Me: I should totally work on this Short Story that's going to be due the end of September and also this other one due at the end of August so they're in editing stages when they are. And that way I have three done in total in that stage and I have two options for September if one is declined.
Also Me: *Recreates mostly done Musicbee writing playlists so she can share them on tumblr and goes to try to tweak another Musibee playlist for the future writing sessions*
*After an hour of playing with playlists*
Me: ..... oh... I lost track of time. Let me work on that one Short story for September
*Writes 336 words on the short story and literally introduces Mummified Eldtrich Cobras that are coming from above and climbing walls as if it's nothing.*
Me: .... Huh had fun with that discription. *stops*
So this is a short story I just wrote up. In the actual story it's going to mostly be in Elister's POV with no switching between perspectives so I figured might as well do some of that for Cian in a form of short stories sprinkled here and there. Some of these short stories may turn into part of the webcomic when I actually start it but I wanted to get some going. It's a rough draft so there may be some changes but enjoy!
~~oo00oo~~
Young Cian glowered at the wilting rose that he tried to bring back to life. His mentor walked over and saw the progress. The crackle of the fire in the fireplace popped in mocking amusement. With a swipe of his clawed hand it sat back up. Petals stretching open in unnatural ways.
"You have to remember that you are overcoming the natural order." His mentor's voice was emotionless to most ears but he could hear the teaching tone of it.
"But why do we do that?" Cian complaints sounded pendulant to his own ears, "And why is my magic so much more.... weirder?"
His mentor paused before he walked closer and stood next to the pouting childling. Blue eyes stared at the rose he twisted with his magic.
"A beautiful thing which we Eldritch Beings do not comprehend." He started. "Nature. 'How things are suppose to be'. I was once in your position which I didn't understand it. The difference between myself and others. But then... I met her. The Beast which only comes to protect and pick sages. And then I understood." He cupped the twisted petals "I was different because I am her other half. The thing that corrupts, taints. Give people what they desire but not what they need. A Tyrant maker. She is the Sage appointer. One how guides those to what they need. Even when they don't desire it. Two halves of the same coin."
Cian watched his mentor as he thumbed the velvet petal, lost in his own thoughts and memories.
"I once wondered if I could experience love. And now I think I can. It's a different kind which mortals speak about but I cannot think of a day which she could not be in my life. I may die but she shall live on." He released the rose, the rose kept growing and twisting into something unrecognizable, vines and roots intertwined and mangled with each other, the petals becoming jagged and warped.
Cian glared at the rose. Why couldn't he do something like that?
"In some ways you're closer to her than I ever was." He started, which forced Cian to pull away from the twisting overgrowth. "Maybe you have a better chance than I would when you become king. Still opposite due to your father, but yet similar. You're different than even I because your father took my lingering magic and used it to create you with his own. That's what makes you different." He looked over to Cian, "It's also why you have similarities to myself. But you have more of your father than my magic, so unfortunately I cannot call you my own spawn."
Spawn, it's how the Eldritch beings called their children. It was more of an endearing way for them than how most handled it.
"But what if I want to be your spawn?" Young Cian asked. "You took me in when my own father left me to die."
He remembered the winter day which he was left in the snow. He didn't know why he was left back then. The pang of abandonment festered and grew into a need to be seen as he aged.
He couldn't let anyone know this weakness of his. His moldering gash. Only the King new of this, and they did not speak on it as Cian didn't wish to touch the rot it left.
He was only 16 now, though he hadn't aged very quickly from when he was first created. Already looking a rather tall 10 year old in the snow.
Cian pushed the thoughts out as he returned to his caretaker.
The smile was saddened. "Honestly I wish to call you my spawn. My childling. I wish you belonged to myself and the sage finder. A union of a love she doesn't know of. But it must not be. For you will probably be scorched with this same love I feel when you ascend to the throne. You will not know what that feeling is at first but you will come to understand it. I will say though that I think I will happily call you my colt or eyas. Maybe Fledgling may work as well."
.o0o.
Slowly he woke up to the sound of chirping birds outside his room. The scent of his silk shirt against his nose, the folds embedding into his cheek.
Memories haunted his dreams. Memories of a time he was actually happy learning into his powers. He sat up and rubbed out the indentions from sleeping at his desk. A reminder of the crick in his neck and stretch pains running up his back.
A peaceful morning. The sun warming his room from the cold, brutal winter. He slowly stood from the plush seat and grabbed his silk housecoat to wrap himself in. It didn't have any meetings with the public so he could get away with not looking his best. He wrapped the furlined coat tighter around as he passed the large painting of his old mentor. Looking regal as a lion but also as bold as an red feathered harpy eagle.
