Chapter 9: Weary Premonition
~*-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-*~
~**Jade's POV**~
Walking slowly, I let my eyes scan the area before I brought my attention back to my hand. I don't even know how it got cut like that, but I figured that I should put it somewhere before my mom came to check up on me. She would have blown up the situation bigger than it really was. I did need to see someone for my hand though. The blood that was slowly trailing down my arm was starting stain my dress.
I needed to find Zidane and fast. I knew that I was the only person that could rightfully explain what was going on to him. I could tell that my mother's explanation was not what he wanted to hear. Over the years, I guess I picked up a certain sixth sense about that, and I don't even know why. I didn't even know why I was so concerned for him at the moment, but I could tell that things haven't been easy on him since he came back, and I'm sorry to say that I haven't really helped out with that at all.
By now, I was way past the castle walls and I was starting to head toward the most that was around the castle. By now, they had stopped letting people go to and from the castle, so I assumed that Zidane couldn't have gone far, plus it wasn't like him to normally run off to town like that. But then again, he always did like to head down to Ruby's theatre when he was feeling particularly down. If he wasn't at the castle, he was surely there.
~*-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-*~
Jade slowly continued forward even though she knew that she was starting to feel weaker. 'The cut was not as shallow as I though,' she meagerly mumbled to herself as her steps slowly became heavier and prolonged. She had tried to cover her wound with a torn piece of cloth, but it did little to stop the flowing blood, and there was plenty of blood. She almost stopped for a long while because her mind was so hazy, yet she didn't even notice. To her, she was still moving. Very slowly, but still moving, nonetheless.
Time started to pass in bursts, no longer steady. Moving quickly, yet moving painfully slow. It didn't matter to her though; she was out to find Zidane no matter what the costs. If she had a clear head on her shoulders, she would have realized that she never really had a childhood, and she ended up maturing much faster than she was supposed to. It was that sort of thing that her mother picked up, not her. She was always the one to take care of herself, and even from a very young age, she started to fend for herself without the help of Steiner or any of the other guards. For this reason, she was allowed to have the freedom that she was currently using, and for the first time she was thankful for it.
A few more minutes of slow staggering and harsh breath followed before she finally decided that she needed a while to sit down. Her hastened movement only meant that her blood would be moving more quickly, and therefore making her hand bleed more than necessary. Approaching the river that would lead her into town, she stopped to sit on a rock and redress her wound after washing off the drying blood. She had never done such a thing before, but she had seen it done, and didn't know enough magic to heal it without first aid. Seeing that her dress was pretty much ruined as it was, she tore off her sleeves, partially because it was rather hot that night and partially because if she used up anymore of the bottom of her dress, it would have come up to her waist. She soaked these makeshift bandages and tied them tightly around her hand and wrist, but not without a small hiss of pain to show her discomfort.
While all this was going on, she was moving quicker than she would have liked because of an eerie presence that she felt near by. It was like something dark and quiet was watching her from a distance, yet close enough to see exactly what she was doing and even her facial expressions that went along with it. Thinking it better that she didn't pay any mind to it, she went about her business even though her actions were now filled with fear and tension. She didn't like the fact that she couldn't see it, yet it could see her.
Just as soon as she was about to get up and cross the river to head into town, a voice behind her sounded and made her turn sharply. "I don't see why a person of your age needs to be sneaking into town. After all, you don't drink." She looked up and saw Zidane standing there with a cigarette in his hand and a look of slight humor and disapproval on his face. His eyes, however, were swimming with different thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
She eyed him carefully, not really sure whether to reply to his statement or not. "Since when do you smoke?" she asked, eyeing the object in his hand. He took a quick drag and slowly exhaled, not really to get a breath of air, but more so to relieve his tension. He shrugged slightly and looked at the ground.
"About a year ago. Terrible habit really, but I needed something to calm my nerves and keep my hands busy. Piss poor excuse, I know, but I don't have a better one, really." She stared at him for a short while with her face blank, but he could tell that she was making another silent judgment against him. By now, he had gotten used to it. "By the way," he suddenly said to break the silence, "if I ever catch you doing it, you're going to be in big trouble." He paused for a moment. "Regardless of your age."
