Cherished Daughter, Beloved Husband
Aug. 19th, 2003 04:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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yraeAUTHOR Annarti
DISCLAIMER All mine
NOTES Random idea with random characters. I swear I'm not morbid, really >>;
~ ~ ~
It seemed like ages ago that she had seen the kitty cat, orange fur shining like gold in the afternoon sunlight, as it wandered past the kitchen door. Her mother had told her not to leave the house because she could get lost, but Saori knew the streets around her as well as anyone. She couldn’t get lost.
~ ~ ~
“Nau, come to bed. The sun set ages ago and you’ve been at your desk since lunch time.”
Nau sighed irritably and shuffled his papers aside. She was right, but this was something that had to be done. He ran his fingers through his hair and dipped the quill back in his ink pot.
“Won’t be too much longer.” He only mumbled that so she would stop nagging.
“You said that hours ago.”
~ ~ ~
All the streets looked exactly the same at night. She could have been one street from her house and not known it. But now, the dark grey faces of the houses looked like those of an alien city, certainly not her own. Saori whimpered quietly as she aimlessly wandered the streets, subconsciously sucking her thumb as she tried to recognise something that would lead her home, but the star-lit dusty roads refused to tell her anything.
~ ~ ~
“What’re you doing, anyway?”
Nau sighed again and leaned back in his chair, frowning at the words scrawled on the paper in front of him. “Negotiating important business decisions.”
“Whatever.”
He could hear his wife as she rolled over in bed, but didn’t look back at her. Suddenly his frown cleared as a solution to one of the crucial problems in his plan came to his head. He almost leapt for his quill to scrawl it down, as though he was a lion pouncing on its prey.
~ ~ ~
Down one street, she could hear loud voices, occasionally breaking out into deep laughter. Cautiously, Saori crept through the shadows towards the pub. She hesitated, not knowing whether she should go in and ask for help or not. The raucous laughter sounded almost evil, but at the same time there was a warm orange glow of firelight dancing on the cold blue road. Glancing down the street in each direction, she slowly approached the thick wooden door.
~ ~ ~
“Nau, bed.” Auin had that tone she often got when she expected to be obeyed.
“I won’t be much—”
“Now.”
Nau rolled his eyes in the direction of his papers. He was nearing a breakthrough, but that tone of voice wasn’t one to be ignored. He stood up and pushed his chair back with a squeak on the stone floor, then leant over the table and blew the candle out, glancing down at the papers in the starlight for a few more seconds. Pursing his lips, he pushed the chair in and slid into bed beside his wife.
~ ~ ~
Just as Saori reached up to the large brass door handle, it swung violently open, throwing her backwards and into the dust. She gave a small cry and looked at her elbow, grazed slightly from the fall.
“Aww, little girl fall down?” Saori nodded, too young to understand the man’s patronising voice.
One man stooped down and grabbed the girl under her arms and swung her up, grinning up at her. “You want to play a game, little girl?”
Saori squirmed in his iron-tight grip, mumbling something about wanting to go home.
The man laughed, and Saori could smell his foul breath from where he held her. “Sure, you can go home, after we play a game, okay?” Saori nodded, earning more evil laughter from the group.
~ ~ ~
“What was that?” Auin sat up in bed, frowning at the door. “Nau, go see what that was.”
Nau groaned quietly. He’d just about drifted off, but nevertheless, he forced himself out of bed, slinging on a lightweight dressing gown as he trudged towards the back door of the house, where the thud had come from.
Rubbing his eyes, he pushed the dark wooden door away from him and had to catch himself on the brass knob with the sight that met his eyes.
~ ~ ~
Saori was half led, half dragged through the streets of Ni-Yana, becoming even more lost than she had been before. How that was possible, she didn’t know, but she wouldn’t have even been able to make it back to the pub now. The golden furred cat was long gone from her mind.
Finally she was thrown roughly against the wall of some building in a dingy backstreet of the city. Her eyes were beginning to well up with tears for fear of what the men were about to do with her.
The one who had first spoken to her grinned in the dark, his white teeth gleaming against his grey-tinted face. Four shings of steel blades being drawn cut through the silent night.
~ ~ ~
On the wall of Nau’s back garden crouched a girl clad in black and silhouetted against the silver-studded sky. Nau had always been one of the believers, one of the people who knew every word of King Yan’s story was true. One of the people who believed in magic. He’d never seen any of it before himself, but he had always known it was there. It was what separated him from his wife. His mouth opened slightly when he saw the black wings protruding from the girl’s back that confirmed his beliefs.
The black figure was nearly motionless, but even in the black of the moonless night, Nau could see that her eyes were fixed on him. He could almost see a smirk playing on her lips.
