05-14-2015, 11:18 AM
and when I breathed, my breath was lightning
In the darkness, as she falls, there's time think about what happened. About the creature, so like her sister, that she killed without a second thought. It hadn’t been the shape of her sister (hadn’t had her hooves or face or voice). This is the only consolation Rhy has, that she didn't kill her real sister. It was just a creature of the cold. Similar, but not the same. But still, she had killed it. Still, she hadn't batted an eye at doing so.
But in the darkness, it’s Kora’s chest that Rhy digs into. Kora’s blood, red and warm, that coats her skin. Kora’s dying breath that touches her face. Rhy's breathing is rapid now, her heart racing, as the image plays over and over. Kora. Her own sister. Although there's something freeing in the image too, something both terrible and wonderful about killing the remaining tether to her childhood.
She shakes her head, trying to get rid of that thought. This isn’t you, she thinks to herself. But maybe it is. Maybe this is the part of her that Kratos felt, that Rhy buried, that Kora feared. Maybe this is the real Rhy. But it’s not; she knows it’s not. At heart, she’s good. At heart, she loves her sister. But there’s a monster in that heart, a black piece that is deep and dark and deadly like the space they tumble through.
Finally (has it been seconds or hours?), she lands on her feet, legs bending to absorb the shock. Mercifully her train of thought is cut off. But no, not mercifully at all. The world is crumbling around them, the sky ashen and she chokes as she breaths in. The world around her is barren, a ravaged expanse of nothing. There are no trees, no shelter, just endless scorched earth and gray sky. She can smell smoke, and something beneath it too, a lingering, rotting stench.
What died?
But that is a stupid question. Everything died. Everything but her, and she hopes, her friends. Though she cannot see them anymore. Are they close? Perhaps. She peers through the smoke, but cannot see more than a few feet in any direction. Something is burning. The world. The entire world is burning. Is this how it ends then?
Did their Dark God cause this? Or was it something else?
The questions reel through her head, but then so do his words. It’s by the sea. About a mile off.” Get to the sea. Just a mile. She can make it a mile.
Can she?
No, don’t think like that. She can, and she has to. There’s no other choice. Don’t think about the cause of the destruction. Just move. She takes a step, still in her lioness form, feral and predatory. Despite the electric in her veins, she feels safer as a lioness. Who knows if electric or claws will harm the creatures that lurk here. But at least she has options. Some of the horses on this trip likely had only blunt teeth and hooves to work with.
First she has to find the sea. It’s impossible to see, with the world so achromatic in every direction. She cannot smell water either, not over the smell of smoke and burning flesh. But she’s played with lightning enough to know the electrical current radiates across the surface of water. And she can feel the way electric charges move around her. So she begins with one bolt off to the right, the lightning finding nothing but ground. To the left then, a mile away, because at least she knows the distance she needs to search. Again, nothing. In front of her, and she can feel the lightning bolt almost as if it shatters across the water. Forward it is.
Then the ground splits open, the world rumbling with the sound of some creature. Not small creatures, it seems. She starts to run, scrambling sideways to avoid the chasm that has opened to her left. Her paws slap against the parched earth. The ground is warm. Not quite burning hot yet, but too warm to be natural. Something is burning and she hopes she isn’t running straight for it.
Vines snake out from her left as she runs, swiping her off her feet before she has time to react. The vines tangle around her legs, pinning her against the ground on her side. Rhy cranes her head to see that the vines drop down into the chasm. She has no idea if there’s a body connected to these vines. Maybe they are just vines, mutated into something vile and vicious at the end of the world. Her claws shoot from between the toes, slicing into the vines. Something like a shriek rumbles from the crack in the earth as the veins flail and snake away.
She jumps to her feet and keeps running. But then she feels an icy blast of cold to her right. Peering around, she sees grey, cold flames licking at the anemic sky. They know. They must know. Are they gods too, or did her own Dark God give away her secrets before she ever arrived? First vines, so like the ones that climb up the trees of the Jungle. And now ice and cold. Again, her sister’s face swims into her mind but there’s no time for regrets. The flames leap toward her, aiming at her face, her back. It doesn’t matter where. The cold fires try to engulf her, and she cannot fight fire with sharp teeth and electric. Not even a cold fire. At least, she doesn’t think.
Instead, she darts to the left, hoping she’s faster than this creature of flame. The fire catches her right flank anyway, searing her gold and white hide. Pain roars through her in a way she assumes must be akin to the way electric feels to everyone else. A horrid radiating pain that howls through her veins. The electric inside her recoils at the savage cold.
Oh Kora, was this your life in the womb? No wonder her sister fears her. No wonder so many keep their distance.
