(Note: this is set when heâs a child and doesnât have his name yet, so I will be just calling him Seiryuu, as Ao and the villagers do.)Â
It was early in the morning when Seiryuu awoke, and immediately he knew that something was wrong.
Wrong? he thought, curling his bare toes under the sewn furs he used as a blanket, where they peeped out into the cold air of the room. Different, at least. Â
It was cold in the room; he could see his breath, even though it was still dark.
He could see a lot of things, lately; more every day. Â
He couldnât quite see what was going on outside through the stone wall though; the fire in the grate had gone out. Where was Ao? Seiryuu bunched his blanket in his small fists, frowning and looking all around. Aoâs bed was empty, but then that wasnât so unusual; Ao didnât sleep all through the night, very often. Seiryuu supposed it was because Ao was grown up, and grown ups probably didnât need to sleep; they stayed awake and did all sorts of things in the night. That part he understood well enough.
But usually, Ao was easy enough to find, even when he wasnât sleeping. Seiryuu peered through the thin slatted wall to the other room in the small house they shared; Ao wasnât there either. Seiryuu frowned, puffing out his cheeks and rubbing his eyes with a fist as nervous tears came. Where was Ao? Â
Maybe he was never coming back. Maybe he hated Seiryuu so much, that heâd left him for good, all on his own.
But no, surely Ao would never do that. True, Seiryuu didnât know much about the world outside, but at the very least he thought he could be sure of that.
Aoâs boots, mask and sword were gone, Seiryuu saw. So, maybe Ao had gone to hunt, or to chase off the bad men that threatened the village. Ao did that sometimes. Yes, that was probably where he had gone. Â
Probably.
âŚMaybe.
The fire in the grate had burned down to ash in the night. Seiryuu steeled himself, before extending a foot gingerly out from underneath the warmth of the fur. Ao had sewn together some soft rabbit skins for him, grumbling all the while about how Seiryuu would have to get used to the cold, sooner or later. But still he had wrapped Seiryuu in the furs and gone to cook the rabbits he had skinned in a stew for their dinner.
Seiryuu wrapped the fur around his shoulders like a warm cloak and buried his nose in it. He winced as the cold stones kissed the soles of his feet before he quickly pulled on his shoes. There, that was a little better. He sneezed in the cold air, stirred the ashes in the grate with the iron poker, and peered through the wall sadly as he waited for Ao. Outside the world was still cold and iron grey, the darkness before dawn after the moon had set. None of the villagers were up; he could see them, a little, curled up in their warm houses. Some of them held each other in their arms, and he felt something unexpected - something like an emptiness, an ache in his chest - when he saw that.
He hadnât been able to see that much the day before, Seiryuu thought vaguely, before his mind flickered back to the present, and the question that had been bothering him since he had awoken; where was Ao?
He would come back. He had to.
After a while he stood up again, scrambling up onto the bench under the window and pushing the curtain aside, more to feel the wind on his face than anything. The curtain caught in it and stirred a little, swinging from where it was nailed roughly to the beam above the window.
Seiryuu reached out with his sense of the blue light that was Ao, almost before realising what he was doing. He frowned. He could sense something far off - and was it his imagination, or did it feel fainter lately, more of a washed-out sort of blue? - and it was hard to pin down, but⌠yes! there it was. Seiryuu swivelled his head to where his sense of Ao told him to look, squinting into the cold pre-dawn light. He was looking past the village, and the people sleeping with their arms entangled and their hearts beating together as they dreamed. He ignored all them, looking beyond to the field of long green grass that sloped down from the village.
He half expected to see a battle, Ao fighting some bad men like the ones who came sometimes. Ao was quick and agile with his heavy sword, and he could fight them easily, or send them running in fear. Seiryuu didnât dare say it, but he knew how they felt sometimes; if Ao hadnât said they were bad men who Seiryuu wasnât allowed to feel sympathy for, then Seiryuu might well have done just that, for Ao really could be frightening sometimes.
But for all that Ao had never hurt Seiryuu, that was true enough, and Seiryuu believed with his whole heart that Ao never would.
Seiryuuâs eyes were caught by a black outline against the grey, waving grasses. A tall man with a sword slung across his shoulder, a curtain of wild hair tumbling down his back, the silhouette of the horns of a mask confirming what Seiryuu already knew.
He clapped his small hands together in delight. âAo!â
Ao was there. Ao was close by, and that meant he would be back soon. That was enough.
Seiryuu was just about to curl up again under his fur and go back to sleep, when something else caught his eye; something he had not noticed before, intent as he had been on Ao.
