Fan Fiction ❯ Advent Of The Goddess: Book 1-The Awakening ❯ United In Grief ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Shasta was falling down a dark, empthy tunnel, hurdling towards nothing in particular.....but falling all the same. Her heart burned with grief against her ribcage, pounding with a harsh fury as she screamed out her pain.

"Shasta.." a voice called out through the darkness, faraway and distent, barely audible over the sound of the screams..


"Shasta.."



"Shasta!"

Dry, crackled eyes slowly fluttered open, met with a pair of worry-filled sapphire, silvery brows furrowed against a porcelean white face. For an instanse, the young girl thought she was staring into the eyes of a ghost, so pale was this man seated before her...it was only when she felt the cool trickle of water against her forehead did she fully regain her senses.
Blinking against the clear droplets that cascaded down her temples, she found to her surprise, she was lying on a bed of rags and leaves, the room around her made cruedly from grubby bamboo shoots, barren and devoid of decoration but for a single rickety chair set beneath a boarded up window, miniscle beams of sunlight being the only source of illumination inside the tiny domain.

"Hunn...? What..?" Shasta's voice felt hoarse and alien to her, rough and harsh as though she'd just swallowed a pound of gravel. Her throat ached dully with each word she attempted to speak and her skin was warm with sweat.
A cool hand brushed gently against her cheek, causing her to jump..it was only when she saw the concerned face of Taigo watching over her did she relax against the crude futon bed.

"Try not to speak..you've got a nasty throat cold and a fever to boot." he whispered gently as he dabbed her forehead with a wet rag, reminescent of the night they first met...

"Taigo..." the young pink-head crocked despite his words; "....please tell me this all a bad dream...please tell me it's not real....please.." she felt an over-welming urge to sob as the night's events flooded her mind in a torrent sea of dispair, but instead of the shrill cry that welled up within her stomach, only a violent, hacking cough escaped her lips, flecks of saliva coating her lips as she sat upright, hand covering her mouth.

"Easy..." he placed both hands on her shoulders, pushing her back against the futon with a stern frown etched across his features. Seating himself in the ricketty chair by the window, he sighed heavily and watched as she turned on her side to face him, wrapping the thin rags that served as blankets tightly around her body.

"..The answers will be yours when you're ready." he whispered faintly, his gaze as cold and piercing as a wise barn owl, never taking his eyes off hers.

It was then Shasta's urge to cry did follow through, for she could no longer bare to look at him, instead curling into a foetal position, clawing at the ragged sheets as she sobbed hysterically, dry eyes streaming with phantom tears.
"They're gone...they're all gone...!" she choked through her tears, her tiny body racked by sobs of pain as she cried into the grubby sheets, her heart burning with grief inside her ribcage.

A woeful sigh escaped Taigo's lip...he knew her pain well, but his pride would not allow him to comfort her....he had learned long ago that such a thing was an act weakness, of cowardice and idiocy..
"Tears won't bring them back, woman. Stop your childish crying!" he growled low at her, yet inwardly he cursed himself. Pride was a harsh mistress, never letting him bask in the gentle light of kindness, forever locking him within a cage of contempt, malice and arrogence. It was a cruel way to live, he knew, but he'd long ago learned that to survive in a world of hatred, one had to hate themselves...

At the sound of the man-beast's voice, Shasta sat upright, eyes blazing with a sudden rage. Before Taigo could realize what she did, he felt the hard sting of a hand against his cheek.
"HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH A THING!!" she practically shrieked, face twisted into a pained look of anger. The silver haired man meerly stared at her, face stony and emotionless as he took in the sight of her seated before him, hands clenched so tightly into fists they threatened to bleed a river of deep crimson as she took in several shaking, panting breaths.

"How can you tell me to stop crying...when I've lost all I've ever loved...all I've ever known? HOW?!" she gasped, a fresh stream of salty tears leaving tracks in the dryed blood and grim that marred her once pale olive skin.

"Hrmph....your grief blinds you to the harsh reality...they are gone and nothing can be done to revive them. You cling to foolish hopes that this is all a bad dream, but I tell you now, little woman, you cannot awaken from this nightmarish reality."Taigo's words were calm and collected, yet they cut like a cold, dead wind through the darkness of the young girl's heart..

"You heartless.....!" Shasta sobbed, eyes shining with tears of anger as she began to pound her fists fruitlessly against the man-beast's kimono-clad chest. Taigo frowned down at her, grabbing her wrists gently but firmly, his gaze piercing and cold.

