Seclusion by Goys_Grimoire

Seclusion


It was dark, in a pervasive cave, far away from everything that once happened, far away from everything that would happen in a fallen out manner.
And despite its natural isolation, relumined in a faint moonlight, the beginning of the end should ascend from its very void caves.
The dim expression wandering along the rocky ceiling, spreading its wings and the bottom carving foothold, staggered it and fell immediately downwards  the harsh bottom of reality, a cold and dirty life applied to its inhabitants down here.
Tears clouded the confused mind, the chaos occupied her thoughts, but with that, the tears stayed tears of the mothers happiness, damping and rolling down her child's face.
Yet inside their peace, the happiness ended.
–


Auburn Glimmer


And with one strike, it all went silent. Like the day before, rain fell in sheets, fiercely beat the raindrops down the dead, wiping away all the misery and sorrow of this night, while the child's tears settled down in a pool of blood.
Insensately sat it there, with steel having pervaded its pit of the stomach and laying at a tree, resting the small hands on top of the dead mothers clothing.
There was no pain, there was no grief. Nothing but the brutal fate that was admeasured to the boys humming fear.

“...“ The nearly dead meant to have heard a silent voice,. In fact, quiet unrecognizable two persons stood in the far back of this happening, but there was no power left to somehow react to those, he felt the way life slowly left his body, with nothing left to stay.

“Hadley...” one of the men said in the far back, “call the men, gather all there is and make the horses ready.“

“Sir, I understand,” answered the other out of confusion,, ”but we just-“

“No buts.“ ordered the huge-grown man in his white cloak as he stepped towards the bloodbath with trembling gaits.

“We leave this place. Immediately.”
“And make sure to get provision for one more person till we're back at the headquarters!“ he added.

“Yes Sir!“ obeyed the vice commander and bored his way through the muddy paths of the village.

The leader looked after Hadley until this one was out of sight, before the combatant's commander turned his attention towards the drenched, afraid boy.

“Shorty...” he started, somehow trying to find any words expressing what he meant to have witnessed, “I don't understand just what took place in front of my own two eyes, how you're still alive somehow and if I shouldn't just end it right here, but I'm actually not the person to kill humans you know...“

The man looked up. He stopped examining the obviously scared to death child and acknowledged the true horror of this place he stood at.
How the blood was dribbling down the trees boughs, the light gently enfolded those three cold bodies right in front of his eyes, as pale as the moon himself and, how in the heart of this red soaked earth, a kid sat, not older than seven to eight years old, with a glowing axe kept by the insides of his body.

“No, I think we can do better, I believe” the commander decided, “We wanna go now, little friend. And as it seems, you are no more wounded than that burn you refused to get treated.” The child looked up to him, rain flowing down its cheeks.

“You'd almost think this axe deliberately refused to hurt you, ha!” laughed the man cheerfully, as he loosened the weapon without any resistance from the kids untouched body parts, looked at it in the moonlight with unbelieving eyes and thereafter left the slaughter with the boy in his left arm, still trembling with fear.
Moments went by until it finally went silent. Not the kind of silence ruling the happening they were about to leave, but a silence of acceptance. And with that, it finally went silent in the boys head too, the pawing shouts and screams slowly left his mind.

It slowly but steadily stopped raining as the commander was closing in to the already prepared group of soldiers and warriors, supply wagons and saddled horses.
One of those greeted his captain with another mount and its reins, full of expectation.

“What are the orders, commander Odien? Another hunt? Did you locate any sub-humans? Or even-”

“No and we won't today.” Odien said annoyed as he backed his horse, handed the weapon to the soldier and continued “Take this and bring it to the our armory. We're heading back to the barracks.”

“But sir, our miss-”

“Your mission is to follow me.” he interrupted, “Do as you're bidden and obey the new orders.”

The commander then watched over the now unconscious child held the arm of the recruit before he could leave and spoke, “He shall get some rest for now. Tell Eliette to take care of this child as well. His throat needs to get treated.” The soldier nodded quickly, rode carefully to the end where the draught animals were located, performing the task he was told to.

And with that, the combatants left this place of destiny which was bond to doom their fate as well.

~Good night, my dearest~ it resounded for the last time.




The disunity of diversity, how it always and always shaped this dark world, be it for reason or not, giving individuality its curse and distinguished everything since its birth by its unity of originality.
But the burden of united diversity, going hand in hand with her disunited creation since the new world's dawn, was early on perceived by the mother herself and it wasn't long before nothing became everything and with everything came the sadness, the sadness of everlasting emptiness.
–


Tormenting Reminiscence


“......” Nothing.

