[Lady Rika]

The two crescent islands of Careithus are being plagued by a death dealing wind. Entangled in the wind lies a scent, but no sweet smelling aroma…but a suicidal tang that bewitches the mind and entrances the soul to the grips of death, sending those to the reapers open arms. Except for the humans whose nose dead luck keeps them safe, but for how long?
Animals of course are first, bashing open their heads, drowning themselves; and the humble mortals are left to starve to death. Mortified many of the people lose hope when their pets began to die; locking themselves in their houses refusing to face the world.
But how long till it reaches the humans? No one knows, but each day the pungent scent grows stronger, its deadly hands reaching farther across the land. The only clue as to stopping the maddening ‘disease’ are the dying words of a prophet…
“Long live the elements for they shall save of us all
Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth; without them we shall fall.”
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The strange scent drifted throughout the winds long flowing hands, stretching the pungent aroma ubiquitously around the passive lands of Careithus.
Lively nightingales silenced in their chirping, to watch the wind blow the trees extended limbs; coated in gold, orange, and red leaves. The leaves smelt the scent as well, and from that smell came the suicide of one pure, golden leaf. Falling from the dark branches and slowly, so slowly hitting the ground with a near silent crack. As the gold leaf splintered in its crumbling age; and soon after came more. More leaves falling from blackened, but still living, branches. To their death along the ground, till soon a pile was formed.
The nearby birds watched in horror at what had become of the leaves. Would this scent soon touch them and leave them with the longing to die as well?
Without thinking the two nightingales flew off, glinting emerald wings catching the light of the sun. Fleeing the wind, the trees, and the nest that was theirs alone. A sacrifice that had to be made, the mother of the three unhatched eggs thought to herself.
They hadn’t caught the scent in their nostrils, and were saved…for now.
Evading the reaper and his ice cold kiss of fatality; in which the nightingale’s eggs were forced to have planted upon them. Deep and lustful demonstrations of loathe and odium, as the life in the eggs finally died, wiping them from existence.
Yet many of the animals that dwelled in the forest of Careithus knew not what was happening. Since they were not as quick as the silver throated nightingales and their striking song; if only they had shared their song with the others. Maybe the young doe, in her prime could have ran from the wind and its lover, the scent.
Or the bear, whose hibernation was growing nearer, might have hid in his cave before the date of his slumber. And of course they wouldn’t notice every single leaf jumping to their death. Because that was what happened in the fall, was it not?
And to their misfortune, the wind whisked around after chilling and killing the unborn nightingale chicks. Blowing hard, ruffling the mane of a chestnut stallion, motioning his herd elsewhere. Making the female deer look up in surprise at the winds assertive nature. Unknowing of the winds disciple, the scent; and as the nightingales flew down wind of the breezes one terrified bird thought to itself, ‘what could it have been?’
Though it knew nothing of the scent, the smell could have only been one thing, and given only one name. Not quite a perfume; more like the bittersweet smell of death.

Three weeks later…

A clean sheet of fresh snow covered the wandering hills of Careithus; the wavering smell of death coated the air thickly. Memories of the past lingered in the Kaguya Village’s citizens, most of them simple farm folk but their were the nobles whom seeked the simple life as well. Yet the entire town folk suffered no matter what class. The winds lover, the scent had wrapped itself in an unbreakable brace; throwing everyone’s lives into chaos. But out of those who chose to crack under all of this pressure, Silk remained unbreakable.
Warming her hands along the weak fires dying embers, the glowing red rubies flickering trying to stay alive gave Silk hope. Her bright yellow eyes grew wide with excitement as the fire grew along with the intensity of her eyes. The wider they got the brighter the embers grew till finally it combusted into a full fledged fire. Silk smirked then rubbed her now throbbing head. She had to focus her eyes and her mind at the same time to manipulate the fire to her will. Though most of the time it felt like the fire controlled her. That she was just its mere lowly human puppet, Silk refused to be a meek flesh marionette to the great element of fire. She trained her eyes to grow as wide as possible, growing the fire as well. Though she trained ruthlessly, at times it seemed futile. Especially when she couldn’t light a simple torch, or when she accidentally lit the tatami mats on fire.
‘Damn…my head hurts so badly. Did I over do it?’ she asked herself. Leaning in closer to the nearly birthed flames, her nearly frozen fingers warming themselves bit by bit as the orange and yellow claws reached up towards the sky, only to fail and come back down to rest along the embers, only to try again. Silk watched, curious. The flames didn’t need her to manipulate them; it did it on its own. The girl ran one cold hand threw her equally cold, yet sleek to the touch, chocolate hair.
