Until death? Page 5

  It sure felt good to step on you, by the way! I could make a habit out of this.”, I muse to myself and nod. I get another glare that tells me, that my worth just dropped another step downwards.

  “Why have you never met your grandfather anyway? We are almost five by now! Most of my relatives made a visit to the main family already.”, Celes asks.

  “Well. As far as I now my fathers parents are dead. And my grandmother, from my mothers side, is dead too. They all died together with my siblings in the same attack. Some kind of bombing, I heard.

  My grandfather, Nicosar of Tirna, went for a complete inspection of all fortresses and border crossings at that time. It looked like the guys responsible for it came from Stricc. So he tried to find out how they got through the border control.

  There are about 4000 minor checkpoints, fortresses and towns along the border. If you take a day of your time for everyone of them, you have your hands full for quite some time.”

  Celes nods at that, “It still feels pointless with the current changes in policy, he could have stopped and returned any time.”

  Just at that moment, mother came back. A geezer with grey hair is with her. He has the same horns as her, though one of them is broken. Behind him a racoons tail is slowly waving left and right, he has a walking stick, which he puts down at our sight.

  “Hahaha! My grandson! How much I wanted to see you!”, he grins as he walks over and picks me up to hold me in front. That grip! I have a bad feeling about this.

  “Grandfather! I greeEEE eee EEE eee EEE eee EEE.........”, he threw me up! I turn at least five summersaults, before I get caught by a foot again. Oh no. Now I have a roller-coaster grandfather too.

  He drops me to the ground, where I start retching. I am not well, not well at all! This is my weak point!

  “Hahaha! You will have a special training from tomorrow on, grandson. I will make a real Tirna noble out of you! And who have we here?”, he starts over to Celes, who takes a step back and looks at him with a wary expression.

  Suddenly he kneels down and massages her hips, pinching them a little at the end and stands up again. Celes is frozen solid at that and doesn't move a muscle.

  “Hmm, yes yes. That's good! The potential is there. You will be able to have many heirs. We need many of those.”, he nods earnestly.

  -PUNCH-

  “Ugh!”

  -STAB-

  -POP-

  “aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA!”

  -drop-

  -STOMB-

  -KICK - KICK - KICK -

  It was so fast, I almost didn't get it. As soon, as he stood again, she punched him in the groin. He went to his knees at that. At the same time she pulled a hairpin from her stuck up hairdo and stabbed it into his left eye, which was now in reach.

  With the other hand, she popped out his right eyeball. While he went down completely, she dropped it and then crushed it with her right foot. That done, she started kicking him with her left foot. There was no hesitation at all!

  Phew! I am so glad, that our parents negotiated a no violence contract between us. But I am sure you have done it now Celes! This could become a real diplomatic issue. I see the headlines for tomorrow! Stricc princess permanently blinds valued military leader of Tirna!

  “AAAAhahAhahAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”, Nicosars scream transforms into a mad laugh, as he and all the blood dissolves into white mist. Reforming behind a wide eyes Celes, completely unharmed, he throws her over his shoulder like a kidnapper. She struggles, but can't resist his strength.

  This guy is not good news! I try to run, but get grabbed by the collar. “Blergh!”, comes out while I am pulled back abruptly.

  -

  “This is good material my daughter! I will be sure to make real nobles out of them, before they are introduced to the other houses!”

  8 - Training!

  We are back to being bound to a chair and facing each other. “Now we know, where your mother got that from!”, Celes accuses me. The old pervert waves a chalkboard with some scribblings in front of her.

  “Come On! Say it with LOVE! -Angrod is my ONE and only ONE!-”, he says in a creepy voice. “Say at least: I love you! For starters!”

  “I l..l.. lov...e y ou. I guess...”, she gets out with a cramped face. “Okay. We will work on the stutter. The expression comes second.”, Nicosar states grinning.

  “Now you Angrod! Say: I love you! I would lay the world to your feet, if you asked me of it!”, Nicosars eyes gleam feverish and he wriggles his body in a creepy way.

  “I shove you! I would slay the world and throw it before your feet, so you trip over it!”

  *SMACK!*

  Ow! I got hit with the board. My head hurts so much, I think it is splitting apart! Nicosar looks at the broken board and sighs. He drops it onto the pile of broken boards to my feet, which almost reaches my knees.

  He takes a new board out of a chest and scribbles something onto it. “Okay. Let's try that again.”, he steps behind Celes and nods to me, while waving the board.

  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

  ♥-“I LOVE YOU CELES!”-♥

  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

  Tears are dripping from my eyes. They have started to shed tears and my vision is blurry, since the transformation started. Nothing I can do about it. “I love you Celes.”, I whisper while giving up.

