Title: Lucky number 7
The Challenge: Write something that has to do with luck and the number 7
Rating: It's pretty tame. K
Genre: General.
Characters: the main five TRC members.
Length: It's 2287 words long. Pretty good for a challenge.
"Alright, we're all set." Syaoran said, nodding to Mokona. The creature opened its mouth until it was reasonably sized to suck in the four participants in the dimension hopping journey.
To the untrained eye, it looked terribly painful. Each of the four human's limbs was stretched into thin pasta like-replicas of arms and legs. Their torsos and lower abdominal sections twisted and contorted until the whole body was able to slip into the mouth of the creature, with a small "slurp!" note after the figures had vanished into , literally, thin air.
As Mokona's mouth drew closer, each part of his body was given an odd tug, almost like that of a dog trying to drag along an unwilling victim. Syaoran made sure to keep his chin tucked into the nook in his collar bone. He placed on hand on top of the Princess's head, and one around her waist, a move which by now he had almost mastered besides the occasional and embarrassing slip-ups (the word, "banishment" would flash in his mind each time).
For his toes and legs, he had to make sure they were not stiff. One time, he had made the mistake of locking out both his legs like a stiff board. The landing was not only ungraceful, it caused a jolt of jarring pain to jump up all the muscles and bones up to his hips which enabled him to walk for a good hour. Fai, who had taken up the position of 'doctor' a few worlds's past, examined the legs once and told him they were not broken.
Once more, the ground was rapidly approaching. Syaoran winced.
They were heading in head first.
Dimension-hopping truly was an art form. It required a fit body, some wits, and a dash of pure luck. The luck part, however, varied from place to place. For example:
Landing feet first on a sandy beach--Good luck. Nice, soft, and preferably with coconuts a short distance away.
Landing feet first in water-- Lucky, but be prepared for water-up the nose and fishy friends that think you're their next meal.
Landing headfirst on a grassy hill in the middle of nowhere-- Good luck. As long as you know to quickly roll onto your shoulder, careful not to dislocate anything, and continue rolling, you're fine.
Landing headfirst in the middle of a cobbled stoned street--Bad luck.
Landing on top of the other group in the middle of a cobbled stoned street--Good luck. At least, for the moment. But you needed to get off quickly.
As the ground rushed up on them, Syaoran's vision was simply a field of green. What kind of green, grass or prickly weeds, was undeterminable as it came closer.
"What is it?" Sakura murmured into his chest.
"A field. Get ready to-" the next part of his sentence was cut off as they slammed into the ground. Whether the rest of the group ranged from good to bad luck, Sakura always had the amazing fortune to land on someone (equaling, of course, good luck).
Syaoran's instinct quickly took over and he started to roll, making sure not to poke or prod too much into the person smothered up against his chest.
When they finally came to a complete stop, dizzy but otherwise unhurt, they heard their other companions.
"Hey, you two. You okay?" Fai called.
Sakura looked down at Syaoran. The position they were in, one that Syaoran was sure he would have to pay some time in hell for, had caused a flush of awkwardness and embarrassment the first dozen times. Now, however, they came to view it as something to cope with, and as long as they got off each other quickly, that was all it was going to be. (They had even joked about it once, before going silent for the next hour.)
"I'm fine, but your elbow is in my stomach."
"Oh, sorry," Sakura moved and pushed up off him, discreetly covering her face with her hand to hide the blush she imagined to be parading around on her cheeks and nose.
"We're fine," Syaoran answered, giving a once over to make sure he really was alright.
"Okay, that's great. Now then, Kuro-bubba, can you see a town or--"
"NO FEATHER!" Mokona's scream slide in between Fai's words. "LEAVING! BYE, BYE WORLD!"
"Wah!" The words barely graced Syaoran's ear before the familiar tug became again.
Sakura was as equally unprepared and gave a sudden squeak before lunging at Syaoran again. She had barely managed to wrap her arms around his torso before they were whisked up into the dimension's swirls.
"So soon?"
"I guess..." he answered, blinking to adjust his eyes to the sudden darkness. He felt a pull at his foot. Glancing down, he saw Fai and Kurogane behind him.
