I just found out I made an oopie in the first chapter, the town is supposed to be called 'Sawara Town' not 'Sawara Village' that's in India.
Sorry for the late update. Poll is on my profile if you want to check it out, nonmembers can vote too.
Welcome to the third chapter to Checkmate! Read and review please!
-Rook-
-Rapunzel-
C
They were still flying after two hours. Two long hours flying in silence. Blossom stared out the window. After an hour of flying the sky had changed to a mixture of orange and pink from the dawn which had reminded her of the Akasutsumi Lady who usually wore bright colors like the sunrise.
Blossom frowned when she noticed that she had been gone for a while because she had remember before she was taken to the Dark Continent that it was early spring. It was now winter with heavy snow blanket covering the land.
"What? This don't make sense. I was gone for a week and half. How can it be winter already?" She questioned quietly.
"Time runs differently between the human world and the Dark Continent. A week in Dark Continent equal to four months in the human world." Buttercup answered.
"Are you kidding me? Oh my god." Blossom said, nesting her head on her hands. "So that's why it's winter now."
"Hm, it don't look that bad I guess. Maybe too white and cold for me." Buttercup said, glancing at the landscape below.
"Wait, is this your first time in the human world?" Blossom gasped. "Then how do you know where're we going! Don't tell me we're lost!" She accused.
"Geez, don't jump to conclusions. I have been in the human world before, just not in wintertime." Buttercup snapped. "For your information, I am a seasoned flyer. I know where we're going thank you very much."
"You don't have to be so rude you know." Blossom berated.
"I'm not the one who jump to conclusions." She countered.
Silence.
"Destination time to reach safe house: ten minutes." The machine droned, breaking the silence.
"Where's this safe house?" Blossom asked, hoping for a change in mood.
"In the human world. Near Sakura Hill." Buttercup answered. She pressed buttons on the ceiling as DYNAMO started its descent. The plane rumbled from the strong air currents and Blossom grabbed the edges of her seat to steady herself.
"Isn't Sakura Hill near Sawara Town?"
"Don't even think about going there. It's dangerous." Buttercup flew the airplane lower.
"It wasn't dangerous to me, I grew up there." She argued.
"It is! You don't how much power the Shirogane witches have! And their cronies are practically everywhere."
"What? Who? You don't mean Himeko Shirogane?" Blossom could still remember the star eyed princess. What a nightmare. Most of the servants disliked her but they had to please her to avoid punishment.
"The spoiled princess? Yeah. Her whole family, or at least the females are witches. Gramps barely survived when he encountered one of them a few centuries ago." Buttercup said. "Last time I heard they had settled in Sawara Town a couple decades ago."
"How come why they're so powerful?"
"Shirogane is one of the oldest magic families in the continent, they gain their powers from the celestial body. Rumors says that's how their eyes became stars. Strange isn't it? It work like this, the more power a coven have, the more power the individual witch have. More power, more spells casted. The Shirogane is the biggest with over hundreds of witches." Buttercup explained. "They despite vampires more than anything, that's why they hunt us for a living."
"Oh shit."
Buttercup burst out laughing. The airplane shook a little.
"What?"
"Sorry, wasn't expecting for you to swear. I must be a bad influence on you." She snickered.
"Yeah, probably." Blossom laughed with Buttercup. "Hey, is that the safe house?" She pointed to a small house surrounded by woods. She was sure that if she wasn't vampire, she wouldn't have noticed the house at all. The house was in the heart of the gap between two tall mountains. Blossom voiced her concern of avalanches. Buttercup shook her head.
"It would take lot more to kill us."
Buttercup had trouble landing the airplane. The runway was old with cracked pavement and rocks scattered everywhere. It was a bumpy and hard landing and the wings had flew through few overgrow tree branches.
Blossom stepped out of her seat, shivering when she felt the cold air. She might have harder skin but the cold still permeated her thin pajamas.
"Buttercup! My sweet girl! You arrive at last!" A small old man sprinted down the runway to DYNAMO.
