Fire Burns

Fire Burns

By ShadowGurl369

Introduction

I look across the meadow, a light humming noise echoes around me. I reach out my hand only to find a butterfly had made its resting upon my index. I feel my lips twist into a smile as I softly sigh. I look up to where the humming seems the closest. There in an old oak rests a hive of bees, busily flying about. I smirk to myself as I relax against the oak, my blonde hair falling around me. I let my hand fall, the black and blue butterfly lifting into the air with such grace. I softly laugh, you wouldn't know how heartbroken I was, how sad I am. With such a light beautiful day, no one would suspect such pain. And what makes it worse, is I'm dying.

I look down at my side the blood pooling over my light blue top, coloring it with an ugly color of red and brown. I shift my weight wincing slightly. I came to suspect this for a while. It was bound to happen. A low gurgling sound protrudes from my throat in what was meant to be a laugh. I keel over gasping. My right arm rests over my wound holding it tightly as my left hand comes up to cover my mouth. Coughing, I shiver with pain. Pulling my hand away I find blood speckles my palm. I clench my teeth together in anger and in anguish. My body throbs with each inhale of air. I shake and collapse into a heap against the old oak. It takes a moment for me to regain my bearings as the pain only lingers momentarily then subsides enough for me to release the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

A shadow shifts to my left. Wincing, I glance up only to meet the darkly golden eyes of a strange male. His skin was frost bitten, tainted with a light blue color. His wore nothing but a pair of hide torn pants held up by a vine at his waist; leaving his rippling stomach exposed to the cool summer air. His white hair fell around his shoulders and down his broad back.

Where did he come from? He just stood there with such ease staring back at me. His lips twisted into a smile revealing his shark like ivories. I blinked in surprise. He's smiling at me. Why? I was under the impression that all fey were on their own and if suffering of one was brought about, then the other would leave said one alone. Why did this one linger? I came to wonder if this fey was here to bathe in the glorious light of my death. I've made many enemies and as most would have, they'd love to watch as their foe dies. I wasn't sure if this was his reason or if it were something beyond my comprehension. I only knew that he was here and he was waiting. Silence fell over the meadow. The bees no longer hummed, the trees didn't dare sway, and the wind farewell blew.

I gasped my body shaking with convulsions knocking my small form against the large tree. I let out a groan as I clench eyes shut, locking my jaw into place. This pain wasn't going away. It wasn't going to stop. My ears rang with silence and before long they rang with laughter. A low toned laugh echoing through the small space that laid between me and the stranger. In an impulsive movement, I brought my arm out, with my hand balled into a fist. I had means to back hand the male only with so much pain I hadn't the means to aim, leaving my arm sailing through the air. I found myself connecting with the tree that I had been resting under. A loud cracking and splintering was released beneath such force.

I couldn't fight the pain that welled up inside me and this newly found sensation had subsided my thoughts for merely a moment. A cold hand leveled my chin, forcing my head upward. I blinked back tears long enough to clear my vision to take in his stern features. I pulled my arm from the tangled pieces of bark and dirt. I wanted to push his hand away, but found my strength was failing me. My hand came to rest over his wrist; but nothing more. My lower lip trembled. Even in death, I didn't want my enemies to see me so weak. I didn't want it to end this way. My limbs were growing heavy, my vision blurring. I couldn't do this. I couldn't leave like this.

"Allow me." His husky voice came out in a whisper, but I could hear it as loud as thunder. Allow you to what? Allow you to moralize, plunder, or, worse, rape my dying corpse. Allow you?! I wouldn't allow anything, but who was I to protest. I could barely move anymore. I used up all my energy aimlessly swinging. The pain was all I could feel now, but even so that was beginning to grow into a numb like sensation. "Allow me," he whispers once again, his voice as thick as velvet. It was almost like a lullaby, urging me to calm; urging me into darkness. The pain was gone, leaving my body tingling all over. It was nice not to feel anything. It was nice just to be. The silence and the darkness became full of a soft humming. It was an odd tune, one I hadn't heard before, but it feels so natural. It made me happy. I wanted to lay here forever. I wanted to listen to this tune over and over again. I knew it wasn't going to last, but I wanted to it to. I wanted to enjoy this moment for as long as possible. Only too soon did the tune end and with it my life.

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Chapter one

Fading

I gently lean down and close the girl's eyes; her once blue skin now fading back to its natural peachy tone. This was common for fey who weren't truly fey. This girl used to be a human, it was easy to tell. I could feel my heart twist inside my chest as her form lay slumped against the oak in which I had found her. Splints of bark and wood fell over her slender form. If she had been as lively as she should have been, that hit would have taken my head clean off my shoulders if I were any normal being. She truly had seen the hardships of my kind. She looks so sweet and innocent now. Her once blonde hair now laid in tangles of silver. She looks almost as she had from the day she was turned. Centuries have passed since then and I am but a memory to her, one she didn't seem to remember. And now she is but a memory to the world.

