navy = flashback
"It all started a little over a thousand years ago..."
"Wait, how can you be that old?"
"Well, listen to the story and I'll tell you. As I was saying, it all started about a thousand years ago...
It's cold out. I don't mind doing favors for my friend, but sometimes
it seems almost as though they are orders. It wouldn't kill Zelas to say please once in a
while; would it? Of course I'm going to do this anyway; friends are rare for someone like me.
In the past four hundred years I had only found one other like myself. Kieran. Neither of us
know what we are; except that we aren't aging .. or dying. Great, now I'm cold and lonely.
Back to the task at hand. Ahh, there's my quarry right over there. I don't know
what Zelas wants with this priest of Ceiphied, but who am I to judge. Then again he is kinda
cute. Let's see, a priest should stop to help a poor injured little girl. I sit down
against a tree on the side of the road. I take the knife that is strapped to my arm and shove
it into my stomach. Just a moment later the priest comes over the hill and sees me. The moment
he notices the wound, he dashes over to help. The priest heals my wound and helps me up.
"Are you alright ma'am." There is a definite tone of worry in his voice. He is obviously
wondering how I had ended up with the knife wound. I look up into his large amethyst eyes.
Yep, he is definitely cute. I tell him that I am fine.
I told the priest that I was on my way home when some bandits came to rob me. "After they
found out that I didn't have any money, they stabbed me with my own knife and left me to die."
He held out his arm and I took it. "Allow me to escort you on the rest of your journey.
By the way, what is your name?" "Kalis." "My name is Zedal. Where do you live?" I knew that if
I told him I live on Wolf Pack Island, he would probably leave and run off in the other
direction.
"I live on an island, in the south."
Along the journey, we got to know a lot about eachother .. well, only what I let him find
out about me. We got to the town that I had my boat waiting at. It wasn't that far to the
island so it was a simple rowboat. Being the perfect gentleman that he is, Zedal helped me
into the boat and insisted on taking the rowing seat.
It only took about ten minutes to get to the island. I could tell that he was surprised
by the appearance; everything was this vast wilderness and there weren't any signs of
civilization. "Are you sure this is the right place? It doesn't look like anyone lives here."
"I'm sure, it's just me and a few friends that live here. Stick close, it's dangerous to
wander off the path." I lead him along the rough path through the vegetation. After about half
an hour, Zelas' fortress came into view. "That's it right up there." He stares up in awe at
the building while I lead him by the hand. He follows me without another word.
As we approached the doors, a couple of Zelas' pets came out to guard them. They were
willing to let me pass, however, they were unsure about the stranger. Without words, I let
them know that Zelas herself requested this strangers presence. They hesitantly let us pass,
and I led Zedal through the long passages to her audience room. He was taken back by the
strange decor, and I could tell that he was afraid. If I hadn't been in there with him, he
most likely would've tried to run away.
I led him past the fire and lava pits towards the back of the room. There sitting on her
throne of furs was a patiently waiting Zelas Metallium. She took a sip of her wine and a long
drag from her cigarette before acknowledging us. She turned towards us and rose from her seat.
Coming over to give Zedal a looking over, I feel him start to cower under her stare. "Well,
Zelas, I brought him back; mind telling me why you wanted him."
She looks up at me as though just now noticing I was still in the room. "Yes, I think he
will do perfectly." As she doesn't make any move to answer my question, I go to stand between
her and Zedal. Realizing that I wasn't going to leave until she gave me an answer, she did.
"I've been waiting for somebody like him to come along. He will make a perfect priest for me."
I stare at her in shock. At that point I couldn't understand, why?, there wasn't
anything apparently exceptional about this man. She signals me to leave her and her new pet
alone, and I left still trying to figure out why?.
A few days later, while I'm out playing with the wolves, Zelas came to ask me a favor.
"Could you please accompany Xellos on his first mission? Make sure that he
handles everything okay and not get himself killed?" I ask her who Xellos is and he steps out
from behind her. I recognize him immediately even though he was definitely different. Even
with the upturned eyes and permanent smile plastered on his face, I knew he was Zedal; or at
least he used to be.
"What about Xira? Can't your General spare some time to show him the ropes?" She looks at
me with exasperation; she knows that I know Xira is busy with something else at the time. I
agree to go with Xellos and watch over him to make sure he doesn't 'get himself killed'. She
leaves me with the still silent Xellos, who is waiting patiently to leave. "Hold on a sec, I'm
going to go tell Kieran that I'm leaving for a while. I'll be right back." He only looks at me
through his closed eyes, his expression not changing in the slightest. I hope he's more
talkative after we leave. Such a pity, Zedal was kinda cool.
It turns out that Xellos' first mission was some reconnaissance. My job was to make sure
that he didn't do something stupid and get caught. We spent the whole day watching a group of
gold dragons; boring. The dragons weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, I was wondering
why we were doing this.
That night we camped out in the forest nearby. I was so tired; we hadn't done anything,
but I wanted to sleep through my boredom. I layed down on my bedroll facing away from the
campfire. "G'night Xellos." I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but I could feel him sitting
right behind me. I turn over and, yep, he's right there. "What do you want?" He reaches over
and caresses my face with his ungloved hand. His hand is so warm. I lean into his caress, not
even thinking of why he's doing it. I let myself forget that he isn't Zedal any longer. He
tilts my face up to his and reaches down to kiss me. Still lost in the moment, I return it. A
few minutes later, I remember that I need to breathe and I break away from him.
