IF THERE BE THORNS
By Maggie Griffin
CHAPTER 10: Take To The Wind
Author's Note: I should point out that this chapter contains some 'suggestive' content. Mainly some nudity. The next few chapters may/may not also contain something along those lines. If you can't deal with that....bite me! :) The rest of you, enjoy!
**********
It was near nightfall when she awoke. The streets were almost deserted, clearly only meant for those who dealt in something darker then those of everyday life. Cut-throats and thieves, who took to the streets in the night like bats to flight.
But she did not know this.
The little creature coughed violently, her wings spreading themselves out around her nude, fragile body.
~Wings?~
She blinked, and looked down at herself. Only then did she notice her nakedness, there in that filthy street. But that alone would have been appalling enough, had it not been for the other frightening oddities that struck her.
~My body...WHAT'S HAPPENED TO MY BODY?~
Looking down at herself, she could clearly see the chalk-white pallor her skin had become. Instead for the lightly tanned Arabian complexion she had always possessed, there was a flour-whiteness to her skin, as though she were some sort of phantom. Her hair, which had remained its original mix of brown and black, contrasted sharply against her new skin.
If that alone was not frightening enough, then the new muscles connected to her back certainly were.
Long white wings extended out from her shoulder blades. Held together by thin bones hidden under pearl-white feathers, which even then were collecting the dust and grime of the earth as they moved weakly against the ground she sat upon. They were large, so much so she could have folded them around her small body quite the way.
She shivered violently, her breathing coming harder to her, and her head feeling light, as though she were having trouble hanging on to reality.
"C....C...CHAOS!"
Her scream echoed around her, and she saw that despite her new physical additions, she had retained her normal voice, fearful stutter and all.
"Trouble Aini?"
The seem to come out of nowhere, and yet before her, materialized the transparent features of the Master of Intrigue. Chaos slowly came to view, making himself seen to the younger girl.
"Wh...what h..have you done?" Ai managed to stutter, and it truly was her.
"Whatever do you mean?" Chaos purred, turning upside down lazily as he spoke. "I brought you back to life....I took two years off of your time to recover your ruined body. Are you not pleased?"
His tone almost angered the smaller girl, but her fear of him kept her from saying anything, and her voice came out a choked, pathetic whimper.
"But....but what have you done to me?"
Chaos made a 'tsk noise with his fangs, clicking them together in annoyance, as if her question annoyed him. He stared down at Ai, his eyes narrowing slightly. When he spoke, it sounded as though he were chiding her.
"What were you expecting? That I simply bring you back human, scratch two years, and off you go?" His form rumbled, and this time Ai recognized it for the low laugh it was. "What sort of fun would that be?"
Aini's eyes widened in shock, and she felt the wings at her back twitch to her emotional response to Chaos' words.
"F...Fun? I d..don't even look like m..me anymore!" Tears filled her eyes, which had remained their crystalline green, despite the rest of her transformation. "I don't...e...even look h...h...human!"
"And what is so wrong with not being human, Hm?" Chaos demanded, his eyes narrowing even more in anger. "I rather think it's an improvement to your old form!" he huffed.
"Please....please turn me back!" Ai pleated, begging Chaos, who simply shook his head and looked away as though dismissing the idea completely. "Please...."
"Here...you'll need these!" Chaos spoke, changing the subject completely as clothing appeared, covering Aini's small form. It was a deep green cloak, and it hid most of her rather well. The hood came to rest over her head, and she found that if she folded her wings tight against her body, they weren't even visible beneath the clothes.
She stood shakily, holding onto the side wall for support. The new wings added an extra, unfamiliar weight to her body, and she had to keep herself steady carefully, or risk falling over onto her back.
"You'll get used to it!" Chaos muttered, his joy at what he had created apparently all steamed out.
"Why did you d..do this?" Ai asked, her voice turning to a neutral tone.
Chaos shrugged. "Come now. This will add for an all-together fascinating plot twist!" he reasoned, trying to make her feel better about it. "And you will get used to it eventually! You'll even get to like it!"
"But...how can I show myself to anyone now?" Ai whimpered, her head turned to the floor dejectedly. "How can I l...let anyone see...me?!"
Chaos chuckled, rolling his eyes. "My, what drama. What will your friends think of you? Indeed....what will that one person think...what was his name again...ah....," Chaos trailed off, looking at Ai pointedly.
"Arbutus," Aini stated, her eyes widening in realization. "I....I died for him. He think's I'm d...dead, doesn't he? They....they all do," Ai turned her eyes accusingly at Chaos, who had come to smile as Ai had remembered what had happened. "How long? How long have I been gone?" She demanded, fear rising in her voice. Fear of what he would say.
"A year!"
Aini swayed violently, and her grasp on the wall was the only thing that saved her from falling in a dead faint. She shook her head in disbelief, not wanting to accept what Chaos was telling her, but knowing she had no choice. Knowing it was the truth.
"A year...one year? So long....?" She murmured, shaking her head slowly from side to side.
Chaos nodded with a grin.
"How.....," she turned once more to look at Chaos, but the small creature had vanished from sight. "Chaos?"
When nothing met her to answer, Ai was not at all surprised. She hadn't really expected Chaos to be able to stick around long enough to tell her all he had already spoken. She didn't doubt however, that wherever he was know, he would be watching her closely.
And for him, the show would go on.
