Misgivings ((WARNING!!! PLEASE READ AHEAD IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ REALLY LONG AUTHORESS RANT!!!))
A/N: This is a Landis-centered fic. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Reviwers: I want to thank great many of you for your opinions. Next is my unsettling happiness at those reviewers that were kind enough to thoroughly read through my entire chapters. The mistakes you pointed out to me are right and I understand more often than not, I miss things before I post. I thank you for your extensive reading and even more your suggestions. I'll try to write more eloquently in English. Yes, yes, English is my second language so I have trouble with grammar. I wish that you would respect all types of social standings within any groups or such. Goths are people. Fucking deal with that. Poetry is fucking poetry. It doesn't matter whether or not you are reading something as creative as a Shel Silverstein poem or "The Red Wheelbarrow" which is virtually simplistic in all thought.
Anyway, I am sorry if I sound angry but I am. I do not intend to get overly angry because of your reviews or flames, but it is to show that yes, I do have a long way to go in my own writing that frustrates me. My plot however is very diverse and resides more in the gothic and supernatural realm. That is why eyes tend to glow even if it doesn't seem to be in the game. I haven't played the game within two years because I borrowed and finished the game in all three perspectives during one summer in which I did join the SCB then. So I cannot exactly remember some of the more exact things that happen within each person. The reason this is mostly on Landis is because I wanted to make a story based on my favorite winghorder's past. This is a story that delves into the reason that why he wants to fight for the firebringer and also why he is so fucking morbid.
The last things before I get on with the next chapter are about my two characters. Gabrielle is going to be explained within the last two chapters while Zoe-I is explained in either this one or the next two. Neither are Mary-sues, simply because Zoe-I isn't beautiful, mysterious, or exactly a charming person whose huge or anything. She's just a normal woman who is embraced by Landis's memory. Gabrielle is not one for she doesn't get with Landis or anything. Read and you will find out what part she plays within the rest of his existence. Give people a damned chance, thank you very much for enduring this long rant. I am sorry to those I've offended but this is something that needed to be put off my chest.
Thank you.
Summary of what happens before the story with Landis's relationships:
Ayame and Sasari (when I started this story) were already together and married. In the SCB they have had two children and are still together. Ayame is considered to be a friend to Landis simply because he spars a lot with her and is more or less an acquaintance. Lucia is the only one from the Dunan Unification War that can see Landis as Sid. (Not a lot of people remember him, but she does because she experienced a similar experience with him.) Lastly, Hortez VIII is merely a business associate because of the fact that Landis keeps the caverns free from being overgrown with monsters for the people of Budehec.
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The leathery black wings folded themselves protectively around his body, waiting in case they would get attacked. Silently wishing his nightmare and guilt would end; he wished for his death once more much to the marring of an individual's visage, which could not be seen from the shadows. The person stood straight up from the position they had been in and easily vanished without a trace in the air that they had been there.
All the meanwhile, Landis came to terms on why he never drank alcohol the next morning.
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"The Moon, she hangs like a cruel portrait
Soft winds whisper the bidding of the trees
As this tragedy starts with a shattered glass heart
And the Midnightmare trampling of dreams
But oh, no tears please
Fear and pain may accompany Death
But it is desire that shephards it's certainty
As we shall see...."
-"Her Ghost in the Fog" Cradle of Filth
Conversation: A Place For My Head
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"Where are you going?" He knew that he would have to tell her. Ever since he had woken up earlier, Landis had been dealing with his slight headache. He hadn't drunken that much from the tavern but then again, he didn't have to. He was a natural lightweight when it came to the sinful drink that made even the most respected easily as the most despicable.
The silent pounding within his skull was nothing to the building anger he was trying to keep under control. He needed perfect control until he was to leave the spirit-forsaken place of Budehec castle. He had to in order to leave. It had started snowing outside. The deep rich white that fell drew those that watched in fervor, many of them children.
