Be careful of the curse that falls on young lovers
Starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters
A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night
May still become a wolf when the autumn moon is bright
-Lyrics to 'Howl' performed by Florence and the Machine
Elements of Great Design Part 17
The sound that woke Wufei and Anna from their brief nap the next time around was not the howl of a wolf... but a shrill scream of a woman.
Eyes snapping open wide, the engaged couple shot upright. "That sounded like it came from the village," Chang murmured, the panic in his face and his voice as he stared ahead to where a privately owned stretch of farmland lay beyond the forest where they were.
Before Fraise could ask if he was certain considering their state of unconsciousness, there was another spine-tingling shriek- this one prolonged and without question originating from the nearby plantations. Springing to their feet, the Monk and the thief rushed through the thick cover of trees as fast as their legs could carry them.
Her trusted bow in one hand, Anna pulled the colorful woven strap of her quiver across her chest as Wufei removed the long, curved blade that he never let out of his sight from the hilt at his hip. Joining the now growing chorus of terrified, pained wails was the distinct sound of metal clanging and viscous snarls that could not have been made by humans.
Still, the elementals charged headlong for whatever it was that might be past the obscurity of the forest surrounding them. Every wide step that they took, the louder the sounds of an unholy fight rose. Those snarls and snaps only multiplied... worsened in their intensity. There were also screeching rasps of maddened laughter from cackling voices.
Those troubling noises pushed Wufei and Anna to run faster... and faster still. Eyes narrowed and weapons ready, they finally reached the end of the tree line that they had reached in only a couple of minutes that felt more like days to them.
And reaching the top of the hill where they stood to have a clear view of what awaited them, they froze stiff with eyes enlarged in disbelief. "D-dear Creator," was all that the redhead could breathe, her skin paling along with her lover's.
In the valley of farms a half-mile below, a hoard of the most grotesque creatures from ogres to behemoths and shadow creepers that were the things of ghost stories that parents warned their children of that they may fly right to avoid Abaddon's Hell were storming the land. [1 & 2]
Those long and lanky beasts with long horns at the sides of their heads charged at incredible speeds to ram through buildings and impale the bodies of those poor souls in their way. The giants raised and lowered hammers, swords, axes and other weapons made to only bring on the most devastating of injuries and instant death to the flailing countrymen, women and their children.
No one was spared, not even those who lowered whatever tool they had originally gripped to defend themselves to fall to their knees and raise their folded hands up in their begging for their lives. They were all cut down as mercilessly as those brave remaining few who fought with their last breaths. In those early moments of the slaughter, the fields were set ablaze and reddening from the pools blood being spilt.
Panting heavily, Wufei's eyes narrowed dangerously as his whole body trembled in his rage until the very ground at his feet rumbled and quaked along with him. large crevices of split earth shot forth, deafening in their rips and tears through dirt and stone until it reached the village. Large 'mouths' opened up to swallow the surprised attackers that up until then had yet to be bested by their human challengers.
Her own eyes thinned with burning hatred, Anna raised her free hand out to the fires that had been set to home and field alike. Turning those flames into explosive waves that she turned onto the monsters, she incinerated them into screaming, howling masses until they were ash or pushed them back into the endless holes in the earth that Wufei's quake had created.
It did not take long for the lucky few creatures that had escaped the onslaught to turn their attention onto the gifted pair. No longer bothered by the mortals that they had completely decimated, they shot forth to claim their new targets.
Taking to their weapons, the Monk and the thief put their years of training to use. Her focus set on the winged demons swooping down on them, Fraise set the arrow that she set on her bowstring on fire before sending it off to sail over the screeching, long-beaked monsters and brought all they touched to flame.
Wufei raised his curved blade over his head and brought it down to slam against the ground with a loud cry. The magic he surged through his blade stretched out like tentacles ahead of him against he ground to turn every monster that it touched into stone statues that crumbled to dust at the next quake.
Off in the distance, the two warriors caught a glimpse of the main city off in the distance to see that it was under siege as well. Plumes of black smoke and wave after wave of the black shadow that consisted of the demon army lay waste to all that it reached. "There is no end to them! Where are they all coming from?!" the thief cried after firing another burning arrow.
"I don't know!" the Monk yelled back. "But we won't be able to keep at this rate for much longer!"
