Starfall Chapter 26: Lord

Chapter 26: Lord

The world was dark.  There were no stars in the sky, and the moon had vanished.  There was no light, but I could see somehow... except there was nothing worth looking at.  Everything, the ground, those big black mountains in the distance... absolutely everything was stone, and it was deathly cold.  I hugged myself to conserve warmth and shivered.  Raising my nose to the dead air, I sniffed.  Dull air passed through my nostrils.  It was without scent.  Shuddering violently, I started to walk.  My paws padding silently on the stone floor, I made my way to the mountains of this dark realm.

As gravel crunched beneath my feet, I wondered about the true nature of this... whatever it was.  Was I dreaming?  How could I dream of such a place; or was I in that other world?  I looked around, staring at my bleak surroundings.  Silence hung on the air, unbroken.  No, I couldn't be there.  Last time I checked it was full of life, not this emptiness.  

"Isn't it beautiful?"  I whipped my head around and snarled.  It was that little girl in her fluffy pink jacket.  With her hands clasped behind her back, she walked towards me.  Her small feet made no sound against the stone.  "This is my world, or was."  She continued, looking off into the distance.  "I have no beginning and no end.  I am always here and never there.  The firstborn... The dark twin."  She turned her gaze to me, and pierced my soul with her demon red eyes.  I flinched.  My tail shot between my legs in terror and I felt fear pulse within my heart.  Emanating from this little girl was such an aura of power that I could scarcely stand it; but it was not of the golden sea... This power was not the source of life, but it's opposite.  It was a primordial energy that existed before the beginning of the world.  I'd never felt so much dark in my entire life, not even when I had fought the black spirit.  And in that instance, did I realize something dreadful.  Years ago, when I had been cursed with this arm of crimson, had I felt the same energy.  This energy had corrupted my arm, and would not stop until I was consumed entirely.  

"You did this to me..."  I whispered, looking at my shaking paws.  The girl wrinkled her nose and scowled.  

"Only partly."  

"What?"  

"A piece of Paradise lives within you wolf."  She smiled.  "You alone have the power to open the eye, just as your forefathers have done before, so long ago at the beginning of the world."  And the little girl giggled.  "Now come to me... together Paradise will be ours!"  I snarled defiance.  Anger, a righteous flame, burned within me.  

"I refuse to be your pawn!"  In the sky, the eye of Paradise opened, giving to this dead world a bright silver light.  Basking in the light of the newborn moon, I took a deep breath and felt strength flow throughout my body.  The light of the moon was warm on my fur, and gave me the courage to fight this demon.  Narrowing my eyes at the little girl whose face had gone red with anger, I rose my white paw and clenched it into a fist.  Concentrating the strength of the moon into my paw, I drew it back, and with all my might, hurled a hallowed spear of moonlight.  I watched as it pierced the demon's stomach, and with a scream, the little girl vanished in a corona of light.  Panting, I threw back my head and howled my victory to the moonlit sky.  

"This isn't over."  A malicious voice hissed in my ear.  "But... You're everything they engineered you to be, and more.  A worthy vessel."  

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"  

I woke with a start and gasped.  Breathing hard, I sat up in my bunk and looked around.  In the tiny gray room there were at least a dozen other bunks identical to mine sprawled out across the cement floor.  

"Alisha."  I whispered in the dark.  No reply.  Was she asleep?  I turned my head to Alisha's bunk, only to find her gone.  Rain however, was peacefully asleep, curled up into a little ball on her mother's bed.  But where was Alisha?  Yawning, I stretched my arms and got up from the firm bed.  Grabbing my shirt from off one of the metal bedposts, I slipped it on and loped over to Rain's side.  

Kneeling by her bedside, I looked over the small sleeping pup and smiled.  Her ears twitched.  She was such an adorable little fur-ball... Golden like her mother with white spots over her brow, and with the green eyes of her father.  May his soul find Paradise...

