dotmoon.net
Directory

Unreliable Witness by alizeP

previous  Harder to Breathe  next

Adonis stood atop the high wall, his eyes captivated by the fathomless depths below him. The beautiful castle Magellan floated above the nearly baron planet. It would be so easy to step over the edge and free fall to the bottom - he doubted he would even be able to feel anything on the way down.

She was his fairy tale, the beautiful princess who lived in the tallest tower, untouchable to any mortal man. Perhaps that's exactly what this Heavenly King was, a man untouchable to the gods themselves. She was his fairy tale.

This was to be the Shitennou's final visit to Venus. Adonis knew this day was coming but he still dreaded it all the same. As a soldier he fully understood the importance of appearances for the sake of morale and it would do no good to have the Earth's most beloved son - aside from the Prince himself - away on another planet at times as tumultuous as these.

Rather than spend the day going through drills and training exercises with the higher ranking, more elite men of the Venusian army (the humor of a female-less army was not lost on Adonis), the two men had spent it in private conference. Although every moment spent with this man seemed to be a prestigious honor to Adonis, the events of today would never have greater importance.

Did he really care about her private affairs?

He had seen them together, alone in the gardens surrounding her room. The area was located off of her bedroom and was enclosed by tall hedges on two sides while the third, far side was outlined by a waist high stone wall that overlooked the sheer drop of the palace walls. Constructed on the highest tier of the castle, these gardens were made to allow absolute privacy to the Princess who was considered to be the pride of the royal family.

Though the general was of Earth, he still should have known through his own customs – and that of his excessive knowledge of other customs – that he had no place being alone with her without witness. The Princess’s affairs were often overlooked – but an offense of this type by someone of alien descent – that would not be so easily forgiven, especially when it was between the lead enforcer of the Alliance and one from the savage planet that longed to belong to it.

Adonis could still clearly see himself out in the courtyard where he and the Shitennou had been sparing. Some had gathered to watch the two skilled men, many amazed by the intensity and speed of the movements. But that wasn’t what remained strongly in Adonis’s mind. It was that red sash – the one that had been tied so tightly around the trim waist of the other man. Both had grown warm during their exercise and had removed their outer jackets to reveal bare chests that, Adonis chuckled to himself, had also brought about some admirers. The red sash was a trademark of the Venusian Army, a sign that should have made the man of Earth proud to be able to bear.

Did he laugh at their traditions when he believed no one to be looking?

The sound of the cool glass cracking underneath Adonis’s warm hand still rang in his ear. He could still see his Princess dressed in a gown of soft, pale pink as she crossed the lush grass, his presence unknown to her as he stood statuesquely still inside her empty room, surprised that she had returned home as he had not been expecting her to return until after the Shitennou’s visit had ended – as was consistent with her normal behavior. They had been talking, maybe even arguing – Adonis couldn’t be sure. He had always suspected that the two remained in contact despite the fact that they did not appear together since the time that he had first visited the Earth and they shared that same expression that he could not name.

Did they share this secret even then?

Could he even give a proper name to this secret? He had not stayed long enough to see what transpired between them. His mind had automatically flashed images of the man’s arms going around her as her gown fluttered to the ground like a flurry of cherry blossoms. All he could see was her looking as beautiful as the goddess she was named for and him as he had last been seen with his jacket missing and that red sash tied around that slim waist, his well muscled chest on display. Adonis’s hand pressed against the glass, the cracking noise should have alerted the couple standing nearby to the French doors of his intrusion but they seemed far too intent on whatever it was that they were discussing. Adonis wondered what she would think when she saw the imperfection in that singular pane of glass. Would it be symbolic to her?

These thoughts ran through Adonis’s mind as he had passed through the palace, rudely ignoring greetings from those that he passed. Now that he stood on the world’s edge he felt only even more so plagued, but it was not those same thoughts that had originally sent him reeling – it was something else that left him feeling perturbed. Was it really the loss of her affections that affected him so? Or was it perhaps the lack of attention from another that cut him so deeply?


previous  Back to Summary Page  next

The dotmoon.net community was founded in 2005. It is currently a static archive.
The current design and source code were created by Dejana Talis.
All works in the archive are copyrighted to their respective creators.