Light Of The Moon
ZWEI sat close to the fire, stoking the cinders with the charred tip of a twisted twig. Outside, the rain fell upon the earth. The mouth of his cave was bordered with darkness, though his fire scattered dim orange light against it. Beyond and into the night, there lay a landscape of trodden grass and hard ground; it was certain that the rain was a blessing. Moonlight, faint yet true, barely pierced a darkened, overcast sky. ZWEI knew it to be there, however; it soothed him somewhat. But he was deaf to its lullaby. Sleep would not come for him. And so he sat there upon the rock he had deemed suitable, elbow resting on his knee as his hand cupped his chin. The rustle of the cinders as he poked life into them and the soft hiss of the rain slowly merged into a single note of a pleasant song that kept complete darkness from his mood.
"ZWEI". He didn't look up, or respond. Of course, he knew the voice.
"ZWEI, you can't sleep", she said to him, her voice floating upon wings to him.
"I am not tired", he said after a moment's pause.
"No, you cannot sleep", she told him, her voice and presence drawing nearer.
"There is a difference, I assume".
"Day, and night", she responded, and now she appeared at the corner of his vision. Her form was made obscure by the dance of shadows cast by the small fire, seeming to melt into and out of reality even as she remained still. ZWEI considered her without turning to her for a moment.
"I am not tired. I do not wish to sleep. There is no difference, no hidden meaning", he told her with a tone of finality clipping his voice. It was a statement made to end the conversation before it began.
"ZWEI, come".
She spoke softly to him, her voice seeming to drift away as the words came to him. He turned his head: she was walking away from him, towards the mouth of the cave and the night beyond, an eerie light emanating from a source before her, blocked from his sight by her body, though he knew it well enough already. She didn't call to him again, though he did not move immediately, but they both knew she only needed to bid him once. He would act in time.
He emerged from the dark mouth of their shelter for the night. As soon as he had stepped away from the fire he had probably sat before stoking for hours, he felt the chill that pervaded the cave. Immediately, he felt a weight of guilt; Viola had carried herself to a corner of the cave when they had discovered it and deemed it choice for the night, and not once had he invited her to share the warmth he had kindled at its heart. He cast his eyes down in frustration as he realised this, the tip of his sword scoring a line through the sodden ground. He should apologize, he chastised himself.
The rain quickly gathered him to itself, and he was left dripping water as though it leaked from his pores. He couldn't complain though, considering his selfishness. Turning, he found Viola, his friend and journeying companion. Purple light illuminated the ground beneath the ethereal orb upon which she sat, her legs crossed neatly with her intertwined hands sitting upon her left knee. Her feet hung above the ground, perfectly still. He could not see this sight and remain grim faced. It was simultaneously cheeky and elegant, and yet from the expression she wore, one would think she saw no humour in it. But ZWEI knew her well. She knew him better.
Rain fell around her - but never upon her. An unfair advantage, of course. The pattern of the rain formed her outline, but it struck an invisible barrier that seemed to envelope her entire body, a barrier that itself seemed to be shaped to match every contour of her form. She wore her hood and curled, silver hair fell from the innards, framing her face and seeming to intensify the red gleam of her eyes. Her haunting gaze was fixed on ZWEI as he turned to face her. He realised that she was right, though she had said nothing. He needed this.
Pushing aside the guilt that weighted his conscious for a time, ZWEI reached into the realm of time and space, exerting his iron will upon a force that was arguably much greater than he would ever amount to be. But his will was a vice upon the otherworldly beast, their relationship was in no doubt, though the beast tried him from time to time. He relished those moments.
"Come forth, EIN!" ZWEI shouted into the night. He could feel the beast plunging through realms he knew or understood little to nothing of, rushing to come to his side, tearing through the fabric of time and space until it reached its master. It burst forth into the night of his world with an attack borne of his intention, an armoured fist made yet more dangerous with an affixed punch dagger lancing towards Viola's chest. But of course, the poised and graceful Viola was already in motion. Sliding easily from the orb, which circled quickly around her body and positioned itself before her chest, Viola twirled aside. The punch dagger of EIN ripped through the space she had occupied not a moment later.
