Jack stares in shock as the field around him turns into a valley that he and Snow stood at a cliff and stared at the beauty before him. The valley was surrounded by four waterfalls pouring down into rivers and lakes into the valley below, the wall surrounding it is covered in greenery and caves where god knows where what lives in there. On the floor of the valley there is miles upon miles of forest and fields all connected by rivers.
If he looked hard enough he could even see some horses in one of the fields and groups of birds flying everywhere. In the center of the valley was a huge and a beautiful castle made of some sort of stone or maybe even marble, there were four Bridges one of which was painted in reds, browns and gold, all leading to the platform(?) that the castle sat upon from the tops of the valley which not to mention, was also surrounded in forest for as far as the eye could see.
Before Jack could look around more, Snow had suddenly reared back onto his hide legs and he quickly grabbed onto Snow’s mane shouting “Snow what are you doing!!”
The horse obviously didn’t respond and he took a couple steps back on his hind legs before launching himself over the edge which resulted in a scream from Jack. His heart was racing hundred miles a minute as he desperately clung to Snows back so he didn’t fly off. Before he could freak out more they suddenly stopped and when he hesitantly sits up a bit he realizes that they were gliding towards the platform which he can now see is covered in flowers, tree’s, bushes and fountains that looked like the stone or marble in a natural formation, not something created by people. He gasps slightly when he hears the sound of wings and the gust of air pull on his legs. When he carefully looks back he sees two large white feathered wings glistening like freshly fallen snow in the sun. He lets out a small gasp in shock as he stares in awe wondering how this is possibly real and not just a dream.
As they descend Jack sees someone rushing out of the castle entrance and rushing to where Snow was landing. As he landed Jack could see that the person was indeed Liru who for the first time since he'd known her, was not wearing her cloak and was wearing a wine red button up blouse with a ruffle and black dress pants and ‘god she looks gorgeous’. He quickly hopped off Snow before Snow was even fully knelt and before he could gain a proper footing she tackled him in a hug shouting, “Jack!” knocking the both of them to the floor.
He lets out an oof as he hits the floor with her landing on top of him with a small yipe. They look at each-other for a second and he can feel his cheeks heating up before she giggled and got up pulling Jack with her.
“It’s good to see you again Πυγολαμπίς.” She says with a smile on her face as she walks in front of Snow who had bowed his head down as she began to pet his snout.
“I trust Snow treated you well?” She said running a hand along his snout looking just as comically small next to him as she does next to Stella.
“Yeah, gave me quite a scare a minute ago but other than that, he’s been great.” She smiles and his heart stutters while his cheeks turn pink.
“Good.” Her voice held an amused tone and she held up a red apple that he remembers being a Honey-crisp apple that she seemingly pulled out of nowhere, which Snow happily ate. He cocked his head slightly wondering where she pulled it from because she didn’t have a sack on her nor were any of the pockets big enough to hold an apple that size. Before he can ponder on it further, Liru’s voice brings him out of it.
“Stella’s in the field, she’s waiting for you.” He looks at her in confusion going to ask what she meant before Snow lets out a whinny and had turned around and took off running before his wings appeared and he took off into the air, making a sharp turn towards the direction where Jack believes the field is before ultimately disappearing from view.
“So,” He quickly turns to her and is greeted by a kind smile on Liru’s face as she spoke, “I bet you have a lot of questions.” He nods almost hesitant when he does, asking questions that in the past never ended well with his supposed caretakers but… it’s Liru every question he’s let slip she would answer with an eagerness that made his heart hurt. She smiles and stands next to Jack, she hooks one of her arms with his making Jack relax and smile at the familiar action.
“Well then we let's eat first. Then I’ll answer you questions.” She pulls him inside with a smile and he can’t help but look around at the architecture. The entrance was a large room with two staircases, one going up and the other, below the first, was going down. Around the large room, which might he add, seemed to be larger than a house from the village, three doors that couldn’t possibly lead to anywhere and they were all made out of some sort of wood and with painted different colors mainly reds and browns. The ones he could see properly had gold symbols on them, one was painted a deep blood red with a stack of books in gold with the only spine with words on it said βιβλιοθήκη which if he remember correctly means ‘Library’ and the other was a dark brown with a plate that had Τραπεζαρία on it following the circle but he’s not sure what it means.
“So would you like to go the long way or the short way?” He looks at her confused before replying although it sounded more like a question,
“The short way?”
She just giggles before saying, “Alrighty then, lets go.”
She pulled Jack over to the dark brown door with the plate on it and opened revealing a large dining room and to be honest he didn’t pay attention to the room. He was more focused on the food that was covering the table. There were three different types of meats on the table, ham, fish and chicken along with bread and some greens and ham and potato soup along with a gravy for the ham and chicken, and last but not least was the chocolate cake in the center of it all. Jack could hear his own stomach growling and Liru giggling behind him resulting in his face turning a deep shade of red.
