Tyrants of the Abyss ↠ Viscet Story

[ShimmerSolarPets]

█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█

█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█
█

xxxx

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Kasdeya. Almost everybody in the Abyss of Nexxus knows that name. Only hearing that one word is enough to strike pure, raw fear into the hearts of even the vilest, most brutal creatures in the underrealm. The King of the Abyss. No king before her had preserved their reign for as long as Kasdeya had. Even the cruelest of creatures in the wretched Abyss are just pale shadows compared to the horrifying beast that is Kasdeya. Challenging her means signing one's own death warrant. For everybody that had fallen at her paws, she only grew stronger. Of course, there's also the matter of her choice of a second-in-command. Keira, a little Viscling, seemingly weak and frail. Yet, murderous and savage. Should one challenge her, one would also certainly receive a... rather humiliating death, seeing that a tiny child was the one to serve it. These two are certainly formidable; forces to be reckoned with.

However, even the pair of lethal Viscets had a beginning...

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

This is a very not shortish shortish story centered around Razors's Kasdeya and my Keira, two Viscets, and basically how they met and ascended into the Lord of the Abyss of Nexxus and "second-in-command" (respectively). Feel free to post and/or mark. Comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! ^^ Sorry in advance if there are any grammatical errors, since my first language isn't English.

Warning:

Violence will be in this story, since these two are quite cruel and murderous. However, I will try my best to not go into details ^^

[ShimmerSolarPets]

Chapter 1
Keira Hates Squirrels

Chapter 2
Monarchs Start Small

Chapter 3
Whoops... Busted

Chapter 4
Ooh! Crystals!

Chapter 5
Truth Revealed

Chapter 6
Big Plans

Chapter 7
It's Almost Time

Chapter 8
Keira Fell Into a Hole

Chapter 9
Grumpy Town

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲ ＯＮＥ

Keira Hates Squirrels
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

The cave's entrance pulsed with a strange, glowing light that constantly changed its colors. The small Viscling cut through the foliage with her knife. Keira stood in front of the cave's entrance. An array of swirling lights floated around in the cave, pulsing with everlasting energy. The beautiful show of lights enraptured Keira's eyes, but the light shows weren't what she was here for. No, these lights were so much more. They floated there, rippling and coursing with a strange magic. It was almost as if the lights were ripping through the very air, filtering through a gap in the thin veil of space and time. Lithos had warned her of this place. "Don't come near this cave," he had said. "It's dangerous." Lithos told her of the portals that seemed to pop up in this cave. Weird. Keira first brushed off the idea, but now that she was seeing them for the first time... Well. It seemed like Lithos was telling her the truth after all. Keira entered the cave, her pawsteps careful and weary. She gripped her knife tightly between her teeth, the red gem casting an eerie glow against the walls of the cave. Lithos had told her to stay away. Lithos had told her that these portals were dangerous.

Well, what did Lithos know anyway? Keira smirked to herself. Dear Daddy Lithos. So kind, so helpful, so lazy... Yet, he was different. He wasn't weak; Keira knew that. Keira saw his strength. It was... formidable. Too bad he's too lazy to use it for his own benefit most of the time. Perhaps the sheer mysteries that surrounded Lithos was what made him so endearing. How could someone so lazy be so powerful? How could someone so kind possibly survive so long in this cruel world? One thing was for sure. Lithos wanted to protect her from the dangers of these strange portals. Keira's smirk turned into a pitying frown. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way round? Wasn't she supposed to be the one protecting Lithos? Besides, Keira had seen Lithos going into the cave for long periods of times. He must've went through the portals, to visit the "other worlds". Curiosity pounded in Keira's mind. What were the "other worlds" like? She wanted to know. She needed to know. It was unfair of Dad to keep her away from the portals like this. "Besides," she reasoned to herself. "I'm going to need to check out these worlds for his sake. There might be dangerous enemies there. I'm gonna kill them all, so Dad will be safe."

Keira looked at all of the portals, constantly changing their colors. She examined each one of them and pondered. Which dimension should she go in first? Keira experimented. She stuck her paw into one of the portals. It felt... strangely light and cold. She drew her paw out, and was surprised to find herself shivering. It was so very odd. It felt like her paw was no longer part of her body for that single moment, and got reattached as soon as she pulled it out of the rift. Keira pointed her knife at each one of them, humming a song all the while. At the end of the song, she found her knife pointing at a single portal. "That portal, then," she giggled. Keira approached the portal. She stopped in front of it. It was huge, and ever-shifting. Her fur ruffled slightly. It was as if the air around her was being sucked bit by bit into the hollow center of the swirling lights. Keira took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and stuck her head in. It felt so light, so detached... She cracked an eye open. There was an explosion of lights and colors around her. It was disorienting. Keira flailed around in surprise, the rest of her body falling through the portal. Suddenly, she felt her entire body being sucked through a strange tunnel of lights. Keira flailed around helplessly, trying to find something to clutch onto. She wasn't ready for this! The lights zoomed around her with an unimaginable speed. Keira blinked repeatedly. It was very, VERY disorienting. She grasped her knife tighter. What in the whole wide world was happening to her? Suddenly, she saw a bright landscape in the distance.

Bracing herself, the tunnel expelled her out with such force. Keira tumbled into the strange landscape, rolling down the dirt. Fortunately, she hadn't been stabbed by her own knife. How ironic would it have been... to be stabbed by the same knife twice. Keira laid on the ground, clutching her stomach with one of her front paws. Could an anomalous spirit like her throw up? Because it felt like she was going to be sick. The world spun around her. The dark-furred Viscling staggered unsteadily to her paws. She felt the ground below her seem to shift and lost her balance. She fell right back down onto the ground. "Ughh... I don't get how Dad can do this..." she groaned. The world finally stopped spinning around her after a few minutes. She could start to see things clearly now. Blue skies... Lush, green grass... What a wonderful place. But, clearly, like the world she just left behind her, good environment did not necessarily mean good inhabitants. Strangely enough, this world seemed very similar to her home world. Keira didn't really know what she was expecting. Perhaps she had expected something strange, like two-headed birds and purple grass. Guess that wasn't going to happen here... maybe. Probably. Keira got back up on her paws, and this time, she did not collapse. She started walking. Perhaps she should find out more about this strange world. Keira kept her knife ready, just in case. If someone should suddenly attack her... she was ready. Keira soon found herself in front of a forested area. So different from her home, but... forests were forests. Keira loved forests. She stopped for a while, to let the path to the dimensional rift she had just tumbled out of sink into her brain. Once she was confident she remembered the way back, Keira stepped into the forest.

Almost instantly, she was greeted by the sight of a skeletal bird tumbling out of a branch and almost landing on her. Keira jumped and threw her knife at the skeletal bird instinctively, ripping off a corner of the feathers that decorated it. Only when Keira examined it closer did she realize it was just the skeleton of a deceased bird. Keira briefly wondered what kind of sicko would decorate the skeleton of a bird with feathers and hang it from a tree. She grinned. They must've had great taste. She briefly thought back to Lithos, and how he could command skeletons of various creatures to do his bidding. It was always amusing to see the mortals that took advantage of his kindness flee like rats when seeing those skeletons seemingly come to life. Keira hung the bird back on the branch it fell out from, purposefully making it hang in a bit of a precarious way. Boy, any other visitors would get a fright if that bird fell out again! Once Keira made sure the skeleton was in place, she continued on her walk. She had to meet someone, right? Otherwise, this whole trip would be a waste. A small smile curled up on her mouth. She hoped that this someone was the creator of that bird skeleton thing. My, what a refreshing sense of humor! As Keira continued on her route, she noticed the presence of more skeletal animals. Some of them were an amalgamation of different animal bones, tied together with vines and with feathers decorating them. They looked like tiny monsters. Keira found them quite adorable, though the way they peeked out of the bushes... Unsuspecting visitors would definitely freak out. Keira briefly wondered if this mysterious person was anything like Lithos. What with the obsession of bones and skeletons... However, the Viscling also saw living creatures frolicking around. Birds were singing their beautiful songs, and hares leapt from bush to bush. It was a strange forest, but... why did it remind her so much of home?

Keira saw a squirrel beside her, staring at her. The dark-furred Viscling glared at the squirrel. "What are YOU looking at?" she scoffed, her words a bit muffled by her knife. The squirrel tilted its head, looking at Keira in a confused way. Keira rolled her eyes. Clearly, this was just a non-sapient, dumb squirrel. Worthless. Forgettable. Nothing to waste her time over. The spirit continued on her path, ignoring the squirrel. She saw more skeletal animals propped up here and there. However, she had a feeling she was being watched... Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a flash of brown and orange. "Ugh..." she grunted. That dratted, annoying squirrel was still following her around. What did it want? Keira tried to ignore it. The feeling of being watched still prickled on her spine, though, even though she knew it was just the squirrel. It was annoying. The squirrel would leave soon, she thought to herself. Just have patience. It's not a worthy enemy. Keira looked around, trying to find another sapient creature she could ACTUALLY talk to. More skeletal animals, and more woodland creatures... and that dratted squirrel. Finally, Keira couldn't take it anymore. The feeling of being watched was becoming unbearable. At that very moment, something inside her just... snapped. Something wild, vicious... demonic. It was akin to a wild animal being restrained, only to snap its chains and run wild.

The spirit watched the squirrel out of the corner of her eyes. Then, with a swift movement, she twisted her tiny body around. She lunged at the squirrel. The squirrel was fast, but Keira was faster. Keira made a quick swipe, her claws grazing across the squirrel's legs. The squirrel fell onto the ground. It scrambled up to its feet and started limping away. Keira watched the squirrel limp away for a while, noting the gestures of pain coming from the squirrel. A grin stretched onto her face. It was the squirrel's fault for being plain obnoxious. Now, it was going to pay. Keira pounced at the squirrel. She slammed it against a tree, pinning its tiny body down with her paw. "Where did you think you're going?" Keira sneered, malice dancing in her orange eyes. The innocent, oblivious look on the squirrel's face faded, replaced by an expression of pain and fear. Keira stared into the squirrel's wide eyes, which reflected the fear it had of her. She drank in the fear it had of her, and reveled in it. The squirrel shivered under her grasp, struggling and squirming. Keira pressed harder, her claws digging into the squirrel's tail. The squirrel stopped squirming, and simply stared back at her with a fearful expression. "If you think you can squirrel away with being annoying, you're sorely mistaken..." Keira said, grinning. Her voice was smooth and squeaky, filled with a sort of twisted childish amusement. "Well, let me tell you..." She poised her knife above the squirrel. "In my world... It's KILL or BE KILLED. Goodbye."

Keira dropped the lifeless squirrel onto the ground, her gaze empty and numb. She felt no remorse for what she did. She'd done worse things, after all. In fact, the inhabitants of this world should be thanking her. She had just rid this world of one super annoying pest. "Hey there," a voice suddenly said. Keira glanced up, her eyes still gleaming with a twisted expression. Her knife was gripped tightly in her maw. A figure walked out of the foliage. She was another Viscling, with lovely locks of wavy brownish red hair cascading past her shoulders. Two black horns protruded from her pretty head. Now... The normal Viscling would back away from Keira. What with the sick expression she had, coupled with her hunched position over her victim... it would be enough to scar a normal Viscling for life. Keira half expected the other Viscling to turn tail and run, crying for her mommy or daddy. But... not this Viscling. She simply approached Keira with an aura of calmness and authority. Her head was held high in a position of power, and her chest puffed out with confidence. Everything about this Viscling spelled power. There was no fear, no hesitation. She had a smirk on her face. "I saw you kill the squirrel. You went far too easy on it, though."

That took Keira aback. She wasn't expecting such a response. She had been expecting the Viscling to call her out for such an atrocious act of cruelty. But, not this Viscling. This Viscling was different. She called her out... for going too easy on the squirrel? "Yeah, well, it's a waste of my time. Why waste time on a tiny squirrel when I could take out bigger enemies?" Keira said. That should frighten her, she thought. However, instead of backing away, the other Viscling opened her maw and laughed. Laughed as if Keira had just told a very amusing joke. "Heh, I like your attitude," the stranger said. "It's really rare to come across another Viscling like you, actually. Most of them are too weak and scared. It's disgusting, really."
"I know, right? In my world, it's kill or be killed. If they don't start training to be strong from the beginning, they're in for a nasty surprise when they grow up," Keira remarked. It was... quite the unexpected conversation.
"No room for the weak in my world!" the stranger chirped in a cheerful way. She grinned. "So, what are you doing in my mom's forest?"
"Your mom's forest?" Keira inquired. "She made those things?" The spirit pointed her stained knife at a skeletal rabbit with a feather necklace propped against a tree. The stranger nodded.
"She's got great taste," Keira remarked, nodding in approval. The stranger seemed to puff her chest out even further, her gorgeous head held higher. Her elegant eyes twinkled with a sense of pride. Loving pride, in fact. It reminded Keira of herself... and how she viewed her precious Daddy Lithos. Even though he's just a big, lazy slob.
"I know. She's the absolute best," the stranger said, her voice clearly filled with a loving sense of pride for her mother. Keira quickly figured that she really loved her mother. "But you haven't answered my question."
"I'm just passing through. Just to explore. Love what your mom did to the place. My dad also likes to play with skeletons."
"Actually, I finished off the rabbit. But don't you dare tell Mom about it if you meet her, or else..." the stranger's voice remained smooth, but there was a sharp, deadly edge when she subtly threatened Keira. Keira nodded.
"I won't. I know the feeling. Dad's gonna freak out if he knew I killed that useless thing. He's gonna ground me. Maybe literally. He'd put me in a den and stick my paws to the ground with his magic, then spout out some lecture about how I shouldn't kill innocent creatures," Keira said, with a laugh at the end. It wasn't a derisive laugh, more of an... affectionate one. She found Lithos's way of punishing her quite amusing. Sir Dad Person was too lazy to be bothered to come up with better punishments. Such a precious earth spirit. At that, the Viscling's posture seemed to relax, though still emanating an aura of confidence and power.
"Say, I've never seen you around before," the stranger said. "What's your name? Where do you live? You can't be from the village in the center of the forest, or I'd have known..."
"My name's Keira. I came from one of the portals," Keira answered. This Viscling seemed to be strong, powerful, and intelligent. She'd get some worthwhile answers out of her.
"Oh... You mean the Dimensional Rifts? There are couple of them around Nexxus..." the stranger said. She gave a pause. Finally, she continued, "My name is Kasdeya. Say, what's your world like? I wanna know."

