Note: Sorry this one took longer than usual. School is evil…tests are everywhere! I can't turn around without coming face to face with one, and it's scary….Shudders So, sorry again and I hope you enjoy Chapter 3!!
Janus made sure to keep at a distance from Ozzie for the rest of their journey. He had been through enough abuse for one day, and did not want to make himself an easy target for more. Ozzie still threw insults at the small child, but at least he couldn't constantly beat on the boy as long as the young prince stayed a reasonable distance away.
After emerging from the cave, Janus felt dirty. Upon inspecting himself, the blue haired boy discovered that he did not look much like a prince anymore. His hair was matted together in big clumps of blood and dirt. His clothes were tattered and covered with an equal amount of dirt and blood. He could feel the dried blood from his nose on his face, and could also feel that about half of his face was swollen. His arms, legs and every other part of his body was cut or bruised, and his ankle was throbbing with the pain from it's injury. In fact, it was still bleeding, though not quite as badly, and Janus could already see the early signs of an infection.
I look like one of the Earthbound Ones. The only difference is that they were not covered in blood. Ugh! This is so degrading, having to walk around in public looking as though I'm a beggar!
After what seemed like an eternity, a large castle finally came into view. Janus realized with a heavy heart that there were even more Mystics here, and he knew that they would treat him no better than the group that he had traveled with. As the two came closer to the castle, the many Mystics surrounding it scrambled to line up and salute Ozzie. A few seemed surprised when they saw the small boy, but this was soon replaced by malevolent smiles and readying feet.
Knowing that they were going to try and kick him, Janus got as close to Ozzie as he could bear, hoping that the other Mystics would refrain from their attacks for fear of missing and hitting their king. The idea worked as far as avoiding the crowd's abuse, but the blue haired prince was distracted, and didn't see the rock that was directly in his path. For what seemed to be the hundredth time that day, Janus found himself face to face with the ground.
Stupid rocks! I hate them and I'll destroy them all! Somehow comforted by this impossible vow of revenge, the young prince was able to get back on his feet, ignoring the roar of laughter that had erupted from the crowd at his misfortune.
After catching up with his captor, Janus noticed two forms approaching. One was a man with blue skin and a dangerous looking sword, the other was a very pretty woman with braided red hair.
"Sir Ozzie, it is good to see you have returned safely. But…where is the rest of the group?" It was the woman speaking, and the Prince of Zeal noticed that she had a voice that was almost masculine. He didn't dwell on that point long, however, because many of the women that served in his mother's court had had deeper voices than this one. She didn't seem to have noticed the small child standing in Ozzie's shadow; perhaps because Ozzie's fat could have blocked a rhino from sight.
"We ran into a bit of trouble. Nothing I couldn't handle, of course, but I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed in how well they were able to handle it." Ozzie gave a small laugh at this, as if the thought of a small portion of his followers being ripped to shreds was a pleasant memory.
The woman's bra strap began to fall down, and as she lazily pushed back into place, the man with blue skin gave her a look of slight confusion and rolled his eyes. "Honestly Flea, why do you wear those? It's enough that you wear dresses, but do you have to wear women's underwear too?"
At first, the young boy was a bit confused by this. Why wouldn't she wear those things? Being a woman, I would think that she's supposed to wear them.
"Well Slash, it's quite simple. If you wear a dress you have to wear a bra or else the dress might slip off for lack of support." She said this with a tone in her voice that most women get when they think that men are being stupid.
"But why do you wear those things!? They're for women, and you are a man!"
Up until this point, Janus had remained unnoticed by the two new arrivals. However, upon hearing that this woman was in fact not a woman at all, he couldn't stop himself from crying out, "You're a man!?"
After finally noticing the boy, the pair's faces shared mutual looks of surprise. After a few moments, however, their faces conveyed two completely different feelings toward the small prince's presence. Slash looked about ready to explode with fury, and kept opening his mouth as if to say something, but would then close it again. His anger prevented him from speaking. Flea, on the other hand, looked almost pleased. Janus would actually have felt better if the effeminate man had been as angry as the blue man was. The blue haired child did not trust the smile that had appeared on the man's face at all, no matter how friendly it seemed.
