Tsubasa Chronicle Fan Fiction ❯ The Lost Woods ❯ The Lost Woods ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Lost Woods
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters.  Yaoi, Language, Violence, Lemony Twincesty Stuff
Disclaimer - I don't own Tsubasa or anything CLAMP related, don't make money off it.  Wish I did.

My other stories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
Archived at - jezz-ra. livejournal. com, adultfanfiction. net, fanfiction. net, and mediaminer. org
Questions or Comments?  Email me at megami _ no _ remon @ hotmail. com  ((remove spaces))

// Blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N -Written for the wonderful Konnichipuu’s Secret Santa Gift Fic.  I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful holiday season.  I’ll be using the Holitsuba naming convention for the twins - the Fai we knew as Fai throughout 95% of TRC gets to stay Fai and his brother (the original Fai) gets to be Yuui.  Argh.  Clamp can be so confusing.  XD

I apologize in advance - it got sort of rushed towards the end due to my deadline and SO many issues creeping up - I hope I didn’t ruin it utterly.  I didn’t have time for a beta and my spell checker is an idiot.

Had a hell of a time finding a good song to use as a title and quote.  Originally I wanted to use one of two songs by the Googoo Dolls or Grantchester Meadows by Pink Floyd (because it’s GREAT for painting a mental image) - but they didn’t fit so well.  I don’t know.  It’s a quirk.  Every story I write is named after either a song or a name of a song, and usually has a reference or two added into the text somewhere....you’ll have to forgive this one.  It was playing through my head half the time I was writing.

So....there are some....veiled Legend of Zelda references / inspired parts scattered throughout...I can’t help it.  I’m an addict and listening to the sound track actually inspired me to take this fic in some directions I hadn’t thought to previously.  Also, sorry if this is...longer than we planned?  Heh.  Oh well. Without further ado, I delurk to present my humble offering.  I hope it fills your prompt adequately.  Happy Holidays!

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Dododo , dododo, dododododooodododododoooo....
~ Legend of Zelda, Lost Woods Theme
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


He saw disaster coming before it happened, but there was no way to avoid it at the speed he was traveling, not with the ground slick with snow and ice.  The fence, heavy with snow and hard to see until the last minute, loomed abruptly in his path.  One of the two carriage horses gathered its hooves beneath it and made an impressive attempt at a leap to clear the barrier.  The other, its eyes rolling madly and froth at its lips, likely never even saw it.  The first had no chance of jumping high enough, bound as it was to its partner and the carriage itself.  The impact was tremendous, full of noises he hoped to never hear again as horses screamed, wood splintered, and the carriage flipped up in the air, smashing down with shattering impact.  There was a brief moment of suspended weightlessness. Then, all was disoriented pain, dark explosions behind his eyes, his body twisted and crushed and bent and battered.

Kurogane forced himself back to full consciousness after a brief moment, aware of a tearing pain in his stomach.  A broken piece of the carriage had slit his belly wide open.  He paused only briefly to wonder how he had escaped being crushed by the bulk of the overturned wreck before the distant sound of hoofbeats and shouts caused him to try to move.  His initial attempt failed, however - his leg was wedged beneath  the wreckage.

Kurogane looked around, taking stock of his surroundings as best he could.  The carriage was an impossible disaster of twisted metal and broken wood, laying on its roof and in pieces across the snow.  Incredibly, the horse that had retained the sense to try and jump had survived and was even now struggling back to its feet - apparently, the leather straps of the hitch had given way and sent the poor beast skidding over the fence into the snow on the other side.  It sported a few scrapes and bruises and was clearly shaken and disoriented, but otherwise seemed fine.  Kurogane took a moment to look towards the other horse and wished he hadn’t.

Another shout in the distance - closer than the last - spurred the warrior to move again.  His pinned leg felt curiously hot and heavy near his thigh, and he couldn’t feel anything past the point where it disappeared into the wreckage.  Kurogane cleared his mind and steeled his resolve, aware that he was running out of time, and pulled.

A bolt of blazing, white-hot agony shot through him, stealing his breath and making him see stars.  Every injury he had sustained seemed to come alive when he moved, and he was nearly sick from the nauseating shock.  Alarm, cold and jittery, skittered down his spine as he noticed a thick pool of dark red slowly starting to spill into the snow from where his leg was pinned.

His fear crystallized and turned into a surge of panicked adrenaline then, at the sight of his blood staining the snow red.  His pain was momentarily shoved to the back burner as the horror of being trapped here, bleeding here, DYING here became a much more distinct possibility and not a distant notion.  Fear gave fuel to his strength, and with a tremendous effort he attempted to lift the debris pinning his leg.   His leverage was terrible and his burst of strength brief, but it was enough to shift the rubble.   Sheer luck caused something further inside the wreckage to shift and prevent the mess from crashing back down on him again, which was good.  The pain that flooded him as blood forced its way through crushed veins was consuming and monstrous, drawing a low cry of impossible anguish from the injured warrior.

// I must survive.  I must protect her, and I must survive. //

Without that lone thought, Kurogane might have given in to the darkness crowding into his field of vision, like a cluster of silently beating black wings.  It promised relief from this terrible thing that was his hurt.  But no, he had made a promise....no, sworn a solemn oath, that he would do his duty and that he would live this day.

His agony seemed to be becoming a distant thing, his limbs heavy and clumsy.  Somehow, he forced himself to remain coherent, to focus on what he needed to do.  Focus on his mission.  He had been injured before..  He would get through this.

It took a while for his beleaguered mind to figure out why he still couldn’t move his leg, even with the weight shifted off of it.  A thick metal rod - some of the carriage’s framework, most likely - had been driven right through it.  That, then, was the source of the alarming pool of blood.

With grim determination, the warrior tore a long strip free of his tattered pants and tied it tightly around his leg as tightly as he could manage.  The cold was a concern, but Kurogane knew he would far rather risk frostbite, even the loss of his leg, to laying here like a trapped animal waiting for his pursuers to come and cut him down.

That done, the warrior reached forward and gripped the broken metal rod firmly in one hand and his injured leg in the other, another thick and folded strip of cloth wedged between his teeth.  //Oh, fuck, this is going to hurt...//  With one sharp motion he pulled his leg upwards.

The length of metal was short, thankfully, and he dropped his screaming limb abruptly the moment it was free, bending over with a muffled noise somewhere between a sob and a scream.  He was glad he had had the foresight to put something between his teeth - the force with which he clamped them together surely would have broken them.  

Somewhere, mercifully, a switch in his brain had flipped.  The pain was too much for him to bear and had simply receded.  He was scarcely aware of his actions as he forced himself up, using his sheathed sword as a makeshift cane.  It wouldn’t do for a long distance, but it somehow, impossibly, got him over to the horse.  The beast protested and tried to shy off to the side when he almost fell on it - it was hurt too and still shaken from its mad dash and the crash itself - but it was a good horse, raised and trained by Kurogane himself.  He mumbled something to it that he hoped was soothing, resting his forehead on the side of the horse’s damp neck, his vision swimming.

Another shout, this one alarmingly close by, drew him from his growing stupor.  It took all he had - and he was sure the horse was none too appreciative of the gesture - but Kurogane took a tight grip of his mane and used the last strength he could muster to half jump, half haul himself onto the horse’s back.  The animal snorted and stamped a few times, its own injuries sore and not at all caring for the rough treatment.  Kurogane didn’t have time, however, to comfort her and gave her a sharp kick with his good leg.

The horse jumped into motion,  bolting down the road just as the group of men pursuing Kurogane crested the hill.  They were close - too close - he would not escape them.  Not in his condition on an injured horse.  The pursuit split up, a few stopping to dig through the wreckage of the carriage as the others gave chase.  Even still, half of the enemy force was too much for him right now.  

A small, grim smile flicked across his lips as he heard more shouts from the men that had paused to search through the carriage - they hadn’t found what they were looking for.  He could only hope that it would be enough to complete his mission.

Kurogane’s horse bolted ahead, fear-stricken by the shouting and clamoring of their pursuers.  The horse put on an extra burst of trees, flurries of snow flying into the air under its pounding hooves as it careened recklessly towards the still, dark forest ahead.  Kurogane couldn’t do anything but hold on.  He fought for consciousness, one hand gripping the horse’s mane and the other tightly clenched over the horrible gash in his stomach, praying that he could hold everything in, praying his insides didn’t become his outsides.

The first trees began to pass them by as his horse made the forest, and Kurogane closed his eyes briefly.  There were dark legends of this forest.  No one had ever been in here and lived to tell the tale.  It was said to be cursed, haunted - a certain death to any that dare cross its borders.  Right now, Kurogane didn’t care.  Death to the unknown curse of this fell forest or death at the hands of his pursuers, it didn’t much matter to him either way.

At first, he thought his ears were deceiving him.  He heard curses behind him, but the distinct cessation of hoofbeats.  Kurogane dared a look behind him.  His pursuers had stopped at the edge of the forest, not daring to cross the border of the tree-line.  It was a brief spark of hope, an impossible little thrill of jubilant relief...and then he saw what they were doing.

Kurogane never actually felt the arrow pierce him - he was far beyond pain at this point.  The impact was tremendous, a punch high on his shoulder.  He had never imagined a longbow could hit so hard.  The force of it threw him forward, knocking him from his horse to land in the thick, snowy leaf litter on the ground.

It was simply too much.  He had already pushed his limits far beyond what his body could handle, and this added impact and injury wasn’t something he could deal with.

Mighty Kurogane finally succumbed and gave in to the darkness that had been fighting to claim him.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“Well, we can’t just leave it there, it’ll die.  I think we should keep it!”

The spirit turned to face it’s counterpart.  They had no real features to speak of in their truest form - the both of them were wispy beings of mist and light.  Their words were not truly spoken either - to mortal ears they were the sounds of nature itself.  The crystalline tinkle of branches laden with icicles brushing against each other, the distant rustle of leaves as a soft breath of wind flowed past them, the soft thrumming heartbeat of this old and ancient forest..

The two were alike in almost every way - in many ways, they were inseparably part of each other, divided from one being long ago  They did, however,  have different personalities.  Their consciousness, which could be singular if they so chose, rarely was.

Despite the lack of form and features, however, the first spirit could clearly sense it’s counterpart’s mild exasperation.  “Keep it?  It is mortal, a human.  We never keep them.  This one’s lifebeat is faint as it is.  It will return to the earth soon.”

The first spirit huffed, clearly displeased with that notion.  “Is there any good idea why we SHOULDN’T help it?”

“We don’t interfere with the lives of mortals.”

“Of course we do.  Any time they wander into our forest we lead them out and take their memories of their time here.  Do you know they actually tell stories that our forest is cursed?”

“We do not leave any to tell them otherwise.  Let them believe it is so, it aids in our task as guardian.  Humans have a way of trying to lay claim to things...to change and mold the land to suit their own needs.  They disrupt the flow of nature itself.  The very thing we are sworn to preserve.  There is a deep power here, older and more ancient than even we are.  We cannot let it be put at risk.”

