Another -2 August'12
Disclaimer: G-boys are not saru's... and saru already forgotten the details of the anime too.
chapter 14
There were books stacked neatly in racks over racks over racks over racks of books...
Vim traced the book racks from the floor to the far ceiling with a wide gaping mouth, amazed at the impossible amount of books one library could contain. The chamber was of a tower, and the book racks were placed by the walls; it was almost circular with only the pier above the doors separating the racks with a vertical line. There was a huge crystal-clock on the pier wall, its 12 hands were as big as the boy's body, with a carving of the Kingdom's insignia at its center, blazing 'rays' of pointy tiny-crystal-hands making it like a model of the sun.
The tower was divided by sections of circular balconies every three-stacks of book racks, while each book rack contained between 7-10 shelves depending on the size of the books; Vim cursorily counted there were at least 7 balconies. In the middle of the tower was a spiraling black-iron staircase, ended with a T-section catwalk making a bridge in the middle of the void of the highest balcony. The sunshine from the cupola above dazzled his eyes when he looked up, but he could recognize that except for the T-section catwalk there was no more walkway from the spiraling staircase to the other balconies, nor there was staircase connecting each balcony to the next level. So, awkwardly he looked right and left looking for a device to go up eventhough the first sight of the library already told him that there was no such a thing, except the spiraling middle staircase standing silently with pride.
With a downhearted sigh he scratched his grey head using both hands, the curly locks stuck out everywhere after that.
"Of course, that's why the Librarian outside let a runt like me in... the upper balconies must be reserved for higher people...!" -and some identification item was needed to access the catwalk; he realized that when he deciphered how the catwalk must be able to travel up and down along the railing, where the supports for the staircase stood firm from the floor like bars of cage guarding the spiraling staircase. "So the catwalk should come spiraling down as well, like travelling inside a bottle cover... Nice mechanism! -but that means I only have access to the racks on the floor level...!"
The boy tsk-ed, his eyes already pointed some devices on the respected points where the catwalk should meet the doors on the railing-cage and thus linking the balcony forming a T-section. Something like a pass was seemingly needed; like a key or something like a medallion or such, he wasn't sure if he hadn't checked the device first.
"Ahhh... and I already told the Commander I'd find it and bring it to his chamber... What should I dooo-?" Vim dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged, propping his chin with hands and elbows at his knees. He said he used to spend his free time in the library, but that was the City library not the Palace's; in fact, it was his first time going inside the Palace library.
Well, finding the books should be no trouble, the problem was to obtain them; he thought for a while and decided he should at least do the first thing, the second could be planned after that, depending on the location of the books. With that in mind he closed his eyes and brushed the room with his awareness, he felt something like a silvery dim flickers poking his mind, but he needed to find the golden sparks.
He opened his eyes and frowned. That was strange, silver flickers meant that the things were of relation to what he was searching, but not finding a golden spark meant that the books the Commander wanted were not in that place. "But that can't be...! With this amount of books; not even a single one...?" Vim stood and looked up, tracing the racks and piling books with his eyes; and all he saw were silver flickers in only several books in the high shelves... some were dim, some were brighter; but still not a single golden spark.
". . . . . . it's not in here . . .!" he mumbled slowly.
"What is?" a long flock of black hair brushed the boy's shoulders from behind and above, tickling his right ear playfully.
"GYAAAAHH!" the boy jumped and threw himself forward to the floor, although the voice that surprised him was flat toned and slow-chanted.
The owner of that long hair stood vertically on the support-cage, which meant horizontally against the gravitation. It was a girl, around 5-6 of age, with slender build and long legs... in fact her build was too slender to be human, Vim immediately realized. She had black hair cupping her pale cheeks, the unruly locks on top of her head made a pair of cat-ears-like cowlicks while at the sides of her temples were another pair of droopy wings-like cowlicks bounced every now and then with her head movement. The hairdo on top was a short bob, while there were two locks of long 'tails' flowing from her nape; the 'tails' were seemingly alive as they wiggled slowly like a real tail of a cat.
"You-... are you the operator?" Vim fast regained his composure.
"Operator?" the girl tilted her head in incomprehension.
"...of that." Vim pointed to the catwalk high above them.
The girl turned around facing the ceiling, her 'tails' twitched in recognition; when she turned around facing the boy still sitting ungracefully on the floor, she was frowning. "...is that because I am a CAT...?!" but her slow-chanted words almost losing their unhappy tone.
Vim blinked and realized the girl was upset. "I'm sorry; it's because you surprised me...!"
"You're new here..." the girl pointed brushing off the boy's words and the previous topic.
"Yes." Vim rearranged his sitting pose, bending his knees and folded his feet back neatly, and placed his hands on his laps. "I'm Vim. I work in the finance section." he bowed.
"Not the building. I mean this chamber." the girl put her hands behind her.
"Oh... yes, it's my first time here...!" the boy bowed again.
"Are you looking for something?"
Vim paused for a moment; this girl was definitely not human, she spoke slowly and her voice was melodious; and he wasn't sure if it was alright to tell her what he was searching for.
Not getting immediate reply, she decided to speak on her own. "The books on the ground are common. The uncommon ones are placed higher." she turned a little and pointed up, "The rarest are on the top."
The boy thought so, too. He stifled a sigh.
"What books do you want?" she asked.
"Old-wisdom..." Vim said reflexively, already thinking the impossibility of getting one.
"As in wizard-style?" the girl asked again.
Vim caught himself as he realized he'd said it, but the words he heard as answer surprised him. "...wizard?!" he asked disbelieving his ears. Why would the Commander look for wizard books?
"No! I-... don't know; it's just old-wisdom, not wizardry...!" he said hesitantly.
The girl tilted her head again.
"Any preference of age?"
"Age...?" Vim thought for a while; he replayed the scene when he first saw the Commander at a courtyard from far away, and his mind pointed about the last time he saw him on the corridor of the man's chamber. "D-... demons...-" his voice shook by uncertainty, but he said what his mind told him anyway, that the sight of Odin the last time he saw him was missing a certain demon trailing behind him like another shadow.
The girl stared at him for a long moment; it made him regretted his action and was thinking to flee the library on first opportunity.
