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 Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 9:30 pm
I'm gettign really into this one... I might even
end up updating, unlike a lot of my stories!
Anyway... This one's about some neko-people.
I'm not sure if it's gointo be a boy x boy story,
I'll decide when I get further into the story. For now though,
it's safe for those of you who prefer het pairings. ;DD
I'm thinking I don't really like the title, I'll probably
change it later on. :0 changed; This Bitter World.
Hmmn, so.. sorry the first chapter is kinda long. XD
-runs away-
---
This Bitter World
- - - - -
“Look at them, swooning over their lovers. They’re all as stupid as brain-dead cows! I hate spring!” a seventeen-year-old grumbled to himself outside in the courtyard. Hot-tempered, ambitious and cute as hell when he’s mad.
“The birds are singing, the sky’s blue…” another boy was sighing from inside the palace walls, gazing out his window. Sensitive, loving and sexy as hell when he smiles.
Two completely different people in the same world.
“All I ever hear in the springtime is love, love, love. It makes me want to pull a plastic bag over my head and suffocate myself,” the boy continued muttering to himself, kicking a large pebble into one of the palace gardens and managing to flatten two daisies. Gadjet Heiwa was angry; the too-hot-for-spring sunshine was beaming down on his head of jet-black hair and his ears were flattened against his skull in attempt to hide from the blazing sun. His black cattail was wiggling agitatedly, every fourth or fifth swish hitting his ring of keys hanging from the loop on his pants and causing them to jingle, irritating him even further. Cursing loudly after the tenth time a bee had buzzed by, he looked up at the royal palace, longing to rest inside the cool, stone walls, and saw a face looking down into the courtyard.
“Look at all of those happy couples, holding hands and laughing, when I’m stuck inside the palace, looking pale as a ghost from the lack of sun. I always get envious when spring comes… I hate spring!” Rayven Dextra slowly moved away from the single window and stood in the middle of his enormous bedroom, at loss of what to do. He could be painting, but he got caught and scolded by his mother, who had taken away all of his brushes and watercolors. (“Young princes do not paint! They eat, sleep and have arranged marriages!”) He sat down on the floor, still in the middle of the room, and flipped his tangle-free, waist-long silver hair in front of one shoulder and began to run his fingers through it. This was a habit he’d had since he was nine, when his hair was long enough to put in a ponytail. He twisted it, twirled it, made semi-braids, scrunched parts of it in his hand, and no matter what, it remained its silky and untangled self.
A light knock sounded, causing Rayven’s pierced, silver fox ears to rotate towards the bedroom door. A quiet, high-pitched voice followed: “Your highness, Rayven Saeth Chauncey Ludemir Dextra VII?”
“Come in.”
A small, navy-haired girl wearing a frilly and pouffy maid’s dress quietly opened the door and slid into his bedroom. She put the round tray she had been carrying in front of her, against her stomach and began bowing to the prince.
Rayven waved the gesture of politeness away, told her to never mind bowing or she’d end up with a hunched back like his mother.
The little girl stifled a giggle as the bridge of her nose pinked. “His Majesty the king has requested that you meet him in the throne room immediately for a very important meeting. The queen has requested that you wear the appropriate royal attire.”
“Thank you, Avarielle,” Rayven said kindly.
She smiled up at him, her midnight-blue eyes sparkling with admiration. She started to bow again when Rayven chuckled and told her not to worry about it. Once she left, he walked over to his closet, which was probably bigger than the size of the maids’ bedchambers. As he pulled out the peacock-blue satin material of his royal shirt, another knock sounded on the door.
“Enter,” he said, now looking for the flashy pair of white breeches.
“Her Majesty the queen has sent me to help you with your dressing,” another maid said, wearing the same ridiculously pouffy outfit. She was older than Avarielle; she looked to be sixteen or seventeen.
Rayven sighed and turned away from giving the pants his usual critical glare. “I’m not a child.”
The maid bowed, her black hair falling in front of her shoulders. “Please forgive me for giving you the wrong impression, your highness, but—”
“Tell my mother that I am perfectly capable of pulling a shirt over my head and pulling pants – ridiculously tight pants – onto my legs and over my buttocks,” Rayven said, causing the maid’s cat ears to perk up and her cheeks to flush. “You are dismissed.”
She bowed carefully, then hastily scurried out of the room before her face had reddened completely.
“It’s a completely normal word,” Rayven said to himself, shrugging a shoulder. “Would’ve said a**, but she’d probably have been scandalized, knowing the way Mother teaches them…”
- - - - -
“Jet! JET!”
Gadjet turned around grumpily to see Kuujin practically bouncing towards him. “Mhm?”
“I-I’ve been calling you for the last minute!” Kuujin Black exclaimed, bending over and putting his hands on his knees.
“What do you want?” Gadjet asked, his tail twitching with impatience.
“Right, let’s see…” Kuujin tapped his lower lip in thought, his lively chestnut eyes squinted. He switched his weight onto the other foot and scratched behind his brown ear. “Ahh, I had it in my mind… but then I had to call you so many times, I was concentrating on getting your attention!”
Twitch, twitch.
“Oh! My father wanted me to tell you that the king requested that you meet him in the palace throne room for a meeting,” Kuujin said rapidly, holding a pointer finger up.
“About what?”
“A meeting for some of the swordsmen.”
Gadjet glared. “No kidding? What does he want a swordsman for, dumbass?”
“Oh! Father wouldn’t say. But anyway, you’d better get going. He said it was immediate.”
“Thanks for mentioning sooner!” Gadjet growled, turning to run towards the royal palace. He was hot, his keys were jingling so loudly that he had to keep his ears pushed against the side of his head and he was probably late for an important royal meeting. Life couldn’t be better.
