It was a few days ago when i heard a voice I was unfamiliar with in my mind. “So you’re the one who pissed my friend off.”
I had tried putting all astral/spiritual things on hold while I focused on homework and reading through another 200+ pages of my books before class so I was a bit surprised when I heard the voice. I closed my eyes and searched my vicinity to find the spirit. They didn’t hide themselves. They sat openly on one of the pieces of furniture in my room and appeared very human. Slightly tan complexion, athletic build, short black hair, sleeveless black hoodie that was embroidered with feathers, what looked like black jeans, and a pair of gloves that tipped each finger with iron nails. He was rather attractive, but I didn’t think to mention that to him.
“I see you’ve made yourself right at home, sir.” I said while I opened my book again to try to continue powering through reading. I had class later that day and had even woken up early to try to get the work I was so nervous about done. “And if it’s the same person I’m thinking about, then yeah. I am.” I ended quietly.
“You weren’t hard to find.” he said and I sighed softly. “It’s not like I’ve been hiding myself from anyone.”
He gave me a look that questioned that and I rolled my head a bit. “Well not from you people. The demon with a vendetta against my family line, yeah.”
I continued to read, but I was now being forced to reread several paragraphs to take in the info I was expecting to need for class. “You know, you don’t seem at all remorseful for what you did.”
My eyes flicked open and a wave of irritation pulsed through me. “Why do all of you keep saying that!? If I’m not mistaken I walked into my punishment willingly and I’ve tried several times to apologize to the one I offended. I haven’t heard back from them. I acknowledge that I’ve fucked up, but the simple fact is I don’t know what else to do!” I feel the waves of guilt begin to pour forth and immediately swallow up my emotions and feed them to my darkness which gobbles them down greedily leaving me in my normal calm/carefree state again only slightly saddened by my lingering thoughts. I noticed that the Boneburner had smirked at my sudden outburst, but lost his half-smile when my darkness swallowed my emotions.
“I am regretful. I just know that I can’t spend every waking moment obsessed with that regret or it’ll eat me alive. I spent years of my life like that and it nearly dragged me a death at my own hand despite meeting the love of my life. I do think about it from time to time, and have tried to figure out what I can do or say to make it up, but I don’t know anymore.” I admitted to him with a small sense of detachment as I went back to reading my book.
He waited a few moments before asking. “What would you do if my friend appeared in front of you right now.”
“I’d bow on one knee with my arms outstretched and palms up.” I told him simply. I felt a bit of confusion from him so I explained. “Traditional way of darkness demons putting themselves at the mercy of the people they’ve offended. Complete supplication towards the person they’ve offended.”
He didn’t looked shocked or amazed. Just watched me with pursed lips. “Shouldn’t you ask me for something?”
I huffed slightly. “I’m guessing your referring to the fact that since you're her friend i could ask you to send a message of my apology to her, but I’m not even sure you really are what you seem, Although for some reason I don’t feel inclined to doubt what you are. In either case you came here angry at me. I know you won’t even give me a name to address you by, let alone be used as some kind of messenger, so what’s the point in asking you.?” I said somewhat bitterly. “If you’ve got something you want to yell at me about or be angry at me about, please just get it over with. No offense, but I’ve got important human stuff to deal with that I’d like to get done. Besides you Boneburners are the type that want people to do things for themselves By themselves. At least that’s what I’ve gotten from my last encounter.”
There was a few moments of silence before I returned to my reading. I knew that the Boneburner hadn’t left the room, or me. He was just watching silently. Music help to shake off the lingering guilt and bitterness I felt and returned me to a relaxed mindset as I continued to read.
Finally when it was time for me to pack up and leave for class I heard the Boneburner again. “You’re angry at my friend, aren’t you?”
I raised an eyebrow confusedly. “No. They has every right to be angry and to want to cut ties with me. I can understand that much at least. A little annoyed, but that’s more at the fact that I genuinely liked talking and learning stuff from them. However, I fucked up hugely and while I would like a chance to make things right I doubt I’ll ever get one. They’re pissed off and part of me understands that I had no chance of making things right again, but I still want to try. As stupid as it sounds, they haven’t told me to fuck off somewhere else, so I feel there is a chance that I may be able to redeem myself if I just wait for some of their anger to fade. They seem similar to my mate in that regard.” He snorts and smirks. “ However my ass is also stupid and tries to fix everything immediately, which often ends up pissing that kind of person off, but I feel bad for not trying to do anything. I try not to wallow in my guilt, but it gets harder to do when I’m not allowed to try to fix anything I’ve fucked up on. I’d take immediate action to right my wrongs if I could, but right now there doesn’t seem like anything I can do about it. So I’ll just do my best at either waiting to hear from them one way or the other or not hearing from them at all anymore..”
