Kanashi Sono Yawashii

Darkness encroached the land. The air was still, so very still. Not even the breath of a living creature stirred the air. No branches or leaves dared to rustle in the heavy, humid atmosphere covering the forest. It seemed almost as if they were waiting, waiting for something, anything, to break the stillness of their world.

And then it was broken, a loud shot in the distance. The darkness left for a blinding flash of light. It happened again, louder this time. And there was another shot, closer together this time and louder. The darkness traded in once more for a brighter flash of light. And then there was the patter of thousands of little feet, everywhere, all together at once. In the air, on the leaves, the ground, anywhere there was a solid object.

The atmosphere ridded itself of its heavy and humid climate, by raining and thundering.

In this forest in the rain and thunder a girl walked. She looked to be no older than eighteen. In seconds of the rain appearing, the girl was drenched. Her black cloak, green pants and red shirt were plastered to her slender form. Silver rooted and ended purple hair stuck to her back and head as if it had been glued there. Water dripped down and around her amber colored eyes. Rain dripped of the tips of her conic ears coated in short, nearly velvety, red fur. The oaken staff she carried with her was soaked, the golden inlays covered in droplets of water.

Even if the rain hurt her, her mind was hurting even worse. She was wandering from something. From what, she wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe life itself. Perhaps nothing at all. All she knew was that she was hurting, and no one that cared about her was around to comfort her.

She sighed and sat down with her back leaning against a tree. She stared up at the cloudy sky from which darkness and cold rain poured. Water streamed down her face, whether it was from the heavens above or her own amber oculars or a strange mix of both, she didn’t now.

She brought a hand to wipe futilely at the water on her cheeks, some coming from her slowly reddening eyes. From the forearm down to the rips of her fingers were burn marks, they looked healed, but still were there. She looked at her arm and hid it, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on one of them. She brought lightly clawed fingers up to her temples and rubbed them.

Like the burns on her arms, her memories would never leave. Her form shuddered with open tears and sobs as her mind tormented her with unwanted memories. Similar to the thunder in the sky they were loud and blinding, blinding her to the joy in the world.

She looked up and saw bodies, covered in a rockslide. ‘Stop it!’ she screamed in her head. But the image didn’t disappear, her friends, all her friends’ bodies had been broken in the merciless rocks the fell from the freak earthquake. Yet, she had survived. She wished she hadn’t. Why did she live when they died, they were young, several thousands of years younger than herself, yet she lived while they died. She buried her in her arms and cried louder.

She chanced to look up again, this time hurt by more painful memories. Delicate white flowers floated in an unseen breeze. There were three black trees, faded somewhat with the age of the memory as were the flowers in the air and the ones on their branches. Between the trees was the girl, holding onto to one much younger than herself that was crying. Lying before them was a big hole with two bodies lying inside, which looked to be in their mid twenties.

She buried her head again and wept louder, why had her parents died? What had they done? They had been great people, but they had been killed mercilessly in their sleep. Now she wished of the same fate.

Next to a different tree a shadow fluttered. A black feather fell listlessly and carelessly to the soggy and muddy ground. A bare foot trampled the feather. Out of the shadows walked a boy, looking to be eighteen. The smile that had been on his lips when had spotted the weeping girl faded when he saw that she was indeed crying. His black feathered wings fluttered open and closed behind his back in a spastic twitch.

He walked silently over to her, frowning and his purples eyes streaked with black around their centers looked concerned. He crouched down next to her and his muscular shoulders enveloped her small form in a comforting hug. She only briefly looked at him and turned to face his body and cry openly into his chest.

After a few minutes she couldn't feel him anymore and she looked around, finding no one in sight. She sighed, new tears rolling down her cheeks, "Not even the one I love most stays to help me. I guess it was just my imagination." She sighed and spotted something in the muddy ground...a dark glossy black feather.

'Kailuna, what makes you think I would abandon you like that?'