Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2: River of Memories
Chapter 6: Silver
By: AVM516

The first thing he consciously experienced… The VERY first thing, before his sense of touch, smell, sight, before he could even be aware of thought, was that he heard something. He didn’t understand it, nor did he care of it. All he knew was that he heard something.

…ING—
…ARNING—
LEYLINE PRESSURE BELOW THRESHOLD- –
SUPPRESION COMPROMISED—
ENGAGING EMERGENCY INJECTION PROCEDURE—
ACCELERATING REMAINING LEYLINE ENERGY FROM POCKET SOURCE—

Then he FELT something. He didn’t know what it was. It was heavy, pressing, hot.

Pain.

He felt pain.

And when he felt it, he was AWARE. Aware that he was in pain, that something was hurting him. It was unbearable. He wanted it to stop. Stop the pain. Stop the burning! STOP! STOP! STOP! If it didn’t stop soon, he was going to lose himself. Something would come out. SOMETHING WAS GOING TO—!!

The pain disappeared.

As quickly as it came, it was suddenly gone.

Then he heard another sound…

SUPRRESION REENGAGED…
ANALYZING…
ALERT—
CHAMBER INTEGRITY DAMAGED—-
SUBJECT SUSTAINABILITY COMPROMISED—
CURRENT PHASE AT 50 PERCENT
REMAINING PHASES ABORTED—
ENGAGING EMERGENCY EJECTION

Suddenly he felt light. As if the warmth surrounding him disappeared, and he was left cold and hanging. As if by reflex, he sucked the air into his mouth rapidly and let it out.
He was breathing.
He was awake.
He was ALIVE.

His head felt light and he felt something inside him beating, pounding in his chest. He didn’t what it was, only that he faster he breathed the more rapidly it beat and the lighter his head got.

He breathed one, final heavy breath, then his chest and head felt easier.

Slowly lifting his head, he opened his eyes. He only saw bright, white light. Then shapes and colors began to form. At first it was all blurry, he couldn’t make it out, but soon the image began to sharpen.

Then he SAW something. He didn’t know what it was, only that he knew he was seeing something. It was blue, slender and holding something. The thing it was holding was curved and wide, and at its center was something long and pointed at the end.

The pointed-end aimed right in front of his eyes.

Though he wasn’t focused what it was holding, rather, he looked at two bright blue circles on the thing’s ‘face.’

Why was he so fixated on them? He didn’t know. Only that he couldn’t stop staring at them. Then, before he could question himself, the blue thing made a sound..

“…What?”

That’s all she could say.

Who could blame her? She was assuming some kind of monster. She assuming whatever was in that huge tank was big enough to eat her. She assumed it’d be strong enough to flatten her like tiny flower growing on a public road.

It was none of that.

It was actually smaller…

…WAY smaller.

In the middle of the chamber, as if sleeping, was a small human.

A child.

He was a in slight slouched position, his whole body below the neck covered with a thin, skin-tight white suit. His lower body, from the torso, was enclosed by a metal pedestal. Everything else, his upper torso, arms, neck, hands, back was penetrated by dozens and dozens of transparent IV lines that connected to the top of the chamber.

She couldn’t tell if it was most beautiful or horrific thing she’d ever seen; He looked like a beautiful pale flower connected to countless silver wires.

This was the monster she and many lionguard troops came here to prevent from waking up?
A pale, human, silver-haired boy?

He didn’t look more than 10 years old..

“…huhh..?

He was looking at her in a dazed expression… and the color of his eyes nearly stunned her. Despite his pale complexion and silver hair, his eyes were a bright red crimson. Almost glowing…

Wait. Were they ACTUALLY glowing?

She squinted. No. No they weren’t glowing. Did she just imagine that?

“HUH?” His eyes widened. His dazed face immediately replaced by look of awareness. As if he had realized he wasn’t dreaming.

“You’re… You’re a human… right?” She asked him.

He didn’t reply, only looked around himself. Then he realized he was tied down and connected to IVs. Seeing that there were things inserted in him and restricted his movements, he struggled briefly for a moment, and yelped pain.

“AH!”

Still holding her bow and arrow she urged him. “Hey! No! D-don’t move. You’ll just hurt yourself.”

He didn’t stop. He struggled even more now. Panic began to settle in as he dangerously shook his arms and shoulders, that threatened to ripe his skin and flesh apart from the attached IVs. He began to whimper and shed tears of panic, pain, and confusion.

“N-No! NO! STOP! STOP!!”

Then something in Lilyia seemed to break open. As soon she saw his face, his tearful eyes full of fear and confusion, something heavy struck her from within. With it, she was reminded of something…

Unfamiliar faces. An unknown place. Confusion. A reflection she didn’t recognize—

Then before she knew it, before she could figure out why she even did it… She dropped her bow and arrow, rushed down and cradled the child’s head next to hers, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Shh, shh… It’s okay, it’s okay. Your safe,” she said gently to him. “No one’s going to hurt you.”

The boy immediately stopped, as if stunned at the sudden warmth and embrace.

“It’s okay to be scared. You’re going to be okay, alright?” She said to him.

Why was she saying this? Why was she doing this? Was this really her saying these words?
…And why was it that she felt she wasn’t simply saying it to JUST this small child in front of her? It was almost as if she was also saying it to herself…

Brushing away the though, she backed of slightly and gently held his head with both hands, looking straight into his eyes.

“I’m… I’m Lilyia. Do you have a name?”

“Uh…”

His faced looked confused, and he tilted his head at her in a curious fashion. She couldn’t help but think it looked really cute.

“You can talk right?”

“Uhhh…”

“Do you know where you are?”

“Uhhhh…”

Lilyia smiled again, though it hinted uneasiness. “Ummm… Do you even know what the petals I’m even saying?”

“Uhhh… Uh…”

“Heh.. Well, uh, I’ll take that as a no.”.

She then looked at him curiously with puffed lips. “Well, we have to name you something. I can’t just call you Scarlet monster… Hmmmm.” She eyed away and pondered for moment. Then she looked at him again, and found herself fiddling with his hair.

“Heh, can’t say I’ve seen a human kid with silver hair before…” Her eyes widened. “OH! Yeah, that’d be perfect! Silver! Yeah, we’ll call you Silver!”

Again he titled his head. “S-Silva…?”

“Oh, so you can speak?” She smiled brightly. “Yes. Silver. Your name is Silver. Can you say it?”

“Silva..? Sil…ver?”

“Right! Silver!”

“S… Silver?”

“Yup, you got it!” She smiled, then placed a palm to her chest. “And my name is, Lilyia”

“L-Lil…a?”

“LIL-LY-IA.” She mouthed in parts.

“Li.. Lil..”

Lilyia giggled. “Ya know what? That might be a little difficult at the moment. So you can just call me, Lil.”

“Lil..”

“Right! Nice to meet you Silver! So, uh, welcome to, uh.. Tyria?”

As before, Silver didn’t respond. Again, he only tilted his head curiously.

“Riiiiight… Okay, um… Heh,heh…” She withdrew her hands and rubbed them together in an embarrassed manner. “Now that we got all that set aside. Why don’t I help you get out of there, huh?”