Rating: PG-13 (Creative uses for poo and language)
@luxxyb this is a more... POLISHED version of the story I shared on skype.
@beccaylaa I promised I’d start sharing oneshots from this universe! ... Right?
Amaranth walked in front of a line of trainees, her footsteps loud against the stone floor. It was the crack of dawn, and the cold winter air was seeping through cracks in the walls and chilling the unprepared to the bone. This was the second out of three lines to inspect. Amaranth tried to keep these inspections brief and just make sure they were properly dressed and all were present; she did not want the trainees to think that she was as tired as they were. She stopped in front of one trainee and looked down at them.
“Aloster. Where’s your right boot?” she asked gruffly.
He looked down, shock evident on his face. He looked back up at her.
“C-Captain, I swear, I thought—“
“That’s enough,” Amaranth interrupted. She stubbornly refused to yawn, and her features warped into a disgusted grimace because of it. “The next time you forget to put both boots on, I’m going to leave gryphon shit in the one you left behind.”
She walked away as his face blanched with fear. The trainees who surrounded him also panicked, looking down at their feet to make sure they hadn’t forgotten. Anyone who found gryphon shit in their boots were unlikely to leave them both behind a second time, assuming the boot survived being cleaned. Hardly any did.
Amaranth continued to the third line of trainees and began walking in front of them. Everyone was accounted for… except for one notable absence. She stopped in front of the last trainee and looked down at them.
“Adelos. Where’s Caius?”
Adelos looked up, blinking sleep from their baggy eyes. It took only a moment for her demand to sink in before panic erupted on their face.
“C-Captain, I thought I heard him get up—“
“Enough!” Amaranth exclaimed. She rubbed her temples and sighed heavily. “You’re not responsible for him.” She left the line and went to face the rest of the crowd. “Everyone, out to the stables to clean out your fledgling’s mew and groom them. I’ll inspect them when I get back.”
There was a flurry of stomps and curses as all of the trainees broke file and ran out of the dining hall as fast as they could. Only one other person beside Amaranth remained behind, casually sitting on top of a table.
“How long are you going to give them?” Kilain asked.
Amaranth turned to look at them, and finally gave in the temptation of yawning. Kilain wouldn’t judge, he was just as tired as she was at the moment.
“However long it takes me to wake my brother up,” she replied. She smirked. “Now get off the table and go check on the trainees. If you find any dead bodies from the stampede, feed them to the gryphons.”
“I don’t think their parents would appreciate that,” Kilain quipped. He stood on a bench and jumped off of it as Amaranth walked away.
“Oh, we’ll give them last rites and send their bones to their parents,” Amaranth called out jokingly.
Kilain’s loud laugh was the last thing she heard before shutting the door behind her and walking toward the flight of stairs leading to the males’ side of the barracks.
-
Caius and Adelos’s shared room was at the end of the hallway. As soon as Amaranth ascended the last stair, she carefully removed her boots and set them aside. She barely noticed the cold stone seeping into her thick socks as she stalked down the hallway. All of the rooms she passed had their doors flung open, the beds inside hastily made in an effort to make it down to the dining hall on time.
As she approached the shared room, she grinned maliciously. The door was slightly ajar, and its well-oiled hinges did not squeak when she pushed it open. Caius was still curled up on the bed he shared with Adelos, buried under the thick blankets. He was out like a light, snoring softly and oblivious to the world.
Amaranth crept up to the bed and carefully grabbed the ends of the blankets. She made sure she had all of them before yanking them off of the bed.
Caius jerked awake.
Amaranth tossed the blankets aside and grabbed Adelos’s pillow. Before Caius could react, she began beating him with it.
“TRAINEE CAIUS! Wake up!”
She was fairly sure she heard him scream.
“You’re my older brother! Does that give you permission to slack off in my corps?” Amaranth shouted.
She punctuated her words with a smack from the pillow as Caius tumbled off of the bed to avoid it. She ran around the bed and found him trying to crawl toward the blankets.