“Oh come on, can we PLEASE keep it?  It will die if we don’t intervene, and it is their holiday season.  It came running in here to us.  We can’t just abandon it.”

“You’re entirely too fascinated by these customs the humans keep.  But if it will please you, fine.  I will heal the human.  When it is well again, we will send it off as we do all the others.  That is the arrangement.”

“Alright, fine.  You know I was never gifted with the healing side of our power, so I don’t have much choice but to concede.”

“That may be so, but I could never whip up the fury of a good, cleansing storm like you can...nor am I as talented with our song.”

“Well, that’s just he way it goes, I suppose.  Come on, lets go see it!”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurogane’s whole body felt heavy...numbed....drugged.  // Am I frostbitten? // he wondered distantly.  It would make sense, it had been a cold night and he had been laying on the ground for who knew how long.  // If not frostbite, blood loss.  I can’t move.  I think I may actually die here....//  

He paused in his thoughts, dimly surprised at the regret he felt at that notion.  He had not died bravely in battle, but on the run.  Of course, he had been following his orders...but it seemed he was going to fail them as well.  // I’m sorry, Princess. //

Kurogane felt a presence, and it was all he could do to open his eyes.  Distantly above him, he could see stars twinkling in the crisp, clear winter sky through the thick web of interwoven tree branches.  Something else caught his vision as it faded, however.  He wanted with all his might to get a better look at it - although whether it was a dream, a hallucination, some guide to the other side....he had no idea.  

It was the hazy outline of a large bird, its feathers long and trailing wisps of white light, its whole body gleaming with pulsing white and gold lines of pure and radiant energy, flowing and shifting in patterns that he knew meant something but could never comprehend.  It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen  It stood over him, arching its delicate and elegant wings out around him.  But more striking than the trailing feathers of light and power were the eyes - a pair of pure and glowing, ice-blue crystals with a shade unmatched by anything he had ever seen.

He felt calm then, and at peace.  It felt as if all the pains and worries and weights of his entire life were lifted, borne away by the sight of those impossible blue orbs.  The darkness that rose to claim him now was deep and serene and warm, and he welcomed the blissful abyss.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The spirit watched the human with true amazement as it opened it’s eyes.  It truth, it had thought the creature too far gone already for any amount of healing to save this battle-torn body, already suffering from frostbite and the loss of far too much blood.  What a truly strong and capable specimen of its kind!  But more surprising than the fact that the human had opened those unusual, striking scarlet eyes was the fact that the spirit knew it had been SEEN.  Not merely felt - several humans, especially those more gifted with the arcane or divine arts, were capable of communing with its kind - but to be seen by one in such a weakened state?  It was not the sort of spirit connected to the passing of life or death amongst the creatures that walked the world - being on the brink of death would not make this human life any closer to it, more susceptible to discerning its being.

Slowly, the spirt shook its head and let the power flow through it, feeling and watching the faint white-gold glow surrounding the battered form on the forest floor beneath it.  Flesh pulled together and wounds knitted, leaving behind not even a scar to mark their passing.  The creeping death of frostbite was slowly melted out of the human’s body and circulation was restored to Kurogane’s extremities.  The spirit could do nothing to conjure up the blood that had been lost, but it was confident that with proper warmth and food this human would recover.  It had already proven its remarkable capabilities, hadn’t it?

“Well?  Is it done?  Will it live?”

“Yes, of course.  It will be weak for a time and will need to be kept warm and fed, but it is strong.”“That’s wonderful news.  I’ll see about getting some fire and food.”  The spirit paused, sensing it’s counterpart’s distaste at the thought of flame in their forest.  “Oh, don’t worry.   I’ll make sure its kept safely under control.  The human needs it right now, and there’s plenty of brush that should be cleared before spring anyway so new things can grow.”

The other spirit nodded, still watching the human thoughtfully.  “Do you know, it opened its eyes?  They’re the most unusual shade of red.   I’ve never seen their like on a human.  And what’s more, it saw me.  I could feel it.”

“What?  Thats impossible.  This one isn’t one of those human...” the spirit paused for a word, “mage things.  Did it really see you?”

“I’m sure of it.”

Both spirits were silent for a moment as they watched the human, who was resting far more peacefully now.  The first went about building a fire to keep the human warm for now - the creation was simple, a mental spark of summer lightning, although the preparation was much more cautious.  The spirit took its time, carefully moving dirt and stones into a secure pit where the flame could not reach out to damage the area around it.  The spirits’ protective wards would do much to ward off the winter’s chill, but the added warmth would do the mending creature good.

Despite the second spirit’s initial misgivings, it couldn’t deny its curiosity at this unusual human and found itself just as caught up in the small mysteries of this enigmatic life as its counterpart had been as they retreated for the night to their favorite resting place, a crystalline pool at the base of the largest and most ancient tree in the forest.

They would check in on their pet soon.  For now, it was under their protection.  No harm would come to it this night.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Coming back to consciousness was a struggle his body fought against ferociously, but Kurogane won out in the end.  Slowly he opened his eyes, blinking hazily in the dim gray light just before dawn.  He didn’t dare to move for a long moment, still trying to get his mental feet back under him, to make sense of the world around him.  Confusion dominated his brain, and he took a few low, deep breaths before closing his eyes again to attempt to retrace his steps.  
Where was he?  How had he ended up here in the first place?...

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurogane huffed in annoyance.  “For the hundredth time, Princess, this isn’t a good idea.  You’re far too exposed out here.”

Princess Tomoyo just laughed from across the carriage, reaching over to pat him on the arm.  “You should lighten up some, Kurogane.  It’s the holidays, and I won’t be a shut-in.  Its been a long time since I went out to visit Princess Sakura’s kingdom...what better time of year to do it?  Besides, I have you and your hand-picked team of soldiers here to escort me.”

Kurogane just gave her another dark look, which earned another amused giggle from the princess.  She had long ago become immune to them and knew, by the simple fact that he was sitting here across from her, that he had long ago given in to her vacation for the holidays.

Even still, the warrior was on edge.  He had been Princess Tomoyo’s faithful bodyguard, her sword and shield - well, maybe more the sword part than the shield part, but that wasn’t the point - since he had come of age and joined the military.  Kurogane was the sole survivor of his family and had nothing left to tie him to his native home of Suwa, so he had moved to the royal palace, working as an apprentice and errand boy until he was old enough to join the army.. He had quickly moved up through the ranks and caught the attention of all the higher-ups.  He fought like a man possessed, and before most trainees his age were beginning their advanced courses, he had surpassed their masters.

He was unswervingly loyal, and while he was smarter than the average warrior and accepted that the world contained many shades of gray, his views of right and wrong were painted in strict black and white.  It came as no real surprise to anyone at the palace that the Princess had chosen him to be her shadow and personal guard.  There was never any question that he would lay down his life to protect her without hesitation.  However, he also held no fear of her simply because of her office and diplomacy was never his strong suit - if he felt she was wrong, or disagreed with an idea, he never hesitated to state his views very clearly - often loudly - and would defend his position just as unfailingly as he defended Tomoyo herself.  While most of her Court were continually shocked at his impudence, she had found it to be a refreshing change to have someone not afraid to stand up for his beliefs and willing to argue against her any time he thought she was wrong.

For that reason, perhaps above all else, she trusted him more than any other person alive.  Kurogane would never be corrupted.  He would never mislead her, lie to her, or put on airs for her or anyone else’s benefit.

Of course, Kurogane wasn’t as much of an angry, growly rock as he seemed to be at first glance or to those who knew him only casually.  He had a warm and caring side buried somewhere behind all the walls he had built to hide it.  Tomoyo knew he genuinely cared about her happiness and emotional well-being as much as he did her physical well-being, and so...here they were now, in a carriage with a small escort and partway down the road on a three day journey to the neighboring kingdom of Clow to visit her childhood friend Sakura.

Kurogane had railed against the idea.  Loudly.  He argued that his soldiers had been reporting an alarming number of attacks on travelers of late.  They knew painfully little about the attacking force as well - the didn’t know if they were bandits or an enemy scouting force.  No witnesses or any real evidence had been left behind.  The attacks were executed quickly, cleanly, and overwhelmingly.  If they WERE a bandit force, they were large and trained better than most.  And yet, bandits were the hopeful verdict - if this was some sort of enemy force that had crept past the border guards and was within a couple day’s easy ride to the palace, the situation could be far more dire, even going so far as an assassination plot.  Who would want to assassinate Princess Tomoyo, Kurogane had yet to figure out - she was renowned for being benevolent, gentle, and wise beyond her years.  As far as he knew, she had never given any neighboring country reason to come after her...but there were always the simple aspects of human nature as motives.  Wealth and power.

Eventually, however, Kurogane gave in when he saw how much it obviously meant to her.  It HAD been a truly long time since she had visited her friend, it WAS the holiday season, and she had conceded to let him bring as many soldiers with them as he felt necessary.

And so, here they were.  They were in the princess’ favorite carriage with an escort of 20 mounted and well-trained soldiers.  Kurogane had carefully weighed the pros and cons of taking the obvious royally decorated carriage versus one that could be disguised...but he couldn’t very well disguise a small force of heavily armed and armored guards, and he didn’t want to risk having them at any sort of distance in case trouble arose and they needed to respond quickly.  Since there were too many elements that couldn’t be so easily disguised, they had gone the opposite route and made their presence as visible as possible, displaying the royal crest proudly and traveling boldly down the center of the main roads, the fastest route towards Clow - it was Kurogane’s hope that the brazen display would dissuade any would-be attackers.

Regrettably, Kurogane’s worries turned out to be well-founded.  Without any warning there was a tremendous explosion outside that rocked the carriage and nearly overturned it.  It was followed by the brief sound of the screams of horses and men.  Kurogane was out the door in a flash to see what had happened.

It was obvious that they were under attack.  Half of the escort had been taken down in a single, sickly green fireball that still burned over the road and the scorched bodies, letting off a rancid, oily smoke.  The rest of the escort was scrambling into formation and trying to ignore the blackened husks that was all that remained of their comrades.  The carriage driver was doing his level best to try and rein in the two horses - they were stout beasts, and had been around war preparations enough to be mostly inured to loud noises, but the unnatural flame disturbed them.

“Stay in the carriage, Princess,” Kurogane growled quickly, watching his small force quickly maneuvering into position.  At the top of a nearby hill stood another force of mounted, armed men.  The bat-like insignia on their armor was unfamiliar to Kurogane, but he ignored that for a moment.  His sharp gaze scanned the ground quickly until he found what he was looking for - an intact longbow and a quiver of arrows that had been thrown free when one of the soldiers had hit the ground.  It took him a matter of seconds to nock an arrow and draw a bead on his target.  It was a long shot, but the bow had a powerful draw and Kurogane was a good shot.  He let the arrow fly and dropped the bow to draw his sword and join his men.

The arrow hit the sole enemy mage in the throat with enough force to knock him cleanly from his horse, his next spell fizzling before it could fully cast.  The battle was on then, Kurogane leading the charge.. He took down several of the enemy soldiers before they realized his lack of mount was not much of a disadvantage - the big warrior was a master of many unusual sword arts, and the waves of destruction his beloved Souhi could unleash was not something his opponents were prepared for.

