A\N- it took me forever to write this chapter, and for this I am truly sorry. Please enjoy.
Chapter 7-Of losses
It would be unfair to say Jia was scared.
It would be unfair to say Jia was shocked.
Jia was absolutely horrified, terribly terrified and shocked beyond her mind.
Her sword wielding hand trembled as the challenge ahead gave a deep intimidating growl and broke his confines with a shake of his mighty tail. Jia crouched and took shelter from the great pieces of wood and debris flying around her, her wings spreading out to shelter Hawk, who too had been stupefied by their shared challenge.
The dust sank back to the ground and let the bright light of the artificial sun shine upon the prideful mane of a giant Chimera, its talons scratching the ground and his serpentine tail swishing from side to side. Two giant ember eyes fixed themselves upon the small players who stood petrified in front of the prideful beast.
"Jia" whispered Hawk, "get his tails. Kill those serpents, I don't care how you do it, freeze them, and stab them. Cut their heads. I will go for his head. The longer we are both alive the better."
"Get his eyes." she whispered back.
"And don't die" she added, after a moment.
"You know me," he winked and swung his hook blades, showing off his skill with his beloved weapons. "I always do" he laughed.
The great Chimera opened its mouth and rumbled with a great threatening swing of his tail, "Who dares disturb my slumber? Come forward and I shall devour you for your insolence!"
Hawk sent a last look at Jia who was already preparing her sword, baring her teethe with a small throaty growl.
Majestic.
They both sprung into a flurry of motion, as the crowed sat and watched in silence.
Dodging and rolling on the arena floor, the serpentine head at the end of the beast's tail missed Jia . There was no time for her to catch her breath as the Chimera turned around to land another attack on her. Meanwhile Hawk was swinging his blades, now connected at their hooks, in an attempt to draw the beast's attention away from her.
It has been 7 whole minutes of none stop action, and Hawk felt he was reaching the end of his strength. He had to win, for once, he wanted to feel like a winner. He wanted to feel the surge of victory, even if his father wasn't there to watch him win, to watch him succeed where his brother couldn't stand in his way here.
He slashed, ducked, rolled, jumped, all the while remaining at the edge of the angry Chimera's reach. He caught Jia's look. She was smiling at him, a glint of wild amusement in her eyes. She swung her rapier and managed to land a harsh blow to the beast's ribs, creating a large bleeding wound. The beast roared with anger, the pain and the fury masking its intelligence, preventing it to speak.
He smiled at her-
And then a giant paw collided with the side of her head. She twisted through the air like a rag doll and collided with the arena's wall, creating a small dent in the stones. Her neck was twisted in an odd angle, and her entire body was heavily bleeding. He choked, not even able to utter his teammate's name when she vanished from the arena in a bright pillar of light.
It was all on him now, and he will be dammed if that beast was gonna' take him down.
Running at full speed toward the beast, which was still busy searching for Jia, Hawk grabbed one of the talons of the beast and quickly hoisted himself up on its back. The serpent flashed two sharp teeth at him and spat venom, missing his head.
Hawk fished a small red scroll from his pouch and threw it in the serpent's mouth, who was already readying another toxic spit. Hawk turned away and leaped to the Chimera's head and caught it's golden mane with his hands.
For a moment there was an eerie silence from the Chimera.
-And then the red scroll exploded. The Chimera roared and the crowd cheered, too excited to remain silent and calm. Blood and bits of the serpent's head and guts clung to Hawk's hair and clothes. The bleeding stump swung around frantically and the Chimera started to thrash around, trying to remove the pest that hurt him.
Hawk clung to the mane, muttering strings of choked curses, as the Chimera started running around the arena, trying to shake him off. His swords were slung on his back, and he couldn't afford to take his hands off the beast.
It was all about time.
The beast seemed to slow down and Hawk took the opportunity and reached back for his swords. The chimera jumped unexpectedly and Hawk lost his grip.
Hawk started to slide down, desperately trying to find a grip. With a great shake and a strong toss hawk fell down to the ground harshly. The air was knocked out of him completely and small black dots swam across his eyes. The edges of his vision became tinted with red color, and he heard the small persistent beeping noises that indicated his health points were extremely low.
