*SNIFF*
Oh, how I love that new chapter smell.
Creativity: Oh, so that's what that smell is! I thought someone was baking… Wait, no… What is that?
Author: It doesn't exactly have a defined smell. It sorta just shifts. The only constant is that it remains pleasant.
Creativity: Wait, I thought…
Author: If this could possibly be spoilery, keep your trap shut.
So, here we are for a chapter four, and having had time to ruminate on the story ahead, plus watch season 4 (Damn you Algorithm), so I got ideas. But for now, we continue our road towards episode 1, which I swear, I didn't think would take this long. Still think it worked out for the best though. More time to establish Ferah and Charra, watch the former grow up a bit over a few chapters, establish some of Charra's backstory, so on and so forth.
However, you already read that! Now is the time to read the news stuff! And on that note… *ahem*…
We now proudly present chapter 4 of Fist of the Sky!
Charra grunted as she hefted an axe above her head and swung it at the base of a tree. She'd been working to bring it down for about ten minutes while Ferah was at the river, working to acquire dinner for the next few nights.
Once she was satisfied with the amount she'd cut down, she took a deep breath and took up a ready position. Transparent energy began to gather around her leg before she delivered a straight kick to the spot that she'd cut out, causing the tree to crack loudly before it began to topple over. She probably needn't have bothered with the axe at all, but using the old-fashioned method was better exercise. With the tree brought down, Charra set about using the axe to cut off the branches, trimming them down and wrapping them up into a bundle to be brought back to the cabin. Once she was done with that, she heard a few twigs snapping and turned to see Ferah approaching, a net filled with fish slung over her shoulder.
"You wanna take this and the twigs? I can take the tree." Ferah offered.
"Sure. Besides, I don't want you getting ideas and trying to eat all our dinner on the way home." Charra replied with a good-natured jab at the end.
"That was one time, ma…" Ferah grumbled as she handed Charra the fish and walked over to the fallen tree before she grabbed it around the middle and heaved it into the air with a grunt, resting it on her shoulder as they began walking back home.
Ferah was sixteen now and had undergone a couple more growth spurts in the last two years. She now stood five feet, five inches and now tied a large chunk of her hair back, though that didn't do much to tame the hair further towards the front of her head. Additionally, she'd swapped out her typical undershirt for one cut to show her midriff, her typical pants had been replaced with nearly identical ones, save for the fact that the went down to just past her knees. Finally, she'd taken to wrapping her arms, lower legs and even part of her feet in cloth strips, similar to the ones Charra wore on her arms. As the two walked back to the log cabin, Charra looked up at the sky, tracking the sun.
"There's still time. Do you want to make that run down to the village?" Ferah asked as the emerged from the forest to the cabin, whereupon Ferah set the log down and brought her right hand up, energy gathering around her open hand before she swung it down in the blink of an eye, cutting through the log in one strike!
"No, we can do that tomorrow. We'll be busy cleaning these fish for a few hours anyway." Charra replied as she watched Ferah continue to divide the log into pieces with her bare hands. Her adoptive daughter never ceased to amaze her, even after sixteen years. She remembered the first time Ferah had successfully performed the Tempest Strike. They'd been practicing for a couple of weeks when finally, Ferah had done it. And she did it so well, that the log had burst apart into woodchips instead of the even split that Charra had done during her demonstration of the technique. From there, Ferah had gone on to rapidly master more and more techniques of the Sora no Ken, including the Thunderstrike kick used by the subject of one of Ferah's favorite stories as a child.
Charra had felt a bit put out by Ferah's mastery of that one, since she hadn't mastered that technique yet herself. Still, that was vastly overshadowed by the pride she felt in the young warrior. Though, it had become difficult to spar recently, and it wasn't exactly a secret why. Ferah's strength was just too much for Charra to keep up with now, even when Ferah held back during their spars. That didn't mean that Charra couldn't win still. Ferah's technique was impeccable, but she didn't have the experience that Charra had. However, since Ferah was constantly worrying over the possibility of hurting, or worse, killing Charra if she wasn't careful during a spar, and that meant she was more focused on restraining herself rather than engaging in the spar.