Despite the initial advantage the unexpectedly vicious counterattack had granted, Kurogane saw his comrades taken down and driven back one at a time, and he himself was sustaining fairly grim injuries.  None of them were mortal blows, but they were surely wearing him down.

Then there were five - four of Kurogane’s men and roughly a dozen left of the others.  Kurogane was no stranger to battle, and neither were they.  They knew there was no hope left for them - the best they could hope for was to go down fighting fiercely, to take as many as they could with them.   One of them looked towards Kurogane and nodded grimly to him.  “Try to save the Princess.  We will hold them as long as we can.”

Kurogane was torn, briefly.  To retreat from a battle was not in his nature, but if he fell here, who knew what would happen to Tomoyo?  He grit his teeth and nodded to the man, diving back around to the other side of the carriage and pulling open the door.

Princess Tomoyo was in tears, more of horror for the loss of her people than out of fear, although she was clearly frightened as well.  Kurogane had no time to be gentle, and he bodily grabbed her and hauled her out of the carriage, using the vehicle as a visual shield between him as his opponents.  It took all of a couple seconds for him to drop her a bit more roughly than he would have liked into a nearby snowdrift and kick snow over her.  “Stay here, Princess, and don’t move.  When they come after me, get away from here.  There’s a village an hour back, they can get you back to the palace.”

Tomoyo gasped, but wasn’t about to argue as she buried herself further.  “Kurogane!”Kurogane paused, already most of the way back to the carriage.  “What?!  I don’t have t--”“Come back to me alive.  That’s an order.  Promise me!”

Kurogane grit his teeth but nodded. “I will.”  And then he was in the front of the carriage, shoving the corpse of the driver off to the side with only a twinge of regret before grabbing the reins and snapping them with a loud yell.   The horses leaped forward in startled motion and were soon tearing off down the road.  The warrior prayed the impromptu ruse would work, prayed that the enemy had been more focused on the brave few charging at them than his brief delay behind the carriage.

The shouts of alarm behind him brought a grim smile of satisfaction to his face.  He knew it would only be mere minutes before they were after him....but at that moment, he didn’t care.  The Princess was smart and, hopefully would live through it.  He knew they would catch up eventually - but he would deal with that when it happened.  For now, he focused on urging the horses on to even greater speeds.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Slowly, drearily, the warrior opened his eyes again.  The sun had risen, although it seemed darker in the forest.  All around him, golden sunflakes danced on a light, glittering bed of frosty fallen leaves.

So that was how he had ended up here.  Some of it was dim in his memory, jumbled and nonsensical.  He distantly remembered the actual crash but very little after that.  Alarm gripped him abruptly and he sat up quickly, although it made his head swim and his vision go dark.  His hands flew to his belly, feeling for the garish wound he knew he had received...and found nothing.  His clothes were still tattered and ripped, but his flesh was clean and unblemished.  There was no sign of the pole that had been driven through his leg, or the arrow that had dug into the back of his shoulder.  In fact, several small scars he had long been accustomed to bearing were simply gone, erased.

There was no pain - curiously, he felt very little at all physically right now - and this worried him further.  The frosty leaves and the wintery morning air seemed to hold no weight.  He wasn’t numb, exactly - he could feel the textures of things under his fingers, but he could not feel the cold.

Something was definitely wrong here.

A quick look around revealed a fire pit smoldering nearby, the embers still glowing but the flames having run out of immediate fuel to consume.  Next to it grew a bush unlike anything he had seen before.  It was laden with several large, round, pale berries with a whitish-blue tinge to them.  They were roughly the size of cherries and grew in small clusters, giving off a ripe scent reminiscent of peaches.  Several flowers and greener fruits also dotted the bizarre bush.

Kurogane eyed it warily, and his stomach obediently growled.  It smelled delicious.  He promptly cursed at it.

“Fucking bush,” he grumbled as he struggled to his feet.  He still felt dizzy, but after taking further stock of his situation he realized he was fully healed and still had all the possessions he could remember - most importantly, his beloved Souhi.

He looked around for a long moment, trying to judge which way he had come in.  How had he gotten to this exact spot, who had tended his wounds...hell, how had he survived?  Where had his caretaker gone?

Too many questions.

In any given direction, the forest appeared relatively unremarkable - an undisturbed testament to the beauty of nature.  It certainly didn’t LOOK like he would have imagined a cursed forest of death to look like.  The trees loomed tall and wide-spreading in all direction, ancient and serene.  They were fairly widespread in a lot of areas - the interlacing branches that formed the canopy, when laden with leaves in spring and summer probably crowded out many of the smaller trees that attempted to grow.  Some smaller plants had still made their way up, however - lots of bushes and other small plants.  A large, mossy rock with only a light dusting of frost nearby was surrounded by a small patch of wintergreen, the dark waxy leaves sticking out in stark contrast to the whitened background.  Birds chirped and he saw a couple squirrels and a rabbit going about their business a ways away.

There were no hanging curtains of creepy moss, broken dead trees that looked like faces, creepy red eyes peering out of holes....it was simply a forest.  It didn’t feel foreboding in any way, even though Kurogane could feel....something.  A presence.  It wasn’t something he could really put his finger on, but he still felt as though he were being watched.  In his mind, he had a sudden flash of two blue, gleaming orbs, like brilliant stars in a sea of white light, but he couldn’t place the image.

“The hell with this,” he grumbled.  He was grateful but wary for being healed and left with a fire, but this was overall far too weird.  Injuries didn’t simply vanish, he had never seen a bush like the one he had awakened next to, and he could SEE frost and snow but couldn’t feel the cold, and SOMEONE was WATCHING him.

He kept a wary hand near the hilt of his sword and promptly started walking in the direction he assumed was correct, from what he could tell of the sun.  He had to get out of here as soon as possible, but everything looked the same no matter which direction he looked.  Oh well.  As long as he kept the sun to his back, he’d get where he needed to go.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“Aw, it didn’t eat.  Perhaps humans don’t need to eat as much as we thought?  Humans do eat plants still, don’t they?”The other spirit  sent a little pulse of energy towards its counterpart, the equivalent of a shrug.  “I wouldn’t know.  We never keep the humans that venture into our forest.”

“Aw.  It was a beautiful snowberry bush, though.”

“I don’t think those are native to this area, though.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the human had never seen one.   Maybe it didn‘t know it was supposed to eat it“  The spirit was silent and thoughtful for a minute.  “Do they even still grow anywhere?”“I don’t know.  We haven’t left the forest since we came here, when the only tree here was this one, only a tiny seedling.  We were one then, only the smallest of wisps.”

Both spirits were silent for a while, remembering back to that time.  They had been, at one time, the tiniest of fae spirits, a small drifting glow of nature energy, a little freshly brought into being.  They had been created as a simple byproduct of the energy of a fantastic storm, drawn together and sparked to the most basic consciousness by the strong magic in that far distant, frozen land.  

They had drifted far on the wind like a bit of dandelion fluff, over mountains and an ocean, a vast and empty field, and continued to drift until they found a tiny seedling that called to them, growing on the edge of a small but crystal-clear spring.  The spring was a thing of power itself, by chance flowing up from the earth and resting squarely on a pair of crossing ley-lines, the veins of power and magic that flowed through all the earth.

As the tree grew, and the years dwindled by, a small forest sprang up around the spring, fed by the ever-growing wisp’s energy.  It, too, shifted over time, drawing its power from the forest around it and in turn feeding that same forest, protecting it and helping it to grow.  The wisp grew and evolved with its land, its form changing and its mind and power expanding vastly.  It had lived here for centuries now, as old as the woods themselves.

When the humans finally came, the spirit had already divided into two entities - different and yet the same.  They each encompassed different aspects of their power and had reached a level where some cultures considered them gods.  They were not, of course....but they did wield power far beyond that of any human.

The forest was part of them, and when the first humans attempted to take down some of their trees, to ravage their plants and clear them to make villages, the spirits experienced a deep pain, as if the axes and blades had torn through their own incorporeal beings directly.  They were not cruel entities, however - they were peaceful by nature and wished only to be left alone.  Over time, through much trial and error, they found ways to drive the humans from their borders and the forest garnered a reputation for being cursed and haunted by terrible demons.

That suited its guardian spirits just fine.  If the humans thought them demons, so be it so long as it kept them and their destructive ways far from their grounds.  Of course, there were always the brazen few that tried to prove their bravery, and some ridiculous rumors of demon-guarded treasure had cropped up at some point...but all in all, they had a good working system.

Allowing this human to remain in their forest for a time and healing its injuries had been an unusual decision - but it was something to keep them entertained.  This human, they knew, had stumbled in on death’s door itself, and not by choice or with any ridiculous thoughts of plunder or destruction.  In a way, it was almost as if it had come to them pleading silently for sanctuary, and they responded by granting it shelter.

Watching it could prove....interesting.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurogane cursed and swatted at a tree branch as he continued to tromp through the frosty leaves and small piles of snow.  He was still unsettled by his seeming immunity to the cold, his impossible healing...but those things were starting to take a back seat in his mind to the forest itself.

He had been walking for far, far too long.  He had been very careful to mark the position of the sun, to deviate from his chosen path as little as possible, and further, to follow his - usually - incredibly accurate internal compass.  He had little doubt that he had been traveling in a more-or-less straight line.

So why, then, hadn’t he made any progress?  The forest continued to stretch out in all directions around him with no major landmarks hidden amidst the massive trees.  Kurogane wasn’t overly worried about getting lost or being able to survive - he had his sword, a knife in his boot, and a flint tucked into his tattered cloak somewhere.  Wildlife was plentiful - he had seen several plants that he recognized as edible, although none quite like the one he had awaken by - and animals seemed to be everywhere, almost unconcerned or even curious about his presence rather than afraid.  A deer had crept within a few feet of him earlier when he had sat to take a brief rest, snorting and pawing at the leaves curiously before trotting off when he moved.  No, survival wasn’t a concern right now, nor did the forest feel in any way cursed or creepy.  It felt much the opposite, all told....peaceful and welcoming, almost drawing him in.

But it made no sense.  All that aside, he should have exited the forest a long time ago.  Hell, he had still been in arrow range when he had first lost consciousness.  How far could his rescuer have taken him?

He knew he had to have a savior of some sort, unsettling as that thought was.  Fire pits did not build themselves, and he could think of no answer for his healed injuries outside of magic.  Magic that powerful, however, was exceedingly rare - the Healer back home at the palace could likely have knitted his wounds, but he still would have felt pain, still borne scars.  Even the renowned talents of Princess Sakura’s Court Healer, Yuk Ito, were not quite so extensive.  Magic was also the only conceivable answer for his seeming immunity to the elements.

