Legacies of light

-Break-

Φ Walking into the woman’s house, I see it is run down and completely messy, but more than that it is filled with fabric. The colourful fabric looks completely out of place in the dreary house.

“I present to you my house; I built it all by myself. It might not be the biggest place, but it has plenty of soul.”

“You should really clean up all this fabric, it takes up about 90 percent of the space in this house.” Seeing something that catches my eye I run over and grab it. Feeling it I say, “This is the fur of an atlas eater.”

“Yes, I got it from one of those wonderbeasts called predasaurs in Fimbulwinter.”

“But how did you even manage that, Fimbulwinter isn’t the type of place you can go hunting?”

“I bought it off a young man years ago.”

Walking in Atalanta says, “Something rare like this would be without a doubt be ridiculously expensive, so how am I to believe you bought this?”

“Well, you see when I was younger I randomly came across a stack of gold and used it to buy the pelt.”

Turning to me Atalanta says, “How much longer are we going put up with this farce?”

Ignoring her I go around and look at the fabrics she has, “This is a ridiculously large collection, and they're all so varied.”

Walking over to me she says, “I have collected them from all over the world, aren’t they beautiful.”

“They really are, how wonderful, this truly is an amazing collection filled with love.”

Hitting me on my back repeatedly she says, “Aww shucks, flirting with a woman my age, what a daredevil you are. But since you seem to understand me may I ask you for a favour?”

“Depends on what it is.”

“Well, it is sort of embarrassing for me to say,” She says as she tots around like a shy girl on her feet.

“Don’t worry, I am exposed to an embarrassment of mankind right behind me.”

As Atalanta beings to choke me, the old woman asks, “Can I please have your hair?”

“No.”

“Oh, come on, why not.”

“I don’t give blood, hair, or nails to anyone.”

“Why!”

“When I was younger, I read a book where someone used those things to perform a satanic ritual, so I am going to keep all those things to myself.”

“Do I look like some kind of witch to you?”

“Better to be safe than sorry.”

Stamping around like a child she throws a tantrum then falls on the floor, and screams, “THIS IS ELDER ABUSE, THIS CHILD IS TREATING AN OLD GRANNY LIKE ME HORRIBLY EVEN THOUGH I HAVE LIVED A HARD LIFE FOR 80 YEARS, BUT THIS BRAT IS JUST DOESN’T CARE!!!”

Going next to her I say, “Please don’t cry!”

Stopping her tears she asks me, “So you will give me what I want?”

“No.”

She immediately goes back to crying on the floor like a little child. Trying to figure out a way to stop her crying I start to freak out, but Atalanta goes up to her and hits her with a wrestling move. “STOP BEING A BABY!”

“Orb, let’s not waste our time with this annoying child.”

“Hey Atalanta, you look pretty.”

“Wait, what, really, have you finally come to your senses?” Running at her from behind, the old woman gives Atalanta a drop kick.

“Orb you bastard, you distracted me.”

“You should have known that I was lying.”

“Come on you floozy, you think a cheap shot like that was enough to keep me down.”

“Don’t worry, I have much more!”

“SO DO I!”

As they are about to charge at each other, I get between them both and hold them back, “Granny can you at least tell me what you want my hair for?”

“Oh, I should have started with that.” Moving away from me, she runs then dives into the giant mountain of fabric she has, and after rustling around for a while she pulls something out.

Looking closely at what she is pulling out I see it is a scarf, and a ridiculously long one at that. She keeps pulling it out and swivels it around to create a spiral on the floor.

“HOW MUCH SPACE DO YOU HAVE BACK THERE!!”

Looking at Atalanta she clicks her tongue, and then says, “This is a scarf a has been made from all the different types of fabrics I have been able to get my hands on. You see, it is my dream to not only made the longest scarf in the world but the one with the most varied fabrics.”

“So that’s why you want my hair?”

“Yes, when I saw your hair, I knew I must have it on my scarf.”

“I see, you should have led with that. I can lend you some of my hair, it has been getting long again anyways.”

Giving me a hug, she says, “Thank you so much.”

“But there might be a problem,” I say freezing the dye off my hair.

“Did your hair just change colours?”

“Yes, it happens according to my emotions, so I don’t know if you would still want it.”

Freaking out she says, “My senses were right, I knew your hair would be amazing.”

“I am glad you like it, and just so you know I have lots of other fabric on my ship, you could use those as well.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Of course, I do. Just let me go fetch them, I’ll be right back.”

Walking out of her house, Atalanta says, “Now let’s never return.”

“You really are horrible. Don’t you like adventuring.”

“I like having fun, and let me tell you my fun sensor has been telling me to get the hell out of here, this country is way too intense and especially that old woman, just looking at her I can tell she is going to be a drag.”

Putting my hands together I pray, “Oh god, please don’t let me be as irrational as Atalanta ever in my life.”

“I heard that!!”

“I hope you did!!!” I say running away, with her closely following behind.

-Break-

Φ Sitting on a bench with Cyrus on my lap, a woman screams at the people who were surrounding me and Cyrus, she says, “What the hell is wrong with you, making a little girl cry.”

Kneeling down one of them responds, “But we thought she was suspicious. So, we panicked and jumped to conclusions.”

“So what, isn’t it your job as grown-ass men to work well under pressure.”