“Gadjet,” a girl called loudly from underneath one of the cherry trees. “Gadjet! Stop!”
Had it not been for the flash of bright red hair, Gadjet would have simply ignored the girl and continued on to the palace. He knew this girl meant business, and if he ignored her, he would have hell to pay. “What?” he asked quickly, tapping his shoe against the concrete pathway.
“I want you to take me to dinner tonight,” the girl said boldly, popping a hip to the side and flipping her hair away from her face. Her narrow blue eyes sparked smugly, as usual, and the bells tied around her poppy-red tail jingled.
Gadjet threw his arms up in the air and continued towards the palace. “I don’t have time for this, Sescha.”
“If you do take me out,” the girl named Sescha started, causing Gadjet to stop mid-step, his ears perking up and rotating behind him, “I won’t slap you into next week.”
His ears immediately drooped. “You can’t slap me yet, I have a royal meeting to get to,” he said, picking up speed again and ignoring the furious yells from Sescha.
Women, he thought miserably, now only seconds away from the gigantic palace doors. Why do I have to be so damned good-looking? I’m burning hot, drenched in sweat, and late to the king’s meeting. If I’m dismissed of my duty, I’m blaming that crazy woman!
“Gadjet Heiwa,” he stated his name to the guards. “Swordsman of His Majesty.”
The guards grunted their approval and slowly opened the doors. Gadjet was nearly dancing in hysterics as he waited for a big enough space between the doors to fit through. He neared the throne room after turning left and walking down one of the many corridors. He could faintly hear people introducing themselves through the large wooden doors.
“You have all been asked to come here today,” Gadjet could see the king saying once he opened the doors, “For the reason of our—” He stopped once he noticed Gadjet, who hurriedly made his way in front of the king to bow incredibly low.
“Gadjet Heiwa,” he said, his voice steady despite his exhaustion. “Please excuse my tardiness.”
“Never mind, never mind,” the king said, scratching his gray beard. He continued, “For the reason of our kingdom’s safety. The kingdom across the sea has broken our unity and has threatened to declare war.”
Gadjet’s ears were sitting completely pointed atop his head, rotating towards the shocked whispers of the room’s occupants. His eyes glanced curiously around the room to see everyone’s reaction. His rare-colored violet eyes scanned the other swordsmen, guards, the few maids that occupied the room and the royal family. The fifteen-year-old princess Aayden had her cerulean eyes stretched open so wide that her dark eyelashes nearly passed her eyebrows; her personal maid wore a similar expression. The queen looked unconcerned and adjusted herself in her throne, straightening her dress out on her knees. The king remained calm, though his old hand was shaking somewhat by his side, but this could have been mistaken for old age.
The most interesting expression, Gadjet decided, was that of the prince. His curious and somewhat confused-looking yellow-golden eyes seemed to glow from the delicate paleness of his skin; his shaped eyebrows were pushed down in puzzling thought, creating small creases on his forehead. His expression was the least obvious, but he seemed the most concerned.
Gadjet started to turn his gaze away when he saw that the prince’s silver ears had suddenly perked to their full height and his fox tail was twitching slightly, despite his trying to control it. He was getting excited.
“To reunite our kingdoms,” the king continued, “I had a letter sent to the king and queen of said kingdom. The only way they will reunite with us, is if we marry off one of our royal children with one of theirs.”
The queen suddenly looked interested, her blonde ears perking as she glanced at her daughter, then her son.
Aayden had clapped her hand over her mouth, but quickly put it down with the scandalized look the queen had given her. Her eyes seemed permanently wide, never mind the few times that she blinked. Her hair that matched the color of her mother’s and the silkiness of her brother’s suddenly seemed to frizz.
Rayven glanced at his younger sister with his golden eyes as she glanced up at him with her cerulean ones. It almost seemed as if they could communicate without words.
“I would have originally sent my daughter, Aayden, however, their king has only daughters. He, the king, has agreed to a bargain: if my son can make it to the kingdom across the sea alive, he will decide we are worthy of unity,” the king explained calmly, though a look of sadness had inconspicuously crept onto his old face.
Gadjet glanced back at Rayven. His expression was stricken, and strings of his hair had fallen in front of his eyes; his lips were parted in the smallest of fractions, nearly unnoticeable; his ears had lowered and his silver tail was unmoving.
Gadjet sniffed. The prince was afraid of going outside, into the real world, for the first time in his life. Typical rich kid.
“I hate the idea of having to sacrifice my son to an action which he is, I am most certain, unwilling to do,” the king said sadly, glancing at his son. “But I would hate even more the idea of having my son die to an action which he is unwilling to do. For this reason, I have brought you, my most trusted and most skilled swordsmen, here today. To protect my son on his journey to the kingdom across the sea.”
The other swordsmen in the room suddenly stood up straight, had their ears pointed and their tails behaved, and had confidence written on their faces. Gadjet did well to copy them. He noticed, as he stood there tall and proud, that there were very few swordsmen in the room, including himself. There was Kuujin’s father, the nineteen-year-old Saxon twins, one of the men that lived beside Gadjet, and Gadjet himself.
Rayven stood up slowly and held his head high. “I’m willing to do it,” he glanced at the king, “if it is to save our kingdom. One man to a whole kingdom is nothing.”
Gadjet fought the urge to roll his eyes and turned his attention back to the king.
“I will be assigning specific tasks to each of you. Lucifer Saxon,” he motioned to one of the twins, “you, the fastest, will be last in the formation. You can pick up any of the slack that the others have lost; if you had to be left behind, you can easily catch up.”
Lucifer walked in front of the king and bowed. “I accept my duty.”
The king nodded and Lucifer returned to his place in the neat line of swordsmen. “Calcifer, you will be first in the formation. Your keen sense of hearing and quick eye will detect any danger ahead of your allies.”
