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Red Riding Hood -- Chapter 2
Pairings: KuroFai, SakuSyao, DouWata
Rating: M
Warning: No sex in this one, No sex in this one, but lots of creepy magic and rodents. Violence.
Summary: Little Red Riding Hood was "devoured" by the wolf but that never was supposed to be the end of the story. The world keeps turning, and magic, rats, and a strangers are appearing in Hamelin. Things are starting to move and everything slowly but surely seems to be turning upside down on Fai. AU.
Chapters: 1 | 2
a/n: Tons of thanks to the usual suspects, especially to faren_maddox, who did an awesome job making this chapter readable (and the next one that will hopefully be posted within the next few days), and to cloverfield and uakari for their support! I wouldn't know what to do without you! :D
*****
Night had fallen when the lights of the village finally came into sight. Fai had been unsteady on his feet at first, but soon he had broken into a jog when daylight had become so scarce that was afraid he would lose his way. He had pulled his cape tightly around him. Even at the hottest part of the summer the nights were cool out in the forest. He was still shivering from washing in the cold water of the stream.
The expression on Kurogane’s face wouldn’t leave him. The hurt and the disappointment. Most of all the rage that had frightened him more than he liked to admit.
Instead of following the main road, which led in a half-circle to the front of the inn, he trudged down a steep trail cutting down from the edge of the forest to the backyard of his family’s inn. He could make out his little sister sitting at the front porch. She had mounted a little oil lamp on the stone wall encircling the thatched house, probably to provide her with light for embroidering. Sakura was good at mending things, might it be cloth through stitches or feelings through her genuine compassion. Even broken skin seemed to heal faster if only she tended to it with her soft smile and hands. Now, her face glowed warmly in flickering light that was illuminating the shrubbery behind her almost magically. However, at the moment her needle lay still in her lap and she had lifted her head to talk to… who was that?
The children’s heads turned around as Fai stumbled across a root and skittered down the last part of the dusty road with an ungraceful yelp.
“Fai!” Sakura cried out, finally putting down her embroidery hoop and jumping to her feet to meet her brother halfway and grasp his hands. “God bless you, you’re back. Mother has started worrying, you know how she feels about us being out at night…”
“Ah, it was Yuuko,” Fai chuckled, feeling comforted by her presence. “She didn’t seem very impressed when I told her I’d need to be back on time.” Then he turned around to face the kid that stood frozen at the porch. He seemed to fit in wonderfully with the flock of chicken at his feet that stopped in their tracks to stare at Fai in fear. The kid blinked as the hens started clucking nervously and scuttling away from Red Riding Hood. The rooster puffed a little and let out an unsettled cry, before fluttering after his harem. Strange how animals had never liked him, while the wolf latched onto him like that. “And you would be…?”
“Ah, um, excuse me, Sir, I’m Syaoran,” the kid provided with a stutter, throwing out a hand in greeting. Fai grabbed and shook it, taking in the dusty cloak, the worn boots, and the way the kid’s hair was bleached and his skin tanned from long exposure to the sun. Only then the name registered with him and he had trouble hiding his curiosity – Yuuko had mentioned that they’d meet, and that the boy and Sakura would, ‘give her grief.’ It did cost Fai one look at the boy’s flustered face to realize what kind of grief she probably meant.
“I’m Fai, Sakura’s brother. You’re passing through here?” Fai asked with a friendly smile. He glanced at Sakura and noticed the shy happiness lingering there. Well, it certainly didn’t seem like she was minding the boy’s attention…
“Yeah, I’m a wandering musician, and I didn’t plan on staying long…” He didn’t seem quite sure whether he would follow that particular plan of his, as his eyes darted to Sakura. Fai felt a smirk creeping over his face.
“Feel free to stay with us as long as you wish,” he said cheerfully. “I’m sure my little sister here will take good care of you.”
“Y-yes, I will!” Sakura exclaimed immediately. “I, I mean, a musician is always welcome in Hamelin. And welcome at our inn.”
“Uhm, thank you…” the boy muttered.
“The town is so small that people are glad for anything new, and I’m sure you could stay for free if I talked to mother…”
“I really don’t want to impose!” the boy blurted out. “I have enough money to pay my debts. I’m sure there will be no need to trouble you.”
“Oh, but it would be no trouble! And I’m, I’m sure your skills are wonderful…”
“No, I mean… they’re not that much…”
“Um…” They both seemed at a loss for words and Fai firmly pressed his mouth shut and forbid himself to tease the awkward children any further. Sakura fiddled with the hem of her apron and the boy was rubbing his neck and trying to look at everything but the blushing girl before him. Then Sakura seemed to finally work up the courage to break the silence: “Um, Syaoran, you promised me you would play for, for me, earlier, and I would really like to hear it… maybe you would, now?”
Syaoran seemed happy to have something to do and, after a nervous glance at Fai, nodded and dug around the pouch hanging from his shoulder. Fai suddenly noticed that he was completely exhausted. He didn’t even have the energy to think of puppy and the mess that this “mating” had brought forth. He glanced over to the house. He should really be back inside and help his mother with the chores. Or maybe simply drop into bed and be dead to the world.
Syaoran straightened, pulling out a carefully polished flute of silver that was glinting in the light of the oil lamp. Sakura clasped her hands and her eyes were shining with anticipation. Fai felt his chest warming up at the sight of her. He loved his sister, for what she was and what she did, and anything that would bring a smile to her face couldn’t be that wrong. Well, a few more minutes wouldn’t do any harm, right? He settled down next to her on the brick wall, which was still radiating the heat of the day. Syaoran lifted the flute to his lips, a look of careful concentration on his face.
The first note rose warm and softly into the night. And though Fai was so tired that his lids kept drooping, there was something in the way he played that captivated him. The musician wasn’t even very good – the notes stumbled and his fingers didn’t seem to keep up with the song – but as the melody carried on, Fai felt that he couldn’t have been brought to care. Something in his chest curled up into a warm, tight ball and the music seemed to coax his mind to happy memories, back into the forest. The smell of summer flowers and Sakura’s shampoo mingled with that of the needles and the resin of conifers. His head was light and somehow he didn’t feel the floor under his feet anymore. Soft fur brushed against his arm, and through the haze of a dream he noticed Mokona settling down next to him. This white cat that Yuuko had given to them was one of the few animals that didn’t seem spooked by his presence. The song soared and then waned.
Fai found himself blinking at the boy in front of him, as the kid slowly lifted his eyes. The chicken had sidled up to his legs and now started clucking lowly. Cats had come out to sit on the sidelines, tails swishing, and rodents scuttled back into their holes in horror as they recognized their company. As he turned his head, he saw his mother standing in the lit entrance of the house, her hands still wrapped in a dishtowel.
