Spoons: Okay, this is just an experimental ficcie of mine (I couldn't find
any Epros/Ari pairings so I got frustrated ;) and I wanted to see how
this pairing would work. I'll try my best to be accurate.
Zebra: Don't bother. No one will care if you aren't.
Bird: That's no reason not to try.
Zebra: grumbles yes it is... --
Spoons: Aaanyway consider this to take place...oh...somewhere in the middle of the game. After Linda joins your party and before they visit the sewer and Triste. for those of you who haven't the faintest idea of what I'm talking about, Linda is the former Teen Idol Evil King, and Big Bull, who is also in your party at that point, is also a former Evil King. And the princess has gone off somewhere- back to her castle for the time being (I hate her. ). Evil Kings are really powerful ghosts that try to take over the world or something.
Zebra: Why write a fic about a sucky video game!? People don't read fics on sucky games!
Spoons: Grr...shut up! Please enjoy the fic, folks. And tell me what you think!
Bird: The main character's name in this fic will be Ari, which it is by default in the actual game. Please enjoy the fic.
Zebra: Hmf. -- Spoons does not own Okage or its characters. This ficcie will contain some yaoi or whatever. Rating is PG-13 or R, if Spoons decides to go perverse on us. shakes head sadly
Spoons: ignores Zebra And as for Epros's odd...erm...tendency to rhyme when he talks...I'll do my best on that ;;; but don't expect any masterpieces. Okage: Shadow King is a world where "ghosts" are various kinds of monsters that attack travelers and such. nods just so you know. Please review when you're done!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
= scene/time change
blah = word emphasis/italics
'blah' = thoughts
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
I Am of the Desert, You of Cultivation
-------
I am of the desert, you of cultivation:
Simplicity to me, to you is desolation;
Heat, thirst, and agony I seek out on vacation,
While you look for elegance and quiet restoration.
I am of the ocean, you are of the shore:
You want fewer waves, I manufacture more;
You like tranquil bays, I love the rollers' roar;
In me, a wild emptiness; in you, a quiet core.
While I am like a stream, you are like a lake:
I babble over boulders, you reflections make;
I rush forward heedlessly, as bones and branches break;
You part before the piercing bow and then absorb the wake.
That such extremes should not be mingled might seem elementary;
But love can make the wildest contradictions complementary.
-----
Poem by Nicholas Gordon
-------------------------------------------------------START---------------- ------------------------------------------
"Slave! Wake up, slave!"
Ari opened his eyes a crack and grumbled, rolling over to grasp his thin, yet pleasantly warm blanket. 'For the last time, my name's not slave. It's Ari.' He thought grumpily. That ghost had never gotten his name right. It was always "slave!" or "servant!" or "boy!". Not once had Stan called him by his name.
"I said wake up! There is much to be done! You cannot sleep any longer!" A black claw whacked Ari on the head. He frowned and sat up, turning to face the annoying Evil King. A pair of round, yellow eyes stared back at him. Stan's ghastly grin widened as he watched Ari stand up and stiffly stretch his arms. The sun had just risen above the leafy trees, dousing the wet grass and flowers with bright light. A faint mist drifted above the large lake not a few yards away. Today the sky was clear and cool, with many birds chirping and chattering in the trees. Stan folded his stick-like arms and nodded. "It's about time, slave!"
"Oh leave him alone. We all had a rough night." Rosalyn crashed through the nearby bushes, her arms full of sticks and twigs. She was a Hero by classification, in her early twenties, and had large, dusty yellow eyes and blonde hair that hung at shoulder length. A small, pink parasol was slung over her shoulder, badly clashing with her warrior's clothes. She walked into the clearing and dumped the wood on the ground. "I'll start breakfast. Why don't you go and wake the others, Ari."
"Alright." He said, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Stan grumbled something about useless slaves and disappeared in a poof of inky black, back into Ari's shadow. A loud snore broke the tranquility in the woods, coming from somewhere near the edge of the clearing. A ratty old sleeping bag with a large lump, indicating that there was someone inside, rested next to a young, sleeping girl with dark blonde hair and a pair of gray, striped horns on her head, dressed in a simple pink dress and clutching a microphone in her hands. Further back into the forest, a large bull-like creature with yellowish skin and large horns, dressed in a tacky green and white striped shirt, slept sprawled out on a wide tree stump, his thin tail whipping back and forth occasionally as he muttered something in his sleep. Ari approached the snoring sleeping bag and tapped it with his foot. "Professor Kisling? Breakfast is soon. You should get up."
"Mhmm....nggm...ghosts...ghosts everywhere......I wonder if they...nhmm...would like some tea........."
"Kisling?" Ari sighed and knelt down next to the girl, shaking her gently. "Linda?"
The girl stirred and smiled, her fingers intertwining around the odd microphone tighter. She opened her eyes and looked around.
"Oh my. Is it morning already? I'm still so sleepy. Ah, good morning, coach!" She grinned and sat up, her face lighting up like a candle. "Are we ready to go?"
"Not yet. Rosalyn is making breakfast still."
"Alright! I'll go help her." Linda frolicked off towards Rosalyn, who was kneeling down by the woodpile trying to get a fire started.
