Tarishandra

“Are you an Angel, come to take me from this life?” asked the drunken man with barely audible speech. Bewildered, Tarishandra blinked and thought; she had read of the Angels in human religion, but never had she thought to be compared to one. The man continued to stare at her, swaying on his feet unsteadily and then rubbed his eyes again and said “do you hear me sweet one?” It took a few moments but she then realised he was actually conversing with her and was waiting for an answer and replied, “Where on earth would I take you?” She stepped forward a few paces and folded her wings. For a moment she studied the man curiously, but this ethereal presence proved to be too much for his addled senses. He rubbed his knuckles into his eyes, then backed up quickly as she moved forth, frightened. His eyes rolled up into his head, and he toppled to the ground with a groan, into a dead faint. Upset and confused Tarishandra stared at the drunkard’s prone form. That was not what she had expected of her first encounter with a human, what had gone wrong? She shifted her wings slightly, and with that motion it dawned on her like a thunderbolt. Her wings! Of course, they’d have never seen a Viator before, and the mere sight of her was probably a very alarming thing. She’d have to disguise herself as a human. Tarishandra tried hard to recall the method taught to her by teacher so long ago. It would allow her to regress from her evolved state back into something a little more human. No Viator had done it in centuries but then, who would want to? She was glad she’d paid attention to her early lesson from Teacher and now it would serve her well. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to reach within her core to unleash the power that was waiting with impatience to thrust Tarishandra into the responsibility of her peoples Scion. Her veins began to pulse and her senses became overloaded until Tarishandra felt herself stagger and fall to the ground. Her wings were gone and in their place was a absence that taunted her balance. Her cold, almost blue fingers reached for the wall to pull herself upright again, but only to topple her again, sending her rather ungraciously on to her rear. For a few seconds she remained quiet and leaned against the alley wall. She reached across her back to feel the nothingness and for a moment it jolted her. Where once her massive feathered appendages stood proudly there wasn’t anything. It startled her when she realised that her Scion markings around her wrist had faded too. Suddenly elated, she laughed wildly and pushed away from the wall, spinning around. That exhilarated motion nearly landed her on her back again. The lack of the weight of her wings meant she had a lot of balance to compensate for. That was of no matter, she was here and she was free! Here she wasn’t the Scion; she was just a normal girl, no-one special. Free to live her life the way she chose. The man was still in a heap with his bottle clutched in his hands and he was snoring loudly. She had no desire to spend her first night here with neither him nor anyone else for that matter. She was cold and exhausted and even a little hungry. There was no food to be had and she stumbled awkwardly down the alley to get as far away from the inebriated man as she could. Toward the end of the alley was another small enclosure. There were no crates to break the wind that seemed to pick up as each hour passed but there were lots of leaves. She rubbed her eyes with exhaustion and began to fashion the leaves into a massive mound that she could lay in. Shivering, she crawled into the pile, pulling leaves around herself until she was practically buried in them. She curled up and cupped her hands together; breathing on them to warm her chilled fingers and then her eyes closed. Try as hard as she could, Tarishandra couldn’t sleep. Her mind was numbed with exhaustion, but the cold seeped unmercifully through the leaf pile that was her temporary bed. Her eyes opened wide and in front of her she thought she saw Severen. Gently she rubbed her eyes and finally realized he wasn’t with her at all. He had let her down and let her come alone. It was time to forget Severen or what had brought her to this strange new world and she wasn’t able to understand how he could abandon her to wander this life alone, she had truly loved him but she questioned whether or not he ever even honestly loved her. Over and over again she forced him from her mind and she shook uncontrollably with the bitter cold that clawed at her caged animal. Giving in, she sat up and wondered if she could find better shelter, something a little warmer. She glanced about at her surroundings when from across from her was a faint green light, that seemed to pierce her eyelids. She blinked, then rubbed her eyes roughly and looked again, but it was gone. For a moment she allowed herself to become excited and she called out, “Severen is that you?” but nothing remained but dark, eerie shadows and a cold stonewall. Tarishandra’s innate senses told her something was wrong, something was very wrong. Carefully she rose to her feet, but she was much too late. The familiar green light abruptly flared into life, directly in front of her. Casting her into sharp shadow and near-blinding her, not nearly so faint now as it was before, it terrified her. Uncertain and afraid, she turned to flee but a hand snapped out of the light and snatched her arm, brutally wrenching her back. Tarishandra released a cry of fear while she struggled within the leaves around her knees. Fluttering leaves scattered about in a flurry as she kicked and scratched at the hand anchored to her arm. Thrown into a wall, the wind was knocked from her...then she saw what was holding her! The hand grasping her was gnarled, and bore long bent talons. The body and face it belonged to, was something certainly NOT human. Tall and emaciated, the creature’s flesh was a sickly yellow, hanging in wrinkled folds from a body that was covered by tattered rags. For its thin appearance, its strength was unworldly. Tarishandra fell backwards as it grabbed her by the arm. Pinned to the wall she felt hopeless and scared to death. The stench that emanated from its foul flesh made her stomach heave, bile rose to her throat and she had to swallow it back. Its face was a twisted parody of a human’s, a square jaw line, which skin hung off of in creases, nose practically sunken into its head, mere slits. And its eyes, she struggled to look at. They glowed faintly with the same light it had stepped from, and held such depths of malice and hunger that it seemed that only looking it in the eye, would swallow her soul. Fearing for her life, Tarishandra desperately tried to pull away, but she was trapped. With a snarl, the horrid demon grabbed her head and slammed it into the wall; the force made her teeth snap together, biting through her lip. Dazedly, she slumped against the cold stone wall; a trickle of blood escaped her mouth and dripped onto her robes. The demon bent its head and sniffed the blood, lips parting to admit a long, pointed and grovelling tongue to lap it up, saliva dripping from long curved fangs, sharp as the finest honed blade. Frozen with pain and terror, Tarishandra’s mind screamed for escape, but how? It was too strong for her. Situating its face a mere inch from Tarishandra’s, eyes boring into her, a coarse, cold voice queried, “That’s not the blood of a Human. What are you?” Startled back to reality by the voice, Tarishandra looked up and struggled, trying to push the foul entity away from her. “What am I? What are you? Let me go!” she answered in an authoritive tone. The demon barked out a laugh, and grinned widely at her. Repulsed by him she turned her head away, stomach threatening to heave again, even though it had no contents to empty itself of.