[--E N T R Y . F O U R T E E N--]
.downfall.
.downfall.
.aversham.
- The irridescent wings caught the dying light of the day with rather spectacular results, for as the petite firebird descended upon the great city of Durem such wings resulted in showers of multicoloured thatrained down upon the buildings and occupants below. He cared little for the gasps of both adults and children, but rather he found himself otherwise concerned with the rising accusations within his own mind.
He wasn't there.
She had accused him of desertion, she had claimed he had abandonned them all and yet there had to be a more appropriate reason behind his absence. There had to be a reason he wasn't there and yet he just couldn't remember - he doubted that even if he did now, it would be pointless.
At last however, he swooped into one of the streets and into the large park within the centre of the city where he appeared to find some sanctuary as he perched within the trees and allowed himself to observe the bustle of the city as well as remotely familiar territory - the conclave and to the west, the citadel.
He had to admit that remaining at least close to both centres of power allowed him to feel as though he wasn't quite so alone even if he was supposedly impure and obviously incapable of aiding his kin, especially now that he had been given such a title as 'coward'.
"Y-you...move too f-fast..." The tiny voice weezed beneath the tree after a few hours of contemplation on the avian's part, "You're forgetting I can't swim in armour!" Fumed the tiny knight below him, only to quickly lose his anger as he noticed the expression upon the defeated avian's face.
"It's not your fault that you can't remember." Onion assured the bird as he negotiated his way up the tree with much straining and grunting (well he wasn't a monkey), "And she is a fool to think you would leave anyone behind -"
"But the fact of the matter is I did." Aversham muttered brutally, his head turned away from the knight so that his expression couldn't be seen, "I wasn't there, that is all that matters."
.reika.
- Koni was not a happy guardian. Drenched to the skin, he sighed and grumbled before he gave a command to the chocobo they had helped them get to Durem to shake itself.. and him as well.. dry. Reika was dry because her carrying case was water proof.. though he never thought he would have to test it out so damn soon! Why wasn't there an easier way to get to Durem? Reika had wailed that they simply had to go find Aversham as soon as possible, ignoring him when he warned her that he might not want company. But she was ever so determined and in the end, her tears made him feel like the worst kind of brute and agree. "We're here, Reika..."
The Elysian poked her head out of the bag as soon as the rough and rather violent shaking had ended, holding a hand to her head as she tried to get her bearings again. "We need to find Aversham..."
A sour look crossed his face but he had turned his face away from Reika so she didn't see it. He didn't need her to get anymore upset than she already was. Clucking his tongue and giving Arkli a nudge, they headed off in search of the unhappy phoenix and his familiar. "This isn't a small city.. so let's hope we find them quickly..."
.aversham.
- "Did you see that?" A local was evidently whispering to another following the descent of the obviously unusual object. Well, they had known it was a bird but they had failed to divulge such information just yet as though it were unspoken knowledge.
"I know, it's wings were so colourful - I bet those feathers would fetch a nice price in the market." Another woman responded to the first with a coy smile as one of her children squirmed in her grasp and made peculiar motions towards one of his friend in the distance who appeared to be staring up at the sky in case there were any other sights to be seen - alas, none came and he soon admitted defeat.
"It obviously has to do with the conclave, even headed to the garden just outside it." The first continued, readjusting her grip on her basket as she glanced down the street towards the city gardens within the distance, the tall trees standing out against the lanterns which were slowly being lit in the approaching dusk.
"Well that's a given, they always got wierd things comin' in and out of there..."
.reika.
- As the sounds of gossip reached their ears, Koni instantly shoved his hood over his face to hide his features. Nevermind the thing was damp and soggy feeling.. anything was better than getting stared at by a bunch of gossiping hens. Even if right now they were giving them the info they needed, he still felt they had no proper purpose and they irritated him. Reika had perked and was bouncing excitedly in her perch. She didn't even have to speak. Koni understood what she was saying without her even saying a word. Let's go to the gardens!
