The Water of Aetas
Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, or form own the characters from SSO. Nor can I spell worth a crap. I checked this to the best of my abilities, and well, I'm sure there are still a few words I used which just plain don't exist. It's listed as rated M, for even though the language/content is maybe a little more than a 'T' at the moment, it shall progress much farther into the realms of the carnal, the gory (for example, some here in this chapter), and the foul-mouthed by the end. Woot.
This is set at some point after Revenge. Majic's back studying at the Tower of Fang, if that wasn't too clear in the first part, and Cleao and Orphen are out traveling on their own, under the protective watch of Wolfen cub extraordinaire, Leki.
Orphen threw another stick onto his growing pile and mopped the sweat off his brow with the back of a hand. The mess left by the storm outside was staggering. Branches and random pieces of debris littered the ground and were piled high against the side of the cottage. In the back, a large tree had fallen through the roof of the shed, reducing it to splinters. Orphen figured that's what the massive crash from the night before must have resulted from. Cursing silently he flung another broken branch away from the cottage path. It was going to take them forever to dig themselves out at this rate.
He watched as Cleao stomped outside and stood next to him, Leki cradled carefully in her arms. Her hair was still a bit disheveled and there was a red mark trailing down her face where the pillow edge had cut into her. She still wore his shirt from the night before, which only came down to about her mid-thighs, leaving her long, white legs bare. He was still a little bit shaken up from the night before and cleaning up hadn't improved his mood any.
"Nice look. You should try that out with the rebellious kids back in Totokonta," Orphen said, gesturing towards her face with a smaller twig.
Cleao rolled her eyes and sniffed. "Once again, your debonair wit never fails to amaze me. What are you doing out here so early making all this noise, Cranky-ass-ello? It's barely even morning yet."
Orphen glared at her then shook his head. "Do you even bother to look around you at any point? Any passage away from here is completely blocked, and if we ever want to leave we'll need to clear it ourselves. I don't know about you, but I don't relish the thought of spending enough time here so the only thing left to eat is that canned bread."
Cleao looked horrified and then smiled coyly at him. Orphen could only guess what was running through that little blonde head of hers, but mentally braced himself for whatever it was.
"Well, being the big, strong man here," she said, twisting a strand of blond hair with her finger, "I wouldn't want to stop you from exercising that well of testosterone there. Tell you what, you work on this little – set back - out here, and I'll go work on getting our clothes clean, 'kay?" Not waiting for an answer, she batted her eyes at him once and scampered off towards the cottage, slamming the door shut behind her.
Growling at her, he bent down to pick up another branch off the pathway. He just didn't understand women, that was the problem. One minute they could be sweet and understanding, and the next a demanding, space-taking, air-wasting, pain in the neck. Chucking the branch across the yard into his growing trash pile, Orphen straightened and knuckled his back. At least he could be thankful she offered to do something remotely useful this time, he thought as he wrinkled his nose at the thought of staying in the same clothes for yet another day. Finishing his stretch, Orphen set again at once more clearing the way around the cottage.
That man! Cleao raged as she pounded into the house, slamming the door behind her for good measure. For the life of her she couldn't read him anymore. One day he's romantic and caring, and then he turns around and acts like a muscled-headed, clueless, bone-brained, stubborn jerk!!. With the maturity level of a five year old, let's not forget… Cleao huffed and Leki yipped his agreement in her arms.
Moving over to one of the deboarded windows, Cleao watched him stretch in the early morning sunlight. She gazed at the light playing across the muscles of his bare torso and sighed unhappily. The problem was that he was too damn good looking for his – or her – own good. As it was, she was willing to put up with his more annoying habits for the time being. Not that she didn't enjoy a good argument or two, but sometimes the man was so frustratingly stubborn, especially when it was obvious she was right.
