Falling Apart
Chapter 2
When she awoke, the night sky greeted her from outside the window. She sat up quietly. Pix was curled up at the foot of her bed, asleep. She felt the dried trails of tears upon her face, but, she did nothing of them. She was captivated by what awaited out of her window. The night sky never looked so beautiful. From where she sat, the stars seemed to dance. The light they radiated was colored and seemed to bleed in the sky, leaving a collage of spectrum beauty. The dark purples, light oranges, white lights and radiated twilights all just seemed to bleed together into a river they flooded the sky. The cosmos seemed to explode.
She looked in awe, and yet, there was a heavy feeling in her chest. She got up from her bed and walking as silent as a mouse as she traversed the numerous halls of the institute. She soon found herself outside, only to see the beauty of the night sky spread even further. The river of color expanded into an ocean, and the night sky displayed no darkness, just light. She stood in the grassy field outside the institute, just staring into the sky, tantalized by its other-worldly holiness. And then she saw a star sparkling in the sky, as if it were a diamond, changing colors. But unlike the sky, it changed from light to darkness; the bright white light of the star turned into a burning pink until it was a hot crimson that seared the very star itself, turning it as black as jet, and yet it still shined.
The star seemed to grow larger, but it was then that her eyes grew large. It was falling, the star was plummeting, a trail of black light following it as it neared ever closer. It struck the earth, sending a tremor through the ground that knocked Lulu off of her feet. She hurriedly recovered, getting back on her feet. The star fell, but not near her. And yet, the trail of black smoke still hung in the air. The star fell, but it was close, she just had to follow the smoke, she realized.
And so she ran across the field as fast as her legs would carry her, and once she reached the other side, she scaled the ridge of hills so that she may see it. But what she saw left her with a sense of disbelief. In the plain below, the grasses were burnt with many patches still aflame, and the smoke poured into the air from a massive crater in the earth.
She stared, a mix sense of shock and awe filled her and made her body numb. The hole in the earth was as impressive as the institute itself, but to be sure, she had to turn around, peer across the field, over the large distance that she ran and realized something. The crater, this destruction, was even more sizable the institute. She was at least three mile away, and yet, even taking that into consideration, there was no doubt in her mind what would've been left of the institute should the star have fallen on it. She looked to the blackened field, into the abyss that steamed darkness into the fading light of the night sky. Nothing. Nothing would have remained.
And yet, looking over the nothingness left, she did see something, something moving amongst the scorched earth. There was something there. Without thinking, she hurried down the hill side, the soft grass beneath her feet changing from green to a charred black that crunched beneath her feet with every step. But she saw it, the figure, lying where the scorched remnant of earth ended and the endless pit had begun, just before the impact. Her small legs screamed with pain from all the running, and her chest felt hot, her lungs struggling to breathe, but she paid them no mind. She saw someone down there, and they were moving! They were alive! She came this far, and so she continued just as quickly as she could. Someone was there, she thought, someone needs help!
She ran because no one else would. They were far from the institute; no one would be here for them, not for a while. No one was here. They were alone. She had to be there for them because no one else would. She had to be there before it became too late.
She ran, coming before the figure, falling to her knees, trying to catch her breath, but then she saw him and she nearly lost it all again in a gasp. The figure was that of Veigar, the yordle in his blue cloaks and hat lay, struggling, trying to hold onto the last bit of strength he had. He was struggling to get up, propping himself up with trembling arms, only to spit up blood before collapsing again. He was at the end of his wit. He didn't even know she was there. He couldn't see. The world was fleeting from his vision as he started to drift into unconsciousness. He didn't see her, didn't hear her scream his name as loud as she could. He was alone.
The tears started once more. There was a tightness in her heart, one that Lulu could not understand. It was him, it was Veigar. The one who made her cry, the one that yelled at her and was mean. She wanted to be friends with him, and he ended that notion very quickly. But when she looked up, there was no one coming from over the ridge. There was no one. He was out here alone. She had to help him, just had to. He was hated, frowned upon, looked down on. Would someone help him, even if he wasn't alone?
She remembered everyone else, all her friends, all the people at the league that she had met. She called them friends, and she smiled and laughed, but she did not feel a closeness to them. If Veigar was a yordle only in name, then they were friends just the same; only in name. She wanted friends, she wanted to be happy, but a fake smile only hurts oneself. Above anything else, she didn't want to be alone. She made herself smile, made herself seem happy. Veigar made her fear that no one would want her, that others will think she was annoying, but truly, she was the one that started it, by being Lulu, the happy yordle everyone thought she was. She wanted to be accepted, but were they really accepting her? She never shared the pain she felt after exiting the Glade with anyone. She wanted to be happy, so she surrounded herself with people and acted cheery, but, why did she feel so alone?
Veigar was truthful to himself. He didn't act mad, he made no lies of the threats he made, and the crater before them both proved that he spoke truly. He was hated, and he didn't care, he was alone so he cut himself from the rest of the world. Veigar was Veigar, but who was Lulu? Was she the shining example of a yordle that everyone knew her as, or was she a girl, filled with fear and doubt and longing. She didn't know anymore. She had lied to herself for so long that she actually began to believe herself when she said that she would be alright.
She looked at the crater. This is what Veigar was capable of, she realized, this is his potential. He was small, he was a yordle, but none of that mattered, not now. What he could accomplish. What he was. People looked down on him. They never knew who he was. They have never seen this. They haven't seen what Lulu has seen here today. But what if they did? Would they fear him? She looked down at him, unable to stop crying. Would they even help him? Would they help the poor yordle who lay here dying?
"We aren't meant to be alone."
But that's exactly what they were. She didn't care if he hated her, if he didn't want her. Lulu wanted to be there for Veigar, no matter what. She was tired of being alone, of hurting, of being fearful. She knew nothing of Veigar, nothing of who he is, but she knew something. He was like her. Alone. Broken.