A great shadow hovered above him.
As the angry Chimera's talon came down upon him, Hawk managed to utter a scream.
With a bright flash Hawk was dumped on a small wooden chair. He pressed his hands to his forehead and slumped where he was seated.
"Well, that was smashing, wasn't it?" laughed a masculine voice to his right.
"Went out with a bang, right Hawk?" laughed Jia's voice.
Jia's head came to rest on Hawk's shoulder, and hummed a happy tune; Gabriel leaned on the wall and gazed at them. He gave him a crooked smile.
"Sure did," he murmured, and laid his head on top of hers.
He drew a shaking breath; the unnerving sensation of his death was still too fresh in his mind. They all sat there for some time, their health points slowly filling them up. Jia kept chanting her happy tune, her head still resting peacefully on hawk's shoulder.
Gabriel stretched his hands and got up from his chair. He eyed Jia, who opened her eyes but didn't move from her comfortable position leaning on Hawk. Her gaze fixed on him, he motioned with his head toward the exit gate of the healing point in the arena.
"I received a message from the game, the semi-finals matches are all over. You can go and see if you advanced to the finals in a few days-" his hand gently tapped the ridge of his nose, as if he was in deep thoughts, "Also, the group semi -finals are revised. It will be a great battle between all the registered players in a week from now."
"Oh." Said Jia, "I'll inform Odd squad."
Gabriel nodded and smiled at her, and then he melted to a blue ray of light, indicating he had logged off.
Jia walked briskly through the streets of the great city, shadowed by the great arena. Hawk had logged off. He was acting a bit strangely, he held her hands tightly before he left, kissed her cheek and thanked her for the wonderful matches they had won that day. Before she could replay or praise him on his excellent performance against the Chimera he simply vanished into the blue ray of light.
It annoyed her greatly, but she had to focus on finding Odd squad and inform them of the change. She won't have them surprised by the changes in the middle of their fight, like she was.
It simply wasn't fair.
She saw a flash of deep purple hair passing by the arches next to the great stairs that led to the arena, and from the distance she heard Gui's voice arguing with Lolidragon. She followed them and caught up to them as they came to a halt at the base of the arches.
The members off Odd squad were facing for the other direction; she heard a final statement coming from Lolidragon. Gui, with a ridicules pout turned away from them, putting a up a hissy fit to draw a certain players attention. His attention was so focused on Prince, he failed to see Jia wave at him.
"Hey there, sexy" Said Jia in a deep voice, mimicking the TV entertainer she and Gui liked to watch on occasions. Jia barely contained her laughter as Gui uttered a feminine scream and jumped away from her, thinking some weirdo was messing with him again.
When he saw her standing there, a knowing smirk smeared all over her face, his horror melted into a happy smile.
"Jia Li! I never knew you had it in you to scare a poor man half to death!" he laughed as he gave her a friendly hug. She told Gui about the changes the game masters made in the finals, and was relieved to know they were actually well informed.
"Actually," stated Gui with annoyance, "we are here to meet another team participating in the finals". He took a short ragged breath and looked over his shoulder, toward prince who was currently talking to Ugly wolf. Jia, following his line of sight gave a small desperate sigh.
"Still deeply in love with that arrogant ass?" she nudged him out of his long gaze.
"I think I know who Prince is in real life" he murmured.
Jia's eyes rounded with surprise. "Excuse me?!"
He smiled at her outburst, but his expression quickly changed to one of determination. "In one of the classes I teach at the university, there have been awfully a lot of questions about my in game life." He paused for a moment. "Well, I started noticing that some people asked very specific questions about my relationship with his Highness…".
"And?" Jia prompted him.
"Every time I started talking about his Highness a student in my class looked away from me…. I started watching him more and then I saw it… he must be my Prince! They look very much alike! I admit Prince holds himself more arrogantly, but you just can't really know!"
Jia poked his forehead with affection, "Don't linger! What is his name? Is he hot?"
