Requiem for the Soul

[Anonymous]

Void had the need to suddenly be very blunt with her despite all his cautionary attributes.  Because in the end, honestly, what could she possibly to do to him to prevent him from achieving his goals in the long run.  And, if all else failed and he indeed found her traitorous, he would have no remorse with a little necessary killing.  So Void looked her hard in the eyes, a strangely smoldering flame burning faintly in his, and said softly, “I don’t have any ‘kin’.  I am alone in my existence and that’s how it should be; for only chaos would reign if there was another with my power.  The places I’ve been… the things I’ve seen…  You couldn’t possibly imagine.

“My memory spans the universe; my age is timeless.  I’ve lived to see the ends of worlds and the birthing of new ones; supernovas, black holes, the rise of technology, the obliteration of beasts, these are among the things that I’ve known.  And have come to understand that the way of life is destruction and rebirth from the ashes.  Della, there is something you must understand: there is more out there in universe.  So much more to be understood than in this damp, little squat.  It’s like a thousand beautiful jewels hanging amongst the stars, each just waiting to be touched by the right person; to set off the catalyst of change.”  The coal burning in his magenta eyes was dying low now and his visage became more than adequately somber.

“I’ve been away so long…  Five thousand years.  The idea in and of itself is almost too hard to grasp.  But I sense no lies in your words, Della.  Earth has decayed since I last saw it, far more than I had imagined.  Sometimes…man and machine can perform unspeakable horrors…  Della, I think I need some time to think this over.  Will you please show me where I can stay for the night?”

[Anonymous]

The girl was nearly beside herself with the urge to call this man a lunatic and throw him out of her house, just to push it all away. To convince herself none of these spoken words were true. To blindly turn away from this.
But there, at the height of her repulsion, were images of the wood and it's crystalline pools, the brilliant starry skies and the abundance of small furry creatures skittering about in the brush, and Della knew that she could never live with herself if she turned a blind eye.

Her face was twisted with anxiety, worry and a suppressed fear, her dark eyes turned gray. She gazed up at Void like a small child, hardly having the sense to process what he was saying past the point of language alone. (Later in the evening, she would lay awake for hours finally realizing what she'd just been told and trying to make sense of it.)

Upon his request for a place to lay his head, she mustered up the coherence to shove off from her stool and stumble toward the hall.
"Of course... right this way."
Her voice wavered, matching her unsteady stance as she floated again toward the stairs leading to the second floor, where he had bathed earlier. She was, in the truest sense of the word, in shock.
"The guest room is through there," she muttered, pointing half-heartedly down a hallway to the left of the landing. "and my room is on the other side, there."
She again pointed, this time to the small hallway on the far side of the fireplace. "Please do say so if you're uncomfortable."

Their rooms shared a wall, but he would never notice, as she was generally quiet as a mouse anyhow. She looked him wearily in the eye and then floated in the direction of her room without another word.

[Anonymous]

The girl was nearly beside herself with the urge to call this man a lunatic and throw him out of her house, just to push it all away. To convince herself none of these spoken words were true. To blindly turn away from this.
But there, at the height of her repulsion, were images of the wood and it's crystalline pools, the brilliant starry skies and the abundance of small furry creatures skittering about in the brush, and Della knew that she could never live with herself if she turned a blind eye.

Her face was twisted with anxiety, worry and a suppressed fear, her dark eyes turned gray. She gazed up at Void like a small child, hardly having the sense to process what he was saying past the point of language alone. (Later in the evening, she would lay awake for hours finally realizing what she'd just been told and trying to make sense of it.)

Upon his request for a place to lay his head, she mustered up the coherence to shove off from her stool and stumble toward the hall.
"Of course... right this way."
Her voice wavered, matching her unsteady stance as she floated again toward the stairs leading to the second floor, where he had bathed earlier. She was, in the truest sense of the word, in shock.
"The guest room is through there," she muttered, pointing half-heartedly down a hallway to the left of the landing. "and my room is on the other side, there."
She again pointed, this time to the small hallway on the far side of the fireplace. "Please do say so if you're uncomfortable."

