My Requiem

Cast

Talim and Yunsung

TALIM

"Aghh.. ohh.." I slowly sat up, holding my aching head. My limbs ached and I was definitely rising from a rude awakening. 'What happened.." I coarsely whispered. I lifted open my eyes to find I was on the Mephisse road. "How did I get out here..?" I asked retorically, my arms dropping upon my bent legs. I then turned, spotting Yunsung knelt over something blocked from view. I wanted to get up to approach him but I felt planted on the floor in an akward position. I gave it a couple of ample tries, but the effort availed me not until I rolled onto my knees and more manually acquired my shaky balance. "Woaaaah.." I murmured, as my ankles felt very unstable. I reached out my arms to try and find my control, before sauntering to his side to see what was going on. I had faint memory of why I had fallen a sleep, when I did and why I was here as of now. The city also seemed irregularly quiet. "Mr. Yunsung..." I began, nearing behind him as he remained bent over. I suddenly heard a timid caw, and looked over toward the skies to see my bird pet Alun soar down from the Sun. I held out my arm where she perched upon. "Alun.. what's going on? What happened to everyone? Why are the streets so barren?" I asked, my voice shaking in involuntary fear. The bird sang in warning tones. It kicked off from my arm and flapped it's wings, though her flight seemed less than subpar. "Your wings.. the wind.. the winds?" "Talim!" I turned around to face Keo, a childhood friend of mine. "Keo..?" "Did you see any of that priestess? Do you know where all the young maidens are! You're the only one I've seen since the dark cloud! Where is Klonoa!" Keo cried in distress. He was also the older brother of young Klonoa. "That's right, Klonoa! Yuns-" I was about to turn, to continue my search. "Talim..." he interuptted, quietly though boldly. "Listen." he stood up and turned swiftly. He looked although he was about to cry, though his tears were well held, and in his hands was a broken weapon, Mina's Scarlet Thunder, and her headband, tattered to shred. "Yunsung, I-" I started, my hand going over my mouth. He suddenly grabbed my shoulders with large, strong hands and shook me. I don't know if he realized how hard and violently he was thrusting me but I would hear him out. "Tell me what just happened! Where's Mina! What the hell just happened!" he clenched his teeth. "Is she.. is she dead!" he yelled afterward. "I- I! I don't.. I don't know- Yunsung, you're hurting me!" I cried softly. "Get off her, you jerk!" Keo punched Yunsung off of me. "N-no! Don't hurt him, Keo!" I held him back. Yunsung's eyes were narrowed and he wiped off a trickle of blood from the side of his mouth with the back of his hand. Keo calmed behind me. "Yunsung, listen to me, listen, focus." I ordered, taking a deep breath. "There are no winds.. something's wrong- Klonoa's missing, Mina is missing-" "Every maiden from the village but you Talim." I looked over to Keo. "Are you sure?" I asked forcefully. "Yes.. every family is out looking for a young girls.. you're the first one." '..but why?' I questionned in thought. "We have to find them." I said solely to Yunsung. There wasn't an answer. "What was it, Talim?" Keo asked me quietly. "What was what?" I replied. "The dark.. purple.. shadow.. the one who snatched Klonoa away.." his voice broke, but he coughed and continued. "She came home to see if anyone knew where you were but mother kept her, and she was.. stolen.. that demon!" his voice grew angry. "I.." I started. I had no idea what he meant. "She doesn't know what you were talking about." Yunsung stated, anger seeping through his teeth. "She was unconscience the whole time.. that thing came for her too." he then added. "What do you mean? She's still here, isn't she?" Keo asked, confused. "I fended it off, it did a hell of a lot of good when I kicked it," he spoke then sarcastically, lifting a pant and revealling a swelling, purplish and bluish leg. "But I stabbed the sucker.. I'm saying it came to take you, Talim. Seung Mina went out to try and fight the things and now she's gone! I should've been there with her, she might've standed more of a chance! She thought I stay and watch you! She might've standed a chance!" he began to curse himself. "We have to find them though, Yunsung.." I was way too distraught to even feel guilty. I leant against Keo who gladly intercepted me in one of my weakest moments. He was a bit older and me though younger than Yunsung, and quite strong aswell. "No.." Yunsung replied quietly. "What?" I blinked, not sure if I heard him right. "My country has a war to fight, Talim! Just incase you forgot! Mina left me command come her death.. we must prepare. If our battalion fails, it may just determine the make or break of our country! That might not mean anything to you in your peaceful village but it does to us! It does to the Koreans!" he shouted at me. I withdrew a little at his sharp voice. "How can you let her down so easily.. she may still be ali-" "She's dead, Talim! Stop rubbing it in about that thin sliver at hope that makes us always suffer so! If she's alive, she's as good as dead, that's how it goes. Capture is the grave. Let me mourn her and move on!" he pushed me back and ran off.

