Woo! back on track for now...
Chapter 12
Amun was only aware of the presence for a moment before it said, "Peekaboo."
"What the shit?!" he yelped.
Eyes, an incredibly deep green, stared up at him. The startled look in his eyes faded back into his stoic neutral stare, "Lady Bastet?"
The figure in question stood up, getting up in his face in the process. Bastet tried to give him a cutesy look, her tail swishing behind her, "My apologies, I didn't mean to scare you."
"Why are you here?"
She pressed herself against him, drawing circles on his chest, "Straight to the point, hm? That's hot."
Amun stepped back, "Married, remember?"
The shine of amusement in his eyes cut through the darkness. Bastet crossed her arms across her impressive bust, "Killjoy."
"Why are you here?" Amun asked again.
Bastet didn't answer right away. Amun feared he overstepped his bound, but only briefly. I'll be damned if I show her my fear. Instead, he crossed his arms as well. With a sigh, Bastet said, "Fine. I was bored."
"Bored...?" Amun raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know gods could get bored."
Bastet rolled her eyes, "Oh, Father's sake, you aren't one of those people, are you?"
The tension seemed to leave the air. "Okay, then," Amun sat himself back on the ground, "What made you come find me, then?"
Bastet sat down next to him, but didn't answer his question. She seemed to be more interested in the cloth masking his lower face. "Do you sleep in that thing?" she asked, pointing a dainty finger at the cloth.
Amun's eyes were the only indication of his confusion. She kept derailing him. But, he righted it by repeating with emphasis, "Why. Did you. Find me?"
Bastet's gaze turned skyward. "You really are no fun at all," she said, "I found you because you interest me. You're odd because I can read you like an open book, and yet I can't seem to figure you out."
"Is that so?" he goaded, "An open book?"
"Oh, please," Bastet scoffed, "You're a Guardian. Looking for all the relics? That Set-scum who's aura reeked did something personal to you, right? And now, you're Max Edgelord, so damaged and broody."
She laughed for a moment at her own joke. But, from the deepened scowl lines on Amun's brow, Bastet could see he wasn't amused at all. "When everything you've ever know is wiped away in a day, come talk to me, Bastet," he growled.
"Calm yourself, Edgelord," she said, "If you'd seen a fraction of the shit I've seen, you wouldn't be lording those edges so much right now."
"You're also a god-spirit-angel whatever," Amun laid down on his back with his arms tucked behind his head, "For humans, all it can really take to drive us over the edge is one really, really bad, fucked up day, y'know?"
Scooting herself a bit closer to him, Bastet laid down, too. She said, "Amun, Set killed everyone you knew, right? Well, on the food chain of tragedies, that's pretty up there."
"You don't say," Amun commented dryly.
"But, look at it this way; we all lose everyone eventually. You just... happened to lose them all at once."
Amun barked out a laugh, "Gee, how heartwarming."
"What, were you expecting something heartwarming?" she asked.
"Maybe," he huffed, "Well, if you're so bored, then why not help me?"
Bastet turned her head to meet Amun's eyes, "Help? You mean to gather the other objects?"
"More like 'object.' The only one left unaligned is the Lantern. And I just lost the entrance," Amun groaned, "I wonder if Anubis himself could tell where it is."
"He can. All of us can tell where our objects are," Bastet shifted a little in place, "so even if the place moves, the object should still be traceable."
Amun yawned, "Awesome. We can... we can work it out in the morning."
Bastet turned on her side, "It's adorable when you yawn."
"Shut up..."
"Make me."
Phoebe entered into the small kitchen wearing a simple dress made of a very light material. What she walked in on was much heavier. Finn had unclasped the sword from his back and let it clatter to the floor. He removed his shirt to reveal some sort of chainmail, which he also removed. After a good few seconds of staring at his well-defined back, the shirt was back on.
Not even bothering to say anything, she simply backed out of the room. She waited a minute and walked in. "Oh," she said, using her best surprised voice.
"Yeah, sorry about the junk on your floor," Finn smiled sheepishly, "But, even chainmail gets a little heavy after a while. And this stuff is, like, ultra-light."
Phoebe moved back to the counter, in front of the pot. Now truly intrigued, she asked, "What's it made of?"
Finn bent over and picked up the armored shirt in question, "I dunno. I think it's some sort of enchanted Mythril. Took it from an undead battlemage in the Night-o-Sphere."
Upon closer inspection, Phoebe found the craftsmanship was magnificent. If there was one thing that the Fire Kingdom prided itself on, it was its metalwork. In her relatively short rule, she herself had learned a few tricks of the trade. One such thing she learned a hefty bit from her brother was chainmail. The seams on the chains weren't visible at all, and the links were tightly woven.
"This must've taken decades to make," she muttered, awestruck.
Finn held it out to her and she took it. He had been right when he said it was light. The thing was obviously a masterpiece to the trained eye, but on the surface, it was far from extraordinary. It looked like silver with a bluish tint and a dim, white shimmer coming off of it. On top of that, it couldn't have been more than twenty pounds.
"Yeah, I heard that some blacksmith wizard perfected each ring- like half a year each- and even longer linking them," Finn grinned with the story, "It's really cool to think someone was that passionate about it. This thing's saved my life a whole bunch of times. Arrows can't get through it, and slashes with swords don't do much either. Only really use this for real dangerous missions, though."
Phoebe looked over to their tea, remembered that they were indeed making tea, and got some mugs from a lower cabinet shelf. "Why's that?" she asked.
Finn accepted the mug offered to him, "Well, I don't get a whole lot of armor that's this awesome. Don't wanna risk breaking it so soon on something trivial, rather than have it save my life one of these days."