He had found his lone companion right there with the group of students. Ernie's mother, Christine, watching over her charges a gentle smile upon her face. The smile only faltered when Landis had initially appeared. On his back, he upheld a canvas bag instead of his scythe. The beautifully sharp edged weapon was sheathed into the rod so that it appeared to be a harmless stave.
Gabrielle had instantly noticed him and he knew that she wouldn't understand why he was leaving. It was something that he did every year during the winter since the winter contained nothing but festivities for those who had merry lives even in this time of war. He had looked oddly upon the child that he was friendly enough with, amusing the child enough to cock her head to the side.
"I am leaving for the Two Rivers." His voice seemed off to the small child. Her lavender hair crinkled upon the green sweater Muto had given to her for her birthday that year. Muto was the one who had invited her family to come and fight for the war in their own way. Her small peach hands clasped what seemed to be a bundle of cloth. Her face contorted into a childish pout that a child of eleven years should never try. Landis only watched, bemused with her attempt.
"Why don't you stay for Christmas?" She wanted him to stay so that he could see the obvious happiness she and her family had. She had noticed that whenever she talked with Landis, his one bright ocular seemed to be harsh and cold though gleeful when he was causing someone discomfort, like Mio or even Dr. Tuta. Few people could understand the man she had come to somewhat translate. He was looking as if she might be a good piece of meat over a spit. She gulped inwardly. It was a look she had often found herself at the end of, but also she was afraid of it even more.
"I have obligations." He answered her. The teacher was watching the serious exchange in mere confusion. Many of the residents had passed the rumor that Landis, if you met him at all, was the devil's right hand man. Gabrielle looked down from her stare into his one scarlet jewel. She was trying to make sure he stayed but she had her doubts.
"What obligations?" She raised her voice, concerned for the welfare of her friend, a dangerous and lethal friend, but a considered friend nonetheless. Gabrielle wanted to share her joy with him even if his sadness and anger seemed to overtake her often in their conversations.
"I need to pay a few people a visit." He sounded casual but it was harsh with the undertone of graveness in it. In that voice was the sound of someone from long before she had entered into his life. His past hung onto him worse than anything she had known, and were the worse part of him. Biting upon her lip, Gabrielle looked up to see the frowning winghorder. Seeing this, she was slightly angered at herself and not having any ability of persuasion work upon this frightful creation.
"I'll see you when you come back. May the spirits keep you." Gabrielle sighed in defeat. She knew that Landis could take care of himself. He had for nearly fifteen years. Taking another sigh, the lavender-topped child turned to watch her friend with sad green eyes. He nodded, affirming his decision to leave anyway. Moving away from her without a goodbye, as he said too many good-byes in his life, Landis began his long trip. It would take a few hours by flight if he caught good thermals to glide easily on.
His tight shirts, three layers, (at least two fleece) and two layers of tight pants warmed easily this early in the wintry weather he would have to fly though. His dark eye scanned the gates as he walked away, showing Cecille, after grinning suggestively towards her, his papers to leave as she and the other guards had gotten a command to not let 'certain' people through. He being one of seven. (Shabon, Ernie, Shannon, little Viki, Kidd, Hortez VIII, and himself.) Reasons pertaining to running away, brainlessness, losing oneself's way, being troublesome, and in his case, for want of death and destruction.
His walk was quick as he was let through. Running through the frosted plains, he kept his pace deliberate and speedy, agile in case something suddenly came into view before he flew on a really excellent thermal. His began unfolding yet still close to his body as a hill began speeding up in his vision. Upon reaching the anticipated downhill, they opened wide; a thermal rising to meet his leather-bound wings as the wind underneath them lifted his agile body gradually upwards.
The dark flesh melded into the gray sky. A quick updraft thermal and he was set. Climbing higher and higher, he felt the bonds of society, a society he would gladly purge, be relinquished. Euphoria of bliss set upon his shaken form of death, allowing his life to break free of that mortality and dimmed view that the mortals below him endured. He was free much like from an eternal nightmare and his mind didn't set into the reason of why he went.
