A Secret Betrayed

[saerwen]

With bright blue skies surrounding him and a glorious sun shining down, the green fields seemed to be just the right shade of green. There was nothing that could make the day more perfect. A soft breeze was blowing, cooling the suns rays so that they just barely touched you. It was the perfect temperature for everything, and it wasn't really changing that much. Damion continued to make his way out into the middle of the field, and beautifully dressed book in his hand. It was a collection of all of Winston Churchill's recorded speeches. He was ready for a few hours alone, in the field, just him and his book. This was sure to be good company, and a very relaxing time for both his soul and his mind.
He took long strides feeling like he was going at his own pace, but something inside him just wanted to break out and run because he felt rushed. He knew that he was so anxiously longing to open his book and lay his head on the soft grass that everything inside of him was telling him to hurry up. He shifted his gaze to the sky and the thought of flying made him set his pace evern faster. There was no feeling quite like that of flying. Sometimes he imagined that he was flying just so that he wouldn't get upset. Longing for the air in his face and under his wings was over-powering, but he was not going to lose his skin, even though he really wanted to. The longer that he kept it on, the more natural that it became, and he was sure that being natural in his skin was something that he needed to get a little more used to. The first hundred years of his life had been lived in absolute freedom, but even after such a great number of years, he still had the longing for that same freedom. Oh well, he was sure that he would get over it soon enough. He finally came to the middle of the field, or what looked to be about in the middle, and there, he simply collapsed. His knees hit the ground and he fell backwards from there, pulling his feet out from under himself as he did so. It was time to relax. Before he even opened his book he just shut his eyes, the breeze blowing his white hair to and fro in front on his face. Blue eyes opened as he lifted the book and began to read. By the time that he had gone an hour or so, he would be half-way through the book. This was going to be the most fun that he had had in a while.

[Neron]

The wind's gentle caressing fingers ran themselves through the coarse raven black hair of Neron. His eyes were closed as he tried to soak up every moment of this day. It was beautiful here, but unlike the Stone Garden, this was a coarser freer beauty, no walls no cultivated plants. This was Mother Nature's masterpiece and this is where he loved to go when he needed to relax. Even though he usually went to the Band room he had forsaken that haven in turn for this one. The Band room had been crowded of late, probably everyone getting ready for recitals or just going to hang out.

Neron never had understood this thought of getting together with a group of people and cramming themselves like sardines into a room. Perhaps if he had grown up with more people he could see some value, but to him it was just a bloody waste of space. People, who needed them. But there was something he needed, his beloved friend, his right hand, his violin. He had come here to relax and this was the way he did it. Touching the bow to the strings a pure and crisp note sprang to the air.

The melody floated up on the wind and drifted and swirled around the meadow. It seemed to fill the meadow, yet barely be there. It was a strange thing, like background music, it could be heard clearly, but didn't invade your thoughts nor distracted. It just let you know it was there. The song at first was a bit aggressive in music, for he still was uptight about yesterday at the Stone garden. This was his release, his freedom and so soon the music grew less aggressive and more relaxing. Ah, to be alone.

[saerwen]

It had been 10 minutes at the most when Damion was aroused out of his dazed reading by the sound of soft music. He hadn't really noticed it at first, but he noticed it very well as got to the end of one of the speeches. He had been about to move onto the next one but the music had stopped him. It was being played very aggressively, but professionally. There was no one that a novice violinist was playing like that, with that kind of emotion and that kind of skill. He had listened to many people play the violin over the years, it was a delicate instrument and it was a very temperamental, there was no way that it could sound that good just by being a regular musician, it would have to be a true master. His head popped up as he heard the music slowly but surely become softer and sweeter. It was like a healing balm to the soul. He remembered that there was one person that he knew of that could play that well. He quietly rose from where he was imbedded in the grass and walked to go and find Neron. It wasn't very hard to pinpoint him, because he was not very far away. He was playing his heart out and Damion heard it, it was like his soul was coming out in one beautiful and horrifying rapture. As he continued Damion just padded over and sat a good ways away, but still pretty close, and as he listened he closed his eyes and continued to listen. It was so beautiful.

