#like i think this puts him above time sky and wild for eras he's gone to in his own adventures

[pocketramblr]

Thing is it's got to be about equality- if you add the fs dungeon to Legend's story you gotta add the realm of memory to Four's, which would actually mean he's previously time traveled to two other eras- and would thus recognize the downfall duo's worlds

[twink-between-worlds]

Use this ask to share headcanons you can't otherwise <3 I was going to ask smth but I forgot so this works instead

YIPPEEEEEEEEE HI BELOVED

okey. i realise most of these are about legend and four..

One of Legend's canine teeth is missing. He just has a gap there. It's on his right side.

Wind's eyes are reflective. Kinda like a cat. I just think it's neat!

Time, Wind, and Wild are the only natural blonds in the chain. The rest that look blond are just fake-blondies

Four has an undercut that's dyed the same purple as Shadow's hair.

They also have a small heart shaved into the undercut :3

Legend likes to put little gold cuffs in his hair! He doesn't do it often, but he really likes when he does it.

Legend has beads to put in his hair that Ravio made. They are, of course, little purple rabbits, resembling the hood.

Legend's hair is asymmetrical.

The court forces Legend to bleach his hair and dye it blond. It makes him very sad :(

^ Fable has to do the same thing ^

Legend is actually the fastest in the chain in every aspect except mental.

Four is the fastest mentally.

Four is a dark magic user and i stand by this

Legend gets misgendered a lot in the other eras and he has shut down because of it before. He doesn't like arguing about it anymore.

Four also gets misgendered a lot and they get so annoyed by it. They get so petty about it.

Four is not above biting people if pissed off enough.

They have unusually sharp teeth and they Will Not Explain.

I like to think Legend died, that Koholint was some form of afterlife, and that he was brought back to life cuz Hylia wasn't done with him yet.

Legend can't read as fast as everyone else can. He just has a little bit of trouble with it.

He never met her, but Legend really is just like a mini-version of his mother.

Legend has a birthmark on his left shoulder that vaguely looks like a heart

Four is cursed. Shadow did it for the funsies.

Sky has a lot of nicknames for Legend, but his favourite is 'Little Rose'.

(Legend won't admit it, but he likes that nickname.)

Sky also likes to call Four his 'Little Star'

Four wears a couple rings. Most are just rings they bought because they thought they looked cool, while one is a protection ring

Legend had a stutter when he was little. It's mostly gone now, but every once in a while, he'll start tripping up.

i have to stop there bc i will be here 4ever and its already been HOURS....

[qah-naarin]

@reachfolk​ i accidentally deleted the ask u sent but here it is!! the “you should worship me.” “i do.” i like this piece it evokes a nice feeling. like waking up early in the morning knowing ur happy in life KFEHFKJ weirdly specific i know

✧ word count: 649 ✵ warnings: obviously nothing xxx but if it was movie and it was ur dad next to you you’d feel kinda awkward but if it was your mom and you’re like. 16? 17? you’d probably just Smile at each other in amusement. sorry i don’t know how to rate things ✧ tags: miraak being a simp (as he should), early mornings, falkreath ✵ ship: arpina sun-stealer/miraak ✧ characters: arpina sun-stealer

✵ tag list: @reachfolk, @lookathooves, @faolan-red-eagle, @dirty-bosmer, ask to be added i say as i add willy nilly

Miraak watches Arpina as she sleeps, unmoving save for the gentle rise and fall of her chest and the way her hair, slightly obscuring her face, fans out with every breath. She's still asleep, despite it not being too long until midday, but she's always been like this and he's not at all surprised—it is not like they have anywhere to be but each other's arms, after all. 

He turns away from the foot of the bed and pulls the doors to the balcony open, fresh Falkreath breeze drifting in—a little colder than usual, he notices, and absentmindedly regrets not putting a shirt on, but he's too lazy to have to check where his shirt from last night had gone. Sunshine glows over Bleak Falls Barrow, white clouds in the sky just the slightest tinge of pink still. 

So maybe it is a little early.

Miraak yawns, pressing his hand over his mouth as he does so, stretching out his back. It's a good morning, he decides. Perhaps we should seize the day.

There isn't much to do in Falkreath when excluding the 'urban' activities in the city, but both of them enjoy hunting well enough, and exploring is never such a bad option—there was even this one time they found a memorial from his era, still standing, words still clear. It was certainly a blast from the past, to say the least, and she had to soothe his discomfort at finding it as they went back to the cabin. 

“Miraak,” Arpina calls from behind him. “Come back. I’m cold.”

He turns around. “I wrapped you in blankets.”

“Well, then you didn’t do it so well,” she says with a small, bleary frown, sitting up in a cocoon of the aforementioned blankets. He can’t help but think that she’s so lovely to look at. The view from High Hrothgar could not hold a candle to her as she is right now, sleepy, wild-haired, and asking for him to return to bed. “Come here.”

And so he does, moving to her. He smooths a lock of hair back, tucking a cowlick strand behind her pointed ear. “Good morning,” he tells her, almost teasingly, smiling as she presses her hand into the back of his and her cheek to his palm. 

“So you say,” she says, and tugs him down onto the bed insistently, only pausing when he obeys. 

“We should go out. It’s a fine day,” Miraak says, amused. “We can do what you want. Visit a temple, or look for a shrine.”

Arpina laughs and comfortably seats herself in his lap, legs on either side, and she kisses him in response, pulling back when he’s dazed enough to lie back at a gentle push from her. He watches her above him, still soft in her sleepiness, but he’s the one pliant in her hands now. (Hasn’t he always yielded to her? Always yielded so easily, so gently—so lovingly.)

Her hair is fire as the dawnlight shines behind her. “A shrine?” she asks innocently, but he’s not blind—he can see the smirk, the little dimple under her left eye as she does so. “You could just make a shrine out of me.”

Miraak shifts at the suggestion, face already hot. Her smile widens. He’s not sure what’s inspired her to act like this but he’s thankful for whatever it was—he’s not at all losing here.

“You could just worship me,” she pushes daringly, leaning so one hand is at the side of his head, the other on her knee. 

“I do,” he manages to say as his heart pounds in his chest, watching her with anticipation, and when she laughs and bends down to kiss him again, he lets go of that breath he didn’t know he was holding, heart warm as she stays down with her cheek on his sternum. “I could make a fine shrine out of you.”

[silverdragon-imagines-blog]

For headcanons how about Twilight who has never seen a rabbit discovers he is allergic to rabbit fur, or Time Sky and Legend compare their experiences time traveling, or as group cook Wild tracks what everyone eats and pays attention to what everyone likes or dislikes but gets frustrated because Fours keep changing

[So many good prompts but time travel my beloved. So take some 3 am bonding between these three ^u^ Hope you enjoy.]

Warning(s): Some spoilers for Skyward Sword and maybe Ocarina of Time and Oracle of Ages. Also swearing, but that’s just how I write them

Sky turned over for what felt like the fiftieth time. He turned onto his back with a sigh, rubbing at his eyes for a few minutes. Then he sat up, moving the sheets off him and touching his bare feet to the chilled hardwood floor of the Inn room. His gaze landed on the four other occupants of the room he had ended up sharing with.

Unsurprisingly, Wind was splayed out on his bed, sleeping peacefully, and causing Sky to let out a huff of laughter at the spot of drool collecting on his pillow. Warriors was on his back, still and stiff as he slept, while Hyrule was curled up in a ball with his back pressed against the wall. Legend's bed, however, was empty, the sheets thrown to end of the bed. His gear and boots were still in place at the edge of the bed. Sky furrowed his brow in confusion, though there was only one other place he could’ve gone.

Quietly, Sky walked over to the door to the room and slowly opened the door. He paused, listening closely to hear if anyone else had woken up when he had moved. With no new sounds of shuffling, the coast was clear, and he headed towards the main area of the Inn.

As he approached, the strong smell of what some of the others called coffee hits him, causing him to cover his nose at the surprisingly abrupt smell. If he wasn’t already struggling to sleep, that at least would have woken him up. Once he recovered, Sky continued, entering the lobby, and looking around.

There was a counter off to the side of the stairs, a woman with a beige apron and bandanna tying her hair back tiredly wiping it down. The room was relatively empty, no one sitting in the worn couches near the entryway and most of the wooden tables behind them empty of people. Sky could easily see two familiar figures sitting at one of the tables in the corner of the room. The Veteran sat slightly slumped forward, a steaming mug in hand, with the Old Man sitting across from him with a mug of his own, though it was suspiciously not steaming.

Sky approached the table, waving tiredly. Time acknowledged him with a nod as he took a seat while Legend raised an eyebrow.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Sky shook his head, crossing his arms and laying his head on top of them.

"Mind wouldn't shut up. Didn't hear you get up though."

At this, Legend chuckled, holding out his hand and flashing his many rings.

"Magic ring, let's me pass by unseen."

Sky looked impressed.

"Sounds pretty useful."

Legend smiled wider.

"Yeah, if only it existed."

Sky frowned, slightly glaring at the now laughing Veteran. Time was chuckling as well, taking a sip of his drink, the white streak on his upper lip showing that he was drinking milk.

The woman that had been behind the counter then approached with a tray at her side, looking at Sky, who now sat up straight.

"Did you want to order anything?"

Sky shook his head then paused.

"A glass of water maybe."

With a nod, the woman left then returned a moment later with a glass and a pitcher on her tray, placing them on the table and pouring water into it, the ice clinking as it hit the sides of the cup. Sky quietly thanked her as she left, watching as she returned to her station behind the counter, then he took a sip of his cold drink.

It was quiet, the three heroes quietly enjoying their drinks and lost in thought. The only audible sounds were that of the quiet creaks of the old building settling and the Inn worker moving around in her area.  Then Legend set down his mug with a sigh.

"The silence is killing me, someone start talking."

"About?" Time asked, raising an eyebrow.

"How about your adventures, not like there's very much else to talk about."

"Anything in particular?" Sky questioned, running his now cold fingers over his sleep tunic.

"Have any of you time traveled?"

Time subtly flinched, while Sky hummed in thought.

"A few times maybe, though not for particularly long. Unless you count items that altered time in a small area," Sky replied, ignoring the prickle of his skin at the thought of the final fight he had in the past. He scratched at his arm, hoping that the action wasn’t questioned.

"So? What did you do?"

"Well, there was Lanayru Mines and the Sand Sea. There were these gems called Timeshift stones that altered time in a small area. It was pretty mesmerizing to watch the sand turn into grass or water after striking the gems."

“Fascinating,” Time spoke, “just those two areas then?”

“Well, kind of? It was all over the Lanayru region in my area, all spread out and if you struck one, then the one you had struck earlier lost it’s power. I enjoyed myself quite a bit while there, especially once I found a few treasures I had never seen before, though that was just because I had never been on the surface before.”

“Treasures?” Legend perked up at that, eyes seeming to glitter slightly.

“What you and I consider treasure are quite different, my friend,” Sky chuckled, shaking his head with an amused smile, “The Timeshift stones brought back ancient things, including flowers and insects. I ended up with quite a collection of those flowers.”

Legend shrugged, leaning back in his chair, then turned to the Old Man.

"Being called the Hero of Time, I bet you've done some time traveling as well."

Time sighed, running a hand over his face.

"I have, though not all of it was particularly pleasant."

"You don't have to talk about anything you're uncomfortable with," Sky said, giving what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Well... there was the time I caused a particularly interesting time paradox," Time replied, smiling as he took a sip of his drink, “I learned a song in one time period that I then taught to the same man in the other time period.”

"Been there, done that, got anything more interesting?" Legend asked, crossing his arms with an unimpressed look on his face.

"I've done that too," Sky smiled awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

"Fine then, how about going through a dungeon twice, once in the past and once in the present?"

"Okay, I’ve done that too, but go on."

Time rolled his eye, then leaned back in his chair.

"There was this dungeon in the middle of the desert that I could only get to after proving myself to the tribe that lived there. Once I got access to the dungeon, I had to first navigate the desert wastes to get to the entrance and then go back to the past to go through it the first time. Took a fair bit of time too," Time spoke, though he sighed after that, "That was only one half of the place though, and I had to do the other half in the present. Though I didn't mind doing that, it took much longer than any other dungeon I had done before."

"I can understand that" Sky nodded, "the ship I had to enter while at the Sand Sea took longer to get to the end of than I thought it would, but it was quite enjoyable."

Then Sky and Time glanced at Legend.

"I don't believe you've talked about yourself just yet," Time spoke, raising a brow with his arms crossed.

"Okay okay, you're right. Give me a second to think," he sighed, taking a swig of coffee.

After a minute or two, Legend put the mug back down.

"My second or third adventure, hard to say which was which, I met an Oracle who could control time. I had to save her from this witch by using her Harp to travel through time myself. As far as interesting events, I stopped this one idiot from killing his ancestor and making himself no longer exist."

"Time paradox, been there, done that," Time smirked, Legend looking annoyed at being quoted.

"Fine then, I did some similar bullshit to you. There was this one cave that I had to go through in two different eras, had to switch it up while I was inside it which was all sorts of disorienting. Got a new item, fought a mini-boss and a boss, got an important quest thing, you know the drill.” Legend sighed, picking up his drink again, “Fucking water temples pain in the ass.”

He mumbled that next part, though Sky laughed quite loud, startling the poor worker and Time, the latter of which looked somewhat concerned at the outburst. Sky’s face burned with slight embarrassment, though he giggled for a while longer.

“It wasn’t that funny, Sky,” Legend rolled his eyes, though the self-satisfied smile betrayed how he really felt about Sky’s reaction.

When he finally calmed down enough to speak, Sky wiped the small bit of tears that had gathered at the corners of his eyes.

"That's pretty cool," Sky said, stretching his arms above his head, "So was that all you did then? Granted, I guess I didn't say anything much about my adventure."

"Eh, there really wasn't much else to talk about, I guess. Did some bullshittery, met some ancestors, and saved a different land and a few people. You know, regular hero stuff."

This earned a chuckle from all of them.

“You met your ancestors though? I think that’s a new one, if you’re willing to share some of it.” Time said, gesturing for the other to continue.

Legend sighed, running a hand through his hair and slumping forward.

“I guess it’s fine to share, but don’t expect me to tell you my life story or anything,” with an accepting nod from both heroes, Legend continued.

“His name was Sir Raven, and he was knight of Labrynna, the place I was saving at the time. He was serving the current Queen, and he knocked me around quite a bit when we first met. He was honorable, taught me a few things too. Of course, with my fucking around with time, I changed his history. He was a more high-ranking knight than before, not that anyone noticed though, so I guess that’s a win for me.”

“That’s really impressive though,” Time stated, “I think it’s more than others in our group can say as far as knowing our families.”

Sky nodded, taking a sip of his drink, then clearing his throat.

"Okay, I guess I have one more thing I could share. There was this guardian dragon in Lanayru, but in the present, he had died. I had to use the Timeshift Stones to talk to him and figure out how to revive him. It took a while, but I figured out he needed a specific magic fruit to get his strength back. Took some moving from place to place and going back in time to plant the seed, then back to the present to get the tree fully grown."

Sky drank some water then, watching Legend's interested look and Time's nearly rapt attention. With a smile, he continued.

"Then it was just a matter of delivering the fruit back to the desert via a robot who hated my guts."

Legend laughed at that.

"Somehow I can see a hunk of junk hating only you for no particular reason."

“Would you believe me if I said he had a crush on the spirit of the Master Sword?”

The admission caused the table to erupt in laughter, the joyful sound echoing in the quiet space. The Inn worker loudly shushed them from her place, Sky and Time shooting apologetic looks her way as they calmed down. When the laughter subsided, the three sat in silence again. It was only broken by a loud yawn from Time.

"I think it may be wise to at least try to sleep. We're heading out early after all."

The two nodded, watching as Time left a handful of rupees on the table and headed back up to his room. Legend sighed, running a finger along the rim of his now empty mug.

“He has a point, but I don’t see myself actually sleeping much tonight. Ah well.”

He stretched as he stood up, then turned back to Sky.

“You coming?”

“Yeah, just give me a bit.”

The Veteran shrugged, making his way up the stairs and back into the room. Sky sat alone for a moment, thinking about the other things he did on his adventure and how the happier picture he had painted didn’t quite match up with reality. Finally feeling the pull of sleep, he left his glass on the table with a handful of rupees, making his way back to bed and finally falling asleep.

[raviotherabbit]

royal pain in the ass - chapter 7

Chapter 7: Era of Force Princess Zelda heads to the forge.

[first] - [previous] - [next] read it on ao3!

  △ ▲△

“Is the peppermint tea alright?” Zelda asked her companion sitting across from her on the picnic blanket. “I thought we’d try something a bit more herbal this time.”

“It’s lovely, thank you,” Hyrule smiled at her past his cup. “In fact, I’m tempted to start growing peppermint myself.”

Ever since she found out the Hero of Hyrule liked tea, Zelda had begun setting aside certain flavors for him to taste whenever he visited. Though he was older than the two of them, he reminded her a bit of Link just a year or so ago. A bit brash, always buzzing back and forth… they both needed to be reminded when to relax.

“I’m glad to hear it,” Zelda responded. She sips at her own tea, deeply sighing as its warmth settles in her stomach.

What a beautiful day…

“Excuse me, Princess Zelda?”

Looking up from her drink, Zelda was a bit surprised to see the Hero of Warriors. He stood above the two picnickers, ignoring how Hyrule’s gaze narrowed on him.

“Why, hello hero!” Zelda happily lifted her teapot to show to the captain. “Would you like to join us? Today’s choice is peppermint.”

“Maybe some other time,” Warriors waved the pot away. “I had some questions about the castle’s security.”

Subtly, Zelda met eyes with Hyrule. His lips were pressed together tightly, and his grip on his teacup seemed almost desperate. But the moment he saw her, she swore he forced himself to act natural.

“Go ahead, Princess,” he hesitantly nodded. He brushed himself off before he started to head towards the castle gate. “I need to stock up on potions in town, anyway. We can talk more later.”

“If you’re sure,” Zelda stood, taking Warriors’ nervous hand into her own. “Come with me, brave knight.”

Wordlessly, Warriors allowed himself to be guided into the castle. Zelda looked back towards the gate one last time. Despite his words, Hyrule was still there, leaning against the stone.

Then the door closed.

One step at a time, Zelda walked Warriors through the castle’s defenses. The armory, the barracks, even the throne room. But wherever they went, it seemed the hero grew even more nervous. He eyed the knights with suspicion as they passed by, and every time Zelda looked at him, he was even more fidgety than before.

But there was no reason to suspect Warriors of any ill intent. He’d been nice on all of the Links’ previous visits. Better than nice, really. Always courteous, opening doors ahead of her, even joining in with ribbing Four a bit. So if he was a bit nervous about her safety, Zelda would do anything to assuage those fears.

“You’re kind for your concern,” Zelda told Warriors, leading him into one of the empty banquet halls. “But we’re safe here. With Vaati sealed, there’s no longer any threat to Hyrule.”

“What about threats from within Hyrule?” Warriors asked the second they were alone.

Zelda couldn’t but gasp at the accusation. “Are you speaking of traitors?”

“Soldiers can be… easily manipulated,” Warriors explained warily. “It’s happened before, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, we… we did have an issue with mind control,” Zelda admitted with a frown. “But again, Vaati is gone for good. None of our soldiers will harm us.”

“What if… what if it wasn’t just any soldier?” There was a paranoid gleam to his eyes. “What if it was someone you know?”

Warriors was taller than Zelda, that was true. But the wrath of a princess is not feared just for her height. Zelda’s hands tightened into fists, and Warriors almost seemed to cower from her rage. “Just what are you suggesting, hero?”

His shock wore off, and Warriors righted himself again with the rigid composure of a knight. “If Four turned his blade against you, what would you do?”

“Stop!” Zelda commanded, silencing him with a single pointed finger. “Don’t speak of my four that way. He… none of them would ever do that!”

“But what if he did?!” Warriors suddenly grabbed onto her arm with a vice-like grip. “Can you honestly say that you would fight against him?!”

Zelda yanked against his hand. “Let go! Let go of me!”

“Stop it!”

There, silhouetted by the hallway’s light, was Hyrule. He rushed past the doorway, shoving Warriors away from the princess.

“Wars, you need to control yourself!” Hyrule shouted. “What’s wrong with you?! Why are you all acting like this!?!”

Warriors blinked is confusion, as if waking up from a dream. He spotted Zelda, helplessly clutching to her aching arm behind Hyrule.

“I didn’t mean…” he started, but his words drifted away.

“Just go,” Hyrule sighed as he dropped his head into his hands.

Stunned into silence, Warriors left before Zelda could stop him, scattering as quickly as he could and leaving the door open.

“I’m so sorry, Princess,” Hyrule turned to her. “I knew he was acting off, but I didn’t think… Anyway, are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” she said breathlessly. The light spilling in from the door only twisted her stomach further. “I’m fine.”

  △ ▲△

With her head held high and her steps confident, Princess Zelda Lucille Hyrule passes through the town gates.

“Princess!” one of the guards shouts after her. “It’s dangerous to go alone! Let us come with you!”

“I’m just going to visit Smith!” Zelda calls back, keeping up her quick pace. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

The soldier says something, probably about her father or the minister. But to be honest, Zelda couldn’t care less. A little time out of the city could never hurt, after all, and someone has to check in on the old man.

Once she’s out of hearing range of the guards, Zelda takes in a deep breath. The morning air is still fresh, a bit of a chill hanging onto it. It’s the perfect day to spend out in the world, not cooped up in the castle.

The walk to Link and Smith’s house is rather short. Zelda lightly knocks on the door, pushing it open as she does so.

“Smith? Are you home?”

But when she peeks inside, Zelda’s surprised to find she’s not Smith’s only visitor today. There are five girls seated around the room, Smith delicately balancing glasses of water as he delivers them to his guests.

“Princess!” Smith grins when he sees her at the door. All eyes turn towards Zelda, embarrassingly enough. “Come in! You’re right on time.”

“Uh, who are all these people?” Zelda asks, slowly stepping into the humble home.

“Friends of Link! They just stopped by asking about him, so I thought I’d offer the poor things some hospitality,” Smith moves behind her, guiding her to one of the chairs by her shoulders. “How’s your arm feeling, by the way?”

“I’m fine, not even sore anymore!” Zelda waves her arm up and down to demonstrate. She eyes the two ladies across from her, one in a simple pink dress and the other in a long black cloak. “So, you all know Link.”

“Well, we know the Links!” one of the girls sitting against the wall, wearing bright blue, amends, putting emphasis on the ‘s’.

“Plural,” her short friend with the bandana clarifies.

“And you,” the cloaked one leans forward, folding her hands on the table. “You’re Princess Zelda.”

“Yes, I am,” Zelda’s eyes narrow at the strangers around her. This has got to be the most suspicious way she’s ever been approached by potential crooks, that’s for sure.

“Well then,” the tallest one, wearing light pink, pushes herself up from the floor. “Welcome to the club.”

  △ ▲△

Of course, once they explain the situation to Dot, she sweetens right up. Her suspicious glares and crossed arms melt away, and by the time they’ve stayed their welcome at Smith’s home, she’s walking in tandem with Tetra along that path back to town, all while Flora takes notes in her journal.

“So, you and your Link have known each other for quite a while,” Flora remarks as Dot finishes a story about the time Four lost his first tooth. He’d cried so hard that day, the whole town was complaining. But in hindsight, it’s incredibly funny.

“We’ve been friends since we were kids,” Dot explains, a fond smile on her face. “His grandfather is friends with my father, and his dad is one of the kingdom’s best knight’s. We’ve always known each other.”

“That must be nice,” Flora comments, speaking as she writes. “I didn’t meet Wild until we were twelve, and it was a bit of a rough start.”

“Yeah, well, Wind I met two years ago,” Tetra chimes in. “But unlike Four, I don’t think he grew up out of his crybaby phase.” She snickers to herself. “Still my best friend, though.”

“Oh, same here,” Flora twirls her pen.

Dot giggles. “Ditto.”

“When was the last time you saw them?” Dusk suddenly asks from the back of the group.

When Dot turns back, Dusk has stopped in her tracks. There’s something about the way she looks at her, desperation mixed with something else. Regret? Guilt?

“It’s been about two months,” Dot reveals. She looks to the one of them standing next to Dusk, Artemis, concern clear on her face. “Your hero is Warriors, right?”

Artemis startles, perhaps a bit shocked by the shift of conversation. “Y-yes,” she confirms.

“Well, he was-” Dot suddenly glances down, fidgeting with her hands. “He- Did you see him after me? Because he seemed very upset, so I was wondering if-”

“Woah, hold on,” Artemis interrupts. “He was upset?”

“Paranoid, more like,” she amends. “He wanted to know about the castle’s security, he was convinced that… that Four would turn on me.”

Artemis gasps, covering her mouth with a hand. “His paranoia came back?”

Flora gently closes her book, moving to place a hand on her fellow queen’s shoulder. “Artemis, are you alright?”

But before Artemis can respond, someone else speaks.

“Sky was also acting strange, when I saw him,” Tetra says.

Suddenly, all of the group’s attention is focused squarely on the pirate, particularly Sun, whose eyes are wide.

“What?” Sun questions. “Something’s wrong with my Link?”

Tetra snaps suddenly. “Oh, he’s yours! I’m not the best at keeping track of all these guys.”

“Tetra, now isn’t the time,” Flora reminds her.

“Right, right,” Tetra leans back on her left foot. “Well, I found him all alone, and he asked me about the flooding… About who died when it happened.” She sighs. “Called it the legacy he’d left the world, shamed the faith the people had in the Goddesses.”

“He… what?” Sun brings a hand to her forehead. “He said that?”

“Twilight was also angry, when I last saw him,” Dusk reveals abruptly. “He… he snapped at me, said that protecting Hyrule had always fallen to him when I should have… But we-we’ve talked about it before, I don’t know why he…”

A deafening silence hangs over all of them. After so long, so much work to get close to normal again, Warriors was somehow convinced once again that there was a traitor around every corner. Sky, always so brave, so dedicated, now believed that faith in the Goddesses could only bring sorrow. And Twilight, the loyal farmer, who’d always listened to his friends, used words spoken in confidence against Dusk.

What had happened to their boys?

  △ ▲△

After so long on the road, being welcomed to Hyrule Castle feels like a dream. Nice soft beds, clean clothes, and the first bath Flora’s had in a week at this point. The grime of seawater and city filth washed away like nothing. Afterwards, she sat on her bed in one of the castle’s guest rooms. It’s much smaller than she expected, in fact, she and Artemis would be sharing a room. It reminds her a bit of their first night together, back in the Era of the Sky.

Idly, Flora doodles in her journal. Silent Princesses have always been her favorite, and their curled leaves and five petals are practically engrained in her mind with how much she draws them. One hundred years ago, whenever she was stressed, it was always these small sketches that helped calm her.

Flora’s stomach twists, the deep dread from before their arrival to the castle returning. So far, none of them had mentioned Wild, but if something had happened to her dear hero again…

So she writes it in her journal. Everything she knows, from what Dusk, Tetra, and Dot have shared. She may not know what’s wrong, but for Hylia’s sake, she’s a researcher. If anyone’s equipped for putting mysteries together, it’s her.

Luckily, just as she finishes her writing, the door creaks open. Artemis steps in, her hair damp from her own bath. She’s wearing a robe the castle staff so nicely provided.

“Artemis,” Flora smiles. “Thank goodness you’re here. I’m going to figure this out.”

“Oh, are you?” Artemis quips, though she’s missing some of her spark.

“I’ve just finished writing my own account of the last time I saw the Links,” she taps her journal. “And we know that you saw them next. So-” she pats the spot on the bed next to her. “Tell me everything that happened. Leave out no details.”

Artemis’s smile is weak, maybe even a bit forced. But she sits down by Flora’s side anyway.

“Alright,” she says. “Their portal appeared in the courtyard, early in the morning…”

  △ ▲△

By dinnertime, Flora has managed to collect a statement from everyone she has available.

Flora (me) -Last saw the Links 3 months ago. -The Links spent an afternoon at Hyrule Castle. -Four and Legend were allowed to investigate the library, but to be careful. -Wild and Wind took a trip into town. -Twilight was concerned Wild would get into trouble, but I told him they’d be fine. I got some drinks for us, and I asked him about his time period (refer to prior notes). Same questions were asked of Warriors later. -I’m not sure where Time, Sky, and Hyrule were. -Everyone left before the evening. Wild said goodbye, promised to let me know as soon as he returned.

Artemis (Era of Warriors) -Last saw the Links 2.5 months ago. -Heroes went through a portal right into the castle courtyard. Artemis let them know they were welcome to explore Hyrule Castle and the town. -Wild wandered off with Sky and Legend, though Artemis noted he was leading that pack. -Warriors brought Wind to visit some of his fellow soldiers he hadn’t seen in a while. -Time came to her with concerns about group morale, so she suggested spending time with some of their loved ones (including the Zeldas! This bodes well for future statements). -They left the next morning. Other than Time, nothing seemed off. -Artemis wants it known that their army has had troubles with traitors in the past. This caused much paranoia for Warriors for quite some time, but she was sure he’d worked past it by the time he began travelling with the heroes.

Sun (Era of the Skies) -Last saw the Links a little more than 2 months ago. -Arrived at the Sealed Temple late in the day. Sun and others helped make them feel comfortable (classic Skyloft hospitality), they let most of them sleep in the temple that night. Sky slept in Sun’s tent. -They were all very tired from traveling, so she didn’t see a lot of them. -Sun found Legend staring up at the Goddess Statue. He was wondering what the point was of defeating evil if it always rose again. Sun told him a story about the First Hero (reminder: ask for THAT later), which seemed to calm his nerves. (Is this strange for him?)

Dusk (Era of Twilight) -Last saw the Links less than 2 months ago. -Four told her at some point before arriving, Legend said something rude and Twilight had to tackle Wild to stop him from pouncing on his fellow hero. -At the castle, Four made a comment about the armaments available to the guards. Something about this made Twilight explode, saying how they couldn’t even protect the castle. He turned on Dusk, asking why she couldn’t have stopped the Twili invasion on her own. She tried to reason with him, but he stormed off. -Dusk took Four to the armory to try and calm him down. He noted that all of them seemed to be tense. -The next day, Time went to Ordon Village (Twilight’s hometown) to look for him. The rest of the Links followed in the afternoon.

Tetra (Era of the Great Sea) -Last saw the Links 1.5 months ago. -They were staying on Outset Island (Wind’s hometown), so Tetra decided to drop anchor and spend some time with Wind. They were there for several days. -Wind was excited to see Tetra. He babbled on and on about his adventures with the heroes. She asked if he’s done any exploring, and he said he had in Wild’s time. Got very quiet. -One the second morning, she found Sky alone in the woods of the island. He asked her about the flooding that created the Great Sea and wanted to know how many lives were lost. He was dismayed by the “legacy [he] left the world”, wondering what faith brought the people.

Dot (Era of Force) -Last saw the Links about a month ago. -They were only passing through the area. Four and some of the others had stayed back at his house to talk to Smith. -Over time, Dot has made friends with Hyrule. Apparently they both like tea a lot. -While she and Hyrule were having a picnic, Warriors approached with questions about the castle’s security. Hyrule said he’d go get supplies and catch up with her later. -After Dot showed how secure the castle was, Warriors began questioning the procedures for traitors (see Artemis’s statement). He then asked what she would do if Four betrayed her. -This part, Dot has asked me not to share with Artemis: Warriors grabbed onto her arm with enough force to hurt her. The bruise lasted for quite some time. -Hyrule suddenly appeared and stopped Warriors, asking what was wrong with him. Dot thinks he implied there was something wrong with the others, too. Warriors left, seeming confused. -Four came to visit with Wind, later, to say goodbye. She didn’t mention the incident to him.

Several red flags stand out to Flora. The first being Time noticing tension amongst the group. If their issues started small and built their way up, then perhaps what he saw were the beginnings of whatever happened to him. He’s not specific, though, about where their problems were originating from, much to Flora’s dismay, but whatever happened must have been not long after they left her castle.

Sky was definitely acting strangely, but truthfully, Flora has no idea if Legend’s actions were out of character. She can only hope they’ll make it to his time soon, so she can ask his Zelda herself.

By the time they visited Dusk, though, there was clearly something wrong. Wild apparently almost physically attacked Legend at some point, which Flora can barely believe. Wild would never hurt his fellow Hylian, let alone another hero. And Twilight’s respect for his queen apparently going out the window? What was up with that?

If what Artemis says is to be believed, though, Warriors has regressed. He’s lost a lot of the progress he made towards himself after the War Across the Ages. If he’s so out of line, Flora can only imagine what’s happening to the rest of them.

Flora’s stomach grumbles loudly. Right, dinner is soon. A full stomach will definitely help her thinking, and Dot already made the rounds to let everyone know her father will be attending. Whether he knows anything or not, she has about a million questions to ask him anyway.

Closing her book, Flora carries it with her to the dining hall.

  △ ▲△

The whole world, all of it, is coated in shadows. They hang from the sky like drapes, and never before has Zelda felt more alone.

“Link?” she calls out to the darkness, raising her torch just a bit higher. “Link, are you there?”

WIth her limited light, she almost runs right into a small statue. It comes up to Zelda’s hip, depicting a bird with its wings outstretched. But the top of its head is caved in, revealing a pile of kindling.

Right, it’s a torch.

Zelda lights the bird torch, which does nothing but provide a little more light. Perhaps on a whim, she decides to follow its directions, walking where its beak points.

“Link?” she shouts again. “Please, answer me!”

Again, Zelda comes upon another bird torch. And another, and another. Each time she finds one, she lights it, and she changes her path to follow its point. In the back of her mind, she remembers an old fairytale about finding your way back home.

As she travels more and more through this darkness, Zelda can see other things as well. Just on the edges of her torchlight, there are ruins. Buildings, torn apart or decayed, suffocated by the pervasive shadows. But she can’t stray from her path, not now.

Then, her light finds someone.

“Link?” Zelda asks. “Link, is that you?”

When he turns to her, Zelda is relieved. It’s Link, it really is! They can go home now, together, and-

The torch’s light gleams against the Master Sword. Blood drips from its hilt.

“Link, what did you do?” Zelda demands.

He says nothing, just takes a step closer. In fear and betrayal, Zelda steps back.

“Stop it,” Zelda says shakily. “Link, I’m warning you.”

Link still doesn’t respond. He darts towards her, raising the sword in a swift motion, and Zelda-

And Artemis wakes up in bed, gasping for air.

  △ ▲△

There’s one last thing Dot wants to do before she leaves with her fellow queens and princesses. A job that’s all hers, as Princess of Hyrule, and one she wants to make sure is done before she’s away for who knows how long.

“You’ve all met my Link,” Dot explains to the group as they make their way through the woods. Her pack is already full, “And you’ve seen his sword, the Four Sword.”

“It’s a remarkable blade,” Dusk comments. “From the legends I’ve heard, it could give the Master Sword a run for its money.”

Sun humphs at that, crossing her arms and sticking her chin up.

“Not as you’ve seen it,” Dot reveals. Just then, they come across an old stone sanctuary, with pillars standing proud. Everything is covered in moss and vines, except for one item. At the center of it all is a sword, its hilt gleaming a pure white.

“The Four Sword that my Four carries is a fake,” Dot continues. “A recreation, with the power Four needed after his journey. This is the real Four Sword.”

“Oh, wow!” Flora marvels at the blade. “I can’t believe it! To see such a historical artifact up close like this…”

Dot tugs on her cloak, stopping her from running. “I’m only here to check on the seal,” she states with exasperation. “We don’t want to disturb Vaati, now, do we?”

“Oh, don’t we?”

As the Zeldas were distracted, none of them noticed the shadows behind the Four Sword twisting and gaining shape. The being behind the sword was a perfect facsimile of Link, but with pure red eyes and darkness all over his body.

“Shadow?” Dot can’t help herself but reach out. “Is that-?”

Tetra suddenly grabs onto her shoulder, pulling her back. “Whoever you think that is, Princess, you’re mistaken. He’s no friend.”

Of course, Tetra’s right. Shadow never had such malice in his eyes, and he would certainly never hover over Vaati’s seal like that.

“I’m hurt, Princess,” Dark Link fakes a pout. “I’ve always been a friend to her grace.”

He turns to Sun, a wicked grin suddenly on his face.

“Isn’t that right, Hylia?”

All eyes turn to Sun. The progenitor of their bloodline, the founder of their kingdom. The first Queen of Hyrule.

The… Goddess Hylia?

Flora is finally the first one to speak. “What?”

[abizarreyodelingincident]

LU: The Sacred Beast (for a farmer)

The Sacred Beast (for a farmer)

His skin was burning.

Black particles floated up from the ground, toward a sky an unnatural shade of dusk. Spots danced before his eyes. He couldn’t… 

Illia. The kids. He… he had to stand. 

His bones shifted. 

Link blinked away tears. 

His groans of pain echoed through the air and in his head. Where was the monster? He… he had to get away from the monster before he passed out. 

The back of his hand flared, and set the rest of him on fire. Pain took over his mind, blinding him to everything but itself. He knew that something had changed in him, but as his suffering receded, so did his strength. 

Darkness claimed him, leaving him only with the knowledge of his body changed by the magic of the monsters. The last sensation he registered was that of his nails -- hard, split -- hitting a mount of dirt in the path. 

***

“Get that beast out of here!”

It took six guards pushing with all their mights, but they managed to throw Link off his hooves. The poor adventurer headbutted the stone rails leading to the South gates. He shook his head, more annoyed than hurt by the impact. On the other hand, the stone rail had crumbled. When he narrowed his eyes back at the guards, they clearly gulped.

Now, if only they'd just let him through already.

Not for the first time, Link really wished he would have been cursed into a more intimidating form. Maybe a big dog or a wolf would have been better. He certainly wouldn't have been dragged out of town by the horns, at least. Link entertained the image of those damned guards cowering before a mighty wolf before shaking his head. Daydreams wouldn’t get him anywhere. 

***

Link tilted his head as he pushed an ear against the singing stone. Some animal instinct of his couldn't help notice the otherworldly cold around it, nor the faint voices whispering through its ritualistic structure. Notes, howled to a moonless day. And fainter still, an invitation. Suddenly, he knew what he was meant to do. That didn’t help much. 

How in Farore's name was he meant to play those melodies in this form?!

Oh boy...

Link glanced around for a bit, partly out of heroism, partly out of embarrassment. He couldn't let anyone lose their hearing from what would happen next. Maybe that skull kid would, and he guessed that'd be punishment enough for the puppetry attacks. Seemed a fair trade in retrospect.

“Well?” Midna asked, scratching her vibrant flame-red hair. “Any clues, farm boy?”

He shot her a grim look, then cleared his throat. It came out shaky, and off-key.

Her shadowed form went still. “Oh no, farm boy. You are not braying that. I can't block my ears in this form. I'm not even corporal!”

Link resolutely ignored the ghostly jab in his ribs. Alright. Alright, the notes. He had to hit the right notes, correct?

Seconds later, the skull kid fled the Lost Woods, dozens of horrified critters running past him with their ears covered in whatever way they could manage.

***

The realm of the dead shifted to accommodate two beasts, sacred, a chasm away and yet less than a stride apart. Below, Hyrule Castle was witness to the impossible meeting between ancestor and descendant, proud chosen of the Goddesses and legends of grand tales.

The last notes faded away, a sense of serenity cloaking the world as both lowered their heads.

The Golden Wolf did a double take.

“... Why are you... Shouldn't you be a wolf?”

Link pawed at the ground and aimed his horns.

The Golden Wolf cringed. “Huh, right, right, sorry. I suppose I expected my descendant to be a wolf too… not that it's wrong to be something else! At all! It's just that the goddesses spoke of the Sacred Beast, and then my spirit took this form and… you know what? Let's just get to sword training, son.”

***

“A Sacred Beast to counter a Dark Beast. Giddy up, Link. We're in need of your horns again,” Midna said from his shadow.

Link didn't groan.