However, the time that used to be spent sparring had given way to something else; something else that Charra was more cautious of, but didn't see fit to stop quite yet. Ferah had taken to experimenting with the techniques, making adjustments to them or reapplying principles from them into different areas. One such instance of this was when she developed a brand new technique by simply taking the principles of the enhanced strikes and applying them to the whole body simultaneously. She hadn't yet thought of a proper name for it, simply referring to it as 'powering up', but it hadn't taken very long for Charra to catch on and learn to use the technique herself. While the strikes she could deliver while using the technique weren't as strong as the ones where the energy was concentrated in a single limb, it was easier to maintain the state after a strike. And besides, the strikes one could deliver were still well beyond what she was normally capable of. In fact, it was a wonder that this technique hadn't been thought up before.
Perhaps the masters had thought such a technique would use too much energy, and while Charra did tire out quicker while using the technique, it was hardly lethal if you didn't use more energy than your body had.
As Ferah continued to divide the fallen tree into smaller pieces for firewood, Charra remembered the fish that needed to be cleaned and deposited the branches on the ground and dragged out a wooden folding table from under the cabin before placing the net of fish on said table before heading inside to grab the set of knives she used for gutting fish. Emerging from the cabin with a pair of buckets and the knives in question, she set to work; grabbing a fish and slicing it open before removing all the unwanted guts and bones, tossing them into the buckets before setting the fillets aside. Afterwards, it was onto the next fish, then the next, and soon enough, Charra had worked her way through a dozen fish. By now, Ferah had finished chopping the wood and had piled it all in storage behind the cabin and had also washed her hands of any bark or splinters that may have been stuck to her, so she walked over to where Charra was working and realized that all the ingredients they needed for preserving the fish were still inside. After hurrying into the cabin to retrieve them, she came back with the needed materials and set to work on preparing the fish. The work went for a few hours and by the end of it, both of them knew that another trip to the river was needed to get rid of all the blood and guts that clung to their hands. However, before they left, they made sure to get the fish into the cabin and to dispose of the offal. They didn't want any animals poking around their cabin while they were gone, even if either of them could take care of them in a single strike.
After they'd finished washing the fish guts from their arms, they returned to the cabin and went inside. It was about three thirty by Charra's estimate, so she decided to open the chest and withdrew the large book again and began leafing through it before finding a page covering some of the eccentricities of one of the techniques she was working to master. It was one of the few she'd never seen her master perform. In fact, she'd only heard him mention it once during an argument with one of the other…
Charra immediately abandoned that page and found another one, which she became very invested in. Ferah seemed to notice this sudden switch but decided not to mention it. Instead, she continued reading her own book, which was the journal of master Akar. She'd read the journal back to front a few times now, but she kept coming back to it. Every time she read it, she always found something new in it, a new way to apply a technique, some wisdom or lesson that she'd missed before, and it kept drawing her back.
Eventually, the time was signalled by the rumbling of Ferah's stomach, a sound that echoed about the cabin, prompting red to bloom across Ferah's cheeks while Charra tried to stifle her giggles as the two of them got up to start working on dinner. Tonight's selection being fried fish with toast and assorted fried roots.
"Ma, can I ask you a question?" Ferah suddenly piped up.
"I'm pretty sure you just did but go ahead." Charra replied, grinning a bit at the groan that extracted from Ferah.
"How come you never talk about your master aside from small moments? Or where you trained before?" Charra asked hesitantly. Charra paused for a moment, then continued working normally.
"Why the sudden curiosity?" Charra asked as she tended to the fish. Ferah shrugged as she stirred the roots.
