The Beauty of Us Two
Summary: (Support conversations between Caellach and Amelia) She was an innocent yet resolute recruit while he was hardened, embittered warrior. She espied his scarred soul and wanted to help him. He wasn't too certain if he should let her. Amazing on what a few, simple talks can create. (CaellachxAmelia)
Support C: A Glimpse of Something New
Text:
"Speech"
Thoughts
Flashback
Songs/Music:
"Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica
"Different World" by Iron Maiden
Disclaimer: -snorts- Let's not even go there, shall we? …Hm, can I just simply boycott this part; you guys are bright enough to know I couldn't possibly own Sacred Stones and HIM's "You Are The One" (title derives from a portion of the lyrics), ja?
"…And the earth becomes my throne
I adapt to the unknown
Under wandering stars I've grown
By myself but not alone
I ask no one.
…And my ties are severed clean
The less I have the more I gain
Off this beaten path I reign."
-Wherever I May Roam, Metallica
Today was just another typical day on the battlefield for Amelia.
After the hard-won assault from the persistent yet waning Frelians, there was time of relaxation and gaiety for everyone. The soldiers' antics shifted slightly on the routine side yet Amelia quickly adjusted to the fighting atmosphere consisting of the other Grado warriors in the campsite.
When she was transferred from Commander Gheb's legion–a gift from the gods for sure!–to a Grado general's platoon, Amelia had been constantly dealing with incessant attacks from the southwestern side of Grado. Though she never met her leader during her several weeks in this new retinue, she heard from the other Grado soldiers who've seen him say they were honorably under the command of General Caellach, also known as the Tiger Eye. She could only hope they were right. She did not want to face another Commander Gheb. One of him was awful enough.
"Hey, girl!" called out one of soldiers, a mercenary of the Fourth Regiment, "The general has orders for you and your squad to complete!"
"Coming!" Amelia answered dutifully, scrambling to collect her bearings and iron lance, "I'll be right there!" Rushing rapidly towards the khaki pavilion the mercenary was pointing at, Amelia briskly headed in the general direction to General Caellach's makeshift quarters. Unaware of the kismet that the Fates and tides of Destiny have contrived, Amelia entered the general's pavilion with the disciplined bravado that had been hammered into her very being during the first few weeks of training in the Grado Imperial Army.
What she did know was to fulfill her duty as a Grado soldier. What she didn't fathom was the path Dame Fortune has designed for her…and a certain former mercenary. Consequently, the journey would begin in a perilous desert, straight into the sloping white dunes of Jehanna.
The harsh, unforgiving desert wind stirred the sand from the rolling, fallow plains, casting grainy beige particles to whip around the Grado hero as he suavely sauntered through the desert of Jehanna. Caellach covered his eyes to protect them from the desert's ferocity, mumbling a few oaths and cursing Jehanna's terrain with extreme vigor.
"Bah! Why does there have to be so much bloody sand in this accursed place? It's like an imitation of a desert perdition!" Grumbling how forsaken and barren his former home was, Caellach halted briefly to glance behind and observe how his troops were faring. Since most of his men weren't accustomed to traveling in the bleak, suffocating conditions of a desert, many of the soldiers were already suffering from dehydration,–and he did warn them to conserve their water sparingly as they marched; there weren't going to be many opportunities of encountering any oases along the way–fatigue, deliria, heat stroke, hyperthermia, and other common symptoms exerted by those who toiled too long in the scorching heat of the blazing desolate sun.
If those cumbersome ailments keep up, there is going to be no possibility we'll reach Jehanna on time and pose enough of a challenge to the opposing side. Perchance if one of the Pegasus riders can scout for an oasis nearby….
The Tiger Eye immediately set his eyes unto one of his most prominent Pegasus riders–a Falcoknight who had not yielded to the desert's might nor evinced any signs of failing health. "You, Boelthor!" he barked, motioning for the said Falcoknight to come. Boelthor obeyed and diligently approached his commander, hands gripping the reigns of his Pegasus as he made his way over to Caellach.