"C'mon little Rain, wake up."  I whispered, shaking her gently.  I wasn't about to leave Rain alone while out searching for her mother, only the creator knows what would happen then.  Rain's eyes opened slowly.  She appraised me, then rose her head and yawned.  "Come with me you cute ball of fur."  And I picked her up from off the bed.  Holding her in my arms, I watched as she rose her head to stare into my eyes, then she closed hers and rested her head against my chest.  Moments later she was asleep.  I grinned.  She already trusted me as if I was her own father.  With that thought, pain stabbed at my heart.  Rain would think of me as her father... She would know that wasn't the case, but still, I would help raise her.  To her, I would be as a father, not Shade, who she wouldn't even remember.  I sighed and stroked her head with a gentle paw.  I've had good people die on me.  I wrinkled my muzzle in a snarl.  That stops.  I will protect Alisha and Rain with my life.  

Walking down a lonesome hall with the awakened Rain bouncing in my arms, I wondered, where was everybody?  Every room I'd come across in the complex had been devoid of anyone.  I was starting to get worried.  Although Alisha's scent did hang heavy on the air, comforting me a little.  So she was definitely still here.  Nearing a window in the wall, I passed by it and glanced outside absentmindedly.  From the corner of my eye I noticed familiar golden fur.  Stepping closer to the window, I felt the sunshine warm my fur and looked outside.  My eyes widened and I snarled in rage.  Alisha was in chains!  She was being led on a leash to the platform by the railroad, and was pushed to the ground.  I growled.  My heart rate skyrocketed.  Rain picked right up on my anxiety and whimpered.

I took deep breaths.  Extending my right arm, I stared at the crimson paw and narrowed my eyes.  Small tongues of fire erupted into life on the back of my paw.  As the fire crawled up my arm, the sleeve of my shirt began to smoke and burn.  Somehow, I knew the flames wouldn't harm Rain.  My gut instinct was proved right as the fire consumed us.  Rain parted her jaws in amazement as the flames danced around her.  Ultimately, my shirt went up in flame, falling off of my body in cinders.  Sirens rang throughout the complex, hurting our ears as the smoke reached the ceiling.  Generating a little ball of flame in the center of my paw, I lifted it up toward Rain so she could see.  Her ears perked in interest.  Swatting at the flame with a paw, she laughed as it passed through unharmed.  

"That's enough play Rain."  I said grimly, flattening my ears against my skull.  I scratched the base of Rain's ears.  My flames billowed around her little form as if she were a spirit of the fire itself.  "Let's go rescue your mom."  

Passing through the open doors to the platform outside the complex, we were met with rows of soldiers; all of them aiming their sights directly at us.  I shook my head.  Unleashing upon them a mental probe, I split it in twelve to match the number of soldiers before us.  Sniffing at the base of their minds, I could feel their thoughts and the flow of the energy within them.  They were unguarded, prey ripe for the picking.  I looked at Alisha.  Her terrified gaze was pointed right at Rain, who was after all, in line of sight of potential gunfire.

"Fire!"  One of the soldiers yelled.  

"NO!"  Alisha screamed, and the platform rang with the burst of gunshots.  I grinned and took a step back.  Together, Rain and I vanished into thin air.  

The soldiers continued to fire as we reappeared behind them without a sound.  Narrowing my eyes.  I drew back my mental probes and faster than lightning, hurled them as mighty spears of thought toward the minds of the soldiers.  My spears of thought bounced harmlessly from their minds as someone erected around them a shield.  I growled.  Damn it!  So close...

"Cease fire immediately."  Fumed a familiar voice.  And the officer from yesterday walked into view from his place at the end of the platform.  The soldiers eased up on their triggers, killing the gunfire.  "How dare you insolent humans..."  His blue eyes filled with rage.  "How dare you open fire on our lord!"  And with a crack, the shield around the soldier's minds imploded, killing them all instantly.  I dropped my jaw.  The officer... He's a... Witch.  

Rain started to cry in my arms as he approached.  Stepping on the bodies of the soldiers as if they were garbage, the witch actually managed to stand taller than me.  He looked down at me.  I could see my flames dancing in his eyes.  And then came the unexpected.  He knelt before me and bowed his head.  

"My lord... I thought it may be you when we first met, but I was unsure."  I just stared.  And with a rush of wind the flames on my body were extinguished.  From the corner of my eye I saw Alisha try to stand, but she was chained to the rest of the wolves and fell.  "My lord?"  I turned my head toward the slaves.
  
"Free them."  The witch nodded.  

"I will do as you command."  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  A second later, I saw the chains around the ankles and wrists of the slaves snap in two.  They all stared at me uncertainly.  A few began to stand.  

