"No… their all gone..."
He was falling. Fast. Harsh wind whipped merclessly at the tattered remains that had once been his clothes. His eyelid opened slowly, hearing the wind push against him as he plummeted faster and faster, the sky shrinking away from him...
CRACK! His shoulder blades exploded with pain as he crashed into a dense web of branches, tossing him left and right through their arms, each adding a new cut, fracture or broken bone, but more importantly they slowed his descent before he actually hit the ground, landing spead eagle in a patch of warm sand.
Pain. Lots of pain. His head was dizzy and nauseated, making him puke to the side, only making his injuries worsen thier aggrivation with each vommitus blast from his throat. He started to shiver and tremble as shock set in from internal bleeding, numbing his senses until he cold see nothing but a blur. He tried to move, but the nerve endings in his arms and legs refused to respond. Paralysis was the first word that came to his mind and he started screaming, crying desperatley for help . But moving his mouth and using his vocals seemed to take the last of his energy, and his blurry vision began to fading into nothing. But before he could submit to unconsciousness completely, he felt vibrations of feet running through the sand towards him. Someone had heard him! Struggling to stay awake, he tried to open his eyes again, but could only see two dark shades moving in his direction, one of them kneeling to his side.
"So thats what fell from the sky..." the one standing said in amazement. "Is he still alive??"
"Yeah, he's breathing," another voice answered, crouching over his broken body. "but damn, he's messed up..."
He tried to say something, but his voice failed to sound, and only his lips moved to try and mouth the silent words.
"Are we gonna help him?" the first one asked.
"No derrrr…"
Those were the final words he heard before he completely blacked out, compelling him into a nightmare of screams, darkness, chaos and fire. People being ripped and torn apart by shadows, their was panic and fear in the air, the smell of blood pungent and nauseating…
He woke several hours later, though he had no idea how long he had been out. A soft mattress with sheets had replaced the sand, and again he heard two voices. One was different then before, a timid and quiet feminine voice that sounded nothing like the high pitch of the boy before.
"Where's Sora? He's taking way to long…" the girl asked someone else
"He's gone to tell his mom he's staying here for the night, " the other voice answered, this one familiar. It was deep, serious and determined, but his tone sounded somewhat similiar to the female. "He's probably taking forever to pack up, you know how his mom is."
Slowly, he opened his eyes, blinking them slowly to rid the tears that were trying to moisturize his scalera. It took a moment for his vision to focus, but soon he found himself looking up at the two people taking care of him.
They were twins, both with chin length silve hair and sparkling blue eyes. The boys face was more harsh and ovalish, while the girl had smoot curves and a kinder face. Her hair was a little more graceful then his spikey curtain, and her eyes sparkled innocence.
"He's awake," the boy said, noticing him after a small groan escaped from his lips.
The brother was tall, well built and broad shouldered, the shape of a sword fighter. He wore an odd yellow vest with criss crossing black straps, and dark belted pants tucked into white and purple sneakers. On his wrists he wore black wrist bands and a pair of gloves covered his hands.
His sister in contrast was smaller, skinnier and even a little more pale then her twin. She wore nothing real special, only a gold yellow tank top and black jogging pants, with no shoes or socks to cover her tiny feet. She was very pretty, and her piercing blue eyes held warmth and comfort when they met his eyes. She gave him a small smile, a pendant hanging from her neck that he could feel a kind of power from the glowing stone within it.
"I'm Kinno..." She said quietly, introducing herself. "whats your name?"
What WAS his name? He wondered. His mind was a giant blank at the moment, still disoriented from his injuries. He tried to search his memories, but a headache suddenly spawned from his frontal lobe and spread through the rest of his head until it threatened to split his skull in half. Something in his mind snapped and he closed his eyes with a loud groan as the ache spread out from his head and started to grow in his muscles, making him twitch and thrash to deal with the pain.
Kinno blinked, ready to reach out to help calm him when thier was a sudden violent explosion and she was thrown back by a harsh gust of wind that filled the room, throwing the boy through a wall and out to the beach while the brother tackled Kinno to the ground, taking shelter beneath a desk.
The boy tumbled and rolled in sand, screaming in agony as the inside of his body felt like something was trying to claw its way out of his heart. The sand around him began exploding as if mines were blowing up one after the other. Above him, strange worms of fire and water formed out of the air, stretching themselves out and snaked around in the air in a double helix pattern.
Just as abruptly as it had started, the eruption of magic ceased. The worms dissipated, the sand settled back onto the beach. the subtle glow of the moon reflected the dusty air, lighting up the young boy who laid sprawled on the shore.
The brother twin looked up when everything had stopped, and they both crawled slowly out from beneath the heavy desk, the only object that wasn't in a complete mess. Part of the roof had collapsed in, and their was a gaping hole in the wall from where the boy had crashed through.
Kinno saw him lay motionless on the beach, the waves sneaking beneath him as they washed ashore. She quickly leapt to her feet and ran outside to go help him before he was dragged out to the sea.
His spikey blue hair drifted against the back of his neck as the tide started flowing in, soaking his torn and ripped clothes. Kinno dropped to her knees beside him, flipping his body over so he could breath and she picked him up by the arm pits, dragging him away from the water.
"What the hell was that?" Riku asked as he came out after her, quickly grabbing the boys feet to help Kinno.
"Elemental magic of a powerful nature," she replied whistfully as they laid him down on the softer white sand. "I think it came from these..."
She turned the boys arm around, showing Riku a small, diamond shaped stone embedded in the skin, a bright orange color flickering inside it. On his wrist was another just like it but this one was colored blue. Another was placed at his forearm, and one more on his shoulder, each a different solid color and an additional stone paralleling another of same color on the other side of his body.
"Who...IS this kid..." Riku wondered aloud to Kinno, tilting his head.
"My name…" the boy suddenly muttered unconciously, coughing, "Is Arick..."
Kinno couldn't help but smile. She placed a hand on the back of Aricks neck to help pick him up and carry him once again, but just as her fingers dragged across the glassy surfase of yet another stone, a bright white flash blinded both her and Riku.
Meeping in surprise, Kinno jumped back, rubbing at her eyes as her retina's burned painfully. Riku had been blinded as well, reeling a few feet away from Arick.
A minute passed before her eyes refocused, and she glanced at Arick. SHe had to rub her eyes again, blinking to make sure she was seeing right.
Every cut, every bruise that had riddled his poor body had now all disappeared into scars, some completly gone as if they were never their. Tilting her head curiously, Kino lifted the boys head a little, seeing the white stone where his spine met his neck. Was it a healing stone? she asked herself.
She felt Riku place his hand on her shoulder, and she glanced up at him as he crouched down beside her. "I can get'm on my own," he assured her, taking Arick into his arms.
Sora finally appeared from the docks, jogging towards them with confused expression came over face as his eyes came upon the scene. Their was splintered wood everywhere, and the hut they had built last year now had a large hole in the wall.
"bout time..." Kinno scorned as he came close.
"What the hell happened?" he asked, looking at all the mess Arick had created.
"Don't know," Riku replied. "Don't want to explain," he added, turning away and carrying Arick away to the tree house. Sora looked to Kinno, who just shrugged her shoulders, not feeling like she wanted to explain either