There was no more grass against the scorched earth. A thin layer of lampblack covered the once luscious forests.
Ash had settled against the ground as Kyle, Averna, and Tsukino trekked their way over the much too soft earth. Their faces covered with rebreathers as they felt their way through heavy smog. Fires continued over the forest even as its fire starter laid dead. Its corpse slowly darkened against the soot that fell against it. For it was this Monster that began the fire, and it was this Monster that would feed the ground to return all as it should be in penance.
A spot above Averna’s eye bled. Kyle’s offer to bandage it declined. Blood dripped down his face. Over his war paint. Down his beautiful armor. Droplets pattered onto the ground. Watering the parched forest with something more beautiful than water and a corpse. And it was his body that would become part of the forest yet to grow.
Time would march forward.
Nubs of green poked from the blackened dirt. Fed so delightfully with a corpse and fertilizer of ash.
Averna paused in their march to admire the once horrid grounds. The tree trunks once left standing were black and spindly. Some had toppled over due to other Monsters, other had fallen on their own accord. Faint impressions of footprints were left over the ground. One, the road more traveled, where humans trekked. The other, a road less traveled, where Monsters roamed.
Kyle paused alongside Averna and stared out into that desolate land. He watched as Averna lifted his hands up together, pressing the sides of his thumbs together, he spread out his hands like wings. For what Averna envisioned in his mind, Kyle was unsure. But he joined Averna as he stared down at the ground speckled with green, its blades of grass were so small. Barely considered a blade. Yet, as he stared, he noted how small patches of grass were slightly longer than all the rest.
He recalled it was where Averna’s blood had watered the ground.
That spot was gazed at, for a time.
They both turned to leave.
Time would march forward.
Rolling fields of green spread as far as the eye could see. Moss and lichen returned to fallen trees as shrubbery and young branches took root into the young ground.
Kyle stared at the rolling hills. The memory of the Monster that had been slain was forgotten by most, but Kyle recalled the grandiosity of the beast. Strangely, it was not the Hunt that he recalled the most, but the sound of its corpse falling against the ground and its eerie dying noise as all went quiet against the roaring inferno. A death meant to be so magnificent for such a beautiful creature, and it was anything but.
Insignificant.
He stepped off the road.
The grass parted to welcome him.
The grass, still short, was much longer than before. But his eyes searched for those patches of grass that were longer than the rest. Fed with blood. Etched with a piece of Averna’s soul. When he found it, he leaned down to touch it. His fingers brushed against those beautifully made blades. Fed so wonderfully with Averna’s blood.
“Kyle!”
He turned around to stare at Averna and Tsukino who jogged up to him from down the road. Kyle’s only reply a soft smile.
“Sorry!” Averna took a few short breaths as he caught his breath. He threw a thumb down the road from where he came. “I didn’t think they’d ask me to pack their entire Aptonoth back up.”
“You insisted.” Tsukino gave a short laugh.
Averna rolled his eyes in return as a smile crept onto his face. His eyes flitted over the rolling hills and the smile grew larger. “It’s so beautiful…”
Kyle turned around and stared down at the small patches of grass fed with blood.
“Yeah…” those blades of grass wavered gentle in the wind. Beckoning him to its soft embrace so similar to Averna’s. “It’s grown a lot since our Hunt.”
Time would march forward.
The forest trembled against the wind. A soft caress touched Kyle’s cheeks as he stared out from the road into the lush forest. Flowers speckled over the grass as the wilderness grew waist high.
Kyle stood in the middle of it all. Fingers ran up and over the long blades of grass as he trekked through the new growth that now became old.
It had grown so large since the last time he had come here.
Weeks. Months. Years. Decades. Centuries.
Kyle was unsure of the time anymore.
Everything seemingly blended together since he had been left to his own loneliness.
There was nowhere for him to go. No where for him to stay. There was that gnawing abyss that grew beside him where there used to be love and affection.
He had lied to everyone to come out here to stare at the forest. It was for a Hunt, he had said. One that needed to be taken alone. A private client, he had said. A secret that only he could take.
There was no client. No Monster. No proper Hunt. Those were only excuses for him to take a pilgrimage in secrecy and touch something that he had not felt in so long.
Weeks. Months. Years. Decades. Centuries.
It did not matter to him.
Fingers splayed out.
The patch of grass had been lost. Even with a keen eye, the environment had changed since the last time he had visited this sacred place that seemed only hostile to him. The memory of where the blood had pressed kisses against the ground was a dream. And it was in the dream that he splayed his fingers over the tall grass to remind himself the touch that had been forgotten. Each and every blade felt the same. But it was one in particular he would never forget. That embrace recalled so long ago. Now only a thin film.
He felt the prick of the memory. Fingertips chanced over the grass fed with blood. The memory returned to him in totality as he slowly twirled a blade around his finger and recalled the emptiness beside him. He pulled, feeling it string through his fingers and cut deep into his hand with its dull yet sharpened edge. As if carnivorous in nature, wanting Kyle’s blood to join with the rest.
He felt the ghostly image of the body that had given the donation.
He leaned down and spread the grass apart.
That patch of grass had grown so much more beautiful than all the rest. It was coated in small flowers to greet the blood that dripped down his hand and onto the recovered earth beneath. Warm and welcoming the ground had become. So similar in the ways that Averna would beckon him to his embrace in the moonlit nights when all had been tossed aside for them to be People once more. It was an invitation that Kyle could not decline and, like any other night, he slunk down to the floor beneath to share his blood with that patch of grass.
He felt how the blades seemed to furl around and into him as though carnivorous. The trap of nectar laid for him.
Delusional, perhaps, but he welcomed the taste of honey over his lips.
It tasted so sweet. Like that body that had once given to the forest before.
He could recall the taste so clear in his mind. The cloudy white liquid trailing so sweetly down the ground. The iron in his mouth when the bite was too hard. He spread it over his lips. Jutting his tongue out to taste every morsel that the patch of grass had to offer. Spreading open the flowers in totality to receive that which he had so long ago. It was only a memory. But in his delusions, he treated it as anything but that. For how could he? Those blades of grass were hands that hoisted his flesh upon a cross and spread him wide open to take what he took.
It was only fair.
Bloody fingers began to pluck at the flowers.
Petal by petal. He counted them. Watched as the blood trailed down his hand. Over his arm. Down to the ground beneath. And when all the flowers and petals had gone, he began to pluck the grass. One by one. He pulled. Down to the roots. Gouging fingers into the ribs. His own blood mixed with Averna’s. And he wondered if that would be forever or not.
With every blade of grass he was sure to wrap it so finely over his skin. Reminding him of the touch from so long ago.
When was the last time he had shared the same bed in those moonlit nights?
Weeks. Months. Years. Decades. Centuries.
He had forgotten how long it had been.
But in the forest, today would mark itself as the last final day.
Time would march forward.