Alternate Reality ~
The First Dimension ~ Prelude
BANG!
BANG!
Cye
shot up from the table at the sound of gunfire. "What the..." He,
Rowen, and Dais - the only ones still at the house - raced outside to find a
body and shells. Nothing else. Only small, light footprints leading to a
corpse...
"Hey!
Guys! She's alive!" This came from Dais, who was kneeling over a pretty
young woman in a spreading pool of blood. Her hair was long, wavy, and
honey-brown, but bloodstain soon soaked it a deep mahogany color. Rowen looked
her over, noting only two bulletwounds - one a grazing shot on her side, the
other through her left arm. They very carefully carried her inside and fixed
her up. Dais threw the stuff off his bed and laid her down. Sekhmet could kiss
his ass; this girl was gonna get some sleep. (The thirteen of them lived in a
huge house out in the forest - Ryo, Sage, Cye, Rowen, Kento, Anubis, Dais,
Cale, Sekhmet, Mia, Kayura, Yuli, and White Blaze.) His snakey roomie could
deal with it. It was his bed anyway.
They
carried her upstaitrs and put her on the bed. Dais sat to watch her, but he
soon dropped off...
The next morning...
It was
a parade coming into their house, Dais was sure - but no, it was just the rest
of the crew. He ran down stairs and hissed at them to be quiet. Ryo asked him,
"Why?"
"Well,
our injured guest is still sleeping, and until we figure out WHY she was shot
I'd rather we not wake her up."
"Whoa
whoa... Hold on. What are you saying?"
Cye
piped up, explaining what had happened the night before. "She was just
layin' there, Ryo... We couldn'ta left her. She would have died!"
He
sighed. "Well..." Dais looked at him hopefully. "Huh? Huh, Ryo,
can we keep her?"
Ryo
burst out laughing at the look on his face. "Alright, she can stay.
But," he held up a hand to silence Dais' groan, "YOU have to take
care of her."
Dais
grinned and said, "Don't worry, Ryo, you won't even know she's here..."
"AAAAAIIIIEEEEE!!!!!"
A
scream echoed down the stairs. "I won't, huh, Dais?"
"SPIDER!!!!"
Dais
ran up the stairs, hoping to save the poor...
"DIE,
SPIDER, DIE!!! DIE!!!!!!!"
Spider.
Oh, well... He thought. He
walked into his and Sekhmet's room and grinned sheepishly at the spider-hating
woman standing on his bed. "It was crawling on me," she hissed through clenched
teeth.
"It's
just a spider, it won't hurt you here," he said soothingly..
"This
is not Lloth's realm?"
"Who?" was his confused
reply.
"Never
mind; sorry about your spider. I thought he was a spy."
What have I gotten myself into? Dais
wondered. Just then, he was saved by a Cye carrying a bowl of that magical
chicken soup. "Here, lady, have some soup; it's good for ya. You need to heal
up afore ya can go home." She eyed him suspiciously, yet climbed down off the
bed and took the soup. She smelled it; it smelled absolutely wonderful. "Mmm...."
she said, "I suppose now I'm trapped here. Not like I'm going home anyway; that's
why I left in the first place. Ten thousand years gives you such a crink in the
neck!!" She sighed, seeing they didn't get the joke. "Fine, only six thousand
years. But that place was boring as hell. I had to get out. So I became a
planeswalker and fled." They stared at her. "Hmm... must not be that kind of
world here. You people are stuck in this dimension?"
Dais
nodded, bewildered. "I... I guess-"
He was
cut off by a fascinated Rowen standing in the doorway. "You mean you're from
another world?"
She
nodded. "Hai, of course. I've been to many other worlds."
They
were interrupted by an angry doko masho.
"No
way. Not in my room. Dais, get it out of there!!" Sekhmet was trying to push
past Rowen to get into his room.
"It?"
the lady inquired icily. His beady black eyes snapped up, and he stuttered. "Excuse
me, I thought..."
"Hm.
Suprising." She narrowed her eyes at him. Such
a tiny brain, it's a wonder...
Dais
snatched up the opportunity. "Come on,
Sekhmet, it's my room too..."
"No! I
don't care. The fact that it's a woman only makes it worse. You really want to
have to clean this room?"
"No,
but..."
"No
buts! She goes. Put her in with Mia and Kayura or something."
Cye and
Rowen snickered. Sekhemet whirled on them. "What's so funny?" he demanded.
"Demoted
to pet status by a snake? I think not." Hazel eyes flashed as the strange lady
walked over to the ex-Warlord. "I would not stay in a room with such a...
hmm... what's a nicer word for it? Ah, yes, 'little' snake. Is that right?" she
asked as she looked past a furious Sekhmet to the new silhouette standing in
the doorway.
