Knowing Is Half the Battle

Axel · Flurry Of Dancing Flames

Knowing Is Half the Battle

NathanialRoyale · Child King

The halls that lead to Ansems study were oftened not safe, not with the heartless that still crawled them. Especially those fiery mage like heartless. But the boy wanted inside away from the harsh sun and also for this hide away to be far from the market place and residential area. So here he was exploring the under over the castle, he had seen people go here before. People that were said to be restoring the town, what was so interesting down here? The 13 year old had to know to sait his curiosity.

Getting past the heartless was never an easy task for the boy as he was no fighter, or mage either. His magics relied to heavily on the world he had been born to, on deities that existed solely on that world. So he did not have much combat abilities on other worlds. Every spell he did when he was away from his world took a physical toll on him. The lightening charged from his finger tips hitting the fire mage and slamming both he and the mage to opposite walls in one of the larger open areas beneath the castle. He against the western, the heartless against the eastern. His head was reeling and his hand burned from the power it had taken to do that spell which would have come to easily at home.

The mage righting itself with a shake came at him casting Fira at him and the boy squeaked throwing up a hasty shielding spell the fire hitting it, the shield being pushed back so he could feel flame lick the skin of his face but he pushed the shield forward so it would not break. Coughing now blood on his lips he reached up and slashed hard with the long black claw like nails he grew just for this. For moments of desperation when he had nothing else he could do but kill to survive. The worlds were cruel now, those who could not fight died.

The heartless dissipating the boy laid a hand that was covered in heartless residue against his painfully fast beating heart. Time to sit down…His head swam and he managed to make it to the wall and slide down it to sit. Just a breather…he just needed a moment. One moment.

Axel · Flurry Of Dancing Flames

The sounds of struggle from the hallway outside of the study shattered his fragile concentration and Axel muttered a frustrated curse. Not that he was really getting anywhere in his research; the few notes he managed to find either covered information which he already knew or information which had absolutely nothing to do with the current situation. This lack of usable information was rapidly pushing Axel to the conclusion that Ansem, or whoever it was who had written all of this down, really hadn't prepared for (or maybe not even known about) the eventuality of Nobodies not staying dead. Disheartening, yes, but nothing compared to the continued noises from the hallway outside.

"That...does not sound good," His attention turned to the small bit of hall visible before the corner turned and all was lost. From the sound of things, Axel could easily guess that a few of the lurking heartless had decided to ambush whoever had dared venture into their territory. The thought amused him, when he allowed himself to imagine that the trespasser was one of his ex-compatriots, and a slanted smirk animated his features.

"A break couldn't hurt," he mused, pulling himself from a comfortable lounge on the throne. He did make a point of ensuring that his features were still covered by his cloak before stepping into the hall - better safe than sorry, should the trespasser be one of the Organization who still might have an axe to grind - but he didn't have to walk far before coming across a slumped figure who resembled not as much an Organization member as a lost and mistreated child. A sense of disappointment settled for a moment, but Axel quickly pushed it aside.

"This isn't a good place for kids to play," Axel spread his arms, implying all of the hallway -- and perhaps the castle, as well -- in his gesture, but his words were light and casual. A few steps brought him to the boy's side and he crouched easily, arms dangling over knees. "The heartless really don't like strangers, though looks like you know that already."

-- Edited by Axel at 22:23, 2009-03-10

NathanialRoyale · Child King

Nathan eyes had closed his legs spread out like a flopped doll, his head foreward and hair having fallen over his shoulders. Nearly like a puppet with no strings waiting to be brought back to life by a command.
Hearing foot steps his eyes opened, and he looked up at a voice, a male voice from behind black. A black cows skin, (they called it leather here right?) Coat.
"If I had come h-here to pla-play I w-would have a-already r-ran in terror."
He whispered those words icy blues tired with a red sheen around them from his earlier spells as Axel knelt down.

