Snowy Nights

It's snowing. Rashan's voice echoed numbly. A light breeze blew a flurry of snowflakes over her. She shivered at the cold. The copper haired young woman lay on her back against the cold snow and the hard, frozen Earth beneath. The sounds of a battle raged around her. Blood trickled from her chest threatening death. The woman grimaced at the pain and her hand clutched her thighs that much tighter.

"I've got to send you back Rashan! To a safer place. A place far away from here." A familiar British voice shouted above the ruckus. It was smooth like silk and brought along a sense of momentary calm amongst the storm. It was a voice she'd grown quite accustomed to over the past few years despite the being it belong to being rather…frightening at first.

Don't they know I'm hit? Can't they all shut up and stop fighting or something?

Rashan thought with a hint of annoyance in her features. She grimaced once more as the white hot pain flared.

"But you can't! We were gonna have kids, a family. We were gonna repopulate dammit!" She exclaimed as the warm and sticky inner fluids dripped down her hand. They stained the snow below a bright red.

"Please Soralth, please. I don't wanna go!" There was no doubt in her mind that these large gashes were going to leave scars. Deep ones at that. It was often the mental ones that took the longest time to heal however.

The light, slightly off-blue creature gazed fondly down at her lover from her perch beside Rashan. It looked almost like a cat. The kind that had no fur, but leathery skin instead. If cats had four tentacles on each side for legs. She chuckled sadly with a hint of amusement and something else. Fondness perhaps? Tenderness? Devotion and affection? Rashan's mind which was numb with pain at the moment couldn't comprehend the expression of emotion in her lover's words.

It was snowing the night we first met.

Rashan fought to ignore the pain from her injuries that kept flaring with each breath. The bulk of the wounds were mostly situated in her thighs were there wasn't really anything all that important. That didn't mean however, that she wasn't injured elsewhere enough to hurt. Minor scrapes and dings danced across her chest. She was pretty sure she could've broken a rib or two.

Blackness darted across the corners of her vision. A different sort of blackness seeped across the landscaped accompanied by large flying beasts. This blackness crept over the land like a necromancer's shadow-magic. It seeped and oozed like a lazy river of black blood. Even from this distance away Rashan could hear the beats of their leathery wings as the other creatures flew at the mages on the ground, spewing their magic breath.

"And you still will. Just….not with me. At least not this version of me."

Rashan blinked at the one-eyed creature hunched over her chest. She wasn't technically on her chest for that would be cruel because she was hurt there. The light blue female was hunkered over. Long tentacles unusually shortened in a defensive crouch. Every so often her eye would dart around to make sure no enemies were nearby.

Tears brimmed Rashan's eyes at the sound of those words. There was a hidden meaning to them that she didn't quite understand. It sounded promising though and Rashan held on to that promise of hope and the family she'd always wanted. She stared up at her lover, entranced by that single dark green eye. It helped to keep her mind off the pain currently flooding her nervous system in almost every part of her body. The leathery skin around Soralth's eye puckered in an odd zig-zag fashion where a scar rested. A scar gained from conflict and war, but not this war. A war fought a long time ago in a distant sector of the galaxy far from Earth on another planet.

"But this battle will end! We can work around it!"

The creature shook its head again.

"Rashan, you forget that I see all of Time and Space. Everything that has and ever will happen. I cannot change this point in time because it's a fixed point. I can however, alter your timeline. Send you back to the past or a completely alternate reality."

Rashan bit back a whimper as the creature's tentacles glowed a soft orange. The energy crackled out at its environment, sensing it and testing it. Warmth flooded her body as the creature placed its tentacles on her chest. She could feel tendrils of her subconscious play on the periphery of her vision. The first kind of darkness flittered at the ends of her vision straining at the bit to take it over completely. She was being put to sleep!

"N-no. Please don't. Don't do this to me. Please." Rashan cried in desperation and horrible fear. The tears started to stream faster. They went from trickles to rivers in the matter of a few seconds.

"I'm sorry Rashan. It's the only way you'll survive this." Tears were also falling down her lover's face. The darkness lapped at her vision again.

"D-Don't do…."

Her words slurred as a heavy weight overcame her body. Blackness swirled up and engulfed her. The last thing she saw of her dearest being hit by a stream of fire. And then….nothing.

