Alone For Now
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Assassin's Creed Characters except for the Crone and Christine Neumann. Might add a few OCs in here during future chapters
Author's Note: Found out that Travel Through the Darkness was a big hit and decided to do another story of AC, but ACII instead. I only own Christine and any other OCs mentioned in future chapters, but not any ACII Characters. Enjoy and review! :P
Chapter One
Sixteen year old Christine Neumann sat by the water edge of the French river near Paris as she looked at the clouds. The variety of pinks and purples changed the light blue sky. Her hair was a golden brown and her eyes were green, a trait from her Irish ancestors. She was an average height of five foot four and her build was delicate features.
Being alone at the edge made her long for her own family. Her own husband to call her own and children to fill her waking hours. Already her eighteen year old sister had three children and a husband.
"How I wish to be married," she sighed, looking around behind her and noticed a woman sitting just meters away from her and Christine felt like running.
"Child, I couldn't stop but see how lonely your life must be. I can help you with that," the crone said. She felt sick, but said, "Thank you for the kind offer, but I would like to be alone, Madame."
"An eagle you must be, til your true love sets you free." the crone called and everything Christine knew, she had shrunk and her arms were wings, her voice the cry of a bald eagle. Frightened, she flew away, unable to know where she would go.
It was days later when Christine found that she was cursed, unable to call out for help, not able to visit any living soul for fear they would try to kill her.
She had arrived at the boarder of Italy, unable to know the time of day that she could fall and go to her death. She still flew on, not caring that men saw her form and tried to deesperately catch her, but Christine outwitted them, flying into the clouds.
It was night when the eagle decided to land outside of Milan. When she landed, she felt her body change, a body of a young woman yet again.
"I'm me? How is this possible?" Christine examined her body, bare of any dresses that she would have thought changed with her. "I hope to get at the damn crone soon! She bloody well cursed me!"
"Signorina, siete d'accordo*?" a man in white robes appeared from behind a tree, frightening Christine behind a bush, ashamed for not wearing clothing.
"J'ai parle français, monsieur*." she squeaked. The man noticed from her shoulders that she wore no clothing, but he didn't understand French, Christine very little.
"Venga con me, signorina*," he offered his blanket to Christine and she waited til his back was turned. She dashed out of the bush to accept the blanket and wrapped herself in it.
"Qui êtes-vous*?" she cocked her head to the side, though she was sure that he didn't speak French as she barely understood Italian.
"Giovanni Auditore da Firenze, e tu, mia cara*?" not knowing what he meant, she assumed he wanted to know her name.
"Christine Neumann, monsieur." dawn was fast approaching and she knew the eagle that she was cursed being began to claw it's way up and after it was too much, she took off, morphing into her day beast, but watched Giovanni look at the blanket that he gave her, perched in a tall tree.
"She was peculiar," he said to himself, and he took off, riding on horseback. She noticed that he was not like any of the other men she ran into and followed him, just stopping out of the city walls to walk to his home.
Perched outside the window, Christine noticed a woman that embraced Giovanni, a mental note to herself that she was his wife. With a girl her own age and a boy, possibly eleven greet their father. She felt jealous, her bird-chest huffed out to give her a maddening look.
A rock hit her and Christine shrieked, her body hitting the ground, really hard.
"Hey! It's an eagle!" the boy yelled. She got up and tried to fly away, but her wing was broken!
She cried out and a man, about the same age as the girl at Giovanni's home, scared the boy away.
"Father! I found this bird outside."
"Let me see," Giovanni inspected her wing, noticing that it was indeed fractured. But something about the female eagle's eyes seemed familiar. "It is definitely fractured, and it will take weeks for it to heal. Maria, can you go buy supplies to help me fix this poor eagle's wing?"
"Si, Giovanni, I will be back, and maybe Ezio can stay here to watch her."
"Grazie, amore mio*." he kissed her and gave Ezio the eagle.
"Won't she hurt me, father?"
"Did she hurt you when you brought her in?"
"No."
"Well then," Giovanni left and Ezio stayed with the eagle, who looked at him with bright green eyes. Petruccio would love to see an eagle up close.
An hour later, Ezio, Maria and Giovanni set to fixing the eagle's wing, which she did cry out, but didn't hurt anyone.
"Maria, on my travels, I ran into a girl. She was peculiar as she was naked and hid when she saw me."
"What do you mean 'naked and hid'? You mean no clothing?"
"No, like she was surprise that she was human. And yes, but I'm glad Ezio wasn't with me."
"Maybe you should go find her, Giovanni. Someone might just hurt her. What was her name?"
"Christine Neumann. And she spoke only French. I never saw a girl like her before and before dawn approached, she ran and disappeared. That eagle has the same color of eyes as her," he mentioned, the eagle named was asleep in her perch on the fireplace mantel, her fractured wing tight to her body.
"Do you plan to call the eagle Christine?"
"Si, it would make sense. She will be stuck here with us for a while until her wing is completely healed. Let's call her Christine for now."
Footnotes: Going down in Order for Translations (French is Bold and Italian in Italics)
* Are you alright, Miss?
*I speak French, sir.
*Come with me, miss.
*Who are you?
*Giovanni Auditore of Florence, and you, my dear?