Rufus patted Artemis's broad shoulder. The silver mare whickered and stepped delicately through the masses of unfamiliar faces with an anxious, tensed gait, her ears laid flat on her skull, her movements quick and jerky. But the presence and the scent of her master was there, the feisty little boy that had grown up into a tall, lean adolescent as she had grown from a hobbling little foal to a fully-fledged jousting horse. She breathed in the comforting, ever-so-familiar scent of his favorite white roses and slowly relaxed.
He took an unexpected sharp turn, and Artemis obediently trotted behind him. The crowds pressed in on them again, and the pretty silver horse gave an irritable twitch.
"Shh," Rufus murmured, conspicuous pools of celadon peeking once out from under the dark hood, "I promise that we're almost there."
They continued to pick their precarious way through the crowds, weaving back and forth as they tried to conceal Artemis's clear noble descent and avoid the curious stares that followed them wherever they went.
Finally, at the edge of The Edge, horse and master stood before a thick, dark green forest inked with splotches of deep black shadow. Rufus sighed and flopped in a very un-noble manner on the long grass, and Artemis pricked her ears up at his queer behavior.
"How annoying. She's late again," he said resignedly, staring at the deep woods.
"I am not late!" answered an indignant female voice from the woods, "You were just early."
A huge white form materialized from the gloom, larger than any horse that had ever been bred in all of Gaia. Rufus gave a disbelieving laugh and stood to greet the massive silhouette.
"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to show up," he snickered.
A great white wolf padded softly out of the woods with Alex sitting atop his back. Two other, smaller white wolves followed, their ears and eyes flicking back and forth restlessly. Rufus stiffened and instinctively reached for the katana at his side, but managed a grudging nod to show he honored their presence. The wolves gave amused glances to one another before lowering their great heads in respect of the Prince.
Strangely enough, Artemis did not panic as Rufus expected. She calmly regarded Alex's unusual companions with a slight cock of her head and gave a friendly whicker in greeting.
"Your horse is clever, I'll grant you that, young Prince," a rumbling masculine voice resonated from deep in the largest wolf's chest, his black lips moving awkwardly to shape the strange words of human speech, "You don't find beasts like her everywhere; keep her healthy and happy and she may share some of that extraordinary intelligence with you."
"I'll take care to keep that in mind, Riku," Rufus replied politely.
The smaller wolf with unusually bright golden eyes flecked with darker amber dots to the left of Riku yawned and snapped halfheartedly at a yellow butterfly flitting past his nose.
"Hello, Princey," he yipped in a much less regal, more childish tone than Riku's, his tail wagging in a loose curve, "It's good to see you again."
"The pleasure is mine, Rex," Rufus answered, a shadow of a smile curling his lip.
"Don't humor his fantasies that his name is Rex," Alex chided, "He insists that the rest of the animals can't pronounce 'Kohaku'."
"They can't!" he whined plaintively, "Even they call me 'Haku'!"
"Well, then, you shouldn't have been born with those handsome golden eyes," Alex snorted, "It's your own fault that you had to be born into a family with a mother that had amber eyes."
Kohaku-Haku-Rex-expialidocious snuffled indignantly and sat down hard.
"Oh yeah, that's real mature," Alex teased sarcastically, "Huffing and puffing like you're gonna blow the house down and then sitting down because you know that Riku would eat you alive and wriggling if you messed up his fur again."
"Hey, don't pick on the little guy," Rufus said playfully.
"Oh, now he's the little guy?" the last wolf said in a distinctly feminine tone, her fiery evergreen eyes feigning anger, "What about me? The one that's named after a little lily?"
"Don't get dramatic, Sayuri," Alex retorted, "You actually are pretty small for your age."
Rufus disguised his laugh as a cough as he studied Sayuri's massive proportions.
"Th-that's little where you come from?" Rufus coughed, hiding his smile behind his hand, "I'd hate to see the big ones."
"You'd be surprised how gigantic some of the Ryuuko can get," Alex mused, leaping off of Riku's broad back and sitting on the grass, "But enough of that. I promised those two that they could go play after they escorted Riku and me here."
Alex waved them off with a careless flick of her hand and the two huge wolves went bounding off into the forest, swifter and more silently than their size suggested was possible. Riku collapsed his long legs in the grass next to Alex and gave a huge yawn, displaying his long, oddly pink tongue and razor white teeth.