He was only slightly happy. The bliss nothing more than epheramel. He was nothing. He connected with nothing and was free to ways that were unknown to those below them. Once his proud civilization had lived this way, but the darkened days of eight years ago set once more upon his mind. Taking a sigh at the remembrance of many days before this flight, his wings took to the familiar flight patterns, swooshing with a flap of the leather appendages.
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It was autumn, the soften gold of the wind spreading amongst the Two River folk easily. The harvests out in the fields were plentiful, filled to the brim with the seeds that had been sowed. Chaco, a winghorder of great importance, flew above this crop harvesting. His features were full of amusement. He didn't understand these humans so well, but what he understood was the fact that they were almost as complex as winghordes.
In fact, being so engrossed into the humans' activities; Chaco didn't notice the flap of wings behind or the looming blade that came with them. With a husky voice, meant to be dark and manipulative, spoke to the ringleader of thieves within a single word as the thing's tongue lashed out, licking behind Chaco's ear.
"Boo." With that said, the sandpaper tongue went back into the dark formed mouth behind canines that could make a tiger jealous. A scream after a shudder down his spine, Chaco's eyes darted behind him as he turned slowly afraid to find what he knew he would supposedly except that he hadn't. Worried, he looked over the field, darting his eyes back and forth.
"SID!! I know you're here!!! Get back here!! I'm gonna kick your ass and then rip your wings off!! You stupid faerie!!" A few of the harvesters looked up to see the winghorde leader scream like a child even if he was fourteen. The one called Sid shook his head from his hiding place in the shadow of one of the harvested carts. A grin pasted upon his ghoulish face. His feral grin, wide and menacing was something to behold. It made his face seem evil yet as a woman worker from the fields came up to the cart that most of the workers were avoiding now, it seemed amused.
Sid was entertained to say in the least. She was a brave one. The worker put her load in then looked to the shadowed winghorder. She had alarming green eyes. Her eyes, he supposed, were her brightest features. She certainly wasn't Dunan. Most Dunan residents didn't have green eyes nor her other alarming feature, he saw peeking underneath her straw thatch hat, blonde hair. He was surprised but surmised that she was extended family or a refugee from another country seeking protection.
"Could you please go somewhere else to hide? The workers need to get the harvest finished and you're stopping most of them from putting their loads in this cart or else it will be their hides they will have to pay with." Her body was grotesque to the standards of the Dunan men, but in her own way she seemed kind of free-spirited as if even with the entire dirt upon her face and arms, she didn't really worry about much. She had freckles standing out against her rosy-tinged cheeks. He nodded, after a few seconds of thinking that he would do what this groundling of a peasant would wish.
Sighing in relief, she smiled and began to walk back to her working field. Snatching her arm before she could fully turn to go, he allowed an amused smile slip into place. She looked back, astonished at him. This was the first time anyone ever paid her attention unless it was about her ugly looks compared to the skinny, gaunt women who personified the beauty of Dunan. (Think Geisha.)
"Y-yes?"
"Huh. Who are you?" He reassured her with a toothy grin that seemed to be slightly reassuring, if it weren't for those elongated canines that made the winged man appear like a demon in the shadow of the carriage. Her wide-open eyes reflected her fear. He could find her soul deep within them almost as if she didn't know that her eyes were the avatars of her thoughts.
"K-K-Kawasumi, Z-Zoe-I," she replied to him. Her shivering continued at his touch upon her forearm. His touch sparked her skin to jump, as she was a deer caught into his trap ready for the slaughter to begin with the reaping scythe he held in his other hand. "A-And you?"
