Fan Fiction ❯ Illusia ❯ Illusia - Her Story 6 ( Chapter 6 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Serenitychan13 
Chapter 6: Beginning Her Journey
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Suspense / Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy / Action / Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.24.2004 | Updated On: 01.24.2004 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.3K | Visits: 194 | Status: Completed
Chapter 6: Beginning Her Journey
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Suspense / Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy / Action / Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.24.2004 | Updated On: 01.24.2004 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.3K | Visits: 194 | Status: Completed
Chapter 6
When I woke up, I quietly sneaked out of my old room. I had no idea then that it would be the last time I would ever see it. I found and followed the tracks of the two does and the stag who had guided Queen Illusia down from the mountain.
Though I didn’t know it at the time, I would follow them through Kea’ahno – the great forest, over the Hills of Shaiae and to the Caves of Ni’oie. I had no idea what I was getting into.
In the forest of Kea’ahno, I no longer felt the soft, cool greenness of life as I had when I had traveled with Grandfather Bear. The forest felt awfully cold and completely lifeless. The atmosphere felt like space was closing in me. The smell of death hung horribly in the air.
It was smothering me.
I wandered aimlessly through the shadows, the tracks completely forgotten. I rounded the same corners over and over. Since I could barely see two feet in front of me, I fell over rocks and roots that lay concealed close to the surface of the ground. I ducked under sharp branches that tore at my clothes and scratched my arms and legs and face. Blood from scratches and cuts stained my long silver dress and dried on my skin. Several times I wound up wading through murky streams that smelled of sulfur and stung the bleeding scratches on my legs. Lavender hair fell messily in stringy ponytails down my back, snaking around my arms and giving me chills.
I stepped in a hole and nearly twisted my ankle. I looked down to find my foot was stuck in the hole. After much tugging and swearing, I pulled my foot loose and kept on walking.
Almost immediately, I tripped and fell into a weedy pond. In an instant, I realized why there was only one kind of weed in the pond; the weeds growing in there were covered in stinging spores! Soaking wet and sporting blotchy red patches on my already-bleeding arms and legs, I hauled myself out of the pond and continued on through the rancid forest, scratching frantically.
As I passed what I was sure was the same rock for what I was equally sure was the third time in four hours, I stopped dead in my tracks.
The scream that would have rattled the entire forest of Kea’ahno caught in my throat and came out as a strangled shriek.
Animals – birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels, wildcats, even bats – lay dead or dying all around me. Blood soaked the ground. Even the leaves on the lower branches of the trees were spattered with blood. The smell of death was stronger than ever and it turned my stomach.
Horribly sickened by the mass slaughter, I turned and ran.
I had to find a place free of the mangled bodies. I had to find a place to retch. After emptying the contents of my stomach onto a rotting log in the form of violent projectile vomit, I sat on a rock to try and make sense of what seemed to be a random killing spree.
Who – or more likely WHAT – would have the power, or the DESIRE, to slaughter these innocents?
None of the bodies had been completely dismembered, just very badly beaten and slashed, although the cuts crisscrossing many left some of the bodies completely unidentifiable. The marks, as far as I could tell, had not been made by claws.
Who has the disgusting mind to slaughter the does and the fawns? The most innocent of all innocents… No creature in all Kerahneeah would even THINK to do anything like this… We take only what we need and NEVER the mothers or the young… Kerahneeah has been invaded… But by what? I must find Queen Illusia…
I felt strong for mere seconds before dissolving into tears. I wept for the lost lives – for the innocents slain in the forest, for Grandfather Bear. I was racked with sobs as my mind was flooded with thoughts of my beautiful Kerahneeah being invaded, taken over and falling. Mostly I was a lost girl crying for myself…
I asked myself… Why was I created? Why does this whole daunting task have to fall on MY shoulders?
I became angry as I asked… Why ME? If the Creators are so powerful, why are THEY not out here crying over the slain innocents? Why are THEY not the ones out here worrying to death about this new enemy?
