It's Snowing in My Mind
It happened on the day of the eclipse, after that it started to snow. It's was odd, but that's what happened. Now the day of the eclipse returns, every five years the eclipse comes to rid Lycans of their power of transformation for a period of time. It happened that day long enough for the "monsters" to take my pack away from me.
I sat on my bed looking out the floor-to-ceiling window. It was a sunny day but the moon was moving into place, into place to remind me of my living nightmare. I never wanted to see another eclipse ever again, but…I have to, I'm still alive for a reason, to avenge my clan. Once I'm no longer a cub and much, much stronger I will.
I had my small legs brought to my body, my arms holding them there. I was shuddering, memories flooding back. I just wanted this day to be over with already. "Just breathe, Amaya, breathe…" I whispered to myself as my heart began to race. I layed my head on my goose feather filled pillow, covered myself with my crème silk bed sheet. I whimpered when that strange feeling hit my body again when the eclipse became complete, "Not this again…" My eyes brimmed with unshed tears. "Relax, go to sleep, it'll be over before you know." I closed my eyes, letting the tears escape from my eyes.
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A tall silver kitsune yawned; his eyes closed tightly, his mouth opened wide, his fangs flashed. His face returned to normal afterwards. "Hey Yoko, the guys and I were wondering if today would be a good day to go on a raid?" A black haired bat demon approached the kitsune.
Yoko looked at him flatly, "Do you know what today is, Kuronue?" Yoko merely asked.
"Yes, of course I do." Kuronue realized his mistake.
"And today is never a good day." Yoko looked at a photo on his desk, a beautiful female midnight "furred" Lycan stood smiling between him and Kuronue.
"Sorry…" Kuronue sighed, and then something dawned on him, "Have you seen Amaya?"
"Come to think of it, no. I'm a baka, I should've known better than to leave her alone today." Yoko rose from his seat and onto his feet.
"We oughta go check on her." Kuronue said as Yoko walked up to him, both thieves left the room and went to Amaya's room.
An hour had passed since the eclipse began and it still remained high in the sky. "Cub…?" Yoko knocked on the door lightly as he listened for any movement, when he didn't hear anything, Yoko and Kuronue walked into the silent room to see Amaya asleep in her bed, not moving at all.
"Fast asleep, that's somethin' I wasn't expecting." Kuronue said. Yoko's instincts were telling him something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what.
"Cub?"Yoko made his way over to Amaya's bed, he sat down on the edge of it, "Cub, wake up." Yoko rubbed Amaya's back, trying to get Amaya to revive from her unconscious state. "Cub…cub?" Yoko's voice rose a little when Amaya didn't respond at all.
"What's wrong?" Kuronue stood at the foot of the bed.
"I can't get her to wake up." Yoko stated as he lightly shook Amaya, "Get Kaeda in here, now."
Kuronue nodded before rushing out of the room.
################################ (Several minutes later)
An elderly, but healthy woman walked in wearing a priestess kimono. "You summoned me, Milord?" The woman had her hands clasped behind her back, her hair tickling the tips of her fingers. Her arched back made her appear heavyset. Kaeda was a priestess and a healer who lived close by the band's palace; she was summoned by the band when they had someone too injured for them to handle on their own.
"It's the cub," Yoko stood up as Kaeda walked over to the bed. She looked at Amaya, Amaya was curled up in her bed, shivering, and whimpering.
"I don't see any injuries." Kaeda uncovered the cub and didn't see a single cut or bruise.
"She's not injured," Yoko stated, "We can't get her to wake up." Yoko sat in a chair that he moved beside the bed.
"Is she a Lycan?" Kaeda feared the answer.
"Yes, why?" Yoko answered. Yoko didn't see why Amaya being a Lycan cub had to do with anything; he just wanted his cub to wake up.
"Weren't you aware that if a Lycan falls asleep during an eclipse they slip into a coma and soon die?" Kaeda asked. A wave of fear washed over Yoko and Kuronue.
"What?" The thieves gasped.
"Mulikyani said nothing about that." Kuronue stated. Kaeda pulled her things from the hallway and in to the room and went back to the bed.
"Can you wake her up?" Yoko asked as Kaeda stroke Amaya's forehead.
"How long has she been like this?" Kaeda didn't take her eyes off of Amaya.
"As far as we know; not long." Kuronue answered as Yoko was silently trying to take everything in.
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"Weren't you aware that if a Lycan falls asleep during an eclipse they slip into a coma and soon die?" I heard a voice say in the sky. I looked up at the grey sky, frozen rain drops fell on to my young porcelain face.
"Die? I don't want to die. Where am I? Wait…this is my mind." I was sitting in a white blanket covered forest, the trees were scattered, hardly providing a shelter for me from the white frozen rain, "Is this a dream, what's going on? Yoko-sama, Kuronue-sama!" I yelled for my masters, a whistling breeze was the only response I got, "YOKO-SAMA!" I still got no vocal response.
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"There is one way, but it's incredibly dangerous." Kaeda said as she flipped through a book.
"What is it?" Kuronue and Yoko wondered in unison.
"You have to wake her up from the inside." Kaeda closed the book she was skimming and switched it out with another one.
"How are we supposed to do that?" Yoko asked as he patted a cold wet cloth over Amaya's sweaty face.
"There's a spell. It sends a soul into the victim's mind, and the sent soul must wake the victim before the time limit is up." Kaeda switched books again.
