Monster

DISCLAIMER: yeah yeah you know the drill...

A very enthusiastic thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed, Jadedmidnight, Silver_Slumber, Loopypants, and TC.

A special thanks to Silver_Slumber for your praise and encouragement I love it thank you ^^ Comment all you want my friend I accept it all with open arms and absolutely LOVE the attention lol can you tell?

And to TC, you know, I never really described him and I didn\'t notice that until you pointed it out I was so frustrated with myself for doing such a thing. So I put in a description that I hope clears up any \'gaps\' that were left by my lack of description. I appreciate the wonderful criticism and I hope this improves things, thank you for bringing it to my attention and please keep reading ^^


To everyone who reads but doesn\'t review, thank you so much for reading my work and I hope you all enjoy it. (it\'s why I do it) so please keep reading I love to see all the hits I recieve it\'s absolutely amazing I never expected this sort of turn out for Monster.

This chapter is a lot of Dialogue and not much action, sorry but it was needed desperately. The storyline needed some building and so I decided to take this chapter and use it for just that. It\'ll explain some things better and clear some things up that are still cloudy because it\'s all through Kari\'s point of view so everything is limited right now. I promise though, in the next two or three chapters something HUGE is going to happen and the shit is going to hit the fan, everything is exposed then so until I hit that point everything kinda hidden in between the lines. But I will say...SPOILER: It\'s during the fight with his brother, the fur flies!


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Kari woke lying curled in a soft pile of leaves. The sun broke through the branches of the trees above her, letting spotted light fall onto her form. She felt much better now, finding that rest had chased away the splitting pain in her head and her chest. She sat carefully up, not really sure of where she was and found her Master not too far off in the distance, they were near a small stream, and it was there that he knelt near the rocks washing in the water.

She tilted her head curiously and squinted at his powerful back. The muscles jerked and pulled under the skin as he moved, working together to move the beautiful creature. He was human before her now, no signs of his bestial side rearing its ugly head. She was particularly curious of his change. He was almost always human looking in appearance, except for when the time calls for his defense. Her mind shot back to when he was fighting with his sister, she was far more changed than he was, Kari wondered if he could go to that extent. He wiped away the water from his face and threw his damp hair back that had just been washed, small droplets flying from the silver ends in the process. He glanced at her over his bare shoulder and smiled as she walked to him.

“Master, may I ask you a question?”

He glanced at her as he dried his hair and nodded slightly.

“How do you change?”

His look now held surprise as he stared at her with his gray eyes. He sighed and sat on the rocks next to her, resting his arms on his knees as he stared out at the cool water.

“In truth, it’s now that I’m changed. The bestial side that you’ve seen little of is my true form; this form that I wear now is my costume. A wolf in sheep’s clothing if you will.”

Kari rolled this around in her mind for a while, letting the idea settle before she moved on.

“So I’ve only seen a little of your true self?”

He shot her another cold look, she was treading on sensitive ground now, she could tell by his reactions to her questions.

“Very little, barely scraping the surface of what I can become. Which is why I cast myself into my tomb after the war, why I starve myself of what my instinct craves for.”

Kari looked down from his gaze; she knew what he was talking about. He craved death and blood and gore, all things vile that had been extinguished after the war was put to rest his heart screamed for. Her eyes fell to a small mark in the center of his chest, when it dawned on her that he had been wounded. Her hand flew out to him, fingering the small cut gently and with concern. He smiled at her and took her hand from it.

“I’m fine, my body is immortal, a wound like that would cause little more than pain for a while before it went away like a paper cut. It’s nothing little bird.”

Now she was really confused, if he was immortal, then this sister was too. Then how had he killed her so easily? He smiled at her; she still screamed her thoughts in her head.

“We are all immortal true, and can only be killed by each other’s hand. We are each other’s weakness, the only ones who can stop us are us.”

She realized now how hard the war must have been. There was no way to stop them except to pit them against each other.

“So that’s why so many people flocked to be Sali near the end of the war?”

He nodded to her and smiled, she finally got it.

“They were going to pit us against one another. And end the war once and for all. The only thing they didn’t plan was that we would refuse to kill each other. And so weakened us by starvation of our natural hunger, and cast us out of the world to be used as a final test for those who would train to fight in case a second uprising should ever occur.”

He sighed heavily, drawing Kari’s concerned gaze towards him as he stared hard into the ground.

“It seems a second rising is upon us little bird. My sister had been imprisoned as well, she must have escaped and then came looking for me. It was foolish of her to attack me while her Sali were at a distance though. Very foolish indeed.”

This grabbed Kari’s attention.

“She had Sali too?”

He smiled at her and leaned back on his hands, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his light skin.

“Five of them, they were distanced though. I’m not sure why she would do that; send them away while she fought. The whole point of having Sali is to use them during battle.”

Her mind wandered now as a short silence took them. Sali were meant to fight, but she couldn’t. Why would he have taken her if she couldn’t fight for him? She sighed at herself; she was useless to her Master.

