paixaorpg | Snakes and Birds [Complete]

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Snakes and Birds [Complete]

Characters: The Master and Yorda
Content: Yorda brings the Master food, not realizing who and what he is.
Setting: Muspelheim
Time: Week 17, nighttime
Warnings: The Master's appetite. :|

She didn't know who he was, but she knew she had to help him. She had never seen an insane person before, but something about the man struck even the naive princess as unstable - and she couldn't very well leave someone like that alone, could she? And so it was that Yorda had rushed to the store and bought as much meat as she could possibly carry before running to Muspelheim (it hadn't occurred to the princess to take enough jewels with her to pay for the train trip, as well). She didn't get there until well after dark, and it was only then she realized that she didn't know what the man looked like.

She stood there helplessly, biting her lip and looking around her.

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A loud sniff arose from above and behind her.

The Master had been in a tree, dangling his legs off a branch playfully. His black outfit obscured him from vision and the hood had draped over his face so the moonlight couldn't illuminate anything other than this smirking mouth. "Now, that..."

He leapt from the tree and came closer to Yorda. He was fascinated by the veritable smorgasbord carried by a fair lady. It reminded of his times as Harold Saxon, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Ruler of Earth. Yorda's offering would have been only half of his expectations then, as he would have wanted more food (and more of the server). He remembers abusing the Jones family as his personal waitstaff, relishing every opportunity to point out their mistakes. At that point, The Doctor, his foe from the start, was in his control, too.

Now, he was back to the bottom and working his way up. He had been told The Doctor was in this new world, and it turned his stomach. He wanted to throw a tantrum like a child, but instead of getting angry, he knew to get even. He knew all the strange people and creatures here were protected under the Time Lord guidance. Now, there was a wolf looking over the flock, and it was only a matter of time before the shepherd would see his herd picked off one by one.

"This...is wonderful," he continued. He grabbed the food from her and laid it out on the ground, saving one piece to consume immediately. It was a savory carving of some meat he hadn't tried yet, but he could've cared less about how it tasted or what it was. His eyes were still staring beyond the darkness of the hood, wondering about this person. There were two things that concerned him most of all at this point: the hunger that needed to silenced, and the mysterious girl who stood before him looking vulnerable and naive. It's Lucy all over again, he thought to himself.

"And who do I thank for all this?" he asked with a curious tone.

Yorda jumped and gasped, whirling around to stare, wide-eyed, at the stranger who was... in a tree? How odd. Yorda didn't know trees could be climbed. She had never seen Ico do it, that was for certain. The girl blinked at the man for a few moments; his voice sounded familiar. He must be the man she had promised help to. Why had Urd been so insistent on Yorda not going to help him? Aside from that strange, frightening outburst regarding the Doctor (and the girl gave a small, quick shudder at the memory, neither understanding the strange man's anger nor the reason for it), he didn't seem terrible or scary at all.

Yorda smiled at the man at his exclamation, offering the food to him even as he snatched it from her. The glowing girl sat in front of the man, watching him eat, her arms hugging her knees. She would ask him about himself later; right now she could see that he badly needed to eat.

"My name is Yorda," she answered.

He continued to look over every detail of her delicate face, framed by hair similar in color to silken flax. The similarities to his former wife Lucy troubled The Master. It was as though she could the see beyond her shy behavior and look into the eyes of the woman who had killed him once and attempted to do so again when he became reincarnated. Still, there wasn't anything tortured about Yorda. There wasn't something off about her, with the exception of her simplicity. In the end, she was nothing of danger to The Master, who looked for assassins more than friends. It was a good change for him.

While he gathered her answer, he drew the hood back from his head and looked to her without a smile. "Just Yorda? No surname? Cole, perhaps?" he asked like a jilted lover asking for a confession. He drew back from his suspicion and then quietly introduced himself while drawing a leg of some game bird. "My name is The Master," he said before digging his teeth into the piece, tearing back at the meat by tilting his head and chewing for a second before continuing for another bite.

Yorda looked steadily into The Master's face as he examined her - at least, what she could see of it. It was still shrouded by that hood. Why would anyone wish to hide their face? She didn't understand it, but she knew by talking to Hades (and his irritated tones with her whenever she asked him a question) that some questions were better left unasked, and this might just be one of them. When the man did, at last, remove the hood, there seemed to be nothing wrong with him, save for an odd spark of something in his eyes, but it was too dark for Yorda to tell, even with her glow.

"What is a surname?" she asked him, confusedly. Yorda only had one name, as did Ico. It had never occurred to her that anyone might ever need more than one. "I have only ever been Yorda." She watched the man continue to eat, tilting her head to the side like a bird.