They made their way carefully through the town, Arkli kweehh-ing every now and again as a random child stared up at him and cooed. They were curious about the hooded figure on the chocobo. But Koni's current mission was much more important. The second they reached the garden, he looked around. Did Elysians sense their own? It made him wonder...
"Aversham?!" Her worry had been steadily growing inside her chest at the thought of what Aversham could do when so upset. He was her first friend after all and so she would worry about him. Ignoring the fact that Koni was telling her not to shout like that, she continued anyway. "Aversham?!"
.aversham.
- Urgh, just his luck. He smiled bitterly at the irony of it all, his beak twisting into a distorted smile as he extended a talon and expertly aided Onion up onto the branch beside him as he contemplated the most appropriate way to deal with the given situation but it seemed that all solutions pointed towards just one thing, he was too tired to care anymore.
"Yes?" He enquired wearily, his musical voice rippling across the otherwise still air of the gardens. It was at least of a last quality that she would hear the final echoes of his response even with her shouting, "What is it that you need, Lady Reika?" He added, wholely under the assumption that she was after something if she was chasing after him in the given circumstances - it was times like this when Onion wanted to prod him with his butter knife, hard.
Nevertheless, following this response the bird fell silent and instead, seemed to be quite content with lazing about on his perch as Onion made all the effort to let their location be known (even contemplating setting the trees on fire in the process) but alas little could shift the overgrown chicken out of his melancholy at this precise moment in time - that wind bourne had truly hurt him.
"Try to be civil...?" Onion asked gently as Aversham shot him a glance, one that pointily meant that he was hardly going to harm someone that he was fond of, it was completely illogical to do so.
.reika.
- The way he spoke made her hesitate a bit, biting her bottom lip. He sounded so angry.. like she shouldn't even be there and it rather hurt her feelings. But.. she was a stubborn one and she wouldn't just leave him when he's down like this! Even if he didn't want her there! "A.. Are ye all right? I was worried about ye... s-so I asked my guardian to bring me here... to find ye..."
If he wanted to think she wanted something from him, then he would have to. But that wasn't her intention. He was her friend, whether he thought her as one or not she didn't know, so therefore, she would be there for him. Yup, that's what friends did.
.aversham.
- "I am fine." Aversham lied plainly, he was hardly going to delve into the situation and proclaim to those around him that he had infact not been there in their time of need - that he had let them die regardless of whether or not he remembered why he wasn't there in the first place, the longer he thought about such a thing, the more it plagued him - everything thing about him seemed to spell disaster, first Regalia and now this.
"However, your affections are appreciated Reika, even if they are misplaced." He added softly, ruffling his feathers so that the tree leaves would shiver and indicate exactly where he was. He supposed there was no point in hiding when she had come all this way, it would be even more cowardly and dishonourable than he apparently already was. He wasn't going to let it happen again.
"And I apologise that I ignored you within the Tavern as well."
.reika.
- "Tis not a good thing to lie. Yer voice seems to say rather differently..." Asking Koni to set her on the head of Arkli, after a stiff warning not to move his head, she looked over towards where she could see him, her face showing her worry openly. "Tis not misplaced.. I dinnae get the entire thing that came between you and the other one, but i heard a good deal of it... though I dinnae understand it much....
"Tis the past, Aversham... if ye cannot remember it, you cannot be held accountable... no one is perfect, ye know.." She smoothed some ruffled locks of hair from her face. "I can feel yer pain, Aversham... I dinnae know what I would do in such a situation.. but... ye shouldn't hide yerself away... Please, dinnae hide... Whatever ye think is wrong, ye can change it now! The future only stretches out before us... ye can change that and become more...or.. something..." She really wasn't good with these kinds of talks, even though she was only saying what she was based on the little she had picked up.
"Nay, tis all right... ye were upset and not in the best of moods.. I can understand that... but since I care about ye, I was worred and came to find ye..."
.aversham.
- "I would sooner the wind bourne died for good." Aversham replied bluntly, distaste obvious in his voice as though he had lost every ounce of respect that he might have held for her. He by no means was prepared to sacrifice his own life in order to save hers following her apparent accusations of desertion and cowardice, he would sooner she fell and met he death as was so predicted by her reckless actions.