The spirit explained to Kasdeya about her world. Kasdeya listened, seeming to be deep in thought. Once in a while, Kasdeya looked like she was losing interest, although she would perk back up afterwards. Their conversation soon changed to other things, like killing prey and torturing woodland creatures for being annoying. As their interaction progressed, Keira found Kasdeya to be a very interesting Viscet. She was powerful and strong, and she knew what she wanted and how to get what she wanted. She knew the way the world worked, and she knew how to survive in this cruel world. All in all, Kasdeya was not the type of Viscling that would fall prey to Keira's fate. Kasdeya would grow to be a powerful Viscet; Keira was sure of it. She felt a pulsing sense of admiration. At first, she had thought Kasdeya was just another murderous mortal. Oh boy, how wrong Keira was! Kasdeya was different, Kasdeya was special. Kasdeya was the type of friend Keira always wanted to have... and she would be her friend, too, Keira would make sure of that. The two laughed over the lives that had fallen in their paws. Kasdeya is off to a good start, Keira thought, a genuine smile on her face. She's NEVER gonna get assassinated the way I did. Her face fell slightly as she remembered her past life. What a weak Viscling she was! Nothing compared to this brilliant Kasdeya. So dumb, so naive... Keira smirked to herself. She's nothing like that now. She'd learnt her lesson. Perhaps... she could even help Kasdeya avoid the same fate she suffered. Not that Kasdeya would need it, but better safe than sorry.

Soon, the time came for them to part ways. It was sundown, and Kasdeya had to run back to her mother or else she'd get worried. "You know... The Dimensional Rifts aren't always permanent," Kasdeya told Keira. "If the one leading to your home is gone, you could stay around in Nexxus for a while."
"Nah, I'm pretty sure it'll be there..." Keira said. "Hey, can I meet you tomorrow?"
"I'm not sure how these dimensional connections work... It might not be 'tomorrow' here in your world's 'tomorrow'. But, sure. See you sometime."
"See you... pal," Keira said. She gave a giggle and bounded off. She'd met an interesting Viscet today... Keira was sure they'd be friends. What with their shared interests... It would be so cool. As the spirit ran through the forest and out into the grassy fields, her mind was filled with vivid imaginations of all the possibilities of the things they could do together.

It's gonna be so fun.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

First

Next >>

Back to Contents

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＴＷＯ

Monarchs Start Small
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

The afternoon sun filtered through the treetops. Keira found herself back in front of the cave with the portals. She had marked the portal to Nexxus the day before. It seemed like Nexxus and her world had only a few hours of difference. When Keira returned, it was the same day, but the sun was still setting whereas the sun had already sunk out of sight in the horizon in Nexxus. Lithos didn't need to know about what she did together with Kasdeya. Lithos wouldn't approve. Keira had made sure to clean up her knife before meeting Sir Dad Person. She didn't want him to call her out for killing yet another creature. Not when she was doing "so well". With these thoughts, Keira suddenly stopped. Lithos had told her to be kind, and not to kill. She hadn't killed anything except for food (which she didn't really need, but Lithos allowed it anyways) for a few weeks... until yesterday. What would Dad think of her? He doesn't need to know, Keira thought, trying to justify her actions to herself. He said helping is a good thing. I'm helping the inhabitants of Nexxus by getting rid of an annoying squirrel. It won't be missed. With those thoughts in mind, Keira jumped through the portal.

Keira landed roughly, sprawled out against the dirt, but at least it wasn't as shocking and disorienting as the first time she had gone through the portal. She knew what to expect. Keira took a few seconds to adjust herself, before staggering up to her paws. She knew where to go. Without hesitation, she quickly ran towards Kasdeya's mother's forest. As soon as she saw the outskirts of the forest, she smiled. The spirit was going to meet Kasdeya again. We're gonna have so much fun today, she thought to herself, giggling. She jumped into the forest, taking note of the new addition of skeletal decorations in the forest. Seemed like Kasdeya's mother had been busy last night. What lovely new decor... Keira padded through the dirt path, seeing the woodland creatures frolic around once more. No squirrels this time, though. Good riddance... Keira didn't really like squirrels, anyways. "Kasdeya! Kasdeya, are you there?" Keira called out. "It's me, your new pal, Keira!"
The dark-furred spirit's ears pricked up. She heard the sound of something being slammed hard into a tree. Curious, Keira decided to check it out. Peering through a gap in the bushes, she saw a familiar figure, clutching a rabbit by its scruff with her sharp teeth. Gorgeous locks of brown hair tumbled down her head, and her curved horns were still as sharp and dangerous as yesterday. Kasdeya threw the rabbit hard against a tree. The rabbit gave a piercing squeak as it was rammed into the tree. It slid onto the ground, flailing around and trying to get up. Kasdeya advanced upon the rabbit, a menacing grin on her face. Her eyes blazed with malice and cruelty, and she seemed to be enjoying every bit of the rabbit's pain. Kasdeya picked up the rabbit. She seemed to be testing the rabbit; trying to see how long it would survive before it caved. The rabbit caved sooner than Keira thought. It collapsed onto the ground, limp and lifeless. Kasdeya looked at it with a scrutinizing glance, before digging up a hole. Keira was confused. Kasdeya was... burying her victims? Was that a sign of respect for those who'd fallen? Keira got her answer soon enough. Once the hole was big enough, Kasdeya kicked the rabbit into the hole, like it was nothing but a piece of trash. Keira walked out of the bushes. Kasdeya whipped her head around and glared at her. Her violent gaze softened when she saw who it was. "Oh... Hey, you came back."
"That was... AWESOME!" Keira chirped, sitting down and clapping her two front paws together. Kasdeya laughed. Keira got back up on her four paws. Trotting towards the pile of dirt that laid next to the hole, Keira peered down at the hole. It was dead. Keira slapped her tail on the pile of dirt, dumping it into the hole. She gave a swift brush with her tail and swept all the dirt into the hole, covering it up. Kasdeya stomped on the dirt with her four paws, to level it with the rest of the ground. "Finally... Somebody worthwhile who actually came back," Kasdeya said, with a smile. She noticed Keira bringing her knife. "Oh, hey, you brought a weapon. Good. How about we play a game?"
"A game? Cool! What is it?" Keira asked, jumping around excitedly. Despite being centuries old, Keira was still a child. She was a child when she died, a child when she was trapped in an egg for hundreds of years, and still a child when she was freed. She loved games, despite the sheer morbidity of what she had seen Kasdeya do. Not that Keira herself was any better, though. Keira could not envision Kasdeya having taken down a full-grown Viscet, but Keira... Keira had. Keira had done it lots of times. "So... I'm planning to give Mom a lot of bones to restock, so she can make more of her 'friends', and you can kinda help me out here," Kasdeya said.
"You want me to help you collect bones?" Keira asked, a dangerous gleam glinting in her eyes. She grasped the knife excitedly with her mouth. The red gem embedded in the knife's hilt seemed to grow brighter.
"Yep."
"Cool! It could be like... we're the rulers of the forest. You be the queen and I'll be the captain of the 'guards'. We're going to capture these woodland creatures who have violated our number one rule: no being obnoxious. We'll punish them good and proper!" Keira giggled. Kasdeya seemed stunned for a second, as if trying to take this all in. It didn't seem like Kasdeya particularly thought it of such a game at first, but the idea of it... Kasdeya gave a grin and nodded. "That's right! It's kill or be killed, right?" Kasdeya said, excitedly.
"That's the spirit! So, where should we search first for these wrongdoers, Your Highness?"

Kasdeya seemed to like being called that. She sat down, her hind legs bending down to touch the ground and her front paws straightened. She puffed up her chest, her mane of brown hair elegantly cascading around her head. "We shall search to the east of this forest first, Captain. I hear that the wrongdoers are hiding there," Kasdeya said.
"Of course, Queen Kasdeya! To the east!" Keira shouted, pretending to march on her tiny four paws. Kasdeya walked behind her, looking quite regal despite being a little Viscling. Somewhere along the way, Keira did something awkward and both of them burst into undignified giggles. However, the two soon proceeded forwards like real royalty. Keira caught the creatures, and Kasdeya tortured them. Keira ended their misery, and Kasdeya buried them. It was teamwork at its finest, though not for the very appropriate reasons. Along the way, they talked about things. Both seemed to fit their roles quite well. Kasdeya talked about plans of conquest, and Keira praised the "queen". It would actually be quite cute to see these two children running around and playing... if it weren't for their deranged, murderous behavior. Kasdeya "ruled" over the woodland creatures with an iron paw. Her beautiful eyes were filled with a hunger for power. And Keira? She was just as vicious. Savage, dangerous... Yet she seemed to look up to Kasdeya with the adoration of a younger sibling, despite the fact that Keira was older than her by... centuries? Keira didn't really know.

Soon, it was sundown. How time seemed to fly by! Keira bid Kasdeya a goodbye. She had cleansed her knife first before stepping through the portal. Back to her home.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

Author's Note

This is proof that I fail at picking chapter names >.<

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＴＨＲＥＥ

Whoops... Busted
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

After a while, it became a routine. Keira would sneak out during playtime, into Nexxus. Over time, she'd gotten used to the overwhelming sensation of traveling through the portal. Keira had perfected a landing for when she was ejected out of the gaping tear in the fabric of time and space. She'd memorized the route to Kasdeya's mother's forest. The only thing she couldn't memorize were the skeletal friends. Those were ever-changing. Sometimes, a skeletal bird or skeletal chipmunk would fall out of a branch and startle the fur out of Keira. She would then laugh it off. It's funny, after all! The morbid grins that Kasdeya's mother's skeletal friends held on their faces were amusing. Quite adorable even, in Keira's opinion. Keira would sometimes find Kasdeya in the process of torturing and killing a woodland creature. Or, sometimes, she would find Kasdeya wandering around the forest, searching for her next prey. Whatever she was doing, Keira would somehow find Kasdeya. Or, if she had that much trouble with trying to find Kasdeya, her knife would show her where her friend was with its magic.

That day, she found Kasdeya on the lookout for prey. The horned Viscling grinned as soon as she caught sight of the spirit. "You came just in time!" Kasdeya said. "Heehee... Today, I just broke YOUR record! Fifteen medium-sized animals in half an hour! Beat that!"
Oh yeah, I can beat that easily. I struck down five full-grown Viscets in less than an hour, Keira thought, but she didn't voice that thought. She didn't want to make Kasdeya unhappy, after all. Besides, it was... a long time ago. It didn't matter anymore. Keira smiled in excitement. "Oh yeah? Of course I can beat that!" Keira giggled. "Race you to the west, Queen Kasdeya!" Keira grasped the knife in between her teeth. Kasdeya laughed and bounded alongside her. "No fair, Captain Keira!" she called out after her. "You had a head-start!"
"The Queen shouldn't be a slowpoke!" Keira teased, sticking out her tongue at Kasdeya.
"How dare you! I would've executed you if you're not the only member of the Royal Guard around!" Kasdeya laughed. A flicker of determination ignited in her eyes, and she spurred herself to run faster. Keira saw that look. The desire to win. The desire to outrun Keira. She always admired that about Kasdeya. The way she desired and strived to always be at the top... How could anyone not admire that? The two finally found themselves in the western part of the forest. They tortured and slew many animals, making it a competition along the way. The two laughed and giggled happily. If there had been anybody to hear them, they would've thought that the two were innocent, happy Visclings playing innocent, happy game. But the sight that littered the forest... was absolutely gruesome. Kasdeya and Keira made sure to cover up their tracks, burying the remnants of their prey and collecting the bones.

