forum Where is… here? (Closed)

Started December 26, 2022 by @emilyevewrites group

tune

@Serpentess (For Anna and De’Tearion 😉)

(All good! :))

Anna Clayton never slept in. But today – of all the God-forsaken days – she did.

She woke in the morning, wincing at her phone's alarm going off right beside her ear at, of course, maximum volume. With a moan, she sat up and silenced the alarm. She groggily pressed the heel of her palm to her forehead, and as she slowly blinked the daze of sleep from her eyes, she slid her legs out from under the sheets and rose to her feet. From outside her window, the sight of a bustling London morning greeted her.

That's odd, she thought tiredly. It's not usually this busy out early in the morning.

"Mom?" a voice called from the other side of her door, knocking impatiently. "Mom, I'm leaving. I'm going to be late for school."

Anna frowned slightly. "Daisy? Darling, what are you talking about?" She glanced down at her phone's illuminated screen and saw the time – 7:31 a.m. – and she instantly began to panic. "Oh my God!" she cried out, rushing over to her closet and reaching for the closest suitable blouse she could see.

"Mom… did you sleep in?"

Anna could hear the smirk in her daughter's voice, and she narrowed her eyes slightly. Teenagers. "No, I just…" She scoffed quietly and shook her head. "Alright, fine. Yes, I slept in. Are you happy?"

There was no response, but Anna could practically see Daisy's slightly-satisfied smile. The woman quickly gathered her clothes in her arms and darted into her bathroom. "I'll be a minute, love!" she called out, dressing herself quickly before routing through her makeup bag for her mascara, powder, and lipstick.

De’Tearion listened to the deer nearby. The sound of its heartbeat echoed in his ears, but it wasn’t appealing. It was only by necessity that he was hunting. Otherwise, he had no appetite.

He slithered through the tree branches, four arms and two legs working silently. Then, he opened one eye to peek at the deer below him. It was a young buck, settling down to sleep. It would be so easy to kill.

But, where was the challenge in that? There were countless animals in these forests that he could kill with little effort. He wanted a challenge. He wanted something different. Something with meaning.

With a silent sigh, De’Tearion moved on, having no more interest in the deer. The echoing heartbeat easily faded from his mind.

"Mom!" Daisy called again, irking Anna further. "I'm going to be late for school! Jenna is going to be waiting for me today. I have to help her with newspaper stuff."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I'm going to be late for work," Anna shot back, dusting her face quickly with powder. She applied her mascara hastily and thanked God that she didn't smudge any. "I'll only be a moment longer, love. I promi–"

As she leaned forward slightly to apply her lipstick, Anna took a step forward onto the tile floor and slipped forward. She gasped and prepared to brace herself as she fell, but much to her surprise, she didn't hit the mirror. Or the counter. Or anything remotely indoors.

Instead, she stumbled forward into the middle of a forest. She appeared right beside a sleeping deer, which startled the poor creature and caused it to run off. "Oh!" Anna cried out as it ran. She looked around, whipping her head in every possible direction. What had happened to her? "Daisy?" she called out, circling around in a pure panic. Where was her daughter? "Daisy?!"

The scent of human and the sudden call of a panicked woman’s voice stopped De’Tearion in his tracks. How? There had been no humans in this area at all. How was there one now?

Turning around, De’Tearion crawled through the branches to where the woman was. She had an odd scent, but her heartbeat was much more appealing to him than a deer’s.

He opened his eyes to better inspect her and he realized why her scent was strange. What sort of strange attire was she wearing? Where had she come from? No nation on the island had anything like her clothes.

Despite his flustered mind, his empty stomach was starting to nag at him. He needed sustenance, even if it came from an unusual woman.

With barely a sound, De’Tearion dropped out of the trees and landed on top of the woman. His arms quickly pinned her down, and he stared intensely into her eyes as his mouth opened wide, four fuzzy palps extending outward as his long proboscis slithered through the air toward her.

He was about to strike, or even hypnotize her, but the paint on her face bewildered him. He’d never seen it. And, the material of her clothes bewildered him more. There were simply too many confusing things going on for him to focus on food.

Retracting his proboscis and palps, he inspected her more closely. Then, he turned back to stare her directly in the eye, his dimly glowing blue eyes the only light in the forest around them.

“Where are you from? Or be this merely a trick of the mind caused by foul Mercy and her eye?”he asked hoarsely, chirps and clicks heavy in his voice.

