//------------------------------// // Chapter Sixty Eight, Pharaoh Emerald, of cake: Salt. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Airship Mauled, Fizzle- “Have you ever heard the phrase, everything the light touches is our kingdom?” Watching Jade convulse as she said this, I shivered. “This is literally what that cast does, everything its light touches gets hit with the effect. It definitely weakened the parasite and Anubis… but I will forever be a casualty of it… I can’t forget everything I felt. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemies and I would use it in anger either. If you don’t fully block it, you still get the full effect. Even a single pinhole of it going through something hits for full effect.” I hugged Jade, because she looked fairly haunted. “Everything its light touched, was within its given range, if you weren’t behind something or at an angle from the initial blast…” Jade clammed up and started crying into her hands. “I have nothing with which I could compare to… that… and yet Anubis still got up afterwards, so I too had to do the same despite the horrors I inflicted on myself.” “So, are you saying it’s impossible for the user to dodge it?” Mom asked of Jade while looking worried at the faraway look in her eyes. “If you’re point blank or not already around a corner when thrown, yes. It is termed automatic area of effect, only the shade would save you. The darkness is your friend, it is everyone’s friend. Oblivion is very nice and so is limbo… those are preferable.” Shaking Jade lightly, she blinked and pulled me closer. While I liked the closeness, I can already tell Jade has been through a lot with just recalling this as if she tried to erase it from her memory. This cast seemed like the worst thing to ever happen to her. “It’s one of my top ten worst things to ever happen to me, number two at best.” “What’s number one?” Maries asked. “A full grown Abyssinian queen can never feel as much pain as when they are separated from their kittens before the both of them are ready.” Kuril stated immediately. “Correct… it was darn near close, because being separated from Icky Dress is still more painful than that. Even now, what I went through hitting Anubis with a point blank blast of unknown strange cosmic power like that doesn’t compare.” Jade curled up against me, I just gently stroked her and everyone in the room felt sorry for making her recall this moment. “Said horrors would make even the most eldritch beings leave this dimension entirely alone for the fear that someone might wield such a thing against them. I thought the death god might make me feel like dying, instead, I was the one that did that to the both of us. Anubis is a god, can you imagine what dying feels like for someone immortal like him?” -Ancient Anugypt, throne hallway, Sandy- I may not have been caught by the effects of it, but everything had been so bright and the aftermath was so horrible… I don’t think I could repeat what had occurred when Jade took the confection and used it to harm Anubis, not to mention herself in the process. The end results were horrifying, how was one supposed to survive through that without being a god!? Yet, Jade still breathed and she was spewing rainbows from every part of her body, Anubis was doing the same not too far from her. Soon things stopped and I would never recount what had happened to them, but Anubis seemed to be almost in control of himself as he lifted his head from the floor with rainbows leaking out the corner of his mouth. “That was… the parasite is still here, but you’ve definitely weakened it.” I could tell from the tone that my lord Anubis was speaking now, his voice was weak and I looked to the wide eyed Jade still bleeding a large assortments of colors everywhere. There were colors that I didn’t even know were possible. “Death, such as me, would have been far kinder.” Slowly Jade started to force her arm under herself, both Anubis and I stared at her incredulously as she started forcing herself into a standing position. “How, the pain…” Anubis whispered, even he couldn’t stand up as Jade was doing. “Nothing, hurts a queen worse, than being separated from their kitten. I’m a queen, my child is a beloved magical tree and we were separated by me ending up here. This… this nearly endless torment I’m feeling from… from what I just did… my godly pain tolerance can handle that.” She looked weak, but she was standing at least. I saw strength coming back to her faster than it was Anubis. “This… what I just did… it is nothing. It can haunt me forever, but, it is nothing compared to losing my kitten. I know exactly the kind of pain my mother is in now being separated from me, because it is still far worse