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I knew my eyes were closed, but somehow I could still see her there, standing between the two sarcophagi in the middle of the chamber. She no longer looked like all the juice had been sucked out of her body, but instead healthy and shinningly beautiful. Beside her was a man I instantly recognized, only this time there was more color to him. His hair was a rusty color of red that extended into his facial hair spackled with bits of grey. Contrary to his stoic, emotionless depictions in stone, he had quite the jovial face. It reminded me a lot of Tanis actually, and I felt a pang in my chest. I wondered if he was worried about me..? 562Please respect copyright.PENANAqvUlIbrRDD
His chest was bare and he bore nothing but a kilt. The symbols of "Adim" were tattooed on his left shoulder. She was standing next to him looking like the biggest ray of sunshine I had ever seen. I noticed that on her right shoulder, she bore the markings of "Edin". They stared at each other with a sense of longing that made me uncomfortable to watch until finally she looked over at me.
"Thank you" Her words seemed to caress me and somewhere inside of me, I felt the heat of happiness well up. She gave me a bright smile , and then turned to her Adim. They locked hands and he pressed his forehead to hers, and closed his eyes with the happiest smile I had ever seen locked on his face. She smiled too and in the blink of an eye, they were gone. In her wake, she left a silhouette in the same color as her final resting place. It hovered there a second before it drifted across the room to rest over me. My unnatural vision of the room vanished and I was back to being shrouded in pure darkness as the silhouette poured itself into me.
I felt it in my broken arm first. The bone reconnected with its splintered counterpart and I could feel the two finally mend back into one. It was like suffering the fracture all over again though, and I felt the pain of it radiate from the puncture wound. I could feel the bruises clear up as the blood rushed back into my arm. I knew there would be no scar. It moved from my arm, and spread throughout my body, mending my miscellaneous fractures that I hadn't been aware of. My ribs cracked and popped, forcing the air out of my lungs in a painful scream.
"Molly!" There was a yell as something thumped in the distance. The Earth shook beneath me more violently than it had before, as the unnatural force worked it's way through my body until it finally resided right over my heart. I felt it sitting there as if it was waiting for something. I continued to scream out in agony as pain wracked my body more fiercely than it ever had before. "MOLLY!" I recognized the voice bellow from the other side of the door. The faint thumping and turned into an all out assault until the noise blended in with the sound of the ceiling coming down all around me. 562Please respect copyright.PENANAg55Q8QfR9w
Visions flitted across my mind's eye. I caught images of a place I had never seen, people I had never met, languages I didn't even know existed. It all moved so quickly and somehow I caught it all....and then like a camera reel running out of film but still turning, the images faded. I felt my mind go black as if I was missing some crucial part of information. Something was wrong. A cold air swept through the chamber and my scream died into a hoarse whimper as I curled into a ball. For the first time I felt like a whole person, that spot that had always felt empty-that thing that had always made me feel different than everyone else slowly filled in like the filling of a circle until it was complete....but I knew there was something I was missing.
The Earth gave a great moan and I felt something heavy knock the whole place sideways. Something was happening outside... My pyramid was being bombarded by some force that came in waves. I heard a great whooshing noise and then what sounded like running water. The unnatural heat that I had felt when I first fell was now more prominent than ever. The pain in my chest spread itself out to a dull throb until I felt nothing at all. The shaking died down and I registered the remaining rumbles as aftershocks.
"Molly!" there was that voice again on the outside of the door. I wondered how hard the person had to be hitting for me to hear through solid stone. "Please, " the voice begged "please answer me!"
There was silence for a moment and I opened my eyes. I felt different somehow...almost renewed...and somehow I could see. It wasn't at all like before. The darkness was completely overpowering then, but now it was like having a slight night vision or something. I couldn't see through the darkness completely, but I could still see without the assistance of a light.562Please respect copyright.PENANAOlXuoee2C7
"Ho-ley Moses" I breathed as I sat up. I felt stronger somehow too! I glanced down at my hands-and then I remembered my arm. I turned it over as I pulled the bandages away. Sure as shit, there wasn't a scar to be seen. If I hadn't remembered the fall and the dull pain and ache from before, I wouldn't have even noticed it had been broken. The affected area was still crusted in dried blood and smudges though. I felt my face too. The puncture wound from my goggles was gone. I was sure there was dried blood there as well.
