Me: Digi...I mean, CCS does not belong to me.
Vash: Can't even keep track.
Me: I'm sorry, this is my 39th disclaimer.
Vash: Yadayadaya
Me: Shup up, you made this thing short, you and your...
Vash: Don't say it
Yuki: Okay, well, since you pestered me about posting, read!
The Dwarf's Castle
"Wow, nice to be back into my own clean clothes." Kanari said, struggling to pull her sweater over her head.
"Yeah." I zipped up my jacket. "And clean too. It can get pretty cold down here."
"Is it very late?" Rene asked. "The lights are dimming." And so they were. Three heads popped out of the window of the room to take their last peek at Dwarf's Land.
"I'm going to miss this place." I said. "Even though I don't know this place very well."
"I want a rose." Cherry chirped up from the bed, meaning the mayor's wife's rose garden, which we had seen earlier.
"So do I." I said. "And you promised not to talk." Cherry shut up. Snowy and Liz were making the beds. Kelli popped her head in the room.
"Stop making the beds, the guys and Clay the Elder are waiting by the bottom of the stairs!" She disappeared from view and we quickly followed.
Down in the foyer, all the others were waiting. Dressed in their old clothes, they hardly seemed any different from the schoolchildren I had known back on earth. But there was a great difference. You could see it on their faces, that look of courageous bravery.
"AH!" Liz said as a sword flashed and stopped right in front of her throat. "Vash!" Vash had borrowed a sword from the mayor's house and promised to return it.
"I'm a little out of shape." Vash said, walking over and tossing another sword (which was leaning against a mahogany chair) to Kelli. It was still in it's case, so Kelli didn't cut herself, yet it seemed heavy, and anyone who tried to pick it up would've likely fallen over. Kelli pinned the thing that held the sword (I, Yuki, personally don't know what it's called) to her waist and pulled out the sword.
She blew on it and felt the blade.
"It's not as good as the Lovely Violet or the Blue Mist, Vash." She said sadly. "But it'll do."
"Challenge you?" Vash asked.
"Outside." Kelli said.
They ran out onto the lawn and started a spectacular fight.
"Whoa." Liz said, looking at the flashing swords. "I would like to fight like that."
"I assume they're fighting and making sure they don't chop off the other person's head at the same time." Doughboy said. "That way it affects their ability of the sword."
"Um, okay." Snowy said.
"Would you guys stop?" I pleaded. "It's making me dizzy, and you might hurt yourselves." Vash and Kelli's sword blades collided with each other and stayed in the air for a second, until they both withdrew their swords and put them back in the buckle (yeah, I'm gonna call that thing buckle now. I mean, I'm sure it's in the dictionary, but I'd rather not go look it up).
"Little Yuki's scared of the blade." Vash taunted.
"Am not." I replied hotly.
"Am too."
"Well, so what?" Vash laughed.
"Don't try anything." Kelli said. Vash looked at her, a grin etched on his face. "I know what you were going to do." Vash shrugged.
"It would have been nice to see her expression." We headed back inside to get the herbs and stuff that Clay the Elder had gotten us. Most of it was in pouches, which we all tied to ourselves. Mr. Clay was there too.
"Thank you." Vash said. "For your hospitality, Clay." He looked at Clay the Elder, bowed, and then at Mr. Clay and did the same. The rest of us curtseyed (exclude Doughboy).
"You're very welcome." Clay the Elder said, his eyes drooping. It had been one long day.
"We will attack at night." Vash said. "Mr. Clay, as soon as Kelli and I get our swords, we will drop these swords in that shrew's hole right outside of the dome. You can send a dwarf to pick that up."
"I definitely can." Mr. Clay said. "The armies of dwarfs are being drilled right now. We wish you the best of luck." Clay the Elder was crying.
"Vash, Kelli, be very careful." He looked at the rest of us. "Remember, you are representing our nation, our place in the life cycle, following that great pattern. Good luck to all. Please help us get Uri back."
There were tears in Mr. Clay's eyes too. I guess they planned to live with the dwarfs. So Vash and Kelli did have a choice. But it definitely would be no fun to be with Mr. Clay and Clay the Elder all the time. Maybe for a year, but not for many years and moons. They needed association with other worlds and people and the likeliness to move around and explore. And earth, the Third Dimension, was a perfect spot. To my surprise, I felt my eyes brimming with tears as well. Mr. Clay and Clay the Elder had helped us so much, and now it was our turn to repay them.
