Silent but Deadly: The Tale of Sydonia
Chained up in here like a freak on display,
Rattling, tattling, against cords, against rogues,
Slobbering, dribbling, acting like a perfect gentleman.
"Come here", they said, "and see the magnificent Sydonia!! Watch and be amazed as he dazzles you with the Great Distance Teleportation skills! Be amazed! This man uses no Rune in his skill! There is no trick! No smoke, no mirror! Come, allow yourself to be convinced."
Tap, tap, tap… that was his cue.
He'd come out, without saying a word. Laughed once. Vanished. Appeared behind some random audience member he had chosen. Smiled and laughed again. Vanished. Appeared right back where he started. Laughed one more time. Applause. Many people tried to see through the trick. He would dart in and out of impossible places. He remembered the Torture Box, and the Fish Tank. The Jar was the worst of them all. Then they'd be convinced, and he's smile and laugh again.
Tap. That was his cue to leave. He didn't take any of the money. That was left up to the ringmaster. He just vanished again, back inside his tent, and didn't say a word. He never talked--well, not usually. He'd just laugh and chuckle, a brief smile at that, and would do that vanishing trick again.
Heh.
He stayed there for awhile. Nobody knows why. But there are plenty of people who know why he left. Somebody saved him. There was this man, he saw the act. He saw the creepy grin, and the vanishing trick. He witnessed it all, and then like a true bandit, he went and stole Sydonia. Of course, Sydoina was very grateful for the rescue. So grateful, he spoke to his benefactor. Said he owed him a debt. Someday he might even pay it off. Became a bandit. Fought a war. That sort of thing.
At night, he would still see images of the circus. He'd see the Siamese Twins, joined at the hip. He'd see the seven-foot-tall giant, and the bald, burly strongman. There was dog boy, and lizard man, and seal kid. One person could bend their body into unusual shapes. There was this pretty girl there that only fellow freaks liked. She was very gorgeous, but she had been born with a tail, and fangs, and stripes, and pointed fuzzy ears. Sydoina liked her too. There was also this incredibly simple man, who just sat and stared all day, but his memory was completely perfect--so perfect, he could remember what he had had for breakfast on any given day.
"What did you have to eat on your thirteenth birthday?"
"Eggs," he'd say. The person who asked that question would leave, come back ten years later, and would ask another question.
"How were they cooked?" they asked.
"Fried," replied the man. Amazing. And Sydonia was one of them, until he was kidnapped. But aside from leaving a few scant friends, he was glad to go. They did not treat him well in that circus.
"Heh." A small dagger was pointed in the direction of the soldier. Nobody else said a word.
"What do you want?" asked the man. "What, you want my money?" The man with the dagger nodded and grinned. The soldier saw the knife, and handed over a sack of money.
"Heh," sneered the bandit. "All of it." The soldier frowned, but didn't move. Suddenly, the man wielding the dagger vanished from view. The soldier never saw him again--but that was perfectly understandable, considering that three seconds later, he had a tiny dagger stuck in his back.
"Rotten Imperial dogs," snorted Varkas. "They've been snooping around here too long. Sydonia, you should be more sociable to your victims."
"Heh," replied Sydonia, fishing out a tubful of coins and jewels. "Why bother?"
"They might like a little friendliness before being robbed." Sydonia gave a smirk and crossed his arms.
"Heh… Imperials?" Varkas smiled and chuckled.
"You've got a point there."
Disappeared.
Even Varkas never saw a trace of him--but then again, he was rather busy guarding the border. Of course, Sydonia had went back to the circus. To retireve his friends, that is.
"Heh."
"What!? YOU!! What are you doing here!!"
"Heh." Slice, cut, vanish, blood, heh, slash, vanish, choking, heh, chains, freedom. Fire, and lots of it. No more circus. The freaks were free, free to live in a society that rejected them anyway.
"What now, Sydonia?" asked the giant.
"Heh." He pointed his head in an eastern direction.
"From one who has observed Sydonia…" said Willy.
"We concur that he wishes to travel east with us," said Billy. Sydonia smiled and began walking away. More fire. The freaks followed him.
A journey. So many unusual people, many who would normally be classified as demi-humans. Some were demi-humans, and were doing a good job denying it. Some were completely human, and just had unique abilities--like the boy with fourteen fingers.
And Sydonia. Can't forget him.
"Heh." Kasumi sneered and made a face, but Sydonia kept his smirk.
"You're hiding something!" she insisted. "And I won't stop bugging you until you tell me what it is!" Sydonia shrugged, vanished away, and left the poor ninja alone.
"Crud!" she fumed. "How does he DO that! It can't be a shinobi technique!"
"Five-hundred potch." Kasumi screamed and leaped up in the air. Turning around, her face put on a mask of relief as she saw the enigmatic Kage standing behind her.
"Whew, didn't hear you sneak up on me," she sighed. "You must be really good! Guess I have a long way to go, eh?" Kage nodded his head.
"Improving," he noted. Kasumi smiled.
"Thanks. Oh, what was that about the five-hundred potch?"
"The amount I'm charging to tell you his secret," said Kage. Kasumi frowned, gave the older ninja a face, and dug into her pockets.
"I earned every bit of it myself," she said, as if the amount of money needed an alibi. "So I hope it's worth it." Kage silently took the money and placed it in a sack. He turned around, and disappeared.
"Follow," he said, and before long Kasumi had left as well.
"We're here."
"Where?"
"Here." A pause. "East. Home." Sydonia could be so ambiguous sometimes--nay, all the time.