"I would hate to be your enemy," Rufus commented, raising his eyebrows at as he settled next to Alex, "They're loyal, powerful friends to have."
"Still, they're just kids," Alex frowned, "They don't comprehend the full meaning of what they are bound to do for the rest of their rather lengthy lives like Riku does."
Riku's eye involuntarily twitched as his old battle scar, now barely visible, momentarily burned across the side of his skull. Although now it was just a hair-thin white line streaking from his right ear to the base of his muzzle, he would never forget the time that he almost lost his eye to the lucky swipe of a rebel's katana blade.
"Was that scary at all? Seeing one of your pack go down like that?" Rufus asked Alex suddenly, lost in his own thought.
"Is that even a question?" she answered disbelievingly, "Of course it was! Haven't you ever panicked when a family member gets a wound that starts to bleed?"
"Not really," Rufus slowly responded after a while of silence, "As incredibly cliché as it sounds, I never really see eye to eye with my mother and with my father…but we all know that."
"You who has everything," she mused thoughtfully after a long silence, "and yet has nothing."
"I suppose, until I met Riku and you on that old dusty road that Tseng told me never to walk on," he grinned, reminiscing, "Our little encounter added a little spice to my day. Remind me, what kind of wound did I have that freaked you out so much?"
"You had an arrow through the shoulder, do you not remember?" she said disbelievingly, "It was a black one, with a barbed silver point fletched with white swan type feathers like the ones Sephiroth uses."
A dark frown momentarily flitted across her face, unnoticed by Rufus.
"Oh, now I remember," he continued, "And it was raining and I was freezing and that annoying arrow had some type of paralysis poison dipped on it- and then you showed up."
"And you nearly scared Riku, which is something that you don't want to see," Alex interrupted, "When he's actually scared, he's quite a force to deal with."
"Somehow I don't doubt that at all," Rufus muttered, looking at the Riku's huge, two-and-a-half foot long skull.
"Your father gave me this evil look when I managed to return you to the palace," Alex noted, "and then I got angry at him because it took me absolutely forever to heal that cut and then make you stay awake long enough to give me some answers. He's got a terrible sense of humility."
"Well, that's not much of a surprise, seeing how he can be," Rufus yawned, relaxing on the luxuriously soft and springy long grass.
To both of their surprise, Kohaku and Sayuri suddenly appeared before them again, panting lightly, eyes ablaze with energy.
"There's something in the woods," Sayuri reported, bristling, "I think that it's human, but it smells funny, like it's a crossbreed."
"I forgot to tell them that," Alex yelped, rising quickly to her feet, "I remember, I was supposed to report to them!"
The long-suffering Riku shook out his long silver fur as he stood, casting a halo of dying sunlight across the grass. The sun barely poked from over the horizon now, painting its bright exit in thick brushstrokes on the sky. Alex clambered quickly onto Riku's back.
"We'll have to talk later, there's something in the woods that's bothering me and my pack," she said apologetically, "But I'll give you something to remember me by."
She drew out a silver chain and threw it to Rufus, who caught it and held it up to the rapidly fading light. A small pendant shaped in the form of an Eastern dragon curled around the end of the chain, with two miniscule sapphires for eyes.
"It reminds me of you, don't you agree?" Alex grinned, "Take care of yourself, keep in touch, and watch for my hawks!"
Riku took off, with the two smaller wolves tailing him closely. Artemis calmly trotted over to Rufus and nudged him with her nose.
"Yeah, yeah, alright, I gotcha," he sighed, mounting the horse and pulling his hood back over his head, "We're going home."
By the time the sun had disappeared and the stars had begun to shine, Alex had spread the warning to stay out of the woods and Rufus and Artemis were safely back at camp, getting scolded by Tseng and Elena due to his tardiness.
But something else was just starting to rise.
Jet-black spikes jutted from the muzzle, neck, back, and legs of the silent shadow wolf. Its blank, pupil-less white eyes glowed in the deepening shadows in the forest, and its insubstantial edges wavered like a mirage in the dying sun. Tongues of dark energy licked at the air, curling eagerly away from the wolf's body and further distorting the its outline.
Its disturbing white eyes watched the two humans leave the field, and a deep, inhuman chuckle rolled out into the air from its chest.
The fun was about to begin.
