Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

“I found a rock with Sirens on it. Had to stuff my ears with cotton and take the boat so as not to crash the ship into it. It doesn’t matter if you know better, once you hear that song, all common sense goes out the window. I got them to stop singing by offering them some salted fish and bits of metal. They like shiny things. I asked them if they ever had one of them go missing or heard of one that had, but they hadn’t. Apparently, they can’t survive away from their rock. Not that I really thought Ivy was one, anyways. Sirens have beautiful voices but their faces are hideous, even though they don’t think so. But I figured it was still worth a try, and maybe I’d find something else out.”

Sakura peered at the ogre over the mug at her lips. It was her fourth ale, and she had finally got the man to talk about what she actually wanted to hear. “Did you find anything else out?”

Lore shook his head sadly. “No. Nine months and that’s the best I got.”

The woman chugged the rest of her ale, drinking down her frustration with the amber liquid. “Well.” She held the mug above her head as a blonde barmaid in tight corset and skirt came by, pouring more from a large pitcher. “I appreciate it,” she spoke to both of them.

“I’ll keep trying, keep asking around, see if I can find anything.” He looked up past the lit lamp post behind him and at the stars, the lively tune from a small band bouncing around them in the outdoor tavern at the end of the docks. “There’s a lot of land, a lot of water out there. She’s from somewhere. Just gotta find it.” The ogre lowered his head, observing the devil across from him. He pushed his mug towards him. “Drink.”

Zero looked at the beverage then up at the man. “No, thank you,” his voice calm as he carefully pushed it back. Lore had tried to get the boy to drink from the moment they sat down but he wasn’t having any luck in convincing the devil.

“I’m telling you.” Ren drank from his own. “It’s a bad idea. Once it goes down it comes right back up. Weakest stomach I’ve ever seen.”

“I’ve tasted the swill you angels drink. You’re just feeding him bad ale.” Lore pushed it back towards the boy, unwilling to give up so easily. “This will sit like a stone. Trust me.”

Sakura reached over, grabbing it before Zero could push it away and downed it. She slammed the empty mug in front of the ogre and glowered at him. “Leave him or I’ll raise your tab even faster. He’s taking Ivy back. He doesn’t need to drink.” She glanced at the girl who was quietly staring off and followed her wistful gaze towards the band and the couples dancing before them. She looked back at Zero, measuring the distance, before standing up and holding out her hand to the girl with a smile. “It should be fine. Shall we?”

Ivy’s eyes went wide, and she squealed with delight, wasting no time in clasping onto the demon’s hand and dragging her to where the other dancers were.

Lore watched the two girls as they excitedly moved together to the fast-paced song. “Ivy sure looks happy. She’s always happy, but she seems more so now. It’s nice to see her without that giant cloak smothering her. I understand why she needed it, but it still broke my heart to see. A beautiful girl like that should be free.”

“How long have you known them?” Ren asked, his eyes following their spinning and giggling.

The ogre thought on it for a moment while taking a drink. “Sakura was about… sixteen, I’d say. I was worried about her at first, such a young, pretty thing running around the land, and the road can be a dangerous place, especially for women.” A deep laugh boomed from his chest as he smacked the table. “Turns out, the road is the most dangerous when she’s on it. Ivy was little. Well, littler. Such a darling, precious child she was. Just the most gorgeous creation. And Sakura was constantly on top of her… just like a… uh…” He snapped his meaty fingers, trying to connect the dots.

“A mother hen.” The angel grinned, having seen it for himself on a daily basis, the woman always fretting over the girl and boy.

Lore snapped a final time before pointing at Ren. “That’s it. Exactly like a mother hen. She was always squawking and ready to go at anyone who so much as looked at Ivy. I can’t really blame her for being so protective though. That girl attracts men like moths to a flame, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about that.”

“I’ve seen it, been there in the middle of it with her. It’s pretty fucked up. But it’s interesting, if she’s with Zero then she doesn’t need the cloak. I’ll see plenty of men staring at her like she’s the first girl they’ve ever seen, but not a single one has ever approached her.”

The large man looked the devil over, watching as his crimson eyes followed after the twirling girl. “I can’t imagine why that is.”

Ren chuckled but wasn’t so convinced that the boy’s eyes were the only reason for keeping men at bay. “So, how’d they find you?”

“Okag suggested Sakura come down this way after she left Hollis, and by the time she showed up she had Ivy with her. I’ve done my best to gather what information I could, but that girl is a real mystery.”

The angel nodded. “She sure is, but I doubt it’ll be this way forever. It’s just a matter of time before everything falls into place. And hopefully it’s sooner rather than later. This wasn’t exactly the way I envisioned living my life once I was finally free from The Kingdom.”

Lore observed his new acquaintance closely. “I knew your uncle. You’re almost the spitting image of him when he was young. You’d pass for him if not for that black hair of yours.”

