CelestaRedFlower: Hello everyone! Celesta here and as some of you may not know, this is my first fan fiction! I hope it comes out alright. Just so you know, this takes place almost directly after Licorice leaves the group. I might try and add her in later. Also, this is a CleoXOrphen fanfic. There are some points where I may get a little explicit in certain ahem situations and there's swearing. Just thought I would warn you in advance. Anyway! On with the story! Please enjoy.
"Dear god Orphen! When are we going to be out of this forest!" Cleo screamed so loud that even after she stopped talking you could still hear her voice echoing throughout the trees. Majic, sensing another long argument brewing, stepped back to avoid the crossfire. Leki skipped up next to his mistress's side, sensing that he would be needed soon.
"Well Cleo, we could get out of here faster if you would just shut up!" Orphen growled.
"Typical! You would find a way to somehow pin this on me! This is your fault you know! You and your horrible sense of direction, if you had just asked those people for directions we would be out of here by now, but no, you had to blast them away!" Cleo increased her pace.
She pulled back a vine that was in her way and let it fly back to hit Orphen. Orphen glared at her and ripped the vine out of the ground and threw it behind him. Majic, who thought he was out of harm's way, was hit in the face with the vine.
Majic groaned. "No matter where I am, I still end up getting hit with something," Majic whined quietly. He was just as irritable as the two in front of him but he stayed quiet.
"Didn't you notice something strange about those people, Cleo? Like how they were holding us at knife point? They were bandits you stupid brat!" Orphen caught up to her pace.
Cleo moaned in frustration and sat down on the nearest rock she could find. "Well, then you should have tortured the hell out of them for directions," Cleo took off one of her shoes and gently massaged her foot.
Majic stepped next to Orphen and quietly whispered, "You know Master, she's only venting because Licorice is gone. She's just feeling a little lonely now that the only girl she's traveled with isn't here." Orphen already knew that and that knowledge is the only thing that has been keeping him from strangling her. Orphen nodded in understanding.
Cleo looked over at Orphen and Majic. They had begun a lesson which was a sign that meant they were staying here for the night. She felt a little guilty, she knew she was acting like a bitch but she couldn't help it. Kicking and screaming was just her way of dealing with things.
Leki jumped into her lap, begging to be stroked. She smiled and complied with his request. She missed Licorice, her little 'sister', and hoped to receive word from her soon.
Cleo studied her surroundings. This place felt oddly familiar. She seemed to remember coming here once with someone from her family.
She continued to subconsciously stoke Leki until her hand went beyond his tail and brushed across something rigid on the rock. She glanced over and saw a horrible carving of a girl with wings. She remembered where she was when she saw the carving. She had done it when she was about five years old.
Cleo jumped up and proudly announced, "I know where we are!"
"Yeah? Where?" Orphen asked without bothering to look up.
"We're in Perthro. It's a small town between Alenhatan and Totokanta. My cousin Kira lives here," Cleo smiled remembering the fond memories she had of her cousin.
"Does she live nearby? After the whole sorcerous beast mess, I think it'd be real nice to stay in a more comfortable place than outside in the forest," Majic gathered the bags and shifted the heavy knapsack from shoulder to shoulder.
Majic didn't like to complain about where they were staying, that was usually Cleo's job. But he had used up so much energy when he was fighting Orphen and he really needed to rest.
Orphen wanted to rest in a more relaxing area as well. He had over exhausted himself when he fought the sorcerous beast. Although, he would never admit it to Cleo and Majic, the last thing he needed was to have them worried about him. He got annoyed whenever someone got worried over him.
"Yeah, she lives less than a mile away from here. I know the way," Cleo put her shoe back on her foot and started walking deeper into the forest.
"This cousin of yours, Kira, what's she like?" Majic asked.
"If she's anything like Cleo I don't want to meet her," Orphen smirked. Cleo stopped dead in her tracks and gave Orphen a fierce glare. Majic began to back up but stopped when Cleo turned around and started walking again.
"I'm glad you asked Majic," Cleo replied cheerfully but then acidly remarked, "No, she isn't like me," Cleo slowed down to find the right words to describe Kira.
"She's kind of like another older sister to me. She's younger than Mariabella though. She was always so mysterious and she had this strange need to know and understand everything. Now that I think of it, she was the first person I ever met who could read those sorcerous runes you guys always ramble on about."
Now Orphen was interested.
"She could read runes? Was she a sorcerer?" Orphen asked.
"No… well I don't think so. Weird things always happened around her. That's probably why I liked being with her so much. She was so different and interesting. I think she wanted to learn about runes because there was…oh never mind. I don't really know," Cleo did seem to remember that her cousin mostly kept to herself about anything that had to do with magic and sorcery. To respect Kira's privacy, Cleo decided not to continue further.
After about another twenty minutes of walking, the trio arrived at a cobblestone path that led up to a large house slightly smaller than Cleo's mansion. There was approximately a hundred feet of tree free space that extended from the house in every direction creating the courtyard.
"Wow! This is almost as amazing as your mansion Cleo," Majic gawked at the estate before him
"Yes, almost," Cleo stated with pride.
"Geez, what do the people in your family do to earn this much money?" Orphen glanced at a small fountain in the middle of the courtyard.
"Well, you know my father was a merchant. Kira's father was my father's brother and he was in the trading business. Kira's mother was also somewhat of an amateur archaeologist before she got married," Cleo explained.
