#I also drew a little knight to show how I see the creatures of the void

[breadmecoshy]

"I have a damn addiction to characters about whom nothing is known in the canon," or "I realized the existence of Lurien for the first time in three passes of the game"

Recently, I started going through hollow knight for the third time, and I got to the point where I have almost nothing to do except go punch dreamers in the face or bang my head against too strong bosses

And so I come to the tower to Lurien, and my first reaction is like "stop what"

"why is there only a cape left of your body? why the hell are you so small? shouldn't you be a damn big piece of cloth, like your two big female colleagues?"

And this is not to mention the fact that starting the game, I did not remember which location Lurien was in, what his name was, what he looked like, and when his mask with one eye appeared on the map, I was genuinely surprised, because I completely forgot about him

And God, his smallness kills me, because I thought he was as big as Herrah or Monomon, whom I remembered well, but he's just a damn trifle

/аlthough compared to the Pale King, anyone will look tall, and his crown looks like he's trying to compensate for his height, what the hell, man

In any case, after I realized that literally nothing is known about Lurien in the game except his devotion to the King, my love for the deprived and offended awoke in me

In fact, it's funny to me because people can come up with Lurien literally any personality due to the lack of his personality in the game. And basically, fanon Lurien is divided into "a fucking tired grumpy old man with a bottle of something alcoholic" and "a gentle rose, breathing unevenly in the direction of its King"

My Lurien is a gentle rose, but I'm not sure about his breathing towards the King yet XD

In the game, hell, it's not even clear what kind of Lurien belongs to. Headkanon that he is a butterfly is very popular in the fandom, but what about the fact that part of his body is very similar to the creatures of the void like the Collector or the Kingsmould?

I like to think that it was created by the King himself so that Lurien would guard the capital. And, since he wasn't supposed to be a perfect vessel, he was deliberately created with reason and feelings. That would explain his unconditional loyalty to the King

[storiesforallfandoms]

my lady ~ geralt of rivia

word count: 1615

request?: yes!

“hello, could you write something where geralt gets really jealous because someone (jaskier or a random) flirts with the reader and he shows her who she belongs to? rough smut please!”

description: while travelling with a group to slay a monster, a pretentious king to be tries to flirt with geralt’s lady, leading to the witcher becoming very jealous

pairing: geralt of rivia x female!reader

warnings: swearing, smut

masterlist

You loved to travel with Geralt. You liked to see him in action, slaying monsters, but you also loved to be there to help him relax after a long day of fighting. After the ballad written by the exhausting Bard that had latched himself on to Geralt, many started coming to the Witcher to ask for help with finding and slaying monsters. This led to you, Geralt, and Jaskier becoming part of a group travelling to find some sort of monster that had been terrorizing kingdom after kingdom for nearly a whole year.

The king that was leading the team, a young man who had recently been put into the power, was determined to find this monster and to kill it himself. Apparently doing so would result in a great reputation for him. But his men insisted on looking to Geralt for help, which was definitely a much better idea than to wander aimlessly looking for a creature that they didn’t even know what it was.

Despite the constant urging of the king to keep going, the group decided to stop for the night to get some rest. They set up their tents and a small fire while one of the king’s men went to find some meat to roast over the fire. Geralt was sat next to you, his golden eyes glaring at the egocentric king.

“He’s going to get himself killed,” Geralt muttered. “Him and his men. What kind of reputation will he have then?”

“The one he deserves,” you responded. “The best we can hope for is he puts up some kind of fight instead of dying like a pussy.”

This brought a slight smile to Geralt’s face. “You could kill a monster twice his size quicker and easier than he could. He’d probably shit himself and run away before being eaten.”

You giggled. “I don’t think a monster would want a feast that tastes like shit. Probably would just rip him to shreds and leave his remains for his men to find. That would be a legacy for him.”

Geralt actually laughed at this, which caused you to laugh as well. Your laughter was noticed by the king, and the moment you both realized he had saw you, you quickly stopped.

“What are you two laughing about?” he demanded.

“Just reminiscing on old tales we’ve been told,” Geralt responded. “Have you ever heard of the one about the king who didn’t know how to fight?”

“Geralt,” you warned softly.

The king and Geralt held a prolonged staring contest as the king lowered himself to sit across from the two of you in front of the fire.

“I have not,” he responded. “What is so funny about that? A king should know how to fight.”

“Well, that is the thing,” Geralt explained. “This king claimed that he knew how to fight, and was willing to prove it however he could. He fought many a knight and always won, but he didn’t take that as a real victory. He was sure that they were throwing the fights as not to upset him. He said he wanted a real challenge, so he and some of his men went into the woods looking for the fiercest, most dangerous monster they could find.”

The king was on the edge of his feet, engrossed in Geralt’s fake story. You had to hold back a giggle at the anticipation on his face.

“Did they find one?” the king asked. “What happened? Did the king slay the beast?”

“No,” Geralt responded, plainly. “They found the monstrous beast, but the king insisted on fighting it alone. Hours later, his men realized he still had not returned, so they went looking for him. All they found were his remains, which smelled like shit.”

You buried your head in Geralt’s shoulder to muffle your laughter. Geralt smirked at the king, who looked shocked at the ending of the story.

“I don’t think that’s a very funny story,” he huffed. “Quite morbid actually.”

“It is what men like him deserve,” Geralt told him. “A man should not boast about things he is unable to do, and certainly should not drag his men into battles that they will surely lose.”

The king was now glaring at Geralt. You were sure he was starting to realize that Geralt’s story had been a joke in his expense all along, and you weren’t sure how the king would react upon realizing this.

His eyes drifted to you. You shuffled uncomfortably, looping one arm through Geralt’s and holding him tightly.

“You are quite beautiful, my lady,” he said. His voice was more calm than you expected, and you weren’t sure if that scared you more or not.

You gave him a small smile and softly responded, “Thank you, Your Grace.”

“It is such a shame that your beauty is wasted on a man like the Witcher here.”

Geralt tensed against you. You squeezed his arm again, trying to calm him down. You refused to meet the king’s eye as he stood and approached the two of you.

“I do mean it, my lady,” he said as he lowered himself to be level with you. You looked down at the ground to avoid his gaze. “Ever since I laid my eyes on you, I have been infatuated with your beauty. I have never met a woman quite as beautiful as you. If you’d let me, I would love to shower you with anything and everything you could ever want.”

You flinched as you felt his hand softly caress your face. This was enough for Geralt, who stood quickly and drew his sword. The king’s men came to attention then, surrounding Geralt with their weapons pointed towards him. The king was still in front of you, stupidly waiting for your answer.

You glared at him before responded, “Get the fuck out of my face.”

His face fell then, quickly turning to anger as he stood to address his men. “Just a misunderstanding, gentlemen. You may leave the Witcher and his wench alone.”

The king’s men stood down, but still kept a watchful eye on Geralt as they retreated towards their tents. Once they, along with the king, were gone, Geralt took hold of your arm and roughly pulled you to a stand. He dragged you towards the tent the two of you were sharing. You struggled to keep up, occasionally stumbling.

When you reached the tent, Geralt closed the flaps behind you and ensured that no one would be able to see through them. He turned to you and immediately attached his lips to yours, kissing you roughly. His hands traveled over your body, starting at your ass and running slowly up your back, causing you to shiver. When he reached the top of your dress, he roughly pulled at it, ripping the fabric and letting it drop to pool around your feet.

“You could’ve just asked me to take it off,” you said as Geralt guided you to floor, laying you down in front of him.

“Would’ve taken too long,” he responded as he threw his weapons to the side and took his pants off. “You have enough clothes to be able to change in the morning, I’ll buy you a new dress once we finish this stupid mission.”

Before you could respond, Geralt shoved himself into you, causing you to gasp. Usually, he gave you enough time to adjust to his size, but he seemed as though this time was less for pleasure and more as though he had something to prove.

His thrusts were immediately rough. You couldn’t help but cry out in pleasure as his hips would meet yours, the loud sound of skin slapping against skin ringing out through the tent.

“That’s right,” he muttered into your ear as his lips attacked your neck. “Let that pretentious little prick know who you belong to.”

You cried out Geralt’s name as you felt yourself nearing your climax already. Your legs were shaking and your eyes were rolling back into your head as you felt yourself orgasm. Feeling your walls clench around him caused Geralt to moan as he buried his head in your shoulder.

His rough thrusts began to speed up, and that’s how you knew he was nearing his climax as well. Finally, his thrusts became sloppy and you felt his warm seed filling you. You both moaned together as Geralt rode out his orgasm. He slipped himself out of you and rolled next to you, wrapping his arms around you and holding you to him.

“You really did not like the way the king spoke to me, huh?” you teased.

Geralt made a face. “My lady. That little prick has some balls to say that shit in front of me. I wanted to slice his head clean off of his neck.”

“I have a feeling he very rarely hears the word no,” you noted. “You know I would never leave you, let alone for someone like him, right?”

Geralt’s hold on you tightened as he kissed your forehead. “I know you wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean the way he spoke to you doesn’t make me angry.”

“I know,” you told him. “If it helps you feel better, just remember that we probably won’t have to deal with him for much longer once we find this monster.”

A smile spread across Geralt’s lips. “That really helps. I hope I’m the one to find his remains. It would bring me the most joy I’ve ever felt.”

You giggled and cuddled into Geralt’s side. Your body ached from the sex, but you weren’t exactly complaining. You listened to Geralt’s steady breathing as it lulled you to sleep.

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

Yeeaaah… so this ended up turning out longer than I intended… but it’s a theory I felt like sharing nonetheless. Hopefully tumblr doesn’t eat this & if this is too long or odd to answer… don’t worry, I understand. I just wanted to share while it was in my head, ya know? So: Long Post Warning!

I am not 100% caught up on every chapter yet, but I do have a brief understanding of all the events up til now. So please forgive me if this has been revealed and I just don’t know about it yet.

Bell 🧚🏻 = wind spirit🌬🌪

Salamander (who honestly looks more like a dragon than a salamander so he’s gettin’ the dragon emoji) 🐲 = fire spirit 🔥

Undine 🌊 = water spirit💧

As far as I know, we don’t yet have an inkling of who the earth spirit will be or to whom he will “choose” to contract with.

Tbh, I have a some of feelings about possibilities surrounding the earth spirit…

Bell and Undine are both obviously women and I’m 96.8% sure that Salamander is a boy… but who knows, I also wouldn’t be the least bit freaking surprised if Tabata threw that back in our face and Salamander ends up being a girl like in Shrek (and on that note, I just need to ask, in Shrek 2 when Shrek and Donkey drank the Happily Ever After Potion, it’s described as “"Happily Ever After Potion maximum strength. For you and your true love. Drink of this potion and bliss will be thine, happiness, comfort, and beauty divine.” This stuff turned both Shrek and Fiona human while it turned Donkey into a pure white stallion… am I the only one that still gets peeved we never got an answer on wtf that stuff did to Dragon??? Or how it would’ve affected their dragon donkey hybrid babies??? That’s the only thing that irks me about Shrek 2… okay, whew, now that I’ve gotten that out, back to Black Clover theorizing)

Going by the assumption that Salamander is most likely a boy, it would stand to reason that the earth spirit has a good chance at being male as well like 2 female spirits, 2 male.

Salamander’s inspiration obviously comes from dragon lore, I can’t find one singularly specific mythology reference Tabata would have based Salamader on so I’m guessing Salamander is based on dragon lore.

Bell has, for the most part, 2 inspirations Tabata based her on. The main one being Sylphs have power over the skies and air. They've been delineated to have control over the wind and the clouds, and even have the ability to purify the air and control the weather itself. Sylphs are not officially from a specific type of mythology, but if they were to be categorized they’d qualify as European folklore, same as Undine and Gnome which will be explained a few bullet points later. The second and most obvious (my fav of the 2) inspiration Tabata drew from for her character is Tinkerbell; from the blond hair, green dress, gets pissed when male partner pays attention to any female that isn’t her, yeah no denying she’s based on tinkerbell; my guess is Tabata combined her with Sylphs wind magic because it was Tinkerbell’s pixie dust that Peter, the lost boys, and the Darling children used to be able to fly. “Faith, trust, & a little bit of pixie dust” (Which is even more perfect because, even if he doesn’t show it, there is no one else in the series that has more faith & trust in Asta than Yuno does… Yuno’s infinite faith/trust in Asta both drives their rivalry forward and, by this logic, is one of the very reasons Yuno can sore so high🥰).

Undine is the only spirit character, for now, that is directly based off of a real water spirit in European folklore (again, even though Sylphs technically qualify to be categorized under European mythology, as far as I know, they are not officially categorized as such which is why I say Undine is the only one) - “Undine, also spelled Ondine, is a mythological figure of European tradition, a water nymph who becomes human when she falls in love with a man but is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her.” Being that Undine is described as being able to take human form when she falls in love with a man *cough cough* Ariel *cough cough* Black Clover’s Undine’s background states that she made a contract with the first queen of the newly formed Heart Kingdom and has thus stayed loyal and made a contract with every Heart Queen since. Maybe she fell in love with the father/brother/husband/male-figure associated with the first queen and since the queen is the predominant ruler of the heart kingdom - Undine made a contract with her to be close to this man while knowing he could/would never be hers… she wouldn’t die if her love is one sided… if her love is unsaid and unrequited then anything this man does with another woman isn’t considered being unfaithful.. and maybe she’s maintained contracts with every Heart Queen since out of sheer devotion, loyalty, and love to that original man whom she took human form for. Or she was in love with the first queen and has made a contract with every queen since out of sheer devotion, loyalty, and love not on just for that first queen but every one of her descendants. Who knows?

Tabata’s mythological references (demonology excluded because that a whole other thing) for the most part mainly circulate around Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and European folklore.

Going based off of Undine (and Sylphs) , there’s a strong possibility that this yet to be named earth spirit will possibly directly based on, even if only slightly, someone of those three categories above.

Greek mythology, I find somewhat unlikely seeing as there’s no official male god of earth in Greek mythology. There are deities that have roles related to the earth yeah… but no god surround the earth itself or the element itself. The closest thing to a god of earth in Greek mythology is Gaea - goddess of earth. Simplify it to god of dirt and still the only result is Demeter goddess of agriculture (which seems similar to Mimosa in some ways but I don’t think she will obtain an earth spirit because I think the earth spirit will have more to do with mineral earth than plants and agriculture). If there is to be any inspiration drawn from Greek mythology in terms of an earth spirit, but even this seems a little unlikely, my guess would be possibly some characteristics from Satyrs seeing as they are the male equivalent of nymphs - what Undine is technically classified as.

Norse mythology seems a bit more, but not by much at first, plausible in terms of gathering reference for an earth spirit. It probably wouldn’t be the Norse God of Earth Jörd because she is still technically a goddess and mother of earth like Gaea. However, Norse mythology does have a deity of rocks - Hrungnir is a jötunn (a type of entity contrasted with gods and other non-human figures, such as dwarfs and elves. The entities are themselves ambiguously defined, variously referred to by several other terms, including risi, thurs and troll). There is also one more Norse aspect that goes along these lines - Dvergar or Norse dwarves are entities in Norse mythology associated with rocks, the earth, deathliness, luck, technology, craft, metal work, wisdom, and greed.

Norse mythologies depictions of both jötunn and dvergar tie into the third category of European folklore’s depiction of earth deities/spirits. In European folklore, Gnome, is a dwarfish, subterranean goblin or earth spirit who guards mines of precious treasures hidden in the earth. He is represented in medieval mythologies as a small, physically deformed (usually hunchbacked) creature resembling a dry, gnarled old man. - this description is similar to that of jötunn/dvergar and also ties into Charmy being revealed as part dwarf which will most likely be explored in a later arc.

Tbh, I picture this guy’s personality being somewhere between Grumpy from Snow White, the grumpy but well-meaning and wisecrack Lorax, and Phil from Disney’s rendition of Hercules… (not only does imagining this type of personality have me laughing… imagining the 2 most whom I find most likely to be chosen by this earth spirit… imagining them being partnered up with this personality has me near cackling😂)

As for the 2 whom most likely might be the “chosen one” of this earth spirit?

Even though he is technically described as being Arcane in terms of his magical attribute, Mercury is by definition “a naturally-occurring chemical element found in rock in the earth's crust, including in deposits of coal.” So mercury is naturally occurring, derived from earth, and the fact that it can come from deposits of coal ties in perfectly to the hypothesis of this earth spirit/deity being along the lines of dwarves which (not JUST in Snow White) are heavily associated with miners in various mythologies and folklores. So even though technically classified as being arcane, I do think Nozel has a strong possibility of being chosen by the spirit of earth (+ it would make for an EVEN MORE epic rivalry between Nozel and Fuegoleon if they both have an elemental spirit) (++ based off of how dwarves are depicted in mythology and based on how I decribed how I think this guy’s personality will be, I can see this guy as wise/rational but also getting grumpy/irritated easily with a short fuse and just imagine him getting irritated and kicking Nozel in the shins when when he doesn’t communicate his feelings properly & almost always kicks Solid/Nebra/Augustus in the shins when he says something he shouldn’t have - omg this guy’ll be a hoot!!🤣)

The second possible “chosen one” of this earth spirit could be Sol. Not only is she 100% raw earth magic but I also feel like it would balance her out a bit having a male spirit attached to her and that’s where the wisdom side of the Lorax/Phil could kick in and help her not only improve as a mage but also as a person helping her not see things so one sided. You notice, even though the Blue Rose Knights are an all girl squad… Sol is the only one that goes to that much of a degree in despising men; everyone else on the squad detests men on the surface but for the most part not truly. Charlotte keeps up the façade of detesting men to both appear strong for her squad ladies but also to mask her own insecurities. Sol, while she has gotten a little better since her initial introduction, is the only one who barely tolerates men… the only one who’s depicted as not having a façade and genuinely detests all men with a few exceptions. Having a male spirit like character who does not take her BS (*shin kick💥*) but also offers her wisdom and guidance that helps her grow as a person would be phenomenal for her character overall.

I find Nozel to be the more interesting outcome (NO! not just because I’m a Nozel simp… who told you that? They lie) but either of these characters would be interesting and could improve drastically in character development and as a mage having someone like this joined at the hip.

What are your thoughts?

– Grimoire_Girl📚

OKay, okay *takes a moment* (Also: did I just stop what I was doing, just to read and reply to this? .... Maybe)

I'd like to platonically kiss you on the mouth (with your consent ofc, because consent is a big thing on this blog), because I love this. Okay the Fue simp in me was hoping to have more of him, but in the end I didn't even mind. And can I just say that I love, lovelovelove the idea of Nozel getting the Elemental Spirit of Earth.

The theory is made *so* *much* *better* by the mental image of him (supposedly 'him') being a Lorax/Phil (from now on, let's call him Phorax). Because can you just imagine this duo?! Nozel, our lovely tsun-tsun who is in need of a big, warm hug and therapy. (Like Nozel, sweetie, I know that there aren't many therapists around, but you need to talk to someone.)

