*Fearful Lucina Intensifies*
And people thought that was a joke
Also,
invisitext in this one. Just a bit.
She'd been sucker punched before.
She was training to
fight, of course she had been sucker punched before. Caught off guard in a way that leaves you in a breathless shock knowing that their very well might be a knife or sword coming for you
and you couldn't do anything.
They had only knocked her out, but the lesson had stuck.
This felt like that, but many times worse.
War.
War with an insane King leading a nation howling for their blood. A King who had threatened her family personally. Had threatened her mother with something she only vaguely understood, but knew was horrible. Had threatened her
sister. She wasn't too worried about Dad, beyond him being angrier than she was and his injury anyway. He could take care of himself very easily.
She wasn't really worried about herself either. She'd be ready for the next assassin with sword and spell in hand. And if she wasn't she would have Marth nearby. Hopefully.
But that wasn't the worst of it.
She was tired.
Sleeping brought nightmares. It wasn't a sword hanging over her neck, it was a claw. No, A Claw. A Claw that wrapped around her neck so gently and still bit into her skin.
HATERAGEDEATHDIEDIEDIE
Cloying, black fog in her lungs carrying
HATE, and
RAGE, and
DEATH for everything. But especially her.
Warm air on the back of her neck, a breath of HATERAGEDEATH in her lungs.
It was laughing at her. Whatever it was, it hated. Old, Deep, Black Hatred that
burned at her. But it was laughing at her. At her struggles. At her fear.
"Run," HATERAGEDEATH, "Run and let me take all of that which you love from you. One. By. One."
It was too big.
It looked at her.
How do you fight something like that?
She was smaller than it's blazing, red eye
And a pulse of Light always answered.
Sometimes from her pocket where Marth resided.
With Faith
Other times it was a a calming Light from the back of her mind.
With Hope
Most often though, it was from her sister sleeping with her.
And Lucina would chant her mantra to herself,
"With Faith, and Hope, and Friends and Family beside you."
It took some time, but she made progress.
Fear, real fear, was an old friend of her's. Shock and anger had let it turn into something that wasn't her friend, another knife in the back to be aimed at her.
But she made progress. Shock faded in time, although most of it just became more anger and fear.
That was okay though. She knew how to handle the latter. How to focus it and in turn let it focus her, not let it rule her.
The anger was new though, and that was more difficult.
They played off of each other as well, one feeding into the other in the worst way.
But she made progress.
Anger was a lot like fear. It blinded her in different ways than her old friend, but it focused her in different ways as well.
It was hard though. Holding both in check like she was, and keeping her fear from feeding her anger or the opposite.
And it was far too easy to fall into tunnel vision as well. So easy to focus too hard on one thing an miss the world around her.
Sometimes she just stopped, breathed in, and let the world fade out of focus for a moment. It was all still there, and it would rush back after a that single heart-beat of a moment, but it centered her, brought everything into focus for one moment after.
And she was needing it less and less.
She was making progress. Fear, an old friend, and now anger, a new one maybe.
And as she swung her sword with the a sharp finality to it, anger and fear guiding her strike more true than before on the dummy before her, as she felt the encroaching tunnel vision, she knew they would.
And then she pushed it back, keeping all her senses open to the world around her, it just needed some effort.
And, as she laid in bed, wrapped around her sleeping sister, and smiling at her, she knew she would succeed in controlling them. And keeping them controlled.
Afterall, she had Faith, and Hope, and Family and Friends beside her. And she would not lose to herself for them.
And as anger and fear tried to crawl into her mind then, she shushed them and shooed them away. There was a time for fear and anger, but it was not here. Not with her sister sleeping so soundly beside her. Not with the love she held for her sister laying warm in her heart.
Lucina slept well that night and many after it.