When they reached the door, Cleo knocked as hard and as loud as she could, it was such a large estate that you had to put a lot of force into it if you wanted to be heard. "Hello! It's Cleo! Is anyone home? Hello?" Cleo bellowed.
"They're not home?" Majic asked.
"Looks that way," Orphen looked up at the windows, one appeared to have blood smeared on it.
"I don't understand. Kira and her family rarely ever leave the house. Scratch that, Kira never leaves unless it's to go into the forest. And even in the rare event of them both being gone, the servants should have answered the door…" Cleo was growing uneasy.
"Cleo, move," Orphen commanded. Cleo stepped aside and Orphen blasted the door open.
Cleo covered her mouth and smothered a gasp.
"Oh my god…everything's destroyed.." Majic set down the bags.
"Damnit, can't anything go right for once," Orphen sighed and began studying the room.
As Majic said, everything was destroyed. They had walked into the parlor of the house. Anything that was made of glass was shattered into thousands of pieces making the floor a dangerous obstacle course. Portraits were ripped apart and strewn across the floor. Couches and tables were stripped of their limbs and tipped upside down. There were some blood spots going up the marble staircase.
"Oh no…" Cleo sighted the blood on the stairs and raced up them. Kira, Uncle, and Aunty were the only things running through her mind.
"Wait! Whoever did this could still be here! Cleo!" Orphen chased after her.
Cleo didn't care. Actually, she wanted them to be there and punish them for…no, she couldn't think that. They couldn't be dead. But if they were, there was going to be all hell to pay.
She missed the last step and fell backwards right onto Orphen. Orphen reacted as quickly as he could and grabbed any part of her that would keep her from pushing him backwards.
"Cleo you stupid--" Orphen stopped in mid-sentence when he felt how badly she was shaking from fear. Orphen sighed.
"Calm down. We don't know anything yet," Orphen continued to try and sooth her when he heard Majic running towards them.
"Master, is everything all right I thought I heard something crash and a scream!" Majic stared at Orphen and blushed.
"What?" Orphen asked.
"Uh…Master, your hand," Majic hid a smirk with his hand and looked away.
Orphen instead of looking down where he was touching, squeezed and realized his hand was on one of her breasts. Big mistake. The result was a backhand across the face and a very furious Cleo running back up the stairs.
'Talk about taking advantage of the situation,' Majic thought smugly.
"Shut up Majic!" Orphen turned away to hide his reddening face.
"But Master, I didn't say anything.."
"I don't care! This is serious. This is no time to be acting like an idiot," Orphen followed Cleo up the stairs.
"You're only yelling at me because you're embarrassed…" Majic muttered after Orphen was out of sight. Majic decided to check around the rest of the house just in case any of the servants were attacked and were hiding somewhere.
Meanwhile Orphen was searching for Cleo in the endless corridor.
"Seriously, do they need this many rooms?" Orphen asked no one in particular.
He was about ready to punch a wall in frustration when he heard Cleo scream. He followed her voice and found a door that was left ajar. He found her sitting on the floor in complete shock. The room he had entered was the one he had seen with the blood smeared on the windows.
There were people cut apart, decapitated and torn limb from limb. There was one person who had fallen close to the window and had apparently tried to write something but died before they could finish.
"Cleo." Orphen approached her.
She remained silent with Leki at her side pawing at her and whining in desperation.
"Cleo!" Orphen waved a hand in front of her face. When she didn't respond, he gently shook her calling her name. It was no use, she was catatonic.
"Are they the members of your family?" Orphen asked hoping the answer was no, but even if it was, this image would still leave an emotional scar.
He waited patiently for her response and when one didn't come, he did the only thing he knew to resort to, violence. He slapped her dead across the face, not enough to hurt her, but what he thought would be enough to shock her. It wasn't. Leki growled slightly, but didn't blast him, he knew he didn't do it to hurt her, but still she sat there lifeless.
So he resorted to the second thing he knew best, insults. He shot a parade of insults that normally would have made her kick him where it counts. And still, he got nothing.
Orphen was at a loss he was starting to feel dizzy with worry. Then a thought struck him, shock therapy. He was desperate enough to try anything… Orphen cupped Cleo's face with both hands and kissed her. Cleo's eyes widened, and for the second time to today Orphen was slapped across the face.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing!" Cleo blushed profusely.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing scaring me to death like that! Were you trying to give me a heart attack!" Orphen rubbed his cheek.
Cleo was going to protest further but her red face quickly turned white again after catching sight of the morbid scene behind Orphen.
"Is this your family?" Orphen asked softly.
Cleo shook her head slowly. "No, they're the servants of the house, they were always so nice and they were so close to the rest of the family… and they… they," Cleo lost her voice and starting crying.
Orphen put a hand on her shoulder and led her out of the room. Before leaving he looked back at the bodies. They were ripped apart, literally. Whatever did this was obviously not human, which was the thing that really bothered Orphen. If it was some kind of monster how did it get in the house? The front door was completely unscathed. He would have to check the rest of the doors to see where the monster had broken in.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Majic yelling, "Hey! I found something!"
Da da da duh! So how was it? I hope I'm doing okay on my first try. I'll admit that it seemed a little rushed and kinda choppy… I'll do better once I really get into the story. Please send your reviews. I would love to hear any suggestions you may have on my writing. Until next time. bows