Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I know many people say it, and they say it quite often, but I know that THIS girl was definitely like no other. All men say that when they’ve met who they think is “the one”, but I could care less if She’s “the one” or not. In fact, I’m fine standing on the sidelines, if only to bathe in the light of her uniqueness.

She was everything you saw just as the sun came up, just before it was too bright to look at, and everything you saw when the sun was setting, just as it became safe to look at. But just like those moments, it was all fleeting. You could reach, and reach, and reach, but you couldn’t grab the light with your hands.

But you’d reach again and again, if it only meant you could stare at it longer.

I don’t know if it makes sense to you- heck, I don’t know if it makes sense to anyone. I know what I’m thinking… Maybe I’ll just get started.

Her name was Akilina. Later, I found out it was Greek, for Eagle or just bird. She had long, raven black hair, though she would sometimes die the tips red, just because it was a cool combination. But that wasn’t made her so “unique”. What made her like no other girl was her ability to cure the sick by singing.

No, I’m not lying. No, it was never considered to be more than mere “coincidence”, but those who’d been touched by that girl new all too well that it was more than just coincidence. In fact, you knew it was fate working through her, and if she knew anything was strange, she either didn’t care or had decided it didn’t matter.

She found me, wandering alone out of the desert, barely awake. In fact, I don’t remember this, but she would tell the story so often I felt like I could. She was watering the flowers around the town she lived in, and left to go for a walk in the small wooded area. Just past those “woods” was the vast desert, the name of which I never think to ask for. Through the trees, she saw me stumble once, stumble twice, and then fall. When I awoke, I didn’t remember anything. This, I remember clearly, because I awoke to her singing while she tended the flowers in my room.

She would claim again and again that it was the flowers’ scents that healed me, but we knew better.

I awoke in the town’s “hospital”, if it could be called that. It was so small, there were only three rooms, and all three only had a small half-size bed. Very uncomfortable for my 6 feet in height, but her presence always made me forget my discomfort.

She teased me about being late to the party, something I never really understood, but she’d say it to everyone. When she asked me my name, and I said I couldn’t remember it, she decided on Laionela. Before you laugh, it’s Hawaiian. For Lion. Her reasoning was sandy blonde hair, thick and wavy- like a Lion’s mane. Eventually, though, everyone referred to me as Laion.

The town was small and was just called Bright Dawn, although in the winter, the residents referred to it as Cold Dusk. I remember the first winter; many of the children fell sick, and Akillina was run nearly ragged, running from house to house all over the village. I would try to make her rest, but she’d shrug me off and say simply that the people “needed her”. SO I followed, and gave whatever assistance I could.

Come spring, all of the children were healthy again, but I noticed that some of the buildings were run down and old. The only valid architects in the town were old, and couldn’t do much.

So I picked up a hammer, got some wood, and set to work.

I was surprised- my hands new exactly where to go, how to build. I updated the infirmary twice before moving on- when I was done, the beds were full sized, and there were 8 rooms.

When I moved on to the houses, Akilina decided to come out and sing while I worked, seeing fit to sit and read, or draw, or write in her little books. And while she sang, I felt like I could work for days on end, my shirt off, the sun shining above me- not too hot, not too cold.

By the time summer had come around, I’d made the houses insulated, to keep the cold in during the summers and the heat in during the winters. Akilina had given me the idea. And the townspeople believed I was a “gift”.

But I was restless.

I had no idea who I really was, or where I had come from, or even where I was going. Why had I come out of that desert? Why could I remember nothing?

When I first asked Akilina to help me remember- perhaps sing a song and see if my memory would be restored- she just fell silent, sitting in front of her fire while it rained. I was patching a hole in her roof, and her reply surprised me so much, I dropped the hammer on my foot.

“You might become a different person and leave,” she’d replied quietly.

I remember how my heart soared… Akilina wanted me to stay there!

But even with that new reason to stay, my identity ate away at me, and Akilina wouldn’t even acknowledge the question when I asked her again. She seemed so sure I wouldn’t be… “Laionela” anymore.

But no matter her warnings, I had to know who I was, and why I had tried to escape the desert. And the only way to do that was to go back into the desert.

The town was sad to see me go, but I had fully repaid my debt to them, and more. As much as they had become my family the moths I had lived there, I could be needed elsewhere. What if I had a family?

Imagine my surprise when Akilina joined me.
“You will need me,” she said, smiling crookedly. It was one of her quirks, adorable and loveable- she had a crooked smile. Her eyes would blaze with a fire that rivaled the dawn whenever she felt- angry, happy, sad, anything- they blazed an iridescent purple and green. That’s right- her eyes were purple and green.

But anyway, try as they could, the town couldn’t convince her to stay. She would shake her head and reply that with all of the new fortifications I’d provided, the chances for getting sick were less likely. And the townspeople couldn’t argue with that.

