Shin-ah

Yona's voice was carried through the wind, resonating in his blood like a song only he could hear. Shin-ah pivoted quickly from where he had been looking for the children, suddenly picking up on the panic which had overwhelmed the village in the scant time when Shin-ah hadn't been watching. Shin-ah quickly began to move forward, his feet carrying him swiftly to the very familiar sight of men attacking men, and to turmoil in the streets.

Intruders—bandits, Shin-ah corrected himself quickly, as he swiftly weaved and avoided all the attempts to strike at him and knock him down. Shin-ah's heart was racing, as the very familiar sensation of battle high over took him at that moment. It left him no room to doubt as he continued running forward into the fray. He felt far too light and vulnerable without his sword, but at that moment it didn't matter. These were real bandits, men who lived to pillage and cause harm. Shin-ah needed to find Yona at that very instance, he needed to find Yona and to get her somewhere safe. Shin-ah could take care of these bandits later, or once the others returned and he found his sword, but as long as he could make sure Yona was safe—

Shin-ah turned the corner, and he found Yona.

One of the bandits had slung Yona over his shoulder as if she were nothing more than a few pounds of flesh to do with whatever he pleased. She hung limply, caged in his arms, her eyes closed and perhaps they wouldn't ever open. Shin-ah knew that look. He knew the hungry, empty look in the bandits' eyes.

(Shin-ah. It means moonlight. Your name is Shin-ah. You took my hand and led me through the darkness. You are my moonlight. Do you like it?)

The heat of his rage moved his arms, reached out to grab the first bandit within his read by the head and with all of his strength slam him into the ground. Someone behind him moved to strike but Shin-ah had already pivoted, his hand curled into a fist and his arm swinging so that it nearly whistled through the air as his punch connected to the gut of the next man who stumbled and slumped and wheezed.

"Yona…that person…" Shin-ah growled, baring his teeth at the bandits as his anger boiled behind his eyes and twisted his guts and tightened around his heart. "Give her back!"

"Your opponent's unarmed. Kill him fast," The leader told his men flippantly, tightening his grip on Yona. And he was right, Shin-ah knew as his men descended on him, and Shin-ah was spurred on by his rage. Shin-ah didn't have his sword. If he had, then this would be easy, he would have killed all of these men who had dared to hurt Yona. But he had to fight no matter what. He would fight until his last breath had escaped his lips but they would need to kill him before he let them take Yona!

He was fighting with his fists, feeling teeth scrape against his knuckles, and noses snapping and breaking beneath his well-placed jabs. He kicked a bandit right beneath his chin, taking the opportunity to use the momentum to elbow another. But then suddenly just as he was rebalancing, a bandit kicked him in the back sending him jerking forward. The sudden jarring momentum caused Shin-ah lose his footing, and because of that it gave another bandit to strike him hard in the gut by a staff. All of the breath in his lungs was gone, his ribs ached but still he tried to lung forward—

The blade jabbed into his side quickly and twisted suddenly, churning his insides and leaving him to fall to the ground.

Yona. It hurts. He called out to her, knowing there was no answer. He clenched his side which burned and ached so terribly. Shin-ah lay upon the ground, feeling his warm, sticky blood betraying him and seeping from between his clenched fingertips to wet the dirt. Shin-ah tried to press himself up, because he needed to keep fighting, he needed to save Yona, but he had no more strength to fight with. Shin-ah's strength was spilling out of him with his blood and his breath. But even if he had no strength he had to fight on.

Suddenly a foot pressed down upon his back, forcing him down as a ragged yelp escaped Shin-ah's throat.

"Damn bastard's tough," A bandit commented, as Shin-ah reached out to where Yona was. Shin-ah had to get to Yona! He had to return her to the place of sunlight where she belonged, not this place. He would bring her back. He would! Shin-ah had to, no matter what he had to give up, he thought as more kicks came to bruise and beat him until he danced on a very dangerous and dark edge.

Her voice, Shin-ah could hear it as he lifted his very heavy head and reached out still. Yona was there, looking to him. Yona's violet eyes filled with tears as she cried out words that Shin-ah could not discern the meaning to, but it didn't matter. He had to keep fighting, he had to protect her, but he had nothing left but…but still…

Yona…is calling, Shin-ah watched helplessly as she was carried away from him. Yona is crying.

Give Yona back…!

No one will be giving back our king, you will need to get her.

The darkness had taken him once again, Shin-ah was sure. Shin-ah had just closed his eyes for a moment and yet at that time he was somewhere deep, somewhere cold. Shin-ah was drifting further and further down to a place where there was no sky, only the caverns of his depth. Caverns that still existed there with no end. Shin-ah wasn't dead yet, that much he was sure of, but his body felt far away. And most importantly he wasn't alone in the darkness. Something else, something sinister and dangerous, shifted and twitched and was alive there with him.