I'm also thinking that since it's probable that there'll be the 2-2 divide between boy/girl spirits, because I kinda agree with you on Sal being a boy (I'm aware of Shrek 2, but unfortunately I have no answers, but I laughed *so hard* while reading that), if there'll be a divide between the Spirit forms that have wings. Because I can't see the Earth Spirit giving a flying Spirit Dive form.

I mean, what, everyone else, aka the rest 3 spirit owners can rise to the skies and then Nozel is left behind like a plucked chicken? (I'm so, so sorry for that comparison, but ain't no one leaving him behind! Nozel. Needs. To. Be. Included.) I don't think that's fair. So, it could very well be that the two else give a "grounded" Spirit form, and Bell and Undine give a flying form.

Aaaanyways... I do like your theory/thoughts on how Undine came to be. And I could very well see that to be canon.

I, honestly, have nothing further to add at this point. Because this is brilliant. I love this.

But Tabata please, give us a tiny bit more lore. Please? A pretty please

[decks-writing-blog]

Mute Buddies

This is a Dead Cells and Hollow Knight Crossover fic.

All the crossover art, especially the two pieces I drew, got me thinking about Ghost and Beheaded interacting and how they would be friends. And then I started thinking about ways they might've met and this fic is a result of those thoughts.

Also, because this is pre-game for Ghost they don't go by 'Ghost' since they're dubbed that by Hornet. They don't actually have a name at all in this fic because I wasn't sure what they would think of themself as.

~

By the time they spotted the island it was almost too late despite how close it was. Their sailboat, not ever meant to be out in the open ocean for so long, wasn’t faring well in the seemingly ceaseless storm. It had been battered and tossed around by the waves and wind until it had sprung a leak. And while dealing with that might’ve been easy under different circumstances the flood of rain pouring down complicated things quite a bit. Their one single bucket, despite being almost half their size was barely enough to bail out the water fast enough to keep the boat afloat. It was a losing battle though, they were only one little bug after all. So the island was a blessed sight indeed. All they had to do was get the boat to it, easier said than done of course but there was hope now at least and they had a goal.

As they drew closer it became ever more apparent that their vessel wasn’t the only one to suffer in these waters. Seems it was actually pretty common if the wrecked ships littering the bay were anything to go by. Only intermittently visible between flashes of lighting and waves pulling back to reveal bits and pieces of them, how many there were was impossible to guess. Not that it mattered beyond steering the sailboat through as safely as possible.

It was tough work; they couldn’t bail and hold the rudder at the same time and thus just had to hope that the boat would be able to reach shore before it sunk. Luckily there seemed to be a current pulling them towards the island. And the water filling the bottom of the boat now served to weigh it down, stopping the waves from pushing it around as much; another blessing even if initially it hadn’t been.

And thus after only a few minor collisions, the hull was grinding up onto the rocky shore with a scraping sound that couldn’t mean good things. Hopefully it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Not that they actually cared a whole lot right now regardless because they were on land. No getting tossed around helplessly in the ocean for them today.

Putting one hand on the boat’s railing, they vaulted over the edge and onto firm land for the first time in fartoo long. The world seemed to sway and rock around them as if they were still aboard the boat and being pushed around by waves. They’d been stuck on it for a very, very long time indeed. Far longer than they’d thought would be the case. Word around the port town they’d acquired it at was that there was nothing out here, just lots and lots of ocean before the edge of the world. They’d wanted to see that supposed edge of the world but instead they’d found this island. Given how sick and tired they’d grown of sitting in the boat with nothing to see or do, that was perfectly fine. The edge of the world probably wasn’t all that exciting anyway, certainly not worth such a voyage to get to it.

Now even with the rain still pouring down on them they could’ve easily just laid down and fallen asleep right then and there. But it wouldn’t be wise and… They turned back towards their vessel. Its sail was old and tattered, held to the mast with a fraying rope that doubtless wouldn’t last much longer and its creaky hull had a minimum of at least one hole in it. Overall, in even worse shape than they’d acquired it in. But it should be repairable, right? And thus they grabbed hold of its edge and pulled it up further up onto the rocky shore. The thought of getting back onto it and heading out into the ocean once more was thoroughly unpleasant but there was no way they’d want to stay forever on this island so preserving their most likely way off was a must. As soon as it was well out of even the highest waves’ reach, they turned away. Leaving it there, they went in search of a place to rest.

The shore was wide and rocky. Off to one side was a large building, visible in between flashes of lightning. Closer by was a large cliff face. It wasn’t sheer though. There were many holes of various sized cut into its face and further up what look like whole caves. It didn’t take them long to find a little nook not too high up that would serve as a good enough hiding spot. They wouldn’t be completely hidden within it, anyone really looking would probably be able to spot them. Not ideal but they were too tired to search for something better. And it would get them out of the rain and that’s what mattered most right now. Though how much did that really matter when their cloak was so thoroughly soaked through already?

They pulled themself up into it and curled up, pressing back against the rear wall. … They ought to be more wary and should probably patrol the area for potential danger before letting themself rest. It would be the smart thing to do but… they were far too tired to bother, especially since they’d already laid down. It’d probably be fine though, few bugs would care to be out in such weather regardless.

***

Beheaded started for the beached sailboat as soon as they spotted it shortly after reaching the bottom of the Undying Shore’s cliff. While the island seemed to be in constant flux – something to do with the time loop probably – rare was the day something that different popped up.

Off to the side and just out of the ocean’s reach, getting to it was easy. After a quick glance around to ensure no monsters were around, they leaned in to examine it.

A small sailboat, nothing all that exciting really other than the fact that despite its visibly battered state it was still the most intact vessel they’d seen anywhere on the island. Left out in the rain without a tarp its hull overflowed with rainwater. Barely seaworthy for sure. Where had it come from though? Had someone dragged it out here thinking to escape the island in it? … No. Even as small as it was, there was no way anyone carried it out here, down the cliff, over the rocky terrain and past all the blood thirsty monsters even if they had had help. And given the way its bow was pointed away from the ocean – if even Beheaded knew what the front of a boat looked like then surely anyone experienced enough with traversing the sea to even consider risking such a voyage would’ve pointed the boat towards the water – it seemed to have come from the ocean. Hmmm… curious.

Well, most often where there was one interesting thing to examine there were more. So, turning away for now, Beheaded set to looking for other clues.

It didn’t take long to determined that there wasn’t much of anything within the sailboat’s immediate vicinity so they expanded their search along the shore a bit. Still nothing but the usual bit of boat rubble that occasionally made its way to shore before being pulled back into the sea. Quite lame but… still just the sailboat alone was an interesting find. So oh well, they had monsters to get back to killing. Perhaps they’d find something more about the boat and its occupant later.

They paused halfway in their turn back towards the way they’d being going before. There was something in one of the cliffside’s crevices. Tucked up deep inside only a small flap of dark fabric was visible poking out and flapping in the wind. Ever wary of all the different hidey holes those dang exploding bats liked to nest in, Beheaded crept closer for a better look.

It wasn’t a bat, exploding or otherwise – thank all that was still good in this world – but instead a… creature? No, a doll. Its head looked like it might’ve been made of porcelain and was clearly hollow. Or at least, whatever was inside was tucked in far enough that it couldn’t be seen through its large eye-like holes from this angle. And it had to be a trick of the light, or lack thereof, but underneath a tattered blue-gray cloak was the darkest black material Beheaded had ever seen. So yeah, no way was it a living creature but instead a large weird doll. It wasn’t even breathing.

They put a hand into the crevice to poke it. The instant their finger made contact with its body through its cloak, it moved. Its head snapped to look directly at them with its empty eyes.

Beheaded sprang back, scrambling to draw their dagger. They fumbled and almost dropped it but had a firm grasp on it by the time the creature had finished sliding out of the crevice silent grace. It had a weapon drawn now too. Pointed at Beheaded and vaguely swordlike it was visibly dull, nicked and scratched, showing signs of frequent and hard use. Given that, the fact that it was dull meant little; Beheaded was no stranger to being utterly destroyed by unsharpened blades. Same with small things; the fact that it was only half their size if one was counting its horns didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous and couldn’t ‘kill’ them in an instant.

Despite all that it didn’t attack immediately, implying that whatever it was, it wasn’t animated by the Malaise. It would’ve attacked mindlessly and without hesitation otherwise. That didn’t mean it was friendly though even if it seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. Which they weren’t going to do against something they’d never seen before; they’d made that mistake far too many times already and their pride still bore the resulting scars. So for once they were going to be patient and let it make the dumb impulsive move for them to take advantage of. The perfect plan!

Except it wasn’t moving, not even to breathe. Which was just plain creepy. Despite that it was kind of cute even if its eyes did look like big gaping black holes in its face. Assuming that was its face, could be a helmet. …. Beheaded was starting to get reallybored of this waiting for it to attack first thing.

They relaxed their battle-ready pose, though they didn’t sheath their dagger and remained alert as they took a step closer. It lowered its weapon but otherwise didn’t move, only titling its head a little further to keep looking at them as they stepped right up in front of it. Still didn’t attack though so they sheathed their dagger and crouched down in front of it, remaining poised to leap back in an instant if need be. This was similar to how they’d befriended Mushroom Boi though so it’d probably be fine.

But unlike Mushroom Boi when they reached out a hand to poke it on the top of its indeed quite hard head, it didn’t make a sound. Instead it lifted its own little pitch black hand to poke back, first their hand and then forearm and then, stepping closer further up their arm. Its hand was cold and somehow seemingly without texture or so little texture Beheaded couldn’t feel it through the rain. A very odd being indeed but seemingly not dangerous for now even as it stepped close enough to allow it to lift its hand up and put it into the magic fog that took the place of where the Beheaded’s head would’ve been if their body still had one. No one had ever done that to them before so it was hard to say if the resulting cold and unpleasant tingly sensation it created was just what it felt like to be touched in that way or specifically because of the strange being.

Regardless they quickly pulled away, straightening. The being didn’t seem to mind though. It continued staring up at them with its large expressionless eyes. It didn’t have a mouth and still didn’t look like it was breathing but there was what felt like intelligence in its… no, their gaze. … Or perhaps Beheaded was just so lonely they wanted to read this creature as another being similar to themself in that they both lacked a voice and ability to communicate via facial expressions like every other sapient creature Beheaded knew. So this was either a neat find or a depressing wakeup call about how lonely they’d become. … They were going to believe the former until given reason to do otherwise.

They stepped to the side to point back towards the battered sailboat. Then, looking back down at their horned being, they pointed at them before lifting their arms in as shrug, making it a question. Had they come on the boat?

The being looked over and then back up at Beheaded before nodding. Just a single small nod but still undoubtedly a confirmation that not only were they from the boat but also that they intelligent. That also meant they were from off the island!

Beheaded hadn’t ever stopped to consider what might be beyond the seas surrounding this place but if they had they certainly wouldn’t have ever thought something or someone from out there would ever end up here. Oh, the things they would’ve asked if either of them were capable of speech.

Though this was probably bad for the being, huh? With the whole Malaise being such a prevalent thing. If they weren’t already infected then they would probably be soon. … Unless they were immune like Collector and some of the others seemed to be and Beheaded for sure was. That wasn’t super likely though, was it? So… what an unlucky fellow to end up on this island of all places. But, alas, there was nothing that could be done about it now.

The being turned their gaze away to glance around. They looked up at the cliff for a bit and then over at the Mausoleum before looking back up at the Beheaded again. Only for a few seconds though before with a slight shrug in started in the direction of the Mausoleum.

Well, with no way to talk to each other and nothing else to do, they might as well move on. And since Beheaded had already been heading in that direction anyway, they followed. They could hang out with their new mute buddy for a while. Even if said buddy was unfortunately not likely to last long on the island.

[windycityazan]

Really enjoyed Criminal Minds KDRAMA version, the US one is still good but the Kdrama held its own with mixing in some details from the american drama with the death of the leaders wife similar to when Aaron lost his wife there were some similarities but over all had its differenes wish it could have gone longer there seemed to be potential with the writing and character deveopments.

Pro- Great cast, well-written plots similar to the US one but made to be more understanding in the Kdrama world.

Con- Not sure there really was anything bad with it, I liked how well the acting and meaning to the show was felt like it could have done more with another season or something to bring out the characters more. wanted to see more of the team and the chemistry was obviously was well cast.

Another interesting K drama is The King: Eternal Monarch which is on Netflix and in Korea,

Pro- decent story could have been a little better, great casting choices of Lee Min Ho as the King Lee Gon from the alt world and Kim Go Eun as the leading lady Lieutenant Jeong Tae Eul. Woo Do Hwan playing both versions of Jo Yeong as Lee Gon's bodyguard / Jo Eun-sup (Tae Euls friend - Republic of Korea version) He did a great job changing his tone of voice for both sides fun to see a different side of him.

Con- Would have to be the plots from some of the eps not all were bad but just viewer wise it lacked real action. Episode 11/12 rescue scene could have been done a bit better in sense. Lee Gon has his men on horses, and has the SWAT/officers on standby meanwhile the bad guys are running towards Tae Eul the girl and halts bc Lee Gon and his horse-riding men who are either carrying batons/swrods are riding up to the bad guys fighting meanwhile none of the bad guys either surround Tae Eul or even go after her shes literally just in the open none of the officers or swat try to get her out the way and all she is doing just crying i mean thats a bit to far fetched having her there as Lee Gon is busy sword fighting his way to get to her like huh is wat kinda seemed a bit over the top. also i think it could have been filmed better. But everything else episodes-wise worked just the action scene and rescue seemed a bit to bleh not that seeing a white knight rescue a girl but i think it could have just been better.

Flower of Evil is also another Wow K drama a bit dark and emotional, Loved seeing two actors reunite after being a long time working together, Lee Joon Gi and Moon Chae Won reunite from Criminal Minds KR. This time they play a married couple with a daughter who is adorable. I havent seen all the episodes but from what i watched it drew me in seeing Joon Gi and Chae Won reunite in a different role was fresh and it was obvious they still have that chem from when they worked on Criminal Minds to come into a new type of role this time not co workers but as a married couple fit with them.

Tales of the Nine-Tailed is an interesting Korean Fantasy drama, Lee Dong Wook is such a hottie and that red brown hair and his good looks drew me in. He plays Lee Yeon a nin fox tail/ and former guardian mountain spirit who works for the Afterlife Immigration Office, kinda a supernatural hunter of sorts has been living for years also trying to find his reincarnated love Ah-Eum who is reborn as a tv Director Nam Ji-Ha when they find each other its a not so happy love story when a creepy evil creature is using Ji- Ha's body as a vessel but the Imoogi wants Yeon body it wants the power and overall body which Yeon battled for but finally killing both him and it only to leave behind Ji-Ha and his brother to grieve hard that they both go to see the fortune-teller/afterlife judge who is in charge of reincarnations. Lee Rang who is Yeons brother offers himself to bring Yeon back this time Yeon cant bring Rang back so its pretty much a sacrifice he offers knowing that when Rang leaves he leaves the ones that loved him. It was sad to see Rang go he was such a finny a feisty angry bro but got soft after yeon died. When Yeon came back he came back as a mortal or so he said, the last episode ending shows him having his powers back and his sword some theres something to that and the show got 2 more seasons but Ji-Ah wont be in it, its goinna go back to Yeon past before finding love.

[dontmindmyshadowhunting]

Dru meets Ash (Fan Fic)

This is Chap 6 of “Welcome to Faerieland”, a sequel to my Kitty Fan Fic "To never being parted" although it can be read as a standalone story.

Dru meets Ash (again, although she doesn’t know they have already met) in this Chapter.

AO3 Link here.

*****

Jaime and Dru landed a little away from a clearing where a revel was being held. Jaime hastily slipped the Eternidad back into his pocket. He would give it back to Cristina eventually, but in the meantime, he knew she had no trouble being escorted in and out of the Unseelie Court whenever she wanted to. Perks of being the King’s girlfriend. 

Jaime and Dru had both dressed in faerie clothes, in order to blend in. Dru was wearing a long azur blue dress that brought out the color of her eyes. It fell just above her ankles, revealing high-heeled boots (conveniently hiding a few daggers). An upturned collar and long sleeves covered the marks on her neck and arms, though the low-cut neckline would inescapably draw anyone’s attention to her cleavage. Her dark brown hair was efficiently pulled into an elegant bun. Where Jaime and Dru’s skin showed, both had covered their marks with concealer. 

As they walked toward the revel, and the music grew louder, Dru turned to Jaime. “I have to go find a friend of Nene’s. She may help us locate Ty and Kit. It’s better if I go alone, she knows the Blackthorns very well but she’s a bit wary around other Shadowhunters. Don’t stay too far, though. And of course, I don’t need to tell you not to drink or eat anything.”

“No, you don’t,” Jaime answered a little harshly. Blackthorns knew a great deal about the Fair Folk, but so did the Rosales, he wanted to remind her.

When they had finally joined the party, Dru waved at a faerie woman with blue hair and purple eyes who was standing next to a tent, in deep conversation with a kelpie, and left Jaime to stand awkwardly at the edge of the forest. 

He had not been there five minutes when a fey swooped in to offer some refreshments.

“No, thanks,” he replied immediately, lifting one of his hands reflexively to prevent the fey from coming any closer. 

“Are you certain? Mundanes are particularly fond of this one,” he said, pointing to a blue drink, “it makes you look younger. Not that you need it, of course.” 

“Huh. Is there a drink that makes you grow like two years older, without altering your appearance?” The faerie stared at him aghast. Jaime couldn’t blame him. “Never mind,  very  stupid question,” Jaime mumbled.

Dru appeared then, her eyes glowing in excitement. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the forest. 

“So... any information on where we could find your brother and Kit?”

“Have you ever been to a revel before?” She replied, ignoring his question.

“Hum. No, but Cristina told me a bit about them…”

“Come over here,” she said as she drew him further into the forest. She stopped in front of a tree, put both her hands on his chest and pushed him against the trunk. His back hit the wood with a loud  thump  but it was mostly drowned by the sound of his heart beating in his chest.

Her gaze was intense, dark eyelashes batting seductively over her blue-green eyes. Jaime swallowed.

“Er- Dru, what are you doing? Aren’t we supposed to go hunting for Ty and Kit?”

“Relaaax. What happens in Faerie stays in Faerie, doesn’t it?”

She bit her lower lip and he gasped.

“God, Dru, those lips…” Jaime choked. His thoughts were becoming more and more incoherent.

“Can I… kiss you?” she asked.

“God, yes. Please.” Jaime slumped against the tree trunk, feeling all the tension leave his body at once.

Dru closed her eyes and he did the same. As she pressed her full lips against his, he could feel blood burning through his veins like wildfire.  Yes, yes, finally. He could be struck by lightning - he probably would - he didn’t care. He would die a happy man.

