Chapter Eight.
Bree was cutting vegetables, when she eard a strange, quiet voice in the back of her mind.
Fly Bree.
She jerked, and the knife slipped, cutting her finger.
Pain, I remember that. said the voice, and Bree realised that her feet were beyond her control, as they took her out of the house, before her wings unfurled and drew her quickly and powerfully up into the sky.
Who are you? She thought, confused as to what was happening.
Difficult question. Call me Blanca. As the voice spoke, Bree realised that her wings were changing.
An owl. That was the last Anima Fly ever gave me. Bree realised suddenly that her body was crawling with black markings, each one showing up briefly against her skin, then fading. As if I needed them.
Where did you come from?
I've always been here, I'm the heart of your anima. I was covered over with many other essences, and after I...died...My mind was shattered, so I retreated under all of those other, newer anima, to heal. But I don't have time anymore, I have to find him before he does something foolish.
Find who?
You'd call him Cooro.
*
The sense of an Anima hit me again, even as I plummeted to the ground, and this time I realised that It was Bree's Anima, but changed. As I acknowledged it, a sense of recognition thrummed through my body, so strong it even reached my anima.
_____! The thought that flashed through my mind from my anima was more a picture than a name, but it perfectly captured what I was sensing from Bree's anima, as well as an image of an angel,
Blanca!
My wings snapped out.
*
Bree dived towards the tumbling figure, knowing it couldn't be Cooro, his hair was dark, his skin a healthy tan, his wings were black as they snapped out of his back.
That's the real Cooro, the one you met was like me. Please, can I take control of this body, just for a little while? The voice sounded so quietly hopeful, that Bree agreed without a second thought.
Blanca flung her head back, and sang, a melody that came from the very roots of her soul, as she shed reality like a cloak. Below her, he began to sing as well, following her to the place that they had come from, and could only return to together. He called to her, and as they reached their home, alternate existance, her body changed, shucking the appearance of a nine-year-old girl, and growing into that of a beautiful young woman, with pure white wings, mathcing her feathery hair, and ice-blue eyes. He changed to, Growing older, his hair darkening from deep brown to purest black, the same colour as his wings and the feathers running down his arms. They greeted each other, able to communicate for the first time in nearly seven hundred years; able to touch for the first time in eight-hundred and sixty-eight years. Thoughts flowed freely, combining, as each held the other close.
I thought I had lost you, after they took you, and then, after you fell...
Having my own body made it difficult for me to sense you, or you me. We needed to be close. After I died, I needed time to heal, to forget human pain.
And by that time, I had a body.
Yes, and I was still healing under layers of other anima. I only sensed you when you gave the body back, and remembered me.
I wanted to die, without you...
I know.
Concious thoughts subsided into a sea of true understanding.
*
Bree and Cooro thumped roughly to the ground from a height of about a dozen metres.
"What just happened?" Asked Bree, not expecting an answer.
"I think your Anima knows my anima, and they went off together." Said Cooro, dusting grass off his knees and inspecting his shoulders. "My anima's definitely gone."
"Mine too." Said Bree, feeling where the markings had been along her back and around her eye.
"I've never not had an anima before..." Said Cooro grinning at Bree, "WHat about you?"
"I was about two and a half years old, and I was cornered by slavers, in a dark alley. The Anima helped me get away."
"So then, you don't really remember before having an Anima either? We can learn together! It's going to be weird without him..."
Bree nodded, wondering if this was the real Cooro, that had been hiding just under the surface of that cold, hard person that she had first known by that name.
"I have to tell Husky and Nana and Senri what happened! C'mon!" Cooro grabbed Bree's hand, and made as if to jump into the air, but ended up just tumbling down the soft grassy hill they had landed on, dragging a laughing Bree with him.
*
Soon after that, the number of Anima started to diminish, no new ones ever arriving to help children in need. Instead, if you could ever get one of the children who were spared from death by luck, they said that they had seen two angels, a man and a woman, who had wrapped them around with a song, and carried them to safety.
*
FINISHED!!!!!! Now I just need to make it make sense. Damn. Anyway, to Grace Raven, and Aime Gurl, and 'kate' , and Coori for reviewing! Thankyou also to everyone who read it, and enjoyed it. I think this is gonna be it for +Anima for a while though. See ya! ~Ratpoigeon