章節 154: - The Lands of Lost Memories
Two bodies moving two figures that were running fast and steady down the dark tunnels filled with shadows that loomed over them like the cold senseless touch of death. Their minds raced with fear as their feet echoed down the long and vast hall, empty of all sound and life but their own.
But this did not stop their minds from fearing the worst, always afraid that someone was on the other side hiding behind a corner, the darkness or behind their backs. All they had to keep themselves going was the warmth of their hands firmly pressed against one another as Lia pulled Lukali farther and farther along the tunnel.
"We're getting close! It's just around this bend!"
Lia called back, her voice echoing down the tunnel as Luakli struggled to keep up with her quickening pace, constantly searching the shadows behind him for any signs of life. Any signs of him.
"I can see the exit, come on…!"
But just as Lia laid her eyes on the exit, the pale moonlight and sounds of rain filling the tunnel as they drew near, closer and closer only a breath away, she felt the hand she had been holding onto so carefully out of fear, sip away from her grasp.
"...Lukali?"
She slowed her pace just as her body entered into the moon's bright and pale light as it shone through the rifts in the storm clouds, small sprays of mist and the chilling wind brushing against her skin, as her eyes met his.
"I can't."
Was the only thing he said, choosing to look down towards the ground, rather than meet her gaze. He shivered slightly and Lia knew he was afraid. Scared.
Alone.
"Lukali, come on. We're right here - we're almost home!"
But still he refused to move, brushing his hands across his arms he stayed silent, watching the shadows as they rippled behind her. Someone was watching, and he knew those red eyes like burning embers in the fire always saw more than they needed to.
"You brought Rian, didn't you?"
"Yes but…what does that have anything to do with this? We're almost free, Lukali."
Again he shook his head, gesturing behind him at the unseen shadows that watched from the darkness.
"No. We might make it out of here, we might even make it back to Kokono. But I've been hiding from him for years Lia, I know he won't stop hunting."
"Then we'll face him. If he comes looking we'll meet him with weapons drawn!"
"No. It won't work. He can't die, and believe me, I've seen many try."
His voice dropped to a mumble as he took a step back, wanting to hide away from her eyes. They were so much like him.
'He would be disappointed right now, wouldn't he? What am I saying, you can probably read my mind. You know why…why I can't…'
The shadows flickered and fluttered like flames against the wind, as some sign of acknowledgement that Lukali took to heart as he turned to face Lia, her eyes glowing with worry and fear.
"I…"
"Why?"
She knew, she could see it in his eyes that he was going to run, he was going to run back and give himself up after everything she had done to bring him here. To get him out.
Why was he fleeing now of all times? Just when they were on the brink of leaving it all behind them, he was running?
Coward, her mind said. Fool, her heart mentioned, all thoughts and worries, spears of insults that would shatter his heart should he hear them. But Lia remained still, motionless, and watching.
"...I can't watch you die, Lia."
And then, as he spoke, her heart shattered and her fears fell from their pedestal held higher than any other emotions that flooded her chest. He had reason, he had fear, but all would be for not if this was to end here.
"I'm not. I never will."
She took his hand in hers and brought him close, close enough that she could feel his warm breath on her neck as she brought him into a deep hug. She held him tightly as her eyes watched the darkness behind her, feeling the fear and lonesomeness seethe off of him as she embraced him.
But Lia wasn't worried about his fears or his loneliness. She needed him to move, she needed him to flee with her now, otherwise they would never have another chance.
Lia was logical, and it pained her heart, because she was heartless in that moment.
In one swift motion, Lia took Lukali's hand in her once again, and without a second to spare, she pulled him into the rain as it soaked into their clothes and steamed down their face like small rivers trailing through the land.
"The caravan should be close by! We'll be safe in-"
Before she could finish her sentence, as she turned around to console Luali once more, she flet two big and burly hands grab onto her as a huge force exploded against her stomach. The only words she heard in that moment, was a warming too little, and too late.
"Lia!"
Gilbert threw himself onto Lukali, pinning him to the mountain side where mud steamed over his shoulders and arms, his eyes searching the curtain of rain for any signs of Lia.
Then he saw it, the figure standing beyond his gaze, highlighted only by the rich outline of his body and large physique. He looked like a mountain himself with lal the gaze and glory to kill any man where he stood.
