Chapter Text
-[ ??? ]-
Laughter. So much laughter.
Children surrounded him, splashing and playing in the beautiful, clear, blue water of the lake. Their wild play created glistening rainbows and diamonds suspended in the air, twinkling and silver in the light, like shining stars.
Yes. To him, the children were his stars. They were his whole world. His small village is in a valley filled with pure, translucent white flowers.
The humans called the flowers “Pure Heart” flowers. They said it represented purity and faithfulness. But also loneliness. Yet, whenever he was here, in the village, in the field of milky flowers, he was never lonely.
He cultivated the people as he did with his flowers. They were his everything.
He loved them. He loved that village. He loved the people. He loved his flowers.
He loved who he was before.
His hands were covered in blood.
Red was everywhere.
In the lake. On the ground.
Red. Red. Red.
He looked blankly at the mauled corpse. Shock numbed all his emotions. The sadness. The anger. The fear. It was all gone. He felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Flashbacks of the previous bloody moments still flared through his scarred mind, mixing with the corpse’s dreams and memories.
Look at the stars. The moon. Isn’t it all so beautiful?
It had been his last wish… That child…
To see the sky, whether day or night, again… Just one last time, before the end.
* * *
‘LET ME GO!’ He screamed internally, opening his mouth only for nothing to come out, the chains tightened around his neck, wrists, and ankles, preventing him from reaching ‘him.’
‘LET GO OF ME YOU—’ Tears ran down his face in rivulets, salt stung his tongue, and his eyes burned as crimson splashed onto the ground, the world turning black and red, the earth having carnage spilled upon it.
Innocent blood staining the ground.
‘I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU!’ He could hear the goddess chuckle softly at his unspoken threat, at the murderous glint in his shining eyes, because, of course, she believed he would never hurt her.
He was not one to leave empty threats.
Not even threats for her.
‘LET ME GO!!!’ The sickening sound of flesh and bone tearing and ripping engraved itself into his mind. The humans crowded the corpse, their blades cutting long, jagged gashes into ‘his’ face, piercing ‘his’ figure, producing dark, gaping punctures that yawned with darkness and lifeblood. They slashed through ‘his’ arms and legs, leaving them hanging by just a few slivers of body like threads of string from fraying fabric.
‘He’ was unrecognizable, only the faint taste of bittersweet blooming in his mouth, popping like juicy fruit that was full of sweet sugar, yet tinged with a slight bitterness like dark chocolate; it was the taste of joy with underlying sadness, like a funeral where the body in the coffin is the last time you will see them, yet the body looks at peace, as if it is merely sleeping with a ghostly pallor, they seem like they are finally at rest, and perhaps that still makes you feel a melancholic sense of calm from their final rest; because they are finally relaxed.
That taste of dreams lost, though they still sprouted seeds of happiness from seeing the sky one last time, like a farewell for those now gone; a gentle goodbye for those lost.
The chains blurred his vision, yet he still tugged against them, feeling their sharp coldness digging into his skin.
Because…
No one deserved to be so utterly mutilated like that.
Especially not ‘him.’
But the chains were unyielding, and so was her cruelty.
The caged bird knows no freedom.
* * *
“Now, my dear dove, do you see what happens when you try to run away from me?”
I didn’t want to run away. I wanted to fulfill his wish. He thought, but his mouth didn’t obey him. It was useless to try to escape anyway. He knew that. He had always known that.
Turn around.
He vaguely registered turning around, away from the mutilated corpse, away from the old man he loved so much, who held such a dear place in his heart, the heart that was now broken. Again.
Kneel.
Soft hands reached and cupped his wet cheeks, turning them to face their beautifully cruel face. It seems Master chose to use their female form this time.
“I should punish you. Make you pay for this act of rebellion. Perhaps you have spent too long with those filthy humans.”
He could only whimper pathetically as she raked her claws over his face, digging deep, long lines of red all over his flesh. Marking him.
“I am not done with you. Meet me at my chambers immediately.”
Meet me at my chambers.
“Y-yes. One will.”
“Good. What a good dove.”
She smiled cruelly at him, her sharp teeth glinting in the light of the moon.
~ ~ ~
Blood splashed onto the marble floor.
Stark crimson against the smooth, spiderwebbed colors of the bright white stone. Gold and gray veins swirl and run through the rock. His blood tainted their pure, slightly translucent beauty.
He was the taint. He was the corruptor; the corruption.
