Enter Abyss

Chapter 20; Maps and annoying mentors.

Cogs had tried nearly a hundred times that day to straighten his mop of golden curls, only for them to spring up once more.

At this point he was sure they were laughing at him.

Truth be told, he had never felt so nervous-- well, unless you count  the time Archer pushed him off that cliff, or the that bit in his life when he was fed to the Abyss-- but this was different. This was, to put it bluntly, a date. and while he had put off apologizing to Pip, she was not around to apologize TO.

He sighed; it seemed as though ever since they had come to the Abyss they had been growing farther apart. 

They had found new people with similar interests and had thus begun to make new friends, seeing one another less and less. It was sad, to be sure, but Cogs would not let it bother him on his date.

He had enough things to worry about.

Now, as he gave up on his hair and opted for borrowing Archer's cap instead, he left his room and promptly smacked straight into Pip as she was careening down the hallway.

She slammed into him with such force that they both nearly toppled over and Cogs let out an audible gasp of pain.

"Blimey," Pip said, catching hold of him before he fell backward and yanking him upright again with enough strength to give him whiplash. "You ought to watch where you're headed."

"Me??" Cogs asked incredulously, "YOU knocked into ME!" 

"Really? From my point of view it was the other way around." Pip retorted, the usual grin on her face. But this smile was different; it never reached her eyes and there was a pain there, as though it were forced. As though it wasn't her.

'She still hates me,' Cogs realized. Clearing his throat, he stepped around her and was about to walk away when she called out after him.

"Off to see your Abyss lover then?" she taunted, an edge to her voice.

Cogs took a deep breath. 

He knew she was only doing this to hide her pain, to make him think she wasn't upset with him. Turning back to her, Cogs looked at her. Really looked.

She was sweaty, dirt was smeared on her face, and her hair was the equivalent of an angry bush on fire. Her clothes were tattered with holes, pale skin showing through the gaps. But she was still so beautiful; so beautifully imperfect.

And yet he knew she was not right for him.

Then he turned away again without saying a word, his heart breaking slightly with every step he took away from her.

Friends did grow apart at times... and lovers were no exception.

For a time, Cogs simply walked in silence until he met with Meera in the center of town.

Immediately, when he spoke to her, her face lit up with joy as if he his ramblings about maps were the most important thing in the entire Abyss. She would nod and ask questions, gazing at him sightlessly as though he was the sun in her perpetual darkness.

Pip never looked at him like that.

Nevertheless, Cogs forced the red-headed girl from his mind and rambled on about his hometown and the room full of maps he'd had back in his house.

Meera, on the other hand, told him funny stories of her friends that made him nearly lose his head laughing, and when their were no more stories to be told she brought him to her house and enthusiastically showed him all the maps she had made.

Cogs watched in amusement as she exitedly explained what each map was of, her voice animated and bubbling as she came to life.

'Like Pip talking about kncocking some bloke's teeth out.' Cogs thought absentmindedly. 'I remember how excited she would get, telling me about the sensation of feeling bone crack under one's knuckles.' 

Pip had talked like this; full of life and bursting with bubbling laughter as she would act out the fight in funny ways while Cogs and Archer had laughed till they cried.

He remembered that now... and he wish he could go back to that time. A time when he would only sit and listen to her, gazing at Pip as though she was his very world.

"Cogs? Cogs you haven't heard a word I've said, have you?" Meera asked teasingly, nudging him with her elbow.

"Of course I have." he replied awkwardly, banishing Pip from his mind once and for all. "But perhaps you had better explain it again for, erm, safety reasons?"

She gave him a warm smile and Cogs was glad she could not see the blush colouring his cheeks.

She was not Pip... but maybe she didn't have to be. Maybe it was time to leave the memory of the person who Pip was behind and start focusing on what was right before him now.

Perhaps it was time to let go.

                                .........................................

Once Pip had changed from her torn shirt-- opting to borrow one that Galen had lent Archer-- she headed back to the training hall to continue fighting with Mordren.

Truth be told, she would have stayed in the torn shirt. But there was something in the way Mordren looked at her then, his eyes gazing brazenly at her exposed flesh that made her feel uncomfortable. For, while she was not, as Thaddeus had once put it, a 'chesty' girl, she had more to her than she would like him to see and that was for certain.

Thus, donning her new, partially stolen attire, she made her way back to the training hall, finding Mordren where he had been previously, albeit this time with a morningstar in his hand.

"Planning on beating me with that, are you?" Pip said casually, eyeing the spiked ball attached to a short staff via a chain.

It was a fearsome weapon, though Pip much rather preferred her own fists.

"Beat you? No. Not unless you want me to." Mordren replied, giving her a charming grin. "You are welcome to try it, however."

Pip snorted, raising her fists, "I only need these in any fight."

"Really? Even if they came at you with a sword?" Mordren replied, taking a step closer so that he was nearly chest to chest with her. 

Well, more like his collar bones were level with her eyes, but that was besides the point.

"I..." Pip trailed off. Blimey! What was this? Was he trying to make her say something stupid by getting all up in her valued personal space and intoxicating her nose with his oddly chocolatey scent? Why, no one had any business smelling like that; least of all an arrogant twit like him. Looking up at him, she scowled, "I could still fight and I'd win."

"Would you be willing to bet your life on it?"

"I should think I already would be, getting into a fight 'an all that."

He chuckled, then stepped back before Pip could shove him back herself.

More's the pity, she supposed. She would have liked to give him a bit of a shove. Maybe knock him around for a bit, wiping that smug look off his stupidly handsome face. Still, most would agree that kicking one's mentor-- as annoying as they were-- was NOT proper ettiquete.

"Tell me, " Mordren said, setting down the morningstar and picking up a delicate rapier instead, "Why would a lady such as yourself want to fight?"

Pip barked a harsh laugh. No one had ever called her a 'lady' before. "Why not?" she replied, "I didn't have much else to do and it's not as if my cousin Archer is going to get around to fighting anytime soon."

The prince seemed to study her then, his gaze piercing through her as if peering at her soul, the red gem in his forehead glittering.

Pip glared defiantly back until he finally blinked, ran a hand through his hair and said briskly, "Shall we continue training?"

Grinning maliciously, Pip cracked her knuckles and grabbed a sword off a nearby rack, her blood beginning to pound with excitement as she faced the prince, wanted ever the more to kick his stupid teeth in.

"I'd thought you'd never ask."

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