"They took our king from us," The other stated as if accusing him, sliding over rock, claws scratching at an ill-defined surface. "They will kill our king. Perhaps they will do worse. Our king will be crying, crying out for us, and yet we will have failed—"

"No! I won't let them have her!" Shin-ah snapped back at the beast but even so his anger had no heat left, he was just so tired and weak as he pressed his hands over his eyes for a moment. "I'll protect her, I'll save Yona, no matter what I need to do! There has to be a way. Yona always told me that there is a way…I…I just need to find it."

"You won't be able to do it," the beast chuckled, and Shin-ah removed his hands and in the darkness he couldn't see but he knew it shifted closer, sometimes he swore he saw fangs glinting, other a smile that cracked and pulled its face almost in half. "Not alone. Come here to me, let me give you the power. Let me give you back the strength. Right now, you are nothing more than a defanged hound. Let me give you back your teeth."

"My teeth?" Shin-ah asked confused, he felt so light, and so small. It was as if he had been whittled away into nothing, as if he was unmoored from his own self. Nothing made sense anymore. What did he have to do to make everything make sense again? It was circling him again and Shin-ah couldn't keep up with its movements but its golden eyes burned into him and claws—no hands—no scales caught the low light. It was so big and swollen and starving and lurking there just out of reach and sight, like a face once seen in a dream.

"You are I and I am you, we are one as two. You have kept me apart from you, but I have kept near. Now let us be together once more as we always have been and should be. Let us protect our king, let us fight, and we will be useful to our king and our king will praise us in return."

"Our king…wants us to fight?" Shin-ah asked confused, so confused, and he wished to press his face into the floor—the cave floor? But hadn't he left the caves? Yona had saved him, he was sure, but his memories were all wrong. Time was out of joint, shifting and changing just like the beast and telling him lies and truths at once. Somehow he had returned to that darkness. Why? Shin-ah thought as his eyes burned with tears, why could he never escape the darkness? "But Yona…Yona wants to help people. Yona doesn't want us to kill people."

"Our king wants us to fight for her," the other told him simply, "and we fight for our king's cause above all else. We must fight humans to do so, don't we? Our king will make many enemies, and we must kill them for her so that she is not stained with blood."

Yona wanted Shin-ah to fight for her. It was a truth, a truth that Shin-ah could cling to. Even as the beast made all of his truest truths lies, that had to be a truth. It made perfect sense, Shin-ah couldn't help but think. Of course Yona wanted Shin-ah to fight for her, to protect her. Why else would she have taken him from his coffin (but he was still in his coffin forever—forever!)? It was of course because he could protect her. Yona wanted Shin-ah to protect him. That had to be it, but he couldn't remember the words she had formed that day anymore as she had smiled at him and took his hand. But she had to have she wanted that, and if Yona did then he would…

"Yona…wants us to kill them for her?" Shin-ah asked the beast.

"Our king does!" The beast said happily, as if delighted by Shin-ah reaching the proper conclusion, and he was laughing, he was laughing, and the laugh tore at his ears and made him wish to curl up somewhere and disappear because he was sorry. Shin-ah was sorry he had lived and he wished that he could take it all back and say something, why hadn't he said anything? Shin-ah had loved him, but he hadn't made a sound as he…!"Our king wants them to suffer, our king wants us to kill them for her. Our king will praise us if we kill them. To protect our king was why we were born, to keep our king from harm is our purpose. If we do not protect our king, we will lose everything. Is that what you want?"

"No, but I'm so weak," Shin-ah whispered, looking at his trembling hands. "I'm so weak…! If…if we can be strong together…if we can protect our king together…then—then I don't care what happens to me. I don't care! Please…please help me protect our king!"

Then let us destroy the enemies of our king, let us fight until our last breath escapes our lips. Let us drown the world in our bloodlust, let us fulfill our eternal vow…our promise…

Let's protect King Hiryuu together!

(Got it, Seiryuu. Those eyes are cursed. If you use them, the curse will backfire on you.

Never

Ever

Use

Them)

"Stop…don't…look…!"

The shadow, the beast at the moment overtook him, it overtook everything. He was struck by the wave, he screamed and yet it filled his throat and no sound escaped. It entered his lungs, chilled his blood, it burned him entirely with the cold heat of his rage and delight. It burst out from him, its claws—his claws tearing into all of the enemies, ripping them open with its teeth and reveled in the pain of those who had dared to hurt his king—

Ah, he thought as he stood up so light and so full.

It was…so beautiful.

The vivid way the red blood streaked across the ground, the sky—the sky was so deep, so blue and yet black, layers and layers peeling away and revealing the heavens to him. The stars were bursting, the constellations swimming in his vision and moving, and he yearned to reach and catch them with his teeth. He wanted nothing more than to pull down the heavens and completely drink it in and make it his. It was his. It was on the tip of his tongue, flitting and dancing over his numbed fingertips, and it felt so good, he thought as he swayed on his feet. The pain in his side hurt, throbbing and his spilling his life blood and painting his side, and yet when the throb of pain radiated up his side the world shifted and showed him new shades and gradations along a shimmering edge that belonged only to him.

