So Long And Thanks For All The Fish [Freedom]

[amy]

Being a fish sucks. I don't like water. Never have, ever since I almost drowned in it. But now I'm stuck as a fi-

anunbearablestenchsendsyousnappingback

Leaping back, inhaling uncontrollably, Amy was caught by her bodyguard. "It's okay. I've got you. Calm down," he said gently as Amy regained her bearings.

"I was a fish. I was a fish but now I'm not."

"Yes, you were. You were standing there for ten minutes. And after ten minutes I'm supposed to bring you back, remember?"

She nodded, gathering herself into herself enough to support her own weight. "Yes. Thank you. I want to put this lake behind us as fast as possible." Her cheerful walk and constant vague smile were floating on an ocean of anxiety. She hated deep water. It scared her. It was odd how water brought back memories of fire. Of burning alive.

She shivered. There was a cold wind blowing in from the lake, and her dress wasn't exactly an autumn number. Her bodyguard, almost as sensitive to her needs as she was to everyone else's, shrugged off his coat and put it over her shoulder. She thanked him with a warm smile and a kiss on the cheek, which he liked.

It was good to have a friend here with her. Someone to look after her in case she got lost. She wrapped the coat tighter around herself and smiled.

Her brother was coming, too. She hadn't seen him in so long. It would be nice to see him again.

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

Homecomings were lovely things,

[/size][/font]

[/color] Freedom said apologetically, his paw pinning the man's windpipe to the ground, "But I'm not one for company."

In a slow, deliberate movement, Freedom leaned forward, opened his mouth, and severed most of the man's throat. He gurgled a bit and died in a few moments. Freedom sat down and looked at his sister, imploring her to enter his own mind. It would be the only solace from the pain she had no doubt suffered upon her friend's death.

"It has been quite some time," Freedom pointed out, washing his muzzle in the lake. The blood dispersed in the water, spreading out and growing thin.[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

The moment Aure made his decision, it was out of my hands. His killing intent rang clear as a bell, drowning out everything else, and then I was him, and then my rib broke, and I was both of them, and then I was drowning in my own blood and I could taste it so hot and so sticky pumping into my mouth and I fell to my knees screaming and

I died.

Now there were two of me.

I looked at myself and asked me to enter my own mind to take shelter. How pathetic I looked, sprawled on the ground, crying. My eyes were not my own. My arm was bleeding. Had I bitten myself again?

You need to stop this. You promised.

I didn't want to be me. Not now, not ever. I would have been surprised at how deadpan my voice sounded if I was capable of surprise. "I killed me. I didn't have to do that. I was my friend. Why did I do that?"

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The predator turned from the lake,

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[/color] the predator said, still unmoving. It raised a claw and examined it, then dipped it into the nearby water. A bit of flesh was still clinging to it. Cleanliness was important. Leave too much flesh behind and ... infection. A liability no predator could afford. "Because I could. That, and I wanted to see you, and I tire of complications," he admitted, getting slowly to his feet and walking over to her. He did not stalk, as though in pursuit of prey, which she would know was the closest he could come to caring for someone. He did not treat her like food.

"No doubt sister will be upset," the predator said, glancing at the corpse dismissively. "But then, her threats were always rather empty. I am here for you, after all." His voice was not entirely without menace, but it was a good deal less ... imposing than normal. Less deliberately intimidating. He moved closer and looked at her arm, at the tiny bite marks from her own small, Minish teeth.

"They twist your fangs against yourself, and you wonder why I resist them for you? Ahri is not your friend, Amy."[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

You need to get moving. He's dangerous.

I know he won't hurt me.

He just killed you, you stupid bitch, GET UP!

Slowly, Amy managed to sit up. She didn't even look at Aure. She just hugged her tail tightly and buried her face in it, squeezing her eyes shut so she didn't have to look at the body. At least when Aure looked at it, she didn't care.

She had a thousand thousand eyes that saw every kind and color of light imaginable. She had more limbs than she could ever count, and feelers and noses and ears and instincts and footpads and claws and talons and wings and fur and feathers and carapaces and a million bodies. Even when she closed her eyes she could never close her eyes.

She couldn't remember what silence sounded like anymore. She couldn't remember anything before her empathy kicked in, really. There was only the feeling of someone ripping off the top half of her head and after that there was everything.

"Yes she is," Amy insisted weakly. "If I don't have anybody looking after me I could die."

Ah, but you are already dead, aren't you?

I feel myself spreading thin again, flitting from mind to mind uncontrollably.

I'm a fish again. I hate being a fish.

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The predator watched his sister.

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[/color]

Slowly, he got to his feet, walking over to her, before he sat down beside her, his huge body eclipsing her frail, tiny one. He raised a paw to her chin, and using the back of it, he guided her face to his. She was staring at his huge, feline face, at his monstrous jaws and predator's eyes.

"Tell me, Amy, have you lost all hope of being free?"[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

No. Don't listen. He is too powerful. Stay with the fish.

