Second Seeds
Because from death there is life…
By: Demenior… and Major Nuuoa
"Run, Theresa, run!" Atlanta screamed. Her feet churned up leaves and dirt as she scrambled to stay upright. Tears blurred her vision so greatly she couldn't tell where the tree was or wasn't until she was right upon it. It was only her fast reflexes that saved her from hitting any. Theresa was gasping, sobbing and running at the same time. Atlanta could hear the giants bellowing behind them, looking for them. And beyond that, she could hear screaming. That terrible ear-piercing screaming. So feral and fearful and pained that it made her heart split, and it was even worse, because she knew why he was screaming.
"Theresa, hurry! We can't let them down! We have to get away!" she grabbed her friend's wrist and pulled her along.
"He'll come after us, Atlanta, " Theresa cried through the edge of her tears, "you know he'll hunt us- and he'll kill us!"
"I know that!" Atlanta snarled, not daring to meet her companion's broken face, "but we have to get away. It's our fate! We have to… we have to…" she trailed off. What were they supposed to do? They were the only ones left. Seven, then six, and now two.
No, she shook her head, everyone was counting on them. They… they needed seven. That's what they needed. Seven heroes to stop Cronus.
Theresa and Atlanta vanished into the night.
One Week Earlier
The oracle sat silently, actually coming to them for once. The mood was very somber, even Neil found it made too much noise to pull out his mirror as often as he liked. They all sat, waiting. Hera finally cleared her voice from where she stood, behind the couch where Jay sat as if by being there she could protect him from whatever the oracle had to say.
The creature took off its glasses and wiped the lenses with the bottom of its shirt. It placed them back on its nose before clearing its throat. They all unconsciously leaned in to hear, eyes wide.
A beat and then…
"One of you is going to die."
Silence. Not a gasp or intake of breath. Not a movement or blinking. You couldn't even question if it was true. Everything the oracle said was true. The oracle had just condemned them to failure.
Speech and thoughts to tongue evaded them, before Jay tumbled out of mute.
"Wh-who? Does this mean we're not going to beat Cronus?" Jay managed to say. The silence almost seemed to be blocking his words and he knew he sounded like a whining child.
The Oracle bowed its head. They waited again, with their hearts pounding like a beaten drum.
"I do not know. There are so many different possibilities, so many paths and choices that affect the outcome. But it will be one of you. One of you will die in the next three days."
The silence again. Wrapping around them, choking them. Someone made a low sound, as if to speak, but eyes did not meet and everyone remained within their own minds.
"I have… another prophecy for you. It is all I can do to warn you," the Oracle told him. It was the only one not affected by the silence, " if you will listen," it clearned it's voice again, a ball of light appearing in it's pale grey hand,
"In Time and Time to Darkness Rise,
A Great Slashed Night Across the Skies.
And Prophecies of Light we Keep,
As Seven Against for Surely Weep.
The Time has Come to Kiss Goodnight,
To Olympus's Dawned Eternal Light.
Hold Down Your Sins or Strip Them Bear,
For Hell on Earth is Walking There.
The Fruit of Victory, Taste, and Gold
Shall Not Wither or Die Old.
The Last Cruel Bell of Demon's Hand,
Will Bring Thee to the Promise Land.
He'll Come 'Round Yonder Eden's Door,
And Cry the Lonely Song of War
Where One Born of Youth and Day and Call
Will Surely Rise…
Only to Fall.
And Soon Thereafter as I Speak,
The Glow of Six Will Therefore Leak.
Their Fruits Will Shrivel One by One,
Just Like the Flower's Only Son.
The Skin Will Burry, The Steam in Furry,
Their Strengths to be Forgotten,
Along With That one Last Prayer,
Never to Unlocken.
So Run With Haste Ye Two of Fire,
And Tremble at Your Heart's Desire.
As Hearts Will Perish Not Long After,
To Serve the Great Forbidding Master.
The Clock Will Take its Stricken Toll,
In the Quest for the Ultimate Goal.
Until You Bring Back our Key to Heaven,
And Once More Will There be Seven."
And it was that a force stronger than death told hold of them, and wrapped one heavy chain from the weight of the world on their shoulders, and wrapped it around their hearts.
