Tommy Dell

MFSPF5

5/3/2008

Five Swords

Chapter One: Pilot

"Creepy Crawly Tunnel Bugs"

On a dirt path hill, two travelers walk side by side. One of the travelers was a rather short girl with dark red hair that was as long as the fiery depths of hell, red eyes, a pale complexion, mid teens, sporting gear that seemed to clash with itself, being a cape a black shirt with red pants and a sword sheathed by her hip.

The other traveler was a male, much taller than that of the female, had blonde hair that would cover some of his right eye, blue eyes and a big smirk on his face of pride for reasons soon to be told. He was about mid 20's and wore armor plating on his torso and right arm, while a sword was also sheathed to his side.

The two continued to walk the path, up and down hills. The afternoon sun beamed down upon them, causing their hair to turn a shade brighter.

A somewhat mousy female voice began to narrate what has happened "Hey reader, my names Tomasa Delandla, if you haven't guessed I'm the gorgeous girl walking the path."

"Gorgeous? Yeah right, you're like a kid" another voice sounded into the narration it was a voice of a male, very cheerful with a raspy hint.

"What do you mean kid?!" Tomasa's voice yelled angrily for a moment then she cleared her throat "don't mind him, that's just Davaku, he's a big dummy."

The other voice began to complain that he was important "Hey, I'm no dummy, I'm the hero of the story, and so let me be in the opening narration too."

"Fine, tell'em what ya gotta say" Tomasa allowed

Davaku's voice now sounded a bit confused "well… ummm… what do I say?" he whispered to Tomasa.

"Introduce yourself dummy, jeesh, do I gotta do everything around here? That's Davaku Pinewoods, the tall guy walking beside me, he's just a big ol' lug" she introduced.

"Hey, I'm a ninja!" Davaku argued.

"Earlier you said you were a samurai, make up your mind will ya!" the female voice shouted.

"I'm both, anyways, what happened to the other story? The one where I was rich and owned a giant house and-"

Before Davaku could finish Tomasa interrupted purposely, so that there would be no confusion to the readers "Well, I bet you're all wondering how we ended up journeying together, so let's wrap up this introduction and roll that beautiful blast footage!"

A young girl was walking through the forest (it was Tomasa.) happily she walked until she was jumped by several bandits. One bandit had a giant nose and was extremely skinny and pale, one seemed very dimwitted and the other had a rather large orange beard. They demanded her money. Tomasa only grinned at them with a smugness that could get anybody frustrated and then an unnerving silence.

"Come on girly, give us all your gold, or we'll just take it by force!" The long nose head of the bandits held out his hand expecting her to reluctantly give up her cash.

The girl placed both of her black gloved hands together "oh you'll get your money" she grinned, she was preparing to do something spectacular to remove the ruthless villains from her wake. Before she could move all of the men were taken out by a man wearing samurai armor, dark blue pants, and darkened blonde hair. Tomasa just stood there watching as the man took out all the robbers with just his fists and legs kicking and punching.

"There you go ma'am they won't be bothering you anymore" The hero had a smile of pride his raspy voice hinted a heroic tone, as he just had saved the day to what he thought was a beautiful maiden. As he looked closer, he noticed she was practically breastless and of short stature he had a realization that it was a lost child in the wilderness "aww, you're only a kid… I was expecting a beautiful young princess or something like that" He sighed in depression and began walking away.

Hearing this burned Tomasa's ears and she jumped, hitting him over the back of the neck with a karate chop, but the tall man hardly felt it "kid, what the heck do ya mean kid?!" She yelled at him.

He turned slightly looking down at her "hey, kids shouldn't be playing in the forest… I suppose I'll just take ya home to your mommy. Say, where do ya live?"

Almost falling on her back Tomasa growled that she wasn't a kid, but the man still ignored her and looked through his pocket pulling out a sucker "here, kids love candy, and this stuff is just too sweet for me."

Taking the candy and popping into her mouth frowning, Tomasa just began to follow the man. "By the way what's your name lil girl?"He asked.

"Wouldn't it be more proper for my 'chaperone' to reveal his identity first" she rolled her eyes speaking sarcastically and almost as she finished her sentence the man began introducing himself with pride.

"Why I'm the great Davaku Pinewoods of Monsenkyu city and I am on a journey to toss this ring into some mountain!" He pulled out a ring from his pocket, daring not to put it on for its mythical properties.