"Oh, I see." The girl with the tail paused, scanning around the area. It was… very suitable for a home. A large log cabin, abandoned for eons, sat in the middle of the woods. It had enough beds to suit every one of Sydonia's traveling companions.
"Heh." Sydonia grinned that mysterious smile of his, and approached the girl with the tail. People called her Felona, since she looked so much like a cat (the fuzzy ears and stripes didn't help much), but her real name was Antoinette. Sydonia just called her "Heh".
"Yes?" asked Felona. Sydonia smiled and touched her smooth face. With the exception of her arms, her waist, and parts of her legs, Felona had no more hair than the average human being. What excess hair she did have fell under the category of fur. She was very exotic-looking, but despite her wild looks, she was actually a very timid and insecure creature.
"Happy?" asked Sydonia. Felona smiled weakly.
"Yeah, I guess. Hey, you gonna stay with us?" Sydonia kept his smirk, but shrugged. He rarely stopped smiling, though he was hardly ever happy. Usually that smile was meant to creep out patrons and viewers, or just people in general. Felona had seen Sydonia genuinely smile only twice, and she had never seen him without the smirk.
"Dunno," replied he. Felona frowned in thought and cocked her head. She looked very adorable just then, and as always Sydonia smiled.
"At least for tonight," she said. She got a nod in return.
"Heh, yeah. Tonight."
Kasumi began drooping, and her head slowly lowered. Her eyelids shut, and her mouth became dry. With a snap, she jolted awake and kept her gaze on Sydonia.
"You've gotta fall asleep sometime!" she stated. "I've never seen you sleep, not even once, and we've been living in this castle for over a month now!" Sydonia grinned, keeping his arms crossed and his eyes open. To be frank, he never remembered the last time he had slept, either. For some very bizarre reason, Sydonia didn't need to sleep as much as normal people--maybe about three times a month or so.
"Heh, you're persistent," he said. Kasumi groaned, took a bite out of her chocolate bar, and slapped her face lightly.
"I can stay up as long as you can," she said. Apparently, the cute little ninja girl had nothing better to do.
"Heh, we'll see." Sydonia kept smiling, and one slow hour later, he easily won the battle. Carefully, he plucked the ninja off the floor, teleported them both to a certain room, and left her sleeping on a certain bed. With a smile of mischief, he vanished from the room and wondered what Master Tir would think if he woke up to find Kasumi in his bed.
"Heh, he'll thank me later," whispered Sydonia to himself.
"Heh, so long." And just like that, Sydonia left his friends. He vanished away from the log cabin, and never looked back on it again. When he was a good distance away, he sighed and started walking like a normal person would.
Surviving on poor hapless people that wandered around with too much money in their possession, Sydonia made his way up to the very Top of the World, where no sailor had been to, nor no explorer ever visited. The Top of the World was frozen solid, with an icy wind tearing away and a frosty soil beneath everything. Sydonia wandered around there for a good five minutes before nearly freezing to death.
Then, for no reason, he vanished away from there and decided to pay the Far Eastern lands a visit. Here, there flew rumors of a great race of beautiful Amazon women who commanded dragons, and a race of beings who had blue skin instead of pink, brown, or yellow. Sydonia knew that both existed, for he had seen them while on his travels.
"Heh." Sydonia smiled, pacing around his small room with Anji and his crew watching him. Varkas was picking at his nails, everyone else was becoming dizzy.
"So you gonna do it?" asked Leonardo. Sydonia grinned.
"Heh, maybe."
"Then get it over with!"
"Heh, just wait."
"Nothing fancy, now," warned Varkas, still picking at his nail. "Just remember what happened the last time you did this."
"Heh, how could I forget?" sneered Sydonia happily. "Heh, straight into the women's bath. Heh, but I was too quick for them. Didn't see me at all." And with that, Sydonia demonstrated his vanishing trick to the pirates. Needless to say, they were quite amazed.
"Incredible!" gasped Kanak, seeing the thief dematerialize. "How does he do it?"
"Not even I know that," grumbled Varkas, flicking away some dirt. "But if you're ever in a town called Radat, you can find out."
"Why there?" asked Anji. Varkas frowned.
"Ever heard of a guy named Richmond?"
"Can't say I have," came the reply. Varkas smiled.
"Just ask for him. Oh, but be careful. His investigations come at a price."
"Pirates don't pay people," snarled Leonardo, "they rob them!"
"A wise proverb," pointed Varkas. Just then, Sydonia reappeared with an article of clothing in his arm. For a brief period, the four men in the room stared at him.
"Dare I ask where you've been?" mumbled Varkas. Sydonia grinned triumphantly, waved the cloth, and disappeared without a trace. Suddenly, a piercing scream could be heard, and all four of the men looked at each other in horror.
"Poor Lady Sonya," sighed Varkas. "She never knew what hit her."
"Good riddance!" sneered Anji, who was already outside looking for her. He cackled as he saw her screaming by, and figured that a kick in the guts was worth the price for the entertainment.
The last person that saw Sydonia--that is, before he ventured off into the Nameless Lands--was a simple peddler of wares. He had seen the man but briefly, and even then was unsure as to who it was. But a distinct "Heh" sound could be heard, and an eerie proverb followed it. This last saying assured the peddler that the person he had seen was Sydonia.
"Heh. They say that no man can tame a tongue, and they say that silence is golden. Tell me, then, how many poor people do you think there are in the world?"
Currently, there are rumors that are flying around Radat that Sydonia is living in the lost city of El Dorado.
His secrets followed him to the grave.
The End