“That was amazing,” his sister breathed next to him. The boy blushed and a smile spread across his features. Something set off an alarm inside Fai’s head. He was sure that this was more than just ‘amazing’ – it was magic. He did recognize the gift by now, after all that he had seen and felt it around Yuuko and Watanuki. He’d have to talk about this to his aunt. For now, he kept his mouth firmly shut as the blushing boy seemed mostly unaware of it, and he decided to keep an eye on him. He didn’t know how powerful this kind of magic was, but everything that would fog the mind like that was dangerous.
“You are very talented, Syaoran,” he said with a smile a bit thinner than intended. He yawned widely to cover it up, stood up and stretched, feeling out of place with the two kids making eyes at each other. “I’ll be inside. I am sure mother will need help, now that we’re having guests.”
“Um, I’m coming in a moment,” Sakura said, only shortly breaking eye-contact with the boy in front of her. Her eyes had taken that expression that would normally make Fai glare at whomever she was talking to. He was too tired to care, today, and Syaoran was so caught up in staring back that he probably wouldn’t have noticed unless Fai had shouted at him.
“Remember it’s getting dark,” Fai allowed and made his way inside. Night had fallen in deep blue over the cottage, leaving the figure of her mother as a black shadow against the light. When he arrived at the doorstep, she hugged him closely.
“Where have you been, you stupid boy,” she chided him without force, stroking his hair and back as though he had been gone for far longer than an afternoon. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her back. He would have been tall enough to make her vanish in his embrace, if it hadn’t been for the steps up to the inn giving her a few inches on him. It was strange how young he felt today, when his nose came barely up to her shoulder, and blonde hair that fell out of her bun was tickling his nose. She smelled of home and safety, and his hands fisted a bit in her clothes, as the warmth of her body drowned out his frustration with the dark man he had left behind. Everything is alright, her presence whispered at him. It was a kind of magic, as well, the kind that every mother could work.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said lowly. “You know I can take care of myself, Mom.”
His mother pulled back to look at him intently, brushing a strand of hair behind his ear. “And no matter how often you tell me that, I am scared that you won’t come back one day,” she said. Her mouth opened, as though to say something more, worked silently for a moment. Fai noticed the lines of worry that had dug into her face over the last years. Laughter waved out from behind her together with a warm gust of stale air. “Come inside, dinner is already cold but I just started tea.”
They crossed the vast main room of the inn, the tavern, which was almost deserted save for a few men that were playing cards, bursting into periodical loud laughter at dirty jokes. Mother and son silently slipped into the small kitchen in the private rooms toward the back of the house. She poured tea and he sat down to eat cold beans and potatoes. Even though he was exhausted, the food slowly brought his spirits back. His mother was watching him with a mug of tea clutched in her hands.
“You’ve growing up,” she suddenly said. Fai looked up to see a soft, pained smile stretched across her lips.
“That’s not a bad thing, is it?” he said quietly and returned to picking at his food and hiding his blush. He hoped that his mother didn’t know what those words made him think of.
“No. I’m proud of you,” she answered simply. She had always been direct about these things, and Fai ducked his head. There was that stupid smile pulling on his features that she always managed to produce and he wasn’t going to make it too obvious. Her next words were a bit different from the usual routine, though, and her voice sounded almost insecure, while she uttered them. “Have I ever told you that I feel that you’re going to leave this town, one day? I feel that you’re made for bigger things. You’re not made to be a woodworker or a farmer. You have always been far more.”
Fai looked up at her, searching her face for what she meant by that. Worry, hope… some kind of sadness that took him aback. “Mom, I wouldn’t leave you alone.”
“Don’t say such stupid things,” she chided him without force, nursing her mug. “All children leave their parents one day.”
“Everyone stays together here,” he grinned lopsidedly.
For a moment, her smile fell away and she looked like she was going to say something. The moment stretched and Fai remembered that situations like these had occurred before and more often, recently. What do you want to tell me, he made his eyes ask, crossing the endless silence that lay between them. What is it that I don’t know? Seconds ticked away and laughter drifted in from the tavern.
“Fai, dear, if you are different and special, you shouldn’t deny it but make something of it,” his mother smiled at him in a fierce way and averted her eyes a bit too quickly after that. Fai loved her for saying things like these so casually, but in this moment he felt a bit cheated. She was evading him, again. “And if you’re not going to eat properly, go to bed for today. You look tired and Sakura is going to help me finish up. Once she gets her head together and concentrates enough to not trip over her own feet.”
Fai laughed and let it go, not asking what was pulling on her heart for weeks now. He knew she would tell him eventually. Eventually. They had all the time in the world, didn’t they? Once he was up in the room he shared with his little sister, lit by nothing but moonlight, he was blinking heavily while pulling off his clothes and folding his red coat carefully over the back of his chair. Sleep came over him swiftly, like dark blanket, painted with hazy dreams of wolves and soaked in the smell of warm earth.
*
The wolf had been following the trail all night, shadows curling and parting before him, as his feet lead him through the maze of trees and bushes. Even though he knew this forest better than anyone else, tonight, under a starless heaven, he wondered if he had lost his way. For once, these woods seemed to have turned into an endless maze, leaving him running without sense of direction, his eyes blind and his sense of smell dulled. He was lost in the stench he was following, the poison that was warping his territory into an unknown place. His breath too loud in his ears, his feet moving in a ceaseless run that had him sweating coldly, yet he felt like he wasn’t even touching the ground. Dread had settled in long ago, and he was floating on the panic pumping in his veins. He wasn’t running away, dammit, he wasn’t. Suddenly, unexpectedly, the woods lifted and he broke out into a clearing. He stumbled to a halt, looking around wildly and trying to discern where he was.
The river.
The grass was a weaving like soft blackness against his ankles, sloping into grey dirty sand and the bottomless ink that would have been clear waters at day. The sound of the rushing waves were swallowing the shallow pants of Kurogane’s breath, the painful thumping of his heartbeat. No birds were calling tonight, as though they had hidden in fear from what was lurking in their forest.
And there, by the water, small and crouching, sat what he had been searching for. The sour stench of disease and feces wafted over, curling around him, clinging to his skin in a wet, sticky way. And the hairs on the back of his neck rose, one by one, sending a tickling shiver down his spine. He tried to shake the feeling and almost involuntarily snorted sharply. The head of whatever had been crouching there swiveled around. Everything in Kurogane was screaming at him to run or to attack and kill, but all he could do was stand frozen, staring at what was sending creeping fear through his body to tingle under his skin. The creature seemed to be made of solid, light-swallowing blackness, melting into the blackness of the river, the forest behind it, the unfathomable sky overhead. Like death, personfied. The shadow wavered around the edges and for a moment Kurogane had to blink to make sure it was even there. His head pounded. In a sudden movement the creature sprung up, and Kurogane’s breath stopped when he recognized the shape of a human – and then it started running.
