Past Reflections: Part One

BloodyEyes

A loud clang rang through the woods, then a cry that was cut off short. A shadow Zafara dashed away from her enemy; he had been easily knocked out. She didn't envy the headache he would have in the morning.

      A grudge burned inside her. He had betrayed her. And now... he would pay.

      "You expected to forget about me, then...?" she mumbled quietly to herself, her speed growing by the moment. "If you did, you are a fool. You have only brought pain upon the pets who are your 'family'..."

     *

      "MirrorEyes." A young Aisha guard panted as he ran over to his commander. A tall, powerful silver Draik greeted him with worried eyes. "What is it?"

      "There's a female Zafara headed towards the city... W-we didn't expect much of her at first, but she knocked out every trained guard with a single strike..."

      The Draik seemed puzzled, but nodded. I wonder what she wants here...

      "Don't worry," he said, a small smile curling over his face. "Everything will be fine."

      The Draik left, but not without grabbing a bow and a few choice arrows. It was not long before he saw the cause of the havoc in the city, bolting through the flames...

      His eyes widened. It couldn't be. She was... wasn't she dead? MirrorEyes felt his heart pounding within his chest furiously; all the confidence he had felt only moments earlier was gone. He watched in numb shock as she landed upon the roof of a building. The Zafara clapped her paws together and mumbled something under her breath. The building only across the street from the one she was perched on seemed to be slashed down in a diagonal line, and many pets ran from it, screaming.

      "Don't let her escape!"

      MirrorEyes whirled in the direction of the voice to see the city guards, led by his brother, Mescasho. Each one of them had bows drawn and arrows notched, aimed for the Zafara. The Draik watched in horror as the arrows were fired, but the Zafara threw her paw out in the last instant. Darkness surrounded her, and the arrows were seen flying through the other end of the cloud. The archers mumbled in confusion and Mescasho furrowed his brow. His arrow, having been the most accurate one, should have hit.

      MirrorEyes felt his stomach turn. She had dodged them so easily. And the way she had conducted her attack earlier, the Shadow Blade, caused far more damage than she used to. What should have been happiness growing inside of him was quickly mutating into confusion at the betrayal.

      "Hello, MirrorEyes."

      He didn't have time to turn or dodge. Tyne BloodyEyes stood a few yards away from him, hurling her dagger with disturbing speed. The Draik felt a searing pain run through his side, and his pulse was suddenly pounding violently through his body. MirrorEyes stared at the Zafara with wide eyes; he was not only surprised by the fact that she had struck him, but by the fact that she had thrown the weapon at all.

      "Tyne... you...?"

      The Zafara kept a passive expression on her face.

      "Why...?"

      "That is a question," she began, slowly, "I should ask." But she obviously had no time, and she dashed off in a different direction.

      He couldn't believe it. Tyne had... come back. And it was the reunion he had expected. A terrible seed of hatred had been planted inside her, and, fed with her powers of darkness, it had grown. If she were allowed to live... her descendents would carry the same hate within their own hearts...

      Feeling tears well up in his eyes, the Draik mustered his strength and notched the dagger with which he had been wounded into the bow. She wouldn't be harmed with any other weapons; only her own could affect her. He knew the shot was crazy, but he could do it... he had to.

      "I'm... sorry."

      Then he let go.

      Everything went black.

     ~*~

      My abrupt awakening was greeted by wet sheets. It was really just sweat, but if Yubioke saw, she wouldn't let me live it down. I rolled off my bed, groaning and still fiercely terrified of the nightmare I had just experienced, and struggled to stand. My paw found help on a nightstand and I wobbled from the room, still sweating. The wet sheets hung limply from my arm.

      Before heading down the stairs I looked at myself blandly in the mirror. A dazed, yet sweating and frazzled silver Shoyru stared back at me. Shrugging, I walked through the door.

      As soon as I stumbled down the stairs, Yubioke was on me. "Aw, did wittle Kywadose have pwoblems sleeping? Did he wet the bed?" I tried to manage a grin and whipped the wet sheets at her, but the Aisha jumped out of the way, sneering. "I think I have a fever," I said simply, and dumped my sheets into the laundry basket. I sat down at the kitchen table, where my other two siblings sat.

      Mesbeto, a striped Acara with a shaggy mop of hair sitting atop his head, searched eagerly through a box of corn flakes and pulled out a prize, grinning triumphantly. He began bragging about his grand prize while my little sister, a Christmas Zafara called Hiterkuna, ate her toast while looking half-asleep. Yubioke grabbed a copy of the Neopian Times and browsed through it, an article instantly catching her eye.