It was noon in Nexxus. Sweaty and tired, the two Visclings flopped on a tallish rock, staring at the pile of bones they collected. Kasdeya's pile was an inch higher than Keira, but that was probably because Keira accidentally lost some of the bones in the process. "I win!" Kasdeya declared, puffing up her chest proudly.
"Yeah..." Keira panted, slumped over the rock. The two's claws, as well as Keira's knife, were stained with crimson. However, the two didn't seem to mind that. Kasdeya and Keira sat in silence for a while, to regain their breaths. It had been quite the game, after all. "Keira," Kasdeya finally said, breaking the silence.
"Yeah?" the spirit asked, inclining her head slightly to face the long-haired Viscling sitting next to her.
"When we grow up, we're going to do this. For real," Kasdeya said.
"Wh-what? What do you mean?" Keira asked, sitting up straight. Her ears perked up. That got her attention alright.
"I'll be the Ruler and you'll be my Deputy. We're going to rule over a kingdom, and slay all the wrongdoers who dare challenge us," Kasdeya chirped, grinning at the pile of bones below. The light in Kasdeya's eyes... It looked like Kasdeya was imagining herself on top of a spire, looking down at her subjects. It held a glint of desire. A desire for power and conquest. The wind blew Kasdeya's brown mane, making it stream backwards. Keira could almost imagine Kasdeya wearing a crown and royal clothes. She'd be an iron-pawed ruler, Keira was sure of it. And she'd stand by her side, a figure of power wielding her magical knife...

Wait a minute. When we grow up? Keira looked at Kasdeya. She was right. Why didn't Keira think about it before? Despite everything, Keira was just a spirit, and an anomalous one at that. Kasdeya was not. Kasdeya would grow up sooner or later, it was only inevitable. Keira, on the other hand, could not. She'd stay a Viscling for... as long as she's trapped in this wretched existence. She died as a Viscling, after all. The dark-furred Viscet looked down at the pile of bones, her claws digging into the stone in a worried fashion. Kasdeya must've not realized that Keira was unable to grow up. Without even realizing it, Keira's ears drooped. The warmth of the sun was beating down on her fur, but she could not feel warmth inside. She felt dark, empty, and worried inside. What if... What if when Kasdeya grew up, she would forget all about her? What if when she grew up and found out that Keira could not grow up, she'd change her mind about Keira ruling beside her? Who'd want a kid as their second-in-command, after all? "Something up?" Kasdeya's voice suddenly rang out, almost making Keira topple off the rock in surprise. All this time, she was right beside her. How could Keira have forgotten? She must've seen her ears droop. "Just thinking of all the pathetic challengers we would wipe out," Keira said, grinning as she straightened.
"That's the spirit!" Kasdeya exclaimed, with a small laugh.
Spirit. Keira forced out a laughter, but her doubts clouded her mind again. What was this she was feeling? Why was she so worried? Her orange eyes looked over at the other Viscling. The Viscling she had come to view as a sister. No, no matter what, Kasdeya would not forget about Keira. She would not leave her out. After all, Keira was her best friend, right? Keira would make sure of that. She would make sure Kasdeya would remember her as her friend.
"We would be partners in this, right?" Keira asked, trying to keep a note of desperation out of her voice. It was as if she was trying to clutch to their friendship with words. The spirit looked away from Kasdeya, fearing that she might see the desperation in her eyes. Fortunately, if Kasdeya saw anything, she didn't remark on it.
"Of course. You'll always be one of my most valuable allies," Kasdeya said, nodding.
That reassured Keira. With a smile, she jumped down from the rock and swept all of her bones into Kasdeya's pile. Her friend's mother needed it to make her funny little "friends", after all.

Time seemed to fly by as they played and frolicked in the forest. Again, it was sundown. Time for Keira to say goodbye and a "see you soon". Keira found the Dimensional Rift floating where it usually was. She leaped through the rift. Her figure zoomed through the tunnel of swirling lights at an unimaginable speed. She saw the end of the tunnel, and braced herself for the landing. The tunnel ejected her out with a huge force. However, this time, she did not land on the cold floor of the cave. No, she landed on something warm and soft... and alive. "WHAT THE HECK!" Lithos shouted as Keira rammed into him, fortunately not sticking her knife into his abdomen. That would've been very awful, after all. Keira's knife clattered against the hard floor of the cave as Lithos fell backwards, his paws around Keira. It took a moment for the two figures to adjust and let what just happened sink in, before Keira met her father figure's glowing blue eyes from behind his black skull mask. "Keira," he addressed in a scolding tone. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from these portals?"
"Um... Yes?" Keira said, rather meekly. "Oh, c'mon. They're so cool, it's unfair of you to keep 'em from me! I bet you yourself go through them."
"Yes, but it could be dangerous! I never know what to expect when going through each portal," Lithos reasoned. He sighed, putting a paw on his skull mask like he was doing a facepaw. Then, he looked at Keira, his maw stretched into a lazy grin. "I knew you'd do this sometime. Question is, since when have you been doing it?"

Keira sighed with relief. That's her lovable Sir Dad Person, alright. Too lazy to punish her or question her a lot, and always too soft on people.
"Kinda a long time now. You're just always too busy napping most of the time," Keira answered, grinning.
"Hey. Your old man needs his afternoon naps, y'know," Lithos said, giving a yawn as if to prove the point.
"Age is totally confusing," Keira shrugged. "Never know if you're actually younger than me, my dear Sir Dad Person."
"Kiddo, how many times have I told you not to call me that?" Lithos said, pretending to be cross. However, his face relaxed soon afterwards. "But who am I to tell you what to do, really...?"
Keira giggled and nuzzled the earth's spirit fur. It was warm and soft, and she could feel his heart beating underneath his chest. It was a pleasant sort of feeling, to know that she's back home. To know that there are people in both worlds to look forward to meeting. Keira pulled away after a while and grabbed her knife. She felt uncomfortable whenever separated from her magical knife. "So, Keira, what do you do in that other world, eh?" Lithos asked.
Keira gave a pause. She couldn't very well say "oh I go around killing woodland creatures behind your back". But... This was Lithos. Try as she might, there was no way Keira could outright lie to Lithos. She had to scoot around the concrete facts. Well, Lithos always said that making friends was a good thing. In fact, the whole time she'd been with him, he had been teaching her how to make friends and how to care. Perhaps it was partly due to his teachings that she was able to actually develop true feelings of care towards Kasdeya.
"I have a friend there," Keira finally answered, grinning
"You do?" Lithos asked, sitting upright at once. His purple ears perked up. "That's great!"
"Yeah, she's great!"
Lithos grinned behind his black skull mask. That friendly face... was a complete contrast to his menacing looks. Perhaps that was what Keira loved the most about Lithos. He's so full of surprises. It was hard to ever get bored with him around. "Looks like my lessons have finally been paying off," Lithos said, in a fake smug voice. "I deserve a pat on the back." He snapped his fingers. Suddenly, a skeletal paw, presumably from a big cat like a tiger or panther, rose from the ground. It floated in the air and bent down, giving Lithos a very realistic pat on the back. It was as if a real creature was doing that. Keira giggled. His powers were really fascinating! How could the movement be that fluid? The skeletal paw disintegrated into a pile of bones, then the bones buried themselves down into the deep earth. Lithos put a warm, soft purple paw on Keira's head, ruffling her mane.

"Let's go, kiddo. Donuts are waiting for us."

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＦＯＵＲ

Ooh! Crystals!
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

"You've been gone for quite a while."

The brownish-maned Viscling studied Keira with her calculating green eyes. She had a slight frown on her face, though it wasn't one of anger. No, it was more of... disappointment. Keira let out a small, awkward laugh.
"Sorry, Dad found some new mortals trespassing in our forest. He's let them stay in the forest..." Keira said. "I've been distracted. These mortals are... kinda shifty. I've been keeping tabs on them for the past few days."
"Did you kill them?" Kasdeya asked, her frown lifting up into a grin. Her ears drooped when Keira shook her head.
"No. Daddy wouldn't let me kill them. What a pity," Keira scoffed.
"I know the feeling," Kasdeya huffed, rolling her eyes. "But there's no way I can let Mom find out about our little games."
Keira grinned. At least Kasdeya forgave her for staying away from Nexxus without telling her first. Keira fiddled with her knife. Staying away from Kasdeya had made her a bit rusty in the killing business. Her knife's been used only for cutting foliage and donuts for the past few days. Perhaps she has torn apart the fragile strands of life in plants, but it was time to start tearing apart other things with her precious knife. Kasdeya cleared her throat.

"I wanna show you something," Kasdeya said. "It's going to make our games... a lot more interesting." The Viscling turned around, and started padding deeper into the woods. Keira followed close behind, her grip on her knife tightening. She wondered what her friend wanted to show her. Kasdeya was also always full of surprises. A small grin lit up the spirit's face. Well, whatever it was, Keira was sure that it would be awesome. After all, Kasdeya was an awesome Viscling. As they walked between the foliage and trees, Keira made sure to take every little detail in. The forest was always an interesting place, after all. The afternoon sunlight shone down upon them, and Keira could hear the song of singing birds. She casted her orange eyes down to the grassy terrain underneath her paws. She remembered how she used to love the song of the birds in her past life, and how she used to watch them in their nests with her best friend. Best friend. It was such a long time ago, but for some reason, little hints of her past life would resurface in her broken mind every now and then. Faces were obscured and memories were blurred, but Keira could still remember the faint chirping of the birds in a beautiful spring day. Thinking about this would make anyone in Keira's position feel nostalgic, but all Keira felt was... emptiness. Bitterness, even. She used to look up to the beauty of the symphony, wishing that she, too, could sing as beautifully as the birds. Ha. What a dumb, naive Viscling. Now, the song of birds only served as a reminder of the sick irony in this world. How could something so beautiful exist in a world so cruel? It's disgusting. Keira twitched her ears. Part of her wondered how Kasdeya felt about the beauty of the world. Did she view it the same way? Or did she view it as something she needed to destroy? Perhaps even... something else? Keira didn't really know. Lost in the tangles of her thoughts, the young spirit didn't see where she was going. All of a sudden, she just felt herself barreling into a very familiar, dark-furred figure.

"WHOA!" Kasdeya shouted as she was sent flying into the bushes. She landed amidst the leaves, sending a rustle through the foliage. That snapped Keira out of her little daydream. Keira's orange eyes quickly snapped back to focus, looking at the bushes. Kasdeya clawed herself out of the leaves, completely disgruntled. Her green eyes flashed with indignation. "What the heck was that for?" she asked, almost shouting at Keira.
"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going. You DID stop abruptly without warning," Keira pointed out. Kasdeya gave an exasperated sigh. Muttering some words that Keira couldn't hear, the brownish-haired Viscling put a paw outside the bushes. She shook off the twisty roots that got entangled around her tail and paws. However, as she tried to get herself back onto the grassy path, she was jerked backwards. Her two smoothly curved, black horns were entangled in some vines. Kasdeya shook her head rapidly and clawed at the vines, but they had wrapped too tightly around her horns. Her hair got ruffled and messed up, with bits of sticks and leaves sticking around everywhere. Keira couldn't help but stifle a giggle. It was a rare opportunity, after all, to see the "queen" in such an undignified condition. "Don't just stand there! Help me out!" Kasdeya shouted, trying to pull herself away from the foliage. Keira gave a snort of laughter as she tried to cut away the bits of plants stuck all over Kasdeya's horns with her knife. With a swift slash, Kasdeya was sent out of the bushes. Due to the momentum she gained by trying to pull herself free the same time Keira chopped off the tangles, the Viscling tumbled out of the bushes with her paws over her head. "OOF!" she gasped as her breath was promptly knocked out of her. The sight of a disheveled Kasdeya with her tiny paws flailing around in the air was too much for Keira. She opened her mouth and let out a roar of laughter, falling right onto the grass and rolling about. "Stop laughing at me!" Kasdeya yelled in exasperation.
"Sorry, can't help it! You'd laugh, too, if you saw the look on your face!" Keira panted, between peals of helpless laughter. Kasdeya grumbled and pulled the bits of plants out of her mane. "If it had been anyone else, I would have killed you by now," she grumbled.
Keira decided to help Kasdeya clean up her hair. It would be unseemly for the "queen" to waltz around with hair like that, after all. She couldn't help perking up at Kasdeya's remark. So... Did Kasdeya really think of her as somebody she wouldn't kill? What was Keira to Kasdeya? Not being on the "kill" list was a good thing, in Keira's opinion. Soon enough, Kasdeya's hair was free of the annoying debris from her little tumble into the bushes. The spirit noticed the other Viscling starting to cut bits of the freshest foliage from nearby plants. Briefly, Keira wondered what those were for. However, she stayed silent, and didn't question it. Kasdeya always had some fun tricks up her metaphorical sleeves anyways. It would ruin the surprise if she asked.

