Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer and Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi
Foxfire
After a single day of rest after their exertions in the grave of Edward's father, the half-demon and his companion set out from Irina's village into the neighbouring towns and regions to search for more Sacred Jewel shards. They had little luck over the ensuing days, after collecting one from an unsuspecting frog demon and finding one, very surprisingly, in Bella's own time, passed down through the ages. There hadn't even been any complaints made from humans about suddenly over-aggressive demons to point them in the right direction. They were now on their fifth day of searching on this excursion, having wandered many kilometres from Irina's village by this time, with still nothing to show for it.
On this day, they were passing through a barren wasteland that had once been the site of a battle. The skeletons of men and horses, broken armour, rotting wagons, and scattered, decrepit weapons still littered the area. Bella was uncomfortable enough just passing through such a haunting spectacle, but then Edward suggested the unthinkable, and snatched away her pack and started digging through the contents.
Not taking no for an answer, he got his way. Bella set a timer on her cell phone, the only practical use it had in this feudalistic era before it died from lack of a charge, and removed some water and ramen noodle packets from her rucksack while Edward promptly made a fire. Ignoring his companion's obvious ire, the half-demon happily passed the time until her timer went off, announcing the ramen noodles' completion.
Handing Edward his cup and watching with disgust as he devoured it like a rabid animal, Myoga perched on his shoulder, Bella merely sat back and left hers on the ground by her feet.
"Tastes great!" Edward commented blithely, still oblivious. Bella scoffed. Why did he love those stupid things so much? Instead of answering, she merely rested her head in her hands braced against her knees and stared at him. "Bella, this is really good!"
"Really. I'm so happy for you."
He stopped eating and looked at her untouched cup on the ground. He pointed to it and said, "Aren't you having some?"
Bella rolled her eyes at him, her expression clearly questioning his sanity, as she demanded flatly, "How can you eat in a place like this?"
Myoga sat up on Edward's shoulder delightedly and exclaimed, "Finally, I've found someone who has good taste and tastes good. I must say, I'm impressed by the conveniences of your world, Bella. I was shocked at your 'bye-cycle,' but such a tiny thing that tells time! And by looking at your strange, instant foodstuffs, you do much trade with foreigners."
"Wow!" Bella agreed, smiling brightly, ire forgotten. "Good observation, Myoga. These noodles Edward's slurping down faster than a caveman are called ramen, and they were invented by the Japanese during the Space Age. Everyone eats them now, but they were originally meant for astronauts in outer space."
Even Edward glanced up from his noodles at this. "'Astro-nuts'?" he queried around a mouthful of food.
"Astronauts," she corrected. "See, humans go to outer space—" She broke off with a sharp gasp. "That's right! You guys don't even know we've been to the moon!"
"Man has travelled to the moon?" Myoga asked, blatantly sceptical.
"On a 'bye-cycle'?" Edward seconded, straightening up as he rested his food cup on his knee.
"No, using a rocket, of course."
"And a rocket would be… ?" he prompted.
Bella was truly engaged in her explanation for the moment, stretching her hands out wide as she said, "Well, they're huge and usually white, and fire shoots out from the bottom—"
With no warning, a wave of blackness descended over the forsaken battlefield, casting the group into shadowy darkness; Bella cut herself off abruptly, instead asking querulously, "What's happening? Why is it so dark?"
"I don't know," Edward responded, jumping to his feet and instantly on the defensive, "but something tells me it's trouble."
Bella followed the half-demon's example and scrambled to her feet. A great stream of blue light suddenly shone down, illuminating the group, as what was clearly a high-pitched voice attempting to be fearsome echoed over.
"You there! You possess a piece of the Sacred Jewel!"
"That's foxfire," Myoga murmured pensively, pointing to the blue light.
"Foxfire?" Edward repeated blankly, and Bella had to agree. She'd never heard of such a thing, but she had to admit she was getting tired of all these creatures turning out to be distorted versions of animals she already knew.
The blue lights began to twirl around each other, spinning themselves into a tighter and tighter web until they created a small ball of white light. Then, from the centre of that light, a huge pink bubble of a demon burst into existence, its ridiculous face comically serious. It had huge, wonky eyes that looked in opposite directions, tiny sticks that served as useless arms, and a wide, gaping mouth with no teeth. Edward merely stared in disbelief as the pink creature flew over to hover in front of him.
"Hand it over!" the bubble demanded. "Or I'll kill you!"
The gaping mouth of the bubble hovered over Edward's head, as though threatening to bite if he disobeyed. Was that his death threat, then? Edward, still disbelieving, sighed and slapped the bubble away.