With a curse the wolf finally felt the paralysis cracking and sprinted after it. Damn it, what was it with him? Why was it so hard to move, to even think? The pure malevolence that poisoned the air in the demon’s wake left him snorting and shaking his head to clear his senses, and when it broke from the clearing to vanish back into the forest, he almost lost it.
The adrenaline in blood didn’t only come from the rush of the hunt, and his temples were throbbing in time with his heartbeat. He felt the pressing need to get this thing out of here. He couldn’t tolerate it poisoning his prey, the waters, he couldn’t accept this creature of death living in his forest. It was him or it. He growled and he hurried his pace, feeling like he was following the devil himself, but not losing it this time, not turning away from the darkness that was ready to engulf and consume him. He was running with the shadows because he wasn’t ready to give up on his territory.
He didn’t even know where he was until suddenly the underbrush cleared up and they broke out onto the road to the town. The figure was stumbling down the slope onto the cobblestone, suddenly visible in the grayness of dawn, and Kurogane saw his chance and he pounced, landing on the back of the shrieking thing, sending it crashing onto the stones, feeling the ribcage of the creature crack under his hands.
The creature seemed to have too many limbs, writhing like a dying spider, lashing out at him with hands and nails, and Kurogane growled and hissed and fought to keep it pressed down on its stomach so it couldn’t reach him. This close up, the foul smell made it hard to even breathe. His head was swimming and he only knew he couldn’t let go, he couldn’t let the beast run free, and all his feverish energy went into wrestling it down. Cold sweat was trickling down his back and his body was shivering convulsively. He needed to finish this. He lost his grip, and for a moment the thing came up, and was almost above him, and for a frozen, endless second he thought he was going to die, right there. Memories rushed by, his father, his pack, his mate… Then, time started again, and he roared, grabbing the things head and crashing it down against the stone hard enough to draw blood, exposing its neck, and bared his teeth for the kill
A deafening bang rang through the air and Kurogane almost jumped out of his skin. He shifted on top of his now still prey to look down the road. His vision was blurry and he had to blink a few times to clear the image. A single human kneeled there, the first, pale red hues of the rising sun at his back, and behind him the image of the town bathed in mist of early morning. The hunter. Doumeki. Kurogane growled.
The man lowered his rifle from the position of a warning shot to aim directly for Kurogane’s head. His face was normally as hard to read as his smell, but today there was a warning written across his features. They exchanged a glance. Kurogane had come to a silent understanding with this human – Doumeki didn’t take interest in what the wolf was doing as long as it did no harm to his people, and the wolf let him take what he needed from his forest, may it be deer or rabbit. They, who were supposed to be enemies, were the closest to friends Kurogane had ever known a wolf and a man to be.
“Help!” the thing from under him shouted suddenly. Kurogane just stared at it. He honestly hadn’t expected the thing know speech. “This… this man suddenly jumped me, I was only trying to pass through the forest…”
Kurogane’s gaze swiveled back towards the hunter and he could practically hear the man’s finger bend around the trigger. Kurogane couldn’t let the demon go.
“Go back to your village, this one is mine to kill,” Kurogane bellowed at him. “Even if you save this thing, the best you’re going to get out of it is one hell of a headache!”
The hunter seemed to think for a moment, before he shouted, “Step aside, so I can see the man.”
“No, you idiot,” Kurogane yelled across the distance, “If I let it go, it’ll run, dumbass! You know what a pain in the ass it was to capture!?”
“Please help me!” the thing whined and Kurogane pressed its face flat against the stone in anger. As the sun came up, Kurogane for the first time could make out what it looked like. It was a slender man, white skin, dark black hair, round glasses. He was clad in a traveling coat that must have been expensive, before it got sullied and ripped in the woods; he had the looks of an academic. Kurogane blinked. This he had been hunting so fervently? A stupid pretty boy from the city? The stench that had had him so agitated and panicked before had somewhat reduced. The wolf realized that the man was clutching a pouch securely to his chest. The smell definitely came from that bag, while the man himself was nothing but a useless human, cologne, fear, and fresh blood clinging to his skin. He wasn’t the enemy he had been hunting.
“I should shoot you,” the hunter mused, but instead he stood up and came almost carelessly closer, though doubtlessly his rifle was still trained on the wolf’s head. Kurogane didn’t care to look at him, as sound and smell told him what the hunter was doing, but instead watched the human thing beneath him. He was bleeding where his hands and the side of his head had collided with the stone and seemed to be in pain and terrified.
“What is in there?” the wolf growled at him, jerking his chin at the pouch. The man suddenly gave him a defiant look.
“I mean no harm to you – I lost my travel companions, we were stopping in the woods on our way to Bielefeld, where we wanted to set up business-“
“What’s in that bag!?” Kurogane barked angrily.
“Nothing,” the man cried. “I mean…” the man struggled under him. Kurogane didn’t have the feeling he was faking his weakness – the low, thrumming energy that had made him fast and strong before seemed to have left him. Magic, Kurogane thought darkly. “If you’d let me up, I would show you…”
Kurogane felt a sudden change in the density of the air, and he realized that he could breathe normally again. The fear was gone. The sun had started crouching over the horizon by now, and instead of grey shades the scenery was basking in a warm yellow. He stared at the bag that the man still cradled at his side. The smell had vanished. The smell had vanished.
Kurogane eased off the man and ripped the bag out of his hands. He heard his indignant shout, but ignored it, as he opened the lid of the pouch and stared at-
A few books, writing materials, a flask that smelled of alcohol, and a small bundle of supplies.
“What the…?” Kurogane turned the bag upside down and shook it out. Harmless papers and pens cluttered to the ground, something made of glass crashed and broke against the stone. Nothing. Nothing at all to explain the smell that had been clouding his forest for days. He sniffed at the books for good measure, then bared his teeth at the man that now sat a few meters away from him. He was breathing hard and trying to come up, but failing due to his shaking knees. His glare was still fearful, but there was courage there, too.
“Happy now?” he asked with a shaking, angry voice. “No need to break my things.”
Kurogane angrily hurled the leather bag at the mess in the mud. He was being played. He then stared at Doumeki who had his rifle slung over his shoulder in the meantime and looked at him with his usual, blank expression that seemed to ask the world what it was even trying to achieve by turning.
