No, I haven't dropped Shiva. I lost most of the long-hand chapter,
and had to rewrite this from memory, though. Any and all (as scant as
it may be) information can be found in my lj:
http://www.livejournal/users/foxymouse
Anyone want to be a pre-reader on this? My prereaders for False/True
Identity don't know anything about Final Fantasy Eight, so they can't
help me.
Shiva
Chapter Three: Sorceress
Li Xiang
"Oh shit!!"
Raine tried to scramble backwards, but the tree prevented escape. With
warriors living inside Winhill, most monsters avoided the village. The
former goddess had forgotten that while they might not attack _in_ the
village, the fields were fair game.
The maw of a thrusteavis snapped shut above her head, Raine having
ducked, terrified. Ice crystals crackled in the air around her as she
darted out from under the beast. Heart beating frantically in her
chest, Leonhart gripped at the ground.
Her fingers closed around a stick, and she rolled forwards, coming to
her feet. Gritting her teeth, she swung the stick like a sword,
cracking it against one wing.
The thing shrieked in agony, but another shout rang above it, "Raine!
Get down!"
She hit the ground, stick still held in a panicked, shaky grip, keeping
her from fully clenching her fist and digging her nails into her skin.
The rapport of machine gun fire arced over her head, and the
thrustaevis roared with pain. It spun, taking to the air and sighting
it's new targets.
Shakily, Raine climbed to her knees, backing away slowly. Another
scream tired to force it's way past her lips as a hand came down on her
shoulder, "Geez! Calm down, Raine!"
Nathaniel, she gaped to herself. What was he doing here? It was
dangerous! The boy could-- the thrustaevis death kneel rang through the
air, cutting off her thoughts.
She turned her gaze on the corpse that had fallen to the ground. It was
ridden with bullet holes-- and looked as thought it had been split in
half. Kireian was wiping blood from one of his swords.
He caught her eyes as he looked up, and gave a warm grin, "You alright,
Raine?"
"I..." the young human could feel her emotions flooding her-- relief
that she wouldn't die, happiness at being rescued, anger at not being
able to take out the beast herself, envy of not having a weapon to do
so with-- she was having such _problems_ controlling them all, "..."
"Well, aren't you a friendly one," Kireian's smile turned into a frown,
"I was just asking if you were alright."
"I'm fine," she bit out, silently cursing her emotions, and her lack of
control. Determined to fix the problem, she gripped her stick harder,
and stalked off, back in the direction of Darla's home.
Kireian and Nathaniel blinked as one. That had been... weird.
---
Ice crackled in the air about her as she stalked back to Darla's home.
The stick in her grasp glittered with ice crystals. Raine grit her
teeth, trying to force them away-- but her angry at their continued
existence only fueled the crystal, making them larger.
Damn this! the former goddess growled to herself. Her emotions were out
of control. While it was true she didn't have an iron grip on them
_before_ she had absolutely _no_ control over them _now_.
Halfway back to Darla's she came to an abrupt halt and turned herself
around. The ice that surrounded her, hovering in mid air would bring
questions. Not to mention that every now and again, a tendril of ice
snaked out to freeze nearby objects.
She didn't want to accidentally bring harm to Darla. The old woman was
so nice...
So she headed towards the farthest reached of Winhill-- the docks--
that the monsters wouldn't attack.
Less than a year. That's how long she'd been human. The experience had
been new and exciting; trying to understand human emotions had been a
challenged. Yet it had been a fun challenge.
Not so now. To many "bad" emotions flooding her system. She didn't have
any ideas on how to control the conflicting emotions, and therefore her
abilities.
Her icy aura spread, ice crystals clinging and growing on the old
wooden dock. It extended even to the waters below, freezing the water.
"You a sorceress, girl?"
Raine whirled, the ice reaching out to brush against Kireian-- who was
the one who stood behind her. He didn't so much as flinch, "What?"
"Are you a sorceress?" to her shock, he stepped closer, "You're
flinging around ice magic without a junction."
Junctioning. Raine made a face. The process of binding an elemental to
oneself to grant the ability to use the Magicks that popped up here and
there.
Sorceress, on the other hand, didn't need junctions. They could use the
magic through a natural gift-- although, at times, there _had_ been
reports of ceremonies that forced a Sorceress'-- one which wished to
die-- power upon an unwilling subject. Hell, that was show _Siren_ had
been created.
This was also a fairly good excuse for her out of control powers.
