Phetiamwantip : Thank you! Also yeah the whole point of these flashbacks are to give insight into the aftermath of Koso's death and how it overall effected Morro's upbringing, plus I just wanted to explore Jasper's connection to Morro.
Moimyoryour: Oh wow, for a second I had no idea what you were talking about and was for a brief moment kinda scared ,but then I remembered about chapter 6 so whoops on my part XD. Thanks, I was mainly trying to establish a humorous tone and just have fun goofing off so it's good to hear you liked it, thank you for letting me know! Hope you enjoy this new chapter feel free to let me know what you think I'm always open for critique and ways I can improve.
Warning! Some violent imagery in this chapter as well as some minor gore and blood. Just be careful if you get extra uncomfortable by that stuff, oh also there will be some heavy subject matter in this chapter as well, just be prepared.
Chapter 30
"...WHAT?!" Morro and Lloyd shouted in unison as they stared in perplexity at the former wolf.
Jasper might've felt the urge to flinch were it not for the extensive experience he possessed dealing with the loud obnoxious children of this ever expanding bloodline.
He did however, feel the need to tense his shoulders slightly upon the critical glare Morro immediately shot his way, like he had just been told a very very bad joke.
"So, you're saying my mom wanted to murder the first spinjitzu master."
The fellow ravenette frowned sucking in a deep breath as he stared down at his slightly more neon counterpart.
"Yeah." Jasper said, not really knowing how else to explain.
Morro's scrutinizing stare lingered on the rookie human for a moment longer before they returned to the insides of his eyelids as he slid them shut and reached up to pinch at the miniscule space left bare between his brows.
The wind master sighed. "Alright, proceed."
"Wait!" Lloyd abruptly interjected. "Are we really just gonna skim over thi…."
The blonde trailed off as Morro looked over his shoulder at him with what must have been a pretty disheartening glare if Jasper were to guess.
Looking back at the taller male, the wind master gave a curt nod, most definitely signaling permission to continue, or at least that's what Jasper assumed it was.
"Alright so back to the story…"
ForgottenFamily
"...WHAT!?" Terance bellowed out with the force of a Banshee as he shot to his feet only to stumble onto the moist grass again as he staggered backwards onto his towel as it fell from his shoulders behind him.
Elizabeth remained staring at the fire.
"Are you serious?! We're talking about the same first spinjitzu master here right?! You know the one who's kinda the most powerful being in all of Ninjago!"
"He killed my father. I'm going to avenge him." Elizabeth stated matter of factly.
"Do you realize how insane you sound?!" Terance all ,but shrieked. "The first spinjitzu master doesn't kill people! Even someone as f**ked in the head as me knows that!"
Jasper watched with bemused eyes as his master snorted in response.
"Shows what you know."
"Ok I knew you elemental's were on a pretty high pedestal ,but I didn't think it was so high you literally couldn't get enough air flow to your f**king brain! I mean seriously, the first. Spinjitzu. Master. The literal guy who created all of Ninjago and you want to just kill him!"
"Is that what you've been taught?"
"Lady the only thing I've ever been taught is how to pick a lock in the dark with just a nail and the stem of a tea leaf. This is f**king ingrained, common knowledge."
Elizabeth's features tightened momentarily as did her grip on the edges of her towel.
"So we're all supposed to believe that just one man, one mortal man created, everything and before him there was just….. nothing?" The green banged woman rhetorically asked with a heated glare shot at the befuddled bandit.
"Uh yeah pretty much. What? Got a better theory?" The young man prompted, now sounding strangely calmer like their argument had just magically transformed into a light hearted discussion over the best tea brewing method.
Again, Elizabeth laughed with no humor to be found anywhere. "I don't need a theory I know the whole story."
"Really?" Terance asked, sounding more doubtful than genuinely curious. "Well then by all means, enlighten me." The limping thief challenged as he retrieved his towel from the ground and returned to his spot next to her.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, shaking her head with a pronounced sense of a what could have been interpreted as melancholy.
"It doesn't matter. You'd never believe me. No one ever has." The ravenette paused to look back out at the water like she was secretly considering diving back in. "My aunt's the only one alive who knows besides me anyway."
"Oh? She crazy as well?."
For some inexplicable reason Terance's clothes were suddenly dry, most likely due to the fact he was then hit by a mysteriously powerful gust of wind that sent him flying backwards into the nearest tree.
Elizabeth smirked at the agitated frown etched into the young robber's features as he eventually found the strength to walk back over and sit down.
"That was unnecessary." He lazily mumbled as he haphazardly threw a nearby stick into the sweltering fire.
"Sorry, must be my crazy tendencies." The ravenette cheekily replied causing the young man to narrow his eyes as he huffed a breath sigh in annoyance slightly offset by the soft chuckle that followed.
"No, but seriously go on, tell me how this, " Terance paused to swing his arms outward in an expressive gesture towards their surroundings. " really came to be."
Even at Elizabeth's determined nodd of refusal, the dirty blonde persisted. "C'mon, what have you got to lose, you already know I think you're insane, as far as I see it you can only seem less crazy from here."
The wind master guffawed at the man's inability to relent. Jasper was inclined to do so as well were it not for the fact he wasn't human.
"Really insistent aren't you?"
"What can I say, I like getting to know people."
"Oh yes your social skills are phenomenal," Elizabeth rolled her eyes before momentarily turning back to Terance and looking up to meet his gaze, almost timidly.
"I- Alright, fine." The ravenette reluctantly conceded. "But you make any more unfunny jokes and you'll be sent flying through the tree this time, capish?"
"Well, no promi-I mean yes." Terance hastily accused upon Elizabeth's unsightly growl.
"Very well," The green banged woman began. "It all started in the realm of Dragon and Oni."
"Oh we talking in iambic pentameter now, also what's an on-iiiurrgh!" Terance keened as a pointed elbow was shoved against his lower abdomen with the force of a crossbow.
"No interruptions." Elizabeth commanded "In this realm, war was a constant. Oni hunted the Dragons for everything whether it be food or the skin off their bones to make clothes and the dragons...well they fought back without mercy."
In that moment, Jasper no longer saw his master sitting on that dingy log in front of the flickering flames ,but rather another woman who'd once told the exact same story to her daughter as she sat on the edge of her bed under the glow of moonlight. A woman whose pale face and dull dying eyes he saw every time he closed his eyes. Jasper didn't like to sleep much.
"It went on like this for a very long time and no one ever believed there would be peace…..,but" Elizabeth smiled, breaking her gaze away from Terance to look up at the pitch black sky. The ravenette never was good at keeping her eyes on the same thing for long. "Then, the unthinkable happened."
"What was it?" The thief hesitantly asked, already flinching in expectation of punishment.
The wind master did not move. "An oni and a dragon, supposedly….fell in love, and had two children. Both sons. Both outcasts among either kind."
Jasper's jaw tightened as his eyes struggled to remain open. No, he...he didn't want to see her like that again. Not right now.
"The oni who gave birth to them, she was of a noble family within the oni society and so naturally when everyone had found out what she had done, they considered it the biggest disgrace ever committed so they believed the only way for her to atone for this was to either kill the boys herself or….burn."
Terance swallowed. "I'm gonna hazard a guess that she didn't go with the former?"
Elizabeth shook her head. "She didn't. However she knew even with her death the oni would never be satisfied until her two sons' ashes lay in the dirt along with hers, so she entrusted their safety into the hands of one of her knights, and that knight rescued the children in the dead of night just before her execution and together they escaped into the mountains."
"Sorry if this counts as interrupting,but why didn't big daddy dragon step in to help?"