He had long since learned to channel his rage into rearing hindlegs and a skullbash strong enough to decapitate a bulblin. He let the shadows engulf him, took in the comforting weight of Midna on his back, then pawed in challenge before the glowing glyphs.

Beast Ganon was very surprised, a moment later, when his mad rampaging got cut short when he slammed himself face first into a snarling goat that didn't move an inch.

His tusk broke though. 

***

Link jumped at the sound of skittering pebbles. Ever since the old king had told him he was destined to save Hyrule from the Calamity, he'd been fearing failing a second time. It felt like the second he would relax, the whole world would collapse on top of him. Anything and everything that could threaten his mission would.

He'd startled himself awake every night since the revelation. Berated himself for resting, for letting himself be vulnerable in the open where any random monster, or even ill-intentioned traveler could kill him without a fight.

He couldn't fail.

He stumbled as his foot hit a root on the path, his body suddenly heavy and his sight blurry. He straightened up against the rocky side of the cliff. No. He had to stay alert. He couldn't let down his guard. Even if his eyelids weighed more than a talus.

The noise came from above him.

Link scrambled out of the way.

The creature that trotted down the slopes of the cliffside stood about as tall as a horse, and the pair of long, linked horns only added to the height. It also had hooves, but... broken or something. Link wasn't intimidated – he'd dealt with scarier – but he kept his arrow notched just in case it turned out territorial. The last horned animal he'd gone too close to had chased him up a tree. Stupid horned thing!

This one though... it brayed softly, almost comfortingly. Link blinked. Did wild beasts do that? Without thinking, he put his bow away and reached very slowly.

It did not snap teeth at him.

Did not startle away, fleeing like they could see all his failures.

His hand met warm coarse fur, and his breath hitched.

The animal nipped his sleeves, not hard enough to even dent the fabric, and knelt. Then tilted its head.

“You… want… climb?” he pushed out, struggling to find the proper words. “Me... on you?”

It nodded. Could it understand the hylian language? Maybe his hand gestures? Every other animal so far had fled from him the second they heard him coming. The only ones that didn't were the little four legged ones that barked when he got close to a stable. Tame. Right, that was the word.

He stared some more at the animal. It reminded him of... Gasping, he pulled out his Sheikah slate and swiped through the compendium. Goat! That was it. This animal looked a bit like a goat. Bulkier, and its horns weren't right, but the fur and the body was way too similar for it not to be a goat too.

Link grinned at the animal. “Goatie. You're a Goatie.”

It did the face some Hylians made when he was proud of remembering something they said was obvious. Wild almost cringed, but a burst of noise stole his attention, and he whirled around, rusty sword in hand.

“Haha, die, Hero!” some Yiga assassin crooned as it appeared in a blast of red magic and paper talismans. “Ganon's takeover will not be sto-GAH!”

The goat had rammed straight into the assassin's chest and sent them flying. As circumstances or Hylia had willed it, it just so happened that the Yiga had laid their ambush between a cliff and a hill. Whilst the goat hadn't hit them past the cliff's edge, it had indeed thrown the assassin down the hill, where they started to roll. Cursing. Hitting trees, bushes and unfortunate foxes all the way down to a small stream. Where a handful of lizalfos nested. Yikes. That looked painful.

The goat snorted, then turned up its nose at the poor Yiga.

With vivid blue eyes the same shade as his, the goat gestured for Link to get on its back. This time, he did not hesitate.

Horses were fun, Wild decided right there and then, but Goatie was so much better.

***

“Whoa! What's that thing?” Sky jumped to his feet, nervously eying the horned beast that had calmly trotted out of the bushes.

Amongst those that had drawn their swords, only Wind and Hyrule didn't sheath them back immediately upon recognition.

“Sky,” Legend deadpanned, “that's a goat. A farm animal. Not a bloodthirsty predator.”

Blushing faintly, Sky apologized, putting his sword away. “Right. I... I never saw one of these before.”

Time quickly pat him on the back, never letting the goat out of his sight. “Better be more cautious than not. Especially since farm animals can be quite dangerous in their own right. A well-placed kick from a cow or a horse will send you to the healer just as quickly as a bite from a wolfos. That goat's horns are... larger than I'm used to.”

“Yeah, I admit, I've never met that breed before. Anyone?” Legend swept the camp with his gaze.

Most shook their heads, but Warriors put a hand to his chin. “I swear I've seen one like this before.”

Even the goat looked nonplussed at that.

“Really?” Wind asked, glancing between the animal and his big brother. “You know how to tame one.”

The goat pawed the ground.

“No, no, it was during the War of Eras, and I had to jump through timelines a lot during that time period. It's not native to my Hyrule, but it's from one of yours.”

Hyrule piped up. “Maybe it's from Twilight's world? Too bad he's gone scouting.”

Wild finally blinked himself out of his daze. “That's… that's my friend. Helped me save Hyrule and everything.”

Four stared. “A goat helped you defeat Ganon?”

Wild scratched his cheek, willing himself not to remember the loneliness, the void opening up inside him as he realized his friend couldn't accompany him to the very end. The solemn look, that last nuzzle before he had to face his destiny inside the ruins of Hyrule's old heart. The tearing sound of black particles as they shot toward the sky, and nothing was left behind him...

Wild gulped. “Okay, not specifically Ganon, but I'm not sure I would have survived on my own without his help.” With a shaking smile, he knelt by Goatie and ran a hand behind his ears. His old friend gently nipped his fringe. “I can't tell you how many Yiga imposters this big fella headbutted straight off a cliff.”

Hyrule's hands stopped just inches away from the goat's fur. His legs tensed up, as if he was getting ready to dodge when he was a threat. The goat only turned placid blue eyes at him, as if to tell him 'you see a cliff somewhere?'

Hyrule's own gaze replied with 'I see your horns' which was fair enough, really.

***

Four froze on top of the stump. Wow. He thought he was observant, but that one had blindsided him. No wonder Wild and Twilight were so close. That explained a whole lot, including many things he now realized were quite humorous.

“... Alright, Twi, this'll be our little secret, but... can I just say that your eyes still freak me out? Especially from this far below?”

“Why do you think I stare at the Pretty Boy so often?”

“... Think you can teach me this power?”

***

“I swear, if this animal tries to munch on my clothes, I won't be held responsible for what happens next.”

The passive, square pupils would haunt Warriors' next nightmare.

They also involved cliffs.

***

“No wonder he doesn’t want to tell the others. Can you imagine the Captain’s reaction?”

“It’s not just that.”

“It’s a factor though,” Wild said. 

Time gave them both flat looks. “More importantly, he’s worried about their reaction to the magic he’s using.”

Four raised an eyebrow. “Why? What magic is he using?”

Time’s reply was suspiciously fast. “No clue, but that’s his secret to tell. Remember that.”

He was quick to leave, a bit too quick. Four might need to get to the bottom of this. In the meantime though, he showed Wild a smirk. 

“... I still think he’s a bit shy about his beast form.”

Wild snorted. 

***

“So, you've noticed how the old man is always calling Twilight 'kid', right?”

Wild raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “Yeah, and? Time's an old man. We're all green boys to him, that's all.”

“-except,” Legend jumped in, sharp, “he only calls Twilight 'kid'. Not you, or the little pirate or our resident smithy or, heaven forbids, me. Only our farmhand, who is coincidentally the second oldest with Warriors here.”

Wild discreetly looked for an exit, and to his despair, found none.

Warriors placed a hand over Wild's shoulder. “Look, it's obvious those two have a close bond. He's taking Twilight under his wing, showing him the ropes, having secret meetings. Not to mention the way Malon always had a soft look for him at the ranch.”

Okay, he didn't know what was going on there, but he also had a feeling he was going to hate everything that would come out of Legend's and Warriors' mouths. Tension was locking his muscles into places even as he tried to figure out an escape plan before he was subjected to an interrogation that would end up with Twilight's secret being revealed. He really didn't want to see Twilight's reaction to being betrayed so.

“Here's what we figured out. Time is Twilight's father. They just don't want to admit it so that our teamwork is not affected.”

Wild screamed on the inside.

“And you might be thinking that Twilight's too old to be his son, but consider this: time travel. Twilight is Time's kid from his future and they're both aware of it, so it's why Twilight looks up to him so much, even if they were a bit hesitant at first.”

Mental-Wild screamed louder.

“You... ”

“Don't even try. Twilight grew up on a ranch. He told us his dad taught him swordplay, and you can't ignore how similar their technique with a blade is.”

… Alright, that last one was a pretty good question. If Twilight was separated from Time by a good few generations, how in the world did they have this kind of technique? “He told me he's adopted.”

Warriors rolled his eyes and became instantly more punchable. “A weak deflection, Wild. The evidence doesn't lie.”

Legend stared a few seconds longer, then smirked. “No, no, Warriors, it's okay. I get it. Twilight and him are pretty close too. I'm sure they share a few secrets too. It's only natural. Wild can't deny or confirm anything, right?”

“No, I'm telling you he's not-”

Legend patted him on the shoulder, and was lucky Wild didn't smack him. “We understand.” Legend smugly ruffled his hair.

Seriously, Twilight better appreciate how much effort it was to keep this secret from the others!

***

Warriors threw his hands in the air. “Okay, there's no way Goatie following us is a coincidence. We're in the middle of the desert! There's no food to graze here!”

“I'm telling you,” Wild groaned. “He's the Sacred Beast, sent by the goddesses in Hyrule's time of need.”

Hyrule looked away from the ruins' carving he was trying to decipher. “Huh?”

“The Kingdom!”

“Wild, your pet goat is great and all... ” Legend carefully slid behind Time and away from the large farm animal, eyes wary. “But you don't have to pretend it's a goddesses-given gift just to keep him around. Nayru knows I've had my share of non-divine, regular animal companions too. And they talked.”

Hyrule and Wind perked up. “Oh, really?” the little pirate asked.

Legend launched himself into a succinct if entertaining description of the time he snuggled inside a kangaroo's pouch in order to jump over ravines and hidden caves. Goatie watched from the other side of the campfire, poking Warriors whenever the soldier seemed to doze off.

***

“Twilight!” Wild shouted, scrambling through his slate to summon up a bow and arrow.

Stupid world hopping. Stupid sunny day. They'd landed in one of Akkala's grassy fields, and it had seemed safe. He'd catalogued the location of the worst of Ganon's minions all over the slate, and there really shouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary here of all places. He'd told the others as much. They hadn't completely relaxed, but they hadn't been prepared either for a lynel straight up rampaging into their camp.

Nor for the small horde of lesser creatures flanking it.

At some point, the lynel had managed to corner his big brother alone by the edge of a cliff, the remaining creatures forming a wall between them. Then a club swing had ripped the Ordon Sword out of Twilight's grip, and Wild's heart had sunken lower than his stomach.

He had to save him!

Wild weaved between a pair of lizalfos that Sky and Warriors ran through the next second, ducked under a moblin's foot that was burned to a crisp right after and slid with his bow at the ready. The lynel had picked up Twilight in one of its enormous paws and lifted him off the ground as if he didn't weigh thrice as much as Four.

Heat and light flared at the back of the lynel's throat.

He wouldn't make it.

“No!”

Twilight grabbed the sides of the lynel's head with both hands.

Even the monster paused, too surprised to react.

Wild winced preemptively.

Twilight slammed his forehead against the lynel's skull.

The impact rang like a bell. 

The lynel collapsed.

Twilight landed with a dull thud on top of the beast's massive arms, and they could only rush forward in an attempt to help him away before it stood back up. Other monsters scampered, horrified at their leader being downed in one blow. Yet, as the Links were but a few body lengths away, the lynel's eyes flickered open, fangs glimmering with the flames licking the back of its throat.

With a barely human howl, Twilight grabbed the sides of the lynel's head again. It whimpered. 

The Links all stopped right in their tracks to cringe preemptively. Someone, likely Wind, muttered “Oh shit.”

The resounding crack of bones sent a shiver down their spines.

The lynel's chin dug three inches into solid ground. Its eyes rolled back into its skull, and its tongue lolled out onto its beard. It wasn't getting up again.

Twilight staggered away, glaring a storm at the retreating monsters. “And fracking stay the goshesses away from my herd!” he slurred at them with a shaky fist.

“So,” Legend began, as shell shocked as a pale Warriors, “remember when you described Twi as having a head as hard as a goron's teeth?”

Warriors mutely nodded.

“Turns out that was an understatement.”

***

Legend subtly put his magic mirror to the side, pretending he hadn't seen a pretty interesting reflection moments earlier. With faux nonchalance, he picked up Twilight's hawk mask. The effect on his sight was worth experimenting, but it was the appearance it gave that Legend sought.

“You know, this kind of reminds me,” he started, watching his fellow hero for his reactions. “In a faraway kingdom, it is traditional to don masks in the likeness of beasts to honor the survival of those that became one in the dark world.”

Twilight, to his credit, appeared entirely guileless. “Huh, and here I heard you became a phantom, unable to interact with anyone else, never to realize you've become lost.”

Well, he had the 'helpless' part right. But Legend wouldn't let that little game distract him. So, Twilight didn't want to come out and say it outright?

“What kind of beast would you want to be?”

Twilight didn't even hesitate. “A wolf, obviously.”

Four choked on his saliva.

Awkward silence fell on top of the clearing as three out of the four heroes exchanged baffled looks, before two of that same number decided that Twilight, apparently, couldn't lie to save his life.

“OBVIOUSLY!” Wild screeched.

Beads of nervous sweat rolled on the sides of Four's face as he nodded. “Y-yeah, I mean, it's kind of the logical choice for Twilight. I can't believe you don't see it.”

Wild frantically rushed to Twilight's side and gestured to his pelt and hood. “He's so wolf-like! With his... goat pelt... and goat head hood.”

“Preys!” Four jumped to his feet, struck by frankly divine inspiration. “Preys he took down like a wolf!”

Cool as a cucumber, Twilight grabbed his little brother by the shoulder and pulled him closer. There was something in his expression, something sharper, and perhaps even a bit feral. It glinted in the flash of teeth he showed, before the grin softened. “See? They agree with me.”

Legend stared, his neutral expression hiding the surge of disgust that had flowed through him at the idea that they considered this a convincing argument. The sheer insult that they thought he bought that. At least, their reactions pretty much gave away that they knew about Twilight's caprine form.

His smile intact, Twilight extricated himself from the other two's grip, ruffling their hair as he went. “Well, that was a fun thought, but I think I ought to scout for a bit, lest we get ambushed by monsters in our downtime.”

And with that, he left, shameless. Legend felt a vein pulse on his forehead as he noticed the goat emblem painted on Twilight's shield. His mind became torn between a massive groan of exasperation and crippling shame that he hadn't made the connection before. Had anyone else ever met a goat just like Goatie?

Four and Wild eyed him nervously. But the second Legend tried to hold their gaze, they decided that they really, really needed to get back to brainstorming the forging of a weapon for Wild. Good luck with that, he thought, idiots.

Mere moments later, Legend found Twilight leaning against a tree, shaking all over from silent laughter. He was clutching his ribs, whimpering as he bit down on his knuckles not to explode.

Oh.

Teary eyed, with a massive grin on his face, Twilight breathed out a long sigh of relief. “Did you see their faces?”

Legend blinked. Apparently, Twilight couldn't lie to save his life, but he could play others around him like cheap grass whistles.

Despite himself, Legend said: “I'm impressed.”

“I really shouldn't... ” Twilight admitted with a sly grin. “But you don't know joy until you've forced Wild to try and cover up for you. Even though he constantly needs someone to do it for him, he's just so bad at it.”

Legend smirked. “And here I thought you were a stick in the mud. Turns out under that exterior of a solemn, serious young man hides a troublemaker with a good poker face. What would our dear leader say?”

For a second, Twilight eyed him as if he had sprouted a second head and started dancing. Then, he snorted and patted his shoulder. “Veteran, you should see what the Old Man's capable of.”

Mildly disturbed, Legend found himself grateful when one of Wind's bokoblin jumped out of the foliage and attempted to assassinate them. It was a welcome distraction from a much scarier prospect. The short-lived attack also led him to discover the source of Twilight's shapeshifting.

The cursed stone lit up with orange lines, inches away from Twilight's eyes. “Yep, that's how I do it. During my adventures, I needed a bit of help, but now I can control it myself. Still pretty dangerous for someone else though.”

“So, you use dark magic... to turn into a goat.”

“Pretty much. What about it?”

“Nothing. I just needed to say it out loud.”

Twilight pondered, then shrugged. “I suppose that's fair. Now, I really do need to scout our surroundings if there are bokoblins lying in wait like this. You're coming?”

With a nod, Legend followed in his footsteps. He hadn't thought he shared too many points in common with Twilight, but apparently, his companion was full of surprises. It made him wonder what else there might be under that plain, good country boy façade... Eh, he supposed he would find out eventually.

“By the way, dark magic turns me into a pink bunny.”

“No way.”

BONUS

Ordon saw the serenity of its pre-harvest morning suddenly destroyed by high-pitched screaming.

“I told you he's not Time's time-traveling son from the future! See? This looks nothing like Lon Lon Ranch! It's not even in the right spot on the map!”

Legend shrugged, leaning against the goats' enclosure. One of said animals trotted a bit closer, and Legend briefly pondered if Twilight would use cursed artefacts for the sole purpose of getting the jump on one of them. In the end, it was seeing said farmer, in all his inglorious bumpkin garments that actually convinced him that the goat sniffing at his sleeves was just a goat.

“There were a lot of correlating details. Twilight being Time's son would have explained a lot.”

Twilight's subsequent pause and shrug were entirely too innocent. “Well, I am adopted and no one knows who my blood parents are, so I guess it's possible...”

“OH COME ON!”

[nerdiests]

heroes always get remembered (but you know legends never die)

okay FIRST OFF i’d like to wish a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the wonderful @sillus !! loaf, i adore you so much and i know i’ve said this waaaaaay too much over the past ten-ish hours, but you deserve it!! 

second off, another @linkeduniverse fic!! woo!! longest one i’ve written, too!! yeehaw lads!! check it out on ao3 under the same name!! 

warning for: violence, character death

Legend hadn’t seen what others would call a “gift from the goddesses” as one. If it was any type of gift, it’d be an accursed one, because that’s all Legend saw it as. A curse. He’d never been a devout follower of any of the goddesses, despite being the chosen hero of the era. Was this his punishment? Maybe. But not for not believing, that he was sure of. What he was being punished for, though. That was the mystery.

He never wanted to tell the others about it. He had his secrets that he held close to his chest, as did everyone else. Legend kept a few things - no, a lot of things - a secret. The entirety of his venture on Koholint, for one. His ability to become a painting. And his curse. If Legend had it his way, none of them would ever find out about it. He could count on one hand how many people knew about it. Zelda, Ravio (for some ungodly reason), and... Marin. 

She was the one he’d told of his own will. He’d decided, months into his stay on Koholint, that he would tell her. She had listened, and she had believed him and that was the crucial thing. But now she was gone. And all Legend had left were his double, his sister, and himself. 

Legend was a secretive man. But this secret was one he would keep until the demise of everyone, except his own. Because that was the secret. Legend couldn’t die.

He didn’t know why this was, he just knew that it was true. He’d discovered that fact on his first adventure, when he’d been in the wilderness and got into a scuffle he shouldn’t have walked away from. He should’ve died in those woods, when he was thirteen and young and bright eyed and foolish. He remembers falling to the forest floor. He remembers feeling fainter and fainter as the edges of his vision blurred and the ground felt damp beneath him with something other than the dew on the grass. And he remembers waking up in that exact same spot, a hole torn in his tunic and a faint scar over where he’d been stabbed - oh god he’d been stabbed. But he’d walked away from that. Legend didn’t know how or why, but he had. 

The rest of his adventures passed and he grew better at avoiding fatal blows, as any experienced adventurer would. He went through six adventures - one that seemed like a fever dream but he still had the dress and everything else to prove it - and his secret had stayed locked up in the depths of his mind, only ever being told to one person and being revealed to two others. And Legend wouldn’t reveal this secret of his. It wouldn’t be something ever coming to light, not if he had his way.

With the start of his seventh adventure with the rest of him (and that was a weird sentence to say, wasn’t it?) but also not him, Legend knew none of them could ever find out. He would never let it slip. Besides, as Four had put it, they were all sitting on secrets. Some of them just had more than others did. 

Legend knew that he had the most. He talked of six adventures, but he hid the contents of his fourth from them all. He didn’t talk about his Zelda, about how she was his younger sister. His twin, who he hadn’t known existed until the end of his first adventure. He refused to talk about the time he’d fought what looked like four different copies of Four on his first adventure within the Pyramid in the Dark World. He didn’t talk about the Moon Pearl and what it did. He didn’t talk about when he’d been cursed to turn into a painting, and why he wasn’t stuck as one. And he kept his most important secret so close to his chest that it was barely obvious it existed. 

Legend was a secretive man. They all knew that. Unlike Sky or Wind or Hyrule, Legend gave the bare minimum on everything he’d done. It wasn’t their business. Yes, he was a Link and he’d saved not only his Hyrule multiple times, but four other countries as well (they didn’t need to know about Koholint, no one did). They didn’t need to know much else. Hell, he didn’t even intend for them to find out about Ravio, but it happened. But he wouldn’t be letting any more secrets slip through the cracks. Not if he could help it. But they all made it ridiculously hard to keep anything a secret. He’d caught Wind trying to snoop through his journal when he’d left it unattended not just one time, but multiple times. Thank the goddesses that he wrote it in a language that no one else could ever read. The perks of being the only person to know a language, he supposed. 

What Legend hated about being a secretive man, though, was the unending questions he would get from everyone. Most of them from their youngest, but there was a healthy amount of questions from everyone in their motley gathering of Links. He tended to dodge his way around them most of the time, and the times he couldn’t he would work his way to a subject change. Legend knew that some of them - namely Time, Twilight, Four, and Warriors - had noticed him dodging answers to questions anyone asked, but none of them called him out on it. For that, at least, Legend was grateful. Sometimes… You get asked questions you don’t want answers to. 

One of these days, Legend knew his secrets would spill. Maybe all at once, maybe one at a time, but they would come out. For now, though, Legend would keep all of them locked away until such a time that he deemed fit to let them come out. And that time would be never, if he had his way. He knew that wouldn’t be the case, but he could hope. Hoping could only get him so far, but he’d do it nonetheless. 

Though. There were certain times that would test his patience. Like what the rest of the group was doing now. Wind was eagerly talking about some of the events of his first adventure - the final fight with Ganondorf, if Legend was hearing correctly - and a solid half of the group was listening in eagerly. Hyrule, Four, Sky, and Wild were all enraptured by the story, and Warriors and Twilight were both listening with interest. Time wasn’t facing the group, but Legend could tell he was listening in as well. They’d been trading stories about their adventures for the past hour now, starting with Wild talking about the time he’d been flung off a cliff by a giant rock monster he’d called a Talus, then Sky had talked about the time he’d ventured through a flooded forest in search of things he said were called “Tadtones”, then Warriors had offhandedly brought up the time he’d singlehandedly taken down a “King Dodongo.” From how Warriors talked about it, it seemed like it was a big deal and all, but Legend had taken on a Dodongo by himself when he was fourteen. If it was as easy as that battle had been, Legend didn’t think it’d be all that hard to take on a “King Dodongo.” 

But now Wind was wrapping up his story - him and his Zelda (he’d said Tetra was her name) had ended up getting saved by Tetra’s pirate crew as they floated in the ocean above the flooded ruins of the Hyrule of old - and everyone would be expecting another one. He expected Hyrule or Four to pick up the slack, but as Wind finished talking his eyes fell on Legend, and there was a spark of interest there. Oh no. 

“Hey, Legend! Why don’t you tell a story?” Wind asked. The rest of the group all turned towards him, and Legend blanked for a couple seconds. This was. Not good. No sir, not at all. How could he put this…

“No,” Legend replied simply. Wind’s face fell, and there were a few confused looks from the others. 

“Why not?” Hyrule asked simply, equal parts disappointment and curiosity. Goodness, some of them could just act like children sometimes. Legend sighed. He wouldn’t get any writing in his journal done tonight. He was going to go to bed soon anyways. Snapping his journal shut and securing it in his bag, Legend locked eyes with Hyrule. 

“I don’t want to,” he said, shrugging and attempting to put on a nonchalant air. It succeeded pretty well, based on the pout Wind was giving him. He looked back down at his bag, but he knew that everyone was still looking at him. 

“C’mon, Legend. You never tell any stories and you’re always vague about everything!” Wind said. Were Legend and Time the only real adults here? Twilight and Warriors might be older than he was, but neither of them really acted their ages all the time. ...Actually, scratch his assumption. He was the only adult here, Time could be such a little shit sometimes. 

“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it, hm?” Legend replied, looking up for a second to raise an eyebrow before looking back down at his pack. He was going to idly reorganize everything in his pack until they stopped looking at him. 

“You’re such a downer,” Wild said, groaning loudly. There was a hum of agreement from Wind, and Legend just shrugged. Did he look like he cared about that? He cared about not telling anyone his damn secrets! 

“But why do you not want to talk about it?” Wind asked. Legend scoffed. 

“I don’t. Is that not a good enough reason for you? Or do you not want to-” Legend was cut off by another voice, one that he wasn’t necessarily expecting but was welcome nonetheless. 

“No need to badger him, Wild, Wind,” Twilight cut in, and Legend glanced up at that. Twilight wasn’t who he was expecting to come to his defense, but he wasn’t expecting anyone so Twilight was better than no one, he supposed. He locked eyes with Twilight for a few seconds, who gave him an understanding look, before turning back to Wind and Wild and started talking to them about why they shouldn’t push people into doing things they don’t want to do and how they wouldn’t like anyone to do that to them, would they? 

While Twilight was doing that, Legend turned to Time. Time raised an eyebrow, and Legend gestured towards the edge of the campsite they’d claimed as their own. Time shrugged. Legend knew that Time was set to be on first watch that night, but at this point he wanted to get away from the rest of the camp. And with Time’s approval to take his watch shift, Legend shifted a bit, before getting up and heading out a bit further from the camp. The only people that actually noticed him walking away were Hyrule, Warriors, and Sky. But none of them said a word, and for that Legend was grateful. 

-

For a while, Legend’s reluctance to talk about anything in detail from any of his adventures was put out of the group’s collective consciousness. They didn’t talk about their adventures or anything like that, just about nothing in particular. Stuff they missed, things they were going to do after their adventure. Warriors in particular spent what Legend thought was way too much time waxing poetic about his boyfriend, but it kept spirits high. 

Eventually, though. The tension that was created during Legend’s refusal to talk about his adventures - and he didn’t need to talk about his adventures, they should respect his privacy as much as they wanted their own privacy respected - would build up and up and up and it would snap. Legend didn’t know when it would happen, but he knew it would. He really didn’t want it to, he didn’t. But it would. So Legend tried to avoid it. He didn’t want to have an argument pop up and end with him snapping at someone. 

But what Legend hadn’t noticed was Hyrule keeping an eye on him. Watching him, trying to make his own guesses at things. Legend, who was too preoccupied trying to ignore tension building up in one source completely missed the other source of it. 

It all came to a head about a month after Legend’s quasi-argument with Wind and Wild, when they’d just switched over from Four’s Hyrule to Wild’s. Legend had semi-relaxed, thinking that the tension that had built up had died down to some extent, but because he’d only been looking in one place for tension in their group that would be his ruin. 

The evening it happened, Legend could recall the most minute of details. There was a slight chill in the air, and dew on the grass just outside the cave they took refuge in from the rain that had just ended. Wild was having a fair amount of trouble starting a fire with the damp wood he found, even with the magical help that the flameblade he had provided him. Twilight had been swearing under his breath with his tongue poking from between his teeth as a piece of charcoal glided over the page. Warriors was writing a letter, tapping his pencil against his cheek as he thought. Wind and Four were chatting about how odd the weather was in Wild’s Hyrule, and they managed to drag Time and Sky into their discussion. And Legend himself? He’d been sorting a few things in his pack, because he needed something to do with his hands and he wasn’t risking pulling his journal out. But Hyrule hadn’t been doing anything. At the time, Legend hadn’t thought about it much. But in hindsight, he should have. 

“Hey Legend? I have a question for you,” Hyrule said, catching Legend off guard. He nearly dropped his boomerang onto his foot from where he held it. He didn’t bother with putting up the boomerang, instead opting to put it in his lap, and ignored all the eyes on him and Hyrule. 

“Yeah? What is it?” Legend asked, trying to seem nonchalant. This wasn’t a situation he wanted to be in. He had no clue what kind of question Hyrule would be asking. 

“You always talk about your second and third adventures, and your sixth, but you don’t go into a lot of detail about your first, or your fourth, or your fifth. Why?” Hyrule asked. Dammit. Legend knew Hyrule was perceptive. Of course he was, Hyrule came after him in the timeline and living in a world like theirs you had to be. 

“Because it’s my business. Is it not enough to know that I saved Hyrule twice, and multiple other places?” Legend replied. If he could just… Evade this line of questioning, it’d be better. But considering that the seven other members of their travelling party had all stopped what they were doing to listen to this play out, that wasn’t likely at all. So he’d have to try and meet this line of questioning head on. 

“But you always evade every single question we ask about it! You don’t need to be deliberately cagey, we’ve all dealt with weird stuff on our adventures!” Hyrule said, his voice growing louder as he spoke. 

“Maybe I just don’t want to talk about it! Did you think about that, Hyrule?” Legend fired back, reaching to move his sword a bit closer to him. His fight or flight instinct was ready to kick in and if he needed to run, he would. He didn’t care how running from his problems would make him look - and it’s not like he was running from his problems, just some questions he didn’t want to answer! That was all!

“Sometimes you need to share more than the bare minimum, Legend! That’s all you’ve given us about half of your quests, that you saved Hyrule or Hytopia or Holodrum or Labrynna or wherever you were with that fourth adventure of yours, but you’ve said next to nothing else about them!” This time, Hyrule was shouting. His face had gone a bit red, and Legend knew that his was likely in a similar state. 

“Well… What about Time and Wind? They’re deliberately obtuse about facts surrounding their adventures! Wind doesn’t talk about how his second adventure doesn’t even make sense, and Time’s just full of secrets!” Legend replied, a bit flustered. 

“This isn’t about them, it’s about you, Legend!” Hyrule shouted. 

“I don’t give a fuck if it’s just about me, it’s bullshit that you’re focusing on me and ignoring other people that’re doing the exact same damned thing!” Legend shouted back, grabbing his sword sitting next to him with one hand and his boomerang with the other. He stood up, and so did Hyrule. They stared for a moment, and Legend opened his mouth to speak. Twilight beat him to it though.  

“...Hey, no need to get so heated, we can jus-” Twilight’s words were interrupted by Legend whirling around with his sword and pointing it at him. Now that caught everyone off guard. Wild made to move, but Time gave him a minute shake of his head. 

“Shut the fuck up, you don’t get to speak. You’re keeping secrets too, and no one fucking calls you out on it either! You’re so fucking obvious about it too, and that’s the worst part! This is bullshit! All of it! Bullshit!” Legend yelled. His arm holding the sword was shaking because Legend was shaking with rage, and it was extremely lucky for Twilight that Legend was far enough away that the sword was nowhere near him. Legend’s arm holding the sword slowly fell back to his side, and he turned back towards Hyrule. 

“Right now, I know two things. You’re calling me out for not sharing, when every single one of us has secrets we don’t want to share, but you’re asking me to share what I’d rather not? That’s hypocrisy right there!” Legend barked out a harsh laugh, his eyes narrowing. 

“The other thing that I know? I don’t want to fucking be here.” With those words, Legend stalked off, heading out of the cave, out of the small clearing immediately outside the cave, and into the woods surrounding them. He didn’t care where he went, as long as it was away from the rest of them. Fucking hypocrites, Four had said they all had secrets and everyone had been respecting everyone’s privacy, but they try and invade his personal life? Fuck that. 

Hyrule, meanwhile, was staring at the empty space Legend had been standing a few seconds prior, breathing heavily. So was everyone else, as a matter of fact. 

“Well. That escalated quickly,” Four said, breaking the silence that had been put in place by Legend’s angry leave. 

“I was… Not expecting to have a sword pointed at my face today,” Twilight mumbled, almost to himself. Warriors, from where he was seated nearby Twilight, reached over to give Twilight a pat on the shoulder.

“You’ll get used to expecting the unexpected sword pointing at your face. Don’t worry,” Warriors said simply, and Twilight blustered at that. 

“What do you mean, get used to it? Have you had people unexpectedly pointing swords at you?” Twilight asked, voice full of concern. Warriors just shrugged, and Twilight watched him incredulously. Hyrule, meanwhile, had finally calmed himself down sufficiently and had turned towards the group at large. 

“Are… Are none of you worried about Legend?” Hyrule asked. No one really paid much attention to that, but Twilight turned to look at him and raised an eyebrow. 

“You’re worrying about the guy that you just got into a yelling match with?” Twilight asked, skeptical. Hyrule nodded a few times. 

“He’s… He’s like family, Twilight. Might get into arguments but you’ll worry about them regardless,” Hyrule said. Twilight gave a glance at… Warriors, strangely, before looking back at Hyrule and nodding. 

“I get that. But he needs to cool off a bit. You go and find him now and you’ll both work yourselves into another argument. He’ll either come back here, or you’ll go out and find him in an hour or two,” Twilight said. Hyrule knew Twilight was right on some level, but he was still going to fret about it. About Legend. He’d gone out into the forest and Legend wasn’t familiar with Wild’s Hyrule! He knew he’d just got into an argument with him and he’d been the reason Legend had stalked off like that, but he didn’t want Legend to get hurt! Hyrule wouldn’t wish harm on anyone.

Unbeknownst to Hyrule, he’d started pacing around the cave they were in. He just walked back and forth, from the cave entrance back to where Twilight sat. Back and forth and back and forth and back. Warriors, Four, Wind, and Twilight watched him as he paced, seemingly unaware that he was. 

“I’m going to go after him,” Hyrule said after a substantial amount of time had passed. Twilight laughed. 

“Good thing, too. You’ve been pacing for the past twenty minutes. Wild thinks he’ll get a fire lit soon, so you’ve got two hours,” Twilight said. Hyrule balked. 

“I’ve been pacing?” he asked, incredulous. At that, Four and Wind started laughing. 

“You really didn’t notice?” Four asked. Hyrule shook his head, and that only got Four and Wind to laugh louder. Hyrule pouted at the two of them and turned back to Twilight. 

“Do you think that Wild would have any idea where Legend went?” Hyrule asked. Before Twilight could speak, Wild piped up from where he was holding his flameblade next to the wood to dry it out.

“No clue. I didn’t get a good look at where he was running when he went into the woods, so I can’t give any guesses,” Wild said, tilting the angle of the sword a bit to get it closer to the actual wood without touching it. Hyrule frowned, looking out at the forest for a moment, before grabbing his sword and shield. He hesitated for a moment, before grabbing the rest of his pack as well. Legend might go and get himself hurt.  

“I’ll be back. With Legend,” Hyrule said, before walking out of the cave and off into the forest where he’d seen Legend run. With any luck, he’d be able to find Legend in time for dinner, and be able to apologize for putting him on the spot like that. He didn’t mean for everything to get that loud. Or that confrontational. Maybe… Maybe he should’ve asked that question when it was just the two of them. It might’ve gone better that way. 

-

“Goddessdamned bullshit,” Legend grumbled to himself, marching angrily through the forest. His knuckles were white around the hilt of his sword, and every tree he passed by he’d smack with his boomerang. It was a bit nicer than punching each tree he came across, because it wasn’t ever nice to have your fist in a bloody mess. Legend knew from experience. 

“Calling me out in front of the whole fucking group, invading my privacy and ignoring the fact that I said I didn’t want to fucking talk about it, goddesses be damned,” Legend growled, smacking another tree repeatedly. His boomerang cut a deep gash into the bark as it slammed into the tree over and over. Eventually, Legend stopped, if only because he’d knocked his knuckles against the tree instead of his boomerang. 

“Can’t they respect what I want to do? No? Bullshit,” Legend said, shaking the hand he’d accidentally smacked the tree with and leaving the boomerang stuck inside the tree for a few seconds, before grabbing it and continuing to stomp his way through the forest, ignoring all the sticks that snapped underfoot. Legend wasn’t exactly of the mind that there could be enemies in the woods, he was just being angry for the sake of being angry. In the back of his mind he knew that whoever would come to find him could find him pretty easily with his trail of trees with scratches all over them. 

With a huff, Legend smacked the next tree, letting the boomerang get lodged deep in the wood. When he went to go pull the boomerang from the wood, though, he found that he couldn’t.

“You’re shitting me, no!” Legend said angrily, yanking on the boomerang again. It refused to budge. He didn’t even bother with trying to yank on it again, instead moving to grab his sword. With a yell, Legend slammed the blade into the tree, right at the join where the boomerang met the wood. With an angry cracking noise, the tree started to teeter away from him, before falling over. His boomerang fell the opposite way, finally freed from the confines of its wooden prison. He took a moment to let his anger dissipate and smirked at the tree that had dared to try and take his boomerang. 

Now that his problem was solved and his head had cooled slightly, Legend surveyed the area around him. He was in the middle of nowhere. Brilliant. He could probably find his way back to camp at this point, but he didn’t particularly feel like heading back there. To him, it felt like he’d be crawling back to ask for forgiveness, and that wasn’t what he was doing. So Legend marched on. 

As he walked, the sun started to sink lower on the horizon. Legend really didn’t want to be stuck outside when it was dark out, but if that was what would happen, then so be it. He’d seen a few apple trees along his route, and he could eat some of those and sleep up in one of the trees. He’d slept up in trees on his previous adventures when he was down on rupees, he could manage it for the night. They’d just switched Hyrules that day, so there wasn’t any reason to worry about them switching over with Legend so far off. If anything, he’d probably end up coming back the next morning. 

Sighing to himself, Legend sat down next to the tree he’d felled in his boomerang rage - boomerage, if you would. If he really was going to spend his night out here, he might as well try and start getting those apples he saw on the trees he’d walked by a while back. So Legend started retracing his steps, following the gashes on the trees back towards camp. He’d noticed a small grove with some apple trees near it in his haze of rage. That’d be the perfect place to pick up a few apples to munch on, and if he could find somewhere with fresh water he’d be even better off. 

Legend started humming quietly as he walked, trying to fill the relative silence around him. The woods were too quiet for his tastes - no birdsong, even this late in the evening, and the crickets hadn’t started up yet, so he found it odd - so Legend filled the woods with songs he’d learned over his years of travelling. Some folksongs from Labrynna or Holodrum, a haunting melody best accompanied with a piano and drums he’d picked up in Subrosia, a few jaunty barsongs he’d learned from Lorule, and even the tune from the clothing shop in Hytopia. The silence lessened, with Legend filling the trees around him with the song that the birds seemed to not pick up. 

What really threw Legend off was the lack of wildlife around him. He’d at least expected to come across a deer or two, maybe some wild boar, but he didn’t see anything of the sort. It really threw him off, but he didn’t let that show on his face. It plagued his thoughts, but he wasn’t going to let his emotions win over his face too. 

In the middle of his not-so-swift hike back to the grove, something Legend saw made him pause. A few platforms made of flimsy wood and bones, some overturned logs, a big campfire, some wooden crates and metallic boxes, and a few weapons tossed around on the ground. Legend glanced back at the trees he was walking by. Yeah, he’d passed by this camp on his angry march out to wherever he’d ended up. 

“How the hell did I not get spotted?” Legend asked, moving to duck behind one of the larger trees. He hadn’t gotten the best glimpse at the camp itself, but he didn’t want to get caught in a battle he wasn’t prepared for. All he had was his sword and his boomerang, he didn’t have any of his other items. Hell, he didn’t have any of his medallions or rings or anything, because he’d taken them all off to sort through them! He wasn’t even wearing his tunic, he was just in the green undershirt! Getting into a fight now would be the worst case scenario, even if he did have the advantage of coming back from literally anything they could throw at him. Well, there were a few things he was pretty sure even he couldn’t survive, but he didn’t want to test that. 