Their rooms shared a wall, but he would never notice, as she was generally quiet as a mouse anyhow. She looked him wearily in the eye and then floated in the direction of her room without another word.

[Anonymous]

Void nodded at this information and let his wander in the direction that she pointed to in reference to her room.  So they would sleep side by side?  The fact made little difference to him for his journey had to begin as soon as he possibly could make it.  Should she deign to help him…well, he would leave her to her own devices and decisions.  He would not stop her.  But for now, he needed to rest and then he could focus on being reacquainted with the happenings of Earth now.

“I will.  Thank you.”  He nodded and departed after she disappeared into her quarters.  The room was a comfortable settlement with a small but sizeable bed in the corner, a dusty armchair, bookcase and small desk overlooking a small garden in the back of the house.  The sight was rather appeasing to his eyes and he smiled faintly in approval.  Closing the door behind him with a resounding thrick!, Void stepped toward the bed and lied down like a human might.  The springs ached beneath his weight yet it was rather comfortable for an archaic setting.  This was certainly nothing like sleeping in the bathroom of a space station.

And he closed his eyes, placing his mind on the empty serenity of nothingness, the gap of space and time.   A creature like him, in this form, while he could experience physical wear and tear, he was not accustomed to the concept of sleep.  He knew only that one lied down in a form that allowed them comfort and this was his, a corpse pose.  Surely he looked like a dead man with his ashen face and still body and slowed breathing.  But when it came down to it, sleeping was more like meditation for Void.  In it bore the higher mysteries of existence and he intended to find them even if it killed him.  Tomorrow would be good for that; a good day to learn about the ways of this new world.

[SOOO sorry I took so long to reply.  Life and my other threads on SotE often take up more of my time so I have to make sacrifices for certain things. I apologize and shall try to be more prompt from now on.]

[Anonymous]

Had it not been for the dewy glow that covered Sevenwinds from head to toe, the brilliant morning showed no sign of the passing storm. The pale sunlight stretched it's rays through puffy white clouds to set diamond fire to everything in it's reach, and the effect was truly something out of a dream.
Della awoke blinking and surprised. Hadn't she only closed her eyes a moment ago, when it was still dark and windy? She removed a tiny sleeping Paco from her chest and sat up, replacing him at the foot of the bed, and patting his puffy little head. Shockingly, she was not in any way blurry or confused about the happenings of the night before, and instead found herself waking from a short but restful sleep. Her mind was crystal clear, and her heart beating steady. She turned to peer outside, her eyes wide with astonishment, and examined the glistening countryside. Her lips curled slightly upward in a contented smile and she drew a slow, deep breath.
This was a brand new day.

She had stared at the ceiling for hours, thinking, worrying... silently crying. Fear had gripped her heart and shook her bones, it had overwhelmed her. Finally when the sun was scarcely an hour from rising, sleep had swept up light a ghost and taken her, and a peaceful rest  settled in around the house and it's inhabitants. Now, as she rose from her bed and approached her old vanity mirror, she felt not even a faint reminder of the fright that had chilled her the previous night. Her face looked refreshed and youthful, her eyes bright and clear. Even her long dark hair sat in perfect waves around her horns, and she only had to comb her fingers through the ends to tame them. She dressed for the day in a very thin, white cotton dress which looked rather more like it ought to belong underneath another dress, and nodded at herself approvingly, as if agreeing that all was exactly as it should be.

When she peeked out of her bedroom and in to the hearth area between their doors, she concluded that Void had yet to rise. She tip-toed across the room to the staircase, shushing the hungry kitten at her feet, and grabbed a large basket from beside the landing before heading in to the kitchen, to start preparing a large and very aromatic breakfast.