“Well,” She says from beside him, “eat up.” Excited, Jack rushes over to the table immediately grabbing one of the bowls of soup and a plate to put some meat and sits down in one of the chairs before digging in. He ate pretty quickly before moving on to the next thing to eat before noticing Liru was sitting across from him with a smile on her face while she ate slowly while watching him. His face heats up as he tries to sink into the chair. “S-sorry.”
“It’s no problem Jack, I know what it’s like being that hungry. Just try not to choke, Okay?” He nods a little before digging in much slower this time until he’s feeling fuller than he ever has in his life.
“You fully finally?” Her tone is light but he can hear the laughter she’s hiding. He nods leaning back into the comfy chair. “Yeah, thank you it was really good.”
“It’s no problem my Πυγολαμπίς.” He blushes and sinks a little into the chair, feeling his heart flutter. She wipes her mouth with the napkin before standing up and grabbing two plates and putting slices of cake on them and a fork on each plate.
“Now,” She says, turning to him, “Lets go to the library while we eat the cake and you can ask your questions there. Okay?” He nods, dragging himself up and taking the plate she hands him.
“No eating until we get ourselves situated.” Jack pouts but gets up, trying to ignore the rising blush at her small laugh. He follows her out the door and to the one that said ‘Library’ in Greek and pushed it open revealing the library to be lit only by candles and probably fifteen feet high book shelves going as far as the eye can see. One thing he notices as he walks in is that there aren’t any ladders to reach the books on the higher shelves nor anything else to step on or climb up.
“Why is it so dark in here?” He can’t help but ask as she leads him through what seems like a maze of book shelves that's decorated with little trinkets and things hanging or shelved at the ends of them. Sticking close to Liru he can feel someone watching him from the upper Shelves. Shoving the feeling down, he notices the shelves on the walls were also covered in trinkets that felt like there were more to them than meets the eye. Just like everything about this place.
Jack is interrupted from his observing by a dull throbbing pain that seems to have come from nowhere. Wincing he rubs his temple that seems to get worse the further into the library they go. The thing in his head must be freaking out or something, most likely afraid of the knowledge in the books.
“What do you mean?
“Well this place only seems to be lit by lanterns and candles, and there doesn’t seem to be any windows either. Why is that?” He asks, finally putting his hands down as the thing seems to back off taking the headache with it temporarily, as they get to one of the corners. Looking around he sees that there's a ‘fireplace?’ that instead of a chimney there were just more books and bottles filled with softly glowing liquids of some sort. Along with the fireplace(?) there were two comfortable looking love-seats both burgundy red and a small dark brown wooden table in the middle of them as they’re both turned part way to the fireplace.
“Oh I more often than not prefer to read like this but the upper level is all light, maybe I can show you soon.” She sets her plate down on the table sitting in one of the love-seats sprawling her legs out as he sits in the one across from her also putting his plate on the table.
“Now that we are both situated, let's hear those questions.”
Okay so this one is re-uploaded cause it was heavily edited and this is why. The first three songs are for any of the Anti’s I write no matter what. 4-12 are songs for mainly Soft!Anti, 22-30 is for as close to Canon!Anti as I can get and 13-21 are for the somewhere in the Middle!Anti.
So here’s Anti’s! Next is JJ’s! Again sorta, I changed a few songs.
A/N: Note that this takes place in The Kings and Their Queen universe. Also I do have a Henrik one I’m still working on so sorry about that.
Jameson awakes to the feeling of someone trailing butterfly kisses from his shoulder blade to his shoulder. He shivers and melts into the feeling as they trail up his neck, over bite marks and hickies and up to his ear.
“Good Morning, My Κούπες.” A soft smooth and deep silky voice whispers into his ear, “I trust you slept well.”
He smiles softly and moves so he’s on his back, his wife laying on top of him, reaching up and threading her fingers in his pine green hair that he happily leans into, closing his eyes, before looking into her half-lidded midnight blue eyes, that are alight with quiet joy.
“I always sleep well with you, My Love.” Liru smiles with a small chuckle before leaning over and kissing him. He gladly returns the kiss cupping the back of her head and threading his fingers in her blonde hair. They pull away from each other after a few minutes breathing heavily with smiles on their faces.
“I suppose we should get up now huh.” Jameson whines and pulls her closer and burying his face in her hair eliciting a small laugh from the woman. She wiggles her way out of his grip sitting up next to him smiling down at him.
He greedily takes in the sight of her basked in the morning light of sunrise shining around her like a halo. God she’d smack him if she found out he compared her to them. He grins at the thought making her raise an eyebrow, “What are you thinking about Jameson?”
“About how amazing you are.” His grin widens at his little success as her face turns red as she snorts and giggles covering her mouth with one hand and smacking him on his chest with the other as she laughs.
“Sap.”
“Only for you Love.” She rolls her eyes smiling at his small statement.
“Come on.” She says getting out of bed and walking over to the three way mirror by her vanity. He watches her sitting up, the blankets pooling around his waist watching as two smokey black bony hands come out from her back and grab the two robes hanging on the corners as she examines the bites and hickeys he left on her the night before. She grabs the robes, the hands disappearing into her back as she tosses one to him. He looks at it confused as she puts her red one on before looking at her with an eyebrow raised.