"Such books are forbidden ever since the Demon entered this Palace." the girl said flatly.
Vim sighed and decided to flee now, thinking that the girl's answer was a closure.
"...that's why they're stored up there." she pointed to the cupola.
Vim froze when he heard the additional answer. "...eh?" he reflexively looked up to the cupola in the ceiling; there seemed to be a room hidden by the chamber's ceiling... but the staircase didn't reach it...! His mind pointed out; and the distance from the end of the spiraling staircase was roughly about... his mind decided to stop tinkering the impossible then.
How could he cross a vertical distance of 4 stories high? ...flying? Or falling down? To fall down to the catwalk might already mean death, falling down the rest of the height to the floor would mean something along the line as 'in pieces'...?
"Rianka." the girl said suddenly with a smile, and giggled as she agilely ran on the support-cage to the catwalk high above, and disappeared after she crossed it to the highest balcony.
After that, Vim took about 30 seconds to realize that she was saying her name.
Vim knew he shouldn't do this, but he had no other option; it was a chance to a real recognition from a Palace denizen, and it's the notorious Commander whom-everyone-so-make-a-matter-of to boot. It might be the only chance for him to make himself visible, so he had to succeed...
"Hufft...'Boy, fetch me the case no.180-Nayle-river!' the big man said, 'Oh, and while you're at it, fetch me the book about the management budget on the 3rd street of that city!', 'Fetch me the scroll of development budget year 17th King's City South District, kid!' the skinny man said, 'Fetch me some moon-tape to mark this file', 'fetch me some files to mark later'...fetch me, fetch me...! That's all they could say, and they couldn't even remember my name...! It's Vim, V I M, and has the same amount of letters as boy and kid, and they couldn't even remember it! What's the case-naming system for if they couldn't remember the places they stored the files in, anyway; what's the taping for if they couldn't remember what they wrote and on which files, anyway...! Really, those goons who couldn't even remember what their jobs are-...!" Vim blew his breath several times, he grinned stiffly to his feet, trying to accumulate his anger to replace strength that was dissipated by a slight relief. "Oh, great! We're here...!" his voice shook a little by the excitement.
. . . although the next task was more than great, he thought.
He snorted and peered up at the narrow recesses under the spherical structure, some birds apparently made them as nesting grounds, he calculated his body size and concluded that he could push himself through the hole, as long as there was no nest in it; a tight fit, but it was certain... the real gamble was to get a footing in the hidden library after he pushed through the hole.
Sighing deeply, "...get a footing. Right!" he sounded pessimistic but he'd decided to do it anyway, that's why he'd brought a very strong rope fastened in heavy loops, the very thing he'd been dragging for about half an hour on the roof; which he wouldn't manage without some doping from his anger to his employers to do it.
Looking around, Vim sighed as he knew he wouldn't find anything to tie his rope to; "I knew it, that's why I brought a verrry long rope...!" A thought in his mind pointed to him that he should at least grateful that another building of the Palace had its roof connected to the tower of the Palace Library. He then plaited one end of the rope into a pedal-like loop, where his foot should rest while he lowered his body with its length through a pulley; or so he planned in his mind. The tricky part was to tie the other end of the rope to the roof; the airway recesses were far apart, so he couldn't tie it on the structure between; and the dome didn't have anything on top of it... there was probably something there in the past, but it's now gone for some reason.
He stared suspiciously at the new chipped dome top.
"...I should tie it around the dome itself, then...!" he shrugged and tried just that.
Three hours and some tens minutes later, after some failed attempts to walk the ledge around the dome, and some rolling-down-on-the-dome experiences, and some sliding-down-the-roof fails, he found himself managed to tie the rope around the very large dome roof and that he could adequately push himself through the airway recess if he only had his inner clothes on, and that fact only left him a little space left to wound the rope around himself, and that the pulley was VERY hard to pull with his body weight added into account, and despite he had a very long rope prepared he'd forgotten to check whether it was free of knots, and that realizing those things while he was already hanging from the dome's roof would be too late... so he found himself tied with only a single dead-loop around his waist, while he was clad only in his dirty under garment -being a poor orphan living on his own-, with a knot stuck on his pulley, hanging about 13 stories high inside a tower, and he couldn't do anything about anything.
And he was just about the level of the hidden library, too, his mind complaint; to his surprise there were only three small shelves built into the dome's wall and the books were not even filling half of them. He'd risked it to swing himself to the sides, finding that there was a circular railing guarding the space, but the length of the rope suspending him didn't reach it, and the creaking sounds from the pulley gave him the creeps, knowing that if it breaks then he would lurch down the depth of the tower, and his small skinny waist might not survive the jerk of the rope from the sudden stop.
"Great..." he stared at the faraway floor below his dangling feet, the right foot he placed on the pedal-rope already felt numb; "...someone save me...!"
Mocking his plea, the crystal-clock on the pier struck 12 and the twelve hands shone as they rang its twelve chimes in the same time; the sounds were of soft reverberating resonance like the tinkling of a series of wind chimes, and it was calming of all things; but it didn't help Vim's situation.
". . . . . . thank-you-" he said anyway with tears of helplessness streaming down his face.
Noting that there were not that many books in that hidden space, he decided to search then; the height and his position disturbed his concentration so he tried closing his eyes, the first long minutes he could only see fog in his mind; then after some pushing he found his mind's eye staring at a brick wall, then a flicker of red glimmered behind that wall.
He frowned; nothing shone red in his vision before; nor any brick wall materially visible in that area.
Intrigued, he focused his mind on that light, which now had multiplied into a swarm of red glitters; they slowly swayed as if riding a calm current, then swirled in and around themselves and formed a single bright light, and shot itself into him.
"-Wahh!" Vim jerked in surprise and opened his eyes instantly, and was panic when his eyes saw red everywhere, and his right foot lost the rope footing and his body automatically balanced itself on the rope around his waist, and he had to scream when his upper body fell forward, kicking his feet with the swaying momentum, and then...
"You are funny." that slow melodious dispirited voice said to him from behind.
Vim choked and froze; realizing now the rope was painfully cutting into his waist and left him almost breathless so he shouldn't waste it by screaming hysterically.
The swaying had stopped.
His vision gradually cleared, and he tried taking in some breaths.
The dead-knot of the rope was at his right side, so he wasn't really hanging faced down. Turning his head up passed his right shoulder, he found the-cat from this afternoon, standing vertically on his lifeline with an old book with black leather cover secured in her left arm.
"...thank-you for noticing that... I need a hand here...please?" Vim tried a little shakily.
The little girl stared at him openly; her expression was as animated as a wall. "I thought you need a book."
"Thank-you for remembering that, too... I could use the hand and the book, please...!" he tried again, noticing the golden sparks shimmering from the book in the girl's hand.
Rianka cocked her head to the left, the still expression on her face unnerved Vim but he somehow knew she didn't mean any harm.
"...'Kay." she eventually said flatly, and before Vim could ask what she was going to do, she grabbed him by the collar from behind and easily pulled him up as she walked up along the dangling rope and pushed the speechless gaping boy through the narrow airway again while she stayed inside.
"Don't leave the rope there." she said in closure tone once the boy was completely outside, and the book was thrown to his laps.
Vim was, as common sense wasn't on his debating side right now, gaping his mouth wide with pale moronic face, and couldn't even find a proper word to say that he just realized he didn't bring any cutting device with him.
The-cat stared him making funny forms with his mouth; without changing her expression she threw a kitchen knife at him out of nowhere, it landed on the roof almost stabbing the boy's left thigh, and as he screamed again she turned around and left him. Walking down the invisible ward erected on the outer-side of the circular railing of the hidden space -which was the center-side of the tower void, she glanced at a single book left open on one of the shelves; the pages was empty of writings, and it closed by itself with a silent puff, the red velvet cover then grayed and the book turned to stone.
Outside, Vim was still making panicked incoherent sounds as he tried to cut the rope and fled his crime scene.
". . . the present Crimsonstar is funny...!" she commented flatly and disappeared.
The furnace was burning warmly, and the phonograph was playing his favorite crystal records; Treize took a sip of his blue wine and hummed the song along with the singer's voice. Nodding his head a little at the music while closing his eyes, his hand blindly sought the fruit bowl for some cherries but he took some bat-berries instead.
As the berries dove into the blue liquid, the-cat materialized on his left shoulder.
"...had a fun walk, didn't you, Riankitten?" Treize smiled without opening his eyes. Rianka stared at the blue liquid inside the wineglass turning a sickly black as the bat-berries oozed out its color.
"Why is that?" the-cat asked flatly, his expressionless face didn't change.
Treize chuckled enjoying the fact the he knew; "...you have a large beastly grin plastered on your face...!"
Rianka tinkered whether he should pointed out that Treize had put some bat-berries into his wine, but decided that it didn't matter since the man seldom opening his eyes in this kind of condition.
"...found yourself a new toy, Kitten?" Treize sipped his wine again, "...hmmm, a cute tabby, perhaps?"
"You care?" the-cat asked while eyeing the phonograph, the singer's high pitched voice grated on his cat-ears.
"Having a tomcat is troublesome at times, if you know what I mean..." Treize smiled.
"I've shrunk to your size of preference." the-cat said matter-of-factly.
"I didn't prefer a little girl; thanks to you people see me as a pedophile...!" Treize frowned a little; his lips were still smiling while nodding to the song.
The-cat snorted and curled his tails around Treize's neck, hugging his blonde head and used it as a pillow while staring at the fire in the furnace which made him sleepy, his cat-ears pulled behind tiredly.
"Anything worth reported to me, Kitten?"
About the things happening in Gertt... Or about one particular baby in Darque finding his laughter... Or about some dream-spirit having its eyes grudgingly set on Treize for what was happening to a certain person...
The-cat blinked sleepily and mumbled, "I saw a crimson star..."
"The bloody-star, or the star of courage?" Treize asked, his nodding had stopped but his smile only bloomed wider.
"hmmm... funny star." the-cat mumbled with eyes closed.
"Odin knew?"
"...star doesn't know..." the-cat's words slurred and Treize knew his Familiar had fallen to sleep almost immediately after he closed his eyes, like usual; that meant nothing to worry about, that everything's still under control.
He smiled satisfactorily and snapped his fingers twice, the phonograph sound turned down and the record changed to a whispery wind-song, the-cat's favorite lullaby. Rianka purred to the tranquil sounds and melted to Treize's laps while flapping his wings as his body transformed to a slender black cat with wings on its temple. Treize patted his(1) fur distractedly until he himself fell to sleep; his numb fingers forgotten about the wine glass still in his other hand and let the glass gave the thick carpet a good-night kiss.
They slept peacefully while the sickly black liquid of the wine melted the floor with a silent hiss, just in front of the stone statue of a sun model recently taken from a certain dome top.
Duo moaned when the building shook again, something collided with the wall somewhere and now that something sounded like it was making a mess on the second floor. Breathing hard, he tried to cover his ears so he won't hear those loud sounds, the bestial screeches, the explosions, the broken things, the screams...
The window near the stage exploded with fiery smoke and rained shards and splinters inside. Duo moaned harder at how close it was according to his swaying senses.
"...Damn it! That's our window, you prick! Aim better...!"
In his personal twister he thought he heard a girl's voice said that, although it was surging and ebbing like a voice heard in a stormy sea. Then something pulled his upper arm; not being able to see and sense, Duo was terrified and could only scream while struggling, trying to keep away whatever it was there from reaching Heero that was under his stooping body.
"DUO, STOP! It's meee! Stop itt!"
There were long things battling his frantic hands, and a splash of cool water on his face. Duo tried to wheeze in some air into his burning lungs and the water choked his airway, he tried to breathlessly cough it out but his airway failed.
"Try to calm down; panicking will only make it worse...!"
His body was pulled up and his head was pressed onto something soft. The ground shook again and broken things rained down from the ceiling; his instinct told him to flee the place and he tried to struggle again, although this time his limbs didn't obey his command.
"It's alright! Breathe in slowly...!" the girl's voice sounded nearer this time, something cool was dabbed on his closed eyes, the liquid seeped through his eyelids and burned his eyes, he moaned in pain while trying to shake his head.
"You'll be able to see after this, please bear with it...!" the girl said in emergency, and Duo didn't have any choice left since he couldn't do anything else besides surrendering; anyway, his airway had worked better after he tried calming down.
"Can you breathe?" she asked. Duo nodded letting out a shaky breath. "Alright, this is water; drink as much as you can...!" she put a water bottle lid to his lips and Duo complied, coughing painfully several times and tried again, spilling water on himself and her.
A halve-mask was put covering his lower face after that, it was fitted with sharp smelling things that shot out penetrating his burning nervous system into his brain with only a single breath. The sensation jerked his body visibly and he tried to struggle in panic again.
The girl's hands kept his arms down, "It's drug, but you need it to travel down...!" she reasoned.
Duo moaned his objection and the small vibrations sent mind-breaking quakes into his brain, he saw red sparks exploding behind his eyelids and his nostrils felt like they were invaded by a colony of monster-ants, and his airway melted and drown his lungs in his own blood... but probably it wasn't that bad physically, or else he'd died by now... right? So he rode that torture until it ebbed to a tamer level and his body felt the gravitation pull again... including the shaking building... and that steady beat of a heart near his ear...
"...hey... you okay?" the girl smiled in relief when he cracked open an eye; but his vision was still foggy and the air stung his eyes. He closed his eyes again with a pained frown. "Take your time a little longer. It's alright..." she encouraged while patting the back of his head.
Duo felt like a baby then, but he had no choice.
Another explosion on the ceiling, and that something going berserk on the second floor fell down together with the broken materials. The girl squeaked in alarm and fearfully brought Duo's body to duck, covering Heero's body that was half laid on Duo's laps.
". . . Renn?" Duo tried shakily; he'd never imagine Myrica to squeak.
"Sssshh. It's alright, that beast got shot by some sedative drugs... it just takes some time to take effect...!" she assured with a shaky whisper.
The beast thrashed and flailed for a long moment, Duo could only hear it by the sounds it made, all the while being aware of Renn's trembling. Didn't she say her village was destroyed by beasts?
The sounds gradually stopped and Renn's trembling lessened too, she let out a sigh.
"...it's good now..." Duo tried.
"Yes, the beast is down...!" she said a shaky relief.
"No... I mean me..." Duo tried again.
Her trembling instantly stopped as she caught what he meant; slowly releasing her arms from around his upper body, she let him go while inching backward with a beet red face... she was pressing Duo's head onto her chest, after all.
She refused to meet Duo's eyes, and mumbled "Sorry..." in the same time as Duo's "Thank-you". There was an awkward moment but the situation didn't let them have the luxury of having it stretched long enough for some bonding; the already broken front doors were smashed into pieces by another falling beast. Renn was gaping in horror in only two seconds span, and she fast regained her senses to pull at Duo's braid urging him to follow her.
"Let's go, take your friend, hurry!"
"Wait...!" Duo only had enough time to take Heero's limp body on his back before he realized most of the building was raining on them.
". . . . . .-owh!"
It was dark and cramped, and whatever underneath his body felt sticky and hard. He frowned about the sticky part, trying to move his face away from the rough surface. The halve-mask was still attached to his face, so he couldn't smell it if that sticky thing was blood gluing his face side to the ground; he frowned deeper when frowning hurt. His temple must have bled, he summed up; or... it couldn't be Heero's blood, right? Now that he realized Heero's body was still on his back and his back didn't hurt at all from all the broken things rained in on them.
Groaning, he tried to move his body, whispering out Heero's name frantically. He could tell that Heero was still in one piece, he just couldn't tell if he was hurt. "...Heero!" he called out in frustration at the fact that he couldn't find enough room to lie Heero down from his back, he could just blindly crawl forward bringing Heero along.
"Duo, is that you?!" Renn's anxious voice called out from underneath him.
"Renn? Where-..."
"I'm sorry! I just had enough time to throw myself inside before the ceiling collapsed...!" she knocked the surface underneath Duo repeatedly to tell him where she was. "I'm down here! Is the door blocked? Can you find it?"
Duo groaned. "It's dark and... I can't move a lot..."
"But that means you still can move, right...?" she tried encouragingly, and knocked harder. "Here, can you follow the sound? There should be an insignia of this stage carved on the stone floor, can you reach it?"
Duo searched with his hand, the knocking sounds didn't sound that far away; fighting his way under some debris and tried to fit Heero along took much of his leftover strength, he coughed up and the building frustration almost make him cry, and then his fingers found that carving. With euphoria he yelled and dragged their bodies onto that block of floor.
"Duo, you're there? Brace yourselves, alright?!" that's the only warning he got when the four sides of the block exploded and the ground fell down.
The block landed hard after the short fall, it knocked the air out of Duo's lungs; some small debris followed him down, and Renn was instantly at their sides cleaning off those fragments from their hunched bodies.
"You okay? You're not hurt much, right?" she asked while Duo groaned at her patting hands because his body hurt all over.
"Ughh... you could've warned me about the fall beforehand?" he objected.
Renn actually giggled; "Good, you're okay! We have no time, let's go...!" she helped Duo to stand and turned around to lead the way.
"Wait, my friend-...!"
"-is not hurt! So, let's go!" she urged in a hurry, the stone walls bounced her voice back in echoes.
Duo took a deep breath and pushed his legs to move; the chamber was of rough stairs spiraling down, like the ones in a tower. It appeared to be the inside of the stone pillar, and he realized that the hollow space was made by carving into the stone.
"Who... who made this?" he half-consciously asked out, his mind vaguely pictured some cave trolls carved the stones with only crooked chisels hammering with their bare bulky fists.
Renn looked behind a little; "The Diggers." she said, sounded almost proud. "Come on, don't fall behind. These stairs are made into several paths through different doors, it's like a maze; there are certain mechanisms to open the doors, once a door closed it won't open again until some conditions are met... so, outsiders wouldn't risk it to use these routes to flee the uptown...!" she explained while keeping a sliding wall open.
Well, that would explain why there were some people trying their fates on the suspension bridges instead of some escape routes, they must be newcomers. Duo could hear distant sounds traveling through the stone walls and stairs... it appeared they were not the only ones using that pillar's down-routes.
". . . do people get lost down here?" Duo asked half-troubled.