"Orders, sir?" came the monotonous response and the Pegasus shook his snowy mane while Boelthor stroke its neck while awaiting his next task.
"I have a crucial assignment for you, Boelthor. My men are weary and ill from the noxious heat of this blasted wasteland and I need to know if there is an oasis close by. I want you to circle the vicinity and locate any oases that appear in your range of vision and calculate how far they are to the troops. Keep a low profile since our foes can be anywhere and I don't want them to catch a glimpse of you. Report back to me in twenty minutes. Understood?"
The scruffy bearded Falcoknight nodded. "Cleary, General Caellach." With not a moment to lose he mounted his Pegasus. In the blink of an eye, the two companions were airborne and gradually transformed into a tiny white speck amid the vacant Copenhagen blue sky.
Well, that's one issue down. Hopefully he will return with promising news. The last entity I desire to hear from my soldiers is their griping.
"Uh, excuse me, sir? General Tiger Eye?"
Hearing his general title, Caellach turned then looked down to meet a particularly young and sincere-looking girl staring back at him, a tiny bundle in her hands. Face flushed from exertion and the humidity, the petite blonde hastily wiped a bead of sweat near one of her eyes before presenting the clothed package to him.
"The other soldiers have been passing the victuals around and I heard you haven't eaten for quite some time so I thought…." she trailed off, biting her lip anxiously as a wave of shyness overcame her while under the scrutiny of her superior. Squirming inwardly in the Tiger Eye's analytical discernment, the carefree recruit averted her eyes so they wouldn't be interlocked with the general's intrigued hazel ones.
"What's your name, lass?" Caellach asked her after he cordially accepted the pittance of provisions from his female subordinate.
"Amelia, sir," the young girl replied diligently, slowly lifting her eyes at level with Caellach's nose. Mentally chuckling her dubiety and bashful attitude, the auburn haired general decided to banish Amelia's insecurity and draw her out of her shell. Reaching out and chucking her chin playfully he offered her a frolicsome grin, a roguish glint in his chestnut pupils. She blushed a brilliant shade of cerise and her azuline orbs sparkled giddily at his frisky actions. Caellach leaned forward, only stopping when he was a hair breadth away from her. He could have sworn her face turned scarlet when his nose accidentally touched hers.
"Loosen up, Amelia," the hero whispered cajolingly, "you don't have to be so anxious around me. I may be your commander but it's not like I'm going to lung out and eat you." His words and their unexpected proximity evoked a shaky, nervous laugh from Amelia.
"O-Of course not, General Caellach," she replied demurely, "I understand." Caellach withdrew from her, a satisfied smirk grazing his lips.
"Good. Thanks for bringing me some food; I definitely need something to sustain me with all the plodding through this barren, Godforsaken land." Amelia's flustered features brighten up exuberantly, the same hopeful sparkle he witnessed in her celeste orbs not too long ago.
"You're welcome, sir!" she exclaimed cheerily and Caellach's mouth quirked into a half-smile as he smoothly unfolded the swathed bundle. She was a cutie–make no mistake about that–and rather pretty for her age. Her flaxen hair was cut at a reasonable length, ending up near her shoulders. Caellach silently lauded the female fighter for her practicality. Long hair could be a liability, a complete disaster depending on one's occupation on the battlefield. Judging by her attire and the iron lance strapped to her back, she had to be a recruit, either aiming for a position with the heavy armored knights or agile cavaliers. In her area, short hair would definitely be beneficial.
"Is the food alright?" Amelia's pleasant, questioning voice crushed his reverie and the Tiger Eye nodded quickly prior to shoving another piece of crusty stale bread into his mouth, ignoring the insipid taste the biscuit induced as he munched and crunched.
"The food is satisfactory," he said simply, coercively swallowing the tacky bread down his throat, "don't fret, I've tasted worse." Biting on the biscuit once more, Caellach noticed Amelia brought out her meal as well and began eating along with him. The prospect seemed so strange, so novel yet the notion, the slight, subtle feeling of companionship was oddly comforting.
