TALE: 3
Creation (1)
—
Azade could barely speak.
The girl in front of her feet, bloodied and chained looked to be on the edge of death.
She tried to tell a tale, her throats etching each time her eyes met the dead ones around her, and each time she witnessed the barely living girl at her feet. Her words came in pauses, tears threatening to choke her words into oblivion.
"If you keep pausing, perhaps I'll just kill her now—" His hands coming into close proximity with her throat. Azade wondered how he would do it.
Would he tear out her heart, like he did the poor maid? Would he simply slit her throats like the dead girls around them?
"Wait!" Azade put out a hand, shutting her eyes for a brief moment and taking a deep breath. "I have a tale."
Rukun grinned. Every bit of him a monster.
She took a breath, shut her eyes and blocked out everything around her. Her mind spinning as she remembered the tale her Mother uttered so long ago...
—
CHAOS WAS THE BEGINNING.
In a time before the world. Before the sun and the moon, the world was disordered. Nothing was peaceful. Peace did not exist.
Monsters roamed lands freely, killing any being with a spark of life flickering in their hearts. There was no time, no night and no day.
There was nothing.
In this void, a birth occurred. Out of the ashes, out of the darkness sprung the spirit Mata: creator of order. She fought brilliantly with her powers and rid the monsters of the earth. Within a few moments, life had begun anew.
The earth entered into an era of peace, prosperity and happiness. Humans began to thrive again, animals were roaming the earth and plants seemed to have flourished from the earth itself.
Mata, now crowned the immortal goddess of order one day gave birth. A set of boy twins roared into the earth with fury. The goddess couldn't have been more pleased with her set of twins, twins that would one day rule the earth.
One day, a witch seeked out Mata in her temple. The witch was crying; a set of flowers grown from the ashes of chaos pricking her forehead. "Goddess, I have seen the future." Her cry was heard from all edges of the earth, tears wiping against the cold stone.
Mata frowned. "Pray tell witch, what have you seen?" Her voice coated the air like sweet honey, it was almost a shame to hear her sentence end. The witch rose to her feet with knees shaking rapidly. Her eyes glazed into tears as she whispered to the goddess.
"The birth—the birth of your sons, it will cause a rift in the earth. A rift of eternal darkness and eternal light." The witch felt her voice faltering; and watched as the glow from Mata faded. She stormed out of the temple and into her kingdom in the clouds.
Mata couldn't believe what the witch had warned against. Afterall, how could her sons—her precious sons cause so much harm to the world she helped recreate? No. She could stop it.
She could outrun fate.
"They will grow up inseparable." Mata whispered to herself against the ageless clouds. She would spend the rest of her immortal life making sure her sons were kind, gentle creatures. No violence. No war.
That was her first mistake.
As her boys grew older, Night the elder, had become restless against the cloud walls of their castle. "Mother, why can we not leave?" He asked, black hair flourishing in the endless winds.
"I need you here." Her tone was purposeful. Strict. She didn't need to let her son be exposed to the trifles of the mortal world, which had increased ever since her reign. Peace was declining on earth. Wars were ravaging, men were killing each other at the neck.
But Night hadn't been satisfied with his Mother's answer. He spent his time wondering what was outside the walls. What his Mother had tried to hide from him for most of his immortality. As he grew he decided to bring those thoughts into reality.
"Day?"
His Brother was smiling against the grey sky, a sharp contrast to his own features. For Day had always been Mata's favourite son; as he was the embodiment of light. Golden skin, golden hair and endless streams of blue hues in his eyes contrasted to Night's own darkness.
And for that, he was bitter.
"Yes, brother?" A sweet tone. Like a song.
"Will you come down to the gardens with me?"
Day jumped up, his lanky frame nodding against the wind. "We are not allowed in the gardens, brother." He said echoing the words that his Mother spoke so long ago. The gardens were the lowest place in their air-borne palace, too close to earth.
"Aren't you curious to see it?"
"See what?"
"Earth."
