Risa and Cloud
Risa had been frozen in nervousness for the first time in her life that day. The elaborate braids and pretty blue dress she wore could not even enhance her confidence. Her heart raced hard against her ribs and her breath seemed to be caught in her throat. She clutched the fabric of her dress as she boggled her mind for words. The boy in front of her was so beautiful.
“Risa, say hi.”
Even her mother’s urging whisper could not make budge her from her hypnotized state. She dimly heard her excusing her behavior, reminding them that she had become more reserved after their son’s death.
The two young teens were facing each other, each with a pair of parents behind them as they stood in the den of the Millinia’s home.
The dark-haired boy was not saying much either, his blue eyes stuck on her a moment. He was rather mature looking for a fifteen-year-old boy and he looked like he had been trained from a young age, almost as muscled as Helio had been. He was wearing a lot of dark clothing, which was uncommon for fairies. His wings were transparent but lacked the slight pink hue hers carried. She wondered if he thought she was pretty and that’s why he was staring. The idea of such a thing made excitement run through her and a surge of confidence went through her, a sudden smile stretching across her face.
“Hi! I’m Risa!” She ran up closer to him and reached out her hand. “Nice to meet you! Wanna go play with me?”
He looked her up and down, then proceeded to fold his arms and address his parents. “Do I really have to spend time with
her?”
“Cloud. Don’t be rude.” His father chastised him. “Run along and be polite to the young lady. Stay close and be back in two hours. Don’t come back early.”
“All teenage boys act like that. It’s okay. I had my share.” Elyna mused with a giggle, the others following in giggles as well except for Risa and Cloud.
Cloud groaned and took Risa’s wrist abruptly, shoving past the adults and leading her outside. Risa supposed he was on a short fuse with his parents.
He stopped, letting go of her once outside. The sun was shining and the birds were chirping. The area was alive with the sounds of kids playing. “So, you go where you want and I go where I want, yeah?”
“You don’t wanna … hang out?” Risa asked sadly. She shuffled her feet and looked down at the ground.
Cloud softened a little reluctantly, keeping his gaze towards the other direction. “Our parents are setting us up. I know you don’t really want to. You can drop the act.” He thought she was faking it? Risa never wanted to trick people. This was terrible.
“It’s not an act. I love making friends. “Risa said to him cheerfully. “My mom just wants me to go and make friends more often since I’ve been distant lately and she’s all worried and stuff-“
He cut her off mid-ramble, “They want us to get married. Your family descends from the rulers of River Kingdom. Mine of Flower Fairy Kingdom. “
They had come to visit all the way from the Flower Fairy Kingdom. Risa knew that was a long trip but she couldn’t imagine marriage being an option at her age. She wasn’t sure she believed that. “What? We’re too young to get married. “Risa said, “What would be the point anyway if those dark elves control everything?” She didn’t put it past her parents to do something like that, but it was such a far stretch to consider marriage. They seemed to want to choose everything for her and decide her life. What she wore, who she spoke to, and what she could do were all often decided by them.
“They won’t forever. “Cloud said simply.
Risa nervously scoped their surroundings in reaction to his statement. Helio had told her so many times to never talk about them in that way. It was dangerous. Maybe he just really did not want to talk to her and was being standoffish on purpose. “Well, I get it if you don’t want to be friends with me then.” She said finally, “I’ll just go walk around and meet you back here in two hours.”
He looked at her in astonishment, “It’s not that I don’t like you. I don’t even know you.”
“But you don’t want to know me,” Risa replied sadly.
He sighed and moved over to take her hand. She looked at him in surprise as he began to lead her once again but this time into the forest. He took flight and as did she to hurry their traveling. He let go rather abruptly. “Don’t you just get tired of doing what people tell you? I’m tired of my parents telling me what to do and I’m tired of laws dictating what I can and what I can’t say. “
Risa felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest again. Why did he make her feel like this? The sun was shining on him through the breaks of the tree and his eyes looked like sapphires when enlightened. His eyelashes were longer than usual and as black as his hair. She couldn’t stop staring at him.
“So, you just want to rebel against their wishes.” Risa was catching on to his drift. She sat down in the grass and began to coo over a nearby fox that was watching from the bushes.
“Yep.” Cloud replied and leaned against a tree finally. “Tired of it.” He took out some strange substance that Risa didn’t recognize and began to roll it up in a leaf. She watched him light it with a match and begin to smoke it. The fox moved over shyly, taking slow steps with her ears laid back before finally climbing on to Risa’s lap and curling up. Risa stroked her fur quietly for a while before deciding to ask him what he was doing.
“What are you doing?” Risa asked. She had never seen someone put a bunch of leaves on fire and try to smoke it. “What is that?”