Standing up, the men say, “Hey that’s discrimination, being a man has nothing to do with that.”

“Yeah, right now you're oppressing us based on our gender.”

“I refuse to let this unfair double standard go.”

Staring at them, she says, “Shut up before I throw you off of mount lock.”

When the men quiet down, she walks over to me and says, “Sorry about their embarrassing behaviour.”

Putting on my mask I hide my face and turn my head away. “It is not like I care what those idiots do to me.”

Grabbing my face, the woman forces my head in her direction and says, “My god who made this mask the craftsmanship is amazing?”

Another woman grabs me from behind and asks, “What are these tails made of, I have never felt anything this soft.”

Women gathering around me start to touch me all over while asking a never-ending stream of questions, I start to feel sick; too many thoughts. Using my tails, I knock them all away and say, “STAY AWAY YOU BASTARDS.”

One of them walking back over to me says, “Sorry for our rudeness, you’re just rather fascinating to us, but we were being rude so let me start with this, my name is Jeter Mercury; what’s your name?”

Causally I say, “Suzuka Gozen.”

“That’s a rather pretty name, for a rather pretty girl.”

“Don’t compliment me trash.”

Another person walking up says, “Your tails as very pretty.”

“They’re my legacy.”

“I heard of those in story books, but I have never come across one.”

“Neither have I.”

“Me as well.”

Jeter says, “Looks like we are all lucky to meet you.”

All the compliments Suzuka received has filled her arrogance meter, so Suzuka says, “Well of course you are lucky to meet me, I happen, to be me.”

All the people around her had one thought; This girl is so easy!

“So would you be able to tell me who made this mask?”

“It was my mother, she loved every form of art from sculpting to painting.”

“Is this really a dragon? Will he steal our gold and kidnap our virgin daughters?”

“Yes, his name is Cyrus and he is a rather gentle dragon so don’t worry about him.”

“Can you tell me how you got here?”

“I took an airship from Elpída here.”

Shocked the crowd lets out a yell. “Like a ship that flies through the air.”

“Of course.”

They all fall on the ground and say, “Those lazy bastards in Elpída beat us to it.”

“Do you guys have an issue with them?”

“Oh course we do, those lazy idiots in Elpída have spent centuries mooching off of Basileia’s work and displaying it as if it is their own. While we, the people of Skydust have been trying to surpass her perfection.”

“To choose not to expand Basileia’s craft but instead to show it off what a waste, we will never forgive them.”

“Well I know how you guys feel, the people of Elpída are mean especially that one.”

“Which one?”

“THAT DUMB STUPID FUCKER IANCU.”

“Ooh, what did he do?”

“Even though we were nice to him when we first met, he decided to be mean to us for no reason, but you know what he started to be nice to Orb while continuing to bully me. I didn’t even do anything to him, and he just keep going. Every time I see him, I want to crush his stupid vampire face.”

“He sounds like the worst. Who wouldn’t want to be friends with you.”

“I know right.”

“Is there anything else bothering you?”

“Do you guys really want to know about all that stuff.”

The large crowd says to me, “Of course!!”

“Ok then, where should I begin.”

While Suzuka continued to ramble on, she has yet to notice that the crowd around here has nearly tripled in size.

Skydust is a city where all the citizens work nearly all day, and due to this social interactions is not common. So, whenever something new happens all the story-starved parasites take some time off work to see it.

And unbeknownst to her, the young girl who has stories from countries these people have never been to is the most exciting thing currently going on in their lives.

So, people, families, and even the animals around the city came to the bench she was sitting at to hear the girl ramble.

“Maria did you bring the food.”

“Right here. I wonder for how much longer she is going to go on for?”

“So that's how I saved me and all my friends from the giant Kraken.”

Suddenly I hear large claps, then looking around I see such a large amount of people that I freeze up like prey which has just been spotted by a predator.

“Suzuka you really are amazing,” Jeter says.

Receiving the compliment, I fill up with energy and say, “Oh course I am, but don’t you think it is a bit on fair for only me to talk about myself, Jeter you tell me something about your city. Right now!”

Jeter getting up says, “In this country, we all try to perfect whatever form of craft we choose for ourselves, that is why we work to what outsiders may say is a bit too much, but we don’t care cause to all of us reaching the highest peak of our craft is the most important thing. So we wear oversized clothes to remind us of the size of each of our individual dreams.”

“Nicely said your majesty,” someone says, as the crowd cheers.

“Eh, what did he mean your majesty?”

“Well it is sort of embarrassing since we are a city and not a country but I happen to be the ruler of Skydust.”

Upon hearing this Suzuka’s arrogance meter went all the way down and her giant head burst. Getting on my hands and knees in front of Jeter, I say, “I am so sorry that a lowly vermin like me would dare to insult a royal such as yourself, I was cocky and got ahead of myself. As repentance, I shall perform seppuku right now.”

Trying to push my tail through my stomach I am stooped by Jeter who says, “No need for that, even though I am king I really am not any different than anyone else here, so don’t worry about it. In fact, I am sort of embarrassed to even call myself king.”

After he says this, we all hear a loud screech. Looking over in the direction where it came from I see a flock of gryphons, but more importantly, it seems as if they are waving some sort of flag.

Jeter with sweat running down his face says, “Those are from Gevurah.”