The calm before the storm
A beautiful day in the springs, steam about the air, why, the scenery alone could calm the fiercest of raging tauros. Unfortunately this was not enough for one poor zangoose's broken heart. Usually relationships between zangoose are supposed to be short in general, but some few are born with an obsession to find their "one" and stay with them till death. Aven be the name of this poor creature and he was one of the few to have this obsession for searching, also commonly known as a "Longheart". After 5 letdowns he was ready to call it quits, the heart is like glass, it can take a beating or two, but will eventually shatter if not tended to.
"It seems now would be a good time to give up on my search, or end up....Broken." Aven only noticed how loud he had been when a voice broke in through the brush.
"What have you heard about being broken?"He tried to see if it was someone he knew but his vision was still obscured by steam. Slowly advancing in to his sight was another zangoose, female, but the water around reflected deep shades of purple and darkened blues from her left ear and paws. Longhearts were known for the odd fur colors and it filled aven with a quick burst of joy to see another like himself. His own fur was tinted black and grey on his right ear and paws. In all his excitement at not being alone he almost forgot to answer the question. "I hear it's worse than death. I hear your heart ache's unil it drives you to the brink of insanity before the "collectors" come to take you away to where the rest of the broken lay." She only chuckled under her breath. "What's so funny?" Aven asked, a little bit to demandingly. "Well with all the rumors around im sure everyone is bound to believe something different, but i've heard that you just turn back into a normal zangoose, fur changes colors, obsession gone, no memory of ever being a longheart. Rumor also has it that we all used to be born longhearts, but they started to break, and stray from the path." "I think i'd rather go insane than become the heartless." spoke Aven agrily "It sickens me the way they constantly toss love about as if it were nothing but garbage." "Hmmm... were your parents longhearts?" "No, well not my mother at least, and my father left before i was born, so im not sure." "I wouldn't speak so ill of the ones who gave you life. Any way, it's been nice talking to you, and hey. Don't give up alright?" "Wait, i didn't catch your name, mine's Aven." "Mine is Laura, hope to see you around." And those were her parting words as she left through the way she came. Aven couldn't get her off his mind the rest of the day.
Aven had discovered a hollowed out weeping willow down by the edge of a cliff just overlooking the ocean, and that's been his home for years now. All his former mate's adored the view but complained about him living in a dead tree. On any normal night Aven would be fast asleep, but this night he tossed and turned, that name running through his head over and over again. "Damnit all, i have to see her! But where would i find her, probably sleeping by now...unless!" and with those words he bolted from his tree in a rush to the hot springs where they met. Unfortunately for Aven there was one thing about Laura that he was unaware of. Stumbling over a rock upon his exit, breaking the twigs that slapped at his face as he sped past, in to much of a rush to care what was going on around him he leaped into a bush right outside the springs and peered out to a sight that nearly broke him. Laura was there alright, but hung around her shoulder was the arm of a dark blue furred absol. Aven's eyes flooded with warm tears, hardly able to stand he fell back in the bush, making more noise than he would have liked to. Unfortunately it was loud enough for them to notice, he didn't want her to think he was stalking her, so he got out as quickly as he could, leaving a trail of tears behind. His wails of agony echoed in the tree "What is this pain in my chest?! I can't be broken! I can't be! I don't even know that much about her, I don't know her yet she's managed to get to me like this! MAKE IT STOP!" he shouted at the top of his lungs before he collapsed. Hours later he awoke to a ghastly, a gengar, and a haunter robed in white. "Oh god no, collectors." Aven was blank faced as he stared them down waiting for one to speak. "As we know, you are in much pain, more pain than one should ever have to bear." it was the haunter that broke the silence "We are here to give you a choice. I suppose you've heard of us and upon recent conversation with one certain female heard that you shall become normal. Well both are true. Where we take you is where we will begin your transformation, we know you've tried to hold together but it's almost impossible under this much pressure, but now we give you a second option. You may take the easier way out and become normal, or stay a longheart, but you must be able to endure this pain every night, you must never sleep, and you may become normal when you say three words "_ ____ ___" You have until tommorow to think it over, we shall return to you that night and you will have your decision." then they vanished. "But what did he mean i will have my decision, do they know already?" Aven thought to himself before noticing the sun's arival.