She raised her eyebrow as she stared at him before looking out at the water. Nothing was said between them for a long while before she broke the silence again. "Why did you leave?"
He looked down at her with a puzzled yet completely understanding look. "I mean every time. This time. Why did you leave?" Taking another drag he now looked up at the sky, as if looking for an answer. To be truthful, he didn't really have one. Exhaling again, he closed his eyes and just listened to the sounds around him, as if absorbing everything like this was the last chance that he had.
"I guess," he began slowly in a surprisingly quiet voice, "I haven't really grown up yet, which I find quite surprising, since I have a daughter that acts older than I do, and yet I have a lot more weight on my shoulders. I do it for an escape, a way out. I always end up causing more trouble than I intended." His face was filled with a sorrow that she hadn't noticed before, or was that because he hadn't shown it before? Jade didn't know, but it was something that she wanted to touch up on later.
"We should head back," Jade suddenly stated. Zidane nodded in agreement, but didn't follow her when she started to walk away. When she noticed that a he wasn't walking behind her, she turned around and stared at his back. This was the first time that she noticed that his hair shined silver in the moon light like hers did, and she finally noticed how long his hair really was. Almost down to the end of his shoulder blades, she noted. "Are you coming?"
He shook his head and didn't bother to look back at her. "Nah, I want to stay out here for a while. Ya know, just look at the water and stuff." She noticed that his joker mask was back on to hide his emotions that were so open before, but she didn't comment on them, and she didn't argue. When he finally heard her footsteps fade in the distance, he threw his cigarette into the water after taking one last drag.
Silently looking up at the moon, he let the cool wind gently make his golden mane sway around his face. Closing his eyes and letting out a soft whisper, "Please, God, tell me what to do…"
~*-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-*~
~**Garnet's POV**~
For the first time in a long time, I sat on my throne, looking out at the scene before me with my fingers restlessly tapping against my armrest. I'm sure it was well past midnight, but I was too busy playing with the goblet that I had found in Jade's room. Not really playing with it, but looking at it intently as if it would tell me something, anything.
Two hours had passed, and still no word from either of the two. This was nerve wrecking, and I refused to get some sleep, regardless of what either Steiner and Beatrix insisted. I wasn't sleeping until at least one of the two came home, only because I was hoping that they had found each other and would know where the other one was. But even that was wishful thinking, and after the past seven years, I was not friendly with the idea of luck.
There has been very little in my life that has dealt with luck. And for that reason, I refuse to believe in such a blatant lie.
I was surprised how calm I was at that moment, considering how I nearly went insane with worry about my daughter. I know fully well that she is almost ten years old, but that doesn't mean that I will suddenly let her leave the castle without any word, whatsoever, with a bleeding wound, nonetheless! It was too much for me to handle at this moment of time; I wasn't allowed to get overly stressed due to the fact that I was still pregnant.
Just as I was about to get up, Beatrix ran into the room. "Your Highness," she said, "the Princess has returned." I let out a sigh of relief, happy that my daughter had come home.
"I want her wound cleaned and dressed at once, but do you have any word on Zidane?" I asked tentatively as I rose to my feet. I needed to at least find out something about him. Anything at this point besides the dreaded sentence, 'I don't know,' would have sufficed. Beatrix gave me a small smile, which helped ease off some of the tension that was beginning to build in my shoulders.
"Jade said that she saw him shortly before coming back. I'm not quite sure what she said since she talked to Steiner and not me, but I think that he should be heading back soon, or at least be back by tomorrow. Not even she knew much about what he was going to do." I nodded and started to walk towards the station where our healers worked. I figured that I might be able to use some of my magic to help the wound close more quickly.
"By the way," Beatrix said quickly before I got the chance to exit the room. I turned around to face her with a puzzled look on my face. "Did you happen to know that Zidane smokes? It was just something that I happened to overhear when Jade was talking to Steiner." I slowly shook my head and raised my eyebrow. It was a strange concept to me since I had never seen him do it, nor did he ever have the smell on him. I would have to ask him about it later.
"Thank you," I said quickly before I turned around to take my leave. The halls were fairly quiet since most people went directly to bed after Jade was found, but many of the guards were still awake, along with a couple nurses that were tending to Jade's needs. I quietly poked my head into their station and almost instantly noticed Jade's attire.
