Between the elvish and draconem was a hatred all could see,
A love between their people was a love that could not be,
The elf that should be dead now, was just barely hanging on,
For it held its kingdom's crown, should have held it all along.
Dracuni love is seldom found, but loyalty you'll find,
it really has no equal, greater love of any kind
Elven souls are bound by duty, trust and faith and love,
Grief will send them to their graves, and happiness above.
. 2 .~ Rigor Mortis ~. 2 .
"You what?" Renji roared, red spines bristling.
"Yes, yes, isn't it great? I can finally leave this place!" Ikkaku said excitedly, eager enough to go right now, even if it meant leaving his treasure horde behind and starting fresh. He didn't even care if this was dragon-like, to become a hermit and collect his spoils for no one but himself.
"No, no, no, go back, go back, what did you do to it? You said you mated with an elf?"
"Yes, I asked it and it agreed," Ikkaku said proudly, knowing that Renji was probably dying of jealousy. Renji put his head in his hands, sighing, sitting there in silence for a few minutes.
"You never listen to me, do you?" Renji asked flatly. Ikkaku cringed guiltily. Renji was always talking about elves non-stop, because no one else would listen to him except Ikkaku. That being said, Ikkaku still didn't know nearly as much about elves as Renji did – Renji had some sort of debt to the elven king and longed to overthrow him, and so had devoted his life to studying the race to get an advantage.
"Ugh, you stupid fool," Ikkaku frowned at Renji, not understanding what he was upset about. Maybe Renji had wanted the elf instead, and he'd swiped it away on accident. "How did it look when you left it?"
"It wasn't talking or moving anymore," he said with worry. "I think I hurt our egg."
"Your egg? What are you talking about, elves don't lay eggs, you stupid asshole! They're nothing like us!" Renji was truly stunned by Ikkaku's foolishness. Not only had he mated with an outsider, he had to choose one of their enemies, and without knowing the proper way to go about such a thing. Good gods, Ikkaku, shame and dragon fire upon you.
"Well what the hell do they lay then?!" Ikkaku shouted back at him, "What, does the elfling just come out without a shell?"
"YES, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!" Renji yelled in frustration, eyes red, rubies set around his cheeks glittering menacingly as he heated up. "You don't understand the first thing about elves, what the hell are you doing trying to mate with one? You're so stupid, Ikkaku, it was bleeding like that cause' you hurt it."
"I hurt the e- I hurt its little one?"
"No, you hurt it. You broke it. You're way too big to do that to an elf, you probably killed it!"
"What?! Oh no," he fretted, "Maybe I should go back and take care of it, I left it in the elven territory."
"Ugh, you big dope," Renji whined, shoving him down, not commenting on the fact that Ikkaku shouldn't even care; Dracuni were selfish, cruel beasts, and Renji was no exception. "Just sit down and listen so you can fix this stupid mess. It'll probably be dead by the time you get back there, and if not, it'll be really sick."
"I thought elves couldn't get sick," Ikkaku said glumly, imagining his poor little mate all alone in the woods, dying, because he'd been such a stupid fool.
"They don't, really… They're immortal, but they can die of grief… or sorrow, or battle. We're more physical creatures whilst they are more emotional," Renji explained, still extremely upset that Ikkaku had hurt one of the beings that he had admired and learned about for so long. "Their happiness is their livelihood, you hear em' singing an' shit all the time when we're out in the hills. They're always dancing and story telling and are never sad. Their happiness is their fucking livelihood. That's why if you rape em' like that, they die. It's the curse of their immortality." Ikkaku became more and more dismayed.
"When you live to be that old, you get a really deep sense of self-awareness, and you grow to be connected with the world - can you imagine what dreams and memories would be like if you've seen everything since the Sin War and beyond?" Ikkaku shook his head. "Just- Ugh! If something horribly devastating happens to someone like that, they are just destroyed! They lose their sense of self and their reason to live or something. They get so distraught that their soul just fucking leaves."
Ikkaku looked down at his feet, moping miserably, "Aw man… I wish I wouldn't have done that. I feel terrible."
"Elves only get sick if they're on the verge of death but have some sort of reason to live, like a child or a promise to a lover or an important duty or something like that."
"How do they get unsick?"
"I don't know," Renji said woefully, growling to himself in frustration. "Elves only fall in love once, and they're completely monogamous, and they do something called…. 'marrying', I think. Now that you've defiled it so, you'd better hope it doesn't have another lover, or it'll probably die."
"Should I go back and get it?"
"No," Renji moaned, peeking out of his cave, "Everyone's still pissed and looking for it. They're raising hell out there, probably going to burn the whole mountainside just because. We're leavin' ta' move tomorrow besides."
Ikkaku frowned miserably, tail swiping around on the stone floor in anxiety. He hadn't known. He really hadn't meant to hurt the poor little thing. What kind of big jerk was he? Just like a fucking dragon. He couldn't have turned into a bully like that, he just couldn't.
Renji advised that he go check on it, but not to bring it back to the camp, and that it was better off in the forest, where it drew its power.