She's an interesting lass, that's for sure. I have to admit, she has the loveliest set of blue eyes I've seen so far.
That was truth. The only person he could think of who could rival the lucidity and scintillation in Amelia's cerulean pupils was General Selena. Yet while the Fluorspar's eyes were more a darker hue, Amelia's reminded him of a clear, unadulterated sky containing the brightest, most scenic shade of blue.
Suddenly possessing the extemporaneous, inexplicable urge to inspect his new female acquaintance, Caellach altogether forgot about finishing his lunch and surreptitiously observed Amelia with irrevocable fascination and attentiveness. He couldn't understand why he was so intent on watching her take small, modest bites from her food and wipe the crumbs or smears off her sun-kissed visage with either a hand or the sleeve of her uniform. A fervid, alien sensation tingled vehemently down his spine, through his very being as Amelia discreetly licked a corner of her lips before resuming to her meager provisions. Desperately wanting to distract his mind–and his emotions, apparently–from this peculiar spectacle, Caellach opted to stimulate another conversation between him and Amelia.
"You're from Grado, right?" he asked. Head bobbing thusly, she swallowed the rest of her aurulent biscuit.
"Yes, I was born and raised in a remote hamlet near the outskirts of the Grado Keep. What about you?"
Caellach arched a bronze, quizzical eyebrow. "What about me?"
"I mean, where are you from? Surely not from Grado."
"How do you know? Perhaps I am." Smiling, Amelia shook her head at the Tiger Eye's cryptic statement.
"I can tell you're a foreigner by your accent. You have a more lilting, jaunty diction compared to the majority of the Gradans, especially with the men."
The ambitious hero gazed approvingly at her, marveling at her astuteness. Clever little one, she is. Despite her current status and rather humble attitude she certainly has potential for greatness, much like me. That is, if she's willing to embrace the opportunity. "I hate to admit it but I'm impressed. Very few people have been able to glean that fact." A hint of a blush invaded Amelia's features and she nodded wordlessly, momentarily speechless by the commendation of her leader. "To answer your question, I originated from Jehanna."
Amelia's eyes dilated in surprise and she cursorily scanned the arid vicinity to look at Caellach's native land more closely. "Here?" she queried curiously, sheer wonderment flashing in her round, cyaneous orbs. "No wonder you are so accustomed and erudite to the scorching atmosphere, you have lived here your whole entire life!"
"Aye, but I wish I never did." Caellach remarked solemnly, recalling all the abysmal trials and iniquities the squalid desert coerced him to undergo, snatching everything precious and invaluable to him.
Perplexed by his gruff detachment of his home, Amelia crossed her arms and tilted her head in an imploring manner. "Why? Aren't you proud of your country, of being a Jehannan?"
He snorted disparagingly, an regaled expression emerging on his perspiring countenance. "If I was, do you think I would be battling alongside Grado?"
"…No." she admitted reluctantly, "Yet I cannot understand why. Why do you dislike your homeland so strongly?" In response, Caellach shrugged nonchalantly but complied to her question anyway.
"Once, I was a mercenary, Amelia. From my experiences in that profession I learned how to sever ties to this wretched piece of land and leave Jehanna as an unsavory blotch in my memory, my past. Jehanna was never a kind place to live."
However it wasn't just his days as a petty mercenary that instilled his hatred for Jehanna. No, the despisal was far deeper than anyone could possibly imagine, initially deriving from his childhood, when he was growing into manhood.
It had been years since the last rainstorm and his village was at the brink of starvation and chaos—
"But despite all the horrible aspects of Jehanna, you must have found some good qualities here!" Amelia proclaimed fiercely, struggling to fathom why Caellach would detest his country so much, the very region of his birth. In spite of her nation's current byzantine, foraying acts, the blonde recruit continued to pride herself as an adamant Gradan, pleased to march and fight under the colors of her beloved country, home of those precious to her.
"What is so special or wonderful about a land that does naught but steal?"
Startled, Amelia faltered for a second. "P-Pardon?"
