Chapter 13 A Closely Bonded Pair of Siblings

[Wilfora]

Time: Unbeknownst
Place: Hueco Mundo – Turning Grounds

-4 Years ago—

A dull clang of hollow flesh rang against various sand stone formations. A blurred figure shot from the dust cloud that blanketed the sandy carpeting. The figure crashed into one of the surrounding cliffs, where the figure crumpled into a small heap.

Overhead, rock rumbled and began a quick paced decent. A similar figure appeared once the dust cloud settled. It darted forward, as it kept a careful watchful eye on the rocks.

Sand cleared from around the small heap and a wolf’s form lay on the ground shaken. Its eyes glanced upwards. Fear washed over the younger adjucha, unable to look away. The hollow howled out in fear, not wanting to be killed by the rubble.

A cold hand snapped the wolf’s muzzle closed. “Hush up. Like I was gonna let you die, Stray.” The arrancar let go of her mouth allowing her freedom of speech again.

She looked away. “Shut it Shira.”

He laughed and set her down on the sand some distance away from the miniature rockslide. Stray walked away from him defiantly and shook out her hollow fur.

“Still can’t believe you’re an adjucha though...” he shook his head grinning. “After all, you said you’d be an arrancar before me.”

Stray growled at him, then plopped down in the sand. “It’s not freaking fair! I’m the one who worked my butt off. I should be the arrancar!!” she wailed as she cleaved the sand, leaving deep impressions that were so massive they didn’t completely refill with sand.

There was a brief silence between these two childhood friends. Around them sand swirled and the wind drifted it along. Some of the sand blew in their eyes, other times it just lashed out at or tickled them. The moon had risen further skyward, the burnt amber red hue radiating from it and tinted the nearest star a bright red color as well. Its crescent shape was soon to be a half-moon.

“Ahh!” Shira cried out, something clicking within his head. “I have to get going. Grandfather said he would fight me this eve.” He grinned and glanced over at Stray. “You’ll come right?”

Stray shook her head vigorously. “Grandfather said he didn’t want to see me alive...” In this form anyway… she added in her head.

“What if he didn’t kn—”

“I said I’m not going!” Stray growled, cutting him off. “And that’s that.”

Shira hung his head a moment then stared Stray right in the eye. “Won’t you change your mind…” he pleaded with her softly.

Stray turned away and began striding towards the dunes. “You know my mind can’t be changed once it’s made.”

“Fine,” Shira spat. “Might as well kill ‘im then.”

“Hah!! That’d be a sight to see! There’s no way an arrancar like you could pull it off.” Stray turned and started running then sonidoed, leaving the dunes where she stood disturbed and angered.

Shira watched, dumbfounded. She… doesn’t care about Grandfather? Why? She used to respect him… His mind raced as he took off due north by northwest. It was time for him to meet his Grandfather at the promised arena.

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Stray tore through a forest of trees, snapping at other hollows. She emerged a time later with a scrawny human like creature. In the sand behind them was a trail that led back inside the forest. Most of the creature’s tail had been removed already as Stray’s mouth dripped with the murky green blood. It was the same blood that seeped from the adjucha Stray was gnawing on. Moments of chewing and the tearing of flesh passed and Stray walked away from the leftovers.

Why won’t I change?! What must I do to grow into my next stage?! I want to be stronger damn it! Stray started running, her mind wandering.

⌘ ⌘ ⌘

Shira picked his way through the sand rock cliffs and finally found where the Grandfather was going to be meeting him. He should be here by now… he thought. Aside from the movement of sand in the wind, nothing stirred. A small spiritual pressure in the sky but no others were found. Must be an adjucha passing over, Shira thought, disregarding the presence.

Too quiet; almost eerie… Shira thought, as he walked further into the jagged land structure. The faces of the cliffs took on a soft glow, the rays seeming to emanate from the cliffs themselves, rather than the moon. Upon having reached an open gorge in the semi-rock maze, Shira began to shake. The glowing was bright, bouncing from cliff face to cliff face. It seemed to call, “Run away… things are about to change forever…” He ignored his conscience and held his ground, clenching his hand in a fist to quiet this senseless fear.