"Jade, what happened?" I asked, rushing to her side and wrapping my arms around her, forgetting that I still held the goblet in my hand. She, however, noticed it right away.
She looked up at me, and asked, "Why do you have that? I left that in my room, but why are you holding it?" I quickly motioned to the nurses to leave the room with a silent understanding that I would take care of everything from this point onward. They quickly bowed their heads before shuffling out of the room.
"It was how I knew you were missing. I went into your room to tuck you in, and I only saw this with your blood in it, and that glass shard. What happened?" I asked more fiercely this time. She took the goblet from me with her uninjured hand as I healed her cut. She let the blue light fade from the room before answering.
"I don't really remember how it happened. I was just upset that Zidane-"
"He's your father," I cut in quickly.
"Zidane," she snapped, giving me a slight glare, "had left without saying anything. I was holding the goblet, and that was when I saw him wandering towards town. I must have dropped it because when I looked down I saw that a shard of it had broken off. That was when I leaned down to pick it up, but I guess I must have cut my hand. I wanted to heal it, but I also wanted to follow Zidane, so I just put it on my desk and headed out without telling anyone."
For now, I would accept her story even though I could tell that not everything played out the way that she described it. It was good enough. I nodded at her, and then picked her up in my arms. It wasn't something that I had done for a long while, and I could tell it was something that I wasn't going to be doing for a long time either. Even so, I decided that I would give her a bath and carry her off to her room since she must have been tired from the long day.
While walking in the corridors, I looked out one of the grand windows and noticed how pretty the moon looked in the cloudless sky. Something inside me told me that I should start appreciating the smaller and simpler things in life again. For some reason…
I felt that I didn't have long to do so anymore…
(A/N: I am REALLY sorry that this chapter took a long time to come out, but the thing is, I have so many ideas, and I don't know how to put them together. So I decided to do a lot of time gaps in the next chapter. I normally hate, HATE doing that, mind you, but in this case I have to. Bear with me here. Anyway, feed my ego by reviewing and I might write faster. =) )
~*-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-*~
~**Jade's POV**~
Walking slowly, I let my eyes scan the area before I brought my attention back to my hand. I don't even know how it got cut like that, but I figured that I should put it somewhere before my mom came to check up on me. She would have blown up the situation bigger than it really was. I did need to see someone for my hand though. The blood that was slowly trailing down my arm was starting stain my dress.
I needed to find Zidane and fast. I knew that I was the only person that could rightfully explain what was going on to him. I could tell that my mother's explanation was not what he wanted to hear. Over the years, I guess I picked up a certain sixth sense about that, and I don't even know why. I didn't even know why I was so concerned for him at the moment, but I could tell that things haven't been easy on him since he came back, and I'm sorry to say that I haven't really helped out with that at all.
By now, I was way past the castle walls and I was starting to head toward the most that was around the castle. By now, they had stopped letting people go to and from the castle, so I assumed that Zidane couldn't have gone far, plus it wasn't like him to normally run off to town like that. But then again, he always did like to head down to Ruby's theatre when he was feeling particularly down. If he wasn't at the castle, he was surely there.
~*-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-*~
Jade slowly continued forward even though she knew that she was starting to feel weaker. 'The cut was not as shallow as I though,' she meagerly mumbled to herself as her steps slowly became heavier and prolonged. She had tried to cover her wound with a torn piece of cloth, but it did little to stop the flowing blood, and there was plenty of blood. She almost stopped for a long while because her mind was so hazy, yet she didn't even notice. To her, she was still moving. Very slowly, but still moving, nonetheless.
Time started to pass in bursts, no longer steady. Moving quickly, yet moving painfully slow. It didn't matter to her though; she was out to find Zidane no matter what the costs. If she had a clear head on her shoulders, she would have realized that she never really had a childhood, and she ended up maturing much faster than she was supposed to. It was that sort of thing that her mother picked up, not her. She was always the one to take care of herself, and even from a very young age, she started to fend for herself without the help of Steiner or any of the other guards. For this reason, she was allowed to have the freedom that she was currently using, and for the first time she was thankful for it.