Peering around from behind the tree again, Legend noticed something. The camp was… Extremely empty. Nothing was even close to it that was alive that wasn’t him, and Legend wasn’t necessarily sure he wanted to find out why that was. But if nothing was in the camp… Legend could just go on past and not worry about anything. So he moved out from behind the tree and started walking, when a truly delectable smell caught his attention. His head whipped around, and Legend’s eyes focused in on the source of the smell - a huge cut of meat roasting above the campfire. How had he not noticed it before?  

“Maybe I could…” Legend murmured to himself, taking stock of the situation. The camp was empty. Theoretically, all the enemies that had called this camp home could’ve all been killed ages ago, but that cut of meat looked fairly fresh. So the monsters all had to be around here somewhere, though Legend was guessing they weren’t that nearby. If they were, he would’ve noticed them in his rage-blinded march through the woods. Or, at least he hoped he would’ve noticed. 

After a few seconds of thinking, Legend decided that the benefits of grabbing that prize cut of meat outweighed the disadvantages and he quickly made his way into the camp, stepping over the weapons he saw. The enemies in this camp wouldn’t be back before he made off with his prize, anyways. 

As Legend reached out to take the cut of meat, he grinned to himself. He was getting some wonderful meat without having to do any work to get it. And even though he didn’t have anything to eat with that wasn’t his hands, Legend was happy that he at least had this. Although, his good mood wasn’t going to last. Because right as his fingers brushed against the cut - a bit dry, but he’d had worse - there was a loud roar from across the clearing. Legend’s head snapped up, and he saw a small army of bokoblins and moblins - all native to Wild’s Hyrule, and all of them in silver or gold colors. 

“Mother fucker,” Legend swore loudly, giving up on his half-baked plan of pretending he didn’t exist and jumping away from the fire. He took stock of his situation. The group numbered ten - eight bokoblins, two moblins, half of the bokoblins gold and the other half silver and both moblins silver-colored as well - and although half of them didn’t carry weaponry, both of the moblins held a weapon of some sort. One carried a sword, and the other held a claymore, both of what Wild had called the “royal” variety.  

“I am so screwed. Fuck you, Hylia,” Legend muttered to himself, his grasp on his sword tightening as he lifted it up in front of him. Guess he would be getting into a fight today. Brilliant. As the bokoblins started running at him - admittedly a bit stiltedly - Legend lifted up his sword and tucked his boomerang into his belt. 

“Bring it, you little shits,” Legend said, more to hype himself up than to intimidate bokoblins. The only thing you really needed to intimidate bokoblins was having a weapon twice the size of yourself (according to Wild, at any rate). Unfortunately, all Legend had was his tempered sword, so that would have to do. 

Everything was a whirlwind around him as the fighting started. Most of the bokoblins had clubs or spears of some sort - stay out of range of the spears even if they look like they’re made of wood and bone, those splinter, don’t want to get stuck on one of those - but there were two bokos carrying bows, one carrying a sword, and one of the moblins held a claymore. Bad news for Legend, who had to keep up a constant fervor of ducking and trying to get hits in when he could. If he had his shield he’d allow himself to get more daring with his attacks, but as it was he was already on the defensive. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted another attempt to bludgeon him with a gigantic spiked bat, and Legend snapped himself from his thoughts. No time to think. 

He spun out of the way of the bat, started whirling his sword around, and sprung away the moment he felt his sword hit something. One of the silvers fell to the ground, its head detached from its body. Legend didn’t even pause, keeping up with his assault on the rest of the monsters. 

One sword swing to counter the stab of a spear here, one duck away from a sword there, and a counterattack swiftly to follow that. Legend was developing a rhythm. Swing, duck, spin, slash, skid. It was a mark to Legend’s fighting ability that he managed to get a few cuts from the sword carried by one of the gold bokos and a couple nicks from close calls from arrows. There was a long gash on the left side of his tunic, and Legend thought that absentmindedly he’d have to repair that before going back to camp. He didn’t want to worry anyone. 

Although that worry was all for naught, when he heard an extremely familiar cry of worry.

“Legend!” Snapped from his rhythm of movement, Legend looked over to see Hyrule running straight at him. Because of this, he missed the club swinging around towards his already-injured side. As he opened his mouth to yell at Hyrule to leave, he saw Hyrule’s eyebrows raise almost comically, before he was thrown across the clearing. His side felt like it was on fire. He still had his sword in his hand surprisingly, and thankfully his boomerang had been tucked into his belt on his other side. Reaching over to touch where the club had barrelled into him, his fingers came away damp and red. Almost as an afterthought to the pain he felt in his side, Legend had a thought. Well, now his shirt would definitely need to be repaired. 

“Legend!” The worried cry of his name snapped him out of his somewhat addled thoughts. Oh, right. Hyrule was here. Hovering over him as the bokoblins and moblins started to process that neither of their quarries were present. They’d notice where the two of them were soon enough, Legend knew. Despite this, Legend shoved at Hyrule without an ounce of urgency as he started wringing his hands. 

“Oh goddesses, I threw my pack off to the side and that’s where all the potions were, this isn’t good,” Hyrule muttered worriedly, and Legend shoved at him again.

“I can still fight, stop your worrying,” Legend replied, grabbing his sword and using it as extra support to get himself off the ground. Hyrule gave him a worried look, and Legend rolled his eyes. 

“If you’re so worried, we can always fight close to one another,” Legend said. This didn’t appear to assuage Hyrule’s fears, but he nodded.

“That way, at least, I can cover your bad side with my shield,” Hyrule said, more to assure himself than to assure Legend of anything. Legend cracked a grin, hoping to help Hyrule feel a little bit better. 

“Yeah. Let’s get rid of these little shits,” Legend said, taking his sword out of the ground and standing on slightly unsteady legs. He didn’t need them to be steady as long as they worked. Taking a deep breath, he stood next to Hyrule hefted up his sword, and that is when the monsters noticed where the two were. 

“Get ready, Hyrule,” Legend murmured. Hyrule only nodded, lifting up his own sword and shield with a grim expression. They would have to put their all into this, Legend thought. And with nary a second to spare afterwards, the monsters were on them. 

Legend and Hyrule worked cohesively, fighting back to back as the bokoblins surrounded them. Legend ended up having to catch the strikes from some of the clubs the bokoblins held with the blade of his sword to make sure those attacks wouldn’t hit Hyrule. And Hyrule made sure to catch all the arrows from the archer Legend hadn’t managed to take out on his shield. They all fell to the ground, with some of the arrows snapping. Legend took care to avoid the arrowheads, because even if the bows were poorly crafted, the arrows themselves were not. He didn’t want to have one get stuck in his boot, because that’d be a pain in the ass to remove. 

As the duo whittled at the bokoblins circling around them, Legend kept an eye on the moblins behind them. They hadn’t charged in yet, which Legend thought was odd. He knew that the moblins knew that they weren’t friendly, but they weren’t attacking. Yet. 

“Those moblins are acting odd!” Legend called out, blocking another swipe from a club with the flat of his blade before stabbing forward with his sword. Hyrule caught another arrow on his shield, swinging out his own blade shortly after. 

“What do you mean odd?” Hyrule shouted back. They might be close to one another, but the noises of monsters around them mid-battle didn’t make for easy conversation. 

“They’re not attacking even though all these bokos are! And that has suspicious written all over it!” Legend replied in kind as he managed to stab one of the golds in the stomach. It fell to the ground as it squealed and succumbed to the various cuts Legend had inflicted. There was an angry yell from the bokoblin next to it, and Legend quickly swiped his sword out at the source of the noise. The yell was cut off as Legend’s sword swiftly cut through the silver’s throat, causing it to collapse to the ground. 

“They might be biding their time!” Hyrule called back as a gurgling noise came from behind him. Legend knew he’d taken out two before Hyrule arrived, and with the most recent additions that meant their chances were closer to 2 to 1 than 4 to 1. Legend liked those odds, he thought. But of course, right as Legend had his thought, the odds turned to most definitely not be in their favor. Thanks, Hylia. 

“Shit,” Hyrule swore as the moblins lumbered over to them, their swords at the ready. Legend’s eyebrows rose. Hyrule, swearing? Damn. Didn’t know he could do that. 

“Shit’s right, Hyrule!” Legend replied, locking his eyes on the moblins as they rushed - well, about as much as a moblin could rush - over to their battle. One ambled over to Legend’s side, the other to Hyrule’s. There was a sickening crunch as the moblin stepped on one of the heads of its fallen comrades, and Legend had to take a breath to prevent himself from gagging. Disgusting. Shaking his head the smallest amount, Legend hefted his sword up to block a swing from the moblin - this one had the sword, so the other had to have the claymore - and barely managed to prevent himself from falling over. Why did he think he could block a moblin’s sword with his own when he was already standing on unsteady legs? He didn’t know. 

“Watch out for that claymore, Hyrule!” Legend called, moving a bit closer to the moblin. He didn’t hear Hyrule’s affirmative, but he assumed that Hyrule had heard. The moblin swung its sword again, and this time Legend ducked under the swing, stabbing forward with his sword after the moblin’s sword passed over his head. There was a mighty roar in response, and Legend yanked his sword from the moblin’s stomach as it swung its sword again, and Legend barely managed to duck. 

Chancing a glance behind him, Legend’s eyes widened. He ducked as the moblin in front of him swung its sword again, but his eyes were locked on the moblin holding the claymore. Hyrule was moving left and right and left and right again, trying desperately to avoid the heavy handed swings the monster was capable of. Not only that, Hyrule was trying to avoid the arrows from that damned archer. Legend reluctantly tore his eyes away, managing to get into the moblin’s space and getting a second stab into its gut. The moblin let out a mighty roar, and Legend angrily stabbed it again, putting more force behind it. As he yanked his sword out and the moblin roared even louder, he heard a cry. 

Whipping around, Legend saw Hyrule with an arrow sticking out of his leg. Hyrule faltered right as the moblin lifted its claymore, and Legend knew exactly what he needed to do. Ignoring the other enemies around them, Legend sprinted to Hyrule and shoved him out of the way. Just in time, too. The moblin’s claymore swung down, and Legend was in agony. He heard seams ripping in his shirt, and chanced a look down. Oh. Now that was deep. There was a diagonal gash along his chest, and he was losing blood at a very rapid rate. 

“Legend!” He heard an agonized scream as his knees gave out and he fell onto his back. His vision was fading out rapidly, as the grass below him started to grow damp and warm. He knew it was his own blood. Almost absentmindedly, he heard the crackling of thunder out of nowhere, and what he could see went teal. Oh. Hyrule must’ve cast a spell. Which one was that again…? He blinked, and he could see a blurry face in front of him. 

“Legend, Legend c’mon… No!” A familiar voice cried, and Legend let himself smile. Of course Hyrule would worry. But he didn’t need to. He tried to lift up his arm, but it wouldn’t move. 

“I’ll… Be fine, ‘rule,” Legend said, coughing. There was something warm on his face. The darkness was encroaching on all sides, and the last thing he saw before it all faded out was the pink and orange and yellow of the slowly darkening sky. 

-

When Legend’s eyes fluttered back open, his vision was blurry. There was a lot of green around him, and he could feel something damp underneath him. And he could hear sobbing. For a moment, he was caught off-guard, because there wasn’t anyone around that would be sobbing? Who was sobbing then? It was baffling, until Legend remembered. Oh. Yeah. He’d gone and died on Hyrule, who didn’t know. Well.

“Hyrule..?” Legend croaked, and wow his voice sounded horrible. He’d need to either drink something or wash his mouth out. Not at all to his surprise, there was a high pitched scream and Legend’s vision had a sword point front and center. 

“What the fuck,” Hyrule said, voice cracking in the middle of his sentence. Legend opened his mouth to speak again, when the sword’s point fell and as Legend’s vision cleared up a bit more, he could see Hyrule on his knees with his sword next to him. His face was red and his eyes were puffy and his voice was a bit hoarse. Legend opened his mouth to speak, but Hyrule beat him to it.

“What the fuck was that Legend? You died!” Hyrule shouted. His voice cracked again, and Legend winced slightly. That was louder than he was expecting. This time, when Legend made to speak, he wasn’t interrupted. 

“I… It’s a long story,” Legend said, coughing after he spoke. He really needed water if he was going to talk. Hyrule reached over and passed him something. Water flask. Legend took a few sips, spitting out the first sip with a bit of blood and swallowing the rest. The water went down tasting of copper. He coughed a few more times, before sitting up.

“We’ve got time,” Hyrule replied as Legend passed him back his flask and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He could still taste copper in his mouth, but he’d make do for now. He glanced over at Hyrule and noted the absence of an arrow sticking out of his leg. He must’ve healed himself then. Looking away from Hyrule and taking a look down at his undershirt, Legend blanched. The seam at his left sleeve had been decimated, the green tinted a dark brown color along where the moblin had cut him. The ends of the fabric curled up a bit, and when Legend touched it, the fabric was still a bit damp. 

“If we’re going back to camp, I doubt I can wear this,” he muttered to himself. Before he could say anything, something soft smacked him in the face, before falling into his lap. Legend looked down to his lap to see one of Hyrule’s spare tunics. Legend looked back up to Hyrule looking away from him pointedly. 

“You can borrow that until we get back to camp,” Hyrule said, keeping his eyes on the trees around them. Legend hummed in reply, weaseling his way out of his ruined undershirt. Goddesses, this would be a nightmare to fix. At least he hadn’t been wearing his tunic at the same time, because then it would truly be a nightmare. Legend chanced a look down after he took off his shirt and whistled lowly at the sight. There was a wide scar across his chest, from his left shoulder down to his right hip. The edges were faint, but the center was a darker color than the rest. Hm. 

Without looking back down at the new scar he’d acquired, Legend wriggled his way into Hyrule’s borrowed undershirt. The shoulders were a bit too tight, but Legend would manage. Folding the ruined undershirt up and tucking it into his belt, Legend moved to stand back up. Before he could, though, there was a hand preventing him from doing so. 

“Are you sure you should be moving around, Legend?” Hyrule asked, his eyebrows furrowed worriedly. Legend shrugged. 

“Well, I feel about as fine as someone who was recently dead could feel, I guess. But this isn’t my first go-around, so I should be alright,” Legend said. He moved to stand up again, and this time Hyrule didn’t stop him. Although that might’ve been due to him being frozen in place. 

“What do you mean this has happened before?” Hyrule asked, voice quiet and shaking. Legend took a moment to think on what he’d just said. That might’ve not been the best choice of words. He sighed, looking around for his sword and his boomerang. Luckily, those were at least nearby. As he reached over to pick them up, Legend pondered. He’d need to tell Hyrule what exactly had happened, but. How to phrase it?

“Well. It’s a bit hard to explain, but I can try to,” Legend said, standing back up and dusting his boomerang off before tucking it into his belt - thankfully his own belt hadn’t been ruined, so he wore it with Hyrule’s undershirt. Hyrule also got up, grabbing his sword, shield and pack from the ground next to him. 

“We should probably head back to camp. It’s been an hour since I left to find you, I think,” Hyrule said, hefting his pack up onto one shoulder. Legend grimaced. He’d been gone for over an hour? And how long had he been out for?

“I guess we’ll walk and talk then,” Legend said, chancing a glance up at the sky. The sun had been growing closer to the horizon line when he’d “died,” but now there was barely any light left. They’d need to get back to camp before the light completely died. Or at least, they’d need to carry a torch. 

“I guess,” Hyrule replied, adjusting his pack a bit. Legend looked away from the horizon he could see, and glanced around the camp. The fire was still lit… There! He could carry a torch with his free hand. Making his way over to the campfire under Hyrule’s curious gaze, Legend grabbed a torch and lit it. 

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Hyrule commented as Legend hefted the torch above his head. 

“We don’t want to get caught in the dark without a light. ‘Least we can follow the pockmarks I made in the trees with my boomerang,” Legend said, starting to head towards the edge of the clearing towards the forest proper. Hyrule fell into step beside him, and as they started their walk through the forest, it was quiet for a few moments. Eventually, though, the silence was broken.

“So. About what happened back there,” Legend said. Hyrule glanced over at him, a spark of some sort in his eyes. Legend couldn’t identify it, and he couldn’t say for sure whether it was a good kind of spark or a bad one. Hyrule didn’t say a word, though, only nodding for Legend to continue. Legend took a deep breath, before stopping and adjusting his grip on his sword. Hyrule came to a stop next to him and gave him a curious look. 

“I… In all my adventures, that’s happened at least once. I don’t know how it works, and I don’t know why it happens, it just does. I “die” and then I come back, all my wounds healed and only faint scars to speak of the memory,” Legend said, lifting up the bottom of his borrowed undershirt and tugged his shorts up a bit. Stark against his leg was an old scar, one that looked a bit similar to a star with how it spiked out.

“Got this one in my Hyrule. Arrow went straight threw and hit something vital, I ended up bleeding out,” Legend continued. That wasn’t a pleasant memory. He had just left a dungeon in Lorule and had gone back to Hyrule when he was ambushed by a group of soldiers. One of them had managed to get him in the leg, and he’d run off with the pegasus boots and barely made it to his house that Ravio had been taking residence in. That’s how Ravio had found out about this curse of his. Hyrule hissed as Legend let his shorts and borrowed tunic fall back to their original places. 

“That must’ve been painful,” Hyrule says, shaking his head slightly and looking back at Legend’s face. Legend nodded, before readjusting his grip on his sword and starting to walk again. Hyrule started trotting after him, seeming to be pondering something. Legend let the silence marinate for a bit, before letting out a deep breath. 

“You’ve got something on your mind. Spit it out,” Legend said, catching Hyrule off-guard. He started spluttering and put one of his hands up defensively. 

“W-what? No! I-I-I don’t have any questions or-or anything!” Hyrule replied, waving his extended hand wildly. Legend smirked a bit, and Hyrule’s face fell defeatedly. 

“Ask away,” Legend replied, hoping that Hyrule wouldn’t ask a question that he didn’t want to answer. That wouldn’t end well for either of them. 

“Do… Do you know why?” Hyrule asked. Legend paused, puzzling over that for a moment. Why… Why he couldn’t die? 

“I don’t really know, Hyrule. Found out during my first adventure when I got stabbed and got back up after bleeding out on the forest floor, but I never figured out why,” Legend replied, a lot more nonchalantly than he probably should’ve. Hyrule balked at Legend’s answer, and he could imagine why.

“Didn’t… Didn’t you say you were thirteen on your first adventure?” Hyrule asked, voice extremely small. Legend nodded once as he kept walking, but he stopped after a few feet when he realized that Hyrule wasn’t standing next to him. Legend turned around, raising an eyebrow at Hyrule, who stood stock-still as he stared at the ground. 

“You alright over there?” Legend asked, giving Hyrule a once-over. Was he… Was he trembling? 

“You were younger than I was, Legend. It might’ve been by a year, but you died when you were thirteen!” Hyrule said, his voice low but full of passion. Legend paused for a moment, before nodding once. 

“Yeah. But I’m still standing now, aren’t I?” Legend asked. Hyrule blinked a few times, before shaking his head a bit. 

“I mean… Yeah, but-!” Hyrule was cut off by Legend continuing to bulldoze through his point. 

“I’m standing now, and that’s what matters. The past is in the past, and we can’t change it. All we can really focus on is the future, Hyrule,” Legend said, turning away from Hyrule to look up at the sky. The stars were starting to come out, and Legend spotted one familiar constellation among the stars above his head as more and more pinpricks of light came into view. 

“You’re… You’re right,” Hyrule said from behind him. Legend didn’t glance behind him, but he did look over when he felt someone stand next to him. Hyrule stood there, a determined look on his face. Legend didn’t question it verbally, only raising an eyebrow. Hyrule locked eyes with him.

“In the future, you’re not going to have to do anything like that. You shouldn’t have to do anything like that to make sure anyone’s safe, because you should stay safe too,” Hyrule continued. He clenched a fist, and broke eye contact to look down at it. 

“I’ll make sure of it,” Hyrule finished. The two were quiet for a few moments, the only sound around them being the sound of crickets and cicadas around them. They both stood there for a couple minutes, letting the stars fully come out and the sun to fall below the horizon. The moon had started to rise before either of them spoke up again. 

“We really should get back to camp. Wild had finally figured out how to dry out some wood when I left, and Twilight told me he’d probably be two hours. I think it’s half an hour’s walk from here to camp?” Hyrule said, shaking them both from the almost-trance they were in. Legend nodded. The two started walking again, and there was a comfortable silence between the two of them as they walked. Eventually, though, it broke again. 

“So, um. Are you going to talk to anyone else about this?” Hyrule asked, trying his best to phrase his question carefully. Legend flinched, and Hyrule flinched in response. 

“Of course not. You wouldn’t know if you hadn’t seen it. It’s like what I said earlier - I don’t want to talk about my secrets and if no one else has to reveal theirs then I don’t need to talk about mine,” Legend replied, trying his best to not sound icy. He knew he failed when Hyrule flinched again. 

“But… Wouldn’t it be a good idea to just… I don’t know, just talk about it? It’d be… therapeutic in a sense?” Hyrule said, his statement sounding more like a question than Legend thought he probably wanted it to. 

“None of my secrets will come out unless it’s under circumstances like these, or if I absolutely need to. Suffice it to say the latter likely won’t happen, and I’m hoping to prevent the former from happening again,” Legend said. 

“I… If you’re sure,” Hyrule replied quietly, and Legend saw him looking down at the ground. With a few deft movements, Legend reached over and gave Hyrule a pat on the shoulder.

“Think about it this way. You’re part of an exclusive club that only has four people - me, you, my Zelda, and Ravio,” Legend said with a grin. Hyrule looked up and gave a small smile in response. 

“But I do have to ask. I don’t want to talk about this with the others, so unless I give you the okay to - which likely won’t happen - please don’t mention anything about what happened to the rest of them. As to why I’m borrowing one of your undershirts, mine got caught on a jagged tree branch and a giant hole got ripped in it,” Legend continued, adjusting the wrinkled undershirt he had tucked into his belt. There was still the matter of bloodstains on it… Oh. 

Hyrule’s eyebrows rose as Legend walked over to a mud puddle and pulled his bloodied undershirt from his belt. He opened his mouth to ask what Legend was doing, when Legend threw the shirt into the mud and stepped on it, moving his foot around for good measure. 

“What are you doing?” Hyrule asked incredulously as Legend picked up the muddied undershirt from the puddle. Legend grinned. 

“When my shirt got caught on the branch, I fell into a mud puddle. I cleaned myself off and you let me borrow this undershirt. I’ll probably need to slip into one of my own when we get back to camp, though, this is tight around my shoulders,” Legend said. Hyrule only nodded dumbly. 

“I… Alright,” he said, not really understanding what Legend was doing but going along with it. Legend took one look at Hyrule’s dumbfounded expression before bursting out laughing. 

“Your face! It’s hilarious!” Legend said as he laughed, though Hyrule didn’t join him. He was still baffled. As Legend’s quick bout of laughter died down, he gave Hyrule another serious look.

“But in all seriousness, I can trust you won’t tell the rest of them, right?” Legend asked. It was quiet for a moment, before Hyrule nodded once. 

“Yeah. And… I wanted to apologize. I put you on the spot in front of everyone earlier, and I shouldn’t’ve done that,” Hyrule said. Legend waved a hand. 

“Just don’t do it again,” Legend said. Hyrule nodded again, and the two kept on walking, keeping up light conversation as they did. 

-

Legend could hear a slightly panicked voice as he walked to the edge of the tree line around the small clearing their cave campsite let out into. 

“What if they got lost, or one of them got hurt, Time? You should let me go after them,” Twilight said. Legend could see Twilight pacing back and forth at the mouth of the cave, and Time wasn’t visible. Warriors, however, was. He was fiddling with his sword almost absentmindedly. 

“Legend’s the most experienced adventurer in the group, pup. Have some confidence in him. And Hyrule’s no slouch either. They’ll be fine,” Time replied, and Legend raised an eyebrow as he locked eyes with Hyrule. Time was that confident in the two of them, huh? 

“Twilight’s not the only one who’s worried, Time,” Warriors said, gesturing in the cave to someone that Legend couldn’t see. 

“And Hyrule said he’d be back before Wild finished up making food and he’s almost done with that,” Warriors added, gesturing towards Wild, presumably. Twilight spun around to face towards where Legend presumed Time was and threw his hands up. 

“Why’re you acting so nonchalant about this! Just because Legend’s experienced doesn’t mean he’s immune to injuries!” Twilight said, sounding a bit frustrated. Legend chose that moment to step out from the trees with Hyrule only a step behind him. 

“I’d like to think that I am, thanks,” Legend called as he started walking towards the cave. Twilight whirled back around and blinked a few times, before running up and giving Legend a hug without warning. 

“Oof!” Legend said. Twilight held on tight for a few seconds, before letting go and stepping back, still keeping a light hold on Legend’s shoulders.

“You’re wearing one of Hyrule’s undershirts, what happened?” Twilight asked as Warriors walked - it seemed more like he power walked, but Legend couldn’t tell - up to the three of them. 

“Well, when Hyrule showed up when I was walking a bit off the path, I tripped and my shirt got caught on this jaggedy tree branch and got torn. Ended up falling face-first into a mud puddle. Luckily there was a lake that I could clean up in nearby, and Hyrule let me borrow one of his undershirts so I wouldn’t be walking around with a muddy torn open undershirt. It would’ve been bad for both of us if we’d gotten attacked when I was wearing that,” Legend explained. Twilight narrowed his eyes a bit, before nodding. 

“That would’ve been real bad, yeah,” Warriors said as Twilight started leading him back into the cave. Legend could smell something a bit gamey, and his stomach grumbled its protest. Twilight started laughing at that, and quickly all four of them were all laughing at Legend’s minor misfortune. 

“Dinner’s almost ready, you four!” Wild called out, and a chorus of gasps rang out from the cave. Four, Wind and Sky, Legend guessed. As the four of them walked into the cave to the delightful smell of roasting meat and vegetables, Legend and Hyrule locked eyes. Hyrule gave Legend the smallest of nods, and Legend cracked a small smile in response. 

What happened that day, Legend thought as dinner was served, was an utter disaster. He hadn’t been expecting a fight with a mob of monsters, or for Hyrule to find out one of the secrets he held closest to his heart. But he couldn’t change that now, so he supposed he’d just go with it. He wouldn’t purposefully be revealing that secret to anyone else, anyways. 

At least none of his other secrets had surfaced. Legend was definitely not ready to explain any of them to their motley crew of Links. Especially his fourth adventure. That wouldn’t ever be coming out. 

When everyone settled down for that night, Legend moved outside to go and look at the stars again, trying to spot familiar patterns in the dark sky. No one moved to join him, since he was on first watch for the night. It was calming, he thought, as he glanced up occasionally to map out the stars above him. He didn’t find many familiar constellations, but there were a few he noted. At least there was that one constant. 

Legend knew that he was a secretive man. This was an established fact that anyone that knew him longer than five minutes could agree with. He might not have intended to share one of those secrets that day, but it happened. He couldn’t’ve stopped it, even if he’d really wanted to. And Legend wasn’t sure he would’ve wanted to. Well, aside from the whole dying part, but that’s neither here nor there. His point was that he felt a little lighter. He wasn’t going to go sharing any secrets with anyone any time soon, but maybe… Maybe having someone to talk about this one while he travelled wasn’t the worst idea.

-

Bonus: 

“None of my secrets will come out unless necessary or if I want to play a prank on Warriors, let’s be real,” Legend said. The duo were quiet for a moment, before they both started laughing their asses off, because this was a wonderful idea. 

“Now that would be a sight to see!” Hyrule managed to say between his laughs. Legend nodded, unable to speak due to his own raucous laughter. Maybe he would do that…

A month later, Legend proceeded to scare the everloving shit out of Warriors by popping out of a wall and saying ‘boo’. He might’ve gotten stabbed because of it, but it was totally worth it.   

[liw-the-melancholic-apple]

How it may have gone - Humble Beginnings

A fic taking place in the marauders era. While the political climate seems to head to a conflict, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter are still just teenagers. Dealing with typical teenage problems.But this year their little group grows.

Who would have known that more prefects would be a good thing?

Masterlist

Seven: New Year's Eve III

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… Happy New Year!”  

Light and colours and explosions everywhere around me. I turned to hug Crick and wish him a happy new year to then enjoy what had to be the grandest firework extravaganza ever and then everything went wrong. 

I turned, Crick’s arm still around me and realised that his face was very close to me. Unnaturally close. He looked into my eyes and kept coming closer, eyes flickering to my. Then he made his move. I dove to the left, away from the arm that was wrapped around my shoulder and threw my chin onto his left shoulder, hugging him. Whatever that was, it was not the kind of joke I liked. 

“Happy New Year, Crick!”, I chirped with genuine happiness and excitement, ready to forget whatever weird thing he had just thought up. 

When I let him go he had a strange look on his face that I’d never seen before. 

“I tried to kiss you there, Jette”, he said after an awkward pause. I stared at him in disbelief. Why would he mention that? It would only make everything stranger than it already was. 

“Yeah, I realised that.” 

“Why’d you turn away then?” Was he kidding? Why did I dive away? Was that not obvious? 

“Because… I’m more of a hugger and not one for platonic kisses?”, I answered hesitatingly. He frowned. 

“Neither am I.” 

“Huh?” Right above us a huge rocket exploded lighting up the night in gold and blue as it displayed the skyline of Godric’s Hollow nearly to scale. The crowd went wild. 

“I said I’m not one for platonic kisses, either”, Crick explained ignoring the wonderful colours and images and coming closer to me once more. This time I didn’t see it coming at all. I was not prepared and I didn’t move. He kissed me. On the lips. One hand on my waist, one on my shoulder, slowly moving up to my neck. I smelled and tasted the mead and fire whiskey he had been drinking. What. The. Hell. 

I pushed him away softly. “What the hell?” 

“You start the new year with a kiss, it’s tradition”, Crick smirked. Purple and pink hearts rained down from the sky. Wonderful. 

“I realise that!”, I huffed, still flustered, out of breath and confused. 

“Good. Good. Because I think that that was fairly great. We’ll get even better in time, though.” We were clearly on different pages. 

“What? Crick you’ve lost me.” His heavenly smirk turned into confusion, wrinkles of doubt appeared around his mouth and eyes. 

“What I mean is, that… that I’d like to kiss you a whole lot more, Libby. Like all the time. And as the only one.” 

This was not happening. Nica would have a field day with this.  

“Crick…” 

“I’m not done. And I might never get the courage again to say so please… You are the most wonderful and pretty girl I’ve ever met, Libby, and you’re clever and funny and… I’ve fallen for you. Pretty hard to be honest.” A gigantic black sparkling raven soared over the pub spewing blood red flames in every direction. 

“Crick..”, I started again but he leaned in for the third time as to seal his horrifying confession. I raised my hands to my shoulder, his chest bumped into them. 

“What are you doing?”, Crick smiled, trying to push my hands away. 

“Crick, I’m sorry but… I… I haven’t. I don’t. Look. I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a grade a arsehole, but… I’m not – in love with you. I don’t want to kiss you.” My voice had gotten rather weak at the end of that pathetic speech and I knew that my eyes had grown wide as I looked up to him. I prayed he’d laugh it off and tell me it was just a joke. Whether it really was or not. I just wanted him to pretend none of this had ever happened. A golden castle in the sky behind him. The portal opened a blue and bronze eagle, a red and golden lion, a silver and green snake and a black and yellow badger ran out of them, shooting down to the ground and frolicked through the masses of onlookers. 

“Playing hard to get, are we?” Once more Crick got too close to me and once more he crashed into my raised hands. 

“I’m not playing!”, the strength had returned to my voice.  

“You’re not?” 

“I’m not. I’m sorry but I’m not.” 

My look was fixed on his face as it morphed from shock into disbelief, from pain into sadness, until it finally landed in anger. The red of the lion reflecting on his skin. This was not good. 

“Why would you lead me on then?”  

“What?” 

“I want to know why you lead me on if you don’t want me”, he shouted. Crick never shouted. 

“I didn’t lead you on, Crick. I didn’t even know you liked me like that.” 

“Bollocks!” We both jumped at the sound of a cannon ball being fired from a glistening cannon dip-painting the pub and its surroundings in a deep Hawaiian turquoise. 

“You told me I should go for whomever I liked whether Jonas and Tristan were for it or not. You said you loved me!” He grabbed me by the shoulders firmly. Tightly. It hurt. 

“I was talking about Elaine when I said that Crick”, my voice broke. His eyes looked crazy. What in the world was happening? Another cannon ball was fired. This time neither one of us jumped. I barely realised the beautiful metallic rosegold we were submerged in. 

“And I don’t think I said that I loved you.” 

“Don’t deny it, Libby! Don’t you dare deny it!” He grabbed me even harder and I flinched at his fingers digging into my shoulders. 

An arm wrapped in a black felt coat appeared in front of my face, pushing Crick back a bit, loosening his grip on my arms. 

“Mate”, a familiar hoarse voice said calmly. 

“Of course you have to turn up. Get lost! This is a private matter!” 

“Mate, you’re scaring her”, the hoarse voice answered calm as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. As the sky was lit up by platinum stars two new hand fell on my shoulders and pulled against another body. The hands were light and reassuring. The body tall and slender. I pushed against it just a bit. 

“What do you know about how she feels?”, Crick barked. 

“I don’t know her as well as you do but I got eyes, Cricket. You’re hurt. I get it. But it’s not her fault. Come on!”  

The arm pushed him further away from me and moved to the right, followed by a person in a black felt coat, dark hair to his chin. Crick disappeared, all I saw was the felt back and the dark hair. 

Black kept talking to Crick and moved further and further away from me. Potter took his place in front of me watching the two other boys. Someone took my hand. 

“You okay, love?”, Pettigrew asked squeezing my hand for a second. A Chinese dragon paraded over the skies, shining in white and magenta. 

“No idea”, I admitted. Potter turned around and studied my face. 

“Right… listen: Remus and Peter will stay with you”, he looked up at Remus behind me. “Get her to sit down, maybe.” Focussing on me again he continued: “Sirius is trying to calm down Cricket and I’m going to look for his brother. Just in case, okay? You stay with Peter and Remus and have a smoke.” I nodded, still not sure whether all of that just really happened or whether I was victim to a very vivid hallucination. 

Remus navigated me to the benches by my shoulders. Pettigrew, still holding my hand, very effectively shooed away the people who sat on the most isolated one and gestured for me to sit. I did. 

“How about now? You okay?” His dull blue eyes had something extremely comforting that I hadn’t noticed before. I shook my head, then nodded, then tilted it. 

“Did that really happen?”, I asked instead of answering. 

Remus sat down next to me, lit a cigarette and put it in my hand. “There. Calm down.” I greedily inhaled the smoke. 

“Did that really happen?”, I repeated, eager to be told ‘no’. 

“Yes, it did.” 

“Merlin!” I let my head fall into my hands. 

“I only saw the last part of that whole…thing… but I assume he told you he had a thing for you?” 

“Yep”, I didn’t look up. 

Pettigrew took my hand again and kneeled down in the snow in front of me. “Did he hurt you? I saw he tried to kiss you…” 

“No ,no, not really.” Now I did look up. Both Pettigrew and Remus raised their eyebrows at me. 

“I mean, he had quite the grip on my arms, nothing that won’t be gone in day or two. Honestly, I think he’s more hurt than I am.” We fell in silence. 

“Did you know, Remus?”, I asked right when I saw Potter hurry toward us with a blond boy following him. 

“That he liked you?” 

“Huh” 

“I thought so, yes.” 

“Am I that blind? I wasn’t in the least prepared for that.” 

Potter and Jonas were covered in the reflection of bronze flickers when they arrived at our little table, both out of breath. Jonas pulled me up from the bench and into his arms. 

“Did he really tell you?” I nodded my head that was still leaning against his chest. 

“Idiot! I told him this wouldn’t go well. Look at me!” I did. He critically studied me for a moment. 

“I’ll go try to find him and talk some sense into him. You’re okay with these lads, right?” 

“Yeah.” 

When Jonas had been swallowed up by the crowd that was still gazing at the mesmerising fireworks that I had surely thoroughly enjoyed under different circumstances, I fell back onto the bench between Remus and Pettigrew. Potter leaned against the table. 

“So everybody knew, but me?” I looked at Remus. 

“None of us really knew, if that helps. Sirius and I had our suspicions.” 

“He wasn’t very subtle, come to think of it”, Potter commented. “With the kissing your hair and what not.” 

“He’s done that ever since my first year. I was the most pathetic homesick eleven year-old you’ve ever encountered. His mum used to kiss the top of his head when he was sad – I reckon she still does – and so that’s what he did to make me feel better. Nothing I would associate with romantic feelings.” I sighed. Romantic feelings. Crick had romantic feelings for me. Ugh! Things were bound to get complicated. 

“Well, there is the whole thing about him hating us”, Pettigrew suggested with a shy smile. 

“Yeah, I’m pretty certain he got shit-faced last week because we had decided to crash your little date”, Remus added. 

“It wasn’t a date!”, I snapped. 

“Right, we know. But he probably didn’t appreciate four chaps demanding your attention.” 

“He must have been devastated when his parents grounded him. If this was his plan all along…”, Remus said, making me sigh again. 

“What is wrong with him? He’s supposed to be my best friend! Isn’t there some rule in place about not falling for each other?” I looked at them one by one. 

“We’re all into girls, I’m afraid. If there is such a rule it’s never come up with us”, Pettigrew joked and actually made me smile. 

“Fair enough.” 

The entire solar system started spinning above us, getting faster and faster until every planet was swallowed up by the sun that started pulsating switched colours from a yellow-y orange to a silvery white and exploded into all phases of the moon. Remus next to me shivered. 

“This is beautiful”, I whispered through chattering teeth. 

“Some gentlemen you lot are”, Black half laughed half barked as he peeled himself out his felt coat and put it around my shoulders. My teeth stopped chattering instantly. The jacket was thick and windproof and warm from Black’s body heat. 

“Thanks”, I said smiling up to him. “Thanks for everything. All of you”, I added when I realised that I hadn’t thanked them yet for stopping Crick from yelling at me. 

“Jonas is taking Cricket home”, Black explained, more for his friends than me.  

“He’s still a mess but at least he’s stopped shouting and realises that staying here is a rubbish idea.” He leaned against the pub’s wall and smirked at me. “What on earth have you done to him? He’s positively mental!” 

I groaned. If only I knew what I had done to him. Was it my fault? Had I lead him on? Had I made him believe that this kiss was going to start a relationship? How did everybody know what was up, but me? 

“I was joking, Goods. It’s not your fault, you’re great. Don’t take it too hard.” He came back toward the bench to pad me on the back, when another group of pink hearts rained down on us and illuminated his face. I didn’t believe it and jumped up. 

“Did he punch you?!!!” 

Black sported a busted lip that he tried to hide from me by moving back into the shadows of the wall but it was too late. 

“He did, didn’t he?” Black didn’t answer. 

“Shit, Black, I’m so sorry!” Without even realising it I leaped over to him wrapping my arms around his neck. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. He shouldn’t have done that. You shouldn’t have gotten involved in that. Black, I’m so sorry! I’m…” 

“Will you shut up, Goods? It’s fine. Not the first time I get hit by someone. I’ll live. And it adds to my bad boy allure, don’t you think?” He pushed me away and presented his face to me wiggling his eyebrows.  

“Maybe. But still. It shouldn’t have happened and it’s all my fault…”  

“Bullocks. It’s his fault”, Remus said. He, too, had gotten up from the bench, offered me and Black a cigarette each and suggested to head back inside soon. 

“Otherwise one of you will die”, I pointed to Black, then to me. Black let me go to take the fag and I felt a little better when he smirked at a girl that walked past and seemed fascinated by the blood on his shirt. Great, I ruined his shirt, too. 

“I told Jonas we’d make sure that you get home, by the way”, Black said when we walked back into the party. I wasn’t sure whether I was still in the mood for it but I definitely didn’t want to walk home by myself or run into Crick. 

“You can floo over from ours… Potter’s.” 

“Thinking of everything. Thank you.”  

I got a round of fire whiskey and Master’s Brew for my heroes and stood at the bar with them for a while. 

“Pete, I think she’s not all that shaken up anymore. She wouldn’t wanna keep you from your sweetheart." 

"Hang on!! Sweetheart? Do tell!” I smiled the first genuine smile in an hour as I turned my attention to Pettigrew. 

He hesitated at first but then quickly told me that he had met a American girl at the beginning of the night who apparently thought he was “cute as a button” and had occupied him and his lips for most of the night. She’d actually been with the group when they spotted Crick and me and Pettigrew had left her with a fast explanation.  

“I reckon she’s got another one by now. Or thinks I tried to get rid of her”, he said looking into his cocktail. “Besides, can’t rescue a damsel in distress and then abandon her, can I?” 

“Yes, yes you can!”, I protested, taking his hand. I’d be damned if I ruined another friend’s night. By my count I had already messed New Year’s up for Crick, Jonas – therefore probably Valerie – and Black. I was not adding Pettigrew to that list. 

“Lead the way, I’ll apologise for stealing you away and explain that you saved me. If she doesn’t want to talk to you the, we can both slap her.” Pettigrew giggled and pointed to the next bar over at a back with lengthy golden locks and an exquisite bum. 

“Nice, Pettigrew”, I praised his conquest. He blushed. 

“Her name’s Margery”, Pettigrew whispered just before we reached her. 

“Hey Margery?” 

“Yeah?” She looked at me without any friendly expression and got annoyed when she spotted Pettigrew beside me. 

“Hi, I’m Jette. I think I may have stolen Peter here away from you. Sorry ‘bout that. But some bloke decided he could just kiss me whether I liked it or not and Peter rescued me from him. He and his friends just made sure that I wasn’t hurt or shaken up… 

I thought I’d tell you that I didn’t mean to keep him for myself. I mean he is quite the catch, but I don’t stand a chance. He felt bad about it, though. So, thanks for letting him save and sorry for taking so long…”, I cut myself off not knowing what else there was to say but Margery only half listened to me staring at Peter with pure admiration. 

“You saved her from some perv?”, she asked and I reckoned my job was done. I slipped away as she made him tell him everything in detail and I hoped for his sake that he’d exaggerate a bit. 

Back with the other three I started to relax more and more, forced myself to forget about Crick for the time being and danced to the second coming of Baba Yaga, one more trying to outdo Remus in his goofy dance moves. 

We stayed until four in the morning, which was about the time my feet were absolutely done with the high heeled boots I wore, Margery had been forced to go home by her British cousin and Remus had had exactly one beer too many to keep from giggling constantly. It was amazing. At long last I found my jacket and followed Potter and Black out the pub and down a road into Godric’s Hollow. 

It was a brisk ten minute walk to the Potter house, that might have been called a mansion. We walked through the iron garden gate and towards a friendly looking white door. Potter pulled out the key and opened it letting us all go in before him. From the inside the house seemed even bigger. If it hadn’t been for all the cosy pillows and rugs, lived chaos on the chairs and coatracks and the many goofy photographs I would have thought that Mr and Mrs Potter weren’t all that different from the Mulcibers or Flints. But those little details showed that here lived a loving family, proud of their only son, happy to be together. 

Potter lead me into the spacious white and scarlet living room in the centre of which stood a huge white fireplace with a beautiful antique mantle which was overflowing with pictures of Potter from his birth to now. The very last one in the row showed Potter, Black, Pettigrew and Remus all wearing Santa Clause hats waving at the camera drinking hot chocolate. I smiled. I liked this place. 

“Damn!”, Potter whispered as he turned a white vase on its head. “Empty. Mum didn’t buy any yesterday. She’s getting older every minute, I swear. Suppose I could wake her to apparate you over.” 

“Oh, god, no! Don’t wake her. I don’t want to bother any more people. Uhm… If you don’t mind I could just sleep on the couch. I might need to borrow an owl to let my parents know that I’m still alive and that they could fetch me tomorrow. And if that’s not okay, I’ll just walk myself home. My parents are too scared anyways. Nothing will happen. Yeah, I’m just gonna…” It turned around to leave when Potter held me back. 

“Yeah, no. You’re not walking yourself home and I’m knackered. We told Cricket that we’d get you home and we will. Tomorrow. Mum and Dad won’t mind and there’s enough owls to let you folks know. And there’s another guestroom so you won’t even have to share a space with us gross baboons.” I hesitated, he smiled. “I insist, de Witt.” 

“Okay, thanks. Getting to bed does sound significantly better than walking through the snow for fortyfive minutes.” 

“Follow me, Miss. Oh, and would you mind taking off you shoes? Mum will go crazy otherwise.” I didn’t mind and followed the boys up the stairs to the first floor that was a giant hall with more white doors. 

“That’s the bathroom” Potter pointed at the door at the right from the staircase. My room’s right next to it, Sirius’ opposite of mine.” He pointed at the respective doors. “Remus is in that one”. He pointed at the door to the left of the staircase, “and Peter’s next to me. So you, could move in next to Sirius. I’m sure it’s been made up last week together with the other rooms because mum didn’t know which rooms the boys would favour.” I nodded. 

“This place is amazing”, I uttered as I followed Potter over the thick, cosy, grey rug to my door. He opened it and let met in. Then he looked at my jeans and t-shirt combo with furrowed brows. 

“Remus”, he hissed. “You got a shirt for de Witt to sleep in? I doubt the jeans and that shred of a top are comfortable to wear to bed.” 

Remus was going to protest in one way or another but Potter was quicker: “I’d give her one of mine but you’re taller and she’d be decent all night long.” He winked at me and Remus disappeared into his room without a word. He came back just moments later handing me a scarlet red shirt with a gold embroidered lion and two beater’s bats on it. 

“Hope you don’t mind”, he grinned. 

“Absolutely not. You guys are too good to be true. Honest. Thanks.” He gently punched my shoulder and wished me a good night. Potter got a beautiful little pygmy owl and some parchment. 

“Just let her out via your window.” He again told me where everything was and pulled a new toothbrush out of the nightstand in ‘my’ room, then he wished me a good night as well. Pettigrew had already disappeared and Black came out the bathroom as I went in. 

“In the sharp light of the hallway his lip looked a bit worse than I originally thought. I unintentionally bit my own. 

“Told you I’ll live, Goods.” 

“Right.” 

“I’m sure he’ll owl tomorrow saying he’s sorry. Just got carried away when I told him you didn’t want him. Can’t be nice to hear. But he’ll calm down and get over you and be your best friend again. Don’t worry.” 

“People don’t give you enough credit, Black.” 

“I know, tragically underrated.” He smirked. “Night, Goods.” 

“Good night, Black. And Happy New Year.” 

“Right. Happy New Year.” 

[mortyandcarlsbespokesalvage]

Day 2 Sequence 0

Oh you Nameless!

 You, children of the world outside of time. You, forgotten subjects of Kings long gone. 

Stay but a while, and be welcome. 

No mere beasts of land or sea or air are you. No mere sprites of elemental chaos! 

You are our brothers! 

You who toil here alongside us. You who sweat and burn under the same sun, the same sky! 

Are you not also children of the Great Storm? 

Stand with us! Let us make our stand upon this cast off, forgotten isle. 

Let us make a New World!

Attributed to Shakeer Matumla, at the ceremony of ground-breaking of the temple of the Four Kings.

Year 0, of the New Common Era.

****

To the reader,

It may be to your further benefit, to provide you with some grounding in the social fabric of the city beyond this archive. A vital point of clarification that may be helpful to you, is that in Artisan, humanity may not be as you know it. Phenotypes within the same human genus remain within a single classification. Ergo, the Oruk, Gobbish, Dwarphen, Elvan, Bestal, Iowan, and other peoples, are merely ethnic subgroups of humans that have mixed among one another for generations in the city.

****

The dawning sun rose into a clear sky, shining over city and glinting off the Barrier Wall like a blinding beacon across the far horizon. The Wall towered over the city, its bronzed, coppery surface rising a thousand feet towards the sky, and casting a long shadow over the inner ring. In the early morning mist, the curved, circling wall filled like a colander, vents slowly steaming as the fans pushed the cloudy air from the inner ring to the outer rim and the sky beyond. 

For three hundred years since its emergence, the wall has shielded the inner ring from the wind and waves of hurricanes and ruinstorms. Its emergence yet another of the city’s mysteries. Three centuries past, the founders of the city of Artisan prepared for the worst as a grand wave appeared from the south, poised to wipe the city clear of its people. As all gathered inland, scrambling and in panicked distress, a deafening klaxon sounded from the citadel, and the earth shook as the wall, once thought a highway around the city, pushed up through the piled jetsam and arose, roaring into the air. The wave broke hard against the wall, flowing swiftly around the shielded inner ring.

Generations hence, the Wall still shields the city proper. Piled against it are mountains of scrap, pushed from across the island into three massive Yards that encircle the inner ring. Only the Three Ports persist outside its protective embrace, gambling against the mercurial odds of another great wave.

Within the Wall itself are the domains of the protectors and stewards of Artisan. The precincts of the Artisan Sanitation Enforcement Corps (A.S.E.C) and the Artisan Mechanical Engineering Corps (A.M.E.C). Each corps with its own vital contribution to the maintaining of a city in constant need. Artisan is alive, in a thousand different ways; the vibrant colors of its people and their crafts, the lush gardens of its high towers, the surging life of its waterways. But the city is dangerous; the beasts of the lower Undercity, the behemoths of the Deep-Down, and the shifting lifelines of the city itself.

If the Department of Sanitation acts as a bulwark against the monstrous terrors below, then the Engineering Corps are the stewards of the precocious landscape above. Artisan has power, water, and natural gas for a thousand years and more, but none of it given freely. The city as it stands, its towers and streets, were grafted by the founders onto the Citadel and shifting plates of the floor of the inner ring. An entire grid of utilities, built atop, around, and spreading from a powerful beating heart of unknown providence. 

Perhaps then it is fitting that the price paid for this plentiful bounty, is that the lines of water and power and fuel, like wild vines, must be carefully pruned and realigned whenever they shift or grow outside their bounds.These departments of Sanitation and Engineering are the glue that holds Artisan together, the soul of the Barrier Wall.

****

The main street of Southport was broad. Wide enough for a pair of Heavy Sweepers to pass through with their attendant squads at full spread. It shot like a ray from the Barrier Wall, meeting the base at the massive South Gate, and continuing through Southport to the harbor. The morning mist was thick, cascading down the Wall, and billowing over and through the Port and the surrounding Yards. The gate had opened before dawn, time for fishmongers and merchants to pass through on their way to the markets of the Inner Ring. Squads of Trashmen and Engineers from the nearby precincts had passed through the gate and begun to assess damages in the dark hours, taking statements about both the storm, and the artillery damage. The streets were still marred by  craters from the previous day’s attack, and the Heavy Sweepers and repair teams of the Engineering Corps would not arrive until after the assessments were complete. 

Raven stood in the morning mist, the colossal South Gate towering before him. He could still smell the sea air and feel the winds of Southport at his back, he felt the rising sun burning away the lingering fog and heating up the day.

He was going home. It was a relief, but also strangely sad; like he’d come to the end of some adventure. Like nothing was going to be the same…. What was he getting so mushy about? It had only been a day! A long, busy day, sure, but a day nonetheless. He turned back to look down the road to the harbor, just a mile away. The sea was still there, blue green and vast beyond reckoning. Looking up from it he saw the open sky, uncluttered by the towering buildings of his home borough, or the long, deep shadow of the Barrier Wall. He felt the slightest of pulls, somewhere deep in his gut. Thinking of the people who had bought him drinks and cheered him, the people who had worked and fought so hard for their homes… he would have to come back. And it was not even that far? Now that he thought of it, he had never ventured beyond the Southwest Quarter where he and Abby had grown up. Never crossed the Southern Spoke. It had never occurred to him. And was it that unusual? There were plenty of people in the Old Quarter who never left it. But was that going to be him? 

“Kid. You awake there?” Carlos’ question stirred Raven back to the world like a prod in the ribs. That’s right. He had to get back to the Third Precinct and report on the old man and the Walkers. He had to see if Cortez was alright. His thoughts again veered to reflection as he stepped forward. Beyond the wall was so different. How had he never heard of the Griefers? And he still did not understand why Marie had talked about them the way that she had. He would ask the Chief about it once things were settled, he decided as he strode towards the massive gate.

Raven had been woken that morning by Carlos, who had shushed him as they had navigated through the unconscious patrons and towards the door. Some ways down the road they had been joined by Marie, who had appeared at their side on a motorcycle drawn rickshaw with “Fortuna’s” painted on the side. How had she managed to appear so abruptly riding something so loud? How half awake had he been to have missed that engine? 

She dismounted and began walking the bike alongside them. Raven moved to help but Marie grinned like his Captain again, like she was going to bite part of him off. “Gotta restock after a party like that!” She had said with a smile. And that was that.

The three of them approached the Gate. They passed several Trashmen as they entered the dark of the Barrier Wall. The Trashmen had been surprised to say the least to see Raven in his battered Sweeper Armor coming in from the Outer Rim. One had begun to open his mouth when Raven interrupted, frantically asking to use their radio. They obliged.

Raven was fit to burst with anxiety. With his heart in his throat, he called in. “Ahem, this is Sweeper Raven Daniels. Squad 13 Trash Panda. I,hm, I’ve been separated from my Squad. Has anyone from Trash Panda made it back to the Precinct?... Over?”

Static. And then…

“Daniels?” asked an incredulous voice. “You- you’re listed MIA, presumed deceased! Good to hear that isn’t the case! Over.”

“Yes, um, thank you? I washed up in the Outer Rim. I’m just now getting in through the South Gate and am enroute to Precinct 3 to report. Is Commander Hobbs going to be available at all, today?” Raven choked down his excitement; Carlos had at least taught him that it wouldn’t do to go off like he’d been drinking with the merpeople in the canals. A little restraint would be wise. A little less panic. Even if he was panicking. Just a little. “Some of my report, well, it’s better if he hears it sooner rather than later. Over.” 

“We’ll pass along the request asap, Sweeper Daniels. For now, just get back to your precinct. Over.”

“Thank you, … um,over.” Raven breathed. He’d just have to hope Hobbs would see him today. He didn’t know how much longer his news could wait. He thanked the Trashmen for their radio, then returned to Carlos and Marie. They’d stayed with him, standing a few feet away to give him privacy, but they were watching him and Raven could tell by their glower and smile respectively that they’d been talking about him.

“Got that squared away?” Carlos asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That was very nicely put. I’m sure if you keep your cool just like that, they will take you very seriously when you give your report.” Marie nodded with apparent satisfaction. Raven felt comforted… but also patronized? Like she was about to offer him a sticker for keeping his bunk tidy.

Nevertheless, he felt a measurable decrease in his tension. His message delivered, Raven resumed walking. The South Gate passed through the Barrier Wall, across the bridge that spanned the seemingly bottomless chasm below the wall. He spared a glance for the abyss. Only a day before, he had stood on a platform, being lowered into the Deep-Down. Even that deep, he still hadn’t seen the bottom. And then, with a few more steps, they were in the Inner Ring. 

All at once, Raven could smell the rich, sweet air of the Inner Ring. Its many blended scents of food and worship and industry came together to form a smoky, fragrant musk, that was altogether different from the salt air of Southport. He had never noticed before just how thick the air was in the city he had always called home. Raven had missed it. But, he realised with a twinge of regret, he’d miss the sea air as well. He would visit. He had to.

Carlos and Marie were being awfully quiet, he realized suddenly. He spun swiftly to look at them. Marie was smiling benignly at him. Carlos was very pointedly looking at the road. He noticed Raven’s narrowed gaze and acknowledged it with a mild eye roll. “You’re certainly set on chasing down this guy, aren’t you?”

“Of course!” Raven struggled to understand why this was even a question. “I know what I saw was unbelievable, but it’s true. It’s happening right now, and even if I don’t understand...most of it, I can recognize that this has the potential to put everyone in danger. I have a responsibility to, to at least tell people about that danger. Even if that lands up being all I can do.”

“And if they don’t believe you,” Carlos asked leadingly.

“I’ll make them,” Raven said.

“And when that fails,” Carlos said.

“Then I’ll go down there and stop him myself if I have to!” … Raven stopped, considering his own words. He caught himself looking away for just a moment, but quickly returned his gaze to Carlos, who seemed to be regarding him carefully.

Finally, Carlos said, “you’re going to get yourself killed.”

“This is my home. It’s in danger. I’m probably gonna die from it anyway and I’d rather do so on my feet, helping.”

Carlos considered him, then threw his head back and groaned. “Four Kings, Kid. You’re something else.” The older man seemed to shift through a series of emotions as he looked down, shaking his head, scowled at Raven, then looked away to hide a half smile. “You, Kid, had better hope you didn’t use up all your luck getting washed down the right storm drain.”

They had come to a stop in the middle of the road. Raven was vaguely aware of traffic moving around them, the influx of morning merchants and refugees making their way into the city, but he was waiting for the old man. Somehow, he knew, this was important. 

Carlos looked Raven squarely in the eye. “You’re set on this.” It was not a question. “May the Great, the Strong, the Wise, and the Just watch your back, Kid.”

Raven stood agape for a moment, then smiled toothily. “You take care of yourself too, .. Pops” 

“Pops?!” Who are you calling ‘Pops?’” Carlos snorted.

“Would you rather I called you ‘Old Man’?” Raven laughed.

“Hey, HEY! I’m 37, dammit,” Carlos snapped. Marie chortled behind him. “I’m not old,” he said in a smaller voice, scowling. Marie exploded in laughter.

“Thanks for everything, Miss Fortuna. Bye, Pops!” Raven smiled as he waved, then turned towards the municipal entrance to the engineer’s stair and began his ascent into the heights of the Barrier Wall.

“You okay with letting him go like this, Carl?” Marie said quietly as they watched Raven make his way up the stairway and out of their sight.

Carlos’ face was somber. Contemplative. “Kid has to do his own growing up.” He said flatly. “You alright with your inquiries today?”

“We shall see!” She grinned. Her smile faded. “If a Mercer Consortium foreman has been making new friends inside the ring, then they’ll be outside the normal movements. I just need to find out who’s been breaking routine, and we can go from there.” 

Carlos nodded. “Just you -”

“I’ll be discreet!” She smiled again. “Honestly, that boy has you worrying all over, hasn’t he?”

“I always worry.” Carlos growled. Then he looked back over his shoulder after Raven. The young sweeper had vanished into the heights. “Seems these days I just have more urgent things to worry about. I have a stop to make, then I have to go see Henrie. Meet you at the Tower when you’re done?”

Marie nodded. “You mentioned that last night. You said it could be related to Raven’s story about the man controlling walkers?” She looked worried. “Then you be careful too.”

Carlos nodded and started walking. He could hear Marie’s engine as it faded into the distance. She was right. He was worried. He had a lot to worry about right now. And it was already looking to be a long day ahead.

[mushroom-cartel]

I’ve come up with a list of disjointed headcanons because I’m having an existential crisis over Roxas and Ventus being different people/the same person and KH3′s looming presence is scaring me.

The headcanons are written for an AU based on the initial premise of the “Cranky Old We’ve-seen-some-serious-shit-you-would-never-understand People” trio, but blown way out of proportion.

This post can be considered Part 2 to the one linked above.

Expect some wild dumb thoughts also being thrown in…

KHX, KHUX and Pre-BbS:

The era of small, angsty children going through mid-life crises and not appreciating Disney because Lux collecting is insane.

Strelitzia. Dead.

The Keyblade War.

Mass memory wipe commences.

Amnesia galore and Union X is formed.

Problem with that though is that the new leader all have to bear the burden of retaining everyone’s memories of life before and what happened during the War.

They’re just kids.

Bless them.

Aren’t Ephemer, Skuld, Ventus, Brain and Lauriam Keyblade Masters by default because of this?

I mean, there’s no one around to tell them if they’re still ordinary Keyblade wielders or not, but now that they’re Union leaders, it would make sense for the five of them to perform a mock Mark of Mastery exams in the Keyblade Graveyard.

Just to feel like its all official and the end of the worlds wasn’t upon them or something.

Ventus should be allowed to laugh at Terra and Aqua in BbS.

AKA, the reason why Ventus doesn’t have Starlight in BbS but probably does like every other NPC in KHUX.

Because the Mark of Mastery back in the old days granted you a new Keyblade.

You remember the Masters of Masters having the Gazing Eye in each of his apprentices’ Keyblades?

Apparently, he also forged their Keyblades from their hearts.

Well there you go. 

While five kids doing the same to each other is a chaotic mess, it’s still in the realm of possibility.

Just stick your hand in a heart and viola!

An entirely new Keyblade.

For reference, go look up Gatchaman Crowds’s NOTE.

The Keyblade version of Graceful Dahlia is formed via this method?

All those weird plot points Nomura makes.

Out of the five new leaders, Ventus is undoubtedly the youngest and has the least experience when it comes to leadership. He doesn’t understand why he was chosen in the first place anyways when he can’t even stand for himself.

He has issues.

But he wants to be helpful.

Shift Pride is introduced to Union X and Lauriam starts to go looking for his sister, asking for Elrena’s aid in his endeavours. Every possible lead they follow winds up a dead end and they have to start their searches all over again. In this AU, Lauriam doesn’t confide in the others about his sister’s disappearance because he believes too much in the power of friendship. It’s during this time that Lauriam starts neglecting his duties as a Union leader, and Ventus, being the nice kid he is and all, covers for him and does the workload of two grown-ups. 

This arrangement goes on for quite a while, so much so that Ventus loses it.

He goes ham on Lauriam’s ass because it’s not fair; they all lost important people and things before and during the War, what matters now is what they can do to preserve the memories.

“Why are you so intent on chasing a ghost of the past?”

“She’s my sister, you wouldn’t understand!”

Laurium and Ventus get into a fight, which ended up with Laurium losing his heart and Elrena following him shortly after because she stepped in the way of his Keyblade to stop him from doing the same to Ventus.

Guys, Elrena just wants everybody to be happy.

She used to be sunshine and rainbows.

AKA, the story of how child soldiers became Nobodies.

AKA, a method of leaving the Realm of Sleep, or in this case, the dream within a dream, the alternate reality which Union X formed.

In his guilt, Ventus exiled himself from Daybreak Town.

Like, he just up and left the second layer and went back to the dream world where the Keyblade War took place.

And then he destroyed his Chirithy, basically an intimate part of his soul since he started sleeping. Soon he jumped off a cliff and BAM.

AKA, a method of leaving this particular part of the Realm of Sleep, which was fabricated by the Masters of Masters.

Ventus enters Reality, where times are different and years have passed.

Surprise, surprise, though, the first layer of dreams was very real (despite everything they’ve been told) and lots of children died.

The people of Daybreak Town were the SURVIVORS of the War, the Foretellers were more senior Keyblade wielders, and MoM being the guy to put them all to sleep.

So the War in KHX was technically the second of its kind.

The War (the player has flashbacks of) in KHUX is the first.

Memory alteration magic for the win here.

HE’S IN THE FUTURE.

PANIC.

Confusion.

He’s alone for a period of time, in which he starts to adopt a backhanded grip in the hopes of utilising Wayward Wind’s blunt edge because he’s scared of doing the same to anyone else like he did to Lauriam.

Stabbing and hitting becomes guarding and slashing.

And then Xehanort showed up

To screw things up.

Heart-splitting action occurred some time later.

As did Vanitas. 

Sora’s healing time also happens and Ventus forgets about Daybreak Town for like a second.

Actually, more than a decade.

Daybreak what now?

“TERRA! AQUA!”

Post-KH(ish) and Early-358/2:

Roxas doesn’t remember his first six days because he was having flashbacks of the War through his connection with Sora and Ventus.

Xemnas is scared that he’s remembering Sora.

Marluxia nearly cried foul when the boy was inducted.

Larxene wanted nothing to do with him.

Why?

Since the two lost their hearts in a fake realm of sleep, their memories are a bit scrambled. So what they remember of their Sombodies is in correlation to strong emotions.

You know.

Like that time they died.

OR THE KEYBLADE WAR.

Still, Marluxia needs power and Roxas seems familiar.

And Larxene?

She just wants to have a good time.

See what makes him tick, what makes him different, what makes him Roxas and not Ventus.

She’s bitter and jaded. A few years of being nothing can do that to some people.

Don’t expect her to pat Roxas on the head mockingly.

Okay, she does but that was only a one time thing.

It’s accidental, but she ends up forming some sort of amicable acquaintanceship with the boy.

She hasn’t had proper friends since…

.… Since what?

Ah, it doesn’t matter.

On the other hand, Roxas is weirded out by the fact that Marluxia and Larxene seem so familiar despite not having any memories of his Somebody’s life.

When he looks at them, he feels nothing but regret and the urge to profusely apologise for something he doesn’t know about.

He’s paranoid, guys.

Wait, what?

Day 11.

“You’re going on a reconnaissance mission with Number XII.”

“But, Saïx, she’s going to kill me!”

“Not a concern of mine unless it hinders your ability to collect hearts.”

AKA, the beginnings of a proper adventure with “Accidental Murder” and “Friends Should Not Fight (Even If I Die)”.

Note to self: Marluxia’s crack code name is “Death by Sister Complex”.

It’s a grand adventure.

One that includes flying saucers, a grand amount of explosions and lighting raining down from the sky and roasted acorns.

Just like old times, in Larxene’s mind.

Seriously, what were the Foretellers thinking when they sent children to go collect Lux?

Oh, just casually go defeat huge Heartless, no biggie.

What was that about a war?

Roxas learns survival skills like a madman.

A friendship is formed?

Day 22 and sea-salt ice cream like normal before RTC.

Pre-CoM(ish) and During:

Roxas is still being paranoid, even with less people occupying the Castle That Never Was.

At least Larxene and Marluxia isn’t around to give him the heebie-jeebies.

He thinks.

Paranoid to the point that he doesn’t even interact with Xion as much as he did in canon and Xion doesn’t get a face (from him or Axel) because he’s scared that someone might try to use him as scapegoat.

Plans go awry because initiating social interaction isn’t in her programming. Xemnas almost throws himself off his throne.

Meanwhile, Marluxia’s just doing his own things in Castle Oblivion and unintentionally makes Naminé give Sora memories of Strelitzia.

Also, thanks to his tenure as Union leader, he does in fact have power over memories to a certain degree, how else would the War be wiped out from the Dandelions’ minds?

He teaches Naminé things.

But memories of Strelitzia only means one thing. Lauriam.

And Lauriam’s… nice. Very different to Marluxia in some ways.

“Who the hell is this?”

“Lauriam.”

“YOU.”

“Who?”

“Strelitzia?”

“WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT?”

Confrontations within Castle Oblivion are disorderly.

In this AU, the goal is not to cause a coup, but rather, it’s to make others (coughxemnascough) think twice about forming Kingdom Hearts. 

Stop trying.

It’s not gonna work, old man.

Not knowing that he’s in the process of leading a group to stop another war from breaking out is Marluxia’s mood.

Larxene low-key just wants to burn Castle Oblivion to the ground because she can feel Ventus’s ghostly presence withing in the walls, even after how many years its been since she lost her heart and forgot some things. A few millenniums? She knows it’s familiar but she can’t put her finger on the feeling. Maybe it’s just her excitement acting up, high voltage running through her body making her think there’s something not quite there here.

If they did actually succeed in finding the Chamber of Waking, Larxene’s reaction to Ventus’s body living without a heart would be, “Oh, great! I was right, there’s a damn ghost in this place!!” 

A lighting show inside a half-dead world is great.

Larxene finds it ironic that she’s dying to a Keyblade for the second time and just laughs, instead having a “I’m fading” moment like all the other Nobodies.

Sora is confused.

Larxene. Gone.

“It was great while it lasted.”

Yes, Ventus is asleep here still, but he’s currently wrangling with Roxas’s acute trauma in sleep land.

Roxas’s coma is key.

Because he remembers being Sora AND Ventus and he’s so confused because he:

a). Saved a whole bunch of kids like himself from serve trauma.

b). Saved a whole bunch of worlds from being taken over by the darkness.

c). He’s lost himself at least twice in wherever he is.

He’s walking through a version of Daybreak Town before everything in KHX and KHUX. 

“When the worlds were bathed in light” sort of Daybreak Town.

Half-awake and half-asleep.

The real incarnation, present day where the legacies of Ephemer, Skuld and Brain are lived and breathed by Daybreak Town.

Also, Ephemer, Skuld and Brain is another friendship trio that forms in this AU. 

This is important.

They lost Lauriam and Ventus in one fell swoop and what do you do when you lose your friends?

You became stronger by strengthening the bond that remain and forge new ones.

In Union X’s case, they soon abolished the old Union system and formed a meager with what was left.

Competing amongst themselves to collect the most Lux becomes a thing of the past.

The people who didn’t agree with this change were free to leave Daybreak Town (the dream within the dream) and establish connections with the outside and Reality, moving from the Realm of Sleep and into the Realm of Light or Darknes, but they still regarded Daybreak Town as home, so now and then they’d send themselves to sleep.

AKA, how Luxu got to the outside world by blending in. 

AKA, the ability to put something in the universe to sleep forever is exclusive to the old people for once.

Those that remained slowly regained their memories, and despite all the aftereffects of the War(s) on the population of Keyblade wielders, these people and the ones who left still interacted with one another.

Which basically means, if the leavers found any potential across the worlds, they’d send those who could possibly wield a Keyblade into a deep sleep to be trained in Daybreak Town; while they might age mentally, they’ll stay physically the same.

AKA, a better option for immortality. 

Luxu’s around for a bit.

He passes on No Name at some point after this.

Their comatose bodies are sent to Scala Ad Caelum for safekeeping, where they are to remain for all eternity unless they chose to leave Daybreak Town themselves.

And because of this, Scala Ad Caelum is abundant with darkness and light, ensuring that it stays between the two Realms.

I guess Scala Ad Caelum is a world formed from the hearts of the participants of the Keyblade War.

Their hearts didn’t become part of Kingdom Hearts?

Scala Ad Caelum is the original base of most, if not all, Keyblade-related activities.

Scala Ad Caelum is home to many; light and darkness guide those whose dwell on this world.

Daybreak Town 2.0?

Somewhere in the realms between it exists.

Many years later, Xehanort and Eraqus became the apprentices of a Keyblade Master descended from a person who left Daybreak Town all those years, who acted as one of the guardians to all the sleeping hearts.

Yen Sid is trained by a wandering Dandelion descendant.

Back in the old days, being a Keyblade wielder meant you went to sleep, guarded Scala Ad Caelum or you got found by a stranger who took a particular shine to you.

After Lauriam “died” and Ventus left, Ephemer, Skuld and Brain realise for once that they’re just children.

Two of their friends are gone for eternity.

Back to Roxas, he’s just… tripping out. Majorly. 

What’s with all these grey cats surrounding him and bawling their eyes out right next to his ear?

They’re going off the rails, saying things about calling the Grand Masters over to the plaza he awoke in, calling him a name unfamiliar to his memory.

Then there’s a corridor of darkness and light opening right before the poor boy and the trio that steps out are who he assumes to be the Grand Masters.

They look barely older than him, maybe by a year or two but no more than that.

“Ventus?” the girl whispers, taking a knee to meet him at eye level. “It’s been years, how…?”

“Please, Skuld. We could’ve never known if he left in the first place. He might’ve actually run off to another dream and accidentally opened up a corridor here. Don’t overwhelm him with questions,” says one of the boys, tilting back his head slightly to stare at Roxas from under the brim of his hat.

“I wasn’t about to, Brain! Eh, Ephemer, back me up here… Ephemer? Something wrong?”

“It’s Ventus for sure, but… His heart… I can’t sense it.”

During Days 23 to 50, Sora goes through Castle Oblivion and Axel does the dirty.

When Larxene and Marluxia cease to exist, it begins the process of reforming as their Somebodies.

They’re how old by now?

Their Heartless are long gone.

Which means that while their bodies end up in Scala Ad Caelum, their hearts awaken in Daybreak Town, just as Sora is put to sleep by Naminé—meaning they just missed Roxas returning to Reality.

Did I forget to mention Xion is still a puppet?

Late-358/2: 

“All my friends are dead to me.”

After awakening, Roxas immediately begins to distrust the Organization. He’s beyond paranoid by this point.

He’s suspicious of Axel especially, considering that the members who perished at Castle Oblivion weren’t exactly pushovers.

He thinks he’s done this before; maybe Ventus did too?

The Grand Masters weren’t exactly transparent on what Ventus did, but Roxas knew better than to question it when he saw the way they acted guarded around him.

He has a “contemplating on running away from home to find answers” phase. Like all good Nobodies do at some point in their meaningless existences.

Seeing as Xion doesn’t have any problems following the orders of anybody, he enlists her help to investigate. 

She gets a face.

Finally.

Jokes on Roxas because Sora’s memory is questionable.

IT’S STRELITZIA’S FACE.

[ I just realised Marluxia and Larxene aren’t around by this point. ]

[ That’s a shame. ]

The change affects everyone’s sight. Yes, even Saïx and Xigbar aren’t safe.

She retains the colour of her hair, but it is noticeably longer than what it appeared to be initially.

No one knows whose face Xion has and no amount of programming can change it.

Xemnas is tired of kids not following the plan.

A wild Riku Ansem appears.

And he’s just as confused by Xion as the rest of the Organization.

“DiZ, it looks like no one Sora’s ever met.”

“Perhaps it took its face from another source.”

“What—those other drawing of Naminé’s? How can that be?”

“Not everything needs a sound explaination. No matter, regardless of the puppet’s state, you need to capture it as it will be necessary for our plans to move ahead.”

Despite Riku’s Ansem’s skepticism, Xion having Strelitzia’s face is on Naminé’s part.

Because Marluxia was half the asshole he was in canon and memory magic is very potent in the hands of a capable student.

Going through Marluxia’s head and finding a girl of unknown origins was very good blackmail material.

She drew creepy renditions of his old life.

And then she shoved a copy of Lauriam’s memories into Sora’s heart when she put him to sleep to reconnect his chain of memories.

Why?

Because she could.

And she wanted to flip the bird on Marluxia in the case that he didn’t die and would have to fight Sora again.

[ Oh, jeez, this AU’s version of Sora will be so weird in KH3′s setting because of that one trailer showing us Marluxia’s return. ]

Naminé the Witch of Memories for the win.

The wonder duo of Roxas and Xion eventually allow Axel into their circle of conspiracies. However, there are cutthroat rules about how and what he can do to help.

The days go.

Kill Heartless, collect hearts, lie to Xemnas, eat sea-salt ice cream.

Just the usual shebang.

Traitor!Xion is a thing now: desperate to discover her origins, instead of being forcefully taken and convinced, Xion willingly walks right up to DiZ and Ansem’s doorstep.

Yes, even though she and Roxas are friends, it should also serve as a remainder that their relationship isn’t as close in canon, here they both halfly trust one another because they know the Organization has more sinister plans for them. 

They need another pair of eyes to look out for their backs.

Their partnership is just them using each other for personal gains.

Axel is completely on a different loop.

He has no idea what’s going on in his friends’ heads.

They were planning on offing Axel but resisted the urge.

Xion learns exactly who and what she is.

DiZ finding the opportunity to do so, puts her to sleep and forces Naminé to rewire her memories; making it seem like to Xion that the Organization stole her (Sora’s) memories and DiZ is trying to help her get them back from Roxas.

“Destroy the boy.”

“Okay, DiZ.”

Naminé takes the time to stick a copy of Lauriam’s memories of Strelitzia in Xion too. For good measure, she reasons to herself. 

Roxas’s final battle is technically against “Mystery Girl”.

An unholy amalgamation between Xion’s last form and Marluxia’s own.

Her memory went out of wack.

There’s flower petals everywhere when she lands a blow on Roxas while they fight above Twilight Town.

Prologue-KH2:

Making munny is exhausting.

The normal stuff happens, except:

a). Naminé to anybody she can get her hands on, “You get a copy of someone’s memories and you get a copy of someone’s memories! Everyone gets a copy of someone’s memories!!”

b). Axel buys a crate of sea-salt and throws it down from atop the clock tower, wanting to test the limitations of digital data and human injury on Day 2.

“Accidental Murder” evolves into “Natural Disaster of a Murderer”.

When Roxas thinks Axel died, he shrugged it off.

People come back from the dead all the time.

Stop starting fires, DiZ.

Ansem Riku questions his morals.

Everything should be back to normal when Sora wakes up, right?

Unknown Point(s):

“Lauriam?”

“Ah, my old friends. How long has it been since we last talked like civilised people?”

The three Grand Masters laugh. “Far too long.”

“Hey, Marluxia, where—”

“Who’s this?”

“Why, might I introduce to you my dear friend Elrena?”

“You may.”   

In other news, Ventus is a time traveller, Lauriam served his time, Elrena didn’t ask for this and Kingdom Hearts is bad news.

I might add some more headcanons after KH3 blasts a hole somewhere in my ship and becomes safe to talk about.

[unsettlingshortstories]

A Sound of Thunder

Ray Bradbury (1952)

The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a film of sliding warm water. Eckels felt his eyelids blink over his stare, and the sign burned in this momentary darkness:

TIME SAFARI, INC.

SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST.

YOU NAME THE ANIMAL.

WE TAKE YOU THERE.

YOU SHOOT IT.

Warm phlegm gathered in Eckels' throat; he swallowed and pushed it down. The muscles around his mouth formed a smile as he put his hand slowly out upon the air, and in that hand waved a check for ten thousand dollars to the man behind the desk.

"Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?"

"We guarantee nothing," said the official, "except the dinosaurs." He turned. "This is Mr. Travis, your Safari Guide in the Past. He'll tell you what and where to shoot. If he says no shooting, no shooting. If you disobey instructions, there's a stiff penalty of another ten thousand dollars, plus possible government action, on your return."

Eckels glanced across the vast office at a mass and tangle, a snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes, at an aurora that flickered now orange, now silver, now blue. There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame.

A touch of the hand and this burning would, on the instant, beautifully reverse itself. Eckels remembered the wording in the advertisements to the letter. Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish­-black, wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious easts, moons eat themselves opposite to the custom, all and everything cupping one in another like Chinese boxes, rabbits into hats, all and everything returning to the fresh death, the seed death, the green death, to the time before the beginning. A touch of a hand might do it, the merest touch of a hand.

"Unbelievable." Eckels breathed, the light of the Machine on his thin face. "A real Time Machine." He shook his head. "Makes you think, If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."

"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "We're lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of dictatorship. There's an anti-everything man for you, a militarist, anti-­Christ, anti-­human, anti­-intellectual. People called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in 1492. Of course it's not our business to conduct Escapes, but to form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's President now. All you got to worry about is­"

"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.

"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Tyrant Lizard, the most incredible monster in history. Sign this release. Anything happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry."

Eckels flushed angrily. "Trying to scare me!"

"Frankly, yes. We don't want anyone going who'll panic at the first shot. Six Safari leaders were killed last year, and a dozen hunters. We're here to give you the severest thrill a real hunter ever asked for. Traveling you back sixty million years to bag the biggest game in all of Time. Your personal check's still there. Tear it up."Mr. Eckels looked at the check. His fingers twitched.

"Good luck," said the man behind the desk. "Mr. Travis, he's all yours."

They moved silently across the room, taking their guns with them, toward the Machine, toward the silver metal and the roaring light.

First a day and then a night and then a day and then a night, then it was day--­night--­day--­night. A week, a month, a year, a decade! A.D. 2055. A.D. 2019. 1999! 1957! Gone! The Machine roared.

They put on their oxygen helmets and tested the intercoms.

Eckels swayed on the padded seat, his face pale, his jaw stiff. He felt the trembling in his arms and he looked down and found his hands tight on the new rifle. There were four other men in the Machine. Travis, the Safari Leader, his assistant, Lesperance, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. They sat looking at each other, and the years blazed around them.

"Can these guns get a dinosaur cold?" Eckels felt his mouth saying.

