Cursed
Yoshi
Chapter 70 = Dust to dust
Disclaimer: Although all
characters here are of my own invention, the original idea of Yoshies, Birdos,
etcetera, are copyright of Nintendo, and I make no money from writing this.
In the morning,
Darkmark didn’t breathe a word of his clandestine meeting with the dark gods to
Skafria, instead sitting in silence by the table as he ate the breakfast Sira
had offered him. Again, Skafria had declined to take any of the fruits on
offer, instead wandering around the flat as Darkmark ate his fill and Sira
savoured what she took.
“What are you two
going to do today before we go to the nightclub?” she asked, picking up a pear
from the fruit bowl.
“I think I’m going
to go check the prison…” Darkmark murmured. “If Shiala’s body is still there,
I’m probably going to bury it…”
“Then what?”
Darkmark was about
to answer, but Skafria showed up at that moment and slammed a large rectangular
box down on the table, smirking at his companion. The brown Yoshi took one look
at the picture on the front of the box, looked up at his friend, and said
aloud, “I guess I’ll be back here whipping your tail at this until we have to
go…”
However, true to his
promise, Darkmark left the flat soon after to go check the prison. Skafria had
declined to come, so Darkmark was left to walk on his own through the grim
streets of the University district. Eyes all around him would stare before
suddenly averting, people would clear out of the way despite him being a good
ten feet back, and the solitary city guards he passed would suddenly snap to
attention and look off in another direction, acting as if they had seen
nothing.
He felt mixed
feelings from this – one was that he felt powerful, knowing he was feared, but
he also felt a little outcast, remembering how much he liked to walk around the
Shoreside Village on sunny afternoons with Alziana and talk to everyone he met.
He knew he could never go back now, and kept a menacing appearance, frowning
deeply and keeping his wings raised slightly to look just that little bit
bigger.
Eventually he got to
the point where the numbers of city guardsmen began to become denser, and they
started to nudge each other and point him out, weighing up their odds. It
wasn’t before he passed a group of six, crossing over a bridge spanning the
river running through the city, that they decided to push their luck for the
last time.
Within seconds of
them bearing down on him, one was already sent flying into the clear canal
waters, and the others were regretting their advance. Darkmark whipped out his
flail and struck one of the guards with it on the side of the head; though his
helmet saved his life, the force behind it sent him tumbling over the bridge
and into the river with his comrade. The third nearly got a lucky hit in, only
barely missing Darkmark’s arm with his spear, but the winged Yoshi grabbed the
spear and twisted it around, forcing the human to let go and allowing Darkmark
to discard the weapon into the waters below. Sidestepping an attack, he brought
his psionics into play and threw a fireball at the nearest one, igniting the
cloth beneath his leather armour and sending him voluntarily into the water as
he attempted to douse the flames. Something brushed past his wings, and he
fanned them out suddenly, smacking the guard behind him in the face and
distracting him long enough for a flail swipe to knock him away. With a sweep
of his foot he tripped the guard and plunged him into the drink, and was left
only with a single cowering guard, edging slowly away.
Building up a good
charge on his right hand, Darkmark made a broad throwing motion and sent a
cable of psionic energy towards the human, which latched onto his arm like a
rope as he turned and attempted to flee. There was a loud jolt of the energy as
he tried to pull away, and Darkmark yanked the psionic cable back, reeling the
guard in and allowing him to pitch him over the edge with a spinning throw.
The cable
disconnected from the human when he tried to dispel it, and the energy flowed
back into his hand, where he allowed it to disperse back into the ether.
Wanting to conserve his strength for the night, he ran the rest of the length
of the bridge and leapt into the air, fervently flapping his wings until he was
a good height above the roofs of the highest buildings. It was easy at that
altitude to see the prison, a mass of bricks, dust, and rubble, and headed in
that direction, feeling a sudden weight in his throat as he approached…
His worst fears were
confirmed when he touched down. It was as though it was the very same day he
had become what he was; not a single body had been touched, nor any of the
bricks and stones been moved. There was a veritable cloud of flies circling the
area, and the stench was horrible, though very little compared to the inside of
the Church of Death. Even the broken maroon-spotted Yoshi eggshell fragments
remained, the yellow albumen coating them having crusted into a flaky
substance, and the pieces of chain links scattered about. Rain had washed the
blood from the sands, but not from the bodies scattered about…
Before getting
closer, he searched his saddlebags for the bandages he had picked up some time
ago in Sansata, and wrapped the woollen strips of cloth around his nose and
mouth to protect him from either the flies or whatever else was in the air.
Slowly, he stepped through the gap in the perimeter wall, and entered the
courtyard itself, slowly approaching the bright red body…
It had started to
decay, and Darkmark tried as hard as he could not to properly look at the body,
and remember whose it was. He couldn’t bear to look at her, but he forced
himself to turn her over, wincing at the sight of the gaping hole in her chest,
but he managed to stop himself from crying while he breathed the prayer of
passing for her under his breath, saying it not just for her but for his
murdered son as well.
Standing up
solemnly, he knew he couldn’t bring himself to bury her, but he didn’t want to
leave her body to rot, either. Quietly, without any show of emotion, he slowly
waved his hand over her body, dispelling psionic energy into the enchantment he
was casting, and watched silently as her body crumbled away into dust and blew
away on the winds, leaving nothing to show it had ever been there.
Tonight, I shall repay what has been done to you… to
me… to us… and then I will do whatever it takes to make sure this never happens
again… to anyone…
He sighed and spoke
into the air his recurring regret, “I wish I had had the chance to say
goodbye…”
He turned around,
almost already cleared of what little emotion he had shown. “But it’s too late
for regrets, and I cannot stay in the past… the future awaits, and I must be
prepared for it…”
Sira kept running
over her plans in her head as she came back from the University. It had been a
long day, and she wondered whether leaving Tamaroro with Skafria was such a
good idea, but had a feeling that if any harm had come to the little baby that
Darkmark would surely be the first to inflict his retribution upon the vampire.
Besides, he was still a Yoshi, and he surely wouldn’t hurt a child of his own
kind…
She then remembered
Yasei-Yeiko, and bitterly reminded herself that even her race had some bad
people within it, but took happiness in the fact that she knew she would help
bring about that anthro’s death very soon…
Arriving back at the
flat, she found Samintha, who had been able to leave early, holding a snoozing
Tamaroro in her arms as her two guests sat either side of a table, playing the
game of Visali’s they had found earlier, in stern silence. Samintha nodded in
greeting and spoke in a hushed tone, “They’ve been at it since before I came
back. I’ve never seen such concentration…”
“Yeah, well,”
Skafria interjected, “We haven’t played for at least a month, and I’m the
current champion…”
“Only because your
definition of ‘champion’ is whoever won the last game.” Darkmark quipped,
reaching out to move one of the markers laid out on the vaell map. “Needless to
say, you changed your tune when I started winning this one…”
“You’ve not won yet.” Skafria retorted, handing Darkmark the dice. “I
may have lost my commander early on, but you’re pretty outnumbered…”
“I never figured out
how to play that.” Sira said vaguely as she sorted out the notes she had taken
earlier, as well as the small bits of information on ‘chi’ she had been able to
scour from the library. “I always seemed to forget something, and before I knew
it my army would get wiped out, but then again Visali and Dave played it all
the time… just like you’re doing now, they’d sit there for hours and-”
A loud knock at the
door silenced her, but as she went to open it, something told her that caution
was needed and she put the chain on the door before opening it. That move saved
her life, as no sooner had the door been opened than a katana was thrust
through the gap, and whoever was on the other side slammed into the door.
Immediately Darkmark stood up and came forwards with psionic energy buzzing at
his fingertips, patiently watching as whoever was on the other side sliced up
with the katana, through the chain, and threw the door open.
Darkmark didn’t even
need to look to know that it was an assassin, and when the scantily-clad female
human darted towards him at blinding speed, he raised a shield and deflected
her sword strike with relative ease before throwing a bolt of raw energy towards
her. It smashed straight through the chi shield she raised and struck her full
in the chest, knocking her back and branding a large burn into her skin. Before
she had time to even get up off the floor, Skafria dove down upon her and bit
her twice, not stopping to drink as he let her sag down to the floor.
“I don’t know
whether to be happy she’s gone down, or insulted that they sent someone so
weak.” Darkmark mused, as Skafria started to drag the body down the corridor
and out of the building.
“I don’t think it’ll
be easy to get to Yasei-Yeiko…” Sira added, “But we’d better go tonight, or
they may send someone more competent next time…”
To
be continued…