Fan Fiction ❯ When Heaven Falls ❯ Chapter 2

The sun's rays shined bright through the window, the woman stirring uneasily in the bed that had been made for her during the evening. She had been plagued by dreams, haunting ones with that man in them. The thought of him caused her to open her eyes and shoot up in the bed, groaning some as a sharp pain shot through her back and head, forcing her to lay down again. She heard the rustling of padded feet come close to her and she forced her eyes open again to see an old man standing over her, the village medic.

"You shouldn't get up!" His voice in a high squeaking noise and talking incredibly fast. "You have been injured, badly might I add, yes!"

Her eyes closed again as she tried to understand his words, dissecting them slowly in her mind before responding, "What happened to me?"

"There was a fire last night! Horrible, very horrible!" As he told her what happened, his bony fingers poked at her in various places, checking for any injuries he may have missed in the previous examination. "A young man brought you here, all dressed in red! He was identified as a traveler from last night who sneaked in! He's being judged for his actions now! Should be very good, yes!"

A few blinks as she listened to the story before relaxing her eyelids again. Her mind was reeling with different thoughts, wondering what really had happened. A stranger saved her and he would most likely be punished for it? Well, it's not like she was an important person here but it was still unfair.

She grunted as she forced herself to stand up, ignoring the sprouts of pain ringing through her body and the medic's yells of objection. She was grateful for the clothes that she still wore, struggling out of the bed and managing to stand and walk out, though slowly, her head still throbbing.

What seemed like hours, though only minutes, she finally made it to where she needed to: the town hall. Her body was throbbing with the long walk, the pain was almost unbearable, but she forced herself on, reaching the door to hear commotion behind it. Shoving her body into the double doors, she forced them open, almost stumbling as they gave very easily from her force and she blinked, looking around to see eyes set upon her.

"Who is that?" Came a voice from up ahead.

"That's the woman from last night," replied a second, somewhat familiar voice.

The people began to murmur amongst themselves and she took this chance to look around for the traveler from the night before. He shouldn't be so hard to spot, hoping that they hadn't forced him to change, and she blinked as her eyes fell upon the crimson cloaked figure. His face was unusually calm for being accused of causing so much trouble, or she thought it was calm. She couldn't tell because of the cover up he had.

"Sit, woman, sit before you fall!" Said the second voice again as a large man walked over to her, helping her up to the front of the room to sit on the bench with him. They sat directly in front of the accused, and she blinked, looking at his dark eyes. He stared back at her, silent, and not listening to the words that were being said about him, but she heard them.

"You could have destroyed an entire village, you and your impatient nature, you goddamn fool. Do you realize how many people would have lost their homes, their families? Why, even their entire lives may have been built here! All because you couldn't wait until morning."

"Maybe if you built the walls out of stone and not wood this wouldn't be a problem," came the cool and collective voice of the accused.

A roar of laughter came from all around her, and angry yells accompanying the laughter. She blinked, looking around her at all the people, wondering why so many were making such a big deal out of such a little thing; her gaze traveled back to him, his own gaze locking with hers, and almost holding her in a trance. A small gulp as she managed to tear her eyes away and look at the prosecutor of this trial.

"You were the only witness last night, Tristana," said the prosecutor, a young man that she knew. She couldn't place the name though, her headache was getting worse.

"Yes, I know…" Her voice soft.

"Did he cause it?"

She considered lying for a moment, but knew it wouldn't be so bad if they did anything to her. He didn't deserve to be punished and he did save her.

"No, he didn't. It was my fault."

A collective round of gasps from a few others in the room and she refused to meet any eyes, but she could feel them on her.

"It was an accident, entirely," she muttered, "And he saved me. You shouldn't punish him."

There was silence in the room. Would they punish her? She didn't care. She would welcome it. There was no point in staying alive anymore.

"Tristana."

She lifted her head up to stare at the one who would be the judge, or she assumed. Her vision was becoming cloudy again and the world around her was becoming a blur. Her throat was constricting as she made fatal attempts to breathe, but no one seemed to notice her silent struggle, but she regained her air quickly.

"Yes?" The word coming out in a choke.

"You have already suffered from the horrible ordeal from the eve before. You were fair in telling us the truth, and honorable to save this man, even though there is punishment in this. However, as I said, you have already suffered, and you will be unable to do the things you were before due to your injuries, so there will be no punishment, save this: you will be under strict guard until we deem it necessary that you are allowed to have your own privacy. I know that you were trying to escape again last night, but this is the final straw. Do you understand?" His dark brown eyes bore into hers and she hung her head, nodding. This punishment was far less bad than being beat or punished physically.

