A/N: Nothing to say, really. I love Lani.
Dedicated to all y'all.
(Edited because I accidentally called Salamander "Amarant." WHOOPS.)
"Red, get up."
His heart is beating loudly in his chest. In his skull. His whole body aches – what in the hell...
"Damn it, Red, wake the fuck up!"
A groan rumbles from his throat and he opens an eye, looking at the blurry, bleary surroundings. He thinks he sees Lani.
"Water," he rasps.
"You're so lucky you're injured or else I'd make you get it yourself," she mutters, but looks content to pour him water for tea that's cooled down over night. He takes the mug from her with both hands – he's so tired – and downs it shakily, wincing.
"What the fuck...?"
"What do you remember?" she asks and he sighs, putting the mug somewhere to the side and covering his face with his hands.
"...Fuck. A fucking archer took me down?" He tries to laugh but it catches in his throat, "How fucking stupid."
"Stop swearing, jeez," Lani mutters, and then smirks, "Yeah, you got taken down. Boy, that poison did a number on you. Are you okay?"
"That fucker's head better be on a pike."
Lani blinks, and sits back, before shaking her head. "Is that a weird Eidechsen kink or something? Your father just stuck the whole body down on the mountain pass as a warning."
Salamander shouldn't feel anything special because it was his father but he feels happy all the same. It reminds him how his father sounded – "Help him" – and that makes him feel stupid. He shouldn't have been worried, this is how their lives have been and how they will end.
"Your father wanted to make sure you were okay but he's... he's appealing to those idiots you all chose to be leaders."
"Appealing for what? There's nothing to do except fight and hope not all their archers have poisoned arrows."
Lani crosses her arms and stands, starting to pace. "He said that there might be a way out of here? I don't know, some secret passage you can pop open through the mountain or something?"
"There's nothing like that. We're pretty much isolated."
"What a load of shit – who's bright idea was it to live in a place with only one exit?"
Salamander sits up and stretches, looking at his torso – thick bandages are wrapped around his stomach, blood just starting to seep into visibility. "We didn't... It was so that when there was a problem like this..." He waves a hand, "We'd be able to fend off the entire area. But we were supposed to have more..."
"Fighters?"
"Whatever you want to call them." Salamander sighs, and then gets up, feeling dizzy but refusing to sit back down, even when Lani starts to tell him to do so. "Have you been to Ond, yet?"
"It's barely noon. I figured you were more important..."
"That's sweet," the Eidechsen drawls, "Really. Now, go back to your excruciatingly painful ordeal and leave me to my own."
Lani rolls her eyes, and then heads out. However, she stops at the hut's door and looks back at the redhead, biting her lip in this really irresistible, undeniably hot way – "Just don't go do something stupid again."
She leaves. He hopes her sentiment is because she actually gives a shit – but he knows, all the same, that she's only thinking about herself. That's how he should be. If only he weren't so fucking stupid. If only women weren't so damned beguiling. His head aches and he sits back down.
If only he had more than a month to live.
Lani's laying on her stomach, relatively complacent, as Ond takes his tools and taps the design out into her skin. Salamander sighs and leans against the doorframe, watching her take slow breaths and listening to that soft tapping. Ond knows exactly what's happening just beyond the mountain pass – Gila and him are allies in all sorts of projects and he's probably the first person to know of his father's feelings on anything. Right now, he's making a loopy, swirling design across the lower back of some outlander girl that Salamander's taken a liking to. The redhead wonders how Ond feels about that.
He probably doesn't care.
"You shouldn't be up," Ond drawls from his work, "Admes' father isn't a very good healer."
"I'm fine," Salamander snorts, refusing to show that his wound actually does hurt quite a bit. "How long is it going to take?"
"Maybe another day. She's being very well behaved – I'm surprised."
Lani makes a noise but is otherwise quiet. The design is bloody andSalamander knows that it will heal only just before the army from the south comes. Maybe not even then. Maybe she'll die with it still bloody-
"You're thinking finstere gedanken – very dark thoughts, I can see it."
Salamander turns his head to see his father standing beside Admes, eyes going over him in something that should seem foolish but instead seems paternal.
"Not a time to be thinking about roses."
"Are you alright?" Admes asks his friend, who frowns. He doesn't lie to Admes – he never has and never will.
"...No," he mutters. "Not very."
"How are you doing?" Gila asks Lani, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Mmh," she mumbles, and Ond stops for a moment.
"You know better than to talk to her," he snaps idly, not terribly annoyed, and then continues.
"What do the Elders have to say?" Salamander asks.
Admes looks away and Gila makes an incredibly scary sound. "They don't believe me."
"What!" Lani suddenly exclaims, and Ond swears, telling her to stay still.
"They don't want to," Admes mutters, finding the sky suddenly interesting, "They just... don't."