My hair had been long before, but now it hit the floor having pushed itself out of its hair-tie. What in the hell kind of metamorphosis had I endured? Thankfully, I always kept a hair-tie spare around my wrist and with a little more wrangling than I was used to, I put it back into it's normal pony tail and stood up. Rocks had fallen everywhere, and the area was clouded in dust and dirt. I waved my hand around looking for my light. Luckily my backpack had stayed strapped to my back. Good ol' faithful.
Just as I saw the light from my maglight breaking through some rocks that had fallen on top of it, there came a loud crack from behind me. I threw the rocks off with more ease than I had expected as the door was lifted behind me. I picked my light up and turned around. Natural light seeped in behind him and he stood there breathing heavy like a force of nature. His eyes were a beautiful shade of near turquoise flecked with bits of gold toward the center and his hair sat on top of his head in a disheveled mess.562Please respect copyright.PENANAyavMjGC7rM
"You," he pointed at me coming across the room "I called out to you, woman." His accent was heavy and he stepped over the fallen bits of the ceiling as if they weren't there. He only had eyes for me and I backed up against the wall as he got closer. I turned the flashlight around, ready to hit him with the blunt end of it, but he caught my movements before I did by pinning my raised arm against the wall. His other came around my waist and tugged me to him. 562Please respect copyright.PENANAyPS5wjwigc
He crushed his lips to mine with such a force that it made me light headed. Oh my god. My body acted on it's own accord, and something inside of me reached out to him. I dropped my flashlight and ran my fingers through his hair, catching a few strands between them and pulling him closer. He felt amazing, he tasted amazing and my heart soared! I felt dizzy and anxious and all I wanted to do was meld right into him. And then I remembered.
I pushed him away, and yanked my hand away from him. Oh my god, what had I just done?! "You son of a bitch!" I shouted as I slapped him with all of my might. 562Please respect copyright.PENANApEIl2zJhgA
Apparently, all of my might was strong enough to knock him backwards and he held his hand to his face in shock. Then that same stupid smile crawled across his lips and I screeched. "You knew this whole time!" I came at him with my fist raised, and he had the sheer audacity to laugh at me as he caught my fist.
"I don't understand why you're mad!" he laughed again. I growled and brought my free hand down and punched him straight in the gut. That wiped the stupid grin off his face! I brought my now released hand down across his face in what felt like the hardest punch I had ever made. He fell backwards over the rocks and I went to kick him while he was down.562Please respect copyright.PENANAFpScGVSSGa
"You lied to me, Tanis!" I yelled. My rage was boiling over anew as I realized that Tanis had already reincarnated. Tanis was my Adim.
"I don't know what I lied about, Molly!" he grabbed my foot and tugged and I came down with him. "You have to understand something, little bird." he growled at me. I struggled against him as he climbed on top of me using his weight to keep my legs pinned to the ground while he held my arms to the floor. I was tempted to headbutt him. "You have been just out of my reach for far too long." his laugh was gone. There was new meaning in his words now, and I stopped struggling and listened. "You were ripped from me once, " his voice came out in a horse whisper "and when the world starting shaking, I knew what was happening and then something didn't feel right-" he stopped himself realizing that he was carrying on. 562Please respect copyright.PENANAEz8jWaN9Fi
He got up off of me, leaving me dazed and confused as I watched him walk over to the entry way-back where the light spilled in. I got up too and watched him run his fingers through his already messy hair, something I realized he only did when he was frustrated and then turned back around to look at me. Those beautiful blue eyes struck a chord in me. He really was the reincarnation of Adim, and even if I didn't fully understand what that meant yet I did realize something: I was connected to Tanis. I knew that our souls were one in the same. We belonged together. I felt a hollow pit in my stomach underneath all of that warm school-girly butterflies. I didn't know how I really felt about that.
I blinked out of my thoughts and realized he was there staring at me. A sly smile creeped across his lips and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Ignore my advances all you want," the seriousness was gone, replaced with that same cocky voice I had first heard when I met him. "but you are mine, woman." His declaration made heat pool in my stomach and somewhere deep inside of me I hoped there was a promise in those words. It took all that I had to ignore him as I walked past.