“Put it on, we need to bathe and I highly doubt you want to flash your brothers.” He perks up a bit and gets up putting on the robe. She walks towards the door grabbing his hand and pulling him along. Jameson grins following her, always happy to be around her.
Jack was stumbling through the forest, his vision slightly blurry with his cheek still ringing and his body hurting, whether it was from the emptiness or the fall down the stairs. He doesn’t know, probably both to be honest. He wanders aimlessly through the forest not focusing on anything, wanting nothing more than to be with Liru right now. He can feel himself getting dizzier the more he walks, until he comes across a clearing with a bunch of trees that had all fallen over outward from the center of them. But he doesn't think about that. He falls to his knee’s coughing like mad and almost instantly he can see splotches of blood on the grass.
‘Oh. That's not good.’
Once he stops coughing, there is a small stain of blood in the grass. He doesn't even acknowledge it as he pulls himself up onto a fallen tree and sits on it. He hugs himself, leaning over letting blood drip from his mouth, trying not to breathe it in. He chokes back a sob, not wanting to make the pain worse as he thinks about what Mrs. Blanchfield did. He can’t stop the feeling of the hand hitting across his face, the force from it was enough to knock him down the stairs. Without even thinking, he ran out the door as fast he could ignoring the pain shooting through his entire body.
He feels Liru’s presence before he sees her and his heart begins to pound, ‘Nonononono please don’t let her see me like this.’
“Jack?”
‘Shit.’ He slowly looks up at her and he feels his heart flutter ever so slightly when he sees her face, which has a look of confusion written all over it which quickly changes to one of surprise then fury before falling emotionless. He quickly looks back down at the ground, the dead grass crunching beneath her bare feet as she stops right in front of him.
“Jack,” He flinches slightly, curling in on himself a bit “look at me.” Her tone leaves no room for argument. He takes a deep shaky breath, wincing in pain as he does, wipes the blood from his mouth and looks up at her. She immediately puts a knuckle under his chin tilting his head up more as she examines it and he can feel blood begin to drip down his chin again as she does. Her eyes flick down to the blood and she gently wipes it away before bringing it up to her face, saying nothing as she examines it.
After a second or two, he feels his heart skip a nervous beat as she looks him dead in the eyes. Her voice is quiet and tense, her anger barely restrained as clouds begin to circle overhead.
“W͟h̕o̢ did̢ th̡is̶ tò ͞you̡?”
He swallows nervously, not sure if he should tell her. He eyes the blade of her scythe that's strapped to her back, despite the very being of his soul screaming at him to tell her, but the thing in my head was screeching at him not to.
“Jąck.̛”
“Mrs. Blanchfield.” The words tumble out of before he can even process the tone in her voice, a promise of pain and hellfire.
“And who exactly is this… w̛oman?” His heart speeds up a bit as she spits out the word like it was poison. He swallows nervously wincing a bit, trying not to gag as the coppery blood runs down his throat.
“S-She’s the o-orphanage caret-taker.” He flinches slightly at a low growl that seems to shake the world around them. Before he could begin to look around she grabbed his hand, pulled him up and began pulling him away from the field. At her touch he can feel just how chaotic her mind is, the fury that's causing it reminding much of the time Henrik became enraged.
“W-Where are we going?” He quietly curses himself for stuttering as she continues to pull him along, although he’s more following her than anything.
“Home, I’m not letting you go back to those monsters.” Her words almost immediately calm him down.
“Oh, okay.” The thought of being around her everyday, never having to go back to that hellhole, it brought a comfort he hasn't felt since before Henrik left. Before Henrik's promise rang through his head causing panic to grip his very being.
“WAIT!”
Liru stops in her tracks at his shout, his mind cold from whose ever voice that rang through it. She feels herself grow cold at the thought of him wanting to go back.
‘No. Please no, it’s not safe, please.’
“I-I have to go back.” His voice is small and quiet as he speaks, and her shoulders drop as her stomach falls. ‘No…’
“Jack…” My voice cracks as I whisper, not wanting to turn to him.
“Please Liru, I need to go back.” His voice desperate as she forces herself to look at him. He was swaying in his spot slightly, his free arm wrapped tightly around his stomach, hand gripping his now blood stained shirt, bruises beginning to form already, especially the still welted hand print of the side of his face. A primal anger rises in her at the sight of it wanting nothing more than to tear apart the woman responsible for it.
“After what that monster did to you?” Her voice is shaking with barely contained rage as she looks him in the eyes, one of them bloodshot. He flinches at the sound of anger making it quickly melt away into sadness and ignored rejection.
“You’re covered in bruises and blood, Jack. You’re not safe there.” She can’t keep the begging from her voice, it cracks like a glass jar thrown against a rock.
“You look like you were thrown down the stairs!” She’s fighting back tears now, the desperation growing with every breath.
“I-I’m fine, I just fell when I was leaving.” He looks her dead in the eye, pleading look never disappearing.
“Please… I need to go back.” His eyes are filled with unshed tears and her resolve breaks. She grabs his hand gently pulling him to her as she steps closer to him. He stumbles a little as he does and he has a confused and almost hopeful look that she can’t look at. Looking at the ground, she uses her other hand to reach up and cup the back of his head, her entire body slouched in defeat and melancholy.
