Keith looked at her hands.. the skin on them were moulting away. It was all just dead skin... dead and gone. A scar she had on her arm was also gone. She remembered that scar, when she had been particularly disobedient and her father quickly showed her who was boss.
Funny, how those memories were getting stronger. Memories she had not thought of, since she was a child. Her mother had died in child birth. She always felt that maybe her father blamed her in some way for it. As soon as she was old enough, she left... made her own way in this wild world. Took out a number of jobs...
... and became a bandit.
She looked at her hands, the nails seemed a little long. She scratched away at the skin, as more of it parted from her. It was practically blowing away in the wind... her hands were small. So small, barely able to make a ball of a fist.
She stared at the water some more, and the reflection of the young girl. As if to taunt her, she could see the small swellings of her chest, despite the coverings around her. She didn't want to look down... but she did. The small orbs pressed against the clothings, pert and proud, though of a young teenage girl.
Keith lamented her life, as time seemed to slow now. Death was always a possibility in her life... she felt it was worth the risk. You only got to live once. If one could become king, but had to take great risks, wouldn't the gain be worth it? Keith was never afraid of death. But this... this wasn't death. It was a humiliation. She had a disease, an illness, that was stripping away everything she was. Death was preferable.
"Death... is preferable," She said repeating that thought grimly.
She was tired... the fatigue of coming here, sleep deprivation, not to mention the trauma of a new body that was feeling as weak as a child... The tribe said they could do nothing for her. She was to either live with them, or elsewhere...
... but there was another option.
She took out her knife, staring at it. She could die with what little manhood she had left... rather then subject herself to becoming someone's whore. A woman in the 19th century didn't get to do... anything. Nothing worthwhile...
She could feel something in her mind. The part of her that shared a life with Kei. A life she had spent three months, as an expectant mother and family.
No! Kei said in her mind. The child... her family...
Keith's hand shuddered... the indecision of fighting a battle of will, between two people that had the same soul. She had to deny the dream... It was just a dream! This was reality. Kei wasn't real.. Farin wasn't real... it was just a hallucination. Focusing on this gave the bandit the edge.
she had to do this quickly. She may not get another chance... she placed the knife to her neck- when she was suddenly hurled onto the ground, her blade falling. The girl she had been following earlier had thrown her down. "No!" Keith screamed.
"You stupid!" The girl, Lomasi, exclaimed. "Why you think do that!"
Keith blinked tears as she wept. She was a pathetic... broken... girl. Humiliated. This older girl just bested her in a fight... and she asks why? "It's all... I have left." Keith said, taking out the last of her gold coins. This last one, was emblazoned with the symbol of the eagle...
The bandit stared at the gold coin for some time. What was it now? Junk... just junk. How many people did she betray to get it? How many did she kill? How much did she lose! It couldn't restore her manhood, nothing could... She threw it on the ground.
Lomasi picked up the coin looking at it. "It.. talisman?" she asked.
Keith shook her head, still eyeing the knife on the ground.
Lomasi followed her gaze. "You girl that see spirit. You are blessed by them. Very lucky."
The bandit growled though her voice was hardly intimidating any more. "Your spirits killed me... and are slowly ending my life. I will deny them the last breath."
Lomasi shook her head. "No."
"No?"
The young native shook her head. "No. Spirits not allow it." She then took the knife placing it in her clothings.
Keith lacked the energy to argue the point right now. The void between her legs made her cringe. Damn it.. she needed coffee. She needed to stay awake! She went to the stream, washing her face, refreshing herself a little... as even more flakes of skin parted from her. Her lips felt a little swollen...
"I.. Lomasi," Said the native. "Please... Not die?" She asked. "I help you."
Keith couldn't fight the need for sleep any more. "Y-es. Help... help me..." She begged. "I.. don't.. want to sleep... keep me awake..."
Lomasi looked shocked. "Sleep good for you." She said confused.
"Help.. me..." she said falling onto the native, her black hair cascading down the sides of her face, rich and luxurious.
Lomasi gently took the young girl to her tent. "peace," She said softly. One of the few English words she knew intimately.
Robert watched outside on the street. A few had come... to heckle her. She knew why they had come. She knew they didn't want her there... but she also believed, the Lord would guide her. That wasn't the most troubling thing though in all this... what troubled her most, was how 'ordinary' the people were protesting against her.
They came in all shapes and sizes... The group chanted a few things to her... words she couldn't truly understand any more. Robert gazed at them... and for some reason they all fell silent.
"I'm ashamed..." She said quietly.
The group looked at her stunned.
"Ashamed of what I was..." She said. "Each of you, has transformed... yet none of you learned anything. Come with me, and pray... pray to God, for forgiveness..."
"You beg for forgiveness demon! The angels are with us!" Said one man. He appeared to be a humanoid tortoise.
Robert looked at the man... he had brought a child with him. ... that stung her deeper then anything else. Why involve someone too young to really understand? His son was probably no more then four years old. The child appeared to be a young wolf. he seemed oblivious of anything being wrong, and didn't know what was going on...
The devil priestess was almost fuming inside. "You brought your child out of school, for this?!"
"He has the right to know what kind of world we live in now." The tortoise said.
Robert gritted her teeth. "I will make this perfectly clear... either you will come with me and we'll consider this an outing of religious education, or I will call the police and we'll see how they feel about it."
The man bulked slightly. Robert may have struck a nerve. In the end he nodded. "We'll join your sermons demon... you wont keep this job for long. We want the true chosen of God to be a priest.. not you. We want the Angels!"
The man left, leaving Robert alone. She glanced up to the sky, a small tear on her cheek.
"Don't... we all..."