Flea was the first to respond. "Why yes, child, I am a man, though few realize it unless I tell them so. Actually, now that I think of it, no one realizes it on their own, and they all react in much the same way you just did when I tell them. So, little one, do you have a name?"
Janus did not have a chance to answer, because Slash had finally calmed down enough to speak, though it was obvious that doing so required a lot of self-restraint, for he spoke through clenched teeth. "Sir Ozzie…May I speak to you for a moment? Alone?" He said this last part while looking between the human child and Flea.
The red haired man did not seem to care that he was being excluded from a meeting, and as the swordsman and his king passed them, he pursued their earlier topic. "Now then. I believe you were about to tell me your name, young man."
"I don't know why you care, but it's Janus." The young boy wanted to throw a few insults at the man standing before him, pretending to be his friend, but decided not to.
This guy doesn't seem to be mentally stable, and I'd rather not give him reason to kill me.
"Janus, you say… Hmph! And they say I'm weird for dressing like a woman! You actually seem to have had a parent that actually wished you to be a woman!"
What is these people's obsession with my name? And what right does this guy have to make fun of my name? He's named after a parasite, for crying out loud!
While Janus had been thinking of this, Flea had begun to walk over to where Ozzie and Slash were talking. The two were speaking loud enough for everyone in the area to hear, which defeated the purpose of Slash asking to be alone with Ozzie, and something they had said caught the older man's attention. The conversation he had been having with the young child had been forgotten.
"How could you do this to us, Ozzie!?" Slash was still upset, and seemed about ready to lose what little calm he had recovered earlier. "Why have you defiled our home with filth such as him!?"
"That's Sir Ozzie to you! And I brought him here because he could prove to be useful. He is not a normal human. I knew that when I first saw him. He has blue hair, though you can't tell right now, pointed ears, and his eyes were the deepest shade of blue I had ever seen! However, these things didn't interest me as much as the fact that he had appeared out of thin air! I also noticed how clean and well dressed he was, and at first hoped to get ransom money from his parents. I had every intention of killing him after he told us where he lived. After all, he didn't need to be alive in order to send out the note. After the events of today, however, I decided to keep him around a while longer…though I still intend to kill him eventually."
"What do you mean , 'After the events of today'!? What could have possibly happened to make you show mercy to a human!?" Slash actually seemed to be even more enraged with Ozzie's explanation.
"Watch your tone with me, Slash!" Ozzie snapped at the blue swordsman, who actually jumped a little at his king's sudden anger toward him. The green Mystic seemed pleased with his success in scaring Slash, and continued. "As you may have noticed, there is one thing different about the boy as you see him now as compared to what I described when I first saw him, other than his hair. We first noticed the difference in the morning, and it worried us. We also noticed one other thing that bothered us. I won't bother explaining these things to you, since they should be obvious by just looking at him."
Janus was a bit disappointed when Ozzie didn't say exactly what was different enough about him to worry Ozzie and his cronies. He had been curious as to why the group of Mystics had been uneasy around him, and knowing that it had something to do with a change in his appearance only made his curiosity grow.
"The boy's changes were not the strangest things to happen today, either. A few hours after we entered the cave back there, he did something that scared the life out of the entire group, including me! While we were walking, he suddenly stopped. His clothes were blowing around as if it were windy, which it wasn't. Then his eyes turned green and started glowing. As if that weren't enough weirdness for one day, he then turned around and told the entire group that they were going to die because some 'black wind' was howling." Flea's eyes widened slightly when Ozzie mentioned the Black Wind. "That's why I brought him here. He obviously has some kind of power, and I want to use it if I can. I'm not too happy about having a human in my home either, Slash, and because of that I'll make sure he's miserable here."
"Sir Ozzie," Flea had finally decided to speak. "Have you thought about where you are going to keep him?"
"I'll put him with the servants." Ozzie felt that this conversation was over and tried to leave, but Flea would not let him, and again pursued the subject.
