(A/N: This is a shorter, smaller scale spinoff story that is canon to my Poké Rangers series, taking place 10 years before Season 1 and serving as backstory to two noteworthy characters in Season 3. However, if you have not read those and just find this one intriguing, don't worry; it can stand on its own perfectly fine! Rated M as opposed to that series' T due to some even darker themes and violence towards the end. Whether you're here from that series or just stopped by on your own, I hope you enjoy!)
My name is Jask, and I am part of the Hive.
The Hive is a species that is based out of a collection of close-orbiting planets called the Cluster, located in Quadrant 205, according to the Shiftronian Empire's Intergalactic Map. The more powerful females of our race, known as the Hive Queens, rule the Cluster and command the rest of us within. Whether it be lowly Drones, powerful Elite Guards, the damage-sponging Tanks, or Assassins such as myself, we are all at their command.
The Queens direct us out to other planets to fulfill our one goal: to spread. All of the Hive are equipped with the ability to infect other races through injecting venom, inducing a rapid mutation that makes them one of us. We infiltrate their society in disguise, and often, by the time they realize we are there, it is too late to save themselves. Through this conquest, we have gained numerous outposts across the universe, planets taken over and fully converted into part of the ever-expanding Hive.
Not all females are strong enough to become Queens, however. Those who are not take up the role of Hive Keepers, remaining on the Cluster to maintain it, and more importantly, to reproduce. It is the duty of all Hive Keepers to keep new soldiers coming, and it is the duty of all male varieties to ensure the same.
But I am different.
You may ask me when it started, but in truth, I think it has been there all my life. I've never felt the desire to fulfill my duty with the Hive Keepers. Rather, it is my fellow soldiers who I find myself drawn to.
There is a term for beings like me. They call us Line-Enders. We won't reproduce, finding ourselves drawn to others of our own gender. Our genetic line ends with us.
We are despised.
To be discovered as a Line-Ender is tantamount to ignitiating your own death sentence. The 'normal' members of the Hive will tear you apart, and not fast either. Slowly. Painfully. They seem to relish it. I have seen it happen, and the image never leaves my thoughts for long.
So, I keep it secret. I say nothing, to nobody. I take extra care to not have my gaze linger on another male, on the off-chance they should guess what I feel. I make up excuses on why I'm not visiting the Hive Keepers.
"Too busy with work right now, I'm afraid."
"Maybe I'll be one of the lucky ones who gets with a Queen if I hold out."
"Took an injury in my last fight. Can't manage it right now."
The list goes on. Anything that I can say to justify not going to them. I don't know how long it can last. In my darker moments, I accept that sooner or later, I will be found out. I will die, and everyone around me, those who call themselves my friends, my allies, my brothers in arms...they will say 'good riddance'.
But today is not that day. Today, I am heading out on another mission. Today, I have made it through another harrowing stay at the Cluster.
Every hope in my body is that this mission will take a long time, to put off my inevitable return.
Our target is a planet located in Quadrant 32, far away from the Cluster. They call it Shumbra. As our ship silently approaches the planet, our leading Queen explains about the population.
They are a race known as the Fungusians. Most of them are not fighters. They tend to keep to themselves, staying out of intergalactic conflicts. Unfortunately for them, that means that they are not especially likely to have backup against us.
We touch down in a forest of towering trees and I disembark the ship, breathing in the scent of the massive pines. There is a slight dampness to the air, the feeling of approaching rain. In the distance, I can see briefly glimpses of dark clouds through the treetops.
I set off towards the east, where we have determined a prominent Fungusian civilization is located. As an Assassin, I am good at staying unseen. We make excellents scouts and infiltrators.
I fly through the trees, sticking close to them and weaving amongst their branches to keep more hidden. After a while, the village comes into sight. I stop on a branch, crouching next to the trunk as I eye the place up, scanning its structures and populace.
The Fungusians live in small singular dome-shaped houses, constructed out of what seems to be wood and stone, with a layer of moss overtop of most of them. I watch them wander around without a care in the world, chatting with friends, stopping at what seems to be an open-air market. The place seems peaceful, and more imporantly, vulnerable.
Flying to another tree, I circle this village, trying to commit it all to memory. As I move, something catches my eye that confuses me.