She bit his lower lip and he could taste his own blood, but he didn’t mind.  Feisty  little Dru. He brought his hands on either side of her face to cup her cheeks, but instead of soft skin he felt a very light... stubble. He pulled away immediately and found himself staring into a pair of bright blue eyes, the colour of a summer sky. Kit Herondale was smiling at him, his grin as mischievous as ever but somehow it looked wrong.  All wrong.

“What does your heart truly desire, little Shadowhunter?” he said, cocking his head, and it was not his voice, but a woman’s voice.

From one moment to another, Kit’s blond hair and blue eyes were replaced by a faerie woman with gray fine hair drifting around a pale face, her skin smooth and ageless. He was staring at a  leanansidhe. He cursed himself. What  a fool  he had been.

He stepped back, feeling sick, and hit something hard behind him. He was about to turn when he was dealt with a blow on the head. His sight blurred and he barely had the time to blink before he fell into unconsciousness. 

****

As she was talking to Nene’s friend, Dru saw Jaime disappear into the forest with a faerie.  What the hell was he thinking?  They weren’t here to have fun.

She thanked her contact, who unfortunately didn’t have any information, and moved to where Jaime had vanished inside the forest.

The tree trunks were spaced, but their branches leafy and close enough that it was difficult to see beyond a few feet.  She cursed Jaime silently as she got deeper inside the woods, the sounds of the revel now receding and being replaced by the sounds of nocturnal animals and insects. She thought about all the horror movies that warned you from doing just that.

If it wasn’t for her years of Shadowhunter training she wouldn’t have heard the soft footfalls behind her. She stepped further into the forest until she was at an advantageous position for a fight and whirled to face her stalker. It was a very tall faerie knight dressed in elegant velvety clothes. Probably gentry and part of the King’s guard. He smiled at her and she kept herself from shivering from the coldness of his grin. 

“What are you doing here all alone, little girl?”

He probably thought she was a helpless mundane with the Sight. Admittedly, she didn’t look like the Shadowhunter women type, with her curvy figure.

“Minding my own business. As you should.”

“Do you know there are dangerous creatures lurking in these woods?”

“I definitely do. And let me tell you a secret…” She cupped her hand around her mouth and spoke in a stage whisper. “I am the scariest one of them.”

The faerie knight laughed.

“I am Ruadhan Fairburn. I used to be one of the best knights of King Kieran’s guard,  and I have met him personally once. I am also acquainted with Gwyn ap Nudd, of the Wild Hunt. You certainly don’t frighten me.”

Oh, no. He did have a reputation as one of the realm’s best fighters, before King Kieran had suggested he retire, probably due to his attitude.

She mimed checking her watch (although she wasn’t wearing any). “Oooh, so it’s already time for a bit of name-dropping? Sorry, none of these ring a bell.”  

No need to tell him she had seen Gwyn cry in front of  Love actually  a week before, on Friday’s movie night, and that she affectionately called King Kieran  Kiki. 

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. When I am done with you,  my name will be printed in your memory.”

“Hmmm. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll pass.” She started running her hand through her hair casually, intending to pull out her hair stick made with adamas. It was a gift from Jem who had it made by Sister Emilia.

The faerie’s expression turned furious. “I am not really giving you a choice,” he said in a clipped tone.

An audible sigh had them both whip their head toward the general direction of the sound.

A few feet away, up a large tree, a boy - or rather a young man judging by his frame and the length of his long limbs - was lounging on the thickest branch. He was reading, holding his book high, so Dru could not see his face, only white blond hair tucked behind pointy ears. He was dressed in stunning finery, all black, his collar turned up. He was wearing dark silk gloves and his long fingers were splayed across the cover of his book. He was most certainly part of the gentry, or even royal blood, Dru thought.

“You heard the lady,” he said in a bored voice, and Dru could not help but startle at the sound. It was a beautiful, lyrical voice. “She is not interested. Now, move along. Go hump a tree or something.”

“Excuse me?” the faerie knight spluttered, his delicate features set in a mask of shock. “Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t know who  you are, but I know  what  you are, and that’s enough to convince me not to develop our budding relationship any further,” he answered, turning a page.

The knight started to advance on him, but the blond faerie didn’t even lift his nose from his book. With a flick of his hand, he had the faerie knight hauled away like a puppet, as if a giant invisible hand had grabbed him from behind.

“Don’t move any closer. What did I just say about me not wanting to develop our relationship further? Have you never been taught how to take no for an answer?”

The faerie knight was seething but he backed away, walking in reverse, before he whirled and disappeared inside the deep forest. 

“Thanks, I guess.” Dru said, relaxing her stance. “Although we could have avoided the drama. I had the situation quite in hand before you intervened. I could have knocked him out before he had the chance to spell out the word  asshole.”

The faerie laughed, and it was a beautiful chime sound.

“Ladies shouldn't have to dirty their hands,” he said, as if she had not just uttered the word “asshole”, disqualifying her as such.

“What century do you live in?” she asked, shaking her head. “Anyway, I am a Shadowhunter, dirtying my hands is part of the job description.”

She saw his whole body suddenly tense. Slowly, he brought the book down, just enough to reveal a pair of green eyes under delicate blond eyebrows. As soon as he caught sight of her, his eyes widened in surprise and he let the book fall on the ground, the resulting  thump  muffled by the grass.

In a single swift and elegant motion, he had jumped from his tree and was standing a few feet away, facing her.

Up close, she could see his eyes were a clear emerald green. It made her think of grass fields glowing under the spring sun. His features were sharp and ethereal, his white blond hair tousled as if they had caught wind. Physically, he was the opposite of Jaime, all pale white and thin silvery curls where Jaime had brown golden skin and dark thick hair. They both had a lean figure and a debonair manner, but where Jaime was almost gangly, the faerie was all graceful moves and regal stance. 

He is  absolutely gorgeous, Dru admitted reluctantly. And he was watching her as if he knew all the secrets of her heart, as if he had always known her and was merely returning to her after leaving for a short while. 

Although she was almost certain she had never met him, something about him struck her as oddly familiar. She was idly wondering whether her mind had conjured up one of the princes of her books. Maybe, he was the product of her own fantasy and he would disappear from one blink to another… But no, she had not been the only one to see him.  Get a grip, she told herself.

“It’s you,” he breathed. 

Dru tried to regain her composure. She straightened up as she answered. “It’s definitely me.” She had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

“Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight, For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night,” he whispered in a daze.

By the Angel,  his voice. Everything about him ensnared your senses, enticed you to love and worship him. But Dru knew better than to let herself be fooled by men’s - especially faerie men’s - spells and enchantments. 

She swallowed and answered in her most detached voice. “Shakespeare. Romeo meets Juliet. Act I Scene 5. Already bringing out the heavy artillery, I see. Do you always quote other people’s work to make yourself interesting? Or do you  actually  have a personality?”

The strange prince was taken aback for a second. Then, slowly, a grin spread across his face. He was breathtaking when he smiled. 

“Oush,” he replied, miming a sword stabbing through his chest. “That went straight through my heart.”

“This line may work its spell on the naive and gullible girls you usually manage to sweep off their feet, but it definitely doesn’t work on me.” Dru sniffed.

The fey cocked his head, as if he was inspecting a strange wild animal. 

“You assume that I am trying to seduce you?”

She rolled her eyes and whirled, avoiding to stare at him for too long. He was quite intimidating. And she needed to find Jaime. 

“Don’t be a jerk, in addition to being a  cliché,” she said without a backward glance, as she walked away. She could hear the sound of his laugh behind her, echoing in the forest like ringing bells.

****

Tagging @gabtapia sorry I’ve been so busy lately but I am definitely back now with more chapters.

[softkuna]

Yuuji Itadori || Training

Content   ║ Yuuji Itadori x Reader. You and Yuuji train quite often and like to make a competition out of it. However, his quick learning and your insecurities get the best of you.

Count      ║ 1,514 words.

Consider ║ Fluff. Fighting. Probably grammatical errors. 

Creator    ║ Aight! First little drabble up. Hope you guys like it! It’s not nsfw but I was feeling fluffy and Yuuji is a literal sunshine child. Also, whenever I write for the students, I automatically have it be that Jujutsu Tech is a college rather than a high school and everyone is over the age of 18. 

“Sir, we’re surrounded!”

  “That just means we can attack in all directions!”

  A smug smirk tugged the corners of your lips, “I mean… you’re not wrong, Yuu.” The boy gave an overly enthusiastic thumbs up, pearly white on full display. Training with him was always a delight.

  You were back to back, crouched in a way that your back right foot was slipped between his wide stance. You made a few enemies from ink, letting them drench the field’s grass in black gel. Five human-sized creatures were your limit after training for what seemed like years. No one needed to know they were the shapes that haunted you at night, paralyzed with fear as they came from all corners of you bedroom. That fear is what strengthened them. You channeled it into them, strengthening the cursed energy behind the specialized ink.

  Right now, they were just npcs in a videogame to the two of you, “These ones are 3 points, right?” Yuuji looked over his shoulder at you and you nodded. Training with him was always a game. Human-sized blobs were three points. Child-sized ones were two. Rabbit-sized ones were one. Anything larger went up by every two feet of height. So far, he somehow managed to kick your ass every time. Today would be the day you showed him up. Maki had shown you a few decent moves and like hell you’d let him trample over your personal best with this up your sleeve!

  With a springboard hop forward, he drew back a fist, “I’m gonna kick you’re ass!”

  “Oh like hell-“ You bent back at the knees, left hand keeping your back from fully colliding into the ground. An ink blob came right for your neck, swiping dangerously had you not ducked, “OI, play fair!” Both palms planted into the blades of grass, balancing you as your legs vaulted upwards. The tip of your tattered sneaker connected crisply with its lower ‘jaw’. The shoe had swept through the inken mandible, triggering the creation to melt to the earth. As the handspring flowed through, you recollected yourself on both feet only to propel forward at the next targets.

  Alas, there were only two by the time you had gotten through your first. Yuuji was always fast. Faster than a goddamn car, too. Exceptional physical prowess was presented with each corded muscle before he had even eaten the first few fingers. Rumors from his high school years didn’t fail him once, not even here amongst elite Shamans. It was something you always admired and envied about him. Your own form had been delicate, feminine, and rather weak. Some rumored it to be a heavenly restriction in exchange for your expert control over your Ink Children. You refused to believe that, however. Like hell you’d allow yourself to be restricted like that.

  A pout found its way onto your lips as you ducked another straight punch from the last standing enemy. As you swung your punch, a fist made its way to you first, kissing the space between it and your nose. With barely enough time to dodge, you managed to slip to the side, arm hooking into the one that had aimed for your face. Ink exploded onto your clothes and face. Some splattered into your open mouth, triggering a coughing fit. Your shoulder ripped backward as you were practically hauled into a spin with the aggressor’s arm still linked with yours at the elbows. One of you lost stable footing. Your heart squeezed at the impact of dense earth hitting spine, followed by Yuuji landing directly onto your chest with a resounding, “WOAH!” He popped up, forearms caging you in at either side of your head, mouth sputtering apologies, “Didn’t even see you behind that thing! Are you okay?”

  Your eyes blazed against his with explosive fury. Words ripped from your throat before thought could come before it, “Yuuji, what the fuck was that?!”

  “I wanted to get the last point!” The goof-ball grin sloppily made its way to his cheeks. The world still spun around him as it always did with you. It wasn’t until you spoke again that the grin slipped down, dragging away any semblance of pride with it.

“You were already nine points ahead!” A pout made accompanied averting eyes. Chin nudged to the side to emphasize the massacre of ink littering against the ground, “You couldn’t have saved me the last one?! C’mon man.” You knew it was irrational to cut into him for something so silly. It was just training. He knew how much this meant to you, though,  how hard you had to work to even take the impact just now.

 Yuuji’s mouth opened the slightest, guilt trickling into his chest like a steady faucet. Whoops. You had always been competitive. Much more competitive than Nobara, even, and temper to match it, too. A large hand came to rustle the back of his hair, moving to scratched his temple, “Sorry. I got caught up in it. And…” Rose crept up subtly to his cheeks and ears to match his rose colored locks, “I wanted to impress you.”

 Your head snapped back into place, locking hues with his honey-browns, “Wha-“

  “You always make such strong opponents to fight against! I wasn’t even able to hit one last week!” His brows lowered slightly, lips jutting in their own embarrassed pucker, “Just wanna show you I’m strong too. How else am I supposed to protect you?” The sentence trailed out in a grumble, gaze meandering to the space next to your cheek rather than maintaining the kerosene-lit gaze of yours.

  A warmth crept up your own cheeks, lips slightly parted in surprise. Really, you shouldn’t be shocked by this. He was always considerate of your safety. The sheer concept that it displayed during something as inconsequential as training was the bolded punctuation mark to his statement. You hated to admit it but, it made your heart flutter in its boned cage.

  He wasn’t your stereotypical muscle head (despite that being your first impression of him.) He didn’t look down on you like the men in your family did for being physically weak. In fact, Yuuji looked up to you. He acknowledged your strengths and hard work. For the hours of grueling training to even be able to move the way you did, the boy made it a point to come out and watch you. Yuuji saw how you overcame challenge after challenge. It dowsed gasoline on the fire lit under his ass. Even when it seemed like he was selfishly destroying your own target, he simply was trying to meet your bar of approval. He admired your strength, your graceful movement, your technique, and most importantly he admired you.

  “Yuuji,” You began, voice softening from its resin casing, “You don’t need to protect me. I just…” Your hands moved from their crossed position to your cheeks. Eyes fluttered shut briefly before opening again, “I just want to be stronger physically is all. I don’t want to feel like you have to protect me every time we go on a mission because of these noodle arms,” To drive the point home, you wiggled your arms beside his head before lazily resting them at his shoulders, “How the hell’s that fair, huh? Can’t a girl protect herself, Mr. Knight-in-Hooded-Armor?” You playfully stretched his cheeks, tugging the goober’s mouth this way and that, “’sides, you beat my ink kids way too quickly this time! I gotta step up my game.”

  A sunshine laugh beamed from the boy above you. His hand swatted yours away, “Alright, alright! It’s almost like I like you or somethin’!” He dipped down, nuzzling your noses together. The way his lashes dipped as his lips connected with yours was transfixing. Why did boys always have the prettiest eyelashes? Why did they have the softest lips? You leaned into him, hands clasping behind his neck and locking him in place. A content hum harmonized between the two.

  It was a moment you wished to last forever. The warmth of his sprite-flavored Chapstick slid against your teeth-bitten lips. One calloused hand cradled the side of your neck, thumb stroking the pink lingering on your cheekbone. He was so delicate and careful with you, yet somehow so sure in each touch and movement that it left you breathless every time. No matter how strong you were, he had an ability to make you weak for him every. Single. Time.

Bonus:

  The thonk of a used paper towel roll whacking a cardboard box broke the sweet moment apart. Yuuji shoved his face into your neck with a puppy-like yelp before ripping up like an angered Pomeranian, “WHAT WAS THAT FOR, NOBARA?!”

  “Maybe if you weren’t sucking face on the training field-!” The two growled at one another. The only thing tearing away their standoff was your shrill cackle. In comedic synchronicity, the two shouted, “What?!”

  “D-did you hear the sound h-h-,” Words barely escaped your lips, chest heaving with each labored cry-laugh, “His head made! Yuuji! Oh my god you’re a basketball!”

