The Aeon and the Star

-GoldenEagle

Author's Notes: Hola! I've realized that most people might not be reading this story, since it has kinda gone off into a strange, almost non-related Leviathan's Daughter streak, but I promise it will show it's true colors in the end. This is more a story that is related to LD because of the legend behind it... Well, you'll see. Just keep reading and try to enjoy. Please?! And if you do enjoy it, review for me! Oh, another thing. With my Playing God story... I'm kinda on a dead streak with it and I don't know when I'll be writing on it. Not at all, actually. I have the ending planned out, but besides that, it's basically unplanned. Anywho, on with the story!

Chapter Three

A light breeze pushed across the Asturian city, carrying with it the smells of livestock, currently cooking suppers, and the clear crystal ocean. This soft wind floated up over the city, pushing into the courtyards of an expensive estate, and then fluttering through a girl's white locks. Evadne stood, her gaze serene, her heart wondering, her face pale beneath the moonlight. She wasn't about to let the night pass without a conclusion to her troubled thoughts, and so she stood, leaning out over the balcony, her silver hair no longer up, cascading in waves down to her waist. She sighed, regaining her thoughts for a moment. So, they were trying to marry her off? She lowered her head, her light, white nightgown curling around her gently. She couldn't allow them to do this. Whether her uncle or mother, she wouldn't allow it. Still... Others said she should be calming down by now. Becoming more of a woman... Wasn't she a woman? Just because she wanted adventure rather than schooling, wanted intelligence rather than beauty, wanted the world instead of marriage... Did that make her any less of a woman?

Of course it does, you moron. You're more of a troublesome boy than a young lady... Perhaps it's time to grow up a little bit-

"Evadne?" The voice was timid and warm, a deep, sensual tone.

She turned slowly, if not regretfully, to meet her mother's eyes. They were blue and warm and she immediately felt the downfall of her anger entrap her. How could she not love her mother? How could she not love her, obey her? "Mum..." Her own voice was small and seemingly insignificant, not the usual, boisterous tone of past.

"Come inside, Evadne, and let's talk." Celena said warmly, a comforting smile crossing her features, creasing the corners of her eyes in a wonderful gesture.

"Talk about what?" Evadne had regained her previous suspicious and prideful air, but her mother took it in with the widening of her smile.

"First off, you can tell me what Gaddeth has said of me." Celena said, averting her gaze for a moment.

"Gaddeth?" Evadne first asked, confused, before a mischievous smile rippled across her face. An innocent tone replaced her momentary bewildered one. "Oh, Gaddeth! What about him?"

She was pleased to see as her mother's cheeks reddened. "Just come inside." She said, a small, embarrassed, and playful grin on her face. She turned and started to step through the doors into her daughter's room. Evadne gave one glance up to the moons before turning on her heel and taking a step forward-

Come to me... Come to me now...

Evadne's feet froze in place, her head suddenly snapping to the side, towards the dark shadows of the night. The words echoed in her mind, echoed with a strange metallic tone that scared her. "Evadne, what's wrong?" Her mother's voice seemed distant as the silver haired teen focused her gaze on the horizon. The quiet of the night was only broken by the sound of a horde of crows cawing in the distance-

Crows? Crows were not common to mount in the night. After all, they were scavenger birds, creatures which would eat the remains of small animals crushed by the carts of wagons passing through. If they were in flight, and such a commotion, at night, didn't it mean-

Come, child. Come into our hands. Come...

Evadne took a step back, her face rippling up into a look of annoyance and confusion, her eyes clenched shut, her jaw tight. "Evadne, what's going on?" Her mother's voice was more frightened now as she recognized her daughter's look of one she had worn in the past, a look that she never wanted to wear again. She would have answered if she had known what to say. She had almost grasped at something, and then that voice, pervading into the depths of her mind, had stolen the thought from her. She had been thinking crows... Scavenger birds... Her eyes shot open, her gaze wide in sudden fear and realization. Crows rarely flew at night unless there was a great amount of death, or if an army was on the rise. Had she not been taught that as a warning? Were not all children following the Great War taught the same?

"Mother, the crows-"

And the world fell beneath her, a mass of flame and darkness and spells.

******************

"Quit complaining, Nodin." The figure hissed in annoyance as her hands worked over a bloodied figure before her, the dying light of a fire lit long ago helping her see.

"Do I have to watch you put the girl back together? What good is it that I do it?" He muttered under his breath, his eyes averted from the gruesome sight of the mangled body below him. He stole a glance at the girl below him, as a child might peek through their hands at an appalling horror movie, before he averted his gaze again.

