Plains of the Dead

[Eris]

The plains stretched far and wide, as though trying to touch where the sky ended. Flat, grassy and white; it was filled with white flowers. They dance when the wind played its soft tune, and the sing when the winds grew stronger. It was truly a magnificent sight. Yet, humans can be so blind to such beauty and prefer to settle their differences through sheer violence. Thus, a battle took place in this beautiful garden of Eden, and it went on for two whole nights.

When the last man fell, the whole place became very still. Nothing stirred, for none came out alive and victorious as they expected. Even the last man who survived took his own life, unable to face the defeat in being the only person that survived when he returns to his homeland.

She sat there, and watched the whole scene from afar. She watched...until the last man left the world, and witnessed the perfect silence after that. As soon as there were no one alive, she finally stood up and made her way towards the plains to see the bloody mess they made with her own eyes.

And yes, it was as she expected. Bodies heaped on one another, forming hills of corpses. It had set a gruesome sight, but to her, it was only a normal battle that ended badly.

She sat on the ground, upon the blood-coated flowers and stared into the eyes of a decapitated man whose head was separated from his body. He showed no fear in battle, but when his death was near, only then was he able to let out his true feelings; he never really wanted to die. There was fear in the dead man's eyes, but that was it.

She leaned back, her hands spread out further into the blood-coated flowers, not bothering to know how much blood had oozed itself unto her pale smooth skin.

"Humpty dumpty sat on a wall...Humpty dumpty had a great fall..." she sang to herself, "All the king's horses and all king's men...fell into death upon a field of flowers..."

((I know it didn't rhyme, ^_^)

[velvetnightmare]

Shadows shifted underneath the trees around the plain, flowing and melding, blowing in an almost gentle harmony with the wind. A particular clump of shadows stirred in the branches of a tree, dropping smoothly to the ground to form a human shape, shedding slivers of shadow behind it like dead parasites.
Crouching slightly to the ground, Dryden sighed softly,almost inaudibly, stirring the haze of shadows infront of her as she looked out over the sea of white soaking in blood.
She had been traveling semi-aimlessly for days, drawn on only by a slight tugging in the pit of her stomach, feeling like she needed to be somewhere. Where that was, of course, she never knew until she reached it.
She'd been through this scenario tens of times before. She'd learnt long ago that not only did it grow more impossible to ignore the pulling, but it also grew more uncomfortable the longer you ignored it. But it always drew her towards something, and seeing as she had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, she followed it.
This time it had drawn her to a plain of death...
She looked down to the few crows that had quietly flocked around her feet, mulling around in the shadows, and idly scratched one around its neck. Whispering softly to them she signalled them to leave, and they flew off, flapping into the pools of shadow they'd stirred up. Standing up from the ground, Dryden prepared herself for going into the sunlight. Tugging her hair over her eyes and wrapping her cloak further around herself to cover her skin and weapons, she stepped out of the trees and into the plains; shadow disintegrating around her untill she was just a normal figure walking through the flowers.

Dryden angled for the woman sitting in the middle of the blood soaked flowers, feeling the tug inside her belly pull her forward. She was oblivious to the blood soaking the legs of her pants, and stepped over the dead bodies liked a flowing wave of black. Slowing down, she padded silently and slowly towards the woman untill her shadow fell over her. She mumbled.
"Hello there."

[Eris]

She opened her eyes and saw another pair looking down at her. For a moment there, her big eyes blinked a few times, trying to analyze this newcomer. Pictures flashed across her eyes as she looked deeper into the woman's eyes. Strange pictures, she realised, but it was often what appears every time she sees a new person.

She got up slowly and looked at her from top to bottom.

Speech was never her first choice when greeting others. She rarely talks, no- communicate with other humans aside from herself. A certain incident back in the past turned her into the person she is today. And because of that, she views anyone who approaches her as a threat.

Seeing how this woman non-chalantly made her way through the blood-stained flowers, casually stepping over the dead bodies like it was nothing made her even more suspiscious of the woman. Who is she? What does she want? What brought her here? Questions, millions of question spun in her head, leading to answers that made no sense at all.

It was lucky that this person here was a woman. If it were a man, she would have lunged at that person with her dagger.