But her momentary thought leads to another slap from the fires and she screams now. The creature is fast, the flames thrashing their way across the ground. There’s something sentient about the way it moves though, like it can see her. If it is sentient, than it must have a heart. Or at least something that makes it move. And she can stop a heart, so maybe she can stop this creature. Lightning surges off her skin, erupting in a mountain of white fire as it crashes into the creature. The creature stops, at least for now. Likely, she has not killed this thing, but she’s stopped it. She doesn't hesitate this time, doesn't think. She runs.
It’s boiling hot now. Hotter than the Jungle, and sweat begins to soak her skin, her breath coming in gasps. But she can see it; she can see the sea now. It’s roiling, and as she draws closer, she can see that it’s boiling. But there’s the wormhole, just above the sea. Just close enough she thinks she can leap over the boiling water and make it. She picks up speed, her muscles screaming, her frozen skin tearing. But the adrenaline and the electric in her veins sing with the excitement as well.
And then she sees it. No, not it. Kora. Here, in the middle of the desolation, a silhouette against the boiling sea. No. No. That’s not Kora. That can’t be Kora. It’s another creature. A shadow creature with the right shape with the right eyes and the right demeanor. Blocking her path. There’s no way around without fighting.
Her heart pounds against her chest, crying the name of the mare she has to find. Gail gail, gail gail. Is this love then? Do you destroy everything in your path to get to it, to try and keep it? But if you destroy everything, don’t you destroy everything you love too?
She slams her feet into the ground, halting before the shadow creature. She can’t bring herself to slice her sister open or stop her sister’s heart. Even if it’s not her real sister. Even if it kills Rhy instead.
Rhy has always known that she is deadly. There’s nothing pretty about the way she fights, but her traits aid her well. But she is not a warrior. She is not the monster, not the black piece of her heart. She is Rhy, the electric lioness who loves her sister very much. Despite everything.
The world around her goes cold and everything stills. She cannot hear the roars of the monsters, the incomprehensible babble of replies. She cannot hear anymore screams, or the rumbling of the earth, or the boiling sea. Her vision blurs, and the creature before her shifts again and again. Still, it's Kora that she sees.
The monster doesn’t move, and she knows that she cannot fight it and should not try. If it wanted her dead, she’d already be gone. “Please.” The only sound in a world devoid of everything but the one force that brought them here.
And the creature disappears. She heaves a sigh of relief as the heat rushes back into the world and her vision clears. She leaps, stretching her front paws out to touch the wormhole and it sucks her in. Down she goes, through the rabbit hole.
But in the darkness, it’s Kora’s chest that Rhy digs into. Kora’s blood, red and warm, that coats her skin. Kora’s dying breath that touches her face. Rhy's breathing is rapid now, her heart racing, as the image plays over and over. Kora. Her own sister. Although there's something freeing in the image too, something both terrible and wonderful about killing the remaining tether to her childhood.
She shakes her head, trying to get rid of that thought. This isn’t you, she thinks to herself. But maybe it is. Maybe this is the part of her that Kratos felt, that Rhy buried, that Kora feared. Maybe this is the real Rhy. But it’s not; she knows it’s not. At heart, she’s good. At heart, she loves her sister. But there’s a monster in that heart, a black piece that is deep and dark and deadly like the space they tumble through.
Finally (has it been seconds or hours?), she lands on her feet, legs bending to absorb the shock. Mercifully her train of thought is cut off. But no, not mercifully at all. The world is crumbling around them, the sky ashen and she chokes as she breaths in. The world around her is barren, a ravaged expanse of nothing. There are no trees, no shelter, just endless scorched earth and gray sky. She can smell smoke, and something beneath it too, a lingering, rotting stench.
What died?
But that is a stupid question. Everything died. Everything but her, and she hopes, her friends. Though she cannot see them anymore. Are they close? Perhaps. She peers through the smoke, but cannot see more than a few feet in any direction. Something is burning. The world. The entire world is burning. Is this how it ends then?
Did their Dark God cause this? Or was it something else?
The questions reel through her head, but then so do his words. It’s by the sea. About a mile off.” Get to the sea. Just a mile. She can make it a mile.
Can she?
No, don’t think like that. She can, and she has to. There’s no other choice. Don’t think about the cause of the destruction. Just move. She takes a step, still in her lioness form, feral and predatory. Despite the electric in her veins, she feels safer as a lioness. Who knows if electric or claws will harm the creatures that lurk here. But at least she has options. Some of the horses on this trip likely had only blunt teeth and hooves to work with.
