Hanna, Sarah, Mackentosh, Momo: mouths drop
Sarah: Jakob, for a guy you look really good in that dress. You're pretty.
Mackentosh: I must agree with the Care Bear.
Sarah: It's a grizzly bear thank you very much.
Mackentosh: I don't care.
Sarah: glares
Katie and Amy: trying hard not to laugh
Nich: This is a little disturbing.
Hanna: I just died inside.
Geoff: covering his eyes I don't know what you're talking about. I don't see anything.
Katie: This is really sad. I feel like crying right now.
Jakob: I feel pretty.
Geoff: takes out his gun and points it at his head Well, see you all at my funeral.
Gaia: Put that gun away you moron.
Geoff: Mind your on business!
Gaia: I'm your older brother so shut up and listen to me before I kick your sorry little ass!
Geoff: Go get shocked outside you jackass!
Gaia and Geoff: glare at one another
I didn't even have to say a word to Amy before I felt the tension in the air. She had pebbles in her hands and I saw them being crunched. Yeah. You could say she was pissed. I let out a breath of air. This was going to take a lot of effort. I sat down next to my friend and mimicked her position for a while to see if I could get her to say something. And her reply was tart, but it was a reply none the less. I kept my cheering to myself.
"You want something?" she asked stiffly. I cracked a smile and looked up at the sky. Well, tried to anyway. The green cloud blocked out the sun. I looked at her instead.
"Yeah. I want to say I'm sorry, Amy. About kissing Jakob. I know you like him," I told her. She stopped moving and the pebbles in her hands disintegrated. I gulped. "I mean, I didn't want him to kiss me or anything, really!" The truth was, I couldn't really remember anything from that night. Other than the kiss of course. Its heat made my face color and I chewed on my lip. "Say something, Amy!"
"Katie. You are the dearest person in my life. But I don't feel like that anymore. I mean….How can I say this? Do you think that we'll be able to…go back to our time once this is all over? Will we all be alive?"
The fact that her last three questions had nothing to do with the first scared me a little. What was she talking about?
"Amy, what're you saying? Of course we're going back! It's not like we can live in this world forever you know! We've got real family in that other—oh!" I gasped and covered my mouth with my hands, tears pooling in my eyes. I had called my real world the other world. I felt horrible. How could I have done such a thing?! Amy continued.
"Heh. I know how you feel, Kate. This world is quickly becoming more and more of a home to me than our other one ever was. I don't think…I want to go back! It seems like this world is giving me such a purpose. Our world gave me none of that. It was never exciting like this one is. Who would've thought that these monsters existed? That cities still sent out caravans to protect them from an unknown evil? It's like something straight out of a video game! And…I found someone I love here, Kate. I don't want to leave until I know for sure his feelings. So, yeah. I guess you know already. That I like him, I mean. Jakob," Amy said all this in a rush. It was like a tidal wave. It hit me hard like a slap in the face. Also, it kinda scared me. She had brought up unpleasant feelings in my heart. I was thinking that I loved this world more than my own. I shivered.
"Amy. So you love him? I'll give him to you then. I'll…keep him from coming onto me, then. If it's what you want. So yes. I will stay here with you. And everyone else. We must protect this world forever!"
'More than my other friends. More than family. More than my entire world and all its luxuries. I want to stay here with Amy and everyone else!' I thought sadly, breaking down. Amy's arms embraced me and I sat there, tears leaking out of my eyes with my decision. I was saying good-bye to my parents and my sister, although not seeing her again was going to be great. My school and my education were going to have been for nothing. I was never going to graduate or walk up to get my diploma with my class wearing the school colors: blue and gold. My memories were going to fade and I wouldn't be able to have anything to remember them by. God. It was going to be hard. I wracked with sobs, but they were quiet and didn't really surprise the others who were used to seeing me cry by now. It was kind of a routine.
