• “So distant you are.” Kashka whispered in the cold night. Waiting for his only love, he sat at the dark ocean. His warm breath rising above his dry lips. "You shall be here soon my love." He whispered into the darkness. Grabbing his dagger, he shifted it around in his hand, fidgeting around in his shoes. He was growing impatient. He remembered the day she left him. How he hated to see her back for the last time. Eight years ago she left him. He was puzzled at her reason. He could remember her long hair, whiter than snow. Her glowing blue eyes. Something about her, made him never forget her. The reason had him stunned and confused.

    "Kashka, I must go. For all of us." She rubbed his face with a soft touch. He grabbed her hand, not wanting to let go. Staring into her eyes, he wouldn't let her go. "You can't, you won't even tell me why my love." He pulled her close to him. Her head lay on his shoulder. "I must go Kashka, it's for mother, father. It's for brother and sister." She kissed his cheek and tried to pull away slowly. "But you have no family. Your parents died when you were young Lalina. You have no brother, or sister." He gripped her a little tighter, still forceful in his eyes and hands. "But I must." She looked deep into his hazel eyes. "For us." She smiled, somehow he let go. His gaze softened to a humble depression. "Please, don't go my love." He let walk her somewhat away. Lalina finally turned to face him a little farther away. "But I must Kashka." She said and turned to walk into the night. The stars lighting her way as she gently walked along the small river bank. Barely hearing her angelic steps walk onto the grass, almost as if she was floating in the air, she left. His heart sank, she’d promise before that she’d return.

    Kashka stared back out at the ocean. "You promised Lalina. You said you would return." He put his knife away and headed back to his hut. The pursuing memories followed and seeped back into his mind. The only way he could sleep was if he dreamed of his love. The love of an angel he always thought. But she never returned.

    A small snap of a twig echoed in the woods next to Kashka's hut. He slept peacefully, dreaming of his beloved Lalina. The creaking of the trees, the soft ocean night breeze. Was sleeping music for Kashka. Sleeping so peacefully as a shadow entered the hut. The fire burning lightly, showing the dark figure sheathing a knife of colorful origin. Sparkling like the night stars. Kashka somewhat tossed in his dream. Hearing simple sounds as to be nothing. He was with his Lalina. Holding her in the night sky. Staying with her next to their ocean. He had never felt her so close. Almost as if she was there. There he saw his Lalina. Smiling so happily. Her hair golden from the sunlight, he hugged her tightly. Until he had hurt himself. But, he could feel blood dripping down his abdomen. Panicking in his dream, he kicked, he screamed why. Why did his love stab him!? Outside his dream. The shadow figure had stabbed him. Once, then twice and kept repeating. In his dream, he could see and feel the stabs. The hate in her eyes had broken his heart. He let her stab him more. "Please forgive me. Lalina." His last words said. Entering the depths of eternal darkness and death.

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    Fighting for her life. Lalina clashed her swords with her enemy. One black sword and one white sword clashed against common steel. Ringing of epic proportions, her swords screamed their battle cry as they crashed with the other sword. Her blue eyes locked into the opponent's eyes. Swift slashes and quick reflexes pierced the air. Within moments of her attacks, the opponent's sword flew out of his hands, laying behind her. He couldn't dodge her as she put her white blade to his throat. "I win." She snickered. The opponent smiled back just as eagerly. Lalina's instinct told her to keep her guard. "You did." He said as he showed that he let his guard down. "Please let me get my sword Lalina. You win. I lost. It's as simple as that." He said as he felt some of his pride dissipate. She let him go get his sword, but she kept her guard. He walked to his sword and put it back in its sheath.

    Once he took one step one star flew at her that sliced past his finger tips. Her guard still up, she turned around swiftly and caught the star with a thumb and finger. "Clever Neje." She smiled as she threw it back. It nicked his arm and he winced in the pain. "Alright, you win for sure." He rubbed his arm from the sting of the cut. "Gosh, there's no way to defeat you." He told her as he walked up to her. "There is, you just haven't found it." He paused at her words. "Everyone has a weakness." She smiled as she began to walk away. Frozen by her words, he finally snapped out of disbelieving thought and saw her far away from him. "W-Wait up Lalina!" He yelled and he chased her towards the campsite. Lalina sat next to the fire. As warm as the mid day fire was, she could still feel cold. Something so icy cold lay in her heart. She can't get rid of it. It's roots grow deep in her, it was so cold, she could feel her own body temperature drop from it.

