whiteshade of blackness 'gaku 11 augt, 2008
# 21 Broken masks
The rain kept pouring for hours, he felt his fingers already frozen, they didn't tremble anymore…he kept them between his balled body and bent knees; trying to keep furling and unfurling his toes so he could still feel his ground. The wet rock felt sharp as if biting his soles with its coldness; he willed himself to keep humming his song to keep the blustering thunder from his mind. His body shook violently, and his chin pressed hard to his knees to keep his teeth from rattling because he could feel the blood in his mouth from its bitten insides.
In the distance he could hear the sounds of the world's army, disguised by the sounds of the unending rainfall.
He willed his body to stand his ground. The black-rocky grounds stretched out boundlessly around him made his pale figure distinctive on the top of some pile of rocks.
…they will come….. they will come, and he has to protect Him…
He repeated that thought to keep his mind conscious. The wounds from the last fights were yet to heal, but he knew he was the one who chose to do this; that thought alone kept him alive.
He smiled his small smile hidden behind his knees….there was someone in the deep tunnel behind him that would always be there, waiting for His loved-one to come for Him, and free His sorrowful figure from its cage; and even though he didn't know when that would happen, he could only hope for that time to come and guard the entrance to the cave; hoping that if ever he lost his life first, there would be someone to take his place of guarding that cave,…that beautiful Void that was his everything.
A crack of thunder jerked his body; he tilted his head up a little, the currents of that lightning was close enough that he felt his wet hairs stood on their ends. When he lowered his eyes again to the far gray horizon separating the black grounds and the black layers of clouds, he widened his eyes.
The distant gray line started to get filled with specks of pale colors, small dots of lights which he knew were not the fire-dragonflies started to connect a round line from all around him.
He momentary forgot of the hard falling rain and its biting coldness. His body forgot to shiver. His mind stopped repeating his incantation.
For a moment his hope wavered….
He half-consciously stood on the pile of high rock; the deafening thunder mocked his determination. He didn't have to look around to see that they were closing in from all directions.
Looked down to his naked feet; pale and skinny, with countless half-healed scars marred them; he curled his toes once, feeling his sole ground, the cold and hard rock that wouldn't care even if the whole world butchers him on it.
…this would be the last one, then….his mind whispered to his heart, knowing his body's limit of being only a little unkempt boy against that many of assailants, urging it to let go the only hope that kept him clinging even despairingly to this miserable life; a small part of his mind felt grateful that he could eventually stop fighting this endless strive.
A lone tear escaped his eye. It burned before the cold rain washed it from his already wet cheek.
He looked straight forward; there was no one there that would replace him…not anywhere…not anyone! So he should stand his ground no matter what.
He closed his eyes, with resolve burning in his heart; knowing painfully that it was his last fragment of determination that this life allowed him to burn. The cold rain didn't make him tremble anymore, it's not his enemy; it was his ally that weakened the world's army and slowed them from coming sooner. When he would look up again later, he knew there would be a shining lone-sun up there protecting him like his long-lost half, and the sky's eyes watching over him like a distant mother.
….after the fight is over…!
…when the fight is over, he will go inside the cave and knowing his reason to survive would always be there; his mind whispered to his heart, …when his wet body already dried up, and his wounds were not as fleshy, and his blood congealed; he would come down, and he could smile his small smile for Him; so He wouldn't as lonely….
A small smile bloomed on his bluish lips…he cherished this gap of time before they got there, realizing that this was his last peaceful time. Just a scrap of time against all eternity…
He thanked the Fates that they had allowed him to have this much in his life.
Opening his eyes, his mind's eyes presented its last gift to his longing heart : the image of one-violet eye in the darkness that never really looked at him.
…even against the whole world…!
……the cracking thunder was his war-cry….
Even though that one-violet eye never really looked at him….
He jerked opening his eyes in an instant; mind still high in a distant-reality, his heart longing to stay with that pale figure so small alone on the deserted rocky grounds. There were unending sounds coming from all around him, but not the sound of rain. Blinked several times to bring his mind to the present, he felt the uneven movement of the ground he was on. Propping his upper body with his elbow, he looked around his closed environment.
Right, he was on the caravan floor, of course. And it was bright all over.
The unending sounds were coming from the sands crushed by the caravans' wheels, and riding-beasts.
"Ah, you're awake…!" There was a greeting from the front door of the caravan, he could see Ell was holding the caravan's rein loosely…and that was supposed to be the caravan entrusted to them, his logics said.
"Ah! I'm sorry, I should be the one driving this caravan for you, not the other way around..!" he jumped to his knees.
The girl laughed at his expression, and the fact that he was battling his blanket just to get up. "It's okay, it's used to be the caravan I'm in charge of..! Besides, I got to see something great last night…" Ell grinned fanning her hand to him, "AAAAWWH…He's so COOOLL, I envy youuu…!!" and that seemed to be the quote of that day, his mind warned him.
"…wha….?" He half-smiled forlornly.
"…slim supple body, slender arms and legs, beautiful face, enchanting voice…darn, I really envy you..!!"
"…ummm, hello..?" he tried to stop the giggling girl. "…Are you talking about my-.."
"BWAAAhhahahahahaahh…!!!" she beat him with her fanning hand so fast that it blurred almost to invisible.
"….and what is that supposed to mean….?" He asked with a suspicious tone, seeing the girl's face inflamed when she dismissed him with her laugh before.
"…How'bout you..? What were you doing sleeping on the stairs of Aku's caravan…?" Ell got the right question to divert the conversation's track.
He stiffened in a heart-beat, eyes widened realizing what he'd done –which seemingly he didn't realize it when he did it, Ell watched his face with a knowing smile. He tried a couple time, and found his voice.
"Ehh…I.. I was..I thought I'm going to have something to ask him about something else…! I didn't realize that I fell asleep on his stairs..!!" he reasoned with half-panic; truth was he only remembered that he was having doubts on what he was going to do there, and while he thought he would wait until the bandaged man or Rice found him, he sat on the black-caravan's stairs...and the winds must had him fell asleep there.
Ell chuckled at him. "It's okay, Aku didn't find you served on his plate like that. It was Rice who took you back here…!"
That stilled his panic, "….Rice did…?" So, the fox did find him, fast asleep, that was….
"Yes, Rice is very gentle before fullmoon-fights, you know…-must be something to do with his in heat-nature…" she mumbled the last parts between giggles, hidden behind her hand.
He sweatdropped, sensing something suggestive in the girl's acts. "…..what do you mean 'serve on his plate'…?" his mind warned him that he wouldn't like to hear the truth in words.
"You don't know? Aku feed in full moon..!" Ell stared him with clear eyes, "ESPECIALLY full moon..!!" she stressed her word.
"That….includes me…?" he grinned his nervousness on one end of his lips.
"That includes everyone..! Aku eats everything!" she smiled looking forward again.
She said it as if that's something relieving to hear, his logics reasoned. He didn't say anything else; moved to the front chair next to the girl, feeling relieved by the wind giving some comfort to his sweaty heated skin. Judging from the heat, it was almost high-noon; he didn't realize it he'd slept for that long. And to say that he didn't realize falling asleep in the first place; and even the sound of the fight last night didn't wake him…..
Ell saw the Archant's face flushed at something in his mind, she thought she knew what he was thinking; besides, he was still as clear as crystal for everyone to see, that's one thing she was envious about, for being that innocent with that looks. She smiled, "You shouldn't worry too much, you'll get better soon, he said…!"
He glanced at the girl, "…….get better..?" he asked flatly.
"Heat-sickness is not something you should be ashamed of, especially when you're not used to sunlight..!"
He blinked to that; heat sickness…? His mind repeated; his logics pointed that his Beast must have told the troupe people… no, implied it to them that he was having heatstroke or something alike; his mind told him that his Beast was the kind who would choose to say nothing to lying.
"So…what happened last night..?" he asked as he observed that the rides were not much different from yesterday, except for their full loads of things.
"Hmmmm….Aku laughed…"
"Ha…?" he sweatdropped again, that was not he'd expected to be the first report.
"Rice danced graciously as always…."
"…dance?"
Ell mimicked the fox's claws with the gracious movement that somehow didn't fit in his logics.
"The others could fend most of the beasts alright…" Ell nodded to herself, satisfied with her people.
After that she didn't elaborate more; that was not he really asked to hear, actually, but he didn't say it, he didn't want to be thought as someone uncaring of others especially since the others had been so nice to him. He heard Ell chuckled deeply at his side, seemed like she knew about his thoughts yet again.
"….he could be a great dancer, you know…!" she started; before he could say something she added with a finality tone, "AND we could earn a lot of MONEY..!!"
He choked on what ever he was going to say at first, and coughed once; "…and what is that supposed to meannn..?!" he asked explosively with a flushed face.
"Hmmmm…too bad he's not a people's person…!" Ell ignored him and entertained herself with her own thoughts.
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(flashback)
The winds brought the smell of varied beasts through the rock site, the beasts in the cages had become agitated since the afternoon, riding-beasts were hidden in their cages; women and children put in guarded caravans in the center of the caravan circle under the cover of some sheltering rocks that almost formed like a short two-ways cave. Men took guards around the vehicles; rough and hard goods were put in the carts and covered with thick tarps.
The Beast squatted on a high rock, assessing his view down and around. He's not surprised that some older children were joining the guards, some older men seemed to be lightheartedly training them at the last moment; skills that could be used in battles and in performances, throwing knives, whips, even slingshots. The last thing attracted his interest; it was as if they were playing, with their good humored faces and laughter like that. His eyes looked melancholic for a while; the children being raised in dangerous and unpredictable grounds, they played with dangers.
"What's so melancholic about it…?" Rhyssé's voice sounded from behind him, on another top of high rock near the one he was at.
"…aa.." he didn't really answer, a small smile tugged on his lips.
That made the fox snorted, "You were raised like that…?"
He had experienced many ways of being raised; he didn't even remember which was considered good and which was bad; which was the illusion he was longing for, and which was really past memory.
"…I don't really remember…It's a good sight..!" he answered flatly.
The thick air of yellow-orange sunlight made his tan skin glowing; his brown hair looked soft dancing in the breeze, his melancholic eyes had a watery sheen that glistened in the painting-worth scenery. "You look better in my sight..!" the fox said openly. His sweet-scent had been reigned in since this morning; he looked serene in some ways.
"You don't want to be here…" the Beast whispered softly.
The anklets jingled playfully, the fox was swinging his foot indifferently, looking at the far line of rippling horizon where the shadows of the closing beasts had blackened the color. "They'd destroyed my home….those humans and their hunters..!"
The anklets sounded sharper since he started kicking the rock with his heel, "I don't remember much about my life there…instincts don't keep much memory, right..?" he smirked.
"Just some things we should be alert of, some sounds and voices, some smells…of food, of water, of pack……we played in the rain, and gathered at sunset…we sang at sunrise, danced in dark-sun, and howled at the moon…ran on the grass, raced to the cliff tops, and howled at the moon…"
"…gathered at sunset, and howled at the moon….." he whispered silently, his eyes looked so distant.
The Beast glanced at his face; an almost smirk on his lips…..beasts and moons…! His mind commented.
"First waaave…!!" one of the scout-men shouted from the top of one of the outer high rocks that were about three-four meters high from the grounds, waving two small flags as signals to his comrades. The Beast looked up; the white round moon had yet to shine. He looked down again, noticing some rock-hounds waited in the outer circle sitting on the sands, several other were waiting around the foot of the high rock where their tamer was sitting on its top, waiving their short skinny tails with thorny ends slowly.
"You trained them well…" the Beast pointed at the hounds near him with his chin.
"They like my smell..!" the fox smirked; then jumped to a lower rock in front of the Beast, lifting his right hand to give his hounds their signal. The rock-hounds down on the sand spread and moved forward, countering the enclosing line that formed like a wave of collapsing sand.
"Rynn, sand-spiders..!!" the girl with short-swords and whip from this morning meeting shouted to the girl serving the Old Lady. The girl called Rynn nodded, and started to blow her short flutes, interlocked by a curved frame that made them resemble a crescent-clam. Soft tunes at first, then sharper and highpitched ones followed.
The Beast on the far high rock furrowed his brows a little at the sound; the fox down there chuckled without looking back at his face, "They're good-persevering creatures, too, you know..!"