It takes me a few moments to figure out what had just happened.
"Wait. What just happened? Don't tease me like that Xellos." I almost spat the name out
at him. Then I start thinking, it wasn't his fault. I'm the one who took him to Zelas.
It's my fault he's different now. "Let's just forget about this. You're not Zedal,
things won't work."
"I know that I'm different now. But it is still me inside. Kalis, I still love you." He
opens his eyes and looks at me. They are still the same amethyst color, but now they are
slitted. Gorgeous eyes...
No, no, no! I need to get ahold of myself. I shake my head to clear out those thoughts.
He's a mazoku now. His loyalty is to Zelas, he can't possibly love me. Resolute with those
thoughts, I ask him, "Did Zelas put you up to this? 'Make Kalis fall in love with you.' Why?
Does she not need me anymore? Does she just want the satisfaction of seeing me crushed? Or, is
this some form of initiation for you? Showing that now she doesn't need me and wants you to
get rid of me in the most tortuous manner. Well, it's not going to work. If she wants me gone,
so be it, but I will not let myself fall for her tricks."
"Please Kalis, stop. It's none of that. Juuou-sama doesn't even know. If you don't love
me back, then okay, but I need you to at least believe me. Please." I look back up into those
eyes again. He sounds sincere, he looks sincere, but .. what if I'm wrong? I'll get hurt. I
want to believe him, but what if he's lying? What if this is all an act? What if ... I go the
rest of my life and not feel this way again?
"Xellos, I can't lie to you. More importantly, I can't lie to myself. I love you too." As
we embraced the cool chill of the night air didn't touch us.
...And that is how me and Xellos got together."
"Okay, but how come we have never seen you around before. Xellos has traveled with us plenty of times, and we never even heard about you."
"Well that reason comes up later. Why don't you tell the rest Kieran?"
"Well alright...
After they had gotten back, Zelas wasn't the least surprised about
what happened. I think that she had planned it all along. Anyway, Kalis didn't stick around
very much anymore. She was always leaving with Xellos, which left me with a lot of free time.
I was bored around there, but I didn't know how to tell Kalis that I wanted to leave. We had
been close friends for a long time and I doubted that I would ever find another like her.
With all my free time, I had started to wander around the island a bit more. One day I
saw Xira through the trees playing with the wolves. I went up to talk to her because I had
nothing better to do. "Hey, what're you up to?"
"Oh, hi Kieran. I had some time off so I thought I would visit my friend Nisa." Said wolf
looked up at me to determine who had taken Xira's attention away from her. "Calm down Nisa.
I'm not going to start ignoring you. Now go say hi to Kieran." Nisa stood up and padded over
to me and nuzzled my hand that was hanging down at my side. I just pat the wolf on the top of
her head and she walks back over to Xira. "So, what brings you all the way out here?"
"Nothing. I was bored so I decided to take a walk. Ever since Kalis started going off
with Xellos all the time, I have nothing to do."
"Oh, I get it. You two were more than just friends, huh?"
"No! That's not it at all. She's like a little sister to me. No, we just used to go
traveling together, you know."
"Yeah, Juuou-sama used Kalis as though she were one of her servants."
"I know, but Kalis never saw it like that. She was only doing 'favors' for Zelas. She
can't stand the idea of someone ordering her around." We continued chatting like that for a
while and soon became very close. My relationship with Xira somewhat mirrored Kalis'
relationship with Xellos. Soon I was always going with Xira to help her out in her missions.
One day Xira asked me if I could do something for her. She asked me to go find this
artifact. It was an orihalcon statuette of a wolf. The only thing she knew about the location
was that it was in a temple on the other side of the Demon Sea. I asked her what she needed it
for, but she couldn't tell me. "I wish I could tell you, but I can't. Please, just go and do
this for me." After I agreed, we decided that I would leave in the morning.
The next day, Kalis came and told me that she would be going with me. I wasn't going to
pass up the chance to travel with my best friend again. So we gathered a few things together,
said our goodbyes, and left to cross the Demon Sea.
We looked for a few years before I found the statuette. It was very beautiful with
saphire gems for eyes, but I couldn't see anything else special about it. I put the statue in
my pack and we started on our way back to Wolf Pack Island. Just before we reached the island,
we came across a magic barrier. Unable to get on the otherside, we left.
It was hard on the both of us, not knowing if our friends had done it on purpose or not.
It could have been a way to get rid of us. "Hush Kieran. Don't even think things like that. I
know that they wouldn't have done this on purpose." Right Xellos? You didn't want to get
rid of me, right? "I'm sure they didn't know that this barrier would be here."
"You're right. I miss Xira, that's all. I just can't think of why this happened. She
never even told me what she needed this thing for."
"Someday we will get back; I promise. You will see Xira again."
From that day on, we wandered around with no destination. We would do odd jobs for money.
It helped that we knew magic, for some reason the people out there would have trouble with a
simple Lighting. After the barrier finally came down, I didn't think that I could actually go
and see her again. It had been 1000 years and things change in time. It wasn't until Kalis
started hearing stories about Lina Inverse, that she dragged me back over here.
...So does that clear everything up?"
"Yeah, sure. All exept, Who is Xira?"
"Xira Metallium? She is Beastmaster's general."
"Beastmaster doesn't have a general."