Toki definitely was in a bad mood today, even for her usually foul temper, Ransho, arcangel of the Earth, observed inwardly grinning. He wondered what had made her that upset. Toki was hovering above the water of the nearby stream, swirling around so that waves kept building up in a circle. Her face was showing her distress, a rather rare sign for her, who knew so well how to hide all emaotions.
Ransho sneaked out of his hiding spot where he had watched her for a good time and casually walked closer to greet the arcangel of the water. He greeted her, which caused her startle and come to a sudden stop which caused a giant splash of water to hit Ransho, leaving her blushing. He took it good-humouredly and smiled at the petite angel now hovering to face him, trying to make out from his ever handsome features what he wanted.. He in turn inquired about her well-being, and tried to find out about the problem she was obviously having, but in vain. Toki was by far too closed up with such things, and she had sworn to herself that HE should be the last to know…. To find out about what she had been missing ever since having seen Hisui and Kohaku so happy…
He then laid out the plan why he came in search of her: he was to go down to earth, look after some business details, as he called it, and was then to stay over the night in the Kudo house - he had spoken to Hisui, and Shuichiro, overhearing the communication, made the offer. They would be glad to see them again, and although he thought that taking Ryuki would be a very good idea, as he was still still pining over the loss of Hisui and threatening the demon who took her at any given chance, Toki might be happy to see her friends again.
Secretly, he had to admit that he hadn’t even bothered to ask the Arcangel of fire simply because he sensed an opportunity for being alone with Toki, who, knowing this, would have rejected his offer faster than you think “No”.
But she didn’t know, and feeling a responsibilty towards her friends on earth and the secret desire to verify again that they were happy and she was not, she agreed to accompany Ransho on his mission and his holiday.
He would never have believed to get her approval that easily, but there was yet something in her eyes which he could not figure out… was it hurt or hope?
Of course, there would have been easier alternatives to descend to Earth, but quite as soon as Ransho had obtained Toki’s approval, he had called for his companion, the earth-couloured dragon he often used as means of transport. It would take longer, granted, but it was a lot more spectacular to fly through the milky clouds and slowly descend than to step through a magical gate and be there within a minute…
He helped Toki to sit on the patient creature, then sat down himself, making sure they were safe. Giving the signal to take off the ground, he carefully slid his arm around Toki’s waist as to hold her during the unusual ride. This was a rather unnecessary measure, as Toki would have been able to gracefully descend with her own wings if she were to fall off the dragon, but somehow, his idea of gentlemanly behaviour didn’t quite fit the thought of losing his companion during a looping.And this would probably as close as he would ever get to hold her…
The dragon started to lift off-ground and they were soon gaining some altitude before flying over the border into the free sky, opening up to an amazing view of earth. The sun sent warm solar rays out into wide sphere, and even got through the light fluffy clouds, leaving a warm, milky light. It was rather quiet, as only a subtle beeze carried the clouds lazily a bit farther and they were toh igh to hear any of earth’s bustles.Beneath them, the green and blue spaces seemed to mingle as the distance was still too large. It was rather cold, but the angels, feeding on the sunrays, didn’t seem to feel it. The peaceful setting was close to perfect, if there had not been the imminent knowledge that it was to end way too soon.
Toki actually didn’t like flying, she preferred travelling in the streams, and was rather glad that Ransho held her – it soothed the panic she had started to feel when she saw the beast she was supposed to travel on. Actually, this wasn’t that bad after all. Ransho made this trip special, she realised, and the spectacular sight and perfect harmony made her wonder if she would ever return to any other mode of travelling. She marvelled at the sight of Earth, finally calm and peaceful for once, and the soft cotton- like clouds they passed. The sunight warmed and fed her, and his arm around her made her forgot any cold she might still have felt.
The dragon, guessing his passenger’s secret wishes, descended in large circles, prolonging the travel quite as long as possible. It also enjoyed the harmony and silence; and sensing his best friend and master so happy made it feel happy too.
Ransho could smell the flowery, yet fresh scent of Toki’s hair, reminding him of the waterlilies that grew in Toki’s favourite places.