"Well, time to go, everyone! I wanna get out of here within the week!" Sarah called, waving us back over. I wiped my running nose and eyes on my sleeve, much to Amy's disgust, and walked slowly back to the group. Everyone readied their weapons and I pulled my shield off my back and we walked forward only a couple dozen paces before we stopped. In front of us was what appeared to be a stone birdbath. I ambled up to it and tapped it with my sword. Nothing happened. I looked into it.
It was about as tall as my waist and had a disc-shaped indentation in it with a little Rune engraved on the top of it, along with a small arrow that pointed north. I looked up while the others leaned over the Rune, trying to see if any of them could translate it. I excused myself and walked the way the arrow had pointed, with my arms stretched out before me. They soon found hold on a leafy wall. It was made of stone and as I found out, blocking something. On either end was a pillar that had swirling grooves in it. I felt along the bottom of the wall and felt nothing. I brushed my hands on my pants and stood up, going back.
"There's a wall over that way. I think we've gotta put something in this pedestal here to open that door. The Rune is obviously a magic seal of some sort," I was just starting to feel all smart and proud of myself when Nich told me that Gaia had already figured that out. I pouted, but after a bit of searching around in the tall weeds and ruins, we came up with nothing that resembled a key and we continued on our way after finding another rather indiscreet path behind a group of tight-knit trees. Every now and then I felt the penetrating stare of Jakob, but I shook it off as just another glare from some beast.
The next thing to block our path, 'though not exciting, more so annoying, was another green webbed barrier. Hanna swallowed a fire orb and blasted through it, and we all gathered on the other side, waiting for it to reform, before we continued. A pit was on our left (we were heading east) and we shuffled along on the right side, keeping well away. As we neared the curving part of the path, a snarling and growling and beating of wings could be heard.
Instinctively, we hid ourselves in the tall grass on either side of the walkway and crept toward these sounds, silent as death. Poking our heads out of the top of the grass only to communicate with our hands where we were going was hard once we rounded the bend. I swallowed a gasp as I gazed up.
Up in the sky was a creature that I actually heard of. It had the powerful body of a chestnut horse that rippled with sinew. A long fur-tipped tail lashed back and forth as it watched yet another Gigan Toad and Lizardman bicker in their tongue at one another, the Lizard's sword drawn. The head of this monster had the downy white feathers of a bald eagle and the sharp, curved beak that was snapping and clicking deadly. I ducked down and crawled back to Lebal who had flown into the same patch of grass as me.
"Don' ya go gettin' no ideas, Kahteh!" he warned me, clutching the Chalice in his feet. I groaned and continued. This was no time to argue. A griffin was something we had never encountered. I irritably explained the situation and he told me that we had to perform the spell Gravity on the flying monster. It would disable its ability to fly and make it a helluva lot easier to defeat. To do this, three people had to simultaneously cast two Fires, and then a Thunder or Blizzard on the object. It would take great deal of concentration and cooperation, so I crawled back to where my friends were waiting anxiously for me to give them instructions.
I picked the two most capable in my party: Sarah and Geoff. Amy, who was also there, raised an eyebrow, but then again, it had been she who had wanted me to not depend on her as much, right? Sarah distributed the Magecite, and I poked my head out of the grass to get the other group's attention. Hanna looked up, caught my eye, and I nodded. We both ducked down again.
"Ok. I'm going to wave my hand in the air. That's when we rush out and take them by surprise, OK? Sarah, Geoff, stay out of the other battles, we're taking the Griffin down first, all right? Everybody ready? Good." I put my arm in the sky, but this time, what came with it was an unexpected surprise: the screech of a Griffin. Apparently the beast finally realized we were there. I jumped and covered my ears until the blast stopped.
Almost immediately afterward, I was on my feet and crying for my friends to charge forward. The flying monster's call had alerted its two fellows below that there were intruders here. So they rushed us as we ran towards them. The Gigan Toad flew high into the air before landing down with a loud crash, sending a spray of dried dirt flying in all directions, creating a sort of smoke screen. I coughed, but dove out of the way when my instinct told me to. And it was a good thing it had because the Griffin had sent a swirling blast of wind at me which exploded as it hit. I gazed upward, looking for the thing, but felt a sword crash down my spine, making me cry out in alarm. The Lizardman had snuck up behind me.