"Are you all set?" Mr. Clay asked. Vash nodded, shakily.
"This is the first time I've ever led an army, even if it's an army of seven." He said. "We are ready. We will prepare and hit with an ambush tonight, try to inflict on as much damage as we can. But the purpose is to not to strike until we find our Nakita and the swords."
"Roger that." Doughboy said, which was followed by "hush" and "Shut up" and "Gosh, you really don't know when not to talk" s.
"As soon as they get word out, we will be offered to chose the battle ground." Vash said. "Their custom is to be noble to guests, things that could be taken for advantage later on. We will chose the area between the Santa Aria Shrine, the river being our boundaries. We have the larger area and will led them charge over the bridge."
"That's a small bridge." Kelli said, eyes closed, trying to remember. "Only several feet wide."
"And while they try to get across, dwarfs will be at the foothills shooting arrows and most of us will be above the dwarfs, almost directly above the enemy, targeting." Vash said. "And we will aim and fight till the last one of us is gone. As soon as they all manage to get close to the foothills we will charge. Close enough, as in several hundred feet. The blue water will turn into a bloody river as the bodies of men are plunged into the stream, dead and unconscious."
"You've got it all planned out, haven't you?" Kanari asked. Vash nodded silently.
"One question." I said. "Do they have the same super natural powers we do?"
"Some of my brothers do." Vash said. "It comes from a gifted source, and no one knows how. Only some of my oldest brothers. Galdius has a little magic in him. But as for girls, well, that's strange to be found."
"Okay." I said. "This won['t be a piece of cake. It'll be harder than we think."
"And they have shields that they can shield themselves from dwarf arrows and they probably have arrows of their own." Kanari added.
"Ooh, I don't want to do this." Liz cried. We all looked at her.
"Liz, you can give up now." Vash offered. "We can leave you here and after we're done [if we're done or ever get done] we can take you with us back home."
"Home?"
"Earth."
Aw, that was sweet, Vash called earth home. But I didn't care at the moment. What was Liz saying? We had to fight.
"All right." She said. "We fight. I'm not letting you down now."
"Okay then." Vash looked at the mansion one last time. "I thank you so many times. We must get going or else we'll be late. How will we ever repay you?"
"This is our repay to you." Clay the Elder said. "Now go along."
"I never thought it'd be so hard to leave." Vash turned. "Let's go."
We walked down the street in a forbidden silence. Everywhere in the city we went, people stared. We walked rather fast, almost at a running tempo, with a forbidden silence. As we reached the underground farmlands, we started to run. Finally, tired and worn out, we stopped and started walking. Rene passed the water bottle around.
"Lucky we have the river right beside us." She said.
"Not for long." Vash pointed. Suddenly, the river turned to the right. We had to keep going straight. There was a road that followed the river and one that followed the countryside. "If you want water, drink it now." Almost everyone went and got a sip before starting on our way again. Finally, we walked and walked and seemed to get closer. The lights were again dimmer. Vash had lit his pipe halfway through the countryside and the fumes had warmed us. He was smoking it because we enjoyed it and because he was hungry. The rations were for us, not him.
It seemed a very long time later when Vash said, "We're here." And six scared figures, plus one trying to hide his feelings, exchange worried looks.
"Whoever wants to give up, do it now." Kelli said. No one said anything. "All right Vash, lead on."
We had approached a wall where the countryside suddenly seemed to slope uphill, and the roach turned right again. Little did we know it would meet with the river again. In front of us was a cement wall made of gray bricks. And on the wall of it was a ladder. A ladder glued to the wall.
Vash walked up to it and pulled himself up the first rung. The rungs were rather far apart. He started climbing, followed by Kelli.
"Be very quiet." Kelli whispered as we moved up. We entered a tunnel, and kept on climbing until my hands were sore and started to smell of lead and dust when suddenly, there was a slight, very small, clanging noise. I looked up. Vash was twisting something round. In fact, it looked very much like the other side of one of our drains, or at least those things in the middle of the road which are round. Vash was using both hands. Kelli was under there, trying to figure out which way she should lean if Vash was to fall. Vash hung there for a minute, until he finally managed to get the thing open. He pushed it away from the opening.