He didn't move.

“Is he dead?” the girl asked cautious.

“Whaaat, this guy?” Another person was in the room as well and pointed at the bed with disbelief.

“Naw, let me take care of Ian, I got this. All he needs sometimes is a friendly reminder, nothing more..” So the man took five steps backwards until his hand touched the door's cold steel, slid down with a squeak and signalized his not unusual, rough intention. Long steps later, the already in full armor dressed soldier had to disappointingly interrupt himself from jumping onto the bed, as he noticed the person in question's movement.

“I'm awake, no worries..” mumbled it through the pillow as Ian stopped the overeagerly man from crushing his bones with the steel-toed boots he was wearing.

“Too bad” laughed the other, “get ready, you need to go soon. Why do you sleep so long anyway..?”

“Oh, you too, -” he said while looking at the girl when passing by. “- Elodie!”

“Huh,” the girl startled, “how am I supposed to get ready..?”, she grumbled about his words and looked after him until he was left, then fumbled at her everyday wear and a tang of enviousness caught words, until she reached Ian's bed.

“Here, your clothes. Hope they fit you now.”, laid them down carefully to the side and took another clothing afterwards from her left shoulder, “Oh and your scarf, don't forget that one too.” took it down and handed the muffler with a complacent “You're welcome.” to its rightful owner.

“Thanks, I nearly couldn't breath in this shabby and tight cloak before.” complained the man while finally getting up, stretched himself and disorganized the neatly folded uniform.

Elodie removed herself a bit, opened the wooden casements to aerate the room and gazed bemused outside.
Almost sixteen summertimes ago did this guy come to their place, wounded and weak did they take care of him, she recalled the day of her fathers return on this day, they way he kept her from talking to the new boy after he recovered, not allowing a single word of welcoming and childish talk.
Her lips formed a nostalgic grin as she looked back, while watching the morning play of all those animals from the window's outside, birds, squirrels, mice and insects, all being part of one huge nature, which however developed an urge of being different, being somewhat special, be it their appearance, colors or needs, forming a system that got cruel sometimes, but worked overall in its natural flow.

“I think Odien's speech has already started and-” she paused at the sight of the nearly full-grown men, now fully dressed except for the cloth in his hand, looking down on it with a faint countenance, the white scarf to cover the big burn he received in that night.

“It's not the season to be wearing this, isn't it?” he asked without loosening his eyes from it. But the girl he asked was already gone, all he got was an ordering voice saying “Come already!”, as she walked down the floor and ignored his question.

- Wrapping the scarf around his neck and heading outside the room while following the woman's call. Just fifty steps further afar from his room, he entered a hall filled with gloomy looking people and warriors in full gear, listening to what their commander was telling them and giving Ian looks of disapproval and disinterest, as he sat himself to the blond, blue armored and shield wielding person that smiled at his typical tardiness like he always did. To his side, there sat another person he was familiar with, sometimes a little difficult and a stubborn mind under her curled red hair, at least for his taste, but admittedly more capable of fighting the enemy than anyone else she usually talked to.

“Where have you been!?” hissed it then two seats from Ian, as the one talking to him noticed the commander silently laughing at he common behavior as well.

“Calm down Ren, he didn't miss anything yet... Some bunny leg anyone?” munched it between the two, as the guy in the middle and his blue armor tried to convince one of the others to join his meal. With shaking heads both denied his offer and the girl ignored any further annoyances by them.
But not only Ren was visibly insulted by the guys' behavior, with a grim look three rows from afar, the vice-commander that was to the captain's side in the night sixteen years ago, watched him and his eating neighbor Mathéo full of contempt.

“Alright guys,” the in front standing commander continued, “under Damian's lead, the task force was able to gather information as well as the target's direct location we've all been waiting for. Our client asks for nothing more than what we always do, kill the sub-humans in one location and care for their leaders death, which would be this time the one called by the name... Surrvek.. Sruveigk? Anyway, a lion as apparently golden as the sun, like this beautifully poetic report tells me” Odien couldn't help but to smile at the detail his third force commander sometimes put into those papers, “Yeah... I don't think it's important to mention the obvious,” and he still looked with concern to all of his men.