A dim red glow, casting the whole scene in warm light from the sky above. Had that been there a moment ago? Surely then Ao had merely been a black shadow, but now he had colours; they werenât the usual ones though. This light was red-pink, like the light of the dawn.
He swivelled his head around to his left. He could see the dawn though, an orange line like glowing embers on the horizon, the sun soon to rise over the ragged line of the mountains.
That was, in the other direction.
He looked back to Ao, peering up into the sky above him.
Seiryuuâs eyes widened at the sight of that brilliant glow of red suddenly blooming above him, and for a moment he simply sat there curled up and frozen, transfixed.
After a while, he found himself standing up, jumping to his feet and pulling the fur back up around him, starting in the direction of the door. That lightâŚ. Seiryuu didnât know what it was, that brilliant warm wash of light, as vivid and vital red as the blood that pumped through peopleâs hearts, as the markings on Aoâs cheeks that crinkled up with his rare smiles. Red like apples and sunrises and flowers and all the prettiest red things that Seiryuu had ever seen, and yet somehow better than all of them combined. It hung in the air above Ao, like a new star, as Seiryuu ran through the villageâs silent, empty streets before dawn, the fur still streaming out behind him as he held it close about his neck against the bite of cold in the air.
It was like a blazing star, he thought. But how could there be a new star? He had never seen a new star before. He hadnât known they could just be born like that.
He would ask Ao; Ao would know. Ao knew everything there was to know, Seiryuu was certain.
Behind him and unheeded, the sun was rising as Seiryuu ran down the sloping meadow where Ao stood, still frozen in place and staring at the sky. Once, Ao might have turned to look at him, but this time he did not, his attention fixed on the light in the sky.
âAo!â Seiryuu called, tripping over a tussock of grass and sending himself sprawling to the ground, his hands cold and muddy and grass-stained where they had broken his fall. He felt tears in his eyes and his nose beginning to run, and he wiped them on his sleeve, wrapping the fur around himself nervously as a new thought occurred to him. What if Ao really was angry with him? He had simply run outside, and Ao had told him never to do that; Seiryuu had even forgotten to wear his mask. But surelyâŚ. that lightâŚ
âA⌠Ao?â he mumbled, coming up behind Ao and tugging on his tunic cautiously. Ao turned, slowly, and in that time, Seiryuu could barely draw a breath, half bracing himself for anger.
But no reprimand came. Ao had slipped his mask off and it hung by its ties in one loose hand at his side. Ao merely stared down at Seiryuu for a long, long time; it was as though he were seeing him for the first time, almost.
Seiryuu had seen Ao look like that before, of course; it was often that Ao seemed like he was looking through Seiryuu to see something else on the other side, and often, of course, he probably was. But this was different; this look was blank, and strange, like the feeling Seiryuu got when he tripped and fell, like the ground wasnât where it should be and the world was upside down.
And he looked sad, Seiryuu realised with a slight gasp. Not angry at all. There were even tears in the corners of Aoâs eyes, the brilliant red light streaming down and casting them as bright jewels against the iridescent gold of Aoâs eyes.
âSeiryuuâŚ.â Aoâs familiar voice rumbled low in his chest, a little cracked, somehow. Suddenly, he dropped his mask and leaned down, and Seiryuu flinched back almost involuntarily; but Ao did something truly unexpected then. He scooped Seiryuu up off his feet, furs and all, into his strong arms and held him close to his chest. Seiryuuâs head fitted under Aoâs scratchy chin, his hair falling all around like a net of bright blue. Seiryuu immediately relaxed in his arms, kicking his feet a little and tentatively snuggling closer, cautious though he still was.
Ao, on the other hand, did not seem inclined to any more gestures of either affection or disapproval. In fact he did nothing else at all, merely held Seiryuu in his arms, his eyes fixed back on the brilliant red light in the sky, as Seiryuu looked too.
âAoâ he said, frowning, as he placed a small hand on Aoâs chest, feeling the warmth of him and the comforting beat of Aoâs heart as he watched it through his clothes and the layers of skin, muscle and bone. âThe light⌠what⌠does it mean?â
Ao did not look at him, and for a while Seiryuu thought he had not heard. He was just about to repeat the question, when Ao sighed. âI donât knowâ he said gruffly. âNothing, probably.â
Ao was still staring at the light in the sky, and Seiryuu wondered why, if he really thought it meant nothing. He didnât dare ask this though; besides, he wouldnât really know how to put something like that into words. âItâs⌠pretty!â he said instead, reaching out a hand towards the sky.
