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arabwelLike promised, here is more of ÄMM for your reading pleasure.
in other news, i am angsty enough to get borderline suicidal. fuck, i hae being me.
Lordi could hear Anna’s excited chattering well before she and Awa entered the clearing; he frowned, anger slowly starting to build inside him.-
His princess was talking about her tutor again.
Lordi knew he should not have been angered; he should have been happy that Anna was so joyous about her studies now, looking forward to the visits from the priest rather than dreading them like before. After all, the new pastor was a young man, kind and gentle who had won her over from her very first lesson with him…
Lordi growled, baring his teeth. He did not trust this priest the least.
When Anna came into sight and immediately cried out his name, Lordi buried his anger by sheer force of will and smiled at her, swooping her up into his arms as she ran to him.
”I missed you!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his shoulder.
“I missed you too, princess,” Lordi growled, stroking her hair with his free hand; the other was wrapped around her tiny waist, holding her up against him. Even though she was no longer a little girl, she was still as light as a feather to him and would always remain so.
For a long moment he only held her silently while she watched him with contented blue eyes; until she finally spoke.
”Will you tell me a story?” she asked, smiling.
Lordi found himself answering his simile. “Of course. Princess. What kind of a story?”
”One with a princess and monsters!” She exclaimed, looking at him as if he’d grown a second head; she never did ask for any other kind of a story.
”Very well, Anna,” he purred as he began to make his way to a better spot where he could sit down and pull her properly into his lap.
“Viktor only tells me f.. fables,” she stumbled over the word. “He likes Aesop and La Fontaine. But I like your stories better.”
Again, anger rose in Lordi: the priest had gotten overtly familiar with his Anna! But he was also pleased, greatly so, by her preference for his tales.
“Once upon a time…” he began the familiar routine, his claws unconsciously stroking Anna’s golden hair as he began to tell her the story of a beautiful young princess who found herself lost in the dark woods… a story that enthralled Anna till he very last words.
“And as the prince’s façade melted away to reveal the beast of the woods, the princess cried out in joy and embraced him; from thereon, they would live happily ever after.”
Anna giggled and squirmed, sitting up straight form where she had rested against his shoulder.
I knew it!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “You tell it the right way!”
“The right way?” Lordi raised an eyebrow at her words.
Anna nodded. “Yup. When I asked Viktor to tell me a story with a princess and a monster she told it all wrong! The princess kissed the beast and he turned into a prince.” She wrinkled her nose.
Lordi laughed; both at her expression but also to mask the anger that had flared at the mention of the priest’s name. “He did, did he?”
”Yup.” Anna nodded solemnly. “I did tell him he was telling it all wrong, but he just laughed.” She wrinkled her nose again; “He’s so silly for someone so smart.”
“That he is,” he growled as he pulled her closer, masking his anger carefully.
“He’s nice, though;” Anna said as she snuggled closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she buried her face in his shoulder. “I like him a lot.”
Lordi growled.
**
Ruusa could not help but look up from her task of shelling peas at the shade and stare at the priest who was mounting his horse at the courtyard; Pastor Belan was easy on the eyes and so very kind to everyone that Ruusa couldn’t help but be just a bit sweet on him – just like every other woman in the parish, no doubt.
For a moment she felt a brief stab of envy towards the young miss, who got to spend several hours alone with the pastor every time the man came to tutor her; Ruusa shook her head, driving the notion away.
Young miss Anna was barely thirteen, for God’s sake! She had barely began to get any sort of womanly shape and pastor Belan was not the sort of a man who would take advantage of a young girl’s infatuation, not in a million years!
Not that Anna was infatuated with him, Ruusa reminded herself. Ever since the last fall, she had befriended the girl and although she knew naught of what exactly it was that the young miss was up to most of the time, she knew enough. There had been no sighs of longing or doe-eyes made at the priest, no wistfulness at all in the way Anna acted when the priest was away.
Well, maybe a little, Ruusa amended as she continued with her task. Anna was so very eager for books and learning, that she often wished she could get her lessons more often, and in the meantime practised her Latin so very diligently that Ruusa had ended up taking away her book a few times, to keep the girl from studying well into the night.
Ruusa wondered if the priest knew of Anna’s trips into the woods; those, she knew, Anna made as often as she could, and they were the only thing Anna ever neglected her studies for. Ruusa had toyed with the idea of following her more than once, but she knew it would mean a fate worse than death in the hands of the Lord of the Woods…
Ruusa shivered. Her great-grandmother had told her plenty of tales form the old days, of the beasts that made the forest their home… beasts far worse than any wild animal.
