Before - Legends "Cat litter" (re-loaded), an old fanfic in a new coat

Oh, you know me - I HATE when people read a lengthy update (not that these are, but they have meat to them) and just say something like "nice chapter."
Well what the hell was nice about it?!



Faith and Hope were dressed in their thickest winter cloaks, mittens, scarves and woolen caps. It was so cold that their breath froze in front of them, clattering down as ice crystals.

No thankee-sai. I'll stay inside.


“Oh, I do not deny the existence either, but it is my belief that the light and dark come from within a Force user rather than from the Force itself.”

*nods* Mmhmm. I've been seeing this quite a bit lately.



My wedding is in 27 days. The last chapter you sent me for HH (20) WILL be done by then! It's on my to-do list, darn it!

 

insightful discussions about stars and the Force

 

I am soooo sorry for not reading and reviewing. *smacks head on laptop keyboard*

Some children have special relationships with their grandparents and it's good that Faith and Hope bonded with their grandfather.

 

Don´t be sorry, Lady_Misty. Real life keeps us all busy and yes, I always had a special connection to my mother´s mom until she did on St. Martin´s Day 2003.




Thanks for finding the time to read and comment, earlybird-obi-wan.


SWpants, it is always an honour to get comments from you and also, when you have time left, a beta-edited text. Thanks for you hard work. I cannot say this enough.




At present I am still ill, have been so the entire week, but I went to work anyway.


Okay, here we go again:



********************************************************************

As the girls grew older, the castle became a center of learning and harmony. There were workshops and lectures, for all ages and statuses. Sionnach took great care to be around more often, deepening her knowledge on the Unifying Force, and she was not the only family member to visit on a routine basis.

Only Heulwen kept away from Dún Barr completely. She even stopped her visits to Cunabula and stayed on military bases. The Royal Air Force was her new family now. Our letters were not returned to us, but they remained unanswered. If we wanted to know how she was doing, we needed to ask special intelligence agents.

There was no time to brood on it though. There was much to learn and achieve from Dealg. It was his charismatic personality that drew men and women to him. He had a compassionate nature, but was serious and focused in all he did. It seemed to us that he had a higher mission in life, a mission that he never faltered from, despite the weightiness of it. He had no delusions of grandeur like most of my ancestors.

Dealg had a heart of mercy and forgiveness. He used his healing powers wherever he went, no matter who or what was in pain.

Then finally, one warm summer evening just after Dawn´s fifth birthday, Wanderlust got hold of the ancient Force bender once more.

“I cannot stay,” he told Luçien and me one night, when we were sparring in the training salle together. “It has been a true pleasure to stay with you for all this time, yet I...”

“Feel the stars calling out,” ended his son for him.

Dealg clasped his hands around Luçien´s. “I knew you would understand.”

“I don´t and I suppose I never will, but I feel that your place is out there. Right among your namesake, Skywalker.”

********************************************************************

When I opened the bedroom door the next morning, Luna was waiting for me. “We are at war with Amnion,” she stated.

All I could do was stare, but; my husband had the opposite reaction. “How did that happen?” he yelled from the back of our chambers. “Was it something that Daná said or did?”

“The lost ship from Terra arrived in the sector and they contacted the city-state of Polysýndeton first,” explained Aranea with empty eyes. “It was Aconite who took the call.”

“Not that cretin again!” shouted my husband. He stormed towards us with a bed sheet wrapped around his body. “I should have killed him when I had the opportunity to do so.”

Then we all sucked in our breath at the sensation of the cry of a nation in terror and fear. Immense pain flooded our minds. It was much stronger than the agony that I had picked up when my mother had been alight with dark side flames.

Military boots echoed through the corridor, loudly coming towards us. Then a fovea centralis agent appeared before the five of us, breathing hard.

“Sapuhru has been hit with atomic bombs. It just came through.”

Luçien sank on his knees, shell-shocked. He threw his head back. At first, no sound came out of his trembling mouth.

“Cover!” I yelped, erecting a powerful light shield around my friends and the bewildered agent.

A mighty Force scream shook the castle in its core and our bodies. Window glass splattered. Stones crumbled. Wood burst everywhere.



