Past Revealed
Short Story / Written 2/18/05 / Rated PG-13

This was finally the "big drop" for a lot of Ainad and Drev's history :) Naya seeks Drev out on his private island to explain everything and to bid him farewell as she prepares for the end of her life.

The sun had set hours ago, but still the large, dark figure of a mutant Draik lurked through the forest on his forsaken island. Path lit by the puppy-sized ghost at his side, he was headed back towards the lonely cave that he had come to call his home.

Upon arriving, he drove his swords into the ground and heaved two good-sized animals off from around his shoulders. He had spent much of the evening hunting and these finds would last him for well over a week.

Kuive the Gargoyle pranced happily around their kill before resuming his usual position of guard just to the side of the cave entrance. Drev, however, was ready to turn in for the night. He pulled aside the large leaves that concealed the entrance to his cave and stepped inside.

He paused for a minute by a large wooden basin to splash his face with water and wash off some of the blood and dirt. He took a rag from the side of the bowl and tied it around his arm where one of the creatures had attacked him. It had left a nasty gash from his shoulder to his elbow, but he had killed it in return so he figured they were even.

With a low moan of pain, he slumped over into his makeshift bed of dried leaves, ready to fall asleep as soon as he had closed his eyes. However, his head had barely touched the bedding when a sharp blue light lit the entire cave. He winced and scooted backwards, shielding his eyes from the glow. Kuive was barking outside of the cave, but Drev knew who was there.

"What do you want?" he snarled as the light slowly faded to a nice, comfortable glow.

"Only a second chance." said the delicate figure of a small elfish Draik who had sat herself on the side of his water basin.

"For what?" he roared. "I told you, I'm through with her. Now leave me alone so I can get some sleep."

"Is this how you live?" she asked, ignoring his rude command. "I feel so sorry for you..."

"You should," he snapped. "Feel guilty for leaving me, do ya?"

"Now just one minute..." she said angrily. "I never left you!"

"You just happened to conveniently not be around when I was THROWN IN JAIL!?"

The small Draik stood up so abruptly that she knocked the water basin onto the floor. "Leave it to a boy to not understand." She spat, shaking violently as an eerie glow slowly grew around her. "No, I didn't ride in with an entire army on horseback to save you. No, I didn't lay siege to the castle. But I kept you alive. I spared you from fates much worse than you experienced. Keep in mind; I was already pushing it far enough with the limit on my remaining magic just to make sure you survived."

"I would have rather died than lived through that." he glared. "I would have been better off if you had just let them kill me."

Naya scoffed and smirked in a wicked way that didn't suit her. "You would, would you? Is that why you cried every night when they left you? Why you prayed for someone to save you? You and I both know that you have more to live for than you think. You just choose not to recognize it - to ignore it. When will you embrace your life that was spared? How long will it take for you to start living again?"

Drev never answered with anything more than a locked stare. He didn't know what to make of this as no one had really touched on this subject before. Should he tell her or should he shrug her off like he normally would? He wanted nothing more than to just squish her like a bug, right there standing defiantly across from him. But there was something about seeing her there... he felt like he could talk to her for once... maybe she would understand.

"I had those visions," he said finally, speaking barely above a whisper. "Nightmares every night for ten years. I never knew what they meant or why I was seeing them... like I had experienced it all. I was scared, I was confused."

Her face softened and her irritated glare slowly morphed to a reassuring sympathetic one. "I'm sorry," she said. "I never knew you two had those visions. Somehow, when I created you, you were imprinted with my memories."

"I thought I was insane..." he said blankly.

The small Draik sat down where the basin had been and crossed her legs delicately. "When I heard you talk about your visions for the first time that night I was at Ainad's..." she said softly, "... I panicked. I truly had no idea that you two were seeing my memories. I was worried what you had seen and what you had been spared. I feel terrible for inflicting my pain on the two of you."

"What happened to you?" Drev asked, obvious concern expressed in his voice. "This war, your dead sisters... what happened?"

"I knew you'd ask," she said sadly. "And you have a right to know - as does Ainad. But I'm afraid to tell her... I'm not sure if she could handle it."

"And I can?"

"You've been through many tribulations in your life - she hasn't. You can understand, you can relate. It would only terrify her... I'm afraid how she'd take it."

Drev frowned slightly. If she was telling the truth and her story was truly as awful as she was hinting, maybe she was doing the right thing in not telling Ainad...