"…I don't see why not…!" the Beast said flatly; thinking that they must be better than some trained soldiers to be able to fend some beasts with this kind of sound –aside from its beautiful tune, its highpitched-ness was more than disturbing. That actually made the fox laughed, the Beast could smell pride wafted from his direction; he must be very pleased with his human-pack.
Suddenly from under the moving sand-wave sprung the first beasts that attacked them, the sand spiders were the kind of beast that live in packs; nomadic creatures that leave no survivor from their preys; in normal circumstances it's not common for them to hunt like this, they usually waited in their trap-holes they made in the sands; a pack of sand-spiders consisted of at least 15-20 could make a number of trap-holes not less than 50 holes. Their largest adults could reach the size of about 1.5 meters only for their body length, with the span of their multi-jointed legs to 2-3 meters wide armed with hooks and spurs, and a poisonous sting at their rears; while their smalls were about the size of a human baby when they first hatched. They made a rapid clicking sound by rubbing their small false-legs located in front of their biting mouthparts together; those false legs were originally the mouthparts extensions used for bringing their foods to their mouth openings. With their size they could easily prey on horses and camels individually.
The rock-hounds at the outer circle swiftly countered the attacking spiders by jumping to their backs and biting at the leg joints that were not covered by their hard exoskeleton; while they slowed the spiders, the troupe's guards would attack their eyes with small crude bombs, or stabbed their weaker body-segment using sharp weapons. There were quite a number coming to the caravan where Rynn stood on its roof playing her flutes; it seemed like her highpitched tunes really bothered them and disoriented their senses. Some archers and knife-throwers had geared up on the same roof and in the caravan, shooting some crude bombs into the spiders' mouths when they open their openings to make a reflexive menacing screech as a reaction to the flutes' sounds.
The Beast on the high rock watched with a straight face. The troupe's people were more than just some artists, apparently. The girl with the whip had a high accuracy of throwing the small spiders from climbing the caravans to where the hounds waiting their bonus-meal on the sands. He thought something like 'which ones prey on which', witnessing the slaughter.
"Small sand-spiders taste almost like crabs mixed with grilled chicken, you know..?" suddenly the fox said conversationally without looking back at him, "Sharp smelled, but that's what made them popular with rich people; some diners in big cities would book some hunters for them". His eyes following the 10years old boy from yesterday who called him Ricy; he was gathering fallen pieces of small spiders into the basket attached on his back, keeping the coming spiders by shooting some powder bombs with a slingshot; the other bigger spiders he left his older people to deal. The boy seemed to feel the fox's eyes on him for he turned his head in the middle of the messy fight and gave a 'V' sign with a big grin on his face; then back concentrating to the meal-collecting.
The Beast blinked once; true, it's eat or be eaten in the wilderness.
Rhyssé chuckled, "That's Clay; he's the one who named me when he found me years ago..! The troupe took me in since he wanted me in; they're simple people, it's only needed one person from their circle to want someone to be taken in to join their pack."
The Beast stared down at the now dirty boy; so basically the fox's pack was that boy, not this whole pack of human.
"I tell you this now; if ever your curse cause harm to him, I won't let you get away easily..!" then he turned his head to the Beast behind, smiling; "We have our conditions, simple as they are; but you wouldn't care since you're leaving after full moon, right?" There was a disappointment in his voice, but he smiled nevertheless.
The Beast didn't say anything to that, but the fox didn't need any answer; after nightfall there came bigger and more vicious beasts that the fox came down into the fight, shooing the older children into their prepared caravans with their earned meals to their mothers and aunts and sisters who wrapped them in blankets wetted by special oils to keep the other beasts tracking their bodies that smelled like the insides of butchered sand-spiders.
He joined the fights when he thought he saw the holes in the troupe's defenses, only filling in when they seemed to be in dangers. To his disappointment, that Aku-guy didn't come out from his place in the dark; he only heard the man laughing when the fox made some mistakes and caught in tangles from somewhere, when he tried to find him, the bandaged man seemed to be laughing from somewhere else. He heard the fox cursed something like "Shuddup, Jinx..!!" several times, that only fuelled the man's laughter more. What bothered him was that he couldn't smell the man's presence even in the heat of the fight where his senses should be awakened to their sharper state.
To fight alongside the fox was easier, because he didn't need to mind the humans near him since they usually could not keep up with his movements and might be injured accidently by his attacks. The troupe's females seemed to catch it the wrong way since they were actually watching them fighting away creatures bigger than horses back-to-back for some time now; the fox's gracious fighting-style could be categorized as dancing even for himself, but his own fighting was pure reflex, only encountering what came his way and preventing potential attacks from his surrounding, or so he thought.
"…do you think this is fine with those human-females…?!" the Beast whispered flatly when they made a cross contact in mid air from their jumps.
The fox actually laughed at his concern, "Haahha..!! That's why full moon is mating time..!!" he landed on one of the hounds' back and let it took him to another battle spot, leaving the Beast alone, knowing he himself were letting out lusty-smell more than those females' combined just by 'hearing' the Beast's body making actions.
To his disappointment, or excitement, he couldn't decide which; the Beast seemed to follow him even to other fighting spots.
"….do you have something to be settled with my Human..?" he slashed a half-blobby creature with the black-metal stick he was using.
"What..?" the fox took the moment's gap after slashing a pair of winged things in mid air and landed on the Beast's stick that at the time held horizontally in front of him. "What got that issue out NOW..?!" he knew he must be thickly smelled like jealousy and possessiveness, over something that's not his, to make it worse.
The Beast stared him in the eyes with something akin to beam-shot(1), and made him visibly cringed in a moment's fear. He made a long back flip, and a series of mid-air spins to slash some other small creatures to be smaller in pieces with his blade-nails; then back landed on the Beast's shoulders, with his back to him, half-realizing that he didn't want to counter the Beast's stare again.
"I only took him back into the caravan..!! You want Aku to find him instead?!"
The Beast leaped from the rock onto the roof of one caravan, the fox leaped from his shoulders in the middle of the way; while the Beast crushed the beasts around him with circling motions of his long stick, the fox managed to land behind him after cutting some other swarming winged things in the air, without getting hit by the Beast's stick.
"You should call me before you decided to do that..!" the Beast turned his chin a little to the side; the fox who was still squatting behind him gaped at that, "Oh! Are you that jealous just because I ACTUALLY didn't do something harmful to YOUR human..?!", he knew that the Beast knew that he had dark thoughts over Archants; speaking of in a wide range.
That might be the fact that made the Beast heated, the fox thought, since he actually didn't do anything in a bad term to that Archant when he had the chance, that the Beast might concluded that he had nicer thoughts over his Human instead; this was full moon, anyway.
The Beast jumped high and hi-jacked a deformed-bug's back to crush its smaller kinds in the air, and crashed the big thing onto the sand by stabbing his stick to the creature's head that it actually nailed the thrashing creature half-drowned into the ground with the force of the blow.
The fox eventually got a little intimidated by the show of his strength, he threw a scattered hook and some pointy parts of other slaughtered beasts on the caravan roof to some beasts that were climbing the other caravans without looking at them; "I ONLY licked your human ONCE..!" he stood and said in deviance.
The females crowded on their caravan's window fell back together in an instant; "…so that's what the problem is..!" one of them said tremblingly with tears on the ends of her eyes, seemingly having a hard time keeping her voice low and not laughing. "…khhkhhhckkh..stupid-Rice for being a beast himself…!!" one of her friends covered her mouth with both hands to stifle her laughter; their friends were in the same condition on the caravan floor giggling and chuckling with faces red from holding back and laughing tears in their eyes.
"Kkhhh..!" he flustered suddenly since he could hear what those females were saying, and laughing at.
"…just THE ENDS OF HIS FINGERS, anywaaay..!!" he yelled waving his arms like a mosquito, seemingly directed more to the female humans than to the Beast.
There was the sound of people laughing in an instant, despite the ongoing battle; in the background, Aku's deep chuckle was heard more than the foreground's sounds. The fox seemed surprised with a flustered face, turned his head to his side yelling "SHUDDUP, Aku..!!"
He then jumped onto the slower-thrashing creature that the Beast still stood on with his last pose. Landed exactly in front of him between his hand holding the stick vertically and his chest, the fox looked up to the Beast's eyes; so close that their noses almost bumped. "…I want YOU more, you know that..!!" he countered flatly, keeping his voice low.
The Beast seemed to be not impressed by what he admitted, staring levelly the fox's eyes with icy stare. The fox smirked to himself, "…Or do you have other reasons that made you not letting anyone to touch your human…?" he whispered.
The Beast's narrowed eyes seemed to intrigue him more; he knew he's playing with burning fire now, even the attacking beasts seemed to instinctively getting away from them. Well, he couldn't turn back now, knowing the Beast's stick behind his back could crush him easily if he ever did that. "I knew that he's nothing of the kind of what he showed outside even without licking him..!" he, too, narrowed his eyes, hiding his nervousness with a smirk.
The sharp realization of the Beast's cold breath on his own face, and his cursed-painful-beating heart in front of his chest, and his strong hand, so lethal that he could feel the cold-air along the stick's length behind his back made his lust multiplied and he momentarily forgot about his surrounding; as he breathed hotly, the fox stuck out his tongue to taste that dangerous-cold-fire in front of his face that made his whole body burnt with lusty craving.
Before his tongue managed to lick the Beast's thinned lips, the Beast's other hand that was down grabbed his neck and crushed him to his front, immobilized him; while his cold lips touched his ear and whispered very silently, "…if you ever…."
The fox's eyes cleared a little from his lust-clouded state hearing its coldness.
"…get near my Human without my eyes watching over you, ..again…"
The fox's lips that were crushed to the Beast's shoulder in that deadly hug trembled a little, his face flustered.
"…you could forget that this head once attached to this body by this neck..!" the dark blue pointed nails ghosted on the fox's nape up and down a couple times, making him shivered visibly. The oppressing strength, and the full moon's pull, and the dangers from both his surrounding and the beautiful creature pressing his body to his front, were a mixed recipe for a perfect masochistic craving.
The fox pushed the Beast's body with his trembling hands weakly. "…if you keep this up… I'm going to attack you right here, right now….!" he warned distractedly, his fox-eyes had dilated almost filling his visible sockets wholly, darkened by lust and hunger.
Amulet-fox sometimes preyed on their weaker mates when they're mating, that's what caused their number to be scarce even without the humans hunting them uncontrollably. He felt the short-tails covering his crotch from between his legs from behind started to arch, loosening their clutches in his loose baggy pants. The fox knew he's going to loose it in a few more heartbeats; he tried to push his body from the much stronger Beast's hold, before he really attacked the Beast; it was half a joke before that day, now his body meant business. He jerked and tremblingly tried to push the Beast's body away. At a soft current of cold air brushing his feverish forehead, he looked up to the Beast's eyes, and realized that he was evilly enjoying his loosing-fight.
"You..--!!" he quipped with shock at the fact that he was the one being toyed with.
The Beast lowered his face to lick his neck once, his tongue was biting cold; but what had him frozen instantly was the dark unholy tone when the Beast said, "…I, too, can eat you…!"; so slowly and softly, it really made his feverish hot body shivered with goosebumps.
Then the Beast left him standing there unable to move, he was grateful that he did that without showing his face to him, he wasn't sure he could face the creature who whispered so sweetly with that deadly voice without loosing his right mind. '…you don't know him, do you..?', Aku's words came unbidden in his shocked mind. He gritted his teeth, clenching his fists tightly that even drew blood from his broken palms, trying to constrict his lust turned fear wildly. After that, as he let his instinct steered his actions into the fight, the rest of the full moon night was a blur to him; he only knew that he had to protect his human-pack from the attacking beasts, and let Aku took care of what he missed.
(end flashback)
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He could hear his Human in the caravan front seat, knowing he could feel his presence he let him with the girl for the time being.
The fox had yet to speak to him since last night; the female humans thought that what he was doing last night was really making a move on him. That, in another POV was right; but he didn't try to clear it with them, or with the fox. He could feel the burning stare behind his back from the fox a few caravans away, he smirked to himself, knowing that the fox knew that he'd been playing with him for the last days. A little evil was not his intention; for him, at least from his POV it was just a little show of territorial warning; but perhaps the fox had taken his presence a little too serious from the beginning, the fact that the fox had let him get into his space unguarded. He'd been with too many humans and became too civilized; it's not bad, it's just that it made the fox let down his guards too easily with stranger beasts. He knew that it was not his business, but seeing the fox's cheerfulness reminded him of someone he knew before who used to be overly possessive over him; he just didn't want him to get burnt later.
