The Dragon Queen // (Under Revision)

Seven Times Over

She had been running for hours. Her feet continued to pound the earth that seemed to grow and stretch into endlessness.

She wasn't sure her lungs were working like they were supposed to. But she couldn't stop. If she did, the thing chasing her would find her and kill her. She wished she could run out onto the horizon and leap over the edge into the void and that would be the end of it. But she couldn't. The thing would simply jump into the void after her. Fear would not allow it. Death wouldn't end her suffering.

Something tripped her. She hit the ground hard, skidding. The edge of her battered dress ripped on a tree root. Blood trailed down her arms and knees. She tried to get up, but her legs wouldn't move.

She laid there, waiting for death, her body trembling, every nerve on the alert. Her mind raced with the imagery of her body being torn to shreds, from the inside out. Rapid footsteps approached. She breathed out slowly, desperately willing for the air to not come through her nostrils again. The footsteps came and came, and reached her...then kept going, past her head. She looked up. A girl with pale green hair spiraling down to her knees was running ahead of her. "W-wait...help..." She said faintly, lifting her hand and reaching towards the stranger.

The girl stopped and turned. Her hair whipped around her, revealing a pair of the most beautiful golden eyes she had ever seen, set in a round, fairy-like face. "Who's there?" The girl called, her voice soft.

A jolt shot through the person on the ground.  Asuna? My first pupil...what are you doing in this dream?

Asuna looked the same as she had when she was about seven, the day she was Chosen, but, if she'd been alive now, she'd be in her late sixties.

"Lady Chizu? Is that you? Where are you?"

"Asuna..." Chizu whispered, breathless. Before she could say anything else, more footsteps approached. Another girl ran past Chizu's limp body.

When Asuna caught sight of the other girl, she took off running like a bokushin was after her. It was Mashimoto Shoson. The second Queen. She also looked to be about seven... Chizu realized she was wearing the same white shirt and brown trouser she had on her day of Choosing. Mashimoto had short burnt red hair, a wide frame, and a severe face. She was muttering angrily to herself about all the indecencies of the world. Chizu felt a faint smile cross her lips. 

Next was Itami Kanashimi. Again, Mashimoto ran away when she approached. Itami had had such a lean, willowy figure, even as a child. Chizu felt a warmth spread through her broken body. The girl was as gentle as a dandelion seed, drifted through the breeze. Kanashimi picked a flower from the forest floor and tucked it behind her hair. She pirouetted about. A short dark reptilian tail poked through her dress just above her tailbone. Chizu remembered. The girl had wanted to be a real dragon so badly, her reiki manifested one for her. She recalled the hours Kanashimi had spent teaching it to her. It was the first time anyone had taught her anything.

Then Kazama Uryu was next. Her damnable black kitten rested on her shoulder, just as it had always done. Chizu had loathed that cat. She'd tried to kill it the same day Kazama had come into the monastery, but it evaded her and never let her come within a meter radius of it again. Kazama and her cat ran into the encroaching mist. Where had it come from?

Natsume Odayaka walked through the path slowly. She had always been a sickly thing, but her spirit was strong. She picked up a stone and suddenly threw it across the path with blinding speed. Then she coughed and sniffled and shuffled into the mist.

Hayate Ai ran up next, young but dressed in full battle armor. She carried a book in one hand and a tekkan in the other. Chizu's heart ached. She'd loved that girl like a daughter. So fierce, but so gentle. The calm before the storm. She was all of that in one. She could have grown up to rule the nation with a steady and loving hand.