Gui, rubbing his abused forehead looked at her. "His name is Feng Yang Ming. He has a nice twin sister who is also in my class… they are both fairly smart… And I've seen most of my students in game- except from him! He must be Prince! He has to be!"
Jia looked at him, he looked desperate.
"You said you haven't felt like you feel right now for Prince since Anora came…"
Gui nodded.
"And I really hate to pour on your parade, Love, But must I remind you that what happened with Anora…. Wasn't the happy ending you were looking for…?" Gui started to protest, but Jia raised her hand in a mother like gesture and shushed him. "Don't you think you are taking this too far? You have been playing this weird cat and mouse game for six months, ever since you teamed up with him. Although here it is not really clear if the cat will ever catch the mouse, or if the mouse is even a mouse, and why the cat keeps being beaten half to death—look. All I am saying is…you should take to your consideration Prince might not take you seriously. You always run around, all love-struck, happy and jumping. You are like a firework show."
"But it must be him! Don't you see? Prince puts so much effort into keeping me as far away from him as he possibly can, he won't even admit he learns in XXX University! I had to overhear him say that to Lolidragon…. Maybe if I try again, try harder; he might even notice…I'll do everything I can to show him… I will show every one…"
Gui looked to the ground, too upset to look at his good friend. A gentle hand cupped his cheek and lifted his head.
"Gui, Think about what you want. Do what pleases you, go after what you want seriously, and treat yourself like the great, wonderful, passionate, caring, smart person you are. If you can't take you advances seriously, how can Prince ever realize what a great thing he is missing?" She pulled him into a warm hug.
"I only say these harsh things because I care about you. I want to see you happy." She told him while hugging him closer.
He buried his face in her shoulder.
"I know Jia….." he murmured.
"Thank you" he added in a slight whisper, letting her go.
She stood at the back of the group as a handsome young man in a beautiful piece of armor led a group of people who, accordingly to Gui, called themselves "Dark Phantom"
"Long time no see, Prince." Said the young man. He carried himself with grace and confidence, and looked like the brave knight he was dressed up to be. She heard Gui huff in disdain, she could feel the waves of irritation and unhappiness emitting from him, like a big smoldering aura.
"long time no see, Wicked" said prince and sent a nasty looking glare toward a very small feminine male player who stood behind wicked. There was clear tension in the air as dark Phantom came forth and stood before the members of Odd squad. Jia heard Gui clearly mumble something nasty toward Wicked and gave herself a mental note to remind him he was a grown-up with a light smack on the top of his cute purple head. Gui looked to the other side, pretending to take great interest in the small NPC birds who drank from a nearby fountain, when-
"Hello Professor." Said a masculine voice.
"Feng Yang Ming?!"
Jia never noticed as Gui discovered his beloved Prince wasn't the man he thought he was, neither did she see his reaction or the conversation that followed afterward. A small persistent ringing noise indicated something was wrong. The phone never stopped ringing.
Cold white lights illuminated the corridor, which seemed to get smaller and smaller as the doctor talked. Jia found it very hard to breathe normally. He didn't make it through the night. A simple mistake, they said. Internal bleeding the doctor had not anticipated, and Mr. Shuai's frail body could not keep up any longer.
They said he died in his sleep, peacefully. But that was probably what they told everyone. His body was already being prepared for the burial ceremony.
She just sat there and stared at the white walls, thoughts fleeting aimlessly through her head like big gray clouds.
A tall man came through the door, and Jia took a fleeting look at him, only for her unfocused stare to sharpen.
His dark brown hair that was once coned stylishly was now a bit disheveled as if he was running. He held a gray trench coat on his arm. By the rapid rise and fall of his chest Jia could tell that Tai Ning Kuo rushed his way to the hospital. He conversed with the doctor for a minute, then his head fell to his head and a choked sob escaped his lips. The doctor put a hand on his shoulder and said some words that might have been comforting words, but Jia couldn't hear them from her seat. A nurse came and said something to the doctor that was apparently needed somewhere.
