Me: before I get into the chapter or even the hot-headed banter, I must give shout out to Crazydream10 from dA. My fellow Sago fan was gracious enough to let me borrow her idea (s) for Sago's back story and alter it a bit to fit my story. Be sure to check her out on deviantArt! She's got great fanart and fiction in the works~
Mushra: should you really be borrowing? Isn't that illegal in writer world?
Me: if I ask permission, no, especially if I make sure to pay proper respect and credit to the original owners/developers. Besides, I can't help it—some fan stuff is too good for me not to include, I sort of take it as fanon, especially a lot of Windflame's stuff, she's like a Shinzo Elder to me.
Mushra: ….nerd. And what the hecks' fanon?
Me: I will teach you, nerd-noob, but later—readers, enjoy!
Chapter 8 – Sago's Story
"I'm willing to listen." I assured Sago as he started walking again and I followed just beside him, barely taking my eyes away. He slowly nodded, and he seemed just slightly reluctant, but his last nod seemed like one of complete agreement. But he continued on walking, in silence, for a little while as I walked and waiting. I realized I wasn't paying attention to where he was taking us until we arrived at a fountain set in a crossroads part of the city.
He took a seat with his eyes on the ground, and I saw down beside him without a word, still patiently waiting.
His shoulders rose with an intake of breath, and then he spoke. "It's…kind of all because of my ability to control me Hyper powers without needing Hyper form for it…really. I had it at a very, very young age. And where I was born; where I lived for only a fragment of my life, my childhood…that wasn't a very good thing, and pushed my family to believe we needed to flee."
I was confused, but I knew he would explain, and I just continued to listen intently.
He shook his head for a moment, sitting up a little straighter as he had been leaning forward; his hands, however, which had come together, were staying clasped. "See, I lived in a well-off situation back then, with my family. Maybe not to full rich status, but we barely wanted for nothing from what I can remember. We lived on the outskirts of Queen Franken's kingdom, just on the rocks by the ocean. We were her subjects, General Franken. She…" he paused, and I saw his lips tighten and his fists clench, nails almost threatening to jab into his skin and I reached to put my hand over his. "You see, she'd been a generally respectable and decent ruler over her domain and her people, her kin. She's strong, never wavering in her power, pride, nor strength or her morals and beliefs. She wanted to ensure she and her kingdom would stay standing strong. She might hold that special sort of superiority her type in power usually do, but not to…that vicious point of wiping out those lesser. Now, she just wanted to keep them separate from her kingdom and her kind."
"Her kind?" I couldn't help but asked, not fully trusting my understanding of what he meant.
He glanced to me. "Water Enterran's, people born in her kingdom and domain to an extent as well, aquatic types of all sorts—any Enterran who found connection and common ground among the waters, really. She felt they were her kin, and there for her subjects."
I nodded, understanding better now, and I nodded a last time for him to continue.
"Anyway. She feels her kingdom should be kept separate for needs of peace and prosperity. Possibly purity as well, I really don't know." He shrugged, looking off ahead. "But because of her need for all of that, she was developing, gathering, and growing her own special army; for various purposes. From the smallest tasks of scouting and recruiting and guarding, to greater tasks like seeking out more land to claim as she felt was hers, to the extremity of possible war. One of her greatest inclinations for a promising recruit, of course, was any sort of indication that they were a powerful Water Enterran. She highly valued which of us that could control Hyper power out of Hyper form. And her recruiting methods…well, let's just say there weren't really volunteer options."
I nodded, understanding that well—hell, that's how it had been back in the day on Earth, to my knowledge. Bodies were needed, and there was little choice. If you were of age and male, and seemed fit enough…
"My parents, noticing more and more my ability, feared the worst. If I was ever caught, recruiters would be at our front door in no time."
"…How old were you during this?" I asked, holding my arms a bit as I'd retracted my hand from his earlier.
He caught my gaze, and it broke my heart, especially when he forced the bitter smile. "A baby, really. Child, eventually. They tried to keep it hidden, but it was harder as I was getting into my toddler years."
"So how do you even remember all of this?"
"Ah—I'll get to that. Let's just say, half was told to me, half was remembered, and the other little bits I gathered over time."
I nodded. "Sorry, continue…" I was almost worried about letting him. Maybe this wasn't the best thing, making him relive this.
But he nodded and went on. "Like I said, it got harder to hide as I got older. They tried to teach me to contain it, but…" he faintly smiled, and I just caught the wave of his hand, and suddenly, a dragon made up of water swirled around me, flying on the air it seemed, "you can't make a child of infancy or toddler nature contain that when they learn they can create it at the slightest of whims."
The water dragon dove back into the fountain from whence I assumed it originated, and Sago's hands settled back together.
"Recruiters were becoming more relentless, not enough fortunate Enterran's like myself in the ranks. It got to a point where we really didn't go anywhere unless needed, and I think even then they were considering moving, before anything really happened. There was one day, apparently… Just a normal day. I had been in the kitchen playing, making a water dragon to show her… M-my mother. My father hadn't noticed, hadn't been in to see, and there was a knock at the door. He answered, of course. It was a recruiter."