First she has to find the sea. It’s impossible to see, with the world so achromatic in every direction. She cannot smell water either, not over the smell of smoke and burning flesh. But she’s played with lightning enough to know the electrical current radiates across the surface of water. And she can feel the way electric charges move around her. So she begins with one bolt off to the right, the lightning finding nothing but ground. To the left then, a mile away, because at least she knows the distance she needs to search. Again, nothing. In front of her, and she can feel the lightning bolt almost as if it shatters across the water. Forward it is.
Then the ground splits open, the world rumbling with the sound of some creature. Not small creatures, it seems. She starts to run, scrambling sideways to avoid the chasm that has opened to her left. Her paws slap against the parched earth. The ground is warm. Not quite burning hot yet, but too warm to be natural. Something is burning and she hopes she isn’t running straight for it.
Vines snake out from her left as she runs, swiping her off her feet before she has time to react. The vines tangle around her legs, pinning her against the ground on her side. Rhy cranes her head to see that the vines drop down into the chasm. She has no idea if there’s a body connected to these vines. Maybe they are just vines, mutated into something vile and vicious at the end of the world. Her claws shoot from between the toes, slicing into the vines. Something like a shriek rumbles from the crack in the earth as the veins flail and snake away.
She jumps to her feet and keeps running. But then she feels an icy blast of cold to her right. Peering around, she sees grey, cold flames licking at the anemic sky. They know. They must know. Are they gods too, or did her own Dark God give away her secrets before she ever arrived? First vines, so like the ones that climb up the trees of the Jungle. And now ice and cold. Again, her sister’s face swims into her mind but there’s no time for regrets. The flames leap toward her, aiming at her face, her back. It doesn’t matter where. The cold fires try to engulf her, and she cannot fight fire with sharp teeth and electric. Not even a cold fire. At least, she doesn’t think.
Instead, she darts to the left, hoping she’s faster than this creature of flame. The fire catches her right flank anyway, searing her gold and white hide. Pain roars through her in a way she assumes must be akin to the way electric feels to everyone else. A horrid radiating pain that howls through her veins. The electric inside her recoils at the savage cold.
Oh Kora, was this your life in the womb? No wonder her sister fears her. No wonder so many keep their distance.
But her momentary thought leads to another slap from the fires and she screams now. The creature is fast, the flames thrashing their way across the ground. There’s something sentient about the way it moves though, like it can see her. If it is sentient, than it must have a heart. Or at least something that makes it move. And she can stop a heart, so maybe she can stop this creature. Lightning surges off her skin, erupting in a mountain of white fire as it crashes into the creature. The creature stops, at least for now. Likely, she has not killed this thing, but she’s stopped it. She doesn't hesitate this time, doesn't think. She runs.
It’s boiling hot now. Hotter than the Jungle, and sweat begins to soak her skin, her breath coming in gasps. But she can see it; she can see the sea now. It’s roiling, and as she draws closer, she can see that it’s boiling. But there’s the wormhole, just above the sea. Just close enough she thinks she can leap over the boiling water and make it. She picks up speed, her muscles screaming, her frozen skin tearing. But the adrenaline and the electric in her veins sing with the excitement as well.
And then she sees it. No, not it. Kora. Here, in the middle of the desolation, a silhouette against the boiling sea. No. No. That’s not Kora. That can’t be Kora. It’s another creature. A shadow creature with the right shape with the right eyes and the right demeanor. Blocking her path. There’s no way around without fighting.
Her heart pounds against her chest, crying the name of the mare she has to find. Gail gail, gail gail. Is this love then? Do you destroy everything in your path to get to it, to try and keep it? But if you destroy everything, don’t you destroy everything you love too?
She slams her feet into the ground, halting before the shadow creature. She can’t bring herself to slice her sister open or stop her sister’s heart. Even if it’s not her real sister. Even if it kills Rhy instead.
Rhy has always known that she is deadly. There’s nothing pretty about the way she fights, but her traits aid her well. But she is not a warrior. She is not the monster, not the black piece of her heart. She is Rhy, the electric lioness who loves her sister very much. Despite everything.
The world around her goes cold and everything stills. She cannot hear the roars of the monsters, the incomprehensible babble of replies. She cannot hear anymore screams, or the rumbling of the earth, or the boiling sea. Her vision blurs, and the creature before her shifts again and again. Still, it's Kora that she sees.
The monster doesn’t move, and she knows that she cannot fight it and should not try. If it wanted her dead, she’d already be gone. “Please.” The only sound in a world devoid of everything but the one force that brought them here.
And the creature disappears. She heaves a sigh of relief as the heat rushes back into the world and her vision clears. She leaps, stretching her front paws out to touch the wormhole and it sucks her in. Down she goes, through the rabbit hole.
rhy
the electric lioness of riagan and rayelle