The pink creature screamed in surprise, his voice losing its affected gruff to become the soprano of a young boy. It spun around for a moment, out of control, before contracting into a tiny pink dot and disappearing once more into that blue-white light. When the light expanded suddenly again, this time a baby demon sprang from it. Bella gasped in delight. It was a tiny, tiny boy who barely crested the midsection of her shin. He had long red-brown hair held back loosely at his neck, green, mischievous eyes, tanned skin, and a large, fluffy tail. He had tiny, extremely sharp-looking teeth, and hands and feet that were actually miniature paws, like one might see on a kitten or puppy, though the rest of him appeared human. As soon as he emerged from his light, the sky lightened immediately back to normal.
"A child?" Edward asked rhetorically, before suddenly standing just before the boy. To his credit, this tiny demon didn't start in surprise at the half-vampire's sudden movements; he merely sat on the ground and grumpily rubbed his now-red cheek. He glared at the two adults surrounding him, trying to look ferocious. Instead of the intended effect, however, Bella simply found him adorable.
Edward reached down and picked him up by the tail, examining him like he'd never seen a child before.
"Huh," he said thoughtfully as the boy screamed and kicked and punched at him, trying to break free. "Feisty little thing, aren't you? Nice tail. What are you?" He turned back to Bella, and the impish light in his gold eyes told her that he knew exactly what variety of demon the little boy was, he was merely enjoying baiting him. "Looks like a baby badger, or a squirrel…"
"I'm a fox!" the tiny cub shrieked indignantly.
Ignoring him, Edward turned to Bella to say something, but was cut off by a sudden, immense weight on his hand. He gasped, crying out in shock as the rest of his body followed his hand to the ground. The fox child had used more of his strange magic to swap himself out in the half-demon's hands for a large, intensely heavy stone statue, to which he then added a piece of paper bearing writing in a language none of them recognized.
After a moment of stupor and mild fascination at the boy's trickery, Edward reeled back and struggled to free his hand from the stone, but it wouldn't budge. It seemed that piece of paper was a seal, and that he was stuck there until someone tore the paper off.
Bella ran over to do just that, and when she finished she heard a queer rustling sound behind her. Turning, she gasped in outrage at the sight of the tiny boy sitting atop her sack, digging feverishly through it. With a proud and delighted crow, he pulled out his quarry. The bottle in which Bella held she and Edward's collected shards of the Jewel gleamed in his hand.
"Hey!" she yelled, running over to the cub.
Ignoring her completely, the boy leapt high into the air, many times his own height, and with a wicked grin called back down, "Our time together's been short but sweet. Farewell!"
He did his strange light magic again, shrinking into the blue-white orb, but yet again this time was slightly different: when the light expanded like a bomb once more, this time he and all his magics were gone.
Luckily, for all his impressive use of illusions, the fox cub was still only a young boy and thus still relatively inexperienced. Despite his flashy getaway, Edward and Bella could easily hear him scurrying away under one of the skulls, rattling bones and other debris as he triumphantly chuckled to himself. Not to mention, the immensely fuzzy tail sticking out from behind the moving skull was rather a give-away.
Edward angrily balled his fists and, faster than the only human present could comprehend, had the child sitting back with them, bottle of Jewel shards confiscated, a fresh red mark on the fox cub's cheek. He angrily crossed his tiny arms across his chest, squeezing his eyes shut in a fierce pout, which he broke by glancing furtively to Edward every now and then. Clearly he was not keen to get smacked again.
"My name is Seth," he admitted grudgingly, "and I'm trying to avenge my pa."
"Avenge?" Bella repeated with dawning pity. "Your father was killed?"
"Oh," Edward cut in. "Then you were hoping that the Jewel shards would increase your powers enough to get your vengeance, huh?"
"I don't need anything to increase my powers, understand?" the baby demon apparently called Seth retorted hotly. Then, giving up the anger, he sighed.
The tiny boy took a deep breath, seeming reluctant to talk about it. Bella couldn't blame him. For such emotional trauma to have happened so early in his life… he couldn't have been more than six or seven.
"It all started not too long ago," he began. "Hundreds of warriors were engaged in a battle near the forest where we lived. But a dark cloud passed overhead, a cloud so dark and evil, none could imagine what horrors it would bring. The warriors were, at first, puzzled by the strange and sudden turn in the weather…"
A plush, grassy field stands empty except for several hundred soldiers in two groups beside a thick forest. One group bears a red heraldic rose on their flags and cloaks, the other a white, and one man from the red side blows on a horn to announce the coming battle.