than what just happened to us combined!” She breathed in and out several times after yelling that and coughed up several splotches of green and the brightest blue I’ve ever seen, she was quite pale and didn’t look very healthy. She needed rest after performing another feat of such powerful magic. Truly the sun priestess was one of the most powerful beings in Anugypt, yet she still couldn’t defeat the parasite inside of Anubis judging by what she said next. “I know we need to defeat the parasite, but I’m quite spent so… excuse me while I go over there and continue to cry out the remainder of the rainbows still in me.” She calmly and slowly walked her way over to the third pillar on the right side of the room, put her back to it, slid down and promptly closed her eyes. “Wake me up when this is over with, I should have went with the soul rending fire… at least Anubis wouldn’t have been as scarred as badly.” Jade passed out with fresh streaks of rainbow going down her face, the rainbows coming from her ears and mouth had at least ceased to flow. Also the rainbows from her odd clothing had thankfully stopped as well, the floor was practically a river of rainbows flowing out the entrance thanks to both Lord Anubis and Priestess Jade. “The parasite is quickly regaining control, you need to free me now if you are to have any chance of stopping it!” Looking to Anubis, I didn’t know how to help him. The priestess that would know how is currently sleeping. “I am sorry lord Anubis, I do not know how to help you.” I really was quite sorry. Right or wrong, I couldn’t kill my Lord and King of all jackals. “Maybe we can help perchance, what is all this nasty colorful stuff anyway? It feels like raw suffering whatever this stuff is.” I turned a look towards the entrance and saw Princess Clarity come in with the five other priestesses. “What happened here?” “Something that I will never dare repeat even on pain of death and beyond that into infinity!” I answered, they came in getting their paws covered in the colorful fluids. The pink one, Cheerful Dye, playfully splashed it everywhere making me feel quite ill. “I will say that Anubis and the thing controlling him are weakened, but Jade… she is completely incapable of telling us what to do next!” “Well now, that is a problem. We have relied on Jade for too much already, poor dear looks like she could use the rest. I think it’s about time that we take matters into our own paws, this wasn’t her mess to begin with and she put herself constantly in harm’s way for us.” Clarity narrowed her eyes at Anubis. “She tired herself out constantly for us, she helped us all and taught us things about ourselves that we needed to hear. She spent her very being keeping us all safe and now we come to find her injured and unable to act, well it’s about time we finally did something aside from being lazy priestesses! Jade told me the impossible is only as such if you don’t put your mind to it. The mysterious and the impossible, there’s a mystique to doing something that no one being can possibly explain. Not even the gods can explain this mysterious feeling I’m feeling right now… I want to save the world. Also to be seen for more than the extravagant humble lady that I am. We are all going to do the impossible now! For the mystique of life is never ending, not everything needs an answer.” Clarity started glowing purple, the fluid rainbow around her paws started turning that color as she floated up into the air. A tendril of rainbow colors started to surround her in a bubble. “Jade needed our help then and she still does now. She always came to me to talk about her feelings, there is great sorrow in her and I tried very hard to help.” Quiet stepped forward. “I can’t help, but feel inadequate as I tried to empathize with her. To know and feel her pain as she does, at best I could only draw some of that pain off of her. Having friends in life, is a power all of its own. I want to help share both the pain and the happiness of our burdens, for sharing what’s in our hearts will make life a little easier!” A yellow glow in the rainbows and Quiet floated up, another bubble formed. “Everybody smile, smile, smile! Nothing brings color to the world like spreading some happiness!” Cheerful Dye pranced around in a circle swirling the rainbow of colors around herself. “I like making everything bright and colorful, I even make smiling an art form! Though a drawn smile can never quite match the real thing, the real thing brings life to the eyes of a true, true friend indeed!” Instead of slowly ascending she just jumped up in the air and a pink bubble formed, I blinked at what was going on here. The three floating bubbles started to float in a circle and rainbow