forum Blood Oath (O/O CLOSED)

Started February 21, 2019 by Deleted user

tune

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Scylla and I both looked at each other and nodded. I was afraid of hurting her, but…. I’d be careful. We both would. “Hand-to-hand?”

I nodded.

”And magic,” I added. ”Remember that you can even sense your bondmate. Try to keep that sense spiked up.”

“What’s the objective?” I spoke again, “I mean, how do you win? When you get the other person onto the ground?”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

”The objective, Elle, is to familiarize with your bondmate. You win when you can, in other words, harmonize with Scylla,” he responded. ”It’s different for everyone. Key and I do it when we don’t have anyone stronger or at our level to spar against.”

I still didn’t understand.

“Harmonize? But I’m fighting against her, not with her… what do you mean by that?”

I clicked my tongue in irritation. How in the world did Colton stand her?

”Yes, you are fighting against her, but the purpose isn’t to defeat the other,” he started slowly. ”It’s to pick out the different fighting styles that you can only do when fighting against each other. There are countless things you won’t know about your partner unless you fight against them instead of with them.”

He clicked his tongue; I was annoying him. Well, I’m sorry for not understanding something I’ve never done before.

But this time, his explanation made much more sense. “That—Alright, Thanks.”

I simply nodded.

”Now start.”

I decided to give her a break, seeing as she looked just about ready to drop on the floor. They were now seated on the floor, catching their breaths.

”So, Elle…” I started, a plan forming in my head. ”What was your life like back at home?”

Scylla and I had been training since the crack of dawn, sparring back and forth, improving control, running laps and doing drills. By the time the afternoon rolled around, we were both pretty much ready to drop dead from the exertion. Luckily, I’d built up stamina to prevent myself from fainting in front of Colton (again), and it wasn’t nearly as hot now as it had been in September. So, when he told us to take a break, I sat down rather than collapsed on the floor.

Out of the blue, he asked “So, Elle… What was your life like back at home?” I immediately tensed, averting my eyes. Why did he care? He’d been nothing but cold and detached towards me all week, since Scylla had been healed, and now he wanted to know about my personal life? The life he wasn’t supposed to be aware of?

“Normal,” I responded evasively, running my fingers through Scylla’s feathers. She’d grown so much over the past week…. and still, she wasn’t finished evolving. “I danced. Skated. Went to school.”

I furrowed my eyebrows, pretending to be interested.

”I’ve been curious,” I started, crossing my arms, quirking an eyebrow. ”What did you look like with long hair?”

He was thawing….and he was doing so much too abruptly. What was going on with these constant mood swings?

“Like I do right now, but with long hair,” I answered vaguely, picking at the edge of my sleeve. And I found myself wondering… what would my life be like if he’d known I was a girl all along? If girls were allowed to attend the Academy? Would I still have fallen for him? Was there any possibility that——

I cut the thought off abruptly. Stupid heart…

I clicked my tongue, shaking my head.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, my body reacting to the image it planted in my brain. Even if our mind was under my control, our body wasn’t. ”I want to see what you looked like with longer hair. More like a woman than a male.”

“I’m not showing you any pictures,” I said defensively, my grip on Scylla tightening. “Why do you care?”

”I don’t,” I answered nonchalantly. ”It’s simply hard to imagine you with long hair. I suppose you do want someone to know what you looked like while embracing your original gender.”

"Well, all my photos are in my room," I tried to stall, "And Kaden and Andreas would be suspicious of you showing up. So.…"

My eyes darkened at their names, but I was careful to not let anything slip by my mask. Those two. I would do anything to kill them, but unfortunately I’m not allowed to. Not yet.

”Then you can bring them here,” I shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. ”Or in my room.”

"I can't—I can't do that," I began to protest, shrinking back from him. In my arms, Scylla stirred, cracking open a single golden eye. "What's wrong?" she asked me, growing a bit agitated as she sensed my distress. "He wants to see a picture of me before… all this," I explained, biting the inside of my cheek. But my bondmate, instead of frowning, swished her tail cheekily.

"Isn't that a good thing? If you like him so much…… I'm sure he'll be impressed by a beautiful picture or two.." Had he not been sitting a few feet away, I would have gaped at her forwardness. "Scylla!"