In an instant, Caellach was upon her, an undistinguishable glimmer in his now harden cinnamon eyes. His lips were carved into a taut, grim line, amplifying the dour expression creeping on the hero's face. "What you don't know about Jehanna is this damnable place is an avid, coveting monster that will pilfer everything you have to proffer and give not a single, bloody possession back." Hardly able to control his leaking emotions or torrential antics, he rashly confronted Amelia and she instinctively took a few steps back, periwinkle orbs rife with dubiety and slight apprehension. Unwittingly he backed up her up against a palm tree, thus halting her skittish retreat. "And just for spite, Jehanna will then demand more of you even if you are left with nothing, nothing more to offer."
He fixated his smoldering gaze unto her resolved countenance yet her tentative azuline orbs rapidly betrayed her inner trepidation and confliction. Fused with frustration, he slammed one hand right beside Amelia's head against the tree trunk, stretching out his arm in an intimidating manner. Caellach heard a soft, hush gasp escape the female's lips and leaning forward he begrudgingly permitted himself to stare intensely into Amelia's twinkling, true blue eyes.
Eyes imbibed of despair and misery, bereft of all the pleasures and joy in the world. With such woeful eyes they reminded him of hollow vacant shells, wraiths from the netherworlds doomed to wander and wail for all eternity.
"This deplorable desert will take away all accomplishments you worked so arduously for; snatch away anything you once knew in your life. Jehanna will strip you of everything: Your riches, your home, your food, your family, your dignity, and finally, when there's nothing more to plunder, your life."
His mother's and sisters' lamentations resonated across the barren plains, the tempestuous wind of the imminent sandstorm blinding his peripheral vision as he struggled pitifully to reach them. Father was already dead and they needed him, more than ever. He was the man of house now ergo it was his duty and full responsibility to protect them, at all costs.
"Mother! Jeanine! Windy!" he bellowed out raucously, terror bubbling convulsively inside his throat when his surviving family members didn't answer. No, they couldn't be dead–he just heard their strident cries a few moments ago! The desert could not, did not claim the lives of his mother and sisters. They were all he had left in his miserable excuse of existence.
"MOTHER! JEANINE! WINDY!"
"That, Amelia, is how Jehanna operates."
Silence engulfed the pair as Caellach's dismal words sank in, his intense scrutiny piercing the center of Amelia's core as she boldly lifted her chin to confront the formidable, acute survey of his blazing tawny eyes.
"So, that's how you perceive Jehanna? A land that simply robs and grants nothing in return?"
"MOTHER! JEANINE! WINDY!"
Only the howling, biting wind replied, its unearthly, malign laughter echoing in his ears, mocking at his misery, his failure of finding his mother and sisters' whereabouts. Deviously whispering to him of everything he could possibly lose.
Sighing wearily, Caellach nodded albeit never tearing his fervid ogling from Amelia. "Aye, lass. Jehanna can suck you dry, and then demolish your reason for living." A far-off looked suddenly appeared in his pupils, replacing the searing intensity and furor with long compressed sorrow and detriment.
Hesitantly, Amelia inched closer to him, anxiety constricting her heart as she inclined further into Caellach's personal boundaries. Mustering all the courage she was capable of, the blonde recruit lifted her eyes directly up into the Tiger Eye's, azure locked against hazel. Breaths mingling, Amelia half-heartedly ignored the enormous lump weltering in her throat while she neared herself to her general, gradually diminishing the space between them. An inquiring expression washed over the Tiger Eye as he dubiously watched her brazenly accentuate the torrid proximity.
Is it just me or did the air around here suddenly get hotter? Eh, I think the heat's just getting to me.
"You are haunted," she proclaimed with transparent commiseration, lips quivering a bit as she uttered those foreboding words. Steadily, she reached out and gently rested her hand up to Caellach's face, curiously gleaning the jaded turmoil whirling tempestuously within her commander's smoky, cinnamon pupils.
