DAY THREE...
Instead of the sun rising up about the jagged peaks, it shrouded its face in to the blanket of dark grey clouds snowing lightly over the quiet village.
Stranger, once again, was up in the early morning, wearing his Steef armor from whence he defeated Sekto in.
It was patched up with bits of similar material to fill the punctures and scrapes dented in the soft leathery material.
He kept his helmet within his den, closing the door gently, not to squeak, and disturb the tired lump on the couch.
He straightened the inside suit of his armor down to his legs, to keep himself covered from the cold, blustery winds that was about to come. When he felt he was ready, he tip-toed in to the kitchen, and opened the door to lightly-falling snowflakes, immediately landing upon Stranger melting back in to cold water.
Hope she still realizes she ain't allowed outside 'til I get's home... Stranger frowned skeptically.
He knew she was a disobediant little varmin. And that's how she'll be until she's gone.
He trotted carefully though the adding up layer of snow rolling on the slight hill down to the docks.
The narrow canyons that held the village in place was wider than before. Bits of rock slid down in to the water, splashing water on the dock.
He stepped carefully down in to his boat, feeling the grip under his feet give away to the icy planks.
He'd remembered what the Queen requested him for, but what? Wasn't he done with all the things he needed to do?
Obviously not, if the Queen wanted him down in Last Legs again.
He broke the icicles making jagged teeth on his oars, and broke them through the forming ice around the restless Mongo River. He was only half awake, only shaking his head to keep himself up and alert, as he pushed away from the shoreline, and sailing off through the narrow canyon passage to Last Legs once again, for three days in a row...
"Oh...come on..." Umi groaned, noticing that no other presence was in the house, except hers.
Home alone again, and she wasn't allowed to go outside. Not until he got home.
Not that it would matter...
She would go outside, whether he like it or not.
Umi woke herself up in a hot shower against the early morning. She dressed herself in her regular clothing, but wrapping herself in a long-sleeved denim jacket the Rebel Leader had given to her later last night.
She was beginning to become curious to why the Rebel Leader took her out yesterday, and why Stranger was leaving all the time.
It was more worrying her to why Stranger was gone every morning she woke.
Umi trotted out of the house, leaving the door unlock, and trotting through the half-inch blanket of snow.
Children Grubbs played beside the riverbank, throwing snowballs at one another, and giggling until their stomachs hurt.
Umi smiled playfully, becoming impatient to join in on the fun. She ran down the hill to the Grubbs, sliding on her belly down to the feet of the Grubbs.
The children squawked happily that the human had come out to play with them once again, piling her up under snow they threw on her.
"What took yeh, Umi? We thought you were grounded," a female child asked down by her arm.
Umi didn't reply, just nod. She knew the children couldn't keep a secret, so she dared not to speak the truth.
"Whatever the reason, it's great that you're out here again!"
The children screamed, dog-piling upon Umi, laughing playfully with her.
She felt brilliant that she was outside again with the children. it was livid sitting inside a house, staring at the children playing along without her.
She laughed aloud, rolling away from the children's weight, and throwing snow upon their heads.
Stranger knocked his fist lightly upon the Queen's domain far inside Last Legs.
Chilling winds blew between his legs, but he not even showing a fazed sign of the chills.
Light patter of feet on smooth stone tripped to the door.
The door opened to the Queen's gentle lavender eyes, and warm smile.
"Welcome, Steef," she bowed her head, then opened the door invintingly.
"Please enter. It's colder out there than a blizzard!"
Stranger bowed his head respectuflly, shaking off the snow building on his back off, and stepping lightly on the smooth stone.
The Queen slammed the door shut, leading him and herself deeper in to her home.
The Queen's home was large, and much more grandiloquent. The walls were painted white, and her carpet was white as well.
Two apholsteries were placed beside each other in front of a small stove with a covered fire.
The Queen raised an arm out to the chairs.
"Please. Sit, and make yourself at home, Steef," she smiled back up to him.
"Thank yer kindly," Stranger nodded, stepping carefully on the white carpet across to the first chair.
He sat down on the soft cushion plushing under his bottom, making him feel relaxed.
The Queen left through behind a wall, clattering around cups and a jarful of liquid.
"But may I ask yer a question," Stranger called.
Her voice wafted behind the wall.
"What else must we do ter get this ceremony ready?"
The Queen was silent, not replying to Stranger's question. she returned from behind the wall, holding a steel platter under her arm with two cups of steaming liquid and two tin spoons sticking out of the cups.