"I... don't know," Raine muttered, turning to glare out at the water
again, "That might explain all this," she waved at the aura surrounding
her.
Kireian frowned. He'd seen her head this way when he'd started toward's
Darla's home-- and wouldn't have followed her, had she not been
freezing everything she came within three feet of. He'd thought her
casual attitude considering the ice crystals meant that she was-- and
knew she was-- a Sorceress. This new bit of information meant that
she, still, might be a sorceress, or she could be a descendant of one
of the ice elementals.
"Can you control it?"
Raine cast him a nasty glare, "If I _could_ you wouldn't be seeing it,
now would you?"
Point. Kireian took another couple steps into her freezing aura before
he began shivering. How could she stand this cold? "Has this happened
often?"
She clenched a fist, gritting her teeth. What did this demon hunting
fool care? "Only when my... emotions get really out of control."
Aha! He crowed to himself, She _is_ a sorceress! She just hasn't
figured out how to separate her powers from her emotions. Of the few
sorceresses he'd met in his time, Kireian had known a couple that were
children. The powers of these young girls had _always_ been
uncontrollable, and _always_ connected to severe fluctuations in
emotion.
This, of course, was not something the former-Shiva knew. All she knew
was that Kireian's face had split with a wide grin. Nervously, she
shifted from foot to foot, wondering if she was about to find herself
junctioned to this moronic demon hunter. The redhead didn't notice her
uneasiness, merely bouncing on his heels in a doomed attempt to warm
up.
"I can help teach you how to control that," he announced cheerfully,
"I've seen some old ladies teaching sorceress' before, so it should be
no problem." Let us ignore, he thought to himself, that I don't know
what they were doing since I couldn't _hear_ what the ladies were
saying. Oh well, I should be able to guess.
She breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. He didn't think she was
an elemental. Just a sorceress. Good, good. Although Kireian's
rub-his-hands-together-and-cackle-manically was a bit freaky.
"We should probably go to your place and pick up a few snacks," Kireian
was practically glowing with the thought that _he_ could teach a
Sorceress how to use her powers. To his knowledge, a demon/monster
hunter had never done such a thing, "We'll probably end up practicing
for a few hours, at least."
Raine nodded, still giving the man a wary eye. She was happy her cover
hadn't been blown, but not-so-happy at the prospect of spending hours
with a moronic demon hunter. Hmph. She brushed past him, snowflakes
still clinging to the air around her as she headed back towards Darla's
place. They slowly faded away as she brought her emotions under
control, although the ice crystals in her footprints never diminished
until she was a good ten feet away.
She threw open Darla's door, entering with a faint scowl, and
disappearing into the kitchen before the older woman could see her
expression. This of course, didn't matter, as Darla's eyes had locked
with Kireian's.
"What are _you_ doing here?" the nice, sweet, overly kind old woman
snarled. The demon winced at the tone, waggling his fingers at her in a
parody of a wave.
"Uh, Hey, Mrs. S," Kireian glanced nervously at the kitchen. Why was
Raine staying with the Somata's? She didn't look like Darla, or even
what he remembered Eve to look like, so she couldn't be related...
As though reading her "guest's" mind, Darla's glare intensified, "You
stay away from Raine, you worthless piece of sh--"
"I can't," Kireian cut her off, a bit surprised that Darla would stoop
to swearing. In all the years he'd known her, she'd never so much as
said 'crap', let alone 'shit', "Raine's a Sorceress, Mrs S. Or didn't
you know that? I'm going to be training her... I can't let her burn
Winhill to the ground by accident."
The young man who could stare a Guardian Force in the eye and laugh,
flinched at Darla's expression. She was far from happy with him.
Thankfully, Raine managed to save him from what, he was sure, was about
to be the dressing down of his life.
"Alright, I've got some food. The sooner we get this done, the less
time I spend in _your_ company."
"Eheh," Kireian laughed weakly, sending a darting glance at the woman
who owned the house then taking off after Raine, "See ya around, Mrs
S!"
"You better be gone before Eve comes back!" Darla shouted out the door
after the fleeing hunter.
---
Raine took a breath, focusing on the space around six feet in front of
her, narrowing her eyes as she glared at the wooden post serving as her
target. She'd been practicing her "Sorceress" Magicks for nearly three
weeks now. She still hadn't the best of control, as her attempt at
preforming Blizzara resulted in a swirl of snowflakes whipping through
the air.