"I said quit complaining! I need your strength to help me with the spells!" She hissed, a loud snapping noise emitting from beneath her palms as she pushed two pieces of bone back into one place.

"It's almost dawn, Tanara. You've been caring for the child for at least eight hours. Don't you think we should just let her be by now?"

He was rewarded by the flash of two very unhappy, golden eyes. "I've almost got the manual parts of her finished, I just have a few more things-" A jerk of her hands, another crack... "There." She murmured. "Now comes the hard part. She's hurt a lot on the inside, Nodin. I need to fix those parts, but I can't with my hands. She bleeds on the inside, I feel it, and she bleeds on the outside as well. Give me your hand." A long pause insued as she held out her hand, not looking up. After that time lapsed, those same golden eyes snapped up. "Nodin!"

A sigh escaped her partner before he placed his large palm into her hand. Almost immediately he felt a great amount of energy drain from him. Another sigh left his lips. A tired, weary sigh. Words, unidentifiable words, left Tanara's mouth. A chant, half closed eyes, the world seemed to twist beneath her fingers, the black haired girl groaning as the power filled her, closed her wounds...

"Done." Tanara murmured, her body shaking from effort.

Nodin gave her a lazy, tired grin. "Not only are you a sorceress, but a Zaibach as well. And to top that all off, a Leon. I'd have to say, you may be the most unlucky creature on Gaea, but a damn good one, at that."

Tanara gave him a disapproving, almost motherly look, not enjoying his words, but not letting them bother her, either. "So, I'm a sorceress. Not the only of my kind, and I'm damn good at it, too. Just because people fear what I can do doesn't make me a monster. Same thing with me being a Zaibach. It annoys the hell out of me that people still think of Zaibach as the enemy. It's been twenty-one years since the war, my country has made peace. We are no longer a warring country. First they conquered us, then they tore us apart, and still they reject us. Zaibach has a lot to offer to the nations of Gaea." There was a short pause as she calmed herself of her nationalism. "And about the whole Leon thing... You're not exactly human yourself, Nodin!" She replied with a happy smirk.

Nodin returned her smile, the horizon a dark purple behind him. A small, sweet breeze ruffled his snow white bangs, which fell into his pale, almost colorless eyes. They were a light, barely-there blue. Silken white fur covered his body, no signs of marking anywhere. His gaze suddenly narrowed on his companion, his ears going forward, his hands flexing, momentarily releasing a row of sharp claws. His tail, short haired and lithe until its tip, which was formed into a fluff (a lot like the mythical, Mystic Moon unicorn), twitched in agitation. "What is it, Tanara?"

She met his gaze hesitantly, knowing he would not like what she was about to say. Her wheat colored hair ruffled around her back, falling into her face ever so softly in strands. Those same golden eyes stared back at him, her face covered in copper, soft hair. She gave a small, full-lipped smile before trying to speak to him, her own lion-like tail twitching nervously. "The girl's still not well. She needs... She needs blood. Your blood." She winced at the hateful look that crossed his face, her small, round ears going back momentarily.

"What do you mean, my blood?" He hissed out, his eyes narrowing.

She sighed tiredly. "There are different types of blood, Nodin." She said slowly, as if explaining to a small child. "I do not have her blood type, but you do. You must trust me-"

"First off," he interrupted, bristling, "I'm not even human. I'm also a defect. A Colorless." His voice had lowered a bit. "How am I to have her blood? Secondly, I thought you said you fixed her."

"I could not give back the blood she needs, so please understand!" She said desperately. "Plus, the blood between our veins is all basically the same. I know these things by instinct. I feel them. Please, Nodin, she will die!"

There was a long, tense pause before Nodin rolled his eyes. "All right, all right." A hesitation. "Is it going to hurt?"

"Yes." Tanara replied bluntly while standing, making sure to be quiet among the camp. There were several men asleep on the ground, all rather dirty and savage looking. Many held bottles of wine and whiskey in their hands, snoring and mumbling off the liquor. She went to the back of one of the wagons, pulled out a large, machine like contraption, before tiptoeing back to him. She then pulled out a dagger she kept at her waist and made work on the thing. She opened it up and dug around a bit before pulling out a long tube and cutting it from the machine. She threw the chunk of metal aside before cutting the hollow and plastic tube sharply at the ends.

"What exactly is that?" Nodin asked nervously.

"The machine or the tube?"

"Both." He took a deep gulp and winced as he watched her dig one of the sharp ends of the tube into the arm of the unconscious girl below the two.