"Well," she began, setting the tray between the chairs, and staring up at Steef.
"I need to reherse the ceremony with you, is all,"
She took ahold of a cup, and sipped it lightly.
"Nothing big, just what you need to do,"
Stranger nodded.
She placed her cup back down on the tray, and tapped her fingers together, looking deeply at the Steef.
"What I mean, Steef, is that this ceremony isn't just a few steps up to a holster, a pope, then all done. I mean..."
She walked with hands in her pockets, looking down upon the crystal-glittering ground.
The children had to go in under freezing circumstances, which left her bored under the snowy sky.
She sighed, a cloud of white smog exhausting from her mouth.
Nothing exciting ever happened at a time like this.
Not until...
A shrill scream squawked in the air.
Umi's head snapped up, her hands slipped out of her pockets.
Something was up.
She ran to the source of the scream with all her might.
"...it's complicated to explain. You have to walk the path, alone, until you reach the holster..."
A female Grubb screamed again, pointing out at the river to a splashing child flailing thorugh the ice.
Umi skidded to a stop, staring at the gathering group of Grubbs at the riverbank, staring concernly at the child crying for help.
"My baby! Please someone save him!" the female cried.
"...then the best maid comes up, which would have to be Jala, 'cause she and Umi are best friends. She has to bring her up to you, arm in arm..."
Umi ripped off her jacket, throwing it down on the snow. She pushed through the crowd of Grubbs chatting concernly for the child.
"Move!" Umi shouted, stopping at the riverbank.
The child was far out from the bank, almost at the deepest part of the river. The ice was thicker out there as well, which would be hard to swim through.
The Grubbs now whispered behind the human's dauntless back, staring up at her confidentally to bring back the child safely.
She jumped from the bank, diving through the thin layer of ice, and down under the thickening ice caressing over the water. She kept close under the ice, following up to the child's writhing legs.
She already felt the feeling of frostbite nip at her legs, and freezing her muscles in her arms.
But she would not give up until the Grubb was safely back on the bank.
"...the Grubb elder will have to read to you both the verses from the Pora. It won't be too much..."
She hit the deep blue mark under the ice, closer to the child. Her lungs became irritated, the air building up, and making her cough under the water.
She broke through the ice in front of the child crying loudly.
"Here, come here..." Umi bundled the child in her arms.
She turned back to the bank, she shivering hardly under the freezing winds and icy water.
She began to break the ice with her arm, making a one-way lane back to the bank.
The Grubbs encouraged her, shouting and cheering for her.
Umi's lips was turning a shallow blue.
She didn't realize how fast she was taking hypothermia.
The child was clutching fearfully to Umi's chest, his arms tightly around her neck, while his hand gripping at her shirt.
"...the Seer reads the lines of "Will you take her as a lawfully bonded daughter", and, of course, you'll answer-"
"Yes," Stranger nodded with the Queen.
Umi shuddered coldly, cutting her arm through the ice, leaving a red mark on the edge of a jagged piece of ice.
The ice became thin, making it easier for her to swim. She kicked to the riverbank, and slopped the child on the bank to his mother.
The crowd cheered loudly, while the mother smothered her child, and scolding him for coming near the bank.
Umi, on the other hand, floated out towards the river on her back, shivering uncontrollably, holding her arms around her body.
The Grubbs shouted concernly out to the human, splashing water out to her.
Umi's hearing buzzed a loud tone, blocking the Grubb's words. Her legs were numb. She couldn't move.
Paralyzed.
Just as if someone struck her silly.
The Grubbs became concern of her non responsive body floating out to the river.
"Someone! Go get her!"
"I won't! That water's cold!"
"Somoeone do something! She saved my child!" the mother screamed.
As the Grubbs frantically ran around the bank, Umi began to fall under the spell of hypothermia, and bodily shock.
"...and you both, will be bonded, officially," the Queen nodded.
A deed done...and the duty fulfilled...
That was the last thought, until Umi's eyes fell blank, and sent in to shock...
Stranger nodded happily. If that was all the ceremony was, then it'd be over within an hour tops.
The Queen smiled along with the Steef, nodding her head as well.
"Too much to ask? Or is that good?" she asked.
Stranger made a gruff sound in his throat.
"Nah. That'll be fine," he said.
"Very well, then!" she clapped her hands together.
"That is all I wanted to tell, besides the fact of rehersal,"
Stranger sat up from his chair, along with the Queen.
