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 Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 7:18 pm
Night. Over the edges of Durem, the city had begun to settle down; the chaotic streets began to quiet, and most families had long since gone to bed. The moon was new, and the stars were impossibly bright- where one could see them through the thick, rolling clouds. Even the most unskilled ear could detect the sound of thunder on the wind, as it rippled through the sky like a dragon chasing lightning.
Something strange was in the air tonight. Out of the darkness enveloping Britain's house like a cloak, Morion woke from his uneasy rest as if he could feel a storm coming. The wind had picked up slightly outside, but the weather had forecasted a storm...perhaps that was what was affecting him so much.
This is one of those moments where you feel someone you love is going to die.
Blanket wrapped around his shoulders, he slipped out of bed and stepped onto his balcony. His tail flicked slightly behind him, picking up on his tension- he felt the lightning before it struck a few miles away, fingers clenching slightly. The blanket fell away from his shoulders, leaving him leaning hands on the rail and restless...something was going to happen. Surely his medicine couldn't be making him this delusional.
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:49 pm
...or could it?
There was something far too palpable about the storm; writhing just behind the trees and buildings out of sight, it seemed as if it was a living thing.
As lightning touched down less than a mile away, the shock and rumble faded into a faint voice that seemed to float from over the dragon Fa'e's shoulder --
"Morion...
"Where are you, Morion?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:02 pm
Morion flinched. The lightning cracked in perfect time to his movement, confusing him, disorienting- had he heard something? Everyone in the house was asleep except for Steele, and she was off stealing from some poor soul. There should be no one out here to call his name.
"Galatyne...?" He whispered, glancing over his hsoulder for the other dragon, but his Knight had excused himself from the company of Morion's bad temper. He was alone, for the moment. Come to think of it, what had happened to his sore throat and badly pressured sinuses? He wasn't feeling ill anymore...
"I am just imagining things," he told himself, shaking his head. Wanting her to be alive won't make anything easier, foolish dragon.
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:14 pm
"Morion." The voice again, and clearer now. Still a whisper, but --
"I... I remember when Anya brought you to me... I remember how you talked, and how surprised I was..."
It seemed to be floating everywhere -- it was behind him, above him, in front of him --
"You were the first Fa'e baby to talk, you know. You were insanely smart. I used to joke that you were smarter than me, and you know, I think it's the truth...
"I remember you playing with the other kids... you were... a big brother to all of them... a strong heart, my Morion..."
There was no denying that voice. He knew it better than any other voice because it was wound within the fabric of his very soul.
Outside the thunder cracked as if the trees were being torn from the ground; as if the very earth itself were sundering.
"Morion, I'm here... come back!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:22 pm
"You are dead!" He screamed, the sound tearing itself out of his throat. "Dead and long since gone, why are you haunting me now, what has changed that you speak my name- leave me alone!"
He was breathing hard, struggling to stay calm and failing. Failing! He thought he'd gotten himself and his grief under control, but everything slammed back into him like a wall- losing Smoke, the agony of not knowing. The feeling of losing touch with his own existance.
He was shaking slightly, from more than the chill coming in with the storm. He felt the first touches of rain, but his hands were locked around the railing, fighting off the memories and shattered dreams. "My mother is dead," he whispered, voice rough, head bowed. "Anen told me himself, there is nothing left...my mother is dead..."
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:36 pm
"I am not dead, Morion! I am alive!"
He could feel her... so close. So very close. He hadn't felt her presence since that day so long ago, that last day when Riven took him beyond the veil and he had spoken his last words to her weak spirit. Though his mind so desperately wanted to deny it, his heart could not.
And suddenly it was too much for his mind to bear; he fell to his knees, his eyes wide and unblinking as hot tears rolled down his face. "No, no, no, it can't be, it can't --"
"I am alive! Morion, where are you? Where..."
Morion screamed in anguish, his claws grinding against the hard balcony floor. Sanity was slipping. It was not consciousness which was fading, but... something else.
He felt as if his body were ripping apart...
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:43 pm
IT WAS.