“You’re angry.” he said again. I rolled my eyes. “Annoyed. I want to fix things, or at least move on from where they are. I paid my price at the Boneyard. Now I want to fix things with them.”
The Boneburner rolled his eyes. “Your price was too lenient.” he said carelessly and I was instantly fuming. “Lenient? I’ve lost Everything I worked for the last 15 years of my life. Every person I’ve met, every friend I’ve made, every alliance, my name, my body, everything was taken from me. The few people I trusted in the astral, I can’t even feel them anymore. I don’t know where they are. I don’t even know if they’re still living in what was my astral home, or if I’ll ever get to see or hear from them again. Even my guard whom I had a deal with to Never break our deal in exchange for his loyalty is gone. Everything I’ve done and Everyone I’ve met has been turned to nothing now. Only I know who I was and I can’t even really tell them that and even if I did most likely they won’t believe me. I can only hope that the ones I made deals with are still at my astral home when I can find it again cause I can’t even sense where That is.” I saw the smirk on his face again and I took a deep breathe and allowed my darkness to swallow those emotions as well. I felt a small amount of leftover frustration when it was done.
Once again his smirk faded as my darkness swallowed up my emotions. “I have to go to class now.” I said with clipped tone and quietly called out to my familiars. U.D. slipped its tendrils out and the Boneburner tensed before he saw it was just wrapping me in a hug. Then my familiars popped up in the headspace he was watching me from and he tensed and stood at attention when he saw Chiriki land on my shoulder. “You didn’t have to come here yoursel-”
He was cut off by Chiriki’s hiss and stared wide-eyed at the bird who began nuzzling my neck. Chiriki doesn’t seem to like meeting new people. I smiled slightly, feeling a bit better from before. “Don’t worry about it. Even the birds themselves looked at Chiriki with confusion.” I told him, but he just seemed to ignore me. I shrugged and let all of them attach themselves back to me as armor and stepped out into the world. I read as much as I could and got to class and did what I had to do, The Boneburner tried talking to me in class, but I told him once that I was busy, and kinda ignored him for the rest of the class.
My break between classes came and I did some more reading before I turned to some more casual reading. “You don’t have any shame do you.? You’re still reading my friend’s work.”
I sighed and decided not to tell him that I had waited for over 2 weeks to hear back from his friend before I could even attempt reading anything of theirs again out of guilt. “Yes. I’m still reading their work. I have no intention of ever speaking of anything they do because it doesn’t pertain to me. I don’t work with gods or deities. I can’t leave the realm I’ve grown accustomed to besides being taken out of it by someone else and the few times I went to the Boneyard. Even then that was more like I was pulled there the first time and guided there the second, so I doubt I’ll ever get back there again. Either way, I’ve got no chance of trying to copy what they do and no intention of doing so. I am interested in a few beings that they’ve mentioned, but I’ve already understood I’m not going to see them just because of the fact they live in different realms. Perhaps just some plain old-fashioned myth reading, but I doubt I’ll even get that far.”
He snorted and I put on music loud enough to hurt my ears to try to block him and all other thoughts out. I ended up not even really reading for the next class I had. Luckily for me, the class ended up finishing a discussion of the old text, rather than the ⅓ of the book I was supposed to have read by then. I managed to enjoy myself a little in my class, but it was dulled with my thoughts and guilt thanks to the Boneburner who actually managed to leave me alone for the class.
On my way home he either left me alone or I was blasting music too loud for me to hear him, but he didn’t speak to me until after I had gotten home and the music was out of my ears. “So, let’s say I actually believe that you want to make amends. Why? You don’t really owe them anything do you?”
I purse my lips and look in his general direction. “Cause I feel badly about disrespecting something important to her. Like someone being angry that I didn’t do something their way is negligible, but legitimately walked on something important to them in my stupidity and willingness to just follow wherever my instincts and darkness led me. Doesn’t matter what the reason is I At Least owe them an apology. Other than that, is the fact that like them. I enjoy speaking with them and listening to what they have to say. I enjoyed what few interactions we had and I want to try to make up for my mistake. Not particularly sure why I hold such an interest in them, besides their own unique voice. Oh and their grammar. I love some the vocabulary they use.”
He looked at me strangely and I chuckled a little bit. “I’m a writer. I love words.”
He looked at me like I was alluding to something else and I rolled my eyes. “I haven’t seen her, or a good enough description of her to know what she would look like to think like that. Plus I have my mate who I will be seeing tomorrow. I’m hers. No-one elses And no offense to anyone else. She’s the most beautiful person in the world to me.” I told him sternly and he seemed to accept it. “Maybe I’ll pay her a visit.”
Instinct flared up to get defensive and then logic told instinct to shut up and go back into its corner. “I would prefer you didn’t, but if you do then she’ll be fine. She’s got her guard with her.” and her two other companions who would protect her. I felt confident in their abilities. Despite that the desire to get into a fight with him was strong. So Instead I decided to blast music in my ears again. However his voice still crept through to my mind.