"Makonawa Sid," He briefly spoke seeing her hesitance and at once, he wanted her not to be afraid around him. Shaking his head clear of such inane thoughts, he retracted his grip and turned tail to the city beyond the fields. Looking down, Zoe-I noticed he had left now bruises or cutting marks like she had expected with his grip upon her skin just an imprint of where it once was. Deftly her hand traced it and she noticed within the caress of her fingers, his touch, though almost chilled to the bone, screamed out against the muffled cries he held in what he wanted to be but never could.
Being an empath, or a person able to discern emotions and such by touch or glance or even presence, she could tell his feelings. Most women called this woman's intuition but she knew it wasn't. Shaking her head clear of the rather mild and slightly frightening distraction, she returned to her work of reaping the crops the farmers had sown into the once hard-packed ground. Her co-workers congratulated her as she returned although one could tell that behind those somewhat jovial faces they thought piteously of her.
'He wasn't that frightening,' She reassured to herself.
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Since the Dunan Unification War had ended, Sid had gotten used to walking around during the day though he preferred the moist, humble abodes of the caverns and sewers. His wings folded against his back as he walked towards the forest by the fields. The fields were fully done as everyone was left celebrating the festival. Looking up from the path that she took home, Zoe-I noticed the familiar hulking figure and immediately wondered if she should call out to him.
As uneasy as she was, she let bygones be bygones and called out to him.
"Makonawa-san!!" Sid blinked upwards, half-expecting her to flee and scream from his ghastly appearance. He hadn't take a bath in a few days and his hair was strung with bits of pieces of dirt and leaves from wandering around the forest. There was the occasional speck of blood upon his blue tunic but nothing otherwise. Walking over with a bright carefree smile that Sid had never been on the receiving end of before; she caused him to blush somewhat at the sudden kind attention.
"Kawasumi-san." He stated coolly as if he hadn't known her before as anything but an unkind rival though his mind told a different story. He was infuriated with himself and the words that he had said in that tone as if he didn't care. He did but it was uncomfortable without explanation of why.
"Where are you going?" She asked, curiosity getting the better part of her mind. Sid didn't trust his tongue not to flop uselessly in his mouth as he tried to answer. He opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it and pointed down the path in clear view as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He was not going to allow some HUMAN to screw him up he thought as he gritted his teeth behind his closed lips.
"Ah, I see!! Can I come with you? My home is that way." He scrunched up his nose and nodded, not really caring too much. As they walked, he noticed her work clothes matched her green eyes well; the material and color different than the others in the field even if it was smudged with dirt. Her work hat, a flat disc of yellow straw wrapped in an intricate pattern, made it hard for those green eyes to be shown.
"My house is just beyond the river here. Once we go there, I can give you some dinner for walking me to my small home." The path they walked on was very noticeable from the rather dense greenery. The wandering eye could find flowers of almost any kind as they passed through. When he eventually looked through, he saw that they had to cross the river on the stones that came out of the rushing water. He wondered why she didn't make a wooden bridge instead of depending upon slick moss-covered stones.
However, he didn't voice his thoughts as he used his clawed feet to grip onto the moss-covered, water-slicked stones. Each time he jumped he wondered how well she could manage this. Once landing on the soft bank of the river, he waited for her. His eyes watching as she jumped onto the first stone, barely slipping on her grip. Kawasumi had darkened feet from working barefoot in the fields and also walking alongside the winghorder through the forest, so her grip was good until the water created in its stead, mud.
She took a few more jumps till she was on the fifth away from the bank when she jumped onto the fourth and slid. Her grip failing, screaming as she fell backwards, hitting a rock underneath the water knocking her unconscious. Sid looked alarmed as he dropped his scythe immediately and flew overhead. The winghorder easily found the floating hat, but the body he was looking for was not attached to it. He scanned the river for her form with his myriad-colored eyes.
A few meters away from the rocks, a slim had slid up, a body partially following. His wings beat then pressed his body as he dived. The leathery attachments outstretched as he came near, his hands grabbing her slim arm pulled her up from the icy water. She was completely drenched and was weighing his wings down, taxing them.
