Gaia's Bestiary Journal Entry - #3 The Iaras (Incomplete)

No one knows for sure how related these beings are to the mermaids that inhabit the northern seashores in the continents of Gaia, but what one can be sure is that these beautiful half-fish, half-maiden, beings are far more powerful and far more mysterious than their cold-weather counter-parts. Found in both rivers, lakes and seashores, but only those close to the Tropical lines, the Iaras are merciless in their hunger for both sex and nourishment. There are reports that some Iaras are even capable of temporarily walking and breathing on land with nothing but their own Mana as the catalyst.

They always have a brown, tanned skin tone in their maiden upper body, and their fish-like parts are always embelished with beautiful and mesmerizing scales. Legend says when a Iara cries sincerely, her tears turn useless chunk of stones into beautiful and pristine white and\or black pearls. This reason alone would be enough to make any adventurer fall into the hunt for these beings, but never did a Iara cry during a battle due to pain, may it be physical or not.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1 – Like a Stone, alone...

[… Ra stood on the battlefield, mountains of corpses all already him. Men, women and beast alike. The blood-stained weapons on his hands were crudely made, but they were effective. The primal man stood with vacant eyes, he saw nothing but despair and death around him... 'This can't be... There must be something else...', he thought, desperately to himself.

“Adau me! Adau m- *cough *cough...”, a harsh and desperate voice groaned underneath Ra. The young warrior turned to face it, and saw a man with a stabbed eye and with his guts falling down on the ground, the man was barely alive, he only was in such an almost-dead state because of the two corpses above him that made pressure to the wound on his belly and prevent his innards from falling away from the body.

Ra stepped towards the man, “Adau! Adau!”, with a closer view he finally recalled. It was the man that led the raiding party that invaded Ra's safe haven. They wanted his fire. He would gladly share it with them, but they wanted it all for themselves and leave the others with nothing, Ra could not accept that. There was a struggle.

“Hey, Ra, we're done here. The rest of us are falling back to tend to the wounded, you comin, brother?”, Tighra's voice came from behind.

“Yeah, I am going”, Ra said while seeing the moribund man. He lifted his fang-sword. The man's eye filled with hope, for a quick death. Tchink. The sword laid in front of the man's eye, next to his face, but unreachable.

Ra turned back and left. …]

'Great... That dream again...', the boy sluggishly opened his eyes. His body barely moving and obeying his mind. He turned his head to the right towards the nightstand. 9:05 AM. 'Shit... I'm late again.'. He made himself get up from his bed and started getting himself dressed and ready for university. He's eighteen years old now, finally a fully grown and independent young man in front of society. Not, that he was not already...

He is Rafael Silva. Eighteen years old, Brazilian. The year is 2021. He's currently living by himself in a small apartment in a rather decaying building in the capital city of Natal. He has a regular fit corpse, although he does nothing to keep it that way. He has average looks, although his smaller heights, with only 165cm, may be an exception. He is currently a university student of I.T, Information Technology. Before university he was a bright student, no zero-grades, at all. He had a loving and caring family. Yeah... had. They all died three years ago. His brother and sister died in a car accident when returning from work at their medical clinic. His aunt died in a failed attempt of robbery. Both of his fathers, died in a plane crash, two different planes. It all happened at the same day.

There is no need to say that the fifteen years old was crushed. His dreams and hopes were simply vanished into the tears the spilled from his eyes... He stopped drawing, even though he could easily draw a full-body human anatomy study, in detail, with ease. He stopped writing, even though doing that filled the void he felt at his heart ever since he was a kid. He stopped praying and he stopped loving... No girlfriends ever since that day, no falling in love. No feeling and hoping... Simply living for... the sake of living.

An empty life. A husk from a former, brighter, self. Even so, he stubbornly lived through. Something inside him, pushing him forward. The reason? He couldn't tell, but there was something... maybe the same void that filled his heart was the reason. The void, you ask? It is a feeling that lies inside the heart of Rafael, and he simply cannot fill it with anything. Not with the love of his family. Not with love of a girlfriend. Not with the love of drawing or writing. But sometimes he would get glimpses of fulfillment. They were all related to stories about magic and fantasy, about warriors and mages, and things like that. Those tiny moments made him feel a bit better, but the void would soon envelop it...