"They can't deny what's in front of their faces," Salamander mutters, but he knows that if they really want to – if they really want nothing more than to live an isolated, oblivious life, they'll pretend the world itself wasn't dying.
"Then what are you going to have us do?" Ond suddenly asks Gila, not even hesitating in his work, "Knowing you, you'll start a riot."
"I was thinking of dragging them down tonight to see for themselves but they refuse to follow me, and it'd be treason to physically hurt one of them." Gila says this as if it's a shame.
Admes sighs. "I almost wish I was like them. Anything to not have to face this."
"Thank god you've got sense," Ond mutters, "Living like that is just setting yourself up for failure later."
"...What about-"
Ond cuts Lani off with a quick "Hold still."
"Stop for a fucking second," she snaps, and he does, smirking. She makes an annoyed noise, and twists her neck slightly to look at them. Salamander licks his lips and then immediately shakes his head. "What about that kid – uh, whatever his name was. The one who's that old guy's son."
"Eki?" Admes asks, raising an eyebrow, "What about him?"
"Well, he isn't an elder. Hurting him wouldn't be treason, now would it?" She smirks, "Not if it's just a few friends playing rough."
Gila looks at the woman for a long time and then smiles. "Interesting." He looks to Salamander, "Maybe you aren't wasting this on something temporary."
Salamander swears he's going to strangle his father.
The one thing about Eki that both Admes and Salamander respect is that once you win his loyalty, it's impossibly hard to lose it.
Salamander seems to be the first person to have lost Eki's loyalty.
"I have nothing to say to you," the Elder's son mutters and looks at his drink.
Salamander rolls his eyes and Admes frowns – they had sat down intending to talk, not to be ignored.
"I don't care," Salamander growls, "You don't have to say a damned thing, far as I'm concerned. Do you know what our fathers were talking about today?"
There is, of course, no answer, so Salamander continues.
"They were talking about the army down at the base of the goddamned mountain. There's an army, Eki, coming here. I've seen it with my own eyes. Hundreds of soldiers with Alexandrian-style training all marching straight towards us."
"You're lying," Eki mumbles.
"Oh, you think I'm lying? Who shot me with an arrow, then?" Salamander stands and lifts his shirt up, showing the slightly bloody bandages wrapped around his stomach. Eki stares at them uncomprehendingly. "Who do you think did this? The wind?"
"I..."
"Do you believe us yet?" Admes asks.
"...Father said-"
"Fuck your father, you idiot!" Salamander exclaims, causing some of the other patrons of the bar to look at him in confusion, "He doesn't fucking want to believe it! I can show you, I can show everyone here."
"...I... What am I supposed to do about it?" Eki finally asks, looking at them both evenly, "What do you expect me to do for you?"
"Tell him. Make him believe you. If the Elders don't believe it, no one else will. And then we'll be sitting on our asses instead of training. Do you want to die?"
"Are you insane?" Eki stands suddenly, eyes narrowing, "We have three hundred warriors out right now hunting down the very army you're so afraid of. We won't be-"
Salamander begins to laugh, and Admes stares at him as if he's gone crazy.
"Three hundred warriors!" he exclaims, going into mild hysterics, "We don't even have a fucking messenger to tell us that those three hundred warriors are dead!"
The entire bar goes silent.
"We don't have anyone outside Die Stadt! We're alone!"
"Salamander," Admes mutters, standing and grabbing his arm, "Stop."
"Why? Why stop now if we don't even have a goddamn month to live?"
He thinks he might be going crazy. He wants to bite his tongue and stop talking before it gets out of control but no one here knows, no one here understands that in a month they won't even be on Gaia – they'll be so far away that..."
Shit, Salamander thinks, I said that aloud.
"Stop it!" Admes growls, "Come on." He drags his friend out of the bar and then shoves him into the wall, eyes narrowing. "Are you insane? You're going to start a riot."
"I'm fucking scared," he mumbles.
"...What?"
Admes looks at him in the half-light and Salamander feels incredibly stupid but he's never lied to Admes before and fuck it if he's going to start now.
"I'm scared, Admes." He touches his stomach, "What if they have more than a few hundred? What if they kill us at all? What if they don't? I don't want to die."
"Death isn't anything to be afraid of," Admes sighs, looking at the ground, "If you go in thinking you're going to die, of course you are. You remember our lessons."
"I have trouble remembering anything these days," Salamander sighs, "I'm forgetting how I'm supposed to act in this kind of situation."
"Well, you aren't supposed to go around inciting riots, that's for sure."
"Neumond, I'm turning into an idiot."
"No, you're not," Admes consoles, putting his hands on his friend's shoulders, "The only people who are idiots in this village are the Elders." The younger Eidechsen pulls away, suddenly, and smirks, "Though, you might be getting soft."
"What?" Salamander asks, snapping back to attention.