She growled again as she started to throw their dirty clothes into a manageable pile. Cleao wasn't sure what had happened the night before, and being uncertain about something was definitely not one of her favorite emotions. Sure, she had had fantasies before about Orphen, but it's not as if she really thought of him that way. Seriously. What self-respecting woman could, she thought to herself. He's my working partner and traveling companion, nothing more, …regardless of whatever my subconscious dreams of when I'm not looking. He's like an older, annoying ,ever-present, older brother. Last night was an accident. Yes, an unfortunate,.. happy accident that won't happen again. Cleao wondered however why that explanation seemed lame, even to the quiet confusion of her own mind.
Leki, sensing something was amiss, mewed and cocked one ear, the other one swiveling back and forth on his tiny head. Cleao sighed again and patted the Wolfen cub. "I know, boy, I'm a mess. Come on, let's make us some clean clothes so at least I'll feel better on the outside."
Orphen sat on one of the newly created stumps surrounding the cottage and rested his elbows on his knees. He surveyed his work so far and wished for nothing more than either Majic or Hartia to magically appear and help him clear away the remaining debris and foliage. He had managed a few short energy blasts every hour or so, but the majority of the cleaning work had to be done by hand, and he was still feeling his earlier, acrobatic departure from the rooftop deep in his muscles. If he managed to continue to work at the pace he had set himself all morning, he estimated he had perhaps another two days of solid work ahead of him. Hopefully he would have his magic power back by the next day and then he could forcefully blast themselves out instead.
As he stretched his arms one last time before readying to stand up, Orphen saw Cleao emerge from the cottage with Leki bounding along behind her. Apparently she had already begun to wash his shirt, for she had changed into what looked like the cabin owner's spare clothing – a large, rumpled white button-down rolled up to her elbows and baggy khaki pants secured tightly around her waspish waist with an extra large belt, the loose end dangling almost to her knees. She trundled over to him and he thought she might have begun saying something, but he really wasn't paying all that much attention. You know, he thought to himself scratching the back of his head, some women look cute in oversized men's clothing. …Who'd have thought Cleao would be one of them. Where'd she find that kerchief for her hair too? Her hair looks nice piled up –
"Heeelllllllo, are you even listening to me?!" Cleao interrupted his thoughts, loudly. Orphen started and grimaced up at her, completed clueless as to what he could have possibly missed this time. He blinked once and waited.
Cleao pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "I said, you two-bit entertainer, that you'd better get out of those pants and into something else if you expect me to wash those too. I don't care if you want to personally go around smelling like last year's garbage, but frankly, I don't want to share the same extended air space as you if you do." Now she smiled wickedly down at him and held her arms akimbo. "Consider it payback for last night. If you don't go find something to change into immediately, Leki here has kindly volunteered to remove that second layer of skin for ya', free of charge." The Wolfen pup yipped and wagged his tail vivaciously, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.
Orphen stood up quickly and stared down at Cleao, who only smiled even wider, a flash of triumph lighting her eyes. Muttering a string of curses under his breath, he stomped off to the cottage to pillage some more of the owner's unneeded clothing. Orphen fervently hoped he had the strength to blast their way clear by tomorrow, or else he wasn't sure he could survive another day cooped up in the cottage with her and Leki. If the Wolfen didn't kill him first, she surely would.
"Wake up! Wake up, now!"
Cleao was jolted awake by the rough shaking on her shoulders and Orphen's bellowing visage in her face.
"Wha-?"
"No time. Grab the stuff and move. Don't bother to get dressed, just get going." Orphen turned and started throwing their belongings into his backpack while continuing to look over his shoulder at the closed bedroom door.
Cleao sat up and shook herself a little while running a hand through her matted hair. Her brain was still slowly trying to process the idea of Orphen frantically packing their clothes when she was jarred awake by the sounds of quick, successive gunshots coming from the front of the cabin. As if on cue, Orphen grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet, bodily dragging her towards the back door.
What in the hell is going on now?! she wondered through the small hallway to the back of the cottage. Bandits? Bill collectors? The owners? Long lost friends of Orphen's? This is one hell of a way to wake up in the morning. Give me coffee over this any day.
