Pet Shop Of Horrors Fan Fiction ❯ Tuatha de D ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Title: "Tuatha de D"

Author: Mistress of the Sword

Archived: PSoH Fanfiction Group

Chapter 5/?

Chapter finished: 02/24/05

Rating: PG 13 (subject to change if story progresses)

Disclaimer: still stands

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He fell to the ground in a graceless heap, his body trembling too badly to even attempt standing up.

~You can get up now.~

‘Go away.’

~Honestly. It couldn’t have been that bad.~

‘I hate you.’

~Your voice becomes very flat when you are displeased. Did you know that?~

Leon cracked an eye open to gape in disbelief at the head that seemed to hang upside down over his own regarding him with interested red eyes. The crazed goat seemed entertained by his responses. He closed his eye again with a groan. He didn’t even have the energy to deal with the inhuman creature’s amusement. Instead he focused on his aching body.

Leon’s arms felt like rubber, still burning from the strain of holding on for dear life. His shoulders were beyond tense. In fact it felt as if his arms had been forcibly ripped from their sockets from where the phooka had jumped over a gaping ravine that had just happened to get in his path.

Fire rolled in waves along the muscles of his legs, searing in places he never even knew existed. Every muscle in his body was now knotted in thanks to that little joy ride and he could still feel the imprint of that tree limb that had crashed into his chest. Of course that encounter had sent him flying into a ditch and he had lost his breath from meeting the ground. On the plus side, his body was so numb by now he had barely felt the pain of impact.

~I suppose you believe I should have warned you about that branch.~

‘You think?’

~I was busy watching where I was placing my hooves so as to not trip over roots.~

‘…’

~Nothing else to say, hm?~

‘Have I mentioned recently that I hate you?’

~Yes.~

‘Then I actually have nothing else to say.’

~Come climb back on. We still have a ways to go yet before we get to where you’re going.~

‘Can you say, ‘No’?’

~No?~

‘See! I knew you could do it!’

~What do you mean ‘no’?~

‘Let me see, how do I put this delicately? I am not going to climb back on your back so you can break my fucking neck you psychotic horse wannabe!’

~Do not take that tone with me. Not avoiding the branch; that was your mistake, not mine.~

‘My mistake?’

~Precisely. As my rider it was your responsibility not to fall off.~

‘Well that’s good to know. Too bad I didn’t know it five minutes ago when you ran me into a tree!’

~I’ve already explained how that was your fault, so stop trying to shift the blame onto my shoulders.~

Leon felt a fuzzy muzzle nudge his face, and blunt teeth begin to nip at his golden hair.

‘Eww! Stop that! You’re going to get your horsy-goat slobber all over me!’

~Up!~

Leon rolled over and managed to painfully get to his knees.

‘Fine, fine! I’m getting up!’

His legs buckled underneath him when he tried to stand.

‘I’m not getting up.’

~…My apologies. I forget that you are little more than a foal at times.~

‘Gee thanks!’

~And you were raised to consider yourself human as well. You may grab onto me for support if you truly need to.~

‘Where are we going again?’

~Soon. Soon. We will be there.~

‘Will we really?’

~Yes.~

‘…Promise?’

~I promise. Soon you will be exactly where you need to be. And where you go from there… well that is where you must make your choice.~

‘Choice?’

“Yes, you have to make a choice. Now what do you want?” Jill stared impatiently at him over the edge of the white paper bag. “What’s wrong with you anyway? You’ve been asleep on your feet all day.”

“Have I?” Detective Orcot asked with a vague frown.

“Yeeeah, ya have. And you’ve been even worse since you fell down the steps.”

“Steps?”

“Jesus, Leon! Don’t you remember?! Some of the guys found you at the bottom of the steps this morning. When the Chief tried to send you home you yelled at him about ‘the branches’ then came in, sat down and started filing reports. You were doing so well filling them out that the Chief didn’t even try to bother you after that.