Not a word was spoken, as there was no need to - the simple presence of the other, the sights and the feeling of ever so slowly drifting down towards Earth filled their minds. Time became irrelelevant, and neither would have been able to say how long they had been in the air, flying on the bronze – golden dragon, which reflected the sunlight so beautifully and being in so close an embrace, which was not a security measure anymore, but the simple sign of affection and care.
Earth came closer, as both were sorry to see, meaning the end of the peaceful journey filled with harmony and understanding. Ransho guided the dragon through the atmosphere and soon found the landing spot he judged to be suitable: hidden on a paradisic and small island as not to wake the suspicion of Humans and where the beast would be able to stay and feed for the retour.
Ransho and Toki, however, wouldn’t be too far from business and friends, and could return whenever the sitation would require it. The Landing was soft, as the dragon sank in a bit in the soft white sands lining the borders of the island upon touching them with his paws. Ransho ventured to help Toki off the dragon, holdong her maybe a moment too long before releasing her on the ground. Rather grumpy about the end of the Journey and the supposed intrusion on her independence, she inquired as to what his business would be. Softly laughing (and pleasantly surprised that she took such interest in his affairs, though maybe he was just interpreting slightly too much into her simple question, a behaviour quite normal for people and angels in love), he explained the need to check on a region known for geological disorders. The earth tended to shift, leaving hallways and spaces for the essence of the planet to rise and erupt, a phenomenom which was known, in the human world, as a vulcanic eruption, as he added. The region had been particularly active in the last time, and had always been for that matter. This time, there was a serious threat to the people who settled in this region if he could not prevent it.
Toki was slightly surprised that he had some real business on earth and had not simply merely extended the invitation on the time level to get her down to earth a bit sooner. She knew she had suspected him, but sstill, she went with him, because a large part of her would not have had it otherwise. She felt horrible – having been so weak as to think so ill of her best friend and self – assuming to believe that he really only thought of her, and was confronted with a strange mixture of anger, sadness and disappointment towards him for not thinking of her and being gone in the next hours, leaving her on a foreign island woth a dragon…. She knew she should not feel that way, and tried to hide her confusion about this storm of emotions behind a weak smile.
Trying to figure out her ever-changing mimics, Ransho proposed to show her a beautiful spot close to the center of the island where she wozuld be able to rest and refresh while waiting for him to pick her up after finishing his work. They would then proceed on their way to their friends. Anxious to be alone, and to sort out her weird feelings for herself before being confronted with his handsome features, silently agreed and set off with Ransho to the center of the island, which proved to be equipped with a greenish tropical forest build around a small lake and waterfall, bordered on it’s outsied by the sandy white beaches they had arrived on. The scene was somewhat peaceful, with a serenity rarely found for it’s genuine intactness. The clear water was greeting Toki, recognising in her the mistress it was lead by and Toki immediatley resolved to love this place instantly quite as much as her place in heaven.
Toki had nearly missed Ransho’s departure, so deep had she sunken into the scenery. And how she couldn’t had waited to sink into the water – the airy ride had made her quite desperate for the delicious cool the water offered – was it the ride and following dehydration or was Ransho, in whose company she never felt as easy as she told herself she should be, and always longed to hide herself in the cool as to disguise her sympathy yet stay as close as possible?
He left, and although she was sorry to see him go, she didn’t waste a minute in pining for his loss. The water welcomed her and reported the news, and the gossip that the molecules had caught in their travels and the comfortng sound of well-known voices made her come to peace a lot sooner than she would have thought possible. She listened to remarks, reports, stories from places far away carried to this place by the water, and aimed to repair damages she could get, from the distance, rid of. Commanding the molecules around her to alarm the water in other regions, she set the cycles of rain where it was needed, and calm where the water was becoming too much. Although she might not be able to command all actions of the element, she tried to keep it within orders as much as possible. This wasn’t easy, as the water always reacted according to her mood, and her rash temper made constancy rather impossible.
