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oomph…. yeah. Lol. Abirami saved you guys. lol… so, my post, I was shooting ice at the bugs to keep them at bay, then I transformed into a large worm, swallowed you guys up in the water and then transported you safely into the room everyone else was and spat you out, froze the hole I had made in the wall closed so the insects couldn’t get in, then collapsed… lol. Unless you can think of a great reason why I froze the water (because I can’t…) it would be rather out of character…. lol. But, I can have you save Abirami… in a previous Castle escapade, (an easter event. =p ) Abirami received an elixir that can fully heal someone, even if they are on the brink of death. Enydd has one too, I believe, and knows of it.  Ooh… and I do need Abirami to go save Ku’Aya (he’s the only one who can do it at this point) and you could do something to save everyone in the meantime from the bugs that are eating through the door… up to you…. I’ll write a post for Abirami… hopefully clear this up. =)

 

 

Abirami

As I came to, I could hear Enydd’s voice. “We had to solve riddles, then the Holy Man would grant us one wish.”

“Sounds… interesting.” A man’s voice said, his tone wary with disbelief.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. “What’s going on?” I felt like I’d just slept for 24 hours after a massive feast. Not that I’d ever done that…

Looking around, the memory of the situation slowly returned to me. Castle. Ku’Aya. Bugs. Strangers. KU!!

I bolted up, ignoring the man’s explanation. Something about saving me. I could thank him later. Right now, I had to get to Ku.

Near the back of the room, a young lady in pink was talking to a lanky young man whose voice sounded like it came from a boy half his age.

Continuing to search, I spotted the door on the other side of a mass of bodies, watching the door. I sprinted toward them, noticing the door was beginning to crack and bend. A few from the group were doing their best to patch up the holes that opened before too many termites and the horde of insects behind them got through.

“Let me through,” I said. “I can stop this.”

“Didn’t you start this?” accused Lorcan. His cheeks were slightly flushed, and his eyebrows nearly formed a unibrow. Was he angry that I threw him?

“No. When Ku’s in danger and unconscious, her hive tends to go out of control. It’s not something that could’ve been helped. But I can help her.”

“You’re kidding, right?” asked Jade. “You actually want to go back out in that? You’ll die before you reach the floor.”

“No,” said Lorcan, leaning over to address Jade. “He probably could do it.” He straightened up and puffed his chest out at me. “But allowing you to go would put all of us in danger. I can’t allow it.”

Can’t? I swallowed my retort. “I can end this. The swarm will retreat, and the danger will pass. You just have to hold out till then.”

“How long exactly?” asked the man from before, walking up from behind me. “Do you see all the people here? You are endangering them all if you go.”

“I can use the elixir,” I said. “It’ll only take as long as it takes for me to find her.”

“And what if it doesn’t work?”

“She’s my sister!”

Lorcan chuckled. “That green-skin’s your sister? Tell me how that works.”

“I’m going.” I’d waisted too much time as it was. The way the swarm was eating through the door, they wouldn’t have much time left as it was, anyway.

“No, you’re not,” Lorcan challenged.

“Like you could stop me.”

Lorcan quickly approached menacingly, and the man behind me placed a hand upon my shoulder. “I’m afraid I have to agree. Don’t go.”

With a sigh, I glanced back at the man. His concern seemed genuine, but I had to go.

Closing my eyes, I transformed, disappearing from their sight. The man’s hand fell, and he lurched forward for a moment before catching himself. Lorcan stopped, searching this way and that for me.

Landing on the ground as a flea, I jumped over their heads and landed on the door. Carefully crawling through, I made it to the other side of the door and dropped to the ground. The room was filled with buzzing, highly agitated insects.

What was going on? The room was empty, wasn’t it? What threat were they reacting to?

It would take forever to crawl my way through this mass, and no way I would be able to safely make it to Ku by jumping through this, so I released the flea essence and instead transformed into the crawfish. At least it’s carapace could protect me from most of the swarm.

Upon finding Ku, I transformed back into my original form but kept the augment of the crawfish skin, so as to protect myself, and began searching for Ku’s vial of elixir.

“By the Maker, Ku, do you always have to make it so hard?”

It’d been a long time since she’d lived alone on the streets, but some habits die hard; like hoarding things and hiding things, and stealing things… but that was mostly just my things she took. It was a game we played. Mostly she just wanted to see if she could pull one over on me. Yeah, not happening.

I found the vial tucked into her shoe, hid between her toes, and refocused on the task at hand.

Slipping a single drop into her mouth, I waited. Nothing happened.

“Ku,” I called out carefully, covering my mouth so no bugs flew in.

“Ku’Aya, come back to me.” I shook her shoulders. “Ku!”

 

 

Ku’Aya

My doppelgänger threw me to the ground and kicked me in the stomach.

“Useless,” she said. “Won’t even try to save yourself.” She spat in my face. “If you really want to die that badly, you’re going to have to do it yourself.”

I gasped for air and rolled away from her. “I don’t want to die.”

“Stop deluding yourself. What reason do you have to keep living?”

My chest hurt, but not from any physical injury. I couldn’t answer her. Me.

“You parents didn’t want you. You were just a big, massive mistake that never should have happened. All you do is mooch on others. If you added all you ever did in this life so far, could you really say it added up to anything?”

“Abirami wanted me,” I argued. “He invited me to be a part of his family.”