Leaping up to the top of his tree he looked over towards the springs and spotted a dark and lonely figure. forgetting the laws of gravity he jumped forward and began his plummet towards earth, luckily a branch breaking his fall but upsetting a swarm of beedrill, giving him more than enough of a motive to get to the waters. From branch to branch he hurryed along the trees jumping straight ahead and splashing into the springs. Remembering someone else was there he came up to yell "Get under the water, angry beedrill headed this way!" Hearing the splash he could tell they heard him as he dived in again just in time to dodge a stinger. The buzzing noises stopped and they rose to the surface once more. The lone figure he saw was Laura, and she didn't look to happy about what just happened, or something else that happened. "You okay Laura?" "Yeah, the beedrill didn't touch me." "Oh, right, well, i wasn't exactly talking about the beedrill, you looked upset about something." "Oh...it's nothing." Laura was obviously lying. "If you say so." suddenly she fell into his arms with an embrace and a wave of tears "I thought he was the one! i was positive he was!" Aven felt some sense of bravery as he returned her embrace with his arms around her. And with that just a long silence of nothing but them and their sorrows, and each other. They were both overtaken by the fact that they felt as if they could trust each other so easily and knew each other for only a day now. He wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, but he took a chance. Aven lightly pushed lauras chin up as to face him. "It's alright now" he spoke, but immediately after he pressed forward and stole a kiss from Laura. It took her by surprise but she didn't resist, she didn't back off, she didn't try and run away, she just returned it with a kiss of her own. they sat in the hotsprings sharing the same embrace as before for the longest time, until without words, they both just got up and chuckled a little bit before turning their own ways. One step and they both looked back over their shoulders to see the other one more time, then began their way home. On his way home Aven looked to the ground to see the beedrill nest he had knocked from the tree amazingly still intact. The beedrill swarmed in the tree up above frantically working on a new one, but they caught a glimpse of him and stopped to watch his strange act. Aven clawed a heart into the tree deep enough to get the sticky sap from inside the tree. taking some honey from the nest and mixing it with the sap for makeshift glue he climbed up to the branch the nest previously hung from and smeared it with the mixture. He fell to the ground grabbing the nest then climbed back up and held the nest on to the branch for a good five straight minutes, then removing his paw from under the nest the beedrills watched as it held to the branch as before. Aven watched happily as they went back in to the nest and returned out with a yellow rock in their grasp. This honey was from the queen, highly concentrated and hardend into a crystal. Dropping lightly on the ground in front of Aven it appeared to be his gift of gratitude. Reward in hand he returned home and sat in the willows shade, watching the sky change colors. A pain beggining to well up in his chest he went inside his tree to wail his pains once more and collapsed. Waking to the collectors, the ghastly spoke first this time. "You know we really do have to stop meeting like this." the gengar laughed quietly behind the haunter, appearing as if he was the leader of them all. "have you made your choice Aven?" "I'm going to remain a longheart." "Very well Aven, just know that no sleep means you cannot become unconcious or get knocked out from pain, so you will not simply sleep the pain away. If you are sure about this, we will be on our way." once more vanishing to leave him alone with the suns waking face.
"Well at least the pain is subsided dearing the day." Aven thought to himself as he went out to the tree he had carved into the other day. Taking a seat under his mark he noticed a pair of beedrill overhead carrying a berry. It seems Aven had gained their friendship as they dropped the berry in his lap and flew back up to continue their own schedule's. Quickly eating the berry, he got up and headed towards the springs. "Three days in a row here huh?" Aven spoke before even getting out of the bush to see if anyone was there. "Yeah, i usually come here." Replied Laura who turned to see him coming from the bush. "How come i've never seen you here until those three days ago then?" "Because i never heard anyone from the other side of the bushes behind me, there's a more private spring just there." "Hmm, I never knew that. Hey umm, listen, about yesterd-" Aven stopped in mid sentence from a claw pressed lightly agains't his lips "It's okay, If you wouldn't have done it right then I would have anyways." "So then your saying-" "Yes, i'll go out with you." interupted Laura happily. Aven attempted a response to this but was stopped by another pair of lips this time as she stole the kiss first, giving him the chance to return it to her, which he gladly took. Aven finaly got the chance to speak. "You know, even though we havn't even known each other for more than a couple of days i feel like i know you so well. What made us meet that day? call it fate?" "Call it something, i'm just lucky i ran into you." said Laura as she hugged his arm resting her head on his shoulder. "You think your the lucky one?" Aven blurted out and got quieter as he spoke again not wanting her to know yet "I almost wasn't a longheart anymore." "What?" said Laura not hearing the second thing he said. "Nothing." said Aven who was now staring into his own reflection in the water lost in thought. "What would I say if she found out I was almost broken, and because of her. Wait a minute..." Aven returned from out of his head turning to face Laura who still lay on his arm. "Hey Laura? The other day when, well, did you think i knew who "He" was?" Laura looked into his eyes deeply as if peering into his soul. "It's okay Aven, i know you saw us there, i went to see what the noise was and saw you right before you got over the hill. I would've gone after you but i heard these vicious screams and decided to turn back. I was kind of curious as to why you were there at such a late time, but then again im sure you were wondering why i was there at that time as well."