"Go.  You're free now."  It didn't take telling twice to get them out of here.  As soon as they'd heard the word free, they ran for it as if their lives were depending on it.  Alisha scrambled to her feet.  She was dazed, but otherwise unharmed.  "Are you okay?"  I asked her as she tested her feet.  She looked at me and ran towards us.  Wordlessly I gave her Rain.  Alisha held onto her pup tightly and tried to comfort the crying babe.  

"Thank you Dusk."  She whispered, licking Rain's cheek.  Alisha came to stand behind me, as she gave the witch a few worried glances.  Did she think I could protect her from him?  I hoped so... But this was a witch.  I'd always been told that I would never reach their heights.  That they were the most powerful beings on earth.  My hackles raised and I bared my teeth.  Jayze had told me that witches were to be trusted, but something didn't feel right about him.  He was unlike any other witch I'd seen, and he'd been masquerading as a Committee officer, taking slaves no less.  Witches didn't do that, no matter who they were.  

"Who are you and what do you want?"  He didn't respond at first; he just looked me up and down, like the slavers used to do when I was their prisoner.  

"Strong...Hardy but scarred."  he whispered, almost to himself.  He lowered his head in shame.  "I have failed in my mission."  

"What mission?"  I growled, backing away with Alisha.

"No, please my lord, do not leave."  

"Then answer me!"  I looked down at our feet, where at least a dozen bodies were strewn about.  "And why did you kill your own men?"  His eyes widened in surprise.  "My men?"  He shook his head.  "No.  I was here at the beginning of the trail to Paradise, for in all these years, I believed it our best chance at reuniting."  His words only made me much more confused.

"Why is the beginning of the road to Paradise a Committee station?"  He frowned.
  
"It is only so now for it was captured.  Less than a week ago."  

"Why the disguise?"  

"A means to an end."  I snarled.  After falling into this trap would I do so again and trust him?  No way in hell.  Taking a few steps back, I took hold of Alisha.

"Bye."  And I pulled us back so that we fell.  Closing my eyes, I concentrated on a memory.  A memory of a forest at night.  

"No!"  His shout reached my ears, and then vanished on the wind as Alisha and I fell through a rift in the ground.  

The air was cold as we passed through the other side.  Alisha screamed as we tumbled through a disorienting nothingness, and then there was light.  Where there was none before, I could feel my back hit softly muddy ground.  The earthy scent of mud crossed my nostrils and the chirps of crickets touched my ears.  Rain's laughter echoed off the grand trunks of the trees that surrounded the river of my memory.  Alisha gasped and threw off my arms from around her.  Getting up, she cradled her excited pup and looked around.  

"What the hell was that!"  I sat up on the muddy river bank and stared at her.  Her eyes were wild, filled with fear.  "What just happened?"  She held onto Rain for dear life, even though the danger had passed.  

"That... was a witch.  Don't you know them?"  She shook her head.

"No, not really.  Are they all such cold blooded kill-"  She didn't finish the sentence as she realized what she was saying.  I would have killed them had he not.  "Not that you're a merciless killer or anything..."  I sighed.  "But what about that 'my lord' crap?"  I shook my head.  

"I don't know."  

"That's it?"  Her eyes were challenging.  I bristled.

"What, do you think I'm lying to you!"  She didn't say anything, she didn't have to.  The look in her eyes said it all.  With a roar I jumped to my feet.  "I've done nothing but help you!"

"Help?"  She growled, narrowing her eyes.  I could see the flame of anger burning within them.  It was an anger that smoldered.  This wasn't recent...  "I know you didn't kill him, but you might as well have."  My eyes widened in dismay.  Shock pierced my heart like a knife.  

"You'd seriously pull that card?"  I wasn't angry, just... Sad.  

"Card!"  She barked, snarling.  I winced.  Her anger cut me deeper than the bite of a whip.  I saw a tear leak from the corner of her left eye.  "If you-"  

"Don't say it."  I begged.  She went right on despite my protest.  "-Hadn't shown your stupid face-"  

"I'm begging you, don't say it!"  I screamed at her.  

"-Shade would still be alive."  It felt like someone punched me in the stomach.  Sorrow gripped me in its unforgiving hands and I dropped my gaze.  Rain started to cry.
  