Jasper could distinctly remember a time when Elizabeth had asked the same from Greta. The tea collector had looked at her with the same unknowing, askance glances, offering the young girl only "It's a truth only that soul can know, the rest of us will just have to sit and speculate for the rest of time, hoping we were at least somewhat close to the reality." only….she hadn't been talking about some mystical dragon creature, She'd been talking about him.
The ravenette's gaze hardened, but she shrugged all the same. "No one knows."
Terance hummed.
"Anyway w-where was I...oh yes, the two boys spent the rest of their childhood in that wilderness, their only companion each other and their mother's knight. The knight taught the boys how to hunt, and how to fight, to hide."
Elizabeth's gaze traveled toward the sheathed sword laying aside Terance's amidst a nearby outcrop of pebbles and stones against the lonely stream bank.
"He even, gave the eldest his prized sword. Told him to protect his family with it."
Elizabeth's azure irises seemed to darken under the glow of the feigning fire. "So in return the eldest swore an oath that he would do exactly that, at all costs."
Terance's jaw tightened as his eyes clouded over in what seemed to be a strange haze of confusion, like the ravenette's words had somehow been spoken off a foreign tongue.
"Years later the knight passed away and the two sons were left to fend for themselves against the two warring sides. The eldest, he knew they had to find a way to leave, to find a place where they could be free ,but they had no idea where to go….until, the eldest discovered a power within, a power that allowed him to transcend the barriers between realms and carry him and his brother far,far away to a new tomorrow."
Terance looked ready to interject again, probably with another underhanded comment ,but before he could be allowed to, Elizabeth had already sewed his mouth shut with a mindless crack of her knuckles.
"The place they landed in, was unlike anything they had ever seen. A land completely covered in darkness."
Jasper's mouth was beginning to feel dry as a thousand memories of nothing more than the glow of his sapphires able to light the environment around him flooded his brain like an inescapable smoke. Whispers emitted from the soft, fragile voice of a child he had long since trained his ears to forget came creeping back with the renewed vigour of an invasive ivy.
'Hello there, w-where's your pack, are you lost pup?'
"And all the creatures who lived there, spent their whole lives running."
"Why?"
"Shh, I was just getting there." Elizabeth snapped, her voice breaking Jasper from his reveries like a stone against the ceramic fragility of teapot. "From...a sickness. An entity void of all warmth, and light. They began calling him the overlord, because his essence spread all over the land with no restraint or relinquishment, that is until the two brothers fell from their sky."
Terance's eyebrows gradually shot to the top of his forehead till they were just on the verge of receding into his sloppily cut hair line.
"Though the people of the realm were all very….cautious," That was putting it lightly. Jasper could still taste the texture of the brothers' pant legs in his mouth when he had tackled them both to the ground in 'self defense'. "of these new strange brothers at first, they soon realized that for once in their life they actually had a chance, to fight back against the overlord."
The thief's head tilted in what could only be described as mock skepticism.
Jasper though annoyed, was too tired to growl.
"The people entrusted their future in the hopes that the brother's power would somehow be enough to end this once and for all. The brothers trained endlessly in preparation for the battle they were thrust into, and despite all the hardship going on around them they promised each other to always be by the other's side...however things never exactly go as planned."
Immediately the image of... her once again flashed within the wolf's mind. Only now he was there too, lying unconscious on a bed made of soil and hay whilst she leaned over his prone body, desperately applying whatever mud and healing leaves to the crimson seeping out of the cuts and scrapes on his arms and wrists,all the while his breath a rampant crescendo of short panted gasps that may have spilled out of her as well were it not for the determined look in her eye anchoring her to her place beside him, even as his hands shakily reached out for her and called her name out like a dying snake, "T-tera..Tera.."
"The eldest, he...in his first encounter with the Overlord, it tried to force him to use his power, so that the disease of darkness could spread beyond just that one realm. However the eldest refused and as a result...the Overlord tore his arms to shreds with a single blow. It was so powerful, that the older brother fell into a deep coma-like state and as a result the younger brother was left alone to face the Overlord and all hope seemed lost ,but then."
"he fought this overlord guy, won, and all of Ninjag-I'm sorry this 'mysterious realm' was saved and his older brother got over himself and woke up sometime later?"
"I-What did I just sa-" Elizabeth's face and knuckles contorted into a bright red that rivaled the tips of the flames' currently casting their stark orange glow upon her constricted features.
To most likely halt her hands from attempting to strangle the stupid human, the ravenette inhaled a sharp breath before blowing it back out with an equally strong exhale that threatened to damaged the already dwindling campfire.
"That's always the best part." The green banged woman mumbled glumly, as her shoulders slumped under the weight of disappointment. "Yes, thief that's exactly what happened." Elizabeth sighed. "But that's not where the story ends I'm afraid. See, the younger brother couldn't completely defeat the Overlord."
"Oh, plot twist?"
"Shut up, anyway so their only option was to split the land in two and send the Overlord far out to sea with the separated half."
"Sound plan."
"So despite the celebrations and rejoicement at finally liberating their new home that they named Ninjago, the brothers knew they needed more than just themselves to protect Ninjago so they devised a plan to share their power. More specifically their elements."
"Riiggghhht."
Ignoring Terance, Elizabeth went on. "They selected the finest warriors who aided them in the war against the overlord and gifted them each an element, including a healer whose wild spirit had caught the ire of the eldest brother." Elizabeth paused, to smile. Her azure orbs softly rounded with contentment. "In return for her love he promised to gift her the wind, she refused telling him she'd only accept if he granted her his love in return."
Terance looked ready to barth, and for once Jasper was inclined to agree.
"So, they soon married and, from their love a little girl was born, and not far after a little boy."
"Riveting stuff." The young man joked, causing Jasper to let out a muffled snarl. "but,...I'm gonna take another guess and predict there's not a happy ending here."
Elizabeth left the annoying comment unchastised as she reached out a summoned a gust of wind to carry her father's sword towards her grasp.
"No, there isn't. Despite all the calm, happiness surrounding them both, the younger brother couldn't help ,but fear. Fear that his brother's realm traveling could be taken advantage of again, so he kindly asked that his older brother relinquish his power into a stone, telling him that he would keep it hidden from all of Ninjago in order to protect everyone's from its power and that was that….however not long after….tragedy struck the family. The eldest's wife...died, from fever." Elizabeth's lips turned downwards, as her hands tightened on the hilt of the sheathed sword. " and she was bed ridden for the last few months of her life." The ravenette breathed out with a barely audible stutter.
For the first time that night Terance's face was devoid of all traces of humor and skepticism and a that moment Jasper realized through his haze of exhaustion, she'd never discussed this with anyone. Not even Greta.
"The last thing she asked of her husband was to protect their family so once again the eldest promised to do exactly that at any cost."
"However, unfortunately fate took a dark turn and…..he was never able to fulfill that promise ,because….he was betrayed, by his own brother and killed in the dead of night over a f**king argument."
"and...what happened to the daughter and son?" The bandit hesitantly asked.
Elizabeth puffed her cheeks out, as her own eyebrows raised, like the whole thing was suddenly funny to only her. "The little girl was sent to live with her aunt, and the boy...was probably left for dead along with him." The wind seemed to pick up.
"So, you're definitely that little girl right?' The young man assumed, with an aborted attempt at lightening the mood with a soft elbow nudge. Elizabeth remained silent, simply getting to her feet as she quietly lifted the sword up for unneeded inspection.
"This is the only thing that b*****d of a spinjitzu master brought back of my father that night." The wind master explained unsheathing the blade with an experimental air stab. "If the first spinjitzu didn't kill my father then I don't know who else could."
ForgottenFamily
"Next morning,we finally reached the library and after hours of sitting in a hot underground storage labyrinth we finally found something that we thought could possibly be a map to the Bone Miasma."
"So we're really going to gloss over-"
"AFTER THAT..."
ForgottenFamily
Jasper's eyes couldn't and wouldn't leave the dusty, grease stained parchment paper cradled in the crook Elizabeth's cloaked arms.
Finally.
They had searched and searched and now…..
they were actually going to find it!
Terance, obnoxious nuisance as per usual, was quick to peer over the shoulder of his annoyed travel mate, right after he had just waved goodbye to the cigar wielding monk woman tossing them an unbothered glance on their way out the library's gate.
"Ok so looks like we'll need to head North-"
"Excuse me, we?" Elizabeth retorted with a confused frown as she quickly side stepped in order to easily maneuver herself away from the taller man. "What part of, here's your coin once I find what I'm looking for you can see yourself out, did not understand."
"My job's not done here." Terance shot back with a strange ease. "There's no way you know how to navigate, I mean look what happened the last time you did that, plus you still owe me for those two silvers I had to slip dear sweet Beatrice to let us in."
Elizabeth's frown turned sour. "It's not my fault you're not as chummy with your good old friend as you thought you were, and also I know how to read a map just fine thank you very much."
Terance snorted whilst cocking an eyebrow, looking very unready to relent. "Yeah you know how to read a map alright, toddlers can do that, but what you don't know is how to apply the directions to your surroundings, that my air headed friend is something only a natural born navigator like yours truly can do."
Before Elizabeth could roll her eyes, the young man continued. "Of course that is your decision, just...remember to scream really loud when you inevitably get lost again."
"That was the bloody map's fau-..." Elizabeth's fists clenched as she looked towards the ground in anger. A tense moment of silence passed before the ravenette finally looked back up, her anger still very much present ,but at least this time more restrained.
"Fine, but you're carrying my bag." The wind master commanded as she walked past the man and dumped her satchel into his palms. Her father's sword wisely strapped to her belt this time. Before the limping boy could argue, the ravenette shot him a baleful look from over the shoulder. "After all, I know how much you love doing that."
With that, the wind master, the thief, and the wolf were waltzing back out into the wilderness.
ForgottenFamily
Jasper was beginning to notice things.
Specifically things about Terance.
Mainly the fact that the man was full of contradictions.
He never once played a note, or some much as touched his lips to the mouth of that ugly flute, and yet he refused to ever allow it out of his sight, even on the rare occasion they managed to stumble across a river to bath in, the thief always made sure to place it on the nearest dry stone outcropping from the water before Elizabeth dragged him into it's icy cold depths like that of a sea monster from legend.
He never seemed to spend much money, not even on food, but was still always on the lookout for spare coin, going as far as to stick a hand down at the closest sewage grate and dig around for loose change.
He limped whenever he walked and yet, the second he was bombarded in some random village they happened to be passing through, he'd be the first to spew belligerent demands to fight.
Jasper never much understood humans, but this human was really,truly beginning to puzzle him just slightly above the rest.
Master must have shared the same bewilderment because one day, out of nowhere as they treded a random path through the woods, still hundreds of miles upon miles from their destination, she decided to randomly blurt out.
"Does it hurt?"
"Huh?" Terance hummed, looking back as he shifted the combined weight of his empty green sack and Elizabeth's barely half way full satchel across both his shoulders. "Does what hurt?"
"Your," The wind master hesitated, looking close to guilty. "Your leg, the left one does it hurt, if...if it does I could always carry the bags."
"Nah." The guide waved off. "It's fine, just how I walk you know."
"Oh," The green banged woman trailed off and Jasper was close to assuming this is where the conversation had died….,but then Elizabeth for some astonishing reason sought the need to press on, with a strange nervous stutter. "Were you b-Actually nevermind I shouldn't-"
"Was I born with it?" Terance asked, repeating the nonverbal query. At the ravenette's slow shameful nodd, the young man chuckled. "No, actually. I used to walk pretty normal, well before the accident."
"Accident?" Master echoed, her features suddenly drained of color.
"Yeah," The navigator sighed. "Was pretty horrific you know, blood everywhere, think there might've been a bone sticking out ,but ah who cares to remember anyway that's how I promised myself to be more careful around jackhammers from now on."
The wind master's eyes widened to the size of noodle plates, as she began spluttering an apology.
Then Terance laughed.
"Sh*t, you really are that gullibl-" Before the bandit could finish his confession, he was promptly sent flying into another tree.
ForgottenFamily
The next village they happened to pass through, was a blessing in all shapes and forms. The pitter patter of the rain crescendoed with the trio's each passing step until finally they arrived, soaked from head to toe at the front door of the nearest inn they could afford.
Jasper was barely able to stumble his way past the threshold of their drafty accommodations ,however that did not stop him from immediately claiming the left twin bed as his own the second the stupid human bandit managed to get the key to work.
Terance frowned as he turned to stare at Master Elizabeth who'd already proceeded to all ,but throw her body onto her bed completely oblivious to his questioning stare.
"Uh, so where do I sleep?" The bandit asked, aloud with a dramatic upswing of his arms. His query was met with the wind master's delicate snoring.
When Jasper eventually felt the thief's dull eyes linger towards him, he immediately rewarded the unspoken request with heated growl, pointedly directing his sharp muzzle towards the rickety rocking chair in the corner.
Terance's gaze promptly narrowed upon the sight of the chair, before shooting back towards the bed, the sleeping Elizabeth currently occupied.
The thief hummed, daring to take a step closer…..before immediately stepping back upon witnessing the wind master suddenly perform an aggressive sprawl that had her body taking up just about every inch of the bed.
The flute totter looked almost ready to admit defeat and saunter towards his designated bed for the night, however the human apparently had more persistence than wit and Jasper once again felt himself being weighed down by the highway man's inquisitive stare.
The wolf once again growled.
"Ah c'mon." Terance sighed undeterred. "My back's killing me mutt, just scooch over." He pleaded with a edging closer towards the bed."
Jasper's sapphire irises narrowed, as his features scrunched together in a nasty snarl.
No, this was his territory, the human needed to keep his nose and everything else attached to his person away from the wolf where it belonged.
Terance's own dull orbs narrowed as well, whilst his minute half steps continued progressing closer and closer to the bed until his whole upper body was heavily leaning over the edge like a tree with one inch of wood in its withering stump keeping it stabilized from a destructively tumultuous fall.
The young man's arm stretched out with caution as his mouth began running in tandem. "Alright I didn't want to have to do this, but" Terance paused as his scraped and scarred fingers clenched into a tight fist gradually eased themselves away, revealing an empty calloused palm.
For a moment Jasper could only stare in confusion, that was until he suddenly felt the sensation of warm fingertips semi gently grazing against the tips of his fur.
Jasper growled, his upper lip rearing back whilst his eyes widened in anger. How dare this pathetic stupid foolish human try this.
He was going to pay. They would never be able to find the body only a few traces, of bloody clothin-
"Ah, good boy." Cooed a saccharine voice from above. Wait a minute! Where did that come from?!
Looking up, Jasper was shocked to his body splayed out against the covers, whilst Terance lay just a space beside him, his hand still rubbing soft circles into the wolf's scalp.
Jasper snarled, in rage ready to tear the man's throat off with a single viscous bite….,but…. maybe that could wait, for now.
ForgottenFamily
The next morning any plans of vengeance were subsequently shoved into the back of the wolf's mind when he and Elizabeth tumbled out of bed to the sound of angry muffled shouting.
"Wait." The wind master's query was interrupted by a yawn. "Where's Terance?"
In the span of a second Jasper's gaze abruptly snapped towards the direction of where Terance should have either been sound asleep or laying on the floor next to him.
When the yelling downstairs intensified- accompanied by the sounds of glass and or bones breaking- Elizabeth and Jasper were both simultaneously dragged from the haze of tired confusion into the reality of the drafty morning as they shot to their feet and all ,but sprinted for the door.
