Edited and reposted 8-19-18: Editing of story dates/days.
Edited and reposted 12-14-17; Minor changes.
Edited and reposted 5-13-18: Minor changes.
This story is made with the help of Neeky-Chan, who is the creator of Hazel.
Chapter 2: Things Can Happen At Night
October 10th, 1303 NB (New Beginnings)
We left Patsu City of the Shadow Country three and a half days ago, going northeast towards the Ice Country. Before we left, I had changed into clothing more fitting for travel: green travel pants, black shirt, and putting my hair in a ponytail. The sun is shining brightly above us.
"Maelynn!" the man grumbles as his body is dragged on the ground. He claws at the ground trying to get away.
"No, we need to get going." I continue walking. His body is dragging on the floor because of my Taishiru power; he has to stay within a certain distance of me until he fulfills his debt. He isn't happy about it, but I don't care. He put Lily and Kisa in danger. He made everything I worked for disappear in an instant because of his idiocy.
"But... But..." he slumps his head onto the ground, dragging his face in the dirt.
Patsu is in the middle of the Shadow Country, one of the larger countries of Wytsu. The Shadow Country is located in the northwestern region of Wytsu, and the Ice Country is a neighbor country located at the north side of Wytsu. Another option would be to go to the Wind Country, the island country in middle of Wytsu, but we would need a boat to get there. From Patsu City to the Ice Country, we first walk the path between the mountains to the Violet Forest, then we go through the Black Plains, reach a small town near the border, and then we cross the river. There is a river that separates each of the countries.
"Maelynn!" he starts clawing at the road again. "I don't like the dark!" I look at the dark forest in the distance and then back to him. The Violet Forest was, indeed, dark.
"Man up, will you?"
He starts crying.
"You made me lose everything. The least you can do is repay me by being a shield and work until I can go back to the city." Pretty much my slave, I tell myself.
"Then let's go somewhere else! The darkness is evil!"
I roll my eyes and ignore him. With the sun setting, the forest comes to life. The weird creatures of the world began wandering the forest. In a tree a few feet in front of me, green human eyes glitter as they watch us walk up to the forest. I notice the eyes looking over at the man being dragged.
With a grin, the figure spoke. "The darkness isn't so bad." Screeches came from the bats above her head. She quietly shushed them.
He gasps. "Hazel!" He tries to get up, but I keep dragging him along using the seal, refusing to let him on his feet. Ignoring the girl supposedly known as Hazel, I keep walking towards the forest. I have no interest in talking to people, nor do I want to delay my getting back up the ranks in another country. I have to get everything back. My job. My status. My life. Lily and sickly Kisa...
The woman, Hazel, jumps down in front of me. "Good evening, Yukino. Seems like you got yourself in trouble again. With a Pure One, no less." She was short, wearing a black hooded cloak, a short, dark red dress, black leggings, and brown knee-length boots. A blue bag slung over her shoulder, twin swords on her brown belt, and a bat on her shoulder. "Are you ever going to stay out of trouble?"
"I don't care if you know him, I need to get going to the next door country. No time to talk." I didn't want to waste time trying to figure out how she knew I have a Pure Power. I mean, she could have assumed my dragging him to be a locket power. Then again, my locket would be glowing.
Since I slowed down a tad so I could think, my slave who is named Yukino was able to stand up. "Save me! This girl is really mean to me!" He leaps towards Hazel in tears.
"Oh?" Hazel tilts her head, stepping to the side. After his face hits the ground, she pats his head. She then turns back to me. "You're walking in the Violet Shadows as the sun is setting. It's more dangerous the further you go, and the night sky keeps the creatures active. You'd have to be suicidal to walk around this forest." Yukino wasn't pleased to be dodged, crying even more.
"Yes, I know about the Violet Forest. I have lived in this country for quite some time. I am going to use this brat as a slave and shield until it kills him and I get everything back." I step to the side and walk around the brunette.
Hazel frowns, stepping in front of me again. "A shield? I won't let that happen." Behind her, glowing eyes started showing up menacingly. "Tell me what he did to warrant your vengeance against his life."
