To Honor My Father

The wind blew across Elysium, it was warm and smelled of linseed and plant decay. It was the smell of renewed life. I can remember growing up as a boy in Greater Omni Forest, walking with my father though the trees and undergrowth, smelling this smell and it was wonderful. I remembered his eyes as he taught me about Shen and Inner Strength. I remember the first time I shattered a tree, all be it a small one, with my fist. I remember when the Snakes attacked and I could only watch as they destroyed everything I loved. I remember smelling this smell and it is vile.

It was this smell, this feeling that brought me back to stark reality and to the knowledge it was all happening again. It, of coarse, was not snakes that so threatened me. After all this was the brink and very few things could live on the brink.

For the most part Elysium was beautiful. Majestic mountains, calm inland lakes, sparkling vistas. Everything my father would have enjoyed in retirement. But this place was not a place of retirement, it was like the embrace of the loveliest and most enchanting woman you have ever met, loosing yourself in her warmth and gentle caresses, all the while she presses a blade into your spine; Not willing to kill you, only to cripple you so you could never leave.

This is why I am at home here. Her embrace comforts my sense of loss and helps me toward enlightenment. This is why I face the deadliest and most feared beasts in existence time and time again. But this time, something was different.

"Snap out of it Imodale, for Christ sake, they're almost on us"

My eyes snapped back to Kaidance for just a moment and I saw the fear reflected in her eyes.

The scene was of utter Chaos. In front of me was the brink, cold and crisp. The others of our team, an Enforcer, big and seemingly unstoppable; An Adventurer, shaped as a wolf, fierce; both under the palm of Heckler 200 meters in front of me. They were as good as dead to us and probably would be soon.

"Imodale! They are not killing them. The stupid Hecklers are not killing them! This is all wrong, these things don't think, they just kill"
Kaidance sounded more then a little frantic.

Two more hecklers were bearing down on us, their lumbering rocky brown hides ever more menacing as they closed in. Their arms all but dragging through the water as they approached

"Calm yourself Kaid. Just do.."
And they were on us.

With speed that defied their size they closed the remaining distance in seconds. I immediately went into full defensive formation and hit the first with "Upon a Wave of Summer" and followed up with "Blessed With Thunder" and a brawl attack. It swung it's great lumbering arm and I dodged it, mostly. I felt a searing pain in my side as it's bolder-for-fist clipped me. With no time to think I launched myself at it with fist after fist, dodging all the time, chunks of rock flying as I engaged it with all my strength.

"IMODALE!, HELP!"

"Sh*t!" I breathed under my breath. I launched my self at the Heckler again and landed on it's leg and immediately pushed off into a back flip away from it. I felt wind rush by me from it's swinging arm as I twisted to land. What I saw was not comforting. Kaidance was dodging as best she could but her defense was no match for this beast of death. I immediately hit my Flurry of Blows and Aggression Enhance then hit the Heckler from behind with everything I had. I scored two crits and it had the intended affect; it turned away from Kaid and came at me.

"Gotta pull them away" I gasped as I ran towards the shore. I could feel their immense weight shaking the ground as they chased after me. As the great cliff face drew closer I realized I had no where to go and that I would soon join my comrades.

I stopped, turned slowly and accepted my fate.
"I will not shame you father. I WILL NOT RUN" I screamed in defiance

They came and I was ready.

All my attacks had recharged and I used them all again on the Heckler I had attacked to start. They next few minutes were a blur; Fists and rocks, pain and anguish. I hit and hit again, dodged, and hit again. I was weakening, slipping away from myself. I new I could not possibly win, but I would never give up. One of them hit me hard and I new it was over. I flew back and fell to the ground on my hands and knees, spitting blood into the water. Then I felt it, the sweet healing of nanos stitching my skin, repairing damage unseen.

"Kaidance... Thank you" I said under my breath.

I looked up and saw the Hecklers had stopped and were stairing into the sky.
Fifty meters above them floated a glowing white orb,as bright as the sun, shining it's warmth on me; a feeling of peace flooded my very soul.

A voice spoke in my mind, soft but familiar.
"Be at ease Imodale, today you have brought Honor to your family. Today you have made a father very proud."