ForgottenFamily
"You Idiot!" Master shouted for the thousandth time as she yanked back a thick bandage wrapping on Terance's welted arm, much to his protest.
"I told you it's just some bruises, calm down."
Ignoring the guide in favor of roughly tightening another bandage around the young man's slim waist, Elizabeth took revenge in the minutest of forms by pinching a fraction of the young man's hair between her fingertips and tugging it backwards.
"I just don't see why you thought it necessary to get into a fight with the f**king innkeeper."
"He was a jerk! Besides, you should have seen him. I totally won that fight." They had seen him and although Jasper couldn't get the cleanest of looks what with all the blood he could contest that the at the very least the innkeeper had not been gifted a swollen black eye.
Terance on the other hand…...
"Hey! Stop that!"
"You need to keep it iced or the swelling won't go down!" Elizabeth argued as she fought to tape down the cloth sack of ice- they managed to buy from a nearby market vendor on their way out- against the bandit's injured eyelid.
"It hurts!" The non flute player more or less whined, his only other available eye shadowed by his lopsided bangs.
"Well that's your own fault!" Elizabeth disputed, none too gently finishing the wrap around Terance's black eye. "What kind of fool, gets into a pointless fight like that?! Were you trying to get your a** kicked?!"
Due to the bandages covering one eye and his unkempt hair the other, it was hard not to be surprised by the thief's sudden spark of rage with their only possible hint the tightening of Terance's fists.
"WHAT? CAUSE I'M JUST SOME HELPLESS CRIPPLE!?"
All sound save for the gentle beat of leftover rain quietly dripping down from the leaves of the tree they had situated themselves under abruptly ceased as if sucked into void leading to the underworld.
Elizabeth stared at the bandit in shocked silence, her joints suddenly appearing stiff and unmovable as she mindlessly clutched onto the left over bandages.
Suddenly Jasper felt like he had an idea about what the fight with the innkeeper was about.
After another tense moment or two, Terance seemed to slowly register his own outburst, as his cheeks flushed pink and he worked his way out of the fog of anger long enough to offer a small palpable sigh to break the silence.
"I…...do you have a knife?"
"Knife?" The ravenette cluelessly echoed like a confused lamb as her body acted on its own a dug into her satchel to produce a small pocket knife she purchased at the last village.
'Well, I can't really navigate if I can't see." Terance explained, gesturing to his hair. "So I think it's time my hair gets a trim."
Elizabeth halted her movements momentarily regarding the young thief with a weary scrunch of her brows.
Then suddenly with confidence replacing her trembling hands, the ravenette quickly replied. "Let me do it."
"I can-"
"Please." Master all ,but whispered. No logical argument pointing out the fact that Terance could easily stab his only remaining eye by accident ,no harsh insults, no badgering. Just please.
Terance must have been as surprised as Jasper because before the wolf knew what to think, the young man was cracking a wide smile with a loud breathy chortle of laughter soon following.
"O-ok, sure. Go ahead." The thief chuckled, barely able to finish his consent before Elizabeth had grasped the tips of his mane in between her fingers and ordered him to quit moving.
Humans truly were an enigma.
ForgottenFamily
Later that night, as Jasper lay sprawled out on the moist, rocky surface of the above ground cave they had managed to find shelter under, he couldn't help ,but continuously stare at Terance's newly shortened hairline.
The cut was much cleaner before, although still slightly disheveled thanks to the dew in the air stirring up the young man's hair like a mixing bowl.
As Elizabeth finally finished rotating the makeshift plate of raw rabbit meat over the fire and sat back with a loud sigh, her hands reaching out behind her for support, Terance did the same with his elbows, his dull gaze trained on their dinner like a hungry, well.. animal.
For a brief moment only the sound of the crackling fire and the squawking birds outside filled the sparse cave.
Then, out of nowhere a single query arose from Elizabeth's lips.
"Why do you carry that flute?"
The thief's dull eyes swiveled back to Elizabeth whose face remained blank as she at the flute strapped to his belt.
"Huh, uh I don't know. Doesn't really matter." Terance forced a laugh, clearly attempting to brush her off.
"If it didn't then why do you care so much where it is at all times? You never play and I've never seen you try to sell it." The wind master persisted.
"Look it's none of your-"
"I've basically told you my whole life story." She admitted, with a shamed head turn. "Don't...don't you think it's only fair you just...tell me this."
"Why do you care?" The dirty blonde deflected.
"Because...I...I'm just...very curious." Elizabeth confessed, her tone bleeding earnestly as she began mindlessly scraping the loose rock back and forth between her fingertips
An audible sigh could be heard emittinating from Terance's throat as he averted his gaze towards his own twiddling fingers.
The wind master stared at him for a fraction of a second before suddenly looking guilty for the pursuit. "I-I'm sorry, I'll drop i-"
"It's from my mother." Terance had yet to look up. "She made it herself for my ninth birthday, said she saw me watching that street musician in town everyday, thought I'd like to learn how to play something."
Elizabeth's eyes flickered towards the ground as well, whilst a heavy silence was in the midst of descending upon them. That is until the ravenette suddenly spoke again. "She sounds wonderful."
Terance nodded. "She was." He paused to finally look back at Elizabeth. "And...like yours I guess, she died when I was real young, except it wasn't a fever, the um...the wood and paint she used to make it was extremely cheap, cause of that she ended up getting a couple really small cuts on her arm and spilled some paint too close them for comfort without realizing …...it till about a week later when she died of infection."
"..."
"Hey…. do... you want to know how I got my leg messed up?"
Master's features remained pointed towards the ground despite her apparent surprise.
"I...y-yes." The green banged woman hesitantly stuttered out, her head slowly turning to face Terance's.
The navigator sighed, leaning back even further against the wet stone. "After she went, my dad got pretty depressed. Started drinking, lost his job, the works." Terance laughed like anything in that sentence was remotely humorous.
"So, we ended up losing our house, had to live on the streets for a few years. Without money, my dad started stealing. It started out with small things, you know like spare coin, food, clothes, all that but eventually he just ...started wanting , he got it in his head he was gonna rob a house, and...he told me I could help because I was just small enough to climb down their chimney and unlock the front door for him on the other side. "
Jasper watched as Terance's fingers began wringing themselves into his shirt with the furiousness of loads of unbridled, barely contained emotion. His dull orbs seemed to darken with the story despite the laxness in his tone.
The thief's gaze briefly traveled back to the ground, like they could no longer support the weight of concern reflected in Elizabeth's tense blue irises
.
"I could barely see. It was too late at night and I couldn't light a match ,but my good old dad just kept yelling at me to be a man, told me I had nothing to worry about because he'd be there watching my every step, and holding the rope. Promised me he'd never let go."
The green banged woman's entire frame seemed to tremble with the wavy flames slowly burning their dinner.
",but you know I guess, it's hard to keep a promise like that when a random Stixx Officer strolls by. I guess he just dropped the rope and started running, cause next thing I know I'm slipping and there's nothing there to stop me from falling into the ash...I...never saw him again after that night."
Terance abruptly leaned forward, his hands slowly trailing down towards his patchwork pant leg. As his calloused limps grasped the worn material and slowly lifted it up high past his lower thigh, the angry reddish purple mark strangling the veins of his leg became visible for all to see.
Master's eyes went unnervingly blank, whilst her features turned a sickly pale.
The thief, studying her reaction, almost looked miffed if Jasper didn't know any better.
"Yeah, sorry it's not as intricate as yours ...you know it's just some of us don't have this big amazing, important family, some of us just got a dead mom and a crappy as hell dad."
That night, no one said a word over their dinner of rubbery, burned rabbit. However Jasper was baffled to see Elizabeth's hand tentatively reach out to rest atop of Terance's. Even more baffling, the bandit didn't say anything.
