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Special Ch.3: Hidden Treasure |
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As promised, here's another Flotsam chapter! This chapter encompasses all the events that occurred before and while I was in search of the Spartan Cloak, which by the way only does something special when Jareth is wearing it. Flotsam confronts Jareth about his affections and finds out something he didn't know about me. What is it? Read on and see.
Anastasia was scared. I had told her everything she had said to me in her dreams (see Special Ch.2/Ch.18 ). She desparately grasped at her neck, tugging on the non-existent locket. 'Someone has a lot of explaining to do,' I thought.
Jareth told us the story of how he had found Lelouch. I was slightly angry that he had withheld this information from us for so long, and even though, as Jareth put it, "Better late than never.", I still felt a flicker of hate ignite in my watery heart. 'What a reckless, second-rate royal,' I thought when I heard of how he had snuck out of the palace in disguise.
I clenched my fingers when I heard how he had brought Lelouch home to his kingdom. The young boy was carrying the same locket that I had seen disappear from around Anastasia's neck. When I heard how Lelouch had cried for a whole day after Jareth had read the inscription, I thought, 'Serves him right for all the pain he's causing me.'
"The years passed like days," Jareth continued. "He seemed to have a real fetish for the playing and composition of music. He had begun writing an opera when he was five years old. (I admit, even I was astonished when he said that, despite the fact that he had been perusing through Lelouch's things without permission.)
"Music would not get him anywhere though if he didn't have a dangerous personality to go with his dark compositions, so I taught him the art of seduction." So he was the reason that Melissa's angel had been so winsome. "I think I may have taught him too well for soon fae women, even the married ladies of the court, began swooning at the slightest mention of his name." (Like he was any more discreet? Anastasia had gotten starry-eyed whenever Jareth was mentioned in the past few days.)
Jareth said something about gunfire and a red bird, but I was too focused on my anger to hear exactly what he said. Lelouch could keep Melissa if he wished; all I was concerned about was that Anastasia not suffer the same fate. Curse the stars that Jareth flew off before I could reprimand his Royal "Pain-in-the-a**". [Author: You tell him Flotsam. lol ]
"I still haven't told you what I wanted to tell you," I said as I accompanied Anastasia to her bedroom. (Jetsam had left us alone, as if he had known I wanted to admit my feelings.)
"What is it Flotsam?" asked Anastasia as we arrived at her bedroom door.
"I was talking with Jetsam the day you set out beneath the waves. You cause me to lose my train of thought every time I look at you."
"Excuse me for being so distracting."
Uh-oh! Maybe I'd better try again. "That's not what I meant. My feelings get all in a jumble whenever you speak to me."
"Excuse me for being so talkative."
Still wasn't working out. I decided to take a direct approach. She had to know how I felt before I made an utter fool of myself. "No, that's not it either. I don't know how to tell you how I feel in the way that Jareth would, with fancy words and love songs, so I'll just go ahead and say it."
Something clicked in her eyes. "What are you saying?"
"I... I... I love you." Finally, I had said it. Now she knew my feelings for her. I left her to sleep and walked down to the pool without another word. I didn't know if she returned my feelings, but at least she now knew about mine. I fell asleep happy and worried; I could only hope she would make the right decision.
Anastasia and I didn't see each other much in the next few days. (I have a feeling we were both terribly embarassed about what I had said.) She was busy packing for a long journey. She said goodbye to Jet and me and set out into the grey of a stormy, late-November day.
Now that Jetsam and I were alone, I decided now was the opportune time to get on Jareth's case. I placed a call to Jareth's castle later that same morning. "Anastasia is gone on a long journey," I told him when he asked where she was, "but before she went, she told Jetsam and me something that I think you should know."
That certainly got him over to the grotto quickly because about 10 minutes later, the "oh so infamous" barn owl landed on the shore. I looked away as Jareth turned back into a man. (I had learned from Anastasia not to look at him as he was doing this unless I wanted a faceful of feathers.) "What is it that Anastasia wanted to tell me?" he asked.
"She wanted to tell you that you didn't explain everything and she wants to know the whole truth," I spat back at him.
"Are you sure that isn't just what you want? All you needed to do was tell me if that was the case."
"You wouldn't have listened. Besides, you're the lover of my mistress and I am but her lowly servant. Why would you ever pay attention to one such as me? You don't even care about the sufferings I have been through and how my mistress is kind to me despite all the things I've done. You have no idea of what it's like to love a woman who doesn't love you in return."
There. I had vented my pent-up frustrations to that bird-brain Goblin King. Let him think of it as he would; I knew he wouldn't be able to trump me in my hate towards him for romancing Anastasia behind my back. "I wish I could tell you that what you say is true," he said, "but you prematurely judge me. I too have fallen for a young woman who spurns my love, and no it is not your mistress."
rolleyes Yeah right, like I would believe that. "Oh yeah? Tell me what her name is."
"Sarah Williams."
I stared at him, my mouth agape in awe. "That's part of Sarah's name. The other part of her name comes from a very famous and beautiful actress."
The King of Goblins tensed up when he heard this. Apparenttly, I had struck a pressure point; I still had one up on him! "Just look in Anastasia's room if you don't believe me. Oh, and Flotsam-"
"Yeah?"
