36 - freedom of spirit

Sally blinked and opened her blue softly sparkling eyes. Her mind was still full of images of the past night, the night she had given herself completely to Kai. Sally felt a little sore but other than that she was on top of the world. She rolled over to ask her boyfriend how he felt. Kai however was still fast asleep. The boy's bare chest rose and fell with each deep breath. He smiled in his sleep and muttered her name causing his lover to smile with pride.

Sally pulled herself over the tangled covers towards Kai, unable to believe that for once she was awake first. Upon reaching the boy Sally reached out and stroked his face gently. Kai's warpaint triangles were smudged and ruined after last night's passion. Sally giggled at this. She began to trace her fingers along the muscles of his chest, part of her wanted to wake him up but another part said it would be nicer to let him rest.

So the girl climbed out of bed and got dressed intent on getting breakfast for her lover. She collected her money and blade and left a note on the bedside table for Kai. Then she left silently out the door. She stopped for a while in the lobby, which was empty in the early morning light.
"gezzz dose this place even have staff.... guess I'll have to buy lunch somewhere, I wonder what he would like ?" Sally muttered to herself.

"looks like he already ate you" said a sweet voice. Sally spun around and there she was. Luna, her painting was moving again, water cascading behind her, her feathers fluttering in an unseen breeze. Sally stared at Luna wide eyed, why did this stupid spirit keep doing this to her and what was she talking about Kai handt eaten her ."less of the stupid if you don't mind....and you obviously haven't looked in a mirror this morning, take a look at your neck" the bird said as it flapped its long tail in amusement.

Sally looked about the was a mirror on the wall nearby, she went close to it and examined her throat. As her hand ghosted over her skin she was there were a few small red bruises along the collar bone and up her neck. Sally flushed "there love bites" she mumbled. Her mind helpfully sent a series of flashbacks, frowned as she walked back to the painting "you were meant to tell me how you knew about him....and what you actually are" the girl said firmly, although her mood was still bright she wanted answers, and now seemed like a good time.

The water phoenix sighed "fine ....I will tell you my story though I doubt you will believe me" she said her voice sounded sad somehow. Sally sat herself down on the desk and listened as Luna began her story. "It started around a thousand years ago, when man wasn't a advanced race. Back then the were spirits like me everywhere. Those for fire, wind, earth and water. There were other powers to but those four were the most common also they were the powers of the four sacred spirits who guarded the four corners of the earth. Dragoon of wind. Dracil of water. Drigger of earth and Dranzer of fire. Each had their part of the earth to protect and a variety of other spirits to help them do this....I live where Dranzer did but at that time I wasn't yet a spirit" Sally blinked up at Luna as she talked, already transfixed by the tail.

"I lived here in what would eventually become England, though it looked nothing like what it did back then, You humans tend to spoil the natural beauty of things even then man was changing the environment" Luna sighed, her eyes held Sally's and they frowned at each other. "Anyway I was back then as I said a normal creature...I was a swan, simple, plain and dull. I envied the spirits around me. I was jealous that they had such power while I could do nothing but watch my eggs smashed and my home crumble. So I sort out the leader of our little island...it so happens that England and the rest of Europe was protected by Dranzer" Luna continued her eyes, dimmed as though she was thinking of memorise of events long since past. Sally felt a twinge of sadness in her own heart she knew all too well what feeling trapped and helpless was like.

"anyway...I asked Dranzer to make me a guardian....he was kind and understanding, he listened to all I had been through, but he would not give me any powers. I got angry I knew he had the gift to give but he refused because he was worried I would take to extreme measures to protect my home, he continued to be kind by offering me a newer safer home but I wanted my lake. So I returned home and watched my home die.....I got older and older. With my age grew my anger....not at Dranzer, still at man and that no one not even the sacred four would do anything to stop the world from changing" tears formed in the birds eyes. "they didn't protect us at all"
"one day I knew finally I wouldn't have to see anymore, I flew to the edge of my lake to die....my body rotted but I couldn't cross over, my spirit bound to the earth by my thirst for revenge....but at first I didn't or rather couldn't get that. I was still just a swan by power standards, I decided it was time to see Dranzer again" Luna's tone became hard.

" I begged Dranzer for years to give me some of his powers, each time he would say no, each time he would be kind enough to offer me a new home...I wish now that I had taken it would of been better than this and at least I would have company...but I was to filled with anger and hate to recognize that Dranzer cared and was only trying help me, I believed that he pitied me and that only feed my anger" Luna said her white head bowed in shame. Sally couldn't help thinking how angry Kai had been, and how she had desperately tried to make him smile and be whole again.

"In the end I waited for my own strength to grow and attacked the humans of my home land with just my anger, but although I did damage...they couldn't see my form like you can so they couldn't fight back against me....however that wasn't a god thing, they prayed for their guardian to save them They prayed for Dranzer but when he didn't show to stop me they blamed him....and all other spirits they began to seal us away one by one, i hide away and watched them do it...I was a coward" Luna paused. Sally just stared at her.

"I decided in the end to make one last stand....two hundred years ago, the four sacred bit beast were the only ones left other than myself, my power as a spirit had grown while I had been hiding, humans called me the white devil as I attacked any human that came near my home. As I suspected they tried to seal me but they were stopped by Dranzer himself....he gave me the power I desired but it cost him his own freedom, which is why he now is the pet of your boyfriend....I was sealed one hundred years after him, in this painting you see before you" Luna finished her voice hard.

Sally slide of the desk and backed rather than backed away had gone close to Luna. The great bird spoke again, lowering her head to be level with Sally's "I am a water phoenix because, Dranzer passed part of himself onto me the night he saved me. I became the two things I loved most, the lake guardian power and a phoenix....that's why you see me, that's why you hear me, because you are bound to Kai as I am to Dranzer and that is why it must be you that realises me !" Luna whispered. Sally just nodded and reached up to touch the bird, she ignored the burning sensation from Locotta in her pocket and his strangled howl filed the room.

Sally stopped eye to eye with Luna "I promise I will hurt know one....I just want to be free, perhaps i will such and find a blader like you" the bird said. Sally nodded again and touched the birds golden headdress. There was a rumbling and then the picture frame started to crack and crumble. The lake guardian glowed in a strange white light then disappeared, Sally felt something cold go through her entire body and heard Luna sing "thank you I will return when you need me" she said her voice was sweet and sounded like chiming bells. "She won't need you as long as I'm here, it is my duty to protect this child until the end" Locotta rumbled.

At that point several things happened. Firstly Sally realised that Luna and Dranzer were strangely like her and Kai, secondly she should really go get her boyfriend's breakfast and thirdly she was going to be in big trouble for breaking the painting. Sally gasped up at the wreck of a masterpiece. The was a firm voice over her shoulder "Sally what have you done ?!", she recognized the voice it was Tala. He wouldn't believe me even if I told him she thought. "erm....I didn't do it...it was like that when I got here" Sally shrugged at her frowning brother. Then she noticed that her brother's eyes were not on the ruined painting but on her neck. "oh fuck" was all the girl could say before the lecture began.