“I didn’t hear the—“
“You didn’t hear shit because you were sleeping like a corpse!” Amaranth interrupted. She tossed the abused pillow aside. “If you don’t want to end up like one, get dressed, make your bed, and get your sleepy ass down to the stables before I throw you down the damn mountainside and shove gryphon shit in every bodily orifice!”
She turned around and stormed out of the room. She could hear Caius cursing at the top of his lungs as she put her boots on and descended the stairs, yanking on the long string of loud bells that lined the hallway out of spite. If her brother couldn’t hear them then, he’d hear them now.
i wrote the first half in december and the second half just now because i thought it deserved an ending.
"C'mon... you can tell me who it was," Amaranth teased. She kicked at Caius under the table. "Who's this mystery lover you had for a brief time last spring?"
"He... swore me to secrecy..."
"I promise I won't tell anyone. Not even Kilain," Amaranth said. A devilish smirk formed on her face. "Or mother, for that matter."
That last fact seemed to give Caius strength. Setting his tankard down, he leaned in and whispered to Amaranth just as she was taking a large sip.
Predictably, it sprayed forcefully out of her mouth and soaked his shoulder and arm.
"You slept with HIM?!" she screeched after recovering.
"It was only for a few months!" Caius explained loudly. “He--he consented the entire time--!!”
Other people were starting to stare at them at this point. Caius vaguely heard someone calling for bets and another person asking what the fight was about.
"Do you know how angry his family will be when they find out?!" Amaranth shouted. She got up out of her chair and hefted it up in the air. "You could ruin his reputation!"
"His sister didn't seem to give a damn when I accidentally told her!" Caius shouted back. His voice was high with fear as he scrambled out of his stool to get out of the way. "Please don't hit me!"
--
“Great. We’re banned from yet another establishment,” Caius groused.
“Good job,” Amaranth snapped back.
“That was your fault! You’re the one who beat me with that heavy chair!”
“You’re the one who decided to sleep with him! You know better then that!”
“That’s not the point!”
“Again?” a third voice interrupted.
Caius and Amaranth froze. Kilain stood in front of them, holding a lit lantern up high enough to see their shocked faces.
“Why are you out here instead of at the Gryphon’s Wing?” Kilain asked. “...and why are you two covered in bruises?”
Caius and Amaranth pointed at each other, glaring daggers. Caius was covered in dirt and old straw, his nose was bloody, and he was holding his hand awkwardly. Amaranth had the beginnings of a black eye and a split lip, and Kilain was sure she was hiding bruises of her own. He ran a hand down his tired face.
“This is the last time I’m escorting you both back from a tavern,” he announced. He sighed heavily. “If your mother sees you two as you are now, I’m not explaining your actions.”
The mere mention of their mother seemed to knock Caius and Amaranth back to reality. They pushed past Kilain and started running through the maze-like streets of the Lower Quarter. He could hear them shouting at who was going to be the first one back to the fortress and manage to avoid their mother at the same time.
He stood there for a long moment, contemplating the risks and rewards of discarding all of the alcohol Amaranth had stored in the fortress. It would probably be worth it if he managed to sneak the alcohol out and gave it to someone who really needed it.
/!\ In despite of everything is happening in this site, I'll continue to post here (at least for the moment, I'll keep you informed) /!\
So
Here is an old oc named Hitori.
Hitori is a serious and cold scientist. He is half disfigured because of his little brother (whose name I have forgotten (we will call him Kilain) and whose I lost the drawing).
The latter is a cursed child; his mother died while giving birth to him, he was born with a split tongue like that of a snake and his nails grow naturally in sharp point. Frustrated by the mockery of his appearance and convinced that he killed his mother, he is deeply unhappy, despite the efforts of his brother, Hitori, to bring him happiness.
But one day, during a nerve crisis that made him completely uncontrollable, while his brother was trying to calm him down, Kilain threw himself on his face, tearing at him with his nails, disfiguring Hitori for life .
