[AW] Along The Winding Path

[Ki'irha]

Ki'irha This was the day that Ki’irha died. The haunting coo of an owl called out in the distance, but Ki’irha couldn’t hear it. The night was dark, the towering trees silhouetted by the pallid glow of the forest’s neon light. Torrential rain soaked her to the bone, and the chill of the weather was barely able to permeate the heat she had worked up as she fled. She thundered through the trees, strides long, and she moved wildly. Behind her were three canine-reminiscent creatures, baying and barking and snapping at her heels. She couldn’t hear them though, over the sound of her ragged breath and racing thoughts. Her sides heaved, curves slicked with a film of sweat, and she wished she knew where to head. But she didn’t. This wasn’t home. This was a hellscape of dark magic, of evil forces, of manipulated light. She did’t know where she was, she didn’t know what sort of rabbit holes or twisted games awaited her beyond every turn. The creatures, much like wolves, were proficient where she was weak, and they worked hard to corral her. She reached deep down, pulled from her core an aura of glittering sparks, and from beside her exploded two wolves created of arching electricity and light. They themselves lunged and twisted, gaping jaws and gnashing teeth, and they fell upon the creatures flanking her. Then, there was one. Sheets of pounding rain blinded her, and she nearly sprinted right into thin air as the earth fell away into a steep cliffside. She pulled away, hooves slipping in the mud, but she was able to pull herself into a stop. Ears twisted, and her body followed. She spun upon dancer’s heels, and leapt towards the beast. They became a tangle of limbs, snapping jaws and swinging sword. The starlit warrior fought valiantly, and as she went against the predator, she barely noticed the shifting of the earth beneath them. The ground heaved, the soaking ground pulling against the intricate system of roots securing the earth to the mountain side. As the landslide stole them and their battle ring away, they continued to wage war - predator versus prey, wolf versus unicorn, warrior versus warrior. As they hurtled towards the sea below, everything seemed to slow, and through her mind her life rushed by. She saw it in clips, in snapshots, in feelings, in smells. It consumed her, overcame the desperate fight between life and death. It was easy, since the latter was what would win. The girl had been born beneath the stars of a summer’s midnight. She had been raised with fire in her veins and violence in her heart, to have a gentle touch and maintain spellbinding curves. She had learned to hate, she had learned to love. She had slipped free from those binds, transitioning into adulthood, and at the same time arrived in a new place entirely. She had been escorted to the north, claimed those mountains for her own— oh god, those mountains went on for miles, the only thing separating her from her star studded sky— and within the sweeping valley she fought and she lead and she vowed to conquer. She was the leader of the warriors, their corporal, their general. She served the Lord and Lady loyally. She had served her Aurora Basin loyally. She had loved, then lost, then loved only one more time. She had danced with a stallion, danced and laid with him upon the icy tundra beneath the aurora lights. Within her had grown two galaxies, and they had been been born beneath the moon, beneath the Moon Goddess’ ever watchful eye. For she had joined with the Moon Goddess’ son, unknowingly. She raised her children, until she was stolen away by fate and brutality. She had lost her memories, but fought to reclaim them. She was healed after long months, given a touch of starlight and a vein of diamond pressed into her horn where it was once broken. She had reunited with her family, they had crossed the world together, until gods and mortals alike were struck down in a fit of violence, in the cataclysmic battle between light and dark. Everyone who remained had been cast away, forced through a portal, thrown into a rift between worlds. After years of trying to be together, again her family was cast apart, like seeds sown, like stones into a smooth glassy lake. And here she was, forced to run, forced to fight, forced to die. But how else should a warrior die? She would go wielding her sword, wearing the blood of a deserving enemy, and she would be conquered by a deserving foe. Suddenly, she felt every thread of her being pulled in different directions. The breath was sucked from her lungs, and she felt her heart race and skip a beat. She even heard the desperate cries of her adversary as it fell into oblivion with her. She fell from darkness and rain into blinding light. The feeling of free falling seemed to catch her, and for a brief moment she was floating. Was this death? Her body hit a hard surface, and it knocked the remainder of breath from her chest. A sharp yelp hit her ringing ears, and her stormy eyes rolled as she tried to orient herself. Every bone ached, her head pounded, and every muscle felt strained. The bright light played with the double vision obscuring her sight, and as she gasped for air, she saw beside her the shaking form of the wolf-being. Ki’irha rolled, trying to right herself, and she locked her eyes upon the hunter. She forced herself upright as the wolf staggered towards her, and she herself lurched, slicing the air with her horn haphazardly. The wolf snarled, leapt, and she reared to meet it, lashing out with sharpened fore-hooves, and her aim ran true. She felt her hooves hit muscle, and she pulled the creature down beneath her. A hoof flew past waiting jaws, and she felt teeth tear into her, but she didn’t stop. Hooves stomped against the creature’s writhing form, and with one last gurgling howl, a final swan song, the creature fell silent. The fallen queen staggered forward drunkenly, swaying in the dying sunlight. She looked towards where she had fallen, noticed her once pristine wolf pelt cloak covered in blood and scorch marks, and beside it a pile of twisted metal and broken glass. The last few sparkles of moonlight and stardust rose up from the shattered lantern, several particles singing what was left of the pelt, the rest disappearing into the cool dusk air. She snorted, evaluating the destruction of the last of her earthly goods, and shifted unsteadily. Blood trickled freely, rust staining cobalt, her fresh wounds in dire need of healing. The wolf stirred, the last licks of life making the broken body of the creature tremble. She moved forward, evaluating the creature. It appeared unlike any wolf she had ever seen - four eyes, a set too many, open in narrow slits, long canines stained and bloody glinting in the fading sunlight, its long talons, finishing off its too long legs, flexed and contracted. Too consumed with the delicate balance of life and death, she didn’t notice that she had intruded upon another warrior’s glorious arrival. For him, perhaps today would be a day of valor, of renewal, of calling a triumphant cry over a world of possibility. But for her, she had lost everything all over again. Helovia was gone, the Rift was gone, her family was gone. All she had to show for any of it was this thing, this barely-alive pile of wimpering abomination. She was here now, too, but instead of sharing the pride held by the stallion, she held grief, loss, festering disgust. She tipped her head, staring at the suffering beast, and she thought of how the creature, the monster, pulled her away from her family, forced her to abandon them yet again. “Fuck you,” she growled, the words harsh and forced. “Even in death, you still win.” And so, Ki’irha, the starlit girl, the midnight warrior, was reincarnated in a new place, a new time, a new world. She was reborn.

@Arluin