Work Text:
Destruct(Destruction) - ‘to brake/destroy beyond repair’
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“Run! They’re coming! Save yourselves!”
“It is the end of us all!”
“Momma!? Momma, where are you!?”
“Savior, help us!”
Katsum ran through the burning streets of the castle town, struggling to keep a hold of her long skirt so as to not trip her as she ran and holding her crown in her hand, searching for a way out of the burning city. Helplessly, her wide and tear filled eyes took in the burning homes around her, the screams of the villagers filling her feline ears. No matter where she turned, fire filled her vision and the sounds of battle and cries of fear echoed in the chaos. She could see twisted shadows moving in the distance, moving in rhythm to a kind of death dance as they slowly moved closer and closer to her, making her desperate to escape. Katsum coughed as she got too close to a window where smoke was rolling out of it, the soot filling her nose as she moved away and covered her face with her arm. It was getting harder to see where she was going as her vision was blurred by tears and the fatigue of running.
“Katsum!”
Then a voice reached her ears. The voice of her father.
“Katsum, where are you!?”
And then her mother’s voice.
“Mom! Dad! I’m coming!” A renewed strength filled her heart as she ran through the alleyways and streets towards their voices, praying with all her might that she would find them. They would keep her safe, they would calm this nightmare. If she could just reach them…
Finally, the winding streets gave way to the large plaza of the castle market place and she finally caught sight of her mother and father across from her. She nearly felt relief flood her veins as she took a step towards them, only to shy away as the scaffolding of a market stall fell between them, leaving no clear path for her to run to them with. Ash flew into her eyes and she desperately wiped it away as she craned her neck to see over the debirs where her father and mother were. It was then she saw the soldiers, the men clad in thick black and red armor with a diamond shaped symbol on their helmets. Her father was fighting them back, keeping them from getting too close to her mother while she was firing arrows into the ones that got past him. Her father’s leg and forehead were bleeding and her mother’s clothes were covered in ash.
“Mom!! Dad!!” Katsum screamed over the noise, her voice trembling as her tears flowed.
Her parents glanced over, still fighting as her mother cried out, “You have to run, Katsum! You must survive!”
“No, I won’t leave you!”
Suddenly, a loud crack echoed from the castle behind her and she turned to see the tallest tower spire was crumbling, the stones giving way as it twisted and fell from its place at the top of the castle, crashing down towards her.
“Run, Katsum!!”
Yet her body would not respond, and she was left to stare at the slowly falling tower and wait for it to end her. This is until the burning around her neck began and she cried out. She heard the dragon within starting to growl and a rough pressure on her neck, like something was tugging at it.
“…No wonder…sleeping well…necklace…so snug…”
A strange voice filled her mind as the pain around her neck grew and she clenched her eyes shut at the pain. It grew and grew until she could no longer stand it and she reached up to her own neck.
And she was finally startled awake when she found another person’s hands there around her neck.
In a panic, Katsum’s eyes flashed open as she locked her grip around the wrists of her attacker, and she stared up at the dark-haired, tanned-skin miqo’te girl that was hovering above her, her hands being the ones that Katsum held tightly. The girl’s lavender colored eyes widened as she let go of the necklace and tried to pull away, but Katsum was stronger. She waited until the girl too was in a panic and trying to pull away, only letting go when the girl was pulling backward so that she lost her balance so that Katsum could reach back to the pillow behind her head and swing it around to hit the girl with it. She sprung off of the bed at that same moment, moving away until she was pressed against the wall.
“Ow! Hey!” As the girl was trying to get back to her feet, Katsum wildly looked around her, trying to figure out where she was only to guess she was on a ship judging by the sway she felt now that she thought of it. She was in the passenger’s quarters of a ship judging by the bed she had been laying on, though a very low classed one at that. Piles of ropes and timbers were stored against one wall as well as a few rolls of sails and barrels filled with things that Katsum could only wonder about. She could smell the salt air now and hear the lap of the waves against the ship’s thick hull, yet still, she was not calmed. Her sapphire gaze frantically searched about her for a sword, a staff, anything to defend herself, yet she found nothing.
“Ranaa? Is everything alright?” A voice from above caught Katsum’s ear and her panic increased. A light appeared from the dark hallway that led to the main deck as the door opened and shadows were cast by someone descending them. Katsum’s heart leapt as finally, she saw a weapon she had never seen before that the girl seemed to have dropped; a circular blade with a thick cording wrapped around one edge where she guessed the wielder would hold it. She quickly leapt forward and grabbed ahold of it before returning to her place against the wall. She watched a silver-haired woman appear from the hallway, seeing her eyes widen as she saw her. The girl too was moving to her feet and turned to face Katsum.
“Stay back!” Katsum lifted the curved blade as if she were pointing her sword threateningly and spoke in the Draic language. The confused looks on the faces of the two, however, told her that they did not understand what she had said, not that that had surprised her, but the words spoken in the dragon’s tongue were far more threatening than just on their own, and she needed that edge in her weakened state right now.
The woman held up her hands then and spoke calmly in Eorzean, thankfully the language she too spoke, “It is alright, child, you are safe here. We are not here to hurt you.”
Katsum looked between them wildly as her hands shook, trying to speak as sternly as she could, “Where am I?” Her voice shook far more than she would have liked it to, but there was nothing she could do to change that.
“You’re on our ship,” The miqo’te answered, “We found you on a piece of debris floating in the water. You’d come from the same direction as a great storm, so we can only guess your ship sank, and you somehow survived.”
Katsum froze as the realization of everything hit her. The fires, the soldiers, running through the streets with her father pulling her along to the shore where her mother had waited. She remembered the tear-filled farewell as they pushed her alone onto the small sailboat as a group of soldiers was closing in, and she remembered watching the burning silhouette of her beloved island, her kingdom, disappear behind the stormy sea clouds as the sea swept her away…and then the storm that had wrecked her bost and knocked her out. The nightmare she had witnessed was real. Her kingdom was attacked…and she alone survived as her parents had saved her. She was alone with the Draic necklace that still hung around her neck.
Her threat with the blade faltered as her heart broke and she dropped it to clatter to the floor. Her breathing grew heavy as she fell to her knees and tears spilled from her eyes. She flinched when she felt someone touch her shoulder, pulling away from the woman and the girl who had drawn closer and crawling away into the corner of the room.
“It’s alright! We aren’t going to hurt you! You have been through something terrible, it is clear, and we just want to help,” The woman said softly.
Katsum shook her head, “Please…I wish to be alone right now…”
The miqo’te looked her over, almost speaking again but the woman cut her off as she picked up the fallen blade and took it with her as she stood, “Come on, Ranaa, she asked for some space.”
“But Nashmeria, we don’t even know her name!” The girl cried, looking back over her shoulder at Katsum as she followed her up the stairs.
“I’m sure she will tell us when she is ready, but for now, let’s leave her be like she asked.”
She listened to the sound of the door shutting softly and the fading footsteps before Katsum buried her head in her arms and cried. She had never felt so alone, and so guilty. She failed to keep her kingdom safe, and her people had suffered for it. Their young queen had fled while they fought to survive. That thought dug into her heart like a dagger. She’d left her parents behind too, though she had tried to pull them onto the boat with her, but they wouldn’t, not with a party of soldiers so close where they would see them and sink their boat before they could escape. So she had been alone, and she wished she had stayed.
Katsum reached up to the dragon necklace around her neck, feeling the dragons aether that flowed within it waning from when it had awoken her and sobbed without end.