"Daddy, come look at what I did!"
A tiny six year old girl with long silver hair tugged at the sleeves of an older looker man, happily gazing at him with brown eyes filled with childlike innocence and kindness. The man simply ignored the child as a pair of dark skinned fingers grasped a yellowed page and flipped it, silently reading from a black book decorated with strange purple markings.
The girl's face fell when he didn't respond, let alone acknowledge she was even speaking to him. A tiny hand released his dark colored sleeve. In the darkness the child quietly watching his back with sad, brown eyes. Silent tears appeared in her eyes as the seconds rolled by, the tears left thin transparent trails down her face, gently rolling off her rounded chin and softly falling onto the dusty, unkempt floor beneath her feet.
She didn't sob. Or make any noise for that matter.
She was silent like her father always told her to be. If she made any unnecessary noise, he was quick to snap, his dark skinned hands locked around her tiny wrists as he forcefully dragged her off so he could punish the fragile little girl for her disobedience.
Remembering the black and blue bruises on her back, the silver haired girl quelled the sobs that threatened to burst from deep within her throat, and raced through a pair of large ornately painted doors from whence she came.
Her father didn't bother to turn his head and reprimand her for slamming the door in her childish tantrum; he just sat at this desk, and read that blasted book. The neglected girl didn't know if the book was a blessing in disguise… or a curse waiting to be inflicted upon her very flesh. With a grim expression lining her face, the child opted for the latter, expecting the very worst.
It was better that way. Expecting the worst left little to be surprised about. If you had hope, even a tiny bit, a dagger would always come and rip it out of your chest. Always.
...
Dull vacant brown eyes stared straight down, absorbing in the scene which stared back at her with cold, dead blue eyes. She knelt down in the puddle of red liquid, hand reaching out to touch the man's chest where a large gaping wound, spewing blood all over his tattered ragged clothes, had proven to be his downfall.
All heat within the man dissipated after several minutes of being dead. Even now the nameless man's colorless skin felt ice cold and clammy to the touch.
Realization kicked in when the girl felt something heavy in her left hand. Slowly she turned her head, feeling something wet and slimy running down her arm. A scream ripped through the air as a blood stained dagger laid firmly in her grasp, bright red blood dripping all over her pretty purple sleeve.
Within moments the dagger was thrown halfway across the room, skittering and screeching against the stone floor, blood splattering everywhere.
Droplets of red blood landed on the girl's hair and face, staining her pale skin and silver hair a dark red color. Screams echoed inside the large empty room as the child let loose another pitiful scream.
"You did well, pup." A sinister voice echoed behind her.
The girl hiccupped and turned around to face the voice, hastily wiping away the tears and swallowing the screams that wanted so desperately to escape from within her fragile throat.
The silver haired girl cowered at the tall, imposing man standing before her. His dark brown eyes critically watched her, silently observing her tiny body shake and shiver violently under his gaze. The child hung her head low as he tried to escape his gaze, the very same eyes that bore the same color as her own. They were daunting, frightening, and… cold.
"Noella," The man shifted his eyes towards the dead, bleeding man in the middle of the room. A faint smile graced his thin mustached lips. "You did very well, my daughter."
The child, Noella, shook less with the sudden praise bestowed upon her. It was the first time her father had praised ever since she was born. Just hearing him praise her was enough to drown out the thought of being covered in blood, forced to- kill- someone simply because he wished for her to get a real taste for battle and blood.
When he said those words to her not too long ago, she didn't dwell on what they meant.
But when her father dragged her out of her room she blindly followed him, never questioning what her he had in mind when they walked into a large room with a deranged, balding man waving his stick thin arms in the middle of the room. Her father pushed her towards him, forcing a dagger into her hands as she stumbled and tried to regain her footing. The man, half-starved and completely out of his mind, saw her and rushed towards with hands stretched out, long yellow nails ready to rend and tear her flesh apart.
The girl responded in fear, instinctually holding the dagger in front of her in hopes it might stop him. It did.
The brown eyed girl looked up when her father placed a large hand upon her shoulder, drawing her from the terrible events that happened only ten minutes ago. "Come pup, it is time to prepare you for your destiny." Her father flashed her a toothy grin, evil intent practically oozing off his body like putrid black slime or sludge. Noella was fairly certain she saw the sludge drip off his body and pool at his feet.
Noella inwardly cowered under his gaze, fearful he might wish to punish her for something she did wrong. In a span of seven years, Noella had never seen her father smile so sadistically at her like he was now.
She was afraid, and rightly so.
With his slicked back brown hair, a brown and white beard hanging from his sharp pointed chin, and long thin finger bones with razor like painted nails… Noella had every right to fear her father. With blazing brown eyes her father grabbed her wrist. His painted nails stung when they pierced her skin, creating three bloody cuts that left bright red trails down her pale arm. A trail of blood on the floor was the only thing, besides a dead body and a blood stained dagger, Noella left behind.
