“Have you forgotten already?” Zoey mused with a smirk.
Suddenly Clover felt the world around her tremble briefly before the aching stopped all over her body. She started to regain her senses, realizing she was lying on the table with her arms and legs free from being held by anyone while the pain between her legs was vanishing.
“You have a family, Clover,” Zoey reminded her.
“A… family?” Clover asked.
“Yes. Now, for fuck’s sake, stop pushing them away. After all this, you’d better damn well show your fucking gratitude for them. Do you hear me? Hold onto them, hold onto that guy that you know is the one for you. And don’t you ever let go of them.”
“Zoey…”
“You’re not alone anymore, Clover,” Zoey promised as she started to fade into the darkness. “Try to keep it that way from now on, alright?”
Slowly Clover opened her eyes as the world came into focus again. Everything was silent except for the crackling of the nearby fire and a cat’s low yowl of anger. Looking up Clover saw Star crawling atop her, the jinx hissing around at the men who had jumped back from the cat suddenly appearing in front of them. The girl’s twin tails slowly waved around as she turned to hiss and glare at the men while keeping herself over Clover.
“Star?” Clover slowly asked.
“What the hell is that?” one bandit questioned.
“Where did she come from?”
“Dammit, I was just getting myself warmed up with that bitch,” the man who had been interrupted with raping Clover muttered as he pulled his pants up.
Star yowled at the bandits with a fierce glare then looked down to Clover with worried eyes.
“You… you came to save me?” Clover quietly asked.
Star nodded with a mew.
“But why?”
The jinx leaned down and gently licked the elf’s nose before meowing again, leaving Clover stunned as tears started to well up in her eyes. She then looked around to see the men approaching them with stern glares.
“Don’t you fucking touch her!” Clover yelled out.
Star quickly vanished and reappeared in the air as she leapt towards a bandit with a high yowl. She tackled the man down and slashed her nails across his face twice before warping over and grabbing a man who was reaching out towards Clover’s pigtail. They vanished and appeared together by the campfire as Star swung the bandit over by his arm into the pit. The man yelled and thrashed around while his clothes caught flame as the jinx warped to the side and pushed a bandit aside using both hands before he could grab the elf on the table. She teleported backwards into a kick to knock another bandit away before warping to the other side of Clover and slashing her nails across a man’s face.
Clover watched in awe as Star jumped all around the campsite to strike at the bandits relentlessly. Swiping at their faces, kicking them hard with her feet, grabbing and swinging the men into their tents and trees, the jinx kept hopping around with her teleportation as she fervently attacked the bandits all by herself.
“Holy fuck,” Clover said in wonder.
“You little bitch!” a bandit yelled as he grabbed his axe and charged towards the jinx. Star merely glanced back to him with a glare, watching as the man tried to swing at her only for the axe to slip out of his grip and soar across the clearing into another bandit’s back.
“AHHHH!” the man yelled as he dropped to his knees before forward onto the ground.
Clover stared in surprise as Star swung back with her leg and hooked it around the stunned bandit’s neck before jumping into a grapple with him, warping them to the side, and literally flinging the man with her leg into a tree face first. The jinx looked back to see two men racing towards her with their swords, the bandits winding back to strike before their feet slipped in the grass. Swinging off-balance the two men struck their blades into each other with fierce slashes, both of them dropping down screaming while Star merely watched them with a raised eyebrow.
“Holy fucking shit,” Clover commented in disbelief.
Looking over to the side she saw a bandit grabbing his bow and an arrow out from a tent then taking aim at Star. Before he could shoot the wire snapped from the bottom and struck across his throat, slicing it open and spraying blood out. Clover stared at the sight with wide eyes then saw a bandit running towards Star with his sword to thrust at her. The jinx rolled her eyes then warped away just as the bandit charged through with his weapon which then struck into the man who was slumped against the timber from earlier and pinned him to the trunk with a heavy crunch.
“What the hell?” the thug shouted as he saw he had impaled his friend then turned back to see Star punching another bandit across his jaw then upwards and knocking him into a tent which collapsed around him. The monster then warped while jumping into a kick and struck the stunned bandit next to the tree back into the bushes before warping over and swiping her claws across another outlaw’s face as he got near Clover. The elf watched in marvel as the man screamed and backed up before Star grabbed his arm, swung him into a spin, teleported them to the other side of the clearing, and threw him into another tree headfirst.
“Bitch is hardcore,” Clover softly said to herself.
Star jumped into a kick against a bandit, launched off him and sent the man flying into his friend, warped into another kick at a thug as he tried to grab his sword, then teleported back and pounced the two other men to the ground with a fierce yowl. She swiped one of their faces then the other before warping to the side and sweeping out the feet of a bandit as he ran by with her leg. As she reappeared back by Clover and hissed at the men the ones that weren’t dead stumbled to their feet with faces dripping with blood, burned clothing and skin, tattered shirts, and severe headaches.
“Dammit, what the hell is that thing anyway?” one of them cursed.
“Screw this, they aren’t worth the trouble,” another said before running towards his horse.
“She’s using magic or something, get out of here!” a third ordered as all the men scrambled away.
