Painful memories flashed before his eyes as he tried to ignore them all, but the constant bombardment made it hard to do so.
   He felt snippets of emotion and pain from each memory slamming into him full force as they tried to overwhelm him with grief, misery, or pain.
   There was one, however, that seemed to be outweighing the others in pain and misery, and it was one he never wanted to relive. Not ever. But he had no choice in the matter as he was whisked away into his painful past.

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"You stupid child!" Ignacio yelled at him, slapping him hard enough across the face to send him reeling into the table in their small living quarters in Ignis in arce erant. "How dare you embarrass me in front of the whole citadel today! That stunt you pulled with that one kid in your class was absolutely idiotic! You beat him half to death and continued to punch him after he had passed out! What in all of Elementa is wrong with you!" Ignacio continued to punish him physically and mentally.
   Ignatius wanted to fight back so much, but it would only result in tragedy. So he didn't, even though the fire burning in his veins desired to so much.
When Ignacio was finished with him, he was lying on the ground, gasping for air. His body was covered in bruises and blood dripped out of his mouth and nose from the severity of the punishment he received from Ignacio.
Ignacio refused to let him go to Phoebus for help, even just a little.
"This is a well deserved punishment that requires self healing on its own, not help from anyone else." Ignacio told him, and walked out of their quarters.
Ignatius laid there for who knows how long. He was in so much pain that he couldn't even move.
He swore he had at least two or three broke ribs and a broken collarbone.
When Ignacio got back, he didn't even help Ignatius up or even feel the slightest bit of remorse.
"You did this to yourself. Maybe it will teach you some control over your anger." Ignacio had hissed at him before heading into his bedroom.
   Awhile later he heard the door open as Elidi entered the quarters, and rushed over to him.
   "Ignatius, are you okay?" Elidi asked him.
   He looked up at her, and focused more on her face to realize that it wasn't Elidi at all but someone he had never seen before.
   She must have noticed the confusion on his face because she tried to get him remember people he didn't know.
"I don't know who Anahita or Zephyr are." He told her, despite her continued persistent on the matter.
Anahita—the girl in front of him—groaned.
"You're seriously telling me that you have never seen me before in your life?"
"Yes." He said.
This caused her to lay her head in hands and mutter to herself.
Feeling bad, he managed to push himself up to a sitting position—ignoring the pain coursing through out his body—and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.
He gasped as images filled his head. Images of Anahita and another person he assumed was Zephyr until he could recall everything that had happened to him these last few days.
He looked up and met Anahita's eyes that were filled with tears of joy, he assumed.
"What is this?" He asked, looking around at their scenery, hating the identical appearance to the day Ignacio beat him half to death when he was thirteen years old.
"It's not real. None of this is real." She said, smiling, and embracing him in a hug. "Thank Amarantha that you remember."
He didn't know whether to hug her back, so he just let his arms stay at his sides, feeling awkward.
Anahita then let go, blushing.
"Sorry." She mumbled, looking down.
"It's okay." He responded.
Her ocean colored eyes met his and a spark of happiness flickered into existence inside of the darkness raging within him.
Then he heard a loud booming voice echoing around them.
"Zephyr? What does she want?" Anahita asked as Zephyr continued to call for them.
"I don't—," he was interrupted as he felt himself being yanked out of dream.

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He awoke to someone shaking him and telling him to wake up.
   The person before him was blurry as first, but his eyes soon focused and Zephyr came into view with a glowing halo outlining her from the sun.
   "Are you awake yet, Hot Head?" She asked loudly.
   "Yes. So you can stop yelling in my ears." He responded, shoving himself off the ground.
   Anahita was already up, and erasing their existence by getting rid of the remains from the fire and making their campsite look like the rest of the dead forest; they had cleared the area of plant litter and dead branches when they made camp.
   "Come on, Hot Head, we got to keep on moving before The Hunters find us." She said to him, tossing him a bag filled with supplies.
   Anahita picked up her own once Zephyr was satisfied with the appearance of their former campsite.
   They set off afterwards, proceeded through the burnt forest.

At noon they stopped for a quick break.
   While he was nibbling on some weird thing that looked like bread, maybe wood; Zephyr packed the bags so who knows. Anahita plopped down next to him.
   "Did it work?" She asked.
   He had to look at her for a minute before he knew what she was talking about.
   "No." He said.
   It was the truth. He was still seeing the reoccurring memories he desperately wanted to forget.
   "Oh," she said, looking down at the ground. "I thought that would work. It worked for my brother. I thought it—,"
   "It didn't work because you can't magically wish things you don't like about yourselves out of existence. It's just not possible." Zephyr butted in, watching them from across the clearing. "What's done is done. Nothing can fix the past. You can only move forwards and hope to do better. And in Ignatius's case he just has to learn to accept his past and move forward. It's the only way to make these memories go away and to allow yourself to move on." Zephyr said as if she was speaking from experience.
   There was just something about her that seemed off. The way she knew what he was going through, like she had personal experience with being a Draconigena; he knew that she was one but that didn't mean she had gone through her transformation. And she always had her two strands of ashen blonde hair in two small braids that covered her ears; she was always rubbing that area every now and then, as if making sure her ears were covered. So what was she hiding?
"Break's over. Let's go." Zephyr ordered, standing up, and waiting for him and Anahita.
They were back on their journey, heading to Silva umbra, Shadow Forest, where it was said that the seers lived.

When the sun was beginning to set, they stopped to make camp for the night.
   "I'll take first watch since you two decided to not wake me last night." Zephyr said stiffly, seating herself against a dead tree.
   Where they were at now the ground was starting to become filled more with life and plants were popping up all over the place.
   Ignatius laid down a little ways from the fire, enjoying the warmth against his skin. It was soothing and comforting.
   He noticed that Anahita didn't like to be too close to the fire. It must be an islander thing.
   Before he closed his eyes he felt as if someone was watching him, sending chills down his spine as his hair stood in end.
   He sat up, and looked around in the darkness.
   "What is it?" Zephyr asked, looking at him intently with her lightning blue eyes with flecks of electrical yellow.
   He glanced around once more.
   "Nothing." He told her. "I guess." He muttered to himself.
   He laid down once more and closed his eyes, noticing that the eerie feeling of someone watching him was gone. For now.
   When he closed his eyes, he was once again bombarded by the millions of images and memories from his past.
   He knew that the only way to conquer his demons from the past was to accept them like Zephyr said. If she was a Draconigena that already had her transformation then his best bet was to take her advice since she may have already gone through things similarly to him.
   When his past came to haunt him he owned up to it, letting it just wash over him as he accepted what he did then and learned from it to make better choices in the future.
As he did this the memories soon faded till they were once again in the back of his mind, ready to be called upon when he needed to look back on his past to learn from his mistakes to help him make the right decisions in the future.

P.S. I feel as if this chapter wasn't very good.