It streamed down her back in a straight russet cascade of glossy lacquer, nearly perfect in everyway except that it grew stiff from the cold air that surrounded her.
The wind then blew a hard, cruel gust, her perfectly straight hair blew along the wind; and to the village’s dismay, snow began to float downward towards the earth.
But Silk was happy for this; she gladly welcomed the snow and all its coverage.
“Maybe it shall cover the rest of the corpses that loiter in the woods.” She spoke silently, rising, and leaving the fire. Silk walked around the small huts, small fires burned inside on the small spits within. Finally she found her own; the run down lean-to was older than she was. Much older, since she was nearing her seventeenth year in this world. It had to make this hut at least fifteen years older than she; entering the damp hut she threw off her coat. Revealing the dark sleeved, tightly tied corset underneath; the white strings were sore to their threads with angst. Silk paid no mind to the tightness of her clothing; she hadn’t felt anything since her guardian died so why start now.
Lowering herself onto her elderly futon, Silk began to look back on the past few weeks.
Though it had been only two, it seemed like twenty. So many people were suffering, so many people were dying. And nobody knew why, this unknown source was a mystery to all.
Silk wrapped the covers around her frozen body, at this moment she wished she hadn’t thrown off her coat. Being she had the blood of a Pyrokenetic she never took well to the cold; there was a thick, putrid smell surrounding the blanket, Silk made a face and quickly lowered it down to her shoulders.
She snorted in disgust; Silk had smelt that same rancid, stale smell when she had entered the forest that day. In fact, it was she who had first found out about what happened to the animals.
Sighing, Silk stepped back into her memories, she saw herself walking threw the golden forest. Since the snow hadn’t came yet, though it was early this year, she saw everything so clearly. Her thigh high boots trudging softly threw the mountains of leaves that were spread throughout the forest, every tree was bare. Their usually dark brown bark and limbs were a misty grey. The leaves were still painted with their seasonal colors, but she had been concerned for the trees. Every single one looked sickly looking, ill and…dying.
She hadn’t wandered too far into the woods, when her nose caught scent of a very peculiar smell. It was so horrible, so sickening it made her want to vomit. She covered her nose, maybe breathing out of my mouth will be better she had thought.
No, it was worse. She tasted the repulsive stench as well.
Silk, in anger drew her bow and began to run towards the direction of the scent. At first she had thought it was some thing making the smell, to be truthful in her mind it wasn’t a smell at all, it was a horrendous creature from the bottom of the sea. Tangled with bits of seaweed and fisherman’s wire; dragging along the foul scent with it.
She had determined to kill the thing, but what she found was far more disturbing than any creature with gnashing fangs or curved claws. It was a deer, a doe to be specific. Her neck was twisted in a very peculiar way, a white shard stuck from her back of her neck. On closer inspection Silk found it to be her spinal cord, pushing up thickly threw the light furred neck.
“My god…” Silk kept her bow raised, the heavy arrow quivered along the thick cord rod.
What could have down this, she thought tapping it lightly with her shoe.
The doe’s dark eyes were warped; a discoloring grey grime was collecting around the large, round eyes. The ashen filth along the eyes reminded Silk of the dead trees mourning appearance.
“How strange.” She had said, the wound was quite odd. What sort of animal or creature in general would kill its prey then leave as soon as it demised? None that she knew of and she had seen many strange creatures. Many strange creatures, but none that would inflict such an injury; “How very strange.”
Silk turned her head in the direction of a smaller trail, the empty, lone path led into an opening. A lush green meadow, clover fields and wild flowers dotted the grounds; this was a favorite of Silk’s. She resided there to relax, or train. Since there were no people around for her to accidentally torch. There was game there every now and then, wild stallions roamed across the lush pastures, deer came to graze at times, she’d once saw a large bear lapping up crystal clean water from the large stream that reached along the pasture, into the woods and throughout random man made canals all over the village.
‘Though I shouldn’t expect it to be a flourishing garden of green like it normally is.’ She thought to herself with sigh, most likely it wouldn’t be flooded with leaves, since hardly any trees sprouted along the meadows wide open range. The only thing that would have made Silk happier would be if the scent would disappear already. It continued to linger in the woods since it wasn’t particularly coming from just the doe, she had smelt the reek on the deer but it didn’t center around it. So she decided to leave the deer and its strange downfall behind her, and make her way towards the large field.
