|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:24 pm
"Of course Guinevere, we'd met before." The woman smiled and helped Nikolai and the girl inside. "You two must be cold in this weather... here, I'll go make you something warm to drink." Turning, she picked up something she'd only managed to half wrap and spirited it away with her into the kitchen and well out of sight. Though she would clearly be seen across the little kitchen island seperating the pair from her.
Taking off his coat and shoes while he was inside, Nikolai smiled for Guin and held out his hands for her book. He'd take it to his mother if Guin didn't wish to.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 3:50 pm
Guinevere blinked. She remembered her, so why didn't Nikolai? She looked at him to see if he had heard his mother, but he was just smiling and reaching for her book. She looked at him frustratedly, wishing he would ask her for it out loud, but handed it to him obligingly, wondering what he was going to do with it. "You could say something, you know." she informed him, smiling bemusedly at how he was so little changed. At least he had stopped hiding from her and turning red around her though. He seemed more comfortable now, cheerful and serene.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:13 pm
With an embaressed smile, Nikolai took the book and brought it over to his mother. He set it on the island, and opened it to show the words were a bit runny.
"Oh no..." Jade looked at the paper before turning to look over at Guin. "Is this your book? I'm not sure there's much we can do to save it." Passing Nikolai his hot cocoa, the woman set one for Guin beside the destroyed book. "I could order you a new one if you like?"
Taking his hot chocolate, Nikolai took a seat on the stool at the kitchen island and waved Guinevere over to sit beside him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:31 pm
Guinevere climbed up next to Nikolai, sipping her hot cocoa pensively. "No, that's okay." she said. "I don't really think Zickwomancy is all that useful. It probably saved me a few days of reading when it fell." She sipped her cocoa again, thoughtfully. "Not a lot of my magic does anything anyway." she admitted. "Except sometimes it explodes or leaves stains on the floor." She laughed. "I guess I'm not much better at magic than the last time we met. I think it's because I need to find my familiar because I'm not really familiar with anybody, except Pucci, and he's a cat, and Kemuri, and Kotatsu says he's a kidnapper, but I don't really think so." She industriously traced circles on the island with her finger. "And I used to be a little familiar with Nikolai but I don't think I am anymore." She frowned into her beverage. "But I hope to be again. Are you two leaving again soon, or are you staying?" she asked. She hoped they were staying. She liked the friendly guardian and the quiet Herald.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:46 pm
"That's because after Nikolai grew up all of a sudden he had trouble remembering very much of anything." Jade murmured, sitting across from the pair and chuckled at Guin's precosious behavior. "We've moved here from the country.... it's a new beginning for both him and me. There's just no way we can stay out in seclusion in the country any longer." Sighing softly, she looked to the snowy footprints the pair had dragged in. "There's no answers back there for us...."
Looking sadly to his mother, Nikolai turned back to Guin with a warm smile. His little wings flexed in and out as he rocked in his seat cheerfully. It was nice to have friends, even if he couldn't quite remember who she was. The familiarity that Guin felt was just as clear to him, but unlike the girl, he wasn't able to figure out just what had happened before he had changed. Yes, it was more of a change than simply aging; but he wouldn't come to know of that until he was older. For now, he was more than content to sip his chocolate and look at his new playmate with a fond expression on his face.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 4:59 pm
Guinevere frowned. "I'm sorry to hear it." she replied. "I hear the countryside is very good for magic." Everyone knew that magic hapened in forests and such. Guinevere had never seen a forest, but she had seen pictures. She realized something. "You didn't get chased out by an angry witch, did you? I could try to hex her for you." she offered generously. Somehow she had a feeling that no one had been chased out by witches, but she didn't know what else to say. She felt wretchedly guilty for being relieved they weren't moving back though.
She looked at Nikolai curiously. When she had grown, she still remembered Aaron vividly, like an old wound that scarred over. The fact he remembered so little was curious to her, suggesting Nikolai hadn't just grown on the outside.
Maybe he had grown out of Guinevere.
