[FIC] Waltz of the Moon, 02
Jan. 9th, 2007 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdseiranTitle: Waltz of the Moon, Chapter 02
Fandom: Original
Being in Aschal was unlike anything Leiander had expected. For one thing, it involved a lot more training than he would have thought, considering their reputation. The day after his induction, he received a letter from Seiran and was instructed to find her at the pier. Once he arrived, he was tossed a wooden dagger and then forced to defend himself when Seiran launched her own. The first two weeks saw him bruised, tired and very sore. Seiran was a harsh task master - relentless, strong, and any notion of flirting with her that he might have had was kicked out of him by the third day. Instead, he was left with a healthy dose of admiration and respect, and a smaller dose of shame that he was being kicked around by a woman, of all people. So he practiced and trained until one day, when he stepped onto their training ground and she lunged at him, he managed to successfully repel her attack. Although soon after, she used her legs to sweep his out from under him, causing a nasty fall on his back, but it was the small victories that counted.
It took another few weeks before Seiran was satisfied and proclaimed she had taught him everything she knew. The relief he felt was short-lived; he had barely put on his shoes when an arm was slung around his shoulders and Breiden's voice cheerfully informed him that it was his turn now. The training that ensued was less physical and more to do with stealth. It was also more frustrating, because while having a woman win in a fight was embarrassing, losing to someone who dozed off several times during training was even more so. But Breiden was a master at picking locks, eavesdropping and trapping people, and Leiander learned, albeit reluctantly. It wasn't until halfway into the second week that he developed a special interest in learning whatever Breiden could teach him.
Their training on that rainy day was interrupted by a hooded female popping out of thin air and immediately launching herself at Breiden, who endured her hug and even indulged in returning the display of affection for a short moment. Whispers were exchanged between them while Leiander looked on, admiring the woman's figure and the silver tresses slipping out of her hood. He tried to catch what they were saying, mostly to see if he could find out who she was, but all he heard were murmurs of daddies, mischief and someone called Renard (her boyfriend he supposed, frowning a little at the thought). Before he could hear anything else she had given Breiden another hug and disappeared. The other human gave him an amused look but said nothing, and Leiander spent the rest of the day fantasizing about silver hair and butterflies.
The second meeting was as unexpected as the first. Leiander had dragged himself through the cold and the snow all the way to Jotunheim after being told leather gloves, no matter how manly they made him look, were not fit for fighting. He was given enough gold to buy two of the hemite knuckle guards the city was famous for, and ordered to find one of the enchanters to add a protective coating to the guards. The second order was easily accomplished; he had written a note, requesting an enchanter to meet him within the walls of Jotunheim at the armory and had pinned it to the notice board hanging in The Rusty Pelican. Finding his way to Jotunheim was much more difficult, and most of his journey was spent resoundingly cursing the giants and their choice of locations to live. He did manage to make his way to the armory and the guards were quickly chosen and paid for. They actually fit quite nicely and didn't look half as bulky as he'd imagined.
"They don't look half bad on you." His dagger was out in mere seconds, ready to be tossed or stabbed with as he turned towards the empty doorway. He heard a soft cough, someone muttering "Oops," and then, sudden enough to startle him again, the woman that had haunted his dreams the past week was standing before him, this time without the concealing hood. For a moment, he stared straight into her strangely familiar teal eyes and could find nothing to say.
He was jerked out of the dreamy state by the soft thud of her boots hitting the ground, and flushed a little at the curious tilt of her head. "Ah, sorry, didn't mean to stare like that, I don't usually. Are you one of the enchanters then? I'm Leiander, very pleased to meet you."
He was silently pleased when she smiled at him and offered her hand, pretending not to notice when the bow and kiss he planted on it weren't as smooth as he would have liked. "I'm Mikke Alcuin, at your service. Give those to me so I can work on them?" He nodded absently, hands already unbuckling his new equipment while his eyes were busy glancing discreetly at her face. "Didn't I meet you before?" he finally asked as he handed her the two gloves, watching as she placed one in her bag then held the other firmly in her hands, a bluish glow enveloping it.