"Our race," Naya began, "was a society of magic, and thrived on a peaceful environment. It was run by me and my two sisters; we maintained the peace and the life force that held us all immortal. It was perfect, if I do say so myself.

"But, as with every perfect life, something always goes wrong. The neighboring race of Scythanians envied us for hundreds of years. Our forest was better than theirs, our lives were better. They were not immortal, though their race longed for immortality.

"They were a terrible sort; they'd kill and mutilate each other whenever they felt like it. They would paint skeletal markings on their black skin and hold demonic ceremonies worshipping the dead. They were the complete opposites from the Amase'ere, and we wanted nothing to do with them.

"We would pay them off every hundred years or so when a male was born to our race. Male babies weren't desired by our race, so we lost nothing in giving the babies to the Scythanians, but each time we felt guilty - we never knew what would happen to the baby after we left it with them. But, by giving them the baby, they would agree to leave us at peace for the next hundred years. Though sacrificing one of our own blood to them was hard for us to do, it was the only thing we could do to ensure the safety of the rest of us.

"Their race, as they were not immortal, went through different rulers, kings and queens, under the same family. We were constantly trying to persuade the new ruler to keep peace with us. It was frustrating, but we somehow managed to always keep them at bay.

"Time passed, and eventually the old king died and left his first son in line the throne. It was time for us to sway the new king, and we had a brand new baby to do it with. We took turns delivering the baby to them, taking it to their forest, meeting the new king, and then returning back to our forest as soon as possible. It was Daya's turn to deliver the baby the last time.

"She left with the baby as usual, and was gone for a week... and then two, three, an entire month. We had begun to worry when she hadn't shown up after the usual four days; it gets hard to keep things running smoothly with only the contributing power of two goddesses. After she had been gone for a month, we really began to worry. We sent a few mercenaries to the Scythanians to check up on her or to find her, but none of them ever returned.

"Fara and I were both tempted to leave and search for her on our own, but we knew life couldn't survive with two of us gone. After two months, she returned with the mercenaries that we had sent. There was something terribly wrong with her, though. When she arrived, she arrived in uncharacteristically black clothing. Her eyes were sunken in and her once-long hair had been nearly all cut off. Everyone, though we were grateful to have her back, was terrified to see her. Fara and I quickly took her inside our home so that the rest of the community wouldn't have to see her like that and worry themselves about it. We immediately began questioning her.

"The questioning was hard as she wouldn't answer every question. The whole while, she kept a blank stare on her face, lifeless eyes roaming around the room as though they refused to look at either of us.

"We pleaded with her to tell us what they had done to her - why did she look like this? Her answer was always the same: she had 'seen' and wished to return to the Scythanians as a priestess for of their religion. Fara and I were both devastated, to say the least. Daya would never say these things of her own will! Fara refused to let off and continued to pound questions out of Daya until we could understand most of the story.

"We eventually gathered that, when she had gone and met the new king, she had fallen in love. Apparently, their new king was young, handsome, and devilishly persuasive. She willingly gave herself to him and promised to stay with him and convert to their religion. Being wed to him and being a convert, she was made a priestess. After two months had passed, she told her husband that she would have to return home and tell us, all of us who were depending on her, that she was leaving us forever.

"Fara wouldn't have it. At first, she refused to believe it, and then she just got angry. 'How could you do this to us!?' she'd charge over and over while she circled Daya, accusing her of betrayal. 'How could you leave us for them? Think about our people! How are they supposed to survive with only two life forces to sustain their existence? How can you be so selfish!?' But Daya just sat there the whole time, still refusing to look at either of us and never saying another word.

"I finally spoke, being the oldest. I told her that, though I would love to be happy for her, I couldn't help but question her motives. Why them? Of all of the people to fall in love with or to leave us for, why them?

"Fara and I took turns talking at her while she sat there and listened to every word. She never bothered to explain herself or apologize. I think we were frustrated the most at how she didn't seem to be paying attention to us. Here, we had worked together to uphold the Amase'ere race for thousands of years and we had never seen her act like this.

"As the night wore down, the two of us finally grew tired of arguing our points. It was hard to prove anything or try to persuade her when she wouldn't argue back. When we went to bed that night, she left. She must have snuck out past the guards to return to the Scythanian king. When we woke up the next morning, we knew she was gone... and we knew she wouldn't be coming back.