Clover and Star watched as the bandits raced towards their horses and quickly mounted them. The men hollered threats and obscenities as they rode off into the woods while Star slowly gazed around the campsite which was disheveled and had a few dead bodies lying about. Her eyes then rested on Clover as the elf was shakily catching her breath while sitting up on the table. Slowly approaching her Star meowed quietly, catching Clover’s attention as the elf remained silent after her ordeal.
“Star?” Doku called out from nearby. “Which way did you go? Hello?”
Looking over to the side Clover saw Doku stumbling through some bushes into the clearing, the harpy then jumping with a squeak as she saw the campsite, bodies, blood, and naked elf on the table.
“What in Eden? Clover! Are you alright?” Doku exclaimed before rushing over to her.
“Doku?” Clover wondered as the harpy quickly hugged her close.
“Thank god you’re alright. We’ve been looking all over for you. What happened here? What happened to you?”
Clover fell speechless as the harpy hugged her, staring over the shoulder of the girl while feeling a sense of warmth spreading inside her. After a while she held Doku and started sobbing into her shoulder, surprising the harpy as Clover held onto her tightly while burying her face and crying loudly.
“Clover?” Doku softly asked. “What happened? Please tell me.”
“Thank you for coming for me,” Clover sniveled. “Thank you so much.”
“I don’t believe I’ve ever heard you saying such things before. Are you alright?”
Clover leaned back from the embrace and wiped her eyes while Doku looked her over with a worried frown. She turned her head to see a few dead bandits lying about then noticed the marks on Clover’s arms and legs.
“Did they hurt you?”
“Yes, they did,” Clover admitted with a nod before lowering her head in remorse. “I let them. I let myself be taken. I was going to let
them rape me to get a daughter.”
“Clover,” Doku gasped as she stepped back.
“I fucked up, so badly. It was horrible, it wasn’t at all how I thought it would happen. The entire time they were… and it felt… it was a nightmare. I thought if they just did it and got it over with I would be okay, I would have a daughter and everything would be normal again. But I was wrong.”
“Why would you do such a thing?” Doku worried.
“Because I didn’t want to admit the truth, I didn’t want to see it.”
“The truth?”
Clover slowly looked up to Doku with watery eyes, the harpy and jinx watching curiously as her mouth quivered.
“I love Dan,” she admitted. “I love him, and… I want him to love me.”
“You do?” Doku asked softly.
“I want what those other girls have, I want a man to love me and treat me well. I don’t want to endure a revenge fuck to get a daughter, I don’t want to feel that pain, I don’t want to go through that horror. I want someone who really loves me and wants to be with me.” She looked down to her hands as they trembled then held them over her face while trying not to break down.
“I didn’t want to admit that he was right, that I believed in what he was saying. I didn’t want to fall in love with him, to want to be with him like this. So I ran away. I ran away from everyone.”
“You stupid girl,” Doku huffed with a flustered stomp of her foot. “You had me worried sick about you. Don’t you ever run off like that again, do you hear me?”
Clover nodded then looked between the girls with a curious eye while wiping her tears away.
“Why did you two come after me anyway?”
“Because we care about you, how many times must I tell you this?” Doku demanded in exasperation.
“Even her?” Clover asked pointing to Star in puzzlement.
“She was the one who took after you when you left,” Doku explained. “It seems her sight in the dark isn’t as poor as mine. I followed her as she appeared to be trailing you quite well through the forest, she wouldn’t stop or slow down until she found you.”
“But why?” Clover wondered. “She doesn’t even know me.”
“I would have to reason that she was worried about you.”
“Worried about me?” Clover asked, with Star nodding with a meow. “But why would you worry about me?”
Star meowed and waved her arms around, mewing and pointing her fingers to Clover then back to the woods then to herself as she explained herself in words nobody else understood. After her long speech about whatever she was trying to say Clover merely raised an eyebrow at the jinx.
“Perfect, another girl we have no clue as to what she’s saying,” she flatly concluded.
Star rolled her eyes then quickly hugged Clover close. The elf stared over her shoulder in wonder as Doku smiled lightly and nodded.
“I think she was saying she was worried about you, Clover.”
Clover slowly held the jinx as she was rendered speechless, feeling the cat holding onto her and nuzzling her head against hers.
“Still think she’s a menace?” Doku questioned.
Shaking her head Clover hugged Star close as a few more tears came out, feeling something inside of her melting away as the jinx expressed her care towards the elf. Doku nodded then nervously looked around the battered campsite before clearing her throat to get the girls’ attention.
“Um, could we please continue this on our way back home? This doesn’t seem like the best place to talk.”
The girls nodded and helped Clover off the table, the elf stumbling in her footing as her legs felt drained of strength. She forced herself upright and began collecting her clothes that were lying about, dressing herself again while thinking carefully about something with a distant look on her face. After she was fully dressed again she grabbed her bow and quiver, eyeing the two remaining arrows with a quiet sigh before looking up at the tree that she had fallen through.
“Star?” Doku asked, with Clover then looking over to see the jinx rummaging around underneath a toppled tent. A muffled mew was heard as the moving bulge underneath the cloth which was the jinx shuffled about before she teleported out and over next to Clover. In her arms she was holding a leather quiver filled with arrows that she held out towards the elf.