Momo came pelting out of the smoky air and head butted the thing to the ground, causing it to gag and drop its sword. I thanked her before Sarah and Geoff appeared. Both quickly checked my wound before deeming it okay. Together, we ran around, helping others as needed, but the ground-ridden monsters were ones that we had faced before and were being kept under control. When another loud caw split the sky, Sarah shoved Magecite at the three of us and we swallowed.
The Griffin came swooping down at us from directly above. Its great talons were outstretched, its sharp, pointy beak glinting heavily in the midday sun that managed to permeate the greenish gloom above. I blasted its feathers with Fire, searing it. It gave a bawl of alarm before swiping at me again. I ducked, but one of the claws got hooked in the string that held my shoulder pad to my armor. Before I could let out a sound, I was flying through the air and crashed headlong into one of the nasty, sick-green barriers that stretched across the path. The wind was knocked out of me and I rolled down, slowly, kind of like a Slinky that goes down stairs, before landing heavily on my side on the ground. I heaved and pushed myself onto my elbows. Sarah and Geoff were taking worried looks at me, but were fighting off the Griffin as best as they could. Momo, Hanna, and Jakob were beating the bloody Lizardman back to an overhang. The others were leaping out of the way of the Gigan Toad's Blizzard blasts.
"SARAH! GEOFFREY!" I bellowed suddenly. They whipped around and bolted towards me, the Griffin flying quickly after. "Let's do it!" I cried. The skidded to a halt and nodded. Together we formed our Magecite powers and focused on the Griffin. "Now!" When we let loose, our chi formed a huge sphere of turquoise light that bloomed beautifully on the Griffin. With a wail, the creature had its ability of flight ripped from it and it began to tumble out of the sky. The others below gazed up and just managed to fly out of the way before the Griffin landed, killing both the Lizardman and Gigan Toad, with its back. It managed to haul itself to its feet before giving me a death glare and charging. My eyes widened and I jumped up.
"Come on, you great ugly brute!" I called, pulling my shield from my back. Just behind it, I could see Gaia grabbing some bronze and Gil from the slain monsters. Pyreflies were draining from their bodies and flying away. When the Griffin was no more than a yard or two away from me, I beamed a stream of fire straight into its eyes, instantly blinding it. Its howls of pain echoed loudly around us and I rushed over to my friends who were gathered in a spot a pace away from the rampaging monster.
"I'm gonna use the Dual Blast, you guys. Jake, use your Power Kick, all right? The rest of you, follow up with your attacks, ok? Back us up," Nich's little input sounded cool, but his destructive fighting style could blast something apart and killing us, like back in Selapation Cave or something. None the less, I quelled my fears and tightened the grip on my shield. The Griffin had stopped stamping around and was now whipping its tail back and forth, its nostrils flared widely as if trying to sniff us out. Its head turned towards us, and I knew it would come running. So I fanned out with the others around the Griffin until we had a nice ring formed. The beast was taking great swipes at us, but all were dodged. Nich then launched his Dual Attack, sending two spiraling balls of chi flying at the Griffin, behind which was Jakob whose right leg was covered with his own chi. At the point of impact on the Griffin, Jakob kicked with all his might. I blasted it with my fire.
After the small tidal wave of blood that had come spurting out of the thing, I wiped my sweaty brow and then collapsed. It wasn't until now that I noticed my shoulder was throbbing painfully. I reached up to feel it and flipped the ruined pad off me so that it landed on the ground. I reached back until I felt a puncture wound that was oozing great globs of blood. My head was getting foggy. I knew this wasn't gonna be OK...
RAC: Hey you guys! I have a VERY good reason for not having been updating this time! D I got grounded for a month and a half and my psychotic mother was staying home the whole time to make sure I didn't go anywhere or do anything - even though I found ways around that - so yeah. But I wasn't able to get online forEVER. So here's an extra-long chapter, just for you loves.