The doctor nodded to him politely and said a few words, and then to Jia's surprise he pointed his hand at her and left. He turned his head, his gaze no fixed on her. She wished with all her might that she will just melt into the floor tiles. Talking to Tai Ning wasn't a thing she felt like doing at the moment, especially after she refused letting him specially order books from her store, claiming he was always late to pick them up, and that it was a great nuisance.
For her defense she had been rather pissed off that day by a stupid remark from prince about her fighting style. Not that Prince had meant to offend her in such a way, but she always had a part of her wishing to be stronger, and putting her down with a stupid remark always clicked a switch in her head.
He walked toward her and then he just stood in front of her and looked. His eyes were red rimmed and a bit swollen.
"I never knew you were close to my grandfather."
She avoided his gaze and retorted, "I never knew you were his grandson."
He sat down heavily on the seat next to hear, and sniffed. Jia's small clock beeped. It was four in the morning, Kuan was probably asleep, his mind still in 'Second life'. He will find her yellow sticky note in the morning. Her eyes felt so heavy. And she was doing her best suppressing a yawn.
"You were right, you know" Said Tai Ning after a long tiresome silence.
"Hmm…?"
"I really am always late…. Late for my classes, late to pick up my books, and too damn late to bid goodbye to my poor Grandfather." His face buried in his palms, and he took a shuddering breath. "He was everything I had since my bastard of a father decided to leave on a whim. He was the one who persuaded me to take control over my…problems…and over my life, and persuade my dreams. He was the first to encourage me to go to the University. Even after he got so hurt and confused, there was always a part of him not so docile to love me. And I was late." He lifted his face, which was now stricken with silent tears and looked at Jia.
Seeing the man break tear something inside Jia's heart.
"You live your life"
He looked at her, his mouth slightly open, his breathing ragged. Newfound hope started building in his eyes.
"You take what is left of your life and you start building it again, brick by brick."
Her stare was laced with the bitter taste of memories she wished to forget and the many hardships she struggled through every day. She looked at the wall, breathing in the tranquility of the white paint, and a warm tear slid silently down her cheek.
"No one loved is ever truly forgotten, you see. As corny as it sounds their memory always rests within you, in your heart. They will never truly die as long as they live in our heart and our minds." She exhaled softly and stood.
His gaze followed her and stared, surprised at her hand that reached out for him.
"Let's get some coffee. It's nearly four and a half in the morning, and I don't intend to be sad in this depressing hall. Let's go be sad with a cup of coffee in our hands, and something in our stomach, and I don't know about you, but I've been up since two in the morning and I'm starving."
A tentative hand reached out and took the delicate hand that hovered in the air in front of it. His hand was bigger than her own, and easily wrapped her own hand with comforting warmness.
With a smile, and a gentle tug to the right direction, Tai Ning Kuo could not get his eyes off the short gentle woman leading the way to the hospital's cafeteria.
A\N-
Hello! I am happily (and proudly!) announcing OtherLand and I have passed a thousand hits! It may seem like a small victory, but I feel my chest swell with pride!
I wanted to show my gratitude to all of those who have been so kind to favorite this Fanfic, and to those who added it to their following list! Thank you everyone who left me a review- you made me so happy! (I always hear the small "gling!" noise my phone makes when I have an email and I pray it's a message from fanfiction announcing another review! I usually hop around the house, starstruck and happy, mumbling happily about nonsense.).
Thank you Yolinare , who have been with me since the very beginning! And thank you to ming and Bleeb90 who was so nice to leave me a couple of reviews. Thank you Pail rose and Hikari no tenshi-san! Thank you michelle, Forever in the fire, mingaring, ad "ummm" who was my very first reviewer!
Please keep giving me such a great experience writing my very first fanfic! Please keep reviewing and supporting me! Bless your hearts
I always seem to miss the stupid spelling mistakes i make...so please correct me!
I Promise some Kuan Yin development next chapter! And some things Jia was not expecting… (By the way- London Olympics are awesome, right?! I can't get my eyes of the Tv…).
Until next time!
(By the way, I was hearing a song called "Sorairo days" by shoko nakagawa for the past couple of days, and i can't keep it out of my head! do you have such a song?)
-Trogmorten.
