Oh god! The Banana Conspiracy continues! And Tassy wasn't even the starter
of it! Sorry it's taken so long to get around to more of this story, but
I've been into other things, and just couldn't work on it any more. And
Findel, super, super close, but not quite.
Zelgadis helped Hope straiten out her bedroll as the last few rays glistened in the magenta sky, high over head. She still looked at him expectantly every few seconds, waiting for her mystery's answer. But her gaze was making him a little queasy, he even felt himself shifting uncomfortably under the endless stare of two large orbs of fire.
"Zelgadis?" she finally asked, after about ten minutes of silence.
"Yes Hope?" he acknowledged, but did not turn from their cooking rice dinner to look her in the eye. He didn't think he would be able to take it, looking into them even one more time.
"Tell me about my mother.? Tell me a story about her?" Hope asked. She had refrained usually from speaking of Lina. Not from the grief of not having her, oddly enough she had none of that pain, but merely because it seemed that Lina was a chapter in the world's events that was already read. So one need not go back and read it through again, yet instead look only to the next page for more.
But at the question, so unexpected, Zelgadis, unprepared for the flood of emotion that came with the subject, even if it came every time he so much as thought of her, had to stare for long moments at little Hope, before he even comprehended what she had said. "Well, um. sure, I-I guess. what would you like to know.?" he finally found his voice enough to ask.
"Anything. Just what you remember the most, the best." She replied innocently
[The best. what I remember best was waking up next to her that day, but I'm not going to tell that to an eight-and-a-half-year-old!] "Hmmm. that's a tough one. I'm going to have to think about it for a bit." he said, naturally pulling her onto his lap, and resting his arms around her tiny waist, getting into story mode.
He, for most likely the first time ever in his life, did not notice the slight prickle at his skin as the moonlight hit it. He thought only of Lina, and how best to portray her to the daughter who never really knew her. "Well. you see. your mother was at times, the most wonderful person alive, and at times, she was the worst."
At the completely black look of an uncomprehending child, he racked his brain to try and figure out what was a better way to tell what he wanted to get across. "When I first met your mother, back when she was only sixteen (I got the age right, right?), I had been living with my curse for a few years. It was the most terrible thing in the world for me, being cursed, you see, because I had always been so easily accepted wherever I went. I never realized what sort of a gift that was, until I lost it.
"You see, when I had said I would do anything for power, I was making a very bad mistake. I was being greedy, and self-centered, and I wasn't thinking things through like I should have. But my grandfather, Rezo the Red Priest, gave me, in his own twisted way, most likely the biggest lesson of my life. I had been naïve at one point, and just trusted that I would never have to work for acceptance, that in a way was my vanity. I wanted all of my Grandfather's power, but I hadn't wanted to work for it, and he made me look the monster that I really was."
"But you're not a monster, Zelgadis! You're a good man!" Hope contradicted, looking up at him with a mix of concern, and insecure curiosity to what she was being told.
"But I wasn't always like this, and that's why you have to never fall prey to the idea that you can just take the easy way out of things." He told the young child patiently. She nodded obediently, and he continued his tale. "Well, when my curse was placed upon me, I learned that people can be very mean and very cold to those who are different from them, even the people who had known me since I was a baby ran in fear of my new form. I was alone, and no one would accept me, because I was a freakish monster. or at least that was the truth that I let myself be told by Rezo.
"He convinced me that only he, and his most loyal servants would ever see me as anything but a hideous monster, and said that if I helped him cure his blindness, then he would lift my spell. So I helped him, which eventually lead to my meeting your mother. She treated me like no one had in so long, that I had forgotten what it was like to be taken at more then face value. She saw my stony exterior, but was knowledgeable enough that she knew that it had to have been a spell that had done it to me.
"With that knowledge in her mind, she treated me like she treated everyone else, and I think that that act was what saved me. But I had been too corrupted by Rezo while I had been living with him, and I had started down the same path as he, though I wished for the cure to my curse, he had always wanted only to see. But he had used me, and I was scared of corrupting and using your mother and her friends--"
"Weren't they your friends too?" Hope interrupted, staring into sapphire jewels.
"Yes, they were, but at that point I had not the guts to dare think of them like that. I had been hurt too often, you see, I didn't want to be hurt again." He told her.
"Oh." was her only reply.
After waiting a split second to see if she had anything else to say, Zelgadis continued. "I was scared of causing them to become like me, though, and so I tried my best to keep as far away from everyone as I could. I also didn't want to give them any reasons to break off the little friendship that we had. I often would run away, go off on my own so I didn't have to worry about any of them hating me, but I now see that that was the cowards way out. Lina often told me that, but I guess it's just one of those lessons that you have to learn for yourself.
