navy = flashback
Xelloss Metallium sat quietly beside the sleeping form of a brown-haired teenage girl, a smile on his pale face. He stroked her cheek fondly with a gloved hand, noting how she wrinkled her nose in her sleep when he did that. Cute. "Such pains you have taken to disguise yourself," he whispered, brushing a piece of hair out of her face. "And yet I could still recognize you. I could never forget a face like yours." She mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over, tangling herself even more in her sleeping bag. Xelloss's smile widened. "Are you dreaming? Of what, I wonder. I always wonder what goes on inside your little head. Especially then...especially at that time so long ago. What were you thinking then..."
"Bring us the girl! She's no longer any concern of yours!"
"She'll be the death of us all! She must be disposed of!"
"Where are you hiding her?!!"
Fire. Destruction. The Gold Dragons attacked the little village with a
fierce determination, their actions declared as being "in the name of
Justice." Everything was turned upside down and burned in their search for
the little girl, the child who was declared to be the enemy of all life. The
girl's parents had long ago known what their daughter would one day grow up
to become, yet they still protected her from the dragons' attack. And so they
were killed.
Xelloss himself, a mere twelve years old at the time, watched all of
this from a distance, watched the little village and all the innocent people
inside it suffer. This destruction interested him and he wondered what kind
of child could be the cause of all of it. And that was when he heard her
crying. Xelloss found the little girl behind a cluster of barrels, sobbing
and hugging her knees to her chest. As soon as he set his eyes on the
gold-eyed four-year-old, he knew exactly why the Gold Dragons had wanted to
kill her, and exactly why it was now his duty to protect her. He picked up
the little girl, awkward as it was, and stroked her seagreen hair, trying to
calm her as she clung to the older boy. Then the little girl rubbed the tears
from her eyes and opened her small mouth to speak. "Bad dragons. They hurt
Mommy and Daddy. They hurt everybody," she whimpered. "I wish they were all
dead. All of them."
And so he'd done it. He'd nearly killed off an entire race with a lift
of the finger. All because this golden-eyed child had wished it.
Click. Xelloss felt the tip of a double-edged sword against his back, pressing threateningly into his spine. "Just step away from her, Xelloss. Back off," a nasal voice commanded.
The Mazoku turned his smiling face towards Zelgadis, only vaguely annoyed. "Hello there, Zel-kun."
"I said 'step away', Mazoku," the chimera threatened, pressing his sword harder into Xelloss's back and drawing blood.
The Trickster Priest sighed contentedly. "Oh, do that again, Zel-kun..."
The chimera's face twitched with anger. "Sick, sadistic Mazoku...stop fooling around, Xelloss. What do you want with her?"
"You're so mean, Zel-kun..." he pouted, a fraudulent look of hurt on his face.
"Answer me," Zelgadis demanded, raising his sword to the Mazoku's neck, aligning its point with his throat.
Xelloss's smile faded from his face and he stared at the chimera with shrewd purple eyes. Zelgadis shuddered involuntarily at the piercing gaze. "Sore wa...himitsu desu..." The Trickster Priest disappeared from the area, leaving Zelgadis staring at nothingness.
Rawnie yawned and rolled over in her sleeping bag, then opened her eyes sleepily and looked up. "Hiya, Zel. What's all the fuss about?"
"I hate people..." Zelgadis grumbled. "I hate restaurants...I hate crowds..."
Rawnie picked up her cup of coffee and sipped it carefully, experimentally. "Ack! Haven't you people ever heard of cream and sugar?" She pushed it away, making a weird face. "They weren't kidding when they said coffee had an acquired taste..."
"Who said that?" Zelgadis asked, vaguely interested in that little bit of coffee trivia.
"'They' did."
"Who're they?"
Rawnie gestured helplessly. "They are they. People."
"Yeah, but what people?"
"People in general," she told him matter-of-factly. "There's no other way to explain it."
"....." Zelgadis decided to drop the subject. "Anyway, I'm hoping we'll be able to meet up with the others soon. We all agreed to meet in this town, Myeria, last time before we got split up."
