The Altar
A long time passed before Vide made it to the lake. There was no sign of any eyes in the sky by this point and everything had gone back to normal. Everything but Vide. He walked to the edge of the lake. He was supposed to be here with his brother and his family, but he was the only one who made it. He looked at it with mixed feelings and a complicated expression.
Originally, he wanted to show this to his family, this was a brightly shining jewel in the otherwise dark and frightening Enti forest. Unfortunately, none of them had ever gotten to see it. He shook away my hesitation and jumped in. The water stung his eyes as he opened them to navigate. He saw a patch in the water that looked different from everywhere else. Vide swam over to it and rose to the surface. The inside of the cavern looked identical to the one he had seen weeks ago. He pulled himself onto the rocks and shook his head. Vide walked further into the cave until he found a secluded corner and sat down. The tears had never stopped since he dropped his brother. Eventually, though, the tears dried up, and were replaced with rage.
The anger he felt towards Kaya could never be put into words. Not one word had enough hate, enough venom, nor enough resentment to describe how he felt right now. Besides anger, though, Vide felt helpless. His father was the strongest person he knew, and yet, the man with red eyes dealt with him effortlessly. Vide was at the brink, all of the grief, exhaustion, and humiliation that had built up inside of him begged to escape, the pressure in his chest was like a red-hot core of molten fury. The pressure built up until he could no longer contain it. He let out a guttural scream and punched the stone wall. The physical pain was intense, but the emotional pain he felt lessened. It felt good to finally have an outlet for his feelings. Currently there was nothing he could do to Kaya, but that would change, he swore it.
The desire, the hunger for power he felt after seeing the eyes was growing. It was reaching an obsessive level. That was all he could think about. He needed to be strong. He wanted revenge on the man with red eyes!
As if in response to his obsession, a strange feeling rose up in Vide. It felt as if his very soul was being pulled somewhere. He heard a sound in his head, like whispers. The whispers spoke in a language no mortal could ever comprehend, but Vide knew what they meant. They promised him power. The whispers led him to the other side of the cavern. They were suspicious, but the promise of power and the tug on his soul caused him to throw caution to the wind. Just to be sure he called out, "Is anyone there?"
There was no response. He was surprised at how hoarse his voice had gotten. He realized he hadn't talked at all today. The only sounds he had made were grunts of exertion and screams of terror.
Vide reached the other side of the cavern, where the whispers were the strongest. The earth began to shake and a crack appeared in the wall. He jumped back expecting the ceiling to collapse and bury him, but nothing happened. The crack in the wall opened to reveal a pathway of stone steps that led down into the ground. It was lit by torches that glowed with a ghostly green fire. They released no heat and caused no smoke. I hesitated walking down, but the pull and the screaming from my instincts overwhelmed my sense of caution. Despite being underground the air in the pathway was fresh, it reminded him of times long ago when he would spend the day relaxing in a field with his family. Back when the Pyreans were not persecuted and were able to live freely and coexist with humans. They were treated as demi-humans due to their close resemblance with humans, the only thing that revealed their inhuman nature was the horn that poked through their forehead and the black scales that ran down their arms and hands.
He had heard from his parents that a decree from the King of the Western Heaven was issued and was to be carried out immediately. The Pyrean race was to have their demi-human status revoked, and to be officially treated as monsters. The natural rules of monster hunting would then take place. You could kill a Pyrean and trade in their horns as proof of subjugation in exchange for money. Pyreans hardly had any inherent advantages over humans, aside from slightly above average strength. Any normal human who regularly worked out would be able to handle an adult Pyrean without the use of weapons, If weapons were added to the equation then a Pyrean would stand no chance. Overnight thousands of Pyreans were slaughtered, killed by people they thought to be their friends, their coworkers, and their neighbors. Hundreds more were forced to live in the woods far away from society, like Vide's family. They were hunted down nearly to extinction, just so people could make a few extra coins. As far as Vide knew he and his family were the last living Pyreans. Vide had been a young child then so he had few memories of the time before the decree, but Arlan was ten years old when the decree was sent. They would often stay up late together with Arlan telling Vide stories of human society.
Thinking about Arlan and what he had done to him to stay alive made Vide feel sick. The look of betrayal he had seen on Arlan's face before he heard that sickening pop caused unwanted memories to appear in Vide's mind. He thought back to when they were younger and would play together out in the forests. When Vide had fallen and hurt his knee and Arlan had to carry him back to their families cabin. Every memory that passed through his mind caused his stomach to churn and heart to hurt. If he had eaten anything in the last few hours he was positive he would have thrown it up by now. He felt sick at what he had to do, but he didn't regret it, he couldn't afford to regret it. It was either him or both of them, and he chose to save himself. Arlan was bound to die, he never would have been able to treat his injuries, it was a necessary sacrifice, or at least, that's what Vide told himself. He tried to push it out of his mind, but Arlan's face kept popping up. He decided to focus on the stairs.
The steps seemed unending, Vide walked for what felt like hours, but at the same time he felt that it could have only been a few minutes. The green fire was disorienting and he lost focus several times from just glancing at it. Eventually, though, Vide reached another cavern. This one was many times larger than the one that had the entrance to the stone steps. There was an enormous stone stele in the center of the cavern along with an altar in front of it. Squinting, Vide tried to make out what the stele said, but he was too far away to read it.
Vide made his way across the massive cavern. On the way he noticed things that he hadn't seen from the entrance. In many places on the floor there were patches of red. It looked like blood that had dried up long ago. On the left and right sides of the cavern were various plants. They looked like normal plants, however they were the color of blood. They looked similar to the splotches on the floor. The blood red color of the plants and the splotched of blood on the floor were likely from the same source. He walked over and picked up a blood red flower. As soon as he picked it, the blood in his hand began to lurch toward the flower, as if it were drawn to it. His hand started to warm up to an uncomfortable level, and he quickly dropped it. Vide was sure if there was flesh instead of skin on his hands, they would have been bright red. He walked away from the blood red plants and over towards the stele and altar.