the-daemons-huntress

[the-daemons-huntress]

dawn.

Spoilers alert!!

She didn’t know exactly what time it was when she arrived in Crown City: maybe it was about four a.m. or around that, but it was almost impossible to establish it.

It had been 10 years since the last time when Iris, looking up to the sky, had met the sun’s light; it seemed like it had been an eternity since prince Noctis was gone, such as his existence had been erased from the world. The dawn that woke up the girl in her house in Cape Caem every morning was gone too.

At the time she was only fifteen years old and she had never imagined a future where the darkness would take control of her life…and also the countless creatures which lived in the the darkness: her brother Gladio had always warned her about those monsters and their cruelty – he called them “daemons” – and she had always been afraid of them.

Iris had never thought that she had to earn a living by killing those beasts that filled her worst nightmares.

«In your opinion, are they still alive?» Talcott’s voice broke the silence among the group. Iris, wearing her huntress clothes, turned towards the boy with white hair and shook her head. «I don’t know…I hope so.» overcome by her thoughts she sighed and then a hand was placed on her shoulder, pressing it the right amount to encourage her.

«Come on, little girl, you know those guys. They had been through much worse.» Cindy, Hammerhead’s mechanic, spoke to her with one of her usual cheerful smiles, but this time her carefreeness seemed to be stopped by fear. How could they blame her? Even Iris, that had fought the most ferocious and dangerous animals with no hesitations, felt like a child that’s afraid of the monster under her bed.

«It’s not over yet.» Cor reassured the two women, indicating an exact point in front of him with the right hand; Iris followed his arm’s direction with her gaze and she saw the royal palace in the background, the road opposite to it destroyed and scattered of junks and other signs of the catastrophe.

Her stomach started to hurt and she hoped with all herself that her brother and his friends were safe.

«They’re gonna be okay. Yeah, they’re gonna be okay… They’ll always be okay…» she started to whisper with gritted teeth, to reassure herself. After all, what could happen to them? Nothing, right? They were too strong and expert to be overpowered by some daemons.

«Let’s go. If we want to avoid any unpleasant encounter, we must get moving quickly.»

Iris looked at the royal palace again: their destination. She sighed. «Okay…let’s go.»

 It took a lot more than planned to get to the large open space in front of the high building that overlooked the entire city: the road which permitted to arrive to it was completely infested by all kind of monsters – Iris had never seen so many monsters all together – and, seeing that the huntress and Cor took two undefended and inexpert people with them, they couldn’t risk and hinder them to do everything in a hurry.

Unfortunately Iris regretted it very soon.

The sight in front of her eyes was frightful: remains of dead daemons were accumulated one on the other, in an aggregation of pointed teeth and strange parts of their bodies. The darkness seemed like to be evaporating from those corpses, rising up to the dark sky without lights.

“Should be any minute now,” she thought. “The dawn is close.”

The four guys stayed on guard to avoid any survivor monsters from the battle, but when Iris arrived at the centre of the square she felt like the world had collapsed and crumbled under her feet, swallowing her in an endless abyss.

Near the girl, Talcott started to shudder like a leaf in the wind; Cindy brought an hand to her mouth and she pulled back, too shocked to say a word. Iris saw Cindy’s eyes filled up with tears and she felt sorry for her: after all, Cindy had lost her parents when she had been a baby, Cid was near to death and…and then this one. Her family had fallen apart like a vase thrown to the floor.

On the palace’s stairs there were two bodies in two puddles of scarlet crisp blood. When she came near them and she identified her best friends, the nausea became stronger than before and the taste of bile crowded her mouth; in fact, she had to swallow many time to “calm down”.

Slowly, step by step, she arrived at the first body: Ignis lied on the floor in a strange position, such as his body was ripped apart and then they filled the pieces in; the scars on his eyes had been opened again and they were bleeding, while his dark glasses were near his head, with the broken lenses and the setting dent.

Iris saw another body a few feet away and there was Cindy near it; she came near the blonde girl and she knelt down, leaned a hand on her shoulder shook by sobs.

Prompto was in a bad shape too: his freckled face was riddled, full of bruises and deep scratches; the lower lip was broken and he had the mouth full of blood. But the rest of his body was intact, except for some injuries on his skin.

Suddenly Prompto moved: he desperately gasped for air, he started to cough blood and then he opened his beautiful sky blue eyes.

«For heaven’s sake, Prompto!» Cindy cried out, more shocked than before, picking up the guy’s body on herself to help him to breath better. «What happened?» Cor arrived, but Prompto’s attention was only on the woman who was holding him. «I’m…I’m sor-I’m sorry…»

«Sssh…it’ all right. We’re here.»

«Cindy…»

Prompto’s cheeks were wet from the tears and his voice trembled for the effort of breathing. Iris would have done something to help him, but she was paralyzed. She had never been in this kind of situation.

