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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 6
(4/19/03 5:00 am)
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Terra's Shadow - Start
(Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are owned by Square, not by the author, who just writes this stuff for fun and does not profit from it in any way.)
(Well, here's the first chapter. It's kinda of a long fic, so I'll post by chapter. If anyone doesn't want it posted that way, or wants me to stop altogether, just let me know. Thanks in advance for reading at least this far!  )
The blade of the simple gardening tool stabbed into the dirt, creating a soft and satisfying grating noise. The smell of rich, fertile soil was invigorating; a reminder to never again take for granted the life within the earth. The gardener had been at her task for hours; pausing now and again to rest and take in her work, and then she returned to toil as hard as ever. From a shallow wooden box she drew seeds and bulbs, arranging and planting, envisioning in her head the splendor that would be grown by the time summer was upon them.
In the shadow of a modest house, the modest young woman went about her self-appointed duty. Green-gold hair not unlike a tarnished treasure was pulled back and off of her brow by a plain red bandana, and eyes of a similar shade were absent and lost. Gloved hands picked through her little collection of seeds as she murmured incoherently under her breath, occasionally wiping good clean dirt off of her hands and onto her overalls. Finally, she sat back on the grass in the shade of her home, leaning over to roll up the cuffs of her pants.
Mobliz was on the mend, close to thriving now. In only little more than a full year people had come; drifters robbed of their homes in the great disaster, traders, lost souls of every kind congregated here. Terra looked over her shoulder to the other houses, most of which had not been here when she’d returned. The children… she would not be so optimistic to say that they were fine; they had lived through and seen more than any child should, but they were alive. Perhaps, given more time, they would be fine.
A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of the half-Esper’s mouth when she spied Reiji running between two of the original structures in her general direction.
These days were so calm, so quiet. She recalled that Katarina had, in jest, accused Terra of growing soft in her domestic life. Perhaps the girl was right; maybe Terra had grown soft. What of the others? Her thoughts turned to them frequently, when her body was absorbed in a task that did not require her concentration. Each of those who had stood against Kefka in the end had parted ways, as each of them knew they would. There was much to atone for, much recuperating and soul-searching needing to be done, and what better time in history to do just that?
“Terra!” Reiji panted softly in an exaggerated manner when he was within speaking range, his mop of red curls looking damp from a recent swim in the lake. The boy, all of ten years old, doubled over with his hands on his knees with his chin lifted to flash an impish grin.
Her smile widened and she stood, taking her time in pulling off the heavy working gloves. “Yes, Reiji?”
“I found a dog! Come see! He came right up to me!” The boy reached out to take her hand, giving it an insistent but gentle tug. “Come on and see, he’s great! He’s a herding dog; you think he can herd cattle? What about sheep?”
“One thing at a time!” Terra exclaimed in mock exasperation, allowing herself to be lead by the hand across the uneven grass that made up the sparse land around her house. Reiji was pointing ahead of himself, starting to jog now with the young woman in tow. His excitement was infectious and soon she was very curious to see just what had gotten the lad so riled up. Dogs were hardly uncommon, especially herding dogs in rural villages such as this.
Reiji lead Terra away from the residents and towards what was slowly becoming a very lovely village square. It still had a long way to go, more structures to be added to the meager shops that had already set up, more earth to be leveled for masons to set in cobble and flagstones before it would be completed. The young woman nearly tripped over a small pile of the smooth stones a man was setting into the ground, uttering a startled apology as the boy continued his journey.
In the center of the square, where the first stones had been laid, there had been a large, smooth, circular stone left for a sundial. It was, as of yet, only a stone, as the craftsmen had yet to do their work. It was here where Reiji lead her.
Her hand was released and Reiji ran to join his younger sister, Perlina. Both children stood flanking a rather impressive animal that stood sat on his haunches on the stone with a long pink tongue hanging from the side of his open mouth. Terra arched a brow as Reiji began to pet the large dog on the head, looking to the half-Esper for her approval. The dog was dark in color, though he had more browns and beiges in his coat than black. He was obviously tame, and well fed. Certainly no stray.
“See? Isn’t he nice? And big, too!” Reiji scratched at a pointed ear, grinning still. “Well what do you think, Terra? I want to call him Bandit, because he looks like he’s wearing a mask. Perlina wants to call him Dusty, but I think that’s stupid.”
“Is not!” The younger girl glared at her brother.
Terra was able to tune out the long string of ‘is not, is too’ that went back and forth between the siblings. Her attention was on the dog, which was incredibly docile, or merely tolerant of the children.
She had seen herding dogs of this particular breed quite a few times before, but she had to admit that none had looked as much like Interceptor as this one did. Her smile fell, and she reached out a hand to the canine for his inspection. Shadow’s dog, Interceptor, was as big as this, wasn’t he? A pang of guilt struck her then; she had not turned much thought to Shadow or his canine companion much in the time since the tower fell. He had been just as his name: a shadow, to herself and her comrades. No doubt he had done his part in aiding them, but did it mean as much that King Edgar also paid him for his services? Terra shook her head slowly and stepped away from the dog, returning her attention to the two children arguing about what to call him.
Perlina broke away from her brother and skittered a distance of a few feet, then turned back and crouched with her hands balled up in the hem of her dress.
“Dusty! Dus-teee, c’mon boy! C’mere Dusty, come on!”
She tried to get the dog’s attention, to prove he like her name better. The canine seemed to arch a brow, tilting his head at the girl.
“Bandit!” Reiji took his turn in moving away from the animal and trying to coax it to come to him.
Terra chuckled and slapped her palm to her thigh, and on whim, found herself calling to the dog as well. “Interceptor! Here, boy.”
Surprise of surprises, the canine rose regally from his haunches and padded to Terra, looking up at her expectantly. It was perhaps not an affectionate reunion, but she was given a single wag of the tail, which was fairly good. Perhaps she had gained points by remembering his name.
Furrowing her brow, the young woman looked back into the soulful dark brown eyes of the canine and shook her head slowly in disbelief. Part of her was convinced she had just used the proper tone of voice, but the other part was wondering how Interceptor could have come to be here, of all places? Neither Shadow nor his loyal friend were aboard the airship when they fled Kefka’s crumbling tower… how could the dog have come to be here?
Her head snapped up then and she cast a wary and thorough look around her immediate surroundings. Was it possible that the mysterious self-stylized ninja was here? In Mobliz?
Her lips moved and she sucked in a breath, almost tempted to ask the dog for answers. Was this all just an eerie coincidence fueled by her daydreaming? The dog snorted once, as if he was disgusted and then his head snapped up, ears at attention. Terra watched as he stiffened, and then bounded off like a possessed thing across the cobblestone so fast she would not be shocked if he took to the air.
She was no longer paying attention to the siblings, who were first miserable that the dog had come to Terra and not them; and then wailing in despair when he took off so suddenly. They bounded after him, but they had better chances of catching an Esper.
Shaking her head again, she attempted to chuckle and dismiss the whole thing. This proved to be quite impossible by the time she had returned to her house, she swore she saw flickers of suspicious motion out of the corners of her eyes. It grew annoying enough to make her abandon the gardening and retreat into her home.
Her instincts told her that the dog was indeed Interceptor, and she had learned to trust those instincts. However, that did not start to make sense. How had he ended up here? If man and dog had survived Kefka’s tower somehow, why in the name of anything holy would Shadow come here? It was not a pleasant feeling of an impending reunion that kept her pacing in front of her door until the sun set. Her protective urges were surging up with a vengeance at the mere thought that the assassin would be peddling himself in her territory.
Hunting for Shadow would prove fruitless, of that much she was certain. If he meant business, he would make himself known and soon. Perhaps it was paranoia or an over active imagination, but she did not believe for a moment the meeting in the village square was an accident or chance encounter.
Edited by: Dasinre at: 4/19/03 5:19:05 am
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 7
(4/19/03 5:08 am)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 1
(Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are the property of Square. The author just writes this stuff for fun and does not profit from this fanfic in any way.)
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The sound had been unobtrusive at first; quiet background noise that was assimilated or dismissed during her sound sleep. As time went on, however, it seemed to grow louder, or she was bit by bit being roused from her sleep by it. By the final second before waking it was like some insane nightmare-clock pounding away at her nerves until she bolted upright in bed, desperately seeking the source. Her gaze went to her bedroom window first; but it was not the sound of a pane being tapped. It was duller, loud in the otherwise quiet little house. To her bedroom door she looked, squinting in the darkness. She had a visitor.
“Interceptor?” Came the unnecessary query from the drowsy young woman. The mystery of the sound was solved at least; it had been the dog’s nails on the wooden floor making the sound. Of course it was the canine from earlier today, but why was he standing in the doorway to her bedroom? How had he gotten in?
Before she could begin to wonder if she was perhaps still dreaming or not, the large canine’s ears perked up at an audible and short whistle from elsewhere in the house. Terra was promptly dismissed and Interceptor turned away without hesitation to answer the call.
A gasp at his departure and the girl was tearing the blanket off of herself and bounding out of bed to confront the intruders. Bare feet touched cold floor and that served to rouse her fully from the lingering clutches of weariness as she prevented herself from stumbling by lurching to catch the doorframe, spinning around it rather artfully to chase after the speedy canine. Uncaring for the moment of her disheveled hair and nightgown, her tiers were drawn into a tight line when she saw warm light spilling from her kitchen.
If she had taken the time to consider what she had just discovered at her kitchen table, feeding his beloved dog something taken from her pantry, Terra may have been confused or curious, perhaps even a little wary. As it were, she was left completely and utterly speechless, having to lean on the wall for support once she’d crossed the kitchen’s threshold lest she slump to the floor.
The man at the small table glanced up to her briefly and dipped a piece of bread into his cup, tossing the treat to Interceptor without saying so much as a word of greeting or explanation. Terra realized that she had never fully seen Shadow’s face before this moment, and were she one of many others who puzzled over his obscured features or driven themselves mad with curiosity, she would have been disappointed.
He was probably younger than he really looked, placing him somewhere in the mid-thirties, but that could have been a kind estimate. His hair was sandy and short with no real order or sense to it, like wild wheat. His features were not unattractive, but he was certainly not more than plain, the kind of face that was easily forgotten. Well, if it were not for the ugly scar over his left eye. At least the cowl made more sense now, she amended. The clothing, the disguise, could change, but a mark like that was a rather distinctive feature for someone who wished to remain anonymous. The old wound was closer to his temple than his eye, slicing deeply and jaggedly to his cheekbone. It seemed to have missed the hazel ocular and spared his eyesight, however. He had been traveling, that much was obvious by his simple –black, naturally- clothing and the pack resting on the floor between Shadow’s chair and Interceptor. In her astonished scrutiny, Terra was not aware that several tense moments had passed until the silence was finally broken.
“Terra.” Her name was spoken lightly without any real inflection: a greeting.
“Shadow…” She replied dazedly, pushing off of the wall to stand straight now that she we had recovered from her initial flooring, her mind began forming questions at an alarming rate; faster than her mouth could keep up. All that did was form little sounds such as ‘wh’ and ‘how’ in a loop with alternating order until she shook her head and blinked hard, blurting out the first she could wrap her tongue around. “What are you doing here?!”
He had glanced at her only momentarily when she’d first entered the kitchen. Now his attention was on his dog, to whom he kept passing off pieces of bread to. He seemed completely at ease, as if this were his home and he had returned to it after a long journey. His face was just as neutral and expressionless as Terra had always imagined it would be, his eyes finding nothing worthy of giving any more attention to than absolutely necessary.
“Sitting. Feeding my dog.” If he was teasing or attempting to make her angry, he was a master at hiding it. His voice was quiet, not unpleasant, and much smoother now that he was not speaking through cloth.
It was more frustrating than infuriating, but she should have known better than to expect him to spill a stream of dialogue without asking the proper questions. Terra tried again from where she stood. “But…why are you here?”
His immediate response was to gesture for her to sit down. Terra pursed her lips, not appreciating being offered a seat in her own home by someone she had not invited in, but her curiosity won over and she crossed the short distance between them and drew out the only other chair from the small round table, settling into it. When he did not say anything, she added in: “We thought you were dead.”
Shadow’s expression did not change in the slightest, but he did at least deign to look at her now. “Did you?” He asked blandly…though there was a hint of an almost concealed edge in his voice. “I can tell by your flood of joy and relief that you must have been very upset by the thought of me not making it out of there. Should I apologize for worrying you?”
It would have had less effect had he added sarcasm or bitterness to it. He did not; he almost sounded utterly sincere but his eyes were mocking her. Terra’s mouth dropped open in utter indignation and anger, her hands on the table braced herself to rise and protest this mistreatment and demand he leave. Before the first sound had escaped her throat, he had cut her off.
“I need to find your friend. Locke.”
That was enough to make her stop and blink again. Her mouth closed and she drew a deep breath, suddenly wary of the man before her. Slowly, she relented and returned to her seat, her voice controlled. “He’s not here.”
“I managed to figure that out all by myself. I’m asking if you know where he is.” At his feet, Interceptor lay down on the floor. Shadow kept his gaze carefully trained on Terra. Did he look…hopeful? Eager? It was impossible to tell, but he seemed more interested now than he had a few moments ago.
She tried to imagine what Shadow could possibly want with Locke. Did he want to kill her friend? Her thoughts must have been playing across her features because the visitor snorted lightly and shook his head. Terra cleared her throat and spoke up again, perhaps slightly embarrassed but she simply could not put it past him. “Tell me what you want with him.”
“I have a job offer.” Leaning back in his chair, rather like some lounging feline, Shadow perfected the art of looking extremely bored.