A huge, dark cloud slowly spreads across the bright blue sky, darkening the field to the point of blindness. One man from the red rose contingent of soldiers points upward, gasping, "Look! Something approaches!"
A bright streak of lightning brightens the sky long enough for the soldiers to make out a second, much smaller cloud, rapidly coming out. One handsome young man with long brown hair and blood red eyes flies on wheels of fire, and another obese, bald, ugly demon rides on the cloud. Both men wear two or three Sacred Jewel shards imbedded shallowly in their foreheads, and the handsome man carries a lightning pike.
"Let the hunt begin, Hans!" the handsome one shouts excitedly.
"Aye, Ambros! And let it run long!" the ugly one responds.
Ambros swings down his lightning pike, shouting in pure exhilaration. Within seconds, the entire red army is burned to a crisp, while the white army watches in horror and awe.
"They annihilated the enemy in one blow!" one man of the white rose army shouts to no one in particular. The question flies around the entire force, "Are these beasts our allies?!"
"Allies?" the ugly man shouts indignantly, whirling on the white army. He opens his mouth as wide as it will go, creating a huge ball of lightning in his mouth which he then rakes across the battalion under the herald of the white rose, killing them all.
"Ah, what pleasure, eh, Hans?" the handsomer one asks, grinning.
The uglier brother happily munches on a stray human arm he'd collected from the chaotic ruins, agreeing, "Oh, great pleasure, brother."
"And still I am flooded with power untapped," the one called Ambrosius muses thoughtfully, looking at the now-dark sky. "These fragments of the Jewel of Four Souls are wondrous, indeed. I think we must find more, dear brother!"
"Aye!" the ugly one agrees enthusiastically. "And let us hope that all their present owners fight us as well as that fox fellow!" He strokes the pelt of an incredibly large fox that is wrapped around his waist.
The brothers laugh evilly together, flying off into the distance.
Of course, upon hearing the story, Edward and Bella immediately decided to help the boy. Or at least, that was Bella's reason for doing so. Edward may or may not have been more concerned about the potential Jewel shards he could collect from this endeavour.
As Bella rode behind Edward on her pink bicycle, Seth sitting happily in her basket, the fox cub concluded his tale.
"So," Bella asked as he finished, "your father had a shard of the Jewel?"
"The Thunder Brothers go around killing demons who possess pieces," Seth offered by way of explanation, nodding once tersely.
"Thunder Brothers?" Bella repeated. Edward called a halt as he leapt into a nearby tree, scanning the perimeter, eyes and ears alert. Bella parked her bike at the trunk of the tree.
"It's a nickname," explained the fox cub. "Because of their thunder and lightning attacks."
"Heard of them, Myoga?" Edward asked the flea demon from his perch high in the branches.
"You mean Ambrosius and Hans?" Myoga asked Seth, who nodded. "I'd heard that they were a right couple of hooligans, but—"
"Who cares what they are?" Edward asked rhetorically, falling gracefully back to the ground. He leant against the trunk and crossed his arms. "All I have to do is defeat them, and then we walk away with a whole lot of Jewel shards all at once."
"And one day, man will walk on the moon!" Seth snapped sarcastically from his new position in Bella's bike basket. "You wouldn't be able to take them on! You're just a half-demon, aren't you? I can smell the human in you. My father was a real demon. If he couldn't handle them, what could a mutt like you—?"
"Seth," Bella promptly and harshly scolded. "What kind of thing is that to—?"
Before she could finish her reprimand, however, Edward had flashed to stand just behind Seth and clocked him on the head.
"Sorry!" Seth cried in pain, chanting again and again, "I'm sorry!"
Edward shrugged, crossing his arms. "As long as you understand."
"As a gesture of apology…" Seth began, rummaging in his pockets for something. He took out a little grey rock of some kind and put it in Edward's palm, which then grew to be another of his small but ridiculously heavy statues, which he then sealed with his strange piece of paper.
While the cub chuckled triumphantly, Edward snapped, struggling, "Is this supposed to be humorous?"
"As long as my charm stays on," Seth explained cockily, "the statue will not move!"
"Don't be so childish, Seth," Bella sighed. "Take the spell off him."
Instead of answering, Seth declared, "I don't like to play tricks on vixen, but… I need you to sleep for a while."
He promptly leapt up and slapped the back of her neck, clearly aiming for the pressure point to cause unconsciousness, but with his tiny body, he couldn't muster the force required. Bella merely stared as he fell harmlessly back to the ground and, lithe as a dancer, rolled to his feet to prevent injury.