“Jill.”

“Yes Leon?”

“What choice do I have to make?” he looked past her glasses into her violet blue eyes questioningly. She raised a brow before answering slowly.

“Do you want a cheeseburger or chilidog?”

“Oh.” He was oddly disappointed.

“You know Leon, maybe I should take you home; you’ve been really out of it today.”

The tall detective opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the shrill ring of the phone perched on the edge of his desk. With a quick motion to hold that thought Leon snagged the plastic piece and held it up to his ear. The blonde detective paled as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line.

“Uh huh, I’ll be right there!” With that he cut the connection, slamming the receiver back into the cradle. “Look I need to take care of something, can you cover for me Jill?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Trouble at Chris’s school. Nothing big, but I need to go down and talk with the principal.”

“If you actually went out in the field today you’d probably get shot-again.” She shook her head, blonde curls bouncing across her shoulders. “Of course I’ll cover for you.”

“Thanks Jill! You’re the best!” He jumped up from his seat to hug her and dashed off- completely missing her slight blush.

“And don’t you forget it!” she grumbled good naturedly to the empty air. Shaking her head once more, she stared down at the white bag of food now smashed against her chest. With a sigh she reached for a napkin, hoping that the stain wouldn’t be too noticeable.

Less than twenty minutes later found Leon sitting in an uncomfortable hard back chair staring across the expanse of a mahogany desk at Chris’s principal. Ms. Klessen would have been more attractive, Leon mused, if her dark hair wasn’t pulled back in such a severe bun. As it was the angles of her face were too sharp, her thin lips set in a harsh and unforgiving line. Her skirt and jacket were strictly tailored, each line of her suit perfectly placed. Nothing about this woman gave the impression of generosity or warmth- in short she was the perfect authority figure to intimidate small children into obedience with her looks alone. Even Leon felt slightly uncomfortable in the woman’s immaculate office, surrounded by her dominating presence.

His face remained expressionless, however, as he quietly listened to her explanation of what had happened during recess. Cool gray eyes that perfectly matched the metallic sheen of her silk blouse stared back at Leon as she spoke. Her tone of voice seemed to imply that the entire incident had been his fault for not raising his brother better, and the blonde man felt his hackles rising as she continued to speak.

“So let me get this straight,” Leon interrupted when she started to explain procedure for a fight at school. “My little brother, who can’t speak to defend himself let alone start a fight, got the shit kicked out of him by a well known school yard bully. And now you’re going to suspend him for the next seven days, even though everyone who was asked admitted the other kid started it.”

“Please watch your language, sir,” the woman glared dangerously at his words. “Whether Christopher started it or not is irrelevant here, Mr. Orcot. He was involved in an altercation on school grounds and therefore must be punished. As to his getting ‘beaten up’, might I remind you that it was the other boy that left here in an ambulance?”

“Well when you put it that way a week isn’t that great a loss, but I still think it’s fucking stupid that he has to suffer just because some little punk started picking on him.”

The woman stared at him for a heartbeat.

“You can arrange to have his homework picked up for him tomorrow with my secretary on your way out Mr. Orcot. Everyone should have the list of their lesson plans for the week finished by then. Please excuse me, I have a very busy schedule ahead of me because of this whole fiasco. Good day.”

Aaaand dismissed. Bitch.

Finally papers were signed, arrangements for homework were made, and everything was straightened out. Leon and Chris were walking down the front steps of the school. Neither of them talked as they made their way to Leon’s rather beat up car. Silently Chris crawled through Leon’s door and over to the passenger side.

The passenger door couldn’t be opened yet because it was still badly dented from where some robbers he had busted tried to ram his car out of the way with their own a few weeks before. The insurance had paid for his hospital trip, but they were still dragging ass on fixing his car.

Didn’t it just figure?

