It takes place a few days after In the Clutches. Muhahahah…
Eh, at this rate I should be done with it around oh… 2025 or so…
Aaanyway!
Slowly rocking back and forth, Lise softly sighed with a warm smile playing on her lips. As she carefully adjusted her grip of the small body resting against her chest, Jason let out a faint squeak of protest before sinking back into the soft clouds of slumber.
“Sorry, little one…” the queen murmured, affectionately caressing the silky, red strands of hair that tentatively covered her baby son’s head.
One of his small hands twitched against the softly green cloth by his cheek, and the queen moved her hand to stroke the delicate little fingers and the tiny nails with the tip of her own pointing finger. Only that seemed so big in compare to Jason’s petite frame.
He yawned and squirmed a little but didn’t wake up, and only that simple thing made her heart swell with love. Every little thing he did was just so cute.
“Apart from when you’re screaming, you little beast,” Lise added aloud, chuckling lightly and stroking the tender cheek.
Even if he was growing by the minute, already seven months old.
He moved about a little again, and his tiny thumb slipped in between his lips. Probably on his way to wake up…
Lise reached for the hem of the soft, white blanket that her son was wrapped up in; his moving around had caused it to slide off him. Carefully she adjusted it around his body, to add to the warmth of his blue wool pajamas. Finishing this she secured his position by adding her for a few moments free arm to the hold again.
She stole herself times like this everyday nowadays, motherly love silencing every inner protest. There were no outer protests anywhere to be found. The kingdom seemed to silently agree on that their young queen deserved moments when only one little person needed her.
Either that or Kevin barricaded the corridors for anyone who even hinted at disturbing the peace.
Lise had to wrestle down a loud laugh at that thought, muffling it not to disturb Jason’s slumber.
It wouldn’t surprise her one bit if her husband really did something like that, either.
Though right now she was rather sure that he was meeting with a couple of messengers from his homeland. Trading contracts from Mintos; she needn’t be there, Kevin could handle that himself just fine by now. At nearly eighteen years of age he had managed to grow into a true king – of course, he was about four years older of mind thanks to the magic of the Mana stones.
King and father. Lise’s smile widened slightly and she leaned back in the rocking chair. It gently swung upwards, and this by accident set her sight on the bed table. Her eyes darkened slightly as she regarded the small glass standing there; even without the bottle of “medicine” smirking at her.
Again her hand caressed Jason’s soft head and she sighed, without a smile this time however.
His birth hadn’t been complicated, but not easy either. And with the memories of her own mother’s fate hanging over her and Eliott like a dark cloud, Lise had made the decision to let Jason be her and Kevin’s only child. She recalled too well the fear in her brother’s eyes from the moment when she cried out because of the first bolt of labor pains. But even stronger than that, the double fear that had reflected in Kevin’s eyes when he had scooped her up and carried her to the hospital wing, the torment of knowing how much her pain frightened him even if he had known that it would happen.
Jason was a gift from the goddess, but Lise wouldn’t put those she loved and herself through that torture again.
The herb brewage still tasted far more bitter than it really should have.
She sighed again, trying to push the thoughts away as the little wonder in her arms yawned again.
Sleeping…
She frowned slightly, wondering how Kevin really was doing, considering how little sleep he had managed to get in the last few nights. Even since he had woken up, screaming, from a nightmare, his slumber had been light and restless. And he still refused to speak of it.
But the only thing to do seemed to be to let it pass. He’d recover soon enough, she hoped. And she sighed yet again. How stubborn was one half blood allowed to be?
‘Not more than that dear,’ some part of her tsked while the rest just shook in tired frustration.
In a way Kevin would probably do a good spy. He would not talk if he didn’t want to, and not even Lise could do anything about it in this one case.
The nightmare must really have been horrible… well, she did know that it had involved Rakadra, so that didn’t really leave much up to debate on the matter. Her lips turned into two thin, white lines.
‘Calm down. He’s dead. Meat mince, even. Just try to help Kevin forget and it’ll be just fine.’
Lise let out a deep breath and lightly pushed at the floor with her sock-covered foot, restarting the rock of the chair. Leaning her head back into the back rest she stared up at the roof.
Yeah, when Kevin came back he’d…
Jason tended to wake up slowly. So when he suddenly tensed in her grip and she bent forwards by the surprise to see his golden eyes wide open, Lise swung her weight forwards and stood up in alarm.
“Ja…”
A eerie, yellow light reflected in the window glass, strengthened by the deepening darkness outside.
It was not a gentle sound when the rocking chair split in two rough halves which both crashed on the floor.
“Damn!” a hoarse, inhuman voice snarled in the same moment as Lise spun around, pressing the now wildly squirming Jason tighter against her.
