The blood he had spilled was like a lake surrounding him now.
Bones rose to the surface and bubbles popped revealing the revolting smells which were left behind in the face of the slaughter.
He did not want to kill all his life, but he did not wish to die.
He did not want to be alone at the peak, but he refused to allow himself any weakness.
He did not want to be a hopeless fool with nothing else but the sky to look up to, and he would not seek out the heaven's for their hand, yet he needed strength.
He felt lost for a moment, and then his eyes mellowed.
That ravenous tyrant turned soft and was felled.
In it's place, a regal king, a devilish knight, a distraught boy, his faces changed many times, his blood boiled to keep it away.
He was certain now.
He could not be a bloodless king.
He could not be an expert without emotion.
He could not reach for the peak without thought.
He could not be indecisive.
He was certain now.
If he wished to be with his wife, in a loving and peaceful life.
If he wished to have a clan to return to, a family which would live a long time.
If he had any wish that he wished to keep and never let go.
There was only one path.
Sharp aura's arose from the ground around him, a distraught boy, a devilish knight and a regal king, colliding with one another they fought.
It was not devilish.
It was not distraught.
It was not regal, not in the slightest.
Yet, they were shattered by the last, devoured in the face of the truth.
It was as vast as the sky, searching.
It was narrow as a crevice, falling.
Even these however, were shattered by the deeper truth, the scarred darkness which was accepted and hid within the soul of the owner.
Eyes glowered crimson, the laws within orbited as they watched on.
A dragon of golden fire and wicked lightning circled above.
Unyielding.
Unmovable.
Undefeated.
These traits, moments, each breath spoke a different strength yet in the end, they were taken, not devoured, risen to the surface not suppressed.
Amplified into the truth.
A mind unshaken.
The tree's wilted, the grass drained.
An accursed tyrant, the woods whispered.
A calamity, the winds resounded.
His eyes, which were shaken by the words spoken from his own face, settled into a stare which could pierce a mountain, if it stood in his way.
The laws within settled truly.
The dragon of golden flames and wicked lightning silently came down, rubbing against him as it coiled around.
"I know what I seek."
His hand brushed against the dragon's crest.
"I know who I am."
The darkness in his gaze shattered, and his sight was reborn.
Hair of ashen stars and eyes of the fallen corrupted blood.
His visage made the woods recoil and the fog settle.
His mind was firm, his soul strengthened.
A talisman arose from before him, and in a flash of bluelight, he became nothing, the spot missing his figure as though he'd never stood there to begin with.
—
Within a grand hall, carved pillars shone and the ground was rife with activity as beasts hidden in the stone battled.
Atop the great battlefield of stone beasts and chiseled stone, beauty incarnate stood watching, waiting for a moment.
Blood boiled beneath skin as her eyes turned green, seeking, wanting.
The wind spoke to her thus, take it, it is yours.
The blood in her veins screamed, devour it, it can be no one elses.
The soul she once believed was unbreakable whispered, do it.
Yet, her hand was caught in another.
She held herself, her features unmarred despite her shaken resolve.
Time told her what she needed to know of the battlefield below hidden between the cracks in the stone and the seemingly legendary artistry of the pillars holding up the endless sky.
Her blood screamed out again, Take!
The wind pushed her forward, Devour!
Her soul whispered valiantly, Fight!
Yet, once again, she did not move.
The beasts in the stone grew impatient, waiting for her grasp.
Yet, among them, there stood a Queen, one who with a single look could fell armies and topple heaven's heart.
A trembling calm, an assured stance.
A restrained hunger.
The Queen did not battle, but watched.
The Queen was not impatient, but waited.
The Queen did not believe, she was assured.
In but a moment's time, the battle grew thick and then died out as they turned their attention to the looming threat, the eyes seeking to devour and the greed seeking to take.
As they jumped up from the chiseled stone and out of the beautiful pillars, a call was heard from afar yet so close by.
"Are you seeking strength."
The voice spoke a question, yet it was not asking.
A single, massive paw stepped out from the stone.
"Are you seeking truth."
A single, monstrous head appeared yet it did not rouse fear, but rather respect.
A Queen was owed such without a word needing be said.
"Are you seeking more."
The beasts parted without a look upwards at the sky which stood so close yet was so far.
The great hall could hardly hold her magnificent figure.
"Cub. You are strong."
The Queen circled patiently, her eyes roving over the little cub before her which postured as though ready to attack.
Yet, the Queen did not laugh at the Cub, she treated it with her respect as she knew it was prepared to finish what it had began.
"Cub. You know the truth."
The Queen came closer, but did not trample upon the Cub's pride by breaking it's defense, only staying just outside.
Her head lowered slightly as she reached the front of the cub, their eyes meeting for the first time.
"Cub…"
The queen's head bore no eyes for her gaze was dark yet knowing.
The cub was not afraid however, and gazed valiantly into the darkness.
"...you are terrified of that loss."
Starring so valiantly into the darkness of the Queen's eyes proved to be a mistake.
Memories strung from her eyes, yet they were not her's, but belonged to the cub.
The beasts saw them and the Cub felt a sickening stone sinking in her very soul.
Before them the memories played.
A mother and daughter, yet the Cub did not look anywhere near the same, not anymore, but the look in her eye's spoke the volumes which no one could refute.
The mother taught her the art of the fist, so that she might always be assured.
The mother taught her how to love, so that she might never be used and always be true in heart.
The mother taught her how to stand on her own two feet, so that she might always walk her own path.