“Liru?” He asks with confusion and worry clear in his voice. She don’t reply whispering,
“Sopor.” Under her breath. And just like that, he falls limp against her as he sleeps. She quickly wraps her arms under his and as gently as she can, sliding down to her knees as she lays him against the grass. As she lays him down, the trees around them open their eyes, revealing glowing white sap as the faint smell of discarded flesh lingers in the air. They don’t say anything but she knows they’re watching them.
She runs a hand over Jack, muttering a diagnostic spell under her breath as she does. It takes every ounce of control she has not to lose her temper right then and there. She looks at his face and even asleep he looks like he’s in pain. She puts a hand on his cheek rubbing her mark gently before beginning to sing.
“Flower gleam and glow.”
She can’t heal him too much. She doesn't want him to get suspicious. She can’t lose him too.
“Let your power shine.”
She feels relief wash over her as she watches as pieces of the cosmos flow through him, the collage of colors making him look like a young Divine as the forest floor beneath him begins to grow at a rapid pace, grass and flowers growing up and lightly wrapping around him.
“Make the clock reverse.”
The collectors around them are creaking, speaking to each other curiosity radiating from them as they stare at the human and Divine, and she understands why. With Jack laid on the grass and with her hunched over him with a hand on his cheek healing him. It must be quite a sight to see her interacting with a person from a race she despises.
“Bring back what was mine.”
She forces herself to not continue but thankfully he’s healed enough where he’s only kinda bruised and no longer bleeding internally. How he managed to get all the way out here without dying is beyond her. It’s at least a six hour walk but… he didn’t sense him until he was in the field… she quickly shakes any of those thoughts away.
‘I can deal with it later. Right now I need to take him back.’ Liru goes to pick him up before she freezes, realizing it’s not a good idea for her not to take him. If she went to that village right now she’d burn it to the ground. She looks back at Jack knowing she only has one choice for help right now. She takes a deep breath before shouting,
“Σπαθί!!!” Within seconds the shadow creature is next to her on all fours.
“Saluton, saluton, saluton. Ho! Kio estas tio?” The creature, roughly the size of a human man crawling on all fours with both arms and legs bent more like a horse’s than a humans, is staring down at both Jack and her.
“Ĉu ĉi tio estas la malgranda homo, kiu ŝtelis la koron de la malgranda reĝino?” It leans over to sniff him but she quickly smacks him on his side.
“Cut that out I need help.”
“Ho?” Now she definitely has its attention.
“Yes. I need help I know, weird right?” Sarcasm is dripping from her voice before she takes a deep breath.
“Look, I just need help getting him back to the village. And if I go there now, I’m going to l͟ęv̕el ̧it.” She winces a little at the way her voice changes, loathing it when it does that. It’s too much like a void demon’s.
“Tiam faru ĝin.” The malicious joy radiating from it nearly makes her cave to satisfy her own blood lust.
“I can’t. Not yet. Not until he finally gives that place up.” It gives off the same energy of someone rolling its eyes before it looks down at Jack.
“Can you take him back?” It’s head snaps to her, shock over taking it for a second before it throws its head back, letting out a blood curdling laugh, sounding more like a dying hell-hound than anything. When it finally stops she can hear what she assumes is it’s mouth, form into a toothy grin before stretching one arm out straight and it’s arm lets out a sick cracking sound as it’s ‘bones’ flipping around. She cringes at the sound and it scoops up Jack in it’s arm cradling him to it’s chest.
“Kaj tiel la eta reĝo iras hejmen.”
“It’s not his home. He’s made that very clear.” Her voice is nothing more than a whisper as she pushes herself up, the grass curling around her fingers before she pulls them away, standing up.
“For mi iras.” And just like that they were gone. Once they were gone the Collectors began to talk amongst themselves again. She hadn’t even realized they stopped. She looks around one last time before closing her eyes and focusing on her… home?
‘Is it home without him?’
When Liru opens her eyes again, she’s thankfully in her room but completely drained of any energy she might have had left after today. She flops onto her bed, too exhausted to keep everything hidden. Her wings sprawl out around her on the round bed, her tail joining them as it curls around her making a small rattling sound as it moves. She’s laying face down as her horns come out weighing down her head a little, and finally her scales come out and her eyes change the gold and red scales uncomfortable under the clothes she’s too tired to remove.
She's so close to dozing off when the door is lightly pushed open. Moving her head so she can look to see what entered her room, she’s almost immediately greeted by Izzy hopping onto the bed, a squeaky meow leaving her as she tries to move past Liru’s wings without stepping on them. She drags them out of the way in which the puffball goes over to her throat and paws at the part of her cloak around her neck until it comes undone and Izzy slides underneath it on her back, knocking the scythe to the floor.
Liru laughs lightly, closing her eyes again and yawning, muttering under her breath,
“Please be okay Jack.” Not noticing Riptide’s head poking through the door as Izzy purrs her to sleep.
