Day One: Evening

[Minoshia]

Are you finally ready?

He could feel the warm blood trickle down his cheeks as his fingernails carved a firmer foothold onto the side of his head. The rest had been short lived, questions echoed inside his head as they bounced around the walls of his brain cavity. With each syllable a man inside his skull fired cannon shells at the walls of his cranium, ripping a terrible pain through his entire body. It ran through him like electricity through water, shooting down his spine and branching out through into his limbs. The numbing shock fizzled at his fingertips, leaving them aching before they became altogether numb. It was the worst pain he could remember feeling, which was something since the Konat had a high tolerance for pain.

Now, now… don’t make me do that again. I promise you it will hurt more next time. A stirred concoction of anger and aggravation seized over the alien warrior, shooting down his throat and lighting a fire in his stomach. Rage lit through him like flames through brush, igniting his blackened eyes with the fiery hatred his enemies had become accustomed to.

“What do you want from me!? Have I not done everything you’ve asked!?” Aggression gripped him in a vice, his hands shot back to his head and he screamed into the night sky. He was the lone wolf crying out his pain, sending a warning signal to the world.

We don’t want to feel this pain anymore. The division between us causes the pain; just like the rift in the sand separates the desert, the rift in our mind and our body separates us and tears us apart. We know what we need to do… it is the darkness that fills the void, that binds us. Are we finally ready to embrace that? To become who we were destined to be?

“And who are we destined to become.” Minoshia shot back, finally realized he had left the overhang in the desert and was wandering aimlessly towards nothingness. The sand beneath his feet and the wind at his face felt as if they were a million miles away, he was watching his world through a painting – everything was surreal. Everything was euphoric, he was living in the poetic chaos he found so beautiful.

That I will leave for you to decide...

“What? That’s it? No answer, nothing?” Minoshia grunted with equal amounts of frustration and confusion. His world a dark pit of confusion, just when he thought he’d reached the brim in the cup of evil – preparing to ascend the final step towards normalcy – a clawed hand had gripped his ankle and dragged him back down behind veils of hell and brimstone. He stopped abruptly, something was wrong. He could feel a being in front of him, though he could no sense his energy or his power. Leveling his eyes in an instant, he dropped down into a combative stance. He wasn’t about to take any chances with a strangler.

“Minoshia.” A voice sounded from a body in front of him, it was familiar in so many ways. Memories flooded back from many years past, memories of glory and triumph, death and deceit. The figure stepped into the light, his ebony hair glistening in the moonlit sky. His face had become darker than he remember, the shadows lined his cheekbones with precision and grace. The Konat snarled and took a step backwards, letting his body straighten to match the raven haired wanderer.

“Seventeen.” Minoshia grunted from behind rigid teeth. “I had a feeling I’d be seeing the likes of you…”