"Go!" Viola sent forth her command into the depths of the night, and the ethereal orb that shone with eerie, purple light shot towards ZWEI with clear purpose. ZWEI whipped his head out of the way in good time, bidding EIN to attack as he hefted his sword and swung for Viola's torso. The orb cycled quickly around his back, a blur that solidified only when it intercepted the strike of EIN, causing the wolf-headed beast's strike to slip harmlessly behind Viola's back. At the same time, she thrust her palm towards ZWEI, repelling him with magical force. His balance thrown, ZWEI's strike went wild and missed Viola by practically miles. Undeterred, he sent forth EIN once again, embedding a dogged, unrelenting will in the beast.
EIN pressed a violent assault upon Viola, punch daggers knifing through the air with the intent to kill, aiming straight for the heart of its target. The roar of the beast punctuated the song of battle that the ZWEI and Viola had struck up. His grunts as he swung his blade at tricky angles, forcing Viola to sidestep into the path of EIN; her calm, unhurried commands to the orb as she sent it time and again into the path of EIN's punch daggers or ZWEI's sword, repelling the other with a potent magical force that staggered whoever it was aimed at.
The orb suddenly struck ZWEI across the face, swiping at his eyes like a claw, and as he recoiled, ZWEI knew that Viola was changing the flow of the fight, switching from defence to offence. He positively hated this moment, more so because it always showed him that the fight had at no point been in his control, that Viola had held the reigns from the very beginning. Even before the fight had begun.
She pressed her attack with unnatural fury, one would not look upon her form and think her capable of it. Upon the fingers of her right hand sat claw-tipped armour rings, more an accessory than a weapon, but if one let Viola get to work with it, it would be considered just as deadly as a conventional weapon. Launching herself at ZWEI, Viola directed the orb to her back as EIN stalked after her, moving through the shimmering curtains of rain with a blood-curdling growl. The orb clashed time and again with the punch daggers of EIN, punctuating the soft hiss of the rain with the strange sound of the ringing of metal upon an insubstantial object.
ZWEI struck with the intent to kill; Viola had forced him to fight her that way. It was a strange agreement they had settled into, though they fought with the intent to kill each other, they trusted the other to avoid falling into the path of a vicious strike, or not pulling back one's head quickly enough to avoid having one's eyes ripped to shreds. Swiping the sword down towards Viola's skull, ZWEI watched her slip out of the path of his strike, pivoting on her heel and coming back around with a swipe for his eyes. He blocked her arm with his forearm, the strength behind her strike jarring his arm. He turned his block into an elbow strike, aiming for Viola's nose. The whistle of her orb lancing through the air alerted him, but his reactions were too slow. It struck him squarely to the side of the head. But where he faltered, EIN launched itself forward.
Viola turned quickly, crossing her arms before her face. EIN struck true - and his punch daggers clanged off the magical barrier she had erected around herself, though the strength of the blow staggered her.
"Dance!" she called into the night, repelling EIN once again with magical force. ZWEI tasted blood on his tongue, and he cursed as the orb filled his sight once more. Whipping his head aside, he narrowly avoided it, but now it was behind him. He ducked low and half-turned. The orb whistled over his left shoulder and ZWEI struck upwards at it, bidding EIN to return to his side in the same breath. The great, silver beast filled his sight in a moment, posing as a shield against the flurry of orb attacks. ZWEI stood back to back with it as the orb circled swiftly around them, probing for openings. But focusing entirely on the orb left Viola utterly unattended. EIN growled as it batted away the orb, and ZWEI looked up to see Viola soar graceful over them, half turning through her somersault to face them.
"EIN!" ZWEI called. The beast roared and spun about, slicing through the air towards her neck. At the same time, ZWEI swiped viciously for Viola's knees as she landed and recovered her balance. Belatedly, he realised that he had created a situation that was impossible for Viola to avoid. Later still, he realised that he was forgetting who he was dealing with.
The orb swept around from seemingly nowhere, once again intercepting EIN with a solid strike, forcing the arc of its arm higher so that it passed harmlessly over Viola's head. At the same time, she crouched momentarily before launching herself upwards at ZWEI. Her elbow hit him solidly in the chin, a moment later, the orb struck him solidly in the exact same spot. ZWEI felt his feet part from the ground and heard the roar of an angered EIN. Then, the night embraced him as he slipped momentarily from the world.