"That should be enough," Kasdeya said, surveying the pile of leaves she had collected. Picking them all up in her mouth, she continued on her way. Keira followed close behind, not wanting to be left behind by her friend. They weaved through the trees, sliced through some thick bushes, and kept walking forth. At one point, they came to a quite leafy area. The crunch of dead leaves beneath Keira's paws felt and sounded pleasant. The spirit made a game of stepping on as many dead leaves as possible, giggling to herself all the while. The horned Viscling stood at the end of the path, shaking her head. While Kasdeya had gone on straight forwards, Keira went on a twisted path, crunching dead leaves here and there. "C'mon, Captain. Don't you slack off now," Kasdeya scolded, in a teasing voice.
"Sorry, Queen Kasdeya," Keira said, quickly rushing over to Kasdeya. Kasdeya rolled her green eyes and gave a small huff. The two Visclings continued on their way, the spirit continuing to ponder over where Kasdeya would take her. Finally, they came to a small animal den, tucked away under the gnarled roots of a giant tree. It was more of a burrow than anything, concealed by patches of long grass. One might overlook this little hole, but Keira had sharp eyes. Kasdeya parted the grass. Keira tilted her head slightly in a questioning gesture. What was Kasdeya taking her here for? As if reading her mind, the other Viscling flashed a grin. A sinister, scheming grin, rows of sharp white teeth stretched across her face and eyes that twinkle with wickedness. That look on her face... was all Keira needed to be confident that this would be worth it. The dark-furred Viscet gave Keira a wink, then knocked on the edge of the burrow. She shoved the plants into the mouth of the hole. Soon enough, a rabbit waddled out. It had brownish fur, and it was certainly well-fed and fluffy. The normal Viscling would find this rabbit very cute, or at least, very delicious. However, Keira was anticipating. Waiting. Wondering what sort of brutal action Kasdeya would use to take the life of this worthless heap of fur. To her immense surprise, Kasdeya pet the rabbit and fed it.

"Aren't you a good little rabbit?" Kasdeya cooed, her voice suddenly seeming very different to Keira. It was full of a sort of sweetness, unlike her usual beautiful, but dangerous voice. Almost... saccharine. It sounded genuine enough to the untrained ears, but Keira had hundreds of years of living to figure out subtle differences in a person's voice. She could almost pick up a sort of deception behind the sheer gentleness of Kasdeya's voice. Almost like Kasdeya was playing charades. The rabbit, on the other hand, didn't notice. Blindly trusting Kasdeya, it curled up into her paws and snuggled against Kasdeya's soft fur. She stroked the rabbit's soft fur in an affectionate manner, continuing feed it with leafy goodies. Well? What are you waiting for? Keira thought. Kill it! Kasdeya did not. She continued to fondle the rabbit, cooing and giving it compliments. She had even named the rabbit. Utterly bewildered, Keira approached Kasdeya. "...what are you waiting for?" the spirit asked, a note of confusion dancing around in her voice.
"The right moment... It's not yet enough now..." Kasdeya murmured. That completely made Keira lost.
"What do you mean 'not yet enough now'?" asked Keira, flicking the tuft of sparkly red fur at the end of her tail in impatience and confusion.
"I mean, my pet's..." the other Viscling started, before giving an impatient sigh and rearing her head back a bit, letting the gorgeous locks of brown hair tumble down her shoulders. "Just... You'll see."
"...fine," Keira muttered, flicking her ears impatiently. She sat down next to Kasdeya, and watched as she continued to pet the rabbit and cuddle with it. The spirit's mouth slowly turned into a frown as she watched the scene unfold. She knew Kasdeya wouldn't do this without an amazing reason. But, still... It was uncomfortable to just sit there and watch such a display of affection, no matter how fake it was. Keira might cuddle and hug Lithos, but... Perhaps, part of it reminded her of her past. Of the innocence and love she used to hold within her. Still, it didn't make her sad. It just made her clench her teeth, remembering how dumb a Viscling she was. Had she had a little grit, she wouldn't have been stuck in this miserable form. Her orange eyes drifted their gaze to the rabbit. It was fat and content, lying in Kasdeya's arms (which were big in comparison, seeing that Kasdeya's a Viscet) with an adoring gaze at Kasdeya. It held an expression of true, genuine affection. Keira figured that it knew nothing of their exploits. All thoughts it had of Kasdeya must be about how kind and wonderful she was. It was clear from the rabbit's eyes that it thought the world of Kasdeya. There was no tension, no sort of preparation to run. The brown-furred creature just blindly trusted the Viscling, as Kasdeya continued to fuss over the rabbit.

Just as Keira was about to fall asleep from boredom (while she didn't technically need sleep, being the fragmented being she was, living with Lithos did alter a bit of her behavior), she felt a tuft of soft fur brush against her. The spotted Viscling jumped, only to notice that it was Kasdeya's tail tuft. Her orange eyes locked onto Kasdeya's green gaze, which was filled with a spark of excitement. The rabbit laid curled up in her arms, nuzzling against her warm, fuzzy fur. "Watch," Kasdeya whispered. She put a paw on the rabbit's belly and chest and started rubbing it. The rabbit gave a content gesture, enjoying the belly rub. The furry creature relaxed against Kasdeya's warm touch, and every single tension it had left in its muscles left it. Keira saw a slight glint on Kasdeya's green eyes. She rubbed her paw around the rabbit's chest. Suddenly, the sickening sound of something being ripped out sliced through the air, piercing Keira's ears. The rabbit went limp and fell dead on the ground. A cold expression in her demented eyes, Kasdeya kicked the empty shell of a rabbit away, like some worthless junk. She held something in her paws. Grinning, she held it up to Keira's face.

"So, what do you think, my valuable ally?" she asked, pride clearly in her voice.

Everything had happened too fast for Keira to properly process. However, seeing the object Kasdeya held within her dark paws, she put the two and two together. Kasdeya had torn the heart out of the rabbit she had been so fondly cuddling. It now laid in Kasdeya's paw. The beating heart seemed to be crystallizing, the defined edges of crystals almost fully coating the heart. Even by Keira's standards, this was a bit brutal. But, who was she to judge, again? She'd been in the rabbit's position. Her orange eyes drifted to the dead rabbit lying lifeless on the ground. Her mouth turned into a bitter scowl. Serves it right. Serves it right for being so naive, so stupid... As her orange eyes stared at the dead creature, something blazed within her. How could such a dumb creature be allowed to have eternal peace? Why couldn't she have eternal peace? She'd been "good" as a living Viscet... and she learnt her lesson. Keira felt a snarl rising up her throat. Life was so unfair! However, as soon as her orange gaze drifted back onto the heart, her scowl turned into a grin. "Kasdeya... That..." she said. "Was so COOL!!!" The child-like spirit leaped up, wagging her tail rapidly as she bounded around Kasdeya, who was sitting with her hind legs on the ground, like an excited puppy. Kasdeya grinned as she drank in the shower of compliments spouting from the excited spirit. "And then you just... RIP! And the heart came and... Oh my gosh!!!" Keira yelled in utter admiration, still jumping around.
"Aww, knew you'd like it!" Kasdeya giggled, the crystalline heart still in her paws.
"Like it?" Keira asked, in a sort of fake shock. "I LOVE it! You're so AWESOME!!"
Kasdeya's eyes gleamed in a sort of triumphant way. Suddenly, her mouth was stretched into a wide grin, her teeth glinting off with a light of evil. She held up the heart to Keira, as if trying to get the spirit to get a closer look at the heart. "And this isn't even the best part," she said, her voice smooth like glass, but has a sharp edge.
"There's more?" Keira asked, bewildered. Her orange eyes went as wide as saucers. Kasdeya giggled at the spirit's adoring expression. "Ready?" she asked. Keira gave an eager nod, her head bouncing with the energy she put into the nod. Kasdeya opened her mouth, her rows of gleaming teeth ready. She dangled the heart above her mouth, and dropped it. Like a shark, she swiftly chomped up the partly-crystallized heart, devouring it whole. For a moment, Keira wondered how the crystals didn't get stuck in her throat. She gave a laugh. Oh, Kasdeya! Always surprising her. Kasdeya's green eyes seemed to have a new spark in them after devouring the heart.

"With every heart I get, I become stronger!" Kasdeya confided, in an excited tone. "Isn't it wonderful? We can expand our little 'kingdom'! Nobody will get in my way." At those words, suddenly something stabbed at Keira's chest. Startled at the sudden feeling, she dropped her knife, letting it stir dust from the dirt. Why... why was Keira suddenly feeling apprehensive? Her orange eyes looked at her friend. People like us... won't hesitate to kill each other if we got in each others' ways... the spirit silently told herself, a little unnerved by her own thoughts. What if she... Do I even have a heart anymore?
"What's wrong?" Kasdeya asked, tilting her head slightly at Keira's sudden behavior. Keira shook her head rapidly to clear her mind. No way. Kasdeya was her friend, and Keira was one of her most valuable allies. She had said so herself. She's a great friend, and a great help to Kasdeya. There was no way Kasdeya would kill her. Keira trusted Kasdeya, and she wanted to believe that Kasdeya also trusted her. "You mean OUR way, don't you?" Keira asked, trying to hide her tentativeness. Kasdeya seemed to realize what she had just said. She gave a small laugh and nodded.

"Yes. Nobody will get in our way."

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

Author's Note

You have no idea how much I wanted to call this chapter "Ooh! Sparkly!" XD
Seems like the little murder child is having mixed emotions.

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＦＩＶＥ

Truth Revealed
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

What seemed like mere days to Keira must've been quite a while for Kasdeya. As the days went by, the spirit started noticing small changes in the Viscet she called her friend. The most obvious one of all was her change in body size. Keira knew this was inevitable. Kasdeya was bound to grow up, after all. While she was already beautiful as a Viscling, Keira noticed that as Kasdeya grew, she became more and more gorgeous. Her brownish hair flowed like a cascade of water down a waterfall. Her dangerous, black horns grew much longer, elegantly curving behind her ears instead of just being razor sharp stubs that pointed behind her ears. Her horns became reminiscent to that of a ram's, adorning her beautiful head. She outgrew Keira, and the muscles of her hind legs became thicker and more developed. Her limbs became more lean and slender, unlike the stubby ones Visclings have. Though, physical changes weren't all that Keira observed. The young spirit observed that Kasdeya started mentally changing as well. Growing up, to be precise. She no longer found as much interest in their little games. There were some lapses of time where Kasdeya merely sat down and muttered to herself about some sort of plans. It seemed as if... she had set her sights on something bigger than their fun little animal-torturing games. She acted as if their little games were just entertainment, and nothing particularly big or special.

Keira walked behind the taller Viscet, who was still on four paws despite the fact that her back legs had started to develop. The beautiful afternoon sunlight of Nexxus still shone down upon them, and the slight breeze that rustled through the trees were similar as always. But... Something just didn't feel the same anymore. Keira let out a small, inaudible sigh, her orange eyes casted down upon the gravelly path stretched out beneath her tiny paws. Well, she shouldn't be so surprised. She'd been anticipating this for quite a while now. She'd seen this time and time again. The world around her growing up, leaving her behind in this everlasting fractured shell of youth... Part of her actually wondered sometimes. What was it like to grow up? It's not like she would ever know, though. Her life was already over a long, long time ago. "So, Queen Kasdeya," Keira finally started, breaking the silence that had grown between them. Kasdeya turned around, her green eyes locking with Keira's own double-ringed orange eyes.
"Yeah?" she inquired, tilting her head slightly.
"Which rebel's heart should we tear out next?" Keira asked, grinning, trying to cover up the doubts she had deep inside. Even when growing up, Kasdeya still wanted to be her friend. That was a good thing... and Keira would make sure she'd stay her best friend. "Oh!" Kasdeya exclaimed, stopping abruptly, almost making the spirit crash into her. Which would've been bad, as she was carrying her knife in her mouth. The long-maned Viscet stared at the ground, as if trying to clear her thoughts and answer Keira's questions. At least, Keira recognized that expression from hundreds of years observing people. A small light of childish curiosity flickered in the spirit's mind. These days, Kasdeya had been spacing out a little too much. She wondered what her friend was thinking, or perhaps even planning.

Soon enough, they came to a tree with a small hole hollowed out in its trunk. Kasdeya stuck her paw into the hole. A chipmunk clambered onto her paw and along her arm, finally stopping on her shoulders. It sniffed and nuzzled Kasdeya in a loving way. The wavy-maned Viscet gave a small, tinkling giggle and tenderly stroked the chipmunk's head. Keira waited, patiently. She knew what was coming, but it was always amazing to see the way Kasdeya could shift her personality so much to fit a certain creature. Kasdeya brought the chipmunk to a rock. She sat down and let the chipmunk clamber onto her head, digging its tiny feet through her luscious brown mane and sitting atop her elegantly curved black horns. Kasdeya cooed and fed the chipmunk with compliments, taking it and holding it between her paws. "Yes, you're a good little chipmunk, aren't you?" she said. The chipmunk climbed down her shoulders and nimbly leapt onto the ground. Kasdeya simply let it go, and waited patiently with a bright smile. "How do you do it?" Keira whispered when the chipmunk was out of sight.
"I don't think just ANYBODY can crystallize hearts," Kasdeya said, still with the same gentle smile upon her face.
"Not that! I mean, how do you act so disgustingly kind to your victims?" Keira hissed into her ear. Kasdeya gave a small laugh, resembling the delicate jingling of bells.
"Talent," she simply answered, the gentle smile slipping off her face as she mischievously grinned at Keira. Keira gave a small snort of laughter.
"Kasdeya... You're so cool."
"I know."

