HAIBANE RENMEI:

DER

AUSFALL

DES

FLUGES

A fanfiction.

By

Micheal Gioe

(This is a Fanfiction, so I claim no ownership of the Haibane Renmei Title or any of it's original characters or names, except my own)

You get to explore the countryside a bit in this chap. Meet the cottage, some of the town, and beyond the wall.

7-- Deception

Reminder

The Sea of Glass

"It's close to winter, you know." Essen muttered to Ren as they slowly walked down the dirty road away from the looming mass that was The Old House.
Ren noticed that she felt lighter and more free when she was out of that dark hole of a home. Things were brighter and sang more, even though dark gray clouds whirled about the town and bitter, skeletal trees lined the roads. As they walked, Ren noticed that the dull pain in her back gradually receded until she didn't notice it anymore.
"Do I get a coat?" Ren looked over at Essen.
"Yeah, I guess Laufen'll have to go out and get you one." As they walked, Ren saw the familiar figure of the gaunt, old Community Watchman. He was watching the path to the Haibane Renmei intently. Essen nudged Ren again, but this time Ren nudged back. The watchman's head snapped on it's neck to meet them, his little eyes sharp.
"Hey! You!" He pointed a finger at Essen and Ren.
"Yes?" Essen calmly answered.
"You should return back to Old House immediately!" He barked.
"Why? What's going on"
"There's a stray Haibane wandering about." The Watchman furrowed his brow.
"So"
"The Haibane was spotted near the Wall"
"Oh..." Essen trailed off uninterestedly.
"Where are you two going?" The man snorted and crossed his arms.
"To the Haibane Renmei Temple." Essen nodded in the direction of the path.
"Of course you are." He replied just as he had before.
He turned away, facing the road to the upper farmlands. Essen grabbed Ren's hand and quietly jerked her down the road to the town. The watchman didn't turn to spot them.
"Essen?" Ren hurridly puffed as they rushed down the road.
"Yeah?" Essen didn't look back.
"Why did we lie?" Ren squealed as Essen tugged her down a steep hill off the side of the road.
"That old man wouldn't have let us go into town, you idiot!" Essen yelled back as they splashed across a stream.
"Why not"
"I told you why, because they hate us!" Essen called as they trudged through a clump of bushes on the other side of the stream.
"Gesh?" Ren heard Essen call from up ahead. As the pair ran alongside a grove of trees, they stopped at one. Geschlachtet was leaning against a tree, panting.
"What the Hell are you doing all the way out here!" Essen yelled at Gesh.
"I was going to go to town to swipe some coats for me, Stiegen, and Abstiegen"
"No, the Community Watchman said he saw you by the wall." Ren quietly piped in.
Gesh stared at her for a minute, her eyes were murky with some kind of confused haze, something that wasn't natural. The ragged wings on her back twitched every now and then, showing dark grey and red bone underneath. Her halo flickered, and every time it did, Gesh winced, like it was hurting her.
"I went by the wall because I thought I saw Laufen there. I caught up with...it...it wasn't Laufen, Essen." She turned to Essen. "It was that...that man you described. The one with the grey eyes." Essen's eyes narrowed, then they widened in horror.
"Yeah. Now I know why you guys didn't like him. I started running away from him, and along the wall. I looked back, and he was there. I kept running, I looked back, and he was there again. He wouldn't stop following me!" Gesh grabbed at Essen's shirt, tears in her eyes. "I was so scared"
"Hey, it's okay." Essen patted Gesh's head.
"I finally got to the forest here, and every time I looked back I could see his grey, horrible eyes through the trees, always at the same distance. Oh God, Essen, please don't leave!" Gesh clung tighter to Essen's shirt as she gritted her teeth and let out little whines.
"I'm not gonna leave you." Essen whispered dully.
"I don't wanna go back to the Old House, either." Gesh swallowed and gave a little chuckle.
"Why not"
"He's there too. The Balail."

