Prince of Penance

Title: Prince Of Penance

Author: strangeseraph

Archived: Yes

Summary: Gusto's past comes back to haunt him and the Gummis must face his fears figuratively and literally. GruffiGusto slash.

Rating: Adult++ for graphic violence and sex.

Pairings: Gruffi/Gusto





Prologue~

Salty winds churned and tossed the small boat about, sending freezing waves of water over the bow of the ship, soaking the loan blue furred Gummi bear within, who was trying with pointed desperation to keep his rather unsturdy little ship afloat. A lightning crack nearby, too close for comfort, startled the bear, and he snarled in rage.

"They've followed me! DAMMIT!"

He turned the steering wheel as if for his very life, putting every inch of his sweat, blood and tears into it, feeling the muscles of his arms strain to near breaking under the pressure. Before his eyes he saw nothing that could help his cause; waves rocketed him back and forth, their throthy curtain leaving him soaked and shivering with each unfriendly smack across the deck.

They're insane! Totally insane! I can't let them win! I can't!

A sudden cracking and lurching and he was thrown forward over the steering wheel. The shrieking of breaking wood pulling out of joints, the straining against nails before finally snapping and cracking signalled that the ship had crashed. The gummi was thrown from the vessel onto the sandy beach of the island the ship had crashed upon. He covered his head protectively just as the boat did a cartwheel over him, flung by the violent tossing of the waves across the clearing into the trees. It seemed to hang precariously just short of hitting a tall heavy tree trunk before coming to a hault. Any closer and the boat would surely have been broken to bits.

I'm going to need to repair that thing if I want to get off this sand trap!

A crash of ligthening and the sound of voices frightened him and he jumped to his feet and fled.

GOTTA HIDE! GOTTA HIDE!

Too late. A bolt of lightening was flung before his feet, trapping him on the beach and forcing him to turn and face his aggressors.

Too late, they found me...Oh Great Gummi save me!

Like a chorus of demented archangels they came, a group of seven Gummi bears, their hands stretched to the air as magic crackled around them. They rode within a glowing sphere of white hot energy which broke from their outstretched hands and rippled around them, cracking like a whip.

He cowered before them.

"N-n-no p-please d-d-don't!" he covered his head and lay on the beach in suplication before them. "Don't do it please, I beg you have mercy!"

"You ask us mercy??" cried the one he recognized as Councillor Numa, who raised her hands again as if to lash the cowering figure on the beach with her rage. "What mercy did you show Prince Janka? What mercy did you show the people of Monteray? Mercy? Show you mercy! Hah! We do not listen to the cowering pleas of a murderer! A murderer who deserves worse than a quick death could give! The kraken awaits you!"

"Please...n-not the k-kraken! Anything but that!"

Just the thought of being swallowed alive, possibly forced to live his days inside the belly of the sea beast knowing death would come, waiting endlessly...He cowered and begged until he was hoarse in the throat and his eyes were watering and couldn't beg any longer, just wept bitter tears into the ground before him.

"Pitiful..."

The silence that followed this pronouncement was deafening. The forest behind him seemed to be holding its breath, even the loud mouthed parrots and chirrelling monkeys stilled their calls.

"It is to your sister's pleas we listen," said the soft male voice of the youngest of the group, Counciller Venti. "The Council has heard your sister's pleas this eve, as you were planning your wicked escape she was begging us for mercy upon you! Mercy we shall not give to you, but to her we shall! You are hereby banished from Monteray, to this island, where you will remain! All attempts for you to leave shall be thwarted by our magic. Only the kindness and giving grace of others can save you now!"

"But," Numa's voice rose above the other's. "After fifteen years passed we will return to you, we will find you wherever you hide, and bring you back to face the Council once more. Then we will decide if you are to live or die. You have fifteen years until you face your true fate. I suggest you use these fifteen years wisely to think on your wicked deeds!"

"W-why fifteen years?" he asked, shivering from the cold and disgusted that he had begged them like a coward. "Why not twenty? Or ten? Or five?"

The Council shared a brief glance between them, before Venti spoke.

"After fifteen years your nephew will be a man, and ready to rule the throne that you so covetously tried to steal. You will therefore have to forfeit all claim to the throne, which will prevent you from a Royal Pardon. You will face your fate like a peasant would, not a member of the ruling elite."

