OK, I'm going to be honest with you folks. This won't be a Hawk/Lise fic, it's Kevin/Lise. I'm sorry if I'm making some of you disappointed, and I hope that you'll like my story anyway.
In any case, on with the show!
Chapter 13, Feelings twirl
With a groan Hawk opened his eyes, to find himself staring up into Nikita's worried face.
"You okay, bro?" the big cat asked.
"I guess…" the thief grunted and managed to slowly sit up, rubbing his forehead with one hand and leaning heavily on the other.
He looked around, with confusion finding himself in a small room. There was a creaking sound, almost like…
"By the goddess!" Hawk tried to shout at Nikita, however his voice wasn't fully obeying him and it turned out a hoarse, desperate coughing, "don't tell me you got me away from Palo!?"
"Sorry," the cat miserably said, "Karan knocked you out and brought you onboard. You would have been killed, there was no…"
"I could have thought of something!"
Hawk's head dropped.
"Godammit, Lise…" he groaned.
"Normally being alive would make you happy, wouldn't it?" Nikita tried to cheer his friend up.
"But I promised her I'd help her… I promised, now she's alone…"
The thief heavily leaned his head in his hands, and his friend couldn't say anything to make him feel better.
The ship continued its journey, the route and goal still to be planned. First of all the refugees needed a few hours to calm down and realize what had happened.
"Duck!" Lise shouted.
Kevin threw himself on the ground and rolled aside without hesitating, and following his movements the amazon princess leaped over him. Her spear went straight through the chibi devil which had tried to stab Kevin's neck while he was occupied with a harpy.
The small demon creature screeched and dissolved into eerie smoke, torn to pieces by the wind.
Almost before Lise had even touched the ground two sets of a harpy's talon feet had entangled themselves in her hair and pulled. The princess shrieked in pain and anger, trying to reach backwards to free herself from the vicious attacker. She got a grip of the wing, then a horrid slamming stuffed with broken bones and smashing entrails announced that Kevin had finished the project he had begun a few seconds ago. The force of his hit and the harpy's weight in her hair forced Lise off balance.
"Look out!" she heard him snarl even as she fell.
She hit the ground and threw herself aside, hardly avoiding the second myth mutant's claws that aimed for her throat. Clumsily she sent out her spear and managed to hit the harpy with the spear's stick, just where the wing joined with her chest. The pain was enough distraction; Kevin's hairy fists hit the monster's back and it was almost completely crushed.
No more beasts were within sight.
"Thanks," the princess and the werewolf said simultaneously, gasping for air.
They exchanged glances and couldn't hold back a chuckle, despite their battered looks.
Almost all of Kevin's fangs showed when he smiled, yet it didn't look terrifying to Lise. The moonlight and the wind played with his fur and thick blond hair as he sat down on one knee to regain his breath. Since the harpy had grabbed her rather close to the head it was hard for her to reach the mess properly.
By the smell of blood she was rather glad that she couldn't see exactly what was stuck in her hair.
"Just great…" she sighed while her fingers blindly sought a way to release the talons without tearing off half her head.
The corpse was heavy, as if the thought of a dead body hanging in her hair wasn't bad enough…
Kevin moved up beside her to see if he could help Lise sort out the entwined hair and claws. He looked at his rather unpleasantly stained hands and tried to dry them on his tunic before reaching out. And that despite that the princess' long, blond hair now was a knotted, bloody mess because of the corpse.
"Try hold still," he said, "maybe easier if you lie down."
Since she couldn't do much herself Lise obeyed him. She laid on her left side, only feeling short pulls as her friend patiently worked.
The spear was in her hand and her eyes patrolled the area, ready for more attacks. The full moons made it almost as light as during day, so seeing where the ledges ended wasn't a problem.
Now the two warriors were on a sort of a natural bridge between two cliffs, had just exited a cave. Lise hoped that they'd find the Mana stone soon; her body was beginning to complain about the broken rhythm of sleep.
Before this situation arose she had never been in these parts of the mountains, since the path had been blocked. Lise didn't know if it had been Duran or Bigeau that opened the way past the wind god statues, in any case it was open now.
Would the stone be alright, or was the energy already released? Could you even tell? But Duran hadn't said anything about that, and if he had a fairy from the Holyland in his head he should know.
The princess placed her head on her left arm without straining the light cuts she had after earlier fights, blinking to get rid of the invisible dust of sleepiness in her eyes.
With the strength granted from the stone both she and Kevin could become strong enough to face Beast King and his lackey, but there was no guarantee that the classchange would work. She had only read about it in old books before, didn't even know if it was possible. But it was the last hope.