'This wouldn't have happened if I merely told her to get in my arms and fly with me over!!' He cursed himself deep in his mind. Though he hated to admit it, he had grown to respect her only slightly, though he considered her vulgar-looking, except for her hair and her eyes, weak, and mostly ignorant. She was brave enough to ask him to go somewhere else as if it really mattered to him whether or not he was causing trouble.
He reached down with his other arm and pulled her wet body up to his chest, so that she didn't weigh him down so much. Flying down to the bank, he landed softly upon the dark brown sand. His wings almost giving out as they landed. Sid's otherworldly attachments were screaming in pain and exhaustion. He didn't have much practice carrying another person's weight as he flew with water weight added on from their soaking bodies and clothes.
Laying her down, almost lying himself down as well, he checked for any signs of breathing. Doing this he kept wondering he was saving this human who made him contently understand her. She seemed to be so foolish and brave to befriend a demon like him and yet she understood him partially because of the mask they both had to wear. She had to act much like an obedient dog when her lord came into view and he was the darkness itself when he had to keep people away from him, though he didn't mind having Chaco near.
He noticed no signs of breathing and surmised that she must've had held in water. Tuta's lessons, he remembered vividly as he watched the children below from a tree, were on revival of a drowned friend or person. Quickly, remembering the steps he had learned from listening and watching he opened her mouth. His hands shook in either disbelief at himself or at his uncertainty to save her. He had never attempted to save anyone from drowning before, and he only attempted saving people that the leader of his army had ordered him to.
'Shit.' He thought as his lips fell upon hers, forcing air much needed into her lung capacity. His face picking up as he placed both claw-like hands on her chest, flat to the palm. The coldness seeped through his fingertips causing him to realize how long she must've not been able to breathe. He pounded five times then checked to see her breathing. No sign and he pushed more to her lungs via lip lock. Repeating his pounding onto her breastbone that he felt with certainty was going to break, he heard a small rattling cough, then some more coughing as her face turned to the side.
Kawasumi's face was almost a pale blue but slowly the rosy condition came back to warm her.
His rather dark smile planted upon his face as wild grass green eyes stared at him, confused. Knowing she would be weak and disorientated, he picked up her slim wet form in his arms. She didn't protest, her mind confusing her more than ever as she went over the events before she had obviously come to such a close death. His wings encircled the two, keeping them safe from the winds that always came with the rivers. In her muddled thoughts, she watched his smile, interested in it.
Finally she spoke.
"You look handsome when you look happy.........." She told him aloud then drifted off to sort her bewildered thoughts.
Sid barely kept his pale skin from becoming inflamed pink.
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Within a year after saving the petite woman, Sid often walked her home, becoming accustomed to her and top soil creatures easier than before. He accompanied her when he could since he had deigned to become a partial resident of her home in the forest by the river. He tended to trust the small human feeling weird by his deep trust in her and also the fact that she created such weird arousing feelings in him. Queasiness and bedazzled effects when she often touched his skin. He kept his cold skin from flaming red but it was often with control.
As he eventually succumbed to living in the forest, he took to bounty-hunting which was occasionally sparse in bounties but it had been something he was good at and she had suggested it anyway, so Sid saw no problems with his job. He slept outside the tiny hut, her and her father, Claude Kawasumi, had lived in though now her father had died eight months before trusting Sid to guard her in the forest at least.. His things arranged all around his tree when he slept though he often slept with his scythe and blood-splattered tunic on him always, besides a small blanket to cover his legs from cold.
But this day, something deep had changed in his partial friend. She seemed to quiet and when she had gotten home, she had wounds and bruises to tend to. He had come to his home earlier than usual, trying to find a man named Watari but the ninja with a bounty had alluded him. He glided down to the ground and entered her small thatched hut. Her severity in the look of her wounds told him that they were a little deep, but on closer inspection they were not mortal wounds.
