Dissolution of Arms
By Eerie
Chapter Five: Visions
Across the Universe:
The dry earth crumbled in the dhampire's fingers as he clutched it, dull pain coursing through him like electric waves. The low groan that rattled his chest could not be stifled and he felt nauseous as the pressure took residence in his skull. He gagged twice but nothing came up though he felt as if his stomach were bleeding.
"D!" the parasite barked. "What's happening? I don't sense any spellwork. Is it the sun?"
Though the sun's position was at high noon the weather was not hot. And D knew that this pain was something completely different than that caused by too much of it; it was something foreign. He rested his head upon the cool ground and wrapped his arms firmly about his torso in a vain effort to ward away the suffering that seized him from nowhere.
He had just finished a job for a well-off peasant that earned him a rather hefty sum for ridding the small nameless village of the unnatural beast that roamed its shadows. The beast was not a vampire, which D was most notorious in his reputation for hunting down, but a minor distraction in the dhampire's experienced eyes. Nothing more than that of landlurker in half wolf, half serpent's form, finding grotesque satisfaction in feeding off of the unfortunate sheep and farm animals that couldn't escape its long claws fast enough. D had come across these things often in his travels and though he had no real grudge against such minor evils, the pay that came with destroying them was usually good enough to win over his apathy. As he rode away from the grateful little village, a foreboding feeling crept over him. He thought little of it, not wanting to spoil his somewhat pleasant mood. But the further he rode, the stronger it became until it all but knocked him from his steed in mid-flight.
D slumped heavily to the ground and rolled onto his side, dust clinging pale to his black cape and boots. His head spun with overpowering vertigo and his eyes rolled back as he groaned again. He felt as if the entire world had come toppling down on him in that instant and his weak protests could do nothing to temper it. Just as suddenly as that thought occurred to him, his body stilled on its own accord and his senses faded out.
The parasite grew even more alarmed at D's stillness and took control over his fingers. It pushed itself upright and looked upon its master's unresponsive state. The dhampire's eyes remained rolled back to their shocking whites and his fangs had emerged, long and sharp in his silent scream. The scene was unnerving.
"D! Wake up! What the hell's the matter with you?" it cried. "D! D!!"
"D! Wake up," a soft voice implored him.
The half-breed blinked slowly and opened his dark eyes to the voice. He quickly became aware of the sounds of running water and birds chirping melodically in the distance. The light that greeted his tired, half-slit eyes was bright and cheerful but it did not hurt them. D breathed in and caught the scent of fresh grass before he became aware of its lush softness against his face. A warm breeze floated lazily over his body and induced him to open his eyes further without fear.
"D," the soothing voice called again, closer.
A gentle, slender hand stroked his cheek and he instantly recognized the smell of the one belonging to it. His sight became focused and he shifted it to the shape with dark flowing hair at his side, picturesquely framed against the shining blue of the cloudless sky.
"Where am I?" he asked, surprised at the weakness of his tone. The woman smiled and pushed a stray hair from his forehead with unnecessary care.
"Is it painful?" she asked.
He drew his arms in to push himself up but she stopped him, pressing astonishingly strong hands against his shoulder to pin him in place.
"Please don't," she said.
"Why?" he asked, confused at her behavior.
She merely curled her lips into another odd smile, its position unlike one he'd ever seen upon her face.
"Is it painful?" she repeated.
"No," he answered and stared searchingly into eyes that mirrored his own.
"I'm glad," she said and leaned in close, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. They lingered that way for a moment before she withdrew. "For your pain is also mine."
Her eyes gazed deep into his, thoughts and emotions indescribable passing between them. D found himself too stunned to speak from the lock that gaze placed on him. But he became increasingly aware of the sky shifting behind her. Brighter and brighter it grew until the blue of it made him sick and uneasy in its familiarity. Still those large brown eyes held him. He watched from around his central focus as clouds streaked across the sky, piling over one another and even through one another, shifting about in a fevered frenzy. D half expected night to fall in and cover the swiftness of the swirling daylight, only to give way to the day once again as if time were trapped inside a spinning toy around this strange world. But the aching blue did not falter to any kind of darkness. His jaw clenched tighter when he tried to speak, his eyes refused to budge, and his breath held still.
Her piercing gaze finally released him as her heavily lashed lids slowly closed. D shuddered and gratefully closed his tormented eyes against the terrible light.
"And yet my pain does nothing to you I see," her voice crooned as the wind picked up.
When he found the will to reopen his eyes and return his sight to her, he found that dark stare upon him again, her hands pressed to her chest. Long dark hair wormed about her face as if alive in the agitated air.
