A\N: Nothing much to say on this. Kind of an alternate... not ending, but middle to the Skyview Temple Boss Battle. Can be taken anyway you like, was written as a Ghirahim's curiosity type of thing. Enjoy! Please reviw! Also, you're gonna be seeing this posted on like, all of my stories for a little while, but May 5-7 I am staying off the internet. I just need a break and I'm hanging out with friends and going to a concert and chilling with my sister and just not going to write for a while. Thanks for understanding!


How interesting.

The boy in green so vigorously adventuring through the Skyview Temple with determination blazing in azure eyes. From the moment he'd stepped into the temple, I had known he was the chosen hero. It was so obvious! The green clothes, the Goddess Sword, his sword spirit guide, his chasing after the Spirit Maiden. Most definitely the chosen one. But his determination was something I had not counted on. He had the courage of a man war more attuned to war and suffering than this peaceful little boy could ever hope to be.

Following him through the temple had been a pleasure indeed. How fun it was to watch the human struggle against the odds and squirm his way in and out of trouble! But also… also fascinating to find this one chosen for such a grand destiny could be so clumsy at times. Watching him slip and fall from the log into the water did arouse a chuckle from my person, and watching him miss obvious openings for advantage during battle was even more amusing.

The noise he made while in pain was delightful, yet impressive. Some of the blows were ones that would make even myself cringe, if only slight, and the human merely shouldered it and fought back. The evident improvement in his skills as he fought was there, too. Everything about him was impressive.

Those eyes… so full of passion and youth. He knew what he wanted and when he wanted it. The girl… The Spirit Maiden was always in his eyes. Almost as if he had tattooed her picture to his pupils to have and to hold forever. I suppose this was what the humans call 'love'. It inspired many things the humans did—one of them was apparently tattooing their eyes. I had to have a closer look! I had to!

His fearless entry into the sanctuary was also fantastic. So ready, so eager, so willing to put his life on the line for his 'love', but it was also extremely foolish. I decided to play his game—after all, I deserved a moment or two to dabble in whatever pleasures I desired.

"Look who it is…" I hummed, and then turned to face him, adoring the shock registered on his face. To this day, I remember that look more than any other. First impressions are like that, you know.

"I thought that tornado I stirred up would have tossed and torn you apart, yet here you are." I gave my head a slight toss, smirking at him. "Not in pieces."

I sighed, somewhat disappointedly, and turned my head back to the door. "Not that your life or death has any consequence. It's only the girl that matters now, and I can sense her here… just beyond this door." It was true that I could sense her, but for some reason, the child in the room with me was much more alluring. The girl? An asset. The boy? A remarkably curious being with so much I had yet to learn of. Just the sight of him made me curious. Could this scrawny thing really be the Hero? There was certainly room for improvement, but he was only… twenty-something, so there would be time for that.

I caught a slight vibe of worry from the boy, and I decided to play on that an aggravate it. "Yes, we plucked Her Majesty from her perch in the clouds, and now she's ours."

It spiked even more than that, and I once again accounted these feelings to 'love', and a chuckle escaped my throat at the thought of such a juvenile and pitiful emotion. The boy remained silent through all my tormenting and irritating, though I could easily sense his unhappiness with the situation. I glanced at him, and his very face confirmed my thoughts.

"Oh, but listen to me. I am being positively uncivil. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the demon who presides over this land you look down upon; this world you call the surface. My name is Ghirahim." I tossed my hair slightly, only have it fall back over my eye. "In truth, I very much prefer to be indulged with my full title: Lord Ghirahim. But I'm not fussy."

Still nothing from the skychild. No name, no introduction, no fighting words. I began to lose confidence in the boy, and considered for a moment cutting my monologue short and ending his life.

However, the sound of a blade sliding from its sheath stopped me short, and I let out a patronizing hum, forcing myself not to all-out laugh.

"Did you really just draw your sword? Foolish boy." I turned to him, spreading my arms slightly. "By all rights the girl should have fallen into our hands already." I looked down, growling to myself and balling my hands into fists as a wave of rage began to sweep over me. "She was almost ours when that loathsome servant of the goddess snatched her away."

His eyes spark with hope, and the fury inside of me grows. Perhaps he doesn't know what that turn of events meant for me. And more importantly, for him.

"Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger!" I motioned wildly with each phrase, and then disappeared in a shroud of diamonds, my voice still echoing through the chamber as he looked around wildly for me. "This turn of events has left me with a strong appetite for bloodshed."

He continued to look, and I crept up behind him, lowering my mouth to his ear as my hands seized his arms. The shock on his face was beautiful, and the fear that lightly danced in the endless oceans was also fantastic. His smell—how curious! So woodsy and fresh, and for some reason I feel as though he's always smelled like that, even when he lived among the clouds.

Remembering I had to continue, I began to speak in a low tone right into his ear. "Still… it hardly seems fair, being of my position, to take all of my anger out on you. Which is why I promise up front not to murder you…" I smirked, a very cruel and amusing idea slithering into my mind. "No, I'll just beat you within an inch of your life!"