Just as Amelia's warm fingers came in contact with his skin, a scalding bolt of electricity swept through out his entire body. His senses were irrevocably heightened as her fingertips airily brush against his cheek, his mind more alert than before. A surge of a nameless emotion churned wildly through his veins, boiling and heating his blood up to incalculable levels. For a moment, Caellach truly believed his mind would go insane when the young blonde placed her whole hand against his perturbed countenance and gaze up at him with her innocent, memorizing pavonated orbs.
His mother performed the exact same deed prior to her untimely demise; only her mouse brown eyes were obfuscated, teeming with detriment and despair. Her weathered face held the same forlorn look a convicted man has when he goes marching to the gallows, to his death.
"C-Caellach, my dear boy…" rasped his mother out, beckoning the said youth forward. Immediately he rushed to her side, noting the sprawled figures of his two sisters a few yards away. With a quick motion of his head in their direction, he asked his mother on their condition.
"Are Jeanine and Windy going to be all right, Mother?"
A sorrowful wail ruptured from the feeble woman's lips and fresh tears leaked out of her chestnut eyes. "They're dead, my boy. Dead! Ravaged and claimed by the desert, Caellach! Into the celestial embrace of Heaven and the gods! Forever gone!" Her mournful rambling rapidly transformed into hysterical ravings, a solemn crescendo of strident sobs and exigent grieving.
"Mother, calm down! You have to control yourself!" Caellach yelled frantically, erstwhile detecting the early signs of desert fever. "We need to get out of this sandstorm and find shelter. I'll carry you!" Caellach's pleas fell to deaf ears. His deranged mother kept on babbling and crying with undeviating woe.
"Gone, gone! Two beauties simply snatched from this world, effaced from existence! Mistresses now of Death himself, the Reaper!"
"Mother! Mother! You have to calm down! Please, allow me to carry you across the desert while seeking sanctuary. We will bury Jeanine and Windy when the winds die down and the storm disperses." He reached for his mother and made a move to lift her into his arms yet she shrieked like a banshee and then convulsed spastically. Body neurotic and catatonic, Caellach's mother writhed in agony as her mouth resumed the ear-splitting screeches.
"DEAD! DEAD! DEAD! ALL DEAD! JUST LIKE THE REST!"
Eyes like a pair of radiating cerulean stars captured him in their gaze, discerning his tormented, scarred soul with such innocence and humanity Caellach felt his heart pulsating sporadically as he underwent this benevolent examination.
"MOTHER! You have to stop screaming–for both our sakes!"
"Do the gods know no mercy?! Can they spare our meager lives?!"
Suddenly, she bolted up half-way, a hair breadth away from Caellach. With both hands she grabbed Caellach by the face and brought him closer to her, eyes alight of utter turmoil and despondency. "Run, Caellach, run," she croaked, eying her grief-stricken son with such deadly accuracy, "leave me to rot in this abhorrent desert that only takes pleasure in thieving from mankind and renders us wallowing in our misery, bereft of live and happiness."
"What happened to you?" Caellach heard her whisper. His blood turned to ice as the soft, imploring words played with his vulnerable mind, his pulse hammering inside his head with a deafening roar. By the gods, what was wrong with him?!
"GO, CAELLACH! Leave me to die! Leave me to perish…."
He couldn't abandon her, she was last of piece of the family he once had. Tragically, he couldn't shake his mother out of her demented state, out of her trepidation. He was too late to do anything to save her.
She was already dead after uttering those final words for him to flee.
"Do you really want to know?" Caellach grounded out, brushing her hand aside, "Aren't you frighten of what you could possibly find?" He stepped backwards, gradually widening the distance between them. Amelia's eyes widen briefly from his ominous words but shook her head contradictorily.
"Not really…. I…just want to help," she explained softly, her quiet yet resolved voice like rustling satin against the wind. "I mean, isn't that…what comrade-in-arms are suppose to do? Offer support when needed?" Caellach snorted divertingly at this.
"What simpleton told you that?" he queried, a mocking half-smile on his lips, "Because I can completely assure you, assistance from fellow soldiers doesn't always occur in the real world, Amelia."
