Chapter 7: Past
Well first off, I guess I'll start by saying that I was born in Siberia. Seriously. My full name is Yuffie Volynski if you require proof of Russian heritage. Anyway, in Siberia I lived in a small village at the very north-west of it by the name of Kemetsk. Living there I had a pretty normal life as I lived with my parents and even if I was fighting to survive half the time, it was fun. Beyblading even got to us out there, and I lived through each frozen night just to do so. Even if I did know nothing of Bit-Beasts, a World Championship, or the existence of a certain grandmother.
But blading with my local friends as I cried out encouragement to my blue and mauve Beyblade…it was definition of fun. Remember though that I didn't have Drachia at this time, so my blade was made out of local alloys and metals put together by local blacksmiths. Not much could get out to us after all. So consequently the one with the most money had the best Beyblade. I wasn't from a rich family, just a family of the best (well only) blacksmiths around, and I couldn't help but feel a little proud of that.
"Yuffie! We need to go to the lake to finish connecting the well with the new pipe before it freezes over for the night, let's go!" my mother cried to me as I continued to play with my friends. Alerted to this, I giggled and waved.
"Okay, I'll be right there Mom!"
So yeah, because of my lucky lineage I was the best Beyblader back then in my little village, always having the latest of my parents' creations. Smirking from yet another victory then, I scooped up my Beyblade, related a little heart-to-heart thanks and encouragement to the loser, and ran to my mother. On this fateful day (ah, so poetic!), I was a mere child at the age of seven, still new to the many wonders of the world. My hair was a dark brown back then before I dyed it, and I wore it down too. Draping right down to my waist, I loved having it catch snow and being played with by the cold wind. My warm black eyes loved watching that happen too - snow to me just seemed so magical, not as boring as most people growing up with it would think.
So with my hair swishing behind me, I quickly caught up to my mother and I jumped into the husky driven sleigh that was brought to us by my father, and boasted about my recent win. They praised, I laughed, they told stories, I listened, they enjoyed themselves, and so did I. It may have been chilly and bitter, it may have been windy and gusty, but my family with my mum, dad and me, were warm to the core.
However, going through the last of the evergreen trees to the lake as the sun was beginning to set, everything changed. It had already frozen over. There was no way we would be able to dig through that thick ice to create the water pipe, but we still needed water before the night came. However, our only other water source wasn't the easiest place to get to. Snow falling once more, I had no time to look up and peacefully let it fall on my face.
"Quickly Yuffie, we need to go around the mountain before it gets dark,' my father said above the already quick wind. 'I sense that a blizzard will come tonight."
Nevertheless, we set off.
My many layers gave no defence against the wind constantly whipping my face, and I can still remember the chill air surrounded by an atmosphere of foreboding around the lake. Going around this mountain in order to reach a smaller lake would be no easy task, but it's protected from the wind over there, so it was less likely to have been frozen. But it was obviously more dangerous to get to, and rarely done so. And the weather wasn't helping as we climbed, the oncoming blizzard getting worse. Another hour and you wouldn't be able to see your hand in front of your face. Right now it was five feet in front of you but the wind was getting harsher, more relentless, more unforgiving, and the weight of water caskets on your back didn't make it any easier.
"YUFFIE LOOK OUT!"
It happened so quickly. No warning. It seemed almost unnatural. But it was real and I had to accept it.
An avalanche was coming.
"Dad! Mom!" I screamed, my tears frozen the moment they hit the air. We began running to higher ground, but it was coming fast. The nearest trees wouldn't stand a chance. The biggest one we made straight for, shoving our way through thigh deep snow at a desperate speed, the crunch of our feet nothing compared to the rumble of the millions of tons of frozen water already heading straight for us.
Fear. Dread. Helplessness.
All that was mixed within me at an accelerated pace that would put out any normal domestic kid right on the spot. Then suddenly, I felt myself being lifted, and I was thrown with strength, landing at the top of the tree. I feebly latched myself to the biggest branch, but I tried looking back down to earth as I recovered.
"NO! Dad! Mom!" I screamed, the avalanche now going over the places where my parents were. This tree had barely made it, but the cloud of snow was covering me. My body made sure I wasn't going to let go, but I wanted to let go and run to my parents. Such was a mind of a seven year old.