Dusting off my hands, shards of ice putter onto the warm earth that rests beneath my bare feet. I wish her fate hadn't been laid to this, but it couldn't be helped. She had chosen a path that, like most fey, was too hard to bear. She thought herself indestructible and only then did it end her life. I brush my fingers tips over her hair; the  each strand, when touched, turning dark sea green, slowly spreading over the girl like poison. It must be done. My kind were never meant to be found by human kind and each time one passes, it is my duty to put them to rest as they should be. My kind aren't buried or burned. They are sent away; sent away so that they may never be found. For when my kind are found that being, that innocent being is changed, killed, or worse. It just depends. I would never wish anyone be changed, no matter the case. It's wrong.

Leaning in I brush my ash tainted lips over her hair, "Shades of night and flutters of light, with this kiss I seal your life, into a new with no more pain or strife." The elven words came easily, flowing freely from my lips. I brushed her cheek with a soft kiss, and quickly pulled away. I watched as the day time passing suddenly shifted to dark. The trees that once were brightly covered with leaves shredded their covering and became gnarled limbs and branches. The ground once green now expanded into dirt and froze beneath me, expanding out like a web. The once blue sky darkened, the sun being replaced by a blood red moon. Everything was changing. The flowers frozen, the bushes shrewd, and the pond dried up. Whatever once was light now was dark, everything except her. I smiled and took a step forward, ice lurching out with each step. I looked down at her limp body. I blew out a soft breath of air making her body twitch.

I waited patiently. It seemed so peaceful, but within a matter of seconds, her body dissipated into a thousand rarely blue and black butterflies, flowing up into the night sky. I leaned back on my heels watching them fade up over the trees and out of sight. So beautiful; I'd have to say this is my favorite part of blessed passings. I love seeing them leave the earthly plain and enter this world. I've seen only a few pieces of this world. I wanted to follow them, to glide with them on the windless night; to slide gently over the cold tetra. It was something of wonder. Such a place, that I was forbidden to place tariff over. It was merrily priceless pleasures. I sigh to myself. Howls in the distance reminding me of the danger I place myself in each time I preform a passing.

I'm not to linger here for the hounds will come. They know the smell of the living and crave their flesh. It's why I've never explored this place. I've wished so many times to wonder this plain, but I'll have to wait my turn, for in time I will be able to explore this plain, while the other be nothing more than a distant memory. Till then my plain will have to do.

I waved my hand through the air, the area around me wavering as if it were a reflection in a pool. Closing my eyes I released my bond to the dead and to this palace of afterlife. I shiver as the world around me shifts back to what once was, the air blowing gently again, the ground warming, and the warmth of the sun boring into my ice tinted skin. I open my eyes and all is as it was. There was only one difference. The girl was gone. There was nothing left of her, but a memory of what she once was.

I turn gently on my heels. The sky slowly blows in clouds of grey. This world knows it's lost another to the dark. I wade through the brush and trees, making my way deep into the woods. The sky begins to weep, a light wave of tears falling down onto the earth far below. I softly smile. It's always nice to feel the chill of the rain. It reminds me I'm not so cold inside. It takes me a while to escape the woods. On my way I tread over the thoughts of that girl.

I couldn't say what her name was when she died, for she's posed many over the years, but I could remember her name from the day of her changing. She had a mundane name back then. Her eyes were bright and loving back then. Back then I was more than just a reaper. I remember how easily her name would escape over my lips, practically rolling off my tongue, "Elisabeth." I was warned not to get close; that it'd only end badly. I didn't listen. Elisabeth wasn't just some girl I stumbled upon. She found me. I had been wounded from a fight with a lycan, named Bruce. He wasn't just any lycan, that I just so happened to be in his territory. I don't remember much of our battle, but I do remember that Bruce had left me near death. I was ready to give up.

I had stumbled to the river, leaning on the trees for support. My armor was heavy under normal circumstances. With me wounded and muscles soar, it made me feel like I was drowning in all that metal. I shedded it off little by little, till I finally fell on my hands and knees next to the water. I leaned against a bolder, letting my form half lay in the water. It's freshness washing over me, the blood slowly washing away. My hair stuck to my forehead, matted and tangled. It was then the girl came from the woods. Her eyes were bright blue, shimmering as she looked me over. Her curly blonde hair falling around her. At first, I thought she was an angel descended to take me away. As she drew closer I could smell a light sent of lavender. She was so beautiful, and the way she held herself. So proud.