Feeling the sudden sense of insecurity, her hand went near to where her dagger was sheathed.

((thank you for replying! ^-^))

[velvetnightmare]

Dryden's left eye twitched, an irritating tic she could never stop, especially when she was out of her comfort zone. And she was definitely out of her comfort zone here...
Not only out in the open, in the sun for shadow's sake, but being scrutinized by a person she didn't even know. She suppressed the urge to turn away when the woman looked over her, picturing the jet black eyes with their almost oily film sweeping over them, the pale translucent skin shocking against the dark untamed sea of hair; and her strange coat made of black feathers blowing against her body, all the things this stranger would be seeing.
Almost tasting the uncertainty in the air, her thoughts were confirmed when the womans hand hovered over her dagger, and Dryden gave a sigh tainted with tiredness. If there was one thing Dryden found difficult to do, it was being congenial to strangers, especially strangers suspicious of her which, she had to concede, were most of the people she seemed to meet.
But this girl seemed different, and she almost saw something of herself mirrored in the way she acted. Dryden, seldom taking the time to produce more than monosyllabic conversations unless it was important, decided that she should try and make the woman comfortable. Mostly because one of them should be, and seeing as Dryden doubted she'd be comfortable around anyone anytime soon, it might aswell be the other woman.
She set a lopsided grin on her face and sketched a slightly exaggerated bow, flipping open the edges of her cloak and unhooking her weapons so they dropped to the floor; two large scythe heads connected by a length of chain, and a small belt of daggers that were strapped across her back. Standing upright she looked at the woman infront of her and her lip twitched. "M'lady, i doubt even I can be overly dangerous without weapons," she mumbled, smiling slightly.

((yay! no problem! XD ive been dying to get back into role playing! ))

[Eris]

Her hand almost reached the hilt of he dagger when all of a sudden, the woman spoke once more and she stopped. Seeing that smile on her face, her suspicions on the woman slowly disappeared. However, a certain memory relived again from within her, reminding her of the many mask humans wear nowadays.

But this woman was really letting her guard down, revealing to her the weapons she carry in her cloak. Her eyes noted the strange coat the woman wore; it was nothing like the one she had on her. Hers was only a normal black trenchcoat with bandages as her inner garment.

She looked at the woman more closely and realised a certain symmetry between the two of them. The woman's hair was the deepest black and hers was the entire opposite of it; silver blonde that leaned more to white. She felt rather insecure at the whole thought of it and shook it away.

Still viewing the woman as a threat, she moved a step back, her bandaged legs crushed against the decayed flesh of a corpse. Yelping a little at this, she jumped back in horror and fell down to the ground, crawling away from the corpse she stepped on. Her mind was in a total disarray and all she wanted to do was to return to that shell she made in her mind, protecting her from the human world. She felt lost, cold and alone. The whole issue about the newcomer was completely forgotten, replaced with another memory that rang in her head repeatedly.

"Go away! Go away! GO AWAY!" she shrieked, stopping halfway and curled herself up into a tight ball.

[velvetnightmare]

Dryden was just starting to think that her attempts at putting the woman at ease were working, when she stumbled against a corpse and fell down screaming. Caught completely off guard, Dryden fell down to a crouch and grabbed her weapons, not sure if the woman was screaming at her to go away or if something else was happening. Seeing the woman curl up into a ball, looking so vulnerable, she felt an odd feeling inside her chest. Making a decision, she quickly grabbed a dagger and shoved it in her boot incase she needed it, rushing over to the other woman and hastily clearing away the corpses around her. Not sure whether to touch her or not, not even sure if she wanted to touch someone, she tentatively crouched down next to the girl and said "its ok! its ok, theres no one else here to hurt you!" ignoring the blood that was starting to soak into their clothes and stain her arm as she sat helplessly in the grass

[Eris]

Pictures after pictures repeated itself in her mind. She cringed and kicked at the grass and flowers before her. There was no pain, she felt, but there was agony. She didn't know why, but she felt as though it was responsible for the sudden jolt of memory in her.

The tattooed mark on her left hand glowed black for a moment, in reaction to her mental breakdown.

That wouldn't be necessary, for now. Cease thy fear...