Anna heard and saw nothing. She was standing, but the next thing she knew, she was suddenly on the ground. Her eyes widened as the… thing on top of her quickly pinned her down with additional arms and legs. She had no idea what it was, but it didn't look friendly.

A blood-curdling scream burst out of her as it looked deep into her eyes and extended its… mouth? towards her. She writhed and tried to get away, but it was no use. Her heart was racing so fast that she began to feel nauseous. Between her racing heart and her screaming, she quickly grew lightheaded. I can't pass out! she thought furiously as her vision began to spot along the sides with black. If I pass out, I'll get eaten!

She trembled horribly, but it drew back and spoke to her. However, she didn't understand a word of what it said between the chirps and clicks patterning its words and her own adrenaline coursing rapidly through her body.

"H-Huh?" she stammered quietly, still quite rattled by almost being eaten. And it was still a very real possibility. "Wh-What?"

The woman’s scream amused De’Tearion. He loved how easy it was for him to scare humans. It was even more amusing that she was close to passing out. She must really be lost to be so afraid. That didn’t matter, though. It was a minor detail to the prospect of a meal.

When she didn’t understand him, De’Tearion sighed. He then stretched his jaw, situating all of his mouthparts again. Afterward, he cleared his throat. How long had it been since he’d last spoke? Months? A year? Longer?

De’Tearion quickly pushed those thoughts aside, chirping to focus his attention on the task at hand. Then, he sighed again, wondering if he should even bother trying to talk to this woman below him.

“Who are you? Where are you from?”he asked, his voice still hoarse and his accent still heavy, but he was far more understandable than the first time he’d asked her.

Anna was hyperventilating as she watched the creature above her stretch its jaw and fix its mouth. No, not it, she thought, noting several distinctive masculine features. It's a male. I think…

Her eyes darted from one feature to the next, finally looking him in the eye as she heard him speaking again. The accent was unusual. She'd never heard anything like it before. But then again, she'd never seen anything like him before either…

"A-A-Anna," she stammered out, still trembling from pure terror. "M-My name i-i-s-s Anna. I'm f-from Lon–" She felt another lightheaded episode hit her, and she desperately kept herself awake. She'd never felt fear like this. Well, maybe one other time, but the situation was completely different from the one she was in now. At least then she had still been in London. In England. On Earth. Where was she now? On another planet? In another world? She swallowed and finished meekly, "London."

"P-Please don't k-kill me…" she added quietly.

Anna. So simple. So similar to Agatha. So, so similar…

De’Tearion pushed those thoughts away as well, focusing on the woman trying to not faint once again. He doubted she was from the island. She was too afraid of him to be aware of the dangers that lived in the hellish forests. De’Tearion was but one rogue in a legion, and that legion was but one in a council of forest creatures. This woman wouldn’t survive long on her own, if she even survived him.

The name confused him. ‘London’? What was London? Where was it? He knew for a fact that there was no place in any of the many nations here that had a name like London.

De’Tearion then snorted at her plea, rather unimpressed. She could, at least, attempt to be a challenge for him.

“Beg for your life again, and you will lose it. I care not of your pleas. Now, how have you come here?”he hissed.

Anna flinched violently as the creature snorted. Her mind was racing, but the same thought kept occurring: where was Daisy? Was she still in London? Safe? Away from this… madness?

The woman was still absolutely petrified, and she shook horribly. She definitely didn't want to lose her life, so she kept her mouth shut until he asked her another question.

"I-I fell," she answered quietly. "Through my m-mirror?" Saying it out loud only made her more confused. It was what had happened… she put her hand up to brace herself and not shatter the mirror, but nothing had happened. Everything had faded away, and… she emerged here.

"Where am I?" she asked, her honey-colored hair splayed out around her face.

De’Tearion’s eyes narrowed in confusion at her answer. She fell through a mirror? He was only somewhat familiar with mirrors, but he knew they were usually solid glass. How could she have fallen through it? It made no sense. Yet, her heartbeat indicated that she was telling the truth.

De’Tearion chirped at her question, his suspicions regarding her foreignness confirmed. Though, before he could answer her, his eyes fell upon her hair. Without even thinking about it, he moved one hand to delicately caress a strand of that hair.

“Mileena…”he whispered, barely aware that he just spoke.