Minutes past.
But I continually screamed my parents' names over the roaring rumble of snow sliding down the mountain, right until my voice grew hoarse and it was painful to speak. I didn't stop. The wind still blew, the snow still fell, and the avalanche kept going, but I didn't stop.
I knew not how much time passed while I was on that tree; I couldn't tell the time from the blackened, blizzard-stricken sky. I may have fallen asleep at one point - I couldn't really tell. It was too overwhelming for a child like me. But I was eventually awake at one point, and it was finally over.
Not wasting a minute I jumped down to the pile of snow barely a meter down from me, before almost falling straight through it. Struggling upwards to breathe before progressing on all fours to prevent further fallings, I began searching relentlessly. Continuing to scream their names I searched, tearing apart any snow that seemed hopeful. I didn't even realize at the time that I could have caused another avalanche.
"PLEASE, answer me!"
My voice was desperate, losing hope, already knowing the result. I wailed for what seemed an age on my knees, but the blizzard that my father predicted was still coming as the rising speed of the wind and snow fall continued to remind me. But I didn't care; I just wanted to find my parents. So I continued to search endlessly.
"Uwagh!"
In my impatience to move on though I didn't test the next meter or so of ground, and fell right through the cascade of snow.
At first, I thought I was dead. I couldn't move an inch, feel anything or see anything – like an eternity of nothingness. I just felt so weightless. But then slowly my senses returned and I could feel a mound of snow on top of me, slowly crushing me. Immediately I panicked and tried calling for help, but something cold and wet entered my mouth, making me cough. It was snow. I had been buried alive.
In my frenzied fear and panic I immediately began furiously trying to move, my incredible will not to die driving me. Tears stung my eyes as I thought how I was beyond rescue, with nary a hope. I felt dizzy and weak, the blood roaring through my head. But I continued to struggle and in my desperation I managed to free my mouth, suddenly making me realize how little how I could breathe. My hand pushed through the remainder of the snow and unconsciously freed my neck. Not stopping, I kicked my legs again and again against the snow. Soon I could turn around in my little insulated snow cave, free. But not free from suffocation I thought, as my headache persisted.
I chipped away at the ceiling as I sat on my knees, clawing at the snow with my gloves. I began imagining strange things, my mind going blank as I worked. There was an illusion of a warm fire, hot food and a comfortable place to sleep with my parents by my side somewhere... But each time I would blink, my cold, miserable reality would crash down on me, and I would shiver with fear.
Over a length of time I could not measure, I kept whittling away at the frozen water. And suddenly, a big pile of snow soon gave way, falling around me.
A hand appeared. But I screamed.
It was a lifeless, frozen hand, with no warmth at all. It was flopping down in front of me like a zombie, disturbed and without rest. Slight crumbling sounded above me, and I knew that more was coming. I braced myself and shielded my head, but after a few moments nothing fell down. Peeking an eye open, I looked up.
I screamed, fear gripping me. A painful throb stuck in my throat, stabbing me. My cheeks burned with blistering tears, the air I was breathing becoming hot with madness. Empty black eyes bored a hole right through me, on his face a hideous burn scar leaving half an eyelid charred. Wild, fluttering panic made my body shake with terror. My scream had dried my mouth.
Get away.
My body didn't move. Couldn't move. Wouldn't move.
Get away!
My fingers clawed at the floor, unable to think, feel, react. Frozen. Every fibre of me was screaming to get away. But I couldn't look away. He was dead. Dead.
I screamed again. A jagged tear of pain flooded through my chest, no oxygen left. The ice beneath my fingers crumbled with my sudden frenzy of movement, and I fell backwards. I hit the wall as more ice fell away, and under my weight I fell through the snow again, landing on something hard.
I paid no attention to my pain, my entire body suddenly alive with movement. Breathing short, rapid breaths, my eyes darted around my body, looking for anything. Anything and nothing. Just blackness. No light anywhere except for the light where I came from. My breathing slowed as my eyes adjusted.
Skeletons. Broken bones and toothy smiles. Leaning peacefully against the wall.