"Koreans..." Keo rolled his eyes. "Despite how Yunsung feels.. I will not give up our dames to die.. not while I still have strength." He began. "Talim.. what can you do without the winds?" he asked. "I don't know.. but what are we supposed to do? Scratch off living without the maidens, without our winds? Our destination is ruin, Keo.. I must fight. It's not over yet." my voice was etched with determination and wisdom. "And they've got Klonoa, and I don't want to know what they plan to do with her, but I won't let it happen. Not without a fight." I straightened up onto my own two feet. Keo still seemed quite convinced that I'd fall right back into his arms again because he looked quite ready to catch me. "I'm going." Keo nodded, then standing beside me. "And I don't think we should run it over with the council because they surely won't permit your leaving, Talim, in this state. Let's grab our weapons and go." Keo seemed so courageous, I even forgot for a second that we hadn't the slightest idea of where to look. And as if Yunsung had read my mind, he spat bitterly, "What are you going to do? Set off on a the nearest road out of here and pray to the absent winds that the end of the road will happen to be the place they took everybody!" What courage I had was suddenly chipped by his comment. "Do not mock the power of the winds!" Keo gritted his teeth. He obviously did not take a liking to Yunsung, and they hadn't met ever before. "Well, seeing as you haven't a clue.. the purple sky receeded to the South, you can start there." Yunsung gathered the rest of Mina's weapon pieces. "Yunsung.." I started, still thwarted by his decision to abandon Mina. "Both of you are unwise however, Keo.. a young warrior fit to defend his land in a dark time will leave it without a word to anyone.. and the last priestess, the last hope of your elders and chosen by its council to make sure the Village prevails will also vanish, in a dark time where an evil is seeking to capture her. You will have no help, except for this man, but I fought that monster, Talim, and I'm telling you, its hard enough when there's only one!" Yunsung's words where breaking me apart, and whatever I thought I could do at a time like this, I really had no idea what to think now. He was right! Those dark soldiers were surely only henchmen, and what were I and Keo to do against the mastermind of this crisis. Would we stand a chance? I had the greatest urge to collapse and fall to the dusty floor and just cry, the tears that were welling up were enough to dry my eyes forever. But quickily I blinked them away to a mere glossy layer and stood, staring at Yunsung as he muttered heartless words, "You think this is bravery, but its just a very unintelligent decision that seems like your only choice when its not. You will destroy your own country."

He began to walk away, but I called after him, "What do you ask me to do? What are the choices Yunsung; list them. You want our grandmothers to bear children, or me to bear every new son and daughter of the country, for our men's emotions to be left askew, in the hollow hole where their loves, mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins were taken away. Leave them mystified, Yunsung! Let the spirit fade away and be just as empty as the winds are now, let the Village of the Winds become no more than a ghost town, scratched away from the map of mankind, where I am the leader who failed!" I made hard not to cry, for this argument had no resolution. "The people ARE our country Yunsung, the grass may live and the trees may bear fruit but the people are what makes this place a village and not farmland!" I knew both Yunsung and I had very legal points, and it confused me. The only thing that was harder than carrying out a plan, was to figure out what plan to take, where all the endings were shadowed and everything seemed hopeless. Yunsung's shoulders stiffened but he seemed to be at a loss of words, so breathlessly I continued to speak. "And how can you fight with a heart that's taken a jabbing from a demon who snatched someone you loved away from your life without an explanation; who infested your limb and sends you out to war with a wary soul!" It was a mistake for me to make it about him because he seemed to find something to yell about. He turned and looked at me with the coldest eyes I ever thought possible. After glaring for a pure second, he stepped toward me with such chill that if he hadn't shown me friendliness before, I would've been sure he was aiming to kill me.