Chapter One-The portal opens
A/N Hello everyone again, I bring you another of my creations… Some credit to accredit my creditors with: Norah is based off of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' only in the sense that she is a slayer. Melinda is based off of the idea of Willow, and Araylen is based a little on Giles therefore the three of them belong to Joss Whedon et al. Aaron is based off of 'The Phantom of the opera' and his characteristics belong to Gaston Leroux, as well as a bit of credit to Etienne De Mendes for Phantom ideas as well. 'Lord of the Rings' and all the characters, creatures, and ideas therein belong to J.R.R Tolkien. I think that is everything. Enjoy!
Everything seemed to be normal as Norah walked in the front doors of the school and walked in. She looked around the hall, sighed heavily and wandered into the library. "Good morning" she called out and set her red leather back on the table.
"Morning" said her absent minded librarian.
Rolling her eyes Norah looked at the calendar behind the desk as she sat up on the table. "So, what's on the agenda today?" she asked flopping into her seat and massaging her arm as she did so.
"Tell me what happened last night" Araylen shot back without looking up from his book, though his eye had caught sight of her rubbing her wounds.
"Typical vampire stuff, they attacked, I got thrown into a tombstone and then I killed them" she said patiently.
He rolled his eyes. "And you iced and elevated it?" he responded simply with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Duh" she said looking at her long, slender hands feeling a little bit like she was this long armed tool of his, used to get rid of the vampires, nothing more then a brilliantly gilded axe that he used to slice down the underworld population.
Nodding his head Araylen sipped his tea and sat in his heavy desk chair and crossed his legs, taking up his book and trailing his finger along the line of text as he read.
"Are we training a little later?" she asked, determined to get his full and undivided attention.
Looking up, Araylen caught full sight of her and he smiled softly, loosening her heart without knowing it. "If you feel inclined to" he said quietly.
"I do" she said and winked at him, patting his head and blowing a kiss as she flounced out of the room.
Araylen's eyes sparkled as he watched the door carefully, and a moment later she flounced back in and snatched up her abandoned bag, shooting him a 'shut the heck up' look.
Aaron was in the music room with the first years that came to his Wednesday and Thursday morning tutorials, assisting the new musicians to get better.
He looked up and bright blue eyes sparkled as his best friend and adopted sister walked in. The smile in his eyes flowed to his lips and he nodded his head at her as he finished giving instructions to a particularly hard working trumpet player.
"Good morning" he said in a cheerfully loud and booming way.
"The same to you young Devreux" she teased lightly and then leaned against the wall.
He turned back as a saxophone player made his two friends laugh by blowing wildly through his instruments-while Aaron loved teaching willing amateurs to get better; his least favourite thing was that Mr. Deluca forced young children who skipped classes or other things of that nature to attend his tutorials, in order to catch up on what they missed.
Giving the young man a sharp look that spoke volumes of impending violence, Aaron turned back to his friend, satisfied that no more shenanigans would ensue. "How was your night?" he asked gently.
Norah lowered her voice ever so slightly and nodded her head. "Pulled my shoulder" she said and shook her head.
"I was hoping our dearest little one would be here…" she said hopefully.
Aaron laughed "she is here, somewhere… she is just…around the school somewhere" he said and shrugged his shoulders to indicate.
Norah nodded. "Sweet" she said and sighed heavily.
Aaron nodded his head and then turned as the bell ran. "Instruments away" his powerful voice boomed over top of the bell and the shuffling.
Norah watched the little people skitter about and then hefted her own bag. "Lunch?" she asked as she touched his hand and clung to his fingers momentarily as he nodded his positive response.
Walking through the halls Norah saw Elizabeth's long white arm dancing around a corner and she ran forward and caught up with her. "Hey you," she said happily upon seeing the small round face.
"Oh! Hi!" She said and grinned as the younger, smaller brunette said seeing her.
"Hey, can I ask a favour? And how are you feeling and stuff…" she said throwing it in sheepishly in the end.
"Anything you need" she said nodding excitedly
"Will you take a look at my shoulder when you have a minute?" the blonde asked with a long sigh.
"What happened?" Elizabeth said, pulling her into the bathroom and pushing the older girl into the largest stall and locking it behind them as Norah removed her tight red sweater.
"Hit a tombstone shoulder first." She said patiently.
"You really need to be more careful" the little girl said shaking her head as she examined the ugly, swollen purple bruise that lay along her collarbone creeping out in a spider web pattern of broken capillaries.
"I know, and I try but sometimes they get the better of me" the reckless slayer said shaking her head as the cold, icy pale fingers of her little sister touched the painfully swollen flesh.
Elizabeth gently prodded a little harder on the collarbone itself and hissed in her breath quite quickly. "It's broken" she said in her soft, gentle voice.
"I thought so" Norah said dejected and a little bit angry, she was sick to death of this, she was a damned good slayer and everyone knew it-slayers as good as her shouldn't be breaking bones anymore.
Elizabeth knelt in front of her and pulled open she begs her constant first aid kit in her bag she pulled out a long, wide tensor bandage and stood back up the pins in her mouth. "This ish goingfk to huwrt" she mouthed around the pins.
Not quite understanding her, Norah just nodded her head and then stuffed her fist into her mouth sharply as she tried to stop herself from screaming as Elizabeth looped the cloth gently around her shoulder and then pulled it tight to snap and drag the bones back into their proper places. She wrapped it underneath her breast and pinned the bandage to her bra to hold it firmly in place.
"I warned you that were going to hurt" The brunette said gently, not sure how to apologize for a task that needed to be done.
"Oh…that's what you said" The blonde said as she struggled back into her shirt.
Elizabeth smiled broadly and packed up her kit. "Yes" she nodded and kissed her sisters forehead.