I expected to see light. I was right behind Kelli and expected to see sunlight pouring through. Instead, to my surprise, I saw darkness. In fact, the countryside was brighter than through that hole, but that didn't matter too much at the moment. Vash boosted himself out, and so did Kelli. I stuck my head through the hole. It took my eyes a second to adjust, in which I pulled myself out.
We seemed to be in some kind of an underbrush. Surrounded by trees, there was hardly enough place for the three of us to move. Vash crept towards one of the bushes. Hiding behind the bush, he took his hands and gently pulled away the huge leaves and ferns. He peeked out, and nodded to Kelli, who followed. While Rene and Snowy boosted themselves up, I realized that in this brush, there was a circular hole where we could come out. That's how the dwarfs got around. After they all got out, Kelli put the round plate Vash had been struggling with back. It made almost no sound at all, and then I realized that the top was full of grass. Of course! When she put it back, it blended in perfectly with the other blades of grass. Then the eight of us peeked out of the grass.
"Thee that black ting?" Vash asked. He was talking funny because he knew that the letter s was the easiest sound to be overheard. "Guard." He pulled out a pouch. Handing it to Kelli, he sprinkled some in her hand. She suddenly closed her eyes, and right before our eyes, melted into the shadows. We watched as she disappeared but then we couldn't see anything else. A few minutes later, we heard the guard groan and lean against the building. He was asleep.
"Though medicine." Vash said. "That'll last us several hours."
"Are there others?" Kanari asked. Vash nodded.
"But we only needed this one. Sleep Power. Very powerful." Suddenly, Kelli had appeared where she had disappeared.
"Did I mention I have invisibility?" She asked. We shook our heads. "Don't know how I learned it." We smiled, and then Vash crawled out of the shadows. Kelli and I followed next.
It was a good thing we were wearing dark clothes. We thought that that would make us harder to spot making the journey from the park to the Fourth Dimension door, but now it proved to be of a greater use. Luckily we had nothing that jingled. Vash walked up to the wall and started to climb the ivy. The rest of us got out wings and slowly glided up the wall silently. Cherry and I exchanged pained looks. We reached a tower. Passing it, we went past a series of building, gliding like shadows. Vash was jumping from tower to tower, yet he made no sound at all.
Finally, we reached the tower they were looking for. Vash listened, then pried the window open. The curtains ruffled, and he was gone. A guard looking would've seen only a breeze.
We followed. We were in Vash's room. Vash walked over and pried a piece of the wall off gently. It revealed a safe. He recited something and it opened. Vash pulled out a sword.
"Kelli, you and I get yours." He whispered. "The rest of you, outside." We crawled back out the window. We had to rely on hearing, because any source of light would've given us away.
"Do you realize that they could be setting up a trap leading us here?" Doughboy asked, who still believed that Kelli and Vash were evil. We glared at him and put a finger to our lips.
A moment later, Kelli came out with the sword. She had the Lovely Violet in her hand.
"C'mon." Vash said. Sliding back into the shadows, we deposited the old swords into a shrew's burrow. "We're safe for now. And just four of us are going to go in as spies to try and find out where Nakita is."
"I want to go." I said. Rene nodded too.
"Then it's settled." Vash said. "The four of us will go on. As soon as we need your aid we will shoot something in the air."
"Aye, aye, captain." Kanari said.
"We have arrived at the Dwarf's Castle." Kelli said, looking up at the great structure. "Yes, it used to be called that." She squinted towards the dome at the very top with two lights in it, one yellow and the other white, like a diamond. "I bet you anything, Vash, that Nakita's up there."
"I totally agree." Vash said. "Let's go."
Me: dandan dannb...I wonder what will happen next?
Vash: *sweating and sweatdropping* quick, Yuki, write.
Me: Ooh, don't rush me...you made this chapter so short, you and your "miniski"
Vash: *sweatdrop*
Me: And what kind of picture was that?
Vash: Hey, Yuki and Vash smiling.
Me: I dunno...I think Ulala could draw us a better one
Vash: *sigh*
Yuki: You'd better review, Vash
Vash: *head moves further down*
Vash: Can't even keep track.
