MINYA
take that look from off your face
you ain't gunna burn my heart out
you ain't gunna burn my heart out
She is running amidst the sea of horses that push out out into the waiting roaring blue of the ocean. Her eyes look amidst the chaotic scene for a glimpse of gold, for August who came upon the island with her. They parted ways when they reached the idyl that the island once was.
But this place is no perfection. Like Minya it is all beautiful to the beholder, yet inside it is twisted and broken. Monstrous things had been born of this place and Minya’s soul aches with the agony of this place.
She flees now, without a glance back - she does not need to look and remember. There is no loss for her as this island goes down. Except for August… Is he safe? The Scarab staff know how to look after themselves - of course he is well but there is a creeping dread within her. It turns her limbs to lead as she runs and she finds his name upon her lips. She cries it out into the throng of names already being cried out into the air by all who flee and fear for their loved ones.
The island cracks beneath her fleeing feet. Great fissures form and horses fall into them. A mare goes down before Minya, she slips into the chasm her limbs tangling with Minya’s as she goes. The ground rises up to meet the Scarab girl with a fierce thump, the hair escapes her lungs and the falling girl grasps hold of Minya’s legs. She cries and begs to be saved as the ground bucks and shudders, desperate to swallow her down. Minya clings to her, she tries to pull and pull and pull. But the weight of gravity pulling on the girls is too much and the mare slips lower and lower dragging Minya to the edge with her.
Oh how the fire-dancer scrabbles until her forelimbs are thrashing in the air above the chasm. Another inch and they are both gone. Minya’s head shakes, tears blossoming along her lashes. The falling girl is screaming to be saved. Again and again she begs Minya but all she does is pull her saviour closer, closer to the edge and the fall that will swallow them both.
Minya scrabbles to find them purchase, anything that will stop their slipping into the void. She reaches for the girl, trying to pull her up, up, up. But they are both sweat slick and her grasp is fleeting and then lost. She tries again and the girl only slips lower. The girl begs and weeps and Minya is half-dragged over the edge by the weight of them both. She feels gravity winding its fingers about her limbs and pulling. She feels the cold caress of death up her spine, the endless nothing and horror that awaits her at the bottom of that long and terrible fall.
She shakes her head, ‘no, no, I am sorry-’ and the girl is screaming her eyes wide with knowing. Please, please she begs but Minya is close to death too and she pushes the girl free. Their limbs untangle, the weight is gone and Minya scrabbles up and over the edge as gravity’s grip loosens upon her.
Her limbs are bloodied, from where she gripped the earth, from where the girl gripped her. There is nothing but black where the girl once was, endless, endless nothing. All around her horses are dying and yet she is living. Minya scrambles to her feet, weak and wounded and broken. She runs, no, limps toward the bridge and on towards where Novus waits calm and solid, welcoming the survivors back.
She falls upon Novus’ beach and feels the sickness of guilt surge up within her. She sobs where she lies, falling apart for s a girl she could not save but rather condemned. History, they say, was doomed to repeat itself and this was not Minya’s first murder.
| "speaks" | notes: eee <3
STAFF EDIT***
@Minyahas rolled a 1! They have been awarded +2 exp.
