Beginning of the End

A woman, with silvery-white hair stood in the wind. Red lips blew low notes as pale fingers flitted across the flute. In the dark, a red gem-stone glowed in the dark.

The low wind-like sound of a flute playing was as ominous as it was calming.

Sighing, the woman opened her eyes. Her eyes were like white moonstone, no dark pupil visible as they were completely white. If not for the alert gaze her eyes held, the woman could have been mistaken as blind.

Lifting her hand off the flute, she held her round stomach as she gazed tenderly downwards. A soft whisper drifted from her lips.

"I'm sorry little Kashi-chan. But I promise, this is the last time. Okay?"

Another shuddery breath, her hands shook as the woman stared upwards towards the moon. Her gaze was melancholic and sad, a sense of finality resided deep within it. Soft hands clenched as she continued speaking.

"Things might be a little different this time but I promise everything will become better."

~

A scream of pain.

Howling thunder.

The soft mewls of a newborn child.

Soft moonlight.

A ghost of a smile flitted across thin lips as an exhausted mother tenderly pulled her child close. The father whined softly as he watched his mate hold his cub close, the sight heartwarming but the feeling of something wrong lingered.

Trotting closer, he kissed and cuddled the two before leaving to retrieve nourishing foods to help his mate recover.

Pale eyes watched her husband leave the room, a smile of fondness lingered on her lips as she felt nostalgia. A tear rolled down her cheek as the soft nostalgia twisted into something darker, angrier, sadder.

"I'm sorry."

Looking down at her sleeping babe, cleaned from bodily fluids wrapped in swaddling cloth. Small ears twitching as a white tail curled closer, dark eyes opened, wide and so innocent.

For a second, self-doubt filled her chest as she observed her child. Was it really worth it? Can she even succeed?

Wild wind blew open the windows, allowing white moonlight to fill the room, cold and ethereal. The woman looked up at the moon, surrounded by black clouds but brilliant in its brightness. Lightning streaked downwards, the low rumble of thunder loud.

Determination filled her eyes as her hands glowed, an array formed as chakra whirlpooled into a small piece of black cloth.

I must or else...

On her shoulder, a black mark, in the shape of a diamond, the mark of the kāma, started to fade.

Bitterly the woman laughed as she muttered, "This mortal vessel was never meant to last. But I'm glad that I could do this much my child. At least...one day you will understand. But for now—"

Hopefully her other child could wake her, free her, in time. In time to make her family whole again once more.

She drew her last breathe, the world faded.

Glassy eyes stared at nothing. Excited footstep came closer before the crash of porcelain shattering as a white-haired man started to sob. The muted scent of death and sadness overwhelming his senses, the still silence growing as his heart beat louder. Denial played on his lips as he crept closer.

The quickly cooling corpse lay so still, as though the woman were merely sleeping. He listened for her breathe, the heartbeat that had been so strong, alive, before he had left to retrieve food for his resting mate.

The child also cried, starting with soft whimpers then desperate screaming. The child cried because the warmth, the life, caregiver, milk-giver, mother, was gone. Everything warm that he had known in her short life was gone.

The Father sobbed from the loss of his Mate, mourning that now his Family, Pack, was one member less.

~

Outside, a storm raged. It started with soft drizzling rain then with the first flash of lightning. Thunder boomed, lightning blinded. It was said to be the worst storm in recorded history, border lining on hurricane.

High above, a full moon shone. Brilliant white moonlight streamed down unto the dark storm-clouds. Clouds that lit up with lightning and mixed dark with light. Dark silvery clouds.