Diary ~
Shana isn't human.
Oh Soa, how it pains me to write that. Staring at the sentence brings tears to my eyes again.
But she isn't human. Not anymore. Maybe she never was a human, or maybe she started out as one and then changed, but whatever the case she has done something so strange and mystical that even the Dragoons were amazed.
We were traveling through the Valley of Corrupted Gravity. Meru had picked up a small pebble and tossed it at Father's back, as a joke, but it reversed directions and struck her in the face, causing her to yell indignantly and kick it off the ledge, where it once again flew back up toward her face. This time she was smart enough to duck and ignore it. It was a bit funny, watching the reactions of the people as they plottedthe pathways across the floating rocks. But it wasn't all that funny when Father nearly fell, and Dart and I had to catch him and pull him up or when the Virage appeared.
It was bigger than the one that we saw in the Volcano Villude and more powerful. It was blocking the exit, at the top of the Valley, and Shana, small and quick, drawn by voices again, was the first one to reach it. She stood on a platform, staring at it and whenever anyone tried to go up to the Virage she started screaming. I tried jumping the gap but Shana grabbed my arm while I was in the air, jolting me to a stop halfway. My arm slipped out of her grip and I fell. It was a terrible feeling, and I remember screeching my lungs out until I slammed into a floating rock, injuring my leg, but grabbing hold and leaning all my weight against it to keep from falling further.
Rose and Meru went back the path we went up by to help me. Shana was immediately apologetic, but kept saying that the voices were warning her not to go near it.
Dart took her arms and calmly told her that if we wanted to get out of this crazy valley we would need to get past the Virage. Reluctantly, Shana agreed, telling us to be careful.
Sure enough, as soon as we approached the Virage, it awakened, unfolding its body until it reached full height, towering over us. Meru shrieked in excitement. Nothing seemed to scare her, only excite her into recklessness, as she was the first one to attack, swinging her hammer against it.
"Sun Fist!" Though Father and I both studied the Rouge arts, our additions were different.
Shana stayed far away at the battle, shooting her arrows but with her eyes distant and unfocused again. Rose kept casting her strange looks.
The Virage nearly knocked me into KO with a single attack from its left arm. Dart tossed me a Healing Potion before I could pass out, but the leg that I had smashed into the rock was hurting. Performing my Spinning Shadows addition so soon afterwards was my mistake. It consisted of many spinning kicks and leaps.
My right leg failed me on one of my jumps, causing me to fall onto my side, wincing.The Virage saw this too, and its arm started to swing down.
"NO! Leave her ALONE!" That voice must have been Shana's; it sounded like hers, sweet and pure. But it was strong and carried power.
Footsteps sounded and suddenly she was standing at my side.
"Shana!" Dart yelled, and he and Rose ran forward too. "Mom!"
"Get away!" Shana screamed, facing the Virage directly, and lifted her arms.
The strange thing was that she didn't have her bow in her hands. But still she attacked. From her fingers came a blue-tinted fire. It is the only way to describe it. It started from all around her, as if I could see her aura, but then she directed it to her fingers and it streamed forward to the Virage. When it impacted with him, the arm that was attacking me blew off.
It came straight off his body, splattering green blood over me. Shana screamed in pain and anger and fear, the power continuing to flow from her hands to the Virage, pushing it back over the ledge and down into the bottom of the Valley.
Even when it was gone, Shana kept the fire. She was screaming still, unable to shut it off. It was as if she had opened a dam and didn't know how to block it again.
"Shana!" I limped over to her. "Shana, it's okay! Virage is gone!"
"Claire! I can't stop it! I can't stop the power!" She kept screaming, on her knees now. "Dart, help me!"
"Shana!" He didn't know what to do either, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her, slowing the fire by disorienting her but not stopping it.
Rose cursed, filthily, and knelt down beside Shana, putting one hand on Shana's forehead and the other hand on her Dragoon Spirit. She muttered something, and the fire became darker, fading into a purplish color. "Shana, stop it now!" She commanded, clutching her Spirit tighter as if beseeching it.
Shana slowed the power until small trickles and when the other Dragoons ran over and lifted their spirits, making them glow like miniature suns, magical dust swirling around it.
