To Shisui of the Body Flicker- I love that. Like I'm an author unrecognised until I start being mean :3
To 8Ball3- FUCK YEAH! *evil laugh*
To An-Unnamed-Goose- What are you talking about, cliffhangers are the best! And nope, Storm is a very solid pegasus. I think Lou would try fighting something like Tempest more than adopting it XD
"I spy with my little eye… something beginning with C."
"Cloud."
"Pfft, what? No." Raijin turned his nose up, folding his arms across his chest with an indignant huff. Louisa hummed dubiously and he pouted. "Fine, it's a cloud. Your turn."
"R."
"You have to say 'I spy!'
"I spy R."
"You're terrible at this."
"Ta." She grinned. Raijin stuck his tongue out. "R." She insisted. With a flourish, he flung his hands up, making a frame around his face with his fingers and thumbs.
"Raijin!" He declared.
"No."
"What? Why? I'm a good R!"
"R."
"Rain. Robot. Rust. Rabbit. Rude." Louisa shook her head for every suggestion, tipping her head towards a quietly whickering Storm. She didn't elaborate on what the pegasus said, only smirking. Raijin tapped a finger on his chin, gaze travelling over their surroundings. Louisa sat picking grass from Storm's fur, brushing her coat down with her hand.
Raijin squeaked. "Steam." He croaked.
"That don't begin with an R." Louisa puzzled, looking up. He had gone pale, now standing. He pointed a trembling finger at something behind her. Storm snorted with alarm, bounding to her feet and towards the boy. "Huh." Louisa said, pushing herself up. The steam seemed to leak from beneath the undergrowth, crawling and rolling over the ground towards their campsite. It was a weird combination of blue and green in colour; the most concerning thing was whatever it touched, crumpled and yellowed. Dead. "Run." Louisa advised.
They hardly made it three steps. The steam did not like them trying to escape. It reared. Louisa grabbed Raijin's hand, rushing him on. Steam cocooned around their ankles; Raijin cried out, furious red burns already blistering on his skin. He fell, grasping for Louisa desperately. She fell with him, twisting to catch him before he smacked his head on the floor. Her shoulder cracked on the ground and that was the last she remembered before the steam enveloped them.
Her dreams were foggy, blurred by the blues and greens of whatever had overpowered them. She could hear a high-pitched ringing, somewhere in the distance. The world swirled between the forests she was used to and a city, skyscrapers warbling and blending with and around the clouds of a storm converging around one particularly giant building. Careening her head back, squinting as the ringing melted into a low hum, she saw yet more buildings atop the storm cloud, but nothing like the city's. Whites and golds, glowing with a radiance that seared her eyes and burrowed into her mind.
She had never seen that place before. The city looked familiar, but the white and gold expanse over the city? It didn't make any sense, but something about it niggled at her, something important.
Wake up.
The storm clouds rumbled. Rain began to fall. The wind whistled, blustering the images of the skyscrapers until they faded away completely, mixing into the rain.
Lou, you have to wake up.
"Arnie?" She said. Her lips moved, but she did not hear her own voice. "Arnie? Where are you?"
Wake up!
"But-"
WAKE UP!
Louisa awoke with a start, immediately noticing a pressure on her chest. She wheezed, head spinning, vision blurring momentarily with lapses of shadows. Her arms would not move, shoulders jolting and cricking with bolts of pain. She blinked, jolting again. The back of her head bumped something solid, something metal.
She was sitting on a stone floor, encased in chains from her neck to her waist, pulled taut and crushed to her ribs. Her spine was set straight against her will, ramrod against a thick metal pole. She could move her head, a little this way and a little that way. Her feet were bound at the ankles with the same type of chain, looped through a rung embedded in the floor, heels bruising on the floor.
"Ah, there she is." A light came on somewhere. Flames. They crackled to life on torches bolted to the walls. From what she could tell, she was in a cave. Damp rocky walls glistening under the firelight, shadows pushed back to hover around the glow of the torches. She blinked, lifting her head just that little bit more, feeling the cool of the metal pole on her scalp.
Mr. Greaves smiled at her. He stood before her, leaning over with his hands on his knees to inspect her. He wore the same tailored suit, the same airs and graces. Back at the home, simply looking at him had sent alarms scurrying around her mind. He was not safe. He had to go.
