The Death of Time

Men talk of killing...

Inevitability confronts a Destiny….

Hot, rancid breath chased Ananke up the AllTree. The snarls and slavering snaps of a deadly maw goading her body onwards as the voice of a god urged inside her mind. How are you liking the adrenaline high now Chronos? Ananke found herself questioning even as she scrambled breathlessly upwards.

It’s brilliant. I don’t want to die. I’m not supposed to be able to die. And yet there is this quickening that has me concerned for it. Chronos replied as he resisted the urge to crane Ananke’s attention around to the beast chasing them. It was his instinct to look back and see where it was, but the mortal woman wasn’t slowing down at all for such as silly urge.

I would be lying if I said some part of me hadn’t missed this… He heard Ananke’s mind whisper as her own exhilaration at trying to cheat death of a fresh meal started to wear down the barrier she had against her emotions. But the larger bulk of her attention was ahead of her, looking at where she was planning to move her body next. It was a fascinating improvisation of choreography. Her eyes darted ahead, brain calculating more than just the path she could take. She saw the grips and foot holds available, and in them she considered which were within reach, which were safe to use and which would bring her to a new area that continued her path upwards. At the same time her brain formulated a series of manoeuvres to try and shake loose her pursuer; slow him down, knock him off the grips or escape away entirely.

He felt it when her mind and instinct stood together, seeing that the ascent she followed would stop at the flat level mere hand grips away, but that there was a separate branch a goodly distance away that she might be able to make the jump to. And the Father of Time had the glorious chance to understand what Ananke had meant about the sensation of fearing what they were about to do, and yet deciding to do it anyways.

Ananke’s body scrambled up onto the slab of rock as pure, unadulterated terror cried out in her head to stop. Muscles that had been flooded with aches and fatigue were suddenly wire bound and tight, ready to spring into action. Chronos had interfered with her jump once before and ended up with them hurt, so he knew better than to try and wrest control now. That was cold knowledge to him as her body sprung forwards, over the gaping abyss of a fatal fall as Fenrir snapped the air where they had just been. The adrenaline spike from their brief fall before was a small hiccup compared to the screaming rampage in Ananke’s blood right now and Chronos could feel her already reacting to the jump even as she seemed to move in slow motion through the air.

Gravity sucked at them, trying to swallow them down and down and down, to dash them on the ice and rocks and branches below. Wind that hadn’t existed a moment ago wailed past mortal ears and shrieked at immortal consciousness as they tore through the still space. Ananke’s body had bounded forwards and even as she pushed off against their old location, she brought her knees up and feet forward, hands gripping and body tucked to take the impact. It felt like a lifetime in midair and was mere microseconds and Chronos had never felt more alive. And then she dropped and caught her intended grip and the glorious flight through the air halted as quickly as it had started and she was already climbing before Chronos knew how to process everything he had experienced in those moments. Mortals might live in mere eye blinks to the Father of Time but it was suddenly very clear to him that the quality of those moments was far richer than many of his own.

Focus! Ananke called out and yet she wasn’t sure she was speaking to herself or her mental passenger. Both of them were enraptured with that spark of vitality and yet she knew that the monster that had caused the need for the jump could bunch and leapt with ease right after them. As a creature more wolf than any other animal it should not have the prowess to follow as it was doing, but Ananke didn’t question the impossibility of it all, she simply moved as fast as biologically possible and tried to plan her next step.