Day shook his head, dismissing the words his brother spoke. "It's disastrous down there. Mother said for us to say in the clouds, so I shall obey." The tawny gold in his hair shined against the glass floors, making a halo around the crown of his head.
Night watched as his brother laid his head back down against the glass, staring up at the sky. He knew his brother was content staring up at the empty sky for years and years, never wondering what laid underneath them.
But he was different.
So, when he knew nobody would be watching him, Night decided to fall down to the garden. His Mother had warned him against it for years, 'it's too close to them' she would warn. The forgotten flowers bloomed past his knees, and the grass tickled his chest as he weaved through the path of the garden. Just ahead he could see it.
Earth.
He could see the curvature of the land, green as the most bright of jewels. The clouds barely covered it; escaping past the empty sky. Night could make out tiny figures running down below. They wished against the grass and he could hear their voices like tinkling bells.
Humans.
He had only heard tales of the creatures, similar in appearance but different in morality. Their lives were short and dim compared to his endless one. Just a flicker of life in a great span of time. Mata had told him they were the ones who destroyed the earth, who tore it apart with their killing and wars. But now all he could hear was their laughter, the brightness in their voices.
'Go down, go see.'
Without thinking he reached a dark hand past the clouds, his fingers stretching out against the cold air. His knees scraped to the edge of the garden and he could almost hear his brother shouting from the level above.
'Fall, fall, fall.'
And so he did.
Night fell down to earth in a swish of robes and air, his cascading immortality sure to aid him. He watched as the palace above became smaller and smaller, his prison, his cage disappearing against the clouds. He smiled against the rush of wind, throwing his arms out behind him. He was free.
The warm tinkles of laughter stopped, the earth coming closer. Warmth hit him as a breeze, the world becoming silent and empty all at once. Suddenly, he felt a thud.
"Who are you?"
Night felt grass tickle the edge of his robes, the feeling welcomed after ages against cold marble. He would've closed his eyes and welcomed it if it weren't for the figure rising up above him. Metal was suddenly clinched to his neck. "Who. Are. You." The voice repeated, metal still flush against his immortal body. Before he could kill the human for such disrespect, he turned around.
She was beautiful.
Night had observed the godly beauty of his Mother, his own as well. He had seen perfections beyond comprehension, palaces made from clouds. The girl in front of him held more divine beauty than the divinity itself.
"I repeat. Who and what are you?" Her tongue snapped at the words, her dark eyes circling him. The dirt and blood on her brown skin looked fresh enough, the sword at his neck stained as well.
"You'd speak to a god like that?" His voice came out cold, humour lying on its back. He hadn't noticed his tone, too busy observing and analyzing the girl. Her hand seemed to shake at the sword, bottom lip quivering.
"There are no gods." Her black eyes seemed to stare at him, right to his immortal heart. He knew that to a human he must've looked like perfection. But if this human regarded him in such a way, there was no showing it. Only fear. Only pain. "Not here."
He paused. The blood sparkling from the jagged end of her chin. The sword still pressed to his neck, he considered breaking it in half. 'Snap it, make her fear you.' A voice whispered in his head. He could have done it. He should have done it.
But the way her small body seemed to inch every step away from him, clothes too big for her body. The blood smeared on her face and the fear rising in her eyes. He didn't.
He put his hands up.
"I mean you no harm."
"What are you? You fell out of the sky?" The tight curls on her head bounded as she shifted closer. "I saw you, you fell like someone pushed you out of the clouds."
"I wasn't pushed. But I did fall."
The girl furrowed her brows in response, hand shifting on the hilt of the sword. "What is your name?"
"What is yours?"
The metal pressed closer to his neck. "You're not in the position to ask questions."
Night laughed, laughed at her words. He rose his hands closer to his ears. "Night. My name is Night."
"Strange name, even for a god." She examined him with a skeptics eyes. Her eyes roamed from every perfect line of him, taking note of his strange robes and height. ""Are you truly a god?"
"You tell me."