She knew that when pastor Mullander had died, they had said it was wolves. But wolves did not possess such brutal rage as the man had been subjected to… someone, or something, had found cause to utterly destroy the priest…
Ruusa knew it was wicked of her to think so, but the man had deserved it! He’d hurt her sister, and she knew there had been others.. but a priest was the most respected man in any community and above such things… so they had suffered in silence. Then, he had met his end…
Because he had struck a little girl.
Ruusa shivered again and picked up her basket; she wanted to get into the sun, out of the shade. She knew that what she should have done was to tell pastor Belan, to tell him of the beast-bite on the girl, of those trips in the woods… it bore all the signs of witchcraft and devilry.
But she knew she would not. Because Anna was not wicked. She could remember the look in the girl’s eyes as she told her that the pastor was dead; no wicked being could have mimicked that look of horror. She could not have known of the man’s fate and couldn’t have sent the beasts after him… she had denied that any hell spawn could hurt a priest, even!
But Lord of the Woods was no hell spawn.
Again, Ruusa shuddered; angrily, she popped the peapod in her hand and began to work twice as hard as before. She would be better off not thinking about this!
**
Despite the sun, the air was unusually chilly for such a high summer’s day, and Viktor found himself spurring his horse forward. There was something in the air, some strange, sinister feeling that he did not like at all.
His hand clutched the cross he wore around his neck and he muttered a brief prayer; he knew from what he had been told that he was on the same stretch of road that his predecessor’s body had been found on.
Viktor had been born and raised in a small hut no more than an hour’s ride from where his horse now halted, rearing and neighing in fright; he knew all the stories of what lurked in the woods but right now his main concern was to calm his horse and therefore he would not think of just what might be coming upon him.
He didn’t succeed and fell to the ground, air escaping his lungs as his mare reared for one last time, taking off in a frightened gallop he could hazily tell he couldn’t have hung on anyway…
The train of his thoughts halted as he caught sight of just what had frightened his gentle mare into bolting – or who, more like it.
The creature that stood less than ten yards from Viktor’s prostrate position was monstrous, no other word for it. Horns on its head, wings on its back, with red eyes that shone like hellfire and fangs that looked razor-sharp as the creature growled. Clad in strange, barbaric armor and holding a double-headed axe, there was no mistaking of just what Viktor was facing.
He bit his lip to suppress the instinctive Lord protect me as he scrambled on his feet; it was probably the worst thing he could say at the moment.
“What do you want with me,” he croaked instead, “Lord of the Woods?”
The Lord of the Woods growled and stalked forward without words; Viktor swallowed hard, standing his ground. Whatever would come, would come and he would face it with all the strength and determination he could muster.
The creature growled, tossing its... nay, his head. “What do you think I want?”
Viktor swallowed again. “I don’t know,” he said, proud of the fact that his voice did not shake. “What have I done that has raised your ire so?”
The answer came in that same bone-chilling, low growl. “The girl.”
Viktor did not have to ask what girl? – There was only one girl the Lord of the Woods could have meant.
“Anna.” He whispered her name quietly.
”The last one died for touching her,” the beast growled, taking a step forwards.
“Mullander?” Viktor asked, although he knew the answer. “He deserved it.”
He could sense hesitation in the creature, and knew his one chance in making sure he came out of this alive was here. “For everything he did. For... touching what you had claimed.”
Viktor knew he was treading on thin ice, he could not know if the Lord had indeed claimed Anna… but he could see the red marks on the girl’s neck clear as day in his mind’s eye, the little dots he thought had been a peculiar birthmark rather than what he now realized them to be.
“And yet you dare,” the creature growled, taking another step close; he was barely three yards from Viktor now, towering over the slight priest-
“Dare what, Lord?” Viktor asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “I have only…”
The backhand that hit his face came out of nowhere and Viktor stumbled, going down on one knee.
“You have dared to lay your hands on her!” the beast growled, nay, roared.
“She’s a child in need of comfort!” Viktor groaned, tasting blood in his mouth. “I am not… I would never... she’s just a little girl!”
The implication of the beast’s words made Viktor feel sick in his stomach; did the Lord of the Woods truly think of him capable of such depravity? He was… he knew he was not right, but he was not something like that!
He looked up, his eyes wide. “I swear to God I would never, ever do that,” he choked. “She is… she is yours.”
Some part of him wondered just how monstrous the Lord of the Woods was, but those thoughts were quickly abolished – it was not out of sheer jealousy that he was being confronted; the beast was protective of Anna, more than anything.
The fact that Viktor had told him that Anna was his seemed to calm the Lord slightly, but not much. “She is a child now,” he growled, the implication clear in his voice.
