Otherworld 7: Ch 25 - The End of Fear



Chapter 25 - The End of Fear


Isabo rapped on the door to her daughter's quarters. The door opened and a sleepy Akina peered around it. "Mother, Shinjou, What are you doing here?" she said with a yawn. Isabo gently pushed her way into the room and Shinjou followed behind her, closing the door. Shinjou blushed and turned to face the door as soon as he realized Akina was not dressed. She certainly inherited her mother's figure, he thought to himself. Isabo continued across the sitting room and sat in the one unoccupied overstuffed chair. Akina had moved from a guestroom to a deluxe suite when she returned from taking her brother home. One of the surprises she gave Hiya. Akina saw Shinjou's reaction, sighed and walked over to her robe which had been tossed on another chair with a box in it after Lukana was in bed. She wrapped it loosely around her and then moved the box that was occupying the seat and sat in it. There were several boxes scattered about the room and a couple of new articles on the walls. "You can turn around now," Akina said to Shinjou. He turned and joined his mate, standing behind her chair with his hand lovingly placed on her shoulder. Isabo reached up, took the hand and led him around and encouraged him to sit on the cushioned arm. One of the bedroom doors opened and Hiya peeked out from behind it, "Akina?" "It's just Momma and Shinjou. You can go back to bed." The Ice Demon disappeared from the door, but quickly reappeared tying the sash on her robe and handing a second one to Akina. "You didn't have to get up." Akina said, accepting the sash and tying her robe tightly. "If it's important enough for them to interrupt their mating night, then it's important for me to be here too." Hiya said, taking a seat on the arm of Akina's chair and linking her hand with her partner's. Akina looked at the two of them and said, "Okay, what's this all about? Hiya's right. It must be important to make the two of you to leave your mating bed." Akina was not very tactful when her sleep was interrupted. "We found the entity," Isabo said. "What! You did? How? Where?" Akina exclaimed a bit too loudly. Hiya, Isabo and Shinjou all shushed her, listening to make sure Lukana didn't wake up in the other bedroom. "We went out for a run and happened upon where it's hiding," Isabo said "We found it very close to the Castle too. Too close!" Shinjou said. "It's in a crevasse toward the south, no more than an hour's walk from here," Isabo said "So it must be plotting revenge. It should have high tailed it out of here by now if it wanted to survive," Akina said. "In the morning you and I will need to go after it. Are you prepared?" Isabo asked. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Akina responded. "Akina!" Hiya exclaimed, all her worries poured into that one word. She looked up at her partner. "It can't be helped, Hiya. It's what I do." She looked back at her mother. "What about Lukana?" "I'll go talk to her," Isabo said and disappeared into the other room. "Well, your mating night's not working out quite as well as planned, is it?" Akina said to Shinjou. "It was actually fantastic. We'll have plenty of time to make up for this distraction, provided your plan works. I only ask one thing, Akina." "What's that?" "That both of you come home in one piece." "I second that!" Hiya said. Akina leaned her head against her partner's side. "That's definitely part of the plan," Akina assured both of them..


	Isabo entered the dark room and sat on the chair beside the bed. "Lukana, I know you're awake." "You're going to kill him, aren't you?" "Actually he's an it, and yes. It's left us no choice." "But he... it never hurt us."

"Actually it did. It robbed years off your life and the other children it stole. And all of Kayla's and Hotoshin's memories. Even Kenji and Kara had some memories. And it caused so much grief for their parents -- for me. It hurt many protectors, and probably killed the family that lived at that farm. Then, there were all those people killed by the war it started. It almost killed Kiri, your sister and I, and it was only by luck that all the men were now awake again. It's hiding just outside the Castle's grounds waiting for its chance to attack us again." Lukana sniffed and rolled to her back.

	"You still have feelings for it?" She nodded and said, "I can't help it. I know it doesn't make sense. Today, when I finally got to see everyone else again, I still felt like they're my sisters and brothers. I saw how much their real families love them, just like you do. It was so much more than anything Shinashi showed us, but the feeling's still there." "That's understandable."

Isabo gently wiped the tears from her daughter's eyes. Lukana suddenly sat up and hugged her mother. She backed off when she felt wetness. She looked at her mother's breasts and saw wet stains at the nipples. Her mother was still producing milk. Milk that was meant for her. "But it's been a month!" Lukana said. "I didn't want to stop lactating, not until I knew for sure there was no going back." Lukana looked at her mother and even in the dim light she could see the tears. Curious, Lukana pulled her mother's robe open and pressed her mouth around one of the nipples. Closing her eyes, Lukana started suckling. As the warm sweet milk entered her mouth, she was flooded with memories, feelings mostly, of love, security, and total happiness. There was no sadness or fear. Most of all, she still remembered the taste. Lukana worked her way around to a more natural position and Isabo cradled her daughter as she nursed both breasts dry. Tears poured down the woman's face. Nursing her babies was one of the things she treasured the most. The entity stole that precious bonding time from them. If killing the entity didn't return the children to normal, this was going to be the last time she would nurse her daughter. Lukana released her mother's breast, sat up and pulled the robe closed. She also had tears in her eyes, but this time they were not for Shinashi, but for what the two of them lost. She understood now. "Go stop Shinashi, Momma, whatever it takes. I'll be alright." "I love you," Isabo said embracing her daughter again. "Me too," Lukana said back.