liquid started gather between the three of them. “You can’t get through life without at least telling the truth once.” Grassy ascended into the air. “A life built on nothing but lies is not really living as far as I can tell.” “Nothing can be twenty percent hotter than me, because I face danger head on. When things start heating up, I just get hotter!” Brash started to float into the air shakily. “Life’s challenges will never stop me from trying to do what I love! I love the friends I’ve made just as much, if not more than that! For the courageous will always try no matter the odds!” Brash fully ascended and a bubble formed around her. “Clarity is right, I do fuss over her a bit and I seek knowledge to my detriment at times, but…” Bright look to all five of her friends floating in circle, the liquids turning into a white spark of light gathering at the center of the five floating cats. “Knowledge is nothing without the wisdom to use it correctly. I have the wisdom to know when my friends need me, because I want to be with them and share some knowledge to aid in their endeavors. Wisdom is knowing when to listen to others or to accept help when you need it the most, through sharing knowledge and understanding when to use it… life can be so much simpler. Friendship… like wisdom… is a magic all its own. This… magic… is not bound by knowledge, time or space, for the mark of one’s destiny singled out alone cannot be fulfilled. A mark of many destinies helping one another… it is fulfilling even if one never fully achieves what one wants out of life. Life is never born into this world alone, life is never boring, life just is… for we are all part of something grand in scope and yet so simple in design, ever changing…” Bright floated up and then Anubis, likely controlled by the parasite, launched a wave of sickly green at the floating flail-tails in their bubbles. It dissipated before it could even touch them, he launched it at Jade and a bubble sprouted up around her defending her unconscious form. “What… what is this power?” The parasite in Anubis stated as he turned back to the six floating orbs of light and the glowing eyes of several cats staring at him, before a blinding rainbow of pure power slammed down upon him. -A few minutes after the rainbow beam- I saw a bright light shine from Jade’s thighs for a second, I would not think much of it or bother to tell anyone. It was probably a gift from a god or goddess watching over the brave priestess of the sun. Never has a mortal caused such a calamity, fought and helped save a god, worried about a people not her own, she was a heroic stranger in a strange land and we should honor her sacrifices. Anubis, the God of Death, has been restored and the parasite burned away by the powers of life. The balance of life and death has returned to the land… harmony has been restored. -Ancient Anugypt, three days later, Jade- I woke up with a headache, every orifice on my body felt like fire and clutching at myself, I curled up in pain until I felt the soft touch of a paw. “It’s okay, everything will be alright.” The quiet voice of Quiet reached my ears, it sounded almost like Fluttershy. Gentle and yet strong. “There, there, things will be okay Jade. Now don’t try to get up too fast. Now slowly open your eyes and uncurl Jade.” “What… what happened?” I opened my eyes and saw the gentle yellow furred cat look at me with soft eyes and a friendly smile, I tried to sit up and groaned in pain. Quiet pushed me back down. “A lot has happened, you have been asleep for several nights and are now waking up this morning.” I saw a shaft of light behind Quiet. “I know we never asked you how you would feel about this, but… we know you’re not of royal blood, so… well how do you feel about being a pharaoh of your own demesne?” “Not too pleasant, as I don’t want to stick around in Anugypt for the rest of my life.” At my words, she winces and her ears flattened against her head. “Well, Baast said you wouldn’t mind with what she is working on. I guess you need to talk to her about it.” Sighing at Quiet’s nervousness, I reached up and started to rub her behind the ears gently. “Eh, if she thinks it’ll help, then I’m sure I’ll be happy with what she has planned. She kind of owes me a lot.” I tilted my head as I started rubbing Quiet’s belly when she rolled over and started purring loudly. “Give it to me straight, how many perished in the city’s collapse?” “No one actually, it’s actually quite miraculous considering the entire city sunk a distance into the ground.” Quiet perked up as she told me this. “There are plenty of injured jackals though.” I just stared at the ceiling and continued to tickle my friend’s belly, a wary giggle escaped from my lips.