      "They still haven't caught all the assassins," she said dully, her eyes glancing over to Hiterkuna and back to the paper. The young Zafara was suddenly intent on the peanut-butter on her toast.

      "I'm surprised that massacre is still news, even now," Yubioke said loudly. "It happened ages ago. I wonder how that brat I helped is doing..." I saw a sneer crossing her face. "At least he won't share the same fate as those murderers."

      We all heard a clatter and Hiterkuna was on her feet and racing to her room. Only when we heard the door slam did I turn to Yubioke, infuriated.

      "You didn't have to say all that junk!" I snapped. "Any pet with decent feelings can see that you were offending her!"

      "That's exactly why I said that," Yubioke retorted. "She's gotta get over the fact that it was either them or us. If we hadn't fought, we would've died. We're not murderers. We were fighting for our own sakes."

      "Hah," I sneered at her speech. "You should really be making speeches, Yubioke. Hiterkuna's still a kid, she shouldn't have even been there. You might have a good time running through a crowd killing bad guys, but the rest of us don't. Some of us are actually decent pets."

      Mesbeto toyed around dully with his cereal prize. The cheap plastic Wocky toy was his only source of amusement; he'd heard this argument many times. Ever since there had been a squabble at the market, one involving us fighting many assassins, Hiterkuna had felt terrible. It was only like her to be like this, because of her innocent attitude and sights towards the world. She was more of a pacifist than a fighter, and that was more than she would ever be. She thought herself a killer.

      "You shut up!"

      "How 'bout you do the world a favor and sew your mouth shut!"

      "It would do the world a favor if you--"

      Yubioke didn't get to finish her statement, because before I knew what I was doing, my paw was flying across the table and scattering the items on top of it onto the floor. Yubioke stared at the floor as milk dribbled down onto it, then her eyes flashed to me. "Idiot," she snapped. Mesbeto whimpered - his darling prize was ruined.

      I was surprised at myself. Finally, I mumbled, "Clean it up," and stormed from the room. Yubioke, grumbling angrily, grabbed a cloth and began scrubbing away at the hard wood floor. Mesbeto stared woefully out the window, where storm clouds gathered and rumbling sounded. Neither said anything; they knew it would most likely begin another fight and more chaos would ensue.

     ~*~

      It wasn't my fault. It wasn't my little sister, or anyone, for that matter, that had caused the little scrabble a year ago. No matter how many times I told myself this, I couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that was inside me. I knew that I had killed without a second thought. As the wind whistled past me and the ocean flew by under me, I told myself that I would never do anything like that again. Never.

      Lately I had been acting on strange impulses, like the incident in the kitchen. The thing that scared me even more than that was that I knew what the cause of it all was, and I wished I didn't. It was that thing... I think his name was MirrorEyes. During our brief encounter he had only said a few words into my head, and I had never even seen him. I didn't know what species of pet he was. After the whole incident with the snake... I had hoped it would end. Even the sword had disappeared, and in a way, I had been glad. I could be normal now. Instead of fantasizing about being a super hero, saving people and becoming famous, I wanted to be normal. What a stupid prospect for someone who had been the subject of the newspapers only a year ago. Thank goodness they had eventually died off.

      I was jolted from my reverie as a glimpse of creamy-white fluttered into my view. I looked down to see Hiterkuna speeding along the top of the water, shaking violently from the stress of flying too fast and too far. I didn't know what to be - surprised? I wasn't. Tilting my wings, I glided down next to my sister and placed my arms firmly on her shoulders and helped to lift her higher, so she could take a break.

      Hiterkuna's head whirled around to face me, and I instantly let out a gasp. Her eyes were an icy white, filled to the brim with large tears. This wasn't my little sister's innocent face. This was obviously the face of an older pet, in her late teens. I let go of her shoulders immediately, stumbling in midair. "I'm s-sorry..."

      The girl blinked, tears falling from her eyes like rain drops. She reached up a paw to wipe them and mumbled, "No, it's my fault..." She turned her face away. "I know that Yubioke doesn't like me being wussy, Kyradose."

      I blinked. "Uh... Hiterkuna?" The girl gave me a quizzical look. "What's going on, Kyradose?" Even as she spoke, her eyes were becoming a more solid blue. My own eyes widened in astonishment as the girl became my little sister.

