Disclaimer: I do not own Suikoden IV, or anything Suikoden-related. Enough said- I'm a firm believer in keeping things short and interesting.
A/N: Okay, I realize that I'm probably violating a lot of canon with this story, but there's not much I can do about that; there aren't very many biographical resources for Suikoden IV in English at the moment. Even so, Ornan has always fascinated me as a character, mostly because of his semi-fascinating back story, and I always wondered whether… well, you'll see. But, at any rate, I'm warning you ahead of time not take some of the future references seriously; they're all based on my own interpretation of information collected from the game, and may or may not be accurate. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this!
He was at the bar all day and most of the night. Not really drinking, or at least not drinking all that much, but simply sitting. Existing. Occasionally, he might talk to the other patrons at the bar or waste potch tossing dice with Gunter, but he rarely ventured too far from his favorite velvet bar stool and almost never left the saloon. Louise had seen drunks "live" at bars before, but never serious men like him.
"Hey, Ornan! Want any more rum? You're lookin' kind of dry." Louise carefully took a bottle off the rack behind her and sensuously strolled over to his seat.
Ornan looked up at her and smiled that sad, bittersweet smile of his. "No thanks Louise. I already have a tankard."
Louise frowned at him. His tankard wasn't even half empty, and she'd given it to him nearly an hour ago! She sighed, then, placing both arms on top of the bar counter, leaned closer to him.
"I hate seeing people waste away like this, Ornan. You need to get outta this bar, go do something! Why don't you head to the training room? The rear deck? Maybe even the library? I don't care what, just do something!"
His expression remained unchanged. "Louise, I'm not drunk. You don't need to cut me off, especially after I just turned you down for another round."
"No! That's not what I meant-"
"Shh! Incoming!" Keeping his hand low to the counter, Ornan pointed towards the large wooden doors leading into the saloon.
Now what? thought Louise in exasperation. Looking in the direction Ornan was pointing, she saw a very nervous, rail-thin man with neck-length black hair scuttle over to the bar counter. Suppressing a groan, Louise went over to serve him. Hopefully, this time he'd come only for the alcohol.
"Desmond! You seem lively today! Can I get you anything?" She attempted to keep the usual sensuous hip movement out of her gait this time, and hoped she'd succeeded.
"Why y-yes Louise… You seem, uh, healthy." She relieved his awkwardness with a bright, completely non-suggestive smile, allowing him to continue. "Mulled wine, if you'd be so kind…"
"Afraid we're fresh out."
"But I could've sworn Lady Elenor was-"
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean she got it from the bar. How's rum sound to you?"
Eyes darting feebly, he barely managed to stammer out a reply. "Uh, you s-see… I'm not too fond of…" His eyes finally came to rest upon Ornan in the corner and noted the half-full tankard of rum sitting before him. The man believed his jealousy to be well-hidden, but he was pathetically transparent when it came to matters of the heart. She knew his answer before he even opened his mouth to reply.
"I'd like a pint, if it'd be alright."
Louise retrieved the bottle she'd offered to Ornan, noticing and loathing his amused smile on the way, before completely filling Desmond's mug. Returning to him, she set the frothy mug on the counter before trying to escape to a distance where she could politely ignore him, pretending she couldn't hear a word he'd said.
She didn't make it. The second she turned around, Desmond began probing, as he tended to do when Ornan was around. Which was always.
"S-so, is everything alright Ms. Louise? None of your patrons are bothering you, right? Because if they are, you know… well, I could, um, say something to the captain…"
"Everything is perfectly fine, Mr. Desmond. I don't want you starting rumors about my best patrons harassing me. I'll lose business, you understand?" His jealousy really irked her; how obvious could she make it that she wasn't interested in him? Sure, he was far more polite, refined, and probably more sensitive than Dario, but that certainly didn't make him her type.
It was at that moment that Dario crashed through the saloon doors, nearly tearing them off their hinges like a renegade rune cannonball.
Ornan had known from the start that Louise wasn't trying to cut him off from the alcohol, but he decided to play dumb anyways as he didn't particularly want to leave. No matter how large the odds stacked against it were, he couldn't discard the idea that she was the woman he was looking for.