"Enough. You're sick and you need rest-"

"I don't need to rest!"

"Then what DO you need?" The silver haired man said cuttingly, causing the young girl to look up with helplessness in her eyes. Unable to take the pain any longer, she let out a strangled cry and buried herself in the startled man-beast's arms, her fingers clenching the front of his black kimono as she sobbed into his chest.
Taigo blinked, suddenly feeling a rush of blood to his cheeks. He had'nt been expecting that...if anything, he expected to be pummeled within an inch of his life as the young girl beat out all her anger and torment upon his body.

He had spoken out of line, he knew, but what else could he do? Emotions were weak and served only to fuel heartache and pain. Had'nt it always been like that? Still, uncertain of what to make of the young girl now soaking his robes in salty tears, he hesitantly patted her back lightly, as though to offer her a tiny shred of comfort. He remembered what she'd asked of him.

"Tell me of your bloodline.."

Perhaps it would ease her of her troubles to learn of the magic within her soul, he thought to himself.....maybe...
"Hey.." he whispered softly to her, cupping her chin between his finger and thumb, tilting her head to peer at her.

Shasta felt her sobs subside as she peered into those orbs of swirling sapphire, as clear and bright as a Carribean ocean yet tinged with the biting cold wind of grief and inner sorrow. She could tell he was bottling up a lot of pain inside his slender body. His eyes never lied...

"Do you still want to learn about me?" he queried gently, his thumb lightly brushing away the ghosts of tears that felt from her alluring emerald eyes.

If only she was eight years older...he found himself thinking, only to flush crimson and mentally smack himself for such inpure thoughts.
Clearing his throat loudly, Taigo dropped his hands to his lap and sat back cross-legged on the bed. A moment of stoney silence fell between them, the only noise being the distent calls of crickets outside the shabby hut as the stars slowly emerged from their cloudy hiding places.

"T-Taigo?" she whispered hoarsely, voice weak and crackled from her tears. The silvery haired man-beast motioned to silence her, eyes dull and listless yet filled with darkness as his face took on an expression of contempt, remorse and...shame?

"I don't expect you to believe what I am about to tell you, woman...for it is a story that defies belief...but believe me.....it is as true a fact as the sunsets each day on the horizon beyond this tattered walls. All I ask is that you remain silent...and drink in this dark secret I am about to devulge to you." his voice was low and calm, barely above a whisper.

Not trusting herself to speak anymore, the young pink-haired girl nodded solemnly, resting herself against her pillow, knees drawn to her chest as she began to listen to the dark prince's sordid story...


How many years ago had it been?

Ten?

Twenty?

A hundred?

Or an entire millenia?

Taigoshin Shigeta did'nt know..nor did he care to....age was of no importence to him anymore....time was a cruel mistress, unforgiving, cold and ruthless.
A whore he knew all too well. Once a loved and feared prince of Terre Des Mortes-a dark kingdom shrouded in death, destruction and disorder- his empire was now divided, his family having forsaken all bonds with the young man they once called a son.

That was his choice and a hard one at that, but it was better than the legacy that lay in his blood...

A legacy of perversion, deprivity and sadistic pleasure, to name just a few of the horrors that coursed through the bloodline. From his youth, he was forced to witness the horrors of those he called 'family', those biological mishaps that fed on pain and suffering.
How he hated them....and when the time came that he would come age, the young prince vowed to break free of his dark birthright.... he would escape from the shackles that binded him since birth...

...The key was Arailani.

For years, he had admired her from afar, too afraid of heartache to take that leap of faith and strike up a conversation... but one day, when the moon was full, he jumped higher than he'd ever done before...

"Pfft..you waste your time with your unrequited affections.." the king of the man-beasts, one Lord Panterasu snorted, watching as his eighteen year old son stared forlornly out from the open tower windows, his gaze affixed on the summery figure walking through the tall grass beyond the courtyard.

"What I do with my time is no-one's buisness but my own.." Taigo retorted darkly, not looking away from the window. The raven haired beast king gave an indignified snort and wrenched the gaunt young man from the window ledge roughly by his mop of unruly silvery hair, glaring hard into a pale face devoid of all emotion.

"Back talk me again, boy, and I won't hesitate to hurl you from this very window!" Panterasu spat, harsh grey eye narrowed to near slits as his lips curled into a sneer. A smile etched itself across the younger man's lips. Rather than struggle against his father's iron grip, he meerly turned limp, his sapphire eyes burning into harsh slate.

