First thing's first, I have a poll up on my profile. Please vote in it. It regards trigger warnings and their importance to you. I personally, don't like trigger warnings, as they take away elements of surprise from chapters. An actual book will not give you a trigger warning and... well, I do consider my fanfics actual literature, as silly as that may sound. I really feel they interfere with how the story is meant to be read. I don't like them because I feel it takes away shock value and spoils stories. And especially in a story rated M, you should expect some shocking content. However, I'm posting my fanfics up in a public internet space, and while I do write solely for myself and any story decisions I make are my own, I do care for what my readers think and I certainly don't wish to offend anyone. While I don't like trigger warnings, if you all would feel more comfortable with them, I will add them at the beginning of chapters. Whether I add trigger warnings or not in the future chapters depends on your answers to this poll, so please vote on it! Majority rules.
Hrrrm... Another one of those chapters that kind of said "Screw your outline. I DO WHAT I WANT." But that happened towards the end. As normal, not checked for mistakes and it's 3:30 in the god forsaken morning so give me a break, hunh? The grievous mistakes, as always, shall be fixed within the next 72 hours.
After Zelda had spoken with the Mayor and gotten arrangements for the party done, she had found Poe patrolling one of the castle walls and told him what she had experienced earlier. The guard listened intently, but seemed to have no outward reaction to her story. When she'd concluded, he remained silent, apparently thinking over his next words, the finally came out with, "That's definitely something."
She grimaced, "Oh Poe, please tell me you believe me!" She said in a hushed whisper. Technically, the guardsman was on duty; she shouldn't have been disturbing him, no matter how important she thought it was.
"I do believe you, but I'm not really sure what to say. This isn't exactly my area of expertise, Princess." The guardsman confessed with a shrug. "Why not go to your dad about this?"
"I couldn't Poe!" She exclaimed nervously, "He's already dealing with so much and… if he finds out that I went to the Shrine by myself… I'm not supposed to go unattended, he'll be furious!" She wasn't sure she was exaggerating, but she knew her father would definitely not be happy. Then again, telling him any part of the situation, even skipping over her impromptu visit to the Shrine, would have him fairly upset.
"All right, calm down," Poe said quickly to her as he noticed she seemed to be getting closer to a panic.
She took a deep breath, and after gathering herself she miserably said, "It felt like my nightmare, Poe."
Puzzled, the guardsman asked, "Nightmare? The one with Vaati?" She nodded glumly, and he responded with a somewhat insensitive sounding, "You still have those?"
She said nothing, partly because she was a bit mad at him for dismissing the nightmare so readily and partly because she was embarrassed. A seventeen year old girl still with childish nightmares. In a hushed outburst, she defended it by saying, "It always feels real so real! It starts off like when we went to the Shrine those years ago, but then I don't listen to you as you say we should leave and I… I touch the Sword and then I feel the life being crushed out of me… It's terrible…"
Poe's face twisted in thought, before he hesitantly put a hand on the worried girl's shoulder and said, "All right, didn't mean to sound like a jerk… Just, I haven't heard you saying things like since you were like… ten or something." She looked up at him, smiling a sad smile. The guardsman went on to say, "Again, I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I heard somewhere that sometimes really bad nightmares like that can affect a person when they're still awake."
While her expression became defensive again, she said nothing immediately. She'd had the nightmares for so long and they never affected her like this… but who was to say that after so long they couldn't get worse. They certainly hadn't gotten better or not as bad – they were still just as horrifying as when she'd first had them, if not worse. Was it so far-fetched to believe that the dreams worsening could actually affect her in her waking hours? "It feels so real, though…"
"I never said it wasn't real," Poe added. The girl again remained quiet, not sure what to make of the guardsman's words. But the guard, in his awkward way, tried to be reassuring, "Hey, look, don't worry too much about it. For now, focus on that party of yours; keep your mind off of it. If it ends up happening again, then keep it quiet and you tell me. We'll go investigate it together."
This had just happened once; it might have been the after effects of a nightmare… If it happened again, then she would worry. And then she would have Poe to help her figure it all out. She took a deep breath and let it out. Though her brow was furrowed in some measure of doubt, she finally nodded in agreement. "Yes; that's a good idea, Poe. Thank you."