"And this man will be under the same guard as well."

Her head snapped upwards once more. Too quick, and her throat let out a yelp of pain as she tried to relax, and let the pain subside. A few quick worried questions directed her way and she only gave a simple yes to them all.

"Yes, Tristana. You are both responsible, so you both will suffer. His punishment will go farther though; he will be doing extensive labor until we deem it necessary that he may be released as well. Whether or not either of you like it, that is my choice."

Those were his final words, and the trial was over. Rising to his feet, he waved his hand to have a guard come forth and take the two of them. She didn't want to go and ignored the guard at first, but he was obedient, rising up from his seat and walking to stand next to the guard. Tristana felt a hand wrap about her arm and help, rather, force her up to her feet and the grip tighten. She winced at the pain shooting up her arm from the grip and tried to pull away, but failed; she went with him.

The guard was less than caring as he dragged her along. The traveler, his name still unknown to her, followed behind, his gaze fixed on the man's back. The fools, he thought to himself, his brows coming to furrow over his black gaze. He could so easily escape but he knew he had to stay, so he would abide by their rules for the time being before dealing with the lot of them. A small sneer formed on his lips, but he knew no one could see because of the scarf he always wore. That day would come.

Now he turned his eyes away from guard's back, pushing back the malicious thoughts of torture and looked at the girl. He didn't like her very much either. She was too frightened, too delicate, and too weak. However, when he had seen her the night before, something about her had hit him, but it was secretive. He didn't know it what it was, and he wasn't too eager to find out. The inner instincts told him she could be trouble and he didn't need that right now; he already had enough with the childish argument about a stupid fire.

She had obviously felt his gaze on her for she turned to look at him, her sky blue eyes wide with an unshielded fright. He turned his own eyes away to look at the ground, keeping back the low curses that tickled his tongue and the back of his throat. Kaibutsu. He would need to find the damned animal so that they could leave. Of course, he could always leave the animal there but knew that the consequences would be deadly; even just thinking about it was ignorant of him.

Tristana turned back after he looked down to the ground, still wincing at the grip that was about her arm. Why didn't the guard relax? It was apparent she wasn't able to run off anywhere, and her headache was becoming massively worse. She gave a weak tug of her arm to try to pull it away, but she had no success, obviously. This brutish male wasn't going to let her go, and shuddered at the thoughts suddenly coursing through her head. The red man wouldn't try and help her again, something told her. He might even join in on the horrid events that could transpire. Oh, damn her for such weaknesses. How she wished it could have all ended up much differently.

They finally reached what the people had come to call the safe house, where punished such as herself and the man would be forced to stay under constant surveillance until the end of their term. The door was opened and the two shoved in; she fell onto the ground, half thankful for being able to finally rest, but also half hateful of the treatment be forced upon her. He had easily stumbled but didn't fall, catching his balance once more to turn and look at the guard; a pile of clothes was tossed onto him and the guard sneered in his general direction.

"Put those on, your labor starts in a few minutes."

The man was half tempted to say something rather insulting but held his tongue. No point in getting in any more trouble with these fools. She was oblivious to him, she didn't exist, apparently, for he pulled off his clothes, and she saw his features for the first time.

His entire body was pale, deathly pale, almost albino like. Just being out there in the sun could probably kill him, and she felt a swell of pity but quickly pushed it away. But to replace the albino like state of skin, his body was well put together with smooth muscles that easily interlocked with one another and with the bones that they rested on; his hair was just like the clothes laying on the ground: blood red. His height was much taller than hers, and he had given her enough to respect to keep his back to her. She felt herself blush a bit and pulled her gaze away, closing her eyes and managing to keep her quick breath quiet.

"You done in there?" The guard's voice rang from outside.

The man had mumbled something incoherent, and then stepped outside, not bothering to give her a second glance. She didn't keep her eyes closed long though, opening them as soon as she heard the footsteps departing outside, and stared at the back.

Now instead of the clean red clothes, he wore a loose, torn, and dirty shirt with exposed arms, and brown pants. Clothes of a laborer, a punished. She knew he would be treated just as bad as she already was, and shook her head. The first guard that had taken them there was just outside, having sent another to watch the male as he worked. She didn't want to imagine what would happen during his absence, but felt some relief at the fact that if anything did happen, at least it wouldn't be times two.