Frowning as she continued sucking on the candy she asked "why the heck do ya wanna do a dumb thing like that?"

Davaku then broke out into sprites of joy "it will grant my wish of course!"

"I see…"

"Yes, I will be the greatest samurai of the whole world, not even Ray Manyanshan (some famous Samurai) will be able to best me" He chuckled placing his thumb up into the air. Tomasa studied Davaku's attire finding no sword.

"Won't ya need a sword first?" She still frowned.

"You're a bit of a brat aren't you-" before he could continue his sentence he pushed Tomasa out of the way, holding his fists into the air "I sense danger!" He announced, but didn't see anything, and then he looked over to where Tomasa was and discovered he ironically knocked her into a well, that had been covered with vines. His face became flushed with grief "ohh that poor kid… I must do my duty and save her!" He dove in after her.

At the bottom of the well Tomasa sat up rubbing her rear feeling like the guy was a real idiot for knocking her down there. She then heard a hollering sound and saw that Davaku was coming at her head's first. She quickly moved out of the way and allowed him to land face to ground.

"You okay there?" she looked at him unimpressed as he twitched then she looked around, realizing it wasn't a normal well. It was decorated with caverns that seemed to go on forever. "Maybe a bit of light would be good for this situation." She placed her hands together and began a chant which filled the cave with echoes.

"Break through darkness and seal the night I call upon the revealing sword of light" A small orb of light formed into her hands creating a dagger.

Davaku opened his eyes "whoa, you can do magic, you're quite the clever lil girl, anyways let's get you out of here." He stood up, cracking his shoulders a bit.

"No way!" Tomasa smirked walking toward one of the caverns. "Let's find out where we are first and I can do all kinds of spells, so quit calling me kid!"

A hand was patting her on the noggin and she looked up angrily "come on, I'm sure there's lots of nice monsters that'd wanna eat a big ol jerk like you down here, so let's check this place out before they do." She walked through the cavern reading some of the inscriptions on the wall. Her cape flowing behind her softly.

Davaku followed shivering "come on, this place gives me the creeps."

Tomasa smirked "it oughta, these writings are Elvish, they speak of something terrible resting down here that loves to eat the flesh of men, lucky I'm a girl huh?" she chuckled happily.

"What's Elvish? Does it sing and dance?" Davaku cluelessly asked.

"Elvish, not Elvis! Besides, that's way ahead of our era, so pay attention and don't confuse our readers!" she demanded as the two continued to journey ahead "Elves were an extremely sophisticated race of creatures that became extinct years ago, so these writings are pretty darn rare.. And oddly well preserved."

"That's because we're in a well. Everything is well in a well" Davaku smirked Tomasa fell over at what she hoped was a corny joke.

The two continued traveling through the dark caverns; Tomasa's light guiding their way. As Tomasa read the walls, she became more and more intrigued at what dark secrets could possibly lie down there. As they travelled, she etched markings into the walls so they could use them to find their way back.

After a while searching through the shadowy prison, they discovered a giant room. "This must be where it is" Tomasa said with an enthusiastic tone, Davaku looked around.

"Where what is?" He didn't know what she had been looking for and due to the motivational efforts of suspense, neither do you, could it be money? A pony? Food? Keep reading and find out, and no this is not the end of the chapter, but just a distraction to make you forget your worries, read on.

Tomasa looked slightly to Davaku "well, the inscriptions I've been reading tell of an artifact guarded for centuries by a vicious beast. The beast killed even the elves that made the descriptions warning any wayward traveler who might enter."

"So what you mean to tell me is that whoever wrote those words on the wall were killed by a monster that they already knew was down here, but why? It makes no sense…" Davaku pondered looking at the ceiling.

Tomasa nodded "Elves are selfless; they would sacrifice themselves to protect even mortals… Kind of a noble, but dumb way of living" She rudely commented.

"To die for a purpose, isn't dumb…" Davaku was still looking at the ceiling pondering. As his eyes gazed up into the shadows, four eyes looked down back at him. At first he just stared, not really noticing them, but as he saw them stick out, glowing even, he pointed up "yo, what's that?"

