Of Love and Death.

The Past Chapter 10: I'm Sorry Mind. Pt. 3

     Talent handed off the small black letter to Language, who gratefully took it in his alphabet patterned claws. "Thank you so much," Language said joyously. Talent shrugged in reply. He was only giving Language a letter from the talkative shadow's apprentice. He didn't really think that constituted such a big reaction. Maybe Language was thanking him for giving the other shadow his letter only a little bit late.

     Why had Dark picked Talent for this job again? The shadow's leader had known about his tendency for zoning out and collapsing on random couches. "You're welcome, I guess," Talent half-heartedly replied. He didn't wait for a response from Language before turning around and walking away down the dark hall of the Shadow's orb. Talent felt no need to be stuck in an unnecessary conversation, and Language had a penchant for rambling on and on without fail for eons.

     With a contented sigh at being done with Talent's job for at least a little while, he rested his hands in his pockets. He half closed his eyes as he continued walking down the monotonous hallways, taking a mental load off as he returned to his room. The corridors were empty except for the occasional jar of rocks, door, or chair and table that broke up the blackness. He was in a mostly residential section of the Orb, and not too many people chose to spend their time holed up in their rooms.

     Right now, many shadow's would probably be exploring the market or working a stand. Talent knew that there was also a gathering for everyone to work with their abilities right about now. Not that he'd ever needed to go to that. One of the many gifts of being the manifestation of talent, aside from being able to use the abilities of everyone he'd ever met, was that using those talents came easily to him. That wasn't just limited to the shadow's like with Dark, either. Talent had run into a few sun's, and was quite capable of mimicking them.

     A smile graced Talent's face as he recalled how he'd broken out into song once while giving a message to Form. The other shadow had been quite confuzzled, much to Talent's own enjoyment. Delivering a singing message had its perks. It had been a good song, too, about loving someone for a thousand years. One that Talent had been specifically told to tell Form came from Blood.

     Talent continued walking, not in any hurry to get home. He quite enjoyed walking around the orb, it was one of the reasons that he didn't mind his role as a messenger. The simple task of letting his mind wander while he placed one cloven hoof in front of the other was relaxing. Speaking of hooves, Talent heard the tell tale clack of feet made from keratin slamming against the floor at high speed. He opened his eyes fully, mildly concerned. He knew of two other shadow's who had hooves, Mind and Shame, but why would either of them be running? He could see Mind being late to something, but the pattern of these steps sounded different to his obscenely good hearing.

     Almost like someone was running in fear.

     They seemed to be coming straight for Talent too. He was at a turn, where you could walk straight into a wall or turn left, and the hoove-steps sounded like they were coming from that direction. He took a step forward, intending to see who was there, but something else happened. As he peaked around the corner, he saw a split second of blue, and then someone barreled into him.

     The force from the blue person, who had to be Mind, nearly knocked Talent down to the ground. But he managed to stay standing. He placed his hands on Mind's shoulder's a took a step back, looking the other shadow in the eyes. Mind looked confused and panicked, there was a wild kind of fear in his dark gaze. The kind that spoke to confusion and nothing but pure terror.

     DON'T TOUCH ME! Mind screamed into Talent's thoughts. The latter stumbled back from the searing pain in his head as the mind-reading shadow jumped backward, throwing Talent's hands off of him. For the second time in a very short period, Talent struggled to keep his footing and this time he failed, falling on his butt as his ears rang.

     Looking back up at Mind, Talent could see a war going on inside of the other shadow. One the one hand, Mind seemed concerned for Talent, worried that he'd hurt the talented shadow. However, that wild look of fear was still present in Mind's eyes. The blue shadow was breathing heavily, and obviously wanted to be anywhere but where he was. "Mind?" Talent inquired, concerned and showing unusual emotion in his voice. "What happened?"

     Mind looked at the shadow on the floor before him. His vision was partly obscured by wet tears that blurred the whole scene. He took a shaky step backward, wanting to put space between him and anything living. He didn't want to touch anyone right now, his skin felt like it was crawling with invisible bugs. The dark walls were no longer comforting to him as they had been in the past. Instead, they pressed in on him, making it harder to breathe. To do anything, even think.

      In some far corner of Mind's mind, the only part that was actually functioning right now, he registered that Talent had asked him a question. And that he should probably answer. However, the rest of his brain-power was occupied with panicked thoughts that were desperately trying to understand what had happened.

     Cold had kissed Mind. It had happened many times before, but this time had been different. He'd thought that she would maybe be angry with him for not wanting to date her, but it didn't make any sense for her to just say she wouldn't let him stop. There had been an agreement between the two of them, and Mind was fairly certain that he couldn't be bound to her if he spoke with her about leaving her. It was scary and confusing and Mind didn't feel right right now.

     "Mind?" Talent asked again, concern still laced into his voice, and in the thoughts that Mind knew were there, he just was in no shape to read them.

      This time, something clicked in Mind that he had to give some semblance of a reply. Even with the walls pressing in. Even with the only instinct he could actually follow right now being "get out of the Orb. Now." he knew he had to answer Talent. Well, that wasn't quite true. Mind also had a spike or maybe fuzzy goo in his heart that was crying out for Fire. He wanted to be with the sun right now, he knew that he would feel safer. However, Fire was outside of the Orb, so getting out was still his main priority.

     Either way, Mind managed to summon up just enough brainpower to force a few words that maybe looked like a sentence into Talent's head. If he just squinted at them, they were definitely a sentence. I don't...just Cold. I have to, have to, to go. Um, Blood. Tell Blood.

     With those words and a very confused Talent still staring out at Mind from the floor, the mind-reading shadow bolted again. Instinct and wanting to just be out of this dark place fueling his steps, off Mind went, out into the universe.