Her eyes met his, still shaking in their wake. He could see the bags that drained underneath them, the red veins the covered it's whites. This girl probably hadn't slept in days. "I gave you my name. So what is yours?" He asked.
Night watched as the girl shifted from foot to foot, rolling the words in her tongue before she could say them. He knew she was contemplating if she could trust him.
"Shahrazad." Her eyes gleamed for a moment.
Night grinned. "That's a beautiful na—"
And suddenly a shout. He could hear it with his immortal ears, screaming was coming from the valley beyond. The clattering of metals, death, blood—
Shahrazad looked at him rapidly, the sword lifting off his neck. He could see terror in her eyes. Pure terror. She grabbed his forearm before she could even speak, watching as he bounced onto his feet. Her words were drowned out by the sound of swords.
"Run."
..
"I'll kill her if you don't finish it."
"You'll kill her if I do."
Rukun grinned against the dark, his pale fists clenching the chains. The half-dead girl below him was breathing heavily, every breath sounding like pain—
"Perhaps you're right." He yanked the chain, sending the poor girl jerking onto her knees in a shrill of screams. "I wouldn't want to hear the rest tonight anyways, I would hate to end our little game so soon." His face was closer to hers now, shrouded by the dead bodies around him.
Azade wondered if her tale was enough. Should she have told a better one? The sound of her heart crawled up to her throat, beating rapidly as she watched the girl at her knees. "I did my part. Free her, Rukun."
Rukun smiled. "Your tale was interesting, as always Scheherazade." Her eyes darted to the chain still in his hands. She could hear the girl whimpering, blood matter on her face and hair. Barely making her recognizable.
"You see I would free her."
A pause.
"If you hadn't hid from me for all those days, darling I would've freed her." A sickening smirk. "Pity." His words seemed to graze a lifetime. The beating of her heart and the whimpering from the girl at her feet an unbearable sound. She opened her mouth to object—
He turned the girl over and ripped out her heart.
And Azade was left speechless.
The girl's final screamed thrilled the air, only seconds later the only sound being her her heart thumping to the ground in a bloody heap. His hands had reached into her ribs like water, it wasn't possible, it wasn't possible, it wasn't—
Something inhuman gleamed in his eyes.
Darkness surrounded him like a cloak, cold and unforgiving. Azade wanted to scream, she wanted to weep. But nothing came out. She was a statue.
"Killing is a mess isn't it?" A feral grin appeared on his face. She felt cold air thrumming on her back as she on the wall. Her eyes sinking to the heart-less girl lying dead in front of her.
Rukun moved closer to her, closer and closer. She could see blood dripping off the edge of his hand out of the corner of her eye. He wasn't human. This thing wasn't human.
Azade closed her eyes, her body shaking. Tears began to welt up around her lashes, streaming down her face one after the other. The girl was dead. He had killed her. He had killed so many. It was all her fault.
His breath tickled her chin, unsurprisingly cold. There was no warmth in that body. 'Not human.' She thought. 'Not human. Not human. Not human.'
She could feel his grin. "Don't cry, darling Scheherazade." He whispered against her skin, a bloody thumb brushing against a stray tear on her face. She could feel the rough padding of it, the blood marring her face as he drew a line down her cheek. 'Not human. Not human. Not human.'
He laughed.
Azade was barely able to stand, terror screaming in her bones. She could feel the blood drying on her skin. The girl's blood. The girl she failed to save—
"Goodnight, Scheherazade." The dark humour in his tone now a brief whisper. She could taste the blood in his voice.
And when she opened her eyes he was gone.
Leaving her in a room with the dead.
..
INTENSE INTENSE INTENSE INTENSE
Mwhahahhaha
How did you guys like it? Honestly I was having so much fun writing this, I hope you guys liked it?
And what do you guys think of the tale? What do you think will happen next?
What do you think of Rukun?
What should Azade do next?
Comment your thoughts, I love reading the stuff you guys write me! It's so heart warming <33
Btw I just updated DEAD THRONES as well so go check that out too! Next week is exam week so I probably won't be able to update frequently :(
Love you guys!
-Elle