The Forbidden Love Chapter 2
The next day I was hiking in an area outside of the city, but still inside Mariner Bay. It wasn't at all very far away from my small apartment. I mean I could see the forest and mountains from my bedroom window at night. Anyway I had already finished my class assignments the day before and decided to go out for a little hike.
By the way I am Kushina Halliwell and I'm 19 years old. I'm a college student at Mariner University. I was studying to become a wildlife biologist so that I could work with animals.
My friend, Kevin Skinner, was studying the same thing, but it was more with their internal body structures. You see he was taking classes to become a veterinarian and he needed to know about their internal structures.
Because the two of us were mostly studying the same subject this was the main reason why we had so many classes together.
Our families were here in Mariner Bay with us, but unlike Kevin, I now had a place of my own and wasn't still living with my parents.
It was a really fine day. Many were told that it would rain this day, but fortunately it was all clear.
As I was running past a cliff something caught my eye. It was an entrance to a cave, a small opening in the mountain. I stopped where I was and looked at it, curious. In all of the years that I had been living here I had never come across this cave. This was a bit confusing because since I was sixteen I had been hiking up here whenever I could on weekends. After a few moments I quickly dismissed this. I must've not noticed it during my other hiking trips in the area. I came to this conclusion after I noticed the bushes in front of the cave. These were covering up a large part of the entrance and only a small portion of it was visible.
After a few seconds of thinking I decided to go over and investigate the cave. I was curious to see what it contained inside.
I had to bend down a little as I was going through the cave entrance. As soon as I stepped inside I dropped my bag and took a look at my surroundings.
Except for the light that was coming in through the cave entrance it was mostly darkness, but I could still see enough to get by. The walls and ceiling were completely made out of solid rock.
At the end of the cavern I saw an opening to another area of the cave. My curiosity increased at seeing this. I didn't know what was down there, but I wanted to check it out anyway.
I left my bag where it was and started walking. I kept one hand on the wall. Although there was light in the front and behind me it was still quite small in some places and needed to know where I was going.
I was moving as quietly as possible since I didn't know who or what was on the other side and I didn't want who or whatever it was to know I was coming.
Once I reached the end of the cave I pressed myself against the wall. I slowly turned my head and peeked around to take a look at the other side. As soon as I did so…I almost had a heart attack.
I snapped back against the cave wall with an expression of complete disbelief and horror on my face. I was frozen where I was. After a moment's hesitation I took another look and confirmed what I saw.
The demon from yesterday was inside the cavern…and it was still alive.
The demon was asleep against the wall of the small cavern. There was a fire a few feet in front of him which was the source of the flickering light that had brought me to this spot.
His weapon was laid down beside him. It was some kind of staff, but both ends of it held some kind of complicated spear.
As soon as I spotted the weapon an idea sparked in my head. If I could just grab the weapon I could probably kill this demon before he woke up and started trouble in the city again. After coming to this decision I finally moved out of my hiding place.
I stated moving over to where the demon lay. I was hoping that the crackling of the fire would conceal any noise that I made.
Fortunately for me, my method seemed to work. The demon didn't make any noise or move at all.
Within a minute I was beside the demon and his weapon. I knelt beside him and checked to make sure that the demon was still asleep. When I had confirmed this I made my move and reached out for the weapon.
A hand reached out and grabbed my wrist just as I was about to take it. I let out a scream of fright and turned to look at the demon.
He was wide awake and he clearly wasn't happy to see a human about to take up his weapon.
I looked up into his face and met the cold glare coming out of his eyes. I tried to pull my wrist out of the demons grip, but it was like a vice, not letting go.
"You're not getting away," snarled the demon.
I had to think fast. I couldn't pull myself out of his grasp the way it was now. I picked up a handful of dirt and threw it directly into the demon's face. The demon let out a shout and loosened his grip on my wrist. It loosened just enough that I was able to pull free. I went running straight for my hiding place as fast as I could.
Behind me the demon has wiped the dirt away from his eyes. When he had me in his sights the demon pointed his arm at me. "Perish human," he bellowed.
Something like an energy ball came out of his hand and headed for me. The attack missed, but hit a spot on the wall beside my head. I screamed and jumped back behind the wall.
I pressed my body as tight as I could against the wall, breathing hard. This guy was dangerous…a monster.
I had to tell somebody, warn the city that this demon was still living. If I could just find the power rangers and tell them about my discovery they could probably destroy him easily with the demon's strength down like this. Yes, that's what I would do, but I had to find them first.
I began to move back toward the cave entrance.
A loud moan came from behind me, coming from inside the cavern. It stopped me in my tracks. I listened and I heard another moan confirming what had reached my ears.
I went back over to the wall and looked around it. Doing so I saw what had been the cause of the moaning.
The demon was clutching his chest and left arm. He was still moaning and was clearly in pain. Obviously when he moved before some injuries that he had sustained in the fight yesterday caused him some pain and a lot of it.
My body was still telling me to run, but for some reason both my mind and heart were telling me to stay. After a few long moments I came to a decision.
Inside the cavern the demon had stopped making noise, but was stull wincing from his wounds. His chest was giving him problems and his arm was causing his difficulties. Just moving it was bringing him pain. He moved back into a comfortable position. He seemed worried about something. If that human, me went and told the power rangers about his location it could ruin everything for him. He was seriously hoping that his caretaker Jinxer would come back soon.
The demon could now hear someone coming back down his way, to the cavern. Thinking it was his caretaker his mood lightened up a bit.
"Jinxer," called the demon.