The next day, the prophecy came true.
Sixteen Years Later
"…and so Cronus had made the Seven into six and Archie the Betrayer joined his Lord, and went out to concur much of the land in Cronus's name. Herry was sent to work in the mines by night and by day he fought in the arena for Cronus's amusement. Jay and Odie followed Archie and became Cronus's personal slaves, like eager dogs they follow him now and Theresa and Atlanta escaped and abandoned everyone and everything they had once fought for," Neil finished with a sad sigh.
The children around him were looking up with wide eyes, they'd all heard 'The Fall of the Seven' before, but it was still a sad story. Even he had heard a million times in his short lifetime of fifteen years, and still couldn't believe that all that had been happening while he was born. This, incidentally, had been why his parents named him after they only pure hero in the Seven, Neil.
"Now run along, I have some work to do," he told them, getting up to leave.
"But Neeiill!" a little girl cried out from the pool of short dirty town children, reaching out with her sticky grimy hands, "tell us another story! One of the adventures of the Seven- like when Neil fought Medusa and her sisters all alone!" A few other children nodded and looked up with shinning hopeful eyes.
"No, and if you don't go Archie is going to come and get all of you," he grinned as he threatened them, but they all still jumped up and ran away, squealing. Some of the children were pretending to be Archie, while others were the poor civilians being raided by the monster of a general. Truthfully, he didn't have anything to do really; he was just tired of telling stories for today, and he wouldn't think of any more exposure to the sun on a day like today, not when his skin in this fragile condition.
Neil left the clearing and trotted home, saying hello to all the familiar faces he'd grown up with all his life. It was a small town, his, on the outskirts of Lord Cronus's territory. They were lucky not to have very many soldiers visiting, thanks to their location. But they weren't so far away that they were foreign to strangers and travellers. Neil knew everyone who lived in the town, and enjoyed meeting the strangers that passed through.
He got many looks from the newcomers, and he knew it was because of his looks. He had to admit, he was gorgeous. Too beautiful to be a boy, but too handsome to be a girl. Blond hair and blue eyes and tan skin, he was tall and had long legs and a lean torso. He made his way onto the main street, looking through the crowds at all of the faces.
"Neil! Hey, Neil!"
Neil turned and waited for the other boy to catch up. He had dark brown hair and hazel eyes, was a head shorter than Neil and louder than a trumpet.
"What's up, Ben?" he asked as the two of them watched the travellers.
"Look, man, the most beautiful woman, no really dude, like a female you?! You are a boy aren't you? Who'm I kidding? But she's like a goddess man! Remember those stories? Anyways... The most beautiful woman I've ever seen is here, and she's got this… companion with her that's as messed up as you. Looks like a girl, but is a guy, you gotta check this out!" Benjamin was grinning ear to ear.
"Ben, I'm not messed up-" Neil began tiredly, still exhausted after straining to understand every blast word that spouted from that guy's mouth.
"C'mon, Neil!" Ben pleaded, looking up into Neil's face. Maybe I should, he thought, It would be interesting to see what people considered my standards in another person... Though who am I kidding, there's only one me. Neil startled, where did that come from?
Neil blinked out of his fantasy and sighed, "Oh alright. What harm could a look at a pretty lady do?" Ben led him through the crowds to where two women, Neil quickly reminded himself that one was a man, were making their way along on horseback.
The woman had short red-orange hair that fell to her shoulders. She carried herself upright like a queen. Her eyes were green, her lips full and her skin fair. She was dressed in simple, poor travelling clothes, and yet her presence seemed to make those clothes more than what they were. Neil gulped, knowing she was much older than he, but still felt she was beautiful. He had the vague feeling that he knew her, but he'd never met her before. Her horse was light beige.
The man looked even more like a girl than Neil himself did, but Neil could see the masculine 'handsome' in his face. He had short red-brown hair that was kept back and looked almost windswept. There was a long bow slung across his back and a quiver full of arrows as well. The man had thick woman-like lips and hazel eyes and sat tense in the saddle, looking around nervously. Neil saw a sword strapped to his hip. The man had strong, muscular legs that, even so powerful, were slim and seemed to be shaped more like a girl's. His horse was dark brown and shook its head at the villagers.
