But it was to this that she turned entirely savage.
The scene opened, the sky set deep within the hours of night, and a colossal tower came swiftly into view. It stood high amidst the blackened night, piercing the sky like a needle to thread above the barren planes of Mordor. The view then closed in on the tower's balcony, casting a shadowed look into the dark room that lay beyond the stone rail.
Amidst the silence of the chamber, a sinister crackle of energy hung thickly about air. And if one was well about themselves, they could in fact trace the source of the dark energy to a young woman.
She was also chained to the wall behind her. The young woman sat unmoving, wearing a strange red and white outfit and her raven black hair shrouding her fallen face. A manacle hugged tightly at her neck and iron clasps were bound to her wrists and ankles. Blood stained the floor in hapless splatters around her, and fresh trails of blood continued to leak from her bound wrists.
It was clear that she had at one time, been struggling against her bonds before she had been rendered unconscious. But unbeknownst to the girl, as she sat on the cold stone floor, her crimson blood suddenly began to change in hue. Deeper and darker it turned, until it was entirely pitch black, and her wounds looked as if they bled tar.
But even this strange bleeding was only for an instant. Beneath the iron clasps, the wounds on her wrists had started to heal, the flesh swiftly sewing itself back together. Within a matter of seconds, the once deep slices had vanished altogether, leaving her flesh entirely repaired, the only hint of her previous injuries being the blood that was smeared on the floor around her.
The girl then moved ever so slightly, the chains that bound her clanging quietly as she stirred. The scene then expanded in view, revealing more of what lay in the large chamber.
The space was lit with brass candelabras and dim magical orbs. The room harbored a sense of knowledge, ancient books and age-old scrolls lining the many bookshelves of the room, some scattered across the tables and desks, and others piled onto chairs. Among the books and tables, an old man also appeared on the scene. He swiftly rose from the chair he had been sitting in across the room and approached the girl. His white robes brushed against the floor, and his beard was as white as he garbs which fell down to his belt line. After a few short paces, he came to stop in front of the girl, leaning against the tall staff he carried. With the end of his staff, he tipped her head upwards, finally meeting the girl's eyes. Upon the connection, the old man smiled.
"You are perfect." He said deviously, clearly pleased at the sight before him.
The girl's eyes were entirely overrun with blackness—a void even darker than her raven black hair—and her skin was white as a corpse. Her ears harbored gentle points, but it was clear that she was not among the Elvin folk. The air about her was too dark and vile for one to ever hope that she belonged to a people so riddled with light.
It was also clear from the look in her eyes that whomever had once resided within the mind of this young woman was no longer looking back at the world. Whatever tainted breed of sorcery the Wizard had cast upon her had taken rule over her mind and body and she had, in short, been entirely over run by this all-consuming darkness.
And to this, the Wizard was most pleased.
He then leaned back against his staff, a menacing smile still plastered across his face. "You were a fool to fight it, girl." The old man chided. "But no matter." With a swift wave of the hand, the chains that bound her vanished and the Wizard strode over to the balcony.
"Now, call one of the Beasts." He glanced back at her for an instant before retuning his gaze towards the snow-covered flatlands. "It is time we set this war in motion."
The girl then let out a shrieking cry that sounded as if it was pulled out of the deepest and darkest pits of inhuman agony. It was a blood-curdling scream marked with an unholy screech like roar that echoed far and long across the snowy ground beyond the tower. Even the Wizard could not suppress the crawling chill that had slipped down his spine, silently relieved that the sound had ended not seconds after it began.
Not a moment had passed before the sound of massive wings could be heard approaching the tower and one of the Beast's could be seen approaching the tower. Before long, the Fell-Beast arrived and perched itself on the cold rail of the massive balcony.
The Wizard had returned inside, still smirking. He looked back to the girl, uttering another command. "Take the Beast and find a nearby village. Destroy it and kill all those who dare call the place home. And return by daybreak. There is much work to be done."
During his speech, the girl rose and strode silently over to the Beast and nimbly mounted its back. The creature cooed upon her mount, and then, with a powerful thrust of the Fell-Beast's wings, the pair shot off into the night, the cosmically black sky concealing the silent hunters as the ventured to carry out their master's task.
The scene then left the Wizard and the tower he resided and followed the girl and her Beast as they flew across the sky. Oddly enough, as they flew along, the pair began to chirp between one another, clearly communicating in a way that was entirely their own. They soared fast over the barren lands and passed the Mountains of Shadow, heading further east with every beat of the Fell-Beast's wings.
