An End to His Path

[Hush 9]

  The sun was falling and the stars would start to appear as the darkness spread over the sky. The moonlight lit up the beach for the two figures to stroll through the cold sand, following the timeless tides. A 'ker and an 'ame that have known each other for some decades, known by her name, Farren Orchaedia, and his, Anessén Ka'uhane. 

  The exhausted and scared 'ame would try his best to hold a warm smile for her, she still was the love of his life, even though the last few days in their paths were not one of togetherness anymore. In these daring times, Anessén chose not to wear his armor but instead his known green robes, the feathers tucked over his hair would sway gently with the caress of the kind wind. The ‘ker, unlike her usual demeanor, was less energetic but still found a way to walk by her love. Her hair all tied up and her clothes being the usual white silk dress which gave off a sort of glow as the moon shone down onto her sad form. 
 

  As they let their feet slowly step around, they would laugh while enjoying stories they shared. Their gazes wander through the sky or the ocean, every now and then landing on each other. A lovely night for them, a night they have not shared for a long time.

 

  Anessén would turn to her "you know…i cant get you out of my head...i try to walk away and yet i find myself with you again...i scream over my lungs and still i want to forgive you…" he will say melodically, almost as if reciting a poem. Stopping while his gaze was now on her and letting his feet dig into the sand.

 

 Farren turned to him, her eyes wide as always when her heart felt touched or she was surprised, and this was one of the rare few times it meant both. She reached out and took his hands, bringing them up to her lips to kiss them before looking back at him. Her eyes locked onto his as she spoke. “You have been wounded, beaten, and crushed by so many. You have been pushed to the ground and told to give up but you never did. I love you so much for that.” The ‘ker went up, pulling him to her into a loose hug.  

 

  Anessén will smirk as her lips pressed over his hand, adding  "For some time I lost my path, my reason to keep fighting...but you gave me that Farren. You gave me a home to come back to, children to watch them grow and love to fight for...i love you for being with me always, for being with me when everyone looked at me with disgust…" his arms wrapping around her while he melt into the hug, soon pushing her back so he could see her. "I'm sorry I let our paths divide...I just was going through a rough time…"
 

  A soft smile grew on her face. “You were never brought away from our path, merely given an odd road.” All of her pain and sadness left as he held her. All of her guilt and lack of self belief fled as he held her. They were bliss. A couple whose seemingly broken stories ended up in the same, beautiful book. They were the most powerful thing of all. Together.

 

  The smirk of the 'ame would grow into a smile as he slides his hands to her cheeks, leaning forward to lay his forehead on hers. His eyes closing while their noses rub together. All his pain and doubt, all his sadness and burden lifted while feeling her touch and listening to her words.

 

  “The amount of times I have seen others rush to you saying nothing but hatred and rage is past count. I wouldn’t be able to continue on my own if I received such words every single day.” She looked up to him, her smile at its fullest. “And yet here you are living despite it all.” The ‘ker looked proud. Not of the elf in front of her, but of the elf he had shown her. The one who taught her of the forest and raised children with her. The one who cared and nurtured her as much as she did for him. 
 

  Farren inhaled taking in the senses and sounds around her. The feeling of his body against her and her feet in the sand. The sound of the water going in and out, the chatting in the city, and the distant noise of the animals in the forest. The smell of his own and the smell of salt. And even the soft glow from her ring, carved to be a mixture of eagle’s feathers and dragon’s scales. All of this as she reached up to kiss him, everything in that moment, that pure moment, made her happy to be alive.

 

  Suddenly, the 'ame's ears would flicker just when their lips were about to meet. Leaning back his gaze would dash through the tree line as he gently starts to guide Farren behind him. His jaw tensing and his right hand reaching towards his tomahawk, while guiding her with the left arm.

 

  As special as the night was, a figure appeared stalking them. Hidden below the shadows of the trees, the figure would stay unrecognized. But soon the wind would carry the sound of a string being pulled back, followed by the sound of an arrow cutting through the air.

 

  Anessén would pull Farren to be behind him as he tosses the tomahawk to the figure. A smirk forming on his face once he hears the yelp after the sound of the blade nailing, the life of the creature ending. But the smirk would soon fade away when he suddenly coughed blood, letting his gaze fall to the feathered end of an arrow, with the arrowhead that was aimed towards Farren, instead pierced into Anessén's chest.

