Morrigan Calling

Iompair sé síos isteach i ríocht cara dúinn éag agus dorchadas...

"Carry it down into the realm of death and darkness...Great Goddess Morrigan...what dost thou mean by that?" She whispered, black hair covering her face as she leaned over the bank of the river.

Corp

"Carry my body down into the realm of death?" The woman looked up, green eyes dead and lifeless in their sockets. Pale skin struggled to remain hidden from the light of the sun above, not wanting to have the warm rays on its marred form. Scars, formed by knives slicing along her cheekbones, gleamed an unhealthy green-black in their infected hideousness. Yellowed alabaster cheeks sunk into her face, creating unsightly angles around her chin and forehead especially.

Around the woman, the wind blew furiously in the valley, rippling along the grasses and pulling leaves off of the trees with a wildness that was not wholly natural. It swept around the hundreds of dead men whose red blood clashed with the greens of the plant-life. With the wind came the ravens, a sure sign of the Morrigan's presence. Landing, the birds picked at the bodies, pulling the rotting flesh from their blood-spattered forms, leaving nothing but the bones to be bleached dry by the ferocious sun above.

"Goddess Morrigan... why must I... kill myself?" the woman asked, her voice gurgling in her throat as blood trickled out of her mouth. "Goddess...tell me why!"

Dol dúnmharú agus éag i mo ainm

"You would take my life for the lives I have taken in your name, Great Goddess? I killed these men in sacrifice to you!"

Leisti!

The woman fell back, pushed by the force of a thousand men into the puddle of blood and intestines that had collected at the nadir of the valley. Sitting up and brushing herself off, the woman surveyed the valley carefully, gauging the damage she had caused. Rivers of blood poured down the sides of the mountains that surrounded the area, flowing like rivers of death to the point at which she sat. Hundreds of dead bodies were now pecked clean by the ravens, who sat digesting about her, their black eyes bloodthirsty and cruel.

"Speak not my name, Lady! I am a cursed woman now..." The woman spoke, her voice trembling as the trickle of blood grew into a steady flow. "Please, great Goddess, I destroyed so much for you!"

Alas, Leisti, I am not appeased. Your blood price to me is not fulfilled. I gave you your revenge, now I take my price. Do you not remember?

Leisti stood before the statue of the great goddess Morrigan, a beautiful countenance to behold. Long, lustrous black hair shone, luminescent in the golden rays of the warm sun and emerald eyes shone full of life...and anger. Tanned skin gleamed healthily and lacked any pock or mark other than the dimples of her smile. No sign of that radiant smile shone on her face, however, as she regarded the statue coldly.

"Goddess Morrigan, I beseech thee! Help me avenge the death of my family! Help me destroy those soldiers that destroyed me! I will pay any price to thee, great Goddess!"

Dark flames grew about the statue, engulfing both it, and Leisti. It pulled at her life force, draining the color and the light from the girl's body. Once luminescent green eyes were now dull and her hair hung limply about her shoulders. Leisti had lost her will to live; she could only kill.

"I grant thee thy revenge, Leisti, but I demand blood price! Not only do the men die in my name, your life will be mine when your revenge is done. Do you accept the price?"

"I accept," Leisti spoke through her lifeless, bloodthirsty lips.

"Then let it be so! Remember, Leisti, your life is mine at the completion of your task." The fire died down around the statue, returning Leisti to the world of the living. Her Life, however, did not return. She was death walking on the earth, living only to complete her revenge.

"I remember, Goddess Morrigan," the woman spoke, still sitting in the blood, which had now soaked through her black clothing and sticking in any places it touched her skin, as if marinading her in death. She stood up now, her eyes on the ground, trying to avoid the carnage she had created in her vengeful destruction. Only now, at the end, did she realize what she had done and lost. Only now did she regret, after years of death, her decision with the Morrigan. Now, when it was too late and nothing could be done but to pay the price. "I remember my blood price..."

Fine then...

The woman stood silently as the ravens around her flocked to her body, tearing into her limbs and feasting upon her living flesh. Clouds rolled in and the wind increased, foretelling a storming gale. And, as the woman's body collapsed, dead, to the ground, the first raindrop of cleansing fell into the valley.