Calcifer did the same as his brother, bowing in front of the king and solemnly saying, “I accept my duty.”
Next to be called was Yuuko Black, Kuujin’s father. “You are strongest with your right arm, and your peripheral vision is near perfect. Chetwyn Barrington is the same, however, with his left side. Yuuko, you will guard the right side, and Chetwyn, you will guard the left.”
Kuujin’s father and Gadjet’s neighbor stepped in front of the throne, bowed, and said, “I accept my duty.”
Gadjet was last and tried not to show his anticipation. He would have to be in the middle, but he wondered where the prince would be?
“Gadjet Heiwa, I have assigned you with the most important task,” the king said, causing the other swordsmen to turn and glance at him enviously, as if they should have been assigned said task. “You are a naturally talented swordsmen, one of the best I have seen in my lifetime. You will be placed in the middle, protecting the prince – my son – from any enemies that might slip past the other men. With your intelligence, you can give orders to the front and back of the formation. I am entrusting you with the task of the leader.”
Somewhat surprised by the task he’d been given, but extremely proud, he stood before the king and bowed. “I accept my duty to protect the prince, as well as this kingdom.”
- - - - -
And that's it for now. ;DD Tell me if I should update, yes?
>w<
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:49 am
Huhuhuhu. I updated.
Chapter 2, ladies and gents, chapter TWO.
>www< Enjoy.
- - - - -
Chapter 2
Just his usual swordsman-luck. Bad luck. Stuck having to guard the snobby, scaredy-cat prince, whose tail tucked between his legs at the mere thought of going outside. It was a thirteen-day journey if they crossed the sea on a boat, something close to a thirty-day trip if they went around the sea.
“Avye, if I take all the bread, what are you going to eat?” Gadjet asked his sister as she stuffed the already full bag with food. “I’m not leaving until tomorrow, anyway.”
“I can always go to the baker’s and buy more bread. You, Gadjet, will be hundreds of miles away from any food,” Avye, Gadjet’s fifteen-year-old sister had replied. “I’m not a little kid anymore, I can take care of myself.”
“You going to be okay by yourself?” Gadjet asked, placing a tanned hand on his hip.
“Didn’t I just say I’m not a kid anymore?” Avye said, her own black cattail swaying back and fourth in irritation.
“I dunno, did you?”
“Pfft. Anyway, Kuujin will be staying with me.”
“WHAT!” Gadjet exclaimed.
“Well, his father is going away on the trip as well, and Maieko will be staying with her mother in the next village, so I thought he’d like some company. I’d be alone too, so what’s the point of wasting the opportunity to spend some quality time with my boyfriend?” she said with a large grin spread across her lightly freckled face.
“When you say quality time, that means chatting about the weather and sleeping in different beds, completely separated,” Gadjet said, holding one of his hands as far as it would go and holding the other hand in the opposite direction.
“You assume too much,” his sister retorted. Her black ears pointed forward defensively and accusingly as she said, “Just because you were a dirty, little pervert when you were my age—!”
“How would you know?” Gadjet fired back, his own ears pointed toward his little sister. His tail was swaying dangerously behind him.
“We’ve got thin walls in this house!”
“YOU SPY ON ME?”
“NO! WELL, I MEAN, IT’S KIND OF HARD NOT TO! Looks kind of suspicious when you go into the only room in the house with a big bed with a girl!” Avye yelled despite herself, her tail competing with Gadjet’s.
“Don’t… No, that was… It wasn’t…” Gadjet’s ears had drooped, his tail ceased its swaying and fell limply against the back of his leg. “She asked if she could see… what mom and dad… We didn’t… I still haven’t…”
Avye stood silently beside Gadjet, her ears and tail copying his. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m going to go down to the blacksmith’s and see if my sword’s ready yet… I’ll be back in time for dinner,” Gadjet said quietly, making his way to the door of the small but quaint house.
“I… really am—” Avye started, but Gadjet had opened the door and left. “…Sorry.”
That’s in the past, no sense getting soft over the subject, Gadjet lectured himself. Six o’clock was reaching its peak and the sun was finally deciding to give itself a rest, and Gadjet was glad.
He passed the other houses on his block, passed the local gardens and went to sit on a fancy bench by the cherry trees. He wasn’t surprised to find out that Sescha was still there, waiting for him and fuming; her face was nearly as read as her hair.
“You didn’t take me out,” she growled.
“I was busy.”
“Where were you?” she asked over-protectively.
“At the king’s meeting.”
“Since one o’clock?” she asked skeptically.
“No. I went home to prepare for my trip.” He turned to face the angry redhead, whose sea-blue eyes were narrowed more than usual. “I’m going away for a long time.”
“Where? Why? With who?”
“On duty, for the king. I’ll be going to the kingdom across the sea to deal with reuniting our and their kingdom before a war breaks out. I’ll be the prince’s official guard, and I’ll be going with Kuujin’s father, the Saxon twins, and my neighbor, Chetwyn,” he replied coolly, staring directly into her eyes. “I’ll be gone for nearly two months – if I make it back alive.”
“Two months? It should only take you one. Thirteen or fourteen days there, thirteen or fourteen days back across the sea,” she replied suspiciously, studying his violet eyes.
“We won’t be crossing the sea, there’s too many unknown monsters. We wouldn’t know what we’d be up against; we wouldn’t be prepared.”
“I see.”
“I don’t want to see you anymore. I don’t want you to keep pestering me,” Gadjet finally said, turning his head away from her. One of his ears drooped and one was still perked.
Sescha let out a creepy laugh and leaned against the back of the bench and combed her fingers through his dark hair. “You’re cute when you try to make a joke,” she said, reaching in front of Gadjet’s left ear. She twisted the small chunk of hair that was wrapped in a white bandage-looking ribbon with other strands of dark hair, causing his not-too-thin, not-too-thick hair to tangle.