"Hey Gramps, this is Blossom. Blossom, this is Mayor, or Gramps as we call him." Buttercup introduced the old man. He was very short like Ken, he had a head full of snow white hair and moustache and twinkly blue eyes.
"Ah so this is the famous Blossom I've been hearing so much about!" Gramps cried joyfully and hugged her, but due to their height differences he had hugged her leg instead. "Now tell me, do you like pickles?" His mood took a sharp turn to a serious tone.
"Uh pardon me Oiji-san but what do you mean pickles?" She asked. From the corners of her right eye, she could see Buttercup roll her eyes.
"Here we go again."
"Pickles? Don't tell me you never heard of pickles?!" Gramps shouted. "Oh heavenly Kami! Pickles is the most wonderfulous, most delicious and amazing food in the entire continent! How can you not hear about the many wonders of pickles?"
"I h-have but-"
"Did I tell you about the one time in 1820 in Spain, I fought soldiers with a pickle single-handed?" Or when I saved King Izayoi of Tenebrosi from a wave of warlocks with only a jar of-"
"Gramps," Buttercup pinched the bridge of her nose. "We aren't dressed for the weather so we are freezing and cranky. And I'm hungry! You can tell us about your achievements inside."
"Of course my dearest Buttercup." Gramps sang cheerfully, "When we are inside, I will tell you all about the war in Silentium and how I stopped the war with a half-eaten pickle." He skipped inside.
"Your grandfather is er, very hyper." Blossom chuckled. Buttercup rolled her eyes.
"He's always like this, now come on I'll make you some hot Calenti."
C
That afternoon after settling in her new shared room with Buttercup, Blossom stood outside on the porch with a thick blanket while sipping on her second Calenti. If she focused on her hearing she could hear the children in Sakura Town laughing and screamed with delight as they opened their presents.
Blossom just had discovered that morning that it was Christmas today. She scraped through the old shed that held all sorts of odd things for presents for her new family. The house and the territory had belonged to Gramps so naturally there were all kind of strange trinkets from his many years of being a vampire. Thankfully she had found some normal and useful objects and wrapped them in some old newspapers from Germany in the 1900s.
She stepped inside and grabbed the newspaper-covered gifts and gave the presents to whoever it was for. Ken received an almost new chemistry book and Peach got a chew toy. Blossom gave John an old journal that was written in Vampiric language, and she gave a box of puzzles to Gramps Mayor. Sarah got a slightly cracked teapot with matching teacups and Buttercup unwrapped a pair of super-strong leather gloves.
"Thanks I need a new one, left my old ones back home. Damn rebels might've them by now." Sarah hit the back of her head and she groaned. "No swearing front of Ken right, sorry Sarah." Buttercup put her present down and grabbed a long object.
"Here." Buttercup said, she was handing Blossom a longbow. "Merry Christmas."
"Thank you Buttercup-chan!" Blossom smiled, she brushed her fingers on the craved bow. She was eager to go to exploring.
She bristled. "It's Buttercup. Remember, I hate honorifics." She sniffed.
"Oh yeah. Sorry Buttercup." Blossom grinned cheekily.
The next morning Buttercup and Blossom traveled south of the safe house to a large woods that marked the end of Sakura Hill territory. Blossom could faintly remember the woods from a distant memory.
'Her mother carried her in her arms as she ran through the forest. Green and black blurred all around her as her mother ran faster. She had her chin on her mother's shoulder. She watched her mother's bright hair flying in the air, she always had loved her mother's bright orange hair. She reached for one of the tails of the ribbon that her mother always worn. Her fingers brushed the silky strip of fabric and then she saw nothing.'
"Suta no Mori." Buttercup read the sign. Blossom snapped out of her dreamy state.
"Star Forest?" She translated.
"Yup."
"Oh."
"Let's go." Buttercup leaded the way in. The memory now disappearing to the deepest parts of her mind. Blossom followed her in.
For the next hour they chatted with each other. Naturally there was no prey; it was the wrong season after all. Buttercup had suggested that they could fish at the stream, but Blossom argued that she didn't want to get wet and they didn't have any fishing tools.