His heart dropped as the booming voice echoed through his ears, reminding him of the nightmares he suffered from on their journey. Nightmares of one little boy, scared and alone as he watched his mother die before his eyes.
"I gave you a chance, Lia of the Endless."
There was a thud and suddenly the taste of warm blood was in her mouth, filling her heart with the taste with iron and her stench of rain.
"I gave you a chance to run."
He grabbed her shirt as she struggled to regain herself, landed another punch to the face as her head flew back, her mind spinning with every beat of her heart.
"You could have run, you could have lived to see tomorrow, but you chose this!"
She couldn't see through the rain and mix of blood as it splattered across her eyes. Another punch to the face and she found herself face first in the muddy ground, the presence of a man standing above her. She reached out her hands to stop him, trying to grip her sword hilt but she only found air.
Arnold grabbed her by the shirt once again, squeezing so hard that the water soaking her loose shirt faded out as he brought her to his face, staring deep into her red ember eyes.
He didn't say anything, only smirking as he reared back his fist to land another punch but was too late. Lia found a grip on a small dagger hanging from his belt as she pulled it free, slicking through the closest bit of flesh she could reach.
Arnold's fist released her as she fell to the ground, one hand over his reopened wound from the attack that had long since been stitched and bandaged together by Trevor.
"Bastard!"
Lia gained a steady footing on the muddy ground, reeling around as she swung the dagger too wide through open air. Too wide to hit anything, but wide enough that it left room for Arnold to duck beneath the swing as he landed a heavy fist to her face.
She fell back again, blinded by the string sensation of her broken nose as blood smeared through her eyes. But Lia had no time to react for Arnold was already on her, his big hands gripping her arms tightly as he pulled her in close, landing several more blows to the face before Lia had a chance to breathe.
Then, in a moment of pure luck, she gained a well centered kick to his thigh as he reared back in pain, gasping for air. But Lia didn't let him take that chance, landing an even more deadly blow to his face as she felt her knuckles breaking under the force.
She scooted back through the mud and out from under Arnold until she felt the firm and hard stone of the mountain behind her, standing quickly as she wiped the rain and mud from her face, smearing blood across her cheeks.
Lia was filled with fury and anger, fear and instinct as she glared at Arnold with eyes that could set a forest ablaze. But instead of seeing a man withering in pain, she saw Arnold spit out a mouthful of blood as his fingers traced slowly over his jaw.
"Seems that freak taught you how to punch. Not bad."
He stood with the same courage and energy he had the moment they started this brawl and Lia was firmly reminded once again why she feared this man so much. Her heart began pumping as her mind began to melt, all plans and courage she felt were soon thrown out the window as she took a large swig at Arnold the moment he got close.
But she swung too wide once again as he caught the dagger mid air, her wrist gripped firmly in his hand as he twisted it overhead, elbowing Lia in the nose. She saw sparks but she gritted her teeth and tried to resist, only to find her head pounding against the stone rock face.
With each pound she saw the memories flashed before her eyes, the thoughts of running ,the moments she felt like she was going to die - they were all so vivid in that moment she felt like she was reliving them.
The moment in the city when she watched the fire burn all around her, the moment she fought Arnold for the first time, and the moment she left the Master behind with words she regretted even now. If it was all for nothing, then she had let it be so.
She was about to meet death, she knew it all too well as her head pounded against and again into the stone wall, she knew this was where she died. But even as her eyes met Lukali's for a split moment, that one moment felt like an hour, she saw the look in his eyes.
She saw the message he spoke without his words, fear and anger as he fought against Gilbert to save her.
'Ha…I guess I really am a liar.'
Then she was on the ground again, her hair and head sinking into the mud as a firm hand gripped her throat, ripping the dagger from her broken wrist. She could see Arnold above her through the pouring rain, even as lightning flashed overhead, painting his face in shadows of the dead.
"I gave you a chance. You could have seen tomorrow if you had just left us alone."
He wasn't angry, his eyes held no hate. Instead she saw a look of sadness and fear as he held the dagger above her throat. But why was he afraid?
Arnold could only watch as Lia's body stiffed for a moment, then fell limp underneath him as the tip of the dagger drew a small drop of red blood, quickly washed away by the pouring rain.
'She's giving up. I can feel it in my heart that she no longer has any will to fight.'