Once outside, Orphen held her close to the side of the cottage, one hand pressed lightly to her mouth. She wanted nothing more than to question the enigmatic sorcerer, but the tense way he currently held himself kept her quiet. Cleao's eyes darted around nervously while she strained to make out the voices coming from the front of the cabin. She could make out the sounds of men's voices arguing, but any distinct words were lost around the bulk of the building. Cleao settled on instead watching Orphen as he stood poised in front of her. He also hadn't taken the time to change and was only in a pair of ratty pants, the heavy clothes pack cutting into the bare skin of his shoulder. Leki poked his head out of the top of the pack and whined softly.
Orphen's eyes were unfocused as he also tried to listen to their newfound visitors. Dammit all, of all times. Normally these guys would be a mere annoyance, but I don't think my powers are completely back yet. If it were just me I'd make a stand, but I can't place Cleao in danger for a 'maybe,….since I did promise her mother. Looks like we'll have to try and make a break for the woods…
Taking a step away from the wall, Orphen motioned Cleao to stay quiet, who nodded once, lips pressed together tightly. Cleao watched for a few short seconds as he made his way silently into the clearing before beginning to follow after him. She could hear the pounding of her heart echoing in her ears, loud enough she was certain to alert the trigger-happy hooligans to their presence.
Orphen had reached the periphery of the woods and turned around to beckon towards her, rowing his arm around in a 'hurry-it-up' gesture. Cleao was about to hiss out a response for what he could do with that arm when his eyes widened and the blood drained from his face. Confused, Cleao began to take another step when she saw him raise a hand towards her and her world exploded into a wash of red and pain. Finding herself crumpled on the ground, Cleao managed to note through her foggy mind with a sort of giddy amusement that she couldn't move her limbs. Huh, wonder why my back is all cold too, she thought, groggily. At least the rest of me's all warm. Hmm….kinda like a heated waterbed…..Waterbed….I wonder if Mariabella ever convinced Mom to get that waterbed…the ground sure is nice…..
Orphen watched in agitation as Cleao slowly made her way across the clearing towards him, picking her way delicately across the grass. Of all the times to act the Princess, …hurry it up already! Orphen gestured angrily at her to pick up the pace, when he felt his face go slack and the ground drop from underneath him, as a burly man in dark clothes rounded the edge of the cabin, sighting a large hunting rifle along Cleao's back. Orphen had time to stretch out a hand towards her before he watched as the bullet slowly exploded through her upper chest, spewing forth what seemed to him an ocean of blood and small chunks of muscle and flesh. With the same confused look on her face, Cleao toppled forward to the ground, her blood quickly seeping out over the saturated soil.
He lunged for her, the gunman completely forgotten. He was dimly aware of the man sighting the rifle on him but all his attention was focused on the still body in front of him. Rolling her onto her back, Orphen sat dumbstruck as he watched the blood pumping out of the gaping, ragged, hole in her chest. Her white shift was already stained completely crimson and her lips had begun to cast a sickly blue hue. Cleao blinked up at him lazily, her eyes focused on something far behind him.
Leki howled in rage and jumped from the crowded pack, the Alpha two-leg frozen stiff for some inescapable reason to his wolfy logic. Strangers had dared to hurt his two-legs! Satisfied that Alpha was now tending to his two-legs, Leki turned his burning green gaze on the enemy two-legs. The shape was little more than a blurry red form to the pup's green-saturated field of vision, but that was all he needed.
Bracing all four legs against the soil, Leki howled once more and gathered his power around himself into a dense cloak. Not caring about precision or technique, the pup cried out once more, and along the airborne sounds as his mother taught him, he unleashed a jet of pure, un-tempered power.
The blast caught the stranger full in the chest, who only had time to stumble back a step before the power blew him apart from the inside with a sickening pop. Fleshy chunks, bone fragments, and small bits of intestines and other pieces of internal organs burst out radially, sending some parts flying out as far as the edge of the woods. The air was heavy with a crimson stained mist, and the pup curled back his upper lip in satisfaction, tasting the metallic scent on the winds. Stretching slowly, Leki loped around to the other side of the two-legs den, intent on finishing the kill.
