I'm back ladies and gentlemen, sorry for the delay I haven't been in a
writing mood because college just started.
A soft pile of dead vines broke her fall. For a moment Mikoto felt a weakness in her legs, it was about a twenty foot drop, but nothing seemed to be broken.
She pushed off the heap of lifeless vines and stumbled for a few steps, but her legs held her small body from tumbling to the ground. Her surroundings were quite unwelcoming, she could see as far her hands, but her feet were too distant for her to make out; it felt like she was trapped in a globe of darkness.
Walking without tripping into the abyss was surely going to be a trial. She wiped her forearm across her brow to remove the mixture of sweat and blood that had been concocted there and looked at the red streak on her arm; there wasn't much, the wound on her forehead was probably healed already.
That was good, she wouldn't have to worry about falling asleep from lack of blood. Although she would probably have to worry about falling asleep anyhow, she was extremely tired; it was long past eleven o' clock and she was suffering from some major interplanetary time zone changes.
Tiredness was something she could deal with, though. Tiredness was a physical feeling in her body, it wasn't an emotion, and certainly wasn't irrational. She thought back to her fight with the stroper.
That was rational.
The pain, adrenaline rush, and heavy heartbeat; those were all physical responses to outside stimuli. After the fight, though . . . she felt the ifear/i of coming close to death. She was ihappy/i that she had beaten the beast. She felt icurious/i as to why it had attacked her.
None of these emotions were physical changes in her body, they were all just . . . there. Emotions were irrational. They were useless! How any creature with emotions could have survived through millions of years of evolution was a mystery. Emotions made one do stupid things for stupid reasons.
Mikoto thought of Zidane jumping into the gigantic pit filled with vines, that was a perfect example: the only reason he was risking his life were the emotions he felt for Kuja. If Zidane had just turned around and not thought twice about his brother he would probably be back in Alexandria living like a king.
She knew better than him, she would ignore her emotions and think only in a logical manner; this would improve her chances of survival. She wouldn't take any stupid risks. Mikoto stopped thinking for a moment. She had, fortunately, not stepped into a crevasse while lost in thought, it was probably best to stop thinking and look at the situation at hand.
Her interest flipped back to the singing. It continued in her mind and was much stronger where she stood as opposed to the platform which she had jumped from. She turned her head to the left and right. There was only blackness of course, but she could sense where the singing was coming from by the volume of it in her head.
When she looked straight ahead the singing almost completely drowned her thoughts out; when she looked to the left or right the singing died down to a whisper. Mikoto took a step forward, careful to feel out with her foot to make sure she had a place to step in the first place, and gradually made her way along the platform of roots, sensing where she should go by the song in her head.
" I'm not going crazy, there must be some explanation for this . . ." she whispered.
Before she could finish her thought, Mikoto stepped onto something much more firm than the spongy surface of the roots. Suddenly, a circular glyph on the floor lit with a soft blue glow and the entire platform she stood on was illuminated. She was standing in the middle of the swirl of roots and looked down at a glowing metal plate lodged in the floor. It was beginning to move down. She quickly jumped onto the shining elevator before it could descend into the tree without her.
The lift moved rapidly down the hole and exposed a room larger than she had ever seen before. Surprisingly, she could see the entire area inside the tree. It was lit by moonlight coming through a hole in the bark. That must have been where the roots crashed through the side of the tree. The roots were gone now, they had probably returned to their usual resting spot once they had smashed through.
There wasn't much in the area besides the vast brown walls that seemed to travel up for miles; the only things she saw were a few piles of bramble strewn about the floor and a tall pedestal placed in the center of the area. The plate groaned and shook slightly as it set down on the dirt floor of the inner tree and began to move up as soon as it touched bottom.
Mikoto jumped down to the dusty floor before it got too high. The singing in her head was deafening now, all thoughts had been pushed out, save an undying urge to stop the singing. The canvass of her mind's eye was completely blank as she ran towards the pedestal in the center of the room.
"Okay! Okay! I'm here! What do you want me to do?" yelled Mikoto at the top of her lungs, even though she was the only one that heard the song. "Hey! Where are you?"
The singing stopped.
"Mikoto," a lifeless voice said "up here."