He knew beforehand he would be shattering her dreams, brutally smashing her rose-tinted hopes and beliefs wrought by those ridiculous, epic legends of heroes and morality, specious tales of good versus evil, compassion, and other subterfuges imbued into the naïve young minds of children at such a tender age. Those idle, morale stories were naught full of sophistry and served no purpose in the harsh, cruel realities of life and the relentless machinations of the wicked, unforgiving world. He heard them all when he was a small lad and what good did those rotten stories serve him? Nothing, save for the bitter vestiges of his demolished, ruined childhood and lurid memories of strenuously surviving Jehanna's adamant iniquities as a nameless, faceless mercenary amid the scorching, ravaging desert that had claimed the lives of his father, mother, and younger sisters.
Amelia shifted disconcertingly, biting her lip uncertainly. "Well, do you believe in any of those tales, General Caellach?"
"No."
"Not even one?"
"Aye."
The guileless recruit stared astonishingly at Caellach, her mind fiercely comprehending his morose remarks. "Do…do you believe in anything?" Her tentative voice barely reached an audible octave when she whispered those soft, beseeching words. Fixing his hard, piercing gaze on Amelia, Caellach's roughen and dynamic rufous eyes had already answered her question before his mouth did.
"What I believe in, lass, is ambition, because someday that relentless aspiration will crown me king."
He failed to tell her his ambitions were only entities he trusted, accredited, or that he never really believed in himself. His ferocious, maddening drive towards full achievement was the reason why he craved to become king–hence he could finally prove his self-worth and blot his paltry occupation as a soldier of fortune out of his past for good.
But I can never blot them out of my life.
Indeed he couldn't. The deaths of his entire family would forever lurk in the recesses of his mind, permeated in his recollections everlastingly. Yet none of those issues would matter once he is king. He's a general now and that was a few stepping stones away from being initiated as a monarch. From lonely village boy to embittered mercenary of Jehanna and to the Tiger Eye of Grado, he certainly had come a long way. While Jehanna snatched everything away from him, Grado exchanged instead. For his remarkable services he was given a superior rank and the general title of 'Tiger Eye'–with the russet stone as proof of his identity. When he felt the precious gem pressed into his palm, the image of his possible coronation fervently burst into his mind. At the time, Caellach could almost taste the sweetness of success and accomplishment. He had sparingly savored the delight of achieving a position so grand, so magnificent which was usually denied to a person of low birth, someone like him. However, he would change all that, just like he did with his life as a mercenary. He was a Grado general who will one day be king.
That appealing goal was enough for him to believe in.
"What I believe in, lass, is ambition, because someday that relentless aspiration will crown me king."
Who didn't want to be king, queen, or of regal status, of royal blood? When she was very young Amelia would find herself many times wistfully wishing she wasn't simply a commoner, an insignificant human being, but a noble or someone of high, prominent panjandrum. They held all the authority, the potentiality, and the life of absolute luxury and wealth. Any peasant would dream to be in a seat of power, even for a day. For one day they could be in total control, possessing the sovereignty to bend events and people to their will and have the world laid out before them. Such potency, certainly the fleeting image or illusion of such an inconceivable promise, could be exhilarating, addicting–and downright dangerous in some cases.
Amelia sighed wearily; all these ruminants were starting to promote one serious headache and she suspected the arid, torrid sun was the other factor to the discomfort in her skull. If the army just stopped for only a few minutes—
"There's an oasis up ahead, boys, so grin and bear it for the rest of the journey. So no complaining about the heat, the sand, or any illness you oafs managed to catch. If I hear a single whine from anyone I can just end their misery with my axe. Understood, boys?" Caellach's rough baritone brusquely reverberated through out the ranks of Grado soldiers and they merely nodded their heads in unison.