The voice left as quickly as it first sounded. She blinked a little and recoiled slowly from her curl, looking up at the woman before her. At that moment, everything that ran across her head disappeared so suddenly. It left her mind a little empty, and she felt rather dazed as she slowly sat up to look at the woman more closely.

The tattoed mark returned to its former state and glowed no more.

Despite all that had happened, she did hear what the woman had said to her; "No one...will hurt me...? No more...hurt?" she asked timidly, her frightened eyes noted the blood that was stained on the woman's arm, "Hurt...? That...you? Blood...?" her sentences were brokenly arranged for she only spoke whatever words that came first in her head.

As for the mysterious voice in her head, it spoke no more.

[velvetnightmare]

Dryden watched the other woman intently, pain and... something else she couldnt quite figure out flickering across her face as she twitched in the grass. She didnt know what else to do except wait anxiously. Something almost familiar was happening to the woman... and Dryden was thrown back to memories of the dreams she used to have.
But not anymore.
Not since she stopped them...

When the woman sat up slowly, she gave a small inaudible sigh of relief; having the first person she approached die on her wasnt exactly what she wanted. Especially not someone so unnusual.
Her lips twitched in a crooked smile at the womans question and strange hesitant way of speaking. "Me hurt?" she repeated, glancing at her bloody arm and dismissing it with a shake of her head. "Its some unlucky berk's blood, not mine. More importantly is whether you're hurt," she said questioningly, looking over the girls face and eyes.
"You scared me there for a moment, I thought you were going to join the rest of the guys in this field..." she said softly, trying not to startle the woman. Motioning with her finger for the girl to wait a minute, she reached into one of the pockets on the side of her pants and pulled out a small flask, opening the top and sniffing the contents. Pulling a bit of a face she took a sip to test it, and held it out for the other woman. "It just smells a bit odd from the previous contents, but its plain water, might help clear your head a bit."
She leaned back in the grass and crossed her legs, still seemingly oblivious to the pooling blood splattered everywhere, and watched the strange silver haired woman infront of her

[Eris]

She cocked her head to one side and gingerly lifted her finger to touch the blood on the woman, and then back to the blood on her. The warm liquid had stained itself on her trenchcoat and soaked her bandage bright red. But she actually liked it, touching the wet surface of her bandages. It had a different feel to it...and it had life, the very few seconds of life that flowed in human veins before death came after them.

When the woman explained that she was not hurt, she sighed in relief; "Good...but dirty, those blood," she played with the bloody flowers with her fingers, "Hurt...me?" she shook her head, "Long time ago, but now still. It comes, it goes, like the winds. Everlasting...punishment," her voice was soft, almost inaudible, but she made sure it reached the woman's ears. For once, she actually wanted to be heard.

She watched the woman as she took out something from the side of her pants. After testing its contents, she handed it to her.

Her eyes stared at it intently, wondering what was inside it. But after hearing that it was only plain water, she then timidly reached out for the flask and took it in her hands. Water was good, she thought, like the cooling rivers and waterfalls. It brings you to different places...and you might get lost, but in the end, you end up going down to where it all ends. She thought of it this way while she drank the water in little sips, not wanting to consume everything in it.

"Gratitude..." she hands it back to the woman and turned her attention to the black feathers on the woman's coat, touching it; "Feathers...soft," she caressed it gently, and then looked back at the woman after reaching a certain verdict, "Wings?"

[velvetnightmare]

She watched the woman curiously as she touched the blood soaked flowers around her, and glanced down to where her own hands lay in blood. It oozed warmly between her fingers and a quick almost feral grin flickered across her face. "Yeah, this blood is dirty.. Dirty with other peoples memories and dreams," she answered, wiping her hand on her shirt and looking up at the woman curiously. "But who's hurting you? why are you being....eternally punished?" not understanding how this soft seemingly innocent woman could have done anything to deserve that.

While the woman took small sips of the water, Dryden took the time to look at her closer, seeing all the bandages that covered her body and wondering if they were purely a form of clothing, or for something else.

