[fic] With Dragon's Blood - Chapter Ten ~Sing of Ships and Wings~
Title: With Dragon's Blood
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame, PiKame, JunDa, Koki/Maru
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: fantasy
Beta by: my cat. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too... ALSO NOTE that if you steal my land, the language, the names, myths, maps or anything else from it and I find you, I'm sooo gonna be pissed. This world is special to me and I've spent almost 15 years on it.
Summary: Nobody believed an army could cross the mountains. Perhaps that's why nobody was prepared when they did...
Warning: Character death(s). Violence. Maybe more stuff; will modify as needed.
Author's Note: It's a short chapter but it's got some important things in it.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the akame_ Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - With Dragon's Blood Master Post
Chapter Ten ~Sing of Ships and Wings~
After Jin teleported the royal twins across the river, he said his reluctant farewell. He wished he could stay with them longer; he’d never met another man who could use magic. Actually, Prince Kame seemed reluctant to talk about his magic. Was it because of the scorched body Jin saw when he first found the prince?
Jin really hoped that he would be able to rejoin them at the Council Ruins. He didn’t hold much hope for it, though. The training his mother mentioned didn’t sound like a weekend sort of deal. It might take weeks… maybe more.
Actually, he had no clue how long it would take. So when he teleported back home, it was the first thing he asked his mother after he apologized for bailing the way he had.
His mother was very understanding about his sudden disappearance, though she did ask him why he was gone for so long.
Not willing to lie to his mother, he told her, “I ran into Prince Kame and Princess Marina. They… well, they’re on some sort of quest I think? They’re traveling in secret… at least, that’s what it seemed like.”
“Did they say where they were going?” she asked.
“Dragon-hunting. But for now, they’re on the way to the Council Ruins…”
But Jin stopped when his mother started laughing. Hard.
“…mother?”
It took her a minute to catch her breath because she was laughing so hard but once she did, she said, “I just shouldn’t be surprised anymore by the way the blood moves us to suit the dragons’ agenda.” But her smile faltered a bit before she continued, “Shouldn’t be surprised…”
But then she perked back up.
“Get some clothes together and I’ll pack up everything else we need,” Sassi told Jin.
Jin asked, “Where are we going?”
“To the Council Ruins. Apparently we’re going to meet the twins.”
Amazed, Jin did what his mother asked and packed up some clothes. Secretly, he was thrilled to see both of them again. Marina was interesting and it was obvious how much she cared for her brother. Kame… he looked so much like her and he had this fascinating smile…
Once he finished packing the clothes, he brought the bag to the kitchen and helped his mother get the rest of the stuff together. He wrapped a cloth around the bread she cooked that morning, packed up some other food. Dagger in the boot, short sword at his side - just in case - and some jars of medicinal rubs and oils and herbs.
His mother had grabbed several ancient-looking books and as Jin looked at all the stuff they’d packed up between the two of them, the first thought he had was a question on how, exactly, she planned for them to carry so much.
But she had a solution to that.
Jin watched as his mother closed her eyes, picked up the bag with the food. Her hand went forward and then disappeared along with the bag. When she pulled her hand back so that it reappeared, the bag was no longer there. She did the same thing with the rest of the stuff.
“Um…”
Sassi smiled at her son. “Don’t worry; you’ll learn to do that. Now… the teleportation? Only yourself or can you pull someone else along?”
“I can take a person with me.”
“Can you go places you’ve never actually seen?”
Jin nodded. “When I… um, took that little break this morning, I didn’t know where it was I’d gone. So I guess I can go anywhere. I’m not sure how far though in one go.”
“We’ll find those things out soon enough. How far did you go this morning?”
Jin thought about that for a minute. “Maybe… an hour or so north of the River of No End, in Aveena?”
“Ah, good. You should be able to take us to the Council Ruins, then.” And with a little flourish, she held her hand out to him. He gave a small laugh and took her hand and then teleported the both of them to the ruins.
+++
Flying wasn’t all that difficult as far as the moves, but it was certainly exhausting. His brother had brought him down to a ledge much closer to the ground so that he wouldn’t hurt himself too badly if his strength gave out.
Aquion assured Yamapi that once he’d built up his strength, he’d be able to take off from the ground instead of needing a ledge to dive from.
At the rate it was going, it was going to take forever. At least Yamapi now knew why the wings attached more down towards the center of his back. He’d always wondered about it since the fairies and mephits in myths have wings attached higher up, around the shoulder blade region. Apparently it was for balance and it really did help.
His brother was practically a slave driver when it came to the flying lessons. And he was always ready for a scuffle if Yamapi got pissed off at his teaching methods. At the end of each day, Yamapi would just pass out and then he’d have to do it all again the next day.
But he was able to fly further every day.
Not that it impressed his mother in the slightest. She made it perfectly clear that she thought he’d never fly as well as a “real” dragon. Aquion said she had always been cold but never cruel.
Could have fooled him…
Even the exhausting flying lessons didn’t distract Yamapi from thought of Kame (he was pretty sure that’s why his mother was pushing for him to learn). His mother kept shutting down his dreams at night whenever they went anywhere near Kame.
All in all, Yamapi was just miserable.
+++
The woman’s voice from the crystal said, “Bayrichta is the weakest, but the easiest route through the mountains is in northeastern Aveena. I’m transmitting coordinates and images.”
The man with the short blonde hair and the admiral’s facial tattoo spoke towards the crystal transmitter-receiver device. “We’re sending your brother ahead to you. When he shows up, tell him where he needs to go, where he can most easily insert himself.”
“You brought Junno? Of all the…”
“Stop right there. You forget yourself. We may not belong to the same military branch but I do technically outrank you. Maybe you’ve been undercover too long there.”
A pause.
“You’re right. I forgot myself. But…” another pause, “You forget yourself as well. You only outrank me militarily. I’m a noble and you are not.”
She was aggravating but she was right. God, he hated her. She was good at what she did, but he really, really hated her. He hit the end transmission button and the machine whirred down and then went silent.
Someone’s breath on the back of his neck.
“Come back to bed…”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter Eleven ~The Council Ruins~
A/N: Haha a chapter with no ancient language.
NOW, because I have not finished writing it and therefore have not posted it, you should know (and I'm sorry about the spoilers for those who actually are reading "Gemma") that the novel ends with Catriona -- McAvrie, Steward of Bayrichta's Mistress -- transmitting via a crystal unlike any of the magic ones floating around the land a message that now (200 years ago, while Orantina was still pregnant with the twins) was the perfect time to get "something" underway.
So... though it doesn't say who is doing the talking, it could be infered that Catriona is the woman on the other side of the message and Junno is her brother which leaves exactly two more KAT-TUN members to be the admiral and the other guy who said to come back to bed. But since you guys haven't read the end of Gemma, I figured I'd just tell you.