[Neron]

Neron's sould truely was coming out, the soul that few saw. It was gentle, but firm, sweet yet dangerous, it was something that made you want to trust in him and charm was in every note he played. If only he could learn to express himself this way normally, but that was impossible, Neron probably would never learn how to express himself this way besides playing the violin.

The two of them, the violin and Neron were so alike, both were temperamental and though Neron didn't show it much he did have a delicate or feeling side. Perhaps that is why the two bonded so closely, they understood each other. So the notes continued to flow out of him and swirled around him like the wind that surrounded him. But the music soon came to an end as he felt a presence nearby. It wasn't pervasive, and he could tell this person was at a respective distance, but still, it bothered him a bit. SO he let the notes flow to an end, instead of abruptly ending them like before. His form stood still, a shadow, his shoulders bent slightly at the exertion of revealing himself. Then he turned and there was Damion, an ice sculpture almost.

Neron's green eyes looked blankly at him. This was the last place he thought he would find Damion, it was warm out here, sure the weather was nice but still he thought that the full sun would be to much for Damion. Ah well. "What are you doing here?"

[saerwen]

When Neron finished Damion was expecting a rather biting remark. He knew from observation that Neron liked his quiet time, and he didn't like it when people invaded that quiet time, but Damion had been unable to help himself. He had been enraptured by the music.
"Ah, well, I came out here for a few fine hours of reading, and I had just gotten to it when your playing distracted me. I am glad that I actually got to hear a whole song, or at least most of it." His book was sitting by him, it had been quietly keeping him company as he had silently listened. "I suppose that after some of the things that have been happening, we both needed time for a breather. I am afraid though, that I have slightly interrupted yours." Damion stood up, brushed off his jeans and straightened his black collared shirt and the dark red sweater that was over it. Yet again, it was just his habit, like that of an old man after many years of doing the same thing ever since his mother had first let him dress himself.

[Neron]

Neron nodded slightly at Damion. "These are the few times that my mind and soul are truly at peace and I feel relaxed. They are times I cherish." He turned from Damion for a moment, "IT seems like we both have something in common, a need for peace." His eyes gazed over the violin for a moment. IT reflected the sun's light purely and brightly. Oh his beloved violin. For a long time it was the only thing in his life that kept him alive.

His green eyes brushed over the beauty around him, the grasses, the mountains everything was so beautiful. This is how the world was supposed to be, not what it had become. "Yes, a time of peace, I need that after yesterday..." His voice lowered, "bloody...." Then he remembered who he was with and he didn't continue his sentence.

[saerwen]

"Yes, I understand the need to be at peace." Damion knew what they were both thinking of. In the past few weeks it seemed as though they had been through every kind of emotional high and low. He thought about when they first met, and then how they had exploded in the library, and about what had taken place in the music room. That was the only time that he remembered that had ever established a long lasting peace between him and Neron. It was strange how music could do that to people. It could bring them together, and it could always provide them with a common love.
"I don't know what was in the air yesterday, but it seemed to me that you and Jaedon need to stay away from each other, you both have rather scary sides that have to be carefully caged. She will be out of sorts for weeks." His hand squeezed tightly shut into a first, and then let fully loose as Damion stretched it. His hands were still burning from her magic, it felt even now like he had an acid on them, eating him away. "I hate feeling of burning, and even worse, I hate the feeling of being eaten away from the inside out." he muttered under his breath as he rubbed his hands together, wringing them.

[Neron]

" I'm already in a cage." Neron scowled darkly referring to his human form. This form, he hated it way to much. His hand reached up and he rubbed his other arm in distaste. It was so uncomfortable, so....close. "Jaedon is always out of sorts if you don't mind me saying so." Neron smirked slightly. "What a strange thing that you hate the feeling of burning...' Neron turned toward Damion, "I wonder if it has to do with you being of ice." Neron smirked again before his face grew thoughtful. "You shouldn't have interfered, you or Miriel. You two should have just kept up your talking." His eyes grew even more thoughtful. "What were you two talking about anyways?"