"I guess it's because I've been thinking a lot recently about where I came from, then I remembered that you never talk about your life outside of maybe a year or so before you found me in the woods." Ferah replied before she went to take the toast out of the pan. Charra sighed as she removed the fish from the heat and put it on a plate, waiting for Ferah to finish moving the roots and toast to the table.
"Do you remember ten years ago, when you asked me about the Rebellion and the Horde?" Charra asked. Ferah nodded.
"I don't remember a lot of the conversation, but I remember having it. Why?" Ferah responded as she sat down at the table.
"Well, I mentioned during it that I had tried to fight the Horde on my own, and that I made a lot of very poor decisions. Even if I rationalize it as me dealing with grief, it doesn't change the fact that many of my decisions were insults to my master's memory. He'd taught me that the Sora no Ken was to be used to reach greater heights, to improve myself physically, spiritually and to simply be a better person through it. I used what he taught me to lash out at any Horde soldier within reach, even if they hadn't been the ones who took my master from me, and after a brutal reality check and many years of training and seclusion, I realized that I had become the antithesis of everything my master had taught me." Charra told Ferah.
"You were ashamed… I remember you saying that now." Ferah recalled from their conversation so long ago.
"Yes. I was ashamed. I still am to this day." Charra murmured. Dinner was feeling significantly more awkward now. There was virtually no talking between them until dinner was finished, and even then, the silence was palpable. As the two of them wrote in their journals, Charra couldn't stop thinking about their conversation earlier. The memories kept coming back. The screaming, the sound of Horde weapons being fired, the smell of smoke and the heat being cast off by the fires, it all kept coming back to her, despite her best efforts to stave off the memories.
Noticing that she was holding quill tight enough that it was threatening to snap at any moment, Charra forced herself to relax and employed a small selection of the exercises her master had taught her to calm herself before she looked down at her journal again. Looking at it, she realized there was one entry she needed to make.
Turning the page, she began writing a brand new entry. She wrote for hours until she finally noticed that the sun had already dipped below the horizon. Ferah had long ceased writing and was in the midst of washing up for bed. Closing her journal, Charra went to join her. There was yet more silence until finally Charra had enough. She needed to say something, anything to put an end to it.
"Ferah, I need you to promise me something." Charra suddenly said.
"Yes, ma?" Ferah asked, looking up from her bed.
"Promise me that you won't fall into the same trap I did. Don't let anger and grief consume you and turn you into something you aren't. I just don't want you to hurt yourself the way I did so long ago." Charra asked. Ferah was quiet for a moment before she finally answered.
"I promise, ma." Ferah said quietly before Charra walked over and pulled Ferah into a tight hug. Ferah was surprised for a moment before she reciprocated the hug. After a while, Charra pulled away and went over to the lantern and candles, extinguishing them all before climbing into bed.
"Love you, ma." Ferah murmured quietly before she drifted off.
"I love you to, Ferah." Charra replied in kind before she drifted off to sleep herself.
The next day…
"Remind me why we needed to go into town again?"
"We're picking up bread, eggs and a few spices."
"Ooh, can we stop by Lara's too?"
"You and your sweet tooth…"
It had been some time since Charra and Ferah had set out from the cabin and began their trek out of the mountains to the village. In fact, they were just emerging from the treeline and were on the last leg of the journey.
"Come on, can we? Please?" Ferah begged.
"Well, I suppose we could, if…" Charra started before stopping. Ferah looked at her confusedly.
"Well? If what?" Ferah asked.
"If you can beat me there!" Charra suddenly announced before taking off at a sprint towards the village!
"Hey, no fair!" Ferah shouted after Charra before taking off like a rocket! Despite her head start and massive lead, Ferah was closing the gap more and more by the second. They were about three quarters of the way there and Ferah had just reached neck and neck with Charra, and just like that, she surged ahead to take the lead, skidding to a stop as she crossed the threshold of the village with a loud whoop of victory. Charra was laughing as Ferah looked back at her smugly.
"Beat you even though you cheated. Again." Ferah stated with that same smug look.
