Disclaimer: I don't own FF9, so don't bite, and don't ask oO
Gold Mage - *huggles to Gold Mage* OMG, thanks for putting my on your fav author's list!!! ^^ You made my day. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, and I hope the length of this chapter pleases you accordingly.
Rhea Chryseis - There there Rhea. . .I'm terribly sorry about confusing you. Hope you will be 'un' confused in the near future.
******************************************************************
Chapter 4:
It looked to her as if they were going down some sort of shortcut; the path gradually slimmed down, and the walls were plain. She had to admit though, she would take this path any day, just because of the scents. Deliciously strong drafts coming from where she supposed was the kitchen, were pure ambrosia for someone who mostly lived off of crumbs her whole life. Her mouth watered adoringly, at the bright pictures in her mind of massive feasts, and intricate deserts.
She was so preoccupied, that Mai didn't notice that she was stepping up steep wooden steps, until her guide swiftly pulled the creaky wooden door at the top open.
A burst of light abruptly appeared, so quickly in fact that she almost clumsily fell backward. . .and all the way back down. ~Almost~.
Fortunately, she didn't, but she scolded herself mentally all the same. Nobles didn't just fall down stairs, they were disciplined, they were proper, they were-
/Not me./
She quickly gathered her wits about her, and somberly strode through the door. But this time, as if she were making up for her almost devastating mistake, she exadgerated her cover as much as her body would allow; keeping her body back straight and head severely level. Again, the room-shower didn't even seem to notice, or care.
Outside on the deck, it was much more crowded, and with everyone talking all at once, very loud. She sometimes caught little snippets of conversation, and the feminine fake, dry laughs without a moments rest. She could find her way through the crowd quite easily being somewhat tall, but keeping her eyes on the short and hidden guide was a different story all together. At least he was bald; she only had to track the shiny head.
And then, a sudden jolt under her caused her to turn curious and look up. A loud, piercing whistle called out in warning, as the crowd-ocean began to quickly migrate to the railings on the edges of the ship. Wondering what all the fuss was about, she allowed the current to consume her.
Puffs of black smoke were gradually becoming larger and fuller out of the high smokestack. Maiaza spun her head up to face it with her long hair fanning out parallel to the ground, and was becoming quite annoying as it clung to her face a bit, interrupting her vision for a second. Brushing it behind a strained ear with a long finger, she finally understood the idea of what was happening.
She took a sharp intake of breath in wonderful anticipation.
Pure, screaming noise escaped, causing her ears to pound because of the others around her. People were screaming, some weeping and others exchanging tender goodbyes with someone on the ground, who they could not hear, and they them. Feather hats and lacy handkerchiefs were dense in the air, and seemingly flying while forgetting to fall.
It was a wondrous sight.
But Maiaza couldn't help but feeling rather misplaced, as she moved back a bit to make room for a curly-haired woman, weeping hysterically for her sweetheart. Maiaza had no one to apologize for, despite Alice and Willie's best intentions, no one to laugh with, and no one to thank. She was all alone in this strange, strange world.
And yet she furrowed her eyebrows stubbornly on determination. /No one YET. It's time for you to prove yourself Mai, time to start over and prove them wrong./
She didn't move at first, or give any other sort of action reflecting her recognition of the comforting vibration the ship was now giving off. Then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, it shot off the launching platform and into the cool, clear blue sky. Many of the pure-bred nobles fell to the wooden floor in astonishment, but not the sandy-haired girl with the brand new skirt. Maiaza only surveyed the wiggling legs overwhelmed in petticoats as a chance to take back a spot at the outer railing, and to somehow come up with a way to get her mind off of less-than-happy thoughts.
And that's exactly what happened.