Kurogane was having a fit. "Didn't that stupid bun PROMISE to fricking TELL US when we're leaving!" His rage steamed off for the next minute as they traveled through the cosmos.
"We're landing again!" Syaoran announced, watching as the rip to the next world came closer.
Landing, he realized soon after, was the wrong word.
Looking down, a good mile or two below, was the planet. It looked as pretty from this distance as it did frightening. But that good feeling he had a second ago jumped out of his body as soon as he realized that they were falling, quickly, through nothing but air and fluffs of cloud parts.
Sakura's arms gripped tighter around his torso and he held on to her, trying to keep her head in his chest and away from their surroundings, least she faint. The thought made him sick.
He glance at his foot, seeing Fai and Kurogane close by, within kicking distance, but too far away giving their predicament. Fai was trying to mouth something, pointing upwards with one finger, the other hand trying to keep his hair from whipping his eyes blind.
Unable to read the magicians lips, Syaoran shrugged, inwardly cursing their language barrier.
"MOKONA!" He yelled, straining his neck muscles to look to the sides. The wind was blasting up against his body, making almost any movement difficult. Seeing the creature nowhere, Syaoran gritted his teeth and took quick breaths through his nose. Not sure how to turn his and Sakura's bodies around, he pushed his shoulder forward, turning his head sideways, then rolled.
He rolled once, then started to flip. Realizing his mistake, he cranked his neck down to put his mouth to Sakura's ear.
"I'm gonna need my arms!" he yelled, hoping she heard. "Whatever you do, don't let go!"
"Alright!" She yelled back.
He flung his arms outward, hoping that they would help him turn. Once glance down made him double his speed. The ground, once a nice small circular bit almost two miles below, was taking up much more of his eye's flied vision, less then a mile.
'We're falling like rocks!' the fleeting thought blinked in his mind before returning to finding Mokona.
He flipped over once more, Sakura held on, and then he saw a speck of white amongst the blue sky. Its ears were sticking straight up from it rollie-pollie body.
"MOKONA!" Syaoran screamed, his lungs gasping in painful gulps of thin air. "GET US OUT OF HERE!"
A small, over joyous voice answered, "okie-dokey!" And once more darkness crowded in on them, and they were being tugged once more to another dimension. Something squeezed Syaoran right foot. When he looked down, Fai gave him a 'V' sign.
"I knew you'd figure it out." Grinning he turned to Kurogane. "Right?"
"I am going to kill that fu--"
"We reattached ourselves right after we saw that Mokona read you." Fai said. "Lucky you were so close."
There was a trade off on the next world; a soft, lucky headfirst landing, but a furious Kurogane. As soon as their feet touched upon ground, he dived for Mokona, catching it right as it's feet made a imprint in the sand.
It gave off a loud squeal, "Aieeee! Kuro-pon angry!"
"You bet I'm angry, you little piece of crap!" His hands gave a merciless squeeze. "I thought you were gonna WARN us!"
"Mokona scared!"
"SHUT UP!" he yelled.
Fai turned to Kurogane, making sure to stay out of the other man's reach. He would for sure vie for Mokona, but he would not risk getting hit for it. "Kuro-won, come on now. You know for sure you can't kill it. You need Mokona to go home."
"Well THAT hasn't worked out!" Kurogane growled, his nostrils flaring. "Has it, you little brainless meat bun!" He squeezed again, exciting another high-pitched squeal.
Sakura gave a loud sigh from a few feet away where she was sitting cross legged. "Guys, stop that." Normally, her voice in these arguments was never heard, for she found them quite silly, though entertaining to some degree. Today was another story.
"We should probably get going so...soon," Her voice wavered a bit on the last syllable, a clear indication she was getting drowsy. Not enough to be too concerned about, but enough to keep an eye on her.
Kurogane turned from his game of "squeeze the Mokona" to the others. "Hey," his canine teeth glinted through his wicked grin. "Do you guys want to know how meat buns taste?"
"MOKONA LEAVING!"
"Not again!"
"Princess, grab--"
"Hoe!"
