Glass Arrow

Chapter 16

       Fight Back. Something I've been doing- no something I say I do. Something I avoid. I was a freak, I couldn't do as I pleased, I may be able to get away with making it seem like I'm doing something but that doesn't mean I can. Fight back, huh? Fine.

       Grinding my teeth, I glared at the pale-faced individual that was just like everyone else. Someone that didn't even consider me a person. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes as my body burned. Almost as if falling into dark still water I couldn't even swim in, I fell.

          In the darkness I had never experienced before- no, I had been here before. I had been here once before. With Miss H right beside me, I had a burst, all because of this place. This vast and dark water. Only, I'm not alone this time.

         As if sinking past a large and angered eye, I found the one that thought they could do whatever they please with my magic. With my body. Yet I didn't stop falling, merely watching that inky gaze as I fell. It wasn't the only one in here, tangled within my magic.

         A tiger with glowing red stripes hissed at me, flicking her tail behind her as I keep falling. Watching a white stag leap past me, electricity bouncing with every step, stomped, electricity cracking under its hooves but I keep falling. A multi-eyed wolf whined as it tried to chase after me, magma dripping from its mouth, yet no matter how fast it rain it kept getting smaller until it too was just a beast I was passing. Falling through the cold nothingness, I finally found the bottom, my back bouncing over it slowly, subtly,  until I was just laying there. A dark nothingness above me.

          "What are you doing here?" Looking at the tall and black scaled woman I couldn't help but laugh. A laugh that turned to tears as I curled in around myself. It hurts. Everything hurts. "... I see," She hummed crouching next to me before sitting, her tail curling around me securely.

         "What am I Vixen? Am I a monster? I didn't even do anything?! Why do they hate me?! What did I do to the gods for them to scorn me so?!" I all but wailed, digging my claws into a tail that did not yield to them.

         "... Child, I have lived hundreds of thousands of live times and even stood before those very gods-" Looking up at her through my tearful lashes as she started up into the nothingness above us- "And all they'll ever have to say for themselves, is that mortals, like you, do not have the right to question them," She said softly, not pained nor unpained. A mere brief story of a past she didn't seem to dwell in. "Every creature that has escaped mortality seems to have similar feelings," She hummed, turning her sideways gaze to me indifferently.

         "Because I was born mortal I have to let these things walk over me?" I whimpered, her gaze unwavering. With a soft laugh and a hum, she turned her gaze back up.

         "Never." She got to her large clawed feet, her tail carefully pulling away from my grasp as she offered me a glossy black hand. "You are to never let them walk on you, they are being just as you, and even a god can be killed, so get back on your feet, straight your back, for they have no real control over the mortals they play with. They can't do anything to you, but you, well, you can bind their most beloved of creatures, you can take what they can't touch, you can control them. So come, get up," Taking her hand I pulled myself onto shaky feet.

          "You, who had magic, not even I could mimic, you who has the ability to stand before gods and the beasts they've damned to even the deepest parts of the pit, all you have to do, is know that magic, your magic, is not of one thing. Sure, your oh-so-mortal magic is of glass, yes, I can agree to that, but you can bring life into that magic, something few can do, the real prize, however, is that spiritual magic that deems you a freak. It's not a magic of black and white child,

         "Yes, you can bind things, things not mean to be bound to mortals, but you can do more than that. You can control those that you've bound, and I don't mean that poor excuse of merging. That is not you in control. That is them playing at control. Surely useful, easier than any other form of this magic, yes, but the weakest kind,

        "It is forced, a painful experience where they get to play in the waking world even if they don't pick where they walk. But you can do the same. Do not let them change your form. Bring theirs to you. There is no choice, truly, they may try to fight, but you are a being that is above them,"

        "I'm not-"

        "You are, and while I may not know how to use that magic, I do know that there have been those with that same magic that stood before the gods that scorned them and turned what had been twenty-three gods into a mere four. Now, as simple as it is, remind whatever beast that thinks itself bigger, better, than you, and tells it that you are the owner of your vessel. If it wishes for a fight, give it one, but do it in the beast's vessel. Because there is only pain when fighting in your own,"

       "But I don't know how, Vixen, I have no one to teach me this magic! I don't know how to fight a beast that just comes and goes as it pleases!" She stared at me, tears pouring down my face as I collapsed to my knees tearing at the white hair that caused this.

        "Child, if you do not know how to fight, bind it. Bind it deep down, all the way to the bottom of your magic, fair deeper than even this, and you leave it there. You leave it to rot," She grabbed my face, making me meet her gaze, her grip tight and painful and her glare harsh. "Not all fights are pretty or fair, the moment it touched your magic, it was at your whim, the closer you keep it to your core, the less it can fight back. So you chain it right to the bloody thing, you hear me? You chain it to your very core, and you never forget, do you hear me?"

        "I- I'll do it,"