She gasped at the view laid out for her. Her hair, again, was flipping itself into her face so she tied it absently into a simple knot like she always had back home. But, with the great city of Lindblum stretched off as far as the human eye could see, through the high mist and everything, even the normally large buildings that Maiaza had felt uncomfortable around resembled tiny models that young nobles always built. The streets up there looked so complicated, yet insignificant, and standing out oddly against the snow-sprinkled rooftops. It was just too much, and so ~very~ interesting from a drastically different point of view.
She dimly saw most of the others clear out, with nothing entertaining them, now that their dramatic 'exits from Lindblum' were finished. But Maiaza really didn't care as with every second she found something new to examine. . .
How long she stood there, gaping in an awed trance, she was unsure of. As she became blissfully ignorant of the outside world, it seemed never- ending, but all enjoyable things must eventually come to a close, and this was no exception.
A loud and very obvious clearing of a throat was let out right behind her.
Her body jumped slightly, breaking the mood, and she spun around quickly to face her guide. The impatient man's face was sparkled with a slight impression of amusement, and telling her now that he wasn't quite as impatient as she previously suspected. Though, she wasn't looking forward to pushing her luck with him, and tried to hide her gulp as much as was physically possible.
Maiaza felt blood pumping itself up her face as a began to spread on her cheeks in embarrassment. She had completely spaced his presence out, and she suspected (with her face becoming even more red) that he must have been standing there for quite a while.
His eyes non-verbally commanded her to follow him. She gave a short nod in understanding and he turned on his heel to start walking back on the wooden deck. The puny creaks were barely audible now under his feet, with the wind howling in their ears. So she followed, somehow managing to convince herself strong and collected, while feeling her own constantly allegro footsteps individually.
He continued up a small staircase. Conjuring a small golden key, he managed to wrench the door open after spinning it around in its keyhole with a seemingly impressive demonstration of skill and precision.
She tilted her head with blank eyes. His long tailcoat fluttered like tail- feathers, as he started up another flight of intimidating stairs. /More stairs!/ she thought to herself with profound annoyance /How many stairs are around here anyways? No wonder it's so huge!/
As they continued, the guide unlocked four other doors before continuing back up another long flight of stairs. She thought that she might have been impressed, if she hadn't had a slight haze of nausea accompanying her ever since the ship became airborne. Trying to get her mind off of the rather sick reaction, Maiaza was understanding a pattern now, and ran the information through her head a few times so that she would (hopefully) remember later.
Then there was the other thought biting sharply at her mind. Why on Gaia did that ticket man fetch this ~special~ guide, for the rather ~un-special~ her? She began to constantly look around her for the real person being treated with special care, but all she saw was stairs, wood-paneled walls and a few random paintings.
Finally, he led her to a hallway that according to the laws of repetition carried in the other walls, should have held the next locked door. Instead, he made a ninety-degree-angle turn to the right, almost causing Maiaza to bump into him unprofessionally at the pause. There were three sets of doors here, noticeably further apart than the others; only three of them.
He led her down to the one at the very end of the hall. Two, mahogany twins stood, somberly unmoving doubles of each other. Someone with incredible skill had decorated the otherwise bland entrances with little bits and pieces of chipped woods, placed in puzzle-like patterns. They formed a quietly serene scene of loopy leaves, and what appeared to be two identical foxes.
"Fox room, correct madam?" he asked, and she quickly fumbled a bit with the stub of her ticket. The text on the bottom-right hand corner confirmed what she was looking for.
"Yes." She heard herself say, voice sounding a bit unusual to her. He pulled out his ring of keys, and slipped one into the bronze keyhole. Pulling the chosen one out, he turned to sculpted knob, pushing it open slowly.
And Maiaza finally understood why the ticket man was so generous.
It must have taken a fortune to rent this room, plain and simply put. Her bag somehow escaped her relaxing grasp as she stood, gawking at the sight of her temporary residence.