It just had to work…
'What a situation, really,' she suddenly thought and smiled a little to herself, 'I'm on the top of a mountain together with a werewolf who tries to disentangle a dead harpy from my hair…'
Kevin's careful pulls more massaged the back of her head than troubled her, his slowly calming breath becoming a part of the wind that danced around her.
Lise could actually not remember when she last had felt so relaxed, despite the late fights. Maybe it was just the exhaust catching up on her.
'I'll just close my eyes for a short moment… just a short moment…'
She blinked and frowned, letting go of the spear to rub her eyes. No, she couldn't allow herself such careless behavior. Especially not since Kevin already was against her going to the Moonlight forest.
"How's it going?" she asked, finding that her voice was a little hoarse from her tiredness.
"Ah, a bit hard," Kevin grunted, "but it be done when done."
Regarding how he looked both normally and in late battles, especially now with blood in his fur and on the tunic, one couldn't have guessed that he was so patient with a nearly impossible task such as this one. Lise didn't find his care taking unpleasant, but she wasn't fond of having a dead body in her hair. Plus, there was no time for this.
She clenched her teeth against the knowledge of what she had to do.
'Oh, come on, woman! It's just hair, and you're no pretty little princess who's supposed to be swept away by a handsome prince.'
"Wh-what?" Kevin said in surprise as she began to sit up, reluctantly changing the grip of her spear.
"I'll just cut it off," Lise said through clenched teeth, "we have to get going."
The sharp blade of the spear point glistened in the moonlight, and for the first time ever Lise felt threatened by her own weapon.
No, it's just a thing. It won't hurt you if you don't make it do so.
She grabbed the hard wood just below the metal to be able to cut properly and reached backwards to assemble her messy hair as well as possible.
Kevin's hand encircled her wrist. Lise turned her head in surprise, a bit clumsy because of the harpy's weight. He watched her, looking disturbed.
"Don't," he said.
She opened her mouth to protest that it was the best thing to do, but he interrupted by continuing:
"Me be done soon. Not that urgent, is it?"
"We can't know that," Lise pointed out, "besides it's so ruined…"
He shook his head.
"Don't," he said again, almost pleading.
Lise watched him for a moment, hesitating.
"Why is it so important to you?" she finally asked, puzzled.
"Ah…"
Maybe that way of rubbing his cheek (and now side of the nose and mouth) with the back of his hand was a sign of some sort of confusion and not only sadness…?
"Shame to cut so long hair," he finally said, "and…"
His clawed fingers carefully touched his nose.
"… You don't really want to. Feel it, gah."
Lise watched him for a few seconds more. Then she shook her head.
"That sense of smell should really be creepy," she said with a slight sense of puzzlement left in her voice, "but alright then."
She laid down again and let him do things his way. But she still didn't understand why he'd bother… and it bewildered her even more that she didn't find it disturbing that he seemed able to feel the smell of her thoughts. It seemed natural for it to be frustrating, eerie. Maybe she didn't experience any unease because he used his ability so carefully. With true honesty she had to admit that she really hadn't wished to do away with her hair. Even though it probably was so disgusting now that it'd take her hours to make it presentable again, which wouldn't be possible before she got access to loads of soap and hot water…
That Kevin even had the nerves to be that patient…
She closed her eyes, promising herself that it only was for a short moment.
Kevin found himself smiling a bit when he noted that Lise fell into a light slumber. That was all well, she was pressing herself so hard.
Not even he himself really knew why her plans of cutting off her hair had made him so upset. He just couldn't allow her to do it. Perhaps only because her averseness had stung his nostrils; it was a sacrifice she hadn't been willing to go through with. But…
No, it wasn't all.
He frowned as his sharp claws assorted bouquets of stained hair from the big, messy lump around the harpy's feet. Where there were too complicated knots he cut off a few threads, not more, to be able to continue. It was a slow progress, but the tangled lump wasn't as bad as he had thought at first.
From the very beginning of his work Kevin had turned the monster's wounded side at the ground. Nobody could stand such a sight for very long. Especially not someone who disliked and fought against the blood thirst that sometimes wanted to break through and drown his mind completely.
Lise's hair… it was too much a part of her. Long, blond, glistening in the moonlight now as it had done the first time he had seen her. That time despite that she'd been trying to hide in a shadow, now although there was blood and gory feathers in it. He hadn't ever seen such hair before.
He hadn't ever met someone like Lise before, not such a friend.
Friend like Hawk, some distant voice in the back of his head somehow awkwardly said.
No… Hawk isn't a girl. Kevin hadn't ever been the friend of a girl before.
He hadn't exactly been sorting out one's hair either. Releasing knots from Karl's fur, but that was different.
Kevin sighed, not until then realizing that his smile had kept alive all the way thus far.
To get rid of the pain he tilted his head and watched Lise's face. She looked so calm when she slept, free of all the troubles tormenting her when she was awake.