Terra shook her head slowly. “I received letters from him, but he didn’t say where he was exactly. He travels…” That was the truth. She wondered if Shadow would leave now. He seemed to be now considering her words, perhaps judging whether or not she was being honest. It was brief, the sensation, but she experienced a moment of fear. Really, she did not know this man at all. “What kind of job?”
Now the other was silent, only shaking his head the smallest bit to indicate he would not elaborate. Not that she expected him to. In retrospect, this was the longest conversation she had ever held with the usually silent man. She felt uncomfortable then, wondering if she should ask him to leave. She wanted to go back to bed as much as she wanted to ask Shadow how he had gotten into her house, and more importantly, how he had escaped from Kefka’s tower. Again, he seemed to sense what she was thinking because he returned his attention to the girl and nodded his head once.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be gone when you wake up.” He brought his hand up to his face, fingertips resting under his chin. He was not looking at her anymore; he was staring off at nothing in what seemed to be mock contemplation.
That sounded like a gong signaling the end of the conversation and Terra grudgingly nodded her agreement. If Shadow was not going to answer her questions, she would not waste her breath. He had made her feel the tiniest pang of guilt for not holding him in the same regard she had held her other comrades, but she managed to quell it for the time being. Rising from the chair, she thought of saying something like ‘it was nice to see you again’ but… it would sound hollow. She made her way to the kitchen door, her hand resting on the frame as she found herself hesitating. Mentally cringing, she turned to partially face him.
“Shadow?”
He lifted his head; an eyebrow arched a subtle measure.
Facing him fully once more, Terra furrowed her brow and asked hesitantly: “Are you… are you in trouble? Do you need…help?”
He stared at her blankly a moment without moving his fingers from his chin, though both eyebrows were now raised. He shook his head in the negative.
“You’re sure?” She pressed, her kind nature getting the better of her. It began to worry her. What if he had needed Locke’s help with something, and it was not a job as he had said. As she recalled, he seemed to do just fine ‘working’ on his own.
“You can’t help me,” There was a bit of inflection in his voice now, a kind of resignation.
Terra frowned. “But Locke can?” A shrug was her only response, which she did not take as a ‘no’. It irked her the more she thought about it. What was going on? Of course Locke was a cherished friend but what could he do that she couldn’t? Had she not fought alongside them just as hard, if not harder, than anyone? Was she not important enough? Was this some kind of chauvinistic attitude that the ‘girl’ was lacking in some area? Kat’s accusation of growing soft came back to haunt her then and her voice was more forceful than she had intended.
“There might be something I can do if you would just ask!”
Shadow sat up and lowered his hand, seeming to appraise her for a moment. Then, much to her annoyance, he shrugged again. “Perhaps. Go back to sleep, we’ll talk in the morning then.”
The half-Esper blinked. Was it that easy? Well… at least he had not insulted her again. Giving a firm nod, and then a not-so-firm one, she turned away.
“Yes…in the morning then. I…uhm… yes. Goodnight, Shadow.”
He said nothing, and she left the kitchen and padded slowly and dazedly to her bedroom. Her initial pleasure at figuring out the true reason for Shadow’s visit wore off once she had closed her door and settled onto her bed. Had she? What had she just offered of herself, anyhow? An inward groan was her answer to those questions. There were far too many things left unanswered to dwell on now, she forced them out of her mind lest they plague her with insomnia.
She would know in the morning.
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 8
(4/19/03 5:16 am)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 2
(Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are owned by Square, not by the author, who just writes this stuff for fun and does not profit from it in any way.)
After Terra had retired to her bedroom for the last few remaining hours of night, her guest leaned back in the chair at the kitchen table and kicked up his
feet onto its surface. Interlocking his fingers behind his head, he let his own eyes close. He knew she would not be there for long before she was up and going about her morning rituals, and he had needed time to prepare for the bombardment of questions he was likely to fall under. He had to be extremely careful in what he let her know if he really did need her help, as far as he remembered she might have moral objections. He really did not know her at all; but he did know that she was perceptive and intelligent, and as of this moment he did not have a cowl to hide behind.
The half-Esper had certainly changed since he had last seen her. It was in her eyes as well as her body, and it had not surprised him. Her eyes were bright, full of purpose and contentment. The shades that had tormented and confused her had been abolished or buried. For someone who claimed to feel nothing, he almost smirked when he realized she had evoked something in him: envy. She was happy, truly and undeniably content here. Another man might have been more opposed to disrupting this.
There was something else, too. She had grown soft.
Perhaps that was only physical, but it was very noticeable. When he brought Terra to mind he saw the young woman with grim determination, her hands calloused from her sword, her body hard and toned from the rigorous and demanding life she had put upon herself. That had been a soldier, a warrior through and through, someone who campaigned as hard against daemons in the form of madness as monsters real and tangible, who slept in her armor, who ate hard tack and honed her arcane prowess between marches. Sure, she was young, and sure she was female, but Clyde certainly didn’t think she deserved the crystal-and-silk treatment her male friends seemed to heap upon her. He himself had distanced himself from their ragtag troupe; but he had come to think of Terra as their leader.
After his rather miraculous escape from the ruins of the tower with Interceptor, he had not sought any of them out. If they wanted to think him dead, he was not
going to argue. He had reactivated a few of his information sources and kept loose tabs on a few, however. Figaro was a commanding force in the world right now. Not only had it been a second to the Empire, but also it had been leading in many technological advances. Besides, their royal family were heroes: King Edgar and Prince Sabin were hailed as being the ones responsible for ridding the world of evil and saving the world. Honestly, it made him sick. Sure, Edgar would give full credit to any of his comrades had they wanted fame and glory, but he certainly not being modest. Politics, Clyde supposed, were a game where it was vital to have edges such as being a hero.
A soft whine at his feet made him open an eye and peer down at his friend. Interceptor lifted his head and looked back, glancing towards a window briefly. The sun was coming up. Swiping a hand over his face, he let the legs of the chair thump to the floor and he stood up, jerking his head towards the kitchen door with a smirk. “I suppose you want out?” He murmured under his breath.
“I could always let myself out, but then you’d get lazy.”
The ‘Master’ snorted in response at the Fae’s voice in his mind. He had gotten used to it after all these years, his ‘dog’ was a real smartass most of the time. It was also the first thing Interceptor had said to him in days; the dog-fae was in the habit of ignoring him when he did not approve of his actions. It would seem all was forgiven, at least for the moment, so Clyde lead his companion through the kitchen and modest little sitting room to Terra’s front door, pulling it open. As Interceptor brushed past him, Clyde found himself almost face-to-face with a dark-haired young woman.
“Oh!” She exclaimed without a hint of disguising her surprise at seeing him, quite a bit alarmed. Her gaze dropped to the dog, which had stopped to stare at her as well.
The girl had her hand in a little fist; about to knock on the door the second Clyde had opened it. He looked to her, then down at his side, glaring death at the canine. The dog-fae just opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang out as he panted, wagging his tail. ‘You knew she was there, didn’t you, you bastard?’ He thought venomously to his companion, who slipped past him.
“Why Clyde, I don’t know what you mean.” The gleeful creature responded, bounding off to amuse himself and leave his friend stuck explaining himself to the girl on the doorstep.
“Ah…hello,” the girl watched the dog bound off, returning her attention to the man at the door, still having yet to compose herself.
He could imagine what she was thinking right now, most of it showed in her hazel eyes and did not amuse him in the slightest. He arched his brow and shook his head slightly, prompting her to go on. “Was there something you wanted?”
Her mouth set in a line and she took a step back, rather insulted for a moment. She tried to see past him into the house, but there was not much to see other than potted plants. “I’m Katarina. Terra was expecting me. Who are you?”
“Visiting friend,” He took a step back into the house and began closing the door. “I’ll tell her you were here.”
“Just a minute!” She proved to be a temperamental young woman in reaching out to catch the door with her hand and wedge her foot in it for good measure. There
was a note of concern in her dark eyes, as she was probably wondering why her good friend did not tell her she was expecting company. “Terra didn’t mention you.”
He looked to Katarina, and to her foot in the door, replying smoothly: “She didn’t mention you either. I’ll tell her you were here.” The last repeated firmly along with a gesture to get her hand and foot out of the way.
For a moment she seemed like she was going to back off, then she grit her teeth and jerked forward, wedging her shoulder in the door now. “Get out of my way! Terra!”
Wincing at the rather loud shriek, he braced himself against the door and the struggling girl. He was considerably stronger than she, and could have easily forced her out. She was, however, very determined to get in, and he supposed he could understand a bit of her concern. Finally he shrugged and relented quite suddenly, stepping back and flinging the door open. Naturally, Katarina was unprepared for this and fell over the threshold with an impressive thud, sprawling onto the floor. She yelped in surprise, then anger, glaring up at him. He did not stay around for her barrage, he merely returned to the kitchen without further comment.
Katarina pushed herself up with her eyes wide and bright, clenching her sore hands. She was sure she had splinters in her palms from breaking her fall on the floor. Dancing skittishly in the sitting room, she dashed down the hallway towards Terra’s bedroom and ran full into the half-Esper as Terra burst from her bathroom upon hearing the shriek and the thud. After the collision, Terra was pushed back against the bathroom door and Katarina fell onto the floor a second time. “Terra!”
“Kat!” The woman exclaimed breathlessly. “What’s wrong??” She had bathed and was getting dressed, having on a pair of leggings and a pale yellow button-up shirt. The shirt was not buttoned up, held closed between the half-Esper’s breasts by her fist. “I heard you yell, are you all right?”
Pushing her dark curls out of her eyes, the younger of the two looked up to Terra as she got to her feet. “Oh… gods, yes… I’m sorry,” Waving a hand, she breathed deeply to regain her composure as well. “I came to see you, remember we were going on an outing this morning? A man answered the door and I didn’t know him and I got worried and then I tried to get in and then he-”
“Katarina,” Terra broke in with a sigh. “Calm down… everything is fine. He’s a friend; he dropped in unexpectedly last night. I’m fine, really…” Then she furrowed her brow. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
Rather embarrassed now, she just shook her head and forced a little grin. “I fell through the door when he opened it for me. I’m not hurt…” The grin vanished and Kat tilted her head, arching a brow quite suddenly. “Who is he, Terra?”
Now it was Terra's turn to be embarrassed by the other girl’s questioning look. She imagined rumors of scandal would be rampant by the end of the day, and she just did not have the energy to try and explain. Besides, if she tried to assure Kat that there was nothing going on, and she was not keeping strange men in her house as part of some weird affair, that would only enforce the suspicions. “Shadow…. remember? I mentioned him when I returned. He was with us at Kefka’s tower.”
“Oh?” Smoothing the front of her blouse, Katarina’s expression changed to one of wonder. “Ohhhhhh. I had no idea… I thought you said he had, you know, perished?”
“We had thought that, yes,” Terra murmured, making sure Shadow was not around as she began to button up her shirt.
“Am I interrupting a cozy reunion, then?” Smiling brightly now, Kat leaned over to nudge Terra in the ribs lightly.
“Gods, no!” The half-Esper exclaimed, and then broke into a little smile of her own, shaking her head in a patient manner. “No, Katarina… don’t get the wrong idea, I hardly know him. He had come to ask me if I knew where Locke was, apparently he needed help with something. I volunteered to help instead; we haven’t had a chance to really talk yet.”
The other woman nodded lightly, looking back over her shoulder. “Well then, I suppose we aren’t taking the kids out today, hm?”
Terra groaned inwardly. She had promised to help Kat in her own garden, and take the younger children out into the woods today to gather herbs, berries and mushrooms for the fall harvest. The young bride had her hands full with her own little one; she had probably been counting on Terra’s help. “Ah, dammit Kat… I’m sorry. I promise to make it up to you as soon as I know what’s going on…”
The other woman shook her head, taking a step back. “No, that’s fine Terra. We can do it another day; we have plenty left before winter. Bring your friend by and introduce us more proper when you get the chance.”
“Yes, of course. Until then, Kat.”
Despite what she was saying, Terra knew her friend was put-off by the sudden change in plans. They were definitely creatures of habit, no doubt about it. Katarina took her leave then, and Terra moved not long afterward to find Shadow and find out what the hell that was all about. Combing her fingers through her damp hair, she found him in the kitchen as if he had not moved from last night.
He looked up when Terra entered the kitchen, leaning on the doorframe. “Your friend is excitable.”
Had he even slept, she wondered? Well, no harm done, she was not going to be upset for nothing. Besides, she had stayed awake the few hours before sunrise,
thousands of questions running through her mind. She did hate to seem pushy on such short notice, but he had interrupted her life all of a sudden, and she was eager to get back to it.
“I suppose she is. Have you slept? Ate?”
He shrugged. “I rested my eyes for a spell. I could use something to eat in a while; and I was hoping to wash up.”
“Of course…” Drumming her fingers on the frame of the kitchen door, she held him under a scrutinizing gaze. Realizing that it probably seemed unfriendly, she offered a smile. “Are you going to tell me what it is you needed help with?”
After a few moments he nodded, rising from his chair and leaning over to pick up his pack and sling it over his shoulder. He seemed taller than she remembered. “Firstly, it would require that you leave here and travel with me. We would need to head to Soronza, it’s the nearest port town that would accommodate me. On foot, it would take five days to get there, four if we made excellent time. From there we would need to board a ship and head southwest for the Thyzalian islands.” He paused, watching her for reactions, which were not favorable as of this moment.
“That’s…quite a journey…” Terra murmured, straightening. Obviously the thought of leaving Mobliz on such short notice for a long journey was not appealing to her. But, she had offered, so she was not about to retract it simply because it did not sound easy. “And what do we need in the Thyzalian islands?”
“I’m glad you asked,” His tone had lightened as he approached her, keeping a respectful distance as he spoke with much more animation now than she had ever seen, using his hand to gesticulate. “Something called Djinn’s Blood. Ever hear of it?”
Now the half-Esper frowned. She was aware what a ‘djinn’ was, it was some kind of wish-granting creature from fable. Had Shadow said it wrong? He had pronounced it ‘dee-yin’, which was not familiar to her. This was a bit disturbing; she had thought he needed help with something important. What was this all about? “No, I don’t think I have. What do you want with this Djinn’s Blood?”
Now Shadow seemed surprised that she had to ask. “I want to sell it. I know someone who would offer an obscene amount of gold for the stuff.”
Gold?! This was all about gold?! She was going to leave her home and go to the-gods-knew-where so this man could fatten his purse. Her mouth dropped and her rose-quartz eyes flared with indignation. “Wh…who do you think I am?! I am not traveling halfway around the world to hunt treasure!”
Calmly, the man raised a finger and pointed it at her. “Now you see? That is exactly why I was seeking the ‘treasure hunter’, and why I did not ask you to offer me your help.” He let that hang for a moment, and then he adjusted his pack, looking past her down the hallway. “May I wash up now? If you are not going to come, I have already wasted valuable time.”
Terra promptly closed her mouth, her voice stuck in her throat. He was right. He hadn’t asked for her help, she had offered it without first knowing what the problem was. He would probably not hold it against her if she retracted it, but then again… “Why do you need help, anyway?”
Now he smirked at her, almost. It was gone as quickly as it had come and he seemed to look at her thoughtfully for a moment. “This is not my expertise. It would be dangerous, and there are a few others who are seeking this treasure since a certain merchant put a bounty on it. A partner would be to my advantage, and the reward is great enough that I could sacrifice a share without suffering.”
“I see…” She crossed her arms, looking to the kitchen table. A part of her was intrigued, even flattered that Shadow considered her an even substitute for Locke. Though now she understood why he had wanted her friend instead of her. “What’s in it for me?”
“One-third.” All business now, he did not hesitate.
“I want half.”
“Not a chance. One-third,” Shadow repeated, obviously amused by her demand. “Why so greedy all of a sudden? What happened to the benevolent woman who was only offering to help a friend in need?”
Terra snapped her gaze back to him fearlessly, even stepping a bit closer to make her point. “There are a lot of people here who would benefit from gold. Mobliz is still recovering, I could put it to good use, and I’m not being greedy!” Then she added, narrowing her eyes shrewdly. “Locke would demand half.”
“And you will settle for one-third, just as he would have to if he agreed to this, Esper-girl,” Barely suppressing a grin now, he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder and slowly push her out of his way. “Go and get done what you need to get done, I want to leave tomorrow morning.”
She moved to let him pass, fighting a grin of her own. As much as she hated to admit it, this very well may be what she needed; it could be a bit of fun, a bit of adventure. Locke lived for this kind of stuff; maybe she would get to see what the big fuss was all about. Sure, she would not have chosen to do this with the assassin of all people, but… well, she could always rationalize that it was a good thing to do for her charges.
Still, something bothered her. He was not being honest with her, this all sounded too easy.
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 9
(4/19/03 5:33 am)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 3
(Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are owned by Square, not by the author, who just writes this stuff for fun and does not profit from it in any way.)
Each step that took her farther and farther away from her comfortable little house and her safe little life made her question with greater frequency whether or not this had been a mistake. Each step was also a reminder of just how soft she had become in only a year’s time; she found her feet ached from the walking, and she longed for a rest even though they had only been moving for little over seven hours. Her endurance surpassed that of mere Humans, so even in her softened state she was no burden on her traveling companion, able to keep pace with him without straining herself. If she gained nothing else from this venture, she would at least have built her strength back up.
Terra was determined to do her part to make the journey to the port last only four days, to push on. The walk so far was a pleasant one. The weather was not too warm, and the road was wide and well worn, leading them through a rich expanse of green forest that chirped and hummed with life. The trees were tall and the tops seemed to be struggling to close over the gaps where the road was, making lovely patterns of shadow and light on the packed earth that danced when wind stirred the branches overhead. The young woman skirted the remains of some small animal crushed beneath the wheels of a wagon, her eyes falling on Shadow’s back a few paces ahead of her.
“Shadow?” She ventured, speaking the first word from either of them since the journey began.
He glanced at her over his shoulder, adjusting the straps of his pack. After a moment, he spoke hesitantly. “Perhaps you shouldn’t call me that. I'm supposed to be dead. Someone might make a connection and… I don’t want that. Not on this trip.”
“Oh?” Terra hooked her thumbs into the straps of her own traveling pack. “What do you want me to call you, then?”
“My name is Clyde.” He shrugged and kept going, about to ask what it was she wanted, when he was halted by Terra’s sudden bout of laughter. Spinning effortlessly on one heel, he faced her with both brows raised.
She had not been able to help herself. Of course, the half-Esper had never believed that his real name was Shadow, but for some reason his real name sounded hilarious. Leaning over to take a breath, she placed her hands on her knees now, quite aware that he was staring at her and probably offended. There had been a time in their previous travels when she had wished he would open up to her just a bit, wished she knew who was under that mask, and she knew more now than most people alive but… Clyde?? Straightening, she cleared her throat and attempted to look apologetic, sobering up.
“What is so damned funny?” He did not raise his voice, but he added the most inflection he had carried in his tone thus far.
“I am sorry, it’s just…” A hand flew over her mouth and she turned away from him, lowering her head. She was quiet for a few moments, but her shoulders shook with her contained giggles, nearing hysterics now. Tears threatened her eyes, and when she realized there was no holding it in, her hand dropped and she just laughed good and hard while Clyde watched on.
“We don’t have time for this…” He pressed his lips together tightly to keep his own self under control. It was not funny at all, not even one small bit, but laughter tended to be infectious. “Are you done?”
Terra nodded a few times as she faced him again, her face nice and red, her eyes bright with the unshed tears. Sighing and quelling the giggle phantoms, a sleeve was drawn across her eyes to clear them.
“Oh… gods… I am so sorry. I wasn’t making fun of you, I just…” she laughed again, closing her eyes and shaking her head a little. There was no end in sight, she burst out again while sputtering the words: “I know now why you changed your name!”
Splaying his fingers, he touched the tips to his forehead, surrendering to a small chuckle. He could not help it any more than she, when put like that it was kind of funny. “Fine… so it’s a funny name, can we go now?”
The half-Esper started to take a step forward, stumbling and recovering enough to resume her walking, gulping for air. Any tension and worry she had been feeling was abolished for the time being, and she fell in step alongside him rather than a few paces behind. “Maybe you shouldn’t have changed it. I mean, if I got word that I was being hunted by the dreaded ninja assassin…Clyde…” here she paused to swallow hard, “…I’m not sure I’d be too utterly terrified. Then I’d let my guard down and your job would be all that much easier.”
He snorted, allowing for a rare grin as he looked to Terra askance. He had to admit, she seemed to have lightened up since he had last seen her. Then again, circumstances were not so grim, but he had the impression Terra would not have joked about his profession so easily a year ago. Not that he minded, he may be quiet, but he was not one to verbally tiptoe. Clyde was secretly pleased that she did not feel the need to walk on eggshells around him, as this would make his job much easier. “Maybe not… but I’m not the only one with a stupid name. How about you? Terra? Big bad half-Esper, turn-into-a-glowing-flying-screaming-sword-weilding-creature-and-rain-down-a-hell-of-fire? Who ever said a name had to fit?”
“I am nothing like that!” Her mouth dropped open and she gasped. In all honesty, she had expected him to just take the teasing and fall quiet again, not bite back. It was a welcome change from the silence that had reigned for the past seven hours.
Now his expression was highly dubious, perhaps sly, his tone dropping to a prodding level. “Oh, you forget, Esper-girl…I was there.”
Terra’s mouth shut and she regarded him in the space of a few quick glances, mildly insulted. A smile crept over her lips though and she nodded slowly. “Yes… I suppose you were. It’s easy for me to forget that, talking to you like this. You seem a different person.”
“Different? You never really knew me from the start. Oh, what was it you were going to ask before you degraded back there?” His pace was still fast, though more leisurely now. He had not been bothered by the silence between them, but even he had to admit this was preferable.
There was a wrinkling of her nose, but she let that remark slide. What had she been about to ask? “Interceptor. Where is he?”
That was a good question. He had noticed that the dog-fae was not heeling like a good pup, but that was hardly abnormal. There was no real point in looking around. “Off chasing rabbits, I suppose. He’ll come back soon, he never goes far.”
Terra nodded slowly and silence fell between them again. It was late into the afternoon; the sun was low in the sky. Nighttime was not far off, and she felt a twinge of guilt for not getting the early start Shadow, Clyde had wanted. He had been pushing to leave at the break of dawn before the sun crested, but Terra was unable to simply up and leave without telling everyone important where she was going, when she was expected back, and to assure them she would be safe.
She also had the little ends to wrap up, finding someone to water her plants and care for her garden if an unseasonable frost crept up in her absence. The seasons had yet to be fully restored since the universe had been distorted and left dangerously akimbo, what should have been summer was a cross between a spring and a fall, and occasionally temperatures would drop drastically and leap back up a few days later. This made recovering difficult without the real ability to predict the seasons, but Terra was confident they would return to normal cycles within the next year.
“Clyde…” the young woman managed without laughing this time, but she did grin briefly. “How did you get out of the tower if you weren’t on the airship with us when it collapsed?” She had wanted to know that ever since he showed up in her kitchen, but there never seemed an appropriate time to ask. Now that the proverbial ice had been broken, perhaps now was a good a time as any.
He exhaled a nasal breath, seeming not to have heard her as his hazel eyes scanned the trees and underbrush for signs of Interceptor. Before she repeated her question, he spoke: “My dog got me out of there.”
Well, it would seem they were back to ‘get no more than you asked for’ square, which was mildly annoying. Or maybe he was angry that she’d made fun of his name. “Are you going to elaborate? How did he do that?”
“For @#%$’s sake…” The curse coming rather vehemently as Clyde drew his fingers through his hair and shot Terra a perturbed glance. Of course she was going to ask about that sooner or later, and he wondered why he’d mentioned Interceptor at all. He should have just let her imagine he’d devised some clever way to get out. So he’d had a weak moment back there. So what if he’d been content to sit there and let the tower fall down around his ears? Suicide, like murder, was personal.
“I didn’t ask the specifics of it. He bit me, I remember, and called me a lot of names, and the next thing I knew I was on a mountain peak, watching everything crumble and crash down from a safe distance.”
“He…called you names?” Terra quirked a brow as she kept her attention mainly on the path, avoiding some jutting roots. “Are you making fun of me or is he some kind of magick dog?”
“Pick one.” The answer was flat and carried a note of finality.
Color rose to her cheeks as she made it a point to glare at him for a few moments, scowling darkly. “If you were going to be an ass about it, all you had to do was say you didn’t want to talk.” Clyde made no response, playing deaf once again, which served to annoy her all the more. “Maybe I should apologize…” Terra drawled, lifting her chin. “I wasn’t aware you were so sensitive to being teased. It’s not my fault you have a stupid name, you know.”
He still made no response to that, and Terra had not expected one. Suppressing a small sigh, she fell quiet and started to walk again, though she did not get more than a step before she felt her feet betray her, and her chin was striking the powdered layer of dirt on the trail. The fall was not a hard one, and her hands had saved her from the most of it. Blinking hard and coughing dust, her head shot up to see Clyde stroll past her, speaking to her over his shoulder.
“Watch where you’re going.”
She gasped. “You tripped me!” Pushing herself up just enough to lunge from her knees, she made a grab for his ankle, growling. However, tripping him up like that was not as easy as she had thought it would be. He just stopped walking, balancing just fine on his un-captured foot, looking down on her with a faintly amused expression.
“So? Do you have any idea how hard I could kick you in the face right now?” Tugging his ankle away from her, which she refused to surrender at the moment. Oh, he would never admit it aloud but she was suddenly very, very cute. At least ‘cute’ was not ‘attractive’ per se, but he was struck with the sudden urge to pat her on the head. She was very determined to get him back, and he didn’t doubt she would think of some evil prank along the way that would turn into a war.
No one ever accused him of lacking a sense of humor.
“If you kicked me, it would be the last thing you ever did,” She twisted, pulling harder on his ankle to no avail; she just couldn’t get him off his feet. Finally she gave up and let go, quite frustrated.
“Not if I killed you, or knocked you unconscious, and then killed you afterwards, if you were lucky." Pacing around the young woman on the ground, he moved in a semi circle before leaning over and offering her a hand up. “But that would defeat the purpose of my putting up with you thus far. Quit playing around.”
Grudgingly she clasped his hand and used him to pull herself to her feet, disengaging to brush dirt from her knees. Huffing once, she picked a leaf and a pair of twigs from her hair, realizing how having nice hot baths available at a whim had spoiled her. “You still didn’t tell me.”
Reaching over her shoulder, he picked a leaf from her green-gold mane, flicking it away with a little sigh. She wasn’t as easy to distract when she got something in her head.
“Interceptor isn’t really a dog. He’s a Fae of some kind. He just prefers to look like a dog. I’m not entirely sure what all his abilities are, and I didn’t even know he could talk until that day.”
“Really?” Terra wondered still if he was just putting her on. Fae were something like Espers, weren’t they? Magick creatures? “How long have you had him for?”
Clyde chuckled at that, shrugging. “He’s traveled with me for what… ten? Eleven years? Something like that.”
“Wow… that’s pretty old for a dog,” Terra commented more to herself. If she had a dog that was as healthy as Interceptor at that age, she may have started to grow suspicious of his true nature by now. “How did you find him?”
He was fully aware that he had not told this story to anyone, that there was only one other still alive who knew. The old blue wizard, Stargo, was sharper than he seemed, and there was no doubt in Clyde’s mind that he had recognized Interceptor and knew full well the new ‘master’ was the one who had left his daughter without so much as a word. Stargo knew who Relm’s father was. It would seem that no one had ever said anything about that coincidence, not even Interceptor.
Clyde had known the second he’d seen the girl, the house she lived in. Interceptor had a special bond to Relm’s mother for reasons he was still unclear on. Why he had deserved the Fae’s companionship, he never knew, but he was grateful. He’d asked Interceptor why the dog-fae had left an angel like her to traipse around the world with a lost man. Interceptor mentally shrugged, giving the simple answer that Clyde needed him. Relm would need him too, someday, but not yet. Perhaps, it was a family thing, and perhaps Clyde was never going to understand.
“He found me, actually. Just… he just started traveling with me one day, and he’s been with me ever since. I got the impression the longer I was with him that he was more than just a dog, but I only knew the half of it.” He heard rustling brush somewhere to his left; Interceptor was letting him know the conversation was being listened to from out of sight.
“He never talked to you before the day he saved you?” Terra was amazed by that thought. They had ten years as a team as close as they were, and they had never spoken? What was it like, talking to Interceptor, she wondered. Could she, if she wanted to?
“No…never.” Terra was easy to talk to. She listened to every word he said as if he were relating tales to a small child; she hung on his every word. That quality was partly the reason he had sought her out for this journey. “He didn’t need to, I guess. In a way, I’ve always understood him. He told me that the reason he never said anything before was… how did he put it? ‘I thought that if I talked to you, you would never talk to anyone else.’ He wouldn’t have me using him as an excuse to be an introvert any more than I already was.”
She smiled faintly, still not sure if she believed him completely, but she had to admit there was something strange about Interceptor. It must be nice to have a friend like that. Clearing her throat, she looked up at the sky. “It’s going to be dark soon, we should find a place to stop. I don’t much like the idea of walking in the dark.”
Nodding his agreement, Clyde was glad to be off the delicate subject. It threatened to turn into an unbearable, untouchable subject if it went much further than that. Either Terra’s timing was just good, or she was reading his mood better than he thought she could.
“Good idea. Somewhere off the trail, clear enough to make a small fire.” He squinted a bit, waving off to the left, across Terra. “I thought I saw some apple trees that way. Let’s head off the road, see if we can get something to eat while we look for a suitable campsite.”
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 10
(4/19/03 5:43 am)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 4
(Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are owned by Square, not by the author, who just writes this stuff for fun and does not profit from it in any way.)
The fire was kept burning all night, and one of them was always on watch. Perhaps these were comparatively peaceful times, but that was certainly no excuse to let one’s guard down. Clyde assured Terra that there were plenty of people that would take advantage of the lax and relieved state of people throughout the world. The threat of utter annihilation may have been averted, but there would always be evil. She did not so much like to think of it that way, that someone would take advantage of the fruits of their combined hard labor, but she knew he was right.
She was not sure of the hour when she woke in her bedroll, finding herself watching the flames and dark shadows; thinking even darker thoughts. Fire always reminded her of Kefka, of the Emperor, of the times that were still a part of her, even those where she was under the influence of the slave crown. This was her first night away from her house in a year. The first time since the night she had camped with her friends and mentally prepared for the battle ahead. The half-Esper remembered how she had surprised herself by being unafraid, by wanting badly to take the stand, win or lose.
“You can go back to sleep, you’ve already taken your watch,” Clyde’s voice drifted to her and she rolled over to find him sitting by the trunk of an old oak, nestled in it’s protruding roots.
Something about him made her heart constrict when their eyes met. He smiled at her, he actually smiled and she had the sense he’d been watching her as she slept. The thought did not make her nearly as uncomfortable as she had imagined it would, in fact she felt safe knowing he was there. Not that she needed to feel safe; after the horrors she had faced, she was not afraid of the dangers these woods might hold.
He had a blade of grass in his mouth; his forearms were draped casually over his knees. For the span of several heartbeats, they just watched one another, studying quietly. A small smile tugged at her mouth and she lie back down, resting her cheek against the crook of her arm, facing him. “Campfires will always remind me of us. Of our group, I mean,” She murmured softly.
“Do you miss them?” Clyde ventured to ask, not nearly as apprehensive now of knowing her mind.
“I think of them now and again,” Terra nodded against her arm. “Especially Locke… his letters are so vague, I always wonder what he’s up to. I’m sorry you couldn’t find him.”
He winced internally at that, glancing to Interceptor. His canine companion was awake, his ears perked and listening to them talk. Clyde could see his brows quirk when she said that.
“Does this start to change things, Clyde?” The familiar whisper in his head inquired with an accusing note.
‘No.’ His answer was sharp, and the dog-fae seemed to know well enough to leave it alone for now. He trusted Interceptor with his life, and more, but for the first time he wished his friend was not listening in. He was tired of the tension between them. “Well, I’m not so sorry.”
“Even though I made fun of your name?” Terra could not help but grin at that.
“Even though… anyone else might have had to pick shuriken out of his or her teeth,” He smirked at her, and she rewarded him with a laugh. Terra had strange eyes. Her irises were a dark rose quartz, and he could swear the firelight danced in them, even when her back was to the blaze.
“Oh come on…” Now she sat up, looking around for her water skin. “You didn’t like any of them?”
Guessing what she was looking for, Clyde leaned forward and picked up the water skin at his feet, giving it a shake to get her attention before tossing it onto her lap. He shrugged. “I didn’t know any of them any better than I knew you. I respected each of them, to a degree, which is more from me than most ever get. If I had to pick a favorite, I’d have to say it was a toss up between Sabin and Locke.”
“Why them?” She asked curiously, removing the cork from the skin and tilting her head back for a drink.
There was a pause to think of a good answer. “Sabin’s fighting skills were admirable. I studied his art when I was his age, but I can’t say I ever attained his level of skill or discipline. I didn’t have a Master as gifted as his. As for Locke… I’ve always held the art of thieving in high regard, and the free spirits that practice it.” He held up a finger to stop Terra when she opened her mouth to correct him. “Calling it treasure-hunting doesn’t change a damned thing, either, so don’t bother.”
“Fine, fine…” the young woman relented, taking another drink from the skin before shoving the cork back into the mouth. “What about the others? What did you think of them?”
“All of them? We could be here for a while…” He snorted, deciding not to list them all, but the ones he remembered the best.
“I’m dying of curiosity,” She grinned, leaning over for her pack and drawing it up to her crossed knees, working the straps that bound it closed.
“Very well…” His voice drifted off when he noticed Interceptor stand and stretch dramatically, snorting. Without having to be told, he had the impression his friend was letting him talk to Terra alone for a while. Clyde reminded himself to thank the fae later, watching him trot off before he returned his attention to the half-Esper who was giving him her undivided attention.
“The man from Doma, Cyan? He was…” He gave a small shake of his head, “one hell of a swordsman. I could have done without his stifling sense of honor and archaic speech but he knew what he was doing. I saw him nearly fall apart when he had lost his family. I was there with Sabin when the knight attacked the Empire for the first time, after Doma was poisoned. I’ve seen a man at his end before, it isn’t pretty. Then the Phantom Train… that still seems like a horrible dream. Maybe it was, if I ever see the knight or Sabin again, I’ll have to ask.”
“Phantom Train?” Terra blinked at that one.
Clyde nearly mimicked her expression. Her friends hadn’t told her about that? Well, Cyan wouldn’t want to share the experience and when had they had the time to relate that awful story? “We’ll save that story for another time, it really isn’t mine to tell.”
“Moving on,” He cleared his throat. “Edgar…” Here he smirked again, “now that’s a funny name. I’d rather be the Dread Assassin Clyde than the Dread King Edgar.”
“Sounds better than King Clyde,” Terra noted matter of factly.
“I think that sounds just fine.”
“You were moving on?”
“Right,” He shrugged. “Edgar. I don’t have much to say on him. He was smart, had problems, just like the rest of us. He had plenty of gold to throw around, I can’t complain about that. Let’s see… Celes. Interesting woman, I suppose. She didn’t strike me as any kind of leader, she seemed more content to feel miserable for herself.”
Terra thought about that. “I don’t think she felt sorry for herself. I think she felt sorry for the things she had done for the Empire. She’s Human. I thought she was a good, strong person.”
Clyde managed to look bored at that. “You asked me to tell you what I thought, no need to get defensive.”
“I wasn’t being defensive, I was just saying what I thought!” The exclamation was made a little louder than she had intended, and she winced.
“Now you’re being defensive.”
“Go on,” Waving a hand at him, Terra crossed her arms and waited with a brow raised.
Managing to suppress a small chuckle, he continued. “The only other one I feel I’d like to comment on is the half-Esper girl.” She said nothing, but her expression changed at that, and she tilted her head slightly to listen. He went on casually.
“I really hadn’t given her much thought at all, in fact, she annoyed me at first. All I saw was a woman who felt sorry for herself, like Celes, and was quick to turn to one of her male companions for protection. Then there was this one night, on the deck of a ship, when she stopped me to ask me something of a rather personal nature… after that I paid her a little more attention. I realized that it wasn’t her fault they felt protective, it wasn’t because she was weak or needed it, she just invoked it.”
Terra hadn’t really expected him to say anything about her. He wasn’t looking at her now; he was looking past her at the fire now, seemingly absent. Maybe he was remembering, she thought.
“She was their leader. Sure, she had a moment of weakness, back there in that town with those kids that looked to her to be their parent… but when they needed her she came through, every time. When she needed them, they came through. When she needed me, I came through. I had to, it was the first right thing I’d done in a long time.”
His voice was so soft, sliding quietly, she felt it move through her and she swallowed hard. She felt good and bad at the same time, finally managing to speak in a voice that was not trembling, but it whispered huskily. “Yes…you did. On the floating island… y-you just appeared and you pushed the statues together and…” she had to draw a calming breath. “You did that for…me?”
Finally he was able to look at her, amazed by how touched she was. Had she just realized that? He smirked. “Well, not just for you, but let’s say that you were definitely a motivating factor.” Relm… he had done it for Relm, too.
There was a long silence, the thick kind that could easily become suffocating. Terra broke it. “Thank you for being there.”
He only nodded, speaking in his own matter-of-fact tone. “Thank you for waiting up.”
She laughed a bit at that, and then shook her head. “We knew you’d come. No one was taking off without you on board the airship.”
Clyde was struck with a strange sense, then, looking at her. He realized, in that moment, if he had closed the space between them, he could have kissed her. The time came and went, and he hadn’t moved a muscle. After a few moments of clarity, he was glad he hadn’t. ‘Way to make an awkward trip.’
“Clyde?”
“Hm?”
“What were you…before? Before you were a…” She made a rolling motion with her hand, her gaze drawn skyward as she searched for an appropriate word. She hadn’t been delicate before now; she wondered why it mattered now.
“A what? Assassin?”
Terra shrugged, and then nodded.
His mood lightened at the question, and he smirked at her again, as it was becoming a habit, rubbing at his chin with his palm. “I was a treasure-hunter, I guess.”
That made her laugh. She wasn’t sure how, but she’d had a feeling he was going to say that. He had nimble fingers, she found herself noticing, and for some reason she had imagined that kind of dexterity did not come from swordplay and edged-weapon tossing alone. “But not a thief?”
“Of course not. A thief takes from anyone, I only took from bad people.”
“Sure you did…” He was looking down between his feet, smiling faintly, and she probably would have brushed his hair from his brow if she’d been closer. He seemed so; well, harmless, sitting there like that.
“Terra?”
“Yes?”
“Why did you ask me?” He lifted his head, now it was his turn to be curious, since they were sharing. “On the deck of the ship, why did you ask me about emotions when you had all your friends around you?”
If it was his turn to be curious, it was her turn to take her time to think about the answer to that. Her legs were uncrossed and stretched out in front of her as she leaned back, supporting her upper body on her palms on her bedroll behind her. “Well, you were handy, I suppose.” He snorted at that, and she smiled at him, winking. “That, and you seemed detached. I thought I wanted to be that way. There is also the reason that I knew you wouldn’t get the wrong idea if I asked you about love. Celes… I didn’t feel I could ask her, and the guys…well, might have read into it too deeply.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“Your answer was more than disappointing.” She muttered, narrowing her eyes at him momentarily. “There you had the chance to help me, and you gave me that ‘I killed my emotions’ horseshit.”
He laughed, lowering his head. It was quiet, but his shoulders shook with it. Gods, it felt so good to laugh, he had never imagined she would make him want to. “Horseshit? That’s what you thought of my advice?”
With a sage nod, the young woman pursed her lips. “I certainly did. I wasn’t about to debate it with you then, but I knew you were full of it. Trying too hard to play your part.”
“Just like I wasn’t buying into your asking me about love horseshit?”
Terra’s laughter tapered off and she blinked at him owlishly, as she was prone to do with those pretty eyes of hers. “W-what? What do you mean by that??”
“Shameless flirt.” He muttered, turning his head to the right and looking at her sidelong now in an accusing manner, delighting in the color that rose to her fair skin, even in the dark.
“I was not!” Her voice rose again and she bolted upright, remembering what she’d been after in her pack before his talking had distracted her. “Take that back; you know full well that I was confused and looking for some wise words. I should have known better than to ask you!”
“Hm. So you say. Rebellious girl, dark, mysterious man… I get that a lot.” He shrugged, not even trying to hide his grin now, watching as she pulled an apple from her pack; one of the ones they’d picked earlier and held it in a threatening manner.
Cocking her arm, she let the missile fly with amazing speed and accuracy. He caught it effortlessly even though it was launched from such a short distance as a few feet, his grin widening. He guessed by her expression she hadn’t meant for it to be a headshot, but it would have been had his reflexes been any slower. “Oh, so you want to throw things at me now? What’s wrong, did I strike a nerve? I didn’t throw things at you when you were making fun of my name.” He lifted his arm and made as if to throw it back at her.
Terra flinched when he did that, her arm coming up to protect her face. When nothing came, she lowered it and opened one eye to peek at him. He jerked as if to throw it again, and she flinched again. “Stop it!!” Shouting now, her voice loud in the relative peace of the forest.
“What now? Can dish it out but you can’t take it? Afraid of an apple now? I’ve killed many an Esper with softer fruit…” When she flinched again and growled at him, he threw it none too gently at her midsection, and she ‘ooofed’ as it struck her, dropping her arm and gazing at him in utter shock.
“Didn’t think I’d throw it, did you?” He wagged a finger at her. She looked furious, picking up the apple and jumping rather artfully to her feet, advancing on him in a rush to shove it into his face in retaliation. He rose up just as quickly to meet her attack, seizing both of her delicate wrists and putting a swift end to the struggle by pulling her body up against his and jamming his mouth down on hers, barely silencing the start of a protesting shriek in her throat.
He had succeeded in completely stunning her. She was captured, and wide-eyed, completely at a loss. It was so sudden, and intense, and fierce, she had never experienced anything like it. Her arms relaxed, only slightly, her blood seemed to pump through her in an exhilarating rush as she responded in kind, much to her own astonishment. He tasted sweet, like the grass he’d been chewing on, lost somewhere when he’d jumped up.
If Interceptor asked, he would lie and say he did it to shut her up. In all honesty, it was a sudden impulse he decided not to think about again. The last time he thought about it, he hadn’t done anything. If she thought about it, she’d probably run and hide, or fly away, which would make for an interesting sight but it wasn’t what he wanted. She tasted like lemon, faintly, from that she’d put in her water, the priss. She felt delicate against his body, not like he would imagine. He would tease her about being soft later on. He had the impression this kiss was going somewhere, but he hadn’t yet dared to release her yet… she might recoil in horror, and he didn’t want to see that on her face. He couldn’t handle it, not just yet.
Lashes lowered over her eyes and she parted her lips to explore, and taste, and venture, silencing her protesting thoughts. It was over just as she was being drawn into it, Clyde pulled back just as quickly as he’d kissed her, and she felt his fingertips pressed to her lips, indicating silence.
“Shh.”
Terra furrowed her brow, holding her breath and keeping still. It wasn’t a pleading ‘shh’ or a soft, assuring, ‘shh’. That was a ‘shut up’, and it was a command. He wasn’t looking at her; he was looking off to the side, his own brow furrowed. He was frowning, listening. She found herself growing alarmed, wanting to ask what he’d heard, but she waited instead.
It had been an unassuming sound at first, but it bothered him, because he knew the sound of someone trying not to make a sound. Animals didn’t try not to make sounds the way Humans did. He returned his gaze to her, silently pleased and almost proud to see that she’d recognized his sudden alarm and kept quiet. Withdrawing his hand from her mouth, his other released her wrist and he leaned in to speak softly against her ear.
“Stay here.”
The kiss was put out of her mind for the moment and nodded to him as he pulled away. She remembered to breathe, finding herself trembling as she watched him move, suppressing a groan. The change in him was instantaneous; the relaxed man she had been laughing and talking with to the dark creature she remembered from a year ago. He moved like a wraith, stepping without a sound over to his pack and crouching to pick up his sword in its sheathe and turn towards the woods, slipping through the shadows. When he vanished, she thought that his name, Shadow, was not just that. He did move like one.
Minutes passed, and she heard nothing. Insects chirped, nocturnal beasts and birds sounded now and again, wind made trees groan and leaves rustle. She found herself flexing her fingers, straining to hear what had alarmed Clyde. She hadn’t heard anything out of place. There was no use in telling herself it was probably nothing; he wouldn’t have gone off like that if it were nothing, or an excuse to take off into the dark without explaining himself. Terra strained to see in the dark, turning her head to take in the little semi-clearing they’d chosen as a campsite, catching motion out of the corner of her eye. Her mouth opened to issue a cry of alarm, but it was silenced just as quickly by a jolt to her head, above her temple.
With a grunt, she found herself falling to the ground. Dazed and pained from the blow to her head, she tried to turn herself over and comprehend what had just happened. Between the red and green haze she caught the face of a man she did not recognize before taking a swift and brutal boot to her stomach that made her curl into a fetal position, her breath stolen from her. A strong hand in her hair yanked her head up, and she gaped like a fish out of water, detached voices drifted to her. Rough, male voices in a language she did not recognize, but she caught the meaning of the words without having to know the tongue.
A meaty fist struck her in the side of the face and she was flat on her back again, the second blow to the head nearly knocking her unconscious. She fought desperately against the sinking sensation of fainting, her fingers sliding downward as she tried to bend her knee up, her only goal to find the hunting knife sheathed against her leg. Her hand did not get that far before her wrist was seized and bent back, dangerously close to the breaking point and there was a weight of a man’s knee on her stomach. There were two? Three? She couldn’t see anything. Just shadows flickering here and there.
Another hand, (or was it belonging to the same man that pinned her down?) had pulled the knife free from her sheathe, and she felt its point at her throat. He might have been threatening her, not that it mattered, there was a ringing in her ears. Then it slashed downward, she felt it cut her skin, between her breasts, cutting the thick material of her shirt, sawing back and forth cruelly.
They were going to rape her.
She felt a rough hand on her exposed breasts. Her own wrists were seized by two other hands… someone else was holding her down; the man on top of her, straddling her legs now, was trying to work at the thick leather of her belt.
They were going to kill her.
Where was Clyde? Where was Interceptor? Had they been killed? She didn’t know. Confusion and horror melted away, replaced by a consuming and divine rage. There was screaming now, being torn from her throat. It was not a scream of fear, or pain, it was a battle cry of pure hatred and righteous indignation. The pounding in her ears became the drums of war, and the half-Esper felt all that had been laid to rest explode forth with unrestrained brutality. There was a brilliant explosion of beautiful flames and magick, her own essence tearing and searing the man who had dared to hurt her, to touch her, without her want or permission. Her hands were suddenly released as the beast restraining her covered his eyes, which were burned beyond all saving along with most of his face. More screaming now, though it was not hers, it was a chorus of pain and fear that was agonizingly familiar.
He ran with Interceptor keeping pace silently, back towards the campsite. His sword was drawn, and it had tasted blood, it would taste much more if he found he was a moment too late. Terra’s scream had brought him out of his haze, cursing the clever bandits who had been searching for travelers camped near the road; he was focused on returning to her. Her scream, though, had let him know she didn’t need him, and he was strangely pleased. Proud.
There were five altogether in the small clearing-turned battle zone. The number of bandits surprised Clyde; surprised him in that they had moved in such a large number as seventeen without making more noise than they did. There was a magick-user among them, which explained much of their stealth. One was dead and one was gravely wounded. The two men that hung back dressed like forest rangers in skins and leathers, using crude, shoddily crafted iron blades. City-folk, they were fairly clean, probably newly banding and beginning the profession of picking off travelers.
These five were the last of their number; this band was not going to get the chance to grow and learn. If Clyde didn’t do anything about it, Terra certainly was. Once he burst from the foliage and drifted soundlessly around a tree, even he had to pause, uncertain if he might fall victim to her rage. She looked nothing like the woman he had kissed what seemed like a lifetime ago, this was the Empire’s creation running on its own devices. He caught his breath, wondering if she was going to change into the fire-ghost. Clyde was not sensitive to magick the way some others were, but even he could feel it thick and heavy in the air, almost taste it when he breathed, emanating from the half-Esper.
No one was moving. He suspected Terra was fighting herself, not wanting to surrender completely to a mindless rampage, and her attackers were torn between fight and flight. It was the small, unassuming man with the deadpan eyes and the mouse-brown hair that he worried about. Fingers were weaving subtly and cracked lips were forming soundless words of a spell. There was not going to be any guessing as to just how immune Terra would be to such an attack at the moment, so he nodded quickly to the magi and let his fae-friend take that one, he targeted the remaining two.
Interceptor was a blur of motion; fur and teeth that crossed the distance between himself and the magi too fast for anyone to realize imminent death was there until he had already lunged and clamped those powerful jaws on the back of the frail man’s neck, using his body weight to bring the man down with a cry of surprise and pain. That did not last long as the feral creature growled, shaking his prey like a rag doll with the satisfying crunch of bone and a fine splattering of vitae.
This is what he did. Just as the men had not seen Interceptor until it was far too late to save their friend, they did not see the scarred man ever. Only a shadow out of the corner of each eye as steel whispered and arced, severing a vital artery and piercing a heart with trained and practiced accuracy. By the time the last remaining intruder understood that he was the last, as his friend fell without even a sound, he whirled to face the killer. His shoddy iron was knocked from his hand and he almost got to see what had killed the others, before his vision exploded into brilliant red. He never knew that a shuriken had bit deeply and devastatingly into his temple.
Now it was just the two of them. Clyde lowered his sword and his throwing hand, looking to Terra looking at him. Interceptor whined with uncertainty, licking his maw and taking a step back. The half-Esper was just standing there like a statue and only now did he see that her shirt had been torn, no, cut open, and blood was running freely down her stomach and soaking into her pants. Her expression seemed torn between anger and dismay, her eyes finally coming to focus on Clyde, shifting their gaze to his face, his sword. He was probably a mess, too.
“Terra?” He took a step towards her, his voice halting. They hadn’t raped her, but they had tried. Was she that badly shaken? The wound was hard to see clearly, but he wondered if she was seriously injured. Her face was swelling and bruising, they had not been at all gentle with her.
Her face scrunched up the woman suddenly lowered her head, bringing her hand to cover her mouth as she made a strangled mewling sound that was decidedly unhealthy.
“Do something, Clyde.” Interceptor said rather desperately in his head, he didn’t like to see this any more than his friend did, but he was equally at a loss of what to do for her.
Slowly he approached, stabbing the point of his sword into the earth and hovering over her with a lost expression on his face as she sobbed to herself. @#%$, she was crying, he didn’t know what to do about that. He wanted to offer some kind of comfort, but he didn’t want her to lose it completely. Fingers were curled into tight fists at his side and he spoke to her in a voice that was not as warm or assuring as it probably should have been. In fact, it was cold and flat.
“Suck it up. Terra, suck it up. You’ve had worse nights.”
That did seem to get her attention, because she lifted her head to look at him with starry, glazed eyes. Rose quartz eyes that shone brightly with her hurt and anger and a thousand other emotions so raw and powerful they were impossible to comprehend and name. She was angry, with him, for saying that. Good, that was better than having her a sobbing, bloody mess.
“You heard me,” He continued, making no move to touch her. “You’re fine. They’re dead. Now get the @#%$ up, this place stinks like burning hair.”
Terra made another strangled sound as she rose slowly to her feet, and he wondered then, if she was going to hit him. Instead she only glared with a passion he did not know she was capable of, drawing the ruins of her shirt over her breasts. He had to get her away from this scene before it attracted every scavenger this side of the continent and get that wound cleaned. She did not hit him, she only limped past him instead, towards her things to start picking them up. He sighed with relief, wordlessly moving to help her.
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 13
(4/19/03 10:50 pm)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 5
(Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VI and its characters are owned by Square, not by the author, who just writes this stuff for fun and does not profit from it in any way.)
The ship was a leaking, creaking monstrosity of metal and wood. It was seaworthy, however, and large enough that the meager passengers to the Thyzalian islands could keep from succumbing to cabin fever. The Jewel was a far cry from any gem; it was a cargo ship that transported supplies from the mainland to the small, scattered settlements and throughout the islands. Her captain and crew were not the kind who asked questions when strangers offered substantial gold for passage, and this was the very reason Clyde had chosen this particular ship.
One full day out at sea had not brought Terra around. She remained confined in her quarters, seeming to do her best to avoid him. The half-Esper had been this way ever since the attack in the woods on their way to the port, it would seem she had not forgiven him for any number of things. For kissing her, or for his lack of outward sympathy, Clyde had no way of being certain what it was exactly that had made her withdraw.
The assassin was not one to be confined, and the night drew him out of his own meager quarters to the fresh sea air and the sound of water under a clear sky. Unaccompanied by his canine friend, he stole to the deck of the ship to stretch his legs, ignoring the occasional member of the ship’s crew he ran across.
Drawing up to a dangerously rusted and wobbling railing, the moon and starlight playing across the waves pulled his attention out over the water. The weather had been thankfully kind, though he was not so optimistic to believe it would stay that way. The islands were experiencing wicked and deadly storms with no real pattern after the world began healing itself. This made travel dangerous, and many ships had already been lost to the unpredictable storms. Supply ships still dared, relying on faith and sturdy vessels to see them through. Clyde supposed he should have mentioned the danger to Terra before they departed, but that would be rather unselfish of him and he was not yet accustomed to doing too many unselfish things. One could argue, though, that this mission was ultimately for the greater good. The half-Esper might not see things his way.
“This brings back memories.” Came the soft statement from behind him. He turned his head slightly to glance to Terra, as if he had not heard her approaching several moments ago.
A great number of appropriate responses to that came to his mind, but he found himself only nodding instead. “I was wondering when you would come out. Spending the entire voyage in your quarters isn’t healthy. Were you seasick?” Of course, she obviously was not seasick.
“No,” Terra responded lightly as she drew up alongside him, following his gaze as it returned out over the water. “I don’t get seasick.” She made no excuses for her confinement, lapsing into a silence as she stood with him.
This was the way their conversations had gone in the past few days. Well, the first day after the bandits had attacked she would not speak to him at all and Clyde had not dug for the reasons for her silence. By her curtness when they arrived in the port he was able to deduce that she was angry. He had offered to take her back to Molbiz, but she insisted on seeing this trek through.
“So why are you angry with me?” No sense in postponing it any longer. They had nothing to do here on the ship save wait, and waiting with this senseless tension between them was not something he looked forward to.
Terra did not even look at him as her brows rose slowly. She did not deny that she was angry, but she did seem to be thinking. Finally, she turned her face towards him, the moonlight not favoring the healing bruises there. “I am not angry with you.”
With a snort, Clyde draped his forearms over the railing, careful not to put too much weight on the unstable barrier. “Then what’s wrong with you?”
“I’m angry with myself, I suppose.” The admission came easily; though Terra felt vulnerable in speaking so plainly to someone she did not really know. Those strange eyes of hers narrowing as the previously gentle sea breeze seemed to slap her in the face. “A year ago no one could have crept up on me so easily. I was trained for combat. I almost became a victim for no better reason than I’ve become weak.”
Although her face had been turned towards him, her gaze would not meet his. The corner of her mouth turned up in a rueful, bitter expression that seemed alien and out of place on her visage. She continued when Clyde said nothing. “I could have dealt with the fact that I’ve become lax. I mean, I just need to focus, and remember my training and I know I could be as sharp as I was. I lost control of myself, though, and I killed those men.”
“They deserved it,” Frowning darkly, Clyde spoke firmly as he held her under his careful scrutiny. “@#%$, they got off easy. You can’t tell me you feel bad about it.”
“But I do!” Terra protested, shaking her head and finally turning her full attention to her companion. “Not bad that they are dead, bad that I lost control like that. I agree… they deserved it.”
“Then it’s done with. They’re dead, you’re alive and on the mend, and you learned something from it.” Now it was his turn to look away, though the sea’s waters did provide for an adequate distraction from her face. “I know I seemed harsh back there.”
She supposed that was a kind of apology, and that Clyde was not used to giving them out, or having to explain himself. A soft sniff of disdain and Terra shook her head slowly. “No…you did the right thing.” That said, she then leaned on the railing, crossing her arms over the rested metal, which groaned under her weight.
Reaching out, he grasped the woman’s upper arm and pulled her back, his voice dropping to a low murmur near her ear. “I wouldn’t lean on that if I were you, it doesn’t look all that stable.”
“I wasn’t thinking…” Terra commented absently, looking over Clyde and meeting his intense gaze. The corner of her mouth tugged upwards and she let out a breath she had been holding for the past few seconds. “Why did you kiss me?” The question tumbled from her lips; her own eyes very intent on his face lest it give an answer his mouth would not.
He had seen the question coming before she worked up the nerve to ask, so he was not surprised or caught off guard. His shoulders lifted and dropped in a small shrug, a faint, nonchalant smile stealing across his features for a few brief moments. “I didn’t think you would mind.”
That could have been taken a number of ways. Terra frowned, shifting her stance by moving one foot and half-pivoting to face him fully. “Well, what if I did mind?”
“Then I won’t do it again. Simple, isn’t it?” In one hand he still held her upper arm, and now he reached to grasp the other loosely.
“What if I didn’t mind?” A soft sigh escaped her and she searched his face for some signs of his thoughts, but Clyde was not an easy man to read.
“Don’t play games…” He chided the half-Esper, who pursed her lips as he studied her with a tightly reined anticipation. Terra leaned in, lashes lowering over those oh-so entrancing eyes of hers and she claimed his mouth in a tempting, brushing kiss that was part tease, part test.
She never imagined this to be the kind of man she would be kissing under the stars on the deck of a ship. Maybe it was irony, or fate, or a coincidence, or maybe she had just put the thought of companionship out of her mind for so long that the opportunity crashed over her like a tidal wave when it came. Be that as it may, Terra was through with questioning herself and what she was doing, she deserved a bit of unchecked passion. When he claimed her mouth and drew her against his form, she let him steal away all memory of what it was like to have unwanted hands upon her.
A small muttering sound of questioning protest came from her when he took a step back, taking her hands in his and motioning with his head. “Come on. Let’s get below deck, the wind’s starting to pick up.”
Smiling in relief, Terra nodded her agreement as the wind tousled her green-gold locks. She had been partially afraid that he would withdraw, put his fingers to her lips and tell her that something was wrong. He was grinning, actually grinning, and it made her feel wonderful. Who knew he had it in him? Or her for that matter, because she felt suddenly giddy, like a child that was doing something delightful and at the same time naughty. He turned away from her, still gripping one of her hands and they stole towards the stairs. It made her laugh, the way he would pause before they rounded a corner, and steal to the shadows when he heard voices drifting across the night.
“Stop it already!” The young woman tugged sharply on his hand to draw his attention, then she pushed her palm into the small of his back, nudging him as they descended the stairs of the creaking ship. “We’ll never get to your quarters if you keep skulking like that.”
At the bottom of the stairs he pulled her around when she tried to move past him, shaking his head. “Ah, no. We’re going to yours.”
“But yours are closer…”
“But I have a nosy dog in mine. Enough talk. Move.” He received a smirk at that, perhaps she had forgotten about Interceptor. Instead of making a smart remark, Terra released his hand and stole towards her own quarters.
For what they paid for discreet passage, they could have received royal quarters in any normal passenger ship. This was not a normal passenger ship, but for a cargo vessel the board was not too terrible. It was cozy, even, if you did not mind the motion and the sounds of the sea. The walls were a harsh metal, and the bed bolted with questionable security to the floor was clean, at least. It had a small table and chairs, adequate lighting and the privvy was only at the end of the hall.
Terra turned to say something to her companion when he wrapped a strong arm around her waist and silenced the words with an insistent and hungry kiss, reaching to open the door with his free hand and push her into the small room. Her feet moved quickly to keep from tripping and she heard the slam as he closed the portal with the heel of his boot. The half-Esper raised her hands to his face, and Clyde had deftly undone her vest and pushed her hands away so he could strip it from her shoulders.
“Careful…” She whispered, wincing a bit when he started on her shirt without pause, tilting her chin to catch his eyes with her own.
“I know,” He murmured, his rough, strong hands slipping into her shirt to touch warm, soft flesh, drifting purposefully and slowly up her sides. Nodding to her, to assure Terra he had not forgotten the healing laceration and the fading bruises. “Back up.”
“Wh- Clyde!” She had started to take a few steps back when he rested his hands on her sides, distracted by his thumbs just barely stroking her breasts. Turning her head to see where he was pushing her, he hooked his heel behind her knee and gave her a shove, pushing her to the bed.
(Note: If anybody's even reading this, I cut out a chapter because of a teeny bit of lemony content. Don't worry, you're not missing much... hehe... and if you believe that, we'll get along just fine.  )
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 14
(4/19/03 11:00 pm)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 6
The showers were empty at this hour, so he took his time under the hot water, pressing his palms to the slippery wall and allowing his mind to drift. Without stirring the sleeping Terra, he had left her quarters and wandered for the better part of an hour before finally coming to wash the last traces of their escapades from his body. Nothing had been said during the whole incident, he did not feel anything needed to be said afterwards.
Blinking water out of his eyes, he noted that even though they tried to purify the sea water to be used for washing and other functions which did not require that you drink it, they had not been able to remove the better part of the salt, which made one feel soapy even long after the harsh suds had been washed away. Finally he turned off the low-pressure spray and reached for his towel, drying himself off absently. Moving from the shower, he went to the bench to drop his towel and pull on his pants, pausing when he caught a glimpse of himself in the fogged mirror over the sinks.
Grunting lightly, he laced up his pants and tossed the wet towel onto the bench, crossing over to the mirror and drawing his hand across its moist surface to clear it for a better look. Turning slightly to the side, he touched his neck and shoulder, seeing the angry scratches from Terra’s nails marking his flesh. His brows shot up and he could not help but laugh, because he had never imagined her to be such a wildcat. An encounter like that was not easy to put out of your mind when you had stinging, very tangible reminders under your clothes for the whole day and night. It was amazing that he had not even noticed her marking of him in the heat and bliss of passion.
With a smirk, Clyde gathered up the rest of his clothing from the bench and left the showers, stepping into the quiet, dimly lit hallway, bare feet making no sound on the cold floor. He took his time in returning to his quarters, finding Interceptor waiting for him, regarding him with what was a very canine expression of disapproval.
“What?” The word a challenge and a warning that the subject of his whereabouts was not open for discussion, but that had never stopped his friend before, and it obviously was not going to give him pause now.
“I don’t even have to ask where you were. I do have to ask: Have you lost your mind?” The large herding dog was making himself very comfortable on Clyde’s bed, his head resting between his paws while he held the Human under that penetrating, unwavering stare.
Although he had been well prepared for Interceptor, he hated when the dog was angry with him. Most everyone else in the world could kiss his ass for all he cared; he never sought approval or gave much thought to the opinions of strangers. This was no stranger; this was a creature that knew him better than he knew himself sometimes. “Yeah, I think I did. Is there such a thing as temporary insanity?”
Sneezing, which the canine tended to do when he was upset, the large animal drew himself up to sit back on his haunches, baring his sharp front teeth at Clyde. “Spare me. You are the one who lectured me about not getting close to the girl; you were the one who accused me of screwing things up when you had a great plan. You sat there, and talked about how important this was to both of us, and how we had to keep focused.” His maw opened and his tongue lolled out as the mindspeaking gained momentum.
“I know, I know,” Clyde began as he went to the trunk near the foot of the bed to search for clean attire.
“I am not finished!” Teeth snapped in the air near Clyde’s shoulder, drawing his startled attention back to the canine. “This time I talk, and you listen, boy. I have stayed by your side for a very long time, I have always been loyal to you, and I have defended your life with tooth and nail without hesitation. You know well that I haven’t always approved of your choices and your deeds, but I remained steadfast your loyal friend. You made a promise to me!”
The scarred man watched Interceptor carefully, hearing the growls coming from the dog-fae’s throat under the near shouting of the usually soft and unobtrusive voice in his mind. “Calm down, Pup. I know I made a promise to you and I intend to keep it. Nothing has changed, I’m still going through with this.”
Still, the low menacing growls slid from the thickly furred throat and Interceptor lowered his head, keeping his gaze affixed to his partner. “Clyde, this is very important. I never once asked that you change, you swore on your own this was something you would do for me. Couldn’t you keep your hormones in check long enough to get what we came all this way for?? What if she finds out, Clyde? What then? You need her to get to the Djinn Pool, and if she finds out that you lied to her before then, this will have been a waste!”
“She will not find out,” The assassin spoke firmly now, pulling a clean shirt from the trunk and shaking it in his partner’s direction to accentuate his point. “Trust me, Pup, I know what I’m doing. So I didn’t exactly plan to @#%$ her, so what? It doesn’t change anything.”
Interceptor could not stay angry for long. He settled back down on the bed, heaving a deep sigh, his bottomless brown eyes sorrowful now. “You like her, Clyde, I know you do. I don’t doubt that you’ll go through with this, and I imagine you will tell her the truth after we got what we came for…but you know what? I like her, too, and I don’t feel at all good about this deception. It some ways, it’s one of the worst things you’ve ever done, betraying yourself like this.”
Frowning, Clyde then shrugged and glanced to the dog-fae. “Don’t be so dramatic. This is nothing; this is child’s play. Now… do you want to go above and get some fresh air? You’ve been cooped up here all night.”
“Yes, I suppose fresh air and a walk would do me good,” Interceptor conceded with another doggy sigh, rising and jumping down from the bed, padding regally to the door and waiting for it to be opened. He was dropping the conversation for now, but he did not feel he was being dramatic in the least. “I think I’m seasick, Clyde.”
“You don’t get seasick, Pup,” The assassin murmured with a hint of affection, glad that they were on speaking terms. True, the two of them had made enough voyages for Clyde to know that Interceptor did not suffer from seasickness, but the waters had grown noticeably rougher in the past hour.
It was the dead of night, and there was quite a bit of activity up on the decks for the hour, Clyde noted with some apprehension. He exchanged glances with Interceptor, realizing that the crew was pulling down the sails and securing cargo, orders being shouted through the dense air. “@#%$…” He held out his hands, feeling the clashing of warm, moist air and a colder front mingling, which made for dangerous sailing conditions. Snapping his attention to the sky, he saw nothing but inky blackness, not so much as a single star penetrated the thick clouds.
“Nothing like the awesome power of nature to make you feel inadequate, eh Clyde?” The canine commented in a soft, resigned voice. There was no use in hoping the storm was going to pass them by, all the signs were loud and clear that they were in for rough sea, the actions and grim faces of the crew confirmed that thought if there was ever a doubt.