The ~basic~ perimeter of the area was a huge octagon, with crystal clear and silk draped windows that loomed to the tall ceiling on four sides. Two other sides on almost opposite sides of each other were mahogany single doors, that on contrary to the chipped placements on the entrance doors, were delicate forest scenes carved directly on them, and the ceiling showed the underside of an arc-style roof. Three chandeliers hung from that and were artfully applied with different length chain, all brightly and completely lit.
She noticed the little rainbows reflected from the lights, dancing jovially on the thick, red carpet. The chandeliers must have been created completely from a rare type of ore to create that effect, and anyone who knew anything about rocks, knew it wasn't cheap.
A massive four-poster bed stood regally in the midst of it all, and was probably large enough to fit an entire farming family under the covers, without it being crowded. And there were so many embroidered and tasseled pillows lying on the top that you could barely make out the gold sheets underneath.
Her body sprinted over to one of the doors without thought, after an eternity of staring. She opened it carefully, believing somehow that it would all collapse and crumble at her feet if she pulled too hard. But all it turned out to be was a plain, whitewashed closet. An incredibly large closet that looked as if it could house the room she had all those years, yet with a purpose that was undeniably dull.
She raced back over to the other door to see what else came with her donated ticket. This one turned out to hold an intricate bathroom with a mini chandelier of its own, causing the lovely blue-ish marble to sparkle in the candlelight. This. . .was all to good to be true for Maiaza.
Without realizing it, tears flooded up quickly in her eyes as she turned to face the guide that was waiting patiently at the entrance doors. She smiled, wider than she had ever smiled before, and with a completely genuine quality that made him shift his weight uncomfortably.
"If you need a servant, page, or just food, pull that string right there." There were more strings, but Maiaza saw clearly that the man was trying to leave as soon as possible. /Nice going Mai, now he'll be suspicious. It's not like the people he normally deals with just start spontaneously crying!/
"Thank you," her voice was almost a whisper in case it wanted to crack, but it managed to serve its purpose. The man hurried out without another word.
The room seemed so large now that she was the only one left in it. Just a poor, confused girl shoved straight into life, she supposed.
Her foot tapped experimentally on the lush carpeting, with an odd feel to it now. So much different than the feel and sound of her toes and heels clicking against wood and stone. . .though, she wasn't sure which surface she liked better, yet.
Finally, she gave into the suddenly strengthened gravity and collapsed into the luscious, velvet and silk pillows. This was really to good to be true.
Then, she wept.
~*~*~*~
Fredrick Coral was one of the most respected bounty hunters in Lindblum. Not nearly as popular as the famed 'Night Rose', but still respectable. And being a bounty hunter in Lindblum of all places, was quite interesting because of the zero-tolerance the regent was known to have for the likes of him.
Technically, his work was mainly out of Daggero, but it was awfully difficult to collect valuable bounties in an oversized library. Now Lindblum on the other hand. . .here was an interesting place!
His cloaked figure dominated the nearly deserted streets, his feet making no sound on the cobblestones after the years of practice in stealth any mystery. He kicked a dislodged gray stone absently. This was certainly not a good time to be out on the streets, but he knew he would come out practically unscathed. No one would ever confront ~him~.
/Odd, how a bounty hunter is tracking down a bounty hunter./
The Night Rose was an endless source of nightmares and sleepless nights for the citizens of Lindblum. Problem was, Lindblum would not be a pretty place without its most active and ironic crime-fighter.
Everyone knew that the Lindblum guards would never be able to keep the streets of Lindblum relatively clean without outside help. And he certainly wasn't talking about street-sweepers. The regent obviously had thought somewhere along these lines before, and had kept quiet, turning away from the nastiness. But his lenient side for the Night Rose had slowly been ripped apart in the past few months.
/With good reason./ What the Night Rose was, and all it seemed to stand for still sent dislodged shivers up and down Fredrick's spine. Even after all he had seen, there was nothing quite like ~that~ bounty hunter.
At first, when he had first heard the stories, he brushed them off carelessly thinking it was only another ridiculous rumor-mill with an overactive imagination.