"It doesn't matter what happened, I don't have to explain myself to some girl in a forest." I turn away from the forest and Yukino's leg props up, being dragged once again with my Taishiru power. "I don't have time to argue or fight."
"Block her path." Hazel orders, her voice low. Four large bears, a pair of panthers, badgers, and foxes appear on the road. While owls, bats, and a couple vultures land in the trees. They all vary in forms of purple, black, silver and white. "Are you sure you're in such a hurry? Because you're definitely not in any hurry to keep Yukino safe."
In Wytsu, all of the animals and creatures aren't your everyday animals. The colors are way off, the personalities of the animals and creatures aren't what you would normally think, and there are some instances that you will find two types of animals mixed together, though it is uncommon to actually see two animals combined into one.
"He owes me big time, of course I don't care about how he feels right now!" I stomp the ground. I'm vulnerable to animals, knowing that my Taishiru power only works on people, and I'm not strong enough to physically fight this large amount of animals. Maybe three, but this is too much, even with my locket.
Yukino, on the other hand, completely ignoring everything, now has his attention on the bears. He stands in front of one that is a mix of white and purple. Yukino opens his arms for a hug, and the bear in return falls right on top of him to 'give him a hug.'
Hazel looks over at Yukino, a smile playing at the edge of her lips. Her green eyes move back to me. "Chill. Tell me what he did, and I might lead you through the forest. The residents of the forest dislike trespassers." The bat on her shoulder gives a small screech. She pulls out a dead lizard, giving it to the bat. It happily ate it. I gag. Yukino's arms flail from the sides of the bear. Slowly losing air.
"I already told you, I lost everything because of him, and now he is going to do whatever it takes to pay me back for it all! I seriously don't want to deal with this right now, I want to get out of here!" I stomp again.
Hazel shakes her head. "Berwald, could you please get off him?" She asks the bear. "I need to ask him what he did." When the bear gets off him, Yukino starts laughing and holds his arms out again. Hazel shakes her head. "Yukino! What did you do to ruin this woman's life?"
Yukino turns to Hazel. "Uh... What did I do to her life? All I did was run into a store to drop off some cake. Maybe I broke something, but I don't know."
I glare at Yukino in disgust.
Hazel raises an eyebrow. Sighing, she swung on her heel, easing up on her posture. "Yup. Sounds like an average day with you." She waved her hand, and the animals began relaxing, some retreating back into the purple forest. "Calm down and I'll lead you through the Violet Shadows." She told me. My eye twitches. Yukino is fixed on the bear that is now walking away. He tries running to hug it, but he falls on his face when his foot flies into the air. He can't run too far away from me due to the seal. He starts crying, and I roll my eyes.
After much dispute with myself, I hesitantly decide to follow, still upset with her. Yukino is dragging along, as well. Literally. If I am going through this forest, I may as well have whatever help I can get since I don't do so well in physical combat.
While walking backwards, she looks at me. "I'm Hazel. Who are you?"
I debate answering or not, having no sympathy for Yukino being dragged behind me. "Maelynn." I continue following.
Hazel keeps walking backwards. "Maelynn. Nice name. Especially for a Pure One." A dark violet panther came over and slid under her legs, lifting her onto it's back. "Cecil! You can let me walk, you know." Cecil gave a series of growls. "Oh. I guess that's fair."
"Stop calling me a Pure One. I don't like it." I adjust the bag on my back.
"Oh, sorry. It's a nickname I came up with for those with Pure Powers."
Yukino noticed the panther picking Hazel up, and was trying to usher a nearby bear to pick him up so he didn't have to be dragged along the ground anymore. Hazel looks behind at Yukino and rolls her eyes, but waves her hand for Henrietta to help him. A black and purple bear comes over and scoops him up in her mouth.
Yukino makes a quiet girly squeal. "Hazel! I'm being eaten!" Yukino squirms gently in the bear's mouth making dying noises before he fake dies, falling limp in its mouth.