"Shin-ah, what's going on? Shin-ah!"

Yona was calling. Give Yona back.

That's right, Shin-ah tried to think, but his thoughts popped and fizzled and disappeared as quickly as he came and he couldn't quite grasp them. That thought tugged at him with more urgency, carried more weight than the others, and settled there between the cracks. It was slightly bitter, perhaps sour, but he didn't mind it. It was important, after all. Yona was important to him, and that was right. That was Yona. Yona was in danger. I have to hurry and get her back.

But…I can see. I can see. So clearly. Ah, it's so pleasant. Shin-ah thought as the rush gently eased that weighted thought where it wouldn't bother him. Shin-ah lifted his head again to the sky, craning his neck and feeling his muscles pull and his heart thrumming in his bones and it all felt so delicious. The whole world was so bright, even the shadows shimmered and flickered and stretched so nicely as they cut across the swaths of light so starkly. There wasn't any darkness. It was gone. The darkness was completely gone. Shin-ah had escaped the caves on his own, clawed his way out, and even though he bled and the world was spinning out he had finally left the caves. He was finally free! What had he been so afraid of in the first place? If it felt this good, why hadn't he ever indulged himself before? If it felt this right, then certainly this was the way he had always been meant to be? Being able to see, feels so good.

He shifted his gaze downward to the man. His arm was gone. Shin-ah had already devoured it and the thought was funny to him, even though he knew it was odd that eating people should be funny, and yet it was. His arm was his now, every part of this human was his to do with whatever he wished, and no human would ever put him back in the caves ever again. The person in front of me is terrified, he thought delighted at the way the color drained from his face and his body stayed frozen, he looked smaller and smaller the longer he looked. He was less imposing and less scary by the moment. After all this human was nothing special. I am overlooking everyone with these big, big dragon eyes.

Something began scratching behind his skull urgently, and he tried to remember despite how the memory felt so big that he couldn't tell head from tails of it. Was this really the first time he had ever felt so free? He hadn't always been in the caves had he? It didn't matter—or rather it did matter. It mattered didn't it? Shin-ah hadn't spent his whole life in the caves had he? He hadn't always been looking towards the sky, reaching towards the world above, listening to the water dripping…dripping…

Rain fell in that empty space where memories met reality—a cold rain—a rain that washed over him and made him raw and drowned him and buried him and opened up his chest and revealed all he wished to hide. But where did his dreams end and memories begin? Where did dreams and reality intersect? Where did they intertwine, crash, ebb, flow, become one and indistinguishable from each other? The dead were always there in the cave of Shin-ah's mind, piling up before him as he ripped them apart, devoured them, anointed them with his rain, and kept on returning. If they were always there were they really dead?And he wanted them to be dead! He wanted them to be dead and gone and to leave him be (but they never would), and would he be trapped in the darkness with them forever? How long did he have to walk in the land between life and death before he knew the answer?

I…I also did this before. He thought as that rain continued on and on, forever humming in his ears. Those big, big adults looked smaller and had I been protecting? Suddenly the rain faltered, it paused, and there was finally silence and in that silence there were strands of blue hair and a warm hand, and a large back Shin-ah craned up to see, up further—further—up to the sky.What did I lose? Why wasn't I allowed to use this power?

I want to see more…of this clear world—

"Stay away, monster!"

His lungs burned, his idyllic moment torn away again by the rushing rain, but not rain, lifeblood. Sweat formed on his brow. Someone had taken from him again. Why couldn't they see he had nothing left? He had nothing so why did they always harass him? Shin-ah hadn't wanted much, he had just wanted to not be alone. Shin-ah had just wanted to love them and be loved in return! He had tried so hard to make his little wish come true, but it hadn't mattered as the humans had locked him away in the caves. Everything crumbled before him like dust, it all slipped from his grasp, so no more. Shin-ah wouldn't let anyone take anything from him ever again. The sky was his, everything within his sight was his, and it was rightly his. They wouldn't lock him away in the caves again, they wouldn't take anything from him anymore. It was now his turn to take. His turn to take and to take and to take until the world had nothing left for him to take. Shin-ah would fill the emptiness inside him, because he was so hungry. Shin-ah had never been so starved before in his whole life—or perhaps he had always been this starved but had never wanted to admit it but now he was free and he could do whatever he pleased, and he knew exactly what would fulfill him. All he had to do was look.

The arm of the person in front of me is gone. They're looking smaller and smaller. Shin-ah knew as he gazed at this human and looked closer because he could, and peeling away layers of skin and muscle to reveal the human's inner most nature. Now it's as if I can see through to his heart.

Found it.

It's his heart.

It's so small and cute.

I wonder if it will break if I touch it?