Me: I'm sorry, this is my 39th disclaimer.
Vash: Yadayadaya
Me: Shup up, you made this thing short, you and your...
Vash: Don't say it
Yuki: Okay, well, since you pestered me about posting, read!
The Dwarf's Castle
"Wow, nice to be back into my own clean clothes." Kanari said, struggling to pull her sweater over her head.
"Yeah." I zipped up my jacket. "And clean too. It can get pretty cold down here."
"Is it very late?" Rene asked. "The lights are dimming." And so they were. Three heads popped out of the window of the room to take their last peek at Dwarf's Land.
"I'm going to miss this place." I said. "Even though I don't know this place very well."
"I want a rose." Cherry chirped up from the bed, meaning the mayor's wife's rose garden, which we had seen earlier.
"So do I." I said. "And you promised not to talk." Cherry shut up. Snowy and Liz were making the beds. Kelli popped her head in the room.
"Stop making the beds, the guys and Clay the Elder are waiting by the bottom of the stairs!" She disappeared from view and we quickly followed.
Down in the foyer, all the others were waiting. Dressed in their old clothes, they hardly seemed any different from the schoolchildren I had known back on earth. But there was a great difference. You could see it on their faces, that look of courageous bravery.
"AH!" Liz said as a sword flashed and stopped right in front of her throat. "Vash!" Vash had borrowed a sword from the mayor's house and promised to return it.
"I'm a little out of shape." Vash said, walking over and tossing another sword (which was leaning against a mahogany chair) to Kelli. It was still in it's case, so Kelli didn't cut herself, yet it seemed heavy, and anyone who tried to pick it up would've likely fallen over. Kelli pinned the thing that held the sword (I, Yuki, personally don't know what it's called) to her waist and pulled out the sword.
She blew on it and felt the blade.
"It's not as good as the Lovely Violet or the Blue Mist, Vash." She said sadly. "But it'll do."
"Challenge you?" Vash asked.
"Outside." Kelli said.
They ran out onto the lawn and started a spectacular fight.
"Whoa." Liz said, looking at the flashing swords. "I would like to fight like that."
"I assume they're fighting and making sure they don't chop off the other person's head at the same time." Doughboy said. "That way it affects their ability of the sword."
"Um, okay." Snowy said.
"Would you guys stop?" I pleaded. "It's making me dizzy, and you might hurt yourselves." Vash and Kelli's sword blades collided with each other and stayed in the air for a second, until they both withdrew their swords and put them back in the buckle (yeah, I'm gonna call that thing buckle now. I mean, I'm sure it's in the dictionary, but I'd rather not go look it up).
"Little Yuki's scared of the blade." Vash taunted.
"Am not." I replied hotly.
"Am too."
"Well, so what?" Vash laughed.
"Don't try anything." Kelli said. Vash looked at her, a grin etched on his face. "I know what you were going to do." Vash shrugged.
"It would have been nice to see her expression." We headed back inside to get the herbs and stuff that Clay the Elder had gotten us. Most of it was in pouches, which we all tied to ourselves. Mr. Clay was there too.
"Thank you." Vash said. "For your hospitality, Clay." He looked at Clay the Elder, bowed, and then at Mr. Clay and did the same. The rest of us curtseyed (exclude Doughboy).
"You're very welcome." Clay the Elder said, his eyes drooping. It had been one long day.
"We will attack at night." Vash said. "Mr. Clay, as soon as Kelli and I get our swords, we will drop these swords in that shrew's hole right outside of the dome. You can send a dwarf to pick that up."
"I definitely can." Mr. Clay said. "The armies of dwarfs are being drilled right now. We wish you the best of luck." Clay the Elder was crying.
"Vash, Kelli, be very careful." He looked at the rest of us. "Remember, you are representing our nation, our place in the life cycle, following that great pattern. Good luck to all. Please help us get Uri back."
There were tears in Mr. Clay's eyes too. I guess they planned to live with the dwarfs. So Vash and Kelli did have a choice. But it definitely would be no fun to be with Mr. Clay and Clay the Elder all the time. Maybe for a year, but not for many years and moons. They needed association with other worlds and people and the likeliness to move around and explore. And earth, the Third Dimension, was a perfect spot. To my surprise, I felt my eyes brimming with tears as well. Mr. Clay and Clay the Elder had helped us so much, and now it was our turn to repay them.