Returning to reason and unable to endure this vision of horror, Kilain's mind froze, refusing reality, and Kilain lost his memory (forgetting the death of his mother and what he had done to his brother) . He has since become a shy boy, extremely kind and attentive, doing everything to be appreciated by his entourage, despite his singular appearance.
As for Hitori, although he doesn't blame his brother for what he did (on the contrary, he was deeply sad about his tragic destiny), he showed himself since that day deeply hateful towards the latter, limiting all contact with him so that he never sees his scars, in order to preserve him forever from what he had done. Hitori knows that if that happens, Kilain would not bear to know that he had done so much harm to the brother he loves so much (despite the disgust that he seems to feel towards him), and would lose his head.
After making sure (by far) that his brother would get by in life, Hitori began to investigate; why was his brother born like this? Would he and Kilain actually come from another world? What happened in their life? Did they forget something? After some investigations and plastic pink flamingos, Hitori discovered this way ... Nightvale. He is still investigating in this town to find out the story of their family, and still has not informed his brother of anything, not knowing how to get out of the city, or even how he came in.
Wow, it's been a long time since I had bent over this oc, but having written all that make me want to redraw they, him and his brother!
so i cannot title to save my life, and the contents definitely do not match the title. this is a discarded idea that’s not canon in this verse by any means, but i wanted to write it.
also i just might scream if i misgendered my own oc.
Note: Erlas = queen, Tereco = prince
Amaranth slammed her cup down on the side table. Wine sloshed up the rim and splattered her sleeve.
"I've been--thinking," she muttered. "We can't use our gryphons in combat unless it's--"
She faltered and gestured wildly, nearly spilling her cup as she struggled to find the right words.
"Spying or guerilla warfare?" Kilain supplied.
"Right!" Amaranth exclaimed.
Kilain grabbed her cup and held it close to him until Amaranth stopped flailing her arms. He contemplated grabbing the jug as well, but holding the half full container and Amaranth’s nearly empty cup at the same time might strain his remaining hand.
“…Border guards. Border guards! That’s it!” Amaranth announced loudly. She accentuated her last statement by stamping her feet, and Kilain hoped her mother wasn’t sleeping on the floor above them.
“Amaranth, be quiet!” Kilain hissed. He pushed her cup back into her hands. “Do you mean border guards along the entire Caervan border? Or the border not surrounded by the Invictus Mountains? The wild gryphons are a fairly effective deterrent along the mountain border.”
Amaranth fell silent for a minute, then she drained her cup and slammed it back down on the table.
“This is too much. Where’s my map?” she grumbled. She stood up and swayed; Kilain leapt out of his chair and steadied her. “…I can’t feel my cheeks. I can’t feel anything.”
“Go to bed. We can talk about this tomorrow,” Kilain insisted.
“But—” Amaranth whined.
“No buts. You’ll have a clearer head when you wake up,” Kilain interrupted.
Amaranth’s face changed into an ugly grimace, but Kilain turned her around and guided her to their bedroom. She stumbled the short distance from the door to their bed and managed to successfully lay down on top of the covers. With a sigh of relief, Kilain managed to remove her boots and set them aside, and then through sheer force of will he managed to wrestle the covers out from under Amaranth’s prone form and cover her from the cold. She was a stout woman, but he did not want to wake up in the middle of the night and hear her angrily complain about the cold.
Kilain shut the door behind him quietly and walked back to the small sitting room. The fire was dying but he had no heart to bring it back up to a steady blaze, and there was barely enough wine to enjoy another cup. Still, he grabbed the jug—
And heard a small noise coming inside from the sideboard.
Kilain released the jug and eyed the sideboard. One of the drawers was open just a crack. It was small and mostly empty on the inside; hardly anyone could fit inside there comfortably unless they were Adelos or flexible enough. No one was supposed to know that this room was connected to the main palace by a secret underground passage, but the entrance to there wasn’t the sideboard. Anyone who wanted to see Amaranth had to take the long way around, which included leaving the palace and having a cold trek up one of the mountain trails.