********************************************************************

(To be continued!)

 

I go to work when I'm sick too
I hope your'e feeling better!


As the girls grew older, the castle became a center of learning and harmony. There were workshops and lectures, for all ages and statuses.

I like that


When I opened the bedroom door the next morning, Luna was waiting for me. “We are at war with Amnion,” she stated.

Well now...that's a wonderful way to wake up.


A mighty Force scream shook the castle in its core and our bodies. Window glass splattered. Stones crumbled. Wood burst everywhere.

That's Lucien for you.

 

I'd start screaming at you for a cliffhanger but I have something even better: welcome to the club!

But this still isn't good.

 

Dear Jamie, dear Misty! Many greetings from Germany. I have to travel back to the Netherlands soon, therefore I keep it brief. Yes, it was a nasty cliffhanger and there will be more within the next chapters to come. Here we go:


When I felt it was safe enough to approach my husband, I cupped my hands around his badly burned face. He had tried to direct his scorn away from everyone else and had injured himself. The aftermath of Force lighting crackled over his entire body. He shook in my arms like somebody with tropical fever. I felt my own skin develop unhealthy blisters.

Éleos and the rest of the Force knights gathered behind me. I signalled for them to not come closer.

“I thought for a brief moment that Heulwen collided with your chambers,” my older brother said breathlessly.

“It is rather that destiny collided with all of us,” I replied sadly.

********************************************************************

I insisted on sharing my husband´s bed in the sick bay, despite everyone’s protests. I only moved away when Sionnach rushed in. Caelestris helpend her out of her coat, and took her gloves as well. Her long hair fell down her back in soft red waves. It reached her feet and surrounded her like a living being. Hastily, Sionnach made a knot, taming it a bit.

I smiled at her while Valiant bent over me, radiating intense blue light from his palms.

Sionnach had not been to Dún Barr for a couple of sun weeks. The constant construction work around Luçien´s former hunting lodge kept her and her clan busy. By now it was a little village, growing into the wood land.

“Luçien, can you hear me?” My cousin took his left hand. Her fingertips barely touched his scourged skin.

My husband grunted something.

“You have third degree burns. Do you remember what happened?”

More grunting followed.

Sionnach stayed charming, but was curt. “Grianán fared better than you. It is just her torso and her hands; they’re barely second grade burns. It’s nothing that Valiant cannot take care of.”


********************************************************************

Amnion called us after Luçien had been put in a deep healing trance and was covered in bandages. Aconite did not want to speak to Daná; he had asked for me explicitly. I glowered at him, unable to hold my feelings in check. “If you want to bathe in our sorrow, I will not do you the favour.”

“Actually I am calling to say good-bye.”

“How kind of you to show us that we mean enough to give us a farewell in the midst of an attack,” I stated coolly.

“You misunderstand,” my brother answered sadly. “I will not see another dawn.”

My heart clenched. “What are you talking about?”

“I miscalculated the efficiency of Admiral Zahn. He had me tested for alien blood as well. My staff is allowed to live on, as they are true human beings, direct descendants of Terra.”

“Oh, Aconite!” My face turned soft with sorrow.

“I do not need your pity, Grianán.” His eyes flickered. “Every prisoner is allowed to make one last holonet call at the eve of his termination. You were the only person that I could think of.”

Tears dripped down my eyelashes in slow motion. “How will you die?”

“Poisoned injection.” He smirked. “Ironic, is it not? I will die how mother always wanted me to die in the first place.”

“I can be there with a unit and get you out,” I protested, my mind already feverishly working on a list of volunteers.

“Why would you do such a stupid thing?” he asked. “Is Sapuhru’s warning not enough?”

“Warning?” I croaked, my throat sore from crying. “That is what they call a warning?”

“Listen to me carefully and stop sniveling!” His face moved closer to the screen. “Resistance is futile. For Admiral Zahn and his crew, the catastrophe of Terra only happened some weeks ago.”

“I don´t understand.”

