Here ya go! Sorry it took so long, but blame school, not me! So anyways, read, review, favourite, blah blah etc.etc. ENJOY! Oh yeah, I almost 4got! I'm workin' on character profiles for this story, so when they're done, u can check 'em out!
Chapter 14
The Snake's Path
Aster wandered through a large forest, with no idea where he was heading. It wasn't like his previous forest with the blood on the trees. In fact, it looked almost normal. Twigs snapped as he walked across the ground, and branches brushed against Aster, but not scratching his clothes. Aster stopped walking for a moment and looked around like he had done tonnes of times before.
"Where am I? This place is different than before. In fact, it looks almost familiar" Aster wondered. He shivered in the cold wind and light rain and, grasping his jacket to keep warm, walked ahead of him. Within minutes, he came across a clearing in the woods. In it was a large wooden house with a sigh saying "Domino Hostel".
A youth hostel? Aster thought. Why am I here?
A creaking noise snapped Aster back to his senses. He noticed two people walk out of the building. One of them was a woman wearing a navy blue coat with a hood to hide her face, and some black hair was hanging loose through her coat. Hidden in her coat was what appeared to be a handle, which she appeared afraid to let go of. The other person was shorter and looked around five years old due to their height. They were also wearing a coat, but this time it was a black anorak, and the child was clinging onto the woman's coat.
Closely followed by these two mysterious people were three women, wearing black dresses with white aprons, showing that they were probably workers of the house.
"Hey! Excuse me! Do you know where I am?" Aster asked, moving away from his hiding place in the trees and towards the group of people. However, they said nothing, and carried on walking. "Oi, I'm talking to you!" Aster said. Again, they ignored him. "Hey!" He yelled. Suddenly, the shorter person walked straight through him, as did the three maids, surprising Aster. He turned towards the group of people, who were walking towards where Aster once stood before.
"They just walked straight through me." Aster said. "It's as if I don't exist here. Ah well, this is a dream, so it's hardly surprising. Maybe I should follow them just for the sake of it" Aster ran to catch up with the people. Even though they couldn't see him, Aster stayed hidden in the trees, observing the group of people silently. The three maids had an insane look in their eyes, and Aster noticed a gleam of metal in each of their hands. Looking closer, Aster realised all three of them were holding large knives.
"Why would they have knives?" Aster wondered.
"Don't stop walking. Keep going" One of the maids said, her voice dripping with malice.
"Mommy I'm scared" The child said, clinging tightly to the woman's coat. She placed an arm around the child's shoulders.
"Everything will be okay, son. Don't worry, I won't let them harm you" She whispered soothingly. The boy sniffed.
"Okay" He whispered.
"Keep moving" A maid said. Aster followed the group for quite some time, with the maids occasionally telling them to keep moving.
"Stop" One demanded. The boy and woman stopped and turned to face them. Aster observed what was going on hidden in the trees.
"What are you going to do with us?" The woman demanded calmly. The maids glared at her with insane looks.
"It's all your fault the other guests have begun disappearing." One maid hissed.
"Now we're the only one's left. And we three are not going to be next. So we're leaving you here with your son."
"Mommy, what are they talking about? Did you really make those nice people disappear?" The boy asked.
"No. They've just gone mad." She answered calmly. "Leave me here, but I'm not going to lose my son. Take him with you. I'm not the one responsible for the disappearances. Sorry, but I don't remember anything that happened."
"Don't lie." A maid snapped. "I saw you wonder through the corridors and enter the maid's quarters on the night each one disappeared. Now the guests have gone as well. Your son's probably the same, that why we're going to leave you here for whatever sick tricks you used to consume you."
"And if we refuse?" The woman asked. The maids grinned evilly.
"We already thought of that. That's why we brought the knives." One hissed.
"Since you obviously refuse..." Another maid said. The three of them raised the knives.
"We'll just have to kill you!" They said at the same time. The three of them began to advance towards the two people. The two of them stepped backwards away from the insane maids. Aster noticed the woman clutching the handle hidden in her coat tightly until her knuckles turned white. The young boy was trembling with fright, his arms in front of him as if to shield himself. Even though his face was partly hidden, Aster spotted tears dripping off the boys chin.
"Mommy!" The boy cried desperately. The woman turned, and noticed one of the maids was close to the child. She grabbed his wrist and got ready to strike with her knife. The woman pulled her son away from the woman and placed him on the ground. She hugged him around the shoulders.
"Are you alright my child?" She asked. The boy nodded under his anorak hood.
"Shall we run?" He asked.
"No. We're too far away from the hostel." She glanced at the handle hidden in her clothes. "Mommy will sort this out. But you should close your eyes. I don't want you to see this" She stood up and looked at the three maids. They moved towards the woman. Suddenly, the woman pulled the handle out of her clothes. Aster gasped. The woman was holding an axe. The three maids' eyes widened at the sight of the large metal. With a loud yell, the woman raised the axe and charged towards the maids.
Aster covered his eyes with his hands and turned away, knowing what was coming up. All he could hear was the sound of the maids screaming, flesh coming in contact with metal and bodies falling onto the wet ground. When Aster thought it was over, he removed his hands from his face and looked at the scene. The maids were lying on top of each other in a pile, covered with blood and cuts over their bodies. Their knives had been dropped onto the ground, not a single drop of blood on them. The woman was breathing heavily and angrily, her axe covered with blood as well as her coat. The young boy had clearly seen what had happened, because he was trembling all over, and tears were visible on the part of his face that was showing through the hood of his anorak.
"You…you killed them." The boy whimpered. "You killed them!" He said again, but screaming it this time. The woman turned towards the boy. She dropped her axe onto the forest floor.
"I saved us. You should be grateful." She said.
"But Mommy. You'd never even hurt a fly. How could you do it? Why did you kill them? Is all that matters to you surviving?"
"If it's kill or be killed, then yes. I don't want to die because of something I may have done. I want to live!" The woman snapped.
The boy took two steps backwards away from the woman, still trembling. "You're not my mommy." The woman hugged her son.
"Of course it's me" She said soothingly.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" The boy screamed, pulling fiercely away from his mother and glaring at her, still crying. "Ever since we got here, you haven't been acting like my mommy at all. You've been acting…like… someone else."
"Don't say that…" The woman whispered helplessly.
"You want to live, you say? You know what I want?" The child said. A strong wind blew through the forest, moving the hood off the boys head.
"I want my mommy back" The boy said as the hood moved away from his face. Aster looked at the two of them. Both of them turned towards Aster, their hoods away from their heads, as if they knew he was there all along. Aster could see their faces, and he recognised them. Aster took a few steps backwards with a gasp.
"No…It can't be…" Aster said, trembling. "That…that's me" He exclaimed, looking at the child, who was a five year old version of himself. The woman was, in fact, his mother. The same age as she was in the photograph Aster found in the old house back at Domino.
"Mom…and me…no…this can't be happening." Aster said. With a flash of lightning in the background, Aster fell onto his knees. "Mom…killed those people…no…" Aster closed his eyes tightly clutching his head. The light shower turned into a huge thunderstorm, with lightning and thunder flashing in the surroundings. The heavy rain got Aster drenched in seconds, but Aster was too shocked to care. "No…" He whispered again. "NOOOOOOOOOOO" He screamed in the storm.
"Ah!" Aster gasped, sitting up, and was met by surprised looks from his friends.
"You okay, private?" Hassleberry asked. Aster wiped away the sweat on his face.
"Not really…" He muttered. Jesse offered a hand for him, and Aster took it.
"You had another nightmare, didn't you?" Chloe asked as Aster was helped up.
"You bet I did"
"Was Kagehoshi there this time?" Jaden said. Aster shook his head.
"This may sound crazy, guys, but…I think it was something from my past." Everyone's eyes widened.
"You want to talk about it?" Hannah said.
"Might as well, we've got a long walk through this path anyway."
…
"And when I looked at their faces, it was my mom and me when I was five" Aster finished as the group walked through The Snake's Path.
"Are you sure?" Hassleberry said.
"Positive"
"Those maids were so psychopathic." Chloe muttered.
"Reminds me of Kagehoshi" Jaden said.
"Why would Aster's mom kill them?" Melody wondered.
"Beats me" Jesse shrugged. "By the sounds of it, his mom must have done something to the guests and workers at the hostel, and she just doesn't remember any of it."
"But what would she do to them?" Aster said.
"Look" Jaden started, standing in front of everyone, causing them to stop walking. "Kagehoshi is controlling Aster's dreams, right? This is probably just a trick to make Aster think his mom's some kind of psychopath who walks around killing people." Jaden turned around and began walking again. "We should just-WAAAAAAAAAA!" Without warning, Jaden slipped on the ground and slid down the slope on his butt, yelling in panic. Aster noticed that Jaden was heading towards the water at the other end of the path. Quickly, he slid his right foot across the ground towards Jaden, making a wall of earth at the bottom of the path, and blocking Jaden's fall. Jaden stood up and wiped the mud off the bottom of his white trousers.
"Look out guys, this path is kinda slippery." Jaden yelled up at the others. Chloe, Hannah, Syrus and Aster weren't being careful walking down the path, and slid across it as if it were a ski slope and having a great time doing it, whilst Hassleberry, Melody and Jesse walked down it carefully, smiling as the people sliding down it yelled and cheered as if it were a roller coaster ride. Eventually, everyone reached the bottom.
Hassleberry lifted the wall of earth out of the ground with his superhuman strength and threw it in the ocean. Ahead, where there was supposed to be the rest of the path, there wasn't any. It was covered in water, and the final part of it was ahead of them by a few yards.
"Oh, great. Now what?" Melody groaned. "The path must be at least a few hundred yards ahead."
"And I can't swim" Syrus moaned.
"Looks pretty deep." Hassleberry said. "Any ideas private phoenix?"
"Nope. I'm clueless." Aster answered.
"Everyone, single file. I've got an idea." Chloe said, stepping forward. After looking at each other, the rest obeyed and stood behind Chloe. She began to part the lake waters, making two small water walls on either side of her. She began to walk below the sea level, and continued to lift the water walls on either side of her. As they all followed Chloe, the water walls began to form a capsule of air.
"Aster, I need your help."
"What should I do? I'm not experienced enough yet." Aster protested.
"Know how to do Tai Chi?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah"
"Well water manipulating is a lot like that. You'll be fine if you know Tai Chi. Now hurry up and manipulate the other end, unless you want us to drown."
Aster nodded and quickly moved to the back of the line to close the end of the capsule. Bearing Tai Chi in mind, Aster managed to manipulate the other end with ease.
"Hey you're right Chloe. This is pretty easy."
"I look forward to teachin' ya!" Chloe responded.
"Yeah, sure. Just stop treading on the back of my heal, will ya!" Jesse snapped at Aster.
"I don't have eyes at the back of my head, y'know. I have to walk backwards to do this."
"This is amazing" Melody breathed. At that moment, a large fish passed the group. It had sharp teeth, was a slimy green and looked rather ugly.
"Hey, that fish looks like Hassleberry!" Jaden exclaimed cheerfully.
"No it doesn't!" Hassleberry yelled from the back. "Right Hannah?"
"I don't know what you OR fish look like, dino-boy."
"Oh…whoops…"Hassleberry said. "Sorry, female phoenix. Besides, a shrimp is what Syrus would look like."
"Who're you calling a shrimp?" Syrus snapped.
"Enough of the fish descriptions!" Jesse yelled.
"One battle at a time, soldier."
"Would you mind arguing later, I'm trying to concentrate!" Aster snapped over his shoulder. Suddenly, a large black shadow passed Aster. Aster turned to see what it was, but it had gone. The shadow passed over Chloe's side as well. She stopped walking, but kept her arms up to keep the shape of the capsule.
"What was that?" Aster asked, bringing his arms down, but quickly putting them back up again after Chloe yelled frantically. "Don't let the wall lose shape!"
"There it is again" Melody said, pointing upwards at the long shadow passing over the top. There was an eerie silence. Suddenly, something huge crashed through the walls of the water capsule, making water gush through the walls and threatening to drown the group. Everyone began to panic and scream as the capsule filled up. Quickly, Chloe made a column of rock rise up from the ground to the surface of the water, saving all their lives.
"Whoa, that was close" Jesse gasped, squeezing water out of his hair.
"Oh my God, look!" Melody yelled, pointing at the water. A long green dorsal fin was circling the sanctuary. Everyone stared at it with growing dread. Suddenly, a head exploded from the lake. It belonged to a jade coloured sea serpent, whose whiskered head was almost like a seahorse, and it's tongue lashed like a whip from it's mouth. The monster gave a deafening roar as it's long neck reared back to menace the heroes.
"Y'know, I think I just figured out why it's called The Snake's Path" Syrus squeaked, pointing upwards at the snake, who gave a shrill scream of rage.