He chuckled again as he brandished the bottle of Jewel shards. "I'll lure out those murderers with these," he announced, grinning.
Then, without another word, he cast his blue light trick again and disappeared. Shrieking indignantly at having been robbed by a child, Bella grabbed her bow and arrows from her bike and took off down the footpath, shouting, "Give those back before I get really mad!"
Forgotten and forsaken, Edward sat with his statue helplessly calling, "Bella! Wait! Peel off the charm first! You can't just leave me stuck like this! Bella!"
Not too far from Edward's new involuntary campsite, the uglier of the brothers aforementioned rested at the edge of a babbling stream, admiring his visage in the water as he combed his sole three hairs. Naively, he amused himself with fancies of himself with a long black plait of hair like his brother's, and how all his problems of homeliness would abate with that simple solution.
Hearing a sudden rustling in the reeds to his left, he turned, dropping low to ambush his unsuspecting prey. Peering through the stalks, he smirked with cruel amusement at the sight of a young fox cub running down the path, smiling to himself. The obese demon stood and stomped into the path just before the fox child, watching with glee as he pulled up short, terrified and angry.
"Hmm," the older demon purred, staring down at the child. "'Tis the pup of our recent opponent!"
As he watched, the child's emerald eyes travelled down the demon's body until they fell on his waist, where the pelt that had once been his father now adorned his armour. Once again, his horror and fury brought only amusement to the demon.
"Ah, admiring my pelt, are you? You should ask your father for one. I believe he had one just like this."
Quivering with rage and loss, the cub glared up at him, tears leaking from his eyes as he balled up his little fists and bared his baby teeth.
"Monster!" he growled in his childlike soprano. "How dare you do that to my father!"
Tears of hate and pain running down his face, the child sprang for the older demon, who laughed and punched his face, knocking him easily back to the ground. He landed on the ground in a heap, many silly fox demon toys falling out of his pockets that the thunder demon ignored. However, his gaze sharpened when he caught sight of something in their numbers that no child should possess.
"Those are Sacred Jewel fragments!" Hans gasped delightedly.
The cub gasped as well, realizing in a wave of horror his error. He crawled across the ground, scooping up the bottle as fast as he could, and trying to dart away before the fat demon could react to stop him.
It didn't work. The older man merely stomped on the child's tail, pinning him to the ground with a pained cry.
"Give me those shards, young pup, for if you do not—"
Suddenly, the fat demon broke off with a shriek of pain, releasing the baby fox in his agony. An arrow had been shot clean through his nose where it stayed, embedded in his nostrils, parallel to his mouth. Tears of pain welled in his beady black eyes as he looked wildly around for his attacker.
It was a human girl. A stupid, weak human girl who had just made her last mistake, standing not ten paces before him with another arrow at the ready.
"Who are you?" Hans demanded.
She didn't reply, and he lost focus on her momentarily as he saw the fox cub attempting once again to make off with shards of the Jewel. He reached down, preparing to catch the little nuisance and throttle him.
"Don't move or the next one goes in your brain!" the human promised, and Hans froze, growling angrily. She had an arrow nocked and ready, while it would take several moments for his lightning attack to build up. She had the advantage, and he was clearly not pleased by it. "Seth, come here now. Quickly!"
The cub looked between her and the demon that was rapidly growing more and more incensed. Between the two of them, despite his betrayal, Bella clearly was less of a threat and so he ran to stand behind her, clutching the little bottle desperately.
With a gasp, Bella quickly noticed two Jewel shards embedded in the demon's forehead. Trying her best to aim her arrow despite her rudimentary (at best) skill with a bow, she pulled back as hard as she could and fired—so close! Instead of sinking into the demon's forehead, it merely grazed the top of his bald head.
But it seemed that, to the demon, this was a fate worse than losing his Jewel pieces. He threw back his head wailing, "My hair!" Too fast, his wail turned to a bellow, his mouth filling with a crackling white light.
Seth gasped, immediately recognizing the attack.
"Watch out! Run!" he cried, shoving at Bella's legs and forcing her to turn and flee. "My pa was killed by that same attack!"
They turned and fled as fast as they could, though Bella kept tripping on some of the stones that littered the footpath. Finally, she paused, crouching low to peer through the tall grasses and reassess their pursuit. Seth hung back, not wanting to watch the approaching doom—but then everything went dark, and he was crushed into the ground as the human girl suddenly turned and flung herself on top of him.