**********
For most of the evening, Aini wandered about Agrabah. Many times, her feet had taken her in the direction of the palace, but at the last moment, she had ended up turning to some stray street, and wandering away from it instead.
In her heart, she desperately wanted to be re-united with her friends. Desperately wanted to feel the touch of Arbutus' hand on her cheek. But always, she was reminded that her new form would not be accepted among them. That somehow, no matter what, they would not look at her the same way. That they would contain some small seed of doubt that she wasn't really who she claimed to be. Didn't belong among them.
Arbutus would hate her.
That thought alone, scarred Aini more then the wounds of her death had.
"What a cruel trick...," she sighed for what must of been the hundredth time that night. Yet her bare feet kept walking, pushing past the small pebbles and bits of sand that met them. Luckily, they were also covered by the cloak, which dragged slightly behind her, giving her a menacing appearance.
And so, her feet took her to many places in the city, and yet it was when she stood at the entrance to a well-known place that she paused.
The Cloak and Dagger.
During her humanity, as she liked to think of it as now, she had stayed as far away from this place as possible, terrified of the sort of men and women that occupied it once the sun had hit the horizon, vanishing from sight.
Yet this night, she found herself moving inside the structure, moving past the many leering figures and to her own table at the furthest side of the room, preferring to stay in the dim light of a candle if anyone strayed to close to her.
Although her hood fell over her head and face, and her eyes rested on the chipped wood of the table, Ai could feel the eyes blazing into her, watching her. Somehow, she knew that most of the occupant's attention at the Cloak and Dagger was drawn to her.
~Why did I ever come in here?~ She found herself pondering, shutting her eyes tightly. She was about to stand abruptly and make haste out the door when a shadow passed across the table, and someone sat down across from her.
She froze.
"You look all-together like a newcomer here. I do hope your better conversation then some of these other...peasants!"
Aini's hands shook underneath her clock, so she locked them together tightly, trying her best to keep her voice firm and her stutter straightened. The voice didn't sound at all threatening, rather somewhat cocky and annoying.
But not dangerous, at least.
"That depends on what you want to talk about!"
Aini resisted the urge to pat herself on the back for how clear and firm her voice came out. She marvelled that she had managed to string a whole sentence in her situation without stuttering once.
With her newfound slight bravery, she found enough courage to look up to the face of the man talking to her.
When she looked up to him, they both appeared started.
Aini was started, because she recognized who was speaking to her, and felt an instant chill of fear run down her spine where she had previously thought she might get away with a fearless conversation.
Mechanicles.
The Greek's face was frozen in an expression of surprise, and Aini suddenly realized her error. Even in the dim candlelight, he could still see the un natural pallor of her face, the inhumanity of it.
She arose a lot quicker then she had though possible, and before Mechanicles could utter a word, she was half-way across the room, heading steadily for the exit.
"Hey....HEY STOP!" Mechanicles cried out suddenly, shaken from his stupor. But the girl, who looked no older then sixteen, was already out the door and in the street. In quick strides, Mechanicles found himself in the street, and just barely managed to catch a glimpse of a corner of a dark green cloak vanishing behind a street corner, and out of sight.
"STOP! WAIT!"
He ran after her then, not really sure of what he had seen, but positive that what he thought he had seen he had to make sure of.
The girl had been incredibly beautiful.
Her face had been the colour of the cleanest ivory, her eyes a liquid green that seemed to almost shine in the dimness of the Cloak and Dagger. Her voice, when she had spoken, had been light and glass-like, like that of a child. But behind it had been something more. Something hidden. A tone that suggested knowledge, and great suffering.
When he finally reached the street where he was sure she had vanished off to, he stopped abruptly, and looked around in shock.
It was a dead end, and yet she had vanished.
**********
From high above, Aini watched the figure below look around in surprise, and was unable to resist a small smile coming over her lips as she watched his shake his head, then turn and leave.
~That'll teach you to run after me!~ She laughed to herself happily, glad she had been able to do what she had done.
She had flown.
Of course, she had done it completely nude, but that was besides the point. The cloak rested in her hands, and she quickly bent down out of sight, and cut it so that it was in three different sections. One was the top, which hugged around her breasts and fell slightly around her stomach, with a straps holding it around the shoulders and the back open for her wings. The hood was connected to it to hide her face.
The bottom she tore to make a long dress-like piece, which she scrunched up at the top to keep it from opening. The slit down the middle she moved so that it was at her side, making it look more like a long skirt then what had once been a cloak.
Satisfied, she ran off the side of the structure she had flown up to, and took to the sky.
Aini laughed as she flew. Despite her sorrow at her appearance, sure that she was now a monster, the feeling of flight, of the wing against her face, was too much to not be able to enjoy.
Once she was high above, she found herself heading for a direction she had previously not even thought she would ever go again. Yet her wings seemed to have developed a mind of their own at that moment as she flew, and she knew there would be no turning back.
She had learned at the Cloak and Dagger, that she couldn't stay hidden in the shadows forever.
So she flew, and the hours spun into each other.
Soon the dawn was just approaching, though the sun had not yet began to peek over the horizon in the far North.
Arbutus' Garden looked in the distance.
**********
Next, Aini is re-united with Arbutus, but their reunion doesn't go as she hoped.
And for a special extra, here is a picture of pre-dead, human-Aini: http://www.mediaminer.org/fanart/view.php?id=35354