For a while, Ao was silent again. Then, he let out a bark of laughter; or Seiryuu thought it was laughter. It may just as well have been half a sob. âYesâ Ao said. âI suppose it is.â
After that they were silent, watching the brilliant red light burn in the sky as behind them the sun rose, the whole sloping grassy meadow bathed in brilliant shades of red and pink. Â
Too soon, the red star was gone. They had waited there for it to burn away, Seiryuuâs eyes as round as the moon, forgetting even that it was getting to the later morning and his stomach was rumbling with hunger, as heâd been awake since before dawn.
It was Ao that broke out of his reverie first, tearing his gaze away from the sky where the light had been and setting Seiryuu quickly back down on his feet in the grass. Ao looked him up and down critically.
âAoâŚ.â said Seiryuu, already missing Aoâs touch; Ao was always very warm, and even though it was full light now, the cold was beginning to bite again. âPleaseâŚ. letâs go home.â
Ao said nothing for some time, his heavy blue brows drawn together in his customary frown once more. Seiryuu hung his head and braced for a lecture, for Ao to shout and tell him what he had done wrong.
And maybe, another day, he would have received just that. But instead Ao merely sighed, picked up his mask where he had dropped it on the ground and put it back on again, hiding his golden dragonâs eyes from all but Seiryuu, as he turned back towards the village.
Without looking down at the child, he extended a hand to Seiryuu at his side, who took it happily, smiling as he felt the familiar fingers, skin roughened by sword calluses imparting warmth to Seiryuuâs smaller, colder hand.
âYesâ said Ao, his voice as distant as his eyes had been. âLetâs go homeâ
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pwn1f replied to your post:pwn1f replied to your post:when people dont tag...
idek if ive posted horror bc i reblog stuff without thinking and i follow sixpenceee so i thought it was me lol. i really should tag my things though orz lmao
lol nah i think you're good? like the horror i'm really talking about are the creepy as fuck pictures or gifs from horror movies or like, the really gore filled type deal. like for example. i think you reblogged that ghost hunters post where it's like "-screams from room ##- ~ no one is staying in that room ~" like that doesn't really hit me as horror. if the door opened and a ghost walked out then yeah. that'd be a bit more horror?  lol its pretty rare for real horror things that scare me to hit my dash. it just seems to happen once in a while. creepypatas and stuff tend to show up more but they don't bother me since i just don't read them lmao
pwn1f replied to your post:when people dont tag horror things & they come up...
Omfg is that me if it is im sorry i should tag my things
no no! it wasn't you actually ;; i didn't see any horror posts from you? if you posted one i missed it lol nah i was referring to some posts i've seen over the past few days in general from a blog or two that i was following .-.
TAG GAME: CHARACTERS WHO SHARE THE SAME PERSONALITY TYPE AS YOU.
Tagged by: narhmin (alana u butt thanks)
((If you donât know your personality type, take the test here.))
Rules!
Find out what characters share the same personality type as you here and list the characters that you find relevant below. then tag five friends and let them know you tagged them!
Result: ISFP
ISFP Characters:
Dick Gumshoe from Ace Attorney (sweet)
Bertolt Hoover from Attack on Titan (oh)
Jake from Adventure Time (adVENTUUUURE)
Ava Ire and Tuls Tenebrose from Ava's Demon (oh my)
Piandao from Avatar: The Last Airbender (omfg YES)
Naegi Makoto and Mukuro Ikusaba from Dangan Ronpa (oh my)
Rory Williams from Doctor Who (why am i not surprised)
The eponymous Harry Potter, Lavender Brown from Harry Potter (talk about background characters)
Tavros Nitram from Homestuck (oh)
The eponymous InuYasha (oh wow)
Link from The Legend of Zelda (oMFG YEAS FUCK YEAH YES)
Tracy from PokÊmon (aw ye)
Cream the Rabbit, Big the Cat, and Maria Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog (wHY DID I GET ALL THE BAD CHARACTERS FROM SONIC WHY IS THIS)
The eponymous Tarzan (*tarzan noises*)
Heavy Weapons Guy from Team Fortress 2 (cry sum more)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Rule 1: Always post the rules
Rule 2: Answer the questions the person who tagged you asked and write 11 new ones
Rule 3: Tag 11 people and link them to this post
Rule 4: Actually tell them you tagged them
1. Who do you feel the closest to?
Um, idk probably my cat tbh, but I held him before and he bit me ;-; so I guess my ipad can fill the void
2. What was your happiest experience as a child?
Apparently my mum tells me that I used to go and play in the local park and Iâd come back to her and tell her about all the friends Iâd made xD hahahahahaha omg I had friends 3Â
Either that or Christmas⌠That shit was pretty cool
(And I don't know why it didn't post the rest of my message so I give up on life! <3