Orphen barely registered the small red drops falling slowly onto Cleao's face as he quickly ripped strips of cloth off her shift, stuffing them around the ragged wound. The sky, it cries in blood. Someone had said that before, maybe Childman…it had that certain uppity, poetic ring to it….and it was terribly fitting. Kneeling next to her, he brought up his hands to her slowly moving chest, blazing white with raw power. Orphen gritted his teeth together as he strained to dredge forth as much power as he could muster. The bullet missed her heart, thank the Heavenly Ones, but had ripped through at least one lung on its way out. And while the damage to actual flesh wasn't un-healable, Orphen could tell from her labored breathing and the small pink tinted bubbles foaming at the corners of her mouth that her lungs were filling up with blood, drowning her from the inside.
First things first, he thought frantically as he siphoned blasts of healing energy into her torso, stop the main arteries from bleeding and then work on clearing her lungs of fluid. Orphen cursed himself for his slowness of healing ability. Already her eyes were growing glassy and her chest barely rose and fell. Lifting a hand up to brush a strand of hair out of his eyes, he inadvertently brushed her blood in a wide streak across his face, his fingers slick and red. The coppery smell filled his senses and he returned to his work with increased fervor. She's lost so much blood already. Don't die on me now, Cleao. You can't leave like this! He wasn't sure if that last part was only thought or if he screamed that out loud, as a garbled cry escaped his lips.
Pushing his fingers back into the hole the bullet had made, he fought down a wave of nausea as he slowly sifted through slick and wet muscle and broken bone. Orphen had managed to stop the bleeding, but there wasn't anything he could do about the loss of blood, and she had lost quite a lot. With one hand slowly healing and scorching away the fluids in her lungs, he kept the other pressed tightly to her neck, feeling for the dull pulse growing fainter and fainter with each passing moment. If only he were better at healing! He was great at blowing things apart, but putting them back together again wasn't always one of his stronger talents. Wishing silently that Hartia or Eris would show up to take over - hell, any kind of healer for that matter - Orphen continued to slowly drain her lungs.
He felt himself burning dry in his mad rush for more power, and knew that at this rate he'd at best end up like Stephanie, devoid of any magic whatsoever, the conduits and avenues burned and turned to ash. At worst…he didn't bother to finish the thought. Either he saved her or they both died here.
As he finished clearing her right lung and prepared to move on to her left, his insides burning from the magical overload, Orphen's breath caught in his throat, letting out a small, strangled sob, and his stomach fell to meet the ground. He couldn't feel her pulse anymore under his sticky fingers, and her chest had stopped its slow, labored, movement. Using both hands now, Orphen quickly pressed his fingers down all along her neck, looking for any sign of a pulse he might have inadvertently missed. No, no, No, NO "No!" he screamed out loud as he grabbed her shoulders and shook her against the ground. Cleao's eyes continued their unfocused stare and rolled back slightly, and her head lolled bonelessly from side to side.
Crying out wordlessly, Orphen attempted to gather whatever remained of his power and was setting to unleash all that was left of him when he felt a sudden unfamiliar weight on his shoulder, and a staggering amount of pure, hot power run through him, leaving him stunned in its wake. The touch of a small wet nose against his cheek was all Orphen needed to shake himself and he sent a mental thanks in the pup's direction. He had no idea the cub could channel such power, and he had difficulty at first controlling its raging, wild currents, and taming them enough to use on Cleao's broken form.
"Live, dammit!" Orphen screamed as he plunged two burning white hands to her chest. Leki's magic seared through her, blasting away the blood from her left lung into a fine mist and knitting together the torn muscles and bone. Orphen was growing giddy with the amount of magic coursing through him, and he fought to retain control of it surging around him. One slip up and he'd kill all of them in a backlash that would level the woods for miles.