"The next four months were hell on our civilization; Fara and I were at our magic's end trying to keep life going as usual. We had decided to put a hold on seasonal births for the time being - we didn't want the creation of new life to interfere with the magic required to keep the living alive. She and I had to focus all of our magic in order to sustain the normal way of life as much as possible.

"Just when we thought merely existing might be too much for us, the worst thing imaginable happened... It was about eight years after she left when our forest was invaded. The Scythanian king arrived with hundreds of fearsome soldiers in black iron armor. We were thankful when they didn't ambush us right away; instead, he asked to see Fara and me...

"We reluctantly went to meet him, hoping that we could work out some sort of truce. He introduced himself as Morthangaard, Daya's husband. Fara seemed disgusted by the mere sight of him and I was too... it was hard to believe our sister had fallen in love with such a beast. He offered us a chance to surrender - he said Daya had told him all he needed to know about our way of life, our weaknesses. Our immortality couldn't stop him from destroying us all if he wanted.

"Fara and I were both so much in shock that we didn't even know how to react. He announced he would return the next day and then he left with his army. We were in a terrible state - we didn't know what to expect! What would he do to us? And, most of all, how could Daya let him!?

Fara and I spent all night thinking of ways to pay him to retreat. There was really nothing we could do; we didn't have enough magic to create another baby to sacrifice to him, and we didn't want to just surrender our home... We considered just fighting them and ending it once and for all. Maybe he was right and maybe they really did know how to kill us, but it would still be hard for them. We decided to try working something out first, but, if it came down to it, we wouldn't be afraid to fight.

"The next day he returned as promised. This time with a terrible look of victory about him - as though he knew he was going to win. Fara noted it too, but we still approached him as he arrived, we wouldn't let him win without a fight.

"'I can't know for sure what you want from us...' Fara explained, 'but, if it's possible, we'd like to spare the lives of our civilization.'

"Morthangaard smirked and eyed us thoughtfully. 'I want you to surrender your forest and your lives to me. I want everyone in your civilization to become slave maidens for the Scythanian... much like your sister did.'

"Fara narrowed her eyes, 'What's that supposed to mean...?'

"As if on cue, a soldier from the back came forward with a large burlap bag slung over his shoulder. He dropped the bag at their feet and the king nodded his head towards it, 'Go ahead, take a look.'

"Fara drew back and I inched forward."

"I know what you saw." Drev said softly after being so attentively quiet for the longest time. "I saw her once... it was terrible..."

"Yes," Naya choked, "It was Daya... Daya's body severed and mangled to the point where she was hardly recognizable. The sight made me sick but Fara became very angry. She lunged towards Morthangaard and started flinging several punches at the guards that stepped between them."

"'HOW COULD YOU!?' she wailed, fighting back angry tears. 'I thought she loved you!'

"'She did.' He said. 'Foolish of her, too - to fall in love with someone like me.'

"I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, and I was so overcome with depression that I couldn't even take my eyes off of her face though it hurt to look at it.

"The king announced that he would allow us some time for mourning, but that he would return the next morning. He left with his army again and Fara dragged me back to our home.

"'Are you okay?' she kept asking me. She explained that she had made some of the girls provide Daya with a proper burial, but she thought it would be best if I didn't attend. I had to agree with her; seeing Daya like that turned me into a real case. I didn't know how much longer I would last.

"When did she..." Drev interrupted, "You know..."

"You mean when did she kill herself?" Naya asked sadly. "It wasn't long into the war, sure enough, the Scythanians had figured out how to kill us. It wasn't through pain or acts of violence, the killed us by killing our spirit. There are things that are much worse than death. It finally drove Fara over the edge, when she had had enough; she wished her death and hung herself in her room.

"After that, everything fell apart. My magic alone couldn't help the few survivors we still had, and it was wavering. I had nothing else to live for; my life had hit rock-bottom... so I left.

"I fled the forest for the first time in ages, I could barely see through my tears and I was afraid I had gone insane. Yet, for some reason, I never chose to end my life. I lived for many years alone; hiding in panic knowing that some day the Scythanians would come looking for me.

"But they never found me. Eventually, I began to get better - the horrors from my past turned into merely memories and I began to venture out yet again. I knew I wanted to re-start our race. If it was possible, I would have loved to start a new society of Amase'ere. I began to channel my magic and I thought about creating another egg.

"It wouldn't be easy, though. I would have to raise the baby myself, and I was in no condition to do so. Then I found a human... I followed her around for several weeks until I deemed her worthy and approached her, asking if she'd like to raise my egg.