"See, see? Isn't she amazing? I wonder if she's like a princess?! Like from those old fairytales, wouldn't that be exciting? And maybe she's trying to escape from an evil prince and wizard who wants her as his queen, but she'll fall in love with me-" Ben was beaming with excitement before Neil rudely waved a hand over his mouth. Eager child... isn't he? He groaned.
Neil nodded slowly silencing Ben, "She looks like a queen, but she's dressed in rags."
Maybe his voice had been too loud, or maybe she had selective hearing, but suddenly the woman's head turned to him and her eyes widened. The man's gaze followed and he moved his horse to Neil.
"You, boy, what is your name?" the voice, though seemingly rough, carried a feminine smoothness to it.
Neil winced, 'I'm sorry! I didn't meant to offend anyone!" he cried.
The man and the woman exchanged a glace, "Boy," the woman said calmly, "I only wish your name, please."
"N-Neil," he stammered. She was even more beautiful looking at him, if that was possible. Her eyes widened in shock, "how old are you?"
"Fi-fifteen, ma'am, almost sixteen," he wished she'd move on. Why was she suddenly so interested in him? Curse his beauty! If only he were born a toad!
"Born right around the fall of the Seven, no doubt?" she asked, gaze unwavering.
Neil licked his lips, "Y-yes, you could say that."
She pursed her lips, "Neil… would you mind coming to talk with me? For a little while at least?"
He shook his head quickly, "Not at all, ma'am. Not at all." Ben had made an inaudible gurgling noise beside him and no doubt melted on the floor.
The gem-eyed lady before him glanced at his paralyzed comrade and glance in amusement to her other comrade. "Must get Seuz to clean that up." She turned back to him and smiled, as if he'd really had no choice in the matter, "Good. We are staying at the inn up ahead, do come with us." She trotted her horse onwards and the man followed, his eyes not leaving Neil until he was sure Neil was following.
Ben had somehow picked himself off the ground long enough to gape and he and Neil were silent, exchanging bewildered looks.
"Maybe she has something for teenage feminine-men?" Ben suggested, and laughed at the thought of Neil possibly being interesting to someone as beautiful as her or perhaps a secret loathing for having his previous fantasy ruined.
"But either way I'm going with you," Ben shouted frantically as Neil kept in pace behind the two strange travellers, the one 'male' raising an eyebrow silencing Ben to a whimper, though he still followed.
"Seriously," Ben whispered through his teeth, still occasionally gazing ahead as their street became small and then cut off with the corner, "I'm not letting you have all the fun." Neil glanced sideways through his long dark lashes as Ben did some sort of attempt at a seductive eye-brow wiggle.
"What one earth do you mean?" The villagers watched as they made their way up the slopping hill to the lodge at the top, not too elegant, but the most tasteful thing they seemed to have here. It was simple. Water well, river, city hall, houses, village circle, bakery, butchery, market, and a lodge. And it was home. And it was his.
"You know," His dark hair bounced in the un-shaded heat as the cobble stone broke into dirt-paved road.
"Think about it man," Ben threw his hands into the air, "Gorgeous guys," he motioned to himself proudly and then to a now snorting Neil.
"Beautiful new girl, older but beautiful, and then again... she's too damn fine to be considered anything but- Never mind" Neil examined his beat shoes.
"And...?" Neil sighed, and swung his golden hair away from his eyes.
"I don't see your point. I understand that it's somewhat strange that mysterious strangers just invite you to their room and everything, but there's something about them... I don't know what, just, something! And I'm too lucky to get kidnapped anyways! But they wouldn't-" He threw his toned arms up in mental frustration. Why can't I figure this out? It's like... something's not right...
"Neil, for such a lady's man, you're a complete moron." Ben sighed bluntly, causing Neil to stifle a punch in the nose.
"I mean, you're good at that ancient Math stuff? Well, let me put it in your own words then. Girl plus boy plus room equallllsss...?" Ben drawled until his eyes went into dream-state once more.
"What are you-" Neil snapped his mouth shut, his blue eyes trying to decipher what was going on. Math...? The bubble of naivety broke.
"Oh."
EW!
