+ Fallacy, a 100themes Challenge +
Sarehptar
Theme: 22, Mother Nature
Characters: Kharl, Rune
Pairing: None
Warnings: Science, "the moral of the story is"...
Need to Know Info: Human DNA differs from a Banana's DNA by only six percent. Did you know that? Kharl learned his flowers from Garfakcy... 'cause I said so?
Title Provider: Kaze no Hana (Mahou Tsukai)
かぜのはなよさあひらくのよさよならゆきたちよ
Flower in the Wind, Come Now, Open Up… Bid Good-bye to the Snow.
Kharl supposes that, in the end, it was really only an accident that he ran into the Water Dragon Knight that day. Some part of him wants to say it was fate, but there was really no other path to take, and no one else would have been so deep in the gardens. And the doctor ends up being the only one shocked—because the Faerie is deep in meditation and wouldn't have stirred had a demon begun terrorizing the castle and screeching at the top of its lungs. For a moment, Avis deliberates between walking on as if they'd never crossed paths, and stopping to observe the other creature. Curiosity wins, as always, and he settles himself on a flat rock to watch.
At first, it seems as there is nothing interesting about the pale blond, but the doctor's eyes adjust slowly, lilac spilling into blue like the crashing tide of an ocean. He can see the quiet flares of restrained energy, the soft aqua-green and white that belongs to Faeries uniquely; he can see the way the foliage nearest to the boy seems almost alive and shines with artificial life. He wonders briefly why the Knight doesn't sell himself more as a healer—with as many Faeries as there are currently residing in the Dragon castle, they could have quite a medical staff. Lykouleon is wasting his assets, the Alchemist decides, and looking at the soft smile on the Faerie Prince's face, he knows it is true. There's something almost sacrilegiously wrong about sending this boy into battle, demon within or not. Faeries and murder are two ideas that he doesn't want to juxtapose in his mind anymore.
When the boy begins to stir, Avis thinks about continuing on, but something makes him stay, and pale blue eyes open blearily and accidentally find his own.
"A-Ah, Rara-sensei?" There is an obvious note of discomfort in his voice that is only natural: it is not often that one wakes to being watched.
"Pardon me," the doctor offers his disarming smile, "I was on a walk, and I couldn't help but notice your magic. I'm just too curious for my own good." The Faerie smiles in return, suddenly as open and inviting as every member of his species.
"Are you interested in Faeries, Rara-sensei?" There is an undercurrent of sadness and anger following the words. The doctor chooses his answer carefully.
"I'm interested in all living creatures—I want to come to understand how so many sentient species: Dragons, Faeries, Humans and even Demons, can exist in this world and seem so completely different."
"What do you mean?" The Faerie straightens his legs with only a little wince.
"Well, take yourself for example. You were a Faerie long before you were a Dragon Knight, correct?" The boy's long blond hair falls around him has he nods in answer. "But now you could not say you're a full-blooded Faerie or a full-blooded Dragon. Even though you probably don't think about it often, accepting Dragon magic means accepting Dragon blood, and the chemical composition of the blood you bear by birthright is not the same as the blood you inherited when you awoke Kahaku." The Faerie nods again slowly, taking in each word with deliberation.
"Still, the two bloods can easily be mixed—did you know that Dragons and Faeries only differ in base DNA by around two percent? That fact is also true for Humans and Dragons, though there is a slightly larger gap. In both yourself and the Earth Knight, the two sets of genetic code were simply assimilated. Isn't it intriguing that creatures as seemingly different as Humans and Dragons are, at their very simplest, the same?"
The Faerie stares at him for a long moment, and then, in a voice that is half unsure and half curious, he murmurs, "Rara-sensei, you didn't mention Youkai at all." Avis wonders if his false blue eyes are narrowed in frustration, or cold with indifference.