Translations:
Sopor = Sleep
Saluton, saluton, saluton. Ho! Kio estas tio?? = Hello, hello hello. Oh! What's this?
Ĉu ĉi tio estas la malgranda homo, kiu ŝtelis la koron de la malgranda reĝino. = Is this the little human that's stolen the little queen's heart?
Tiam faru ĝin. = Then do it.
Kaj tiel la eta reĝo iras hejmen. = And so the little king goes home.
It’s been a full year since Jack met Liru and since then things have gotten a little weird but also a little better. Now they feed him everyday, granted it’s a piece of stale bread but it’s better then nothing, besides Liru gives him food everyday even when she’s busy she’ll just send Stella with a sack of food. Although weird things keep happening around here since then. For one Liru keeps getting spotted more, almost every week as it was about once every other month before that. Second Mrs. BlanchField, The orphanage’s owner, had gotten attacked and lost her left hand, the one she slapped him with a few hours before hand, after he told Liru. She won't say what happened but he thinks it might have been a wild dog or something. The third thing was that whenever Liru gave him flowers, instead of wilting they would grow whenever he held them and wherever he went that plant life seemed to flourish.
Another thing was that there were two voices in my head now. One in pain that sounded a lot like me but sounded like it was struggling to speak, and the other was this weird… noise? He’s not sure what it is but he does know that it’s either scared of Liru or hates her. Probably both in all honesty and the thing he hates the most about it is that it keeps trying to control him, like it’s trying to possess me as if it was a demon… he thinks it wants to hurt Liru but he’s not sure, but what he is sure of is that he won't let it.
The final thing is actually what is happening now, he was doing what Liru said to do, waiting outside watching the roads while staying out of people's way praying to whatever higher power exists that they leave him alone, his back already hurts bad enough from this morning. All of the sudden he can feel the people tense but the land almost seems to relax.
He doesn't know how or why he’s never noticed how the land seemed to be tense up until this moment but it’s relaxation seems to make him relax with it. He quickly stands up, his attention pulled to the dirt road where people seem to be scrambling away from until his eyes land on a large snow white horse with a main and tail the color of the night sky and he swears he can see it’s eyes glowing green from here.
The horse seemed to be a few centimetres smaller than Stella with something in its mouth as it trotted up the road to the orphanage. He gets up walking to the road, knowing that the horse is here for me, stopping in the middle of it as the horse slows to a stop in front of him. Jack can see that it’s parchment in its mouth now and he carefully reaches up to grab it from it’s mouth with everyone’s eyes staring into the back of his head, the harsh whispers already beginning. He quickly opens it and begins to read it, letting the horse lean down and sniff his hair, shivering a bit when he feels it’s cold breath run down his spine.
His name is Snow. He’ll take you to me today. When he stops, say ‘This is home to the queen’. Happy Birthday Πυγολαμπίς. -Liru.
Jack smiles a little at the use of the nickname she gave him, Lightning Bug. She still won't tell him why she calls him that. He tries to look up at Snow but he seems to be focusing towards my back sniffing much like a dog would. Jack does his best to look at Snow’s face as he reaches up petting his neck, speaking in a low voice only the horse could hear,
“Hey Snow,” The horse whinny happily, causing me to smile “are you here to take me to Liru?” He feels his head nod a bit before he suddenly lets out an angry snort, the ice cold air rush over the lash marks making him wince and jerk away from the feeling. Why did he do- the throbbing pain from his back cut’s that train of thought quickly before he freezes.
It’s Liru’s horse, of course it would know! The horse suddenly rears back snarling, not snorting, snarling and Jack quickly moves out of the way before turning just as Snow slams his hooves down on the ground towards Mr. Blanchfield who fell backwards only a few feet from where Jack was, clearly having intended to yank Jack away.
Snow begins to stomp towards Mr. Blanchfield as if trying to crush the cowering man beneath the giant hooves. As soon as Jack realizes this he quickly scrambles up, ignoring the burning protest coming from his back, and runs in front of the man throwing his hands up and yelling “STOP!” Snow stopped in his place just in front of Jack snorting, glaring at the retreating back of Mr. BlanchField.
Jack whispers in a soothing voice trying his best to copy Liru’s whenever he himself begins to panic,
“Easy boy, why don’t we go to Liru.” That got his attention and he quickly knelt down for Jack who quickly got on and held onto the horse mane loosely so he didn't fall off as the horse stood back up.
Jack looks around and he can feel himself shrink under their glares and whispers of calling him a freak and Snow a monster. He leans down burying his face into Snow’s mane, feeling himself beginning to shake as Snow huffs angrily as he turns around. Jack tightens his grip just as Snow bolts off and Jack lets out a yelp despite expecting it. After a few minutes Jack sits up a bit as Snow slows down a bit but doesn’t stop and he can see that they were moving through the forest now and he forces himself to relax again despite the aching feeling in his back thinking to himself
‘Liru can’t know, I can’t tell her she’ll be furious that it happened again,’ Jack shakes his head slightly, knowing that it’s pointless to hope she wouldn’t find out. He can’t even find it within himself to be worried about what would happen because he knows no matter what, he’s safe with her from now on.
'Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if she finds out.' Something whispers in the back of his head,
He closes his eyes listening to the wind as they whip past everything and to the sound of Snow’s hooves hitting the ground which surprises him because he was honestly not expecting that. He thought it would have been like Stella’s and make no noise at all but guess not. He opens his eyes again, his mind flashing back to the looks he got from the people of the village, their whispers. It’s not the first time this has happened either and nowhere near the worst but it still hurts.
He sighs to himself knowing he was going to get beat when he went back tonight,
‘If I go back tonight,’ And then his mind was racing through every offer Liru gave him and he could feel regret churning in his stomach from not accepting any of her offers, even more so when he realizes she stopped asking about 4 months ago.
He looks at their surroundings as they exit the forest and into a field with a sword and a red sash wrapped around the handle and a morning star with green sash wrapped around the handle crossed in the ground with the sword. Snow slows down to a trot and he can feel something is off about this place. Not in a bad way but… not in a good way either it was more like if he wasn't invited he would have his head cut off. The feeling got stronger the closer we got to the middle of the field, but he could also smell something, it smelt kind of like Liru honestly, Roses, fresh water, and something he can’t quite put his finger on.
They’re almost to the middle now and he can hear multiple voices in different languages saying something. They seemed to be saying- no, asking the same thing from what he heard they were asking,
“Who are you?” over and over until Snow came to a stop in the middle of the field, over the weapons in the ground. The voices all went quiet before saying in unison, a male voice dominating them all, in their languages.
“Oh, you’re her lightning bug.” Jack freezes at the words and he can feel his cheeks turning pink wondering how the voices not only knew Liru but her nickname for him. Before he can dive deeper into that thought Snow neighs softly reminding him what he needs to do in the first place. He looks around at the field one last time before looking ahead and saying in a soft voice,
“This valley is home to the Queen.”
Meanwhile, Liru is sitting on top of one the libraries bookcases, a book in her lap about Body and Soul Amalgamation, books around the same or similar subjects floating around her unconsciously as she tries to make sense of what is written on the pages before her. She goes to say something to Serenity who, now that she looked at her seemed to be in some sort of trance.
She went to pick up the grey chinchilla but before she could Serenity snapped out of her trance as a voice flooded not only the library or even the castle but the valley itself. She smiles, recognizing that familiar voice and words being said together for the first time, looking up to the glass ceiling with birds and butterflies fluttering in and out through open panels whispering, “Welcome home Jack.”
Chapter One: 1823 October 10th The πυγολαμπίδα - Re-Uploaded
(Word Count: 2,681)
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Jack was running, he didn’t know where he was, when he got there or how long he’s been there but what he does know is that he was in a forest and the sun was beginning to set. He could hear their taunts about his brothers, about how they’ve never visited him, haven’t even written to him. He hasn’t heard anything from them since they got adopted. Even though they are five of his soulmates.
‘Do they even remember me?’ and then Anti… he tried to block it out, he really did but he just couldn’t take it anymore, the emptiness left behind like a festering wound caused their absence.
His eyes begin to tear up, blurring his vision which leads to him tripping over something, probably a raised root, and land onto a path he’s never seen before. Before he could comprehend what just happened a horse that was blacker than night had slammed to a stop and threw itself up on its hind legs letting out a sound that was more of a wild dogs growl than a horses whinny.
Just as he was about to scramble away from the giant horse, ‘seriously I’ve never seen a horse this big’ whose eyes he would swear until his dying day glowed red, he heard someone yell in a language that made the thing in his head growl.
“Stella! Kio diable!” The cloaked person ‘girl?’ yelled as he heard them hit the ground with a thump and at the sound of her voice, a feeling of familiarity slams into him like a frying pan.
‘Someone rides this thing?’ Was the first thing he thought before he scrambled over to the fallen person to help them up.
“I-I-I’m so s-sorry I-” He cuts himself off just as he grabbed onto their hands seeing what looks like a soft green lightning move across their skin and he had followed it up to th-Her face, and all at once the feeling of the words Oh, there you are wash over me as he feels a warm and calming yet chaotic presence mix with his own mind. His heart pounds in his chest as he looks her in the eye that isn’t covered by hair, it’s a beautiful blue, like the night sky whenever it was clear on a full moon. He was snapped out of his thoughts when she whispered something under her breath.
“Q-Quam?”
“H-Here,” He stutters out, grabbing her unnaturally warm hands and helping her stand, not noticing the suspicious look in her eyes.
“Thank you.” she said nearly causing Jack to jump out of his skin as he was not expecting her to talk and in all honesty it was more of how soft and soothing her voice was. He snaps out of his thoughts realizing he was just staring and his cheeks heat up as he stutters out,
“O-oh, uh y-your welcome.” He mentally curses himself for stuttering so much before realizing he was still holding her hands and quickly pulled them away trying to stutter out an apology waving his hands slightly before she bursts into giggles causing his heart skip a beat
‘It’s so pretty.’ He’s quickly brought out of that thought when she speaks,
“Cute.” She noted with a small smile in an accent that wasn’t from around here. Well if his face wasn’t red before it sure was now.