Her grip tightened even more when her eyes met the dead gaze coming from two evil stars set within two pools of complete darkness.
“You!” the queen of Rolante hissed, backing several steps.
Bluish lips curled up in a vile smirk below a nose reminding more of a beak than anything else. The creature looked ridiculous in a way, with the purple striped, baggy jester getup, complete with a three-point hat. The bells in the hat were formed like skulls however, and the jingle was less than merry as he reached out and a scythe formed in his grip.
“Lovely to finally meet, queen Lise,” Deathjester cackled, “however I’d rather finish our business quickly, so…”
He leapt forwards, swinging his curved blade in a fatal arc. Lise threw herself backwards, dashing towards her right to get closer to the door.
“Guards!” she shouted, with little hope however.
“They won’t heeear yooou!” the evil clown confirmed, and she could almost feel his cold breath down her neck.
Ducking aside again she avoided the blade a second time, but Jason’s weight slowed her down dangerously. Desperately Lise flung herself towards the door, but had to leap back with a shriek as Deathjester swept up in her way, his scythe’s sharp tip nearly touching her stomach.
“Be a nice girl and die already!” he snarled.
Lise’s eyes thinned briefly. Though her mind was to the brim filled with the determination to protect Jason and herself, she was still aware enough to realize that the evil creature was anxious. From the little she had heard him say herself and what Kevin had described, she knew that Deathjester was a pleasure killer. The smirk on his lips had however turned into a frustrated grimace and his attacks were more wild than precise as he leapt forwards again. He was scared of something, and she had a hunch what – but he’d dine on her and Jason’s souls very soon unless she managed to keep ducking.
“Hold still, please hold still!” she whispered, pressing her son to her chest as tightly as she dared while she tried to dance away from the blade.
His frightened squirming was making it harder for her to hold on to him and she nearly stumbled on the remains of the destroyed rocking chair. Desperately trying to stagger out of the fray despite the wooden splinters biting into her soles through the socks, Lise found herself in a corner.
Deathjester’s smirk returned.
With a metallic clinking that sounded longingly in the queen’s ears, her spear fell over upon connection with her flailing elbow.
But to pick it up, she would have to give up Jason.
“About time!” the evil one cackled and raised his scythe.
“No!” Lise cried out, throwing herself down in a final attempt to protect her son with her own body.
The baby’s seven months old brain had not yet grown enough to fully comprehend a situation such as this. But Jason could understand two things; “mommy scared” and “danger”.
It was just enough.
As Lise fell with her eyes shut tightly in anguish, she suddenly felt a flash of warmth from the precious bundle in her arms, and a bright light cut through her eyelids.
“What the hell <I>now</I>?” Deathjester growled, wasting no time to send the blade downwards.
Jason moved, in more ways than one. Lise’s hand hit the floor and with that she pushed aside, unable to maintain the grip of her worming child. He shot from her hold, almost seemed to bounce on the floor and flew upwards.
Deathjester screamed like a hellhound as two rows of fangs descended into the sickly blue flesh of his lower right arm. He violently swung his arm and Jason couldn’t keep his weak hold. Whimpering, the wolf pup hit the green carpet and pathetically curled up with his ears pressed against his small head and the fluffy tail disappearing beside his left back leg.
“You little bastard…!” Deathjester grinned, stepping towards the cowering cub and gripping his scythe as if the wound wasn’t bothering him at all.
He heard a sound and spun around in the last moment to catch the spear point with his own blade. The grin faded.
Lise did not say a word, but her eyes burned with rage and her lips were parted in a growl that would make Beast King proud.
“I don’t have time for this!” Deathjester snarled and twisted the scythe to ram the butt of its handle into the queen’s stomach.
But Lise bent out of the way, using the mad clown’s own trick to attack. But she only managed to cut the striped sleeve of his tunic as he too managed to twist away.
Instead of trying another attack he leapt backwards, his eyes wildly scanning the floor as he raised his scythe again.
“Jason!” Lise shouted, anger and not fear filling her voice.
She rushed forwards while the small pup scrambled to his paws and galloped towards his mother.
The scythe came down.
Lise threw her spear and it hit Deathjester’s curved blade, knocking it off course. And thus, Jason safely slid into temporary safety by his mother’s feet while the clown gracelessly crashed on the carpet. Lise tore the furry body back into her arms and dashed left along the wall, aiming for the door while her enemy was still in an invaluable moment of disorientation.
“Oh no you don’t!” Deathjester screeched in fury, and she heard him get to his feet.
But right then the door hit the wall so violently that the wood cracked in two. Lise’s breath froze in her throat of pure relief and she could hardly even whisper a short prayer of gratefulness.
