Have you ever felt like no matter how much right you did in the world it wouldn't matter? No matter how far you got that all it would take is for you to make just one mistake to destroy everything; like trying to hold onto a handful of sand in rushing waters.

I felt like I was at war with the world. It wasn't just the world I was fighting against...it was myself. Something inside me.

After all it was me who kept making the same mistakes over and over again. Inner nature be damned, I'd still find a way to make a mess of things, of that ai was sure

With a shiver, I felt my strength escaping me as I laid out in a sprawl in the rising sun's warm rays. Brisk morning air nudging my waking more and more with every gentle gust. Using what little strength I still had left within me, I opened my eyes.

A canopy of orange and red hues within my sight, my vision blurred. Thin and wispy clouds splattered the sky, giving me a clear view. With the yellow light of the early morning sky cascading around me, I found myself drifting back into consciousness.

Noticing my chest rise and fall I began to register the pain shooting through torso and limbs as I struggled to control my heavy breathing.

I was outside...but why?

That's right.

I went to go take a leak at midnight. I couldn't hold it in.

Even though Grandma told me not to come out at night. Especially during the White Moon Festival. Thinking of Grandma I started looking around myself and began to wonder, 'Where is she?'

Isn't it time for morning training? I don't think I got it in me today though.

"G'ma," my muffled voice came out helping me realize a light ringing in my ears. Barely able to make out my own voice with how scratchy and weak I sounded, I tried to clear my throat to call out for her again. Panic climbing with the ringing in my ears rising in pitch I shouted, "Grandma!"

I felt another shiver course through, as a bit of strength returned. Numbing weakness was flushed out by the rising dread. More pain shot through me, this time more clearly. Vision widening into the clearing around me, a blurry haze was lifted.

Turning my head to take in the sights around me; I start to make sense of what's going. My sense of smell starts to pick up some clues as well about what may have happened.

A forest fire?

Rising clouds of smoke, not too far away from where I'm laid out reached skyward. I can smell smoke, it's scent being collected and scattered with the same morning breeze that prodded me awake. I feel drained and fatigued as if I just finishing going all out in a spar with G'ma.

Usually I'd feel my clothes drenched in sweat if I was breathing this hard. Shivering, I began to bring my breathing back in control before I realized the feeling on my skin...my naked skin. The grass and dirt at my back and the cold morning settling on me. Why am I naked?

I felt the need to get up and take in my surroundings to figure out where I am. Before I knew it I felt my upper body jump up from behind with a warm fuzzy push. Catching myself, my muscles tightening my core, I'm left struggling pitifully, flexing my abs. With a force of pure effort I managed to sit myself upright, bringing the clearing around me into full view.

Destruction. Trees cracked or broken at their stumps with a few uprooted and scattered between. All around me the earth was raked or upturned. Mounds and pits dotting the grassy forest floor.

I didn't even notice when or how I got up, but I was now standing as the ringing in my ears faded into a blanket of quiet. Songs of morning birds that usually accompanied the forest were missing. Cold morning air fading into obscurity as I felt all my senses dull as I searched in fear.

It was when everything seemed to fade away that I felt it. A tiny hum of power deep in my ear. A small blur in the corner of my sight. Like a small whiff of something in the background that becomes all you can focus on. A feeling pulling at my skin but more deeper like it was at my core.

Carnage slipped by me but I had no time take it in. Stumbling through the ruined landscape I made my way over to where my senses pulled me. I never felt this before but all those sensations together, the hum, the blur, the whiff and the pull felt familiar.

Making my way through the desolate landscape I searched in desperation for the only person who brought me peace. “G’ma!”

Coming up a small hill, in a clearing that I recognized as being near our hut, I stopped for a brief moment before I followed the growing tingle of my new sense. It's top was torn apart and the debris cascading around it made it both more challenging to scale, as I found myself weaving through the detritus, and easier at the same time seeing that the height of the hill had been reduced.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

As I crept to the crest, a crater came in eyeshot. Without hesitation I sped forward. As I came upon the edge and looked in, I felt my heart drop. I slid down the edge to the centre where another figure lay sprawled much like me earlier.

"G-G'ma? Is-is that," I paused to catch my breath as I drew closer, and with a stutter I continued. "Are you okay?"