"O-oh!! Hello Makonawa-san." Her voice though weak and her body showing a chest wound and a shoulder wound, she tried to smile welcomely in his direction but the hint of a grimace hid behind her smile. He was enraged. How dare someone do this to someone he had come to respect, dealing with the words of many against her everyday and still carefree as he remembered and to eventually come home wounded?! He growled low, an inhumane growl coming from deep inside his soul.
"Stop!! JUST STOP!!" Angered deeply, he grabbed her arms, looking to see where her wounds and bruises were. They were human sized bruises and a short curved sword, a wakizashi more than likely along with the shoulder wound, made the chest wound. The cuts deep, but not too deep. She had been trying to bandage herself but was failing miserably. Exasperated, he took the bandages from her and started wrapping up her chest wound first after putting ointment from a small kit she held. His thin hands were deft and agile as he finished the job with speed and tied the bandages off.
He then proceeded to the do the shoulder wound as well. His thoughts were dark and mirthless. A tentative tanned hand touched his hand causing to great effect a deep shock to go through him. Angered enough, he put his glance at the woman who dared to try to calm him. Her green eyes were filled with tears the like he had never seen for she had never cried in front of him or anyone before.
"Thank you........You're the only one who has ever helped me..........I've never been able to repay you and I'm so sorry for that.......I'm so......weak." She clenched her mouth shut to keep a wail from sorrow to envelop her. She didn't want to appear so sad in front of him. Kawasumi had tried her best to not allow him to see this side of her for she knew that Sid hated things that broke easily or were weak. Now she knew he hated her.
Deep down she cried. On the outside, Sid cautiously picked her chin up and stared straight into her eyes with both of his. His glare was malicious but not directed at her though she felt for sure that it was. He reached over with his mouth and began licking her blood. The corrosive browned liquid that had splatter upon her face from her wounds were licked clean as he grinned more so from a tinge of bloodlust than care.
"S-Sid-kun?" She stuttered eyes afraid and body trembling. His rough tongue was coarse but very thorough as every spot upon her face was all licked clean. It wasn't exactly a frightening experience nor a heart warming one, but kind in its own affectionate way. The darkened liquid upon his tongue intensified his rage but he bridled it telling the red-hot emotion that it needs to wait only a little while later. Right now, he had to calm Kawasumi.
"Shh......Now tell me, poppet, what exactly transpired." Nodding, hands coming up to feel the cleanly licked face, she told him what she could remember. Her hands wringing into her work pants. Her shirt had been discarded to treat her wounds better. As she spoke she replaced her work tunic with her eveningwear, warming her up against the mounting chill.
Sid's eyes darkened as she continued her story. Apparently, the master of the lands she worked and lived on had attacked her. Lord Ortega, a man of power in his own right, was a hater of powerful women fearing his own inferiority that he held against his mother, Lady Shizuka Ortega, the only woman leader of the realm near Two Rivers.
Kawasumi's story conceded of her wish for her freedom and the many hurtful accusations that she had been told of. Simply because she was not the slim women with the long silk dark hair or marble skin or a face of ice, she was considered sinfully ugly. Sid had to understand this after all; it was true in this country. With fair hair, tawny coloration, and a slightly curvaceous body, she was considered horribly deformed almost. Most men pitied her because she would more than likely become nothing more than a prostitute when she would be able to be free from her servitude. A woman could not survive long without a husband financially or politically at all in Dunan.
Sid knew differently. After all, spending a year as her walking companion and friendly face in the dark forest, he had gotten to know her quite well. Dimwitted, yet always hopeful, she held spirit whenever she got into a spat with him or any of the farmers though she often stilled her tongue when she was boiling well with rage. Carefree, she often laughed when he pulled any number of particular jokes, even harmful ones, and told him the exasperated often spooked expressions on her fellow men's' faces.
It was simple, as she had told him. The master would let her go if she could find any man to even marry her off because of her sinfully ugly body. The master knew that she had no chance to pay a man and so he knew that she wouldn't get married. She had then retorted angrily about any man that would marry her would turn out to be a better human than he was.