The horned Viscet's ears pricked up at the sound of tiny pattering paws. She forced her face into a welcoming expression, the transition seamless and flowing naturally. Keira went back to her position on the rock, sitting. The chipmunk came with a bunch of nuts. It took the nuts and gave them to Kasdeya. "Oh!" Kasdeya laughed her beautiful laugh. Picking up the chipmunk and stroking it, she took the nuts. "Thank you so much," she purred as the chipmunk reveled in her affection. It nuzzled its soft fur against Kasdeya's warm paws. The smile on Kasdeya's face did not falter. The chipmunk clutched onto Kasdeya's paws, as if not willing to part from her. The Viscet giggled warmly. "I appreciate your gift," she said, sweetly. "But... I think you can give me something better." With those words, her paw gave a swift yank, and the morbid noise of a certain something being torn out cut through the air like a knife. Kasdeya held a slowly-crystallizing heart in one paw. The mask of sweetness slipped from her face, and she held a grin of pure evil on her face. The chipmunk looked at the heart- its heart- with pure terror in its eyes, before falling dead on her paws. Her green eyes looked up. Another chipmunk, presumably a friend of the chipmunk she had killed, stood nearby. Its eyes were wide in horror and shock. Suddenly, a lightning of black and red zipped away from the rock she had been sitting on. "I'll take care of this!" Keira exclaimed, knife in between her teeth. She raced at the other chipmunk which was rooted to the ground in fear. Keira's orange eyes were filled with a twisted amusement, and her knife-wielding mouth was stretched into a grin of madness. Paws flying over the dirt, she caught the chipmunk in one paw and sent it flying to a tree trunk. The chipmunk gave a squeak, and the sickening crack of the impact could be heard. The chipmunk tried to get away with a limping leg, but the Viscling spirit was faster. She raised her knife. Suddenly, the shadows rippled and swirled, leaving the solid surface they were sleeping upon and suddenly becoming animated. The shadows spun around the chipmunk and clasped upon it, squeezing it. Keira stopped the shadows from squeezing any further for a moment. "Let me ask you a question," she asked, looming over the frightened chipmunk with an insane, psychopathic look on her face. "Can you... defend yourself from your attackers?"

The chipmunk couldn't answer. It simply shivered and stared at Keira's malicious orange eyes with wide, fearful eyes. Keira gave a derisive snort of laughter. "'Course not," said the spirit, giving a small shrug. She winked at the chipmunk. "Oh well, in this world... The weak DIE." Then came the slashing of her knife, and the chipmunk slid away from the shadows' grasp, lifeless. The shadows went back to their original positions and Keira buried the chipmunk. She returned to the rock, upon which Kasdeya had been sitting on the whole time, watching. When Keira was busy chasing the chipmunk, she had devoured the heart. She gave an approving grin when Keira returned, and something inside her just soared at seeing that expression. The approval of Keira's best buddy-slash-sister-figure was enough to make the young spirit happy. She sat next to Kasdeya. The horned Viscet simply stared at the ground with a contemplative look on her face. She did not glance at the leopard-spotted Viscling, who was looking up at her expectantly. Keira's ears lowered a little. What was her friend thinking? Her green gaze was directed on the trampled grass below. "...it's weak," she finally said, breaking the silence that had cropped up between them. She gave a disappointed sigh, shaking her head. "Too weak. I need to aim higher."
"What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, the Viscet simply looked at Keira. She narrowed her eyes slightly, as if examining Keira closely. The spirit simply sat there, feeling very awkward at being observed by her own friend. She trusted Kasdeya. She wouldn't try to extract her heart, right? If she had one, that is. Finally, after a few seconds of silence and Kasdeya staring at her, the horned Viscet gave a small laugh and shook her head. "I don't believe it... How do you do that?" she asked, giving a small chuckle as she directed her gaze back onto the dirt.
"What? I just commanded the shadows to go to that chipmunk, then struck the knife like-"
"No! I mean... You..." Kasdeya said, pointing her front paw at Keira. "You haven't changed in appearance ONE BIT since I first met you! How do you do that?"

That wasn't the question Keira expected. The dark-furred Viscling turned her orange gaze to the ground, as if searching for answers written on the dirt. Slowly, Keira lifted her gaze, locking with Kasdeya's beautiful eyes straight on. Her mouth stretched into a childishly amused sort of grin.
"You wanna know how?" she asked, a bit of playful mischievousness in her voice. "That's easy. I died."
Those words seemed to take Kasdeya aback. Certainly, from the look on her face, that wasn't the answer she had been expecting. Keira laughed in a childish way, despite the morbidity of what she had just said. Kasdeya raised a brow.
"You died? What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"Well... I just... died!" Keira said. She gave a small sigh. "Oh, why don't I just SHOW you." She leaped down from the rock. Raising her knife, the red gem glowed and shadows gathered in its blade, turning it a pitch black. She made a swift, slicing movement in the space in front of them, ejecting the shadows and creating a swirl of darkness. Slowly, images began to be projected in the middle of the shadowy mass. Kasdeya stared, intently.

The swirling images within the mass of shadows knitted themselves together to form a coherent scene. The warm, gentle embers of a hearth lit up a simple cottage. A pink rug was strewn across the stone floor. The echoing, rumbling sound of a storm raging outside the comfy brick walls of the cottage could be heard inside. A very familiar figure laid on the rug, tugging and gnawing at it. The Viscling's dark fur was patterned with leopard-like spots and her mane was red and sparkly. She looked exactly like Keira, except for one thing. Her expression. A genuine smile decorated her young features and she gave a tinkling giggle as she rolled around the rug happily. Her orange eyes were youthful and full of playful, innocent energy. As she pulled on the rug, she glanced at the hourglass. "Mommy and Daddy should be home by now," Keira muttered, flopping upside down on the rug. "Wonder what's taking them so long."

The door burst open with a loud bang, making the dark-furred Viscling jump. She turned her orange gaze to the doorway, to the figure of two bedraggled Viscets panting. The wind and rain of the storm howled behind them. "Mommy, Daddy!" Keira shouted happily, running to them. Their fur was matted and disheveled with rain water, and upon seeing Keira, their eyes did not hold any gleam of happiness. Instead, only fear and desperation clouded their eyes. "We need to go. Now," her father said, his booming voice echoing off the walls.
"D-daddy?" Keira asked, a note of hesitation and worry in her voice. Her ears dropped slightly. "Wh-what's going on?"
"There's no time to explain! We need to go!" her mother said, urgency in her voice. She quickly picked up the young Viscling between her teeth. Keira's face was filled with worry and fear. What was going on? Why were her parents acting so fearful? So afraid? The rainwater drenched her dark fur, making her sparkly red mane flop a little. Keira shivered in her mother's grasp. It was cold, and dark. Why did she have to leave her comfortable home? Suddenly, she felt her body being lurched forwards. Her mother had broken off into a run, with her father leading the way. However, before they even got away from the front porch of the house, a group of five tough-looking Viscets surrounded them, each bringing a weapon. The tallest of them all, his build bulky and laden with scars, loomed above the couple, with a sneer on his, in Keira's opinion, ugly face. "Going somewhere?" he asked, his voice raspy and snarly. Keira's mother took a step backwards, putting her paws around Keira protectively. Her eyes glared defiantly at the Viscet. Meanwhile, Keira's father took a step forwards, shielding his mate and daughter. Compared to the large, bulky Viscet, he was as thin as a stick. Even so, he had strong limbs and a determined expression. "You will NOT hurt them," he said, his booming voice commanding and confident.
"Who are you, again? Telling US what to do," the thug chuckled, an ugly grin adorning his face. "You're just a puny Viscet."
"Mommy, who are they?" Keira whispered, a fearful quiver in her voice. Tears were flowing down her tiny cheeks. What was happening? Why were these scary Viscets around? Why was her father so angry? Her mother held her tighter. She didn't answer. Her eyes were locked onto her mate's tail. It seemed to wave in a pattern, pointing her towards the house. She quickly understood. Keira's mother brought Keira back into the cottage and hid her behind a couch. Keira sobbed and shook, clutching tightly onto her mother's warm fur. "Mommy, wh-what's happening?" she asked. Keira's mother forced a gentle smile, and stroked her mane.
"Shh, shh..." she whispered into her ears, clutching her close. Her voice was so sweet, gentle, and kind, and filled with love for the young Viscling. Her eyes, however, didn't hide the worry she had. "Don't worry, dear, it's... just like playing hide and seek! Just stay here and stay silent, okay?"
"M-mommy, I'm scared!" Keira pleaded, continuing to latch onto her mother's fur. Her tiny paws grasped at her mother's warm, fluffy fur. Her mother smiled, raising a paw to wipe the tears off the face of the crying little Viscling. "Hush now, or the seeker will find you," she said. The female Viscet leaned forwards, pressing her snout onto the Viscling's forehead in a loving kiss. She pulled away, and placed Keira behind the couch.
"Mommy, Mommy! D-don't leave me!!" Keira sobbed, trying to grab her mother. However, she pulled away. She gave a reassuring smile and patted Keira on the head.
"Don't worry, okay?" she said. Her mother stepped away from the couch, leaving a sobbing ball of fur curled up in the shadows. Her dark fur blended into the shadows, and tears continued to pour out of her orange eyes. What were her parents doing? Mommy said that it was like hide and seek. She had to believe her. Keira stayed silent, and just hugged her tail, burying her face in the sparkly red tuft on the end of her tail. Her shoulders shook and quivered, but she stayed silent.

Suddenly, there came a banging at the door. She heard an audible gasp from her mother, and Keira peeked from behind the couch. The wooden door burst open with a loud crash, the hinges bent and broken and the door slamming onto the floor. The young Viscling heard the shouts of adult men, some of which came from her own father. She saw her dad fighting the scary-looking adults. It was a whirlwind of tooth and claw, and the young Viscling couldn't bear to see it. But, she was scared, and she wanted to know what's happening. So, she forced herself to watch. Her mother leapt into the fray, fighting as fiercely as her father. She knocked a thug down, his body hitting the stone floor with a loud thud. Why were they fighting? Keira saw crimson, and the biting of teeth. She winced. More tears flowed from her eyes. Mommy said it was like hide and seek. This? This was not like hide and seek. Her mother and father knocked down three other thugs, banging them against the wall. They slid down the wall into a heap of fur, unconscious. Her parents took their weapons, and fought fiercely. There were the slicing of daggers. Keira ducked behind the couch, covering her eyes. Her shoulders continued to quake in fear. She couldn't watch anymore. She could only hear the horrific sounds of shouting and weapons slashing. Her tiny, delicate ears only picked up the horrible cacophony of the mess. But, one thing was for sure. Those sounds... Those sights... would forever be burnt into her young mind.

Then, came a small silence. Heart pounding, the Viscling decided to peek out of the couch. Shock stabbed through her chest. She saw the weakened, wounded Viscets lying all over the floor. Her father was standing, staggering up to the panting, tall rogue crouching on the floor. "There is no point in letting this argument escalate any further. Let's just call it a truce," her father said, stretching a paw out as a sign of peace to the rogue. The rogue huffed and panted, looking at his paw. Keira watched from behind the couch, her tiny claws digging into the soft surface of the couch. Daddy always taught her to be nice and kind to others. Was this one of the examples? Was Daddy being nice and kind to these attackers? Keira's father continued to reach out expectantly, waiting for the rogue to accept their truce. Keira briefly wondered about what could've caused all of this. Her orange gaze flitted towards the rogue. He was panting hard, and looking at the paw with a steely gaze. He reached out a paw, and Keira expected him to take his father's paw and shake it. However... his other paw shot out. There came the slicing of a knife, and her father crying out in shock. Keira put two paws over her mouth as pain and shock jolted through her like an electric current. Her father crumpled onto the ground.
"DAAAAAADDYY!" Keira cried, forgetting that she was supposed to stay quiet and hidden. She only realized when the tall Viscet turned his gaze towards her. Malice glinted within his glare. He approached the couch. Keira trembled, tears spilling out of her eyes as she saw the lifeless figure of her father on the ground. He wasn't stirring, he wasn't waking up. Why...? Her mother ran forwards, tugging on the Viscet's tail. Her fur was disheveled and she was limping, but she continued to pull on the attacker as strong as she could. Tears were flowing freely from her eyes. "Please!! Spare my child!" she sobbed, her claws clasping around the Viscet's arms. "Don't kill her!"
The Viscet simply sneered at her, looking at her with disdain. "Pathetic," he snarled. He tried to shake her off, but Keira's mother wouldn't let go. She held on with all her power, her limbs shaking from the strain. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Spare my precious daughter!" she screamed between her sobs. Keira was confused and upset, her own dark fur stained with the tracks of her tears. She clambered out from behind the couch. She needed her mother, she didn't know what was happening. Her mother saw her. "Go!! Run!!" she shouted. However, Keira was frozen to the ground with fear. Her orange eyes stared right into the eyes of the thug who loomed above her like a hungry monster. A grin stretched across his face. Suddenly, her mother leapt out in front of him. Kneeling, she stretched both of her paws upwards, as if shielding Keira who was behind her. Her shoulders were shaking with distress. "Stop! Please! I beg of you!" she begged. "Spare her!"
Her pleading was met with a sneer and a glare of distaste. The tall thug simply raised his knife. However, Keira's mother did not flinch nor try to run. She just stood there, paws outstretched, hoping that Keira would run. Keira tried to run. She tried to lift her paws from the floor, but it felt like they were glued to the ground. Her muscles froze in terror, and her orange eyes could only watch helplessly as the knife slashed and her mother went down. Keira gave a loud sob, trembling on the spot. She looked up at the thug with wide, tear-filled eyes. The Viscet stepped over her mother's body, and turned his attention to the young Viscling. A sick grin stretched across his face. He raised his knife-holding paw. The last thing the dark-furred Viscling saw was the brutal glint in the attacker's eyes and the blur of a blade thrusted towards her. Then, came a stab of indescribable pain and the Viscling crumpled.