"I don't think you can still be smug if you fell for it yet again." Charra pointed out, causing her to glance to the side as her cheeks turned a bit red.
"Don't need to remind me…" She muttered grumpily as Ferah pulled her into a one-armed hug.
"Come on, we'll take care of the necessities, then I believe you just won a trip to Lara's if I'm not mistaken." Charra reminded her. Ferah immediately brightened up.
"Damn right I did." She bragged, though it was all in good fun. However, as they walked through town, they couldn't help but notice a lot more subtle glances their way, and they didn't look happy. They all were a mixture of caution, concern, fear or possibly anger. They were used to glances since they didn't come into town very often, but they weren't typically this unwelcoming. The attitude persisted through their trip to the bakers and the general store, with warnings from Daros the baker to mind themselves and a few people at the general store telling them to be careful. It was getting rather concerning. What did the villagers know that they weren't telling them?
"Ma, do you know why they're acting so weird?" Ferah whispered to Charra, who shook her head.
"I'm not sure but keep on guard." Charra replied in an equally hushed tone as they stepped into Lara's sweet shop. The moment Lara saw them, her usual smile dipped to a frown.
"Is everything alright?" Charra asked. Lara's frown deepened.
"You two don't know? Wait, has nobody told you?" Lara asked. Charra shook her head.
"No. All we've gotten are strange looks and warnings to be careful." Ferah replied. Lara's frown became an incensed scowl.
"Cowards. One stranger comes to town and everyone's suddenly on lockdown." Lara muttered angrily. Charra was surprised. She'd never seen Lara get angry like this. She'd seen her be disciplinary with rowdy customers or children who tried to swipe sweets from her shop, but never truly angry like this.
"What's going on?" Charra asked. Lara glanced out the window before motioning they come closer.
"A stranger came to town a couple of days ago. They were dressed in black and wore a thick scarf around their neck and lower face. They were asking around about a woman that matched your description. Nobody gave him anything, but he didn't seem convinced. It was mostly hidden by his scarf, but he has the Horde sigil tattooed in red over his left shoulder. Apparently, there have been rumors of a Horde commander matching his description. Nasty stories… It's all rumors, but if half of them are true, then he's not someone you want the attention of. I caught wind of a story about him in the pub last night. If it is the same guy, he's referred to as 'the bloody fist of the Horde'." Lara explained. Charra went stock still. Ferah noticed this and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Ma, is everything alright?" Ferah asked quietly.
"Thank you for telling us this, Lara. We'll be on our way." Charra immediately said in a low tone. She immediately spun and marched out of the shop. Ferah was confused but hurried after her mother all the same.
"Ma, what's going on?" Ferah asked her quietly.
"Listen to me. Don't make eye contact with anyone. We're heading straight back to the house." Charra instructed in a strict tone. Ferah recoiled a little bit. Charra had never used that tone with her before. What was going on?
Once they were into the treeline, Charra's walking speed picked up dramatically, almost to a jog. While it was no issue for Ferah to keep up, she was still disconcerted about this sudden change in her mother's attitude, causing her to lag behind a bit. Once they got back to the house, Charra tossed their newly acquired groceries to the side carelessly outside the cabin.
"Ma, seriously! What's going on?!" Ferah asked desperately.
"Ferah, start packing. Only your essentials." Charra instructed. Instead, Ferah grabbed Charra's shoulder and spun her around before holding her in place with both hands
"Okay, no! I'm not doing anything until you tell me what's going on!" Ferah exclaimed. Charra was surprised but could see the confusion and distress on Ferah's face and realized that she'd been on autopilot for a little while now.
"This place isn't safe anymore. Not for the village, and definitely not for us. We need to leave now, while we still can." Charra explained before she began throwing together a rucksack for travel.
"If the Horde is going to attack, we can handle it! We can fight! I can fight!" Ferah argued, only for Charra to whirl around with a face that made Ferah suddenly feel like she was three years old again. That was the face she only saw on very rare occasions, when she'd really screwed up and knew that her mother had a lecture ready.