So we set out in the desert.

Nothing exciting happened, except that we ate next to nothing, and Akilina was really good at finding water and warm places to sleep. She was a strong young woman, and wouldn’t sleep near me- it was improper, she would say. So Akilina would build herself a safe place to rest, where I couldn’t see her. I was more worried about traveling rogues, but as our journey progressed, neither of us really cared about them. When we finally reached a small town, we nearly collapsed in joy at the first Inn we spotted.

Almost immediately, we picked up on the rumors and gossip. Only one name rang a bell- Zachariah. It wasn’t even that I remembered anything. It just felt… Important.

Unfortunately, the town was in shambles. Many of the architects were dead, because a band of mercenaries had passed through and looted the whole town. In fact, Zachariah was one of them.

That made me uneasy, for some reason, but Akilina and I stayed behind and made repairs and healed the wounded. Well, I made the repairs, she healed people. And her name spread, people telling stories of the voice that made you see Heaven and come back better than ever.

We left that town after about 5 weeks of work, leaving it looking better than ever. I hadn’t fized everything, and Akilina had only healed those who desperately needed her, but it was time we followed the already stale trail. It wasn’t too hard.

We followed the line of destruction- burned towns, pillaged farms, massacred populous- this band of mercenaries wasn’t difficult to find, especially when we noticed the damage was getting fresher and worst. We always stopped to help with the major work- never all, and we’d leave as soon as possible. But as we neared the band of mercenaries, Akilina grew nervous.

She wouldn’t tell me why. She never did, but I can guess now.

We came up on the town just as it was being sacked. I made Akilina wait in the trees, and ran down like a fool. Just four men were causing all this trouble- the leader, Zachariah, stood outside the town and watched.

I remember him well. Tall, with a wide-brimmed hat like in a cowboy movie, and a pair of pistols and a saber on his back. He had a long red mustache, and seemed nonplussed by my presence.

Well, the ensuing mess is too difficult or just too stupid for me to tell. You wanna know? Fine. I confronted him, asking him who he was, and he said in complete surprise “Well hey Zachariah! I though you was dead. I been watching the gang real good, you betcha. You can count on ol’ Bartemer.”

Yeah.

Feeling a little overwhelmed, I tried to say that I couldn’t be Zachariah- he was Zachariah. He asked me how hard I’d hit my head all those months ago, during that fateful raid.

And I remembered.

I remembered all the horrible things I’d done in my life, all of the mischief and the sin and the “fun”. I remembered everything I knew how to do- not just my skills with fixing things, but with killing things. It was why… I… was the leader.

And then I remembered the last few months, healing all of the damage I’d once helped cause.

Maybe this was what Akilina had hoped for. Maybe she hadn’t known for sure though- which was why she’d come with me.

I ran from Brambles, or whatever that guy’s name was. I ran for all I was worth. And he didn’t come after me.

I found Akilina and stayed with her. She seemed to understand the conflict that I can no longer explain, because she stayed quiet and simply sat near me, giving me physical support.

I didn’t snap out of it for three days, and by that time, the gang was gone.


Well, to make a long story short, since this is supposed to be short anyway, Akilina helped me chase them down.

I always though about the two titles for that small town, the Bright Dawn and the Cold Dusk. After I learned who I really was- though I kept Laionela- I felt myself getting colder and colder. And no matter how often she sang, I couldn’t feel any warmer. I saw the sadness in her eyes, as they seemed to grow brighter and brighter to me. And all I could think about was the dawn and the dusk.

We tracked them down, and in the battle that followed, none of which I find important enough to tell, Buckweed found Akilina, caring the injured, and attempted to kill her. He’d heard about how “Zachariah” had become a “noble lion” or whatever the people were saying about me, and knew it was Akilina’s “fault”. So he wanted to kill her.

I came in time to stop him from killing her, but in the rage that blinded me at his deceit, I couldn’t stop myself from killing her myself, and for the first time, the sun didn’t rise. Or the cloud cover was so thick we couldn’t see it. The world cried itself into a stupor for days, and all I could do was sit in the rain that fell, holding her to me. Feeling her hair, praying for her voice, shouting to the gods to return her to me.

But no one answered me, and I finally got up and made my way to Bright Dawn. Or Cold Dusk. Chances are, they would never be Bright again. I carried Akilina with me the whole way, never resting. I felt I didn’t deserve it.

When I stumbled again from the desert, I didn’t dare fall. I had protected Akilina’s body as best I could, and as I neared the small town, I could see towering from the center of it a mighty statue, one I had never seen the likes of. It was of Akilina.

I collapsed at the base of it and cried some more. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I clung to her body and cried and cried, too terrified to let go, to bury that voice, to lose her kindness.

But I had to, in the end.

It didn’t stop raining, and I never left. Never.