“Somehow their star ship travelled a different route, giving them a delay in this sun system of more than four-thousand standard years,” Aconite explained. “They are understandably not coping well. They are also struggling with coming to terms with the alien creatures that inhabit this sun system, including me. And you.”

“So there will be no negotiations?” I surmised, wiping my eyes with the left sleeve of my nightgown.

My brother became more urgent. “Take my advice! Run to a star ship with your family as fast as possible, and leave the planet. It is the only way, Grianán. If you stay, there will be genocide. These beings will never follow you into the inner core. Better to live in exile than be dead.”

“Better to die defending the people and home that I love than to run away like a coward.”

My brother sneered. “Is it? Tell me, did you feel that way after your beloved Isabeau was killed?”

“No!” Heulwen appeared behind him. “You don’t have the right to say her name!” she shrieked. Her anger was palpable, and I opened my mouth to speak.

Before I could say anything, blood and brain tissue sprayed all over the screen and my brother sagged away, lifeless.

The fovea centralis agents around me stared at me in shock. I stayed rooted to the spot, cold and regal.

“Großartig,” muttered a male voice unhappily, from off screen. “Great! Guards, arrest her!”

“You would not dare, Joseph!” Heulwen snarled.

There was some weird sound and I heard a body drop to a metal floor.

A new face came into view. It was a human man in his late twenties. Half of his face was wrapped in medical bindings, which had been put on hastily. I could see some blood leaking through them. The other half was dispassionate.

“I am sorry for your brother´s death, princess,” he said calmly. “Some insane woman murdered him, before I could give him the honourable execution that he deserved.”

My voice sounded as if it belonged to somebody else. “Admiral Zahn, I assume.”

He gave me a slight nod. “And you must be the famous Saint Grianán of the Embrace of Pain.”

I blinked, not sure what he meant. I had paid no heed to any rumours about me, and certainly was never assumed to be a Saint.

“If your people will not leave, princess, we will destroy them. Sapuhru was just the start.”

He disconnected before I could get a word in edgewise give any type of response.

********************************************************************

(To be continued!)

@SWpants666
@Lady_Misty
@earlybird-Obi-Wan
@DarthUncle
@Tyranus230
@Gkilkenny

 

“It is rather that destiny collided with all of us,” I replied sadly.

Hah. That is one way of putting it.


“I miscalculated the efficiency of Admiral Zahn. He had me tested for alien blood as well. My staff is allowed to live on, as they are true human beings, direct descendants of Terra.”

That is very sad.


“So there will be no negotiations?” I surmised, wiping my eyes with the left sleeve of my nightgown.

Maybe, to them, those ARE negotiations? Meh.


“I am sorry for your brother´s death, princess,” he said calmly. “Some insane woman murdered him, before I could give him the honourable execution that he deserved.”

I know that Zahn isn't a "good" character. And yet the nonchalance makes me chuckle.

 

To see your sister murder your brother and told to leave your home world or face death.

 

just returned and read these exciting updates. A lot is happening there

 

I am glad they had that silence of 5 years before this storm.

Zahn is great, but also an arrogant narrowminded ass. And Heulen is a stupid vengeful brat, and Zahn's mistake for using too, I think. I have known of this event comimg, but reading it in the final form is heartwrenching. So callous in destroying a whole planet because they are partly unlike you. Need to see how it develops; not too Dune-y I hope! That would make this an odd message to Ben Skywalker

 

Ah! will they stay and fight or go into exile.

 

Well, folks, busy with unemployment management (as usual each year in the summer of a teacher in the NL), writing thousands of applications, making important phone calls with possible new employers in Germany and therefore I make it short.

@SWpants: Yes, Zahn is on the wrong side, but not necessarily bad. He is an army guy with orders.

@Lady_Misty: Heulwen is the niece. Aconite gets murdered by his niece.

@earlybird-obi-wan: Welcome to the NL again.

@DarthUncle: Perhaps destroying entire chocolate bars is more like me, honey!

@Gkilkenny: Be surprised!

Okay, here we go:



********************************************************************

“Heulwen has joined the enemy forces,” I said, more to myself than to Luna when I turned around stiffly to face her. By now, of course, she had come to her own conclusions.