 “Their numbers exceed ours by far, are also most certainly prepared for a direct attack in their natural habitat and as always, are way more powerful than we during the day and even untransformed. Thereto comes the fact that we are only at halve force levels and have limited supplies for this important mission and it might feel like I'm asking you for too much. Because of that, we're gonna do it differently this time” and he waited a bit before continuing for the people to somehow react, but the silence remained in the full room and with that, he started to go into detail.

“Alright, so to prevent this mission's failure, we'll split in three groups, one dealing as the vanguards, the others as supply troops and the final squad being in position as the rearguard. This way, we might have a better chance at fighting those animals, since we fight more with strategy and our brain than sheer amount of power.
Now, the vanguards are responsible of building up the tents and clearing the place at first if needed. We don't think they'll notice in time, but don't get to easy there. Consisting mostly out of thirty-five men and without any notable leading requirements, the main group and last men will arrive with planned delay.
Then at night, when the beast's are the most vulnerable and unable to transform like Damian's sources seemed to mention, the main troops arrive and strike them down with the first troop joining them, after those responsible for “the plan” give their okay. It should be clearly visible,” the commander said mockingly, “but again, don't act too soon, understood? If anything goes wrong, retreat and wait for the remaining forces to arrive. Abandon the outpost, don't split up and especially, don't get carried away,” he said, looking at Matt, still eating, ”remember, we're just there to make sure everything “our plan” doesn't reach will be finished off by us, now-”

“What plan?” champed Mathéo suddenly at Ian, who didn't get as much information before this as the other did.

“Fire,” Ren answered quietly without so much as looking at Matt's eating behavior, “just like we always do. Now pay attention again.” she whispered and nodded in the commander's direction as he was already allocating the persons most suited for each squad.

“-  ,Ren, Matheo, all forty-five men being led by vice captain Hadley this time.” the halberdier choked on the leg he was eating after hearing Hadley's name being mentioned. One could clearly see his personal disapproval.

“What? Whyyyy?” he whined. “How come it's always me and not you, Ian?” coughed he in the other's lap.

But Ian didn't reply. He knew that the commander himself wouldn't ever again put him in charge of an important position, especially not in one alongside Haldey.
Not since the incident three years ago. And never again in the nearest future. It wasn't a mission as complex as this one in comparision, however was its outcome of such significance, and yet his failure caused the death of many important members in their formerly small group, “Combatants”, like the people of Begnion tend to call them even today.

Still, although he tried to concentrate on the missions clarification, the pain of his memories and re-emerging guilt feelings were unbearable, even the furiously coughing soldier to his side and the red headed girl's exploitation of this situation by beating the living crap out of him, pretending it was just to his best, wasn't capable of distracting the now completely lost, young failure.

“- in position of displacing those that are weakened and to end this mission once and for all, forty men should be enough, with me and five of our most experienced men to my side.”
“Oh and Damian's... men will be taking a part in here as well... I guess?” he looked away from the papers and map he kept pointing at all the time, looked around but couldn't find the black suited man he was talking about, “Is he gone already? Huh, that's actually unsurprising...”

“Any questions?” sounded it then through the hall, as the vice commander stood up as well. But even Matt's coughs turned to silence as he looked along the room.

“Good, then get ready for the mission. And don't disappoint us!” Hadley said and closed the discussion with those last words of his.

And as the others all stood up, grabbing their armor and weapons, getting more talkative again and causing the usual loudness of the combatants, Ian stayed silently afflicted and lost in his thoughts.





“Mama?” asked the creature with its fiery mane while standing directly in front of an entity that was nothing but a shadow to its former self, and it waited just the way the century ticked away.

And the mother raised her head to the sky, looked down on the small being, smiled and answered with powerful voice, “What is it?”, which the echoed in every yet so small structure of their home. But its creation heard only the loving voice, like mother talking to her child, looked up to her with the multicolored eyes and got sight of warm, red glowing mirrors of hope, standing out in the cold, dark surroundings they called their home.

“Is that the world here?” the daughter proceeded to question and stretched out her hands as far as she could.

The mother smiled, came down to her and took the soft and the cold hand, united hide with scales in one, put them on heart's height and spoke “This, that's your and mine. This will be eternal, forever lasting, you with me, like shadows and light, being none without the other.”

But the child was confused. It looked at her, shining brightly and shining faint, as if the light  met the chaos and the chaos met itself. “But the world! Where is it then?”, she shook her arms.