They were both buckled in and still neither spoke. Leon’s hands were both resting lightly on the wheel; his little brother’s hands were clutching his the straps of his backpack so tightly his knuckles were turning white. Leon watched his brother with that warped blend of sympathy and amusement that only a sibling can feel from the corner of his eye. The poor kid was a nervous wreck.

Leon kept his voice low and steady when he finally broke the silence.

“Chris, I know what the principal thinks happened. Now I need you to tell me what happened.”

Christopher jumped a bit and stared at Leon with wide eyes from his pale dirt smudged face. He pulled his backpack tighter against his tiny frame almost defensively. The gesture suddenly reminded Leon of just how young his baby brother was.

*Am I in trouble?*

“No Chris. At least, not with me,” the tall man smiled encouragingly at the trembling boy, “I just… need to understand what happened so I can figure out what to do about it.”

Chris flicked a quick glance at Leon as if to reassure himself that Leon really wasn’t angry before relaxing just enough to start telling his story.

*I was sitting alone under that big tree by the swings, just like I usually do at recess.*

Leon started the car without comment. His brother was still very new, so his not having friends wasn’t a serious issue just yet. He made a mental note to address it later though.

*Then Sandy, she’s this really popular girl at school, ran over to get the ball that this Paul kid kicked too hard. He sits across from me in math, he’s not good at it, but he’s good at sports. Anyways, Sandy tripped over one of the bits of concrete that holds the swings up in the ground. You know the ones with the little screws sticking out of them beside the swings sets?* The detective nodded his head to show that he was listening.

*She fell and was crying so I went over to help her up. She was bleeding all over, but when I helped her up, she wasn’t hurt at all. Then Tony he came over and started picking on me. He couldn’t hear me Leon. When I told him to stop he couldn’t hear me. He thought I was ignoring him, so he started beating me up.*

Leon growled dangerously at the simple acceptance in that last statement.

That little punk! A broken leg isn’t near what the little shit deserved!

Chris cringed, feeling the waves of anger radiating off his brother, believing it was aimed at him. Leon carefully reigned in his temper and asked Chris to continue his story. The young boy looked nervous again; Leon hastened to reassure the boy that he hadn’t done anything wrong and again asked him to finish telling his story. Chris looked at his brother for a second before slowly starting to tell his story again, in a quiet voice, his eyes downcast.

*Tony started to beat me up. I was trying to get him to stop, but when he didn’t I just tried to block his hits as best I could. Then all of a sudden he looked scared about something and tried to run away. But he ran into the swing set and got all tangled up. Even after he fell he kept trying to get away, and he just ended up even more tangled. He was screaming and crying and trying to run away, and then a teacher came running over. I was sent to the principal’s office after that and Tony was sent to the hospital because he hit his leg against the swing frame really, really hard.*

“Did you see what scared him?” Leon cut the engine.

They were back at his apartment complex. Leon stared up at the worn down building, faded brick with cracks running like fine spider webs throughout the rough surface. The paint on the front door was bubbled from the heat and peeling away. Once upon a time it had been a rich hunter green, but now it was a mutated shade of army green. Dry yellow-brown grass crawled through cracks in the side walk and along the base of the worn down building.

The inside wasn’t much of an improvement.

Vaguely Leon wondered if he should go ahead and cave in and use the money his father had left behind to move somewhere nicer. The apartment was fine for himself, but if Chris was going to be with him for a while he might have to get nicer digs. And it wasn’t exactly fair for him to expect D to take care of Chris so much when he could technically afford a sitter. Even if dropping Chris off gave him the perfect excuse to see D.

Just to keep an eye on him and his criminal activity of course.

Hell, maybe he could get a new car while he was at it. Tempting thought. Personally though, he’d choke rather than take the money, but it was technically Chris’s too. Misplaced pride was no reason for his baby brother to be raised in a shitty neighborhood.

Right. Another thing to add to the growing list of things to change. At this rate he was going to give into D and stop smoking, stop swearing, and stop hanging out with his buddies at the bar after work too.