"And say you do fight? Say the two of us could defeat an entire Horde invasion force by ourselves? What then? We wouldn't get the Horde to leave us alone! All we would get is attention from the Horde, which is exactly what we and the town are desperately trying to avoid!" Charra lectured in a raised voice before she calmed down.
"I get the desire to stand up against the Horde. Believe me, I really do. But you need to learn not just how to fight, but whether to fight. It's a lesson I took too long to learn and nearly cost me my life." Charra continued in a much lower, more tired voice.
"We can't just leave the village to the Horde…" Ferah tried arguing, but Charra shook her head.
"The people of that village are more than familiar with the Horde. I imagine more than a few of them are preparing to leave in anticipation of a Horde force arriving." Charra replied as she began loading up her rucksack with clothes and provisions. Ferah reluctantly began to do the same, filling up her own rucksack with clothes and provisions, as well as a few basic medical supplies before they stepped outside. Charra locked the front door and they set out. It was already about three, maybe four o'clock when they started walking since the trip to town took about four hours there and back, not accounting for any of the time spent in town, and that was if you were walking at a pretty brisk pace. However, having already done a lap today, they were naturally going slower. However, Charra was on high alert the whole time. It wasn't until the sky had turned a deep orange and Charra heard rustling behind her and saw Ferah digging through her rucksack for something. It was when Charra saw a familiar strip of black cloth emerge from the rucksack that she had to bite her tongue to avoid a string of words she'd worked diligently to keep Ferah from ever learning.
"That's tonight?! How did I forget?" Charra ranted angrily to herself. Looking up in the sky, she guessed that they had a little while longer to go before the moons had risen. However, she wanted Ferah out of the moonlight as soon as possible.
As they kept walking, Charra led Ferah off the path and through the forest. She hadn't put on the blindfold quite yet, but she kept it on hand. Though it probably wouldn't have mattered all that much. Ferah had developed an incredible sense for her surroundings and even if she was in somewhere unfamiliar, she could navigate it pretty well while blindfolded. Still, Charra didn't want to have Ferah wandering around the woods blindfolded unless it was strictly necessary, which it wasn't quite yet. Eventually they reached the edge of the forest, though not all the way out. The moons were just starting to peak over the horizon and weren't in alignment yet, so Charra decided to put down camp here. After picking a spot, Ferah slipped on the blindfold as Charra got busy cooking a quick meal out of dried meat. They ate in silence before unfurling their bedrolls and climbing in, with Charra adding some specialized camouflage with a dark green cloth that was pitched similarly to a tent, but mainly served to hide them and did little for shelter. However, it also served the purpose of keeping the moonlight away from Ferah, even if the blindfold slipped off in the middle of the night.
However, sleep would prove elusive. The sound of screaming, explosions and zapping noises proved more than enough to rouse them from their slumber. This time, Charra did employ one of her choice curse words as she looked over at the village in the distance to see that it was indeed on fire. Ferah didn't need to see to guess what was going on. She lifted up the blindfold to see what was happening and felt her stomach start churning.
"They're just attacking them… No one's fighting back… Why? What do they get out of this?!" Ferah asked desperately as Charra just glared.
"It's a display, meant to show their ruthlessness and efficiency; to dishearten what areas of Etheria they don't control." Charra muttered as the slaughter continued.
"We can't let this continue…" Ferah murmured as she went to stand, but Charra just grabbed her shoulder.
"We can't help them now. We need to keep..." She started answering before she saw something on the outskirts. Only visible by the firelight was a man dressed in naught but baggy black pants and sandals, held up with blood-red rope. He wore no shirt instead having a long, thick scarf wrapped around his neck that hung down over his chest and shoulders. He was performing martial arts techniques that were very familiar to both Charra and Ferah. Seeing him gave Charra an epiphany. However indirectly, the Horde had found this place because of her. That man had come here in search of her and would continue searching for her if they didn't find her. And if they learned of Ferah…
"No…"
Ferah looked up at her mother.