In some way, she felt sad. She hadn’t been their in such a long time it was kind of frightening. She used to go everyday, or at least every other day. But when the death of her guardian, her strong, kind mother figure passed on without warning it had crushed her. Leaving her alone in this world, Silk stopped coming to the field. She didn’t know why exactly, maybe it was that the silent, taciturn atmosphere of the pasture that would remind herself of the woman, maybe the forlorn feelings about the desolate grassland made her realize how truly alone she was, that she was without a real mother or father. That she was without a guardian, and of course without friends. She wasn’t exactly known for her kind ways in the village of Kaguya, she was though, known for her toughness. That in which, she couldn’t compare to in appearance. For she was a plain girl, except for her eyes which couldn’t be explained. This though wasn’t looked upon as beautiful, but freakish and this made her the odd girl out in her village.
‘Finally, I’m nearly there.’ She had thought to herself, a smile trying too hard to bring itself around her face, but to no prevail. Perhaps it would have emerged, if she hadn’t stepped into the field at the time that she did.
The air hanging, lingering in the atmosphere around her was that of dread and death.
No wind blew, the smell was of course very heavy and Silk couldn’t of moved if she wanted to, her fingertips were growing more numb by the second. Silence was the only one there with her at the time, well at least the only living thing.
The silence fell, unbroken not even by her jagged breathing. They were spread out far and wide, the beautiful beasts of burdens were. The gloss along their sleek coats still looked breathtakingly beautiful.
Silk was beyond words, she dropped her bow, letting it land softly on the ground below.
They were horses, beautiful, majestic, wild horses. And all of them were dead, scattered around the field like stars in the sky.
Silk advanced towards them, her yellow eyes watching intently, waiting for something, anything to come rushing from the shadows to have her meet the same fate as the horses.
But nothing did, it was silent, dead. The only sound being made was the faint rushing of the water in the distance and of course her breathing. She narrowed her eyes when she got near enough to reach out and touch one, it was sickening.
The one she stared upon had ebony hair like freshly washed lace. Its flesh was of white and black, the beast laid in an odd position on the ground, its legs spread wildly. But its face… Its face was smashed in, barely identifiable. Its eyes couldn’t be seen for the large masses of blood that poured heavily from the busted head. A light pink swirl was seen a few times when she felt her body sway from the stench of death that remained attached to the horse and its meager life. Tiny portions of its brain, she could see it better if the slights of head didn’t cover it so thickly. Spider lining the truth of what was really hidden, answers of what did this to it. Answers to why this innocent wild stallion didn’t have a nose anymore, or eyes. Why it’s smooth, lustrous muzzle was forced up, slammed up, till whatever was left of its teeth broke the barrier surrounding the brains.
Silk wasn’t too sure; all she knew was that nearly every horse was dead by some sort of cause like this. Either they were like this one, with their faces smashes in, or like the deer with the broken neck, or strange enough, one horse. A very young filly, whose soft velvety coat was beginning to shed into the mare she was to become, or would have become.
She was impaled …threw the head. ‘But how?’ Silk had thought. Looking at her, she soon realized there was another horse underneath her. Its neck was twisted so badly that the spinal cord stuck out for a visit. But the filly had speared herself with the other horse’s long, pearl colored spine, a frightening sight to any mortal.
‘So…it wasn’t an accidental or murderous death.’ She thought looking down, to see both horse’s eyes were misty as well. Both sprinkled with light grey soot from a source unknown. But along with the eyes, the horse did in fact leap on the bone since no fractures say otherwise that it could have fallen.
‘In that case…it was suicide.’ Silk rubbed her soft chin, her long nails, white tipped, all so natural grazed her skin with a light tickle. She shuttered against her own touch, was the thought of an innocent animal taking its own life so hard to grasp?
Silk didn’t know how much more she could take of this; the smell was growing stronger by the second. But what puzzled her to madness was that their wasn’t even a fly, soaring around rapidly in the air. Not a soul.
Silk turned her head away from the filly’s corpse. Taking in all that had happened, she still didn’t really understand all the way what was happening. She was freaking a little since their was nothing really alive here. She had heard no bird calling, chirping, or singing since she entered the forest. Not one single thing, only the departed.
Silk stared down once more at the horse, and wondered if all the others had done the same.
‘Get a hold of yourself Silk!’ she mentally yelled at herself, flicking the side of her head.
She should no better than to think animals are capable of the worlds greatest crime; suicide is something they aren’t capable of…are they?