Nevertheless, he did ruffle his feathers following the confession in which he made and very calmly dropped to a lower branch (causing Onion to yelp as he clung for deare life to the one above). He made his way until he was suitably lower and then placed his emerald gaze upon the young Elysian again - she was so terribly idealistic and one day she was going to be even more brutally hurt than one could prepare her for.
"But you are right, none can change the past - however following the complete and utter annihilation of my reputation it seems pointless to even strive to change, I would have gladly fallen at the hands of death if it was so required and our Queen seems to think she knows better." He hissed, his eyes flashing as a he tore about the other Elysian's reputation like she had destroyed his - if she wanted to lead them all to their deaths then they would find no help in him.
It was true that he did want to save his homeground but how was he supposed to perform such a miracle when he couldn't even remember what had happened - that wind bourne was a plank, with very little intelligence...how ironic that he could now call her an 'air head' and get away with it as a derrogatory term.
.reika.
- The wind-bourne? Oh.. that was the other one he had been arguing with. Looking down, she couldn't help but feel such an intense pain in the region of her heart. It was probably because Aversham was her first friend, no matter how short their meetings had been, that caused her to want to take away his nhappiness and bring back the one who had said that he had liked her dancing. Since she hadn't heard the entire argument, she had no idea what spurred it, the cause of thei unhappiness, or why they seemed to hate each oter so much now. But wishing someone to die was never a good way to answer anything... least that's what she thought...
As the rustling of leaves caught her attention, she looked up again as Ave made his way down towards her. His eyes made her shiver. They seemed harder now.. and it left her feeling a little cold,e ven though she hoped his anger wasn't directed towards her. It wasn't so much she was idealistic, she was saying the first thing that came to mind. And she had heard Akiya tell Koni something similiar whent hey were having a heated discussion about the Iledi and the Home Tree... whatever those were.
"Who says ye need to change fer someone else? Wouldn't ye wanna change for yerself? Or stay the way ye already are? I am sure ye would have done everything to help others.. ye seem like that knd of being to me..." Flinching at his hiss, though she knew it wasn't directed to her in any sort of way, she reached up and shyly tugged on a thick strand of hair. "I cannot speak for her... I dinnae know her nor do I know her way of thinking... I only know ye, Ave..." This was the first time she tried the shortened version of his name. hesitantly, she reached out for him. "Ye dinnae need to suffer alone..."
.aversham.
- "Yes, I do." He glanced briefly round to Onion who seemed as though he were contemplating suicide via leaping from the tree of his own accord and then shook his head, a deep sorrow filled his eyes as he looked towards the delicate Elysian before him and seemed to falter - if he hadn't been there in the Nexus when everyone needed him most then that meant that she had perished as well, how could he face someone that he had already failed?
"You are not the one who must die in another's place." He whispered softly, his voice softening as he gave a delicate ruffle of his feathers and looked away. It wasn't that he was afraid of death but few would ever be able to comprehend what it felt like to die time and time again in the name of another - he very rarely received thanks either.
"Did you know that I let you die?" He asked at last.
.reika.
- "Ave..." She couldn't help reaching out to him, since he was close enough to her to do so, she took hold of his head and rested their foreheads against each other. He was suffering over this so much and it bothered her so much... "I cannot say what a feeling that must be.. but I am certain it's a heavy burden to have to carry all on yer own... no one else can do what ye do... sucha responsibility... tis frightening to me..." She wanted to comfort him, even if it was in a small way.. but this was better than nothing in her book.
His final, almost hushed sentence, made her lift her head to look at him. He let her die? What did that mean? "I have died before?" her head tilted curiously, her eyes showing that she was thinking about it rather deeply. "Perhaps it was my time to die... everyone has that, I think... but if I died, it cannot be yer fault that it happened. Ye cannot always be there for everything..." she wanted to know more about what he meant by that.. it didn't make any sense. "Tis not something I would just place blame at yer feet for... though I don't know anything about it.. I'm sure there were reasons as to why I had to die... Why do ye say ye let me die?" The more she tried to think about ti with her limited knowledge, the more confused she got.