And in those last moments, as the mother took her last, she taught her to be strong, so that she might pass on that strength to the next.
Those memories which she had buried away, surfaced as though boiling water turned into a vast field of steam, burning every inch of her skin, what she is revealed to what she was.
The truth of her own thoughts, revealed through the past which formed her heart.
The memories changed before she could fully feel herself out and understand.
A boy appeared under a tree, moonlight glared at him as though the sky wished him found, and killed.
A girl, not quite so appealing, not quite so much, approached and fell into him, helping him, and eventually nursing him back to health.
In return the boy bled, and the girl suffered because of each drop.
In return, the boy fought, and she wished to fight by his side at every moment.
In return the boy sacrificed, and she felt safe at his side, she smiled more and fully.
The memories were a haze now, as though something was tampering.
In return, the boy was tortured by his own resolve.
In return, the boy was silently in pain at every moment.
In return, the boy loved her so much that his very breath would give out for her.
She felt those emotions all, she knew of them well, she felt the same she would do the same.
Yet, it darkened.
The boy died.
These were not her memories.
The boy sacrificed his life.
They were not hers!
The boy fell in her arms, a satisfied smile.
They…
"...are you future."
The memories shattered.
The Queen stood eye to eye with the cub, her abyssal gaze held far more than just darkness.
The cub quivered and her mind shook, the sight of such a satisfied smile on the face of the boy as he died.
The sight of his corpse.
The feeling of his cold skin against hers which still pumped blood.
She refused.
Her eyes bled and her veins rose to the surface as her muscles tightened, yet she didn't move.
She refused.
The Queen seemed to understand and slowly raised her head above the cub.
An aged aura, patient yet unending.
"You move after the attack."
Her words were like a shot into the very soul of the cub.
The Queen's tail swiped out her legs, and the cub fell with a stuffy sound.
The cub was snapped from her trance and looked up fiercely, yet the Queen smiled knowing.
"You move in response, not for a response."
The Queen's tail slapped the ground, leaving a dent whose cracks make spiderwebs of the great hall.
"When will you stop being afraid of losing those around you, and do something to stop them from being lost!"
The Queen's voice rose and the great pillars shook, the beasts grew restless around her as they watched!
The Cub shook.
She knew.
She knew the Queen was not angered by who she was.
She knew the Queen was not sympathetic for the challenges she faced.
She knew the Queen was not impressed by the choices she had made in the face of those challenges.
She knew.
She knew her own fear better than anyone else.
The fear of her mother's cold skin against her own as she died to those she sought to destroy.
The fear of her lover's satisfied smile upon the face of his deathly still body, wrought with wounds.
The fear of her everything being lost because of a choice which led down a terrible, winding path with no light at it's end.
The fear of being a person in a world where people died so often.
The fear of feeling.
The boy was cursed by fate, but she was cursed by her own soul.
The Queen seemed to wait as she circled, a patient figure who had the time to spend waiting for an answer.
The cub knew it as well.
An answer had to be given.
But the fear seized her.
What if I don't let myself be carried along by the wind anymore, and I lose everything?
What if I make the wrong choice, and I am too weak to keep my own heart?
What if I make them suffer and I am the only one to be blamed?
What if I hurt that which I hold dear by my choices?
Such fears seized her, and then the ground moved.
Memories again.
Voices rang out.
I would die for you, they said.
I would destroy everything for you as your funeral song, they said.
But she didn't want to hear that.
She didn't want them to die for her.
She didn't want them to suffer for her.
She didn't want them to become hollow over her.
She just wanted them.
Blood boiled beneath her skin, yet another memory arose.
It was in a long winding canyon, the place where she become reborn anew.
The place where she cast aside who she was, for who she wanted to be be.
Before her was the boy, standing forth to love her in her entirety.
He stood by her when the world sought to shake her down.
He stood by her when her own family threatened to kill him.
He stood by her when everyone in his own life, wanted him dead.
He stood even when the sky threatened to fall and he made choices even when they were wrong, and they were often wrong.
She knew.
She remembered.
Her resolve.
Her conviction.
"I am not afraid."
Her eyes drew up from the ground and touched the abyss once more.
The Queen knew and heard her, and waited for she was not done and she knew it.
"I am terrified."
Knowing this already, the Queen slowly stopped her circling and watched in silence as the cub began to grow.
Her paws crossed and she laid down, the Queen could now watch, the abyss within her eyes ever patient, ever waiting.
"I am terrified of losing what I hold dear to my own choices, however…"
A ravenous hunger arose from her gaze, a bloodthirsty aura spilled from her.
The beasts watching felt threatened and moved slightly, but under the Queen's calm, they too were calmed, by her lead they were led.
An eerie calm pervaded the hall.
"...If I must lose anyway, then I will lose on my own terms. I will not be a puppet simply responding to the moving strings."
The sounds of strings being snapped, tickled the hall in a quiet instant, like a puppet breaking from it's master.
A slight smile upon that monstrous face, the Queen arose.
Lips moved, albeit stiffly, for the Queen was turning to stone now.
"Cub. You have much yet to suffer…"
The Queen's servants slowly began to fall through the stone and return to the battle amid the pillars.
The cub looked up, grown a little more now, yet her eyes were firm, she was no puppet nor beast in a cage.
"...suffer it well and live."
A slight move, the stone shattered, the Queen vanished.
Her figure could not be found amid her servants along the raging battlefield in the pillars nor stone floors, she had gone the cub knew it to be so.
Gates shattered, chains cracked and turned to dust.