"Where do you get your eyes from? I thought that green eyes was a dominative gene." Blossom asked as she skipped over a large oak tree root.
"It is. John and Sarah aren't my biological parents, I was rescued by them when I was six. I used to live in Terra Luna but then my whole family was killed by warlocks. I was lucky that John found me before I got killed. Very lucky I'll say."
"Warlocks? Like the Shiroganes?" Buttercup nodded.
"They're a nasty lot, always using demoncraft. There also are Lycans, Sirens, Faes, you name it. Almost every human mythology exists in some form."
"Lycans?" Blossom questioned.
"Werewolves, werecats, were-whatever."
"Oh I see."
They skipped over long branches and jumped over large, jagged rocks. Blossom stopped when she caught a silver of golden hair. Puzzled, she looked again but it was gone. She sped up to catch Buttercup. A half hour later they was still exploring the woods. But she halted when she heard a loud scream and she snapped her head to the direction where the scream had come from.
"Buttercup did you hear that?" She whispered.
"Yeah. It might be teenager from a village nearby jumping in the river. Gramps said they do that sometimes." Buttercup said, but she was unnerved. They paused to listen.
Blossom shook her head. "It sounded like a cry for distress-" She was interrupted by another scream. It was louder than the last one. "Let's go help!" She said running to where the woods gave away to a plain of sharp, frozen grassy hill.
"Wait Blossom!" Buttercup called and ran after her.
She sprinted over the hill, and saw a sight that would make her old self faint. Blossom did take a step back from the horrible sight. A hooded man stood over the blooded girl, a red knife in one of his hands. He took one look at Blossom and Buttercup running to him. The man turned and ran for it.
"Hey!" She shouted. But the man had already entered the woods, Buttercup chased him while Blossom ran to the girl. She crouched down and set her longbow next to the blonde. She got a closer look to her stomach wound. It was a deep, large cut across her stomach. The girl's mouth was open as if she was screaming out in pain, but no sound came out. The blonde's breaths became shallower every breath.
"Oh god." Blossom panicked. She took her jacket and ripped the hem and blocked the bleeding wound, but it didn't work and it was slowly getting blood-soaked. Her long, golden was caked with sticky blood, the strands stick on her face. Her pretty face was smeared with blood and her expression was one of pain. She heard Buttercup climbing the hill.
"I lost him- oh damn that's strong!" Buttercup held a hand to her nose, the scent of blood was almost overpowering. Blossom had to resist the voice in the back of her head.
'Come on just a little drink of blood. You deserve it.' Blossom shook her head to get rid of her bloodthirsty thoughts.
"It's too late. She'll die." Buttercup forced out, it sounded almost like a snarl. Her eyes was now a mixture of green and brown. Before long it would turn red.
"No, no, no." Blossom said. "We can save her I know it." But how?
"Blossom? Please don't tell me you're thinking of turning her aren't you?" Buttercup asked. She tried to pull Blossom away from the dying blonde. But it was too late.
Blossom ducked down and bit.
C
"Why you just couldn't leave her to die? She'll die either ways from blood loss or her Awakening." Buttercup remarked from her seat.
"Buttercup be quiet!" John told her.
Buttercup scowled and sank back into her seat.
"Awakening?" Blossom couldn't help but to ask. There was still so much about the Vampire race that she didn't know.
"Awakening is a change in the genes. In order to become a full-fledgling vampire, you have to go through the Awakening. It's more painful for normal humans because they undergo more change than pureblood or half-blood vampires. That's why many humans don't survive the transformation." John explained. "And with the stomach wound, the possibility of her surviving is very low."
Blossom frowned. If she'd known about the Awakening then she would've let the blonde to go in peace rather than undergo more pain. She then thought about her experience. "Wait, what about mine? It wasn't that painful compared to hers."
"Your Awakening was quick and painless and lasted only a day, that's unusual for a Turned. Normally it would take two to three weeks for humans."
She sighed. "There must be something we can do."
"There's a treatment in Tenebrosi, but we can't afford it. Nor do we have any connection there. The only thing we can do right now is hope that she'll live. "
Blossom bit her bottom lip and stared at the long haired girl. She stood up and walked to the bathroom.
