First Visit
1193


Cerulean eyes stared almost blankly at the starry sky overhead, not quite looking at them but not focused anywhere else. It was more like he had nowhere else to look, and by default his gaze would go skyward. Ashur spent most of his nights on patrol, when he wasn’t trying to beat various youma into stains in the pavement of the nearby park -- for whatever reason the place just oozed youma -- and failing more often than not, atop rooftops of the buildings of Destiny City. It’d been pointed out to him in a previous encounter, though wordlessly so, and since then he’s found a sort of calm whenever he was on one. He also had a rather pleasant encounter on a rooftop a couple weeks back, so there was that memory whenever it came to mind.

Ash found he had very little to smile -- genuinely smile -- about as of late.

Too many things were clouding his eighteen year-old mind, and while he should have been focusing on school (as if that ever happened) and friends and other less serious things, the teen found his worries to be more focused on a life that’d been thrust onto him without really giving him much of a choice. Not that he minded, actually, but it was starting to stress him out. Ash was a mellow dude and didn’t handle stress very well, so finding himself in such a situation was rather...tiresome.

His dad wasn’t helping things either, but he’d rather ignore that for as long as humanly possible. Besides, that man wasn’t the main reason why he’d felt himself fall into something of a slump since graduating from high school.

The teen heaved a sigh then, having gotten used to what he’s dubbed as a “nagging feeling” continuously prodding him in the back of his mind. It was actually why he had to stop trying to beat down any youma (read: provoking one then running away because he realized too late that he couldn’t handle it) that particular evening: that nagging feeling was...well, nagging again. In the past couple of weeks he’d amassed a good deal of information about this new life of his, even managed to ascertain a vague purpose for himself somewhat -- though all he’d really done was temporarily adopt someone else’s reasons for taking part in the war -- thinking that it would make that nagging feeling go away. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, and so there he was.

It was the only reason he could come up with as to why he’d been in such a funk lately, anyway.

Squinted eyes narrowed even more so as a gentle breeze blew past, pushing the nearby clouds overhead into his field of vision and obscuring a bit of his view of the moon. No big deal, really, so he once more sighed it away and, to pass a bit of time he reached down and took hold of one of his sticks, his hands finally starting to itch for something to do. The feel of the flimsy weapon in his hand normally had his mouth twist into a frown of some kind, but tonight it felt oddly...comforting. Lifting the stick so it was right above his face, Ash focused on it instead of the sky for a moment and he felt...something.

Heard it rather, in the back of his mind.

It was a small something, but his narrowed eyes widened ever so slightly in reaction to it. It was a phrase of some kind, oddly familiar yet still new to him. From the moment he noticed it, the phrase continued to repeat itself, pushing itself into the forefront of his mind and, soon enough, onto the tip of his tongue. It took all of two minutes for the young Page to finally open his mouth to say it out loud.

”I pledge my life and loyalty to Uranus,” he said slowly, quietly, closing his eyes before continuing. ”And to Ashur. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine…”

-- [▣] --

It was hot. Really hot. Blistering. Ashur opened his eyes.

”What the…?!” The teen bolted upright, normally squinty eyes wide and just...shocked...at what it was taking in. Last he remembered he was on a rooftop in a particularly low mood -- not necessarily bad, but not exactly good either -- and now here he was, in the middle of a desert.

A desert.

Ash stood up then, dusting off his uniform while looking from one area to another and doing his best to ignore the heat. He couldn’t exactly focus on just one spot so he was looking...all over the place. Taking in as much as he could. Which wasn’t all that much at first glance.

Directly in front of him was desert -- sand dunes as far as his eyes could see -- and the view to his left and his right weren’t any different. But, upon turning around, his eyes caught sight of what looked to be the remnants of a...city. His city, in a way, and this was something even his curious, ever-questioning, ever-processing mind didn’t have to think about. He just...knew. Much like he just knew how to get there, though it’d taken him long enough.

He was home.

Or that’s what it felt like, anyway, when he took a few steps forward, past what could have been the city’s gates. His first step inside the gate calmed him a bit, and the further he walked into the city the calmer he felt. That nagging feeling? Gone. Completely gone. This was his answer. Despite feeling a lot of the heaviness in his chest suddenly leave him, Ash still wore a rather stoic expression, and he simply began taking in the remnants of Ashur with a light heart, curiosity quieted by the simple pleasure in being in the one place that was able to clear his headspace of all the problems that suddenly cropped up and started pressing in on him from all sides. None of that could follow him here, and after he walked around for what felt like hours -- in normal time it probably would have been more like half an hour -- the Page soon found himself standing smack dab in the middle of the city, in front of what looked to be the remains of an old temple.

But this was the one place he just, again...knew, somehow...was his safehaven. And he was right. As soon as he’d taken a step inside the temple’s walls a sort of peace just blanketed him, and for the first time that week he smiled. Really smiled. The Page closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, the smile widening ever so slightly…

-- [▣] --

And he was back. His eyes were still closed, but he knew. The peacefulness he’d just experienced had yet to leave him, though, so Ashur kept his eyes closed. It was the calmest he knew he’d feel until, perhaps, he was able to visit again, so he would linger in it for as long as he could.

An hour passed, then two, and the clock eventually struck midnight. He was 19.