Shadows: Whisper | Assassin's Creed

[Mousia]

Zero enjoyed kissing her, but he reluctantly pulled away some. Just to say a few words. "Did that answer your question?" he asked in a soft whisper, blue eyes twinkling with mischief. Without waiting for a reply, he kissed her again, putting his remaining hand on her head, feeling the softness of her hair. The straightness of the strands. "I...love...you...," he mumbled through the kiss. The young man grabbed at the cloth of her assassins' clothes, not making an effort to remove them, but just for the sheer point of grabbing something. To hold onto it. "That's my answer," he mumbled again. "The only answer I'll ever give."

 

(A little short, but I didn't want to go too far or anything.)

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe was literally overcome with emotion. She was flushed, her heart was beating at an extremely rapid pace, and for once she was mellow. She was pretty sure that sparks shot out from her at the sheer happiness and pleasure she was having at that moment. And without thinking of it, she answered him. "I love you too." she sighed beneath his lips. His touch was soft, and he gripped at her clothes. But it would go no further than that. Not now. Pulling away, she tucked her face into his shoulder. "I love you, too, Zero..." she breathed in his scent. "But... Do you think that we'll ever go back home? Do you think... That we'll ever be true assassins?" it was something that had been bothering her for a long while. She had to let it out. And now was the perfect time

 

[beddy bye!]

[IceFyr1928]

[Well I missed quite a bit. Should have a post up tomorrow late afternoon. GMT -7:00]

[Mousia]

Zero put both his arms around her waist, tucking his head down so he could speak quiet and still be heard by her. "What do you mean by 'back home'? Our home is the night. Our home is the embrace of the people who love us. Our home could be anywhere in the world as long as we had our brothers and sisters beside us. That is the doctrine of the assassins." But he did take a deep sigh. "But... I miss the headquarters too. I grew up there and felt good there until the coup, when I was taken away. Without lingering too long on that subject, I suppose it's safe to say that it's the best home I've ever had. But... Perhaps we will even be made full assassins soon. It's all up to us whether or not we will show our skills before our brothers and sisters and the gods. All we can do is keep getting better and hope to be worthy of the title. For now." He kissed the side of her head gently. "But don't worry about that. You're a natural talent at archery. I'm just a useless man. Doubt I'd even be in the creed if not for my lineage."

[RainDash]

[should post more. Just lazy I suppose. Have to go to work in a moment though.]

 

Calypso was as high up as she could climb. She was a bit of a mess, because of her climb, but she was happy. No one really bothered her all the way up in her sort of hiding spot. Except for those hateful Shades. She hadn't seen any yet, but they could appear at any moment, and ruin everything. She shook her head, trying to toss those thoughts out of it. She sighed and pulled out the necklace, staring at it for some answers. Why did she keep it? It was stolen after all, if she was caught with it she could be arrested. Or worse. She liked it though. It was pretty and it was a gift of sorts. Plus, Hermes was acting all funny last night. She was happy for the company, but why did he rub his neck like that? Plus she was pretty sure he was nervous, after all, his heart sped up too. Maybe she was just confused. Yeah, she was just confused.

[TwilightMoonDragon]

[*glomps Rain*]

 

Kaethe

 

What Zero said was true. Their home was here... The night. Their family. Helena and Thais and Kallisto and Calypso, and Cyrus and Aetios and Typhon. They would be united under the force of the moon, and stars, and the darkness. Kaethe smiled softly, but it was quickly replaced. Zero was saying that she had a good hand at the bow, while he was useless.

 

"That isn't true." Kaethe said, taking his hands in hers. "You're better than I am. Your fighting skills dwarf mine. Those Athenians... They tried to hurt me... And you protected me. I couldn't even fight. It was too... Too scary..."

 

She shuddered, and pressed close against the other apprentice. She didn't know what to think anymore. Her lips still hummed from when Zero kissed her, and she wanted more kisses and more good words. But she knew that they would not come... Not always.

