Being a mad psychopathic train that rampaged through several dozen worlds, Dekoichi's train stations hosted a plethora of creatures from all over. But no matter how many times Dharc waited at the station, tapping his finger against his knee out of sheer habit, he never quite got use to occasions like these when he could swear that the Servant of Catabolism next to him was throwing him sideways glares.
Not only did the squid like monster look horribly out of place on land, Dharc was also unsure as to where the Servant was actually looking at seeing as its pitch black eyes lacked any focal point.
Across from him, standing like a statue in the farthest corner was a tall blonde man whose face was partially obscured by a tattered beige cloak. The man himself didn't seem to realize anything but Dharc couldn't help but notice that the large Silver Fang at his feet was growling at Fire Fox.
And was that a Beaver Warrior gnawing on a Metal Fish?
But to Dharc the greatest mystery of all was: how, with all the foreign creatures and people around, could Lyna be fidgiting in boredom?
Sighing, he decided to keep quiet, after all, so far both Hiita and Lyna had followed his directions. They had packed and arrived at the train station with all haste, but eight minutes of sitting quietly was just too much for Lyna. Hiita on the other hand, seemed to have noticed the Silver Fang bristling at Fire Fox.
"How much longer?" Lyna asked, jabbing Dharc in the arm with her staff.
"Two minutes." Dharc pushed her staff away.
Lyna fell silent again, but thirty seconds later, "Why isn't it here yet?"
Dharc resisted the urge to sigh, Lyna's sense of time seemed to go down the drain whenever a basic skill called patience came into the equation.
"Lyna, if you would just sit down, I'm sure the train would-" Dharc was cut off by a loud metallic roar and a blast of wind, a split second lator Dekoichi came to a screaming halt in front of them, "Oh, I guess Dekoichi is running early today."
Once Hiita managed to drag Fire Fox away from its scowling contest, the three Charmers filed onto the train and picked a seat far away from the much larger, much more menacing looking Silver Fang. Lyna immediately jumped into the window seat and Hiita took the aisle seat to give Fire Fox the arm rest, leaving Dharc with the middle seast.
"Here, you might want to do this before the train starts", Dharc jammed his staff into the luggage rack, "Trust me, and Lyna, you might want to put Happy Lover up there too."
"Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive is ready to leave the station. Please ensure that all luggage is securely fasten to the luggage racks above. Next station: The World Tree." said the pleasant intercom voice.
Almost before the intercom crackled off, the train leaped forward, slamming everyone back into their seats. Lyna shouted with delight as other passangers grabbed onto anything solid in terror. Unfortunately, being in the middle seat, Dharc did not have anything to keep from being at the mercy of the crazy locomotive.
Pratically stuck to his seat, Dharc watched the green blur that he believed were trees tear by while marveling at how Lyna was plastered to the window in utter joy while everyone else was blanched with fear.
"Hey!" Hiita yelled, seizing Dharc's arm a bit harder than necessary, "Is it going to be like this the whole time?"
"Actually Hiita, this is the calmer part of the ride, it gets really bad when-"
Almost as if on cue, Dekoichi took a violent swing to the left, shrieking all the while as for a few moments, one side of the train's wheels completely left the ground. Lacking anything to keep him in place, Dharc crashed into Lyna.
"Sorry!" he yelled over the shouts of the other passangers and the train itself.
"This is amazing!" Lyna screamed back, she had stuck Happy Lover into her hood but the winged angel didn't seemed to share her excitment.
For a brief moment, Dharc's marvel at Lyna's enthusiasm and horror at how violent a single train could be, turned to depression. Somehow, the train ride just wasn't the same without Meda Bat constantly screeching in his ear about how speed was never worth life and limb.
Time tended to get blurry when one was trying hard not to be murdered by a Battlechanted Locomotive so Dharc wasn't quite sure how long it took to reach The World Tree. But Dekoichi eased to a stop just as gently as it had at the Citadel's train station and promptly threw all its passangers forward.
Luckily for Dharc, he was somewhat prepared for the event and just ended up standing up, but Hiita was quite nearly thrown on her face and Lyna managed to survive by holding onto the window sill.
"Current station: The World Tree, repeat, The World Tree. Please ensure that you have all your personal belongings before exiting. Thank you for riding on Dekoichi, the Battlechanted Locomotive, have a nice day!", once again came the infuriatingly calm and serene voice.
About half a dozen or so people and creatures stumbled eagerly out of the doors while a few passangers climbed in. Everyone else took the opportunity to drag themselves back into their seats and contemplate just what they had gotten themselves into.
"How many more stations are there?" Hiita asked, picking a very green Fire Fox off the floor.
"Well-"
The train took off and once again, they were flattened against their seats.
