Part Two

The wheel was spinning around Leah really fast. Too fast! Leah felt like she couldn't breathe, it was sucking all oxygen away from her...

All of a sudden, she was on the floor, snow covering her face. She lay there for a few seconds, recovering her breath. Another mistake of hers. There was a weight on her back, and try as she might, it got no lighter. She couldn't get up. If this weakness kept up, she wouldn't be able to make it away alive. Adrenaline surging through her, she growled with the effort of getting this heavy thing off of her back.

Leah pushed up, sending the Igloo Turtle hurtling off of her. She stood and turned to face it, ready to spring at it. Two more Igloo Turtles joined the first, with an Ice Wheel joining the Wind Wheel. Four green imps then joined the fray. The demons were ready to gang up on her, when her mother, father and Samickle all leapt into the circle of monsters, surrounding themselves around Leah. "What are you doing? You'll all get hurt! Stay away, this is my fight!" she yelled at them, worried for their safety.

"Just keeping you alive is more than enough reason to get you away from here, Leah!" Samickle growled over at her.

Leah's father launched himself at a cluster of the demons, clearing a path for her. "Leah, go with your mother, she'll get you out of the village and far enough from this carnage. Just remember, I'll always love you no matter what!"

Leah's mother tugged on her shirt then told her to follow quickly. Leah complied, then shot after her mother as she ran out of the village. She stole a last glance backwards to see her father and Samickle bravely facing down impossible odds that were ever increasing. Leah looked forwards and watched her mother as she ran ahead, then stopped just outside the village.

"I can't guide you any more, Leah. This is a turning point in your life, now you should take advantage of it before anything happens to sabotage it. Go Leah, and remember that we always have, and always shall love you, no matter what happens! Stay safe!"

Leah opened her mouth to reply to her mother, but she was already running back to the village to help the others. She stared at her mother's retreating form, then looked down, her vision blurring. They wouldn't make it against the demons. This was the last time she'd see them, she knew it. "I'll miss you..."she mumbled to herself, then ran away from the wrecked village. That was when she heard the screams...

"Gah!"

Leah shot up, terrified of the nightmare. It had happened only this morning, surely it was too early to have nightmares about it! Leah sighed quickly, then looked around. Nothing different to the scene. Getting up, she looked over at the tunnel she'd seen earlier. It was open. She tilted her head. That wall there didn't look breakable earlier. How strange. She stepped over to the ledge's edge, and looked around. The cursed zone was disappearing. What was happening?

Then, from behind the waterfall, a pure white wolf leapt out onto a small, treeless islet. The wolf seemed to have crimson markings on it, and a dark green kind of plate floating above its back, with flames coming off of it. Then she looked away from the wolf. Well, the trees were back. She heard a small high pitched voice then, coming from the wolf's direction. She looked back at it to find a tiny green light bouncing on its head. The voice seemed to be coming from the light. 'That must be a poncle,' Leah thought.

All of a sudden, a calming tune began to play, probably coming from a flute or some instrument like it. She cast her senses out for its source, to find a strange man perched on a tree branch, holding the flute. He said a few things, and introduced himself as Waka, the 'God's gift to man'. Leah rolled her eyes. This Waka person seemed pretty full of himself. He then leapt down from the branch. He wore a pink top, similar to hers, but his had two large fluffy buttons attached to it. He had purple pants on, and sandals with really long, stilt-like teeth, one on each shoe. On his head was a kind of grey-blue bird helmet, with a long light pink veil attached to it.

Leah watched as he landed lightly atop the surface of the water, spreading a few sparkles around. 'First it seems he dresses weird, now he can stand on water. Huh.' she thought to herself. He spoke to the wolf and poncle, calling the canine 'Amaterasu', and then held his flute up in both hands, shrinking its length then drawing a glowing green blade from it. Leah stared at the weapon, which not so long ago was a harmless musical instrument.