A jerked my head forwards and thrust out my long, snake-like tongue, feeling his muscles tense in my grasp as he wrenched away, whirling to face me. I drew my tongue back in, a long, loud chuckle escaping me as I threw my head back and dissipated my scarlet cloak. If he wanted to play the game that way, we would play it that way.

A battle ensued, and a fun battle at that. He was very inexperienced and it was beyond easy to pull his sword from his grasp and beat him with it, only to throw it back at him and allow him to pick it up. I didn't even have to run, I just walked everywhere, while he ran in circles around my, trying to gain some advantage. He did manage to land a few blows, and while I let most of them slide, I remember clearly a blow he landed directly to the diamond beneath my eye. Now, I try to be patient man, but that just pushed me over the edge, and I instantly formed a sword in my hand, slicing at him with reckless abandon and relishing in every cry of pain he released.

I could smell his blood—intoxicating, captivating—and a desperate urge to taste it moved through my body, drawing me closer to him as I landed a hefty blow to his shoulder and sent him sprawling to the ground.

"Pitiful."

That was really the only word to describe what I saw before me, and this pile of flesh and blood did not deserve to live. And it certainly wasn't the Hero of legend.

"Honestly, I would expect a little more out of someone attempting to save a Spirit Maiden."

A raised my rapier above my head and aimed for his chest, plunging it down. I was surprised when it hit stone instead of body, and I tilted my head to see the young man had rolled out of the way and was leaning against the wall with some difficulty.

"Oh ho! A fighter I see…"I removed my blade from the sod and watched him stand there, panting, bleeding for quite some time.

The determination was still in his eyes, but he obviously understood there was no plausible way he was going to win. And there was also an element of fear, which I very much liked, and then there was… this sense of… childlike innocence. As if he didn't understand what it was he had done to upset me.

But that was ridiculous, because he was obviously a man, and—Oh dear goddess no.

The goddess chose a child for this mission?

Mind you, I am a foreigner to the ways of sympathy, mercy, empathy, pity, or anything of the like, but I think that was what I was feeling that day. I am a cruel man, but I am not unfair to the extent where I would fight a child on his very first mission as though he were a battle-ripe and fully grown man.

Grinning, I stalked towards him, curious of his reaction, and he backed into the wall slightly, still gripping his blade in his slick, bloodied hand.

"Hmm… I wonder what I should do with you now that you're cornered like beaten remlit?"

He shuddered, but kept a brave face and stared my right in the eye without wavering. I reached out and seized his chin tilting his head this way and that, and leaning in closer so our noses were touching. It had been many a century since I had seen a human this close, and he was delicious with all of this glorious blood on him.

"You don't mind if I…" My tongue lashed out, sliding up his cheek before he had a chance to react. "Have a snack, do you?"

He pressed a hand to my chest in an attempt to push me back, and blood splashed all over the front of my suit. I cocked my head at it, and then glared at him.

"What do you think you're doing? You just ruined some of the finest clothing on the Surface!" I shouted, and he gave me a confused look. Ah, how like a peasant to not understand a thing about fashion. Time for an explanation.

SMACK!

The back of my hand met his face, and I heard his jaws clip together nicely.

A smile parted my lips. Oh, that sound was scrumptious!

I did it again, and again, and again, and again… Over and over my gloved hand jerked his face this way and that, his cheeks turning bright red and bruising. I snapped my fingers and my glove disappeared as I threw my hand out again.

Oh! The sound of skin on skin was so much more delightful! And he started to grunt a little, too. The pain was getting to be too much for him, it seemed.

Finally, I felt the calm of satisfaction, and I ceased my assault, taking his red and purple face in my hands and just staring at the delicious marks of pain. And people said red and purple didn't go together! What did they know, anyways?

"Hmm…"

There was still much to learn about this boy, I knew, but for now I had things to attend to, and the girl was gone.

I backed up and opened my mouth to speak, but the boy had apparently been given enough time to recover, and he engaged again. This time, our battle lasted much longer, and I must have somehow enraged him by the humiliating punishment I subjected him, because this fight was much more invigorating than the first, why—I even got to run a little!

Finally, his slashes and cuts got to be too annoying, and I jumped back, pointing my sword at him as I whipped a small trail of blood from my mouth.

"Well… you put up more of a fight than I would have thought possible out of such a soft boy. But don't clap for yourself quite yet. That sword of yours is the only reason you still live." I ducked my head slightly, almost regretting the words I was about to say. "I fear I spent far too long teasing and toying with you. The girl's presence has all but faded from this place, which means there's no reason to linger here. Goodbye, skychild. Run and play this time. Get in my way again, though, and you're dead."

I turned my sword in a large circle and disappeared, leaving the skychild to chase a girl who was probably already miles away thanks to that dog. Yes… Yes, I had given up the Spirit Maiden for the sake of playing with a skychild—oh, how I loved my little pet name for him—but I daresay it was worth it.

The skychild… the boy clad in green.

How interesting indeed.


A\N: Sorry for the lack of battle scenes. I got nothing. *is ashamed*