CHULANE
why do things happen with no reason or rhyme?
why does it feel like we're running out of time?
why does it feel like we're running out of time?
Kia, his heart pleaded. Great sobs rocked him, his breaths hitching, coming in soft gasps. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, painfully so - this wasn't fair. This wasn't fair, none of this was fair. Why? He wanted to scream, to shout, to break down and curl up into a ball and never come out again.
It hit him, over and over, and each time the lash of realisation struck his mind reacted a different way: denial, anger (rage), depression. All of them cycled again and again, as his thoughts spiralled all towards one definite point: Kiada was dead.
She fell, he'd said, he'd described it as best he could, leaving nothing out, painting an image in Chulane's mind as clear as if he'd been there himself. He tried to reason it out, to bargain with it in his mind: He'd known Kia, he'd seen her in all her forms, she was skilled in flight as she was on land. How could this happen?
And he clung to a memory, to words she herself had said to him that first day they had met - that when an attuned was shifted, they got a one-shot, a fatal blow did not kill but instead knocked them back to their human form, a chance to recover. But even as he replayed the scene Deimos had painted for him over and over and over again in his mind's eye, she fell, down and down, into magma, into lava, into a creature as hot as the Eirachi was cold.
"I don't-" he shook his head; he wasn't ready to speak, but he had to. "What.. I..-" a frustrated groan came out as he regained his balance and suddenly shifted, moving, pacing needing to do something while his mind tried to work it out.
"Auni," he said, suddenly, the thought coming out clearer than the others, as his movements took on a turn around the place. But he riveted back to Deimos now, hopelessness all over him, the thought of the luxere, unbonded, broken, alone, giving him a slightly crazed expression. "Where is Auni?" He had to know, had to cling to something, to try something - anything, to move on from this, the worst moment he'd ever known.
It hit him, over and over, and each time the lash of realisation struck his mind reacted a different way: denial, anger (rage), depression. All of them cycled again and again, as his thoughts spiralled all towards one definite point: Kiada was dead.
She fell, he'd said, he'd described it as best he could, leaving nothing out, painting an image in Chulane's mind as clear as if he'd been there himself. He tried to reason it out, to bargain with it in his mind: He'd known Kia, he'd seen her in all her forms, she was skilled in flight as she was on land. How could this happen?
And he clung to a memory, to words she herself had said to him that first day they had met - that when an attuned was shifted, they got a one-shot, a fatal blow did not kill but instead knocked them back to their human form, a chance to recover. But even as he replayed the scene Deimos had painted for him over and over and over again in his mind's eye, she fell, down and down, into magma, into lava, into a creature as hot as the Eirachi was cold.
"I don't-" he shook his head; he wasn't ready to speak, but he had to. "What.. I..-" a frustrated groan came out as he regained his balance and suddenly shifted, moving, pacing needing to do something while his mind tried to work it out.
"Auni," he said, suddenly, the thought coming out clearer than the others, as his movements took on a turn around the place. But he riveted back to Deimos now, hopelessness all over him, the thought of the luxere, unbonded, broken, alone, giving him a slightly crazed expression. "Where is Auni?" He had to know, had to cling to something, to try something - anything, to move on from this, the worst moment he'd ever known.
how do we keep going, through the dark?
why are we here at all, lost in the dark?
why are we here at all, lost in the dark?
