#tearsoftherainbow

[shiroi---kumo]

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆ He doesn't know where this place is but it has to be hell. Then again hell couldn't be anything to what he just experienced. Wherever this place was it wasn't Misterica and honestly after watching islands fall from the skies themselves he doesn't know if Misterica is still there to go back to in the first place. So now he needs to figure out where he is and what's going on, but he tired and he's hungry and he's hot.

He doesn't even know if there is anything to eat in this place because even if his nose is trying to pick up the scent of sugar, it's failing to complete the assignment. So the only thing the Misterican can do is investigate. Investigate until the hunger becomes too much and he finds himself licking parched lips behind a metal mask far too often.

Investigate until the lacking smell of sugar in the air starts to drive him a little mad. The heat could be boiling his brain he thinks as he sees his vision blur out and double in the same moment. He's so...tired and it is against his will when he starts to see the horizon tip and the trees become the sky. He hits the ground hard without warning leaving the little prince unconscious on the forest floor.

What is he supposed to do if someone finds a him? Hopefully @tearsoftherainbow is nice.

[shiroi---kumo]

✘ + tell us about aura?

Nothing but the truth || Accepting || 3 of 10

"Aura is someone I miss dearly. Both her and Szél testvér and even if he's here now, he still is not the same. Aura found me when I lost my home and took me back to her own. I don't know how she got me there but I woke up in a strange place with strange people that cared for me regardless.

They loved me and I loved them.

She was soft and patient but knew how to defend herself and wield a gun. She - worked meat out of the family meals for me. She tried to be considerate of everything I went through and to show me support. I would wake screaming she would come running to my side. Even as I babbled in my mother tongue, begging for my mother and father - begging for Revon and my brother.

Aura was - one of my best friends. The sister I never had. She taught me so much about life from eyes that saw it so differently - I - it's a shame about what happened to her. I - I miss her every day. I know Black Wind does too. "

[shiroi---kumo]

⋆୨𖤓୧⋆ He can't argue with his sister and he knows it. He's never been able to argue with Aura but even worse yet he can hear the old man in the back of his mind growling at him. There is a harsh "fiú" echoing and he knows that if he crosses the Old Man of all people his life is going to get difficult. Why he would be so angry at the death of Tiamat's vessel is beyond him, but here they are regardless.

He know Aura has a point. He knows that killing the boy now isn't going to fix anything later. If he kills the boy now there's no way that the war would end. If he truly was Aurinko's misguided son then killing him is only going to infuriate Misterica's ruler for both political and personal reasons and a father fueled by grief could never be reasoned with.

But Aura continues and asks him what Windaria has done for him personally and lists off the atrocities that she's aware of. She only knows as much of the list as he was willing to tell her and she doesn't know about the sacred glyph that rests on his chest over his heart because while she knows the tattoo exists that's all she needs to know about it and not that it connects his very life to the weapon on his arm.

Perhaps they should just destroy the blade then and without it the boy will be defenseless? He can live here but with no way to reign that sky demon's wrath down upon them.

He can only sigh at her argument. He can only let his shoulders sink down low as he returns Vörös to it's holster on his hip as he watches the child sleep with heavy panting breaths leaving him. Instead he reaches forward to remove the blanket that was covering him and to replace the cloth that was once upon a crowned forehead.

If he remembered anything about the beasts in all his training within the military it was that they soon fell like flies to that of Windaria's heat. So the boy must - with that blanket he must be - sweltering.

"Do not cover him again if you wish to hear his side. They taught us in training for the war that they despise the heat and I can only assume that's the reason he passed out. If it's true that they cannot handle Windaria's climate - the weather might just do him in for us."

Her body acts before her mouth can present an argument. The rag is dropped back onto the boy in favor of placing her hand directly on the gun, pushing the barrel down towards the floor.

"Have you gone mad?!" she cries. "He's a boy! Besides that, killing him would just make their kingdom even angrier if you think this is over the ceasefire! You're better than this and you know it! I know damn well you have a heart in there, Fekete Szél, so act like it!"

A moment passes before her anger simmers down as quickly as it had appeared. Her hand returns to her side, features softening into a frown.

"Windaria has done what exactly for you? Lied? Set you up to die, fed you to the wolves, threw you at a war? You and Anu have that much in common at least and he hasn't even woken up yet. Just... maybe hear him out. He's just a kid and he's probably scared. He doesn't deserve to not be given a chance. Just like the fact you didn't deserve anything that happened to you. Be better. Maybe other people will follow your example, and then everyone will be better off."

[shiroi---kumo]

⋆୨𖤓୧⋆ He doesn't have to explain to her as she locks in on the sight of the amethyst crown upon his head that he had found only moments before. It presented an entirely new situation and an entirely new outlook. Their government was lying but for what gain? What did hiding that Anu was of royal blood change that made the prophecy different? He was still a boy and he was still a monster.

