The evening sky hung heavy and gray, like a warning of wrath waiting to fall from above. Leaves drifted down slowly, like a silent omen of sorrow yet to come. Andini walked quietly among the forest shadows, her body in harmony with the whispering wind.
But something was different today. The wind carried more than the scent of soil and damp foliage.
There was a metallic smell. Acrid. Blood.
Andini stopped. Her heart beat slowly but sharply. Her eyes narrowed, her ears sharpened. In an instant, she knew, something was happening not far from here. Screams. Clashing steel. Rushed footsteps.
A battle.
She crept closer, a shadow born of mist. From the height of a sturdy tree, she saw it, a burning carriage, wrecked on the forest road. Several neatly uniformed guards fought fiercely against a group of men clad in black. Their faces were hidden.
"They're not bandits," Andini whispered. "Their movements are too coordinated… too trained."
Tension gripped her. Memories struck like daggers, three assassins, her body tumbling down a deadly ravine, survival snatched from death itself.
Should she interfere?
She was no savior. She was a fugitive. The world had long erased her name from the list of those worth saving.
But then came the voice.
"Help…! Help...!!"
A woman's voice. Faint, choked with fear, but strong enough to pierce the fog of logic and strike Andini's conscience. Her body moved before her mind could resist.
She slipped through the chaos like a breeze. A young swordsman stood with a gaping wound in his shoulder, shielding a sobbing pregnant woman behind him. The woman's eyes were fixed on him, holding onto hope that was barely breathing.
Andini saw it in a single second, they wouldn't survive without help.
But help came too late.
Two attackers lunged at once, and one blade pierced through the swordsman's chest. Blood erupted like a dark storm. His body fell slowly, surrendering its soul to the earth.
"My husband!!!" The woman's scream tore through the sky.
And something inside Andini shattered.
With a silent cry, she summoned the Wind. Air hissed, leaves whirled, and her body shot forward like a spear. The two attackers barely had time to turn. One was hurled against a tree, bones crushed by the pressure of solid air. The other's throat split open, blood spraying like a crimson mist.
Silence returned, but it brought no peace. Only emptiness.
Andini rushed to the woman. Her face was pale, her body trembling.
"Who… who are you?" the woman gasped. Her face showed fear... and pain.
"I'm no one. But I'm here to help you," Andini replied, her gaze drawn to the blood trickling between the woman's legs.
"I… I'm going to give birth…" she whispered weakly.
Andini held her breath. She glanced around, no safe place in sight. But there was no time. She carried the woman away from the battlefield. Beneath a large tree, far enough from the carnage, Andini laid her cloak on the earth and gently settled the woman down. She knelt beside her, holding her hand as if they had known each other forever.
"Breathe deep," she said firmly. "Push. I'm here."
Andini extended her hand, channeling a small portion of the Wind's power into the woman's body, not to heal, but to calm. To lighten the weight of pain that nearly tore her from consciousness. She didn't know if it would work, but she couldn't just stand by.
The woman's body trembled violently. Her screams echoed, but she endured, fighting for the fragile life within her.
"You're strong… hold on…" Andini whispered, as if reassuring not only the mother, but herself.
After some time, the cries of a newborn shattered the stillness of the forest.
A baby boy, red and tiny, cried out with all the defiance of life.
Andini held him in her hands, hands that had never welcomed life before.
The mother was shaking, her hands reaching, asking to hold the baby.
Andini placed him gently in her arms. The woman clutched him tightly. Her body was fading, but her embrace overflowed with love.
Tears ran down her cheeks.
"At last… I get to see you…" she whispered, barely audible.
But behind her faint smile, sorrow lay deep. Her eyes soaked in the baby's face, as if she wanted to carve it into her soul forever.
"I know… my time…" she murmured.
Andini could only grip her hand tighter.
"Don't speak. You'll be alright," Andini said, though she knew it was a lie.
The woman looked into her eyes. "Thank you… you saved me. And… him…" she glanced at the baby in her arms.
"Please… please take care of him…" her voice cracked, full of pleading. "I have no one else… If you… if you have even a little kindness… treat him… as your own…"
She wept, not from pain, but from the ache of parting. She knew she would never raise her child. Never hear his laughter. Never see his first steps.
Andini nodded slowly, emotions clawing at her throat.
"I'll protect him. I... swear it."
The woman drew one long, final breath, then smiled faintly, gazing at her baby with eyes brimming with love.
"His name… is Dadang Gumilar… Gumilar… May he shine… and be honest… His father… was only a merchant… We were just passing through… just ordinary people…"
Her eyes gently closed, never to open again.
Silence descended once more, this time, heavy and final. Andini looked down at the sleeping infant in her arms, then at the lifeless body of the mother.
She dug a grave with the help of the Earth element she had begun to master. Beneath the great tree, she laid the woman to rest. Upon the fresh soil, she placed a wildflower growing nearby.
"I'm sorry I came too late."
It was all she could say.
The baby slept in her arms, his tiny body warm. He didn't know what he had lost. But Andini knew. And in silence, she vowed:
"I couldn't save them. But I will save you."
Andini rose, holding the baby close. As she walked away, she looked toward the battlefield, now quiet. The guards lay lifeless, their bodies bloodied and dust-covered. Not one had survived.
The carriage was a scorched ruin, smoke curling from its ashes. Nothing remained but destruction and the vanishing tracks of those who had taken everything, everything except one: the small life cradled in her arms.
She turned one last time to the smoldering wreckage.
"These weren't just bandits," she murmured.
Their attacks had been too calculated, too ruthless. No plundering, no ransacking. They had come for blood, not loot.
But why?
The couple had claimed to be mere merchants. Just ordinary people. Just passing through.
So why had they been hunted down with such precision?
Her grip on the baby tightened. A sense of unease slithered down her spine.
Something about all this was wrong... very wrong.
And somewhere deep inside, Andini knew: saving this child had entangled her in something far greater than she could yet understand.
The wind whispered again, rustling the trees like secrets yet to be told.
Andini pressed forward, not knowing that the answers she sought... were already watching her from the shadows.