"I'd welcome it." he said calmly, his smile never waining.

Panterasu growled low, dropping his hand down from his only son's head to punch him hard in the stomach, sending him crumbling to the floor like a sack of potatos.

"Insolent little pest!" he hissed, the veins on his forehead beginning to pulsate omniously.

"I learned from the best....FATHER.." Taigoshin coughed, filling all his malice and contempt into the last word that escaped his throat. That comment was met with a swift kick to the gut, the pain increasing tenfold...but never did the young prince scream. He was used to this daily dose of punishment after eighteen years. It was only second nature; his scarred body was proof of that, but even so, he longed to be free from it all.

Free in death or in escape, he did'nt care....he just wanted to be free of his pitiful life..

Getting shakily to his feet, the young prince propped himself up against the window frame, hoping to see Arailani's smiling face comfort him from below...instead, he was met only with the darkened grass beyond the palace walls, vacent and cold as his own black soul...


"Lord and Lady Galaxia!" the royal doormen boomed in a loud voice as he announed the guests arriving later that evening. Feeling winded, broken and bruised, Taigo leaned against a cold stone column at the end of the royal ballroom, watching in idle interest as dozens of importent people he did'nt known waltzed and twirled to a haunting ballad of organs and harpstrings.

The annual Debutante's Ball, a once-yearly meeting of Terre Des Mortes' rich and powerful....a gathering of snobbish brutes and rich bitches that Taigo avoided to such an extent they almsot thought him dead. A lie he had no intentions of rectifying..

"Greetings and salutations, my dearest friends!" Lord Panterasu shrilled from the top of the room, tanned face rosey from mulled wine and fine food, an obviously fake grin plasted across his war-scarred face like a Chesire cat. All at once, the music died down to a few low strings and the sea of partygoers promptly raised their glasses in salute to the tyrant king.

Taigo saluted too from his dark corner...but it was a one fingered type of salute..

"My dearest friends, it's so great to see you all here on this fine and momentous evening! It truely warms my heart!"

"...probably because you're having a corinary.." Taigo muttered to himself. Ignored by the crowd, he let out a deep sigh, whincing as his ribs stung in protext and began searching for something alcoholic to numb the pain..
Staggering unsteadily towards the open bar, he moved his hand to pick up a glass of pure absinthe, intent on drinking it by the gallon untill flights of pink glittery elephants would spirit him to his death...that was, untill, he felt a small, dainty hand grab the glass at the same time.

It was a beautiful hand... covered in blood-red lace and adorned with a sterling silver gauntlet ring encasing a long, spindly index finger. The skin was as white as milk and translucent, soft blue veins visable beneath the pale flesh.
Letting his eyes travel upward, the silvery-haired prince soon forgot the absinthe as he gazed upon the figure of Lady Arailani, radiant in a black velvet elven-style dress trimmed with red lace, her fiery red hair in ringlets around her smiling face.

"Absinthe, hmmm? Think you can handle it?" she queried with a coy giggle, emerald eyes glistening brightly from underneath long, ebony lashes.
Momentarily lost for words, Taigo could only must a few feeble vowel sounds, hands shaking so violently he knocked over the bottle of flurescent green liquid, leaving a glowing puddle on the handsome oak bartoop.

"There's no need to be shy, Taigoshin..." she whispered soothingly, placing her hand on his. Swallowing back the lump in his throat, the prince could only nod, checks burning brilliently pink.

"Ummm... w-we should be seen talking..t-together.." he managed to stammer, glancing over to towards the throne, where his father was busy rambling on about benign regal matters as a raven haired woman with her hair in a sharp ponytail and dressed in a skin-tight, shocking red dress made entirely of fishnets that left absolutely nothing to the imagination strutted proudly along side the king, ruby red lips curled into a triumphant smirk.

"What's wrong with a casual conversation?" Arailani questions, sipping on a martini glass full of a cornflower blue subtence, eyes wide with supprise.

"You see the nympho in the thong, fetish heels and fishnets?" Taigo coughed, feeling a little braver as he pointed towards the raven haired woman.

"Tanaka's beard! How scandalous! Who is she and how can she get away with such outrag?!" she gasps, noticing the buxom woman's blantant disregard for her state of undress.

"That's the girl I'm going to marry. Her name's Pandora Kurai, the profilific ruler of the Netherworld and goddess of death to the third planet from the sun. A whore by any other name would still be just as deathly."

