Another -18 Aug'11
Disclaimer: G-boys are not saru's... and saru already forgotten the details of the anime too.
chapter 1
"Get up and put on your clothes!"
That was the man's good-morning greetings as any other day.
Without opening his eyes he squirmed and pushed his body to sit, the old wooden bed creaked softly at his movement. He sighed lazily.
A shirt flung and hit him on the face.
He cracked open an eye; the shirt covered his head and vision.
Frowning.
Pulled the thing down with a hand.
"...this isn't mine." he mumbled flatly.
"Wear that today!"
The man was putting on his battle boots.
He stared at him on the chair without turning his face. "Going for war?" he asked uncaringly.
"Just some quarreling border-men need to be checked." the man stood, his white beard glinted in the sunlight pouring down between the crisscrossing windowframes.
He cocked his head a little. "You want me to come with you?" the question was a disagreeing.
"Yes."
"Wearing your shirt?"
"Yes."
The words between them always curt and short; a colder version of nonchalant.
He frowned deeper at the man.
"You're my pet."
"My memory's good; I don't need reminder." he held the shirt at arm-length, rejecting.
"Some others do!" the man grabbed his 'presented' arm and pulled him off the bed, then put the shirt on his much smaller frame. "What are you so objecting of?"
"The shirt smells like you..."
"So?" his agile hands already finished buttoning the baggy shirt.
"I smell like you."
"You smell like me even without the shirt...!"
"So? What the use...?"
The man snickered and ruffled his brown hair.
"So, why not?" he took his uniform long jacket that was draped on the chair's back and headed to the door. "Ten minutes. Courtyard."
And the heavy door closed.
Staring at it a few breaths span, he shifted his eyes to the standing mirror; his reflection stared back at him unmoving, wearing only the man's baggy shirt and nothing else.
His face turned neutral and apathetic.
He hated white clothes.
The horses neighed in discomfort at his arrival. They always do.
His Sauria perked its long neck up and greeted him with a hiss, its crest shivered in anticipation.
It's the only kind of animals he could ride.
"Lix." he greeted as the giant lizard stood up, nuzzling his offered palm. The chains attached to the collar released themselves at his touch.
The horses neighed and kicked in fear as Lix batted its long tail while stretching, the fan-like fin at its end made blustering sounds.
He glanced at the horses in the stable across; they couldn't see him nor his ride, but they're always frightened. They're just like their riders.
"It's Odin's." he informed his ride as it sniffed curiously at the shirt he wore under his long jacket. The jacket was a body-fit double-breasted and opened wide started from his waist, showing the embroidery on the inner-side of the cloth and emphasizing his body curves and slender form.
"It looks like a nightgown...!" he frowned in objection; frankly, because he couldn't put the excessive length of the shirt into his tight pants... it would look even horrendous than it was out.
He tsk-ed at the mental image. Looking like a 'girl' or looking like a clown; his owner sometimes had an uncanny taste of possessiveness.
"It should be 'sense of protectiveness'!" the said man cut his thought from behind; so he knew what his objection was about since the beginning. He must have seen him froze in front of the lizard looking down at the flowing shirt reaching almost his knees. Odin did give him his largest shirt, meaning to pressurize that his pet waswearing his shirt even for foolest's eyes.
He frowned at the man with accusation. Only to be ignored as the man pulled his neckband from behind to the courtyard where he was supposed to be waiting. It's already some tens seconds passed ten minutes.
He'd used to walk backwards too as one of their habitual contacts; others wouldn't find it bonding-like, though; to them it's just another form of showing who's in control.
Lix followed them obediently on its hind legs; its way of walking made the head looked like it was nodding repeatedly on the long neck.
Odin's steed was the only horse who needlessly didn't object about his being.
Just like its rider.
He's gotten used to ignore others completely...
"Oh?"
"Who is that?"
"...that's not 'who'; that's 'what', Master Duo!" the escort-guard sneered none too friendly. "You should know just by looking at its ride...!"
Duo turned his head behind half way, not really facing the guard; finding he was objecting to the guard's words and the offensive way he'd said them, but not really cared to voice it. His eyes just happened to catch a glimpse of the lizard and the form of its rider seemed easy to his eyes, eventhough he only saw him from behind.
Their horses neighed and snorted in uneasiness.
"...that's the infamous demon-escort?" Duo was actually asking to himself.
"Demon-pet...!" the guard said with enough contempt then spit to the ground.
"Whose demon?"
"Commander Odin's pet...! But you shouldn't show your contempt openly in front of the Commander, he'll bully you for years..." the guard urged his horse to continue walking to the gate when the lizard had gone from their sight outside the outer gates.
