Children Of The Ether I

Boro

"Bo?" His mother's call was soft and loving as he hid amongst the snow-lined tree trunks.

"Where are you, my little bore?" His mother pounced a nearby tree only to be met with untouched snow. Boro peaked from behind his trunk at his mother, who stood momentarily, seemingly listening to the wind. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back, allowing individual flakes to find their way to her dark cheeks before gently melting under her heat. Boro knew she was listening to the Ether in the wind and snow. It whispered to him, often revealing secrets and stories of the past.

  The entire forest spoke to him, and where the Ether was heaviest, it sometimes showed him visions. They lived alone in the woods surrounding the village. His father being an outsider meant he would usually be exiled or worse for even finding the town hidden in snowfall. Still, because Boro was a weilayah or miracle, he was permitted to live with his wife in the forest. Boro's father was also loved by the Ether, though unable to manifest it in elemental form, his body turned it to strength. His father would tell him stories of his people, the Children Of The Ether, born deep within the outer wilds. The Ether told Boro that he also was a child of Ether.

  Boro peaks again at his mother. He could see her breath appear and dissipate into the mid-day light. He watched as the wind suddenly picked up, and with a gust, his mother was gone. She had disappeared with the blast of snow, and before he could react, hands gripped him by the shoulder, hoisting him up.

"Found you, my little bore!" His mother sang, cradling him in her arms. The smell of wolfsbane and lavender filled his nose as he was swaddled in his mother's cloak. They wrestled for a bit, his mother tickling him mercilessly until they both froze like deer alerted to something in the distance.

"Father is close. He searches for us." A mischievous smile wormed onto his mother's face. He knew what came next. He clung tight to his mother's cloak.

"Hold tight, my little bore. We become the wind." As if bending to his mother, the wind begins to whip and pull snow around them. He always loved becoming one with the snow and moving with the wind. He felt his body grow light as the snow filled his muscles with energy. Soon, he and his mother were gusts of snow and wind tearing through the forest, less like stunned dear from earlier and more like snow WildaBeast closing in on a hunt.

A man stood quietly in a clearing near a frozen lake. He listened intently to the movement of the forest. All seemed peaceful, but before long, the wind started to grow harsher and whip snow and slurry with great intensity. He turned to what seemed like a beast of a storm bearing down on him. He stood calmly against the raging torrent of wind and snow that rushed over him, circling in. The snow engulfed and dissipated, leaving him underneath a clean hill of white. From the top, he burst along with Boro and his mother.

"Erilys, you know we are not to become one with the Ether, especially not out in the open." Boro's mother looked around, prompting him to do the same.

"I see no one near my dear Asher." Replied Erilys, which prompted a stern look from Asher, followed by rapid eye movements that implied, "Not in front of Boro.".

"I should learn about the Ether and how to manifest it. I am a weilayah am I not?" Boro interjected into the conversation. His father thought he and his mother were just having. 

"Of course you are, Bo, but when a weilayah is born, they-

-they must wait until they become of age to learn how to harness their Ether abilities." Erilys interrupted, shooting a quick look at Asher, whose words caught in his throat. Boro again felt left out, but besides Grampa and the vendors, no one in the village spoke to Boro, another part of being a Weilayah. That word frustrated Boro, causing resentment to build up in his chest. He felt like for being a Miracle, he was treated more like a burden.

"Am I not supposed to be here...?" Boro asked, staring deep into the pure white snow, tears threatening his eyes. Dread gripped both Asher and Erilys intensely.

"Of course! My Bore, you are The Weilayah of the entire village!" Erilys cried.

"Then why am I the only one!? And why can no one speak to me!? And we don't live in the village with Grandpa and everyone else!" Boro yelled. The wind and snow piggybacking off his emotions.

"There were ones before you, Boro. You know this." Asher adds a defeatedness underlining his tone.

"I do know this, and where are they again?" Boro's response made his parents recoil; shame and regret lined their faces. This made Boro's heart sink. The wind grew wilder, and the snowfall heavier. The sky darkened, matching the pit growing in Boro's chest. Concerned flooded Asher.

"Boro, you need to calm down." Asher said, keeping his eye on his son Erilys. On the other hand, she looked more at the sky and wind.

"No! I won't. We aren't treated as part of the village, and I know Grandpa had to step down as an elder because I was born!" The sky roared, causing Erilys and Asher to flinch. It seemed the storm was raging alongside young Boro's heart.

"Son, you must control yourself!" Asher screamed over the wind. Boro, unbothered by the storm, finally realized the change taking place around him. As awareness of the storm grew, so did the calmer Boro become until the whirlwind beginning above them had ceased.

"See, Boro, this is why you must be better prepared to interact with the Ether." His father's tone was loving and hopeful. Asher pulls his son in close and hugs him tightly.

"It wasn't just him..." Erilys finally spoke, breaking her silence, eyes on the treeline across the lake. Asher followed her gaze to plumes of smoke rising to the sky.

"That's the direction of the village..." Asher's grip grew tighter on Boro, who squirmed, trying to see what his parents were witnessing. A wall of flame higher than the treeline appeared, drenching Erilys and Asher in terror.

"Erilys." Asher called to his wife, but her eyes stayed glued to the flame consuming her home.

"ERILYS!" Finally, Ashers' voice reached her. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at her partner in his.

"You must take him, and I will find your father and sister. The Ether spoke clear of this day." Asher said with a resolute tone.

"Boro, you will go with your mother, and you will make sure she stays safe and remember, no matter how cruel life can become, the Ether truly loves you." Asher looked his son in the face, trying to memorize every inch. Boro, confused by the situation, looked at his mother.

"I thought we'd have more time... why couldn't we have more time?" Erilys begged no one.

"The time we had, no matter how short, will be worth millions of lifetimes." Asher says, pushing Boro into Erily's arms. The screams echoed from beyond the lake as the flames grew closer. Villagers who had caught flame emerged from the tree lines, running from hunters spewing torrents of fire.

"RUN!" Asher demanded as he charged the invaders.

"Father!" Boro called out. He tried to chase after his father, but his mother held him close. He struggled as the snow began to lift and swirl them. He watched his father charge a beast he'd never seen, spewing flames that heat he felt from behind the wall of snow until it blurred and disappeared. Once the snow calmed, he was no longer in the forest, he remembered, and the snow fell slower, and the wind held a noticeable warmth.

"Take us back..." Boro said, unable to face his mother.

"We can't... I can't-

-TAKE US BACK!" Erilys tense at her son's rage as it heats her own.

"DON'T YOU THINK I WOULD!" She screams at him, immediate shame gripping her after. Boro, unsure what to do now, sobs helplessly. His mother, not sure where to go from here, embraces her son, joining him in his weeping.