But what would such a vastly powerful mage be doing out here in the forest in total anonymity, especially since no one was known to have ever come out alive?  That seemed incredibly impractical at best.  Even if such a wizard lived here, why would they rescue him, instead of killing him or simply leaving him to die?  It was entirely contradictory.  He couldn’t be alive if there was a mage out here killing any that ventured into their forest to protect their existence, but the lack of such a wizard meant he simply couldn’t have survived.

And why had they taken him so gods-be-damned far into the forest from where he had fallen?  He had been walking for a good couple hours now with no sign of ... well, anything that resembled anything BUT forest.  Despite the fire pit he had come to next to, there had been no signs of another person having been there, either.  No footprints, broken branches, disturbed leaves - everything had been crisp and covered with a fresh frost and a light dusting of snow that had filtered through the interwoven branches above.

Kurogane - and his wildly careening train of thought - came to an abrupt halt as he entered the next clearing.  He couldn’t help but stare.  It just wasn’t possible.  He wasn’t THAT lost.  His sense of direction couldn’t be off by that much.  He knew how to navigate by the position of the sun and stars.

And yet, before him in the clearing was a strange, heavily-fruit laden bush, the now-cold remains of a small fire, and a thick pile of leaves where he had been laying a few hours ago.  

“What the fuck?” he muttered in angry disbelief, examining the clearing.  There could be no doubt.  It was the same place he had been this same morning.  Sure enough, he found his own footprints on the exact opposite side of the clearing, where he had began his departure the first time.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurogane sat in the clearing for a while, trying to piece together this mystery, but he simply didn’t have enough clues to do so.  A light snow began to fall, enough that it was slowly obscuring his tracks, and he decided it was time to move again.  There wasn’t another answer - he must have wandered from his path somehow, lost in thought.  He cursed himself for his own lack of attention and set out again.  He moved faster this time - he was eager to get out of the forest as early as possible, so he could make a bit of headway towards the nearest town before nightfall.  He devoted all of his attention to making sure that he was staying on course.

After over an hour of traveling, he let out a startled curse as he romped into an all-too-familiar clearing.  He couldn’t begin to make sense of it.  Even if he had somehow deviated off course, how was it even possible to accidently come across the same exact clearing?  Not just once, but twice?  There was no path in the forest that he had been lulled into following, looping around.  He had woven through trees and around the occasional large rock, over a small stream in one instance and not in the other... and still arrived at the same exact destination.

A sort of trapped-animal panic had crept into Kurogane’s mind and he immediately tore out of the clearing in another direction this time.  He purposely ignored all signs of where he had been or where he was going - what did it matter where he was headed if he was completely lost already?  It wasn’t as if he could get any MORE lost or worsen his situation.

He eventually stumbled back into the clearing.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The spirit sighed and gave its counterpart a little zap.  “Oh, quit toying with the human.”

It’s counterpart did the spiritual equivalent of a giggle.  “Fine, fine...but you have to admit, it IS kind of funny to watch.  I’ll lead it here.”“Here?  Here, no.  Let it out of the enchantment and let it leave the forest.  Why would you want to bring it HERE?  This is OUR home.  No human has ever stepped foot here, not since this forest has been ours.  Go erase its memory and let it out.”The second spirit pulsed with discontentment.  “After all we went through...I just want to talk to it.  Come on, please?  It won’t hurt anything.  Its not like it even could.  Not here.”

“But...its just a human.  Why?”“Well, aren’t you even a little curious?  Come on...humans are fascinating, bizarre creatures!  They don’t have claws or fangs or horns.  They don’t have thick hides or fur....they’re weak, fleshy, vulnerable things...and yet they dominate the world outside our demesne.   They’re smart, and they have all sorts of...feelings and emotions and sensations that even we don’t have.  And you said yourself, this one is special.  You can feel it just like I can.   It’s as if its somehow...touched by our power.  It SAW you, even though you were still in a spirit form.”

The other spirit relented, albeit reluctantly.  “Fine, bring it here.  But we should take a physical form, like a human’s, if we are going to speak to it.  Even if it can somehow see our spirit bodies, it will make it easier for us to communicate.  And then maybe you can practice some of these human sensations you’re so interested in and get it out of your system.”

It felt the warm rush of glee, gratitude, and excitement from its counterpart and was glad that it had relented.  This would be...different, at least.  Besides, it wasn’t as though it and its other half’s feelings on the matter were mutually exclusive - they were never fully separate beings, in the end, no matter how many or what sort of bodies they wore.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

“This is getting fucking ridiculous...”  Kurogane panted to himself.  He leaned against a tree, tired from his increasingly rapid pace  every time he attempted to leave the forest.  His first attempt, a casual but purposed stroll, had now become a blundering, crashing rampage.  With a heavy sigh he stretched and turned to continue on - even if he didn’t seem to be making any headway, he couldn’t just STOP and give up - and then paused as he heard something.  It was the slightest strains of some sort of melody.  It was faint but clear, and the first noise he’d heard besides that of animals or himself.

When he turned for a moment to unhook his cloak from where it had been snagged on a branch, the sound faded.

Kurogane paused, hand hovering near the hilt of Souhi as it always did when he was wound a bit too tightly, and slowly turned back.  Without taking a single step, the music vanished any time he turned away from it.

Another shudder traveled up the warrior’s spine and he set his teeth in a growl - he was getting entirely too sick of impossible mysteries  - and began tramping off in the direction of the music.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The melody - some sort of reed flute, perhaps? - was very upbeat and cheery and oddly compelling.  It quickly grated on Kurogane’s nerves, seeming to lead him in circles and get quieter or louder at random.  If he made any move to turn away from squarely facing the direction it was coming from, however, the tune faded and vanished entirely.

The music suddenly swelled in his ears and a misty gray fog wisped in around him.  Kurogane slowed his pace a bit but continued to forge ahead as the haze thickened until he could hardly see a thing.  He kept his arms in front of him but didn’t encounter any trees or other obstacles.

Almost as quickly as it had come, the mist dropped off behind him and the flute tune faded away.  Kurogane spun in a brief circle, trying to catch any hint of the melody, but it was gone.  As the rest of the haze cleared, Kurogane came to a stop, sucking in a breath as his eyes tried to take in everything at once.

He had entered a large clearing.  The glade was almost perfectly circular and devoid of all but one tree, a massive and ancient giant that stood tall above the others he had seen - and this old forest surely contained trees older than he had ever run across before.  Small, wintery bushes and flowers - whites and blues and grays, and all foreign to him - grew nearby.   Large rocks dotted the outside border of the glade, placed in such a way that it almost looked deliberate, but just far enough off-kilter that he couldn’t be sure.

The central feature of the clearing was a crystalline spring.  The water, oddly, was not frozen, and the surface was as smooth as glass despite the slight breath of wind passing through.  It wasn’t normal - Kurogane could feel a deep and profound power radiating throughout the glade and originating, it seemed, from the spring itself...and yet, it didn’t feel unnatural.  It was a deep, quiet flow, like a tranquil river on a lazy summer’s day.  It felt heavy and peaceful, although there was something huge and titanically powerful slumbering within.  Kurogane instantly felt a connection to it, inexplicably.  It felt something like the energy he tapped into when he wielded Souhi in battle and called upon her destructive force.

Kurogane shook off his amazement and peered around suspiciously - his mysterious flute-playing guide had to be around here somewhere.  The music had been so close he had thought he could have reached out and strangled the infuriating player.  He kept his hand near his sword and slowly walked towards the spring.  Virgin snow and frost-crisped leaves crunched beneath his boots.  He could still hear the sounds of the forest, although he could see no animals or birds now.

The warrior took a knee in front of the spring before tossing a rock towards the surface just to break up its tranquility, to see if it WAS frozen and his mind was playing tricks on him.  The rock sank obediently and sent ripples of water in all direction.  Kurogane blinked - the rock’s descent went on for an unexpectedly long time.  The water was deceptively deep, hard to judge by its pristine, crystal clarity.

One more mystery.  Kurogane huffed and bent forward, lightly poking at the water with one finger.  It felt cool and refreshing, not bitingly cold like he was expecting.  He supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised - his sense of temperature had been bizarrely but conveniently off since he had awakened.  Maybe he had suffered frostbite far more extensively than he realized and his nerves had been deadened?... No, that didn’t make sense.  His sense of touch still was perfectly intact, and it didn’t explain his injuries.

“Fuck it,” he mumbled to no one in particular, bending down and scooping up some water to drink.  He had been running for a long while without a drink and it felt wonderful on his rather parched throat.  After he had sated his thirst, he cupped up some more water and closed his eyes briefly to splash it over his face.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself mere inches from a face just under the surface of the water.  Kurogane fell backwards with a startled yell that sounded suspiciously like a yelp - but warriors of his caliber did not, of course, YELP...and landed in an undignified heap, even though he managed to draw his sword on the way.  His heart hammered in his chest as he stared at the spring, trying to ignore the pain in his jaw from where his teeth had clicked together hard from the force of his rather graceless fall.

A pair of hauntingly familiar ice-blue eyes glittered up at him and long, sun-gold hair drifted about around a pale, almost too-pretty face.  Kurogane’s mind briefly flashed to a confused and scattered image of an impossibly large, breathtakingly beautiful bird made of white light, although the image evaporated before he could really get a grasp on it.

Meanwhile, his companion had propped himself up on his elbows on the edge of the spring and was watching him with a wide grin.  Kurogane stared for another couple of minutes, his sword pointed in the direction of his companion.  The warrior still couldn’t see where this guy had come from, and it took another moment of study to figure out what else was bothering him with this image.

Despite having been fully submerged a mere moment ago, when his companion had risen from the spring, the water had simply sheeted off of him.  His hair and skin were both completely dry.

“What the FUCK...who the hell are you?!  Whats going on?!”  Kurogane demanded, feeling a vein popping in his forehead.  It had just been too long of a day.  He was running out of patience.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Oh, the look on the big human’s face when it had risen from the spring had been priceless.  The spirit chuckled to itself as it watched the human scramble backwards and pull the blade from it’s belt.  It’s other half radiated a brief flash of discontent at the notion of a bared blade in their glade, but it quickly calmed.  The human was a little nervous, after all, and it didn’t help that it was being teased.

“Who the fuck are you?” the human repeated, red eyes sparking and its pose intimidating.  The spirit paused to commune mentally with its other half.

// What does it mean, do you suppose? //

It’s counterpart paused and they both dredged their memory.  They were an ancient spirit, true, but had very little dealings with the bizarre ways of humans.  They had never spoken with one before, directly, although they had some knowledge that they had learned over time through listening to the wind and the forest and the animals.  

They knew humans all had different shapes, but as they had no given physical shape, they had chosen to emulate one of the first humans they had ever seen, long ago as they had drifted through the high mountains of distant Ceres over the royal palace, headed towards their chosen home.  It had never occurred to them to take different forms - both of the spirits were identical in body.

