sagitta luminis [solo//dream]

[Kyubey]

Maisy Kenner

help me
please, help me!

The land around me is grey and barren. Dead. Not just polluted -- District Six is almost choked in smog, but its soil has yet to die. Life still conquers death. Here, death has smothered everything. Soon, I know, it will smother me as well.

I do not know how I got here. My feet ache as though I have been wandering for days, but my head is cloudy, and I cannot remember what came before. Perhaps this is what lies beyond the fence. Perhaps the Capitol is right to keep us away from this danger. Nothing can stay alive here, for I can feel death's icy tendrils rising up from the loose, dusty ground. A colorless sun hovers on the horizon, neither rising nor setting.

...why have I come here?

Almost like an answer, the voice echoes in my mind once again. Help me. Please, help me! I do not recognize it, and the words sit uncomfortably within me, like a lie I desperately want to believe. Yet I remember that this voice led me to this desolate place, and it is the beacon that I follow as I push onward.

I do not know why I trust this voice. Perhaps it is an illusion meant to lure me to my death.

All the same, I cannot ignore it. Abandoning those in need is the greatest sin I can commit.

"Please, hold on. I'm coming!" I say, but the words disappear into silence as they leave my mouth. Yes -- I see now that the whole world is silent. Sand and dust crumble soundlessly beneath my steps. A chill wind whips my hair into my face and stings my eyes, but does not whistle in my ears. I can still hear. I know I can. There's simply no sound to hear. It is unnatural, and for the first time, I'm afraid.

My feet hesitantly slow, then stop. I can scarcely breathe before two figures, as colorless and dead as this forsaken world, burst from the ground in front of me.

I was wrong about the silence. As the greyfaces rise from their graves, they shriek and moan, piercing my ears like knives and drowning out my own screams that disappear into nothing. I can't move. I can't breathe. These spirits saw my hesitation and fear, and they are here to take their revenge on me.

They are right. I was weak. Maybe I deserve their wrath.

If I submit to them, will they spare me pain?

Just before I fall to my knees and accept my fate, a light -- pure and white -- illuminates the nothingness that surrounds me, holding the greyfaces still and awakening the earth that it touches. I can actually feel the color that it spreads, and for a second, I glimpse the most vivid greens and blues, images of the life this place used to have.

You must fight.

The light explodes outward, and in its place stands an ornate wooden bow, carved with vines and crowned by the pink bud of a flower. I've never shot an arrow before in my life, and I abhor conflict, but I know the light is right. To save this land -- to save myself -- to save the unhappy spirits that suffer here.

I must fight.

I reach out, feel the warm wood respond under my fingertips, and without thinking, I fire.

[attacks first greyface]
[dice=200+4000]
[miss - 0]

[rand=8670632103458047312533888500183858309636404737839345167332794517]

[Kyubey]

we are one.

we are separate. we are joined.

we are asleep. we are cold.

there is peace in death.

the intruder means well. she is young. foolish. afraid. just as we once were. we toiled and swallowed the dusty air in vain. we clung to life. we clung to hope.

when we accepted death, we realized hope is chaos.

there is order in death.

we sense the fear in the intruder's heart, a garish burst of color against our calming grey. we can calm her. when we embrace her, she will join us in our eternal rest. she does not understand now. hope -- the great liar -- still whispers in her ear, tells her to fight.

her arrow of light flies past us and singes our skin with heat. our tears fall not for us, not for our pain. but for hers. for her misunderstanding.

life is but the longest death-sigh. we will spare her pain.

we reach out to her.

[attacks maisy]
[dice=200+2000]
[shallow cut on chest - 4]

our caress brings out red, the stench of life. she cries out at our touch, and we recoil, mourning her fear and confusion. she does not know. if she simply accepted our gift, she would not suffer so. to simply fall away from the lies and confusion of life -- that is the answer we offer. free from pain. free from breath. wrapped in the serenity of nothing.

but we cannot make her understand. the liar holds her close and strangles her in its grasp. she will not listen to us.

so we must continue to fight.

we weep.

[attacks maisy]
[dice=200+2000]
[shallow cut on right bicep - 3.5]

[rand=256905466550961145619466907810426085645267739892012554797809571028]

[Kyubey]

Maisy Kenner

rolling now so i can write my post accurately tomorrow.

[attacks first greyface]
[dice=200+4000]
[shallow cut on stomach - 4]

[/color][rand=84088981267996137082339536864317859613993205134791392916813493]