"Why did you take my heart away?" she asked forlornly.
"Mother . . ." D began, not knowing what to say, and still distracted by the hideous light and whipping winds.
"You denied your own did you not? When you did so you took mine away from me. And that is painful, D," she continued. The light caught a flicker of red that slowly traced her lower lid before the liquid seeped out down her cheek. Before he knew it, both her eyes shed tears of blood, her irises' dark color changed to a matching red that shimmered with aching grief.
D fought his weakness with all his strength and clamored to his knees, his arms seeking. All in the instant it took to lean closer for an embrace, he saw her large dark eyes blink and release thick wave of bloody tears from their depths. When they reopened, her face had transformed, just enough that she remained recognizable yet noticeably changed. The eyes that leered at him from within that face were now those of the tree spirit he had seen not so long ago under the great willow, shining and mystic, but unmistakably alight in some unshared amusement above the smiling, blood-streaked cheeks. As he descended to touch her, his body fell through dead air and continued to fall as if through a black pit. The stale air became icy and painful as it pierced through skin to his very bones. The solid ground that finally met him shocked him cold.
D felt another hard slap against his face. He clenched his uncomfortably dry eyes closed and growled.
"Damnit, D! It's about time," the hunter heard the wretchedly familiar voice by his left ear exclaim.
"I . . .was dreaming," he said as if he had just realized it himself.
"What was it about?" the hand demanded.
"My mother . . .her eyes were bleeding and . . . there was so much blue . . ." D tried to reason but the words didn't sound right when voiced.
"And?" the thing pressed.
"I don't know. None of it makes sense," D said and rubbed his eyes.
"Hmph. Was it anything like the last one you had . . . what was it . . . a few years ago? Though if it was I doubt you'd tell me. And because nothing has happened since then it either has something to do with it or you're finally losing your mind," the parasite grumbled. "But whatever you might say, I think this IS a warning of some kind that you should be a little more concerned about now."
"I'm not sure what to be. But it IS difficult to be prepared for something unknown based on a mere dream," D snapped and stood up, bracing himself against the faithful black horse waiting next to him.
"The day you go flying off running horses to have just a 'mere' dream is the day I grow legs," it retorted dryly. The parasite waited for another comeback. It was anything but prepared to hear only a broken sob.
D pressed his face into the steed's smooth side, overcome by a great sadness even his fierce pride couldn't deliver him from. He no longer cared if the creature that mocked him witnessed his breakdown or not. But he continued to fight the tears as much as he could, as was his nature, though his efforts weren't winning. And yet he did not know what had come over him or why it should hurt so badly. Was it that same restlessness that haunted him that night under the great willow or was it all from within himself?
There was a certain sense of surety buried in his torment. The voiceless spirit that broke the barrier of the laws binding it to silence did not speak lightly, though D would never question that. But ignoring it was easier than allowing it to agitate him over the eventless months that followed. Why now would it return to remind him? And what could possibly be so significant that he would fall into nightmare filled with so many cryptic messages without so much as the grace of slumber to guide him?
Regardless of its nature, he couldn't stop it now. The dhampire mused bitterly to himself. How long had it been since he had shed tears? His heart and soul, if he did indeed have them, felt as though they were ripping in two.
"D, um, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take you lightly," the parasite said with difficulty though it was genuine. "Maybe we can figure this dream out."
"It no longer matters," D managed to say evenly and lifted himself onto the beast as it shook its mane. "Whatever it is and whenever it comes, there is nothing that can be done to stop it." The mount kicked its powerful front legs high in the air and snorted before speeding out toward the desolate hills before them.
"You're just going to let it go and pretend this didn't happen?"
"What would you have me do?!" D said so sharply that even he himself was surprised. He almost regretted it enough to apologize but decided to hold his tongue instead. The black beast roared over the steady rises and falls of the foothills, kicking up dirt and shorn grass in its wake.
However, the companion was not expecting an apology. It knew something was eating away at the hunter's mind and resigned from further probing on the matter. It knew it could claim no power to extract any more details that would enable it to try and solve the nightmares of its master, no matter how well its judgments seemed to be in the past.
The parasite wondered at D's rare emotional behavior. In all the years that they had traveled together, he had never seen such a reaction to anything. It wondered if D really was losing his mind. In those years wandering the Earth with the single purpose of aiding the humans fixated in him, refusing to shift for anything, such a notion didn't seem so farfetched. He was still half human after all. Could all the endless years have taken their toll on that side of him that was a mortal? The parasite had never really thought of it before. But if it was not madness, then what was it?
To be continued . . .