The most obvious place was on the platform, that was what whoever said "up here" was talking about. She climbed up the side which was quite smooth and difficult to hold on to, and looked towards the center of the pedestal. There were two bloody and beaten pulps which both had tails. One was moving; the other was not. Suddenly, the moving form wheezed a sentence.
"Hey . . . Mikoto . . . long time . . . no see"
"Zidane!?" she rushed to her battered brother "how . . . what happened? Where's Kuja?"
Zidane painfully rolled to the side and flopped his arm out towards the form next to him. Mikoto ran over to Kuja and rolled him off of his side.
The "Angel of Death's" body was utterly destroyed. His cold eyes hollowly stared towards the infinite darkness of the trunk above. His chest no longer rose and fell with the breath of life.
He was dead.
Mikoto knelt, bowed her head, and closed his eyelids; they were cold to the touch and caused a shudder through her body. She had never seen a dead person before, let alone a dead brother.
Her decision to ignore her emotions died with a quiet tear that slowly made its way down her cheek. Despite never having spoken with Kuja, she felt a connection that made her feel strange. She was . . . sad, and . . . scared . . .
She was scared again?
Why? Nothing was directly threatening her . . . the only thing that made her scared was the insecurity she felt about the future. She had no reason to be sad either; she had never met Kuja! How could she feel anything for him at all? The connection between her and her dead brother couldn't be familial, she had never had a connection with him when he was alive . . . why should she cry for someone who had tried to destroy everything she knew? iCould/i she have a connection with such a person? She definitely felt sad, though. Maybe she was sad because . . .
because . . .
being dead . . . meant you were gone forever . . . no matter who you were.
Perhaps she was sad because . . . she was kneeling overtop of a person who, despite the many masks he wore, was once just as scared of his future as she was.
Perhaps she felt a connection with Kuja because he too had once been her peer as a living being. He now lay beneath her, a lifeless mass of cells that would soon melt away into the soil, all his choices taken from him. He could never repent for his sins, he could never change; he would always be who he was when his last breath left his body.
It wasn't fair, why did he . . . why did any living creature have to die?
She felt a swell of emotions that a normal person would have difficulty explaining, let alone a person who had never dealt with emotions before. Emotions were irrational, she thought again. She couldn't give in to them. The fear, sadness and pain dwindled. She forced back her last tear and turned to her other brother.
A soft pile of dead vines broke her fall. For a moment Mikoto felt a weakness in her legs, it was about a twenty foot drop, but nothing seemed to be broken.
She pushed off the heap of lifeless vines and stumbled for a few steps, but her legs held her small body from tumbling to the ground. Her surroundings were quite unwelcoming, she could see as far her hands, but her feet were too distant for her to make out; it felt like she was trapped in a globe of darkness.
Walking without tripping into the abyss was surely going to be a trial. She wiped her forearm across her brow to remove the mixture of sweat and blood that had been concocted there and looked at the red streak on her arm; there wasn't much, the wound on her forehead was probably healed already.
That was good, she wouldn't have to worry about falling asleep from lack of blood. Although she would probably have to worry about falling asleep anyhow, she was extremely tired; it was long past eleven o' clock and she was suffering from some major interplanetary time zone changes.
Tiredness was something she could deal with, though. Tiredness was a physical feeling in her body, it wasn't an emotion, and certainly wasn't irrational. She thought back to her fight with the stroper.
That was rational.
The pain, adrenaline rush, and heavy heartbeat; those were all physical responses to outside stimuli. After the fight, though . . . she felt the ifear/i of coming close to death. She was ihappy/i that she had beaten the beast. She felt icurious/i as to why it had attacked her.
None of these emotions were physical changes in her body, they were all just . . . there. Emotions were irrational. They were useless! How any creature with emotions could have survived through millions of years of evolution was a mystery. Emotions made one do stupid things for stupid reasons.
Mikoto thought of Zidane jumping into the gigantic pit filled with vines, that was a perfect example: the only reason he was risking his life were the emotions he felt for Kuja. If Zidane had just turned around and not thought twice about his brother he would probably be back in Alexandria living like a king.
She knew better than him, she would ignore her emotions and think only in a logical manner; this would improve her chances of survival. She wouldn't take any stupid risks. Mikoto stopped thinking for a moment. She had, fortunately, not stepped into a crevasse while lost in thought, it was probably best to stop thinking and look at the situation at hand.