Snapping out of her thoughts when the woman spoke, she reached out and took the flask back, taking a drink and screwing the top back on. She was slightly startled when the woman reached out and touched her coat, and her eye twitched annoyingly at her sudden unexpected question. Not letting any surprise show in her face or movements, she scratched her head lazily and looked back at the woman. "Wings? What made you think I had wings?" She flapped the edges of her coat and grinned crookedly at the woman. "Thats the last thing id want people to see," she said, and smoothed the feathers back down, smiling again slightly

[blaz]

Light flared infront of his eyes and he jerked awake, crying out as pain coursed through his body. He rolled over and choked, coughing up clotted blood and mucous, pain wracking his chest and sides as he felt old wounds tear open again from the movement. He lay back in the grass, warm and cold blood both soaking his already bloodied clothes and groaned. Everything seemed wrong... where was he? What happened... why was he in so much pain -
Then it all flooded back.
He was an innocent bystander, caught in the middle of a battle, swept along with the tide of living fodder. Joining the fighters hastily to try and hide in the mass of people.
He had been running, running far far away from something, as fast he could. But it was too horrible... too painful, more painful than his physical wounds. He tried to blocked it out, but the memories kept flooding back.
There were ghosts, and demons, horrible demons that crawled through his flesh and violated every cell in his body.
Changing, destroying, rebuilding. Turning him into some abomination...
His hand flew up to his face, feeling his forehead, but finding nothing... He tried to check his legs next, but the pain flared in his abdomen, and he cried out again, blood dribbling from his mouth. He'd almost forgotten how hurt he was.
Pushing the memories away, he propped himself up on his elbows, coughing again to clear the blood pooling in his lungs. His eyes focused fuzzily in the sunlight, piles of dead bodies scattered all around him. Wheezing painfully he pulled himself up onto his hands and knees, his eyes focusing more untill he saw two figures sitting in the field, but they were moving and talking. they were alive.
Raising his hand towards them he cried out weakly, ending in a watery bubble. Coughing once more he shouted a bit louder, waving his arm pathetically to get there attention.
"Please...help!"

[Eris]

"Hurt...me? Eternal punishment...?" her eyes shifted to the tattoed mark on her left hand and then back to the woman, "Bad things. Bad...bad...they disappear. They disappear. Punishment on me...because they disappear. Bad people. Bad humans. Disappear," she explained it briefly, not wanting to remember that something from long ago for fear that she might go into that sudden mental breakdown.

She quickly snatched her hand away from the woman's feathery coat, watching her closely as she smoothed the feathers back down; "But...pretty. Very pretty," she smiled shyly, "Feathers...like birds. Wings. Feathers," her words, broken again. She was really trying her best to put her words together, but they just came out that way. Sighing softly, she tried again; "Feathers...here," she pointed at the woman's coat, "Like wings. Big wings. Angels. Featherians," she frowned a little at her failure and tried once more.

"Can...can you...fly...?"

But just as she was about to continue elaborating her question, her ears caught a soft cry coming from behind her. Slowly, she turned and saw a hand waving at them. She blinked.

If she was the only person in this field, she would have pounced on this person and kill whoever it was straightaway without asking any questions. But now that she was in the presence of this woman whom she somewhat trusts, she tried to keep that sudden notion from within her to take over her.

Her mind was in a complete disarray. What should she do? What should she do? She can't help for the only thing in her mind was to kill any that moved. Especially in a plain full of dead bodies. She completely registered the whole scene and the dead around her as 'completely dead'. Seeing a survivor might just change that perception of hers and she would do anything to not change that perception of hers.

Shuddering at the thought of this, her hand moved towards her dagger.

[Theseus]

Theseus lay on his back, sprawled messily on the seemingly soft, cool earth. He opened his eyes to a blur of vision. Light blinded him instantly, but his eyes quickly adjusted. Blinking over and over again he rubbed his dried out eyes. He was confused. Wondering what had taken place just hours ago. He did not realize he was in the same field he almost died on yet. His black, slightly curling hair, dirtied by mud, his face painted with blood. Theseus gazed into the sky, appearing as if he was on drugs, but noticed something that seemed to be getting in the way of his vision: an arrow. Stationary, unmoving, silent and yet elegant. He traced it...down the shaft, to the head......There it sat: lodged in his shoulder. He squeezed his eyes shut as the pain surged through him. His jaw tightened and his teeth grinded violently against each other.