Even as skilled as they had both become in their powers over the years, exertion from their efforts was setting in. What they had intended to be their offensive strike against the monsters to save as many as they could had quickly become a desperate struggle to save themselves. Where one beast fell three more shot forth in their place. Before long, the brave couple was completely surrounded by a ring of hell's brethren at the end of their strength.
Panting heavily and collapsing to their knees, Wufei and Anna propped themselves up on their hands to keep from falling forward into the tall grass. Their arms shaking at the simple strain of supporting themselves, they slowly scanned the grotesque and grinning faces watching them. Only then did they notice that the sun was far in the west in the start of its descent.
They had fought the whole day away, never aware of anything but their desire to take out as many of their attackers as they could before they were wiped away from the face of Gaia.
Now that they could plainly see the flattened residences and the corpses strewn about in the fields and city alike, their hearts ached for those innocent souls that they could not save. A sharp sob escaped Chang, his body trembling as tears rolled down his face at having to take the devastation of his people and his homeland.
"Oh, Wufei," Fraise whimpered brokenly as she reached over to squeeze her lover's shoulder. He was the lone survivor of his kind... and before long even he would be no more. "I am so sorry," the redhead whispered, her own eyes spilling over as she was pulled into a tight embrace.
Clinging onto him as hard as she could, Anna closed her eyes, buried her head in his shoulder and awaited their death in hopes that it might be swift and painless as they remained kneeling where they had collapsed.
But for a long moment, there was only silence.
Then there was clapping... slow clapping that pierced the stillness.
Blinking their enlarged eyes open, the couple remained linked to each other as they raised their heads to watch in disbelief as the hoard before them parted to reveal a redheaded girl who was not even approaching her physical teens yet.
Short in stature and sweet in appearance with her wide smile, there was no such sweetness in her large eyes that were trained on them. Lowering her hands after one more clap, the child praised, "That was in incredible display, Mages. I have never seen anything the like in all my days."
When she stepped forward, so did a tall shadow from behind her. Falling to her side, the dark-robed man was easier to make out. Well advanced in his years that were shown through the wrinkles in his face and on his folded hands, the white-bearded sorcerer's power could be felt from where the warriors knelt.
Cold and hard, the old man was more the sort of person that would have been expected to be linked to the attack of a people that stood no match against an army of monsters the likes of which surrounded them.
Extending her hand so that her palm was turned upward to the clouding skies, the girl smirked, "Now I will be the one to send you off to join the others." Her lavender eyes glowed and a swirling cloud of black smoke danced above her skin before it shot forth to claim the gifted.
Chang pulled his lover all the closer against him and their heads buried in each other's shoulders. Beyond their eyelids that were squeezed closed, they could feel the magic wrap around them, tingling in its touch as it moved over their bodies.
But there was no pain. There was no struggle for breath or a constriction of any kind. That spell began to coil around them faster, as though the magic itself had become agitated.
Then... just as quickly as that sensation had come on, it disappeared.
Slowly opening their eyes again, Wufei and Anna blinked in surprise and assessed their partner to find that they had both been unscathed.
Her face reddening as brightly as her hair, the girl released a loud screech of rage. Beside her, the old man's eyes were enlarged and filled with dread as he breathed, "By Abaddon... they are Keepers of the Stones. N-no magic... light or dark can kill them."
Keepers.
Gasping sharply, the couple stared into one another's widened eyes in disbelief. For so long, they had only assumed that they might be some kind of Mages. After all, neither of them considered themselves anything more than a Monk and a thief that happened to have a few extra tricks up their sleeves.
Never before had the notion come to them that they might be the Keepers of Earth and Fire. But now hearing it from the sorcerer, it all made perfect sense.
"Well, well, well," the child grinned smugly. "Fate has not only brought us one Keeper, but two." tilting her head, she laughed, "And how endearing to see them so in love."
Off to her right, one particularly massive ogre standing ten times the height of the girl bent down towards her as he said, "Mistress Mariemaia, perhaps magic cannot kill them, but their necks can still be slit quite easily."
The corner of his drooling mouth tugging up in a smirk, he stared at the redhead as he added, "Of course, we would have a bit of fun with that little fire brat before we send her after her earth shaker." Those ugly faces around him grinned with black, leering eyes that raked over the shivering archer. Tongues darted over slimy lips and rumbling chuckles that only promised the worst of acts filled the air.