"Ha! I thought Sorceresses were supposed to be better than that!"
The dark haired girl grit her teeth, eyebrow twitching as she forcibly
reminded herself that she wasn't allowed to attack Nathaniel. No matter
how fun it would be.
But she really, really, _really_, wanted to hit the annoying boy with a
blizzaga. If only she knew how to cast it... she sighed heavily.
Kireian had given up on trying to teach her the mechanics of the way he
cast magic-- of course, the fact that he normally used a god junctioned
to him to preform it was much different than her own, natural
abilities.
Then there was the fact that it had been deemed impossible for her to
attempt any magic other than ice Magicks. It was frustrating to
Kireian, who'd somehow got it into his head that he was going to be the
greatest man in history, for teaching a Sorceress when he had none of
the Hyne-given power himself. Alas, he gave up on that, then went into
fervent hope that he could at least help Raine devise new ice-magic
attacks, and _still_ get his name in history books.
It wasn't that he wanted to be famous... he just didn't want to be
forgotten.
As it was, the redheaded male was seated beside Nathaniel at the base
of a tree some twenty feet away from his protégée. In his lap was one
of his swords, of which he was methodically cleaning of the monster
blood that had collected on it's edge. They had relocated to the
forest, after Raine had accidentally killed all of Miss Nila's flowers.
Even as he was training her to control her own powers-- or at least
deluding himself into thinking he was helping-- Kireian was training
Nathaniel how to hunt and kill monsters. Not only for protection, but
should he ever find need to take down one of the beasts for a meal or
two while traveling by foot.
And he was doing surprisingly well at it, despite not having been much
for one with human contact for many years now. Shaking himself free of
his thoughts, the young man stood, about to instruct Raine on how to
focus her mind, when a much different voice rang out.
The sharp, female tones of Eve.
"RAINE?!"
"Eve?" Raine's concentration shattered, and her latest attempt at
freezing the air around Nathaniel's head to give the annoying one
brain-freeze-- the irony of the thought completely lost on the
now-mortal goddess-- came to a screeching halt. The young lady standing
at the edge of the clearing carrying a traveling pack had her eyes
riveted on Raine, not even noticing Nathaniel or Kireian.
The red haired demon hunter, on the other hand, had been staring at
her. Warmth flooded him, and he fought down the urge to blush... she'd
grown so pretty... he hesitantly took a step forwards, fist clenching
around the hilt of his blade for a moment, and he blinked, turning his
attention down to it.
"Raine, what's going on? Why are you way out here?" Eve was confused--
there was still an hour's walk back to Winhill! Raine shifted
uncomfortably, wondering if she should tell Eve, or leave it be.
Kireian shifted slightly, sliding his sword back into it's scabbard,
and took another couple steps forwards, "Eve..."
There was a moment of dead silence, then the young woman's head snapped
in his direction, "...Kireian?" Her features hardened noticeably,
"Why'd you come back, Bastard?!"
She whirled on her heel, not bothering to wait for an answer, stalking
back through the woods, a bitten off, "Come, Raine," floating back to
them. The young girl looked after Eve for a moment, then at Kireian.
The injured expression on the man's face would have been impossible to
fake. Tears rolled down his cheeks, eyes almost impossibly wide. His
mouth was moving, and it took her a moment to realize that he was
whispering, "what...?" over and over again.
Nathaniel waved her off as he went to the man's side-- Kireian had
dropped to his knees in shock. Stoney faced, Raine turned on her heel,
going out after the angry woman. Ice crackled in the air around her as
she moved.
---
Blue eyes narrowed sharply, Raine grabbed Eve's wrist, spinning the
woman to face her, snapping, "What the hell was _that_ about?!"
She may be a human child in form-- with all the hormone imbalances of
hitting puberty in tow-- but in mind she was still the Ice Queen of the
North, Shiva.
Eve was scowling, "What's _he_ doing back here?"
"He's teaching me to control my... magic," Raine snorted, "in case you
hadn't noticed you're covered in snow."
Eve blinked, looking at the white powder that lay in a soft sheet over
her clothing. Surprise flickered across her face, but before she could
say anything, Raine repeated, "Why the bloody hell did you call Kireian
a Bastard?"
Sure, Raine had called him that before-- but in the privacy of her own
mind-- most often after a session. Or over the fact that he was a demon
hunter. That _still_ rankled her, even after three weeks.