[gffa]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Stories of Light and Dark, coming August 25, promises to be a beautiful tribute to the just-completed animated series. The anthology will collect 11 stories by 11 authors — Lou Anders, Preeti Chhibber, Zoraida Córdova, Jason Fry, Rebecca Roanhorse, Greg Van Eekhout, Tom Angleberger, E. Anne Convery, Sarah Beth Durst, Yoon Ha Lee, and Anne Ursu — including 10 retellings of memorable episodes and arcs and one original Nightsisters-based story.  So if you loved the tales of Ahsoka, Maul, and clanker-busting clones, Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Stories of Light and Dark will give you the chance to experience them again in a whole new way. Like Captain Rex on a recon mission, StarWars.com reached out to each author to learn why they love The Clone Wars, and which stories they’re telling. Lou Anders (“Dooku Captured” and “The Gungan General,” based on the episodes of the same name): I love The Clone Wars for expanding the story of Anakin’s fall from grace. Skywalker really shines in the series, and we see what he truly was, and what he could have been, and by giving him so many opportunities to excel in the early season, his ultimate fate is that much more tragic. I also love the series for gifting us my all-time favorite Star Wars character, and one of my favorite characters from any universe — Hondo Ohnaka!      My chapter is a retelling of the first season story arc that plays out across the episodes “Dooku Captured” and “The Gungan General.” I wanted to explore this storyline because I find Count Dooku a fascinating character. Sometimes pure, mustache-twirling, mwa-ha-ha evil can actually be boring to write, but a villain who feels they are justified, either because of perceived slights or intellectual superiority or the failure of their rivals or birthright are much more interesting, and Dooku is a bit of all of this. For research, I obviously watched tons of Clone Wars. But I also read up on everything about Dooku I could find, and I listened to Christopher Lee and Corey Burton’s interpretation of the character over and over, trying to internalize their speech patterns. Dooku is so gorgeously supercilious. It was just a blast to get in his head and see the world from his perspective. (And the fact that the storyline gave me another chance to write for my beloved Hondo Ohnaka was an added bonus!) Tom Angleberger (“Bane’s Story,” based on the episodes “Deception,” “Friends and Enemies,” “The Box,” and “Crisis on Naboo”): There’s a lot to love in The Clone Wars, but I think it’s Ahsoka’s arc that really stands out the most. Ventress’s arc does, too, and the way that these arcs cross at the just the right moment is really great Star Wars!      My chapter is based on the “Crisis on Naboo” story arc. It’s basically a Space Western. The baddest bounty hunter of them all, Cad Bane, is hired to kidnap the Chancellor. What he doesn’t know is that almost everyone is lying to him, especially a fellow bounty hunter who is really Obi-Wan in disguise. In the TV version, we see it all from Obi-Wan’s point of view, so we know that Bane is getting played. In this retelling, we see it all from Bane’s point of view and, boy, is he going to be mad! To prepare I watched both The Clone Wars AND old spaghetti Westerns starring Bane’s inspiration: Lee Van Cleef. Preeti Chhibber (“Hostage Crisis,” based on the episode of the same name): I love the story that the prequels tell, but because of the nature of what they were trying to do — tell a decade and a half worth of story in three films — we’re missing major moments in what the war really means to the galaxy at large, and in the Skywalker saga itself. The Clone Wars tells us that part of the narrative, it gives us the shape of what entire populations of people had to go through because of this war manufactured by the ultimate evil. And within that scope gives us the hope and love and beautiful tragedy we associate with Star Wars on a larger scale. (Also, Ahsoka Tano — The Clone Wars gave us Ahsoka Tano and for that I will be ever grateful.)      I’m writing Anakin’s story during “Hostage Crisis” — an episode in the first season of The Clone Wars. I decided to write the story entirely from Anakin’s perspective, which meant being inside his head before the fall, but where we are starting to see more of the warning signs. And then there’s also the romance of this episode! Anakin’s love for Padmé is real and all-consuming and, as we eventually find out, unhealthy. So, this is a romantic episode, but one that shows us Anakin is ruled by his heart. And that that’s a dangerous thing for a Jedi. In order to best wrap my own head around what was going on, I watched the episode itself several times, and read the script, and then I watched the chronological episodes of Anakin’s run-ins with Cad Bane, so I could get a real feel for where he was with his understanding of Bane’s character. E. Anne Convery (“Bug,” based on the episode “Massacre”): I love it because I think it’s a story that manages, while still being a satisfying adventure, to not glorify war. It does this mainly by following through on the arcs of wonderful, terrifying, funny, fallible, and diverse characters. From the personal to the political, The Clone Warsredefines the ways, big and small, that we can be heroes.      My chapter is the “original” tale, though it still touches on The Clone Wars Season Four episode “Massacre,” with brief appearances by Mother Talzin and Old Daka. If I had to boil it down, I’d say that it’s a story about mothers and daughters. Honestly, it felt a little like cheating, because writing new characters meant I got to be creative in the Star Wars universe somewhat unencumbered by what’s come before. I did, however, have several long text chats with Sam Witwer because I was interested in Talzin’s motivations. We talked about stuff like her capacity (or lack thereof) for love. I think I came away thinking she was more a creature driven by issues of power, control, and the desire for revenge, whereas Sam was a little kinder to her. I mean, he is her “son,” so you can’t really blame him for wanting to think better of her! I always love a story within a story, and I was interested in the space where the high mythology of Star Wars and the home-spun mythology of fairy tales could intersect. I drew on my own background in mythology, psychology, and the language of fairy tales, plus I did my Star Wars research. Re-watching the Nightsisters episodes was just plain fun. Zoraida Córdova (“The Lost Nightsister,” based on the episode “Bounty”): The Clone Wars deepens the characters we already love. It gives us the opportunity to explore the galaxy over a longer period of time and see the fight between the light and the dark side. Star Wars is about family, love, and hope. It’s also incredibly funny and that’s something that The Clone Wars does spectacularly. We also get to spend more time with characters we only see for a little bit in the movies like Boba Fett, Bossk, Darth Maul!      My chapter follows Ventress after she’s experienced a brutal defeat. Spoiler alert: she’s witnessed the death of her sisters. Now she’s on Tatooine and in a rut. She gets mixed up with a bounty hunter crew led by Boba Fett. Ventress’s story is about how she goes from being lost to remembering how badass she is. I watched several episodes with her in it, but I watched “Bounty” about 50 times. Sarah Beth Durst (“Almost a Jedi,” based on the episode “A Necessary Bond”): I spent a large chunk of my childhood pretending I was training to become a Jedi Knight, even though I’d never seen a girl with a lightsaber before. And then The Clone Wars came along and gave me Ahsoka with not one but TWO lightsabers, as well as a role in the story that broadened and deepened the tale of Anakin’s fall and the fall of the Jedi. So I jumped at the chance to write about her for this anthology.      In my story, I wrote about Ahsoka Tano from the point of view of Katooni, one of the Jedi younglings who Ahsoka escorts on a quest to assemble their first lightsabers, and it was one of the most fun writing experiences I’ve ever had! I watched the episode, “A Necessary Bond,” over and over, frame by frame, studying the characters and trying to imagine the world, the events, and Ahsoka herself through Katooni’s eyes. The episode shows you the story; I wanted to show you what it feels like to be inside the story. Greg van Eekhout (“Kenobi’s Shadow,” based on the episode “The Lawless”): What I most love about Clone Wars is how we really get to know the characters deeply and see them grow and change.      I enjoyed writing a couple of short scenes between Obi-Wan and Anakin that weren’t in the episode. I wanted to highlight their closeness as friends and show that Anakin’s not the only Jedi who struggles with the dark side. There’s a crucial moment in my story when Obi-Wan is close to giving into his anger and has to make a choice: Strike out in violence or rise above it. It’s always fun to push characters to extremes and see how they react. Jason Fry (“Sharing the Same Face,” based on the episode “Ambush”): I love The Clone Wars because it made already beloved characters even richer and deepened the fascinating lore around the Jedi and the Force.      I chose Yoda and the clones because the moment where Yoda rejects the idea that they’re all identical was one of the first moments in the show where I sat upright and said to myself, “Something amazing is happening here.” You get the entire tragedy of the Clone Wars right in that one quick exchange — the unwise bargain the Jedi have struck, Yoda’s compassion for the soldiers and insistence that they have worth, the clones’ gratitude for that, and how that gratitude is undercut by their powerlessness to avoid the fate that’s been literally hard-wired into them. Plus, though I’ve written a lot of Star Wars tales, I’d never had the chance to get inside Yoda’s head. That had been on my bucket list! Yoon Ha Lee (“The Shadow of Umbara,” based on the episodes “Darkness on Umbara,” “The General,” “Plan of Dissent,” and “Carnage of Krell”): I remember the first time I watched the “Umbara arc” — I was shocked that a war story this emotionally devastating was aired on a kids’ show. But then, kids deserve heartfelt, emotionally devastating stories, too. It was a pleasure to revisit the episodes and figure out how to retell them from Rex’s viewpoint in a compact way. I have so much respect for the original episodes’ writer, Matt Michnovetz — I felt like a butcher myself taking apart the work like this! Rebecca Roanhorse (“Dark Vengeance,” based on the episode “Brothers”): I always love a backstory and Clone Wars was the backstory that then became a rich and exciting story all its own. The writing and character development is outstanding and really sucks you into the world.      I chose to write the two chapters that reintroduce Darth Maul to the world. We find him broken and mentally unstable, not knowing his own name but obsessed with revenge against Obi-Wan and we get to see him rebuild himself into a cruel, calculating, and brilliant villain. It was so much fun to write and I hope readers enjoy it. Anne Ursu (“Pursuit of Peace,” based on the episode “Heroes on Both Sides”): The Clone Wars creates a space for terrific character development. The attention paid to the relationships between Anakin and Obi-Wan, and Anakin and Ahsoka make for really wonderful and resonant stories, and give so much depth to the whole universe.      I was at first a little scared to write Padmé, as her character felt pretty two dimensional to me. But the more I watched her episodes in Clone Wars, the more dimension she took on. She’s such an interesting character — she’s both idealistic and realistic, so when corruption runs rampant in the Senate she doesn’t get disillusioned, she just fights harder. She has an ability to deal with nuance in a way that is rare in the Republic — and it means she’s not afraid to bend a few laws to make things right. In this chapter, the Senate is about to deregulate the banks in order to fund more troops, and Padmé decides to take matters into her own hand and sneak into Separatist territory in order to start peace negotiations. Of course, neither Dooku nor the corrupt clans of the Republic are going to allow for this to happen, so the threats to the peace process, the Republic, and Padmé’s life only grow. This arc is the perfect distillation of Padmé’s character, and it made getting into her head for it fairly simple. But I did watch all the Padmé Clone Wars episodes and read E.K. Johnston’s book about her, as well as Thrawn: Alliances, in which she has a major storyline. I really loved writing her. Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Stories of Light and Dark arrives August 25 and is available for pre-order now.

[bounce-a-coin-off-your-witcher]

Fear Not, Fair Maiden

(Thank you @spielzeugkaiser for letting me write a story about your amazing art! This was so much fun and it’s so fluffy. I may have thrown in a little nonhuman-Jaskier as a treat but Jaskier doesn’t know so...)

Etheid is the baby green dragon that Borch rescues in “The Sword of Destiny” book. I thought I’d make that scene more interesting and less sad for everyone by sticking to the book canon version for this story.

---

Jaskier woke up somewhere warm and soft and definitely not wrapped in the raggedy blanket he’d fallen asleep with atop his worn bedroll. He groaned in confusion and rose into a sitting position on the soft feather mattress to better wipe the sleep from his bleary eyes. He was sitting on a beautifully carved mahogany bed with four posts and lovely hanging curtains made of pale pink gossamer.

“Where am I?” he yawned to no one in particular. 

In my tower, a voice echoed through his head. The bard leapt from the bed, suddenly alert and terrified of whatever had brought him here. The voice returned, slightly frightened in its own right and clearly looking to soothe. Don’t panic! I’m sorry! I probably should have introduced myself better. Come to the window, my sweet visitor, and let me say hello!

“You’re not going to eat me, right?” Jaskier squeaked. 

Of course not, Jaskier. You’re my guest. That would be highly indecorous of me.

“Monsters with manners. Finally some decent company.” Jaskier made his way confidently out onto the balcony surrounding the tower’s main room and glanced around. “Hello? How do you know my name?”

A large, scaly green head rose over the side of the balcony wall and Jaskier took an involuntary step back. A thin-slit reptilian eye blinked at him. Once. Twice. Then the rest of the dragon’s face and snout appeared. Do not fret, my dear. You are in no danger at all. I merely wish to see a performance.

“You want me to sing for you?”

That was not my purpose in stealing you, but I would not be adverse to some music later this evening. I’m sure your Witcher is already on his way here to rescue you. Jaskier swore he heard the dragon release a deep, dreamy sigh from its steaming nostrils. Ah, I wonder if he’ll climb the spiral stairs and try to avoid the traps or if he’ll fight me first and scale the outer walls. 

“Wait a second,” Jaskier held a finger up. The dragon paused its daydreaming and looked down at its tiny human captive. Well, mostly human from what the dragon’s senses could pick up. Perhaps a bit of dryad in there somewhere. The semi-mortal’s connection to nature was stronger than most; ancient in a way that drew the dragon to him in the first place. Well, that and the handsome, white-haired Witcher who kept the bard close to his side like a favorite puppy. “You kidnapped me so that you could watch Geralt rescue me?”

The dragon’s enormous snout bobbed up and down as it nodded. The bard leaned heavily against the balcony’s edge and released a series of hysterical giggles. Are you alright, Jaskier?

“How do you know my name?”

You met my godfather, once. Borch.

“Oh, you’re the baby green dragon!” Jaskier perked up. This was an old friend, then. “My, how you’ve grown.”

And my, how you haven’t, the dragon observed. If the bard didn't’ know any better it appeared as if the creature was raising its eyebrow at him. You don’t seem to have aged a day.

“Haven’t I?” Jaskier glanced down. “Perhaps I’m just remarkably well preserved.”

Magic, the dragon shrugged. Anyway that is not my purpose here. I’ve grown bored with my usual antics and wish for something better. 

“So you thought you’d make up some entertainment by bard-napping me?”

Correct.

“This is like a play, then? I’ve been given the part of Fair Maiden and Geralt has been cast as our White Knight? My Prince Charming, as it were?”

Yes, although you find Geralt’s animalistic tendencies and Witchery nature more alluring than any fairy-tale prince or wayward knight.

“Hey! Hands off my private, personal thoughts,” Jaskier cried, waving his arms at the dragon as if the gesture might sever their mental link. The dragon huffed out what may have been a laugh.

I cannot help myself, I apologize. My name is Etheid, by the way. So you can stop referring to me in your mind as Baby Dragon I Held Once.

“Sorry,” Jaskier shrugged. He laughed again, this time genuinely. “Do you think Geralt really loves me enough to come rescue me from an entire dragon? He knows you can’t be beaten with one or two flimsy swords.”

He is determined to find you, Etheid replied. He will be here in two days time. 

“So until he shows up do I just...sing for you, then? Is there any food? Oh, is there a bath!?”

You’re the most eager and friendly guest I’ve ever had, Etheid rejoiced. There’s food aplenty in the cupboard in your room. Wine, too. I also have bathwater ready at your request and I can heat it to whatever temperature you like. I even have costumes!

“Costumes!?” The bard beamed widely and clapped his hands together beneath his chin. He bounced up and down on the balls of his feet and even spun in a quick circle. “What kinds of costumes!? Is this going to be a tragic rescue? Is this going to be dramatic and romantic? You mentioned traps, what kinds of traps will Geralt be facing if he comes up the stairs?”

Eager to see your handsome Witcher again?

“Eager to make sure that he isn’t injured trying to save me from your lovely tower, here.”

He will be absolutely fine. These traps were made for squires to outsmart; he’s a Witcher.

“If he loved me as I love him,” Jaskier sighed wistfully, “Then this would be even more fun.”

Etheid considered telling Jaskier the truth about his Witcher’s romantic feelings for a moment but figured that it was Geralt’s job to do so, instead. The dragon could wait. The dragon could write such a fantastical scene that Geralt would have no other option but to admit his feelings to the jovial and kindhearted bard. 

There are dresses, of course, but there are some lovely robes as well. You can take whatever you like from the chest at the end of the bed.

“You’re going to regret saying that!”

Go ahead. Do what human things you must. I’ll heat the water and be on my way; dragons need to eat, too.

“No pesky villagers, please. Stick to wild animals so long as I’m your guest?”

I am not a heathen, Etheid scoffed. Deer only for now. The forest is fat with them.

“Excellent. See you after dinner and a bath, then. I’ll sing you some lovely ballads.”

About your White Wolf?

“I wouldn’t exactly say that he’s my White Wolf,” the bard blushed. “But yes, songs about Geralt.”

---

Geralt reached the base of the stone tower and squinted up. It seemed endlessly tall against the rocky mountainside and the blue of the sky. Jaskier was up there, though, and the dragon was probably nearby. The Witcher had chosen not to wear his armor for this particular rescue mission; it would only make him noisier and this was a battle of the wits. Dragons wanted to be outsmarted, not slain.

Geralt remembered Borch Three Jackdaws fondly, the golden dragon that had shown him such kindness and taught him that not all monsters were to be feared. Well, Borch hadn’t so much taught Geralt about the nature of monstrosity so much as he had reinforced a previously held belief. 

But that didn’t matter now. As he slid into the passage that led to the tower stairs his only focus was his stupid bard’s physical safety. 

No, Geralt, the Witcher corrected himself firmly. He is not your bard, he is merely a traveler who chooses to spend some of his free time dallying about with you. He likes writing songs about your adventures and that is all. 

He could hear the sound of a lute growing slightly stronger as he ascended, and kept his eyes peeled for any sort of traps or pitfalls. He sidestepped two swinging axes with ease and ducked beneath a flying crossbow bolt as simply as he breathed. This tower was for amateurs, not highly trained Witchers with unparalleled senses. Not the most graceful Witcher the Wolf school had ever turned out onto the path. Not Geralt of Rivia, Jaskier’s Witcher. 

---

Jaskier stopped singing suddenly and set his lute to the side, as planned. He laid himself out as Etheid had suggested, the white cotton robe pooling around his bare legs and spilling rather nicely off his left shoulder. He’d cinched a soft blue ribbon just so around the curves of his waist. His hair was ruffled just the way Geralt liked it; the way it was when he saw the Witcher’s gloved fingers twitch at his sides, clearly aching to touch him but too afraid to make a move.

He’ll have to make a move this time, Etheid said. Jaskier could hear the smile in the dragon’s words. Get in position! He’s nearly to your room, Jask!

“Jaskier!” the Witcher cried, bursting through the door only a moment later. The bard could sense Etheid just outside the window, hidden by a thin curtain that hung from the back of an ENORMOUS four-poster bed. Geralt was too excited to find his precious bard safe to care about the looming threat.

“Geralt! You came for me!”

“Of course I did,” Geralt rolled his eyes. “You’re always getting yourself into trouble.”

Ugh, you’re so right. He’s horrible with romance.

Jaskier stifled a smile but Geralt caught it anyway. 

“What’s so funny, bard?”

“My captor doesn’t find your rescue speech very romantic or amusing,” he said, pulling the curtain aside. Etheid’s large blue eyes were focused on the scene, waiting for something good to happen. The dragon had been bored for so long and he’d heard so much from Borch about this White Wolf and his loyal, loving bard. Jaskier whispered the next line as if Etheid wasn't’ supposed to be hearing it, “Perhaps you should make our little reunion more flowery?”

“Jaskier, I - uh,” Geralt swallowed hard and took a step forward. Might as well go for it, the Witcher thought. “I’m so glad that I made it back to your side in time. I’m so glad that you’re unharmed.”

“I knew you’d come for me,” Jaskier sighed, holding out his hand. Geralt stepped even closer, leaning down to press his lips against the petal-soft skin of Jaskier’s knuckles. The bard blushed softly and Geralt felt his own face heating up to match. “You always save me, even from the worst situations.”

“I always will.”

The Witcher had admitted his greatest secret aloud before he could stop himself and he watched the bard’s eyes widen even further. Geralt’s brand of gruff sincerity was unmistakable. 

“Geralt,” the younger man grinned, tears gathering in the corners of his perfect, cornflower blue eyes, “I knew you loved me back.”

“You mean...?”

“Of course, silly,” the bard laughed, throwing himself up off the mattress and into Geralt’s arms. “I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you brooding at that tavern in Posada!”

“Oh Jaskier,” the Witcher gasped. His lips found the side of his bard’s pale neck and out on the balcony Etheid released a happy, contented huff. “I would give anything and everything to know that you were safe.”

“My sweet Witcher,” Jaskier leaned back, cupping Geralt’s face between his hands. His weight was now being entirely supported by the thick arm wrapped around his waist and he reveled in the strength of his beloved before leaning up to kiss him. “Then you must know how I feel every time you leave me on a hunt. Or go to fight with Yennefer about something silly.”

The Witcher could only press their foreheads together and breathe in the happy, rain-shower scent of his Jaskier. “Hmm.”

Excellent, yes! I can’t wait to tell Borch and my friends about this! Etheid cheered. Congratulations, Jaskier! I’m so happy for you!

“Thank you,” the bard murmured. 

“Hmm?” Geralt hummed again, raising an eyebrow. Jaskier pulled his head away and shook it. 

“Don’t worry about it. Are you getting me out of here or not?”

“Can you walk in this getup? Will the dragon just let us go?”

Jaskier shot a curious glance towards Etheid, who nodded.

Tell him you can’t walk, though. I want to see him carry you off to his horse and ride away with the white robe flapping in the wind. Maybe he’ll even wrap his arms around you from behind to keep you safe. Like a real princess. 

“No, I can’t walk in this silly thing at all. Keeps getting tangled around my ankles; I’d probably fall down the stairs and kill myself.

Geralt swept the younger man up into his arms and grabbed his lute from its place on the floor. “Well, we can’t have that.”

“No, my Witcher,” the bard replied with a contented smile. “We can’t have that at all.”

---

And if one of Etheid’s curious friends kidnapped Jaskier a month or so later and three countries over then...oh well. More weird dragon friends for the both of them.

[ladyofasoiaf]

Sweet blue flower on the wall = Death

There are many theories about how this vision foreshadows Daenerys’ doom/death.