As if answering his thought, a chestnut head stuck up from the side of the caravan where there was a ladder for climbing up to the roof. A pair of violet eyes blinked once, wide and bright with innocence. He cocked his head a little to the side staring at them, the pair of violet eyes drooped with a smile at his greeting.
"It's hot up here, why don't you get to the shady side..?" his Human asked while sitting on the roof next to his spot.
"I can see much clearly up here.." he answered half caringly, but his hands came up to fix the black-cloth to cover his Human's head from the blazing sunlight.
"Hahaa…you can feel the breeze much better here..! But it will be too hot after some time!" his Human found a comfortable way to sit and covered his lower body with the black-cloth. He passed the time by humming some mixed parts of some songs he found in his scattered memory in his sleep, sometime he felt his Beast side glanced at him when he thought he hummed some older-of-olds songs.
He chuckled, "Something familiar..?" he asked with a bright smile. His Beast only snorted with a pleased face, but answered nothing. After some time passed, he eventually asked conversationally, "….why is Rice staring at you like he wanted to skin you alive…?"
The Beast glanced back without really looking at the fox, "I warned him a little last night…"
"Hmm.." he took the end of his braid from behind and played with it, "I think I know actually how much your scale of 'a little' would be…!" his humming turned to chuckles for a short tune, he was flicking the end of his loose braid playfully; "…so, is he giving a grudge-full predator's eyes to you because of what you do or because of me…?"
That question seemed like a bullet penetrating his wall of furtiveness, just like he thought what his Human could see through, anyway; he gave a pleased snort.
"…ohh…you gave him the-warning because of me..?!" his Human said still with conversational tone, "I could defend my self, Beast; you don't have to hide someone's grudge against me and divert it towards you just to protect me. I'd feel bad if someone has bad thoughts about you, because I want to keep my good thoughts over you….you know?"
He thought his Human would have the simple and pleasant answer for intricate matters, and a long and effortful answer for guileless matters; that was one of his Human's complexities that fascinated him since the beginning; it gave him hard experiences a few times, but his Human could always find him a beautiful feeling that was long forgotten inside him afterwards.
The Beast snickered once, a frisky smirk bloomed on his face; "Why do you think that all of things should be about you..?" He felt his Human's eyes sideglanced on him with sharp edge. "I'm protecting him from your Wrath…!" –the fox should know better than to be prejudice over an explosive Spell-user; that said meant both the user and the SPELLs were explosive, his mind playfully added the fact.
His Human's lips turned downward with an ill-face and accusatory stare; it seemed that his mind got what the Beast's mind thought of, too. The Beast chuckled to himself, and butted his head to his Human's gently to apologies for his cruel joke; truth was he didn't want to really give his Human the idea that he in fact could just blast things off when he feels a little bad over things, but he couldn't ignore the temptation to say it. "We'll part from them this afternoon; I want you to get rested…."
The violet orbs widened a little and brightened, "Eh..? I thought we will be with them until the next civilization…?!" but he knew that his eyes spoke for him that he actually liked that idea; he diverted his face from the Beast with a little flush on his white cheeks. A strong arm encircled his black-cloth covered shoulder from behind; "…so you don't have to push yourself with strangers anymore, okay…?"
But his shoulders sagged a little; it was as if his Beast wanted to hide him from people's eyes, was he a shameful being to be with…?
The hand that encircled his shoulders tightened its embrace and came to his forehead and stroked it with its palm affectionately; "I don't want you to get ideas from other people right now…!"
"Hmm…" he mumbled his downheartedness childishly, "…is it about full-moon things…?"
The childish tone made the Beast's face irritated about something else, "ESPECIALLY full moon…!!" he grinned to show his sharp teeth to no one in particular.
"Ohh…" his Human seemed like he thought of something and tried to guess from his naïve POV; "…is it about your beast-pride that he was in heat during full moon and you didn't..?" He actually heard something snapped in the Beast's mind.
"I'll bite his head off..!!" the Beast said flatly that sounded like a curse-conjuring voice instead of his real voice; -for the fact that the fox did imply some IDEAS to his Human..!
His Human laughed pleasantly, somehow he took it as another playful joke; the Beast furrowed his brows, at least his Human didn't get some follow ups about those ideas…he'd be in big trouble if his Human do that sort of things right now; or ever. Suddenly he felt a little shift in the air's flow, and there heard an abrupt yell of a human-boy and a donkey's frightened bray from somewhere not too far up front, a splash of sand-tide exploded higher than the caravan's roof level; without thinking, he let his reflex and his instincts took control and jumped high forward; assessing the view while he was in the air and took a hooked-rope looped on the side wall of the nearest caravan near the source of the sand-tide.
He threw the hook that formed of three partitions and could grip like a claw when the rope was pulled tight to the yelling human-boy and frightened donkey's direction already lost from sight by the rained sands; when his instinct told him that he got the charge, he pulled. The sands at the side of the caravan started to slide down a hollow circle under the spot where there was the sand-tide before.
"Rice, a sand-spider's trap-hole..!!" he heard a female yelled somewhere behind the caravan he was on; feeling the cart started to tilt sideway, he jumped to the sand, even realizing that a trap-hole like that usually could spread to such perimeter that even the caravan now reclining to his back would be sucked in. He gritted his teeth, kicking his sand-ground that continuously cascaded into the pit now open wide near his spot; the human-boy and his donkey-ride were dangling below the sand level in the pit, while the caravan using his back as a foothold fell heavy on his body as the wheel on its side no longer had its ground, it wasn't that hard for his beast-strength but what made the situation worse was that the sands under his feet endlessly rolled towards the pit.
A blur of metallic-blue caught his eyes for a sheer moment, Rice landed on the tight rope very close in front of him, the ends of his long shawl wrapped around his lithe hips caressed his face as if intentionally. The Beast stared for a fraction of second; then, Rice ran on the tight rope serving as a narrow bridge to the dangling boy who was hugging his donkey's neck flat to his body.
The fox found that the claw-hook caught the ring on the donkey's chest that was used to tie the saddle-straps and such, he smirked to himself; got to praise that Beast for damn-accuracy…! His mind mocked before he grabbed the boy's waistband and threw his body to his own back and let him cling to his shoulders with his own hands.
"…--my riiide.." the boy tried to whine and coughed by the sand that managed to get inside his mouth. The fox snorted once and pulled the rope's end near the hook with enough force, the donkey was kicking and braying when its body half out of the sand level but the lack of the rope tension made the fox had to step on the rolling sand as well; knowing he wouldn't make it without a steady ground he yelled; "…PULL..!!" and at the sudden tug he jumped backward and widened his eyes as he was literally flying in the air with his charges; he could hear the people's awe as he grabbed the donkey's belly and made a back-flip before landing behind the tilting caravan.
Rice tsk-ed once while he lowered the donkey from his arm and knowing that this was his turn to pull the rope; the Beast had looped the rope to his right arm while it got free from the tension when the fox was in the air, now he grabbed the caravan's wheel at his back and back-pedaling using the rope Rice pulled as leverage. "..Whoa..!" the girl who was steering the caravan exclaimed as the cart slid horizontally opposite the cascading sand's way; she was currently on the back of the beast pulling the caravan trying to calm it and stood its ground.
Not long the caravan was out of the danger, the other caravans and people on their rides were at a safe distance from the area. The troupe halted knowing that they had encountered the sand-spider's hunting zone; they shared tasks using body language because the sand-spiders might still be under the holes and could seize the creature making the simplest sound on the sand near their trap-holes.
"…good work.." his Human mouthed to him when he landed on his previous spot on the caravan roof; he tried to focus his mind to him and pretending to not realize the stare the fox gave him while he guarded the boy's back on his donkey, who was trying to calm it down from its fright. The heated grudge had dissipated a little from the fox's eyes, but he was frowning with an unreadable expression.
…not enough.., the sand-spiders might be already alerted by that little slip; the danger was only being awakened now….. The Beast thought with a small frown; if the troupe people still in this kind of situation than he might consider his decision to leave them this afternoon. Another shift in the air made him jerked his head to his Human's direction; he was closing his eyes with a serene face, his lips were pursed forward as if kissing out a prayer with little quirks of a smile at the ends. The Beast widened his eyes, he knew what his Human was doing, and doing something like that in the presence of strangers, not to mention that Aku-guy, was really something he wanted to avoid.
A cool hand touched his right cheek and he opened his eyes finding a pair of very disturbed prussian orbs burned on his. "..what? You said you wanted to leave these people this afternoon, right? You might reconsider that decision if we're stuck here in the open danger, right..?" he mouthed with two bright innocent eyes. His Beast looked defeated by that reasoning; somehow he got the impression that he got it reverse but he couldn't take it back now, so he touched the Beast's downcast head and played with his soft unruly hair for a few strokes; "……I got it reverse, didn't I….?" which wasn't really a question since he seemed that he already realized his mistake of view.
Poking the Beast's downcast head twice with his forefinger, he mouthed with an innocent pout, "…I can't take it back, they're already here…!"
A cool wave of breeze blew the Beast from the back of the caravans line, that made him straightened his head a little, the breeze was light and full of affection, and transparent in awareness. Common people might not realized it that it was not the usual wind, but beasts, even the common beasts such as rides and wild beasts in the free nature could easily recognized that they were actually the Fairs of air, rushing gently and cleared a save path for them on the sand.
The sudden cool wind made the people paused for a while, savoring a little drip of heaven in the scorching desert air; when they moved again to their tasks, whatever it was they were set to do before, they stared with wide eyes at the path spread in front of the caravan line after the wind gone. As usual the troupe people were easy to adapt to things, and they didn't waste time to put that phenomenon to good use. After thinking that they were already in a safe distance from the sand-spider's hunting zone, the people started to mumble out their questions about what was happening, but as easy as accepting it they were soon forget about it.
"…people out here don't usually call out to Fairs for help, do they…..?" he mumbled very silently to his Beast at his side who was silent all the while after the wind passed, it might be the very reason why the Beast had wanted them to depart as soon as they could. The Beast side glanced at his face; he thought he might look all guilty and troubled because that was what he felt, that's why he didn't dare to look at the Beast's face. He felt the Beast snorted once softly, and hooked his right arm to his veiled head and brought it to rest at the side of his own head; that made him felt secured and he let go the troubled feelings he had, chuckled slowly, and before he realized it he was fast asleep in that position on the roof of their caravan.
The fox's furry ears twitched as he rode on the donkey behind Clay's back; his hands were holding the rein, but he was actually having a stare-sparing with the Beast on the roof of the caravan at their side.
---------------
The rainfall washed the pooling blood away, the redden liquid sipped through between the rocks like small rivers intermingled into one web trying to hide from any witness that might accuse it of fleeing the battlefield; a staggering boy tried to be on his buckling feet in the center of fallen bodies and scattered weapons. The rain washed the blood from his face, he was a little unfocused but a touch of relief slowly colored his deathly expression.
…it's done……. His disoriented eyes said.
…it's done…!
The boy tried to move his leg, his lower feet felt like frozen steel keeping him attached to the cold rocky grounds. His breath was foggy and his body started to shake after the heat of the fight dissipated from it and exhaustion downed like an unmerciful punishment. An image of a familiar cross-shaped blades entered his mind, he often wondered how that weapon would be used, how the user would use it; imagining what kind of agility and graciousness He would use it with, a burning purple eye that leave bright lines of afterimage from his every moves.
He didn't remember that he could laugh like he was now; he didn't even remember when he started to laugh; a wet gurgle choked his laughter from his insides, he coughed up blood and stopped his delirious laugh.
The small bloody figure tumbled forward, the piling bodies cushioned his fall; nevertheless, the sharp objects buried by those bodies managed to give him new cuts on his hands and arms; a sword blocked his sight as it stood froze upright, it barely missed his face, protruding from its owner's back. He tried to control his wet choked breaths; a lone tear escaped his left eye unbidden, he could see it in the reflection of his eyes on the sword blade as the rain washed the blood from that cold shiny metal. Hanging on to his consciousness that rapidly slipping away, he thought he felt that the air filled with suffocating presence again, pressing his form into a trembling mass.