The spirit’s other half finally struck upon the answer.  // ‘Who’ is a human thing.  I seem to recall they give each other unique names.  It wants to know ours. //

The spirit paused to consider this - as well as to work out how to speak in the human fashion.  It was used to speaking with its other half and the forest, where words were usually replaced with sounds and scintillating colors, vibrations of aura and shared communal sensations.  Individuality was another concept it wasn’t overly familiar with.  Most things in their domain simply acted as parts of a whole.  The trees and plantlife had grown together for so long, so intertwined, that they were virtually a single entity.  The animals didn’t possess the intellect for higher thought, the concept of ‘I’.

It was an interesting thought, too.  A name, hm?  A special name, just for it.  Separate and different from the forest, their power, all others like it.  The ultimate expression of “I”.

The spirit’s train of thought was interrupted as the big human growled.  “WELL?!”

“Who are you?” it finally countered, finishing crawling out of the spring and examining itself a bit.  It had mimicked that distant memory of that other human completely, right down to the flowing robes it had worn.  Clothing certainly felt strange.  A bit constricting and confining, and it seemed like a rather unnecessary weight...although the spirit did like the silky texture against it’s skin and was amused by the way the voluminous sleeves moved when it moved its arms. It was a necessary thing, it supposed, since humans had no natural defenses against the elements.  That was, of course, why they had cast the spell over this human to protect it from the cold, since its own clothing was a mess.

Kurogane felt his jaw tick and resisted the urge to grab this frustratingly odd man before him.  He appeared to be a wizard - one of some rank, if those expensive and highly decorated layers of silk and fur he was wearing were anything to judge by - and he was acting as though it was the first time ever seeing himself.  He was almost completely distracted from Kurogane, in fact, examining his clothing, the surrounding forest, and staring off into space with those impossibly blue, all too familiar eyes.  His hair was a lighter shade now that it wasn’t underwater. although the fact that it wasn’t even a little wet bothered the warrior.  Kurogane also noted that this wizard’s clothing was totally dry as well.  Some sort of spell, most likely.  Maybe this was the wizard that had saved his life.   At any rate, there was a powerful aura of magic around him, and Kurogane forced back the tirade of curses welling up in his mind and gave civility an attempt.

“I’m Kurogane.  Now.  Who. Are. YOU,” he gritted through clenched teeth.  He was inwardly pleased with his self-control - he had neither yelled at nor throttled the mage.  Yet.

“Kuro-what?” The mage blinked before grinning after a brief conversation with its other half.  “Oh!  Well, you can call me Fai.”

Finally, he was getting somewhere.  “Ok...Fai.  I have a lot of questions for you.  Where the hell are we?”Fai blinked.  “The forest, of course.”

Kurogane sighed.  // Patience is a virtue.  Patience is a virtue. // “Yeah.  I figured that out.  Where in the forest?  I woke up this morning and couldn’t find the damn way out.”

“This is the heart of the forest.  And you were somewhere out there when we found you and brought you in.”

Kurogane’s immediate retort was cut short and he eyed Fai suspiciously.  “We?”

Fai flashed him that million-watt grin again and nodded upwards.  “Sure!  We both did.”  

Kurogane gaped for a moment, feeling his headache compound as the other spirit waved at him from one of the tree branches above and dropped down.  It had dredged up a different set of clothing from a memory - a companion the long ago court mage they had copied had been wearing it - mostly to avoid the fluttery and dramatic sleeves its companion seemed to enjoy so much.  “Great.  Twins.  And YOU are?”// Twins? // The word wasn’t familiar to the spirits, but it appeared to mean something to the human.  More inward thinking brought to light thoughts of animals they had sometimes seen with identical young - this must be what the human was referring to.

The other spirit blinked, somewhat baffled.  “Fai.”

Kurogane felt his patience immediately wither into dust.   //Patience is a virtue.  Patience...patie...FUCK IT! // “Dammit, you can’t both be named Fai!” he roared.

// We can’t? // The spirits considered this notion for a surprised moment - it had never occurred to them to name themselves as separate individuals.

“Ah.  I am Yuui, then.  It is...good to meet you, Kurogane.”

“Whatever,” Kurogane growled.  He knew he was grinding his teeth.  Today had been the single most confusing day of his life and now these two wanted to play games with him?  “Just tell me how the hell to get out of here.”

Fai giggled, flouncing across the clearing to sit on a rock.  “Oh, you can leave when we let you go.  We wanted to meet you, after all...it wouldn’t do to have you running off already, Kuro-growly.”“KuroGANE!”  This really needed to end.  It didn’t help that they were talking as if he was some sort of prisoner.  “You think you can stop me from leaving?  I’m not your gods-damned prisoner. Just try it.”

Yuui blinked, and Fai chuckled.  “You can’t leave unless we want you to.  Otherwise, you would have gotten out a long time ago.  I’m sure you’ve heard how this forest is cursed and no one can ever leave.”

Yuui rolled his eyes, the expression coming naturally to him and attempted to defuse some of Kurogane’s mounting rage.  Really, the human was an odd shade of red.  It probably wasn’t very good for it, so soon after so much trauma.  “Well, that’s a bit of a stretch, really.  The forest...responds to us.  It’s enchanted.  Whenever someone comes in and comes under the spell, we send them back out.  But you were hurt pretty badly and we wanted to speak with you first.  We have no intentions of keeping you for long.  We’ll send you on your way with the sun tomorrow.”

Fai pouted a bit at that notion but nodded.

Kurogane squinted, his curiosity dulling at least some of the edge from his rage.  Twin mages in an enchanted forest that no one could ever leave.  At least some of the mystery of the day was lifting - he was in the presence of powerful wizards with lots of mind-bending powers.  Magic was a good way to answer most of his questions...although part of the story didn’t check out.  “You send them away?  Then why doesn’t anyone ever remember being here?”  Kurogane smirked in triumph.

Fai’s grin only widened as he pulled out a small reed flute.  “Well, thats easy.  We erase their memory of ever being here and use our power to just...send them away.”Kurogane growled as Fai lifted his flute.  “Don’t be ridiculous, that would never work!”  Something flashed before his eyes, and he had the faintest hint of a brief melody.  He tried to focus, and then got back to the question he had been meaning to ask.  “Then why doesn’t anyone ever remember being here?”

Fai giggled.  “We erase their memory of ever being here and use our power to send them away!”

Kurogane growled.  “Don’t be ridiculous, that would never w--”... He paused, wondering what had distracted him from his question, and why he had both the strangest sensation of deja-vu and a massive, inexplicable urge to strangle Fai.  “Why doesn’t anyone ever remember being here?”

Yuui reached out and snagged Fai’s flute before he managed to play it again and erase the human’s memories of the past few seconds - he had the feeling that Fai would have been quite entertained repeating the scenario for quite some time.   Wouldn’t want to give the human brain damage, after all.   “We use our power to make them forget they were ever here.  You’ll simply have to trust us on this.  We have no way to provide you with a demonstration.”

Kurogane scowled darkly.  Erasing memories?  He’d never heard of such a thing.  Ridiculous.  But fine, if this was part of their game...he certainly hadn’t made any headway on getting out of the forest on his own.  “Whatever.  So what do you want before you’ll release me from your damned spell?”

“Just to talk to you and ask you a few things.”

“We’ve never talked with a human before!” Fai chirped brightly.  “Kuro-human is the first one!”

// Wait...what? // “You’re trying to tell me you don’t think you’re human? I suppose your brother’s not human either.”Yuui and Fai exchanged a brief, baffled look.  Of course they weren’t human.  // Brother? // They found they liked the word, what it implied.  Like ‘twins’.  Yes, they were already learning things!  “No, of course we aren’t.”

Kurogane just stared.  // Great.  Not only are they  frustrating as all hell, they’re out of their minds.  I hate mages. //  “Of course.  Then what, exactly, are you?  Magical pixies?  Demons sent to torment me?”Fai shook his head, and Yuui made an effort to explain, although he didn’t really have the words for it.  “No, no...we are....this.”  He waved his hands around himself in an all-inclusive gesture, but Kurogane just looked more frustrated, and that vein on his forehead was pulsing again.  “The forest.  The forest is us and we are the forest.”

The warrior stared at him skeptically for a long moment, dredging his memories of all the things he’d read and studied in the past.  He did recall a few stories that he’d heard long ago as a boy, of powerful spirits that had been worshiped in days of old.  But that was hundreds of years ago, no one believed in any such things anymore.  If they had ever existed, they were certainly long gone now, what with the way civilization had spread.  Although... he was a pretty fair judge of character and was usually able to spot a lie a mile away.  The twins seemed to truly believe what they were saying.  That meant that they were either telling the truth - unlikely...impossible - or they were both delusional.  Either way, it seemed that he was stuck in their spell for now - playing along might be his best option to speed his departure.  “Oh.  You’re forest spirits.  Right.”

Fai grinned.  “Yep! Well, close enough, anyways.”Yuui glanced at the warrior.  “You must be hungry.  Humans do eat fruits, right?”Kurogane nodded warily.  “Yeah, sure.”

Yuui smiled.  “Good.”  Even as Kurogane watched, those blue eyes flared briefly, unnaturally, and as he continued to stare, a large bush, identical to the one he had first awakened to this morning, sprouted from the ground before him.  It started as a tiny seedling and within moments was a waist-high, rustling bush laden with ripe fruit.  “These should be safe for you to eat.  After that, we can talk.  Sit, rest, eat.”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

After he did stop to do all three of the things Yuui had suggested, Kurogane found himself feeling better.  He was more tired than he had realized from his hours of romping through the forest.  The large, globe-shaped berries had a pleasant peachy flavor and were very refreshing and surprisingly filling, and the spring water helped wash away most of his exhaustion.

While he ate, Yuui told him the tale of how they had first come to this forest.  Fai would occasionally chip in some bright comment or another, but seemed a bit more distracted with trying out ‘human things’.   Among them, at present, was eating - a prospect the blonde seemed to enjoy very thoroughly.  Fai took over narrating their tale as his enjoyment of the berries finally got Yuui a bit too curious - Kurogane just shook his head.  Despite their immediate attitudes, he could easily see how similar the two really were.  Yuui may have had a bit more calm to Fai’s exuberance, but both could easily slide into the other’s role seamlessly.

Kurogane eyed the obvious delight shared between the twins and huffed a bit.  “They DO taste pretty good.”“Oh, it couldn’t be more right!” Fai purred contently before offering Yuui another berry.“It?” Kurogane stared at him for a moment.

Fai blinked.  “You.”

The warrior scowled.  “Not it.  He.”

“He?” the twins chimed in unison before glancing at each other - Kurogane noticed them seeming to do that a  lot.  They would look at each other, fall silent for a few moments, and then brighten at about the same time as they came to some sort of revelation.

“You know.  Male of the species.  Come on, you’re forest spirits and there’s a ton of animals in here.  You can’t tell me you don’t know how things work in regards to male and female.”

Fai considered that for a minute before nodding.  “Well, yes, but I guess it never seemed to be important.”

“Not...what do you mean?  Where do...little spirits come from, then?” Kurogane put his mental foot down - there was no way in hell he was teaching a couple seemingly grown men over a thousand years older than he was about sex.