"The machine, I am unsure of. Probably some junk the Masters picked up along the way." She tried to ignore the hatred that filtered across Nodin's face at mention of the Masters before continuing. "And this is for the girl." She said hastily. Her small hand shot out and gripped Nodin's fiercely. He had little time to react before he felt her jamb the thing into his arm with a grace he did not understand.

"Mow!" He mewed out. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Quiet!" Tanara hissed. "You'll wake the Masters!" Nodin merely closed his eyes harshly and clenched his jaw. Tanara loosened her grip on his arm and turned it so he could look at it better. "Look, Nodin. Look and see why the Zaibach sorcerers were once said to be the miracle workers of Gaea."

The cat-boy reluctantly opened his eyes only to have them snap into wide saucers. He closed them again, the tube too dark for him to see his blood flowing into it and filling the girl. The human girl, to say the least! "You're such a wimp!" Tanara laughed out loud at him. He made no reply, feeling suddenly nauseous, and there was nothing really said for the next few minutes.

Nodin found himself growing strangely tired, as if he had been drugged. His eyelids drooped and Tanara sat by his side, trying to keep awake herself. He perked up when he heard the moans of the men around him and groaned. "We're in deep shit now-"

"What the hell are you two doing outside your cage?! I told you two to quit picking the lock or I'd-" The man was tall, his arms fairly well muscled, but his stomach pushed out in a bear belly.

"Quick, Nodin!" It was all Tanara could say before the man stumbled forward and backhanded her. She let her head roll to the side with the blow, avoiding a strained neck. A growl rippled through the white cat behind her, his ears going back as he bared his teeth and removed the tube from his arm and the girl's.

The man stumbled back at the growl, slightly taken back. His frightened look was replaced by a smirk as he saw the cat-boy try to rise, only to fall to his knees painfully, as if he had been drugged. But as the creature's hands met the soft earth, the man's eyes fell on the girl. "What do we have here?" He murmured, glancing over the slightly stirring girl, who's color had improved since the night before. "Well, well, she's quite a tart, ain't she? Boys, come look what I've found!"

Tanara surprised Nodin by taking up a protective stance in front of the girl, her fur bristling, her eyes narrowing. The first man to awake stared at her in pure annoyance before nodding back to the wagon. "Get back in your cage. Take the girl with you and watch after her. We might be able to make a bit of money off of her unusual beauty, hm?" There was one, long tense second before the lioness relaxed, turning and wrapping her arms around the girl and trying to lift her. After a few moments of struggle, Nodin joined in. He couldn't have lifted her dead weight by himself in his weak state, but with her help, he did so with ease. They moved forward, avoiding the eyes of their superiors before climbing into the back of the wagon. A large cage stood, its barred door wide open. The two cat-people had escaped this way the night before, not intending on staying out of their cage the entire night. They slowly dragged the new girl in with them before the man, who had been following behind them, shut them in. The back of the wagon was soon shrouded in complete darkness as its opening was closed. Nodin growled out in rage even before his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

"Damn that man! Just wait, Tanara, just wait. You will see. I'll get back at him, rip him open-"

"Please, don't, Nodin. Not such murderess thoughts. Not right now." She whimpered out, an evident fear of her friend shining through her entire body.

He calmed himself before looking around. His eyes caught on what he was looking for, beyond the cage they were in, chained against the far wall. Tanara saw what he was looking at through her nocturnal eyes and sighed. "You should go, Nod. You have no reason to stay-"

"Of course I do!" He suddenly said, his eyes laying on her immediately. "I'm here for you and your sister." He said diligently. Tanara lowered her head a moment before smiling gratefully and him and then looking back up at her sister, unconscious, against the far wall. She was chained there with a lock that even she could not pick.

"She's not going to wake up, is she?" Murmured the lioness, her eyes darkening. "They hit her too many times in the head. Now she won't ever wake up."

Her companion made no reply. Instead he lowered his head. There was a few minutes of silence, neither felines really feeling up to sleeping at this point, when a strange smell filled Nodin's nose. His head snapped up, his ears forward. "Do you-"

"Yes." Golden eyes were wide. "The smell. Of something burning. What is that, Nodin? What kind of meat smells that bad when it is burnt?" She hissed, her nose wrinkling upward.

Nodin's ears flattened as his brain registered the unfamiliar smell. "The wind is from the east, from Asturia. That smell... It's the smell of human flesh... There are people in Asturia burning..."

Author's Note: Just to point out, Nodin, known as a "Colorless", is an albino. That's what the title was referring to. So, hmm... What's going to happen now? What happened to Evadne and Celena? You'll have to read my next installment to find out!