Were all the tales they told of the child and his mist also nothing but baseless lies? They wouldn't know until the child woke and he removed the mask from his face. They wouldn't know until the child woke and now the Soil Sage is holding his breath wondering if when he does will Tiamat's chosen be a hardened warrior or a spoiled child?

Somehow he's preparing himself for frightened spoiled child.... But if Aurinko was trying to protect his child then why send him now? Was the ceasefire over? Would reinforcements be right behind him? Was Windaria about to become yet again a battlefield?

"I don't know if we can." He sounds with a heavy sigh. "If Anu is here, even if he is a child - a Prince - that doesn't mean we can take care of him Aura. What if the ceasefire has ended? What if Anu's presence makes the restart of the war? We should kill him now before he can cause us any trouble."

But even as he reaches for Vörös to pull the length of the red shotgun from it's hostler he can hear the old man growling in the back of his mind.

She's humming as she sets herself to work chopping some of the vegetables. Dinner won't be anything spectacular given the fact she'd brought home a boy instead of any game, but they won't starve either.

If nothing else, she always makes sure they won't starve. Her knife is halfway through a pepper when her brother calls for her, claiming that there's a problem.

It's never good to hear that.

She leaves the blade on the counter and returns to her room, looking for anything that could truly be an issue. Anu is still panting and asleep, and his hair is pushed out of the way, but there aren't any new injuries.

"What's the p-"

The question stops before she can finish it, answered by a closer look at the crown of amethyst upon his head.

"- Nevermind... but what does that make him, if not a demon? I made the right call, clearly. You could even argue that I told you so... the problem now is what you're gonna tell Kupo. And... you know... the fact we're hiding a royal Misterican in our house..."

She sighs as she takes her place next to the child again, retrieving the rag to put back on his face. "We have to take care of him."

[shiroi---kumo]

⋆୨𖤓୧⋆ There's something fundamentally wrong with the vision of a Misterican sleeping in Aura's bed. There is something off about the entire situation seeing Anu's sleeping face and the size of his body because he is no where near the monster they'd been warned about their entire lives. They were told that the Lord of the Skies would be an unstoppable beast capable of stealing your life away with a breath and tearing one's flesh asunder with nothing but brute strength and a blade from beyond yonder.

Tiamat's emissary of death and decay.

Anu was not to be trusted. A monster trapped in mortal flesh they were told and only the great War God Asher could bring him down from his lofty throne in the clouds.

What a load of bullshit that was.

The one laying before him was surely Anu but Anu was no monster.

They'd been told this whole time that Aurinko was hoarding his weapon to make him stronger. To wait for the most opportune moment to unleash the beast upon him but - but that couldn't be true.... and upon further investigation -

His hand is dipping into the water in the bowl at the head of the bed to change the cloth at the boy's head as he continues pant and sweat covers his face and any bear skin that is shown to the world around him. Is Misterica really that cold? It must be sweltering to this child -

His hand feels something hard beneath pure white bangs and he takes a moment to brush the boy's hair to the side only for his gaze to be filled up with the sight of deeply colored metal and amethyst. Gems set upon his forehead like a crown - .... like a crown -

Aurinko wasn't hoarding his weapon, he was protecting his son.

He'll need to make sure they watch what they say about the man in question even if they both held him in distaste. Anu has been not but a boy this whole time and the Sun King was protecting his child. They told them Anu was a monster and Aurinko was waiting for the moment to release him upon them but .... he can't tell how young the child is with the mask on but they spoke of Anu around the same time he was matched to the Magun so that would make him...

Seventeen.

He's seventeen.

A child. Anu is a child not a monster.

They lied to them.

"Aura. Come here." He sounds, as he places the cloth back in the bowl of water for the moment and his hand remains still pushing up the boy's bangs revealing his crown.

"We have a problem. "

Cold oceans scan the boy and the blade. For not the first time, she wonders what exactly is being calculated behind them. Not a move is made to shoot, so he must be reaching the same conclusion.

She helps him bring the child inside, situating him in her own bed, and it's quite the odd view.

A Misterican is asleep in her bed.

She brought in the Misterican.

Szél isn't angry about it. Her hand still tingles with the burning sensation from the hilt of that sword, a blade unimaginably powerful if it rejects her like this in a dormant state.

Either that or Tiamat herself has imbued it with hatred and bloodlust. One of those options.

"I wasn't," she replies. "I wasn't thinking I'd run across him. I aimed, but... I couldn't fire. Not on a boy. Misterican or not, he's only a child. It's not his fault Aurinko threw him out here and it's not his fault he was born, either. I know that if it were you thrown into their lands as a boy instead..."

They'd probably have ripped him apart. Limb from limb, cursing his Soil all the while like Szél would ever want to cause undue harm.

Her eyes travel back to the boy's limp form. He looks awful. Pale like the dead, with dirt from what was almost his grave to match. He's still breathing though. Panting. He's been panting.