Renn only chuckled to answer that. Duo frowned; in the back of his mind, a small voice asked him since when did she call him by name, she was still calling him 'Miss' the last time he met her that afternoon.
After passing through some doors and windows, he could hear a billowing sound vibrating the stones. "Are we close to the exit?" he asked, his heart beat nervously in his chest, his mind had played some worst scenarios waiting for them after each next step he took, and behind every opened door he passed; though they had yet to become real. His charms had fallen into cessation right after the first door in the down-routes closed behind him. It seemed the stones of that place were the kinds that obstruct charms' merits, not like he was depending on them to find his safe way, though; he tried to sooth his anxiety with the thought, but probabilities usually played one's preparation in the worst way.
A cold gust of wind hit the visible part of his face suddenly, and a heavy milky fog assaulted his vision. He closed his eyes with a moan as his eyes felt the sharper burns, he wondered if his sight will be impaired after this ordeal. Right after thinking that, the stone door closed abruptly behind him and pushed him out with a jolt; the surprise brought his mind to realize that Renn was nowhere around.
A surge of panic seized his heart, something was not right; and just then he realized that Myrica wouldn't have taken off Heero's shawl and left him on the bed like that, she knew the reason why the shawl was covering Heero's head, and if she wanted to sell the demon she'd just take him while Duo was unconscious. It must have been someone else, someone who'd have seen Heero long enough to be curious about the demon. And that person would be...
A long howl from skyward jerked Duo and he searched for the door again, but as Renn said, once the door was closed strangers wouldn't be able to discern it; Duo che-ed and looked up, trying to see if anything came flying in the fog. The sound of the howl seemed half muted by the heavy fog, as if the white air was thick enough to muffle it, so he hoped that by some miracle it would be thick enough to keep the beasts from charging at them or smelled them. But miracle wasn't on his side tonight; several flapping sounds mocked his hope, they were slow and heavy...somewhat wet, probably from the dense vapor...but wouldn't that meant that the thing had been flying for sometimes in the fog? Considering that it had, it might get hungry to swallow anything moving by now, and the poisonous air might not have enough effect on beasts... and it probably wouldn't be tired enough to be able to be taken down by a single person.
Right then a thought crossed his mind; if only Heero's wire-wings could work on a beast too-
A loud crash jerked him to the here and now; that wasn't from above, his mind alerted him. Some more sounds came from some distance around them... heavy metal scrapings on stones, heavy footsteps, some rock-grinding gurgles that could be laughter or some messed-up language unknown to his ears...
DIGGERS!
His mind drew out the word in Renn's voice. He gritted his teeth in panic as he recalled what kind of creatures might have the ability to hole out such massive stone pillars-...
A cool fabric covered his eyes from behind and Duo froze, he could feel a slender hand through the cloth trembling a little, soft breaths beside his ear.
"...Duo..." the whisper was spoken slowly and carefully, "...DON'T touch the chains on the fences, they could see you through the sounds as if seeing you in broad daylight...!"
Now that he thought about it, the fabric smell was familiar.
The cover was pulled slowly from his eyes, and Duo took a second before opening them and glanced at his side. It was Renn, and she had the spare cloak that he'd put on Heero, alright; she had a serious look in her eyes and put her index finger on her tight lips.
He didn't know what else to do so he nodded slowly once, albeit hesitantly. Renn narrowed her eyes in an almost smile. Her air was not soothing; he knew something was bad...
"I was waiting for a Knight or a Blessed-one to come to my rescue..." she started silently, "...but when one eventually comes, he chose a demon instead...!"
Duo snapped his face to her, seeing a dark glint swirling in her visible eye under the cloak hood.
"But I guess you rescue me anyway..." she smiled cynically.
Swallowing hard once, Duo tried to formulate something in his head but his tongue was numb, and his throat probably cared more about inhalation than exhalation right now.
The girl chuckled a little watching the wild stare in Duo's eyes. "Fufuu...Sorry, it's just a little payback for this..." and she winked.
Her eyes drooped in a real smile this time, seeing Duo's incomprehension. "Well, ...it's just that I'm not the-damsel-in-distress for you, right...?" she pulled back her upper body and stared at Duo in a cute understanding almost-naive way; openly...not the timid-clumsy Renn he met in the inn working as a maid.
There's something about her that looked grand; a discreet prideful bearing. And it's not just because she had a cloak with tinkling crystal beads and flowing feathers fastened on the side of the hood covering her head. Or because she had a nice dress with beautiful embroideries and shawls with pretty tassels swaying in the dark air...
She must be wearing her best outfit, that's why she disappeared just then...to change her clothes, Duo thought. And that she had them in such a situation could only meant a couple of possibilities and-
A dark realization hit Duo; "-Renn...!" But there's only one reason why she would wear the demon's cloak, the one that visibly was on Heero when he brought the demon out of Myrica's wagon, and when he stood frozen in front of the playhouse with the demon on his back. He should have realized it without needing Myrica to word it to him back then...
"Look after her...?" the girl said and Duo's words died in his throat when he realized that she still thought the demon was a female, and the possibility that she might change her mind if she knew the truth... a painful frost seized his heart and he whimpered and dropped his head.
"Okay, that's good enough for me...!" Renn smiled again, gentler; she might have taken Duo's action as something along acquiescence or gratefulness. "Now, go straight that bridge and don't look back!"
She pointed to a suspension bridge hidden by the rocks formation. "You won't have the chance to look back, anyway...!"
Duo stared into the thick fog and could only make the bridge's suspension wires for about a couple of them in the dark. He snapped his head to the girl again, pleadingly; his conscience wanted to tell her the truth, but his darker side of mind reminded him that the Palace Demon would be the grandest prize for some struggling outlaws compared to any demon in that land; and he bit his tongue and fled to the bridge just as the scrapping sounds sounded nearer.
"It's heeere...!" the girl called out through the fog. "THE DEMON IS HEEERE!"
Duo gasped and stopped, but realized that Renn's voice was getting farther away from him; the rattling chains told him that she might be on another suspension bridge, making unnecessary sounds so that whatever creatures the Diggers were would chase her instead of them.
A loud inhuman hoarse howl jerked Duo into motion again; it was followed by another, and more. The sounds of the rattling chains sounded hasty and Duo could only imagine her running fearfully for her life somewhere getting away from them.