I sighed, feeling more and more reluctant to hear the rest, but I would, for him.
"He'd actually been there to speak with my father about my uncle. From what I remember being told at one point, my…uncle had fallen in defense of one of Franken's claimed river-barriers in her domain, and the recruiter was supposedly there to give the news. He ended up inviting himself in, and in the process, he caught what I was doing in the kitchen. My father must of followed in behind him too late. He had to take him down, and ended up carding him. My parents knew, though, his absence wasn't going to go unnoticed, and someone would be sent out way. In a matter of hours, they'd packed us up and we were making our way out of the city.
"My mother insisted on following the trail they'd had planned to follow, which was supposed to lead us unnoticed, out of the city. But my father insisted that we needed to get something from his brothers place first. So they change course. My father had went in first, for whatever it was, and told us to wait in the back yard. Well, he was taking too long, and mother was restless. She was sure she heard something from inside, and she tells me to wait outside as she goes to check on my father. I'm out there for only minutes, and then I hear the crashing. Next thing, my mother comes running out with something cradled in her arms. It was…it was a water dragon."
I was confused and surprised, sitting up a little straighter.
"It was about the length of me at that age, slender and light blue. I remember her shoving it into my arms, and it wrapped around me…almost protectively…" he tells me, and I could hear the thickening in his voice, but he quelled it. Even so, I felt like I knew where this was going, or at least had a pretty good idea.
And the idea suddenly reminded me…of back in Ryuma's palace, in the halls as she and the girls had been running and protecting their adolescent friends, how her friend sitting by her now had cried as a child, about needing to hide, as if he was afraid they couldn't survive. She remembered his complaints.
'My parents tried to escape with me and they failed…. We have to hide, that's what I did, and they never found me.'
"…Back at Ryuma's castle." I interrupted again, and he looked to me surprised at the interruption. I looked him in the eyes. "When we were protecting the three of you; you, Mushra, and Xavier because of the young state you were in, you… you'd saying your parents tried to escape and failed, and that we couldn't fight for our escape, we should hide, because that's what you did… Is this…what you were talking about?"
He was silent for a moment, brief confusion on his face, and I assumed he didn't remember saying anything. But, taking a breath, he nodded, and I nodded in response, and just watched him as I waited for him to continue.
"Now this—this, I remember well. Everything else was fuzzy, or something Mithra told me, or we pieced information together later when I really needed to... The dragon, his name was Mithra." He stated, before continuing. He took a moment, though, taking a deep breath and sitting straight. "But, my mother…she gave him to me, and I remember her words well.
'You must protect him at all costs, no matter what! You must flee, far and fast, and don't ever return here!' she had said, sounding so panicked and in fear. I had thought she'd been talking to me, telling me to protect the creature she'd just thrown at me. But the dragon nodded its head to my surprise, and she spoke a last time…saying… 'Protect him…he must grow to be something else, just raise him…away from here…so he will not be put into this…life.'"
I couldn't believe this. I literally almost couldn't, if I didn't trust Sago's honesty—if I didn't see every indication of pain and sorrow that made it true. I'd never known, never guessed—well, back then, young main characters never really had parents and if they did, they were barely around; parents hold the characters back. I shook my head, resisting the urge to slap myself. He wasn't a character. He never was. He was a man, albeit a man of another species, but a man…a man who had been a boy, torn from his family…
"Then there was a crush behind her." He went on. "I cried out for her, begged for her, but she yells at me to run. I cry one last time, and she yells, and then I'm running, holding the dragon tight to my chest. I ran and ran, on and on…I couldn't really say how long I did. I tried to look back now and again, with the yells and crash and noises echoed, but the dragon never let me for long." Sago released his hands then, and looked around at our surroundings. Suddenly he stood, and I stood with him, wondering if that was the end of it. When he started walking, I just followed with him.
It wasn't until we really got back to walking, before he continued in hushed tones.
"Well, from…from that point on, Mithra raised and cared for me. He couldn't speak aloud like I could, but he understood our language, and…somehow was able to reach to speak in my mind. He taught me as many of the big things as he could and knew to, and all the little things; survival in every form, really. It was a while before I really learned where he came from, as when we first start speaking he only told me he 'belonged' to my uncle." He was telling me, and other than checking my walking path now and again, I kept my gaze towards him. "He confessed to me that my uncle had rescued him, and they'd become friends. My uncle had been hiding him, because they both feared what others would think of finding a creature like him (as, being a dragon so symbolic of half the population of water Enterrans, they were rare). They'd been good friends, my father was the only one to really know of him, or what he was; my uncle spoke of him, but never called him a dragon.
"Mithra promised to protect me; to guide and care for me. And he did, as well as he was able. He found shelter for me in abandoned homes and stuff like that. He always made sure I had a suitable place to sleep. He, uh," Sago laughs, sadly and fondly, "he got me into the habit of collecting coins and jewels at a young age, for any necessities that would need to be bought. It started as just picking up scattered and abandoned jewels and money, but…we were both growing the habit. And it became something to do, something that felt less like just surviving and more like living."