Tomasa then looked up too "huh, what's up?" She pointed her dagger of light to the ceiling and a giant ballish shadow was revealed, and a head to a creature baring fangs as well. "I had to ask…" her face somehow managed to become a little paler, she pushed Davaku out of the way because the creature was coming near him, then she cast an attack spell against it.

"Lightning strike!" Tomasa's palm created and shot out a small bolt of light. The bolt struck whatever was coming to attack Davaku. The monster took the hit and was electrocuted, but not finished, it's full body was now revealed to be a giant spider looking like creature. It had a brown body covered in ruby fur, having 10 legs on the top part and two large pincher claws on its other section.

Davaku stood up "what, what the heck is that thing?!"

"S'pose it's the monster guarding this place, it's name is Atsugumo, we oughta be near the artifact" Tomasa grinned seeing how that they ran into the monster she figured the treasure it was protecting was nearby.

The monster roared loudly shaking the whole entirety of the underground tunnels, then went on to speak in a high pitched agonizing voice of any antagonist "foolish travelers, you have only come're for death!" He shot web from its four pronged jaw, catching onto Tomasa's arm. She grinned, pulling on the web.

"Looks like you're the one that won't be getting away." She had her other hand on her hip another spell brewing in the hand caught to the web, Davaku pulled Tomasa away.

"Come on now, this is no place for children" he ran with her over his shoulder and she was kicking and screaming because she wanted to get the treasure. Atsugumo, the spider-like monster chased after them. As they fled Tomasa's spell of light was extinguished and they were back in the dark again.

They ran for some time through the tunneling abyss until Davaku found a small crack in the wall, both him and Tomasa quickly shifted their bodies into that crack to be hidden from the spider. Davaku held tight to a kicking Tomasa, keeping his hand over her mouth, her arms flailing for she wanted to use one of her spells to destroy it.

"Easy now, we'll be safe soon kiddo, we just need a way out of here, or I bet I could kill that monster." Davaku picked Tomasa up and placed her on the inner side of the crack and continued to whisper "I'll fight that thing, you stay put here." He went into the darkness while Tomasa just shrugged her shoulders and waited.

Soon Davaku spotted the monster slowly crept up from behind it. Atsugumo seemed to be feasting on some rats. "Hey Atsu-whatso, come on and get me!" He announced his fists into the air, of course his body was just a silhouette of shadow, but Atsugumo was determined to eat mortal flesh. It immediately looked at him, growling in hunger.

"Given up, haven't you mortal?" The beast ran right for Davaku, but a moment later, Davaku caught two of its legs and held them off, but in mere moments two more legs bashed him on his sides. The powerful impacts of Atsugumo's legs against his sides seemed to have no effect, Davaku just grinned into the face of Atsugumo who was trying to bite off his head.

In futility Atsugumo continued to bash on Davaku's sides, trying to break his hold of his arms, but it just wasn't working. In what seemingly looked like Atsugumo cocking his many eyes oddly, he began to caress Davaku's sides with its fuzzy limbs. An awkward grin appeared on Davaku's face as he burst into rages of laughter, letting go of Atsugumo's legs, the monster's head went straight for Davaku's baring its countless teeth outright.

Now faced with death Davaku frowned, and gasped, but the monsters neck was pulled back, only slightly. Davaku watched the monster getting pulled away a bit wondering what was going on. Then he saw a bit of Atsugumo's own webbing around its neck going behind him, and into the clutches of young Tomasa.

"Hey stupid, I got him away, now run!" she yelled at the broad blonde and he nodded. Backing away from the creatures pointed face; he did take one swing at the monster, giving it two black eyes on the right side of his face. Atsugumo groaned in pain, he then pulled his head back, biting the webbing in two. A gulp came from the female, but as Atsugumo turned around to face her, a hunk of brick hit him right in the face.

"Picking on kids now huh? Pick on someone your own size!" Davaku shouted as he was breaking away parts of the ruins with his mighty fists to use as ammo against the monster.

As Davaku threw another brick, this time the monster caught it in one of his many hands "you're quite the nuisance, I will deal with you first!" Another web shot out from the creature's mouth, catching Davaku around the neck and then he used the web to toss the man against the wall. The wall cracked a bit as Davaku's bold form hit against it.

"Dragon Flame!" A ball of fire shot out from Tomasa's palms hitting Atsugumo right in the back. He turned to see her only grinning. "Plenty of more where that came from ugly!" she grinned.