.aversham.
- The firebird didn't resist as the petite and human-like Elysian extended her hands to initiate a delicate touch. Rather, he simply closed his eyes and savoured it while it lasted - in truth he had never (or at least didn't remember) experiencing such affection and he had to admit that his summoner was otherwise incapable and although Onion was a friend, it simply was not his sort of thing...
"Lady Reika, I have no feet." He jested ever so slightly although his voice was still laden with guilt. Opening his eyes again he lifted up a talon and wiggled it lightly as if to emphasize the point, nevertheless, he'd never heard that phrase before and would have to make sure to document such a thing in the back of his mind for later use.
"And I don't know why I let you die, ask the Queen." He muttered darkly, although he refrained from shaking his head in this instance for fear of causing the petite light elysian to lose her footing, "She appears to know everything, to the extent that she would have us all die to save something that is already lost..."
.reika.
- Her tiny fingers stroked along those beautiful feathers she so admired, so glad he hadn't pulled away from her or snapped at her for doing something so forward. Poor Aversham... pressing a kiss to his forehead, she couldn't help giggling at his remark about his feet and she looked down at his talon. "Heheh so true! But they're cute talons nevertheless!" It made her happy he did try to jest with her, even though it seemed he would rather do otherwise.
Shifting back alittle bit so she could look at him but not let him go fully yet, she stroked him a bit more. "Maybe later... right now, ye are more important to me... I won't leave ye alone, whether ye want me gone or nay... so yer stuck with me." She grinned cutely before she fixed his tail feathers because they seemed as agitated as the rest of him. "So please don't mind me interferances... I'm slowly learning everything I can..."
.aversham.
- Now that even made Onion stop! Both familiar and Elysian blinked in surprise at the small and yet very forward action she had made towards the firebird - and her summoner was worried about him pushing his luck? He had to confess that he was mildly confused by this and cleared his throat gently as he attempt to regather even his most depressing of thoughts.
"Well..." He cleared his throat again and seemed to be rather lost for words, admittedly he had no qualms with her company but usually he wasn't caught off guard in that manner, it was only after a while that he released a small chirp of approval and released a sigh, his eyes twinkling with some form of amusement.
"I have never minded your intrusions and you are not the only one learning new things - or old." He pulled one of his wings round just a little so that it was within her reach before flicking his gaze towards Koniryu, his expression surprisingly serious despite the delicate and optimistic nature of the Elysian who had eleviated some of his melodramatic mood.
"I think you should return to the tavern." He advised at last although he would never delve into why he had said such a thing...not yet at least.
.reika.
- Reika tended to do whatever she felt was good to do at the moment. She truly didn't know what was too forward til she was told otherwise, so she didn't understand the clearing of his throat and settled back a bit in bafflement. Looking over at Koni, who had a frown on his face, she placed her thumb against her lip. Had she.. done something wrong?
Seemed Aversham was amused by whatever she had done so maybe it wasn't bad? She didn't notice the look that was shared between her summoner and Ave, all she did was focus on the wing before her, making sure everything looked right. Preening him was rather fun, she had decided so she liked to do this for him. "I am thankful for that. If I overstep, please let me know... so I know not to be so.. forward next time." The look Koni was giving Ave was not a pleasant one, nevermind that it had been Reika who had done something as forward as that. He would be speaking to her later about it anyway.
At his words to return to the tavern, she blinked a bit before she nodded. There sounded like there was a deeper meaning behind those words and that tense air that had been there was no longer around. Aversham would be all right if she did leave, which relaxed her nerves. "Aye... if ye thin tis best, then I shall return... will ye be all right?"
.aversham.
- "I will be fine." The firebird assured her in a soft manner before folding his wing once more and giving a nod, "I simply have a few things to attend to and then I will take the opportunity to visit the tavern." He gave a delicate avian smile and motioned towards the exist of the great city of Durem once more before releasing a sigh.
"I promise that if you are there, I will shower you with my attentions." He added mildly, although once again he was rather aware of Koni's gaze and pictured himself as a roast chicken again...
.to be continued.