Gadjet cleared his throat. “I’m not kidding, Sescha.” He swatted her hand away from his head and got up from the bench, smoothing the thighs of his pants down.
“You’re nothing without me,” Sescha warned, a hint of hysteria creeping into her already annoying voice. “You can’t live in the real world without me.”
“You know, I actually have to thank you for something,” Gadjet said, turning to face her once more.
“You see? You need me,” the girl smirked triumphantly.
“You taught me not to be afraid of monsters. Seeing as you’re probably the worst of them all, I should have no trouble with my journey. Thanks!” he said, extending his fingers and sticking them together into a stiff hand, which he raised to his forehead in a quick salute before turning and walking away.
“You foul, slimy, cocky, stupid b*****d!” she screamed, shrieking curse words after him, every word dripping with venom, kicking the bench repeatedly and slamming her fists into one of the cherry trees until she howled in pain.
Gadjet grinned. His ears flattened against his head in attempt to drown out the deafening screams, but his tail was wagging happily behind him.
- - - - -
Gadjet had not stayed happy for long. When he went to the blacksmith, he’d said that his sword wouldn’t be ready for two days.
“I NEED THE DAMNED THING BY TOMORROW MORNNING!” Gadjet yelled in frustration. “THE KING’S ORDERS! UNDERSTAND, OLD MAN?”
On his way back to his house, he’d tripped on a brick lying randomly in the middle of the road. He looked to his right, then looked to his left to discover the snobby Krahn family building a brick storage room.
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS DOING HERE, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD?” he howled, pushing himself off the ground and clutching his foot while balancing on the other. “TRYING TO KILL ME, YOU CRAZY PEOPLE?”
When he did manage to get home, his supper was cold and there was no more water; the closest well was on the other side of the village; the closest ponds were all muddy. The only other choice was salty seawater – or no drink at all.
He chose the latter and sulked into his bedroom. He pulled off his shirt, one of the buttons getting tangled in his messy, shoulder-length hair, and collapsed on top of his bed.
An hour later, he woke up, grumbling, “Damned too-hot-for-spring weather…” and threw the bed covers onto the floor. Two hours passed before he woke up again. He pulled off his pants and lay back on his cover-less bed. After forty minutes, he woke up, drenched in sweat from the hot temperature and pulled off his socks. He was completely naked, never mind his underwear, which he seriously debated taking off.
At three o’clock in the morning, he opened his eyes, glared at the ceiling and breathed deeply. His ears and tail were twitching like a madman’s.
“WHY IS SPRING SO HOT THIS YEAR? THIS IS LIKE BLOODY SUMMER!” he bellowed, receiving “Shut the hell up!” and “We’re trying to sleep!” and “Are you trying to get beheaded?” which he seriously thought about.
Barely ten minutes away, Rayven was pacing his room in royal blue, silk pajamas. “I finally get to go outside for more than five minutes and it’s on a life or death mission…”
He stopped in the middle of the room, sat down, and flipped his hair in front of his shoulder, twisting, braiding and scrunching it. “And my assigned guard didn’t look too promising, either,” he said to himself, picturing the back-haired boy with the strange violet eyes. His tail hit the floor in front of him, then bounced back up and hit the foor behind him as he calculated his chance of survival.
“Either way, I don’t really have a choice,” he said with a sigh. He hated how he was talking; just like a coward. But it was true, he’d never been outside for more than fifteen minutes at a time, and he had most definitely never held a sword in his life (“Young princes do not ruin their hands by holding weaponry! They eat, sleep, and have arranged marriages!”) This last thought suddenly struck him. He hadn’t even thought about it until now.
He was going to be married off to some princess he never even knew existed until some hours ago. What would she be like? Would she be kind? What would she look like? How old was she? Rayven honestly didn’t want to know the answers to these questions. In the pit of his stomach, he could feel that she was not going to be kind, not going to be beautiful, and going to be either way too young or way too old. It wasn’t going to be a happy marriage. The king in the other kingdom was probably just using them for their riches, Rayven decided. It was all a plot to marry off their daughter, then get rid of the prince somehow (Rayven shuddered at the thought that first came to his mind: murder) and claim his riches.
He got up from the floor and flopped, in a most un-royal fashion, onto his too comfortable bed, drew the curtains and closed his eyes.
Five minutes later, he found himself staring at the bed’s canopy.
Unbeknownst to the two boys, the exact same thought was running through both of their tired heads: when was this torture going to end?
- - - - -
“Wake up, stupid Jet! WAKE UP!”
Gadjet slowly opened his eyes and blinked, moving the dark strands of hair out of his eyes. The morning sun was shining through the window, causing him to squint as he sat up and scratched the back of his ear.
“Mmmrrphh… W-Whud ‘ime izzit?” he asked sleepily, stretching out his arms and yawning, bearing his straight white teeth and his pointy canines.
“Seven,” Avye stated, then paused and shook her head. “Seven-thirty. Get up or you’ll be late for the one of your most important missions. I’ll make you breakfast, so hurry up and get dressed.” Gadjet noticed her giving him a strange look and he frowned and looked down at himself.
“Id wuzz hot lass nigh’,” he murmured, still not able to pronounce his words properly with his half-asleep tongue. He’d finally drifted off to sleep all but too late in the hours of four o’clock; he’d had barely three hours of sleep.
He bathed quickly, returned to his bedroom with most of his senses completely awake now and slid open the top drawer of his simple dresser. He grabbed the first shirt he saw and swung it over his shoulder as he opened the second drawer, grabbing a pair of pants and underwear, and opened a third drawer, pulling out a pair of grayed, old socks.
