• It had been years since he had returned to the ruins of Vera, his home town, the place he resided, lived, prospered and finally destroyed completely long with the false family that called him fun, the pathetic excuses of existence that took his life so blissfully without giving him a second notice of telling him he wasn't their son. Such angered boiled up with every step he took in the smokey pile of houses, foot paths and used-to-be celebratory decorations along with the sons and daughters remains piled up still in the six areas of Vera’s vast, large town. He hated it, with steps towards the center of the village he could hear the laughter and joy within the voices of his younger self and a girl he used to play with, his vision fell upon a moment in time where the little girl in white had her basket stolen, his younger self of course speedily ran after the culprits and with fewer words and more action, his younger self snatched the basket and taught the main antagonist a lesson. A small smile for a hint of a moment could be seen on Aeron’s facial expression but was quickly replaced with the horror of what he did to his parents as he continued on his path.

    The screams filled the air of that day and he could see the formation of houses burning with the bones of the towns folk diminishing into nothing but dust and ash, children holding onto their parents as fathers and mothers coo their infants to calm before the end. The frustration of these haunting visions got to Aeron as he released a cry of irritation but longing like a lone wolf howling for his moon, a sweep of his sword releases an uncanny measure of power, blowing up the side of a already destroyed formation of buildings utterly. Panting heavily due to the exhaustion of both good and bad memories it was as if Chaos and Peace was melding into one but it would not create balance for Aeron but pure Madness, the Madness that caused him to slaughter his false parents in the first place, the Madness that he can feel not attempting to control his thinking patterns and the way he interacts.

    The former warrior fell to his knees, not in anger, frustration or in tears, but blissful solace until...

    A crack from underground caused him to fall through the already fragile floor and deep into the stomach of Vera, feeling no reason to recover in mid-air for all the time he had the 'new' Aeron walloped onto the floor with great force that guttered the caves and crystals that chimed together through its hollow walls, the sound of innocence already drew his attention. The songs of many he just wanted to drown out with the swing of his weapons were nowhere to be seen; in fact he had no idea where in the Goddess’ name he was. At least not until he saw the ruins of pillars and ancient carvings that covered a large landscape, the warrior picked his body up from the floor like being pulled on puppet strings and from then his head kept to floor sightings. He wondered the tomb of Ancient Vera without interest and instead seemed lost and alone like a child without a guiding hand to help him out of his own darkness.

    The blank expression was a cause for concern until a light glow drew his attention, the darkness within the caves were lit by crystals of all colours but mostly a comforting lime green, a glistening blue however shone behind a stone to which Aeron had been approaching for several minutes, all on the other side of the caves entry area. Though it may have been something of no consequence he believed from a first-hand sight it to be a sphere or some sort, it lay there innocently and in gentle motion of the still caves that seemed to keep a gravity around such a small and fragile object whilst still with interest Aeron reached for the sphere and was instead met with a hateful sting of a burning coldness. Instantly he retracted his hand from the sphere with a pained face with glimmers of annoyance, he was not hateful to the baby blue orb but his own foolishness to think he didn't see an elemental sphere to begin with; of course it would have hurt him.

    Aeron held his finger in comfort and turned away from the orb that seemed to mock him with glimmers of blue beams that wanted to draw his attention and try to grasp for it again. He ignored it of course and even had a mind to blow up the sphere with raging flames, his mind set however was not in the 'play' of destroying at the moment, it was instead exploring the cave systems that had taken his attention.

    There were multiple entries into the cave system and the auburn haired man knew he could get lost quiet easily but what other place garnered his attention? Where else was he needed? Nowhere was the answer he came up with and better to use time exploring this underground system then waste time topside weeping in past events. His choice was to enter the left cave out of three choices and delved deep into the caves until after twenty minutes of walking he was met with an obstacle, a barrier set in stone with blue glyphs that ordered a red sphere due to the glowing red and the shape. The puzzle was so impossibly easy, however he didn't have a red sphere to which he presumed it must be fire and hopefully this time he would be able to hold it if he found it.

    Aeron looked around from left to right and all directions apart from above him, the calm singing felt like it was getting louder in his head and as a result he held each side of his framed skull and lowered his sights to the ground once more, he was getting frustrated and he never liked feeling that was, he was a sore loser and as such even he himself felt like a child. Taking in breaths and opening his eyes slowly to gain the vision of the glyph stone, he saw his younger self again with a smile and the old clothing he used to wear, it was a trick, it must have been, past and present cannot meet in one space in time could they?

    The younger Aeron approached the present, the two of them stared at each other, the present looking bewildered and the past inspecting what he would look like in the future, a few minutes of silence and them the child smiled. He never spoke, just smiled, and with a finger pointing into the air the present Aeron’ sights turned skyward to find a small fierce glow gleam in the caves ceiling, the present Aeron looked down to the child and with a small spoken tone he opened his mouth “Thank you” was all he could say, the child still smiled in a childish yet still innocent manner, his hands behind his back and looking up his futures height he motioned for him to take the sphere. The present Aeron hit the side of the cave wall that he stood next to and held his hand out, the fire sphere slowly popped from the ceiling and landed into the adult’s hand. The feel of the orb was warm and comforting unlike the icy one he had attempted to pick up earlier, this sphere welcomes his embrace as if the sphere has a consciousness and never wanted him to let go. The adult felt at peace and lowered his head to get a real feel for the sphere, he had felt like this before but he couldn't remember when.

    It wasn't long after the youthful boy pulled on the adults sleeve and pointed towards the slot on the wall, the present fiery-haired man nodded and approached the slot, and a beam grabbed and pulled the sphere slowly from Aeron’s hand and slotted the sphere comfortably into its contents. The glyph disappeared as if it was an illusion to begin with and the younger Aeron looked up at the present, now the both of them stood in front of the door way. The words were not spoken from his mouth but were heard in the adult Aeron’s mind. “Time to go” said the boy as he stretched for the present Aeron’s hand, and with his own out stretched hand, both past and present held each others hands in comfort as they continued down the ever crystallized halls of the cave, both awaiting the next challenge that they would face.