When Ikkaku finally returned to the spot where he'd laid the elf, it was gone, and he tracked its scent for many miles before he found it strewn on a rocky hillside, spread-eagled in a field.
Its hair was cut short and it was dirty, wearing tattered rags, beaten up all over. Ikkaku began growling, sniffing all over Yumichika and the surrounding area. It smelled of elves, nasty elves, and it burned his nose.
He nudged Yumichika a few times, making a rumbling noise deep in his throat. Its soft skin was so cold and wet, causing Ikkaku to pull back in alarm as he realized that the elf was soaked in dirty water.
He began to whine pitifully, nudging at Yumichika, trying to wake it up by talking to him in dragon's language – it was extremely annoying to elves, so it would surely awaken it. Yumichika moved a little, limbs crooked like they were broken.
"Awaken," Ikkaku demanded weakly, still shoving at it to try to make it get up. Yumichika's eyes opened a little, bleary and distant, before they blinked a few times, drifting closed.
"Leave me," it whispered in all-speak.
"Who has harmed you," Ikkaku growled, baring his teeth, mouth ablaze with flame as he circled Yumichika menacingly, tail swiping. "I'll… I'll bite them," he snapped in rage.
"Don't… become angry," Yumichika said so softly that it was really scaring Ikkaku badly. "Don't… hurt the forest…" Ikkaku consciously calmed down, closing the hatch in his throat to keep from catching fire to the tall grass.
"I'm angry, someone hurt my mate," he raged through gritted fangs.
"Mates…" Yumichika smiled a little, eyes closing, face becoming wet with tired tears. "You are foolish," it whispered. "There is no egg," it tried to say, telling him that there wasn't a baby or a dragonling or whatever dracuni spawn. It told him that there wasn't any need for him to stay and protect it, because there weren't any progeny like Ikkaku had thought. "I am male, don't you understand, you silly dragon's filth…" it rasped, eyes sad and cold.
"I know there's no egg," Ikkaku said in disappointment, a little embarrassed that it hadn't occurred to him that elves had differentiated genders – they had all looked rather androgynous to him, so it just hadn't occurred to him. Despite this, he still stubbornly stuck to the fact that they had mated and were partnered now. "Renji says elves mate for life. You are my mate, and someone hurt you. I'll hurt them; I'll hurt them badly. They'd best stay away and not come back, or I'll hurt them."
Yumichika smiled sadly, still not moving from where it – no… from where he was lying broken, "You think I'm your mate? Your lifetime is the blink of an eye to me… You are like a child. What is a hundred years to the elven?"
"Who hurt you this way, Yumichika," Ikkaku asked angrily, growing almost panicked. Yumichika hadn't moved much, and his spirit felt pained. Was he sick? Was he dying? Was this how an elf's soul departed? "Was it bandits? Marauders?" Deep down, he knew, it was elves that had done this to Yumichika, but he didn't want to risk offending him by assuming it was true.
"No one hurt me," he whispered, "I just fell down a cliffside," he lied smoothly. "I'll be just fine. Elves are resilient… resilient… Worry not for me," Ikkaku blinked at its beautiful eyes which were a color he'd never even seen before. Resilient? Perhaps that had just been another misconception between their warring peoples. Yumichika had called his kind lustful after all.
Ikkaku hissed in frustration, sparks coming through his teeth as he circled around Yumichika a few more times, settling around him, curling him up in his tail like a nest.
"Leave me," Yumichika whispered, eyes closing in exhaustion. Ikkaku sniffed at his short hair, which was cut unevenly like someone had run a sword through all of it at once. Yumichika wept silently, tears slipping down onto Ikkaku's scaled fingers, to his dismay.
"You are leaking, don't cry so," he begged, trying to wrap his body around him, to try to warm him up.
Yumichika smiled one last time, lifting a finger to Ikkaku's cheek, running the back down along it, before falling back to the grass. "Leave me…" Yumichika said on his last breath, no longer responding once again, to Ikkaku's prods or pleading.
Ikkaku got up, broken little body under his arm, not knowing quite how to carry him. Renji had told him not to bring Yumichika back to the camp, but Ikkaku didn't feel quite right leaving him there. He should take him back to the forest, back to the woods, that's what he should do.
He didn't lay him on the ground this time, and put him up in a tree that would hold him securely enough that he wouldn't fall out. Maybe that would help the elf draw his power quicker, and it would keep predators away while it was too weak to cast a protective barrier.
"After tomorrow, I won't be able to come back, Yumichika," he said in a low tone, knowing that Yumichika couldn't hear. "My tribe is on the move, and I may not see you for awhile – but I will be faithful. I won't forget you, that is my promise. Stay safe and alive," he begged, before departing.
When he came back the next day, again, Yumichika was gone, but this time, there was no trace of where he'd been left behind, and Ikkaku was forced to accept that he had died because of what he'd done.
~ Mens Rea ~
Loyalty or courage in a serpent-creature vain
in hearts of stone and ice can never place a proper claim
Such a seldom practiced muscle is put through a dangered strain
But once it starts to pump and feel, it never stops again