Wailing, I scrambled to my feet and sprinted. I didn't care where. I didn't even notice I was in cave until I was far, far away.
But a dead end was reached, barren and impenetrable.
I cried.
A simple 7 year old, lost in the mountains. Hungry, cold and alone I sat down and cried. Hot, thick tears rushed down my cheeks as I hugged my knees, burying my face in my thighs. Leaning back I felt something hard and cold hit me and I whirled around. A wall. Just a wall...
Collapsing with relief against it, all the fatigue I gained from the day slammed down on me. I shivered as my eyelids felt heavy, still moist with tears.
"No…I can't…fall asleep…I'm too cold…" I thought, biting my lip as I hoped to stay awake through the pain. But when I was awake my thoughts kept shifting to my near death, that dead man, those skeletons, and my parents' fate. Every time the images pressed themselves into my skull I would grasp my head and tear at my hair, and the water from my eyes would never stop falling.
Mom...Dad... I sobbed harder, the tears continuing to fall down, down into my hair hanging round my shoulders. My eyes were bulging in fright.
"Someone…h-help me…" I choked.
Выребенка,выжалкиеребенка.
My eyes wider than saucers, I furiously wiped my tears and darted my head around for the source of the voice.
"W-Who's there?" I called out uncertainly to the darkness, whimpering slightly. I heard nothing, but I darted my eyes fearfully around. Eyes appeared everywhere, appearing in the corner of my vision. Yet there was nothing when I looked there.
But I knew I didn't imagine that voice. Those words that voice had said, they echoed in my mind and I clutched my head. 'You child, you pathetic child,' my mind repeated again and again. Images of the dead man whispered them, his eyes appearing everywhere. Laughing.
But then a dart of my shadow on the opposite wall caught my eye from a sudden flash of light. I jumped at the glow, panting. And it just as quickly faded back to the familiar darkness from before. My heart sank suddenly. But the flash of light reappeared and my shadow cast itself over the wall again. I gulped. The light was coming from behind me.
Slowly looking around, I stared wide eyed at the rock behind me as I leaned in closer on my hands and knees, still shaking uncertainly. But it wasn't a rock, it was a mural. There were various pictures and writing depicting a sort of bird descending from dark clouds in the sky to a desolate frozen desert.
It looked just like my home country, Russia.
I breathed out a gasp, leaning in closer as I got absorbed with curiosity. The source of light was even stranger, since the engravings on the rock themselves were glowing on and off, as if they had light bulbs hiding behind them. But when I placed my gloved hand on it, the light stayed. You couldn't deny it was a weird wall. Blinking and adjusting to the light, I gazed at the wall and it's pictures and without realizing it, I began reading the story.
It started with a picture of a bird that was covered in what looked like flames, and it was warming the landscape of Russia. Time passed, but then another bird came on from the heavens, which looked like an embodiment of ice as snow fell around it. From a territorial dispute because the ice bird seemed to have the land originally, they fought over control. But they always drew in their battles, so the landscape never changed. But then occasionally one would beat the other, and the warmth or frost would engulf the land in equal strength, giving life and food to the people on the earth.
"Resulting in seasons...!" I realised with a gasp. Jerking my head to the next picture, my eyes widened. The fire bird was leaving, but it left the Sun in its place to keep the seasons, and so the ice bird continued to reign like before, resulting in Russia.
Why did the fire bird leave...? I thought sadly. So it was its fault we never have a hot summer! Ohhh!
The ice bird also shared my frustration in the departure of the fire bird for some reason too. It really was an odd bird. But I noticed that in its expression in the picture where the fire bird was leaving, it looked really sad.
Why is it sad? I brushed my fingers over the picture for a moment on the ice bird, as if it could tell me why. In the next picture though, the ice bird grew stronger as it grew angry, and blizzards began to form. It wanted to fight the fire bird again, and the people began to resent the ice bird for bringing the continually terrible weather.
Rejected and alone, the ice bird then abused its power and brought all year winter to the land. The people inhabiting it used beasts of their own to calm the ice bird and then in order to get the warm weather back, the ice bird brought back the fire bird with the peoples' help.