*Nuh uh.*

Leon jerked his attention back to the conversation with his brother. *I didn’t see anything. Some other kids said they saw something, but no one agreed on what it was.*

“No one agreed on what they think they saw? Hmmm.” The blonde siblings walked down the hallway to Leon’s apartment, and the detective jiggled the keys in his hand, mind racing over the possibilities.

*Are you mad at me?*

Leon tossed his keys on the counter and nudged the door with his foot after gesturing his brother inside.

“No. It doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong to me. Of course now I’m going to have to get D to take care of you while I’m at work for the next few days.” He scowled. “Damn it’s stupid. You didn’t even start that fight but you’re being suspended because that brat decided to pick on you. I ought to arrest his parents. Fucking don’t know how to raise their son any better than that.”

*I’m not a freak am I big bro? …Am I?*

Leon stilled.

“Who called you that?”

*Tony did.*

“I’ll break his other leg if he ever says that to you again.” Leon spoke in a flat voice, but his eyes were glittering dangerously. Silence stretched through the apartment after that.

Chris didn’t seem to know what to say to that so he didn’t say anything. He was still trying to get over the fact that Leon had accepted everything he had said at face value. At the school all the adults had tried to get him to admit to doing something to scare Tony and cause him to hurt himself. He watched his older brother root through the refrigerator.

Leon grumbled when he couldn’t find anything edible and straightened up. He shrugged a shoulder, relaxing, and the tension flowing through the room somehow eased with the casual movement. He noticed Chris still standing where he had stopped and rolled his eyes.

“Have a seat.”

Chris sat down on a chair, letting his book bag drop to the floor at his side. Leon made his way back to the living room and plopped down on the couch to stare at his ‘mini-mirror’. Leon studied his brother, the resemblance to his younger self really was uncanny. Chris looked just like him. And almost just like their father.

“Chris, there’s no real avoiding this. I have to explain something really important but I’m not really sure how to tell you…”

*Count D always tells me stories. Maybe you can tell me like he would?*

“Well I’m not sure I’m as good at story telling as D is, but I guess I could give it a try.”

Chris cheered. Then he quickly sobered, eagerly leaning forward in anticipation of the ‘story’.

“Um, ok- don’t laugh ok? I’m not used to telling stories.” Chris furiously shook his head, mentally reassuring Leon he wouldn’t laugh. Leon smiled at his baby brother’s enthusiasm. Then he cleared his throat before beginning to speak.

“Alright, let’s see… well, long ago there was a goddess by the name of Danu. She was like, the uh, magic of the land- you know, nature. But she was lonely, so she created her own children. They were a race of gods born of light and wondrous magic- but also of shadows and dangerous passions. Among the humans they grew to be known by many names: the Fey, the Faery, Otherkin, the Sidhe. They were the Tuatha de Daanan, the People of Danu.”

“One of these followers was a fey known by the name of Beleonus and he was one of the oldest, and most powerful of her chosen. He was also a jerk who hated humans and resented being forced to live in the sithens. Those are the faery mounds, the hills that the sidhe live under, by the way. The Tuatha had been defeated in a war and driven underground by their enemies. Anyway, the other fey were mostly content with being allowed to stay in Ireland, even at such a heavy cost. Unlike the others, good ol’ Beleonus was not. He would frequently travel, leaving his castle under the faery mounds for years at a time to explore the world and the changes brought about by the humans, whom he still hated. But in his travels he met an extraordinary human woman, and the unthinkable happened. The arrogant Sidhe god fell in love with her. Then he completely changed-from hating all humans to hating all humans except her. And he married her, and even stayed among the idiot people to be with her. I’ll give him that though, the bastard did love our mother, and he did give up a lot to stay with her.”

The blonde detective’s expression was closed and brooding. When he finished with, “And that’s the story of our father right up until he met our mother. The end.”