“Here and there. And everywhere you are.” the mother assured her child. “The world is where you want it to be, and I will stay with you. Everything is my world, but I am not the world's.”

And the girl radiated anew, like the sun she once caught sight of and would see ever since.
–






Smoke and Soot


But this time, something seemed off.
It happened on the same bright day, that the main squad left the barracks two days ago and was now closing in to the arranged position of the camp the vanguards were supposed to build up.
The second group of combatants consisted out of forty-five men, all ready and experienced enough to accomplish their everyday goal. And like every other mission, a young summer breeze and soft warmth accompanied the knighthood of combatants, in  carriages and on horses they trampled the fastest path through the landings of Begnion. All of their missions were like that, since the Laguz only inhabited warm and green places, while ignoring the world around them but in the same time not harming it.
And as the wind carried the sound of lashing leather and voices of speeding up, it nearly drowned out nearly every single call a human attempted to make.

“Ren!” Mathéo yelled at the bitterly rushing swordmaster, who at first didn't seem to notice his calls and continued leading the horses.

“Damn it, Ren!” he screamed again, until she slowly stopped to contribute to the storm of whipping sounds and finally acknowledged his presence.

“Yeah?”, looked she at him, like it was the first time he said her name.

“Finally,” he grumbled, in the opinion of seeing a small but treacherous smile in her face, “You see that? Over there!” and the girl turned her head towards the given direction.

In actual fact, Matt pointed at an event the woman didn't expect to already be witnessing from this far, not irrecognizable from their position, a deep, gray smoke fumed out of the horizon's green, spread across the sky and colored the clouds in a single dull desolation. The warmth left the lands, the birds flew from the poisonous air and a vibe of fright caught those that mentioned the bad sign like Ren and Matt did.

“Just what's going on?” she asked the armored man, who did nothing but kick his shield off his platelegs and shrugged. “I've no idea, thought you would know.”

“Take these,” handed the tools of controlling the horses the surprised soldier and went to the back of the wagon.

“Steady on!”, sounded it from the formation's forefront as well. The horses slowed down, the wheels stopped spinning and Hadley's men started looking to their left, with curious and disbelieving eyes.

Those tracts of land weren't known well by the men of humankind, which is why even Hadley exercised prudence and told his soldiers to wait for further instructions. And while the warriors started making their assumpthions, as they watched the worlds dark cloak steadily and evermore approach the land they where standing on,  Ren finally grabbed a map somewhere stuffed behind Matt's empty head and studied their position, in the hopes of finding an answer to where they were.

“Vice commander Hadley!” she called after a few minutes of mumbling coordinates and remembering the pathes they already had traveled. “ I.. I think....”

“This must be our men's doing, vice commander!”, but her assumption seemed to be taken the wrong way at first.

“What!?” grumbled it from the front line, “Is that guy disobeying the instructions again??” and turned his horse in Ren's location, came nearer and took a look at the map himself.

While he tried to somehow ignore the unnecessarily loud voice of his imposed leader,  Matt watched doubtfully a part of the distant forest dance in an orange applause of fire and flames, the way little areas got  rejoicing brighter and brighter until the black smoke covered those as well, which didn't appear to be a the doing of a normal human being. The flames size, color and even the smoke they caused, it all seemed... off to him.

“The hell were they thinking!?” Hadley shouted in his anger and disbelief.

“Sir that's not possible I think” she discussed with the furious middle-aged man, “Our troop is responsible of the equipment regarding the tactics.” Ren protested as she denied the leader's close-mindedness and pointed at the back of the carriage she was sitting in. And it seemed as Hadley slowly understood the kind of situation too, as his face got white and the outer anger went silent.

“Sir, we need to hurry!” another man realized after hearing Ren's somehow understandable conclusion.

“You're daughter, commander!” Hadley heard somewhere from the back too.

And then with widely opened eyes, the leader rushed his horse right towards the mysteriously glowing flames, in hopes of not already being to late for what he swore to protect.