Kadaj glared angrily at the nearest librarian, daring her to say something about a "young'un" like him sitting and reading the thick book of noble bloodlines.
…She had to be at least eighty years old.
"Hello, dear," she nodded in a fragile, cheerful voice, "Are you finding everything alright?"
"Yeah, yeah," Kadaj snapped dismissively, turning his gaze back to the dusty parchment in the book. Gainsborough, Highwind, Lockheart, Shinra, Valentine, Wallace…
"Valentine…" Kadaj murmured, flipping quickly to the indicated page. At the top of the yellowing paper was stamped the intricate red rose and black thorns of the Valentine family, and listed below was a detailed map of their family tree.
Kadaj let out a low whistle at the vast, complex diagram laid out on the page.
"Big family much?" he said, tracing each tiny black name with his finger.
Before long his mind had wandered off, and he realized that he hadn't been paying attention to what name he was reading, or what he was looking for. With a moan, Kadaj smacked his head on the book.
"I am sooo going to have a migraine when I'm done finding Coryn," Kadaj thought grimly, squinting to read a blurred inkblot of a name.
Cloud stared up at the stars and the round face of the moon from the hayloft, trying futilely to go to sleep. The excitement coursing through his veins refused to let him fall asleep and yet knew that he risked getting killed if he woke up any of this peacefully slumbering friends. Painfully. Probably torn limb from limb.
Cloud winced at the thought.
Sighing, Cloud propped himself up on a bag of straw and surveyed the other three. Reno snored loudly atop a bale stack on the other end of the hayloft, wispy stalks of hay entwined in his tousled red hair. Yuffie slept at the base of the bale stack that Reno had clambered on top of, coiled in a roughly crafted nest. Zack lay on his side four or five feet away from Cloud on another thick layer of hay, half-curled, his hand resting protectively on the leather-wrapped hilt of Buster Blade.
All four of them were lying out under the open-roofed part of the hayloft, and the full moon softly highlighted the entire world in its glowing white light. Cloud turned his gaze again to the black tapestry of sky, wondering if Lady Lockheart was also enjoying the view from wherever she was camped…
The silent black wolf stalked the deserted roads under the light of the full moon, moving wraithlike towards the gated and barred entrance to The Edge. The velvety pads on its paws hushed its procession, and it ghosted straight through the steel hurdles as if they were not there, unseen and unheard by the animatedly chattering guards. Its frame solidified as it began to approach the nobles' encampment, and a deep purr of satisfaction rolled in its chest as it spotted the highest-flying banner of the silver dragon.
As it continued its soldierly march into the predominantly white, black, and silver tents of the Shinra, its edges blurred and faded again, blending into the darkness around it. The sharp-witted guards guarding the Shinras' camp felt an inexplicable uneasiness fall over them as the phantom wolf swirled past, but even the most watchful of them were incapable of perceiving the living shadow that walked amongst them. The wolf passed them without incident and the guards uncomfortably exchanged looks and shivered before reluctantly returning their gaze to their gate.
The wolf looked once over its shoulder to make sure the guards had not noticed its presence, blank white eyes scanning their souls. The disturbed purple faded from the guards' simple white souls, and the wolf turned its muzzle back to its search when the last tinge of lavender had vanished from the orbs of light.
The wolf inhaled deeply through its nose, tasting the air for the unmistakable scent of its prey…white roses. It soon picked up the scent and let out a low growl of pleasure as it slithered through the tents towards one soul orb that flicked rapidly from one color to the next, bearing the distinct fragrance of roses…
It stopped behind the tent, observing the prey's surroundings. Two other orbs stood guard around the target, steadier and less volatile than the prey. The wolf dismissed the other two souls as just another set of guards and crept closer, its insubstantial paws barely brushing the silver-trimmed black material of the tent. The wolf leaned in closer to the tent, hungrily staring at the souls within. It was so close to the prey, it could almost taste it in the air…
Tseng's expression went from relaxed to alert in less than two seconds. Something lurked just beyond the invisible net he had set up around the tent, gently tickling the slender strings of spun spiritual energy. Elena and Rufus, who had been heatedly debating the most efficient form of assassination, didn't notice Tseng's sudden tension until he waved his hand in a motion that ordered absolute quiet…
The wolf burst the delicate membrane of energy threads woven around the tent and realized just a moment too late that it had tripped an alarm. To its great surprise the two other souls and the prey all stared at it as it pushed its head through the cloth of the tent as if the thick canvas weren't there. How was it possible that humans could see through the invisibility charm? Well, no matter, it would still be able to satisfy its hunger all the same…
Elena immediately tackled Rufus as the wolf reared back its head, sending both herself and Rufus flying a good five feet. But the wolf was quick; its fanged maw still managed to catch the edge of Elena's booted foot as they completed their flight through the air. She let out a gasp of pain and surprise as its teeth raked her foot. Her hand instinctively jerked to grasp the wound- but, to her surprise, there were no jagged gashes.