She shook her head again, as if the thought would fly out of it if she did, and reached over to her cocoa. If he didn't remember her she could just get to know him again. It didn't mean he wouldn't want to be her friend anymore, right? "He's changed a lot." she noted to Jade, "But he's still quiet as ever! Is he just shy because a stranger's here?" She knew that she acted different around company. She acted positively bossy to Kotatsu when they were alone, mostly because Kotatsu wasn't her old guardian, maybe the only person she'd ever think of as a parent. But she know a lot of children acted different like that. Maybe Nikolai was the same way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:38 pm
Chuckling at the girl's imagination, Jade shook her head. "No Guinevere, we weren't chased out by a witch." She said softly, smiling for the child. "I wanted to find out more about Heralds like you and Nikolai, and there was no means for me to." Listening calmly to what Guin said of her son, the woman laughed. "Nope! He's as silent as the grave all the time."
Embaressed, Nikolai's cheeks turned red and he lowered his head; disguising it as though to blow on his cocoa. He didn't seem to mind not being in the conversation when there was so much more he could know by being silent.
Smiling fondly at her son, Jade reached out to brush back his hair with a gentle stroking hand. "He draws pictures sometimes..." She murmured, looking at her son as she spoke to Guinevere. "Maybe if she asks politely, you'll show her Nikolai?"
Cheeks still cherry red both from the cold and being the center of attention, the boy nodded slowly. It was very personal, but perhaps he could show a few he'd done. Most of them had been about the dreams he'd had, and things that had happened to him. Jade had even made him a folder to keep them all in. Though if Guinevere was a Herald, maybe she would know just what they meant?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 6:57 pm
Guinevere nodded. "Kotatsu says she can never understand me either." she stated simply. "But I think that's for different reasons. If you ever do need something hexed though, feel free to ask."
Guinevere smiled. "I thought as much." she said. "He said something to me today though! He has a nice voice, I think." She had only heard a word of it and it had been somewhat crackly and out of use, but it was a pleasant sound to hear, even considering the circumstances in which she had heard it. She looked over at Nikolai. "I would love to see your pictures if you want to show me." she informed him. "But please, you don't have to if you don't want to." Guinevere's artistic talent had been limited to drawing amateurish pictures of what she thought magic was supposed to look like. It involved a lot of sparkly crayons. She did not consider herself artistic, but admired it in others. Instead, she expressed herself through words, as everyone knew witches were very wordy people, and kept quite a large, detailed diary, full of scribblings of spells and thoughts to herself. She would hate for anyone to see it, and she imagined artists must be very much the same. They seemed to get very involved in their work. She had read about one who chopped off his ear for some artsy reason and vaguely hoped Nikolai would not be chopping off any limbs anytime soon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 9:26 pm
"He does have a lovely voice." She whispered before looking to her son with a hopeful gaze. "Why don't you show her your room, Nikolai?" Jade offered gently with an encouraging smile for her son.
To call Nikolai's cherry red face 'embaressed' would be putting it mildly. Brow furrowing, the boy hopped down from his bar stool and left his cocoa neglected on the kitchen island. He walked a few paces before looking back at Guin and gesturing she follow him down the little hallway into his room.
The entire room was filled with different things, none of which typical boy toys. There was a large bird cage in a corner devoid of any life, though the bronze bars were intricate and seemed more for decoration than anything else. On the ceiling his mother had sticky-tacked stars that would glow in the dark in hopes of making Nikolai feel more at ease-- though all they did was frighten him some nights. Especially when his dreams were bad. Stuffed animals sat lined up military style along the foot of his bed looking at where the boy would be sleeping. These too sometimes made Nikolai uncomfortable, but everything was because Jade cared about him.
Moving to crawl under his bed, the boy pulled out a large photo album type of binder and sat with his back against the side of his bed. Gesturing for Guin to join him, Nikolai stared at the pale blue quilt cover of the binder. He didn't show many people this, mostly just his mother, but it would be enough to know one of his own had gotten the chance to see it. Biting his lip, the boy clutched it tightly; not ready to let Guin see just yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 6:22 pm
Guinevere looked into Nikolai's room cautiously, feeling like she was intruding. A room could say a lot about a person, and Nikolai's room was decorated like someone would expect of a little boy Herald who was well loved and looked after. Guinevere noted that nothing about Nikolai seemed to say a lot about him, nothing except his face, which she felt sometimes said more than he wanted. She followed the boy over to his bed and sat next to him, hugging her knees. She didn't say anything, just looked at him. It was still hard to fit the image of little Nikolai with big Nikolai and her brow furrowed as she tried to trace the old features of her friend onto the new friend in front of her. Of course, she had changed just as much when she had grown, but that was HER. All she had thought about at the time was how witchy proper black hair looked.
