Birds
Disclaimer: I don't own Assassin's Creed.
A.N.: Because I think that Assassin's Creed's version of Leonardo da Vinci is awesome/adorable (his German voice actor does a really great job and is the same one as of Prince of Persia's new Prince and Nathan Drake from Uncharted) here a little drabble about him and the real Leonardo da Vinci's love for birds. Inspired by a little bird I noticed while drinking coffee and the German version of Leonardo, who just seems to be a little more like a little excited puppy, than the English one.
The sun burned and, together with the deafening noise of the market place, bound all senses, something that caused a strange sense of drunkenness, but for once, he could rest.
In the cacophony of noise, colour and light, his ever working brain couldn't find anything to really focus on, to analyse or to interpret and so it just ceased all work. Was the brain able to sulk?
Admits the herd of the general public he walked, noticed this and that and for once managed to forget it all for the moment, even if he knew, that just hours later, in the cold darkness of his studio he would remember and once again he would be prompted to start to write, to sketch, to invent, to put down his thoughts.
But his little leather book remained closed. For now.
It was a little bird, that finally caught his attention. It wasn't the most beautiful bird he had ever seen, it wasn't even anything remotely special, with a dress of black and white, but the little bi-coloured sparrow managed to capture his attention. Well, he wasn't entirely sure, that it was a sparrow, he would look that up later, but it was plain enough to pass for one.
Why would anyone try to sell such a bird?
There was nothing majestic, nothing exotic about it, it was small, a little dirty and from the sounds he had heard so far it didn't even sing.
“30 Florin per l'uccellino, Messer, if you are interested?”, he heard the vendor's voice just over his right shoulder and immediately he straightened and put his arms up in a defensive manner. “Ma no, scusi, ma non sono...”, he answered, trying to not look in the least surprised at the sudden intrusion in his thoughts, “I mean, yes, I'm interested, but this bird, it's just so plain, I don't think that 30 Florin are the right prize”, he tried to explain, not really noticing, that he just insulted the merchant, as he gestured towards the little bird.
Than he noticed something. The bird had ruffled his feathers and now seemed to try to look intimidating, glaring at him over his short little peak. Moved by his curiosity, Leonardo moved closer to the cage and peered inside. The bird stared back at him through a patch of ruffled feathers and made strange accusing sounds. Was that little thing trying to threaten him? By that look he gave him, he would say yes, even if the overall picture was more adorable than terrifying really.
And suddenly a memory surfaced and he suppressed a laugh. They were a little alike, this little bird and the man that now regularly beat down his door.
At first he had been like that bird, with a murderous intention, but not all that much experience or menace to back his words up, he had been lost, but tried to convince everyone that he wasn't, he had something he needed to do, but no idea, how to start or where to go. While he wouldn't describe Ezio Auditore as adorable, there were some parallels between him and this little uccellino.
Only that now, after two years, the man managed to be terrifying, if he wanted, while the bird here failed at that task completely.
“How much did you say, you wanted for the bird?”
With the “Mille grazie, you saved my family, messer!” of the merchant behind him and the little bird wriggling in his hand he stood and peered at the sun, when he noticed the strange shadow that had just slipped over the roofs of the building to his left and with a smile he released the bird in his hands.
And as the little bird left his care, leaving behind a few bloody scratches and another much more unpleasant gift, Leonardo da Vinci just hoped that this wasn't another one of life's strange metaphors.
Especially after the bird just barely managed to out fly an arrow soaring through the sky.
Venezia
Disclaimer: I don't own Assassin's Creed.
“And this is just one of la Serenissima's famous markets. Here you will find everything your heart will ever need, from exotic spices to the finest glassware from Murano”
As their guide launched into yet another round of praise for "his" Venice, Ezio tried to resist the temptation to throw the man into a canal and was glad for his hood, which just barely concealed his bored expression.