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… mother of dragons, bride of fire…  

[ACOK; Daenerys IV]

I want to show that how some symbols in this vision are bad omens for Daenerys.

COLOR BLUE:

The merchant prince sat up sharply. “Pyat Pree has blue lips, and it is truly said that blue lips speak only lies. Heed the wisdom of one who loves you. Warlocks are bitter creatures who eat dust and drink of shadows. They will give you naught. They have naught to give.”  

[ACOK; Daenerys III]  

“Blue lips speak only lies, isn’t that what Xaro told you? Why do you care what the warlocks whispered? All they wanted was to suck the life from you, you know that now.”  

[ACOK; Daenerys V] 

 “Not all your enemies are in the Yellow City. Beware men with cold hearts and blue lips. You had not been gone from Qarth a fortnight when Pyat Pree set out with three of his fellow warlocks, to seek for you in Pentos.”  

[ADWD; Daenerys III] 

  THE WALL (WHICH IS A WALL OF ICE):

The next morning she woke stiff and sore and aching, with ants crawling on her arms and legs and face. When she realized what they were, she kicked aside the stalks of dry brown grass that had served as her bed and blanket and struggled to her feet. She had bites all over her, little red bumps, itchy and inflamed. Where did all the ants come from? Dany brushed them from her arms and legs and belly. She ran a hand across her stubbly scalp where her hair had burned away, and felt more ants on her head, and one crawling down the back of her neck. She knocked them off and crushed them under her bare feet. There were so many…

It turned out that their anthill was on the other side of her wall. She wondered how the ants had managed to climb over it and find her. To them these tumbledown stones must loom as huge as the Wall of Westeros. The biggest wall in all the world, her brother Viserys used to say, as proud as if he’d built it himself.  

[ADWD; Daenerys X]

SWEET SMELL:

“Sweet smells are sometimes used to cover foul ones.”  

[ACOK; Daenerys II]

A foul, sweet smell rose from the wound, so thick it almost choked her.  

[AGOT; Daenerys VIII]

While I was looking at the last example with sweet smell, I realized that this is the chapter that Drogo falls ill. And I started to read it for further clues…

And I’ve found this:

When they were alone, Ser Jorah drew his dagger. Deftly, with a delicacy surprising in such a big man, he began to scrape away the black leaves and dried blue mud from Drogo’s chest. The plaster had caked hard as the mud walls of the Lamb Men, and like those walls it cracked easily. Ser Jorah broke the dry mud with his knife, pried thechunks from the flesh, peeled off the leaves one by one. A foul, sweet smell rose from the wound, so thick it almost choked her. The leaves were crusted with blood and pus, Drogo’s breast black and glistening with corruption.

“No," Dany whispered as tears ran down her cheeks. "No, please, gods hear me, no.”

[AGOT; Daenerys VIII]

LET’S LOOK:

Blue wall of mud

It cracks and leaves chunks on Drogo’s body

A sweet smell rose from his wound which chokes Daenerys.

In this list of Jon x Sansa book hints , I try to tell (with the help of other metas in the fandom) that this vision is about Jon and Sansa being Daenerys’ doom.

(You can check: B4 & B5 for this theory)

BECAUSE THESE IMAGES ARE LINKED WITH JON AND SANSA TOO.

The flower in the Dany’s vision is blue so fans believe that this flower is a blue winter rose.

Therefore this vision might be about Lyanna’s boy Jon who is at the Wall.

But winter roses and (roses especially) are linked with Sansa too.

[*Roses and Sansa is examined here in this Lyanna//Sansa meta]

SANSA IS THE BLUE FLOWER THAT BLOOMED FROM THE NORTH.

Ygritte tells about the song of:

Bael the Bard and the Winterfell’s Blue Rose in ACOK; Jon VI

In the story the blue roses of Winterfell just bloom

and they represent a love between

King Beyond the Wall and Winterfell’s maiden heir

Next chapter is Sansa (ACOK; Sansa IV)

and she flowers for the first time,

next chapter is Jon again. (Jon-Sansa-Jon)

Also both Jon and Sansa have these other symbols as well in their stories; such as Wall and sweet smells:

SANSA’S COURTESY (ARMOR) IS WALL

He had always had a yen to see the Titan of Braavos. Perhaps that would please Sansa. Gently, he spoke of Braavos, and met a wall of sullen courtesy as icy and unyielding as the Wall he had walked once in the north.  

[ASOS; Tyrion VIII]

Sansa should take it off only for her husband

“Courtesy is a lady’s armor,” Sansa said. Her septa had always told her that.

“I am your husband. You can take off your armor now.”

[ASOS; Sansa III]

But the Wall belongs to Jon

The Wall is mine, Jon reminded himself whenever he felt his strength flagging.  

[ASOS; Jon VIII]

The Wall is mine, he reminded himself.  

[ASOS; Jon IX]

The Wall was his, the night was dark, and he had a king to face.  

[ASOS; Jon XII]

Never. “I cannot speak to what my father might have done. I took an oath, Your Grace. The Wall is mine.”  

[ADWD; Jon I]

The Wall is mine, and the Watch as well. The Night’s Watch takes no part.

[ADWD; Jon II]

I should be walking the ice. The Wall is mine.  

[ADWD; Jon III]

The Wall is mine, Jon reminded himself as the winchmen were swinging in the cage, for two more days, at least.  

[ADWD; Jon XI]

“I must do as I think best. With respect, Your Grace, the Wall is mine,and so is this decision.”  

[ADWD; Jon XIII]

SANSA IS SWEET SMELLING

Sansa Stark, he mused. Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces.  

[ASOS; Tyrion III]

She brought a dozen of the queen’s favorite scents as well. Sansa chose a sharp sweet fragrance with a hint of lemon in it under the smell of flowers. The maid dabbed some on her finger and touched Sansa behind each ear, and under her chin, and then lightly on her nipples.  

[ASOS; Sansa III]

IN CONCLUSION:

Sansa is the SWEET-SMELLING BLUE ROSE and she is armored with icy WALL of courtesy and that Wall belongs to Jon. (Jon is Sansa’s armor)

SO:

The symbols in Dany’s visions are bad omen for her.

These symbols are: Blue, Wall, Sweetness

We see these words when Dany tells us Drogo’s falling ill and later he dies…

What about the FLOWER? Where is the flower in that Drogo chapter?

We said that the flower in the vision is most likely a ROSE. 

(And I showed how blue roses are linked with Jon and Sansa.)

But @kellyvela​ @butterflies-dragons​ pointed out the greatest word play in that Drogo chapter:

A foul, sweet smell ROSE from the wound, so thick it almost choked her.

Grrm really said: PUN INTENDED!!

SWEET (SMELL) ROSE CHOKED HER…

I think it is obvious that Drogo’s death and that vision is linked.

But also look at this:

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness… mother of dragons, bride of fire…  

When did she become mother of dragons and bride of fire?

During: Drogo’s funeral pyre!!

(Please read this meta: Daenerys: Mother of Dragons, Bride of Fire )

She had sensed the truth of it long ago, Dany thought as she took a step closer to the conflagration, but the brazier had not been hot enough. The flames writhed before her like the women who had danced at her wedding, whirling and singing and spinning their yellow and orange and crimson veils, fearsome to behold, yet lovely, so lovely, alive with heat. Dany opened her arms to them, her skin flushed and glowing. This is a wedding, too, she thought.

[…]

And now the flames reached her Drogo, and now they were all around him. His clothing took fire, and for an instant the khal was clad in wisps of floating orange silk and tendrils of curling smoke, grey and greasy. Dany’s lips parted and she found herself holding her breath. Part of herwanted to go to him as Ser Jorah had feared, to rush into the flames to beg for his forgiveness and take him inside her one last time, the fire melting the flesh from their bones until they were as one, forever.

[…]

Now, she thought, now, and for an instant she glimpsed Khal Drogobefore her, mounted on his smoky stallion, a flaming lash in his hand. He smiled, and the whip snaked down at the pyre, hissing.

[…]

A rising heat puffed at her face, soft and sudden as a lover’s breath…

[…]

I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE? With a belch of flame and smoke that reached thirty feet into the sky, the pyre collapsed and came down around her. Unafraid, Dany stepped forward into the firestorm, calling to her children.

The third crack was as loud and sharp as the breaking of the world.

[AGOT; Daenerys X]

IN SUMMARY:

The symbols in HOU vision are similar with the words that Daenerys uses while describing Drogo’s illness. Drogo dies and Dany starts a funeral pyre.

Blue, Wall, sweet, flower (rose) symbols are present in these both chapters (AGOT; Daenerys VIII & ACOK; Daenerys IV)

Even the words “mother of dragons and bride of fire” point out Drogo’s funeral pyre where she became MOD & BOF.

We can assume that this vision hints something really bad for Daenerys (death?)

These symbols also surround Jon and Sansa… and Dany is still waiting for the betrayal for love.

three treasons will you know… once for blood and once for gold and once for love…

Dany thinks about her promised betrayals in her last ADWD chapter and look what happens: (*For Jon vs Daenerys meta you can read this!)

Yet who else could it have been? Reznak, her perfumed seneschal? The Yunkai’i? The Sons of the Harpy? Off in the distance, a wolf howled. The sound made her feel sad and lonely, but no less hungry. As the moon rose above the grasslands, Dany slipped at last into a restless sleep.

[ADWD; Daenerys X]

Jon and Sansa are two wolves… and Dany slips into a sleep..

AND

Let’s not forget that Drogo will return to Daenerys only in death. So it makes sense that hinting Daenerys’ death with Drogo’s… (she kills him in this chapter… kills him for love)

“When will he be as he was?” Dany demanded.

“When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,” said Mirri Maz Duur. “When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a living child.Then he will return, and not before.”

[…]

And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. “When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,” she said sadly. “When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.”

Never, the darkness cried, never never never.

[…]

If I look back I am lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep, to sleep and not to dream. She knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down across his face.

[AGOT; Daenerys IX]

SHOW BONUS:

In this post this vision is discussed also in show verse and it makes great points. I also want to point out that how Dany reunites with Drogo AFTER she passes the throne room with BLUE FLOWER (Sansa) and the WALL (Jon).

Because in my meta I examine how blue, rose, wall and sweetness are linked with Jon/Sansa AND Drogo’s death…

And how it is probably hinting Dany’s own death because it means reuniting with Drogo and Rhaego …

And when the bleak dawn broke over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. “When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east,” she said sadly. “When the seas go dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When my womb quickens again, and I bear a living child. Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.”

Never, the darkness cried, never never never.

[AGOT; Daenerys IX]

She passes the BLUE FLOWER (?) ON THE WALL:

She passes through the WALL OF ICE:

She reaches END OF THE WORLD:

She REUNITES with Drogo and Rhaego:

Then you will return, my sun-and-stars, and not before.”

Never, the darkness cried, never never never.

[AGOT; Daenerys IX]

[agentrouka-blog]

@ ygritte hate post. In broad strokes, we agree Jon and Sansa are on parallel journeys, there is also plenty of parallels between Hound's sexual assault night with Jon and Ygritte (steel kiss, hand on face, and so on). (1/3)

Then Jon gets into it at the water pool, that is his "unkiss", no doubt. Notice though, the details about him getting riled up by sex red hair, she saying she is half-fish, debating fucking your own sister. I'm forgetting stuff of course. I'm sure that chapter is rife with that. (2/3)

Jonsa fans have speculated over Unkiss being a cover for another kiss (always with the cousins, the blood and fire cloak, and so forth). It could be that cave means much the same for him. Like said they are on parallel journeys and there's all those throwbacks to each other. (3/3)

So like Sansa, Jon is repressing something there. Something that happened in the winterfell pools. Bran remembers bathing with his sisters, but unlike Bran (who did saw OSHA getting out of one in that segment), Jon saw something that was a revelation. Like Florian when he saw Jonquil bathing with her sisters. Something red and then wanted to kiss, not downstairs but upstairs. Maybe he did... and maybe Ned caught him at it, because he later dreams of being caught there being innapropriate. (4/3)

In the dream he screams he will never father a abstard, he hates being one for they are lustful creatures born of lust and lies. Like lusting after their sisters. Its not like he is a Targaryen! Distraught, Jon decides to prove his nature wrong. He is not a deviant because he is a bastard lusting after his sister! So he decides to go to the Nights Watch, where he'll be chaste ever. Maybe. Kind of creepy but funny. It all comes together too, all those tidbits that are otherwise scattered. (5/3)

PS: Six maidens in the pool... Six Stark children. Not seven for once either way. And so Jon says in the show "we should have never left Winterfell" because it echoes the We shouldn't have left the cave. And Jon says they'll go back and Yggrite yaps You Know Nothing, but he was right. Jon will go back with the real redhead Sansa, back to Winterfell real pools. (6/3)

Thank you!! This ask really sent my brain whirring.

I already like the idea of the Unkiss drawing from a repressed memory, but I hadn’t noticed how the Ygritte memory-edit might interlock with that. 

We have this confirmation that they were fairly natural and relaxed about nudity among children:

"Might be there isn't." She grinned. "What are you staring at, boy? Never seen a woman before?"

"I have so." Bran had bathed with his sisters hundreds of times and he'd seen serving women in the hot pools too. Osha looked different, though, hard and sharp instead of soft and curvy. Her legs were all sinew, her breasts flat as two empty purses. "You've got a lot of scars." (ACOK, Bran II) 

Hundreds of times. We know Sansa associated hot water in a bath with Winterfell. 

The hot water made her think of Winterfell, and she took strength from that. She had not washed since the day her father died, and she was startled at how filthy the water became. (AGOT, Sansa VI)

So does Jon:

It was short walk to the bathhouse, where he took a cold plunge to wash the sweat off and soaked in a hot stone tub. The warmth took some of the ache from his muscles and made him think of Winterfell's muddy pools, steaming and bubbling in the godswood. Winterfell, he thought. (ASOS, Jon XII)

Then we have the image of the Water Gardens.

It was Daenerys who filled the gardens with laughing children. Her own children at the start, but later the sons and daughters of lords and landed knights were brought in to be companions to the boys and girls of princely blood. And one summer's day when it was scorching hot, she took pity on the children of her grooms and cooks and serving men and invited them to use the pools and fountains too, a tradition that has endured till this day." (…) 

As the children splashed in the pools, Daenerys watched from amongst the orange trees, and a realization came to her. She could not tell the highborn from the low. Naked, they were only children. All innocent, all vulnerable, all deserving of long life, love, protection. 

(ADWD, The Watcher)

And we know that the children of all ranks played together in the godswood, too. 

He had watched wistfully while the Walders contested with Turnip the cook's boy and Joseth's girls Bandy and Shyra. The Walders had decreed that Bran should be the judge and decide whether or not people had said "Mayhaps," but as soon as they started playing they forgot all about him.

The shouts and splashes soon drew others: Palla the kennel girl, Cayn's boy Calon, TomToo whose father Fat Tom had died with Bran's father at King's Landing. Before very long, every one of them was soaked and muddy. Palla was brown from head to heel, with moss in her hair, breathless from laughter. Bran had not heard so much laughing since the night the bloody raven came. (ACOK, Bran I)

It’s fair to conclude that the Jon and the Starklings may indeed have not just played but also bathed together in the godswood. 

There is an interesting association with Maidenpool, which is tied to the romance of Florian and Jonquil.

At Maidenpool, Lord Mooton's red salmon still flew above the castle on its hill, but the town walls were deserted, the gates smashed, half the homes and shops burned or plundered. They saw nothing living but a few feral dogs that went slinking away at the sound of their approach. The pool from which the town took its name, where legend said that Florian the Fool had first glimpsed Jonquil bathing with her sisters, was so choked with rotting corpses that the water had turned into a murky grey-green soup.

Jaime took one look and burst into song. "Six maids there were in a spring-fed pool . . ."

"What are you doing?" Brienne demanded.

"Singing. 'Six Maids in a Pool,' I'm sure you've heard it. And shy little maids they were, too. Rather like you. Though somewhat prettier, I'll warrant."

(ASOS, Jaime III)

Jonquil bathed with ther sisters, when Florian first glimpsed her.

The pool becomes filthy and spoiled. Like Sansa’s bathwater, but also like the muddy Winterfell pools. Choked with corpses?

When the dreams took him, he found himself back home once more, splashing in the hot pools beneath a huge white weirwood that had his father's face. Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn't, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night's Watch. I will not father a bastard, he told her. I will not. I will not. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she whispered, her skin dissolving in the hot water, the flesh beneath sloughing off her bones until only skull and skeleton remained, and the pool bubbled thick and red.  (ASOS, Jon VI)

The memory edit and the switch toward “love” in the cave is mirrored in this rather defiant dream, that recalls the pools at home, his father’s watching face, but also the laughter at home in the godswood. A pool in a sacred place spoiled with death. 

A memory spoiled by trauma.

Dany, who I would argue is a character strongly foreshadowed in Ygritte, has her own association with sacred pools.

They rode to the lake the Dothraki called the Womb of the World, surrounded by a fringe of reeds, its water still and calm. A thousand thousand years ago, Jhiqui told her, the first man had emerged from its depths, riding upon the back of the first horse.

The procession waited on the grassy shore as Dany stripped and let her soiled clothing fall to the ground. Naked, she stepped gingerly into the water. Irri said the lake had no bottom, but Dany felt soft mud squishing between her toes as she pushed through the tall reeds. The moon floated on the still black waters, shattering and re-forming as her ripples washed over it. Goose pimples rose on her pale skin as the coldness crept up her thighs and kissed her lower lips. The stallion's blood had dried on her hands and around her mouth. Dany cupped her fingers and lifted the sacred waters over her head, cleansing herself and the child inside her while the khal and the others looked on.  (AGOT, Daenerys V)

This recalls Ygritte in the pools and Sansa in her filthy bath. But the presence of the blood of a horse slaughtered for her to eat its heart, the presence of the Stallion that Mounts the World, the prophecy and the things we know comes after... all that is ominous and the kiss of the cold is unlikely to be tender. 

"When you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, the best thing to do is close your eyes and get on with it," he declared. "Waiting won't make the maid any prettier. Kiss her and be done with it."

"Kiss her?" Ser Barristan repeated, aghast.

"A steel kiss," said Littlefinger. (AGOT, Eddard VIII)

or..

But the Dornishman's blade had a song of its own,

and a bite sharp and cold as a leech. (ASOS, Jon I)

or...

Then the steel was at her throat, and its bite was red and cold. (ASOS, Catelyn VII)

The layers in this… 

Anyway, there’s foreshadowing to Dany in the Ygritte mess, but it’s not exactly happy, while the Sansa connections in there tend to be positive. Sweet and foul all mixed up.

Sansa “remembering” the Unkiss in relation to kissing children (Margaery’s Girls, Sweetrobin) and with “awful” memories (Myranda’s wedding night)  has that same air of mixing something rotten with something that had been perhaps sweet but confusing. I.e. covering a traumatic event with something else. 

Then there’s another interesting association with the incest peach.