Relieved the rest stop was only a league or so away, Amelia steeled herself to press onward and not collapse until they reached the predetermined oasis. Once the Grado platoon espied the tall, careened palm trees and the lush emerald ocean of grass with sparkling crystal rivulets prevalent through out the serene, utopian environment, the legionnaires broke their lines and rapturously barreled and raced towards the desert paradise. Amelia could barely keep up with the rapid, frenzied pace of the older soldiers as she treaded towards the empyrean haven, stimulated by a parched throat and taxed limbs screaming for water and relaxation.
After what seemed like hours of being smashed and compressed against perspiring, molten bodies in the suffocating, dry air, Amelia finally reached the oasis and promptly dumped her head in the first babbling brook her eyes beheld.
The coolness of water lapping over her face was simply too wonderful for words, too comforting and relieving for description. She avariciously took gulps between breaths, quaffing down the celestial, splendid liquid blithely soothing her aching, ragged throat as she swallowed. Water never tasted this glorious to her before. Ever.
"Heh, you're acting like the whole spring is going to vanish if you don't drink fast enough."
Jumping up like a startled rabbit, Amelia whirled around and saw none other than the Tiger Eye himself. "General Caellach," she mumbled, once more averting her gaze down at the thriving, burgeon grass below her, "is there something I can do for you?" Caellach cocked an eyebrow at her skittish, demure behavior but let her shyness slide.
"Nah," he replied thusly, "I just find it humorous to watch you guzzle down water like there's no tomorrow. Then again, you're not the only one. Both adepts and rookies alike are performing the exact same antics. They're quite amusing." The hero spotted a woolly spider crawling towards his foot and without a thought, promptly squashed the insect with the heel of his boot.
Gathering her courage, Amelia lifted her head upward and permitted her azuline eyes to meet Caellach's rather affronting, curious discernment. "You're strange one," he remarked staidly.
Amelia stared at him perplexingly, her head titled sideways as a gesture of puzzlement. "Pardon?"
Sighing, Caellach sat down beside her and began refilling his water casket prior to explaining his peculiar statement. "I said, 'you're strange one', kiddo. You are not quite like the others among the platoon." Dubious whether the comments were a compliment or not, Amelia nodded her head mutely, assaying to perceive where Caellach was heading at. "Don't take it the wrong way, lass. I'm just saying you're different, that's all."
The blonde recruit furrowed her eyebrows skeptically. "Different how?" she questioned. Caellach shrugged but replied anyway.
"Damned if I know. You're just…new." He glanced at her, an unreadable emotion flickering in his cinnamon pupils. "Fresh." Uttering no more, he took a sip from his canteen. Amelia suddenly observed the hero general with keen, fixated fascination while wondering what on earth he meant by those words. Was he implicating he took delight in her company?
"Um…thank you." she replied politely, eyes never leaving Caellach as she spoke.
And his penetrating ones never tore away from hers either.
"I thought I had it all
I had it all worked out
Just what my future held
That there would be no doubt
But then the card came up
And I took another turn
But I don't know if it's
Fulfillment that I yearn
Tell me what you can hear
And then tell me what you see
Everybody has a different way
To view the world."
-Different World, Iron Maiden
Color Glossary:
Azuline- blue
Celeste- sky blue
Pavonated- peacock blue
Rufous- reddish-brown
(Let me know if I missed any other obscure colors.)
Aye, I'm doing a Caellach/Amelia story as well. I had been debating whether or not to write a support conversation of those two (since I'm also doing one of Valter and Selena) so I went, "Oh, what the heck! If I have one with Valter and Selena then there should be one for my second favorite Sacred Stones pairing." Hence, the urge to write this fanfic was born.
Wrapping this little digression up, I shall conclude there will be two more chapters and an epilogue, much like my Valter/Selena story. Also, I am hosting a FE & TSS challenge and if you're interested, you can either check out my profile, my sole forum, or Writer's Guild for further information. If you are a fan of non-canon pairings, than I suggest you should go and investigate the challenge. If not…oh well.
Review, critique, etc but no flames whatsoever. Unless you want the Demon King to come over to your house and bake you some of his famous "meat" pies. Guess where he obtains the "meat", kiddies?
Bis dann!
:SpeedDemon315: