Cursed Yoshi

 

Chapter 92 = The Spark of a Great Fire

 

Disclaimer: All characters here are of my own invention, but the original idea of Yoshies, Birdos, etcetera, are copyright of Nintendo, and I make no money from writing this.

 

28^th of Eira, CD 2159; Location Uncertain

Darkmark glided through the lower clouds, his wings spread, on his second day of travel, starting bright and early in the hopes he could get to a town or city…

His supplies were getting dangerously low, and he wasn’t exactly in the best place to try and hunt, nor at the right time. Even after leaving the mountains, snow was falling, and most animals would be hibernating, so his best hope was to arrive in a city somewhere. Even a human city would do, and if they refused him entry or service, he’d take matters into his own hands…

Going back down through the cloud layer, he circled back after something caught his eye, and he was soon descending to the warmth of a traveler’s inn.

 

Assassin’s Guild, Corvan City

“Tell me something.” Skafria crooned softly. “About… when you died…”

His hand rested upon Tsi-Lau’s surprisingly soft side, her flank showing slight abrasion from where the saddle straps had been, but nothing major. He gently brushed his fingertips against her skin, his eyes gazing absently into hers as they lay on their sides.

Tsi-Lau’s ‘safe place’ had turned out to be her sensei’s old backroom, and the huge cushion behind the curtain proved to be a very comfortable bed. It was heavily stuffed but not overly so, and there were smaller cushions to act as pillows. The warmth trapped behind the curtains meant they had no need for any sheets, and Skafria had felt uncomfortable and cramped until he had relieved himself of his cloak, boots, saddle and saddlebags. Tsi-Lau had done the same, and it occurred to Skafria that it was the first time he’d ever seen her remove any of her equipment. Even in the feral village she seemed to sleep with her saddle on and her swords upon her back…

She gently laid a hand on his shoulder. “Did you see it too? Just for a few moments… the afterlife…”

Skafria nodded. “I could see Karin, Alziana, Shiala, Visali… friends from my village… some of them vanished as I got closer, but then I blacked out…”

“I got closer, but then again, it was longer before I was injected.” Tsi-Lau replied as Skafria shifted a hand down to caress her legs. “Vick was there… waiting… with his wife and Visali… they were oddly understanding. I suppose that being in the afterlife made them change… as it would…”

“Did they tell you anything?”

“Not much. Only Vick said anything of interest… he confirmed my suspicions that he had intended to choose me over his wife, way back… I moved forwards to hug him, but I embraced only empty air as I was pulled back to the mortal plane…”

Skafria stopped massaging her leg muscles. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, and it did more good than harm. Besides, I have you now… for as long as we live… we will be together… our similar differences bringing a bond between us…”

He silenced her by shifting forward to kiss her. He got a very strange sensation out of touching his fangs to hers, that she also seemed to experience, and he couldn’t get enough of the mysterious new feeling, completely unlike anything he’d ever felt before. After all his hardships, losing his friends and family, his companions, then watching Marcus fall into darkness, and then his undeadening… he enjoyed so much more to have the body of another to hold and touch, to keep him warm on the inside, in ways he’d never take for granted again…

That’s ironic, he thought, smirking to himself, that such lost and desired feelings should come back to me on the day of Vizorvy’s Festival…

 

Border Village of Khílhórensol

The Yoshian village of Khílhórensol, whose name literally translated as “Peaceful”, was not very large, perhaps housing only two hundred, but all of them were out in the streets to celebrate a special day. Vizorvy’s Festival occurred on his hatchday, the 28^th of Eira, but had many other names; Festival of Love, Festival of Happiness, Friendship Festival, Vizorvy’s Hatchday, Celebration Of Happiness, and others. The festival itself was meant to have many purposes, though the foremost of these was a day to be generally happy, it was also used by many as a special opportunity to declare their love for another, to propose marriage or having children, and to make friends with people they had never met before.