Why did I seal this idiot to me? He's a child in an adult body! I look over to Yukino and he is trying to get saliva to fall out of his mouth to 'prove his death.'
"I know you aren't dead. Henrietta is carrying you like one of her cubs." Hazel remarked, not even looking at him.
Yukino keeps his head down and pouts. "You're no fun."
"How much longer is it going to take us to get through to the Ice Country or to the lake?" By lake, I am referring to the circular area of water in the middle of Wytsu that holds the island of the Wind Country.
Hazel whips her head towards me. "You want to go to the Ice or Wind Countries? We can't make it to the borders in a night! You would have been critter food before midnight if I wasn't guiding you! We'll head to my house to stock up and rest." I could have heard wrong, but I think I heard Hazel mumble something about chickens.
"I know it takes a while to reach either country, but the more time spent dawdling, the longer it will take to get to either country! The idiot will shield me from any attackers, It is all he is good for." The last bit I said quietly.
"There's no way I'm spending the entire night in the forest! The chickens will find us that way!" Hazel shook her head. "We're going to my house. You don't even have provisions to last a week! It's like you haven't thought this journey through."
I nearly collapse on the ground laughing. "Chickens?! Chickens are harmless!"
Hazel gives me a serious look. "That's what you think. You may laugh now, but they're no joke. They'll eat YOU if you let them." I don't respond and keep laughing.
The night grows darker, not much light with the crescent moon.
Yukino wiggles his arms around, extremely bored.
Gazing over, Hazel saw Yukino's squirming. "You're hungry, aren't you, Yukino?"
Yukino's eyes nearly pop out of their eye sockets as he snaps his head up from his pouting pose. "Bananas?!"
"Yes, Yukino. You can have bananas. Just don't eat them all like you did last time. They're hard to get here in the Shadow territory. It's hard getting the good bananas from the Water territory."
"Bananas, here I come," he says very slowly and quietly, rubbing his hands together.
"Take us home, Cecil." She told the panther. Cecil took a turn off the path, into the purple woods, Hazel gesturing for us to follow.
In the distance, between the trees, a dark building comes into view. It's a small cottage, ivy creeping up the walls. Hazel gets off Cecil and pulls out a key, unlocking the door. "Mind your step, I have baby animals running around while the mamas find food for their babies." I blink when I hear 'baby animals. When I walk inside the house, there really were tiny little creatures on the floor. I was trying hard not to show my happiness over their cuteness.
"I will try not to eat them," Yukino disclaims jokingly as he walks in. "Now gimme the bananas." He motions his pointer finger in the same way.
Hazel flips a light switch to turn on the light. Chuckling, she heads into another room that revealed to be the kitchen. On the counter was a bunch of bananas. "Don't eat them all, or I'll send you out there with the chickens." She threatened. Yukino crept to the bananas and slowly pulls one from the stem, watching Hazel. Hazel watches Yukino, hoping he won't eat them all.
I slowly walk around the babies, not wanting to step on any of them. "...uh... Water?" I try to ask nicely, but I'm still furious about all that happened.
"Oh, yeah. I can get you some." She answered. Without taking her eyes off Yukino, she grabs a cute raccoon mug, fills it up with water from the faucet, and holds it out to me. Yukino peels the banana he holds, taking a bite from the top.
Without a word, I take the water and take a few sips. My eye twitches when I realize it tastes different from the water I usually have. I takes a look around the floor, looking at the babies again, thinking about what I'm going to do about Yukino, who doesn't look like he can do anything except be weird. He has proved to be useless thus far.
"How do you two know each other?" I asked, but neither of the two respond, so I grunt and go back to randomly looking at the babies crawling around.
Hazel leaves two bananas on the counter for Yukino and puts the rest in the darkest cupboard she has after finally deciding she couldn't trust Yukino to not eat them all. The small brunette heads further into the house, turning on lights as she goes.
"Somewhere for me to sleep?" I ask, still not wanting to be nice, taking everything negatively. No response. I roll my eyes and look at the little babies on the floor. One of them was biting my shoe with their toothless gums.
