Here's Chapter Two. I hope you all enjoy it.
Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny belongs to their respective owners.
02 - Names
The cold chill of night swept through the cracks and tiny slit of this wooden shack, brushing the flames in a direction while devouring the fresh air to add to itself. I felt my anger welling up inside of me as I recalled the love of my life's blood on my hands and the grinning expression her murderer had on his smug face. I closed my eyes and clenched my fist tightly together hoping to erase the scene, the memory, the despair, everything.
The girl before me could sense my sudden growth of hostility and she tried at times to find a response but in the end there was nothing she could say that could persuade me. I found renewed strength and stood upon my quivering feet and attempted to vacate this temporary refuge. This time I was not met with any resistance, I took a small step at first testing my endurance and when I realized that aside from that nauseating feeling of dizziness and the lack of feeling in most of my body, I was still able to command it. Feeling confident in my abilities I headed for the door, each step took more and more away from me than I had thought and before I could even make it across the room my weakened state had caught up to me and I collapsed on the floor. I began to breathe heavily struggling for air, and sweat trailed down the side of my face. The heat from the small fire kept my upper half warm while my other half seemed to have become an icy barren. I could hear her scrambling about trying to help and then I faded off, a part of me wishing to never wake up.
My wish was unfulfilled and I awoke yet again in a pool of my own sweat, I laid there staring at the ceiling, my mind still obsessed with the thought of revenge. I raised my right hand towards the ceiling and stretched it open trying to grasp some sort of hope. Just then the young girl entered and took quick notice at my weird behaviour.
"… Are you thirsty?" she deduced. I shook my head slightly signaling a 'no'.
"I'm glad you're awake…again" she giggled at her small joke. It was obvious she was trying to lighten the mood, but in all fairness I didn't give a shit about the mood. There was a long session of crippling silence afterwards, it didn't really bother me, but to her it must have been suffocating as she twiddled around with random trinkets around the area but not really doing anything with them.
"Thank… you…" I muttered. She quickly turned to me and rushed to my side and knelt down, "Huuuuuuh? What did you say?" She teased. I ignored her, I refuse to repeat it again. She smiled at my shyness, although personally I wouldn't call it that. She bent down and whispered into my ear "You're welcome". She got back up and went to the fire to start preparing breakfast.
I sat up a bit later after being teased so long by the sweet aroma of the dish she was preparing and noticed almost immediately fresh bandages around my chest. I slid my hand across it and noticed that it was applied quite well, but a question still lingered in my head 'how is it possible to have recovered so swiftly'. I placed my hands back to the side of me and my right hand met with the lump on the floor, I turned my head to look at it and noticed it was my sword. She must have placed it there when I was still in my deep sleep. It was without a doubt mine. The sheath was pitch black with the base covered with a semi-dark silvery metallic layer, and the handle was mimicked after dragon scales and at the very top was that of a dragon's skull. Its head faced to the side with its jaws open. I picked it up and examined it further by pulling it out to look at the blade itself. It exhibited excellent craftsmanship if not the best, the balance was perfect and the blade was unscathed.
"Don't misunderstand me…" she said directing my attention away from my sword. "… I didn't return it to you for the sake of revenge, I believe that deep down you are a person of justice, and you will never sway from the righteous path you have laid before you. I believe…"
"How do you know that it isn't I who am the villain?" I said.
"I don't, but I have a good intuition about this sort of stuff, and this time it's saying you're a good person." She poured some of her soup into a small bowl and handed it to me, as expected the smell was only matched with the taste. It was delicious. She took a seat in front of me, and I could sense her curiosity, and as expected she asked "What's you name?"
"Isn't it customary to give your name before asking another's?" I replied. She tapped her bottom lip and looked up for a bit thinking and then she announced "My name is Cagalli Yula Zala"
I was overcome with shock, my mouth hung open and my bowl almost slipped out of my hand. "Did you just say… Zala?" She nodded. "You're married to… Athrun Zala…?"
"Yup" she grinned, "Do you know him?"
I looked down to the floorboards gently slid my fingers across the base of the bowl and answered "Yea, he was my teacher and my friend; I haven't seen him for years now. It relieves me to know that he is safe and well, and has started a new life. Truly it must be fate for me have to met you."
"Wait a minute… Where exactly are you from?" Cagalli questioned, Athrun never talked much of his past, and she never bothered to go into much depth.
"I'm from the country of Orb"
"The country which was mysteriously destroyed five years ago?"
'Mysterious?' I thought. Not really, well at least not to me, but at the moment I didn't want to dwell on the details "Yea…" I replied simply
"Was your wife killed the same day your country burned to the ground?"
It was a difficult subject for me and I found great difficulty in returning a response, so I gave a slight nod instead.
"At any rate" I began, swiftly trying to change the subject "is Athrun around?"
She was about to respond when the door abruptly opened and a man entirely out of breath appeared. He had a poor appearance and his sword in his hand was no better, it was dull and cracked in many different areas, blood streamed from his forehead and various other places as he used one free hand to clench tightly to an open wound from his chest. Cagalli wasted no time and jumped to the aid of the visitor. He shortly fell to his knees, and moaned as the pain continued to plague his body.
