Hello, everyone! Okay. I did NOT expect this one to happen... I mean, it's freaky! It's the most disturbing little thing I think I've written... And I want to thank Harly for that. ^_^ I don't know if I ought to write more... This would be a tidy little ending, I think, but I don't want to abandon it just yet... I mean, I haven't even gotten her to her highest rank yet! What about the war? I don't know... Help ppl? I promised you all lemon... ::sighs:: I don't know... Again, help minna-san? She was a strong, proud woman. Her face was a cold, powerful one sitting atop a graceful neck. Her shoulders were wide and strong, her back straight and sturdy. More than anything though, was the change in her stature and confidence. No more was she a sad young girl with no home. She was in herself and absolution of character. She was a strong, mighty person and she knew that with all her soul. Also, her eyes had change dramatically. Usually they were large and sad, clouded with painful shadows, but right then, at the height of fury, they were cold and flashing black as coal. It was these eyes that made her a goddess. A goddess to be tearfully obeyed for fear of her wrath. A goddess that one would gladly sacrifice oneself for if it meant the safety of family. She was a great and powerful giver of life who also had the ability to take that life at a moment's notice. Kimodo looked at this woman, who, though beautiful still, had transformed into a monster. From a lovely and gentle girl to a pillar of strength and ability. He knew then, as his knees gave out and he crumpled to the muddy ground in a crumpled, soggy heap, that he was leaving. He would never again step foot in that place. He was running away, and as Kanani said, he was a failure. She, however, felt a new strength flowing through her. This new anger of hers filled her with new energy and ability. She felt that she could take on the universe and that the gods were of no importance to her. She was a pillar of strength; a colossus that could never be defeated. It was then that she knew why her mother liked being angry. She looked at the crumpled, sodden young man, and thought of how much she would love to kill him. More than anything, she wanted to feel his blood, warm and rich, on her hands while she stole his life away. She wanted to tear him limb from limb and show his head as a warning to others of her new power. More than anything she wanted to laugh as she ripped away the last shreds of his young life before the masses. However, she knew that he would scream. And she also knew it would be like the ending passages of the Books that Jukilo had read to her with a trembling voice so long ago: "24. And the seas shall turn to blood, and the land shall swell and tumble. The spirits of the Worlds of Joy and Pain shall awaken and take the lives of those they left behind. "And all those who are not killed by the dead shall be destroyed in a tumultuous sea of blood. "And those that are not taken by the spirits or the blood shall be killed by the land rising and swelling like the waves of a rough sea, quaking and rolling like stormy waters. "25. And the sun shall grow into a great man of stunning light and strength, and he shall become covered and shall cry a great wail and he shall die. "And darkness shall overtake the universe, and the moon will become a great woman in the sky, and with her children the Stars, she shall writhe in pain and scream a terrible scream before dying in her own blood. And her children the Stars shall writhe and cry out like infants at the death of their mother and they shall turn into blood and shall fall upon the land, crying out with their last breaths. "And the earth shall begin to writhe and tumble like a man that is being stung by many hornets, and it shall turn into a great being that is neither man nor woman. "My children!" he shall cry, blood pouring from his crying lips "why did you forsake us? Did we not love you?" And he shall moan one last time and die terribly, sinking into the darkness. "26. And the universe shall begin swirling and tumbling in a sea of fire and blood. And it shall begin to collapse into itself, swirling with flame and brimstone in a sea of boiling red blood. "And it shall collapse into itself in a point through which not even light can escape, and everything shall crash together and blend and collide and all shall be lost. "Nothing shall remain for all of eternity. All spirits that survived will be swept in the crushing turmoil and scream and cry in horror as they are destroyed with terrible pain and fear..." This passage had haunted her then, and it hunted her still. She felt that she had heard the final cry of the gods on Erfen's lips, and she knew that Kimodo would cry out like that so she could never take his life. With the rain streaming down her face and arms, she walked slowly and methodically toward the forest. She knew she was powerful, and so even in this structured military environment, she wouldn't be told to stop. She went deep into the recesses of the forest and took up a large branch. Holding it firmly she began whacking at a tree as hard as she could, screaming out her frustrations. She then climbed up the much abused tree and stood on a branch, crying out her pain to the world. With the cold rain streaming over her body and lightening flashing in the sky, she cursed every god, deity, and spirit that she could name. She embraced her mother and cursed the grave of Erfen. Everything she told herself was wrong for so long was then embraced and held close to her soul. She screamed until she grew hoarse and the fury of the storm reached its great peak of fury at her words. She was denying everything but her one true relative. Her mother had been a homicidal psychopath with intense emotional problems, and Kanani embraced this woman as if she were embracing a loved one. She, too, had emotional problems and was psychopathic, and so she screamed at everything. She damned all her frustrations and miseries and cried out those frightful passages; her tears mingling with the storm. She, herself had become an absolution. She was Murre's one true child, and thus the woman, for all her sins, was forgiven. Kanani understood her and was thus one with herself. Kanani Rujikan, true daughter of Murre, adopted by Spowaban of the Wintscha, a woman unto herself.