Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Piece of Her Wings ~Untouched~ ❯ Angel with No Wings ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: sadamex

Chapter Four:
Angel with No Wings

"Thy sons art home, Most Ancient."

The Elder neither turned nor answered. He stayed standing in the middle of the moonlight-flooded balcony, eyes closed, with his brows knitted in deep concentration. The silent whispers the stars in the sky conveyed to him turned into murmurs; murmurs about a certain event on earth that apparently held high importance. The Ancient Angel's ears were filled in an instant with those murmurs much like gossiping and chicanery fills lowly mortals' days, and it troubled him so. He shut his eyes and listened intently to the insufferable stars, trying to decipher one coherent sound to the other. Their ramblings all turned out the same; she has seen, she has remembered; at last, it will awaken. The stars murmured and chanted, some in unison, some overlapping. Some in human tongues and some in unknown dialects. Some with cadence and some in monotone. All had a different style in saying, but all saying only one thing over and over again.

It was all becoming so tiresome and irritating that the Ancient Angel almost had to silence them away.

The flaxen-haired messenger stirred uncomfortably from his Master's indifference. "Holy, there is but one who wishes to have a word with thee." He murmured slowly.

The Aged Angel wasn't really listening to him, unfortunately. He was too busy being distracted, his concern pertaining to what the stars were so curiously murmuring about. He turned to him and hurriedly asked, "Wherefore art thy brother? Wherefore art Ontrose?"

The messenger gaped at him in quite surprise for a while. "He hath descended back to the earth below with most urgency, Ancient One." He supplied.

"Knowest thou his purpose?"

"A summons, Holy," he said earnestly. "By his quite spirited charge that hath thrown herself over a ravine."

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It was absolute darkness. Black tinged with a bit of crimson, but it was dark all the same. She remembers this place all too clearly; she has been here before, many, many times. Was she awake? Yes. Her awareness snapped open and whirred like a machine inside her dark sanctuary. But was she alive? Ah, yes... that is the question.

She did not dare open her eyes; she did not wish to know the answer to her question. Somehow, it scared Marlene so much, the thought of being dead. And it wasn't death itself she was scared of, no, but the thought of dying without a purpose.

Dying like this.

She consciously felt herself with her whirring awareness, checking the headiness of her head, the pulse pounding loudly inside her ears, the steady, measured beating of her heart. Then, continuing what she started, she pushed her awareness a little bit further, checking if her appendages were still attached. She let out a relieved sighed as she felt that her arms and legs were still intact, wryly noted in passing that she felt light and numb—something perhaps the headiness of her head was responsible of—and that she could not even move herself. She wondered why it was so; she wasn't tired or exhausted, physically, perhaps, but what had happened a few moments ago was indeed mentally and emotionally draining. And all that time her eyes were shut tight, she was wondering: how was it possible to have someone fall off a ravine and be totally devoid of pain?

I can think of one possible answer to that question, she sardonically thought.

Yes, she must be dead right now. There could be no other answer. Falling off a ravine from that height? Of course she'd have died! Nobody could survive a fall like that. Marlene sighed, mentally agreeing with her perverted ruminations, cynically noting to herself that there is a god, one so merciful as to end her miserable, sorry excuse of a life, or one so vengeful as to punish her for ever thinking that there was no god. She was so surprised at her own thoughts about what was happening to her, and she let out a weak sort of laughter.

Realizing how she made light of this most horrendous turn of events, a chill went up Marlene's spine.

Wait... aren't I supposed to be numb? Her face creased in thought. Come to think of it, she had but only recently began to notice the faint pulsating sensation coming from her legs, or the stinging pain throbbing in her back. Her head was still woozy, her body still felt light, some of her other parts were still numb, but now she could certainly discern a distinct solidity in her body she didn't feel moments ago, like as if she were just now containing substance.

She hazarded to open her eyes. I didn't know heaven would be this dark.

She heavily lifted her hands and roughly rubbed her shivering, aching arms. And I didn't know that hell would be this cold, either.

Marlene was alive. She never believed it was possible, but apparently, it was. Slowly, her senses made their way back to her again, seeping through her groggy system like molasses, making her feel the pain more starkly in her immobile legs, and the sticky material that was trickling down the back of her blouse. She cast her eyes downward and noticed that there were blood spatters on the rough floor, and she didn't need to ask herself where the stains came from; the searing pain in her back was enough to bring her to tears, and it was all the answer she needed.