      "What was...?" I began, but Hiterkuna shrugged it off. "I really don't know what you're talking about..."

      We flew for a while, Hiterkuna supported by my half-carrying her. After about an hour, land came into view. I glanced down towards Hiterkuna. "You wanna land?" She nodded, and we soon began our decent towards the island.

      As the land came into better view, I could see that it was a relatively small island. Two more surrounded it. We'd been traveling... south for a while, think. I could only recall from brief looks at the Explore map that we had landed on one of those lazily unnamed islands. What joy.

      As soon as we landed, Hiterkuna let out a small sigh of exhaustion and trudged through the beach sand. I followed quietly, a little tired from the flight, too. I sat down in the shade of a tree, glad that I didn't have to worry about my stupidly silver body setting off some kind of alarm with the sun's rays. Hiterkuna said nothing either, but hugged her knees close to her chest for a while, sighing.

      After a while, I said, "Look, it wasn't your fault. I think we all have to just... get over it. Everybody else did."

      "'Everybody else'..." she mumbled, looking unimpressed. "Kyradose, we're not everybody else. Ever since... it happened, we've been a bit different. You haven't goofed off with your school friends in ages. Yubioke hasn't threatened anyone in two whole weeks, and you know what a stretch that is. Even Mesbeto hasn't been so... outspoken lately." She sighed again and hugged her knees closer. "I wish it had never happened."

      "Neither do I," I said somberly. "But we can't pretend like it never happened, because it did. We were fighting to survive, you know."

      "We could've fought and tried to hurt less..." Hiterkuna mumbled, trailing off. I knew she was trying to find any possible loophole that would've allowed her to defeat a foe without hurting it. It was possible, but we weren't experienced warriors. We were kids.

      "What was with you earlier?" I asked abruptly, and Hiterkuna flinched.

      "Nothing..." she muttered. "I-I'm... going for a walk." She stood and walked briskly into the foliage, and I bolted after her.

      "You shouldn't go far without someone else," I said firmly, "This place hasn't been explored--"

      "Look, Kyradose, I don't care!" Hiterkuna snapped, a sharp edge to her voice. I stopped, surprised that she would snap at me like that. The most Hiterkuna had even done to offend me was accidently burping in my presence. Not very offensive.

      I followed my little sister, and she soon began to run. I dashed after her, easily keeping up with her because of my wings. I was about to glide down and grab her when I felt a spark fly through the air, catch me in the stomach, and I fell to the ground. Hiterkuna whirled around, puffing, and whispered, "K-Kyradose, I'm so sorry..."

      "What the heck did you just...?" I trailed off. Her eyes had gone from deep blue to light purple. "Hiterkuna..."

      "I hear voices in my head, Kyradose," Hiterkuna said. "A girl talks to me, and she shows me pictures."

      I stared in confusion. "She shows you things...?"

      "Like pictures of things that happened a long time ago," she mumbled. "She showed me a picture of herself, too. She's really pretty, and..." She smiled. "She looks a lot like me. She also says that bad things happened to her when she was alive, and that she wants me to help her look for someone else." She looked up at me, eyes filled with hope and eagerness. "Wouldn't it be nice if I could help her find that person?"

      I was about to answer, but I was cut off by something rumbling through the forest. Hiterkuna heard it too and was silent. We climbed into the jungle tree next to us. I hoped our colours wouldn't give us away... We sat and listened, our breath coming out in small gasps.

      "...broke through the shields around the island."

      "How could anyone? We designed those shields to withstand Faerie powers!"

      "Well, obviously something else has even stronger powers, so shut yer gob!"

      The other voice was silent, and I held my breath, hoping they would pass us by. A Gelert howled nearby and I heard paws hitting the ground, nearing our hiding place...

      A white Shoyru passed under the tree, surveying the area around it. He wore a red scarf with a black outlined star sewn onto it. The tunic he wore was a simple grey. Over his shoulder he wore an enormously long, thin blade that glinted dangerously in the sunlight. A bow and a quiver filled with arrows was at his waist. I briefly noticed that the star sewn onto his scarf was identical to the one imprinted on the Gelert's shoulder.

      The Shoyru stared blandly at the ground where we had been standing and looked up. I held back a gasp as I saw his paw fly to the bow across his waist and the arrow in the quiver. A sneer curled his lip. "Right here," he said, pulling the arrows along the string and letting loose.

To be continued...