A part of him, a very large part, in fact, knew better. Louise couldn't possibly be Sonja, as she had told him she had lived in Obel her entire life, while Sonja had grown up in Teien. Still, the alluring lilt in her eyes, the golden locks which cascaded behind her, and the way her hips swayed as she walked reminded him almost painfully of Sonja. They were even of similar age, although Louise appeared older than he imagined Sonja would.
Desmond's timely entrance had been just the thing to get Louise's rather scattered attention off of him. He realized that she probably saw him as some bizarre sort of drunk who, for one reason or another, never drank, but it was a better cover than the truth. If you realized that I stay just so I can look at you, day in and day out, would you magically reveal your true identity to be Sonja of Teien? Watching the way she scolded Desmond loudly for some comment he hadn't caught, he decided that no, she probably wouldn't appreciate another crush. Especially one that wasn't really on her, but a memory she seemed to preserve. What a pitiful thing I've become, he thought.
The large double doors leading into the saloon swung open with a violent crash, and in bounded a short, bull-like little man wearing a green bandana, a belt with a rather disproportionably-large skull belt buckle, and the typical pirate combo of a sleeveless shirt and green knee-length shorts. Dario's excitable, but not usually like this, thought Ornan with a rather casual lack of concern. Drama like this was fun to watch, but not participate in. It was times like this that he preferred not to be at the center of attention.
"Louise! Where are you, you dumb broad?" he hollered at the top of his lungs, looking around wildly.
"Do you have to yell? I'm right here, behind the bar like I always am!" Ornan had never seen Louise's face as utterly annoyed as it was at that moment.
Clutching a small scrap of paper in his hand, he viciously turned and slammed his hands on the bar so hard that a tremor went through it. Desmond's still-untouched mug of rum toppled over as its owner looked around, bewildered.
"What the hell have you done to my son?"
Lithely snatching the scrap of paper from underneath Dario's hand, Louise quickly scanned it over. After a few seconds, she let out a small chuckle before gently releasing it so that it floated into Dario's face.
"Well, I think the question here is what you have been telling him. More stories of Dario the Great and Just Pirate, I suppose?" Although Ornan couldn't really see her face, as she was now facing Dario, he was willing to bet she was smiling. Dario, on the other hand, was starting to look like a piece of Adrienne's tempering metals.
"Stop playin' dumb, Louise! I know you took him! You've wanted Nalleo back ever since you left him with me!"
"No, I'm afraid I really haven't seen him Dario. And I'm willing to bet he's, oh, perhaps running away like it says in the note?" Before he could reply, Louise turned around and deftly poured him a mug of rum. "On the house," she said as she slid it to him across the counter.
Clutching the mug, Dario looked a bit taken aback before emptying the mug's contents in a short series of gulps.
Louise jumped on the chance to talk without being blasted apart from his hysteria. "First, tell Rikie that her boy is with ours. She'll be worried, so that should be our first priority. Next, we'll start looking for volunteers to help us search. I doubt they got very far, since they probably just stole a rowboat. Hopefully, they'll have enough sense to row towards land." She paused thoughtfully for a second before continuing. "Mordos Island is a reasonable distance. Nalleo's been living with you, so he probably knows how to get there. Let's search in that direction first."
Ornan couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Did she really just refer to Nalleo, who was Dario's son, as "ours?" If he was interpreting the conversation correctly, and he really hoped he wasn't, then… Nalleo must be Louise's son, too.
The sudden implications of Louise and Dario's relationship suddenly hit home like a fire rune blast, and Ornan could feel the melancholy suddenly settling over his heart and mind like some sort of dark, wet blanket. There was no way Louise and Sonja could be the same person; Nalleo was, what, eleven? Twelve? He had met Sonja around eleven years ago, and there was no way she had been pregnant back then, not to mention with the son of a pirate from the Island Nations.
He hadn't realized how much of his heart had been counting on Louise being Sonja. He berated himself bitterly for his naïveté. You knew this was going to happen, whispered the logical corner of his mind. You knew from the start that she wasn't Sonja; you just wanted an excuse to fall for her.
