FicWad

Chapter 8

The streets at night were shadowed and the sky was dark and threatening. It was as if, holding its breath, waiting for the right time to unfurl its secrets. At first, it was an eerily peaceful state, the calm before the storm and then the downpour came.

On that day, the lighting had flashed and seemed like tears against the horizon, it was as if the sky was weeping. The rain was slow and steady, then faster beating down unmercifully. It collected in the crevices within the worn stoned lined streets and in puddles which scattered in splashes. The droplets were frigid against the young girl's skin through her clothes.

No matter how long or what distraction she had tried, Uranus could not banish these memories from her mind.

She had run through streets and alleyways, dodging carriages and people caught in the sudden down pour and darkness of the approaching night from the shadows of the storm. Her normal clothes would have tripped her up long ago if she hadn't changed into britches and a shirt before she left. Her hair had been newly cropped short and wild from the harsh wind provoked by the storm, yet it matched her completely.

Even though she had ran through rain, mudded streets, and guided only by the brightness that the lighting flashes gave forth, she was hardly out of breath. Maybe it was the dull ache that had begun to grow in her heart that kept her mind off her body, like how her skin shivered from the cold or how her muscles burned fiercely from the effort. But she didn't care.

Turning the corner, she saw it. It was a tiny home run shop, not uncommon in the market place because many shops were like that, but it held a warm quality. She had heard enough about it from her brother. Rumor had it that the owner of the shop had appeared seemingly from no where, it had been whispered that she wasn't from around that world, at all.

"Perhaps she was noble woman who ran away from her lord." Some had said.

"Or a witch who was cast forth from her land.. Have you seen how quiet and particular she is? And beautiful too! It has to be some form of witchcraft that she carries." A few nodded in agreement, envy burning in their eyes for the young woman's fair skin and silky hair.

"I heard that she was banished from the castle for having an affair with the king himself!" One elderly man mused. "Or was it the prince?"

And the rumors had continued. No one knew from when or where she came but she was kind enough and gave out sweet cakes to the children and sold goods for reasonable prices. She was fair to everyone she could, so many people had liked her. Even so, it never hurt anybody to keep a weary eye open just in case and most often had.

The more boyish looking heir of the wind had paused out side of the soft lighted shop, touching the thickly blurred panes of the stained glass window of the outside. Her fingertips traced a few shapes curiously, they were sea shells and they aligned the base of the window in some sort of decoration, though she didn't know because she had never seen such things before.

The young girl sighed heavily and looked at the pouch in her hand, her eyes bleared from tears she wouldn't let her self cry.

'How could I? How could I be the one to break her heart... ?'

"Hello there," A soft voice questioned from the shops open door. "Are you lost?"

Uranus blinked hardly hearing the kind voice from the roar of the heavy rain and bit her lip as she looked up and met shimmering marine colored eyes and a warm smile.

'Gods, she's beautiful.'

Remembering what she came to do she nodded and closed her hand around the pouch again, hiding it from sight.

"Come in then, out of the rain." The young woman said still smiling. "You look like you could use a friend, just now."

And the soft voice was cut off in the street by the closing of the shop's wooden door as the soaked heir entered, every foot step felt like a leaded weight had been added to her body and weighed down on her heart. She had hardly felt the warmth of the fire on her skin as she stood next to it shivering or the hot cup of sweet smelling herbal tea as it was pressed into her numb and trembling hands...
Uranus woke up suddenly, her head aching from haunting memories and her eyes glazed over from years of internal torment. She licked her dry lips and slowly opened her eyes. Most of the night had been spent and she knew the sun would rise soon. Yet the stars still glittered against the water filled pool before her making the warrior feel as though she was still dreaming. Her bangs were wet from the rising water touching her hair as the tide had come in earlier and forced herself into a sitting position. The front of her clothes had been damp but her wings remained dry. Her one arm, which had been in the water when she woke, felt icy to the touch and she looked to it strangely trying to remember why. Salt clung to her skin turning it a pale color and her fingertips were wrinkled, the warrior frowned and rubbed feeling back into her arm and it was then she remembered the mermaid and her unshed tears.

The knight stood slowly, her muscles were stiff from the hours of being in the same position and sadly, she took a few paces back away from the pool. It had become part of the sea again and the waves must have drawn the sleeping maiden back into the water under the darkened velvet which was the surf.

'Perhaps, it is better this way.' The now detached gray-blue eyed figure decided and turned, gathering her sword as if it pained her. A winged stallion stood ready for its mistress and stamped its hooves impatiently, a gold harness waited for its rider's hands. Uranus took a look around fighting the ache in her heart. She wondered why she felt regret for leaving, why a part of her screamed to remain. The knight had told her self from the beginning that she had to get back as soon as possible and free her land from the hands of that deceiving bastard that caused all of this.