"What happened next?" Kasdeya asked.
"Just watch."

After quite a while, the Viscling's orange eyes suddenly flew open. The wound on her chest had closed up, leaving only a patch of dark red on her already-red chest fur. At first, Keira looked confused. She looked around, blinking. She put a dark-furred paw on her chest, rubbing it. Gone. The stabbing pain was gone. The world around her felt fuzzy and everything that happened felt so surreal. As if everything had just been a dream. The Viscling was confused. What had happened? After the Viscet stabbed her, the world gave way to darkness. Then, she had felt immense pain. As if she was being split apart and then torn and shattered into many more tiny pieces. Then... she woke up. If it was all just a nightmare, then maybe... Keira looked up. The lifeless bodies of her parents were still lying on the floor, their fur stained and their bodies unmoving. She ran to her mother, and put a paw on her. "Mommy, Mommy, please wake up!" she shouted. "It's all just a bad dream, Mommy!"
But, she didn't wake up. Keira punched and tugged, shaking and crying in a futile effort to wake her up. She ran to her father's body and shouted in his ear, pleading and begging for him to wake up. "Daddy! Mommy! Please wake up!" she cried, a note of growing hysteria in her voice. "Please..." If she woke up, then her father and mother would wake up, too, right? They couldn't be dead, they couldn't... She's not dead. Her body quivered and shook as she curled up next to the body of her mother, hoping that she would wake up soon. She had to. She closed her orange eyes, the tears still trickling down her face. A searing pain throbbed within her chest, but it wasn't like the pain she felt when she was stabbed. It felt much, much worse. The sobs of the young Viscling bounced off the walls of the cottage, and the fire in the fireplace had gone dark. As dark as the world around her felt now. "Mommy..." she sobbed, pulling at her mother's tail and draping it around herself. "Wake up... Please... I'm..." She buried her face within her mother's tail tuft. "I'm so scared, Mommy. I'm so afraid, Daddy. Answer me, one of you, please..."
Voices. She heard voices outside the house. The attackers. The Viscling lifted her head from her mother's tail tuft. She saw the knife used to stab them and herself lay on the ground, abandoned. All of a sudden, something snapped within the Viscling. Something monstrous, something demonic. A burning blaze erupted within the Viscling, writhing and twisting painfully within herself. She felt her misery and sadness evaporate, and a twisted glint sparked in her youthful orange eyes. She bitterly dropped her mother's tail onto the ground, then stepped over it to grab the knife within her teeth. Something clicked. As soon as she came into contact with the knife, something resonated within her. Eyes narrowed, she glared at the direction of her lifeless parents. No amount of pleading, nor crying, would wake them. Kill. That was the only answer. Kill them all. The Viscling ran outside with a murderous look in her eyes, her dark fur blending into the darkness of the storm. She saw the attackers gathered in front of the house, talking amongst themselves. Laughing at the deaths they caused. A snarl rose up in her throat.
"Serves them right for trying to spare us," the tallest rogue, the one who took their lives, laughed. "They're so weak, trying to show us that pathetic mercy."
"You're right," Keira said, her voice cold and unforgiving behind them. The rogue gave a small yelp and turned his head towards her. The other four Viscets leaped up in shock. "In this world..." she said, a twisted grin forming upon her face. "There's no room for weakness." With that, she suddenly leaped out, stabbing the blade of the knife straight into the tallest one before he had a chance to react. Taking advantage of the shock she had just caused, she struck them down one by one, stabbing and slicing with the knife. The red gem glowed brighter with each stab, and something purred inside the Viscling. She no longer felt alone and scared. She only felt... amusement. Keira went back to the tallest rogue, who was still struggling to take in steady gulps of air. Her eyes flashed with a twisted, murderous look. "Hee hee hee... What's with that look?" she taunted. "It's like you've seen a ghost." She raised the knife, and brought it down to end his miserable life.

Kasdeya's expression was unreadable. The shadowy mass dissipated, the shadows returning to their former positions. There wasn't pity or fear or anything of the sort in Kasdeya. Keira couldn't find words to describe the look on her face. The two sat in silence for a while, both seeming to think about what they had just seen. Keira broke the silence. She started laughing. Laughing as if it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Her laughter was childish, shrill, and prolonged. Kasdeya's green gaze flitted to the child, and her expression warped into one of confusion. Keira saw this, and she held her stomach, trying desperately to stop laughing. "S-sorry..." Keira gasped, once she could start forming coherent sentences. "It's just... Did you see how disgustingly weak me and my family were? To think that Viscling used to be me... Gross!"
"How'd you come back, anyways?" Kasdeya asked.
"Well... In my world, most believe in the existence of Life and Death as entities, or one entity. Death sends his minions to collect souls to bring into the afterlife. Well, the minion who was sent to collect my soul messed up. Instead of reaping my soul, they shattered it," the child explained. She snickered. "I'm considered an anomaly. A being that's not supposed to exist in ANY dimension. A mistake."
Keira sighed. She looked at the ground, a grin still on her face. "It's funny, really. That time, I still thought I had a full soul. Haha, I was still dumb back then. Only after killing some more did I realize I'm an anomaly."
"The way you talk about this... Seems like you're so comfortable talking about something others would consider 'tragic'," Kasdeya noted.

The child shrugged. "I'm past feeling such things about this..."

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

Author's Note

Not really my best chapter, I guess? Sorry it took so long, so many exams going on right now. I'm not sure when I'll be able to finish the next chapter, seeing that I haven't even started on the next chapter. Also, just to clarify some things, the name Keira was given by Lithos to her. I just didn't include her real name because... well, I'm not really sure what her real name is yet XD Sorry for the long, long, LONG read and the bad dialogue color choices >.<

I hope you're enjoying the story so far, and if anyone is reading this, thanks for reading so far!

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＳＩＸ

Big Plans
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

Keira knew that this day would come one day. She just didn't expect it this early.

The young spirit leaped out of the glowing, pulsing tear in the fabric of time and space itself. She did a small, accidental somersault in the air before landing onto the soft, lush grass of Nexxus on her four paws. The leopard-spotted Viscling shut her eyes for a while, getting rid of the colorful blotches of light that still stuck in her mind. The illusions flashed around the landscape, and the Viscling continued to blink rapidly to clear her sight of those annoying blobs. By that time, Keira had already adjusted herself very, very well to traveling through the Dimensional Rifts. Though, sometimes, her body needed a little time to adjust after being ejected forcefully out of the portal. It wasn't that Keira couldn't adapt quickly. It's just that her body wasn't made for inter-dimensional travel. Keira had always looked back to the Dimensional Rift and felt very fortunate that it was permanently connected to her world. Sometimes, the rift hopped a few inches or feet away, but always stayed around that area. Being a big, glowing, swirling hole, it wasn't very easy to miss. Not in this huge, grassy plains. The glowing blobs of illusion soon disappeared, and the grassy landscape lit up by the bright, warm afternoon sun entered the Viscling's vision. She padded through the plains, letting her paws dig into the grass and dirt of Nexxus. It wasn't much different from the grass and dirt back home, but Nexxus was sure a nice change from the weirdness of her "haunted" forest home.

Keira looked at her shadow, short due to the Nexxus sun shining right over the land. While Kasdeya had been busy gaining power and planning some unknown thing that she didn't tell Keira yet, Keira had also been training. For the fun of it, of course. Perhaps part of her also wanted to impress Kasdeya. She grasped her beloved knife between her teeth; the very instrument that brought her untimely demise, yet stuck with her through this wretched existence of hers. She could harness her shadow powers and teleport her right to Kasdeya. But, where was the fun in that? No, she was going to take it easy for once. Keira took the long way, enjoying the fresh afternoon breeze. The cool winds were pleasant compared to the heat. She heard the sound of chirping birds overhead. While this all just reminded her of how cruel the world was, living with Lithos had hammered into her a few new habits. Before meeting Lithos, she had been so driven to kill that she ended up inside an egg for hundreds of years. However, now, she'd learned how to take things easy and just relax for once.

After all, it wasn't like Kasdeya would go anywhere while she took her time getting to the forest, right?

Keira soon found herself within the forest she had grown familiar with. Taking a moment to appreciate the diversity of skeleton friends, the young leopard-spotted Viscling decided to take a shortcut to finding her best friend. Gripping the knife tightly between her teeth, she raised it up. Sunlight bounced from the razor sharp blade of her knife. However, the red gem embedded in the hilt began to glow with an eerie, pulsing blood red light. The light traveled up to the blade, staining the blade with a red glow, then fading into black. It shot out an ink black beam of energy to the ground, and a noticeable path of shadows got outlined on the ground. Keira grinned. It was a nifty little trick she learned, for tracking down those that she wanted to track down. Keira followed the path, the shadows dissolving away behind her as she padded through the shadowy path. She cheerfully hummed a tune to herself as she walked. Woodland creatures were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps they had sensed the darkness, and ran to flee somewhere else. Oh well, not that it mattered. A lot of them trusted Kasdeya, and Keira didn't need their pitiful, worthless trust. She couldn't channel their trust the way Kasdeya could.

Soon, the young spirit saw a figure in the distance, standing on two, strong legs. The signature silhouette of wavy hair and ram-like horns poked out from the figure's head. Keira could recognize that figure anywhere. A grin swept across the spirit's face, and she bounded on four stubby legs towards the figure. Not so long ago, Kasdeya had learned how to walk on two legs. Truth to be told, Keira was a little envious of Kasdeya. Not only did Keira die in a brutal but pathetic way, she also had to be stuck in a torn existence with four stubby legs. It was a bit humiliating, whenever Keira thought about it. Kasdeya seemed to be busy with something, and Keira wondered what she had cooked up for the day. Perhaps she wanted to show her a nice new trick? There seemed to be no end to Kasdeya's repertoire of devious tricks.
"Kasdeya~!" Keira called out. The brown-haired Viscet looked up, her green eyes meeting with Keira's orange ones. Keira slowed down to a halt, and stared at Kasdeya. Something about her friend was quite... different. First off, she was bringing a bundle, as if she was planning to go somewhere. Secondly, there was... something else about Kasdeya that Keira couldn't quite put her finger on. Kasdeya seemed to take quite a while to react to the spirit's appearance. A toothy grin stretched over her beautiful features.
"Oh, Keira! Right on time," Kasdeya said. "Get those fruits over there, will you?"

Keira turned to where Kasdeya's paw was pointing. She saw a bunch of forest fruits stacked in a tiny, neat pile. The Viscling tilted her head, a bit confused. However, she padded over to the pile and pushed the fruits over to Kasdeya. The older (or, at least, she looked older) Viscet grabbed those fruits and stuffed them in her bundle. As she did so, Keira kept on observing Kasdeya. She looked quite similar to how she usually looked. Pretty face. Gorgeous eyes. Perfect build. Yet, there was this strange feeling Keira could not place her finger upon. The feeling that there was something slightly different about Kasdeya. Shaking her head, she watched Kasdeya as she went about her activities. "What are you cooking up now?" Keira giggled, a tone of childish curiosity in her voice.
"I'm leaving this forest," Kasdeya said. At those words, Keira jumped.
"What?! You mean... What about your mom?" Keira asked.
"Oh, she knows about it, don't worry," the Viscet said, finishing up her preparations.
"B-but... Why are you leaving?!" Keira inquired, a tone of shock in her voice. Kasdeya gave a small, tinkling laugh.

"Don't look so shocked, Keira," she said. "It's just... this forest doesn't suffice. Ruling over worthless woodland creatures isn't enough."
"Huh?" Keira blurted out, not really following Kasdeya's line of thought. She was never the power-hungry type, after all.
"Listen," Kasdeya said. She beckoned Keira to move closer to her, as if she was about to confide in her a very important secret. Keira leaned towards Kasdeya. The taller Viscet had to bend to reach the Viscling's ears. "What if I told you, there's a much more fun game than killing tiny animals?"
"There is?!" Keira said, almost leaping up in shock. Kasdeya shushed her.
"Yes, of course there is," she continued, a sort of pleased purr almost making its way into her voice. "And to play that game, I have to leave the forest."
"Oh..." Keira said. She stared at the ground. The one question she wanted to ask was that if she could also play, but... "What is this game?"
Kasdeya looked at Keira straight in the eye. A grin of amusement flashed on her face.
"Do you remember the time when I told you that one day we will lead a kingdom for real?" Kasdeya said. "Well, I've found the perfect place. And we're gonna seize it for ourselves!"
At those words, the spirit perked up. We. Keira took it as an invitation into the game. "So..." Keira said, a bit tentatively. "I'm in on the game, too, right?"
Kasdeya giggled and ruffled her mane. It felt weird to have her be pet on the head by somebody she met as a child. Keira guessed it was one of the things that came with being stuck as a child eternally. She made a mock-pouting face, and playfully batted away Kasdeya's paw.
"Of course you're in on the game. We are partners in this," Kasdeya said.
"Yay!" Keira chirped, bouncing around like any normal, cheerful Viscling. Kasdeya gave another giggle. She straightened up, and slung her bundle over her shoulder. "Just give me a minute. Stay here," Kasdeya told Keira, and she headed deeper into the forest.

