Chapter Text
. . . . .
The hills weren't far from his home but they seemed an eternity away as he dashed over rocks and weaved around trees. The bright light began enveloping the sky and he could hear screams erupting from the streets as he closed the distance.
Soon the white of the object became too much for his eye and he had to stop running. He couldn't see. The small child huddled himself under an overhanging rock and covered his face with his arms.
There was silence.
And then there was pain.
Blixer wailed as the white light burned deeply into his skin and made his head ache. He squeezed his eye shut tighter as he pushed himself further into the feigned safety of the overhang in an attempt to shield himself from the pain. The young sphere clamped his tiny hands over his flattened ears as he screamed through the deafening grating buzzing that passed through in waves.
It hurt.
It hurt so much.
He desperately wanted it to stop.
And then it did.
Slowly, the small child relaxed, gasping for the air he used up while crying. The light dimmed drastically and he dared to open his watery eye. His vision was met with the lovely soft grass, he enjoyed rolling around in.
But then he looked up.
There was so much fire...
Blixer pulled his hands from his ears which opened them up to the screaming of the people he knew and the roar of the flames encompassing his town of wood and stone. The shooting star hung above the settlement like a bad omen, crackling with powers it shouldn't be allowed to posses.
The child didn't realize he'd run down the hills until his feet touched ash-covered cobblestone. The child panted softly as he climbed over the gate and walked into his burning town.
Looking around, every single shape he could see was standing completely still. They let the fires rage on around them as they watched their livelihoods become whittled down to mere embers in the inferno. The shouting the sphere could hear was emanating from further towards the centre square.
Cautiously, Blixer approached a still shape, lightly touching their arm. The blue arrowhead turned slowly and peered down at him. Their blank eyes were filled with a blinding white, the white of the Star. They reached for the small sphere, who backed off in fear and began running towards home.
Violently rubbing his eyes, he quickly made his way through the smoky streets. The way back to his parents was memorized. He bumped into a few dazed shapes as he ran, clambering over scattered rubble and shielding his face from clawing wisps of flame. The disturbed dulled villagers stared at his small retreating form before following slowly.
Blixer rounded the corner to his house and sprinted up the alley swallowed by fire. He ignored the way the heat made him sweat and he ignored the way it singed his clothes. The smell of burning plants coloured the air as black smoke arose from his house.
His mother's flower garden...
"Mama?"
No answer.
He ran up to the front of the house.
The building's walls had caved in and the structure groaned as the flames gnawed through the wood. Rubble was everywhere. Blixer's eye filled with tears and he ran back around the house to the back door. He moved quickly through the flames, coming around to his mother's ruined garden.
Quickly enough, however, to miss the shards of two pink spheres scattered in amongst the rubble and flames.
"Mama? Papa? Av'li?"
".... ... .......... . ..... ..... .. ...... ..blix...?"
Blixer's ears stood up and he looked around.
"A-Av'li?"
"..... Blix, I c-can't-....... I can't get up!......."
The small child coughed before pulling up his shirt to cover his mouth.
"Av'li?! Where are you?!!"
"..... d-down-..."
Blixer scurried along the left side of the house until he saw splatters of rosy sticky liquid. The small body they belonged to was trapped within the broken cobblestone. Avali's legs were caught under the side of the kitchen, her yellow dress stained with blood and soot. She was barely conscious.
"AV'LI!"
She blearily blinked her eye open from where it had been shut and coughed softly. Blixer flopped to his knees beside her and she grabbed his small hands with one of her own. Fat tears poured down his cheeks.
"A-Av'li, I'm sorry! I didn' mean to say all those things to you! I'm sorry!"
"It's ok, Blix... I know... Don't cry..."
The building moaned a second time, the fires spreading around to where Avali was trapped. The smallest sphere pulled his hands away from hers and moved over to the kitchen wall. He wiped his eye but it didn't stop the tears from coming back.
He knelt down and stuck his stubby fingers under the brick.
"Blixer?... What are you doing?..."
She coughed heavily as the boy began pulling on the wall.
"No!... B-Blix, you'll hurt-!"
Avali broke down, hacking her lungs up and wheezing. This spurred her little brother on. He pulled harder, his muscles straining to try and move the wall enough for his sister to get out.
"Blixer stop-! Please!"
The youngest child didn't listen. He pulled as hard as he could but the wall wouldn't budge. Meanwhile, Avali watched as white eyes shone through the smoke and the house cried out for what she knew was the third and final time.
She had to do something quickly.
"Blixer... I need you to do something for me..."
No response.
"You have to go-"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Blixer, I've been crippled! My legs are gone! Even if you could get me out, I'd slow you down! You don't have time-"
"I said, I'm not LEAVING YOU!!"
Pink energy sparked from Blixer's small form and he summoned his larger arms for the very first time. The claws hooked under the wall and hauled it up. Dust and smoke poured out from under the house. The wood wheezed as the small child slowly lifted a good half a ton of brickwork and plumbing.
Avali released a proud sob.
"B-Blix-"
"Can you move?!"
Avali began to slowly pull her arms into position to pull herself from the bloodied rubble when the building moved.
And so did she.
"Blixer. I need you to remember that I love you. Never give up, ok?!"
"AVALI?!?!?!"
Blixer landed on his backside, away from the tumbling building as it collapsed.
And there she was... smiling
Bloodied, dirty and bruised. Her dress ripped, her ears chipped, her legs lost in a disgusting heap of marred flesh and shattered stone.
And she was smiling.
Just for him.
One last time.
"AVALI!!"
The rubble and flames engulfed her form and the black smoke rose up from the garden. The shining white eyes were blocked from few as the way through was blocked off.
Sound was void
Smell was void
Taste was void
Feeling itself was void.
"Av'li?"
Blixer looked down at the pendant she'd shoved into his arms at the last second.
"A-Av'li? Th-This isn't funny anymore."
He moved over to the pile of rubble.
"You know I d-don' like it when you play pretend..."
Blixer reached out for the rose coloured hand beneath the brick, plaster and metal.
"Y-You go me real good this time..."
He wrapped his tiny fingers around her fingers and he swore he could feel her squeezing back. Swollen drops of water fell from his eye, splashing on the cobblestone.
"STOP IT! AVALI! JUST GET UP! JUST GET UP, PLEASE AVALI!"
She vanished from his hold, her body dissipating into nothing.
"Av'li?"
...
"Av'li please..."
...
"Don't go..."
...
"Come back, Av'li."
...
Two strong arms wrapped around his squirming waist and he was placed on the person's shoulder.
It wasn't his father.
There was a woman there asking if he was hurt as he kicked and screamed.
It wasn't his mother.
There were lots of shapes with them heading up the hills and up to the East Volcano but he didn't know anybody.
He didn't like it.
"AV'LI!!"
.
.
.
Blixer’s eye blinked open as his chest constricted. He sat up slowly, wiping the cold sweat and tears off of his face. Faintly, his wheezing breaths registered in the back of his mind-
”Are you alright, Your Highness?”
Legacy...
.
Wait-
It was at this point that he realized that he wasn’t on the hills like he was when he fell asleep.