…
Kagehoshi was by her font, watching the snake roar menacingly at the group.
"Indeed, little Syrus. That is the reason why it's called The Snake's Path. Many people come through this path to rescue those I have kidnapped from them. Some of them serve me, and others, well…" Kagehoshi turned around to a large pile of bones behind her.
"Either the snake kills them, or if they refuse to serve me, I simply kill them" She turned back to the font.
"Now then, young warriors..."She grinned wickedly under her veil. "Entertain me"
…
Back at the path, the serpent was arching and roaring down at the heroes standing helplessly on a circle of rock.
"You know about this world, you two. Make it go away." Hassleberry panicked, looking at Melody and Chloe.
"Just because we know about this place doesn't mean we're experts." Chloe snapped.
"Crap" Hassleberry hissed. He quickly moved towards Syrus and effortlessly lifted him up under his arms towards the serpent.
"Oh great and powerful snake seahorse thing, please accept this humble and tasty offering" Hassleberry said beseechingly.
"Hassleberry" Syrus said, outraged. He kicked Hassleberry in the stomach, forcing Hassleberry to drop the bluenette onto the ground again. Without warning, the snake lunged towards the group, it's jaws opened wide. Hannah stepped in front of them and swept an arc of wind on its head, knocking the snake backwards.
"Chloe, get everyone across. I'll distract it." Aster said. He waved his hand over his golden manacle. As soon as the wings appeared, Aster lifted into the air and flew towards the serpent. "Hey, reptile features!" Aster yelled, throwing a green energy field at the back of it's head. The snake turned towards around to find the source of the blast. It spotted a boy with silver formalwear and golden wings. It gave an ear-splitting scream and lunged towards Aster. He avoided it easily, and the snake crashed back into the water. Unknowingly to Aster, one of the spikes on the snake's head scratched across the top of Aster's left arm, making a bit of blood leak out, but he didn't even notice.
Meanwhile, Chloe created a path of ice, which everybody ran across. Whilst urging the others past her, she turned and noticed Hannah was still on the small island, a terrified look on her face.
"Come on Hannah. It's just ice." Jesse called out. Hannah placed her red Hush Puppies pumps on the ice, but jerked her foot away as if it were boiling hot.
"Actually, I think I'll stay on my little island where it's safe." She said, terrified.
"Heads up!" Aster yelled from the distance. Suddenly, part of the serpents tail crashed onto the rock behind Hannah, making her jump onto the ice with a cry of fright. "Okay, I'm coming" She squeaked. She slowly and carefully began to inch her way across the ice sideways.
"You're doing great. Just follow the sound of my voice." Hassleberry yelled.
"It's hard to ignore." Hannah said acidly.
"You're almost there." Jaden yelled. Without warning, the serpent dived upwards through the ice in an attempt to get Aster, shattering the bridge completely. Hannah screamed as she fell into the water, thrashing around helplessly.
"Help! I can't swim!" Hannah screamed.
"I'm coming Hannah" Jaden yelled, hopping on one foot in an attempt to remove his red sneaker. Melody rolled her eyes and dived into the water, swimming furiously towards Hannah, who gave a last cry of help before going down into the water. Reaching the place where Hannah went under, Melody dived down and graded Hannah under her arms. Both of them emerged gasping.
"Oh, Jaden. You saved me." Hannah said dramatically, planting a big kiss on a surprised Melody's cheek.
"Actually it's me" Melody said.
"Oh…well…heheh" Hannah said, fatally embarrassed. "You can let me drown now if you want" She said feebly.
"Aster, everyone's across. You can come back now." Hassleberry yelled.
"I'm trying…whoa…but this guy…ah…seems to have other ideas…eep" Aster yelled back, avoiding various attacks from the snake. "Little help!"
"Chloe, can you make others walk on water?" Jaden asked.
"Yes. Why?"
"I have an idea."
"Today, preferably." Aster shouted. The snake swung his head in circles, snapping his jaws repeatedly at Aster, and barely missing him. Aster made another attempt at flying back to the others, but the snake blocked it with it's tail. Aster flew around to come face to face with the snake. It opened it's mouth wide, ready to strike. Suddenly, a pulsation hit it directly on the head. Aster turned to the source of the blast, and spotted Jaden with his gun out.
"Need a hand, Ast?" Jaden asked with a grin. Aster noticed that Jaden was standing on the water, with blue pulsations travelling across from his feet.