"Because Youkai do not fit that pattern. Unlike Faeries or Humans, the last percentages of Demon and Dragon DNA are almost complete opposites. In truth," the Alchemist waves a general hand at a fountain full of fluttering, yellow birds, "a demon's DNA would be closer to those birds' than to any human's, no matter how well they hide the attributes of their species." He shakes a weary head, crushing a sigh before it can escape. "Youkai are essentially animals—animals who have evolved to walk, to talk, and to mimic human-like emotion."
"That seems like a very cruel analysis."
"In the end, all analysis is." Rune runs his hands together in answer, noting what Kharl does not feel—that the day is cool and breezy and most people would be cold. "It makes one pity the Fire Knight."
"Pity Rath…" the Faerie repeats slowly, and Kharl wonders if the idea is new to him or if he has just never heard those words before. "He wouldn't want anyone to."
"Lord Rath seems like a very private person. He would probably never talk to anyone about pain—but I imagine he must suffer very seriously. Demon blood is incompatible with Dragon blood in every aspect. To live with both… would be like having a dilapidating disease. The fact that Lord Rath manages to keep his body functioning everyday is amazing." He runs a pale cold finger along his lower lip, testing the feel of the words, "In fact, it's more than amazing—because, in all actuality, it should be impossible. Giving a Demon Dragon's blood is like infusing a street dog with Light and expecting it to survive. The only outcome of blending the two bloods is, ultimately, death."
"Rath isn't going to die." The sharp, unshakable conviction in the Faerie's voice warms something in Avis.
"I should hope not." But Kharl knows that his smile is false, and that Rath, who has not returned from Emphaza, is already dead. For a long moment, they both are silent, and Kharl wishes he could read the Prince's mind without fear of being caught.
"You know a lot about demons, don't you Rara-sensei?" the boy says finally, a little hesitant to word his opinion in that manner. "Do you think… there is a way to save Rath?" Avis shakes his head gently because he does not trust his voice—of course he knows how to save Rath. Purge the Dragon's blood and restore what was lost. Somehow he does not think that is the answer Rune wants to hear. "I'm sorry," the boy mutters finally, pulling up his legs and resting his chin on his knees, "I'm so helpless when it comes to Rath. I can't understand him at all."
With deft hands, Kharl picks the top off of a weed growing out from under the rock he is sitting on. Rune's downcast eyes spark for a moment as if he will scold the larger man for killing plants, but the look dies in the next second.
"You can use your magic to bloom flowers, can't you?" The doctor stares at him curiously, but there is a strange note of prior knowledge in the look.
"Yes, but that's just a weed. It wouldn't have flowers for me to bloom."
"Try anyway, please," Avis insists, turning the weed around between his pale fingertips.
Though he is certain it will be of no avail, the Faerie reaches out delicate hands and runs healing magic into the weed. The break point seals itself off; the energy gently fills each pore of the plant and begins rejuvenation. It is to Rune's amazement that tiny, purple flowers unfurl at the top of the weed's stem.
"I don't understand! I've never seen—"
"Myosotis sylvatica," there is a subtle and sad sort of amusement on the doctor's face, "Forget-Me-Not. In dry conditions like this, the plant blooms only under intense outside stress. You'd never be able to tell it from a weed at first glance."
"That plants grows in Faerie Forest…" It's almost a justification; Rune looks a bit embarrassed but vaguely happy too. "I would have known it if I'd looked closer."
"I suppose," the doctor smiles, "that applies to everything in nature—to Rath, to Demons, to Faeries—there is always something to be learned. There is always some secret to unravel, some new way to look at that which you have never grasped before..."
He stands, and the princes' blue eyes follow the movement. "Maybe by learning all that we can, by doing what we thought impossible, by changing our own baser natures, we can begin to understand."
His voice is soft with some emotion the Faerie cannot place. "Mother Nature did not make all creatures equal, but I hope that knowledge might." The doctor flickers out into the garden with a silent whisper of white cloth.
"Forget-Me-Not…" The unexpected purple blossoms look fragile and fleeting in the palm of his hand.
Theme 23: Cat
The blow fails, falls like a gentle touch: fingers tracing one white cheek, one ivory eyelid, one eye as distant as Heaven, as inviting as Hell.