The Beginning

Credits

The Carrivan

A piercing shriek rent the air and Shy'aroin winced. That was liable to happen. The grip tightened and Shy'aroin frowned, shutting his eyes and trying as hard as he possibly could to stop his 'blackness' from doing whatever it was doing to the girl who was shrieking.

Silence abruptly decended on the group, just the soft sound of the girl catching her breath could be heard. Then a soft, shaking voice demanded, "What is that?"

The soldier shook him when he didn't answer, "The Lady asked you a question, scum!"

"It's not his fault," a softer voice interjected. Shy'aroin looked up in surprise. Someone was standing up for him? "This kind of thing happens occassionally." The man knelt in front of Shy'aroin, and put his hand under his chin, trying to force Shy'aroin to look him in the eyes. Shy'aroin resisted as much as he could, but the greater force of the elder man prevailed. Shy'aroin saw brilliant blue eyes before he snapped his own shut.

"You don't want to do that, sir," he mumbled.

"Why not?" he asked. Shy'aroin didn't answer. The man waited for a long moment before sighing, standing up and stating, "I will be taking him into my care."

The resulting rucus was enough to make Shy'aroin loose his tenuous restraint spiral out of control. The nice man gasped loudly. The girl shrieked. Shy'aroin grunted and strained to restrain the strange power that had ruled his life for so long.

Before Shy'aroin could breathe he was dragged away and into a quiet place. Whoever had taken him here was silent as Shy'aroin carefully got the 'darkness' under control.

Ever so carefully Shy'aroin opened his eyes, carefully looking at the ground. He blinked in surprise to see that he was looking at the shoes of the nice man.

"My name is Ne'rimmus, but my friends call me Neri."

"My name is Shy'aroin," the boy replied timidly, "and I don't have any friends to call me anything else."

"Maybe we can fix that?" the man replied kindly.

Shy'aroin looked up, angry at the kindness, "Why aren't you afraid of me?" he demanded, "Are you stupid? Can't you see what I am?"

Ne'rimmus sighed sadly, "I can see. I can see that you are a scared and confused little boy who's never been showed how to control the curse he's been given."

"Che," Shy'aroin grunted, "curse is right."

Ne'rimmus smiled slightly, "Any gift can be turned into a curse if no one shows you the light side of it." He regarded Shy'aroin steddily, "The silver lining, as it were."

Shy'aroin shook his head. "There is no silver lining on this storm cloud."

"Why don't you tell me about this storm cloud," Ne'rimmus suggested kindly.

Shy'aroin took a deep, calming breath, he couldn't let his emotions get out of control... "Anyone who sees me sees their worst nightmare if I'm not trying to control it. If you look into my eyes, it doesn't matter if I'm controlling it or not, you live your nightmare."

Shy'aroin heard the soft sound of Ne'rimmus sitting down, and that was the only noise for the longest time, then Ne'rimmus commented, "Why don't you sit down, Shy'aroin."

Shy'aroin did so, and it was only when the boy was comfortable that Ne'rimmus said, "It seems that your power relies mostly on control, and so, that's what I must teach you."

"I've been pretty good at teaching myself," Shy'aroin grumbled.

"Yes," Ne'rimmus said, "but I can teach you how to do it so that you don't have to think about it."

In his excitement, Shy'aroin forgot to keep his eyes down, this was the best news he'd ever gotten in his entire life, "Really?" he gasped, his eyes meeting Ne'rimmus' briefly. The other tried not to flinch away, but Shy'aroin saw the fear in the other's eyes before he looked at the floor. Would there ever be anyone who could look him in the eye without flinching?

"I can," Ne'rimmus said, as if that had never happened, "I am a Healer, Shy'aroin, and I will do everything in my power to help you."

Page Two

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