“Oh shit…”
However, that Deathjester so spoke was more to be guessed than heard since the roar which the grayish blur produced overpowered everything else. Not even a heartbeat had passed between the destruction of the door to when the soul eater found himself desperately kicking the air two feet above ground, claw-nails blindly scratching the furry wrist of the hand squeezing his neck.
The scythe broke in two pieces under a huge foot hidden in a soft leather shoe.
“<I>Die</I>!!” Kevin roared, opening his gap so widely that for a shocked moment, even Lise believed that he would bite the jester’s head off.
Considering the look on the blue features, the clown had no doubt in the matter. His fingers twitched like wounded worms as he threw them up before his face, gurgling out a spell in a forgotten language.
A tornado of yellow light exploded from Deathjesters fingertips and hit Kevin straight in the face, rising up to cover his entire body. Snarling furiously the king of Rolante stumbled backwards, dropping his quarry.
With a new roar the werewolf straightened up and the tornado shattered, the pieces falling a mere inch before melting out of existence. Deathjester visibly gulped there he hunched on the floor, tearing the remains of his scythe into his hands.
“Until next time!” he snarled and disappeared in a dark puff of smoke.
Kevin’s claws tore through the cloud, but it dissipated peacefully within seconds, leaving nothing behind.
The king’s enraged howl made every piece of glass in the room jingle. Lise took half a step back, more of surprise than fear – unlike the five amazons and the two werewolves that entered one second before Deathjester’s escape.
Jason whimpered, confused. But the queen got a grip of herself quickly.
“Kevin…” she said, softly.
She took a step forwards, when suddenly a furry hand landed on her shoulder. She looked around and into the protruding, concerned face of one of the messengers from the Beast Kingdom. His fur had an unusual shade of red, in his second form also wearing a tunic that matched his body hair.
“It might be better to let him calm down,” the growling voice warned, nodding at the crouched and snarling Kevin, “instincts to protect our own children can be dangerous, as you saw.”
Lise momentarily reflected on the fact that such a thing was rather ironic coming from a member of a people who sometimes let wild animals raise their infants, but she had more pressing things to care about.
Truly, Kevin looked in every bit a berserker for the moment, eyes hungrily staring at the spot where Deathjester had disappeared while the clawed fingers twitched wildly. Lise could swear that she saw froth forming in the corner of his mouth.
“You’re probably right,” she muttered, scowling worriedly at her husband, “but I believe that he needs to be calmed.”
With a glance at her nervous warriors by the door, she silently added that the shame of sending fear through the army definitely would be very painful for Kevin.
Thirdly, they needed to make sure that there were no casualties. “They can’t heeear yooou!” did not sound good at all. But for the moment, the king took full priority.
Almost as if he could hear Lise’s full chain of thought, the reddish werewolf grunted.
“But be careful madam,” he warned, “I fear that I and Rowan won’t be able to hold him back if anything happens.”
“I doubt you’ll have to,” the queen promised, trying to will a smile despite everything.
Jason still whimpered, rubbing his furry little head against his mother’s arm as she stepped forwards, reaching out her right hand with the palm turned upwards.
“Kevin,” she repeated.
Almost sluggishly, the flaring gold eyes of her husband turned at her. It appeared however that Kevin had troubles focusing his gaze; he blinked a couple of times, irritated.
“Love,” Lise said in a firmer voice, “it’s alright. We’re fine. It’s alright.”
Her hand were mere inches from his muzzle now. Kevin’s eyes shot at her fingers as Lise’s voice faded and it almost seemed as if he would flinch away. But then his jaw closed, thick lips covering the rows of deadly fangs. And the big, hairy head leaned into the queen’s touch, the flame of rage fading under the closing eyelids.
“That’s better…” Lise gently murmured, burying her fingertips in his fur, “Kevin… look at Jason.”
His eyes opened again, slowly. To see properly he had to turn his head a bit, otherwise the muzzle got in the way. As he finally saw the wolf pup curled up between Lise’s arm and chest, the bigger golden eyes filled up with confusion instead of anger.
“Looks a lot like Karl did back then, doesn’t he?” the queen gently said and lifted Jason in both hands, “he beat you with about fifteen years, I reckon.”
Kevin’s enormous werewolf hands met side by side before him, palms silently exposed to his wife. Carefully, Lise placed the now happily whimpering puppy in his father’s grip. The king moved his hands towards his chest while his breathing steadily calmed, and Jason curled up in the gathered palms with a content sigh. But he looked up as a glow covered his resting place, curiously sniffing the shrinking fingers.
As Kevin finished his transformation he hunched over again, head dropping with an exhausted grunt.