She sighed expansively, not moving or bothering to straighten herself at all. She didn't know what to do, or perhaps, she didn't want to do anything with it. Somehow she felt so tired inside, so exhausted of thinking, so drained. But her awareness—her curiosity—kept nagging at her about what had happened, about what saved her from her fate at the ravine. Unconsciously, she shut her eyes, feeling the calmness in herself whenever she steps inside the comforting solitude of her dark sanctuary. After some time, an image flickered again, as she saw herself alone on that cliff, walking steadily towards the deep ravine, and then the glorious dance of the angels, and then her silent scream before she was sent falling...

Wine-colored embers peered at her in her thoughts.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly. He was clinging to her from behind, holding her tightly on her waist as if she was an untamable bird going to fly away if he let go.

"Y-Yes," she choked, her own hands clutching at his protective arms.

"I told you not to be reckless! What if something happened to you and I'm not here?" he burst out, his voice a mixture of anger and concern.

She couldn't help but to grin impishly. "But you will always be here to save me, won't you, Angel?"

Angel...

Her eyes shot open, a temporary jolt running down her body. Her back stiffened, not minding the fresh trigger of pain from her wounds. Something about her encounter made her remember another unfathomable memory, and it excited her so. Her heart pounding loudly in her chest, she tried very hard to remember...

It was dark. There were trees and a carpet of grass. The pale, hazy moon hung low and large over the windblown cliff. There were angels above her, a legion of them, dancing in a spiral dance towards the gates of Paradise. Their wings were beating to some unheard rhythm as it reverberated throughout the mountains. There were footsteps taken, slowly at first, and then gradually increasing their speed. There was a soundless scream shot out, the sickening feeling in the stomach announced by someone falling, and...

It was light. So light, and effortless. The breeze cuddled her cheeks and tousled her hair. The moonbeams danced upon her face as clouds seemed to carry her home. It was as if the wind itself carried her on its gentle wings.

Wings. Wings, indeed. She definitely remembered waking up to a pair of heavenly white wings flapping in rhythmic beat. The strong, but oddly gentle wings flowed out majestically from the back of his chest. The chest from where her head was cradled upon heaved in soft breathing, as if not to disturb her peaceful slumber. She could feel strong, firm arms that carried her and...

Black. A mass of dark hair swaying disconcertedly in perfect disarray in the blowing wind. Her half-lit eyes were still sleepy and heavy with tiredness, and her blurry vision denied her of his face.

"...Angel?" she clearly remembered herself murmur.

A sharp, hardly noticeable glance. In all her gauzy state, Marlene did not understand why, but she secretly wished to remember two glistening wine-colored embers to stare back at her.

But they weren't. Instead were sparkling orbs of deep sapphire blue.

"How is it that you can see me?" he half-whispered.

Marlene did not hear. Or maybe she did, but she did not have the strength to answer. "Angel..." she mumbled, before sinking once again to the all-too-familiar darkness.

Marlene's eyebrows slanted upwards, increasing the furrows in her forehead as she opened her bright emerald eyes. "It wasn't him," she murmured, a vast wave of emptiness overpowering her. "It wasn't him..."

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"Thou wished to see me, Most Ancient?" said a musical baritone as he alighted near the arched pathway in the formal gardens.

The silver-haired Elder stood brooding by the dew-laden rose bushes. His eyes were cast upwards, towards the slowly brightening dawn-stained sky that was full of promise and hope. His face was a mystery, an expression from an uncertain emotion Ontrose could not pinpoint. He turned and clasped his hands behind his back. "Ontrose, my son," he greeted the tall young man. "Thou hast returned from thy sojourn."

The raven-haired Ontrose bowed deeply in greeting, his long blue-black locks straying into his face. "My youthful charge needs constant supervision, I'm afraid," he apologized. "She seems to have a knack for killing herself in general, and falling from dangerously high places in particular."

The Ancient Angel laughed good-naturedly. "She is most naïve," he agreed. "But reckless nonetheless." The Elder eyed him calculatingly. "Is that all thou wish to tell me?"

"She is injured." Ontrose blurted innocently. "Her back doth bleed from some unknown lesion. But she will be fine by daybreak."

"Thine heart is as transparent as glass, my son." He smiled at him knowingly. "I can feel that there is something more in thee. Come, come... tell me, Ontrose."