This left only one person who knew about the passage. Kilain heaved a long-suffering sigh.
“I know you’re there, Kielos,” he said. He watched them tumble ungracefully out of the sideboard, the door banging against the wood. “Were you spying on us?”
It took a few moments for Kielos to straighten themselves out from their fall, but they shrugged in response to Kilain’s question. Sitting down on the rug, legs stretched out before them, they refused to meet Kilain’s eyes and picked at a loose strand in the woven rug.
“Hardly. I have a question,” they finally replied.
“Before you ask, is any of this going back to Erlas-Consort Florin?” Kilain asked.
“I just told you. I’m not spying and none of this is going back to him. I promise.”
Kilain looked at them doubtfully, but held his tongue. “All right. What’s your question?”
It was a long time before Kielos granted him an answer. They drew their knees up to their chest and rested their chin on top, their long and unkempt black hair falling around their shoulders. Their eyelids were coated in eye makeup of a garish green color. Meanwhile, Kilain finally gave into temptation and poured the last of the wine into his cup and drank it in a gulp. He had a feeling he was going to need it.
“Your wife might be knowledgeable about this,” they finally said.
“Damn it—never mind. I can try to help, Kielos,” Kilain responded. “I’m just as deep in as Amaranth when it comes to gryphons.”
Kielos looked up at him, doubtful. After a moment, he sighed heavily.
“Fine. Can anyone be… be a Gryphon Knight?”
Kilain choked.
“Are you—“ he sputtered.
“No. I’m asking about my partner. I’d say I was asking for him… but he doesn’t know I’m here,” Kielos interrupted.
It took a minute for Kilain to gather his thoughts and get his breathing back to normal. Kielos – a Gryphon Knight?! He was glad the spy wasn’t volunteering themselves for the cause, they would be a terrible fit for the group.
“Uhm. Right. Amaranth looks for people who can use weapons, generally promising military recruits,” he began. “There’s a very small number of gryphons available, so she has stringent recruitment requirements. There are exceptions, such as Tereco Ariyos and Adelos, but as I said, they are exceptions.”
“Are the Knights involved in the main military?” Kielos asked.
“As long as Amaranth has her way, no. Her uncle, on the other hand, wants them to,” Kilain replied. He settled more comfortably in his chair; he had a feeling this was going to take a while. “But that’s a story for another time. Why do you want your partner to join our group?”
“From one sib to another, do you promise not to laugh?” Kielos asked.
“We’re not related, Kielos, we were just raised together,” Kilain reminded them. “But have you ever taken me for someone to laugh at something personal?”
“…Fine. I want to protect him. He’s run afoul of a gang from the Northern Quarter after he stopped them from beating some whore to death,” Kielos explained. They grimaced. “He had no business being over there in the first place. He can’t go back home to Trovska and he can’t face his parents after what he did.”
“Why doesn’t he leave Caerva altogether?” Kilain inquired. Kielos made a rude face.
“He doesn’t want to leave me behind.”
“How—“
“Don’t you dare say adorable, honorable, or noble,” Kielos spat. “Me possibly getting him into the Gryphon Knights is a compromise, even if he doesn’t know I’m doing this.”
Kilain settled back into his chair. His head swam with what Kielos had told him—what would he say? He wasn’t sure about extending an invitation to this man, taking someone in to protect them was bound to invite problems – problems he wasn’t interested in contemplating or dealing with. He wished Amaranth was awake. And sober.
“Before we go on, who is your partner?” he finally asked.
“…Shia,” Kielos mumbled. They looked away from Kilain.
“Is this the same Shia you met when you ran away to Trovska years ago?” Kilain couldn’t help but sound amused.
“…Yes,” Kielos grudgingly admitted. They still refused to meet Kilain’s eyes, and Kilain bit back a chuckle. It sounded like his former adopted sibling was admitting to a crush.