"Speaking from experience, hu?" Duo laughed pleasantly, and rode passed him. The guard tsk-ed, not offended; he found his mood lifted a little hearing the sound of that clear laughter.
"Well, witnessing some friends' suffering, to be exact...!" the guard steered his horse to match Duo's pace.
"Some friends? I take it more than few are against having a demon in the castle, huh?"
"Of-course! Everyone objects! Well, not exactly everyone, though; the General and Master like sweet things...if you know what I mean!"
Duo snickered, but it didn't reach his eyes. He always hated the air in the castle.
"Someone's talking about you...!" Odin smirked hostilely.
"They always do." he said uncaringly. Lix was clucking endlessly translating the voices of humans it heard by its extremely sharp senses to its rider. He got that Master Duo's conversations too, he just didn't care. "Aren't we in a hurry?"
Slow pace meant he got to be looked at in a longer span of time than necessary.
He hated crowd.
Odin snorted; "I want to say 'Giddyup!', too; but we can't gallop in the city's street."
He only snorted back as a habit; listening to the dogs' barks and howls as they passed along the residential main streets.
He didn't hate animals.
The winds carried the smell of open-lands.
...and the sounds of men arguing in the fortress too. Odin barked on and off; he should have found it funny to some extent.
Lix was putting its head on his left shoulder, purring out comforting noise in his ear; sometimes playfully nuzzling his ear-wings, liking the feel of the soft feathers tickling its sensitive muzzle skin.
"Missing home?" Odin asked from behind; his body heat was warmer than usual, he must have yelled too much and trying to cool down outside.
Losing home; he wanted to say, but it's easier to pretend he didn't care enough than to answer.
"Are you done?" he asked instead.
The man frowned; "Aren't you at least going to ask what this is all about?"
"Some quarreling border-men that needed to be checked." he answered flatly. "We're still going to be running the checking stuff?"
Odin smirked amusedly; although he refused to admit he found his demon-pet cute but he couldn't help it sometime. He pulled his pet behind and stole a peck on his forehead, then held him in his arms while rubbing his bearded chin on his head.
Lix let out an objection-rumble when it lost its beloved rider's shoulder, but stayed put.
"Eretta's complaining about low provision, while Gertt's complaining about not having enough enforcement..." Odin mumbled as if thinking loudly.
He only let out a low "Ahh..." when the man's beard tickled his ear-wings.
"Sorry..." Odin pulled the ear-flaps of the fur-hat down, knowing ear-wings of demons were the most erethistic parts beside the other specific part. He knew he didn't want to rub a demon the wrong way.
"Want to sleep in the woods tonight?" the man asked earnestly.
He glanced up at the man's face behind him then to the daunting stone fortress further behind; and nodded his answer. He liked solitude more than company.
The man snickered; "That's why I got enough blankets on my horse..."
You brought blankets instead of tents?
"Body warmth is enough..."
"Hah! For you...! I'll need enough blankets to keep myself warm to warm you up!"
Lix rumbled its 'laugh' at their side.
"We'll ride to Darque in the evening and sleep on the way. It's full moon tonight...!" Odin smirked satisfactorily to himself.
"You just want to go for a recreation..." he accused flatly.
"Since I can't ask you to go for a picnic, now, can I?" the man pointed out acidly.
Lix rumbled deeper.
"Shut up, Lesard!" Odin retorted in irritation, the lizard turned its head away pretended not noticing him.
...he didn't hate the man.
Saru's note:
uhhhh... 'don't kill me'...? this has become a habit, apparently: when you're stressed, write new story. hahaha.
Our editor wanted more self-help theme for comics because it sells more, so he said in the comic-illustrators gath some months ago; that's why we agreed to boil some plots with that theme too for our next project after the one we're working on finished (despite Oni-tan's warning saying 'you shouldn't carelessly agreed to making something like that'; but saru thought you wouldn't know you could until you try it yourself).
To saru's dismay, after trying boiling ideas and taking notes about things that should be considered as positive... when the idea came running amok in saru's brain cavity, and saru plotted on bed for the whole night trying to stop plotting and start sleeping -which was didn't work until the plot finished by the morning-, all saru got was a story of a psychopath-lolita...! (-who's helping herself collecting blood and bits and memento from dead bodies) -facepalm-
four illustrator-friends (who had agreed joining the project too) actually said:
'awww, it's alright, monkie-honey... at the end-page of your book you could write something like this "Morale of this story: DO NOT become (someone) like the writer of this book" or something down that line!'
so, what do you like better?
Inspirational story of a daily-dork finding enlightenment in the cliché-way of picturing life or dark psychopathic daily-life story of a cute insane lolita (with blood and bits scattering around)?
saru said psychopath-lolita is way better, but haven't got the courage to report to our editor yet...