Viktor swallowed hard. Would he have to reveal his shameful secret to gain enough ground with the creature to prevent his death, to be allowed to guide the bright young mind that he had grown to love like a sister in such a short time?
“I became a priest for a reason,” he said quietly. “I do not prefer the company of women.”
**
Lordi was taken aback by the priest’s bluntness at admitting to being a sodomite. This was not something he had expected, especially not since this was a clergyman.
The angers that had began to dissipate at the priest’s acknowledgement that Anna was his slowly ebbed away completely as Lordi regarded him with eyes no longer clouded with fury.
The priest had straightened up and was now looking him in the eye, his expression that of resolve; Lordi could tell, from the speed of his heartbeat and the shallowness of his breath, that the man was still frightened – but he was not letting his fear rule him.
Perhaps… perhaps he might let the priest live.
“And how do I know you tell me the truth?” he growled.
The priest bit his lip, but his heartbeat did not quicken any further; it was one of the telltale signs of honesty ht Lordi was an expert at reading.
“Because no one can lie to the Lord of the Woods,” the priest said matter-of-factly, licking his lips. “I learned that from my grandmother.”
Lordi laughed. “That is true, priest.”
The moment of silence that passed was but a few heartbeats, but Lordi knew that to the priest it had to feel like an eternity. Eventually, he spoke again. “You will live, priest. But know that if Anna ever comes to harm from you..”
”I will die. I understand.“ The priest nodded.
“Anna would miss you,” Lordi admitted grudgingly, if without anger. “So see that it won’t come to that.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
With that, Lordi turned away from the priest and stalked into the woods, becoming one with the shadows. He did not wish to risk his anger rising again, now that he had decided that the priest would live... for the time being.
**
next stop - actually, i donöt have the faintest idea what th next stop is but we will get there, promiseö
in other news, i am angsty enough to get borderline suicidal. fuck, i hae being me.
Lordi could hear Anna’s excited chattering well before she and Awa entered the clearing; he frowned, anger slowly starting to build inside him.-
His princess was talking about her tutor again.
Lordi knew he should not have been angered; he should have been happy that Anna was so joyous about her studies now, looking forward to the visits from the priest rather than dreading them like before. After all, the new pastor was a young man, kind and gentle who had won her over from her very first lesson with him…
Lordi growled, baring his teeth. He did not trust this priest the least.
When Anna came into sight and immediately cried out his name, Lordi buried his anger by sheer force of will and smiled at her, swooping her up into his arms as she ran to him.
”I missed you!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face into his shoulder.
“I missed you too, princess,” Lordi growled, stroking her hair with his free hand; the other was wrapped around her tiny waist, holding her up against him. Even though she was no longer a little girl, she was still as light as a feather to him and would always remain so.
For a long moment he only held her silently while she watched him with contented blue eyes; until she finally spoke.
”Will you tell me a story?” she asked, smiling.
Lordi found himself answering his simile. “Of course. Princess. What kind of a story?”
”One with a princess and monsters!” She exclaimed, looking at him as if he’d grown a second head; she never did ask for any other kind of a story.
”Very well, Anna,” he purred as he began to make his way to a better spot where he could sit down and pull her properly into his lap.
“Viktor only tells me f.. fables,” she stumbled over the word. “He likes Aesop and La Fontaine. But I like your stories better.”
Again, anger rose in Lordi: the priest had gotten overtly familiar with his Anna! But he was also pleased, greatly so, by her preference for his tales.
“Once upon a time…” he began the familiar routine, his claws unconsciously stroking Anna’s golden hair as he began to tell her the story of a beautiful young princess who found herself lost in the dark woods… a story that enthralled Anna till he very last words.
“And as the prince’s façade melted away to reveal the beast of the woods, the princess cried out in joy and embraced him; from thereon, they would live happily ever after.”
Anna giggled and squirmed, sitting up straight form where she had rested against his shoulder.
I knew it!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “You tell it the right way!”
“The right way?” Lordi raised an eyebrow at her words.
Anna nodded. “Yup. When I asked Viktor to tell me a story with a princess and a monster she told it all wrong! The princess kissed the beast and he turned into a prince.” She wrinkled her nose.
Lordi laughed; both at her expression but also to mask the anger that had flared at the mention of the priest’s name. “He did, did he?”
”Yup.” Anna nodded solemnly. “I did tell him he was telling it all wrong, but he just laughed.” She wrinkled her nose again; “He’s so silly for someone so smart.”
“That he is,” he growled as he pulled her closer, masking his anger carefully.