Frowning darkly, Clyde looked back the way they had come, nothing in his stance or expression betraying the slightest hint of anxiety or fear. “You should get back down below, Pup. I’m going to go make sure that Terra is…”
He did not get to finish the sentence before the Jewel lurched violently and unexpectedly, the deck suddenly at a very improbable angle, her timbers and skeleton shuddering from a thunderous blow. The next thing Clyde was aware of was that he was hurtling backwards, slamming into something flimsy and metal that gave under his weight, cracking and breaking. His hand shot out reflexively, gripping cold hard steel and he struggled, gasping to get his breath back. There was a frightening weight on his body, threatening to draw him down into churning and unyielding waters.
This was the way the storms of the healing world sprung up out on the seas, without the customary warning of rain and thunder. The night was the worst time, since one could not always properly read the dark gathering clouds until it was too late to change course. Waves tall and angry began their bombardment of the Jewel, perhaps deciding the cargo ship had cheated fate one too many times. With an evil hiss the heavy, driving rains started their assault; the sound of the drops hitting the water was disorienting and maddening.
Clyde realized he was clinging precariously to the broken railing of the ship, which had snapped when he was flung against it. Twisting his lithe body, he looked down to his legs to see that a desperate young man had grabbed onto his foot to keep from being sent to his death in the hungry sea. Gritting his teeth, Clyde raised his free leg and drove the heel of his foot into the crewman’s face with a crunch and splintering of bone. Without a sound, the man released his hold on Clyde’s leg and dropped to the water below. Released of the weight, the assassin was now free to haul himself up onto the battered deck, his eyes desperately seeking Interceptor. His mind screamed for the dog-fae to respond, but he received nothing other than a lashing of rain across his face.
Even in the confusion and activity on the deck under the constantly increasing velocity of the storm, Clyde could feel that the ship was listing. The hull must have been damaged, it felt almost as if they had struck something solid when the wave hit. “Terra…” Realization struck him that the half-Esper was below decks, and the Jewel was taking water. Cursing violently, he brutally shoved a hapless passenger out of his way as he fought his way against the stampede of people trying to get out into the open.
A collective and eerie scream rose up from the people that were impeding his progress, and he dared to look off to the starboard where crew and passengers were trying to escape from, as if they had somewhere safer to be. Clyde stared at it, a monstrous and impossibly huge wave larger than the ship reared up like a leviathan, roaring with divine rage as it lunged for the Jewel. “@#%$…” Clyde was just as furious as he was awestruck by what appeared to be, at last, death. There was nothing he could do, where could he go? The man braced himself, raising his arm to futilely shield his face as the sea came crashing down.
Dim awareness and animal instinct overruled all else, telling him that he was now underwater. It was dark, there was no light to guide him, he was disoriented and unable to tell up from down. The strong currents pulled him through the salty stuff, which he tried not to swallow, holding his breath and swimming, desperate take air into his lungs.
Breaking the surface, he managed to suck in a deep breath, kicking powerfully to get his bearings. He could not see the ship, but the sea was filled with debris and he searched for something buoyant enough to keep him afloat. The opportunity did not come before a violent pulling and roar warned him of another crashing wall of water bearing down on him yet again. This time he held his breath as he was pushed under the waves, rolling and tumbling helplessly. Something heavy and solid struck him a devastating blow to his head, casting everything in a bright, ringing red that filled his senses and he fought valiantly with every ounce of tenacity and stubbornness in his body to remain aware. To no avail, he realized with a resigned finality that he was going to succumb to unconsciousness.
So far beneath the water’s surface, the crashing and roaring of the angry sea was lost, leaving him in a blissful quiet and eerie calm. Darkness crept up to steal away the red in his vision, and he thought his eyes must be open and he was sinking further and further, drifting downward into the abyss. As the last scraps of his awareness fled is body with his final expelled breath, there was a light in the black. It was rising up from beneath him, growing brighter and brighter, like an angel rising up from a tomb, it was soft and inviting, and he had a sense that it was coming for him. All was dark again, but this was the darkness of unconsciousness and death, far more ominous and mysterious than even that of the sea.
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Dasinre
I cnat' tpye yte! iM' a n00b
Posts: 15
(4/19/03 11:14 pm)
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Terra's Shadow - Chapter 7
There was warmth and light, the sounds of waves breaking upon a beach and seabirds calling to one another as they fished out of the surf. Clyde opened his eyes to see an azure sky painted with white clouds, the smell of the sea was strong in his nose and he could taste salt in his mouth. He knew that he was not dead, and he could not figure out how or why. His last memories were of drowning, losing consciousness in the black waters, being pulled down, and the light coming to envelope him. A soft groan escaped his lips as he turned away from the invasive and painful sunlight, squinting to bring his vision into focus.
He was indeed lying on a beach, with what felt like a palm fronds underneath him as a makeshift bed. The remains of a campfire were lying in the sand near his resting spot and he coughed, feeling the water in his lungs. By the way his stomach churned and hurt him, he must have swallowed a lot of the salty water. Thirst was what had stirred him, he felt it burning his throat and mouth with a vengeance, so he managed to sit up with a sweeping fainting sensation sweeping through his battered and weakened body. It hurt everywhere, and he lifted a hand to his head where most of the pain lanced through him, though he did not feel the wound he expected. It hurt, but it was nothing serious.
The Jewel had gone down, he recalled in flashes what had happened that night, though there were several pieces missing. When his searching gaze rested on the female figure lying on the sand with her back to him, Clyde was suddenly cold with fear. Despite his body’s protests, he forced himself to crawl to Terra, reaching out a hand and grasping her shoulder to see if she was alive. Indeed, she was very alive because she gasped when he touched her and her rose-quartz eyes flew open and blinked at him in surprise, then happiness.
“Clyde! Thank the gods… you’re finally awake…” Terra’s voice was soft and husky, as if she had been shouting or her throat was as dry as his. The half-Esper did seem far better off than he, for she sat up without any apparent difficulty and smiled.
When he attempted to speak, he coughed and sat back in the sand while the young woman moved up onto her knees and rested a hand on the back of his neck, speaking to him in a soft, soothing voice.
“Relax, I’ll get you some water. You’ve been out of it for the better part of a day and a half, I was worried about your head….you took a violent blow in the waves from something. I healed you as best as I could.” While he struggled to speak, she stood and moved away to where she had been hording what little supplies she could find, picking up a water skin and moving back to his side, tilting it against his mouth.
The sun warmed the water, but it was fresh. Clyde took the skin from her and tilted his head back, letting it flow into his mouth, swallowing quickly. From experience he knew not to down too much of it, so he forced himself to pull it away, wincing as his voice came out in a haggard croak. “What happened?”
Terra watched him drink, sitting back onto the white sand and frowning at the question. Turning her head, she looked out over the waters, which were sweet and calm, leaving no indication of the raging storm. “The Jewel struck something. I guess it was blown badly off course by the storm, too close to an island and when that big wave drew out the water, we bottomed out. The hull was cracked, started taking water in pretty fast.”
“I remember that.” Licking his dry, cracked lips, he lowered his head and groaned softly. Bringing up a scarred hand, he gripped a handful of his hair. “I guess I was swept off the deck when the first big one hit. But…” He furrowed his brow, lifting his head enough to look at her. “…you were below. @#%$, Terra, how did you get out of there?”
“I’m not entirely sure.” The young woman realized how disoriented Clyde must be; the blow to his head had been a near-fatal one. “I woke up when we struck something, I was knocked right out of my bed. I pulled on some clothes and ran out into the passage. People were rushing to get out, we were taking in water from the crack in the hull and then the wave hit and I think the Jewel was turned onto its side. I think… I think I was sucked out of a porthole when the corridor flooded, I remember being in open water. Then I transformed.”
Listening quietly, he took another small sip from the water skin, attempting to make sense of that. Letting go of his hair, he sat up fully and regarded his companion more closely. “You shifted into the fire-ghost…” Hazel eyes widened as realization sluggishly crawled into his forethoughts. “That was you, in the water. The light… you pulled me out of there, didn’t you?”
A fleeting smile stole over Terra’s lips as she nodded to him. “Yes… I’m surprised you remember that, I thought you were unconscious.” She had thought he was dead.
Rolling his shoulders slowly to try and ease the stiffness, Clyde swallowed hard. His senses were returning bit by agonizing bit. “How did you find me…?”
“Luck, I guess.” Her tone dropped and she looked to the sand, then back to him as if she were ashamed of something, hiding something. “I really don’t know how, Clyde. I came to the surface and hovered above the water. It was so dark... I couldn’t really see anything. I wanted to find you, that’s all I know, and I dove back into the water.”
Lucky, indeed. Did ninja-assassins have that kind of luck? This one knew that Terra was hiding something, and he fought a wave of nausea when he realized what she was avoiding. “Interceptor…”
Pressing a hand to her sunburned face, Terra squeezed her eyes tightly shut and shook her head. When she spoke, her voice broke and betrayed her, and she cursed her cowardice for not being able to look her companion in the eye. “I’m so sorry… I’m so so sorry, Clyde… I looked, I swear I did. I looked all night, and when the sun came up I went back again, but I couldn’t find him.”
That hurt more than he ever imagined it would. It was as if someone had taken an icicle and stabbed him in the heart with it, pulled it out, and stabbed him over and over every time he tried to take a breath. Finally he had to lie back and bring his forearm over his eyes, gritting his teeth so hard he absently wondered if they were going to crack and break. He was quiet, save for his shallow breathing, but mentally he was screaming for his friend to respond, to say that he was safe somewhere, that he had gotten himself away, just like before. Just like always. There was no answer except for the call of a seabird. Interceptor was gone, just like that?
Watching him for what seemed like several minutes, Terra couldn’t think of anything to say to make him feel better. She understood that the dog meant worlds to Clyde, that he wasn’t Shadow without Interceptor. Tears stung her eyes in sympathy, and she reached out to brush her fingers over his forearm lightly, parting her lips and drawing a breath to let words of comfort come. They did not come as he dropped the water skin and seized her hand; gently, and lowered his forearm to show a calm, cool face.
“Are there other survivors?” He asked as if nothing had happened, not one faucet of his pain evident in his manner or speech.
Nodding dumbly, Terra gestured with her free hand down the beach, to a formation of rocks, finding her voice after she swallowed her tears. She was both stunned and appalled by the man’s callousness. “Y-yes… further down the beach is where they’ve gathered. Past those rocks… it curves around and there’s another stretch. I… I thought you wouldn’t want to be around a lot of people…”
Sitting up, Clyde brought Terra’s hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles once before he released her. She regarded him warily, first caught off guard by his apparent dismissal of Interceptor’s demise, and now his outward show of affection. He let out a faint sigh, noticing that she had a red tint of sunburn across her nose and cheeks, and he could only imagine how bad he was. Terra was wearing clothes that were not hers; a pair of white cotton pants and a short-sleeved shirt that was far too big, and she had tied it with a sash to be modest. Looking down at himself, he saw that he was dressed in new clothes as well. “You got me changed all by yourself?”
“No…” Drawing fingertips across her cheek to tuck a few errant strands of green-gold behind her ear where they had come free of the loose ponytail tied at the nape of her neck. “You were awake and changed yourself when I brought you new clothes… you had a fever and muttered nonsense, I wasn’t sure if you were truly aware or not.”
Although he tried, he did not remember that. Clearing his throat a few times, he looked out along the beach. “Where are we?”
“Well, this is the main body of the Thyzalian islands… at least that’s what the people from The Jewel told me,” Terra whispered quietly, examining the hand he had kissed as if there might be some mysterious mark there.
“Really.” Clyde remarked flatly. “It took less time than I thought. We made excellent time… usually it takes two or three days, but we made it in little over one. The Jewel must have been pushing its engines as well as using the wind.”
“So… this is where you wanted to go? Are we… are you…” The young woman could not finish. It did not seem right; it seemed unfeeling to even ask.
Drawing his lips into a tight line, Clyde shook his head slowly. There was something tight in his throat, and he found it difficult to even swallow past it, he did not even attempt speaking. Interceptor was gone… it had been because of his promise to his friend that the assassin had come all the way out here. Now, it meant nothing. Perhaps for all outward purposes he could pretend there was nothing wrong, but inside he was suffering and furious at himself. This had been his great idea, and it had killed his only true friend. Finally he coughed enough to speak, aware that his voice betrayed a hint of his emotions. “No. We can’t. There was a special container with my belongings that we needed in order to collect the liquid from the Djinn Pool. It’s probably at the bottom of the @#%$ sea now.” The last sentence was bitter.
Hide it as he may, Terra knew what he was really upset about. She considered herself easy to talk to, and to offer comfort, but she was also perceptive and understood that Clyde did not want her sympathy. Rising slowly to her feet, she held out a hand to him. “Come on… let’s go to the camp the survivors have set up, we can get something to eat, you must be starved. We can join them in heading to the nearest port when you get your strength back… you can come back to Mobliz with me.”
Her offered hand was waved away and he made a point to stand on his own, even though it was a struggle that could have been avoided if he’d just taken her hand. “Go on, then.”
Offended and a bit hurt by the brush-off, Terra stiffened and watched as he got to his feet and tried to stretch without wincing. “What do you mean? Aren’t you coming with me?”
“No, I’m not coming with you.” His voice was cool and dispassionate as he turned away from her, starting to walk for the shade of the trees with a slow, uneven gait.
“What are you going to do?” She protested, taking a step after him.
Her response was a shrug. He did not have to look to imagine the expression on her face, and he tried very hard not to care if she was hurt or not. There was no way she was as hurt as he, anyhow. Perhaps he would find his own way back, perhaps not, but he had no intentions of keeping her company any longer. He and Interceptor had needed her to get to the Pool, and that was all. Clyde felt empty, uncertain. He wanted to be alone. Terra was tuned out; though she was shouting something at him, and he was rudely snapped out of his reverie and mourning by a hard shove to his back that very nearly pitched him face-first into the sand.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” Terra was angry. It was one thing to be upset that Interceptor was gone, but it was quite another to brush her off like this. She had thought they were growing closer, she had trusted him this far, she wasn’t going to let him slink off on her now.