“What's your name?”
“O-oh, um, my name is Jack.” He mentally applauds himself for only stuttering once though that doesn’t stop his heart from stuttering when she smiles.
“Nice to meet ya Jack, I’m Liru.” She replied sticking her tongue between her teeth for a second and god did that look adorable.
“Nice to meet you Liru.” He replies before she would think he was staring at her… again. She got this thoughtful look on her face before asking, “Would you like to walk with me and Stella?”
He looks at her in confusion before he feels a tuft of hot hair roll over him and he quickly jumps, turning to the source and freezes before looking up seeing the large death black horse with ‘Black?’ eyes that he swears were red at first. Liru giggles from behind him and she steps up next to him putting a hand that looks comically small compared to it on it’s nose and gently petting it.
“This is Stella, my horse.” She looks over at him with a smile before saying, “Go on, she won't bite.”
He looks at the horse and swallows nervously before putting a shaky hand on it’s nose as he feels it stare into his very soul. He watches nervously as she just stares at him before gently nudging her nose into his hand. He instantly relaxes and lets out a breath of air he hadn’t realized he was holding and he could hear Liru giggle from beside him as he pets Stella’s nose.
“So would you like to walk with us?” He looks over and without thinking says yes. She smiles, “Good.”
She walks back to where she fell and picks up a…. ‘Scythe?’ It was bigger than she was with a golden pole and silver blade with a ruby and sapphire colored eye on the blade and on top on the poll was a bunch of charms connected to thin silver ropes or chains to poll. He was wondering how he didn’t notice it before hand as she attached it Stella’s side removing a leather sack from the same side before turning to him, pulling him from his thoughts as she said,
“Alright let's go.” as she began to walk down the dirt path, he walked quickly to keep up with her and walk beside her.
“So, where are you from?” He asks so they don’t have to walk in silence. She shrugs a bit before replying, “Nowhere really. What about you?”
“A village not far from here, I think.” He mutters the last part since he wasn’t sure for how long he ran. He doesn't notice her confused look and tilted head as he hopes she doesn’t ask questions. They continue to walk in silence before coming to a field that's by a lake that he knows for a fact he’s never seen before. She walks over to the side of the lake and he follows quickly as she walks over to what looks like a bridge made of stones and tree roots and quickly makes her way across it to a little island surrounded by Rose bushes and lush trees that shouldn’t be this green this time of year. She finally stops walking as they get to a grass clearing, setting down the bag and turning to him.
“I hope you're hungry. There’s a lot of food.” Just as she said that his stomach growled loudly causing him to blush and her to laugh. Jack quickly walks over and sits in front of her, red faced. She begins to pull out food and he can feel his mouth water at the smell of the surprisingly still warm soup and cool sandwiches.
“I knew there was a reason I felt like I needed to make more than normal.” As she handed me a jar of warm potato ‘and ham!’ soup, a ham and cheese sandwich along with a spoon. He quickly opens the jar of soup and dug in eating eagerly and freezes when he hears her laugh and say,
“Slow down Πυγολαμπίς you’re eating like you haven’t eaten in days.” She teases, making him freeze, his eyes flickering to her face and his face turns red from shame rather than embarrassment. He sits a little straighter looking down and out of the corner of his eyes he can see her teasing grin turn into a frown.
“Jack,” She says in a soft voice like one would use for a frightened animal. “When's the last time you ate?” she prodded gently and he can feel himself begin to panic, worried that she might be mad at him.
“Jack.” She prodded again but this time a little sterner.
“I-It doesn’t m-matter. B-besides I'm-” He gets cut off.
“Jack!” she snaps causing him to flinch and her voice goes back to being soft but stern.
“How long as it been Jack.” He forces himself to relax realizing she isn’t angry at him but he's still on edge.
“T-two day’s.” He answers quietly and the sound of metal beginning to bend fills the air and causes him to panic again,
“B-But s-since today is my b-birthday I-I might-” He’s cut off again but this time by the sound of silver snapping and the top half of her spoon flying off somewhere.
He flinches as she sets down the spoon and jar before getting up and walking to him quickly. He drops the spoon and jar and before he can scramble away she pulls him into the warmest hug he’s ever had.
He sits there in shock before beginning to melt into it and cry and cry and cry before he finally manages to calm down, she pulls away and so did he albeit rather reluctantly and when he looks up at her there are little glowing bugs everywhere, illuminating the soft smile spreading across her face. He feels her hand brush away some hair from his forehead causing him to panic for a second realizing she uncovered the one on his forehead before seeing her smile grow a bit and says in a fond voice, “You too, huh.”
He looks at her in confusion as she moves the hair covering her face out of the way revealing two more soul-marks ones of a red phoenix with green accents and blue eyes underneath her right eye covering her cheek the tail feathers going down the her lower jaw, going through a large scar, like the one covering his right lower arm, and then an identical copy of the one of my forehead on hers, a heart, a spade, a diamond and a club creating a diamond on her forehead, just like his. He’s shocked and he can’t help but stare before her giggle snaps him out of his thoughts as he watches her go and sit back in her spot.