I notice what appears to be two female Fungusians, holding hands and gazing deeply at each other as if madly in love.
'Are they insane?' I wonder to myself. They seem to take no care to hide their connection to each other, and I can't help but cringe as I see several other Fungusians about to turn the corner and spot them.
To my shock, the other Fungusians give no reaction other than a waved greeting, the two females returning it cheerfully.
Perhaps I was mistaken. Perhaps they are simply friends. I am new here. I do not know every detail of their culture and customs, so to assume is far too big of a leap.
I'm so focused on the strangely bold pair that I don't notice the figure below me until the tree limb disappears from beneath my feet, sliced clean through. Quickly flipping myself, I land on my feet, drawing my swords as I face the figure across from me.
"It's rude to spy on people, you know." The figure before me is a male Fungusian. Like most of his species, he has a Ninetales' face under a Breloom cap, with a furred body with various mushrooms growing across him. His fingers are unusually long and thin and his feet are foxlike paws, nine tails extending behind him. His eyes are black, but they hold no malice in them as he looks at me.
Currently, he has a red blade extended from the palm of his hand, very much reminding me of the Hive Queens' primary weapons. As I stare at him, he retracts the blade into his palm.
"You can put the swords away." he speaks to me. "I just wanted your attention. If I wanted to kill you, I could've already done it while you were distracted."
Reluctantly, I place my swords away, the black blades sliding neatly into their holding places on my hips. Internally, I admonish myself for getting spotted so soon. That's not supposed to be something Assassins of all Hive members do. I can only presume that it was my distraction that allowed him to get so close to me.
"You got a name?" he asks. "Mine is Ninebrels."
"...Jask." I say at last, still keeping my swords ready to be redrawn at any provocation. It's something that doesn't go unnoticed to Ninebrels.
"Look, Jask...that won't even work on me." Ninebrels extends one of his blades again, making me tense up, but he holds up his hand towards me. "Watch carefully..." Swinging his bladed arm, he takes his hand off at the wrist.
My jaw drops at the action, but what comes next amazes me even more. A pair of glowing green spores, emerging from beneath his cap, flow down to the stump, and in moments, a new hand is grown. Ninebrels flexes it testingly before he notices me staring at him.
"So, where you from, Jask?" he asks me. "Clearly, not these parts."
"I'm..." My brain quickly searches for an answer. "A researcher, actually." Technically, it's not untrue. What am I doing if not researching this village?
"Really?" Ninebrels eyes me up and down, and I wonder if he will believe me. My body is taut with muscle from years of combat, visible brown veins extending across my body, including a pair that reach across my cheeks to meet the corners of my brown lips. Across my body, I wear a thin layer of black armor, almost looking like an exoskeleton. My hair forms a black and stringy mop atop my head and my eyes are a deep grey, Ninebels meeting them towards the end of his examination and smiling. The whole thing goes on long enough that I become nervous that he has seen through the lie, but he shrugs. "Well, no need to hide out here then." Ninebrels marches forward, passing by me as I warily watch him and waving. "Come on. I'll show you around."
I briefly consider attacking him from behind, but after what he showed me about his healing ability, I do not know if I would be able to down him fast enough. After a moment of consideration, I follow. If I've been discovered, I might as well play friendly and let him reveal some of the village's secrets to me.
So I follow him into the village. As we enter, the Fungusians give me curious looks. No anger or suspicion, just curiosity at a strange being unlike themselves walking down their streets.
Ninebrels leads me around the village, pointing out the various locations of note. A fallen tree trunk that has been hollowed out and serves as a library. The stump of the same tree that serves as the location for town meetings. The market that I previously noticed, where Fungusians are busily exchanging everything from various fruits to small statues to books.
As he guides me, many Fungusians call out to us in greeting. Ninebrels is quick to respond in kind, but I stay more quiet, giving the most polite silent nods of greeting I can muster. Though they are all clearly wondering about me, none of them say anything, merely giving their friendly greetings and moving on.
"And my home is down this way." Ninebrels points to a path that leads a bit away from the village proper, amongst the trees that make up its outer edge.
"Bit out of the way." I note. Ninebrels nods.
"It is." he admits. "But I like my privacy." He looks back and smiles. "You want to see?"
"Sure." I nod and he begins to lead me in that direction.
As we move, we pass by a pair of male Fungusians. Like the females I noticed earlier, their hands are interlinked, and they nuzzle against each other affectionately. I find myself staring, unable to pull my gaze away from them, my steps coming to a stop as my face grows more confused. Ninebrels notices me hesitating.
"What...?" He looks towards where I'm staring and sees. "Oh." A smile forms on his face. "That's just Funbre and Mushton. Don't mind them; they just have a hard time keeping their hands off each other." He chuckles, calling out a greeting to the two as he pulls my arm and leads me away, the pair looking and yelling back cheerfully.
"Do they..." Ninebrels turns his head to look at me as I try to vocalize the question boiling in my mind. "Are they normally...you don't find it strange that they're both..." Ninebrels smiles, a small, confused smile.
"I don't follow." he admits.
"You know..." I sigh. "Both...guys."
"Why would I?" Ninebrels asks in genuine confusion.
"I..." I can't find the words to explain myself, but I try anyway. "I just...where I come from..."
"OOOOH." Ninebrels nods. "That doesn't happen on your world?" I manage to shake my head. "Well, it does here." He shrugs, turning and moving back towards his house as I follow. He offers no further observation, a newly awkward silence having formed between us.
"So..." I determine that it's up to me to break it, that Ninebrels is waiting to see what direction I want to take the conversation. "So they don't contribute to...to your species' reproduction...and you're okay with that?"
"They do, actually." Ninebels tells him. "We don't reproduce like other species. It only takes one of us, male or female, to produce an offspring. Our, er..." He gives a slightly flustered laugh. "Let's say, erogenous zones, only exist for the purpose of pleasure."
"I...see." I nod quietly, not wanting to embarrass him further.
"But even if they didn't." Ninebrels shrugs. "So what? There will always be others who will. It's not like we're in danger of dying out or something. Where is it our business to tell them who they can and can't love?"
I feel like vocalizing agreement with that sentiment, but out of habit, I stay silent. Ninebrels glances back to me and I smile, hoping that's enough to show him that I feel the same way.
"Here we are." Ninebrels returns his gaze ahead as we arrive at a house similar to all the others I had seen. The moss coating his roof is a mottled mixture of green and red, swirling together in an intricate pattern. Outside and to the side sits a strange contraption that I can't make heads or tails of, a pillar of wooden segments as tall as Ninebrels himself, each segment having several wood extensions sticking out of it. "Come in." Ninebrels pulls open the door and directs me inside.
The interior of the house hits me with a wave of warmth and coziness as I step through, finding myself in an open entryway with two doors to the right and left. The room is outfitted with two chairs, leaning back slightly and coated with some sort of foam-like cushion, and a fireplace that is dying down, but still smoldering. Ninebrels approaches it and grabs more pieces from a stack of firewood beside it, tossing them in and extending one of his swords to poke at it until it ignites better.
"No use hanging out in the entryway." Ninebrels looks back and smiles as he retracts his blade and moves to the door on the left, leaving it open behind him as he passes through. I quickly follow him, being led down a curving hall that seems to loop around the building's outer edge, several doors along the inner wall leading into other rooms. Ninebrels stops before one. "You hungry?"
"Um..." My stomach growls and I realize that I am indeed. "Yeah. Sure." Ninebrels opens the door he stands before and leads me into a kitchen area.
"What do you guys eat?" he asks curiously. "I hope it's not meat. I don't eat it myself and we so rarely get visitors from offworld, so I don't exactly...have any."
"That's fine." I say quickly. "We can eat meat or plants. Whichever."
"Omnivores, huh?" Ninebrels opens a cabinet and searches through it, drawing out a plump purple fruit, shaped a lot like an oversized pear, but with more of the texture of a peach. "Works for me."
He takes the fruit over to what looks like a sink, but it has no faucet. Turning one of the handles, water sprays upwards from the middle section, Ninebrels washing the fruit down thoroughly before turning it off. Carrying it to a counter nearby, he places it on a cutting board and extends his sword, quickly slicing it into moderately thick pieces before spreading them across a tray. He walks over to a stove, tossing wood in and lighting it before placing the tray over the flame on a stand.