"We traveled together on and off for quite a few years, and the one regret that I had about that, in the long run of it all, was that I both got too close, and didn't get close enough. I should have gone more one way or another. But your mother always seemed to straiten me out at most of the challenging points in my life around her. Though she had a nasty temper, and at times did do quite a bit of unnecessary damage to people."
"What do you mean Zelgadis?" Hope asked.
"Well, there was this one time where she was fighting with a summoned golem, and destroyed the intire city-state. Not to mention all the times that she had beat up on our friends for commenting in ways she didn't like, or because she was told to share her food with others. She often caused all sorts of trouble, and would go looking for fights, but when it came down to the end, she saved this world time and time again. Now I wont lead you to believe that she never asked anything in return for her antics, but I don't think that it was ever on her mind when she was in the process of helping people.
"All in all she was a very wonderful person, Lina, but she let herself be corrupted by material worths, such as money or properties, and power often was a main push behind her looking to carry on when her quests started to seem hopeless." Zelgadis told the young girl.
"So you had the same weakness." pointed out the child on his lap.
"Yes. quite often we did. And though it was something that often at the time made things better, being greedy for power is never a good thing. What the power-hungry don't understand, is that it's not the power itself that they desire, for that will never fill you up, but the real thing your after is to grow and expand. To reach one's ultimate boundaries and push beyond them is an experience that I can't even begin to explain. When your in that situation, you don't feel too awfully good, but something about giving your all on a job, and having everything turn out right, that's what makes it all worth it."
"So your saying. power and aren't what's important in life?"
"That's right. What's important is to expand. To grow and get better, that's the only way that you'll feel complete. And it takes a lot of work, but it pays off in the end, and you wont be a monster either if you use it for what's good." He told her gently.
".Zelgadis. why are you all white?" she suddenly asked. Zelgadis blinked, and brought a hand quickly to his face. His eyes filled with a fear for a moment, and then the fear changed to a strong resolve.
You see, so absorbed was he in telling her the story, that he hadn't noticed it when his creamy skin that was soft and flexible, melted away into a cold, hard white-marble exterior, with silver wired hair and sapphire jewels imbedded in opal for eyes. But Hope had not even given him a worried look as he had transformed, so he had forgotten the time and paid only attention to the child on his lap.
"Well. you remember when I was all blue and covered with those rough stones the first time you met me?" he asked, patiently. She nodded, and he continued with his explanations. "You see, I was all stony because of my curse. I was 1/3 human, 1/3 Mazoku, and 1/3 golem. I was something known as a chimera."
"I heard about them from Auntie Luna! She said that they were really strong creatures!" Hope piped up, showing how smart she already was.
Zelgadis smiled down at the girl. "Yes. well, about the time that I met you," he gave her stomach a poke and was rewarded with a squeal. "I discovered that I was cured, so to speak. Or, at least I appeared to be. But I soon found out that that was just an illusion. Beneath the human skin still laid both Mazoku and Golem, but they have been somehow split now."
"Split? What do you mean? And why aren't you white all the time?" she asked, blue brows furrowing in confusion.
Zel gathered his words within himself, as he ran his fingers soothingly through her blue curls. "Well, I guess I sort of turned in to an onion."
"An ONION??? Ahehehe!! That's silly!"
"Yes. well maybe it is, but it's the truth! The human is just the outer coating, but under it lives the Golem. Always there, strong and protecting. And even though I can not ever see it, beneath the golem, I can still feel the Mazoku live. So even if my looks are that of an average man, it is only, as they say, skin deep." He explained.
Hope looked up at him through her blood red eyes for a long moment, before she asked again, "But why then can you see it only at night?"
He gave a sigh. "I'm not really sure. I think it has to do with the fact that the moon is a power point to illusionary magic. It is the center of the illusionary field, creating illusions as it wishes. Yet as it can make illusions in it's own light, it can take away the illusions of the suns light. Like with werebeasts or unicorns. Their hiding disappears at night, and they are shown in their true form."
".So why then is it only on a full moon that a werebeast or unicorn is returned to it's true form, but for you it's every night?" asked Hope, ever curious for more information, like all young children are.
"Ug!! Enough questions! The moon is high, and we're going to be traveling tomorrow! And if I've learned you well enough by now, you'll be a million questions tomorrow as well!" said Zelgadis, scooping her up in his arms and laying her down on her roll. "Now sleep. We leave at dawn." He told her, tucking her in, before he set up the fire so that it didn't burn out over night, and going to sleep himself. Well, is that an interesting take on his curse or what? Mainly this has just been an information chapter, just showing what has happened to his curse and showing the relationship between father and daughter. It's not the best job I've ever done, but it's at least something. More later hopefully, and as always, if people show interest, we write more! Shade and Sweet Water, WolfStar_SCA.