“Zemak. It’s called drugs.” He said lamely, glancing over at her. “You live under a rock?”
“Uhh… No, I live in a house.” She shrugged, “I just haven’t seen it before. I’m very sorry.”
He relaxed and smirked at her. He did not seem nearly as stand-offish. “You really are a princess, huh. Nothing to be sorry about. It’s something people do to feel relaxed. Want to try it? “
Risa hesitated, asking, “Is it safe?”
“Why would I be doing it if it wasn’t?” He was clearly one of those people who replied to everything with a question. “What’s with the fox anyway? How did you get it to sit on your lap?”
“This is Willow.” Risa told him with a smile, looking down at her fondly, “She’s a good girl. She comes to sit with me sometimes. I think she gets a bit lonely. My friend Kyran introduced me to her. He’s a fox demi-human.”
He huffed out some smoke, rolling his eyes. “No way your parents let you talk to demi-humans.”
“Well my mom is okay with it I think but my dad doesn’t know I still talk to him.” Her dad was pretty determined that she should stay within River Kingdom boundaries and not converse with other species. He was overprotective of her for one and blamed Helio dying on talking to demi-humans. She had been told not to talk to Kyran anymore.
“Flower Fairy Kingdom’s kinda away from everything but I doubt my parents would let permit me to hang with them anyway. They are the ‘stick-to-your-own’ type of people. We’re moving here actually so maybe I’ll get to meet one.”
“Oh, you don’t seem like the type to really listen to your parents. “She found herself blurting, “Oh I’m sorry is that rude of me to say?”
Cloud laughed at her, “No, no. I never listen to them. I do what I want.”
“Well, I can let you meet Kyran. He’s really nice. You can also meet my best friend Dionaea. She’s really sweet. You won’t be alone I promise!” Risa assured him excitedly.
“So… you still hang out with this Kyran despite your father not wanting you to.” Cloud observed, not replying to much else yet. He moved over to sit beside her. He started to pet Willow as well.
Risa kept her gaze down at the fox. “Well yeah… He’s also my best friend so. I can’t just stop talking to him, but I know my parents just want the best for me as yours do for you.”
“My parents don’t know what’s best for me. Only I do. Mine rather kiss Aklenroth’s bony ass than think for themselves.”
Risa’s eyes widened and she shushed him, “Cloud! Please! Don’t say that.” The fox jumped at the sound of Aklenroth’s name and leaped off her lap, running away from them.
“Fuck him. I’m tired of the censorship. “His voice was dry and devoid of fear, shrugging it off easily, ”Why does he scare you so much?”
Risa leaned her arms on her knees. Helio had said similar things to his friends, not as openly. He never mentioned it to her, but she knew he had gotten himself in something. They had been told he had been killed in battle, but she had seen the way the dark elves had sneered and made faces at her and family as the news had been delivered.
“I think he killed my brother for defying him.” She felt her eyes begin to tear at the sound of her own words. Helio being dead was something she couldn’t swallow still.
Cloud gently began to wipe her eyes, surprising her. “He probably did.” He told her quietly. “Everyone who disappears, does because of him.”
“It seems like as long as people don’t say anything bad about him, then things are fine. I just don’t want anyone else to die.” Risa looked up at him as she spoke.
He shook his head, “Risa there’s so much you don’t understand.”
“Then make me understand it,” Risa asked of him. “Please?”
“Maybe later. You know I didn’t even want to talk to you.” Cloud told her, his voice taking a colder tone once again. “I wanted to just walk off and ignore whatever bimbo, spoiled brat my parents introduced me to.”
Risa bit her lip, her heart sinking. She thought they had been getting along okay. “I’m… I’m really sorry.” Her voice choked up without her meaning to.
“You were nothing that I thought you would be, but now it’s made this all much more difficult. “He was suddenly wiping her eyes again.
He offered her the Zemak once more, instructing her quietly how to use it. She tried it, struggling to figure out what she was supposed to do for a good five minutes. Once she managed to breathe it in, she felt herself immediately relax.
“So… Does that mean I’m not a spoiled brat?” Risa asked quietly after a few moments of them sitting in silence.
“You’re different.” He replied vaguely.
“Oh… Good different?” Risa continued to question nervously, to which he nodded. “You know, this feels nice,” Risa told him, finding herself giggling for no reason at all.
Cloud laughed along, “You’re something out of a book. You know. I need to teach you something about exaggeration. I can’t believe you thought I was asking if you really lived under a rock. “
“I don’t get it,” Risa admitted. “How could I fit under a rock? Are you trying to compare me to a pixie?”
