I'm getting a premonition, this chapter's gonna be bad. 3:1 odds, any takers? The currency is reviews. If you bet the chapter is gonna be bad, and it's not, then you have to submit 3 reviews to stories somewhere on Fanfiction. If you bet it's going to be good, and its not, then submit one review. If you're right, then tell me, and I'll submit long, considered reviews to your stories (Three if you think my chapter's good, one if you don't) THIS IS AIMED TO THOSE PEOPLE WHO READ, PUT STORIES ON FAVOURITES AND ALERTS, BUT NEVER REVIEW, AUTHORS NEED FEEDBACK. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! ACTUAL REVIEWERS ROCK! P.S. It doesn't even have to be reviews on this story, but that would be nice. I can't police you, so on your own honesty do it, for those who need reviews to find the will to write. However shallow that may be....On with the show!
Chapter Six
Bree sighed as she helped Tarran and Elijah with the vegetables. Mik and Bina were playing with Ojii, who was telling them a story as he worked on the fire.
"Be carefull with your hands, Tarran, I don't want to be eating finger stew." She chided gently, repositioning the seven-year-old boy's hands on the mutilated vegetable. Tarran was a spuirrel +Anima, with the black markings around his hands and feet, letting him climb trees quickly and easily. The boy became almost entirely squirrel, but no-one knew how he'd gotten his anima, since he never said a word, his big brown eyes always watching the everyone around him, seeeming to be on the verge of tears. Elijah on the other hand, was a rabbit, cheerful, fast, and seemingly indestructable - even though his anima only manifested a floppy pair of ears.
"Bree, what happened to the creepy see-through boy?" Asked Bina, hissing at Mik as the green scales radiated over her body, from the sinuous black line that curved down her back. MIk giggled and barked at her, his face elongated into the canine muzzle filled with sharp teeth that his wolf Anima gave him. None of these children ever spoke about how they got their anima, and only ever used them when they were well-hidden in the depths of Ojii's house. Poor Mik wasn't even able to show his face outside, since the telltale markings curled around his mouth in a menacing way, completely at odds with his sweet nature.
"Bree?" The owl +ANima looked up as she realised that she'd forgotten to answer Bina and she shrugged.
"He flew away, I don't know where he went."
"Your heartbeat just sped up." Said Bina, flicking her tongue in and out. Although she looked human aside from her layer of green scales, when Bina unfurled the power of her anima, she could sense anything a snake would, including the varying vibrations of a heartbeat.
"That's because we can start cooking our stew."
*
What do you want with me? I jerk as I hear the voice again. This voice, it's becoming more and more distinct from me, it makes it hard to think. Husky is teaching me to read, something I never learnt before, and is proving difficult. I ignore him.
Why do we share this body? You hate me, and if this is your body, then why do I still live here? I don't even allow myself to think about the answer to that, to remember the music...
"And the fourth King of Sailand was known as The Conqueror, because he expanded Sailand territory from a small coastal province to a mighty empire reaching to the Kim-un-kur mountains." I finish the paragraph without hesitation, I've read it a dozen times already today.
I remember music...you say you've lived twice, but weren't we the same before?
No, never the same. You don't exist.
I don't believe that. "What was I like before I died?" I ask, needing to know, trying to understand.
"A cheerful, irresponsible idiot that everyone loved because of your goofy smile." Said Husky, without thinking. HE looked horrified as soon as the words came out of his mouth.
I'm not like that any more though...
No, YoU don't exist. You think you hold the memories of the past, but you have nothing. The past isn't real, even if it did belong to you. There is only the present, when I am the real one.
Weren't you me, before?
No. Yes...I died...you...were...
*
Cliffie! Yay! Not really, I don't know if I managed to conceal the true nature of this internal conflict at all. whoops. Anyway, this probably means this fic is nearing completion It's taken longer to write than any of my others. There are a few references to Angel in the last half of this one though. So, did you bet right? I'll leave it up to you - be honest - did you think it was as good (or not good, but then why are you still reading?) as the previous chapters? ~Ratpigeon