As she sat in the common room in her stupid girl clothes, Arya remembered what Syrio Forel had told her, the trick of looking and seeing what was there. When she looked, she saw more serving wenches than any inn could want, and most of them young and comely. And come evenfall, lots of men started coming and going at the Peach. They did not linger long in the common room, not even when Tom took out his woodharp and began to sing "Six Maids in a Pool." The wooden steps were old and steep, and creaked something fierce whenever one of the men took a girl upstairs. "I bet this is a brothel," she whispered to Gendry.

 (ASOS, Arya V)

Right after this they meet Gendry’s half-sister Bella, a “peach” at the Peach.

“I’m named Bella,” the girl told Gendry. “For the battle. I bet I could ring your bell, too. You want to?”

“No,” he said gruffly.

“I bet you do.” She ran a hand along his arm. “I don’t cost nothing to friends of Thoros and the lightning lord.”

“No, I said.” Gendry rose abruptly and stalked away from the table out into the night. 

Bella turned to Arya. “Don’t he like girls?”

While the bell recalls Dany, we should remember that 

Sansa plays “the high harp and the bells” (AGOT, Arya I) 

“Bella” translates to Beauty 

this scene is an unsubtle shout-out to Jon stalking out of the welcoming feast after Benjen teased him about fathering bastards and knowing a woman. After calling Sansa radiant. (AGOT, Jon I) 

So the Dany hints are joined by the Sansa hints. The Dany hints are negative (bells = battle), the Sansa ones positive (bells = music). Why are the Sansa hints there at all?

Before anyone goes “Jonrya!”, remember:

For half a heartbeat she forgot who she was supposed to be. She wasn't any peach, but she couldn't be Arya Stark either, not here with some smelly drunk she did not know. "I'm . . ."

"She's my sister." Gendry put a heavy hand on the old man's shoulder, and squeezed. "Leave her be." (ASOS, Arya V)

Arya is not a peach, she is a sister. Little sister. 

And there’s this:

He liked the deep, sweet ache it left in the muscles afterward. He liked the way the air tasted way up high, sweet and cold as a winter peach. He liked the birds: the crows in the broken tower, the tiny little sparrows that nested in cracks between the stones, the ancient owl that slept in the dusty loft above the old armory. Bran knew them all.  (AGOT, Bran II)

Jon only tastes the cold when silver-haired Val tastes sweetness in the air, but way up high the winter peach makes the air taste sweet, too. 

"Sweet smells are sometimes used to cover foul ones." (ACOK, Daenerys II)

But foul smells might cover sweet ones, too. The Unkiss covers a bitter trauma, but perhaps it was drawn from a more innocent kiss in the past.

The naked red-haired girl by the water might trigger a rewrite of Jon’s perception of Ygritte, but it might draw that from a different kind of confusion, surrounding the same memories that feed Sansa’s editing.

The godswood is certainly a stage for kissing:

As she stood there, all the memories came flooding back to her. Her father had taught her to ride amongst these trees, and that was the elm that Edmure had fallen from when he broke his arm, and over there, beneath that bower, she and Lysa had played at kissing with Petyr.

She had not thought of that in years. How young they all had been — she no older than Sansa, Lysa younger than Arya, and Petyr younger still, yet eager. The girls had traded him between them, serious and giggling by turns. (…)

Robb got to his feet slowly and sheathed his sword, and Catelyn found herself wondering whether her son had ever kissed a girl in the godswood. Surely he must have.  (AGOT, Catelyn XI)

Memories that flood back, young children, innocent games that have consequences much later on, a specific Connection drawn to the Starklings and the Winterfell godswood.

More kissing:

 "I won't! I saw you kissing in the snow. She's just like her mother. Catelyn kissed you in the godswood, but she never meant it, she never wanted you. (ASOS, Sansa VII)

and yet more...

Theon Greyjoy was no stranger to this godswood. He had played here as a boy, skipping stones across the cold black pool beneath the weirwood, hiding his treasures in the bole of an ancient oak, stalking squirrels with a bow he made himself. Later, older, he had soaked his bruises in the hot springs after many a session in the yard with Robb and Jory and Jon Snow. In amongst these chestnuts and elms and soldier pines he had found secret places where he could hide when he wanted to be alone. The first time he had ever kissed a girl had been here. Later, a different girl had made a man of him upon a ragged quilt in the shade of that tall grey-green sentinel. (ADWD, The Prince of Winterfell)

Starklings, kissing and the hot springs all in a paragraph.

I would say there is material here. If GRRM wants to write about Sansa and Jon sharing a memory that involves the hot springs, kissing and references to Florian and Jonquil, he will have planted the hints. It would certainly be a bit poetic if both of them used the same memory soup to create their trauma responses.

**

Before anyone tries to accuse me of hypocrisy when it comes to age gaps, abuse etc. I do not think this was a case of Jon perving on his young sister. Cat was 12 when she played kissing games with a much younger Petyr and Lysa, and I don’t think we are supposed to consider this a threesome. It’s child’s play. That’s my angle here. 

[ilovefandoms102]

Part 8- Shape of My Heart

Pairing: Rudy Pankow x Plus Size Reader

Summary: Falling in love with someone you can never have is the worst feeling in the world...

Taglist:

@jeyramarie​​​​​ @drewswannabegirl​​​​​ @sexualparkour​​​​ @teamnick​​​​​ @jiaraendgame​​​​​ @agirlwholovescoffee​​​​​ @outerbongs​​​​​ @jaxxandcomet​​​​​ @velyssaraptor​​​​​ @baby-pogue​​​​​ @they-write-once-in-a-blue-moon​​​​​ @must-be-a-weasley-92​​​​​ @kaitieskidmore1​​​​​ @ma10427​​​​​ @ifilwtmfc​​​​​ @lasnaro​​​​​ @justcallmesams​​​​​ @judayyyw​​​​​ @lonely-kermit​​​​​ @gviosca​​​​​ @iamaunicorn4704​​​​​ @jellyfishbeansontoast​​​​​ @fernweh-fangirl​​​​​ @runway-to-my-aid​​​​​ @eb15​​​​​ @hurricane-abigail​​​​​ @tangledinsparkles​​​​​ @fandom-phaser​​​​​ @sunwardsss​​​​​ @http-cherries​​​​​ @bibliophilewednesday​​​​​ @evaporatedrosepetals​​​​​ @thetomatosaucee​​​​​ @tomatosauceagent​​​​​ @redosmo​​​​​ @ilikealotofpeople-younotsomuch​​​​ @obx-direction-sos​​​​ @mxltifandoms06​​​​

Part 7 Part 9

Note: We hit 450 basically overnight I’m so so grateful for each and every one of you! I can’t wait to put out more content for you all! I’m thinking of starting a series based on the Draco blurb I did last night but I’m also thinking of starting something with my boy Steve Rogers...thoughts?

Again the name for Y/N is what’s in Rudy’s phone💞

=======================

The group chat I shared with the cast was popping off the next day...

Mads💕(MC):  Hope everyone has a marvelous day bc Y/n and Rudy made out on our front lawn☺️

Jombie🏄‍♂️(Chase): It was cute and gross all at the same time🤢

My Other Mads💗(MB): FINALLY

Starboy🌟(Drew): Wait I thought you guys were dating this whole time?

JD🤓: Why are you so slow Drewboy?

Austin💩: I side with Drew on this as I also thought they were together😅

Cutie Pie😍💕(Rudy): Let me be in love in peace!

Baby❤️🤤😘🥰😍(Y/n): Excuse me for inconveniencing y’all😂

Mads💕(MC): I’m just glad you guys finally decided to get your heads out of your asses and confess your undying love😒

Baby❤️🤤😘🥰😍(Y/n): You make it sound like we’re in a Shakespeare novel Madelyn🤨

“Our friends are a pain in the ass,” Rudy huffed, throwing his phone back on the towel. 

We were currently out in the pool, Maddie and Chase were running a few errands. I was sitting on the side, my legs dangling in, and Rudy was in the pool with his upper half leaning beside me on the edge. 

“They are concerned for our well being.” I chuckled, raking my hand through my long hair. 

“I’m concerned about how you can sit there and look so hot. Jesus.” he confessed, making a low whistling noise.

“Quit,” I mumbled, blushing as I playfully shoved his shoulder.

Rudy came to stand between my legs, ginning widely. His hands came on either side of me, leaning in close. I looked down, playing with my fingers. I wasn’t used to being complimented, especially by guys. Never has a guy as good looking as Rudy complimented me, it made me a little uneasy. 

“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” he asked, wrapping his strong arms around me.

“Nothing I want to bother you with...” I sighed, leaning my head on his.

“You know you can talk to me about anything, I’m here for you. I’ll always listen, no matter what it is.” he murmured, kissing my cheek.

“I’m just not used to getting compliments is all. Honestly, I’m still afraid this is too good to be true. That this is all a dream and I’m going to wake up any minute.” I admitted.

“Baby, why are you so down on yourself? There are some days when I am taken away with your beauty, it makes me wonder how on earth I was graced with such a beautiful creature in my life. I’m real, I’m with you.” he said, his hand coming to brush some hair out of my face.

“It’s a lot to explain,” I said hesitantly, not wanting to seem like I wanted his pity.

“We got time,” he shrugged.

So I told him everything, and he listened. Didn’t interrupt me once, squeezed me when I choked up. 

“I can’t believe that all happened to you...I couldn’t imagine going through that.” he remarked, shaking his head in disbelief. 

“Yeah, so now you know why I was so hesitant about us.” I revealed, not able to meet his eyes. 

“Well, I’m glad that I get to be the one to show you what you deserve. You deserve to be treated like the queen you are. Also, if by chance we are in your home state and I see any of these guys...I’m beating someones ass.” he declared, a laugh leaving my lips.

“Usually if I run into any of them I high tail it on out of wherever I am.” I laughed.

“I need to have words with how they treated my woman,” he grumbled, scrunching his brows.

“My knight and shining armor.” I gushed, pinching his cheeks.

“Will you go on a date with me?” he questioned, kissing my lips quickly.

“Tonight?” I inquired.

“Yeah, I know you’re a movie junkie, so I was hoping we could go see the new Jumanji movie.” he offered.

“Sounds fun, I get to stare at The Rock AND Nick Jonas.” I teased, Rudy pouting immediately.

“You’re so mean.” he sniffed.

“Ru, I’m just kidding. You’re number one on my hot guy list.” I smiled.

“There’s a list?” he said, baffled.

“All girls have one.” I shrugged.

“As long as I’m number one I guess that’s all that matters.” he chuckled.

====================================

I ran away from Rudy while he was waiting in line to buy our tickets, beating him to at least pay for the snacks. I felt bad that the two weeks I had been here, Rudy had basically paid for both of us whenever we did anything. A thought had hit me then...

I only had ten more days until I left, how were Rudy and I going to do long distance?

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, wanting to enjoy my night. I paid for our snacks, waiting by the entrance to get our tickets checked. Rudy pouted as he walked up to me, eyeing the food in my hands. I got on my tip toes to kiss his pouting lips, handing him his drink.

“This is a 50/50 relationship Ru, I’m not letting you pay for everything.” I winked.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” he grumbled.

The movie had already been out for some time, so we were the only ones in the theater. I preferred that so that I could make commentary without having to worry about someone shushing me. Rudy sat down, pulling the middle thing up so that he could cuddle me to him. 

I was feeling spontaneous, and since we were alone it was the perfect opportunity. I don’t know what it was that made me have this feeling, but I began to squirm around in my seat. Rudy had me feeling some type of way, I couldn’t stop glancing at him. I had no sexual experience, but I had read enough books and talked to my girl friends that I had the idea. 

I moved my hand to his inner thigh, rubbing it lightly. A sharp inhale came from Rudy’s lips, a satisfied smirk coming from me. I moved my hand a little higher, biting down on my lip. His hand shot out just before I could get to his manhood, leaning over to whisper in my ear.

“Are you sure about that baby?” he asked.

I turned to kiss his lips hard, my hands coming to either side of his face. I removed one hand to palm his member, feeling it harden under his pants. He moaned in my mouth, his hand moving to grab a handful of my hair. I pulled away, both of us panting. He sat up slightly to undo his pants, sliding them down a little. My eyes widened at how well endowed he was, and I thought it felt big under his pants. 

I leaned down, taking him in my mouth. Rudy gasped, taking a hold of my hair. I held the base of him with one hand, starting to move up and down. I followed my hand with my mouth, meeting them in the middle. It was music to my ears to hear Rudy panting, shaky breaths following. It motivated me to move faster, suck harder. 

“Oh my, baby, I’m gonna cum.” he choked out a moan.

I pushed myself faster, taking him deeper in my mouth. He tightened his hold on my hair, bucking his hips. I choked a little, but still kept up my pace. His breathing picked up, stutters of my name leaving his lips. He cursed loudly when he came, shooting all of it into my mouth. I swallowed what he gave me, sitting back up to wipe the spit from the sides of my face. 

“Are you sure you’ve never done that before?” he breathed, wiping sweat from his forehead. He fixed himself back in his pants, throwing an arm around me.

“Positive, you took my mouth virginity.” I shrugged, both of us busting out laughing. 

“Thank you for letting me be your first sweetheart,” he whispered, kissing my nose.

[drax-is-inthefandom]

Divergence of Faith

Chapter 1: The Basement

By the time the clock struck 6 in the morning, the last light in the Lake house was finally turned off. Barbara Lake, a current medical student and recently divorced mother, had finally finished her theoretical career jobs, after a full day of housework and schoolwork, she could get a modest three hours sleep before having to wake up to make breakfast for the day .

Funny that Saturday morning, she would not sleep just a couple of hours as she was used to, but rather that a little one with disheveled hair and bright blue eyes had been in charge of sabotaging her alarm to make sure she slept as much as necessary. By the time the sky was turning to warm orange hues, Jim Lake Jr was already awake and active, ready to take on as much housework as a 6-year-old could do - all because Mommy could finally take a break!

Breakfast was the main thing, because a growing child just like his mother, a future doctor, had to eat well. From under his pillow he pulled out the magazine page he had ripped from his last visit to the dentist and as fast and quiet as he could go downstairs, he ran to the kitchen to collect all the ingredients that were in the magazine recipe.

It was an omelet, something he could easily do without causing a fire, lately he was helping his mom in the kitchen and taking on more and more chores in food preparation, so he was confident that there would be no problem at all with him taking care of breakfast for the day by himself.

Confident and with a smile on his lips, Jim turned on the coffee pot so that when his mother woke up he could receive her with a cup of hot coffee along with the omelet. He could already imagine his mom rested, eating without falling asleep at the table and without having to worry about having to clean or do any other chores. He could even take care of lunch if necessary! Today he just wanted her not to worry about a thing.

He was in the middle of whisking the eggs when he heard something that brought him out of his fantasies. A strange noise.

He leaned out to the stairs, his ears sharpening to make sure his mom hadn't got up. Nothing, absolute silence.

There was nothing in the living room either.

"It's nothing" He said to convince himself, it was still early and maybe his head was playing a trick on him for getting up early. Obviously the darkness that was still in the house and that did not allow him to see anything through the windows was not causing him any paranoia to be hearing noises, clearly not.

But then he heard the noise again, this time louder and accompanied by what sounded like falling boxes.

Now he was sure where the noise was coming from. The basement.

His first impulse upon hearing such noise from the place of his house that he was most afraid of was running towards the stairs to look for Mom, to seek her protection in her arms and between her sheets. But hearing her light snores through her door, just as he was about to turn the knob to enter, made him stop.

He was supposed to be doing this to get her to rest, it was supposed to be a surprise, if he ran with her because he was scared of a noise, his whole plan would be ruined. He released the knob and went back downstairs.

Again he heard noises coming from the basement.

He gulped.

“I am a big boy. I protect mom now. ” With shaky legs, Jim returned to the kitchen to take what he considered a good weapon against whatever was in the basement: the largest metal spoon in the drawer.

Armed with his spoon and accumulating as much courage as he could on his little chest, the boy slowly approached the door that led to the basement to turn the door handle with trembling hands, fearful that his movements would alert any monster behind it and get himself attacked the moment he opened it. He raised the spoon in front of him when the door was finally open, shrinking and closing his eyes to avoid seeing his enemy in the face, as if the metal utensil was enough to scare him.

A few seconds passed and nothing seemed to eat him, so he opened his eyes.

He only found the darkness of the steps. He breathed again, not realizing that he had stopped doing it, he sat on the first step with the spoon firmly against his chest, waiting again for something to happen.

Again, nothing.

"You can do this, Jim." He took a deep breath, inflating his chest with it in a gesture of pure determination, and began to descend slowly, one step at a time and without removing the spoon away from himself. He kept his eyes open, waiting for them to adapt to the darkness in order to find any sign of what that noise had been, his ears until now only caught the light grinding of the wood under its weight as he advanced.

He was already halfway up the stairs when he finally saw something. What he saw almost made him throw the spoon out of fear, but again, as if it were a sword worthy of a knight, he raised it in front of him, threatening whatever was staring back at him.

"W-Who's there?"

He could swear it, yellow eyes were staring at him as intently as he was staring at whoever was the owner of those eyes. But he was sure it wasn't remotely as scared as he was. The growl that answered his question could assure it to him.

"W-Whoever you are, I-I'm not afraid of you!"

It was a raccoon, it must be a raccoon, whenever a strange noise was accompanied by bright and threatening eyes that stared at him from the forest, his mother always showed him that it was just a raccoon. This could not be different.

"I'm not afraid of you either"

Only that raccoons didn't speak.

He wanted to scream but the words were drowned in his throat, it had closed as a maximum security vault, with all the fear he was feeling his head only managed to tell his body to do one thing. He threw the spoon directly at the owner of those yellow eyes.

"What is this?" But his strength as a 6-year-old boy was not enough to cross the entire basement space to where the invader seemed to be, the utensil was halfway, in a neutral point of both where the light of the corridor still entered but the absolute darkness of the rest of the room began.

Jim felt himself shaking as he saw a hand approaching from the darkness, a blue hand. If he was not paralyzed before, now he was fused with the steps.

After the hand, an arm appeared, then another hand and little by little the body of the owner of those yellow eyes was revealed. In just seconds, the invader was fully revealed, all in order to smell a spoon he used to serve the stews.

It was ... A strange creature, clearly it was not a raccoon. Its skin was blue, but it had no texture of fur or scales or ... or skin, it was too smooth and firm. What was it made of? Another thing that drew attention more than the color of its skin, were the horns on its head, it had two pairs, two small on the top and some larger that waved slightly to the sides, they were a color similar to ivory. On his shoulders it also seemed to have protuberances, but they were not horns, they were slightly more translucent, it was noted by how the light that entered the basement interacted with these. Crystals? And… did he have more on his back?

"What are you?" He thought he had thought about it, but seeing the invader raise his head from sniffing the spoon to focus on him, he gulped at his loose tongue.