…No..! Could there be another wave of attackers..?
His body shook violently, by fear and desperation and exhaustion; he couldn't even move a single leg to walk; surely he couldn't handle anymore assailants.
….Please don't…!
He begged the world to stop oppressing him; not right now…he couldn't fight anymore.
Please…. No more…!
…no more strength…
….please…
No more will……
The siege closing in on him, he felt it in the rain, barricading the winds that blew a shiver down his body. He didn't dare to lift his face. The sounds of someone approaching between the crunched bodies, the cold feeling of someone near him…
A cold soft hand reached out to his head; "…Boy, are you alright….?" The girl's voice was soft and not accusing….
He opened his eyes finding his Beast's face close above his, "You alright..?" he whispered softly. A wet cloth dabbed on his forehead repeatedly, it smelled like his Beast's hair; he blinked.
"..'Seemed like you were having a nightmare…!" his Beast informed him without needing to be asked.
Still floating in the dream's atmosphere, he reached out to his Beast's head and gently pulled a lock of his unruly bangs. "…your hair-color looked darker in the rain….." he mumbled distractedly. His Beast stopped wiping his forehead for a while; "…what..?"
The open-stare prussian eyes on his felt overwhelming for a second, he averted his eyes with a light flush on his face. "…Nothing! Just something I thought I saw in a dream…!"
The Beast seemed like he was a little more curious with only that reasoning, but he didn't prod into it. After staring him for some time, he finally said, "We're leaving these people now; they gave us some spare clothes and food. I've already asked permission to part to the Old Lady, but I thought you might want to say your farewell to the others first…"
That made him froze, either his long words of explanation, or just the sudden shift from the dream's atmosphere to the reality; "Now…?"
The Beast nodded once.
"Oh..!" he sat up and barely aware of his surrounding, that he was already in the caravan again, tidying up his bangs and pulled his hands to the back of his head he noticed that his loose braid had been redone in a neat plait. Looking down he saw a comb near the bowl of water where his Beast dipped the cloth in. So, his Beast already fixed everything for him when he said 'now' and that means he just needed to depart; a smile bloomed on his lips and he felt like he wanted to steal a peck on his Beast's nose, and did it.
He chuckled as the Beast blinked with an odd stare and a crease between his brows. The reality was like a heaven to the dreams he'd seen, and he wanted to cherish it the more.
---------------
The troupe took a stop at the edge of a cliff side before they cross the natural earth-bridge to the other side. They took the time to say farewell to the Old Lady and other leading people of the troupe in her makeshift tent, which all the time he felt like fleeing immediately. The Old Lady seemed to feel his discomfort with other people around and just dismissed them after giving him an elderly pat on his brunette head. He gave her a smile then, awkward but sincere; the Old Lady chuckled to that.
He didn't see Rice in the tent, nor that strange Aku-guy. His Beast took the lead and giving a final nod he took his hand and just walk away from the parked caravans, walking along the cliff and down to a narrow earth-stairs definitely carved by someone as a path down.
The opening in the ground was not that wide, but it was vertically steep and deep. The afternoon sun gave a thicker hues in the air; and either it was intentionally or not, the cliff's wall gave them a shade from the sunlight, even though it wasn't that scorching anymore.
They walked hand in hand, his Beast in the front making sure that the grounds they step on were safe. The made-stairs were broken at some parts, they had to jump on the crumbling one-man-path carefully; somehow he felt like it was a game, his mind registered a feeling of safety that if he ever fall down something down there wouldn't let him get hurt.
About one-fourth way down to the base surface he looked up to the cliffs' edges, mesmerized by the plays of colorful lights in striation beams.
"Beast…, look..!" he nudged at the Beast's sleeve. The Beast looked up, "The oblique sunlight refracted by the small grains of minerals in the sands above the cliff…" he commented cursorily and started to walk again, pulling him along.
"Kind of like the Stratus's displays…But I like this one more, felt more honest..!" he said conversely and started to chat about multiple things, of which the Beast only commented with something like 'aa' or 'hm'. Once they could be alone together again they fell to their usual pace back, and it felt right.
The walls of the cliffs at the base were layer-colored with many hues, his mind pointed at something. "Beast, …this was a river, right..?" he asked as they stepped down the last stair to the base ground.
"…sometimes.." the Beast answered without so much interest; perhaps for him this kind of natural forms were so trivial, but when you see only white-this and white-that all your life, such simple marbles or tufas felt precious to your eyes. A blowing wind carried the fragrant smell along the dry river; he turned his head looking back from one shoulder, they were walking opposite the direction of the blowing wind, but it felt like the wind welcoming him. Somehow he thought he knew the scent even though he couldn't remember what it was. The Beast seemed like he knew something had taken his concentration as his hand turned slack in the Beast's hand, he gripped it tighter and tugged him along whenever his steps started faltering, but all the time he didn't say anything.
The air already turned cooler to his skin as the sky seen from the gap of the cliffs turned a darker hues of deep red and purple tinged. He noticed that along the base of the cliffs' walls were randomly found wholes, like crumbled entrances of caves; if he closed his eyes he thought he could hear whispers calling out.
=….beloved Leader..=
=….ours…=
=…….darkened heart…..=
=…our beloved….=
=….loneliest..=
=…our darkened-heart…..=
=…truest….=
=…Leader…..=
"….can you hear them..?" a little in trance he asked in a silent voice, he felt his Beast's eyes side glanced on him, then glanced forward again. "It's some leftovers of the consciousness once in the darkened places…where the owners used to hide. Some strong-sensed people could hear them; some people said that it could make travelers crazy if they succumb to their voices…."
His Beast sounded a little subdued, it didn't show but he could felt it in his air.
"…You're lonely…!"
That wasn't a question.
His Beast's steps faltered to a slow stop, he looked down to his feet, a gush of little breeze blew a cloud of dust between them. A small ironic smile curved the ends of his lips. "….I once thought that…" he started in a very silent whisper, "….those voices….'them'… were welcoming me. That I belonged there…"
"It's stupid, really..!" his Beast pulled him to walk again in a faster pace, as if he wanted to run away from his memory but restraint his desire to actually run because his Human's hand was in his and he didn't want to drag him along.
"….you had no one to listen to.." his Human whispered behind his back, "But don't you think…for just a little….that they'd feel a little grateful that they kept their existence…..as poor as they are….so that their voices could reach someone..?" he tightened his grip on his Beast's hand.
"…someone like me..?" the Beast's voice was so small.
His Human chuckled gratefully, "Because others would abhor them instead, would they?"
"I think they felt grateful that you took them as companies; or didn't you….?" He fastened his steps a couple just to get alongside his Beast, looking at his eyes clouded a little. His Beast's lips thinned, but his eyes turned a little brighter."…they're better then most others. They don't tell lies…!" he lifted his shoulder.
"You lived here once..?" his Human seemed to catch that he already in a safe atmosphere to talk about it in a lighter manner, looked around as he found the dry river could really be a cozy place to live, if you don't mind with adequate simplicity.
"This river is flooded for half a year, you couldn't really live down here..!!" his Beast seemed to understand his thought and fast correcting his curiosity.
The purple orbs burned on him with wide inquiring stare then; he snorted in a smile, "…not here. Some place like this, maybe, I don't remember exactly where and when; perhaps it's been lives passed..!"
His Human silenced for several long minutes; but their steps didn't falter. "…they whispered the same things then…?" at the Beast's nod he continued, "Who they're calling out to..?"
"They said it's their Leader, didn't they?"
"Were they…soldiers..?" his Human's eyes trailed down along the wall base, registering the many layers of dirt and rocks burying 'them' under the earth as something as not trivial anymore, his purple eyes flashed with warning.
He felt it as his Human's grip suddenly turned groggy and he instinctively pressed his body to his. "….hey, Beast….Don't you think.. that maybe, if you look closely at those caves…..that maybe, 'they' are actually digging their way out of their burials…?!"
That brought a smile to his lips, "Why do you think that?"
His Human answered with alertness contorted his beautiful face, "…well, because…'they' are ghosts, right…?!"
"They might be a little different then the Fairs, that's all. What are you afraid of..?"
"Fairs are not frightful..!" his Beast's calmness made him a little hot with his reasoning, truth was some Fairs could do more than look menacing if triggered.
"Hmm, how about Spells, then?" the Beast pointed out.
"Tell me 'they' wouldn't attack at random and you don't have to tame them just to get away from here…?!" that was half a question. His Beast laughed outright at his unreasonable fear, "…'they' are okay, 'they' won't hurt you..!"
"…at you?!" he kept a stubborn face.
His Beast wound the hand that was holding his to his neck, "…it actually feels safe down here, right? Don't worry so much, I'm with you..!" the encircled hand stroked his head at front several times, like calming a little child, keeping his smaller body as close as it could to his own body; the Beast did that often, he realized, a little part of his mind wondered whether the Beast actually treated him as a child or just being touch-possessive.
They silenced for a long pause, when the Beast thought that he already dropped the subject his Human spoke in a very silent whisper, tinged with embarrassment. "…perhaps….I'm just jealous that you were with 'them'….long before you met me….", but it was an honest admission, so he smiled.
The dry river turned at some parts, just like the rivers would flow naturally, like a giant snake body. It was already dark when they could see the end of the channel, blockaded by rocks like a giant beaver's dam, behind it there could be seen the canopy of a small forest, the tops of high trees jutted randomly. The winds brought the smell of water and greeneries, there was a familiar scent of fragrant weeds known in Archantra; he widened his eyes with excitement, "That's our stop, right?! Our stop..?!" he bounced while walking, pulling his Beast's hand to get to the forest sooner. The Beast chuckled at his merriness; it made him remember his Human's former-self, but being mean or over-calm as he was he didn't give in to his Human's urge encouraging him to walk faster. They'd get there sooner or later, his mind reasoned.
The climb to get pass the dam wasn't as difficult as it would for other people, the Beast could almost fly when he jumped as he wasn't an earthbound; his Human, despite his delicate feature, had the agility and graciousness that could rival his Beast's. When they got to the top of the dam, he stared with shining eyes at the scenery laid in front of them; the little forest was actually circling a lake, with high towers of rocks stood at the lake's edge as if guarding it; the full moon was shining brightly in the sky, as it was still the second full moon night, it was reflected on the water's calm surface like a dark mirror. There could be heard various sounds of birds; the bright round moon made the air almost like a liquid clarity where he could clearly see the uncountable flocks of birds and flying small beasts that were using the lake as their transit. The forest hid the presence of small animals perfectly but their sounds added to the lively choir of the birds. He voiced his amazement long and blissfully.
"…hey, why we couldn't hear them back there..?!" his Human asked while jumping up and down excitedly on the top rocks; the Beast mind pointed out that he could hear those animals sounds just as perfectly, while another part of his mind pointed out that the rocks where his Human jumping on were not very stable.
"The wind's coming from behind us..!" he answered distractedly pulling his Human's hand to his side, his ears registering the little sounds of crumbling pile down there.
"So, when it's monsoon the lake will be welling up and flow into this channel, right..?" his Human let the Beast pulled him to the cliff side where bigger rocks piled.
"Yes.."
"You know, this dam looks almost like a man-made structure rather than anything…" he tried to restrain his excitement and distracted his mind with conversation.
"It is, but not man-made..!" the Beast slid on a relatively flat long rock, pulling his hand along.
The rock's structure made it that if the cliff ever fractured broken that it would formed like an uneven-sided long column, he imagined that someone or something huge clawed the cliff sides to get the materials needed for building the dam. "You know the thing made this..?" he complied when his Beast circled his hand behind his waist, holding on to the Beast's taller shoulders without too much thinking; then suddenly the Beast jumped without warning, embracing both his knees while in the air, held them to his chest.
He widened his eyes when his mind registered what his Beast was doing, the fall to the other side of the dam's base wasn't that long, but as he was overwhelmed by the closeness of the Beast's face to his, he actually felt that it was a very long fall. The Beast landed lightly on the rocky ground, he didn't put his Human down at once, but looked for more steady ground for his human to walk on as there were large crescent-shaped deep holes in the dirt ground, apparently made as water sockets before the over abundant of water would make it flow into the channel through the dam, judging that the dam structure had many holes that would make it work more as water-gate rather than a blockade.