"Ma?" She asked.
"It ends tonight. One way or another…" Charra stated in a low tone as she slowly rose to her feet. Ferah also rose to her own and began cracking her knuckles.
"Alright, let's go…" Ferah started before she suddenly fell limp, collapsing to the ground unconscious. Charra closed her eyes in shame as she slowly lowered her hand from the neck strike she'd used to knock Ferah unconscious before concealing her beneath the camouflage.
"I'm sorry. I hope you'll understand one day." Charra murmured before she turned and began to march slowly down towards the slaughter ground. The march slowly picked up pace until she was at a full-on sprint. Once she was in range, Charra leapt explosively into the air as she reared back her fist, a familiar energy wrapped around her fist. As she descended from the air, she swung her fist down at one of the Horde's attack drones, reducing it to scrap in an instant! The sound of the drone being smashed to pieces was more than enough to attract the attention of the Horde commander, who turned to look at Charra, who rose from where she'd destroyed the drone and glared at him.
"You came here looking for me, Veran? Well, here I am."
The man, identified as Veran, began to slowly clap as he approached. His hands were stained red already, as were his feet. She could see speckles of red all over him, now that she could see him up close. All of it fresh.
"You always were good at the dramatic entrances, weren't you, Char? It got a bit boring after that time on the way to Dryl and you suddenly challenge my entire force singlehandedly! Oh, those were the days…" Veran drawled, sounding as if he genuinely was nostalgic for then. Charra was especially displeased with his mocking use of her old nickname. Out of his mouth, it sounded foul.
"I'm putting an end to this. All of this, one way or another." Charra stated as she turned so that her left shoulder was facing him.
"Oh, this will only end one way. No one is to interfere. This one is my kill." Veran announced. His soldiers seemed confused, but they obeyed.
"Try to keep it interesting for me this time?" Veran mocked as he sank into his own stance. His had his arms loosely held in the air, thighs parallel to the ground while his crus were perpendicular to it. Charra watched as a dark crimson energy sparked along the length of his arms before he suddenly rushed forward and launched into a vicious series of hooks and swings! Charra dodged and blocked all of them before seeing an opportunity and delivering a double palm-heel strike to Veran's chest and knocking him back! Seeing the opportunity to press forward, she rushed in with a straight kick before going for a leaping punch, though the latter was blocked, and she received a hook to the sternum in retaliation.
"You've been practicing!" Veran commented as he spun and performed a hammer kick that Charra managed to roll out of the way of before she performed a roundhouse kick that Veran blocked before shoving her back. Charra performed a backwards spring to recover, but Veran was already on top of her, preparing for a Tempest Strike! Channeling energy into her arms to brace, she crossed her arms in front of her to block. However, while she avoided having broken ribs or arms, she was still thrown back through the air and landed hard on her back. As she started to push herself up, she heard Veran's shout from above her. Looking up, her eyes widened as she saw him descending towards her with his fist crackling with energy! Rolling out of the way of the strike, Charra knew that she needed to change things up if she was to win this. With a shout, she drew upon all the energy she had, causing a silvery aura to erupt from her body! She'd never pushed Ferah's power up technique this far before, but she didn't care about the consequences. Not now.
She rushed forward and struck Veran with an uppercut before leaping into the air and flipping into a flying axe kick, sending Veran smashing into the ground. As she landed, she rushed forward and delivered twin spin kicks before finished with a Tempest Strike! However, just before the blow could connect, Veran's bloodsoaked hand shot up and caught Charra's fist. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw Veran's head slowly turn to look at hers. His orange eyes brimming with a strange mixture of contempt, amusement and frustration.
"You really have been practicing, haven't you?" He muttered as he straightened out and began to twist her hand to the side in a painful manner. Charra watched a similar aura to her own began to emit from Veran's body, only dark red in color.