"Think so. I was much younger then though, and you were a bit shorter." He almost huffed at her, but the grin she was trying to hide behind the fall of her hair took the slight sting of the comment away, and with a sudden clarity he recalled a sunny afternoon in the Serian square, spent chatting with a young siriyu girl and watching the priestess of Life change colors. Her smile made more sense now and he grinned a little himself at the memories. "Well you sure grew up nice."
"I've been told that yeah." The first knuckle guard was tossed at him with a beaming smile, and he tried it on while she busied herself with the second. It felt a little tighter, a little stronger, and when he experimentally gave the air a punch he saw the flames flickering around the spikes. He enthused the most over the flames; he'd wanted to spew fire as a little boy, and this had to be the next best thing. He watched her elegant hands as they molded around the glove, noticing the red tint being applied to the spikes, and let out a content sigh. If Mikke noticed, she didn't say anything, but she seemed pleased when she gave him his second knuckle guard. "They won't get damaged now. Just make sure you don't lose them."
He shook his head, almost scoffing at the mere insinuation that he would be that stupid. "Thank you, these are great. How much do I owe you then?"
"Nothing, it's free for the clan. Although," and her voice took on a huskier tone, "I wouldn't be averse to some more conversation. Isn't very easy to find pleasant people to talk to these days." Who could resist that slight pout? Certainly not him.
"I don't have any meetings to go to." His mind memorized how she looked with her face lit up by the bright smile stretching her soft lips, and when she ushered him into the magical portal, he went without consideration of where he was going or what might go wrong in the midst of the journey. His mother would be disappointed at his lack of caution, but when they landed in a small ruin of a room with a hammock stretched between two standing pillars, Leiander found he couldn't care less. His head followed his heart and he realized he was smitten with this girl he'd met less than five times.
"Don't think I've been here before, but it's nice and quiet." Leiander privately thought there should have been a couple or two lurking here; it was the perfect spot for a little privacy. "Do people usually come here when it's not so cold?"
"Not really, and if they did that would defeat my purpose of coming here." She settled down on the hammock with practiced ease, and patted the space next to her invitingly. And if Leiander took the swinging of the unsteady seat as an excuse to put an arm around her, she didn't complain, though she did regard him with an odd half-smile from beneath her long lashes. "It stops Daddy from scaring off my friends too, since he never knows where to find me."
He imagined his own mother interrogating each girl he showed interest in and had to grin. "I think I met him, doesn't really seem like a dangerous sort. He wouldn't scare me off." Half of him was almost appalled at his own lack of subtlety, but the laugh his statement earned him was worth it.
"You say so now, but wait till he asks Brei to do something about it. I don't know anyone who doesn't fear Brei a little, and it isn't without reason."
He blinked slowly. "Why does Breiden go after your dates? Is it some sort of clan policy?" The thought was rather horrifying.
"That would put a damper on all the relationships going on within the clan. I'm sad to say only I get that attention from Brei." She sounded more fond than angry about it though, and it left Leiander more confused than before. His own Ma had never sent the general after him if he'd misbehaved, with young women or otherwise. "What does Breiden have to do with it then?" Her hands slipped beneath her hair, lifting a little to free the strands from the restraint of her cloak, and the sight of it streaming down her back and shoulders was distracting enough that her answer didn't immediately register.
"Breiden and my daddy are a couple, so that makes him my daddy too."
Between one breath and the next, Leiander saw a mental image of the next few years, ones that he'd fantasized about with Mikke at his side. He would become strong, rise in the ranks, have wild adventures, and Mikke would be there with him, laughing fondly. Mikke, whose status he'd imagined to be equal to his own, giving him a chance at winning her affections. He remembered those fantasies and then let his mind replace them with nightmares of fathers hunting him for touching their daughter's virtue, nightmares where he was left with no escape. Nightmares that, should he choose to pursue his former plans, would likely become reality, and the disastrous position he was in made him stare at Mikke in utter shock.
He had gone and fallen for the Tigruaidh's daughter. His life could not get any more complicated.
