AMACon 4: Serendipitous - English Fiction

This Side Of Topaz

WRITTEN BY: unmasked_maiden

PROMPT: When hell broke lose, you were there.
When chaos ensued, you were by my side.
Now, the apocalypse has come, nothing has changed and I still treasure your smile even when you're standing on the other side of the line.

PROMPT BY: TTrNeo

I remember you as you were last autumn.
You were a gray beret and a heart full of ease.
In your eyes, the fires of twilight fought on.
Into the waters of your soul, the leaves fell from the trees.

The peninsula of Damar knows of only two seasons – atrociously hot summer and appallingly typhoon-filled winter.

Heneral Ricardo De Aragon misses it when he is away on campaigns, freezing in bitter snow (which is how winter should really be like) or when he suffers zero visibility during the gloom of autumn in kingdoms far away and the existence of Damar seems nothing more than a fantasy that belongs to books.

However, he often finds himself detesting it when he comes back to take a rest.

The sun in June has the ability to make the colors of his beloved homeland garish and looking at the details makes his eyes hurt.

He only finds respite when dust comes and the Moon Goddess and her sparkling muses show their dominion over the skies.

Now, under the silver light, staring out a window that gives him a view of the tempestuous sea while his fingers caressed his guitar, he wondered, hitherto, how he could both love and hate the place of his birth with the ferocity he does but realizes that it must be the curse of every warrior who has traveled – to thirst for home yet hunger for the beauty of other lands.

And the "ferocity" of his feelings come from being born of this peninsula that advocates "passion", a land that believes that one must wake, eat, run, fight, swim, in one's emotions and never hold it in.

However, it does go against his very nature as a tactician to be so open about his feelings.

Thus, this fusion of contrasting customs and philosophies has made him quite a contrary and mysterious man – secretive and cunning yet amicable and honorable at the same time. It was hard not to be on your toes around him.

It draws out respect from his peers that he could have such control while it annoys his enemies to no end, especially those who pride themselves in saying he is predictable and easy to surmount.

"Are you singing to the moon again?"

Well if one must speak of someone "annoying", his brother, with his voice breaking through Ricardo's melancholy could easily surpass him.

He raised an enigmatic eyebrow at the "intruder".

"Is that any way to greet the king?" the older man noted his obvious displeasure, chuckled and shook a head in mock disbelief.

"That is the way I greet an exasperating brother", Ricardo answered, turning away and continuing on plucking the strings on the instrument he held.

There was a laugh.

"You know I only aim to irritate you more when you ignore me."

"And you know I can wound you with a sword and make you lose a few organs to drive your doctors crazy if you INDEED succeed in irritating me."

His brother laughed louder. "You are purposely making this hard for me aren't you?"

"I do not know what you are talking about." He wouldn't bite the bait.