"Excuse me, when did you start thinking like this 'Mr-I-want-a-Princess'?" Neil's perfect mouth gapped. His friend was truly insane. Truly, honestly... and not so purely. Ben still seemed blissfully oblivious to Neil's state. His black eyes danced as if drunk at the very prospect.
"But I call the tall ginger-gal first, because I do not want to be left in a room alone with that man-thing over there," Ben shuddered, "It's like he's secretly plotting my murder." The warrior gave what Neil heard to be an amused grunt... It sounded strangely- His own thought interrupted him. Not if I get to you first, Neil clenched back his rage.
"Your fantasies disturb me!" Neil burst, embarrassed as 'ginger-gal' gave him a slanted backwards stare, but before Neil's change of tan to red could finish, they had arrive.
"We're here." The warrior grated.
Neil gulped and pulled his hair back over his eyes.
"Very well," Neil brushed past them as they dismounted quietly, determined not to believe in Ben's foolish-musings.
"Thank you," Ben winked; Neil just smiled imagining the man's face in a snar before entering the small dark stone-house, smiling at the single rose-bush.
The man stopped abruptly behind him staring at the last red flower blossoming through the evergreen, Ben yelling his complaints behind them.
"Come." The woman tried to smile, and the man nodded. It was the only sign of normal he'd found in them, but it soon left.
"So lady, who do you want first, I'd suggest-" Ben's voice stopped abruptly in the darkness, and Neil pulled out of sulking just in time to see the warrior's eclipsed feline face go into a smirk and duck a frying pan behind his back as Ben lay crumpled over on the floor, the beginning of a bump on the corner of his head. The door slammed shut behind him.
Oh shit, maybe he was right! Neil blinked, making sure what he was real. Darn you correct vision!
"I TOLD YOU THEY DIDN'T WANT US!"
"Nice work." The woman's soft voice caressed his cheek and Neil shivered and jumped out of his skin will in shock at the loss of his dozing friend.
"Ben! Quick!" Neil yelled frantically to the slouched form, "Say something obnoxious!!" He just drooled.
The two were unaware to him for the moment.
"Thank you." Her man bowed gracefully, swinging the pan over his shoulder's as he would a bat... or whatever that thing Neil had read about was called. Neil felt his brow bead in sweat, and his throat tighten, tingles of fear crawling up and down his spine.
"Who are you?" Neil spun to them as they still ignored his attempts at normality. Pretty women did NOT just hit random boys with frying pans... no less a woman and a weird man –thing!
Strange Travellers: 1... Luck: 0
"Now," the woman moved like an angel out of the darkness, the last tendril of sunlight through the windows painted her fair face to his straining eyes, she was grinning, "for the boy."
The throat tightening became a strangle, and then something like the supersonic cry of a little girl losing her doll, a woman finding a mouse blocking her exit, and a loud, shrill songbird escaped from his mouth and screeched high into the blackness around him. He'd never heard such a thing before. Never let out such a shriek before. And the last Neil remembered was, What the heck was that?
Demenior: Hey guys, so this is a story I got the original plot-line for, but didn't know how to spruce it up or make it come to life, until Nuuoa showed up and graced me with her help! So this became a co-written story, like 'Together or Not'- which we are still working on, but a bit more serious. Be prepared for angst of the grandest variety.
Nuuoa: I'd like to take the time to introduce you all to our little account-thingie. You see, Demenior and I like writing, duh. And we've found that it is fun to write together, double duh. As such we took the time to create a seperate account where all of our co-written works will be put up under one name, so there won't be confusion to who's writing what.
Nuuoa(continued): This story is a combined effort of both of us, but it was still Demenior's idea in the first place! And I refuse to give in, as I feel I still stole it from her, but either way we have too many other stories floating around to handle this one by ourselves, but I did add a lot of ideas and many writings (including the ever-hilarious and loveable Ben) And so, wihtout further ado, as a grande introduction of our ajoint account, I give you the amazing, wonderful Second Seeds. Adventure, twists and romance and all!
Dem: ...wow... Nuuoa kinda goes on like Jay... hahaha.
Read and Review so you don't get crazy spleenular-area pains please.
-Nuuoa Eclaire and Demenior