The next two worlds were both lucky, soft landings feet first, the first on some odd material that made them all bounce up a foot into the air before falling back once more. They had just heard the voice of a small boy ("Mommy! There are weirdoes on the trampoline!") before Mokona opened its mouth. The second landing was feet first into a pile of hay. The only eyes that greeted them on this world were that of a horse, chewing its meal.
"I think I'm getting sick." Sakura said as they entered the fifth dimension tunnel that day.
By the sixth world, the novelness of another new environment had long worn off.
"What the hell are you trying to DO to us!" Kurogane shouted as it opened it mouth again. "NO! STOP THAT! DAMNIT, FAI! LET GO!"
"Mokona, this is getting a little insane." Syaoran agreed. "We've been to 6 worlds. How many more to we have to go before we stop and rest a bit?"
"One more!" sounded the suprisingly loud answer from such a tiny body.
Once of Fai's eyebrow's lifted above the other. "Oh? Why the sudden need, Mokona?"
The alien eyes widened, and it clamped an ear over its mouth in a childish fashion. "Mokomph camph't say!" It's said through its ears. "It's a seeeeecreth!"
"Why you little--" started Kurogane.
"LAST WORLD!" Mokona announced, and before anyone could do much else, it sucked them up into the dark abyss.
Sakura and Syaoran held onto each other (Fai and Kurogane had grabbed onto Syaoran's left leg this time). They flew only a few seconds before they were dropped as unceremoniously as any. Syaoran, Fai and Kurogane all landed on their backs on hard ground. Sakura, with her well of luck, landed on top of a bed of bodies.
"We really need to figure this landing thing out." said Fai as he untangled his legs from Kurogane's and Syaoaran's.
"Now I do feel sick," said Sakura, hurriedly rolling off the pile and walking away a few feet before bending over with her hands on her knees.
The cover of night was above them, as where thousands of stars. As fate would have it, a small ratty shed with broken roof stood barely ten feet away. From the outside, it looked well used, but taken care of, for the most part. Syaoran walked to the shred and looked inside. Random tools decorated the walls, along with a few blankets neatly folded on a wooden chair. There was even a small pale with a lid.
"It looks like a farm shed." said Syaoran. "The farmers probably use this during the summer when they are working out here and it's too far to go home." Nodding, he turned to the others. "This seems as good a place as any. There are even some blankets in there we could use in case it gets cold. I doubt it, since it's pretty warm right now."
Fai tilted his head back. "Woot! After all that excitement, I'm exhausted!" His eyes flicked to Kurogane. "Aren't you tired, Kuro-wana?"
"Not until the meat bun tells us why the heck he that!" Kurogane had, in the moments of struggle and entanglement, seized a hold of Mokona again. He had one large hand around its body and the other was digging a knuckle into Mokona's head.
"Noogie!"
"Shut up!" snapped Kurogane. "Now you tell us why you did that!" He gave an awful twist.
After a few moments of sqealing and giggling, Mokona gave in. "Mokona dared Mokona!"
"What!"
Mokona giggled, "Mokona dared Mokona! Mokona said that Mokona could not jump seven times, but Mokona did and Mokona loses! Wieee!" Its little white eyelids closed, as it continued, "Didcha hear that, Mokona? Mokona jumped seven times! You owe me apples!"
Fai looked down at the creature with curiosity. "What in heavens name was that?"
"She's talking about the black Mokona," traveled Sakura's weak voice from where she was still bent over. "She talks to the black Mokona at night when she's with me. I hear her...ug..."
"Princess!" Syaoran rushed over to her side, leaving Fai and Kurogane to exchange glances at each other.
"Now that's something I never knew..." started Fai.
"Yeah. Since when is Mokona a girl?"
Author's note: I did have fun with this challenge.It was nice to take a break from Crash and concentrate for a good two hours on this. The result was nice, if not anything terribly memorable. I wasn't trying to reveal much with this fic, character or story wise. I did try, and that result was dreadful. It was best just to leave them both alone and play around with scenery.
As for the characters, they were fun to write, however little their personalities appeared. Syaoran wasn't used for much else other than being the viewpoint character, and Sakura hardly got to do much other than hold on for the ride and say a sentence or two. Kurogane and Fai did have their small moment at the end, but it was used for the humor. Mokona provided the perfect means to tie this fic together, as well as the perfect justification.