But now he was here. And those alarms were sirens- incessant, unforgiving sirens.
His smile became a little wider and he tilted his head. "You do remember me. Oh, this makes things more interesting. How have you been, Louisa? Good? I hope your father's blood favours you." He made a funny little motion with his face, like an apologetic twitch, a quick scrunch to his nose, a squint to his eyes and a dim to his grin. Then it was gone, back to smiling. "I hear it doesn't much favour your friends though. What was that boy's name? Arnold? Arthur?" Louisa stared at him. Every muscle in her body felt like iron, fighting to quell the tremble breaking out. Someone had taken her lungs. Her eyes burned. Heart like a jackhammer in her chest. Her throat dry, closing up.
Mr. Greaves crouched, resting an elbow on his knee. He curled one hand, planting his chin on his knuckles contemplatively. "Now, now, Louisa. Where are your manners?" Her breathing hitched and she blinked. A single tear splashed onto her cheek. "Mmph." He laughed. He leaned forward, stretching out his forefinger. Louisa flinched, smacking her head on the pole. Could not get away.
He caught the tear on his fingertip, his skin just touching hers. Pain exploded through her cheek, flooding her mouth with a thick coppery taste, white flashes blinding her left eye. She screamed, could hear her heart thumping in her ears.
Then it stopped. Mr. Greaves had moved away, now standing, but still watching her. Louisa coughed, blood spilling onto her chin. Her head buzzed with the ferocity of a hornets' nest, she saw only swirls of blues and purples. Blinking was like bringing down a hammer on her eyelids.
"Leave her alone!"
"Oh, so you do talk?" Mr. Greaves looked away. Louisa squinted, moving stiffly.
"Yes, I do!" Raijin confirmed defiantly, though his voice cracked with terror. "You leave her alone or-"
"Or what? You'll summon one of your little rainclouds again? I must say, you did shine my shoes rather nicely."
"Let us go!" That was Ruby, a bit more fight in her tone. "We didn't do anything to you, let us go!"
"Ah, that is where you're wrong, fair child. Do you know who I am?"
"Some prat in a suit that really doesn't work for him?" Ruby countered. There was a snap of fingers, Ruby screamed. Louisa grit her teeth, blinking hard. Her vision was coming back in dribs and drabs.
"You chose to be friends with this abomination." She saw Mr. Greaves pointing at her, still facing her friends. "Therefore, you are in my way. I do not take lightly to obstacles."
Louisa tipped her head back as far as she could, spitting out a gobbet of blood. It took her a few seconds to decipher what was going on, her mind so addled and dunked in groggy agony. The simple movement did nothing to help her ribs.
She saw them- Huxley, Ruby and Raijin- suspended in cages. Maybe fifty, sixty feet off the uneven ground. Below each one, a vast bronze tub, a vat, glimmering in the firelight. A twist in her gut and, somehow, she knew there was water in them. A distant, echoing part of her thought, water is good. I can use water. A more present, solid voice told her there was no way. The vats were too far, almost as far away as the trio were up high. And she couldn't move. What good would the water be to her from here?
"Let. Us. Go." Huxley demanded, shaking the bars on his cage, making it swing.
"Well, now. That all depends on your little friend over there." Mr. Greaves came back to her, smiling that smile of his. "I have great plans for you, Louisa. Plans that can mould your future into something far superior to whatever you will gain under the gods. But you must revoke these children. They are a costly distraction." Louisa narrowed her eyes at him. He simply inclined his head, as if hearing a question she hadn't asked.
He crouched and flickered. His form swelled, growing. His suit changed into armour, laden with jewels and twisted with a pattern she could not figure out. His clean cropped hair and shaven face became a wild mess of green hair and a beard to match. He lifted his head, grinning, thirty feet tall, easily, still crouched in front of her on reptilian legs. "Give up this path." He urged, voice far deeper than anything she had ever heard, booming. "Give up your 'friends'." He supplied air-quotes. "Give up this fickle life and let me train you." He bowed his head when she did not respond immediately, staring her down. "You don't want to lose any more friends now, do you?"
Ooooooh, I wonder who that is... :3
