Fan Fiction ❯ Advent Of The Goddess: Book 1-The Awakening ❯ The Awakening ( Chapter 9 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The following morning was clouded with grey clouds, the scent of impending thunder rife on the icy sea breeze. Sleep had'nt come easy to the young god-child, her dreams filled with images of death, destruction and chaos, forced to watch as everything she ever knew crumbled to dust around her.
Blinking against the dull beams of light peering in from the boarded up windows, Shasta let a groan escape her lips as she rubbed her eyes, silently hoping the action would erase the past events and reveal her to be seated back in her sweet mother's home, happy and content....

...Sadly, that was not the case, for as her vision slowly came into focus, she found to her dismay she was still lying on the magestic queen-sized bed, surrounded by four walls of peeling paint, black velvet and mourning. The only thing different about today was the fact that Taigo was not with her.
Her brows furrowed at the space next to her.

Where the silvery haired man-beast had slept the previous night, guarding her even in sleep, was nothing more than a pile of clothes, a small note pinned to the sleeve of a faded lavender sundress.
Squinting slightly against the morning light, the young pink-head mulled over the harsh, sharp black lines of kanji, barely legible for the serial killer slant of handwritting.

"Get dressed and meet me in the courtyard. -Taigoshin" It read. Short and curt.

Sighing heavily, she folded the note and placed it to one side before getting up from the futon and dressing in the lavender rags. Frowning at the shredded heam and moth-holes in the floaty cotton fabric, she quickly pulled on the pair of accompanying karate sandals and ran out of the dark little room, tripping down the staircase on her way to the cavernous entrance hall. Emerging out onto the courtyard, she was surrounded by the charred reminents of oak trees, crows cawing eerily between the burnt branches. The sun appeared almost ghoulish red in the horizon as it rose over the high, crumbling walls, casting a soft glow on the sorched brown earth.

Shasta soon found him.

She almost gasped in supprised. Standing amid a layberyth of thorny vines, was Taigo. Stripped to the waist and clad only in a navy pair of torn, ragged karete gi pants, his back was to his young ward as he set to summoning up blue spheres of energy, hurling several towards a number of beaten-up targets on a wall at the farthest end of the courtyard with a loud roar, only just audible over the ensuing explosions of brick and stone, the fierce blasts of wind whipping his now braided silver hair wildly around him.

The young girl could'nt help but stare, mesmerized by his fluid movements as he continued his assault on the targets, pure rage etched upon his porcelean face.
So graceful..like a cat, yet with such a rage in his movement that suggested he was angery at the world...
Her emerald eyes caught sight of his musules, flexing beneath his milky flesh as he twisted and turned with each furious energy volley, sweat glistening from his toned abdomen. A hot pink blush rose up on Shasta's face, a lump catching in her throat.

He truely was beautiful, she thought to herself...thin, sleek and agile like a cat, it was like watching poetry in motion..

As suddenly has it had started, the man-beast seized his bursts of energy, puffing and panting as he struggled to catch his breath. One bony, thin hand shot up to his chest, clutching it tight as his heart pounded angerily against his ribcage. Knees buckling, he sank to the ground, wheezing as though he was drawing his dying breath.

Alarmed, Shasta snapped from her stumpour and ran to him, ignoring the pain as her legs were cut to ribbons by the thorn vines in her race to his aid. Crouching low, she raised her hand to touch him, fearful of what she might find... Just as her fingers rested on his shoulder, however, Taigo spang upright, shrugging her hand away.

"I don't need your help, woman." he grunted through wheezy breathes, shakily getting to his feet in an act of defience.

"Bu-but...you..your chest..-" Shasta simpered, feeling her cheeks burn once again. She knew something was'nt right.. something inside was slowly but surely sapping his strenght. He hid it well, covering it with arrogence and over-confidence..yet, she knew deep down, he was scared. She saw in his face.
That unmistakable look of a man who fears a dark secret..

"Don't worry about me, woman...I've been through worse." Stumbling on his feet, the silvery-haired manbeast staggered barefoot on the dusty grounds, headed towards what appeared to be a makeshift tool-shack, rotten wood door only just clinging to rusted hinges.. Following him with unnessicary haste, Shasta found to her supprise, that the shack was not a shack at all, but rather, the remains of an old, weather-beaten shrine, a dirt-encrusted gold seal preventing the doors from falling off.

With one sharp flick of the wrist, Taigo wrenched the gold seal from the crumbling handles, casting it aside like a piece of junk as he roughly pulled the shrine doors open. Peering inside, eyes wide with curiousity, the fushia haired young girl saw, to her supprise, a sword mounted on a small, rusted iron rack....but unlike the rack, the blade was etherally clean, glinting a soft pink in the morning light.

"This blade belonged to Lady Arailani..it holds her power, her strenght and her speed.. only those with the blood of the Fire Spirits can wield it...." the man-beast said in a ragged voice, coughing slightly as he removed the sword carefully from it's dusty resting place.
No sooner had the weapon come into the open sunlight did it suddenly shoot from Taigo's hands, narrowly missing Shasta by inches before coming to a crashing halt, piercing the heart of a vast stone in the centre of the courtyard.

"What the heck-?!" Shasta gasped, casting the man-beast an incredious look. With a slight chuckle, Taigo walked towards the stone, tearing a strip of fabric from his ki pants as he did so, wrapping it around the steady stream of blood that had gushed forth from his palms as the sword sped from his clutches.