Leaving it there, he moves to a cupboard and draws out some sort of white sphere, washing it off as well before locating a grater and shredding it into a bowl. Finding another bowl, he locates what looks like a long red tubular plant, placing his hand on the bottom and squeezing it to release a thick red paste into the bowl.
I watch him as he fishes around the cupboards, locating several spices and sprinkling bits of them into the paste before stirring it. Grabbing a spoon, he scoops a small bit and tastes it, nodding in satisfaction.
"Perfection." He turns with both bowls in hand and notices me staring at him, stopping. "...what?"
"Nothing." I shake my head as he resumes walking. "Just...we don't exactly...do a lot of this stuff, where I'm from."
"You mean cooking?" Ninebrels asks in confusion.
"Yes, that." I am well aware of other races doing such. I've heard the stories. But to see it in person is a new experience. "We just kinda...eat as is."
"Oh..." Ninebrels frowns. "You should've said something." He glances to his cupboards. "Uh, I can get you..."
"No, it's fine!" I tell him quickly, moving to take a seat at the table. "What's life if you don't try new things, huh?" Ninebrels smiles and nods.
"Right." he agrees, starting suddenly and dashing back to the oven, grabbing a protective glove and pulling the tray out, the fruit slices steaming hot. He inspects them nervously, but seems satisfied that he got them in time. Carrying them over to the table, he sets a protective pad onto its surface before placing the tray down. He quickly scoops some of the red paste onto the fruit before reaching into the shredded white stuff, which up close I can only assume to be some sort of mushroom, and sprinkles it on top of that.
Turning, he goes to another cupboard and locates a pair of plates, bringing them and a pair of forks over and setting one of each before me. Using his fork, he lifts one of the slices off the tray and places it on my plate before bringing one to his.
Sitting, he quickly uses his fork to cut a piece off, stabbing it up and placing it in his mouth, chewing and closing his eyes in satisfaction.
"Quite good, if I do say so myself." he says proudly. "What do you think?" He looks my way to find me holding my fork and looking at it in confusion, laughing. "Let me guess? No utensils?" I shake my head, now fully embarassed. "What are you, savages?" He says it without a trace of mean spirit, only a bemused humor, holding up his own fork. "Watch."
I observe him closely as he goes for another bite, making note of how he holds and moves it before doing the same myself. I successfully manage to get a piece cut off and stab into it, raising it up and looking at it curiously before popping it into my mouth. Ninebrels watches me chew, awaiting my response.
"Oh..." It's not what I expected. The fruit has an incredibly sweet flavoring, while the sauce is a spicy, salty blend. The two mix together in a strangely enticing way, with bursts of sweet stopping it from becoming too spicy or salty at just the right moments. "That's...amazing!" I tell Ninebrels, earning a grin from him as I go for another bite. "How do you get the flavors to mix like that?"
"That's the magic of cooking done right, my friend." he tells me, taking another bite himself. As we continue to eat, there comes an enormous banging sound overhead, making me reach down and grab at one of my swords' hilts. "Just thunder." he tells me.
"Oh yeah..." I recall the clouds I saw off in the distance when I was heading to this village. "It did look like a storm was coming."
"About time too." Ninebrels says as he takes another bite. "If I'm being honest? That's why I approached you, when I saw you out there." He gestures towards the house's exterior. "You don't want to be caught out in one of these big boys."
"I see." I frown. "How long will it last?"
"Few days, maybe a week?" Ninebrels tells me. "Hard to tell. But it's a little later than expected, so probably closer to the latter."
"What!?" I drop my fork to the table. "So I'm..."
"Stuck here, yes." Ninebrels tells me. "Unless you want to go out and die." He chuckles at my worried expression. "Don't worry, it's not so bad, holing up for a few days." He smiles. "Least you got company."
"Yeah...I suppose so." I pick up the fork again and go back to eating. "You could've told me though."
"I could've." Standing, he goes and retrieves two glasses along with a jug of watery orange liquid, looking nervous as he sits down again. "I guess I just didn't want to be stuck here alone, again." He smiles slightly. "It's okay if you're mad at me."