[Anonymous]

A great bright ball of orange swept passed Void’s eyes.  The motion was swift enough to catch his attention, however, when he glanced in that direction, the ball was nowhere to be seen.  Out of the opposite direction came a mewing that made his head swivel that way.  Still seeing nothing, Void sighed uselessly, closing his eyes as his heart leapt into his throat.  I must be losing my mind, he thought with a grimace forming on his face.

Suddenly he heard the faint mewing once more, except that with every utterance the sound grew louder and louder.  Just when he thought his eardrums were about to burst, his eyes tore open and before him…. CATS!!  Adult cats, kittens, kitty cats.  Orange cats, black cats, white cats, brown cats, calico cats, and any other damned designed for the furred menace he could think of.  There were shelves of them and they lurked in every corner of the small bedroom of Della’s house.  They mewed like beasts, screeched, cried, and clawed at him.  Never in his life had he seen so many cats before and they all looked as if they were poised to attack….HIM!  Just as he was about to make his escape when at least ten of the orange ones leaped at him in vengeance, fully prepared to sink their puffy clawed paws into his ashen flesh…..

Void thrust himself from the bed as he awoke from such horrifying nightmare.  His skin was cold and clammy, brushing a shaking hand through the bright purple of his hair.  However it took a few seconds of mental recovery before he was able to realize the bigger achievement: He’d actually fell asleep.  It was miracle and despite the remains of the nightmare, he smiled a little at this fact.  “Huh,” he said to himself.  “Well, that was a first.”

He laughed a bit to himself and departed from the room when he felt a faint, yet not unpleasant scent tickle at his nostrils.  It took only a few steps down the still unfamiliar staircase to realize it was food.  He didn’t bother to dress in anything but the clothes Della offered him the day before because…well, he didn’t have anything else.  He entered the kitchen doorway in a quiet tiptoed fashion, as if scared he was going to wake the dead.  He eyed Della for a few minutes as she moved about the kitchen cooking, the smells making his head just about spin.  It was merely a contented sigh that gave away his position behind her.

[Anonymous]

If Della was good at anything other than plants and herbs, it was cooking decadent and plentiful feasts. Meal time had always been family time in this home, and even since her parents had long been forgotten by these old walls, Della had always kept the kitchen alive with the sounds and scents of a happy home. It had been so long since she'd had a guest for breakfast, and though it was a difficult thing to swallow at first, this stranger had brought her the gift of purpose, and knowledge. She felt it only right of her to tantalize his senses with an extravagant and appreciative meal.

She flitted around the small room, busying herself with preparing ham, eggs, a plethora of delicious garden herbs and vegetables, all picked fresh just an hour before... plump, ripe fruits in phenomenal shapes and colors, and a large steaming pot of tea between two clearly hand sculpted mugs.  Her hair was pulled back away from her face, with messy fallen ringlets bouncing here and there as she went back and forth between the hearth and the open back door, which led to the gardens.

She spun around at the sound of Void's sighing. Her face was flushed, but notably unworried, and her lips went so far as to voluntarily part themselves in a small but brilliant smile.

“Mornin'.” She offered casually, with a hint of a smirk as she looked him up and down. “I hope you're hungry.”

[Anonymous]

Void wasn't so familiar with the cuisine of today.  He was much more accustomed to the indigenous foods of alien planets; they ate things like lion wolf hearts and strange smelling plants that really made the whole meal smell not only terrible but gave the stomach a terrible case of diarrhea.

But he knew the smell of eggs and ham when he sniffed it.  Even after the five thousand years he was away from Earth.  And he also knew it by the immense growling his stomach gave off when the scent entered into his olfactory senses, but that was the primary consequence of choosing a physical body to manifest in: You had to maintain it somehow.

He looked up at her stupidly as she twirled around to him, blushing furiously for some odd reason he couldn't make out.  He noticed her smile and, curious, tried to mimic her expression.  It was a real shame the remnants of his nightmare reemerged when he saw the tail of one of the cats slide by in the doorway.  His smile faded and he instead rubbed his chest, feeling the cloth of the pajamas on his torso and felt his stomach rumble fiercely once more in response to her statement.