He tensed as Axel did so and he listened, the others relaxed pose meaning nothing to him in his tenseness.
"He-heartless d-don't like anything," he said with a strange look, a look of, do you know what your saying? He didn't mean come across as a know it all but everyone knew that! Heartless killed anyone with a heart.
"I w-was just re-resting, the spells c-cost me alot. But I w-wanted to explore, the construction pe-people who care for the town come d-down here alot. I w-wondered why, that's all, th-then I was going to leave. I d-didn't want to take anything, just w-wanted to see what was interesting d-down here."
Curiousity killed the...kid.

Axel · Flurry Of Dancing Flames

That slightly condescending look could well have been taken as offensive, but it just caused Axel to laugh with something approaching amusement. This laughter didn't last long as he did stop himself once realization set in that he really shouldn't be able to make such a show of light emotion, but a hidden grin did linger on his lips. His hands lifted and spread in an expressive gesture as he shrugged his slight shoulders.

"You must've been really curious to see what was down here, huh? Dying to see it, even." The joke, as bad as it was, spurred another laugh, but it was as brief as the last. Axel turned his head to briefly glance at the narrow hall with its new coating of heartless residue but his attention soon returned to the sprawled kid. "You're gonna be disappointed, though. There's not much down here, aside from some heartless - which you've already seen - and some old, abandoned rooms." And one particular abandoned room which might or might not have all sorts of interesting secrets, but Axel chose to tactfully leave that unmentioned for the moment. Not that he thought the kid'd be all that interested in a just slightly destroyed study, but he did want to be the first to paw through whatever might be in there.

"I'd rethink your choice of resting places, though," Axel advised lightly. He pulled himself slowly to his full height and, crossing his arms over his chest, he peered further up the twisting hallway. It really wasn't surprising to him that small, buggy heartless were already beginning to peer from the gathered shadows but, then again, he had little to fear from those. Now, if Dusks started to gather...

No. Nope. He wasn't going to even begin thinking about that. Not just yet, anyway.

NathanialRoyale · Child King

The boy pouted slightly at the bad joke about his dieing, he wasn't going to die here. Nope. He would fight harder then die to a heartless, that would be a horrible fate. Becoming a heartless, that would be Drefans work done and by a petty little mindless heartless. Oh how Drefan would be deeply aggravated at the thought of his little slave being destroyed by a mindless little heartless instead of himself.

****ing a brow up at Axel who he still could not see very well under that hood, "Only abandoned ro-rooms? Th-then why are you d-down here? Living h-here?" He asked ****ing his head now as well as his brow. If it was so uninteresting why then was the other interested Hmmmm?

Looking past toward the hall with the heartless reappearing his lips pursed and he sighed knowing the other was right that being out here in this open area was not a smart idea. The heartless would just keep coming after him again and he woul grow weaker with each defensive and attack action he made.
"F-fine, If th-their is something interesting d-down here but you ju-just don't want me to see-," a shrug of his shoulders as he really hardly cared now. If Axel had things to hide so be it Nathan would let him have his secrets.
"Wo-would you h-help me out then at l-least? So I'm n-not g-gobbled by the heartless?"

Axel · Flurry Of Dancing Flames

"Does this look like the sort of place I'd live?" Axel snorted slightly, gesturing widely to the twisted halls and mostly abandoned rooms of this part of the castle. It did occur to him, after a beat, that what amounted to a haunted castle actually would be a good place for a mysteriously cloaked figure to live, but he really couldn't imagine that the kid would place him like that; even if he knew of Nobodies and their penchant for Ansem's old hiding places, the kid probably wouldn't guess Axel's intention on coming here. Not that Axel had much faith in his initial mission after seeing what little the study seemed to hold, but he wasn't giving up hope just yet.

"Nah, I came here to have a look around - pretty much like you," It was an easy half-truth to tell. Axel shrugged his shoulders slightly and lifted a gloved hand to rub absently at the back of his neck. "Not that there's anything to find here, but you know how it is - curiosity, cats, and all."

At the mention of saving the kid from the heartless, Axel turned his attention sharply back to the other. The first instinct, that self preserving one which served him so well while in the Organization, told him to just walk away now, but Axel had the nagging feeling that leaving the kid to fend for himself would come back and bite him; besides, maybe he could help Axel sort through the things Ansem left behind, making the job go all that more quickly.