"vicious screams?" Aven remembered that night "i didn't hear any screams." thought Aven to himself. Their relaxation was cut short as they heard a noise from the cliff up above, like someone grinding metal. It came out of nowhere, a splash in the spring, and next thing Aven was laying agains't a tree while a scyther had grabbed Laura and held captive her throat with his right arm. "Hmm, normally you'd be knocked out, but since your not, i'll give you a warning, make any sudden moves and she's a goner." "Well you obviously have some plans of your own, so do you mind if i leave?" This caught the scyther off guard "You mean you don't care what happens to her?" "No, not really." Replied Aven hoping she won't be to mad about this later. "Fine, leave." Aven ran towards his house leaving Laura for the scyther to do what he pleased. "That was to easy." said the scyther as he turned around and sat Laura down in front of him. "Now then, here's whats going to happen, your gonna do what i tell you to, or your gonna die, got it? good, First I want you t-" He stopped as he felt a breathing on the back of his neck. "Now then, here's whats going to happen, your gonna do what i tell you to, or your gonna die, got it?" Said Aven as he stood behind the scyther with his claws on the back of his neck. "Back up." Laura wanted to slap Aven for leaving her there like that, but was overly happy when he arrived again. "Laura get over here, as for you, stand still." Aven moved his claw and jumped to throw a kick hard down on his neck, the scyther now laying face down in the springs, unable to breath. Aven walked forward and stood on his back. "I'm gonna let you up for air in a second, and your gonna swear to leave us alone." He pushed more force on his back "Or else..." getting off, the scyther rose his head and took deep breaths before turning to face Aven. "You punk, you just caught me off guard." "And you didn't catch us off guard?" Said Aven backfiring at the scyther. "Leave now and i'll spare you." The scyther flew back up to the top of the cliff before yelling "By the way, I never said i'd leave you alone!" although he did leave them alone for his best interest. "You okay Laura?" Laura gave him a slap across the face "That's for leaving!" Laura yelled, and then she got quieter "And this is for coming back..." She said as she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. Finaly after what seemed like forever, the kiss ended and they watched the sky turn orange. Aven forgetting what happened at night, only remembered when he felt a pain start up in his chest. Aven started wimpering unconrtollably. "Are you alright Aven? This isn't from the fight with that scyther is it?" "No no, it's not from that, listen, it's getting late, we should probably head home. I suppose i'll see you tommorow?" "Yeah, sure, see you tommorow Aven, good night." "Good night" They kissed and went on their ways, although tonight, neither of them would sleep. Aven ran, again being reckless and just hitting the things in his way, jumping inside the willow and slamming into the wall. "There's got to be someway to keep the pain down." Following his words came loud screams of pain. All through out the night his screams echoed up the tree and boomed off the sky to reach the surrounding forest. The collectors showed up in the middle of the night, their aura alone slightly numbing the pain so he could talk. The haunter was the speaker once more. "Are you quite sure you want to endure this pain?" "Not really, but i'll do anything to keep Laura with me!" "If that's what you want." They dissapeared and Aven fell to his knees wailing, crying, slashing madly into the dirt, gritting his teeth, waiting for the sun to come and take his pain away.