/And oh, how wrong I was./
It was after he had been sparring with a friend back at the castle. He was walking home alone on a purplish evening without a care in the world. He had just chuckled at a memory, and adjusted his pack of spare clothes, when he heard the screams.
Thinking it was just a petty scare in the midst of a crowd made of attractive young maidens, he started off in good spirits. It was always worth the popularity.
He sighed in reality, thrusting his ice-cold fingers down his pockets. The large square, the makeshift torches appearing constantly out of the darkness, and the moon hanging over the imposing cathedral were all main ideas that popped into his weary mind of the incident. But none of them were the main thought of the sixteen-year-old boy, walking into pandemonium.
At the very tip of the cathedral, an intricate point always jutted out to the sky. But back then, it had a body hanging off, the point stabbed neatly through the man's heart.
Fredrick's heart had almost stopped at the scene, when he finally spotted the Night Rose.
It seemed to had just materialized from the shadows, the ridiculously long cloak not betraying its still figure, or its calm as it billowed in the light wind. He had felt so horrible because of the guilty pleasure he held of something that could be so horrid, and inhuman could appear so. . .beautiful. Though even that seemed insignificant compared to the nausea he felt, tears had tumbled unstoppable down his smooth cheeks.
As he somberly looked back on that day, he noticed something else. He had seemed to grow up on that day; he began to really ~care~. Advantage-taking seemed so useless afterwards, and from then on, he tried to keep his actions brave and honorific.
On that day, with the dim, and even steadily increasing amounts of light, it was almost impossible to tell the true identity of the Night Rose. Hell, even now, a full five years after it first made its appearance, nobody even knew its ~gender~. However, Fredrick was almost certain it was male. No. . .~female~ he had ever encountered would do things like that, and continue to lead that sort of gruesome life. Even Lady Freya of Burmecia wouldn't have done that, and though women were to be respected in their own right, that rather barbaric style was clearly NOT feminine.
But it didn't really matter. Whoever the Night Rose really was, Fredrick had decided, must be insane anyway.
And most grown men would not be able to stand up to it for the shortest seconds without panic. He envied that girl he had met briefly, earlier that day. It must have taken a great deal of courage to stand her ground opposite the Night Rose, unarmed, and already facing the harsh reality of her deceased family. It wouldn't have been surprising if the gangly thing had simply run herself into its long katana before it did anything. He smiled a bit to himself. She would certainly do well, and he carried the nagging feeling that he would meet her again someday.
He stopped in mid-step, somehow not falling forward on his face, and retraced a few steps to turn around a corner. Here, the few residences were much farther apart, fading from 'modest' to full-blown 'prosperous'.
/Better go visit mum and dad./ he finally decided. /They would have a fit if they found out I was around here without telling them./
His long legs shot over a large puddle in a graceful leap, his cloak drifting eerily behind him, coupled with a smirk stamped clearly across his face as he turned his head back to face the wet monstrosity. /Nice./ His feet still carried him forward, so he wrenched his head back to its natural position with the momentum created by his shoulders to face--
A lamppost.
The distinct ping of skull on cold metal echoed through the neighborhood. Fredrick's face burned as he tucked his hood firmly back over his had, glad that most of the dreadful snow had melted. He shivered, imagining how the unwelcome cold would have felt if slipped down his shirt to bare-back. . .
/I just hope mum's cooking has improved! This is turning out to be a horrid day, and I ~really~ don't want it to get any worse than it already is./
So, he made it out of the neighborhood; ~relatively~ unscathed.
~*~*~*~
*falls out of the seat, twitching*
Sorry folks, about the long update time, but I'm sick at home, so don't yell at me. . .*sniffle*
Sorry, I just went brain-dead, so I have no interesting things to comment about. Toodles, and hope you had an amusing Tofu-rkey day *sneeze*
(a very sick) giggle
PS - I still don't know how to spell egsaturated. . .exadurated. . .I mean, oh damn. - . -
Gold Mage - *huggles to Gold Mage* OMG, thanks for putting my on your fav author's list!!! ^^ You made my day. I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far, and I hope the length of this chapter pleases you accordingly.