As he pulled her out of the room, the dead body long forgotten and rotting away, Noella didn't resist. and like a mindless doll being manipulated by a puppeteer, she just followed with a blank emotionless face plastered on her round, baby face.
He was her father and she dared not disobey him.
For disobedience brings only pain.
…
And then there were multiple yellow eyes that glowed in the darkness, twisted and malicious as they stared straight ahead.
You are but a doll, human. An empty shell that calls forth my revival and destruction! We are one, pitiful human. We share the same heart, share the same destiny. Join with me and become a god and bathe in the blood of countless human lives!
You cannot escape the Fell dragon's grip! You cannot deny fate, little girl!
…
"NO!"
Noella shouted at the top of her lungs as she lurched forward, violently shaking the bed as blankets spilled off her, pooling around her waist in a messy heap. Her body quivered, skin practically drenched in sweat as her chest rose and fell erratically fighting to fill her lungs with air after expelling everything she had for that one word. Two small hands covered her face, desperately trying to block out the sight of those- glowing yellow eyes staring straight through her as if she were a transparent sheet of silk or a crystal clear pond.
Darkness echoed as she stifled a sob, silently ordering her muscles to cease quivering like a leaf and just… relax. But fear had its claws embedded within her, shaking her thoughts and rationality around like a child tossing a doll up into the air repeatedly.
So she continued to fear the darkness and what laid within her dreams in silence, coated in sweat and her long silver in completely disarray as it trickled down her back and over her shoulders in a knotted heap.
Something outside her light of sight stirred beside her, the bed creaking eerily under the cover of darkness.
"Noella?" A hand touched her shoulder briefly, causing the fear stricken woman to shriek and shy away from the touch. But she moved too far from the hand and ended falling off the side of the bed, dragging the covers that tangled around her ankles with her.
Noella was left dazed as her head collided with the hard wood flooring, the skin now tender and possibly swollen.
Whoever had been in her bed hastily flung the remaining blankets off them and scrambled to find a light source of some kind. She just stared at the offending person, fearful that perhaps this was a friend of her father's… sent to torture her or- worse.
There was a faint sound of something sizzling, something which glowed a faint orange and flickered erratically near the far corner of the room, obscured by the bed. And Noella just… stayed where she was. Her mind racing as she feared the worst as her nightmares, if one could call them that, dug deeper and deeper into her heart.
Peering over the bed Noella could see the light moving, footsteps gradually growing louder as he or she- inched towards her.
The orange glow of the candle passed by the far side of the bed; illuminating the fluffy white pillows with blue and green embroidery sewn into the edges like miniature masterpieces, and curled around the side of the bed like a fire slowly consuming everything in its path.
The figure Noella expected to see was not the person holding the candle. Instead of wild slicked back brown hair, she saw long white hair sharply contrast with the orange glow of the candle. And instead of a dark skinned hand reaching towards her, Noella saw a pale skinned, non-threatening hand lightly touch her on her shoulder.
"Noella, are you alright?" The voiced sounded male. But it wasn't her father's cold, calculating, and manipulative voice. The voice ringing in her ears sounded… comforting, gentle, and familiar.
When the flame stopped flickering around in the darkness, did she finally realize who was kneeling beside her with a concerned expression on his face.
It was Yen'fay. Her husband.
Noella violently shook her head, separating herself from her irrational fears, and slowly, drift back into reality.
"It was just a bad dream." She attempted to rise but a sharp throbbing pain bloomed inside her skull, abruptly forcing her to fall back into the pile of soft blankets and silken sheets.
"Your head?" He asked. Noella nodded very slowly, wincing soon after.
The light dimmed for a minute as her husband swiftly placed the candle on a nearby desk, leaving his hands free to help her up off the ground, gingerly. Noella felt dizzy for a brief moment when he helped her up. But the feeling quickly passed just as it appeared. Now there was a dull ache on the right side of her head where a slight bump was beginning to make itself known under a mass of messy silver hair.
Yen'fay paused, momentarily releasing her so she could stand on her own two feet unaided. Within seconds Noella felt her legs shake. Very quickly she leaned against her husband for support. She no longer trusted her body to act like it should.
The nightmares had done their job for even though she was beside the man she trusted with her life, she could not stop shaking.
Her husband wrapped an arm around her waist, slowly helping her towards bed where she sat down without so much as a word uttered. Under the orange glow Noella could see the harsh shadows on his face depicting his increasing concern for her wellbeing.
But he stayed silent when he saw her check her hands for something that was very clearly, not there. After a minute of utter silence Noella felt Yen'fay's large hand grab onto her's, covering the top from view. She gazed up at him.