“For me?” Clover wondered.
Star nodded with a meow while holding it towards the elf. Slowly Clover reached out and took the quiver, eyeing the bolts in it with awe then the jinx who warped over to the side of the clearing and picked up a satchel that she began searching through.
“What is she doing?” Doku asked curiously.
“She’s searching for anything valuable,” Clover realized as the jinx pulled out a leather pouch that jingled with gold coins inside. Star placed it in her tunic then turned the satchel upside down to empty its contents onto the ground.
Doku watched the jinx sifting through the spilled belongings then turned to Clover as the elf was slowly taking the arrows out of the bandit’s quiver and placing them into her own. Clover kept her eyes on Star, seeing the jinx finding nothing of interest in the items on the ground before she warped into another tent and started shuffling around inside. A few excited mews were heard before she suddenly fell silent. Doku and Clover glanced to each other then the tent as the jinx had stopped abruptly.
“Star?” Doku called over.
“Find anything in there?” Clover asked.
After a pause Star suddenly appeared by the girls holding a basket full of apples and having one pushed into her mouth. The jinx looked from one girl to the other while having the apple held in place, the two girls staring at her in wonder as she stood before them with slowly waving tails.
“I think she found a few things,” Doku reasoned with a shrug.
Star nodded a few times then dropped the apple in her mouth into the basket, smiling happily and meowing at the girls with a hop as she seemed proud of her find. She quickly looked around a few times then set the basket down and warped over next to the bandits that had struck each other down earlier with their swords.
“Star, let’s go back already. Please,” Doku begged as she nervously looked around the campsite.
Clover finished putting all the arrows into her quiver then tossed the bandit one into the campfire. Holstering her bow and quiver behind her she turned to see Star sitting beside a thug with her tails remaining still behind her. The two girls walked over and saw the jinx looking down at something in her hands while remaining quiet.
“What is it, Star?” Doku asked as the girls knelt down beside her.
In the jinx’s hand they saw a pocket watch with a golden chain opened to show its slowly moving hands with quiet ticking sounds. Star gazed at the watch while appearing to tune the world around her out, focusing solely on the timepiece that captured her eye.
“Why do you like clocks so much anyway?” Clover wondered scratching her head.
“Star?” Doku softly spoke. “Are you alright?”
The girls saw Star watching the clock with a saddened look on her face. Her hand lightly shook as she meowed under her breath while keeping her eyes on the watch. Clover glanced to the jinx then back down to the clock as she began to see the bigger picture.
“It’s not the clocks that mean so much to you,” she speculated. “It’s the memory they hold, isn’t it?”
Star slowly nodded as her frown turned into a saddened smile.
“The memory they hold?” Doku wondered.
“It’s like Zoey’s cloak with me,” Clover reasoned as she gently touched her cape. “There are many others like this out there, but this one is special because it reminds me of her. It was a gift from her. Her memory is weaved into every stitch.”
“Star?” Doku said with concern. “Do these clocks remind you of someone special to you?”
Star nodded as she gently traced her fingers along the rim of the watch, her eyes conveying that she was thinking about something
precious to her the entire time. Her hand was then gently closed by Clover’s with the watch held within, the jinx turning to the elf with a curious mew as Clover slowly nodded with a distant look on her face. The elf took the chain off the bandit’s belt then fastened it to Star’s tunic at the hip, the girls watching as she made sure it was attached securely before smiling lightly at the jinx.
“Then hold onto it. It looks good on you anyway.”
Star paused for a moment then quickly moved forward and hugged the elf around the waist, nuzzling her face into the girl’s tunic and meowing softly with her tails curling up behind. Clover held the girl with a sympathetic smile while Doku was surprised to see and hear such things from the elf like this.
“Clover, this isn’t like you. Are you sure you’re alright?”
“I’m better than alright,” Clover promised as she gently brushed Star’s hair. “For the first time in a long time, I feel lighter than ever. I know how I feel and what I want now.”
“What you want?” Doku repeated. “And what’s that?”
“To be Dan’s mate,” Clover declared, with both girls looking to her curiously. “I love that man, and I’m going to earn his love in return. I will, and I won’t rest until I do.”
“You wish to be Daniel’s mate?” Doku wondered with a small smile. “Clover, what happened to you out here? Last I saw you I heard some very different things out of your mouth.”
“Zoey slapped some sense into me,” Clover answered with a smirk. “I’m done hiding how I feel, I’m getting out of my shell and taking a chance at life again. Dan did this to me, he made me realize how much it sucks living the way we are and want something more in my life. Well, what I want is for him to be responsible and take care of me too for making me feel this way about him.”
“Does this mean you want us as your family now?”
“You are my family,” Clover corrected her. “And Dan’s my mate. That’s the way it’s going to be. He’s going to know how much I love him and I’m going to earn his love in return, nothing in the whole fucking world is going to stop me.”
Doku giggled as she stood up, looking down at seeing the determined expression on Clover’s face while Star was watching the elf with a curious mew.
Chronicles of Eden - Act VIII Page 30