Theseus simply did not have the energy to scream. So he continued to lie there on the blood-stained ground. Abandoned weapons, poles of broken spears, and arrows strewn everywhere around him. Corpses began decomposing, leaving a not yet vile smell in the air around him. His armor, cracked. Once shiny like chrome, now stained by blood. He finally mustered the strength to force himself to sit up, using only his uninjured arm. Terrified by the scene around him, his tensed jaw dropped. His pounding headache grew worse, and he shivered as the gentle breeze blew. He looked over the rest of his body to scan for further injury. Looking over himself, he spotted two small gashes on his thigh and a much larger cut across his upper torso, sending more pain through his body. He blinked again and spotted his bloodied helmet, lying not but 10 feet away and his long sword and shield on either side of him. After seemingly hours of staring at the scene around him his gaze turned toward two figures, far away... "Survivors...?" He muttered. His vision was still not full, and everything was still a little fuzzy. Seeing this as a sign of his possible survival, he sheathed his sword and set his shield in it's place on his back, then crawled to his helmet which he decided to carry. Theseus took a deep breath, and forced himself to stand up, causing a searing pain to enter his body once more, greater than any he had ever felt before. He grunted loudly and began limping helplessly towards the two figures in the distance...

[Eris]

Just as her hand touched the hilt of her dagger, her ears caught another sound coming from the distance. She turned her head and her eyes widen in surprise; another survivor. However, the image in her head was different from others who would perceive this sight of a survivor as normal. In her eyes, the sight of the two survivors were like the dead coming back to life.

"They...died....suppose to...die..." her mind suddenly shifted to the previous one, this time, a little more aggresive than before, "Die..die..die....lifeless...doomed..."

Unimaginable thoughts crawled into her private side of the mind, filling it with the desire to kill, and to correct the error before her. Or so she thought. Her mind was chaotic, just like the time before...just like when she first killed those men who threatened her. No, she didn't kill them. She simply made them...

"Disappear..." her red eyes turned white, a sure sign of danger. And the mark on her left hand glowed black, forming a sort of smoke around the wrist of her hand, "Disappear...you...all...no longer here...no longer...wanted..."

She unsheathed her dagger and started approaching the one who was staggering his way towards them, her eyes as white as the blind.

It was due to this insecurity of hers that led her to be called 'The Goddess of Destruction', or in their language, Eris. Wielding the destructive power in her left hand, she eradicated villages, towns, and even attempted to destroy the world. A power most befitting to her...yet, of course, for every single thing in this world, there is always the other side of the coin. The opposite of that side of her; Creation.

Cease yourself from such thoughts, or you will suffer another eternity of pain..

"I've suffered long enough..." she muttered softly, suddenly gaining her ability of speech, "They must all die...the same blood flows in their vein...every single one of them,"

[Theseus]

As he dragged himself along, stepping over corpses wearily, he looked up. His legs soon grew weak, and he found himself gulping down air like a drunkard would his beer. Theseus' vision was still a little bit hazy and the light was not so bad on his eyes. Alas, his legs buckled, his helmet hit the ground with a loud clank, and he fell to his knees. He merely sat there, gasping for breath desperately, the blood now beginning to harden on his armor. He fell forward into the ground, causing the arrow lodged in his shoulder to push back farther into him, now only centimeters away from piercing the skin on his back, behind the shoulder. He screamed loudly as a short jet of blood came out, soon followed by a slow flow of more out the sides of the wound. Theseus quickly turned himself over onto his side and continued his gasping, laying there helplessly, waiting....waiting...waiting...

Theseus looked up and over to where the two figures stood, but one was closer than the other, or at least, he thought. It appeared that she was walking toward him, and that's all he wanted. For someone to see him. For someone to help him. He wanted rest, and he soon felt death could be the only resort left to fill that emptiness. His head fell against the soft earth once more, as he waited helplessly for the person to reach him. His breathing grew louder, and with it his grunts from the pain that was caused by the cursed arrow that was left in him. As he waited, a bead of sweat formed on the side of his head and slowly trickled down his face...