*Our papa was one of these shee things? And Momma was human…But what does that make us?*

Leon’s eyes jerked toward his brother’s wide ones.

“You know, that’s a great question. Demi-Sidhe? Demi-Human? I don‘t know Chris.”

*Oh.*

“Yeah so anyways, that’s the long and short of it kiddo. Our daddy dearest wasn’t human, so now we’re stuck muddling through trying to figure out what we are, and what all we can do. Really though, I’m not sure how much help I’m going to be to you. I mean, I didn’t find out myself what dad was until… right after you were born.”

*Until after I killed Momma.* Chris sniffled a bit, dragging his sleeve across his nose.

“That’s not true! You didn’t kill her. Mom knew she would die if she had another kid, especially one that wasn’t human. She had a lot of trouble when she had me, but when you came along she still refused to give you up. No one has any right to judge you or her choice!” Leon’s voice was fierce, and his their was an intensity in his face that almost scared the young boy. Then it faded and Leon was once again relaxed back into the plush cushions of the worn out old couch.

“Have you eaten yet?”

*Yes.* Chris nodded his head.

“Well I haven’t. So why don’t we do this? We’ll go somewhere that I can eat, and you can get a drink or ice cream , whatever. Then we’ll go somewhere and work on figuring out what all you can do. Sound like a plan?”

*Figure out what I can do?*

“Yeah, ya know. What all powers you have. Our father was a lesser god Chris. We have to figure out what powers you inherited. Whether you or not you decide to act like a normal human you’re going to have to know how to control your abilities, so they don’t automatically lash out to protect you whenever you are in danger, or want to help someone.”

*Is that what happened today?*

“Weeeelllll, odds are good, yeah. Come on, let’s grab a bite, and we can worry about all this later.”

*Can I have a chocolate ice cream cone, Leon?*

“Sure thing little bro. Hey Chris? How would you like to move to a nicer place?”

*Somewhere in Chinatown so we can be closer to Count D?*

“Well that wasn’t exactly what I was planning but I guess we could do that if you it’s what you really want.”

*Yay!*

Time for a really long AN:

Ok, first of all, I’d like to take a moment to thank each and everyone who has read and review this story so far. I’d name you off individually as I have in my other stories but quite frankly this story is archived in too many places for that to be convenient. You know who you are, and you have my thanks because I would not have kept writing with out your encouraging comments.

Next I would like to apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. I moved and got a new job, and then we didn’t have the net while they were getting things switched between houses. All very inconvenient. Damn real life anyway! *rage* Ahem, anyway, to make up for it I have tried to make this chapter a bit longer than the others so I hope you enjoy it. If you don’t… I’m sorry?

Special Notes:

The Sidhe (pronounced Shee) are a race of mythical beings in Irish folklore, essentially the fairies that live under magical hills, and are known by all the names Leon mentioned to Chris and by a whole slew of other names I probably never found, or heard of before.

I chose to make their father ‘Beleonus’ for a number of reasons, the least of which is that he already exists although his name is in fact Belenus. Belenus, or Bel, was worshipped by humans as god of the sun, and his name in fact translates as the Shining One. I have taken the liberty of bastardizing his name so that Leon’s name could be a variation taken from his name, along with the obvious implications that Leon is also a ‘shining one’. (It appealed to my sense of humor, so sue me.)

Also, playing with the fact that he was a god of the sun and associated with healing properties- I have given Chris healing abilities, and the ability to create illusions. Illusions are not associated with Belenus, but because what people see is affected by light, I felt that it would be acceptable if he would be able to affect what people can see. Also glamour was a common skill mentioned in old fairy tales, so his having that power isn’t much of a stretch after all. (Says the authoress to herself defensively)

In case you can’t tell by now, I am drawing off of Celtic legends, and warping the hell out of them for my convenience. :D I acquired this information from old fairy tales I heard growing up, the Encyclopedia of the Gods, and one of my favorite online sources for quick hits of info: Wikepedia.com