Zelgadis helped Hope straiten out her bedroll as the last few rays glistened in the magenta sky, high over head. She still looked at him expectantly every few seconds, waiting for her mystery's answer. But her gaze was making him a little queasy, he even felt himself shifting uncomfortably under the endless stare of two large orbs of fire.
"Zelgadis?" she finally asked, after about ten minutes of silence.
"Yes Hope?" he acknowledged, but did not turn from their cooking rice dinner to look her in the eye. He didn't think he would be able to take it, looking into them even one more time.
"Tell me about my mother.? Tell me a story about her?" Hope asked. She had refrained usually from speaking of Lina. Not from the grief of not having her, oddly enough she had none of that pain, but merely because it seemed that Lina was a chapter in the world's events that was already read. So one need not go back and read it through again, yet instead look only to the next page for more.
But at the question, so unexpected, Zelgadis, unprepared for the flood of emotion that came with the subject, even if it came every time he so much as thought of her, had to stare for long moments at little Hope, before he even comprehended what she had said. "Well, um. sure, I-I guess. what would you like to know.?" he finally found his voice enough to ask.
"Anything. Just what you remember the most, the best." She replied innocently
[The best. what I remember best was waking up next to her that day, but I'm not going to tell that to an eight-and-a-half-year-old!] "Hmmm. that's a tough one. I'm going to have to think about it for a bit." he said, naturally pulling her onto his lap, and resting his arms around her tiny waist, getting into story mode.
He, for most likely the first time ever in his life, did not notice the slight prickle at his skin as the moonlight hit it. He thought only of Lina, and how best to portray her to the daughter who never really knew her. "Well. you see. your mother was at times, the most wonderful person alive, and at times, she was the worst."
At the completely black look of an uncomprehending child, he racked his brain to try and figure out what was a better way to tell what he wanted to get across. "When I first met your mother, back when she was only sixteen (I got the age right, right?), I had been living with my curse for a few years. It was the most terrible thing in the world for me, being cursed, you see, because I had always been so easily accepted wherever I went. I never realized what sort of a gift that was, until I lost it.
"You see, when I had said I would do anything for power, I was making a very bad mistake. I was being greedy, and self-centered, and I wasn't thinking things through like I should have. But my grandfather, Rezo the Red Priest, gave me, in his own twisted way, most likely the biggest lesson of my life. I had been naïve at one point, and just trusted that I would never have to work for acceptance, that in a way was my vanity. I wanted all of my Grandfather's power, but I hadn't wanted to work for it, and he made me look the monster that I really was."
"But you're not a monster, Zelgadis! You're a good man!" Hope contradicted, looking up at him with a mix of concern, and insecure curiosity to what she was being told.
"But I wasn't always like this, and that's why you have to never fall prey to the idea that you can just take the easy way out of things." He told the young child patiently. She nodded obediently, and he continued his tale. "Well, when my curse was placed upon me, I learned that people can be very mean and very cold to those who are different from them, even the people who had known me since I was a baby ran in fear of my new form. I was alone, and no one would accept me, because I was a freakish monster. or at least that was the truth that I let myself be told by Rezo.
"He convinced me that only he, and his most loyal servants would ever see me as anything but a hideous monster, and said that if I helped him cure his blindness, then he would lift my spell. So I helped him, which eventually lead to my meeting your mother. She treated me like no one had in so long, that I had forgotten what it was like to be taken at more then face value. She saw my stony exterior, but was knowledgeable enough that she knew that it had to have been a spell that had done it to me.
"With that knowledge in her mind, she treated me like she treated everyone else, and I think that that act was what saved me. But I had been too corrupted by Rezo while I had been living with him, and I had started down the same path as he, though I wished for the cure to my curse, he had always wanted only to see. But he had used me, and I was scared of corrupting and using your mother and her friends--"
"Weren't they your friends too?" Hope interrupted, staring into sapphire jewels.
"Yes, they were, but at that point I had not the guts to dare think of them like that. I had been hurt too often, you see, I didn't want to be hurt again." He told her.
"Oh." was her only reply.
After waiting a split second to see if she had anything else to say, Zelgadis continued. "I was scared of causing them to become like me, though, and so I tried my best to keep as far away from everyone as I could. I also didn't want to give them any reasons to break off the little friendship that we had. I often would run away, go off on my own so I didn't have to worry about any of them hating me, but I now see that that was the cowards way out. Lina often told me that, but I guess it's just one of those lessons that you have to learn for yourself.