"That all, kids?" Zel looked up to see a tall, slender waitress standing by their table, her pen raised above a small notepad. She had a firm, businesslike expression on her face, although it was hard to tell since her eyes were hidden by thick bangs. "You done?"
"Oh, yeah, I think that'll be all for me," Zelgadis answered. "What about you, Rawnie?"
The brown-haired girl looked up from her coffee, blinking her yellow eyes. "I'm done, yeah."
The waitress paused suddenly and looked curiously at Rawnie, recognition dawning upon her. "You here. S'funny. I s'pected this. S'a little early, though." She finished scribbling out the bill and placed it on the table. "Hope y'enjoyed the meal, kids," she said over her shoulder as she walked away.
Zelgadis blinked with surprise. "What was that all about?"
Rawnie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Was that...?" She shook her head in disbelief. "No, it couldn't be..."
The pair decided to wait in the large town for Lina and the others and took up residence at an inn, Rawnie kissing the ground in joy because she would finally be sleeping in an actual bed. The inn was located in the center of town where all the action was. The town's population was rather small, but the town itself was easily 1/4 the size of Sailoon and had nearly as many things to do. People all over were decorating and preparing for some kind of town festival, which Rawnie and Zelgadis overheard was to be held sometime that week. "I wonder what kind of festival it is," Rawnie remarked as she observed a group of schoolchildren hanging up balloons on a previously untainted lamppost. "Seems to be a pretty big thing. Everyone's really getting into it."
"I hate people..." Zelgadis grumbled for the third time that day. He noticed the inquisitive look Rawnie gave him and scowled. "Too much commotion, cheer, and good-neighborliness. It makes me sick."
The girl laughed. "Normally I don't like that, either. But I've never been to a festival in your world before. It could be fun."
"Or not," the chimera growled, looking rather put-out. Rawnie just laughed, hardly noticing the little pigtailed girl who was tugging on her cloak.
"'Scuse me, Miss..." The child tugged insistently and held out a plain white envelope to the older girl. "This is for you."
Rawnie stared quizzically after the departing child and glanced at the envelope in her hand. "Ookay..." She tore it open with one fingernail and unfolded the letter inside, briefly scanning it with curious eyes. She suddenly began to laugh.
"What is it?"
She giggled and clutched the letter to her chest. "I've just found out what kind of festival this actually is," she told him, handing over the letter. "In celebration of the annual spring festival, they hold a pageant every year to find the strongest, most talented, most beautiful woman in Myeria. And I've just been nominated as one of the contestants!"
Zelgadis scanned the letter with disbelief. "Why would they pick you to be in a pageant like that?" He skillfully ducked her incoming fist and continued reading. "It says here that the citizens choose nominees out of anyone who happens to be in the town during the festival, even if they don't live here." He handed the letter back to her, not really interested in it.
"So?" Rawnie read through the letter a little more carefully. "Hmm. There are five rounds of this pageant: the swimming competition, the armed combat competition, the magic competition, the talent competition, and the beauty competition." She rubbed her hands together excitedly. "In any case, at least now we have something to do while we wait for Lina and the others."
"You mean now you have something to do," Zelgadis corrected.
Rawnie shook her head. "Oh, nooo, you are not getting out of this one, Zelly-boy. You are going to help me win this thing."
"I'm going to 'what'?!"
She grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him down the street. "Come on, come on, we've got a lot of work to do! We have to find me some clothes for the beauty competition, and you need to help me out with the magic competition..."
The blue-skinned chimera leaned on his hand, bored and agitated. The annoying yellow-eyed girl had somehow tricked him into helping her win the upcoming spring pageant. He sat in the waiting area of an eccentric women's tailoring shop, watching the male attendees taking Rawnie's measurements and watching her casually beat the hell out of them every time they tried to get their hands all over her. Zelgadis sweatdropped profusely and wished he were elsewhere. The head shopkeeper was a frumpy old woman who bumbled about, muttering to herself and eyeing all the men in the shop, Zelgadis included, like one might eye a prize. She came out of the back storage room, arms full of dresses and other such things, and saved the poor attendees from Rawnie's wrathful fists.
He turned away as the group began to lecture her on what kinds of clothing would be appropriate for each part of the pageant and sighed. This was not a good day. He was stuck in this silly shop with all these strange salespeople. Too much noise. Too many people. Annoying shopkeeper. Little kids screaming outside. No cure. Damn...
"Hey, Zel!" Rawnie's voice sliced through his thoughts. She waved to him from across the room. "I need your opinion on something." She held up two rather similar dresses, in almost the same color. "Which one looks better?"
"What's the difference?"
Rawnie threw up her hands in despair. "Men!" she exclaimed.
The chimera rolled his eyes. He was not amused by any of this. He was hoping that Lina would hurry up and get there so that they could forget all about this stupid contest, but he had the feeling that none of them would be able to talk Rawnie into dropping out. It might not have been all that bad if he only had to sit around while she tried on outfits and planned her entrances, but she'd roped him into promising to train her in armed combat and magic. That was going to be a lot of work.
"What's the matter with you people?!" Rawnie was arguing loudly with the salespeople, who were showing her several types of swimwear. "Don't you know anything about competitive swimming?!" She snatched up one of the swimsuits and pointed at it with annoyance. "FIRST of all, bikinis are NOT the smartest thing to swim fast in. They fall off! And all these damn ruffles on the other ones create drag! And how many times do I have to tell you that crossback suits work better than openback!!" She tossed the suits on the floor. "Forget it, I'll use my OWN gear for this!"
Rawnie didn't have any time to train for the swimming competition, seeing how it was being held the very next day. Lucky for her, she was on the swim team at her high school and their season had just ended, so she was still in pretty good shape. All the contestants were expected to swim nonstop across a 100 yard-wide river. The first fifteen to make it would go on to the next competition, and the faster of the fifteen would gain the edge of impressing the all-male panel of judges. Rawnie suspected that the panel was the reason so many of the other girls were wearing rather...revealing swimwear. Stupid, she thought. That's going to drag down their time. She felt a little out of place with in her plain black crossbacked racing suit, French cut. And the fact that she was one of the few smart contestants who wore a swimming cap and goggles didn't much help her self-consciousness. But she knew that she had a better chance of winning than they did.
Rawnie stuffed a few stray strands of hair under her cap, mentally noting that the brown dye was almost completely gone. Just a few more washes and her hair would be back to its original color. She hadn't been able to convince Zelgadis to come to the event; he insisted upon staying far away from any place that was full of scantily-clad women. She smiled briefly. He was so shy! But that's probably good... she thought. Then I don't have to worry about him trying to touch me...
Her thoughts were interrupted by the shrill sound of a whistle blowing, somewhere by the judges' stand. Rawnie adjusted her goggles and lined up by the riverbank, eyeing the clear waters arrogantly. One of the judges, a thin lanky man, was reading off the rules. "At the sound of the whistle, all contestants must dive or jump into the water and begin swimming. You may perform any stroke you like. Crawl, dog paddle, whatever. The first fifteen to finish will go on to the next round."
"Any stroke?" Rawnie grinned wickedly. "This is going to be a piece of cake!"
"Don't be so sure," the blond girl next to her sneered, wrapping her hair into a tight braid. "I've got a killer dog paddle."
"Dog paddle? You're going to dog paddle to win a race?" Rawnie laughed. "You people are sooo going to lose...haven't they invented REAL swimming in this world yet?"
Alas, the race was beginning. Fweet! The whistle blew shrilly and the long row of contestants leaped into the water. Rawnie paused to giggle at their strokes before performing a near-perfect dive into the river below. The crowd of people watched for her to come back up in the same spot, but she didn't resurface until 30 yards later. And when she came up for air, she was almost soaring. A quick, even performance of the butterfly stroke, both arms simultaneously carving a path through the water, followed by a full body roll and a strong, well-placed kick. Stroke, roll, and pull-kick. Quicker than lightning and in perfect form. She reached the other bank while at least 50 yards ahead of the other contestants.
