Rose Blumen ~ Exogignesthai

(Rose)

Before I knew it, a new beast was born.

Something reminding me a little of Yaelun, but in a much sturdier and muscular fashion around its main body. Covered with scales like a crocodile, it carried wings, taller than trees where, but also had fins to swim better.

It looked like a giant winged crocodile. Six wings like many of Nightmare’s experiments, with one main pair far bigger and two secondary pairs. No legs at all but as many wider fins, and other crocodile features that made it look like a dragon.

Ni – It’s meant to swim. But in a pinch it’ll be able to fly.

R – I guess flying across an ocean would be exhausting, even for your mightiest birds.

She nods. Nokaranlık makes her hold a handful of baby crocodiles. More are still crawling around everywhere now like rodents.

No – Will you take care of them?

Ni – ... Until they can live on their own.

No – Thank you.

They are so cute, I’m almost tearing up looking at them.

They chat a lot just between themselves. I’m a little jealous but I let them be.

They’ve grown so much.

Blume and I pack our belongings in the ship this dragon will pull like a cart as we sail. The beast has yet to be named or become self-aware, but I already have a few suggestions for Nokarlık to think about.

The new journey to start is fairly simple.

Head across the Atlantic ocean. Cross the strait of Gibraltar. Head to the Nilus delta.

I wouldn’t have known where to go on my own.

I only felt the awakening scream of magenta light.

But Blume and Nightmare heard more. Enough to know where it happened.

Somewhere between Cairo and Gizah.

Probably Grape’s dam... I don’t want to think about it.

From there, we’ll enter the new dead zone that we’ll find, carefully and discreetly.

Learn more about our resurrected enemy.

Then, hopefully, simply poison it from afar.

And if things go direly awry, I will burn my light, as far as necessary, to wipe it out once more before it has a chance to grow bigger.

I am worried for what would happen next, whether I survive or not.

Weed out one wild magenta grass, and another might regrow later from now on. It’s the worst possible outcome.

If there is a common root to burn, it likely doesn’t exist in this world. But we will try to figure out after we learn more.

How does a thing like that even comes back to life so fast and so strong?

How come it’s not over yet...

I feel cursed by Talion.

And each time around our circles, the evil daiûa and I, we are digging bigger graves than prior...

R – Would all that have happened, had I not been there?

B – Oh boy. Here we go again...

Wow. Blume has never been that rude to me before...

R – Perhaps I’ve reached the limits of my personal evolution a long time ago.

And now I’m stagnating as the cycles repeat, instead of evolving.

Blume looks at me with something scornful in mind and it shows.

She hates that side of me.

B – Don’t be ridiculous and sharpen your thorns. You’ll need them soon.

My thorns...

My arms, my shoulders and my hips ache a little. Pain in my fingers and arms sometimes lingers, from phantoms of previous lives.

My thorns she says. The cuter way to name my inner ogre.

I feel a little more focused as I breath out.

R – Can you... Make me a brighter new sword, before we go?

B – Okay. One with all my love.

Blume gathers all the weapons me and Nok have used and gathered, and starts melting things.

She seems quite motivated to grant me that wish.

Which one of them told me I look happier when I fight?

~

Ni – The lord of chaos knows only one goal and purpose. Fairness in life, through brutal vectors of change.

R – ...

Nokaranlık is enthralled by every word of wisdom her auntie Nightmare grants her.

Though they seem tastier for most of them are breaking sugar upon my back, as they say out there.

Teaching that go against your parents must be sweet to the ears for children of a certain age...

R – While we’re at sea, I will tell you everything about how Nightmare learnt to swim, with great details. And how the lord of nightmares was scared so much when we first met, that she made a human of herself.

Teasing aside, I feel an anxiety swelling in a corner of my mind. Nightmare is unhappy as well I can tell. Oh, how human you’ve become my dear sister. You’ve become lovely.

My gleeful smile at these thoughts ticks her off even worse.

Calling her human still is one of the rudest insults to her.

~

No – What is the world you want to see?

R – Oof. That is a tough one. I’ve opened so many doors beyond my wildest dreams over the years.

B – You want to see a world where flowers will blossom.

R – That’s true...

What world I want to see come next is called Kwiatziemia in modern European language.

R – To sum it up in a nutshell, that’s this word. I’m not against the food chains and webs, but I want fairness between the ends. Not an absolute god ruling over its cattle at will, nor a murderous one killing more, far more than needs to, to live and survive or even prosper. I know how childish it is for me to say, but I wish for a world without absolute evil. And I will always, always struggle to find where the lines are, between good and evil. Where my moral opinion and choices are fair, and where they are not. The boundary between unnecessary evil that should be stopped and fair evil, unavoidable evil, it’s ever so grey, blurred and flimsy...

No – But you want good?

I smile kindly. I might have gone too far beyond what she can comprehend to this day, and this wasn’t very structured a reply.

R – Yes. I want good, and peace, for everything alive and as long as possible.

Nokaranlık seems happy enough with that syrupy and childish answer. Though in some ways, she still is a child.

A frightfully powerful and adult looking one.

I remember Blume’s first conscious thoughts and speeches, they were also in her own way quite childish.

None of us were truly born old and wise. Not even them, and certainly not I.

~

We hug Nightmare goodbye.

Even Blume oddly, which looks really weird now.

They didn’t say anything to each other, but they seemed to share a bond I cannot quite grasp.

As if they too felt like siblings perhaps, but didn’t want to talk about it for some reason beyond me.

Blume could have chosen to stay in the U.S.A with Nightmare. I wouldn’t have stopped her. But she’s following me, to my likely doom.

R – Why? You might die...

B – With all due respect my dear lady Rose, I want to see for myself how you and this magenta light will end...

R – ...

B – And I want to see what happens next, after the end.

R – Oh.

She made me smile. For her choice of words, and the perspective we share.

For Kwiatziemia...

~

The dragon swims.

The boat is pulled away.

Nokaranlık waves goodbye at her auntie or mother. It pinches my heart as well. I wish we spent more time together.

For a short instant between my fingers, I spark some darkness connecting me to Nightmare.

Something where matter and electromagnetism disappear altogether, but still linked to her.

I hear Nightmare’s voice in my head through that before it scatters.

Ni – I will always be with you.

The boundaries between our identities have softened a long time ago.

I will also always be a part of her. For better and worse.

No matter what comes, I will remember my nightmarish sister, and she will remember me.

It has a soothing tone to it for my aging heart.

I glance at Blume, wondering at how much we’ve molten into one another by now.

I look back toward the shore, seeing Nightmare disappear as a lonely shadow out there.

Just you wait. I may not die.

And for sure, I will prevail.

~