Title: Nigredo (tentative)
Author: ashewalton
Beta(s): sagesoren
Pairing: Allegretto!centric
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters are property of TriCrecendo and Namco/Bandai.
Summary: [Word Count 1, 411] [Part 1/2] Allegretto's childhood was never all fun and games. At the peak of his despair, it seems like problems only continue to mount. Once he's lost his family and his home, where will he go and what will he do?
A/N: Am I the only one that noticed that Allegretto has some sort of strange feather fetish? I was playing through with lj user="crimsonlayers" when I noticed that he had feathers all over the place... and then he got a special attack called Bloody Plume, and he yells something like "Can you spot the feathers?!" when he uses it.
When I started playing on my save file again (way back to chapter three, talk about playing the game out of order) I noticed Claves had an attack called "Feather Spin." Feather Spin is much more glittery and you can "spot the feathers." I bet Allegretto was always really jealous when Claves used that attack. I could hear 'Retto yelling after battles: "CLAVES, STOP IT! I DON'T EVEN GET AN ATTACK WITH FEATHERS IN IT UNTIL LIKE... CHAPTER SEVEN!" Since then, I've been wondering why Allegretto likes feathers so much.
~ I ~
The young boy was about eleven years old. Allegretto didn't like to think of that small, frightened child as being the same entity as the one who now frequently stood in battle: Brave, unyielding and absolutely sure. No, that meagre boy could not even be compared to the man he was now. And if two things could not reasonably be compared, then of course, they surely couldn't be called the same object. Allegretto felt the same way about his childhood.
~ II ~
Tense, anxious and without purpose, a boy who was all legs rushed through the outskirts of town. He tripped frequently over roots, low slung branches and pebbles, but he refused to look back.
Back towards home... Back towards where home used to be. Now, even from such a distance, he could smell the smoke rising off the town. He could smell the distinct scent of burning wood, and the putrid smell of things that were never meant to be burned. Allegretto could picture anything and everything being indiscriminately consumed by the eager flames.
The small figure tripped over one last root before his ankle decided that it would take no further punishment. The joint twisted awkwardly and Allegretto let out a small whine. Allegretto didn't--couldn't--understand what was going on. All he understood was the solitary command issued by his father:
"Run."
So Allegretto ran.
~ III ~
"Mom?"
The figure in this memory was even vaguer than the previous. Not a boy of eleven this time but a child of eight. Of all Allegretto's childhood memories, these times were his most beloved and his most bleak. This was when his parents still smiled at each other, and never stayed angry at 'Retto or one other. Any time these memories came to mind, they were soiled by his knowledge that they had only continued to be such a happy family for another few months. His father had then begun drinking, his mother eventually became ill, and finally the bandits came. They came and stole away whatever little bit of family he had left.
"Hey, Mom, are you listening to me?" Little Allegretto ran over to the waterfront bench his mother was perched on. For now, she was still in good health, and in his memories, that was how he chose for her to remain. Her silver hair tried to sway as the sea breeze caught it, but it was firmly captured in a bun on the back of her head.
"Yes, I'm listening, dear." His mother leaned over and tussled his hair. The resemblance between mother and son was striking. Everyone had assumed that Allegretto would end up looking exactly like his father: big, burly and scary. Allegretto was glad he didn't look like his father.
"What kind of bird is that?" Allegretto pointed to a large bird that was mostly brown, with a long black neck, pecking around aimlessly by the vacant waterfront.
"It's just a goose, 'Retto." His mother paused for a minute, like she was trying to recall something long forgotten. Allegretto liked that face, because his mother was a great storyteller, and that face meant she was going to remember an exciting story. 'Retto even remembered thinking that maybe the story would be his favourite one about the lowly knight and the beautiful princess. Instead, his mother just stood up and threw some breadcrumbs to the goose.
"Aw, Mom, I want to hear a good story!" Allegretto was impatient and bored. He didn't like looking at the water. Nothing interesting ever happened there.
"Allegretto, did you know that geese are the symbol of those who live life to its absolute fullest?" 'Retto didn't really care about the goose. Now that he looked at it a little more, it looked less majestic than he had thought at first. It didn't have any vibrant colours or any sharp talons or a fierce beak.
"It looks like a really lame bird. I'd rather have a cool bird--like an eagle!--as my symbol." The little boy then ran off, with his arms spread wide like a soaring eagle.
~ IV ~
Allegretto's mind ran back to the pathetic figure sprawled out on the forest floor. He didn't remember much of what happened after he twisted his ankle. A sudden surge of adrenaline when 'Retto had spotted one of the bandits chasing after him had left him spent and hurt in more places than just his ankle. Pain spread up his calves as his muscles seized. He struggled to catch his breath, and finally lost to a blackness that started on the very edge of his vision and stole its way closer to the spot where he lay. Allegretto was afraid to let that blackness take over; afraid that when he awoke, the disturbingly bright and cheerful eyes of the one of the bandits would be watching over him. Or, even worse, that he simply wouldn't wake at all.
However, when Allegretto awoke with the intense weariness of the previous night still standing over him, it wasn't the frightening eyes of the bandit or one of its kin looking down at him. Instead, it was the kindly and concerned eyes of an elderly woman. He was filled with relief. Thinking about the woman now that Allegretto was older, she probably hadn't really been that old. Obviously, she couldn't be called "young," but "tired" was probably a better description of her appearance. She appeared as if she had significant difficulties sleeping, and although even now 'Retto couldn't be sure, she probably had significant difficulties with many tasks.
The time he spent with the woman was short--short enough that he never really committed her name to memory--and not really very interesting at all. And for such a restless boy, that was really no good at all.
~ V ~
Allegretto was mulling about, wondering whether hanging around a city as large as Ritardando was a good idea. He'd been known in other towns as a petty thief and had built up an impressive reputation as such. He wasn't necessarily a good catch for bounty hunters, but one ornery storekeeper who was a little quicker than he looked would be all it took to find himself in a jail cell. However, the sun was beginning to set, and if there was one thing 'Retto had learned, it was that monsters just got more crotchety as the day went on. Entering Ritardando through the tunnel to the west he was wowed by a gorgeous view of the harbour front. He'd assumed that in such a large town the harbour front would be crowded, and the harbour itself polluted and putrid, unfit for any fish and birds to go near. Rather, Allegretto could see minnows swimming near a crystal-clear shoreline, and further in larger fish were being scooped up by pelicans and other scavenger birds. He picked up a pebble from the beach and tossed it into the water, disturbing the minnows and causing them to scatter, before travelling up to the harbour and into the town proper.
Allegretto knew if he didn't find a good place to sleep tonight, he would wake up all soggy and wet and probably with a cold. With staying dry as his motivation, he trudged throughout the city looking for a place to spend the night.