Her eyelids fluttered with relief, thin body sinking along the cavern's walls and her knees bent under the weight as she fell, the softest sigh escaping from her lips in gratitude of this monumental moment. She struggled mentally for a second, trying to place the last time she had closed her eyes to be free from worry, but memory failed her and she could not place it. Crumbling into a heap on the cave's floors, she let her limbs relax. Her consciousness had faded by the time she closed her eyes.
Seconds later, the roaring began.
The thundering noise startled her from her momentary slumber, and she shrank back against the damp rocks and a shriek of terror left her throat as the Beast above her let out roar after roar. Her eyes shot open in fear, staring up into the narrow, yellow slits that stared back down at her. Its teeth were bared and the snout was less than an arm's width away from her face. She blanched, her limbs trembling as the dragon let out another deafening roar, the sound echoing and growing in volume through the miles of caverns around her. Her ears rang. It was awake and it was angry - she processed the situation on a sleep-deprived mind. Slowly, one of its mountainous claws raised in a threat to eliminate her with a single swipe, she who was but a speckle in its eyes.
Swallowing a dry lump in the back of her throat, the girl slowly forced herself to her feet once more with shaking arms and knees. The Beast watched her carefully with amber eyes that only narrowed more. Somewhere within the terror-struck synapses of her brain, she recalled the words that woman had spoken to her almost twelve years ago. She could recall the way that her own yellow eyes had matched this Beast's, and how they had narrowed in seriousness and how the scales along her cheeks had crinkled as she furrowed her eyebrows. The teal, flowing hair had framed her face so stilly in the windless caves, back when the Tyrant Queen first spoke her single command.
"You must sing."
She spoke back, questioning the woman, wanting to defy her, but she only managed to elicit a word or two before she was interrupted.
"It is the only way they will live, it is up to you to keep the Beast calm else it will wake and destroy the entire kingdom, now sing!"
Those determined, desperate words rang through her ears and silenced the prior ringing caused by the Beast's shrieks. With a shaking start, she lifted her arms slowly and tilted her head back. Her lips parted as her fingers cautiously reach forth and brushed against the rough, scaly flesh of the dragon's throat.
The song was soft as it started. Her voice shook and trembled with the shock of her wake and the fear of the Beast's rage. The lyrics, clear in her blurry and nondescript memories, spilled out in a slow-rising cascade of melodious notes. They reached higher and higher as the chords progressed, a complicated rhythm mapped out by her arms' movements against the Beast's neck.
"May my prayers reach the sky
Let them soar out to meet you
To the world where both our smiles
They may crumble and spill but they'll always remain
To the world bestowed with light,
Let it shine, may our hope always rise
May tomorrow never die...
Giving life all anew,
May my prayers reach you
Let the wind take my song
Until my life is gon-"
As her voice hit the highest note in the refrain, a sudden and terrible pain collided with her cheek. The girl cried out and stumbled to the floor. Shaking violently, the breath caught in her lungs and a heaving sob racked through her body. Slowly, she lifted her head towards the Beast, whose thick arm was still held out where her face had been only moments ago. Warm and coppery blood rose into her mouth's crevice and she coughed, staining the ground with spatters of red, spilling from her lip. Still trembling, the girl only stood brokenly, a hand lifting to touch the torn and stinging flesh of her cheek. Her wide blue eyes rose to meet amber enraged orbs that challenged her to continue.
Softly, the Diva sighed and once more reached out with a frail hand to touch the scaled flesh of the dragon's throat.
"Every voice ring out with light, reunite with the shadows
Let it never fade from sight, may our past keep repeating till one day our lives join in time
It will ring throughout the world,
Till it's sure come to ending
When the time at last arrives, and all hope is abandoned
Give the people a life unlike ever before,
Let sanctity rectify
To the wonderful world
To the haven of shadows and shining light
I'll wish tonight…"Finally, as the final note left Rinne's lips, the girl slid down the cold cavern's walls into a heap on the floor. Tears were now streaming from her eyes, but she found that she didn't mind them. They mixed with the red around her lips and washed it away, leaving her skin streaked with a pink mixture. The smile she'd held in place for so long finally fell brokenly from her lips as well and her eyelids fluttered from the sheer exhaustion. They drifted lower, and eventually her body stopped racking with the trembles of sob after sob. There would be no dreams, and there would be no memories to play themselves back against her eyelids as she fell into a dark and desolate slumber; there would only be the darkness and silence and cold. But there would be rest, and she found that this would be enough.
Her soul weary, the Diva at last took what she was prepared to call her final breath, as the Beast before her came to shut its amber, burning eyes.***
AN: This is my first story here on FFN. It goes a little differently than many of you may remember, because it is my own take. The story itself is more than likely going to be several chapters long, I'm thinking around fourteen. Rates, comments, reviews, and such will be taken into consideration on whether or not I finish this project of mine or leave it to be unfinished. However, I do hope you will enjoy it.