Maidenless No Longer (Elden Ring)

Chapter 1: Melina

A/N: This fic is complete on all of my other websites, but I've decided to post it up here as well one chapter a day until it's done. If you want to read ahead, you can go check it out on QQ, HF, FF, or AO3!

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

-x-X-x-

There are many Tarnished in the Lands Between. More than in the past, but not quite as many as before. This might have seemed like a contradiction, but there was truth to the words all the same. Tarnished Hunters, Godrick the Grafted's ilk, and other ne'er dowels, chased down fresh Tarnished wherever they could be found. It made Limgrave quite the unfriendly place to be a Tarnished these days... but still no less friendly than anywhere else in the Lands Between.

Yes, there were many Tarnished in the Lands Between, but only one Tarnished was HER Tarnished. Her chosen champion, the one who Melina had decided to pin all of her hopes upon. She'd been looking for such a Tarnished for quite some time now. After watching this one for the past few hours, she knew... he was her Tarnished.

He'd woken in the Chapel of Anticipation, and immediately went on his way. Clad in the armor of a veteran, wielding a simple Claymore, he'd strode forward, seemingly fearless even in the face of danger. And oh, was there danger awaiting him. The Grafted Scion that made its home near the Chapel of Anticipation would be a match for most of your average Tarnished. It was, after all, made to be greater than the sum of its parts...

Yes, each Grafted Scion was made of the leftovers from the Tarnished that Godrick the Grafted's Tarnished Hunters captured and brought him. Those he deemed unworthy of being grafted upon himself, but that were not so weak as to be turned into little more than chow for the dogs. Those were what became Grafted Scions. Made up of dozens of Tarnished, they were powerful monstrosities... and incredibly dangerous, to say the least.

Melina expected to watch her chosen Tarnished put up a decent fight, but ultimately fall to the Scion. She would then swoop in to retrieve him and bring him where he needed to go. From there, things would begin to take shape.

Except, the first upset to her plans came when the Tarnished she'd been drawn to, faced off against the Grafted Scion... and prevailed. Rolling away from its blows, dodging every swing of its wild, flailing limbs, easily avoiding its leaps and slams and snarling energized movement, the Tarnished... dispatched the Grafted Scion in what felt like the blink of an eye.

It's more like half a minute, but even still, Melina is a little taken aback by the speed with which her Tarnished dismantles the grafted monstrosity. For a moment, she's amazed... and worried. How is she to bring the Tarnished where he needs to go now that he's hale and hearty? Will she be forced to approach him earlier than intended?

... Thankfully, no. The Tarnished dispatches his foe with ease, and then promptly moves through the doors onwards, and subsequently falls off of an unstable cliff-face as it collapses out from under him. The drop leaves him a twitching heap of limbs at the bottom of said cliff, and for a moment, the juxtaposition between him destroying a creature like the Grafted Scion without a single injury, and then... falling for such a simple thing, leaves Melina speechless.

But only for a moment, and then she's moving, Torrent taking her to the fallen Tarnished, so they can... relocate him to somewhere safer, where he can recover from his grievous injuries and begin his journey.

Melina is almost grateful for his little tumble. Everything... everything is still going according to plan.

-x-X-x-

As her Tarnished settles down at the Site of Lost Grace located outside of the Stormgate, Melina doesn't hesitate to approach him. She cannot, too much is at stake. He looks to her, even as she materializes, appearing out of nowhere. While there is a hint of nervousness to her, she quickly tamps down on it... she cannot afford to show a single ounce of uncertainty here, in this critical and crucial moment.