 

  Hearing the sound of the arrow, the ‘ker did her best to move away, trying to pull Anessen back with her to no avail. However, once she heard the shriek of pain from the stranger she sighed, yet something felt off as she looked to Anessén.

 

  The 'ame would turn for her to see the arrow that was nailed onto his heart. Coughing blood already as he found it hard to keep himself standing. With time, the stain of blood spreaded over his green robes while his skin became pale. His breathing getting shaky and pain would lay on his expression.
 

  For a moment, Farren felt as if time had stopped. She saw his smile fade away but thought nothing of it until he started to cough . “Anessén..” The ‘ker took a step forward, gently grabbing his arm and turning him to her, the arrow sticking in the dead center of his chest. “Anessén!” She screamed as she went to him, not sure to leave the arrow in or pull it out knowing it would make his wound worse.

 

  As her hands reached his arms, he would fall to his knees. "Ullran…" the 'ame would curse in elvish as he felt the life sliding out of his body with each second "Farren…." he would call her. As calm as he seemed, fear started to storm into his eyes, not being able to stop such emotion as thoughts of their children, of their family and of her flashed through his eyes. Finally, the memories he lost long ago would return to his mind. "Farren…" would repeat as his left hand slided for his fingers to lay around the wound.

 

  “Anessén, it’s gonna be okay..I’ll..i’ll..” The ‘ker struggled with what to do, everything she had practiced and remembered seemed to disappear from her head as she tried to help him. “I don’t know what to do...” She looked into his eyes, unlike his which were just beginning to be filled with fear, hers seemed to be filled with terror and panic. Part of her even started to shake as he saw her in true pain from seeing him shot. 
 

  "Farren...it's ayla, it's...ayla" he will whisper as he pulls his hand out of the wound to lay it on hers. His own blood dripping on her fingers while he holds her. His eyes closing briefly before he looked up to her to meet the panic and terror her gaze carried. "I wish I knew the words to make you feel better, but I don't…." he whispers as he smirks, giving her the same words he shared when they first met in the boat. His movements grow weaker as his expression softens, seeming to be exhausted.

 

  

  She began to break down at his words, two months total she had spent caring for him and nursing him back to health. And now, in his final hours of life he remembers everything of her. Over her life Farren had lost friends, family, children, and now her love to her greatest fear and worst enemy, death. Tears began to roll down her face as she did what she could, trying to hold him up and whispering soft nothings hoping to keep him awake. “Please, Anessén, don’t leave me...” A lump formed in her throat as she paused, her eyes now red from the tears. “I’ve lost Kalon, my mother, and Maglure but I cannot lose you as well.” She sounded desperate.

 

  Held by her arms as blood seemed to drip even more. His breaths now almost non-existent as he whispers "Death...is a gift Farren, after all the pain...i embrace this, even though my heart breaks to leave you alone…" He would look up to her and smile weakly "My love for you Farren Orchaedia...is as endless as the ocean and as timeless as the tides...i love you" his eyes would close once more and his grip on her hand felt softer.

 

  For once, Farren finally felt powerless. Yet strangely enough, part of her somehow knew of this. Gently, she pulled him to her so she could embrace him, her beating heart against his dying one was faster and more frantic. She lifted her head skywards, looking at the stars as her love faded away. “I don’t know who I would be without you, or where I would be if we hadn't met.” She looked back down and cupped his face, bringing him up so she could kiss him. “But thank you for everything, through the good, the bad and the ugly. I am so happy to call you my Mayilun.”

  With the caress of the wind and the brush of the water over the cold sand, with the countless stars filling the darkness of the sky. With the warmth of Farren's embrace and her rhythmical heartbeat, Anessén would slightly open his lips as they kissed one last time, giving his last breath while the spark of the life that once burned inside him finally died. His hand sliding out of her touch to fall to a side as he becomes one of the silent and sure sentinels that keep watch in the night.