“He’s nice, though;” Anna said as she snuggled closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck as she buried her face in his shoulder. “I like him a lot.”
Lordi growled.
**
Ruusa could not help but look up from her task of shelling peas at the shade and stare at the priest who was mounting his horse at the courtyard; Pastor Belan was easy on the eyes and so very kind to everyone that Ruusa couldn’t help but be just a bit sweet on him – just like every other woman in the parish, no doubt.
For a moment she felt a brief stab of envy towards the young miss, who got to spend several hours alone with the pastor every time the man came to tutor her; Ruusa shook her head, driving the notion away.
Young miss Anna was barely thirteen, for God’s sake! She had barely began to get any sort of womanly shape and pastor Belan was not the sort of a man who would take advantage of a young girl’s infatuation, not in a million years!
Not that Anna was infatuated with him, Ruusa reminded herself. Ever since the last fall, she had befriended the girl and although she knew naught of what exactly it was that the young miss was up to most of the time, she knew enough. There had been no sighs of longing or doe-eyes made at the priest, no wistfulness at all in the way Anna acted when the priest was away.
Well, maybe a little, Ruusa amended as she continued with her task. Anna was so very eager for books and learning, that she often wished she could get her lessons more often, and in the meantime practised her Latin so very diligently that Ruusa had ended up taking away her book a few times, to keep the girl from studying well into the night.
Ruusa wondered if the priest knew of Anna’s trips into the woods; those, she knew, Anna made as often as she could, and they were the only thing Anna ever neglected her studies for. Ruusa had toyed with the idea of following her more than once, but she knew it would mean a fate worse than death in the hands of the Lord of the Woods…
Ruusa shivered. Her great-grandmother had told her plenty of tales form the old days, of the beasts that made the forest their home… beasts far worse than any wild animal.
She knew that when pastor Mullander had died, they had said it was wolves. But wolves did not possess such brutal rage as the man had been subjected to… someone, or something, had found cause to utterly destroy the priest…
Ruusa knew it was wicked of her to think so, but the man had deserved it! He’d hurt her sister, and she knew there had been others.. but a priest was the most respected man in any community and above such things… so they had suffered in silence. Then, he had met his end…
Because he had struck a little girl.
Ruusa shivered again and picked up her basket; she wanted to get into the sun, out of the shade. She knew that what she should have done was to tell pastor Belan, to tell him of the beast-bite on the girl, of those trips in the woods… it bore all the signs of witchcraft and devilry.
But she knew she would not. Because Anna was not wicked. She could remember the look in the girl’s eyes as she told her that the pastor was dead; no wicked being could have mimicked that look of horror. She could not have known of the man’s fate and couldn’t have sent the beasts after him… she had denied that any hell spawn could hurt a priest, even!
But Lord of the Woods was no hell spawn.
Again, Ruusa shuddered; angrily, she popped the peapod in her hand and began to work twice as hard as before. She would be better off not thinking about this!
**
Despite the sun, the air was unusually chilly for such a high summer’s day, and Viktor found himself spurring his horse forward. There was something in the air, some strange, sinister feeling that he did not like at all.
His hand clutched the cross he wore around his neck and he muttered a brief prayer; he knew from what he had been told that he was on the same stretch of road that his predecessor’s body had been found on.
Viktor had been born and raised in a small hut no more than an hour’s ride from where his horse now halted, rearing and neighing in fright; he knew all the stories of what lurked in the woods but right now his main concern was to calm his horse and therefore he would not think of just what might be coming upon him.
He didn’t succeed and fell to the ground, air escaping his lungs as his mare reared for one last time, taking off in a frightened gallop he could hazily tell he couldn’t have hung on anyway…
The train of his thoughts halted as he caught sight of just what had frightened his gentle mare into bolting – or who, more like it.
The creature that stood less than ten yards from Viktor’s prostrate position was monstrous, no other word for it. Horns on its head, wings on its back, with red eyes that shone like hellfire and fangs that looked razor-sharp as the creature growled. Clad in strange, barbaric armor and holding a double-headed axe, there was no mistaking of just what Viktor was facing.
He bit his lip to suppress the instinctive Lord protect me as he scrambled on his feet; it was probably the worst thing he could say at the moment.
“What do you want with me,” he croaked instead, “Lord of the Woods?”
The Lord of the Woods growled and stalked forward without words; Viktor swallowed hard, standing his ground. Whatever would come, would come and he would face it with all the strength and determination he could muster.
The creature growled, tossing its... nay, his head. “What do you think I want?”
Viktor swallowed again. “I don’t know,” he said, proud of the fact that his voice did not shake. “What have I done that has raised your ire so?”