"Big Bull! Wake up!" Ari yelled, startling the former Evil King from his sleep. He flailed and fell over, landing face-first in the dirt. Grinning cockily, he jumped up and laughed.
"I meant to do that! What time is it? Breakfast? Great! Lots of food is important for building strong muscles!" With that said, he ran off to the recently-started fire, tripping and falling over a few feet from it. Rosalyn shook her head at him and resumed poking the fire with her rapier, trying to make it bigger, while Linda pranced back and forth, singing one of her famous, brainwashing songs.
"I say, what a beautiful day! It reminds me of how the mornings tend to look in the northern snowfields. Very clear indeed." Kisling, an old, frizzy haired researcher by classification, stiffly pulled himself out of the sleeping bag and bent over, touching his toes. "Another beautiful day! I can't wait for breakfast!" With that, he too went to join Rosalyn and the others. Ari sighed and looked out over the lake, scuffing at the ground with his worn shoes. It had been weeks since he'd started this journey, and he found that as time went on, he longed more and more to be back at home with people who knew him. The others were still fretting over the fire, trying in vain to get a good flame started. Lowering his eyes to the ground, Ari made his way slowly over to the lakeshore and sat down on the bank, watching the water lap against his shoes.
No one ever seemed to care about him. They all acted like he wasn't there most of the time. Even Stan, who was forced to reside in his own shadow, remained distant. Rosalyn was the only one who paid him much attention from time to time, but even then it was only because he was the servant of the Evil King she was trying to defeat. Not because he felt lonely or miserable. At least back at home there weren't many people to ignore him. If only he'd never left there. If only Stan had never showed up, none of this would have ever happened to him. He leaned over and stared into the shimmering water. A young boy stared back at him with dull, green eyes and messy, brown hair. His clothes were simple, not made for fighting or traveling, and a wide sword hung from his belt. 'Why am I on this stupid adventure, anyway? It's not like I asked for it.'
"Servant!" Stan appeared behind him in a cloud of black smoke. "We must get moving! We'll never find the rest of the fake Evil Kings if we sit here all day!"
Ari sighed and stood, walking over to where a nice, roaring fire was cooking a large rabbit on a stick. Stan hovered along behind him, unable to move around without Ari doing it for him. Kisling looked up and smiled.
"Ahh Ari. You're just in time for a nice rabbit breakfast! Rosalyn here caught the little fellow trying to crawl into her sleeping bag."
"I stabbed it before I knew what it was." She admitted rather sheepishly. "I figured we might as well eat the poor thing."
Ari raised his brow and sat down in front of the fire. 'I'll make sure never to crawl into her sleeping bag, then. Er...' He shook his head and accepted a rabbit leg from Big Bull, munching down on it absentmindedly. The others were busy talking. Rosalyn was getting into another heated argument with Stan, which usually resulted in Ari hAring a rapier pointed at his neck, Linda was squeamishly picking the hairs off of her meat, while Kisling tried to persuade her to just bite down on it and ignore the little "rabbity hairs", and Big Bull was examining the rabbit carcass for the toughest bits of meat while muttering something about building up tough muscles. As usual, no one was paying him any attention at all. He sighed and bit into the meat, glad to have something to distract himself with. 'Poor little rabbit...' He thought, turning the leg over in his hands. 'I'll bet no one cared about you either. We're pretty similar, you and I. Hmm...I hope I don't end up like you, though. Run through by Rosalyn's-'
"You take that back, you pseudo Evil King!" Rosalyn yelled. Ari gulped as he felt the cold edge of her blade press against his neck.
"Ha! You don't have the skills to take me on, weakling Hero!" Stan laughed and grinned at her mockingly. "I shall strike you down if you try to harm my slave! You will never defeat the Great Evil King Stan!"
"I highly doubt that." Rosalyn clenched her teeth, the blade pressing harder into Ari's neck. Linda and Kisling were watching now, while Big Bull still searched the rabbit over for more meat.
"Now calm down, Rosalyn. You should think things through before you stab people with your sword! For instance, if you had thought things through before stabbing that little rabbit, I'm sure things would have turned out better. You can't just go around running people through." Kisling nodded, congratulating himself for saying something on such a seemingly profound level. Rosalyn's eyes grew sad and she lowered the blade. Ari breathed a sigh of relief.
"I didn't mean to kill the rabbit...it was an accident." She murmured, sitting down on the grass. Linda looked at her sympathetically and resumed fretting over her meat.
"Ha! See? No skills at all. I was right all along, as usual." Stan grinned cockily and laughed, Kisling made no comment, returning to his spot by Linda, and Big Bull looked up suddenly, confused as to what he'd just missed. Shrugging, he eyed Ari and whipped his tail against the grass.
"You don't look too good, brother! Are you working out enough?" He smiled and flexed his arms. "You need muscles like these! They're a sure sign of health!"
"He's right, you know. You have been looking a little pale lately." Rosalyn said, taking on a concerned look. "You don't suppose Ari is sick, do you Kisling?"
"Sick?" Stan echoed, staring down at Ari's head. "Why would my slave be sick?"