"That wouldn't work. After all, you'll need to keep him safe if you plan on using him later, so you can't put him with the rest of the Mystics that live here. They would kill him while he slept. So, might I suggest that he stays with me?"
Janus was more than a little surprised when he heard Flea actually volunteer to have a human stay with him. He was a Mystic, after all, and the young prince had not been treated very kindly by any of the Mystics he met before. However, he was far form being pleased about it. He distrusted Flea greatly, and upon hearing him make this suggestion, his distrust could only grow.
Slash did not seem to trust his comrade's generosity either, for his eyes narrowed and his hand moved to the hilt of his sword. "Why would you suggest such a thing, Flea?" Suspicion shone clearly from his eyes, and his voice was practically dripping with it. "You have something to do with this, don't you? You probably struck a deal with the humans! He's a spy! And you made him appear in front of Sir Ozzie and possessed him to act strange, just to smuggle him in here, didn't you!? Traitor!"
With that, the swordsman unsheathed his sword and lunged at the red haired man in front of him. Before he moved even a few feet, however, he found himself on the ground, writhing in pain. Janus knew that Slash had been hit with a torture spell, and was somewhat shocked to see that the source was Flea.
Oh great. Another magic user. I don't know which is more of a disgrace to magicians; the five-hundred pound booger or the cross-dresser. Although, I'm pretty sure this one is more dangerous. This one's mad…I'm sure of it now. You can see it in his eyes…
Sure enough, Flea had a psychotic glint in his eye, and was laughing in a way that made the young prince's skin crawl. Gone was the seemingly pure feminine innocence of a few moments ago. Now the red haired man seemed to be the epitome of insanity. It was clear that the magician enjoyed seeing Slash in horrible pain, and seemed willing to keep the spell he had cast on his colleague going long enough to kill the blue swordsman. He most likely would have too, had Ozzie not intervened when Slash's struggling began to weaken.
"Flea," the green Mystic said sternly, "release him. Now."
The mad man turned on his leader, that look of insanity still on his face, and actually attempted to hit him with the same spell that had left Slash unconscious on the ground. Janus realized with the utmost fear that the spell would hit both himself and Ozzie due to how close he stood to the Mystic King.
He waited for the unspeakable pain that was sure to surge through his small body, eyes closed. It never came, however. Thinking that he must have been too weak to stand the attack long enough to actually feel the agony he expected, he opened his eyes, sure he that he was dead.
What he saw astounded him. Both he and Ozzie were quite alive, and they were encased in what appeared to be ice. Flea's spell was washing harmlessly over the shield, which seemed to infuriate the magician even more. He suddenly gave up his attempt to attack with magic, and instead decided to charge at the two who had opposed him, lashing out with nails that seemed impossibly long and sharp.
Janus was afraid. He had never seen anyone as crazy as this man, and despite the ice shield that had protected both him and Ozzie from magic, he couldn't help but fear that the Mystic lunging toward him would rip him to shreds with those inhuman claws.
His disdain must have been evident. "Use your head, boy! If Flea's magic couldn't break through my ice barrier, why would his nails be able to? In truth, nothing can." Ozzie seemed overly confident about his barrier, and the boy made a point of this, hoping to use it against the quivering mass of fat that stood next to him. After all, life in danger or not, he had had revenge on his mind almost constantly since the night before, and such information needed to be noted accordingly.
Flea was still striking at the barrier, though his attacks seemed not to affect it at all. He continued his feeble attempts even after his fingers had begun to bleed, leaving crimson streaks on the other side of the ice. Clearly, the insanity that had currently taken over the magician's mind did not allow Flea to realize that his attacks had ripped the nails off of his fingers.
At last, Ozzie decided to do something about Flea's rampage, and cast a spell that not only sent the red haired man flying into a tree, but also held him there. Flea howled like an animal as he struggled to break loose.
The ice barrier around Janus and Ozzie faded. The green Mystic went over to Slash's crumpled body, and, without so much as checking to see if the swordsman was alive, Ozzie grabbed the man's sword. He then approached Flea, who looked at his captor with a shear desire to kill.
