The young adolescent could barely distinguish a vowel from a consonant... And yet, when her feverish head rose from the chilly floor of the hollow, she found that she could no longer understand the words that were being spoken to her. A lady had arrived, someone the princess did not recognize. She recoiled to her breath, as if revolted by the stench. But it was not like that. Kobato was afraid. For the first time in the many months that she had been under the King of Munashii's care, she had never once-- not even when he himself turned violent-- felt threatened. At all. And here she was, using up all the strength her weak body had left and putting that energy forth into propelling herself back into the corner, away from this stranger. A heart wrenching, blood curling scream erupted from her teenage lungs, a song of sheer terror and fear for her life. But it did not echo. For Kobato had used up all the energy she had left. What would have been a cry of help for anyone other than whom she, if she survived this sickness, would later know as Calla, now became a pathetic, soundless screech. Whatever the female responded with, little Ko could not care. She was terrified. A stranger... She could easily kill her, just as her mother and father and brothers had been... But it was not death or fear itself that frightened the small gal (despite her now teenage age). It was the horror of never accomplishing what she desperately worked towards, even now.
Her wish.
So frail.
So delicate.
So utterly helpless.
She had to live through to see its end!
So crazed and hyperventilated was the girl when her next visitor arrived at the party, that she hardly even recognized hat he was there at all. Instead, once she heard her name fall from one of the duos lips, she let her eyes become encased in unconsciousness, slipping into a world where nothing was everything and everything was nothing. There was no such thing as light or dark, just a sense of relief and fulfillment....
She could have done it, you know. She could have given up right then and there. However, her toffee stargazers popped open once more when the unknown femme began to speak again, and she pursed her dried lips, opening them to reveal sharp little knives that, if pressed to the correct spot on the neck, would pierce a jugular within mere moments.
ioryogi. perhaps her words meant nothing to the two that were with her now. But they meant everything to Kobato. Everything rested on those syllables. When was the last time she had seen that smile? When was the last time she herself had smiled in return to that toothy grin that kept her heart pounding with life? Kobatos eyes narrowed with an ineffable amount of determination sparkling in their depths.
Yes.
She would have to live.
She would have to overcome this sickness.
Whatever it was, it could not hold her back!
|