"Where are you going?" Buttercup called.
"Towel and water for cleaning and new clothing. I'm not leaving her like that."
C
After cleaning the golden haired girl's blood off, Blossom squeezed the reminding liquid out. She had debated if she should cut her hair. It was so tangled up that she couldn't undo the knots. She had already replaced her clothing and discarded it in the bin. She was looking through the drawers for a scissor or maybe a knife to cut the blonde's hair. But then Ken had passed by and had offered his help to unknot her hair. Two and a half hour the hair was clean and untangled. Blossom had to cut off two inches though, the hair now went to her mid-back.
"She looks like Rapunzel from human folklores, the one with the long blonde hair and a face like an angel." Ken had commented about the girl.
"Oh ho ho." Gramps Mayor crackled. "Is our little Kennikens having a crush? I was waiting for signs of puberty you know, for a moment there I thought you might've swing the other way."
"What!" Ken was red. "Noooo, I was just saying how much she reminded me of Rapunzel! I'm still too young to go through puberty!"
"Ho ho really?"
"Yes!"
After that incident they began to call her Rapunzel.
C
A week later when John and Grandfather Mayor had flew to Tenebrosi to check if they could call in a favor for treatment for Rapunzel's Awakening, and Buttercup had gone with Sarah and Ken to Sakura Town for more supplies so the house was silent.
Blossom quickly packed a small bag. She had decided to check on Kuriko. She had to know what had happened to her after she went missing. Blossom put on a large, black hood just in case anyone recognized her. She slipped out her bedroom window and carefully scaled Suta no Mori. After she hit the long plain outside the valley she sped across the blankets of snow. She was sure she had ran for more than an hour unstop before she hit the Sawara Forest. Finally she stood on the ledge of a steep cliff and watched the twinkling lights of Sawara Town. A soft breeze blew making her hair fly in the night.
Kuriko. She called. I'm coming for you.
She leaped.
C
Tenebrosi: Dark (Latin) - Ruled by Monarch Izayoi
Suta no Mori: Star Forest (Japanese)
Calenti- Vampire version of hot chocolate but instead of cocoa they use blood. It is an excellent nourishment for vampire that do not drink directly from mammals or humans.
Nox- Night (Latin) - Ruled by Monarch Mojo. Crown Prince Brick is next in line. Prince Butch is second and Prince Boomer is third.
Terra Luna- Land of Moon (Latin) - Buttercup's origin.
Next Chapter: Rook Part III- Kuriko and Hana
EXTRA SCENE. Just for laughs, not related to the main storyline.
Blossom was relaxing on her bed in the shared bedroom. Her eyes was closed in bliss as she drifted away in contention. She could faintly hear piano playing in the living room.
Her thoughts was slow and calm. Suddenly one thought stood up. What month it is now. Let's see, Buttercup had said that one week equals four months. So that would that mean it was late November to early December. She found it strange that time runs differently in both worlds.
Blossom gasped, her pink eyes flew open. How old was Buttercup? If she had lived in the Dark Continent for her whole life, that would make her well, around three centuries old!
Then as if fate had planned it, Buttercup entered the room to drop off her soccer ball.
"Buttercup." She said slowly.
"What?"
"How old are you exactly?"
Buttercup smirked. "A true lady never tells her age." She cracked up and walked out the room.
"You're no lady." Blossom rolled her eyes. Maybe Ken would tell her. She jumped out her bed and ran outside where Ken was playing with Peach.
"Ken! Ken!" She called. "Hey Ken can I ask you something?"
"Sure Blossom-nee."
"How old is Buttercup?"
"About two hundred and ninety-six. Why do you ask Blossom-nee?" Ken answered, his innocent blue eyes sparkling.
"She's that old?" She suddenly glanced at Ken. "Wait, how old are you?"
Ken smiled. "I'll be one hundred and ninety in the spring."
Blossom then promptly fainted.
"Blossom-nee!" Ken freaked out, shaking her limp shoulders. Peach barked in concern.
In the distance, you could hear Buttercup's loud laughter.
