From Another Realm [closed]

With eyes round and full of awe I stared at him, the beloved creature before me. Though he was not what I had expected I still saw the beauty in him, and the faint life in his feathers. Beneath the twilight sky I let my lips part and excitement grip me as I watched the creature I had now been chasing for more than six hours gaze right back from the neighbouring hillock.

Bold. Strong. Courageous. By the way he held himself and bore his spear I could tell he was a warrior. He wore something akin to a loin cloth, with tight leather gloves, and that was all. Overall, he was the right shape, structure, with that marvellous beak and sharp claws and those angled legs. His feathers ended in the right place and the tough skin began, making me smile in glee, ignoring the huge obvious dissimilarity he had to the memories I had of his people.

His colour. From his head to his toes, from claw tip to tail feather he was not black, but rather, light grey and in some places, white. His black eyes were all that remained of his past kenku - tengu - self.

Gently I straightened, pulling myself up to my full height and looking at the beautiful creature right in the eyes. For so long he had been racing, forcing me to go into the form of Unicorn and race. Still he had kept ahead, disappearing and then reappearing in the distance, knowing the landscape when she - Unicorn - did not. I had chased and chased - until he had quite suddenly, stopped. Then he had turned, right on that hill. And my heart had hammered as I moved into my natural form.

Naked. Which was awkward in the fact I just wanted to talk to him. Quickly I pulled the wolf pelt that was wrapped over my shoulder and tied with the rough rope, slinging it over my body. It was odd, did not fit quite right but it would do. I smiled at the being, the bleached kenku, and lifted my hands, as he stared back at me, unmoving, from those two hundred metres that separated us.

“He-hello …” I whispered gently to him, extending the gesture of peace. “It is an-”

His big black eyes blinked, before he suddenly turned. Hefting up his long spear he twisted his back to me and began to stride away again. Pausing, stuck there in my simple wolf pelt, I was suspended in shock as he began to leave. My breathing was fast, tight, and I was entirely confused - but I had no other choice. Leaning down I grabbed the rope that had been bound around me and immediately began to follow.

As we went I untied the small bone knife I had from the rope, then used the rope itself to bind the pelt around me - I now had a rudimentary form of tunic. Now clothed better I began to run on my bare feet, following the kenku as he went down the other side of his hill.

Quickly I chased him, smoothing back my hair, trying to make myself perfect for the ultimate meeting because he had to stop for me soon. He was so close …

A strong wind blew around me, the wind holding as it shot through the area. I ignored it, as it battered at my form, trying to shift me, trying to move my hair or make me flinch. Despite the rage of the wind, I felt - nothing. Pressure, notably around my eyes more than anywhere else, but beyond that, nothing. I cursed under my breath as I kicked the ground, knocking a divot into the soft earth below me with my foot. I had purposefully planted myself in the path of an oncoming storm, to see if it would make me feel cold, but no. It didn't do anything other than make my hair lift up just slightly.

I cursed this damn body that I had been bound to. I had spent a long damn time trying to build myself a body that had the ability to feel, and that had been stripped from me, leaving me numb to everything. But - at least…

At least I wasn't there, any more. Even if the home I had carved out of that madness had been destroyed - I wasn't in that unending hell, not anymore. I was actually - in the real world. I was free, at long last. I was finally, finally free. Countless ages had passed in that bleak, battle torn, blood stained pit, and I would gladly take being numb, over being stuck there any longer. I still didn't know, if the beings that had cursed me, thrown me here, had been trying to punish me, or reward me.

But. I would - I would make the most of my life, now that I was here. I had a second chance, a new life. Very well. I would take it, grab it with both hands. This was my life, and I would face it head on. I started to look around, trying to decide where I would go from here. I had no idea what the landscape was, where I was, or what had happened while I was trapped in that blighted purgatory. The first thing I would need to do, now that I had decided to live this life, would be to gather information about what had changed while I was gone.

My body stiffened, as I finally realized I wasn't alone on the trail I had stopped on. Slowly, I turned around, my eyes narrowing as I took in the immediate surroundings. There were three of them, spreading out to surround me. Thin, wretched individuals, dressed in ragged, tattered clothes. They looked rather emaciated, skin tight and gaunt across their bodies. They did have bloated bellies - and a less experienced, or observant, person, might have thought that indicated these three were, while not in good shape, at least eating well. I knew that those bloated bellies were an indication of the exact opposite there - the men were likely starving, and their bodies rebelling against them.

“ ‘E looks good ‘nuff to eat, don’ ‘e?” The man who spoke was on my left now. His voice was thick, wretched, like he had to fight to speak. A mottled tongue flicked across blistered, chapped lips, as he looked me up and down. Did he - ah. A glance to the others, showed them also licking their lips as they examined me like a chunk of meat. So, these men were cannibals. Whether driven out of society for their actions, or driven to their actions by losing their place in society, it mattered not to me. What did, was that they clearly intended to kill, and consume, me.