"If you hit them right," said Travis on the helmet radio. "Some dinosaurs have two brains, one in the head, another far down the spinal column. We stay away from those. That's stretching luck. Put your first two shots into the eyes, if you can, blind them, and go back into the brain." The Machine howled. Time was a film run backward. Suns fled and ten million moons fled after them. "Think," said Eckels. "Every hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois."

The Machine slowed; its scream fell to a murmur. The Machine stopped.

The sun stopped in the sky.

The fog that had enveloped the Machine blew away and they were in an old time, a very old time indeed, three hunters and two Safari Heads with their blue metal guns across their knees.

"Christ isn't born yet," said Travis, "Moses has not gone to the mountains to talk with God. The

Pyramids are still in the earth, waiting to be cut out and put up. Remember that. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler­--none of them exists." The man nodded.

"That" ­ Mr. Travis pointed ­ "is the jungle of sixty million two thousand and fifty­-five years before President Keith."

He indicated a metal path that struck off into green wilderness, over streaming swamp, among giant ferns and palms.

"And that," he said, "is the Path, laid by Time Safari for your use,

It floats six inches above the earth. Doesn't touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. It's an anti­gravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching this world of the past in any way. Stay on the Path. Don't go off it. I repeat. Don't go off. For any reason! If you fall off, there's a penalty. And don't shoot any animal we don't okay."

"Why?" asked Eckels.

They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds' cries blew on a wind, and the smell of tar and an old salt sea, moist grasses, and flowers the color of blood.

"We don't want to change the Future. We don't belong here in the Past. The government doesn't like us here. We have to pay big graft to keep our franchise. A Time Machine is finicky business. Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species."

"That's not clear," said Eckels.

"All right," Travis continued, "say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?"

"Right"

"And all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a billion possible mice!"

"So they're dead," said Eckels. "So what?"

"So what?" Travis snorted quietly. "Well, what about the foxes that'll need those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-­nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or saber-­toothed tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region. By stepping on one single mouse. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any expendable man, no! He is an entire future nation. From his loins would have sprung ten sons. From their loins one hundred sons, and thus onward to a civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comparable to slaying some of Adam's grandchildren. The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises on its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the Pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be a United States at all. So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step off!"

"I see," said Eckels. "Then it wouldn't pay for us even to touch the grass?"

"Correct. Crushing certain plants could add up infinitesimally. A little error here would multiply in sixty million years, all out of proportion. Of course maybe our theory is wrong. Maybe Time can't be changed by us. Or maybe it can be changed only in little subtle ways. A dead mouse here makes an insect imbalance there, a population disproportion later, a bad harvest further on, a depression, mass starvation, and finally, a change in social temperament in far-­flung countries. Something much more subtle, like that. Perhaps only a soft breath, a whisper, a hair, pollen on the air, such a slight, slight change that unless you looked close you wouldn't see it. Who knows? Who really can say he knows? We don't know. We're guessing. But until we do know for certain whether our messing around in Time can make a big roar or a little rustle in history, we're being careful. This Machine, this Path, your clothing and bodies, were sterilized, as you know, before the journey. We wear these oxygen helmets so we can't introduce our bacteria into an ancient atmosphere."

"How do we know which animals to shoot?"

"They're marked with red paint," said Travis. "Today, before our journey, we sent Lesperance here back with the Machine. He came to this particular era and followed certain animals." "Studying them?"

"Right," said Lesperance. "I track them through their entire existence, noting which of them lives longest. Very few. How many times they mate. Not often. Life's short, When I find one that's going to die when a tree falls on him, or one that drowns in a tar pit, I note the exact hour, minute, and second. I shoot a paint bomb. It leaves a red patch on his side. We can't miss it. Then I correlate our arrival in the Past so that we meet the Monster not more than two minutes before he would have died anyway. This way, we kill only animals with no future, that are never going to mate again. You see how careful we are?"

"But if you come back this morning in Time," said Eckels eagerly, you must've bumped into us, our Safari! How did it turn out? Was it successful? Did all of us get through--­alive?"

Travis and Lesperance gave each other a look.

"That'd be a paradox," said the latter. "Time doesn't permit that sort of mess--­a man meeting himself. When such occasions threaten, Time steps aside. Like an airplane hitting an air pocket. You felt the Machine jump just before we stopped? That was us passing ourselves on the way back to the Future. We saw nothing. There's no way of telling if this expedition was a success, if we got our monster, or whether all of us ­ meaning you, Mr. Eckels ­ got out alive."

Eckels smiled palely.

"Cut that," said Travis sharply. "Everyone on his feet!"

They were ready to leave the Machine.

The jungle was high and the jungle was broad and the jungle was the entire world forever and forever. Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky, and those were pterodactyls soaring with cavernous gray wings, gigantic bats of delirium and night fever. Eckels, balanced on the narrow Path, aimed his rifle playfully.

"Stop that!" said Travis. "Don't even aim for fun, blast you! If your guns should go off ­ ­ "

Eckels flushed. "Where's our Tyrannosaurus?"

Lesperance checked his wristwatch. "Up ahead, We'll bisect his trail in sixty seconds. Look for the red paint! Don't shoot till we give the word. Stay on the Path. Stay on the Path!"

They moved forward in the wind of morning.

"Strange," murmured Eckels. "Up ahead, sixty million years, Election Day over. Keith made President. Everyone celebrating. And here we are, a million years lost, and they don't exist. The things we worried about for months, a lifetime, not even born or thought of yet."

"Safety catches off, everyone!" ordered Travis. "You, first shot, Eckels. Second, Billings, Third, Kramer."

"I've hunted tiger, wild boar, buffalo, elephant, but now, this is it," said Eckels. "I'm shaking like a kid."

"Ah," said Travis.

Everyone stopped.

Travis raised his hand. "Ahead," he whispered. "In the mist. There he is. There's His Royal Majesty now."

The jungle was wide and full of twitterings, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs.

Suddenly it all ceased, as if someone had shut a door.

Silence.

A sound of thunder.

Out of the mist, one hundred yards away, came Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"It," whispered Eckels. "It......"

"Sh!"

It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker's claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight.

It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.

"Why, why," Eckels twitched his mouth. "It could reach up and grab the moon."

"Sh!" Travis jerked angrily. "He hasn't seen us yet."

"It can't be killed," Eckels pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He had weighed the evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a cap gun. "We were fools to come. This is impossible."

"Shut up!" hissed Travis.

"Nightmare."

"Turn around," commanded Travis. "Walk quietly to the Machine. We'll remit half your fee."

"I didn't realize it would be this big," said Eckels. "I miscalculated, that's all. And now I want out."

"It sees us!"

"There's the red paint on its chest!"

The Tyrant Lizard raised itself. Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate, even while the monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh blew down the wilderness.

"Get me out of here," said Eckels. "It was never like this before. I was always sure I'd come through alive. I had good guides, good safaris, and safety. This time, I figured wrong. I've met my match and admit it. This is too much for me to get hold of."

"Don't run," said Lesperance. "Turn around. Hide in the Machine."

"Yes." Eckels seemed to be numb. He looked at his feet as if trying to make them move. He gave a grunt of helplessness.

"Eckels!"

He took a few steps, blinking, shuffling.

"Not that way!"

The Monster, at the first motion, lunged forward with a terrible scream. It covered one hundred yards in six seconds. The rifles jerked up and blazed fire. A windstorm from the beast's mouth engulfed them in the stench of slime and old blood. The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun.

The rifles cracked again, Their sound was lost in shriek and lizard thunder. The great level of the reptile's tail swung up, lashed sideways. Trees exploded in clouds of leaf and branch. The Monster twitched its jeweler's hands down to fondle at the men, to twist them in half, to crush them like berries, to cram them into its teeth and its screaming throat. Its boulder-stone eyes leveled with the men. They saw themselves mirrored. They fired at the metallic eyelids and the blazing black iris,

Like a stone idol, like a mountain avalanche, Tyrannosaurus fell.

Thundering, it clutched trees, pulled them with it. It wrenched and tore the metal Path. The men flung themselves back and away. The body hit, ten tons of cold flesh and stone. The guns fired. The Monster lashed its armored tail, twitched its snake jaws, and lay still. A fount of blood spurted from its throat. Somewhere inside, a sac of fluids burst. Sickening gushes drenched the hunters. They stood, red and glistening.

The thunder faded.

The jungle was silent. After the avalanche, a green peace. After the nightmare, morning. Billings and Kramer sat on the pathway and threw up. Travis and Lesperance stood with smoking rifles, cursing steadily. In the Time Machine, on his face, Eckels lay shivering. He had found his way back to the Path, climbed into the Machine.

Travis came walking, glanced at Eckels, took cotton gauze from a metal box, and returned to the others, who were sitting on the Path.

"Clean up."

They wiped the blood from their helmets. They began to curse too. The Monster lay, a hill of solid flesh. Within, you could hear the sighs and murmurs as the furthest chambers of it died, the organs malfunctioning, liquids running a final instant from pocket to sac to spleen, everything shutting off, closing up forever. It was like standing by a wrecked locomotive or a steam shovel at quitting time, all valves being released or levered tight. Bones cracked; the tonnage of its own flesh, off balance, dead weight, snapped the delicate forearms, caught underneath. The meat settled, quivering.

Another cracking sound. Overhead, a gigantic tree branch broke from its heavy mooring, fell. It crashed upon the dead beast with finality.

"There." Lesperance checked his watch. "Right on time. That's the giant tree that was scheduled to fall and kill this animal originally." He glanced at the two hunters. "You want the trophy picture?"

"What?"

"We can't take a trophy back to the Future. The body has to stay right here where it would have died originally, so the insects, birds, and bacteria can get at it, as they were intended to. Everything in balance. The body stays. But we can take a picture of you standing near it." The two men tried to think, but gave up, shaking their heads.

They let themselves be led along the metal Path. They sank wearily into the Machine cushions. They gazed back at the ruined Monster, the stagnating mound, where already strange reptilian birds and golden insects were busy at the steaming armor. A sound on the floor of the Time Machine stiffened them. Eckels sat there, shivering.

"I'm sorry," he said at last.

"Get up!" cried Travis.

Eckels got up.

"Go out on that Path alone," said Travis. He had his rifle pointed, "You're not coming back in the Machine. We're leaving you here!"

Lesperance seized Travis's arm. "Wait.­"

"Stay out of this!" Travis shook his hand away. "This fool nearly killed us. But it isn't that so much, no. It's his shoes! Look at them! He ran off the Path. That ruins us! We'll forfeit! Thousands of dollars of insurance! We guarantee no one leaves the Path. He left it. Oh, the fool! I'll have to report to the government. They might revoke our license to travel. Who knows what he's done to Time, to History!"

"Take it easy, all he did was kick up some dirt."

"How do we know?" cried Travis. "We don't know anything! It's all a mystery! Get out of here, Eckels!"

Eckels fumbled his shirt. "I'll pay anything. A hundred thousand dollars!"

Travis glared at Eckels' checkbook and spat. "Go out there. The Monster's next to the Path. Stick your arms up to your elbows in his mouth. Then you can come back with us."

"That's unreasonable!"

"The Monster's dead, you idiot. The bullets! The bullets can't be left behind. They don't belong in the Past; they might change anything. Here's my knife. Dig them out!"

The jungle was alive again, full of the old tremorings and bird cries. Eckels turned slowly to regard the primeval garbage dump, that hill of nightmares and terror. After a long time, like a sleepwalker he shuffled out along the Path.

He returned, shuddering, five minutes later, his arms soaked and red to the elbows. He held out his hands. Each held a number of steel bullets. Then he fell. He lay where he fell, not moving.

"You didn't have to make him do that," said Lesperance.

"Didn't I? It's too early to tell." Travis nudged the still body. "He'll live. Next time he won't go hunting game like this. Okay." He jerked his thumb wearily at Lesperance. "Switch on. Let's go home."

1492. 1776. 1812.

They cleaned their hands and faces. They changed their caking shirts and pants. Eckels was up and around again, not speaking. Travis glared at him for a full ten minutes.

"Don't look at me," cried Eckels. "I haven't done anything."

"Who can tell?"

"Just ran off the Path, that's all, a little mud on my shoes­--what do you want me to do--­get down and pray?"

"We might need it. I'm warning you, Eckels, I might kill you yet. I've got my gun ready."

"I'm innocent. I've done nothing!"

1999.2000.2055.

The Machine stopped.

"Get out," said Travis.

The room was there as they had left it. But not the same as they had left it. The same man sat behind the same desk. But the same man did not quite sit behind the same desk. Travis looked around swiftly. "Everything okay here?" he snapped.

"Fine. Welcome home!"

Travis did not relax. He seemed to be looking through the one high window.

"Okay, Eckels, get out. Don't ever come back." Eckels could not move. "You heard me," said Travis. "What're you staring at?"

Eckels stood smelling of the air, and there was a thing to the air, a chemical taint so subtle, so slight, that only a faint cry of his subliminal senses warned him it was there. The colors, white, gray, blue, orange, in the wall, in the furniture, in the sky beyond the window, were . . . were . . . . And there was a feel. His flesh twitched. His hands twitched. He stood drinking the oddness with the pores of his body. Somewhere, someone must have been screaming one of those whistles that only a dog can hear. His body screamed silence in return. Beyond this room, beyond this wall, beyond this man who was not quite the same man seated at this desk that was not quite the same desk . . . lay an entire world of streets and people. What sort of world it was now, there was no telling. He could feel them moving there, beyond the walls, almost, like so many chess pieces blown in a dry wind ....

But the immediate thing was the sign painted on the office wall, the same sign he had read earlier today on first entering. Somehow, the sign had changed:

TYME SEFARI INC.

SEFARIS TU ANY YEER EN THE PAST.

YU NAIM THE ANIMALL.

WEE TAEK YU THAIR.

YU SHOOT ITT.

Eckels felt himself fall into a chair. He fumbled crazily at the thick slime on his boots. He held up a clod of dirt, trembling, "No, it can't be. Not a little thing like that. No!"

Embedded in the mud, glistening green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very dead.

"Not a little thing like that! Not a butterfly!" cried Eckels.

It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckels' mind whirled. It couldn't change things. Killing one butterfly couldn't be that important! Could it?

His face was cold. His mouth trembled, asking: "Who ­ who won the presidential election yesterday?"

The man behind the desk laughed. "You joking? You know very well. Deutscher, of course! Who else? Not that fool weakling Keith. We got an iron man now, a man with guts!" The official stopped. "What's wrong?"

Eckels moaned. He dropped to his knees. He scrabbled at the golden butterfly with shaking fingers. "Can't we," he pleaded to the world, to himself, to the officials, to the Machine, "can't we take it back, can't we make it alive again? Can't we start over? Can't we­"

He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.

There was a sound of thunder.

[hiraeth-doux]

A Road Paved In Gold (2/?)

Summary: In Steve’s memory, the seconds, and minutes, and hours of that day blurred into one endless moment of aching uncertainty and bone-chilling fear, but if his calculations were correct, his watch stopped ticking at the exact moment when his plane had gone up in flames.

Steve Trevor was never meant to die in the sky above Belgium for the reasons much bigger than he could ever imagine. Therefore, he didn’t. However, surviving came with a price he didn’t ask for. The price that Diana had to pay, as well.

A/N: It wasn’t meant to take me a month to update it, sorry! I was a bit caught up on writing pt.3 to post this one. Oooops! I’ll do my best to keep updates more regular :) Also thank you so very much for the overwhelming feedback on the first part! You guys rock! Hope you’ll enjoy the rest of it as much :) 

AO3  |  Fanfiction.net

The healing was slow, his bones taking their sweet time to grow back together and his cuts and bruises lingering as a reminder of the last battle that changed the course of history and turned his life upside down, although not necessarily in that order. Steve had no answers still, and no one to ask the questions crowding his mind. Chief told him that the pieces of his plane were scattered over several square miles of fields and forests. He was not wearing a parachute. He was stark in the epicenter of an explosion that, had it happened on the ground, would have killed everything in a dozen-mile radius. He should have evaporated, and there was no logic and science to explain why he was still breathing.

More often than not, Steve chose not to think about it.

There were questions, after all, the answers to which were better left unknown. Not that it would have made any difference, he mused. Knowing wouldn’t change anything, and he wasn’t sure if it would give him the peace of mind he was seeking or not. Perhaps, there were better ways to find it. If maybe he gave it a try.

They returned to London a week later, the world still in the midst of celebrating the victory of all victories, and if the fall from the sky hadn’t broken all of his bones, Etta’s enthusiastic embrace when she met them at the train station nearly had.

“You are here!” She fussed, squeezing the life out of Steve and completely ignoring the crowds milling around them. “And you are alive!”

Standing next to them, Diana bit her lip, trying to hold back a smile, amused beyond measure.

You’re next, Steve mouthed to her over Etta’s shoulder, wincing but making no attempt to pull away. God knew they all deserved a moment of happiness after everything they’d been through, even though he wasn’t sure why Etta’s was about strangling him.

And like on cue, his secretary let go of him and pulled Diana into a bear hug, the one that Diana didn’t resist – Steve’s breath catching at the sight of affection on Etta’s face. Perhaps he could relate to it all too well. And then he proceeded to ignore her knowing looks and raised eyebrows and not so subtle comments that reminded him that there was probably things too obvious to the side observers that no amount of trying could hide, the slight shift in body language between him and Diana as much on display as the sun shining high up in the sky.

No wonder Sameer was rolling his eyes the whole time and Charlie proceeded to blush profusely.

He chuckled under his breath, covering it with a cough as Diana untangled herself from Etta and they finally followed her toward the cabs lining the street through the peals of laughter and happy tears and the relief so palpable in the air it felt like blanket covering the city. It still felt surreal, like a dream he didn’t want to wake up from.

---

On the first day of winter, he took Diana down to the seaside, the fresh ocean air a nice change from the ever-present smog of London. The day was sunny, the sky bright-blue above them even though the wind blowing from the Atlantic Ocean was nothing but merciless, biting at their cheeks and pulling Diana’s hair out of a twist at the nape of her neck. She didn’t seem to mind.

They bought ice-cream from a street cart (They have more flavors than one, you know) and the look of utter bliss on her face, so pure and radiant it all but blinded him, made Steve want to get her an entire parlour just so that this joy would never leave.

“Mankind is not perfect, but this? This is worth everything,” Diana mumbled around a mouthful of strawberry goodness, eyes closed.

And her smile was so majestic he wanted to take a picture of it and carry it with him. Wanted to capture it in time and make it last for as long as he breathed.

Steve shook his head. “I’m glad you got your priorities figured out.”

He touched his chocolate cone to her nose, making Diana squirm away from him, then leaned in to kiss it clean before planting another kiss on her lips. God, he’d never loved her more.

Tucked away from the crowds of Brighton and this late in the year, the town of Hastings was a refreshing change of pace, nearly empty and so damn peaceful Steve could hardly believe it was real. They strolled through the ruins of an old castle, perched above the sleepy streets, the half-collapsed walls and turrets sticking from the ground like sharp, jagged teeth, vacant but for the two of them. And if the morning traffic was any indication, the rest of the town was probably in London, celebrating at long last.

He watched Diana regard the remnants of what used to be a palace and a fortress in the time when she was still a child with pensive apprehension, her finger brushing against the weathered rock here and there as if she was trying to find a physical connection to the era and the people long gone, read the history as if it was written in braille, seemingly oblivious to the harsh gusts of wind, snaking through the ruins. He wanted – so badly – to see what she was seeing.

Her wrist gauntlets were peeking from under the sleeves of her wool coat, and Steve knew without a doubt that there was probably a knife hidden somewhere on her body – old habits died hard and he, of all people, knew it pretty damn well – but this was perhaps the second time since they met that Diana didn’t have her shield or her armour within an arm’s reach, and he wondered if she felt the difference. This, more than anything, was perhaps the surest sign of how they were truly heading toward peace.

They strode down toward the beach then, greeted by the roar of the ocean and the cries of the seagulls, soaring over the surf, wet sand sinking beneath the soles of their boots. He took her hand and Diana laced her fingers through his. She turned to him, squinting a bit against the sun and the wind, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

“We’re together like that now, yes?” She inquired, an eyebrow raised.

Steve laughed and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek with his hand. “Damn straight, we are.”

Ever since he woke up somewhere in Belgium on the morning after the war was done and over with, he was expecting her to bring up going back to Themyscira, her homesickness always like an undercurrent of energy around her, each mention of her home island laced with wistful longing. Had she decided to do so, he knew he wouldn’t blame her, and knew he wouldn’t try to stop her. Maybe this world was worth saving, at least on some level, but it didn’t deserve her. That much Steve knew for sure.

However, he never asked, and Diana never brought it up, and foolishly, selfishly, he hoped against all hope that he was enough for her to stay, that he was enough, period. If maybe they never spoke about it, she wouldn’t want to leave. And he hated himself for it, just a little bit, an embodiment of everything that was wrong with his kind. And he also knew he couldn’t possibly feel otherwise for he wished so fiercely to give them a chance at something he couldn’t put into words just yet that he’d fight all gods to make it happen, just as he knew he’d follow her to the end of the Earth if he had to.

If she let him.

Later, in the small room Steve rented for the night so as to avoid the hassle of London for a few more hours, she shrugged off her jacket and rubbed her hands together to warm them up after their chilly walk, her cheeks flushed from the wind and her gaze going to the window overlooking the cliffs and the water below now and then. And Steve wondered not for the first time if she was seeing the beach she grew up on, the grey of the North Atlantic replaced in her mind with the bright turquoise of the sea guarding her ‘paradise island’.

He watched her lean fingers pull the pins out of her hair, allowing it to fall down her shoulders in a cascade of black curls, and maybe there was something to that theory than men weren’t inherently multitaskers because in that moment, he could think of one thing and one thing only.

Diana turned to him, the late afternoon sun tangled in her wild mane, making it glow like a halo, a ghost of a smile on her lips, and he was very much aware of staring her like a complete moron as he tried to come up with words. Any words, really. Nice day, don’t you think? Where would you like to go for dinner? He was a grown man, for heaven’s sake, not an awkward teenager. Surely, he could do better than that.

However, his mind was blank, filled with white static like an empty radio station, and when she stepped toward him, her hands pushing into his hair, the only thing he could think to do – the only thing he could do – was kiss her, urgently, hungrily, like there still was gunfire raging outside their window, counting down the moments they had left.

“Captain Trevor,” she murmured against his mouth not without a trace of amusement, “are you not out of commission anymore?”

Steve drew back, panting, the world spinning so fast around him he didn’t know how to keep up. Rested his forehead against hers, his fingers flexing ever so subtly on her sides. “No, ma’am.”

Languid and soft in his arms, and so very real, Diana pushed her hands under the collar of his shirt and around his neck, long fingers gripping the hair on the back of his head while he fumbled with the buttons of her blouse. (Jesus, why were there so many of them?!)

His fingers brushed against the lace bodice of her corset.

“Huh, this is…”

“Fashion,” Diana breathed out, and added, “It’s awfully uncomfortable.”

Steve’s lips quirked. “Well, then we should… ah, fix that.”

His mouth latched on her jaw and moving toward the sensitive spot behind her ear as his fingers tugged at the thin strings keeping the tight garment in place, unlacing it without much grace.

“This thing is a crime against humanity,” he muttered softly.

Diana laughed, his face caught between her palms as she kissed the corner of his mouth, her hands sliding to his shoulders to push his shirt down his arms, her nimble fingers sliding under his undershirt and pushing it up and over his head, a giggle rising in her throat at the sight of his rumpled hair, tamped down by the sheer force of need in his eyes.

And suddenly nothing was funny anymore…

“Diana…” He name slipped from his lips like a prayer.

The corset fell to the floor, followed by the thinnest undergarment she was wearing with it, her hands unbuckling his belt and making the edges of reality blur before Steve’s eyes, and then he was spreading her on the sheets, the fading sunlight making her olive skin glow golden.

Naked Diana in his arms was everything, the touch of her hands sending sparks along his skin, shooting all the way through him. He kissed her, deeply and thoroughly, searing the texture and taste of her mouth in his memory for eternity and every lifetime to come.

“Let me…” He whispered when she tried to pull him to her, his mouth trailing a path along down her throat and along her collarbone, slow, deliberate kisses. His lips closed around a rosy peak of her breast as his thumb brushed over the other one. Diana’s breath caught, a soft sound forming into a moan that send his mind spiralling into a place where she was the center of the entire universe. “You’re wonderful,” he whispered between the pecks, his hand skimming over her belly and slipping between her thighs, those two weeks he spent barely touching her suddenly impossibly long. “So beautiful…”

He could spend the rest of his life mapping her body with his lips and it would still not be enough.

A hand of her hip, he pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh, making Diana go still, his own body humming with the need and want and something deep and primal. He glanced up to see her eyes drop shut in surrender and acceptance, ready to drown in pleasure, his own pulse stuttering in response, urging him forward. Her hand curled around a fistful of sheets and the other gripped his hair when Steve’s mouth found the sweet spot, her back arching instinctively to accommodate his touch.

Hot swipe of his tongue conjured a breathless, Please – a demand, rather than a plea, and his thoughts evaporated in an instant, leaving nothing but shiny delight behind.

A low growl of approval formed in the back of his throat when she guided him where she wanted him most. “Steve…”

He felt her body tense. Close.

Earning a sound of protest, Steve pulled back, punctuating his way up her belly and sternum with hasty kisses until his mouth found hers again, his hand curling around her wrist and pinning it to a pillow above her head. Wound like a spring, his entire being throbbing pulsing with raw wanting, he needed more, all of her, now.

Heavy-lidded and dark with wanting, Diana’s eyes fluttered and opened, finding his; a small nod, and Steve’s fingers dug into the flesh of her thigh.

The first luscious plunge into her was bliss, ripping through him like a bolt of lightning, zinging from the top of his head to his toes. He snagged her mouth in a long kiss, swallowing Diana’s whimper, her hips rising in encouragement, already teetering on a brink. Steve arched into her, finding the rhythm, catching her effortlessly when the universe fell apart around her, her whole body clenching around him, teeth digging into his shoulder – pain smearing into pleasure, leaving a mark that would stay with him for days on end, the one he would fin oddly appealing.

There was nothing about this place that bore any resemblance to Veld and the night before he died. The air didn’t smell of mold and oil lamps and smoke, and there was no desperate urgency now, no primal need to feel alive. Yet, the silkiness of Diana’s skin under his hands made him think of the snow melting on her hair, and the way his heart kept tripping over itself every time she laughed, and his hand curled over hers ever so gently as they danced even when the town square emptied, his cheek resting against her temple.

It was a fragile and dangerous thing, this feeling that started to blossom in his chest before he knew it was happening, the warmth he hadn’t allowed himself to feel toward another person in so long it felt more like something from another life more often than not. He held on to it, fiercely, willing that night to stay with them forever.

A shiver rippled along his body as his hips stuttered, the steady rock growing frantic and Diana’s nails digging into his skin as if to hold him in one piece. And then he was falling into shimmering oblivion – oh, god, yes - that shattered around them, exploding in a kaleidoscope of pleasure.

“Oh god,” he murmured, breathless, one hand still clutching her wrist, another tangled in her hair.

Diana laughed, the melody of it bouncing off the wall and lighting him up from the inside; kissed him along his jaw. “Which one?”

Steve chuckled - a silly, happy sound, and nuzzled into her neck before pulling back just far enough to look at her, her cheeks flushed and her hair fanned out over the pillow, black on white. He’d never felt more alive. “All of them.”

This is it, he thought, breathing her in, drinking up her smile with his eyes, his mind in pieces. This is what it feels like to have all the time in the world.

---

Curled into him, half-draped over his body, Diana pressed a kiss below his collarbone before resting her head on his chest, his heartbeat a rapid staccato against her own as she waited for her breath to find itself again.

“Is it always like that? Between men and women?” She asked softly when the universe settled around them, no longer exploding behind her eyes in a myriad of colours.

“Like what?” Steve’s fingers were threading idly through her hair spilled over her back, the touch of his fingertips to her skin making it tingle.

She touched a faint scar crossing his shoulder, wondering absently about the story behind it. It was old, heaved, a faint reminder of what happened a long time ago. A story she didn’t know, and in the back of her mind, she couldn’t help but wonder if the memory of it hurt still, if there was a mark it left on him that she couldn’t trace with her fingers but that needed to be found, hidden in the fabric of his soul.

“Like it’s too much and not enough, all at once.” Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears, like it wasn’t hers at all but merely the echo of all questions she never knew how to ask yet.

He stayed quiet for a long moment, allowing the ticking of the clock on the old dresser be the only sound breaking the silence in the room, the air around them still and somewhat electrified, the jolts of nearly current running along her skin with every breath.

“No,” he said at last, planting another kiss on the crown of her head. “No, it’s not. It’s only like that when—when something’s real. Some people live their whole life never knowing this feeling.”

Her fingers flexed, brushing against his skin, as if trying to hold on to him. As if being wound around him with her entre body was not close enough. She squeezed her eyes, allowing other senses to take over, mapping the steady beating of his heart and the warmth of his skin and the scent of soap and sweat clinging to them both in her mind. She never wished for more than she had, always satisfied with the gifts of life and the gods, but this… this was new, and the fear of almost losing him was raw and fresh in her mind, and there still were moments when their small world felt terrifyingly fragile.

It took her a while to realize that she was not used to losing the people she cared for. The one lesson her mother and Antiope never taught her for loss was an uncommon occurrence for them.

“I used to wish for it, you know,” Diana breathed out when Steve didn’t add anything else. “The war. From the cliffs above the training grounds, it looked mesmerizing. Powerful.” Her voice dropped, turning small. “I used to think that there was no glory bigger than the glory of a battle and no honour greater than the honour of yielding a sword.”

“I can see the appeal of that,” Steve muttered, the memories from the battle on the beach making him think of how much, in that moment, he wanted to be one of them, wanted to fly over the sand, landing strikes at the enemy with the precision of a god.

“I wanted more than that, I wanted--” Her voice caught for a moment. “My whole life, my mother was telling me that I came to be because she wanted me so much. So what if…”

“What?”

“What if I wished so much for the war that it happened?”

Steve swallowed. “No, you couldn’t have,” he said without a moment of hesitation, shaking his head.

“You don’t know that,” she murmured into his chest.

“I do, actually.” His hold on Diana tightened, a little protective, a little possessive, and his lips brushed to the top of her forehead, his gaze skimming over her regal profile that was seemingly carved from marble, her long lashes throwing shadows on her cheeks as her gaze remained fixed on something that only she could see. “You have the kindest soul in this whole world, Diana. You’d never bring any harm on anyone, intentionally or not.” A pause. “Unless they don’t know how to dance.”

She snorted and poked him in the ribs with her finger, earning a short laugh in response, and the easiness of this, the lightness of the air around them left her with a warm tightness in her chest that burned through her with a desperate desire to hold on to this feeling until the end of time.

“Besides,” Steve continued, “if it was that easy – getting the things just by wishing for them… Well, there’d probably be more people winning a lottery.”

Diana lifted her head, her brows furrows ever so slightly. “What’s a lottery?”

“Oh… you buy a ticket and if you’re lucky, you can win a lot of money,” he explained, eyes darting between hers.

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Some people think it will make them happy, I guess.”

“Does it?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

She scrunched her face. “It makes no sense.”

“Tell that to the poor sods that keep trying,” he said in a mock-serious voice, his fingers trailing along her cheek, her skin smooth and soft, the pull of her bottomless eyes luring him into the void like a siren’s call.

Gorgeous.

He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry, and his mind empty. If he could just look into her eyes until his last breath, he would die a happy man.

It struck Steve then that he’d never thought they would get here, to this moment, to this feeling of consuming contentment that felt like a cocoon in the world that was made, ultimately, of chaos, and how much he craved it. Before he even knew how to put it into words, he knew he wanted this, her, them, so badly and so achingly it frightened him more than a rain of bullets and the prospect of fighting against ancient god. That, Steve Trevor knew how to handle (maybe not the god part, but he was figuring it out). The thing with Diana, though, the one that was making his heart trip in his chest, leaving him breathless and more or less catatonic – now, that was another story.

“So, I have to ask,” Steve started when Diana arched her eyebrow quizzically and it occurred to him that he was probably staring at her without saying anything for quite a while.

“Mm?”

“Those, um, twelve volumes…” He paused, twisting a strand of her hair in his fingers and trying oh so hard not to smile; cleared his throat. “That’s a lot to… measure up to.”

She blinked, and then dropped her head down, her shoulders shaking with laughter and her hair tickling his skin, and boy oh boy, he couldn’t help but swear to make it his life’s mission to ensure this sound never died. Even if she was laughing at his less than stellar—

“They were not entirely correct,” Diana promised, shifting to move closer to him, her face tucked into the curve of Steve’ shoulder and their legs tangled together, skin pressed to warm skin. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

He chuckled, a low sound reverberating through his body and into hers.

Somehow, none of them remembered about dinner.  

---

Steve wasn’t sure at what point exactly did the war become his anchor, something that he understood better than the life before or after it, however much he hated the blood and carnage. In some twisted, weird way, it made sense to him. Maybe it was true, after all, about how a person could get used to anything. There were tasks and missions, and in the end, if he got lucky, and if the gods or whatever powers that be were generous, it would be worth the effort.

Or so he used to think to get himself through the hours and days and years or what felt like a never-ending nightmare more often than not.

Technically, on the other side of the ocean, there still was a place that he used to call home, where his memories still lived, if a little faded from time. Memories of barley fields and laughter and a green-eyed girl that got him to make her promises that he believed he would be able to keep, and a hole in his heart so big he was surprised it didn’t turn him inside out when he was left with nothing but fear of the future.

“Come with me,” he asked Diana one morning while she was making coffee (I can’t believe this is a commodity in your world and Let me try mixing it myself) in his tiny kitchen – a splash of cream, 2 spoonfuls of sugar (better 3; someone had a sweet tooth).

She looked up at him, her puzzled smile soft in the morning light, “Come where?”

Steve shrugged, his hand pushing through his hair, a speech that he oh so carefully mapped out in his head chocking him, lodged in his throat. “America.” A pause. “Anywhere. You wanted to see the world…”

Anywhere you want. As long as you’re with me, he wanted to say, but the words died on his lips, selfish in their essence.

She was a goddess, for heaven’s sake! What could he possibly offer to her? For all his claiming that he was above average (ha!), for someone of her caliber, he was probably mediocre, at best. Hell, he probably wasn’t nearly that impressive for the majority of the world, either. And yet… and yet, there was nothing that Steve wanted more than to hear her laughter, listen to the sound of her voice in the dark, deep husk of her whisper hidden in the shadows telling him the stories that sounded as magical to him as his did to her.

For as long as Steve remembered himself, he was drawn to the sky; to the vastness and endlessness of it, the freedom it embodied, and the feeling of freefalling when he was soaring so far above the ground the world seemed like a toy. It was drawing him, calling for him, and the resistance was futile – he knew that much from the start. He used to joke that he didn’t choose to be a pilot; rather, the sky chose him.

It kept choosing him, over and over again.

Until it left him with a cold, uncertain feeling somewhere deep in his core.

Something happened in the sky in Belgium, and no matter how hard Steve tried to ignore it, it was still there, a nagging presence in the back of his mind. By logic and every law of physics that ever existed, not only was he supposed to be blow up. He should have been pulverized, extinguished without a trace. A blow that could have wiped out the lives of everything and everyone for miles around it epicenter should have exterminated him like he never existed at all. And if not that, if he was simply pushed out of the plane by whatever luck or coincidence, the fall should have killed him.

The fact that none of this happened was making his mind spin and his stomach clench, and more importantly, being here, now, watching the woman that patched the broken parts of him without even knowing it be amazed by something as mundane as a telephone felt like a second chance that shouldn’t be wasted. And maybe all he had was this small apartment and his heart – it’s broken but it’s still beating and I glued it back together and you almost can’t see the cracks anymore – and maybe she was celestial in every sense of the word and thus deserved the moon and the stars and everything in-between, but maybe that could be enough. Maybe…

Diana took a sip of her drink, grimacing a little over its bitterness or sweetness – learning was still a work in progress, and More is not better in this case, Diana – and put her mug down. She stepped toward him, and Steve’s arms opened for her like he’d been doing it forever. Natural as breathing.

“And what then?” She tilted her face up to his.

“We’ll figure something out.”

---

England was a mess. Most of Europe was in shambles. The victory, however desired, had a bittersweet aftertaste to it – if the loss and devastation weren’t nearly palpable enough, the half destroyed cities would clue anyone in on what a painful road the world took to find peace again.

Chief left straight away, having nothing left to gain in this land that was barely scraping by as it was.

Charlie returned home, too; to a small town in northern Scotland that lad little trace of the fighting and thus bore few memories of the years when his life didn’t quite belong to him.

Of the three of them, Sameer was the only one who chose to stay in London, although the few times that Steve saw him, he remained vague about his plans, waving off the questions with the light-hearted I have all the time in the world to think of something. Steve never pressed.

And while Etta was bursting with questions that he, despite having years and years of experience of doing just that, found rather hard to dodge, she never once brought up his own departure, and it was obvious to him that she knew deep down that he was probably not going to stick around for too long.

That was not a topic of any discussion though, not with him at least. She dragged Diana off a time or two, for some quality girl time, she claimed, although it was hard to tell what kind of quality she was talking about. (“No, no, you’re on your own,” he raised his hands and even took a step back for good measure when Diana glanced at him for support the first time it happened, trying to bite back his laughter). To his knowledge, they went shopping and out for high tea, and no one got in trouble, and no one got arrested or ended up in a sword fight, so as far as he was concerned, it was a raging success.

“She thinks I’m a good influence,” Diana pointed out later, looking both proud and entirely unsurprised.

“I beg to differ,” Steve countered without hesitation, mock-serious. “Has she met you?” Eyebrows arched, he watched her jaw drop in disbelief. “I mean, if anything, I am the good influence here. Who taught you how to dress and dance and--” She tugged at his hand to close the distance between them and pressed her lips to his, cutting him off midsentence. “Yeah, okay,” Steve muttered against her mouth when she drew back, breathless and dazed. “Etta’s right. I’m wrong. Where were we?”

If his now former secretary fished anything of real importance out of Diana, he had no idea. Not that it mattered, in the long run.

“I take it London is growing on you,” he noted jokingly when she voiced her desire to stay for a while.

“It has its charm,” Diana responded diplomatically, which, said on a dreary and rainy day, came out more as a joke than anything else.

Steve wondered absently how much of this was her desire to help (not that there was much to do now that the god of war was defeated), and how much it was about her sensing his own hesitation to go back to patch of land that had his name on it and the memories he never thought he’d have to unpack again. She never said anything, though, and he never offered an explanation, the things that could have been but never were weighing down on him in the way he didn’t quite want to touch for fear of having them collapse on him like a pile of granite blocks.

Sometimes, he felt haunted.

Who knew that falling from the sky and into the ocean could be a turning point in his life like he couldn’t even imagine? If this was written in the stars somewhere, Steve mused, he wished he knew how to read that map, if only out of plain, human curiosity. There really was no limit to the wonders of the universe.

---

Diana’s nightmares started six months later, black shapeless monsters that consumed her mind, setting the demons inside it free, the void pulling her deeper still with every breath. She would often wake up panicking and hyperventilating, her mind stuck between restless slumber and uneasy wakefulness as the beasts were clawing their way out of her head, trying to consume her whole. She didn’t know where the dreams came from or how to make them set her free, and this sudden development left her more than a little disoriented.

“Diana?” Steve found her curled in the armchair one night, a book that he was pretty certain she was holding upside down in her lap. He grimaced against the light of the reading lamp and rubbed his eyes, awoken by the lack of the familiar warmth by his side. The one that had been there a few hours ago when he fell asleep. He stifled a yawn. “What are you doing?”

She glanced up and shook her head, her eyes tired and her smile a little too thin for his liking. But when she reached for his hand and her fingers curled around his, the comfort of her touch dulled the edges of his concerns, his momentary worry retreating.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Diana responded when he leaned in to press a kiss to her shoulder. “Go back to bed.”