Now, there was nothing special left on the boy. Without dreams and without the wills to make them happen... he was simply a depressed boy, that lost his family and lived through day-by-day. He left behind what he liked to do. All those games, MMO's and RPG's. All those comic books. All those fantasy and horror books. All of the music, metal, rock, reggae... Even that drawing teacher that almost helped him publish his first comic book, the one whom he looked up to and saw him as someone to inspire himself with, even that teacher was left behind...

Even so, he doesn't hate the world. I mean how could he? Would you hate the two airlines whose planes crashed on the same day? Would you hate your aunt's school because one of it's employees was assaulted and died next to it? Would you hate the highways or the driver responsible for the death of your brother and sister? There were too many different things to hate, that he would have to hate it all... At first he actually did hate it all, but the void in his heart also devoured that hate. Now, he could not even hate as well.

After lazily dressing up, he ate breakfast, a glass of juice and a sandwich made of bread and eggs. Then, he sets off to take the bus and get to university. It was 9:30 AM in the morning, more than a class late already.

After a whole morning of classes, which were thoroughly spent in reading RoyalRoad's fictions and doodling random stuff in the sketchbook. The day was suspiciously clad in gray clouds that could delve into one's heart and seep out it's gloom, and if it wasn't already enough, the chilly winds were enough to take away the smile of anyone. And so the day went on. A bunch of classes. A bunch of widely diverse teachers and students. Old and cranky, young and devoted, others middle-aged and funny... One should know it is not advisable to have such a behavior in University. Damn, it's the time you get to learn how to properly work and live!

But that terrible void in his heart simply would not let him concentrate on anything. Especially because the feeling has grown since that accident. The emptiness would take away everything he was learning and everything he felt, or hoped. And, as said earlier, it would be slightly sufficed with fantasy stories and such. So, there's the reason for sinking himself in fiction stories and web novels... But the 4G would eventually stop working and then...

He would be back to the somber reality, where he did not matter and where he did not change the world. Later that day, the night classes went a little bit overboard and ended only after 21:00 pm, but there was no reason to complain, the teachers chose to give extra classes because of the upcoming tests, so he just strolled with it, and for how lucky that boy was, he had to go home by bus. Well, luck had nothing to do it exactly, rather it was because he just barely made 18 years old, and here in Brazil one can only take our driver's license once you're 18, so he didn't have made the test, yet, not that he wanted to do it, anyway... All in all, the boy started hurrying himself a bit before anything bad would happen, despite it, everything just seemed normal. That is... so he thought.

We was waiting at the bus station. He was waiting for 40min already, and no sign of his bus. Normally, one would be listening to music while waiting for the bus, but he just stared at the street. There was only a single person at the station, besides him. A shady-looking thin man, his clothes were ragged and had a lot of holes, his skin was bruised and filthy. His eyes were frantic and desperate. He couldn't stop fidgeting his right hand, while the left one didn't leave his jeans pocket. The boy paid no mind to the man, who constantly gazed at the student. If he started being afraid of death now, it would be a complete hypocrisy to the relief we would feel once he was dead.

A young woman was coming, from the other direction. It was a young student, raven-haired, fine and delicate lines. Her eyes seemed to be so lightly blue, they were almost white. Her lips were pink and her skin was like porcelain. She was the same height as the shady man at the station. She was carrying books in one of her arms, while checking her cell phone on the other hand, distracted. She passed through the station and turned left on the alley. Let's make a bet, between you guys and me?

Yep, lucky shot. The shady man followed the woman down the alley street. Now, normally, call 911 (or 190, here in Brazil) would be your first choice wouldn't it? Yeah. It would. But what was that student boy first choice? That boy that lost mostly anything that ever meant something for him, either by something out of his reach or by simply leaving it behind. That boy that didn't smile, for the last three years.

He followed down the alley. He heard the screaming, before he saw the scene. The man was on top of the woman, she was struggling to stand at her feet. The man shouted, desperately and angrily. He tried to take away her purse, while she still tried to resist. The boy walked, trying to make no sound. The struggle intensified. And.

Brace yourselves...

...

What a surprise!! The assaulter had a gun, he was pointing at the woman's head. The boy started running. He lunged himself on top of the man, and tried to immobilize his gunned hand. He started shouting at the girl, trying to make her go away. She ran, tears were in her eyes, and she slipped many times when running. Something inside the boy's heart was relieved, that girl seemed familiar for him, but he couldn't tell why. Someone sane enough would say this was a rather suicidal decision that he made. And he would agree. But something in his gut told him it was the right decision to make. A grin started forming in his face. Then.