Yuui paused and licked his lips to rid them of a bit of juice from the berries.  “From magic, of course....a bit of chance, a bit of magic, and when its combined at the right time in the right way, sometimes some of that energy is rendered conscious.  Like us.”

Fai grinned.  “Kuro-tan thinks we mate like animals do?”  This put both of the twins into a fit of giggles and brought a glaring growl from Kurogane.

“Just how the fuck am I supposed to know?  You look male enough to me!  I’m not exactly educated in spiritual reproduction!”  How had this conversation ended up here anyways? No.  NO.  Stop it.

Yuui chuckled.  “But this isn’t how we really are.  We normally don’t have a solid body like this.  This is special, for you, so we could talk to you.  We normally live in the spring or travel through the forest in a spirit form or sometimes simply move through the ground or the air like mist.  Although, I suppose right now, you could consider us male.  The body we used seemed to be.  We didn’t realize gender was something important to you.  It means nothing to us.  It never occurred to us that it should matter.”  Oh, yes, they were learning many new things!  So exciting!

“Yeah, well, it does.  Referring to a person as an ‘it’ or ‘the human’ is sorta rude and condescending.”  Not that he was one to talk on proper manners and etiquette, but...well, just because he OCCASIONALLY lost his temper a tiny bit and SOMETIMES didn’t exhibit all the proper social niceties didn’t mean he didn’t know OF them.  Wait.  “Body you... used?”

Fai nodded, then laughed as he realized why Kurogane seemed so disturbed.  “Oh, no, it wasn’t ACTUALLY i...his....body.  We just copied his form.  He was the first human we ever saw, when we started to SEE things in the world and not just ... FEEL things.”

Kurogane relaxed a bit.  Well, that was good news at least.  It had been a disturbing thought, that he might be talking to some sort of reanimated or repurposed cadaver.  

His brief moment of silence was interrupted by Fai, and he could tell by the identical curious and eager expression on Yuui’s face that both of them felt the same.  “Kuro-rin should tell us what humans do!”“More specifically, tell us about your own life.  Where do you come from and what do you do?”  Yuui added.

“Me?  Keh...”  Kurogane paused.  Where to start?  “I’m in the military.”“Military?”Dammit.  It couldn’t be that easy, could it.  “Yeah.  I’m a .. guardian of sorts, like you two.  Only instead of a forest, I lead a bunch of other people in keeping safe our Princess.  The...”  This was harder than he thought, trying to explain simple concepts when the words were wholly human and meant nothing to these sheltered forest spirits.  Luckily for him, however, they had a large wealth of information at their disposal and were obviously very intelligent, just...unlearned.  And curious.  No wonder they had been so eager to talk to someone.  But why him?

“So this Princess is the leader of your human pack?”

Kurogane nodded, relieved.  Well, they might not know anything about humans but they knew animals, at least.  “Right.  And she’s ... a good leader.  She takes good care of her people and makes sure they’re provided for and happy.  It’s my job to help keep her safe.”

“If she’s a good leader, why would anyone want to hurt her?”Kurogane scowled at that.  “Because some humans are greedy, cruel, evil bastards.  They want to be the ones in charge.  They want more money, more power, more things.  They don’t care who they have to hurt or kill on the way, either, or how well off the people might be.  They’re only in it for themselves.”

The spirits exchanged another long look, frowning a bit - they had seen a small bit of what they considered to be human cruelty when they had carelessly tried tearing down their home so many centuries ago.  And they had seen animals fight viciously to try and better their position in their given pack.

Fai perked up some and peered at Kurogane.  “Money?”

The warrior scowled.  Great.  First sex, then human nature, now economics.  Why not.  “Yeah, like this.”  After fishing around in his cloak he pulled out a couple coins and passed them over to the curious spirits.

Yuui squinted at the coin in his hand for a moment before holding it up towards the light and turning it over.  He knew it was metal, something from the earth...although he couldn’t fathom its purpose.  It didn’t seem to do anything, or have any latent power, but humans were willing to kill for it?  “What...does it do?”“We use it to buy things.” Kurogane sighed.  It was like teaching kids from another planet.  “Lets say I was a farmer.  I grow plants that people like to eat.  When they want some, they buy it from me.  Each coin is worth a different amount.  So they come to my farm, I tell them how much I want, they give me that many coins, and they leave with the food.  Everyone’s happy.”“Then what do YOU do with them?”“Buy whatever I want.”

The spirits glanced at each other.  “So you just keep...passing these pieces of metal around.  Why bother?  Why not just....take what you need from each other?  This seems unnecessarily complicated.”

“Because humans don’t work that way.  They don’t have the same all-for-one and one-for-all mentality that animals you’re used to have.  The harder you work, the more money you make, and the more nice things you can get with it as a reward.”  Okay, not always true - humans were happy to screw each other over.  But that was the idea, anyway.  “And some people want all the rewards without the work...so they take it from the people that have it.  By force, or trickery, or whatever.  The leader of our country has a lot of money that she uses to take care of people, so it makes her a tempting target.”

The spirits frowned, filing that away as well, before Yuui ventured a new prompt.  “So besides protecting your Princess, what else do you do?”Kurogane paused to consider that one, more surprised than anything to find he didn’t have an immediate answer.  “I...train to learn how to fight better.  Or sometimes help others learn.  Sometimes I...go for walks or... fuck, I don’t know.  I spend most of my time guarding the princess, I don’t have a lot of free time.”  Wow.  That sounded pretty pathetic, didn’t it?...

Fai grinned as his brother frowned, and the warrior was instantly put on edge.  Uh oh.  “Could Kuro-pi teach me how to fight like a human?”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea...”  Yuui ventured, but was waved away.

“Oh, come on, just this once.  It’ll be fun.”

Kurogane just gaped at him for a moment before shaking his head.  “Its not a game.  You’d just end up getting hurt and then probably blast me to pieces with some sort of spirit magic. And my name is Kurogane!”

“Oh, nonsense.  What do you do, you just swing that sword at me?”

Just...Kurogane resisted the urge to roll his eyes.  Maybe it would feel good to put a little whipping on this one, after all.  His lips curled up in a rather feral smile.  “That’s the basic idea.  If I were training you, I’d teach you how to block and dodge and parry, and how to strike back properly.”

Fai nodded, producing a sword from...where had it come from?  Kurogane had to blink several times.  It certainly wasn’t one of his, and he was SURE he hadn’t seen the mage wearing it before....not to mention he was wielding it something more like a club.

Well, fine then.  If he REALLY wanted to see this, then Kurogane would oblige them.  If nothing else, then because he did still feel like he owed them.  They had saved his life, and even if it was only to pick his brains, well...he didn’t like having standing debts.  With a grim nod of his own, Kurogane drew Souhi and took a slow, measured swing at his opponent.

He missed by a mile.  Fai made no effort to block and simply shifted to the side.  Several strokes later and the warrior was starting to get a little frustrated - the damned spirit wasn’t even holding up the sword he had anymore and was simply dancing around his blows.  “You’re supposed to use the sword to block me, you idiot!”

Fai cocked his head to one side curiously.  “But why?  Wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t hit me at all?”

“I don’t want to hurt you, dammit...” Kurogane muttered.  “I thought you wanted to fight.”“I thought you’d be faster.”

Oh.  OH.  He did NOT just... Kurogane growled.  Fine, this guy wanted to see him go faster?  He could do faster.

The fight escalated rapidly, until Kurogane began to wonder if he even actually COULD hit his opponent.  Fai twisted with unnatural, fluid grace - he had to be cheating somehow, no one was that flexible or fast - and he couldn’t land a single tag with the flat of his blade.  He growled, but it was more out of determination than fury despite himself - he hadn’t had a good workout in a duel in a long time.

Yuui, meanwhile, struggled to figure out why his breath kept catching in his throat every time Kurogane’s attack routine sped up, and he couldn’t help being concerned for his brother.

Kurogane’s eyes narrowed and he stepped up his game again, Souhi flashing in a blinding arc, and his routine stopped, cut to a jarring halt when he actually connected for the first time.  Fai was holding his blade sideways and giving Kurogane an exhilarated smile that caused the warrior’s heart to stutter and his mouth to suddenly go dry.  He stopped his assault and stepped back.“Hyuuu, that’s enough for me!” Fai chuckled, bowing before Kurogane.  Where had that sword gone?  “Kuro-warrior is much more of a match that I expected.   I concede!”

Kurogane shook his head, trying to snap himself back into shape.  What the hell had THAT been all about?  Why had he reacted like that?  One moment he’d been trying to hit that infuriatingly fast, dodgy bastard and then... then that LOOK...  oh, like HELL he was finding them ATTRACTIVE.   They weren’t even real.  Not in his world, anyway.  He was just...his blood was up because of the fight, and the adrenaline, and that was all.

Yeah.  That was all.

The warrior scowled and sheathed his Souhi, his dark look locking onto Fai, who had flounced back over to sit next to his brother.  “I think I’m going to take a rest.  A nap,” he muttered.  He really WAS tired....probably from being almost dead last night and then running all day today.  Besides, he needed to clear his head and not...look at them for a while.

“Okay, we’ll watch over you while you sleep and we can talk to you later,” Yuui assured him with a smile.   Kurogane nodded and settled down against the large tree next to the spring, leaving the spirits to their silent communion.  No matter what else he might be feeling right now, mentally or physically, he found himself feeling curiously....safe... here, in the guardianship of these two.  The concept worried him less than he thought it should.

Soon he wasn’t thinking anything at all, sleep having risen to claim him surprisingly quickly.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

While Kurogane napped, the twins held another mental conversation.  While they found actual talking to be a different sort of experience, they didn’t want to wake the warrior up just yet while he slept.

“I don’t know why you let t... Kurogane... attack you like that.  What if he had hit you?” Yuui frowned at his brother.  They were both becoming acclimated to human expressions and mannerisms quite quickly and, while being in this heavy fleshy body with all its needs and vulnerabilities had its limitations, it was proving to have benefits as well.  Physical sensation was addicting.

Fai, meanwhile, was busy inspecting his reflection in the spring, amused by the way his sleeves fluttered every time he moved his arms.  “Oh, you know as well as I do I wasn’t in any real danger.  He’s a lot faster than I thought...but even if I hadn’t been able to dodge him, this body is a creation.  I could have healed.  Or just reverted to my real form and he would have hit nothing but the wind.”

“Yes, well...it was a magnificent show, but I still...I enjoyed watching the two of you dance.  But the thought that you were under an actual assault threw me. “Fai nodded - no need for his brother to say anything further on the matter, he understood implicitly.  “Well, maybe next time I’ll play a little more fair and not make him quite so angry.  Humans sure are bizarre creatures, aren’t they?  The more he talks, the stranger they become... I fear our conversations have answers some questions but raised countless more!”

Yuui couldn’t help but laugh at that and nodded, watching with mild interest as Fai began disassembling the complicated robes he was wearing and examining each piece before setting it aside.  “It was rather interesting to learn that he’s a guardian like we are, albeit to another human creature and not a place.  What senseless violence these humans seem to create for themselves.”