He pulled on his underwear and pants, followed with the old socks and then pulled the shirt over his head.
The shirt he’d grabbed was made of thin, beige-brown material. It was a bit loose, but it was easy to move around in. The length of the shirt traveled from his shoulders and cut off at the start of his thighs. His neck, collarbone and some of his upper chest was revealed from the v-shaped cut in the shirt; he decided it brought out his muscles and grinned.
His pants were the typical, everyday pants that most of the boys in the village wore: simple, black, and slightly loose, but not too loose, with a worn-out drawstring that no longer worked, dangling there like two dead worms in a bird’s beak. They cut off just above his ankles; it was obvious that he'd grown out of them long ago, but he didn’t really care; his boots would cover the vulnerable skin.
When he bent over to buckle his boots up, he noticed that his shirt had sagged and when he glanced down at the material, he instead saw his whole naked, upper body through the large v-neck. Tapping his lower lip, he opened the last drawer of his dresser and pulled out the expensive, black leather belt he’d stolen when he was fourteen. He wrapped it around his hips and buckled it on the side. Some of his shirt’s excess material carried on under the belt to meet his thighs. He scratched behind his ear, smoothed down the fur on his tail and made his way downstairs.
“You look awfully dashing for this kind of mission, kind of too well-dressed,” his sister stated when he’d made his entrance in the kitchen. “And where’d you get that belt?”
“What, this?” he asked slyly. “I’ve had it forever!”
Avye turned up the corner of her lip. She knew he’d stolen it from the blacksmith years before. “Here’s your food,” she said as Gadjet munched hungrily on his breakfast.
“Thanks,” he said after swallowing. He gave her a look of concern as he got up and took the bag from her. “Will you be okay?”
“Will I be okay? I’m not the one going on a dangerous mission!” Normally, Avye would have laughed as she said this before Gadjet left on duty, but the missions he went on usually didn’t consist of the word ‘dangerous.’ Instead, her ears were pushed down so they were parallel to the flat roof of their home.
Gadjet gave her a little smile. “I’ll be fine, sis,” he said, ruffling her black hair.
“Well,” she said, smiling weakly at him, “good luck!”
He nodded his thanks and made his was out the door.
Avye bit her lip, then ran to the door after him. “Jet!” she called. “Do me a favor while you’re out there!”
“Sure,” Gadjet replied, pausing and turning to face his little sister for the last time in a long while.
“Just… Just don’t get killed!”
“Will do!” Gadjet said, grinning. “And will you do me a favor while I’m gone?”
“Okay?”
“STAY AWAY FROM KUUJIN!”
“STUID JET!” Avye shrieked, picking up the nearest pebble and throwing it at him.
Gadjet ducked his head as he ran away laughing and headed for the Blacksmith’s.
“Jet, m’boy!” an old man greeted him, pushing his round, frame-less glasses up on his nose.
“My sword ready like I asked, old man?”
“Like you ordered,” the man chuckled as he made his way into the back of the shop. He examined a few swords, shaking his head with each of them, until he finally picked one up and nodded. He then rummaged through an old whicker basket and withdrew a golden-colored case. He made his way back to the front of the small shack and carefully handed Gadjet the sword and case over the countertop between them.
Gadjet examined it thoroughly for at least two minutes before looking back up at the man with a grin. “You’re sure old, but you’re still the best in the business,” he said in satisfaction.
The old man grinned as well. “And the new case?”
Gadjet put the sharp sword into the case with quick precision, making a swish sound, and buckled the case to the side of his belt. He then extracted the sword with the same swift, graceful movement and slid it back into its new home again. “Excellent.”
“Good, good,” the blacksmith smiled.
Gadjet reached into the pocket of his pants and dropped a bag of coins onto the counter then turned to leave. “It’s the last I’ve got for now, but it’s well worth it.”
“I don’t want your money,” the man said, shaking his head. “Call it a customer appreciation gift.”
Gadjet turned around and caught the jingling bag of coins being tossed back to him. “You know, you’re not too bad, old man!” he said, his tail wagging cheerfully behind him.
“Good luck!” the blacksmith called after him. Once Gadjet had thanked him and left, he chuckled and shook his head. “Not too bad, huh? You’re not too bad yourself, kid.” He paused for a moment, squinted as he remembered the belt that Gadjet was wearing and suddenly ran to the door after the thief from three years ago.
“HEIWA!”
- - - - -
After a brief meeting with the king, prince and other swordsmen, discussing their plans one last time, the team left the palace to embark on their adventure.
As planned, Lucifer Saxon was in the back, trailing slightly behind, Calcifer Saxon was in front, his ears rotating towards every and any sound. Yuuko and Chetwyn guarded the sides, Yuuko on the right and Chetwyn on the left. Then there was Gadjet and the prince, stuck in the middle.
“How long does a voyage to said kingdom take?” Rayven asked, looking curiously at everything they passed. The outside world was beautiful! Such pretty flowers, and such a warm sunshine!
“Across the sea, fourteen days if we run into a minimal amount of trouble,” Calcifer said from the front, then added, “Give or take.”
“So we’ll be taking that route, then? A boat across the sea?”
“No,” Gadjet said. “It’s too dangerous.”
“But it’s quicker, isn’t it?” Rayven countered, his silver foxtail picking up instead of lazily swaying back and forth.
“It’s too dangerous,” Gadjet repeated. “There are monsters in those waters, and those monsters could swallow our boat in one bite, for all we know.”
“Surely, they wouldn’t bother to attack well-meaning human beings?”
“We don’t know that. In fact, we don’t know anything about them.”
“So they could simply be peaceful creatures,” Rayven pointed out.
“Or viscous man-eating beasts. We wouldn’t be prepared. I’d rather not risk it,” Gadjet said simply, trying to end the matter, but Rayven carried on.