“Come with me.”

“Soon,” she promised, dark eyes holding his gaze, soft and reassuring.

Steve nodded; squeezed her hand and padded back into the dark bedroom.

He was hardy the one to judge, really. The war….it left the kind of scars that were impossible to see and that took forever and a half to heal, his own mind praying tricks on him half the time, leaving him stranded between the worlds. He’d long lost the count of backfired cars that sent him crouching behind a garden wall, thinking it was a gunshot, his senses going into an overdrive.

It took time, and effort, and then some more time to stop living the nightmare.

He wasn’t blind. She wasn’t sleeping well. A bad dream, she’d say every time he asked, retreating into herself if he pressed. Steve didn’t want to push, choosing to think she simply needed time--

Until he woke up one night to Diana screaming in her sleep, and the moment he touched her shoulder to wake her, she had his wrist pinned to the headboard of the bed, her other forearm pressed against his throat and her eyes wild. He’d see it before, in Belgium, when there was no stopping her, the power radiating off of her body like a beacon. Her breath short and her chest heaving, she could easily squeeze the life out of him in a blink of an eye.

He wasn’t scared, though; wasn’t even concerned at first, more surprised than anything else, his heart pounding at such a rude awakening.

“Diana…”

The sound of his voice seemed to have broken the spell, snapping her out of whatever was holding her captive. She let go of him abruptly and scooted away, nearly tumbling out of the bed until she was backing away from him, her eyes wide in shock and confusion.

“Diana…” Steve started again, moving toward her. He kicked off the covers, the carpet soft beneath his feet.

“No,” she pressed a hand to her mouth, shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” he murmured, reaching for her, frantic.

“No, don’t.” She pressed her back into the wall when there was nowhere left to go, inching away from his touch, and Steve dropped his hand. “Don’t.” A sob bubbled up in her chest. “I hurt you…”

“You didn’t,” Steve assured her quickly, the panic rising inside him in tidal waves – over her, over the fear in Diana’s eyes.

“I could have… I could have…” She faltered and trailed off, her hand curling into a tight fist and her throat working although no words were coming out.

Steve shook his head and took a tentative step toward her. “No. Never.”

The air felt charged around them, he could feel her rapid heartbeat from a foot away. She inhaled sharply and let out a shuddered breath. He caught her gaze and held it, a steady anchor in the sea of madness. His hand brushed along the inside of her wrist, and then over her palm when she didn’t pull away, fingers curling around hers. He pushed her hair back from her face, tucked unruly strand behind her ear. “Look at me.” He cupped her face with his hands, thumbs brushing away the frightened tears from her cheeks. “Diana, look at me.” Her lips were quivering, and his heart clenched with fierce, overwhelming protectiveness. “It was just a dream. Nothing but a bad dream.”

She was shaking her head again, but when Steve pulled her to him on a soft, “C’mere,” and wrapped his arms around body that was trembling with adrenaline and shock, she didn’t protest, merely tucking her face into the crook of his neck. “It’s okay, baby. It’s over.” He pressed a kiss to her hair, holding her against him until her breathing evened out, soothed by the sound of his whisper, the words not as important as the tone of his voice.

“Steve… I’m so sorry,” she murmured.

“Shh. It’s over.”

He brushed his lips to her forehead and pulled her back toward the bed. She crawled back under the covers and climbed over what by an unspoken agreement had become his side to her own, and Steve slid in behind her. His arm slipped around her waist, and Diana rolled over to face him, her hand on his wrist that she was holding in an iron grip not a few minutes ago, now running her finger gently over it as though she was worried that even the lightest of touches would leave marks on his skin, tracing a palm-shaped print left by her hand.

“You want to talk about it?” He asked quietly, tugging her closer to him until she was nestled into his side, her head tucked under his chin and his heart beating beneath her cheek.

“No.” Diana’s fingers curled around a fistful of his shirt as she pressed her face into soft cotton, allowing her eyes to drop shut again. “I love you,” she whispered almost inaudibly, something that Steve had to hear between his heartbeats so soft it was, the words making his pulse stutter. “I love you so much.”

There was an edge to her voice, the kind of desperation that splintered his heart.

“Sleep,” he breathed out, tightening his hold on her until she was all he could feel.  

He himself remained awake long after her breath grew deep and even.

---

Two day later, he woke up to find a note on the nightstand, pressed down with his watch lest the morning breeze blow it away, knowing the moment he saw it that she was gone.

I’m sorry. Please forgive me.

To be continued...

[nekkyousagi]

History Written in Our Scars

A Sengoku Basara Fic by Nekkyo Usagi - set during the time Masamune and the Date army took refuge in Takeda house, recovering from his injuries at Nagashino.

...

Leaning down into the steaming water, Date Masamune sighed deeply in relief. It had been a long day. His muscles ached from overexertion after taking part in the so-called famed Takeda Otoko Matsuri earlier. Taking up the Old Man Tiger's offer to be refreshed in Ueda's local hot-springs was a good plan, as he slowly sank into the mineral rich pool.

Admittedly, the one-eyed-dragon knew he'd gotten a little too heated up while sparring with Takeda's shinobi. Not many things surprised the Boss of Oshu in this era, but he definitely never expected that Monkey to stir his fire just by putting on a mask of his rival. A kink in his scales, perhaps? Masamune shivered slightly at the thought, though his body was now warmed from sitting deep in the water. He hoped no one would use that tactic against him in the future.

And then, going up against the Tiger of Kai himself had been no easy task. Though it proved to be a somewhat friendly spar to recharge their battle fervor, that old man didn't pull his punches with anyone. More than once, Masamune had seen the Tiger's Cub launched into the air with his devastating punches. A low chuckle escaped his lips. After spending so many days under the roof of Takeda, the One-Eyed-Dragon grew more and more appreciative of the Date clan's ways. Takeda was TOO HOT...TOO CRAZY.

A twinge of pain. Masamune grimaced. Glancing down at his bare chest, his eye drifted to the still red and scabbed wound on his left side, just under the rib. The injury he'd received at Nagashino was nearly healed, but the bullet had been lodged deep and the pain in his abdomen lingered. The Oshu Dragon had lived with pain all his life, but something about this was different. This was the pain of shame, his pride wounded more than his body. Soon...soon that sick-minded coward Akechi Mitsuhide would feel his dragons claws. Masamune decided to put away such irritating thoughts and slid even deeper into the pool until the water surface stopped just below his nose, breathing in the fragrant vapors.

A sound caught his attention. Without moving, his storm-blue eye followed it until he caught sight of Sanada Yukimura. An eyebrow lifted as he watched the Tiger Cub quietly enter through the slatted bamboo doors and stepped toward the pool. It was apparent no one had informed the red warrior that the hot-spring was currently occupied. And it was also apparent, the young Tiger had not noticed the Dragon at all. With only the top half of his head above the waters edge, and having chosen a spot on the far end of the pool under the shadow of a decorative bamboo patch, Masamune wasn't too surprised he hadn't been spotted. Curious, the Dragon remained silent and kept watching the Sanada general as he drew closer.

Clad in only a small towel wrapped around his hip, Masamune could not help but let his eye wander. The young warrior's body was not completely unknown to the Oshu Dragon. Bare chest ever exposed on the battlefield, Sanada Yukimura feared no sword or spear. The symbol of his clan's pride dancing about his throat, unashamed of his red-blooded spirit. But here, Masamune realized, he had never really seen his rival in such a naked state. All but the Rokumonsen necklace had been cast aside, and so...a mere youth stood before him. A youth not unlike himself. Lean and limber as a wild buck, Sanada Yukimura bore the scars of a life of battle, no doubt more than was he could actually see past the billowing steam. How this young tiger warrior survived all the battles he had witnessed was still beyond the dragon's wondering...for even now as Yukimura entered the water, he hadn't noticed his presence. Masamune grinned beneath the water surface, feeling almost like a venomous snake, coiled and motionless, waiting for the perfect moment to-

"Ah! Who goes there?!" Yukimura snapped, suddenly noticing the figure submerged in the water.

Slowly drifting out of the shadows, the One Eyed Dragon lifted his head out of the water and nodded toward him, "Yo!"

"Ma-Masamune-dono?!" Yukimura sputtered. "I-I had not realized the bath was yours at this time. Please excuse my intrusion," he muttered, and turned to leave.

"Wait," Masamune called after. "You're already in. Kinda seems like a waste to get out so soon, right?"

Yukimura hesitated, turning back to look at his rival. "It is not my place to-"

“'Not to worry. ‘All men are equal in the bath’...or so the saying goes, I guess." The Dragon smirked, floating to the center of the pool. "Leave if you gotta, but...I wouldn't mind really, if you stayed."

He watched as Yukimura's amber eyes darted to and fro in thought. But his resolve soon returned, "If it is as you say, then...I shall be your company, Masamune-dono."

"Sounds good," the dragon sighed, foreign words dancing on his tongue, as he found another spot along the edge, closer to where Yukimura was standing. The tiger cub sank down into the water opposite him and they shared some minutes of silence.

Restless, the Dragon lifted his head from where he'd laid it against the moss covered stone edge of the pool and looked over at his rival. Well, this was awkward. From the time they'd met on the battlefield, never had the Dragon thought this sort of thing would be happening. Though he'd said he didn't mind the Tiger Cub's company, the tense silence was becoming unbearable. Masamune opened his mouth to speak when at that moment Yukimura broke the silence.

"I am relieved to see that you are recovering so quickly, Masamune-dono!"

"Heh, you’re the one who heals quickly, I’ll bet. Gettin’ tossed around by Old Man Takeda the way you do. It's a wonder you're not a cripple.”

The Tiger Cub's chest swelled with pride as he raised a toned arm out of the water and flexed. “It is thanks to My Lord's rigorous training that my body has become stronger! Though, I must admit, his mighty fists remind me daily of how much more I must work to improve!”

Masamune smirked, replying teasingly, “Yeah, you’d better keep up.”

"I-It was an honor to fight alongside you in the Otoko Matsuri today. That was quite a spectacle to behold! Your match against Oyakata-sama! I do not recall a time when I have ever seen you cross blades with my Lord."

Masamune’s dragon eye glimmered at the praise, "Honestly, I think the Old Man went easy on me. But, I’m sure I’ll get a serious re-match from him once this trouble with Oda is over."

“It is true, My Lord was surprisingly lenient, allowing you to participate in a Takeda clan tradition. Most gratuitous! But I cannot help but marvel at the battle prowess and strength you showed today. Dueling against Sasuke and then my Lord shortly after! Truly a marvelous feat despite your injuries. I would expect nothing less from you...Dokuganryu.”

Masamune grinned wide, running a hand lazily through his thick damp hair, brushing the bangs aside, unknowingly exposing his missing eye. Seconds ticked by and he found himself groping for that familiar band of leather sitting comfortingly across his forehead and realized, with a sudden weight falling into his gut, that he'd removed his eye-patch before entering the bath! His protective shield was gone and the Dragon had left himself completely exposed in front of his rival. At that very moment, Masamune felt even more naked than he actually was. 

Suddenly embarrassed and angry with himself for being so careless, Masamune covered his face and turned away, hoping the Sanada general had not seen the horrific scars of his past he'd worked so hard to conceal. But it was too late. A silence filled the air, only countered by the gentle trickle of steaming water into the pool and the call of a bird hidden in the trees. 

Beneath the water, the Dragon clenched his fist, his shoulders trembling from the rage and shame building within, seething from his own self-consciousness. Why was this small thing still causing such a weakness in his heart? It had been years since he’d put it behind him, but truthfully, he was still hiding. The tsuba he’d kept over his eye for so long wasn’t quite a mask, but it might as well be one.

Yukimura’s voice spoke softly, concern lacing his tone, “M-Masamune-dono?”

The Dragon sighed, his shoulders slumping, and looked back at Yukimura out of the corner of his eye, through the veil of his thick bangs. The Tiger Cub of Kai held no shame. Countless scars from many battles were etched into his well-toned form, but never had he seen his rival curl up in defense, or try to cover them. Here they were, exposed and baring all in this almost intimate setting, and it was he, the One Eyed Dragon, who was holding back. But it was too much. Too many had cast their doubt and scorn and hatred toward him because of this imperfection, and he wasn’t about to allow it to happen again.

“Shut up!” the Dragon snapped sharply, rising up from the water. “I don’t need your pity.”

Yukimura arched an eyebrow, unsure of the Dragon’s meaning in his words, as the Boss of Oshu stood and moved to exit the bath. Pausing for a moment, he fought to regain a touch of composure before whispering, not quite to himself, “Heh...guess I still have some more healing to do...”

Masamune could feel the eyes of his rival follow him as he exited the bath, shutting the slatted doors behind him, and grit his teeth. Not Cool...that was definitely, Not Cool.

...

Thin trails of smoke billowed slowly into the air, as the One Eyed Dragon stared trance-like into the now dark and star-filled sky. Kojuro had earlier grumbled about him leaving the outer-facing doors open to the night air, but the climate in Kai was much different than Oshu, especially during these summer months. Raised in winter winds and snow, Masamune was not accustomed to the humidity of the southern lands, and was desperate for a cool breeze. Even the cotton yukata provided for him felt heavy in the warm night air. He hadn’t told his Right Eye about the incident in the onsen. Though Kojuro was likely to find out things eventually, his own stubborn Dragon pride kept his lips sealed. And so his retainer had left with few words, to let his master linger in his own thoughts.

Letting his kiseru smoking pipe drop slowly from his lips, Masamune shook his head, still irritated at his foolish behavior earlier. That was no way to act in front of his rival. Showing weakness like that, it just wasn’t him at all. Perhaps staying in this foreign camp was taking it’s toll on him. True taking time to recover from his wounds had been a blessing, but they’d stayed too long. He was getting too comfortable with strangers...kind as they had been, they were still enemies. To allow an enemy to see one’s weakness...unforgivable. Or was he over-reacting? The shade of the trees, the setting sun, had it been too dim for Sanada to have seen anything at all? Maybe this was all in his head. Either way, his rudeness was uncalled for, no matter what kind of wild and crazy acts his own dragon-esque habits would lead him into. He’d made up his mind. The Date army would leave in the morning but not before making up with his rival somehow.

A tap at the door interrupted his thoughts. Was it Kojuro again? Normally he wouldn’t knock, just announcing his arrival. But a voice did come from the other side of the paper doors, a voice not of his Right Eye but his rival.

“Masamune-dono. It is I, Sanada Yukimura. Please forgive my intrusion at this late hour. I have brought sake for your refreshment. May this one enter?”

The Dragon snorted a little at Yukimura’s habit of extreme politeness, even towards his enemies, but it was still admirable. Ever the picture of a true samurai. “Come in.”

With restrained force, Yukimura displayed more of his learned polite gestures as he slid open the doors and entered the room, tray in hand of sake and even a few sweets. How generous. But also on the tray was a box with unknown contents. Masamune eyed it curiously as the Sanada general approached and sat firmly across from him. He bowed respectfully. “Apologies for the lateness. My Lord wishes to display to you the best hospitality of Kai during your stay, and so has asked that I bring this special brew of sake and confections. I hope they are to your liking.”

“Oh, how thoughtful of the Old Man. I’ll be sure to thank him later.” Masamune nodded, a slight sarcastic tone to his words, as he reached for a cup.

Grasping the sake bottle, Yukimura moved to pour the clear liquid into his glass, and the Dragon cocked an eyebrow at the gesture. To have sake poured for him by his rival, Sanada Yukimura, was a sudden and unexpected pleasure. Finding the Tiger Cub staring at him, waiting for him to take a sip, was nerve-wracking so he gulped it down. Half expecting it to be warm, he was delighted as a cool rush and tingle filled his throat followed by the sharp burn of pure unclouded and chilled sake. Truly a special brew.

“So good,” Masamune grinned, smacking his lips. “A home grown recipe, no doubt?”

“Yes, the pure springs and mountain waters of Kai are treasured and produce fine rice harvest and sake. My Lord will be pleased that you enjoy it’s taste. Please try some of our sweets as well.”

Masamune eyed them skeptically. He wasn’t particularly fond of sweets and these treats looked vaguely like manju. Yukimura’s eyes watered staring down at the sugary dumplings, and Masamune half thought of offering them all for him to eat instead. But his firm determined will to show hospitality was winning out and those fiery brown eyes shot up, urging the Dragon to partake. Trying not to roll his eye, the One-Eyed Dragon leaned over and took one of the small dishes in his hand. Up close, the sweet wasn’t exactly like the typical manju he was was familiar with. The outer dumpling layer was translucent, almost clear, with a dark red filling. The taste was definitely adzuki, sweet red bean, but the outer-layer was cool and refreshing. It brought to mind cool fall breezes and mountain winds, relief from the warm summer night air. He marveled at the chilled jelly, savoring the taste even though it was sweeter than he would have liked. The coolness of it was quite refreshing. “Delicious. What’s it called?”

“Mizu no manju. It is a favorite among the citizens of Kai during the hot summers here.”

“Ho~! Very good. Not like what I was expecting.” Masamune lowered the bowl and placed it back on the tray, taking up the sake cup once more. As Yukimura moved to fill his glass again, Masamune looked him straight in the eye. A shimmer of lightning blue flickered and danced behind his veil of bangs as he stared the Tiger Cub down. Feeling the weight of his gaze, Yukimura hesitated, unsure.

“Quit the pleasantries, Sanada. Why are you really here?”

A long pause. The red warrior froze, his eyes wandering down to the red lacquered box sitting unassumingly on the floor next to him. Masamune tilted his glass, still waiting for the next pour and Yukimura finally obliged. “Forgive me, Masamune-dono. I did not mean to appear deceitful. It was not my intention.” Moving to sit more upright and very respectfully, hands at his hips, palms against his thighs, Yukimura met the Dragon’s gaze, unwavering. “Actually, I have come to present you with a gift...but first you must hear a tale told to me by my Father.”

Masamune cocked an eyebrow, curious. “Your Father?”

“The very same. You have never seen him among the ranks of Takeda. He met his end when I was a boy. But in the days before that, he taught me something I wish to share with you.” Picking up the mysterious lacquered box, Masamune now noticed its craftsmanship and purpose. It resembled a container for tea ceremony implements. Though he was still a learner when it came to the tea ceremony, Kojuro had demonstrated some of the tools and gestures of the art. No doubt Yukimura’s father had been a samurai of some refinement if he’d owned a special item for it. Refinement Yukimura sorely lacked. Nonetheless, the Dragon decided to indulge the Tiger Cub a bit more, at least to make up for his rude behavior earlier.

Carefully lifting the top of the box, an unexpected treasure was revealed. It was a tea bowl, handmade by fine pottery artisans. Cool blue-grey, and speckled with lines of dark charcoal circling the sides like rings, edged with splashes of silvery white at its base. Masamune was no collector of antiquities, but he did recognize the beauty in its design. But that wasn’t the most striking part. Glimmering in the flickering candle-light, web-like strands of pure gold criss-crossed the edge of one side, resembling a marbled stone.

“This was my honored Father’s prized tea ceremony bowl. In his youth, he learned the art and collected fine chadogu for himself to entertain others. He told me that one day, this tea bowl was dropped by accident, and broke into pieces. He could have replaced it, but instead he had it sent to a craftsman skilled in the art of kintsugi, who repaired it with gold, and was returned to him as you see it now. After that, whenever my Father performed tea ceremony, he continued to use this bowl and it is said his guests were even more impressed than before, because the bowl had not been repaired with ordinary glue, but with pure gold.”

Taking the heirloom into his hands, Yukimura handed it to Masamune who took it almost reverently, and continued, “If this tea bowl had not been broken at all, there would be no story to tell...no history.” He met the Dragon’s gaze, focusing on his right eye. “True, you did not know the story of this item until I spoke it just now, but...did you not feel there was one to tell, just by looking at it?”

Masamune turned the bowl in his hands, following the lines of gold etched into the cracks, holding together the once broken pieces so fast it seemed it would never break again.

“Our scars are our story...our history. We need not be ashamed or try to conceal them, for they make us who we are. That was the lesson my honored Father taught me.” Yukimura sat back onto his heels, concluding his tale. “I hope it has given you some solace, though it is not my place. But I speak truth when I say, you would not be known by all throughout the Land of the Rising Sun as the one-and only Dokuganryu without your scars...right, Masamune-dono?”

Dokuganryu...Masamune had been proud of that title, shouted it to the wind and sky, and had gained infamy by it. Never had he thought he’d be reminded of something so profound as his own identity by someone other than Kojuro, let alone the naive Tiger Cub of Kai. How he’d underestimated his rival yet again. Though more often than not, he was bumbling and awkward as a young deer, but having been raised around the wisdom of some of the greatest samurai of the era, it was marvelous the profound things that sometimes did come from his mouth. And this was the most heartfelt. The Dragon was left nearly speechless. The story of this simple piece of pottery had reminded him that through life we may break, in body or soul, but the scars left from enduring the pain and hardship are really a testament to those victories, shining brightly, as beautiful and valuable as gold.

Masamune motioned to return the bowl back to his rival, but the red warrior put up his hand. “No, I wish for you to keep it. I believe if my Father had met you, he would have wished you to have it.”

“Thanks,” Masamune replied coolly, placing the bowl back into the lacquer box. “Maybe you and I can have tea sometime...once I conquer Japan.”

Fire lit Yukimura’s eyes, “Not before my Lord takes the capital and we have our final battle!”

“All right.” The Dragon grinned.

Then, slowly and without ceremony, his hands grasped the leather strap hugging his temples. Yukimura watched closely as the tsuba eye-patch came loose, and fell into the Dragon’s palm. Raising his eyes to meet his rival, unabashed and proud, Date Masamune for the first time, looked at Yukimura as his true self. He could feel the Tiger’s gaze dancing across the dips and planes of his features, coming to rest on the pitted, jagged, and darkly scarred place where his right eye had once been. Remnants of pock-marks and holes from years of disease and a deep gash left as a symbol of utmost trust and loyalty, trial by blood and seething betrayal, were open and exposed now to his rival, his equal...his friend.

Yukimura edged closer, curious to see the hidden scars the Dragon had bore for most of his life. It was truly a privilege, one he felt almost unworthy to look upon, as he bowed his head in gratitude. “Masamune-dono...”

“Ugly, aren’t they...these scars?” the Dragon whispered, sweeping his bangs away to reveal them completely.

Yukimura breathed, “No...they are magnificent. The mark of a true warrior.”

“Well then,” Masamune picked up his pipe once more, lifting it to his lips to take a puff. “We have all night. I’ll tell you their story.”

[gothicfury]

for the weirdo in all of us.

preview:

Lupus smirked as he saw her move throughout the sky, he wanted to join in the fun and transformed. He started breathing heavily and then knelt, his teeny hands started cracking as the flesh of his hands broke to make way for the enormous wolf hands, hair started to envelop his body and his backbone cracked to form a bigger cage, It ripped his flesh and he became a mixture of dark skin and hair, his ears became pointy and his nose became more pronounced as he started to resemble the face of a wolf, with gray hair on the side of his head, his dark eyes became a luminance of light blue. He growled then the muscles on his body hypertrophied, he ferociously ripped the remaining skin and It showed the wolf's Monstrous Body, Strong and unassailable.  He howled at the moon then ran fast... climbing houses, jumping on the roofs, then running on the street.

Strange Family Values. Episode 2 The Poison House By Gothicfury.

                                                    Dedicated To My Grandma.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental However Some characters is inspired/based on history, some events might have been drawn from a variety of sources but is mixed with fiction. The role played by the character in this narrative is entirely fictional. It contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression. The views and opinions expressed in the story are those of the characters only and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions held by individuals on which those characters are based. Some are also FF. The insert song parts are not property of the author and are solely used just as an example. Warning: Strong Explicit Language Might be present. Violence and Gore Present.

Scene 1 *Insert spooky witch song here, for example; Seasons of the Witch – Donovan * Sullivan has unloaded several pieces of baggage from the black car,  He drove father's car, a 1935 black Buick, Most of the things were there, while we, rode in a 1960 Buick Le Sabre, It was the family car, and the whole family fits in it. It was a thing of beauty. Sullivan was pale and looked slightly dead than us, He had wild wind-swept hair and is very good-looking for someone who looks a bit grayish and white, He wore a white shirt with ruffles and a black vest as if he came from the Victorian era. I have a feeling that he is a zombie since sometimes he looks at our heads funny.

*Flash back to Sullivan wide-eyed looking at our heads funny, reaching out and wanting to grab what's inside, then we look back at him and he puts his hand back into place like nothing happened. We look at him awkwardly*. He is also very clumsy and walks funny.

But Sullivan has been good to us, he always follows and helps us when we need it, like that time when Lupus couldn't transform into a werewolf because he was stranded in a field of wolfsbane along with some very bad bullies who think of nothing better. Lupus started to itch and started feeling dizzy while the boys laughed at him. Lupus growled at them as they laughed... "Oh look it's a wolf boy! The wolf boys going to bite us hahaha!" The bully very pleased with himself laughed and looked at his friends as he pointed at Lupus.   "What's wrong wolf boy?, Not feeling too well?. Let's teach you a lesson!".  The leader of the bullies sneered, his eyes wrinkled and he stared menacingly at Lupus.  They cackled, as they started to kick and hit him. BAD idea. Very, very, very, very... bad idea indeed. They sky began to look of orange and purple. The sun was about to set. The boys continued to beat up Lupus. He wriggled of pain and most of all annoyance; he lay on the grass helpless and was pissed beyond belief as he tasted his own blood on his lips. Then Lupus howled so loud the boys said "Wtf?!, fucking weirdo!". Lupus howl rang throughout the sky, when the noise was gone they cried, "Whatever! let's kick him some more" but as soon as they said this, a tall dead like man appeared towering before them.

Sullivan bent down and looked at them one by one, slowly, with his pitch black eyes that were so deep it felt like it was going to suck their souls out. See Sullivan was very tall, to human eyes the color of his white grayish skin can be a bit daunting, He glared at them, there was no sound but they heard something scary like a gust of wind, That said “Mmmmmm.” /*insert scary gust of the wind here*/ which probably meant they are going to get eaten very soon. The boys felt fear trickle at the back of their necks, crawling its way to their spines. The first bully started to hold his friend's hands, grasping, checking if they were still there. Their hearts beat fast. Well, Sullivan did sort of look like a zombie. "z.....z...z....." the boy said, and then Sullivan muttered "boooooooh!" and at that moment opened his mouth to bite at the wind. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!" They screamed. They started or at least tried to run away, one of them tumbled and fell, and tried so hard to get up, and at that instant checked to look back if It was near, all while he was crying. and IT was. When Sullivan tried to take a step, “AAAaahhhhhhh!!!!” the boy ran and screamed some more. It was lovely. I wish I was there to see it. The great part, It wasn't really Sullivan who they should be scared of. When those bullies left, Lupus was already so weak from the beating and worst; the wolfsbane was poison to his open wounds, So Sullivan had to carry him and he quipped: "You shouldn't be playing in a field of wolfsbane Master." Then left the field of wolfsbane to go home. As soon as they were far away from the wolfsbane, Lupus wounds started to heal, the blood in his lacerations started to bond and soon enough, The cuts in his face, hands, and feet started closing.  The purple bruise in his eyes, slowly vanished, until it was only his own skin. The only thing left was the dirt and the dried blood left in his lips and as they were nearing our house, Lupus eyes opened, He glowered and at that instant his pupils turned yellow and suddenly, They were pitch black angry.

*Insert scary rock song here example Powerwolf – Lupus Dei* Those boys. Did not survive the night. And it was not Sullivan's fault. It did not involve kicking and hitting. But It did involve a very gruesome dinner. A lot of growling and snarling sounds from a big rabid possessed dog. with lots of blood splattering on the windows and the walls. And screaming, lots and lots of screaming. Till there was no more. *Insert scary sonata here, for example, Moonlight Sonata – Beethoven* And a boy's feet being dragged in the forest, with trails of blood on the ground. He was not found.

Of course, I knew this because when Sullivan came home with Lupus all bloodied up and dirty, Mother was not pleased, not pleased at all. We had to look at her cauldron to see what happened, Mother was Furious. Good thing Father was asleep. Mother was about to do something to punish those boys, but they were not lucky enough to receive mother's punishment because before she can walk out. Lupus Pissed, Fumed in his Demon voice. You know that voice that sounds like a demon is possessing you. That voice; “They're Mine!.” Growled, Transformed and wrecked the door as he ran pass through it. *Insert fun spooky song here example tainted love – Marilyn Manson*

We looked at each other awkwardly for a few seconds then Mother whined “My poor baby...”, Paused and continued. “Well, since that's all sorted out, Someone needs to fix the door, I am not in the mood for that. Sullivan, fix the door please.” and moved on with her life like nothing happened. *Insert fun spooky song here continue song example tainted love – Marilyn Manson* Scene 2 Speaking of Lupus, he was wide-eyed and fascinated with the House. "Whoa! we should definitely explore this house!" he remarked, Then he started to run wildly towards Mother and Father and into the house door, declared "Dibs on the bedroom!..." Then ran inside the house. As if Anybody cared. Wait, I do. Damnit!. I always declared the attic, as my room. I like high places. I like to look down at how small and petty people are from above the high bedroom window. They looked pathetic. Father while walking inside the Manor started talking about its history. I didn't  pay much attention to what he was saying, I wanted to look around and see if there is anything worth doing in this new house of ours. I started to feel the intricate design of our new fireplace, checking if there was any secret mechanism, contraption or locking device camouflaged so that they appear to be part of the fireplace, that might lead to a secret passage, checking the bookcase if it slides and leads into another room, checking the floors if there is any trap door. The house was intriguing. I would like to know It's secret. After all, we would be living here for a while or so, depending on how well we behave. "As it turns out this was a poison house!" I heard my father say as the word poison had caught my attention. *Insert song, for example, Yann tiersen - La valse des monstres.* The walls were covered in red wallpapers with black accents that cut midway where the dark wooden wall starts, as soon as you enter it, there was a giant hall, there were black and white marbled tiles as floors and there was a huge staircase that leads to the upper rooms, The ceilings were also rich in Renaissance paintings of Gods, Angels, Demons and other worldly creatures surrounded and structured by ivory carvings.

There were also arched doors that goes to the other rooms in the first floor, we had first headed to the massive living room, this is not new to me, I am just describing so that you would know.  It was one of the perks of this family. Father was a good business man, he had consumed in his time, a generous amount of Land, gold and stocks, that we are able to live comfortably. The living room had huge arched windows with beautiful hand made carvings of animals, gargoyle, fairies, wolves and other mystical creatures, even huge ornate statues of mermaids, as well as sumptuous silk green curtains and draperies. There were elegant dark green wallpapers with black Victorian Gothic style patterns that also cuts at the bottom half and it is where the dark wooden wall starts. There was an iron wrought chandelier, That shone brightly in the middle of the room, below it, was a huge dark red carpet and three black huge opulent soft sofas facing each other, Its black was the color similar to a dark night, It also had intricate patterns and dark wood to support it. Near the fireplace was two Blood Red leather Thrones, Its wooden carvings were of course of a vampire and the other one of a Siren. It smelled of old wood, new things and of lavender flowers from the vases.  Father has once again outdone himself.  But what I was excited to see most of all, was my room and the library. It was waiting for me, but I had to sit on the sofa first and bond with the family. Scene 3 The Poison House As we sat in our new living room father started to talk about the Poison House. "I believe that this was what they called the Poison house, in the 1820s a strange housewife lived here, said housewife had a devious habit of poisoning those that surrounded her. The first person she poisoned was her first husband and their children, after that she moved on to poison her father and mother-in-Law, then her father. Afterward, she poisoned her second husband and their children. In the end, she was married to a third husband and they had three children, she tried to poison him twice but survived and as he grew suspicious he took their three children away from her. And even though she had done those Awful, terrible things, she still had suitors because she had a very enviable dowry so people kept coming in hopes that the rumors were false, only to find out, it was, unnervingly true. She was, a horrifying woman indeed."

“In her trials when asked about the incidences, she admitted to what she did; All those horrible terrible things, all while she was giggling and laughing, pleased with what she had done. The people felt fear as they saw her laugh. Some people believe that the devil himself possessed her.” “Although I doubt that. I seriously think he has better things to do.” Father quipped. We snickered. Some people say that the ghost of that strange house wife and/or her victims still roam around the house waiting for its next victim or maybe even revenge." *Thunder and lightning * “What a nice weather” Mother spoke, She was looking out of the window. "Why is it a nice weather mother?" the twins asked. "Because when it rains and there is thunder and lightning, it keeps the family together". Mother happily replied. "That, and we can hug each other!", Then mother attacked the twins in their seat and tickled them to death. As the flames of our new fireplace lit our faces, Lupus and the twins were goggle-eyed, still taken with Fathers story telling. Then the twins both said, "We should find her." Next, they started to move and crawl-walk towards the staircases. “Careful Dearies, We don’t! want to dent, the new wooden staircases.” "Yes, Mum.” The twins eerily replied in unison, all while chuckling. "Well that's very well fine but I should go and take a rest now," Grandpa said. All while muttering “Very busy in the morning, things to blow up…” as he stood up. “Father?!” Our aunt exclaimed. “What?” Grandpa innocently attested, while he looked for an accomplice and blinked at Lupus and me. For a second she was gawking at grandpa then immediately glared at him as if warning him that he shouldn't do whatever it is that he is thinking or planning of doing.

"Oh calm yourself, Philomena! I am very much capable of controlling myself." Grandpa was a world war veteran, he would always tell us of tales when he used to blow up things using his cannon, pulverized and beat the enemies all by himself while his comrades cower and watched in awe of his blazing glory. But he always had a sad look on his face every time the story ended, and then he would smile at us with melancholy and say “Ah those days are gone.” But the truth is, It is far from gone, Grandpa fills his retirement time blowing up things in the backyard, occasionally Time traveling or just general chaos, and once in a while accidentally blowing up our neighbors' houses or making huge fireworks which coincidentally Grandpa, Lupus, the twins and I thoroughly enjoy. The look of shock on their charcoal covered faces when they come out of their houses while they cough and fan away the gray smoke and fumes, as they scream of horror when they see the remains of their house had already been extinguished by the explosion. It is,  irreplaceable. "Our house! Our house is Gone!" They grab their hair like they've completely lost their minds and scream some more. Those looks are priceless. Also, that is the cue that we should hide, next we would laugh so hard that our tummies would hurt. Family bonding time is irreplaceable. Lol.  Oh please! Don't feel sorry for them, they were pesky neighbors “C’mon now Anastasia, we should get to sleep for it’s a brand new morning tomorrow.” He looked at Grandma and beamed. "Yes, Love." Grandma approved. She stopped her sewing and said… “Good night Dearies.” She beckoned to us and then we smiled. We love our Grandma, she's just so kind to us, how can you not love a fluffy old woman. Lupus and I gave her a big hug. Now you have to understand we are not like this to anyone, we only do this to our grandparents because they are the best. She always gives us the best cookies, brownies, Milk and occasionally she bakes those candies for little children that for some reason went missing on Halloween. Those candies must be Magical. My mother always says "They went to some place special". We don't actually believe her.

What probably happens is that they get eaten. Don't worry, they only eat the bullies, the bad kind; especially the fat cruel ones. I overheard them talking once, that they tasted very sweet but they only eat them on Halloween. So, No worries, Father is the only one who eats humans every day. Back when I didn't understand why, I asked my Father once, why he ate humans.  He warmly replied “To keep my skin warm child, so I could hug you and your brother tight”. Then he held our cheeks and voila! It did make him warm. Father eats everyone. Not just the cruel ones. Its family tradition you have to understand. Don’t worry we have limitations. Not too much as Aunt Philomena had said, else the town people would Hunt us down. "Where are the twins? I would like to say goodnight to them". Grandma asked Grandpa while they are ascending the stairs. "They are upstairs, we will say goodnight to them there". Grandpa held grandma's arm as they walked, A sign of love and a true gentleman. Soon as Grandma and Grandpa went to bed, Mum wanted to do something special and was about to tell us. "Well, what do you think kids?". She put both her hands on her teeny tiny waist. “It’s a great house mum…” But the doorbell rung. “Who could it be? at this hour of the night?”. Mother looked outside curious. “A meal?” father said-asked while father looked at all of us. Lupus and I snickered and laughed. Mom smiled as well. Aunt Philomena looked at us funny. She squinted her eyes and scanned us for a few seconds. We stopped laughing. “Sullivan fetch the door please”. A human rosy-cheeked from the cold, blonde hair and average looking, was completely drenched from the rain, was waiting at the door. "H-hello Mons.." She had a long pause of horror when she saw Sullivan, she blinked to get herself together, then continued, "Monsieur" unsure of what to say, "I am here for the job christening. I mean listing. Job listing" She stammered out of sheer shock.

Sullivan was confused for a few seconds, he was expressionless but was a little pained at how rude the woman is, so he moved his head from side to side  as a sign of disapproval but subsequently continued to lead the stranger to the living room. “Madame this woman  claims she is here for the job listing?” Sullivan inquired. "I don't remember a job listing, did you post a job offer, dear?". Mother asked Father. Father was busy with writing something. "I don't know? I did not.?" “How about you Philomena?” Father inquired. Aunt Philomena was Curious and questioned the stranger nicely, "What job are you here for deary?". “For a maid service Madame”, The stranger responded. “Well you know, we do need some help with the house chores.” Aunt Philomena hilariously asking for approval from everyone. “Well, we have Sullivan for that,” Mother stated. “I mean someone who actually can do chores and cook and clean.” Aunt Philomena insisted. “We don't need that we eat hu...” "HYUMUBERGERS!" Aunt Philomena swiftly responded. She was bug-eyed while quickly stopping father before he could finish his sentence. “I Mean hamburgers. We eat out a lot”. Aunt Philomena explained with relief. Lupus and I smirked, giggled and looked at each other. “Ah, I see, I'm a, very good at Cooking, cleaning washing clothes.” The stranger pleadingly tried to convince us that she was worth the money. “We don't need that we have Ma...” Mother carelessly replied, but before she can finish Aunt Philomena talked over her as well. “Majorly overpriced washing machine!.”

"Yes, we have a big one!" The girl was suddenly puzzled. Aunt Philomena seeing a chance of a normal house and less magic,  since there is an actual human around, explained why there is a need for a help. Eventually, Mother and Father agreed. "Okay since all that is done with". Mother beckoned to Sullivan, "Sullivan?, bring this poor girl in the Maids quarter and provide her a change of clothes. Please. She's very bright." meaning Mother was in horror of how white her clothes were And how pink and supple her skin was. "Yes, Madame," Sullivan answered. As soon as she was gone. Aunt Philomena asked “Please don't eat her. Please. Please! Please! don't eat her.” “Don't worry Philomena, we shan't eat the people living in this house.” Mother befuddled and irritated asked, "Why all of a sudden fancy this human Philomena?" They looked at each other and then there was a pause. Mothers eyes squint at Aunt Philomena then suddenly her eyes widened as she gasped. "Is it because you like her?" Mother excitedly and suspiciously asked. “What?!” Aunt Philomena confused then suddenly knew where this was going. “Is it because you're gay. Philomena. Are you?”. Then she held Philomena's hand and had a dramatic look on her face. “Because if you are, you can always tell your sister.” “No. Heavens No!” Aunt Philomena defended “Not that there is anything wrong with that. But No.” Aunt Philomena's brow furrowed as she was vexed. “Oh.” Mother uttered, Unsatisfied as she sneered at Aunt Philomena. "Great, we can't do anything normal now". I grumbled. I rolled my eyes and shook my head from side to side as a sign of disapproval and walked out to go to my room. “I'll be in my room.”

“Good night children”. Mother and father said. Lupus also walked to his bedroom. Father used to sleep in the morning since he cannot go out during daylight, but ever since the invention of sunblock and a little dust of Mothers magic, he was finally able to go out late afternoon when the sun is not too bright and when the clouds have covered the sky. So he hunts for a few hours at night and goes to bed with Mother after, then wakes in the late afternoon, but he got really sneaky in the previous houses and always chose cloudy areas, I imagined him in Alaska, He would probably be a King there. Now that you think about it, we might have the same kind there. Hmm. What a strange thought.