In the beginning, she had waited through those long days and nights with a rebellious passion. But it seemed as though the maiden had given her a choice all along. When she had regained consciousness, she felt as though she was being restricted, captive to this watery world and its mists. But then she had time to think it over and ponder it when she couldn't sleep at night.

If the maiden had wanted her to stay in the first place, she wouldn't have healed her wing. The maiden could have let it heal wrong and she couldn't have flown again. But by helping her it showed that the mermaid had loved her so much she was willing to let her go. And now it seemed time to let the bird out of its cage and into the wild again.

'I never thanked her for helping Me.' her thoughts concluded distantly.

'To just disappear without saying good bye? Her heart will break.' Uranus trembled and closed her eyes gripping her sword's hilt till her knuckles turned white.

'Just like that day..', a part of her reminded in torturous way, 'I broke her heart too. '
"So what's a young girl like you doing out in a wretched night like this alone?" The kind voiced maiden questioned as she poured some tea and handed it into Uranus's numb hands. The one in question stared into the depths of the hot liquid and let her eyes blur.

"How could you tell I was a girl?" The young faraway voice had responded with a question to a question. The woman who sat next to her by the fire smiled a little knowingly and chose her words as she answered, glancing into the fire as she sipped her tea.

"Well, I've never seen such a pretty boy before around here as you appear to be. You also missed a spot when you cut your hair." The voice had mused gently and went to fetch something. There was a soft sound of hair being cut and then the dirty blond lock fell to the floor, gleaming golden in the fire light.

"There you are." The young woman remarked replacing the object she used and regained her place next to the uneasy girl.

"T... thanks." She had stammered, still not meeting the young woman's eyes again. They were too trusting, too deep, and too perfect and she couldn't look into those eyes again with the truth she held.

"You look familiar to me." That same smile again. "Your features are striking, a defined chin and jaw line, proud and unwavering over all, like nobility." Their eyes met.

"And you're eyes, they tell so much and yet by looking into them you learn nothing at all unless by will. They are like the color of the sky, unruly like the wind. There's only one other person I know with features like those."

Uranus's mouth felt dry and she swallowed a few times and looked at the fire.

"Do you have any siblings where you're from?" She asked innocently enough provoking the conversation again.

"I..." Uranus whispered and forced herself from feeling faint. Now? Do I tell her the truth? "A brother." She whispered.

The maiden smiled a little, if she noticed the girl's uneasy behavior she didn't show it.

"I have a younger sister myself." Her eyes sadden a bit. "She's back at home though." Uranus stole a glance and her nervousness lessened a bit.

"Her name is Michiru. She's the sweetest little sister anyone could want." She took out a golden sea shelled shaped locket with a hand drawn portrait inside. "I had this made when I came here. She looks a bit like me, don't you think?"

Uranus nodded a little looking at the picture which had glowed golden from the fire.

"Beauty runs in your family." A blush crossed her cheeks a little when she said that and quickly tried to excuse herself. "What I mean is..."

The young woman laughed a little. "No it's alright, I understand. So, what brought you here?"

Uranus sobered again and glanced to the fire as if it would give her the answer; she bit her lip and drew in a shaky breath.

"I came..."

"Yes?" The gentle voice encouraged.

"I came because..." The young girl took out the rain dampened pouch slowly, and it glowed in the fire like an eerie forewarning. It swung back and forth by its draw strings, the former owners initials "C.A.T" stood out plainly in gold embroidery thread. The woman beside her looked to it strangely as if she did not want it to register and finally gasped, crying out.

"No!" The tea cup she held, shattered against the floor scattering pretty white porcelain with a deafening sound.

"Gods No!" The maiden crumbled to the floor sobbing heart broken, gripping the floor boards with her fingers as if she would fall off the face of the earth with out them.

"Coeus.. Why... why..."

Uranus watched her, eyes wide; teeth clenched shut, her eyes brimming with tears. Tears for her brother, for this woman who had loved him so much, for her world that she knew was crumbling right before her eyes, a few escaped and slipped down her cheek. They were going to marry; he had told her that they were planning to run away together. He had looked so happy.

The young girl knelt and held the heart broken woman close as her body was racked with hysterical sobs.

"I can't..." she began, drawing in a quick breath through her tears. "I can't live with out him. I can't..."

No one really knew how true those words were, only that the next day there had been news that the young maiden had slipped off in the early hours of the morning and disappeared suddenly without a trace. For the ones that had seen her some had called it suicide.

