[11:38 PM] Kwakado: Fire.
[11:39 PM] Kwakado:
[11:40 PM] Kwakado: Fire all around. Still far...but the light made everything so much brighter that night.
[11:40 PM] Kwakado: A Dwabi dashes barefoot through this forest. He knows it well - which roots to hop over, which branches to duck under. Silver eyes - torn green tunic. His hair is short, like his brothers'. And he carries a long, wooden staff - stained with the blood of many nations.
[11:41 PM] Kwakado: Further ahead are two men. Armored. One has a horse, and they move slow through this land they don't know. A torch in the walking one's hand helps them see. They brought the fire. They brought the death.
[11:41 PM] Kwakado: "Nothing?"
Head turns down. Big man, big axe. Sailing clothes. He's dead.
"Hm. Looks like the Dwabi drove 'em deeper in. Stubborn bastards...Gods, if they'd have just let us handle this, we'd be back home by now!!"
"...That's enough, Patro. She might still be around here...We'll search the area one more time, then report back to the Wolfskin--!!"
[11:42 PM] Kwakado: A squishing sound. The horse's hooves pull out of it, backing up. Nervous whinnying.
"Steady, Equinus--"
Rider's bow comes up, and it's nothing but trees and faraway fire. But the ground's getting wetter. Other man looks down too. Mud everywhere. Then the torch starts to dim...
[11:47 PM] Kwakado: "What the hell are you doing, Patro!"
Excuses, mumbling, shouting. Sinking.
"Just drop it, I've still got one more torch--"
A flash of blue ahead. The mud gets cold, fast. Now it's ice, going all the way to the horse's knees. Shoeless footsteps on the ice. Rider turns his bow--too late. A whip of water slithers through the air, slicing through the horse. Rider's knocked away, the walker tries to see him in the rising cloud of steam.(edited)
[11:52 PM] Kwakado: Rumbling, and the ice cracks. He falls into the frozen mud, tries to get up but his armor's too heavy, too cold. Then a searing blast of water from above. A scream. He throws his iron spear, prays to foreign gods, tears his armor off, starting with the helmet....
Then feels the point of his own spear at his throught. His eyes see Dwabi hands.
[11:54 PM] Kwakado: "Nanyo, Freyzen-i." A high voice, gentle and smooth, but sharp like ice. Hazel-hued eyes peering through the steam. With tears.
"You defile our land. You destroy our people. You dishonor, your own."
[11:58 PM] Kwakado: "Y-you're all fucking psycho...We're the good guys here, we came to get rid the pirates!"
The eyes shut, for a moment. Humming, then they open.
"..This is the cost, of that choice."
And the Freyzenese iron pierces his throat, spilling his blood into the cracks of the mud. His killer kneels down for a moment, laying a palm beside the blood.
"Este-li, Freyzen-i."
[11:59 PM] Kwakado: The Dwabi finishes his prayer to the enemy, then rises. A wave of the wooden flask. The steam floats away, mixing with the smoke of their fires. He takes a deep breath, steps forward and feels the future in his foot.
"Ma-kato---"
Arrow in the back, right where his thorny tattoos meet. He turns to raise his flask, just to take an arrow to the chest now. The Dwabi falls, and his palm strikes the ice to hold him up. It's the rider. Dwabi sends a streaming snake of water from the flask, but an arrow to the arm breaks the trance. The foreign fighter's bow goes to his back, and slow, solid footsteps crunch the ice with every step.
[12:00 AM] Kwakado: "You thought your magic tricks could scare off the knights of Freyzenwald?"
A katana slides from its sheath. He holds it up, coming closer and closer to the foe.
"Not even close. We swore to never run away from our duty to the king...."
He raises the blade, lines it up with the downed Dwabi's neck.
"...and Lady Lunarea!"(edited)
[12:04 AM] Kwakado: But he hesitates, hearing footsteps from the side. Closer, moving fast. Soldier whirls around, the blade catches a wooden staff. Different Dwabi - taller, wearing green - keeps charging, and they both fall into the melting mud.(edited)
[12:05 AM] Kwakado: A struggle. A slice. A roar from the Dwabi, who pushes his staff into the rider's face. Helmet hits the ground. Dwabi's kneeling over him now, hitting him, and hitting him, and hitting him. Blood and teeth stuck in the mud now. He keeps hitting him, crying out curses in the tongue of his people.
[12:10 AM] Kwakado: And one more, cracking the skull like the melting ice beneath it. He gets up, looking at the first Dwabi -- the staff falls to the side. He runs over to the body, turns him over. Arrows coming out of him like burnt tree trunks.
[12:12 AM] Kwakado: The wounded man's gentle voice speaks. "...Sula-e?"
His hazel eyes grow wider. A tattooed hand holds his head up, while the taller man's grey eyes shrink and ripple.
"Este-mu, Sula-e?"
[12:15 AM] Kwakado: "N-no, [I---I am here], Nel-le." The taller man - younger man - looks around with eyes like the ground. He finds the flask, lifting it, and hums frantically with sealed eyes. "[I won't let you die here...!]"(edited)
[12:22 AM] Kwakado: Nell leans his head back with a serene smile, letting out a coughing chuckle. "[I have forgotten my fear], Sula-e. [The storm was just beyond my reach]..."
