Angel vs. Demon

Chapter 14 – Survival Test Part II (Battered & Bruised)

I headed off into the thickest part of the forest, determined to make the best of my time. Of course, I didn't forget about picking berries or fruits… I would get them as soon as –

Hold on a second. I froze, a look of disbelief (mingled with amusement) on my face. I had no idea what fruits to pick! Ms. Nekonome had warned us of the poisonous fruits and plants out here… and she even mentioned something about carnivorous apples! How the hell was I supposed to pick fruits, then…?

I laughed at myself for not even bothering to ask the others. Sure, I'd paid attention to my classes at school… but I'd only been at Yokai Academy for a few months, and my class barely got to the poisonous vegetation chapter! They didn't teach us anything like this in the human world. It was all still foreign to me.

I sighed, ashamed of myself. How was I supposed to explain this to them, now? I couldn't just come back empty-handed…

Taking a deep breath, I decided to depend on my natural instincts and common sense. Looking around me, I crouched low to the ground and crept near bushes and fruit trees, keeping an eye out for animals. It didn't matter whether the animals were dangerous or mutated… They all had a little something I didn't.

Minutes passed, and my patience was rewarded. I smiled as I saw a weird-looking bird peck at a fruit on the tree above me. Its beak looked sharp enough to cut through steel; the bird kept denting and puncturing the fruit with its beak. I flinched slightly, careful not to attract attention to myself. I wouldn't want to be eaten by a bird… God, that just sounded unnatural.

To my surprise, the fruit-bearing tree I was under turned out to be one that grew the man-eating apples. I found out about this when the fruit (that looked extremely like an apple) twisted around on its branch and started attacking the bird.

I gaped. Was this supposed to be normal?

The bird and the apple fought, as neither willingly gave up. The bird jumped in and out, testing the apple's defenses and occasionally pecking at it. The apple seemed to be firmly attached to its stem, and that gave it a disadvantage, but it looked vicious nonetheless. It fought back with vigor, the skin opening up to reveal rows of jagged, sharp teeth.

I looked on, entranced. This was completely insane. Ms. Nekonome did mention carnivorous fruits… but I didn't think it was actually alive. Venus fly traps were one thing; this was another.

My thoughts were cut short when the fruit opened its mouth wide – just as the bird came into biting-range – and caught it by the wings. The bird squawked (an ugly sound that made crows sound like beautiful opera singers) and flapped its wings, struggling to escape. It was no use; the fruit won in the end. It quickly gobbled the bird up, making a sickening crunching noise as it chewed up the remains.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, the apple let out a loud belch and spit out the bird's iron beak.

I forced my wide eyes shut as I breathed in and out, struggling to deal with what I saw. Since when did prey eat predators? This was so twisted…

Keeping quiet, I crawled away from the tree, careful not to alert the apple of my existence. I knew it sounded weird, trying to escape from a fruit… but I liked my apples inanimate and edible, thank you very much. Not the other way around.

I guess my plan didn't work out. I frowned at myself. It wasn't a bad plan… all I had to do was watch animals eat fruits and see how it affected them (thus knowing whether the fruit or plant was poisonous or not), but I guess it didn't work in this scenario. It probably couldn't work. Not when vegetation came to life and started attacking living creatures.

I shuddered. There had to be another way, though… Getting up, I patted down my skirt and started to wander around. I guess I would have to see if anything led me anywhere… very vague, I knew.

I picked my way over ancient tree roots and ducked under low branches. I saw a couple of colorful mushrooms and plants, but I knew better than to pick them. They did look very appetizing, though… especially the mushrooms. They looked so juicy…

I snapped myself out of those thoughts. My hunger was getting to me. A little over thirty minutes must have passed, and I still hadn't found anything edible yet. I was prepared to hang my head in shame and admit defeat when I saw something bright red flash across my vision, appearing just behind the trees a few feet away from me.

My breath caught in my throat, and I dared not breathe as I cautiously approached whatever was behind there. The red thing didn't move; it seemed to wait for me to catch up to it. I flinched as leaves crunched under my shoes, but the creature didn't seem to mind at all. That was so weird… It was almost like the red thing wanted me to approach it. I quickly brushed that thought out of my mind, labeling it as absurd, but the ominous feeling in my gut wouldn't go away.

Don't go near it! a voice cried in my head. It's dangerous!

I was so surprised my step actually faltered a bit. I usually had a very strong conscience, but this was ridiculous! Since when had I started to hear voices in my head?

No, another part of me objected, you can't let this opportunity escape! This is such a rare chance…! Don't you want to find out what's behind the tree?