"Make sure she never brings her child to my palace again. It will cause a lot of painful memories to resurface in my mind, things I would rather forget. Farewell my friend. She's all yours."
He took his leave, via flying through the grotto roof. I couldn't believe it; he'd handed over Anastasia without a fight, as if he hadn't had any romantic feelings for her at all, despite the passionate kiss he had given her.
I went to sleep in Anastasia's bed a few nights later. I missed her terribly even though she had only been gone only 4 days. I thought if I went to sleep in a place that reminded me of her it would help me sleep. It didn't work and I was more wide awake than ever.
Since I couldn't fall asleep, I decided to look at a few stray documents Anastasia had left on her desk. 'Maybe this is what Jareth meant by looking in her room,' I thought as I perused through the loose pile of papers. [Author: Could it be somone left them there for him to find? It couldn't have been me; I'm usually never that messy.]
What was this? An old photograph, with two people in it, in a place that looked like the cavern that Anastasia had described to me as the place where Erik Legrange had lived. One of them I immediately recognized as a younger version of my mistress; she was dressed all in black, just like the tall man next to her. It wasn't hard to discern who he was considering he was wearing a white half mask. This was peculiar because I had thought she hadn't had any romantic acquaintances before Jareth.
'I guess I was wrong to judge him,' I thought. 'Anastasia was perfectly happy before she met him.' Indeed so for I saw happiness in both her and Erik's eyes. (I knew it was Erik because of their lighter color.)
Wait! What was this little note scrawled on a corner of the photograph? It wasn't in Anastasia's handwritting, so I knew Erik had given it to her personally. Here is what it said: 'If you should ever find yourself in darkness, just think of me. I'll come to your aid no matter what. -Erik.'
"So, now you know," said a voice from behind me. I nearly jumped at the sound because the room had been so quiet. I turned around and my eyes fell upon Jetsam and a dark-haired stranger. "He came in so suddenly," Jetsam said. "He said he wanted to see you, something about matters of the heart."
The dark-haired man, whom I now noticed had golden eyes, walked over to me and picked up the photograph. "Anastasia was a muse worthy to carry on the art of ocean magic," he said, nostalgia clinging to his voice. "I only wish I had had the time to teach her myself. She would have benifitted from the mental barriers I could have built with her to help prevent her from forgetting Melissa."
What? My mistress forgetting about her best friend?! Never. They were the closest bosom companions I had ever seen, aside from myself and Jetsam of course. I voiced my concerns to the honey-eyed man. "You should do all within your power to keep her from forgetting too much. It is your duty as her student to help your teacher."
"How did you know I was her student?" I asked, genuinely curious and slightly afraid.
"I am the one who set up your apprenticeship in the first place."
No wonder his voice had sounded so familiar. I had heard it in my dreams. "You said something about her being your muse. How is this possible?"
"I am her teacher, Phoenix Rose."
"Who?"
"You might know me better as Erik Legrange." He didn't look like it. "Before you comment on my appearance, I must tell you this is not my true body. After I let my first muse find her own love with that insolent Vicomte de Chagny (He sounded bitter as he said this, almost as bitter as he smelled, which was a strange mixture of old death and new life.), I was both blessed and cursed with an immortal soul. A blessing because I would live to foster the gift of song in many more young muses. A curse because I would never be able to get married or have children and also because I would have to change bodies every few years."
Again, I was astonished. I had heard so much, both slander and praise, of the man that was right in front of me and now I was actually talking to him myself. "What can I do to help her?"
"You must make sure that she never forgets her friends, acquaintance or otherwise. The Tarot reader will expose her feelings to her soon so she will know how to solve her problems. However, she will not be able to do it alone. Write a note on this picture and swim to Sunset Town in three days. She will need your help, of this I am certain."
I knew just what to write. I hastily tore off a blank portion of the photograph and scrawled Remember your friends in green ink. No sooner had I written on it than it blew out of the window and over the ocean. 'I hope this finds you, whever you are.' was the last thing I thought before I my head thunked lazily against the desk.
Three days later, following Erik's advice, I swam to Sunset Town Beach. It was night time when I reached there and the air was thick with rain, even though the moon and stars were out. I scanned the beach and saw two figures lying out on the sand. I swam over to them and was pleased that they were who I had thought them to be: Aoi and Anastasia. [Author: How he knew Aoi before she was even introduced to him I shall never know.]
Anastasia's eyes were closed but her mind was racing. I knew because she was talking in her sleep. She was going over what had happened with Melissa since the day I had first come into her life. "That's the idea," I said, leaning over her sleeping face and watching the steady rise and fall of her chest. "Remember your friends."
What she said next surprised me. "If you're Jareth or Lelouch, go away. I am in no mood to speak to you right now."
I didn't think I sounded like either of the people she mentioned. In order to prove this fact, I said in a goading voice, "I guess you'll just to wake up and see. You can't tell if it's me with your eyes closed now can you?"
It worked. My playful arrogance had brought her into a wakeful state. I had a lot to tell her about the coming storm, both out on the beach and in her love life.
 srs diva 2011 xxl · Sat Apr 04, 2009 @ 05:31pm · 2 Comments |
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