Fandom: Original
Although in the body the soul blazes,
in the darkness the distance becomes infinite.
in the darkness the distance becomes infinite.
Being in Aschal was unlike anything Leiander had expected. For one thing, it involved a lot more training than he would have thought, considering their reputation. The day after his induction, he received a letter from Seiran and was instructed to find her at the pier. Once he arrived, he was tossed a wooden dagger and then forced to defend himself when Seiran launched her own. The first two weeks saw him bruised, tired and very sore. Seiran was a harsh task master - relentless, strong, and any notion of flirting with her that he might have had was kicked out of him by the third day. Instead, he was left with a healthy dose of admiration and respect, and a smaller dose of shame that he was being kicked around by a woman, of all people. So he practiced and trained until one day, when he stepped onto their training ground and she lunged at him, he managed to successfully repel her attack. Although soon after, she used her legs to sweep his out from under him, causing a nasty fall on his back, but it was the small victories that counted.
It took another few weeks before Seiran was satisfied and proclaimed she had taught him everything she knew. The relief he felt was short-lived; he had barely put on his shoes when an arm was slung around his shoulders and Breiden's voice cheerfully informed him that it was his turn now. The training that ensued was less physical and more to do with stealth. It was also more frustrating, because while having a woman win in a fight was embarrassing, losing to someone who dozed off several times during training was even more so. But Breiden was a master at picking locks, eavesdropping and trapping people, and Leiander learned, albeit reluctantly. It wasn't until halfway into the second week that he developed a special interest in learning whatever Breiden could teach him.
Their training on that rainy day was interrupted by a hooded female popping out of thin air and immediately launching herself at Breiden, who endured her hug and even indulged in returning the display of affection for a short moment. Whispers were exchanged between them while Leiander looked on, admiring the woman's figure and the silver tresses slipping out of her hood. He tried to catch what they were saying, mostly to see if he could find out who she was, but all he heard were murmurs of daddies, mischief and someone called Renard (her boyfriend he supposed, frowning a little at the thought). Before he could hear anything else she had given Breiden another hug and disappeared. The other human gave him an amused look but said nothing, and Leiander spent the rest of the day fantasizing about silver hair and butterflies.
The second meeting was as unexpected as the first. Leiander had dragged himself through the cold and the snow all the way to Jotunheim after being told leather gloves, no matter how manly they made him look, were not fit for fighting. He was given enough gold to buy two of the hemite knuckle guards the city was famous for, and ordered to find one of the enchanters to add a protective coating to the guards. The second order was easily accomplished; he had written a note, requesting an enchanter to meet him within the walls of Jotunheim at the armory and had pinned it to the notice board hanging in The Rusty Pelican. Finding his way to Jotunheim was much more difficult, and most of his journey was spent resoundingly cursing the giants and their choice of locations to live. He did manage to make his way to the armory and the guards were quickly chosen and paid for. They actually fit quite nicely and didn't look half as bulky as he'd imagined.
"They don't look half bad on you." His dagger was out in mere seconds, ready to be tossed or stabbed with as he turned towards the empty doorway. He heard a soft cough, someone muttering "Oops," and then, sudden enough to startle him again, the woman that had haunted his dreams the past week was standing before him, this time without the concealing hood. For a moment, he stared straight into her strangely familiar teal eyes and could find nothing to say.
He was jerked out of the dreamy state by the soft thud of her boots hitting the ground, and flushed a little at the curious tilt of her head. "Ah, sorry, didn't mean to stare like that, I don't usually. Are you one of the enchanters then? I'm Leiander, very pleased to meet you."
He was silently pleased when she smiled at him and offered her hand, pretending not to notice when the bow and kiss he planted on it weren't as smooth as he would have liked. "I'm Mikke Alcuin, at your service. Give those to me so I can work on them?" He nodded absently, hands already unbuckling his new equipment while his eyes were busy glancing discreetly at her face. "Didn't I meet you before?" he finally asked as he handed her the two gloves, watching as she placed one in her bag then held the other firmly in her hands, a bluish glow enveloping it.