That expression however changed rapidly as he noticed that Leonardo was gone. Where had that crazy man wandered of to now? He held great admiration for him, the one who build most of his more “artistic” weapons, he had seen him, while he translated the first codex-page, a work that had taken several hours, and therefore knew that when he wanted he could concentrate on one thing for hours, even days, but damn, Leonardo had to learn how to stand still for a minute, when they were going anywhere.
Ezio looked around for clues and their guide, later he found standing between some courtesans and currently trying to stop his eyes from falling out his eye sockets and in the cleavage of the pretty brunette to his right. Sighing heavily, Ezio put his hand over his eyes and dragged it down his face. No help to expect there.
Muttering under his breath, he pushed past a group of people, standing in his path, his eyes wandering over the piazza, hoping to notice that red hat he had grown so accustomed to look for.
He and Leonardo would sometimes stroll through Florence, or better, Leonardo would stroll and Ezio would carry this or that, depending on what Leonardo was too lazy to do himself and every single time, he would lose sight of the other man, who had just gone off to “sketch that bird, it was inspiring really and you should have seen that tail! I wonder what his tongue looks like” or to “observe the bouncing of that courtesan's breasts”, all for science and very important naturally and he had to run around the whole city to find that madman sitting in a tree somewhere, observing the sunset.
Then he would hit him upside the head and tell him that he was the biggest idiota he had ever seen, and Leonardo would get that look, something between a kicked puppy and a really annoying guy, that just knew that Ezio was worried.
While searching for the lost artist, he passed a rather fat, seemingly rich guy, who was just yelling at a young merchant cowering before him.
Knowing that he did a good deed and beign a bit short of money anyway he stole the 1500 Florin in that arrogant man's pockets.
Suddenly out of nowhere a hand grasped his wrist and held on tight like a steel coil. “Figlio d'un cane, what do you think you are doing!” Unfortunately his victim was stronger and much more perceptive then he seemed and now threatened to break his wrist, while screaming his lungs out for the guards, which immediately came running from the nearby station. Ezio cursed heavily and struggled against the other man's grip, while the guards, enough of them armoured heavily, closed in on the pair. The sword of the first to reach him, was already swung at him, when he used his second blade to wound his captor and he took off running like one of the minstrels was after him.
He jumped over grates, rushed through the thick mass of people before him, his eyes scanning for a way to reach higher grounds, when he noticed that tell-tale hat before him.
Leonardo was just sketching contently an exotic fruit he had found, humming a song, he still remembered from his childhood in the land close to Vinci, following the elegant curve of the fruit with his eyes and pencil, admiring the soft texture of it's skin, when suddenly the world changed and turned upside down. A hand laced itself unto his arm, pulling him upright, and dragged him like a hurricane with it, right through the crowd.
“Ezio?! Why are we running? Where are we running?”, an arrow lodged itself in the wood of the stall next to his head, “and why are people shooting at us?!”, he screamed, slightly panicked, while trying to keep up with the assassin, without losing his footage and falling down.
“Stole money. Screwed up.”, Ezio pressed out between his teeth, speeding up even more as he noticed the men behind them. “Why do you do that every time we go somewhere?” Leonardo already knew the answer, but tried to get through to Ezio's common sense anyway, which was so obviously lacking. “Because you just had to interrupt our tour and I had to go looking for you!” the other answered. “That doesn't even make any sense!”
“Less talking, more climbing up this ladder.”, Ezio gestured just to the right of them, “Hide in that stack of hay up there, I distract them and catch up later”, and with that the Ezio all but threw him in the general direction of the ladder and was gone.
After he had sufficiently hid between the rotting layers of hay, Leonardo waited.
And waited.
And waited somemore.
He actually started coutning pieces of straw when he suddenly heard a scream above him, “Out of the way, Leonardo!”
He just managed to dive to the side, barely avoiding falling off the roof, as Ezio landed where he just had hid.
Looking at each other, they both yelled at the other: “See, this is why I can never go anywhere with you!”
A.N.:
This was inspired by myself, since I stole everything not nailed down, while making that tour through Venice. Oh well, all for the greater good.