Fai nodded as he finished pulling off the robes and then shrugged out of his boots.  “Their clothing is also unnecessarily complicated!  All these...ties and things.”

Yuui looked down at his own clothing - a well decorated but simple shirt and a nice pair of pants.  “Well, you were the one that wanted those sleeves.

“They’re like my wings.  I’ve taken the shape of birds before but never actually....used wings to fly.”  Fai grinned as he finally discarded the last piece of clothing, wiggling his toes in the frosty leaves beneath his feet.  “Are you sure we can’t keep him?   Just a few more days?”

Yuui shook his head.  “I’m curious too, but we just can’t.  It wouldn’t be right.  For his own benefit, we need to let him go.  He has to get back to his princess.  The injuries he sustained when he first arrived here couldn’t have been intentional.  Something bad must have happened with those he protects her from, and I’m sure he’s worried about getting back.  I’d be a fretful mess if I was driven away from the forest and knew it was under assault.”Fai nodded with a sigh, idly trailing his fingers over his bare skin, along his arms and over his chest and stomach, simply exploring the mysteries of this new sense of touch.  “You’re right, of course.  But ... perhaps we...don’t have to erase his memory?”

Yuui blinked.  “What?  Of course we.... why would you suggest that we didn’t?”  

Fai shrugged, the gesture coming naturally to him.  “I don’t know.  I suppose I ... well, its been nice having someone else to talk to, and I like Kuro-rin.  Maybe we could ... talk to him again sometime?  He isn’t like the other humans that came here before.  He doesn’t want to hurt this place in any way.  And I suppose I don’t... like the thought of him forgetting us.”

Yuui considered that for a moment and then nodded in agreement.  “Yes.  I understand what you mean.  And it might do us good to learn more of the creatures we share a world with, now that we’re more aware of them.  Perhaps locking them all out wasn’t the perfect soluti--”  Yuui stopped dead in shock at the sudden jumbled, shocking sensation that traveled through to him from Fai, momentarily frozen in blank, unregistered surprise at Fai’s gasp and the way his eyes widened.  “What was that?”

Fai stared at him for a moment before looking down at himself and back up.  “Did you see that?  It moved on its own!”Yuui nodded, his curiosity instantly piqued - it was almost a curse between them, but they couldn’t help it.  Beyond a general sense of shared mischief, their own inquisitive nature was enough to override most concerns, at least temporarily, when something new or interesting was happening.

Both of them were instantly fascinated as Fai reached down between his legs to give another poke at the....well.  It was an appendage of some sort, although its immediate purpose remained unclear.  The touch drew another sharp breath from him and caused another curious twitch.  “Oh....it feels....very ...”  Fai trailed off, unable to really vocalize what he meant.

Yuui tilted his head sideways before reaching out to touch it.  “Does it feel different when I do it?”Fai let out a shuddery gasp of shock, distant lights sparking in the depths of his eyes.  “I...It....you have to try this!”

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Kurogane let out a low grunt and tried to will himself to stay asleep, but his brief nap rapidly was falling apart.  His dreams were disjointed but causing him to grow exceedingly uncomfortable, his mind refusing to move past images of the fascinating, ethereally beautiful spirits he had been stuck with for the day... especially that one look of breathless excitement and exhilaration on Fai’s face towards the end of their duel... yes, he could imagine that expression, or something similar, while he....NO.  No, settle down.  Absolutely not.  They weren’t even really human.  (Did it matter?  They looked human enough, surely FELT human enough.)  

No.  Stop it.  They were not supposed to be players in his own sexual fantasies.  Why the hell was he having visions like that anyways?  He had thought he wanted to throttle one or the both of them, not pin them down and --

With a low growl, Kurogane forced his eyes open to force the dreams to evaporate.

Or at least, he thought he had.  He probably was still asleep and stuck in whatever dream he had been ensnared in.  There was no way the twins were really there, over by the spring.  They were most definitely not naked and leaning against each other, flushed and breathing hard.  And they most certainly were not stroking each other.

Kurogane felt his cheeks instantly go up in flames, which only served to fluster him more, almost as much as the abrupt tightening in his groin and the spike of lust that shot up his spine.  He wasn’t still asleep.  This was really happening.

One or the both of them must have heard him because they paused in what they were doing and turned to regard him.  He recognized Fai despite the lack of clothing by the almost manic, million-watt grin he suddenly had thrown his way.  “Kuro-pi, you’re awake!”

“Wh-what are...”  Kurogane had to stop to swallow thickly, the words catching in his throat.  “What the fuck is this?”

Wrong question.  The spirits converged on him with a duality of purpose that was almost disconcerting.  “You have to try this!”“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”  Kurogane roared, unable to put any space between him and the twins with the tree to his back, swatting at Fai’s hands as the spirit attacked his clothes.  He managed to catch him by the wrists, but that unfortunately left him vulnerable to Yuui’s assault.   “STOP THAT! DON’T TOUCH ME!”

Yuui just chuckled as he tugged off the warrior’s cloak.  Kurogane made a grab for it, and Fai responded by stripping him of his belt.  “Don’t worry, it feels wonderful, we just want to share.”

“Did we figure out something about humans that Kuro-rin didn’t know?” Fai inquired cheerfully.  

“Of course not, you idiot!  But you just can’t do something like thaaaaa--!”  Kurogane’s rant fizzled out into an involuntary gasp as his attempt to stop Fai resulted in Yuui’s fingers finding their way into his pants.

“Oh, but its alright.  See, it likes it.  It’s already hard.  That happened to us too.”

“Stop that...get your hands off me...STOP TAKING MY CLOTHES!  How did you even....” Kurogane’s mind was having a hard time keeping up with things, especially with Yuui’s fingers sliding over his erection.  But there was no way Fai could have gotten off the rest of his clothes, not while he was just sitting here and....and....

“Oh, just relax and enjoy it, Kuro-growly.  Isn’t it fun?”Fun? Well, okay, technically, but they didn’t even have the slightest CLUE what they were actually doing, no matter what it might feel like...and he hadn’t had a lover in a VERY long time, he had been so busy lately with his work and training.  But that didn’t change the fact that this was wrong on so many levels and absolutely could not be allowed to continue.  They obviously weren’t connecting the dots with the animal acts of mating that occurred within the forest bounds and most DEFINITELY did not understand that this wasn’t just something people did.  Oh hi, I’m the spirit of this magic forest, and by the way, let me get you off?   He would put an end to this RIGHT NOW, explain to them some of the pertinent facts and get them to understand.

“Nn...”  Wait, what?  That was totally not the speech he had had in mind.  In fact, his mind was emptying rapidly as his lust grew, and without even thinking about it he reached out to grab Fai by the back of the head and pull him in for a hungry kiss.

Fai’s initial reaction was one of alarm, wondering if Kurogane was trying to bite or attack him in some way.  There was no hurt, however, and he soon discovered a pleasant rush of heated sensation burning through him as Kurogane game him an introduction to kissing.  The warrior’s kisses were in line with the rest of his mannerisms - rather rough and forceful and passionate, strong but not unnecessarily violent.

When the warrior broke free for air, his head falling back against the tree he was leaning on, Fai shifted so he could share this new lesson with Yuui.  Yuui was briefly distracted from the matter at hand, as it were - and though the pause of the spirit’s fingers drew a somewhat tortured moan from the human, the sight of the two of them kissing - somewhat clumsy but full of passion made up for it.  His hammering heart skipped a beat at the sound Fai made as Yuui’s fingers found his cock as well, stroking them both now.

Kurogane was torn, wanting to suddenly do a thousand things at once.  He wanted THIS to continue, to be coaxed into a blissful oblivion by those devious fingers... he wanted to grab them one at a time, to throw them down and bury himself inside, make them moan and beg for more....he wanted to sit back and just watch the two of them enjoy each other, there was something impossibly arousing of the sight of the two deeply bonded twins’ obvious love skewing sideways into raw, unashamed lust...

One of the thrills, he admitted to himself, was in knowing that neither of them had any experience whatsoever.  Neither of them, for all their centuries of wisdom and learning and power, had any idea at all what to expect from this encounter and had simply been acting on curiosity that had bloomed into discovery.  Even imagining their reaction to the things he could do and show them almost made him lose control of himself on the spot.  

He probably wouldn’t be able to show them very much, however, if he didn’t stop things from proceeding as they were right now.  He flicked his eyes between them, their shade a deep crimsoned black and smoldering with a lust that caused both of the spirits to shiver involuntarily - for all their own power, Kurogane had a PRESENCE, an AURA of domination and authority that was hard to deny.  Especially now.

“Stop...” he murmured to Yuui in a low growl, although this particular growl had more of a sensual than angry edge to it.  “I’m going to...show you both a few things.”

Kurogane’s earlier protests and efforts to fend off the twins had had absolutely no effect, but this tone... this demand was obeyed without question.  Heated scarlet eyes flickered back and forth between the twins, both of whom were silent as they waited for Kurogane to make a move.  The warrior lamented briefly over having to make a choice, but he supposed it simply wasn’t possible to have them both at the same time no matter how badly he wanted to.  After a moment’s consideration, his gaze snapped over to Yuui.  “Lay down.”

The spirit slowly complied, wondering briefly what the warrior had in mind.  Fai leaned back, equally curious.   His curiosity melted into a confusing barrage of sensations, both emotional and overwhelmingly physical as he found himself pinned, Kurogane looming over him.  It was making it impossible for him to think straight, every reaction visceral and potent far behind his expectations.  

For a moment he nearly even forgot Fai’s eyes on him as Kurogane claimed his mouth in a possessive kiss.  It was different than Fai’s - amusing that he was even already attributing a separate name and identity to his other half - Fai’s kiss had been another expression of their bond, a physical expression of their bond and their love, only skewing sideways into lust.  Kurogane was another story altogether - he was overwhelming and passionate and hungry.  It made a tight coil of heat pool in Yuui’s belly and his mind felt sluggish, unable to concentrate on anything but Kurogane.  He felt almost dizzy when  Kurogane shifted to nip at his throat and along his collarbone, an involuntary noise escaping him.

Kurogane was doing his level best to keep himself tightly controlled, but it was harder than he would have expected.  In addition to the marvelous reactions his slightest touch generated and being simply a breathtaking sight to behold - twice as much so when they were together, there was something powerfully intoxicating about them.  There was an aura of sorts around them that he just wanted to immerse himself in, a feeling like fireflies and lazy summer thunderstorms, fresh rain and green growing things, crisp autumn leaves and a hazy winter day with the sun cascading off snowfields like a shower of infinite diamonds.  Whatever doubts he had had about the truth of their statements had vanished.

Despite his restraint, however, and not wanting to rush into this territory previously unexplored by the twins, he was only human in the end.  His desire burned through him, white hot and like a live thing, raking fiery talons through him and aching to just....savage these beautiful creatures until he was too exhausted to move.  He didn’t waste much time - every moment was exquisite torture - but he was bound and determined to leave an indelible impression on the minds of the twins.