“Nau? What is it?” Auin’s sharp voice was a knife cutting through the tense air between the two motionless figures.
~ ~ ~
Saori crouched against the wall, keeping herself as small as possible, her eyes shifting from one glinting knife to another as the men slowly encroached on her.
The man who had dragged her here grabbed her arm and flipped her around, pressing her chest against the wall by resting his full weight on her shoulder blades. In the same movement, he sliced the knife sharply down her spine.
Saori first felt the blade slicing her skin and pulling it apart, but the pain didn’t hit her until after the cut had been made. She screamed and flattened herself against the wall, now feeling nothing but the searing pain in her back.
~ ~ ~
The black figure moved her head up, looking at the window from where Auin’s voice had come. Slowly she lifted her arm, palm facing towards the window, then she lowered it again. Smoothly, she swung herself down from the wall, the wings on her back simultaneously disappearing from view.
She paced silently through the small garden towards him where she stopped, barely a meter separating them. The smirk on her face had disappeared to be replaced by grim severity, but she did nothing.
Nau frowned slightly. Despite the near lack of any light source, he could see the girl’s skin was considerably darker than the tanned olive the rest of Raykin’s people possessed.
“Nimay?” he asked uncertainly.
Nimay grinned that same evil grin, then whipped out her sword with such lightning speed that Nau had barely seen it before it slid cleanly through his throat.
~ ~ ~
Saori could faintly hear the men’s muffled voices through the sound of her own screams, but they were the least of her concerns now. Twice more the blade glided down her back, but slower this time. The cold, sharp edge left a burning mark in her skin and made her scream out again, squirming to try and escape the man’s vice, but all this did was twist the knife edge in her back.
For long minutes the men dragged their blades through her skin, cutting it to ribbons that would never heal properly. Before long, the gouges in her back became indistinguishable, and any extras that were laid on her were unfelt through the agony. If the man had not been pinning her against the wall, she would have collapsed long ago.
When her screams had degraded to quiet sobs, the men grew bored and she was allowed to drop to the ground. She could vaguely feel the press of a solid boot against her back, but like the knife blade it was just a dull ache to add to the throbbing anguish.
Her tears fell uncontrollably as she lay, shivering from blood loss, on the street, her face to the wall. Her shaky, uneven breaths grew more shallow by the second, and with one final shudder, her body relaxed and she lay still.
~ ~ ~
The man and girl lay side by side in the cemetery. Neither knew who the other was, and yet they were destined to spend the rest of time by each other’s side. Their journeys in life were so different, but their destination remained the same. Cherished Daughter, Beloved Husband.
DISCLAIMER All mine
NOTES Random idea with random characters. I swear I'm not morbid, really >>;
It seemed like ages ago that she had seen the kitty cat, orange fur shining like gold in the afternoon sunlight, as it wandered past the kitchen door. Her mother had told her not to leave the house because she could get lost, but Saori knew the streets around her as well as anyone. She couldn’t get lost.
“Nau, come to bed. The sun set ages ago and you’ve been at your desk since lunch time.”
Nau sighed irritably and shuffled his papers aside. She was right, but this was something that had to be done. He ran his fingers through his hair and dipped the quill back in his ink pot.
“Won’t be too much longer.” He only mumbled that so she would stop nagging.
“You said that hours ago.”
All the streets looked exactly the same at night. She could have been one street from her house and not known it. But now, the dark grey faces of the houses looked like those of an alien city, certainly not her own. Saori whimpered quietly as she aimlessly wandered the streets, subconsciously sucking her thumb as she tried to recognise something that would lead her home, but the star-lit dusty roads refused to tell her anything.
“What’re you doing, anyway?”
Nau sighed again and leaned back in his chair, frowning at the words scrawled on the paper in front of him. “Negotiating important business decisions.”
“Whatever.”
He could hear his wife as she rolled over in bed, but didn’t look back at her. Suddenly his frown cleared as a solution to one of the crucial problems in his plan came to his head. He almost leapt for his quill to scrawl it down, as though he was a lion pouncing on its prey.
Down one street, she could hear loud voices, occasionally breaking out into deep laughter. Cautiously, Saori crept through the shadows towards the pub. She hesitated, not knowing whether she should go in and ask for help or not. The raucous laughter sounded almost evil, but at the same time there was a warm orange glow of firelight dancing on the cold blue road. Glancing down the street in each direction, she slowly approached the thick wooden door.
“Nau, bed.” Auin had that tone she often got when she expected to be obeyed.
“I won’t be much—”
“Now.”
Nau rolled his eyes in the direction of his papers. He was nearing a breakthrough, but that tone of voice wasn’t one to be ignored. He stood up and pushed his chair back with a squeak on the stone floor, then leant over the table and blew the candle out, glancing down at the papers in the starlight for a few more seconds. Pursing his lips, he pushed the chair in and slid into bed beside his wife.