[saerwen]

"I know the feeling, but it isn't hard, after few hundred years, you will have gotten much better at staying cooped up." Damion smiled. He understood Neron's frustration perfectly. It had taken a long time to get used to it, and Jaedon had helped him with that alot. She was very good at staying her human form because she was part human. That was why she was always so graceful, she was human, and that was also the source of her anger, and her meaner side.
"Jaedon isn't out of sorts, she is just a little quirky sometimes. She is like a porcupine sometimes... you get to close and you get hurt, but if you get just close enough, yet far enough away, you really get to see her. She is just complicated..." Damion turned away from Neron to look at the field, "...Like you." he paused for a moment. "Am I right?"
"Neron, the only reason that I even let it escalate so far was because Jaedon kept convincing me that it would be okay, against my will. Had I been in my right mind, I wouldn't have even let her get past using her first ounce of black magic. Had you been in your right mind, you wouldn't have carried it that far either." Damion was very serious, and for once, probably the first time that anyone at this school other than Jaedon had ever seen it, Damion was very serious. His mood visibly darkened, he was no longer smiling, not even a hint of it. His eyes were icy, unforgiving, and he was now painted as a stark figure, dark and disturbing. His white hair gave the look of a ghost. "If either you had any sense in you, you would try harder to stay away from each other." Damion had his motives for being like this. He knew that his dark mood would overflow to Neron soon if he kept it up, which he didn't mean to, but he wanted Neron to start seeing that he and Jaedon just didn't work out. When he had laughed yesterday, Damion had seen that Neron and Jaedon were starting to work through the problems and get to like each other a little more. This was unacceptable.
Then his mood lightened back into it' usual self. It was like a hurricane had just been pushed completely out of sight in a matter of seconds. The tornado that was Damion's feelings on that issue was gone, and the only thing that was left was sunshine and flowers. "Well, while you and Jaedon were foolishly tousling in the grass and flowers, which by the way, I think flowers are not a good environment for you, Miriel and I talked about alot of things. You know, she really does go through alot of things. I mean, you and Jaedon say that you have excuses for all of the crap that you pull, but Miriel really has almost just as much reason if not more for being screwed up and yet she really isn't. And she is able to pull herself together so that she can keep you and Jaedon in line, of all the screwed up things in this world..." he had an incredulous smile on his face.

[Neron]

"I already have had two hundred and nothing has changed, I hate it. This form is to restricting I fell like a Lark inside a cage. How am I supposed to sing when I'm all locked up?" He shook his head. Running his fingers through his hair he only achieved a more tousled look, which to be honest, didn't hurt his looks one bit. "That just about explains it. I guess when you get two forces that are so similar they repulse each other..like a magnet." He shook his head, "But I don't think that this is a reason to stay away from her...in fact it seems that I can't no matter what I do she always pops up behind me. It's extremely aggravating. In fact you just popped up here..Do I have a huge sign that's pointing at me saying, "Neron's here!" or something?! Sometimes I just want to be alone."

Reaching down he picked up a blade of grass and twirled it in between his fingers. His eyes were focused on Damion studying him. So this guy actually had a "darker" side, if that were possible. He wasn't happy go lucky all the time eh? For many people this discovery could make the person go down in their eyes, but for Neron it actually made him feel a bit close to Damion. It showed him that everyone was imperfect, not just him. Perhaps that's why Jaedon and himself always managed to find each other, both were trying to feel that they weren't the worst person in the world.