“You know what. I change my mind. I’m going to leave you ignorant. Just do me a favor and never let anyone change you. “
The two ended up laying in the grass talking for hours, forgetting to return to the parents until night. The next day after they flew to another spot and spent the entire day talking. The next day was the same story as well as the next. It felt as if he filled the void in her heart after losing her brother. She forgot her pain when she was with him. Her friends rarely saw her and neither had her parents for that entire week. She eventually did introduce him to Dionaea and Kyran, who probably caught on to how head-over-heels she was for him.
The first few times he had moved to kiss her, Risa’s family companion wolf, Hades, had been there to growl at him and make him stop his pursuit.
It wasn’t until a few months later at night that they were sitting on the large branch of the Plaza Tree, way up high above everyone that he looked at her and finally said, “I don’t think you know how beautiful you are.” He had stopped using Zemak at this point and seemed to be relaxed just being himself.
Risa looked over at him with surprise. “You… You mean me? My appearance? Well I-…”
“Yes. Everything about you is beautiful.” He brushed the hair from her face and rubbed her cheek. “You don’t realize how horrible the world around you is and you see it for its beauty, cherishing any life that you see. “He smirked as the worst case of blushing he had ever presented itself on her face, “But yeah, I guess your appearance is pretty beautiful too. “
“I-… I never thought you would think so. You seemed so appalled by me when we met.” Risa was struggling to find words. It was always a moment to remember for a young girl the first time a boy called her beautiful.
“I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, Risa. I think I’d do anything for you.” He kissed her cheek.
She froze up and he moved away, giving her space to think. Risa had not expected him to say anything like this
“I don’t care if you don’t feel the same way. “He told her, “All I ask is that you let me protect you.”
“Do you live under a rock?” She finally asked him. He had taught her the joys of sarcasm and exaggeration, so she had decided to start testing it out. Helio had acted similarly but with less dry humor. It felt like she was keeping part of Helio alive when she challenged herself to try to dabble with the humor. It was a fun change after being so nice and polite all her life. She felt like she could be herself and say whatever she wanted around him. “I wouldn’t put up with you complaining so much if I hadn’t fallen in love with you.”
He grinned at her as she threw her around his neck and hugged him, “Did miss prim and proper princess just sass me?”
“Maaybbee.” Risa giggled and kissed him on lips passionately, to which he returned and pulled her close. This moment had solidified the relationship between the two of them, which would last for two years.
They got along beautifully for that time and he had interacted with Dionaea and Kyran often, as she liked to be with everyone at once often. However, when Risa turned sixteen and Cloud was seventeen, he started talking about the Aklenroth situation a lot, trying to educate them all about how bad things were and what he really did to people. He claimed his siblings had been taken as slaves and soon was claiming that his parents were missing. He grew to be a bit toxic when it came to how overprotective he became of Risa, acting like her father who he had previously criticized. He was always constantly afraid of someone taking her and snapping at people who tried to talk to her.
One night, Risa woke up to Cloud shaking her shoulder. “Risa, wake up.”
Risa yawned and sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing here? Are you okay?”
“Risa. I overheard something and I think you might be in danger.” His eyes were brimming with tears and he looked terrified. Risa was beginning to think he was delusional. She wanted to believe him but things were relatively peaceful and he always claimed there was danger. There was a good reason to worry about his mental health.
Risa sat up and hugged him, rubbing his back. “Shh… I promise you we’re safe, okay, my darling? No one is going to hurt me. “
“No-No-No! Risa you don’t understand what I saw-… who I saw-“He was growing a bit frantic, moving out of her embrace and taking her arms.
“Risa we need to run away. Please run away with me. “
Risa bit her lip in fear. Was he going insane? He looked ready to basically kidnap her in the name of “keeping her safe.” She took his face in his hands. “Look at me, Cloud. We can’t run away. Our family and friends are here. I will help you look for your parents. I’m sure there’s an explanation… The search parties have been going for days-“
“This isn’t about my family!” He cried, “This is about you. I can’t tell you everything until we’re away from everyone, but something really fucked up has happened, Risa. Please believe me. Just come talk to me for an hour at the least.”
Risa had been going to a healing school at this point. She had been training all day and healing was exhausting. She had pushed herself quite hard today, stumbling upon wounded animals even after the class and having heart-strings tugged enough to spend the last of her energy on them. She was sure she had bags under eyes. “I want to believe you, but you’ve gotten upset over a merchant talking to me. I don’t want to be mean to you Cloud but do you think maybe you’re just getting a bit jealous? I get jealous when girls talk to you sometimes so I understand and it’s okay… Emotions are normal-“
“No Risa. It has nothing to do with that. I know I’ve been paranoid but trust me on this. Come with me.”