De’Tearion let her hair fall from his long fingers, closing his eyes a moment to ward off the greif threatening to surge upward and overwhelm him. When he finally opened his eyes, his demeanor softened slightly.

“You are on Matatara Island, deep in the forests of the nation called Rehnethrigard. You are far from your homeland, and your only chance of surviving the countless dangers of this forest until dawn be to keep quiet and stay with me. Yet, know this, I am no ally, and you are still a potential meal,”De’Tearion hissed.

He then stood up before roughly pulling her to her feet. Afterward, De’Tearion couldn’t resist morphing his hand into beetle claws and scratching her wrist. He stuck his claws in his mouth, sampling Anna’s blood. By Mercy, it was delightfully refreshing!

“Follow me, and keep up,”he ordered sternly.

De’Tearion then headed away, his strides long and fast. He kept his ears open for potential scavengers. Anna’s screams had certainly echoed, and no one was ever truly alone in the forests.

As he walked, he pondered why he was helping Anna instead of eating her. Sure, she had similar hair to… to her, but that was it. Anna was older than Mileena, and also smelled like a mother. A mother…

De’Tearion sighed, a sharp pang of hurt and jealousy coursing through him. Mileena would someday be a mother, but not of his children. Once, before she’d cast him out, he’d considered what it would be like to sire children, half-breed or not. Now, he couldn’t even think about it without wanting to scream and cry.

De’Tearion sighed again, forcing those thoughts away like he had so many times before. There was nothing he could do. Mileena would never forgive him.

Anna drew in a shaky breath as the creature seemed to become fascinated with her hair. She was glad that she at least got the chance to brush it out before she fell through. It was soft and void of knots, but it was also a bit longer than she wanted it to be. She had a hair appointment scheduled for next Wednesday… now she wasn’t sure if she would make it.

When he whispered a name. Mileena. She parted her lips to correct him. Her name was Anna, not Mileena. Had she really been stammering that badly that he’d misinterpreted her name?

But something stopped her before the words could leave her mouth. The look in his eyes. It was faraway and full of longing. The fact that he closed them briefly before looking at her again confirmed her suspicion. He hadn’t been talking to her. Mileena was someone else entirely. But who? While she was curious, Anna knew better to question who this other woman was.

She did, however, listen very carefully to his description of where they were. And it wasn’t Earth. Matatara Island. Rehnethrigard. Anna swallowed nervously as his unusual offer to help her while also reminding her that she was still very much in his mercy.

She gasped as he jerked her off the ground and set her on her feet. Maybe wearing high heels was appropriate for her job on Earth, but in this unknown and strange forest, Anna was regretting her footwear choice.

The woman was so focused on standing properly without shaking that she missed the creature morphing his hand until he scratched her wrist. Her eyes widened, and she took a step back while clamping her uninjured hand tightly over the cut. Oh my God, he’s tasting my blood!

She scrambled after him, desperate to keep up. If she got lost here, Anna had no doubt that she would die. She nearly had already.

“So… what’s your name?” Anna asked quietly and hesitantly as she began to keep up better than she thought she would.

De’Tearion didn’t register any of Anna’s reaction while he inspected her hair, but he did hear her gasp when he pulled her up. He then saw how much she was shaking afterward. It didn’t faze him at all.

When she backed away, covering her hand, De’Tearion snorted. He then shook his head and chuckled, amused by her reaction.

It made little difference to De’Tearion if she kept up or not, but, as time passed, she surprisingly did. Finally, a quality worth notice.

“Your shoes,”he commanded, instead of answering her question. He reached a hand down, pointing at her heels, then he slowed his pace to a stop.

“Now,”he hissed, motioning that she give them to him.

Those strange shoes would slow them down, and likely injure Anna. De’Tearion wasn’t about to let that happen. Firstly, he wasn’t in the mood to carry her. Secondly, they were being followed.

Anna quickly stopped in stride with him. “My shoes?” she repeated, confused until his hiss clarified what he wanted of her.

Slowly, she reached down and took her right shoe off, followed soon after by her left. The feeling of the cool ground under her feet was odd and dirty.

Her brow wrinkled in confusion as she handed over the heels. “Here?”

De’Tearion waited impatiently for Anna to hand over the shoes. Then, black mist formed around his fingers before spreading onto the shoes. They abruptly disintegrated into ash, and De’Tearion tossed aside the remnants.