Rawnie yanked herself out of the water and gave a loud war whoop, not noticing how the entire panel of judges was staring at her in shock/admiration/confusion. She yanked off her swimming cap, letting her now completely seagreen hair fall around her shoulders. She suddenly noticed how far from finishing the other contestants were and snickered quietly. "Heh, heh, heh..." Her snickering quickly grew into a full-blown Kodachi-type laugh which echoed throughout the town. "OHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
Buildings shook. The ground rumbled. People covered their ears in pain. Babies cried. Children hid under their beds. And from his hiding place in a nearby tree, a certain Trickster Priest laughed with amusement. Oh, yes. She was 'perfect'.
"I have returned, my master." A tall, gangly-looking black-haired man knelt before the black cast-iron throne, bowing his head to the figure seated there.
A young, high-pitched female voice acknowledged his presence. "And what have you discovered? Is she the One?"
Her servant nodded vigorously. "Yes, my master. The girl you sent me to watch shows all the signs of being the One. However..." he paused.
"Yes?" the young voice prompted.
"It seems that she doesn't know she is the One. Her skills in magic are far from being refined, despite the incredible potential she shows. She has no control over her powers. It is odd that no sorcerer has ever apprenticed her."
His master was silent for a moment. "It is also strange that we have not sensed her presence until now. I sensed her once...long ago...but then not again until just a few days ago."
Her servant lifted his head, a pair of green slit-pupiled eyes looking up at her. "Do you suspect someone was hiding her from us? Perhaps it was...them?"
The figure shifted on the throne, letting the dim lights of the room cascade across her freckled face, revealing a small child of about seven years. She tossed her auburn braids and gazed down at her servant with stern blue eyes. "Perhaps. But that doesn't matter now. We must have her....one our side, Kaltier."
He bowed. "I understand, Trichere-sama..."
CLANG. Rawnie brought up her sword to block the chimera's, having only enough time to act defensively. "Jeez, Zel," she complained as she struggled to fight against his superior skill. "Take it easy!"
"There's no aggression in your attack," he told her, raining another series of blows upon her. "You need to concentrate more on sneaking in a few thrusts. There's more to swordfighting than defense." CLANG.
"Easy for you to say," she grumbled, hurriedly blocking his sword with a sloppy stroke, leaving her whole left side open. Zelgadis grinned, seeing a chance to teach his arrogant student a lesson. He reached out swiftly with his unoccupied hand and grabbed her by the wrist.
And everything fell apart. Rawnie let out a half-strangled scream and dropped her weapon, yanking her arm out of the surprised chimera's grasp and staggering backwards. She crumpled to the ground and pulled her knees to her chest, shuddering violently and whimpering. Her arrogance and self-confidence were gone without a trace, and she vaguely resembled a frightened animal. Zelgadis drew back in shock, not really understanding what had just happened. "Rawnie, what is it? What's the matter?"
"Please don't touch me," came the muffled reply. "I don't like to be touched. Not by anyone." Her voice trembled as though she were on the verge of tears. "Not by anyone."
Xelloss Metallium blinked with utter trepidation as he viewed the swordfighting lesson from his hiding place in a nearby tree. Mixed thoughts of confusion and anger ran through his mind as he watched his precious gold-eyed girl falter and completely fall apart at the mere touch of the chimera's hand. She was shaking badly and looked very frightened, and he could hear her words clearly. "I don't like to be touched...not by anyone..."
Oh, hell, the Trickster Priest thought, realizing exactly what was going on inside her head. He knew that her life after the memory wipe he'd given her would be hard, but he never expected it would break her, only make her stronger. Was I wrong in doing that? Nope, he decided, watching Rawnie wipe away her tears and try to compose herself. She's still strong. This won't hinder Metallium-sama's plan. However, he added, this changes everything for my plan. No longer can I hide in the shadows, for my plan will fail if I don't do something soon.