Yukino finishes the banana in hand and begins peeling another, leaving the previous peel on the counter. While peeling, he left into the direction Hazel went in. Not knowing what to do before I sleep, I decide to play with the little babies. I sit on the floor and let them crawl towards me, letting them nibble on my clothing. A little cat creature, mix of black and silver hair, kept climbing up me, making me laugh.
"The forest and its animals are restless…" I didn't quite hear all of what Hazel said, but I can't help but try to hear more of what they were talking about, so I creep a little closer.
"It isn't making you 'chicken,' is it?"
"The chickens aren't the problem. They're a nuisance."
"You don't have to be so serious about it. Enjoy yourself." I imagine Yukino dancing around when he says this.
"I can be serious on occasion. I don't live in the city, after all. Anything new with you, my friend?"
"People trying to kill me cause I accidentally put things into ruin for everyone, flying pigs, a Taishiru sealing me though I didn't know they would come here-"
I stopped listening to what else he had to say. He knows that I am a Taishiru? No one should know about Taishiru, let alone finding one in the Shadow Country. Taishiru don't originate in the Shadow Country!
Taishiru originate in the Lightning Country and they refuse to leave with the exception of me. Only those of my bloodline are able to receive this power. My family is still back in my homeland in the Lightning Country, the only ones to currently have this power. No one here should know about my kind! Why are people suddenly learning about us?
A little panther baby swings its paws at my shoelaces.
"A Taishiru?" Hazel whistled. "You land yourself in the worst trouble, don't you dear? It sounds like you're stuck with her for a while. Any plans?"
"There isn't anything I can do about it but stick with her. It'll be fine. I'm no 'chicken.'" They laugh. I, however, tense up when the girl talks as if she also knows about the Taishiru, too. No one here should know! If people find out, I will not only be mocked, but hunted down to be sold to use my power for their sake! Pissed that dork and Hazel knows, I get up and storm outside, panther baby still clinging onto me. The door closed before any of the other babies could leave.
"First, I lose everything. Couldn't even get Lily and her sister. Now I find people who know about my power! I was told no one remembered us anymore!" I scratch my head, ignoring the rustling nearby. I start pounding at a nearby black tree. "No one should know!"
A kitchen knife sticks into the trunk I'm pounding at. I freeze and slowly look at the knife. When I slowly turn around, another knife heads in my direction. This time, I move out of the way, the kitchen knife hitting where my head would have been. I look in the oncoming direction and see a small yellow figure that vanishes instantly.
In the distance, I heard Yukino's whimpers. "You're so mean, Maelynn." I quickly look over at him and instantly give him a deathly glare. Two more knives from opposite directions aim for me again, barely dodging them. Just as the yellow figures appeared in the bushes, they disappeared. Knives fly around, cutting up all the trees. A weird chicken noise is heard from not too far from my current location. At the same time, the knives began to fly faster. I force myself to use my locket power, but the ground was too moist so I slipped into a mud pit.
Hazel quickly flipped up her hood and jumped down from a tree, drawing her swords. She knocked the knives out of their trajectory. "Get up! We can't stay here or we'll be killed!" She hissed. "Yukino! Chickens!"
I give her a deathly glare while standing up. "Why are you freaking here?!"
"Chickens?!" Yukino brings his hands to his head.
Just a moment ago...
Yukino, holding a bear cub, falls on his back with a foot in the air and starts getting dragged again. He slides against the wall all of the way to the door, scaring all the little babies, breaking the door latch opening the door, and sliding into the dark. The babies showed interest in going outside and started moving out.
Watching Yukino being pulled by a mysterious force was both amusing and terrifying. "Yukino!" She followed after him, momentarily giving the babies a stern stare. "Your mother wouldn't appreciate you being eaten by chickens!" She said.
Yukino cries. "I don't want to be eaten by chickens!" Though he claws at everything to hold something, he is pulled against the door which opens against its will, pulled into the forest.
