Sacrifice - An act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy -
The Request
The darkness felt endless. Or it would have felt endless if my mind hadn't been full of it, heavy and cloying, holding me tightly in the deep dreamless sleep.
Then that black weight started to lift. Something was waking me up.
There was a loud noise; it could have been described as a 'bang' if it wasn't for the prolonged scraping and shuddering tremors that reached me through the earth. It was too loud and went on too long for a 'bang'. Whatever the noise was, it wasn't what woke me. It was simply a faint echo of the first noise I had ever heard.
No, what really woke me was the feeling of warmth seeping down my face, the thick smell of iron rolling over me and the sudden spatter of heat coiling in my chest as my body started to stir once again.
My eyes snapped open and still all I could see was the dark, but I could hear so much. Screams, prayers and frantic heartbeats spluttering and shouting out high up above me.
My fingers wormed their way through the earth, pushing through it like an oar through water as I made my way up. Then my hands breached the surface, fluidly parting the thick rock as I heaved myself out.
I stretched out with relief as the empty space around me opened up and looked around.
Huh...
Dark walls surrounded me from all sides, hiding the sky and wind and freedom of open spaces from me. I jumped up once more, hands burrowing into the top of my stony cage, pulling myself through rock and wood until-
Air- real air. It flooded my senses as I took in a deep breath. The wind blew and suddenly the heady taste of iron overwhelmed my nose. There was a lot of blood... far too much blood.
Screams echoed through my skull and I looked around myself with a frown. I was standing in the remains of a strange dwelling, smashed almost beyond recognition. But that wasn't what captured my attention.
Instead my eyes instantly focused on the strange enormous creature standing before me, smiling down at me with a odd, glazed look in its eyes.
"What the fuck are you?" I asked.
It looked sort of like a human would if someone drunk on bad mead had molded its face and then stretched and inflated it in all the wrong places until it reached about ten metres high. The thing made no attempt to answer to my question, but instead, bent down and swiped its fingers at me.
I jumped back and stared at it incredulously. Did it really dare to attack a God? It obviously did not possess a very high intelligence.
Its attention seemed to be on something else now as it started to dig through the rubble, pulling something out. Pulling out a human. A new wave of scent rolled over me and suddenly I was moving.
"Oi!" I shouted running forwards, pulling back my fist as I swiftly ran up to the thing.
The human in the monster's grip looked down at me in surprise and started yelling something. It was possibly a call for help but probably a warning to run, to get away, since there was no way such a small being could take on that enormous creature.
I could feel my body. I knew what my current form looked like compared to that thing. I probably looked laughable- but hey I just woke up. Cut me some slack.
I ignored the human's unintelligible words and barreled forwards, snapping forth my fist as fast as lightning.
The thing's leg snapped clean in half, bloody chunks of flesh cannoning outwards, sending it mutely crashing down to the earth.
I ran to the human and pulled it- oh it's a female- pulled her out of the smiling monster's tight grip. The monster who's leg was already growing back...
...what the hell have I woken up to?
"How do I stop it?" I asked the human as I took her in my arms, jumping back out of range with her.
She stared at me through a haze of pain, shock, and confusion.
"Ai duohn't uhndurstahnd yu," she said.
Well, that was great. A different language. How fucking long had I been asleep?
I sighed, placing the woman down on the stony earth before walking myself back into the monster's reaches.
"Stop now or I will plough you into the earth, literally!" I shouted out, projecting my meaning not only in the words of mortals but in a forceful wave of feelings and emotions that should scream its meaning to human, beast, or animal. The thing was obviously none of these things though as it ignored my warning and reached for me once more.
It clearly wanted to devour me with its drooling hungry gaze. I found this both ironic and off-putting.
"Okay," I smiled toothily, launching myself forwards, earth hardening around my fingers to form fine claws as I ripped through its outstretched palm and up through its stomach and chest.