BAM!

He can't hear nothing anymore, there's only a buzzing sound, it's unbearable. Then his head is hit by the man's elbow. The boy falls down, he is in the ground, and tries to get up.

BAM!

The worst pain he ever felt obliterated it's way trough his right thigh. The stinging pain washing away every reasonable thought I could have had, strangely he recalls a childhood memory, when he burned both of his hands in the stove, he was still learning to walk. Then before he could even think to forget about that another pain burns his nerves, at the stomach... And as the boy was gulping down blood, the thief rushed to his backpack procuring anything that would be valuable.

'Hah, good thing I didn't brought my laptop... Knock yourself out, you fucker, there's only books in ther...'

The boy even raised a mocking thought, as he laid down on the ground, blood seeping from his wounds. He was shivering, everything was getting so cold. Yet, in the boy's heart... something was right, something inside of him was glad and satisfied... He was thinking to himself, 'I did what I could...', and now the void in his heart was no more... that is except for the void that was taking his sight away, leaving him alone with his mind.

The boy took his final deep breath. You could say that his soul was finally “desincarnating”, or some sort. In the eyes of men, nothing was happening, that is, the dying boy was merely taking his final breath. But, if one were to look with another set of eyes... eyes of more than a mere human... eyes of a spirit, or even so the eyes of a god. One would see. The boy's soul, binded to his corpse, not allowed to leave.

The boy's eyes burst open.

- - - - - - - - – - - - – – - - - - -

As the young body stood there, frozen still on the ground, after all the shivering and lonely minutes, as his blood drained down onto the ground. When suddenly a young woman started making her way, headed into the direction of the body. She was quite average woman, apparently a student given the books she had in her hands. She had a delighted smirk on her face whilst she made her way, calmly.

Her heels stopped right in front of the body's open eyes, which, unnaturally gazed upwards, to her. She grinned upon that. Then shadows gathered around her, in her feet, climbing up her legs, arms and finally her face. The once fairly-beautiful young woman was now a very sensual and vexing adult female. Her ample bust and bottoms were truly something out of this world. Not only that, her raven hair poured down her shoulders like two tapestries made out of the starlit night, her skin had a slightly red hue, and was covered by many different tattoos and markings, all of them pitch-black. In her forehead, there stood two simple and rounded horns. Her eyes were pitch-black and in their center there stood silver pupils, as if purity amongst a pool of tar. Her dress was a rather simple, though very efficient, strapless and black long dress, cut in the sides leaving her legs partially exposed. She had stockings all the way up to her knees, leaving her thighs bare. As said earlier, she stood on top of spiky high heels.

“Finally, you complied with my plans, my sweet boy...”, her voice demonstrated a mocking tone, and somewhat pleased as well. As if savoring the words, she licked her lips while kneeling down next to the young man, “Or should I say, milord? Hmhahahahaha.”

“...”

“Sorry, I can't have the luxury to hear your voice, yet. Neither your complaints, I'll fix it soon though. But for... 'saving my life' I'll give you a present.”, she looked at his eyes with lust inherently intricate in her gaze, looking down at him as if he was her biggest catch. The boy couldn't help but shiver at that thought, “Would you like me to give you a present...?”

“...”, he looked her in the eyes, then his gaze shifted downwards for a second, whilst that in his mind he wondered about what could she ever be talking about, then it returned and he started glaring at her, again.

“Oh my! By the Heavens, don't glare me like that, milord, you'll frighten me.”, she feigned a surprised and startled expression, a rather sneering tone permeated her voice. The boy did nothing but stare at her, wondering why she insisted on calling him 'milord' twice, after all, he was just a rather boring and unknown kid until moments ago, now he died in a rather miserable and undignified way, and the one he was supposed to save, turned out to be a devil or whatever she is...

“Oh wait! That's right! I just remembered that Father first move of action was for us, his cute little winged puppies, to cut down his competition! So, by the hands of those dove-winged blond guys with halos stuck on their heads, you, and many others of your kind, were stripped from their powers and their memories! Although we are getting help from one of them...”. 'Come on... Remember...', the devil silently thought to herself, as the boy confusingly glared at her, without a clue about what was happening.