"I know."  I spewed the words with hate.  Hate, not for Alisha, but for myself.  "Long Shadow should have let me bleed to death on the street.  Then at least he'd still be alive."  And I looked up at Alisha with my tortured eyes to see that she was crying.  Tears leaked from her eyes and soaked her beautiful fur.  I closed my eyes and lowered my head.  All my old friends had abandoned me.  If not in death, then through betrayal.  

"Gale?"  Alisha whispered, and I heard a thump.  Rain cried out.  My eyes flashed open and I was left with a dreadful sight.  Alisha was on the ground.  

"ALISHA!"  And I scrabbled across the mud on all fours to where she lay unmoving.  

"My lord."  Came a horribly familiar voice from the shadows of the forest.  "She was hurting you, so I took the liberty of-"  

"WHAT DID YOU DO!"  I howled, putting a finger to her neck.  I could still feel a pulse, except it was fading, and fast.  Placing my paws against her chest, I sent a surge of power through to her heart.  I could feel it jump beneath my paws.  Rain, who had fallen from her mother's arms cried even harder.  Alisha gasped, drawing in breath and relief bloomed in my chest.  She was still alive.  The fool had only stopped her heart.

From the edge of the forest, I could hear him begin his approach.  His boots squelched loudly in the mud.  Standing up beside Alisha who was staring at me with surprise in her eyes, I turned around to face him.  Without turning to look at her, I spoke to Alisha in a soft voice.  

"I swore on my life that no one would hurt you two."  Snarling, I stared at the witch who had stopped a few meters away from us.  His eyes glinted in the starlight.  

"My lord. I have something for you, and I do believe it's yours."  And he reached inside of his long black traveling cloak.  Two fireballs instinctively generated in the center of my paws, and I was ready to throw them at a moment's notice.  I could feel them hovering just inches above the rough pads, like two little heartbeats.  I didn't know how I did it, making fire... But the more I made, the easier it got.  The witch performed the impossible.  From his cloak appeared the tip of a spear.  A gnarled, wooden spear that had all the knots of the branch it had been carved from.  

"That's..."  The balls of flame in my paws flared.  Anger welled up within me.  How the hell did he get that!  "How did you get that spear!"  I shouted.  And he withdrew the slender weapon, balancing it gracefully on his palm.  Then he tossed it up into the air.  My eyes left him and followed it, a stupid mistake.  

"Dusk, watch out!"  Alisha screamed.  I didn't even see him coming.  He was like the wind.  The wind was blown right out of me as his fist connected with my gut, launching me back on my rear.  I looked up at him and growled as he caught my spear and thrust it forward so that its point was at my neck.  I stared at him squarely in the eyes.  

"You going to kill your lord?"  I sincerely hoped he wouldn't.  I didn't even know what I was the 'lord' of, but whatever it was could save my life.  He smiled.
  
"Of course not.  My intention is only that you listen.  Please forgive me for my actions, but I felt this the only alternative."  

"Alright, I'm listening."  And he pulled back the spear only to lunge forward.  He missed my neck by inches, instead thrusting downward so that the spear buried itself in the dirt.  Alisha gasped, but I didn't break a sweat.  I knew of his intentions the moment he flicked his wrist, and I could see it in his eyes, the hesitation to kill.

"Our archon deems the time correct to bring you back to Paradise."  What?  Bring me back to paradise?  

"What do you mean by that?"  He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.  
"Do you not remember you're home, where you were born and raised?"  I looked at Alisha.  

"What's he talking about.  I've lived in the U.S for all my life."  In her arms Rain looked as if she were about to cry.  Alisha shrugged, she shared in my confusion.
  
"I don't know.  Your parents moved into our neighborhood when you were four."

"Exactly!  It was decided that you and your parents would leave Paradise so that you would have a chance at life before the end."  My fur stood on end and I bristled.

"End?  What end!"  The witch sighed.  

"You don't know anything about your past, do you?  You were engineered to be the perfect being, one whose blood would be required to break the seal and restore Gaia.  After that you are to be her avatar as we return balance to this world."  Avatar...  A light bulb flickered in my mind and I snarled.  