"I have a reserve of steel, hotshot." I took a page out of his book and brushed his statement off and instead took in my surroundings. "Christ almighty" the place was in shambles. The statues were still standing though, their hands locked together and the stairs were in tact enough for us to climb back up. Tanis was the first to go up and I came up right behind him. A giant hole yawned before us, as if God himself punched it. Both of us lost in our curiosity climbed over the fallen pieces of the pyramid until we were on the threshold of the outside world.
Holy shit.
"Well I'll be," Tanis's voice broke through my awe. "Welcome to the Garden of Edin" he leaned against the edge of the hole and looked over at me. I didn't mind him though. I was too swept up in the beauty of the place-the impossible beauty. Despite the fact that there were remnants of the city scattered about, lush greenery was everywhere. Trees had somehow forced their way up and around the ancient domes and buildings creating a true lost civilization effect that appealed to my inner archaeologist. I felt the smile break out across my face as I watched a group of birds fly overhead and off into the distance. The cave was completely gone, revealing it's hidden treasure to the sun for what was the first time in centuries. I saw a temple in the distance and I was thrust into another world.
The area was devoid of the debris that now covered it. The free growing trees that I saw were contained to the sidelines of the roads that were paved leading to different areas in the city...and that temple It was made of marble-a marble that wouldn't be found here, I knew that somehow. It reminded me a lot of the white house in structure, but it was built more like a castle. The pillars were gold as well as the doors. My people had built that for me!
And then it was all gone. My world was back in front of me and I looked over to Tanis to see if he had seen what I just had. He was too enamored with the surroundings to pay me any attention. We sat there together for a moment or two in companionable silence until Tanis spoke up.
"Well, I think it's safe to say we found our way out of here."
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...
It had sensed a difference in its surroundings and it lifted its head and breathed in the air. Stirred up dirt was the first thing it could taste and it flicked its tongue out to get a better reading. The scent of blood was gone, it's previous prey had vanished and the pit in its stomach had turned dull. Wearily now, it lifted itself up and climbed out of it's home. There was a new scent...a scent it hadn't smelled in a very long time. Weakly it came out of a decrepit home and went to the place it was to protect. It followed the faint smell of blood that still lingered in the air-now stale. It clicked its tongue and cocked its head to the side when the sound came back to him different.
There were voices off in the distance and it followed the sound, coming to a stop in the ballroom. Once again it tilted its head in attempts to get a better reading, until it singled out it's pathway. It climbed the stairs, growing weaker as it came to the top until-
At first it hissed, and turned it's head to the natural light. It hadn't seen sunlight in so long...the warmth was such a vast difference to the cold that it had grown accustomed too and it peered through half closed eyes as it made it's way towards the two blurry figures it saw in the distance.
"Tanis..." the voice it didn't know, but the scents were familiar. It lumbered to a spot where it felt the most warmth and then unlike it's reaction before, it curled up and closed it's eyes. He was finally with his masters! "What's wrong with it?"562Please respect copyright.PENANAnZXn1ZqfYe
It remembered it's younger days when it was just a kit where it had enjoyed days of warmth, and just like then, it uncurled and stretched out, enjoying the feeling of the warm air. For the first time in a very long time it was at peace.
"Just watch." it recognized that voice and it clicked it's tongue in happiness. It's masters were here, they had come back!
The beast lay there motionless and listened to the new running waters around it as it passed slowly and happily. As soon as it's heart had stopped beating in its chest and its jaw had gone slack, a wind whisked around it. Its body suddenly erupted in an unusual blue flame that started at its tail and ended at its head. As quick as the fire had started it ended, leaving a pile of golden ashes where it's body had been.
The couple that had watched the creature pass stood huddled together and watch in wonder as new life emerged from the ashes.
"What's happening?" the female asked as a small form moved beneath the ash "What is it?"
"A Chimera kit" the male replied casually leaning against the wall crossing his arms. A crooked smile crossed his face while an irritated grimace crossed the female's.
From beneath the ashes, a pair of golden eyes peered up at it's new masters.
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