Where the Cruelty Overwhelms Us


Earlier this day, the scout and fortification group arrived, settled down at one of the many forest's glades where they believed the appointed area was and started to get their work done.
The confusion of thirty-five men building tents and fireplaces here and there, during their fear of today's sunset and most of them participating in the race against time, caused one young girl to feel completely out of place.
Roughly five years since now did she undertake her deceased mother's tasks and was yet to feel fully able to do so.
And now she stood there like every time, in front of her wagon full of weapons and a section dedicated to armor as well, encircled by life taking warriors and alone in one of those deep forests nobody in Begnion ever cared to investigate before, but had reason enough to chase after those that lived here. The natural enemies of humankind, known as the Laguz, sub-humans, who were terrorizing this country because of the humans directly descending from the Zunanma and only one inhabitant of this world being loved by the goddess herself.
But was this the case? Did her mother have to die because the Laguz wanted to do so, because of their evil nature, or was it because commander Odien always and always forced a fight onto them, forcing fate to go somewhen into the wrong direction.
She didn't know. As much as anyone else, but noticed one in the big chaos of people, currently working on his tent and with another person, to whom this incident mattered even more than herself.
Elodie's look  pulled this one out of his work flow, a few seconds later after the combatant noticed a glare resting on him, he called back to her, “What is it?” he asked in a loud voice, ignoring his work and making the other one he was working with visibly frustrated.
But with nothing than a shaking of her white, blond head, the girl got back on her wagon as if it didn't matter and was now surrounded by all possibly known weapons to mankind.
Encompassed by dark wood, the tools all lied sorted and knife-sharp at their own little space, one deadlier than the other, one mirroring her face, the other shining in the sun's bright light.
However, one of those caught Elodie's attention the most. An axe, buried under the other weapons' glance, got more taper endings than any other of its kind and appeared to be consisting out of more than just one single blade.
Her uneasiness spread through the room and, if the sun wasn't slowly going down the world's surface already, that the very moment she picked the mysterious weapon up, the entire inside of the carriage seemed to be enfolded in an immediate darkness.
Suddenly, with the feel of trembling dread, the weapon's shaft conflagrated in a cruelly hot, auburn color, forcing the girl to drop it in full surprise and a cry of terror.

“Was that a voice?”, she mumbled to herself, questioning what just happened to her...

“Yes, of curse it was.” came it from the back, “What else?”

Elodie turned around, but the scare she got before didn't last to long. Relieve took over her, but her surprise was just as big. “Ian, I-”

“You better don't touch that-” the axe wielder said, taking the weapon where she dropped it and pointed at a few peaked places of it. “They easily cause annoying wounds to your hand if you aren't cautious enough.”

A moment of silence passed by. He then threw the tool back to the corner it came from and had a short look at it. The last two days he couldn't stop thinking about what happened, how to deal with it and what he should say. But Ian took the opportunity, he needed to say something.

“Do you... do you remember what the captain said back then?”, he stuttered.

“Huh?” startled the woman responsible of the combatants' setting-up, that didn't expect such a question at all.

“I mean, five years ago... That, day.”

“Oh...” flinched she, groping unconsciously along the mobile armory's wall. She knew what he was trying to say then, but in her head, those words sounded like they just came from the commander himself, grabbing her with sorrow and unable to move.

“No, how could one forget it.”, he continued and explained himself. “It was like the commander prepared himself for this specific event years ago. I however...”, he then looked at the ceiling, “No, I won't ever be.” and starred at her from a tilted angle, seeing nothing but those few traits the sun made visible, the white blond taking on a brown shade in the red sunset and by a newly opened bonfire, danced the swords and lances' shadows playfully along her hand that still rested at the stabilizing wall.
Somber as the fires sound, she let go off the its supporting halt and recognized the words just as Ian did.

“Where the cruelty overwhelms us, so that we stop watching over it, no longer formatively command it, neither dedicate to, nor hopelessly wrest ourselves from it, there's the only last opportunity to take all our might and make a stand against said cruelty; and all that remains is our choice growing to deeds. And if we don't do so, will the others stop forgiving us, those that believed in our choices? Those that fought for freedom? Do we want that? Or do we want riddance? Renewal? Do we wish, that it changed? Do we wish to escape the vortex, out of this gruesome, gray medley of nethermost will to power and abstruse, rotten idealism-” he got quiet as a voice in his head finally stopped this sound of pain and pacification from any further repetition, those that stuck to his memory, until, to the man's surprise, his axe suddenly was located back at the left palm of his hand. He didn't even remember actively reaching for it, it just happened to be there.

“...the idealism that runs, stamps and bears us down, till everything bursts apart. That's what he said back then...” the girl ended with chillingly crystal words, looked full sadness at her mother's apparent murderer and stopped talking since then.

