Completed Only The Memories...

[Noaru]

Winter 6, 514 A.V.

The trees were dull without their leaves; winter had changed them into tall, black shadows. The forest was quiet and overrun by these shadows and the mist which had enveloped most of the land provided zero comfort. A white wall was being built, its purpose was to obscure and limit sight. There, no here, a gloom extended its roots beneath the white wall of mist—dusk approached. The forest was losing its light: like that of a man in his dying days. What form of comfort could one find here, right now…in this moment? The freezing cold gnashed at all forms of flesh. The silence deafened the senses. A soul unaffected by these things will surely succumb to the maddening effects of solitude.

The fauna of the Wildlands were away—some asleep, others awake. However, there was something else besides animals here, he indulged in the silence and solitude was his ally. Noaru was this something; he travels through the trees, through the darkness and through the silence. He himself was silent, without a thought occupying his mind. Noaru was simply pressing forward; his focus was placed upon the distance.

In the distance a new chapter was being written and prepared for him. Noaru knew he would need to travel through the dark and cold to reach the warmth of the light. He knew he would have to traverse over the vast distances before him: in order to reach the warmth he sought after. The radiant sun was far, away from the world he occupies: a world of darkness; one of stillness, one of insecurities and loneliness. A world where prayers go unheard and you have no voice. Desolation was a cruel world to live in and it was not fit for anything besides the truly dead or monstrous.

Desolation has many fearsome monsters and beings: some real and some illusionary. Noaru understands he originates from such a world but the ancient era was gone, destroyed and the monsters, which existed at the time, were now in hiding. Noaru stops and looks at the stars, something he hadn’t done in awhile. There, he could see one lone star, shining brightly in the vacant sky. The spirit gazed at the lonesome star, wondering if it too was born from obscure concepts, aspects and rules.

“We both exist in this darkness, yet you remain complete and only I search for perfection within it. ”


“”

[Noaru]

Only The Memories…

Noaru, with those words, pushed on. He emerges from the sea of branches and leaves, granting himself freedom from the embrace of the dark forest. Noaru could see all of the glistening sky and the ocean of blackness, swaying beneath him. This weightlessness and freedom were but two of a few things that allowed Noaru to feel truly alive. Noaru was pleased by the fact that he still could feel joy from something he’d experienced for thousands of years. The cool night breeze brushes against Noaru’s form and captures his attention—strange.

Noaru felt something in the wind which made his soulmist shudder. What he felt made him uneasy: like some unnatural event had taken place somewhere. He pauses to observe his surroundings and notices a thin pillar of smoke one yard away. Noaru instincts were telling him to keep going. The affairs of spiritists and the ghosts involved with them—were to be avoided. A loud crack resonated from the forest, something large had fallen. Noaru follows the trail of smoke and as he travels above the trees, he catches the scent of soulmist in the wind. The scent of soulmist was getting stronger and Noaru was beginning to sense multiple presences; though, they were faint—barely noticeable.

The spirit felt something was terribly wrong now and as he descends onto the campsite…his soulmist shudders. There was blood splattered on the trees and the nearby bushes were dyed red. A severed hand was resting on the forest floor and just a few meters away from the hand: a corpse was there. Noaru wasn’t a stranger to blood, as creatures were always preying upon on another: since the ancient times. Noaru was searching for the presences he sensed before he reached the camp. There should have been ghosts nearby but why couldn’t he sense them now?

[Noaru]

Only The Memories…

“ They’re all dead…”

Noaru turns to the left to see who had spoken to him. A ghost: a male ghost was pinned to a tree by a soulmist coated arrow of some sort. Noaru levitated towards the ghost and revealed himself to the barely visible apparition. The darkness seemed to embrace Noaru’s soulmist, as he materialized into view. The spirit’s incorporeal form emerged from the thin air it had occupied, becoming visible or somewhat so in the darkness that now warped around him. Noaru was angry and saddened by the sight before him. Those damned spiritists, how could they do such a thing?

“I…it… wasn’t the humans fault.”

The ghost stuttered to the spirit in his weakened state. Noaru looked around cautiously. The area was unnaturally silent; he could feel his soulmist shudder and still smell the thick aroma of soulmist in the air. Noaru extends a tendril of soulmist and pulls on the arrow that firmly held the ghost to the tree in front of him. However, as he pulled—the ghost yelled in pain! Noaru stopped immediately and looked around once more before speaking to the trapped ghost in front of him. He needed to know what happened here and why was there a corpse on the ground with its hand severed. However, what Noaru wanted to know the most was—why was there so much soulmist in the air?

“Young soul, trapped and forsaken—what caused this, this desolation.”

The ghost had an expression, one that was a mixture of fear, sadness and regret. He didn’t know what to tell Noaru. The ghost was too afraid that the creature would return and finish him. Noaru gazed into the ghost’s eyes and saw nothing but complete terror within them. He knew that this ghost saw something and he questioned whether or not he truly wanted to know. However, he needed to; he needed to know if there were more of these spiritist and ghost killing creatures.

“W...we were certain that we were being followed by something. The being or thing stayed out of our field of vision but we knew it was there—we could sense it there...watching us. There were four other ghosts, including myself and a spiritist. I thought it was another ghost or maybe a person but it moved strangely.”

[Noaru]

Only The Memories…

Noaru was void of expression and thought. He couldn’t stay here any longer nor could he leave this ghost pinned to this tree. Noaru looked into the ghosts eyes and saw how truly frightened the ethereal was. He couldn’t leave him here; he couldn’t leave a member of a race that he sees as his own… as his children. Noaru extends ten tendrils of soulmist and quickly wraps them around the arrow that held his companion to the tree. The ghost yelled in pain but Noaru ignored the ghost and he continued to pull. Noaru could feel the arrow’s grip loosening. However, his companion was rapidly losing strength and soulmist.