A red pool of stomach acid and blood flooded out of the hole. Arms, legs, and mutilated body parts fell onto the earth with horrible sloppy thumps. A miniature human hand slid towards me in the rush of fluid and my eyes took on a green glow.
As of that moment, that thing was officially dead. It didn't seem to understand that little fact though, pushing forwards its teeth to try to chew me in half, ignoring the gaping crater in its stomach.
I took another deep, red-soaked breath and pulled my hands up. Rocks and earth spiralled up in two thick growing columns as I raised my hands. With a quick tug on my right hand the first column turned in on itself then shot forwards, stabbing the monster through its chest, all the way up into its skull.
It still continued to squirm, held tight in place but grin unfading, not giving up its worthless grip on life.
I growled in a heated mix of frustration and deranged joy as I raised my left palm and sliced the pillar of earth and rock over the creature in all the different ways I could think of. A flurried rush of ripe blood and wet flesh heaved sickeningly beneath my onslaught until finally I thought to decapitate the thing. I had barely placed the towering spike though its neck before it shuddered and became still.
I watched it for a long moment, not quite trusting the creature's stillness. But the monster's flesh was now melting away- in an admittedly nightmare inducing way- so I trusted that the weird creature was finally dead, letting it crash to the earth under a pile of rubble.
Panting raggedly, I turned away from the crumbling corpse and made my way to the human. Her blood scent washed over me anew and I briefly wondered if I would ever get away from the heady smell for even one moment.
Probably not given what I am, I thought with a deep puffing sigh as I knelt down next to the fading woman.
She stared unblinkingly out at me through pain-hazed eyes. I took too long to defeat that thing; she had been bleeding heavily with no help for a while.
With a wavering hand, she slowly reached up to cup my face. It was soft and gentle and took me wholly by surprise.
"Dahnk yuoo," she muttered.
I held still, eyes wide, as I found my mind completely consumed with the soft warmth against my cheek, before leaning forwards, carefully placing my forehead onto hers and looking deep into her dark eyes.
"I recognise your blood, it fell to the earth and woke me," I whispered into her mind, my eyes softly watching her as she realised the meaning of what I said. "I want to thank you,"
She gazed at me, her deep eyes registering shock as images flashed into her mind- a large ageless bird taking flight, a black haired mother crying into dead brown grass, a bear looking out at a star flecked ocean, a new man standing tall with shimmering gold flecked eyes and a small bittersweet smile on his lips.
"Give me your request and I will fulfill it," I breathed into the pool of silence surrounding us.
"...I have a daughter...took her in many years ago-" she broke off suddenly, spluttering as blood surged up her throat.
I calmly waited, hands holding her steady as she spoke back along the link.
"Save her…save Mikasa…save them all!"
I blinked. Then I blinked again. Then I smiled and kissed her bloodied forehead.
"Granted."
Her smile was soft and pained but unwavering as the soft glow in her eyes faded and her body became simple flesh. My throat tightened as I sat up and looked away from the corpse. I didn't even know her name.
I held no weight in the final matters of life and death. It was unlikely that I could have changed the woman's fate... but if she had wished it I would have tried. Instead she wished for the safety of her adopted daughter, Mikasa. Offering her own life for that of another...
-And 'them all' which- when thinking on it- was very vague and could prove difficult to achieve. But, again, I would try my damn hardest to grant both parts of her request.
Standing up, I unwrapped the scarf from the body and closed its lifeless eyes before taking in a deep breath from the red material.
They definitely would have different scents as they were not blood related, but the little girl would also be most likely to have her scent on her. Sure enough, underneath the stench of blood and meat and urine that clogged up the city, a faint trail of the woman's herb-like scent made its way into my nostrils.
I started running. Then I stopped short and looked at the stones beneath my feet.
I have always been able to know a lot about the earth- how every stone was made, the history of the steps on a grain of sand and the ancient monstrous bones within it- I just had to have focus and ask the right question.