Without a moment to think and comprehend what had happened, a wave of intense heat and bright white light swept over them. For Seth, cushioned in Bella's embrace, it was over quickly and with minimal damage. Bella had saved him by taking the brunt of the attack on herself.
Knocked to the ground, Seth shook off Bella's deadweight and prepared to run again, then stopped. Thinking hard for a moment, he turned back to face her but she wasn't moving. He jumped onto her chest, shaking her shoulders as best he could with his tiny hands.
"Vixen!" he hissed in a low whisper, still wary of the thunder demon finding them. "Are you dead?"
The sounds of rustling grasses and reeds nearby made him nearly frantic. The fat demon was coming for them, he knew, searching out his quarry. Seth didn't hesitate to scurry away into the grass, easily concealing himself with a few illusory spells. The demon came upon Bella at once, sprawled across the ground, unconscious and helpless. He looked around for the fox child, but he didn't seem too disappointed when he couldn't find him.
"Just the female," he muttered to himself, rubbing his nose furiously. He still hadn't removed the arrow, probably fearing the pain too much. Suddenly, he stopped, looking Bella over with renewed interest. He stomped his way over to her side, kneeling down. "She is… lovely," he said. Seth cringed.
As the cub watched, the thunder demon summoned a dark, iron-grey cloud and, draping the unconscious Bella across his lap, rose into the sky and flew off, chuckling gleefully with his prize.
Seth stayed where he was for a long time, watching the sky even as the demon and his prey disappeared. That girl had saved his life, without the slightest hesitation… and he'd abandoned her. He felt physically ill from the shame. How could he do such a thing? How would he live with himself after this?
After several wasted minutes of self-shaming and pitying, he came upon a potential solution and turned and sprinted away as fast as he could. He was headed back to that half-demon he'd stranded in the road. He would know what to do. He would save the girl. After all, she was his mate, right? Though he'd still be angry with Seth for letting his woman get kidnapped in the first place… and there was the statue trick Seth had played on him…
Seth shook himself, still running. He had to face the half-demon anyway. Bella had risked her life to save his own, despite everything he'd done to her. He just had to help her.
Finally reaching his destination, he leapt onto the back of Bella's strange iron cart and called as haughtily as he could manage, "Ho!"
The half-demon looked up at him, surprised by the sudden entrance. He'd been encouraging what looked like a flea to peel off the seal, but to no avail. The spark of fury in his gaze was almost enough to send the fox child packing, but he held his ground.
"I'll free you on one condition," he announced, bouncing off of Bella's contraption and landing just before the harmless half-demon. "You must promise not to hit me!"
Edward's golden eyes hardened into something like stones. He scanned the immediate area and then glared suspiciously at the cub. "Where's Bella?" he demanded. "Why didn't she come back with you?"
"Will you promise or not?" Seth insisted, raising his voice to disguise its shaking.
"All right, all right," Edward agreed impatiently. "I won't strike you."
Satisfied, Seth snatched the charm off the statue, catching it when it popped back into its original size—about a finger-length long. He tucked both the charm and the stone carving back into his plethora of pockets and said, "All right. I'll tell you where she is."
Edward promptly smacked the back of his head.
"I thought we had a promise!" Seth whined, clutching the back of his head.
"Oh, yeah, one more thing."
Without hesitation, Edward lifted the still-pained fox cub by the tail and, holding him upside down, began to shake him until his belongings cascaded from his pockets, the bottle of Jewel shards among them.
Picking it up with a perfunctory glance, Edward nodded and said, "Good. All intact," before pocketing it himself.
"Will you listen to me?!" Seth shrieked, temper lost. "Bella's been captured by the Thunder Brothers! This is no time for that!"
"Thunder Brothers?" Edward repeated, his gaze sharpening on the child again. There was something so calm in his expression that it almost disguised the fact that his whole body, including the hand tight around Seth's tail, had suddenly gone rigid. "Aren't they the ones that killed your father? You came across them?"
Seth looked down guiltily, unable to meet his eyes. Edward leaned in, examining the cub's shifty appearance.
"You're not exactly reeking with the thrill of victory," the half-demon surmised coldly. "Did you just hide and watch while they made off with her?"
Blazing fury, Seth shouted in return, "Hey, I don't see you rushin' off to save her! And she's your woman!"
Edward blinked in shock, cheeks flushing. Flustered, he threw the cub to the ground and barked, "It's not like that!" Then, turning away with crossed arms, he seemed to collect himself. "But I suppose I could be persuaded to help you… if you're prepared to apologize, that is. Then I'll let bygones be bygones."