Fai watched Kurogane trail kisses ever downwards on Yuui’s frame, distantly amused at his brother’s attempts to remain still and Kurogane’s almost visible sense of torn impatience.  All traces of amusement vanished, replaced with a jarring echo of raw pleasure and a completely confusing cascade of what amounted to nonsensical spiritual chatter, wild flashes of color and sound going off in his mind in a jumbled heap.  Kurogane had slid down and, after he was satisfied with his position, pulled Yuui’s erection into his mouth.  Under ordinary circumstances, Fai would have laughed at how flustered his brother was, completely beyond the ability to think or, really, process information properly - and he was the calm one!  However, he could only stare as  Kurogane worked his brother deeper down his throat.

Yuui was ultimately glad he didn’t actually NEED to breathe, when it came down to it, because he didn’t think he could amidst all the noises tearing themselves free of him involuntarily.  His chest heaved, desperate attempts at gasping for air and his fingers clutched at the ground, at leaves, at Kurogane’s hair - anything, anything to try and somehow ground himself against the assault of this inexplicable ecstasy.  He had never even come close to imagining something so simple could feel so intense, that the wet heat and Kurogane’s absolutely devilish tongue could DO this to him.

Kurogane did his level best to hang on to the squirming spirit, feeling a faint smug sense of superiority and dominance.  That’s right, HE did this to this all-powerful magical creature.  HIM.  And god damn, it was probably the hottest thing he had ever seen.

Yuui let out a strangled gasp as his breath caught in his throat and his eyes flew open wide, his fingers hooking into the ground and his back arching.  Something had suddenly welled up inside him, powerful and monstrous and consuming.  It felt like everything and nothing all at the same time.  The sensation spiraled rapidly out of control, growing impossibly higher, until he thought he would white out or die or simply come undone, felt that the world was surely ending as his pleasure peaked and he let out a sharp cry of primordial ecstasy that sent a shudder through the forest itself.

Kurogane was as entranced as Fai as he drove Yuui to climax, a shudder running through him at the release of raw power that accompanied his physical release.  It was a sight that he’d never forget and he knew would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life...this beautiful body torn in unexpected pleasure, the beautiful cry of ecstasy...but most of all, those ice-blue eyes.  They had lit up and washed out, faintly glowing swirls of old magic, deep magic, and something had burst in their depths, like countless stars in an infinite string of microcosms gone supernova in rapid succession, and time had slowed just enough for him to see the nuances of each explosion.

The warrior finally turned his gaze towards Fai as his world came back into focus and he sat up slowly.  The other brother seemed almost as affected as Yuui, his eyes somewhat glazed in shock, although a quick glance was all Kurogane needed to confirm that Fai had not yet found a physical release despite the way he was staring.  Fai snapped back to his senses and gave Kurogane a wide eyed look, and it seemed it took him a minute to find his voice.  “What...what was that?”

“You’re going to find out,” Kurogane promised as he gestured to Fai.  He sat up straighter, leaning back against his tree.  Oh, he didn’t have the patience to wait much longer.  His own cock was throbbing with a need so intense that it was practically painful, demanding that he do something, anything to ease the burning ache.

Fai complied, still looking a bit dazed as he made his way over to Kurogane and pausing, not sure precisely what the warrior wanted him to do.  He need not have worried.

“Come sit with me,” he commanded, guiding Fai into the position he wanted, sitting in his lap and straddling his hips.  A low hiss of breath escaped him at the friction of the spirit’s body against his own and he momentarily forgot himself, his hands clenching Fai’s hips and just holding him there.

He was losing his control entirely and he knew it - and if the flushed blonde’s lusty moan was any indication, Fai wasn’t far from him.  He clenched his teeth against the way Fai moved against him - even the slightest wiggle was enough to make him lose his mind.  “Can I hurt you?”

Fai blinked away his delirium for a minute to try and focus on the question.  “W...what?  Why would you want to...nn...”Kurogane closed his eyes, his voice a tight growl.  “I don’t want to, that’s why I’m asking.”“You can’t if I don’t want you to...” Fai answered after a long and breathless moment.

“Good,” Kurogane muttered with an inward sigh of relief.  He wasn’t sure if he could have held out otherwise.  He lifted Fai up a bit and shifted his position before pulling the spirit down on him, easing his aching erection into that impossibly tight body slowly despite the assurance that he would do no harm - he didn’t want it to end TOO quickly.

His last shreds of patience proved worthwhile - Fai froze at the feeling of Kurogane’s thick shaft sinking inexorably deeper into him, lighting fires and throwing off torrents of sensation unlike anything he had thought possible - he understood now the garbled jumble of sensation Yuui had unwittingly sent his way earlier.  And then, suddenly, Kurogane brushed up against something inside him that made his whole world shatter into a million glittering shards, a crystalline note vibrating at an impossibly high frequency in his mind.  A loud cry tore its way from him and he clutched at Kurogane’s shoulders, desperate to hang on to something, anything.

Kurogane was still for another heartbeat longer before relinquishing his control to the raging beast within him.  His arms flexed as he lifted Fai’s hips easily before guiding him back down, a low noise of his own reverberating in his throat.  Oh.  Oh, YES.  

Fai took the cue quickly, and was soon riding Kurogane fast and hard after he sank into the initial rhythm.  Kurogane had the briefest thought that he should probably slow things down a bit, he didn’t want it to be over so soon...but he was almost as overwhelmed as this deliciously moaning creature in his lap.  Slow down, like hell.  

Fai’s cries were muffled briefly as Kurogane gave him a hard, almost violent kiss, stealing the breath from his lungs.  The warrior then moved to kiss and then nip sharply at his throat.  The bite caused a new height of sensation to spiral through him, but he choked on his next cry as he felt a nibble at the other side of his throat as well.   Yuui had come up behind him.

Yuui’s arms wrapped around him and he continued to nip at Fai’s throat, fingers trailing down his stomach.  Kurogane leaned back a bit, enough to get a view of this added bonus show, his hands still holding the blonde’s hips and helping him move up and down, his eyes slitting every time he was fully buried inside him.

Yuui’s fingers closed around Fai’s erection after a few moments, his breathless smile mischievous as he began to stroke his brother in time with Kurogane’s movements.  He surged up, pressing himself tightly against Fai’s back and tilting his brother’s head back enough to kiss him, enjoying the groan this drew from Kurogane.  It was all the warrior could do to hold back his release now.

As it turned out, he didn’t have to wait long.  Another few deep thrusts, combined with Yuui’s manipulation, was all it took to send Fai over the edge with a loud cry.  Again, Kurogane got to witness the spirit’s raw passion being released, the infinite spark in those amazing, life-changing eyes....but this time he got to feel it as well, the impossibly tight, almost painful grip as Fai’s body spasmed around his cock.  It was way too much and he gave in, his own orgasm claiming him moments after his newfound lover.

It was quite some time before the three of them came back down from their high and Fai finally moved off him.  It was somewhat amusing, in a way, the expressions the twins shared - they looked almost drugged, glazed and wavering on the remnants of ecstasies they had never imagined.  Kurogane couldn’t help but smirk, enjoying the little twinge of empowerment it had given him to know that that reaction was HIS doing.

It no longer seemed strange to him, the immunity to the cold, and he had no qualms about stretching out naked on the frosty ground with his cloak as a pillow.  “Come here,” he mumbled, and almost instantly he had a snuggly twin laying on either side of him.  No more words were said, the three of them content to lie there for a while and bask in the afterglow.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It was almost morning, much to Kurogane’s shock, when he woke up.  He couldn’t tell if the twins woke up because he moved or if they had even slept, but it had been very nice and warm snuggled between them, an arm draped around each of them.

“Good morning, Kuro-rin,” Fai purred, flashing him a sleepy grin.

“Hn,” was the warrior’s sleepy response, although the spirit couldn’t help but smile wider.  He could feel the warmth and contentment radiating off the big man - he didn’t need words for it.

Yuui yawned and stretched, blinking owlishly at Fai.  “Mm.  Sleeping is also nice...”

Fai nodded.  “I agree...especially like that.”

Kurogane finally, reluctantly got up himself.  He knew what morning meant, and was surprised at his own extreme reluctance for his time here to end.  He knew it had to - he had no choice, he had to get back and make sure the Princess had made it home safely, and then further deal with these assailants.  And it wasn’t just a round of good sex, either - he somehow had a far deeper connection to these twin spirits, a sort of bond.  He didn’t know if it was newly forged or if it had always been there, born with the powers that he unleashed through his Souhi.  Either way, he really didn’t want to go.

Another several minutes found the lot of them cleaned up and dressed, sitting in comfortable silence.  It was Yuui that spoke first.  “You have to leave.”  It wasn’t a command or an order, to Kurogane’s surprise - it sounded almost more like a somewhat disappointed question.

“Yeah,” he responded, poking a nearby rock with a stick.  “I do.”

“I don’t want you to go, Kuro-rin.”  The other two both looked up at Fai, who held his hands up placatingly.  “I know, I know.  I just wanted to say it.  Yuui doesn’t really want you to leave either, but we know you have things to do that are important to you.”

Kurogane nodded, eyes flicking between the two.  “Well, maybe sometime when all my affairs are in order, Ill stop by again.”  He paused as something occurred to him.  “Or not.  You’re going to make me forget any of this ever happened, aren’t you?”

Yuui glanced at Fai, and Fai looked at the ground, but it was Yuui that spoke up first.  “No.  We trust you.”  Fai immediately brightened and bounced over to give his brother a tight hug.

Kurogane blinked and then nodded gravely, understanding what a huge amount of faith was being placed in him - the sole member of the human race that would ever have memory of walking these ancient, lost woods.

“We’d love to have you come back again, Kuro-tan, whenever you want. “  Fai beamed at him.“And stay as long as you like,” Yuui added with a matching smile.  Kurogane’s heart did a curious flip-flop in his chest.  How could he ever stay away?

“I will, then.  After I get this whole mess sorted out and get the Princess another good bodyguard to watch over things while I’m away, I’ll come back.”  It wouldn’t be soon enough.  Already, he missed the simple warmth of their presence, the way they looked at him and each other, this curious world that it seemed like the three of them alone inhabited.  It would be on his mind all the time, every day, until he came back.

After giving them both a long kiss goodbye, Kurogane turned and strode to the edge of the clearing.  He heard a brief tune play and paused to glance back as the fog surrounded him.  He saw the twins floating over the spring, watching him hand in hand, before they smiled and sank into the water.  The fog closed around him then and he continued forward.  

Within an hour, the trees began to thin and he saw ever brighter splashes of sunlight.  Ahead, he saw the end of the tree-line itself, opening up into the hills he had first made his mad dash from.  Had it really been less than two days?He couldn’t help but smile when he found his horse standing nearby, munching on a small pile of blue-white berries and waiting for him.   

He knew something in him had been reborn the previous day, even as his body was brought back from the brink of death by a phoenix of white and gold light and ice-crystal eyes.  He would never forget the day that had gone by and he would never be the same.  Ironic, that his death would end up bringing him back to life, more so than he had ever been.

Strange, indeed, that his near death could teach all three of them the meaning of life.
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