“You just keep trying to ignore me.” I bump to the music and nod. “Yup. If all you planned on doing was ask me questions and annoy me, you’re doing great.”
“You’re an ass.” he responded and I wholehearted agreed with him in a sarcastic manner. I understood that there was probably some lesson or something meant to be understood, but I didn’t like the fact he made it sound like he was threatening my mate. Now that I’ve thought about it he purposely threatened what I considered important probably to get a glimpse at what I did to his friend, but at the time I was just angry and set on either ignoring or annoying him until he left.
I let my mind fall blank in my attempt to ignore him, when my consciousness was pulled away somewhere else. I looked around and I was in a coliseum. Huge and filled with people eager for the show of blood. I saw all of them from several different angles. I also saw people in the arena with me. I was much taller than all of them. One look at myself and the question was answered instantly. I was an huge anthropomorphic lion creature with a ring of snakes for a mane. The word chimera came to mind, but it didn’t last long. Other than that all I knew was that I was Hungry and the beings in the arena were supposed to be my next meal.
There were 7-8 of them and the battle was frenzied. I swiped with claws, kicked out at them, tried lunging at them with my lion’s maw and my snake mane struck out them as well. They were an incredibly agile bunch and cut into both the lion and snake flesh over and over. eventually they began to tire out and I was able to finally hit them with my attacks. Claws easily raked through their armor and flesh, some were stomped underfoot and squashed, one or two began prey for the snakes, until all but one was left. I turned to face him and saw the lion with snake mane staring at me. It took me a moment to register I had switched bodies with the last contender in the arena because that was a bit of a headtrip.
“I thought you were the beast.” I heard the Boneburner say from nowhere in sight. I readied the spear I had in my hand and nodded. “I’m both the beast and me. Isn’t this interesting?”
No matter how i looked at it, I was thoroughly fucked because of all the ways the beast could attack. “I certainly don’t make things easy for myself.” I said as I prepped myself to fight.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help out.” a voice, cracked and hoarse said from behind me. I felt a rush of joy pulse through me because even as messed up as it was the voice was familiar. “Naraejaq!” (formerly known as Jackal.) I tried turning my head to look at him, but he grabbed my head roughly and forced it back to the beast. “Don’t look. Don’t want you seeing me like this…”
I didn’t need to look at him. just the feeling of his hand scared me. It felt like bones, some patches of flesh and bits of sharp metal. I knew that they would need time to rest and recover, but it seemed like it was more difficult a task for them to regenerate than I thought it would be. The beast began to charge at us on all fours and the snakes of its mane all raised over the lion head to strike down at me once they were in range, I was pushed forward and charged forward at the beast. I would place my trust in Naraejaq and I felt something pulse inside me. My teeth all sharpened into fangs and I felt my eyes change. I wondered what the fuck was going on when i saw what looked like a guillotine blade fly overhead and slice through all the snakes that had lunged for me now that I was close enough. The lion was thrown off balance from the sudden loss of its living mane and howled in pain as it rolled past me.
My hands dropped my weapon and I felt my body changing violently. I wondered where the feral excitement and this thrill of hunting was coming from, when I remembered The Beast and how it had directly touched me. I wasn’t sure if it was some kind of blessing or something, but I decided to roll with it and let it happen. Darkness rushed into my flesh and I grew to a similar size of the lion. I was much thinner though and stretched out, but every appendage was ended in blade-like bone and metal. The lion growled in feral anger and pain. I roared in response and it sounded like grinding metal. Then we attacked each other. my blade-like fingers raked through the lion’s flesh. and the lion scratched through my metallic skin with ease. the lion had weight and strength. I had my nimbleness and flexible thin frame. I was both, but could only control one.
I sliced into the lion’s stomach, but it pounced anyway and landed heavily on me. I lifted my arm to protect my head, and he easily snapped through the metallic flesh and bones. I roared in pain and then stuck one of my fingers through the side of the lion’s head. Its jaw tightened even more and bit completely through my arm as I pierced its brain. I saw it twitching still, so I somehow melted my other fingers and further extended the one that was inside all the way through to the other side of the skull. the crowd was going wild with excitement as I retracted my finger and reformed my hand and tried pushing the lion off of me. I tried opening its jaw, but it was shut fast. I had to rip off the lion’s jaw to free my mangled arm. once i pulled myself out from underneath the lion my body shifted back down to it’s normal size, but I still had plenty of wounds that had shrunken down to match. I felt light-headed and then felt Naraejaq’s hand on my again. “Hurry up and finish this. You still got ashes to burn.”
At that point I was placed back in my body and looked at the Boneburner who was still sitting in my room. “Oh. So that’s why you’re really here.”
