Nydohanyth felt his head pound again.
It always did that nowadays.
He did not know why.
He knew one thing.
It always came upon him when the settling closed its mighty doors to the outside.
At dawn.
He did not understand it.
Neither did the settling's medic.
Yet, today it was different.
Nydohanyth had always known he was different from the others in his settling.
From anybody on his entire world, actually.
He had a little voice living in the back of his mind, telling him what to do.
If he ignored it, it would give him pounding headaches.
His foster-parents told him it was just his imagination and that the headaches came from the accident.
When his parents had taken him outside, into the daylight and died.
The people of the settling had found him soon after, right at their doorstep.
And there was no sign of his parents.
No one had ever seen someone go into the sunlight.
They all thought you would burst then vanish completely as your very essence evaporated.
Nydohanyth thought that was rubbish.
All insane nonsense.
Why don't you go outside, Nydohanyth? the voice asked, quietly in his mind,
Don't you want to see the sun again?
The seventeen year old shook his head and leaned against the wall.
He had climbed up the cave wall to sit in a much smaller cave.
This cave was his room.
His and his alone.
Except for the voice.
What Nydohanyth did not know was that the voice was perfectly normal.
He was not insane.
The voice was simply the essence of his true people, the people of the planet Dija, who had all perished in a magical surge on their planet.
Except for him.
He had survived, getting launched through the fabric of space to arrive on Qli'i.
His parents had never brought him outside at all.
And he could survive the sun's touch.
Of course, if he told the mayor or his foster-parents that, they would call him crazy.
So maybe it was a good thing he did not know.
But the voice - his people - wanted him to go outside.
He knew he would not last much longer with the chittering voice in his mind.
Once, it had seemed that the voice was arguing with itself.
It was noisy.
And it gave him headaches.
Nydohanyth waited until the settling had quieted and everyone was asleep.
He pulled himself farther into his cave and dislodged a large rock from the wall.
He did not know why his cave had one of these pockets.
It was the only one, too.
He crept into the second room and closed the rock behind him.
This room had a tunnel to the light of outside.
It was where he went when all the others slept.
He did not sleep.
He did not need to.
Nydohanyth looked at his hands and concentrated, a ball of light sprung into life in his palms.
He stared at the intricate coloring of it, the black, the silver, the white, the blue.
It seemed to be rippling.
Like a pond.
His magic never ceased to amaze him, mostly because no one else could do this and he had known how to control it since he was born.
The Dijans had abilites known to only themselves.
They taught their young when they were still unborn, in the female's stomach.
True, they looked like humans but they were far from them.
The humans had created them to boost their population but the magical properties of Dija had corrupted them.
Now the Dijans only looked human.
They were able to learn an amazing amount of things when unborn.
How to eat, sleep, walk, use magic and more.
Some children - Nydohanyth included - absorbed all their mother knew.
That was how Nydohanyth managed to know so much about the outside world.
And, as a side effect of the voice, he had started to learn things from the others.
He knew of other worlds, of teleportation, of dragons, of gryphons.
He was a scholar with no interest in books.
A word came to his mind - probably from the essence - as he pondered this.
Eraseer... it whispered.
In his birth language, that meant 'one who knows too much and sees all.'
Not a very pleasant thing to know.
Most Eraseers ended up locking themselves in isolation to 'preserve their abilities.'
Nydohanyth would rather lose them.
He looked at the beam of light striking the rock above him.
"Ah, what the heck." he muttered and stood up.
The chittering voices finally shut up in his head so he could concentrate on climbing.
The cave was rather high-roofed and the beam came out above two man-heights above him.
He made his way there and stuck a hand onto the lip of the hole.
No searing pain.
He climbed higher and higher until he was perched on the hole.
It was big enough for him to crouch in.
As he stared across the countryside of Qli'i, he knew why the people preferred not to look outside.
They were truely photosensitive.
But, he was not.
The voices began to tell him of his past and he listened quietly, gazing out at the ruined lands.
All dead and charred.
He did not want to stay here.
He wished he could go home, but that was gone.
The voices told him that the planet had exploded of sheer magical overusage.
Nydohanyth took a deep breath when they finished.
He climbed down the cliff-side and landed on the ground.
They had settled to chittering more about how he should get away.
He had his own plans.
The seventeen turn old looked fixedly at a part of the rock.
He concentrated on a place one of the voices had shown him.