He whimpered and closed his eyes, and ran as fast as he could; leaving his conscience behind...and the sounds of a girl's short shriek and the rattling broken chains, a long victorious gurgling howl, and an ear-deafening beastly screech; and before he thought to stop and look back, there was the sudden jerk pulling at the bridge and the lashing motion almost sent him flying as the bridge thrown up by the impossible force.
Duo grunted and held onto the plank of the bridge when it came down, and the distance as it swung in the air told him that the bridge was broken. He mumbled a curse and braced himself for the impact on whatever wall waiting on the opposite side. At least he hoped the length of the remaining bridge didn't reach the bottom of the valley, now that he remembered the view of the pincushion rock structures he saw from Gertt's stone bridge.
A long clear scream in horror reached Duo's ears; either it was Renn falling down from the bridge or she was captured in some beast's talons flying away from there; there were some gurgling howls too but his ears didn't care about them.
"...no!" he widened his eyes, and lost his breath when his body hit a hard jaggy wall. The broken bridge made some clattering sounds when the loose planks hit the stone and fell away. The lax suspension rope started to slip the plank he held onto and Duo reflexively kicked the wall to find some footing to lessen his weight and mustered all his willpower staring wide-eyed at the piece of wood to make it stop slipping.
A small jagged rock provided a footing for his left toes, and Duo froze and held his breath, as if he could be somewhat lighter by doing so. The plank slipped for a couple centimeters down and stopped awkwardly. After several seconds it didn't move, Duo allowed his lungs to work again, his effort came out in short shallow breaths and the half-mask on his face didn't help much to relief his constricted lungs.
There were several other beasts flew above the area, close enough that he could feel the gush of air as they flapped their wings; some commotion followed in the distance behind. Apparently some of those Diggers were still around trying to get away from the beasts' reach, but Duo's concentration was to his right hand holding on to the imbalanced plank and his left hand holding the demon on his back, and his left toes almost giving up.
"...-sh't!" he cursed silently holding back tears, hoping he could grow out a couple more arms from his back to climb up.
His still numb fingers started slipping on the plank, slippery by the nervous sweat; while the plank started slipping from the lax rope again... Heero's body was slipping from his back too.
"Noooo! Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplea sepleasepleassse-!" he begged as the rope loosened and he closed his eyes; his ears heard a sharp swishing sound and felt a sharp sting around his right wrist accompanied with a hiss; and all he could realized was his small footing broke and the sting tightened to an immense pain in loops and the jerk that felt like tearing off his arm from his shoulder, his surprised left arm lost Heero's weight... and he was in the air, and Heero should be in the air too.
He landed on his back with a pained grunt, when he opened his eyes in reflex the sight of Heero's body flying towards him greeted his blurry eyes. Duo caught him as much as he could; the demon was mostly landed on him, though he'd probably complain about some bruises later; but that much of fact was more than enough... he thought he might die when he lost the demon's body back then... he didn't know what happened, the fall to the bottom might have been shorter than he thought...! That, and perhaps some Gods thought he didn't deserve that bad a karma to have landed on some pointy rocks too! He hadn't realized that he was hugging the demon jubilantly in a way that the demon might complain if only he was awake.
"Okay, enough drama, let's get moving!" the stern a little annoyed voice should belong to...
"Myricaa!" Duo squealed reflexively, and the girl stomped on his face reflexively. She squatted down in an instant and grabbed Duo's face before he could complain about it.
"Shush! Do you want to call the beasts to ussss?!" she whispered with a hard tone, a couple of arteries popped on her temples.
Duo blinked wide-eyed for some long seconds, staring at her strong eyes and found his strength back in her unwavering air; ...he was so desperate a few moments ago.
Myrica stood up in front of the still standing anchor posts of the broken bridge and inspected the area, frowning when she heard a flock of flying beasts just passed by above the space. Duo took the time to inspect himself and his surrounding; they were on some walking path carved on the cliff wall, the demon was in one piece albeit still unconscious, and his body started to get all senses back... and that made the graze wounds around his right arm felt more than they normally would.
He couldn't suppress a moan from surfacing.
"Ah, sorry! I was thinking to find something gentle enough to be used in this kind of situation, but still couldn't find one...!" she turned to Duo and bandaged the bleeding wounds.
"...S'alright... I should thank you for saving our lives..." Duo tried and grunted when she tied the bandage too tight. "-H... how do you know we're here...?"
"There are not that many exit routes from the pillar Gerttward, so I speculated the area you'd come out from and had my antlers sniffed you out to find the right bridge." she stood up, "Though that one-beast did the rest...!"
". . . ooh... that beast that broke the bridge...?" Duo embraced Heero's body and tried to stand, and fell half way. Myrica readily caught him from behind, circled her arms around his ribs like carrying a kid, and started to walk up the sloping path.
Duo widened his eyes with a flushed face, "D-... don't you think this is a BIT awkward...?!" he flustered. A group-hug would be better than that arrangement...
"Just make sure you don't drop your-friend again!"
Duo shut his mouth tight at that.
"Or you'd rather I drag you on the ground...?" she said it like she was giving him another option and it lightened his lurching mood.
"This's fine!" he answered fast childishly; and he could feel her smirked in satisfaction without actually seeing it. The walking paths were carved into zigzagging slopes up, and he couldn't belief how far down he'd been travelling in the pillar's exit route; Myrica stopped half way up on the wider path where her antlers were waiting.
"Where's your wagon...?" though he didn't really need to hear the answer.
"Left it in the stable; it's too heavy for a fast ride!" she said coolly letting Duo stood beside one of the antlers. Her baggage had lessened considerably and he felt a concern that she might have left some because of them.
"...I'm sorry... your baggage..." he tried when the older girl fastened the flies of her black cloak she put on him.
"My baggage?" she looked at his eyes, "Oh, that! No, those were some deliveries I took on the way here; I had someone got them here this afternoon, before I took a nap..."
Duo blinked as she put the hood covering his head. "...when the playhouse was closed after your fight and had a fight with the Mama...!" he half grimaced to himself.
