Just gonna chip in real quick; there was a mishap with the tree that was mentioned in the first chapter! Rather than a 'fig' tree it was meant to be an 'ash' tree! It has been changed now~
Also... sorry if the quality has dipped down a scale from the first chumpster. I'm lacking in sleep so proof-reading will be... *barfs* and my procrastination is... yeah. o.o)b
Chapter 2 - From Behind the Sky
The trek through the forest and the ascending journey to the summit of the mountain had always been laborious. While little Aisha was far from lazy, she certainly did not possess a body suitable for arduous physical activity. Guiding the way was her capable and loyal guardian, Rena; a woman the young girl had placed her absolute trust in and shared her ideals with. The pair trudged along the grassy grounds of the forest in tranquil silence, disregarding the sounds of the young Priestess' tip tapping shoes, the elf's clicking heels and the occasional crunches of a twig being snapped. Overhead were vines of wisteria lining the branches of maple leaves, and through the tiniest of gaps escaped dusty particles of sunlight, its petite footsteps frequently dancing on the purplenette's ivory skin as she watched the colors of golden brown and lilac weave together in harmony. The leaves hummed the susurration of nature's lullaby alongside the gentle breeze that welcomed the duo's presence, tousling their locks of hair playfully.
A small smile graced her cherry tinged lips as she inhaled deeply the crisp Autumn air. The fresh air never did fail to calm her spirit.
Aisha dipped her head back down to find Rena had rested her hand lightly on the jeweled tip of her blade, a casual habit she had developed ever since obtaining the lethal weapon. The sharp steel gleamed and ricocheted off the cascading showers of beaming sunlight. Rena herself remained silent as she marched along; for years now Aisha had known the woman to be one of very few words. Upon years of close inspection, she had found that Rena had irrefutably trained and shaped into the vigilant elf she is; her strides were carefully calculated and well-distributed, and she would always flourish her bow in hand with her blade Erendil strapped to her side, keen to be whipped out and utilized while she diligently surveyed her surroundings. A notion crossed her mind bitterly; this elf was - albeit unfortunately - the perfect exemplification of a battle-hardened and perspicacious warrior who had faced death and regret an infinite amount of times, but still remained irrepressible.
While they rarely spoke of what little family Rena had, Aisha was not so ignorant to the fact that the passing of the elf's most dearest had passed away on this date. No grave was built for the man for he was not remembered as a hero by many.
As she walked along drowning herself in intense rumination, Aisha felt her face smack against a cushion of thick, silky lime hair and almost dropped her precious staff from the sudden collision.
"Wha-" The purplenette began. Rena peered over her feathered shoulder pad, her emerald eyes swimming with curiosity. Aisha moved her head to spy the elevated bump of the ground, and muttered a simple, "Oh."
"Is... that so..." A humble voice drawled thoughtfully, rolling smoothly and lightly through the air. The atmosphere was tense, the room inked with an endless black, save for the gentle shower of light aloft. The womanly figure stationed within that light folded her legs, two snow-white mystical tails folding itself briskly underneath her as she seated herself on them. The remaining seven tails encircled her, the fluffy tips swaying seductively and framing her matured curves enticingly. She radiated off an almost sibylline spirit within the frail waterfall of light. Running a clawed hand through her velvety silver locks, the woman crossed her arms over the cerise obi wrapped around her waist, accentuating her slender physique. Striking ruby eyes blossomed with a blush of amber that rimmed the nucleus of her orbs and glinted with a thousand years of untold and forgotten tales alike. And lastly her two most perceptible features; her strange ability to levitate off the ground effortlessly and the fact that a total of nine pristine tails gyrated from her backside. Truly a being worthy to be deemed a powerful 'deity'. Her exquisite lips curled into a percipient smile, the tiniest trace of a pearly fang protruding from the corner of her lip. "Raise your head, child."
A second figure raised its head as instructed, two violet braids spilling over its shoulders. Its slim stature revealed it to be a young female. A drawn out moment of ghastly silence hovered over them as their eyes met, before the small girl compressed her eyes shut, rolling her head downwards.
"May I... enquire you of something?" The girl droned timidly. The deity nodded firmly, her optics lighting up in pure curiosity. Nervously, the human cleared her throat and rolled her tongue over her lips, searching for her resolve. "Is it possible... to revive someone from the dead? I-I'm certain that you have m-met many who have asked the same, but a deity as powerful as you, perhaps... just maybe... you... have that ability?"