The guardsman smiled at her. "I'm only doing my job as a servant."
A day later, an apprehensive Zelda awaited the recurrence of that repellent feeling. It never came. Three days later, she had the hope that Poe was absolutely right. When a full week had passed, she was confident that her friend was correct and it was just a cruel prank on her by her subconscious. And two weeks after the experience, with festivities fully planned, she couldn't wait for the celebration at Castle Town.
She and the mayor had met regularly and arranged for the local musicians to play, games for all ages, dancing; even her father pitched in to help, managing to convince the long feuding vegetable and fruit sellers to make peace and provide snacks for all. The Lon Lon ranchers were also coming, as well as the Gorons in the nearby caves and the last remaining members of the Wind Tribe.
She arrived at Castle Town in the afternoon to cheers and birthday wishes. Zelda happily greeted and thanked everyone that came up to her, before a daring boy from the town swooped her away for a dance. She imagined she had to have danced with everyone, from Old Man Swiftblade to his preteen grandson Swiftblade the something or other number she couldn't remember, from her old school mate Mina to a little Wind Tribe girl that liked to zig zag around with her little blue cape.
Eventually, the tables were finally all put together and everyone sat down and enjoyed meat from Lon Lon Ranch with both fruits and vegetables from the temporarily peaceful produce vendors. The sun was beginning to set, but the celebration wasn't done. Her father stood and gave a rather embarrassing speech of how much she'd grown and how proud he was of her, to which the townsfolk all clapped and laughed; the Wind Tribe went ahead and performed acrobatic feats; and the Gorons went ahead and tried to teach the townsfolk their own traditional dances; she even caught sight of Malon, the woman who owned Lon Lon Ranch, and her father speaking very amiably to each other (she couldn't help but giggle at it). And as shades of blue descended in the sky, the happy residents of the town began to tire and simply huddle together and speak of the day's festivities over Chateau Romani.
Zelda found it had to have been one of the best birthday celebrations she'd ever had. The soft glow of lantern light filling the streets of Castle Town, emphasizing the already warm attitudes of the people of the town… She found herself thinking that maybe taking the throne wouldn't be so scary, not when it meant she had such a strong support group in the whole of the small kingdom.
She always had some sort of crowd around her it seemed, making it awkward when she declared she needed a moment alone for the "facilities." It was certainly enough to let her go freely, and much as she enjoyed all the company around her, she was rather glad that she was going to manage to get some alone time just for a few minutes. As she had begun to make her way back to the town square, she spotted a familiar face.
"Mr. Gibdo? You're still working!? You've been here since the celebration first started!" She exclaimed in shock.
Upon hearing the princess's words and seeming rather surprised that she paid any attention at all to him, he simply gave her a smile that reflected his tired looking visage. "It's all in the job, Princess. We're all on high alert, right now."
She frowned, though she didn't push it. The girl imagined it had something to do with whatever it was her father had been trying to hide from her. I'll have to ask him about that tomorrow, she reminded herself. "It's still rather unfair. I hope you're all getting paid extra for this at the very least." She said firmly.
The elder guardsman chuckled, but apparently had no real response to it. The silence that followed was a bit strange to Zelda because of that. She was on such friendly terms with this man's brother yet she could a barely hold a conversation with him. Perhaps sensing the discomfort, he managed to say, "Sorry, Princess."
Confused, she asked, "Huh? Whatever for?"
"That you always have to catch Poe and me fighting. I imagine it isn't a pleasant thing to watch; and I certainly think it's very inappropriate to air out our problems in front of you like we always do." Gibdo said with a mixture of awkwardness and genuine apology.
She certainly hadn't expected anything like this; then again, to be fair, she didn't know what to expect from Gibdo since she didn't know him so well. Zelda gave him a small smile, "Apology accepted… but you know Poe really doesn't flirt with me."
The older guardsman seemed a bit embarrassed, but nodded and conceded, "I know, Princess, and I'm sorry those words ended up coming from my mouth… Truthfully, I just never know what my little brother is up to anymore. You probably know him the best out of anyone in the kingdom, honestly…" She took note of how sad he sounded as he said it. The princess couldn't help but feel sorry for the elder brother at that time. She knew he meant well for Poe, even though Poe himself didn't seem to care. It was… unfair, she supposed. But she wasn't one to judge, she supposed, as she had no siblings.