Orphen gasped for breath as he looked down at her healed form, the new skin glowing stark white against the red and rusty brown of her shift. His eyes danced crazily over her, looking for some form of life or movement, but while he had succeeded in mending the body, she still wasn't breathing. Leki sagged against his shoulder and he heard the pup let out a small whimper before channeling one last package of power over to Orphen. Gathering it up with the last of his strength, he honed it to a fine point and sent it racing towards Cleao's heart. He held his breath and watched with wide eyes as her back arched under the raw blast and a ragged gasp escaped from her lips. His own breath sighing out, Orphen's eyes rolled back in his head as he toppled forward, falling across her breast, the Wolfen cub rolling a few short inches away.
Her lungs burned with liquid fire, and Cleao gasped for air as she clawed her way out of sleepy unconsciousness. Her eyes were dry and burned too and she blinked repeatedly until tears clouded her vision. Squinting through the blur, she made out Orphen's form lying on top of her, silent and unmoving. Her nostrils flared as she was flooded with a scent which was alien to her presently, but tugged at the corners of her mind. Trying to sit up a bit, she noticed for the first time that she was dressed in a small, red and brown dappled lacy shift. Her brows knotted together. I don't remember owning anything this color. Where did…. Her mind finally fit the pieces together in a jumble which knocked her back again flat on the ground. The metallic smell, her discolored undergarments, and Orphen's pale, gaunt, still face lying on her, half of it covered in a sticky red substance… It's blood!.. Cleao eyes then took in the shimmering red mist covering the clearing, the small pink and red squishy nuggets littering the forest floor, and the odd rope like pieces hanging from the trees. Oh my God,.. she managed before she rolled over to her side and retched noisily into the grass beside her.
"I can't – I can't stay here any longer!" Cleao screamed as she rocked back and forth on the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around her and her eyes squeezed shut against the bloodbath in front of her. Orphen's arms were locked around her, his head resting on her shoulder, and he swayed back and forth with her. He hadn't set a word since waking up a short while ago, and hadn't moved from his new spot molded against her back. Leki lay curled in a small ball at her feet, sound asleep.
Cleao shivered and bowed her head down to her knees, feeling Orphen's arms tighten slightly and lock around her. His head shifted slightly on its perch but he still didn't utter a sound. Turning her head slightly on her knee, she felt the brush of his bangs across her face and she hazarded opening her eyes. His face turned towards hers, resting just slightly out of reach and turned just towards the inside of her neck. His brown eyes were open and cloudy emotions which Cleao couldn't begin to read played across their surface. Cleao's breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened slightly. A clean, wet path of skin showed through the splash of rusty brown on his cheek and his bottom eyelids glistened. He was crying!
Shifting, Cleao lifted her head and tried to turn in his firm embrace. "Orphen –" she began but stopped when she didn't know what to say to him. She'd only seen the sorcerer cry once before, and it certainly wasn't over her. A simple "thank you" or "it's ok" also didn't really sound appropriate to her ears, and she found herself in a rare moment of complete, uncomfortable, speechlessness. Whenever Mariabella, Mother, or even Majic had been sad or hurt, Cleao had always known something to say to help lift their spirits, but she was thrown completely off guard by this open display of emotion from the sorcerer.
Orphen's arms began to unwrap themselves from around her torso, and his hands rested lightly on her shoulders before she felt his fingers press lightly against her bare skin, beginning to turn her torso around. Her chest was pressed firmly against his, and his arms locked in place once more behind her back, holding her tightly against him. Stunned for a brief second, she could feel his heart beating against hers, and his body faintly shaking. Cleao slowly raised heavy arms, and paused once before resting her palms lightly on his back. She felt him bury his head into her shoulder and the faint wetness his tears produced there, and relaxed more into his embrace. Cradling the back of his head with one hand, she rocked him slowly back and forth on the wet ground, wishing with all her heart she knew what to say.
Sorry, this one isn't quite as well written – I don't do too well writing over such an extended period of time, and on the amount of holiday alcohol I consumed. Ahem, anyway, hopefully ch. 4 will be out by the end of January. I'm trying to at least get a chapter done a month, if not more…we shall see. The entire thing is outlined now so it's only a matter of time of sitting down and pounding it out on the old keyboard. Thanks to those who have read and reviewed so far, you guys are great!