Seth growled furiously, glaring with pure hatred at the half-demon.
"Seth, just do as he says," the little flea implored, bouncing onto the child's shoulder. "You need to act like an adult now. Time is of the essence, and Bella is in danger."
"Why must I be the one to apologize?" he scowled. He didn't elaborate on the sudden guilty thought that he had beleaguered these people from the start, attacking them for their Jewel shards. He did, however, acknowledge, "But I can't save her by myself… Damn it!" He fell into a low bow, muttering, "I apologize."
"Don't mention it."
A sound like metal clapping against metal greeted his ears, and Seth looked up curiously, shocked to see Edward standing before him, his nonchalant charade gone as he lifted Bella's iron cart onto his shoulder. He looked anxious to get moving.
"Come on, Seth," he said. "We've got a lot of ground to cover. Let's be off."
Seth stared at him, stunned. What had happened to the evil half-breed who hit him or laughed in his pathetic face? Did Edward care so much for Bella that he was willing to look past the tricks Seth had played on the two of them with just one half-hearted apology? Or was he really just a nice guy under that ne'er-do-well, bullying demeanour?
With a muffled groan, Bella came to in a dingy, dank room made of stone, looking nearly identical to the medieval castles she'd studied. What had happened? How had she come to be here? And with such a headache?
Then it all came rushing back to her with startling clarity: she and Seth had been running, when she'd seen the demon's attack coming and flung herself onto the little boy to offer whatever protection she could. She hoped he, at least, had gotten away.
Glancing at her surroundings, she seemed to be in some sort of primeval laboratory. Vials containing things she didn't want to identify littered dirty wooden counters and tables, and across the room at a gurgling cauldron stood the obese demon from before. He was chattering and laughing to himself. Then he turned, and seeing her sitting up seemed to do nothing to deter his strangely good mood. "Awoken, have you, my fair maiden?" he asked cheerfully.
"Where am I?" Bella demanded in return, but it didn't come out the way she intended. Her voice was breathless with fear, and very small. She glanced at his cauldron, and suddenly snapped to attention, realizing just what kind of danger she was in. "You intend to eat me?"
"No!" he said swiftly, almost as though repulsed. "The flesh and blood of pretty young women promotes healthy hair growth. I'll boil you down into a potion and apply it to my head."
"What?" Bella nearly shrieked, feeling strangely indignant. If she had to die, why couldn't she die for something a little more glamorous than hair growth? "I'd rather be eaten alive than put on your head like shampoo!"
"Shhh!" the demon hissed urgently, waving his fat, white arms for silence. "Not so loud! If brother finds you, he may just fulfil your wish!"
Almost before he finished his warning, the entire wall that held the chamber door came crashing down in a pile of stones and rubble and dust. The older, much more handsome brother, Ambrosius, stood in the gaping hole, one arm raised from his assault on the wall, the other wrapped around the waist of what seemed to Bella to be a medieval prostitute. She wore the skimpiest outfit Bella had yet seen, barely covering the essentials, and more makeup than all the women she'd yet met wore combined.
"Hans, I did not expect you here," the handsome brother greeted, giving an easy, dazzling smile. Bella hesitated. Despite his good looks, there was something sinister to that smile that she knew to be wary of.
"That's your brother?" the woman under his arm asked. She smirked, crossing her arms as she leant into the demon's side. "Little resemblance, is there?"
"Who's the woman?" Ambrosius demanded, gesturing with his chin towards Bella, who gaped indignantly at being talked about like she wasn't capable of understanding.
"She's mine!" Hans said defensively, stepping in between his brother and the girl. "I found her!"
"Fear not, little brother, I won't lay claim on her," the older brother waved off his concerns with a laugh. "I've a better one right here." He turned away from Bella again, and asked casually, "Tell me, Hans, have you yet found the other pieces of the Jewel?"
The ugly brother's eyes widened in horror as he realized something, then he ducked his head guiltily. "Oh, err… That's right. I remember."
"What?" Ambrosius prompted flatly.
"I did find some," Hans said quickly, though his voice was a low mumble. "But, you see, brother—"
"What do you mean 'but'?" Ambrosius asked with seeming good cheer, but the hairs on Bella's neck were beginning to stand up in alarm. Something was simmering just beneath the surface of this demon, and it was about to blow. "Surely you did not allow a human female to blind you to the fragments of the Jewel of Four Souls?"