When Ozzie reached for the magician's hair, he almost lost a few fingers. Flea had tried to bite him, and missed only by a hair, teeth snapping back together with a sound remarkably like the sound a rabid dog makes when it attempts to bite. Ozzie looked at first surprised, then angry, as he slapped Flea with all his might across the face.
Taking advantage of the magician's current state of shock at having been hit, Ozzie grabbed flea's long, red braid, and held Slash's sword to it threateningly.
"Now, Flea… Either you calm down, or I will cut it all off."
Well that's stupid. Why threaten to cut off the guy's hair when it would make more sense to threaten to cut off his head? I mean… hair grows back, heads don't.
Though it didn't make sense to Janus, Ozzie's words seem to hit home. Flea stopped struggling and snarling, and his face lost most traces of insanity. The magician looked at his king weakly, and tears began to well up in his eyes.
"No! Please, no, Sir Ozzie! My hair is my pride! My life! Without it I would be destitute! Oh! Please have mercy! I'll never do it again! You have my word!" At this point, Flea was sobbing uncontrollably, much to the confusion of the small prince that stood not too far away.
How could anyone, especially a man be so attached to hair!?
Ozzie seemed content with Flea's promise, and released him. "Fine then. And as for your earlier suggestion, the boy may stay with you." Flea's sobbing stopped when Ozzie said this, and a devious smile spread across his lips. "However, there are two conditions that I want met before he goes with you. First, I want to know why you suggested it."
Flea cast Janus a quick glace, and replied, "Certainly, Sir Ozzie. But," he continued in a low, almost inaudible tone, "I do not want him to hear my reasons."
The two walked around to the other side of the castle. He couldn't hear a thing, despite how hard he tried.
When they finally returned, Ozzie was eyeing the prince unbelievingly, and Flea seemed pleased as he asked, "Well, Sir Ozzie, I have met your first condition. Now please do tell me your second so that I can take the child to his quarters. He looks absolutely exhausted!"
Oh yeah. Like I'm going to buy the nice act. I saw your true colors, and now I know that I will never trust you!
"Alright, Flea. Since he will be staying with you, you will be one-hundred percent responsible for him. This means that not only will you be punished for the things he does wrong, but you are to keep him alive. I don't care if you treat him well, as long as he is alive. Personally, I'd prefer to see a new bruise everyday. Of course, to keep him alive, you will have to learn how to control that temper of yours. If I find him dead at yours or anyone else's hand, I will have your head, especially if what you've told me proves to be true. And as I've said before to the brat, if anyone is going to take his life, it will be me. Do you understand, Flea?"
"Of course, Sir Ozzie. Now if you'll excuse us…" Flea grabbed Janus by the arm and led him toward the castle.
Slash, who had actually regained consciousness a while ago, approached his king as the two walked away and said, still suspiciously, "What did that maniac tell you that made the kid's life so important?"
Ozzie, watching the blue haired child as he walked with the red haired magician, responded without taking his eyes off of the pair, "The boy is able to use the strongest form of magic ever heard of. Shadow magic."
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Flea led Janus down a number of corridors for what seemed like ages. After a while, it became apparent that they were getting close to their destination. The walls were decorated in a very girly manner, with pink bows and pink curtains strung up everywhere. It was a somewhat uncomfortable setting for the young prince, and it made him feel sick. He hated pink, yet this guy didn't seem know that any other color existed.
Finally, they stopped in front of a door, and Flea said in an almost motherly tone, "This will be your room. There's a bath in there too, and, quite frankly, I suggest you use it. You look horrible. I'll be back in a bit with a change of clothes for you." With that, the magician turned and walked back the way they came.
Janus did as he was told, and took a bath. He knew he looked disgusting at that moment, and, being a prince, that was unacceptable. However, this was the first bath he had ever taken without someone to help. He was only seven after all. After fumbling around with the many soaps he found, he finally deemed himself clean and got out. He grabbed a nearby towel and wrapped it clumsily around him. When he exited the bathroom, he found Flea sitting on what was to be the boy's bed.