    "La-Lalina! Why didn't you wait?" Neje said in deep constants, short breaths. "You're too slow. Plus I won. I needed the good free walk." She rubbed his head when he stood next to her, grabbing his knees from exhaustion of chasing her. He laughed sarcastically at her. "Well, aren't you a little poor sport." She rubbed his nose and smiled. He shook off her little teasing. She always did that. "I may only be fourteen. But I'm no boy Lalina." He sat next to her on the log. "I know, but you still act like one." She insisted with her teasing. His forehead crunched together and his lips popped out in a childish pout. Again showing his maturity towards her. "There you see? I was right." She said, patting his head and heading to the extra food Nanami set out for them. Not realizing what he did, he sucked his pout face back in. "I know you're no ordinary person Neje." She said calmly, heating up the excess roast beef stew that she cooked from the day before last. "There's something about your soul that well. Well it makes you different than from anyone else. I don't really know what it is, but you have to find it yourself." She said as she handed him a bowel of the stew. Staring into the flames, something boiled up inside her. Begging to be let free. Something evil, with a heart colder than ice on the highest mountains.

    The voice demanded to be set free. The voice told her to give into her hatred, her thirst for lust. Her blue eyes sucked into the vortex of the fire. Sometimes the voice would call to her through the flames. She could hear it call her name when she slept. Some monster dwelling in her very soul. Almost as if it was apart of her own soul. It felt awkward and uncomfortable. When she was truly alone, the inner demon of herself would talk through her reflection. Begging to be set free. It always demanded to be released, but she never let it. "Lalina... you alright?" Neje nudged her shoulder, trying to have her snap out of her stare into the fire.

    She wouldn't snap out of it. "La-Lalina?" He asked again, nudging again. Still she stared. The reflection of the beast appeared in the fire. "Let me out." It said to her. "No." She said coldly. It screamed a deathly pitch. So high and deafening that it hurt her ears. It was growing angry. "Lalina? Lalina! Answer me!" He began shaking her when she started to writhe in pain from the scream. The sound was overwhelming her ears. "Lalina!" Neje began to panic and started to put out the fire. Lalina kept writhing, blood seeping through her ears. She finally passed out from the pain of the horrid sound her own soul made. "Lalina!" Neje picked her up into his arms. Feeling her blood ooze out and onto his hand. He was terrified like a child. He was a child. He felt so helpless as he rocked her. "Nanami!?" He screamed out. He didn't know what to do. "Nanami!? Where are you?" He called out. For some time, there was no answer, only the soft summer breeze. "Nanami!? I need you! I don't know what to do." He cried out as his own tears began falling. He was truly lost. He stared at her low breathing. "At least you're alive." He said to himself. "What? What is going on? What happened Neje?" Nanami entered through the bushes. She was covered in stickers and dead grass and leaves. She must have came here as quick as her legs could.

    Her hair messed and tangled from a hard days work, she went next to Neje. "Dear lord." She whispered. "Not again." She gave Neje a look to let Lalina go, without question he did. "Again?" He managed to ask with a little sniff from dried tears. When Nanami was here, everything would be alright. She would always make things better. "Yes Neje. She has had this happen before. It's just her inner being. It won't kill her, it'll just make her suffer until she does what it wants her to do. I just hope she never gives in and it doesn't bother her again." Nanami picked her up and laid her down next to the doused fire. "She'll be fine. It's only a minor wound." She cleaned off the blood that came out of her ears and dabbed a wet cloth on her forehead. "Let her rest now. She needs it." Nanami put Lalina's head on her lap. "What do you mean a inner being? Is she possessed?" Nanami shook her head with a smile and looked up at her terrified younger brother. "No, she's not possessed. It's something that is apart of her soul. She has to fight it's temptations every day." She dabbed some more on Lalina's sweating forehead. "Just don't worry about it." She looked up into his dark eyes.

    "It's her problem. Not ours. It's her battle. You must remember what father told us. We must know our battles. We can only help with the aftermath when it's not our battle." Nanami smiled up at him. "You remember that it's the adult thing Neje." She said. "I know." Neje swallowed what he could of worry and misery for Lalina, he cared about his friends. Worry would over exert him sometimes. But he must do the right thing and keep his distance. "You're right Nanami, let's let her sleep." He smiled back and swallowed the lump of worry and grabbed her bed roll. "Here, I'll put her in her bed roll and I'll restart the fire." He grabbed the bedroll and laid it next to her. "Don't start the fire. That's how it talked to her. So let's not start it for a while." Nanami helped Neje put Lalina in her bed roll and let her sleep peacefully. Her eyes began to shift as her reality of a dream seeped through her mind.