13. Excessive chain

Three hours ago the Diplo had landed on Vanguard III so Mirage could make some necessary maintenance on the ship. They had landed in Pesotto forest well out of site of the small town of Whipple. Fayt and Cliff had gone to scout around the area while the others had gone into town. Albel stayed aboard the ship not wanting to get involved with the inhabitance of this planet.

He sat at one of the consoles staring off into nothing. His thoughts were disturbed when someone walked up behind him. "Hey."

He glanced over his shoulder to find Sophia. She was dressed in short jeans and, what he considered to be a very skimpy top. It was the same outfit she had been wearing when he first met her at the training facility. "Where are you going dressed like that?"

She looked down at her cloths. "What? It's hot outside and these are summer clothes."

He grunted. "Maybe where you come from they are but on a backwater planet like this it's probably scandalous."

She lightly tapped his shoulder smiling down at him "Well it's a good thing I'm not going where anyone will see me then huh."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to do some sketching at the Coffir ruins." She held up her sketchpad for him to see.

"Alone?"

She played with her hair a bit and shuffled nervously on her feet. "Well yeah. Unless you want to come with me?"

He just turned from her and huffed.

She sighed softly. "Well fine, have it your way. Just tell the others I'll be back in a few hours ok." When he gave no reply she turned and left.

Sophia started down the well-worn path that led to the ruins. She stared at the huge trees that lined the path in awe. How small she was compared to the enormous timber. They were so much taller and wider than the trees on earth. She was just beginning to contemplate exactly how old these trees were when she heard a noise behind her.

She wasn't afraid, she was pretty sure it was Albel. After all just because he showed no interest in accompanying her didn't mean he wasn't coming. She turned around expecting him to be behind her. She was greeted with nothing more than trees and small glimpse of the Diplo through the foliage. She looked around a bit but could see no sign of him anywhere. The monsters here were not particularly strong so even if it were and enemy she really wasn't concerned.

A twig snapped to her left and she reflexively turned to face the noise. She was once again greeted with nothing. She wasn't going to buy into Albel's tricks or run in fear of some harmless monster.

"All right Albel that's enough! Stop messing around and come out!" She waited for a reply but all she could hear was the wind rushing through the trees and the birds in the canopy above. She was starting to get ticked off. She started walking backwards down the path still hoping to catch a glimpse of purple in the greenery. "You know you make so much noise, you're really not good at sneaking up on people."

No sooner had the words escaped her lips than she backed into something behind her. She yelped and spun around. Somehow Albel had gotten behind her and stood in the middle of the path, hands on his hips and a sly smirk on his face.

"Oh see you ran right into me. Guess I really can't sneak up on you." Sarcasm was just dripping from his words.

Sophia stood pouting before him. "Oh stop begin so smug."

He chuckled and turned, walking down the path. "Come on were wasting time if you want to make it to the ruins and back."

Sophia sighed. She would never understand why he just couldn't do things the simple way.

They made their way to the ruins and chose a spot out by the lake. Sophia was sitting under a large tree that resembled a willow and Albel sat on the ground a few feet away. She had been busy sketching for some time now and he had no way of knowing what she was drawing. She'd changed paper a few times so he assumed she was drawing multiple things.

He was looking out over the lake not really paying attention to any one particular thing when she started giggling. At first he tried to ignore it. But when she continued on he couldn't help the response that left his lips. "Alright, what's so funny?"

She was looking at him, her eyes full of mischief. She was holding her sketchpad closely to her chest like she was protecting some kind of secret. "I'll tell you but you have to answer a question first, ok."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Why must you always answer a question with a question. Can't you ever just give a straight answer?"

She gave him a lopsided grin. "Of course I can! Just not right now. So are you going to answer my question or not?"

Albel gave up he lay sideways on the grass and waved his clawed hand at her. "Fine, ask away."

Sophia nervously licked her lips and leaned forward a bit. "Why do you keep that chain around your neck?"

He lay still for what seemed like eternity. His only movement was his hand tracing the cold metal that encircled his neck. Finally he sat back up, his hands resting in his lap, his eyes closed. "This was the chain I was held down with at the Accession of Flames Ceremony. It ensured I would not run from my test if I feared my own failure. My father, he broke the chain himself. It cost him his life."

Sophia's face was etched with concern. "Oh Albel I didn't know. I'm so sorry."

He slowly shook his head, his bangs now covering his eyes. "There's nothing to be sorry for. There's no way you could have know anyway."

"I know but I hate to drag up bad memories like that. I didn't want to hurt you."

Albel turned to look at her. His eyes held sadness but his expression remained blank. "You're not dragging anything up. I wear this chain to remind myself of my failure. I don't ever want anyone to suffer at my expense again."

They fell into silence listening to the sound of the water lapping at the shore. She was thinking about what he said when he spoke up.

"So?"

She looked at him questioningly. "What?"

He scowled in annoyance. "Answer my question girl. What were you laughing at?"

Sophia's eyes widened in shock and she clutched her sketchpad tighter. "Oh it was nothing really."

He angrily held out his hand. "Ok that's it! Give me that blasted paper."

She shook her head quickly. "No really it's nothing."

He snatched the sketchpad out of her hand and looked at what she had been drawing. His mouth fell slightly a gape and his eyes widened in shock. A moment later however there was an irritated scowl plastered across his face. "This is not funny."

He rose to his feet and Sophia did the same. "I was just wondering why you wore that chain and my imagination got away with me. I really didn't mean anything by it, it's just a little doodle. It's kind of cute and… you really don't find this funny at all do you?"

Albel stared down at her his expression unreadable. "I'm a gentlemen so I'm going to give you a ten second head start."

Sophia tried to plead with him. "Oh come on! Don't be like that!" she tried pouting but somehow had the feeling it wasn't going to work.

He threw the sketchpad next to the tree. "You're wasting time. You really should be running." Sophia hesitated for a moment trying to think of a way to make this situation better. She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and then took off running in the direction of the Diplo. After the stated amount of time he gave chase after her.

On the ground the sketch lightly fluttered in the wind. It was a picture of Albel. On his head was a pair of pointed cat ears. The chain around his neck had been turned into a cat collar and his claw was now in the shape of a cat's paw. The word meow was written above his head.

Off in the distance Sophia's laughter could be heard. In between gasps for air and uncontrollable laughter you could hear her bagging for the tickling to stop.

A/N

This was inspired by the comic found here.

http/www94.sakura.ne.jp/ronron/love/so3/so3.htm

There is no direct linking to any picture so to see the image I'm talking about you need to go to the first set of columns. In the list on the right side of the page are comics. The one I'm talking about is the fourth down. While I cant read Japanese it looks like Sophia is comparing Albel's claw to a cats paw.

There also some good fanarts of Albel and his dad. But beware the faytXalbel picks.