To Shira, the rock faces seemed to draw nearer, surrounding him; blocking his senses. The world spun in his eyes, while in reality, the world stood still.

A lone figure watched the young arrancar who struggled to comprehend what was happening to him.
The figure leapt and took form, a beast without a tail, and slid down the side of the cliff. Its mask surrounding the now darkened face, enclosing it within a barred mask. Steel blue eyes pierced the darkness inside the mask and peered out.

It had no wings to slow its descent, and soon its over-sized, furry feet reached the ground. As it pawed forward, spines ruffled and shifted places, joining into rows that ran the length of this odd creature’s back.

Shira grew tired of his mind tearing down on him; lying to him. He closed his eyes tight, causing his mind to quit looking for an answer visually. He strained his ears to listen.

Movement from the west, the sound of oncoming steps crunching in the sand. Large footsteps, two at a time; it walked on all fours. A beast, Shira thought. No scrapping followed the footsteps, so no tail. The main thing annoying Shira was that he couldn’t see to fight or to tell who the attacker was. He hoped whatever it was wasn’t his Grandfather, because this wasn’t fair.

Shira opened his eyes then shut them almost immediately. The world was still closing in on him. The cliff walls hadn’t gotten closer in the time that he had his eyes closed. But they had begun moving again the moment he had opened them. He felt content to wait out the thing coming towards him.

⌘ ⌘ ⌘

Stray’s mind snapped back to the present, her thoughts dissolving back into her mind. Around her the world was still sand, but she was standing on a cliff that looked over a canyon. She looked at the floor of the canyon.

Her eyes went wide with fear. Shira was standing below, eyes shut, not moving, with a hollow that contained immense reiatsu headed straight at him. She wondered why Shira wouldn’t open his eyes so he could see the hollow that was coming at him.

Then the rock faces caught her attention. They were glowing, as the liquid crystal flowed off it, down into the ground and back up to the top of the rock face.

Reiatsu confusion, Stray observed. That would cause his senses to go on the fritz… Meaning he can’t open his eyes without surrendering to their confusion! Stray got off her haunches and took a few paces back. Then she ran, soaring off the ledge, bound for the cavern floor below.

She landed easily on her forepaws and back ones as well. She staggered a split second, from the impact, then rushed forward toward Shira. The other hollow was closing in, and fast.

Stray wondered if she would make it or not. She shook her head at the thought. No, she would make it, she would be sure to protect her first friend; her only friend.

Wind whipped around her fiercely and snowflakes danced within it. The next moment, a humanoid wolf being emerged from the snow and winds.

Stray’s hair had grown and was now a silvery red, a darker shade of copper.

In place of paws, she now had hands with razor claws that protruded from her wrists and extended over her hands. Her upper and lower body was now covered with hard hierro fur. Her arms and midsection were left a pale, skin color and her feet were bare, with tufts of fur covering the tops, trailing from her ankles.

Her tail lengthened and grew thinner. Not by much, but it helped to keep her balance. She mysteriously knew, while she sonido’ed, that she could wrap it around her waist so it was out of the way.
Stray cried out in fear for Shira. She launched herself at him, and knocked him out of the way of the charging hollow. The hollow rammed into Stray, sending her flying backwards.

The main rock face shattered as Stray collided with it. The light it had emitted blinked out of existence as Stray slid down the cliff side, loose rocks tumbling along with her. Stray’s form lay broken and battered, her right arm now cradling her broken left.

Part of her tail lay bent in the wrong direction. Her eyes were glazed over in pain but she saw what followed next. Horrified eyes; Shira’s eyes.

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The pressure on Shira’s mind had let up, and now, knocked off his feet, Shira opened his eyes. In front of him Stray lied in a heap of hierro fur and broken bones, with rocks surrounding her. The main rock face was broken, all vivid traces of the pressure ensuing light now gone. Stray’s new form was imprinted there.