"I'm not mad." I tell him. A few days to a week here was a few days to a week I didn't have to put up with the other soldiers or the queen. I wonder briefly what's become of the soldiers that were sent out to other locations. Did they managed to find shelter, or would they just never make it back?
"Good. I'm glad." Ninebrels sighs in relief, filling both of our glasses as I finish the dinner he prepared. I take a drink and find it to be a neutral, but very smooth and satisfying flavor, doing wonders of washing the aftertaste of the dinner away. I sit back in satisfaction.
"For real, I get to enjoy THAT for days?" I tell him. "No objections here." Ninebrels laughs as I go on. "Plus, all the more time to learn about this place."
"Speaking of learning." Ninebrels asks. "I've told you a lot about me and my people. What about you?" He smirks. "You don't cook, you don't use utensils, you don't have same-sex relationships...anything else you don't do that I should know about?"
I think carefully about my answer, not sure if he's heard of the Hive before. Probably not, but better not to take chances. Another clap of thunder makes me think of the outside, giving me an answer.
"Well, we don't have..." I point towards the wall. "We don't have forests like this one. My home planet is very rocky. We live mostly in underground tunnels."
"Really?" Ninebrels blinks in surprise. "No forests at all?"
"Well, no, there's some." I tell him. "But the trees are all..." I put a hand in the air slightly lower than my own head would be if I were standing. "Scraggly and small. Nothing to write home about. Certainly nothing like what you have here."
"You sound like you're not much a fan of your homeworld." Ninebrels muses. I'm stopped dead in my tracks by how on the head he nailed that, and it takes me a moment to go on.
"It's...okay." I mutter. "But I spend most of my time traveling."
"Researching?" Ninebrels asks.
"Yes." I nod. "I've been to all sorts of worlds, observing their societies and environments." And then watching them be wiped out, their populations converted into more of the Hive.
"I've never been off Shumbra." Ninebrels tells me. "I would like to though, someday." He gaze moves upward wistfully. "The universe must be so vast..."
"It is." I nod. "Sometimes it's awe-inspiring, how small we really are." His eyes come back to meet my own. "Three hundred known quadrants, each large enough to contain several galaxies inside. And who knows what all exists beyond what's been explored?"
"You're lucky." Ninebrels sighs. "Getting to explore all of that, instead of being stuck on some planet that nobody hardly ever bothers to visit." He thought for a moment. "You're the first to show up here in...7 years?"
"Whoa..." I can't resist grinning at him. "No wonder you were so excited to talk to me." Ninebrels laughs, pouring another cup for himself and drinking it.
"Yeah." he agrees. "No wonder, huh?"
The next morning, I wake up early, pushing a blanket off of myself and sitting up. Ninebrels had given me a spare room to stay in. It's sparsely furnished, but it has a comfortable bed cushioned in the same foamlike substance that had been on his chairs, with sheets and a blanket woven out of silky fiber.
Rising, I stretch my body and wings, loosening myself up. Against the wall are my swords and armor, and I quickly put them on before stepping out of the room.
I wander towards the back of the house, wondering if Ninebrels is up yet or if he's a late sleeper. The answer soon comes, as I begin to hear the sound of his voice, not speaking, but a sound that I know plenty well.
I enter a back room opposite the entry room, finding Ninebrels inside, practicing fighting with his blades. My intentions to say hello catch in my throat as I watch him, jabbing, striking, and spinning fluidly from imaginary target to imaginary target. His style is aggressive, but there's a grace in his movement, the way his muscularture shifts as he moves from position to position, his body a well-oiled machine.
Whirling, he slashes out in an arch, finally noticing my presence and smiling.
"Morning." he greets.
"M...morning." I manage back.
"You're up early." he tells me.
"So are you." I respond, stepping closer. Ninebrels shrugs.
"Yeah, well...I'm weird like that." he tells me. "I sleep little, feel refreshed anyway. Like to rise early and get stuff done."
"Same." I tell him. "Life's too short to waste so much of it sleeping." I glance at his blades curiously. "Where did you learn to fight?"