As he spoke, his right hand clenched into a tight fist, barely restraining himself. Seemingly unsatisfied, he suddenly roared, "Surely you did not let them get away?!"
He thrust his right arm back toward the prostitute and opened his fist with an enraged bellow. A bright and intense heat, like lightning, shot out of his hand and struck the woman, literally roasting her to a blackened husk. She fell back on the ground, dead.
Bella stared, too horrified to make a sound or movement.
"Forgive me, brother! Forgive me!" Hans tried begging.
"You are such a waste!" Ambrosius growled, while Hans quivered. "If you weren't my kid brother, I would have killed you long ago!"
Quickly, Hans explained the situation.
"So that little fox brat has the Sacred Jewel fragments," the older brother said pensively. Bella gasped. They couldn't go after Seth!
"Are we pursuing him now, brother?" Hans asked tremulously, clearly eager to be out of his brother's line of fire.
"What else, fool? Follow me!"
Eagerly, Bella scurried off her wooden table, towards the hole in the stone wall that served as a window. This had to be her chance to escape!
"Oh, Ambros, one moment!"
She turned just in time to see Hans swing an enormous cleaver at her, attempting to literally cut her in half. She screamed and leapt out of the way, glaring daggers at the fat brother as she managed to survive.
"What's the big idea?" she demanded, nonetheless breathless with terror.
"The 'big idea'?" Hans repeated blankly. "Why, I'm killing you so that you cannot flee. I must have my hair potion, you see."
Desperate, Bella cried, "Erm, wait! If you kill me, you won't…"
Won't… Won't… Oh, God, Bella, think!
"I won't…?" Hans demanded.
"You won't be able to get the Sacred Jewel fragments!" she said quickly. Inspiration, at last! Both demons froze at this announcement, though the elder brother didn't yet acknowledge her with a look.
"Have you heard of Edward? The powerful, brave demon?"
"Powerful?" the elder brother snorted in blatant disbelief, rolling his red eyes. "He is only half a demon."
"And yet he is powerful," Bella shot back, fighting back a smile as she began her deception. "Because he's already gathered most of the Sacred Jewel shards for himself."
The younger, uglier of the brothers stared at her breathlessly, leaning forward and hanging on her every word. Ambrosius casually sat down next to her on the bench, staring at her through calculating red eyes.
"If this should be a lie…" he warned.
Giving him a coy look, Bella scoffed and said, "Oh, I wouldn't lie about this. The thing is, Edward is in love with me. If you offer him me, I'm sure he'll hand over those shards without a fight."
"Ambros, my wiser brother, surely this is a deceit to—" Hans dismissed, irritated at the thought of losing his prize.
The older brother, however, smirked as he looked her over appraisingly. "I can believe it," he decided. He stood and suddenly reached down to grab the front of Bella's blouse, wrenching her up into his face. "Woman! Take us to this Edward of yours at once. And know that if I find you have deceived me, your pretty face will end up as charred and black as that woman's." He gestured to the prostitute he had just murdered without a second thought.
Seth groaned, a new wave of nausea overtaking the last. He hadn't been able to keep up with Edward's incredible speed, and so he had leapt into the basket on Bella's iron contraption, which the half-demon carried over his shoulder. It was almost worse than just having been left behind. Myoga seemed to know the location of the Thunder Brothers' lair, and was situated on Edward's other shoulder, leading the way.
He grew more and more anxious with every leap Edward took, especially because those leaps were made from jagged rocks hardly noticeable on a cliff-face to even higher, subtler rocks jutting out from the sheer wall. With not a flat surface to walk on in sight, Edward had taken to scaling the mountain itself, not even seeming bothered.
"What's wrong, Seth?" the half-demon taunted. "You're screaming your head off. If you're scared, just go back."
"Shut up!" Seth shot back indignantly, promptly stopping his shrieking, which he'd been unaware of. "I'm going to avenge my father! And what about you, eh? How strong are you? Those brothers have added several Jewel shards to their powers."
Edward paused on one of the rocks jutting out from the cliff and laughed. "That only makes them better opponents!" he declared.
The dark sky began crackling with electricity the higher they climbed.
"I am most frightened about Bella's safety," chipped in tiny Myoga, his voice concerned though he did not show himself from wherever he'd hidden.
Edward scoffed. "That woman is fine. She's too stubborn to kill."
"I would love to believe that," Myoga murmured, but remained unconvinced. "But if the rumours are to be believed, those two brothers don't waste much time with the desirable young women they bring back before devouring them."
"Is that true?!" Seth squeaked, distraught. "And Bella's so—so—! She could already be—!"