“Not useless little bird. You truly intrigue me and surprise me at each turn. May I ask you a question?”

She smiled and nodded to him, it was how their conversation began and she found it odd that he was questioning her now.

“Why did you come running when I told you to stay put? You knew something was wrong, so why did you run into danger?”

She thought for a moment, why had she run?

“Because…because you are my Master, and I couldn’t leave you alone when I knew you might need me. I am Sali and I had to follow my duty to you Master.”

He shook his head at her while she spoke, knowing it was a load of bull.

“I want you to tell me the truth, not what your teachers told you to say to me. Why did you run to help me?”

She lowed her gaze as her cheeks flush, she could feel his eyes upon her causing her blush to deepen. The truth was, she had grown attached to him. He called himself a Monster, he was one of the most feared creatures in the world and yet, she cared for him. Despite his title and what he was, he was kind to her and took care of her when it could have meant drawing danger to himself. He had shielded her mind from his vengeful sister and left himself weak against her mental onslaught. Even if it had been in Kazaki’s, or anyone else’s power for that matter, no one else would have done that for her. But he stared at her now, waiting patiently for her answer that she figured he already knew the answer to.

“You…it’s because…well…you take care of me and…I…”

His expression was chilling to her. His eyes held a depth she hadn’t seen before as he pulled her to him, holding her head to his chest as she fell against him. She loved his embrace, his warmth, his scent intoxicating her as she relaxed in his arms.

“I…I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want to see you fall or bleed or cry because you’re all I have.”

Tears began to fall from her eyes, why was she crying? Why did it hurt so much for her to say those things?

“No one else ever cared, and it terrifies me to think of a time when you’re gone and I’m left alone again…never again Master.”

He held her to his still chest, no heartbeat against her ear but she didn’t care. Rocking her gently until she had cried herself out, not shushing her or trying to calm her, just simply there to hold her and let her release her pent up anxiety.

“A baby bird, innocent and broken, fallen from its nest I see. I’ll tell you what. We will end this together you and I. This second rising will end with us, and once it’s over, we’ll disappear into the depths of the world and escape the evil left behind never to return to the darkness of the world again.”

She looked up at him as he stared off into the distance; he had mesmerized himself with his description of the future. His words had gone breathy and light as if in awe of the vision in his mind. She smiled at him.

“What do we do until then Master?”

He looked back to her, the spell he had cast with his words broken by her voice.

“We will find a place to sleep tonight, the day is almost spent. Then in the morning we make for the kingdom Tamari. We shall figure out our path from there, the future is dimmed to my vision still.”

She nodded and stood, brushing herself off and hiding any evidence that she had been crying previously.

“So let’s go.”

She smiled to him as he stood and began to lead the way. She walked a little to his right and slightly behind him, not feeling it appropriate for her to walk beside him; she wasn’t his equal after all. She was surprised to see how quickly the forest broke, and opened into a large clearing with a walled town centering it. The fading sun shone brilliantly off the white walls as they approached the open gates. Despite the towns size however, it seemed quite empty, almost lazy in a sense. After they passed several inns he finally felt satisfied with a small looking building with a bright sign. A dancing pig holding a pint smiled gaily at them from the polished wood as they passed below it and into the inn.

Kari gazed around the inside, it was quite small indeed. The floors were covered in sawdust to collect any spilled ale and a small fireplace sat in the far corner, empty of wood or fire but filled with ashes. Her wits came back to her as she quickened to steps to return to her Master’s side at the bar. He had already negotiated with the innkeeper and had gotten them a room for the night.

“It’s just upstairs, the first door to the right.”

“Thank you sir.”

The men nodded to one another in courtesy as her Master left the bar and ascended the stairs. She quickly jumped onto his heals, not wanting to get left behind. She ogled everything in the hall before she walked inside the tiny room, which consisted of a small bed and a dresser. He sighed and stretched before removing his shirt and lying on the bed. She decided it was a good time for that as well as she too stretched and began to lie down on the floor. Her Master could have the bed if he wished she would take the floor and sleep well enough.

“What are you doing?”

Kari glanced up to him to see him staring at her from the corner of his eye, his arms behind his head as he relaxed on the bed.

“I’m going to sleep here Master so you can have the bed.”

His eyes went back to the ceiling as he spoke.

“Nonsense, get up here. We can share the bed tonight little bird.”

Kari furrowed her brow to protest.

“But it’s too small for both of us Master.”

He snorted at her as he scooted over towards the wall, showing that there was plenty of room for her too although there really wasn’t.

“Come to bed little bird, we can both sleep in the bed.”

She sighed realizing it was no use fighting with him as she obeyed his wishes. When she laid down beside him she realized there was some room but they were both very close to one another and there wasn’t much room to move if one needed to change positions. She found a comfortable position though and stretched her arm across his stomach and laid her head on his chest. She snuggled against him as he put his arm around her shoulders and let her burrow into his side.

“Sleep well little bird, we have much to do and father time is working against us.”