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"The what now?" Essen raised an eyebrow.
"I saw him the other day, in the Illusion Frame." Gesh gasped. "Come on now, we all know that thing isn't really haunted." Essen cooed.
"No, it's not. But he was there, and he was...he was talking to me." Gesh shook.
Essen's face clouded with thought. She obviously didn't know any really comforting words, as she would merely rock back and forth while holding Gesh, looking off into the distance.
"It's okay now"
"Essen, are we...?" Ren quietly motioned to where she thought the wall was.
"Huh?" Gesh looked up at Ren, her eyes red and puffy.
"She wanted to go see the hole in the wall"
"No, I'm not going. No." Gesh shook her head. "Not after that thing came after me." Ren felt her heart sink. She had wanted so badly to go to the wall. She thought it might be worse to leave Geschlachtet here alone than not go, however.
"Can I just go by myself, then?" Ren raised her eyebrows hopefully.
"Yeah, I guess so. You know how to get there?" Essen murmered without looking up.
"No, not really." Ren looked around her.
"Um. Well, just go that way" Ren pointed down the grove. "After a little bit, you should come out in a farmer's field. You should be able to see the town from there. Go along the outskirts...really along, don't come within one hundred feet of anyone, or anything." Essen looked up where she was pointing. "And then just go north, and you'll be able to see it. Trust me." "Okay." Ren nodded.
Ren was a little reluctant to leave. For one, she wasn't sure if she would be able to find her way, and she wasn't really looking forward to running into this thing that Gesh had just described. But Gesh was a bit off. She was always blaming the supernatural, and seeing things. Despite all this, however, she set off.
At first, she was a bit wary. Her eyes darted from tree to tree, and with every step she took, she swore she could hear that same raspy breathing she had heard that night in the back wings of the Old House. But whenever she stopped, it turned out to be a mere crow, or the wind. Then she began to enjoy her walk. It gave her time to think. She couldn't remember when she hadn't been around people for longer than this since she had arrived here. She felt even more free than she had when she first stepped out of Old House's doors. The dark greens of the trees overhead and around soothed the eyes, and the soft padding of her wooden shoes on the soft dirt path beneath her feet created a slow rhythm. Before she knew it, she had come out into a clearing. No, a field. Somewhat shaggy rows of crops lined the field, and tucked away in a corner of the field, just against the woods was a small cottage. The cottage was dark, and it didn't look like it had been used recently. Ren crept over to investigate, but all that she could see inside was blackness, and light from another window on the other side of the cottage. This didn't bother her much, but she saw something that unsettled her a bit. There was a lock on the door. The lock was brand new, and so was the door. The ivy that attacked and strangled the old crumbly stone of the cottage didn't touch the door.

After a few moments, though, Ren's mind focused a bit. It was most likely just storage for a townsperson, probably a warehouse for the farmer's crops. It still made Ren a bit uneasy, though, and she couldn't figure out why. Maybe the fact that anything could be in there kept her unnerved. She hustled away, trying not to look into any more of the windows. Essen was right, it wasn't long until she saw the town. More like the back of the town. Large three and four story buildings rose up just beyond the trees, their windows like eyes peering through the trees at Ren. She was behind the town, so she didn't really have to sneak, unless someone came out their back door to dump garbage or something. She could hear a dog barking somewhere, and a loud cough, but there were hardly any human sounds at all. Strange, she thought. The buildings were all in good condition, and she could see lights on in windows, but she only heard an occasional clopping of one pair of heels up or down a distant street, and no voices. Then she saw her objective. The wall.