“The commander said those lines along Hadley's rage nearly costing my life.” he admitted. “Since then, I wish every single moment, when this event grabs me anew, to go back and stop the commander from saving me.” Elodie however wanted to disagree, she was thankful for what Ian did for her and the care he had left for all the others,
“Ian.. Wait you haven't-”, but her words got cut off.

Like a storm hitting the wagon in a flash, the distant sudden screams of fearful men became distinguishable through the woods and filled the air, until not least the roaring of beasts and clashing of steel haunted the camp. And with the Laguz came the fire, sparked in the heat of battle and brought down a living hell to the human's camp, until nothing but flames and wounded men were left. It burnt in a red, unnatural brightness, coloring everything in its way the same odd light, so that the camp midst forest's trees and bushes, was edged in a piercing red.

“Oh goddess!”, sobbed Elodie by the time reality finally reached their place, unable to endure anything the battle brought down to her, she slowly dropped down on the wooden floor, her hands wrapped around the head and sat helplessly in the middle of a battlefield, no experience of using a weapon howsoever.

“You need to stay here, understood?” he talked to the traumatized girl on the ground, “Stay hidden  in here and wait for our return. I'm coming back, I promise!” Little did he kow how much those words influenced the battles outcome.

And with that, the grizzled soldier's hot glowing iron mingled together with the dark red atmosphere of a burning heaven.













“Moreover lions and tigers, hawks and ravens. They all were once part of it like you are a part of them, out there and peacefully living together.” related she amidst their conversation.

And the way the stream poured out of the rock cracks, drowning everything under it and as it crawled aloft the middle, so stagnated the water at about the same time as the daughters breath.

“Am I ever going to see them Mama? Please, please I want to!”

But the young girl didn't know of the old and ineradicable wounds her childish enthusiasm opened up once again. Wonderfully, she descended to her daughter on the same level, put her hand on the cold cheek and smiled at her wonderful, various child.

“I'm sorry my dearest, but they have left us alone many years ago.”

But the girl wasn't satisfied with her mother's honest answer, uncomprehending plunked she herself into the water, towering tails protecting from the cold, dangled round the stone's dry part with her claws and tried, to playfully push the the water further away. So she said,

“Can't you make them come back?”

And with a bitter chuckle, her mother thus converged, placed a stone in the shallowly running waters, sighted the immediate division of the two new flows and clarified:

“No, those powers are no longer mine, as well as they are no longer hers. A chasm arose somewhen and has grown bigger ever since, like the stone magnifies the streams power and separation, the higher I place it.” And the girl noticed just how wetter her hands were than before, the more her mother tried to manipulate the water's said separation.

–

Awakening

But it was too late. Rife with appall stumbled Hadley along the massacre, not comprehensible what his eyes feigned to him, his men being turned to ashes and nothing being left than dust and fire.
He didn't know whether the beasts all died, whether they killed his men and flew back deeper to the forest, or if somebody survived at least.
The second squad searched for anyone that was still breathing, but without any hope left they found nothing but sub-humans' transformed bodies and the white-robed corpses of the former vanguards, be they totally deformed, burnt to near nothingness or pallidly lying under the ascending clouds of defeat.
Matt came back to the vice commander, who stood with his eyes closed in the middle of the battleground, inhaling the smell of his enemies and their brutal inhuman doing.

“Sir, those aren't all of our men.” sounded it faintly in the air

He opened his eyes.

“They were thirty-five, if I'm not mistaken.” he explained further. “We were able to.. identify twenty-eight only, if I got it right. Sir?”

Hadley listened vigilantly to the words of the hated halberdier, who got the impression of giving his report to a wall of bricks, rather than to the person currently in charge of this mission.

“Sir, seven men are missing. Not only men, but we couldn't find the corpse of the only girl in this squad either. Sir, are you listening?”

Yes, he was listening. He listened, as the smoke settled down for a bit, how it got beaten down by the first incoming rain droplets for days and was replaced by a cold, fresh amount of air. And how the flames, that were already set, didn't stop burning in the wet atmosphere, magically were they kept alive and caused a natural phenomenon of constant water striking down the imperturbable fire that spread across nearly the entire forest by now, devouring anything coming in its way and causing a constant hissing of simmering water.

“So there's still hope left.” muttered Hadley weakly and greeted the rain with an exhausted sigh. If one could find any hope left for this rotten ideal they were fighting for of course, he told himself. With a look at Mathéo, the first, not evil look he ever gave to him since their first encounter, for the first time did he really smile at him, tapped on his shoulder and finally gave some clear instructions.