“Fine, you can have him,” Kurogane bit out. “But I warn you, that bastard is not who he pretends to be. And you,” he snarled at the citizen that had finally come up to his feet, “stay out of the forest. Next time I will rip out your throat and be done with it.”
Doumeki wasn’t stupid. Most of the time, at least. Kurogane still wasn’t comfortable leaving this to him, but what the hell, if the man thought he could handle it, let him. The humans could deal with this on their own, as long as the pest stayed in the village it wasn’t his business. And with that, he turned his back on them and angrily let the forest engulf him, watching the two men making their retreat to the human area.
*
“Out! Out with you!” Fai shouted in exasperation and chased the squeaking animals out of the pantry. He swung his spade and shouted in triumph as he got one of the creatures. Rat bones crashed and the animal wailed and died at his feet. The rest of them skittered out of the back door into the small vegetable garden. Mokona darted past Fai’s feet and out into the sunshine to pounce the rats scuttling between the green of the carrots. Fai was breathing heavily in the cool shadow of the hallway. It was a beautiful, warm summer morning, the last of the dew evaporating with the promise of great heat to come in the afternoon. He wished he could have started his day differently.
Carefully he lifted the gardening tool from the soft, broken animal on the floor. He shuddered, loaded the thing on the shovel, and carried it out into the garden and towards the compost. Mokona was flitting in between the green, a spot of white amidst the tomatoes. Fai watched the dead body of the rat land amidst the kitchen waste with a soft thump. He made a face. He hated chasing vermin out. He would have just ignored them flitting around his feet this morning, if he hadn’t found the little pests building a nest a in the sugar pot of all places, and now he was pretty sure that, after killing the still naked breed, he had to throw all of it away and check all of their supplies to make sure they weren’t infested, as well. And they refilled the sugar in the kitchen twice a week. It was a desperate spot for the rats to breed, really, assuming they weren’t consciously trying to give him the shock of his life.
He contemplated the cool shadow of the conifers looming only a few dozen meters away from the little, sun-bathed garden. Maybe he could talk puppy into helping him…? Then again, he had the feeling that Kurogane would destroy more of the house in his wake than he could clear from the pests.
There was a high shriek from the kitchen and something crashed to the floor and shattered. Fai turned with a curse and jogged back towards the house to duck into kitchen. Sakura was standing on top of the kitchen table amidst the remains of breakfast, hands clutched securely to a frying pan.
“F-Fai,” she squeaked with eyes as wide as saucers, “do something!”
Fai had always felt sympathetic toward animals in some way – even as most of them shunned him, they were so much easier to understand than humans – but rats were cutting it close, these days.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” he muttered and swung his spade carefully to not hit any of the furniture. Of course, it crashed down uselessly between a whole family of the little imps. The rats scattered unharmed away from the new dent in the wooden floor, and within seconds they vanished under the cabinet. Fai crouched on all fours to peak under the cupboard – nothing. They had probably escaped into the walls or entered the space between the foundation and the floor, by now. Something was rustling next to his ear directly under the wooden boards and he stood back up with a disgusted shudder.
“They’re gone, you can come down now,” he extended a hand to steady his shaking sister while she stepped down onto a chair and then onto the floor. Broken porcelain and shattered pastries were crunching under her boots and she looked close to tears.
“I only wanted to put the remaining rusk from breakfast away, and when I opened the cupboard, suddenly one of them jumped down onto the plate. And it started climbing up my arm! I hope Mom won’t be angry, those plates were so expensive…”
“Shush, it’s okay,” Fai squeezed her shoulders in his best big-brother manner. “I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t have let the plate fall if a beast like that jumped them from above.” Sakura laughed shakily and finally seemed able to unclench her fingers enough to put the pan back onto its rack behind the stove. “We will have to get poison, though, if it continues like this… I didn’t know they were getting desperate enough to lose their fear of humans like that…”
“I’ve heard that there are much more of them in town,” Sakura said quietly. She had sat down, still a bit pale and hands clutched in her lap. Sakura knew most of the recent gossip, as she was responsible for ordering supplies and keeping the pantry of the inn stacked. She had grown into a pretty girl with bright, cheerful presence and as a result people liked her well enough to give her discounts every now and then. Fai didn’t always approve of what they told his sister, though, as too much of it were stories to scare children and hapless young girls.
“It seems like we’re the only ones that didn’t have a problem with the rats up to now. Yesterday, when I went to town, I saw one of them stealing meat right off the grill at the butcher’s stand. And the old widow Lennard said that a few days ago that when going to bed she found three rat’s nests in her mattress, all filled with babies…”
“Ah, she’s a bitter old woman and exaggerating,” Fai said in an attempt to cheer her sinister expression. “Wasn’t she the one who said she had seen the devil himself climbing in through her window, a few years back?”
“Well… you know that her man died exactly a month after that…”
“And only then she seemed to remember her own vision,” Fai waved it away.
“You can’t deny this seems to be a plague, though,” she answered with a weak smile. Fai looked at her warmly. No, he really couldn’t deny it. But this wasn’t about the rats, this was about the fear Sakura had had of them ever since she was a little kid.
“Whatever this is, it will pass. Ask toothless Jacob instead of the tale-spinning widow, he will tell you that he lived through three rat plagues far worse than this one and probably that he almost lost his leg twice while fighting them.” That finally made Sakura laugh, and Fai couldn’t help but smile in relief to see her spirits return.
“Oh, what happened to that young musician, by the way? Syaoran, right? Is he going to stay?”
Sakura blushed a bit and seemed much happier. “Yes, he said he would stay,” then her forehead wrinkled a bit, “even though I told him about the rats and how bad Hamelin was off at the moment, he said he didn’t mind much. He said… that he liked the inn a lot.” He blushed a bit deeper, as though that wasn’t the only thing the boy had said he liked here.
“Really?” Fai smirked at her. He honestly didn’t like it too much that his sister seemed to fall for that stranger as fast as she did. He generally was suspicious of anyone trying to sneak into his sister’s good graces, and he didn’t know what to make of this Syaoran and his strange gift, too. She was just a child and she was far too sweet and naïve to recognize people’s intentions for what they were half of the time. He felt like he should protect her from the evil that was men as long as he still could. He still had a hard time understanding that Sakura had officially turned fifteen and was old enough to marry without it looking strange. In his mind, she was five and carrying little animals to in her grimy hands to show him, seven and covered in flour from head to toe in their kitchen, twelve and grinning like leaving school and algebra behind to help at the house all of the time was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She was an adult, and Fai couldn’t wrap his mind around it when she sat before him in the sunlit kitchen, her hair glowing around her head and soft face, and when she smiled at something – at someone – that was not even there.