In fact, the boot wasn't even ripped.
The boot's leather surface glinted dully up at her in the lamplight, untouched by the wolf's serrated teeth- but the pain was definitely there, pulsing in time with her heart.
Elena's amazed stare met Tseng's bewildered eyes as he grimaced and clutched at his right arm. What was this…thing?…
But there was no time to spend pondering on what this wolf-like creature was. The wolf instantly caught itself, mid-snap, and wheeled its huge body around to single-mindedly redirect at Rufus. Elena and Tseng realized that as fast as they may be, the wolf was faster, and heading straight towards the Prince…
"Sir Coryn…Sir Coryn…CORYN VALENTINE!"
A large bale of slightly damp hay landed heavily on Cloud's chest. Spluttering and gasping breathlessly for air, he glanced around for the culprit. His eyes narrowed as he searched the dark for Yuffie's nesting spot.
"Yuff-," he began to growl angrily.
"Hush, Sir Valentine," a different, feminine voice huffed crossly, "I suggest that you do not awaken your friends, or this will get considerably more complicated."
Cloud cautiously stared up at a pair of familiar, oddly luminous amethyst irises rimming deep inky pupils.
"ALEX??" he hissed disbelievingly, sitting up abruptly, "What are YOU doing here, you insane…wolf-girl??"
Alex- for of course it was she- rolled her cat-like, glowing eyes.
"Yeah, well, Spiky, last time I checked, officially we BOTH owned this barn," Alex retorted dryly, flicking her hand between the two of them, "You and me, you know?"
Cloud grudgingly assented and straightened his back completely, rubbing his eyes and squinting at Alex through the drowsy haze.
"So, what're you actually 'ere foh?" Cloud yawned widely, stretching.
"The malicious entity that Riku picked up earlier today just showed up again. It's…a lot stronger than the first time that he sensed it- it's really close," she informed quickly, standing up with a slight rustle of cloth, "It should have been easy for me to eliminate with my companions, but Riku and Sayuri had other business to attend to. So…"
Her eyes settled on Cloud.
"You are coming with me to vanquish the creature," she completed simply, holding out a helping hand. Cloud blinked once at her and sighed before reluctantly taking her hand.
"I guess I could help…I was having trouble falling asleep, anyway…," he yawned again, ruffling his wildly spiky blonde hair, "So, where are we to now?"
"Follow me."
And she turned and leapt…straight out of the barn roof.
Cloud muffled a yelp and rushed over to the edge of the open roof. Sure enough, there was an irritated-looking Alex glaring up at him from all fours on the ground, motioning for him to come down.
"See, thing is, Alex, not everybody possesses creepy cat-like reflexes like you do, and so I will have to take the boring, NORMAL way down," Cloud stage-whispered loudly and obnoxiously enough that Reno stirred from his haphazard position in the hay.
She dismissively waved her hand at him and straightened up as he began to clamber as quietly as he could down the ladder leading to the hayloft. He crept out of the stable, hushing Arwyn's greeting neigh as he creaked the huge door open and shut it again.
"You," Alex growled irately, poking him in the chest with her finger as he emerged from the darkness, "are exceedingly noisy. Maybe I should just strap jingle bells to my shoes next time."
"Oh, give it a rest. You were the one to call me, were you not?" Cloud countered cheerfully, stretching. Alex huffed in a very unprofessional manner and stalked off with Cloud tagging along close behind.
Ten minutes later, Cloud and Alex were crouched behind one of the few, stubborn shrubs that grew in the nobles' camping ground. Alex scanned the grounds and guards carefully before turning to Cloud.
"Okay, it looks like we have around twelve guards protecting the territory. I should be able to get past them as long as you stay really, really close," she whispered, eyes focused on the gates.