  I don't want to get another board smashed on my head. It hurts so much! Imagine someone taking two screwdrivers and slowly pushing them into your eyes, while a mixer is mashing up your brain!

  That's how I feel right now!

  “YES! That emotion! You got that across just right!”, the pervert wipes the board and steps behind me, scribbling something. Celes blushes and looks down at her legs, which are almost completely covered by another pile of broken boards.

  “M...My dearest one! Take me now and here!”

  Omg, that was....nono I wont waver here! Its those headaches and the stress. Yes! That's it!

  “Oh! You are starting to get good at this! Hmhmhmm... maybe we should start working a little on the physical part too?”, he muses to himself.

  What do you want to make little children do, you sicko?

  “What's the point of this anyway old pervert!? I thought you wanted to train us!”, Celes asks with empty eyes.

  “Aren't I training you? On your graduation party you two have to convince the guests, that you two are one body and one soul. No one is allowed to have the slightest doubt about it, or chaos could be the consequence!”, Nicosar states.

  “If the other houses would get the idea, that this bond won't work out, they will try to seize power. Civil war for both Tirna and Stricc would surely follow shortly after that. You have to be the perfect pair to the public!”

  “But what's about physical training?” - Celes

  “Pfff! No need for that! Both of you have royal blood. That means your bodies are the strongest you can get in this world and you are always at top condition.

  But the strongest bodies in the world won't help us, if we are poisoned or bombed by some asshole. Also with everyone running amok, we can't be everywhere.

  So you two will be here until you can convince everyone, that you were made for each other.”, Nicosar stops his tirade.

  „I will train my magic like mad! And then this pervert will burn!“, I mutter to myself. I am really mad right now! Nicosar went a step too far in this!

  „Hahaha, you are a hundred years too early for that!“, Nicosar grins again.

  Celes forces a smile on her face, “We will see, I would gladly give you a hand against the pervert!”

  “YES! A mutual goal! The first step on your path to love and pleasure!”, Nicosar seems not to notice, that he is the one in question.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------

  The next weeks were a nightmare! It wasn't just the board-treatment. We had dancing lessons, smiling lessons, lap sleeping lessons oh and not to forget the BIG HUG lesson.

>   Celes tried to crush me with brutish strength every time. I am really afraid, that she will become strong enough for it in the end.

  Sometimes even Nicol and Arthur join the fray. At least they are better than Nicosar, but its still far from fun. Though they are both usually busy with matters of state, eyeing each others actions like watchdogs.

  At the dancing lessons, Celes tried to step on my feet, or trip me. I myself didn't even have to try it consciously. I am a bad dancer. Tripping my partner isn't something I have to aim for.

  Celes and me tried to kill Nicosar multiple times, but we never succeeded. He has some kind of high level illusion or cloning technique. It's not magic, but some kind of innate ability he got from his raccoon heritage.

  You may think, that you got him sometimes, but he just dissolves into white mist and is suddenly unharmed before you.

  One time, I blew up an entire room, with him inside. We thought we got him, just to be hit from behind with his walking stick. Its a deadly weapon in his hands! Believe me!

  By now, I have realized that we won't get him, until we have grown up bodies. He is several levels above us, at the moment.

  Like that, the time went by. I lost track of it. He is drilling us from morning till night, with four hours of sleep a day! It is worse than military training. Our bodies will break, if this gets out of hand!

  ----------------------------------------------------------------

  After a particularly bad day, Celes sits at our evening meal, while sharpening a hairpin and mutters something incomprehensible to herself.

  Suddenly she turns to me, “Angrod, I can't take it any more!”, tears are in her eyes. I am really not sure if it is real, or if she is testing her acting on me.

  “Hoh? And what do you want to tell me with that?”, I sip at my drink.

  “!Let us run away together!”

  “PFFT”, I spit everything on my food and need a second to gather myself. “I don't get... , why do I have to join you for that!”

  “Because, if you stay here, it will fulfil the second prophecy and you will destroy the world? If you are with me I can have an eye on you!”, she looks at me.

  “You know, Seria probably just made that up? She is a strong god, but even the council has problems with such detailed predictions?”, I don't buy it. “And who judged us? Despite having better things to do?”, Celes reminds me.

  I think shortly, “Anyway, I wont run! Where do you want to go? We are children, and everyone can recognize us from afar as royalty! I don't think you will manage to hide those things on your head for long. Think it through!”

  The two black horns on her head did a real growth spurt, starting at her temple and then going back close to her head, while splitting up in an admittedly cool pattern looking like some sort of adornment. No way to hide that!

  She wore her red hair stuck up with hairpins, which I recognize as her most fearsome weapons.

  Her black tail, at the length of about one and a half meter, completed her new demon look.