"Are you all set?" Mr. Clay asked. Vash nodded, shakily.
"This is the first time I've ever led an army, even if it's an army of seven." He said. "We are ready. We will prepare and hit with an ambush tonight, try to inflict on as much damage as we can. But the purpose is to not to strike until we find our Nakita and the swords."
"Roger that." Doughboy said, which was followed by "hush" and "Shut up" and "Gosh, you really don't know when not to talk" s.
"As soon as they get word out, we will be offered to chose the battle ground." Vash said. "Their custom is to be noble to guests, things that could be taken for advantage later on. We will chose the area between the Santa Aria Shrine, the river being our boundaries. We have the larger area and will led them charge over the bridge."
"That's a small bridge." Kelli said, eyes closed, trying to remember. "Only several feet wide."
"And while they try to get across, dwarfs will be at the foothills shooting arrows and most of us will be above the dwarfs, almost directly above the enemy, targeting." Vash said. "And we will aim and fight till the last one of us is gone. As soon as they all manage to get close to the foothills we will charge. Close enough, as in several hundred feet. The blue water will turn into a bloody river as the bodies of men are plunged into the stream, dead and unconscious."
"You've got it all planned out, haven't you?" Kanari asked. Vash nodded silently.
"One question." I said. "Do they have the same super natural powers we do?"
"Some of my brothers do." Vash said. "It comes from a gifted source, and no one knows how. Only some of my oldest brothers. Galdius has a little magic in him. But as for girls, well, that's strange to be found."
"Okay." I said. "This won['t be a piece of cake. It'll be harder than we think."
"And they have shields that they can shield themselves from dwarf arrows and they probably have arrows of their own." Kanari added.
"Ooh, I don't want to do this." Liz cried. We all looked at her.
"Liz, you can give up now." Vash offered. "We can leave you here and after we're done [if we're done or ever get done] we can take you with us back home."
"Home?"
"Earth."
Aw, that was sweet, Vash called earth home. But I didn't care at the moment. What was Liz saying? We had to fight.
"All right." She said. "We fight. I'm not letting you down now."
"Okay then." Vash looked at the mansion one last time. "I thank you so many times. We must get going or else we'll be late. How will we ever repay you?"
"This is our repay to you." Clay the Elder said. "Now go along."
"I never thought it'd be so hard to leave." Vash turned. "Let's go."
We walked down the street in a forbidden silence. Everywhere in the city we went, people stared. We walked rather fast, almost at a running tempo, with a forbidden silence. As we reached the underground farmlands, we started to run. Finally, tired and worn out, we stopped and started walking. Rene passed the water bottle around.
"Lucky we have the river right beside us." She said.
"Not for long." Vash pointed. Suddenly, the river turned to the right. We had to keep going straight. There was a road that followed the river and one that followed the countryside. "If you want water, drink it now." Almost everyone went and got a sip before starting on our way again. Finally, we walked and walked and seemed to get closer. The lights were again dimmer. Vash had lit his pipe halfway through the countryside and the fumes had warmed us. He was smoking it because we enjoyed it and because he was hungry. The rations were for us, not him.
It seemed a very long time later when Vash said, "We're here." And six scared figures, plus one trying to hide his feelings, exchange worried looks.
"Whoever wants to give up, do it now." Kelli said. No one said anything. "All right Vash, lead on."
We had approached a wall where the countryside suddenly seemed to slope uphill, and the roach turned right again. Little did we know it would meet with the river again. In front of us was a cement wall made of gray bricks. And on the wall of it was a ladder. A ladder glued to the wall.
Vash walked up to it and pulled himself up the first rung. The rungs were rather far apart. He started climbing, followed by Kelli.
"Be very quiet." Kelli whispered as we moved up. We entered a tunnel, and kept on climbing until my hands were sore and started to smell of lead and dust when suddenly, there was a slight, very small, clanging noise. I looked up. Vash was twisting something round. In fact, it looked very much like the other side of one of our drains, or at least those things in the middle of the road which are round. Vash was using both hands. Kelli was under there, trying to figure out which way she should lean if Vash was to fall. Vash hung there for a minute, until he finally managed to get the thing open. He pushed it away from the opening.
