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An overwhelming silence was pierced by gentle footsteps and the soft trailing of fabric, the rickety wind barely seeming present despite the depth of its roar.
Hands huddled up to her chest, palms softly rubbing together, Mizuchi held her eyes to the ashy ground, watching as her feet droned onwards with a vacant glint in her eyes. Occasionally, she'd shift her gaze to her hands instead, before going right back to the ground. Following along, just at her right, Si Long had one of two wings extended around Mizuchi's side. The wind came fiercely from their left, but the tetrad dragon's wing held taut, serving as an effective shield.
"I'm not sure how I feel."
Mizuchi felt required to break the silence, but her voice still held a gentle waver as she spoke. Watching the dirt, dry as sand, kick up around her feet with each step, was one of the few things keeping her there. Making her feel a bit less delirious.
"You don't have to feel happy about any of this. We haven't even truly begun, it'll get easier as we finish climbing."
Mizuchi slowly raised her head, flicking her eyes to Si Long. Her expression was grim, as it had been for a while now. Her eyebrows furrowed deep to her eyes, her eyes covered by a spacey sheen; was she even looking at anything?
She slowly pulled her right hand off of her left, before gently extending it to Si Long's. She didn't react. Mizuchi waited a moment, before gently touching it, causing Si Long's frustrated spell to break, and glance back at Mizuchi, then her hand. She stared for a moment, before very slowly taking it, her grip apprehensive and expression staying vacant.
Several more strides took place in silence. Mizuchi moved her eyes up to the horizon, almost scared to do so herself. Up ahead, a sight she knew far too well. The jagged dune slopes of the mountain's peak, where a mighty dragon once lay. And a dragon would lay, or… also had, for Si Long. Mizuchi doubted that her sister felt any better about it.
That thought came to her mind again, and she felt her mind flicker. Sister. They were undoubtedly not sisters, but rather twin souls. Yet the only word she ever felt like referring to Si Long with, was sister. She'd briefly wondered if that was because it felt easier to not think of Si Long as herself, or if the things they'd done together made it feel that way. Like those stories people told of being so close to someone, they feel like a brother. Like Itsurugi and Taketsumi.
Her heart slammed and she whipped her head away. Si Long glanced over again, Mizuchi couldn't see her expression.
The silence held for a moment, before the older dragon gave a deep sigh. An empathetic sigh. Something she didn't do too often. Mizuchi waited a moment for her to speak, but she never did.
She tersely bit the inside of her lip, before jumping and halting her steps as a cold touch gripped tight onto her shoulder. Not like a vice grip, but a lot tougher than the usual sort of comforting grip people tried to use. Mizuchi paused a moment before slowly glancing back at Si Long, who’d stopped walking as she had, her eyes fogged over by a depressive cloud. It was both scary and reassuring to see; a reminder that Si Long was going through this for the first time too, for better or for worse.
“Would you prefer it if we took a break?”
Si Long raised her free hand up, poking the tips of her fan just above her lip, slightly obscuring part of her face.
“Ah, uhm… no.”
Mizuchi shifted her gaze away, an anxiety-fueled laugh slipping out of her mouth.
“It… Postponing the inevitable doesn’t do anything but make time go by.”
The dragon stared back for a moment, before slightly loosening her grip on Mizuchi to shift to rubbing her shoulder slightly. She wasn’t sure how to react, but relented and moved closer to her. Si Long hesitated for a good moment, before moving her other hand and coiling it around Mizuchi’s back, pulling her a bit closer, but not into a full and proper hug. Her wings flicked to better cover around her, the wind still not hitting too hard. She cleared her throat.
“Mizuchi, listen. I can tell you from experience, we have all the time in the world to spend here together, fixing what we can. You’re much younger than I am, and you’re destined to at least get as old as me. We have time. If you need a pause to recollect, we aren’t losing anything at all.”
Mizuchi had roped herself further into the shoddy hug as Si Long started to talk, tilting her head down and staring at the dirt between their feet.
The overestimated amount of confidence Mizuchi had was really starting to wear short. When you're in the moment, hyped up on adrenaline, telling people you just witnessed change for the better that you're going to do something, its easy. Especially when one of them overcame their largest hurdle, themself. But being out here, in the arid climate and overcast sky, the cold breeze serving no point but to billow dirt into your legs… it was different. It was oppressive. There were no happy memories here, only unsung regrets and betrayal. And, depending on when and how they arrived…
Her own corpse might be around somewhere, sitting untouched and unloved, in a ravine. Not even a vulture well healthy to have found it.
"I feel sick." She said, her voice nearly catching in her throat.
"You probably should."
"Huh?"