He frowned as he rained the danger above his head, his son's screams and pleads for mercy filling his ears as his mind fought against them, too afraid to let the dagger fall at his side.
'If she lives, I will die. If she dies, then so will I…what a messed up world we live in, kid. We're always alone. Destined to kill one another until one of us can see home.'
He felt his blood rushing as his heart began pumping, his raised arm falling from the air to the ground in a swift motion. But it is often said amongst people that when you kill someone, there is a moment that feels like eternity between the two of you.
Many say it's the moment you learn you've taken a life. Others say it's the moment they learn their life is being taken.
But Arnold once heard a saying he took to heart, logging it away in his core beliefs. That one moment before their death wasn't for one or the other. It was the moment when both parties learned in their hearts the truth.
They were no longer human.
Then there was red, and Arnold was thrown back as his face stung of steel and blood, Lia's wide eyes of fear and acceptance blanked and turned black. Arnold didn't know why, but he felt his head land against the mud as water streamed down his face mixing with the blood on his cheek.
He would later find out that from the darkness before him flung an arrow true to its mark, scraping across his face as he leaned back, leaving a long and thin scar tracing from his cheek to his forehead, seeping blood.
'…so this is what it feels like to bleed.'
***
Lia awoke to the sun shining on her face, peering past her eyelids, warming her skin from afar. She could hear the birds chirping behind her as the feeling of soft grass pricked her skin, tickling her as she slowly raised her head.
She was in a forest, bright and clear with the blur of the sun shining as if it was so near that the very ground might set alight on fire.
Birds danced from trees and sang songs of nature's blessing, as deer and other animals flocked in the meadows yonder. But what attracted her eyes was not the animals nor the creatures that surrounded the forest, or the questions already pounding in her head.
It was the lonely man standing in the midst of it all, a tall man dressed in black clothing like a black dot against a wall of white. He wielded a bow and one arrow, but no matter how many times he fired at the nearest tree, the arrow never left his hands.
"You're awake."
He said, neither a question nor a statement, but a truth and fact of logic that made his voice sound strange and peculiar. It was unlike the questioning tones of her friends or the suspicious sounds of the Master as he spoke.
It wasn't even the sound of Cain's deep and all knowing voice that she expected. It was smooth, calm, and well put together.
She recognized it immediately.
Lia stood and with staggering steps approached the man in black, amazed as she gazed at him with wide eyes. Eyes that red the room like pale gray paint, unlike the fiery embers of Cain's.
"Master. Master Shir?"
The old man smiled as he raised his bow again, launching another arrow into the distance, falling just short form the tree. The target wasn't far away, nor did Lia believe much force was needed to pull the arrow back against the bowstring, yet nonetheless, the arrow always fell short, only for another to appear in Al Shir's hands.
"What are you doing, Lia?"
"...what?"
She blinked several times as he looked between her and the tree, crossing his eyes over all the failed attempts at firing the arrow.
"You're dying. You've lost too much blood, so now you will wait here in this paradise until you die."
The words were like a poison to the mind as Lia took a staggering step back, feeling the air whiz as Al Shir fired another failed attempt.
"What do you mean I'm dying? I was there on the mountain facing Arnold before you…before you…"
She raised a shaking hand towards Al Shir, realizing that she must be dying because she would have never seen this false paradise before her eyes. This couldn't be real, surely this was all fake.
"How am I here?"
Al Shir fired again, refusing to answer even as she stood before him, blocking his path as hse repeated herself in a more stern voice. Only this time, the question was different, demanding and without fear.
"Why am I here?"
"...did I teach a coward?"
Lia took a step back as Al Shir moved around her to fire yet another failed shot towards the tree, now closer than he was originally, yet still he missed as the arrow fell to the ground before appearing again in his hand.
"Excuse me?"
"Did I teach a coward? I don't like repeating myself, girl. Of all the lessons I put you through to make you tougher, to give you a fighting chance against your siblings, you're just going to sit there in that mud and die?"
He raised his head over his shoulder to peer with one eye into Lia's soul, hsi white hair waving in the wind that blew silently over the meadow.
"You were never so pathetic."
Now she felt a surge of anger rise in her chest, a surge of pain and betrayal that poisoned her heart and turned this paradise into hell in her eyes. Al Shir would never say such a thing, even if he was harsh or rude, mean or ruthless. He was kind hearted, but had trouble showing it.