As I placed my hand on the stones, image after image filled my mind, all blurring and shooting past so fast that I almost lost them.
A girl with black hair was being pulled away by a man with blond hair, struggling as their combined weight pounded on the rock. I looked at her for a moment, trying to memorise her face but the image blurred and flashed past, revealing a gigantic foot, squashing the stone flat. Heading the same way.
I wrenched my hand back from the stone and stared at it. There were more of those soulless abominations?!
I ran forwards, following the scent, scarf tight in my hands.
"Mikasa!" I called out, looking around irritably as a new flood of blood washed over the air, drowning out her scent.
There was a panicked yell of a human not too far from my right, male, too young to be the blond man.
I hesitated, thinking of my promise to the mother.
Save them all…
With a growl, I threw myself forwards through the long alley to where a young blond haired boy was scrabbling desperately over broken rocks, away from a lumbering deformed monster.
This one's head looked twice the size it should have been, limbs weedy and thin but somehow supporting its massive head and protruding stomach. It was disgusting.
Quickly moving forward, I picked up one of the larger pieces of rubble and threw it at the creature, squashing its enormous head flat into the ground with a clacking squelch.
The blond boy looked back and tripped over himself as he saw the state of his attacker. The boy seemed to be in shock. Dumbfounded, he simply stared at it, then at me as I ran up to him and picked him up.
"You alright?" I asked.
He stared uncomprehendingly out of the biggest fucking pair of blue eyes I had ever seen. He blurted out something odd (I think I caught the word "save") grabbing at my loose dirt stained shirt with tears budding in his eyes.
Damn I forgot again. Different language.
I sighed and turned away from the scene- holding the boy tight in my arms as he sobbed into my chest- sniffing the air and looking around myself for signs of Mikasa.
The boy seemed to be saying something now, squirming in my arms but I wasn't really paying attention, instead I was breathing in the wind and looking intently around.
Ah... There it is.
In one fluid movement I scooped the boy into my arms and ran forward again, the boy making squeaking noises as I ploughed through rubble and over broken corpses. He then started grabbing at me even more, pointing at something to his right. I spared a brief look that way and skidded to a halt, rocks breaking under my feet as I twisted and changed direction.
Damn. I hadn't realised my scent tracking was so off.
I felt incredibly grateful to the blond human as we caught up with the black haired figure cradled in the blond man's arms, making their way to a crowd of humans.
"Mikasa!" The blond boy called out, squirming out of my arms.
I let him go, jogging gently beside him as the child desperately threw himself forward.
So he knows her then huh...
The girl looked up, her eyes glazed and almost dead before they focused on the boy, suddenly bursting into life. She pushed herself out of the man's grip and threw herself at the blond boy, pulling him right into her arms, burying her face in his shoulder and pulling him tight against her. I felt almost like laughing at the surprised squawk that the blond gave. I guessed that the girl didn't often give out such shows of affection.
The blond man started talking, first to the two children, then to me with a questioning expression.
Again I had no fucking clue what he was saying. Instead I bent down next to the two humans and waited for them to emerge from their shared grief.
I couldn't feel any more of those... things around us but the older looking human obviously felt like they were taking a risk, stirring them from their embrace with hesitant yet urgent words.
"Mikasa," I said, and her grey eyes snapped to me then to the scarf I held in my hands before her.
The young blond started talking as Mikasa's trembling hand lifted and hesitated to take the scarf. The boy's voice trailed off however and his sky-hued eyes widened as he saw what I was holding. Slowly, carefully I took it and loosely wrapped it around her head, burying her in the swathes of material as she stared at me with wide eyes.
I didn't smile as I knelt beside her. I didn't try to offer her comfort. I looked her dead in the eye and spoke my promise.
"I'm going to look after you now Mikasa,"
They all stared at me again, confusion clear on their faces.
...Bloody hell. I really would have to do something about the language barrier if I was to be this girl's guardian.