"Remember that last visitor I mentioned?" Ninebrels smiles. "Seven years ago?" I nod in remembrance. "They wanted to teach us. But..." He frowns. "Most weren't interested. I was the only taker." He laughs slightly, rubbing the back of his head. "Everyone thinks I'm a bit crazy to want to learn that."
"I'd say more smart than crazy." I tell him. "The universe is large and full of dangers." I could personally attest to how close they were. "It's always useful to know how to defend yourself."
"That why you go around like that?" He indicated my armor and swords. "Not that it's not a great look on you and all, but it doesn't scream 'researcher'."
"Yeah...you got it." I tell him. "Never know when something will happen. Better to be prepared than wishing you were." Wanting to change the subject, I take another step forward. "Can you show me your stance? There was something I noticed while I was watching you."
"Like this?" He assumes his fighting stance and I look it over.
"Right. Try it more..." I draw my swords and stand beside him. "Like this." I take a stance with one of my blades held closer to my body than either of his are. Ninebrels looks at me and tries to modify his stance to match.
"This?" he asks.
"Mmm..." I move over behind him, reaching around to take hold of his arm. "More like..." I adjust it a bit closer to him before looking down at his legs, reaching down to push one of them out wider. "That..." My hand lingers perhaps a bit longer than is necessary before I realize and move back, hoping he didn't notice.
Circling around, I take the same stance facing him.
"See, the way you were doing it, pure attack." I tell him. "It's good, but the second somebody slips past your defenses, they've got you. This stance provides you a bit more opportunity to defend and protect yourself." I frown. "Though I guess you can heal, so getting hit isn't as much of an issue. All the same..."
"I can't do it indefinitely." He tells me. "Only so many healing spores in my cap, and it takes time to create more."
"Right." I nod. "So the less hits you take, the better."
"Interesting." Ninebrels looks at me and gets an excited look in his eye. "Hey, would you spar with me? It'd be good if I could see this technique in action, I think."
"Sure." I readily agree. "Been a while since I've had a sparring partner." Ninebrels grins and stands ready with his blades, taking up the stance he had been using previously. I take up my own stance, watching and waiting for him to make the first move.
It's not long before he does, charging forward and swinging his blades. I raise my more inner blade and block the strike, noting that he's swinging with the flats of his blades. His next swing comes at me lower and I step back to avoid it, my Fungusian opponent pursuing me.
I stay on the defensive as Ninebrels performs what I can only describe as an elegant dance of death, each of his strikes feeding directly into another, their end leaving him in the perfect position to start another swing. It's all I can do to keep them from connecting with me. I'm not even entirely successful at it. One of his strikes hits my arm a bit as I deflect it. Not a clean hit, but enough that I'd be bleeding if he wasn't using the flats.
It dawns on me as I'm being forced back that I'm being entranced. I've never seen anybody fight like Ninebrels does, and it's downright enrapturing to watch. I'm supposed to be demonstrating something, proving some point to him, but in truth, I'm only really watching with bated breath and pounding heart, wondering what he's going to do next.
My back connecting with the wall serves as the sudden shock back into reality that I need. Retreating is no longer an option. I can see the spark of excitement in Ninebrels' eyes, believing he has me.
Quickly flipping one of my swords into a reverse grip, I swing in an upward curve as he swings down, catching his strike and pushing it away and to the ground. At the same time, he swings his other blade and I raise my other blade to block the hit. Quickly flipping my first blade back to its normal grip, I stab forward.
I only intend to place the tip against his chest, but I'm unused to fighting without the intent to kill. My blade goes a few inches too far, piercing into his body and making him wince in surprise.
"Sorry!" I'm quick to pull the blade back, leaving a horizontal opening behind it. "I didn't...mean..."
"Jask, it's fine." Ninebrels tells me, a glowing spore emerging from his cap and healing the wound. "Remember who you're dealing with."
"Right." I nod in understanding. "I really am sorry though. I just...haven't sparred in a long time."
"It's quite alright." Ninebrels smiles, his hand reaching up to rub the spot where he had been stabbed. "But you're right. If I couldn't heal, if I was drained already, that could've been dangerous...definitely something to look into."
A rumbling sound reaches both of our ears, Ninebrels' eyes rising to look at me as a blush crosses my face.