“All right – what did Shia do in Trovska that was bad enough to not face his parents afterward?” Kilain asked. He purposefully kept his voice as pleasant as possible; he didn’t want to offend Kielos with a possible teasing tone, and he wanted the spy looking at him again.
Kielos looked up at him, which was encouraging. Until they opened their mouth.
“He deserted his post in Trovska’s army and ran off. He—“
“Hold on. Amaranth will not accept anyone who is a deserter,” Kilain interrupted. “I’m sorry Kielos, but I can’t bend the rules.”
“There’s a reason behind this, if you let me explain!” Kielos snapped. Kilain shot them a heated look and sighed ruefully.
“Because you’re my family, I’m going to let you explain,” he said tightly. “But I mean it when I say Amaranth won’t allow deserters.”
“To make a long story short, Shia’s grandparents spent all of the family fortune. Their son managed to marry an heiress, but her dowry wasn’t enough to cover the debts. To increase their standing and pay off more debts, they coerced Shia to join the royal militia. However, he deserted a year later because he couldn’t take it anymore.”
“How old was Shia when he deserted?” Kilain asked.
“Fifteen… sixteen maybe,” Kielos replied. “He’s twenty-four now, and still just as much of a soft-hearted idiot as the day I ran into him again a few years ago.”
“Why is Shia, in your words, a soft-hearted idiot?”
“He was in a few gangs or mercenary groups for a few years before we met up. They either kicked him out because he refused to carry out a heinous task, he showed mercy to a prisoner and let them go, or he wouldn’t help out on a job if it conflicted with his tender moral compass,” Kielos said savagely.
“If he’s that weak toward the hardships of living in the slums and on the run, why do you stay with him? He seems the type you’d knife in the dark without a second thought.”
“Shia’s like your wife. He’s built like a brick shithouse and could probably match her in a fight,” Kielos said. “But it’s his heart that won’t harden up.”
“You’re avoiding my question.”
“I—“
“Kielos.”
They looked away from Kilain, pouting.
“Fine,” they spat out. “I care about him. Deeply.”
Kilain sighed. It was a start.
A long silence enveloped them both after that. Kilain finally got up from his chair and carefully added another log to the fire, carefully stoking it back up to a full flame and then sitting back down. Kielos stretched their long legs out, their fingers digging into the thick rug fibers. Occasionally, they ran their fingers across the surface.
Kilain spoke first.
“Kielos, I—“
“What?”
“I can’t promise anything. I’ll forward your request to Amaranth… but there’s a very high chance she’ll reject it,” Kilain said regretfully. “You’re more than welcome to come speak to her personally, but as I said earlier, I can’t promise anything.”
“I’d rather kill everyone in that gang anyway. It’s better than running away or forcing him to flee without me,” Kielos replied hotly.
“Then why don’t you do it?” Kilain inquired.
“Florin doesn’t want me murdering people outside of the ones I’m supposed to kill,” Kielos answered. They grimaced. “Though I’ve disobeyed him before.”
Kilain shrugged. “What’s stopping you from disobeying him?”
“If he finds out I’ve been going against orders, he’ll likely cut my pay,” Kielos replied. “But it’s only if I get caught. He… does have eyes all over the winter capital though, and most of them will happily stab each other in the back. Including mine.”
“Kielos, you’re his—“
Kielos held up a hand. “Don’t say it. I refuse to be formally acknowledged. The Erlas knows of my existence, and lets me go through her makeup collection every now and then, but I don’t want to usurp her brother’s position as heir simply because I’m older than him.”
“I see,” Kilain replied. “I say go ahead and kill them all. I’d help, but…”
“You have a reputation to uphold and you’re missing your right hand,” Kielos mocked. They smirked. “Shia’ll be more than happy to help, I think.”
“Are you sure?”
“He’s back in our hideout, worried out of his mind. He’ll take any chance to get rid of worries.”