A moment later he learned who was coming and one thing was for sure is that it wasn't who he had been expecting.
A few seconds later I stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the fire. I was carrying the pack I had with me over my shoulder.
The demon seemed certainly surprised to see me, I could see that on his face, but his expression turned from being surprised to quite fierce.
"What are you doing back here, human," he growled. He took up his weapon and pointed it at me as if he was going to attack me. "Leave," he commanded and winced. He had used the arm that was broken.
Seeing the demon in pain reminded me of why I was there. So while I was ignoring my fear I began to slowly walk toward him.
Seeing my approach caused the demon to get even more agitated. "Stay back," he ordered. The demon threw an energy back straight at me. This one looked like it wasn't going to miss.
Fortunately, I ducked down just before it was about to make contact with my face. It hit the wall behind me instead. I covered my head so that the pieces of falling stone wouldn't cause any damage to me. I then got off of my knees and continued with my approach.
The demon was slumped up against the wall, breathing hard even though it was causing him agony, and clutching his injured arm.
As I was moving closer I stopped for a second and changed course. Before, I was heading for the side of him that had his weapon, but at the last minute I went for the other. I figured that given his reaction from before he wouldn't be too happy to find me in the same position again.
During this entire time I had never taken my eyes off of his face and he had been watching my every movement. For a little while the two of us just sat their staring at each other.
I was the first to break the silence, asking, "Where are you wounded? Do you have any broken bones?"
He didn't answer me at all he just kept silent while looking at me. Since I wasn't really getting an answer I just got to what I had come here to do.
I moved my pack from off of my shoulder and reached out to him. "What are you doing," he asked.
"Checking your body for injuries," I answered. I was feeling the areas around his body, checking for any other broken bones.
The demon didn't resist my touch, but I did see him put a hand on his weapon. He was preparing himself just in case I tried anything, but I wasn't worried. It could clearly be seen that this guy didn't have a lot of strength left in him and that he didn't want to waste any more of it. I wasn't expecting an attack from him right now, but I wasn't about to let down my guard.
After a bit of time I managed to figure out the extent of his injuries. His legs were fine except for some deep cuts, but there weren't any broken bones there. I didn't know how many, but I did find a few cracked ribs in the chest area. As soon as I had started pressing a bit against his chest he had winced. Like his legs there weren't any deep cuts, but there were some deeper ones on the legs. His left arm was certainly broken, but when I examined the right arm there was only a few small bruises. Fortunately, I had all of the stuff needed to treat his body.
I dug into my pack and took out the materials I was going to use. They were a roll of bandages and a bag of medical herbs. I rubbed the herbs into the bandages and then wrapped those over his cuts.
I tightly bound up his chest in order to keep the ribs in one place so that they could heal properly. I had to wrap the bandages a few times around his torso to keep them firmly in place. This was uncomfortable for the two of us for I had to move in quite close.
The demon was looking into my face, but I avoided eye contact with him.
After I was done with his chest I moved onto his broken arm.
"Can you lift up your arm," I asked, looking up at him.
He didn't say anything, only nodded his head. He slowly lifted up his arm for me, trying not to cringe in pain. Even a slight movement of his arm was painful for him.
I took his arm into my hand, helping him support it. I used my other hand to wrap the bandages around it.
As I was binding up his arm I noticed that he bore strange expression on his face. A few seconds later when he spoke I found out why.
"Why are you doing this," asked the demon, staring at me.
"Your bodies broken," I answered, "I'm fixing it."
"No," he said, shaking his head, "I mean, why are you helping me?"
I just sighed and kept on doing my work. "To be honest I don't know why I'm helping you," I said. "I guess it's because that right now you aren't a fierce demon trying to destroy Mariner Bay, but a creature that is injured, broken, and in need of healing." I looked up into his face. "Does that answer your question?"
"Slightly," said the demon, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
I had finished with his arm, but I still need something to keep it in lace so that it wouldn't get damaged even further. I dug deeper into my pack and found exactly what was needed for what I wanted to do.
I pulled out some cloth and was able to make a sling for him. I asked him to move his arm so slightly. He did what I asked and this time he did so without wincing. It seemed that the bandages were doing a good job holding his ribs in place.
I put a piece of the cloth over his left shoulder and once I had the sling set up I gently took his arm in my hand and placed it through the sling.
"There, that should hold," I said, smiling. I was proud of my work.
I looked up and noticed he was still giving me that strange look from before. "Is something wrong," I asked.
He didn't actually answer my question, but I was able to get a response out of him.
"None of your business, human," he said, irritated.
The smile disappeared from my face and my eyes narrowed. I didn't like the sound of his tone. "There's no need to get angry," I said. "I was just curious."
"ever hear the expression curiosity killed the cat," he said.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I have," I said. "Oh and by the way I have a name."
"And just what might that be," he sneered. "It's Kushina…," I said, returning his gaze, "Kushina Halliwell."
Preparing to leave I began to put my equipment back into my back. The herbs were the last thing I put back. I spoke to him again as I was wrapping them up. "I don't know if your body structure will heal faster than my kind, but these wounds will take a while to heal. I'll be back soon to change the bandages and see if your injuries are healing all right." I put the herbs into the pack. "You shouldn't move around so much. You should get some sleep, it will help you regain your strength."
Without another word I turned and went out of the cave.
Outside, I came to the decision of ending my hike early. I headed back the way I did down the trail and went for home. The whole time I was walking one thought kept going through my mind. This was whether I did the right thing by helping this guy or if I should return or not.