He was in pain.
Everywhere hurt.
You don’t need to hide your screams.
Everywhere he could hear his spine-chilling, bloodcurdling screams. The soundproof room made his voice echo, making his howls surround him, embedding itself deep into his mind.
He could feel the bones and the flesh connecting his wings to his back ripping out, the sickening tearing sound engraving itself into centuries of future nightmares, the wave of white-hot pain that made his mind turn completely blank, devoid of any thoughts. The world blurred, becoming smudges and blurs of color, because of the pain or tears; he did not know.
He just wanted it to stop.
Why couldn’t it all just stop?
“Shhh, the pain is temporary, I’m sorry to do this… I don’t enjoy being cruel, my dear dove…”
Her gentle, comforting words did little to dampen the pain, yet his heart ached for her soft touches, her sweet praises, to please her. But she continued to grip his feathers, ripping, pulling, all the while, honey dripped from her mouth. He focused on the sugary words. Trying, and failing.
The pain didn’t stop, not even after he screamed until his throat was raw and burning. Until his voice was hoarse and breaking pathetically, lungs aching, begging for air. He could taste the faint, metallic flavor of blood on his tongue that was thick and choked with saliva. His eyes were squeezed shut, not wanting to see the state of his body.
Blood. Metal. Bone.
Another crack and more pain rocked through his shaking body; his arms were flailing around, grasping and digging deep gouges into the once-untarnished marble floor, now splattered with red.
And finally, his wings were completely gone, ripped off his back.
His punishment.
Chest heaving, he just lay there, trembling and sobbing for what he had lost. For the gold that had adorned his back. The glistening teals and golds of his feathers. His wings.
“I think you have learned your lesson, dear dove. Now that those gaudy wings of yours have been stripped, I hope you will be much more compliant than before.”
He did not reply.
He couldn’t.
He could only stay there, collapsed and covered in blood and grime and tears.
He was pathetic. He was an idiot. He was-he was…
So light… So impossibly light, like a feather, yet it was so different from the weightlessness he felt when he flew, that sensation of only the buffeting winds around him, fresh air surrounding him on all sides, with his golden wings against a backdrop of sky blue, the clouds close enough to touch, drifting along the sky and its glories like traveling wishes and dreams, simply a small speck of life compared to the heavens.
It was different, it was foreign, it was unknown; it felt like the embodiment of fear.
It was so… grounding…
It made him feel even more connected to the earth, not to his beloved sky.
Not to the birds and clouds. Not to the wind and dreams.
There was no comforting weight of the pair of gold on his back.
He would never feel that again.
He would never fly again.
Never.
Suddenly, something inside him, like a winding red thread trailing from his heart to wrap around his mind and soul, seemed to just…
Snap.
And then, after that 'snap,' after that string finally broke, he didn’t feel the pain anymore, didn’t feel anything anymore, no emotions, no sadness, no fear, no nothing.
The darkness came next, descended like arrows upon him, quick and swift, almost like Death.
~ ~ ~
Mèng crouched down in front of her unconscious lover, her blood-red eyes taking in all of his features, all the angles and curves of him, drinking up his appearance like one would dine on a fine five-course meal.
He went by ‘Jīnpéng,’ didn’t he? Wondered the goddess, feeling the corners of her lips quirk upwards in a smile, and she chuckled quietly, her hand touching the curved lines on her face. How cute, thought the goddess as she looked at his slumbering face, scrunched up and frowning, despite the agony and restlessness visible, it was still a truly magnificent sight to behold, the beauty of a being with the elegance of a bird and the gracefulness of a fish. How did she possibly meet such a creature? And to be its lover as well, what an honor!
Now she was close enough to brush his sweaty bangs away from his closed eyes, caressing his tear-stained face, and swiping a gentle kiss onto his forehead with rose-soft lips.
Then she plunged her hand into his chest.
Where his heart lay. That gem of beating, pulsing red.
“A being like you does not deserve to have such thoughts of freedom.” Her hand rooted around deep inside him, searching and finding all scraps and slivers of negative emotions and ideas towards her and her ‘enslavement.’
“It is only for your good, I promise, my dear dove.”
Only love he would know, he would not remember the hate at her, that desire for freedom, he would not know those things, such thoughts and feelings were erased; forgotten.
He would only love her.
Only her.
Always her.
She would be all he needed.
She was all he needed.
“I love you, my dear dove.”