Scene 4 Morning came. The light from My lancet windows in the attic shone on my face. I forgot to close the curtains last night. My bedroom was huge. It had matte black walls and father had the book cases installed on the wall. At the top, there was an arch and ornate carvings of cherubs and demons, witches, wizards, vampires and mermaids and some ethereal creatures I don't know about. The book shelves had a wine colored background, which tons of my books and potions covered. It was in front of my bed. There were glass like scones as well as wrought iron lamps and a black chandelier to light the room at night. There was a huge white door connecting to my bathroom. A black table and a chair for writing,  a long black sofa and a glass side table with candles, a potion and an Athame. Black and white curtains with Victorian Gothic Style patterns to add some color. My bed was simple. It has a white bed sheet with black blankets, and my old pillows that had a white Betelgeuse and Edward Scissorhands pattern which I love so much, and a matte black wooden foundation to support it. There was a closet on the right and a black chest at the foot of my bed. On the left, there were two lancet windows which explains my high ceiling and in the middle of the wall, there was one huge window with black cushions and pillows. It was covered in elegant black silk curtains. It was nice. It'll probably grow on me but I still hold something dear for my old room. I miss it.

Anyways before I trail off.  The Doorbell Rang. And three very loud knocks from our Vintage Gothic Devil head Door knocker. It was loud. It was a demon holding the knocker on its mouth. By the way, our door was arched and was similar to a fairy door, or a pirates door it's made of wood and well wha' daya' know?, It's black. Well, gray-black to be exact. It was Huge and scary. Which is why it's suspicious if there are neighbors. “Great...” I muttered to my self and then opened the door of my bedroom and I bellowed “nosy neighbors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” The two nosy neighbors overheard while looking at the door scope and looked at each other funny and mumbled, "how rude?" Mother was woken from her Beauty rest. “What! What? What is happening?!” She sat up on the bed, still wearing her Eye mask, and was graveled beyond belief. Then Sullivan Opened the door. The Neighbors had their big plastic smiles on but was bewildered as soon as they saw Sullivan. Their eyes grew wide and their faces and smiles became distorted, but they tried very hard to hide the fear. Rude. “How may I help you?”. Sullivan asked. Narrator: Earlier these rotten people were spying through their telescope on the newly moved in family. Matilda: By the way, the narrator and I will try to tell this story together because it's way too long for me. Right narrator? Narrator: Yes, Miss. "Hmm. They look weird." The Rotten Human Old Housewife vented. Her name was Michelle. “Ew. They look dead.” A man named Cornell with brown hair ripped. "Ah yes we, would like to reach out our welcome to the new neighbors." They reached out to give a basket of Cinnabon's with their fake smiles plastered across their faces.

“Nyes. I can see. The masters will receive your kindly greetings. For now, accept our deepest gratitude.” Sullivan nodded his head at them as if to bid goodbye, "Sir. Madame." Then Shut the door at their faces. I laughed while spying through the lancet window. They were not pleased. They looked at each other and grumbled words out of their indignation,  as they left the house with disgust. Whatever, I'm sure they'll be back. Come afternoon I looked at the mirror beside my closet, It was in front of my table and didn't feel like wearing my pigtail hair. I change hair a lot because it was easy for us. But I had a default hair, It was like my mother, It was long black and curly on the ends and had a red ribbon on the top, I use it for formal events, but today I felt like wearing my hair down, straight and with silver white ends.  All I had to do was light a candle, pick up that blue bottle of potion that smelled like cherry blossoms by the way, put a little in my hand, put a cut out of what I want my hair or eyes to look like, like a picture from a magazine, put a little offering like a fruit or a flower then put my hands over the candle, look in the mirror and then say a prayer/a chant/ a spell as you humans say. I don't always have to do that all the time. Potions and Rituals are done only for the first spell of any spell, but once you have done the first spell, It leaves a magical imprint or DNA in your body. Imagine the words floating in light and sinking beneath your skin, then you can call to the spell anytime you want. But of course, If you did the rituals and you had potions, the spell will be more exact, It will last longer. You can also use a wand or a stick to call out a spell. Some people like my mother or any elder beings have collected enough magic in their body that it surrounds them, that spells don't need words, sometimes you just need think, wave your hands and call it in your mind, but again if you do the rituals, the powers that be would understand better. It's like talking to a friend, If you want something, you have to “tell” your friend or sometimes even act it out so that he or she would understand, and if you know each other well enough or for a long time, you need look and you guys already understand. Understand?. You can even call demons, angels, or other worldly beings for a certain spell, but that's for Elder beings. There's Dark and white magic. Usually, there's a school that teaches that. But for us, It was handed down to us, were a bit trouble you see. Deep inside I want to go to that school It be fun to make wizard friends, I always Imagine it, but I just end up meeting assholes, plus I just don't have the personality, I'm not exactly a conversation starter.

*insert song here for ex. Marilyn Manson – Nobodies.* Anyways, I like doing the spells and rituals it's more fun. Plus it makes me remember. "Atua me fefine. Whakarongo ki taku inoi. a kia rite ki runga ake na raro . huringa o kanohi . huringa o te makawe . i roto i tau i pai ai . pera kia waiho . pera kia waiho .”

Touching my eyes and brushing through my hair. And voila! New hair. I came down and everyone was having pretend brunch  in the Dining room. I saw "what was your name again?" I asked her. “Nancy, little miss. You go on and have brunch with your family, I cooked delicious food. You look different?” “I colored my hair last night.” I smiled. Then I saw everyone sitting in the dining room. Father was reading the newspaper while Mother was fidgeting with her makeup. Mother can eat Humans and can still eat Human Food but she is on a diet, as far as I know, she is still partly human. My Grandpas and Grandmas are not human at all. They used to be. They pretended to be. They had their time, and now they just want to be grandparents. They only eat normal food now. Once you stop eating humans the aging process begins, afterwards, eventually death will come, that's what Mother said. You don't have to eat them all the time. Once a year would be fine.

There would also be other alternatives, like spells. But Blood is powerful; It binds us, Fills us, and there is a certain Magic in it because it is where life lies, It is the offering that the Gods accept. Father is definitely not human anymore. He definitely doesn't drink blood once a year, But Mother did use a spell to contain him a bit, you know, to lessen the thirst. Aunt Philomena was eating what seems to be a steak and enjoyed it thoroughly. She is the most human in all of us. A little. Well not really, she just pretends to be. I haven't seen her do something crazy. I'm saying this so you will understand why Lupus and I can still eat cereal, we are still partly human. Lupus was eating cereal while Grandpa and Grandma were eating Grandmas biscuits and milk. Sullivan was the only one who seemed to like the food. We ask him to sit with us since it's boring if it is just us. There are plenty of seats on the table. I sat down, waited for compliments but it never happened. I looked at Nancy. "Why don't you sit down Nancy? Eat with us?" I smirked and everyone looked at me like I was insane, obviously, They were all waiting for her to leave. "Uh, I couldn't possibly miss." “Wow, what year is this? Besides, Why not? Sullivan is sitting with us.” Sullivan was eating a mouthful, eating what was fresh meat concealed in leafy greens. Then everyone looked at Sullivan. “Should I get Up miss?” Sullivan asked me. “No. Your family idiot!” I retorted, my eyes widened and I wanted to burst out of laughter because Sullivan's face was filled with blood like gravy then I looked at Nancy “Sit down Nancy.” Nancy looked at everyone. Waiting. Father was sitting in the master's chair of the dining table while  mother was sitting next to him, and next to Caedmon and Waldron in their baby chairs. Aunt Philomena sat right across mother. "Sit!" I beckoned. Then she sat down with this awkward look on her face. Next to Aunt Philomena.

“There you go.” I smiled deviously. “Lupus, pass me the cereal.” “Here you go.” Lupus cleverly placed some of the cereal in the spoon, bent it with his fore finger and threw it at me like a catapult. Fortunately, I managed to stop the time for a few seconds and placed it down my bowl like it fell there. Time ran again. “Thank you so much!”. I glowered at him menacingly, gritted my teeth and my eyes turned pitch black even the white was gone. He did the same thing and we did this for a few seconds. "Children!" Aunt Philomena said.  "We mustn't fight at the dinner table." Good thing Nancy wasn't looking, she was preoccupied with the food and just looking at it. I noticed she was not eating though. "Go eat Nancy." And she started eating but for some reason, she tried to eat in small portions and gave this horribly fake smile. As the food fell right across her mouth. As I was used to weird, I didn't give much fuss about it and thought she was just also... weird. “Sullivan?” asked father. "Yes, Sir?" Sullivan replied. “What was that Infernal banging earlier?” "It was. How would you say? Nosy Neighbors, Sir." Sullivan reiterated. "Ah, I see".  Father  replied while he was reading the newspaper. “They provided a basket of cookies for us Sir and I informed them you shall be receiving said gifts and expressed our deepest gratitude.” "Really?" Aunt Philomena happily inquired "where are those gifts, Sullivan." "It's in the trash bin." Mother sarcastically expressed, making fun of Aunt Philomena.

"Deidra Morgana Strange.!" Aunt Philomena huffed with her teeth together, she started to fake smile and tilted her head towards Nancy, As if to show mother that someone else was in the Dining table. "Oh hush now. Nancy doesn't care. She won't tell on us. Right, Nancy?" “Of course  Madame. I wouldn't tell a soul.” “See.” Mothers hands opened her palm and pointed to Nancy and Aunt Philomena. To prove her point. “Trust No One.” “I think that's unfair Deidra?” “Morgana, call me Morgana. Philomena how many times must I tell you Deidra is so depressing.” “Those nice people probably just wanted to share those nice cookies with us and you shut them out.” They looked at each other for a long time, and then Mother looked at father, and Father Just smiled at mother, Avoiding their conversation. "Fine. Sullivan bring them some basket of I don't know, something in the kitchen." Mother lamented. “I don't think that's enough. Sullivan if you may excuse me, was very rude to them at your command. We should do something more". "Why not hold a house warming party Madame?" Nancy suggested with her attitude changing from awkward to overjoyed. Aunt Philomena's eyes widened and she was in high spirits. “Why that's a great idea!”. Aunt Philomena definitely is in love with humans. "Fine". Mother said. "Let's prepare for a dinner for said guests". while Mother held smiled sarcastically at Aunt Philomena. "You should all eat my cookies for dessert," Grandma expressed. "Okay Grandma," said Lupus.

So we did. If there is one thing that you would do, It's to follow grandmas advice or orders. It has saved us multiple times. "It's very nice Mother." Father expressed to Grandma. “Thank you”. Grandma Smiled. Change of Scene I will now hand you to the narrator. Coz' I've got things to do, you know and places to be. I'll check back on you from time to time. Okay, go ahead Narrator. "Thanks, Miss." Meanwhile in the neighbors House. Cornell was spying at the new neighbors using his telescope. "What a bunch of awful, repugnant looking creatures.?" "Ugh. I agree they look so weird and unnatural." she was also peaking behind the window blinds. The man moved towards his chair and sat down, their house was average looking with an average sized red chair in front of the fire place, just a few steps opposite the window. "Eh. well, nothing new here Mystik Kyster. There is always something". The woman slightly agreed and said "Still, we need to keep eye on them, looks like a trouble some bunch”. Scene 4 *insert rock song intro here for ex. intro the beautiful people - Marilyn Manson* Meanwhile at the Manor. Evening time. Morgana, Philomena, Grandma, and Nancy were at the living room. Morgana was standing next to the window and looking out, Philomena was sitting down on the sofa and Grandma was sitting on the red chair occasionally looking at the fire place while knitting. "We should prepare for the party now.”  Morgana was about to wave her hand when Philomena grabbed her hand and stopped her. "Nancy," Philomena said, "best to cook something for the guest?".

Nancy's eyes widened with Joy. "With Pleasure!" Nancy fidgeted with her dress and ran off oddly in the kitchen while everyone looked at her leave the room, but before she reached the kitchen door she stopped. "But won't the food spoil ma'am? It's way too early if were to have a party tomorrow.?" "Oh, you're absolutely right!. why don't you go rest early, so you can wake up and prepare early tomorrow morning?." Nancy's eyes glistened, "Your right Madame, your absolutely right." She excitedly replied, as if she was going to drool of excitement. She hurriedly went upstairs and the family heard her close her room shut. Everyone looked at each other because of how weird that was, but also relieved that she left. "I shall be making my cookies”. Grandma stated. "That's very well mother. Thank you so much for your care." and with that Grandma went off to her bedroom. Morgana waved her hand and time seemed to stop. Morgana whispered "Binecuvântează-ne cu mâncare” *Insert spooky song here for example. Tchaikovsky – Dance of the sugarplum fairy.* Suddenly there was a commotion in the kitchen. The pots and the pans were moving on its own. The ingredients started walking to the pot and the pan and started cooking. The chicken laid on the plate and the bottle of salt and the pepper was dancing in the air to give it flavor, the butter went on top and it flew inside the oven. The flour mixed with the egg and the milk in a bowl, It then floated to pour itself into a pan to continuously cook mountains of pancakes and when it was finished blueberries and strawberries sat on the pancakes and the syrup floated and poured itself over the pancakes. Watermelon and strawberries went inside the blender, while milk and sugar joined them. It covered itself and proceeded to make shakes.  There was food flying everywhere, It was like they were having a congregation about a single purpose, which was, making a banquet. Before you know it, there were cupcakes, pancakes a chocolate fountain and sushi come morning. The decorations where the best part, the paper, scissors, and tapes were having a meeting and they discussed what the theme will be and once they were done they all started moving together to make wonderful hanging decorations they wrapped themselves in the lights on the wall and even on the table.

The candles started to walk in the candelabra in the middle of the dining table, the food also started to line up. Fireflies also started to line up on the ceiling forming tiny light like stars after they were done, Millions of spiders went to our living room to knit white sheer curtains that were finished in just a few minutes. It hung on the ceiling and the walls. The fireflies became little tiny lights,  as their light passed through the curtains.  The decorations were elegant. When everything was done the spiders left and the candles lit up. the sky turned purple and the sun started to rise. Morgana had woken up early to check if everything was in its place. "Dining room check,  juices, food, black balloons, yes everything is here. hah, I'm good!" By this time Nancy went out of her room excitedly to start making preparations but her jaw dropped when she saw the decorations in the hall. Morgana liked to play around. poor soul. She decided to pick on Nancy. "Nancy! you woke very late!. look I have everything done already?" "I'm so sorry Madame? But how..." before Nancy can finish since Morgana didn't want any interrogation, she just told her some of them was delivered. “I'm just kidding Nancy, some of them were just delivered.” "But you know what, I can use a little bit of soup and sauce can you do that please?" Nancy was again ecstatic, “Yes Madam.” Grandma was on her way down to the stairs with a smile and said: "Look I am also done with my cookies?" "Ah, Mother, May the Gods bless you. See Nancy, even mother is already done. Go now, and make haste!" Mother humorously chimed. "Yes, madame!" Nancy worriedly replied.   Morgana looked at everything and whispered "Tibi gratias ago deorum."

Matilda: Spells have different languages. After all, magic comes from everywhere. Did I mention Mother is Half Japanese. Yes, Mother has Asian descent which means Grandma is Japanese and Grandpa is definitely American. That spell wasn't Japanese but the food is. Ooh, that sushi looks good! I'll leave you to the Narrator. Coz' I am gonna eat. *insert rap song here, for example, Bling Bling – Jungle pussy* Nancy crazily stirs the pot and pours a bottle of something white excitedly at the soup. She was bug-eyed and was biting her lips feeling elated. And then she put the vial inside her pocket but out of excitement, instead of getting inside the pocket it fell on the floor. It rolled on the floor, stopping in front of two big feet And gray hands picked it up. Sullivan looked at it for a few seconds, and her eyes widened in horror, " Sullivan, walked towards her , her heart started to beat fast, then he walked past her,  then her heart was beating faster and faster, then Sullivan raised his arms and placed the vial on the shelf. She looked at him mortified. Then Sullivan said, " Best place the seasonings on the shelves so it will not fall." Then she was galvanized, the door that opened and closed made a startling sound. The twins entered the kitchen, they were running around after each other, throwing things that they can find at each other. Then she smiled of relief. “Are you all right Miss?” Caedmon asked. “of course, of course.” Nancy replied. Sullivan now had a condescending look. "Best put the soup now outside, before it gets cold." “Oh yah, yes, I will.” She transferred some of the soup in a smaller pot while looking at the vial on the shelf, waiting for Sullivan to leave, but Sullivan just looked at her, studying her, so she had no choice but to bring the soup outside.”I'm going to bring the soup out now.” Sullivan gave a cheesy smile at her, it was a very scary smile. So she smiled back incredulously. Then shaking her head to forget what she saw. Nancy emerged from the kitchen holding a pot of soup while announcing "Soup is Do...Done."

At first, Nancy was super excited to show off her soup but got astounded, when she saw all the food in the Dining room. It seemed like it doubled while she was cooking. She was still a bit skeptical that it all happened in one night. “Oh! Hey, Just in time, I'm sure the guest will love your soup." Aunt Philomena cheered. Everyone looked at each other including Matilda and Lupus who was already busy eating some of the meals. "Well, best be making some dessert Nancy?." Morgana Said. "Of course Madame."  Nancy was about to go back to leave the room when she asked. "It all happened so quickly. How about all these decorations?". Morgana's eyes widened then flickered for a few seconds, which was a sign that she was growing impatient, so she looked back at Nancy and smiled smugly. Morgana raised her hand just across from Nancy's face and started Hypnotizing her. Morgana's hand opened and closed like she was magnetizing Nancy, while she said "Dormiți și ascultați..." Philomena was out to stop her but Morgana quickly hypnotized Philomena and made her sleep "Somno." Morgana commanded. Philomena was standing and went to sleep and subsequently  Morgana averted her attention back to Nancy. "When you awake, You will not be asking any more silly questions, You will not be noticing anything extraordinary and you will go on with your day as if everything is normal, Until such a time that I release you from this spell. Do you understand Nancy?". Nancy Groggily replied "Yuu uu HHS." Everyone snickered coz' Nancy looked silly when her right eye was half closed. "Very Good.” Morgana ordered. “Both of you.” "Expergisci." Morgana ended the spell. Morgana and Philomena looked at each other and Philomena opened her mouth with disbelief and crossed both her hands over her chest to show  How enraged she was, She sneered at Morgana as she left the room while Nancy followed.

"Now. Time to deliver those invitations." Morgana was looking at Matilda and smiling. The twins joined Lupus and Matilda to eat, Matilda was gobbling up all the Sushi and Lupus was eating the meat and the twins started to devour the pancakes, but even though they ate a lot of food, all the food that they have been eating are magically reappearing. "Oh Mum this is so good, You did a good job!" Lupus said. while the twins Hauntingly said "Good job mum!" Matilda was gobbling sushi when she saw her mother smiling at her. "Oh no!" Matilda's eyes widened and was violently refusing because she knew she was about to be given a task. "No, No, No, No! Noh No Nooooooooooooooo!". Morgana continued to smile. "Sullivan!". "Yes, Madame?" Sullivan suddenly appeared. "Help Matilda deliver the invitation. Make sure she finishes all, of it.” "Why cant you just do it or Lupus, or Sullivan?" Matilda complained. "What? Noh!. I'm a werewolf I'll probably end up eating the invitation." Lupus rebuffed. Matilda was looking at everyone, Outraged. "There are far too many houses, You know how Sullivan is,  let's not forget the fact that if someone sees him they will die of fear. Better he follows you in the shadow." “Hmm” Sullivan reacted. "No offense Sullivan." Morgana reckoned. “Meh”. Sullivan shrugged his shoulder “It may end up in the wrong place. Flying and Teleporting things to places you haven't seen before, takes up a lot of time and is unreliable, those invitations might end up in the wrong place because of how vague it is. Plus you have wings you can do it faster than any of us, You can't expect me or your father to fly, well, we're your parents, you're supposed to do things for us, so do it. Now!, while the sky is purple!”

“Can't you just email everyone? Or send a text message or I don't know.” Matilda Countered. "First I don't know their emails, second it is magically possible but nobody checks their emails and it will be suspicious if I knew all our neighbor's phone numbers, next thing you know it will escalate to a goddamn witch-hunt! Now move your ass!" “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!” Matilda revolted.

Scene 5

Footsteps on the stairs, she opened the latch and saw the dark night sky she walked towards the edge and stood there. There were two gargoyles guarding the roof.

“Mother!”

“start singing...”

Morgana opened the big arched window and the wind blew in the silk curtains, the twins covered their faces from the wind. Sullivan was carrying the invitation in front of the porch while Lupus went out and stared at the window.

Morgana Blew something glittering from her hand like small orbs of light. and it started dancing in the wind as she sang.

Morgana has a siren's voice it was a gift or rather an exchange for something. But that is for another story.

“The hills are silent... sleep my loves... Lullaby and slumber tight...

Say goodnight... For no one will wake you... tonight.

Lullaby... Say goodnight... Sleep tight... Awake tomorrow... At sunrise... Lalala Lalala Lalala Lalala"

A gust of wind carrying dots of glowing glitters spread around town entering houses without permission. Passing through their nose, sticking to their eyes and invading their skin. The glitters were not seen and were not visible to human eyes. Everyone fell asleep, while they were in bed, while they were doing their daily chores while watching TV and while they were eating, some of them slammed their heads on their dishes and even slept on their food.

*insert rock song here, for example, Marilyn Manson sweet dreams*

And with that, Two pairs of black wings spread. It was majestic and dark. It did not magically appear, it appeared slowly like it was always there, hidden behind the dark ink under her skin. Hiding behind her shirt, she jumped in free fall and then spread her wings again to fly really, really high, flying in circles, until she soared above the clouds. She hovered for a few seconds and marveled at the light of the moon and the stars at the night sky. She closed her eyes and savored the moonlight as it touched her skin. Slowly she opened her eyes and she swam through the air, moved upwards the moon and then dived at the clouds below towards the houses. The wind rushing through her face, she was smiling.

Lupus smirked as he saw her move throughout the sky, he wanted to join in the fun and transformed. He started breathing heavily and then knelt, his teeny hands started cracking as the flesh of his hands broke to make way for the enormous wolf hands, hair started to envelop his body and his backbone cracked to form a bigger cage, It ripped his flesh and he became a mixture of dark skin and hair, his ears became pointy and his nose became more pronounced as he started to resemble the face of a wolf, with gray hair on the side of his head, his dark eyes became a luminance of light blue. He growled then the muscles on his body hypertrophied, he ferociously ripped the remaining skin and It showed the wolf's Monstrous Body, Strong and unassailable.  He howled at the moon then ran fast... climbing houses, jumping on the roofs, then running on the street.

Once he had his fun, The big black wolf slowly walked on the streets to check if everyone in their houses was asleep. He paused at one house for a few seconds and snarled but he heard Sullivan saying, "Hmm?" a perplexed Sullivan riding his red scooter was a little bit behind and was silently making his rounds. Lupus interest changed to making fun of Sullivan, so he tilted his head to the side like a puppy then gnarled his face and snarled at Sullivan. Sullivan muddled, uttered "Master?"... The wolf grinned and then bolted as fast as he could towards Sullivan, and Sullivan's eyes widened as Lupus was big and heavy, he thought Lupus was going to crash to his newly polished scooter, so he closed his eyes, hugged his scooter and prepared for the worst, but Lupus ran past him,  he was thrown off a bit, moving in circles and was disoriented for a few seconds because of Lupus's Impact but he opened one of his eyes to check if he was okay or the scooter, and thankfully both him and the scooter were both in one piece, so he cried “Thank goodness and hugged his scooter.” but his face contorted, as he was worried, when he realized he was supposed to guard Matilda and seemed to have lost her and now he had to find Lupus as well. “Master”?! “Master?! Don't get too far?!” He exclaimed, But it was too late since he could not find Lupus. Sullivan just rolled his eyes and continued to check if the invitations were sent and he made sure everything was appropriately placed. Pulling out a note from his shirt and checking a list. She flew past each house; "Invitations, Invitations for everyone!" she was irked while she threw the invitations carelessly, and it fell on the porches and in the yard and the garden, and her mother was exasperated for a few seconds, seeing what was happening from afar, but with a flick of a finger it magically went inside their doors. If you are wondering why she had not done this in the first place,  It's because It had to be in the exact place, like what Morgana explained earlier, they would have to have a visual, and knowledge about a certain place, before you can teleport there or teleport things there, but it also depends on the situation and she was also teaching Matilda a lesson about hard work or some shit. And with her task done Matilda flew home, while Lupus climbed at their house and howled some more, then came Sullivan who was a little bit slower, He checked everything first, silently, and went home. He also stopped at another house, he looked at the doorway for a few seconds and was puzzled, but he heard His Master call him already. “ Sullivan!”. They were still a few blocks far from each other but, they can hear each other. “Coming Sir!”

Scene 6 The Party. Earlier. Someone was looking out the window, when Matilda passed by and another one in another house picked up the envelope. People started arriving at the party, Some of them arrived for the food, some of them arrived just to snoop, some of them are simply there because they are polite, some of them were forced by their families and some of them went there for the simple reason of nit picking only to find out that they, cannot. Some were simply innocently curious about what was inside the weird looking manor. "My, what a big house." looking at the ceiling and amazed by the size of the hall, the woman said to herself. She was a normal average looking woman with brown hair. Philomena was waiting at the door and welcoming the strangers. "Thank you all for coming. Please come in." Philomena points at the directions of the living room which was just across the Dining room. Nancy was also waiting for their bags and was making an awkward bow, every time people would come in and she would give the directions to the Dining room. This woman came with a man, with ashy blonde hair and mustache with an annoying face including what appears to be seventies fashion. A brown parka, checkered polo shirt, and brown pants. He was taking off his parka when he looked at his right and was startled to see who was taking it. "Geezus!" he exclaimed, at the time he saw Sullivan. But Sullivan had zero fucks to give and just motioned for his coat, They were the weird couple that visited earlier. Philomena apologized to the couple. "Our servant Sullivan was not properly briefed and was feeling a little bit ill. “I apologize Madam”, Sullivan said to the couples, then proceeded to hang their coats. The two couple proudly accepted the apology and schooled Philomena about it. One of the families wore an ensemble of mostly pink. Almost all of them had platinum blonde hair, the Mom looked like a Sexy Avon lady, Her skin was glowing, She had two daughters, One was wearing a tight fitting dress, an adolescent with platinum blonde hair with curls at the end  and was busy texting on her smart phone and did not mind what was going on, she fake smiled for a few seconds to look at Philomena and continued with what she was doing. Her younger sister maybe aged about 5, had a bun and was wearing a light tight pink shirt and a pink tutu skirt, with light pink stockings. The father was wearing a very pale pink formal polo shirt folded up to his elbows and white pants and white Gucci shoes. They were the Drummonds. "Geesh," Matilda thought to herself, "I thought we were weird."

The children were observing the guest, They were on the interior balcony at the second floor, the twins were looking at the gap of the wooden railings on the second floor. Lupus was first leaning his hand on the railing then got bored and then sat back on a black sofa, Matilda was leaning her hands on the railings observing her new neighbors. "Will we eat them, Matilda?. Waldron asked while Caedmon giggled, "shh" Matilda sat down with them and motioned them to be quiet. "No, Silly, You'll get a big belly if you eat all of them." Matilda showed a broad dark scary smile at them and they giggled back. The next three families that came were average looking, there were hippie families, skater families, and families that looked like they just came out from a rock concert. The next family was wearing all Green, they were wearing modern clothes. Matilda began to think if there was a dress code and had a confused look on her face. This time the Mom had a long blonde hair, She was wearing a Forest Green dress with gold accents, expensive emerald earrings, and gold jewelry. The father had a long straight blonde hair, he was wearing a viridian green suit jacket, vest, a white formal polo shirt inside, dark moss pants and formal black shoes. He was very well dressed and handsome they were with a teenage boy with long blonde hair who was wearing a light green formal polo shirt, and an elder sister, an adolescent, She had straight brown hair and a sheer flowy green dress and a younger daughter aged six of five as well or maybe four she had a tiny face and a tiny body, with curly blonde hair wearing a nice light green dress with buttons. For some reason, they had pointy ears. They were the Maurelles. The next family was different as well, They mostly wore black. Matilda began to think that they will fit right in this community. Which was really weird since she had never had a thought like this before. The father had silver white hair, which reached up to his lower back, he was wearing a nice suit, his eyes was gray and haunting, he carried a cane with a gold lion at the top.  The Mother was wearing a nice black cocktail dress, the dress had pleats and ends just below her knee, she was very beautiful, she had white silver hair which was styled in a low braid bun, she had nice gold jewelry and gold rings, one of which had a lion in it as well. Maybe it was a family crest Matilda told herself, and there was a Teenage boy, with a twin sister. Maybe they were aged around sixteen. The boy had long white silver hair like his father and was also wearing a nice black suit jacket and a white shirt inside and black shorts that ends just below the knees. The girl was a bit different she had short pastel pink hair with a touch of purple she was wearing a black shirt, with some print on it, she had a leather black jacket, a choker and some washed out gray denim shorts and black army boots. The girl saw Matilda and the twins, And she smiled. They were the Leon's. Matilda wanted to smile but she awkwardly smiled since she didn't know how to properly smile, when the boy saw her sister, the boy proceeded to look as well, he half smiled and proceeded to tell her sister to follow their parents.

After wards there were just normal people who came, business men and women to be exact. Some average nice looking people, People from different race. Everyone proceeded to the living room and The dining room, Then Nancy proceeded to close the doors and mischievously smiled. "What's up with Nancy? She feels hmmm, a little evil, don't you think?” Matilda asked Lupus. "Please, were weird. C'mon this is boring as fuck." "Lupus watch your language the twins are around, plus aren't you like eight? Don't be a little b”. the twins proceeded to say "fuck" Caedmon said then Waldron "fuck" then they laughed”. "look what you did," Matilda said in disbelief. “clean your potty mouth.”! Matilda told the twins. "Please, you cuss all the time, clean your potty mouth!" Then lupus proceeded to grab something from his butt and covered Matilda's face with his hands with what seemed to be a foul smell. Matilda disgusted and tried to clean her face with her hands, got angry real fast "Oh my god! Lupus your dead!" Lupus ran on the wall and crawled at the ceiling while laughing completely pleased with himself. "Come back here Lupus!  Matilda walked on the walls and ran after Lupus, the twins began to crawl on the walls and the ceiling as well. "Neh! Neh Neh Neh! You can't catch me!" before he could finish the sentence, Matilda leaped at him and slammed on the wall. Lupus evaded her quickly and quickly bellowed "whoops! Too slow!" Though the people in the Dining room were drowned with the sound of dialogues and conversations, and was busy eating, some of them there, seem to have heard some muffled noises. "Did you hear that?” one fat man alleged, talking to Philomena. "Uh, No. Maybe just some food cooking, let me just check.” Then proceeded to carefully come out of the dining room. As soon as she got out, she looked at the ceiling and saw what was happening, her jaw dropped because Matilda was choking Lupus upside down, so she proceeded to whisper angrily "Matilda!, get down!"

She got down from the ceiling and there was an impact on the floor.   “You Guys are dead!” Philomena muttered angrily.

Scene 7 Now wee see a shrimp being engulfed by the mouth, a sushi being picked up by a chopstick, a pancake with blue berries being cut in the middle then carefully being stabbed with a fork, then it makes its way to reach its destination, slowly being chewed, and a hot steaming soup, being slurped. Hot steam was coming out of the spoon and it burned a woman's mouth, "Ow! Gadammit!" It was Michelle, people fell silent and stared at her.

She felt vexed, "Well, None of your gadamn bidness! Go on... Eat!" Then The noise of the crowd once again emanated the room, There were People Laughing, drinking wine. Then the twins went inside to grab a few of grandmas cookies, Caedmon putting it in his shirt, and Waldron ravenously eating it. Then when they got enough, they went outside once again. quickly the stars appear in the window. A warm plump hand shaking what seems to be a cold white grayish hand with slightly dark stained fingernails.

We soon zoom out to the Mayor welcoming Mr. Strange, "Mayor John Bankes, In behalf of the town I would like to welcome you."

"Thank you, Mr. Mayor"

"Don't worry I will be sure to support any town agenda." Mr. Strange uttered.

"Ah and don't forget the next town election, I'll be hoping for your support." The Mayor grins mischievously.

Mr. Strange removed the tobacco from his mouth and blew the smoke upwards across the room. "Of course Mayor. Please take this as a token of our gratitude for your presence in the Strange household".

Mr. Strange handed what seemed to be a basket of wine, cigars and a jar of cookies, handed to him by Philomena.

These are some of the finest wines, and cigars anyone can buy, and of course, My mother makes the best cookies."

"My God!, Chateau Margaux 1787, and Mayan Sicars?!. Where did you get these?"

The Mayor asked inquisitively, looking at the wine "I've been trying to get a hand of these for so long".

"Ah, I have connections Mr. Mayor." They both smirked.

"Ah, I hope we can use those connections later". the Mayor happily inquired.

"Of course Mr. Mayor, anything to help the town."

"That's good..." The Mayor replied.

The Mayor was about to continue but his Minion whispered something in his ear. "Well Mr. Strange it's been nice meeting you, but I fear I must go, I have a meeting to attend to."

"Ah, I understand Mr. Mayor." They smiled and shook hands.

Mrs. Strange went around with Philomena meeting the new families “I hope you are having a good time?” She approached the woman in wearing a green dress, and she received a warm smile.

“I am  Elga Maurelle, Nice Meeting you Missus Strange.”

“What a lovely family.” Mrs. Strange replied.

“Ah yes,   This is My husband Alfrigg Maurelle.” Alfrigg gave a warm smile as well. “Nice to meet you Mrs strange” then continued to reach out a handshake. The mother motioned to the children who were sitting and eating at the time in the tables “Come children...This is Mrs. Strange.”

“Nice meeting you Mrs Strange...” the children replied.

“This is my eldest Ella Maurelle, my son Kalen Maurelle and my youngest Nissa Maurelle.” “Lovely to meet you too, I'm sure my kids will get along well with you...” “I hope you enjoy the food.” Mrs. Strange gestured.

“The cookies are yummy...” Nissa said.

“Why thank you, My mom made them. They are special and healthy so eat as much as you can” Mrs. Strange cradled her small face in her hand. And Nissa giggled.

"We are the towns doctor, My husband and I are doctors at the Alston Hospital. If there is any medical help that you need, we well be happy to help you, Mrs. Strange."

“Thank you for the kind offer, Mrs. Maurelle. I'm afraid I cannot offer you anything in return but our hospitality,  you see, our business are mainly Wine, Realty and Mining. Nothing interesting really, so if you need any help with realty my husband would be happy to help you. As well.”

“Sorry But are you not the Owner of Infinity Jewels Inc?” The woman in the pink dress needled.

“Sorry for the interruption, My name is Myrka Drummond. It is a pleasure to meet you.” She came off a bit strong to Mrs. Strange. But Mrs. Strange grinned politely. "Ugh, your Jewels are to die for." Mrs Drummond mentioned.

“Why thank you Mrs Drummond, Just to answer your question. Yes, we are the owners of Infinity Jewels."

“Lots of people are, going crazy about it, some say it brings them Good luck.”

The Strange family also has a Jewelry Business mainly handled By Mrs Strange before, but now she doesn't pay attention to it that much because that's what you hire managers and lawyers and other minions to do. But the Jewels that they sell, is from the Mining business of the family, which is mined from Magical Lands and carved from Meteors, in other words, Enchanted. So it gives certain people. Good luck.

Now we see someone winning the lottery screaming of joy, and another person Getting accepted in a job wearing the jewelry, or wearing a beauty pageant. Etc.,

“Yes, some ores, minerals,meteorites and crystals are believed to hold certain magic or Good luck in them, we gather those gems and make them into jewelry.” Mrs Strange explained to Mrs. Drummond “But I don't think you would need it, You look beautiful on your own Mrs. Drummond.”

"Aw." Mrs Drummond replied acting coyly. "You don't need to say that." Then continued "I know." Mrs Drummond said proudly.

“Yes, your skin is beautiful Mrs. Drummond. Hard to believe you have an adult child.”

“I know right.” Mrs Drummond answered.

“Whats your secret.?” Mrs. Strange inquired. This question seemed to throw Mrs Drummond off a bit.

"uh hum" then  there was a cough "Hello. Mrs. Strange, I am Warren Drummond. I am  Myrka's Husband and Manager. I'm sure you have seen her before, she's an actress."

“Of course, I have, seen some of her films.”  Mrs. Strange replied.

"Ah!" She screamed, "Oh my goodness! You have! Now I feel so shy!" she acted demurely but laughed proudly.

"You mustn't Mrs. Drummond, In fact, My sister watches you all the time."

“Ahhh! Thank you so much for your support!” Mrs. Drummond replied.

Her Eldest daughter looked at her with disgust. “Mom, can you not!”

“Ahahah” Mrs. Drummond laughed at her daughter, while her daughter texted on the phone.

“I'm so sorry, About her, she's just a little hot headed, this is my daughter Durin and my baby girl Orla.”

“Hi! Mrs strange.” Mrs Drummond youngest greeted.

"Hello there love, maybe you can play with my children they are outside, their names are Matilda, Lupus and the baby twins are Caedmon and Waldron."

“Really? Are they nice?” Orla asked.

“Of course. And don't forget to grab a cookie while you're on your way?” "Okay," She replied.

“Oh my god those cookies are to die for.” Mrs. Drummond remarked.

"Thank you, my Mother made them." Mrs. Strange stated.

The man in black suit and white silver hair approached Mr. Strange “Mr. Strange.”

“Ah, Hello sir?” Mr Strange replied.

The man reached out for a handshake, “Yes, I am Gideon Amun Leon. I am a Lawyer. A very good Lawyer Mr Strange.” He hands his card.

"Ah, I see. Amun? Like the King of Kings." Mr Strange queried.

"Aha! You're familiar with History. It's actually King of Gods. We were lucky enough to have a Powerful family name. You're a powerful man Mr. Strange, so I'm guessing you know what they say about places of power." Mr. Leon stated.

"Yes, of course, a place of power attracts powerful people. Positive attracts positive. Your business must be good." Mr Strange affirmed.

"Ah, you believe in superstition as well. Yes. As I've said I'm a very good Lawyer. Not one lost case. Should you need any of my services, feel free to contact me." Mr Leon offered.

“Dear...” A woman touched her Mr Leon's arm, “I apologize for my husband, all he knows is business, the woman smiled at Mr. Strange and proceeded to have a handshake.

“Mr. Strange this is my wife Circe Leon and those at the back are my children, Lucian and Medea Leon.” Mr. Leon gestured to his children.

"Ah, twins... hello. We have twins as well." Mr. Strange waved at them, And they smiled back. “I want you to meet my wife...”

“Morgana...” Mr Strange beckoned to his wife, who at the time was talking to Mrs Drummond.

“Ah, My husband is calling me, Twas nice meeting you all.” and left to go to Mr. Strange.

At the Mayor's car. "Would you look at that, this is one of the most expensive things, one can buy." "Best keep an eye of people like them, George. If you can buy things like these, you can buy anything." The Mayor ordered.

"Of course Mr. Mayor." His Minion wearing a black business suit, blonde hair and sunglasses in the middle of the night replied.

"Can you hand me that jar of cookies" The Mayor grabbed some cookies from the jar. "But sir, aren't you watching your sugar intake." The Servant asked.

"Shut up, George." the Mayor sarcastically replied while he gorged on the cookies. "Oh my god this is good".

The Mayor tried to grab the whole jar from George.

George refusing to let it go. "But Sir".

"But Sir.." the Mayor antagonistically replied

In the end, as they fought for the jar of cookies, the mayor finally won. "Just give it!"

The Mayor had a sweet tooth and had a knack for luxurious things. Good for him.