"Yes, like a peasant," said Numa; she seemed to revel in that word. "A peasant."

He bowed his head in defeat and wept.

No...

Then at once he felt something strange. He was shaking. No, the island was shaking. The sand beneath him was rumbling and trembling and a great roar filled his ear.

"Wha...?"

The council had raised their hands and the island was rumbling; the oceans waves crashed in pain as they pulled away from the shore...and away...and away.

He turned and ran in panic in the direction of the boat just as the beach collapsed beneath him, sinking deep into the waves. The tide was pulling back and the coast line seemed to collapse within itself.Water rolled around the island in great tsunamis, but rolled over in a waterfall as a hole opened in the ocean, taking the beach and all chances of his escape with it.

As the shivering died down the council lowered their hands, many of them looking exhausted from their complicated spellwork, and a few even blinked out of existance.

Spirit forms?? he mentally raged. They were chasing me with their reflections! They have this much power and yet allowed the atrocities of my brother to continue?? And they DARE accuse ME of murder?

"So there you shall remain," Venti, or rather his reflection, declared. "With no access to the ocean escape will be nearly impossible without outside help. All attempts to leave this island on your own will be magically prevented by the barrier around this island we have created. You now depend upon the grace and kindness of others to get you out of this mess you have made. Only others may enter and exit this island, and bring you out of the barrier with them if they so choose. Remember this well."

He suddenly realized he was now a prisoner upon this very island. Surrounding him ocean on all sides, and a great chasm between him and that, with no chance of escaping.

"Remember, fifteen years and then we shall return, and pray that it is your nephews mercy that returns with us, and not his wrath, for it is HIS father who you have helped slay this very night!"

The aura of the Council began to fade and they moved away from the island, a ball of white light dissappearing off towards the distant skyline, where the clouds were even now rolling away with the lengthening light of dawn.

The chattering of the forest birds and creatures krept up upon him from behind and he turned, staring deeply into the unknown darkness of the forest. He looked up through the trees and the ominous and unmistakeable presense of a volcano towered above him. For a moment, he sighed in peace. The volcano, with its craggy precipices and curling plumes of smoke, seemed like a slumbering dragon, ready at a moment's notice to spout fire and take flight.

That's it! I've got it! No...I've...lost it...no wait, a dragon, YES!

Nearby, a parrot was squawking its humored song, and he turned to scowl it it, eyebrows darting together in disgust.

"Bad day?" The parrot squawked in inquiry.

"Shut it polly, unless you want a cracked beak."

The parrot wisely shut its mouth. Exhausted, the Gummi bear paused to take a deep breath, staring deeply into the unknown darkness of the forest with its hidden mysteries, its potential enchantments and probable dangers.

"Fifteen years...." He sighed and pushed his hair away from his head again, disgusted suddenly by the threadbare state of his once princely robes. "Well Augustus, I suppose fifteen years will be long enough time to carve my soul a permanent place on the map. But first...clothes..."

"What was your first clue?" The parrot squawked suddenly. "You're buck naked!"

Augustus chuckled ironically in defeat at the realization he'd be spending fifteen years with a sarcastic talking parrot, shook his head, then pushed forwards resolutely into the trees towards the remains of his boat. And much to his displeasure, the parrot soon followed, a fact which later, when the long years of his exile had past, he would greatly come to appreciate.

The smoke curled, the ocean shimmered in its jewelled beauty, and as the turning of the seasons passed by a dragon took shape in the mountain face; the embodiment of all his rage, hate, and in a small part of soul, his future fears.

One day, he knew, he would have to face the kraken again. One day...


-BWAHAHAHAH! Yes, yes, did you like my prologue? ;) Throwing people for a loop, what I love! I was once again inspired to start writing Gummi Bear fics. Originally this story was going to have many Pirates of the Carribean references, but I'm saving that for my sequel to "Ring and the Dagger". This story is an entirely seperate beast. Enjoy, for I don't know where this madness will lead, yes I do, but well, I don't. It could be het. It could be slash. Most likely slash. And new bears. Fun stuff like that! I'm finally back in action! (I hope!)