 

"Want to go horse riding with me?" she asked, a smile on her face. She motioned over to the cliffs. "There's no one up in the cliffs."

 

 

[Mousia]

(You know... I'm noticing that there's a little grace period in the beginning to the RP where predetermined couples tease each other or just spend a lot of time together, then they all start to fall in love at about the same time. )

 

Zero shook his head slightly. "I wouldn't let them touch you. Ever. Not even if I only had one arm and one leg, I would find a way." His voice was serious and grim, though he immediately shifted when she asked to go horse-riding. "Sure," he smiled. "Whatever you want." Although he could also go for something else...he was happy to entertain her simple whims. It was one of the only things he could do to distract himself from how every one of her smiles was brighter than Helios' sun and every second without her was like a pointless grey blur. And he felt a strange prickling in his heart that he couldn't decipher. Did it feel good or not? Did she had the same pinching in her chest too? Had Aphrodite and Eros blessed them, or was it a cruel game? All questions he had no answer to, but Kaethe was worth it. He was at least sure of that.

[TwilightMoonDragon]

[You know Bambi? Remember when all of the guys fell in love around the same time? And every time one would fall, they would be heartbroken until they see their counterparts? ]

 

Kaethe grinned and walked toward the mountains. There were some horses that were tied up at their posts, there. She could borrow one and bring it back, and they could ride as long as they wanted. "It's a beautiful day." she admitted.

 

[Pool. AGAIN.]

[Mousia]

"I suppose it is." Though he couldn't help thinking that she merely had to look in a mirror to see something beautiful. It was kind of like a power. Kind of like a godly ability. But she was just a human woman. A human woman endowed with many gifts, such as fearlessness and beauty. And a brilliant archer. What a girl! But she couldn't do hand-to-hand. Kind of like Zero. The only difference was that he could, but didn't like to. Almost the opposite of his sister, who would do anything to see the face of her attacker. To see the fear in them right before she snapped their bodies like twigs. But she also could wield the bow with some level of proficiency. A testament to her love of the man who died for her. But that was long ago. Nothing could be done to bring him back anymore. He was long gone, his body rotting in the ground. It was a loss to both of them, but more so to Helena. But Zero pushed the thoughts aside.

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe

 

They made their way to the fence where the horses were hitched. There were three horses, one white with black spots, another a dappled gray mare, and the third a basic blood bay stallion. Kaethe picked up the saddle and the bit that was draped over the wood, and first buckled the white and black mare into her saddle. Gently slipping the bit into the horse's mouth, she wiped the spit off her hand onto her uniform.

 

"You're a slowpoke, you know that?" Kaethe grinned and got on the horse, making her turn. "Tell you what. Last one to the pomegranate grove has to do whatever the winner says!" with a laugh, she shot off.

 

The wind was in her hair as she streaked through the Greek countryside. Thebes had this air around it. An air of freedom, of purity. She pushed her horse more and more, making her grunt and run further. "Woooooooo!" she screamed, leaning into the saddle and grinning. She heard nothing but the wind, the huffing of her mare.

 

She got to the pomegranate grove a few moments later. But she did not see if anyone was tree. Had Zero beaten her? Or was it the other way around?

[Mousia]

Zero nodded in agreement to Kaethe's terms. But since she had already started by the time he reached the horses, he just mounted the stallion (as it was closer to him) bareback and pressed his heels into its stomach, urging it on. But he didn't have to intention to win. He'd have to make it close, though, or she'd know he'd thrown the match. When she reached the grove, he slowed his horse to a trot until he got there too. "You win, I suppose," he shrugged. "What now? What do I have to do?" He looked at her with raised eyebrows. Surely it wouldn't be bad... But... The girl was a daredevil, so he supposed anything with in the realm of possibility. And although Zero had just made a show of confidence at the olive tree, he'd returned to his normal, timid shell and settling in there again. But it was quite a switch... Back there... Zero led and Kaethe followed, which contradicted pretty much everything that one would have expected. But he supposed that Kaethe's confidence bleed into him and he was just awkward enough to draw out the girl's shy side. Either way, they complimented each other.

