| Ash- Donavan's flight and Ash's rebirth. |
[Sep. 18th, 2004|11:41 pm] |
Donavan had been walking forever. Walking through knee high silvery grass, under a gloomy sky, that looked as though the sun never pierced the clouds. The world was utterly featureless, painted in shades of gray, like a black and white photograph. The only color on the endless plain was Donavan's hair, which was a dirty brown. The rest of him was as gray as the monotonous landscape.
Donavan thought that at one time he hadn't been so washed out, that his now grayish skin had once been a healthy peach, that his hair had once been a vibrant red, that his clothes had once been bright and new, not the tattered rags they were now. But he had been walking for so long that he wasn't even sure that there actually were colors other than varying shades of gray.
Donavan squinted onto the distance, at the mountains he thought he saw, although in this world of perpetual dusk, it was hard to be certain. He walked towards the mountains, not because he had any real hope of there being anything but another endless sea of grass, but because he had no idea of what else to do.
It began to snow, soft flakes drifting down onto the grass, muffling Donavan's already quiet steps into pure silence. Donavan could feel the silence pressing down on him, more painful than the biting cold. He took a deep breath, and screamed at the top of his lungs, just to break the silence. The scream, though muffled by the snow, still made enough noise to alert the One chasing him.
Donavan had forgotten that there was something chasing him, or rather the gray had pushed it out of his mind. It was so hard to remember anything anymore. The One chasing him remembered though. It remembered who It's quarry was, It knew what pain Donavan would go through if It caught Donavan. And It wanted Donavan's pain.
The wanting was what scared him the most. Not the actual pain, although the pain would destroy him. No, it was that the It wanted the pain, would feed off the pain, would use the pain, Donavan's pain, to make It complete.
Donavan's fear held him in place, frozen, his scream still echoing in his ears. Then a bright flash lit the world, splitting the sky in two, banishing the snow storm completely. Lightning. The thunder that followed startled Donavan out of his trance, causing him to bolt like a startled rabbit.
He ran for hours, his long legs scissoring through the grass. His leg was cut by a jagged stick that lay in the grass, and bled blood that was so red, so bright, that it looked like liquid rubies. A lone ant, perhaps the only other living being on the grasslands, gazed at a glistening pool, a pool that was the first thing of color that it had ever seen in it's life. Around the droplets spilled, color seemed to leach back into the the grass, remaining long after the blood had withered from the harsh elements that plagued the world. The ant, for all of it's short existence, lived in joy, for although it was a lonely as Donavan, it had a small patch of green grass to give it comfort.
But Donavan did not see the glorious brightness of his blood in the gloomy world. He did not feel the pain in his overworked legs. All he was aware of was It looming closer and closer behind him. He could feel It reaching out for him, he could feel It starting to pull at him, sucking his soul away. He could smell It's putrid breath on the back of his neck. He could hear It's laughter, as he collapsed onto the never-ending ground, waiting for his doom, his leg bleeding into the rough grass.
And just before It grabbed him in It's clammy arms, he heard something else. He heard a desperate screaming, someone screaming for him. The screams were coming from a world away, yet he could still hear them.
Donavan could feel It hesitate, as It heard the screaming also. Then It did something Donavan thought It would never do. It put It's head in It's hands, and started to sob. Then It shocked Donavan even more by saying "I was once like you. Lost and hopeless, wandered this place, running from those who would feast on my pain. Then one got me. I wandered for many more eons, swearing that I would never do to anyone one what had been done to me. Then, one day, I saw one who was as I had been, lost, yet still whole. I saw it, and I knew that if I hurt it like I had once been hurt, I would feel whole again, if only for a moment. So I did hurt it, leaving it gasping for breath, collapsed on the ground. There were many others after that. Nothing stopped me before now, nothing stopped me before one scream floated in from another world. Then I woke up, and saw what I had done, what I had become."
Donavan gazed at It for the first time, saw how how It could have once been someone like him, how the world had pulled every color from It, leaving It a white and sickly ghost. He saw how pained It was. He saw that once It had possessed a name, before that to had been leeched from It. And saw, saw most clearly of all, that he would have turned into something exactly like It, if the scream hadn't pierced through the fabric of the worlds, and saved him.
Donavan reached his arms out to It, pulled It to his chest, and said "Come with me. Come help me find the one that saved us both with a scream. Come help me keep the loneliness of this place away."
Donavan looked at the pool of blood that had seeped from his leg, then glanced up to see that he had fallen at the foot of a giant ash tree. It was beginning to sprout leaves, beginning to live again. And Donavan knew that his blood was what was bringing it back to life.
He, almost in a trance, reached his finger into his blood, then slowly traced that finger down one cheek, then the other, of It's face, and said "I shall name you Ash, for the tree above us, and you will live, and be whole."
Ash's tears tears poured over the blood, but they were tears of joy. He, for Ash was a he, raised his face to the sky and sobbed with happiness. In the branches of the tree, a single robin began to sing. |
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