"You wouldn't understand," Eve muttered, dropping to the ground and
wrapping her arms around her legs. Raine snorted, standing over her
with crossed arms.
"_I'll_ be the judge of _that_!"
Eve chuckled lowly, "I suppose you would... Raine..." she sighed,
"Kireian and I grew up together. He was always so fascinated with my
father-- those swords used to be Daddy's-- that around his tenth
birthday, he begged daddy to take him hunting."
Eve seemed to be lost in the memory as Raine sat herself down beside
the older woman. For a second she wondered: was Nathaniel hearing
Kireian's side of things?
"So daddy took him out. He gave Kireian his first gun, and his first
knife to protect himself. Everything was fine. Wonderful even; Kireian
and I were best friends, and that he was doing the exact same thing
daddy did..." she laughed dryly, "Three days before my seventeenth
birthday, it happened. Daddy and Kireian went out, but didn't come
back."
Raine-- for once-- allowed Eve to draw her into a hug. The woman had
begun to cry, "They found Daddy's body on my seventeenth birthday. The
swords were gone, and Kireian's bloody footprints continued into the
forest. It was another week before they found the rotting corpse of the
demon that killed Daddy. Kireian was gone, and so were the swords."
Eve could feel her heartbreaking all over again, "I'd loved him,
Rainy-day. I loved him so much... and he vanished on us, taking my
family heirlooms-- the swords-- with him."
Raine winced-- she could remember having similar feelings for _decades_
after Diablos had first vanished on her. But she'd gotten over it, and
she doubted she'd lash out at the demon-dragon god if she saw him
again. She still had little control over her emotions-- despite having
learned, at least partially, how to separate her abilities from them--
and her face showed all.
The former ice goddess was _not_ one for comforting. She wriggled out
of Eve's embrace, staring the woman in the eyes. What Eve saw was a
surprising maturity, set in a face of childish sadness, mixed with
sharp anger.
She said nothing, only climbing to her feet and stalking off through
the bush, back towards Winhill. Eve followed, a moment later.
---
End Chapter
I guess I lied when I said monkeys would fly out of my ass before I
finished this chapter. Not that I'm saying that I was dropping this...
just that I'm a lazy ass about writing about that isn't the Identity
Series. Feh, I've got a re-write of Legend of Digimon to work on. Later
dayz.
and had to rewrite this from memory, though. Any and all (as scant as
it may be) information can be found in my lj:
http://www.livejournal/users/foxymouse
Anyone want to be a pre-reader on this? My prereaders for False/True
Identity don't know anything about Final Fantasy Eight, so they can't
help me.
Shiva
Chapter Three: Sorceress
Li Xiang
"Oh shit!!"
Raine tried to scramble backwards, but the tree prevented escape. With
warriors living inside Winhill, most monsters avoided the village. The
former goddess had forgotten that while they might not attack _in_ the
village, the fields were fair game.
The maw of a thrusteavis snapped shut above her head, Raine having
ducked, terrified. Ice crystals crackled in the air around her as she
darted out from under the beast. Heart beating frantically in her
chest, Leonhart gripped at the ground.
Her fingers closed around a stick, and she rolled forwards, coming to
her feet. Gritting her teeth, she swung the stick like a sword,
cracking it against one wing.
The thing shrieked in agony, but another shout rang above it, "Raine!
Get down!"
She hit the ground, stick still held in a panicked, shaky grip, keeping
her from fully clenching her fist and digging her nails into her skin.
The rapport of machine gun fire arced over her head, and the
thrustaevis roared with pain. It spun, taking to the air and sighting
it's new targets.
Shakily, Raine climbed to her knees, backing away slowly. Another
scream tired to force it's way past her lips as a hand came down on her
shoulder, "Geez! Calm down, Raine!"
Nathaniel, she gaped to herself. What was he doing here? It was
dangerous! The boy could-- the thrustaevis death kneel rang through the
air, cutting off her thoughts.
She turned her gaze on the corpse that had fallen to the ground. It was
ridden with bullet holes-- and looked as thought it had been split in
half. Kireian was wiping blood from one of his swords.
He caught her eyes as he looked up, and gave a warm grin, "You alright,
Raine?"
"I..." the young human could feel her emotions flooding her-- relief
that she wouldn't die, happiness at being rescued, anger at not being
able to take out the beast herself, envy of not having a weapon to do
so with-- she was having such _problems_ controlling them all, "..."
"Well, aren't you a friendly one," Kireian's smile turned into a frown,
"I was just asking if you were alright."