The answer came in that same bone-chilling, low growl. “The girl.”
Viktor did not have to ask what girl? – There was only one girl the Lord of the Woods could have meant.
“Anna.” He whispered her name quietly.
”The last one died for touching her,” the beast growled, taking a step forwards.
“Mullander?” Viktor asked, although he knew the answer. “He deserved it.”
He could sense hesitation in the creature, and knew his one chance in making sure he came out of this alive was here. “For everything he did. For... touching what you had claimed.”
Viktor knew he was treading on thin ice, he could not know if the Lord had indeed claimed Anna… but he could see the red marks on the girl’s neck clear as day in his mind’s eye, the little dots he thought had been a peculiar birthmark rather than what he now realized them to be.
“And yet you dare,” the creature growled, taking another step close; he was barely three yards from Viktor now, towering over the slight priest-
“Dare what, Lord?” Viktor asked, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “I have only…”
The backhand that hit his face came out of nowhere and Viktor stumbled, going down on one knee.
“You have dared to lay your hands on her!” the beast growled, nay, roared.
“She’s a child in need of comfort!” Viktor groaned, tasting blood in his mouth. “I am not… I would never... she’s just a little girl!”
The implication of the beast’s words made Viktor feel sick in his stomach; did the Lord of the Woods truly think of him capable of such depravity? He was… he knew he was not right, but he was not something like that!
He looked up, his eyes wide. “I swear to God I would never, ever do that,” he choked. “She is… she is yours.”
Some part of him wondered just how monstrous the Lord of the Woods was, but those thoughts were quickly abolished – it was not out of sheer jealousy that he was being confronted; the beast was protective of Anna, more than anything.
The fact that Viktor had told him that Anna was his seemed to calm the Lord slightly, but not much. “She is a child now,” he growled, the implication clear in his voice.
Viktor swallowed hard. Would he have to reveal his shameful secret to gain enough ground with the creature to prevent his death, to be allowed to guide the bright young mind that he had grown to love like a sister in such a short time?
“I became a priest for a reason,” he said quietly. “I do not prefer the company of women.”
**
Lordi was taken aback by the priest’s bluntness at admitting to being a sodomite. This was not something he had expected, especially not since this was a clergyman.
The angers that had began to dissipate at the priest’s acknowledgement that Anna was his slowly ebbed away completely as Lordi regarded him with eyes no longer clouded with fury.
The priest had straightened up and was now looking him in the eye, his expression that of resolve; Lordi could tell, from the speed of his heartbeat and the shallowness of his breath, that the man was still frightened – but he was not letting his fear rule him.
Perhaps… perhaps he might let the priest live.
“And how do I know you tell me the truth?” he growled.
The priest bit his lip, but his heartbeat did not quicken any further; it was one of the telltale signs of honesty ht Lordi was an expert at reading.
“Because no one can lie to the Lord of the Woods,” the priest said matter-of-factly, licking his lips. “I learned that from my grandmother.”
Lordi laughed. “That is true, priest.”
The moment of silence that passed was but a few heartbeats, but Lordi knew that to the priest it had to feel like an eternity. Eventually, he spoke again. “You will live, priest. But know that if Anna ever comes to harm from you..”
”I will die. I understand.“ The priest nodded.
“Anna would miss you,” Lordi admitted grudgingly, if without anger. “So see that it won’t come to that.”
“I will.”
“Good.”
With that, Lordi turned away from the priest and stalked into the woods, becoming one with the shadows. He did not wish to risk his anger rising again, now that he had decided that the priest would live... for the time being.
**
next stop - actually, i donöt have the faintest idea what th next stop is but we will get there, promiseö
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 10:41 am (UTC)thanks... as it is, sleep managed to knock me out of it temporarily but.. yehas. right now iut is not good time tobe me... bipolar = of the suck.
THis story is keeping me sane,t hough - gives me something serious to concentrate on that doesnät make my issues multiply unlike majority of my otherworks :)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 06:05 am (UTC)Great update - and hang on in there, 'K?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 10:44 am (UTC)thanks.. and woorking on it.:) this story is keeping me sane, and the factthat today ius the town fair and I can go find pretty things to gorge on (Money courtesy of my father guilt-tripping) helps :)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 08:52 am (UTC)And *extra hugs* for the angst. Much love to you. Hang in there okay?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 10:45 am (UTC)*hugggglclings* Working on it.. the fair shoud provide pretty things to make me distracted and this story, i can pour my energy into without having to deal with angst-causing issues.. so i am hanging, damn it, even if ity kills me.