Are you a Sword Lily? Or go by the name of Gladiolus?
Fir, they grow like weeds, and you’ll never die
They gave you a bundle of Yellow Carnations, but don't take it to heart.
Sileo vitae.
The new beginning. The era; the world of peace.
The restart of life.
Tell me, young whisper, do you know the taste of colour?
The feel of death?
The agony of songful pain?
Her feet of taloned blades, they could carry her miles, to places where no creature dared to breathe. She was a rebel, a glitch, a creature of death and darkness.
A creature with no glow.
A creature with no Life-Force.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Her breaths were like liquid fire in emerald and blue stained violet filled lungs, breathes huffed in crisp cold pants from a maw of flicking tongue and fanged teeth.
In the distance, a howled scream.
She sped up.
The living things of this world, daunted and strange and beautiful, with frills and tails and antennae, all glowed.
They were the brilliant stars of the night, the glow in the darkness, in purple, red, blue, green, brown and silver. The light against darkness.
The light against her.
She didn’t glow. She didn’t shine. She was dark, and her magic portrayed that.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The roaring of a creature, the snapping and tumbling of trees, the air itself agitated, condensed into a thick fog. She jumped a log, skidding down a slope of moss and dewed grass, and the sprint continued.
She couldn’t run forever. The shadows swallowed her image, despite her stark waterlogged blue skin, her eyes burning acidic purple on lavender flowers. She thrived within her cynefin- the darken shadows of the misty rainforest, where the light caught on the branches above and never seemed to touch the floor.
Here, she was untouchable.
Here, she was safe.
Yellow puffs formed in her lungs, and if she squeezed her eyes shut, she could almost see the exact shade it would be. Sunshine yellow, maybe sunflower?
Yellow was the colour of the sun, and those whom had it’s power, just like all the other elements.
Fiery red.
Scarlet blood.
Midnight blue.
Leaf green.
Pale indigo air-
Life-Forces were in everything. They were the beating organ that caused life, the reason they all existed. Some, just under the skin, others burrowed in the muscles, or along the organs. Life-Forces gave creatures power over an element, to warp it, shape it, cast their glow beyond the world into something magnificent.
Life-Force’s tied the creatures, Beast or Being, to the Upper Earth or Tartarus, allowing the ability to be slaughtered. To kiss death with no consequence.
To perish, but live.
They laughed, breath choking on the fantom feeling of cold water clawing up her throat.
She knew that too well, she’ll never live in a way that matters.
Kree-Kree-Kree!
Faster, faster, hurry, be quicker-
All creatures have a glowing, beating Life-Force.
A snarl rang out above, and she jumped, flicking through the air into a gorge in the ground, the sound of an anger howl muffled from the roar of the wind, her midnight black hair whipping behind her.
All creatures, but Lexi.
Lexi fumbled out of the slide-like tunnel, head over talons, tumbling to a short stop in front of what she was after.
The slide had caked her in dust and muck, and she blew her hair out of her face, grooming it with her talons roughly, tugging out the knots and pieces of moss. She wrinkled her nose. “..Delightful,” she mused sourly.
A snarl carried on the wind, and Lexi grinned, plopping down on the large gorged ‘x’ on the dirt of the forest. Her lips parted, and a flurry of notes blessed the air, letting the other know where she was.
Keeechirrr!
Loud huffing and sniffing, and a long, hooked snout shoved through the trees, dark rippled blues of the ocean. Lexi placed her chin on her taloned hands, smug.
“I win. Again,”
Mamapa snorted, and their snort was shoved forward to bump into Lexi lightly, knocking her over. Lexi giggled, a trilled jiggle of bell-like sounds, wrapping her arms around the massive Marine Cycler.
Mamapa was massive, one of the biggest species on Sileo Vitae with a long, graceful swan neck, lined with sharpened spines and smooth silky fur. Their eyes, despite the sharp pupils that were akin to a feline, were kind and soft, and Lexi could see her reflection in the amber irises.
From the back of Mamapa’s neck, spilled forth a brilliant deep blue light.
Their Life-Force.
Lexi huffed as Mamapa began nudging Lexi insistently, nipping affectionately and very, very lightly at her clothes and skin. “Alright, alright,” Lexi grumbled. “Erchomai,”
Mamapa’s breath was hot on Lexi’s water cold skin, and the Marine Cycler gently grabbed hold of the fabric on the back of Lexi’s cloak, earning a small squeak and a grumpy chitter. The Udrakojii curled up as Mamapa gently lifted her up and into the curling taloned paws of their first set of limbs, grumbling that she could have climbed, and that she wasn’t a hatchling anymore.
Mamapa didn’t listen to the protests.
The first limbs Mamapa had were paws, unlike the same webbed talons that made up the other four limbs and they were soft to lay on with the squishy paw pads. Lexi smiled softly, pressing her face into the soft skin, a small throaty purr buzzing in her voice box. Looking up, the light Mamapa’s Life-Force casted an eclipse of light around their head and majority of their neck, and Lexi’s purr stuttered off into silence.
If creatures that glowed were the stars, then Lexi was a black hole.
A void that tears all the light away.
Her eyes flickered to her side, just above her hip, lightly placing her hand over it.
There was no beating of the muscle, no glow.
Lexi was in simple words, dead.
Infected, cursed, a demon.
Lexi was infected with Dromer zoises.
An insect, a parasite that feeds on the magical essence, known as Titans blood, within a Being or Beast’s Life-Force. It drains the essence out, and replaces it, causing a severing of the connection between the creature and their Xanarchízo; The Upper Earth or Tartarus.
There was an era known as the ‘Age of Bloodshed,’ when the Beings of the world discovered this bug, and it’s ability. Sileo Vitae was thrown into a frenzy, Beings went mad for the creature, to hunt it down, capture it to keep and use or to sell it for over thousands of lealletes.
Those greedy enough, paid the price.
Lexi’s breathing swallowed; her neck itched. Closing her eyes, she ran her fingers along the pads of Mamapa’s paw, nuzzling into the soft leather-like texture.
You can die of old age, sickness, plagues, viruses and disease. But if you pierce a Being, without touching nor hindering their Life-Force, death is not the consequence.
This is called being Slaughtered.
Depending on the element a creature possesses, they will go to one of two of the Xanarchízo, Tartarus, or The Upper Earth, to regenerate. And there, they will have to fight or outwit their surroundings and foes, to escape back to land.
Without the ability to go to a Being’s Xanarchízo, a Being can no longer be slaughtered. With the connection broken, the Magic corrupts.
And they will begin to regenerate without control.
At the start, all was well. But infected Being’s started to notice that they healed too quickly, that they could fall from heights that should kill and get back up.
And one day, an infected Harpy was harpooned through the chest, through their Life-Force, and within the hour of it’s removal, was alive once more.
The world was horrified at the consequences of the actions some made, and many tribes sought out to ‘purge’ the world of the monsters that made those whom were infected.
Lexi has Dromer zoises. Lexi was infected, ever since she was 6, when the parasite that ruined her life crawled on spindle legs into her bed where she slumbered.
Her birth tribe had a strong opinion on those infected with Dromer zoises.
And within the first three hours of waking up the next morning, Lexi was faced with the first of what would be many deaths.
But they would never kill her, in a way that matters.
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