Chapter 1- Gaia's Fury
By MakoEyezBy the light of the moon, tears fell from her eyes. She cried as she gazed to the star-less sky, praying for the day when her curse would be lifted. Small, shiny droplets streamed down her face, making their way to the ground. Her eyes had begun to hurt from the sheer amount of tears she had cried, however, the physical pain she had endured was nothing compared to the emotional pain.
The pain that brought her tears was caused by the boy she had given her heart to. Despite the fact that she had given all she had to him, he seemed to be eternally hurting her. He had become selfish and uncaring; a far cry from the enchanted boy who would bring her flowers and serenade her with romantic poetry. She had fallen from the top and straight to the bottom on his list of priorities. In her place was now the troupe of bandits whom he called friends.
This day she had to make a choice.
Was he worth it or should she cut him loose forever?
As she drowned in tears, she washed up on a shore of dreams, the one place where love couldn't hurt her.
Rays of light from the early morning sun crept across the stone floor as she awoke from slumber. With great pain in her heart she lay in bed motionless, reluctant to face the world that had hurt her so. She simply held herself, drawing little comfort.
When she decided to drag herself out of bed, she changed from her pale, pink nightgown into a crumpled pair of velvet trouser, she then donned a white blouse. After slipping her bare feet into a pair of old yet comfortable shoes, she climbed out of the bedroom window.
The warmth of the sun kissed her in the early hours. The heat seemed to dry her tears and bring some relief from her constant pain. It was at this time she had decided to journey to her favourite place; a small Lagoon surrounded by the most beautiful trees, upon which grew the most beautiful flowers in all of Gaia.
This special place lay on the outskirts of her hometown of Lindblum. After a short walk she arrived and sat on a flat rock that lay just at the edge of the water. She removed her shoes and placed her feet in the crystal waters. As the pebbles in the shallows made contact with the soles of her feet, she glanced down stones in their many colours and admired their natural beauty. The water brushed around her ankles, massaging her little feet as they did so. It was as through the world was apologizing for any past and future pain that may be inflicted upon the poor child.
She lay flat on her back and let the water massage her soles and her soul. Her pain had begun to lessen when she heard a familiar voice.
"Lera!" called a young man.
The girl turned and looked at this boy, the boy she had loved, the boy that had hurt her so. Her beautiful face contorted as she screamed at him.
"Leave this place and never return!" her voice wavered and was followed by a slight yelp, "You shall never know the pain that you have inflicted upon me!"
"But I do," said the boy in a sympathetic tone, "I have come to apologize."
"An apology is not what I seek of you! I seek no more than your love but I feel that you are no longer mine."
"But my love is yours, my sweet. I am sorry that I cannot show the level of love that you need."
Silence.
"Do you remember those times when we spoke of the girls of my past? Of them all, none exist. I have never been in a relationship so I don't know how to love. I wish for you to teach me how to love you. Will you please teach me?"
There it was again, that awkward silence that occurred when words did not. It was broken.
"Sorry my dear Blank. We must part ways, this cycle of hurt cannot continue."
"I understand my sweet," Blank bit his lip in a visible attempt to hold back tears, "will you do one last thing before I banish myself from your life?
There was a pause as Lera made her decision.
"Very well," she agreed finally, "this one last thing and ask no more of me."
Blank approached her and took her left hand in his own as he fished around in his pocket with the other. From the pocket her produced a silver ring, which was decorated with many jewels, and placed it upon her ring finger.
"Please keep this, my dear Lera, it belonged to my mother."
"I shall." She agreed.
As their contact broke Blank began to laugh a deep and horrid laugh that certainly was not his own.
"What on-"
"You foolish girl, you think too loudly. Your thoughts and dreams have kept me awake for weeks!"
Before her eyes, the boy whom she thought was Blank had transformed into a beast. He stood tall and thin, his black, fur coated body bore no other distinguishing feature other than a pair of burning red eyes.
"I hop that you enjoy your fate as the newest in the line of Ragtime Mice! You have just been fooled by I, the land spirit Seto!"
Immediately assuming that the ring was the source of this dark magic, Lera made an attempt to remove it. Desperately she tried to pull it from her finger but the band seemed to grow tighter. I just would not come off.
"The transformation is taking place!" he chanted gleefully. "Look at yourself in the water you disgusting little thing."
Lera was drawn to the waters. She watched as her reflection changed from that of a young girl with hair as black as night and eyes as blue as Gaia's purest oceans to the form of a large rat/human hybrid. Brown fur sprouted all over her young body, her ears grew into rodent like ears and whiskers appeared. As her height and body mass grew her clothes were torn to shred and fell to the floor.
Tears fell again, this time into the waters.
"Why?" she pleaded, "Why have you done this to me?"
"It is the will of Mother Gaia. The rules are as follows; you shall be free from that form and granted death when three questions, posed by you, are answered incorrectly. Your fate is to travel the world in search of lost travelers and puzzle them. If you consider suicide there is no point, for you are now a child of destiny, you are immortal"
"No!"
"Well rat face," he taunted. "See you around!"
"Seto! I will kill you!"
"Gotta catch me first."
In the blink of an eye the land spirit vanished. It was as if he had never been yet the torn clothes and the weeping girl suggested otherwise.
A short time after this traumatic experience, the true Blank wandered into her special place. The first thing he saw was the white blouse he had given to Lera, lying in shreds on the ground. His eyes glanced further up only for him to see a demon.
"What did you do to her?" he screamed.
"Blank! It's me, Lera!"
"You are not my Lera! You ate her! Now you are pretending to be her, you demon!"
Blank looked around in search of a weapon. A broken branch lay at his feet. Wielding the makeshift weapon, Blank charged at his love.
"No!" she screamed.
Her cries fell on deaf ears.
Blank repeatedly struck the poor girl with the branch across her head and cast her to the floor. In a state of panic, Lera lost all control of her body and began to claw the boy with her newly acquired natural weapons. Her claws tore the boy's face to shreds and left him in a bloody mess.
Footsteps.
Lera's sensitive ears twitched at the sound. Deciding that it would not be wise to stay at the scene, she scampered off into the wilderness.
When she had found relative safety, after running for quite some time, she broke down in tears. She hadn't meant to mutilate the poor boy as she had, it was just instinct that took over.
Unlike the poor boy, she would heal, after all she was a child of destiny, Blank however could be dead for all she knew.
"Gaia, why do you hate me so?" she asked the horrid world.
She never got her reply.