Tears of sorrow became tears of rage as these questions boiled in my mind.
In a flaming rage, I shouted, “I will defy destiny! Let someone else pick through bloody carcasses and smother in this wasteland! I can run from my destiny and avoid it altogether! The bloody hell with destiny!”
I stormed around the shadowed forest, lashing out at anything and everything. I changed from a human girl to a doe, to a bat, to an eagle, to a fox, to a bobcat and then to a wolf. I finally settled on the form of a mountain lion. I slashed at dead trees and tore the bark off the living ones, all the while emitting my devil cat screams.
For days I crashed about this wasteland, leaving destruction in the wake of my rage. Once I had used up most of my energy, I was no longer able to control my power of transformation. I turned back into a human girl, though I was now quite disheveled and I was in dire need of rest. Exhausted, my now-human form collapsed on a patch of moss on the forest floor.
A small but very strong voice echoed through the back of my mind.
“What are you THINKING?” it scolded. “YOU are the CHOSEN one! With the powers of Water, Fire, Thunder, Earth and Spirit, you are the Supreme Princess Illusia! Rise up and take your place in your beloved world!”
Inspired by the strength of my Creators, I stood up – albeit shaking a little – although I wasn’t QUITE sure what I was doing… I forced myself to search for the tracks of the two does and the stag, desperately clinging to the hope that they weren’t lying with the others among the mangled dead. If anything had happened to them, then something horrible could have happened to Queen Illusia…
Mother…
With grim determination, I followed the few tracks I could find. Luckily for me, Queen Illusia seemed to have kept her wolf form. The tracks of a wolf were easy to distinguish amid the tracks of so many herbivorous creatures. I only hoped that she had kept her form as that of a wolf the entire way. If she had changed again, her tracks could be anything or nonexistent should she have changed into a bird or bat…
Please Mother… Please be alright…
I stopped to rest under the roots of a giant hardwood tree that had long since fallen over. Feverishly stacking clumps of pine needles over the gaps between the roots gave me some shelter. I would need it. I could tell it was going to rain and rain hard.
Sure enough, Aleut had taught me well and I was right. It started to rain, steadily getting harder and harder until I was soaked to the skin. I didn’t even have the energy to change form. I just looked up into the rain, a tear mixing with the rain on my face…
When I woke up, I quietly sneaked out of my old room. I had no idea then that it would be the last time I would ever see it. I found and followed the tracks of the two does and the stag who had guided Queen Illusia down from the mountain.
Though I didn’t know it at the time, I would follow them through Kea’ahno – the great forest, over the Hills of Shaiae and to the Caves of Ni’oie. I had no idea what I was getting into.
In the forest of Kea’ahno, I no longer felt the soft, cool greenness of life as I had when I had traveled with Grandfather Bear. The forest felt awfully cold and completely lifeless. The atmosphere felt like space was closing in me. The smell of death hung horribly in the air.
It was smothering me.
I wandered aimlessly through the shadows, the tracks completely forgotten. I rounded the same corners over and over. Since I could barely see two feet in front of me, I fell over rocks and roots that lay concealed close to the surface of the ground. I ducked under sharp branches that tore at my clothes and scratched my arms and legs and face. Blood from scratches and cuts stained my long silver dress and dried on my skin. Several times I wound up wading through murky streams that smelled of sulfur and stung the bleeding scratches on my legs. Lavender hair fell messily in stringy ponytails down my back, snaking around my arms and giving me chills.
I stepped in a hole and nearly twisted my ankle. I looked down to find my foot was stuck in the hole. After much tugging and swearing, I pulled my foot loose and kept on walking.
Almost immediately, I tripped and fell into a weedy pond. In an instant, I realized why there was only one kind of weed in the pond; the weeds growing in there were covered in stinging spores! Soaking wet and sporting blotchy red patches on my already-bleeding arms and legs, I hauled myself out of the pond and continued on through the rancid forest, scratching frantically.
As I passed what I was sure was the same rock for what I was equally sure was the third time in four hours, I stopped dead in my tracks.
