The Death of Time

Sentinels of...

Fleeing before shades and wraiths...

The God and once King of Time Chronos stood at Ananke's side and watched her back as she stepped towards the archyway of the Coliseum. 'Nake refused to take her eyes off of Eris or the convoluted Erinyes; the four females of Strife and Vengeance watching their retreat with the snarls of blood lust clearly displaid. Ananke knew that these creatures were hesitant, still unsure of what it was 'nake could do to them. If they realized that she had absolutely no power to harm them, this bluff of hers would turn deadly very quickly. It still amazed her that the stone she'd thrown had done any damage at all, let alone made on of the creatures bleed. She'd believed that the stones painted with the name Aeon only held weight for her.

Even though this strange tableau of the Coliseum and the monsters held in silence existed inside Chronos' mind, there was no simple or direct way to cross over from one to the other like they currently were. The fact that Chronos could not recall how he'd achieved this little feat warned him that someone Powerful was maniuplating them both and that pissed him off greatly. But he held his rage in check, knowing that he was supposed to be assuring that no attack assaulted Ananke's turned back while she guarded his in return. It was a strange sensation, to be taking a step forward in tandem with a mortal who stepped backwards. Someone trusted him and that was a sensation he had not endured in neigh millenia.

Chronos spied the female monsters that were waiting for his blood to be spilled and they snapped and snarled, thwarted by Ananke's interference. Eris had no qualms turning man against man; it was her nature, and the Erinyes were the judgement and punishment of legend to his kind but these other creatures.... They were vassals to their masters, those that hated Chronos for his past, his interferences and for his very existence. He was supposed to be dead and discarded for his actions against his sons, but it was only the truth that Rhea had cursed him that spared him any sembalance of life at all. As if spending eternity lashed to the Heart of Time was a form of living, but it beat even the ultimate ending that these monsters wanted from him.

Ananke nearly stumbled at the rough enterance of the Coliseum but Chronos guided her over the steps carefully, her bare feet leaving minute, bloody prints in the sand that swirled away with the rising breeze. 'Nake could feel Chronos' hand on her shoulder, helping steer her around the obstacles as she continued to watch his back, seeing the creatures held only barely at bay as they retreated. Whatever it was that held them away was only lasting five feet in radius and a tight knot of angry monsters nearly stepped in Ananke's bloody foot prints as the mortal and the Father of Time retreated. The numbness that Ananke carried inside seemed to be growing to cover more than just her emotional state as she no longer felt the burn and sting of her damaged feet, nor could she really sense the breeze that stirred the sands past them. Chronos was leading her back up the roadway she had followed him down what felt like ages ago, and as they passed by Ananke noticed that this time the buildings were once again ruins and rubble. As if now that their task was over, they could fall to memory again. The monsters that thirsted for Chronos' blood swiped and snarled, still strangely silent but falling further away as the reluctant duo continued their retreat down the path of Chronos' memory.

They stepped over a boundary, but Ananke knew they were not yet into her own mind because the landscape they stood in was alien to her. Grasses and grains that were extinct in her time scraped and whispered past their bodies and there was the smell of summer in the air, drying the very life out of the ground under her feet. The air against her skin felt heavy with age, as if the very act of moving in a breeze was taxing and contained more life than this field was capable of mustering for much longer. The monsters were unable to follow and Ananke felt Chronos' hand fall away as she slowly spun around, taking in the strange landscape sequestered away inside his mind. Next to her Chronos stood frozen, his face a mask of horror and disbelief; the cominbation reminding Ananke of the moment they'd enterted her own worse memory.