"Quick… the village… bandits…flee…" he explained before completely fainting and collapsing on the dirt floor.
"Heh, interesting…. My sword was just hungering for some blood and fate delivered it such an accommodating meal." I grinned and rose to my feet as I began to exit out the door, the pain was practically gone, I felt little to no pain, it was truly uncanny how I was able to recover so quickly. I did however have my suspicions as to the cause. I tucked my sword beside me and placed my right hand on the frame of the door, looking back towards Cagalli "Take care of him… like what you did to me"
"I was going to even without you telling me" she yelled "and where the hell do you think you're going? You're not in a condition to go out there and fight"
"In thanks for your help I shall rid your village of these annoying pests" and with that said I rushed out.
The village wasn't hard to find I just had to look for where the smoke was rising from. Cagalli's house was atop a hill just a bit out of the village's territory it took me no more than a minute through a mild forest to reach my destination.
The scene that lay before me was a horrendous one, the smell of burning flesh and the cries for help echoed in my ears. Corpses littered the floor and blood smears painted the homes a dark red. It reminded me of the event from five years ago. I gripped tightly to the handle of my sword and rushed towards the centre of town where the sounds of new screams roared.
A party of eight rode on horseback their heads high in the air as they smirked at the carnage they unleashed. When they saw me their grins only grew as they noticed I was carrying a sword.
"Hahahaha. Look! A farmer dares stand before us!" the rider in the front yelled. The rest of them joined him in a hearty laugh, then he picked up an arrow from his quiver attached to his horse and strung it in his bow. He took aim at me then released it, the arrow flew past me just barely grazing me, it left a small cut along the side of my face and a small trace of blood followed.
"He's so afraid he couldn't even move!" he laughed once again. Afterwards he aimed yet another arrow at me. "Sayonara" he said before releasing his grip. Once again the arrow flew towards me but this time I turned to my side and as the arrow was about to past me, I caught it with my hand. I turned to my left and when I was facing them again I released the arrow and shot it back at my assaulter. The arrow whizzed through the air and bypassed his helmet and pierced his eye. He began to scream in pain but I wasted no time and continued on my relentless strike. I disappeared from them making them gasp in disbelief and reappeared on top of his horse. Quickly drawing my sword out I used the back of the hilt to push the arrow in further then I lowered my sword and as I brought the blade out I decapitated him in a split second. His head bounced a few times before rolling to a stop on the dirt floor. His body lost its strength and just fell from the saddle.
"Run, and I'll spare your lives" I said while jumping down from the horse, and sheathing my sword in the air. "Or are you too scared to move?" I taunted. The remaining seven gritted their teeth in anger and charged viciously at me. I smirked, just the answer I wanted. It wouldn't be fun if they just ran off like a pack of beaten dogs, this way, my sword – muramasa would be able to quench its thirst for blood.
I quickly analyzed the situation; there were two who remained in the back, no doubt their marksmanship portion of their little raid, three were using swords, two with shields and the last one had two swords. The remaining two bandits charged at me with spears and were leading the group's attack. There was just one problem with their attack – they were in a straight line. I grinned evilly as I lower my stance, and I tucked my head keeping one foot in front of the other while the other extended further to the back.
"Crescent Moon!" I yelled and quickly unleashed my sword from my sheath. The ground trembled and then a suddenly slice in the ground appeared and quickly approached the bandits slicing anything in its path. They didn't know what was approaching them but they did know that whatever it was it wasn't good. Once it collided with them it tore off limbs instantly and left a huge crater in the ground.
The two in the back were lucky enough to just be out of my range. The remaining five were either dead or knocking on hell's gates. One of them had the unfortunate privilege of being sliced in half. I calmly walked up to the remaining pair as they huddled together in fear.
"Your skills are much like a bandit's but your armaments are not" I said as I slowly closed in on their position.
"If you believe us to be those foul miscreants who sell out our masters on a whim you are greatly mistaken and…" Before he could finish his sentence I guillotined his head it was only a few seconds later before it began to slide down until it fell to the floor and left the rest of his body motionless. Turning my eye on the last survivor, I stopped down and looked into his eyes; his crying whimpers were annoying and if I didn't want to extract information from him he would already be dead. I grabbed onto a piece of loose clothing around his neck and lifted him to his feet.
"Tell me what I want to know, or you'll end up like him, and you best be quick, I have little patience"
"Alright! Alright!" he yelled trembling "It was… ZAFT, they sent us!"
"ZAFT… eh?" I grinned. I threw the man a few feet away from me.
He crawled backwards a bit trying to see if he was truly being set free. "Just who the hell are you!?" He screamed as he scurried back further and further. I turned and looked at him with an evil glare in my eyes, a wide grin appeared on my face and I grabbed onto the man once again. I pulled him right in front of me and whispered evilly "Go! Go back to where you came and tell them 'Kira Yamato is coming for their heads'".
My first fic that includes action, it's very... difficult to do to say the least, even if you picture it out so clearly in your head it's extremely difficult to put into words. And then there is always that nagging feeling in the back of your head, "Does the reader see it the way I do? and if not how can I adjust it?"
And finally sorry for long update. I'm sure if I were in public I would be pelted with rotten tomatoes. Lucky for me... I need the food so start tossing!