"Yea, alright. No point in feeding the things, anyway, and the noise'd just draw more attention." Axel nodded, then gave the boy a speculative glance. "Think you can walk a bit further down the hall? There's a room down there that's pretty safe."

NathanialRoyale · Child King

The boy ****ed his head at the snorted answer as if silently saying, 'Am I not supposed to think so?' To the question of his living their and he looked around once more. Taking in the twisting halls he had just come from and then back to the cloaked figure.
"Oh?" he asked ****ing his head in response to how minutes before Axel had tried to get him to leave because their was nothing interesting here. Was the other a liar then or had he already looked around? Maybe he had found interesting things but wanted to keep them to himself.
Then the last mentioning nothing and curiousity with cats? Was the other crazy? He pouted a little looking down, ah well. Maybe their was nothing down here.

Speaking again he looked back up a little through long black icy blue streaked hair at the other saying he would help him and he blinked looking down the hall to where Axel was pointing. So the other was bringing him back anyways? This man was very very confusing...
"A-Alright, yes I could."
He stood up then, forcing himself to. Hands on knees as he straightened his brows furrowed and his lips pursed. This was to cover any pain as he stood and he nodded to Axel staying silent as he swallowed, his Adams apple bobbing as he kept down any pain.
He took a step forward and hands balled into fists as he felt pain through his chest from his quick earlier movements. He would persevere though.

Axel · Flurry Of Dancing Flames

The ****y unspoken answer to the question of Axel's place of residence teased a small laugh from the back of the Nobody's throat and, given a moment, this small laugh echoed into something greater. The feeling of laughter, that bubbling and frothing in the chest, was still a bit alien to Axel and he still wasn't sure that it was entirely right that he should even be able to laugh like that - but it was too pleasant a thing to merely cast aside. So, he allowed himself to laugh freely for a moment before reigning in amusement in favor of attending to the strange boy who had shown up in the middle of his self-appointed scouting mission.

Axel watched in silence as the kid struggled to a standing position. Though he wasn't the most observant of people in the best of times, he still couldn't help but notice the trouble which the youth appeared to be having with something as simple as standing - which meant that the hustle down the hall just might be a bit too much. The idea of leaving Nathan to rot in the middle of the hall did flash briefly in his mind, but Axel discarded it with a slight twist of his lip; leaving a kid to suffer and to possibly die at the hands of the stray heartless would be a bit too much like leaving a calling card - he just couldn't afford it.

"Fine. C'mon," he sighed. Axel dropped to a kneeling position, his back to the youth. He moved his arms to suggest legholds and curled his fingers in a slight beckoning motion. Carrying someone on his back was something which Axel hadn't done in...well, likely since his life before - but he supposed that he could stand it long enough to get the two of them back to Ansem's study. "Climb up or stay with the heartless - your choice."

NathanialRoyale · Child King

The others laughter was unexpected but he kept his head to the side studying this figure who was cloaked in black leather. His fingers even reaching to touch the black nearly shiny cow skin. He would not ask why Axel would not show his face, that was not particularly smart. If the other wished to stay a stranger then very well he would and Nathan would as well. He would keep up his banter with the man as long as the man did not mean him harm. If he could stay with this man away from the heartless for now as he got a look around the castle he had done what he had originally planned to do while being here.

Blinking at Axel rapidly through his long black icy blue locks in surprise. What...? Axel kneeling now a lump came to the boys throat thick but he swallowed it forcefully. Was it because of the proclaimed need of riding the others back which meant heights the boy hated? Or was it the fact of the kneeling, even back to him that had him swallowing twice before he finally moved closer.
"Do-Don't d-drop me."
His words were soft, stuttery from a high sing song voice of another native language. But their was the tiniest bit of steel behind them. He knew if he fell from the others back at such height he would break at the very least a a few ribs. He was so fragile.

Sighing he wrapped his arms gently around the others neck moving in close enough to Axel, pressed right up against the black back so Axel could grab his legs.
Don't drop me....