Rhea Chryseis - There there Rhea. . .I'm terribly sorry about confusing you. Hope you will be 'un' confused in the near future.
******************************************************************
Chapter 4:
It looked to her as if they were going down some sort of shortcut; the path gradually slimmed down, and the walls were plain. She had to admit though, she would take this path any day, just because of the scents. Deliciously strong drafts coming from where she supposed was the kitchen, were pure ambrosia for someone who mostly lived off of crumbs her whole life. Her mouth watered adoringly, at the bright pictures in her mind of massive feasts, and intricate deserts.
She was so preoccupied, that Mai didn't notice that she was stepping up steep wooden steps, until her guide swiftly pulled the creaky wooden door at the top open.
A burst of light abruptly appeared, so quickly in fact that she almost clumsily fell backward. . .and all the way back down. ~Almost~.
Fortunately, she didn't, but she scolded herself mentally all the same. Nobles didn't just fall down stairs, they were disciplined, they were proper, they were-
/Not me./
She quickly gathered her wits about her, and somberly strode through the door. But this time, as if she were making up for her almost devastating mistake, she exadgerated her cover as much as her body would allow; keeping her body back straight and head severely level. Again, the room-shower didn't even seem to notice, or care.
Outside on the deck, it was much more crowded, and with everyone talking all at once, very loud. She sometimes caught little snippets of conversation, and the feminine fake, dry laughs without a moments rest. She could find her way through the crowd quite easily being somewhat tall, but keeping her eyes on the short and hidden guide was a different story all together. At least he was bald; she only had to track the shiny head.
And then, a sudden jolt under her caused her to turn curious and look up. A loud, piercing whistle called out in warning, as the crowd-ocean began to quickly migrate to the railings on the edges of the ship. Wondering what all the fuss was about, she allowed the current to consume her.
Puffs of black smoke were gradually becoming larger and fuller out of the high smokestack. Maiaza spun her head up to face it with her long hair fanning out parallel to the ground, and was becoming quite annoying as it clung to her face a bit, interrupting her vision for a second. Brushing it behind a strained ear with a long finger, she finally understood the idea of what was happening.
She took a sharp intake of breath in wonderful anticipation.
Pure, screaming noise escaped, causing her ears to pound because of the others around her. People were screaming, some weeping and others exchanging tender goodbyes with someone on the ground, who they could not hear, and they them. Feather hats and lacy handkerchiefs were dense in the air, and seemingly flying while forgetting to fall.
It was a wondrous sight.
But Maiaza couldn't help but feeling rather misplaced, as she moved back a bit to make room for a curly-haired woman, weeping hysterically for her sweetheart. Maiaza had no one to apologize for, despite Alice and Willie's best intentions, no one to laugh with, and no one to thank. She was all alone in this strange, strange world.
And yet she furrowed her eyebrows stubbornly on determination. /No one YET. It's time for you to prove yourself Mai, time to start over and prove them wrong./
She didn't move at first, or give any other sort of action reflecting her recognition of the comforting vibration the ship was now giving off. Then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, it shot off the launching platform and into the cool, clear blue sky. Many of the pure-bred nobles fell to the wooden floor in astonishment, but not the sandy-haired girl with the brand new skirt. Maiaza only surveyed the wiggling legs overwhelmed in petticoats as a chance to take back a spot at the outer railing, and to somehow come up with a way to get her mind off of less-than-happy thoughts.
And that's exactly what happened.
She gasped at the view laid out for her. Her hair, again, was flipping itself into her face so she tied it absently into a simple knot like she always had back home. But, with the great city of Lindblum stretched off as far as the human eye could see, through the high mist and everything, even the normally large buildings that Maiaza had felt uncomfortable around resembled tiny models that young nobles always built. The streets up there looked so complicated, yet insignificant, and standing out oddly against the snow-sprinkled rooftops. It was just too much, and so ~very~ interesting from a drastically different point of view.