Lightning shot out from the orb and struck the two hecklers that had attacked us, shattering their bodies, throwing them to the wind like sand in a tornado. Then it turned it's attention on the one holding my teammates to the ground sending a beam of light that hit it in the chest. Nothing seemed to happen at first and then it began to rise from the surface of the water. It flailed madly, as if it sensed it's impending demise. Slowly it rose, twenty, thirty, forty feet then all at once it flew, as if thrown, against the mountain side and burst into a thousand pieces.

I looked up and the light was gone.

I scanned the horizon and saw my teammates, all of them, running toward me.

"How did you do that Imo, what the hell did you do?" was all Kaidance could say.

I looked at them all and they all had the same questions written on their faces.

As a tear slipped from my eye, all I could say was
"I have found my soul."
and I cried.

I was numb after the intervention of my father, or at least what my mind said was my father. I felt disoriented and drained, but I also felt at peace for the first time since his death. After the unexpected death of the Hecklers, the Advy and Enforcer quickly left our team showing fear or at least a mix of fear and awe in their eyes as they left, leaving only Kaid and myself.

"What's up with that?" I ask Kaidance, nodding my head towards our departing teammates.
"What do you expect? You blow up two Hecklers and throw another one against the cliff like it was a rag doll. Kinda makes a girl wonder"
I turned and looked at Kaidance and found she was staring at me, eyes searching for something.
"I didn't do it."
"Well then who did." Kaid pressed "I didn't see anyone. We where out here on our own."

I stared at the ground as we walked. The ground had turned from sand and rock to grass, we had walked out of the brink and onto the peninsula leading to the Cradle and for the first time I noticed the predators were not attacking us. When we came this way to get to the hecklers, we had to fight our way through the big cats and now they kept their distance, always watching but nothing else. The path from the shores of West Elysium to Sabre's Cradle was often fraught with deadly enemies, but not today it seemed.

I wondered if I should tell Kaidance about what I saw; I wondered if she would still stick by my side if she thought I was loosing my senses? I really had no one else in this world and was afraid that my admission of seeing what I thought was my father might drive her away. I shook my head, and chastised myself. Kaidance was my friend, like a sister, and she would stick by me what ever the battle.

I stopped on a grassy rise, and turned to look over the receding brink. I closed my eyes, breathed out and smiled.
"I saw my father, I felt him and he help me."
Kaidance stood beside me staring out into the brink, saying nothing.
"I felt him Kaid, I new it as soon as I saw him. He was there, floating above the Hecklers. He told me I had done good, that I had made him proud"
I was crying again, quietly.

I felt Kaid's hand on my cheek, softly brushing away my tears.
She stepped in front, blocking my view of the brink and my own oblivion, and put her strong arms around me.
Looking straight into my eyes she smiled and pulled my into her embrace lightly pressing her cheek into mine, my tears washing over her own face.
"I am happy for you" she whispered.
"And I am envious, you have found something you had thought lost."
She pulled away, putting her hands on my shoulders, and smiled the mischievous smile that always made me feel better.
"And it's about frakin time! I was getting tired of you mopin' around all the time, little brother."
With that she gave me a shove and walked away.

We weren't really brother and sister, although it felt like that most days, we wear friends and orphans. She found me after the snakes had left. She found me and helped me continue in life when all I wanted was to die. She healed me and made me a part of her family. and for that I would protect her to my last breath.

I watched her go. With her helmet off her long auburn hair flowed over her shoulders. She was tall, almost six feet, at least five inches more than I was, a fact she often pointed out. Her body was rock hard, a byproduct of her commitment to her medical arts. She new that to take care of those in need she needed to take care of herself. She was almost obsessive about it, often running ten kilometers before I even awoke, then sparing with me for an additional hour. But it was her eyes that really made the men around her turn to jelly in her palm, eyes of blue so deep that you could loose yourself in them, eyes that could easily see you true intentions. You could never lie to her, ever. She always new, though not always saying it, you could tell she saw right through you. For her, I believe, it is more a curse that a gift. Because of it she had few real friends, the penchant for lying to a beautiful and confidant woman seemed the only choice for the men in her life, who often only wanted her skin.

"Oh and you gotta get rid of that pink suit, that enfi was lookin at you like you where a banana" she called back, and with that she began to run.

I laughed under my breath, a started after her.

We arrived in the garden of Shere about 2 hours later.

Holding this one

And this one

yup, one more