"Hahah! Yeah, that time!" she grinned and patted his head good humored-ly; it made Duo guessed about her shady jobs and what kind of package that needed discretion in delivery. So she used them as a cover, too; that lightened his guilt. "Okay...!" she started with a serious stare.
"This girl is Alata, she's faster than Cama over there when it comes to escaping...!" she patted the antler's side behind Duo, leaving a palm mark on the animal's fluffy fur. He glanced at the animal's eye glancing back at him and knew what would happen after this.
"I can't rob you of-" Duo tried and stopped when she put her palm on his face again.
"I never deliver anything halfway, unless the intended person could take it before I reach the meeting place. So I'm sending you with my girl...!" she rubbed Alata's body with a stern look at him. Duo knew she wouldn't take no for answer.
"Up there is Gertt!" she pointed with her chin, "They'd be in high alert from the attacking beasts; they'll shoot anything that moves, including humans! Why do you think Mainstay is outside of the gate...?"
Duo blinked at that piece of info, his sore head already complaining about the things he didn't want to mind anymore than that.
"I'll open a way for you; you just concentrate on getting to the Palace alive, or at least let your-friend get there in one piece! If the war breaks because of this incident, ...this Kingdom won't survive being in its present state!" she said seriously; Duo swallowed and nodded. "There'll be beasts chasing you, too; so you have to-"
"I know!" Duo frowned.
Myrica nodded once, satisfied at seeing Duo's determination, and helped him got Heero sitting in front of him on the antler's back; he wouldn't risk losing the demon the second time or getting him hurt behind him. "My antlers are experienced in hunt-fields, so they could defend themselves to some extent; although I told Alata to focus on sending you to the Palace... oh, and don't touch her horns!"
"I'll see you in King's City!" she said fast and jumped onto Cama's back, putting the crossing stylized pickaxes from her back to the holsters at either sides of the saddle in one swift move; the milky crystals on the heads shimmered dimly. It caught his attention and got him wondering what kind of tool she'd used to pull him and the demon from the broken bridge down there, she didn't seem to have anything resembled a rope or long things with her.
The gates of Gertt were tall and daunting; they were made to fend off anything that might come crossing the stone bridge, the thick metal was said even thick enough to hide an adult's dead body in it. There were even spooky urban legends about how the gates were made. Duo looked up tracing their exterior with his stinging eyes, the bolts were even bigger than his fist and some of them had rusted and bled out the metal-blood down the dark surface. The sight was kind of creepy in its own value, Duo was hoping to find a warning carved on the barbican's wall somewhere saying something along the line 'enter and die'.
"Something's wrong..." Myrica whispered in alert; Duo stared at her back. "The gates are open!"
And there was no light or fire on the gate's fortress, the night was blind and the fog was enveloping everything. "...no one's supposed to be here?" Duo asked tentatively, tightened his hold around Heero's body on his front, he was scared and in a way he was hugging himself.
"The city is built into the ground, so people are underground. The gates guards should be operating their weapons from there...!" Myrica pointed to the black holes in the curtain wall and turrets, "The parapets were occupied when there are no attacking beasts, but in this case..." she paused and glanced back at the night sky that wasn't visible for now.
"...the fog is kind of unusual, too; it had never been this dense for over 10 years... if not, I'd warned you about the night air!" she didn't sound defensive so Duo didn't think that she was covering up her negligence. "The beast that ripped off the bridge was unknown to this area, too!" Myrica leaned down to Duo's ear and he could see something lit up in her eyes. "What did you hear before the bridge broke?"
Duo blinked and didn't question about the need to rush their way; "...loud... flapping sound..." he started, "I thought it sounded wet somehow...!"
Myrica nodded. "That beast is called Dragontwig, the wings flapping sounded wet because its wings are membranes, almost like thick human skin; it's a type of flying Sauria...!"
Duo widened his eyes at her, didn't really know what to think with his delirious headache.
"Dragontwigs aren't dragons, but closest to resemble them. And they're cunning, like wolves; they won't attack human's dwellings knowing there'll be retaliation later. They hunt smaller beasts in their territory; and they're too prideful to be tamed...!" Myrica frowned. "I know a lot about them because they're native to my people's land. It's not supposed to come here, much less hunting here!"
Duo's mind pushed the memories of what he witnessed in the past days forward; about the fact that there's a Maggart he'd yet to see but definitely around, about the fact that there were a flock of Shadow-fishes in the human area he'd never thought he'd see with his own eyes... and that him being with the Palace Demon he'd never met before and being hunted together was a too convenient thing to be called a coincidence. But he kept silent...
Myrica steered Cama to enter the gap of the opened gates, it only allowed access for two adults to pass through. Duo kept feeling that this whole thing was a trap, but he had no choice than to follow Myrica anyway. The court of the barbican had stone floors, the walls were blotchy black colored, and there were ditches at either sides of the road with something resembled chimneys with hoods at some intervals alongside the channels.
"Duo, stay in the middle of the road...!" Myrica said flatly; she had one of the pickax in her left hand and several colorful glass marbles in her right. She carefully held out her right hand and with the pointy part of the pickax head, broke the red one. There were blazes burst up as the glass split, burning the flat part of the head up and lengthening it with scythe of flames. Its light also revealed that the clearing was besieged by beasts of varied sizes, waiting for any living thing coming through the gates. That's why the guards left their posts and fled underground...!
"Just gooo!" Myrica threw more glass marbles and with a swift strike broke them in the air; the mix color created an explosion of bright light and surprised the beasts before they could charge towards them, and Alata took off with a giant leap between the beasts' bodies and legs and wings and tails in an unbelievable speed.
Duo didn't have enough time to yell out his surprise, it happened so fast and he could only duck forward hugging the demon's body and hoped they wouldn't fall off. Myrica definitely had forgotten to inform him how fast an antler could go when it's not pulling some carts; he's going to complain to her later, he thought.
Some flying beasts waiting alongside the road came charging at them and the antler used them as footings to leap. Duo squealed while holding on to the front side of the saddle; forget trying to counterstrike the incoming attack, he only had hands to hold on for dear life. He knew they couldn't dodge forever, sooner or later they'll have to defend; and as he finished thinking that, a flailing beast tail managed a whack to his head. The thing was like a lizard's tail, thick and had erectable scales on its back line. The force wasn't that strong but it made Duo's already aching head felt like splitting; he gritted his teeth, knowing he'd bitten his tongue, but the pain didn't even registered in his throbbing brain. His hands gone numb again and with a sinking feeling he knew he was tumbling off the antler's back taking the demon along with him.
