KANON

#33 - It's too far too tall too radiant

KANON Chapter 33 - It's too far, too tall, too radiant
- Anna ni mo tooku takaku mabushi sugite -

A/N: Yellow! It's been far to long... But here's the new chapter! I hope you'll like it! It from perspective of Len, but in a he-from this time (3rd person), because I found it easier to write like that now. Tell me if you like this better than the i-perspective (1st person), then I'll keep writing this way!

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Red flowers become the path. They had cracked a code. The numbers forming sounds, the sounds becoming words until a sentence was formed. Red flowers become the path.
What path?

Reddust, called for their color and tendency to explode into tiny dust-like particles - just by a single nudge to the flower - was the only red flower reported so far as the Labyrinth had been mapped down. Just four floors had been officially confirmed, the Reddust showing up from the third one down.
Why would he place a note about Reddust in a bag on the second floor then? It didn't make any sense.

Len shook his head again. He should be sleeping, but apart from his utter inability to, he did not even feel like pretending to sleep at the moment. He found something, something that belonged - belongs, he reminded himself with a shake of his head - to someone that according to the City's records never existed.

But he did, and now he had something to prove it. If only to himself. If only so he could tell himself that he had not made up two years of his life, and spend it living with someone that could not be, and in turn, would be a product of his own imagination.
He had not made it up. Couldn't have done it, would not have done so.

Still, they had found a riddle, a test, a single sentence as prove of the life of a man that only he himself seemed to remember. A bag said nothing without a person to tie it to, not even with the burned-in mark - no one would recognize it, it had been a cryptic joke at the time to play with the man's name. One only Len and Mamoru knew of, if he hadn't told anyone. - furthermore, there was no way he could prove he had not planted the thing himself.
No, all he had now was something to remind himself that he had not gone crazy. His bag, his handwriting, and his way of communicating: riddles.

It was almost too perfect. Was someone trying to mock him?

The fire crackled up as a small puff of smoke drifted upwards into the canopy. The trees reached up so high it was impossible to tell what kind of leaves they held. A high ceiling. Len once again wondered just how high, and with the winding stairs reaching so deep, being able to carry so many animals, he could only give one straight answer: very high, and very deep.

How long would it take to reach the deepest parts of this labyrinth? Years? Decenia? Ages?

That would simply take too long...

The fire crashed onto itself as the last few stubborn pieces of wood gave way to their sapped strenght. The fire had taken away the support, just like it had done to him. Len shuddered against the heat of the fire. It had been awful. Awful and painful and he couldn't breathe.
Gasping Len sat up, trying to calm his beating heart to a stable rate. Refusing to grasp for his throat. Hands shaking with the effort and eyes bulging out in tremors cold sweat breaking out all over his body and shaking shaking shaking.

ThumpThumpThumpThump Thumpthump thumpthump thump thump thump

Calm down.
Calm down.
Please, just calm down.

Len closed his eyes. Willing the images away. Fire and darkness and screaming, oh god the screaming! But it was over.  Len forced his breathing to even out against the slight rustling of the leaves above. He was safe. Outside of the burning house. Outside of the suffocating city. He was safe. Sound. He was no longer a child that had to depend on others. He could take care of himself.

Could he take care of others too?

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It could have been the light of the fire, but Ritsu never really bought at what things appeared to be. A gasp. A loud heartbeat. If he was reliving it, then it must have been the fire at his side. Even after telling him to trade places to sleep, Len wouldn't budge. He always did that.

He shouldn't be sleeping that close to the fire. He couldn't handle being so close.

 The bard had never told him everything. All Ritsu knew was that the lithe boy had appeared at his doorstep in the middle of the night, sooted to the skin. His clothing was practically gone. By that time even his eyes seemed the black of the night and the smoke filling the air in the city. It had smelled like ashes for days after the great fire. Len had smelled of the same thing for weeks.

He had not responded to anything for months.

The only things the archer had mangaged to understand were two things: Something happened. and It was something bad. 

Even now his friend would react in a frenzy should he be too scared of anything having to do with fire. Be it the sounds of a pot with hot water falling to the floor, the smell of smoke, or the crackling sounds from a simple campfire. 
He could not stand it, and Ritsu still didn't fully understand why.

Len had been in a fire. True, this was easy to tell. He had lost someone close on the same day. Yet, Ritsu did not know how. Did that person die in the fire? Had it been lit? And if so, who had done so?

There were many people in the City of who Ritsu knew had something against the boy. Many, many people, both humans and ferae. And still, the archer could not imagine any of them as the lighter of such a fire that destroyed half of the outer districts. Not the count, who cared for the city. Not the craftswoman, whoes clients came from the outer districts most of the time. Not any of the gangmembers, in search of reprecussions. They killed, but only in a precise way.
Never in a fire. 

A second gasp broke Ritsu's line of thought. He heard Len rustling. Sitting up. Trying to the alarm the bard he cracked one eye open. Good. He had not started clawing. Not yet. Without making any sound Ritsu got up and walked over. The boy had his eyes closed.

Soundlessly, the archer put a hand on Len's head. In an instand the boy froze, eyes flashing open, fueled by the cracking of wood in the fire. 

"Calm down." 

It had the effect of a cold shower in icy rain. Len did as asked. His shoulders relaxed out of their hunched up state. Eyes closing again. A sigh escaping from gritting teeth. Slowly the boy nestled back against the tree he had been using as makeshift pillow. Brows no longer set in a tight line. Calming down. 
"That's better." followed a "You should be sleeping." a scolding whisper.
Len opened his eyes and pouted. "So much for a you're welcome."
At this the archer cracked a tiny smile, and although it could be a trick of the fire, Len did not question what he had seen. "you're welcome. Idiot."

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That's a wrap. Tell me what you think!