“Gather the men, soldier. Tell everyone to get themselves ready and that we're heading North from here, we shall purify these landings once and for all!.”

“Yes commander!” shouted Matt proudly, marched off and quickly assembled everyone that hasn't already headed off to the woods.

But the second Hadley wanted to leave, something touched his foot, an arm held on it and caught the vice-commander's attention, somewhere lying under a collapsed tent and without any sight of life. Hiding his anger, and with a secret, raging facial expression, the man turned towards the buried corpse, stopped caring for the others and told those to finally leave this place.

“Combatants, go without me. I'll catch up to you later. Ren will take over the commando.” And so they did, without noticing anything that should come about at this place soon.


Left alone in the burning rain storm and kicking the wood disrespectful aside, the vice captain eagerly unrevealed the person lying under it, until a familiar gray headed body was visible to his eyes and confirmed his suspicion, the weapon still holding in his hands. He the stepped on the unconscious underling at first lightly, then more and more intense, with all of his hopes up to get a clear answer by someone who was there when everything went down. But the answer he was trying to hear shouldn't come to him this way, not this time.

“Ian you good-for-nothing!” he grunted and kicked with a “Damn it.” the last pieces of wood to the side.

He checked his unregular breath, but nothing more extraordinary than the environment's condition around them caught Hadley's attention. And with the lack of knowledge and fear for his daughter's life, the ignorance turned to former anger in seconds, a few moments more and the soft but restrained kicking turned into the vice captain furiously beating down the motionless body. And the dull sound of fists beating down a corpse where accompanied by the screams of a desperate father.

“Look at you, lying down there and doin' nothing!” ….Nothing.

“Where is she!? What happened?!” There he was, mad as hell, shouting and screaming with no response-

“You failed again! And at whose costs? Whose daughter, whose wife's life did you take with your lack of experience?” -damning the goddess and everything revolving around her-

“Talk to me!” -while wasting his energy for something as unimportant as this probably dying warrior. Then, he got quiet in order to look inward, caught a deep breath upon the unmoving prey and held his anger.

“...This entire day shall come to an end now. And you will be the beginning of it.” spoke Hadley with dry words, reaching out fulfilled with a death wish in his arms and a broadsword  led by his hands. The rain got more intense by the time, big drops of water hit the sharp peak of the sword reaching to the air and went in two, the flames blazed even higher than before, as the wind carried their heat to the battlefield's direction, a mix of warmth and cold enfolded the body on the ground, one short instant and -

Pounding. With a sudden uprising, the shadow arose from the ground, packed its tool and swung around the captain's stature within the span of a heartbeat.
Shaking. And it stood right before his eyes, with a green devilish glare gazing into the near distance, trembled to the left and right in its disunity of will, but not for too and it started scurrying like a wild animal that lost its consciousness entirely to its instincts.
Then, breaking. During the by fire darkened moment of truth, nothing was clearly visible than the chaotic auburn glow of it, crawling upwards the body and in the next moment leaping back to encase its origin. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, the shadow approached from Hadley's back, merciless swung the steel soughing through the wet air, breaking through a few ribs, dislocating those after forcefully being pulled out by his opponent and continued its piercing of the shocked body bitterly until blood shed everywhere onto the ground, as the shadow loosened the grip of  holding the fragmented body up in the air, waited for it to shatter down and disappeared the way it came to life.
Falling. His body hit the ground, blood rushed relentless through his head and mouth, chaos crossed his mind, shut the swirling eyes after grasping a remote sight of the shadows wild movement, then filled the gaping holes in his back and sides with pain and traded one life for another, so long until nothing but the rain and fire were left.

“Eli....otte” panted the hacked to death, for the last time in this perishing world.











As the time came, a leaden curtain clinged to the caves rocks, disguised the afar light and poisoned the air, where the child came upon her mother, pallid countenance's.

“Mama, are you suffering again?” asked the daughter fearfully.

In all those years, since the first day she rose from light and darkness, the child always perceived her mother's misfortune.

“No...,” the powerful entity whispered. “Everything's fine.”

Shortly after those final words were spoken, the women vanished in chaos and with her leaving, the bottom began to glow out of nothing, a crack starting at the ground, wiggled to the top and moved the room until the truth fell down and suffocated under divine splendor.

And remaining in her thoughts, such chaos was the first and last thing here mother made her only child ever endure.

