Howdy, everyone! This chapter almost took my life, since I was up so late every night trying to finish it...growl. So, I hope you like it! Now, with school almost over, I might be writing less and less. I know that doesn't make any sense, but for some reason teachers like to kill you with their homework the last few weeks of school. Plus, exams are coming up. geesh. The life of a Freshman, as told by Carrie. ;) Hope you like it! Please review!
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"Unn…" Fayt moaned, attempting to open his eyes. "Ugh, I'm such a moron, passing out like that…" The blue haired teenager thought, putting a hand to his forehead. Opening his eyes, Fayt attempted to focus, but everything was blurry. Suddenly, a piercing light shot through his vision, making the teenager swoon.
"Heh." The teenager heard someone say above his head. Squinting to see through the bright light, Fayt saw Albel standing over him, a smile hovering on his lips. Apparently, the older swordsman's shadow had been blocking most of the sun out of Fayt's face, and when Albel had shifted his weight to his other leg, the shadow had moved, allowing the sun to shine fully in the blue haired teenager's face.
"Agh, Albel…!" Fayt rasped, his throat dry, "My head hurts…" he finished, throwing a lazy arm over his eyes to block out the intense light.
"Stop whining, fool. That wench should be here soon and I would prefer for you to be awake enough to talk to her, so that I don't have to." Albel sneered, standing back so that the young man could stand. Fayt slowly pushed himself up from the ground into a kneeling position, and waited for a few more minutes, taking deep breaths.
"Hmm, so it seems that the Aquarian girl didn't poison you. Pity." Albel breathed, glaring down at the teenager on the ground.
"Aquarian girl? What are you talking about, Albel?" Fayt asked, staring up confusedly at the tall swordsman. "What happened while I was out?" Fayt thought, standing up slowly.
"You know, worm, that Nel girl. The lapdog of Romera." Albel said, his mouth twisting into a sneer.
"Nel? How did she find us? What does she want?" The teenager wondered aloud, folding his arms over his chest.
"How should I know? All that the worm said was that she would be back to talk to us. So stay awake, Leingod. Don't go fainting, again." Albel smiled, resting his wrist on the Crimson Scourge.
"Shut up, Albel." Fayt snapped, glaring at the older swordsman. The teenager usually had a very strong constitution, fatigue and hunger almost never affecting his thoughts or movements. It was just this one time that fatigue had gotten to him.
Running a hand through his thick hair, Fayt put his other hand to his shoulders to take his backpack off…which wasn't on his back. Glancing around, the teenager found his bag near to where he had been laying. Raising an eyebrow, Fayt looked back to Albel, who was busying himself testing the sharpness of his claws.
"…Albel?" the blue haired boy asked, watching as the older man snapped his gaze up from his metal arm to stare at the teenager.
"What do you want, worm?" Albel jeered, his blood red eyes promising death should Fayt say something that he didn't want to hear. Upon seeing this, Fayt changed his mind about asking Albel whether or not the swordsman had been the one who had removed his backpack.
"Uh, nevermind." The teenager said quickly, turning to drink deeply from his water bottle.
"You seem to be feeling better, Fayt." Nel said as she walked towards the blue haired boy. Almost choking on his water out of surprise, Fayt turned to face the red haired woman. Smiling, the teenager shook his head.
"You know, Nel, you really shouldn't sneak up on people like that." Fayt said, happy to see the young woman again. After having only Albel and villagers to talk to for the past three months, a friendly face was refreshing to see. Nel smiled in return, extending her hand. Fayt shook the young woman's delicate hand, as was formal.
"It's nice to see you again, Fayt." Nel said warmly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"Yeah, you too." The teenager replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
"How sweet." Albel hissed, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "I'm sorry to interrupt your little reunion, but let's move on. What do you want, Nel?" the swordsman finished, his hands on his hips.
"Alright. The Queen has asked me to escort both of you back to Aquios where she will expect an audience with the two of you. I strongly suggest you do not turn down her request, for the consequences of you not hearing what she has to say could be grim. I also have orders to not accept 'no' for an answer, which is another reason to agree and come peaceably." Nel finished, staring directly at Albel. She knew he probably wouldn't agree to see the Queen, but Fayt might be able to convince him.