The raven-haired angel glanced away guiltily. "Forgive me for my subterfuge, Holy. It is not mine intention to deceive thee. But now I freely confess that I am quite perplexed as to why she seems so... unordinary..." he explained. "For certes, she hath seen me," he confessed weakly. "When I flew to save her from her precarious predicament."

The Elder smiled briefly in spite of himself. It was just like what the stars have said. She is very near to her awakening. And, though it mystified him all the same, he was somewhat awed by how this frail and rash mortal could easily break the chains he had hexed upon her before. He could not explain it—he wouldn't dare to admit that it was fear creeping inside him once again—but there was a certain amount of jubilance, a profound sense of exultation in him. He was—could it be... excited?—to see what would become of this woman, and how would Destiny twist and bend her to its whims.

"Tell me, Ontrose," he began. "The wound on her back. Hath the bones started to grow?"

Ontrose looked at him, puzzled. But after a while, his sapphire eyes grew large in astonishment. "Thou couldn't mean... impossible!" he exclaimed.

The Ancient Angel, his silvery hair glowing golden in the rising sun, smiled at him. "Yes, my son. She is the one. The most dangerous angel ever created in Paradise."

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"Ow," Marlene winced softly as she groped for the wounds on her back. The feeling in her legs was slowly coming back now. She must have exhausted the muscles from all that running, and her exertion caused her to suffer briefly from cramps. She could move them now, but she opted to rest them for a while longer, reasoning to herself that she really needed to tend the cuts on her back, and it's not like she was in a great deal of a hurry to travel, anyway.

She took out her kerchief from her skirt's pocket, cursing herself slightly when she realized that she had left the towels inside her canvas bag beside the lake in the mountains. She used the square piece of cloth to wipe the dried blood around the wounds, wincing once again in the process. She traced the cuts with her fingers—two stab-like marks between her shoulder blades. Marlene tried as best as she could, but all that returned was blank as to where her wounds came from.

Marlene looked up. The sky glowed golden in the rising sun. "And to imagine that it was dark as hell in here a little while ago." She smiled. There's nothing quite like witnessing the glorious sunrise paint the whole world alive. The dark ominous trees were now a vibrant green, the distant sky a whimsical powder blue, and the rocky path stretching out before her a rich chocolate brown. Everything around her was slowly awakening with colors that were hinted with shafts of golden sunlight. She couldn't think of a better way to start off a morning.

She wistfully thought about her rescuer. I wonder where he is right now. She had many questions she wanted to ask him, questions about herself. Perhaps he could help her understand why she was like what she is, for she does not understand even her own self.

Marlene sighed. She's grown quite a habit of doing that for the past few days. She knew that it was foolish to think that an angel from above would oblige to show himself to her just to answer some petty and childish questions that were comparatively innocuous as to what they needed to attend to. It was wishful thinking, but... she wanted to see him again. If not to talk to him, to thank him, at least, for saving her life.

A thick, overgrown underbrush shook slightly as something rustled from behind it. Marlene, thinking that it was her blue-eyed savior descending to check in on her, jumped to her feet and eagerly went towards the visitor. "Angel? Is that you?" she asked happily.

Obviously, she was too caught up in her own musings to notice that the shaking of the bush could imply danger. For just then, a creature none like Marlene has ever seen stepped out to greet her.

Her eyes widened in fear.

It licked its lips in malicious delight. "I smell blood..." it murmured.

The new morning was pierced by Marlene's blood-curdling scream.

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Ontrose looked behind him abruptly as a sound reached his ear. "What is it, brother?" The fair-haired messenger beside him asked.

He listened for a while, his brows knit deeply. "Nothing..." he muttered after a while. "I just thought I heard my charge a moment ago, is all."

His brother cocked his ear also. "I don't hear anything, Ontrose. And word of thy summons hath not reached us, if anything was out of order. Methinks thy charge is alright." He smiled and patted his bare shoulder.

Ontrose stood listening for a while longer, then he sighed and shook his head. "I suppose thou art correct, brother mine," he grumbled. "Sometimes she's just too jumpy, that's all."

The messenger smiled at him. "Methinks she is not the only one."

Ontrose smiled, but let his retort pass.

"I wish that the Master hath time to talk to me," he grumbled. "A brother of ours still needs to deliver him a message."

"Why? Where art the Master?"