"However, you are as foolish as ever if you assumed no one else had discovered that little trick." He said before he suddenly yanked her into the air before slamming her back into the ground. He then threw her into the air and launched upwards, delivering an uppercut straight to her stomach before spinning and driving his other elbow into her shoulder, sending her flying into the ground. When he landed, Veran grabbed Charra by the front of her clothes and slowly hauled her to her feet before grabbing her by the hair to hold her in place. He then proceeded to deliver a series of brutal punches to her face, stomach, shoulders before he made sure she was going to stay standing up before he reared back and lashed out with both fists at once, energy roaring around his limbs! Charra was sent cartwheeling through the air before limply rolling across the ground and coming to a stop. Veran leisurely walked over to her and looked down. She was still alive, but he could tell she wouldn't be for very long. The numerous internal injuries would see to that. He bent down to look her in the eye.
"You lived as a fool, and you'll die as one too. And for what? You couldn't stop me when I put that old fool down and burned the dojo to the ground, you couldn't stop me on the way to Dryl, and you couldn't stop me this time either. What would have made it worth it to save people who couldn't save themselves?" Veran asked her, but she refused to answer. Or perhaps she couldn't. Veran didn't care. He turned and walked away, the soldiers and drones following him into the firelit night. However, he stumbled a bit on the way before coughing up a large globule of blood before he righted himself and kept marching onward. Having seen this out of the corner of her eye, Charra's lips slowly curled into a painful smile. It was very much possible that he could die on the way back to the Fright Zone like that.
Ferah groaned as she slowly came to. Her neck felt sore. Her eyes were still covered by the blindfold. As she tried to get up, she realized that she was underneath something. Right, they'd brought along that camouflage sheet. They'd been lying under it when…
"MA!" Ferah suddenly exclaimed before ripping through the sheet and climbing to her feet. After peaking out from underneath the blindfold, she began hurrying towards the town as fast as she could. However, when she saw a body up ahead, she picked up the pace until she was close enough to recognize it. She just about tripped as she was overcome with horror and panic at the sight.
"Ma… ma! No, nononononono, MA!" Ferah yelled as she practically collapsed next to her mother and grabbed her hand, tearing the blindfold off her head.
"F…Ferah…?" Charra murmured weakly as her eyes slowly turned to look at Ferah.
"I'm here, ma. I'm going to help you…" Ferah blubbered tearfully as she started desperately trying to figure out what to do.
"No… cough cough… No, it's… It's too late for that…" Charra moaned as coughed up a globule of blood.
"No, don't say that… You're too strong. You can make it!" Ferah insisted desperately as she held her mother's hand tight.
"It's okay… It's okay, Ferah… I'm okay… As long as you're safe…" Charra said with a weak smile as she strained to lift her hand up to Ferah's cheek, gently brushing away one of the tears with her thumb.
"I'm so sorry… there's so much I wanted to tell you… But… You're going to be… cough cough… you're going to be okay, Ferah… You're strong… so, so strong, Ferah…" Charra kept going as Ferah desperately tried to think of a way to save her mother.
"No, no no no, ma! You can't die! Please, please don't leave me!" Ferah begged as she desperately held her mother's hand to her heart.
"It's okay… As long as you're safe… As long… as…"
Charra's voice gave out as she fell limp, her eyes closed slowly. Her hand felt from Ferah's face to her own stomach. Ferah's tearful sobs of anguish filled the air as she buried her face in her mother's stomach, crying.
"No… no… please come back.. please… please, ma!" She sobbed into her mother's bloodsoaked clothes before she threw back her head and let out a wail of pure misery and suffering. She turned to see several Horde soldiers and attack bots slowly approaching. Her sobs turned into heaving breaths as her anguish changed to anger. They'd killed her mother… They'd taken her away…!