I hate being a fish.

It's not like I can control what I see or do.

The touch of Aure's paw and the smell of his fur and the sound of his voice in my ears draws me back. I look into my eyes and my eyes look back, taking in my visage. Those eyes hold no fear of me. I smile. There is a light of revelation in my eyes. "I'm not free."

You can't control it, so you drown in him.

"I'm Aure," she said and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "It's so good to see me again." She could see a corpse behind Aure, still warm. His name had been Leopold. She couldn't remember why should she mourn him.

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

He wondered if she would ever be free.

[/size][/font]

[/color] the predator said, not objecting to her use of the name their parents had assigned to him. He raised a paw and patted her on the back softly, making sure his claws were fully retracted. This was perhaps the only person he had never thought of harming.[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

Smiling, Amy gave Aure a peck on the nose before standing up and climbing up on his back, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around his neck for support. "I love you, Aure" she told him. "Even if you kill me. But do you think you could try not to? Dying isn't fun. Now take me home."

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The predator was silent,

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[/color] he said, bearing them towards the forest. He had taken great care to prepare a space for her. A perfect dead zone, where no complex minds would interfere with her. He had killed off all the small rabbits, a few deer, and an entire wolf pack, just for her. It was unreachable by anything walking around on two legs, or was at least difficult enough that none of them would try. He broke into the forest line and guided them through a difficult path. He ignored the branches scratching at his skin and fur, and he knew that Amy would be able to resist such minor pains. She had dealt with it more than anyone he knew of.

They travelled for hours, silently, without either speaking. The predator would not speak, and perhaps the predator's sister knew that, felt it, and responded to it. He enjoyed having her clinging to his fur, her soft flesh pressed to his powerful, muscular body. There was nothing in the world that he truly wished to protect but her. It was not because she was his sister; he had another for whom he had no concern. It was because of her unique condition, the terribly curse she had been levied with, that he felt responsible. He was perhaps the only one who could help her. Some sense of familial devotion played into that, but it was limited.

Eventually they emerged into a clearing in the forest, surrounded on all sides by thick, impassable trees. There was utter quiet. There were barely even any birds; there had been few creatures here to begin with, and he had eliminated most of them. There were only insects, whose simple mind he hoped his sister could resist. He sloped his back, letting her down.

"Your home is just a cage. I have made this place for you."[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

Lying there, clinging to her brother, feeling the strength of his body pressed up against hers and enjoying the feel of her soft flesh clinging to his powerful, muscular body. Every touch was twofold, felt by herself and by herself-as-Aure. And as they journeyed on, and the distractions faded to the dull buzzing of gnats and the slow hum of spiders, Aure's presence overwhelmed it all easily. By the time they arrived, the two of them were one in Amelia.

"It's so... quiet," she said, stunned at how empty she felt. "There's hardly anything left." She got off Aure's back, sitting down on the ground, looking around. "I don't know what to do now. This has never happened before. I've never felt like this before. I've never been so... free."

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

If he could have,

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[/color] Freedom said, watching her enjoy the stillness of her mind. Or, perhaps, the stillness of his mind. "The world is a beautiful place. It does not need a thousand cluttered minds to enrich it. You deserve to be able to experience that."

Did he love her? No. It would even be a stretch to say he cared for her. But if one said that he wanted to preserve her, and protect her, they would be very near the mark.[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

If there was one thing that made Amy unique in this world, it was the place she held in Aure's heart. She was the one thing precious to him. It made her feel special. Loved.

"But what happens now?" She asked, her brow furrowing as she tried to comprehend the growing sense of emptiness in her heart. It wasn't because she only really had one mind to share her head with, but she just didn't know what to do. She'd never had this much room in her own head before. "What do I do? Can you tell me?"

[freedom]

x x

In the House in a Heartbeat

The predator walked over to its sister,

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[/color] he gestured to an old tree with a strong, low-hanging branch, "then you may. You may do whatever it is you please, without a single other soul to tell you otherwise." Irresistibly, he took her head in his great, giant paw, and patted it softly. "This world is yours. It always will be."[/size][/ul][/blockquote]

[amy]

Amy laughed when Aure patted her on the head. It was light and clear, unburdened by anyone else's pain and misery. She wasn't laughing because someone else had told someone else a joke half a mile away over drinks, or some kid had seen a grown man slip on ice and fall flat on his rear, she was laughing because she was happy. It was a completely new feeling.

"Anything I want, huh?" She grinned and slipped under Aure's leg so that she was sitting under him, his massive body easily enveloping her own slight frame. "There's something," she started, moving further back under Aure until she was sitting between his legs, pressing her back up against his broad chest, twisting her head so she could nuzzle his fur. "There are no distractions in my head. There's just you and me in here now. I love you, Aure. You're my brother and I know you'll always keep me safe." She shifted her weight slightly, rubbing her back up against him, wondering just how overt she'd have to be. Sometimes it was hard for her to remember her empathy didn't run both ways.