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe

 

Ah, so she had won. Perfect! She had something fun planned for the two of them, something thrilling and amazing. Kaethe turned her horse around and grinned broadly at him. "Follow me." she continued past the grove at a trot, riding close to the edge of the cliff and peering down at the sheer height. Ah, it was wonderful, being here! Around and around they went, traveling on the twirling path.

 

Soon, they came upon the peak. There laid a huge, crystal clear lake, one that Kaethe knew from the heart. The water was cold, freezing cold. She usually bathed there, but it was extremely secluded and rocks leaned over it. "This is my getaway~" she sang. "I've never shown it to anyone. But it's beautiful up here, even at night. You can see all of the stars..."

 

She hitched her horse onto a makeshift fence she had made. It was snorting and hugging, so she pulled off the girdle for a moment, and gave her an apple. "It's amazing, the things you can find when you look hard enough." she told him. "There are even trees here to nap under! I mean, Helena hasn't assigned us any mentor yet, so I have a lot of time to myself."

[Mousia]

Zero tied his horse up and sighed, eyes flitting around to take in the lake and its surrounding as much as he could in a short time. "You didn't need to win a race to get me to come here, you know." He sat down at the edge of the cliff, letting his legs hang down. Letting his torso fall so he had his back on the ground, he interlocked his fingers and put his hands behind his head. Closing his eyes again, he spoke quietly. "You'll probably be able to get a mentor if you just ask her for one. I don't have one because I'd probably be too much of a bother, so..." He shrugged, relaxed. The breeze ruffled his hair, but it honestly didn't matter that much. Which raised an interesting question... Did anything really matter? But he pushed the thoughts away, for he knew that they led to no good. Instead he thought of Kaethe. Their kiss from before. Had anyone seen them? That'd have been awkward...

[TwilightMoonDragon]

"You're not useless!" Kaethe suddenly laid on top of him, but not on the normal way. She laid down on him to form a cross, but she didn't know about that. She felt his heartbeat on her belly and grinned. "Thebes is so pretty... You can see everything from up here!"

 

[Phone running out of battery.]

[Mousia]

Zero put one hand on the small of her back, making miniscule, massaging motions. "That it is, that it is," he muttered softly. He wondered if she was as relaxed as he was. And part of him never wanted the moment to end. However, his thoughts soon became tainted with negativity. He imagined embarrassing scenarios in which people came and saw them together. He didn't want to bring shame to Kaethe, despite their feelings for each other. As the thoughts became more and more prominant, his heart began to beat faster and he could feel his breath

coming shorter. Damn it...

 

(Typing on mobile, which is really difficult for me.)

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe

 

Purring at his gentle touch, Kaethe looked out at the scenery again and smiled. Thebes... She loved Thebes. But she might not ever go back again. Even from here, she could see the Athenians put up their banners. It really was frightening. She suddenly didn't want to be on this edge anymore.

 

"You know, I didn't come here just to look at scenery." Kaethe told him with a grin. She slipped off of him and walked toward the rocks again. "See that one?" she asked him, pointing toward the tallest rock. "Jumped from that one, straight into the pool. You should of seen me. That's where I got the scar on my upper thigh. It's a nasty one, it is."

 

She hoped that he would ask to see it. She loved showing her scars, especially when they were in awkward places. She once asked another male apprentice if she could see the weird birthmark on his butt that he deemed looked exactly like Zeus. But all she saw was a weird brown splotch.