ForgottenFamily
It was starting to get colder.
The plants, though most still vibrant and lush, were beginning to droop slightly under the changing climate, and his fur coat was beginning to thicken in size slightly as did the number of clothes adorning the two human halves of the trios' shoulders.
And with the subsequent change in weather,Jasper also began to notice a strange change in Elizabeth.
More specifically, how she was treating their nusscance of a travel mate.
She didn't seem to yell at him much anymore, nor did she throw him into trees as often.
Even at night their conversations over the campfire gradually turned much more...friendly. With the two almost playfully taunting each other day in and day out.
The strangest moment of change that Jasper could discern was when they passed through the next random village and rented yet another inn room for the night.
Terance had been about to lay down on the bed with Jasper -not before offering the animal his newest piece of rabbit jerky f course- ,but before he could so much as touch the sheets a pair of slim roughened hands shot out from the dark of his lanky shadow to snatch the collar of his tattered shirt and Jasper's thick fur in a vice grip before all ,but slamming the young man and the wolf onto the opposite bed.
Within a second, the confused thief's arms were wrapped around the lithe frame of Jasper's master whilst her own went to tangle themselves around Jasper himself. Her wide blue eyes stared up at the perplexed guide's face with what was probably supposed to be cold indifference.
"It's cold." Was the only explanation offered before whatever else she had to say became muffled against the crook of Terance's arm as she -for lack of a better word- snuggled her body against his.
The dirty blonde continued looking down at the barely conscious woman for a second longer before simply shrugging and leaning back as well to fall asleep.
Jasper's left eye suffered a mysterious twitch that night.
ForgottenFamily
Throughout the many increasingly cold nights that followed, the space between Elizabeth and Terance over the campfire steadily grew smaller and smaller- as did the fire.
One night it seemed any and all air between them disappeared leaving the two humans to gasp at eachother like fish trying to survive a freezing pond.
"So," Terance breathed after a loud laugh at one of Elizabeth's usual taunts, his air illustrated in a puff of porcelain fog amidst the frigid air. "You still haven't told me, what exactly is in this Bone Miasma that's gonna, you know, make you all powerful."
"Oh," Elizabeth laughed, her ice breath ghosting the red hardened flesh of the thief's pointed nose. "Now, that's a pretty interesting tale."
"Yeah?"
"My aunt told me about it when I was young. She used to love to scare me with these stories. She once told me that Ninjago has a spirit of chaos and she's only known as Sangu."
"Sounds lovely."
"I once asked my aunt where I could find her, she told me Sangu sits in a palace of bones, bones torn out of the travelers she deemed unworthy."
"Unworthy of what?" Terance asked with a quirk of his brow.
"Her."
"What?"
"They weren't worthy of her, her soul. The only reason someone enters into her domain is to be granted the honor of being her host. My aunt said if she chooses to let her spirit enter your body, you will gain the ultimate power one can have in this world, immortality!"
"Wow, and….you think you're worthy?"
"Yes." Master replied without missing a beat. "I have to be, there's no turning back now. She'll choose me, I just know it, and with her aid I'll have my revenge." The wind master proudly proclaimed to Terance then the increasingly darkening sky.
The thief for all his obvious skepticism managed a small humored smile.
"That's...a great plan."
"I know!" Elizabeth cheerily replied, oblivious to the bandit's weariness. "I've been piecing this together since I was twelve years old and now," The ravenette paused to look back at Terance. "Thanks to some help, I'm finally going to do this…..thank you...idiot." Master jabbed, leaning in even closer to flick the thief's forehead. Before she could retract her hand, her wrist was suddenly clutched tightly against Terance's palm
"I," The guide trailed off, looking down at his thumb whilst it began unconsciously rubbing circles against one of the wind master's veins. Jasper was about to sit up, growl and demand for release, but then Terance finally found his voice again. "So, what are you gonna do after you have your revenge?"
Master frowned. "I don't know.." The blue eyed woman answered honestly. "But...I don't really care either, all that matters is ending his life."
Terance was unable to restrain a quiet guffaw. "Really?"
"Well, what are you going to do?" The wind master shot back, a vaguely prickly tone just barely shining through her inflection. "You know, after this is all done and over. If you say robbing people I'm afraid I'll have to turn you in again." Whether Elizabeth was joking or not remained to be seen.
Terance laughed. "Well, to be honest I..haven't thought much about that either…,but..you know…"
"Yeah?" The green banged woman pressed impatiently, despite the ever widening grin slowly taking up more and more of her face.
An audible gulp, Jasper knew for a fact was not his own nor Elizabeth's suddenly rang out against the icy silence of the forest.
"Well, it's just..I was thinking...you know maybe...maybe w-when..you know...y-you're done with all that revenge stuff maybe...well...maybe...you kn-"
Whatever else Terance was about to uncharacteristically stutter out was lost in a noiseless gasp as Elizabeth's lips suddenly met his.
Jasper's eyes widened as his ears stood up straight and stiff against his head. What was Elizabeth doi-
The wolf's thoughts were abruptly lost in a sea of confusion when the wind master eventually leaned back, most likely to gauge the thief's reaction. However before her mouth could fully detach from his, Terance's right hand instantly snaked itself up to her neck and with gentleness the bandit should not have been able to possess, he pushed her back against him.
ForgottenFamily
The next morning, and the many days that followed, Jasper hoped, prayed that their strange exchange was just a fluke, an incredible accident that would never happen again.
His prayers were not answered.
Instead quite the opposite happened, day by day, week by week,month by month, it started occurring more and more. And, day by day Jasper was beginning to feel his fur and his anxieties heighten in size. It starts like this, it always starts like this ,but then….then eventually, you're lying in the same cramped room everyday, your skin getting paler by the hour and your movements weakening more and more until finally….finally you just...close your eyes, forever.
It happened to her. Jasper wouldn't let it happen to Master Elizabethh too.
So everyday the wolf refused to let either young person out of his watchful eye for more than a moment, going as far as to shoehorn himself between them at just about every given moment ,but unfortunately there were times where Jasper's control fell and the wind master and thief had already buried themselves in each other's arms or managed to slip away for a few or sometimes more than few precious moments.
Still, the wolf remained determined as they passed through the next and according to Terance, the last village they would see before they finally made it to the Bone Miasma.
That night in by far the drabbest inn room they had rented thus far, Jasper made sure to firmly wedge himself in the center of their trio, muscling Terance to the very back whilst keeping his gaze firmly trained ahead on Elizabeth's footsteps.
Even as Terance unlocked the room, Jasper had already pushed Elizabeth inside, keeping his body curled around her ankles like a rope.
In any other case the wind master most likely would have been annoyed or perhaps even confused at the wolf's protective behavior however tonight, she didn't really seem to take notice, in fact she hadn't said a word since….that tea shop she had chosen to stop at whilst Terance went to pay for the room.
The bandit seemed to be in a similar state of befuddlement because he was quick to frown after an unnervingly long moment of silence.
"What?"
Elizabeth didn't reply, her glassy stare trained on the ground like it may crumble beneath her feet. Without a word, she raised her left hand to display an upturned palm with...a picture of the sun painted on? Actually, as Jasper stepped closer he could of sworn..he'd seen it before….wait! No, there's no way! It couldn't be-
Terance tilted his head. "Uh, nice tattoo?" Idiot.
The wind master let out a long sigh. "It's not a tattoo."
"Oh?...Then wha-"
"I started throwing up three months ago, mostly very early in the mornings."