The flame on Atsugumo's back died down. He was in a fit of pain, but he wouldn't let that from getting to his prey, just as Tomasa wouldn't allow Atsugumo get into her way of finding treasure. "Spell caster, think you can destroy me?"

A grin could be seen shining through the darkness "only one way to find out, but first, let's put some light in here, I call upon you revealing sword of-"

Before the spell could be finished Atsugumo caught the girls neck with web and he was about to throw her against the wall, but before he could, Tomasa grabbed onto the webbing and chanted "Soul line!" The web began to glow bright red and extremely hot. Tomasa fidgeted her neck out of it, by using the dim dagger from the revealing light spell to cut it to ribbons.

Atsugumo on the other hand wasn't so lucky. The burn of the soul line spell would heat up any rope like object and destroy whatever it originates from. An easy spell to avoid by letting go, but in Atsugumo's case web from his jaws were more difficult to separate.

Davaku stood up, watching the large spider creature, Atsugumo bounce about trying to free itself from the soul line. The whole cave shook as he did this and a rock fell on Tomasa's head from above. She looked up and saw many more tumble "crap… This place is gonna fall down!" she gasped grabbing Davaku's hand and ran in any direction she could away from the tumbling of the ruins.

Monstrously Atsugumo reigned about the cave as his innards were devoured from the internal inferno caused by the soul line spell. He crashed against each wall, tearing them down by his massive body. In no time he was crushed.

Davaku and Tomasa continued to run, looking behind them as they ran once in a while, seeing the caverns come down behind them. Tomasa spotted a light from her right and pulled Davaku in that direction, hitting him on several rocks in the ceiling of the tunnel that she was too short to notice. She got out of the hole, realizing they were at a cliff. They fell about 8 feet, landing on the ground, fortunately still alive.

They watched, rubbing their heads and other wounded places where they came out of and it was a small church that elves had made many years ago and it broke into tiny bits of pieces. Both Tomasa and Davaku caught their breaths. The female looked up "those poor elves. Eaten by that creature…"

Davaku nodded "but why?"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" She looked over to him who had a clueless look on his faces "elves are very devout, they didn't know any better. I bet Atsugumo claimed to be their god wanting sacrifices, he probably killed the whole flock of'em before whoever was left gave up and left." She looked to the rubble sadly "but… I don't think any of them did leave, they left warnings on the walls for other elves and as they did that, they too were killed."

Another nod from Davaku "Wow, for a kid you're pretty talented."

A huff from Tomasa gasped out of her lips and she stood on her tippy toes on a rock, getting right into Davaku's face pointing to his chest "call me kid one more time and I'm gonna…"

The male looked up "hey, I never did get your name."

She sighed that after all that, he finally asks that again "I'm Tomasa Delandla."

"Cool name, sounds kind of familiar. Well Tomasa, I better get you back to your town before more big scary monsters come to eat you." He smirked getting up, grabbing a hold of a stick.

"Wanna know what really sucks…" Tomasa too stood up, placing her hands on her hips stretching her back "that treasure was probably destroyed with the ruins…" her voice was grim and almost sounded as if she would cry.

Davaku nodded standing up, pulling the stick out from under a rock, but it wasn't just a stick, as he pulled it out there was a blade that was bone white "hey look a sword!" he announced, clinging to it, because as a samurai he had spent all of his life looking for a sword.

"Well whataya know…" Tomasa glanced at it a moment, then looked back in shock, clinging to it "by the gods!" she shrieked "can this be the…the… The Sword of life." She almost began to drool thinking of the power that it contained and she looked at the engravings on the hilt, which were in elvish. Realizing it was the Sword of Life.

Quickly Davaku pulled it away "hey back off, I found it, so it's mine!"

Tomasa was on her knees begging "please, please, please let me have it. I saved your sorry hide out there, please!!! I'll give you anything you want! How about 500 gold, no, 550 hey I'll even throw in three apple seeds, and a spell book, come on!!"

Davaku with his eyes closed "a samurai's first sword is something that cannot be put with a price." Hearing this devastated her and she fell to her knees.

"Well then, I'll just follow you and the day you die, I'll gladly take that sword for you." She patted him on the back and the two headed off. Davaku didn't want to be followed by such a crazy kid, but she was relentless, her eyes glued to the sword of life which now hung off of his belt, as the two walked the dirt path into the sunset.