As morning showed itself Aven's screams slowed to wimpering, then to nothing but the sound of pidgeys wings flapping across the sky. He wishes he could sleep, but at the same time he wasn't tired. In fact, he was wide awake. Aven found himself staring blankly at the sky until he remembered he was supposed to be leaving to meet Laura.Chapter End Notes:Updates might be a little slow, inspiration strikes at the most random moments, but i'll try and update as soon as possible
"It seems now would be a good time to give up on my search, or end up....Broken." Aven only noticed how loud he had been when a voice broke in through the brush.
"What have you heard about being broken?"He tried to see if it was someone he knew but his vision was still obscured by steam. Slowly advancing in to his sight was another zangoose, female, but the water around reflected deep shades of purple and darkened blues from her left ear and paws. Longhearts were known for the odd fur colors and it filled aven with a quick burst of joy to see another like himself. His own fur was tinted black and grey on his right ear and paws. In all his excitement at not being alone he almost forgot to answer the question. "I hear it's worse than death. I hear your heart ache's unil it drives you to the brink of insanity before the "collectors" come to take you away to where the rest of the broken lay." She only chuckled under her breath. "What's so funny?" Aven asked, a little bit to demandingly. "Well with all the rumors around im sure everyone is bound to believe something different, but i've heard that you just turn back into a normal zangoose, fur changes colors, obsession gone, no memory of ever being a longheart. Rumor also has it that we all used to be born longhearts, but they started to break, and stray from the path." "I think i'd rather go insane than become the heartless." spoke Aven agrily "It sickens me the way they constantly toss love about as if it were nothing but garbage." "Hmmm... were your parents longhearts?" "No, well not my mother at least, and my father left before i was born, so im not sure." "I wouldn't speak so ill of the ones who gave you life. Any way, it's been nice talking to you, and hey. Don't give up alright?" "Wait, i didn't catch your name, mine's Aven." "Mine is Laura, hope to see you around." And those were her parting words as she left through the way she came. Aven couldn't get her off his mind the rest of the day.
Aven had discovered a hollowed out weeping willow down by the edge of a cliff just overlooking the ocean, and that's been his home for years now. All his former mate's adored the view but complained about him living in a dead tree. On any normal night Aven would be fast asleep, but this night he tossed and turned, that name running through his head over and over again. "Damnit all, i have to see her! But where would i find her, probably sleeping by now...unless!" and with those words he bolted from his tree in a rush to the hot springs where they met. Unfortunately for Aven there was one thing about Laura that he was unaware of. Stumbling over a rock upon his exit, breaking the twigs that slapped at his face as he sped past, in to much of a rush to care what was going on around him he leaped into a bush right outside the springs and peered out to a sight that nearly broke him. Laura was there alright, but hung around her shoulder was the arm of a dark blue furred absol. Aven's eyes flooded with warm tears, hardly able to stand he fell back in the bush, making more noise than he would have liked to. Unfortunately it was loud enough for them to notice, he didn't want her to think he was stalking her, so he got out as quickly as he could, leaving a trail of tears behind. His wails of agony echoed in the tree "What is this pain in my chest?! I can't be broken! I can't be! I don't even know that much about her, I don't know her yet she's managed to get to me like this! MAKE IT STOP!" he shouted at the top of his lungs before he collapsed. Hours later he awoke to a ghastly, a gengar, and a haunter robed in white. "Oh god no, collectors." Aven was blank faced as he stared them down waiting for one to speak. "As we know, you are in much pain, more pain than one should ever have to bear." it was the haunter that broke the silence "We are here to give you a choice. I suppose you've heard of us and upon recent conversation with one certain female heard that you shall become normal. Well both are true. Where we take you is where we will begin your transformation, we know you've tried to hold together but it's almost impossible under this much pressure, but now we give you a second option. You may take the easier way out and become normal, or stay a longheart, but you must be able to endure this pain every night, you must never sleep, and you may become normal when you say three words "_ ____ ___" You have until tommorow to think it over, we shall return to you that night and you will have your decision." then they vanished. "But what did he mean i will have my decision, do they know already?" Aven thought to himself before noticing the sun's arival.