"What happens when the soul doesn't wake them by the time the limit expires?" Kuronue wondered as he leaned against wall behind him.
"The soul remains in the victim's mind and they both die." Kaeda answered, "So which one of you is willing to go?" Kaeda asked the thieves. She finally found the needed spell.
"I'll do it." Yoko stated as he stood up. Kuronue asked him if he was positive if he wanted to go through with it, "I'm sure. "
"Very well then, let's begin." Kaeda used something to make a circle on the floor that Yoko was supposed to stand in, and she made mark on Yoko as well. She marked his forehead, cheeks, his bare chest, and stomach. Kaeda began to chant the spell in an ancient language that was no longer used except by priests, priestesses, and healers.
Yoko felt hot all over, he started to feel lightheaded, he's spirit began to slip from him, a crimson light shown off the floor and from marks on Yoko's body. He blacked out as soon as Kaeda chanted the last word of the spell. Yoko's body collapsed to the ground as his soul left it; his soul lingered in the air before it shot into Amaya's body.
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"It must've worked." Yoko woke up to find himself in a forest covered in snow, it was snowing lazily in every direction, "But what am I doing in a forest?" Yoko looked around, he listened for any noise; he heard nothing, there was no one around; just him, "Cub?" Yoko called for Amaya, there was no answer. "Amaya! Where are you?" The silence around him, made Yoko feel uneasy. "It's so quiet." Then Yoko heard nothing at all, Yoko spun around when he sensed something run past him.
Yoko reached under his hair, pulled out a rose, and transformed into his Rose Whip. Then he remembered that Kaeda said that it was dangerous to use his weapon within Amaya's mind, so he put it away. "Who's there? Show yourself!" Yoko moved again when he heard a rustle in the bushes close by.
A shadow jumped out from the bushes, it landed delicately on the cold ground behind the kitsune; Yoko turned around. "Yoko-sama?" The figure turned around to face Yoko.
"Cub, is that you?" The small figure looked up at the kitsune. It was Amaya.
"What are you doing here?" Amaya wondered, her voice wavered a bit.
"I'm here to wake you up." Yoko said walking over to the cub.
"No! I don't want to wake up!" Amaya slapped Yoko's hand away as he reached out to her.
"Cub if you don't wake up, you'll die, is that what you want?" Yoko said in an unnecessary harsh tone. Amaya visibly flinched at the tone that Yoko used.
"It snowed that day too." Amaya stated randomly. Yoko looked at Amaya with a curious look. "Of course the snow wasn't able to cover… to cover the blood."
"Cub, where are we?" Yoko asked.
"We're in my mind." Amaya answered.
"I know that, I mean where in your mind are we?" Yoko got more specific.
"This is where I was after the raid." Amaya answered without looking up.
"So this is a memory."
"No it's a place in my mind, where it always snows, where it's always quiet, where nothing can hurt me." Amaya still had her eyes locked on the ground; she wrapped her arms around herself.
"Cub, this isn't good for you to stay here; all this nothingness is going to drive you mad." Yoko watched the cub sit in the snow.
"You don't know what's good for me, this isn't your mind." Amaya said with a slight angry tone.
"Cub, you need to wake up! I know you feel safe here, but it's a trick; you being here all alone with nothing is going to drive you insane." Yoko got on a knee, grabbed Amaya's arms, and spoke in harsh tone again.
"No!" Amaya's hand glowed with power, she blasted Yoko and made him disappear, "That's not true, nothing can hurt me here, I'm safe; mama said I'm safe here."
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Yoko jolted awake and up with a gasp, he breathed heavily as sweat ran down his face. "What happened?" Kaeda was expecting Yoko to come back for another fifteen minutes.
"Amaya, she pushed me out of her mind." Yoko stated as Kuronue helped him to his feet, "I failed; I couldn't convince her to wake up." Yoko clamped his eyes shut in shame.
"You did all that you could, Yoko." Kuronue said.
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I walked around. What have I done? I just attacked Yoko-sama. Then he just disappeared like he wasn't even there. "That had to be some sort of trick; Yoko-sama would never touch me or talk to me like that."
I stopped walking when I remembered what he told me, "Cub, this isn't good for you to stay here; all this nothingness is going to drive you mad."
Nothingness? This is my mind, why it would be nothingness? Then I thought of something, "There's no one here but me." I felt incredibly stupid after that hit me, "Yoko-sama! Yoko-sama!" I fell to my knees in tears, "YOKO-SAMA!"
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This was the longest eclipse he had ever seen. Yoko sat in the chair beside Amaya's bed, his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped together against his forehead, his eyes were shut. Tears slowly traced his cheeks, his eyes flew open when he heard a small voice call out to him "Yoko-sama, why are you crying?"
Yoko looked up; he looked over at the bed. Right there in front him Amaya layed. She looked at him with an innocent look. "Cub…" Yoko looked at the Lycan surprised, Kaeda said that Amaya would never awake, but here she was wide awake. Amaya went to him and wrapped her arms around the kitsune's neck.
"I love you, Yoko-sama." Amaya whispered in Lycan into Yoko's hair.
Yoko continued to cry, but this time happily, he hugged the cub, and whispered back in Lycan, "I love you too, cub."
Now Yoko and Amaya now shared a stronger bond more than ever, she let him in her mind, he knew what her mind was like now, he knew her save place, and he knew why it always snows in her mind.
Fin