Claws raked into my chest. I could feel the blood began soak my already stained robes, but it was my only option at this point. I had been fighting for hours, close to a day at least. It seemed that after the gate vanished the monsters either woke up, or returned. Either way I was on my last legs. I could feel all the cuts, burns and bruises I had sustain, while fighting for her survival. My muscles burned and my mind was foggy, but before the beast could even begin to pull its arm away I grabbed it around the wrist and yanked it forward. The human like monster stumbled, not expecting the sudden move, and as it did I thrust my sword at its hard carapace. The tip shattered on impacted, but the jagged piece of the edge that remained was more than suitable to pierce the plates and slide all the way to its heart. A high pitched keening escaped it's mouth as I twisted the blade in its foul heart. Before I could pull my sword out it twisted to the side, breaking my grip on the handle, and lept back. Glaring at me it hissed, though rather half heartedly since it was dying, and backed away. I didn't bother trying to chase it or threaten it anymore, we would both die, but neither of us had the desire to exert any more energy. The effort involved would just kill us sooner.
A tingling in my limbs told me the poison had begun spreading through my body. Lucky that wasn't what was going to kill me. Hours earlier I had signed my life away. I looked down at the unconscious girl, on the floor even in bright blue of my mage light, she seemed ethereal and looked much too like a corpse for my liking. Just to be sure I checked her pulse, I could feel her heartbeat and her chest rose and fell. She wouldn't be safe here, but I didn't have the strength to move her anymore. I knelt looking at her face, unblemished and whole. It was far different from what I had last seen it, her skull was bashed, and she lay unmoving in a pool of her own blood.
Shaking the thoughts of her untimely demise 15 years ago, I looked again at her face trying to memorize the features before I died. She had a gentle face, with smooth features, well except for her eyes. Even though they were closed I remembered them quite well. They were intense and it felt like she was looking through you rather than at you. Almost as though what she really wanted to look at was behind you and as long as she stared hard enough she would still be able to see it unimpeded. Her hair which used to be black had taken on the same look as her skin appearing as white as snow. Except instead of elegant it was sickly, as though she had never seen the sun, which now that I think about it is true. She has never seen the sun, we buried her broken body 15 years ago, so she was now completely remade.
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She was wrapped in a makeshift bundle of clothes, just like newborn, when you are reborn you come out wearing your birthday suit. Which wasn't a pleasant experience with us being siblings and all. Twins specifically. Even though she she was the prodigy, I loved her just the same. She never made feel worthless or inferior, even while I was nothing but dead weight in training. Her name was Kirin, she was the pride of my clan. I couldn't bare the thought of leading the clan, so after her funeral, I left the village in search of the gates of death. Which is harder than it sounds, it moves frequently and when it's used they won't return to the world for several years. I searched most of the know world, and even some of the unknown for the gates, either I'd find them or die trying. Searching the whole world would be exhausting, thankfully I had a hint. All souls once freed from their body will seek out the gate. If you have a captured soul just follow direction it is drawn towards. Unfortunately once a soul is captured it isn't very helpful, and you have to get within several hundred miles for it to react. Thus the reason it took 15 years to find.
There is a price for resurrecting the dead. A life for a life. We had brought criminals with us for the exchange, but as I said I was the last one left. So I made a deal with the gatekeeper, my life for hers. The captured soul, bought me a day with my sister. The idea was I could explain things, so she would know who she was and how to get home. She has been asleep since the deal was struck. No only that, but as soon as my sister was returned to me, the gate vanished and I could feel the monsters that had returned to the caves. I've been protecting her since then hoping she would wake, but I don't think she will until my borrowed time is up.
Looking at her now, she seemed bit older than the day she died. Almost as if she aged while she was dead, but slower, or maybe that's just what I want to see in her. For the last 15 years I had wondered what she would look like right now if she wasn't dead. That was all that kept me going.