Which turned out to be the wrong move. Sid sighed casually then felt the tinge of blood upon his lips. In the process of her describing of what happened, he had bitten his lip with a sharp canine to keep from storming out and killing Lord Ortega.
"Well, you certainly can't die. He'd search all over for you to repay your debt yet you have no 'real' debt to pay off." Kawasumi nodded numbly with her blonde hair still held within its ribbon's hold. Frowning, she wiped her nose. Her story was told through a mix of tears and frowns. Her body hurt dully. The ache was being the least of her worries.
"I deserve my freedom to live where I want." A determined and angry tone returned to her weak voice. Her throat was still parched dry as she had fetched some water from the river to drink for herself. Sid had only slightly protested but he knew that if he moved from the spot he would more than likely charge at Ortega and attack all his men and women.
"Poppet, there is a way I can help you." He suggested maliciously, tongue peeking out to lick his cut lip. She paused in thought, raising her eyes to meet his. Smoothing back a few stray tresses, she shook her head no. She understood very well what he meant but she would want nothing to do with the lives of the innocents within the castle to murder them if they got in the way. They had no way to fight against their ruler and found it often futile for even one to try and kill him unless it was a person of his equal stature, besides war was already enough bloodshed for one country.
"No. If you do that, they'd know it was more than likely me and then they'd also go after your people too. I see no other way than putting my head into the noose and find someone who would marry me. I would've needed to do this anyway, but with my looks, I'm not going to make a very good match at all." She sighed dejected. Nothing could help her.
"What if I pay a man to 'marry' you?" She shook her head at this suggestion. Blonde hair fell around on her shoulders, a bit sticky from the corrosive life she had spilt. Her hands wrung the tunic as she thought, which was a hard thing to do for that long.
"He'd know. Lord Ortega owns almost all the mercenaries and pubs. He has his eyes and ears out probably. Y'know, since he is a powerful man." Sid's darkened lockes seemed to shroud his eyes in thought. He couldn't do much of anything besides try to find a man that would like the walking crippled woman. Then with clarity an idea hit him like his scythe falling on top of his head from resting on the shelf behind him.
Which did.
"Yuh huh huh huh.........When do you want your freedom?"
"Now, but I can't have it unless the requirements are fulfilled."
"Well, How would you like to get married........"
"To who?"
"Who else? Me, poppet."
"............You....Your kidding right?"
"Yuh huh huh huh!!! Your wish is my deadly work."
"Really?!"
"Off me, poppet."
"Gomen Nasai!! Arigato!! ARIGATO!!!"
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Lord Ortega stuck to his violent promise. Spitting towards the couple from hell as he thought they were he watched from the pavilion where the Shinto priest was wedding them. She wore the only white kimono she could afford, which with two or three gifts to add made her seem a bit of a merchant's daughter instead of a slave. Her blonde hair was ornate in braids coming down her back, and the ornamental headdress she wore was from Mizuho Arisa's marriage to Tamari Arisa.
Sid had no idea what type of formal wear he should have worn but with Chaco's explicit instructions, under pain of eternal whipping by Kale, which sent a shiver often down on any male winghorder's back, he dressed in a traditional hakama and Haori. To say he was still getting used to wearing something akin to a skirt was unconditionally right. He was ready to bolt from the wedding yet he knew that he wanted to help this puppet of entertainment, a puppy that had taken into his care, to be free from the strings of someone else.
The ceremony was quick and effortless and at the end as they shared the sake with one another, he wondered why he dared to bolt away. Reviewing the facts, he wouldn't have to deal with anyone messing around with his poppet, and even more, he could finally get his share from the winghorde treasure. (Only married children of the winghorders got a prized treasure from the leader each.) Chaco's little girlfriend had walked his now wife in.