The village was bedecked in streamers and banners, with lanterns hung up everywhere to provide illumination later into the night, flowers neatly arranged along the edges of every street, every path, shopkeepers setting up stalls to provide food and refreshments throughout the day, Octothesian priests congregating for the opening of the festivities, their scarves draped loosely around them under the bright sunshine…

It was no mere coincidence that the human kingdom chose to attack that day.

While power-hungry and anxious, the advisors were talented and most were excellent tacticians. They had a small group of humans studying Yoshies, their culture and their religion to learn about them for one purpose; to find weaknesses.

It was perfect, or so they thought. The village was right near the border to the kingdom, so dispatch wouldn’t take very long. The village was holding a religious festival and they would make easy targets. It would be swift and decisive, a show of the power the kingdom possessed, and an example of what would happen to the rest of them if they resisted. They would surely surrender, and even if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have enough time to mobilize a force big enough to stop them. The kingdom would push them back as far as they could, forcing them into reservations where they could keep them until they saw fit to wipe them out. It was a magnificent plan considering the short amount of time it had taken to be devised, whereupon it had been prepared for until the day the authorization was given to begin.

And it had. The force of Dragon Slayers and their ad-hoc reinforcements bearing down upon the village to remove it of its name and inhabitants would change the course of history. The Yoshies were too proud to submit to the kingdom, and would be wiped out by superior numbers and sheer force. The kingdom would have absolute power…

There was but a single flaw in the plan that nobody could have foreseen. An event the kingdom was ignorant of and the Yoshies could only hope for.

That was not to come immediately, however. Just as the festival was about to begin, pandemonium erupted as from all sides, as experienced Dragon Slayers and knights from the Royal Guard converged upon the village, with no mercy in their hearts and but one purpose in their minds.

The tired but alert Acting Captain of the Dragon Slayers rode at the front, his helmet off, a shining new sword drawn. They tried to run, but there was nowhere for them to escape to, and the crowd was too dense for them to make any progress. Bodies fell bearing mortal wounds within moments, armoured horses trampled those unable to get away, torches hurled onto the houses set fast-blazing fires, spreading rapidly across the dry thatch. They were so close together that every time the Captain swung his sword, it bit into flesh and cut against bone, even without the slightest effort put into aim. Cries of children seeing their parents slain lingered only for a short time before being silenced, multiple colours of Yoshi skins were singularly splashed with bright crimson…

In under an hour, all of the inhabitants of the village were dead and the village itself was razed. Suffering only one casualty – a minor injury sustained by a knight caused by falling off his horse as it reared away from the fires – they withdrew and headed back, their mission accomplished, leaving the destruction behind.

Only one survivor had been left. Backed up into a corner, he had been trapped and unable to do anything as he watched his friends and relatives be murdered, his wife gurgling as a sword impaled her, his baby son crushed beneath an ironclad hoof. He had been backed into a corner and they toyed with him, cutting him and beating him with the flats of their swords until he fell, feigning death. When they were gone, he weakly got to his feet as a cold wind blew around him, his scarf wet with his own blood, a scene of destruction lain out before him…

For many minutes, the black Yoshi stood there, unmoving, unspeaking, barely breathing, before he willed himself to walk over to his wife. Her life was gone from her body, a bloody hole in her chest…

He couldn’t stop himself from crying, holding her body closely, closing his eyes and wishing for it all to go away. Barely managing a whisper, he prayed for her, for his son, and then to the gods, asking them why this had had to happen, why he had had to lose everything he had…

The sound of hoofbeats approached him, but he paid them no attention, still clinging tightly to his wife’s body. I do not want to see the horror that awaits me… if I am to die, so much the better…

As fast as they had come, the hoofbeats went away, leaving the Yoshi clutching his wife. He did not know how long he remained, surrounded by death, all his hopes and all that brought light to his life extinguished in a single day, before he felt a hand come down on his shoulder…

 

To be continued…