Ryo
sighed helplessly and leaned on the doorframe. "Be nice, stranger. Do you have a name?"
"You
want a name, yet none of you tell me yours. Well, you may call me Jurakaeti;
that will do for now."
Dais
smiled. "Pretty name," he said. She smiled back at him, then looked at the
still-angry Sekhmet. "Okay, little snake, if you don't want me in your room,
you're going to have to move."
Rowen
looked at Cye; they both looked hopefully at Ryo. "She can stay in our room!"
they said happily - in unison. Sekhmet grumbled as he walked past Jura into his
room, flopping onto his bed. "And what are the names of the handsome young men
I am to reside with?" Jura asked as she slipped past Ryo and out the door, with
Rowen leading and Cye behind her. Dais, Sekhmet, and Ryo heard replies of, "I'm
Cye, but the bad guys call me Torrent..." and "And I'm Rowen, of the Strata!"
"Ronins,
eh?" was the distant response.
Ryo
sighed and walked back downstairs, leaving Dais to pout at Sekhmet until they
ended up happily watching the same episode of Dragonball Z again, the TV
blaring through the walls. "Close the door!" Sage yelled up the stairs. A faint
argument was heard over the yelling of Kakkarotte and Vegeta; probably about
which would get up to close the door. Sage finally stomped up the stairs and
closed it himself, the two masho snickering happily.
He
walked back down the stairs, muttering about ungrateful dynasty gaki, and into
the kitchen. Cale and Anubis sat at the table, talking about some movie they'd
seen. Ryo was leaning against the counter, watching Kento shovel food into his
mouth. Weird, he thought, how everything can change so quickly...
He
remembered everything, from the last battle against Tulpa to all of them moving
in in this house, and all the stuff that happened. The Warlords seemed like
little children given new lives to live, and they loved every second of it.
Kento was the same as ever; eat, sleep, play video games, eat, eat, eat, repeat
process; Rowen and Cye, after deciding
to share a room, became such good friends that no one else could really
penetrate between them; and Sage, just getting more grumpy and cold every day
(no girls to flirt with kinda got him down), but maybe that would change. He
figured that this woman - Jurakaeti, that was her name - might be just what
they needed. Or, of course, the worst could happen - Cye and Rowen could tear
each other apart over her. That was really what they needed, two angry
superpowers in a rage over some girl who'd probably leave them in the dust
anyway. But how had she known about the their armor being a Ronin's?
So strange... Well, whatever
happens, it'll be just what we deserve. And interesting. Can't forget
interesting...
Meanwhile, up in Rowen and Cye's room (more commonly known
as the Ice Ward; the two weirdos had made it up themselves)...
"Hmm...
We'll have to get blankets if you're gonna sleep on the floor..." Cye noted.
"You
can have my bed," Rowen offered eagerly. "I'll sleep on the floor. You need to
heal."
"I'm
not gonna depose you on the floor." She pulled something out of a pocket of her
leather jacket. It started growing, until it was the size of a normal backpack.
She reached into it and pulled out a bedroll. How it had fit in there didn't
matter; it came out anyway. One half of the room was immaculately clean, with
chemistry kits lying on tables, and the other half was crammed with stuff, but
Cye seemed to know exactly where everything was, so she tossed it on the floor
and kept digging. Soon there was a pile of pillows and blankets there that
could never have fit into the pack. Rowen just stared in amazement. She finally
stopped, smiled, shrunk the pack down and put it away, and said, "That enough?"
Cye
grinned and said, "Uh, yeah!"
"How the hell did you do
that?" Rowen asked.
She
smiled demurely and said, "Just a little bit of magic."
"Wow. I'd
like to see your version of a lot of magic."
She
knelt down and pulled the pillows and blankets into a bed. Jurakaeti sat on
them, looking up at the little glow-in-the-dark stars all over the ceiling. "I
don't recognize these constellations," she said, "you'll have to teach me them.
Knowing the stars on a new planet is a good thing."
"Especially
with people shooting at you," Cye said.
She
looked directly at him and smiled. "Yes... of course. Thank you very much for
your help. I'm not sure how to treat bullet wounds."
"Whoa.
Just whoa," Cye said. "You are incredible! Like something out of a book..."
"Yeah...
I was wondering last night if you'd notice." She pulls her hair back to reveal
long, pointed ears.
"What
are you?" an incredulous Rowen asked.
"An
elf," she replied, flipping her hair back. "What else?"