"With all the doe eyes you've been making at that damned Alexandrian, I'd think you were love-struck." He bats his eyes, "Doting on Princess Lani all the time, after all – somebody's bound to notice. With you're luck," Admes laughs, "It'll be Lani herself."
"Oh, shut up," Salamander grumbles, "I'm not doting on anyone and Lani is hardly a princess."
"Have you taken all your rights, with her getting a tattoo in your stead, bruder?" Admes asks, starting away towards Ond's hut.
"She doesn't even understand what it means," Salamander responds, crossing his arms and following his friend, "I don't think that I should even consider-"
"Oh, see? There you go, thinking with your brain again," Admes crows, grinning, "There are much more interesting ways to think and a lot of them involve Lani's eventual de-clothing."
"I think you better shut up," Salamander growls, "You forget who you're talking to."
"Oh, I'm sorry," the Eidechsen apologizes, blinking innocently, "I thought I was talking to Lani's manservant. What, did I step into your territory?"
"I'm going to strangle you and leave your body as a warning to others," the redhead warns. Admes laughs and moves merrily on ahead, feeling that the situation has been diverted.
Salamander is still on the verge of probably his first and last breakdown. His friend's joking and advice only eases it a little but he still feels nearly terrified of the thought of dying, no matter what they used to learn about Neumond's halls and warrior goddesses and such. He barely remembers any of it, he barely can comprehend that all of that could possibly be true.
They reach Ond's hut by sundown and Lani is coming out with Gila, who's chuckling lowly to something the woman is waving her hands about. Admes nudges Salamander who shoves him lightly, catching the attention of Gila and, therefore, Lani.
"Well?" Gila asks.
Salamander doesn't know what to say. It wasn't a success but it wasn't quite the failure they had thought it would be – they had definitely pressed the seriousness and truthfulness of their situation...
"We'll find out soon enough," Admes says, effectively rescuing Salamander.
"Good," Lani drawls, crossing her arms and looking at Salamander – unconsciously mimicking his posture. "You and I are going to go for a walk down the mountain," she tells him, so matter-of-factly and sure of his compliance that he has to form some sort of retort – he isn't going soft –
She's already walking away and he sighs, sending Admes an annoyed look as he follows. In a few steps he's side-by-side with Lani and they head through the fields.
"That old bastard says it'll take one more day for my tat' to be done," Lani says, hips swinging a little less because it probably hurts to move the bloody area.
"Good." What else can he say? It will be impossible to really see the design until the blood stops and is washed away, but by the time that happens they'll already be in great Neumond's halls...
"Finstere gedanken," she suddenly says and he looks at her in confusion.
"What?"
"Finstere gedanken. Your father said it this afternoon when he came in. Dark thoughts, or something."
"Yeah," Salamander sighs, "No roses."
"When I came here, I didn't expect to die here," Lani mumbles suddenly and Salamander looks at her, eyebrows narrowing slightly.
"...Why'd you come here at all?"
Lani doesn't stop walking, not once – she looks up at the sky and sighs, shrugging. "I had to leave Treno for a while until things settled down. I just never got around to going home. It's hard, you know," she says, looking at him out of the corner of her eye and waiting for his reaction, "It's hard being a bounty huntress by yourself. No one takes me seriously."
"Until they realize that axe isn't just for show, hm?"
"That, or until their head is dislodged from their shoulders. But then they can't apologize. It's a horrible thing." She sighs again, more melodramatically than before, and Salamander wonders if that's just a thing that women do – sighing a lot, that is.
"I can imagine."
They walk in silence and Salamander starts to think finstere gedanken again, until the silence is broken by a question he had been expecting and dreading for a long time. "Red, what does it mean, exactly – me getting a tattoo in your stead?"
"...I wish you didn't ask that," he mutters, sighing. "It's... to a degree, like a bonding ceremony. Except, it's generally a warrior thing. You don't see Elders taking tattoos..."
"So I'm, in a sense, bonded to you now?" She doesn't sound put off by the idea – mainly just intrigued by the entire process.
"I guess. But I'm not holding it to that extent-"
"Why in the hell not?" Lani asks, looking vaguely annoyed, "I'm not a good catch?"
"What?" Salamander stares at her, stopping. They're just at the treeline and he doesn't know if they should continue, but he doesn't understand – "Do you honestly want to be bonded to me? And besides, it's more like a favor for a friend." He thinks for a brief moment and then adds as an afterthought, "And a general fuck you to Eki's father."
"So, that means I don't have to sleep with you or anything, then."
"Were you expecting to?" he asks, mentally kicking himself for once again thinking with his head.
"No, not really," she responds, leaning against a tree. "You'd have to be crazy to try and get me to sleep with you, Red. That's a general warning I'm telling you right now, so you don't get any ideas later."
"What later?" he asks, "We barely have a month left before we all die."