In all his time, Dharc had never been able to pinpoint exactly how long it took for Dekoichi to get to Ohm. That and he was starting to get a nagging suspicion that the insane train didn't have any particular order of stops. But what he did know was that three hours later, he had had enough. Trying to keep from having his head smashed in was tiring work and Dharc could only tolerate it for so long before feeling that he'd go mad.
"Keep going! Faster!" Lyna shouted gleefully.
"I'm sorry to say this but you're a mad woman!" Dharc shouted at her.
"This train stopped being fun about two hours ago!" Hiita yelled.
"Trust me, if I could stop it, I would!"
Just as Dharc's head began to spin and he was very sure that Fire Fox was about to vomit, the train stopped with all grace, sending up sparks and screams of passangers in the process.
"Current stop: Ohm, repeat, Ohm. Please ensure that-"
Not stopping to listen, Dharc jumped to his feet-albiet a bit wobbly-and pulled all three of their staffs out of the luggage rack and headed for the door as if his life depended on it. Once off, Dharc and Hiita were grateful to sit down for a moment and gather their bearings, Lyna on the other handed, skipped out quite happily.
"Aw, you didn't enjoy it?" she asked Happy Lover who looked completely shell shocked.
"We're going to have to take that train home, aren't we?" Hiita asked, more of a statement than a question.
"It's either Dekoichi, or walking for the better part of a week." Dharc answered breathlessly.
"Dekoichi it is then!" Lyna picked up her staff and looked around, "Sure is dark here. Is it night time already?"
"Do I need to remind you that Ohm is a world of darkness?" Dharc snapped, he took a deep breath to compose himself, "It's always night here."
"No problem! I'll just make us some light!" Lyna raised her staff.
"Put that thing down!" Dharc said quickly, "I mean it when I say it's always night. And everyone here's a dark attribute so they don't exactly need light to see. Don't you think it'll be the least bit suspicious if you suddenly summon up a lighthouse?"
"But it's creepy." Lyna mourned, "And I wasn't going to summon a lighthouse, just a harmless little ball of light."
"I'm sorry, but you can't make a light." Dharc shook his head, trying to clear up his frayed nerves, "And you too Hiita, no fires, no matter how dark it gets. Some people here don't really appreciate non-dark folks. We won't be here for long, we're just going to find Meda Bat and head straight home. Alright?"
"Right, and the less time we spend here the better." Hiita stood up and set Fire Fox on her shoulder, "Lead the way Dharc, I don't know about you but I agree with Lyna. This place really gives me the creeps."
Unlike his two companions, Dharc soon felt himself relax as the uncontaminated dark energies swept over him. But even as he calmed down, he could feel Lyna becoming uncharacteristically tense, no doubt the darkness didn't sit right with her. Hiita on the other hand, seemed to be in a much better state, though as a fire attribute, she must not feel the effects quite as much.
"See there?" Dharc pointed to a dark shape looming in the distance, "That's where the Shadow Priestess is, if anyone might know where Meda Bat is, it's her."
"And do we have to walk through the forest to get there?" Lyna asked.
"It's not that long, and why are you whispering?" Dharc asked, half amused, half irate.
"I don't know, it just seemed to fit the mood."
The moment they set foot into the forest, the darkness seemed to increase tenfold. The trees grew uglier the further in they got, and every now and then, a scuttling sound would echo from some far off place. Dharc ignored the sounds, though even his vision had dimmed. Anything they encountered here were probably weaker fiends, the real monsters usually appeared much deeper into the forest.
"Are you sure there's no way around?" Lyna squeaked, her mood had taken a complete turn from her ride on Dekoichi.
"No, just close your eyes if you're so scared." Dharc replied.
"But that makes it worse, what if someone's behind us now?"
Dharc stopped, Lyna bumped into him. He turned around, "I don't see anyone, do you?"
"What if someone's looking at us from a distance?" Lyna continued, "Trailing us, and whenever we look back, it disappears into the darkness?"
"Lyna!" Hiita snapped, though she too seemed on edge.
"I'm sorry!" Lyna wailed.
Dharc glanced behind him, surprised to see Lyna only a few inches from his back, "Are you cowering? Look, I've been through this passage dozens of times and nothing's actually attacked me."
"Actually? What's that suppose to mean?!"
"Dharc, honestly." Hiita held her staff out, stopping him, "Can't we just light one fire? One teensy little fire?"
About to say no, Dharc made the mistake of looking at Hiita before so. She wore an expression that clearly said that she would not take no for an answer, and on the occasion that he dared say no anyway, she'd beat him into the ground. But still...
"No, absolutely not." Dharc said, "In a sea of darkness, don't you think a flame's going to attract the monsters of the night more than anything else? Why do you think the Unshaven Angler has a light even though its blind? Because there's no other light on the bottom of the ocean!"