"Something you shouldn't be seeing" From the tone in which the blue creature spoke, it showed that he wanted to sound intimidating, aggressive, but even a small child like Jim could notice the shame that the slight tremor in his tone betrayed him.

"Then why am I seeing you?" He wasn't attacking him and seemed more interested in the spoon than in him, curiosity overcame any fear he had been feeling until now. He was a boy with a nascent streak for adventure. Could you blame him?

"... Because I failed to go unnoticed to enter your house" Now yes, the shame was more obvious. The invader dropped to his butt on the ground, taking the spoon in his hands to continue sniffing it.

"Why did you come into my house?"

"Because the sun is already rising" And the question that Jim was going to ask, was swallowed by the surprise of seeing the invader taking a bite out of his spoon, making half of the utensil disappear from a bite as if it were a simple caramel.

"... Do you have more of that? It was delicious.” It took him to see how the entire spoon was devoured so Jim could even remember how to speak.

"Uh ... I don't think my mom would like to know that you ate a spoon, if I bring you something else she may worry that she has lost kitchen utensils" A pout from the blue invader was his answer and Jim couldn't avoid a giggling, he puffed out his cheeks in a similar way to Toby when he was throwing a tantrum and it was a funny sight for him.

"Why are you laughing? Do you want us to fight? ” And his laughter died as soon as he saw the invader putting himself into a position similar to that of a bull ready to charge a bullfighter, he even moved his foot as they do to signal that it will take the hit! Jim moved his hands in frenzy, he was not very excited about the idea of getting rammed with those horns that he had on his head.

"Nononono, sorry, sorry ... You reminded me of a friend, that's all"

"... Did I remind you of one of your fleshbag friends?"

"... Fleshbags? Uh ... Yes, Toby may be a little… stuffed, but it's not to call him that”

"... Stuffed? No, I meant that all of you humans are fleshbags, you are a fleshbag”

"I am not a fleshbag!"

"Yes you are!"

"Not!"

"Yes!"

Now it was Jim's turn to pout, forgetting that he was in the basement, forgetting that his only light was coming from the open door into the hallway, he got up from the step where he was sitting and with a firm step, doing his best imitation to how he saw his mom acted when someone made her mad, he walked over to the blue invader and stood in front of him.

"I'm not a fleshbag, don't call me that"

His challenge position was quickly captured but he did not receive the answer he expected, until now the invader had remained sitting or walking on all fours, but seeing him stand in front of him with such bearing, made him respond in the same way. With a push of his arms, he got up and planted in front of Jim, puffing out his chest with the intention of appearing bigger, that even without that, he was at least a head and a half taller than the 6-year-old boy, and that without counting the horns.

"Well, humans are fleshbags, so that's what you are, fleshbag"

The two little ones held their gaze, blue eyes against yellow eyes, neither wanting to give his arm to twist in that silent challenge.

Their staring war lasted long enough that they had to look away to blink, both leaving their eyes dry for not wanting to give up. Jim was annoyed, but oddly, the invader laughed.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because I did not expect to see a child stand in front of the great Draal, fleshbag"

"My name is not fleshbag! My name is Jim! Jim Lake Jr!”

"Then we already know the other's name, Jim"

A snort came from Jim's lips while Draal only laughed.

Funny that this would not be their last fight, because what these little ones did not know is that their innocent interaction would be the key point for a radical change in the both of their worlds.

A change that only time would tell what kind of path will take. Positive? Or negative?

The divergence of fate had only just begun.

[shadowsfascination]

Shadamy swordland AU - part 4

The air was knocked out of Amy’s lungs by his statement and her skin paled, drawing long shadows over her usually cheerful face. Her head began to ache and she rubbed her forehead as if to rub to swirl of emotions inside her away. Shadow on the other hand crossed his arms and legs, a hint of sorrow playing his ruby eyes.

Amy hunched her back and leaned on her hands, eyed Shadow and drew a breath. She intended to speak, but found no words. Instead she watched the light of the flickering candle cast constantly changing shadows on him, the warm tones of its’ flame contrasting with the now chilly atmosphere between them.

Unaware of it Shadow gritted his teeth in distress. At a total loss for words or the slightest idea how to behave in this situation, he chewed his lip and mildly pinched his arms. He couldn’t talk anymore. It was somehow beyond his control and he despised powerless it made him feel. His body froze and the longer the silence lasted, the further the words drifted away from him. Meanwhile his mind became a cacophony of tangled, blurry thoughts.

I have to snap out of this!

Shadow took a deep breath and closed his eyes, tracing the source of the messed up chaos energy in his body and changing it into a state of tranquillity again.

“Amy.”

The sudden renewed confidence in him broke not only the silence, but the seal between them as well. She couldn’t somehow deny his gaze and locked eyes with him, her eyes full of questions and expectations. He took her hands to cover them in his own. They were warmer than she’d expected.

“I cannot explain any of this to you.”

Amy frowned at him in annoyance and backed off to escape his hold, her eyes starting to blaze. A series of angry growls escaped her lips and she clenched fists. Her knuckles made a cracking sound from it.   “Please, oh please tell me you’re joking!”

He blinked twice, innocence and incomprehension written all over his face.

“I’m not. It would be a poor jest.” “You can’t just drop this bomb on me, fall quiet and then not explain any of it!”

She was prepared for a whole lot of it, but this? – she thought to herself. As soon as the thought landed in the conscious part of her mind she labelled herself a fool, questioning what she did expect from him. She knew Shadow… Why did she keep getting so thrown off by his untactile behaviour?

Blood rushed through her veins at high speed, causing a rustle in her ears. There it was again: the unwanted announcement of her bad temper. He’d soon have to deal with it if he didn’t make haste with properly explaining this… mess! At this rate, she still had control over her temper, but that could change in the blink of an eye. “You’re not saying anything yourself either. Although, knowing you, I hardly believe you don’t have any questions. I’m not throwing that in your face, am I?” “Well, can you blame me?!” “A little, yeah. You carry your heart on your tongue. You always know what to say.” “I don’t right now!” “I don’t believe you. I think you’re trying to spare my feelings and I don’t care for it.”

“Oh no, Shadow. You’re NOT shifting YOUR responsibility to explain who you actually are to me.” “I’m not.” The pink female whirled around and caught his attention with her fierce turquoise orbs. The warm, yellowish tones of the dancing flame were fighting for precedence with the luminary aqua in her eyes. He could see her hands gesturing, signalling him her upset internal state in the blurry background of his view.

“Then talk.”

“I can’t.” “Blast, Shadow! I can’t believe how incredibly rude you are to me! I’m your girlfriend! You’re keeping so many important things from me…I wonder how you in 300 darn years still achieve to be totally oblivious about how to act polite and chivalrous around a woman!”

“You should know me better than to mistake me for a soft, gooey fool who drops every aspect of his personality when with a woman. I might be a knight, but surely I’m not going to be your imaginary heroic boyfriend. Or always treat you like a queen when you’re being a huge pain in the ass, Amy. If that’s what you want, than better rethink your choices…”

Another of her romantic bubbles burst by another blunt statement, one he made her aware of she had it in the first place. Amy shifted her headstrong gaze to the red, green and blue-checked woolen blankets on the bed. Ignoring him, she distracted herself to follow the lines from the wrinkles on them with her fingers. The raw texture of the wool prickled through her gloves. It was a unpleasant feeling and she wondered how he was able to sleep under them.

“… Besides: I’m sharing my deepest secrets with you! Do you think that’s easy for me? What more could you possibly want?” “I want you to explain who on Mobius you are!” she shouted. “I want you to explain how it’s even possible to be that old? I wanna know what you are. A ghost? Some divine creature? And what about your strange, dark powers and the stone?! Did you have kids in the past? What does this all make you?!” Both their ears fell back, the awkward silence became deafening on them. Amy’s eyes reddened from the upcoming tears and anger. She bit her lip and bravely fought against the waterworks. A few salty tears quietly dripped down her cheeks though. Amy battled the strong tendency to cry once more. She felt so hideous whenever she cried- and she did see herself cry before. She felt she looked awful and so she did her uttermost best to hide it- in comparison to when she was a young girl. “What’s it make us? Just tell me.. something! ANYTHING will do!”

Her loud, hoarse voice cracked and she sniffed. Shadow’s hand squeezed and crinkled the blanket with force. He cursed under his breath.

“I KNOW, OKAY?! I know ANY words will do, but there are no words! NONE! They’re stuck! I don’t mean to be rude or inconsiderate of your feelings. Plagues! If anything, that’s what’s making me freeze up. I have no idea at all how to handle this!”

An upcoming sense of guilt sent a series of shivers down her spine. Her stupid pride and temper pushed him too far. A lump in her throat now accompanied the already present stress-related stomach aches.

“I don’t either… It’s scaring me.”

“That makes two of us.”

“Shadow, I don’t want to be the reason you’re holding back. And don’t tell me I’m not, because I know I am. Sorry about that. Just spill. I’ll learn to deal with it.”

“It’s not just that. I can’t verbalize all this.”

He concentrated on the chaos energy in his body once more, shards of them whirling around like a hive of bees. They seemed impossible to catch. His focus shifted to his irregular, high paced breathing and he breathed out some of the stress in his body. The shards immediately lowered their impossible-to-follow rhythm and he was finally able to catch some of them.

I never lose my confidence.

With a certain determination Shadow grasped her gloved hands. They were tensely folded into fists. Their touch revealed the quivers they were both trying to control. Shadow suddenly scooped her onto his lap and then rose to carry her bridal style, all much to Amy’s confusion.

“However, I can show you.”

His signature self-sufficient smile now curved his lips.

“Come on, I’ll carry you. I know how much you love this romance-stuff and I am a knight after all.” He blew out the candle, letting the darkness swallow them entirely before calling out the ‘Chaos control’. With this single chant he overcame the barrier of space and time. The darkness around them swiftly faded into a serene surrounding, filled with flowy, intertwining ruby, royal blue, shiny silver and regal gold ribbons of light.

They weightlessly soared through the pacifying, outstretching void. A sea of glowing orbs laid ahead of them and with confidence. Shadow commanded some of them to come closer, each carrying a memory. He let some fragments play out before her eyes to see for herself what happened in his past, for he was unable to tell her.

It was all there, right before Amy’s eyes: the mystery of what he was, his unknown origin and lonesome existence by surviving everyone he’d ever cared for in the past. He had roamed around the planet for years and years in order to keep his immortality a secret.

There was also a set of painful memories in which he was fighting, on the run or hiding for the many different faces of danger. They were a tad blurry and she couldn’t quite capture the meaning of it. The memory of the unknown hero neared and she witnessed his amazing powers, bravery and strength. It replaced her unsettling state of being with much softer feelings, easing her temper away. Amy smiled when concluded to herself that neither his physics or personality had seemed to change. The Shadow she knew now was as stubborn, blunt, socially awkward, dedicated, loyal and brave as in his past. Without having to verbalize he answered everything she wanted to know and more. Amy’s sweet, caring nature calmed her temper and she empathized with Shadow. She felt for the challenges his long life had brought upon him and pulled him into a deep, consoling hug.

“Shadow, I’m sorry I pushed you. I misjudged and jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

The scenery of his bedroom slowly faded in again and Shadow gently put her down. He lit the candle again. A shameful blush coloured his cheeks and played his eyes. His ears drooped backwards. Shadow felt like he was stripped to the bone. “I know everyone thinks I excel in many things, but communicating my inner state isn’t one of them. It heaves me down whenever I… feel strongly about something. Actions speak louder than a thousand words to me.”

“Thank you for being honest with me, for showing me all this. I imagine it must’ve been hard on you. You seemed so lonesome all these years.”

Hiding his face in his hands, he stared without focal point in his gaze. Shadow broke down internally, forcefully biting the insides of his lips to prevent him from crying like an infant.

“You’ve seen it for yourself now. You’ve seen me fight…My past…It’s the most private thing that I carry with me.”

“You don’t have to carry this burden all by yourself.” “You’re the very first to learn about it.”

“I already assumed I was, given your struggle to share it with me. I’m glad you told me.”

Amy smiled, trying to lighten up the mood again. “It’s awful and humiliating to share. I even killed in the past. I can’t help but feel like a monster sometimes. It haunts me.”

“You’re a knight. There’s times where you’re left no other choice than to eliminate your enemies. If anything, you’re a hero, Shadow.”

“I’m not! You weren’t there! Y-you d-d-don’t…You don’t know…”

He whimpered almost inaudibly while his shaking body sank into her embrace. Amy petted his back and caressed his quills while he hid his face in her chest. She cupped his tear-stained muzzle and made him look her in the eye. When his red, bloodshot eyes met her aqua ones they showed the strong-minded, yet hopelessly emotional Amy Rose Shadow had fallen for.

“There’s still so much that I don’t understand, but my emotional compass tells me you’re reliable and trustworthy. I’d like to believe you must’ve had your reasons… Tell me whenever you’re ready.”

She let herself fall back on the bed and pulled Shadow onto her, snuggling up to him under the prickly woolen blankets. On any other night the knight would’ve protested and let his self-discipline never allow her to stay over, but they were exhausted. Shadow and Amy couldn’t battle their minds anymore and forgot about the possible consequences they’d have to deal with in the morning. It didn’t seem to matter anymore. None of it. Even though their minds were loaded with troubles, which usually would’ve kept them awake, it somehow did not tonight.

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< Previous chapter: read here

> Next chapter: ...

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I struggled with this chapter. I’ll try to make the next one more uplifting (: Sometimes it seems to me that neither of these two dorks know a single thing about relationships, yet they have so much love to give to one another. 

I’d appreciate if you share your thoughts and send me a message if you find any annoying typo’s or grammar mishaps. 

@shadamyheadcanons, here you go!

[darkmissionary]

[Just the massive flashback I started for @ritterblood originally, but this is kind of what I pictured their first meeting was like before Fray decided to take a wee Haurchefant with him.]

Smoke billowed from the rooftop, sending trails of thick, snake-like clouds into the forest air. Heat- the sharp smell of burning peat moss and straw- it was all around him, as were the shrill cries of those attempting to flee the latest voidsent attack. Most of the other children had gotten to safety thanks to the efforts of the lay sisters and templars stationed within Foundation, but Haurchefant was, sadly, easy to overlook. He was eight- much older than most and thus more independent and prone to misbehaving the lay sisters, unless he needed a bloody scrape from exploring the woods bandaged or his wild mane of unruly hair tamed back into submission. The standoffish boy often ventured on his own and in the ensuing chaos- remained trapped within the steadily burning building.

The young lad covered his mouth with his hands and forced away tears brought on by the stinging, cloying presence of thick smoke as he tried to vainly find a safe path outside, halted time and again by orange and red flames licking at his arms and legs. Just as the beams supporting the rapidly deteriorating roof began to creak, groan, and give way, thick, steel-like arms looped under his shoulders, hauling him bodily into the air. A dusky-skinned Paladin with a thick, dark beard grimaced as he managed to deftly dodge a falling pillar despite his massive size. He immediately began running and picking up speed towards the nearest open door his longer gait and improved reach could manage to bring them towards, the walls finally crumbling in on themselves in their wake.

Cradled tightly against the bear-like soldier’s chest, Haurchefant could tell that they weren’t free from danger just yet, even as the oppressive heat from the fire dwindled and open air greeted them. The smell of decaying flesh hung in the air, the twisted and permanent grimaces of several blackguard made his blood run like ice water in his veins.

Shifting all of the child’s weight into his left arm, the Roegadyn drew his sword and squeezed the boy’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Don’t look,” he advised with a deep growl more accustomed to an animal than a man, but Haurchefant couldn’t tear his eyes away from the advancing voidsent closing in.

An Elezen with steel blue hair suddenly leapt into the fray, the blade of his greatsword flashing in the firelight as he dashed forward and jammed the entirety of his weapon straight into the torso of one of the dark creatures. As he expertly whipped the massive sword back out, black, acidic blood gushed forth and fizzled against the ground and the dark knight’s armor, leaving smoking, inky trails against the joined steel and stone ground underfoot.

The Elezen was almost too quick to keep a bead on as he easily repositioned his body, swiftly kicking the sword-wielding wrist of another Blackguard out of stance before decapitating the monster right before the child’s eyes. Cursing and patting the still smoking, eaten away bits of his armor, the Elezen suddenly reeled upon Haurchefant and his rescuer with a grim expression.

“Are there any other survivors trapped inside?” he demanded rather than asked, glancing down with a reedy noise of surprise as his body continued to smoke. Gloved fingers quickly unbuckled the gorget from around his neck, the dark knight  throwing the now ruined piece of heavy armor to the ground and kicking it away with a disdainful sneer.

“Fray-” the larger man started, but instead shook his head curtly. “Just the boy. The lay sisters managed to get the rest on the path to a nearby farming plot. If voidsent caused this, we should catch up with the rest of the group. And quickly,” he added, taking the lead into the alleys beyond.

Haurchefant wriggled within thick arms to watch the Elezen as he was silently carried. Even in the darkness, Fray’ steely gaze made his heart beat a touch faster as it flickered to the trees around them, the dark knight tensing and inclining his head in a different direction when he heard a seemingly suspicious noise. Thankfully, they encountered no more voidsent and the busy chatter of other people was a welcome respite.

The boy was dropped off with the rest of the children at the nearby chirugeons, checked and double-checked for injuries, then fiercely hugged by a weepy sister. Haurchefant grimaced as he was embraced, now safe and no worse for wear, if incredibly sooty and slightly dazed from the events. The Roegadyn and the Elezen had wandered off to help the owners set up more space within the wings  for the survivors, laying out bedrolls and repositioning sickbeds to make more space on the floor. The head of the chirugeons kept them moving and busy while they set to make dinner for the weary group- a stew heavy with root vegetables and whatever lean meat they could spare from their larder.

Straying from the other kids, Haurchefant wandered towards the hulking soldier as he supped, drops of broth clinging to his wiry and thick beard. The man smiled and patted the wooden bench he was seated upon, offering a hunk of his own dry bread.

“Good to see you’re already about and abrim with curiosity,” he laughed. “I’m Aeyrstahl. And you, little one?”

“...Haurchefant,” the light haired boy answered, taking the bread gratefully and sopping up what was left in his own, smaller bowl. The dark knight was nowhere to be found, much to his disappointment. “And I’m not that little. I’m the tallest out of all the boys here, y’know.”

“My apologies, then Ser Haurchefant,” the bear man chuckled, bowing his head in jest. For a much older man (deeply set wrinkles at his brow, eyes, and mouth creased his broad face), there was something oddly childish about him. He seemed a different person entirely than the one who’d rushed to his rescue in the fire.

“If you’re wondering where my friend is, he’s scouting the perimeters of the city. Ever vigilant, that one,” Aeyrstahl sighed a bit ruefully. “Doesn’t know when to just sit down and relax. Or enjoy the hospitality of the good people here.” He slurped down his watery stew with a relish, patting his stomach in a satisfied manner.