"I wouldn't call it tousling.." Neron turned away. That was embarrassing just the memory. There definitely was something in that air in the garden....Then Damion mentioned talking to Miriel and he past. His eyes darted to Damion and were suspicious at first but the gaze quickly changed to interest. "Hah and what exactly did she tell you? "

[saerwen]

Wow, I hadn't figured that you were that old. Nice job on not getting yourself killed yet. Hazardous circumstances make 200 years something to be proud of. And just to let you know Neron, humans have voices too, some of them have really amazing voices, even though a bird is in a cage, it still sings, because that is all that it can do. When you have nothing left to do, do what you like to do so that you can stop focusing on all of the evil things about your situation. Think about this Neron, if you weren't able to be in your human form, you would never have known the joy of playing your violin. Even though the only reason that you might play it is to drown your emotions away, that is enough reason to live. Humans are cruel, it is true. They are selfish, and always have a piece of them that is longing for power. But if you put all of this aside, you will realize, that they are no more monsters than we are. They also have their good sides. Not all of them are evil. I have known many humans from both sides, good and bad, and I have found that the world could not exist without them. When you come to the very bottom of things, they serve a purpose, and that purpose cannot be taken away."
When he asked if there was a sign pointing to him, Damion chuckled. "Well, maybe not exactly a brightly glowing neon sign, but there is a rather interesting air around you." he paused and then said, "And the fact that everyone you know seems to be attracted to the sound of violins doesn't help." he chuckled again before looking down at his book.
"Oh, nothing really. You probably know it all... there is one thing that you might not know though... Jaedon was an assassin and it just so happens that without Jaedon knowing, she killed Miriel's father. And then of course I learned that there are plenty of things that she likes to keep hidden." Damion shrugged. He looked at Neron with a smile. "Nothing that you don't know already... right?"

[Neron]

Neron flashed a glare at Damion, "I'm not that easy to kill, despite my looks." He listened to what Damion said but none of it really stuck with him. "Every animal on this planet has a voice even a warthog has one. Just because some have beautiful voices doesn't change my viewing of them at all. They are still what they are, canaries." He scowled again. "I prefer to avoid looking on the brighter side of things, it just leads you to hurt later on. Life is full of hindrances and troubles there is no point in pushing this aside to try and make it more livable. Life is life, pure and simple. Not some happy-go-lucky-land."

Neron nodded to this point that Damion made. "Maybe I should stop playing her." He frowned at the violin and smiled ever so slightly, "No, I don't think I could ever do that...." He looked at Damion with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes, "Maybe this means I should get different friends." He was being purely playful and he knew that he probably would never get friends like the ones he had.

What next came out of Damions mouth almost made his jaw drop in shock. Was that true? Damion, no he was merely quoting Miriel and Miriel didn't lie, ever. How... How could this be! Hie eyes widened in surprise but then his body turned away from Damion, jealousy raged in his heart. Miriel had never spoken of this before, she had never even mentioned her past before they had met. But here she was spilling her whole past to someone like Damion. Perhaps Damion had been spending to much time around JAedon and had learned some of her mind tricks... that had to be it. "Yeah.." He added faintly. "Nothing I didn't know before." His fist balled at his side. "AISH.... " He muttered under his breath.

[saerwen]

"Life to me is unbearable when it is dark. Misfortunes are bound to happen whether you view things on the bright side of things or the darker one, the only difference is your outlook on life after such misfortunes happen." Damion studied Neron with curious eyes. What a bleak life to live. "Life will always change, even though it is as you said. Life is life, but the interesting part is that life when it changes, you notice that it was either you or someone else changing it. When someone else changes it, you learn nothing and notice that you have wasted another day that could have been spent in more agreeable ways, and when you change it, you notice that even though you have no purpose, you feel as though you have done well."
Damion turned his attention to the violin and the warm glow that was coming off of it. It was so comforting to see such a warm and beautiful instrument out in the natural surroundings that it came from. It fit in very well, as though it was made for the soul purpose of playing its glorious music in such a place as this. Walls were trappings, and doors were portals to freedom. "Perhaps iit simply mean that you need to learn to enjoy other people's company. You learn this and I am sure that you will no longer be troubled, but unfortunately..." Damion paused as he grinned and looked to Neron. "All of these remedies are beyond impossible for you."
Damion was shocked when Neron looked as though he had just received new information. He then hought about Miriel, and what she might say if she found out that one of her secrets had been displayed, and she had placed her confidence in Damion. Oh, he hoped that he had not just let out a secret...Of course, he didn't know that it was a secret, Neron was a close friend to Miriel, so she was sure that he would know such a thing, but the anger that was displayed in Neron's actions showed Damion that he had indeed passed some very new information.
"Looks to me like that is some new information." Damion muttered to Neron in a slightly vexed tone. All of a sudden, the mood had yet again darkened and both of them seemed to be very deep within their own thoughts.

