Cursebound: Plot: Soft Feet

Content warnings: non sexual nudity, brief sucidal ideation followed up with the firm decision to live, injuries to feet

It was raining. 

Zeke had opened his eyes as cold rivulets of water washed over his strangely colored skin, laying in damp grass with a sharp stick poking into his side. He did move for a moment, heart in his throat as he opened his eyes. He recognized the position he was laid in. Half curled with his tail carefully curled to hide his nakedness, his hands placed purposefully with one palm up and one palm down, water pooling in his cupped hand. He had been positioned for death. The way bodies were placed in holes when their families had to…… had to….

Zeke shifted up quickly, throwing the thought from his mind. There had been a folded blanket under his head, but it clearly wasn’t from the palace. It was brown and a lot coarser than what Zeke was used to. Still, he unfolded it and wrapped it around himself and over his head, pushing his brown hair into view. 

Everything was so brown. The familiar silvers and blues seemed so far away from the place as he watched the rain darken the foliage of the forest he found himself in. 

Taking a deep breath, he got to his feet, trying not to look at the markings on his darkened tail. He’d only taken a couple of steps when he cried out and fell, clutching at his foot. Pain lanced sharply through it as he realized he’d stepped on a sharp plant. He’d never felt pain this clearly before. Was he dying? Was the plant poisonous?

But when he looked at his foot, the skin was a little scratched but not really broken. At least not deeply enough to bleed. Why had it hurt so much? 

He got back up and quickly realized that stepping on anything remotely hard, pointy, or sharp hurt, and he soon had tears as well as rain slipping down his cheeks. 

He darted out a tongue to catch a tear as it came down his cheek with the light drizzle, hoping his naturally healing tears would take the ache out of his feet and was horrified when nothing changed. All he tasted was salt and water, he swallowed hard and whispered, “It’s okay, Zeke, you’re okay. You’re a member of the Almagest family, you’re alr-” His voice broke. He wasn’t though. He woke up in that pose because they counted him as dead. And wanted him to know it. 

Zeke’s tears came faster, bringing with them sobs that caused him to stumble and hurt his feet more. He fell to the mud, wailing in anguish. 

“NOLAN! AUNTIE! Please!! Take me home! Please! Nolan!! Please please, take me back!”

His sobs and wails took his words from him again as he curled in on himself, shaking as the rain and mud soaked his blanket, hair, and skin. All brown and dull and cursed. He would never be silver and beautiful. The markings marred his skin so badly he didn’t even look like an Almagest anymore. His horn was curved now, wicked looking in its shape and he was never going home. 

He didn’t move from the spot, crying till his face was dripping with tears, snot, and saliva. His energy slowly ran out and all he could do was shiver in the rain. What was he meant to do? Where was he to go? Was this his planet? He didn’t think so. The plant life looked so different here. They really didn’t care if he lived or died and now he was so numb with cold and expressed emotions that he wasn’t sure if he cared anymore either. 

………………………………………

Three days he’d been in this wilderness. It must be the rainy season because it rained off and on, washing away mud from Zeke’s skin that would only build up again soon enough. 

He was starving, his stomach beginning to feel like it would cave in. He had endless supplies of water from the sky, it seemed, but all he’d eaten were some berries from the day before, and he was so tired. He only slept when the sun was out as it was too cold when it was night time or raining to allow him to do so. Exhaustion began to drag at every step he took. 

He looked up at the melancholy sky, blank in its greyness. He had seen no stars yet through the clouds, and he was beginning to feel as though he would die before he saw them again. 

Zeke had a terrible premonition that he wouldn’t go back into the reincarnation cycle when he died this time. 

Zeke stopped and stood under a tree for a moment. Was there a reason to live? He had no one, didn’t know where he was, only had a blanket to his name, and his family considered him dead. 

He almost lingered on the thought but instead stumbled into the trees, picking up sticks that were about the lengths of his fingers and stones that he managed to pry up from a creek that looked typically dry most of the time, but now flowed steadily with all of the rain. 

He took his supplies to a cluster of trees with needles instead of leaves. He did not know what they were called since they did not exist on Kahari, but their shed needles provided a small place where the ground was mostly clear for him to work. 

He knelt down, protected from the rain and let the blanket slide off his back, shivering in the wind but glad to not have the wet cloth pressed against his skin. 