"I wasn't trying to frighten you!" Hazel exclaims to Yukino. She hurries after the guy, closing the door behind her. "Is she nuts? I don't even like being out after midnight!"
And now, we return to the knife war...
After nearly being torn apart by the flying knives, I decide to head back to the house.
"Chicken and minions!" Yukino exclaims pointing at the yellow figures pursuing us.
"Will you shut up already?!" My eyes and his arm light up followed by silence. He sheds some tears again.
"He's right, you know! Ugh!" Hazel deflects more knives, having followed . She throws senbon needles towards the holes and guesses where that stupid minion was headed. The needles sunk deep into the ground. "The minions are just as annoying!" She growled. There is a squeal from a hole, but that didn't stop the others from popping out and throwing their knives.
The house is barely in sight. As we approach, a red and yellow chicken walks up to the door, twice the size of a normal chicken would be. This chicken also has metal feathers covering its own wing feathers.
"Oi!" Hazel yelled. "You leave my house alone, you evil chicken!" She put more pressure into her run. She dodges more knives thrown towards her from the yellow minions, narrowly missing a knife that zoomed by her side. Both her swords were ready for a fight with the dreaded chicken. The chicken twists its neck towards Hazel and extends its metal covered wings, charging straight for her. She swings her swords down when the chicken takes a swing at her. "This is my home!" She grunts, "And you can't have it!" From her right, another chicken pops out from the bushes and knocks her off her feet. This chicken is green and orange.
The enlarged chicken size does scare me, quite honestly.
"Yukino! I'd rather not fight them off myself!" Hazel exclaims. She manages to land a few blows on the chicken, denting the metal. Clang, clang, clang! And the occasional war cry from the chicken.
Yukino sighs. "You mean you can't beat a chicken?" He says jokingly. He runs up to help her with the two chickens. The chicken with red and yellow feathers takes notice of him and charges at him. He gasps and runs away, no surprise to me.
"Of course I can!" Hazel cries indignantly, slashing her swords harder, penetrating the metal. "But it's better to get rid of two quickly than fight a whole battalion that could be on their way here!"
The red and yellow chicken catches up to Yukino and claws him with its metal talons. I freak out inside when the talon makes contact with Yukino's upper arm. I'm about to run in to somehow help when Yukino gives me a cold glare, telling me to stay put. With that glare, there was nothing I could do. Why is the wimpy Yukino suddenly so composed? Glancing at his arm, I notice that there wasn't any blood to be found, but I did see some white specks falling onto the earth beneath him. Yukino grabs the light-weight chicken, the armor being strong but not heavy, and swings it into a nearby black tree, banging up the metal armor on its head and ceasing the chicken's movements.
Still one more chicken to take care of, but… why?! Hazel is doing her very best and struggling, but Yukino is hardly trying and isn't getting hurt! Does he have a defensive locket power? The chicken surely should have severely wounded his arm, he shouldn't be unscathed!
Hazel eventually slices through the armor, a dead chicken at her feet. She flicks the blood off the blade. Sighing heavily, she growls. "That won't be the last we see of them. One day, they'll learn who the ruler of the Violet Shadows is. Me." She then enters her home, leaving me and Yukino in silence.
I grab Yukino's arm that was hit earlier and investigate it, but I still can't find any wound marks. He wears a short sleeve shirt, so there isn't any other indication that he was hit just by looking at his clothing.
"Why aren't you hurt? Are you using the power of a locket? You can't be that strong of an idiot! Even she had a hard time against those things, and she looked more realistic in how the fight should have gone for you if not worse! So why are you so strong?!" He looks at me confused.
"That chicken was really light and weak, that's all." He laughs.
"But you smashed it's head in!"
"I'm just lucky." He smiled happily, shrugging.
"But you aren't a lucky person!" She realizes she could force him to say. "I command you to tell me why you are so strong."
"I trained," is all he says, smiling. I know that he is in the right with his response, since training does make one stronger, but I know he's hiding more! Before I could say anything else, he whistled as he entered the house. Not pleased, I storm into the house which upset a few of the animals roaming the floor. Hazel was settling the babies, giving me a glare when I disturbed them. A quiet song left her lips and sang until most of the babies were asleep. When that was done, she retreated to her room without a word.