"…I can do that by myself..!" he said evenly when his Beast put his feet down.
"I know..!" his Beast said evenly as well without looking at his large eyes burning the image of his face in his violet eyes. The crescent-shaped water sockets climbed up like stairs to the lake's level, there was a dry watercourse which connected the lake and the dry river, but the lake's water surface was lower than the grounds of the forest around it at this season.
The Beast then left him near the dry watercourse, saying that he's going to check the area first before deciding where to camp. Since he was alone without much to do, he decided that he'd just sit around on some upright rock and enjoy the scenery around him; the darkness of the night was preferable for his eyes. Not long, the sound of trickling water near his sitting place piqued his interest; his eyes search the vicinity and soon found the steady small streams of water between the rocks, flowing into the water sockets, filling them slowly.
He hopped down from the upright rock and walked to the small streams, taking off his boots on the way and savored the cool water easing his tired feet, not minding his legging and the end of his riding dress getting wet; they're not as clean as they were at first, being exposed to dusts and dirt along his way, he thought he might as well get changed and wash them. While thinking that, his mind said that a cool bath would do to loosen his tight muscles as well, since the desert night air wasn't as cold as what he'd heard from others once he experienced it by himself; winter in Archantra with its sudden frozen climate was more alerting.
He looked around, finding no one in sight besides some curious small animals watching him with their shining eyes from some bushes and trees. The change of clothes given by the troupe was in the bag carried by his Beast, so he thought he might just try to get some change from his sanctuary, he never try it since he woke up on his end since the sanctuary was on Deia's end; it would feel like rummaging someone's private room. Because as cliché as it sounded, a person named Deia was once living in her own universe of that sanctuary.
He scratched the back of his head; he didn't really know why but the thought of her made him down. Wasn't it because it felt like he'd robbed her life from her…? Her world and her loved-ones as well…
No; he decided, rummaging Deia's end of the sanctuary would feel like trespassing sister's private room, so he thought he'd just try to get to the sanctuary from his end; later, when he felt stable enough to connect a secure link to his small other-universe he used as his sanctuary. Right at that time, he felt the presence of human beings nearing his area.
Then heard the familiar question of "…are you lost, Miss…?!" from behind the rocks behind him.
This time he found it funny, "…aahahahahaa…!" he laughed while turning his upper body a little, just to show his identity, while his face looking back from his side to the people behind the rocks.
"Wha-ck..!!" the recognized scout-men almost fell from their standing ground, one of them instantly grabbed his sword by the back of his waist and turned around bracing himself for a certain beast, but not finding one.
"What are you doing here? You're not with the troupe..?" he asked with ease enjoying the surprise of those men, their alertness meant that he's still in the safe distant with them, that they still have the fear of his Beast concerning his possessiveness over him.
"…uhh…. You too, what are you doing here..?" the man with black spectacles turned to him again, still a little caught by the surprise; his friend slouched his back and shoulders, leaning on a vertical rock as he realized he wouldn't loose his head yet by a certain beast –since it was a clear first-and-last warning he'd get the first time.
"We parted ways, the troupe went that way..!" he pointed up to the desert upon the cliff.
"Oh, right. Where are you heading..?" the black spectacled man asked again.
He lifted his shoulders, "I don't know; how about you?"
The men cleared their throat in unison, "Haaha.. we're..-"
"They're like us, joining the troupe until they reach a certain place to head their original way..!" the Beast's voice cut evenly from the dark shade of a tree above the men; that made them jump.
"You're joining your pack here?" the Beast asked again from behind his black-cover of his half face, once he's down near the gaping men; like he'd said before, those men smelled different than the rest of the troupe members.
"P..pack??" seemed like the term wasn't too familiar with them.
"He meant group..!" he said welcoming his Beast with wet hands, wiping his face with them a little playfully then wiped it dry with his black-cloth around his shoulders; happy that his Beast didn't mind it even though he did it in front of strangers.
"That's your pack at the other side of the lake?"
"Yes..!" the man answered a little stunned. "Oh, ..why don't you join us?"
"I'll take that invitation." The Beast said levelly without so much of a thought; that made his Human turned his face to him, feeling a little odd but didn't voice it.
The Beast bent down, wiping his Human's bare feet from the shallow water with his cloak; then put his boots back on.
He watched his Beast's head from his higher view for a few seconds then glanced at the men, he grinned at them watching the procession, they grinned back at him a little awkwardly.
The group had set up tents and fires, it seemed that they were all men; they looked like they were busy with their tasks, but they froze at the same time as both of them came into view. The two scout-men behind them grinning awkwardly, looking like they were ready to get scolded by their group leader.
As the men seized their activities and stood up, hearing the sudden silence outside, a big man came out from the biggest tent; he halted while still holding the tent flap, there was a flash of recognition and alarm in his eyes as he saw the Beast stood at the outer-side of the camping area. That alerted him and made him get closer to his Beast's back; he side glanced noticing his Beast stared the man levelly.
"…Rashid, who is it..?" A boy's voice he'd heard somewhere before asked from inside the tent, the man resumed his walk out of the tent, followed by a stoic tall boy who was helping a smaller blond boy to walk.
The blond boy had various bandage-wraps on his visible body parts, his left arm were heavily bandaged and hung with a cloth around his neck; he was walking by dragging one of his feet too and looking like he wouldn't be able to stand by himself. But without so much familiarization he smiled brightly, welcoming them into his camp-circle. "Whaaa..! Welcome, welcome! Please feel free to join us..!"
The tall boy at his side nodded once at his Beast, the Beast answered with a nod as well then stared at the big man who was seemingly the group leader, the man stared back for some time with unreadable eyes; then he nodded to his men as they were waiting for his cue. And that's how he found himself, despite feeling the safety of his Beast's presence with him, being in an odd situation that night…
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The fire burned with loud prickling sounds; that's what he'd use to describe the atmosphere, too: prickling..!
They were all sitting around the fire, except for some men taking their guards around the campsite, having hot beverage and stew for dinner; after dinner they somehow got engaged in the after-dinner-conversation such travelers usually had around the fire, although his Beast hadn't utter a sound since they got there, and he didn't get even one-fourth of the conversation; but somehow the blond boy, the kind host as he was, could relate them into the conversation so as to make them didn't feel left out.
But truth was….the big man, who felt like a teeth-baring bear with two scimitars in its hands, seemingly familiar with his Beast but didn't show it, pretended that he was only taking a part of that traveler's rite but truly he was taking a watch on his Beast; while the tall boy, Trowa was his name as the blond boy introduced him again just as he'd introduced him to Deia in Viricidia, seemingly recognized his Beast as another inhuman-creature, something like Wild-brotherhood or something; they didn't seem like they were going to convolute with each other just like his Beast did with the Lord Marquisse's beast back then, so he thought it's alright.
Now about that blond angelic boy introducing himself as Q -again-, he seemed like he was welcoming someone in his good nature, like he would welcome anyone who happened to be in the same way with him just as the same; but really he actually -somehow- knew they were going to meet in their ways, as if he was actually waiting that meeting, but he didn't show it in the outside and just taking the part of a naïve cheerful host instead. The other men followed the lead of their group leader, and Q –as everybody could notice that he was their master, not leader-, pretending that they didn't realize the people's thoughts and dispositions, and taking part as cheerful travelers.
What to be taken into notice was the presence of another boy about their age, his traits almost like his Beast's but with raven-colored hair tied tightly behind his nape; he had a mighty atmosphere, almost hungry if you could say, and his slanted sharp eyes seemed like he wanted to swallow him in one bite; and he was having a presence-fight with his Beast out of people knowing. Well, perhaps that Trowa knew it….
Just to sum it up…it was an odd prickling night…!
He stifled a sigh, sipped his mug of hot beverage; groaned in his mug, "…it bites..!" he commented to himself.
"The ale must be strange-tasted for someone who's not used to it..!" a man sitting near him who apparently heard his words said with a wide smile. "Do you want some lighter drink, instead?"
He smiled back, "No, thank you; I'll just have to get used to it soon if I want to be out here…!" he really meant about the prickling atmosphere, but he intentionally sorted his words so it could be taken as the answer to the question. Some eyes stared at him as they got the under-meaning of his sentence, he didn't see them and just set his eyes on the dancing fire, his Beast did counter those stares as he could feel his Beast's air since he was sitting behind his back on the fallen bough seemingly making his back warm with his front –like a possessive Beast would do for his Human- but truth was he was literally guarding his back from others.
He made a humming sound to disguise his groan; this was more tiring than walking in the open scorching desert, his mind complained. He almost called out to some Fairs to make some rain so that the people would stop this prickling conversation and take shelter into the tents… but he restraint himself as he remembered his Beast's concern when he called out for the wind-Fairs to clear a safe path on the sands that day.
After that, either the big man couldn't hold his fangs in anymore or he just took pity of his uneasiness and just stop beating the bushes, he asked with his grumbly voice but still tried with a conversational tone; "So,…where are you heading now, Master Archant..?" then he smoothed it by sipping his mug.
The other men's conversation died down, they heard their leader pressed the word Archant intentionally; and even though they introduced themselves as 'Duo(Human)' and 'Heero(Beast)', the big man skipped the names as if he accused that those were not their real names. As all eyes immediately stared at him –being the only Archant and the fact that he couldn't hide his traits from other's eyes- he averted his eyes and stared back at the big man openly. He took his time calmly letting the big man reading him; then he answered with a small smile, "I don't know, I had never been out of the Land all my life..!"
He turned to watch the dancing fire again, "…my Beast thought he'd just show me around to see things..!"
"When are you planning to go back to your homeland?"
He chuckled lightly, "I didn't make any plan, sir..!" and followed the example from the big man, sipping his mug even though he grimaced at the aftertaste after swallowing the ale; it's different than the troupe's brew, stronger and almost thick with foreign seasonings.
"Archantra is no more..!" the big man began; he paused to see the reaction on his face, "The explosion could be heard by neighboring countries that night..!". As suspected, his surprise was shown clearly on his face; not that he tried hiding it that much, though. The big man asked again as he saw the Archant's face turned to him with a wide inquiring stare, as if urging him to continue; he couldn't read too much from that stare, except that the Archant was so clear to read without much to be read from him; he made a mental note of that fact in his mind.
"If you don't aware of that, you must either be far away from the land or was unconscious at the time..?" and the big man still make it sounded like a question, his men thought with a sweatdrop.
"….you heard the explosion..?" the Archant asked slowly, genuinely asking.
"Yes... with the bright light as well, reaching out to the night sky as if trying to tear the darkness apart. For a moment I thought it was a volcano erupting..!"
"…hmmm…really.." he mumbled, stared back at the fire, a little ingested by the thoughts flashing in his mind as his eyes looked distanced. "What color was the light..?"
"…white!"
He chuckled silently, "…always white..!" he sounded like he was almost complaining; the people knew he was drowned in his thought as he was sipping the mug without grimacing for several times. "I didn't know that…!" he added silently as if to himself.
The big man opened his mouth again but Q fast beat him trying to divert the depressing conversation, "Where's Lady Deia, Yuy..?" he asked with his usual kind smile, stating clearly his Beast's name; that got his attention back to the present, he stared widely at the blond boy while sipping his mug.
"Dead" his Beast answered in a low voice; whatever the big man wanted to ask died in his throat, he clamped his mouth with a click sound.
Q's pale face turned whiter almost matching an Archant's complexion as he widened his eyes; he swallowed once, "….I'm sorry..!" he then said slowly.
That piqued his interest, really; "Why? You don't know her..!" he asked straightforwardly, ignoring the men's eyes fell on him with unbelievable stares, it should be the appropriate manner to say that in hearing the news of the loss of someone; but he really curious as to why people would feel sorry for the loss of someone they only knew in a one-worded news.
Q was taken aback by his honest question, he tried to say something a couple of time, when he found his voice back there was a flash of admission in his blue eyes; "…I…met her in Viricidia..!". His men glanced at their Master, than stared at the Archant back; they realized somehow the pretencious conversation had turned from trying to cross-examining the Archant now was making their side to confess, instead. When did that happen?