A few more minutes of slow staggering and harsh breath followed before she finally decided that she needed a while to sit down. Her hastened movement only meant that her blood would be moving more quickly, and therefore making her hand bleed more than necessary. Approaching the river that would lead her into town, she stopped to sit on a rock and redress her wound after washing off the drying blood. She had never done such a thing before, but she had seen it done, and didn't know enough magic to heal it without first aid. Seeing that her dress was pretty much ruined as it was, she tore off her sleeves, partially because it was rather hot that night and partially because if she used up anymore of the bottom of her dress, it would have come up to her waist. She soaked these makeshift bandages and tied them tightly around her hand and wrist, but not without a small hiss of pain to show her discomfort.
While all this was going on, she was moving quicker than she would have liked because of an eerie presence that she felt near by. It was like something dark and quiet was watching her from a distance, yet close enough to see exactly what she was doing and even her facial expressions that went along with it. Thinking it better that she didn't pay any mind to it, she went about her business even though her actions were now filled with fear and tension. She didn't like the fact that she couldn't see it, yet it could see her.
Just as soon as she was about to get up and cross the river to head into town, a voice behind her sounded and made her turn sharply. "I don't see why a person of your age needs to be sneaking into town. After all, you don't drink." She looked up and saw Zidane standing there with a cigarette in his hand and a look of slight humor and disapproval on his face. His eyes, however, were swimming with different thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
She eyed him carefully, not really sure whether to reply to his statement or not. "Since when do you smoke?" she asked, eyeing the object in his hand. He took a quick drag and slowly exhaled, not really to get a breath of air, but more so to relieve his tension. He shrugged slightly and looked at the ground.
"About a year ago. Terrible habit really, but I needed something to calm my nerves and keep my hands busy. Piss poor excuse, I know, but I don't have a better one, really." She stared at him for a short while with her face blank, but he could tell that she was making another silent judgment against him. By now, he had gotten used to it. "By the way," he suddenly said to break the silence, "if I ever catch you doing it, you're going to be in big trouble." He paused for a moment. "Regardless of your age."
She raised her eyebrow as she stared at him before looking out at the water. Nothing was said between them for a long while before she broke the silence again. "Why did you leave?"
He looked down at her with a puzzled yet completely understanding look. "I mean every time. This time. Why did you leave?" Taking another drag he now looked up at the sky, as if looking for an answer. To be truthful, he didn't really have one. Exhaling again, he closed his eyes and just listened to the sounds around him, as if absorbing everything like this was the last chance that he had.
"I guess," he began slowly in a surprisingly quiet voice, "I haven't really grown up yet, which I find quite surprising, since I have a daughter that acts older than I do, and yet I have a lot more weight on my shoulders. I do it for an escape, a way out. I always end up causing more trouble than I intended." His face was filled with a sorrow that she hadn't noticed before, or was that because he hadn't shown it before? Jade didn't know, but it was something that she wanted to touch up on later.
"We should head back," Jade suddenly stated. Zidane nodded in agreement, but didn't follow her when she started to walk away. When she noticed that a he wasn't walking behind her, she turned around and stared at his back. This was the first time that she noticed that his hair shined silver in the moon light like hers did, and she finally noticed how long his hair really was. Almost down to the end of his shoulder blades, she noted. "Are you coming?"
He shook his head and didn't bother to look back at her. "Nah, I want to stay out here for a while. Ya know, just look at the water and stuff." She noticed that his joker mask was back on to hide his emotions that were so open before, but she didn't comment on them, and she didn't argue. When he finally heard her footsteps fade in the distance, he threw his cigarette into the water after taking one last drag.
Silently looking up at the moon, he let the cool wind gently make his golden mane sway around his face. Closing his eyes and letting out a soft whisper, "Please, God, tell me what to do…"
~*-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-*~
~**Garnet's POV**~
For the first time in a long time, I sat on my throne, looking out at the scene before me with my fingers restlessly tapping against my armrest. I'm sure it was well past midnight, but I was too busy playing with the goblet that I had found in Jade's room. Not really playing with it, but looking at it intently as if it would tell me something, anything.