"Bah. I don't have time to be playing the entertainer to your precious fool of a Queen. I have more important things to do, worm." Albel said, smirking. He knew that referring to the Queen of Aquaria as a 'fool' would anger the young woman, which was exactly what he was trying to do.
"Our Queen is hardly a fool, Albel. It was your simple minded King that started the useless war between our countries, was it not?" Nel bit back, keeping her temper in check. She couldn't afford to get too upset over this. Albel shrugged.
"It's not my problem anymore, maggot. I don't care what that arrogant King does." The swordsman said, smiling wickedly.
"Come on, Albel. Let's just go see what Queen Romera wants. It's only a few days journey to Aquios, anyway." Fayt said after watching the small banter. The blue haired teenager almost winced when he saw Albel turn his head sharply to stare at him.
"What? You've become a servant of Romera also? How pathetic. Fine, you can go and see what that Queen of fools wants. I, however, will not." Albel snapped, glaring daggers at his young companion. Fayt sighed.
"Didn't you hear what Nel said? The Queen wants to see both of us, not just one." Fayt said, frowning and furrowing his brow. Albel stared at the teenager for a few moments before replying.
"Why should I go to Aquios? There is no good reason as to why I should, unless if you call a few cryptic words a good reason." The swordsman grumbled to Nel, gripping the hilt of his sword for comfort. Fayt opened his mouth to reply, but he knew that Albel had a good point. The teenager would have gone just to please the Queen of Aquios, but the swordsman wasn't self sacrificial at all, wanting something in return for his actions. Looking back to Nel, Fayt waited for an answer.
"I had hoped that you would have come without me having to tell you this, but I see that that is impossible. Woltar is visiting Aquios, awaiting your return alongside the Queen. He too wishes to speak with you." Nel said, crossing her arms confidently over her chest. Queen Romera, for some reason, had told Nel to only disclose this information to the two travelers if there was no other way.
"Woltar? What is that old fool doing in Aquios?" the swordsman asked, raising an eyebrow.
"This I will not tell you, for you must be the one to ask him that…in Aquios." Nel said quietly, half expecting the brash man would stab her through. Instead, Albel squinted his eyes menacingly at the red haired woman, his mouth set in a firm line.
"…fine." The swordsman mumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. Nel sighed in relief. She knew that, had it come to fighting, she probably wouldn't have come out the victor.
"Thanks, Albel." Fayt said, slumping somewhat after being tense for so long. The teenager had expected a battle to break out between the young woman and the swordsman.
"Bah." Albel said, jerking his gaze back to Nel. "Your Queen and that foolish old man have better thought up a good explanation for all of this, because if they haven't, I think that you'll find Aquios a ghost town before long." The red eyed swordsman growled, clicking his claws together as if to assure the young woman that he would make good on his threat.
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Woltar stood with his back to the room, staring out of a window in the bed chamber he had been given for his stay. The trip to Aquios had taken its toll on the old man, his muscles were starting to protest to his slightest movements. Slowly sitting down in the chair nearest the window, Woltar listened to the wind as it violently whipped through the trees.
"Albel had better come…" the old man sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Woltar had been having strange dreams, and had decided that he should tell Albel about them. His dreams consisted of Albel's parents, dead and decaying, holding discussions with the old man. In reality, Woltar knew that there was no way that the two could be walking the earth, but in the dreams it only seemed logical that Albel's dead parents were now living corpses.
The couple never spoke in his dreams, yet their voices could still be heard drifting and echoing into the vast corners of his conscious. The topic of their discussions was always the same. They only spoke of Albel and expressed great sorrow, panic, and worry for their son. They constantly plagued Woltar with questions of Albel's whereabouts and what he was doing, but the old man's dream self didn't know any more than his real mind did. Finally, after spending many nights in turmoil, Woltar had decided to travel to Aquios to seek the council of Romera, who always seemed to know more about individual people than his own King did, who spent much of his time seeing that his troops were properly trained.
Romera was surprised at Woltar's appearance, which was to be expected, but there was something else…something more, hovering behind those bright red eyes that the Queen was famous for. Along with being surprised, Romera had seemed disturbed when he mentioned the dreams to her and their relation to Albel. The usually calm woman had grown agitated and had asked Woltar to leave the audience chamber soon after he had told his tale.