The deity's feline ears perked up as she tightened her arms around her waist and laughter flowed from her lips melodiously, her bountiful bosom stirring in an up and down motion from the outburst. She, however, made no move to stifle her hysterics. As it slowly died away, the nine-tailed woman prodded at her bottom lip with a finger thoughtfully, her eyes steering to the depths of the vacant room.
"What truly peculiar beings you humans are. The dead, eh...? I wonder how many times I've been asked that. Aah, please pardon my insolence. Well, that is certainly a topic humans appear to pour their fondness upon no matter how many millenniums fly by. I suppose... it is because you humans cling desperately to life, whether it is your own or another's. Sadly, I must abide by the rules, little one."
Another suffocating pause. The human shuffled awkwardly as disappointment blossomed on her features, the silence and darkness drowning her.
"'Tis simply a sinful and impossible feat." She hummed, her lips unfurling itself. "The soul cannot return, even if the body is reanimated. For all this time, I have witnessed many who, despite my warnings, have toiled tirelessly to disentangle the infliction of one's passing. Even now... They cling to any beacon of hope they can grasp with their tiny paws, simply an inevitability. But, of course, being the bizarre creatures that you are...
"There are... a select few who become that beacon of hope." The deity beamed.
The Priestess reached towards the elf's extended hand, and pulled herself up with a small degree of fatigue. They maneuvered at a steady pace and stopped for sustenance when a handful of coughs would disturb the purplenette on the rare occasion, or when they found the frequent furry forest dweller and gave chase to feed a certain Priestess' curiosity.
The sky above has been lenient this day, the sun had not set as soon as Rena had interpreted. The dusty spotlights had transferred from a warm gold to a solemn dull vermilion. The birds had ceased their singsong feuds and in their stead the dancing of leaves against the strong winds.
To the elf, however, it all served to darken the world around her. Everything had long lost their fun and vibrant splashes of colors. All she had known was the color of red; the color of the very blood that sustains her.
Rena allowed sentimental thoughts to raid her mind. She had never knew death to be so painfully sorrowful until that day when he... left for a better place, to put it simply. She released a quiet tsk at the agonizing reminder. It was a small fraction of her life. A strangely short moment. But it was enough to engrave itself deeply into her mind, her soul, so bottomless that it would replay and replay and replay again, that one little scenario. Who knew one single promise could be splintered, fractured, disintegrated in a matter of seconds? Or was it minutes? Perhaps an hour. Maybe even longer than that... Whatever. Death lasts for an eternity. What care should she have for how long she had waited for his life to just... ebb away in her arms? Rena sighed and lightly pinched her cheeks. Just wake the hell up.
It was then that she had realized that she could not feel Aisha's presence behind her.
Whirling around on her heeled boots, Rena flew a hand to the hilt of her Erendil and waned into a crouched position, her eyes steeled adroitly. Where did she wander off to this time?
A rustle occurred to the left.
With sharpened instincts, the elf drew forth her blade at lightning speed and hacked away half the mulberry bush with a single jerk of her wrist. Maple leaves and lime green tresses were left flying in the air in her wake. A delicate voice yelped in surprise, and Rena sighed heavily in return, sheathing her weapon. She brandished her unoccupied hand on her hip.
"Please don't go running off like that." She uttered sullenly. Aisha whispered a low 'sorry' before extending a large bundle of... red carnations? The elf inclined her head to the side, an eyebrow brimming quizzically. The shorter girl shuffled her heels nervously, deigning her to accept the pile.
"...For your husband." The purplenette whined anxiously, her lower lip puckering. "In the language of flowers... red carnations express true love so... take them!"
Rena deadpanned spontaneously, her mouth gaping open at the thought given, till her features softened and a tiny grin lit her paled lips and emerald orbs.
He loved carnations...
She set down her bow and gingerly plucked the benevolent gift from Aisha's fingers, gazed deeply into them with dewy eyes before she gently withdrew them into her leather satchel.
"Thank you." She whispered.
Unnamed corpses, deserted limbs, shrill cries of orders to retreat, spillage of blood, barrages of arrows and sorrowful rain, an army of armored boots and hooves thundering and bounding, blood screams of torture, blood, blood, scarlet liquid, the blood, so much blood. The blood won't stop. Why won't it stop?
She gritted her teeth miserably, vexed as she applied pressure to the calamitous gash screaming from the left shoulder to the midriff. Her lungs hollered agonizingly for air, her palpitating heart souring sky high as the raging tears streamed down her dirt-lined cheeks in her futile attempt to save this one life that truly mattered to her, this one life that she cherished more than her own.
The rain... since when did it taste of something?
Rena clenched her eyes shut, her body quivering and curling up in exhaustion and incredulity. Her head rocked from side to side, refusing this reality, questioned it.