"You and the Fell Dragon are no longer connected." Noella kept her mouth shut. Thanks to Chrom she knew she wasn't connected to Grima any longer. But still, she wanted to make sure the grimleal's markings wouldn't come crawling back.
Even after losing nearly all of her memories after slaying Grima with her own two hands, she wasn't quite sure if she'd be able to go through such an ordeal a second time. The first time had been traumatic enough, separating her from her husband and removing all the good and- bad memories from her mind before appearing in the same field of flowers Chrom had originally found her lying in at the start of her journey.
But before she had been found, she had been lost for two years. It was only recently; two weeks ago, she reunited with Yen'fay after being separated from one another for so long. It was jarring at first to find out she had a husband. Then again, she had the ring to prove she was married when she woke up. Denial just kept her from accepting the truth until Yen'fay stood before her, Chrom quickly explaining he was her husband.
Back then she told him she didn't know him aside from a few vague memories and hung her head low. Surprisingly, Yen'fay was fine with this and hugged her saying he did not care if she remembered; only that he was glad she was alive and well. Morgan, their adult son, chimed in and said the two of them could help her regain her memories.
Their happy reunion had her in tears in a matter of moments.
To lose it all now… she didn't want to think about it.
Yen'fay brushed her sweaty bangs out of her eyes. "What is wrong, my Sun?" He asked. She smiled, still feeling his hand on her's. He never let it go. Because he knew she feared the possibility of seeing an all too familiar purple glow taunt her from the back of her hand.
He held her hand to protect her and comfort her.
"Bad dream." She replied simply. However, she wasn't quite sure if they could be called just a 'bad dream'. They seemed a bit too… realistic and chaotic. Like they were real. Perhaps they were… very old memories.
"'Twas no bad dream, Noella. You do not frighten easily." That might have been true in the past. But as she was now, Noella wasn't quite so sure. Her memories came in fragments, many of them confusing and bloody. Screams echoed inside her head the moment she closed her eyes and the smell of blood and smoke wafted into her nose when there was none to be found.
She dreamed of war… and things best forgotten.
She breathed out, realizing she had been holding her breath for far too long. "I… I remembered something," Noella noticed her husband eyebrows knit together in confusion. "It was… about my father…." Her voice cracked as she began to recount the events in her head.
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze to distract her from her thoughts. "You need not speak if you do not wish to." He softly said to her, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. Noella nodded and thanked the gods for allowing them to meet each other again.
If anything he was the sun, driving he darkness away with his light. She didn't drive darkness away. She attracted it.
"You need sleep, Noella. You haven't been sleeping well this past week." Her body stiffened at the thought of falling asleep. Yen'fay's expression softened some, possibly picking up on her reluctance to close her eyes and drift off into the realm of dreams and nightmares.
Without a word his hand slip off her's and walked towards a shelf filled with medicines and tomes she frequently used in her spare time. Noella stared at his retreating figure; finally noticing there was no shirt covering his chest, wearing only a pair of thin loose fitting black pants around his waist. There was a reason for that, the very same reason why she only wore her white sleeveless tunic and smallclothes to bed; it was summer. And in Ylisse the heat tended to make sleeping uncomfortable if one wore too many layers. Granted sleeping together was a… recent event. They had spent a week sleeping alone in separate rooms, something not normally done between married couples. But Yen'fay gave her time to herself, allowing her to absorb everything she learned nearly two weeks ago after they finally reunited again. It wasn't until a week ago that they began sleeping together. In the same room. In the same bed.
There was only one word to describe how the first night went: awkward. Although, after being told why their first night was so awkward, it wasn't all that surprising. During the war when they were married, many of the tents were small and couldn't really accommodate two people sleeping together. Hence the reason why the two of them never slept together before the final confrontation, or so Yen'fay explained to her.
But after the red faces, sputtering apologies when one of them bumped into the other, the whole experience wasn't as terrible as she thought it be. In fact, it was oddly comforting. A week before they started sleeping in the same room, the nightmares plagued her constantly. Now, sleeping next to her husband, they came less frequently.
Subconsciously she thought about how warm her husband was… and how she normally found herself snuggled up against him early in the morning. Noella's face reddened at the strange thought.
Very quickly she turned her head away, brown eyes focused on the flicking candle casting a scant amount of light in their dark little room. The flame danced wildly as if it were free and unafraid of the darkness that threatened to smother it under its wake. Noella felt her face scrunch up as she remembered the fire magic that had been used in her previous memories, killing and melting flesh from bone.
The morbid nightmares wove themselves into her dreams, destroying anything pleasant and replacing them with blood and gore.
For a brief period in her life, Noella wasn't sure if she should be thanking Naga for being her back. Surely a god didn't get a kick out of mentally scarring a human being… did they?
