21 years ago
The Duel
Gears sighed. A slight wind ruffled his hair, as did Lilly’s hand. Tallies, he thought, always messin’ up my hair…still, nothin’ better than one o’ their women t’use as furniture, he smirked to himself. He lay stretched out lazily, his head in her lap, the soft fabric of her pants brushing against the back of his neck. It had stopped raining, for once. The sky was blue, with a few puffy white clouds drifting slowly across it, propelled by the same breeze that blew his hair gently. Mirk was massaging Lilly’s shoulders, and yammering on in the background, as usual. Shutting him up would require copious amounts of either force or magic, Gears knew that much for sure. Bow and some other bard named Daria sat nearby. Toning them all out, Gears concentrated on relaxing. He wasn’t sure how, but sometimes put genuine effort into doing nothing strenuous seemed to work. Closing his eyes, he yawned slowly and languidly…before being dumped unceremoniously on the ground.
Frowning, he opened his eyes to a chorus of Lilly, Mirk, and Bow calling his name and saw…her. A familiar small figure stood over him: blue hair, violet eyes, dark armor and all. Cassidy Rayun. His love, his lover, his dark blue beauty. His eyes widened as he sprang to his feet. She was back! But back from where…? Somewhere where she couldn’t have told him where she was going, or have sent word from, in the entire year she’d been gone? He realized he was both staring and babbling gibberish to her and quickly shut his mouth. She’s not going to get out of this one with just a smile and some skin he thought, assuming a stern stance and expression, arms folded.
They drew their blades.
“So…where’ve you been?”
“Somewhere… I needed a holiday.”
“Oh… I see…and you didn’t see fit to tell me because…?” He glared at her, brows drawn down.
And then Mirk chimed in…
“So, you going to give up moping now, Gears?” The insufferable git grinned. “He missed you something fierce Cass. Couldn’t get him to shut up, really…”
Not now you idiot, Gears growled to himself.
“Sod off Mirk! I’m tryin’ to have a talk here,” Gears snarled.
“Yes, let’s leave these two alone. I’m sure they’ve got much to talk about,” Bow smiled amusedly, nearly dragging Mirk away.
Turning back to her, Gears got to see her look at him slightly quizzically, head tilted to the side.
“I didn’t tell you? Huh,” She brought her slender shoulders up in a shrug… “Sorry,” and brought them down.
Her blade nicked him lightly, earning her first blood.
…
“Sorry”? She left him for over a year, no notice, no warning, no word…and she was… “sorry”? He’d worried about her, antagonized himself over what to do, hoped and prayed for her safe return…and she was sorry. He felt a heat building somewhere deep inside of himself, but he didn’t care. He opened his mouth, ready to let fly with something… something to show how it hurt, how he was angry. But she’d already turned away.
“You hear that?” She said, looking over at the gate. “Might be slaads about.” And with that she dashed out the gates, leaving Gears with a half-open mouth to close it angrily and follow after. Brushing him off again, so easily…
Another cut, slightly deeper this time.
“Nah, no slaads,” Foilir grinned, standing just outside the now open gates. “Jes’ some elves out fer a jog.” Then he noticed Cass. “Oh lass, ye came back! Well, Gears ‘ere missed you plenty. E’ wouldn’t stay quiet ‘bout it oftentimes…”
Gritting his teeth, Gears bore Foilir’s comments. Why couldn’t they all just shut up?
Turning, Foilir went back inside the gate, with Cass trailing after. She looked back, motioning Gears to follow. Letting out a low, angry breath he complied. Only then did she seem to realize something was wrong. At least now she was actually paying attention.
“What’s wrong?” She asked curiously, switching to the Halfling tongue.
What was wrong? She wanted to know what was wrong. Oh, she’d bloody well find out what was wrong…
“What’s wrong? You LEFT me! Bloody well left for over a year, without so much as a goodbye or a letter!” He glared at her. Beginning to understand, she narrowed her eyes in return.
He lunged.
“Well it’s not my fault if you’re harder to find that a dwarf in a high forest!” She snapped.
She parried, sparks flying as their swords clashed.
“Hard t’find? I’m in bloody Norwick all the time!” He raised his voice, gesturing widely around him. “I’m nearly always here!”
“Well maybe you should get out more then, instead of sitting around, getting lazy, and not doing anything!” She snarled back, folding her arms as he did the same.
Turning his blade away, she slashed his ribs, a slow stream of crimson her reward. Not doing anything…Ikurus…
“Maybe I was waiting f’YOU t’come BACK! Do you know how worried I was!?” He yelled, then sneered, “But I guess was just something pretty t’look at, aye? You pop in, we have a good tumble, I say a few sweet words, an’ off you go!”
Pushing on through the pain, he drove his blade deep into her chest…
Fire burned in her eyes. Taking two quick steps forward she snaked out her hand. He saw it coming…but let it. Her palm hit him full on his right cheek, turning his head with it.
“Don’t you ever…EVER…accuse me of not caring,” She trembled in her fury.
Gears brought a hand to his red cheek. Slowly he turned his head to look at her, anger and pain swirling in his own green eyes.
“Then give me a reason not to…”
…and twisted it.
He had said it quietly, but it carried better than anything he’d said before. She stared at him for a moment longer. Her perfect, pink little bottom lip quivered slightly. Slowly she turned around and silently…walked away. Light green eyes, like a leaf not yet turned to autumn watched her back as she grew more and more distant, until…
“nnNYAGH!” He screamed. “Bloody HELL!”
He clenched his fists so tight his fingernails drew blood in his palms and his knuckles turned white, he kicked at the ground, he ground his teeth together. His first victory over her…and he’d never felt so hollow.
Misery
Angry, uncertain of what to think, what to do, he reacted instinctively. So, soon he found himself sitting behind the tree by the fire, bottles strewn about. Opening the first one, he upended it into his mouth drinking greedily, letting the liquor gush down his throat as it slopped down his chin. It burned, but it dulled a much sharper pain. Finished with it, he contemptuously tossed it aside and began a second one. From behind the tree, he could hear Mirk and Lilly at the…laughing together. He drank quicker. Another bottle…he needed another. Grabbing one, he poured it down, letting it wash over him…over the pain, over hurt, the sorrow, the anger. All became fainter, before flaring up once more.
His hand closed around the neck of a new bottle. Mirk and Lilly giggled again, idiotically, like two people in love. More liquid slopped down the front of his clothes, almost more than he managed to get in his mouth. What did it matter? Lilly’s sigh…he could see her, without turning around. Nestled against Mirk, grinning his stupid grin. What could possibly go wrong for them? Desperately he looked around, trying to find a bottle he hadn’t emptied. He rummaged through his pack, but it was no good…he had nothing left, and it still hurt. Baring his teeth, he grabbed a bottle and hurled it against the wall. It smashed into a thousand pieces against the stone, giving a satisfactory noise of destruction as it did. Gears lurched to his feet and stumbled off.
The Boarshead…there would be more there. Barle had more.
As he moved, he felt the bile rising in his throat, vile and sour. He nearly tripped as he shuffled over to the side of the inn, leaning his weight against it with one hand as he emptied his stomach. He’d been a fool to ever think it would work out…nothing ever did for him. It all went wrong. The better it was for a while, the worse it would be after. Laughing bitterly he wiped his mouth with the back of a hand, attempting to move to the inn’s door but falling flat on his face along the way. It didn’t matter…he was tired anyway. Dragging himself over next to the barrel, he slumped against the wall and slipped into the welcoming darkness.
And he dreamed of midnight blue hair, stolen kisses, tears welling in violet eyes, and a perfect, beautiful, sorrowful quivering lower lip.