The sound of the fire in the hearth popping made Rashan jump. It brought her out of those painful memories. They were almost worse than the wounds she had received that day. The fingers of her free hand danced distractedly over the scars that crisscrossed her inner thigh. The fire crackled again. Rashan jumped a second time much to her annoyance. She loathed how jumpy she'd become since her arrival here. It was almost like every little creak and pop of the old house sent her nerve into a jive.

She shook her head sadly. Her house was much too quiet without the small hoard of creatures who had once called this place home. Rashan sighed as she took a sip of the steaming mug of hot coco she held with her other hand. She stared out into the snowstorm. She'd left the back porch light on so that she could watch the white flakes float to the ground in their mesmerizing dance. If there was one thing on this little blue marble that was so captivating to the redhead it was falling snow.

Rashan loved watching the white stuff dance around in the orange glow of incandescent light bulbs. It was so soothing to her. Much unlike the old memories running rampant in her mind tonight. She was thankful that wherever her dearest had sent her she still owned the old house. It was an empty sort of comfort but it was a comfort nonetheless.

The copper haired woman leaned back into her leather armchair as she stared out into the black. She took hold of the cup with her other hand letting the warmth seep into her palms. What if Soralth does exist in this….multiverse? What if it's before Selene Black shows up? How far does this multiverse deviate from my own? She wondered darkly as the lights of a distant ore carrier drifted past lazily.

Rashan gulped back tears. She jumped when a loud thud came from upstairs. It was accompanied with the faint nervous hoots of recovering owls from the third floor aviary.

"Oh what now ?"

Rashan exclaimed in frustration as a table creaked up from the floor. It was elegant in its simplistic design. Probably made from some wood like mahogany. Something expensive. Something old. Rashan slammed the cup down on it. A few moments passed and in came a quick apology aimed towards the living house and quick pat on the wood table. She headed upstairs to see what was wrong.

It sounded like it came from the second floor. It couldn't be an escaped owl could it?

Rashan wore a simply nightie made of the softest material she could afford. It billowed out behind her as she took the stairs two at a time. She had extremely pale skin and brilliant blue eyes. If it weren't for her red hair with blonde ends and the slight hint of red in her skin she could almost be an albino. Or a vampire as she often liked to joke. The sparkling ones and not the terrifying real tear-apart-their-skin-and-change ones she'd once met face to face.

Panic took over logical thought. It wouldn't be the first time that an owl who had previously been hurt had gotten free. Rashan used to have that issue all the time before a close friend taught her some simple magic. Now the owls had free roam of her upstairs study without making the entire house a mess/
As Rashan reached the landing on the second floor the walls rumbled softly. Being the owner of this house she paid no attention to it. The rumbling continued and as she watched a single door slid in front of her from down the hall. Whatever occupants that were inside wouldn't have felt a thing.

The door itself was ordinary and plain. There was nothing outside that seemed to hint to its interior or the importance of the room. Rashan's expression however, was an entirely different story. Surprise flitted across her face then shifted to worry and almost fear. The owner of the house hesitated ever so slightly as she reached for the door, but didn't open it. Her hand shook slightly as it hovered over the knob poised to twist it.

What am I so afraid of? I have my own magic. If it's anything particularly nasty I can always call for backup.

Her left hand shook again above the doorknob. The woman swayed on her feet as a sudden and quite unexpected surge of vertigo overtook her for a few seconds. The world spun around her and Rashan gripped the knob to steady herself. With a soft groan she chastised herself for staying up too late. It was nearly eleven at night.

I really need to go to bed sooner. It's nearly midnight.

In human lore Rashan had discovered that midnight was often called "the witching hour." The reasons were completely lost to her. Once the odd wave of dizziness passed Rashan gave into her own curiosity. She was the owner of this house and nobody got in without her knowing it. She was the scariest thing in this house.

She puffed up with pride and stood a little straighter. With a simple twist of her hand the doorknob clicked. She twisted it completely and pulled back. The door creaked with old age and the room smelled of mustiness and was soon filled with Rashan's almighty shriek. She jumped back and definitely thought about changing that title. She seriously reconsidered revoking that title of "Scariest thing in this house"…