User blog:Carol of the bells/Days of Ruin --- Zen's exile, part 6

Days of Ruin --- Zen's exile, part 6
Zen cried out in pain as Karl landed another blow on her back with the shaft of his spear. She clodided with the ground with a dull thud. Blood ran down her arms and face from several cuts, and she was breathing heavily.

She pushed herself up so that she was on her hands and knees. "Why..." She muttered, then shouted, "Why won't you just kill me already!?" She had felt it about half-way into their battle. Karl was stronger than her by far, and yet he hadn't delivered a finishing blow. Quite the opposite to what she would have done.

"I wont kill you. You're just a child," Karl said, looking down at her pitiful form.

"I don't need your mercy," She spat, "Just end my existance...if I die here, it will be because I was too weak..."

Silence overtook the field as Zen's words hung in the air. Karl sighed, sheathing his weapon and turning to leave. "....I don't know who you are, exactly, but it might do you some good to let go of that pride of yours."

Zen heard him walk off, and was left in her silence. After a while, she collapsed, blood-loss and fatigue finally catching up to her. "...L-Lan...cia..." She called out weakly.

Before passing out, she saw a worried Lancia kneeling down next to her, calling her name.



"It seems that Zen has been quite busy...." Kaine muttered, inspecting the blue crystal lodged into the ground of the destroyed monster nest. "This is just like the other two places."

Haku rubbed the back of his head. "She really tore it up, huh?"

"I hope she's okay..." Riku sighed, "I can't bear the thought of her, all alone and crying..."

Ritz snorted. "Zen is hardly the type to cry."

Riku frowned at his older brother. "Just because father's brainwashed her like Ko, doesn't mean that she doesn't have feelings! She's still human!"

He held his hands up in mock surrender. "Calm down, she's my sister too, you know. Jeesh, you get so worked up about her. You know it as well as I do--Ko and Zen are about as caring as our father."

The younger brother clenched his fist, glaring at the ground. "You don't know that..."

"Stop it, both of you," Haku snapped, "I think we can all agree it's father's fault that our siblings are like that. Now let's get going and find Zen."

They continued traveling in silence. They're family hadn't always been so disfunctional. There was a time when Ko use to smile, and Zen used to laugh--even their father used to be a kind man. But, cruel fate that it is, that all came to an end when their mother died. That's when eveything came to a drastic end.

Ko had shut down emotionally--most likely because he and Zen had been the ones to witness their mother's death. He became cold and distant. Zen lost her cheery persona, but the most noticable change came when she inherited her mother's units. She left home to train for three years. When she returned home with empty eyes, much like her Ko's.

Their father was a different matter. His change was more subtle, and took longer to notice. Haku had the most vivd memory of the event--their father had gone to the basement of their mansion and locked himself in for two days. When he finally came out, his clothes were stained with blood. When Haku asked what had happened,  Hisagi (their father--just in case you be like 'who dat, who dat?!') simply patted him on the head and smiled. "Nothing, my son," He replied, "I was simply honoring your mother."

He didn't want to know what he had meant.