She practically glowed from within. Fai felt his heart melt a bit and at the same time he felt a bit lost. His little sister was in love. She was in love, with a boy she probably knew nothing about. And if her brother didn’t like said boy very much, well, it wasn’t his place to meddle. Fai suddenly realized that he was very plainly and obviously jealous. He could have hit himself.
He wondered what kind of look he had on his face when thinking about Kuro-puppy. Maybe this wasn’t so different. And though he still was confused and nervous about all that was happening, and though he felt like he needed a lot of time to sort his feelings out… for nothing in the world he would want to turn the clock back to undo the happenings of yesterday night. Warm, tingling waves washed over him thinking of the dark man, and his face prickled with excitement. Was he a fool like Sakura to fall in love with someone he didn’t even know? Was he in love? Don’t be stupid, he thought at himself, it’s too soon to say, it’s just bodily reaction. He tried hard to stop grinning when his face wouldn’t cooperate.
Sakura sighed silently, and he felt his grin dissolving as he wondered if she would run after the boy the way he had run after puppy. A strange feeling of dread washed over him as he drew the parallels and realized what this would lead to, at some point. He was relatively sure that their mother had talked to her over boys and… things that he didn’t want to imagine his sister doing. She had talked to her, hadn’t she?
“Sakura, you…” he started mindlessly. She turned to look at him, all wide-eyed innocence. Oh God, he couldn’t do this. His mind was racing. Who did he know who had no problems handling situations like this one?
Yuuko, of course. She was a terrible influence when it came to sex but on the other hand, making Sakura aware was the one thing he was trying to accomplish, wasn’t it? He was fighting with himself for about three second of opening and closing his mouth uselessly before losing to his inner prankster.
“I just remembered that aunt Yuuko gave me something for you,” he claimed and started to dig through his pockets. He told him that he wasn’t just doing this to see the look on his sister’s face. This was important. “Hold out your hand.” He produced half a dozen little, glistening packets and deposited them in Sakura’s waiting palms.
“Fai!” Sakura jumped as she recognized what he had just given her before blushing madly. “I, I, I… no, I’m not, not going out with Syaoran or something! We’re no married! I don’t even know him!”
“I’m sure that’s just our aunt’s way of saying that she’s aware of everything,” Fai grinned at her with a shrug, shamelessly glad to have shoved the condoms onto someone else. “And besides you never know what will happen. Mother explained you how they work, didn’t she?” In that instant, thankfully the door flew open and Sakura hurriedly stuffed the fruit-flavored creations of the devil into the pockets of her apron.
“Miss Sakura, look at how many I caught!” Sakura turned her head to the door with a bright, innocent smile – and then let out an ear-splitting scream. She almost climbed up Fai, jumping onto the chair and hugging her brother’s face to her breast. Fai had to fight her grip for a moment to be able to breathe again. The girl was strong if she was terrified and why did she have to press her arm against his nose like that…? The man finally managed to gasp for air and turn in her grip to see Syaoran in standing there, panting, and the proud smile slowly slipping from his face. He held up three squirming rats by the tails like a trophy, leaving them to grapple all over each other and trying to bite at his gloved fingers or wrist. Also, he had a whole squeaking, wriggling bag thrown over his shoulder.
Fai marveled almost as much at the boy’s skills as at his bad timing.
“Oh, sorry, I, I will…” the musician started stuttering, then slung down the linen bag and opened it wide enough to give Fai a glimpse of angry, terrified creatures worming inside and a hint of the sour smell of rat excrements. Syaoran shoved the three rats in with their brethren and closed the bag with one quick, deft movement before any of them had the chance escape. “I mean, I’m just going to put them outside.”
“Wait!” Fai shouted, pealing Sakura’s clutching hands off of his face. “We have to kill them right now, they will tear the bag. Ouch! Sakura, please let go of my hair!”
“S-s-sorry,” Sakura whimpered and crouched down on her chair to cling to the backrest. “You won’t kill them in here, will you?”
“Of course not,” Fai smiled at her humorlessly and then grabbed his spade with grim determination. “Syaoran, outside.”
And for once, Fai could understand why the chicken were fleeing from him. The sun was high and bright, beating down on them relentlessly, soaking Fai’s shirt with sweat. The thrums of his spade beating down on fur and bones echoed through the small courtyard. Fai hated killing these things. He hated it. But that didn’t stop him from letting the spade crash down on the bag over and over again, until nothing inside was moving anymore. Syaoran carried the bag, wet from blood and other things, through the small vegetable fields shook it out over the compost at the back of the parcel. They made sure none of the rats were alive. Fai’s stomach almost turned as he used his spade to dig through blood-soaked fur, bodies smeared with feces and urine that the animals couldn’t hold while dying or in their terrified state of being crushed together in the sack.
“Good work, Syaoran, thank you,” Fai smiled at him, when they turned their back at the bloody mess. Syaoran nodded, though he was a bit paler than before.
“How did you manage to do that?” Fai asked in hope to deter his thoughts from the dying things. “You can’t have spend more than two hours on catching them, nothing we have tried up to now has worked as well as that…”
“Uh, it’s…” Syaoran threw Fai a mistrustful glance before clearing his throat. “Um, I’m fast,” he finally managed without looking at him.
Something clicked. Fai cleared his expression carefully before mentioning, “Well, and your music is quite mesmerizing, isn’t it?”
Syaoran gaped at him. “Idon’tknowwhatyou’retalkingabout,” he garbled.
“I mean, you should really play for us, tonight,” he answered throwing the spade over his shoulder with a grin. “I’m sure Sakura would love to hear you play again and you could make good money; there are a lot of regulars in on a Friday night. I hope for your own good that that music isn’t the only thing that she likes about you, though. I don’t need to tell you that magic is really a dangerous thing to play with, do I?”
“I know what I’m doing,” Syaoran huffed.
“Really? Well, what are you doing?”
The sputtering boy was saved from answering when a good friend of the inn turned the corner.
“Doumeki!” Fai warbled and skipped over to greet the hunter. Doumeki stoically let himself be hugged, stopping in the blue shadow of the two-storied building. His eyes, though, carefully took in Syaoran. “So nice to see you! I had hoped I would meet you at Yuuko’s, Watanuki really seems to like you, you know.”
Doumeki just stared at him incredulously. His expression seemed to ask him what the hell he had smoked. Well, maybe it wasn’t that obvious to the two of them.
“Oh, and this here is Syaoran, by the way, Sakura’s boyfriend.”