  My horns were a little boring, compared to hers. Starting at my temples like hers, they just went straight back, stopping a little after my head.

  If I wanted to, I could probably wear a hat to hide them. No chance with hers, though.

  My hair was black like my mothers, but I cut it short. I don't like to take care of my hairstyle.

  The eyes had changed to a golden snake-style.

  *WHIP*

  “Ow! Stop that!”, the witch just hit me with her tail!

  “Hmpf, can't help it! It tends to do that when I am frustrated.”, she declares high and mighty.

  *Whip**Whip**Whip*

  I jump out of the way and sat down again with my ruined food. This time farther away. Hell will freeze over, before I believe her that. It was one hundred percent on purpose.

  That's when something hit me!

  “Come to think of it.... why do you know Serias prophecy for me in such detail!”, I ask. “My parents told me.”, she answers without hesitation.

  “And why did you know my title back then? Little one?” - Me

  She hesitates, “I heard it from your mother.”

  “LIAR!” -Me

  “Okay! Okay! I investigated your room before our first meeting and found your plate.” -Celes

  “What!” -Me

  “I have no bad conscience about it. There wasn't anything interesting anyway, you are a hermit after all. Just books about magic and science. Do you know that it's not normal for a guy to hide an encyclopedia under his bed?”, Celes looks at me with pitiful eyes.

  “There I wanted to try the -girls search through the guys room- and what do I get?”, she shakes her head, “Apart from that stupid title, Not.... A….. Thing!”

  I am down now!

  “Why am I treated like I have to be some kind of pervert. I have never done anything to deserve this! For all the time I can remember, I have been a nice guy! Fuck it! In my first life I was even a monk!”

  I shouldn't have said that!

  “A … MONK!? Nooow eeeeverything is clear to me!”, Celes grins from ear to ear!

  “Don't dare to say something about it! It was a good, nice life!”, I hold at a new thought, “…..but living like that doesn't get you anything? It all leads back to where I am now!

  Those who live their lives as pure perverts are right! They end up in bad situations at the end too, but at least they got something out of it!”, I nod at myself.

  *Whip**Whip**Whip**Whip**Whip*

  “OW!” -Me

  “Don't dare to go down that path! As a sadistic idiot, you would have lost the last decent point about you!”, Celes glares at me with hateful eyes. But my thoughts derail completely.

  “Hoho, maybe I should start right here and now? We are stuck with each other anyway! No loss there, so why haven't I jumped at the opportunity! You are not really usable yet, but for a test-run it should suffice, as my body isn't at the height either!”, I take a step and have a nice feel.

  -Whack!-

  She slapped me and we go down while wrestling with each other. Something shatters and we roll over the floor. At that moment, the door opens and we freeze.

  Ireth, Katrin and Nicosar step in.

  I am trying to choke Celes with one hand, while she has both legs around me in a suggestive position. With the other hand I hold her left, which is armed with a hairpin.

  With the other, she is trying to free herself from my hold. Her tail is entangled around my upper body and neck, trying to choke me in turn.

  “HoHO!”, Nicosar puts on a stupid grin while opening one eye wide.

  “The training didn't progress like planned....”, Katrin states.

  Mother just looks at me accusingly.

  Celes drops the hairpin and pulls me closer, hugging me! “Wahaha! What are you talking about! My darling and I where just exploring new ways of communication, isn't that right my love? So older and wiser people shouldn't interrupt the young!”

  A shudder runs down my spine! Okay! This! Is! Creepy! “Play along idiot!”, she whispers. I hug her too and set us back up in a straight position.

  “Yes, we just found out about each others good points! This is really a big misunderstanding! No need for more training!” -Me

  Celes nods at my chest!

  “We will see how long you two can keep that act up! Then there will BE punishment. One way, or the other! Both are wrong! You forget, you're still children!” -Ireth

  We both start to cry!

  9 - A formal dance between the two?

  We are both about seven by now. Yes! We survived! Nicosar has given his approval to our acting, thus our parents organized a great celebration. They invited members from all noble houses of both countries.

  It is meant as our introduction to the public. But.....

  Right now, we are both in the families private rooms and are waiting for the festivities to start. Nicol, Arthur and Nicosar are here too. They preached for more than a hour, how importan
t it is to show a good face.

  "I have a really bad feeling about this.", Celes states. She is sharpening a hairpin again. Sometime along the way, it became habit of hers. Whenever she is ancious, nervous or bored, she starts doing that. The hairpins are more like little knives, or daggers by now!

  "I don't get how you can stick those into your hair, without cutting it", i muse to myself. "That you would like to know!", she shows a superior grin.

  I shrug my shoulders, "If you don't feel like telling, then don't tell. Why do you have a bad feeling anyway? Will you tell me that at least?"