A pain unlike anything had ever felt, as if half of his very soul was being torn away, ripped through him. Morion trembled, finding himself on his knees, finding himself crying, finding that he didn't remember these things happening...finding gouges in the balcony, which some detached part of his mind thought Britain would be upset about later. Hearing-
What in all the Hells-
He was shaking badly now. The voice was still there, but it had been joined by another, and he thought he was speaking, thought he was going insane, but his jaw was clamped shut- and next to him...
He WAS going insane. The world felt too quiet, like he had lost half of his hearing, half of his sight. There were no mirrors on the balcony, and he hadn't- hadn't looked like that in so long...
"Mother..." he half-whimpered, and fell to his side, staring at the other dragon. It hurt. Oh God, it hurt so much...
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:56 pm
There was a stranger laying next to him, staring at him -- and yet, he was no stranger.
"Mygodmygod, thisisnothappening--"
The world was topsy-turvy now, and as desperately as Morion wanted to flee, he found he could hardly move. His limbs felt weighted and cold, as if all the life was draining out of him. He would've given anything to look away from this horrible figure -- HIMSELF, there was no denying it, he was seeing a part of HIMSELF -- oh god, how was that possible? -- but he couldn't advert his eyes.
The pain, yes. The pain was the only reason he knew he was still alive. He had never imagined pain like this existed, and his throat was clenched too tightly to even allow him to scream.
His muscles frozen, he tried to pull himself away from the figure next to him, grabbing helplessly at the bars of the balcony.
And now Smoke's voice was even clearer --
"Morion, come to me... please..."
"Mother!" he cried, his voice a weak and eerie echo.
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:01 pm
So afraid. He was so afraid, and he was so afraid, and this couldn't be happening- but he had to reach out, blue-clawed hands wanting to reassure, desperate to make everything alright...because to see such emotion in his eyes meant it was mirrored in his own.
"It- please- ev-everything will be alr-right," he whispered, shaken to the core but begging for someone, anyone, to set the world to rights. He touched his double's arm, shaking so hard it almost hurt more than the loss he was feeling. He could hear Smoke, still, but it was so terribly, terrifyingly faint...
His eyes rose to lock with the other dragon's, golden and wide as the rain began to pour down on them. "Mother- she's waiting- it hurts-"
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:12 pm
Shaking uncontrollably now, he fell backward against the railing as his own self reached forward for him. In that moment, he could not move. As his double touched him, he felt a wave of hotness, like electricity, rising up his arm. He flinched without blinking; his eyes were wide with terror.
"Wh-what are you? Wh-who... h-how... I must be going mad," he stammered. "Th-this cannot be happening!"
"Morion! MORION!!" Her voice was frantic now, almost begging, and it pulled him out of his near-catatonic state.
"Smoke..."
He clenched his eyes shut and the memories came rushing back to him in a great wave. He could feel her, touch her, she was real. To this part of himself, that was all that mattered.
He struggled to his feet, nearly falling, and pushing himself away from his double. Now that he had managed to tear his eyes away, he refused to allow himself to look back. What he saw terrified him. "M-must go to her... must make this stop..."
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:19 pm
He felt sick. Sick. Two of them would cause problems, would make everything harder- he could go find his mother later, when everything made sense. Later. She was alive, that was all that mattered, and he was terrified but all that mattered was that SMOKE WAS ALIVE and she needed him/them as much as he/they had always needed her-
"Go," he whispered, eyes so wide, pressed hard against the other side of the balcony rail in an unconcious imitation of his double. "I'll wait- you have to go, Morion, you have to go..."
The thunder CRASHED over them both in a freakish counterpoint to his words. He was soaked to the skin, but he barely noticed- all that mattered was Smoke.
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:35 pm
Somehow he managed to pull himself up onto the edge of the balcony railing, and he teetered dangerously as he crouched down. His head was spinning and the rain was coming down in sheets -- he couldn't see the ground beneath them. He tried flexing his wings and they moved appropriately, but the constant pain was making it impossible to focus on doing anything.
He had been pushed past the edge of reason and now all that mattered was the instinct.
"I will find her -- "
Without looking at his mirror-self again, Morion dove over the side of the balcony and spiraled downward.
He managed to use his wings enough to break his fall, landing hard in the mud but not causing any real damage. Like an animal he fled into the forests surrounding Durem...
...his only guide now the constant and powerful voice of his missing Guardian. A voice which, as he fled, grew weaker and weaker in his double's ears.
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