“Eat.” He doesn't bother arguing with her and he quickly eats the sandwich and soup while she eats hers with a new spoon. He lays back content, his eyes closed and as he opens them he’s greeted with the sight of glowing bugs flying in-front of his face. He looks at them in confusion, jumping a bit when Liru speaks up, “They’re Lightning bugs.”
“Huh?”
“Or fireflies.” He looks at her as she watches the ones flying around him fondly, “Whichever you choose to call them, they’re still beautiful, dead useful to when you don’t have a lit lantern, as long as you don’t scare them of course.”
He looks back at the little bugs whispering “Fireflies huh.” as he continues to watch them dance in-front of the night sky.
‘Wait… night sky?’ He suddenly realizes just how late it really is and he shoots up quickly exclaiming,
“I need to get home!” He quickly stands up and looks at her as she stands up obviously confused saying in a kind voice,
“You know you can just come with me, you don’t have to go back there.”
He shakes his head no vigorously, “Nononono, you don’t understand I need to go back.”
He looks at her with pleading eyes, barely noticing the sadness coming from her, before she frowns, sighing, her tone resigned. “Alright, come with me, Stella and I will take you home.”
Before he can thank her, she walks back to the bridge quickly crossing it with him close behind jogging to catch up as they get back to her horse. Once they get to Stella she goes and grabs her scythe before strapping it to her back as the horse bowed for her so she could get on putting the hood to her cloak up. He freezes looking at her realizing that she looks like the horseman, Death they called them, that the adults would talk about seeing in the forest late at night, the one that is responsible for so many disappearances if they wandered into their ‘her’ forest. But he can’t find it in him to be scared, she’s the first person in ten years who was nice to him, to worry about him…
She looks over at him, her hood not covering her face like it should and she puts her hand out to help him on and when he sees the soft smile on her face, he can feel any worry disappear. He grabs her hand and she pulls him up so he’s sitting behind her.
“Lets go Stella.” The horse gets up quickly and he grabs onto Liru, letting his mind drift into the calm chaos of her mind, barely noticing a small flash of surprise that races through her mind as Stella takes off in full gallop towards his village. For some reason he doesn’t even question how she knew where he lived, just wraps his arms around her waist tighter and he could feel one of her hands on his arms as she keeps facing forward which he was great-full for since he could feel his face heat up.
To make it stop he tries to focus on the noises around before realizing the only thing he could hear was the wind, there wasn’t any sound coming from Stella. Sure she was snorting every now and again but her hooves made no sound as they hit the ground over and over. Before he could begin to question, Stella began to slow before coming to a stop. As he sat up confused he realized they were already at his village.
“We’re here.” She said, peaking at him from over her shoulder as Stella knelt down for him and as he was sliding off the black horse he hears Liru say to him leaving no room for argument, “I’ll meet you around here tomorrow.”
He quickly turns to her in confusion and before he can say anything he feels her press a kiss to his cheek. His face turns redder than before and as she pulls away he can see her pink tinted cheeks in the moonlight. He stumbles back a bit as Stella stands up again and turns around, he looks up at Liru as she looks down at him before saying,
“Happy Birthday Jack. Sleep well.” Before he can say anything in return the horse and her are gone like a light and he just turns and stumbles towards the orphanage, her missing presence already leaving him feeling empty again.
Meanwhile, Liru is hanging onto Stella as they ride back home, absolutely ecstatic to have met one of her soulmates but also wondering how Jack could know how to use a mental connection. Wondering how someone so sweet could be her soulmate and forgetting about the little picnic area for the time being, her heart lighter but also heavier as she hears Stella’s voice enter my head.
She thinks about how absolutely gorgeous his soul was but also how clouded by trauma it is. How his song was muffled like a human trying to speak underwater. Stella must have felt her distress because the next think Liru know’s she asks,
“Shall I tell them to keep an eye on him when you aren’t around little one.”
Liru frowns to herself thinking, not wanting to invade his privacy but she’s also worried for his safety. She comes to her decision as her home comes into view and keeps her legs low as Stella’s bat-like wings come out as she takes off into the air, her eyes glowing red as she becomes a bit decayed.
“Yes, but to not attack anyone until those humans,” She spits out like a bad taste, “lay a harming hand on him.”
“Of course little one.”
She thinks to herself looking at the moon before they land, ‘I’ll make them pay for hurting him.’
Translations:
Stella! Kio diable! = Stella! What the hell!
Quam = How
How in the absolute fuck did you guys get past my god awful grammar enough to read and follow the story. Like i’m editing the first chapter and I wanna weep from the poor grammar. Like thank you truly for managing to read past that and enjoy the story enough to follow. First chapter will be re-uploaded soon.
Hey guys I’m just letting you know that I’m gonna be switching all of the stories to Third person so it’s gonna be a bit longer until the next chapter. Also I have changed my Icon and i’m Making a Spotify Playlist for the story.
andulkaphoto
gummygunk
stormborns
amandla
romaincrisis
theartofmadeline
gracieabrams