She dimly saw most of the others clear out, with nothing entertaining them, now that their dramatic 'exits from Lindblum' were finished. But Maiaza really didn't care as with every second she found something new to examine. . .
How long she stood there, gaping in an awed trance, she was unsure of. As she became blissfully ignorant of the outside world, it seemed never- ending, but all enjoyable things must eventually come to a close, and this was no exception.
A loud and very obvious clearing of a throat was let out right behind her.
Her body jumped slightly, breaking the mood, and she spun around quickly to face her guide. The impatient man's face was sparkled with a slight impression of amusement, and telling her now that he wasn't quite as impatient as she previously suspected. Though, she wasn't looking forward to pushing her luck with him, and tried to hide her gulp as much as was physically possible.
Maiaza felt blood pumping itself up her face as a began to spread on her cheeks in embarrassment. She had completely spaced his presence out, and she suspected (with her face becoming even more red) that he must have been standing there for quite a while.
His eyes non-verbally commanded her to follow him. She gave a short nod in understanding and he turned on his heel to start walking back on the wooden deck. The puny creaks were barely audible now under his feet, with the wind howling in their ears. So she followed, somehow managing to convince herself strong and collected, while feeling her own constantly allegro footsteps individually.
He continued up a small staircase. Conjuring a small golden key, he managed to wrench the door open after spinning it around in its keyhole with a seemingly impressive demonstration of skill and precision.
She tilted her head with blank eyes. His long tailcoat fluttered like tail- feathers, as he started up another flight of intimidating stairs. /More stairs!/ she thought to herself with profound annoyance /How many stairs are around here anyways? No wonder it's so huge!/
As they continued, the guide unlocked four other doors before continuing back up another long flight of stairs. She thought that she might have been impressed, if she hadn't had a slight haze of nausea accompanying her ever since the ship became airborne. Trying to get her mind off of the rather sick reaction, Maiaza was understanding a pattern now, and ran the information through her head a few times so that she would (hopefully) remember later.
Then there was the other thought biting sharply at her mind. Why on Gaia did that ticket man fetch this ~special~ guide, for the rather ~un-special~ her? She began to constantly look around her for the real person being treated with special care, but all she saw was stairs, wood-paneled walls and a few random paintings.
Finally, he led her to a hallway that according to the laws of repetition carried in the other walls, should have held the next locked door. Instead, he made a ninety-degree-angle turn to the right, almost causing Maiaza to bump into him unprofessionally at the pause. There were three sets of doors here, noticeably further apart than the others; only three of them.
He led her down to the one at the very end of the hall. Two, mahogany twins stood, somberly unmoving doubles of each other. Someone with incredible skill had decorated the otherwise bland entrances with little bits and pieces of chipped woods, placed in puzzle-like patterns. They formed a quietly serene scene of loopy leaves, and what appeared to be two identical foxes.
"Fox room, correct madam?" he asked, and she quickly fumbled a bit with the stub of her ticket. The text on the bottom-right hand corner confirmed what she was looking for.
"Yes." She heard herself say, voice sounding a bit unusual to her. He pulled out his ring of keys, and slipped one into the bronze keyhole. Pulling the chosen one out, he turned to sculpted knob, pushing it open slowly.
And Maiaza finally understood why the ticket man was so generous.
It must have taken a fortune to rent this room, plain and simply put. Her bag somehow escaped her relaxing grasp as she stood, gawking at the sight of her temporary residence.
The ~basic~ perimeter of the area was a huge octagon, with crystal clear and silk draped windows that loomed to the tall ceiling on four sides. Two other sides on almost opposite sides of each other were mahogany single doors, that on contrary to the chipped placements on the entrance doors, were delicate forest scenes carved directly on them, and the ceiling showed the underside of an arc-style roof. Three chandeliers hung from that and were artfully applied with different length chain, all brightly and completely lit.