"The human agreed and took my egg in with the special instructions on how to hatch it. Of course, I should have known never to trust a human... I'm sure you know full-well the story of what happened to the egg - how everything would have been perfect until the Darigan soldiers appeared and started causing trouble. It was everything I could do; that egg had taken up most of my magic! I couldn't let it be destroyed! So I did the only thing I could think of and used the remaining magic to split the egg in two.

"It took several years for me to recuperate. When I had finally managed to produce more magic, I went out what had become of my egg. I found you first; you were in prison at the time. As much as I would have liked to rescue you, I knew I didn't have the magic or resources. So I helped you along the best I could before I went to find Ainad.

"She was harder to locate as she had left Neopia entirely and moved to the Draik Clan. I was really shocked when I found out that she had not only grown up, but had found a lifetime mate. This never really sat right with me... I wonder if it's because the only real experience I had with a couple was my sister's relationship... and we all know how that one turned out.

"Now that I've come to know more of Koarai and of Ainad's feeling for him, I can almost understand. I wonder if Daya felt the same way for Morthangaard...

"I went back to you and was with you until you escaped. I was proud of you that you were able to do it on your own... one thing you always helped me notice was just how significant a male can be. I never really understood until I saw how relentless you were - you never gave up; and I always admired you for that."

Drev's expression softened at her last statement. It was such a change for him to have someone that cared about him, it seemed. Even though he hadn't even known she'd existed until a few months ago, just hearing her say that made him feel significant for once.

"Are the rest of them still alive?" he asked. "The Amase'ere, I mean?"

"I don't know..." she said sadly. "There weren't many survivors when I left, I can only hope some of them managed to escape and make it on their own. I fear most of them may have fallen victim to the Scythanians' way of life."

"Are the Scythanians still around?" Drev wondered.

"I have no way of telling that, either." Naya said sadly. "My magic has diminished enough that I can't sense either anymore. Not until they were within my range - and I see no reason as to why one of them would want to come here... not when they have the Amae Forest."

Drev narrowed his eyes in deep thought, what if there were still Amase'ere out there... or even Scythanians? Would they try to find him and Ainad? Especially if they were the last in the bloodline...

"I'm sorry to bring all of this upon you." Naya said quietly. "But my tale had to be told before it was too late."

"Too late?" Drev panicked. "What do you mean?"

"It's my time to go." She said calmly. "I've lived for thousands of years and, really, I've been selfish with my time here."

Drev simply stared at her in shock. "You mean you're really going to just... go?"

"Yes." she said. "Sometime soon, the first time I get the opportunity. Don't tell Ainad, though... She wouldn't let me if she knew."

"But what about us?" Drev demanded. "What if something happens to Ainad or me and you aren't here to help - or even explain it!?"

"You'll figure things out." She said without explanation. "Just because I'm gone doesn't mean I'm not around."

Drev narrowed his eyes in confusion. What could she mean by that? And why did she wait until now to go? And... why was she telling him all of this?

"Will you help Ainad?"

"Huh?" he asked.

"She won't be happy..." Naya said, "She won't understand. Please help her to understand."

"Okay." Said Drev stupidly, wondering how he could explain it to Ainad when he didn't fully understand it himself.

"Please," she said, small eyes brimming with tears. "This is the only thing I'll ever ask of you - please take care of Ainad."

Drev clenched his teeth and eyed her judgingly. How could she ask him to do this when she knew full-well that his ultimate goal was to make Ainad suffer...? But then again, now that he knew more of their past and the things involved, did he still want to kill Ainad after all? He was beyond revenge with her - it didn't even really matter to him anymore. What would it hurt to look after Ainad...? Maybe, if he tried hard enough, he could once again find the love for her he once felt - the love between siblings rather than the hatred between enemies.

The small Draik in front of him had her fingers folded together and she was watching him closely, her eyes pleading with him to agree. It was her last wish.

Drev weighed the solutions once more. This wasn't just something he could easily give an answer to. Though he longed to say 'yes' and change his feelings for Ainad, something inside him still hurt...

"Please..." she whispered again, her small voice stressing desperation.

"Fine." Drev said reluctantly. "I promise."

"Oh, thank you so much!" said the small Draik as she fluttered over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "You'll make me proud - I know it."

It was all Drev could do to keep from showing any form of affection as she left. He'd miss her.


The End



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