Hello Everyone!
Going to keep my post brief today as I want to get straight to my writing! Below is part 2 of chapter 2 so I'll be interested to see what you all think! Enjoy :)
“Ostara!”
My eyes fly open and I awaken, covered in sweat, unable to control my erratic breathing. I look to see my sister, Yule, with her pale skin and long white hair leaning over me with her hands on my arms shaking me awake.
“Hells rings” I finally get my breathing under control. Behind Yule stand my other sisters, Mabon, Terra and Litha, all with concerned looks on their faces.
“What happened Ostara?” Terra asks, her green eyes alert to her surroundings, assessing for danger. Even half asleep and with her long golden hair all over her lightly tanned face, she still looked as lethal as ever.
“What did you see?” asked Litha, her fire red hair and yellow eyes made her appear even more fierce in the darkness.
“A vision. It was a vision of fear, destruction, and chaos, and all I could see was death.” I’m trembling now as I relive the vivid images in my mind’s eye, the flashes of blood and gore like slaps inside my mind. Cold hands encompass mine and I look up into the ice blue eyes of Yule, her quiet support giving me the courage to tell the most devastating part of the dream-like vision.
“I saw a dark knight walk among the bodies of the dead. He killed Aquarius and tore open the Pegasus gate, allowing a horde of darkness to stream through-” I couldn’t finish the dream. The part where the dark knight saw me, and the emotions that I shouldn’t have felt, that I could see reflected in his eyes too.
I realized that none of my sisters had spoken a word once I mentioned the death of Aquarius and I looked up to see shocked expressions on all their faces.
“How?” Mabon asked of no one it seemed, her hazel eyes wide with shock. “How is this possible?”
“Are you sure that is what you saw?” demanded Litha as she charged up to my bed and nearly sent Yule flying when she jumped onto the mattress.
“Yes, I’m sure, it’s not something easily forgotten” I try to say with more certainty then I feel. Terra and Mabon are holding hands now while Litha curses up a storm and Yule sits in silence with a thoughtful look on her face.
In the silence that followed, I studied all my sisters. Unique not only in looks but in personality, we all shared the same parentage and were born to be guardians of the earth. First came Terra, the eldest and guardian of the earth itself. Then Litha as the guardian of Summer, Mabon the guardian of Autumn and Yule as the guardian of Winter. And after them all, as the youngest of the sisterhood, came me. Ostara, guardian of spring, and all that grows in and on the earth. I not only have power over all of the earth animal kingdom, but I also get pesky visions of blood, death, and the end world. Lucky me.
Out of all my sisters though, I felt the strongest connection to Yule. Even though most of her history is unknown, she was easily the most powerful of us all. I’d only seen her lose that control once in the millennia’s we had been connected through our births and she had inadvertently caused a global ice age that had wiped out over 75% of the planet. She had vowed to keep a level head, and calm emotions, after that.
My mind wanders back to the knight in the vision. His black hair billowing gently around his face and his grey eyes piercing through me, as he stalked me across the plain of death. Who is he? And why can’t I stop thinking about him! I should be terrified, not intrigued by this harbinger of-
Before I can finish the thought, bright light flashes in my bedroom, startling some while others materialize weapons. As the light fades, the silhouette of the angel Amateel appears in the center of the room, and we all bow in reverence to one of the Arch Angels.
“Sisters” her soft yet powerful voice gently echoes around the room. Her human form taller than that of Litha, but her features are hidden behind a bright light emanating from the angels very skin. “One of the great gates has fallen, along with its guardian, and the Pegasus galaxy is overrun with darkspawn. The Arch’s priority must be the protection of the remaining gates, but while we do this, we need to investigate who can overwhelm one of the Starsign clan, and who is behind the attack on the Pegasus gate.”
Amateel looks at us all one by one when her eyes land on me. I feel her glowing gaze focus on my face, and what must have been the shock and horror showing there. Slowly, she approaches me, and without a word holds out her hand. I know what comes next, and hesitantly grip her glowing fingers in mine. A bolt of electricity shocks up my arm, through my chest and up my spine straight into my head.
The images of the vision slam into my mind and through my body to Amateel’s hand. As she can now see what I had seen, her brows furrow in concentration and I could swear she was shocked to see the knight killing Aquarius, at least that was what it felt like.
Unexpectedly she released my hand, the vision halting quickly, and a pounding headache began just behind my eyes. Amateel turned and paced the room for a moment, her white robes billowing behind her, before turning to us all. “I must seek the counsel of my brethren, await my return” and with that, she vanishes into blinding light. We all stare at one another for what seems like forever, until Litha breaks the silence.
“The fuck was that?”
“When was your last vision, it seems like an eon ago,” Yule asks quietly.
“Not a clue” begins Mabon answering for me, smoothing her auburn hair back of her face, “but I guess now it's confirmed that Ostara was having another vision, not just some dream. Terra is still holding her hand.
“It’s the middle of the night, I’d rather like to go back to bed, some of us need our beauty sleep,” says Terra jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.
“Come on” guides Litha, leading the others out of the room, leaving just Yule and myself alone.
“Are you okay?” she asks so quietly that if I hadn’t been focused on her, I would have missed the question entirely.
“Honestly Yule, I’m not even in the same universe as okay. Reliving the vision not just once but twice” I pause to take a deep and steadying breath. “My head is pounding, and I feel so ill, even worse now knowing that it was all real” I wonder if I had said too much, but when I look over to her, she is sitting with a grave look on her face.
“There is something else on your mind, I can sense it,” she says firmly, but kindly, knowing that pushing me too hard would make me retreat, taking my deeper inner thoughts with me. She knew me too well. Should I tell her the ending of the vision? An inner voice in my mind advised against it, it wouldn’t do well to worry anyone unintentionally, especially as I would likely never see the knight again.
“I’m okay Yule, I think I would like to just get some rest,” I say to her, smothering a yawn. She smiles knowingly at me. She knows I am hiding something, but we both know she will take her time to get it out of me. “Alright, you can keep your secrets, for now.” She rises and kisses my cheek, before turning for the door. As she reaches the entrance to my room, she turns back with a grim look on her face, as if she is about to say something important.
Instead, she shakes her head and says only “Goodnight Sister” and quietly closes the door behind her, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I lie down, trying to quiet my mind and the thoughts racing through there at speeds beyond counting. They seem to be whizzing around in circles; the knight, Aquarius, dead bodies, gateway, darkspawn, Amateel, the knight, Aquarius, dead bodies, gateway, darkspawn, Amateel, the knight…
The knight encompasses my last waking thoughts as I drift off into a restless sleep.
