ChrisxHugo (working title)

(note- This chapter is pretty short, mostly just a teaser to whet some appetites
while I really figure out how I'm going to do this. :)


The breeze carried the smell of the forest to her, that wood-ish smell
that could immediately put the idea of a forest into someone's mind, even if one
had never seen a forest. It was relatively tame during the day, as that path to
Brass Castle ran through the middle of it. The aspen on either side looked far
older than the Castle itself, even some further into the forest showing the
scars left by the Flame Rune when that war ended. The latest dispute between
Zexen and Karaya was solved diplomatically, and the Harmonian invasion repelled.
The Grasslanders had rebuilt, and trade was flourishing, thanks in large part to
Budehuc's multi-cultural market.

Chris fingered the back of her right hand under the glove, feeling the
slight traces of scarring there, forming the symbol of the True Water rune. It
had been two years since Luc had summoned the True Wind avatar, and two years
since she had last seen Hugo. Hugo... Her thoughts had lately been mostly
retrospective as the future looked downright boring compared to what had
happened to them in the past. Especially, she had found herself coming back to
that incident, so long ago, in the Karayan village.

She had ordered the destruction of the village only to prevent several
companies of Knights from being surrounded and slaughtered. She could still
smell the open breeze there, tinged by the burning wood and thatch, the stench
of the burning bodies. She had given specific orders that none of the villagers
be harmed, but some had died anyway. That boy... the one whose face was too
innocent, too young, flashed in her mind's eye. Enraged, leaping at her, and
then the wide-eyed slack-jaw horrifying face as his dead body hit the ground.
Then his friend, Hugo...

The second time she had seen Hugo, face-to-face, was when he tried to get
the jump on her at Budehuc. Her combat reflexes had her sword up to block his,
and kept her out of his reach when she could turn to face him. She remembered
Percival and Borus readying themselves to leap to her aid, but she stayed them,
thinking only "Please, don't make me kill him too."

He came at her again, this time from below, but once again she caught his
sword just above the hilt. She saw then, how much fear was in his eyes as rage.
She could see his teeth, white as her hair, even smell the dusty grassland smell
of him, as she asked him, "You've never killed anyone, have you?"

The rest of that fight flowed by like a swift river, not relevent to her.
She would remember the smell of him most of all, that boyish musk of him
entering the prime of his life, his life on the plains of the Grasslands, the
dried smell of the leathers he wore.

She was resting with her back against a tree, her horse tied to a low
branch. She drifted off with her thoughts, coming back to Hugo.

He approached her from behind, silent like some stealthy cat
approaching for the kill. She felt his breath on the side of her neck,
his arms wrapped around her when his lips met her skin, nuzzling. Her
head tilted back, encouraging him as she rubbed her buttocks against
him, feeling him harden in anticipation. He moved up her legs as his
hands cupped her breasts, then pressed into her in one smooth motion,
eliciting a gasp at first. Her hand went up and back, running her
fingers through his hair as she pressed him to her, her other hand
moving down her body, lightly running along her stomach.

He removed himself from her and moved around so she could face him,
and kissed her, his hands first settling on her back. Her hands slid
down his back, moving in on him again to straddle him, feeling him
enter her once more. Her tongue rubbed along his teeth as he opened up
to meet her tongue with his. His hands moved down to her butt, running
his fingers deep into the muscle to massage her while he thrust into
her at a rhythm. She met his movements with earnest, pleasure bubbling
up inside her with each movement of his hands and hips, each time she
pressed her chest into his. That rush was building up deep in her
stomach, building up and moving up her torso into a wild cry that was
ready to burst--

"KUEEEEE!"

She woke with a start, and leapt to her feet when she heard the cry a
second time. Her horse was standing alert, excited by the cries and by the
sounds of claws rending flesh and armor not too far away. She removed her sword
from the packing on her horse, untying it should someone come along and attempt
to steal her horse in her absence. The trees were rather close together for a
horse to move through comfortably, so she went alone, quickly to the source of
the disturbance. The sounds were fading, and ended with a final cry from the
griffon.

The clearing she came to was strewn with the broken bodies of adventurers
who had apparently attempted to capture this griffon, one with Karayan warrior's
bracers, and had paid for their folly in full. Fubar looked Chris in the eye,
and deeming her friendly, sat down to work an arrow out of its side, able to get
it out in one piece, along with the badly-made arrowhead. When she saw Hugo, her
heart sank.

Fubar moved to Hugo's side after removing the arrow, and brushed his head
against his midsection. He was laying face-down on the dirt, looking as if he
were struck in midstride. She moved closer and saw a long dart protruding from
his shoulder, looking as if it were dipped in poison. He shuddered, and tried
getting up, but looking as if he had lost control of the side of his body that
the dart hit, and being extremely weak in the other side. He groaned, and fell
back onto the ground, unable to get up.

Chris put her sword down, and withdrew the simple, sharp dart from Hugo's
shoulder, wincing when he groaned in pain. He fainted when it was out, but was
still breathing. She knew that his chances were slim without medical care, and
she doubted that Fubar could get him to his village quickly.

"You, go tell his mother! I'm taking him to the Brass Castle to heal him."
She hoped that Fubar was as smart as she had been lead to believe, because
things could get difficult quickly if he wasn't.

Fubar hesitated, staring into her eyes, before leaping into the air and
flew in a straight line for the new Karayan village, making maximum haste. He
knew that Hugo was tough, and that Chris was an excellent fighter, so it would
be better for Hugo that he go inform Lucia. Well, if he can't speak, he'd make
Lucia figure it out.

With Fubar in the air, Chris gently picked Hugo up, and began moving for
for the road, throwing one last look of contempt at the dead adventurers.
Damn them, their greed, and their cowardice! Once at the road, she whistled,
and when her mount approached, she laid Hugo gently accross the saddle, then
climbed in herself, to hold him with one arm, and lead the horse into a flat-out
gallop. There was no time to waste.


---

Author's Notes--

Ok, a few days late, but hopefully not a few dollars short. :) School snuck up
and bit me on the ass, and World of Warcraft has its own obligations, anyway.
Still, I managed to get it done, and I hope to have more soon, though probably
not within the same time schedule as I did between the opening notes and this '
teaser'.

Nino, the pairing may only seem difficult in the manga to me because the last of
the manga hasn't been published and released yet :)! Still, the manga makes
quite a few suggestions that they could be an item in the future.

The scene were Hugo tried to jump Chris is indeed in the manga, the second
issue, and she looks omfgwtfbbq hot in the one panel with the question. :S

Plus, thanks for the spoiler on the game ending, I once chose Chris and haven't
bothered to play through again to see the different choices.

I hope to make it a decently mature story as well, and then put in the
obligatory 'adult content' (after all, this *is* AFF.net :) like her little
daydream.

God, what I wouldn't give to be Hugo in that dream! 8-)

Ok, next chapter, should I decide to write it, hopefully has some more on Zexen
medicine and what the Karayans have been doing.

I may even have the rest of the Knights conveniently out on assignment while
Hugo is there, too >:).