"What?!" The navigator gaped, looking alarmed. "Are you sic-"
The ravenette cut him off with a head shake. "No, I didn'-don't feel sick ,but I knew something might be up, so I….I didn't think I 'd really be….,but I just wanted to check it off the list of possibilities so I..bought a tea from town today...and...its purpose is to detect, the presence of...life within. If...a moon appears on the woman's hand five minutes after she's finished drinking than, there's nothing there ,but...if there's a sun.."
Terance continued to stare, his mouth set into a deep frown, whilst his brow remained lined with thought.
"Wait so-"
"You foolish neanderthal I'm pregnant!" Elizabeth shouted, her eyes glistening with frustration.
"P-pregnant…" The young man stutteringly echoed, his voice faltering more heavily than a thin line of twine stretched across a vast pit of withering darkness. "I...it's..mine?"
Tears had begun to prick at the edges of the wind master's scrunched down eyelids. "You idiot!" She repeated with no more conviction than the smallest stone thrown against a gargantuan immovable mountain. "Who else would it be…" Elizabeth trailed off as more liquid gathered in her eyes that she desperately tried to scrub away with the hand marking her fate and Jasper's failure like a red bullseye.
By next morning, the first snow of winter had begun to fall.
ForgottenFamily
"She cried huh?" Morro quietly commented, his voice void of surprise or anger or any other emotion that should be paired with the sentiment.
Jasper said nothing, directing his gaze toward the floor as he muttered "Yes."
No one spoke. Not as they left the inn, the town, not even when they stumbled their first steps onto the mountainous terrain that began rearing its hazardous head as the lush forestation waved goodbye to them along with the last traces of civilization they'd see for a while.
Jasper kept himself behind Elizabeth as always.
ForgottenFamily
"We should be there within the next month." Terance said as he shakingly marked the crumpled edge of the map with what was left of his led pencil.
Elizabeth nodded sipping her boiled water in silence.
A flicker of something the likes of which the closest Jasper to come to describe as, conflict flashed within the bandit's eyes as he stared at the ravenette.
Master's stomach had gotten larger and her spry movements seemed more difficult to maintain with each passing week.
"Maybe," Terance paused as if already struck down in the unspoken debate. "You know since we're basically there, we could just...turn back for now and wait in that town-"
"No."
"Elizabeth-"
"I'm not turning back now!" The wind master snapped, the cup between her palms beginning to shake.
"Look at you!" Terance abruptly shouted back. His eyes though ablaze with concern, still underlined with what could only be described as….empathy. "You won't make it through the snow like thi-"
"No, you won't!" Elizabeth spat, her tone filled to the brim with venom. "You're...I'm not weak! I've waited for this...for..my whole life!" The ravenette's upper lip pulled back in a sickeningly angry snarl. "I...waited everyday,..for him to come back." The wind master sounded so... hollow, as she threw back the rest of the water down her throat, Jasper wondered in the back of his mind if the liquid might just pour out onto snow on the other side. Suddenly the picture of a little girl whose black hair began to spring free from the neat bun her aunt had combed it into, as she smashed the entire upper half of her stout frame up against the glass window of the shop whilst snow very much like today's trickled onto the wet pavement. "Only...only to find out the truth on my tenth f**king birthday." The paper makeshift cup perished between the wind master's trembling grip.
Jasper could clearly remember now, the slow wavering smile on her ten year old face as Greta laid a hand on her shoulder and told her he was never coming back. For her birthday that year, Master only asked for the sword as a present.
"Do you really think this is what he wanted?!" Terance shouted, standing up. "For his daughter to get herself killed chasing fairytales like a..."The thief trailed off at taking notice of the wind master's incensed aura.
"Like a what?!" Elizabeth viciously prodded as she shot to her feet as well.
"Like….a child." The bandit simply stated, all thoughts of self preservation clearly banished from his mind. Master's eyes widened, all before narrowing into slits like that of a cornered animal, her claws (powers) already raised in defense.
"Go ahead and throw me into a thousand more trees if you want!" Terance fearlessly declared. "I don't care, but please …..just...let this go!" The thief begged his arms already beginning to rise at his sides in preparation for the inevitable blow.
What happened instead surprised even Jasper.
Elizabeth chuckled. "Let it go…..let it go." The wind master whispered like a mantra on loop within her mind. "I've been told that just about every day of my life, just let go, move on with my life…" The ravenette explained before abruptly reaching out for her satchel and the map. "But you know what." The wind master looked back over her shoulder, the bags under her eyes especially visible now. "Letting go also means forgetting...and I refuse to forget. Not my father, not my mother ," The wind master's eyes slid close as she had to exhale a short breath through her gritted teeth. "Not my family. Everyone else has forgotten about them ,but I. refuse."
The blue eyed woman turned back to peer at the tortuous path ahead.
"You can turn around if you want, I'll even give the rest of my silver if you want ,but don't you dare try to interfere." Master ordered and Jasper couldn't help ,but emit a small whine. It didn't feel like she was just talking to Terance.
ForgottenFamily
Terance stayed and, for some reason Jasper found himself grateful for that.
The mountain land seemed to twist and transform the farther they climbed up. The path was becoming especially dangerous when it became incredibly narrow over a valley of varying rock pits miles long in both height and size with seemingly no end to them.
Elizabeth took the first step causing a breathless moment to be shared between the human and non human male as they helplessly watched, the wind master force her way down the naturally formed bridge with heavy thuds accompanying each of her footsteps.
Jasper hopped on next, making sure to keep his four paws balanced against the stone his paws struggling to grip the unsteady rock beneath him.
Terance climbed on next, or he would've, were it not for the thunderous roar that stilled the entire landscape save for the retreating birds.
Jasper's blood froze as his nose was quickly flooded with the scent of another animal. Another much larger animal, a..no ...no,no,no it couldn't be-
The wolf's worst fears proved true when a long shadow suddenly loomed over the valley of pits, accompanied by a wretched smell emanating from a mouth of teeth as sharp as a thousand swords and skin as hard as the most indestructible stone. A Grundle.
Jasper couldn't see Elizabeth's expression until she spun around with the force of a tornado. Her usually vibrant blue eyes wide and pale with a horror that had her unmoving. Terance appeared to be similarly disarmed with shock and when another roar erupted from trees and the sound of destructive footsteps stomped closer, Jasper had no choice ,but to grab the bandit's pant leg with his jaws and force the thief into movement across the bridge along with Elizabeth.
The moment Terance's feet touched the rock his feet rammed themselves against the unstable ground as he ran as fast as possible all ,but bulldozing Elizabeth forward as well, whilst the shadow above them edged closer and closer.
It was too late.
Jasper knew that when the sound of stone breaking with a gun shot esq crack rang out, and then...the bridge beneath thief feet broke off, falling with them into the nearest chasm below. In the span of two terrified screams, the stone they had just walked on, now remained the only thing holding the trio from an endless fall into the depths below.
Digging his claws into the rock with all his might, Jasper looked up to see the stone bridge had manage to wedge itself between the walls of the pit they had fallen into.
Elizabeth..ELIZABETH!
Jasper panted in panic as his sapphire orbs went everywhere in search of his master.
Within seconds the wolf eyes landed on the limp figure laying on her back with Terance kneeling beside her just a few feet away from the wolf. The animal's heart thudded in his furry chest as he carefully pushed himself to his feet and edged down the stone beam towards the thief and wind master.
When he was within an inch of his master, Jasper couldn't stop himself from throwing his head down to Elizabeth's eye level.
Please,please, please-
A hoarse cough rang out like the most beautiful chime
"J-Jasper…" The wind master's body trembled as she turned around and pushed herself up onto her elbows. At that moment, the wolf's joy died like an injured dove as he saw the right ankle twisted backwards, and the left hand that hung limp from a snapped wrist.
Elizabeth's movements as weak and disjointed as they were, were unable to summon even the smallest gust of wind.
And the sounds of Grundle roaring refused to cease, in fact seemingly getting closer...and closer.