She laid back, trying torid herself of all emotions, and without being able to help it, her thoughts soon returned to Ransho. Although she highly valued his abilities, and thought him a master of every useful spell, she couldn’t help but fear that something might happen to him. She thought it rather strange that he should be dealing with volcanic activities – after all, she had always believed that it was Ryuki’s department, involving heat and flames… Upon reconsideration, she saw that his appearance made sense, as the heat was but a by-product of the unrestless earth on it’s way to the surface. However, she still allowed herself to be somewhat imcomposed from the fact that earth normally wasn’t quite as explosive, which suited Ryukis sanguine temper a lot better than Ransho gentle restriction. She also wondered why Ransho did ask her to accompany him, if she was only to wait on this paradisic island, when he might have taken Ryuki, who could have been of use. Maybe he did not trust her capacities as to suppose that she could help him…. But after all, water was still opposite to heat, and she might have calmed the agitated earth. If she came down all the way throught he sky merely to keep him company on a journey completely useless, as he might as well just gated down to earth, instead of taking the dragon, in what kind of light did he see her? She felt her temper rising, despite the calming effect the water had had just minutes ago. She felt angry, or rather disappointed that he trusted her so little. Had she not always helped him in difficult spells and situations, when everybody else was too agitated? Had not she been the one to discover Hisui and Kohaku, and had to carry the burden of keeping something of that importance a secret?
Despite all this anger, she could not help to feel worried about him. He was gone for a while by now, and she really wasn’t sure whether he would be the right one to adress the magma. When the elements were in uproar, they tended to shift into another area of responsibility, and make it impossible for their former master to communicate with them and calm them. Ransho might just now be facing such a situation, and dearly wish for her help – although she would not be able to communicate with the hot earth, she could still attempt to shock it with the cool water she commanded. Still, she had to wonder why he did take her, a point which could, despite the negative mix of emotion anger for being underevaluated and fear for his well-being, not be overcome that easily. Maybe he meant to express something more to her by revealing this place, maybe this meant something…
Although he always appeared to be easy and friendly, she had observed that he rarely expressed any sorrows he might have. He was friendly to everyone, but rarely allowed anyone to see beyond this façade; he always cared for others, but never allowed others to care for himself. He was always strong and never shaken, and never …never showed his temper on the outside. So unlike herself. So unlike her rash temper. So like…himself.
Pausing, the world felt like standing still, when Toki realized what she always had tried to hide before her own conscience, her reason, her mind: that she searched his calm, that she was dependant on being reassured by him, that she longed to hear him say that he knew that she loved him. She needed him, she wanted him, and most of all, she wanted to live the truth and
Stop sharing him just in order to hide her feelings.She needed to tell him, ask him to forgive all her desperate attempts to deny her feelings, ask him to love her just as she loved him.
Waking from her daze, she remembered all of sudden her fears – what if something would happen to him on a mssion he could not be perfectly equipped for? She needed to find him.
The beauty of the island remained behind, forgotten, when Toki entered the stream, continously asking for directions and reports, and allowing herself to be guided through rivers, the sea and finally moving up with the condensing water to climb the peaks…
The feel of the water surrounding Toki made her mind enter an enlarged state – everything that otherwise would have been kept within the driblets now was filtered, and each important information sought out. Of course, nothing of this process was visible to the eye – in fact, she wasn’t even visible. In her state of semi-translucency, which resembled her being dissolved in an equal portion of water, her cover was perfect, and frontiers were to be overcome without hesitation or change of way. She wasn’t consciously guiding her way – the way was in her, and yet she did not know where it exactly came from. It formed, while it manifested, while it disappeared. Her present past and future condensed into one single moment when she was melting herself into her element, and it was then when time and space became completely relative. The exact way of her movement is not to be understood by any human mind, no model of plummeting satin forming valleys and peeks could ever show how exactly relativity appeared to those minds able to set themselves next to it. It was a moment of true perfection, of the very essence of being condensed into something only ignorant minds would seek to measure.