Before she could come up with a response, a young man turned the corner and brightly called out to her, "There you are, Princess! The last dance of the night before everyone goes home is going to start!"
"Oh, I'll be right there!" She called out before looking back to Gibdo and apologetically saying, "I'm sorry, Mr. Gibdo, I have to go… But I would like to talk to you again when you and Poe aren't fighting."
And then she rushed off, the boy nervously asking her then if she would perhaps have the final dance with him, before another boy came about and told the princess to forget about that boy and dance with him. She laughed, proclaiming she'd dance with them both, and Gibdo couldn't help but smile as the cheery princess's voice faded. She really was a lovely girl, if not a bit fiery. He was glad his brother had a friend in her…
At the town square, Zelda happily took the hands of the boys who'd wished to dance with her and spun happily with them to the last lively song the local band played. The Prince-Regent rose for a minute, the look in his eyes saying he didn't much like those town boys even touching his daughter; but the mistress of Lon Lon Ranch grabbed the man by the shoulder and forced him to sit back down while giving him a reproving look.
As Zelda laughed and spun with her two dance partners, more people decided to join in, mostly those of the princess's age. Her last night of freedom, dancing and having fun with those of her own age in a completely carefree way. Nothing could ruin the moment for her.
Except for a stabbing, nauseating mental assault of wrongness.
It was more painful than before; the throbbing so strong in her mind that her vision whited out and she staggered backwards, tripping over the hem of her dress and letting out a shout fueled with fear and disgust. Everything was so bright and she couldn't see – what had happened? What had she been doing? She felt something grab at her shoulders, and in a panic squealed and tried to bat the hands off of her. But colors and shapes began to hazily return, and she recognized the green of her father's tunic. While her hands still tried to fight him off, he did relax. She could hear so many voices, but they all sounded melded and foreign, blurring together in a dull roar of incomprehensible nonsense. The round beneath her seemed to vanish, and then she realized that she was being carried.
The world eventually stopped spinning, but there was still the nagging sense of wrongness lulling her senses. As her father carried her, she could only manage to somewhat focus on his face, sunken with worry and hair looking greyer in the pale light of the moon. When did her father get so old? Raspy words eventually crawled from her lips, "Daddy… what happened…?"
"You would have to tell me, Ione…" The words came out in frustrated worry, "But not now. We're going home now."
"B... but what about-"
"Cole is taking care of crowd control; don't worry about it," Link responded quickly, a tremble in his voice.
The princess wanted to say more, but her mind jumbled again and the words would not form. In her clearest thoughts, she had known what occurred; but even with that knowledge she couldn't remember what she had told herself she would do if it ever happened again.
Mentally drifting in and out, she hadn't become aware of her surroundings up until her father had laid her down somewhere, saying he'd be right back and was getting the physician. Moments later, after her father was gone, she managed to take in enough to recognize she was in her room and on her bed. She attempted to sit up, but she felt so heavy that she gave up easily. But with her head slightly propped up a bit on her twin layers of pillows, the princess had a view of the garden doors that led to her small balcony. She saw something small and black fluttering onto the balustrade, as if watching her.
For some reason, the bat was disturbing her.
But with the throbbing in her head, she knocked the thought aside and tried to focus on perhaps drifting off. She managed it, only to be woken when her father brought in the doctor, an old man that looked far too thin to make anyone comfortable with him as a doctor. However, she wasn't in the right mind to be thinking about that, and she simply answered the doctor's questions and acquiesced to his requests as best she could. The doctor eventually nodded, then said to Link, "She seems to be in a state of shock; her mind's numb and she can't think all that clearly, but physically, she seems to be fine. Whatever came upon her seems to have worn off rather quickly."
"But what happened?!" Asked a frustrated Link who was having a hard time keeping his voice down.