Leaping up to the top of his tree he looked over towards the springs and spotted a dark and lonely figure. forgetting the laws of gravity he jumped forward and began his plummet towards earth, luckily a branch breaking his fall but upsetting a swarm of beedrill, giving him more than enough of a motive to get to the waters. From branch to branch he hurryed along the trees jumping straight ahead and splashing into the springs. Remembering someone else was there he came up to yell "Get under the water, angry beedrill headed this way!" Hearing the splash he could tell they heard him as he dived in again just in time to dodge a stinger. The buzzing noises stopped and they rose to the surface once more. The lone figure he saw was Laura, and she didn't look to happy about what just happened, or something else that happened. "You okay Laura?" "Yeah, the beedrill didn't touch me." "Oh, right, well, i wasn't exactly talking about the beedrill, you looked upset about something." "Oh...it's nothing." Laura was obviously lying. "If you say so." suddenly she fell into his arms with an embrace and a wave of tears "I thought he was the one! i was positive he was!" Aven felt some sense of bravery as he returned her embrace with his arms around her. And with that just a long silence of nothing but them and their sorrows, and each other. They were both overtaken by the fact that they felt as if they could trust each other so easily and knew each other for only a day now. He wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, but he took a chance. Aven lightly pushed lauras chin up as to face him. "It's alright now" he spoke, but immediately after he pressed forward and stole a kiss from Laura. It took her by surprise but she didn't resist, she didn't back off, she didn't try and run away, she just returned it with a kiss of her own. they sat in the hotsprings sharing the same embrace as before for the longest time, until without words, they both just got up and chuckled a little bit before turning their own ways. One step and they both looked back over their shoulders to see the other one more time, then began their way home. On his way home Aven looked to the ground to see the beedrill nest he had knocked from the tree amazingly still intact. The beedrill swarmed in the tree up above frantically working on a new one, but they caught a glimpse of him and stopped to watch his strange act. Aven clawed a heart into the tree deep enough to get the sticky sap from inside the tree. taking some honey from the nest and mixing it with the sap for makeshift glue he climbed up to the branch the nest previously hung from and smeared it with the mixture. He fell to the ground grabbing the nest then climbed back up and held the nest on to the branch for a good five straight minutes, then removing his paw from under the nest the beedrills watched as it held to the branch as before. Aven watched happily as they went back in to the nest and returned out with a yellow rock in their grasp. This honey was from the queen, highly concentrated and hardend into a crystal. Dropping lightly on the ground in front of Aven it appeared to be his gift of gratitude. Reward in hand he returned home and sat in the willows shade, watching the sky change colors. A pain beggining to well up in his chest he went inside his tree to wail his pains once more and collapsed. Waking to the collectors, the ghastly spoke first this time. "You know we really do have to stop meeting like this." the gengar laughed quietly behind the haunter, appearing as if he was the leader of them all. "have you made your choice Aven?" "I'm going to remain a longheart." "Very well Aven, just know that no sleep means you cannot become unconcious or get knocked out from pain, so you will not simply sleep the pain away. If you are sure about this, we will be on our way." once more vanishing to leave him alone with the suns waking face.
"Well at least the pain is subsided dearing the day." Aven thought to himself as he went out to the tree he had carved into the other day. Taking a seat under his mark he noticed a pair of beedrill overhead carrying a berry. It seems Aven had gained their friendship as they dropped the berry in his lap and flew back up to continue their own schedule's. Quickly eating the berry, he got up and headed towards the springs. "Three days in a row here huh?" Aven spoke before even getting out of the bush to see if anyone was there. "Yeah, i usually come here." Replied Laura who turned to see him coming from the bush. "How come i've never seen you here until those three days ago then?" "Because i never heard anyone from the other side of the bushes behind me, there's a more private spring just there." "Hmm, I never knew that. Hey umm, listen, about yesterd-" Aven stopped in mid sentence from a claw pressed lightly agains't his lips "It's okay, If you wouldn't have done it right then I would have anyways." "So then your saying-" "Yes, i'll go out with you." interupted Laura happily. Aven attempted a response to this but was stopped by another pair of lips this time as she stole the kiss first, giving him the chance to return it to her, which he gladly took. Aven finaly got the chance to speak. "You know, even though we havn't even known each other for more than a couple of days i feel like i know you so well. What made us meet that day? call it fate?" "Call it something, i'm just lucky i ran into you." said Laura as she hugged his arm resting her head on his shoulder. "You think your the lucky one?" Aven blurted out and got quieter as he spoke again not wanting her to know yet "I almost wasn't a longheart anymore." "What?" said Laura not hearing the second thing he said. "Nothing." said Aven who was now staring into his own reflection in the water lost in thought. "What would I say if she found out I was almost broken, and because of her. Wait a minute..." Aven returned from out of his head turning to face Laura who still lay on his arm. "Hey Laura? The other day when, well, did you think i knew who "He" was?" Laura looked into his eyes deeply as if peering into his soul. "It's okay Aven, i know you saw us there, i went to see what the noise was and saw you right before you got over the hill. I would've gone after you but i heard these vicious screams and decided to turn back. I was kind of curious as to why you were there at such a late time, but then again im sure you were wondering why i was there at that time as well."