Yet, Toki knew that she had never before reached this stage of perfect melange with the world around her. She sensed that it had to be because for the first time in her life she had an aim, and for the first time she had admitted that aim to herself. She needed him, she needed Ransho more than anything else, and paradox as it is, even a second more without him in her timeless state was insufferable. And she sensed that something had happened because the water drew her away with even more energy.
Normally, “performing spells”, or in fact the gathering and concentration of nature’s strewn energy towards an aim needed to be guided, centred in a medium – an angel’s primary occupation. It drew energy from the medium, and afforded a large amount of practice to control the energy, which is why angels were only able to maintain spells for a short time, and often needed to recover them after such a performance. But in this state of merging only boosted her own energy. The water did not need her guidance, because she was the water. Her mind had been enlarged and controlled every single unit surrounding her.
Some part of her saw him, lying unconscious, on a small amount of earth seemingly unshaken. At least the very primary resources, not unlike a shielding function, were still being powered. However, it was quite obvious that Ransho had not been able to undergo the full transformation she had just experienced. Controlling an element, which was only half his, and half Ryuki’s must have been straining. Toki cursed Ransho for going alone to control the Magma, and not asking Ryuki to control the heat, or at least herself, to cool everything with water in case it was necessary. Instead, he took her on mini - break and left her on an island to relax. It seemed that he did not trust her. This thought broke her heart, but she barely noticed it. All musings were secondary, her focus was on Ransho. He seemed unhurt, but judging from the chaotic scene around him, that was quite a miracle. Hot magma was still erupting from the ground, and had burned the tropic scenery that would otherwise have been enchanting. Now it was only grey, red brown, with steam hissing upwards where the raging earth met her water.
She needed to rescue him, without drowning him in his unconscious state, and without evaporating herself, if she approached too slowly. But maybe evaporation was just the way.
She had never experienced her present state of dissolution before, so she could not tell whether her body would survive a change of physical state when she joined the water in the process from going to fluid to steam. It seemed that she simply needed to find out. She had to near herself and the water towards the magma, and simply hope that the steam that would consequently develop be enough to gather as a cloud and pour down, transporting her towards the place where Ransho lay unconsciously. She was scared, but it was the only way to get close to him without burning herself. On the other hand, it might just be the way to burn herself in her present state…
A wave of melted earth hit the water, and Toki felt herself being a lot lighter – she still was somehow linked, but she felt that the spaces between the water molecules holding her conscience had been enlarged, and she knew that she must have been rising towards the sky. Most fortunately, her will had brought a sufficient amount of water to meet the magma wave, and, upon reaching height, she felt the condensational effects. The solution of her with within the water directed the forming cloud to the right space, but she sincerely wished that Hisui would be here in order to guide the water with a breeze. Her energies still remained untouched, but she was afraid that being inside the cloud would perhaps make her miss the right spot, rather than being able to spot it from the outside.
Just at that moment, she saw the little patch of land which was still shielded from the chaos around – it seemed smaller than she remembered, and she began to fear that Ransho’s energy was now very near depletion. Commanding her will again, she gathered the steam around her, making it form a cloud that grew heavier and heavier, while she tried to keep her position. The heat radiating from the soil made it hard, as it formed into turbulences and breezes upon meeting the fresh air. Lingering so high over the ground, and so far away from her natural element, Toki only could hope that her plan would work
The cloud grew too heavy within seconds, and Toki felt the water reforming the driblets they were used to and her body re-attaining the normal expansion between molecules, growing solid again. Her mind was still linked with the water, but it was not dissolved in it anymore.
As the rain poured down heavily, cooling down the surrounding waves of magma, she found herself next to Ransho, who was very weak, and still unconscious. It seemed as if he had also been hurt, and she felt the heat slowly crouching through the weak shield. She centred her own energy onto shielding, and lifted him with a little spell in order to transport him to a safer distance, where she might be able to heal his wounds and leave him some time in order to recover his energy.
However, getting out of the inferno around them wasn’t quite as easy anymore: when she had rained down, the magma wave had only been approaching Ransho, but now, it had arrived. She could feel the heat radiating through the shield, and dared not entertain thoughts about an unconscious Ransho without the shield…. Had he only taken her with him from the beginning on. Their little bubble became more and more endangered, and she could not open a gate out as long as Ransho was without conscience and powers.
