05-13-2015, 10:39 PM
and death shall have no
DOMINION
Diving into the black, she expected darkness. Instead, an entire universe of stars wrapped around her, enveloping her in their loving embrace. She felt her mother, her brother, the entire family she had lost in her youth. Four whole tribes whose existence had ended one fateful morning with a dive into the cold, bitter sea – all of her ancestors, all of her people who watched her from high above, twinkling stars guiding and guarding her, all of them held her close at once. And her most recent losses, the new family she had started just a few short years ago – and lost just a few short months ago – they were there too. Her Benny, and their two little ones. Brave Ragnar, and dancing Aya. She could feel them again, as real as the day before the world had ended. They held her, and they guided her through what should by all rights have been darkness.
They guided her through…to the darkness on the other side.
The smell of death and decay choked her, cloying and clinging and strangling. Flesh rotting, and the world burning. Soft tickling touches on her skin felt like snowfall, but without the cold. Dom drew in another breath, parsing out the scents of dead things and fire so she could identify ash. Not snow, but ashes, falling from the sky. Maybe she really had reached the end of the world.
Blackness surrounded her, black and the sounds of screaming. She could feel the stars pressing against her, felt them pushing her forward. Heard their cries of agony, and heard them going out one by one. Saw flashes of faces, strangers with familiar shapes and patterns, bodies built like the last of her people, mouths screaming RUN! So she ran. She ran through the darkness, spurred on by the ever-decreasing pressure of the stars as the souls that made them up were devoured. She ran on even as the flashes of faces grew more familiar, faces of people she recognized from her childhood. When those faces became family, she tried to stop. She planted her hooves in ash and dirt, digging in to face down whatever was devouring the souls of her grandparents, her cousins, her aunts and uncles.
The star that barreled into her and almost knocked her to the ground came with the face-flash of a tiny warrior struggling to survive even as he starved to death. Her baby brother, her son’s namesake, but he hit her with the force of a mountain. ”You fought for me. Now it’s my turn. Run. We're already gone, sis. You make it out, make it home. And death shall have no Dominion.” He shoved her again, pushing her forward even as the devourer claimed him.
One by one they fell away, face after face of those she had loved and lost fading as they fed the Devourer of Stars. And in the end, as she burst through the darkness to fall upon the shore of a sea that should have been cold and bitter, all that remained of a universe of stars were three. Her most recent losses. Her Benny and their babies were the only stars left as she stared at a sea that boiled, in a world that really was ending. And there, just by the shore, was the next portal into hell. Fighting not to think about the cost, about what had been lost all over again and what was yet to come, fighting not to give into the grief that threatened to drown her again, she ran, and dove once more into the darkness.
((To clarify: Dom, because she is a fucking masochist apparently, opted to encounter Ammutseba, Devourer of Stars. Since in her people’s stories, the souls of the dead become stars and watch over their loved ones from above. Because losing them once wasn’t enough. :| ))
They guided her through…to the darkness on the other side.
The smell of death and decay choked her, cloying and clinging and strangling. Flesh rotting, and the world burning. Soft tickling touches on her skin felt like snowfall, but without the cold. Dom drew in another breath, parsing out the scents of dead things and fire so she could identify ash. Not snow, but ashes, falling from the sky. Maybe she really had reached the end of the world.
Blackness surrounded her, black and the sounds of screaming. She could feel the stars pressing against her, felt them pushing her forward. Heard their cries of agony, and heard them going out one by one. Saw flashes of faces, strangers with familiar shapes and patterns, bodies built like the last of her people, mouths screaming RUN! So she ran. She ran through the darkness, spurred on by the ever-decreasing pressure of the stars as the souls that made them up were devoured. She ran on even as the flashes of faces grew more familiar, faces of people she recognized from her childhood. When those faces became family, she tried to stop. She planted her hooves in ash and dirt, digging in to face down whatever was devouring the souls of her grandparents, her cousins, her aunts and uncles.
The star that barreled into her and almost knocked her to the ground came with the face-flash of a tiny warrior struggling to survive even as he starved to death. Her baby brother, her son’s namesake, but he hit her with the force of a mountain. ”You fought for me. Now it’s my turn. Run. We're already gone, sis. You make it out, make it home. And death shall have no Dominion.” He shoved her again, pushing her forward even as the devourer claimed him.
One by one they fell away, face after face of those she had loved and lost fading as they fed the Devourer of Stars. And in the end, as she burst through the darkness to fall upon the shore of a sea that should have been cold and bitter, all that remained of a universe of stars were three. Her most recent losses. Her Benny and their babies were the only stars left as she stared at a sea that boiled, in a world that really was ending. And there, just by the shore, was the next portal into hell. Fighting not to think about the cost, about what had been lost all over again and what was yet to come, fighting not to give into the grief that threatened to drown her again, she ran, and dove once more into the darkness.
((To clarify: Dom, because she is a fucking masochist apparently, opted to encounter Ammutseba, Devourer of Stars. Since in her people’s stories, the souls of the dead become stars and watch over their loved ones from above. Because losing them once wasn’t enough. :| ))
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;