“You will no longer need them. Now, run. Question me not, merely run,”De’Tearion said.

He closed his eyes and backed away, seeming to melt into the darkness. Listening close to his surroundings, De’Tearion discerned five creatures tracking the pair. Three on the ground and two in the trees. He knew that tactic well. He’d been raised with it.

Anna's eyes widened, and she covered her lips with her hands in shock. It took her a moment for his words to process in her mind, and in that time, he had faded into the blackness surrounding them.

The woman trembled, petrified, as she did what she was told. She began to run, with clipped breathing and her heart racing. If this is just so he can hunt me and attack me again, she thought, partially irritated and partially panicked.

Her now-bare feet slapped the ground, and she rushed through the maze of trees surrounding her. She tried as best she could to run in an unpredictable pattern, in case he was following her. Or something else was. Anna shuddered at the thought.

De’Tearion listened to her run, shaking his head a bit at her course. He wanted distance, not evasion. The farther away she was, the more likely the others would think he was being too slow and charge themselves. They wanted her, not him. They didn’t know who he was either.

He also couldn’t help noticing how loud she was. From his time spent living in a human city, De’Tearion recognized that Anna was definitely a city woman. If she’d spent a day in the wilderness, it was likely tamed forests, not deadly ones. She was utterly out of her element here.

Eventually, Anna had gotten far enough that their stalkers were becoming anxious. They were wondering if he’d chase her yet. De’Tearion didn’t move.

A few minutes later, the two in the trees grew tired of waiting and rushed forward. The three on the ground quickly followed. De’Tearion still waited.

They had moved nearly out of sight when De’Tearion finally made his move. He disappeared in a cloud of thick, black smoke, teleporting behind one of the ground runners. He swiftly tripped the male Goliathan, a youth, and cut his throat with his claws. De’Tearion then teleported to the next one, repeating the process.

The first Goliathan burst into a shower of black glass, signaling his death, by the time De’Tearion was attacking the third runner. Then, De’Tearion looked up, black mist forming around the fingers of all four hands, that mist turning into black spheres.

He waited a moment, calculating where the now cautious tree crawlers were. When he’d pinpointed their heartbeats, De’Tearion shot two spheres at one, then the other. A yelp came from the first tree crawler, and he fell to the ground, shattering into glass.

The second tree crawler fell, but was still alive. De’Tearion quickly moved to him, putting a foot on the youth’s neck. This one was female, but low-born. He could smell her foul bloodline without even bending down. It was horrid.

“‘Tis unwise to cross the path of a rogue chancellor, especially without an elder to protect you,”De’Tearion hissed in his native tongue of insectile chirps and clicks, glaring down at her.

The female’s eyes widened in horror, recognizing the title. De’Tearion grinned cruelly and stomped on her neck, snapping it with ease. She shattered beneath him, and De’Tearion turned away to search for Anna. She wasn’t in sight.

Though, what Anna didn’t know, was that De’Tearion’s little sample of her blood had bonded her to him. It was subtle, and only useful to him, namely in regard to tracking an unfinished victim.

So, De’Tearion closed his eyes again, and inhaled deeply. He imagined the taste of her blood, letting it wash over him, through him. The sound of Anna’s heartbeat echoed in his ears, along with the screams she’d made earlier. They led away from him, in the direction that Anna had fled.

De’Tearion, now having a direction, chased after Anna, moving fast through the trees. He caught sight of her in only moments, and he teleported closer, then teleported again to stand a few feet in front of her. He steadied his posture in preparation for her to run into him, his glowing eyes staring intensely at her.

Anna had no idea how long she had been running for. Eventually, she'd given up on her weaving through the trees and had locked into a straight path through the underbrush. She was panting for breath and wondered how much farther she had to go. She thought for a moment that she heard something behind her, but it was probably just her imagination. Who knew what else lurked unseen in the woods she was racing through?

Out of nowhere, and painfully on cue, Anna bounced off of something standing directly in her way and fell back roughly against the ground. She screamed and scrambled away from whatever it was she had run into. But the glowing eyes helped her to calm down… barely. "Oh, my God," she breathed, shakily pushing herself half upright. "Did you have to do that? And where did you go?"

De’Tearion didn’t even shift when Anna ran into him. He chuckled as she screamed, then huffed at her words.