I expected to see light. I was right behind Kelli and expected to see sunlight pouring through. Instead, to my surprise, I saw darkness. In fact, the countryside was brighter than through that hole, but that didn't matter too much at the moment. Vash boosted himself out, and so did Kelli. I stuck my head through the hole. It took my eyes a second to adjust, in which I pulled myself out.
We seemed to be in some kind of an underbrush. Surrounded by trees, there was hardly enough place for the three of us to move. Vash crept towards one of the bushes. Hiding behind the bush, he took his hands and gently pulled away the huge leaves and ferns. He peeked out, and nodded to Kelli, who followed. While Rene and Snowy boosted themselves up, I realized that in this brush, there was a circular hole where we could come out. That's how the dwarfs got around. After they all got out, Kelli put the round plate Vash had been struggling with back. It made almost no sound at all, and then I realized that the top was full of grass. Of course! When she put it back, it blended in perfectly with the other blades of grass. Then the eight of us peeked out of the grass.
"Thee that black ting?" Vash asked. He was talking funny because he knew that the letter s was the easiest sound to be overheard. "Guard." He pulled out a pouch. Handing it to Kelli, he sprinkled some in her hand. She suddenly closed her eyes, and right before our eyes, melted into the shadows. We watched as she disappeared but then we couldn't see anything else. A few minutes later, we heard the guard groan and lean against the building. He was asleep.
"Though medicine." Vash said. "That'll last us several hours."
"Are there others?" Kanari asked. Vash nodded.
"But we only needed this one. Sleep Power. Very powerful." Suddenly, Kelli had appeared where she had disappeared.
"Did I mention I have invisibility?" She asked. We shook our heads. "Don't know how I learned it." We smiled, and then Vash crawled out of the shadows. Kelli and I followed next.
It was a good thing we were wearing dark clothes. We thought that that would make us harder to spot making the journey from the park to the Fourth Dimension door, but now it proved to be of a greater use. Luckily we had nothing that jingled. Vash walked up to the wall and started to climb the ivy. The rest of us got out wings and slowly glided up the wall silently. Cherry and I exchanged pained looks. We reached a tower. Passing it, we went past a series of building, gliding like shadows. Vash was jumping from tower to tower, yet he made no sound at all.
Finally, we reached the tower they were looking for. Vash listened, then pried the window open. The curtains ruffled, and he was gone. A guard looking would've seen only a breeze.
We followed. We were in Vash's room. Vash walked over and pried a piece of the wall off gently. It revealed a safe. He recited something and it opened. Vash pulled out a sword.
"Kelli, you and I get yours." He whispered. "The rest of you, outside." We crawled back out the window. We had to rely on hearing, because any source of light would've given us away.
"Do you realize that they could be setting up a trap leading us here?" Doughboy asked, who still believed that Kelli and Vash were evil. We glared at him and put a finger to our lips.
A moment later, Kelli came out with the sword. She had the Lovely Violet in her hand.
"C'mon." Vash said. Sliding back into the shadows, we deposited the old swords into a shrew's burrow. "We're safe for now. And just four of us are going to go in as spies to try and find out where Nakita is."
"I want to go." I said. Rene nodded too.
"Then it's settled." Vash said. "The four of us will go on. As soon as we need your aid we will shoot something in the air."
"Aye, aye, captain." Kanari said.
"We have arrived at the Dwarf's Castle." Kelli said, looking up at the great structure. "Yes, it used to be called that." She squinted towards the dome at the very top with two lights in it, one yellow and the other white, like a diamond. "I bet you anything, Vash, that Nakita's up there."
"I totally agree." Vash said. "Let's go."
Me: dandan dannb...I wonder what will happen next?
Vash: *sweating and sweatdropping* quick, Yuki, write.
Me: Ooh, don't rush me...you made this chapter so short, you and your "miniski"
Vash: *sweatdrop*
Me: And what kind of picture was that?
Vash: Hey, Yuki and Vash smiling.
Me: I dunno...I think Ulala could draw us a better one
Vash: *sigh*
Yuki: You'd better review, Vash
Vash: *head moves further down*