[Neron]

"Liufe to me is all the more pleasing in the dark." A strange smile came on Neron's face. It was dark and mysterious, almost evil. "In the dark you can hide and be alone. In the dark you can be free without anyone knowing." he smirked. "In the dark you can get away with many things." His voice lowered, "In the dark..you don't have to run from those who hate you." He turned away from Damion. "Darkness always welcomes you." His fists clenched tightly again, "How am I supposed to look on the light side of life if everyone has forced me to look on the darker side?" His voice hissed. " I'm sure you weren't cast out of towns and villages like I have been, or been attacked by locals before they even got a chance to know you."

Neron felt warmth flood his body when Damion admired his instrument. He didn't need to mention Neron's instrument, merely look at it like he was and Neron felt like a proud papa. "I doubt I will ever enjoy the company of people.. It's to...close" He gritted his teeth. The word close had many meaning, one because it required people to gather around you, two because it caused you to get closer to someone and become friends, opening yourself up for more hurt.

"New information, you have this right! WHy on earth would someone like Miriel tell her past to someone like you?! She's barely known you for more than a couple of weeks and she's blabbing her past to you!" He glared at Damion, "I have never even heard a snippet of her past besides what we have experienced together. Shoot, I didn't even know about Jaedon until I first met her." He leaned toward Damion, "Let me tell you something about Miriel you may not know. She has a way about learning about others without spilling a single drop of her past or refusing to you in return. How much of your past have you revealed to her incomparasion to what she has revealed about herself."

[saerwen]

Damion smirked as Neron asked his question. "Ah, so you think that you are the only one that has been despised by other people. What a self-righteous assertion." he nodded his head in mock shame. "My dear boy, when you have lived half as long as I have, and you are no where near there yet, I encourage you to think about asking me the same question again. I really wish that you could grasp the fact that you are not the only one in the world that has had problems like these. Allow me to enlighten you.
"When I was still very young I lived with my parents, but they died when I was three. I then went to live with adoptive parents that were actually related to me through my father. They lived in a small town in the happy wilderness of China. When I could no longer control my need to change into a dragon, my family was scared of me, but the protected me and told me to betray the truth to no one. When I was 16, I quickly found out that the neighborhood was ruled by phoenix's, and they had no desire to have an ice dragon amongst themselves. My friend had found out that I was an ice dragon and they told everyone. The leaders of the phoenix's declared that I was to be banished. They threw me out of house and family, and then they chased me out of the only home that I had ever known. Ever since then I have been wandering from place to place searching for a happy home that will actually let me stay, but I can't find anywhere because I must change into my original self eventually. The only place that I ever found that I had a family that would accept me after that was an elder gentleman who was from Britain, but lived in Japan. We had fought in a war together and he had offered to take me to his home. He died 300 years ago."
"I had no idea. I figured that she had told you also, seeing as how you know her better, but apparently I was quite mistaken." Damion was about to get out of sorts with this. It wasn't his fault and it certainly wasn't Neron's business who Miriel decided to tell her history to. "I actually have revealed very little. The only thing that she knows is that I have fought in the World Wars, my age, and that I have a strange friend that mixes mint and green tea. Perhaps we are just able to converse easily with each other on such matters." He was not meaning to be mean, it was a highly likely supposition.