"Idiot," Edward dismissed and interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Why should Bella worry, if they eat desirable women?"
"What?" Seth shrieked, genuinely stunned at this turn. "Do you have holes for eyes?"
"Yes, I think she's rather beautiful, myself," Myoga put in thoughtfully.
"Waah, this is all my fault!" wailed Seth. "They're picking her from their teeth as we speak!"
"'Pretty woman, short life'—what a wise saying," Myoga agreed sagely, nodding.
"Will you shut up, you idiots?!" Edward finally snapped. He flung the iron contraption belonging to Bella aside, Seth leaping from the basket before he went down with it.
A strike of lightning came from the sky at almost the same moment, aiming straight for the group. Seeing it, Edward turned on his heel and scooped Seth up, darting out of the way with time to spare. When the blast subsided, he released the fox cub and both looked to see where it had come from.
"Very impressive manoeuvring, dodging my lightning bolt," a voice floated down from the sky. It was Ambrosius, the elder Thunder Brother. He stood in the sky on his fire wheels, his lightning pike in his hands.
"You must be the bastard half-breed, Edward," he surmised, smirking.
Seth leapt onto Edward's shoulder, catching hold of his red-brown hair to hold himself there.
"Hey, you!" he shouted, and his fear was, surprisingly, not shown in his voice which remained strong and angry. "Where's Bella? What have you done with her?"
"Fear not," the young man said, waving a hand idly in dismissal. "She is as whole as when we took her. Hans?"
Then the ugly, pale, fat brother came into view, riding on his black cloud that blended in perfectly with the rest of the sky. He reached behind himself and pulled Bella to the front of the cloud where they all could see her, carefully holding both of her hands bound behind her back.
"Bella!" Edward cried immediately, seeming without thought. He leant forward, looking for all the world like he would snatch her off the cloud and simply run away with her. He looked so relieved at finding her unharmed that it left Seth stricken at how clueless the guy had to be.
"By your expression, it looks like the woman spoke the truth," Ambrosius guessed, smirking excitedly. "So hand over every piece of the Sacred Jewel you possess or you'll never see your lover alive again!"
He thrust his pike into the air, creating several lightning flashes for dramatic effect, but it was all lost on Edward. Bella's face had gone beet red, while Edward merely stared up in abject blankness.
"Lover?" he repeated faintly.
Seth wanted to bite him. Couldn't he see that Bella had just used that as a way to escape, to get the demons to not eat her right off? Why couldn't he just play along to save her? Was he always so dense?
The half-demon ambled forward, and called up in a wobbling voice, "W-Wait, who is this lover? What are you talking about?"
Bella glanced pointedly at the two brothers and back at him, clearly saying, Play along, idiot! But he didn't seem to get the message. So she called back pointedly, "Oh, come on! This is no time to get all shy!"
The ugly brother next to her suddenly grinned indulgently, mussing Bella's hair and chuckling, "You little cheat! I knew you were fibbing!"
Bella widened her eyes, giving him her most innocent smile.
"You actually think I'd hand over the Jewel shards as a ransom to get you back?" Edward shouted up.
Bella lost her innocent expression quicker than the lightning flashes around them. She glared down at him, yelling furiously, "So what?! You're just gonna leave me to—" The venom in her tone was sufficient to frighten even the massive demon sharing a cloud with her. He physically recoiled from her sudden rage.
"'Leave'?" Edward retorted hotly. "How can I 'leave' you if we've never been together?!"
The elder brother cleared his throat awkwardly, interrupting the screaming match. "Well," he said quickly, more than ready for this boring and embarrassing conversation to end. "It appears true, at least, that you do possess pieces of the Jewel, and so have sealed your death!"
He lunged down towards Edward on his flame wheels, pike at the ready. Edward drew the Iron Fang and stood ready for him.
"We'll see whose death this brings," he promised.
Pike and sword met in a loud clash of metal, and the thunder demon called upon his surging lightning, igniting the weapons. With little else to serve as conduit, the lightning followed both metal weapons until their end, then surged into their owners and, in chaotic bolts, struck the ground nearby. Edward's hands were already singed and burned from the attack, and holding Ambrosius off from his flying position was extremely difficult.
The handsome demon seemed to notice his struggles and laughed. "How long do you dream you can hold against me?"
With a huge effort, Edward managed to fling the brother away into the air, where he quickly regained himself. Ambrosius shouted down to him delightedly, "Well, you have got brute strength, at least!"
Edward just glared, waiting expectantly. This battle was not going to be easy.