She noticed the little rainbows reflected from the lights, dancing jovially on the thick, red carpet. The chandeliers must have been created completely from a rare type of ore to create that effect, and anyone who knew anything about rocks, knew it wasn't cheap.
A massive four-poster bed stood regally in the midst of it all, and was probably large enough to fit an entire farming family under the covers, without it being crowded. And there were so many embroidered and tasseled pillows lying on the top that you could barely make out the gold sheets underneath.
Her body sprinted over to one of the doors without thought, after an eternity of staring. She opened it carefully, believing somehow that it would all collapse and crumble at her feet if she pulled too hard. But all it turned out to be was a plain, whitewashed closet. An incredibly large closet that looked as if it could house the room she had all those years, yet with a purpose that was undeniably dull.
She raced back over to the other door to see what else came with her donated ticket. This one turned out to hold an intricate bathroom with a mini chandelier of its own, causing the lovely blue-ish marble to sparkle in the candlelight. This. . .was all to good to be true for Maiaza.
Without realizing it, tears flooded up quickly in her eyes as she turned to face the guide that was waiting patiently at the entrance doors. She smiled, wider than she had ever smiled before, and with a completely genuine quality that made him shift his weight uncomfortably.
"If you need a servant, page, or just food, pull that string right there." There were more strings, but Maiaza saw clearly that the man was trying to leave as soon as possible. /Nice going Mai, now he'll be suspicious. It's not like the people he normally deals with just start spontaneously crying!/
"Thank you," her voice was almost a whisper in case it wanted to crack, but it managed to serve its purpose. The man hurried out without another word.
The room seemed so large now that she was the only one left in it. Just a poor, confused girl shoved straight into life, she supposed.
Her foot tapped experimentally on the lush carpeting, with an odd feel to it now. So much different than the feel and sound of her toes and heels clicking against wood and stone. . .though, she wasn't sure which surface she liked better, yet.
Finally, she gave into the suddenly strengthened gravity and collapsed into the luscious, velvet and silk pillows. This was really to good to be true.
Then, she wept.
~*~*~*~
Fredrick Coral was one of the most respected bounty hunters in Lindblum. Not nearly as popular as the famed 'Night Rose', but still respectable. And being a bounty hunter in Lindblum of all places, was quite interesting because of the zero-tolerance the regent was known to have for the likes of him.
Technically, his work was mainly out of Daggero, but it was awfully difficult to collect valuable bounties in an oversized library. Now Lindblum on the other hand. . .here was an interesting place!
His cloaked figure dominated the nearly deserted streets, his feet making no sound on the cobblestones after the years of practice in stealth any mystery. He kicked a dislodged gray stone absently. This was certainly not a good time to be out on the streets, but he knew he would come out practically unscathed. No one would ever confront ~him~.
/Odd, how a bounty hunter is tracking down a bounty hunter./
The Night Rose was an endless source of nightmares and sleepless nights for the citizens of Lindblum. Problem was, Lindblum would not be a pretty place without its most active and ironic crime-fighter.
Everyone knew that the Lindblum guards would never be able to keep the streets of Lindblum relatively clean without outside help. And he certainly wasn't talking about street-sweepers. The regent obviously had thought somewhere along these lines before, and had kept quiet, turning away from the nastiness. But his lenient side for the Night Rose had slowly been ripped apart in the past few months.
/With good reason./ What the Night Rose was, and all it seemed to stand for still sent dislodged shivers up and down Fredrick's spine. Even after all he had seen, there was nothing quite like ~that~ bounty hunter.
At first, when he had first heard the stories, he brushed them off carelessly thinking it was only another ridiculous rumor-mill with an overactive imagination.