Sula shakes his head, while his trembling hand tries to keep the flask in it. "[No, no,] Nel-le, [you are here. You are strong. You may have weakness later, yes?]"
[12:29 AM] Kwakado: Nell feebly pushes at Sula's arm, as his eyelids sink into little slits.
"[Hold that truth for yourself first], Sula-e. Owo Dwabi [need your strength now. Go on without me...Can't, stop until every demon is cleaned from the land.]"
But Sula is frozen in shock, tears pouring from his eyes like an untrained child. Everything stank of smoke, and death. Even the footsteps of advancing soldiers can't take him away from his beloved brother-monk.
"[But you cannot leave me!! I ask you, please...not today,] Nel-le."
[12:32 AM] Kwakado: Then comes the call of fate. A sound unlike the cry of any of the innumerable creatures of the sacred land of the Dwabi...and yet one that Sula recognizes the moment it forces itself into his ears.
[12:44 AM] Kwakado: Realization alone throws him off of Nell, into the mud, onto his back. But he crawls away, gets up, and looks away from the earth. The smoky sky shows nothing. Further ahead, there's snipers and spearmen, shouting, looking the same way.
"Dammit, already?!"
"It's her! Move!"
Pirate axes arc past, and they dive for cover. Still looking up.
"I'm out of arrows..."
"..where the fuck is Conan?! We need that furry fucker here now, or we're gonna--"
Crack!
Then fire. Fire everywhere. Like a bubbling geyser from the heart of the mountain, all over the soldiers. Their only conversation was screams. Even the trees were torn apart.(edited)
[12:45 AM] Kwakado: All Sula could do was watch. Wounded soldier gets up, scrambles to his dead friend's quiver, drawing an arrow, looking up....
[12:50 AM] Kwakado: A snake of sparks, just like Nell's water, stabs him. The bowstring breaks. Bowman too. The beating of wings. And over their bodies, comes a creature as frightening as all the Dwabi's demon drawings.
[12:57 AM] Kwakado: Same shape as the foreigners' war-beasts, but it's covered in an unearthly sky. Blacker as midnight, sparkling like stars. Wings like a bird of prey, and yet too big - coming off the sides like a ray. Its eyes hold nothing but hate, as it comes down from the smoky sky, holding the mastermind behind this nightmare.
Maybe Sula screams. Maybe he prays. But the only sound that reaches his ears, or his mind, is the fell neigh of the wonderful, terrible sky-beast before him. Yet the most horrifying part to him, as the mystic monster charges down into the woods, is that this is the second time Sula has seen her.
[12:57 AM] Kwakado: ================
[12:58 AM] Kwakado: Angrim - Post-Chapter 7
[12:58 AM] Kwakado: ================
[12:58 AM] Kwakado: Pain. Dull, searing pain. And a cold, dry darkness. That was all that Sula awoke to. Whatever place this was, it was darker than any night Sula could remember.
[12:59 AM] Kwakado: He knew he was lying down, yet nothing came to him as he looked up. And the only sensation in his feet was the feeling of rough, thick coverings tight around them. It was the same for the rest of his body.
[1:00 AM] Kwakado: "Om."
[1:01 AM] Kwakado: But this time, the Dwabi uttered it not as a means of meditation...only an observation. Om - The sound of emptiness. Hunger. Generosity. It was the the foundation of his training, to achieve this perfect void within the soul. Clear the heart of all thoughts and impulses, to turn the self into an empty vessel for the will of the gods. For the wishes of the Dwabi.
[1:01 AM] Kwakado: Yet everything was wrong. There was no Om in Sula, but all around him. His mind was filled with memories and mysteries, remorse and doom, but the void around him lacked even that. Not even the future lay within his perception.
[1:03 AM] Kwakado: Was this what lay in wait, past the end of his life? That was impossible - Sula still felt the future's fire linger on his skin, and in his eyes. Just focusing on his eyelids sent a stinging pain through his skull, making him realize just how hard it was to move now.
[1:04 AM] Kwakado: But he knew this air. This cold, empty air was the same as it was years ago. This was the beginning of Khlin - the western mountains, where he had begun the end of his life.
[1:07 AM] Kwakado: The gentle chatter of a mejiro bird confirmed this truth - he was alive, in the mountains of Angrim. But he felt no snow...and the muffled sound was that of a bird outside a room.
[1:07 AM] Kwakado: No earth beneath him - a bed, keeping him suspended in the sky.
[1:09 AM] Kwakado: And yet his eyes were starved for any signs - even darkness - of Sula's whereabouts. No things, no textures, no colors - not even the slightest taste of black before him.
[1:10 AM] Kwakado: "Oh, good morning!"
[1:11 AM] Kwakado: A young woman's voice came clearly to his ears, cutting through the void. What lie was this? No morning could be this dark. Yet her words met him as if she were standing right over him....
[1:12 AM] Kwakado: ...and that was when the truth reached him. He finally understood what this Om around him, deeper than darkness, truly was:(edited)
[1:13 AM] Kwakado: Sula was blind.(edited)
[1:13 AM] Kwakado: ========
[1:13 AM] Kwakado: END RP
[1:13 AM] Kwakado: ========
No comments:
Post a Comment