But then there was a spark of energy echoing through the earth and air and a great trembling under my feet, and all thoughts of language faded.
Picking up the two children in one arm each, I called to the older blond to move. If he didn't understand my words he definitely understood my tone as we threw ourselves forward, the man getting out of the way just in time for an enormous red fleshed and yellow plated foot to destroy the space in which we stood.
My eyes followed after it as it threw itself forward, full of confusion. That was a very different being compared to the others I had encountered. For one thing, it had an intent. I could feel it, deep and burning, even if I could not understand it. For a moment I thought about going after it, but the light weight of the children in my arms soon put a stop to that notion.
The man yelled something then waved at me and pointed me towards where the thick scent of humans emanated, before running after the Giant, jumping up and flying through the air in a way that took me wholly by surprise.
I gawped after him as he flew, pulled up by strings through the buildings. That was… different…
"Protect," I muttered, trying to focus myself back onto the current problem with a gentle shake of my head. I shifted the two humans up so their legs and torsos were supported against me, and started towards the mob-like mass of the rest of their kind.
It was only when we got to the dock with the strange boats did the result of my earlier decision become clear.
Humans screamed in fear and despair as an ear bursting crash of scraping stone and smashing rubble echoed through the city.
I looked around and saw part of the strange white structure surrounding the huge village crumble into the earth as the back of the strange giant faded into steam beyond it.
There was a hush as the humans around me stood frozen, staring at the sight with wide eyes, mindless in their fear and shock. Then the hush ended. Sobs and screams echoed through the city.
I looked around at them all in surprise.
Why are they so upset?
I got even more confused as the blond child started to cry desperately against my neck, fingers scraping at my white tunic as he breathed soft hitching words. I ignored the mild discomfort and tickling feeling of sobbing breath on my neck and turned my head to look at Mikasa.
The girl was quiet for a long moment, looking at the hole then at me; then she started pointing at the river and saying something.
I brought my head to meet hers and looked in her eyes, startling her slightly as she stared back, cheeks flushed. She hesitantly started again.
"We need to get on a boat."
I nodded at this, cementing the words and their meaning in my head as I made my way forwards and through the crowd of terrified scrabbling humans.
I walked backwards through the mass, weaving and dodging when I could, using my body as a shield and battering ram when I couldn't. Soon we made our way to the front but to the dismay of the children the boat was already leaving.
The hell to that!
I threw myself forwards, ignoring the yells of the humans, the desperate grabs from the green cloaked humans and the panicked shouts from within my arms.
Shouts and yells which all faded into disbelieving silence as I lightly landed on the wooden railing of the boat and placed the two children down in one of the cramped gaps in the squashed crowd of humans. The children were staring at me with round disbelieving eyes.
The other humans were staring too but the sight of their broken wall kept drawing their attention too and soon they were wrapped up in their mysterious grief once again. I sighed at their strange behaviour, looking around myself and at the huge number of humans surrounding me.
Hell, were there always so many humans?
I suppose it's an evacuation of a large settlement, I thought as I jumped down from the railing, a space immediately opening up around me, but I don't think I have ever seen so many of their kind crammed into one place before.
I looked back at the humans still on the side of the bank. Another boat was being pulled up, a much smaller one this time but the humans swarmed over it like ants in their desperate struggle to get out. To get away.
It was slightly unnerving.
The fact that we were now moving over water didn't help much either.
Water is amazing. Silky and silver, still and achingly blue or rough and bright white. I always admired it and loved to dip my fingers in the soothing liquid but my roots were not from water, at least not directly.
The only water I had domain over was the secret rivers in the earth, dark and hidden deep deep below everything, never seeing the light of night nor day.
But in my true element I was the pulse of stone and sand, the heat deep in the bones of the world, the seeds that bloomed into all manner of creation.
And here I was bobbing along on a river in a strange jumbled human contraption surrounded by screaming and wailing mortals.
I rubbed my head, trying to ease the building headache.
What the hell is going on?