She watched as Waka and Amaterasu engaged in battle, then grew a little bored and focused on other things. She let her mind wander for a while, then was brought back to reality as a wind blew. She glanced back down at the group. Waka was now discussing Orochi, the evil eight-headed serpent, and how he was meant to guard it. Apparently, someone had waited until Waka wasn't guarding the Moon Cave, and then released Orochi from a sword called Tsukoyomi.

Waka then turned around, only to find that Amaterasu had fallen asleep. This caused him to nearly fall over from surprise, as they were meant to be speaking about something important. Leah had to laugh at that, Waka's expression seemed quite funny. The poncle, who had said his name was Issun, began bouncing on the sleeping wolf's head, causing her to grumble and tuck herself into a tighter ball than before. Issun spoke to Waka some more, then Waka said something about a prophecy. It had something to do with logs. Waka then supposedly said goodbye in some weird language, then launched away from the water, leaving Issun with the sleeping Amaterasu.

Leah let her gaze follow the prophet as he seemed to fly away from the other two. Well, you didn't see anything like this every day. He seemed to not be too different from Leah herself, leaping high distances, seeing into the future, and they even had similar headwear. Leah found herself sitting on the ledge, so she got up a leapt after Waka. He seemed interesting enough, and she had nothing better to do anyways.

She followed Waka silently until he came to another cursed zone, this one in Taka Pass, so a sign had said. Waka simply walked around the evil areas, and came up to another wall, with a crack in it and light protruding from the crack. He then teleported behind the wall, leaving Leah confused. "Great, what now?" she muttered, then had a thought. She and Waka had some common things between them, right? Maybe she could teleport too! Leah closed her eyes, then focused her senses on the wall. Instead of going through it, she pushed her senses onward, and through the crack in the wall. Well, that worked! She then went through a tunnel, and found a clearing with glowing water in it, and some wooden structure leading upwards to a ledge. Waka was standing on that ledge, so Leah, not wanting him to know of her presence, simply searched out an area nearby to him. Once she found what she'd been looking for, she concentrated on the hiding spot, imagining herself in that place.

A fern brushed against her hand. She was in a crouching position. Opening her eyes, she was greeted by a different scene to the one from before. She looked around. She really was in the cave from earlier... She had managed to teleport! She smiled to herself, having learned how to do something new, and then looked around for Waka. He was staring downwards at something on the ground, below the ledge. Leah cast her senses for whatever he was looking for, and found that it was none other than Amaterasu and Issun.

Waka leapt off the ledge, then spoke to the duo. Leah rose from her hiding place, and went over to the edge of the ledge to watch the three of them again. Waka challenged Amaterasu once again. The battle was lost to him a second time. He seemed pretty worn out by the time the fight had ended, then had an energy burst, springing to his usual position, the tiredness forgotten. He had another prophecy for them, then bid them 'adieu', leaping up onto the ledge again. At this point, Leah had let her senses wander around. Her short attention span really didn't help at time like this! She jumped as a voice sounded out.

"Are you alright?"

Leah blinked. "Er, yes. I am. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you seemed to be staring blankly at a wall."

Leah shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

There was a short silence. Leah looked back to see that Waka was staring at her, hands behind his back, as if waiting for her to say something. She tilted her head at him.

Waka gave a slight smile. "Since you seem confused, I'll start. Bonjour, my name is Waka."

Leah raised her shoulders. "Oh. Well, my name's Leah..."

Waka then smirked. "If you don't mind me asking, why were you following me, Leah?"

The girl blinked in surprise. He'd noticed her? "Well, uh... I had nothing better to do, so..."

Waka opened his mouth to say something, but Leah sensed a sudden change in the atmosphere outside. No longer thick with evil auras, but clear and healthy. She suddenly whirled around and leapt down from the ledge that she and the prophet were standing on, and ran down the tunnel. Waka had thought she'd been spooked or something, with the way she'd stiffened and run off. He decided to follow her, just in case.