“Abirami’s stupid,” the shadow shot back. “You think so too. He’s always putting others first. It’s going to get him killed one day. You’ve always thought there was something wrong with him, in the head. Don’t deny it.”

“But-”

“That’s not the way the world works. Abirami lives in a delusion, and one day, it’s going to come crashing down on him. Admit it! That’s what you really think of your brother.”

“No, I…”

The other me laughed.

“But Semiramis, Menna and Setti-”

“The only put up with you because of Abirami.”

I shook as my fist hit the ground. It wasn’t true. I couldn’t be true.

“Why do you fight this? You know it to be true. I mean, come on, I’m you!”

I curled up into the fetal position, hugging my knees with my hands. I began to whimper.

“No one would miss you if you were gone. In fact… that’s preferable. The word would be better without you in it. You know it’s true.”

“No,” I cried, tears falling down my face.

“No one wants you.”

A crack of light streaked across the room, like an odd horizontal lightning bolt – neither having an origin or an end, as if it just appeared yet strangely had always been.

The apparition of me screamed, cringed, and clawed at the air in front of her. “I’m you,” it hollered. “You can’t deny the truth that you know.”

“Ku.”

It was Abirami’s voice.

“Ku’Aya. Come back to me!”

I wasn’t alone. Abirami had come for me. I didn’t care if he was stupid or not. He was the smartest dumb person I knew, and regardless of all that, he wanted me. He was my brother.

“Ku!”

I reached out my hand. “I’m here!”

 

Abirami

Ku’s eyes slowly opened, and I sighed in relief. The bugs calmed down, slowed, and began returning to their places in Ku’s hive.

With a gasp, Ku sat up right and flung herself at my chest, burying her head in my shoulder and wrapping her arms around me.

My breath caught, as I held my hands up in surprise. This was so unlike Ku. What had happened in her nightmare dream?

“I’m not useless, am I?” she asked.

Moisture wetted my shoulder. Was she crying?

Embracing her in return, I put one hand behind her head and held her tight.  “Of course not. Why would you say such a thing?”

I held her, and she remained still, and my mind whirled, wondering what exactly had happened and what was going through her mind.

Then Ku sat up, pushed against me to release herself from my embrace, then punched me in the chest. “Never speak of this to anyone. It never happened.”

Standing, she walked a few paces away from me and stopped, looking around. “Where is everyone?” she asked.

Walking up to her and grabbing her hand, at which she turned and glared at me, I said, “Come on,” ignoring the glare.

I climbed up first. There was excited talking going on in the room. Apparently they were arguing about what to do next, and whether it was safe outside now.

Opening the door from the outside, I stepped into the room, everyone turning to face me.

“Mission accomplished,” I said.

Lorcan was glaring at me. Then Ku came up behind me, and Lorcan drew his sword.

Instinctually, I double-augmented the crawfish skin and the bear’s strength. He wasn’t getting anywhere near Ku.  I crouched down, ready for anything.

“Stop,” called the man from before to Lorcan. “What are you doing?”

“That bug swarm was all her fault. She’s dangerous.”

I let out a growl of a warning. He ever so much as stepped forward with that brandished sword, there was going to be blows. If Ku was dangerous, I could be just as much, if not more.

Memories of when my essence had gone out of control ran through my mind, and how I’d hurt Setti…

I shook my head to rid myself of the memory.

Ku stepped to the side of me and bowed. “I’m sorry for the trouble I caused.”

“Ku-” I was about to protest, but Ku put a hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. There was a strength there that hadn’t been there a minute before.

She took another step forward. “I know you have no reason to trust me, but I now have everything back under control, and it won’t happen again.” She bowed low to them again, placing two fingers to her chest.

I was amazed. She’d never saluted anyone of her own volition before like that. Just what had happened down there in her dream?

Lorcan continued to argue with the group, but it seemed we just had to keep our distance for a while.

I wrapped an arm around Ku, proud of her response. Normally, she would have been all up in arms and ready for a fight too. We walked around the large group as Jade pressed on, saying “We still need to figure out how to get out of here”

The teenager with a kids voice ran up to us, the girl wearing pink following.

“Woah!” the squeaky-voiced guy said. “Cool green skin.”

Ku stepped back, a hand to her chest, but her ears started turning red. The kid seemed actually interested, and not in an insulting way, like most people from our homeland.

The boy approached, towering over her, and raised a hand toward Ku’s ear.

Ku swatted his hand away, but smirked, half-hiding behind me.

What was this? Ku being shy? This definitely was a day of firsts!

The boy laughed, then turned his attention toward me. “Nice abs, dude. Say, where’s your clothes? Did you get lost here without them? Or is there a pool somewhere in this joint?”

 

 

 

(Lol. another fun post…)

@emily-waldorf

Avin is the “other man” in my post… sorry I didn’t use his name, but I don’t think Abirami’s met him yet. Hope that works for you?

 

And I hope Lorcan wasn’t out of character… Please change anything that wasn’t….

@this-is-not-an-alien

Ehud is the one I described as having a younger voice… hope you don’t mind, but when you say Ang’s voice from Avatar, that’s what it reminds me of… a high-pitched voice of a younger child… hope that fits…. and not sure if I wrote him at the end in character… fell free to change his reactions to fit his character…  also, wasn’t sure how tall he was, being 16, or if he’s lanky or not, but Ku is really short, so either way, Ehud should probably still tower over her a bit…

and…

@rose-colored-fancy

Ophelia… just wasn’t sure what her reaction would’ve been. =)