Her interest flipped back to the singing. It continued in her mind and was much stronger where she stood as opposed to the platform which she had jumped from. She turned her head to the left and right. There was only blackness of course, but she could sense where the singing was coming from by the volume of it in her head.
When she looked straight ahead the singing almost completely drowned her thoughts out; when she looked to the left or right the singing died down to a whisper. Mikoto took a step forward, careful to feel out with her foot to make sure she had a place to step in the first place, and gradually made her way along the platform of roots, sensing where she should go by the song in her head.
" I'm not going crazy, there must be some explanation for this . . ." she whispered.
Before she could finish her thought, Mikoto stepped onto something much more firm than the spongy surface of the roots. Suddenly, a circular glyph on the floor lit with a soft blue glow and the entire platform she stood on was illuminated. She was standing in the middle of the swirl of roots and looked down at a glowing metal plate lodged in the floor. It was beginning to move down. She quickly jumped onto the shining elevator before it could descend into the tree without her.
The lift moved rapidly down the hole and exposed a room larger than she had ever seen before. Surprisingly, she could see the entire area inside the tree. It was lit by moonlight coming through a hole in the bark. That must have been where the roots crashed through the side of the tree. The roots were gone now, they had probably returned to their usual resting spot once they had smashed through.
There wasn't much in the area besides the vast brown walls that seemed to travel up for miles; the only things she saw were a few piles of bramble strewn about the floor and a tall pedestal placed in the center of the area. The plate groaned and shook slightly as it set down on the dirt floor of the inner tree and began to move up as soon as it touched bottom.
Mikoto jumped down to the dusty floor before it got too high. The singing in her head was deafening now, all thoughts had been pushed out, save an undying urge to stop the singing. The canvass of her mind's eye was completely blank as she ran towards the pedestal in the center of the room.
"Okay! Okay! I'm here! What do you want me to do?" yelled Mikoto at the top of her lungs, even though she was the only one that heard the song. "Hey! Where are you?"
The singing stopped.
"Mikoto," a lifeless voice said "up here."
The most obvious place was on the platform, that was what whoever said "up here" was talking about. She climbed up the side which was quite smooth and difficult to hold on to, and looked towards the center of the pedestal. There were two bloody and beaten pulps which both had tails. One was moving; the other was not. Suddenly, the moving form wheezed a sentence.
"Hey . . . Mikoto . . . long time . . . no see"
"Zidane!?" she rushed to her battered brother "how . . . what happened? Where's Kuja?"
Zidane painfully rolled to the side and flopped his arm out towards the form next to him. Mikoto ran over to Kuja and rolled him off of his side.
The "Angel of Death's" body was utterly destroyed. His cold eyes hollowly stared towards the infinite darkness of the trunk above. His chest no longer rose and fell with the breath of life.
He was dead.
Mikoto knelt, bowed her head, and closed his eyelids; they were cold to the touch and caused a shudder through her body. She had never seen a dead person before, let alone a dead brother.
Her decision to ignore her emotions died with a quiet tear that slowly made its way down her cheek. Despite never having spoken with Kuja, she felt a connection that made her feel strange. She was . . . sad, and . . . scared . . .
She was scared again?
Why? Nothing was directly threatening her . . . the only thing that made her scared was the insecurity she felt about the future. She had no reason to be sad either; she had never met Kuja! How could she feel anything for him at all? The connection between her and her dead brother couldn't be familial, she had never had a connection with him when he was alive . . . why should she cry for someone who had tried to destroy everything she knew? iCould/i she have a connection with such a person? She definitely felt sad, though. Maybe she was sad because . . .
because . . .
being dead . . . meant you were gone forever . . . no matter who you were.
Perhaps she was sad because . . . she was kneeling overtop of a person who, despite the many masks he wore, was once just as scared of his future as she was.
Perhaps she felt a connection with Kuja because he too had once been her peer as a living being. He now lay beneath her, a lifeless mass of cells that would soon melt away into the soil, all his choices taken from him. He could never repent for his sins, he could never change; he would always be who he was when his last breath left his body.
It wasn't fair, why did he . . . why did any living creature have to die?
She felt a swell of emotions that a normal person would have difficulty explaining, let alone a person who had never dealt with emotions before. Emotions were irrational, she thought again. She couldn't give in to them. The fear, sadness and pain dwindled. She forced back her last tear and turned to her other brother.