Nightmares in the glowing lakes
Kanda stepped off the train with a scowl on his face, Krory had been nothing but trouble for him since they had left The Order, like a child with too many questions. Krory stepped out behind him a sheepish look of humility on his downward looking face, knowing that he had upset Kanda. The two garnered many stares from the small towns folks as they exit the station and were waved down by the observer who had been assigned to the town some months before.
"Master exorcists," The observer called out causing the two to stop in their tracks.
Kanda turns, eyeing the awed faces of the towns people with suspicion before nodding to the Observer. Krory smiles embarrassed but doesn't say anything as the three walk through town.
The buildings around town are dingy and worn, eyes peek out from behind closed shutters with malice and distrust as they pass. The Observer lets out a quiet sigh. "It's been like this since I got here, very few of the towns people will even talk about the strange things happening here. Not to say they won't talk at all, they have quite a few stories about a monster that appeared in this town a few months ago and then six years before that."
"What kind of monster? " Krory asks.
"All the stories are they same but they only said it had horrid wings and a whiplike tail, but what is more interesting is that both times they claim to have seen this monster was after large explosions near the caves and forest outside of town."
"Oh." Kanda sneered. "And what is out there?"
"An inn. " The observer looks up at the sky. "But rumor says it was run by a witch, and that she died the same day the monster appeared last. The old witch left the building in the care of a girl, but I've been unable to find her around town and no one is willing to tell me much about her."
"So we need to find this girl." Kanda states. "How far is this inn?"
#!#
The building was old and being reclaimed by nature, vines twisted in and out of the shoddy rooftop and a tree seemed to be growing somewhere within. In it's hay-day it probably could have housed two dozen or more guests, judging by it's size. The three approached at a slowed pace eyeing the building in disbelief.
"Are you sure someone actually lives here?" Krory asks in a curious but quiet tone.
Beyond the inn was a great wall of trees, unbroken for as far as the eyes could see, illuminated by a strange green glow coming from directly behind the building. An unseen presence watched them from the shadows.
"This is all I've ever seen when I've come out here to inspect the place, " The observer says in a grave tone. "Behind the building is a glowing lake, beyond that a forest...but there is no way into it that I've found."
"Oh?" A fourth quiet voice chimes from the shadows.
"There must be some trick to it...but this is why you two are here. " The obsever says as he looks up at Kanda, whom is eyeing the area with a purpose. "Master Kanda?"
"Quiet." Kanda snaps.
Krory backs up a few steps also scanning the area pausing on the area around the inn. " I don't sense any Akuma..."
"Thats because they were not welcome here..." The soft unknown voice chimes again. "Why are you here?"
"Who's there?" Kanda demands.
"I believe I asked first..." A shadowey shape moves beside the inn. "How rude." The shadow snaps in a deffinate feminine voice. "Did the village send you here?"
The observer takes a few steps back, feeling nervous. "The girl..." He mutters under his breath as he retreats beyond Kanda and Krory.
Gold eyes flash in the shadows. "Are they worried about the monster or the witch?" Her voice tinged with venom as she speaks. "Have you come to take me as well then?"
"We are exorcists from the Black Order." Kanda states. "We've come to investigate the strange happenings in this area to determin if a piece of something called inoccence is responsible..."
The shadowey girl laughs suddenly. "Exorsists...is that right?" She steps out from the shadows dressed in a tattered ancient coat with the Black Orders seal on the sleeve and black pants, her long black hair fell below her waist and clear golden eyes stared at the exorsists. "So what are you doing here at my home?"
Both of the exorsists stared at the girl in silence for a few moments, the number of questions between the two were too inummerable to count. Finally Krory takes a step forward, "Could we talk to you for a bit? Noone in the village seems to want to tell us much."
The girl smiles. "Come down to the lake...it's safer from prying ears...we can talk for a little while." She pivots around and hurries behind the building without waiting for an answer, her distrustful exspression unseen.
The lake was massive and green, so green it let off a vibrant glow illuminating the waterlilys and lotus plants so that they seemed almost alien. The inn took on a charming quality behind them, seeming to sparkle faintly in the dark.
Krory's hair prickled and he felt an ache in his teeth, he could smell Akuma blood. Faint and old but he could smell the taint left on the ground and on the great wall of trees, and in the great green glow he could faintly make out a line of graves at it's base. Three large stones and more than a dozen wooden markers.
Kanda notices Krorys change in composure imediately and follows his companions eyes to where the graves lay. He pauses and turns to the Observer. "Go back for tonight, we'll meet up first thing in the morning, make sure to file a report."
The observer, needing no further coaxing, takes off at a full run back towards the village to file his report.
#!#
The girl and the two exorsists sit quietly next to the glowing green lake wiating for the observer to be long out of sight before breaking the silence.
"You probably wonder what is going on here...and if you guessed innocence, you might be right..." The girl says softly. "The glowing lake, the labrinth in the forest, these are how that place protects itself from those it deems unwelcome, or at least thats how it was explained to me when I was little...and it calls out when it's in danger..."
"What about this lake is dangerous?" Kanda asks.
"Nothing in particular..." the girl smiles and steps into the water. "As long as your human and not one of those puppets...you are right?"
The two exorsist exchange glances and look back at the girl. Kanda being the first to speak, " You exspect us to beleive that?"
The girls eyes dart away towards the tree wall, her head cocking to the side. As she steps out of the water the two realize shes barefoot, she turn back with a sigh. "You should look around the inn...the old woman kept allot of things about the forest..."
"The inn?" Krory asks.
"If you enter from this side it'll be fine..." The girl again turns to the tree wall looking annoyed before taking off at a full run towards the wall, suddenly disappearing into darkness.
"Lets go look around the inn." Kanda states after a moment as if trying to make up for the unexspcted actions of their only lead.