"I pity you, Taigoshin..I truely do.." the flame haired goddess said in sympathy, placing one dainty hand on the prince's shoulder.

With a frown, he shrugged it away, folding his arms over his white linen clad chest and furrowing his brows as he caught sight of his 'fiance'.

He had long known why he was born into such a disgusting, perversion of a family from an early age- to carry on the bloodline. Having been deprived of a mother who died in childbirth, he was raised by a number of lowly court servents, the only time spent in the presence of his drunken swine of a father being that of the painful variety.
His young body held many secret scars, his skin forever transulent white and marred eternally with faded grey bruises, momentos of the 'good times' he'd had with his father..

Now, eighteen years later, nothing had changed....Panterasu's strangehold was tiger than ever and now he had chosen a bride for his son to produce a heir with....the fartest thing from a blushing bride as possible. There seemed no way out from the life of conformity he was forced to live...forced to drown in a sea of despair and self-loathing..

"Do you want to get out of here?" Arailani queried gently, snapping the silver-haired prince from his train of dark thoughts. Blinking, he nodded in mild bewilderment, letting her take his hand as she slipped them both out of the dire party.

They kept to the shadows, tip-toeing around the guards that patrolled the laberyth-eque palace grounds untill, at long last, they were both safely over the high wall, greeted by the sight of dew glistening off the grass in the gentle moonlight.
Walking in silence through the long blades of moist grass, Arailani led the young prince through the surrounding forrest, calmly guiding him through the dark overgrowth of trees, hand in hand as they soon settled before a beautiful lagoon, a waterfall cascading delicatly from the high cliff-tops, moonlight shimmering on the water's surface.

"I've seen you watching me.." Arailani whispered after what felt like an eternity of snapping twigs, causing Taigo to jump in supprise. blinking in the dim light of the moon. She giggled at this, one lace-covered hand reaching up to rest on the silver haired prince's cheek.

He flushed redder than the goddess's hair, a shiver of supprise and secret delight rocketing through his body.
"..Uh..whu-well, I-uh.." Words left him, his nerves going all out to make him like a fool before the vision of beauty before him. Not trusting himself to speak, he closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath of cold night air and letting it out as a sigh.

"There's no need for words, Taigoshin..." the flame-haired woman whispered softly, her thumb lightly stroking her companion's cheek as she moved forward slowly, emerald eyes glistening bright as the full moon in the inky black sky above.

It was all he could do to keep the sound from escaping his lips: A deep, throaty purr of pleasure as his long, black and white striped tail unfurled from beneath the trail of his untucked shirt, swaying eagerly behind him as the gap between their lips slowly got smaller....

Just before her full, velvety lips could embrace his, however, an unearthly roar that seemed to come from all angles caused the birds in the nearby trees to take flight, spooked out of their wits..

but no-one was as spooked as Taigo, his sapphire eyes wide as saucers as they fell upon the creature before them: A gigantic black panter with slate grey eyes, snout dripping with saliva and a glutterial snarl rumbling in it's belly.
Before the prince could let out a scream of alarm, it pounced, knocking him flat to the ground as four powerful paws pinned him hard, a rough paw slowly pushing down on his windpipe.

"How DARE you betray my orders, boy!" the panter snarled, flicking globs of saliva over Taigo's face as he squirmed fruitlessly against the powerful bulk of his father, choking for oxygen.

Arailani, watching wide-eyed from where she'd toppled over in fright, cried out in alarm.
"Panterasu-san! No! You'll kill him!"

"That's the whole point, bitch! Leave now and live! This is between father and devious son!"

"No! Not untill you release him!"

"I SAID LEAVE, BITCH!" Panterasu leapt up with an enraged roar, claws portruding from the coarse black fur of his paws as he rounded on the frightened woman. Shuffling backwards, Arailani struggled to get away, but the raven haired king was too fast and had her trapped beneath him, his teeth biting and snarling over her tiny frame, blood fountaining from her arms and stomach as she screamed in terror.

"NOOO!" Springing to his feet, Taigo ran towards the rampaging beast, throwing his full gaunt frame onto his father's back and wrestling away from Arailani with great difficulty owing to his superior strenght.

"Get away from her!!" he screamed, sinking his long, pointed fingernails into the beast's hulking shoulders.
With a hiss, Panterasu let go of the screaming woman, giving her a window to safety as she fled for dear life, leaving the two man beasts to wrestle in the mud.