"Thank yer kindly, ma'am," he said, both walking along to the door.
She opened the door, allowing him outside. She bidded farewell to him, as he trotted back to the paths of Last Leg's quiet streets.
He walked back down to the docks, setting carefully down in the boat.
He rowed off the dock, not knowing what was happening back at home...
He could hear frantic yells beside the bank near the canyon wall, as he docked his boat.
He became concerned of why the Grubbs were yelling, and sprinted out to the crowd of screaming natives.
They darted to him, and ran up to him with their arms and fingers pointing out the river, shouting incoherent words to him.
Stranger frowned, walking up to the bank, and squinting his eyes out at the pale figure laying flat out in the water.
"Wai'da minute..."
He noticed the shoes, the jeans. And the face.
"Oh my odd," he growled.
"UMI!"
He jumped willingly in to the water, stroking hard and fast through the broken ice.
She laid still, her eyes frozen shot up in the air.
He thrashed to her, wrapping her in his arms tightly, and kicking to the shore as fast as he could.
"Umi...why, why'd you do it?" he moaned to himself, as he clawed his way up the shore, sitting in the snow.
The Grubbs rushed up by the Steef's shoulders, holding their fingers in their mouths.
Stranger pressed an ear close to her heart.
Was he imagining things?
The Grubbs stood in suspense to hear what the Steef had to say.
Stranger's lip quivered, keeping his ear up to her chest.
It was so faint, it almost was nothing.
She was still alive, but hanging by a thin thread.
Stranger's head snapped up, looking to the Grubbs.
"What happened?"
His eyes were locked on all of them rock-hard and seldom.
The Grubbs kept silent, staring at the Steef with their lips quivering.
Stranger's hand balled up, his teeth gritted.
He'd get an answer, and he'd get it quick.
"I said what happened!?" Stranger roared.
The Grubbs jumped, backing away from him, but one.
The mother Grubb, that held her shivering child. She stepped up to the Steef, a frown on her toothless lips.
"The...human saved my child, Steef. S-she floated out to the river after she got back. We tried to get her back, but she was too far out,"
Stranger frowned sadly, looking back down at the blank eyes of the human. He crumbled down, bringing her close to his chest, sobbing quietly to himself.
The Grubbs were also melancholy, feeling tears breach up to their eyes.
"Oh Umi..." Stranger cried, tears rolling down upon her head.
"Yer so reckless..."
He held her tightly in his arms, her life not coming back.
Stranger kept her tightly to himself, as he stood up, and walked through the crowd of Grubbs staring at his back, as he trotted through the slow-falling snow shrouding his essence, as he climbed the hill to his home.
He opened the door slowly, shutting it closed with his back foot, carrying the bundled human to the couch.
She didn't move at all, but just a lifeless corpse.
He was afraid.
Afraid that she was gone from him.
It was too early.
He really wanted Umi to be his own. His own to raise and teach. To love. And to cherish until he was gone.
He sat slowly down on the couch, the human laying out in his arms. He was still crying over her, as he reached for the blanket, and covered himself and her together.
Why does it have ter be like this?
He heard the very shallow breathing, almost sounding like it had stopped.
Stranger brushed the wet hair down her neck, breaking the frozen water off with his claws.
Her face was a ghostly white, her eyes a crevace open, revealing only a blank white, and dialated pupils.
She looked as if she was dead.
But he knew she would fight for her life.
That's what she was.
A rebel.
And a reckless little tyke.
He just hated the fact that he wasn't there earlier to stop her from going in to such a painful shock to him.
His lip quivered guiltily, as he crumbled down to the human, sobbing uncontrollably, and wrapping his arms so tightly around her.
"Please Umi..." he cried, pressing his nose in her frizzled damp hair.
"Don't leave me..."
He rocked back a forth, his chin rested on her shoulder.
Pressing a tight kiss on her head, he mumbled loudly,
"I love you...so much..."
He sat there, holding the human like that, until the dawn fell in to a cold, dreary night, where he fell asleep, sitting up, and cuddling the human to his chest.
Last edited by Dark Elite_H2; 02-18-2006 at 05:24 AM..
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Aw, Stranger's gonna be a daddy, how sweet. Lol. Wonder how Umi's gonna react?
Poor Umi, Poor Stranger, yer so mean to 'em DE. *sniffles* Umi'll be alright won't she? I mean, it'd kill Stranger if she died...