"Here are your clothes, young Janus," the mage said as he handed the child his clothes. 'I had to borrow them from an Imp, but they should fit just fine." He paused, waiting for the young prince to change, then said, "Well? Why aren't you getting dressed?"
"Are you kidding!? I'm not getting dressed in front of you! That's just… wrong!"
Flea giggled slightly before responding. "Alright, child. I'll leave for five minutes, but then I have to have a word with you."
He left, as he said he would, and Janus hurried to get dressed before the man could return. The blue haired prince had barely finished dressing when the magician returned, meaning that he waited only about two minutes instead of five.
Pervert. He had learned this word from his mother, something that most kids his age would not have known.
Once again, Flea sat down on the bed, and this time he motioned for the child to join him. The boy instead chose to sit in a chair at the other side of the room.
Apparently not caring that his invitation had been denied, Flea began talking. "Now, Janus. As you heard, you are under my care. As such, you will do as I say. You will have to do as everyone else says too, of course, since you are a human. However, my word over rules all others, except maybe Sir Ozzie's. If you fail to adhere to my commands, you will be punished. Is that understood?"
The small boy could only nod in agreement, afraid that if he tried to say anything, the only words that would come out would set the older man off again. As he nodded, he somehow managed to brush his injured ankle against the leg of the nearby table, causing him to wince a little.
With a sigh, Flea got up and started to walk toward his "guest". Janus immediately tensed. He did not want this man anywhere near him.
Flea must have sensed this, because he stopped a few feet away from Janus, and said in a soothing voice, "Relax, child. I'm only giving you medicine for that ankle. We wouldn't want to have to cut it off, now would we?" He handed the boy a small container, and ordered him to drink. Though wary at first, the boy soon remembered that Flea was unable to harm him, so the stuff couldn't be poison. Comforted by the thought, Janus followed orders and swallowed the liquid inside.
"There, was that so hard?" Flea asked, smirking. "Now then, I'm sure you have questions. I will allow three for the night. After all, it's getting late, and I can't be up all night answering questions. I do need my beauty sleep, you know. So, go ahead. Ask your questions. I know you have some."
Janus didn't even have to think about his first one. "Why do you dress like a woman?"
Flea was not at all offended by the child's bluntness. "Honestly, child, I would have thought you capable of a better question than that." He answered with a bored tone in his voice. "But, since you must know, it's quite simple. Beauty is power, and I've got the power. Next question."
More confused by Flea's answer than anything, the small boy took a while before asking his next question. "Why did you want me to stay with you? Tell me what you told that green blimp you call a king!"
Flea couldn't help but laughing. "My, my. Bold, aren't you? Insulting the king right in front of one of his generals! But don't worry. I truthfully agree with you on the subject of Ozzie's weight. Anyway, in answer to your question, I can't answer that just now. You just wouldn't understand. Plus, it's something that you should partially figure out on your own. Your last question, please."
The prince was a bit angered by the fact that both of his previous questions were not answered to his liking, but asked his next question without hesitation.
"What is it about me that changed enough to scare Ozzie and the rest of the group?"
Flea smiled at this. "I thought you'd never ask. Let me start my answer with a question. You are from Zeal, correct?"
Janus was shocked. "You mean you-"
He was silenced by Flea's slightly irritated response. "A simple yes or no will do. And before you ask, I don't know and I don't care how you got here. Now then, on with my explanation. I will make it short, since I can see that you're about to fall asleep on me." He added this last as the prince's head landed with a loud thud on the table he was leaning on.
"There is something called the Zealian Curse. Yes, I know it sounds silly, young one, but it's true. The basics of it is, that if an Enlightened One were to push all emotions but hatred, malice, sorrow and regret out of their hearts, a few key things would happen to them. I won't bother telling you what those things are, considering the fact that there is a mirror right behind you."