Ferah could feel something welling up in her, pulsing through her body in time with her heartbeat. Her gaze had become one of pure, unadulterated fury, the soldiers flinching every time they were the subject of her glare. However, there was something drawing her gaze upward. Some strange force that she couldn't explain. Her eyes glazed over as she stared at the three moons hanging in perfect alignment.
Ba-bump… Ba-bump…
As soon as it started, there was no stopping it. Ferah began to change as her eyes drank in the moons' pale light. She grew taller as brown fur began to emerge. Her face elongated and her teeth became fangs. Before long, a towering ape stood over the terrified Horde troops. The ape let out a roar and began to rampage through their ranks, crushing and trampling over them. No weapon could fell the beast as it let loose a guttural bellow before a beam of energy erupted from its maw, carving a massive gash across the land and destroying many a Horde war machine. Only one vehicle managed to escape the carnage, with its four passengers looking back at the spectacle behind them; a village in flames, with the fire and smoke framing a colossal monster as it roared and beat its chest in fury. It was an image they would not soon forget.
Ferah jerked as she awoke. She was cold. Really cold. She also felt… Wait, where were her clothes?!
Realizing that she'd been sleeping in the buff, Ferah suddenly started jolted upright and started looking around frantically before she realized that she was alone. It was the chilly mountain air that was responsible for her shivering. However, as she got to her feet, she realized she was lying in the middle of a crater. She carefully climbed out of the crater and looked down at it before realizing that it wasn't a crater. It was a footprint. A really, really big footprint. The strange thing was that the footprints ended where she'd woken up, but there was a short trail of them leading back towards…
"No… No no no…" Ferah whispered in horror as she began running back along the trail of giant footprints towards the village. When she arrived, it was as she'd feared.
The place was an abandoned warzone. There were tiny, smoldering fires that were still causing small wisps of smoke to rise into the air. The town was burned to the ground, with bodies littering the streets around it. There were ruined Horde battle bots and other such war machines scattered about the battleground. But worst of all were the footprints. The last thing that Ferah remembered seeing before she blacked out was… the three moons. And when she woke up, she was lying at the end of a trail of monstrous footprints and the Horde looked to have been absolutely demolished after she blacked out.
"Oh First Ones… What did I do…" Ferah murmured in horror. There was no telling how many of the townspeople had perished alongside the Horde soldiers when whatever the moons did to her took hold. Now she understood why her mother had been so adamant about keeping her away from the moons.
"Oh no… ma…" Ferah realized when she remembered Charra. She started searching frantically until she found the very thing she feared most; Charra's dead body. All the pain, all the grief, it all came rushing back. Ferah wept. She wept for the first time since she was four years old. She sat in the dirt, hugging Charra's body close to her as she cried. Eventually though, she needed to move on. The Horde would be back here, one way or another, and Ferah needed to get away from here. She'd suffered too much and done too much damage herself. However, there was one thing to do first.
After finding a relatively functional spade, Ferah started digging. She dug and dug until she'd dug a large enough hole and carefully laid her mother inside before arranging her arms over her chest. From there, she refilled the hole and found a large, flat rock and another, sharp stone. She carefully scratched Charra's name into the stone, as well as an old sigil for Fire underneath it before planting it in the ground. With one last tearful goodbye, Ferah retrieved her rucksack, which had miraculously gone undamaged in yesterday's calamity, as well as the old ring of keys that her mother had in her own rucksack and set out. She had no idea where she was going, only that she needed to get away from here.
Well, this was certainly MUCH heftier than we initially thought, but it's actually turned out real nice!
Creativity: …sniff… Why would you be so cruel…?
Author: I am a right piece of work, aren't I?
Well, I don't think I have much else to say on the Charra thing. People will make of it what they make of it.
Besides, I'm actually feeling really tired…
Creativity: Well, considering how this ran extra long, I'm not surprised.
Author: Yeah, don't expect chapters this long in future. Doesn't mean they won't happen, just don't expect them.
And with that, I think we'll end this here! Thank you for reading, please review and we'll see you next time!