“What!? No!” Syaoran turned a nice shade of red.
“No need to be shy, Syaoran. This is Doumeki, Hamelin’s hunter.”
“Yo,” Doumeki greeted him. Then he fell silent, seemingly contemplating something in Syaoran’s face, who grew a bit nervous and repeated how he was not Sakura’s boyfriend and then started talking about his journey as a wandering musician. If there was one thing the hunter excelled in, it was silence. Fai sometimes felt that the man was a force of nature. Like a rock. Deposit him somewhere and you could see the grass grow around him. He at times didn’t seem to be aware that not everybody could read his thoughts, though.
“Well, Doumeki, what brings you here?” Fai finally asked.
“You should see what is happening in the town,” Doumeki answered at length, finally looking away from the boy. Fai blinked. A thin line of worry was creasing the man’s features. If Doumeki of all people was worried, it was important.
“What is happening?” he asked.
Doumeki threw a glance at Syaoran, then at him, then stated, “I’ll explain it on the way.”
Oh. Alright.
“Syaoran, would you look after Sakura? I’m sure she needs mental support after meeting so many of the rats today… oh, and wash your hands, you got blood on your forearms.”
The boy accepted his mission with a grave nod and Fai almost expected him to salute before rushing off towards his damsel in mistress. He then turned to face Doumeki as the man started walking.
“Where are we headed?” he asked, hurrying to catch up with the long strides.
“Just follow them,” Doumeki answered with a nod towards the street. Fai lifted his gaze and for a moment he didn’t know what Doumeki was talking about. Then, he realized that there were a few rats walking alongside them, right in the open following the road. The further they walked, however, the wider his eyes grew and the more problems he had to remember keeping his mouth shut.
Rats were streaming out of every hole, out of the houses, the bushes, out of seemingly nowhere, and in a worming, squirming mass they pushed in the same direction, toward town square.
*
On the last meters towards Hamelin’s center, the stream of rats had suddenly thinned and then died out as though whatever had attracted the animals in the first place had vanished. People had started creeping out of their houses and some of them greeted and followed Fai and Doumeki toward the market place in silent worry. Fai was still in a bit of a shock when they reached it, talking to Doumeki in low tones. He hadn’t realized just how many rats there were in town.
“And you say, puppy attacked him?” Fai asked under his breath. In order to watch over the heads of the excited mass he had climbed the small wall of Hamelin’s only fountain. He let his gaze trail over the heads, silently estimating how many people were here. It wasn’t hard to know every single citizen of Hamelin, and in his mind he was crossing houses off a list with families as he recognized people. He didn’t think there was a single man or woman in town that wouldn’t know of whatever was going to happen here within another hour. Colorful half-timbre houses surrounded the square and a few trees were bright green spots amidst them, all of them framing the magnificent white marble of the town hall. (At least it had been magnificent back when it was built to replace the old, tiny town hall, fiteen years back. Now, it looked a bit grey and lichens had started growing in various places.) The air was shimmering with heat, as the grey and white stone of the center of the town had already started sucking up the sunlight. Thankfully, the centuries-old oak at their backs shadowed Fai and Doumeki with its lush green, and there was a light spray of coolness sprinkling the back of his pant legs from the play of water behind him. Though they stood at the very back of the bustle, Doumeki made no move to climb up next to him – the man was probably tall enough to see just fine.
“The wolf was about to kill him.”
Fai turned to stare at the hunter. He knew puppy was strong. And probably more dangerous than he really wanted to admit to himself. Yesterday, when he had defied Kurogane and told him that he needed to go back home, he had realized how little he knew of the wolf. The image of Kurogane snarling into his face sprung up, moonlight catching in sweat-doused hair and his teeth glinting as sharp as deadly. He shuddered inwardly, redirecting his eyes to the spectacle in front of the town hall. The slender academic Doumeki and he had talked about a moment ago had now climbed up the stairs to be better visible and flashed a somewhat nervous smile across the masses. That guy looked so… harmless. Not worth attacking, at all.
“He wouldn’t do that,” he stated, but there was no conviction in his voice. He noticed Doumeki looking at him, but refused to meet his eye, “not without a reason,” he added lowly.
“He said I would regret bringing the guy here,” Doumeki said without giving away what he was thinking of that.
“He doesn’t look dangerous, does he,” Fai murmured, squinting a bit to make the face of the man out. It was round and pale and looked like it spend too many hours reading and too little out in the sun. “Did he tell you anything when you brought him here?”
“…he was talking,” Doumeki said.
“Really? About what?” Fai asked, turning to the man. Doumeki looked to the front in that certain, meaningful way that usually indicated that he had figured out one of the deeper secrets of life. Or that he had no idea.
“…he was talking a lot,” Doumeki settled for after a meditative pause. “I don’t think he said something important.”
Fai broke into a grin and was just about to tease him for forgetting everything about the man the whole town was talking about, when the mayor stepped forth and the noise of the masses reduced to an excited whisper.
“Now everybody, Dr. Kyle said he felt he was ready for another presentation of his powers,” the mayor’s words rang out across the town. He was a massive man with an impressive belly, and mostly he held the post of Hamelin’s mayor because his father had held it before him. Besides, he liked talking in a booming voice and smiling down on people in a patronizing manner. Nobody complained about that as he was personable enough when once stepped down from his pedestal, but Fai had seen him getting teased (by the old women and widows in general and by the barber in particular) for his grand speeches at their little festivals. Today, however, he was interrupted.
“Why doesn’t he just kill them all for good, right now?” the voice of a woman rang out. Fai craned his head to make out who had spoken, but he couldn’t see very well. “That’d do more good than getting rid of them one by one, I can do that myself with a broom and a dustpan!”
There was laughter ringing out and the mayor lifted his hands in a calming gesture while people calmed down. As Fai, most of them seemed to watch the slender man at the back, instead of their mayor, though. There was a slight, friendly smile on his face, his posture was impeccable and from time to time he pulled a little object out of his jacket to worry between his fingers.
“Now, honorable Mrs. Lennard has been willing to give away her clothes basket for this presentation,” the mayor’s voice boomed and on cue the widow limped forward, clutching at a lidded wicker basket that was almost as tall as her. Doctor Kyle hurried to her side to help her with the basket, and they put it up on top of the marble staircase. Fai noted with amusement that her normally sour expression had gone a bit dreamy when the young, pretty man had thanked her with a charming smile.
“Well, then Dr. Kyle, if you are ready for the presentation?” The doctor nodded with a smile that widened in a open gesture when a few people started cheering. Fai clutched at his arms and his heart was racing with anticipation.