"People get sick. It's very normal, Stan." Kisling came over and sat down next to Ari, carefully observing his ear. "An ear infection, perhaps? Or maybe he's got a ghost in him causing the sickness." The scientist nodded to himself again. "Yep. I think it's a ghost."
"Maybe he didn't get enough sleep. A lack of sleep will ruin your outer appearance." Linda said, finally taking a tiny nibble out of the meat.
"Oh for crying out loud, it's probably just a cold or something." Rosalyn said, shaking her head at the others. "Go wash in the lake, Ari. You might feel a bit better."
"Alright." Ari stood and began to walk towards the water as Stan vanished into his shadow. Ari stopped after he was a ways away from the campfire. He could hear the others talking amongst each other again, their voices too far away to make out what they were saying. He walked into the thick reeds and sat down on a rock, sighing contentedly. It felt very good to be away from them. All he could hear now were the birds, an occasional frog, and the lapping of the water against the shore. The lake was beautiful from this angle, the sun reflecting off of the shimmering surface. 'What's to be gained by this stupid hunt for Evil Kings, anyway?' He asked himself, dipping his fingers in the frigid water. 'After we find all of them and Stan regains his full power, he'll just start all kinds of trouble. And Rosalyn will go after him, and probably end up killing him, too. Not that I really care. He probably deserves it, knowing him. ' Ari picked up a small, flat rock, running his fingers along its smooth surface before skillfully chucking it across the water, watching it skip along the surface three times before submerging with a plunk. He got up from his rock and knelt by the water, scooping it up in his hands and splashing it on his face. Shaking his head to dry his hair somewhat, he stood and walked back towards the campfire. Big Bull was stomping on the remains, trying to get the coals to go out. Rosalyn shook his head at him.
"Doesn't that burn your feet, Big Bull??"
"Nonsense! I'm to tough for some puny coals to harm me!" He laughed, his feet turning red and black from stomping on the hot wood. He gave a forced smile and resumed stomping, a little less vigorously than before.
"Let me help." Rosalyn pointed her parasol at the smoldering woodpile and mumbled something, a stream of supercooled air shooting out of the tip. Big Bull yelped and jumped out of the way, his toes covered in frost. The fire was now a large chunk of ice.
"Watch where you're aiming next time!" He whimpered and sat down, rubbing his feet with his hands. Rosalyn murmured an apology and rested the pink parasol against her shoulder, twirling it absentmindedly.
"Shall we break camp?" Kisling was in the process of rolling up with moth-eaten sleeping bag. Ari sighed and went over to the woods to retrieve his thin blanket from its spot on the flattened grass. The threads were rapidly coming apart. It looked as if his blanket only had a few more days left of usefulness before he would be forced to find a new one.
Around an hour later the five of them (not including Stan who was still in Ari's shadow) were walking down the desolate, dirt road on their way to the next town. Linda was prancing along as usual, humming another of her songs, Rosalyn was glaring at their map, turning it upside down and sideways, which Ari decided was not a good sign, Big Bull was spacing out, mumbling something under his breath about spas and gyms, and Kisling was reaching over to assist Rosalyn with the map, who whacked his hand with her parasol and continued grumbling and turning the map around. Kisling shook his head and reached into his pocket to pull out one of his many guidebooks on ghostology. He flipped it open and began to read. Ari rolled his eyes and watched his feet, deciding that as bad of an idea as it was, he would leave the nArigating to Rosalyn. The birds were chattering more loudly now. It was almost deafening, making it extremely difficult to hear other noises.
A faint clank resounded behind him, making him whip his head around and pause briefly before running to catch up with the others. None of them had noticed his odd behavior, all of them busy with one thing or another. He blinked and shook his head, deciding that he'd been hearing things. Another noise that sounded like a two swords clashing together issued from the trees behind him. The others didn't seem to notice it. He frowned and looked over his shoulder, seeing nothing but the trail and the dense forest on either side of it.
Another hour passed and they were in a thicker part of the forest, the sky hidden by branches and leaves. Rosalyn had given up on the map and was attentively practicing the incantation for her ice spell, little wisps of frost shooting out of her parasol every now and then, which she had pointed to the ground. Kisling was halfway through the book, and Linda and Big Bull's activities hadn't changed in the last hour. Ari was about to take a little mental vacation when he thought he heard that metallic clinking noise again. It was very faint, coming from somewhere far to the rear left. It was then that he noticed the forest was utterly silent.
"Hey...Rosalyn?"
"What?" She replied inattentively, still trying to get the spell just right.
"Listen. The forest. It's completely silent." He looked around, unable to see past the first few yards of trees and bushes. Rosalyn put her parasol back over her shoulder and listened.
"...You're right. That's odd. Something must have scared the animals. Even the insects are quiet."
"Maybe we did." Kisling offered, looking up from his book momentarily. Rosalyn shook her head.
"No...the birds were singing just a few minutes ago..."
"I keep hearing this-"
"Hey, what's that?" Kisling interrupted Ari, walking ahead a few feet to where a large sword lay on the ground. It had a very wide, blue-ish blade and was long, about four feet, with a yellow hilt and sharpened edges.
