The clone inhaled and exhaled, eyeing the man who once had the creature near him approach, soon picking up Aethir. "
E-Er...well..." the clone responded, but found it pointless to finish his statement. Aethir...look a bit lifeless as he was picked up by the collar, his body limp. "
You don't understand...And the cherry doesn't understand." he sighed, and would slowly lean onto the person holding him. He then began to sob again. "
No one...understands..." As the clone sighed and turned to see a deer holding up strawberries, it gasped, covering it's mouth. "
Sir...?" the clone spoke, then tensed up as Aethir's eyes were already on the fruit. His heart began to speed up, bumping strongly as his blue eyes were locked on the red god fruits. He panted, eyeing the fruit he longed for, finding it so unfair that he could not enjoy that which he used to.
The clone eyed Aethir, nervously looking over at the strawberries, getting an idea on how not to have a repeat of an incident earlier this month. The clone, being the man himself, is aware of the strawberry withdraw symptoms, the ronin entering stage three of seven. The first would be the shock of being unable to enjoy strawberries for some time, Aethir staying calm as he just had to wait for a time to reunite with his lover... The second would be what he had demonstrated at home. Denial, and trying to develop a work around to this 'no strawberry' policy... The third would be extreme depression and sadness, the gradual lose of one's sanity, Aethir demonstrating that he was at this point by calling a stranger a cherry... And the fourth of seven stages was what Aethir was entering now... His heart sped up even faster, his breathing growing heavier as he now breathed through his open mouth, still eyeing the fruit. This feeling inside, this growing maturing feeling...was rage. Pure rage that others could enjoy such a delicacy while he had to suffer a time without them. The breathing halted, a strained, high pitched cry slowly erupting from the man, as if he were having some organ pulled from his stomach by some invisible force... "
This...is not good." the clone blinked, slowly turning to the strawberries nearby.
+++
Now, to anyone who wasn't Aethir, it'd just look like he was screaming like a psycho. But to Aethir, a lot more was happening from not eating a strawberry... In his mind, the ground was catching fire by dark pink flames, leaving behind a scorched black ground. The skies grew dark from the even darker clouds, black clouds almost as flashes of pink and red can be seen within the clouds... The man let out a louder cry, hunching over with his hands over his face, the nails on said hand bleeding bloods that trailed down his arms and onto the ground. Then, upon the seventh drop of blood, the ground split open, even more pink and red flames sprouting from the growing crack in the now rumbling earth. The crack increased until several cracks with flames sprouting out were formed, eventually a large hole in the ground making way for one...fearsome...creature... Rising suddenly from the flames was a four fingered skeletal hand and arm, soon crashing near the screaming ronin. The ground soon sprouted red cable cords of some sort, wrapping around the arm as another one rose from the flame, this time covered in pink and golden flames in the shape of a large claw of some sort. Soon rising from the flames all together was a large headless skeletal body, some of the bones greeted with the same red cables from the ground as it coiled around each bone, purposely leaving some bones exposed. However, the cords eventually met at the top of the missing head, forming into a shape of a strawberry, dark green leaves sprouting from the top as red juiced flew and rained onto the screaming ronin. Was it blood or just strawberry juice? No one will know... Roaring even louder, the ronin's body shot up, Aethir inhaling sharply to scream more, eventually the skeletal strawberry beast slowly having a mouth created. The fleshy tissues of the strawberry ripped open as jagged sharp teeth were presented, a long split tongue slowly presenting itself to the world from the inner confines of the mouth. Finally, the creature roared loudly, causing birds of all kind to fly in fear from the increasingly rising pillar of pink and red flames. The roar sounded like a mix of a gorilla along with a reptilian screech, accompanied by some unrecognizable higher pitched screech. Hell, this whole thing was unrecognizable... However, the strawberry monstrosity began to eye the tributes before him, to further fuel the strawberry kingdom in which he guards. The cherry man, the strawberry fan, and the strawberry deer. The monster didn't pay any attention to the deer or the man that the deer belonged to, but rather eyed the cherry man. "
Your people... Your kingdom... And your ruler... " the strawberry monster paused, eyeing the man, "
...will suffer a slow torturous death... " the monster breathed, it's voice deep and sinister, pointing a flaming finger at the cherry man as it roared once more in the man's face, the same flames rushing from it's newly created mouth towards the man.
+++
...Of course, none of this was actually happening outside of Aethir's mind, the clone casually attempting to get a strawberry and feed it to the screaming madman in a peaceful forest clearing, not forgetting to give a 'thank you' bow to the creature before leaving. No one was really in any danger, Aethir was just being dramatic... Of course, that own't save anyone from Aethir's physical capabilities and combat skills... If the clone was allowed to get a strawberry from the small creature, then Aethir, once fed, should be normal again, no longer screaming...but will be incredibly depressed again...
Word Count: 2148
Aethir's chakra: 210/250
Clone's Chakra: 25/25