But then, they surprisingly all left the country together, in order to bring equality of weather to everywhere in the world as a team...
"What a cool story..." I mumbled as I finished reading. They were still weird birds though.
Looking to the oddest one, the ice bird though, I still wondered. What kind of emotions did it have back then? Did it still exist? But most of all, why hadn't I heard of this story? Folktales were told practically every night by the fire, everything from urban legends to local myths to well-known achievements of long ago. Brushing my fingers over it, even though they were covered with a thick glove, it still made me feel somehow connected to it. I looked above the mural, and I saw there was something written above them.
"Название ледяной птицы."
"The name..." My finger traced over the letters as I read them. "...of the ice bird." Looking to the right of this text I saw the name. But then I stumbled and my mouth let out a totally confused noise. It was written in the Latin alphabet. For a remote village in Siberia, it sure seemed to have its fair share of European languages for some reason. So after snorting my displeasure, I moved straight on to the more well known language.
"Название Жар-птица."
"The name of the fire bird," I murmured. Looking to the right of it, I half expected more gibberish but this time, something had rubbed it out from history. Pfft, helpful.
Yet, I sighed. This was getting me nowhere, but if only I found my parents, they would know what to do. My sigh however was soon replaced by a yawn.
No! I can't sleep. I'm still too cold... I desperately continued to fight my urge to sleep, biting my lip again. Shaking my head to energize myself, I pushed myself onto my feet to do a couple rounds of the cave. But just when I began to walk away the mural's engravings started flashing again with their light. It was as if they were almost panicking about me leaving. Startled at this revelation I once more walked towards that story and the closer I got, the more the glow softened. Smiling a little, I put my hand on the fire bird.
"You weird wall," I muttered. As I stroked the fire bird I observed how it lived up to its name, since it sure was warm. The whole wall was warm…
Suddenly, the screech of an eagle's cry flooded my ears and while I clamped my ears against it, the light from the wall blinded me.
Blinking furiously, I opened my eyes to adjust faster and I lowered my hands. Darting my head around everywhere, I just couldn't fathom it. Why am I outside again?
Even stranger was that the weather was clear, without conflict, and the Sun was shining without a single cloud to block it. Looking around more slowly though, my eye caught the sparkle of reflected water. The lake in all its glory in the summer was glittering magically, not even frozen in the slightest.
Not wanting to care about the logic, I just giggled with happiness and began running to that pristine lake, my feet crunching their way through the snow. But then I suddenly stopped as without warning, a blizzard came out of nowhere as I heard a flapping of wings. Shielding my face from the wind, I squinted through the snow to trek onward, desperate to see the water before froze over. Before I could take another step though, a great majestic creature suddenly came down in front of me.
Mainly an icy blue in colour, it had lighter plumage on its chest and a darker head crest with two long, swerving tails. With a jolt, I realized it as a bird, the ice bird I saw just minutes ago on the wall.
"Are you the one?"
I instantly fell on the snow out of shock. T-The freaking bird just spoke!
"Are you the one to wield my power to rescue the fire bird once more?" the bird asked more specifically, its beak moving in sync with its voice. His words shook my being, his voice echoed through me. It really was something magnificent. They were spoken with a smooth confidence, but with a crack, like a flowing stream with only a single rock in its way of the ocean. It was a young voice but still with the edge of wisdom and knowledge, and yet distinctively male. To this day I've never heard anything quite like it.
"W-Who are you?" my younger self stammered to reply, although to me the blizzard probably made him unable to hear me. But his eyes flashed as if he heard every word and the bird raised his wings, letting out a cry from the depths of his throat, instantly halting the blizzard to a standstill. Letting out a sound of awe, I hastily got to my feet in order to get a better look of what was in front of me.
He was beautiful. His wings were made of ice, the delicately formed feathers sharpened at the ends with perfect angles, tinted with a shade of wisteria. The talons were also made of ice, but also flawlessly shaped as they looked ready to kill right on the spot. Despite being at least ten times bigger than me, everything about him was just purely the embodiment of ice, water and winter, perfectly capturing its delicate but harsh nature.
