Lurbe speaking. Pixie can make her own flowery introduction if she so chooses: she wrote the first half.
Loss and Latin
Weary with the tiresome
practice of running from the increasingly faraway noises of shouts
and screaming - which were obviously growing so faint that their
owners would never catch her - Pai came to a gradual stop and bent
nearly double, chest heaving through blood-splashed armor as she put
her hands on her knees and tried to stop gasping.
There
wasn't really a point in trying not to look like a pathetic beaten-up
fool, since she was miles away from a village or outpost, or in fact
anyone who could possibly be around to laugh at her… and after all,
she was a pathetic beaten-up fool. She could not remember
the last time their group had been obliterated so completely and
quickly, and was so embarrassed after turning and running that she
had to attribute the defeat to the fact that either they had been
outnumbered, six to seven, or that the Crimson Skull had the aid of a
truly tenacious group of very good healers… and, of course,
that silly assassins always tried to be heroes and ended up looking
like pincushions after all the archers had gone and had their way
with him.
Never mind the fact that Klaos
did so only because his five companions always ended up shuffling
their feet about and never actually volunteering when the call came
for someone to tank.
"Oh,
Balthazar," Pai snarled as she saw three figures standing a few
yards away on the crest of a small hill, watching and whispering
amongst themselves. "Oh, that's right, stop and
laugh. Damn Crimsons. Well, go on then… oh,
no, it's fine, I'm used to defeat. As if I haven't had enough to deal
with already."
When the three only
fixed her with quizzical and somewhat miffed glances, she felt her
anger rising.
"Honestly," she
snapped, "opportunists, all of you, and - and worthless
too! Scavengers! You're the dregs of a great
society, you know? You're the excrement of Cantha! Enough
with you Balthazar-cursed bandits and your – and your stupid
healers, that's another thing! You can't all hide in the
back and chant; there must be someone left around here with some
values… what are you waiting for? Go on and shoot me."
Muttering collectively in an offended
manner, each one exclaiming softly under his breath about how rude
adventurers could be, the three Crimson Skull rangers turned and
ambled back down the hill and out of sight.
As Pai, trying her best to make herself feel better by adopting a
whiny, mocking tone of voice and repeating their words as petulantly
as she could, attempted to focus and think of her next course of
action, she was suddenly interrupted by a tiny voice speaking in her
ear. She resisted the urge to turn around, swear, and
burst into flames, as she so often did when someone surprised her,
for she immediately recognized it as the deep tone and pensive
inflection of her late traveling companion.
"I died," it said simply.
Pai
gave a testy sigh.
"I know,
Klaos. What do you want me to do about it? I'm
not a shaman, you know, and you're not invincible. What do
you expect when you run out in front all the time?"
The voice fell silent, and Pai began to regret snapping at it, as she
could probably have used some advice.
Pai curled up, hugging her knees close to her chest and burying her head. After a long stretch of blubbering, Pai's tear-stained face turned upward towards the heavens. Her sobbing quieted down, she could hear a faint, distant noise. She stopped and held her breath. Far away, she could make out the sounds of someone singing.
quis possum fecire amica
fugeret
quis possum fecire amica fugeret
quis possum fecire
amica fugeret
quis possum fecire amica fugeret iram habeo
nunc
dic ei non abes mihi
dic ei non abes mihi
dic ei
non abes mihi
dic ei non abes mihi ubi te expecto
pai
debes ibi veni
pai debes ibi veni
pai debes ibi veni
pai
debes ibi veni ante te interfacio
pai age tuum assinum
pai
age tuum assinum
pai age tuum assinum
pai age tuum assinum
nunc similis dixi
She ignored it, but then, it wasn't
far away at all. Only...
She stopped. Thinking about death and
all of its implications, amplifications, and personifications made
her head spin.