“Telling stories again?” a far softer, colder tone cut through silence the boy’s heart nearly leapt into his windpipe. He hadn’t even heard the dark knight approach them before he’d emerged from the long shadows like a ghost gliding over the cobbled stones.

“Just entertaining the young one, I haven’t been telling any lies,” Aeyrstahl defended himself, gesturing at a lukewarm bowl of stew he’d saved for his companion. “I think young Haurchefant here’s taken a shine to you. He’s hardly asked about me at all!” He feigned a sullen looking pout and pursed his bottom lip in a manner that made the armored Elezen grimace and roll his eyes.

“I am not!” Haurchefant sputtered, folding his bony, coltish arms before his chest. “You aren’t with the Dutiful Sisters and know how to kill voidsent? It’s just fishy, is all... But you’re not Temple Knights, either. They don’t help out people like us.”

Fray eyed the kid for but a moment, before taking a seat on the ground, flanking the Roegadyn’s left side. He slipped a whetstone from his day pack and began to sharpen a wicked looking, curved dagger.

“Smart lad. We’re just passing through. Aeyrstahl here has been ill and I’ve been making sure the lay sisters haven’t convinced him to stay longer than needed. No reason to take what’s not ours from those who have so little,” he remarked a bit icily, not looking up from the steady work beneath his long fingers.

“Have you killed a lot of monsters?” Haurchefant piped up again, leaning forward on his knees as he kicked his feet. He was mesmerized by the impressive looking weapons these warriors carried and their mysterious air. “Warriors like The Company of Heroes know enough about voidsent to fight them like you did... did you ever travel with them?” he continued, hoping for a tenuous connection.

“Do we look like heroes to you, boy?” Fray replied curtly, causing Ayerstahl to place a gentle hand at his shoulder.

“Don’t snap at the young one, he just wants a little adventure in his life...” the large Paladin chided softly. Myste narrowed his eyes and shrugged his friend off, though the astriction to his neck and shoulders began to fade.

“If you ever encounter a voidsent, be wary of it’s blood. You want to aim for the vitals... what’s left of them anyway. If you can run and hide, take the opportunity to do so and do it well. They’re no more than animal instinct and cunning. They’ll not show mercy to even a child,” the dark knight warned, taking a smaller knife from sheath at the small of his back. He lifted his chin and made a slow motion through the air across the neck, then gestured towards his own chest.

“If you do stand to fight, then remember these areas. Don’t let any of it’s blood get in you. Never pull your weapon unless you intend to use it. When you strike, strike true and hard. Confirm the kill before daring to turn your back on it, even if it’s prone.” He turned the small blade over in his hands slowly, before offering the knife to Haurchefant, hilt-first.

“I... I can have it?” the boy asked, slowly grasping the dagger and marveling over how smooth the grip felt against his skin.

“It’s not a toy. As I said, if you’re going to take it out, then intend to use it. Which means no waving it around or threatening other kids just to show off. And if you happen to get in trouble with the sisters, then you didn’t get it from me. Understand?”

Fray levelled the boy with a stern look that made Haurchefant’s pulse skip a beat. Aeyrstahl said nothing, looking a touch reticent to be handing children weaponry- however, such times were still dangerous and unpredictable. There was a weariness to the Paladin’s eyes, but also a knowing sort of acceptance to what unfolded between them.

The child in question held Myste’ gaze and slowly nodded, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. His first real weapon... He understood the gravity of the gift and sheathed the knife, though he couldn’t hide the wide, toothy smile on his face.

“Never draw your weapon, unless you intend to use it... right?” he parroted, holding the hilt and sheath tightly between his small hands.

Fray shot him a wry, patient sort of quirk of the corner of his mouth that could have been a smile and nodded.

“There’s a good lad.”

[pufferfishtrash]

The Dragon and its four Bastards

Inspired by: https://biggest-gaudiest-patronuses.tumblr.com/post/639693856032620544/a-dragon-finds-a-clutch-of-goose-eggs-and-attempts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Start of part one The eggs   It was late at night when the dragon decided to do its sheep raid on the wool farmers within the town below its lair. The dragon always chose to strike at night as to not bother the farmers' work in the morning and evening, as the dragon knew that it's the prime time of day for sheep care and the possibility for more sheep in the future. For the rest of the town, it did not care for them other than to keep it from being damaged, knowing that if the town were harmed, who would care for their delicious scrumptious snacks?   As the night went on while the creature swooped down and caught a sheep within its maw, killing it with a quick movement of its jaw. It flew a bit further away from the rest of the sheep in silence, as to eat in peace without having to deal with bleating creatures. As it began to bite and tear into the wooly beast below its sharp teeth, its eyes began to wonder, keeping a look out for anyone who may disturb its weekly treat. As it gazed around in between bites, its observant sight caught something a bit odd not too far from it. Curiosity seemed to spark within its large eyes before it finally scarfed down the rest of the sheep in a hurry as to allow it to investigate the curious thing in the dark.   It slowly stalked in the dark blanket of the night as its eyes focused in on these glowing white orbs in the moonlight, and not long after, it approached these… things. It sniffed and gently nudged them with its snoot and to it, seemed like eggs. It only knew this as in the earlier years of its life, it saw these eggs but they didn’t meet a happy end as they were either eaten or trampled by creatures and animals alike. It glanced around once more before carefully picking up each egg into its mouth to carry it away back to its home.   Once arriving, it placed the eggs within its nest of hay and other shiny soft things, opening its maw and carefully letting the eggs roll out onto the fluff of bedding it had made a while ago. Looking at the eggs more, they were large compared to the ones it had seen with the humans… but it didn’t matter, this dragon was determined to keep them safe and hopefully to hatch them. It never had to deal with something so delicate before other than sheep and shiny trinkets that it came across, but eventually one would be eaten and the other tossed onto a pile of other things. But this… these were eggs, eggs are delicate and could easily be smashed to bits underneath this dragon's weight, so it couldn’t possibly lay on them like a bird.   Then an idea came to the dragon… It would simply lay next to the eggs after gently placing some soft bedding over the said eggs, it hoped that being near them was enough warmth for them. And so, it laid down for the night, carefully wrapping itself around the eggs and slept. It would repeat this as many times needed before absolutely having to go out to get more food, which wouldn’t be for at least 2 months. The town found this odd but at least more of their sheep would be spared, than having the dragon come once a week.   Time went on and eventually, one fateful morning… it heard soft cracks and quiet chirps coming from the pile of fluff that it surrounded. Its eyes opened and looked down at the fluff, watching it move around before a tiny creature popped its head out, then another, and another… So many tiny weird looking creatures. They stared at each other before the dragon gently blew on them to have the fluff flow away from these tiny things, just so they could move more freely.   It watched them sit there, and they looked at the dragon. It was strange, but it felt proud to have four of these things. Then, said things began to peck and nip at things around them, they then began to peck at the dragon and it let out a tiny huff. It stood tall and carefully walked away from these tiny creatures, making its way out of the cave and flew away, leaving them behind.   The dragon soon returned, having something for them to eat. Thus began the dragon and its four little goslings' relationship between mystical beings and fiends. As the weeks, months and years went on, the geese left home to live on their own, leaving the dragon in its lair alone, allowing the geese to do whatever they damn pleased. The dragon simply raised them to be fearless and to show them what to do with the power of flight and so on… teaching them to be their own goose. And they were their own goose… causing mayhem on the town near the dragon's lair. End of part one ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Start of part two Where it starts   The geese were a bit smarter than their parent but they respected their elder, the dragon did raise them after all. As the geese stepped their web-foot out onto the world, it was a different game… and they were the game changers. They waddled around for a while, exploring their new area with its brethren. Exploring and seeing how things worked. That's when the goose gang came across two humans talking, they couldn’t understand their language but they saw one of them holding a picture of their beloved dragon with its eyes crossed out and a sword through its chest.   These two humans were talking before one nodded their head and the other shook their hands together in some sort of agreement before they were handed a bag of gold. This wasn’t gonna fly with the geese… not one bit. All four could only see red before one went and flew up, snatching the bag of gold and flying off, while another snatched the picture and tore it up in anger… while the other two geese let out a mighty honk before attacking the humans, biting and pecking them as much as they could. They drew blood. When the humans retreated, the people who were in the streets to witness such an act of anger, began to run and scream in terror as the gang of geese began to fly around in search of anything that might even hint at harm towards their parent. They were on a warpath… and they were going to win. End of part two ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Start of part three They are geese, who are also bastards.   After causing months of rampage on the town below the dragon's lair, news spread to other towns and villages of flying creatures terrorizing the people in this strange town. As word of mouth is, things began to change and eventually it was said that there were dragons terrorizing this town. Eventually this news came to a knight one fateful evening as he was called upon to deal with the issue. He arrived on horse back to an empty, almost abandoned town. Looking around, it was odd, the silence almost deafening except for a few flapping sounds in the far distance. He could only assume it to be those pesky dragons he’s heard so much about.   He then stopped in front of a tavern to tie up his horse by the trough and entered. He glanced around and sat down, as he did, another man approached him and sat across from him “You’re the knight, correct?” the lesser dressed man said. The nicer dressed man answered “I am, and you are?” He raised a slight brow in confusion. “I am the mayor of this town, I was the one who sent for you, to help us with the… four bastards” He said with a frown. “There's four of them?!” He said rather shocked. “Yes, I thought you knew… but that's alright, if you could, I’d like to take you to them so you could… you know… do what you do”   The knight looked perplexed and then chuckled. “You mean slay the foul beasts” He said before standing up with a smirk as he rubbed his chin in thought. “I think I could take on all four by myself… but I’d like to know… what kind of beast are they? I need to know so I can deal with it properly” The mayor simply gave him a strange look. “Before I answer, what kind of ‘beast’ do you think I sent you for?” He crossed his arms as he looked up at the now standing man. The knight squinted his eyes a bit before lightly shaking his head and letting out a light sigh. “You sent for me because you had a dragon problem? Or is this some other crazy beast in your midsts?” The mayor groaned lightly as he tilted his head back in his seat before he looked back at the other. “We do have a dragon, but they’re not the problem… they do take a sheep or two once a week but they don’t do anything really other than that” He paused and took a deep inhale. “Listen… don’t laugh at this until I’m done explaining. See, our problem is the four geese that suddenly appeared in our town a few months ago” The man before him looked… curious and sat down and crossed his arms and legs as if to say ‘go on’ and so, the mayor did. “They attacked a few of the townsfolk, we haven’t really found out the reason as to why but their attacks were so vicious that we had to hospitalize a few people besides them” He shuddered. “They didn’t stop at the attacks… they would work together and cause issues for people all over town, like a craftsman with his harmer on the roof, he couldn’t get to it because they took his ladder and placed it in a middle of our lake… and then took his boat and put the boat in his tallest trees” The knight listened, eyes closed and nodding until the last bit with the craftsman. He looked almost impressed as he opened his eyes and furrowed his brow. “And have you really tried to do everything you could to get rid of these… geese?” He asked with almost a laugh in his voice, but he forced the laugh down and tried his best to act serious. “Yes, we actually tried to form a hunting party but these geese are nothing like we've seen before… they were always a step ahead of us” He explained. “The night before our hunt, they somehow got into our houses and took our weapons, tossing them into the lake as well as… well, there was bird crap everywhere… even on the ceiling for God's sake! And as for our hunting dogs… lets just say they are afraid of any kind of bird in our area” He shook his head. “I see…” He looked down at the table in front of him and shook his head with a heavy sigh. “Fine, I’ll slay these geese, but I request to keep them as trophies along with the pay” The mayor smiled and nodded eagerly and stood up, grabbing the other man's hands with both of his and shook it furiously. “Of course, of course!! We don’t want anything to do with these damned bastards anymore, you got yourself a deal!” What the knight didn’t know… was what he just signed himself up for.   As soon as the knight was paid, the mayor led the man out of the tavern and he was going to grab the horse before the mayor stopped him. “They would attack anything, I recommend not to bring your horse” He gave him an annoyed look before sighing and turned around to face him. “Fine” He then marched after the Mayor all the way until they reached a barn house that was the closest to the mountain. The barn looked abandoned and looked heavily damaged… The mayor stopped far away from it and looked anxious. “You go ahead… once you’re done here, come back to the tavern…” And then, he ran off, leaving the knight alone at this strange place.   He took a few steps forward before drawing his sword out… slowly making his way to the barn house, looking around. The tension in the air was thick as everything fell silent once the mayor was out of sight and earshot. He didn’t hear the flapping in the distance as now it was nightfall, the sun going down and the light almost gone. ‘These are simply geese… I should be finished before the sun is fully gone for the day’ He thought rather confidently. Once he stepped into the barn, it looked empty except further down across from him was a nest and inside he could see black, white and brown feathers… ‘Bingo’ he thought as he crept his way towards the nest.   They were asleep, or at least that's what he assumed ‘This will be easy..’ He raised his sword, nearly above his head as he took his last final steps to the nest with the supposed sleeping geese… He only paused when he stepped on a stick, a stick that was astray from the nest. The cracking sound it made, echoed within the barn and then darkness fell upon it. The sun had gone down sooner than he thought as he held his breath. He then heard a loud flapping sound of wings behind him, he turned around and came face to face with a goose. He jumped and dropped his sword as he let out a loud shout in surprise. This awoke the other three geese who were in the nest behind him.   It was time. The goose in front of him let out a warrier cry like honk and charged forward to protect its brethren. The knight, being trained in the arts of battle, he was quicker than the goose sadly and ducked as it flew over head, missing him barely. He rolled and grabbed a hold of his sword again and stood quickly from his position off the floor, then… he charged the goose as it turned around in the air to go in for another attack. He swung his sword and slammed it against the goose, knocking it out of midair, causing it to let out a loud honk of pain as it fell onto the floor. He ran over to it and raised his sword to go and stab it, just before he could, he felt something tugging on his hair, on the back of his head. It was another goose! How could he forget that there were four of them??! ‘Damn it!’. He gritted his teeth and chose to attack that goose for now and slapped it away.   The goose then simply bit his hand. HARD. Biting a finger off and flying away as another goose came to attack him. He shrieked in pain at the loss of a finger but at the moment he had to focus on the fight. So far, he had counted 3 geese… ‘Where was the fourth?’ That didn’t matter for now… as the third one attacked his head, he turned back to the first and stabbed down with his sword and his eyes closed. He heard a shrieking honk of pain before it died out into silence from that goose. The goose attacking his head then bit his nose and he shouted before now randomly swinging his sword around as he backed away. The attack from the geese ceased as he backed into something behind him, it didn’t feel like a wall, and so he turned around quickly with his eyes open now.   He gaped at the creature he saw in front of him. Taking a few quick steps back as he stared up at the beast… It was the dragon, It stood tall with three geese on its shoulders, staring smugly down at the knight. The fourth goose had gotten the damn dragon from the mountains. ‘How was that possible??? What the hell is going on anymore??!!!’ The large dragon stared down at the knight with a cold stare as it simply glanced between him and the goose who laid motionless a few feet away… The dragon's eyes seemed to gloss over, seeing this poor goose… Its baby. It then looked back at the knight with a stare that could kill and it moved forward towards the knight with a loud roar, the geese moving into formation to attack when ready.   The knight also moved toward the dragon, but he wasn’t expecting its attack as it swung its tail around, hitting the knight into his side, causing him to go flying and slamming right into the barns wall. He then kept going as he broke through the wall and hit the ground, his sword out of hand. The wind was knocked out of the man as he laid wheezing on the ground… While the knight was recovering, the dragon quickly made its way towards the goose who was on the ground, not moving. It let out a low and soft sound as it tenderly nuzzled its child with its snoot, the rest of its children gathered around, looking worriedly at their brethren.   After gently moving the goose around, the dragon's heart broke as it let out a cry of agony at the loss of its gosling… Suddenly, it heard footsteps rushing back and a loud war cry as it felt a sharp pain within its side. It lets out a mighty roar in pain as it was stabbed by the knight… it collapses in sadness and in pain… feeling its emotions hit it over and over again. The knight cheered in victory but it was short lived as the dragon, in its last attempts to protect the rest of its loved ones… attacked the man with its claws, piercing the man in his chest. It pulled back and stared at the man, both in the same state of pain. The man's smile fell to a frown as he fell to his knees and held his chest, wheezing.   He looked up at the dragon, his vision getting blurry as he began to speak. “Eye for an eye… heh… damn geese” He then collapsed to the ground, not quite dead but he wasn’t causing damage anymore. The dragon then simply curled around the lost gosling and let out a soft breath before closing its eyes. Its other goslings let out a few quiet honks before leaving and heading off somewhere. The dragon felt tired… in fact, so tired that it fell asleep. The battle was finished and it was won, but at what cost? End of part 3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Start of part 4 The ending  The dragon awoke to a strange sight before it… it glanced around, seeing that it was still within the barn, the knight was gone and so was its gosling. It began to panic and moved to fly but it was stopped by something holding its wings in place. It looked at itself and saw that it was bandaged up… then right beside it was a young man, who had stood up from his seating position with his hands up. The dragon squinted its eyes before settling back down with a slight scoff, but kept its eyes on him. The human then spoke. “I’m the witch from the forest near your town… these geese had brought me here to you and… the other goose” He paused for a moment “They found me while I was looking for herbs in the nearby area…” he explained. “And when I came here and saw all of these” he gestured to the barn “I figured out what to do… I saved the goose and you, and the human as well” The dragon tensed at the mention of that human, it sent the witch a deathly glare.  The man gulped and let out a nervous laugh. “I’m sure he won’t bother you anymore… I promise, just relax and take it easy, I’ll go get your geese” He said before leaving the area to go outside. The dragon listened quietly to the honking outside and a few flapping sounds before the small gang of geese came in honking excitedly as they reached their parent. The man then came in with its gosling that it thought it had lost. The dragon smiled, seeing that the goose's wing was the part that was stabbed as its wing was wrapped as well. “Here’s your goose delivery” The witch smiled, he placed the healing goose next to the dragon. The other geese joined the dragon except for one, that one went to the witch and gave him a bag of gold The witch gave a rather confused look between goose and gold, ‘How did this goose get a bag of gold?’ but he wasn’t one to complain and hummed lightly before turning around to leave.  “I wish you five good luck… you’ll be fine by tomorrow, rest well” The mysterious witch left and disappeared out of sight.  The geese and the dragon had survived this attack… What happened in the end was the knight retired, the town gave up on any attacks or future plots against the damn geese and dragon as they later found out what started the fights in the first place… The dragon and the people made a somewhat agreement with the help of the witch, he helped translate loosely as to what was to be done. The deal was that the geese and dragon were to be left alone, as well as having sheep and other foods given to them once a week, in return the dragon and geese would protect the village from creatures and other things. That is the end of The Dragon and its four Bastards. I hope I did alright, I don’t write fighting very much. And I hope it was to everyones liking... If you have any critisism, or advice, please do share them with me :D