Mizuchi lifted her head back up to her sister, her eyes widened in surprise. Si Long's expression had tapered off ever so slightly; she'd found a bit more confidence in what she was saying.
"If you felt nothing at all walking through this tomb, I'd think you were even more ill than you feel now. Please, continue to despise this earth we walk on. Soon enough, it will be washed and replaced."
Mizuchi felt her eyes well with tears as she took a half step closer, firmly pressing the side of her head into Si Long's side. The tetrad dragon very slowly crept her hand up, placing it against the back of Mizuchi's scalp and slowly rubbing at her hair. This sort of physical comfort was a first for the both of them.
"When did you get to be the sensible one?" Mizuchi mumbled, not able to tell whether or not she was trying to liven the mood. It was a serious question, regardless.
"I'm just repeating what I keep telling myself, nothing more." She relented. "My mind is caught in a torrent as well, I've been trying to keep myself calm."
A particularly strong bout of wind sliced through the air, causing Si Long's wing to push into Mizuchi's back, who winced slightly in response. As the roaring slowed, though, she didn't move it back out, keeping her cupped in by her wings. The younger sighed.
"...I don't even know what to say." She admitted, blinking quickly to push the tears out of her eyes. "This feels so awful for me, but… you went through even worse, and you're handling it better."
"If you weren't here, this would have been an exact repeat of the last century I spent here." Si Long lowered her head ever so slightly, touching the side of it to the front of Mizuchi's. The dragonling felt a small shock fly through her mind; she could feel tears, hot on her sister's cheek. "I… I want to make things better. For both of us. For…"
Her voice trailed off, and Mizuchi could tell they were both thinking of the ethics of themselves being the same person, yet again. It hung around them like an infectious cloud, making every moment feel… off. Maybe even painful. Making connection feel impossible.
Si Long started to speak, before pausing. Her voice wallowed with a slight sound, and she stopped. Before clearing her throat and biting the bullet.
"When… we found out, about… it… I…"
Mizuchi pulled her head back, and glanced up to stare Si Long in the eyes. The sight of her other half, tears streaming rivers down her face, hurt with a fresh new pain in her heart.
"...I wanted to kill you."
Hearing the words come from the tetrad dragon's lips felt like a searing blade, punctured deep into her ribs. She'd known it, she'd felt it, but having it realized? Hearing it confirmed? That was incredibly different, as well. The pain of all the previous intrusive thoughts combined, and more. She felt her eyes start pooling much quicker than before.
"But, seeing you now, it… you aren't me. You… you are me, but you're not the me… I stopped as. You're a completely different person. I can't get the images scoured from my mind, but when you talk, or… act… they ebb away."
Mizuchi felt her mouth slip open into a light gasp, and a coarse breath started to slip.
"We stray further and further from our grim fate, every single moment. Every sentence we utter, every breath we take. Something in my body, my soul, is telling me. We're going to make it."
"We're going to make it." Mizuchu echoed, her voice shaking more with each syllable.
The two locked gazed for a long time. Mizuchi felt her heart pounding in her chest, and as she took in another breath, it all broke. She started to wail. Si Long recoiled, her golden eyes dilating in shock. Mizuchi didn't know what to do except pull even closer to her counterpart, the wind whipping up her screams to echo around the ashen plains.
A memory, shared by both of them. Back in the village, a few years before that fateful battle with the dragon. Practicing sword fighting against a bag of flour, a few villagers standing by. Delivering an excellent strike, cleaving it swiftly. Getting excited, turning to them and exclaiming, "We'll all be happy in no time!" Only met by a grumble, and a bitterly spoken
"There's no happiness here. Only death."
The bottom of a mountain. Eyes, watering, desperate trying to focus onto something, anything -- trying to breathe but every inhale lodging in your throat. Trying to move, trying to push up, only to croon your head down and see your own bones, snapped out unnaturally. Your own blood, decorating your head like a crown, blending with tears. The wing you never learned to fly with, crumpled and matted. A failure.
The screaming. Echoing out into every corner of this sodden earth. In one case, an enraged goodbye. In another, a final warning.
Somehow, despite its inoccurence, that scream returned. Here and now. Dueting the sobbing, that scream returned, twirling around them like death. A reminder that fate had given two chances already, and both had failed.
A reminder that the only way out, was together.
Si Long couldn't take it anymore, the tears streaming from her eyes, sniffles and gasps finally surfacing. She pulled her arms and wings around Mizuchi, and slowly bent down, surrounding her completely. Pulling the younger's legs in close with her own, placing her forehead on her's, careful to dodge her one pronounced horn.
Not a word was spoken. But in that second, they completed each other.
And that was all that they really needed.