"Think so. I was much younger then though, and you were a bit shorter." He almost huffed at her, but the grin she was trying to hide behind the fall of her hair took the slight sting of the comment away, and with a sudden clarity he recalled a sunny afternoon in the Serian square, spent chatting with a young siriyu girl and watching the priestess of Life change colors. Her smile made more sense now and he grinned a little himself at the memories. "Well you sure grew up nice."
"I've been told that yeah." The first knuckle guard was tossed at him with a beaming smile, and he tried it on while she busied herself with the second. It felt a little tighter, a little stronger, and when he experimentally gave the air a punch he saw the flames flickering around the spikes. He enthused the most over the flames; he'd wanted to spew fire as a little boy, and this had to be the next best thing. He watched her elegant hands as they molded around the glove, noticing the red tint being applied to the spikes, and let out a content sigh. If Mikke noticed, she didn't say anything, but she seemed pleased when she gave him his second knuckle guard. "They won't get damaged now. Just make sure you don't lose them."
He shook his head, almost scoffing at the mere insinuation that he would be that stupid. "Thank you, these are great. How much do I owe you then?"
"Nothing, it's free for the clan. Although," and her voice took on a huskier tone, "I wouldn't be averse to some more conversation. Isn't very easy to find pleasant people to talk to these days." Who could resist that slight pout? Certainly not him.
"I don't have any meetings to go to." His mind memorized how she looked with her face lit up by the bright smile stretching her soft lips, and when she ushered him into the magical portal, he went without consideration of where he was going or what might go wrong in the midst of the journey. His mother would be disappointed at his lack of caution, but when they landed in a small ruin of a room with a hammock stretched between two standing pillars, Leiander found he couldn't care less. His head followed his heart and he realized he was smitten with this girl he'd met less than five times.
"Don't think I've been here before, but it's nice and quiet." Leiander privately thought there should have been a couple or two lurking here; it was the perfect spot for a little privacy. "Do people usually come here when it's not so cold?"
"Not really, and if they did that would defeat my purpose of coming here." She settled down on the hammock with practiced ease, and patted the space next to her invitingly. And if Leiander took the swinging of the unsteady seat as an excuse to put an arm around her, she didn't complain, though she did regard him with an odd half-smile from beneath her long lashes. "It stops Daddy from scaring off my friends too, since he never knows where to find me."
He imagined his own mother interrogating each girl he showed interest in and had to grin. "I think I met him, doesn't really seem like a dangerous sort. He wouldn't scare me off." Half of him was almost appalled at his own lack of subtlety, but the laugh his statement earned him was worth it.
"You say so now, but wait till he asks Brei to do something about it. I don't know anyone who doesn't fear Brei a little, and it isn't without reason."
He blinked slowly. "Why does Breiden go after your dates? Is it some sort of clan policy?" The thought was rather horrifying.
"That would put a damper on all the relationships going on within the clan. I'm sad to say only I get that attention from Brei." She sounded more fond than angry about it though, and it left Leiander more confused than before. His own Ma had never sent the general after him if he'd misbehaved, with young women or otherwise. "What does Breiden have to do with it then?" Her hands slipped beneath her hair, lifting a little to free the strands from the restraint of her cloak, and the sight of it streaming down her back and shoulders was distracting enough that her answer didn't immediately register.
"Breiden and my daddy are a couple, so that makes him my daddy too."
Between one breath and the next, Leiander saw a mental image of the next few years, ones that he'd fantasized about with Mikke at his side. He would become strong, rise in the ranks, have wild adventures, and Mikke would be there with him, laughing fondly. Mikke, whose status he'd imagined to be equal to his own, giving him a chance at winning her affections. He remembered those fantasies and then let his mind replace them with nightmares of fathers hunting him for touching their daughter's virtue, nightmares where he was left with no escape. Nightmares that, should he choose to pursue his former plans, would likely become reality, and the disastrous position he was in made him stare at Mikke in utter shock.
He had gone and fallen for the Tigruaidh's daughter. His life could not get any more complicated.