I had to agree with the second voice, this time. I was usually so rigid and strict on the health and happiness of others (my friends, family, etc.), but I wasn't really concerned with my own welfare. This was a flaw, I knew, but my curiosity always overruled my sense of safety. And the ironic thing was, I didn't think I've regretted any one of my actions so far.

Yes, you're right, the voice – now sounding smug – agreed. Good choice, Ame, good choice…

I was now right in front of the big tree. I had to lean around it in order to see the thing, as it wasn't moving anymore, but I hesitated. I couldn't help it; I was a little scared. But would else could I do? I couldn't find safe fruits and plants for others to eat… I was a failure in this area. The least I could do was try to find out more about my surroundings.

Sucking in a lungful of fresh forest air, I slowly poked my head around the tree. I came face-to-face with the most brilliant creature I'd ever seen in my life.

It was a blood-red deer! Not like the brownish-red ones that lived in the human world… This one literally glowed of flames. It illuminated from the inside, making its fur appear radiant. Black spots dotted its back, and blank, misty eyes met my gaze.

I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I admit its eyes kind of creeped me out a little, because they seemed to stare at nothing, but that didn't matter. This creature was beautiful! Truly one of a kind. It looked so breathtakingly stunning, yet deadly and lethal at the same time.

All of a sudden, the deer's nose twitched. It turned away from me, soundlessly heading past a wall of bushes. I didn't hesitate to follow. I closed my eyes, batting aside the braches that scraped my face and knees.

The deer led me to a little pond. The water was extremely still, and when I approached it, it seemed like I was looking at my reflection in a huge, silver mirror.

I looked back at the deer and frowned slightly. It glided gently around the shores of the pond, raising its head up and down, looking like it was giving a signal of some kind. It was behaving so strangely! Looking down at it, I suddenly realized that its hooves didn't even touch the ground.

My eyes widened, and all too late I realized I'd been tricked.

A series of high-pitched giggles came from everywhere around me. I looked up to see tiny little creatures coming out of trees, looked down to see the very same tiny creatures climbing out from holes, and looked around to see even more of the tiny creatures surfacing from the water of the pond, creating miniature ripples across the surface.

"Ah, what a catch!" one said, coming up to me and pinching my toe, "A human girl!"

I simply stared down at it, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. This was a tiny creature, yes, but it was more than that… Insect-like wings grew out of its back, and its ears were big and pointy.

This was no "tiny creature"; this was a pixie!

One of them flew up behind me and sat on my shoulder. I was too surprised to swat it away; it felt so light, I hardly noticed it was there.

"I'm glad at least one of the Big Ones was stupid enough to fall into our hands," it giggled, covering its mouth with dainty little hands.

Ignoring the comments, I looked up to search for the deer, but it had all but disappeared. A hint of desperation grew in me as I'd realized that my last hope was gone; this really was a trick. And the pixie was right; I was stupid enough to fall for it. Well, not exactly. I knew the consequences; I was more curious than stupid. As they said, curiosity killed the cat. I supposed that was true.

"Where'd the deer go?" I asked, backing away slowly. I had to make sure I was only facing the pixies here; every little enemy counted. "Where'd you send it off to?"

"Deer?" a tiny voice sounded at my ear. I flinched back. "What deer? There are no deer…"

A tinkling laugh sounded at my other ear. "I think she's hallucinating! She's gone crazy, and we've yet to torture her!"

I frowned, confused. I wasn't really paying attention to the pixies, but I was concerned about my sanity. Was I really seeing things? I doubted my imagination could come up with something as beautiful as that blood-red deer…

A pixie suddenly started pulling at my earlobes. "Oh, this one's all fleshy. I like it!"

More and more pixies approached me, flying around me, poking and pinching me. One or two of them doing so didn't hurt as much… but when you had a whole army of tiny, vicious little pixies attacking you? It felt worse than beestings. They were exactly like a hive of bees!

I didn't hold back anymore. I shook my head and my limbs, trying to shake off as many of them as possible. They simply growled and clung on tighter!

"Stop it!" I cried, trying to run back. "Let me go!"

"We can't!" they chorused. "You'll have to stay for dinner…"

"Huh?"

"… or be dinner~"

I never knew pixies ate humans. This wasn't the time to analyze information, though… I struggled to take a step forward, with possibly hundreds of those annoying little pests clinging onto me. They dragged me back, slinging vines and ropes around me.