/And oh, how wrong I was./
It was after he had been sparring with a friend back at the castle. He was walking home alone on a purplish evening without a care in the world. He had just chuckled at a memory, and adjusted his pack of spare clothes, when he heard the screams.
Thinking it was just a petty scare in the midst of a crowd made of attractive young maidens, he started off in good spirits. It was always worth the popularity.
He sighed in reality, thrusting his ice-cold fingers down his pockets. The large square, the makeshift torches appearing constantly out of the darkness, and the moon hanging over the imposing cathedral were all main ideas that popped into his weary mind of the incident. But none of them were the main thought of the sixteen-year-old boy, walking into pandemonium.
At the very tip of the cathedral, an intricate point always jutted out to the sky. But back then, it had a body hanging off, the point stabbed neatly through the man's heart.
Fredrick's heart had almost stopped at the scene, when he finally spotted the Night Rose.
It seemed to had just materialized from the shadows, the ridiculously long cloak not betraying its still figure, or its calm as it billowed in the light wind. He had felt so horrible because of the guilty pleasure he held of something that could be so horrid, and inhuman could appear so. . .beautiful. Though even that seemed insignificant compared to the nausea he felt, tears had tumbled unstoppable down his smooth cheeks.
As he somberly looked back on that day, he noticed something else. He had seemed to grow up on that day; he began to really ~care~. Advantage-taking seemed so useless afterwards, and from then on, he tried to keep his actions brave and honorific.
On that day, with the dim, and even steadily increasing amounts of light, it was almost impossible to tell the true identity of the Night Rose. Hell, even now, a full five years after it first made its appearance, nobody even knew its ~gender~. However, Fredrick was almost certain it was male. No. . .~female~ he had ever encountered would do things like that, and continue to lead that sort of gruesome life. Even Lady Freya of Burmecia wouldn't have done that, and though women were to be respected in their own right, that rather barbaric style was clearly NOT feminine.
But it didn't really matter. Whoever the Night Rose really was, Fredrick had decided, must be insane anyway.
And most grown men would not be able to stand up to it for the shortest seconds without panic. He envied that girl he had met briefly, earlier that day. It must have taken a great deal of courage to stand her ground opposite the Night Rose, unarmed, and already facing the harsh reality of her deceased family. It wouldn't have been surprising if the gangly thing had simply run herself into its long katana before it did anything. He smiled a bit to himself. She would certainly do well, and he carried the nagging feeling that he would meet her again someday.
He stopped in mid-step, somehow not falling forward on his face, and retraced a few steps to turn around a corner. Here, the few residences were much farther apart, fading from 'modest' to full-blown 'prosperous'.
/Better go visit mum and dad./ he finally decided. /They would have a fit if they found out I was around here without telling them./
His long legs shot over a large puddle in a graceful leap, his cloak drifting eerily behind him, coupled with a smirk stamped clearly across his face as he turned his head back to face the wet monstrosity. /Nice./ His feet still carried him forward, so he wrenched his head back to its natural position with the momentum created by his shoulders to face--
A lamppost.
The distinct ping of skull on cold metal echoed through the neighborhood. Fredrick's face burned as he tucked his hood firmly back over his had, glad that most of the dreadful snow had melted. He shivered, imagining how the unwelcome cold would have felt if slipped down his shirt to bare-back. . .
/I just hope mum's cooking has improved! This is turning out to be a horrid day, and I ~really~ don't want it to get any worse than it already is./
So, he made it out of the neighborhood; ~relatively~ unscathed.
~*~*~*~
*falls out of the seat, twitching*
Sorry folks, about the long update time, but I'm sick at home, so don't yell at me. . .*sniffle*
Sorry, I just went brain-dead, so I have no interesting things to comment about. Toodles, and hope you had an amusing Tofu-rkey day *sneeze*
(a very sick) giggle
PS - I still don't know how to spell egsaturated. . .exadurated. . .I mean, oh damn. - . -