Isabo was awakened by soft tapping on the door. She was laying on her side using Shinjou's arm as a pillow. They laid spooned with his other arm draped over her. She felt that arm tighten to embrace her. "I wish I didn't have to let you go," he whispered in her ear. Then he nuzzled and kissed the back of her neck.

	She rolled forcing him to his back and she placed an arm on either side of him and hovered over his head. He embraced her waist and hugged her lower half close as she dropped down to kiss him. The tapping occurred again followed by Akina's soft voice, "Momma, I'm sorry but we must get going." Raising up again and looking down at her new mate, Isabo said to her daughter through the door, "I'll meet you outside."

Isabo dropped down and gave Shinjou a quick departing kiss. He moved his hand to her face and caressed it as she pulled away. "Promise you'll come back to me," Shinjou said with pleading eyes.

	She placed her hand over his and said, "I promise to return as quickly as I can!" Then she rolled away from him and out of the bed. Isabo didn't cover up as she walked toward the balcony. Shinjou watched her backside and buttocks and felt his body respond again. He prayed as he watched her disappear over the balcony rail, "Please, gods, let her come back to me,"

The sun was just starting to peak out over the hills. Isabo changed into a Unicorn as she cleared the balcony rail and landed lightly on the ground. Akina was waiting there for her and gave her a knowing smile. She hated calling her mother away the morning after her mating night. Akina knew they had very little sleep, especially after finding Shinashi. Akina climbed onto her mother's back. "I'll first make a portal to my home and then I'll make a portal to where you said the entity was."

	Isabo nodded and waited as the portal opened. In the span of two heartbeats they were standing next to a lake in a small meadow of flowers. Not a bit of it had changed since Kyo and her sister, Jalala, called it home. The beautiful valley held so many memories for Isabo. She just stood there with her eyes closed, drinking in the peacefulness while Akina made the next portal.

This portal dropped them near the deep crevasse that Isabo and Shinjou had found during their midnight escapade. The aura that emanated from the crevasse was both frightening and sickening at the same time. The two of them were not affected the way everyone and everything else would have, but the results were obvious. All the plants near the crack in the earth had died, trees had fallen and the ground look diseased. "Do you feel it?" Isabo asked her daughter. "Yes." "Now filter out the evil and find the good in everything around you. Gather it, magnify it, and then collect its power within yourself." Isabo tilted her head around so she could watch her daughter with one eye and watch the crevasse with the other. Akina started to glow and her hair rose off her shoulders with the charge that she had gathered to her. Akina was ready. Isabo drew strength from the earth itself and power from the universe above. She could feel it flowing into her. Her horn glowed brilliantly. She stepped forward and touched the ground at the crevasse with her horn, sending a charge through it. The entity screamed and poured out of the crack, immediately engulfing them.

	Akina raised her hands and erected a barrier to trap it, preventing any escape. Isabo began her purifying process. To a bystander, the cloudy black mist started to turn slowly dark grey, then light grey. Soon white started to show. The screaming of the Entity was torturous. The evil thing gathered the last of its strength and formed a black head which looked like a cross between a bird and a dragon. It moved in to kill Akina. That was the move they both had been waiting for.

Akina had only been concentrating on maintaining the barrier, easily within her normal powers. She hadn't even tapped the power she had gathered before they started. Isabo and Akina combined their powers together and released their remaining strength all at once. The entity was obliterated in a blinding flash of white light. The barrier broke and the wave of power rolled over the scarred land. Isabo changed to her human form and both she and Akina fell to the ground exhausted, looking up at the blue sky. "Please tell me we don't have to do that again anytime soon." Akina said. "I hope not," Isabo replied back. Then they both started giggling which escalated to outright laughter. "We did it!" they said in unison. Then they hugged each other. "Momma?" "Hum?" Isabo watch in fascination as the plants around them started growing at an accelerated rate. "Does it bother you that Hiya and I have become a couple?" Akina asked. "Whatever makes you happy makes me happy for you." she responded. "Sesshie doesn't like it. He's afraid that if I pair with Hiya, my lifemate may pass me by." "It's possible. In life we make decisions and these decisions create rippling effects that affect our future, but if we make them from the goodness in our hearts then things usually come out right in the end. Let your heart be your guide." Akina got up, then looked at her mother slyly and changed herself into a Unicorn. Only then did she bother to look around her.

	"Oh Momma, you've got to see this!" Isabo changed back into a Unicorn and stood by her daughter. They were standing in the middle of a field of sunflowers. "These weren't here before," Akina said. "No, they weren't," Isabo said nuzzling her daughter.

As one, they charged off, racing through the sea of flowers. They kicked up their heels and jumped for the sheer joy of it as they headed back towards the Castle; back to the ones they love. Isabo knew that she and Akina shouldn't parade around in their Unicorn forms but right then, she didn't care. They were celebrating the end of the fear. It was the dawn of a new era. She could feel it.