The only physical thing that Uranus had from that night letting her know that it wasn't just a nightmare, was that dark blue pouch the women had touched so tenderly before giving it back to her sadly, closing the girls fingers around it.

"But.. Larissa, he wanted you to have it..."

"No, I have no use for it now. I can not. You're his sister, you should keep it. Maybe someday..." Her eyes seemed to show an internal decision within her and she pulled herself off the floor slowly and stood. Her face was no longer warm or smiling but determined, slightly chilled and shadowed.

"Thank you, Haruka, for coming here. But if you don't mind, I would like to be alone now."

"Of... of course" The young girl stammered in reply numbly and exited from the shop in a daze, that pouch in her hand.

Later that night she had opened it, the contents spilled on to her bed sheets and glittered from the dim light of her night table lamp. It consisted off an intricate looking key on a chain and a wedding band.
The knight had taken a few steps forward but was stopped by a voice she knew so well, the voice that stirred every part of her and shook her to the very core within.

"You're leaving... aren't you?" A soft tear laced voice called out from the mist.

"Yes, I must." The distant voice had responded it was hard to pinpoint the exact emotion behind it.

The mermaid held back a sob and the knight closed her eyes fighting the urge to turn back and forced her to take another step.

"I knew you would, someday. I can't keep you here, I knew that. I just hoped, that perhaps after all this time, there could be a chance..."

"A chance for what?" the knight snapped trying to push her away, trying to give the sea maiden a good reason to forget about her.

The mermaid's eyes flashed with unspeakable sorrow, wounded from the venom in the woman's reply. She was suddenly angry.

"Why? Why did you come here? Why were you brought here, then?"

The warrior stiffened and her eyes glazed over with torment.

Why? The mermaid had asked her that just like that woman had that night, with those same passionate eyes. Like the sea, they had gleamed with churning emotion.

"It was not by intention that I came. There was a great battle in my kingdom; I was cast out by a very powerful evil. I must return to avenge what had been lost to me. My brother was killed by this evil in the cause to stop it. My father was too far in that by the time he realized what was happening, he was powerless to control it and was also killed. There is only me left and I must save those few who have faith in our lost cause. I can't let their sacrifices be in vain..."

Neptune's stared at the figure before her, eyes unfocused, seeing the pictures in her mind from listening.

"I know. Believe me, I understand. My world was lost by a great evil too. I lost everything dear to me and there was nothing I could do to stop it. We suffer the same, I can feel it. The waves, they churn of it, the.. The..." she struggled for it name, it was new to her yet it was as though she knew it forever.

"Wind?" the knight whispered hoarse from raw emotion she could no longer hide.

"It smells of it. Can't you hear their cry? You can't leave now. If you leave, all will truly be lost!" She reached out to her; unshed tears gleamed in her eyes. "Please, don't go. Not yet. Please... Haruka."

The winged warrior turned to face her, hot wet tears staining her face which seemed tired from years of fighting, running away and forgetting.

"How did you know my name?" she asked tiredly and a little startled, taking her hand in her own.

"I don't know." The maiden cried out loud after a moment, her emotions and built up sorrow coming out suddenly. "I just know it... it was like I never forgot it. But how can that be?"

Haruka slid waist deep into the pool not caring how cold the water was and gathered the shivering mermaid into her arms, holding her close. She kept her wings up so they wouldn't get wet by instinct even though at the moment she would take that risk of them getting wet if she had too. She had held her just like that woman who had been crying just like on that night but this time she knew she wouldn't be the cause of it any longer.

"It's alright..." she soothed and stroked the smaller woman's back.

"I have a feeling we were brought together for a purpose, for what I have no idea. But maybe, together, we can find out."

"You had said you lost your brother.." the maiden began after a moment calmed from Uranus's touch, as she fingered an old intricate looking key that she wore on a chain around her neck with an sudden fascination.

"I lost my sister too." She exclaimed when she got no reply. "It was before the evil came here. She left for an unknown land in the name of love." She examined the key seeing with her eyes engraved initials there but not paying enough attention to truly see them. Uranus put a hand on the mermaids own, stopping her curious fingers as they toyed with the significant trinket around the woman knight's neck. The maiden felt the women swallow and lick her lips as if hesitating something.

"Michiru..?"

The mermaid blinked, now it was her turn to feel the growing feeling of irony.

"Yes..."

The woman knight said nothing and just held her even closer, burying her face in the damp teal tresses at the top of her head which was tucked under her chin. Realizations trickling over her like the cool water around her waist.