He couldn't help but feel a slight surge of satisfaction at the fact that not even Hiita could argue with that. Sure, there was a twinge of sympathy somewhere in him for his companions but it dwarfed in the fact that he was trying to keep them from getting eaten.
"Look, just follow me." he said, "Keep your eyes forward and don't look to the side, and don't let your mind wander."
Dharc started walking at a faster pace before either Hiita or Lyna could argue. This time he kept a merciless focus and refused to slow his pace. Perhaps it would've made more sense to just run through the forest, but Dharc was fairly sure that it would've left a formidable crack in his pride. Despite his advice, he could still hear Lyna whimpering; it almost disturbed him to see the normally bright and cheerful girl in this state.
"Look, there's the break in the trees, and we're still alive. I told you there was nothing to worry about."
Lyna let out a held breath once they left the ugly twisted trees behind. A little bit further and they happened upon the small village. It was nothing like the whimsicle buildings in the Citadel, all the houses here were gray and square. Most of the windows had shutters and curtains over them.
"What kind of place is this?" Hiita asked, kicking a piece of wood out of her way, "Is this some kind of ghost town?"
She smiled sheepishly as Lyna jumped. Dharc raised an eyebrow, when exactly had Lyna aquired her fear of gouls?
"It's not abandoned. The people in this town are actually quite happy with their lives." Dharc replied, "But I suppose they like their privacy more than most."
He nodded towards one of few houses with an open window, a small girl was peering out at them until a woman quickly pulled her away and drew the curtains. They had gotten use to Dharc over the years but with Lyna and Hiita with him...
"Ignore them and they'll ignore us. Come on, we're almost there."
They left the village behind and were nearing the Shadow Priestess' residence, a large castle like structure. But Dharc stopped abruptly, "Who are they?"
The other two Charmers followed his gaze to two fiends standing at the gate. They both had grayish armor like skin and looked none too friendly.
"Who are you and what is your business?" one asked, as the three spellcasters approached them.
"I'm here to see the Shadow Priestess." Dharc said briskly.
"And what business do you have with the Priestess?" the second one hissed.
This one looked rather like a barrier with giant hands while the first fiend had a humanoid form. There were many fiends in Ohm, several of them under the employment of the Shadow Priestess or aquaintences who visited her home, but Dharc had never seen these two.
"I'm her apprentice."
"No one is allowed to see the Shadow Priestess, she is in an important meeting." said the barrier like one.
Something about the two fiends looked rather familiar to Dharc, where exactly had he seen fiends with that sort of grayish armor?
"You two are Dark World fiends." he finally said.
"Dark World?" Hiita tilted her head, "You mean like Doriado was talking about?"
"The people with the mad king?" Lyna piped up.
"Do not dare speak of King Brron." the barrier growled.
It looked about ready to clobber the lot of them. Dharc gritted his teeth, Doriado had warned him to only fetch Meda Bat, he wasn't prepared to get into a fight with Dark World guards.
"Calm yourself, Renge." said the humanoid one, "Rumors fly freely in other worlds, do not punish them for another's misunderstanding.
He then turned to Dharc who tentatively relaxed.
"You say you are the apprentice of the Shadow Priestess, then surely you must understand that she is worthy of your trust. She is with a very important guest, I'm afraid that I will have to turn you away. If you try to force entry, then I must fight you." said the fiend.
Reluctantly Dharc nodded, "We'll leave."
He might've been able to charm one of the fiends and sicked it on the other but even if they had defeated the two, the repercussions would probably turn out to be more than he could handle. Not to mention that there were no doubt reinforcements near by.
"Dharc, we came all this way." Hiita said indignantly.
"We're not here to look for trouble." Dharc said sadly, "Come on."
"Listen to your friend, Girl. He might have just saved your life." sneered Renge.
Reluctantly, Hiita followed Dharc but not before throwing Renge a venomous glare that would've made Venomanaga proud. Lyna, still shaken from the surroundings followed without complaint.
"You are too kind to outsiders, Zure." they heard Renge say as they headed back.
"What the hell, Dharc?" Hiita asked furiously as soon as they were out of ear shot, "We come all this way, ride on a suicidal train, and you just let them bully you around?"
"Doriado told us to come here only to find Meda Bat, not to attack people." Dharc replied, "If we attacked those two then we're bound to get not only ourselves but our teachers and even Endymion in trouble."
"But how are we goin to find Meda Bat?" Lyna asked.
Dharc shook his head, he steered them towards a back trail around the village. The night was getting darker, maybe he should just find them a place to stay for the night and go home in the morning. What else could do?
Suddenly there was a rustling sound, Dharc ignored it, probably just some rat crawling around. But after a little while, he heard the rustling again. Was it following them?
"Did you..." he began.
But he trailed off as out of the bushes, burst a winged eyeball fiend.
AN: And that's chapter four.
Longer than the other chapters.
Thanks for reading, reviews and opinions are appreciated.