"You mean her puppet!  I refuse to be controlled like some mindless slave."  I looked at him hard, trying to figure out if what he said was crap or utter truth.  It was hard to tell.  He was so sincere about all of this.  I closed my paws into fists.  Was I really the product of some kind of vial?  If he tried to take me by force, was I right to defend myself?  Gaia was the creator of life on this world, I should be honored to be chosen as her avatar...  And an image of Blue, smiling as we sat together on the banks of a river floated in front of my eyes.   I shook my head.  "No."  I whispered.  I had too much to lose.  If they wanted me to be Gaia's slave, they shouldn't have taken me from Paradise, if what he said is true.  I saw his eyes narrow.  I stepped forward.  "I'll summon Gaia for you, but I won't surrender myself."  

"Surrender yourself?"  He raised an eyebrow.  "No such thing need happen.  All we want is for you to be a vessel for her power.  You will retain your individuality of course."  

"Dusk..."  Alisha spoke up, holding her daughter in her arms.  "I know I'm not in any position to tell you what to do, but I don't think you should do this."  I curled my lip and snapped my head around to face her.  She'd stood up and was appraising the both of us.  Her eyes were scared... how pitiful.  Alisha was weak.  I realized that now.  What I had first seen as innocence revealed itself finally as weakness.  The trials of the last four years have made me strong.  Stronger than her.  This witch asked me to lead the world into a bright new age and she would have me refuse?  Maybe this was true, or maybe her words had hurt me more than I thought.  

"Shut up."  I growled.  She blamed me for Shade's death.  I wonder... Did she think it was my fault John was dead too?  The more I thought about it, the more hatred welled up within me.  Shock glittered in her eyes.  "This is a witch.  He knows the path to Paradise.  I may not trust him, but it would be mad to ignore help.  And besides."  I glared at her.  "You haven't been searching for Paradise as long as I have.  I'm tired of wandering and suffering.  Let it be over already."  I could see a few tears start to fall from her eyes.  I grunt and turn away from her.  A single tear gathered at the corner of my eye.  I wiped it away with impunity and sighed.  The bond of kinship I'd felt with Alisha had been cut.  Now, all but one of the ties linking me to my past had been severed.  Perhaps this was for the best.  Without any strings tethering me to the man I used to be, I could start over.  Start a new life with Blue and Star in Paradise.  Excitement rushed through my blood.  Paradise was close.  I could feel it in my bones.

Grabbing my spear, I pulled it up out of the ground and came to stand by the witch.  Staring down at Alisha's pitiful form, I narrowed my eyes in concentration and mentally grasped her beautiful phasing aura.  A vow was a vow.  I would not let any harm come to them.  Just leaving them here, it didn't sit well with my conscious.  We might not have been friends anymore, but I still had the decency to keep a promise.  

"Can you take us directly to Paradise?" I asked the witch.  He shook his head.
  
"No.  It's protected from detection, but I can take us back to the old train depot."  He looked down at a watch attached to his wrist.  "It's nearly time for the train to arrive."  

"We're riding a train?"  Potent memories of Tornuaq flashed before my eyes.

"Is that a problem?"  I shook myself, and looked at the witch.  One of his eyebrows was raised in a question.  From the corner of my eye I saw Alisha frown.  She caught my momentary weakness.  Did she know Tornuaq?  I doubted it, but on the train (if he could make me go) then it would be better talking to her than sit in awkward silence.
  
"No... no there's no problem.  I don't have fond memories of trains.  Whenever a train would stop in Tornuaq, the only thing they brought were either more replacement slaves or cruel faces... I remember because after the trains would come, they'd starve us and watch us fight each other like dogs for food.  The newcomers always lost.  Almost none of them lasted very long."  Alisha looked like she was going to be sick.  Rain kicked in her arms, reaching for me, but Alisha pulled her back.  Fear danced in her eyes like flames, and she silently shook her head.  

"You're not Gale... not anymore."  I looked at her and laughed.  

"Of course not.  He died a long time ago."  And for some reason the thought of me being that weak human was so insanely ludicrous that I burst out laughing like a madman.  Shaking my head, I stared at Alisha and grinned a wicked smile.  Her eyes widened.

"My god..."  she whispered, clutching Rain even tighter to her bodice.  "You look just like him."  

"Who?"  

"Blaze."