Paws flew in blurs of black fur, blood oozed from various wounds and the sickening crack of cartiliage bone echoed on the night air.
For hours, the screams of the prince and the fierce roars of the king echoed in the night like the moans of the dead untill at last, the sun slowly rising over the tree-tops, a victor emerged from the fray..

"If you cannot control your desires, I will control them for you!!" Panterasu hissed, his slate grey eyes burnign with pure rage as he stared into the eyes of his son, a battered and bloodied mess of a man lying spread-eagle on his back against the dew-covered grass.
With a low gasp, he spat up a glob of thick, crimson blood, face etched with sheer agony as every breath he took felt like a thousand stabbing knieves.

Crouching low, the raven haired king, now in his human form, placed two fingers over the prince's blood-splattered forehead, face fixed with the upmost loathing as a bolt of midnight blue electricty surged from his dirty fingers, causing Taigo to to arch his back against the soul-shredding pain that ripped through his body, so strong was it he could'nt even scream.

A large, black crystal began to form on his forehead, pushing past tissue and skin to poke through the porcelean flesh, a permenant mark of ownership as his father wrenched him to his feet.

"I'll see to it that you never stray...." Panterasu chuckled, spitting on his son's broken face; "......you will be Pandora's slave for eternity and a day! Mwahahahaha!"





"And so you see.."; Taigo said dejectedly as the young girl stared at him in horror of his tale; "..your pain is meaningless when compared with what I had to live with.." Pausing to rub his eyes in what appeared to be fatique but was actually the concealing of phantom tears, the silver haired man let out a sigh and leaned back against the wall.

"For what must have been a millenia and a day, I was a slave...my father and my unwanted wife ruled every single waking moment of my wretched life, never letting me smell the sweet smell of freedom..the gentle scent of her hair.." his voice was little more than a whisper as he bowed his head low, featured shadowed by the waterfall of silver that cascaded from his head.

Stunned by what she'd just been told, Shasta scooted forward, her eyes wide and full of intermingled shock, pity and sorrow.
"B-but..you're free now...are'nt you? The crystal's gone....there's no more pain-"

"WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME ABOUT PAIN, BRAT?!" Taigo snapped with a sudden flash of malice in his eyes, causing the ten year old pink-head to jump in alarm.

"Have you noy heard a single word of what I've told you?! That crystal was only for appearence's sake, proof that I was owned. A thousand years, I've had to bear the scars of their sadistic pleasures, for a thousand years, I've lived with the pain. It cuts me deep, woman....deep inside my heart..and it gives me agony to dwell on it... but the pain never sleeps. It is a beast of malice, always watching....never releasing me from it's iron grip.
You think loosing all you hold dear is the agony of your life, but mark my words, child...you don't know just how lucky you are to have never lived in my time..."

With that, he trailed off, lurching forward as fatique wracked his body, hands flying to his face as he let a millenia of sorrow, anger and self-loathing flood from his being in a wave of salty tears, shoulders heaving softly as he struggled to suppress his sobs.

Brows furrowed in sadness, the young girl scooted forwards some more, moving to wrap her small arms around him and rest her still-burning forehead on his shoulder. "I guess we're not so different after all.." she whispered as her fingers trailed through the ocean of silver hair before her, fascinated by the silky strands that flowed like water through her fingers;
"We both know the cold sting of grief...one more so than others..two souls united in grief..."

Taigo looked up at her as she spoke, sapphire eyes even brighter as they glistened with fresh tears, peering out from behind dark sockets eternally marred by ancient scars and the inner grief locked within. He wanted to reply to her profound words, but only cliches sprang to mind. Instead, he could do nothing but return her gentle embrace, holding her close to his chest as they both sobbed quietly into the night....




A/N: *insert 'fainting' smilie here* Dear god, this was a hard chapter to write! Sorry about the lack of updates, but I've been busy with offline duties. I'll be starting colledge next week, so updates will be sporadic from now on. I appologize sincerely for the inconvinence and hope to get back to regular updates once I've settled into my new school regime. Untill then, I hope this chapter satisfied your urges! Poor Taigoshin...I can be a real bitch mistress, huh?
Ahh, don't worry...it'll all play out soon enough! ^_^ So, untill next time, send reviews and comments to the usual location and I'll catch ya later.
Flames will be used to make yummy marshmellow S'mores, so S'more, the meerier!
Heh! Adios, amigos!
~*Shasta*~
05/09/05