"vicious screams?" Aven remembered that night "i didn't hear any screams." thought Aven to himself. Their relaxation was cut short as they heard a noise from the cliff up above, like someone grinding metal. It came out of nowhere, a splash in the spring, and next thing Aven was laying agains't a tree while a scyther had grabbed Laura and held captive her throat with his right arm. "Hmm, normally you'd be knocked out, but since your not, i'll give you a warning, make any sudden moves and she's a goner." "Well you obviously have some plans of your own, so do you mind if i leave?" This caught the scyther off guard "You mean you don't care what happens to her?" "No, not really." Replied Aven hoping she won't be to mad about this later. "Fine, leave." Aven ran towards his house leaving Laura for the scyther to do what he pleased. "That was to easy." said the scyther as he turned around and sat Laura down in front of him. "Now then, here's whats going to happen, your gonna do what i tell you to, or your gonna die, got it? good, First I want you t-" He stopped as he felt a breathing on the back of his neck. "Now then, here's whats going to happen, your gonna do what i tell you to, or your gonna die, got it?" Said Aven as he stood behind the scyther with his claws on the back of his neck. "Back up." Laura wanted to slap Aven for leaving her there like that, but was overly happy when he arrived again. "Laura get over here, as for you, stand still." Aven moved his claw and jumped to throw a kick hard down on his neck, the scyther now laying face down in the springs, unable to breath. Aven walked forward and stood on his back. "I'm gonna let you up for air in a second, and your gonna swear to leave us alone." He pushed more force on his back "Or else..." getting off, the scyther rose his head and took deep breaths before turning to face Aven. "You punk, you just caught me off guard." "And you didn't catch us off guard?" Said Aven backfiring at the scyther. "Leave now and i'll spare you." The scyther flew back up to the top of the cliff before yelling "By the way, I never said i'd leave you alone!" although he did leave them alone for his best interest. "You okay Laura?" Laura gave him a slap across the face "That's for leaving!" Laura yelled, and then she got quieter "And this is for coming back..." She said as she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him. Finaly after what seemed like forever, the kiss ended and they watched the sky turn orange. Aven forgetting what happened at night, only remembered when he felt a pain start up in his chest. Aven started wimpering unconrtollably. "Are you alright Aven? This isn't from the fight with that scyther is it?" "No no, it's not from that, listen, it's getting late, we should probably head home. I suppose i'll see you tommorow?" "Yeah, sure, see you tommorow Aven, good night." "Good night" They kissed and went on their ways, although tonight, neither of them would sleep. Aven ran, again being reckless and just hitting the things in his way, jumping inside the willow and slamming into the wall. "There's got to be someway to keep the pain down." Following his words came loud screams of pain. All through out the night his screams echoed up the tree and boomed off the sky to reach the surrounding forest. The collectors showed up in the middle of the night, their aura alone slightly numbing the pain so he could talk. The haunter was the speaker once more. "Are you quite sure you want to endure this pain?" "Not really, but i'll do anything to keep Laura with me!" "If that's what you want." They dissapeared and Aven fell to his knees wailing, crying, slashing madly into the dirt, gritting his teeth, waiting for the sun to come and take his pain away.
As morning showed itself Aven's screams slowed to wimpering, then to nothing but the sound of pidgeys wings flapping across the sky. He wishes he could sleep, but at the same time he wasn't tired. In fact, he was wide awake. Aven found himself staring blankly at the sky until he remembered he was supposed to be leaving to meet Laura.Chapter End Notes:Updates might be a little slow, inspiration strikes at the most random moments, but i'll try and update as soon as possible