There was that gloomy joy again… it had been there when she had been about to cut her hair, but then it had been filled with more sadness than happiness.
It still confused him, but Kevin had found that he liked it somehow. It encircled the empty space left after Karl, easing the agony with care. Not completely pushing the puppy's death aside of course, but making it less painful.
Was it a stronger sort of friendship, since it healed like that?
He didn't know.
Afterwards he wasn't sure how long time it had taken him, surely more than an hour. But he was surprised that it hadn't taken longer. Suddenly he was just able to pull the last claw free from Lise's hair and could with relief push the corpse aside.
Wake her up…
Before he had considered it he had reached out and touched Lise's bare arm to awake her. And then it was too late, she opened her eyes even as he was frozen in the realization of what he was doing.
He hadn't ever, never ever touched another human being like that. Beastmen usually didn't like to get touched other than in battle, and anyway he had never had a reason to get too close to any of his tribesmen, not even the women. Well, there had been that one that had asked him if she could be his queen, but he was certain she had only teased him. In any case he didn't even know her name…
That wasn't important, but the fact that his hand was still on Lise's arm was.
Her skin felt so soft, even through his fur. She didn't have any natural coat, of course… only a few fine, almost invisible hair on her arms. Some distant part of Kevin's brain wondered if he was just imagining it, maybe he wasn't that different when he had his human form.
But he was pretty sure there really was a difference.
Lise yawned and stretched out a little, and not before that he managed to lift his hand away.
"Did I fall asleep?" she mumbled while sitting up on her knees and rubbing her eyes.
"Just a while," Kevin said.
She instinctively reached backwards and groped for her hair. The natural reaction by the rather unpleasant feeling of liquid was a shudder. But at least the harpy was gone.
"Did it take you very long?" Lise carefully asked as she stood up.
Kevin tilted his head a bit, frowning. It was impossible to deny that he was straining himself quite hard as well, wanting to get strong enough for revenge. But Lise pushed herself even harder, just in another way. She was caught in a desperate hunt for her beloved brother, and blamed herself for everything that went wrong.
It bothered Kevin. It just couldn't be good.
"No," he said and got to his feet as well, "no worry."
But he had to stretch out a little; the pose he had kept for the whole time was demanding payment from his legs.
"Ah, let's go," he simply said and began moving onwards to smooth it all.
Lise hurried up beside him, and as he once again realized that his legs were longer than hers and carried him forwards faster he slowed down. If he used his natural pace she almost had to run.
They hadn't walked that far when a vague, peculiar glow from an opening in the cliff caught their attention. A closer look uncovered something as strange as the light.
"We were that close all the time?" Lise said with raised eyebrows.
"That, Mana stone?" Kevin asked, stepping closer together with the princess.
It had the form of an obelisk turned upside down, maybe twelve feet in height and floating about one foot above the floor. The surface was smoothly cracked and there was an inner, eerie but at the same time heavenly turquoise glow. Small bunches of stars lazily fell from it now and then, disappearing before they touched the ground.
"It looks like the ones I've seen pictures of…" Lise said.
"Well hello there, princess!"
The two warriors looked up. A friendly, blue face looked back down.
"Jinn?" Lise said, "I thought you went with Duran?"
"Nope, I only gave him and the ladies the ability to summon me anytime," the wind spirit explained and floated to the same height as the guests' faces, "I have to stay here and guard the stone, ya know."
(Ack! Raijin from FF8 is possessing Jinn!!
Author's note
Yes I'm nuts. Didn't you know that? ;) )
"Yes, of course," the princess nodded.
(Heeey!)
"This is Jinn, the wind elemental," Lise told her friend, "Jinn, this is Kevin from the Beast Kingdom."
"Hello," the two of them nodded at each other with a smile each.
Jinn thoughtfully turned at the ceiling.
"I hope Duran and the fairy finds Luna, speaking of that…" he muttered to himself, seemingly more or less forgetting his guests, "haven't spoken to her for ages…"
He shrugged and returned to the present.
"Well, what can I do for you?" he asked.
"You wouldn't have any information about my brother Eliott?" Lise asked, just in case.
Jinn sadly shook his head.
"Sorry, miss. I can't help you there."
"I guess we would have tried the classchange in any case," the princess said with grim determination.
"Oh, I see."
"Possible?" Kevin wondered.
The wind spirit eyed the beastman and the princess for a moment. Then he nodded.
"I believe you can make it," he gravely said, "both of you. Just touch the stone and concentrate with all your might. If your will is strong enough you will be granted the blessing."
Lise exchanged glances with Kevin.
He nodded.
"I'll try."
Carefully he reached out a furry, clawed hand and placed it on the stone's shimmering surface. His eyes closed and he frowned, Lise saw that because of the way that the fur in his forehead moved.