Falling
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters depicted within are not mine, and I do not claim any credit for their creation or usage, save for within this fiction. Monster Rancher is a trademark of Tecmo. Please do not sue me. Comments, quips, insults and flames should be directed toward
Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com.
Feel free to MST this work, but please be kind enough to send me a copy when you're done.
***
I know that I'm going to die.
Somehow, I knew that from the moment that I saw Falcon and the pirate dragons carrying him and his friends to Moo's floating castle. It was more then just the knowledge that someday, we all will eventually move off of this coil. It was... a certainty that I had, the second that I first recognized him riding Falcon. I have to get the kid credit... he seems to have a knack for working miracles. The Big Bad Four and Falcon had something of an unspoken agreement... we'd leave them alone as long as they left us alone. I never would have believed that he'd manage to convince him to help, but it looks like he did.
No, somehow, I guess that doesn't surprise me too much, now that I think about it. There's something... about him... something that I can't really describe, beyond that he can do things... Things that shouldn't be possible for somebody so young... I don't know. Maybe it's part of the reason that I found myself deciding, despite that... certainty that I was going to die to follow them. Despite Big Blue's protests that I not go, even though he knows as well as I do that Moo must be stopped.
So, despite it all, I'm still here, now. I managed to snatch the stone away from Moo as I went by, and I managed to break open the window so they could escape. I even managed to surprise myself, and hold off Moo's attack long enough for them to get away. It did surprise me... He's not as strong as I had thought. If he was, I should be dead already, instead of falling, too weak to spread my wings and save myself. It took all my strength to hold him off as long as I did; to stay alive long enough to find myself falling, after his last surge of strength blew me out the window, but I did survive, if only to fall to my death. Moo won't be able to count me among his victims. I wonder if he's realized yet that I got the stone away from him. I don't know how I managed to hang onto it, how I'm still holding onto it... but somehow, I am.
So now, I'm falling, and I know that I'm going to die. I don't even have the energy to open my eyes, much less spread my wings and save myself. It's funny... I should feel sad, or angry, or something... but all I feel... is lonely. It's an emotion that I find I've become all too familiar with over the past years... For a long time, it seems like the only thing that I've known. Big Blue really is my only friend... and now I'm leaving him alone too. Sometimes... sometimes it starts to feel like all I ever leave behind me is pain. When I first escaped my master, then in Northtown, and now here... Well, soon I'll never leave it behind again. I'll never leave anything behind again, save for a Lost Disk.
At least I finally did something right, though. Something... good. Something that wouldn't have haunted me in the years to come. If nothing else, I can at least honestly say that I tried. I know that I gave him and his friends a chance to get away... a chance to defeat Moo, in the end... and somehow, dying doesn't seem as much of a price to pay for it as it once would have. It's strange to think of it that way... to find myself accepting it so easily, but... at the same time, it feels right. I'm... I'm not afraid of it, as I would have thought I'd be. I just... All that I feel is... lonely, and tired.
Tired... I suppose that that's something of an understatement. I feel... exhausted. I'm tired... of everything. Tired of fighting, tired of hating, tired of... life. I wonder, is... is that why I've accepted this so easily? Without questioning it? I'm not certain... and I guess that I won't really have time to understand. I can't be very far from the ground, now... I've been falling for a long time. Or have I? Suddenly I don't know for sure. It seems like a long time since Moo's last blast threw me out the window, but I can't be sure... after all, the only way that I know I'm still falling is because I can feel the wind rushing against my face; my body. I stopped hearing it rushing by my ears not long after I started falling. Why can't it just happen, and be done with?
I'm tired... how much longer do I have to wait to rest?
How...
How much longer do I have to wait to die?
But even as I think that... even as I grow impatient for it all to end, I suddenly realize that I'm not falling any more. I... can still feel the wind going by, but it's direction has shifted... and I can... I... can feel somebody holding me. I can feel... their warmth against my skin. It's surprising... how warm they feel, after falling so long... I hadn't noticed until just now how cold I am. They're holding me... so close... but it feels good, though. It feels good... to just be held like this. I wonder who...
No. I know who it is that caught me. I know exactly who, and exactly why... and why it doesn't surprise me. Somehow, I manage to find the strength to open my eyes... and he is there, above me, still smiling... and still with the same concern in his eyes that I saw the last time I opened my eyes to see Genki above me. Briefly, I think of that day again; the day that he defeated Big Blue and I, and set us both free. I remember thinking that day that I'd never seen eyes quite so clear before... never seen anybody looking at me... at ME, Pixie... with such concern... with such anything, other then hatred, fear, and loathing. It's just the same today... if not more so. That look of concern, of... of friendship... is so strong. I can see why he's so important to them... Why he's starting to become... so important... to me.
I hear myself speaking to him, although I'm not quite sure what it is I'm saying; at the same time, I force myself to open my hand far enough for him to see the stone without dropping it. Then everything finally catches up to me, and I find my eyes closing again, no matter how hard I fight to keep them open. For some reason, all that I can feel suddenly is how tired I am... and how he's holding me... and the warmth of his body against mine...
And... how good...
How good, and comfortable, and... warm...
How... how right... it feels.
I'm so tired... and it feels so... so much like home that I can't... can't stay awake any longer.