"Someone must have dropped it." Rosalyn said. Kisling walked back over to them with the sword in his arms and they continued walking down the path. Linda glanced at the oddly colored weapon and went back to her humming, while Big Bull didn't seem to notice whatsoever. "What are we going to do with it?"
"Why, keep it, I suppose! Unless someone claims it. I say, it certainly is a very sharp sword. Someone must take very good care of it." He said, cutting his finger on the edge by accident. Ari thought he saw something glitter on the hilt. He leaned over and observed it closely, but there didn't seem to be anything there.
'I must be seeing things.' He decided, walking behind Kisling. He heard a few more of the clinking noises, but they seemed to be becoming less and less frequent and further away. Kisling mumbled something and tightened his grip on the weapon.
"I think I may be going a little batty but..." He began, frowning at the sword. Ari rolled his eyes at him and thought to himself, 'Well duh. You're just figuring that out?'.
"But what?" Rosalyn asked, glancing over at him.
"I could've sworn I just felt this thing shudder a little. But swords don't shudder. They don't move at all, for that matter. Unless someone is moving it themselves, of course, but I wasn't moving it. I was just holding it." He held the sword by its hilt, dangling it so the tip was pointing towards the ground. Rosalyn blinked at him.
"Maybe it's an enchanted sword. They're not all that uncommon." She said, resuming her spell practice. Kisling shrugged, reading his book with his free hand. Ari saw the sword hilt glitter in the corner of his eye again and he quickly glanced down at it, noticing a large, shiny black dot in the middle of it. Then it was suddenly gone. The blade rippled faintly. Kisling didn't seem to notice, utilizing his nose to flip the next page of his book. The sword then jerked out of his hand and thumped onto the ground. Kisling blinked and bent over to pick it up. The weapon hopped and jumped around on the ground like it was alive. Kisling chased it down the road and back, trying to coax it into his hand. Rosalyn was watching him run after it. She rolled her eyes and aimed her parasol at it, firing bolts of ice at it in an effort to freeze it in place. Linda was laughing as she watched Kisling run after the sword and try to dodge Rosalyn's ice attack at the same time, and Big Bull was standing with his arms folded, also rather amused by the spectacle. The sword stopped its hopping and floated into the air, hovering off of the ground at eyelevel. Kisling stopped chasing it and tried creeping up behind it slowly, ready to grab the hilt. With an ear-splitting grating noise, the blade split down the middle, forming what almost looked like a mouth with jagged metal teeth. The shiny black dot appeared on the hilt again, blinking a few times. Ari gasped, shouting for Kisling to get away from it. 'It's an eye!'
The sword made a horrible shrieking noise and whipped around, biting at Kisling with its razor sharp teeth. Kisling yelled and fell over backwards, using his book as a shield. The sword snatched the book and growled, ripping it up. Firing bolt after bolt of ice, Rosalyn tried to drive the sword away from Kisling. Linda was hiding behind Big Bull, who was arguing with himself what kind of wrestling move he should use on a sharp sword.
Ari backed away towards the edge of the forest, his back bumping against a tree. A low, grating sound issued from behind him, a floating sword, identical to the one that was attacking Kisling, swooping out from around the tree trunk to hover an inch from his face, staring him in the eye. Ari screamed and ducked down as the sword thrusted towards him, jamming its blade into the tree's bark where his face had been. He retreated back into the middle of the path where the others were gathered. Dozens of floating, shrieking swords were surrounding them, more and more of them appearing out of the forest by the second. Stan appeared in a cloud of black and looked around bewilderedly.
"What're all these Masterless Swords doing here!? I thought these ghosts only resided in the desert far to the east!" He yelled, ducking down as one of the swords zipped past his head, chattering and shrieking when it realized that it had missed its target. Ari unsheathed his sword and held it at the ready, backing up to stand with his back against Big Bull and Kisling. Linda was trying her best to sing a song that would hypnotize and calm the swords, but the deafening noise was too much for it to be heard.
"I don't know how these things got here, but let's make sure they don't harm anyone else!" Rosalyn said, wAring her rapier around menacingly. Several of the nearby swords shrieked at her and circled above their heads, occasionally diving down to swipe at them. Ari slashed at one. It tumbled back a few feet and shook its blade, snarling at him angrily. It flew at him, swerving side to side and finally rearing up to crack him over the head with the flat of its blade. Stan yelled and vanished as Ari fell over onto the dusty ground, blacking out.
-----------------------------------------------------END-------------------- -------------------------------------------
Spoons: Ahh that felt good to write. pats self on back
Zebra: You are such a freak, you know that? A freak.
Spoons: Well I think I kept the style of the video game pretty good all through the fanfic! Except for the end, of course. But if this were exactly like the game, it wouldn't be a fanfiction, now would it? It would be the game. Which it's not. Erm...
Zebra: Just do us all a favor and stop talking. --
Bird: I thought it was very good.
Spoons: See!? Bird thinks it's good!
Zebra: Get a life, you hack author.
Spoons: TT that was cold, Zebra. You're my muse. Why can't you act like one? sobs
Zebra: sighs Alright, alright. It was good, I guess.