"You're friends..?" the Archant turned to his Beast's face behind him, higher by the rocks he was using as a seat behind the bough; the Beast's legs was bent at either sides of his small frame, as if made as the makeshift armchairs for his Human's arms to rest. The Beast didn't answer, but his silence seemed like a form of answer to the Archant as he looked back at the blond boy with bright eyes, "Oh.." he mumbled; "Well, if Deia said you're okay, then you're okay..!" he said with a pleasant smile with a hand stroking the Beast's knee at his side.
His smiling face made Q flushed a little, "ummm…we exchanged our names; Lady Deia was complaining about some human-politicians she couldn't blast to someplace fitting that day…!", after that admission Q seemed to find his calmness back and soon put his smiling face on.
The Archant laughed childishly, "…that's her alright..!" he said satisfactorily, staring the content of his mug which seemed like it didn't lessen the slightest.
Q stared him for some time, he was going to ask 'what happen' but it sounded too straightforward, so he changed the words, he was educated as a politician himself, his mind reminded. "You look so much like her, are you twins…?" –besides the hair color, of course; but he didn't say it.
"I don't know, I never asked her..!" that sounded like an honest answer, but with sarcastic words to some people; "We never met in person.." he smiled to the blond boy through his mug, which only earned him a blink.
"What happened..?" Q asked reflexively, his men sweatdropped knowing their Master's tendency to act polite and almost never asked that somewhat prodding-question.
"What happened?" he turned his head up to his Beast's face again, leaning comfortably with both hands rested on his knees; "Hmm…Deia was running all around the castle, calling out…then she met someone….something was breaking apart, beautiful as a smile…..then I woke up alone; Beast, here, found me…and Deia was nowhere…!" he paused as if thinking more to say, but then nodded to end it; "…that's from my end. What's yours..?"
The Archant's tone was light and almost childish, as if he was not minding his Beast's feelings; it made the others got alerted, Q almost say something to take back his question. The Beast's scowling eyes clouded, he never really asked his Human what was it like from his end, he was aware that his Human took his former-self as another person; or else, he wouldn't survive the captivity the Land had kept him in for his whole life. The dark gloved hands encircled his Human's lithe neck in loose embrace, but the black-cloth around his shoulders made it seem not so loose, and the blanket the travelers gave him made his body like it was trapped in a cocoon. The Archant chuckled as if he felt what his Beast doing was endearing, offered his mug with a content smile.
The Beast's furrowing brows twitched deeper once, the Archant's smile gone into a pout instantly; "Oh, right. You barely eat; you barely drink; saying that you're keeping them for me…" he turned his face to the mug in his hands, his eyes were drooped coldly. "Do you miss her that much, I wonder…!"
The last part said made the Beast's eyes flashed with something; Q jerked visibly, his men sweatdropped with alert, reflexively they reminded themselves that they had their weapons hung by their waists; something's wrong with this Archant-Beast couple..! The Beast took the mug and while he brought it to his mouth the black-cover on his half-face melted down forming a mock turtleneck; he took a swig fast and passed the mug back to his Human, pausing for some seconds before swallowing the content in his mouth. His Human turned his waist looking at him with bright inquiring-expecting eyes; the Beast froze, stared him back with flat stares; after some more seconds passed with the waiting he coughed up breathlessly once, turning his face from his Human's.
The Archant laughed pleasantly, "…it bites, right? Even your tongue..!!" he made fanning motion with his hand, trying to relief his Beast; the Beast's left brow quirked up, he looked like he was going to say something but his cough beat him to it; so he just covered his face with his hands, trying to control his rebelling throat. His Human laughed again and stood, "…Even your pride..!" he stated merrily, but covered his Beast's defeated form with his height as he embraced the brown head to his waist.
"See? My Beast is not that scary like this, right..?" he said cheerfully to the big man sitting to his right, "I love your ale..!". Rashid only blinked.
Still breathless with silent revolting throat, the Beast whispered "…korosu…!"
That brought another merry laughter from the Archant, "He even threatens to kill me…!!", but his hand stroked the Beast's back trying to lessen his coughs, even though it's futile; seeing so, the Archant handed the mug to the man at his left and rubbed his Beast's back with both hands. "…it's not going to kill you, ne…?"
"What's in the ale, anyway?" he asked to everyone in particular.
"Saffron..! –and other ingredients.." the man holding his mug said a little bewilderedly.
"Saffron oil could be used as expectorant..! Travelers in the desert mostly use it for cooking, as well; to fight against the cold desert's night air…" Q offered a much longer answer.
It made the Archant's laugh brayed out, "Is that so? Sorry, you don't eat because of that..! I'm sorry! But you could just say it so, instead of making me guessing things..! That's partly your fault, right..?!"
The Beast's answer was only another restraint cough.
The silence was beginning to get too loud, so the Archant turned his head to the big man; "He's mostly has contradiction with medicines..!"
Rashid glanced at the Beast's flushed face half hidden by the Archant's body and hands from his side, he was fighting his rebelling throat, but his eyes said it that he was doing it because he didn't want to make his Human's worried; the big man's sharp stare melted a little, whatever it was he thought of the Beast before seemed to get tamer, "…want a lighter drink..?" he offered the Beast.
-cough- "..No, there's a lake behind..!" -cough-
"You're not turning your way here just to get a drink, are you…?" the big man asked flatly with a sweatdrop.
"Ah, likely it's what people from home said about desert: if there are birds, means there is water…!" the Archant said with a grin.
"Or dead meat..!" that was said together with a grinning Q in unison; then they smiled at each other as if finding their connectible ends. The men laughed to that, and with that the atmosphere turned many layers lighter; as observed by the silent Trowa, and the hungry-looking black-haired boy with his scavenger's eyes. The Archant may looked childish, but he could control the situation and even the people's thought just as perfectly, seemingly without them realizing it.
After that the conversation turned to a more humane one, with the men freely joked around and amused their recuperating Young Master who smiled earnestly; he glanced as Trowa's observant eyes stared him with calm kindness, in the opposite with the black-haired boy's -who was titled by everyone as only 'master' without a name following- scalding poisonous stare which seemingly only directed at him, even though it was the first time he'd met the boy; perhaps like Rice's case, he had some issues with Archants? That what made his Beast at his high alert in the first place; he suspected that the Beast felt this Master's presence and spitefulness against him, and thinking that rather having to be in a hide-and-seek with them he just better take the invitation and join them and guard his back from where he could see the dangers in the open, seeing that there were many of those people and only a pair of themselves.
But as he didn't understand much of the conversation they were having about the world's news and other trivial things he'd never heard of, he soon lost interest with the people and just stared at the dancing fire. A thought popped in his mind and he remembered about the troupe's bonfire where he saw Rice danced. He tinkered as his eyes familiarized the dancing bright yellow-orange flames; then he smiled pleasantly to the fire, as if greeting someone. Q felt it as the Archant left their atmosphere, paying no attention to the world surrounding him including his Beast; he was going to say something at him to get his attention back to their presence, just as a good host, but before he managed, without warning the Archant moved on his four and put his right hand in the fire with a smile on his face.
The men yelped in surprise and bewilderment, while the Archant, childish as he was, just stared with wide eyes at the fire, loosing his smile as he felt his hand hurting. After some more long seconds he made sure he was feeling pain, he pulled his pained right hand in a wide swing; as if anticipating it, his Beast was already squatted behind him and readily snatched the hand, then put it in his cool mouth. "It bites…!!" his Human complained with a betrayed face, his eyes wetted by sheen of tears.
His Beast snorted softly, licking the hot hand and sometimes putting his slender fingers into his mouth.
"Of..of course it's hot! It's fire..!" the black spectacled man said with befuddlement.
"What were you doing..?!" another man asked reflexively.
"But…!" he complained, "It's luring me to come, right..?! Just like the bonfire with Rice's dance…? Right..?! But it's not friendly..!!" he whined at his Beast.
Q only stared with widened eyes, knowing that the Archant was really believing of it as what he'd said it. He never met a homeland-shelled Archant before, so never imagined that their thinking pattern would be so different. Of course, he never knew Archantra that well.
The Beast made a sighing snort; he stared up as his Human was kneeling before him with an almost crying face, not by the burnt pain but by what he thought of as betrayal; "…it's not alive…!" he whispered a little hoarsely by the effect of the ale before.
"What's not..?!"
"Fire doesn't have awareness..! It's not something you can befriend, it's only a form of energy, you don't have to tame it before use; you just have to light it, give it something to burn; it's just a form of energy, not a sentient being…!" his Beast said with soft tone.
"But it's dancing and inviting--…!" his Human accused stubbornly.
"The flames move constantly because of the wind, or because of the material the fire burns. Not because they're calling you; like this..?" his other gloved hand mimicking the signal of a hand used for calling someone.
His Human's face didn't seem that he accepted the reasoning; "Look, it's different outside; the rocks and grounds are not watching, the air isn't listening and thus not telling, the grasses and trees aren't moving because they're trying to reach you when they touch you…! They told you all this about the outside world, did you not understand?"
"….Why..?" his Human sounded like a hurt child.
"I assumed the Air of Archantra was a form of massive energy that it made the things in Archantra as they were. As the energy produced was overloading the barrier, it exploded…" the Beast muttered to himself.
"…that, you said, is energy, too, right…? But it's not friendly..!!" the Archant pointed the fire behind his back with his left hand, tears were ready to trail down his cheeks despite his voice sounded calmer.
The Beast was visibly let his head drop; so his Human still didn't get it…! –that almost got Q to chuckle outright.
"…okay..! If you want to try and tame it, tame it without hurting yourself..!" he compromised his reasoning.
The Archant mulled it for some seconds, "…it's not humane to tame others, you should befriend them..!" he said with a straight stare. In the background the Beast could hear Q's breath exploded in the cover of his not too damaged hand.
"Humans don't TAME fire…!" the Beast growled low; that got Q really laughed in the end.
Suddenly the Archant jumped to his feet and there was a loud sharp sound of a slap echoed by the trees and the rockery site around them; the Beast's face was reflexively turned to his left side by the blow, almost facing the Master who instinctively let his hands down bracing himself for a fight. Almost at the same time the fire burst up like an awakened pillar of writhing flames, with 'hands' clawed everywhere as if searching things to burn; the sudden bright explosion behind his standing figure made his face silhouetted in dark shade…really dark shade that was abnormal to people's eyes.
The Beast recognized that apathetic feeling devoid of emotion swallowing the atmosphere around him; but he didn't understand why his Human's dark-side suddenly exploded like that, perhaps it was the negative-feeling of being betrayed? Or was it because one negative-feeling called forth other negative-feelings that were not yet to resurface his awareness, and his Human couldn't contain them yet…?
"….Humans tame BEASTS, instead, right, Beast..? Like when that Virion Lord kissed you..?!" the low almost purring sound of his voice was alien to the people that only have met his Human there, but the Beast knew he'd somehow awakened that-side of his Human despite his effort of keeping him in his neutral state…or was it because he denied his Human's dark-side the last days since he woke up that it decided to claw its way up by itself..? A little part of his mind pointed that his Human did say something like that about 'them' in the dried river's crumbled cavities that afternoon; it's almost like a premonition that he thought he should have paid more attention to his Human's words more.
There was a mocking grunt from the Master and he said a taunting comment in probably his language, but the way he said it already explained his intention it made his Human turned his face at the youngster with definitely a challenging narrowed stare. The Master seemed to take the challenge for he instantly stood; making the blanket he wore around his body fell to the tree bough he used as a seat. The Beast knew that any little provocation to his Human in his state now could cause a major destruction; though he didn't sure whether his Human could explode with the same force as the time he'd blown the Castile or not, what flashed in his mind was: what if without the Air's restraint on his power he could explode more power than that time?
Not waiting for something to happen, the Beast moved in a flash and caught the Master's neck between his saber-cuspids from behind before he could utter anything else, while his hands circled to his forward preventing any movement without really touching his body; truth was that he didn't want to cross anybody right now but he didn't want anyone to cross his Human more. He felt the Master's body stilled, not in fright but calmly; it's as if he had many more alerting experiences than having a certain beast closing his fangs –no matter how big and long those fangs were- around his neck, touching his very skin; though he seemed like he minded the cold biting breaths the Beast was exhaling behind his nape; but he got the message from the Beast perfectly: say another word and he could forget he had a neck connecting his head and torso.
The people were confounded by the sudden turn of event, especially Q who was actually in his good humor when it happened.