Wait… Stray has a new form?! His eyes swept over his sibling and took in her appearance. So beautiful.. Her suppressed form will be gorgeous… His eyes found the broken bits of her. The glazed over eyes, broken arm, and crooked tail.

As time seemed to slow, Shira’s head turned and stared at the thing that his mind registered as Enemy. Threat. Monster.

Time kept that same slow speed as Shira took a step forward. When his foot reached the ground, curved bones jutted forth and fire spewed from the sand following the bones and leaving a blazing ball of fire at the end of each bone.

Crezca, Esquelética Vasallo, Shira thought, the words seeming to come from nowhere, as he took another step forward.

Again bones came up, but this time they crawled up around his leg, torso, and finally his zanpakuto encasing them each in it, thicker hierro in the shape of skeletal armor. A grey and red aura swept out and over Shira, engulfing him.

The human skin tore away, followed by blood and muscle. The bones creaked as they enlongated, then hierro took its form around the empty bones concealing old and new blood veins. Shira took another step forward and the sloppy mangled hollow bone hardened.

Again he stepped. Skin reformed across his face and the skull disappeared within. A mask crept over Shira’s face. Horns protruded from his forehead and the mask covered the upper half leaving holes for his enraged ocean blue eyes.

When the hierro reached Shira’s nose, it coiled under and stopped. The sides however continued, a jawbone forming on the chin but hung a bit away from it. Teeth formed as they grew out of the upper and lower jaw.

The bones in the ground began to rattle about, shifting positions. The very sandstone he stood on seemed to shift. Bones from when he stepped, now circled the hollow. They moved with the ground, as a circular ring formed. The rib like bones raised and varied in length and took to the air.

The other hollow had paused, now it laughed and began to change form, while speaking. “Well Shira, looks like I was right. You have become strong.”

The ugly weak looking hollow now stood a towering seven feet to the five-foot-three-inch Shira. His chest was bone with raw, red muscle under the rib cage. There wasn’t a sternum to hold the ribs in place. Instead, the ribs looked as though they had punctured the exposed chest muscle.

The ugly hollow’s stub of a tail was now smoothed out with the body. This caused its back to ripple and three humped spikes grew from the edges of the shoulder blades near the spine. They rippled and formed a circular pattern near the middle of the back along the spine. They were small jagged pieces of hierro.

From there the ripples ran over both the arms and the legs. Its legs grew longer and thicker, the feet however, retracted and smoothed into rounded areas that balanced on the sand; they didn’t rest on the sand but seemed to use the sand as a surface to hover on. The arms and hands thinned and became more agile.

The right half of its mask seemed to retreat into its head; the portion covering his left eye remained as it came to a point over the nose. It then curved down and rested on his chin coming to another point. Intricate lines and swirls of blue and purple danced as the hollow’s eyes opened, the left one visible through the mask, the right now revealed. The right side of the face was clear, minus the scar that trailed from ear, over the cheek, down his neck, and finally disappearing right before the muscled chest.

Shira gawked at the figure who stood before him. Hawk-like eyes stared back and seemed to invade Shira’s mind. It reminded him of prey looking the predator straight in the eye, filled with terror.

He gulped. “Hello Grandfather…”

⌘ ⌘ ⌘

[Present Day]

The tree Stray was sitting in began to shake. Stray opened her eyes, since the shaking was continuing to get worse. The noise from the adjuchas in the cavern below brought her to her senses.

Stray looked down and saw the adjucha from earlier that had followed her from Espada 10’s fraction. Stray jumped down from the tree landing on her feet. She grabbed the scruff of the adjucha’s neck and walked towards the gorge with it.

“When in the bloody hell did you get away from the others?! And I don’t give a damn if you’re scared. You’re either going to get strong enough for me to play with or you’re going to die!” She tossed the hollow into the air then her leg came up and she kicked it back in with the others.

Stray sighed. “You went and woke me up from my memory, damn it. That was rude.” She wandered back to her tree, then jumped back into it. After looking up at the moon again, she sighed and closed her eyes.