Well more Auburn but he hated his acid red streak in his white plumage. He wished he had inherited the reddish brown or pink streak. That way he looked less like the damn water horse that was among the winter court.
It had been 20 years since the death of his mentor. The pang of that he had to push to the side as he couldn't let any of the other griffins see weakness. They knew he was going to die, but why did it have to be while he was away on business? He was only Overlord of the West for about 13 years before he had to replace him as king.
His long strides echoed along the empty halls as he came to the room which he was told a new painting was being placed. He pulled out his glasses from his pocket when he arrived, At least he remembered this time.
"Alright where was this one found?" Cian's bored tone mimicked his mentor's on official business.
His butler bowed and gestured to the covered painting as he did so, "From the Overlord of the South's collection. Confiscated after we found his corpse within the Deep Wood. Looked to be torn apart by a Deep Wood Leshy."
Cian scrunched his nose at that description. He could feel the brim of his glasses moving down a little with the motion, "I know you were only doing your job but I really didn't want to hear that in the morning."
"And hence why I simply stopped at that." The Butler nodded.
"Good. Still need to keep down my food." He walked up to the light cloth that covered the painting. "Anything I need to know before I pulled the cover off?"
"Only that it seems to depict the Keeper of one of the Desnmens. The woman looks... peculiar and apparently he had planned to marry her to curry your favor."
"Mmm..." Was all Cian said as he took ahold of the cloth. He could feel the threads of the light cloth tangling on the burrs of his claws. He needed to file them to be less jagged. He pulled down and let the cloth pull away as if oil being pulled off of water.
His breath caught. Peridot green widening as he stared upon the woman in the painting.
The style was art Nuevo. The dress draped and cascaded into waves of a waterfall, the pearls upon the sleeves shimmered in the sunlight as it caught every beam. The alabaster skin far less human and more otherworldly. Flowers mingled along the light blue hair.
It was the golden eyes however. The eyes that had him staring for endless days.
Recognized those eyes.
So this is what his mentor meant by his "other half"? His heart pounded in his ears. What was this feeling? His clawed hand clutching at his chest, feeling as if his chest was about to burst. He felt this once before before the Kirin disappeared 20 years ago.
Not long after his mentor passed away by the Kirin's horn and holy flame.
Was this what "love" was suppose to feel like? He wasn't sure. All he knew that his breath quickened as he finally released it. He could have called it lust but this felt more than that. It was nothing like what the other Griffins described.
He wanted to hold her. To keep her. To have her beside him forever.
She was to be his. She was to be his rose to corrupt and twist.
I started to clean up the Playlist for my Writing and had decided to try to put some of the songs there in their respective story playlists on youtube. Gods Reborn however is a playlist I actually finished after the S&S Nutcracker Playlist on Musicbee as I needed some music to keep me focus as I write on the Sword and Scholar short story.
So without farther adiue, the playlist for Gods Reborn (Note: there are some egyptian feeling due to the setting is very egyptian based but also I tried to pull from the unsettling/uncanny aspect due to Cosmic Horror within it.):
Elister looked to the thing Dhabbok dropped as they walked through the woods. She paused and picked up what looked to be a photograph.
A group of people. Dhabbok looking to the side with his arms crossed. He didn't look like much different from now other than his clothes were black and red. There was a Taller man with wavy red hair and freckles, about the size as Cian and the same peridot green eyes. Next to him was a woman with a veil drape over her head, wrapped around her like a hood and shawl, all in blue and papyrus. Sapphire blue eyes staring into her. There was also a Cat-man with horns and darker skin, and a man dressed in gold and princely. There was another man missing an eye and looked to have hair spun in silver, matching Dhabbok in attire.
Most of everyone was smiling other than Dhabbok.
"Christan and I used to work together. Usually I was hired as a merc at the same places he was hired as a war mage. Donno where he's at now, but hopefully the old timepiece is doing okay. Didn't do well when he found out Queen Mouserinks tried to use his Automatons to invade other kingdoms."
His voice had a tinge of longing within his usual jovial tone. She looked up from the photo. Dhabbok's back was still turned but had stopped so she could catch up. She sped up her steps and stopped beside him, "And the others?"
The boar orc paused before he turned his head a little, keeping his face hidden through the shadow of the trees. "Let's set up camp at the cliff first."
Elister watched him a moment before nodded. She followed as he started to move again.
The silence of the setting up of camp was thicker than the sludge that they had to wade through from the swamp. She kept the photo in safekeeping but she noticed that when she finished with the tents, Dhabbok was already sitting at the edge of the cliff. Watching as the blue faded into a gray-orange, just before the brilliance.