 

  Farren looked past his body and to the water ahead. Everything seemed so odd now. It was all the same yet her love was lying dead in her arms. She knew not of when she would see him again, and she knew not of what she would do after this, but part of her took a deep breath in and began to softly speak. "...They said you were the crooked kind...and that you'd never have no worth...but you were always gold to me" She paused and took another breath. Every word piling up like a weight on her chest. “And back when we had met..we swore we knew the future...and our words would take us half way ‘cross the world..But I never left this town, and we never saw the world and we never crossed the sea..”

 

  Everything seemed to pause again. The stars lit up everything around them and the wind brushed against her body, yet now she started to sing. Her voice growing louder yet more private than before. “But I am fine, with where I am now..this home is home and all that I need. But for you this place brings shame…and you can blame me when there’s no one left to blame...oh I won’t mind.” On the final note, her voice cracked, like a piano finally stripped of its chords. A dreadful noise yes, but one that was able to convey so much emotion with just a few simple sounds as she pulled him closer.

 

  

  Stars had always been in Farren’s life. Always overhead and always by her side as she went on to take the day. But never did she think they’d be with her the most as Anessén left this world. In a way free, but still she knew his journey didn’t end here, not even close. But that didn’t change things as her breath returned to a normal pace and her eyes finally stopped crying, knowing Anessén was now up within the stars watching and guarding her, ready to guide her through her path.

 

  Now the figures were laying over the cold sand, listening to the ocean’s rhyme and feeling the wind caress. The stars over their heads seem to shine brighter and the moon for once, illuminating all that it could reach. The ‘ame came to this world, lived in this world and left this world always by the ocean…

 

 

 

 

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqc2uOunPdA

 

[CRP Goon 71]

Somewhere, resting on a cliff above the sea, a scarred warrior finds the face of an old apprentice drifting out across the waves. The amber haze from the oracle wood cigar drifting about him. The 'ame gazed up at the shimmering starlight, the weight of this loss tugging on his spirit, and yet he smiled. "Oerneh nae ito hileia lae myumiera, ciwn'ehya uell."  He uttered an all-too familiar phrase, his words nearly drowned out by the churning of the frothy seafoam beating relentlessly against the base of the cliff. "I have never been more proud to call someone my brother." 

The whisper of his final farewell accompanying the bittersweet memories that washed over him. His heart sat laden with sorrow, and yet, he was at peace. 

[jihyunah 184]

───── ❝ The Abandonment of A Keiki ❞ ─────
PK Response - Ululani Momoa [16]

 

[!] A youthful 'ame's seafoam eyes fixated on the rippling water, the sand littered between her toes as a familiar dimly glowing flower would be cradled in her palms. A blanket of stars stared down upon her as the sea's breeze caressed the child's cheeks, that had been dampened. Humming a soft familiar tune that the father-like mali had sung to her, she'd stop for a second to lift her head towards the horizon, words fumbling out of her lips.

 

“Makua, if you’re out there… P-Please,” Ululani blinked into the horizon with eyes dwelling on confusion and hurt. A sense of abandonment washing over her as she questioned the two-year disappearance of the mali. “Tell me where you went… Please?” 

 

Settling herself at to crouch by the shore, she’d stare up to the stars, tears rolling down her familiar caramel cheeks, resting the night glow beside her on the sand. Murmuring to herself, the breeze caressed her once more through her brunette locks; it was as if Anessén were petting her on the head, as she would recall the story of the stars to herself as her heart wrenched.

 

"The stars are our ancestors, who watch over us. For this, we do ne have to fear the darkness of the night. They guide us when we are lost, and bring us back into the moonlight. But I did ne tell you about the stars' feelings, ti?" 

 

"When a star had joined the rest of the family, it could only cry longing to be with the rest of them, back here on the ground. Those tears would fall into the earth, creating what we know as Night Glow. These blossom from the tears of our ancestors longing, as they wish to be together with us once more again. And one day, we'll all be together once more..."

 

Ululani once more, lifted the dimly blue glowing flower in her palms as the tears on her cheeks rolled and split as if they were the vast rivers that they had once fished upon. The child 'ame could only hope, that the Makua... The Maln who abandoned her would come back soon. Little did this youth know, what was to await her, if she were told about the mali's death...

 

[latte 1310]

redacted.