'What the fucking hell is she talking about?'

“Oh, honey. Believe me! Hell's got nothing to do with this...”, she said in a dejected expression, apparently not happy upon the reference of 'hell'. 'This will be way worse than I thought... I took too long to find you, I am so sorry, my little brother...'

'Did she just-?'

“Oh yes! I did! No need to make such a fuss about it! You're so humanly boring for such a powerful entity that carved it's way into human history with glory and war on it's trail...”. 'Well, since he doesn't remember a thing, why not play roles for a bit...? Let's have some fun for a change!'

'If I could just make sense of whatever nonsense you're so devoted in blabbering about now, whilst I lay dead here on the ground! Then, yes, I would definitely make sure not to seem anymore boring to you!'

“Yay! The wolf has indeed kept it's fangs, even though they may not be as sharp anymore. Well, I really should say tiger, though...”, 'Her mocking tone was starting to get on my nerves, fuck why devils must be such assholes...'. “Hmph...”, she looked at him, head to toe, and the other way around.

“Damn... You were cute in this body... Fuck, I should have done it with you before I got you killed, outright. What a shame...”, 'Shit! I haven't done it in centuries, and his soul still smells the same way.... Fuuuck.....', the moans at the end of her sentence and her lust-filled serpentine voice were enough to make any man fall to it's knees in front of her and beg for... well you know it. “Well, that's all right, I'll just have to hope for your new body to be just as good.”

She was looking at me intently. 'New body? What the fuck is she talking about? Fuck, can't I just die in my own pathetic way rather peacefully?'

“Hmrhahahahahahah! Ooh, you'll make me die, Ra!”

'What did you just called me...?'. A rush passed through the boy's soul, as if upon the calling of that word it contorted towards it...

“Oh, that's right. I know. Ravhan...” That last word. It was like a beacon, and his soul contorted itself and twisted towards it, as if longing to have it. It was like a putting a bait in front of a very hungry and desperate animal.

'Th-that's...'

“Your true name. Well... At least one of them, acutally.”

'…', the boy's mind sparked at that statement. It sounded otherworldly, lunatic and completely insane. But. He was a corpse mind-talking with a demoness. And his mind burst with a strange feeling of familiarity...

“Don't worry. I don't mean you harm. Rather, I need your help.”, suddenly her voice shifted to a serious tone. 'After all, you waited long enough! We have waited long enough...'

'Could I at least know your name beforehand? As lunatic as this situation as getting, I might as well know your name before I set my way down to hell, afterward. Right now, my mind was in the middle of, one could say, a total shitstorm, after being dead than suddenly talking to a rather vexing older woman, whom could only be described as a “succubus” or some sort of “devil”, if not the fucking “Devil” himself, I am suddenly referred as milord, and if not enough I even get to be called by another name, whom I should not even have heard of, and evens spikes my mind with a nostalgic feeling... So, yeah, your name would be nice.'

“Lilith.”.'Although you should remember my other names... I really hope you do...', she had a gentle, but sad, smile in her face as she spoke her name. The boy felt his heart tightening as he saw her face, he felt sadness incomparable seeing her like that, and he could only guess why...

'Oh... hang on... are we really talking about something like The Lilith? The one who refused Adam and... stuff?'

“Don't even get me started with that bastard...”, she frowned as an irritated expression took hold of her features.

'Okay, I never asked anything about it at all. Now, what about that thing about helping you?', something in the boy's mind told him to not anger that woman in front of him, he couldn't tell why, it didn't sound like it would be dangerous if that were to happen, it sound more like... not wanting to live through it, again, as if a distant memory whom he could not recall told him so...

She laughed while elegantly keeping the palm of her hand in front of her mouth. “Ok, back to business. I shouldn't keep you like this for very long. It's not right. Well, the thing is. I found a hole in the system, per say. But I need something to exploit it.”

'What system are we talking about...?', the confusion that took hold of the boy's mind couldn't be elaborated, things were simply happening too fast.

“You know, I don't exactly like being a demon! It's not like I actually enjoyed being the new face of evil for the last nine centuries! I was already sick with the first one, for Earth's sake...”

'Ok! I get it! I totally understand it! I think... I mean, my situation isn't exactly understandable right now! I don't even know how I am processing it so easily... But seriously what system?'

