Name: Gaia
Title: Puck The Penguin
Pairing: Circe and Icarus
Theme: 15 Toys
Resource:
Background InfoRating: PG-13?
Thanks To:
rosehiptea for doing an awesome beta-read of this chapter, and to Nicolas for loudly proclaiming that it didn't suck.
Crossposted to
makrothumia for archive purposes.
Chapter One
Ixana Trust Fund
Two short jumps to their left and they were on a stronger branch. Two more in the same direction, and they were completely hidden by the leaves of another tree. Quickly moving two branches down, they could see the ground and the soldiers who marched upon it.
The prince stood tall, his sharp gray eyes taking in everything (or what he thought was everything) while his companion leaned against the trunk with labored breath. "What do you see?"
The prince smiled, and shook his head. "Only our foolish enemies marching to their death."
...
Black smoke billowed from the truck's exhaust pipe, leaving a trail of foul contamination as it sped along the highway. The clouds in the sky were dark with rain, prompting the wind to start its mandatory 'send the birds across the continent in sixty seconds flat' rush. Cars flew by, running double the speed of the old truck, with a courteous honk of the horn and lift of a finger as they passed.
The man driving could care less how they treated him, knowing that such behavior was vile and immature. "Don't you ever do that when you start driving, Eir. All it will do is tick off people who aren’t nice," he advised the young girl beside him, nodding his head in agreement with himself.
"All right, Jack." The small girl agreed, returning her attention to the dense forest on the sides of the road. Her favorite activity when they drove down this road was to count how many creatures she could spot before they got home, and she was intent to see at least three more on this trip.
Catching sight of a rabbit, she squealed in delight and did a mental count of how many she had seen so far. "Only two more to go, Jack!" she giggled, turning to look at him.
He smiled down at her then returned his attention to the road, two hands steady on both sides of the wheel.
"Good God, here comes another one, zipping along like a crazy person!” he announced, keeping an eye on the advancing red mini van in the opposite lane.
Eir nodded absently, keeping the lookout for another animal. She was so intent on her search, in fact, that when the van collided with their truck, she barely registered being thrown against the dashboard.
...
The explosions were too great, the powder too strong. They were supposed to be far enough away that the aftershock would not affect them. The rumble was still fresh, and the tree that they were hiding in was caught on fire.
Silently, the prince made a vow of revenge. “Damn bomb supplier and his zeal for things that go boom.”
With a black cloud of smoke as a backdrop, he carried his companion on his back while leaping from tree to tree. The tower was in his line of vision, and he swore he could make it in time. "Don't worry, Bastian. We will complete this, if it is the last thing we do."
Voice barely above a whisper, Bastian shook with as much mirth as his injured body could allow. "I know, my prince. I know."
...
Eir's first coherent thought when she came into consciousness was how much her head hurt. It was warm, and sticky, and some red stuff was all around her. Panic came of not meeting her quota of wild animal sightings, and she looked out the window to resume her search.
Then she realized that the truck was not moving, and her grandfather was nowhere around. "Jack?"
Unbuckling her loose seatbelt, she crawled out the open driver's side door and lowered herself to the ground carefully, looking left and right with caution. Her grandfather had apparently stopped the truck in the middle of the road, though she couldn't see why. The other car had parked on the side, though it was turned over with two wheels popped off.
"Jack?" She shouted this time, looking around the truck and over at the other car for something familiar. The small fire across the road was producing a lot of smoke, and sent her into a coughing fit once it entered her lungs. "Jack, where are you?"
By the time she dropped down on her knees to look under the truck, her thoughts were full of panic. She spotted his hat under a wheel, and began to cry.
...
The Prince Icarus took two steps at a time, trying his best to get to the top without killing himself and Bastian. The guards that had spotted their entry were closing in on them, and the loud thump of heavy boots on stone was causing a feeling of panic to well up in his throat.
"Put me down, my prince." Bastian croaked, tapping his fingers on the back of Icarus' skull like he was playing a flute. "I'll hold them off while you finish our mission."
More and more steps, never ending. Why didn't these foul creatures install an easier way for the non-winged races to get to the top? "Never, Bastian. Never."
A shout from a guard came two stories down, and a sharp pain shot up Icarus' leg. It was enough to make him falter a step, and enough for Bastian to slide off with ease. He batted away the attempts made to get him back up, and took out his dagger. "Finish the mission, my prince."
Louder steps, accompanied by the breathing of the guards and the clang of metal sword against metal armor. More panic piled itself into Icarus' throat, making it hard for him to breath.
Bastian waved him away, and stood up with added support of the inside wall.
"Leave, Icarus."
By the time the enemies rounded the corner and charged up the steps, Icarus was already gone.
...
The flashing light of the ambulance was strangely hypnotic, the red twirling on the pavement in a twisted pattern along the burning blackness. Nice people came out of those white cars, Eir had learnt, and were quite content making sure she and her Grandpa were all right.
She didn't like them at all.
The pavement was hot under her feet, and the air muggy while various songs of bugs drifted with the breeze. Eir started to slink from shadow to shadow, trying to escape. The long expanse of forest was only a few feet away, but she didn't want to alert the helpful people of her movement, so she took no chances with running.
Finally she reached the end of the road, and stepped out onto the grass. She now had freedom from the nice people who tried to help her and her Grandpa. Freedom from the awful people who said that her Grandpa was gone forever.
...
He was hiding now, perched on a thatched roof of some random house. The guards hadn't even bothered to look up, so certain that their enemy was too stupid to do something so clever. It was only dumb luck that he had gotten inside, or so they had convinced themselves.
Peering in disgust over the edge, Icarus spotted a woman teaching a group of children their alphabet, and a man holding a sword standing to the side watching intently. They were laughing, and having a perfectly innocent time, another something for him to hate about this place.
A singing voice brought him out of his "let's loathe everything that breathes" reverie, and soon a faerie came into view. She carried a basket full of toys, and had flowers woven through her hair, as he could see when she passed his hiding place.
He made a quick decision, and leapt down to the cobblestone path. Drawing his dagger, he held the sharp edge against the girl's throat, and smiled. "Welcome to your life's purpose: A living shield against lances."
She dropped her basket, and sighed in irritation. “The toys will take forever to deliver now.”
“What?” Icarus asked, faltering for a moment. Since he was behind her, he didn't see the smile on her face, or the laughter in her eyes. He did, however, feel the sword run right through his heart.
Darkness closed in, and the faerie against him shuddered and coughed. Warm blood was on his hands and dagger, he realized. "I wonder who it belongs to..."
...
The nice people were shouting her name from the road, but she was certain that they could not see her. "Eir! Come back! Come back to where it is safe!"
She giggled to herself, and crouched close to the ground, digging her fingers deep into the ground. Out came tufts of grass and dirt, and a bug or two. Just like at home, with Jack in the yard with Ballooa, and her parents out to the store to buy baby supplies.
More of them calling for her, this time a bit closer. Eir crawled on her hands and knees away from their voices, going as fast as she could. She almost didn't notice the doll made in likeness of a torn and ragged faerie lying at the side of the road.
Pausing for a moment, the voices forgotten, she picked up the doll and smiled. "There you are, Circe. I was wondering where you went off to. What happened to your neck?”
End Chapter