The spirit could see the ghosts materialized form; it was fading rapidly and losing its luster. Noaru snaps the arrow in half, leaving the tip inside the tree. Noaru tosses the other half of the arrow to the side while ignoring the amount of soulmist he was shedding in the process; he continues to pull the ghost from the tree. The ghost pleaded for him to stop, revealing to Noaru that the task was proving to be more arduous than he thought. Noaru was starting to feel the pain a well, it was excruciating, as though his soulmist tendrils were about to snap-off.

Noaru did not want this ghost to ‘‘fade’’ a fate that is truly worse than death. A ghost or entity that fades—will cease to exist. Noaru remembers when he was fading; he felt emptiness overwhelm him and the utter blackness, pulling him into its depths. Noaru felt the pensive sadness, melancholia, for the first time. He saw his entire life. The life he lived and existed within, his life’s memories being built together. However, these memories were violently smashed once he felt the true meaning behind them and lastly beyond the meaning of life and happiness.

Noaru remembers how he felt like he was falling in that moment and the bottom of this dark abyss would mark his end. The Valterrian had stripped him of everything; his love and his hate. This was a fitting way to die, Noaru thought, as he felt the bottom of the abyss, his end approaching—death. However, a single memory saves him: one carrying the image of his family, his first family. Noaru understood that only the memories, his memories saved him and memories could save this ghost.


“A memory, any of your fondest memories will help you here.”


The ghost stared quietly at Noaru as he was pulled from the tree. The soulmist floating in the air provided Noaru and the ghost some comfort as they regained their strength. Noaru was the first to move; he levitates over to the body of the dead spiritist and observes it. There were many clean cuts, cuts done with surgical precision. Noaru could see how efficient this creature was in killing its prey. The hand next to Noaru wasn’t bitten off but sliced, as if a bladed weapon of some sort had gotten to it. The spiritist’s chest had been sliced down the middle and opened; his heart, lungs, and other important organs had been removed.


“You fought with honor.”


Noaru could see the broken crossbow in the spiritist’s left hand. The human still held onto the weapon even in death. A large trail of blood allowed Noaru to see where the culprit had dragged and taken the organs. The spirit didn’t want to risk his friend and himself, he needed to possess an animal to avoid immediate detection.

“”

[Noaru]

Only The Memories…

A loud ‘‘wooo’’ catches Noaru’s attention. He looks around, trying to grasp where the sound had originated from. The bird flew over Noaru, seemingly unaware of his presence as it lands just a few meters away from him. The fowl was interested in the severed hand, as it pecked greedily at the fingers. Noaru seizes the opportunity; he extends his tendrils of soulmist and grabs the fowl. The creature struggled, as Noaru lunged forward and entered its body. The owl clawed and pecked at the air, trying to harm attack and harm the entity which had taken possession of its body. Noaru settled himself within the creature’s consciousness while spreading his ‘‘roots’’ to seize control of its mind.

The owl’s body was now resting on the cold ground—motionless. A bystander would have believed that the owl had died, as it was silent and remained so for two chimes. Noaru couldn’t hide his frustration. The fact that he could not access the ‘‘memory’’ portion of the mind showed him that he was far from reaching perfection. The owl rises to its feet. The fowl’s eyes were dull and void like that of a person whose aspirations have been crushed. Noaru watches through the windows to the owls soul—the eyes. He could now pierce through the darkness with just gaze: using the owl’s eyes.

Noaru crouched and opened his wings, as he jumps; he flaps his wings twice and propels himself forward through the air afterwards. Noaru was careful to not carelessly maneuver through the trees, he knew he had to be convincing, as though he was actually an owl. Noaru perches himself on a tree and observes the forest floor below him. He didn’t need to focus his eyes in the darkness. The owl’s natural ability to see in the pitch blackness allowed Noaru to see the blood and carnage. He coos once, acting as though he was an ordinary owl. Noaru wanted to avoid suspicion: even if he did somehow avoid doing so, or thought he did and was just fooling himself.

Noaru propels himself forward and flies through the open areas of the trees. The spirit followed the trail of blood which seemed to curve to his right. Noaru followed the trail of blood but was unable to find the missing organs in his observation and search. He could see the light of the camp; it shined gloriously through the trees. The fire which should have been a beacon of light to Noaru—turned into a great pillar of darkness. The trail stops at the blazing campfire; he now knew where the organs were. In the fire a man’s heart, lungs and other organs, burned. Noaru looked at the grim sight and believed the thing that did this treacherous act… wanted to toy with the mind of anyone who just happened to stumbled here.


“The young soul from before said that there were other ghosts”


However, Noaru knew that these ghosts had probably left or were also destroyed by this monster. The ghost which he had seen before…was gone. Noaru flew over to where the ghost was and saw something disturbing crudely written in the dirt. The message was
‘ It had no mouth ’ written in the dirt which was illuminated by the light of the eerie campfire. Noaru flies away at this point, deeming his current location to be to dangerous.

[Orion Michaels]

Noaru +1 Soulmist Projection +1 Materialization +1 Possession +1 Observation lore : Traveling towards Destiny Fading, a fate worse than death Possessing an Owl results : Notes Noaru, that first post was easily the best of yours that I've read. Wonderful description and flow. Keep that up. You're still switching between present and past tense, however, so try and keep an eye open for that. PM me with questions/comments. Please edit the request queue to refect this grade.