Spoons: Yay!! huggles Zebra
Zebra: --
Bird: Please review and tell us what you think! Reviews will be responded to in the next chapter by Spoons. nods happily
Spoons: Reviews are good, so leave some!!
Zebra: Don't bother. No one will care if you aren't.
Bird: That's no reason not to try.
Zebra: grumbles yes it is... --
Spoons: Aaanyway consider this to take place...oh...somewhere in the middle of the game. After Linda joins your party and before they visit the sewer and Triste. for those of you who haven't the faintest idea of what I'm talking about, Linda is the former Teen Idol Evil King, and Big Bull, who is also in your party at that point, is also a former Evil King. And the princess has gone off somewhere- back to her castle for the time being (I hate her. ). Evil Kings are really powerful ghosts that try to take over the world or something.
Zebra: Why write a fic about a sucky video game!? People don't read fics on sucky games!
Spoons: Grr...shut up! Please enjoy the fic, folks. And tell me what you think!
Bird: The main character's name in this fic will be Ari, which it is by default in the actual game. Please enjoy the fic.
Zebra: Hmf. -- Spoons does not own Okage or its characters. This ficcie will contain some yaoi or whatever. Rating is PG-13 or R, if Spoons decides to go perverse on us. shakes head sadly
Spoons: ignores Zebra And as for Epros's odd...erm...tendency to rhyme when he talks...I'll do my best on that ;;; but don't expect any masterpieces. Okage: Shadow King is a world where "ghosts" are various kinds of monsters that attack travelers and such. nods just so you know. Please review when you're done!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------
= scene/time change
blah = word emphasis/italics
'blah' = thoughts
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
I Am of the Desert, You of Cultivation
-------
I am of the desert, you of cultivation:
Simplicity to me, to you is desolation;
Heat, thirst, and agony I seek out on vacation,
While you look for elegance and quiet restoration.
I am of the ocean, you are of the shore:
You want fewer waves, I manufacture more;
You like tranquil bays, I love the rollers' roar;
In me, a wild emptiness; in you, a quiet core.
While I am like a stream, you are like a lake:
I babble over boulders, you reflections make;
I rush forward heedlessly, as bones and branches break;
You part before the piercing bow and then absorb the wake.
That such extremes should not be mingled might seem elementary;
But love can make the wildest contradictions complementary.
-----
Poem by Nicholas Gordon
-------------------------------------------------------START---------------- ------------------------------------------
"Slave! Wake up, slave!"
Ari opened his eyes a crack and grumbled, rolling over to grasp his thin, yet pleasantly warm blanket. 'For the last time, my name's not slave. It's Ari.' He thought grumpily. That ghost had never gotten his name right. It was always "slave!" or "servant!" or "boy!". Not once had Stan called him by his name.
"I said wake up! There is much to be done! You cannot sleep any longer!" A black claw whacked Ari on the head. He frowned and sat up, turning to face the annoying Evil King. A pair of round, yellow eyes stared back at him. Stan's ghastly grin widened as he watched Ari stand up and stiffly stretch his arms. The sun had just risen above the leafy trees, dousing the wet grass and flowers with bright light. A faint mist drifted above the large lake not a few yards away. Today the sky was clear and cool, with many birds chirping and chattering in the trees. Stan folded his stick-like arms and nodded. "It's about time, slave!"
"Oh leave him alone. We all had a rough night." Rosalyn crashed through the nearby bushes, her arms full of sticks and twigs. She was a Hero by classification, in her early twenties, and had large, dusty yellow eyes and blonde hair that hung at shoulder length. A small, pink parasol was slung over her shoulder, badly clashing with her warrior's clothes. She walked into the clearing and dumped the wood on the ground. "I'll start breakfast. Why don't you go and wake the others, Ari."
"Alright." He said, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Stan grumbled something about useless slaves and disappeared in a poof of inky black, back into Ari's shadow. A loud snore broke the tranquility in the woods, coming from somewhere near the edge of the clearing. A ratty old sleeping bag with a large lump, indicating that there was someone inside, rested next to a young, sleeping girl with dark blonde hair and a pair of gray, striped horns on her head, dressed in a simple pink dress and clutching a microphone in her hands. Further back into the forest, a large bull-like creature with yellowish skin and large horns, dressed in a tacky green and white striped shirt, slept sprawled out on a wide tree stump, his thin tail whipping back and forth occasionally as he muttered something in his sleep. Ari approached the snoring sleeping bag and tapped it with his foot. "Professor Kisling? Breakfast is soon. You should get up."
"Mhmm....nggm...ghosts...ghosts everywhere......I wonder if they...nhmm...would like some tea........."
"Kisling?" Ari sighed and knelt down next to the girl, shaking her gently. "Linda?"
The girl stirred and smiled, her fingers intertwining around the odd microphone tighter. She opened her eyes and looked around.
"Oh my. Is it morning already? I'm still so sleepy. Ah, good morning, coach!" She grinned and sat up, her face lighting up like a candle. "Are we ready to go?"
"Not yet. Rosalyn is making breakfast still."
"Alright! I'll go help her." Linda frolicked off towards Rosalyn, who was kneeling down by the woodpile trying to get a fire started.