Keira sat down right on the spot where Kasdeya told her to wait. She took a moment to sweep her orange gaze around her surroundings, and once again take in the landscape that had become so familiar to her in a new light. She tried to take in every detail and burn them into her mind. Somewhere deep inside the spirit, she had a feeling that this place would no longer be her playground with Kasdeya. She sighed, breathing in the fresh air of the forest. The Viscling felt something pulse deep within her at the thought. A small smirk came upon her features. Perhaps she had a teensy bit of a heart left after all. To feel such things about this place... Well, it didn't matter. She knew wherever she'd go, she'll always remember this place as the place where she met her best friend. No, perhaps more than a best friend... Kasdeya was almost like a sister to her at this point. Besides, Kasdeya was going to present her with a much better game. Keira looked forward to seeing what it was. New places to see, new souls to torment... The smirk faded from her face. Lithos... Keira knew he wasn't going to like this. He had always taught her to be kind, to love others, to stop killing. Kasdeya, on the other hand, encouraged these tendencies of hers. How can she protect those that she cared about if she was killed by this cruel world herself? Kill or be killed, her voice spoke in her head. Better all those people out there than Lithos or Kasdeya.

Soon, Kasdeya came back. She nodded to Keira, a ready look on her face. "Let's go," she said. Keira stood up, and trotted on four paws next to Kasdeya. While she was still small compared to Kasdeya, she felt like Kasdeya was actually quite young. She'd just learned how to stand up on two legs, and she already left her home. Most other Viscets don't do that. But, then again, Kasdeya was never like any other Viscets. She was strong and independent. The two emerged out of the forest, into the bright sunlight. Keira found herself looking back at the trees of the forest behind her. "Keira, you slowpoke, stop lagging behind!" Kasdeya called out. The spirit snapped out of her thoughts and quickly caught up to Kasdeya. Keira grinned at the taller Viscet, her tail wagging excitedly. The tuft of sparkly red fur at the end of her tail flicked around. "So, Kasdeya..." Keira began. "What's this 'perfect place' you found?"
A grin stretched across Kasdeya's maw, revealing her deadly, sharp teeth. Despite all the times Keira has seen Kasdeya grin, and despite all the morbid things the young Viscling has seen and done, this grin sent tiny shivers down the murderous spirit's spine.
"We'll target the Abyss of Nexxus," she said, in a hushed voice. "The literal hell of Nexxus."
"Whoa!" Keira gasped. Her orange eyes went round and wide. "That's so cool!"

Kasdeya laughed. "It is, isn't it?" she said. "But, first... I'm gonna need more hearts."

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

Author's Note

And... I'm back! But, my writing skills have gone really rusty... Not really satisfied with how this chapter turns out, I guess? I guess it's okay, though. Not sure when the next chapter will be coming out, since I've gotten past a set of major exams, but still got a long road of exams ahead >.<

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＳＥＶＥＮ

It's Almost Time
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

The dark, leopard-spotted Viscling sat on a log, her mouth frantically chewing some donuts. Keira reached into the box put on a stump between the log she was sitting on and the log Lithos was sitting on, just across her. She grabbed a donut with rainbow sprinkles, and bit into it. The sweet taste of donuts filled her mouth, and Keira made sure to savor every bit of the donut. One of the perks of being a spirit: she could eat as many donuts as she wanted without getting a cavity or getting sick. It was one of the things she couldn't do in her past life. Lithos tilted his head, the plume of purplish feathers attached to the back of his mask bobbing slightly. "You're that in the mood for donuts?" he asked, a small grin on his face. The purple Viscet reached into the box for a donut, too. His paw emerged with a honey-glazed donut, and he bit into it. Keira's orange eyes stared straight into Lithos's glowing blue ones. She toyed around with her half-bitten donut, her claws becoming sticky with the sugar. There was... a question she needed to ask Lithos.

Earlier that afternoon, Keira had visited Nexxus as usual. Bored with taunting the mortals who freeloaded in Lithos's forest, she had decided to send them away with a threatening swish of her knife. When they'd all packed up and gone, the young Viscling decided to go and see what her dear "sister" Kasdeya was doing. Surely, she had much better entertainment than sending some cowardly mortals skedaddling? Now that Kasdeya had left her forest, she was free to do whatever she wanted. Knowing Kasdeya, she probably used that free rein to make diabolical plans to conquer stuff. Keira giggled just thinking about it. The child ran on her tiny four paws, leaping over rocks and fallen logs. She swerved side to side to dodge trees and foliage. Soon, the silhouette of a very familiar cave came into view. Keira ran nearer and nearer, seeing the glowing multi-colored pulses of light emanate from within the cave. The tiny Viscling stepped into the cave, the light casting a large shadow of her on one of the cave's walls. Keira gripped her knife tightly between her teeth. Briefly, she wondered about the other portals. She'd come and gone through the portal of Nexxus a lot of times, but she had never explored the other worlds. Keira shrugged the thought off. Her "sister" lived in one world, and that world was Nexxus. There was nothing she needed in the other worlds.

Despite all the glowing portals looking similar to each other, Keira couldn't mistake the one portal that led to Nexxus. She'd memorized every detail of the portal, from the shades of the colored lights that made up the portal, to the tiny differences it had from the other portals. However, Keira mainly identified it through its magical energy. Each portal, Keira had noticed, radiated with a certain pulse of energy. It was very significant to a magical being like Keira. Her paws were instinctively drawn towards the signature magical energy of the portal to Nexxus. The young Viscling quickly leapt into the portal without a moment's hesitation. Her tiny body zoomed through the current of energy, sucked through by an unknown force. It was no longer the disorienting sensation she felt when she first stepped into the portal. Rather, it became a thrilling sensation that pumped her adrenaline. The portal ejected her out onto the lush green grass of a Nexxus field. Keira giggled, flopping onto the soft grass and letting the fresh afternoon air fill her nostrils. It was good to be back in Nexxus. Her knife had fallen out of her mouth as she tumbled onto the grass. Keira's mouth felt empty without that thing, so she got up to remedy that. Keira swiftly plucked the hilt of her knife out from the ground. Her orange eyes trailed for a moment towards the direction of the forest where Kasdeya's mom lived. However, she knew Kasdeya wasn't there, and there was no point visiting that place anymore.

Keira lifted her knife up to the air. The reflective blade suddenly became devoid of light, turning black. Instead of reflecting light, it absorbed all forms of light and sucked the shadows towards it. A mist of shadows gathered around the blade, and Keira focused her will on finding Kasdeya. She closed her eyes, picturing the beautiful Viscet in all of her glory in her mind. Then, the Viscling plunged the knife into the air, creating a dark tear across the fabric of space. It swirled with pulsing darkness in contrast to the Dimensional Rifts, absorbing light kind of like a black hole, but not with as much force as one. Keira leapt through the rift, and the tear sealed shut behind her. Keira's body zoomed through the passageway of darkness. The black void around her seemed so spacious, yet so tight. It mattered not for Keira to open her eyes or close them, for she couldn't see anything anyways. Eventually, she saw a hint of light in the distance. She got closer and closer, until she got ejected out of a patch of shadow in the ground. Keira took a moment to adjust herself, looking around. She was in a tiny, empty park. Keira let out a tiny gasp at seeing a familiar figure and another, unfamiliar one walk towards the bench that concealed the Viscling from their sight. Keira quickly melted into the shadows behind the bench, only her eyes peeking out to see what was going on. From where she was, Kasdeya radiated immense beauty. The sunlight lit her up in a wonderful angle, and Keira couldn't help feel entranced by her "sister"'s elegance. The Viscet next to her seemed to agree, too. He looked at Kasdeya with awe and love in his eyes, as he grasped the horned Viscet's paw. They sat on the bench. Kasdeya tilted her head towards the male, placing it gently upon his shoulder. The male looked at Kasdeya.

"I'd like to confess something," the male said.
"What is it?" Kasdeya said, a slight purr in her voice. Her green eyes were big and shined with curiosity, but behind that shine, Keira could see evil intent. This was one of her tricks. The male, Keira noticed, was too drunk by love to see that. From the way he was looking at Kasdeya, Keira saw that he thought the world of the female. That was Kasdeya's special ability. To manipulate her personality in order to make others fall in love with her. "You are the most wonderful Viscet I have ever met in my life," the male said, his tone serious and filled with heartfelt emotions. Kasdeya gasped a very convincing gasp of surprise, then she smiled warmly. She gave a small giggle, putting her arms around the male in a warm hug. "That's so sweet!" she said, a big smile on her face. Had Keira been any other bystander who knew nothing about Kasdeya, she could've thought Kasdeya was honestly pleased by his statement. Keira looked around. The park was empty save for the three of them, and it didn't look like people frequented this place much. Leave it to Kasdeya to find the perfect place to strike! "But it's true," the male said, putting a paw around Kasdeya. "I would give anything for you."
Kasdeya immediately looked up. Her eyes went bigger with surprise. "Really?" she asked.
"I promise," the male said, smiling down at Kasdeya. Kasdeya sighed. She caressed the male gently with her paw. "That's good," she said. Kasdeya smiled at the male. Keira could see it. The malice in her eyes. The Viscling leaned forwards with anticipation, being careful not to get herself seen. She's gonna do it! She's SO gonna do it! she cheered in her mind.
"Because there's only one thing I need from you..."
"What is it?" the male asked, tilting his head towards Kasdeya. Suddenly, Kasdeya's paw pulled away abruptly, and the very familiar sound Keira had been waiting for sliced through the air. An expression of shock crossed the male for a split second, before he slid down the bench and crumpled onto the ground. He put his paw on his chest, his eyes welling up with agony. He glanced towards Kasdeya. The mask of sweetness melted away from Kasdeya's face, leaving only a grin of pure, demonic malevolence. She held his heart in her paw, slowly crystallizing with pure crystal tinted slightly with light blue. "Wh-what... did you... do?" the male managed to choke out.
"...your heart," Kasdeya answered, shortly. The male went limp. Kasdeya quickly devoured the heart. She gave a small smirk, and turned her head towards Keira's hiding place. "Did I give you a good show?" she asked, and Keira jolted up a bit in surprise. Did Kasdeya know she had been hiding there the whole time? "You can come out now," she continued. Keira leaped out of her hiding place. She took one look at the lifeless Viscet on the ground, and grinned at Kasdeya. Her tail wagged furiously from side to side with her excitement. "That... was... AWESOME!!!" Keira exclaimed, bouncing around Kasdeya in a circle. "There he was, all lovey-dovey... And then you just... WOOSH!" Kasdeya grinned. She soaked in Keira's exuberant hero worship for a while, before stopping the dark Viscling from talking.
"Okay, okay, that's enough," she laughed. "Now, help me hide this Viscet, and then I have something to tell you."

After the two hid the body of Kasdeya's victim, the two took a small stroll by a nearby river. "So..." Keira began. "What did you want to tell me?"
"The time's almost come," Kasdeya said. "I can feel the power coursing through me. We can start our new game soon."
"Really?" Keira gasped, her eyes round and wide.
"Yes!" Kasdeya said. "So, you should get training, too. Don't slack off now."
"I won't!" Keira nodded. "So, how does this game work anyways?"
Kasdeya gave a pause, as if thinking for a while on how to explain it to the child. Keira waited in anticipation, feeling the excitement pump through her entire body. She couldn't believe it. They'd been preparing for this for quite a while, so it was amazing to have it finally be ready to execute. After a while, Kasdeya turned to Keira. "So, I've found a way to the Abyss, though I need to make sure it's secure enough for both of us to pass through," she said. "We're going to go to the Abyss, basically fight our way through, and go to the castle where the King lives."
"And we're going to fight the King?" Keira asked.
"Well... I have a strategy," Kasdeya said, quite mysteriously. "But, we'll get into that once we get there. I need to think it through. You will be the one leading us through the Abyss, though. I'll just tell you where we need to go."
"What?! Why me?" Keira asked.
"Because that's one of the fun parts of the game!" Kasdeya giggled. "And I want nothing but the best for my dearest Keira."
Keira grinned at that statement. Kasdeya saved a fun part of the game just for her? This got Keira more excited. She wondered what the Abyss was like. Was it a dark place full of hideous monsters that they have to kill? By the sound of it, the Abyss ran on a "kill or be killed" philosophy. Just what Keira always believed in! It sounded like a nice playground for the child, and she was confident that Kasdeya and herself would come out as the bosses of the playground. "I need to collect the hearts from the rest of my current targets first, though," Kasdeya said. "We should be able to start playing next week. The game will take up a few days, so be sure to tell Lithos that. Make up a reason or something."
"Okay!" Keira agreed.