Mythicalae.
He could go there and hunt the Wylds, the insane dragons.
It would help the planet.
And help him to have something to do.
The portal formed in front of him and Nydohanyth stepped through.
He arrived in the midst of the Wastelands.
Empty lands.
Completely ignored and dead.
That suited him, somehow.
He wandered around for a while - how long he did not know - until he found a place to call his 'home.'
There, he settled and took in his bearings.
Then, he began hunting the Wylds.
***
Nydohanyth had been on Mythicalae for two years now.
Or so he thought.
The voices thought so too.
They were driving him insane.
Nydohanyth was sitting in his home, sharpening his knife, when two voices suddenly burst into an argument.
I think he should stop being so anti-social! one said, its voice deep.
And I think there's nothing wrong with that! a female one demanded.
Well, it's fine for you! I mean, look at you! the first retorted.
Another voice joined them,
You never had a mate in your life!
Nydohanyth sighed and lay his head against the wall.
The voices were not all the Dijans who died, they were his family.
Unfortunately for him, his family consisted of fifty-something people.
Now, however, he had had enough.
"Get out of my head!" he roared at them, clapping his hands over his ears - one still holding the knife and, thus, slitting his right ear.
The voices quieted instantly and one - vaguely familiar - spoke quietly,
Don't you love us? she asked.
He growled to himself,
"I love you all, but I'm going insane!" he snapped,
"Now, get out of my head.
You're dead, stay away from me!"
But, Nydo, you need someone to take care of you... another voice said.
"I can take care of myself!" he snarled, dropping his knife and clapping a hand to his ear.
You need us to advise you. one said firmly.
"No I don't.
You didn't have voices in your heads when you were my age to advise you, did you?
I can do fine on my own!" he said angrily, his voice bouncing off the rock walls.
But we can guide you. yet another voice said.
"I can guide myself.
You haven't learn how to get through the swamp, have you?" he snapped,
"Well, I have!
Glosch Swamp is no problem for me.
Nor is the Esh'hir Desert, Vandila'an Moutains, or the Central Split!"
A hurt voice came to the front.
This was the only one he had been able to identify.
As his brother.
Won't you get lonely without us? Edoro asked.
"Maybe, but I can manage.
You're going to drive me insane." he said quietly.
A female voice came next,
Don't make me lose you again, my son... she said, pained.
An adult male voice came after her,
Don't cry, Tecslaiu... he whispered.
I'm not crying, Yerkai! she snapped, sounding like she was.
Nydohanyth's heart pounded.
Those were his parents.
He could not...
He had to!
"Please." he said, closing his eyes painfully,
"If you don't, I might do something crazy."
Like? all the voices demanded, loudly.
He moaned in pain at the loudness,
"Like jump off a cliff." he replied, quietly.
They gasped and settled to muttering amongst themselves.
His last nerve broke and Nydohanyth moved towards his cave entrance.
He steadied himself against the side,
"I'll jump now if you don't leave."
Nydohanyth Teckai! Don't you dare jump off that cliff! one of his grandparents snapped.
"One." he said apathetically.
Please, Nydo, don't! his brother cried.
"Two." he continued.
We'll leave you alone! all of them cried.
"Promise?" he demanded, ready to spring.
We promise! they said and vanished from his mind.
All except Edoro.
Promise me something, Nydo... he whispered, fading.
"What, Edoro?" he asked.
That you'll do something with your life...
The Wylds just had a frenzy and are over-populating the Wastelands.
Join the Hunting Parties for the areas you know...
Bond a Wyld if you can. his brother said, in a bare whisper.
Nydohanyth thought his brother really had gone mad,
"I promise." he said, planning to check this out.
He picked up his knife once his brother's voice had vanished from his mind.
He felt... empty.
No more clamouring, no more blabbing.
It was strange.
He kept expecting to hear a snore or something.
He shivered and picked up his knife and belongings before heading out.
Nydohanyth knew he had to go to Shivran Aerd.
And the humans.
The real humans, not the Dajans of Qli'ians.
It was sort of scary.
But, then again, how wierd could they be?
He got there in good time - considering he was on foot - and signed up to Hunt in all four of the regions he knew.
There were not many other people there.
That suited him.
He was still expecting the voices in his head to start speaking again.
Maybe if he bonded a Wyld, he would replace that emptiness.
If the Wyld did not eat him first.
He would have to be on his guard, then.