"Why again are we sneaking into the most fortified one…?" Cloud asked, staring bewilderedly at the well-armed, stern-faced sentries.
"Because that's where the demon is," Alex quipped smartly, crouching low to gather her energy.
"Oh, oka- wait, what? Did you just say demon?" Cloud hissed, tapping her shoulder. Alex smacked him with one hand and became perfectly still. He growled and shuffled over, trying to see what Alex was staring at so intensely.
"Great, now what are we doin-"
Cloud felt Alex snatch his hand and a sudden rush of air before the world swirled quickly back into focus. He doubled over woozily, trying to suppress a sudden, inexplicable queasiness.
"Ughh," he moaned, rolling onto his side, "That did not feel good…"
"Stop mumbling, it's useless and hard to understand," Alex reprimanded primly, smirking at his discomfort.
"Evil…heartless…touchy wolf-girl," he muttered to himself as Alex scanned their surroundings, "What did you just do?"
"Okay, so the demon is…heading towards the north," she said, completely ignoring Cloud's question and starting down the grassy campground. Cloud remained sprawled on the grass, unwilling to get up.
And then her expression shifted from amused exasperation to sudden panic.
Alex went hurtling down the rows of tents quickly enough that the flaps of canvas whipped and strained against the ropes that held them. Dismayed yelps of annoyance and irritated orders barked to servants immediately followed.
Cloud froze and swallowed audibly in abrupt fear.
If they found him here, creeping stealthily amongst the nobles' tents, they would certainly be suspicious and begin an investigation…and an investigation meant that they would prod his past…and if they found out he wasn't the noble Coryn Valentine, but merely the lowly commoner Cloud Strife, then…
Cloud went dashing hastily after her, cursing hotly at the loud jangling that his weapons made and at Alex's rash decision.
"What was that?"
Sephiroth cocked his head up from cleaning the polished blade of his sword as a sudden gale tore momentarily at the pegs that held the gray and green canvas to the ground and subsided as quickly as it had arisen. Yazoo looked up in moderate interest, unusual cat-pupiled eyes flickering to the outside camp where a chorus of complaints was already building.
"Shall I go check it, Masamune-sama?" he asked in a toneless, bored voice that matched his indifferent visage and unruffled eyes, one hand already on the scabbard of his slender katana.
"Do so. I have a feeling that an uninvited guest has paid a rather unexpected visit…" Sephiroth ordered, his gaze still fixed on the shadows flickering outside, "We cannot afford to have the plan interrupted now."
"Hai."
Yazoo left the tent, respectfully bowing his head as he exited.
Sephiroth was left mulling over his gleaming katana, brow slightly wrinkled, lips turned down in a vague frown.
"Strange…I swear that I saw…" he began slowly, examining the flawless silver metal for nonexistent defects, "Or perhaps not…"
But the thought that the mysterious wind had been accompanied by one of the Ryuuko's uniquely different energy imprint never left his mind.
This is it. I'm going to die.
Rufus was stunned at how incredibly easily and calmly that thought came to him, even as death leered as it closed in upon him. The rapidly approaching, gaping maw of jagged black shadow teeth radiated a cold, sick energy that nobody could stop. Not the guards. Not his poor, true mother that had already sacrificed enough for him and rested in a better place now. Not even Elena or Tseng, who had sworn with their extended lives to protect him from any and all danger and had even quietly begun to see him as a part of a small, dysfunctional, but true family.
Nobody.
And yet there was no fear, no resentment as the huge jaws descended upon him with a torturous, exaggerated slowness. Only serene happiness. It was the relieved breath that spectators release when the mother coddles the healthy infant close after a particularly difficult birth; it was the sigh of contentment of the priest who had suffered valiantly through this ugly world to help others and was now passing on to a better, brighter place.
And all he could think was that he would see his real mother again.
A small, calm smile spread on his face in contented closure, and his last thought hoped fleetingly that Tseng and Elena would move on and find somebody else to protect and cherish as their own.
…And then all was white. And it was good.
A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I've updated- but, really, I hope that you guys enjoy!! It took me FOREVER. And I think that it's longer than the rest, so…don't kill me! runs to hide in a bush
By the way, did anybody catch the play on words in that last sentence? Can anybody guess where this famous line came from? Kudos to the person who replies and tells me! ;D
Reviews make my inner muse's world go round!