Despondent Beauty [Ereri/Riren Fanfic] [COMPLETED]

Chapter III

The creature looked so handsome, or beautiful, with his brilliant feathers and his soft yet defined muscles hugging his even tan. His green eyes filled with a strong hatred but hiding his sorrow and misery behind that hatred. I gulped and blinked to make sure I wasn't seeing things, but that's when I remembered that I had about twenty minutes left before I needed a mask. I needed to go back for a mask, but this creature wasn't going to let me off the hook that easily. I could tell.

" I'm taking you to my village, whether you like it or not. You wretched Beast."

" Wait, that's what your kind sees us as? Beasts?"

" What of it? All your kind does is kill off anything that's in your way, and you're constantly advancing your weapons for a war with my kind. If war breaks out then not only will you kill off my kind, but you'll kill a huge portion of the planet with it."

He had the same mindset as I had, he didn't want war to break out so he was only looking after his kind in his own way. To think that we have taken so much from him and his people, and when I couldn't do a thing due to my uncle. If I was going to be able to go back for a mask I would need to convince him that I too am against the idea of war. It shouldn't be too hard but I was going to have to be careful.

" Listen, right now, by being in this forest without a team, I'm turning my back against my kind. However, no matter what they say about your kind it drives me even more to learn about your kind. I want to learn your ways and see things from a different perspective than the one that they're showing me. I don't have much time before the air starts to get to me, but I want to stay out here and make new discoveries."

The creature was clearly shaken by my words and I was running out of time. I had about another ten minutes left before the oxygen would start taking it's affect in my body. I could tell that the creature before me was conflicted with his resolve and my little speech, until he sighed and put a hand behind his head as he looked up to the sky.

" This is crazy... Come with me, I'll set you up in my village. For the time being you can use this, we happen to scavenge these from your kind."

The creature tossed me what appeared to be a mask for processing the thin oxygen, I thanked him immediately after I put it on my face. He clicked his tongue and waved for me to follow him. There were a few questions I had wanted to ask him so I thought now would be an okay opportunity to do so.

" I've been wondering, back where we set up our base we call your kind creatures since we don't know what else to call you. So I was wondering what you call your species."

" We're called the Taos. My father was the one who brought all of us together in the most desperate situations."

" How's he doing, your father?"

There was a pause when I asked that and I knew right away I had crossed into a difficult subject. However the Tao had answered my question with a monotone voice.

" He's dead. One of your kind killed him, that's all there is to it. Now I have to step up and take his place as the Chief of my village."

" He was the Chief? To us we think you run by having Kings and Queens, so to us we'd thinking of you as the prince."

" You could say that, but my father was the most respected Tao on this planet. Everyone looked up to him, but I don't remember him at all."

" How come?"

" ... He died before I was born."

The blanket of silence covered our conversation for the time being, but I could relate to how he has been feeling. The only thing I have from my mother was this tattered photograph I stole from my uncle. She had died after I was born, and sometimes Kenny blames me for her death. He wasn't wrong, but the same time he wasn't right either. I could sense that much every time he told me the story of her death, but I can't recall if he ever spoke about my mother like a brother would talk about his sister. The Taos story was just like mine, so I decided to tell him of my story.

" You know, you're like me in a sense."

" How am I like you? I'm not like you at all, I don't kill anything that stands in my way or take away the life of someone's parent."

" No, I'm talking about our stories matching up. Your father died because of one of my kind, well my mother died because of me."

" Because of... you?"

" Yes. She died after I was born, therefore I have no memories of her. All I have is this." I reached for the small bag on my side and took out the photograph of my mother.

The Tao turned around and took hold of the picture when I handed it to him. His eyes ridden of the hatred were filled with sorrow.

" She looks beautiful, does anyone remember her where you come from?"

The question took me aback, no one bothered to remember the deceased. If you died you died, nothing more to it. I took the picture from the Tao and put it away carefully as I answered his question.

" No, even if someone did they wouldn't speak of her around me. Back there, all that matters is getting what we came here for. No one cared about the lives that are taken only because they themselves are afraid to end up just like their comrades. Not me, I'm different from all of them. I can feel it."

We remained still and silent for a few minutes before the Tao before me turned around again and spoke one word.

" Eren."

" What?"

" I didn't give you my name, my name's Eren Jaeger."

I let out small chuckle and smiled for the first time in a while.

" Well I'm Levi Ackerman. It's nice to meet you, Eren."

The Tao, no, Eren smiled smugly and extended his hand for me to shake. In which I did so.

" We'd better get going, it gets cold really fast during the Rudas season." Eren spoke up and let go of my hand.

He went over to a tree and pulled something out or off of it and lit it. He held what appeared to be a lantern and led the way towards his village.

AN: Alrighty, chapter three is up now. I hope you like it!!!

¥•~To Be Continued~•¥