Jason let out a squeaking bark, sounding almost triumphant. His small body flashed in the bright light of transformation, and moments later Kevin held a human child close to his heart instead of a wolf. The baby reached up and clumsily gripped a hanging, red lock of mane, pulling it excitedly. He appeared to have forgotten all about the terror of a few minutes ago.
Kevin breathed in deeply and straightened up despite the protest from the prince as his toy was ripped away.
“Sorry…” the king grunted, grimacing slightly as his gaze met his wife’s.
Lise shook her head.
“There’s no need for you to say that.”
She turned around, nodding at the amazons. They immediately slammed the hands not holding their spears into their armored chests.
“You, look for casualties, that monster might have hurt somebody in the process of getting here. Somebody check on Eliott at once!” Lise instructed.
“Yes madam!” the amazons choired fairly in sync, then spun on their heels and rushed out to fulfill their leader’s order.
“We will stay on guard here if you wish,” the beastman Rowan offered, crossing his arms while his companion – that would be Eric, Lise now recalled – nodded in agreement.
The more grayish werewolf paused for a moment and then smirked complimentary at Kevin.
“Although I highly doubt that even Deathjester would be foolish enough to return for a while after that,” he added.
“Would still appreciate it,” Kevin grunted, grimacing slightly again.
His two kinsmen nodded, understanding.
“Certainly.”
The two werewolves walked out and positioned themselves on either side of the doorway.
Lise and Kevin exchanged glances for a moment, then as one both of them looked down at the helpless little creature lying in the father’s arms. Jason’s blanket had fallen off long ago, lying by the rubble of the smashed chair. Only left was the blue pajama, but the baby didn’t seem to be bothered by that. With his tiny thumb hidden inside his mouth, he peacefully slumbered with his soft head leaning against his father’s heartbeat.
The mother lifted her hand and caressed the silky red hair with fingers which she now realized trembled slightly. Silently she moved her other hand to Kevin’s cheek, without looking up.
He made sure that Jason was held securely with the help of only one muscular arm supporting his small body and one hand with long fingers safely holding the little head. Only then did the king of Rolante reach out and wrap his arm around his wife’s waist. She leant forwards, leaning her forehead against his shoulder while breathing deeply to calm herself as the adrenaline rush finally drained completely. Sighing softly, Kevin rested his cheek on top of her head.
Like statues they stood for almost a minute, until the sound of familiar running footsteps made Lise turn around with a relieved smile.
“Sis!”
“Arf!”
The queen stepped forwards a bit not to stumble backwards into Jason and Kevin as her little brother pounced her with a bearhug. That wouldn’t have meant much a while ago, but in the last year Eliott had entered the age when small boys start growing a lot, and he was nowadays almost as tall as his sister. Karl was no better; no longer a mere pup but a full grown wolf. He spared his human friends from pounces though, and settled for skidding to a halt by Kevin’s feet and raising up on his hinds to check on Jason. Seeing the little one safely asleep the wolf sat back with a relieved snarl. Kevin growled something back, trying to smile a bit despite his still wrecked state of mind.
“I’m so relieved you’re alright…” Lise mumbled into her brother’s hair, squeezing him tightly.
“You’re stupid, sis!” Eliott grunted, though fondly, “<I>nobody</I> looked at me this time!”
He gently pulled away and looked at Kevin, who had moved over to the bed and heavily sat down on its foot end, carefully rubbing his neck with his free hand.
“What are you going to do now?” the older prince worriedly asked, “they said it was some weirdo jester, don’t tell me…”
“Deathjester,” Kevin grimly confirmed.
“I doubt he’ll attack as long as Kevin is around,” Lise nodded, crossing her arms and frowning, “but you can’t be everywhere.”
“Targeting, I think,” the king growled, staring down at Jason’s peaceful form.
Lise breathed in and out with forced calm, willing her thoughts to go back in place despite her spinning worries.
“We’re raising all defenses,” she grimly spoke through her teeth.
Finally Kevin looked up, meeting the gaze of Eric as he silently looked into the room.
“If father offers it, we accept help,” the king clarified.
“We’ll tell him that,” the messenger nodded and disappeared from view again.
Lise exchanged glances with Kevin again, and she shook her head after a moment.
“He’s too dangerous to normal amazon soldiers,” she said, frowning deeper, “beastmen should be tougher for him but…”
“It’s not safe,” Kevin muttered, clenching his jaw, “we can’t wait for him to attack again.”
Eliott confusedly watched his sister and brother in law.
“You’re not going to try going after him, are you?” the prince asked.
“Of course not, we can’t do that…”
Lise sighed, rubbing her neck.
“I know,” Kevin said.
He stood up, determination in his golden eyes.
“Call for Hawk.”
