So Damn Unpretty
GaaraXOC Fanfiction
Chapter 9:
Aria had been asleep for an hour before I turned on my lamp and pulled out the book. Her breathing was light and delicate, easily broken. She excited me and intrigued me, more than I had anyone do in a long time. She was new to me and pure to herself. There was no mask to hide behind, she only had her broken soul, just shining out in front of her at all times. At breakfast she didn't try to cover up anything, she scarfed down the Naan, she ate all the meat and jelly breads she could and gulped down cup after cup of water. The family home wasn't extremely decorated like most people seemed to think, it was basic and comfy, everything that father and mother wanted. So when Temari brought out the normal breakfast feast, she continuously had to go back and fill up the water pitcher just for Aria.
I watched her eat her fill, then clean herself up and follow Temari around the kitchen like a puppy. Temari said I needed to take her back, but then we got a message from the asylum. They had never heard of Aria, and the doctor's name was different. It was as if everything was completely shifted, as if Aria had never really been attacked by an unseen force and bleeding to death on the roof of the asylum.
The whole day I had to take her with me. To the market where people ignored me as usual, and the two of us gathered food. After Aria freaked out on a spikey fruit a vender tried to get her to take as a sample, and she then proceeded to run around screaming, kicking all the spikey fruit into the ground until I caught her with my sand; after that whole problem, the day was generally smooth.
A mission came in, the three of us were to go on in the next two days, and Aria would not be able to go. Kankuro made a joke about us needing to get Aria a Baby sitter… but even after him and Temari chuckled at it; they knew that someone Aria didn't know to watch her would never happen. We decided this after seeing Aria accidently open the door to a door to door salesman, already nervous about advertising to our family, and run off by a girl hitting her head and telling the voices to shut up while she tried to listen to his proposal. Having Aria around surprisingly didn't upset anyone in any way. It was like we had adopted a family pet, but she could speak and she liked to walk around the house barefoot humming songs that didn't exist.
The problem of Aria being watched while the Asylum figured out if she was ever there or not and the three of us had a mission, went unresolved. I would probably end up keeping a clone in the house to watch her. My eyes shifted from the papers to the mint haired girl lying sprawled out on the bed. How could she just be who she was out to everyone? She didn't have an agenda, she didn't have to hide what she was. Unusual, and cracked around the edges, but refreshing, her way of life was the whole reason I became interested in her in the first place. I turned to the book, seeing her pictures taped to my wall and spread all over my desk.
With a deep breath, I opened the book and began to dig into its words. Story of Cinderella, girl is poor, wishes for help, gets a fairy godmother, goes to the ball, loses magic, sisters try to trick prince, sisters loose toes and heels, Cinderella gets the guy, the sisters lose their eyes. I looked at Aria, eyeing her.
Nope. Okay, Cinderella didn't give me any insight. I flipped the pages, reading through ever story, searching for something. Jack and Jill, end up dead, Hansel and Gretel, almost die, Red Riding Hood, ties a wolf to a tree and fills his belly with rocks. No, No, and definitely no.
I flipped to the contents part of the book really quick. All these stories I knew, all of these had nothing to do with what I was dealing with now. If Mora just wanted me to read fairy tales, then couldn't she give me the non-dusty version?
But as my finger slid down the list, a sound woke me up. I turned to the bed where Aria twist and flopped herself onto the other side of the bed. I eyed her suspiciously as the moon glowed through the window, lighting up her whole body. I shifted from my seat and stood up, walking up to the bed and standing just an inch from the bed.
With a yawn, she blinked and looked up to the moon then to me with sleepy eyes.
"You should sleep more…" I whispered to her. She finally crawled underneath the blankets before looking to the moon.
"Jai and Yai won't go to sleep so easy." She yawned, rubbing her face.
"Who are they?" I asked, leaning against the bed. She pointed to her head, closing her eyes and stifling a yawn with the other hand.
"The voices." We said in unison. I stopped and looked to her smiling up to me. Her Mint green was splayed all over the pillow and her hands placed lightly on the bed. It was if this morning had never happened, I never pinned her down while I was angry over her saying she was crazy. But that was just how she was, I was figuring out. Her moods were harsh and violent, but the minute they were over, everything was forgiven and forgotten.
"Does yours talk a lot?" She grumbled, pushing the hard part of her palm up against her temple. I moved to stop her, but caught myself. I had to restrain myself from pulling at her hands and forcing her to stop. Last time I touched her hands, this morning, she about kicked me in the guts and clawed my hands to shreds. Had I no sand, she probably would have succeeded in escaping me.
"No…" I spoke, looking to the window where the moon shone through.
"Lucky…" She whispered, looking to the moon too.
I looked to her slowly closing her eyes, one hand pressed to her temple and the other sprawled across the pillow beside her. I had never been called lucky before, especially for having my demon. I rolled my eyes but turned back to my book on the desk.