I couldn't understand why I was being blessed after years of torment and abuse I had caused people over my life time. I knew I didn't deserve it. It wasn't like I had anything to offer her, god, or any other for that matter. Why would they rescue me? It wasn't till she spoke that I realized I wasn't dying. "What are you doing?" She had tilted her head to one side analyzing my features. She wasn't worried for my wounds, nor did she seem threatened by my sword that laid merely inches away. I could have stare at this fearless creature, her innocence obvious. My kind was fey. Any normal human wouldn't see us. That was the first moment I knew she was special, someone meant to bless me. I always thought of her as my little angel. It would almost make me laugh when I saw the fire in her eyes when I'd tell her so.

The woods began to clear pulling me from my thoughts. I stepped through, the rain coming down more as I no longer had the trees to shield me from the storm that rages above. The area around me is a small park, where the swings are swaying gently with the wind, the metal of the equipment squeaking. I wonder across the ground, making my way to the big red slide, its paint peeling, its rusted metal revealed from beneath. I place a cool palm against the wet metal, tapping three times. I wait a moment before the earth beneath me starts to tremble. I step aside the trap door lifting up, and out with it a little girl with pink colored hair; her crimson eyes befalling me, her body vibrant with excitement. I brace myself as she leaps from the now gaping hole, her form quickly slamming into mine. I dig my heels into the ground, the force sliding us back; a small slash of mud trudging in our wake. I softly sigh to myself. "Hello Shiro."

She jumps up and down clasping her hands together. The commotion seems to pull out another creature, her long fur covering her from head to toe. She walks like a human, but she looks like a beast. Her lean form reminds me often of a fox how her body binds and curves, the way she moves, but most of all it's her ears and tail. She slinks over silently her eyes narrowed into slits. She gently pulls Shiro from me, placing the girl behind her slim form. I softly sigh. What have I done this time? I plaster a smile across my face, trying to lighten the mood. It doesn't have much of an affect. I watch as Tali's mussels tense in her shoulder. My eyes move over her arm as she pulls back and extend her arm; I knock her hand away effortlessly, and then ready myself as she thrusts again with her other arm. I grab her around the wrist and place my palm to the back of her elbow, my body moving to the side.

She softly growls a smile crossing over her mussel. "Well Dusk, it seems you've taken another." I roll my shoulders silence my only response. I hadn't known she knew Elizabeth. How did she know that girl? "You took another of the warriors." I wanted to break her arm just then. Elizabeth, my Lizzy... a warrior. It made my stomach twist. I would never allow Tali to make Lizzy a warrior. Warriors were chosen beings that were often taken to be trained to fight in the war against the angels and nephilum. Warriors were beings choosen because they were close to death, meaning if they were saved they owed their lives to their saviors. The whole point was to make them give their life for the "cause", but it was a stupid cause and most reapers like myself hated it.

Tali is what you call a seaker. She finds beingings to fight for the war. Seakers and reapers, don't generally get along, but some how me and Tali managed.  Any taken to fight in this war for the Cyinda side, aka the side Tali is on, if you messed up once during training you were put through an extravagant amount of torture before being released back into training. They would take the dying and heal them back to health, in return for their unwilling services. It made me sick just to think of it. I loved Tali as if she were my kin, but there were times I wanted to end her and now was one of those times.

I side stepped just enough to evade her next fluent movement, my left leg whipping out with enough force to send her sprawling onto her ass. I ran my digits over her hair softly at first, only to entangling it around my hand pulling her up by it. I could feel the smile creeping across my face as I spoke, "You take what is yours I only take what is mine, if you have a problem with it,  I will kill you."  She spoke no more and I offered silence in return. I waited a moment for her to retaliate only to find her silence was more of an offering than I ever hoped for. I released her, to her knees. Mud splattered up across my legs and down her form. I crept across the entry way to our home to find a place to not only mourn, but to find piece from the derange setting of those I dare call family. The open door stood ready, as if beckoning me into its depths.

"Dusk," a small voice called. I looked over my shoulder at Shiro who sat with her knees pulled to her chest upon the end of the red slide, her head rested against her knees. Her pale white form glowing in the darkness. "Please don't leave us." I softly sigh to myself. "I'm not leaving you. Just need some alone time. Okay?" She didn't seem so cheerful as when I first arived, but she understood plenty merely nodding to confirm so.  I trudged inside gracefully, dropping the full extent of the fall rather than use the ladder, the whole opened for me. I landed on my knees, my hands reaching out to brace myself after the large descend. I pulled myself up dusting off my knees. It was time to get ready for the next reaping and to bring myself to peace...