And then, Kyle lifted that object over his head – a small, wooden cross, Fai realized now – and starting reciting something in a low voice. People fell more silent than all the time before. Something changed. The air seemed humid and dense, and Fai felt his chest constricting. The shadows seemed a bit darker than before and the light almost painfully intense. Suddenly, a foul smell hit him and his hands flew to his face to cover nose and mouth. What on earth…?
He blinked down at Doumeki, feeling a slight vertigo as he moved his head. The shadows seemed to lag and pull on his vision. The hunter didn’t seem to notice. Well, on the other hand, it was Doumeki. Fai searched the faces of the citizens that had now turned and parted to form an aisle from the main road towards the town hall, moving like one being. There was excitement in their eyes, but no one seemed to feel what Fai felt. The man breathed carefully through his mouth and into the warmth of his hands and almost gagged, as the air even tasted of rotting flesh.
Something like a shimmering halo had formed around the doctor’s head and the cross he held up, now, and Fai stared in fascination. And then there was a low whisper going through the people, as the rats started streaming in.
Fai had seen the silent procession when coming here, but he hadn’t been filled with the same sense of dread a few minutes ago. The animals were walking like hypnotized, not caring whether they went straight to their death. Like a river of bodies, like a slow, controlled force of nature, they streamed down the widening aisle and towards the steps. Suddenly, someone threw a brick into the waves, and with a muffled crack the bones of one of the animals broke. Out of the corner of his eyes, Fai saw the doctor twitching, a spasm running through the visible energy surrounding him, and for a second, the rats seemed confused, the flow slowing. The moment passed and the red brick vanished under rats climbing over it and their dead fellow to reach the town hall.
“Please don’t interrupt my concentration,” the monotonous, soft voice of the man rang out from the front, speaking loudly for the first time since he had appeared. Fai felt his eyes being pulled toward him almost against his will. He was standing there like saint, cross lifted over his head, energy floating around him, and rats flowing around his feet to reach the basket behind him. Without hesitation, dozens of them started climbing up the walls of the basket, creating such a weight that the cask inclined and for a moment threatened to topple over. Then, as though by invisible hands, it was sat upright again when the animals audibly hit the bottom of the basket. Within seconds it was filled to the top with silently breathing bodies, rats climbing up and over each other staple on top of the pile, scratching at each other’s fur, the scent of freshly spilt blood wafting into the air. Fai almost felt the cries of pain caged inside bodies that were bereft of their freedom. He shivered convulsively and heard a low moan escape his throat. A sudden pressure at his elbow pulled him back into reality. He looked down, hands still pressed over his face, and met Doumeki’s intent eyes. With a sudden wave of nausea, he grabbed with one hand for Doumeki’s shoulder. His knees felt weak.
The rats started to scatter as the growing mountain that had heaped upon the wicker basket dispelled, leaving only enough rats inside to make it possible for the mayor to squeeze the lid on top and secure it with a rope.
Then, with a flash, it ended, and Fai gasped for clean air. The day was hot and there was a light breeze in the leaves above. He feel the coolness of water rising up behind him, again. He was shaking, still clutching at Doumeki to remain upright, but not yet willing to let go and sit down. He needed to see the rest of this. The rats had run for their lives as soon as the spell ended and the only thing reminding of them was a dead body under a brick, laying amidst a still opened aisle.
Fai didn’t listen to the excited talk of the mayor, who obviously had no idea of what had happened a moment ago. The rats inside the basket had started screaming in agony and fear, so that he had to shout to make himself heard. Doctor Kyle, however, looked pale even as fought to keep his smile up. There was no question that this kind of spell did cost him. The small wooden cross hung limply from his hands, now.
“Boy, how are ya!” Fai finally let go of Doumeki and stepped down the fountain to let himself sink on the little wall surrounding it.
“Jacob,” he smiled brightly at the old man approaching.
“About yesterday. You do understand that Hermann doesn’t mean it that way, don’t you?” Jacob’s expression was honestly worried. “You know how he is, means no harm by it, thoughtless chump he is.”
Fai was actually quite sure that Hermann meant exactly what he said, when he called Fai a fairy or a sissy, but he was careful not to linger on those thoughts. “You don’t need to worry about me. Doumeki and I were just watching Dr. Kyle’s show for the first time!” he trilled. “Amazing, isn’t it?”
Jacob pulled a face, fists stemmed into his sides, mouth working as he listened. “Boy, I’m not sure we watched the same show, but if it wasn’t for the Lord’s symbol in the doctor’s hands, I’d call that kind of power witchcraft.”
Fai laughed without joy and silently agreed with the man. “As you say, he held up the cross. They say that sometimes it is hard to draw a line between witchcraft and a miracle. Watching Yuuko, I sometimes think that it’s the outcome that counts.”
“Not sure I agree with you on this, and sure on the outcome of this one, either” Jacob said, worry wrinkling his face up like an old apple after a long winter. “The devil can never bring forth what the Lord would bestow on us, he deceives and lies, and no good does come from his power…”
“Yeah…” Fai remembered hearing Yuuko say something similar, sometime back, and he made a mental note to ask her on this. “It is not like he killed the rats, either, is it,” he mused. Two men from the audience had carried away the heavy basket full of rats by now, and the handholds had almost ripped off while they were attempting to move it.
“They’re suffocating,” Doumeki stated. Fai watched the hunter’s unmoving face. Being out in the woods as much as he was, hunting silently, it was no wonder he had established a link to nature the way he had.
“Doumeki, did you notice anything unusual when Doctor Kyle started his trick?” he asked. Doumeki looked at him as though he was asking what hadn’t been unusual about it.
“No,” Doumeki finally answered and Fai wondered if he understood quite a lot or nothing at all. The hunter wasn’t very good with humans, really.
“We should ask Yuuko about this Doctor and the rats, shouldn’t we?” Fai wondered, more to himself than to anyone else.
“Maybe she is the only one to safe us, this time,” old Jacob’s eyes met Fai’s, wide and disturbed, and it suddenly hit the younger man – Jacob had come over and talked to him because he was terrified by what he had seen. He wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Fai felt a bit as though he had lost the ground under his feet.
“Surely, this is not the strangest thing you have ever seen happen to Hamelin,” Fai asked with an unsure laugh.
“What I know,” the man said, his milky eyes pleading, “is that no rat plague I lived through was ever fought like that. I don’t trust this kind of thing. It will bring more harm than good to us, I feel these things on my old days.”
“I believe you,” Fai said, smile gone from his face, “I will try talking to Yuuko – I know she asks more as a price of most people than of me.”