She thought perhaps Nikolai's hair looked a little more magical, but comforted herself with the fact that she had almost gotten the turning-a-teacup-into-a-toad spell right last week. She was quite sure the cup looked at least a shade greener.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 6:57 pm
Though Nikolai didn't really want to show Guin everything just yet, he slowly found courage enough to open the binder. Nervously he bit his lip and opened it fully for her to see. The pictures on the front page were made black by almost viscious strokes from a crayon, and the cracks of white from the paper beneath almost seemed intentional. The pictures seemed to go in a progression, like a very slow flip-book, as it told a story Nikolai only remembered from dreams.
Hesitantly, Nikolai passed the book to Guin if she would accept it. He looked hopefully to her face as if she had some sort of answers for him though still never said a word.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:13 pm
Guinevere took the book gingerly and looked at it for a while. Eventually, she put it down carefully between them.
Then she collapsed.
Guinevere was new at having visions. She had read about how they were done, but on account of the fact that she had so far displayed all the magical ability of a pillowcase, she had never actually had one. Perhaps because Nikolai was a Herald, or maybe because somewhere inside her she did have magical power, or even maybe because Nikolai seemed to want someone to understand him badly, she appeared to be having one now. If she had been more herself at the moment, she would have been quite proud. As it was, she barely had the wits about her to reach out to touch Nikolai's hand.
If she was having a vision, she was bringing him along. She didn't want to traverse the mental plain on her own.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 7:56 pm
Nikolai gasped loudly when he was dragged into his own subconsciousness, and collapsed there against the side of his bed leaning against Guin weakly.
Darkness consumed them, all around them, along with an emptiness and frightful feeling. They were in the sky on a dark night, losing altitude quickly, while feathers fell from white wings. It almost seemed like they were staring through someone else's eyes, living a memory through someone else's body as haggard breath drew painfully in and out of the dying Herald's body.
This was a Falling.
The stars overhead looked bitterly cold overhead, and the Herald that would become Nikolai looked up at them sadly as his strength gave out. The earth came rushing up at him, but it almost felt like falling in slow motion. Before the memory could resolve, the darkness enveloped them once more.
Before consciousness would return to them, the darkness began to lift slowly, and two voices were heard as it lifted. One of an adult man's, the other's almost childlike. Ringing with tones exactly like Nikolai's had earlier that day in a far clearer tone.
"What do you mean today's the day I'll die? I've never heard anything more preposterous in my entire life!" The man called out haughtly, growing angry it seemed.
"This is a warning to you. Heed it, if you like... but if not you know what will happen." The tone of voice was saddened at the man's disbelief, and that feeling carried through to the pair reliving it.
"Shut up! Clearly you have no idea what harm your words do. You tell me so bluntly and expect me to believe you? Go and leave me in peace you horrible spectre! I don't believe in these angels and demons anyway..."
"My... my words?" With that hushed tone, the pair would feel themselves returning to their bodies and the vision would be broken.
When his eyes fluttered open Nikolai felt tears dampening his eyelashes, and a heavy feeling in his heart. He took one look at Guin before turning a ghastly shade of white and scrambled away from her and onto his feet. He didn't understand what had happened, and wasn't going to stick around long enough to find out.
Darting from the room, Nikolai ran to his mother in the kitchen and hugged her tightly as he shook with sobs. Whatever he'd seen brought about so many emotions he didn't know what to think any longer. Though Guinevere would come to know soon enough that he thought of her exactly as she wished to be-- a witch.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 8:21 pm
Guinevere came to her senses just in time to see the look on Nikolai's face.
It was the sort of look that could make you believe in ghosts, and she understood it, she understood the silence, and she understood Nikolai more than she ever had before. She had gotten exactly what she wanted and she wished she hadn't. She had a terrible, horrible understanding and she wished she didn't. She wished she had never touched his hand, that she hadn't been so... So DAMN afraid of something that any proper witch could have handled.
Most of all, she wished he'd smile at her again, that she would never see him look at her with that look again, that total fear and disgust. "Nikolai!" she called after him, choking down the lump in her throat. "Nikolai, wait!"
She wanted to talk to him, to apologize and apologize until her voice was as hoarse as his for entirely different reasons. And since she couldn't change what she had done, to tell him...
To tell him he wasn't horrible and his words weren't horrible and how Guinevere hoped he'd come to realize that.
She didn't realize that she didn't have to worry about Nikolai worrying his words were horrible. She had to worry about Nikolai thinking she was.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
