Basta

Chapter 3

He wished he could stop stuttering. He felt foolish and… sweaty? Why was he sweating? Basta tried to smile at the girl in front of him, though it turned into to something more like a strained grimace.

"B-Basta" He almost gasped it out, he couldn't seem to breathe properly

"Basta? That… sounds like some sort of spice" Roxanne giggled, and Basta's face turned redder. She was making fun of his name? Could this day get any worse? Roxanne however seemed to notice the sudden droop of his head and the almost angry frown that sneaked its way across Basta's face.

"Oh no" She gasped it out, hands flying to cover her mouth "No no no I didn't mean… Listen, I didn't mean it like that. It's a nice name. I like it! Really." She said this all rather quickly and Basta was hardly listening for that voice that sounded so much like Sir's was filling his still blushing red ears. That voice and the rushing of his own blood was all he could hear. He longed to just run like he had from Dustfinger. Like he often did from Sir when he was very drunk. Like he had when his mother died…

Flashback

Sir had been in a very bad mood that morning. He would probably be slobbering drunk when he returned that night… if he returned. But this didn't trouble the little boy laying on the floor in front of the fire place as the smooth voice of the woman in the armchair behind him spun out a detailed story about a young prince in a far away land. He toyed gently with a knife he'd been given for his last birthday, awkwardly trying to carve the wood block in his hand into something else. All he had to show for his efforts was a set of cut up fingers and a poorly slashed piece of wood. The boy growled and chucked the block into the fire, returning his full attention to the story his mother was telling.

"And then the young prince, who was quite handsome, ran forward into the magician's lair."

"Mom? Why did the prince do that?" The young Basta mumbled as he pulled himself up onto his mothers lap.

"Do what darling?" She smiled down at him brushing the hair back off his forehead.

"Why'd he go to fight the magi-acian?" Basta reached up to play with his mother's good luck necklace, fiddling with all the different charms. A horse shoe, a clover. A little silver salt shaker.

"Magician, honey. He had to fight the magician so he could save the princess." Her voice reminded him of a steam, smooth and flowing with a claming sort of ability.

"Oh…" Basta nodded, brown mop-like hair flopping around his ears.

He liked these times best. When it was just the two of them… alone… happy…

But Sir always ruined everything. He was loud and smelly and so very drunk as he staggered in. Basta often wondered why his beautiful mother had married… that. His parents always fought. And his mom always came out of the fights the worse off. During the fights, Basta would sit and clutch his little carving knife angrily but knowing better than to interfere. The fist and only time he had tried to stand up for his mother, was the first and only time she had yelled at him. She wouldn't see him hurt she had yelled… and cried.

Basta knew Sir didn't love or even care for anyone but himself. He knew it with every bone in his body as yet another fight began.

But this one was different. Louder and louder it grew until with a loud SMACK! It seemed to break.

Can noise break? Basta remembered thinking before he looked up to see his father's arm out stretched and his mother, his beautiful mother, on the floor with a large ugly red hand print across her cheek.

And Basta saw red.

The rest was a blur. Yelling? A knife? Blood? Alcohol? The fireplace? Fire? The house? His mom…trapped? Ashes.

End Flashback

"Look, please! I'm sorry." Roxanne was touching his arm, looking up at him. He hadn't realized he was taller than her. "Let me buy you lunch to make up, okay?" Before he knew what was happening, she had dragged him off to a little stall and bought enough food for the two of them.

"You okay? You must really have a thing for your name, huh?" Roxanne nudged his shoulder effectively bringing him out of his memories… That had been their last night together…

"…Yeah, yeah I'm alright… I uh…"

"Its okay. Everyone has their own little quirks." She smiled again.

That smile. It was all Basta could think about as he lay in better that night. After lunch they had wandered, talking, for quite sometime. Basta smiled as he remembered this, she had completely forgotten that Dustfinger boy. He knew she was the same girl Dustfinger had told him about; because of the small curse that had slipped through her lips when the two had parted was when it began to get dark. She had muttered about missing, forgetting, and lunch as she walked away from Basta, only to turn back and smile. Smile at him, Basta, and ask if he'd like to meet her again sometime. That had shut the voice in his head up! And of course he agreed. They would go for a walk, next week. She needed to gather some berries for dyeing new skirt and he would go with her, if only to see her smile.

Author's note: Ooooo angst… Umm I'm not sure this chapter works… I was rereading some of the previous ones and I realized I'd left some key details out. But hopefully it works and… You didn't see anything (Waves arms) He he… I love the penguins from Madagascar!