Growling lowly, Wufei tightened his hold around Anna, turning his body to shield her from those demonic eyes. "Are you gaining your strength back, Anna?" he asked in a whisper by her ear when he ducked his head.
To the shallow nod that the Fire Keeper was able to manage against his shoulder, he told her, "You get ready to burn a way out of here for us. I'm going to bring the walls down to take out as many of these monsters as possible the moment I am strong enough for it."
Mariemaia raised a hand and glared to the army around her. "You will not have your chance at them." Looking back to her targets, she smiled, "I am going to have a bit of fun with them. Perhaps I might not be able to kill them, but my gift can still affect them in other ways."
"You should have your men kill them," the old man warned as he looked the child. "If all of the Keepers should come together and find their stones, that will be the end of you and all of your plans. We have two of the four at our mercy now. Let us end them and the threat that they bring."
Biting her lip, Anna breathed, "We have to move, Wufei. Whatever you have, use it now."
As Fraise spoke, the redheaded girl smirked up to the sorcerer, "My dear Uncle, it was you who taught me that some fates are worse than death. I have a plan that will keep us safe from the Keepers while testing my powers on them." Snapping her head forward once more, she stared deep into the onyx eyes of the Monk as her eyes glowed once more.
With a sharp gasp, Wufei froze as still as a stone, his arms like ice around the panicked thief. In those wide eyes of his, she could see the swirl of dark gold swirling in his irises. "What are you doing to him!?!" Anna shrieked in rage at the sorceress.
The glow of her spell fading, Mariemaia giggled, "There. A most interesting form that his subconscious brought forth. He will no longer be a problem come first light tomorrow."
Meeting the shimmering blue eyes on her, she informed, "The only way to reverse my spell will be for Death to claim you. True Death is the only messenger who may carry you away from this world into the abyss beyond. And once you are no more, your body cold and stiff, then your precious lover will be free. Until then, you will never know his touch, hear his voice or lay your eyes on him as you do now."
Released from the grip of her power, Chang sagged heavily with a sharp huff of air that rushed from his lungs. Holding him up, Fraise's blinked her watering eyes in surprise at realizing that she had stared into the light of a darkness that had coursed through her at the girl's words.
"Enough with these games, child," the girl's uncle snapped under his breath. "Tell your men to slaughter them!"
Small as she was, Mariemaia seemed to stand eight-feet tall when she shot a glare up at the tall man. "I will not be spoken to in that way when I have done nothing wrong," she hissed. "Remember that no one was actually supposed to die, but things got out of hand." That silenced the sorcerer, his head lowering and hands folding at his waist.
Quickly having a hold on his bearings, Wufei whispered, "Get ready, love." Nodding firmly, the archer held him close just as the earth around them quaked violently.
The resonating cracks and rumbles from the ground as it was torn asunder became deafening in seconds. Crying and shouting at being knocked from their feet and into gaping crevices that swallowed them whole, the demons could not even bring their weapons up to take a strike at the couple.
Off in the distance, the walls of rock that stood for miles and miles high began to crumble in a massive landslide that engulfed everything it crashed down on.
Soon finding a large enough break that led to the world outside, Anna brought on a massive fire ball that surrounded the couple. In a flash, that brilliant orb shot forth, zooming through the openings in the falling stone and over the widening gaps in the ground. Nearly an hour later, that sphere of flame slowed and faded away at the end of its wielder's strength.
Nearly collapsing from her fatigue, the Fire Keeper fell into her lover's waiting arms that supported her limp body.
Held close against Chang's chest, her tear-strained face buried in his shoulder and she sobbed uncontrollably. Fighting his own surge of emotions, the Earth Keeper kissed the top of her red hair and offered what soft words of comfort he could even while reeling over the complete loss of his homeland.
Eblan's fall was devastating enough to deal with... knowing that they were about to be somehow separated was unbearable.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Setting camp on a secluded hill from where they could see any and everything that may or may not come for them, Wufei and Anna lay on their sides facing each other by a burning fire that lit the otherwise dark world around them.
Through the darkness, they could plainly see the flat stretch of Gaia where there should have been a wall of rock protecting a sprawling city. While they had not actually seen what became of Mariemaia or her uncle, there was little doubt that such powerful wielders of magic were so easily snuffed out.
In the heart-wrenching reminder that the beautiful land of Monks and their families was gone, the pair curled up to one another as closely as they could... only it was not only out of the need for comfort through their touch...