"Do you have somewhere to be?" Norah asked gently reeling a slight bit from the pain.
"No, I have a free period" Elizabeth replied neatly and shrugged her shoulders gently.
Norah smiled and stood up "thanks love" she said and kissed the pale papery cheek.
"How are you feeling?" The taller girl asked again, lifting a brow and recalling how her previous and most important question had not been answered.
"Oh, I'm fine today, a little tired last night but I slept very well after papa made me some tea and so I get to be here today" she said excitedly.
Norah nodded and touched her face as they walked out towards the cafeteria arm in arm, in companionable silence.
Until the silence was broken with screams and some kind of inhuman roars and grunts and screams. Norah grabbed her sister's arm and instinctively pushed her behind her, shielding her with her body.
"What's going on?" Elizabeth asked gently as she peered up the hall.
"That is a bloody good question" Norah said softly and crept up slowly peering around the corner with Elizabeth right behind her.
Three huge green and brown creatures armoured in heavy leather and chainmail, a badly made sword hung at their hips or in their hands as they broke windows in the classroom doors, or trophy displays, slashing posters and hacking bits out of the roof.
"What the hell?" Norah asked as she tilted her head to the side taking in their fanged and slimy mouths and their mutilated long pointed ears.
Elizabeth shook her head and chewed her lips. Norah turned around and took her slim shoulders in her hands. "Go find Araylen and tell him what's going on, tell him to bring me a sword and then go and tell Aaron, find Melinda and then take cover somewhere nearby. I'm going to try and lead them to the weight room" she said and swung around the corner hearing Elizabeth's soft slapping foot falls as she ran away.
"Hey ugly" she said as she came into full sight of the hulking creatures.
They turned and she now saw there were five of them, three of them were much smaller and significantly less well armoured and taken care of then the larger ones, and one of the larger ones had a huge crudely made cross bow. "Man flesh" one of the larger ones growled out.
"Yes…well, actually women flesh, this isn't exactly a misogynistic society anymore" Norah said and smiled slinging the weight of one hip further to one side then the other.
The group advanced towards her and the same one that had growled at her stepped ahead of them and looked down at her, slime dripping from its disgusting hair. "What is this place….little girl" it demanded.
"This is, well a palace of learning, Araylen's second and actually his first home…but um…oh hey it's also the place where I go to school and oh yeah…" her sentence was interrupted.
Letting out a deep snuffling laugh and stepping forward, the creature swung his sword but Norah cross blocked his wrists and then kicked him in the stomach, she turned and hook kicked his knees out from underneath him and the creature hit the he did and the rest of the creatures came towards her she turned her back and began to run, her coat flapping behind her as she heard something of a battle cry and the gruesome creatures gave chase
She booked it as hard as she could keeping them interested with a few exchanged blows in which she managed to pick up the mop from a bucket and break off the head leaving her with a sharp yet crude metal staff.
She kicked open the door to the weight room and fell in flat on her back shocked as several people ran forward and slammed the door shut teeming around her body as they rushed towards her.
"Close the door! Close the door! They're coming" a girl cried as they slammed the door just as the long, slimy fingers of ugly creatures began pounding and clawing on the door.
Norah let out a frustrated sigh of annoyance and anger when she realized that her plan had just been seriously screwed up.
Elizabeth and Melinda came through the crowd and flanked the slayer. "I tried to get everyone into the cafeteria but the teachers ordered us in here…there wasn't a lot of time to argue or properly explain" The little brunette said nervously.
"Yeah…it is the safest place for containment" Norah replied quickly turning and walking quickly back towards the door.
The door opened quickly and another group of students, this time along with three teachers were ushered inside by some of the school security guards.
Aaron was arguing with Mr. Patterson from the biology department and Mr. Deluca who was often considered his second half, the leader of the arts department. "Yes, yes I understand it is the best place for containment-but is it not wiser to have –them- corralled in here and us free roaming around the school?" The Frenchman said turning to apologize as he bumped hard into Norah.
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking" she said and Aaron's face fell as he found his friend locked in the weight room already.
"Ok. Let's think…" Norah said softly as she brought her hands behind her back.
Elizabeth and Melinda formed up and Aaron filled in the circle on the other side, and their heads bent in automatically cutting everyone else out.
"We need to do something, huge, like big" Melinda said as they could hear the destruction now moved down the hall.
"We need to get out there" Norah said playing loosely with the metal rod in hand.
Aaron held up a hand as he strained his carefully trained ears and listened with all his might, Norah listened as best she could as well and then heard it. A group of people were heading towards them, trying to be quiet, probably trying to sneak up behind them to get to the back door.
Norah heard that undue snuffling and yelling and then suddenly terrified, horrified screams as the creatures came upon them. A body hit the metal door and it dented inwards ever so slightly.
Screaming and terrified crying and whimpering took hold inside the weight room and Norah looked at her friends.
Aaron reared his chin and nodded his head unlatching his cloak he draped it over an exercise machine nearby. Melinda pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail and her eyes turned fierce. Elizabeth reached up and tightened the bandage on Norah's arm and kissed each warrior on the cheek.
"If you clear me a path I can run and find Araylen" Elizabeth said softly as they made their way towards the door.
"Where are you three going?" Called out the vice principal and everyone turned to face them.
Norah swirled her staff up and around her elbow and in mid air. "To take out this problem" she said and opened the door slipping out.
After her disappearance Melinda slipped out, Aaron reared his chin and plunged into the hallway taking a deep breath as he did so.
Elizabeth took one look at all the people huddled in the middle of the room going between staring at them and staring at the other door where yelling, screaming and roaring was still echoing, and then she darted out into the hall.