A shadow fell over her. "Here." Noella turned her head around, seeing Yen'fay standing in front of her with a glass of water and something else in his empty hand. Without questioning him she held out her hand, palm face up. He placed an oblong two toned pill in her hand and handed her the glass of water.
The silver haired woman looked at the pill before looking back at him for explanation. Noella doubted he would every try and harm her, but she wanted to know what this thing would do to her. Would it make her sleepy? Or would it do something unrelated to her situation.
He spoke the moment their eyes met. "Lissa gave this to me yesterday afternoon stating it might help you sleep-" Noella wrinkled her brown eyes stared coldly at the pill.
Yen'fay chuckled. "Let me finish, Noella." She spared him a glance and tried not to make any more faces. "She said it would help you sleep without the fear of dreaming." Now that caught her attention. But deep down she found herself questioning the effectiveness of the pill.
"Do you not wish to take it?"
"I'm not sure it will help." She admitted. There was a possibility it might help her, or it might not. Personally she didn't want to find out what would happen if it didn't work. The nightmares were very effective at draining her both physically and mentally.
Noella wanted them to stop.
Under the glow of the candlelight Noella began to shiver, the pill and glass of water still firmly within her hands. the sound of water sloshing around bounced around in her ears.
"I don't want to fall asleep… Yen'fay." Despite her best attempt, she couldn't stop herself from allowing a whimper to pass through her lips. Tears glittered under the orange glow as they trailed down her cheeks in silence.
She made no sound as the tears fell down and landed on the bed. The glass in her hand fell when Yen'fay embraced her, forgotten and alone as the water spilled all over the floor. The pill in her hand fell, mixing in with the water drenching the floor.
Neither she nor Yen'fay cared about the mess.
Noella relaxed in her husband's embrace and returned the hug with her free hands, fingertips brushing across a few scars that marred his back due to war. She didn't judge him for she had her own scars. There was one that started at her right hip and ran down her leg, stopping short of an inch above her kneecap. Another ran down her forearm, pink and angry as if it was new. It was very possible that it was new, and that she simply couldn't remember when or where she received it.
Under the glow orange glow she tightened the hug, feeling his loose white hair which was normally up in a ponytail, tickling the back of her neck. "Stay your tears, my Sun. You shouldn't grieve; it does not suit you to do so." He whispered softly to her.
A faint smile appeared on her lips when she heard him and didn't let him go under the faint orange glow cast upon the two of them. Yen'fay radiated warmth, gentleness, and safety… something she didn't have years ago. He wasn't like her father… he cared for her wellbeing and wished nothing but the best for her. Yen'fay hated it when she cried and always tried to cheer her up be it skipping stones, sparring, or talking about the memories he had of her. Everything he did was for her and her alone.
She chuckled when she thought about the shepherds. They protected and lost sheep from the horrors of life, guiding them towards safety without asking anything in return. Yen'fay was her shepherd… and she was the lost sheep. That thought alone brought a wide smile to her face as her head rested in the crook of her husband's neck, basking in his warmth she so fondly remembered in the back of her mind.
The candle's flame flickered, slowly beginning to die out under the suffocating darkness. Noella took a deep breath to calm her frayed nerves.
"Thank you… Yen'fay." Noella muttered softly. Her voice no longer sounded fearful, but calm and- serene.
Yen'fay's embrace loosed as he relaxed at the sound of her voice. Apparently she caused him to tense up, head filled with worry and concern for her wellbeing. It was sweet to know he cared.
Shadows grew as the flame began to dwindle to nothing but a small, tiny speck of orange atop white colored wax candle. The bed creaked as Noella shifted a tiny bit, confused as to what they should do… or whether she should let him go or stay like this for a little while. She opted for the latter as the silence consumed them before Yen'fay spoke again, breaking the silence.
"I cannot stop the nightmares, Noella. I do pray that I can spare you the pain that haunts you… but I cannot. But I am here for you. You are my sun and I do not wish for you to set. I do not wish to you twice." Noella could hear the pain in his voice, how his strong voice cracked at the end.
Noella took another deep breath, taking in his scent that smelled so foreign to her now. He smelled of tea, fresh cut grass, clay, and something else she wasn't familiar with. Perhaps it came from his home country, Chon'sin for that was the only logical reason she could come up for the spicy, foreign smell that lingered on him.
She drank it in as the flame finally died, leaving them in total darkness.
"I'm not going anywhere, Yen'fay. You won't lose me again."
AN: Finally finished this long thing. Phew! But now wonder: should I make this story longer by adding in some random things? I was thinking about the Summer Scramble DLC released in the US, as well as other things I could write about concerning these two. But I am at a loss if I should add more chapters and such.
I might just add more to this, be they fluffy or hurt/comfort chapters. I just want to write more about my favorite couple in the game. So if anyone wishes me to write more, I shall and try not to drag this story for too long.