Thawing His Heart

Richella was still worrying as she geared up for the fight. Everyone was sorting through supplies and weapons. The clank of metal was very calming to Richella and she was soon in a good state of mind for fighting. She would have to push the feelings aside and deal with them later…..again.

They all piled into a few vehicles and headed off to the battle.

“I wish you would have stayed behind” Nuada mumbled to his sister

“I would be doing the same thing there as I will here….worrying” Nuala said back. She had insisted on coming, but agreed to stay in the van during the fight.

Prince Nuada suddenly looked very annoyed and glared at his sister.

“Would you stop thinking about Abe” he ordered through gritted teeth

Nuala rolled her eyes and shook her head. She wished he would find someone to love so he would understand she couldn’t just stop thinking about Abe. Having her brother there made everything so sensitive.

Richella sat in a corner of the van meditating. She focused on her past and a few memories in particular.

She was 5 and playing with a girl who lived across the street from her. They were braiding grass and making crowns from flowers when the girl’s mother came running out of the house.

“Becky! Get back inside! What did I say about playing with that girl?” The mother grabbed her daughter by the arm and pulled her inside.

“She doesn’t seem like a witch mum” The girl replied……………………….

She was 14 and eating lunch with a group of friends from her parents’ social circle. As usual she found herself surrounded by 4 or 5 boys jockeying for position next to her; offering her anything from their own plates and even a rare rose being pulled from behind their back.

“That’s it you slut!” a girl screamed from the end of the table

“Joanna please!” A boy next to her said

“No! She has to be doing something behind our back’s to make you all follow her around like lost puppies. Have you slept with her too Jacob?” the girl glared at Jacob

“Richella we’re here” Liz told her out of routine.

Prince Nuada watched Richella gracefully stand up and walk slowly out of the van in a trance. She stood a little ways off from the group and stared into the distance. He took a few steps towards her to try and see what she saw but a firm hand stopped him.

“Leave her alone she has to complete the transformation” Hellboy said to Nuada

Before every fight Richella gave herself time to build up to it and only when they had arrived did she allow herself to relive the next memory.

She was 19 years old and arguing with her adoptive parents. They had always made it clear she wasn’t theirs but they never talked about her real parents. She was pleading with them again to tell her who they were.

“Richella, why does it matter? Don’t we love you enough?” her mother cried out her usual guilt plea

“You do, but you can’t explain this” Richella yelled and closed her eyes.

She felt her anger build inside her and let herself feel every twinge. She heard her mother gasp at the same time Richella’s center of gravity shifted. Wings had burst from her back and her jaw felt stiff. She opened her mouth, now a beak, to speak but loud squawks came out instead. She realized she had never tried talking while in this form and apparently couldn’t do it.

Nuada almost fell backwards watching her transform. She was hideous! The beak covered her entire face leaving only enough room for two beady eyes on either side. The wings came down to her knees and were a tattered stained yellow color. She turned around and gave a quick squawk and leaped from the earth, the wind from her wings rustling the dirt below her.

“Amazing isn’t it?” Abe said over his shoulder

The prince turned and glared at Abe. He wasn’t going to agree with anything Abe said, not after he poisoned his sister’s heart.

“Once Richella gets back with the exact number of trolls we’re dealing with, we’ll decide the best way to approach this” Krauss informed the team

Richella landed with barely so much as a thump moments later. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. She had done the transformation so many times it only took her two breaths to turn back into her human shape.

“What is the count Agent Richella?” Krauss asked as soon as her beak was gone

“Well…..about 20, medium size….but..” Richella started to say but Krauss interrupted her

“Splendid! How are the dispersed in the area” Krauss continued

“Um….they are congregated in three different houses…But I th” Richella tried to tell them more but she was interrupted again

“Perfect. We’ll split up into pairs. Finish your house off then help the others. We’ll be done in no time. Agent Hellboy your with me” Krauss said

Nuada took a quick step towards Richella so he wouldn’t be paired up with Abe. The rest of the team finished loading and gathering weapons.

“Stay back Nuala. I’ll know if you so much as step towards the fight” Nuada warned over his shoulder

The team began to walk towards the encampment but Richella fell behind. Nuada turned to make her hurry but she had a confused look on her face.

“Something wrong?” Nuada asked

“They are so close to the border” Richella shook her head

“What? Who?” Nuada asked

“The trolls. The city limit runs directly through that neighborhood. Technically their only half wrong” Richella said with a shaking voice

Nuada was shocked to hear her be so concerned with the treaty border. He had pegged the BPRD as being pets to the humans, that they fought more against the magical realm than the human realm. But she seemed genuinely torn about pushing these trolls out.

“Then we wont fight” Nuada said happy to have an excuse not to fight against his own kind.

“Well they were wrong for forcing the humans out of their homes. They could have gone through more legal channels” Richella pointed out.

“They can still do that” Nuada said calmly.

Just then the yells of battle came from the neighborhood in question.

“If we don’t fight they’ll be out numbered” Richella said quickly and ran towards the yells.