A shrill like a blowing whistle deafened his ears, and then a bright light assaulted his blurry eyes; he barely aware that his ride made a few bumps in the air, and suddenly he was slumped to his front hugging the antler's long neck, like having a threesome hug with the demon in the middle. The shrill sounded again, and this time he witnessed it was the antler howling up to the sky and changed its horns to accommodate it fending off the charging beasts; with dumbfounded look he stared as the antler, which he thought as a herbivore before, bit a beast in the neck with its pointy teeth and threw it to some other beasts, ripping the beast's neck open while at the same time slashing a flying beast in three with its shining horns.
Some blood splattered on Duo's face, but he saw that the one sliced into three parts wasn't bleeding, it was sizzling; and he realized that the light from the horns was energy, even more powerful than flames. And that Alata was compromising her movement so that her charges wouldn't fall off of her back, knowing Duo was never mounted her kind before. Duo's face flushed when he realized it; he'd even being taken care by an animal...! He felt ashamed and trying to free one hand so he could fend off some too, but the speed and bumps didn't let him to even think it again; a lamina of light covered his sides from the front as the horns changed shape again. The light seared anything that touched it from the outside; and it took several moments for Duo to fathom that Alata reacted to his thoughts.
She shrilled again, not slowing down at all; and Duo swore she was trying to speak to him, like encouraging him or scolding him for doing things halfheartedly. He smirked after finding out how they should work together; he patted the antler's neck softly and whispered, "I'll be counting on you, then, Alata...!"; and then focused his mind with new vigor.
Normally they'll reach King's City tomorrow evening or night; but with their speed, he roughly counted they should be there by morning with the attacking beasts taken into consideration. He just hoped the antler could hold up that long.
Some tentative knocks heard on the wooden door; when the sounds weren't audible enough, they sounded bolder.
Odin opened the door of his chamber, it was around 4 in the morning, yet he already had his uniform on.
"It... it's Vim, sir...!" the boy bowed, reporting himself although he didn't need to for the Commander could clearly see who it was; he was waiting for the boy anyway.
"I found this book, sir." Vim presented the book with both hands; keeping his face downward, feeling unnerved by the frown on Odin's face.
"What do you want in return?" Odin asked flatly.
"Sir...?" Vim was surprised and glanced up at Odin's face but instantly looked down again. "I wasn't doing it for..." his shaky words trailed off, of-course the man knew he'd do it for something in return.
"Look at me, boy!" Odin's voice hardened, it wasn't a bark but the boy jumped a little before complying. "You do know what you want, don't you?" Odin asked again slower.
When noticing that the man wasn't reprimanding him, the large blue eyes staring back at Odin's eyes looked bolder and shone brighter with confidence, so he was being -probably- recognized to some extent.
"My name is Vim, sir." he said with certainty this time. Odin smirked.
"So, Vim... What do you want in return?"
The boy blinked and his mind fled elsewhere for a short moment, when his eyes focused again he stared at Odin's eyes with brightness such a child should have. "I want the library, sir."
"The library?" Odin arched a brow.
"Umm... I mean, I want to have access to the Palace Library, sir...!" the boy flushed a little realizing the words he'd spoken before.
"Here's my pass. You want anything else?" Odin nonchalantly took a coin from a chain of random small things he had hanging from his waist band like a piece of accessory, and took the book from the boy's hands while handing the coin to him.
Vim stared at the black old coin in his hand, realizing that the Commander had a pass, after all; so why...?
"Going into the library will ruin my image, you know?" Odin smirked mockingly when the boy stared at him with incomprehension.
Vim sweat-dropped a little, at lost for words. "Ahh... I guess, if you need any more books, you can call me again, sir...?"
"I will." Odin agreed unashamedly, and added a couple of gold coins on the black coin. "Here, go buy some decent clothes!" he said closing the door.
"You don't want to wear dirty underwear when you got caught in an accident...!" Odin added through the closed door, and the boy could hear him chuckled as if finding something funny.
Vim stood unmoving in front of the door for some time, the three coins felt heavy on his opened palm; somehow he felt like he'd been played like a stringed doll, but his little mind said that he should be grateful that he now had a string attaching him to someone big in the Castle, wasn't that what he was aiming for from the beginning? Plus he got to see a glimpse of what the living mechanism the Palace had, he thought as he recalled the cat-girl again...
So the Palace still had magic-users inside it...! He left with a satisfactory smile on his face.
The night worth it, after all.
Odin stared at the black book he gripped in his right hand, it was heavy and light in the same time, like the weight tried to escape his grip again and again; and his eyes subconsciously strayed to the exposed wrist. He still felt the numbness, most likely Heero was unconscious out there; but for that sensation being there in the first place meant that he still had the connection. He pushed down the urgency for the time being
. . . if Treize didn't make a fuss about Heero missing, then he should belief that the demon was on his way to come back to his side...one way or another. He was a demon who submitted himself to be a whole country's single potential-adversary, anyway; if he thought he could stand up against this kingdom by himself, then he could stand up against anything in this land too.
Right?
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(1) since Rianka is a male-cat Familiar looking like a girl, saru will use italic for typing the 3rd-person subject for the-cat; 'hope it's not too confusing... -sweats-
saru's note:
if you see the date at the head of this chapter you'll notice it's read August; indeed it started on that date since saru thought to steal some time to type while in eating-time (again), and got kualat (again), by mid August saru got typhus (again); by early September dad was submitted to a hospital, and in short saru (and partner-in-crime) is LATE on the deadline... fortunately, the client of the game-development company are late on their schedule too; so we're not in tight lynch by now, though we're still facing our deadline... although the date became undetermined now...(?)
so saru thought to at least try finishing a chapter to make up for three months absent (though honestly, it's mostly due to the compulsion of three months worth of stress; need to get it out since saru had formulated a new fic in head just because there's no outflow, everything just flowing in and mind-scales need a balancing weight); ah, but we're relatively in positive mood lately -grin-