"My name is _" the bird replied calmly. Instantly the name threw me into a state of confusion.
"Dru…Drow…" I attempted to say. The bird raised a cold eyebrow.
"How do you spell it? In Russian," I added as he opened his beak. He let out a sigh of annoyance, indicating the conversation wasn'texactly going as he expected. Nevertheless, he engraved into the snow with his talons. I stared at it for a moment. That couldn't be the name on the wall, could it?
"Yes, it is," the bird muttered with an exasperated sigh. Another electric jolt passed through me.
Can he read minds or something? But if this name is the one of the wall then...
Gingerly I looked up to the ice bird's face again, gulping slightly while trying to remain calm.
"So y-you're the ice bird huh, D-Dra..ka..." I continually fumbled over the tongue twister it was to say the word, making funny noises with my mouth as I did. "Drakeg...? No, it's Drac...kuug...acht...urgh, Drac-"
"It's Drachia," the bird finished impatiently. "Dra-ki-a!" I sweat dropped but I just gave him a sceptical look with my bottom lip sticking out. It was as if I was directly saying "You call that name Russian?"
A slightly awkward silence seemed to pass by then, my thoughts becoming increasingly more childish. Drachia then cleared his throat loudly.
"Well then now that's done with, what is your name, child?"' he asked, folding his wings and nestling down to inspect me more closely. The sudden movement caught me off-guard, and I was struck with awe again as I realised one again that this was a deity from long ago so I didn't answer for a moment. But then I recalled my manners and sat down cross-legged.
"M-My name is Yuffie. Yuffie Volynski..." I mumbled.
"Is it now...?"
"Y-Yes!"
"What a strange name. Are you really Russian?" he asked, cocking his head slightly.
"O-Of course I am! My mother's side is Japanese so they derived my name from Yeva to make it sound more exotic!" I exclaimed, my black eyes alight with pride. Drachia blinked a cold blue eye back. "At least, so I'm told..." I mumbled, looking to the side as the atmosphere suddenly became awkward again.
The bird made no response; instead he seemed to think for a moment as those eyes that seemed like chips of ice gazed over me. Bending his head suddenly he came closer, and then just as abruptly began inspecting me from every angle. I sweat dropped slightly, feeling more than slightly unnerved as I watched this big icy bird was check me out. Hang on that just sounded wrong.
He then tapped his beak lightly on my side, where a pocket was.
"What is in there?"
Putting my hand obediently in it I found my Beyblade, pretty much identically colored as the beast in front of me. Bringing it out, I showed it in silence.
"Ah, a Beyblade, right? That decides it. You are the one."
I blinked three times in that next second, confused and as lost as a snowflake in a blizzard.
"Um, excuse me but the one for what?" I asked, managing to stay polite.
"You're not very bright are you, did you read that mural or not?"
I gave him a slightly annoyed look. "Of course I did."
"Then what's so confusing?"
The vein popped out. Jumping up onto my feet, I declared my ignorance.
"Everything!"
The bird seemed slightly taken aback at this but I didn't waste any time explaining.
"Look whatever-your-name-is, in one night a lot has happened to me! The lake we were supposed to create a water pipe to was frozen over, my parents have disappeared, and I've met a huge, blue chicken that looks like something I just saw on a wall! Anyone would be confused with the little explanation you just gave!"
Drachia instantly ruffled his wings and brought himself up to his full height before rawking right down on me, the force of the snowstorm out his beak knocking me down onto the floor.
"Don't insult me! I know about as little as you do about this! All I know is that the fire bird is in need of help to return to the place he needs to, and that I need a human's help with the possession of a Beyblade to do so!"
With that he snorted his distaste of the situation and ruffled his wings impatiently. Glaring his unfeeling frosty eyes down on me, he awaited my reply.
"Well? Answer me!"
It looked like he didn't care how I was currently covered snow from his outburst. After fighting my way out of that giant snow pile, I brushed all the snow off me casually as I began thinking of an answer that wasn't too insulting. I didn't want to get buried again.
"Come on, девочка!"*
With no effort, I scooped up some snow, pressed it together and threw it straight up into Drachia's big mouth. That was last straw.