The prince regretfully agreed. He felt his sister’s sudden worrying and imagined what her grief would feel like if Abe died. He concluded that the love might be more bearable than her grief.

They got to the scene just in time. Krauss’s suit was lying in a pile near the clearing and an unmanned car was herding trolls between two houses. Hellboy and Liz were fighting stragglers and just barely killing their present target before another over took them. Richella quickly made her way to the place Krauss was trapping the trolls. She jumped on top of the car and pulled the bow off of her back. She pulled an arrow to her cheek and released it before Nuada could blink. He ran to the side of the car to finish off the troll she had just taken down. Richella continued to shoot arrows from the roof of the car like a gladiator on a chariot.

“Go back home!” She screamed. A few took the hint and ran for the trees.

“Richella, over here!” Liz screamed a few feet from her

“No that’s the border. They are in their right to be there” She emphasized the last word by marking the border with an arrow.

“Come on don’t pull that shit again, these fuckers raided these homes!” Hellboy yelled back at her.

Richella didn’t let up though. She was more than happy to kill a Troll that crossed the border but she was not killing them on their rightful land. It only took a few minutes for the trolls to either back up or die fighting.

“Damn it Richella they’ll just come back in a month” Hellboy breathed heavily.

“Maybe but I’m going to tell the humans how close they are to the border. Hopefully I can convince them to move back a bit and keep a neutral pocket between them and the trolls” Richella stormed off to find the home owners

“She may need more looking after than you Agent Hellboy” Krauss said after he was back in his suit.

They all walked back to the van to catch their breath and appraise their wounds.

“ABE!!!” Nuala ran towards the group and caught Abe in a kiss.

Nuada nearly doubled over with the joy. He had gotten use to the worrying but the sudden change of emotions nearly made him sick. He glared at the couple and tried to be as annoyed as possible so his sister would feel his discomfort. But she didn’t show any signs of letting up.

“Aren’t they cute” Hellboy said with a rough pat on Nuada’s back

“Irrepressibly” He said back through gritted teeth

“Where’s Richella!?” Nuala asked after she had let Abe out of her grasp.

“She went to play mommy to the humans and tell them to back off” Hellboy sneered. He hated looking like the bad guy to the humans, and the more Richella threw fits like this the worse reputation the BPRD got.

“What did they do” Nuala asked.

“They were on troll land. That neighborhood is illegal we should have been fighting the humans” Nuada informed his sister.

Nuala made a concerned face and looked into the trees. She understood Richella more than anyone there. The humans had done horrible things to her as a child, and even though she tried to fit in later in life it was a world that never fully accepted her. Richella loathed the men for constantly reminding her she was different, and the women hated her for her effect on men.

“Well it seems the realtors told them the border was another mile beyond the neighborhood. I’ll go talk to them tomorrow” Richella said as she rejoined the group. They all just shook their heads and reloaded the vans.

“I appreciate what you did back there” Nuada said placing his hand on Richella’s shoulder

She blushed in response to his touch and smiled back. She suddenly was in a better mood than she was seconds ago and stepped into the van with a girlish skip.

“So is it wine tonight or margaritas?” Richella asked the group.

“You always ask that question and we all end up drinking our usual” Liz laughed

“Well could we at least play some decent music and not Abe’s whole classical collection this time?” Richella moaned

“Vivaldi is a very good way to wind down after a specially vigorous fight” Abe pointed out.

“Yes but we have a guest now. Let’s show him we can have fun as well as kick ass” Richella winked at Nuada

Nuala laughed at the idea of her brother having fun. She couldn’t even remember the last time he smiled.

“Don’t change your traditions because of me. I’m leaving as soon as we get back” Nuada said

“Oh NO! Please! It’s tradition that was all celebrate after a successful mission. You helped so you have to join” Richella pleaded. She wasn’t ready to part with the beautiful elf just yet

“It would be quite rude to leave brother” Nuala said trying to hide her amusement

She could hide the smile but not the tickle in her heart. Nuada knew his sister was up to something and he wasn’t so sure he wanted to find out. But Richella’s pleading eyes captivated him and he agreed to stay for a few drinks.


~~~~~

Wolfsoul~ Even though you wont ever see this I wanted to explain a little in case other people thought the same thing. I wanted to let everyone be on the same page as the BPRD agents. There is a lot more to Richella than what I told. There will defiantly be a few flash backs but since I figure you all are reading to see Nuada I didn’t want to waste time explaining her beyond what was important to him. I was thinking of doing a more in depth story based explanation about time since Hellboy II but it got kinda long and I admit I wanted to get to the meat (no pun intended) of the story. Thanks for the pointers hopefully you will keep reading and giving me feedback so I can improve.

Gwenfarr~ I was so sad when he died! Thanks for the suggestions about the speech. I watched the movie again and I hope I got a little bit more of his character in this chapter. I am writing him a little softer than Golden Army cuz I feel he has gone through a softening having to deal with his sisters feelings for Abe. I was hoping to cover that later but maybe I should work it in earlier. Thanks for the review!!