Before she could muse anymore, the stalwart sound of flowing water echoed in her ears.
“The stream?” her voice seemed so loud, as if it would make the air around her shatter into thousands of pieces. Crumbling the meadow beneath her with just the few words she uttered.
Silk ran, her heart thumping loudly in her chest. The tightness of her clothes couldn’t stop it from screaming loudly making her grit her teeth. She didn’t like it, seeing all the animals, the horses spread out in numerous numbers. Flesh creatures created to dwell in this life for no purpose other to be used and abused by man. This death, whatever was killing them or…making them kill themselves must be horrible.
Her mind raced with thoughts, as she ran up the steep hill, the tall, smooth clover covered its elevated form. Sprinkled with hints of moss, and flat stones this hill overlooked the stream. It was a beautiful sight, the sparkling water flowing gently; Silk was halfway up the large mound, only the lapping sounds of the water curving around worn down stones.
Forming them to be even softer, pushing them into the clear sand at the streams depts.
Breathing deeply, Silk finally reached the top. Only to release a scream, letting it echo throughout the meadow. Her hands flew to her mouth; her attempt to silence the scream was futile and only made it ricochet across the lands more.
Silk had screamed out of anger, annoyance too but never had she screamed in fear… Until this very moment.
The stream, no beauty flowed here anymore, the rocks smooth, flattened texture were choking on flesh, and wet, gnarled hair.
Animals, beasts, creatures all resided in the stream, their heads deep in the water. Their dark noses heavily flowing blood to the surface, the rocks had did their damage well.
Silk’s screams slowed to a braking reasonable breathing, her heart pounded madly in her chest as she began counting all the bodies. Four…seven…twenty…
Silk couldn’t believe it, their were more than forty bodies drowned in the now darkening water.
Like pieces of a puzzle smashed into places they didn’t belong; making a deformed picture that no eye should ever have to see.
“They…they…drowned themselves!” she cried out. Taking a step back.
Her eyes caught sight of one thing in particular that distraught her enormously.
A wolf, its grey fur still shone vividly in harvest sun. Its head bobbed up in down as the current deepened, trying so hard to flush out the corpses that diseased it so.
The only one that seemed to move was the wolf, its face continually slamming against the rocks and sharp sand that waited at the bottom of the stream. The stream was dyed a crimson red for a time, until the water pushed it further downstream. Diluting it till it was no more; Silk was mortified. Especially when its muzzle gave way from the force and it tumbled into the stream. Sinking to the bottom, where it lay, only moving ever so slightly as the flow of the water moved its aged fur to ripple and snare.
Silk continued to take steps back, but as her mind was entranced by the sight below her she couldn’t catch herself when she tumbled backwards down the hill.
The heavy scent of clover and bitter grass taste filled her mouth as she tumbled backwards her shoulder hitting one of the gentle stones, causing it to bleed.
Silk reached her arms out to catch herself, and only skinned herself up more. Staining her clothes with mellow tinges of green and yellow; at last she stopped. Her face resting on something soft and limp. The thick smell of old pelt and…rotten meat.
“What the…” Silk rose up her head, only to come face to face with a chestnut stallion his face twisted with insanity. The grass near him was stained with burgundy this resulted in his smashed, disfigured face. His left eye ball was hanging out slightly; the long pinkish cord that kept it attached to his face was making a strange popping sound.
“UHH…” she stifled a yelp, moving her hand to his swollen belly to help push herself up.
Splushhh
Silks eyes went wide, her hand quickly fell threw the chestnut coat, splashing into a warm pool of liquid. She whipped her hand out in disgust, long; dark thick fluids ran down her slender fingers. Oozing broadly downward till it kissed the ground.
Silk thought she was going to be sick; the smell was awful, nauseating. But curiosity was getting the better of her. So she looked in through the hollow crater she had created only to see a ghastly sight. Sinister murky water was forming around the blackened organs of the stallion; large pools of the dark watery, malodorous fluids dwelled in his belly.
Silk knew everything here was wrong, everything here in this entire forest was wrong. And she couldn’t just stay here and do nothing.
‘But my efforts were wasted.’ She snorted tossing over on her side, leaving her memories for a spell. Of course the village people didn’t believe her at first, they had never really taken a liking to her before. Not that she cared one bit, they could bite her where the sun didn’t shine if they wanted to.
‘Bet they believed me when all the livestock started to die. And the pets…and the birds.’