"Big Bull! Wake up!" Ari yelled, startling the former Evil King from his sleep. He flailed and fell over, landing face-first in the dirt. Grinning cockily, he jumped up and laughed.
"I meant to do that! What time is it? Breakfast? Great! Lots of food is important for building strong muscles!" With that said, he ran off to the recently-started fire, tripping and falling over a few feet from it. Rosalyn shook her head at him and resumed poking the fire with her rapier, trying to make it bigger, while Linda pranced back and forth, singing one of her famous, brainwashing songs.
"I say, what a beautiful day! It reminds me of how the mornings tend to look in the northern snowfields. Very clear indeed." Kisling, an old, frizzy haired researcher by classification, stiffly pulled himself out of the sleeping bag and bent over, touching his toes. "Another beautiful day! I can't wait for breakfast!" With that, he too went to join Rosalyn and the others. Ari sighed and looked out over the lake, scuffing at the ground with his worn shoes. It had been weeks since he'd started this journey, and he found that as time went on, he longed more and more to be back at home with people who knew him. The others were still fretting over the fire, trying in vain to get a good flame started. Lowering his eyes to the ground, Ari made his way slowly over to the lakeshore and sat down on the bank, watching the water lap against his shoes.
No one ever seemed to care about him. They all acted like he wasn't there most of the time. Even Stan, who was forced to reside in his own shadow, remained distant. Rosalyn was the only one who paid him much attention from time to time, but even then it was only because he was the servant of the Evil King she was trying to defeat. Not because he felt lonely or miserable. At least back at home there weren't many people to ignore him. If only he'd never left there. If only Stan had never showed up, none of this would have ever happened to him. He leaned over and stared into the shimmering water. A young boy stared back at him with dull, green eyes and messy, brown hair. His clothes were simple, not made for fighting or traveling, and a wide sword hung from his belt. 'Why am I on this stupid adventure, anyway? It's not like I asked for it.'
"Servant!" Stan appeared behind him in a cloud of black smoke. "We must get moving! We'll never find the rest of the fake Evil Kings if we sit here all day!"
Ari sighed and stood, walking over to where a nice, roaring fire was cooking a large rabbit on a stick. Stan hovered along behind him, unable to move around without Ari doing it for him. Kisling looked up and smiled.
"Ahh Ari. You're just in time for a nice rabbit breakfast! Rosalyn here caught the little fellow trying to crawl into her sleeping bag."
"I stabbed it before I knew what it was." She admitted rather sheepishly. "I figured we might as well eat the poor thing."
Ari raised his brow and sat down in front of the fire. 'I'll make sure never to crawl into her sleeping bag, then. Er...' He shook his head and accepted a rabbit leg from Big Bull, munching down on it absentmindedly. The others were busy talking. Rosalyn was getting into another heated argument with Stan, which usually resulted in Ari hAring a rapier pointed at his neck, Linda was squeamishly picking the hairs off of her meat, while Kisling tried to persuade her to just bite down on it and ignore the little "rabbity hairs", and Big Bull was examining the rabbit carcass for the toughest bits of meat while muttering something about building up tough muscles. As usual, no one was paying him any attention at all. He sighed and bit into the meat, glad to have something to distract himself with. 'Poor little rabbit...' He thought, turning the leg over in his hands. 'I'll bet no one cared about you either. We're pretty similar, you and I. Hmm...I hope I don't end up like you, though. Run through by Rosalyn's-'
"You take that back, you pseudo Evil King!" Rosalyn yelled. Ari gulped as he felt the cold edge of her blade press against his neck.
"Ha! You don't have the skills to take me on, weakling Hero!" Stan laughed and grinned at her mockingly. "I shall strike you down if you try to harm my slave! You will never defeat the Great Evil King Stan!"
"I highly doubt that." Rosalyn clenched her teeth, the blade pressing harder into Ari's neck. Linda and Kisling were watching now, while Big Bull still searched the rabbit over for more meat.
"Now calm down, Rosalyn. You should think things through before you stab people with your sword! For instance, if you had thought things through before stabbing that little rabbit, I'm sure things would have turned out better. You can't just go around running people through." Kisling nodded, congratulating himself for saying something on such a seemingly profound level. Rosalyn's eyes grew sad and she lowered the blade. Ari breathed a sigh of relief.
"I didn't mean to kill the rabbit...it was an accident." She murmured, sitting down on the grass. Linda looked at her sympathetically and resumed fretting over her meat.
"Ha! See? No skills at all. I was right all along, as usual." Stan grinned cockily and laughed, Kisling made no comment, returning to his spot by Linda, and Big Bull looked up suddenly, confused as to what he'd just missed. Shrugging, he eyed Ari and whipped his tail against the grass.
"You don't look too good, brother! Are you working out enough?" He smiled and flexed his arms. "You need muscles like these! They're a sure sign of health!"
"He's right, you know. You have been looking a little pale lately." Rosalyn said, taking on a concerned look. "You don't suppose Ari is sick, do you Kisling?"
"Sick?" Stan echoed, staring down at Ari's head. "Why would my slave be sick?"