Just as Saori reached up to the large brass door handle, it swung violently open, throwing her backwards and into the dust. She gave a small cry and looked at her elbow, grazed slightly from the fall.
“Aww, little girl fall down?” Saori nodded, too young to understand the man’s patronising voice.
One man stooped down and grabbed the girl under her arms and swung her up, grinning up at her. “You want to play a game, little girl?”
Saori squirmed in his iron-tight grip, mumbling something about wanting to go home.
The man laughed, and Saori could smell his foul breath from where he held her. “Sure, you can go home, after we play a game, okay?” Saori nodded, earning more evil laughter from the group.
“What was that?” Auin sat up in bed, frowning at the door. “Nau, go see what that was.”
Nau groaned quietly. He’d just about drifted off, but nevertheless, he forced himself out of bed, slinging on a lightweight dressing gown as he trudged towards the back door of the house, where the thud had come from.
Rubbing his eyes, he pushed the dark wooden door away from him and had to catch himself on the brass knob with the sight that met his eyes.
Saori was half led, half dragged through the streets of Ni-Yana, becoming even more lost than she had been before. How that was possible, she didn’t know, but she wouldn’t have even been able to make it back to the pub now. The golden furred cat was long gone from her mind.
Finally she was thrown roughly against the wall of some building in a dingy backstreet of the city. Her eyes were beginning to well up with tears for fear of what the men were about to do with her.
The one who had first spoken to her grinned in the dark, his white teeth gleaming against his grey-tinted face. Four shings of steel blades being drawn cut through the silent night.
On the wall of Nau’s back garden crouched a girl clad in black and silhouetted against the silver-studded sky. Nau had always been one of the believers, one of the people who knew every word of King Yan’s story was true. One of the people who believed in magic. He’d never seen any of it before himself, but he had always known it was there. It was what separated him from his wife. His mouth opened slightly when he saw the black wings protruding from the girl’s back that confirmed his beliefs.
The black figure was nearly motionless, but even in the black of the moonless night, Nau could see that her eyes were fixed on him. He could almost see a smirk playing on her lips.
“Nau? What is it?” Auin’s sharp voice was a knife cutting through the tense air between the two motionless figures.
Saori crouched against the wall, keeping herself as small as possible, her eyes shifting from one glinting knife to another as the men slowly encroached on her.
The man who had dragged her here grabbed her arm and flipped her around, pressing her chest against the wall by resting his full weight on her shoulder blades. In the same movement, he sliced the knife sharply down her spine.
Saori first felt the blade slicing her skin and pulling it apart, but the pain didn’t hit her until after the cut had been made. She screamed and flattened herself against the wall, now feeling nothing but the searing pain in her back.
The black figure moved her head up, looking at the window from where Auin’s voice had come. Slowly she lifted her arm, palm facing towards the window, then she lowered it again. Smoothly, she swung herself down from the wall, the wings on her back simultaneously disappearing from view.
She paced silently through the small garden towards him where she stopped, barely a meter separating them. The smirk on her face had disappeared to be replaced by grim severity, but she did nothing.
Nau frowned slightly. Despite the near lack of any light source, he could see the girl’s skin was considerably darker than the tanned olive the rest of Raykin’s people possessed.
“Nimay?” he asked uncertainly.
Nimay grinned that same evil grin, then whipped out her sword with such lightning speed that Nau had barely seen it before it slid cleanly through his throat.
Saori could faintly hear the men’s muffled voices through the sound of her own screams, but they were the least of her concerns now. Twice more the blade glided down her back, but slower this time. The cold, sharp edge left a burning mark in her skin and made her scream out again, squirming to try and escape the man’s vice, but all this did was twist the knife edge in her back.
For long minutes the men dragged their blades through her skin, cutting it to ribbons that would never heal properly. Before long, the gouges in her back became indistinguishable, and any extras that were laid on her were unfelt through the agony. If the man had not been pinning her against the wall, she would have collapsed long ago.
When her screams had degraded to quiet sobs, the men grew bored and she was allowed to drop to the ground. She could vaguely feel the press of a solid boot against her back, but like the knife blade it was just a dull ache to add to the throbbing anguish.
Her tears fell uncontrollably as she lay, shivering from blood loss, on the street, her face to the wall. Her shaky, uneven breaths grew more shallow by the second, and with one final shudder, her body relaxed and she lay still.
The man and girl lay side by side in the cemetery. Neither knew who the other was, and yet they were destined to spend the rest of time by each other’s side. Their journeys in life were so different, but their destination remained the same. Cherished Daughter, Beloved Husband.