Fan Fiction ❯ Caelestis ❯ Family Bonds ( Chapter 4 )

Caelestis 4: Family Bonds

 

The musical bellows of trumpets filled the quivering air. Terra, Aer, Ignis and Aquaticus ascended the palace stairs, climbing high into the atmosphere. The trumpets, as well as the drone of the kingdom's subjects and creatures, were slowly fading as the siblings climbed higher into the air. The staircase twisted its way into the infinite sky, surpassing even the highest of clouds.

 

“I don't see why Aer couldn't just fly us up to the top,” grumbled Ignis. “We'd have already intercepted the other four by now if she wasn't so lazy.”

 

Aer's grey eyes flashed. “You know that's out of the question. It would be improper, not to mention dangerous.”

 

“Yeah,” Aquaticus chimed in, “she can't carry all of us, stupid.”

 

Ignis scowled into Aquaticus's eyes, resentful to find mirth dancing beneath the blue oceans that sparkled back. Although he was anxious to see his other four siblings that they had promised to meet halfway up to the castle, he had to admit that she was right. Aer, as magnificent of a flier as she was, couldn't hold their combined weights. If she tried, they'd probably tumble back down the stairs. Then they'd have to start over.

 

And he was absolutely not about to admit that he was beginning to tire from climbing the long cases of stairs. And all of this just to get kicked out of his own kingdom.

 

Although, if he wanted to, he himself could fly, too. It would only take the smallest degree of concentration and he could use their very own body heat to make them all rise.

 

But he was no where near as graceful at flying as Aer. How humiliating, to be outdone by a girl. And a bookworm no less.

 

“Quit whining and keep climbing, smoke pit,” Terra teased breezily.

 

“That's easy for you to say,” he shot back.

 

Terra's head whipped to meet Ignis's miffed expression. “What's that supposed to mean?”

 

Ignis snorted. “What that is supposed to mean, is that climbing three hundred feet above normal cloud level must be easy for the mistress of the hunt, idiot. You probably do things like this for fun.”

 

Terra knew he was baiting her, trying to spur her into an argument. However, he was right…for once. She did tend to climb mountains on a regular basis. So, to pacify her wounded pride, she settled on incinerating his.

 

“It serves you right; you need the exercise. You were beginning to get fat, probably from all the artolaganus.” Terra stuck out her tongue for good measure, relishing in the irritation that flew across his face. She knew it was childish, but…

 

Sensing her twin's irritability, Aquaticus touched his arm, willing him not to say anything too outrageous.

 

“Terra, that's not nice.”

 

“Well, baby sister, he started it. Tell him to cool that hot head of his.”

 

Ignis growled. His sun-kissed eyes glowed with the boiling rage that threatened to erupt in its physical, flaming form. She did not just make fun of him and his favorite food…

 

“Look, tramp,” he began, inwardly grinning at the dirty look Terra sent him. “Just because you like spending your time rolling around in the dirt doesn't mean that everyone else does. If Aquaticus wasn't in front of me, I'd roast you alive. And because we're all incapable of dying, I'd do it for hours.”

 

“Yeah, well I don't care if Aquaticus was behind you, idiot! Just go ahead and try it!”

 

“Maybe I will!” To emphasize his claim, Ignis allowed a dagger shaped flame to seep into his palm. The flames seemed to bleed from his skin, licking greedily at his fingertips as he closed his hand around the handle. Moving towards Terra, he gasped as he was suddenly doused with cold water.

 

“If you did try it, I'd completely drown you,” Aquaticus said sweetly. Flicking her finger, she dried them of the water that had shot from it.

 

“Ignis, Aquaticus, and Terra, stop it! I can't stand all of this arguing!” Aer cut in.

 

“What was that for?” Ignis snarled, completely ignoring Aer. Although the water had started turning to steam as soon as it had hit him, the impact of the water was very uncomfortable. However, the positive side of this was that he didn't stay wet for long. His body temperature wouldn't allow it.

 

“For being an ass. Why else would you be standing there looking like a lump of freshly baked bread?” Terra giggled. He really was a sight with all that steam rising off of his skin.

 

“Go jump off the nearest mountaintop, you cow,” He seethed.

 

A new voice cut in before Terra could toss him off of one.

 

“Sisters, brother! Over here!”

 

“Erato!” Aer shouted.

 

Running to meet her sister, Aer was enveloped in a warm embrace, cloaked in deep magenta silk. She'd missed Erato so much; she'd nearly started sobbing at her sister's scent. She always smelled like love and promises.

 

“My sister, how've you been?” Brushing away the silver hair that had fallen in Aer's eyes, she marveled at them.