“‘Tis shocking that you recognize me. I hope you realize I am of a species. Also, you narrowly escaped death in the jaws of five youths of my ‘brethren’. Narrowly, meaning that this be their blood on my hands,”he hissed, kneeling down to grab her chin with his bloody, human fingers. As he spoke, the way he emphasized ‘brethren’ was strange, like it was foul to even say the word.

After a breif moment, De’Tearion stood and walked away. He didn’t say a word, just started to leave. A couple minutes later, the blood on his fingers dried and started to quickly flake away. De’Tearion simply wiped his hands on his robe and the flakes fell away without leaving any evidence.

Anna listened to him in shock. There's more of him?! And she'd just what?! Wait… he'd told her to run. She'd narrowly escaped death. Had he been… protecting her?

Before she was able to process any more of his words, his fingers were gripping her chin, smearing the blood of his 'brethren' over her skin. But she noticed the odd emphasis he gave the word. It was like it simultaneously held meaning and didn't.

When he released her, Anna watched him go for a moment before hurrying to follow him. "Wait!" she called out, wincing as she began to run after him with her still-bare feet. Without shoes, it was beginning to ache greatly when she walked.

"You… You didn't answer my question. From earlier," she said, stumbling over a tree root that she hadn't seen. "What's your name?"

De’Tearion heard the shock in her heartbeat. It amused him that she’d think he was a singular individual, an anomaly amongst all of the island’s creatures. His life would’ve been much simpler if he had been.

He ignored her call as he headed away. Though, as she chased after him, he noticed the way her heart beat with pain. So, she really wasn’t used to the wilderness. Eventually, he might have to carry her, or heal her. He wasn’t thrilled by either idea.

“Why be my name of any importance?”he snarled, whipping around to face her.

Immediately after saying that, De’Tearion paused. He’d snapped at her, at a woman… The discourtesy… Oh, what was the point? Given enough time, Mercy would finally declare his worth spent and would utterly destroy him. Maybe, it would be the one act befitting Mercy’s name.

“Why?”he asked again, his voice much quieter, softer.

De’Tearion sighed and turned away, continuing his walk. He was slower this time, though it was unclear if that was because he was being courteous, or if it was because of his mood.

Anna stopped short and froze as he snarled a response that still didn't answer her question. Why couldn't he just be direct? Even though she was petrified, she was the same curious personality that she'd been on Earth, and she didn't like when people purposefully avoided simple questions. It made her have to work hard for an answer she could've gotten in one word or sentence.

She noted the pause and then, with surprise, the softened tone as he repeated his own question shortly. Her feet hurried again to keep up with him, immensely grateful for the slowed pace. Anna took a steadying breath and replied. "Well, you know my name. I figured it would only be fair if I knew yours. If you're willing to share it," she added the last sentence quickly, not wanting to push him too far and have him become irritated again.

De’Tearion quietly sighed at her words. She was right, and it would be fair. But, for some reason, he just didn’t want to say it. Maybe… maybe, it was because he…

De’Tearion shook his head and continued walking. He just didn’t want to say it. Didn’t want to say that damned name. The name that had cursed him since birth. The Rogue Chancellor. Failed Protector. Murderer of those he loved.

Why couldn’t he just forget his own name?

“No.”

He barely registered that he’d spoken. He also didn’t register Anna’s reaction, or if she even reacted at all. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes, simply out of the sheer effort it took him to not scream at the sky for an end to his torment.

(Okay, so I had… a thought 😉😂 I just read a book (Anna and the French Kiss if you're interested. It's one of my favorite books now, by the way. It's so cuteeeeee!) and the main character, Anna, falls in love with this guy. His name is Étienne St. Clair, but literally everyone calls him St. Clair – except for Anna. Because when they get together (FINALLY AT THE END), she calls him Étienne. How cute would it be if my Anna called him Ákle-Ikli (and is the only one to call him that) instead of De’Tearion, when he finally provides his name? Also, I just realized that the character from the book is named Anna and… so is… my character… lmao. Also, that's really long. So Sorry™ 😂)

Anna blinked in blatant surprise. His name? Of all things, he wouldn't tell her his damn name?

Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "No?!" Immediately, her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hands. She studied his subtle reaction and felt a pain in her own chest as she sympathized with him. It didn't take a detective to note his anguish. But just thinking "detective" made Anna wince in her own right.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, lowering her hands so she could speak clearly. "That was out of line."