Wrinkles lifted and in a worried smile. And when Fai smiled back, gripping for the old man’s hand reassuringly, that expression turned thankful and a bit tired of life in a way that burned into Fai’s mind. It was one of the images he remembered the old man by, even long after Jacob himself was gone.
*****
a/n: I had to chop what originally was supposed to be one chapter in two, thus the abrupt stop. The next part of it will be posted soon as chapter 3.
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I haven't even read this yet and already I love you simply for posting it.
Thought you needed to know that.
*squeezes you*
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You. Are such a doll. <3
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You keep doing this thing where you write something awesome, go away for a little while, tinker with it, and then bring it back even more awesome than what you started with, and it's killing me. I read the draft and I thought this is so good, so so good, but I can handle it, I know what's going to be happen, I can be cool and give a proper review- and then I read it again and all I want to do is squeal like a little girl, because you've changed it in these tiny little ways and managed to make it about a million times more in depth, and you build this amazing, incredible world with every single sentence.
They way you describe things is just so... so... so. I can't even come up with a way to explain it; I could nigh-on smell that terrible reek of evil that Kyle Rondart had, feel the sun on my back in Fai's garden and the chill fear in my belly when Kuro-wolf was chasing that... thing through the forest.
I also love the little things you've put in there about Fai knowing his little sister is a woman now, and a woman in love, and his insecurities as her big brother- and how that ties neatly into how he feels about his puppy. Guh. I can't wait to see how you develop this plot and their relationship...
Doumeki was win. Simple as that.
I'm so in love with this story I want to marry it, I want to elope with it, I want to take it to dinner and seduce it slowly over a bottle of really good wine and some excellent and ridiculously expensive chocolate dessert.
Thank you for the new chapter. ♥
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I'm still amazed that an incredible writer like you likes my descriptions. Because yours are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen and will ever see. It also urges me on to write more of them. <3<3<3
OH, yes, Sakura and Syaoran will need some more attention. As well as Fai and Kurogane. I'm putting my best work into developing their relationships properly. <3
Don't do all the seducing yet, the story is growing like mad and you won't know what is facing you across the dinner table three chapters from here. (I hope I do...)
Thank you for being a complete darling and leaving me awesome reviews like this one! :DDD *loves you*
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Ah, the editing process is a beautiful thing, and I love how you just keep making your work better and better. Not that it's not good to start with, because it's BRILLIANT, but you just somehow make it impossibly better!
Eeeee, stop flattering my writing, you flatterer >///<
Yay, development~! I am eagerly looking forward to it, you'd best believe it :D
Ooh, kinky~! /jk
Seriously though, I love this fic and I can't wait to see what you do with it :D
*loves you forever *
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-Definitely loved the extra little bit you added to Fai's thoughts about Sakura being in love. It's just so BIG BROTHER-ish. It's so cute!
-Doumeki is absolutely golden. I love Doumeki so much.
-YOUR DESCRIPTIONS OMGILOVETHEMSOMUCH
Kurogane's chase scene in the forest is beautiful. I love the stench, and the darkness, and the grass by the river, AND AND AND— everything. I love everything. And I love how extra-creepy it made Kyle to speak so normally after you set the scene up that way. And I know I already mentioned this at least once, but I love that moment with Fai killing rats, with the sun and the garden and Mokona...
I love you so hard. Great chapter. You worked so hard on this and I just love you!
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I'm so flattered I don't even know where to look. You're an AMAZING writer, dammit, you're as good as any published novelist (and better than most), and I really, really appreciate your thoughts on this. (The positive ones make me grin like a maniac, right now, though.)
And I love you right back. Very, very much. <3
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<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
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Hope to read the next chapter soon, it is great! ^-^
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I'm working on getting the next one out, soon! :D
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Sleep came over him swiftly, like dark blanket, painted with hazy dreams of wolves and soaked in the smell of warm earth. I LOVE this sentence. Really, your descriptions are just fantastically gorgeous - this is just my favorite example. They're dreamy, but so vivid I know exactly what you're talking about - it seems like an odd combination, but it's perfect for the story. <3
And I think this was a good chop point X3 Lot's happened here and it leaves it a good place to wonder what is coming next!
<3 <3 <3
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And the sentence you quoted back to me... I'm so GLAD you like that one, I practically kicked it into submission, rewriting it about six times, scrapping it at least once completely, before the flow worked. Sleep blankets are seemingly tricky in English. I'm a sucker for a certain kind of poetry (
Rainer Maria Rilke) and that greatly influences my descriptions, I think. I'm honestly glad you like them! :DThank you for being such a darling! I love you!! <3<3<3
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The language of this is gorgeous, and...and I'm so, so in love with the plot. I mean...I've got very little idea where it's going, and I like that, because it's usually somewhat obvious right off the bat (which can sometimes spoilt the surprise), and there are just so many strands... ♥
And...I'm actually wincing for the rats. This is a first?
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Ahahah, repeat it and see me flail to hear it again. XDI will try to keep the plot a bit obscure, before it comes rushing at you and be all obvious. I think I still might be doing okay, up to now, but let's see if I can surprise you. <3
This is a first. I'm wincing a lot for them, too. I hate seeing things die, and it breaks my heart every time I kill them in this one.
Also, thank you! :D I'm glad you like it. And I ADORE your new story. So freaking much. <3
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But at the beginnig I was a little lost D:
but while I was reading I started to understand the story <3
I'll wait for the next ch. :D
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I'm working on it! <3
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SCREAM SCREAM SCREAM SCREAMS UNTIL OUT OF BREATH AND THEN SCREAMS SOME MORE
I was literally SHUDDERING through that whole scene with the rats. Also, holding my breath, because I didn't want to inhale the stink of that evilness :/ And when Kurogane was hunting Kyle I was hugging my pillow and reading through a small gap between my fingers because I was HIDING BEHIND MY HANDS SOB.
Also, Sakura and Syaoran are the adoracutest, Fai is the most beautiful thing in the history of ever, and Kurogane is legit making me swoon.
Ahem. See. Extremely rambly and strange, but by all that is holy, this was BEAUTIFUL and I hope at least that much came throught <3
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Oh my, oh my, what have I done... *hugs and hands giant fluffy bunny* On the other hand, I can't help but say THANK YOU, I so hadn't thought that the rats and Kyle would be such a creep-factor... they just wrote themselves, and I'm glad they evoked something! :D
I'm super-happy you enjoyed it and that the characters came through well! :D (And don't worry, your comment is SO not rambly -- at times like these, I really think I could live of reviews and water. XD) *hugs you happily*
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I promise that it is being worked on - just far slower than I had hoped. I'll try to keep up with the expectations! :D
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