"People get sick. It's very normal, Stan." Kisling came over and sat down next to Ari, carefully observing his ear. "An ear infection, perhaps? Or maybe he's got a ghost in him causing the sickness." The scientist nodded to himself again. "Yep. I think it's a ghost."
"Maybe he didn't get enough sleep. A lack of sleep will ruin your outer appearance." Linda said, finally taking a tiny nibble out of the meat.
"Oh for crying out loud, it's probably just a cold or something." Rosalyn said, shaking her head at the others. "Go wash in the lake, Ari. You might feel a bit better."
"Alright." Ari stood and began to walk towards the water as Stan vanished into his shadow. Ari stopped after he was a ways away from the campfire. He could hear the others talking amongst each other again, their voices too far away to make out what they were saying. He walked into the thick reeds and sat down on a rock, sighing contentedly. It felt very good to be away from them. All he could hear now were the birds, an occasional frog, and the lapping of the water against the shore. The lake was beautiful from this angle, the sun reflecting off of the shimmering surface. 'What's to be gained by this stupid hunt for Evil Kings, anyway?' He asked himself, dipping his fingers in the frigid water. 'After we find all of them and Stan regains his full power, he'll just start all kinds of trouble. And Rosalyn will go after him, and probably end up killing him, too. Not that I really care. He probably deserves it, knowing him. ' Ari picked up a small, flat rock, running his fingers along its smooth surface before skillfully chucking it across the water, watching it skip along the surface three times before submerging with a plunk. He got up from his rock and knelt by the water, scooping it up in his hands and splashing it on his face. Shaking his head to dry his hair somewhat, he stood and walked back towards the campfire. Big Bull was stomping on the remains, trying to get the coals to go out. Rosalyn shook his head at him.
"Doesn't that burn your feet, Big Bull??"
"Nonsense! I'm to tough for some puny coals to harm me!" He laughed, his feet turning red and black from stomping on the hot wood. He gave a forced smile and resumed stomping, a little less vigorously than before.
"Let me help." Rosalyn pointed her parasol at the smoldering woodpile and mumbled something, a stream of supercooled air shooting out of the tip. Big Bull yelped and jumped out of the way, his toes covered in frost. The fire was now a large chunk of ice.
"Watch where you're aiming next time!" He whimpered and sat down, rubbing his feet with his hands. Rosalyn murmured an apology and rested the pink parasol against her shoulder, twirling it absentmindedly.
"Shall we break camp?" Kisling was in the process of rolling up with moth-eaten sleeping bag. Ari sighed and went over to the woods to retrieve his thin blanket from its spot on the flattened grass. The threads were rapidly coming apart. It looked as if his blanket only had a few more days left of usefulness before he would be forced to find a new one.
Around an hour later the five of them (not including Stan who was still in Ari's shadow) were walking down the desolate, dirt road on their way to the next town. Linda was prancing along as usual, humming another of her songs, Rosalyn was glaring at their map, turning it upside down and sideways, which Ari decided was not a good sign, Big Bull was spacing out, mumbling something under his breath about spas and gyms, and Kisling was reaching over to assist Rosalyn with the map, who whacked his hand with her parasol and continued grumbling and turning the map around. Kisling shook his head and reached into his pocket to pull out one of his many guidebooks on ghostology. He flipped it open and began to read. Ari rolled his eyes and watched his feet, deciding that as bad of an idea as it was, he would leave the nArigating to Rosalyn. The birds were chattering more loudly now. It was almost deafening, making it extremely difficult to hear other noises.
A faint clank resounded behind him, making him whip his head around and pause briefly before running to catch up with the others. None of them had noticed his odd behavior, all of them busy with one thing or another. He blinked and shook his head, deciding that he'd been hearing things. Another noise that sounded like a two swords clashing together issued from the trees behind him. The others didn't seem to notice it. He frowned and looked over his shoulder, seeing nothing but the trail and the dense forest on either side of it.
Another hour passed and they were in a thicker part of the forest, the sky hidden by branches and leaves. Rosalyn had given up on the map and was attentively practicing the incantation for her ice spell, little wisps of frost shooting out of her parasol every now and then, which she had pointed to the ground. Kisling was halfway through the book, and Linda and Big Bull's activities hadn't changed in the last hour. Ari was about to take a little mental vacation when he thought he heard that metallic clinking noise again. It was very faint, coming from somewhere far to the rear left. It was then that he noticed the forest was utterly silent.
"Hey...Rosalyn?"
"What?" She replied inattentively, still trying to get the spell just right.
"Listen. The forest. It's completely silent." He looked around, unable to see past the first few yards of trees and bushes. Rosalyn put her parasol back over her shoulder and listened.
"...You're right. That's odd. Something must have scared the animals. Even the insects are quiet."
"Maybe we did." Kisling offered, looking up from his book momentarily. Rosalyn shook her head.
"No...the birds were singing just a few minutes ago..."
"I keep hearing this-"
"Hey, what's that?" Kisling interrupted Ari, walking ahead a few feet to where a large sword lay on the ground. It had a very wide, blue-ish blade and was long, about four feet, with a yellow hilt and sharpened edges.