It was not long after they had cleared the Mountains did the pair spot it: a humble village, resting not many leagues from the foothills of the borders of Mordor. The pair chirped between one another again and then the girl brought up her hand, giving the Beast's leathery neck a single stroke. Her hand then returned to its former place of holding and she let out a feral screech. It was upon this evident command that the Beast mimicked it's rider before falling into a vigorous dive straight towards the village and the pair began their attack.
The carnage that followed could only be categorized as chillingly savage. The Beast attacked the homes, clawing its way into houses and slaughtering the residents before any of them had time to react. Once the screams broke out, the remaining folk began to emerge from their homes, not knowing the impending horrors that awaited them beyond their doors.
It was when these unfortunate souls stepped outside that the girl began her attack. She had positioned herself in the middle of the small village, and within her palms, she summoned dark magic. Her hands had seemingly been enveloped in this amethyst-black fire as she stood, letting the flames grow ever larger. A maniacal smirk broke its way across the girls face, picking out her first two victims as they tried to run passed.
Without any further hesitation, the girl then began to hurl an endless wave of fireballs onto the villagers. And it was these folk who had been subjected to this dark flame that let out screams that were filled with a horrible unsettling agony. For once the purple flames made contact with flesh, the exploded across the rest of the body, leaving the victims completely consumed in the dark fire. And only when the bodies had been reduced to nothing but a pile of black ash did the flames finally die.
It was fair to say that none of their victims stood a breath of a chance.
The slaughter continued for no more than 20 minutes, and soon the once prevalent screams that echoed the night sky fell silent. With their work complete, the Beast came to stand beside it's master. Blood was smeared across its black coat and flesh was lodged between its teeth and claws. The girl brought her hand to the beast's muzzle, giving it a soft stroke to which the creature cooed.
Then, to ensure that every villager had perished, the girl stepped forward and rained another round of her black flames on the entire village. Through her vacant eyes, she watched the houses burn, knowing that there would literally be nothing left of the village or its people by the time the flames even had begun to smolder.
But to the pairs' mild surprise, a young boy, perhaps no more than eight years old, came running from the tumbling remains of his burning home. His clothes were horribly burnt; blood and scraps married his skin as he tried to run. The Beast let out a yip, but the girl was faster; terrifyingly fast as she leapt through the shadows and appeared directly in front of the boy as he sprinted away.
The boy, not expecting her sudden appearance, crashed directly into the girl and fell backwards into the snow. He tried to right himself and scoot away from her, panic clear on his face with tears of pouring from his aquamarine eyes.
To this, the girl's stoic expression did not change as she watched the boy attempt to scramble away from her. She then walked nimbly forward and grabbed the boy by the wrist, her other hand already filled with its licking purple fire as she readied herself to finish him off.
But then something happened that the girl, the boy, or the Beast did not intend.
She had halted, her palm still filled with fire, just inches away from the boy's face. It was then that she met the boy's tear riddled eyes, and something within her began to spark back to life.
There was something about this boy… something about him and his fiery red hair that was… familiar. The terror in his aquamarine eyes had stirred something deep within her that the Wizard had thought was buried by his dark spell. But it was his very look of utter horror on the boy's fox-like face that had caused something within her blackened mind to resist.
Thus, with her true self attempting to fight its way back to the surface, she began to violently rebel against the darkness that had so ensnared her.
The flame in her palm then swiftly died, and the girl dropped to her knees, buckling over due to the chaotic battle that was now raging about within her mind. Her hands dug into the tangle of her black hair, and she began hissing and screaming all at once as the girl fought the black demon that resided within her.
To this unexpected occurrence, the boy was so locked in shock that he remained petrified on the ground before her. But the Fell-Beast sensed that his rider was in trouble, and so he quickly slithered over to them. But the boy was lodged between the Beast and it's rider… and that simply would not do.
With a quick snap of it's jaws, the Beast made swift work of the boy, throwing his now horridly snapped body into the still burning remains of one of the houses.
But it was to this that she turned entirely savage. The girl rose in a move of jagged haste, as tears tumbled out of the black holes that were her eyes. With a speed that even the Beast could not counter, she lashed out and clutched the Fell-Beast's neck in between her once more flame-ridden hands. She screamed all while she did so, but is was a sound solely compiled of enraged despair and cosmic sadness.
The Beast began to scream along with her, but in pain from having been so unexpectedly burned. Reflexively, the creature thrashed its neck violently, trying to dislodge the girl's dangerous grip from its flesh. Fortunately, it too was a creature of darkness and her attack would not kill the Beast, but it could still to a great deal of damage.