“I treated her like family.” She kicked against the sturdy desk in frustration. “Get me flight security. We must change the codes and the guard’s time tables.”

“If there is a weak spot in our planet-wide energy shield, then Heulwen will find it. The dark side is with her,” I stated gravely.

“Well thank you for your cheerful attitude,” roared Luna. “Why don´t we all smear ashes on our faces and moan that the end is near?”

I crossed my arms. “I am only saying that Heulwen is a dangerous foe, especially now that her lover wants to get rid of her. He was appalled by her actions just now”

“Lover?” Luna looked puzzled.

”Search your feelings,” I advised her.

********************************************************************

While Daná kept the war council running, I remained at the sickbay. Our daughters joined us there. Éibhear and his fiancé Hjorton also visited in between briefings. It was Garou though, who insisted on taking over the night shifts, confining me to my own empty bed.

Outside, far away from both his parents, I tried to have a discussion with my youngest step-son. “Listen, Garou, I am twenty-six...”

He interrupted me, saying, “Yes, this is a dangerous time for papa. I agree with you here, maman. There is no question about it.”

“So, I...”

Once more, Garou cut me off. An angelic smile hovered on his lips. “I would rather have papa choose you as his fixing point in life than the Holy Scriptures. He has a bias for religious fanaticism when things go wrong. You know that.”

“But - “I attempted to start again.

He flung me hard against him with the strength of a young warrior in the making. “Papa will be fine without you at night, maman. And you will sleep with no worries. Otherwise you find out that I am better at mixing night caps than he is.”

I stared down at his copper hair gleaming in the sunlight of the royal library. Garou had grown considerably recently. He reached my shoulders now, a sly Elfin child. In human years, he would be about eight or nine. His true age was eighteen.

Then I sighed, before bursting out, “I feel like I am neglecting him.”

Garou snorted against my throat, but did not look up. “Grandmother Fleur was good at neglecting papa in the crucial moments of his life. In you, he can put his trust, especially when you are rested and relaxed. You also need to think of the child growing inside you.”

Perhaps it was cruel, but I had to ask. “What about your growing agony about Heulwen? You do still love her.”

He gave me a sad look. “In general, evil is too close to us to see clearly; too painful to place a label upon. Is evil is a real thing with substance and power? Or it is no more than the absence of truth? Perhaps it is a vacuum of reality, simple negation of light.”

I shivered, because those were the exact words that his father had said to me when questioning me about witch craft about eighteen sun years before.

 

There are only so many ways you can guard against attack. Heulwen might have people inside their people willing to betray them for different reasons. :/

 

*is on a break translating scientific texts from Dutch into English and German... plus grateful to pants to assist her & DU here*

You are brilliant, Lady_Misty... and too clever for your own good here. Heulwen might find you and destroy you, sithly being that she is.

 

“Why don´t we all smear ashes on our faces and moan that the end is near?”

And the thing is, that's now how she's acting at all!


“I would rather have papa choose you as his fixing point in life than the Holy Scriptures. He has a bias for religious fanaticism when things go wrong. You know that.”

he's such a sweet kid.


Lucien being all contemplative can be scary. It would be if he wasn't "good!"

 

Thanks, sweet pants. I am dizzy looking for cheap flat sharing in Berlin for six months. And THIS definitely cheered me up!

 

Me too, nice to have the story continue after your busy week!

 

wise words again in an intriguing update.

and success with finding work

 

Chapter 49: Twilight

The daily routine of bandage changes became my new reality. Sionnach and I carefully removed the previous day´s dressings, unable to do anything to soothe the pain. I attempted to drug my husband the first time, but he refused. Each piece of the muselin bandages that we pulled off had dead tissue attached to it. The living flesh was underneath.

We would always feel Luçien struggle in the Force, even though he tried not to show his pain openly. Instead, he mumbled, like it was a mantra, “Suffering is the inner side of love.”

Over the course of the next sun week,while my husband´s charred body continued to heal, I could not help but wonder about the aggressors from Terra. They had lost their home, true, but that gave them no right to force us all into exile. Or even worse, into extinction.