"He is sleeping, Ontrose. Methinks he hath not rested well last night."

"We cannot disturb him, then." Ontrose agreed. "Who art the angel that wishes to see him, brother? Is the message that important?" he asked.

"He says that it is," he answered.

Ontrose gazed at him. "And from whom, pray tell, doth this important message came from?"

The messenger smiled wryly. "The Prince, Ontrose. From the angel we bound in unbreakable chains two nights since."

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The creature tightly clamped its furry paws upon its kittenish ears at the sound of Marlene's scream. "Good Lord, woman!" it hissed.

"A-A beast!" Marlene shrieked, pointing a shaking finger at the creature. "A-A hideous beast!"

"I beg your pardon!" it snapped. "Why, I've never been so insulted! It's enough for hunters to call me unladylike, but being mistaken for a beast from someone like you, is too much to take, thank you very much!" she pouted indignantly, daintily licking her paws and mumbling phrases which sounded very much like stupid-looking human and proud of how I look.

Marlene was speechless. "I-I'm sorry." She blurted out.

"Hmph." The candy pink-haired furry thing snorted. "If you weren't so annoying, I'd have scratched you to death." She purred. "What are you doing back here, anyway?" she demanded.

Marlene blinked. "B-Back here?" she stuttered. "I f-fell—"

"I thought I told you never to come back here again." She interrupted.

Marlene looked at her sharply. "You've seen me before?" she asked, taking a few steps forward.

"Deaf as well as stupid and annoying, eh?" she sarcastically purred, her long tail swishing back and forth. The kittenish girl eyed her suspiciously. "Talk about ruining one's breakfast. Go on, I won't pounce on you anymore, lest some sword-wielding maniac charge on me again." She said as she turned around to walk away.

"Wait!" Marlene jumped, catching her roughly in the arm. "What on earth are you talking about? When have you seen me? What do you mean 'pounce anymore'?" she demanded. One of her eyebrows shot up shrewdly. "What maniac?" she added inquisitively.

The she-cat snatched her arm back. "Geez, woman, watch it! My fur is sensitive!" she said, rubbing her arm. "And they call us savages!" she sneered.

Marlene gritted her teeth. "I'm sorry. I was caught off guard."

"That doesn't surprise me," she snorted.

Marlene clenched her fists. This infuriatingly annoying... thing is testing the limits of her patience! "You see, I've been quite... upset lately. Long story."

She smirked at her. "That doesn't surprise me, either."

"Would you please just stop being so damn annoying and let me finish?" Marlene hissed.

She merely snickered, but did what she was told.

Marlene calmed herself with big breaths. "I'm very sorry to trouble you," she said, her green gaze unwavering. "But you seem to have some information about myself that I need. You see, I've completely lost my memories, and so if you would be so kind as to tell me what you know about me," she took a deep, long breath, her bright eyes sincere. "I would be ever so grateful."

The she-cat looked at her with apparent astonishment. "Now that's surprising," she murmured.

"I know. I don't know how my memories got erased, too."

"I was talking about you being so polite and grateful."

Marlene gave her a chilly stare but said nothing.

The pink-haired creature pawed her ears affectionately then looked at her. "Unfortunately, I still have business to attend to. And since you have deprived me of my breakfast now..." she pouted, looking behind her back in the thick forest. "I have to get from this open clearing before those psycho hunters find me."

Marlene sighed exasperatedly. "Please wait," she pleaded. "At least tell me one thing you know before you go!"

She turned to the frustrated blond girl, her feline eyes calculating her. "Alright, fine." She said with a wave of her paws. "But it's not like I know that much."

Marlene sighed with relief. "That's okay. Anything will help." She breathed. "Anything."

The she-cat rolled her glinting eyes upwards and tossed her pink hair. "Geez, woman, show a little bit of respect for yourself." She said with disgust.

Marlene grinned sheepishly as the creature looked about her apprehensively, her ears twitching. "Okay. See, the last time I saw you, was..." she pointed to a tree, which Marlene thought looked like every other tree in the forest. "There. Under that tree, you see?" she said. "You were snoring in your encampment, which happened to be my territory."

"I do not snore," Marlene weakly quipped, listening eagerly.

"You did, too." she off-handedly retorted. "Anyway," she continued. "I was hungry, you had provisions, and since no one was looking and you were trespassing... one thing led to the other and next thing I know, I was sorely rubbing a black eye and was watching you and that sword-wielding maniac friend of yours leave my territory for good." She looked at her pointedly. "Or so I thought."