[Mousia]

Zero shrugged slightly. "I suppose it must've hurt." He thought of asking to see it, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to control himself anymore then. Kaethe was a daredevil, but it was obvious that even she had boundaries. But Zues' influence hung heavy over him. And while he usually didn't interest himself in women who couldn't hold a conversation (which was why he was disinterested in brothels), he did often fear how much his animalistic tendencies went and how much he could control them. Often it wasn't a problem, but he'd much rather be safe then sorry. Even so, he did suppose that he'd be okay if he just disregarded its location and focused in the scar itself... He was hopeful that he'd be able to keep still his wandering fingers. "Don't suppose I could have a looksee."

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe

 

"I didn't even realize it was there till I got back home." Kaethe boasted, puffing out her chest. "Someone said to me, 'Kaethe, you're bleeding down your pant leg!'. I swear, I wasn't limping or anything. Didn't even feel it when I got on my horse!"

 

Truth of the matter was that Kaethe cursed all of Olympus when she had been in that water. It was so painful, she was pretty sure that her bone must have been broken. But wasn't, just bruised. It still bothered her, though.

 

When Zero asked to see the scar, Kaethe beamed. To her, it was nothing more than just looking at the scar. She had shown it to the other boys, and they all winced and listened to her story. Not many believed it though. They thought she was weak, but she really wasn't. "Sure, you can see it!"

 

She went and sat on a flat rock, bending over and pulling up her pant leg. She folded the edges over and over again, until she came upon the area right below her waist, below the bone. It was a gruesome mark, it was, jagged and uneven. "I swear, didn't even feel a thing!" she boasted again, grinning broadly.

[Mousia]

Zero looked at the scar intently. "Hmm..." Looking at it some more, he gingerly ran his fingers down the length of it, feeling the raggedy skin where it was healed in odd formations. Pulling his hand away, he looked up into Kaethe's eyes again. "Apollo is also the god of medicine, you know. Perhaps he blessed you." He paused with a faint smile. Looking up at the sky, he sighed. "Or perhaps you're not telling the truth. It's a common thing among assassins to tell tall tales. I don't just believe every story anymore. Too much teasing. They say you're gullible or stupid. So you learn to believe nothing at face value. A learned skill for some. Like me." He looked back at Kaethe, pulling out a knife. "You think you'd feel it if you got a slit down your arm? From personal experience, sharper knives hurt less, but they're really cold. It's really frightening when they move on from your arms or your chest to your face, though. 's where I got this scar." He pointed to the smallish mark from the tip of his eyebrow across the bridge of his nose. "It's funny. People think I'm scarred from battle or something manly like that, when it was from sitting, strapped down to a chair while a Templar cut a little boy over and over and raped his sister. Not nearly as impressive stories, I must say..."

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe

 

Kaethe watched Zero's finger run over the scar. He was so gentle at times, but she could tell that he could crush heads if he wanted to. She listened to him speak, then. About her being blessed by Apollo, or lying. She wasn't going to tell that she was lying. Maybe that would hurt his feelings, since no one liked being lied to. Yet... It happened every day. Cheating husbands lying to their wives, and allies lying to one another...

 

"I'm sorry about what happened to your sister." Kaethe murmured, frowning at him. "That has to have been horrible to both of you."

 

It wasn't that heroic, no, how he got that scar... One would really think he had gotten it in battle. The same thing happened to the deaths of assassins. People would think that they died honorable deaths. But they died in labor, of sneaky poisonings, and of disease. They died when their throats were cut in their sleep by traitors. They died when they choked on their own vomit when they were drunk. Kaethe had witnessed that.

 

"Not all assassins get their scars in battle. Only the false ones." she rolled down her pant leg and pulled at her collar, pulling it down to her collarbone. "I was hurt by an Athenian supporter when I was a wee girl. Thought it would be funny to harass me and almost kill me. So he cut me here. Almost hit that long vein that cut throats cut when they slice your throat open."