Sighing once more, the old man let his contemplations end. Too many people were hiding the truth from everyone else, making this puzzle even more complicated than it had to be. Hopefully, everything would sort itself out in the end, because Woltar felt powerless to stop whatever it was that had been set into motion.
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Cliff took out his communicator and tried once more to contact Fayt. Either the teenager had turned his communicator off, or had destroyed it because Cliff couldn't reach his blue haired friend. Setting the small electric device back down, Cliff stood up and walked out of the cockpit.
The stubborn Klausian had been traveling by himself lately to take his mind off of Fayt and the young mans well being. Plus, Maria had laughed at Cliff and had compared him to a mother hen, which the blonde haired man would not tolerate.
Sighing, Cliff shook his head and decided not to worry about Fayt anymore. The more he worried, the more he thought about Fayt traveling with Albel, the more he thought about Fayt and Albel, the more he worried. It was all a vicious cycle, really, and one that Cliff didn't want to get sucked into. If Fayt wasn't back in two weeks, Cliff would go to Elicoor and drag the teenager back, ending the vicious cycle of thoughts. Of course, Mirage had warned Cliff not to bring the blue haired boy back against his will, but what did older sisters know, anyway? All Cliff knew and cared about was that there was no way in hell that he would leave Fayt alone with Albel once he got to Elicoor II.
Looking out of the window, the Klausian watched the passing stars. He hoped Fayt was all right.
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Fayt could feel the power stirring deep within him. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, the teenager tried to harness this power once more, reaching towards it.
"Just a little closer…" Fayt thought, sweat beading on his brow. Fayt could see the blue tendrils of pure energy weaving in and out of his soul like a poorly woven rug. Moving towards it with his mind's eye, Fayt extended a hand and moved closer to the strand of energy. Once he touched it he pulled back in alarm. A painful shock had been sent up the teenagers arm, lacing through his body like lightening. He had felt this pain both in his earthbound body and in…this body. Fayt looked down at his slightly transparent form, watching as the last remnants of energy left him. The first time Fayt had reached into himself and found the power that meant being the embodiment of destruction, he had been trying to understand how it worked by slipping off to practice by himself every night. He had seen Maria and Sophia learn how to control their powers, and yet he himself hadn't figured it out.
Whenever the teenager had wanted to look at this energy, he would fall into a trancelike state, which left him frighteningly open to enemy attacks. While Fayt was practicing with his powers, he couldn't see what was happening 'outside' of his body. He could, however, hear, and the young boy had decided to depend on his ears to tell him whether or not an enemy was close.
Sitting down on the damp evening grass, Fayt continued to stare at the intertwining forces.
"What am I supposed to do?" the teenager thought, putting his chin into the palm of his open hand.
Several minutes passed as Fayt just sat, his legs crossed, trying to figure out what he was doing wrong. He had tried touching it, which only resulted in pain. He had tried to just think about using it, which just flat out didn't work. He had even tried making some sort of link to the outside world with his earthbound body, to try and clear the path for the energy to flow through, which hadn't worked, either. Fayt probably would have continued his practice for another few hours, but something brought the young man out of his thoughts.
Focusing once again on the world outside, Fayt found himself staring into a pair of crimson colored eyes.
"What are you doing, maggot?" a smooth voice asked, not so much as it was full of hatred as it was curiosity.
"Umm…" Fayt stammered, taken by surprise at the man's sudden appearance, and at how close the swordsman's face was to his. The older man straightened, widening the distance between them, and Fayt instantly regretted it. Although it still unnerved the teenager when Albel stood even remotely close to him, Fayt felt excited and apprehensive being close to the unpredictable man.
Albel glared down at Fayt, becoming impatient because the blue haired boy was taking so long to answer his question.
"I was just…calming myself down." Fayt stuttered, saying the first thing that came to mind.
"Calming yourself down?" Albel snorted, "From what, maggot?"
"I, um, saw this wolf in that, er, patch of trees over there," Fayt gestured frantically to a small cluster of trees about 20 feet away from him, "and it…stared at me funny?" Fayt finished, looking up into Albel's eyes. If the skeptical swordsman would ever believe his lie, Fayt himself would have to be convincing.
"A wolf, eh worm?" Albel asked, raising an eyebrow and glancing over his shoulder at the small patch of trees, "You must really be pathetic for it to have frightened you so much." The swordsman commented, smirking down at Fayt.
