Devereaux/As The Sun Sets - Part Two

Her world was a blaze of fire and ruin- That was where we were, right?

Being devoured by chaos.

I enjoy chaos. It’s the unharmonized harmony, the song of fluttering emotions and the dreams of the dreamless. It’s a clear paradox, a laughing shadow slinking around every corner of every life.

I laugh with chaos. I glare at chaos. I smile at chaos. I cry at chaos.

There’s chaos with Vin. She’s huddled on the ground, covering her head with her hands, trying to block her thoughts. But her thoughts are more powerful than the screaming of the fleeing people. There’s a ton of fleeing people and they may as well trample Vin.

Do I laugh, glare, smile or cry now?

—

Vin was a blob.

She wished she was. If she was a blob, the pain would be floating around her and not in her.

“Vin, Vin, Vin!”

Who was what? Who was anyone?

When strangers invade your home and kill your mom and strand yourself into a stampede of your own people running then you are bound to ask any and all questions. Don’t you deserve it?

The speaker pulled Vin up to her feet. Their face was blurry and their words distorted. They pulled VIn tight into a hug, and as Vin closed her eyes she realized it was Leyla.

One of them was crying. Vin couldn’t tell who.

She just held on to her friend.

“Hold on. Hold on.” Leyla whispered. “Hold on.”

*Hold on.*

*Just hold on.*

—

A new voice, one echoing in familiarity (perhaps one of her mother’s counsels?) “Miss Vin, follow me, follow me!”

“Leyla.”

“We need to get you out of here.”

“Ley-”

*Running.*

*Panting, not her own.*

*Pain splicing across her shoulder.*

*Someone screaming (close to her ears).*

*More running. Was Vin running or being carried?*

*She was carried before, but now she was running herself.*

*The escape tunnel. She knew the escape tunnel. She was going that way.*

*Light?*

*Light.*

*Stumbling onto…grass?*

*No, falling.*

*Dirt in her eyes.*

*Sounds of screaming far behind her.*

*Not peace.*

*Yet…a tingling.*

—

When Vin awoke, something was besides her.

It had a body that mirrored pictures of cats, yet it’s face was too flat and it was way too small. It centered in the palm of her hand. It’s six limbs stretching and it’s violet eyes twinkling and it’s voice squeaking. Thin, pale gray-brown fur stood out like miniature fluffy spikes, and its ringed tail flicked back and forth.

“What are you?” Vin whispered, tilting her head to study the creature more. Careful not to move her hands, she gently sat up.

The creature yawned and Vin found a crooked smile twisting itself onto her mouth.

The little thing jumped off her hand, and walked away.

Vin barely noticed; there was more to study.

She was outside. She’d seen average forest from her textbooks - but those were forests of hundreds of years ago.

The limbs of the trees bended down like a ‘willow’ but they held a collage of strange colors - not just green, but purple-tinted green, blue-tinted green, tinted green, basically. Silver clung to long, wispy bark that occasionally fluttered off.

Little specks of rainbow colors floated around. They were smaller than a kitten’s claw and barely visible, and when Vin reached her hand out to one it floated away slowly.

The ground’s grass was cut unevenly, and was rather long, yet with short patches and strands. The grass tickled, too, and managed to coax a little giggle from Vin.

The clouds held stars. The animals came in every form. The sky’s colors shifted. Healthy whispered filled the air.

That tingle she felt arriving here - was that…magic?

Arrival from the village.

VIn whipped her head around, springing to her feet. Pants escaped her, and a shiver of fear slid down her body. Where - where had she come from?

She couldn’t remember.

Her earlier tears had dried, but new ones aroused and clouded the edges of her vision. She held back the noise to her crying, and her mind wrapped itself around soley Trelinia.

Leyla.

Her mothers.

Her world.

“No,” she whispered.

No, yes. Yes, no.

*Please, wake up.* She begged herself, sinking down into the grass. *This is a nightmare and nothing more*. Trelinia was the safest place in the world, there was no way random people stole that safety in a span of a simple tradition.

Her hands scraped the ground, and she let herself fall down to the earth. She’d never felt it before; it was soft, springy, and a new feeling croaching around her.

“Life is my nightmare now.” She whispered.

Is if on cue, a growl uttered itself into the world with a fierce undertaking. It was joined by two more guttural sounds, sounds that brought danger running into Vin’s conscience.

That’s right; magic was supposed to be a plague of death.

Vin couldn’t tell the difference between magic and unmagical essence, so she was led to believe that everything around her was magic. The magic she was taught to fear her whole life. The magic that corrupted her world and caused Trelinia to move underground, that held the secrets of how to torture one without them knowing they are tortured, the magic that was unthinking.

As the sun sets, casting shadows around her to hide the fears of the predators and encourage their hunt, Vin quietly wondered to herself if she could ever survive out here. She knew nothing of magic, and everything around her might be magic capable of killing one.

"Leyla," She whispered.

"LEYLA!" She screamed, pushing herself up from where she was sitting, twisting around frantically. "LEYLA!"

Alas, Leyla.

She will be the one who leads us through this story.