Both of them left the kitchen, back to the throne room, Finn with his stuff in tow. "Can't argue with that logic," Phoebe said.
The throne room was unusually quiet. At least, it was quiet to Finn. It always seemed bustling when he visited. Silence pervaded the whole room as they nursed their tea. Phoebe was sat in her throne, angled to face Finn, who stood off to her right, facing her.
"Daily court is over, so we can just relax," for emphasis, Phoebe curled her legs up nearer to her chest.
The night passed slowly. At some point, Finn ended up sitting with his back resting on the front of the throne. It was late into the night, and their empty mugs had long since been discarded. A comfortable silence rested over them, like a blanket. Both of them were tired, but neither wanted to sleep just yet.
Finn chuckled, "Man, we gotta stop staying up so late before we do important biz."
Phoebe giggled a bit, "Yeah, we do."
This made Finn think of the other night. The night when they fell asleep at the Treefort, she said that she trusted him. "Hey, Phoebe...?" he said.
Phoebe hardly noticed her heart flutter when he used her name. "Yeah?" she responded.
"Did you mean it the other night...? When you said you trusted me?" Finn asked.
There was a long pause. "I... Yes... I do trust you, Finn. But maybe not in the way you're hoping," Phoebe chose her words carefully, "I'm just unsure if-"
"I know," Finn said, "What I did was wrong. And it hurt you. And I don't know if you'll ever be able to trust me like that again. But, do you think I could ever prove myself worthy of that trust one day?"
She smiled for a moment. "I'd like to think you could," she paused, "But... I'm just not sure right now."
Finn felt a tired smile gracing his face. "I may not deserve a second chance..." he craned his head to look her in the eyes, "But, if you decide to give me one, I'll give my all to prove I'm different than I used to be."
"I wanna think about this. Just for a little while-"
"Please, take as much time as you need to, Phoebe."
"Finn, I don't want to keep you on a string."
"... Okay."
After that, the conversation wilted and fatigue took hold of them both. Phoebe led Finn to a guest room not too far from her own and Cinnamon Bun's. Finn stared at the ceiling well into the wee hours of the morning, far too tired to fall asleep. Phoebe was asleep far earlier that Finn, but his question still weighed heavy on her. She wanted to give him the chance right now, but her gut was telling her to think more.
Phoebe closed her eyes and rested her troubled heart.
The morning droned on. Morning rituals, hygiene, get dressed, and head to the dining hall. Phoebe met Cinnamon Bun in the hall. "Morning, CB," she said.
"Good morning, Phoebe," he replied, "I trust you slept well?"
"Actually, yeah," Phoebe smiled, "Glob, I haven't slept like that in a while."
Doorways indistinct from each other passed them by until they came upon the dining hall. Apparently, Finn had beaten them there. But, the fact he was asleep in his chair concerned Phoebe. She went over to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Finn woke with a start, but righted himself.
"Wha-? Oh," he yawned widely, "Hey, Phoebe. How you- ... How you doin'?"
The sleepiness in his voice made her giggle. Phoebe sat down in the chair next to Finn, "I'm just fine. Did you get enough sleep, though, Finn?"
"Erm... Well..." he hesitated.
Finn wanted to ease her mind, but he'd be lying if he said he slept well. All of his dreams were of a woman crying out for help. He barely had a couple hours' sleep before he came to sit in the dining hall for the remainder of the night. This was his chance to start changing. For her.
Finn sighed, "No. I slept horribly."
"Oh, no. That's not good," Phoebe placed a hand on his shoulder, "What's wrong? Was the bed not to your liking?"
"No, it's not that," he said, "I just kept hearing this woman cry for help in my sleep. No matter how fast I ran, I never went anywhere, and no matter how much I tried to yell back, I couldn't."
Finn put his head in his hands and groaned, "At least it wasn't one of those prophetic dreams. Jake and I seem to be prone to those."
"I wish there were a way for me to help you," Phoebe said quietly.
"I know, but people have nightmares all the time. I'm sure I'll have a great night's sleep tonight."
The servants came out with a whole plethora of breakfast foods, healthy and unhealthy alike. All three of them dug in with gusto. "Man!" cried Finn between bites and, sometimes with his mouth full, "I hadn't even realized that I'd eaten so little on our adventuring... or that Fire Elementals could cook so well!"
Phoebe, who wasn't eating like a savage, replied, "We're living fire. Learning to cook is pretty much like learning to control our flames."
Finn paused his eating. "Oh," his face darkened a few shades, "Right."
Phoebe giggled and patted Finn's head. "Aw, he's learning," she cooed mockingly.
Finn said nothing in return, and instead opted to stuff some more food into his mouth. The small talk surrounding breakfast was just that: small. When breakfast was over and it came time for Finn to leave, Phoebe saw him off at the entrance of the palace. "Um, Finn?" she said.
"Yeah?" he responded.
Suddenly, Phoebe was looking down at her twiddling fingers. She said, "I... I worry about you sometimes. Call me when you're back at the Treefort, okay?"
With a wide half grin, Finn gave her a thumbs up, "Yeah, sure. No prob, Pheebs."
Before either of them really knew what was going on, Phoebe had wrapped him up in a hug. "I just know this whole thing is gonna turn out okay," she said in a low voice.
"Yeah," Finn wrapped his arms around her, "Me too."
Hooooooweeeeeeee! That's a lot of fluff for one chapter. Finally some character development on Finn's part, trying to be more honest with FP. It seems like Phoebe is seriously considering Finn again. Good! And... Bastet is being Bastet. So, hopefully I'll be able to keep pumping out ideas like this! Until next time. Ja ne!