"What do you mean?" the teenager asked, furrowing his brow. At this, Albel's smirk grew and his eyes narrowed. Fayt watched, stunned, as the tall man dropped to the ground, crouching in front of him. The swordsman leaned in towards the teenager, who was still sitting on the ground. Fayt fell back onto his elbows, his eyes wide. Now kneeling, Albel leaned in closely to Fayt, straddling the bewildered teenager, and put his hands on either side of Fayt's torso, his long fingers digging into the moist earth. Picking one of his hands back up from the ground, Albel put it gently on Fayt's neck.
"You're sweating." The swordsman whispered, tracing a line of sweat that had run down the side of the teenager's neck. Fayt shivered, feeling the older man run his finger down to the nape of his neck. Looking back in front of him, the blue haired boy found that Albel had already stood up and was now staring down strangely at him. An awkward moment passed before Albel broke it.
"What do you want, Leingod?" the swordsman asked, kneeling back down in front of the flustered teenager.
"…what?" Fayt said, not understanding Albel's question.
"What do you want? Sex? Surely that, for you have been staring at me for the past week with lust stamped plainly on your face." Albel annunciated, leaving no room for question. The cruel man never was one for subtlety.
"No!" Fayt yelled, a mixture of embarrassment and anger spreading throughout his body. He didn't understand why he was angry with Albel, but he was. "I don't want sex, as you so crudely put it. And as for why I've been staring at you, maybe it's just because I'm thinking about how stupid your outfit looks!" At this, Albel's eyes widened before he glared back at the young teenager, muttering something under his breath. "You assume too much, Albel." Fayt continued, choosing to ignore the swordsman's grumbling, "You think I love you? How can I even begin to understand your twisted mind when all you've been to me is cruel?" Fayt left then, trying to calm his unexpected anger.
Albel remained, however, crouched on the ground and staring after Fayt's retreating form. The teenager had lift Albel a bit dazed, which was quite an accomplishment, considering. Smirking to himself, Albel realized the flaw that the younger man had made in his 'speech'. Fayt had said "you think I love you?" when Albel had mentioned nothing about love. The very word made Albel sneer in disgust, but still, this was becoming even more interesting.
Albel was somewhat confused as to why he was so amused that the blue haired boy had fallen for him of all people, and it also confused him that he got so much pleasure out of tormenting his younger companion. Albel never thought on these two points for too long, however, because as long as it kept the swordsman from becoming bored, he wouldn't complain. Fayt's outburst had somewhat surprised the older man. Up until now, Albel had never heard Fayt raise his voice so loudly. Before, whenever the young man was angry with Albel, he would only assume a stern tone and sound annoyed, but he never actually yelled.
Standing up, Albel brushed his skirt off.
"That maggot had better have been joking about my clothes…" the swordsman grumbled to himself. His clothes were not stupid.
Fayt stormed through the clearing where the three travelers had decided to set up camp. Nel jumped and spun around as the teenager made his loud entry into the camp, visibly relaxing when she saw who it was.
"Fayt? What's wrong?" the young woman asked, her voice full of concern.
"Nothing." Fayt mumbled, walking past the confused woman without sparing a glance at her. "I'm going to sleep." He added, then crawled into his sleeping bag with his back facing the small fire the red haired woman had built earlier.
"Why am I so angry?" Fayt thought, glaring off into the forest. Nel watched the young man's back, noticing how his shoulder muscles were tense. Looking back in the general direction in which he'd come, the young woman stood up and walked into the forest, looking to see what had upset the usually calm teenager.
Coming to a small clearing, smaller than the one they had set up their camp in, Nel parted some branches to reveal a certain, purple skirted man sitting in the grass. There was a strange, almost contemplative look on his face. Nel almost snorted at the thought of Albel the Wicked being contemplative.
"Still..." The young woman thought as she stared at the strange man, "What could he be doing here?" Watching as Albel stood up and brushed himself off, Nel turned to leave before the swordsman found her.
"I wonder what happened between those two…" the young woman thought, walking back to the camp. Whatever it was, Nel decided to wait and watch. It wasn't in the red haired warrior's nature to get involved in other people's business, and she wasn't about to start now. Just watch and listen, and soon things will become clear.
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ee! review review!