As I sat down, my eyes caught hold of the only story I hadn't seen before; it was the very last title on the page.
"The kingdom of balance"
I eyed it before flipping carefully to the page it was on. There at the end of the book was one page before a bunch of ripped out page stubs. I glowered but looked to the page. Why would someone tare out a fairy tale story. I huffed and looked to the page, pushing dust off of the old, tea colored paper.
Long ago when the countries were fighting for land and freedom for themselves, there grew a kingdom of people who only wanted peace. They didn't mind being ruled, and they didn't want any more violence, so the people rested in the land between the mountainous desert and the living sea.
The kingdom was prosperous through the wars, often becoming the mediator for most wars. Their king was one of three brothers, the middle child, who was wise and brave. His eldest brother was the smartest, but wanted only to teach and spread knowledge throughout the kingdom. His youngest brother was a fierce fighter, but wanted only to protect his home and family, not to rule it. So the three brothers built the kingdom from the ground up and the whole kingdom thrived.
Only, an evil man wanted the kingdom for himself. He wanted the land to be a part of his land of the desert; he wanted the whole kingdom to belong to him.
So, he went out of his way to go to war with the kingdom who only wanted peace. Armies were raised, but they didn't conquer, only protected the kingdom.
This evil lord of the desert would not give up, so the king had to come up with something wise to keep his kingdom protected from this evil man. He needed a weapon that would not harm his people and only make the Evil lord of the Desert stop going after his kingdom.
So the king went to the edge of the sea, next to his castle and sat there, staring into the sun and moon, praying for answers to his problems. He sat there; thinking and look for 2 days and 2 nights when something came up from the water. Just at the brink of dawn, when light and dark hit together, a being that no one knew came swimming up from the depths.
"I can solve your problem, dear wise king." The Beast said. It was unlike anything the king had ever seen. It had one head with one face white with a black eye, the other side black with a white eye, and the large mouth like a shark mouth, full of mix-matched teeth.
"Why would you help me beast?" The king asked the being.
"I love this kingdom the same as you. While your kingdom has been here, there has been no blood in my sea to poison my fish, the land sounds happy and at night it is peaceful for me to sleep. I wish nothing more for you all to stay here, your kingdom by the sea." The beast spoke, placing it's clawed and paw like hands on the shore and laying its large head onto the sand.
"Beast, I would love nothing more to stay and keep your sea clean and the land happy, but this lord… he sees fit to try and take my kingdom from its people. What can you offer to help me?"
"I have power" The beast said with a purr, "I have power to make you the very weapon and shield you need to keep this Lord from ever coming at your kingdom, ever again. But it comes with a price, like all gifts do."
The king looked to the beast, unsure if he should ask for this gift. This could aid him more than anything, or this beast could have nothing powerful enough to keep his enemy away forever. And what of this price?
"What is the price?" The king asked the beast.
"It will be your next child, they will be blessed with this power, but when you have won and the Lord announces your kingdom to be unharmed, you must sink them into the sea. My power must return to me the day it is of no use, or horrible things will happen to your child and your kingdom." The beast said, looking directly at the king with stern eyes. "You may call on this power whenever you need it, it is yours when your kingdom needs it for protection, any time, whenever, for I will never die."
The king looked to the beast with worry. He already had a son, just 3 years of age, but if this beast could produce him a heir that would protect them, he would raise that child to understand honor and what would happen to him when they were finally free of the evil lord. He would show love to that child every day until the day came.
"Deal Beast, please grant my kingdom with your power…"
And that was the last of it; the other pages were ripped out. Gaara shut the book frustrated, looking to Aria. So what did a fake kingdom, some demon power, and an evil lord have anything to do with Aria? Maybe if he had the whole story, he could understand if she was even connected at all.
~Somewhere else, outside of Suna. Midnight~
"Mew! MEW!" the man in the dark cloak called out to the sand as the silver cloaked man came galloping out of the sand dunes and up to the cabin.
"Is it done?" The man hissed.
"I did as you wanted, sire. Everything is taken care of. The whole village doesn't remember anything…" Mew stated before his smile fell as the man began to look around him. Mew bit his lip and slowly got off his horse and there was no one else with him.
"Mew…I said to come back with the bodies, where are the gifts and where are the bodies?" The man snarled.
"Sire… I…"
"MEW! I told you to wipe everyone's memory and bring them back. How hard is it to follow instructions?"
"I couldn't…" mew blurted out at the man.
"And why the hell not? If you wiped all the memories, why is there no one else on your horse?"
"I… there are a few people… that the memory jutsu didn't hit…"
"Like who?" The man in the dark cloak hissed, glaring at the silver cloaked man, who winced.
"Like… the sand demon-"
"WHAT!"
Author's Note: I had alot of muse, and could update again today. Now all the pieces are in play, everything will start to loop together, I promise. And there's more Aria insanity to come, along with explanations, dark vines, evil plots, and maybe even a little romance? Who knows...