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The wall was indeed huge. It must have stretched eight or so stories into the sky. It was a massive stone obelisk, dark and domineering. Her eyes ran along the wall until she came to what she was looking for. The hole. It, as well as the wall, was massive. An entire wing of Old House might fit inside the area of it. Definitely the common area would fit. A mountain of rubble lay on the inside of the wall. Ren sighed at the sight of it, but knew her trip would be in vain without climbing it. Ren huffed and panted as she grabbed piece after piece of stone, heaving herself upwards. She supposed she could've walked up the hill, it wasn't that steep, but the fear of slipping off a loose stone and sliding down the hill of broken rock didn't appeal to her too much. She was a wimp when it came to adventure, so she crawled. Every now and then she would hit her knee on a stone, or scrape her arm, but she tried to keep quiet. Finally the pile leveled out. She carefully stepped up to where wall's interior could be seen. Of course, the wall had been damaged years before, so the Haibane Renmei or the town had layed down fresh stones around the inside of the wall so one couldn't go inside them. But that didn't matter once she saw it. The other side.
She looked down. About twenty or thirty feet down, a cliff leveled out into a black forest. The forest was very thick, and extended out a good distance, before dropping off into what she could only know of as a sea. The sea, however, was perfect. It was smooth. Smooth like a sea of Glass. The grey clouds continued on into the horizon until they merged with the sea, and mirrored themselves back up to the forest. Ren felt her lips curl into a smile, and she began breathing in quicker. She didn't know why this view was making her so happy. So there was a bit of land outside the walls after all. Surrounded by what looked like water. She might actually be in a real place after all, and not dreaming. What if she could go back home?
But as she looked out, the scenery began to change. Ren didn't notice exactly when it started turning, but soon the horizon and the land below was a solid grey. A tiny set of ruts led from the cliff off into the distance. And on the horizon arose a cluster of dark shapes. Varying sizes, but all indistinguishable. A sliver of smoke slithered up into the sky. Then more smoke emerged from the structures. The sky turned black with the smoke, and before Ren knew it, it was beginning to snow. Little grey flecks, unlike snowflakes. And they weren't cold, they were hot. The dark clouds were slowly billowing towards Ren. She was frigthened at first, but then calmed. She felt like she wanted to touch them, to be with them. They were very close now.
Suddenly, her right foot began sliding. Sliding down a smooth stone. Her stomach dropped, and she felt her leg starting to move. She quickly moved backwards, but this caused her to end up on her back on the pile of wall. A sharp pain in her ankle. It was bleeding. How? Did she cut it on something? Her other ankle was bleeding now too, in the same place as her right ankle. She picked herself up and hurriedly bounded down the hill of stones back down onto the grass. She looked down at her ankles. Nothing. No blood. Had she imagined it? The world outside the walls had also changed. Now it had returned back to the endless horizon of glass, and the black forest.

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It was getting dark. The sky was building up grey clouds, threatening bad weather. Crows' heads snapped to and fro in nervous anticipation. Gusts of wind blew across the rolling fields of the farms, and the farmers in their houses would watch out of their foggy windows. In the town, a mother would sit quietly at a large wooden table by the window, reading a thick book. A distant rumble rouses her children, who run around the apartment, chattering. The mother looks out of her tall window and sees the lone uniformed man slowly walking the street, looking up into every window, glancing at every door. His eyes meet the mother's and they stare for a moment. The man continues on. The mother sighs. Laufen. She sits on a stone bench along a narrow street. Bags full of groceries and supplies congregate around her, but she is oblivious to both them and the impending clouds. She holds a simple bowl in her hand, a mound of thick noodles filling the bowl The noodles are made with lots of yolk, unlike most thin noodles, which are made with durum wheat. The Spatzle, they call it. If you get it from the right shop, you can even have a spatzle with little chunks of potatoe in it. The potatoes are salty, they boil them in salt water and then cut them, so the potatoe actually stands out in the noodles. Like a punctuation mark. It's a little rare to find, because not many people in town like the Haibane, but you may buy a Radler. The Radler is usually Pils and lemonade mixed, but Laufen doesn't drink alchohol, so she usually just requests a Radler without Pils. This gets her some strange looks, but she doesn't mind. As long as she can enjoy her meal. She used to enjoy meals more, though. She used to enjoy them with Stiegen. Laufen's fork stopped short of her mouth. This thought paralyzed her for a minute. A faint shudder, and then she was back to eating her meal. Stiegen wasn't right, anyways. He and Geschlachtet, they were odd. Laufen had found someone new anyway. Around her, the storm swirled and the sky became a soup of dark clouds and little splashes of light grey. Laufen finished her meal, and wrenched her bags up. She walked slowly down the crowded street, leaving her bowl and utensils at the bench.