Well, that…gave me a whole new view to his gambling… We passed a family, and I scooted closer to Sago to avoid bumping the kids who had little interest in regarding their surroundings. "S-sorry…"
He shook his head, watching me for a moment with a look I couldn't entirely get, before he continued. "Mithra passed away, once I hit around ten, eleven. He'd been with me five years by then." I couldn't resist, and hooked my arm through his as a way offering comforting embrace without halting his walk. I notice him reach a hand to his jewels on his forehead. "I'd just gotten these, actually. It was a trippy day, and I was living on high. And I come back to an old abandoned shop in an old section of some town, and found him laying curled on the ground, writhing now and again. He confesses he never knew how long or short his lifespan was—he'd been torn from his own family. But even as he was passing, he promised to still watch over. And tells me, that a life alone doesn't have to be sad. He told me I could…travel the world, collect riches!" he laughed. "And…and from that point on, I lived as he'd taught me… Gambling…sleeping in hotels, and gambling again. I was always traveling, I never really stayed in one place for too long, not even with Mithra…too afraid Franken was still looking for me.
"After a while, I forgot that fear, drowning it under the jewels and the coins and the reputation…all the riches, before I'd lose them. But I'd get it back again. It was like that for…a while…before finding Mushra." He smiled small, but fondly, and not as sadly. He was silent for a moment, and I could only imagine the encounter going through his mind right now.
I almost smiled, before he shook his head and looked to me. "But the point. What…what made me understand, just a fragment of what you were feeling, was that after Mithra died, I had been SO scared I would die without anyone. I'd lived a life for so long with that little bit of comfort, and what I thought was my source of strength, and then it was suddenly gone, snuffed out. He had even been teaching me how to use my power that got….that got me where I was then. I didn't understand it, and didn't want to. That talent, that 'gift' took my family away from me, and I was afraid I'd never see them again, if I was even free for much longer to even have a chance to do so. And not understand it beyond my little tricks and games, I feared what I could do with it, or what I couldn't do if I really needed to. I was put to the test, though, one day when I wandered into town. On that day, I crossed some very noticeable water Enterrans, with familiar dressed that I was so sure in that moment were what the recruiters wore. They'd caught me just…toying senselessly with some water, and they came for me. I…can't honestly say if they really meant any malice, but I panicked and ran for it."
No wonder he felt he might empathize… I mean, it wasn't exactly the same, but a lot of what he was saying felt familiar enough…like his life, his comfort and strength, taken. His lack of understanding for a power he had a reason to hate or fear…his fear of using it, and feeling weak because of it.
"They never caught up to me, though, so I guess I was just being paranoid. But, I was, uh…paranoid enough to trip my way into a hidden nest of Hunting Bee-ings, who were never ones to take kind to anything. And in that moment, I had no choice. They were angry, though would have hunt me down, and I was already winded from running. I had to face them. It took getting beat, pushed into running, fighting in fear, but…I overcame them eventually, got a handle on my power. It was the first time I used Aqua Dragon, in that fight…"
His gaze wandered off in the distance of our path, until he just stopped short in his walk and I let go of his arm, staring up at him in silence. I could see the hurt in remembering and reliving it all, but…maybe some sort of relief. I couldn't say whether it was relief in finally having me understand what pushed him to do what he did for me, or maybe it could be…relief in telling that. Not that I doubt he hasn't told anybody, he at least had to have told Mushra, but….something like that still weighs on you, I can only imagine. He rolls his shoulders and shakes his head, taking a deep breath. That's when I saw a tear or two fall from the corner of his eye, racing so quick down his cheek that it left a swiftly drying line of wetness on his pale skin.
I was about to reach out for him when he spoke, with a laugh that surprised me. "I'm sure, even with my warning, you weren't entirely expecting that…whole life story. Hope that wasn't too boring, or….depressing, but at least—"
I heard his brief gasp at my sudden action, but I said nothing. I just continued the embrace that had over took me. My arms wound around what first I could really which, and my first intention was just to hold him and wrap him in my arms, not really thinking for any return action. Though he did return the action, after his brief stunned moment. His arms wrapped up under my arms, which slid up around his neck. I didn't know if it was too far, but judge me if you want (I think it's a weird maternal-even-if-i-have-not-kids thing), I reached my hand to pet his hair a bit. He didn't seem to mind…it even seemed to relax him further.
"Thank you." I told him.
"For what…?"
"Just thank you."
Me: and that…was Sago's story. And before you start, Mushra, you will GET YOURS eventually!
Mushra: hey, I'm just saying-
Me: yes, you've been saying this entire freaking story until the disclaimer/commentary. Shhh now.
Mushra: *touches his chest as if offended* so mean.
Me: *rolls eyes* hope you enjoyed, review if you like, next chapter soon!