This story takes place three years after the fall of the Dagger Pagoda. Enjoy. Oh and I Don't have any rights over any of the Jyu-Oh-Sei characters only the characters I have interjected are mine
Chapter 1
"What the hell is this place?" I said as I was running and slashing out with my hands at a vine that darted at me. It was like these things had minds of their own. I managed to untangle myself and crawl quickly away before the vine could reach me again.
"Ugh! What in the world is going on! Tell me I am dreaming. Yes. That's what this is. It's all just a really big nightmare, that's it….Yeah right!" I huffed as I was still running and dodging. From the looks of the place this planet is overrun with plant life; monstrous plant life at that.
"Jeez….can my day get any worse!"
I stumbled as I entered a clearing and a vine wrapped around my waist and hoisted me up into the trees. One after another, vines where coming out of nowhere and wrapping around my arms and legs. They held me up and started to pull my limbs in all directions. It was excruciating pain. I was being torn apart. I felt something in my shoulder pop and I screamed.
"Note to self, DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT HERE! IT CAN, AND WILL, APPEARNETLY GET WORSE!" I had started screaming again as something now cracked in my rib cage. It was becoming more and more difficult to breathe now.
I grit my teeth from the pain and tried to stay conscious and not black out. I was doing the only thing I could to do to try and free myself. I took as deep a breath as I could and I tried to clear my mind, calm myself. I only concentrated on my right arm and the vines that were trying to yank it out of its socket.
After a few minutes, I finally managed to untangle my right arm when I saw two men dart out under me and start attacking the plant. My vision was starting to blur from the pain in my left shoulder and my breathing was wheezy at best from the strangle hold this plant had on my rib cage.
"DON'T MOVE! I'll get you down, just stay still ok. HEY! Can you hear me! Stay still okay?" he yelled up to me. I all I could do to answer him was to nod. I couldn't drag in enough breath. He took out two swords and jumped and the next thing I knew I was falling and in so much pain. Another man caught me and I screamed and writhed from the pain again. My vision was getting blurry and growing darker while the pain in my ribs and shoulder where throbbing in time with my pulse.
I was going to faint. Great, just great; I land on a crazy plant planet, run for my life from crazy plant life, almost get crushed to death, and now I am rescued, in pain, and with two strange men. Another note to self- WAKE FROM THIS CRAZY NIGHTMARE ALREADY!
"Hey missy, you ok…" the men were trying to talk to me but I was slipping in to unconsciousness and couldn't stop it. Before the darkness ate my vision I said a silent prayer that I would wake up again.
XXX
From where I was standing by the top balconies looking over the swap area of the dormant muses I saw Rada and Yui were walking toward the Ochre fortress. The walk way was an old wooden one that we had rebuilt for the months of the dormant muses. It was still humid and hot out in these months, the muses were only a little off schedule for their spawning this year.
I had made sure to remind every single occupant of the danger of the swamp area until the muses grew; because until they did it was very dangerous. Your never knew when they would decide to spawn. Although, the quickest way back to the Ochre Fortress was through the muses swamp. As the two men were almost to the edge of the swamp and I breathed a little easier knowing they would all be safe soon. And from the load that Yui was carrying in his arms it looks like we were going to get another woman added to our ranks.
"Thor, anything wrong? You've stopped paying attention." Chen chided me as I started to lean over the stone railing to see more of the scene below.
"Sorry Chen, but it looks like Yui and Rada have returned with some…interesting cargo in tow." At that, Chen limped over to where I was standing and looked down as well. She looked a little shocked, but recovered and then had basically the same reaction that I had. It was another mouth to feed and if this new woman couldn't prove herself useful in the next coming months then the winter days were going to be really hard for her, especially if she chose to not participate in the Month of Joining. I hated to admit this, even if it was just to myself, but this world was still far from where I wanted it to be for our people.
Yui and Rada were almost through the swap when the ground started to shake.
"SHIT! ZAGI GET A HOVER TRANSPORT!" I yelled to him as he fell in step with me when I started to run for the exit to help them. We had known that the muses were due to spawn, but this wasn't supposed to happen. I had to hurry to help them.
Damn this was going to be bad if Rada and Yui couldn't manage to hang on till we got there to rescue them.
XXX
"Well, Shit!" I sighed as he felt the first rumble in the swaps and started to run. "MOVE YOUR ASS BOY OR YOU WON'T HAVE ONE ANYMORE!"
Yui with his injured cargo in his arms was slightly slower than me but we managed to make it to a branch and cling for dear life as the muse we were on spawned up, and up, and up. When the muses finally stopped growing and the canopies were covering us in shade I finally stopped clinging for dear life.
"You alright kid. How's the cargo?"
"I'm okay…She's still out though. Man, I hope all that didn't hurt her more." I could tell the kid had a thing for the outsider. But, the kid knew the rules…not that Thor didn't try to make sure that everyone could be useful and could make their way here. But we couldn't just keep taking in the strays. No matter how much it hurt us not to.
"Come on, let's see if we can get anyone's attention."
"RADA! YUI! WHERE ARE YOU? RADA! YUI! ANSWER ME, DAMN IT!" Yui and I chuckled together. Yeah that was there leader out there yelling like a mother to her kids.
"Mommy's calling" I laughed to the kid.
"Yep!" he laughed back and settled the woman more on his lap so he could help me flag down Thor and Zagi on the hover transport.
Authors note- It's a little short but I thought it was a fitting beginning :) let me know what you think I always welcome critques and reviews. Next Chapter coming soon.