"Ornan!" Louise's voice took him out of his self-destructive reverie. He looked up and saw her facing him, hands on her hips. Behind her, Dario had a dazed look on his face while Desmond had an oddly-triumphant grin which looked horribly out of place.
"You're gonna help look for the boys. And there's no point in arguing; I'm not giving you a choice." Desmond's grin slid off his face as she turned back to Dario. "There, our first two recruits. A couple more and we'll be good to go." Dario simply nodded in response, still looking a bit dazed.
No one noticed Ornan's sudden funk. A few seconds of depressed staring later, he got up and went to his quarters. It was the first time he had done so during the day since coming aboard the ship.
Off the coast of Mordos Island
Nalleo manned the oars as Rakgi stood watch. As it was nearing noon, there was plenty of light to see by and Nalleo wasn't having much trouble avoiding the occasional rock as they approached the shore. Rakgi was positively bouncing with excitement and wasn't really paying to attention what was going on around him anyways.
"Come on, Nalleo, tell me more about what we're gonna do when we get to Mordos!"
"First, we'll cut down trees and steal some canvas for a mast and sails to put on this rowboat. Then, we'll sail to that deserted island the mermaids came from and make an even bigger ship! It'll be better than the Grishend, even!" Nalleo let out a sigh as he considered being a great pirate, better than even his dad and Lady Kika.
"And then we'll make everyone fear our names! We'll get rich off of plunder and make our own pirate den!" Rakgi was getting really excited, which was sort of unusual. He was normally a pretty level-headed kid.
"First, we'll have to train. I think you'll be good with a sword," said Nalleo, eyeing the younger boy with what he hoped would be taken as a professional's appraisal. It was.
"You really think so?" In his excitement, Rakgi was starting to tip the boat. After plenty of practice working in a rowboat, he knew enough to sit down.
"Of course! Once we're both master fighters, we'll rule these seas! Just you and me! Oh, and maybe a few underlings… but it'll be mostly you and me." He gave one of his light, little smiles which were the practical equivalent of a grin on most people.
"Hey, you don't think my mom's going to worry about me too much, do you? I mean, she probably won't like me being a pirate, and I'm not supposed to stay away from our room for more than a day, so-"
"She'll be fine. We'll just give her some of our treasure, and she can buy her own house on Obel or something." He stopped for a second as a hopeful wish popped into his head. "Maybe… Maybe my dad will even marry her then." He waited for the angry outburst that was he almost certain to come.
Instead, Rakgi seemed to have regained all of his enthusiasm. "Oh! Yeah, that would be great! Your dad's the best!"
And I've always wanted a mother, thought Nalleo. He decided not to voice this thought, as it was a very un-pirate-like thing to say.
Of course, he had no idea that he already had one.
Fort El-Eal
Graham Cray was an imposing figure. His body was so… inhuman-looking with all of its mechanical constructions that it made one uncomfortably aware of his own body parts. The worst was definitely the eyes, though; cold, metallic grey, they made Min wonder if he even still thought the same way humans do.
"So, Mr. Min… Will you do it? As I said, you will be well compensated for your efforts."
Min was a short, fat little man dressed in purple fisherman's robes. His thin mat of red hair added to the jolly-looking expression frozen onto his rotund face and helped hide the slightly more… unsavory nature of his work. Sitting in the office at the top of this dark, forbidding fortress, he wondered when his reputation had become so infamous that he was now serving a military faction. This mission could open up a whole slew of opportunities.
"Of course. But it truly must be 'well-compensated;' I've never offed a noble before, much less one from the Scarlet Moon Empire. I take it this has to do with some of you history, hm?"
"Careful. Assassins aren't supposed to understand the reasoning behind their targets, just take care of them. There are plenty more where you came from, remember." His voice was cold and venomously soft. Never had Min encountered someone like him.
He quickly changed the subject. "So he was last seen in Obel?"
"Yes, but it is doubtful that he is still there. If I where you, I wouldstart by checking the nearby islands. He won't be expecting you, so there is no chance for failure, correct?"
"Of course." Min's jolly smile never faltered. "I never fail."