bloodstains.
with apologies to dear old william s., from whom the quote is borrowed.
* * *
"Watch yourself, boy!"
One second there was a rabid, wolflike creature threatening to tackle him, the next there was a scattering of blood and fur lying next to a corpse, and the Magus standing between them, lowering his scythe. Crono fumbled for the sword that the monster had been lucky enough to knock out of his hand, rising and brushing himself off.
"I think that's the last of them," Lucca reported, sounding a little winded as she walked toward them. The young woman shoved her gun into its holster and ducked a low-hanging tree branch, trying her best not to look at the twisted bodies of the monsters lying haphazardly where they'd fallen all around the forest clearing.
Crono nodded at her, glancing around for a second. Pursing his lips, he rummaged through his shoulder bag before pulling out a dirty cloth and starting to wipe the goop and ichor from his Rainbow.
"Thanks for the help," he said, glancing up once at Magus.
The sorcerer's fearsome scythe had already vanished, gone back to wherever it rested between battles. Magus's face and the front of his leather armor were spattered with tiny red rivulets and little drops, obviously not his own, and he was absently licking the blood from his gloved fingers while his eyes--equally crimson as the mess he'd just made--sought Crono's in acknowledgment.
The spiky-haired boy paled a little as he watched the taller man's actions, and Magus grinned ghoulishly.
"Any time."
They stood there for a while longer, the silence a little awkward, as Lucca brushed herself off and Magus finished grooming himself. Crono watched with a somewhat morbid fascination while long, spindly fingers, clothed as always in shiny brown leather, were lightly caressed by a tongue that seemed startlingly pink next to the sorcerer's pallid complexion. Magus was on the last finger by the time Crono had the nerve to blurt--
"Why in the world are you doing that?"
A faint smirk, amused in a bitter way, and a moment of silence met this sudden outburst. The wizard's reply, when it came, had the air of a long-memorized and oft-repeated quotation.
"I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er."
Crono wasn't sure he understood. Lucca, on the other hand, was giving the Magus a penetrating glance, as if she recognized the words. The boy's blue eyes met the man's crimson, and they watched each other for a long, tense moment.
"All right, enough of that!" Lucca's voice broke the spell, and she stepped between them, making as if to drag Crono away. "Come on, children, everyone else is waiting for us..."
Magus made no move for several seconds longer as the other two started to walk away. Crono turned his head to find the sorcerer gazing off toward the far end of the clearing, countenance pained and distant. He turned, pointed ears twitching slightly, and raised one eyebrow as he mouthed at the boy: 'Why not?'
Crono looked away again as the sorcerer came to catch up with them, pale face expressionless once more. Only the crunch of leaves and rustle of the brush marked their passage as they walked down the path out of the forest.