Ren glanced back, taking his eyes off of the dancing pair, and grinned. “Oh yeah. How did you know him?”

“Same reason I know Sakura. He’d come to me for information. I pointed him to Okag and the Northern Mountains when he was looking to leave the heavens and join the land. Never could get it out of him why he wanted out. He was one of the grouchiest people I’d ever met, but I liked him. He was true to his word and wouldn’t sell you out. Good drinker, too. He could really put them down. I also knew your mother. Not as well, but I knew her. You look a lot like her, too. Just not nearly as pretty.”

The angel’s eyes brightened a bit, intrigued. “What was she like? Raz didn’t talk too much about her.”

The ogre shook his head and took a swig. “That doesn’t surprise me, talking to him could be worse than pulling teeth sometimes, but it’s a real shame he didn’t. She was a lot friendlier than Raz, much easier to talk to, but much more stubborn which is really saying something. There was no stopping her once she made a decision. She was strong, pretty high up in those angel ranks along with Raz. I don’t really understand it, but they were somewhere up there.”

“I never could understand it either. Just a bunch of fancy words that meant a whole lot of nothing.” He slowly sipped on his mug, debating whether or not to ask before taking the plunge. “Did you know my father? Ben?”

“I never met him. He was one of those angels of The Kingdom. I heard he was a sword smith, one of the best. But not much else. I’m sure The Kingdom was in an uproar over your parents, but they kept it pretty hush down here. I know that it was a big no-no though, and that’s why you’re here.”

“Well, thanks.” Ren finished his ale and held it up as he turned back to the dancers. “That’s more than I knew about them.”

The upbeat rhythm from the band slowed as a wail from a violin rose, an almost haunting melody that slowly crept from the docks and washed over the blackness of the ocean. Ivy and Sakura swayed to the tune, their bodies flowing together and then apart before joining again. Moving as one and then separate entities.

Ren had watched Sakura dance when they were younger, the vixen wild and carefree. He had witnessed the two of them move and twirl down the path as they traveled. But the way they floated together now seemed different.

Otherworldly.

He glanced over at the devil, his brows raising as he tried to suppress a grin.

It was slight, as all the boy’s emotions were, but it was there.

Envy.

He wanted what Sakura had.

He wanted Ivy.

The man knew the boy wouldn’t do much more than what he was doing now.

Watching.

Waiting.

But everyone has their breaking point, and he wondered when Zero’s would be, and what exactly it would look like.

“She came looking for you.”

The angel looked back at the ogre, perking up. “Oh! Did she now?”

“First time she came here she asked me if I knew anything about a Fallen One. I thought it was a funny question. Of course I had heard about you, everyone here has. I directed her where I thought would be a good place to start. The next time I saw her, I asked if she had found who she was looking for.” Lore shook his head and chuckled. “She wouldn’t answer but she sure got real drunk that night and nearly wrecked the city. I could barely keep that girl from beating those Guardsmen to death. I’d get her away from one and she’d be after another.”

Ren groaned, not particularly grateful for the reminder. “Yeah. She found me. But I didn’t go with her, and she was… not real happy.”

“No. She sure wasn’t. After that, she’d come back asking if I knew anything about Ivy. She’d get drunk, beat up more angels. A lot of the men actually have a pool on how many she can defeat at one time. She wouldn’t ask anything about you until they were about to head out, and she’d act like it was some big secret that she didn’t want anyone to know about. Ask if I’d heard anything. If you were alive. I’d tell her what I knew, and she’d be gone until the next time.”

He grinned, smug with receiving the confirmation that he had suspected all along. “Yeah, she’s a feisty one. Always has been. Loves playing hard to get.”

Lore snorted. “I don’t know if I’d call her feisty. I’ve never met a woman or man like her. She’s like a wild animal that crawled out of the deepest pits of hell. She can be cute and sweet, up until she’s not anymore. The men around here like looking at her, but not a single one of them can come close to handling her. A few have tried, and they regretted it pretty quick. Fallen or not, I don’t know how you’ve survived her.”

“Little bit at a time. Raz told me that if I wanted to stand beside her then I’d have to get stronger. So, that’s what I did. It took a while, and I got my ass beat more often than not, but I learned how to take a punch and here I am.”

“Serious question.” He looked at the angel carefully with a raised brow. “You some kind of masochist, or is there just something wrong with you? Too many direct hits to the head knock your brain around a bit too much when you were young?”

“I’ve never really thought about it.” Ren paused, giving it the due consideration that it deserved. “Maybe a little bit of both. Maybe neither. Either way, I know what I want, and don’t really give a fuck about the why, just about the how.”

The ogre slapped his back, roaring with laughter. “Well, better you than me! I don’t fancy myself a coward but if I had a woman like that chasing me, I’d run and she’d never be able to catch me.”

Ren watched the woman spin, her hair like a red cyclone around her, and took a long drink. “You’ve got it all wrong. She’s never chased me. I’ve always chased her.”