"We traveled together on and off for quite a few years, and the one regret that I had about that, in the long run of it all, was that I both got too close, and didn't get close enough. I should have gone more one way or another. But your mother always seemed to straiten me out at most of the challenging points in my life around her. Though she had a nasty temper, and at times did do quite a bit of unnecessary damage to people."
"What do you mean Zelgadis?" Hope asked.
"Well, there was this one time where she was fighting with a summoned golem, and destroyed the intire city-state. Not to mention all the times that she had beat up on our friends for commenting in ways she didn't like, or because she was told to share her food with others. She often caused all sorts of trouble, and would go looking for fights, but when it came down to the end, she saved this world time and time again. Now I wont lead you to believe that she never asked anything in return for her antics, but I don't think that it was ever on her mind when she was in the process of helping people.
"All in all she was a very wonderful person, Lina, but she let herself be corrupted by material worths, such as money or properties, and power often was a main push behind her looking to carry on when her quests started to seem hopeless." Zelgadis told the young girl.
"So you had the same weakness." pointed out the child on his lap.
"Yes. quite often we did. And though it was something that often at the time made things better, being greedy for power is never a good thing. What the power-hungry don't understand, is that it's not the power itself that they desire, for that will never fill you up, but the real thing your after is to grow and expand. To reach one's ultimate boundaries and push beyond them is an experience that I can't even begin to explain. When your in that situation, you don't feel too awfully good, but something about giving your all on a job, and having everything turn out right, that's what makes it all worth it."
"So your saying. power and aren't what's important in life?"
"That's right. What's important is to expand. To grow and get better, that's the only way that you'll feel complete. And it takes a lot of work, but it pays off in the end, and you wont be a monster either if you use it for what's good." He told her gently.
".Zelgadis. why are you all white?" she suddenly asked. Zelgadis blinked, and brought a hand quickly to his face. His eyes filled with a fear for a moment, and then the fear changed to a strong resolve.
You see, so absorbed was he in telling her the story, that he hadn't noticed it when his creamy skin that was soft and flexible, melted away into a cold, hard white-marble exterior, with silver wired hair and sapphire jewels imbedded in opal for eyes. But Hope had not even given him a worried look as he had transformed, so he had forgotten the time and paid only attention to the child on his lap.
"Well. you remember when I was all blue and covered with those rough stones the first time you met me?" he asked, patiently. She nodded, and he continued with his explanations. "You see, I was all stony because of my curse. I was 1/3 human, 1/3 Mazoku, and 1/3 golem. I was something known as a chimera."
"I heard about them from Auntie Luna! She said that they were really strong creatures!" Hope piped up, showing how smart she already was.
Zelgadis smiled down at the girl. "Yes. well, about the time that I met you," he gave her stomach a poke and was rewarded with a squeal. "I discovered that I was cured, so to speak. Or, at least I appeared to be. But I soon found out that that was just an illusion. Beneath the human skin still laid both Mazoku and Golem, but they have been somehow split now."
"Split? What do you mean? And why aren't you white all the time?" she asked, blue brows furrowing in confusion.
Zel gathered his words within himself, as he ran his fingers soothingly through her blue curls. "Well, I guess I sort of turned in to an onion."
"An ONION??? Ahehehe!! That's silly!"
"Yes. well maybe it is, but it's the truth! The human is just the outer coating, but under it lives the Golem. Always there, strong and protecting. And even though I can not ever see it, beneath the golem, I can still feel the Mazoku live. So even if my looks are that of an average man, it is only, as they say, skin deep." He explained.
Hope looked up at him through her blood red eyes for a long moment, before she asked again, "But why then can you see it only at night?"
He gave a sigh. "I'm not really sure. I think it has to do with the fact that the moon is a power point to illusionary magic. It is the center of the illusionary field, creating illusions as it wishes. Yet as it can make illusions in it's own light, it can take away the illusions of the suns light. Like with werebeasts or unicorns. Their hiding disappears at night, and they are shown in their true form."
".So why then is it only on a full moon that a werebeast or unicorn is returned to it's true form, but for you it's every night?" asked Hope, ever curious for more information, like all young children are.
"Ug!! Enough questions! The moon is high, and we're going to be traveling tomorrow! And if I've learned you well enough by now, you'll be a million questions tomorrow as well!" said Zelgadis, scooping her up in his arms and laying her down on her roll. "Now sleep. We leave at dawn." He told her, tucking her in, before he set up the fire so that it didn't burn out over night, and going to sleep himself. Well, is that an interesting take on his curse or what? Mainly this has just been an information chapter, just showing what has happened to his curse and showing the relationship between father and daughter. It's not the best job I've ever done, but it's at least something. More later hopefully, and as always, if people show interest, we write more! Shade and Sweet Water, WolfStar_SCA.