"I cannot control it, for I am only a lowly man-beast...but you..if you are truely the child of Lady Arailani, you will be able to pull that sword from the stone. Go on, try it." he grunted, pulling the rag extra tight around his bleeding hand.

"Nuh-uh! It'll only attack me!" Shasta swallowed a lump in her throat. Without a doubt, this had to the weirdest week of her life..

Taigo frowned at her, folding his arms over his bare chest.
"I was'nt asking, woman. Pull that sword from the stone if you know what's good for you." his voice was low and calm, but his eyes showed his annoyence, a crease forming between his brows as he spoke, furrowed towards the young girl in his midst. So uncertain...so naive.....

With a sigh, Shasta nodded, taking a timid step towards the stone, her face fixed in a frown. This had bad news written all over it..but, not wanting to face the wrath of the man-beast in her wake, she complied and braved a few more steps, feeling the wind pick up around her...almost as though it too was fearful of things to come.

The sword was right in front of her now. A beautiful, ornate hilt of silver, wrapped tight with a blood-red ribbon and adorned with a galaxy of tiny orange gem-stones glinting softly in the light, only just peeking out from a thin crack in the hard grey granite. Out-stretching a hand, the young girl let out a deep breath....her fingertips grazed the silky ribbons...

All at once, an intense wave of heat washed over her body, causing her to scream out in alarm. Orange flames licked at every inch of her body, burning away her clothes and making her very blood boil within her veins. The heat was unlike anything she'd ever know...pure, raw, liquid fire that burned through to her very soul..
"NGH!! WHAT'S HAPPENIIING?!" Shasta cried out over the roar of flames, shutting her eyes tight against the orange twister that enveloped her body.

"It's just a power surge...the sword has'nt been used for a thousand years. It's not used to the sudden disturbence...just ride it out, woman." Taigo said over the noise, shielding his eyes with one hand as the flames got brighter and brighter, completely obsuring his view of the young god-child.

It seemed to go on for an eternity, a great collumn of fire swirling and dancing in the centre of the courtyard, the heat so hot it could be felt for miles around.
Shasta's screams had soon died down to nothing, her body consummed by the fire as she floated within the blur of orange...

..then, as suddenly as it began, the flames ceased, dying away to a few dull embers. Her body fell to the ground with a hard thud, the feeling of ashes and hard rock against her bare back...

..there was no more roaring inferno....just a strange, soothing warmth that resonated deep inside her chest. Slowly, she opened her eyes, fluttering long lashes to reveal a pair of rich emerald eyes, squinting against the morning's light, growing harsher as the minutes dragged by.
Shakily, she got to her feet, only to stumble to the ground like a newborn deer as a wave of nausea washed over her.

"What...what was that..?" Shasta groaned, only to jump in alarm.. her voice...it sounded different....older...more sultry..

A rough hand grasped her shoulder, causing her to look up into the soulful blue eyes of Taigo. He was grinning inwardly to himself, as though mulling over an amusing injoke, taking the young girl by the hand and pulling her to her feet.
Without a word, he led her towards the fountain that took pride of place in the centre courtyard, the magestic stone panther's fierce snarl seeming to turn into a strange, twisted smile as they approched it.

"Look...." he whispered softly, urging her to peer into the glassy clear water..

Shasta's eyes widdened in alarm.

What was once a young, plain little girl's face was now a stranger's, staring wide-eyed and slackjawed up at her from the clear ripples. Her nose, still cute as a button, was thin and elegant, her eyes sparkling brighter than ever under a deep neon pink fringe.
Unable to believe what she was seeing, she moved a hand up to her hair, letting the bright, silky tendrils slip through a set of long, thin fingers....no longer chubby and scabbed, but elegent and manicured.
.
Running her fingers through her newly cleaned, longer pink tendrils, flowing gracefully over gentle shoulders, were a set of small, round breasts, full developed and springy to the touch, only just hidden by her hair. Further down, a smooth, flat torso gave way to slim hips and long, hairless legs, a single bangle of flame-shaped golden leaves wrapped around her left ankle.

"W-what?! I'm..I'm older...!" she gasped, hands reaching to rub, poke and prod her face and neck, uncertain if she was awake or dreaming.

"This is your true form..your goddess form....from this day forward, you are now Lady Shastania, Goddess of the sun." Taigo said in a quiet tone, wrapping a sheet around the newly transformed goddess.

Brows furrowing, Shasta moved her hand to pull the thin fabric tight...it was then she noticed the sword in her hand, perfectly motionless and humming faintly beneath her fingers.
"Goddess...of...the..sun

"You are a Fire Spirit, weilder of the bright flame... but you are still a child in mind..I will teach you how to weild that flame, woman....I will teach you how to claim your destiny..."




"....She has awakened.." Pandora mused to herself, eyes darkening beneath her veil of ebony locks; "......but soon...soon, she will sleep eternal.."




A/N: Yah, kind of an anti-climax, but I'm feeling creatively drained towards this fiction, so I felt it would be kinder to end it now rather than force out a bunch of drivel for the next couple of chapters...but don't fret! The story is far from over. I'm going to be taking a break from this series for a while due to health reasons (exhaustion, stress and flu) but I WILL be working on Book Two. Untill then, thank you very much for reading and I'll hope to see you again on the next installement.
So, untill next time, in the immortal words of Jerry Springer:
"Take care of yourselves and each other. Goodnight!"

~*~*~*~
Shasta-Chan
25/09/05