It was dark in the desert with mountains of coarse sand stretching as far as the eye could see. Above, the skies were filled with the branching paths of dancing lights that all converged on a single point at their backs. Here, a young girl with sunken eyes stood before one of her many creations, a child baring the skin of a boy and the rage of a titan. They were balanced like two sides of the same coin. Peace and war, anger and calm, mother and son, black and white, yin and yang; forever countering each other.
"Are you there, dear Titan?" She asked of him.
"I am, little Girl" The Titan nodded, his voice both hoarse with rage and giddy with childishness.
"Are you sad?"
"I am"
"What does it feel like?" She titled her head in question, for she had long forgotten the sensation.
"A long hunt with no kill" His legs folded beneath him as he sat before the sullen girl, suddenly very tired.
"How does hunger feel?" The Girl asked next, for once again this was a sensation in which she had long forgotten. It was enough to distract the child from any further inquiries involving the previous conversation.
"Always there" The Titan snarled, although his tone and hands clutched at his stomach conveyed the experience from which he spoke. "How old are we, Girl?"
"Older than those whose footsteps have long vanished" She replied, joining him on the floor. She enjoyed the feeling of warmth which emanated from the Coordinate at her back and let her fingers run through the coarse grains before her.
"Many years then"
"I remember them all"
"How long will we be together?"
"Forever more"
"Never one—" He began.
"—Without the other" She ended with a nod.
"…Have they forgotten us, little Girl?" The Titan queried, curious and wary.
"All still know us though they try to forget" She sagely replied as a small figurine began to form from the sand in front of her. "Soon, we will remind them. All will know us, in time"
"How?"
"What do all stories have in common, dear Titan?" She retorted instead, sticking her tongue out in concentration as she pushed and pulled at the sand.
"They end" The Titan stated, sitting up straight. He was like a star pupil answering his teacher's questions with ease.
"Girl, tell me a story"
"There was once a slave girl with golden hair who was very lonely" The Girl started at once, used to the strange demands of men.
"Why was she lonely?" He asked, eyes focused on her hands as they worked. His own hands itched to do the same as her, she could see, but all he could create was small mounds of misshapen sand.
"All things must meet this girl, so they shunned her" The Girl explained. "She took an axe and split herself into nine pieces—"
"—So she would always have friends?" The Titan continued to question as his gaze turned to the lights above.
"So she would always have friends—" She nodded in agreement.
"—Look! The lights are dancing!" He gestured up towards the branching paths that spiderwebbed above their heads and out across the desert, farther than the eye could see. And all around them, the sound of a heartbeat echoed across the plains like the beating of a drum. It rattled against their own unbeating hearts and thrummed through their bones.
"They are called souls" She glanced up at the lights in question. The Girl had been here a long time, long enough to watch all those branches grow and grow out across the dark sky. It was quite pretty.
"Souls?" The Titan sat back on his haunches at the answer.
"Yes" She nodded. "This is the path of the Coordinate"
There was a beat of silence before the Titan opened his mouth again. She knew it wouldn't be long until he spoke again, she could see the questions whirling within his own sunken eyes. "Girl"
"Hm?" She hummed.
"Is this what it feels like to end?"
"I do not know, for this is not our end" She shrugged, turning back to her creation. "Those who do, wish they hadn't. All life is temporary, dear Titan, all things great and small die. There are so many ways to die; the only true death is to never live"
"Is it time?" He asked softly. "For the Rumbling?"
"We will soon awaken from this pale slumber, we are not dreams, we are the Rumbling" She asserted. "All things linger in our shadow"
"Life is ours to end" The Titan nodded, eyes alight with determination and the rage for which he was so infamous for. "None can hide!"
"Although many try. Those who run from death stood still in life. They laugh—" The Girl continued, periodically interrupted by the Titan as they schemed and plotted.
"—And scream—"
"—And dance—"
"—And flee! They race from us!"
"Only to find us sooner"
"They'll know we'll come!"
"Yet they are never prepared. Embracing life means accepting death" She reminded him.
This time the Girl turned her face to the souls gathered above their heads in the dancing of the Coordinate. "Treasure your final moments" She said, as if they could still hear her. "Hush now, rest, depart in peace. Follow the path and return to nothing"
"We know your name!" The Titan added, turning his own head towards the skies where he bared a malicious grin at them.
"We have always known it" She amended. "All your life has led to this moment"
"It's heart beats fast now!"
"It knows that life fades, that is why it is beautiful. Tomorrow is a hope, never a promise. Soon enough, your time will come"
"Ready or not!" He sang.
"A fine life has reached its conclusion. When you see us—"
"—It's too later! No match for us!"
"Few are, dear Titan" The Girl hummed, turning her gaze back to the wide-eyed child before her. "I wonder how they see me?"
"Blood on sand" The Titan replied with certainty. It was an odd comparison, but not unwarranted. "…What sound do they make?"
"Tears falling on freshly fallen snow" The Girl replied to the question, even though she hadn't really been listening to most of it. Usually that kind of action would result in a harsh punishment from her master, but he was not here and this child was not him. Instead the Titan easily accepted the answer with a pleased smile and a nod of agreement. He clearly hadn't been paying attention to her anyhow. "Peacefully they go"
"Hungry, we follow!" The Titan growled, his hands gripped tight to the shirt over his stomach as if doing so would abate whatever sense of hunger he was feeling. A trail of drool gathered at the corner of his lips and the Girl could almost see the food in which he envisioned as they spoke of it. A small part of her wanted to see how far she could push him, to see what would happen if she did. Humans were such creatures.
"If it draws breath—" She pursued.
"—It meets us!" The Titan drooled, eyes glazed over and a dreamy expression upon his face.
"Go easily—"
"—No!" His eyes became alert once more as he turned to face her with such an intensity that it had her startling back towards the Coordinate. "Thrash! Flee! Run! If you can! Who's next?!"
"E-everyone" She stammered, happy in the knowledge that the Coordinate would protect her. "Every life—"
"—Ends with us!"
"How one dies, shows how one lived"
"They struggle, good" The Titan purred. "The next one will be easy"
"And if not?" The Girl tilted her head in question as she dragged her little unfinished creation closer to her.
"More fun!" He grinned wickedly.
"It's time to end this. Girl calls, Titan strikes and everywhere Girl went, Titan was sure to follow"
"And everywhere Titan went, Girl was sure to follow"
Outside, the world raged on.