Fan Fiction ❯ Jiikron: Legend of the Two ❯ Aftermath ( Chapter 4 )

Warning: This chapter contains (semi) graphic descriptions of gore.

 

This chapter is dedicated specially to Devildice708. Without his support and encouragement this chapter would not have been posted for a while. Thanks for letting me know that I need to get my rear in gear, so to speak, Dice. XD

 

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.” -Anonymous

 

-Chapter Four-

-Aftermath-

 

Mikona, Vitani, and Voide spent the next two days gently coaxing Kona into forcing down some of the bitter remedy that would calm his stomach. He did so as best he could, but was often interrupted by coughing fits that left thin trails of bile and blood trickling down his chin. His face, however, was slowly regaining its natural color and his breathing improved on the whole. If he was in need of something he would mouth words to his caretakers, because speaking out loud made his throat feel as though someone had sprayed it with acid. Voide constantly reassured Kona's worried twin that everything would be all right; Kona would recover. And he did.

 

When he was finally able to stand and talk, Voide made an announcement.

 

“I think it's time to return to the village.”

 

“What?! Why?!” Vitani wasn't happy with his declaration at all.

 

“Because we need to assess the damage, Cantilena. And we need supplies: clothes, tools. I'm afraid all of the food would have spoiled, though.”

 

“I don't want to go back there! There are people… They're…”

 

“Dead,” Voide finished her sentence for her. His pupil released a small choked sob. His eyes lighted with sympathy. “I know it's hard, Vitani, but we must go back. We surely can't stay in this field our whole lives.”

 

Vitani's expression begged to argue, but she knew her master's mind was made up and would not be changed. She turned pleading eyes on her father.

 

Mikona regarded his daughter with sad resignation. “I agree with Voide,” was his only statement.

 

“But what if there is still poison in the air?” Vitani asked in one final effort to get her way.

 

“There won't be. It will have dissipated by now,” Voide informed her. She hung her head in defeat. There was no way she could avoid returning to Hyran to see the bodies of the fallen littering the streets, spread eagle and covered in blood and filth and flies-

 

No! Her mind screamed, and the image vanished. She shook her head to dispel the horrible feeling of dread, but it refused to leave her. On the contrary, it migrated down her neck, standing up the hairs on her nape, spread through her shoulders and arms, rousing thousands of goose bumps, and finally lodged itself in the crevices of her rapidly beating heart.

 

~@%%@%%@%%@~

 

The trek back to Hyran was not a pleasant one. With each step the smell of decay grew stronger and there was many a time when the group was forced to rest and regain control over their mutinous insides.

 

When the houses of the village finally came into focus, Vitani stopped dead in her tracks and would not be moved.

 

“I can't go there! I just can't!”

 

“Alright,” Voide sighed and took her by the hand, gently sitting her down on the grass and kneeling beside her. “The two of you keep going. I'll stay here and keep her company.”

 

Mikona nodded and led his son onward.

 

To say Kona was less than thrilled about the prospect of entering Hyran would've been a dismal understatement. He knew from horrible experience what that misty poison could do to someone who breathed it in. What, he wondered, would its effects be on those who had not run?

 

When they were no more than twenty feet from the first cottage, the unpleasant stench of death became almost unbearable. Mikona paused to pull his shirt up over his nose and indicated that Kona should do the same.

 

The village, which would have normally been filled with the sounds of cheery laughter and people busily working away, was eerily quiet. The sun, shining brightly above them, seemed almost like it was mocking them and their bleak task. The streets were empty around the outer edges of Hyran; all the inhabitants of the outskirts had perished inside their houses, Kona supposed. Most of them had probably been unaware of what was happening. They had been unable to do anything but sit and unknowingly wait for death to come.

 

The lack of any bodies was playing on their nerves, adding to the suspense. Kona almost expected the hair-raising music that usually accompanied such situations to begin playing.

 

Then- one step, two, three- and they were directly in front of the village square. With an agonizing, horrible lurch, Kona's heart stopped. What should have been a bustling courtyard had become a graveyard. Bodies- too many lifeless forms- strewn across the ground haphazardly, overlapping one another, leaving barely any room for anyone to move through them. And where there wasn't rotting flesh, there was blood. So much blood. Too much. Coating the streets and the fallen villagers and running in tiny crimson rivulets to the drains which filtered filth from the town. It seeped from the gaping, black, bloody wounds that appeared on the chests and stomachs of every body littering the cobblestones.

 

In one quick sickening realization, it hit Kona hard in the face- the poison has burned holes right through their skin. Idly, without noticing what he was doing, he stepped forward through the filth, following his father, whose face was ashen. Another step, and there was a terrible, disgusting squelching sound. Looking down, to his horror, Kona saw that had he accidentally put his foot right through one of those dreadful stomach wounds. In his haste to get away from the body he slipped on a pool of blood and something else- probably intestines, he would later think with a disgusted frown- and landed hard on his back…

 

… Directly on top of another corpse. With a repulsed fascination, he turned his head to see the pale, dead face of the poor creature who had just barely cushioned his fall. He found himself staring directly into the bright blue eyes of Metra, whose gaze was shockingly piercing, even in death.

 

His heart restarted painfully, pounding against his chest as a scream worked its way up out of his lungs and into his mouth and then out into the air, ending the stifling silence.

 

Mikona rushed to his son's side and pulled him up by the arms, away from what had once been one of his family's friends. “Kona! Son, stop! Calm down!” Mikona tried desperately to calm his frightened child, shaking him by the shoulders and forcing him away from the courtyard into one of the smaller side streets.

 

When Kona finally stopping screaming, he was trembling and drained of color. He slumped against the wall of a house, trying to chase away the image of Metra's motionless body from his mind's eye. It, however, had burned itself into his eyelids, so that closing his eyes made everything worse. Worse than that, he felt sick, dizzy, and utterly weak. Mikona took pity on him.

 

“Go back to Voide and your sister. I will finish here.”

 

Kona shook his head to argue, but his father put a firm hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Go, son.”

 

Unable and unwilling to disobey his dad, Kona made his slow way out of Hyran and towards the safe, clean air of the Ynla Valley, glad to finally- finally- be leaving the gruesome scenery of the village behind him.

 

~@%%@%%@%%@~

 

AN: Originally, I had planned for this chapter to be much longer… But this seemed like a decent place to end it, not to mention that if it had been longer it would have taken me more time to write and I figured that it's been far too long since I've updated… So here it is, chapter four, for all three of my fans. ^_^ Because I love you guys so much. And I'd like some real, constructive feedback on this chapter. This was my first time writing something horror-ish, and I'm very worried about how it turned out. Please feel free to go all out on me! I won't be offended.

 

Also, this is the end of the first arc. As of right now, I don't know when the next one will begin.

 

Disclaimer: This story is a product of my imagination. Any and all similarities between real people/places and those in the fiction are purely coincidental.

 

~ The Neko Kami of the Fruit Loops