Her quiet steps avoided blades of grass and stone, as not to cause a commotion. As she slipped herself beside him, she pulled out the photo from her pocket. A battered bird held gently in her hands.
Having a second look. It was an haunting look into the past even though it looked so innocent upon a glance. The man in gold was standing there with arrogance and haughty smugness and the two in the center looked loving but the woman... had a calculating preciseness to the holding of herself. As if any show of weakness will be the end, the man beside her was roguish but he was had the softness emotionally which the other half of the two didn't. The Cat-Man looked fae so it was a hard read through him. "Christian" looked confident with his smile, but also haunted. Dhabbok was the most jarring of all because he didn't look happy in this picture.
"I keep that photo as a reminder of what I need to change." Dhabbok started. "A reminder that I can't take other people's happiness for granted."
Elister glanced back up to Dhabbok but he didn't turn his head away from the sunset. The oranges now turning his fur into a fiary color.
"Lantis, the large redhead, told me once I wasn't paying attention to the people around me. I told him I was paying too much attention because it felt like everyone was taking their roles lightly. Turns out he was right. I didn't realize how much heavier Safa's position was until it was too late. It also cost us losing the most important person to everyone's lives. Turns out making a pact with the Ambition Hag was far more deadlier than I thought."
Elister tilted her head. The warmth of the sun faded a shade.
"Safa was the seer of her people. She was more powerful than their king. Ca'thul knew that already. He respected her as an equal. A Queen to his King, while we were mere lower chess pieces to him. Lantis loved her with all his heart. Even that damn cat, Mazhar respected her. When we lost her... It almost caused a complete Ice Age of rage and grief. Luckily Christian was busy dealing with Queen Mouserinks when all this happened. Otherwise he would have broken down like he did when his brother died."
She looked back at the photo with new context. So that was what she was reading from them. The Orange turned into a vibrant reddish-pink.
He finally looked at his hooved hands, "If only I had listened. If only I didn't think I had to be so strong to overcome anything. If only I had..." He closed his hands into fists, he grimaced against the threatening tears. "If only I had stayed with her when she asked to talk to me." His words were a whisper, his eyes closing.
Elister could hear his voice cracking under the pressure. She pulled herself closer to him, staying silent knowing he wasn't done.
"Having successfully getting Ca'thul in the chin with my pickax, I thought I was strong enough. Instead, I lost it all. I... Think she knew what was going to happen that day." Dhabbok unclenched his hands. but kept his eyes closed and his shoulders dropped. "I still remember that defeated smile as she walked in the snow. I remember the dagger in her back. I remember Ca'thul catching her as she fell. I remember the maddening cackle Aelius let out as he thought he regained Ca'thul's favor." He finally opened his eyes. "And I remember only me and Lantis sitting there in a daze as we saw the blood on the snow. She was gone."
Her eyes landed back on the man in gold. He now had a name.
They sat there in silence, Elister then put the photo in her pocket again. She turned to Dhabbok and pulled him into a comforting hug, his head upon her chest so he could hear her heartbeat.
"It's okay to cry you know." She whispered.
Dhabbok took a breath as if to protest, but after a moment of holding it, he let it out in a sob. At first it was a quiet one, but then it crescendoed into hiccups and guttural cries. She let him pull her closer as he curled into the comfort. She stroked his head, soothing him in letting him know he was safe and okay.
As the orc cried, Elister couldn't help but let her mind drift to some of the things he said about Ca'thul. There were some uncanny similarities between Cian and this supposed Winter Fae. The chin wound, the rage, the conceding tone. Even the whole Queen to his King form of respect.
Was she Cian's "Safa" to his "Ca'thul"? What was it that he knew that she didn't?
She shook her head as she knew she had to focus on Dhabbok, her friend. He needed this more than her trying to figure out details in the moment.
--o0o--
A bit of an experiment of me wanting to write somehting based on "Woe to the People", "How to Save a Life", and a bit of an excrise of how a traumatized Vetern would talk about people within a photo that they kept on them for years even after the fight.
Also a bit of Drosselemeyer mention. To kinda give context to how freaken old this man is. I think I'm having the silver hair be around even in his youth as it kinda just stuck. And it would just make sense for Dhabbok and Drosselmeyer would know each other as Merc and War Mage partners at the verious wars they were hired to do. Totally can see them fist bumping as well whenever they see each other again as their secret handshake of "I know you, let's do this".
A lot of this history gets more explored in Jala's story "Beloved", but I wanted to explore it from a different perspective outside of that story. Also for Dhabbok to tell that to somone who doesn't know the world of Hinsay. Eli didn't know what a War Mage was, but she realized that interupting Dhabbok wouldn't do him good so she let the question go.