“I'm keeping your soul bound to your body, basically. It's not that much of a deal. That way, neither God or the Devil knows that you're dead, yet. We've got to hurry, there isn't much more time left”, she had a rather anxious expression right now, and then her voice assumed a rather soft and pleading tone, baffling me out, as if I hadn't enough surprises for the day, “Will you help me or not, Ra?”

'I don't even know why you call me like that! I don't know why it seems so familiar either... Hell, how do I even know you're not fucking me up and setting me on a eternity-like damnation for my soul?'

“You don't. But know this. Your soul, all of it's prior lives, is a very strong one, strong enough to interfere with the fate of those around you. You were king, warlord and hero and you changed the world! Anywhere and whenever you were! That is... it was...”

'Sorry, but I can't say I believe in you given my current-'

“That's your fault. You let yourself drown in your sadness in this life. I guess, maybe you really are tired...”, her voice softened, tuning down as the words flowed out, “I guess I have no chance at all... I should have known it was a blind shot... I should have known the toll of not having a name for so long...”

'Hmph....', the boy had mixed feelings about being the one at fault, especially when he remembers about that day... but he looked at the woman in front of him... she seemed sincere, despite all of things. He wondered what he would to do to help her, if anything could go wrong, but he forgot about that once he remembered the fact he was already dead. What else could go wrong?

'Fine!'

“Hm!?”

'I sai- I mean I thought – fuck, just... I agree with it. I'm helping you out.', a glimmer passed through her eyes, a splinter of hope, perhaps, and her downward gazed turned to my eyes, 'But... shouldn't I be- you know... less dead to help you...?'

She glared at him, her eyes half-closed, inspecting the boy. “I don't believe you...”. 'Sorry, my love, but you must be adamant in your decision... Please forgive me for this...'

'What? I'm dead here, lady. You can clearly see that!'

“Ravhan Gwaraka...”, the names were spoken in a harsher and irritated voice, her silvers started gleaming with power. As the words were spoken out the boy felt his soul longing for them, desperately trying to release itself from it's invisible chains and claim the names for itself, getting twisted and torn apart, then melded together in the whole process, and it all caused an immense and excruciating pain, that could not be described.

'AAARRGH! STOP!', the boy's mind screamed for relief.

“...”, she just looked at him with a complicated, but frowning expression.

'I'LL HELP YOU! JUST STOOO-AAAAARRGHHH!'

“Hm...”, the pain faded away, and so did her eyes settled down, but his mind was stuck in a blurry and hazy state... “Promise me on all of your names that you will help me.”

'Fuck! You got me killed and I am the one who's got to do the promising!?'

“Ra-”

'OK! I swear it!'

“You must speak your true name during the promise.”

'Fuckin details...How is that even my true name for starters...'

“...”

'I promise it, on the name of Ravhan Gwaraka , that I will help you, Lilith.', the boy didn't even flinch at the pronunciation of the strange name as he strangely acted as if it has always been his all along. As soon as he finished the thought, a surge of power took hold of his soul, as he felt a bond being formed with the woman in front of him.

“Thank you so much! Now we can set our way to the new world! I was wondering how fare the others there... I hope they're okay...”

'Wait, wait, wait! What was that? New world?'

“Yes! You and I, will be reborn in a new world!”

'Come again...?', the boy just stared at her with wide eyes while she happily grinned at him, brimming with newfound excitement.

The devil woman then took the young man in her arms, lifting him, effortlessly. With a satisfied smile in her face, and one last “Thank you”, she started to walk, and soon they vanished into the shadows of the alley. Soon after that, the police cars passed through the street in a rush. They were looking for the missing bandit. And for a corpse of a recently-deceased student. But they were not there to be found.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: So, yeah, during the prologue I may have vented my anger into the Christian Pantheon, but that is an internal struggle of mine, that I do not wish to bother you with. I am already working on the side chapter that shows Yahweh perspective on the story, to clear off the doubts and to prevent any more misunderstandings. Please, also take in account that I do not intend to offend anyone's religious beliefs, it is just that some times my own religious frustrations seep into my writing, especially when the Main Characther is basically a written version of myself. So apologies if I made Yahweh sound like too much of a 'bad guy', so far, I will clarify it soon enough.