...it was mostly because by those early morning hours Wufei could not stop shivering.
Wracked by the spell that was running its course through him, the Earth Keeper's teeth chattered loudly as he burrowed himself as tightly against the body surrounding him as he could.
Rubbing his arms as she cradled him, Anna bit her lip and sniffled at the cruel irony of being the Keeper of Fire and still not being able to warm her lover. She brought her own temperature to be as hot as Chang could withstand before his skin would behind to singe. And even then, it was not enough to fight the cold that all but paralyzed him.
A pained moan escaped her as she whimpered to the eyes closing, "T-try not to sleep, Wufei. We don't know the extent of the magic that Mariemaia used on you."
"Just... so damned tired," the Monk managed through his trembling lips, opening his eyelids at half-mast and staring up into the distraught thief's shimmering gaze. Drawing a deep breath, Chang smiled sadly, "You did brilliantly back there, love. We both did everything we possibly could to survive that attack, so I do not want you blaming yourself for anything-"
Fraise cried, "I can't even keep you warm! For that reason alone, I should take full responsibility for how useless I am!" A chilled finger rose to rest over her lips, gently silencing her with the exception of a sharp sob.
Keeping their gazes locked, Wufei showed a sudden state of complete alertness as he said softly, "You are the single most significant thing in my life, Anna. I would not have survived back there if it had not been for you, we might not have been able to stop-" His voice hitching, he shook his head from that dark train of thought regarding his homeland and stated, "We did everything we could. It just was not enough today."
Groaning from the effort, he stretched up to rest their foreheads together and relished in the slight fending off of the cold at the touch of their skin. "I love you, Firefly," he breathed. At her endeared nickname, the redhead nearly came completely undone, her whole body shaking along with her fiancé's.
The corner of his lips curling up again, Wufei moved his hand to brush the backs of his fingers over his partner's cheek. Over the chattering of his teeth, he promised fervently, "We are going to become stronger... and we are going to repay Mariemaia for what she has done... You and I are going to be married... we are going to have beautiful children and live a very long life together just like we've discussed."
Biting her lip, Anna nodded enthusiastically, already set to the vows that they had already exchanged in their hearts and souls.
He swallowed roughly and begged desperately, "No matter what becomes of me, you must swear that you will not seek out Death so that I may be free." A sob of his own escaping him as large tears rolled from his eyes, he whispered, "Because I would never survive in this world without you."
In the back of her mind, the thief already had it in her mind to do whatever she needed in saving the Monk from whatever his grim fate may be. However, she could never deny him anything he desired.
"I promise," she replied, keeping ter profound sincerity in her voice. Whimpering, she whispered brokenly, "I love you so much, Wufei. There is not a spell that any gifted could bring down on us that will keep me away from you."
Quickly leaning in, Chang pressed their mouths together in a fierce kiss that continued until they could no longer hold off their aching bodies' need for sleep. Drifting off in each other's arms, they surrendered the fight... for the time being.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
At the early morning light, Anna's eyes blinked open and snapped wide when she found herself flat on her back and staring up at the clearing skies. The rush of the events that had occurred during the night came back in a breathless rush that had the color in her face draining.
Instantly, her hand shot out to her side where Wufei had been lying... only when it should have fallen on flesh or the feeling of a white robe, her fingers gripped onto thick fur instead.
Gasping, the thief shot up onto her feet in a low crouch. Her eyes growing further in disbelief, she took in the form of a large black wolf that uncurled itself to stare at her with familiar dark irises...Chang's irises.
"W-Wufei?" Fraise breathed in wonder.
Relief washed over the great animal as his whole posture eased. Closing his wet eyes, he reeled his head back in a prolonged howl...
...singing to his lover... just as the thief had suggested of the wolf that they had woke hearing the morning before.
Laughing through her tears, Anna launched herself forward to throw her arms tightly around her lover's thick neck. "We'll find a way to reverse this," she vowed to her partner as he leaned against her to return the hug as best he could. "There is always a reverse spell to magic as far as I know... "
Teething gritting, she hissed, "and if we cannot find one, then I will take great pleasure in seeing it out through killing those sorcerers."
It was an unbreakable pact that would see many trials but would never waver.
And it was the start of a new day... A day that came with many possibilities... the first of countless others like it that would take them through Gaia in the hopes of one day being back in each other's arms.
TBC...
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