“If we go around the sea, it will take double or more the time. Taking a boat would be much quicker.”
“How long the journey takes doesn’t matter if you know you’re going to die anyway,” Gadjet huffed, his tail beginning to twitch in annoyance.
When Rayven responded again, Gadjet tried to keep his ears turned in another way in the attempts of ignoring him, but they betrayed him and automatically rotated towards the dominant sound.
“But we don’t know that,” he protested. “Besides, there’s bound to be monsters on land as well, and other human attackers.”
“We can fight more easily on land, it’s more natural.”
The group had left the last village in the kingdom’s chain of small towns and headed into the forest, towards the end of the kingdom.
“A boat is still solid ground,” Rayven stated. His tail seemed to be twitched in irritation as well.
“Suppose we fall off the boat, what then?”
“Swim, of course.”
“Do you know how to swim, your majesty?” Gadjet asked, no longer caring to hide the annoyance in his voice.
“Well… No, but one of you could help me back to safety,” Rayven replied coolly, narrowing his eyes.
Gadjet laughed and glanced at the others around him. “How many of you know how to swim?”
No one answered.
Gadjet shot Rayven a smug look that screamed, “I told you so!” He crossed his arms over his chest and held his chin up. “Besides, I hate water.”
Lucifer was listening to their argument in amusement. I thought Gadjet had finally found some competition for the title of the Stubborn Genius, but it looks like he’s outwitted another poor guy, never mind the prince!
Rayven glared heatedly at Gadjet and opened his mouth to protest, but Chetwyn had interrupted.
“Forgive me, your majesty, but I think you should both stop. It’d be a shame for one of you to die even before we’ve made it past the kingdom gates.”
Gadjet wrinkled his nose and made a “Humph!” sound while Rayven suddenly looked even more pale than usual.
“Your majesty?” Chetwyn asked, frowning.
“P-past… the… g-gates?” Rayven stuttered stupidly.
Gadjet took this opportunity to smirk, his tail beginning to swish maliciously behind him. “Not scared, are you?”
Rayven’s ears perked when he heard the emphasis put into the accusing word. He gathered his dignity, held his head up and crossed his arms. “Of course not. Just because you are doesn’t mean everyone else is.”
Gadjet, not caring he was the prince, yelled a string of cusswords at him and held up a curled fist in the prince’s face.
Rayven accused him of attempted abuse and told him that he’d have him beheaded if he did it again.
Gadjet fired back, yelling, “It sounds pretty tempting since I’ll be stuck with you otherwise!”
Which was answered with a shrill, “How dare you speak to me that way!”
And the bickering was tossed back and forth through the trees of the forest and up to the colossal, stone kingdom gates.
- - - - -
How was it? >w<;; Good, bad? In between?
Suggestions? GIVEME. CC:
- - - - -
August o9;
HEYHEYHEY ladies and gents, boys and girls,
gather 'round! Chapter three is HERE. & I've
also changed the name of the title of the story
from "It's a Small World" to "This Bitter World"
n_____n!! So... readread and telltell me whatchu
thinkthink.
- - - - -
Chapter 3
“All right, we’re leaving the kingdom, so be prepared from hereon,” Calcifer warned, glancing quickly over his shoulder while his blond ears rotated in every direction.
Rayven paused for a moment, saw Gadjet raise an eyebrow and hurried on.
“Wait, no!” Gadjet exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back. He walked in front of him and pointed to the ground. “You might have stepped into this puddle and wrecked your pretty shoes!” he said in a mock-horrified voice.
Rayven narrowed his eyes, held his chin up and walked towards the puddle. He brought his foot down with force into the muddy water, making sure to splash Gadjet, and continued on after the others.
“b*****d,” Gadjet hissed as he jumped and tried to avoid the cold water.
Rayven smirked and ran a delicate and pale hand through his hair.
“Right then,” Gadjet called to his allies after catching up – albeit hesitantly – to Rayven. “Calcifer, you’re in the front? Yes, good. Lu in the back, Yuuko on the right, and Chetwyn on the left? Good. Myself and prince Charming…”
Now it was Rayven’s turn to glare.
“We’re leaving the kingdom now. Prepared for your first steps into the real wolrd, prince?”
Instead of causing another uproar with the other boy, Rayven took Gadjet’s question as a serious question, one that he wasn’t trying to use to make fun of him with.
“Don’t have a choice, do I?” he replied, taking a deep breath. “But I guess I am.”
“After you, then,” Gadjet muttered while mocking a bow.
Rayven stepped through the tiny gap between the two gates with his eyes closed and heart stomping. One step. Two steps. Three steps. He heard Gadjet let out a happy sigh and figuring it was safe, he slowly opened his golden eyes to the free sight in front of him.
“Beautiful!” he exclaimed as the wind ran through his hair. A large, green meadow stared back at him with pinks, purples, yellows and oranges erupted prettily from the stems growing in the long grass. The rushing sound of water caused him to turn and rest his eyes on a sparkling clear river travelling like a blue ribbon flowing in the wind towards the sea.
“It always looks like this,” Gadjet stated uncaringly, ruining Rayven’s happy moment.
“Why would they want to keep royalty away form such a beautiful sight?” Rayven asked, turning from Gadjet to admire the painting-like scenery before him.
“It’s not the view they want to keep you from, it’s what lurks behind the scene that catches you off guard,” Lucifer replied from the back of the line.
“Right,” Gadjet agreed. “You ought not judge something by the means of appearance.”
As this was being said, Rayven had leaned over the sparkling river to dip his fingers into the refreshingly cool water. A very short moment later, he let out a yelp and jumped away from the harmless-looking water with a scary-looking fish hanging onto the sleeve of his shirt with jagged, pointy teeth.