Then we hear a scream. Back at the mansion, Blood gushes out of a man's mouth, lots of blood.  While a brown haired woman screams her lungs out, She screams some more. The man thinks "This noisy bitch.." and coughs blood on her. The man fell on the floor, And blood continues to ooze from his mouth and spread on the tiles. Thick red blood. She screams some more. Then she felt something in her mouth, she touched her lips with her fingertips and saw what seemed to be blood, she felt a pang of pain in her stomach and fell face flat on the floor. Thank Goodness, she was a noisy bitch. Annoying really. It was Michelle and Cornell Graves.

Matilda: “Oh my goodness, really?” Narrator: “Yes, finally, she was annoying...” Matilda: “Oh my god that blood is going to look so good on the floor.” Narrator: “So good...”

A Gasp from everyone and they all moved away from the victims. Morgana made her way to them. Angry of what had happened.

Mrs. Maurelle asked "What is happening?" she moved towards the people, and checks on them. “Poison. they've been poisoned.”

Then, most of the normal people stomach started to hurl, and some of them fainted and some of them were just confused about what to do.

Then everyone stopped Moving. The blood from Mr Cornell stopped flowing. The curtains seemed floating, the plates that were knocked off was Immobile, and the People who were about to fall was suspended in the air, It was as if time stopped. Mrs Strange made her way to Philomena and waved her hand in front of Philomena's face. She moved.

“Philomena, Call an ambulance, well unfreeze them once the ambulance makes it way here. Just so the blood would stop spilling”. Philomena Quickly made the call.

Scene 8

Sounds of Siren, while red and blue light can be seen in the background. A notepad is being opened and a man in a brown coat can be seen interviewing several people, while several people is being carried on a stretcher and is being loaded into an ambulance.

Lupus and Matilda sat on the porch while Morgana, Philomena stood at the archway, Mr. Strange was waiting for the Detective.

"Mr. and Mrs. Strange, Detective James Alexander. “ He introduced himself. “Has anything like this happened to you before.?" the detective inquired.

"No, this is the first time." replied Mr. Strange.

"Then we would have to invite you in the station for questioning...there was a vial of cyanide found in your kitchen, I believe someone administered it in your soup, since it was next to the soup pot, and we've sent it to the laboratory to have it checked."

"Nancy cooked the soup," Matilda mentioned.

"Whose Nancy?"

"She is our new maid."

"Nancy..hmmm, and you said she was new." Detective Alexander inquired.

Morgana's Eye brow raised in annoyance, "She came a few days ago. looking for a job."

"It seems very coincidental don't you think?" Morgana now looking at Philomena, sardonically. "Nice work, Philomena."

"Why did you say that? " asked the detective.

"Well, Sir I was really Eager to hire her, poor thing  was drenched in the rain," Philomena replied.

"Okay, so you just straight up hired a stranger, as your maid?” The Detective asked sarcastically. Everyone had a blank face as a reaction, so he continued “what does she look like?"

"Probably in her thirties, with plump skin, and blonde hair, green eyes. not too fat, not too thin." Mr Strange replied.

"And Where is she now?" the Detective asked, worried.

"Inside the house," Matilda replied.

Then we can see from the archway, everyone looked inside.

"Dispatch,  code five zero five, assailant might still be in the house. medium built. a woman in her thirties. blonde hair. green eyes."

The detective pulled out his gun and entered the house. He motioned and informed the two officers inside the house, which made them alert so they grabbed their guns and started looking for Nancy.

"That Whore of Beelzebub!" Morgana hissed angrily.

"Don't get stressed, my love." Mr Strange Massaging Morgana's shoulders.

Then Lupus and the twins grinned, Soon after Matilda smiled realizing what was gonna happen. They were like puppies excited for new toys. They all looked at their parents looking for approval.

"I suppose..."

"We can go hunting...." Mr.  Strange Announced.

The children gasped in excitement and Morgana smiled devilishly.

She put her arms over Mr. Strange shoulders. "Ah my love, you always know what to say." then kissed him passionately.

"Ugh what a revolting sight to see. I'm going back to sleep.” Philomena waved her hand in disbelief. "Good luck. Don't get caught."

Matilda and  Lupus eyes blackened, their teeth seemed a little bigger from grinning, they were crouching and seemed hungry.

"Ah, ah, ah, children" Mr Strange imposed.

"Remember what to do first?"

"Always check if someone is looking." the twins replied in a creepy conjunction.

"Good. We hunt at midnight." Mr Strange expression changed, He scowled and looked wicked.

Then we see the full moon and the dark clouds hovering over it.

Scene 8

Into the Woods.

Nancy escaped at the confines of the Dark Forest. It was not a good place to be, the thick fog covered the forest and there were creatures making eerie noises. When she first saw it, she thought it wood be a good hiding place for her car, but now between the dark and the screeching, scampering noises of the creatures at night, she couldn't help but say, "Oh shit... well this was a bad idea.” she looked back then she started to walk and then she heard a sound.

"Coo!" "Coo!" The sound startled her, she was beginning to get nervous, her heart beat fast, her sweat fell across her forehead to her face. The fog thickened and the cold wind trickled upon her spine. As she walked, the twigs and the crusty leaves began crunching under her feet. "Nothing to be afraid of Nancy..." she told herself. She breathed heavily, “was it getting colder?”, “were the trees becoming taller?, “was it getting darker?”,  she thought to herself. "Where is it?" she asked herself.

Her mind was beginning to play tricks with her now. She felt something following her, she felt the vibration of a sound. "Mmmmmm." It played in her head. "Its just in my head.” she nervously mumbled, she began to laugh and clutch her head. "Awoooooooooooooooooooooooo". She heard a wolf howl and then a snuffle from far away. She began to breathe heavily, Its coming towards her... So she ran, she ran as fast as she could, and the thorns and the branches seemed to enclose on her, they seemed like dark hands wanting to grab her.... she started screaming and crying under her breath, and then she tripped, she breathed heavily, she tried to get up, crawled then stopped to catch her breath under a big tree. "uh huh... uhuh ha ha hahaha" she laughed and cried at the same time. She closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she heard leaves crunching, she felt drops of water falling on her face, but when she opened her eyes, It was too late. Small hands grabbed her hair, and it was pulling her, it was dragging her body somewhere. She tried to see who it was, but her vision was still a bit blurry from waking up. The hand pulled her hair more, she screamed out of anger more than fear, "aaahhh!" and tried to escape by scuffling her feet on the ground. “Let go of me you bitch!” she tried to break free of the hands that were holding her. But she couldn't. It just whistled happily as it dragged her body across the forest floor. Then she passed by someone, It was Sullivan. He Smiled. Then he saw Lupus, Something changed in him, he looks different, “was his teeth a little bigger?”, “was his eyes a little blacker?”, The thought shortly passed her mind. He was sitting on a tree branch, smiling like a demon at her.  She was taken in the middle of the forest. The thick forest surrounded them, there was a large circle connecting to a sedgy, gangly pathway, and there was what seemed to be a blue Volkswagen being badly hidden in leaves and branches. Then whoever was carrying her, threw her on the ground. Her face hit the floor and her lips kissed the ground, it was as if she ate dirt as it covered her mouth and face. She saw two pairs of feet. She looked up, It was Morgana and behind her was Mr. Strange. Morgana Held  Nancy's face and squeezed her cheeks.

"Where are you going, Nancy?." Morgana drilled. “Maaaam?, I was just going for a walk.” She sat up cleaned her self a bit. She wore a humorless smile and acted innocently. "Did you Poison all those people Nancy?, Did you?" Mr. Strange Picked her up by her neck, and she seemed to gasp for breath. He looked different she thought. “Do you have any idea, the situation you put us in.?” He Scowled and looked Livid, almost evil. Nancy tried to talk, she tried to hold on to Mr. Strange hands for support, "Please Sir. I've no idea what you're saying, Sir." And she bore a mirthless smile, even though she was being strangled and gasping for breath. He let her go and she fell on her butt, on the ground. She sneered and laughed at everyone, “Really this is so funny, you've no evidence. It was me?” She knew that Sullivan was not that smart, and so she lied without remorse because of this. She laughed some more, and then she felt her collar being grabbed and suddenly she was slung and sent flying into a tree. Matilda had thrown her out of irritation. She was disconcerted for a few seconds. Then her eyes widened, these people were strong, why was this? She started thinking. “What are you? You freaks!” Then Matilda and Lupus looked at each other and they laughed, Then Morgana and Mr. Strange laughed, even Sullivan, laughed, It was a strange laugh. Deep and evil. Then suddenly all of them had a low guttural laugh. "What a shame your really evil. We could have been friends. Ah, but you got us in trouble, so." Morgana enthused. “Sullivan, have they left the house?” Morgana referring to the Police. “Yes, Madam I believe so.” "Let's go Home," Morgana Told everyone.

Lupus Jumped from the tree and Sullivan grabbed Nancy's arm. She started laughing again. Then they took a step, then everyone was gone in an instant. Then they reappeared at the Strange Mansion. Morgana Had teleported everyone back home. "Woah, what the fuck is this?, who are you?, what are you, people?! Are you even people?!" Nancy screamed as she panicked, she was discombobulated, from teleporting but she tried to break free from Sullivan's clutches. “Luna di Nychta Nasconderci” Matilda Held what seemed to be a black wand pointing at the moon And a white luminance covered their house and the forest surrounding their house. It was a concealment charm. “Help! Help! Somebody Help Me!!!!!!” She screamed. "Shh...Shhh...Shhhh..." Morgana put her finger near her mouth. "No one can hear you really." “But today is your lucky day!” Morgana motioned to Sullivan and Sullivan threw Nancy on the ground. “Despite your shortcomings, be grateful, you get to be an offering to the Gods. One of the highest honor a human can ever do.” "What?!" her demeanor changed "hahaha" she laughed mocking the family. "You guys are just  a bunch of psychos! Wait till the police hear bout this! Hahaha, you probably poisoned all those people. Hahahahah" she cackled merrily. She wanted to put the blame on the family because they had no proof. For a second she forgot what just happened, and then she remembered, she was transported here in a flash, she got agitated, then suddenly she felt bizarre like she was on drugs, time seemed slow. She grabbed her head. “Enough of this.” Mr. Strange Grabbed Nancy, “Morgana!” Mr. Strange Motioned to his wife. “I was thinking Matilda should do it today. It will be her first time.” “Go on dear...” Morgana suggested. Matilda had a vexed face as if to say, "Wow this is dangerous but okay." “Ah, ah, ah, no excuses,” Morgana demanded.

Matilda knelt in front of the house. Grabbed dirt and raised it high above her head. “Gaia Accept our offering. “deffro ein ty. hamaly soa azy amin'ny fanahy” “amukele umnikelo wethu” “Make her bleed love...” Morgana motioned to Mr. Strange. *insert song here, for example, Static x - Cold* Mr. Strange brought Nancy To Matilda. Matilda covered Nancy's face, her chest, and arms with dirt. Nancy was still fazed. Then Mr. Strange started to look different, He looked malevolent, He tilted Nancy's head, covered her mouth with the palm of his hands, then she started to mumble something out of fear, but it couldn't be heard, He looked up and he already has 2 sharp white fangs but as he opened his mouth, It seemed to grow larger, sharper, It seemed like it can cut through anything. Nancy's eyes widened, she was frantic, she started squirming, but in one giant Swoop, Mr. Strange Sunk his teeth in Nancy's neck, It crunched and she was in pain, she tried to scream, but her cries were muffled, tears start to arise from her eyes, Mr. Strange drank some more, She was convulsing, blood fell from her neck to her clothes, as this happened you can see the blood Entering Mr. Strange, throughout the veins of his face, he opened his eyes, and it was pitch black, even the white was gone, the blood traveled to his neck,  to his hands that were holding nan's neck, and once he felt refreshed,  he licked his lips and his face was covered with blood. The Blood in Nancy's neck was gushing, The family felt hungry, They hissed as the smell of blood emanated the air, their fangs appeared. Mr. Strange thrust Nancy on the floor, forcing her to kneel, she felt weak and dazed. She felt a sudden pang in her neck, “ahhh”,  she grumbled as she touched her neck and her chest, It was then she found out she was covered with blood, her blood. She was flabbergasted, tears start to arise from her eyes, So she screamed a scream so loud, it made the birds and the bats fly away from the trees, but it seemed no matter how loud she screamed and screamed and screamed some more, nobody heard. Just the animals and her. She realized this because she was evil, so instead of just being petrified, she scowled as a deep seething anger came over her, but it wasn't enough to conjure up the energy to escape.

Matilda thrust Nancy's head to bow down to the ground and Nancy held on to the ground for support, her blood began to sprinkle the earth, Her thoughts were hazy now as she lost so much blood, she wanted to fight back but she couldn't, her arms were flailing, She was going to save her energy she thought. She was going to run the fuck out of here she thought, and kill this asshole family. Then the ground began to quake, slowly the ground opened and there was a gaping glowing hole. It was emitting a yellow light as it opened, then it became red and finally when it was as big as a pond, whatever was underneath, was emitting blue light. It released what seemed to be blue light and orbs enveloping the house. Then a yawn from a Monster Like Voice. Nancy hearing this voice was almost out of it, but when she saw the house move, adrenaline began to rush over her and was now aware of what was happening, “You... You.. are not people!” "No. We're not my dear..." Morgana shot back. “Who woke me?” The house spoke through his mouth which was the door. Creating movement around the house some of the stones and bricks fell, creating cracks. “We are your new owners, how did the people in the house, die?” *Inside * Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpas bed was sliding from left to right while they slept. The windows started to flicker, It seemed to be its eyes. Then it answered. A Low guttural sound came out. “That Woman, Nancy, she put Poison in the soup.” The House now looking at Nancy. “How come we, and the other people didn't get poisoned?” Lupus asked. “Grandmas Cookies are enchanted, whoever devoured it, or chose to eat it was saved.” “Oh!” everyone said in unison. “Is there anything more?” The house asked.

"No" Morgana replied, "Go back to sleep, big House, but stay awake, in case we need you." Nancy laughed, angry and raving "Hahaha, Yes, It was me, those people were pathetic! They needed to di..." Before she could finish her sentence. Morgana punctured through her chest like a knife slicing butter and gutted her heart out, blood spilled from her open chest, Morgana devoured the heart, She closed her eyes and drank the blood from the heart. Blood spurted out of the heart as she bit through it, It splattered on her clothes, and was flowing profusely on her arms, slowly, It covered Morgana's mouth and cheeks. Once her thirst was quenched, she felt euphoria overcame her, It made her look to the moon, She opened her eyes and It was pitch black, she bore her fangs and licked the blood on her lips, as the blood travelled to her face, her neck and her body, she became filled with the blood and her skin became softer, she looked younger, more radiant, refreshed. She tilted her head, and gave the heart to Matilda. Matilda elated, grinned. “Accept this Gaia as thanks for answering our calls.” Matilda dropped the heart in the gaping hole of blue light, It was Gaia. The blue light seemed to pulse like a heart. Blue light seemed to spread through the ground like lightning. Matilda bit through Nancy's wrist and her eyes blackened, the blood spread throughout her body and her hair became longer, her skin softer and her lips was blood red. There were lines of blue that lit up in her body, like tattoos that lit up, in her forehead and her cheeks had dots and lines, as well as her arms and legs, the twins bit through Nancys legs, and Caedmons Skin, pulsed white and blue light that looked like scales on his fore head, cheeks and arms and legs, same with Waldron, But Waldrons light was red. They bit through her legs and Drank her blood. Then Lupus eyes, darkened with hunger, and he transformed into a black wolf. "All yours," Matilda said to her brother, Lupus  ravenously ravaged her innards, and Sullivan ate her brains. We can hear a wolf and zombies subdued eating sounds. Once they were done, Lupus howled. "Accept her body to close this spell." Then Matilda threw the body into the gaping hole. “Gaia Chiudiamo l'incantesimo” The blue light pulsed and emitted orbs. The trees seemed alive as the orbs infiltrate their bodies, the flowers seemed to wake up from sleep, the grass seemed to be greener, but shortly after the wind became stronger, the hole as it closes, released a strong wind that tried to suck everyone inside of it.

Matilda was near the hole so she almost fell, she clawed on the dirt on the ground so she will not fall. She pulled out her wings but she only used it to fight the wind, it was impossible to fly, the whirlpool of wind was too strong.

Lupus was in wolf form and was able to run and claw on the dirt and grab on a tree. Like a monkey.

Mr. Strange was a little bit futher away, but he could move through the speed of sound, so he was able to grab the twins and moved quickly to a far off tree, the twins were also quick and can fly but they were no match for the strength of Gaia. Then he told Caedmon and Waldron to grab hold of the tree, like little insects, the babies did. Mr. Strange trusted Morganas capabilities so he didn't come to their aid but came for Sullivan, He grabbed him quickly to where the twins were.

Morgana's hair grew longer, and moved as if it had its own life, It grabbed hold of Matilda, and some of her other hair grabbed hold of the trees for support, then quicklyshe teleported, to where her family was. They were now all safe.

They looked as the Hole closed. There was a strong wind that wanted to engulf everything, then there was nothing, just silence. The trees didn't seem to be alive anymore and the flowers seemed to go back to sleep.

Lupus walked off and said, "Well next time, lets probably get CCTV." Morning came. Detective Alexander visited The Strange Household. "Mr and Mrs Strange..." The detective's eyes widened, he was a bit shocked, the family looked stranger in the Morning. But he continued, "Uhm we found some file about your maid, thanks to the picture Ms. Philomena provided, and some CCTV we found around town, we saw a file that matched your maid, She was Nancy Doss, She is a serial killer, who was known for poisoning families that she served, and she giggled all while she was poisoning the family according to some survivors, and witness. Really weird. You guys were lucky enough to survive" The family smiled at him, they were on the porch outside.

“I think you weren't able to eat the batch, that she made, unfortunately, we couldn't find her, we suspect she skipped town, but we found some of what we believe are her belongings and a van hidden in the forest. But rest assured, Mr. and Mrs. Strange we will try our best to find her.” “How about the victims?” Philomena asked the detective. "Unfortunately, two ate too much that they died, Michelle and Cornell Graves died." "Most, fortunately survived and was given an antidote. Best if you keep to yourselves for now. Even though it's not your fault, some people might blame you." “Well try to send. Something to the victims.” "Hopefully not food" The detective joked, trying to clear the air. “Goodness, No.” Morgana said. "Well send them some flowers. And an apology note." Philomena said, "I'll take care of Everything." "Thank you, Mr Detective..." Mr. Stranged expressed his thanks through a handshake. “Well, I best be going, Thank you for your time and cooperation...” Before the detective can go, Grandma offered him some cookie. “Do you want some cookie?” "It's not poisoned right?" The detective laughed. Everyone looked at him seriously. “I'll just take some of this.” The detective mused, And left. "Well, what did we learn about today?" Matilda was standing next to the railings of the porch, Lupus and the twins were sitting, Philomena, Mr. and Mrs. strange was standing in the porch Hallway, and Grandma and Grandpa sat in their rocking chairs.

"Never to trust Anyone," Matilda replied. “Did you hear that twins?” Mr. Strange carried them. "They replied, "Yes, Poppa." “Ah I thought, Maybe it would've been more fun if she was possessed.”  Lupus cackled. “We can't have too much fun, Love.” Morgana snickered and told Lupus. “Also don't forget  to Thank your Grandma for saving the day, because of her Yummy cookies.” Mr. Strange reminded. "Oh yah, You saved the day Grandma." Matilda enthused. “Thanks Grandma. We love you.” Everyone hugged and Thanked Grandma. “Quickly, lets go inside.” Then everyone Followed Mr. Strange. Lupus noticed Matilda. “What is it?” Matilda was looking at something. *Insert suspense song like for example Pusicfier – the remedy* It was the Detective. He saw something on the ground. Its was red. He looked up. Looked back at the house. And smiled at Matilda he waved. Matilda miffed, snubbed him and continued to walk inside. The Detective grabbed  something from the ground. He put it inside a small ziplock bag. It was dried red blood sitting on the dirt. We see matilda look back again. As the detective walks away. She was supicious of him. Then She slammed their large door shut. We see the devils knocker. As we zoom out of the house and we see the vast forrest surround it and over the Horizon, you can see the Ocean. *insert ending song for example Aurora – Running with the wolves.*

All rights reserved. Copyright © 2017 Gothicfury/PrincessAisaPascua The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. This story is published subject to the condition that it shall not be reproduced or retransmitted in whole or in part, in any manner, without the written consent of the copyrightholder, and any infringement of this is a violation of copyright law. A single copy of the materials available in this story may be made solely for personal, noncommerical use. Individuals musr preserve any copyright or other notices contained in or associated with them. Users may not distribute said copies to others, whether or not in electronic form of in hard copy, without prior written consent of the copyright holder of the materials. contact information for requests for permission to reproduce or distribute materials available through this course are listed. below: icerockmusic@gmail.com official website: http://gothicfury.tumblr.com

Strange Family Values by Gothicfury/PrincessAisaPascua is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at icerockmusic@gmail.com.

Pdf downloads

https://www.patreon.com/posts/11728398 – Chapter 1 Introduction https://www.patreon.com/posts/12585702 – chapter 2 The Poison House https://www.wattpad.com/425937667-strange-family-values-episode-2-the-poison-house  - wattpad copy https://www.scribd.com/document/351264616/Strange-Family-Values-Chapter-2-the-Poison-House-by-Gothicfury-currently-in-revision – Scribd http://ice-rockz.deviantart.com/art/Strange-Family-Values-Chapter-2-The-Poison-House-690986560 -deviantart.com http://gothicfury.tumblr.com/post/161809088975/strange-family-values-strange-family-values - tumblr

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Lavender Quotes

Official Website: Lavender Quotes

  • A rhododendron bud lavender-tipped. Soon a glory of blooms to clash with the cardinals and gladden the hummingbirds! – Dave Beard • Add a drop of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you’re laughing at it. – Bill Bailey • As a kid I’d play with homemade recipes, like putting pineapple on my face to exfoliate my skin and doing facial steams with lavender or peppermint oils. I just loved doing stuff like that. It’s what motivated me to launch my skin care line. – Demi Lovato • As far as what I do love, I love birds; I love lavender. – Michael Moore • Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon. – Alice Hoffman

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Lavender', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_lavender').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_lavender img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Before bed, I read a book or flip on the radio – I’m not picky, I’ll just turn it on and see what comes up. I burn a yummy lavender- scented candle. – Carrie Underwood • Blue is the insides of something mysterious and lonely. I’d look at fish and birds, thinking the sky and water colored them. The first abyss is blue. An artist must go beyond the mercy of satin or water-from a gutty hue to that which is close to royal purple. All seasons and blossoms inbetween. Lavender. Theatrical and outrageous electric. Almost gray. True and false blue. Water and oil. The gas jet breathing in oblivion. The unstruck match. The blue of absence. The blue of deep presence. The insides of something perfect. – Yusef Komunyakaa • Both Matilda and Lavender were enthralled. It was quite clear to them that they were at this moment standing in the presence of a master. Here was somebody who had brought the art of skulduggery to the highest point of perfection, somebody, moreover, who was willing to risk life and limb in pursuit of her calling. They gazed in wonder at this goddess, and suddenly even the boil on her nose was no longer a blemish but a badge of courage. – Roald Dahl • Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist. – Mia Kirshner • But you, you foolish girl, you have gone home to a leaky castle across the sea to lie awake in linen smelling of lavender, and hear the nightingale, and long for me. – Edna St. Vincent Millay

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender? – J. K. Rowling • Day after day we looked for rain, and day after day we saw nothing but the sun. Lavender that we had planted in the spring died. The patch of grass in front of the house abandoned its ambitions to become a lawn and turned into the dirty yellow of poor straw. The earth shrank, revealing its knuckles and bones, rocks and roots that had been invisible before. – Peter Mayle • Even talking, I’m super-loud. I could never have that kind of meek, little wispy whimsical lavender and lace voice. It comes from my body. There’s no way I can fight it. – Beth Ditto • Gay people do not fight for freedom to live in a lavender bubble, but in a more just society. – Urvashi Vaid • He domesticated and developed the native wild flowers. He had one hill-side solidly clad with that low-growing purple verbena which mats over the hills of New Mexico. It was like a great violet velvet mantle thrown down in the sun; all the shades that the dyers and weavers of Italy and France strove for through centuries, the violet that is full of rose colour and is yet not lavender; the blue that becomes almost pink and then retreats again into sea-dark purple—the true Episcopal colour and countless variations of it. – Willa Cather • Here’s flowers for you; Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun And with him rises weeping: these are flowers Of middle summer, and I think they are given To men of middle age. – William Shakespeare • Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rise weeping. – William Shakespeare • I love Thieves, it is therapeutic, if you’re not feeling well. It has a very strong scent but is quite wonderful. I also use lavender. Peppermint, when my stomach is upset. – Donna Karan • I love you, Hermione,” said Ron, sinking back, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, “Don’t let Lavender hear you saying that.” “I won’t,” said Ron into his hands. “Or maybe I will . . . then she’ll ditch me . . . – J. K. Rowling • I put a drop of lavender essential oil on my pillow before I go to sleep. – Melissa Joan Hart • I saw Chungking for the first time more than 40 years ago – a city of hills and mists, of grays and lavenders, two rivers shaping it to a point and the cliff rising above me like a challenge. – Theodore White • I turned over, and those big hands got to work on my back. I stifled a whimper in the pillow, because Marco’s idea of a massage bore no resemblance whatsoever to the relaxing spa variety. There was no lavender oil, no soothing music, no hot towels. Just an all-out assault on cramped muscles, until they cowered in surrender and turned to Jell-O. – Karen Chance • If feeling anxious about anything Dr Bachs night time rescue remedy is great. Sometimes a bath before bed helps. Burning Lavender or Clary Sage in the room before retiring. Try not to work on my computer very late and then bed straight after. Getting enough exercise definitely helps sleep. – Rachel Ryan • If you had to choose an oil…it would have to be lavender essential oil, because it is antibacterial and antiviral. So, it’s great to have when people around you are sick; it can also be used to relax. – Karen Rose • it always seems to me as if the lavender was a little woman in a green dress, with a lavender bonnet and a white kerchief. She’s one of those strong, sweet, wholesome people, who always rest you, and her sweetness lingers long after she goes away. – Myrtle Reed • It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer. Everything fades: the shimmer of gold over White Cove; the laughter in the night air; the lavender early morning light on the faces of skyscrapers, which had suddenly become so heroically tall. Every dawn seemed to promise fresh miracles, among other joys that are in short supply these days. And so I will try to tell you, while I still remember, how it was then, before everything changed-that final season of the era that roared. – Anna Godbersen • It was our favorite part of the day, this in-between time, and it always seemed to last longer than it should–a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it, between worlds. – Paula McLain • Lavender is the new pink. I’ll never stop wearing pink but I wanted to venture out. – Nicki Minaj • London life was very full and exciting […] But in London there would be no greenhouse with a glossy tank, and no apple-room, and no potting-shed, earthy and warm, with bunches of poppy heads hanging from the ceiling, and sunflower seeds in a wooden box, and bulbs in thick paper bags, and hanks of tarred string, and lavender drying on a tea-tray. – Sylvia Townsend Warner • Look, why don’t you go talk to Ron about all this?” Harry asked. “Well, I would, but he’s always asleep when I go and see him!” said Lavender fretfully. “Is he?” said Harry, surprised, for he had found Ron perfectly alert every time he had been up to the hospital wing. – J. K. Rowling • My favorite name for a color is “puce.” It’s kind of a dried blood color. It’s a hideous color. But I love the word. It’s so euphonic. But my favorite colors are lavender, purple, periwinkle blue, and white. – Elizabeth Taylor • Oils of cinnamon and eucalyptus are as powerful against some microorganisms as conventional antibiotics, and are especially effective against flus. Sandalwood oil from Mysore, India, is not only a classic perfume oil but is also a traditional remedy for sore throats and laryngitis. Lavender oil, so often used in toilet waters and scented sachets, has a dramatic healing action on burns. – Robert Tisserand • One trick I swear by: I pour a little neroli or lavender oil onto a hot towel and use it to wipe off my makeup. It opens up my pores, and then my face cream sinks in better. – Courteney Cox • The air was fragrant with a thousand trodden aromatic herbs, with fields of lavender, and with the brightest roses blushing in tufts all over the meadows. – William C. Bryant • The raindrops played across the coast all through the night, until the soft new day shrugged itself awake, tried on amethyst and lavender for a while, and finally decided on pale yellow. – Gary D. Schmidt • The scent organ was playing a delightfully refreshing Herbal Capriccio – rippling arpeggios of thyme and lavender, of rosemary, basil, myrtle, tarragon; a series of daring modulations through the spice keys into ambergris; and a slow return through sandalwood, camphor, cedar and newmown hay (with occasional subtle touches of discord – a whiff of kidney pudding, the faintest suspicion of pig’s dung) back to the simple aromatics with which the piece began. The final blast of thyme died away; there was a round of applause; the lights went up. – Aldous Huxley • There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can. – Alice Hoffman • To make a perfume, take some rose water and wash your hands in it, then take a lavender flower and rub it with your palms, and you will achieve the desired effect. – Leonardo da Vinci • Valentine’s Day money-saving tips: Break up on February 13th, get back together on the 15th. In place of bubble bath, use lavender-scented dish-washing liquid. Forget rose petals. Sprinkle the bed with sliced beets! – David Letterman • We lavender folk spray up, spontaneously flowering in the color we had learned as an identifying mark of our culture when it was subterranean and secret. – Judy Grahn • What a turnaround in sentiment ‘Glee’ exemplifies. It was only a few years ago that pursuing the dream of a Broadway career or cabaret stardom relegated some poor yearning dope to a lavender ghetto of losers, self-deluders, and social rejects. – James Wolcott • What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart? – William Makepeace Thackeray • When hope is fleeting, stop for a moment and visualize, in a sky of silver, the crescent of a lavender moon. Imagine it — delicate, slim, precise, like a paper-thin slice from a cabochon jewel. It may not be very useful, but it is beautiful. And sometimes it is enough. – Vera Nazarian • When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots? – Shel Silverstein • With this recitation of paraphernalia and detritus, O’Brien manages to encapsulate the experience of an army and of a particular war, of a mined and booby-trapped landscape, of cold nights and hot days, of soaking monsoons and rice paddies, and of the possibility of being shot, like Ted Lavender, suddenly and out of nowhere: not only in the middle of a sentence but in the midst of a subordinate clause. – Francine Prose • Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. – Alice Walker • Yours is… il sent comme lavande.” Is that French for ‘You stink’?” It means ‘lavender’.” Huh.” She sniffed at her wrist. “I thought I smelled more like a grape Popsicle. – Lynn Viehl

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[equitiesstocks]

Lavender Quotes

Official Website: Lavender Quotes

  • A rhododendron bud lavender-tipped. Soon a glory of blooms to clash with the cardinals and gladden the hummingbirds! – Dave Beard • Add a drop of lavender to milk, leave town with an orange, and pretend you’re laughing at it. – Bill Bailey • As a kid I’d play with homemade recipes, like putting pineapple on my face to exfoliate my skin and doing facial steams with lavender or peppermint oils. I just loved doing stuff like that. It’s what motivated me to launch my skin care line. – Demi Lovato • As far as what I do love, I love birds; I love lavender. – Michael Moore • Avoid men who call you Baby, and women who have no friends, and dogs that scratch at their bellies and refuse to lie down at your feet. Wear dark glasses; bathe with lavender oil and cool fresh water. Seek shelter from the sun at noon. – Alice Hoffman

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Lavender', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_lavender').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_lavender img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Before bed, I read a book or flip on the radio – I’m not picky, I’ll just turn it on and see what comes up. I burn a yummy lavender- scented candle. – Carrie Underwood • Blue is the insides of something mysterious and lonely. I’d look at fish and birds, thinking the sky and water colored them. The first abyss is blue. An artist must go beyond the mercy of satin or water-from a gutty hue to that which is close to royal purple. All seasons and blossoms inbetween. Lavender. Theatrical and outrageous electric. Almost gray. True and false blue. Water and oil. The gas jet breathing in oblivion. The unstruck match. The blue of absence. The blue of deep presence. The insides of something perfect. – Yusef Komunyakaa • Both Matilda and Lavender were enthralled. It was quite clear to them that they were at this moment standing in the presence of a master. Here was somebody who had brought the art of skulduggery to the highest point of perfection, somebody, moreover, who was willing to risk life and limb in pursuit of her calling. They gazed in wonder at this goddess, and suddenly even the boil on her nose was no longer a blemish but a badge of courage. – Roald Dahl • Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist. – Mia Kirshner • But you, you foolish girl, you have gone home to a leaky castle across the sea to lie awake in linen smelling of lavender, and hear the nightingale, and long for me. – Edna St. Vincent Millay

[clickbank-storefront-bestselling] • Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender? – J. K. Rowling • Day after day we looked for rain, and day after day we saw nothing but the sun. Lavender that we had planted in the spring died. The patch of grass in front of the house abandoned its ambitions to become a lawn and turned into the dirty yellow of poor straw. The earth shrank, revealing its knuckles and bones, rocks and roots that had been invisible before. – Peter Mayle • Even talking, I’m super-loud. I could never have that kind of meek, little wispy whimsical lavender and lace voice. It comes from my body. There’s no way I can fight it. – Beth Ditto • Gay people do not fight for freedom to live in a lavender bubble, but in a more just society. – Urvashi Vaid • He domesticated and developed the native wild flowers. He had one hill-side solidly clad with that low-growing purple verbena which mats over the hills of New Mexico. It was like a great violet velvet mantle thrown down in the sun; all the shades that the dyers and weavers of Italy and France strove for through centuries, the violet that is full of rose colour and is yet not lavender; the blue that becomes almost pink and then retreats again into sea-dark purple—the true Episcopal colour and countless variations of it. – Willa Cather • Here’s flowers for you; Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun And with him rises weeping: these are flowers Of middle summer, and I think they are given To men of middle age. – William Shakespeare • Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun, and with him rise weeping. – William Shakespeare • I love Thieves, it is therapeutic, if you’re not feeling well. It has a very strong scent but is quite wonderful. I also use lavender. Peppermint, when my stomach is upset. – Donna Karan • I love you, Hermione,” said Ron, sinking back, rubbing his eyes wearily. Hermione turned faintly pink, but merely said, “Don’t let Lavender hear you saying that.” “I won’t,” said Ron into his hands. “Or maybe I will . . . then she’ll ditch me . . . – J. K. Rowling • I put a drop of lavender essential oil on my pillow before I go to sleep. – Melissa Joan Hart • I saw Chungking for the first time more than 40 years ago – a city of hills and mists, of grays and lavenders, two rivers shaping it to a point and the cliff rising above me like a challenge. – Theodore White • I turned over, and those big hands got to work on my back. I stifled a whimper in the pillow, because Marco’s idea of a massage bore no resemblance whatsoever to the relaxing spa variety. There was no lavender oil, no soothing music, no hot towels. Just an all-out assault on cramped muscles, until they cowered in surrender and turned to Jell-O. – Karen Chance • If feeling anxious about anything Dr Bachs night time rescue remedy is great. Sometimes a bath before bed helps. Burning Lavender or Clary Sage in the room before retiring. Try not to work on my computer very late and then bed straight after. Getting enough exercise definitely helps sleep. – Rachel Ryan • If you had to choose an oil…it would have to be lavender essential oil, because it is antibacterial and antiviral. So, it’s great to have when people around you are sick; it can also be used to relax. – Karen Rose • it always seems to me as if the lavender was a little woman in a green dress, with a lavender bonnet and a white kerchief. She’s one of those strong, sweet, wholesome people, who always rest you, and her sweetness lingers long after she goes away. – Myrtle Reed • It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer. Everything fades: the shimmer of gold over White Cove; the laughter in the night air; the lavender early morning light on the faces of skyscrapers, which had suddenly become so heroically tall. Every dawn seemed to promise fresh miracles, among other joys that are in short supply these days. And so I will try to tell you, while I still remember, how it was then, before everything changed-that final season of the era that roared. – Anna Godbersen • It was our favorite part of the day, this in-between time, and it always seemed to last longer than it should–a magic and lavender space unpinned from the hours around it, between worlds. – Paula McLain • Lavender is the new pink. I’ll never stop wearing pink but I wanted to venture out. – Nicki Minaj • London life was very full and exciting […] But in London there would be no greenhouse with a glossy tank, and no apple-room, and no potting-shed, earthy and warm, with bunches of poppy heads hanging from the ceiling, and sunflower seeds in a wooden box, and bulbs in thick paper bags, and hanks of tarred string, and lavender drying on a tea-tray. – Sylvia Townsend Warner • Look, why don’t you go talk to Ron about all this?” Harry asked. “Well, I would, but he’s always asleep when I go and see him!” said Lavender fretfully. “Is he?” said Harry, surprised, for he had found Ron perfectly alert every time he had been up to the hospital wing. – J. K. Rowling • My favorite name for a color is “puce.” It’s kind of a dried blood color. It’s a hideous color. But I love the word. It’s so euphonic. But my favorite colors are lavender, purple, periwinkle blue, and white. – Elizabeth Taylor • Oils of cinnamon and eucalyptus are as powerful against some microorganisms as conventional antibiotics, and are especially effective against flus. Sandalwood oil from Mysore, India, is not only a classic perfume oil but is also a traditional remedy for sore throats and laryngitis. Lavender oil, so often used in toilet waters and scented sachets, has a dramatic healing action on burns. – Robert Tisserand • One trick I swear by: I pour a little neroli or lavender oil onto a hot towel and use it to wipe off my makeup. It opens up my pores, and then my face cream sinks in better. – Courteney Cox • The air was fragrant with a thousand trodden aromatic herbs, with fields of lavender, and with the brightest roses blushing in tufts all over the meadows. – William C. Bryant • The raindrops played across the coast all through the night, until the soft new day shrugged itself awake, tried on amethyst and lavender for a while, and finally decided on pale yellow. – Gary D. Schmidt • The scent organ was playing a delightfully refreshing Herbal Capriccio – rippling arpeggios of thyme and lavender, of rosemary, basil, myrtle, tarragon; a series of daring modulations through the spice keys into ambergris; and a slow return through sandalwood, camphor, cedar and newmown hay (with occasional subtle touches of discord – a whiff of kidney pudding, the faintest suspicion of pig’s dung) back to the simple aromatics with which the piece began. The final blast of thyme died away; there was a round of applause; the lights went up. – Aldous Huxley • There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can. – Alice Hoffman • To make a perfume, take some rose water and wash your hands in it, then take a lavender flower and rub it with your palms, and you will achieve the desired effect. – Leonardo da Vinci • Valentine’s Day money-saving tips: Break up on February 13th, get back together on the 15th. In place of bubble bath, use lavender-scented dish-washing liquid. Forget rose petals. Sprinkle the bed with sliced beets! – David Letterman • We lavender folk spray up, spontaneously flowering in the color we had learned as an identifying mark of our culture when it was subterranean and secret. – Judy Grahn • What a turnaround in sentiment ‘Glee’ exemplifies. It was only a few years ago that pursuing the dream of a Broadway career or cabaret stardom relegated some poor yearning dope to a lavender ghetto of losers, self-deluders, and social rejects. – James Wolcott • What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart? – William Makepeace Thackeray • When hope is fleeting, stop for a moment and visualize, in a sky of silver, the crescent of a lavender moon. Imagine it — delicate, slim, precise, like a paper-thin slice from a cabochon jewel. It may not be very useful, but it is beautiful. And sometimes it is enough. – Vera Nazarian • When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots? – Shel Silverstein • With this recitation of paraphernalia and detritus, O’Brien manages to encapsulate the experience of an army and of a particular war, of a mined and booby-trapped landscape, of cold nights and hot days, of soaking monsoons and rice paddies, and of the possibility of being shot, like Ted Lavender, suddenly and out of nowhere: not only in the middle of a sentence but in the midst of a subordinate clause. – Francine Prose • Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. – Alice Walker • Yours is… il sent comme lavande.” Is that French for ‘You stink’?” It means ‘lavender’.” Huh.” She sniffed at her wrist. “I thought I smelled more like a grape Popsicle. – Lynn Viehl

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