All this probably made me sound very weak (shouldn't I - a human so much bigger than them - be able to escape?), but these pixies were vicious. They bit me and clawed at me, ramming into me with needles and such. I cried out in pain many times, and they seemed to enjoy that. They seemed to like torturing me.

Tears pricked at my eyes as I started to feel frustrated. In times like these, one would probably dive into the water or something (just like one would do to avoid bees), but it was no use. There were water pixies, too. Those were the ones I'd seen crawling out of the pond before. Just my luck!

So many plans formed in my brain, but they were all ruled out one by one as the pixies attacked me.

I could drop to the ground and roll, possibly killing off a few of the pixies that clung onto me. That would be extremely dangerous, though… The weapons they held would most likely embed themselves into my flesh like bee stingers, and lying down on the ground would give them a better advantage of overwhelming me.

Swatting them off wasn't an option either. They were just like bees; you swat at them, they sting you and they bring more of their kind to sting you. Wave after wave of pixies would come at me. There was just no ending it. And, just to make things worse, they started chanting and singing while they tormented me, in their high, squeaky voices.

"I'm going to have you for dinner!"

"Ah, so fleshy and fresh-y and yummy!"

"There's no escaping from us!"

"We'll chase you everywhere…!"

"Everywhere…"

I'd had enough. The pain overwhelmed me, and I let out a growl of frustration. I shrieked, in an inhuman voice, and the anger inside me seemed to explode. It grew until it consumed me; I wanted to protect myself, but at the same time destroy these pests.

A glow expanded outwards, coming from within me. The pixies shrieked and squealed, and I felt their grips loosen on me. The back of my uniform expanded as well, as a pair of black-and-white wings shot out from my shoulder blades.

I blinked in shock. I had just transformed!

The pixies I had just stunned were coming back to consciousness and attacking me again, so I had no time to register what I had just done. Instead, I boosted myself off of the ground and took flight for the first time.

I flew.

It felt incredible! All the pain and frustration seemed to wash away as the cold air whizzed past my body, cleansing it and making me feel fresh and new once again.

"Hey!"

"Stop right there!"

"No one gets away from us!"

I looked back in shock to find that the pixies were in the air as well, and rapidly gaining on me. I was so stupid; how could I forget that they could catch me like this? This was their territory, for goodness' sake!

Well, I sighed, there were no other means of escape, so I really had no choice.

I circled the air a few times, testing out my wings and improvising by flapping my arms and leaning from side to side. I probably looked extremely silly, but I didn't care. The pixies were getting tired, because I had an advantage. I was bigger than them, so I had a naturally bigger wingspan. One flap of my wings – which could cover a large distance – probably amounted to tens of their flaps. Their wings had to work overtime and buzz like a hummingbird's to catch up to my speed!

Soaring upwards, I looked back to make sure the pixies were following me. Once I was positive they were, I immediately tucked my wings in and dropped from the sky, rocketing downwards like a comet. The pixies had no time to react before I was gone. We were beneath a sea of trees and greenery; they couldn't have been sure which specific area I had dropped to.

What I didn't consider was how I was going to land. All I had thought about was escaping those pixies; only now did I realize I was going to crash through the treetops and end my life by doing a graceful face-plant into the dirt.

I didn't scream as I went down, thankfully, or else the pixies would have heard me and followed my voice. Instead, I squeezed my eyes and clamped my jaw shut, arms raised to protect my face. If I really did die like this, at least others could recognize me… I didn't want myself to get so beaten up and scratched that they couldn't identify who the body was.

Tree branches took turns taking swings at my face as I plummeted down through the treetops; some were large enough to knock the wind out of me. They hit me in impossible areas, scratching my skin and bruising me. My wings were tucked in, of course, but they did little to protect me from the wooden assaults I received. In fact, I'd rather my wings disappeared; they were getting battered, too, and they were a part of me. I felt every feather that was ripped out from my wings, and every little bone that crunched in them.

This was such a painful death.

All of a sudden, just when I thought this torture wouldn't end, I dropped from a branch and smacked into a solid, hard wall of…

"Ow… Ame?"

I opened one eye cautiously, and realized I was lying on top of a body. A "human" body… made out of flesh and bones, and not tiny little ones like those that belonged to the pixies.

I almost cried in relief. My vision clouded with tears, and this time it wasn't because of frustration.

"Ame?" the voice said, sounding concerned. "Ame, get up…"

"Huh?" I blinked my tears away, to better see who the body belonged to.

"Get up… You're suffocating me."

I staggered up on my feet, stumbling around. My wings didn't help improve my balance, either… they were kind of lopsided. Every part of my body ached, even my feet. I doubted I could stay on them for long.

