Gwyndolin's crush

chapter 8

Gwyndolin stared at the stared at the sad little thing before him, she nervously held clutched a small doll made from wood and threadbare cloth and stared back at him, she seemed to shiver. That was his sister!? Should... should he even accept it? If she's not his father's daughter?

"I know not the father, and the girl does lacks the power that made her mother so dangerous, lifesteal. Yet she is certainly the daughter of Priscilla, my blood flows through her veins as it does thine, and so, I have made the decision that the little one not be sent back to the painting. Though I cannot house a child here, so I expect thee to take good care of her, the two of thee share a very similar ancestry and thus societal predicament afterall." Seath spoke from behind the girl, his voice booming so loud that she covered her ears.

Gwyndolin hated himself for being a crossbreed, at least his features were hid easily, but her? She was obvious, and a strong reminder of the inescapable truth of what he is.

"Can thou not-"

"No!" Seath interrupted him. "The girl MUST go with thee. If I were to send her elsewhere her fate would certainly be far worse than thine own. Here I present an opportunity for both thee and the girl to live better lives." Gwyndolin was surprised the dragon cared so much about this strange girl's wellbeing, even if she was his granddaughter, that never stopped him from being a prick before.

"But mine father wouldst never-"

Again, Seath interrupted Gwyndolin. "Thou'rt a master of illusion magic, yes? At the very least, deception comes to thee naturally. Do whatever needst be done to persuade thy father, if thou needst I may create false histories, documents, anything of the sort. As thou knows the truth will not succeed here, so master illusionist, spin great lies."

Lying to his father? As incredibly annoying as he was, he normally wouldn't think of doing such a thing. He should never do such a thing, that is the one man he cannot lie to.

"And if I do not?" Gwyndolin asked, not seeing many other options. Seath did not respond initially, though Gwyndolin could tell he was wroth.

"The linking of the fire approaches again soon. An undead knight shall be chosen and marched off to the kiln. If thou dost not take the girl, knight Arias shall be sacrificed." The dragon stated, calmly. No way, no way he knew, no way he would do that.

"I-I do not know who thou speaks of, what dost a lowly undead have to do with..." Gwyndolin's speech slowed to a halt before he completely stopped. Seath saw through him completely as always. Damn how many people knew? Was Ornstein not embellishing when he said everyone but Gwyn and Arias knew of his crush?

"Alright. I shalt take the girl." Gwyndolin gave in. This was going to be one of the worst, most difficult day, if not year of his life.

"Good, now go along Yorshka." Seath leaned down and surprisingly gently nudged the little girl over to Gwyndolin. She seemed nervous and scared but went along anyways. When she was before him, she cautiously held out her hand and Gwyndolin hesitantly took it. Looked like he had a new family member, just another problem as always.

"AND DO NOT MISTREAT HER!" Seath screeched just as Gwyndolin was about to leave, making Gwyndolin's hair stand on end.

"Yes sir!" Gwyndolin affirmed, as he did once upon time as Seath's student. He quickly slithered away with Yorshka, leaving the dragon alone in the large cavern.

Seath was glad Gwyndolin finally took her. He himself had become quite a despicable creature, and he didn't even deny it, nay he embraced it. But even so he wanted to do right by his lineage, especially after what happened to Priscilla. He tried and failed to make up for it by educating Gwyndolin in magic, but now, maybe Gwyndolin can raise Yorshka well in freedom where he would have failed.

Arias walked into the colosseum only for a bloathead to fly into him at ridiculous speeds and send him flying back outside into a tree. "What's going on in there!?" He muttered to himself as he lazily brought himself back to his feet and through the hall back into the colosseum. This time Arias dodged another bloathead sent his way, he turned to the source to see Artorias standing firm, greatsword and greatshield in his hands, and opposite him was a large and terrible creature, with a suspiciously large left hand and a staff carried in its right. With its left hand, it repeatedly threw bloatheaded Oolacile residents that had lined up behind it at Artorias who batted them away with his sword. It seemed they were at some strange sort of stalemate. Arias sighed and unsheathed his greatsword, he didn't know what he could do to help, but of course he was a knight, and an undead knight at that, so he had to help, for unlike everyone else he had supposedly nothing to lose.

While the two were distracted playing bloatheaded cricket, Arias charged in and sliced through the creature's giant left arm, not cleaving it off, but leaving a large enough gash that it'd reconsider its sports career. "Arias!?" Artorias shouted in confusion. Though seeing an opportunity provided, he wasted no time in taking advantage, though unfortunately the line of patient bloatheads did not like the idea of their bowler being harmed further, and they all rushed him. "Sorry Arias you're on your own for now!" Artorias shouted to him.

"WHAT!?" Arias yelled, fear and disbelief very palpable in his voice. With his focus elsewhere, the creature retaliated by striking him on the side with the giant arm Arias just sliced through at full force, sending him flying into the wall, thankfully not through it but it was close. Arias clumsily fell out of the crater in the wall to his hands and knees and groaned in pain. As he looked up, he saw Manus leaping at him, giant hand and staff outstretched, intent on crushing him.

Arias barely dodged the attack and jumped over a sweep from the staff. The beast screamed and launched a flurry of fast attacks that Arias backstepped away from. It continued to angrily lash out at nothing while Arias regained his breath. When it stopped, Arias charged in and slashed into its torso, seemingly hurting the creature, though it didn't relent in the slightest and proceeded to whack Arias with the staff, not sending him very far but it did force him to the floor once again.

Once again on the defensive, Arias dodged another leap attack, then another, then another. The beast screeched in anger and readied its arm in the air to slam it into Arias. He braced himself to dodge, but the attack thankfully never landed, for a giant blade had been plunged through the beast's chest, though it had the unfortunate side effect of covering Arias in its blood. The blade ripped upwards and tore the beast in two, between the two halves of the beast Artorias revealed himself as the wielder of the blade.

"Nicely done my friend, you held off Manus well while I fought off those bloatheads. You truly are a cut above your undead peers." Artorias leaned down and offered his hand, which Aras took and slipped from because they were both covered in blood. The second attempt was successful though.

"That thing is called Manus huh?" Arias sighed, looking over at the great dead beast. Behind it was a small hill of dead bloatheads.

"You didn't even know? Hah! Yes, that's Manus, the supposed Father of the Abyss. Honestly gave me some serious trouble so thanks for your help." Artorias was surprisingly chipper for someone who'd just been through some 'serious trouble.' Arias just gave a clumsy thumbs up. He was by this point, incredibly tired, ached all over and covered in blood. Considering his average day consisted of walking to Anor Londo, standing around and walking home, this was quite the escalation.

"Hah, poor bastard. I suppose humans can be quite limited sometimes. Still, don't let that detract from the fact that you did great! Hell you surpassed my expections and didn't even die once! Now, come! Let's go tell the lords of our victory!" Artorias wrapped an arm around Arias' shoulder and led him out of the collosseum. Arias wondered what'd happen to Oolacile now, but then again it probably didn't matter, everyone there was likely dead. Arias felt like something was missing though. Oh right.

"Hey Artorias?"

"Yeah?"

"Where's Sif?"

"Oh he just went off and chased Alvina. Ciaran's after the two of them and should be back soon."

"Oh cool."

A/N Surprise! Another chapter, just a day later! This one was incredibly easy and fun to write for whatever reason.