Marlene wasn't impressed. "That's all?" she asked.

"What do you mean, 'that's all'?" she snapped. "I spent a week nursing that bruise, and was forced to hunt with only one freakin' eye after that, thanks to you." She accused.

"Sorry." She could not help but smile. "Don't you remember anything else?" My name? Or our destination, perhaps?" she asked, snapping her fingers.

"Hmm..." the she-cat thought. "I don't know your name... like I'd want to know your name," she added sarcastically. "But you did mention that you two were going to Gaea."

The name made Marlene's heart jump. "Gaea?"

"Yes, Miss I-need-to-repeat-everything-I-say-twice, Gaea." She licked her paw. Then, seeing the dumb look in Marlene's eyes, added, "You know, the place you humans call Paradise."

There was that word again. Marlene stiffened her back slightly as a sharp pang triggered an ancient memory to resurface.

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This is definitely Paradise. The sky is clearer and bluer here than the sky down below. The leaves on the trees are greener, the sea of grass more lustrous. The roiling hills and plains were dotted with acres and acres of mildly-scented wildflowers in every color of the rainbow. The waters that gently embrace the dry lands are purer, crystalline and sweeter than any other she had ever experienced on earth. Everything in here is different; even the winds that blow seem to be whistling a yearning song. The animals that roam freely are so tame, you can reach out to touch them, and they will not scamper away.

As she looked around this lush and wondrous scenery, drinking in the beauty of the entire splendor Paradise offered her, her Angel came up to her carrying fruits which sweet-smelling scents were like beyond compare.

Yes, this was definitelyParadise.

She laughed a merry tinkle of a laugh, scooping the crystal-clear water from the pool under her feet and splashing her angel in childlike manner.

He closed one eye as a droplet brushed his beautiful face. "Be careful, you might get your wings wet." He gently chided.

She laughed once more and proudly unfolded her tiny wings. She giggled as she paraded and danced about in the pool, splashing tiny jewels of water about her in the process. She kept laughing and giggling in pure mirth, and her voice was like a song no kind of siren could ever reproduce. It was the sweetest thing he had ever hoped to see; she was like a wind-caressed, sun-kissed sea nymph—no, a goddess—full of vibrancy and innocence that the whole universe itself seemed too unfit to contain the light she brings.

He couldn't help but to smile at her. And eventually, join her into joyous bursts of laughter.

She smiled at him and giggled. "What are you so happy about?"

He didn't answer, but merely continued to laugh, letting the whole blissful moment pass. Then, he slowly walked towards her, gently brushed an offending lock of sunshine hair from her endearing face, a warm look in his eyes.

She smiled broadly at him. It made her whole world light up seeing him happy and smiling like that. There was a sparkle in his passionate amber eyes that wasn't there before. The hardness and indifference in him when she first met him had been replaced by an air of warmth, and it made her very happy to see him like this.

He chuckled softly and brushed her cheek. "You are the sun, Hitomi," he exclaimed extravagantly. "That's why Gaea is so thriving and alive. For you are here, and your radiance gives them life."

Her glorious emerald eyes widened at the sound of her name. It felt like butterflies; sounded like sweet music every time he says it. She laughed childishly and jumped to embrace his neck, catching him off guard and causing him to fall backwards unto the softly grass-carpeted floor. They tumbled for a while, a knot of woven arms, hair and legs as they laughed their cares away.

And they stayed like that, his cheek caressing her wealth of golden hair which was spilled across his strong chest, her head nestling comfortably on the groove of his neck. Her one hand buried in his tangle of black hair, while his one hand gently embraced the back of her waist. Their two free hands were connected, the fingers intertwined in a lovers' embrace, in a silent promise telling each other that neither will ever let go.

It was an eternity of sheer tenderness. A moment they both wanted to last forever.

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Marlene arched backwards, her back twitching and giving her an almost inhuman pain. Her bright eyes were bulging out of their sockets, her lungs were about to be torn apart as her mouth opened wide to send out an ear-splitting scream.

It did not stop. Spasm after spasm of indescribable pain surged within her. She was like being eaten from the inside; or being sawed by a red-hot rusty butter knife. Only, the sensation wasn't exactly like that. It was worse. A thousand times worse.

