away from here. They could be looking.” She huffed as the sweat clung further to her clothes.

The Clanger stood in silent disappointment.

“Okay, fine. I’m sorry,” she said. Her tone softened as she continued, “I just had a really weird experience that I’m trying to process. I was in my cell, just imagining the prison exploding and then, well, boom. I really didn’t think anything would happen. Happy?” she asked in a saucily, sarcastic tone.

The Clanger brightened up and smiled. They asked, “So, you really have no idea who you are, do you?

Auria became actually interested for the first time in this conversation. She asked, “No….why?”

The Clanger was buzzing with glee. They replied, “You’re a Magician! My sibling was one. Anything he wanted to happen, he got. All he had to do was imagine it and there it was, in reality. There are so few of you, I bet that’s why you’re locked away, huh?”

Auria became more confused. All of this was sounding a bit like bullshit. Secret powers? She wondered how long The Clanger was cooped up in their box.

Hmmm. Auria had a persistent suspicion that wouldn’t go away.

When she tried to think of life before prison, she couldn’t. She KNEW she had been a child, experienced love and heartbreak, gotten a job. That old chestnut rang true but for some reason she couldn’t remember any details. It felt like her soul had been scrubbed. It made her feel sick.

Suddenly, loud sirens pierced her ears. She had more questions but they needed to keep moving.

“We need to hide, because this right here,” she said as she gestured wildly to the destroyed prison,”is madness and I need answers.”

The Clanger nodded in agreement as they both ran towards a small shack about half a mile away. The humid summer day made the run stickier and heavier. Eventually they made it to the moss-eaten wood shack abandoned on the side of the road. As they climbed through the window on the side, they fell into the soft, wooden floor. They crouched. And they began.

The Clanger spoke carefully, “Well, all I remember is that I’m a Sage. Someone who studies everything to find the truth, or I did. Then all of the sudden about 3 years ago I woke up here and couldn’t remember anything I had learned. That’s when I knew something was up. We are meant to be more than this, not hiding who we really are. I have dreamed of escaping this prison since that day my memories were gone. But I would never act on it. I didn’t have that courage.”

It had all made sense to Auria at that moment. A chill ran down her spine. Flashes of images where she learned spells started flooding back to her. She had a power that scared whoever put her in this prison. And she was ready to fight to get her life back.

“Well, you’ve gone and escaped now thanks to me. I want to find out who put us here and then create whatever the fuck we want. Are you coming with me?” she asked, electrified with new confidence.

The Clanger perked their head up and replied, “I do. Let’s do it.”

Auria smiled for the first time in a long time. “Well, you’re already an escaped fugitive, so the hard part is over. Let’s go.”