The scream that would have rattled the entire forest of Kea’ahno caught in my throat and came out as a strangled shriek.
Animals – birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels, wildcats, even bats – lay dead or dying all around me. Blood soaked the ground. Even the leaves on the lower branches of the trees were spattered with blood. The smell of death was stronger than ever and it turned my stomach.
Horribly sickened by the mass slaughter, I turned and ran.
I had to find a place free of the mangled bodies. I had to find a place to retch. After emptying the contents of my stomach onto a rotting log in the form of violent projectile vomit, I sat on a rock to try and make sense of what seemed to be a random killing spree.
Who – or more likely WHAT – would have the power, or the DESIRE, to slaughter these innocents?
None of the bodies had been completely dismembered, just very badly beaten and slashed, although the cuts crisscrossing many left some of the bodies completely unidentifiable. The marks, as far as I could tell, had not been made by claws.
Who has the disgusting mind to slaughter the does and the fawns? The most innocent of all innocents… No creature in all Kerahneeah would even THINK to do anything like this… We take only what we need and NEVER the mothers or the young… Kerahneeah has been invaded… But by what? I must find Queen Illusia…
I felt strong for mere seconds before dissolving into tears. I wept for the lost lives – for the innocents slain in the forest, for Grandfather Bear. I was racked with sobs as my mind was flooded with thoughts of my beautiful Kerahneeah being invaded, taken over and falling. Mostly I was a lost girl crying for myself…
I asked myself… Why was I created? Why does this whole daunting task have to fall on MY shoulders?
I became angry as I asked… Why ME? If the Creators are so powerful, why are THEY not out here crying over the slain innocents? Why are THEY not the ones out here worrying to death about this new enemy?
Tears of sorrow became tears of rage as these questions boiled in my mind.
In a flaming rage, I shouted, “I will defy destiny! Let someone else pick through bloody carcasses and smother in this wasteland! I can run from my destiny and avoid it altogether! The bloody hell with destiny!”
I stormed around the shadowed forest, lashing out at anything and everything. I changed from a human girl to a doe, to a bat, to an eagle, to a fox, to a bobcat and then to a wolf. I finally settled on the form of a mountain lion. I slashed at dead trees and tore the bark off the living ones, all the while emitting my devil cat screams.
For days I crashed about this wasteland, leaving destruction in the wake of my rage. Once I had used up most of my energy, I was no longer able to control my power of transformation. I turned back into a human girl, though I was now quite disheveled and I was in dire need of rest. Exhausted, my now-human form collapsed on a patch of moss on the forest floor.
A small but very strong voice echoed through the back of my mind.
“What are you THINKING?” it scolded. “YOU are the CHOSEN one! With the powers of Water, Fire, Thunder, Earth and Spirit, you are the Supreme Princess Illusia! Rise up and take your place in your beloved world!”
Inspired by the strength of my Creators, I stood up – albeit shaking a little – although I wasn’t QUITE sure what I was doing… I forced myself to search for the tracks of the two does and the stag, desperately clinging to the hope that they weren’t lying with the others among the mangled dead. If anything had happened to them, then something horrible could have happened to Queen Illusia…
Mother…
With grim determination, I followed the few tracks I could find. Luckily for me, Queen Illusia seemed to have kept her wolf form. The tracks of a wolf were easy to distinguish amid the tracks of so many herbivorous creatures. I only hoped that she had kept her form as that of a wolf the entire way. If she had changed again, her tracks could be anything or nonexistent should she have changed into a bird or bat…
Please Mother… Please be alright…
I stopped to rest under the roots of a giant hardwood tree that had long since fallen over. Feverishly stacking clumps of pine needles over the gaps between the roots gave me some shelter. I would need it. I could tell it was going to rain and rain hard.
Sure enough, Aleut had taught me well and I was right. It started to rain, steadily getting harder and harder until I was soaked to the skin. I didn’t even have the energy to change form. I just looked up into the rain, a tear mixing with the rain on my face…