He hoped this would work. It should, even though his magic was broken. He hadn’t been able to use it at all since the curse took hold in his flesh, but he could feel it was still there. Besides, he’d seen people outside of his family casting for answers before, so it should still work for him. He just hoped he could remember how to do it exactly since he’d never had a real need for it before. 

He closed his eyes, hefting his pebbles in one hand and the sticks in the other, shifting his fingers to shuffle them. After the third lift he lowered his hands again and tossed the sticks, waiting till he heard them all land before he opened his eyes. 

He looked at the pattern, the lengths and colors of everything, one question in mind.

Where do I go to live?

After a long moment of study, he got up, tucked his sopping blanket around himself, and continued walking. 

…………………………….

Zeke huddled under a tree, shivering so hard his muscles were beginning to cramp, but he needed a break. The wind had picked up and his feet burned and screamed below him. When he’d sat down and had a look, he could see red staining the bottoms of his soft soles. He wanted to rest even if he was cold and hungry. 

Just as he was starting to wonder if the fortune was wrong, if there was no help to be found on this path,  a large figure came crashing loudly onto the cold wet ground, sending muddy water flying in his direction. 

“This isn’t even the village F’thelin! Thanks for nothing!” the woman on the ground yelled at the air. The figure rose, her clothes drenched from the muddy ground. She began to laugh to herself as she fell back into the mud, her arms falling to her sides, before turning to notice a figure sheltered under the leaves. Meeting his fearful eye she slowly sat up, leaning her elbows on uncomfortable gravel. “Hi..”

Zeke took in her pink hair and dark skin and thought she was familiar. She must have come to the courts at some point and stuck around when he was younger. He faintly remembered being small enough that his horn still hurt in his head as it grew in. “Hi.”

She looked around curiously, seeing if he was with anyone else before she asked, “What are you doing out here? Are you lost?”

Zeke pulled his blanket tighter around him, self conscious of his state. “I… yes. What planet is this?”

“Mmm I believe this is Plaisiss,” the woman said, getting up and rearranging her outfit, though muddy still doing an excellent job of presenting her as beautiful and interesting. Not your typical adventurer, but not an average noblewoman either. She was far too comfortable with mud.

“Plaisiss,” Zeke murmured. He’d heard of the planet, stable now after some sort of kerfuffle with a strange magic user. He couldn’t remember much about it. He had been too invested in his upcoming ceremony. 

He rearranged his blanket as she offered him a hand so he wouldn’t flash her as he got up and she frowned. “What has you out in just a blanket?” she asked, untying one of her skirts and offering it to him. 

“Oh, I don’t have any coin or magic to trade,” he said, refusing the offer. Even as royalty, the Almagest family was expected to pay for items from their people. Another rule to keep them grounded, smart, and humble. 

The woman rolled her eyes and offered the blanket more vehemently. “Take it. I’ll trade it for answers to my questions.”

He did so hesitantly, trying to tie it around him without being indecent. “I was….. I think I’ve been banished?”

“Oh, from where?” the woman asked. 

“Kahari. I’m an Almagest.”

The woman gave him a look over and nodded slowly, clearly showing that she knew the family and that she did not believe him in the slightest. “Right. And which one would you be then?”

“Altair… Zeke.”

“Mmhmm…. I’m Valrie.”

Zeke ducked his head, another little piece of his heart breaking. He really wasn’t an Almagest anymore, was he. Anyone who knew what a real unicorn looked like would never believe him. He felt the urge to defend himself and said, “I was cursed. Something related to Jurogumo, I think.”

Valrie’s eyes flashed with something almost disturbing. Interest and brief worry before it cleared away. “Alright. How about we get you somewhere warm. I believe there should be a town down this way.”

It hit Zeke that he really didn’t have any money. How was he supposed to pay for food and a bed? What was it that commoners did when they found themselves in a situation like this? Did they ever find themselves in situations like this?

Valrie seemed to notice his expression falling even farther and said, “Oh, don’t worry, hun. I’ll take care of it, okay?”

“I can’t pay you,” Zeke replied, baffled. 

She waved her hand. “It’s fine. We’ll see about getting you to my hair dresser too. Yours looks like it could use a little bit of help.”

Zeke wanted the earth to swallow him up forever. Never once in his life has he ever been in a state where his hair needed attending to so bad someone had commented on it.

“Okay,” he said softly, and while Valrie started chatting about something, he didn’t really hear her as he focused on putting on foot in front of the other, shivering the whole way.

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Thanks to Percy for helping me out with planning this out and for the bit of writing I stole to put in here :3