[Mousia]

Zero shook his head slightly. "You didn't do anything. No reason to say you're sorry," he muttered quietly. But he listened at the girl went on and nodded his head slightly. "Gruesome lives, gruesome deaths. No?" He shrugged and rubbed his temples to calm himself. "But I suppose that's the life we've all been chosen for. One full of danger and death. But it's our line of work, so I guess it's our own fault." He stood up with a soft grunt and looked down at Kaethe, still sitting on the rock. Winking, he picked her up in what would later be referred to as the fireman's hold and looked up at the sky again. "What now? No point in sitting around talking about death and pain, is there?" he remarked.

[TwilightMoonDragon]

Kaethe

 

That was true... Why would she be sorry? She didn't do anything... Kaethe looked at the open world, at the mountains and the slight blue of the distant sea. Suddenly, Zero picked her up and put her in the fireman hold, making her squeal like a pig. "Lemme down! I'm not comfortable with having my head upside down!" she cried, flailing. But all she did was sway. She felt nauseous... But she wasn't going to go and vomit...

 

"Perhaps we should go back... Unless you wanna go and take a dip?"

 

She strained and picked herself up a bit, screwing up he eyes to look at the pool. The water looked icy cold and seemed enticing... But it could be whatever Zero wanted to do. Maybe he would go and and jump from that rock!

 

[Errands.]

[Mousia]

(Nuuu! Not the evil errand monster!)

 

"Oh, c'mon. It could be worse." He paused with a smile. "Like...if I'd shaken you around first. Or if I hung you upside-down by your big toe." But he put her down anyways. "Do you want to go back? Or do you want to see just how deep the brotherly jealousy goes between Zues and Poseidon?" He grinned slightly. "Every time I try to swim, his wife nearly drowns me. Just so I remember that I don't belong in the water. But maybe I'll go in just to spite her..." He ran a hand through his hair. "You wouldn't let me live it down if I chickened out of going in, would you?" he asked with a friendly snort. "Like I almost didn't eat that pomegranate. And wouldn't talk to you at first. It'd be like that, right?"

 

(I also wanted to tell you that my mom is hydrophobic. Cassie isn't alone.)

[TwilightMoonDragon]

"You should totally get into the water." Kaethe grinned. "I'd love to see you swim!"

 

[bed.]

[Mousia]

Zero smiled nervously. "Fine, but it'll be your fault if I drown..." Stripping off his weapons and metal ornaments, he sighed. He took off his cloak, tunic, and boots, leaving only his pants to make sure that he wouldn't sink because his clothes soaked up too much water. He'd made that mistake before. Ambling over to the rock that Kaethe had jumped off of, he took a deep breath. "Don't laugh..." As he set himself on the very edge of the rock, he pushed off with one foot and thrust his body forward to make sure that he most definitely didn't fall on land. He flipped to go headfirst and plugged his nose. Jeez... This was gonna be awful. Closing his eyes, the young man plunged deep into the water. Panicking a little, he opened his eyes and frantically propelled himself upward to breathe. Taking a large gulp of air once he had resurfaced, he realized just how cold the water was. Crap. Why had he jumped in? And he was half naked, so the chilling water lapped at his skin.

Laying on the surface of the water, he sighed. It wasn't so bad after all. As long as he could float, everything was just fine and dandy. With his belly exposed, though, his scars were fully visible. Not only that, but scar tissue was weaker than the rest, meaning that his already vulnerable (but slightly more so) stomach was fully exposed. While the muscle from countless hours of training made it slightly less risky to expose himself so, it didn't lessen the fact that he was just putting his weakest point out there for all to see and exploit. His arms weren't necessarily as bad because he supposed that it was more enjoyable for the Templars to see him screaming and doubling over, clutching his bloodied stomach than to have him merely clutch am arm wound. Either way, despite his his tolerance to pain, his body was weaker due to the past abuse.

The waves from him jumping in were still strong. One viciously washed over his face, distracting him from the calm and causing him to frantically snap out of his position and begin to sink again. Struggling to stay above the surface of the water and to breathe, he looked up. How long would Kaethe dare him to stay in the freezing cold, vengeful water?