Gadjet rushed forward, drew his sword and, being careful not to hurt Rayven, cut the fish neatly in two, the sleeve of Rayven’s shirt falling to the ground with the fish halves.
Rayven simply stared at half of the fish until reality flooded back into his brain. “I should say so!” he exclaimed, rubbing his arm where the sleeve had ripped.
“Ah, it was nothing,” Gadjet said in a cocky voice as he put his sword back in its case with the air of a showoff.
“I wasn’t talking about you,” Rayven scowled. “I meant the river.”
Gadjet swallowed the urge to cut Rayven in two, or perhaps pound on his pretty head. Instead, he flipped one of the fish halves over with the toe of his boot and to examine it.
“Ah! I haven’t even been past the gates for ten minutes and I’ve already been injured!” Rayven complained, holding the revealed skin of his forearm.
Gadjet whipped his head up. “You’ve been bitten by this thing? It’s poisonous! Quick, give me your arm!”
“Wha-oh!”
Gadjet grabbed Rayven’s delicate arm and examined it hastily before shoving it up to Rayven’s face.
“You have to suck the poison out,” he said, pushing the bitten arm closer to Rayven’s face.
“You’re hurting me!” Rayven cried. “Won’t I still be poisoned if I swallow the poison?”
“Augh! You don’t swallow it! You spit the poison out before it gets carried down your throat. It’ll me more of a threat if it leaks into your bloodstream through the bite marks – hurry up!” Gadjet exclaimed, flapping his arms in haste.
Before he could protest, Rayven’s forearm was forced into his mouth. He paused, then not too sure of what he was doing, began to suck at the skin. Instantly, the metallic taste of blood, along with a stinging taste that hurt his tongue, rushed into his mouth. He drew back from his arm and spat to the ground.
“I-I can’t!” Rayven exclaimed, then spat again.
“Prince Rayven!” Chetwyn cried, rushing from the side over to where Gadjet and Rayven stood.
“Stay at your post!” Calcifer warned. “Gadjet has it under control.”
“Aye,” Lucifer agreed. “There’ll be hell to pay if you interfere with Heiwa!”
Paying no attention to the yelling going on behind him, Gadjet threw his arms up and stomped his foot repeatedly on the ground. “You have to switch back and forth quickly – suck, spit, suck spit – otherwise you’ll end up swallowing the poison,” he quickly explained.
“No, I-I can’t, it’s too overwhelming. I’ve never seen b-bl-that before, or tasted it. It’s t-too much!” Rayven said and looked away.
Without losing another second, Gadjet had taken Rayven’s arm and clamped his mouth down on the wound, his pointy eyeteeth pushing slightly into the skin.
A quick pain shot through Rayven’s arm, causing his ears to flatten against his head and his tail to tuck between his legs.
Within another second, Gadjet’s mouth had left Rayven’s forearm so he could spit out the poison and blood before it leaked down his throat. He quickly brought his mouth back to the bite and repeated the process.
Rayven closed his eyes and took deep breaths. This was the first time in his life of seventeen years that he’d ever felt physical pain. It wasn’t anything extreme, he was sure, but it certainly did hurt. He couldn’t imagine what Gadjet and the other swordsmen had to endure, if this was only a small injury, despite the fact that the fish was poisonous. Another quick pain shot through his arm and he carefully nibbled on his lower lip to try to occupy his mind.
It was working: he hadn’t realized when Gadjet had taken his mouth away from his forearm for the last time until a ripping sound startled him. He popped open a cautious eye to see the other boy ripping a strip of his shirt off, then pouring some water from his canteen onto the material. Rayven glanced down at his arm. The blood has been cleaned away to reveal six tiny holes in the form of a semi-circle. Above them were the two tiny dents Gadjet’s fangs had made in his pale skin. Before he could study his wound any longer, Gadjet was wrapping the wet strip of his shirt around Rayven’s forearm.
Rayven simply stared at Gadjet before being able to open his mouth. “Th-Thank you!”
“Whatever, just don’t go near the water – or anywhere – without my consent,” Gadjet hissed grumpily, leaning over to spit once more.
“Y-You saved my life!” Rayven exclaimed, throwing an arm up into the air and holding the injured one close to his chest.
“No, I didn’t. I saved you from paralysis,” Gadjet replied, turning away and beginning to walk. “Carry on,” he told the others.
“You still saved me!”
“Shut up or I won’t be saving you anymore.”
“Oh, you won’t have to, I’ll stay away from water,” Rayven said.
“If you think that’s all there is out here, you’re in for a rude awakening,” Gadjet said, his tail flicking back and forth.
Rayven stared after the other boy in silence. This had been the first time he’d acknowledged pain, and it was nothing compared to what Gadjet and the others were used to. There were more people and monsters who wished to harm innocent people like themselves? It hardly seemed fair.
“Well, come on,” Gadjet said, his words dripping of irritation.
Rayven wondered how long he’d been standing there staring and quickly went to Gadjet’s side. He studied the side of Gadjet’s face, then turned to his head to his bandaged arm and blushed as a thought struck him.
Gadjet turned and the prince squeaked and turned his face away, which Gadjet saw was pinking across the bridge of his nose. “What?” he asked sharply.
“I’ve never been… No one’s ever… t-touched me like… well, that before, especially not with their mouths,” Rayven said shyly. The contagious pink plague started to creep up his ears.
Gadjet froze mid-step in shock. “D-Don’t get the wrong idea!” he said angrily, his face also flushing.
“I wasn’t – are you suggesting something?” Rayven asked, now equally angry. His tail twitched and his ears automatically shot forward accusingly.
“Wha-? You were the one who said… that!”
“I wouldn’t have if you’d never touched me with your mouth like… that!” Rayven retorted.