"Please, please, please... oh please..." She broke into a fit of inaudible sobs, her hands shriveling into balled fists, knuckles burning a bright white with nails digging into her palms. "This... this is... How...?"
The man hissed and wheezed in his boundless world of excruciating pain. The rain splashed onto the pair's battered bodies mercilessly, chiding at them childishly.
The blood... Why won't it stop?
Since when did I fear the flowing of blood? Maybe just for this person...
From far away, the sounds of carnage could still be heard resonating through the air. A brutal, one-sided slaughter as men crawled with their legless bodies to a safe haven, only to receive a grimy foot to the head that applied a downward force, drowning the soldier in the wet mud. Roars of despair of fellow soldiers rebounded through the air - a sense of grief they had never known. The sounds, they filled her ears as companions, blood brothers, life-long friends lay motionless in fatigued arms, their features haunted by the one thing they had feared and regretted facing; death. She could not remember a night where everyone slept with absolute bliss. During many sleepless nights of being shaken with terror, brothers and sisters alike held each other's hands, felt the warmth and touch of another human being to reassure themselves and each other that death had not yet knocked. That tomorrow has still to come.
And then they would vow, with shaken voices, that they would live to see each other again, to see their families.
So much for that.
Enemy troops had begun to file back to their base as reinforcements flooded the rain-accented fields.
She opened her eyes slowly to the reality before her, jade green swimming into distant amber orbs. A small gasp left her lips.
"Where..." He wrestled muzzled memories in his head as he searched for his own companion.
"I'm here! Don't worry, you're safe now..." The elf removed one hand from the blood-soaked rag and hurriedly leaned over to stroke the man's bronzed cheek comfortingly. "I'm here..."
"You're... unhurt?" She nodded vehemently, and the smile Rena had grown to adore warmed his face. She felt a smile of her own infect her lips. "Good... Good..."
"Help will come soon. Hang in there Raven... Please... Don't die..." She pleaded, the smile quickly dying. "Don't leave me all alone..."
A jumble of wheezes, coughs and chuckles was knocked out of the raven-haired man. "I won't, silly... We made a vow... no?"
The blood... Why won't it stop?!
Rena choked on her voice, and so simply nodded again. She brushed her thumb gently over that snowy-white patch of hair that she found oh so adorable.
"And then..." He took a deep and jagged breath, his eyes fluttering shut in concentration. "And then... we promised to... protect each other, too."
And again, she nodded. Indeed, they did promise, they sealed it on that day. And she broke that promise.
He continued on, despite being unable to see or hear her response. "Oh... And live in that cottage... you've always admired..."
Yes. A cottage just near to the seaside, where they would take frequent walks together. She had only mentioned the cottage once before.
She simply nodded her head, time and time again and again and again and again and again, her lips tightened into a bold line. The rain began to drown out the sounds of his voice, the footsteps.
Nod, and nod again. You have no need to cry anymore. You might have broken your end of the promise Rena, but remember...
Raven never lies... Ever...
"Tell that... -eaded bastard... said sorry... -eaving him..." Again, she nodded. What was she nodding about? What did he just say? Everything was just a blur.
How long did she sit there, stroking his cheek? Did the reinforcements arrive to heal Raven? Surely, they must have. Surely. Surely.
The muscles of his face had long stopped to move as he fell into the inescapable darkness.
The blood... Why did it stop?
She brushed thin amethyst threads of hair behind her ear when the first surge of cold wind almost sent her plummeting back down the mountain as it often did at these times. Aisha pressed on as the gargantuan ash tree came into sight, its shadowed outline spreading its sumptuous branches yearningly towards the reticent heavens. With Rena waiting further down the hill to dwell on her sorrows, Aisha decided it best for her to do this with haste. With another living being beside her, she never felt at peace during these rituals, and thus requested for Rena to stand guard further away, and would always receive a reluctant frown from the elf to have to abide by her request.
It's time.
She plodded her eyelids into a line of dark luxurious lashes as she strolled towards the puissant presence exuding from the wizened tree. The wind called to her once again, this time gentler and more welcoming. It wrapped around her body in a tight blanket, pushing and pulling her forwards in an invisible torrent of light-hearted joy. Next came a tide of serenity that flooded her entire being, sending pleasant oscillations through her arms and to the staff in her grasp. Her steps became lighter and airy, as though she were treading on water. Her ears rung with the sound a thousand heartbeats and melodies of the ash tree.