Or, at least, try to consume me - if somehow they did kill me, I doubted my body would sate their hunger. Rather difficult to eat metal, after all. I heard a rasp of metal on metal, and looked back to the one who had spoken - he had drawn a cruel, jagged dagger from a sheathe in his belt. A moment of silence passed.

“Well. You have my gratitude. I was feeling a mite peckish myself.” I rolled my shoulders, and grinned viciously. Lunch had been so kindly delivered to me, it seemed.

I moved first, rushing for the man who had drawn a dagger. The other two were - inconsequential at the moment, taking the time to draw out their own weapons would buy me the time that I needed. The spokesman cannibal’s eyes widener and he stabbed his dagger at my gut, trying to impale me - and his face went deathly pale, as the blade skittered off of my ‘clothes’. Then I was on him, my fingers curling around his throat, and tightening implacably. I lifted him up, from the ground, and grinned at his as he struggled and beat his fists against me.

I felt none of it.

When I got to the top of the hill, however, I halted. Shocked, stunned as before me spread a village. Tucked between two hills, with a gentle stream winding its way through the valley. The stone used to make the houses was boring and dull, with simple slate roofs. No building was over a story tall, and most of them seemed to be residential - that was, aside from the huge grey temple at the edge, that dominated the site.

Ominous and made of some form of granite, it looked like an ancient pagoda of some old civilisation I had read about in books. Pillars stood at the front, holding up the heavy stone roof, that extended as a form of verandah. I could see irregularities that were likely carvings, and from the depths behind the pillars there was light.

Switching my eyes back to the village I saw the white kenku, his spear held aloft in his hand, rapidly descending down the slope. People around the village were walking to and fro, some with purpose and some with uncertainty. One, dressed in dark clothes, detached themselves from the buildings and began to stride towards the kenku. Frowning, not knowing what this was, I stood straight, letting my hair fall in a waterfall. I was a white sentinel in this strange world, that was lit by a slowly setting sun. But I could not leave, no matter what was down there, what dangers.

Because I had finally found one. After three thousand long years.
Sucking in my breath, armed with nothing but a knife I had carved from a dark beast's flesh, I began to descend. I kept my eyes on the beautiful kenku, watching as he came to meet the darkly clothed other individual. As I got nearer, the eyes of the other flickered up to look right at me. He had brown hair and green eyes, and looked with confusion as I walked gracefully over, pushing my knife into the back of my cord. Beside him the kenku of black eyes and light grey twisted around and stared with madness at me. Again I spread out my hands in a peaceful gesture and slowed down my approach.

“I just want to talk to you, child,” I said gently, meeting his dark eyes with my own intense pink ones. “I am … I know your kind very well.”

The kenku looked over to the other man. A look passed between them before the kenku huffed and glared back at me. I drew back, shaking my head.

“I mean you no harm,” I spoke more desperately this time.
“Please, I know-”

“Gunther, get Vindrexis,” the kenku - he said to the other in a low, grunting voice. The word made me frown, he was sending to get another.

I watched as the brown haired one nodded and turned, though his eyes remained on me until the last, possible moment. And I was then alone again, with the kenku, a few good feet away from him. Even though this had been the closest I had been to a kenku, or tengu, in three thousand years, I was still eager to get nearer. Thus, with my eyes wide, I took a small, stumbling pace towards him.

His spear, the naginata, swept up, and pointed right at me. Holding it with two steady hands the gorgeous being glared. Of course I drew to a halt, my hands coming up again. Shaking my head I stared back.

“Child, I do not mean you any ill will. I only-”

“Shut it,” he hissed, brows low, “Shut up-”

“I am the guardian of your race,” I interrupted him. “Your ancestors and I came three thousand years ago, sent here by An-”

“Shut UP!” he yelled, stepping forwards and placing the tip of his blade right on my jugular.

I cut off my words, my heart beating wildly. Hands whipping up I watched him with anxiety and intensity in my eyes, longing just to touch him, to speak to him, to let him know I was here now. Back. Back to look after those beautiful creatures.

Silence fell between us, and my breathing slowly came back to be regular. I kept my eyes on him, the changed version of my darling race, obeying what he wanted. If he was going to be like this, this suspicious … why then I would stand and wait. I had already waited three thousand years. What was fine more minutes?

They passed, slow and terrible. Each second was an ache, painful and horrid. I felt my stomach twist, and a sore lump form in my throat. I leant back slowly, away from the point, but my eyes never leaving him. Never. Ever.

“Fucking …” came a smooth, but flabbergasted voice. My eyes swung around, and I came face to face with …

White, snow white hair, swept back with a strip of fabric. A tall, well built frame with colourful, neat clothes. Deep, intense, bronze eyes that in them had a singular recognition within them that I had seen only a few times before.

Knowledge. Understanding. Acceptance. The look between a child of Ansaldo … and another.