Chapter 11
NiGHTS was learning her way around Wizeman's domain. She had started with the citadel where she and her new siblings resided, flying through all the hallways and corridors she could find. When she found the exit, she took off to explore the land beyond.
NiGHTS felt beyond everything as she soared over the desolate wasteland, spinning, looping, and doing flips in midair like she had flown this way her entire life. The only thing she couldn't shake was the feeling that something was watching her constantly.
She reached the oasis that she had come to know and landed lightly on the ground. Glancing around, she noticed something different- the trees seemed dead. When they had once stood regal and upright, they now bent and sagged like an old woman supported on her cane. The young Nightmaren was filled with a strange mix of pitying sorrow and disgusted rage, making her unsure whether she wanted to fix the vegetation, or destroy it. She decided to just leave and range elsewhere before she did something she would regret later.
NiGHTS came to find that Nightmare was huge. Like a ballroom proportioned for Wizeman himself, times twelve and added to forty-two. It was the odd mixture of naturalistic joy and terrifying difference, like sex. Not that she had ever done such things, but after hearing so many stories from those senior to herself…
NiGHTS shook her head of such thoughts and continued her starry stroll. Far below her, the sand dunes spilled into mountains and plains, with rivers gleaming like ghostly ribbons, and deep forests sleeping like the malicious beasts that the Nightmaren suspected lived within. A prairie started to dominate the landscape after a while, and NiGHTS decided to land, perching like a hawk on one of the branches while she instinctively scanned the horizon, although she wasn't sure as to what she was looking for.
It caught her eye, however.
In the distance, a crimson light flashed, sparkled a moment, then dimmed into tar-shaded nihility. Both the thief half and the Nightmaren half of the girl spurred her on to where the light had shone, instincts screaming at her to take it back to Wizeman. Closer, NiGHTS thought to herself subconsciously, I have to find it- Master Wizeman needs it!
A tree, withered and shrunken, with a split trunk rose out of the ground. At its base huddled a small lump of flesh and cloth- a young girl sobbing her heart out almost literally- as she clutched a slim, black cat. Conscious mind took back over instinct and NiGHTS hung back and listened to the girl's lamentations from the shadows.
"But mom, he's already stiff-" she cried, bursting into sobs and calling to the night, "I know it's him- it's Shadow-cat- but I don't want it to be." More crying. NiGHTS fought back the urge to jump the girl and steal the crimson light: A part of her- the small memory of Reala's hanging- kept her instincts at bay.
"No one was there for him, no one to stay the night and keep watch over him," the girl whispered, staring at the limp form in her arms. She shook her head, and a small, golden light- just as tantalizing to NiGHTS as the crimson- came from within the girl and spread over the cat, bringing it to life. The Nightmaren could practically feel the girl's eyes widen, and she hugged the form to her. When she held the creature at arms length, NiGHTS' instincts finally reclaimed her body and she lunged forward like a snake, snatching the light from the cat and making it go limp again. The girl stared at the form in shock, blinking a few times before she looked up at NiGHTS. Tears flooded her hazel eyes, and she whispered, "Why?"
NiGHTS started to answer, then stopped to think for a second. Her response:
"It belongs to Master Wizeman."
"May he burn then," the girl growled, her eyes burning as a red light glowed around her.
Take it! Instinct demanded.
No, whispered another, softer voice, You've taken her hope- isn't that enough?
Never! All must be taken and given to the Master!
I thought you loathed the 'Master.'
"Keep my light if your master wants it so much," the girl spat as she started to fade.
She's slipping away- get her! Instinct roared.
"I know he's already got yours," almost gone, but still obtainable…
The girl has a point. What would Reala have done? the softer voice asked calmly.
He would have done what the Master wanted! the other voice growled.
No, that creature isn't Reala…
"But I know whatever conscious you have left will eat you alive for it." She disappeared.
You can bet your ass I will, young lady, Consciousness said gently as NiGHTS turned to fly back to Wizeman with her stolen prize.
AN: Yes, I know this chappie was short as hell, but what with the school and all, it really couldn't be that long. And WOOT! Author self-insertion time! There had to be at least one in this story! The girl with her dead black cat is supposed to be a thinly-veiled reflection of myself and the thoughts, feelings, and actually sayings of when my cat Shadow died in September 2007. Let's just say that school sucked that day...