The Archant still stared him coldly, the writhing fire behind his figure coiled and twisted as if the flame was trying to embrace his standing figure but some invisible air preventing it to touch him; there was something akin to screeching sound coming from the struggling fire as if it actually screaming, everyone could hear it, too, that it made some of the men paled to almost white. But no one dared to move. He let out a dismissive soft snort tilting his chin up a little in a condescending way, and swung his right hand as if dismissing the fire. The writhing flame suddenly disappeared with a muted screech that it made some people jumped in their seats, in the next second it burst to life again in the same size as the normal fire before it awakened with a puffing sound that made those people gasped.
The Beast thought fast; maybe his Human was just angry at the fire who burnt his hand at first, and a little anger called out other things that had made him angry in the past..?
Staring the Master for some time more after he let his right hand down and stood with a relax almighty pose, his Human walked away to the lake's direction without letting out a sound even when the ends of his riding dress swept the tall grass. The Beast immediately released the Master's neck from between his teeth, fast rearranging his jaws and retracted the saber-cuspids and had them replaced with his usual needle-teeth in just a few seconds.
"I apologize for that, but I would rather to not having Human to have to explode in a bad term with his surrounding yet…!" he said in a soft voice that genuinely showed his remorse for his act.
The Master didn't move a fraction in his calm pose, he only side glanced at the Beast behind him to the end of his slanted eyes. "….you're an inhuman creature, too. You lower yourself that much to a human..?!" he said under his breath.
The Beast stared him oddly, "You think beasts should be higher than humans?"
The way he asked it may be interpreted in the negative way since the Master clearly showed his contempt after hearing that; turning his upper body a little, baring his also pointed sharp teeth he growled low, stating that he's a creature that didn't want to be thought of as lower than humans.
The Beast blinked levelly, "….I'm the only one of my-kind…!" he said flatly.
The Master paused his growling; "…If you have had bad terms with humans before, seeing that you are the last one of your-kind,..", and he thinned his lips in a glare hearing the Beast's continued words.
"..and you wanted to be higher than others, than you might as well try to stand on the top of the food-chain; since any other place lower than that wouldn't suffice your fervor." It may sound as a sarcastic comment or a good advice; "But I'm not a devourer….!" Though the last part added took the sting out.
The Master stared him levelly with his ever-present scowl; he then picked the blanket from the bough and covered his body with it with a wide swing of the cloth. Walking to the tent prepared for him, he said in a low voice when he passed the Beast; "…your human is not a human..!"
The people watched him left the fire with a very long silent pause; after he was out of everybody's sight, they began to live again, and started to question one another with their stares about what was really transpiring.
"…Beast..!!" a clear high-voice yelled in urgency from the direction of the lake, and as everyone's eyes turned to stare at that direction, came limping his Human almost dragging his left foot seemingly out of carefulness and not because of pain. His right hand was gripping his right-side of the riding dress to wrap something in it like the usual make-shift bag girls usually used their dresses with, while his left hand had his boots; his large eyes were a pair of clear violet-orbs with a light flush of excitement coloring his white skin.
"Something cute bit me..!!" he reported with a high spirit; but everyone could almost actually see the Beast's air dropped a few shade darker at that.
"Whaat..? It's really cute..!! See?!" the Archant said defiantly and lifted his left foot so that everyone could see the bony-thing embracing his ankle in dead loops.
And everyone yelled together in panic; "—hey, Mister, that's a carcass-snake, you know..!!" one of the men blurted in surprise.
"…'Hey, Mister'..?" the Archant repeated under his breath with a lackluster expression. The Beast dropped his head to his waiting hand supporting his forehead; "….you can't have that as a pet..!" he said almost with a ridiculous tired tone.
"Why not..?!" the Archant asked fast with a stubborn face.
"Because it bites…!"
"I can bite back..!"
"..i…it's poisonous..!!" another man exclaimed between their exchange.
"And I'm not..?!" the Archant countered fast flashing a serious face to the man; his words made the man gaped.
"It's lethally poisonous with no anti-venom to it..." Rashid tried a comment, seemingly only testing the situation.
"I can be lethal, too, if I want..!" the Archant turned to him with serious clear large eyes.
The Beast massaged his temples with his fingers, palm half-covering his face; "…it could bite people--…!"
"I'll let them bite back..!"
"That's not even the solution to it..!!" the Beast growled flat impatiently.
"…La…." Q realized something despite his stumped face, "….Lady Deia..?"
The Archant turned his head to him, then flashed a wide pleasant smile; "Young Master Q, such a coincidence to meat you in such a place…." The glowing aura that came along with the smile seemed fake; "…and you, too, think that this little thing is CUTE, right?" the smiling face turned to a serious scowling, "…rriiiight..?!" he pressed while bending his body so that he could see the sitting boy's face more clearly.
Q only blinked.
"What were you doing walking on the shore without wearing your boots..?!" the Beast decided that he should help their host from getting dragged in that situation, and kneeled down taking his Human's left foot to rest on his bent knee.
"Oh, here..!" he opened the rolled dress and took out a leafy wet branch that he swung rapidly to dry it from the caught water somewhat. "Feond'arc..!" his Human said victoriously, "You know, the ones Lyea couldn't find for curing Odin back then? Except that it's not white…" he murmured scowling at the bluish-grey leafs, and snapped himself from the contemplation by shaking his head a little, and presented the short branches to the Beast's face.
"At least it has the same smell and taste, although a bit lighter than the ones grew in Archantra. So I thought it still has the same effect with the ones back home. Go on, take some..!" he urged by waving the ends of the racemiform branches in his hand. At a pair of unexcited prussian eyes staring at the plant, while his hands were loosening the dead-loops of the snake's body, the Archant spoke again; "It's for cleansing your system from the things one's body found unnecessary. This is an interactive-kind of medicine, you know; Lyea said Feond'arc is crucial, right..?!"
"Here, just chew like this and swallow the juice mixed with your saliva..!" the Archant put the base of the stem and pulled it leaving the plucked leafs in his mouth, like the way someone eat dumplings from a stick; then presented the plant again to the Beast's face.
"Just humor me, Yuy…!!" he added in a growl while chewing. The Beast blinked, and slowly mimicked what his Human did; he chewed on those leafs coolly. While the Carcass-snake's head was pulled gently away from the ankle, someones gasped as there could be seen six small bleeding wounds on the white skin. The carcass-snake's fangs were a set of four fangs on the upper jaw and two on the lower, like the common ones in most beasts in Archantra, except that the fangs were not retractable as the usual snakes had.
"It bit you..!!" the black-spectacled man yelped.
"Didn't I say so..?" the Archant muttered with a naïve face. "Is she okay? She's still only a baby, isn't she?" he asked the Beast examining the limp snake; it was the size of two adult's fingers wide and length about 60cm long; the bony exoskeleton made it looked almost like the spinal columns of some other beast, thus it earned its name.
"Hng. She had to learn not to bite something more poisonous than her own venom..!" the Beast muttered between the chewed leafs in his mouth.
"Haaha. That's right little snake you should--…" a pause, "Are you saying I'm more poisonous than a snake with lethal-venom-that-had-no-antivenom-for…?!"
The Beast sweatdropped, "…you think you're not..?"
"Whaa…--?" the Archant made a fish-like mouthed unintelligible words, but complied when the Beast cued him to spit out the leaf juice mixed with his saliva that he had in his mouth into the opened snake's mouth. He stroked the snake's neck to urge it to swallow the small amount of liquid, ignoring his Human foul-staring him with a face.
"…I may be quite accustomed to some poisons, but I wouldn't say I'm poisonous, Yuy..!!" the Archant said flatly; that actually made the Beast chuckled lightly. "Don't make fun of me like that, you bratt..!!" he slapped the down-casted brown head lightly, but the Beast's hand quickly caught the slender hand before his Human could pull it back.
"And you shouldn't hurt yourself hitting me, as well. If I didn't turn my face along with your hand movement, wouldn't you have broken your wrist..?" he mumbled while kissing the back of the white hand, giving it a light massage and fixed the dislocated joints of his knuckle; his Human didn't show the pain when he did it but he felt the hand stiffened, so he licked it repeatedly meaning it to not hurting. And they were absorbed in the process that they were shutting off the surrounding, the Beast even seemed to be forgotten about the snake in his other hand that had started to squirm lightly, but the people realized what they're doing and they were the ones who felt self-conscious instead.
"..u…uhmm…!" Rashid cleared his throat with a light flush on his face; taking the action as the leader since his men wouldn't dare to disrupt their guests; especially such explosive-guests.
Suddenly there was a combined chuckle and laughter coming from the shy-looking Q and a merry Archant who was fanning his left hand towards him like wanting to shoo away his shy-act from his face. The Beast snorted and let his Human's right hand go, Trowa smiled behind him.
"….aren't they-…?" Q said between his chuckles.
"…-likewise..!" the Archant said.
"…but polite enough-…!"
"…enough is too much..!!" the Archant laughed louder, while the full-patched Q trying to control his pains and catch his breath at the same time that his pale face gotten a shade lighter.
Trowa gave his companion a helping hand stroking his back gently; it calmed his hurting friend a bit.
"You know it's not nice having conversation between the two of you in your link-ends while excluding others..!" the calm teenager said.
"…No, no…we're not having…!" Q tried to say but his body decided to give up defending himself.
The Archant laughed for some more and said, "He's an empath so he gets to feel others' feelings, right? And though I'm not one, I got to see what you're feeling exactly from your aura; that including his empath-reading; while he empath-read my seeing….so we're not really converse, you see?"
"Hng. It meant they caught the same message from their surrounding..!" the Beast said as if to himself; not really caring about the men who flushed bright red around them, whatever thoughts they had in their head that they were ashamed of.
"Haa ha hahaha….that includes him for he could smell your thoughts in the air, you know..?!" the Archant messed his Beast's hair a little.
"But I don't find it laughable..!" he muttered.
"EXACTLY..!!" both Q and his Human said in unison.
"….aa, sou ka.." the Beast realized that they were actually comparing him and the gaping men, and found the result worth some laugh.
His Human laughed for a few seconds, before asked in a totally serious tone, "So how is it..?"
The still pained Q read the sudden serious air and he instinctively quietened his breaths; it seemed that the Archant had the tendency to swap feelings suddenly.
"Wersh..!" the Beast answered somewhat.
The Archant tsk-ed, "It's bitter, not wersh; but it should've been more bitter-tasted than this if it grew in Archantra..!" he commented with dissatisfaction.
"I'm asking what you're feeling, Yuy..!"
"…of what?"
"…..your blood-hunger, or power-hunger; whatever you name it. You have refrained yourself from the pull to want his blood more, haven't you..?!" the Archant said none too pleasantly.
"….I only took a taste…" the Beast said hesitantly.
"But you DID lick the Lord of Virion's bloody tongue, didn't you..!!" the Archant said exasperated.
"It's already in my mouth..!" the Beast said matter-of-factly.
"Yessshh; so why did you do it in the first place, even knowing that he's a pureblood?!"
The Beast blinked, and tilted his head a little, mimicking Deia's famous naïve pose instinctively; "I never had a taste of a pure-blood before…?"
"And what good would that bring you, anywaaayyhhhh…?!" the Archant grabbed the Beast's head with both hands and growled out; either it was the result of his overly possessiveness or he had a habit to overdramatized things, Q observed.
"Listen; he nicked his tongue on my teeth, so it would have been left on my teeth, anyway…his blood. And instead of making it that I'm the receiver of that blood, even though it was accidentally, I chose to taste it deliberately so if any mishap should happen I wouldn't be at the end of the string he could pull, but at the end of the string I could cut by my will; do you understand..?" the Beast explained levelly.
"….that means you didn't bond your beast with your blood..?" Trowas asked suddenly, a sense of alert emerged on his stoic face; as another inhuman-creature he seemed to be familiar with that unwritten rule about beasts and their masters.
The Archant scowled at him, "Why would I want to do that to my little brother..?" while messing the brown hair as if apologizing for his accusation; those words got Rashid's brows twitched involuntarily.
"Such title wouldn't bind a beast to you if there's any pure-blood pulling him with his blood….!" Trowa stated calmly and matter-of-factly.
