The Legends: The Scrolls of the Black Catkin

Part 14

*ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!*

"Hey, I was only kidding about the Chihuahua thing!"

*GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

"Um, Casey, I don't think you should..."

*GRRRRR...*

*RRRRROOOOOAAARRR!!!!*

*yelp*

"CASEY!!!"

Hadrian quickly followed the sounds of the fight, checking to make sure he had the special dagger that Daybreak had given him safely tucked into its sheath. Since sneaking into the cemetery, he'd been wandering around looking for the others, whilst dodging several flames that jumped up at him. Once the fire had begun to die down Hadrian had been able to detect Arizan, Liedryn and Pandie's voices, not far off from where he had been.

As he got closer to the ruckus that was going on, Hadrian noticed that the enemy the girls were fighting was a large grizzly bear. No doubt, it's a bear shifter, he thought sardonically to himself as he watched the bear tear a big thick branch of a nearby tree and began swinging it at Arizan, Normal bears don't attack like that.

"Sorry Orry," Arizan said smiling mischievously, before she did a perfect back-flip over the branch and continued to speak, "but I'm not falling for that ol' 'Swing, swing, knock 'em flat' deal. You'll have to try harder if ya want to get me."

Hadrian wasn't surprised at the way Arizan had handled the situation, since she had a very feisty attitude when it came to fighting. The one thing that did surprise him, though, was the fact she'd just performed an almost impossible back-flip over a large branch that had been almost level with her neck. I didn't know she could do that!! he thought puzzled to himself. Even Arizan herself looked slightly puzzled by it too for a few seconds.

Shaking his head, Hadrian continued to move quickly and silently towards the small battle. Although several kicks, punches, and blasts of witch-fire were being throw at the bear shifter, he still didn't back down.

"Did this guy eat the Energizer Bunny for his lunch today?!" Arizan yelled to no one in particular, as she threw another blast of witch-fire, "'Cause I swear he's not even flinching, even though we've probably burned off half his fur!?!"

"Rizzo, don't you know it's rude to talk about someone like they're not even there," Liedryn said casually as she threw a punch at the bear's huge jaw, "even if they are the biggest perv on the planet... Aaaaarrrgghh!!! Damn."

Of course the bear didn't take this too well, for he had bashed Liedryn's fist away before she could hit him. Hadrian only knew one bear shape shifter that could possibly fit Liedryn's description of the biggest perv in the world. His name was Orson Madigan, and he had a reputation for trying it on with several or more of the girls, including Liedryn at Lord Thierry's parties. Even when they complained about him, Orson always acted like nothing had happened.

For a moment Liedryn stared at her hand. Then she looked up at the bear, an angry look on her face. "You broke my nail!" she said, her voice dangerously calm, "That's it! No more Miss Nice Drache!" With that, she pulled out a small slightly thick cylindrical object about the length of her hand, from a small holster on the shiny black intricately designed belt she was wearing around her waist, and flicked her wrist sideways. In an instant, the object in Liedryn's hand became an impressive looking silver fighting staff, almost as long as she was tall.

Uh oh! Hadrian thought slightly worried to himself, It looks like this fight is going to get major. I'd better hurry up and go help them. But when he was about a foot away from the fight, he saw a sinister looking guy aiming a very dangerous looking crossbow towards it. The worse thing was, though, the guy was aiming the crossbow at Pandie.

Why am I feeling this worried about a girl I've just met? Hadrian thought puzzled to himself, That stuff only happens in fairy tales and really lame soap operas. He didn't have another chance to think about it, though, for suddenly the sound of a crossbow clip being released was heard.

"LOOK OUT!!"

Then, without thinking, Hadrian dove straight for Pandie, pushing her to the ground as an iron bolt whizzed past their heads and struck a nearby tree with a loud thunk. "Hey!" Pandie began to say as Hadrian helped her get up, "Didn't anyone teach ya, it's rude to pu..." Whatever she was going to say, had been completely forgotten, for now she was standing there, holding Hadrian's hand, the look on her face mirroring his own look of curious fascination. In her eyes, Hadrian was a handsome stranger (the kind most girls only dreamed about meeting), with teal coloured eyes, short messy brown-black hair, and a mischievous looking mouth that would easily make any girl melt.

That's strange, Hadrian thought to himself, Most girls just see me as some boring nerd, who's only good enough if they need help with their maths algebra homework. I'm hardly handsome stranger material.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!"

"Who are you?" Pandie asked him, a look of awe on her face.

Yo, guys, I kinda need a li'l help here!!

"Who are you??" Hadrian replied, asking Pandie the same question she'd just asked him.

Oh good grief!!

Suddenly a slightly frustrated Arizan interrupted their little trance. "She's Pandie," she said impatiently, her voice rising slightly with each word, "you're Hadrian, and I'm dead if someone doesn't make Fur Butt here release his death grip on me now!!"

Now that he could think clearly again, Hadrian saw what his sister was talking about. Somehow during the distraction of the crossbow being fired, Orson had taken the chance to grab Arizan with one great big furry paw, and was now holding her four feet off the ground. Whoever had fired the crossbow had turned and ran.

Before anyone could react, Orson changed into his half 'n' half form and began to speak in a slightly growling voice. "Oh dear, look what has just happened," he said sarcastically, "I've got one of your pathetic little group." Out of the corner of his eye, Hadrian noticed Liedryn silently move towards the bear shifter, holding the silver fighting staff carefully in her hands, ready to strike. "One more move Miss Drache," Orson began to say casually, "and I swear I'll break the Little Freakhead's neck."

Hadrian glared at the bear shifter, the encounter with Pandie, lingering in the back of his mind. "What do you want, Orson?" he said, doing his best to keep his voice calm, "Surely you didn't come all the way to a small town in the middle of nowhere, to attack my sister?" Orson laughed loudly, causing the ground shake slightly.

"I'm not after your sister, Taylor" he began to say, before turning and nodding at Pandie, "My orders are to retrieve the witch-cat charm, from her. My boss doesn't care if I let her live or not, so long as the charm is handed over. So I'm guessing as soon as I've dealt with your sister here, I'll take the witch-cat charm from Miss Katteken and just kill her."

"Excuse me?!" Arizan started to say angrily, "What do you mean you'll deal with me, Smartass?! I didn't come all the way out here to the middle of nowhere to be killed by you!! And if you even think of killing my brother's soulma.... Pandie, I'll use you for witch fire target practice. Now let me go, before I fry your head from the inside out." Instead of acting threatened by this sudden outburst, Orson began to laugh again, and tightened his grip around Arizan's neck.

"Try any of your little tricks, Freakhead," he said calmly, ignoring Arizan's small gasps for air, "and I'll..."

Suddenly his eyes rolled, and the huge bear shifter crumpled to the ground, dropping Arizan roughly in the process. At first, Hadrian was rather puzzled as to why the huge bear shifter had just collapsed without any warning. But he soon realised what had happened, when Quinn walked into view. "Owwww" Arizan said, rubbing her rear end as she got up, "Thanks a lot Quinn. Way to make me land on my butt."

"Sorry Riz," the black haired made vampire said apologetically, "but Madigan's constant 'I'm a big scary bear shifter and I'm going to rip off your head' speech was starting to get on my nerves." "Besides," he continued, once he had everyone's attention, "Rashel asked me to get you guys. We've found Jasper's grave, and let me just say that Rashel discovered some rather interesting writing on the statue placed in front of the headstone."