Her usual blue robes were dotted with large splotches of blood and smeared in dirt. Her outer long orange vest turned short as it was ripped but still clung to her shoulders. Both her legs...gone below the knees. One was mangled and crushed while the other looked like it was torn off.

Her eyes remained closed even as I drew near. My heart thumped in despair; I couldn't believe it. She was the most powerful person I knew and taught me everything I knew about strength. The only one who cared about me and the only one I could call my family.

Before I could check her vitals to see if she was alive her eyes shot open with a start. I felt myself freeze as a wave of something ethereal washed over me, holding me in place for a brief moment before it floated away quicker than it came.

"Koza," blood trickled past her lips and flowed along previously drying lines at the bottom half of her face. "My little lemur."

"G-"

"Didn't I tell you not to go out during the White Moon Festival?" Interrupting to nag me before I could ask, she smiled at me like whenever she caught me messing around. I don't know why but I could sense something escaping her and becoming less with each passing second.

She still held the smile all the same before letting out a sigh in exasperation. "You are such a handful y'know. When I was your age my grandmother only had to tell me once and that was it," she sighed in exhaustion. She continued, "I'm too soft on you. How many times do I have to tell you the same thing Koza?”

"I-I'm sorry Grandma," for a second there I felt like we were back at home but it all felt to wrong. I didn't understand what was going on but that didn't scare me as much as the feeling that I was losing her. "I won't do it again I promise."

"Hey!" With a shout, she glared at me, "you said that the last to two times." I don't know how but I felt the small thwack on my head like usual whenever she said that. "I didn't raise no liar. Fix up!"

I was scared to lose her. My only peace in this world where everyone seemed so alien, she was the only one who wouldn't leave my side. By her side is the only place that felt like home.

I didn't even notice it but now with my head down, my eyes landed on her bloodied hand. I saw drops falling from my face landing on her torn sleeve. "I prom-"

"Don't make promises you can't keep Koza," she cut me off again with a reminder. "It makes you weaker. Lying makes you weaker." I chocked back sobs as she continued, "Become stronger."

Somewhere within something stirred at those words. I had no patience right now to drown it out like usual leaving it to grow into a gentle thrum.

"I'm sorry th-that I'm so we-weak," I chocked out. "I'll get stronger," continuing with a desperate cry, "so stay with me please G'ma. I need you."

"You don't need me," she said softly. "You're al-"

"No! I need you Grandma Ren," I begged her. Without her I had no one. "You're the only one who cares about me. The only one who I care about!"

Everyone else I've ever met, whether they're my age, hers, or any in between kept their distance from me. She's the only one who could tolerate me. This goodbye felt so abrupt.

I noticed her breathing becoming slower with each passing second. "There's still so much you have to teach me," I pleaded.

"I've...taught you the basics. Don't...think I didn't notice you...sensing me just now." Pausing with each labored breath she continued, "You are...a phenom Koza. One who...is holding himself back."

"I-I don-"

"You are," she assured me. "Don't hold yourself back...in fear...of being different from....the others." With what little strength she had, she placed her hand on mine. "You're already different," she paused with a wheeze, "so don't fight it. Embra-khak!"

"I understand Grandma," a little guilt in my gut I put my hand over hers as she coughed up blood. "I understand." As blood splattered on my skin, I didn't flinch. I assured her so she didn't have to exhaust herself any further. "I'll become stronger," I repeated to assure her but something that I usually kept bottled within me spurned me on as I continued, "I'll become the strongest and show everyone."

"That's my boy," she squeezed out with prideful huff. "But...not for me... do it... for...yourself." She smiled at that. Using her thumb to slowly trace across the back of my hand. "Ko...zaa."

Her eyes slowly lost their light as she looked into mine in her final moments. Her face stretched a smile as I noticed a tracks of dried tears on her cheeks. Hair that was usually silver and gray was now adorned with streaks of crimson.

"I pr-," I caught myself. Trying to hold back the tears, I nodded at her. "I will."

All of a sudden a little of the light in her eyes surged back, "Ta...ke the...hal...bred...ba," the word drew on with a long breath and ended with a final, "ck."

The light in her eyes dimmed again with a grin still lingering her face. I felt her hand go limp.