"God, you're depressing. We aren't going to die," she says, leaning against a tree, "It's impossible for me to die, anyways. I'm too gorgeous."
"Yeah, if you're lucky, you might just be kept alive as their harem slave," he growls, and something in that sentence – the truthfulness, he supposes – makes him want to get Lani out of the village now.
"You mean they might be kept alive as my harem slaves," she responds easily, grinning, "God knows I could use a few more of them."
He wonders if she's being truthful – a woman like Lani probably would have dozens of men waiting around on her, if she wanted it. For some reason, he doesn't think she would.
"We're gonna go hang out in Alexandria after all this. You, me, and maybe that cute Admes kid." She laughs, "What a great time that will be."
"Alexandria's not one of the prime tourist destinations for the Eidechsen," Salamander drawls, rolling his eyes.
"Maybe Treno, then. I don't know – you guys might like Treno. It's loud, and violent, and there are plenty of thieves to beat up if you're stressed." Suddenly she looks sad – as if she just remembered something and didn't know how to use it. "You know, I've lived in this place for two years and I don't even know the names of half the people here, or even the name of the town itself?" She looks at him, and he wonders if she finds this revelation disturbing.
"...Die Stadt."
"What?" she asks, suddenly, eyes locking on his in confusion.
"...The village. It's Die Stadt." He chuckles, "I don't know if anyone under thirty knows that name anymore – we don't refer to it by it's name – never need to. We all know what we're talking about. Even you know what you're talking about." He looks to her for an explanation. Why in the name of Neumond does she need to know the name?
"When I go back home, I'm going to have to explain why I've been gone two years," she tells him, "I can't just say, 'I was in a village full of lizard-people' and sound sane. I didn't even know you all existed, after all. I don't think anyone does."
Salamander smirks. "That's generally the purpose of living in the mountains, with only one well-hidden, twisting passage leading to and from it. We're not exactly people-friendly, if you haven't noticed."
"Oh, I did. The first time I came here no one would talk to me. I think you were around – weren't you?"
Salamander was, and he remembers very well how Lani came up the pass, looked around, and promptly found the bar. He had been sitting with Admes at the corner table – the table that had been moved to the center of the bar during a brief remodel – and she had waltzed in, calm as could be, and asked for a drink. Everyone had been absolutely silent and it wasn't until Lani had laid down a dozen gil that she had gotten anything at all.
"I remember. You were a fool then, and you still are." Lani gives him a look and he shrugs, "Not that I blame you. Icy reception, geographic isolation – perfect start for a secluded little life in the mountains."
"I didn't want a life," she mumbles, looking uneasy, "Just a vacation."
He grins, now – he's finally catching onto the woman's feelings. "Then why'd you stay? You couldn't possibly had liked the atmosphere."
"I got lazy. Besides, I worked hard to make that goddamned shack livable, and I still don't know anything about you all. Two years and no historical background, no nothing – not even names. I don't even know the name of the guy who sold me that damned thing." She jabs a finger towards what basically is a storage shed on the edge of the fields, close to the town but not intertwined, like a separate country all it's own. Instead of stone and mortar like the rest of the town, it's wood and nails, and Salamander remembers kicking a hole into it once when he was fifteen because –
"You're a deep thinker, aren't you?" Lani cuts into his thoughts and he looks at her, blinking.
"Did you fix the hole in the back wall?" he asks.
She nods, raising an eyebrow, "Yeah. How'd you know there was a hole? I didn't think anyone other than the guy who owned it went in there."
"I made it," he grumbles, "Back when my father told me about my mother." He waves a hand, "I would have fixed it if I had known someone was going to live in there."
"I remember your mother." It's a short, simple line and Salamander sighs, looking down at her. "She wasn't like these women here," she says, smirking in what he decides is a fond way, "She was pretty." She bites her lip – again, gorgeous, "I'm-"
"You say it and I'll murder you right here," he growls, "I've had enough sentiments from people. I don't need any more 'I'm sorry' or 'what a shame' – I don't need any more of that."
Lani nods, "I know." She does a few quick estimates and then starts towards her shed – after a moment she stops and turns, putting her hands on her hips. "Well? Aren't you going to escort me back to my home? I don't want to get shot like you."
Despite the seriousness of that statement, Salamander smirks and in a few steps is beside her. She starts to walk again. "God, you'd think you could at least be a gentleman."
"I didn't think you needed a man walking you home," he chuckles, crossing his arms.
She glares at him sideways, and then shrugs. "I don't," she responds, "But sometimes it's nice pretending that I do." Suddenly she looks at him fully, "You know, I can see it now – you're going to have some really weird relationships."
"Oh, really?" Salamander rolls his eyes, "I'm friends with someone like you; that should be a tip-off."
Lani laughs, "I'm the tip of the iceberg, Red."
Little does he know, right?