"Someone must have dropped it." Rosalyn said. Kisling walked back over to them with the sword in his arms and they continued walking down the path. Linda glanced at the oddly colored weapon and went back to her humming, while Big Bull didn't seem to notice whatsoever. "What are we going to do with it?"
"Why, keep it, I suppose! Unless someone claims it. I say, it certainly is a very sharp sword. Someone must take very good care of it." He said, cutting his finger on the edge by accident. Ari thought he saw something glitter on the hilt. He leaned over and observed it closely, but there didn't seem to be anything there.
'I must be seeing things.' He decided, walking behind Kisling. He heard a few more of the clinking noises, but they seemed to be becoming less and less frequent and further away. Kisling mumbled something and tightened his grip on the weapon.
"I think I may be going a little batty but..." He began, frowning at the sword. Ari rolled his eyes at him and thought to himself, 'Well duh. You're just figuring that out?'.
"But what?" Rosalyn asked, glancing over at him.
"I could've sworn I just felt this thing shudder a little. But swords don't shudder. They don't move at all, for that matter. Unless someone is moving it themselves, of course, but I wasn't moving it. I was just holding it." He held the sword by its hilt, dangling it so the tip was pointing towards the ground. Rosalyn blinked at him.
"Maybe it's an enchanted sword. They're not all that uncommon." She said, resuming her spell practice. Kisling shrugged, reading his book with his free hand. Ari saw the sword hilt glitter in the corner of his eye again and he quickly glanced down at it, noticing a large, shiny black dot in the middle of it. Then it was suddenly gone. The blade rippled faintly. Kisling didn't seem to notice, utilizing his nose to flip the next page of his book. The sword then jerked out of his hand and thumped onto the ground. Kisling blinked and bent over to pick it up. The weapon hopped and jumped around on the ground like it was alive. Kisling chased it down the road and back, trying to coax it into his hand. Rosalyn was watching him run after it. She rolled her eyes and aimed her parasol at it, firing bolts of ice at it in an effort to freeze it in place. Linda was laughing as she watched Kisling run after the sword and try to dodge Rosalyn's ice attack at the same time, and Big Bull was standing with his arms folded, also rather amused by the spectacle. The sword stopped its hopping and floated into the air, hovering off of the ground at eyelevel. Kisling stopped chasing it and tried creeping up behind it slowly, ready to grab the hilt. With an ear-splitting grating noise, the blade split down the middle, forming what almost looked like a mouth with jagged metal teeth. The shiny black dot appeared on the hilt again, blinking a few times. Ari gasped, shouting for Kisling to get away from it. 'It's an eye!'
The sword made a horrible shrieking noise and whipped around, biting at Kisling with its razor sharp teeth. Kisling yelled and fell over backwards, using his book as a shield. The sword snatched the book and growled, ripping it up. Firing bolt after bolt of ice, Rosalyn tried to drive the sword away from Kisling. Linda was hiding behind Big Bull, who was arguing with himself what kind of wrestling move he should use on a sharp sword.
Ari backed away towards the edge of the forest, his back bumping against a tree. A low, grating sound issued from behind him, a floating sword, identical to the one that was attacking Kisling, swooping out from around the tree trunk to hover an inch from his face, staring him in the eye. Ari screamed and ducked down as the sword thrusted towards him, jamming its blade into the tree's bark where his face had been. He retreated back into the middle of the path where the others were gathered. Dozens of floating, shrieking swords were surrounding them, more and more of them appearing out of the forest by the second. Stan appeared in a cloud of black and looked around bewilderedly.
"What're all these Masterless Swords doing here!? I thought these ghosts only resided in the desert far to the east!" He yelled, ducking down as one of the swords zipped past his head, chattering and shrieking when it realized that it had missed its target. Ari unsheathed his sword and held it at the ready, backing up to stand with his back against Big Bull and Kisling. Linda was trying her best to sing a song that would hypnotize and calm the swords, but the deafening noise was too much for it to be heard.
"I don't know how these things got here, but let's make sure they don't harm anyone else!" Rosalyn said, wAring her rapier around menacingly. Several of the nearby swords shrieked at her and circled above their heads, occasionally diving down to swipe at them. Ari slashed at one. It tumbled back a few feet and shook its blade, snarling at him angrily. It flew at him, swerving side to side and finally rearing up to crack him over the head with the flat of its blade. Stan yelled and vanished as Ari fell over onto the dusty ground, blacking out.
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Spoons: Ahh that felt good to write. pats self on back
Zebra: You are such a freak, you know that? A freak.
Spoons: Well I think I kept the style of the video game pretty good all through the fanfic! Except for the end, of course. But if this were exactly like the game, it wouldn't be a fanfiction, now would it? It would be the game. Which it's not. Erm...
Zebra: Just do us all a favor and stop talking. --
Bird: I thought it was very good.
Spoons: See!? Bird thinks it's good!
Zebra: Get a life, you hack author.
Spoons: TT that was cold, Zebra. You're my muse. Why can't you act like one? sobs
Zebra: sighs Alright, alright. It was good, I guess.
Spoons: Yay!! huggles Zebra
Zebra: --
Bird: Please review and tell us what you think! Reviews will be responded to in the next chapter by Spoons. nods happily
Spoons: Reviews are good, so leave some!!