There were times when I wanted to fight for my birth right. But there were also moments when I wanted to find a new home for all the inhabitants of Draconis. Somewhere safe and isolated enough to live our lives in peace. Free from racial hatred. Unfortunately, it was not my decision to make.

One evening, Luçien asked me to burn incense for the moon goddesses on his behalf. I knew that he feared the worst for his fellow members of the Brotherhood of Shadows, who all were cut off from us on Amnion. There would not be many Lidérc left when the war was over. They were an endangered species now.

When I had finished the ancient prayer, I said as casually as possible, “Valiant has asked if it would be okay if he,... er,... spread the memory of your people among some rather interested Udaler women.”

Luçien tried to crock a brow, but the burns made it look awkward. “Why does he need my permission to sire children?”

My hands cramped around the spoon that I held for him. “You were considered to be the Messiah.”

He laughed dryly. “That part of my past died with our race. Valiant is a free man. I certainly would never dare to even discuss his liaisons with him.”

I swallowed audibly, forcing the words out through a tight chest. “If it would help save your people, I could give you permission...” I stopped, the flush on my face deepening. It was like a hot surge running through my body.

“Grianán!” Luçien was even more embarrassed than I was. His pulse throbbed in the open throat of his nightgown. “I would appreciate it very much if you would not make such outrageous suggestions.”

“This is about the future of your race!”

“That is why you try to hand me around like a price stud?” His voice increased. “I will not bed other women!”

I wound a strand of his hair around my finger and pulled. Before any further form of protest could leave his mouth, I pressed my lips against his. He frowned, but not for long. My tongue delved hungrily into him, wrestling with his own.

“Are you two completely out of your minds?” Valiant scolded us. “This is the sick bay and Luçien is here for a very good reason.”

With the iron grip of a Lidérc father, he grasped me by the neck and forced me off my husband.

“Be grateful when I let you back in by tomorrow evening, Grianán.”

I cringed, but followed his orders. Luçien´s strands of hair were still rolled around my pointer. There were also some drying blood drops on my lips. It was his.

********************************************************************

Aranea stood in front of me the same evening, shaking in anger. I was already in my night gown and just had combed my hair. I put the brush aside.

“Have you lost your mind?” my childhood friend snapped. She explained that she knew what I had asked for at the Holy Isle.

“It would only be one clone,” I replied. “His people are dying.”

Her eyes were slanted with a horrified anger. She slammed the door shut behind us. “Ankou will not like this.”

I shrugged. “Do not tell him and he will never know.”

“Don´t you have any moral issues?” Aranea gave me a long, assessing look.

“The tradition of cloning is an old one in our family. I don’t see this as being any more inappropriate – especially if I carry on the family tradition.”

She made a low sound of exasperation in her throat.

Moved by tenderness, I reached out and laid my hands along her burning checks. “These are such sinister times that even the dark side of the Force holds some light for us.”

“Now, you are frightening me,” Aranea said, almost whispering.

“Then don´t be frightened. I know what I am doing,” I assured her.

“Pardon me for being on the skeptical side here, mio bellissimo principessa.” Her voice drifted off in an unintelligible mumble and her eyes clouded.

“Just one clone of Luçien, to put on hold in a nutrition tank, in case the future of his race is in true danger of extinction.”

********************************************************************

(To be continued!)

 

Lucien isn't going to be happy about the clone even if the intentions are good.

they should just leave adn then come back for their home.

 

Lucien will not be happy indeed, but in other ways than you expect him to be. I will not say more on this subject now, otherwise it is a spoiler.

About leaving, this is never, ever easy.

 

I'm glad you posted today and not when I was away!

Sionnach and I carefully removed the previous day´s dressings, unable to do anything to soothe the pain.

*winces*
Lucien WOULDN'T be drugged. Silly Gri.


“That is why you try to hand me around like a price stud?” His voice increased. “I will not bed other women!”

She pissed me off to no end here. I want to punch her in the face.


“Have you lost your mind?” my childhood friend snapped.

Yes. She's a frelling idiot.


“Don´t you have any moral issues?”

My thoughts exactly.

 

Poor Lucien.

Don't clone him
He is one of a kind