Chaco and at least ten of the winghorders, even twenty if he was lucky came to see the spectacle of the most loathed winghorder getting hitched to the most deformed woman of the country. To his own race he was nothing more than a deformed child with a personality gone wrong. Taking their final vows, Sid silently led his wife out of the ceremony hall to meet the meager feast that awaited their few invited guests such as the maids, a few of her co-working women, and of course Chaco.
Chaco was unbeknown his little brother at times. He loved playing practical jokes upon the boy since he was small and could fly. Zoe-I smiled at him and welcomed him in as her family as well, having to catch her family trying to steal from more of the wealthier ladies who came to see the traveling circus of monster-like children and slaves below her station.
Going to their small shelter in the forest, Sid carrying her, more than once "dropping" her to only pick her back up. He laughed as she screamed in terror and he stopped when her hold on him was starting to make him turn blue. Once entering their faint dwelling, Zoe-I twirled herself around, holding onto her head in a vain attempt to understand the dizzying events.
Once she understood the terms they had agreed to, she no longer wanted to pretend anymore. In the end it would bite her back. Smiling, she began undoing her braids, slowly so she could relish the fact that the worst part was over for her nerves.
Sid saw that her happy smile turned slightly darker but still bright enough to light up the night and make the moon jealous. He understood what was done and now understood his repercussions. They would not have a "honeymoon" at all. They were not physically or mentally really married. They were just technically married so she could live freely without the outstanding oppressive lord watching her every footstep.
It was then that Sid made possibly his worst choice ever.
Along with his best.
Swaying over to her turned back, a claw-like finger brushed away some of her wavy golden tresses. His mouth seemed to lick the underside of her ear completely not missing an inch with its length. Then with a nip of his pointy canines drawing a little blood from her ear, he sucked causing Zoe-I to suck in air not only in surprise but to keep from moaning intensely. It was no wonder a woman could not stand up to the so-called "silver kiss."
"S-Sid......Wh-What are you.....eep.....doing?" She asked to him questioning his antics. Eeping when his tongue slid along her jugular. A jaguar ready to make his kill. He was antagonizing her and more than ever confusing her into a state of bewilderment in which Alice of Wonderland's conversation with the Cheshire Cat seemed simplistic and first grade speak.
"Who said I am not getting my wife on our wedding night, poppet?" A malicious smirk took precedence in his eyes, toying with her as nicked her neck and sucked. The gentle sucking from his mouth caused her to get heady and dizzy. "I am to have my wife, at the least on my honeymoon, sweet."
And with that she threw all deals out the window.
LLLLLLLLLLLL
Arriving at the Two River's lands, Landis dropped to a low swoop to finally land near the decimated forest that had once been his home. A mirthless frown marred his sadistic lips as he walked forward to the one house he trusted to keep him up for the night. The winter was too chilly to deal with outside like usual and he didn't want to deal with his dead wife's ghost any more than usual.
He loved her visits and yet he hated them considering he missed her deeply and the memories of more than only half a decade before came into his vision. Going up to the small cottage that withheld a wonderful family that had nursed him back to health once, he knocked upon the weathered door. A girl immediately came out. Her long black hair shinning from the sunset as she waved around excitedly.
"Makonawa-san!!! Would you like to come in? Ota-san and Oka-san will be happy to see you again!!" He nodded coming into her home. The two mother and father duo smiled at their companion's widower. Tamari sat up straighter with a face meant for smiling and gray hair filling up his beard. Mizuho still had a gentleness about her that deemed her fragile though she was getting splotches of gray hair down her long raven tresses.
"Makonawa-san, how was your trip?"
And with that simple gesture, Sid knew he was as close as home as he could be.
For now.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
WOOT!!! I AM HALF-WAY THROUGH!!! Go ME!!! Okay, okay, I am so sorry about sounding very sore during my rant, but that was the truth of how I felt. I still love your reviews. It keeps this going!! Anyway, I love all my reviewers and I thank you a lot for putting up with my shit. THANK YOU!!!
Bai and Loves to all!!! Please Read and review!!!