The Master threw his uneasy suspicions aside. There was no more fear of another Lucy or another Cole coming after him wherever he would be reborn or rule. He grew more curious at Yorda's own inquisitve look. He recognized her as an exceptional character who was clearly different from other humans, other beings, even beyond the darkness of the night. The piece of bird that he had been consuming during their conversation was already stripped bare. He continued chewing on the soft marrow on the ends of the bone before throwing it aside and moving on to the next piece. He paused before eating away at it and looked straight into her soul, hoping to find something there. He could not find any more than the foggy simplicity he had experienced so far.

"And where were you before you were stuck in this mess?" he asked before biting into the cooked skin of the bird, its juices running down his chin.

Yorda was used to that look by now, the look that said you're different. It didn't bother her; she always marveled at the diversity of human beings - and several of the non-humans, as seen in the city (and including her, of course). She looked down at his question, remembering. "I was in the castle on the island," she told him, "with Ico. We were fleeing from my mother."

It should have surprised her, how easily the confession fell from her lips, but Yorda was a very innocent and trusting individual and saw no reason to hide anything from anyone else or lie. In fact, Yorda did not so much as understand the concept of lying or otherwise omitting the truth. Wasn't honesty common among everyone?

He never figured Yorda to be someone more than exceptional. However, the lack of details she gave out in her own life summary was either a sign she was exceptionally dull (which would explain the unrestrained tenderness) or she was extremely sheltered (which would explain running away from her mother in a castle). "From a castle to another castle, what luck you have," he said while persisting against a particulary chewy piece of foul. "Sounds like your mother didn't like this Ico. So, princess, how far did you get?"

"I know how it feels to escape your parents. Mine forced me to take on the burden of taking on the whole of time and space. Wanted me to be on the only one left when cannons were fired and dust had settled. The drums in my head never stop, like I can't help but be constantly called to battle. I was born and bred a warrior, but I should be a ruler.""

Despite the horrors her mother had wrought, Yorda had nevertheless remained wholly innocent in the castle, and completely unaware of the outside world. Although she was learning more in this place (and thus not quite as sheltered as before), her innocence had remained, along with the gullibility that seemed to come along with it. Still, nobody had taken advantage of her thus far, and so she had yet to learn caution. "She tried to kill him," she told him, looking down and shuddering slightly, "but he lived, and came back for me."

She looked back at the man sympathetically. She wanted to ask what cannons and drums were, but now wasn't the time. She would ask Urd later - but whatever they were, they sounded terrible. She hoped she never had to hear them.

The Master finished yet another piece of meat while watching over Yorda's face and listening to the girl's story that paralled medieval legend. In the end, he really could care less about the actual content of the story. He simply wanted to see the background of this strange person. Even his deranged nostalgia didn't seem to faze her sense of closeness.

He threw the bone of his latest culinary victim aside and then approached Yorda, coming very close to her. He whispered, "I'm not sure if they can hear me like this, but at this point, it doesn't matter. We've been taken away from our homes, our respective destinies. You've been quite welcoming to me, and it will pay off when I figure a solution." He held back the urge to present a sneer at the thought of his next question. "You have the chance to be a companion to me. Would you want that?"

Yorda did not move back as The Master approached her. She had never particularly had a sense of personal space, as most people who knew her could attest to, so it didn't bother her. She leaned in, so that she might better hear what he had to say. She had never particularly thought of being in Paixao as having taken her away; she'd been about to die (or so she'd thought). Nevertheless, the thought of being a companion to someone seemed pleasant; the princess liked people and enjoyed helping others. She saw nothing wrong with his offer, and so she smiled at him and nodded. "I would like that very much," she decided.

The Master was almost surprised with how much this girl had restrained from flinching. He began to wonder if she was as blank as Lucy was during his last days. Of course, his neglect of her may have had something to do with that, but his vanity often left him in the position to avoid recognizing his own mistakes and responsibilities he felt were minor. Still, in the present moment, Yorda had approached a figure of terror within his own universe like a charity case and did it all with a smile.

The Master had a bright smile despite being destitute for a while, and he shared it with her. "Good," he said as though he were approving of her answer. "In that case, I had better take the rest of this and leave." He grabbed all the food he could find and placed it in a sack he had found around town. He looked around him and found a spot to leap to, managing to look back at Yorda before immediately jumping. "The drums are calling."

With that note, he lept into the night sky and became lost in the darkness.

Yorda smiled brilliantly in response to The Master's own. It was always nice to see someone do that, and this man had seemed dark and dour, so when he'd smiled, it was as though a transformation had occurred. The girl stepped back, watching curiously as the man leapt into the air like that. How was he able to do it? She opened her mouth to bid him goodbye, but the strange was gone quite quickly without giving Yorda a chance to say anything.

A few moments later, she turned and began walking towards where she knew Urd to be staying, pondering the thought of drums. She wondered what they were, what they sounded like, and how they called someone. Perhaps she could ask the goddess.

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Snakes and Birds [Complete]

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