Htrae : The Four Stages

Prologue

Narrator

Wons painfully gritted her teeth, crushing them against each other. The scarlet red blood poured out of her wounds. The icy chill of the cursed - no, not cursed - powerful fading magic coursed through her veins forced her to stand. The snow phantom that had taken control of her slowly disappeared, there was nothing more the great spirit within her could do. The clouded darkness had thickened, spreading throughout the endless sky. Wons could only faintly hear the clash of swords, the cracking flames, the bass-bombing of explosions, the zinging gunshots and so many other dreadful dronings in the distance. The ones that cried out to her the most were the screams. The suffering, sorrowful screams of the innocent. Wons gripped her side, blood kept pouring out of her blue dress and cloak. She pried her eyes open, smoke and ashes stung her eyes. The black smoke made it almost impossible to see.

Wons tried to get up, ample blood poured out of her wound. Her vision swayed dangerously. No, not yet. She can't die yet. She looked at the fallen bodies, only three laid around her. Three that meant the most to her. Leira trembled as she got unto her feet, using her large mallet to support herself, pushing her upwards only to fall again unto the ground. All of her energy she had left her, the green powerful swirl around her had disappeared. The blood on her scalp kept pouring out. Her foxy tail and pointy ears dropping. Tfiws, who was beside her, didn't move at all. His pink hair was stained with his silver blood. She could see his wet cheeks, those restless eyes, his crumpled wings and his hands still clutched over his bow. Her heart fell into the pits of despair. She knew they were already gone.

Then Wons looked at the last body, it was still moving. Her heart shattered like fragile glass. The man lay in a sea of blood, his whip lay far away from him. He was hanging on, just barely on a spider's thread. That cocky boy who always steals from her, teased her, laughed at and with her, travelled with her, stayed with her, loved her... get up. Please... get up. She saw the flames that embraced him slowly die off. No... No!

"Emalf!" Wons exclaimed. Emalf's warm orange eyes gazed into her gentle blue ones. Then she saw him mouth a few words with a smile before he closed his eyes. "Emalf!!"

"Oh will you shut up," that dread choir of voices echoed. "It's annoying."

Wons gritted my teeth and glared at it, clutching the handle of her sword tighter. Then she slowly, using her sword for support, got up. Her hand still covering her fatal wound. She won't last long, but she need to last long enough to bring it down with her. She used the last bit of snow and water she could conjure to wrap a temporary sheet around her body and cover the wound for now. Then she slowly limped towards him, clinging unto hope that was as visible as sound.

"You are no different from the rest," The voices continued, "Always believing you're 'good' when you yourself are tainted. You all are stupid, you must be the stupidest among them all. This is who they claim is the protector of Htrae? The good of all good?"

Wons crawled closer, each movement was getting heavier and heavier. Her vision started to blur. The darkness was slowly consuming her, the fatigue pulling her into heavy endless sleep. She was losing too much blood. Why? Why did this battle had to go on? Why are they constantly fighting an unknown enemy? Was there no other way? She came closer and closer to the center of the whirling tornado. The wind had died down, a black blade glinted and shined, reflecting her dying blue aura. She tried look through it one last time. That was when she saw him. His face...

She stopped in her tracks. She looked down at the ground, wide eyed. All those clues... it finally made sense. Good and evil... which is which? Which came first, which to follow? We all want good - who wants evil? Only those who have never been taught of good wants it, they use it for their own definition of good. Why didn't she realise it earlier? Now it was too late. She looked at the tornado again, her throat was burning. She can't do anything, She... failed. Htrae... is falling.

Wons collapsed onto the ground. The figure in the tornado walked towards her. She was going to die. If she had found out the truth sooner, this wouldn't have happened. Everything was now clear. How it all came to be. Now she can't do anything. She heard the voice again "So fucking foolish."

She slowly looked up at him, with a devilish black blade in his hands. There was no expression, only a swirl of evil - a tainted soul. She gritted her teeth.

"This is not over! I will come back! And when I... I will...save..." Wons collapsed. The Treag Krad bent over her, the next thing she saw was a swirl, a large swirl of bright light as her memories was absorbed by the blue gem of her sword.