“Yes,” he managed, gulping confusedly.  “It seems so.  It’s hard to remember to eat sometimes.  Er—I mean, what are you making?”

[Anonymous]

Della's eyes narrowed as she studied Void, her smile only softening in bewilderment for a brief moment. Her brow glistened like that of a woman at work, and she dabbed at it with the back of her wrist. She was almost surprised at herself for being so pleased with having company in the house. Sometimes it was so easy to forget what it was like not to be alone!

“Uhm, just about anything you like, really.” She smiled again, a bit wider this time. “Ham, potatoes, eggs... mushrooms, onions, radishes...” A loaf of dark, steaming bread sat royally on a rack on the counter, and she gestured to it happily. “...bread and jam?”

Her expression was astonishingly warm and peaceful, like a slate wiped clean. The worry lines on her forehead had vanished, the circles under her eyes brightened. She was clearly immersed in her element here in this old house, among these elaborate gardens full of love, and life. She laughed softy and poured him a cup of tea, perching on the same stool from the evening before to rest for what appeared to be the first time in several hours.

“Fresh cream? Or sugar?”

[Anonymous]

He watched mesmerized at the amount of food surrounding him in the kitchen.  She gestured toward the ham, onions, potatoes, eggs, bread, and every other thing that managed to make the aching in his stomach churn into an incredible pain.  Void gripped his stomach a little as he though of the food in all its succulent glory.

As she answered, he jumped in response because her voice dragged him out of his hypnosis with the food.  “Uhh,” he rubbed the back of his head methodically.  “I like all of it.  The smells…make my stomach hurt with an incredible pain.  Uh—” at the bread and jam “—yes, please.”

Then he turned to the window leading outside.  He noticed it had stopped raining and the daylight really shone in a glorious beauty he hadn’t seen since his last supernova.  It moved a part of him and it was a feeling he found strange.  Particularly due to the fact that nothing could move the being, he was Void and his emotions were void.

At her next question, he looked at her curiously and stoically at the same time.  “Um…both?  If it’s not too much trouble.  W-what plans have you for today?”

[Anonymous]

The corners of Della's mouth twisted into an amused smile, and she nudged a cup of hot black tea (cream and sugar added as requested) toward Void along the counter. Her smile broadened further as he described the pangs of hunger in his belly.
She pulled bread tray closer to herself, and upon looking around realized she needed to reach across his  chest to retrieve her knife and she did so carefully, so as not to alarm him and also to ensure that she did, in fact, respect his personal bubble.

“It's no trouble at all.” she assured him moments later as she slathered a generous layer of freshly churned sweet cream butter and another consisting of crushed raspberries and mint. She smiled and held it out to him with a pale arm. “Well, it was going to be a day devoted to tending the grounds and the gardens for the most part, but since you've come along, it seems my plans have little say in grand scheme of things.”

She shot him a playful look, finding it easier to be herself in this beautiful sunny weather. Her lips pressed around the rim of her cup, rosy and pink like the first Spring blossoms, and her eyes wandered out the large double-paned kitchen window and rested on the high, green mountains.
Perhaps it was a good day for a picnic... but then with Della, nearly every day that so much hinted of sunshine was a good day for a picnic.

[Anonymous]

Void accepted the cup she proffered and took a gently sip, keeping his gaze out the window.  He felt her eyes fall on him again but paid it no mind.  Instead, he only looked back at her when she gave him the food.  Consumed by the smell, he forgot his manners and ate with avarice, as if he hadn’t eaten in a thousand years.  Which may as well have been the truth of it all.

In the last of the bite, he took another sip of the tea to wash it all down and said, “Thank you.  That was delicious.  And I’m sorry for being such a pig…”  He blushed a little and pointed out the window to the plants outside.  “Would you mind showing me the garden?  You’re plants…they look…very interesting.   Maybe you can teach me something about them.  I’d very much like to learn.”  He took a final sip, set the cup down and looked at her a bit shyly.

[Wow! Almost two  months.  I am so sorry for taking that long!]