Morning comes with an epiphany;

Are we what we supposed to be?

Tears stabbing hard inside of me,

Love was just an endless drudgery.

From: A poem with your name –by Adi. K-

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“When the sun disappears, she will die,” he said in a rigid voice.

The man was blind, wrinkles and dirt covered his appearance, yet it didn’t make him less trustworthy than those people who had their sight.

In front of the old man, sitting a girl with sharp eyes and a steadfast expression. Her long jet-black hair was tied into a simple bun above her head. She looked very young for the wisdom that she held, not only that, for some reason, she had a strong aura, which was hard to ignore.

However, aside from the two of them, there was another person, who was standing right beside the young girl.

His presence couldn’t be felt until just now when the audacious blind man stated such a thing right before his eyes. It didn’t need the genius to say how furious that young man was.

However, a simple touch from the girl was enough to prevent the situation from turning into a worse nightmare.

“Watch your tongue blind man,” the young man hissed fiercely. He wasn’t someone who would talk much, yet when he did, it must be something to note, as he didn’t say things lightly.

The old man tilted his head as if his blind eyes could see the person who threatened him. A smirk formed at the corner of his lips.

The air around them was heavy as their conversation continued.

“I should have known that little Xierra would bring her protector along with her,” he said in a low voice. “How do you name your protector? Is it… Damon? Yes, I remember him, you named him that way because…”

“How?” Xierra cut his sentence before he could finish it.

The blind man’s focus shifted to Xierra once again when he heard her simple question. “What do you mean with ‘how’? Do you want to ask how you die?”

Xierra didn’t say anything as a reply, but her silence was enough to answer him.

“I don’t know how, but you will lose your life when the sun disappears. So, be careful, or should I say goodbye?” The old blind man gave them a smug smile before he vanished into thin air, leaving the small room in silence with only the two of them.

In the next second, once the blind man disappeared, the candles around them fluttered and then were out, leaving the darkness engulfing them. Along with that, the temperature inside the room became a little cooler.

There was a gentle sound, like a whispering wind, when Damon walked away to turn on the light.

The moment light illuminated the room, once a small rickety hut turned into an astounding bedroom with a breathtaking view of the night sky from the open floor to the ceiling window. The sound of the waves that crashed the rock could be heard, filling the room with tranquillity.

“Don’t think too much about that, you should take a rest,” Damon said, as he walked toward Xierra and stood behind her. “There is nothing that will happen to you.”

Xierra ignored that statement when she started it. “Tomorrow is a solar eclipse.” Its meat, the sun would disappear, just like what the blind man said.

She glanced at her watch. It was eight in the evening and the solar eclipse would happen around sixteen hours from now. It meant, she didn’t have much time to figure out how to prevent this, but at the same time Xierra was not into the fortune-teller's words, yet the fact that his prophecy, most of the time, was right, simply bothered her.

Meanwhile, her protector, Damon, didn’t give any reaction when he heard that and spoke again as if he heard nothing. “I will be outside.”

After saying that, Damon walked away and closed the door behind him with a soft clicking sound, indicating that Xierra had this extravagant bedroom all alone.

Damon knew what he had to do at that moment because he had followed this girl since they were little.

Xierra needed time alone to think thoroughly about what she had just heard and found a solution to this reckless superstition from the blind man.

How dare that old man say something like that to her? Did he know who he was talking about?

Xierra was not a nineteen-year-old girl, she was more than that. Her life was very important and shouldn’t be spoken so lightly.

==============

“We shouldn’t go out,” Damon said, as he opened the car door for Xierra, which she slipped into gracefully, smiling at him.

“Why?” she asked in a teasing tone. “Are you worried about me?” She waited until Damon entered the car and sat beside her, telling the driver to go.

“It is impossible to not worry about you, your life is important,” Damon replied to her when Xierra didn’t stop staring at him.

Ever since the sun rose, Damon seemed so restless, he double-checked everything and made sure all the other protectors had done their part well. No mistake would be tolerated.

“What about me?” Xierra asked again, her voice was very low so only Damon could hear her. “Do you think I am important?”

Damon turned his head to look at the girl beside him. She looked dazzling in her formal suit with a white blazer and pants in the same colour. She looked mature than her age, but then if one understood the responsibility that she needed to carry on her small shoulder, they would know that such wisdom was made by hard experiences.

“Of course, you are important,” Damon answered her without hesitation.

Today they will meet Mr. Zeets, one of the ministers in this country. He said there was something important that he had to talk about with Xierra and he needed to see her in person.

For some reason, Damon didn’t feel good about this meeting, yet Xierra wouldn’t listen and agreed to meet him today.

“I mean if I am not the ninety-nine Kairi, will you still protect me the same way you did now?” she asked with forethought.