«Noctis is…he’s…» he tried to sit down, but the forces suddenly abandoned him. He fell again on the floor, moaning for the pain and grinding his teeth; he was refraining from screaming. His breath started to become heavier but, when it was about to running low totally, he pointed at the end of the stairs…and his chest stopped moving.

Cindy began to weep holding the lifeless body of the young man and just then Iris’ gaze stopped on the king’s guard’s back: a very deep injury, maybe caused by the sword of one of those giant daemons, was on his backbone, which a thick rivulet of blood was flowing from.

“I can’t believe it…”

Prompto was the youngest one of the three guys and he was dead, killed by the wickedness which had invaded the entire world. She saw how desperate things were becoming and the knowledge that she couldn’t do anything, that she had to stay on her seat and wait, was consuming her slowly.

At that point the concern hit her like a speeding car: where was Gladio? What happened to her brother? Was he still alive?

She had to find an answer to her questions immediately. She stood up, leaving the mechanic alone with her pain, and she looked around to find Gladio: she was sure that he would show himself as always, holding her with his strong arms and reassuring her.

«Iris.»

«I-Iris…» Cor and Talcott’s voices interrupted the river of thoughts that had been flowing her mind. She jumped. «Come…come here.»

The two men were bent on the point indicated by Prompto and they were watching something. The fear of discovering what was that “something” filled her heart. She couldn’t walk well, but she dragged herself with heavy steps; she was breathing with difficulty, like someone had put a boulder on her chest.

When she saw her brother’s body in that state, she fell on her knees, the lips and the eyes gaping for the shock: his face was fine – except for the two scars on the eye and on the forehead, his distinctive characteristics – but his big sword had been thrusted with an unprecedented violence in his abdomen. She couldn’t believe that the daemons could reach these levels of sadism.

The view of his brother in that state was too much for Iris: she turned around and she threw up all the bile that, since she had arrived at the city, had started to come up through her throat.

The huntress fell on the ground, while the tears began to glide on her cheeks and the sobs began to shake her body; she hid her face with the hands and she commanded the two men with a: «Leave the sword.»

«Iris...»

«LEAVE THE SWORD.» she cried out with all the voice that was in her body and she continued to scream even after, while Talcott enclosed her shoulders with an arm. But she pulled him away in a bad way. «Don’t touch me!»

«Talcott, go to Cindy.»

«But…»

«I said: go to Cindy.»

Iris followed Talcott with the gaze while he was moving and then she resumed to hide the face in her arms not to see Cor extracting the sword from Gladio’s lifeless body. The smell of blood arrived at her nostrils and she was tempted to throw up again, but she could refrain.

She’d often asked herself: “Will I survive alone?” but she had never believed that the answer would arrived so quickly. If only she’d known, she would have prepared herself… but what was she going to do without Gladio’s guide?

Who would tell her to follow her dreams without fear? Who would give her a kiss on her cheek every time they met? Who would give her Iris’ favourite flowers without fail? Who would teach her how to fight, but above all how to live?

The abyss that had swallowed her was already closing on her head, preventing her to see again the light…but in the end, what was the point of seeing the dawn without her brother?

Shattered, with her heart broken and the chest hurt, she dragged herself to her brother’s corpse until she stood above him. He had a peaceful expression, like he had finally found his peace. Perhaps dying wasn’t so bad, after all. What’s better than dying with your best friends, fighting for what you believe in?

«Gladdy…» she whispered, bowing her head until she rested the forehead on Gladio’s, while the tears glided on the man’s face. «Why…why did you leave me? I still need you.» the ribs hurt so bad, as if someone started to pounder her chest, and her sight became blurred for the ache.

«You’ve always said that I was the strongest and the bravest of the entire world, but…you know that I was like this just because you were close to me?» she sobbed, sitting down near his body and begin to brush his face with her fingers.

Gladio wasn’t dead, he couldn’t be. As long as Iris was alive, the memory of Gladiolus Amicitia would remain alive. Nobody would forget his and his friends’ sacrifice. The sacrifice of his brothers.

«What’s the point of seeing the dawn if you’re not with me? Who will make me laugh like when I was a baby? Who will carry me on his shoulder even if I’m too old? Who will intimidate and growl against every boy that approach me?» she cried, foundering her fingers into her brother’s long hair, moving some locks of hair from his dirty forehead. «Who will reassure me during a storm? Who will harbour me in his bed and who will hug me when I’m afraid? Who…who will make every day better than the others with a smile?» she gasped, hugging his body and holding it to her strongly.

But nobody could bring back her brother… not even the King of Lucis or the Oracle.

Iris looked at the sky and she saw it: the black of the night was abandoning the sky to make way for a warm yellow mixed with the orange and it would become the brightest sky blue that she had never seen before. She saw it, she saw the sun raising up over the royal palace and she understood that Noctis made it.

It was finally over.

But she didn’t smile. She wasn’t happy and she didn’t have the forces to be grateful.

The world had got its light back, but Iris’ had just lost it all.