Silk shuttered at the memory; she awoke one morning to find at least fifteen birds lying near her lean-to, yet again all their faces were smashed to bits. Like all the others.
All the livestock, the cattle, the pigs and the sheep all impaling themselves on the sharp wooden fence posts. Chickens twisting themselves within the curled barbed wire, letting it cut deep into their thin flesh. Staining their feathers. Letting themselves bleed to death.
Domesticated dogs and cats enjoyed mimicking the animals at the stream by drowning themselves in the horse troughs. The screams of terrified women and the cries of mourning children filled the Village of Kaguya; the new ‘disease’ that was killing off all the animals was now killing off people as well. But not in a way of making them take their own life by starvation.
“Not that I care…let them starve. Why should I care about their meager lives? What have they ever done for me?” Silk turned over a few more times before getting comfortable. Her yellow eyes closed. She could still smell the rotting bodies of the dead animals along her body; she made a face then finally drifted of in a light sleep.




Pulling out an old map, Silk let out a cough as the map unraveled; dust floated up in thick particles.
“Let’s see…here we are.” She pointed to the left island of Careithus. At the top point of the first crescent moon island, her Village resided in the forest just a little ways off from the beach. And the Careithus Mountains which kept the beautiful water Suiren village isolated, not just by the massive peaks but by Shuyin River as well.
But not as isolated as the island of the stars which is a large island in the middle of Careithus; Silk had always wanted to go to the coveted island but of course would never get the chance. The only two ports on both islands are the Port of the Past located on the left island and the Port of the Present to be found on the right island.
And the port closet to her, seemed so far away. It was past the Suiren Village. Closer to Suzume Village, just past the mountains; it was nearly impossible she thought.
Silk traced her finger around the mountains of Careithus, then smirked. If you went to the west of the mountains you could easily get through, without even having to go through them.
“Maybe this will be easier than I thought.” She snickered, mapping out the direction she would travel. Of course she didn’t know how in the world she would get there on such short amounts of money, and to rent a boat was insanely expensive at the docks.
‘Well…I’ll figure it out later.’ She tilted her head back and yawned.
Silk didn’t sleep well last night; her conscience drove her crazy all night long.
Her comment, ‘Why should I care about their meager lives.’ She got a scolding from the sense of right and wrong that dwelled somewhere in her brain. Screaming at her, telling her she could help save them, that she was special, and a whole other bunch of crap that Silk didn’t listen to. She had always wanted adventure, to explore double crescent shaped island to no end. To watch artists in Boushi and admire the marble sundial in the great
Taiyo Village; maybe if her travels allowed her to go to Urashima and find herself. In the village of Time, you could find anything.
Silk grew annoyed with herself and folded the map up. The ashen yellow map, made a crinkling sound of age, reminding her of an elderly woman whose longing for perfection made her seem to age faster. Skin covered in wrinkles, but never the less staying beautiful. The map was like that, being her loyal, wise grandmother; leading her to the right direction.
“Food’s the big thing here. I wonder how much I could wrangle up.”


Two and a half hours later…


“So far I got at least one loaf of almost stale bread, some old cheese and some meat cut into little strips.” Silk loved dried meat; it was her favorite especially when it was cut into strips. She had already packed herself some clothes, and the food she would be taking along with her. Since food was the main thing here, and so was water. Since she couldn’t really drink the diseased water filled with animal corpses.
But Silk figured she could manage, after all she was a Pyrokenetic, she should be able to take care of herself…right?
Her bow and quiver had already been laid out near her sling bag, along with her sleep gear which she didn’t plan on leaving her little lean-to without.
Raising herself from the floor, Silk took a small arrogant glance at her pitiful little shack.
“Don’t worry I’ll be back.” She smirked, grabbing her stuff and heading for the door. She could already smell the ice in the air, snow was coming very soon.
“See ya!” she waved it goodbye leaving the dim, moldy hut that she had called home and walked out under the vanilla sky. The air was heavy with death, but as soon as the crystal flecks poured out from the sky. Silk zipped up her black jacket, and began to walk threw the older snow that covered the ground beneath her.
Her mind raced with questions that she probably wouldn’t think about, like, ‘Where exactly was she gonna go?’ and ‘What would she do for food when she ran out?’
These she ignored with great ease, but the only one Silk even thought about reflecting one was what was happening in the other Villages?
What was becoming of them, was their death there as well, or had the death longing disease not reached them?
“I wonder…” she asked herself silently, “If there’re others like me…searching for answers?”