"About time. Now help me get this thing away" Aster yelled. He flew off away from the others, with Jaden running across the water. The snake followed Aster, its jaws snapping menacingly. Just as it was about to dive onto Aster, it felt its body go stiff. Jaden had activated the ice beam on his gun, and was freezing the snake in place. The serpent was immobilised in the water.
"Great job, Jay. Now it's my turn." Aster said. Drawing water from his waterskin, he made it freeze into a staff. He flew down to the surface of the water, letting his wings disappear, and ran over the surface of the lake, the staff inside the water. Aster began to pick up speed and a whirlpool was being created. All the snake could do was roar as it was helplessly swung around the whirlpool, before it flew off from the centre and hit the mountain like path, cracking like a whip in the process. As the snake landed in the water, it swam off, knowing when it was defeated.
The gang was cheering as Jaden ran back across the water towards the others, and Aster flew back and landed on the ground again, the golden wings disappearing once again.
"We thought you were a goner back there, Aster." Jesse exclaimed. "Huh?" Jesse glanced at Aster's left arm. "Hey, you're hurt." Aster looked at his left arm, and noticed that part of his suit was stained red from the wound.
"Oh, yeah" He said, obviously not noticing it before. "Must have been from that first blow." He smiled weakly. "My arm's been bleeding for too long, hasn't it." He said, placing his right hand over it. "I didn't realise…how badly…" Aster closed his eyes "I was hurt…" He finished. He stumbled and was about to fall, but Jesse caught him.
"You okay?" He asked. Aster looked up at Jesse and smiled.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a bit of blood lost." He answered casually. Jesse tore a strip of fabric from his shirt and began tying it around Aster's arm.
"This'll patch it up for now" Jesse tied the knot, keeping the homemade bandage in place.
"Thanks Jesse" Aster said. "But I'm fine, really."
"Jesse…"
Jesse turned around after hearing his name, and Melody was standing behind him rather shyly. "Can we talk?" She asked.
"Sure, but after we get through the rest of this path, 'kay?"
"Okay"
…
Sometime later, the gang reached the end of the path.
"ALRIGHT!" Syrus cheered, punching the air as he walked a wooden gateway similar to the one they walked through at the start of the path.
"Now it's nothing but smooth sailing to Kagehoshi" Chloe said. Jesse walked up to Melody.
"You said you wanted to talk to me?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah, it's about last night." Melody blushed slightly. "I'm sorry. You see, after hearing about your girlfriend, I felt really bad. We were just talking in he moonlight, and then I-"Melody was interrupted as Jesse suddenly kissed her. After parting, Jesse and Melody looked into each others eyes.
"You talk too much" Jesse said with a smirk. Melody smiled and kissed Jesse, throwing her arms around his neck, with Jesse doing the same thing. The rest of the gang watched the two of them.
"And that's our chilled out Jesse" Hassleberry said.
"Chilled out AND completely mushy!" Chloe gushed romantically, locking her fingers together and bringing them up to her face cutely.
"Somebody PLEASE tell me he came here to rescue Daisy, right?" Jaden said, pointing at Jesse.
"Alright, lovebirds, break it up." Syrus said.
"We've got quite a bit of distance to travel" Aster pointed out. The two of them parted from their kiss and held hands.
"Sure thing, Aster." Jesse said, smiling.
…
Kagehoshi watched the group walking through the land in search of the castle.
"Hmmm…so they defeated my little pet sea monster. But how will they fare against my other minions? I've seen the skills of dino-boy and Aster, but what about the rest, especially the shrimp?"
"Okay then, coolest guy in the group!" Jaden's voice yelled from the font.
"Jaden!" Syrus cheered.
"Aster" Chloe yelled.
"Hassleberry" Hassleberry shouted.
"You lose, Hassleberry" Aster said.
"God dammit!" Hassleberry yelled. Kagehoshi sighed.
"They're just a bunch of idiots, especially dino-boy. But he does have potential, especially after defeating Sekio." She turned to look over her shoulder. A figure was standing in the shadows, a gleam of gold shining their mouth.
"Looks like you'll be getting your revenge, Haru" Kagehoshi said. The stranger smiled, the gold tooth shining in his mouth.
That's the chapter for ya! Next time, during training, the gang see a new enemy, and Hassleberry has to step into the fighting arena once more. Who will win? Find out next time, only in Captured Flower.