*O_O'... O_O"...x.x'... if you guys write any better than this I'm gonna have to quit!
. Outstanding posts the both of you!!!! Cooly as usual making stunning posts with those flavoured adjectives
and Kanji-kun just magnificent with those fight scenes. I can practically see the fights happening as I read about them. I'm just luving the way this story develops... whoots!*
Sorry I wasn't online yesterday, had some important stuff to take care of at work and I have some travel coming up as well. But in the meanwhile, Tenshoujin's agenda needs to progress...
Chapter 2: The Feeding
Swirling colours dazzled around him, vivid greens and ecstatic blues. The sky stood glittering with a myriad hues, every single colour calling out to his senses. He felt the movement of the wind, he tasted the moistness in the air, he perceived every movement around him, every blade of grass, every glowing cinder and every single wisp of ash... They seemed struck in slow motion and standing where he was he felt he could direct their poetic movements like a composer beckoning a virtuoso. A sudden acrid smell of fire woke him to reality. The movements and colours turned normal and the smell of burnt wood reeked stronger around him. His dragon vision had subsided and his senses mimicking his appearence turned human as well.
Broken images of fire and destruction flashed past his brain. Screeches for help mixed with cries of valour distorting his senses even more. Buildings turned to ash, castles lay ravaged and razed to the ground...the sound of falling mortar spelt doom to those who lay below... The scene suddenly vanished, only to be replaced by a shining bright blue. It shone so magnificently he could touch it's sparkling rays. Standing next to it he felt warm and alive... What was this glow? Where did it come from? Did the crystal reflect a light from elsewhere or was the source of this illumination within it? He reached out to touch it...
*Hsssshh* *Crunch*
Another rude awakening... the images were gone and all that lay clutched in his fist was a smouldering bush. Tenshoujin hung tightly to the thread of reality. He fresh birth had granted him great power indeed, but it had cost him much sanity in return. He knew he could not dwell on his unbidden thoughts swiftly though they assaulted him. He had taken on a mortal form and he needed to replenish his strength. Weakly, he looked around...
He sighted a stray deer on the path ahead grazing on grass. He moved forward to reach out to it. The deer didn't react at all, it ambled on its own routine seemingly unaware that a predatorial hunger stalked it. Tenshoujin's reach grasped thin air... What was happening?
He knew the deer was ahead. He could see it clear as crystal. Why then did his fist touch nought but wind? Was this another memory? Was he in another spell of hallucination? He closed his eyes and wished his memory away, feebly searching for reality again. Slowly, his heart calmed and his sanity came closer at hand. He opened his eyes again...
The deer was gone... but so was the path in front of him. All he could see around him were shades of black... their uneven medley hinting a horrific incident. He stood confused again
... what was reality now? Which of his two visions were real? Driven by hunger, he walked ahead... ten feet later he fell again. The urge was getting stronger by the minute now. His frenzy was building in him, he knew he needed to feed soon or he would lose control again, sinking into his chaotic memories. For yards around, there was nothing but burnt ground and charred wood. Desperately he grabbed at the ash, ready to feed on anything that would keep his nightmares at bay.
The hot ash burned his throat and he stifled a sudden urge to yell. The desperation for food still clung to him. Urged by his frenzy he shoved another handful down his throat. The burns were sharper now…but was that proof that he was closer to sanity? Powered by this thought he sank his face into the ground hoping to gulp as many crumbs as he could. Six mouthfuls and severe burns later he realized the ash hadn’t helped his hunger at all… however it had triggered a response… he was a being of fire and the burning cinders had pushed his frenzy over the edge. He drew strength from fire… at least his dragon half did…
A sudden burst of wind scattered the ash in every direction, two loud flaps resonated through the burnt land, a hundred feet in the air, Tenshoujin spotted the deer again. For a moment he panicked worried that he would sink into his cursed memories again, but quickly he realized the truth. The deer was not a hallucination nor was the green path upon which it grazed. The grass and the stream weren’t figments of fantasy that his mind had built up for him. They were real and they existed…three mountains away!!!… His powerful dragon vision had seen them clearly from this far. He shuddered at his own skill for a second... Another beat of his powerful wings and he rose higher into the clouds. A herd of cattle ambled away to the west kept restrained by a flimsy wooden fence. Smoke came from nearby houses. He counted… there were 12 houses in all. A small village then… he committed this piece of information in his memory... he would need it later. For now though, there were more pressing problems at hand. His immediate hunger had to be satiated.
He turned his sights toward the deer again. It remained unaware, grazing happily in the watered meadow. Little did it know that death was upon it bearing down more swiftly and surely than any prey had ever known. Tenshoujin whistled through the clouds, his dazzling speed leaving streaks of shredded white clouds as a mark of his trajectory. The cool wind filled his lungs and calmed his mind, but the cold also sapped the little strength he had managed to absorb from the measly ash. He knew he couldn’t risk powerful strokes to aid his speed but he desperately needed food regardless...