But, as much as I hated to admit it…. she did have a point. I didn't want to upset him by refusing. And what was the harm, as long as I was careful with what he saw?

"Fine.." I sighed, still refusing to look at him. "Your room. Not here, where people can see."

I pulled on a grateful smile.

”Thank you, Elle,” I said. Do you hear that, Princeling? I’m going to see what your girl looked like before she began masquerading as a man. I’m going to see something you’ll never see. How does that feel? ”Then I suppose I’ll wait for you in my room?”

"I—Um, yeah, I guess." I rose to my feet, laying a very happy Scylla across my shoulders. "I, uh, know the way."

I pulled myself to my feet as well, dusting my pants.

”Perfect.”

And that's how I found myself knocking on the Prince's door for the second time that week, hugging a neatly bound photo album to my chest. This is…. strange. All the way up, students had passed me confused looks, and I didn't blame them. No one else in the building would even consider carrying a book full of photographs up to the Crown Prince's bedroom…

Smirking when I heard the door knock, I rolled off of the bed. Before I opened the door, I removed the smug look from my face.

”Elle,” her name rolled off of my tongue smoothly. ”Come on in.”

A shiver ran down the length of my spine. Elle… God, did it feel good to hear his name, my actual name, from his mouth. I said nothing, only ducked my head and entered with Scylla at my heels, shooting the occasional teasing comment my way.

I pulled a chair towards her, beckoning her to take a seat before I frowned.

”Ah, I suppose sitting on the floor would be much more efficient,” I murmured. ”Since I’m sure you don’t want to be anywhere near my bed.”

"Yes please," I answered quietly, pausing in the centre of the room before taking a seat on the plush carpet a good few metres away from the bed that loomed in the corner.

I sat down in front of her, crossing my legs, waiting patiently for her to show me the pictures. God, the more I learned about her, the more advantage I started to have over the coward I’ve trapped. It pleased me greatly.

An odd sort of trepidation had lodged in my heart. I was showing him something far more personal than a few old photographs; I was exposing a piece of myself that I'd never intended him to see. So I moved with caution, thumbing past a few childhood pictures until I reached a page in the centre of the album. It was dominated by a single, unsaturated picture of my family. Father, with his mousy hair and golden owl companion, was seated in an armchair, barely containing a smile. My mother, who wore an austere expression on her features, stood proudly next to him, one hand on his shoulder. Though Elliot and I had inherited her blonde curls, it was my father we resembled closely, from our more playful personalities to our softer faces.

On either side of our parents stood my brother and I, dressed in matching blue fabrics. While he was a picture of perfection, not a single hair out of place, his expression solemn as was the norm for family photographs, I was more… free. Yes, I was still dressed neatly, my waist-length ringlets carefully combed, but something about the expression on my face altered the whole mood of the photo. It was as if I was sharing a secret with the camera man, lips curving into a small smile, and my hair, rather than twisted into a tight bun, was free to spill over the shoulders of my flowing blue dress,

The second my eyes landed on her picture, I felt a familiar force prob at my head. My fingers automatically reached out to trace her in the picture, everyone else merely fading into the background. The more I looked at her secret self, the more the force increased.

My mouth parted to let out a sentence, but it wasn’t from me. I had been too confident. I opened a way.

“Beautiful…” the words slipped out my mouth in a soft murmur, and the second they did, I immediately shut them down. I wouldn’t let my guard down again.

Get back in your hole, you worm.

As if showing hesitancy, I flipped a page, eyes furrowing when I looked into the second picture, far more serious in making her uncomfortable as possible. What better way to do it than invade her privacy, right?

You shouldn’t have tested me, coward. Stay in that hole.

My heart lurched. Beautiful? I must have misheard, why on earth would he say something like that? But even so, red bloomed across my cheeks. Beautiful..

But I grew uncomfortable when he turned to the next page. No, I thought as his eyes drifted over a competition photograph, one taken while I was in mid-leap with my hands in a perfect 'V'. Don't look at those.

Beside it was a picture of my brother and I, both outfitted in white figure skates. I was twirling, my hair flying out behind me, and he was waiting with his arms outstretched for my landing. Please don't flip to the next page…