Not caring about the refusal to communicate, I head to the guest room. With the one bed in the room, I take the entire bed. When Yukino is about to enter the guest room, I glare at him.
"Umm... I think we-"
"Not happening. Go sleep somewhere else." I regret not having closed the door, but doesn't need to do that to keep Yukino away. With his left arm glowing because I mentally tell him to sleep on the couch, he goes away from the room and sits on the couch. He mumbled to himself.
October 11th, 1303 NB
Morning comes around. I slowly get up and walk into the kitchen without changing. When I walk by the couch, I see a pile of babies. I know Yukino is somewhere underneath the pile. Shrugging off the unimportant matter, I look for anything simple to eat before heading out. Leaning against the door frame, Hazel folds her arms and silently watched me in her kitchen. Realizing she was awake and watching, I close the open cupboards I'm looking into and walk back to the guest room to pack up my things.
When I come back out of the guest room, I find that Hazel was nearly done cooking. There were hash browns, eggs, and bacon. On the table was a stand for the bananas along with some cups of water. Smelling the food, I realize that I haven't eaten since midday yesterday, but I didn't want to stay here any longer than I needed to. "Don't need to make anything for me. I can manage on my own."
"Too late~" Hazel sang to Maelynn. "It's not like I poisoned it." She turned her head to Yukino's direction. "Come to the table, Yukino. Remember that we need to eat, too, so don't go eating all of the food."
An arm appears from the pile of baby creatures. It slowly rises, and the babies slowly slide off. He smells the smell, and nothing can stop him. "Where is it?" Yukino quickly gets up and sits at the table, begging like a little puppy.
In disgust, I head to the door. "We shouldn't waste anymore time here."
"I don't want to goooooo!"
"Are you sure you don't want to eat? It'll take all day to get to the next town." Hazel called. She set the finished food on the table, beginning to eat her own. Most of hers slathered in ketchup. Yukino, still at the table, looked happily towards the food being placed on the table, eager to stuff everything in his face.
I clench my fist and grunt. I'm not always this angry, but too many things are happening! They know about Taishiru, Yukino is secretly strong defensively with some locket power I've never known about, and I want to get going out of this country to quickly build up money and return to get Lily. Angrily and with folded arms, I sit at the table.
Yukino eats the banana happily.
Hazel sighed. "At least eat something. I'm going to get ready." She said, putting her empty dishes away and walking into her room.
I roll my eyes. When she is out of my sight, I quickly eat the food in front of me then gets rid of the evidence. Yukino finishes his food, but sadly looks at his plate, wishing he had more. I walk up to the door and wait for Yukino, who keeps watching his plate as if food will magically appear on it.
Hazel reappears wearing a short, purple dress, black leggings, her brown knee-length boots, black hooded cloak and dual swords at her hips. A dark green and black duffle bag hanging off her shoulder. She rummaged through her cupboards for food that she could carry that wasn't super heavy, like cans, but also wouldn't spoil if she brought it along. Satisfied with her haul, she turns to the two of them, but pauses when she sees her friend's expression. "Yukino, you ate it all. Quit staring at it."
Yukino looked up at her with puppy eyes. I turn to Hazel. "You act like you're coming with us out of the Shadow country."
"Eh, I'm debating. Even if I'm not, I'll have enough if I decide that I am!" Hazel smiles at her. "Besides, I can ask a friend to watch my home if I do. I like to be prepared." She looks over at Yukino. "Why? You know that isn't going to work on me," regarding the puppy eyes. Yukino knew so well as well, but he didn't want to believe it. He picked up the plate and put it away.
I'm not pleased. "Only through the forest."
"Thank you, dear." Hazel beamed for Yukino, ignoring me. "Let's get going!" I roll my eyes, not liking that she is taking control, and follow Hazel since she knows how to get out of here, making Yukino hasten his dish cleaning.