He was never this front forward. But that didn't stop her from hating him at that moment.
"I'm sorry, okay. I'm dying, and all you can tell me is how bad I'm doing it?"
Again he fired another shot, but failed as the arrow landed lifelessly on the ground, embedding itself in the soft soil before another appeared in his hand.
"The only pathetic one here is you - you can't even fire an arrow when the trees are right in front of you."
Al Shir appeared to be waiting for this moment as he turned to her swiftly putting the bow and arrow in her hands.
"Then fire. Prove to me you are my student. Fire the arrow."
Her mind was already raging with anger and frustration as all the pain from the fight still shuttered through her bones. She raised her bow, knocked the arrow against the bow string and aimed towards the tree.
But then she felt a voice at her side, her master's as he spoke with the same careful precision she knew all too well.
"Aim fast and fire true. Never let the mind take over the feelings of the heart…"
"...and never let the heart take over the body."
She finished the sentence, repeating the same phrase she had memorized from Al Shir's lectures as he taught her the basics of fighting.
Lia took a deep breath, steadying her pounding heart and calmed her unease mind. She felt empty, clean, whole and calm. She drew the arrow back and her breath was caught in her lungs, the sight of the steel tip against the wooden bow awed her in the most mysterious ways.
"If you can fire a shot so well, then why can't you fight? The arrow is a weapon, as are your fists. But unlike the weapon your fist can hold back."
She couldn't let go of the arrow, entranced by the sense of death that entranced over her, the feeling that she knew she could take the life of another in one motion. Simply releasing the arrow.
Had he been fighting these shots with the same feeling rushing through his lungs? Had he missed because he couldn't bring himself to let the arrow fly, embedding itself in the chest of some unsuspecting person.
Did they have a family? Were they alone in the world? What was their life like? Who were they?
"Can you not do it?"
She could, she just needed time…time…
Lia pulled back again on the arrow, feeling the muscles strain in her arms as they pulled from one another, drawing the arrow back. But again, she felt her mind wavering as her heart beat against her chest like a fist pounding on a door to get out.
Trapped.
"You were so contempt to die you forgot what it means to live."
Al Shir's voice grew as he approached closer and closer to her, now only a breath away as he watched the tree from over her shoulder, whispering into her ears as she shuttered through the unimaginable.
She didn't want this, she didn't think this was how things would end for her. Dead on a mountain side just after she had saved her friend from his father's grasp. Just when she thought everything would be fine.
Now she will die.
"Now you will know what it means to die."
His voice was a whisper in her ears that tickled her skin and sent a cold shutter down her spine.
"Fire."
She could feel her min slipper , her heart giving way as she drew the arrow back even more, so far that the bow strained backwards to take the force of the pull, but it would hold. She was sure of it.
Lia didn't want this feeling of the arrow's smooth feathers leaving her grasp, she didn't want to watch as the arrow flew towards the tree, killing any who stood in its path. It was a possibility, and the possibility scared her.
Then she felt it, like a smooth warm water that ran down her forearm as a hand brushed her skin. It was rough and with its edges, but the touch scared away the cold shadow that creptover her, and suddenly she was alone in the forest again, with one man she had no way of knowing was truly there.
She could feel his breath on her cheek, his warm body as it slid by her slide, taking one hand to direct the arrow true to the tree. She no longer felt afraid, she no longer felt fear growing in her heart.
As if compelled by some unseen force, she began to listen intently to his words, each sound sending a breath of warmth that rushed through her like blood, filling her heart and lungs with his senseless smell that made her mind go blank.
It was intoxicating.
"Feel the air shift around you. Feel the forest silently watching you. Feel your heart pounding with you, and let it all fall away."
Then the sounds of the birds, the rustling of the wind and leaves, the feeling of the grass and warm sun on her face faded as the image became clear. She no longer saw a tree, only the space behind it, empty and without harm. She felt him by her side, and found her heart pounding in her ears like a steady drum as it calmed down.
Even as she looked into his eyes, like crimson flames that danced through her mind, he was all she saw, he was all she needed, and he was all she would ever need. If she was to die, she would die for her friends.
"Now let the arrow fly…"
But if she was to live, she would live for this man.
"...fly towards the deer, ready for the kill"
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票