"I'm afraid I can't say," she heard the doctor say hesitantly. "Her color and temperature are fine; I rather doubt its anything related to sickness or allergy. She's clammy, but after what she seems to have experienced, I don't blame her… It could be something…" The doctor's voice hushed for a moment. Her father didn't respond, but the doctor would continue on in his normal tone, "It's been said the Royal Ladies are much attuned to supernatural phenomena. I wouldn't be surprised if something negative took her off guard during such a positive occasion… If not that, the only thing I can think of is perhaps some sort of mental stress. All I can recommend…"
And the doctor's words faded into mumbles as she began to drift off, the vision of the doctor and her father conversing blurring into some weird splotch, as if a painter was half completed with his work. All she could catch the gist of was that she was to be kept an eye on…
Eye.
All she could see now was the upwards gazing eye in the Four Sword Shrine. And that was how a new nightmare began. No longer was she a little child because crushed by a great demon, she was as she was at that very moment in time. She was standing in front of the Four Sword, her focus torn between the Sword and the mural in the back. Nothing was happening. And that nothing was frightening her more than the dream of being swept up and squeezed ever dead. Here, she was simply left with dread anticipation, knowing the beast in the blade was fighting to get out constantly.
She could feel its power tickling at her senses in the dream, occasionally sending another surge of pain through her mind as soon as she thought nothing really was happening. It was a horrible dream about the battle of wills, hers versus the wind demon… And as the nightmare kept going, she felt her resolve fading. The tickling at her senses now became almost a series shoves; she backed away from the blade, almost cringing. She felt… so helpless. There was nothing she could do; her magic wasn't as trained as her mother's, and her father, Gibdo, Poe, or the other guards weren't around to protect her…
And that's when the beast would burst from the Sword.
Zelda shot up, a wail half caught in throat. She was delirious, unsure of where she was and what was going on; she wildly looked around her room, seeing things that should have been so familiar but now looked so foreign. But when her eyes landed on her balcony and she saw the bat on the balustrade, a fury she couldn't describe came over her. The princess wildly threw herself from her bed, grabbed a vase of flowers resting on a cabinet, thrust the garden doors open and threw he vase at the horrid little creature. It flew off without so much of a sound before the vase even came close to it, and all the girl could do as tears sprung to her eyes was wildly try to catch sight of it in the darkness. But she lost it, and the horror of her recent nightmare hit her full force and sent her to her knees, sobbing.
Everything came back to her then. She remembered the party, how all was so fine… and then the terrible pain. Her crying stopped, and while she still shivered with the effects of a heavy, dirty weep, she couldn't help but wonder if her most recent nightmare had anything to do with this pain. Perhaps there really was something wrong with the Four Sword… Her stomach knotted up, knowing that it was her job to make sure the seal was strong. She must have missed something before…
The nightmare revisited her for a moment, giving her the prospect of her losing her battle of wills with Vaati. But she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow, her inner fire rekindling. She would not lose. She could not lose.
I need to find Poe. She thought, remembering the agreement she and her friend had come to.
She had grabbed a cloak and quietly opened her door. The lanterns were out in the halls, telling her it was fairly late at night. She had to be careful, though; if anyone caught the sight of her, they'd alert her father for sure after what had happened a few hours ago. She could not be rushed back to bed right now.
Zelda didn't have to look far as she carefully treaded the hall. Right at the end she found her guardsman friend slumped over against the wall and snoring softly. Such a lazy excuse for a guardsman! She thought with some irritation, trying to ignore thoughts that he'd essentially been working nonstop for nearly and couldn't really blame him for dozing off. She knelt down and shook him quickly, whispering, "Poe, wake up!"
It then occurred to her that perhaps waking up a dozing guardsman in such a manner was not a good idea. Before she could quite figure out what had happened, the guard's hand was clamped over her mouth and the blade of a knife pressed against her neck. There was a ferocity in the guard's eyes that she'd never seen that frightened her. But upon recognizing who it was he had threatened so quickly, his expression became one of panic as he quickly placed the knife back in his boot. "I am so sorry," he wheezed in fear. With a stifled squeal he whispered hoarsely, "Goddesses he's going to kill me – and I'll deserve it too!"
But she quickly shushed him and said gently, "Don't worry, Poe, my father won't find out, and it was my fault for-"
"No, no, no not-" But Poe paused in his frustration, looked at the girl and calmed down, saying, "Ah, never mind, Princess… But you're all right, right?"