When the light faded and I could see again, Shana had fainted onto the ground. Dart picked her up and we ran out of the valley, running away from what had happened.
Once at a safe distance and in a safe spot we set up camp, and I tended to Shana. I called Rose to me, and she came.
"You wanted to speak to me?" She asked, sitting on a stool and watching me help Shana.
"Yes. What happened to Shana? Why does she have such power?"
Rose shrugged, adjusting the sleeve of her tunic. "I don't know. She's more powerful than anyone I've seen. Her power…I haven't seen anything like it before, not in the Dragon Campaign or after."
"Don't you know everything?"
"Not everything, Claire. If I did I wouldn't be so confused. I would know what was going on now. Shana is a mystery to me. Her power seems almost godlike. I don't know what happened to her but I managed to shut it off by calling my Dragoon Spirit. I thought her power was light-based, since she is the Light Dragoon and light seems to surround her. But when I tapped into her power, it forced me back and it wasn't light-based. So I tried using my Darkness to faze it, to dull it a bit. It worked, and when the other Dragoons came to help, our power overwhelmed hers and here she is. What's her condition?"
I turned to look at her. She was asking sincerely, not mocking. I know that she doesn't like Shana all that much, or at least as much as she likes Dart, but she was looking out for her. "I don't know what's wrong with Shana either. I can't find any bruises or cuts or injuries other than the ones from the battle. It's just like she overpowered herself. If I didn't know what happened, I'd just say that she was too tired and collapsed from fatigue."
"But that's not what happened."
I considered that. "That might not be true. When Shana used her power, did you hear the way she screamed, the way she fell to her knees after a while?"
"Are you suggesting that the power she used came from her own reserves? It was draining her own energy?"
"It's possible, isn't it?"
"Very. I didn't think of that. But what sort of Human can do that? For strong Winglies it is possible, but Shana isn't a Wingly. Is she?"
"She can't be." The words were automatic and immediate. "I've watched her grow up and she's never shown any Wingly-like signs or tendencies or anything. She doesn't have their platinum hair, first of all. Not like our little friend Meru."
"Meru is a Wingly." Rose stated. "But she won't tell anyone. She just passes it off."
"She's living in a world where prejudice still exists. Winglies ruled Humans eleven thousand years ago. What we said about the fifty percent? Well, those people would wreak terrible revenge on people that they knew were Wingly survivors." I paused then, looked at Rose. She looked back, quizzical. "Rose, do you hate Winglies for what they did? I would think that you have the most reason to."
She laughed. It surprised me. "I hated Winglies during the war. After all I was only a child when they orphaned me. I became a Dragoon to fight them. They killed all my friends and also, they killed the man that I loved. I was engaged to him. We were supposed to get married. But he was killed by the Wingly Emperor."
"I'm sorry."
"So am I. I hated Winglies. But they are few in number now, and it is eleven thousand years later. They are mere descendants and such. What's the point of revenge? It just goes around and around and never stops until there is one left standing. I try not to hate the Winglies now. I don't like Meru, and maybe a small part of that is because she is a Wingly, but mostly it's because she annoys me." Rose grinned, showing her teeth for a brief second. "It doesn't matter."
"No one else knows about your past, Rose. Why don't you tell them?"
"Would they believe me?"
"I believe you, don't I?" I countered.
"It's not right to tell them. It ruins the entire plan. It's my own past, and it has nothing to do with them." She held out her hands to me, surprisingly and I took them. "I don't show gratitude very well, Claire, but I want to thank you for listening to me. And for believing me."
"Thank you for sharing your past with me." I replied. I think back now and I am looking at her now. She is sitting by herself, as usual, by the fire, cleaning her sword. She always seems alone, but for that moment when she thanked me, I saw into her soul, if only for that brief moment. She is still that confused little child who suffered by herself.
I told this to Father, after Rose and I left Shana to rest. I told Father that Rose seemed too distant, and that she suffered by herself.
"You suffer by yourself as well." He replied. "Why?"
"Because I don't want to drag other people into my problems."
"Maybe that's what Rose is thinking."
I have to check on Shana again now. Hopefully when we catch up to Lloyd he can tell us what has happened to her. Or I will ask him next time I see him.