She sighed, “Cloud I couldn’t possibly right now. I’m so tired. I just want to sleep. You can stay if you want.” She moved over and pulled down the blanket. “We can just snuggle, okay, sweetie? Let’s stay together and protect each other. “
“No, baby, we have to go.” He pleaded desperately in a hushed whisper, “I’ll carry you and you can sleep in my arms. I’ll do anything.”
“This is crazy.” Risa stared at him, “I’m not running away and leaving my family. Just tell me what’s happening.”
He shook his head, standing up. His fists were clenched, and he was shaking. He moved over to the window. “I can’t. I-… I’ll deal with this for you.”
“You don’t have to deal with anything.” Risa got out of bed, stumbling over to him to take his arm. She was in a long night-gown. “I want to understand this, please, talk to me…”
He didn’t look at her. Something was clearly eating at his heart.
Risa started to cry, confused out of her mind, “Cloud I love you so much. You’re scaring me.”
“Risa. If you won’t leave here, I have to do something. I told you I’d do anything to protect you, okay? So I’ll take care of this for you. Stay here and rest. I love you.” Cloud suddenly took off out the window, flying away.
Risa hurried to the window to take after him, her heart jolting in fear. What the hell was he doing? She tried to take flight only for her to fall the floor, fainting in exhaustion. Her vision blacked out.
The light poured in through the windows the next morning. The shadow of her curtains dancing in the slight breeze. The silence beside the occasional chirp of birds felt eerie.
Risa slowly sat up on the wooden floor, silently processing for only a moment. She tore into a run suddenly as her brain caught up with the events of the night prior, grabbing a cape barely as she ran out of the house and took flight. Fairy capes had spaces for wings, of course. She fastened her cape around herself as she began to fly around the area. “Cloud!” She screamed, looking around. Risa flew around looking for him for hours, her panic never settling.
She had to stop and puke in the middle of the forest at one point, she had been so scared. Once she had cleaned up at herself and go back into the sky to continue her search until finally a carriage on its way toward the plaza caught her sights. Risa flew over to as fast as she could, tumbling onto it. A crowd had formed, and they were all staring. Dark elves were the ones who had controlled the carriage and they too were staring at her. Risa looked around wildly as her eyes caught sight of black hair under a blanket.
“Hey, get off the cart! What are you doing?” She could hear an elf yelling at her but she ignored him, kneeling down to move the blanket over.
Cloud was under it and he looked awful. His clothes were ripped and he had blood splattered on his face. His chest was torn open in a mess of blood. Risa paled at the sight, her mouth going dry. This wasn't just a dark elf killing him. It had been none of them here. This was something else. Her hands shook as she took his face in his hands, “This can’t be real.” She whispered in terror. His eyelashes fluttered and he reached up and touched her cheek one last time, smiling weakly at her as the life left his eyes. His body went still. She didn’t react at first, simply shutting his eyes with her fingers and staring at him. It felt like a nightmare. It wasn’t real. There was a note in his hand so she took it and began to read it with shaking hands.
Dear Risa.
I am under capture. I have failed in my attempt to win this battle.
I’m so sorry. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You taught me how to love and how to appreciate the world around me. I don’t think there’s anyone as kind and loving as you are. You deserve the world and more.
I will try to beat this situation with all my strength to get back to you, but it seems my fate is sealed.
It seems I cannot continue to be there for you physically but only in spirit. I promise if such a thing exists, I’ll never leave you. I’ll love you no matter what. But do please move on from me. Be happy for me and don’t let my death or anyone change you as I’ve always told you. You are a light in the darkness and if you are put out, then there’s no hope for any of us. You must continue forward.
Take back your kingdom.
Risa knew the end of the letter would prove dangerous so she began to rip the letter up. This gained the dark elves' attention and they moved toward her.
It wasn’t until the dark elves began to try to pull her off that she started to scream, bursting into tears. “No! Cloud! Cloud!” Frantically and maybe seeming as crazy as he did the night prior, she began to sob, shaking him and trying to heal him. “Cloud wake up! Please! I need you!” Dark elves began to drag her off him to stop her from healing. She continued to sob, fighting to break free from their grasps. They held her until she calmed down for a good twenty minutes as some went to go fetch her parents.
“He has been killed for treachery. It is against the law to heal him. If you continue to do so, you too will die.” The dark elf informed her callously.
She broke free of their grasp turning to glare at him with more hatred that the dark elf had ever witnessed. The dark elves weren’t used to such a ferocious reaction from fairies. Fairies were always so weak and submissive.
For a moment she felt no fear and felt only anger, stating icily, “You’re a liar.”
I’ll always love you too, Cloud. I won’t give up and I won’t let this change me.
I just hope you’re safe and happy, that there is nothing more to fear.
Knowing you believe in me will make me go forward. No matter what.