Jasper's fear was shoved down his throat with the force of a scythe swing as he let out a loose mindless growl and positioned himself over his master and Terance. The thief said nothing, his dull eyes still wide and silent with complete and utter fear.
The shadow found them again, and the sounds of neverending destruction kept erupting in tandem as the Grundle most likely struggled to maneuver his massive body across the pits without falling into them himself.
Until, inevitably he found his prey.
Jasper could only intensify his growls to loud snarling and sharpen his dull claws, as adrenaline rushed to every ounce of his body.
At that moment, the wolf was ready to die.
The grundle paid the much smaller animal's threats no mind as it vainly tried reaching down to snap his prey up with just his jaws. The predator wasn't close enough- his saliva just barely grazing the top of Jasper's head-, but with each downward thrust of his huge jaws the walls of the pit gradually chipped away and it was clear that soon enough he would have his dinner.
Jasper remained unflinching, continuing to bark and growl and snarl ready to tear his paws right into the disgusting yellow eyes of the monster.
"T-terance.." Elizabeth's voice was muffled against the stone, but Jasper heard it regardless and looked down momentarily to see, Terance was no longer beneath him.
Icy fear wrapped its unrelenting grip around the wolf's mind as he helplessly looked everywhere for the missing thief.
Until.
He found him.
Silently edging himself along the underside of the broken bridge, with agility Jasper should have known better than to doubt the bandit to have possessed. The grundle refused to notice the runaway meal, instead focusing his energy on obtaining the slightly larger prize.
As Jasper attention was briefly directed elsewhere, Elizabeth had edged far away enough from the wolf's protective hold to be able to look up from the stone and see.
"T-ter-rance.."The wind master barely managed to choke out, reaching out a pointless hand in his direction as the thief finally reached the opposite wall, and climbed out onto stable land.
Once he was standing, the bandit's eyes landed on the trapped pair, and in just that half a second, Jasper caught sight of his sword gripped in Terance's hand and the wolf's rage boiled over like a crumbling tower and he swore to rip every vein out of the man's body if they ever survived th-
Then, the thief mouthed a pathetic sor-ry and took out his flute before carefully bringing it to his lips.
Then he blew.
The sound was a horrible, high pitched cacophony of malicious intent to the umphest degree. And it was so blaring, so ear infecting, that …...the grundle couldn't ignore it.
In a flash Jasper watched as Elizabeth's trembling halted, and her body froze unmoving against the awful invasive noise and her eyes went paler than any pair of eyes had gone in existence and her lower lip quivered with the barely restrained terror. A soundless scream escaped her as Terance unsheathed her father's sword and with all the strength he possessed threw it at the Grundle.
The sword made no more than a dent against the beast's thick skin as it clattered to the stone bridge ,but it along with the ear assault were enough for the beast to turn its sights on the bandit.
So with an enraged roar the grundle jumped over the chasm onto Terance's side and gave chase.
"No..n-no" Elizabeth croaked out, her head rapidly shaking as if begging for Terance to go back in time and choose leaving them at the mercy of the Grundle instead of this.
The thief merely offered the approaching Grundle a cheeky smile before taking off, faster than Jasper had ever seen a man with a limp run in all his hundred years of living.
In a moment that passed by faster and yet still somehow slower than all the vast moments that compromised both Jasper and Elizabeth's lives the stupid, foolish, horrible, smelly, human disappeared beneath the wide edges of the pit's walls, along with the retreating tale of the grundle shortly following.
ForgottenFamily
Jasper's nose could have detected the scent of a rabbit from ten miles away with how much concentration he put into his senses, his master's order echoing in his brain like a psalm.
"Jasper, dig your way up the wall, and look for Terance. He has to…...just find him alright, boy."
The snow had begun to harden with the increasingly strong winter. His footsteps barely made a dent within the white landscape.
Much to his surprise Jasper didn't have to travel far, though it did take him a good three hours to finally find...the thief.
Red crimson marred the crystalline snow like a plague and in the center of the sickness laid the prone form of what had once been a filthy thief.
...or what was left of him.
Both the man's legs were now empty phantom sockets where flesh had once resided and his left arm was nowhere to be seen.
Still the bandit smiled as he waved his flute clutching hand towards Jasper when he saw the wolf approach.
"Hey, m-mutt." Blood dribbled down his chin.
Jasper made no noise as he cautiously approached.
His nose was assaulted by all sorts of metallic scents, but the wolf could barely register the discomfort as he sniffed the young man's collar.
"H-heh good job fin-nding m-me." Terance laughed as he raised a gentle hand to card through Jasper's fur. "G-guess I w-wasn't as t-tasty as h-he hoped." The thief explained, wordlessly gesturing towards ripped off chunks of paint rubbed onto the remains of his pants.
The wolf growled ,but there was no strength behind it. He clenched his teeth against the bandit's shirt, mustering all the strength he could to start dragging the legless man back. If he could just-"
"St-top" Terance rasped out. At the sight of more blood pouring down his lip, Jasper halted, dropping the man back onto the ground. He can't...he can't save him.
The navigator raised his bloody flute towards Jasper's muzzle. "C-can you be a good m-mutt and b-bring t-this to t-the b-blowhard."
The animal's eyes widened as he mindlessly whined. No, not...not like thi-
"Oh, d-o you need some inc-cent-tiv-ve." Terance asked, with an air of uncalled for humor as he dug a shaky hand down his pant's pocket and produced, what else a piece of rabbit jerky.
It actually looked pretty fresh this time.
Jasper's whine broke out into an audible howl as his legs trembled beneath him.
Without hesitation the wolf took the jerky into the mouth and then the flute between his jaws, mustering all of his control to pierce as little wood as possible.
"G-good d-doggie." Terance smiled with another cough.
Jasper made no more sound, opting instead to simply nuzzle his head further against the thief's only remaining hand until it stilled.
Then he howled brokenly at the sky.
ForgottenFamily
"Jasper! Did you-"
Master's query was cut short as Jasper carefully crept towards her and laid the vermillion soaked flute in her lap.
In the seconds that followed, Elizabeth would silently lift the bloody flute into her right hand and proceed to cry, cry, cry and cry harder still, long into the early recesses of morning.
And all the while her loyal most truest companion would be able to do nothing ,but sit and stare.
ForgottenFamily
Food was getting harder to find.
All the game was either in hibernation or had already migrated and the surrounding plant life had long since died away.
And the cold was only getting stronger.
Master needed to get out of the pit before she either froze or starved to death.
However, everyday when Jasper dug his way back into the pit while Elizabeth's stomach grew larger and larger ,that was the only change present in her person.
She hadn't said a word for months, his flute never leaving her hand.
The only movement Jasper could get her to perform each day was the occasional stretching of her jaw as she ate whatever little food Jasper managed to bring back to her.
Her limbs slowly healed, but she remained weak, from the hunger and the cold. Her powers returned in small bursts ,but never enough to lift herself out of there.
And still Jasper kept up hope, not knowing what else to do aside from dig day in and day out until something changed.
In a strange twist of fate that change eventually came in the form of a suddenly much more animated Elizabeth crying out towards the sky whilst the bones in her hands crushed themselves upon the rock walls she was tensing against for dear life.
Jasper had no idea what to do, another air piercing wail almost made the wolf fear that she had lost herself in the vices of grief once more ,but then...then there came another cry.
And it didn't belong to Elizabeth.
With wide unblinking sapphire orbs, Jasper watched in awe as a slender body- that must have wished itself into existence within the green banged woman's arms- whine and cry out into the frigid air.
The wolf remained frozen as he witnessed Master slowly look down at the babe in her hands with an unknowing blankness in her eyes the likes of which Jasper had never seen before.