And the girl—for she was still only just that—was sent soaring through the air at the ferocity of the Beast's efforts to protect itself. Her body crashed back into the snow riddled ground, rolled and tumbling for quite a ways before finally coming to a stop. But as she rolled, something had slipped from the girl's neck: a purple and white beaded necklace now lay in the ditch in the snow her body had made from being so violently thrown. But she was unaware, and lay motionless in the snow, having been rendered unconscious once again.
The Beast, with its neck now sufficiently singed, let out a feral roar towards the unresponsive girl. With an aggravated shake of it's head, the Beast then took to the skies, leaving it's rider face down in the cold snow as it flew back in the direction they had first come.
For a time, all was quiet save for the haunting winter winds as they blew through the decimated village. The remaining fires crackled, and then all began to finally dye away to nothing but smoldering ash.
Then, after some time, the girl finally began to rouse herself. At first she simply shifted on the snow, testing her body to be sure that nothing was broken. She then used one of her arms to prop herself up, pulling her black hair behind her ears to glimpse at the world around her.
But upon this action, it was clear that something had changed within her, for her eyes were no longer endless black pits. Instead, the whites had returned to her eyes, but the blackness still lingered, leaving her with black marbles at the center of her eyes.
The girl had managed to subdue a part of the darkness; certainly not all of it, for her eyes showed that it was clearly still within her. But upon observing the horrific sight around her, the girl rose, now both in a panic at what she was seeing but also in confusion. What had happened here? Where were all of the people? What was she even doing there? But even these inquisitions were still jumbled, for she was severely disoriented. But despite her confusion, the girl rose. She stumbled a bit, having to steady herself before beginning to slowly walk out of the carnage, knowing that this was no place to linger.
Her bare feet hardly noticed the snow as she walked, for after a time, she was so overcome with exhaustion, shock, and confusion, that her mind only told her one thing: get away from that place. And so she walked until night had given way to day and a great wall was presented before her and she could go no further. It was then, upon finally deeming herself far enough away from the catastrophic remains of the village that she let her exhaustion take over and she collapsed once more in the snow.
But these were the well-patrolled walls of Minas Tirith. In a short matter of time, a young man appeared on horseback, returning from his patrol along the cities wall. His blonde hair was dotted with snowflakes as they began to flutter down from the grey skies once again, and his strongly cut jaw and cheekbones were flush from the cold. His mount cantered along amply, it's sheer power easily overcoming the freshly fallen snow.
It was not long before he came to pass by the girl's fallen form, which was already covered in a soft dusting of snow. For an instant, he could only stare down at the strange girl, for he was half mesmerized by her truly foreign appearance, but also genuinely confused. Just what had reduced this girl to the fallen form he was now gazing down upon? Just what had happened to her?
Similar questions rolled about his mind as he dismounted his steed, moving swiftly to knee before her. He brought a hand to her soft flesh—which, he could not help but note was as pale as the very snow that blanketed her—and attempted to find a pulse. But after a few seconds, he let out sigh, seemingly finding none. He made a move to rise, but the girl then stirred ever so slightly, letting out a soft breathe that clearly floated into a small cloud as it departed her pale lips.
To this, the young man's eyes widened, clearly surprised; he was sure that she had no pulse, and yet she breathed. But if this was so, that he could not simply leave her there to die. No. His conscious would not let him live without knowing he'd so shamefully let another life pass on when he could full well prevent it.
So the young man then reached down and picked the girl up into his chainmail ridden arms and swiftly returned the both of them to the saddle of his mount. The young man then mounted his horse, and secured the girl in front of him to keep her from tumbling back onto the ground. With a firm command, the young man motioned his horse onward and back into the city. As his mount trotted along, the young man's mind was still buzzing with questions as the snow continued to dance down from the heavens in its perpetually eerie silence.
Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of the Rings or InuYasha. And I think I forgot the disclaimer in the last chapter, so double that statement.
While I'm certain that this is not at all what most of you were expecting, I felt that this memory sequence—being as important as it is—needed to stand as it's own chapter. So let me know what you think? I'm curious to see all of your reactions to this reveal. And honestly, keeping things shorter like this is helping me a great deal in actually updating; the chapters are much less daunting this way.
But life has once again taken another unexpected turn, so I don't know when the next update will be. Could be next Wednesday, could be a month, or another long while. Who knows anything.
Until later.