"SHUT UP CHICKEN!" I screamed as Drachia choked a little, tears running down my face. "Just why do I have to help you? I'm just a little girl in this world, what the hell can I do to help? Хорошо?"**
Spitting out whatever snow there was left on his tongue, Drachia almost seemed frustrated enough to attack me.
"You can help with everything, as you just said! Do you want the world to be at extreme conditions for the rest of time?"
I stopped right there, as the words processed.
"W-Wait, if I don't help you there will be no seasons?" I asked frantically.
"You finally catch on!" Drachia spat with annoyance. "Believe it or not, ever since the fire bird and I started battling, the world adapted to it! So now separate from each other, soon the world and the life that it carries can't exist!'
My eyes became bigger than planets themselves as I heard it. Here, I was being chosen as the one to basically save the world! I can't do this!
Drachia however, evidently saw my doubt. Or read my mind. Actually it had to be the former, since no ice birds could read minds. Well at least I hoped not.
"The fire bird and I have been separate for nearly a year now. We both reside at a shrine you see, peacefully controlling the world's weather," he explained with closed eyes. I listened with more respect this time, actually getting absorbed into his story. "But one day someone came by and tried to steal us both from the Bits that we were in. I by chance escaped theft through a friend's help, but the fire bird wasn't so lucky.
I let out a sound of understanding and nodded for him to continue.
"It's since that point that I have been unable to remember anything about the fire bird, the only information given to me being that mural. I imagine it being the same for it as well though," he finished. I pouted. Well that's helps. Hang on; am I even considering helping him? I bent my head as I began debating internally.
A few minutes later, I looked up from my swirling thoughts.
"You're really cold you know."
The bird snorted again, instantly making a lump of ice out of his breath, dropping straight onto the ground with a thump barely a few feet away from me. I sweat dropped slightly.
"You accept then?" asked Drachia.
I looked up to him for a moment. His tone was lecturing, but he seemed to be smiling. I bent my head as I sighed.
"Sure."
Instantly Drachia stood up and brought himself up to his full height again with his wings spread wide. I recoiled again at the sudden movement, but Drachia then gave a soul-piercing screech to the sky, filling the air with his announcement. The emotion within it paralyzed me, my eyes suddenly fixated onto Drachia's beauty. Engrossed, all I could see was the various shades of blue, periwinkle and lavender that reflected off his iced wings. I could see nothing else, hear nothing else, and do nothing else. Only when Drachia told me afterwards did I know that right then I was absorbing his power, which turned my eyes blue.
"ZWAH!" I yelled as I instantly shot up, breathing heavily as if recovering from a nightmare. As if my sudden cry alerted the planet to my re-arrival, loud crashes, a yell, a sound of pain and several cries of my name were sounded.
"Yuffie!"
Looking slowly around as I moved my head left and right, I tried to grasp what was going on and where I was. After a few seconds though I had concluded that I was inside, but lying on a bed in a house and next to me were all my neighbours. I was home.
Looking around more closely though, I noticed that my family was nowhere to be seen. I returned my gaze to my hands and my worry for them multiplied. They had to be alive I convinced myself, despite the astronomical odds of them not surviving. Even so I felt the tears well up. I probably wouldn't even be allowed to even say goodbye to them if I was going to save the world.
Ignoring the inquiries of my health and strange eye colour sent my way and everything to do with that, I sobbed into my hands, but something cold and hard hit my face and I pulled my hand back. It was Beyblade, looking just as it always had. But then my eyes widened. There was no mistake. In the middle on the Bit piece, an image of Drachia was imbedded into it.
~Author's Note~
(*means girl, pronounced roughly like zee-vich-ka)
(**means well, pronounced roughly like ka-ra-shaw. Sorry my Russian is so gratuitous).
And the past is all done in this chapter! Well...pretty much all of it I think...nah; I can't really bore you with anything else. All of the above are necessary plot points though, so I hope that doesn't classify it as a completely mary sue-ish background. I thought those kinds of backgrounds were just there for sympathy really...although I guess I have that too. But I just wanted to focus on Drachia really...ANYWAY! Back to the Bladebreakers next chapter! So please review!