Then out of nowhere a wide set smile etched itself onto her features-a watery smile thanks to the tears cascading down her calloused red cheeks- and in a throaty whisper Elizabeth uttered her first words in months.
"I should've chosen you."
ForgottenFamily
Jasper paused, looking back up to Morro with a strange hesitance.
The wind master narrowed his eyes as he too looked towards the floor.
"What happened next?"
ForgottenFamily
Jasper wasn't sure why Master was taking off part of her shawl, tying it around his midsection or why she slipped the bundled baby beneath its snug confines along with his flute and his sword , all that he was sure of was that Elizabeth's eyes had finally stopped looking so pale.
And that made his heart swell.
So much so that when his master told him to start digging a tunnel into the wall like always he did so without hesitation...that is until he realized there was no way he could possibly find food again. It was too late
Looking back over his shoulder, the wolf whined to his master, hoping to assuage her inevitable disappointment.
But, Elizabeth didn't look disappointed quite the opposite actually as she summoned all her strength to push her upper body into the small tunnel. She had gotten thin enough that she fit almost perfectly.
Jasper's ears raised themselves from his head as his eyes widened in surprise. Was Master actually going to-
"Go ahead boy." The ravenette commanded with a weary smile. "Start digging and don't stop until we're completely off this mountain. I know you can do it, and don't worry I'll be right behind you."
Jasper could've saluted if he'd been able. He now had a job to do, and digging was thankfully one he was fairly good at.
"Oh and boy," Elizabeth's smile looked almost wistful. "Keep him safe."
]Him. The baby strapped to his back…..the one Elizabeth deemed to call Teran.
The wolf gave one panting nod before he turned back ahead and dug, and,dug, and dug. All the while listening for the minutest of uptakes in Elizabeth's breaths as he paused and shifted constantly to make sure she was there, behind him.
And yet still, Jasper couldn't shake the anxiety weighing down on him, as he felt the deathly hand of cold reach out into the tunnel, following them with every step and every barrier surpassed ,but the wolf forced those worries from his mind, intent on the singular goal of getting them out of the mountain.
His only comfort was the sound of Elizabeth's voice in brushing against his ears,
"I'm right here boy!"
"You're doing great Jasper!"
"Good boy keep going!"
"Keep him safe Jasper!"
The comforts stuck themselves to his mind, keeping him focused and sure for however long they spent trespassing through the never before touched ground, until….finally..when the scent of harsh unyielding stone disappeared and gave way to warmer soil, Jasper knew..knew that he'd dug them away from the mountain's reach and despite the protests of his tired, aching body breached through the mounds of dirt out onto the softer, snowy surface.
Jasper howled with excitement as he jumped around the much lighter snow with ease, only pausing to lick up the icy liquid into his mouth where it could melt and provide him some much needed hydration.
Master must be so proud! Master would be so happy when she popped her head out of the ground.
So, with baited breath Jasper turned towards the hole he'd just happily emerged from and sat back on his haunches in wait.
ForgottenFamily
Jasper paused again to swallow a watery breath.
"I waited for three days, but,"
The former wolf's heart stuck itself in his throat and he was unable to maintain eye contact with anyone as he looked back down towards his feet.
"She never came. It-..I'm sorry." Jasper blurted out having held those words in for all these years without even knowing them. "To this day I still don't understand...I heard her! She kept telling me she was right there! I don't-"
"It's called sound throwing." Morro abruptly interjected, his gaze, voice, everything utterly blank.
"W-what?"
"Sound throwing." The wind master repeated, lifting a closed fist into his hand and whispering something inaudible into, then in a shocking turn of events opened the fist to reveal a tiny sphere of air that he promptly released in Jasper's direction.
Before the charcoal raven could cower, the air had already whizzed past his ear and with it the sound of Morro's voice.
"It's when you make the wind carry your voice. Wu-A guy taught me how to do it when I was younger."
Jasper stumbled back in shock.
"N-no...no that….no she wouldn't...that can't b-,"
The former wolf's stuttered denial was cut off by a shrug from Morro.
"Believe what you want. It doesn't matter."
It was Lloyd's turn to look appalled. "How can you say that?!"
"Because I'm not so stupid as to believe the woman who abandoned me at a f**king train station magically passed away in a hole in the ground!" Morro snapped back with an angry grimace.
"This is all just a bunch of f**king fairytale bullsh*t and I'm not falling for i-"
"It's my fault."
Morro halted, his mouth slightly agape and brow furrowed at being interrupted.
"What-"
"It's my fault." The former wolf repeated both the sentence and the interruption. His voice just barely construed together under the massive weight of guilt and shame tightening its ugly grasp on his psyche
"I'm the reason you were left there."
ForgottenFamily
Jasper could feel his body beginning to quit on him as the sounds of crying pierced the air without rest.
He didn't know how far his legs had taken him through the endless white wasteland, how long it had been since the need for water and the echoes of his master's last words 'Keep him Safe.' won out over his desire to sit and wait for Elizabeth for all eternity.
The wind blew mercilessly against his coat, and with his ribs so close to the surface of his skin his bones trembled.
Jasper pushed on though. His steps though occasionally faltering, persisted as they carried him onward.
Sometimes, the wolf liked to imagine his master still there, walking ahead of him, sometimes he didn't have a choice.
Hallucinations were a funny thing, they alighted a basic joy ,but at the same time a much darker dread.
The worst was when he looked behind him and saw her standing there, smiling at him, telling him it was all gonna be alright, even though he'd been a runt abandoned by his pack and left to die in darkness.
In the back of his mind though (perhaps the only intact part left) Jasper knew he would never see her again. Because he had always ran ahead of her, always feeling sense of mirth as she poutingly called out to him to slow down ,but he never had...and maybe that was why he failed to notice when she stopped chasing him, when she became confined to that bed, never to walk outside along the grass and graze a hand through his hair again.
And, as meaningless time passed, into more meaningless time Jasper gradually came to the devastating realization that now, there was no one in front or behind him. Just him and this helpless stranger amidst a desert of snow and ice.
Jasper wasn't sure when he had passed out, when a group of travelers had noticed them, when they had used their sled dogs to pull him and the babe into their small hut where a roaring fire breathed life back into them both, all he knew was the sound of crackling, burning wood that roused him from unconsciousness.
"-ell Hey! At least that nasty flute made for some good firewood!"
Jasper's teeth had already bared themselves before he realized it and within a second whoever's throat that proud declaration had been uttered from,became the object of their tyranny.
The wolf's instincts were a rage with fire as he attacked the random person with ferocious velocity, he was only halted in his uncontrollable desire to kill the man when two, then three human's muscled their arms around his starving body and pulled him back with just enough strength to be able to pin him to the floor and tie his flailing limbs together.
"Yeesh," The disgusting, living human breathed, a gloved hand going to rest on his throat where it should've-would've been bleeding. "I guess that dog's pretty feral, you guys should take him and that sword to that trainer in Herani bet he'd give us a pretty penny for both."
"Ok ,but what about the baby?" Came a distinctively more feminine voice from above.
"Eh, me and you'll drop him off at the next train station. Someone'll surely bring him home.."
Jasper lunged out to bite the man's ankle ,but before he could a cloth sack was tied over his muzzle and he was hauled outside onto a sled.
He escaped within three days in their journey ,but it was already too late.
The child was nowhere to be found.
ForgottenFamily
"I searched everywhere." Jasper admitted. "But I couldn't find you….so….I..I just took the sword, 'nd came back here." The former wolf lifted his arms in a mock gesture. "And all I've been doing since then is, waiting."
Phew I think this might be the longest chapter I've written so far, I truly hope y'all like it! Feel free to let me know in a review I always love critique and criticism. Everyone have a blessed day-err night, evening, whatever and I'll see you all next chapter! Bye for now!