"I'm fine," she bit out, silently cursing her emotions, and her lack of
control. Determined to fix the problem, she gripped her stick harder,
and stalked off, back in the direction of Darla's home.
Kireian and Nathaniel blinked as one. That had been... weird.
---
Ice crackled in the air about her as she stalked back to Darla's home.
The stick in her grasp glittered with ice crystals. Raine grit her
teeth, trying to force them away-- but her angry at their continued
existence only fueled the crystal, making them larger.
Damn this! the former goddess growled to herself. Her emotions were out
of control. While it was true she didn't have an iron grip on them
_before_ she had absolutely _no_ control over them _now_.
Halfway back to Darla's she came to an abrupt halt and turned herself
around. The ice that surrounded her, hovering in mid air would bring
questions. Not to mention that every now and again, a tendril of ice
snaked out to freeze nearby objects.
She didn't want to accidentally bring harm to Darla. The old woman was
so nice...
So she headed towards the farthest reached of Winhill-- the docks--
that the monsters wouldn't attack.
Less than a year. That's how long she'd been human. The experience had
been new and exciting; trying to understand human emotions had been a
challenged. Yet it had been a fun challenge.
Not so now. To many "bad" emotions flooding her system. She didn't have
any ideas on how to control the conflicting emotions, and therefore her
abilities.
Her icy aura spread, ice crystals clinging and growing on the old
wooden dock. It extended even to the waters below, freezing the water.
"You a sorceress, girl?"
Raine whirled, the ice reaching out to brush against Kireian-- who was
the one who stood behind her. He didn't so much as flinch, "What?"
"Are you a sorceress?" to her shock, he stepped closer, "You're
flinging around ice magic without a junction."
Junctioning. Raine made a face. The process of binding an elemental to
oneself to grant the ability to use the Magicks that popped up here and
there.
Sorceress, on the other hand, didn't need junctions. They could use the
magic through a natural gift-- although, at times, there _had_ been
reports of ceremonies that forced a Sorceress'-- one which wished to
die-- power upon an unwilling subject. Hell, that was show _Siren_ had
been created.
This was also a fairly good excuse for her out of control powers.
"I... don't know," Raine muttered, turning to glare out at the water
again, "That might explain all this," she waved at the aura surrounding
her.
Kireian frowned. He'd seen her head this way when he'd started toward's
Darla's home-- and wouldn't have followed her, had she not been
freezing everything she came within three feet of. He'd thought her
casual attitude considering the ice crystals meant that she was-- and
knew she was-- a Sorceress. This new bit of information meant that
she, still, might be a sorceress, or she could be a descendant of one
of the ice elementals.
"Can you control it?"
Raine cast him a nasty glare, "If I _could_ you wouldn't be seeing it,
now would you?"
Point. Kireian took another couple steps into her freezing aura before
he began shivering. How could she stand this cold? "Has this happened
often?"
She clenched a fist, gritting her teeth. What did this demon hunting
fool care? "Only when my... emotions get really out of control."
Aha! He crowed to himself, She _is_ a sorceress! She just hasn't
figured out how to separate her powers from her emotions. Of the few
sorceresses he'd met in his time, Kireian had known a couple that were
children. The powers of these young girls had _always_ been
uncontrollable, and _always_ connected to severe fluctuations in
emotion.
This, of course, was not something the former-Shiva knew. All she knew
was that Kireian's face had split with a wide grin. Nervously, she
shifted from foot to foot, wondering if she was about to find herself
junctioned to this moronic demon hunter. The redhead didn't notice her
uneasiness, merely bouncing on his heels in a doomed attempt to warm
up.
"I can help teach you how to control that," he announced cheerfully,
"I've seen some old ladies teaching sorceress' before, so it should be
no problem." Let us ignore, he thought to himself, that I don't know
what they were doing since I couldn't _hear_ what the ladies were
saying. Oh well, I should be able to guess.
She breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief. He didn't think she was
an elemental. Just a sorceress. Good, good. Although Kireian's
rub-his-hands-together-and-cackle-manically was a bit freaky.
"We should probably go to your place and pick up a few snacks," Kireian
was practically glowing with the thought that _he_ could teach a
Sorceress how to use her powers. To his knowledge, a demon/monster
hunter had never done such a thing, "We'll probably end up practicing
for a few hours, at least."