 

“Era, how I've missed you,” Aer's voice cracked with emotion, as she squeezed her older sister tighter.

 

“Era!”

 

Aer neatly sidestepped from Erato to avoid being tangled in a pile of limbs, laughs, and brilliantly colored robes.

 

“Aquaticus, Terra!” Erato fought happy tears as she gazed at her youngest sisters. They'd grown so much in the last century since she'd seen them. Especially Aquaticus; she'd grown even more beautiful, if possible.

 

“I've missed you so!” Aquaticus swiped at her eyes as she stood up. “Great, now I'm all emotional. And my eyes are gonna turn red.”

 

“Yes, and blue clashes with red, love,” Erato's deeper blue eyes stared into Aquaticus's lighter ones. They glittered with unshed tears.

 

Terra chuckled, embracing Erato once more. “Still such a princess, Era?”

 

“Naturally.”

 

“Still a princess, and probably even more annoying than she was a century ago.”

 

“Ignis,” Erato squealed. Rushing to hug him, Erato giggled at the smirk that slid across his handsome face. “Still just as rugged as I remember. And it's only made you that much more handsome.”

 

She pinched his cheek in a way that he allowed only her to do.

 

“Well, I've only improved for you. You know what they say,” he said, stroking her light pink hair. “Fire and desire work hand in hand.” He grinned, using the reference for Erato's guardian power.

 

Now, Erato smirked. “Still just as charming as you were at the Century's Spring Equinox.”

 

“And probably even more of a Phrenesis-spawned hellion.”

 

Four pairs of eyes swiveled to stare at the source of the voice.

 

Candidus laughed at his four younger siblings. His dark brown eyes sparkled with hilarity as he inspected Aer, Ignis, Terra, and then Aquaticus. How they had grown.

 

Even though it'd only been a century since he'd last seen them, he'd missed his younger siblings immensely. He'd even tossed a spell on time itself in order to skip a few decades just to see them all lined up like they were in front of him. Mentally, he giggled at their shocked expressions.

 

“Well,” he began lightly, observing their shell-shocked visages. “I was just going to say that I'd literally spent a great deal of time missing you four. But that now seem to be unnece—“

 

He hadn't even finished his sentence before he was galumphed by three warm female bodies. He laughed as they rained kisses all over his face and neck.

 

“Candi!” Aquaticus whooped. She wrapped her arms around his neck, begging for another hug.

 

“Brother, we've missed you!” Aer rejoiced, clutching him closer.

 

“Oh, Candi, you've gotten so short! “ Terra kissed him on the chin after helping him up from the marble platform that ended the first two staircases. Only one left to go.

 

“Oh, you three, it feels so good to see you.” Candidus kissed his sisters, and then smirked at Ignis. The scowl that was planted across his face was very comical indeed.

 

“Jealous, little brother? How unbecoming; even for you.”

 

Steeling his nerves and quelling the urge to fry his brother to the ground, Ignis replied, “Not at all, Candi. What are you doing here, anyway? I didn't know the old man had resorted to keeping the living vessel of all the trash in Caelestis around.”

 

“Don't call me `Candi',” Pushing his shoulder length, golden-brown hair out of his face, he wrapped his arms around Aquaticus, Aer, and Terra. “Only the ladies can call me that. As far as why I'm here, I came to watch your face when mama and the old man toss you out of Caelestis and onto your ass.”

 

Releasing his sisters, he stepped around them to walk up to Ignis. Flicking his nose with his index finger, Candidus continued. “I've been waiting for this day since you were born, smoke pit.”

 

Ignis bristled at the giggle that passed Terra's lips at the sound of his ridiculous nickname. He'd earned it when he was younger. He'd been training with Vitreus in honing his control over his Guardian powers in his father's courtyard. Accidentally, he'd lost control and had ended up creating an orb of flame that had left a gargantuan crater in the center of Cognatus's quad that had smoked for hours.

 

“Candi, stop teasing Ignis,” Erato scolded. “We have to get them to daddy.”

 

The gleeful mood that had descended over the siblings evaporated and was carried away on the celestial winds that filtered the air.

 

“Way to ruin the mood, princess,” Candidus drawled sarcastically, gathering a dreary Aquaticus against his chest. Stroking her hair he muttered, “Now look what you've done.”

 

Erato fidgeted with her robe, trying to concentrate on the way the magenta silk spilled through her fingers and not how stupid she was. “I'm sorry.”

 

She took in her siblings' poignant faces and wanted nothing more than to melt into a puddle like the witch she felt she was at that moment. Motioning for them to follow her, she started up the last staircase.

 

“Brothers, sisters, do not despair.”

 

Terra's hazel eyes flared. “And how is that supposed to be accomplished, Era? We've just seen you and Candi for the first time in a century, and we're leaving tonight.”