–






A World's End


Having their direct way to the Laguz' settlement cut off by the four meter high flames, Mathéo and his men rushed through the woods while steering clear of the two men high flame pillars. The air got worse and worse the more they intruded the forest's center, as the fire started somewhere around here, devouring its way through the woods and eventually reaching the 1. divison's camp that remained nothing but a graveyard.
He wondered at what place they might be now, although Mathéo himself never participated in any religious services whatsoever and never understood those that did, praying to a god and contributing their entire life to nothing but religion.
This here, not even the commander fought the sub-humans and wished for their extinction out of religious beliefs, he once overheard the talk of two veterans that were at the combattants for ages now, discussing commander Odien's hate for the Laguz and where these emotions originated in the first place.
The one said it was for glory, since the inhabitants of Begnion set their belief in the senate's words of being descendants from one, true tribe, being loved and in direct contact with the goddess Ashera herself, while the other one blamed the money for it all.
Matt however didn't trust any of those assumptions, but had his own point of view in how the “Combatants of Humankind” came to existence, by somewhere deeply rooting in the leader's childhood. But this wasn't as reliable as any other assumption, and with that in mind, the group of warriors closed in to the settlement but where held again right in front of the village's doors.

“Doesn't seem like it goes any further.”

“No it doesn't.”

“What shall we do? Retreat is not an option!”

“No it isn't.”

“Then what are the orders?”

“I've no idea...”

Matt was never put in the position of a leader before and the fact that Ren went back to the camp to support the vice captain if a sudden sub-human attack might happen, didn't help him either. Now he was all alone, responsible for forty other men that were surrounded by something constantly threatening their lives. And he had no plan how to go any further from now.
But with his thought of demanding their retreat, which possibility was questionable in the first place, a deep roaring came from the inside of the forest, shook the blaze down from the tree's branches and signalized an upcoming attack. And not a few moments later, the roar got reciprocated by hundreds of Tigers and Cats, from every cardinal direction the sub-humans drew closer, not visible to any of the men and veiled by the everlasting flames.

“Here they come! Ready yourself for every direction!” Matt ordered to his afraid bunch of men.

And as they faced the wall of fire, resisting against the intruders of the forest, a second of nothingness shook the world, the flames disappeared and made room for the sheer number of beasts, predators and even birds diving out of the air, attacking the few man from above.
Mathéo put his shield in front, speer to the side, feed firmly dug in.
The sound of clashing pawns against armor, the hollow stabbing of creatures, filling forest and surroundings with fear and pain, its merciless and unstoppable cruelty pervading everyone's mind, those that were in charge for taking revenge and losing their lives.
The battle went on.
As he impaled a bird mid-air, dragged it to the ground and pulled out the spear with a twisting move, Matt experienced the true horror of losing all his men, fighting for nothing that was left and failing against the overwhelming amount of enemies, torn apart if not already suffocated under the massive weight of the Laguz' body and strenght.
“It can't be over yet!” he said to himself, still fighting anything that got in his way, slowly closing to the fire's end while drifting away from the battlefield as the enemies came from every direction.
And with a last stab in a cat's body, kicking it to the side and readying himself for the next opponent, two yellow glowing eyes approached him, being carried by brute power, under which the earth started shaking.
There, a giant Lion, as big as a mountain and throwing in the light of flames a shadow big enough to cover five of Matt's men under it. The living death sighted him, decided his prey's fate two seconds ago and ran at the lonely soldier with baring teeth.


Tremor and trembling,
The world started shaking.
But on the edge of existence,
As the world begun its clearance.
The value of life surely paved its way,
Nothing but pain, sorrow and a final delay.


The man lost his prudence,
And ran into the silence.
Then attacked the beast of golden hair,
One killing blow, hurtled through the air.
His body's crushed bones were bursting by the impact,
Lying at a stone, laughs having filled his head with distract.

As he suddenly saw a shadow approaching, glooming, killing. Savaging the battlefield and dancing in the pool of blood, as nothing was left but nothing was lost. It creeped around through mens bones and flesh, broke everything apart and whirled in their death. Devilish silence and devilish sound, sang along the sounds of anguish and roaring all around. Sooner or later coming for anyone that was left, tearing the world and consciousness' cleft.
So the shadow slowed down on top of a golden, dying mountain, ended it all and took the battles burden. The wounds started closing, as whirling particles gathered together, consciousness arose and lasted forever.
And a power awakened the world once forgot, but remained silent by the final bloodshot.



To be continued...
wooooo