Raine nodded, still giving the man a wary eye. She was happy her cover
hadn't been blown, but not-so-happy at the prospect of spending hours
with a moronic demon hunter. Hmph. She brushed past him, snowflakes
still clinging to the air around her as she headed back towards Darla's
place. They slowly faded away as she brought her emotions under
control, although the ice crystals in her footprints never diminished
until she was a good ten feet away.
She threw open Darla's door, entering with a faint scowl, and
disappearing into the kitchen before the older woman could see her
expression. This of course, didn't matter, as Darla's eyes had locked
with Kireian's.
"What are _you_ doing here?" the nice, sweet, overly kind old woman
snarled. The demon winced at the tone, waggling his fingers at her in a
parody of a wave.
"Uh, Hey, Mrs. S," Kireian glanced nervously at the kitchen. Why was
Raine staying with the Somata's? She didn't look like Darla, or even
what he remembered Eve to look like, so she couldn't be related...
As though reading her "guest's" mind, Darla's glare intensified, "You
stay away from Raine, you worthless piece of sh--"
"I can't," Kireian cut her off, a bit surprised that Darla would stoop
to swearing. In all the years he'd known her, she'd never so much as
said 'crap', let alone 'shit', "Raine's a Sorceress, Mrs S. Or didn't
you know that? I'm going to be training her... I can't let her burn
Winhill to the ground by accident."
The young man who could stare a Guardian Force in the eye and laugh,
flinched at Darla's expression. She was far from happy with him.
Thankfully, Raine managed to save him from what, he was sure, was about
to be the dressing down of his life.
"Alright, I've got some food. The sooner we get this done, the less
time I spend in _your_ company."
"Eheh," Kireian laughed weakly, sending a darting glance at the woman
who owned the house then taking off after Raine, "See ya around, Mrs
S!"
"You better be gone before Eve comes back!" Darla shouted out the door
after the fleeing hunter.
---
Raine took a breath, focusing on the space around six feet in front of
her, narrowing her eyes as she glared at the wooden post serving as her
target. She'd been practicing her "Sorceress" Magicks for nearly three
weeks now. She still hadn't the best of control, as her attempt at
preforming Blizzara resulted in a swirl of snowflakes whipping through
the air.
"Ha! I thought Sorceresses were supposed to be better than that!"
The dark haired girl grit her teeth, eyebrow twitching as she forcibly
reminded herself that she wasn't allowed to attack Nathaniel. No matter
how fun it would be.
But she really, really, _really_, wanted to hit the annoying boy with a
blizzaga. If only she knew how to cast it... she sighed heavily.
Kireian had given up on trying to teach her the mechanics of the way he
cast magic-- of course, the fact that he normally used a god junctioned
to him to preform it was much different than her own, natural
abilities.
Then there was the fact that it had been deemed impossible for her to
attempt any magic other than ice Magicks. It was frustrating to
Kireian, who'd somehow got it into his head that he was going to be the
greatest man in history, for teaching a Sorceress when he had none of
the Hyne-given power himself. Alas, he gave up on that, then went into
fervent hope that he could at least help Raine devise new ice-magic
attacks, and _still_ get his name in history books.
It wasn't that he wanted to be famous... he just didn't want to be
forgotten.
As it was, the redheaded male was seated beside Nathaniel at the base
of a tree some twenty feet away from his protégée. In his lap was one
of his swords, of which he was methodically cleaning of the monster
blood that had collected on it's edge. They had relocated to the
forest, after Raine had accidentally killed all of Miss Nila's flowers.
Even as he was training her to control her own powers-- or at least
deluding himself into thinking he was helping-- Kireian was training
Nathaniel how to hunt and kill monsters. Not only for protection, but
should he ever find need to take down one of the beasts for a meal or
two while traveling by foot.
And he was doing surprisingly well at it, despite not having been much
for one with human contact for many years now. Shaking himself free of
his thoughts, the young man stood, about to instruct Raine on how to
focus her mind, when a much different voice rang out.
The sharp, female tones of Eve.
"RAINE?!"
"Eve?" Raine's concentration shattered, and her latest attempt at
freezing the air around Nathaniel's head to give the annoying one
brain-freeze-- the irony of the thought completely lost on the
now-mortal goddess-- came to a screeching halt. The young lady standing
at the edge of the clearing carrying a traveling pack had her eyes
riveted on Raine, not even noticing Nathaniel or Kireian.