"Yes, Poe… I mean, no, but not because of that." She said in a hasty whisper. She continued quickly afterward, not giving him a chance to respond, "Earlier today when I… when I fainted… Do you remember what we spoke of a while ago? It… it happened again. It's why I fainted."
The guardsman's expression went stoic. "The seal?"
She nodded, "I want to go there…"
"Now?"
She nodded, "Yes, now. It has to be now, it can't wait! The pain was so excruciating, something has to be wrong Poe." She said desperately. He stood up quickly, offering the princess his hand. She smiled at him gratefully and took the hand. "Thank you…"
"Let's go, Princess."
And go they did. Zelda had saddled Epona herself, and even took the time to saddle a separate horse for Poe. The man could ride, she knew, though not very well and he certainly didn't know how to saddle a horse. But as she rode off on Epona, she paid no attention to how well the guardsman was following her. Her one track mind was in place and it was telling her the Shrine awaited. There would be no more crying and cowering – she was going to end this. So focused was she on getting to her destination, she did not notice the lagging guard behind him or the bat that flew alongside him. She certainly wasn't hearing him having a furtive conversation with it either.
As before, Epona froze at the stone floor of the Shrine. Zelda did not push the mare forward, but simply dismounted and impatiently waited for Poe to stumble in with his horse. As soon as she saw him, she started forward to the Shrine. She tried not to note how reminiscent the situation was to the last time she was there in that nothing felt out of the ordinary. But she did stop for a moment and stare up at the open sky, her brows furrowing in concern at the sight of bats circling around the area. It was the first sign of life she'd seen in this place… And she wasn't sure she liked seeing bats.
I don't think I like them anymore… She thought to herself. Bats seemed to be all too common around her bad situations, it seemed. But she shook herself out of the unsettling thought, telling herself again that bats were just bats. She took a breath and walked forward to the Sword, glad the starlight didn't offer enough light to view the mural in the back. Extending her magical senses to the Sword, she was prepared to deal with a glaring crack or full on breakage within the seal.
But as before, there was nothing. She stepped back in horror, staring at the Sword in disbelief. Seeing her quick motion, she heard Poe asked from behind, "What is it, Princess?"
She didn't answer right away. What could she say? That it looked like she was going crazy? That she was getting these surges of wrongness through her mind that drove her into fainting spells because of some ridiculos fear she'd had since she was a child. Again, she stared at the blade. There had to be something. There just had to be something! Maybe not on the the actual magical seal but…
And then she noticed… something dark on the blade. It wasn't obvious. It was just a slight stain on the edge of the blade… Zelda cautiously stepped forward, ignoring Poe asking again if everything was all right. She was sure of it, there was something on the sword. She extended her hand to it, tying to forget her old nightmare, where her touch released the beast… In the dream, it had been because she wanted to release the beast. In theory, it shouldn't work now. Her intention was to seal… to figure out what was wrong and fix it.
Her index finger hovered nervously over the stain before quickly sliding it down the stain and pulling it back. It was liquid, she could tell. Her finger slid on it so easily. But in the darkness, she could not tell what it was. It was colored… dark. And that alone sent a shudder up her spine. A liquid on the blade of a sword… She certainly was glad she wasn't squeamish… But this was the Four Sword. It hadn't been removed from the pedestal in thirty years. Why would there be blood on it?
Had a bat gotten too close perhaps…?
But she couldn't justify it. The bats overhead flew normally, and if this probable bat died from its wound, where was the body? And the more she looked at the stain on her finger, the surer she became that it was blood…
Did this mean something?
That was a stupid question. Of course it did. Blood didn't just end up on static objects by itself.
The most concerning possibility that she'd tried to avoid thinking about came to the forefront of her mind, then. The blood could have been left on purpose. It didn't feel warm or fresh, but it was still wet. It could have been cleaned easily, there was certainly time. Surely whoever had left it there would have cleaned it up after all. And why would anyone do such a thing? Were they trying to release Vaati with some sort of blood sacrifice or something of the like? If it were possible, she might have thought it concerning. Only she or her father could release him; that was just the way it was… Though she'd like to know how those specifics were found out, now that she thought of it.