Keira looked up at Lithos. "Next week, I'm going to stay in the other dimension for a few days," she said. Lithos looked up in surprise.
"Why?" he asked, his donut still in his paw.
"I'm, uhh..." Keira racked her brain for a reason. What could she tell Lithos that wouldn't get him suspicious? "You know I have a friend there, right?"
"Yes. And?" Lithos prompted.
"Well..." Keira grinned. "I'm going to have a sleepover with her for a few days!" Lithos perked up. Behind that skull mask, Keira could see a pleased grin. His glowing blue eyes lit up with happiness and pride. "Well, that's a surprise," Lithos said. "Oh well, go ahead. Would be nice for me to get you off my paws for a few days anyways." He stuck out his tongue in a teasing manner. Keira giggled and hopped over to Lithos. She gave Lithos a small, teasing punch, but then nuzzled him.

"Thanks. I'll be back before you know it."

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

[ShimmerSolarPets]

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲxxxＥＩＧＨＴ

Keira Fell Into a Hole
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

"So, Kasdeya," Keira began. "Where exactly are we going, again?"

Kasdeya rolled her eyes at the Viscling. The two were walking side by side, each having a small bag of supplies and equipments slung over their shoulders. Kasdeya gave an impatient sigh, shaking her head as her enchanting green eyes met Keira's orange ones. "How many times do I have to tell you?" Kasdeya said. "We're going to an entrance to the Abyss that I've managed to locate."
"Which is...?" Keira prompted.
"A cave. I've found a bunch of other entrances, but this seems to be the least risky one to take," Kasdeya said.
"Least... risky?" Keira asked, tilting her head slightly. She knew the Abyss was a dangerous place, but really... what could be so risky about getting there? The young Viscling held a pretty high opinion of Kasdeya. She had told herself over and over again that the two of them would easily take over the Abyss. Kasdeya was too great to fail, after all.
"Yeah, well... Some of them are in the form of portals, but we don't know where those lead. For all we know, they might drop directly into lava and give us humiliating deaths," Kasdeya explained. "Besides, those portals are generally hard to reach." It hit Keira that Kasdeya might not have the same... physical properties as Keira. Perhaps falling into lava might maim Keira for a few hundred years (or even an eternity), but it wouldn't kill her. She was, after all, already dead, in a sense. It just occurred to her lava would most likely have a much worse effect on Kasdeya. At least, with her current level of power. Keira gave a small, nonchalant shrug.
"I know a thing or two about humiliating deaths," she said. "But I'll take your word for it."

As the two continued on their ways, Keira noticed that the ground was starting to slope. Her paws tried to firmly grip onto the gravelly, rocky surface of the ground. Her orange eyes surveyed her surroundings. They were reaching a mountainous area. Keira kept close behind Kasdeya as the latter gracefully maneuvered across the rocky terrain. The Viscling believed wholeheartedly that Kasdeya knew where she was going. All Keira had to do was follow. While Keira wasn't out of shape, the terrain proved to be a challenge for the spirit. Living with Lithos basically confined Keira to forests most of the time. Keira lost count of how many times she nearly slipped and sprained her ankles. The rough surface scratched against the tough pads of her paws. After what seemed like an eternity of lumbering through that treacherous terrain, a huge opening greeted Keira's sight. A cave. The Viscling's orange eyes widened as the two approached the cave. She nearly bumped into Kasdeya when the latter abruptly stopped in front of the cave's opening. Keira opened her mouth to protest, when Kasdeya suddenly took out some ropes and equipment. "We're going to have to have a firm footing when going down this pit," she said. "Well... Ready or not, here we go."

The two entered the cave. The sunlight from outside dimly illuminated the cave. Keira saw a huge pit in the middle of the cave. The Viscling walked towards its edge and stared down the pit. Something lurched within the spirit's stomach when she saw the huge, gaping hole leading downwards. She couldn't even see the end of the pit! Her orange eyes searched around the mass of ink-black darkness, trying to see even a hint of the bottom. All she saw were jagged crevices cut into the edges of the pit. "LEAST risky?! I think the portals would be better!" Keira said, her voice squeaking slightly. Kasdeya rolled her eyes. She began to firmly knot a rope around a sturdy rock. Then, she proceeded to firmly tie both of them up. "This is the least treacherous pit I found so far," Kasdeya reassured.
"But, how do you even KNOW it would lead to the Abyss?" Keira asked.
"Just trust me." That was Kasdeya's vague answer. Keira regarded Kasdeya highly, and she knew that sometimes she couldn't comprehend her line of thought. If she knew Kasdeya (and Keira would like to think that she knew her very well), Kasdeya would've done her research beforehand. Besides, Keira couldn't actually die again. The Viscling took a deep breath. She was being silly, holding on to her fear of heights back when she had been a mortal. She had been pitifully weak as a mortal. The mere thought of that filled Keira with a determined blaze. She wasn't weak anymore. She was a feared monster back in her own realm, and together, she and Kasdeya WILL take over this dark realm. Keira nodded to Kasdeya with a determined expression, prompting a small smirk from the taller Viscet. "After you," Kasdeya prompted.

Keira leapt into the pit, her paws quickly finding a firm footing on one of the jagged rocks jutting out from the sides of the pit. As soon as her paws made contact, all her fears were gone. A burning determination and excitement at the prospect of getting into the Abyss took over. She slowly clambered down the pit, descending into the darkness. Her knife lit up the place with the glow of its red gem, allowing the two of them to find their footing. Deeper and deeper into the pit they descended. As the two of them went further down, Keira started to notice small changes. There were strange, glowing insects scuttling across the walls of the vertical cave. They were unlike any insect Keira had ever seen... and Keira had seen LOTS of insects, what with her lifespan. She inhaled sharply. Somehow, she could feel the evil aura of the dark depths below. She knew that they were getting closer to the Abyss. Kasdeya was right; this was an entrance to the physical hell of Nexxus. Keira was so busy taking in all of this, that she did not realize the knot around her loosening. She looked up, making sure that Kasdeya was still around. For a moment, their eyes met. No words were spoken, but both of them held the same thought: they were close. The two continued to descend into the pit. Keira saw glowing crystals growing from the sides of the deep cave. Suddenly, her paw struck a wrong angle. The rock she used as a footing crumbled. "AAAH!" Keira shrieked, more out of surprise than actual fear. She expected the rope around her to hold her up, only to find that it was loose. The Viscling tumbled down into the dark abyss.

"GYAHH!" she screamed, gripping onto her knife and trying to jab it into a crevice. Her claws flailed around, trying to find something to hold onto. "Keira!" she heard Kasdeya shout from somewhere above her. For a second, her paw connected to a rock, but the rock got dislodged from its position. The tiny Viscling found herself tumbling down the rest of the way. She shut her eyes. This was even more horrible than hurtling through the portal to Nexxus! The Viscling finally splashed into something cold. She quickly swam upwards, gasping as soon as her head broke out of the surface of the underground pool. Glowing algae lit up the rippling waters. Keira swam towards the shore, which, for some weird reason, had a bed of strange red flowers growing. The dark-colored Viscling flopped onto the soft petals of the red flowers. "Least risky?!" she wheezed, her tail twitching as she continued to lay there to regain her balance. Not long afterwards, Kasdeya descended from above. She gracefully landed onto the bed of red flowers, sending a few red petals flying away. She looked at the soaking wet Viscling. "Keira," she said, a tone of annoyance in her voice. "Focus better next time."
"That... was terrible," Keira groaned. The two were silent for a few seconds, using the time to take a proper look around their surroundings. It was... nothing like Keira expected.

Keira had fallen into the Abyss expecting a dark, dismal place filled with horrors beyond imagination (and Keira had a powerful imagination in addition to the fact that she has seen plenty of horrors). This place was anything BUT dismal and horrifying. Beautiful, glowing crystals of many different colors decorated the roof of the cavern, lighting up the wide tunnel before them. Pretty glowing fungi grew between crevices on the walls. The surface of the cold lake Keira had fallen into rippled with shimmering, multi-colored lights. Probably from the strange algae growing within the lake. The Viscling noticed other patches of red flowers around the lake. A column of white light shone above them, obviously from the large hole Keira and Kasdeya had fallen through. The rocks weren't like what Keira expected: jagged, spiky, and maybe stained with blood. There WERE jagged and spiky rocks jutting out of the cavern's ground, but they looked strangely beautiful against the scenery, complementing the glowing crystals and fungi.

"We're in..." Kasdeya finally said, breaking the silence.

Keira had to shut her eyes, blink a few times, and take another look around. The sparkling lights of the glowing crystals were still there. She hadn't imagined the scene. The place they had fallen into really did look almost as beautiful as the lush green fields of Nexxus, in a different sort of way. Keira looked at Kasdeya with confusion written all over her face. "Umm... No offense," she started. "But is THIS really the hell of Nexxus? Don't you think we fell into the wrong place?"
"Nope, this is definitely the Abyss," Kasdeya confirmed. She started to walk towards the wide tunnel lit up by crystals. Keira quickly followed. Even the menacing red glow of the gem on her knife blended beautifully with the glow of the crystals.
"But, I thought this place was supposed to be- I dunno... wild and savage?"
Kasdeya looked at her with an amused expression. However, just as she opened her mouth to say something, the two's ears pricked up. The sound of heavy footsteps were coming towards their direction, and blurred shadows of gigantic, hulking creatures were cast on the tunnel walls. Kasdeya and Keira quickly ducked behind a giant stalagmite. A hard feat, seeing that Kasdeya had grown so tall. The two squeezed behind the stalagmite as best as they could, obscuring most of themselves. The shadows grew closer and closer, until the things that casted the shadows finally revealed themselves. Keira stifled a gasp. In all her years, never had she seen anything as strange and repulsive as the four creatures who just revealed themselves. And this was coming from a murderous spirit who'd seen many gruesome deaths. Keira wasn't sure she'd ever be able to describe the creatures if anyone asked her about them. They had slimy skins, sort of like amphibians. Their slimy necks smoothly transitioned into a scaly head that looked somehow canine in structure. Rows of jagged, razor-sharp teeth protruded from their maw. Their muscular tails were long and scaly in contrast to their slimy bodies. They had four legs tipped with the talons of a predatory bird. Their eyes glowed with a menacing light; like glowing orbs of molten metal. When the monsters opened their mouths to talk, a stream of tongues slithered out of their unnaturally huge maws like a bunch writhing serpents. Keira fiddled with her knife. Despite the initial shock of witnessing these creatures, she didn't feel fear inside. No, that feeling coursing all over her body... was excitement. Anticipation. This was a new challenge. She had reveled in tearing apart the lives of mortals and drinking in their suffering. But, these monsters? Never had she witnessed such creatures. They would be worthy foes... and Keira would enjoy tearing them apart even more.

"It sounded like it came from over here..." one of them hissed. Its voice was weaved with strange rattling noises, as if a bunch of rattlesnakes had decided to rattle their tails at the same time the creature spoke. It sent a small shiver up Keira's spine. Another of its kind chuckled, a high and peculiar noise interlaced with the same strange rattling noises. "Fresh meat," it muttered. "What creatures would be stupid enough to fall into the Abyss?"
"Apparently smart enough to hold a conversation," the first one answered. Keira met Kasdeya's green eyes. A small smirk formed on Kasdeya's face. Keira knew that expression all too well. It looked like the two just spotted their kill.
"Civilized creatures from the world above," a third one said. Its tongues slithered out of its mouth and licked around its lips. "It's been a while since we got to taste such a delicacy."
The fourth one simply laughed its peculiar laugh, in a way that unsettled even Keira. Still, excitement drowned out that cold feeling that had started to creep around Keira's nerves. Kasdeya tilted her head towards the monsters. The two had grown so close that words were no longer needed to figure out the plan. Together, the two leapt out of their hiding place. The monsters were shocked.
"Puny Viscets!" one yelled, though with more excitement than shock.
"Meat!" another one cried out, this time with pure excitement.
Keira struck out at them like a dark and sparkly red lightning bolt. The monsters immediately crumpled. The remaining two stared at Keira in disbelief. Keira flashed them a grin. "Puny Viscets?" she said, in a teasing voice. "Think again!" She jumped away with a giggle as the remaining two monsters tried to attack her. She saw Kasdeya, graceful as ever, slipping in between them. With a few quick strikes, Kasdeya quickly incapacitated them. Keira observed the unmoving creatures with distaste and disappointment.

"Gee, I had hoped for something more... challenging," she said, in the tone of a child being disappointed with a toy they just got.
"Oh, you'll find more," Kasdeya reassured. "This place is 'wild and savage', after all." She gestured her paw towards the tunnel. Keira looked at her, confusion written all over her face. A small silence crept up between them, and Kasdeya facepawed. "You lead the way, remember?" she scolded.
"Oh! Oh yeah..." Keira said. She walked towards the tunnel. Looking into the distance, she saw that less crystals were there to illuminate the place. But that was fine. Keira's days of fearing the darkness were way behind her. The darkness obeyed her. "Well... Treacherous Abyss, here we come!" Keira declared. The two ran through the tunnel, ready to face the next challenges the Abyss had to offer.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

<< Previous

Next >>

Back to Contents

Author's Note

And I'm finally back XD Looks like I still fail at picking chapter names ("Keira Fell Into a Hole"? Seriously?)