Is Misterica as cold as they say?

"We can be better, right?" she asks, unlooping the rope from her belt. "We can take care of him."

She gives her brother no time to argue as she goes to gather supplies. Half the work is done anyway, with him being inside and the doors being closed.

A bowl of cool water, a rag, and one of her own shirts later, she finds herself knelt next to the bedside wiping sweat from the child's brow. It's difficult to work the several shirts and the heavy belt off of him, one after the other. There are pieces of glass bottles in her way, likely shattered on some form of impact - maybe when he'd fallen.

She can't find any blood or serious wounds. Her shirt is much looser, the fabric far more breathable and certainly cooler than the tight compression shirt that had been hidden under the layers.

The rag is left across his forehead for her to open the window. She gathers his belongings and puts them on the bedside table, save for that blade she doesn't dare to touch again.

And now it's a matter of waiting.

"I'll make dinner, Szél. If he wakes up, let me know. I'm probably a little less intimidating. Oh, and don't touch the sword. It burns."

[shiroi---kumo]

⋆୨𖤓୧⋆ He's coming when he's called but he can already tell something is wrong. Aura calling for help is nothing he's ever liked and Nyíl is coming through the door to help drag something heavy and whining as he does. It's only once he's stepped into the main room of their small home that his eyes are filled up with the sight of a blade and a body of the purest white he's ever seen flopped on his sister's back.

It takes everything in him not to call her insane and scold the second he does, but instead he's helping her bring the body into their humble abode by simply taking the boy from her and upon looking this one in the face, he is most certainly a boy. A Misterican boy and it is the demon swordsman at that. He doesn't how to describe the feeling that fills him up from the inside as that wretched old man seems to resonate the Magun with this blade in a way he's never felt before.

Even if his first and only instinct is to just shoot the boy and be done with it - there is a deep grumbling command in the back of his mind that is warning him not to. That is warning him that if he dares draw weapon on the child, then his entire life is going to take a turn for the worst. A voice that is telling him to leave the lost moon alone and to make sure that no harm comes to him. A voice to tell him that it is both his duty and obligation to do so.

So there's a sigh as the body is gathered into his arms and is placed down on one of the beds in the home, so he can rest peacefully he supposes. A sigh leaves him as he looks back towards his sibling with his hand on his hip.

"I'm not mad, but where did you find him? What were you thinking bringing a Misterican back here?"

Nyíl's caught the scent of something. He crouches low next to her side, nose to the forest floor even though there isn't time for this.

Szél is supposed to be home soon. She, herself, is supposed to be there already, prepping for dinner using whatever she's foraged today.

Nothing much, for certain - many of the safe plants have already gone to the birds and other small animals. Still, her basket isn't totally empty, and she's come far enough that the remaining daylight should let her scrape together a meal... yet her companion wastes precious seconds tracking some kind of prey they don't need at the moment.

A sigh leaves her as her hand drops to her rifle.

"Nyíl -"

And the canine is off before she can finish. As they both stumble out of the trees into a field, she catches a glimpse of something white out further in the distance. Its form falls too fast for her to see what it is, but it's still... the purest white she has ever seen.

Her hands take cautious aim as her curiosity gets the better of her. Nothing in Windaria is so pure white, not out in the open.

Dried grass crunches under her boots, the pace slowing as she finally closes in on the body of a boy with pure white hair and seven tall, crystal horns -

Misterican. This boy is a Misterican.

An armed Misterican, judging by the crystal sword next to his unconscious body. And as far as she knows, this boy is likely the white prince.

Her finger never moves to the trigger. It should. She should shoot him and end the war here and now, but... he is only a child.

He is just as much a victim of Aurinko's utter naivety and Misterica's vicious brutality as everyone else baited into false hope with a joke of a ceasefire. Misterican or not, Valkoinen Pilvi or not, she cannot bring herself to fire on a child. She can't leave him here, either. Not like his kingdom did.

Her basket and rifle barely make a sound when she puts them down. Off comes her cloak, set briefly to the side.

And then, slowly, she gathers the body of white onto her back. It's easy to cover him with her cloak, and her rifle is on a sling so she should be able to carry the basket fine in one hand.

That just leaves the sword, which burns her fingertips on contact.

Leaving it here is damning him though, should anyone else find it. Convincing her brother is one thing.

Convincing anyone else...

There's rope in her basket for large game. Dragging an ancient cursed sword can't be much different, can it?

She does her best to loop it around an object she can't touch, pulling the knots as tight as they'll go. The end of the rope is looped through her belt and fed back to her companion's jaws so they can split the weight.

The journey home is longer than she wants it to be, avoiding everyone else and all. There's exhaustion set into her face by the time she gets herself and her new cargo through the door of their home, and this is only the beginning.

"Szél? Please don't be mad - can you come here? I need help."