Regardless, the biggest question in her mind was who could have left the blood behind? Was it human? Non-human? Did this even relate to the pain she'd felt earlier in the night? It has to, she thought. She simply couldn't think why those surges of pain had never occurred before.
"Princess?" Poe's voice finally came into her hearing. He sounded very anxious.
"Oh… I'm sorry, Poe…" She apologized, turning and making her way back to the guardsman and the horses. Nothing was wrong with the seal. There was only the question of the blood and what it might have possibly meant. She could leave for the time being, to think further on this.
"Are you sure? Did something happen?" He asked her as she mounted Epona.
Zelda considered for a moment to tell him what she had encountered, but decided against it. Poe may have been her best friend, but he was also still in her father's charge just as much as he was in hers. She wanted to be sure of anything she had found out before reporting to her father, and she'd ate it if Poe were put into a corner and forced to speak. It was better he didn't know for the time being, much as the thought pained her. "Don't worry, Poe," she said in false cheer, "Everything is fine." It was a lousy lie; even she knew it, but her friend did not push it.
They rode back, silently and in much less of a rush than they had been previously. The princess was so consumed in her own thoughts, that when they had returned to the stable, she dismounted the horse, gave Poe a thanks for escorting her in the middle of the night, and headed back to the castle without unsaddling Epona leaving Poe and his own steed behind. A smirk came upon Poe's face as he sloppily unsaddled his own horse and lead it back to its stable. He looked at Epona, and the wild mare snorted unhappily at him.
"You want me to take that off of you?" He asked the mare, who whinnied indignanatly. Whether it knew his words or not, he didn't really care. "No can do, Bessie; you're staying just like that until morning." Poe said with malicious cheer as he exited the stable. Nope. As far as everyone else knew, it was only Epona that had been taken out for the night. What a rogue, wild princess Zelda was, after all.
Even though the princess, at that moment, was not feeling her fiery self at all. She was more confused than before, and not sure what to make of the blood she'd found on the Four Sword. She carefully wound her way through the halls to avoid the sight of any guard on patrol, trying not to think about the blood that had been on her finger but had now since been wiped away. Yet she could still feel the remnants of it tickling the tip of her finger. Who or what did it belong to…? Even as she reached her door, the thought was prominent in her mind. She simply could not make sense of everything that was happening. Surely it had to be connected…?
She needed sleep. A proper sleep, Zelda decided. Stripping down and then putting on her nightclothes, the princess told herself she would do her best not to think of frightening things or anything that might keep her up for what was left of the night. Perhaps she would begin a book, something cheerful? That seemed like the best option. She had begun to make her way to her bookshelf when she caught sight of something on her balcony through the garden doors.
Last time she looked through the doors, she had seen a bat. But there was no bat there. No… now, where the bat had been, there was something else. Curious, she opened up the garden doors and reached the balustrade.
It was a book. One she'd never seen before. How it got there, she had no idea. She had locked her garden doors before she had left; she'd hated the idea of leaving her room open to bats, even if they didn't have the opposable thumbs to open it. And her room was up on the high floors of the castle. No one could enter form the outside… For a moment, she panicked, wondering if perhaps someone had come in while she was gone and left it. But if that was the case, why leave it outside or not report the missing princess?
More confusion to add to an already puzzling night… Yet her fingers caressed the front cover of the book, leather that had been softened with age. She picked up the book, looking at the blank spine and wondering perhaps if this was some book of old magic. She flipped open the soft cover, and then skimmed through the passages in the book… only to see it wasn't a book of magic. It was a story book; a narrative of some sort. And honestly, the girl wasn't sure if that made this more or less nonsensical. Turning the pages back, she finally rested on the title page.
"Eros and Psyche." She read aloud in a soft mumble. She'd never heard those names before. They definitely weren't Hylian. She touched the names, as if it would somehow help her understand these non-native names, yet as she did so, she noticed that something felt as if it was wedged between the pages. She flipped over to the next page and then discovered that something was, in fact, wedged in between the pages. A small note card. She took the card, noting the unfamiliar handwriting on it. It wasn't any special, as far as handwriting went. It wasn't the childish scrawl of her father's or the flowery, loopy lines of Minister Cole. It was legible and short. Only saying, "Happy Birthday, Princess Zelda." There was no name. She turned the card around in hopes that she might find one, but was left just as bewildered as before.