“Oh, you wanted to spend the rest of your spoiled life stuck in a chair, not being able to move any muscle in your body, just watching everyone else enjoy their lives while you suffer?” Gadjet fired back.
Rayven thought desperately for a comeback, but Gadjet had made a very, very good point. Gadjet Heiwa had won the battle of wits again and left his competitor speechless.
“Fine, you win,” Rayven said disappointedly.
“I always do,” Gadjet replied matter-of-factly.
Truth be told, Rayven didn’t even know if he had felt attracted when Gadjet had his mouth sucking on his arm, his warm tongue colliding with the tiny lacerations every so often. He didn’t even know what it felt to be attracted to someone or something. He didn’t know what attracted him, who attracted him, or anything about attraction. But he did know that he had felt an odd, fluttering sensation in his stomach when Gadjet had touched him like that…
“Okay,” Gadjet’s voice boomed, abruptly awakening Rayven from his thoughts with a start. “We’re going to be moving at a quicker pace from hereon. We will travel during the day until night falls and it'’ too dark for us to see. We don'’ want to be a vulnerable target for the enemy," he instructed with a stern voice.
“Right!” the other guards around him shouted back.
“As for you,” Gadjet said, turning to Rayven, “don’t stray from the guard.”
Rayven was avoiding eye contact and pretending to be more interested in what was over Gadjet’s shoulder.
“Would you look at me so I know you’re listening!” Gadjet growled. His ears were pushed down in temper.
Rayven feigned deafness, but his ears gave him away and rotated towards Gadjet.
Gadjet’s black cattail seemed to be swatting invisible flies behind him and he angrily crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. You may be a prince, but don’t expect me to treat you like one, hear? If you get yourself into any more trouble, you’ll be damned lucky if I ever help you again!”
Rayven’s tail twitched and his eyes flicked up at Gadjet for a split second before he pretended to be interested in a dull rock by his foot.
“But I’ll give you one more chance,” Gadjet’s voice rung out in a voice so low it was startling. “If you want any future aid from me, you’d better start listening, ad you’d better start showing me that you’re listening.”
Gadjet was hardly one with the authority to give Rayven orders, but now the prince was out of his realm and couldn’t do a thing about it.
The silver-haired boy obediently but hesitantly rose his eyes to meet Gadjet’s and perked his ears to show his utmost attention.
Once Rayven had at last looked up at him, Gadjet realized he found it difficult to maintain the attentive stare. But after the stern lecture he’d just given the prince, who was he to now start looking away?
Gadjet took in a steadying breath and managed to hold a good enough, if somewhat shaky, stare. “Very well. Don’t stray from the guard, least of all me. Don’t reach out or touch anything without my consent. When I tell you to be quiet, shut up. Understand?”
Rayven narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “Fine.”
“Good,” Gadjet said. He turned on his heel and marched back towards the other men. “Everyone ready? Move out!”
The guard resumed its position and started off farther into the grassy meadow at a quick pace.
Gadjet glanced over his shoulder at Rayven, who was falling behind at the sudden quick steps. He was stumbling over his feet while trying to see where he was going and keep up.
“One more thing, prince, if you don’t mind?” Gadjet called to him.
“Not at all,” Rayven replied sarcastically.
“Keep up, won’t you?”
Rayven’s eyes narrowed dangerously and sparkled with angered dislike as he hopped, skipped and sprinted to catch up with Gadjet, who was all but laughing heartily at the sight.
- - - - -
The sun had lowered considerably in the sky and had turned the color that leaves would paint themselves in the fall. The air was growing cool from the small gust of wind that hissed at the strangers who had entered its territory. The vast green meadow had long since been forgotten and replaced with an old dirt road surrounded by dead trees and dried bushes, the air reeking of caution and uncertainty.
The real wolrd, Rayven came to realize, was not all about rainbows and pretty blue butterflies that he longed to chase after. His ears twitched towards every sound. He jumped with a start if he heard a twig snap in two. His eyes shifted back and forth and up and down nervously. So many times he’d wanted to stick closer to Gadjet and cling to his arm, but he knew the other boy would just push him away and cause another argument. Then again, he told himself that he officially hated the cranky boy anyway. He wouldn’t get any closer to him than he absolutely had to.
But that was decided before someone let out a blood-curdling scream.
- - - - -
...
CCCC: I bet you were all scandalized or laughing or
definitely picturing something else going on when the
"suck the poison out" part came up. XDDDD
YOU DIRTY-MINDERS! -wags finger-
Kwakwakwakwa. Anyway, what'dchu think?
FEEDBACK, lovies! I want some. -grabby hands-
n_________n!!
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:50 am
AND AGAAAIIIIN
-does the chicken dance-
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 2:57 am
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:49 am
xD Do that dance with feeling! Loved the first installment! Do update!!! 
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 7:13 pm
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O P E R A T O R Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2006 11:24 pm
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 2:44 pm
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O P E R A T O R Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:41 pm
“Do you know how to swim, your majesty?” Gadjet asked, no longer caring to hide the annoyance in his voice.
“Well… No, but one of you could help me back to safety,” Rayven replied coolly, narrowing his eyes.
Gadjet laughed and glanced at the others around him. “How many of you know how to swim?”
No one answered.
^ xDDD
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:55 pm
Wheee. Chapter three is up.
It's in the same post as the second chapter,
lovies. n______n!!
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 3:23 pm
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Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:38 pm
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:45 pm
You siggy makes me go xD!
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:59 pm
Hehehhe. I couldn't resist.
It's so evil. >D
But I'm going to chage it soon...
Louis from interview with the vampire...<3
Bradd Pitt looked hot in that movie.. not so much anymore.
DDD;
...
guys with long hair... who are vampires..
with pretty eyes... heart
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