Pivoting on a bare foot slowly, Clyde straightened his shoulders and glared at the young woman. “Don’t @#%$ with me.”
“Or what? You’ll kill me?” She challenged, gesturing towards him with a chopping motion of her hand. “You can barely walk as it is! How dare you walk away from me anyway, you owe me! You dragged me out here, and the least you can do is see me home safely!” In all honesty, she was more concerned than upset, but she was going to resort to throwing that in his face if it would make him stay with her.
Looking away sharply, he bit the inside of his cheek. Yes, he owed her that much at least. Finally, he shrugged once again. “Fine.”
*****
“We were lucky. There’s debris washing up all over the island, it must have been a supply ship…” The young man wiped the back of his hand across his brow as he and his companion walked along this stretch of beach, examining the evidence of a devastating shipwreck out at sea sometime the night before.
“Yes…” The other was a woman, and she nudged a broken crate with the toe of her sandal. “It’s terrible. There must have been a tremendous loss of life. I haven’t seen any bodies yet, not on this stretch, anyhow. I wonder if there were survivors? Oh… look!” Suddenly she was pointing to a figure lying in the surf, unmoving. “A dog…”
*****
He whined softly, feeling a gentle hand on his fur, his ear twitching as voices drifted to him. Opening an eye, he seemed to be drawing attention now as a hand was cupped near his muzzle, offering him water to drink. Slowly, very slowly, his tongue slid out like a piece of dry parchment to lap at the liquid.
“That’s a good boy,” A gentle male voice soothed as a hand rubbed lightly at his ears. “You’re a tough dog, you know that? Bet you were thirsty, huh, boy?”
Interceptor recognized that scent and turned his head to get a better look at the young man, giving a cursory wag of his tail in acknowledgement. Another familiar scent struck him and he shifted his weight to sit up and see that the young man had a woman with him. He let out another faint whine… where were Clyde and Terra?
The woman was a fair beauty with blonde hair she had cropped short, though it stole nothing from her cool elegance. She was dressed simply for travel on the islands, choosing white, which flattered and suited her well. Smiling, she knelt down beside her companion and stroked a fingertip along Interceptor’s muzzle. “He is such a beautiful dog, Locke. Doesn’t he remind you of Shadow’s dog? What was his name?”
“Interceptor,” The treasure-hunter provided with a little nod and a lopsided grin that always came easily to his face. “I was thinking the same thing you know, Celes.”
The dog blinked a few times as they exchanged a swift, familiar kiss and turned their attention back to him. He realized he must have looked a bit too intent for a canine, so he wagged his tail again and let out a soft whine. Well now, this was interesting. Clyde had suspected that Locke would come after the Djinn’s Blood if the word was out that there was a reward for it, but he hadn’t expected the thief would beat them here. He wasn’t sure how surprised he was that Celes was here as well.
“We are such a pair of bleeding hearts, I swear,” Celes rolled her eyes and wandered back to the campfire, throwing another few sticks of fuel onto it and looking to Locke over her shoulder. “I’m glad he’s alright. What are we going to do with a dog, though, hm?”
“Take him with us, of course!” Locke lifted a hand good-naturedly as he pulled his pack into his lap, rifling through it. “Unless he wants to go off on his own… but c’mon, Celes, I’ve always wanted a dog. Haven’t you? This is fate, I swear.”
Chuckling softly, the ex-Imperial took a seat on her bedroll near the fire. Tilting her head, she looked up at the moon in the night sky to gauge how late in the evening it was. They still had a long night ahead of them before they were ready to break camp and move on, she didn’t really mind if waiting for the canine to regain his strength held them off an early start. “I don’t mind. He seems like a very nice dog. If he bites you, though, I’m going to make fun of you.”
“He won’t bite me… and you wouldn’t make fun of me, either.” Locke intoned matter-of-factly as he found the bread he was looking for, tearing off a piece and pouring some water from his canteen to soften it before he held it to the canine’s nose. “I know it isn’t meat, but at least it’s food, right?” He murmured gently.
Interceptor did not need to eat as much as one would think, not as much as a normal dog, anyhow, but he dutifully sniffed at the bread for the sake of playing his part. Making a show of forcing himself up into a half-sitting position, he pulled the foodstuff from Locke’s fingers and dropped it between his paws, gulping it down. It really had no taste, so he managed to pull a bitter face. Smacking his jaws, he rested his head on his crossed forepaws, letting his eyes drift close and allowing his rescuers to believe he had fallen asleep while he attempted to locate Clyde.
*****
Clyde refused the company of anyone else right now, and Terra left him alone. It was amazing, when he stopped to think about it, how well she could read him sometimes when he thought he was a being a blank slate. In truth, he found himself longing for her company, he could use her teasing right now, perhaps even convince her to steal off to a more secluded area with him and make him think about good, thorough sex instead of what was running through his mind currently.
Benevolent Terra, she was seeing to the other survivors, who were faring pretty well. To himself he wished she would leave them alone, quit being so damned helpful and pay more attention to him. Of course, he would slit his own wrists before he would admit that, at least at this point in time.
Most of those who had survived were people who had made it onto the deck when the wave hit The Jewel, crew and a few passengers. They were scattered across the beach, which was dotted with campfires, and people salvaging what they could from the debris that was washing up onto the shore… along with drowned corpses in various conditions, some were positively horrifying.
After eating, he had regained most of his strength back, but he still did not feel fully restored. He imagined a good night’s rest would cure that, would at least leave him in good enough condition to start traveling again. Frowning darkly, he stretched out on the sand, resting his head on his hands and looking up at the night sky without any real interest. Clyde was not looking forward to the trek, the feeling of utter failure and loss was nearly suffocating, it took every iota of strength he had not to slink off into the shadows and leave the miserable bastards to journey alone. That would mean, however, that he would leave Terra, and he was not willing to do that.
“You are such a sap.”
Clyde stiffened as the voice, affectionate and teasing, brushed his mind. Bolting upright, his hazel eyes widened as he searched frantically for the speaker. “Interceptor…?” He waited, his heart pounding, but there was no answer. Had he imagined it? Biting the inside of his cheek again, a soft growl came from his throat.
“Clam down, Clyde. Think it, don’t speak out loud, I’m not in your vicinity.”
Closing his eyes, he concentrated on speaking back to the dog-fae, unable to keep his relief and joy out of his mind-voice. It was much easier to guard yourself in physical speech. “Damn you, Pup… I thought I’d lost you. Where are you? Are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m perfectly fine. I’m sorry to have worried you, I was too busy saving my furry hide and being unconscious to reach you. I did learn that the doggy paddle is instinctual after all…imagine that.” Interceptor intoned musingly, to ease his friend’s mind. He was aware how upset Clyde had been, he could feel it in the man’s mind-speech as clearly as if he’s shouted it. “And Terra seems to be your hero, too, how romantic is that?”
Falling back to the sand, Clyde pressed his palm to his forehead and laughed. “Romantic as your breath. Good thing she knows better than to rub my nose in it… no pun intended. Where the hell are you?”
“A few miles away, I’m guessing. I’m also guessing that we lost our possessions, and the bottle we needed to collect the blood from the Djinn Pool, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right…” Odd thing was, Interceptor did not sound unhappy about that at all, which made Clyde both suspicious and curious, rubbing his palm against his forehead to keep himself focused on their conversation. He wasn’t as talented at this mindspeaking stuff as his friend was. “Terra was going to drag me along to the nearest port and have me take her home. You want me to come find you instead?”
Interceptor was practically bubbling over trying to contain his good news. “Oh no no, I’ll find you. Guess who I’ve run into…”
Only one person came to mind, and Clyde cursed under his breath. “Locke?”
The response was a soft chuckle. “Good to know that your head has not been too badly damaged. Yes, Locke. He is not alone either, he is here with Celes. My rescuers, I am with them right now. They have been very kind to the poor half-drowned dog, feeding me and giving me water and scratching my ears.”
“That little bastard,” This spoken aloud as Clyde dropped his hand from his forehead and glared at the stars. “I hope you bit him, you traitor.”
“Of course not, you know I could never resist a good scratch behind my ears… besides, isn’t there something else on your mind? Really, think, Clyde, don’t make me have to tell you everything.”
Raising his brows, the man’s expression suddenly became thoughtful, and hopeful. “He’s after the Pool, too. That means he must have another receptacle for the blood…” Interceptor remained silent, but Clyde could feel his amusement. “Well @#%$. Can you get it away from him?”
The dog-fae feigned offense. “Really, Clyde, I’m a dog, not a thief! However, I do think it is very possible I could pilfer for you this one time, if you promise that you’ll scratch my belly on command from this day forward.”
“As if I don’t do that already,” It was very difficult playing it cool when he was so excited, thrilled even. Here he had gotten his best friend back, and another chance at completing this strange quest of his. If Interceptor really could find the receptacle Locke had, that would also mean the ‘treasure-hunter’ could not get the Djinn’s blood.
“You’re a good doggy, Pup. Be careful, though, I don’t imagine Locke and Celes will take too long in figuring out who you are and what you’ve done. Neither of them are stupid, and it’s a safe bet that Locke suspects I’m still alive if he’s been keeping his ear to the ground.”
“This is very true. Don’t worry so much; I’m sure he doesn’t suspect me yet. Since we’re placing bets, how much do you want to wager our ‘treasure-hunter’ and his lovely companion are going to come after me, or head straight for the Pool to cut us off? That could cause problems… you know that Terra has strong feelings for the young man.” Interceptor was being as sensitive as he could, without directly accusing his partner of having feelings for Terra.
There was nothing to say to that right away, so Clyde frowned and peered around to make certain that no one was nearby. Not that he was worried someone could eavesdrop on his conversation with Interceptor, but it was a force of habit. He had to agree that there could be problems caused by a meeting with Locke and Celes, it was best not to let Terra know they were here… and from what his partner had let on, the two were romantically involved. Although she had never outright said it, Clyde knew that the half-Esper did have feelings for Locke. Indeed, this could be a very complicated situation. Sometimes he swore the gods had a @#%$ up sense of humor. “We’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen. If we move fast enough, we’ll have what we came for and leave those two cursing our dust.”
“Agreed. I will let you know when I have the receptacle, and then you can bring Terra to meet me halfway. We can head for the Djinn Pool right away.” There was a moment of hesitation, and then Interceptor continued. “Are you sure you’re up for this, Clyde? I know you took a beating out there in the water. I can stall and bide my time if you need to recover.”
That was his partner, all right, always looking out for him. A heartfelt sigh escaped him then. “I’m sure, Pup. Move as soon as you have the opportunity. I won’t let you down, I promise.”
“You’ve never let me down, Clyde…”
“Hey… I’m glad you’re not crustacean fodder, Pup.” That was about as warm and fuzzy as he was going to allow himself to get, lest he make a fool of himself. There was no need for more than that, Interceptor had always understood him.
“The feeling is mutual, partner. Get some rest, I’ll be in touch soon.”
Interceptor withdrew from his mind and he felt a stupid grin plaster his face and he pounded his fist onto the sand, uttering a soft “Yes!” through gritted teeth. It was as close to giddy as he could remember being in a long time. Alright, so the thief had beaten him to the island, but he was going to get the treasure and his money and show that little bastard how its done.
“Clyde?”
Terra’s voice drew his attention and he lifted his head to look at her, amazed he really hadn’t heard her coming that time, she must have approached while he was still concentrating on speaking with Interceptor. His grin did not fade, as he held out a hand to her, delighting in the questioning and cautious expression that stole over her features. “Interceptor is alive and well, a few miles from here.”
Her eyes widened and she took his hand, dropping to her knees beside him and smiling brightly, those lovely eyes of hers brimming with emotion. “Oh… Clyde, that’s wonderful! I’m so glad…”
Gripping her hand, he pulled her to him and brought her mouth to his in a firm, hot kiss that she did not pull away from, but rather responded to in kind. The corners of his mouth pulled the kiss tight until he had to break it to grin at her, taking her face in his hands and pressing his forehead to hers. “He’s also found the bottle I was telling you about… this means we can still do what we came to do, once we meet up with him.” Without giving her the chance to respond, he kissed her again, and again, speaking between each one. “This… is… going…to…be…a…lot…of…fun.”
“Mm…mm…. Clyde…. Clyde!” She lifted a hand to stop him when he gave her the chance to speak, laughing a bit. This was a welcome change from the brooding creature from a few hours ago, she was more than happy that Interceptor was alive and well, but she wasn’t sure that this hunt was a good idea anymore. “These people… they need help, we should see them safely to the port, first.”
“Terra,” He shook his head. “They’ll be fine. I know we’ve had miserable luck but it would be worse if we went back empty-handed now.”
She found herself nodding slowly, the tip of her tongue moistening her lips. “I suppose it would…”
“Come on,” Clyde spoke softly, though his intense eyes were glittering with mischief as he jerked his head away from the straggling shipwreck survivors. “Let’s find someplace quiet.”
“What for…?” Brows rose as she studied his face. She would assume he wanted to sleep if he was not looking at her so purposefully, his hands dropping to her shoulders and rubbing lightly.
Leaning in, his mouth brushed her ear and he murmured in a suggestive, playful tone most would never believe he was capable of. “To let me thank you properly for saving my life… though I’ll enjoy it too, of course. I think we deserve a bit of fun.”
“I…” There really was not a reason she could think of to say no, so she bit her lip and nodded, rocking back on her heels to get to her feet.
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