The red haired demon hunter, on the other hand, had been staring at
her. Warmth flooded him, and he fought down the urge to blush... she'd
grown so pretty... he hesitantly took a step forwards, fist clenching
around the hilt of his blade for a moment, and he blinked, turning his
attention down to it.
"Raine, what's going on? Why are you way out here?" Eve was confused--
there was still an hour's walk back to Winhill! Raine shifted
uncomfortably, wondering if she should tell Eve, or leave it be.
Kireian shifted slightly, sliding his sword back into it's scabbard,
and took another couple steps forwards, "Eve..."
There was a moment of dead silence, then the young woman's head snapped
in his direction, "...Kireian?" Her features hardened noticeably,
"Why'd you come back, Bastard?!"
She whirled on her heel, not bothering to wait for an answer, stalking
back through the woods, a bitten off, "Come, Raine," floating back to
them. The young girl looked after Eve for a moment, then at Kireian.
The injured expression on the man's face would have been impossible to
fake. Tears rolled down his cheeks, eyes almost impossibly wide. His
mouth was moving, and it took her a moment to realize that he was
whispering, "what...?" over and over again.
Nathaniel waved her off as he went to the man's side-- Kireian had
dropped to his knees in shock. Stoney faced, Raine turned on her heel,
going out after the angry woman. Ice crackled in the air around her as
she moved.
---
Blue eyes narrowed sharply, Raine grabbed Eve's wrist, spinning the
woman to face her, snapping, "What the hell was _that_ about?!"
She may be a human child in form-- with all the hormone imbalances of
hitting puberty in tow-- but in mind she was still the Ice Queen of the
North, Shiva.
Eve was scowling, "What's _he_ doing back here?"
"He's teaching me to control my... magic," Raine snorted, "in case you
hadn't noticed you're covered in snow."
Eve blinked, looking at the white powder that lay in a soft sheet over
her clothing. Surprise flickered across her face, but before she could
say anything, Raine repeated, "Why the bloody hell did you call Kireian
a Bastard?"
Sure, Raine had called him that before-- but in the privacy of her own
mind-- most often after a session. Or over the fact that he was a demon
hunter. That _still_ rankled her, even after three weeks.
"You wouldn't understand," Eve muttered, dropping to the ground and
wrapping her arms around her legs. Raine snorted, standing over her
with crossed arms.
"_I'll_ be the judge of _that_!"
Eve chuckled lowly, "I suppose you would... Raine..." she sighed,
"Kireian and I grew up together. He was always so fascinated with my
father-- those swords used to be Daddy's-- that around his tenth
birthday, he begged daddy to take him hunting."
Eve seemed to be lost in the memory as Raine sat herself down beside
the older woman. For a second she wondered: was Nathaniel hearing
Kireian's side of things?
"So daddy took him out. He gave Kireian his first gun, and his first
knife to protect himself. Everything was fine. Wonderful even; Kireian
and I were best friends, and that he was doing the exact same thing
daddy did..." she laughed dryly, "Three days before my seventeenth
birthday, it happened. Daddy and Kireian went out, but didn't come
back."
Raine-- for once-- allowed Eve to draw her into a hug. The woman had
begun to cry, "They found Daddy's body on my seventeenth birthday. The
swords were gone, and Kireian's bloody footprints continued into the
forest. It was another week before they found the rotting corpse of the
demon that killed Daddy. Kireian was gone, and so were the swords."
Eve could feel her heartbreaking all over again, "I'd loved him,
Rainy-day. I loved him so much... and he vanished on us, taking my
family heirlooms-- the swords-- with him."
Raine winced-- she could remember having similar feelings for _decades_
after Diablos had first vanished on her. But she'd gotten over it, and
she doubted she'd lash out at the demon-dragon god if she saw him
again. She still had little control over her emotions-- despite having
learned, at least partially, how to separate her abilities from them--
and her face showed all.
The former ice goddess was _not_ one for comforting. She wriggled out
of Eve's embrace, staring the woman in the eyes. What Eve saw was a
surprising maturity, set in a face of childish sadness, mixed with
sharp anger.
She said nothing, only climbing to her feet and stalking off through
the bush, back towards Winhill. Eve followed, a moment later.
---
End Chapter
I guess I lied when I said monkeys would fly out of my ass before I
finished this chapter. Not that I'm saying that I was dropping this...
just that I'm a lazy ass about writing about that isn't the Identity
Series. Feh, I've got a re-write of Legend of Digimon to work on. Later
dayz.