 

“Tomorrow night,” Candidus corrected.

 

“What?”

 

“You've been given a temporary reprieve, courtesy of mama. She also wants to see you before you go. Somehow, she managed to grace the old man into letting you stay a while longer.”

 

Ignis spoke up, confused. “Don't you mean she `convinced' him into letting us stay?”

 

Candidus shot him a knowing grin. “No.”

 

Ignis grinned back. Algaia had gotten them out of trouble with their father on many, many occasions, often by tossing some sort of persuasion spell around.

 

“That's where we're going after we see daddy. Mama's loving orders,” Erato smiled soothingly.

 

Aer brightened. “Really?”

 

Candidus nodded and tweaked her nose. “Yep.”

 

“Good ol' mama,” Ignis said, smiling. “Always did look out for us. Speaking of which, where's the nomad and the runt?”

 

“You mean Itio and Phonascus,” Aquaticus corrected.

 

“They went to go fetch a treat for us,” Candidus replied cryptically.

 

Terra lifted a suspicious eyebrow at the shady nature of her brother's reply. “What kind of treat?”

 

“Candi, we may as well tell them,” Erato said reasonably.

 

“If the princess insists.”

 

Rolling her eyes at Candidus's goofy grin, she shook her head. “I'll give you a hint. There are more of them than we can possibly count and they've messed up our family tree more that we care to admit.”

 

Ignis exploded. “They went to go get those idiotic Greeks?!”

 

Aer's eyes widened. “Really? Are you sure?”

 

Her skepticism was replaced by excitement when Erato nodded.

 

“We haven't seen our cousins in almost two hundred years!” Aquaticus exclaimed.

 

“Is Artemis coming?” Terra asked eagerly. She wanted one last hunt before she left. And if it had to be her last, she at least wanted it to be with the goddess of the hunt.

 

Candidus smiled. “Yes, Artemis will come. As will her twin, Apollo.”

 

“Yes, Apollo and Artemis will show up, along with Persephone, Athena, Dionysus, Eros, and Calliope.” Erato said.

 

“Not to mention Amphitrite, Hermes, Aeolus, Orpheus, Adonis, and even Asclepius,” Candidus finished.

 

“Did you just say Dionysus and Adonis?” Ignis demanded. Candidus and Erato nodded, smirking.

 

“The drunkard and the queer? Why do they have to come?”

 

“Cousin Dion is coming?” Aquaticus asked excitedly.

 

“Persephone, too,” Piped Terra.

 

“Erato beamed and her blue eyes sparkled. “Yes, yes, and yes.”

 

Aer remained quiet. She was excited to see her cousins, of course. But she knew her happiness was short-lived. They'd be leaving shortly after seeing their siblings as well as their cousins for the first time in a number of centuries.

 

So, as a result, she wasn't so quick to rejoice as Terra and Aquaticus. And it was not just because she was sentient of their impending departure. Aer was also well aware of the righteous competition that took place whenever she and her siblings were around their Greek cousins.

 

There was Aquaticus and Amphitrite; Ignis, Adonis and Apollo; Terra and Artemis; herself and Athena. Not to mention Candidus and Hermes; Itio and Dionysus; Phonascus and Calliope; and Erato and Eros.

 

“If that queer thinks that he looks better than I do, then he's got another thing coming,” Ignis's indignant voice rang out.

 

Aer sighed; especially Adonis and Ignis. Their competition raged fiercer than everyone else's combined.

 

“Aer, are you okay?”

 

Aer's head swiveled to meet Aquaticus's worried eyes.

 

“I'm fine, little one,” she answered evenly, hoping that her pensiveness hadn't entered her tone.

 

Aquaticus narrowed her eyes. Aer was hiding something, and regardless of her nicknamed persona of `little one', Aquaticus was far from it. She was well aware of the emotional spike that had surfaced in her sister's aura, seeing as how it had sliced at her mind like the blade of one of the Bucerius that guarded the gates of the Guardian hell, Phrenesis.

 

“Are you sure?” she pressed for good measure.

 

Aer smiled reassuringly. “You know how often I daydream."

 

“I do,” Aquaticus replied, nodding.

 

“C'mon you two,” Erato called over her shoulder, facing the remaining staircase. “We wouldn't want to worry mama and daddy.”

 

With one final glance at Aer, Aquaticus shook her head. “We sure wouldn't.”

 

 

-Glossary-

 

Artolaganus- Ignis' favorite food. Meal cake made with wine. He eats it very often, so Terra teases him by calling him fat ^^

Bucerius- Ox monsters that guard the realm of Phrenesis. They carry ax blades to cop offenders with.