Trying to get through the magma wasn’t an option either – they would be burned even if she managed to mobilise the shield, as it would become too thin from the movement. And waiting….she knew she would not be able to maintain the shield for long. The only possible way of escape was to somehow wake Ransho…
His breath was very shallow, and the pulses abnormally slow. However, she needed his conscience in order to open a gate, which would only form if the energy set free in the process could flow between to adversaries – once it had formed the circle, they would be able to get through. She tried calling his name, softly shaking his shoulders, but he did not respond… A bizarre thought crossed her mind, of old human tales, and the awakening by a kiss. To think about kissing Ransho in this situation was pure absurdity….but maybe it would work, since everything else would not? Wasn’t the power of love unaccountable and mysterious?
Risking her reputation, her feelings, her heart, Toki leant forward and gently touched his lips with hers.
Somehow, the sensation of two pairs of lips touching, desperate as the situation was, over shone the destruction. That single touch seemed to wake all hope in Toki, and energy flew softly circling in barely visible patterns. She had experienced something quite similar when she finally merged with the water, but here the sensation of being in unity with the world was fuller, as it was tinged with a hint of surprise, mystery, undiscovered secrets. But only when Ranshos eyes opened, Toki realised that the presence of another made the difference – it was not a bond between similes, but contraries, and the excitement caused by the differences made the world seem special and joyful and glittering.
Ransho seemed stunned by the close view of Toki’s eyes he first visualized when his gaze had fixed itself. Awakening from the exhaustion, he still felt the faintness in his limbs, and was about to panic when the expression of those eyes slowly calmed the rising alarm. He tried a temptative smile, and Toki smiled back. Needless to say, she was more than relieved to have him back, and have him calm.
Moving closer ever so slowly, Toki brought her lips close to his again, and he responded by rising his head. The first contact was, as before, surprising and electrical, but soon, the initial shock had developed into a passionate understanding. And while they seemed lost in the kiss, holding close, a magical breeze had grabbed hold and transported them upwards as in a spiral, slightly turning them as if it was a platform turning out of the earth.
They managed to ascend high enough to be above the violent waves of heat radiating from the still moving magma, when they heard the gentle swooshing sound of the dragon-like creature that had taken them from heaven to earth. It flew beneath them ever so slightly elevating itself vertically and thereby showing it’s extraordinary flight abilities. They finally were able to seat themselves on the creature, not quite an easy task as they did not dare to break direct contact in case this would terminate the power effect. Toki nearly slipped out of the embrace when the uprising air caused turbulences in their current cooler sphere, but Ransho was able to hold her and settle her on the dragon, whom he consequently told to get out of the area. This, time, the flight was nowhere as peaceful and serene as the first time, as the turbulences and their increased level of adrenaline from their close escape - or their kiss - did not help to handle the situation calmly. However, they managed to return to the island in one piece, and were soon descending from the back down to the cool beach sands. The animal, having exhausted itself in the hot air, disappeared into the water immediately, a small cloud of steam coming into existence upon contact with the water.
Lying down on the sand, they first realized how very close it had been - and how narrow their escape. Only in second thoughts, when the truth began to sink in, they realized what their means of escape had been. Love had indeed been all they ever needed, and it had been what gave them the strength and the means to escape. Now, when everything had passed and they had reclaimed their usual space, the closeness they had found earlier seemed distant and unreal – and yet, it had felt right, and this isolation reminded Toki of how she had felt before she had left heaven – despaired and lonely. She turned to face Ransho, and when she saw that he had watched her the whole time, she moved closer, and laid her hand on his arm. He shuddered, but when she attempted to retreat, he held her close and continued to look into her eyes, searching for a clue which he got when she closed her eyes, snuggled closer and gently kissed him again.
Their planned visit was forgotten, and their return to heaven very much delayed, when the meaning of their actions spelled no other conclusion but love, and they learned to live after this new principle in their lives.
~~*°The End°*~~Return to Heaven...or Hell