Vaesen Empires smp au

Chapter 5: Old Memories

Back in the tavern, everyone except for Sausage had fallen asleep. Gem and Fwhip were still sitting at their table, their heads resting on their arms and Scott slept on the couch in front of the fire, curled up against the armrest. Sausage still couldn't help staring at him and the weird golden, translucent deer skull on his head. There was definitely something weird about him, but Sausage also couldn't help feeling warm at the sight of him, especially when he laughed.

Sausage pulled the blanket Gem had given to him closer around his shoulders and tore his eyes away from Scott and stared into the slowly dying fire. The coals glowed gently and filled the room with steadily dimmer light, though he knew that the sunlight would soon replace it. He couldn't wrap his head around Scott's oddness. There was just something slightly off, but normally he would be able to see that completely without effort and as naturally as breathing. But he could feel that something powerful, ancient, both alive and not was with him as his eyes drifted again to meet the empty eyesockets of the deer skull. And they were really empty. Scott stirred suddenly and yawned. He opened his eyes and looked around.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Just before sunrise," Sausage answered. He felt almost hypnotised by Scott's tired, dark blue eyes until he stood up, stretched and picked up his thin coat from a nearby chair.

"I have to leave then," Scott told him.

"It was nice talking to you."

"Yeah I- I like talking to you too."

Scott smiled, then he pushed the tavern door open and left Sausage alone with his sleeping friends, and alone with a feeling of emptiness.

Scott's stag galloped through the mist, his hooves clattered against the ice of the lakes and rivers they rode over towards Rivendell. Beams of golden sunlight caught the heavy mist that lay all over the forest and made the golden antlers of both Aeor's skull and the living stag glitter and glow as if they were on fire. Though it was a cold flame that flew through the slowly brightening forest, quickly heading west.

The stag stopped in front of the entrance to Rivendell, Scott jumped off and was immediately ambushed by something very tall and very pink that flew out of the bushes at him.

"Hi Scott!" Katherine yelled with a huge smile on her face.

"Oh good Aeor, you scared me!"

Katherine giggled which made the black petals and pink butterfly wings on her head shudder slightly.

"I did it on purpose," she grinned.

"Anyway, I wanted to talk to you! I've missed you!"

"Okay, let me just be normal again," Scott said and carefully lifted Aeor's skull from his head and carried it in his arms into Rivendell as Katherine fluttered around behind him.

"I don't get why a corpse is so important to you elves," Katherine said as Scott gently shut the lid on the golden casket.

"It's our god, of course it's important," Scott answered and sat down at the kitchen table, Katherine flew up and squished herself into an empty barrel on the top shelf.

"Why are flowers so important to fae then?"

"You have a point," Katherine admitted with a sigh that made pink and black petals fall from her head.

"So what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much," Scott answered absentmindedly, though his thoughts immediately went to Sausage.

"I was supposed to buy gunpowder from Fwhip but I got distracted."

"By what?"

"Nothing."

Katherine flipped over in her barrel and grinned widely behind her pincers.

"Aww, has someone got a crush?"

"Shut up," Scott said and Katherine giggled at him as he went a slightly deeper shade of blue.

"Who is it?"

"I've already told Gem, I don't want everyone to know."

"You're boring," Katherine groaned and flipped over in her barrel again. It was quite impressive that she managed to fit in it, considering that she was just as tall as Scott, being the fae queen and much bigger than her subjects. She rolled her five black eyes and looked at Scott upside down.

"Can I ask about the ol' family then?"

"Sure, who do you want to talk about?"

"You used to have siblings, didn't you?" Katherine asked, flipping over once again to rest her chin on her arms.

"Yeah, two," Scott answered and looked over at the huge painting that hung in the corridor outside the kitchen. There were five elves there, the old king and queen; Scott's parents. His father with red hair and his mother with hair which was impossible to tell if it was dark purple or deep blue. Then there were three children, the oldest, Xornoth, stood next to their mother and looked almost like a scaled down male version of her, only that his hair was lighter. Next to him, between their father and mother was Lauren, who was also strikingly similar to their mother. And in their father's arms was a small elven toddler with blue hair and pale blue skin, which was of course Scott himself.

"Xornoth and Lauren."

"What were they like?" Katherine asked.

"I don't remember Lauren too well," Scott admitted, staring into the painted eyes of his sister.

"She and mom went missing pretty soon after that painting was made, dad said they were supposed to visit the Grimmlands, Fwhip's dad said monster hunters got them."

"And Xornoth?"

"He was nice. He gave me a sword when I turned six."

"A sword?! That's not safe for a kid!" Katherine exclaimed and almost fell out of the barrel.

"They're not supposed to be safe," Scott laughed.

"Dad wasn't happy about it but I got to chase Pearl around the fireplace for a while before he confiscated it."

"So, what happened to him?" Katherine inquired.

"Because your dad and half of Rivendell were trying to get him to propose to me at one point, I remember that. Did he run away to avoid that or what happened?"

"Well I'm pretty sure he was as gay as I am, so that's why he refused, but I also know he went hunting with my dad one day and neither of them returned."

"What? No one ever found any sign of them?"

"No."

"So they could still be alive," Katherine said hopefully.

"Probably not," Scott said.

"I mean, it's been like 300 years."

"Oh. Right, I forgot about that."

There was a very painful silence, until Katherine's eyes fell on the door to the room with the golden casket.

"What about the corpse you keep in the closet then?"

"Well I had to put something in there after I came out," Scott said sarcastically.

"And you already know about it, what more do you want to know?"

"Does it talk to you?" she asked. Scott thought for a moment before answering.

"Kind of. It's kind of like a voice I hear in the back of my head when I wear the skull, and then it's only for important things, so that's very rarely. I also think it has abandonment issues because it keeps trying to draw me back when I leave the room."

"Well that's not terrifying."

"I know right?"