"Nice wings," the voice said, sounding amused. I knew this voice…

"Kiseki?" I looked up, squinting. My eyes seemed to be swollen; they were puffy enough that I couldn't see through them properly.

"Wow, you look like a mess." Kiseki shook his head, looking at me.

Despite the fact that Kiseki was right, I still managed to smile wryly. "Why is it that you're always here when I'm in trouble?"

Kiseki hesitated a bit before answering. Was it me, or was that a look of regret that flashed across his face?

"It seems like I wasn't early enough this time," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"

I flinched in pain and twisted away from his touch. "I'm… fine. I'm just worried about the others. I didn't even manage to collect one fruit or berry…"

Kiseki looked at me incredulously. "You look like you've been beaten up and stung by bees, and you're worried about us?"

"Well… isn't my job to collect food?" I frowned in confusion, but immediately stopped when it hurt my face.

Kiseki shook his head. "You're… incredible."

I perked up at that. "Really?" Kiseki had never complimented me before.

"Yeah, incredible… incredibly stupid."

I huffed. I knew it… that day would never come.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up. You can't go back to the others looking like that, can you? They'll think I beat you up or something."

I smiled teasingly. "Then that's perfect! Let's go back while my wounds are still fresh!"

Kiseki snorted, then steered me towards a river. It was the one near our rendezvous spot, so it was the most convenient. I sure as hell didn't want to go back to the pond again.

Just as I took a step in that direction, though, I stepped on something soft and gooey. It splattered all over the bottom of my shoes.

"Ew, what's…" I trailed off as I saw what I had stepped on. They were berries and fruits, a whole truck load of them! And they were all scattered on the ground.

"Kiseki, what's this?"

"These are the fruits and berries I collected, of course." Kiseki looked at me like I was dense.

"I know what it is," I replied impatiently, "but what are they doing on the ground?"

"Well, where else are they supposed to go when you come falling out of a tree and crash into me?"

I gulped. "I did this?"

"You didn't do it directly, but yeah. You did it."

Could Kiseki be any more blunt?

My stomach dropped, though. Now I really did feel ashamed. Not only did I not bring anything back to the others, I made Kiseki lose what he collected as well. All the frustration and pain from before came flooding back to me, and I truly felt worthless.

"What are you doing, Ame?" Kiseki took a step closer to me as I crouched down on the ground, on all fours, scrambling to pick up as many good fruits as I could.

"I can't let it all go to waste," I sniffled, wiping my sleeve across my nose. It stung, but I couldn't care less. "I can't believe I did this, Kiseki… I'm sorry."

I probably wasn't coherent just then; I started mumbling, and my vision came in and out of focus.

"I'm sorry…" I mumbled. "I didn't get anything… I knocked over your precious collection of food… We're all going to starve now… It's all because of me… I… I…"

Kiseki bent down and took me by my shoulders, shaking me with such force that my teeth rattled.

"Ame! Are you okay? Are you even sane? Do you know what you're saying?"

"Sure I do…!" I drawled, my head nodding against my chest. "I'm…"

Kiseki paused for a heartbeat, then bend down and licked one of my wounds. Before I could even process how gross that was, he spat and I head him say: "Damn it, pixie poison! Ame, just what did you get yourself into…?"

I cradled the few pieces of fruit I saved, and smiled groggily up at him. Although I'd never gotten very drunk before, I was pretty sure this was what it felt like.

"Kiseki… You're like my knight in shining armor." I grinned like an idiot, imagining him in a suit of tinfoil holding a plastic sword. "I'd marry Garron, then hire you as my bodyguard…!"

I was pretty sure I'd said some other embarrassing, unrepeatable things back then, but I could hardly remember. All I could recalled was Kiseki's humorless laughter, then the warmth of his chest as he picked me up and carried me back to the campsite.

Author's Note:

Hi you guys!

I hope you all enjoyed seeing Ame "drunk", haha x) I don't know much about pixies (all I know is that they're small, have wings, and are cute but sometimes vicious, etc.), so I decided to make up the part about the poison. Who knows? It could be true ;) Well, they have to have some venom/secret weapon to protect themselves against bigger predators, right? If all they had were toothpicks and the wings on their backs… well, that wouldn't be much fun, would it now? xP

Hehehe. And on a side note, I liked how Kiseki saved Ame in this chapter! x3 He always seems to be there when she's in trouble, doesn't he? I thought that was so sweet~

Alright, I won't keep you waiting any longer. You may move on to the next chapter now! xD

― ACookieZ