Aftermath

Just a quickie, like the chapters have been recently.

I've not much to say on the chapter itself.

What I have to say is actually about a couple of other things. One: Tweak is up. Yay, head on over and give it a read. Two: you guys can now add me on facebook (Ayato DeAniege) and find out what stories I'm working on and what's been updated recently. You can also ask questions through there and I'll respond quicker than any other method because it emails me.

Anywho.

Read, Review and Enjoy.



“Wait. He said what?” Raya hefted his broadsword and watched Durth.

“That he’s Whisper. The first Whisper reborn.”

Raya frowned, bringing his blade forward. Durth caught the edge of the blade and deflected the blow. The pair went through the motions of attacking one another until Raya had disarmed Durth. Then the Brother stood back, still frowning.

“No, that’s not possible. The original Whisper isn’t Paw. Paw’s the Whisper from the program, and the only Whisper of the Sidhe. But Whisper, the Whisper, the original one, is a male people. Whisper of the Sidhe declared war against the people, Whisper of the people arose after the fall of the world.”

“So?”

“So if the original Whisper is people, then Paw isn’t the Whisper?” Raya frowned, “I’ve lost myself. Is it just me, or is complex thought difficult?”

Durth paused in advancing on Raya, “Whoa. I can’t even seem to think about how Ayan is … well, you know, like Ayan is. All I draw is a blank. Why…”

Raya sighed and slid his broadsword into its sheath. He reached up and scratched his upper lip with his thumb and considered the woods around him, “I know this feeling. If I could just recall what caused it.”

“Hello!” Ayan practically skipped into the little closed off area that Raya and Durth were sparring in. The young man smiled at Raya, then directed his attention to Durth, “you, I’ve been looking for you.”

“Ah,” Raya murmured, adjusting his sheath’s belt, “that would be that feeling, Ayan sweeping through the minds in the area to find a specific person.”

“Oh,” Durth murmured, looking at Ayan, “what did you want?”

“What did I want? I didn’t want you, Paw wanted you,” Ayan pointed beside himself, to the empty air, “he wanted to talk to you about breathing or something of that such and sort.”

“Breathing.” Durth said, not completely understanding what Ayan meant, especially considering the fact that Ayan was pointing to air. Not only was Paw not standing beside Ayan, the Sidhe was nowhere to be seen. This made Durth question Ayan’s sanity and wonder if, perhaps, Ayan had completely lost his mind.

“Yes,” Paw said from behind Durth. The Sidhe’s lips were inches from Durth’s ear and his sudden appearance made Durth leap away, startled and surprised, “breathing, breath from here,” motioning towards the base of his ribcage, “and in deep, deep, deep.” as Paw said it, he breathed deeper and deeper, so deep that Durth thought Paw’s chest might pop open at any moment, “then with chest full air, less out slllooooowwly,” the Sidhe breathed out slowly, very slowly.

Durth frowned, noticing that the more Paw spoke, the worse his language got. Like the Sidhe was easing Durth into his own special language.

“Breath. Urf. Breath.”

“What?” Durth asked.

“Urf, ‘ee ‘ice!”

Durth translated it as ‘Durth be nice!’ so he sighed out. Paw nodded and smiled, as if Durth was making progress. The Sidhe made a hand motion as if expecting more. Durth breathed in deeply and then out slowly. In and out, in and out he breathed, not understanding what the point of the breathing was but knowing that it was safest to just do what the crazy Sidhe said.

He got the distinct feeling that he could either do as Paw asked him to, or Paw would play him like an instrument.

“Good, now,” Paw jabbed Durth in the kidney, forcing the air out of Durth’s lungs, “breath.”

Durth went down coughing. He caught the flash and heard the animalistic sound before Raya thumped down beside him. Paw reached down, with one hand, and grabbed Raya by the front of the shirt and flipped the young man over his shoulder. Raya gone, Paw dragged Durth to his feet.

“Why not with the breathing, why not breathing?” Paw asked.

“Because,” Durth gasped, “you jabbed me in the stomach! It’s really hard to breath when you jab me there.”

“Is it not the place on people to be jabbed when one wants another to learn to breath properly?”

“No. It’s the place that you jab when you don’t want people to breath,” Durth snapped, “who told you that that was the place to jab if you want to teach someone to breath properly.”

Paw looked at Ayan, who immediately found the sky intensely interesting.

“Well,” Paw turned back to Durth and shrugged, “it is a good way to breath better, breathing better now, Urf doing better. Just got to breath. Just like that.”

Like what, exactly, Durth was breathing normally and couldn’t pick up on what was going on. But he realised that there was something going on. That was different. It was the way Paw held his hands together by clasping the tips of his fingers together. The way Ayan tried to make the action amusing to lessen the blow of the event.

“Whoa.” Durth held out his hands to balance himself as his head spun in slow circles and the edges of his vision darkened.

Paw was there in a moment, arm wrapping around Durth’s middle and steadying him, “that was not breathing. That was coughing up blood and viral disease on everyone. Are you alright, would you like me to put you into a dreamless sleep? How are you feeling?”

“What?” Durth caught his balance, “I’m fine, really. It was just a momentary thing and it’s passed now, I’m fine.”

“Annnd,” Paw pulled away and frowned, “you are fine. Durth my dear, are you a practicing Whisen?”

“No,” Durth muttered, “what’s a-”

“Don’t ask!” Ayan snapped quickly, “the explanation is four days long and by the end of it you’re tempted to join the religion just to shut him up. Do not ask what it’s about.”

“Ask what?” Paw asked.

“What’s being a Whisen about,” Ayan growled back.

“Oh,” Paw said, “I’m so glad you asked!”

Ayan groaned and put his face in his hands. Durth frowned as Paw opened his mouth to explain, only to be tackled by Raya. There was something about how Paw just crumpled to the ground that seemed to imply that the Sidhe had done it on purpose. Raya smacked at Paw several times before the Sidhe hooked a leg around Raya’s throat. A flick and Paw was on top, sitting on Raya’s legs.

“Now.” Paw said, “The story of the Whisen is greatly coloured throughout history…”


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