"I bound him with a promise..!" the Archant said levelly with enough confidence. "….I paid with my life; and he'd do what I asked of him. Is that still not enough..?" that got the circle silenced; only the sound of the fire crackling silently heard besides the night creatures out in the open.
"If you're done fighting the pull, then you could eat normally again, right? You made Duo worry enough to break MY sanc's door, you know..?!" he turned to the Beast wrapping his wounded ankle with the cloth he'd torn from his own cloak.
After a long silence of finding his excuse, he answered; "….I didn't mean him to worry…..!"
"Yeah, that's your mistake..! You want to worry about the whole world and everything else besides yourself so he wouldn't have to worry about all that, that's fine; but let him worry over you!"
A stubborn silence answered him, it made him grabbed the Beast's face again and forced him to look at his face. "I'm not going to come out every time Duo thinks he couldn't reach you or you didn't let him to reach you, you know..! You said it yourself: I'M DEAD, am I not..?!!"
Q jerked at the harsh words, feeling the heartache stabbed his heart but not knowing enough whose heartache that was.
The Beast stared his Human's face levelly then he slowly pulled the hands to let his face go. "….baka Human-mine…!" he muttered silently and walked to the lake as the baby snake had awakened and started to lock his wrist.
The Archant stilled on his feet; true, that she didn't ask the Beast's permission nor let him knowing that she was going to leave him, after all that drama she made by yelling on the top of her lungs saying that he should come back to her…; but as sudden as it was shouldn't he have prepared himself knowing that was inevitable…?!
….even though he never called Duo 'Human-mine'……..then what did he think of Duo..? It's no wonder Duo didn't think that he had a ground to stand as his foothold in front of the Beast, with the shadow of Deia behind him.
"I know I chose Duo over you, and you could blame me if you think I'm leaving you without even saying it to you…!" The Archant said loudly, and dropped himself roughly to sit on the bough with his arms crossed, grousing to himself. "….and who would free Duo if it wasn't me, there could be no more chance if I didn't take the chance while the Land's vibes were somewhat letting him go, now would it…?! Didn't I always say that I would leave Duo to his hands…."
He silenced for a moment recognizing all the eyes were trained on him, "….I was adopted, like the way I adopted him as a little brother even though everybody thought of him as only a beast-pet; and the ones adopted me only wanted me, not Duo, so they kept him away somewhere others couldn't reach. So, please go easy on him, he really never lived in the world of the living before now…!" and bowed deeply to everyone. That only earned him some eye-blinks.
"….if you would leave him alone, anyway, you should have bound him with something more tangible than only words..!" Trowa stated with a thoughtful face. The Archant turned to him with a stubborn face like the previous; it almost looked childish that everyone used to underestimate Deia's obstinate stubbornness. But Trowa beat him before he could say anything that sounded stubbornly light, "It wouldn't hurt him too much like a half-willed affection and concern that you give him right now..!"
Q widened his eyes at what his companion had said, the Archant's reading turned levelly, it's almost inhuman…no, perhaps Archants were inhuman creatures from the beginning.
A neutral smile; "….I belief that's not your concern; though I'd feel a bit happy that someone stranger think of him somewhat. So I'm going to say it not because I'm defending myself nor trying to make you understand; especially not in the middle of other creatures who think that he shouldn't deserve to be what he is now…" the Archant side glanced at Rashid from the ends of his drooped eyes.
"Human..!" he pointed to himself.
"Beast..!!" and pointed behind to somewhere higher than his head level as the Beast suddenly materialized behind him from the shade of the trees.
"World!!" he made a swiping gesture with chopping-palm at his neck level to everything in front of him in particular; someone would translate that gesture as something sarcastic like saying 'others just dead-off'.
"Anything you want to add, Yuy?" the Archant asked behind one shoulder, a victorious or over-confidence expression glowing on his face. The Beast blinked once comprehending what kind of conversation developed while he was gone to the lake releasing the baby-snake to its habitat again; it seemed like his Human's former-self easily found her habits as well: making enemies if not making friends. That thought almost got him laugh, but he didn't want to open up in the strangers' faces; nevertheless he could feel Q's reading over the situation lightened as he felt his own disposition being read by the wounded human-boy, the Beast let Q read some more to ease his humane mind.
"Water…" the Beast handed a wood-craft mug that made from a hollowed log and only left its bark-layer with a wood-base; he didn't ask whether the Beast made it while he was at the lake or that he had it along with him. He just accepted it, and ignoring the rest of the world he took a big gulp….which he almost immediately blew out of his mouth, coughing heavily bordering to miserable state while hitting the ground with his other hand.
Snapping his bent body backwards his Human pointed the mug while still couldn't find his voice with his coughing; "I said it's water….!" The Beast said levelly. His Human made disbelieving shake repeatedly, croaking out some hitched coughs.
The Beast snorted softly, already knew that it would happen; "…..you already used to consuming poisonous things, something not poisonous tastes awful, right..?"
His Human let out a single cough and stilled at the realization; but he remembered clearly that he could eat and drink on the way to Viricidia, those foods were not poisonous as well, but he didn't taste something wrong with it….
"Those things you had in the way to Viricidia tasted fine, right? That's because the Land's vibes were still connected with you…" the Beast kneeled down; "…that means, even if you were still with me now, you couldn't survive without the Land's existence. So I knew it's inevitable; I'm not blaming anyone…!" Humans made excuses and pointed the blames, beasts were always acceptance because they didn't think, they accepted; it was a mere part of adapting process, they wouldn't be able to survive otherwise.
The Archant's coughs instantly stopped, he stared his Beast with searching-penetrating eyes. "Then, if you're not blaming me for leaving you, or suddenly handed Duo to you……and since you weren't sulking because of none of those you don't feel…--" and understanding dawned in his wide eyes, even though Q noticed that he made too much negative-form overrode the negatives in his sentence that it almost didn't make sense.
"THEN YOU ARE CRAVING FOR THAT VIRILLE LORD'S BLOOD, riiiight..?!!" the Archant jumped to his feet with a renewed anger. "…and ALL THAT you weighed on MY DUO..?!"
The Beast's head dropped to his knees, squatting like a lost little bird with hands unceremoniously lied at either side of his feet; it was always like that with this-Human-self …as if playing tag with a two-headed hell-hound puppy; sometimes when you feel it save enough to stop and look behind thinking that the puppy was tired and your heart taken by its puppy eyes, it would turn and change the head with its growling wild one and try to bite your offered hand, jump at you with its small cute paws with deadly razor-nails and make a slider of your body to slide on the Naga-glen going up-and-down and up-and-down in inhuman speed… He didn't even realize he was laughing...! …and perhaps there are some ulotrichous-quakes cheering at the backgrounds…! He could picture the image in his mind and thought that his head already infected with Deia's-thinking-virus; but wasn't it too late trying to relate to her now…?
"…whaaat so funny?!" his Human's face flushed, "I AM really angry, Beast..!!"
But the Beast seemingly couldn't stop his laughing any moment now, so he gave a waving hand above his down casted head to calm his livid Human.
The Archant gaped for a few seconds, and squatted down crossing his hands on his bent knees with face already cleared of anger. "……what's so funny…?!" he pouted covering his curiosity. The Beast continued his laughter for some more time, when he forced himself to stop it sounded to turn into almost sobs.
Easing his breath deeply several times, the Beast looked forward to his squatting Human; "….he's right… I do miss you…!" when he said it his face shone with relief that made a light flush colored his cheeks; with a kind smile on his lips, he looked very much humane that everyone stilled sporting a flush themselves.
"I was just too stubborn to admit that I got too attached with someone…!" –and needing that person like a lifeline; but he didn't say it.
"Hmmph..! There's no one else like me, hu..?!" the Archant muttered with eased. The Beast nodded once.
"Then…don't go calling out to some human I don't know just because you tasted their blood a lick or two..!"
The Beast snorted, "I do not…!"
The Archant snorted back, frowning; "Well… I thought I was going to give you some lashing, but you sure know when to smile me off, don't you..?!" He exploded a breath out, scratching his head roughly while turning his face away. "….this is so anti-climaxing, you know?! What kind of face should I put on when I should leave you with that kind of face you're making…?!"
The Beast's smile gone and he looked down; his fingers played with the ends of his shoes half-consciously. "….I would say…'thank you for taking care of me'…!" he bowed, making his body leant to his bent knees.
The Archant tsk-ed, staring openly; "Then what should I say in return..?"
"Anything you like is fine…"
"……put your mask on…! I hate it that everyone stares at you when you're smiling…!!" he said with a frown.
The Beast smiled again; "…alright..!" and the mock turtleneck melted up his face again covering the lower halve.
"You only put up with me to get to Duo…perhaps you should let him know that; you didn't call him Human-mine because you didn't want to relate him with me. Weren't you just using me all along..?"
And there was an awkward pause after that, everyone squirmed uncomfortably in their seats even though that Human-Beast pair seemingly comfortable enough and already forgotten about them being there.
"…weren't you using me to take care of Duo when you couldn't…?"
"……yeah…"
The Beast's eyes drooped with a hidden smile, "Then we're even…?"
"Hm! No hard feeling…?!" the violet eyes stared straightforwardly.
"Yes..!" the Beast nodded; the answer should be a 'no' in their grammar, but it was the right form in the Beast's other-language grammatical.
The Archant smiled then; "…I hope you wanted Duo because you do want him, not because I asked you to years ago… but it's up to you now..!" he shrugged his shoulders and without any warning his body lost its balance and dropped to his side, eyes closed on a serene face with a trace of smile on his slack mouth.
The Beast's eyes turned to a pair of frozen stones in an instant, he gathered his sleeping Human carefully in his hands, wrapped him gently with the blanket left forgotten on the ground before; bowed slowly to their stunned hosts, and left to the tent the travelers pleased them to use before invited them to dinner.
And no one spoke in the fire circle after that, they stared each other silently, even though they didn't understand what was happening, they realized that they had witnessed the death of a person that once called Human by that retreating Beast; the death of a Lady Deia.
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The early morning air was freezing sharp like slicing the skin off the bones, but he welcomed the sensation his body felt; taking off the riding dress he was still wearing one layer after another, letting them fall onto the water and sink slowly as his feet left them behind uncaringly; Duo stood in the middle of the vast lake with the mist caressing his naked body, his knee-long hair cascading down providing some cover behind his back. Welcoming the world welcoming him, closing his eyes as the Harmony of the Sphere acknowledged his being, he smiled…
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1. ….saru would write 'like a laser-beam-shot' but that would only relevant if this was a futuristic fic; haaahaahaaa…
Couldn't belief that saru took forever to write this chapter; and it's not even making progress with 1x2 (wouldn't you like that?) and somehow it helped adding saru' stress a bit (but didn't saru start to write fic to vent out some stress in the first place…??)
Oh, haven't started the Virion's last chapter, though (is anyone waiting, I wonder…)
Highly unimportant author's note : (don't read this part if you're not delusional as well…since you might have a grudge to the-Monkey afterwards; there's your warning..!)
These pass years saru couldn't help but see everything Heero-Duo-ish formated even in 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' –and drooled all over self in the movie theater getting utterly hyped-up and commenting something like 'I can't belief Heero did that!'
While poor Oni-tan (or someone other with saru that time) only pointing something like 'We're NOT watching Heero and Duo, BAKA-DELUSIONAL-SARU..!!'
Or sometimes when we watched some real-humans movie saru would complain '…Oni-tan, I can't decide which one is Heero and which one is Duo..!'; she'd just said 'That's figured; there's no one like that anywhere!'. But it wouldn't be worth-watching otherwise, right?
And saru got overly depressed when some manga which seen in the Heero-Duo-formated didn't end up happy-end, and couldn't sleep and eat for days over it
So Oni-tan is infected with some Visual-kei bands this pass year, and she knew saru don't like real humans but she would just bait with a line like 'there's someone Heero-ish in the band..' with laughing eyes; and saru complain about 'what is even Heero-ish about those..?!' she would turn livid and ask 'what is it you find so Heero-ish about Freddie Krueger..?!!' (or was it Edward the Scissorshands..?)
Gotta cure this obsessive-compulsive thing a bit…! Hey, saru even cried over Godzilla every time the movie got rerun on TV because saru think that Godzilla (the American version) is so handsome and LOOKED LIKE HEERO…!! Right?? …anyone with me?? 9.9"
Thanx for reading