Janus slowly turned around. Upon looking at himself, he was stunned at what he saw. There were no horns or other such monstrous features on him, but his eyes, once a beautiful blue, had turned red. He could still see some of their former color, which comforted him a little. However, when he smiled, the small bit of relief he had felt quickly vanished. His canines were now fangs, such as you might find on a vampire. Though these things were all that he saw different on himself, he was still at a loss for words.
Flea came up behind him, and began to speak. "I have two more things to explain. First of all, you are not a vampire, so don't worry. Second, your eyes, as I'm sure you've noticed, still have a little of their natural color. This is because you have not lost some of the other emotions that I said lead to this transformation. However, if you continue to declare revenge on things, which I have no doubt that revenge is what led you to this state, you will lose your natural color almost entirely. They will not turn completely red until you have spilled the blood of an innocent in order to obtain your revenge. If that were to happen, red would be the only color your eyes would know, not even changing to that brilliant green when you feel the Black Wind. I have told you this, child, because we both know that it is your fate, and I thought you should know. That, and I didn't want you to have a heart attack when it happens. And, yes. With or without a mirror you will know when it happens. Have you ever heard the phrase 'The eyes are windows into the soul'? Well, your soul will also be stained red on that day, and it will quite possibly be lost forever in the tide of blood that follows."
Janus was nearly in tears. Of course he had heard of the Zealian Curse, but he had never before seen it happen. He did not want to lose his soul. Without realizing what he was doing, he removed the pendant his sister had given him from his pocket, and held it tightly against his chest, right above his heart. He felt a little better, but the slight feeling of comfort was abruptly ripped from him, as was Schala's pendant, by Flea.
"Well, what do we have here? This is quite a nice necklace. Far too nice for a child. I will keep this, for now. You may have it back when you are older."
Flea had barely finished this sentence before the young prince flung himself at the magician.
"GIVE IT BACK!! YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!! SCHALA GAVE IT TO ME, NOT YOU!! I WON'T LET YOU TAKE IT!!"
Janus was in tears as he screamed at the surprised man he was pummeling underneath him. He had managed to knock Flea down and land a few good hits before the mage was able to do something about it. The young prince had forgotten about this man's insanity issues, and soon found himself against the wall, held there by magic.
Flea approached the child. He had the same insane glint in his eye as he had earlier, but now it seemed more dangerous to the boy, despite the fact that Flea obviously had more control over himself this time. After all, the young prince was stuck on a wall, unable to move.
Once the mage stood in front of Janus, he paused for just a moment before slapping the child several times across the face. He did not soften the blows in the least, and soon the prince's nose began to bleed once more. After literally being slapped for nearly five minutes, the room began to sway in front of the boy. Flea finally stopped his relentless slapping, and lifted the boy's head up.
"Didn't I tell you that you would be punished? And there is one more step before your punishment is complete, but first I must make a point. Now then. As I was saying, I am going to keep this pendant until I deem you worthy of having it. That is my word, and you will not object again. Not even in words, and most certainly not in the way you did just now. " Flea slapped him two more times, as if to remind him that the punishment was not yet done. The red haired man must have seen something in the eyes of the child he had just beaten, for he smiled sardonically, and brought his lips to the child's ear.
"So, what number am I?" Flea whispered menacingly into the young Prince of Zeal's ear. That was the last thing the mage said to him, before blinding pain covered the boy's entire body, and the world turned black around him.
A/N: Alright. There you go. The third vow of revenge. Well, actually, the fourth if you count the rocks. I just couldn't help but put those in there. Sorry it was so long. I guess after sitting idle for too long, my muse decided to have a party. To be honest, the whole Flea being a nut job thing wasn't part of my original plan. Something just whispered in the back of my mind, "Make Flea psycho", so I did. After all, the voices in my head have never steered me wrong before! So, how did I do with it? I was going to cut this chapter off when Ozzie found out about Janus' magic capabilities, but then I remembered that I had promised to explain some stuff this time. I've decided that I will have Janus cast his first spell in either the next chapter or the one after. No guarantees, though. If inspiration hits again, who knows? Oh yes, and should I change the rating to PG-13? I seem to be getting kind of goryish. Anyway, I've babbled long enough. Please review!