(Dream) No One But Us (Raiha)

by **Vala** on June 23rd, 2011, 7:09 pm

2nd of Summer, 511 AV

This dream began like all her dreams began - within a black abyss.

A small, frail girl, curled up tight in a fetal position floated in the darkness. Her eyes were shut tight, but it didn't matter. The darkness within was just as dangerous as the darkness without. Though she drifted without purpose or direction, a weight still sat heavy deep in her chest. And though it hurt her, she guarded it with her body, because that was all she had. Without the weight she was afraid, she was afraid she would disappear into the empty void.

Vala's hip length mane of hair had transformed into a fiery cocoon that enveloped her entire form. Only her face peeked out, as a swaddled baby's would. She was still, still as death. Her face was bone white. There was no need to breathe in the abyss.

Then the laughter began. First it was far away. It was sharp, like glass. It was scattered everywhere, like a million fragmented shards, coming closer and closer with its jagged points meant to cut away at her. Vala gasped painfully, cold air rushing into her lungs with demanding force. The laugh had reached her, trailing it's mocking notes as it brushed against her ear. She curled up tighter, willing her cocoon to cover her, to protect her. She shut her eyes tight, hoping for warmth, fear paralyzing her breath again.

Vala curled up tighter under her covers. Her lips opened to release a silent moan. The calm of sleep was evading her yet again. She rolled over several more times, still unable to get comfortable. The sheets wrapped around her, getting tangled by her frantic movements.

OOC :

by **Raiha** on July 9th, 2011, 1:17 am

Sometimes it drove the two souls of the Akontak crazy just how intertwined they were to each other - there was no separation of one from the other, a separation that one had tried to effect via complete and total domination while the other just tried to live with the soul who shared her body, who invaded her thoughts, and who had no respect whatsoever for privacy. They had come a long way since then. But they still wished they could dream separately. But having that as the only time through which they were parted might have been enough to tempt the Akontak into sleeping far more than she did. But as it was, Raiha and Kanikra made do with naps and a short night's sleep.

Ever since they had met their mother-goddess Akajia, their dreams had changed. Though they were easily a stark contrast between dreams and nightmares, neither twin could decide which they were. It was all in one's perspective, wasn't it? Raiha wasn't convinced that Kanikra ever had nightmares, where most of her own had involved being completely lost in nothingness. There was no more fear of the abyss, for each twin understood now just how there was no benefit for either of them if such an event occurred.

But now, that nothingness took shapes. The world of shadows was illuminating, and encouraged their fondness of all things dark. They could see in it, and if you could see in it, there was nothing to be afraid of. But this was strange enough - even as the sisters eyed one another, and began to walk, side by side. Always together. Here, they were apart. But at the same time, they were together, a closeness that nothing and no one could touch. Where Raiha had once considered herself the lightness to her sister's darkness, their balance, the equilibrium between the two had evolved and strengthened, and now both of them found comfort in the shadows... even if it was only for a short time. Darkness was merely the absence of light, and the fear of the darkness was merely fear of the unknown. "Up ahead," Kanikra remarked, ever alert, ever watchful as her identical twin, in the dreamscape, anyway, strolled along with her. "Do you see the light?"

"Aren't I supposed to ask you that?" Raiha shook her head, bemused. She reached for the moving darkness, gathering it about her like a wispy cloak, letting the shadows settle on her skin. They had felt this way before, using the Sulvanon. But where it had smothered them, suffocated them, through these, even as they settled over her mouth and nose, they could breathe. Beside her, Kanikra had done the same... to the point where only two pairs of gold eyes lit up their expressionless features, masked as they were by the shadows, which seemed to harden, almost like wood, around her face when the fingers she could no longer see. The masks. It was always the masks - the masks they wore as they went through their day. "Masks?"

"Yes," Kanikra's arm swept out to catch Raiha as they continued to approach the ball of fire. "Defining. Confining. Freeing. That is the power of the mask..." At the laughter, they looked at each other, gold eyes meeting gold eyes in the faceless masks. "That is new..." she mused. "But at least there's fire out here..." By now they were close enough to realize that something was perhaps burning, cocooned as Vala was in the fire. Their approach had been quiet, but now, in the light that defined the shadows, Raiha took comfort. "Rocks...?" Kanikra nudged one with a boot, the shadows undulating along her legs before settling in place once more. Solid. Curiouser and curiouser. At least it wasn't sand. Sand meant Mura, and that place of sunshine and butterflies and rainbows was more irritating than anything Kanikra knew.

"Goddess' greetings to you," she told the sleeping dreamer, having stopped out of her immediate melee range. Her voice was raised slightly, doubting from the fits of the other's sleep that she would hear her at her normal volume. The flames licked at the shadows that surrounded the two souls of the Akontak, which curled and clung, staying very much in place despite that fire, that anathema to their own nature. Kanikra watched, shaking her head at her sister. Tall, austere, cloaked in the darkness that Kanikra spent her life in, a world in which they both dwelled from time to time... They could have carried on, after seeing what it was, or, for that matter, who it was, or simply observing in the silence of the darkness, but this... this was typical Raiha.

Having abandoned the bed of her mews for the hammock to rest in for the night, Raiha snuggled in amongst the netting, serene and solemn as she was during the day, even as Zulrav's winds moved in and out of the open door, rocking her like the cradle of the sea. Around her, beneath her, the animals slept as well, listening, always listening, and always waiting for the opportune moment.

by **Vala** on July 11th, 2011, 7:57 pm

The fiery shell alighted, starting from nowhere, consuming all, until nothing was left but a cropped mane that flickered in the darkness. Vala dropped, no longer suspended by the nothingness; fleeting in its embrace. Vala stood up.

Two faces: the same face: different. No longer covered, bare and vulnerable. Vala crouched, inching back slowly. Clad in shadows, golden fires burned behind the wispy fog, but it wasn’t wispy, it was solid, very solid. The dreamscape shifted. Two, no three souls, not fighting, but converging to define something that was each of them, but belonging to neither soul. Rocks, bloody red, below their feet, dusty and still. Crouched low, hands out, nails extended: Vala was scared.

Where were her walls! Nothing to cover, nothing to hide behind. Who dared look at her? A growl: How savage. Instinct? Yes, led by instinct – nothing but an animal. Vala’s spine curved sharp, fur bristled down the jutting knots of her bones. Fur. Dusty red, like the dirt, coating her as another skin. The still fiery mane atop her crown, burned bright, illuminating the pale cuts of her flesh. Another form, but true.

The growl subsided. Nothing but fear and rage: words came hard. “Who. Who are you?” She demanded, head cocked to the side. Small pearly white teeth elongated, filling her mouth with double edged daggers, glistening like glass. Was it a demon? Had the day finally come? It didn’t look like hers. It was different, smarter. Would she have to fight? “WHO ARE YOU?” Vala roared. Games, no more games. Shadows played games. Shadows nipped until you bled out, guts on the ground. No guts no glory. One did not win games with a shadow. Attack it head on. Kill it fast. Before it killed you.

Blue eyes, baby blues, glistened. They were wide, unshifted and pure. They looked on in fear and anger. A naïve child lost, trying to survive the war of sanity. This was just another battle. Everyone fell eventually.

OOC Note :