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Ren hurried back along the way she had come, the backs of buildings now a group of dark shapes accented with lit squares. The trees were dancing. Not a good dance, though, they would dance in one direction, and then another. The wind was moving. It was restless, and instinct told Ren this wasn't good. She reached the edge of the field, and then she saw it. The cottage. Trees beat against it, the wind whipping across the field. The lock. It was gone. Ren's stomach tightened. She tried her hardest not to look at the fast approaching cottage as she hustled along. She could just see the wind pushing open the door as she walked by, revealing whatever was inside, waiting for her. She sprinted past the entire cottage, sprinted through the field, and into the woods, and didn't stop sprinting until she came to the grove of trees where she had left Essen and Gesh. They weren't there. A white piece of paper flapping in the wind. A small rock held it down to the ground as the wind tried so desperately to pick it up and take it to town. Ren ripped the paper from under the rock and held it up to her face.
"Ren. I took Gesh back to Old House. If you want me to, I can come back and walk you back as well, but it looks like it may storm soon. If you'd rather, just start heading back to Old House and I'll meet you on the way. Hope you had fun at the wall. If you want me to pick you up, stay there, if not, start heading back the same way we came.
-Essen"
Ren put the note in her pocket. She sort of wanted to head back on her own, but she wasn't exactly sure how to. If she found the main road to town, she could probably go straight back to Old House. From behind her, Ren heard a strange sound. Almost like a mumbling. She turned, but could see nothing but the dark woods. She could almost hear words. Ren started to walk towards the woods, and the words became more distinct. "Brennen!" A shout jarred her out of her daze momentarily. It was Laufen. She was hobbling out of the woods, her arms weighted down with bags.
"Oh, hey Laufen." Ren muttered, her eyes wandering back to the woods.
"Come on, there's a storm coming!" Laufen grabbed Ren's arm and tugged.
Ren's mind came into focus, and she instantly forgot why she had been staring off. She and Laufen made their way back to the road and trudged towards the Old House. Another rumble rolled over the now distant walls and carried itself across fields and over roads. The sky churned like a massive grey stew. Finally, it released the rain, and the rain covered the land, forming miniature lakes in minutes, and blinding anyone unfortunate enough to be outside. The dark shape of the Old House loomed before them. The old watchman hadn't been on the road. Laufen bent over her bags to keep the contents dry. Ren kept her head low just to keep the rain from her eyes. Up ahead, she saw the figure of Essen. Essen was engaged in a conversation with a taller girl. Felson. Upon their approach, Essen turned to Ren and Laufen. "Let's get inside!" Essen shouted over the rain. Ren was a little angry that Essen had decided to talk to Felson rather than come and get her, but when they entered, she was told why.
"Gesh is missing." Essen wiped her limp wet hair from her face.
"Did she get lost?" Laufen's mouth opened slightly and froze.
"No." Essen slowly shook her head.
"Well where is she?" Ren looked around the common room.
"She's gone. She's gone to die." Felson muttered.
"Huh?" Ren furrowed her eyebrows. Laufen just stared off into space.
"It's too late for her, she ran off to die in peace." Essen looked up at Ren, her eyes void.
"How do you know?" Ren refused to believe this could happen so suddenly.
"She started acting really hysterical. Yelling and cursing as soon as we got into the house." Essen started. "She said she was going to go wait for death, and she started to run away. So I tried to grab one of her wings and hold on to her." Essen looked down.
Felson raised an object to Ren's field of vision. A grimy stick with a few little black feathers still clinging to the sinew.
"Oh God." Ren threw herself backwards, and stumbled a few steps.
"That's what happens to bad little Haibane." Essen muttered.

--Sorry for the long delay in getting the next chap up. Lots of other things cropping up. I'm still here, though, and am still going to finish this. Okay, so you saw beyond the wall...yeah...nothing too spectacular, but whatever. I don't know if anyone will get what the abyss turns into for Ren, but you most likely will later. And in the next chapter, you get to see a sinbound "die". Fun! (Oh, and sorry for it being harder to read this time, what with being all smooshed together and all. The documentsubmitter wouldn't take my sxw file for some reason...so yeah...)

--Thanks for reading, and RR if you can!