"But first...breakfast?" he asks.
"Please." I agree, letting him lead me back to the kitchen, curious to see if his breakfast skills are as good as his dinner ones.
Ninebrels was right, it really is not so bad here. After we finished breakfast, which was somehow even more delicious than the previous night's dinner, he gave me a full tour of his place. Aside from what I had already seen, he had a full indoor gym, a library room dedicated to his personal book collection, a storage room containing old things he didn't use anymore, and what he called his 'quite space', a neatly organized room, decorated with some of the most beautiful pictures and ornamentation I have ever seen, with a single chair and some sort of musical intrsument.
After showing me around, I gave him some pointers on defensive fighting. He proved a quick learner, smoothly replicating my techniques with only a few corrections on my part. I once again had found myself in awe of his fighting ability, and pushing down feelings I didn't want to surface.
The rest of the day went by uneventfully. I spent most of it in his library, reading. The Hive did not keep books, but I had always found myself fascinated by them whenever I found some on another world. It was a simple matter to lose myself for hours on end, scanning through fictional tales and historical accounts.
In truth, I think I was hiding from Ninebrels. It was getting harder and harder to be around him without giving a noticable reaction, and I paled to think of what would happen if he figured out that I was starting to crush on him. For one thing, it was way too fast. I don't know why. Maybe I just felt that strong for him, or maybe it was just my first time being around somebody who genuinely accepted somebody like me.
I ponder on this as a lay in bed. The storm outside has shown no sign of letting up, and Ninebrels has become more convinced that it's going to last the whole week. That's a lot of time to hide in a library. Sighing, I rise from my bed and leave the room, wandering down the hall, my mind running far too quickly to sleep.
I make my way to the back room of the house. There is a window on the back wall of the room, and I find myself standing before it, staring out into the rain. It still pours, and the wind still blows. Looking up, I can see the upper layers of the trees swaying.
A thought crosses my mind, that maybe I'd be better off just leaving. Step out into the storm. Ninebrels says there'd be little to no chance at survival, which is about as much chance as I have when the Hive inevitably finds out about me.
The thought shakes me to my core. I've never had a thought that dark before, and it only reinforces the feeling that something is off with me. Before I know it, tears are leaking from my eyes and I'm falling to my knees, my head pressing against the glass as I sob.
"Why me?" I mutter to myself. "Why do I have to be like this?"
I'm alone in my misery for several minutes, unaware of anything around me. There seems to be no end in sight for the fit that has enveloped me. That is, until a hand rests on my shoulder.
I quickly try to stop my tears, wiping at my eyes as I look at Ninebrels. He stares back at me, allowing me to compose myself as best I can, saying nothing. At last, when I'm reasonably put together, he pulls me to my feet.
"Come with me." He says it gently, but it's clear this is a demand, not a request. He pulls me with him, taking me to the quiet room. I notice that there's a second chair that wasn't here this morning, and Ninebrels is quick to set me down in it.
Taking a seat in the other chair, Ninebrels grabs up the instrument that he keeps here, a long guitar-like piece, but with several extra strings to it, a set angling out to the instrument's edge before coming back to meet its other end. He slings a strap over his shoulder, scooting his chair closer until he's directly beside me. My eyes shift over to meet his as he watches me, starting to play.
It's a soothing melody. Slow, quiet, calming. Downright beautiful in its rhythm. Ninebrels closes his eyes as he plays, his nimble fingers picking at the strings as if they were born to do it. The sound echoes subtly around the room, layering in on itself as he continues.
I can't help but feel some of the tension leave my body as the music continues. The song almost seems...inviting, assuring of trust.
"Just relax..." Ninebrels whispers, and I almost miss it, so focused I am on the melody. Realizing, he stops for a moment, reaching a hand up and around my head, pulling me over to rest against his shoulder. "Relax..."
Nodding against him, I close my eyes as he resumes playing, letting the sound be my everything, pushing away feelings of doubt, of fear, of anger.
Tears begin to emerge from my eyes again, but they're different. No longer tears of misery, but tears of happiness. Joy that Ninebrels would go out of his way, this late at night, just to help me feel better.
Next thing I know, I'm drifting off, slipping blissfully back to the caress of sleep.