Two hours had passed, and still no word from either of the two. This was nerve wrecking, and I refused to get some sleep, regardless of what either Steiner and Beatrix insisted. I wasn't sleeping until at least one of the two came home, only because I was hoping that they had found each other and would know where the other one was. But even that was wishful thinking, and after the past seven years, I was not friendly with the idea of luck.
There has been very little in my life that has dealt with luck. And for that reason, I refuse to believe in such a blatant lie.
I was surprised how calm I was at that moment, considering how I nearly went insane with worry about my daughter. I know fully well that she is almost ten years old, but that doesn't mean that I will suddenly let her leave the castle without any word, whatsoever, with a bleeding wound, nonetheless! It was too much for me to handle at this moment of time; I wasn't allowed to get overly stressed due to the fact that I was still pregnant.
Just as I was about to get up, Beatrix ran into the room. "Your Highness," she said, "the Princess has returned." I let out a sigh of relief, happy that my daughter had come home.
"I want her wound cleaned and dressed at once, but do you have any word on Zidane?" I asked tentatively as I rose to my feet. I needed to at least find out something about him. Anything at this point besides the dreaded sentence, 'I don't know,' would have sufficed. Beatrix gave me a small smile, which helped ease off some of the tension that was beginning to build in my shoulders.
"Jade said that she saw him shortly before coming back. I'm not quite sure what she said since she talked to Steiner and not me, but I think that he should be heading back soon, or at least be back by tomorrow. Not even she knew much about what he was going to do." I nodded and started to walk towards the station where our healers worked. I figured that I might be able to use some of my magic to help the wound close more quickly.
"By the way," Beatrix said quickly before I got the chance to exit the room. I turned around to face her with a puzzled look on my face. "Did you happen to know that Zidane smokes? It was just something that I happened to overhear when Jade was talking to Steiner." I slowly shook my head and raised my eyebrow. It was a strange concept to me since I had never seen him do it, nor did he ever have the smell on him. I would have to ask him about it later.
"Thank you," I said quickly before I turned around to take my leave. The halls were fairly quiet since most people went directly to bed after Jade was found, but many of the guards were still awake, along with a couple nurses that were tending to Jade's needs. I quietly poked my head into their station and almost instantly noticed Jade's attire.
"Jade, what happened?" I asked, rushing to her side and wrapping my arms around her, forgetting that I still held the goblet in my hand. She, however, noticed it right away.
She looked up at me, and asked, "Why do you have that? I left that in my room, but why are you holding it?" I quickly motioned to the nurses to leave the room with a silent understanding that I would take care of everything from this point onward. They quickly bowed their heads before shuffling out of the room.
"It was how I knew you were missing. I went into your room to tuck you in, and I only saw this with your blood in it, and that glass shard. What happened?" I asked more fiercely this time. She took the goblet from me with her uninjured hand as I healed her cut. She let the blue light fade from the room before answering.
"I don't really remember how it happened. I was just upset that Zidane-"
"He's your father," I cut in quickly.
"Zidane," she snapped, giving me a slight glare, "had left without saying anything. I was holding the goblet, and that was when I saw him wandering towards town. I must have dropped it because when I looked down I saw that a shard of it had broken off. That was when I leaned down to pick it up, but I guess I must have cut my hand. I wanted to heal it, but I also wanted to follow Zidane, so I just put it on my desk and headed out without telling anyone."
For now, I would accept her story even though I could tell that not everything played out the way that she described it. It was good enough. I nodded at her, and then picked her up in my arms. It wasn't something that I had done for a long while, and I could tell it was something that I wasn't going to be doing for a long time either. Even so, I decided that I would give her a bath and carry her off to her room since she must have been tired from the long day.
While walking in the corridors, I looked out one of the grand windows and noticed how pretty the moon looked in the cloudless sky. Something inside me told me that I should start appreciating the smaller and simpler things in life again. For some reason…
I felt that I didn't have long to do so anymore…
(A/N: I am REALLY sorry that this chapter took a long time to come out, but the thing is, I have so many ideas, and I don't know how to put them together. So I decided to do a lot of time gaps in the next chapter. I normally hate, HATE doing that, mind you, but in this case I have to. Bear with me here. Anyway, feed my ego by reviewing and I might write faster. =) )