Alright! I wanted to get this up before I went out of town. I'm headed to Oregon to visit some family and I won't be back in town for about a week. I don't have my computer, but I will have my ever present notebook and will not stop writing and planning this story.
Review please. It may sound corny, but reviews really keep me motivated. If you have ever written anything, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
About the story itself, I need to make a quick pronunciation guide. The only people who pronounce Diata's first name correctly are the people, like myself, who study Japanese. (I'm not sure if this is how the actual name is pronounced, but it's how it's pronounced in my story.)
-Sundiata: SOON-dee-ah-tah
-Diata: dee-AH-tah
-Di: dee
See you next week!
~Roki
Death
"Shut it Turi, she's waking up."
"I was just-"
"I said, shut it!"
Denna opened her eyes to see everything spinning in front of her. "What," she began, trying to sit up.
Someone pushed her back down in bed. "Nice try," Josha said. "You've been in bed for three days. We're not letting you up until a healer looks at you. Di's gone to get one."
"I don't feel right," Denna said.
A thin hand touched her forehead. "I'm no healer," she heard in Turi's Scanran accent, "but I can tell you she has a terrible fever. Mayhap, the stress?"
A door opened and shut somewhere in the room. "I'm back," Diata said.
"Clearly," Josha muttered.
Ignoring Josha's comment, Diata asked, "How is she?"
"Fever," Turi replied.
Denna felt a magic on her and saw an unfamiliar blurred figure standing over her. Seeing as no one did anything to stop the person, Denna assumed it was the healer and didn't object.
"I've never seen anything like this," the man said after a few minutes. "I can prescribe some things that may help, but I can't guarantee anything."
"You can't do any healing to help her at all?" Turi asked.
Denna saw the healer's blurred head shake. "I tried already. The only thing I can guarantee is that whatever it is isn't contagious."
"I would've stayed here anyway," Josha muttered. The other two boys nodded in agreement.
Diata got up and showed the healer out. When he got back, he sat down in his chair, clearly disgruntled. "He was no help. Denna, what's wrong?"
"Can't see anything right, 'sall blurry and spinning," Denna replied, putting her hands over her eyes. "Feel nauseous, have a headache, and I'm sore everywhere."
"Well," Turi asked, "what's the last thing you remember. Mayhap something you ate or someone around you was sick."
"The healer said it's not contagious," Diata snapped.
"That's beside the point," Turi retorted.
Denna groaned. "The last thing I remember before I fell asleep was drinking some tea a priestess gave me. But while I was asleep," realization hit her and she sat bolt upright in bed, ignoring the spinning room. "Mithros and the Goddess!"
Josha pushed her back down in bed. "What's that about?"
"Kyprioth!" she grumbled. "That sick, twisted, creature. May his eyes be pecked out by his own beloved crows!"
You agreed to this. Remember that. A voice said in her head. And so you know, my crows love me too much to do that.
Denna sighed. He was right. This was her fault. It took her a few moments to remember why she had done this. Finally she said, "Hey Diata, you guys haven't gone after the man responsible for all this, have you?"
"No, we haven't."
"Don't do it. Not until I'm better at least."
Even though her vision was blurred, she saw the boys all look at each other.
"Um, Denna," Josha began slowly, "the healer told Di you have almost no chance of surviving." His voice broke on the last work and his head fell into his hands and Josha sobbed silently.
Denna smiled and put her hand on his. "Stop crying you silly gixie. I know I'm dying. I've figured it all out." She paused, unsure of how much she should tell her friends. They all knew about her mother, but Denna didn't even know until a few nights ago that she was a goddess. "Just do me a favor, don't report my death."
She couldn't see it, but Denna imagined confused looks on the boy's faces.
The next three days were the worst days of Denna's life. She didn't have the strength to sit up in bed, eat, or drink on her own. Her vision got so bad that it began to have blind patches in her side vision.
Each night, a different friend stayed with her. Josha stayed the first night, when Denna could talk without pain, and they talked until Denna fell asleep. The second night, Turi stayed with her, telling her about what his four sisters have been doing in the past year since Denna had seen them. The third night, Diata stayed in the room with her, saying nothing.
"Diata, what's wrong?" she finally asked, ignoring the dry burning in her throat.
"Nothing," he said shortly.
Denna tried to smile. "Are you really going to lie to me when I'm this close to death, Di?"
Diata stood up so fast, he knocked his stool over. "You're taking this whole thing as a joke!" he shouted. "You're dying Dennari and you won't even admit it!"
"I did admit it Di. I know I'm dying. You, my friend, are simply overacting."
"You keep telling us not to go after the Mithran without you." They had begun calling the man who was responsible for all the 'the Mithran' because all they knew was that he was a servant of Mithros. "Unless we drag around your corpse, we'll be doing this without you."
He's too worried, Denna thought. Even if the others are too, they didn't show it like this. I can't stand it. "Help me sit up, will you?" she asked. "I don't want to say this too loud and I hate it when you all bend over me."
After a moment's hesitation, Diata sat back down and helped Denna to sit up and bring her close enough to whisper.
"While the Gods had me, I spoke with your God." She trusted Diata to know that she was talking about Kyprioth. "He explained some things to me that are too serious for me to think he was lying. Because of that, I made this choice to die. I didn't know it, but having the Goddess as my mother, I belong in the Divine Realms."
Diata almost let her fall back onto the bed in his surprise. "So, all this time, I've been friends with a-"
"Yes." Denna smiled. "So, will you wait for me? Or will you go after the Mithran without a goddess on your side?"
"One of us is delusional," he said, shaking his head. "Either I'm imagining all of this or you're crazy with your fever."
Denna's only response was to go limp in his arms. She had finally died.