The beckoning of the wind. Aisha stopped abruptly, and extended an arm forward, her gloved fingers brushing against the rough surface of the tree. Peeping through her eyelids, she found herself face to face with the much too familiar ash tree. The leaves above whispered and rustled as the breeze continued to advance. Hastily, the purplenette drew in a deep breath and pressed her staff onto the trunk. A startling viridiscent light protruded from her palms, circumferenced the entire length of her staff and surrounded her body in a brilliant, silver-green aura.
She took one stride backwards, clasped her hands together on the staff; an imitation of a prayer. The breeze transformed into untamed gusts, whipping at her fragile stature dourly as her face became knitted in concentration.
Her lips parted, and a holy incantation emitted from vocal cords in a mesh of incoherent locutions.
Take into thy arms
Our children's prayers
For in Man's heart
The ember of spite does stay-
So for the lives of not Man
But of thy untainted creations thou calls children
Let thy sigh bless those souls with life and hope
For ever and hereafter-
For in their time of need
None other will offer the same as thy holy succour.
The virescent brilliance dispersed into a dazzling halo, its intensity slicing the rosy clouds overhead and blooming into miniature globes of obscured nature and sowing its roots upon the land, upon the residents that roam it. The tree flourished its towering branches, the grass and other plant life seemed to sound far more crisp against the now docile gales. The birds had resumed their tireless hymns, accompanied by the periodic hoots of an owl, livening up the chorus and bringing about an orchestra to accompany the rest of Nature's songs.
"Well, that should do it..." She huffed feebly, lowering her arms and twirling on her heel, looked out to the horizon behind her, where the sun had just dipped its head down and forged amber and cerise hues to appear alongside layers of baby pinks and peaches outlined with the blues and purples that signified the arrival of nighttime. White dots of flickering stars littered the entirety of the navy blue shades, awaiting its chance to rain down and grasp hold of hope and wishes.
Aisha heaved in a deep breath, earthy spells lingering in her nose. Stretching her hand out, she balled her fist round a stray particle of light, the warm sensation breathing energy into her.
A suspicious rustling sounded.
As Aisha twisted her body back round, she inclined her head to the tree above, eyes widening.
It happened in one fell swoop.
From the vast arrays of midnight blue, sea green and crimson red, she was met with a sharp metal flashing before her eyes with the full intent to murder, eager to shred apart warm flesh with its frostbitten touch. Reflexively, she maneuvered her staff above her head to deflect the sudden onslaught.
clang!
The impact sent dozens of shock waves down her arms and legs, promptly weakening her entire body. The purplenette's arms shook violently as her knees buckled under the overwhelming strength, and the searing noises of the clashing weapons stimulated goosebumps to line her skin.
Through unequivocally crimson veils of rough locks she saw them. Dead, earth-quaking, grim and tragic eyes glaring malignant swords through her. They were carmine in color; deep, saturated but far from pure. Dark crescents lined the lower half of his eye, telling tales of countless nights of unrest. The remainder of this... thing's face was rendered unseen. He towered over her bastardly, the shadows casting a fearsome silhouette over his face that would've warranted whimpers from her.
Aisha felt her arms surrender, unable to tolerate the strain no longer.
A second assault flew across her face at the chance; this time, an upwards strike. She cursed herself for being distracted. The weapon tore at the golden ornament of her magenta bow, slinging the delicate fabric to the ground, knocked away the staff from her hand and sent her teetering backwards in panic. The cold blade barely missed flesh and instead sheared a good length of her lilac locks, before the immaculately forged sword seemingly... vanished? Into thin air? She was thoroughly bewildered at the sight of a vermilion sigil that carved itself instantaneously from the hand of its wielder. It was a sigil she recognized; she had seen it once within a few of the many tomes she indulged herself in, only it lacked content on its origins and its purpose...
Then she slipped.
Aisha felt the rush of cool air coursing through her tresses. She certainly was not apt for physical activity, and surely not close-combat, she must admit. The purplenette was convinced that Rena must have heard the skirmish and is weaving her way towards the ash tree at this very moment. However, a dependence on Rena to protect her simply would not do... Her thoughts flooded her mind as her muscles tensed, readying for the accompaniment of either a painful fall or being shredded by the great sword this person wielded. Unexpectedly, a hand crushed her neck and broke her fall, its grip suffocating and destroying her. The sensation of being lifted off the ground sent alarms sounding off in her mind as she choked and spluttered under the man's grasp, her hand moving to grapple at the other's toned arm. With her toes barely brushing against the long blades of grass beneath, the purplenette gazed down to find flaming scarlet eyes of her pernicious assailant perforating her amethyst eyes. No, this person was no man.
He was a mere boy.
"Who are you?" He spat venomously.