Just a songfic I simply had to write. "Mary danced with soldiers" from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Emmylou Harris as well as the new version from Beoga have influenced me a lot lately. Hope you'll enjoy!
Thanks to sesamina for rereading!
I neither own the song nor any characters from True Blood. OC and plot are mine.
She'd slip away each day with the dimming light
And with the sweetest smile she'd kiss the child goodnight.
At the mill she'd work her fingers till they were raw
For the sake of her son and the daddy he never saw.
"That's why I don't see myself as a monster." Aodann stated, though nearly unmoved by the massacre in front of her and finally knelt down beside a body she knew. "Humans did this. We at least kill our victims. We don't rape them and leave them in their own blood to die slowly. This one knew to dance quiet beautifully. I often saw her around here."
Mary danced with soldiers.
She stepped a light quadrille.
Shawl across her shoulders
To keep away the chill
To keep away the chill.
"Right! Last time I saw so much blood was when you lost your temper up north in Salem. You want to change her?" Eric asked sceptically between two gulps from the likewise nearly dead saloon owner.
"No, of course not. I'll just finish this." She bowed her head to the human's neck and slowly sank her fangs into the vein. Aodann drew back immediately. "Crap!" she murmured.
"What is it?" Eric asked sounding slightly concerned now.
"These men were … brutal." She squeezed her grey-green eyes shut to get rid of the pictures and feelings the blood had forced into her mind against all of her defences. "And this woman has a child." she added after regaining her self-control.
"So?"
"Do you really have to ask? It may have been a lot of years ago but actually I had female instincts once."
"And?"
Aodann rolled her eyes at her companion's disability to understand things like this sometimes. "The child is an orphan now. The father was shot five years ago. It's not like in our time anymore when there had been the village to take care of a lonely child."
It was a rebel boy who brought her joy they say.
Though the years passed the memories stood fast each day.
Before a bullet crushed the life of their romance
He gave her a shawl and a parasol from France.
The woman's eyes flickered open for just a second. "My son…" she murmured to quiet for human ears to hear. Aodann looked back down at her and took the torn face in her hands. Leaning down she whispered "He will be save. Now relax! No one will hurt you anymore! Everything is fine." forcing these thoughts into the human mind easily. The woman looked peaceful immediately and let out a nearly content sigh. She didn't flinch when Aodann drank from her again. In fact she flinched nevermore.
They came around to the tavern in town that night
And with silent pride Mary never tried to fight.
They cut her hair and left her body torn.
Her spirit slipped away before the dawn.
"Come, love! It will be dawn soon." Eric said offering her his hand.
"I have to take care of her child first." she answered and grabbing the woman's bloodstained shawl stood up without his support licking a drop of blood from her lips.
"You can't be serious!" He sceptically raised an eyebrow but not nearly as amused as he did this normally.
"I know. But I am. I don't give promises easily. I don't break promises easily. I will take care of her son. Come on."
Mary danced with soldiers
But now her body is still.
Shawl across her shoulders
To keep away the chill
To keep away the chill.
"Wake up, little child!" Aodann whispered caressing the short brown locks of the sleeping boy. His eyelids flattered. "Mommy?" he mumbled still half asleep.
"No, Stanley. You will not be able to see your mother again. I will care for you from now on until you're old enough to live."
The child looked up to her drowsy and questioning but before he could really start thinking she looked him deeply in his grey-blue eyes, dove into his consciousness and soothingly ordered: "You feel save and sound. You will sleep now, Stanley, and you will not wake until I tell you so." And with that she pressed his mother's shawl in his little hands.
Aodann caressed his warm, soft cheek while she wrapped her arms around the little body that was cuddled up in his blanket. Carrying him out of the little room his mother had owned she passed Eric who snorted the tiniest little bit. She couldn't resent him his confusion and annoyance because she hardly understood her own behaviour right now.
Female instincts – easy to blame them, but Aodann had never thought she possessed such things not even when she had still been human.
Unimportant now, she told herself. Her promise had been given. She would find him a new home and keep watch over him, breakable human that he was. The few years till the boy reached adulthood would pass quite fast. He would get the chance to live his mother wanted him to have.
Mary danced with soldiers.
She stepped a light quadrille.
Shawl across her shoulders
To keep away the chill
To keep away the chill.