"Gyaaah!" she gurgled, falling to her knees and clawing desperately at the ground. Thick, dark blood oozed from her humped back, staining her blouse. "It's painful! It's painful!!!" she howled, tears dropping one by one as she gritted her teeth and moaned in pain.

The she-cat had clamped her ears down when Marlene had started screaming. She took a sharp, angry hiss and easily jumped beside the writhing girl. "What are you doing, woman?" she growled. "The hunters will hear us!!!"

"So painful!!!" she shrieked in a strangled voice as she embraced herself tightly. The she-cat noticed that her fingertips were smeared with blood from all that clawing at the hard earth. She glanced at the poor girl's violently shuddering back, and noticed two bulbous humps forming in between her shoulder blades.

The humps twitched from underneath her blouse, and Marlene's bulging eyes rolled so far back that only the whites could be seen. "Gyaaah!!!" she screeched painfully.

The she-cat shut her eyes tightly as she clamped her kittenish ears again. "What the hell is wrong with you, woman?" she angrily hissed as she tore Marlene's blouse away.

The creature's face turned into a definite shade of green as she tightly clamped one furry paw over her mouth, controlling herself not to throw up. "Good Lord, woman!" she said with disgust as Marlene's blood-chilling scream seared the heavens.

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The stars have stopped murmuring. All were dead silent as her screams shook each and every constellation in the galaxy.

The Ancient Angel opened his eyes as screams of inhuman suffering reverberated in every dark crevice of the palace. And so it begins.

The flaxen-haired messenger looked shaken as he searched for his raven-haired brother. The shrieks of pain that haunted his ears seem to be seeping inside his bones as well. "Ontrose!" he found him at last. "What was that?"

Pale-faced and frightened, Ontrose's only answer was an uncertain shiver.

The most dangerous angel ever created in Paradise.

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Blood spurted from Marlene's sliced back. The bones from her shoulder blades were forcing themselves out, or extending themselves out, and it pierced through fat, muscle, tissue and skin. Marlene was biting her lip, now bleeding and turning purple from the pressure of her teeth. The she-cat tried to control her revulsion at the hideous sight before her and averted her cat eyes to look for a long, flat piece of dried vine. She found one, and she hastily wrapped it around her thumb. When the thickness was enough for her taste, she dashed with catlike speed by the heavily-breathing and writhing girl and tried to get her attention by gently slapping her cheeks.

"Hey! Here, bite this instead, or you'll end up losing a lip and a tongue!" she said, offering her padded thumb.

Marlene gratefully obliged and bit hard.

The she-cat winced.

Her screaming was muffled as the contractions came and went, great drops of tears and sweat falling to mix with the bloodstains on the ground. The humps twitched and shivered as they made their exit out of her cracking and heavily-bleeding skin. From somewhere in the forest, hoarse voices and hurried footsteps alarmed the creature, looking nervously behind her as she, too, bit her lower lip.

"Woman, we've got to get out of here!" she huffed tensely, wincing as the girl hardened her bite.

Marlene suddenly let go of the thumb, a string of saliva visible in the glint of the morning sun. "No!" she barked, heaving as the spasms grew more and more close together. "Please, just stay with me in here for a while longer!"

The cat creature looked at her angrily. "Woman! We can't stay here any longer! The hunters are coming, and if they see you like that, they'llkill you also!" she growled.

The humps convulsed violently. The blood spurted as the fissures in her skin widened, announcing that it is very near to come out. Marlene howled like a mad animal.

"Woman!!!" the cat hissed angrily, her fanged teeth bare.

"My—name—is... Hitomi!!!" she howled in an otherworldly voice as she writhed and convulsed in pain. The she-cat stumbled backwards, feline eyes wide in shock and aghast as she witnessed royal crimson blood spray out as a pair of bloody, barely-feathered wings proudly emerged to greet the heralding dawn like a newborn infant from her gently curving arched back.

"...Great... merciful... God..." the she-cat choked.

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From somewhere in the darkness, a melodious tinkling echoed within the musty cave as the unbreakable chains rattled loudly from all his sudden jerky movements when his bloodshot eyes opened abruptly.

"Hitomi..." he breathed. "I long for the day when we shall meet again..."

Tsuzuku

He chuckled softly and brushed her cheek. "You are the sun, Hitomi," he exclaimed extravagantly. "That's why Gaea is so thriving and alive. For you are here, and your radiance gives them life."