XxXxX
"ZWEI, wake up..."
He heard her voice from a distance, fading in slowly into his perception of hearing. He lifted his eyelids wearily, his sense of the world gradually returning to him. The ground was wet and sticky, pulling his splayed body unto itself with an insatiable hunger. The rain fell, cold upon his skin. The moon peaked out from behind a curtain of gloom high above. His face and jaw ached terribly, and the taste of blood was upon his tongue. Viola stood beside his battered form, her hooded form sodden. He looked up at her as she extended her left hand to him.
"Damn you", he cursed as he lifted his hand to take hers, but he surprised her when he pulled her down to him as she took his wet, muddy hand. "Sore loser", she remarked, looking down at the hem of her now mud-splashed dress.
"Fair is fair", he replied. He noticed as he spoke the absence of EIN, but of course, the beast was tied to this world only through the power of his conscious will. Still he turned his eyes upwards, as though to look for it.
Viola straddled his waist, her knees pressed into the wet earth on either side of him. ZWEI refocused his attention as she lightly settled the tips of her clawed fingers upon his bare, tattooed chest. He winced quietly as she scored a quartet of red lines upon his skin, drawing her clawed fingers down his body until she reached his stomach. And then, she placed the fingers of her left hand at the bottom of the thin, red lines, slowly tracing their path back up to the top of his chest. His skin tingled as she inexplicably repaired it; ZWEI savoured the sensation silently. Viola leaned forward, gazing deeply into his eyes without a hint of discomfort.
"Your eyes, they fascinate me", she said in her low, soft voice.
"My eyes?" ZWEI asked, staring into her pools of red.
"The eyes are a window, but I cannot read your soul".
"That is for the best", ZWEI said, breaking their eye contact. She turned his head back to face her with her claw-less hand, peering into him. It irked him, but her cool palm upon his cheek soothed him a little.
"Tell me who you are", she bid him.
"You first".
"I remember nothing before this. I cannot tell you anything".
"Then neither will I", ZWEI promised with a small, heavy smile. She sat up, considering him, her weight centred upon his body. ZWEI lifted himself up a little, propping himself up on his elbows.
"Why ask when I give you the same response?" A teasing half smile crept to his lips, "perhaps you care for me?"
"I don't care whether you live or die, ZWEI", she replied immediately, her gaze unwavering. He smirked, it wasn't the first time she had said that to him. He had tested that statement once before: Viola was true to her word. Almost. In the end, she had come to his aid, telling him that it would not do for him to perish just yet. He could throw his life away when she had found a destination that called to her, she told him.
Something stirred him suddenly from his recollections: I don't care whether you live or die, ZWEI...
Viola embodied subtlety, and ZWEI in comparison was a brute, but he had been travelling for so long with this woman who had quickly become his closest friend. He lacked the precision of her perception, but she often told him things without actually saying them directly. And she could read him like a book.
The rain had begun to calm, and ZWEI looked up at the sky for a time, watching the light of the moon begin to slowly pierce through the gloom of the clouds.
"There are no stars tonight", he observed.
"The moon is alone, it keeps watch faithfully".
"What can it see through the clouds?
"It sees everything".
ZWEI sat up a little further now, Viola shifted her weight to accommodate him. They locked eyes and for a long moment, were still. He reached forward and laid a hand upon her cheek; she did not object or react. Her skin was smooth and cool to the touch.
"Look", he bid her, "and see".
After a moment, she brought her hands to his face. She gazed into his eyes, and for once, he opened the window wide. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, bringing their faces close together and resting her forehead upon his.
"I see it, ZWEI..." she whispered ever so softly. His own eyelids fell. He pushed his hand slowly into the darkness and warmth of Viola's hood, streaking dirt across her cheek. Soft hair trailed through his fingers. High above, the clouds broke. The rain lessened to a light drizzle as moonlight washed across the sky. The rhythmic clangour of battle and the soft hiss of rain gave way to the silence of intimacy.