She closed the book and turned it around in her hands, then flipped through the pages again. Even probing at it with her magic told her nothing was out of the ordinary; just leather, ink, and paper. Its placement was undoubtedly a mystery, though she supposed the book could have been there before and she'd simply mistaken where she'd found it to be the same place she'd seen a bat. Perhaps a gift from a maid too shy to hand it to her herself? And she had been looking for a book to take her mind off of things…
No harm in it, she thought. There's nothing malicious here. Just a book. And with those thoughts deciding the fate of the book in her hands, she headed back into her room, closing and locking the garden doors behind her before she lay down in her bed, and opened the book up to its first page.
Now to random author ramblings: Does anyone recall a certain movie in which the slogan was "No harm ever came from reading a book?" And then horrible things proceeded to happen? Ohohoho. Yeah. Anyways, Eros and Psyche is probably one of the few Greek myths I actually care for (I normally don't care for Greek mythology at all). For those familiar with the myth, this story will obviously not follow the myth. Quite simply, it can't. For those unfamiliar with it... Google's a thing. Use it. There's a fairly decent sized Wikipedia article on it too. But the story will have some parallels to it, obviously, else it wouldn't be mentioned within the story!
Anyways, despite the fact that I said Fly Away and its parallel (it'll come out soon, I swear) are my main focus atm, I'm really feeling this story in particular. While I shall keep up with attempting to update FA once a month, I have a feeling this may get updated more often simply because the faster pace of it shall get me to try some new things that will actually help me in the future of FA.
fleets, yup. If he ended up being in this story, it might not end up in VaaZel! I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. XD Believe it or not, I never considered him ginger until recently when I discovered I actually color his hair a light brown/red. I'm certainly slow on the uptake of my own characters! XD Nonetheless, I have no issues with this since I fucking love gingers and in fact wish to join their ranks. WHY CAN'T I NATURALLY BE A PART OF THAT 2%?! BAAAW... Erm, anyways... Hmmm, well, you know I like to be cryptic, so I shan't be saying whether you're right or wrong. And thanks! I was worried about how I handled that. I KNOW THAT FEEL. As for when she meets him again... I want to say soon, but I honestly don't know. Much like Reversal, I'm creating this one as I go with the vaguest general idea of where I'm going. I'm putting more effort into this one, though, it's just really difficult to think of this whole story in the long run because I'm handling a lot of new things in this one too...
Swamp Dragon Princess, ayup, that he sure is. And since you have a good idea of how I personify him, I'm sure you've also noticed he's showing this surprising degree of patience. AM I TRYING TO VERY VAGUELY POINT SOMETHING OUT HERE. I DUNNO. There's only so much I can keep contained on the inside. Sort of. She doesn't think the whole thing is a dream. She believes the point up to where Poe stopped her from releasing Vaati was real and that she actually left with Poe, and the events that he made up followed. While she doesn't remember those, she believes she was unconscious when it happened. Where she actually frees Vaati, she believes it was a dream that she had, perhaps first occurring during the fake events Poe fed to her. And Poe has certainly assured her that it never actually happened either. Lol, and yes, remember Blind was not born Blind. In any incarnation where he is a law abiding citizen, he is Kasuto. Technically, Kasuto, Jr, but he's not about to have friends call him Junior. That sounds stupid. Even his dad doesn't call him Junior, he calls him Kas. XD Ione funnily enough, has three proper pronunciations; the first is yours, Aye-own. The second is aye-O-nee, and I actually use this pronunciation. Third is AYE-o-nee. I remember I wanted her secondary name to have some sort of mythical connotation, so I pretty much just looked up whatever and came up with Ione, which is the name of some water nymph from some myth I don't care about. I just chose it because it seemed Gaelic enough to fit in with a Western Medieval society despite it being Greek. Hurr hurr, imnotverycleverwithnames.
triforceofawsm , eek, sorry for writing this one up late! I'm so glad you like it so far! Hopefully, I can keep you reeled in! XD And since we already discussed that earlier, I'm just not going to repeat myself. XD
And with that, I shall see you all next update, whenever that is.