non-original characters.
Special thanks go to Davner, Cavis, Incantrix, Sethra_Lavode, the Total
Anime Nut, and
Fish_Stomp for their help on this fic.
Twin Perspectives
Eps 3: Hey wasn't that my meal ticket?
By: STRIKESTWICE@hotmail.com
"Your attention please." The brightly dressed herald yelled
from the center of the
village square, startling a flock of pigeons that had been adorning
the near by monument.
"The Lady Syphiel has announced that a disaster will befall the town
in the next four
hours, all residents are advised to evacuate. I repeat..."
Senritsuko ignored the announcement as she concentrated on extracting
herself
from Sethra. Before her, the gold armored woman shifted in her
chair, her scale armor
clanging merrily.
"I'm sure you understand how important it is that you accompany
me back to Fire
Dragon Mountain. We, the priestesses of my order, have been charged
by the Fire
Dragon God to repopulate the world with mighty golden dragons."
"But I'm not a dragon, look at me, I'm a human as is my mother.
And if this was
such an important mission, why didn't you ask my mom, or wait until
now to find me?"
The girl knew that logic was probably not the answer in this type of
situation, but the
alternatives were just as unlikely to work.
The priestess smiled at her indulgently. "Didn't you know
that dragons can
change their forms to look like humans if they wish? As to why
we didn't ask your
mom?" She sipped on her tea as Senritsuko slowly closing her
eyes and slid down into
her chair fast asleep from the tan root Sethra had slipped into her
tea. "That is a secret."
***
Yuki and Valeck followed the priestess into a back alley, finally
cornering her
against a new wooden wall beside an inn's stable.
From across the wall, the words, "Lady Syphiel... disaster...
approaching."
Drifted to the twin's ears but was ignored, in their examination of
their prey.
"I don't think we were properly introduced, beautiful lady."
Valeck, the Gray
Serpent, Gabriev yelled in his normal tone of voice.
"Nice pick up line bro'. Gonna go with the old date me,
or die now, thin'?" Yuki
asked, receiving a most evil stare from her brother.
"I think it would be more accurate to say, that you should shut up or die."
"Try it bro' and eat di't." The young lady, took up a defensive
spell casting
position, ready to attack or defend. Her brother followed suit
as each gathered energy
just as the young priestess, forgotten for a second, made a dash for
it. Yuki with out
taking her eyes off of her powering up brother, tossed a dagger at
the priestess yelling
"SHADOW SNAP!" The small dagger embedded into the shadow of the
priestess
freezing her in place.
The priestess paused, unable to move, once again ignored by the
twins. The two
both cast the same spell at once. A pair of balls full of glowing
energy crackling with
power arched at each other, colliding in a blast of air and light.
The two balls continued
to attack each other as their casters poured more power into the spheres.
Yuki's pink ball
slowly started pushing back her brothers blue ball, in a contest the
twins had fought a
hundred times before. The young woman grinned ferally at her
brother, as her spell
pushed him back. Then with a pop, the spell finally failed, tossing
Valeck into the
ground. Yuki grinned at her brother triumphantly.
"Tol' ya."
"Someday sis, someday." The man said, trying to unseat his
spikes from the dirt.
With a last groan Valeck sat up knocking clods of dirt off of his armor.
He pulled the
last piece of paving stones off a spike, when a woman dressed all in
gold and carrying
another young woman, ran past the alley.
"Ugh Sis, did you just see that?"
"Yah to thin' she did'ched us to go get drun'."
"Ugh huh, someone is stealing the only way we have to save our
lives before
mom and dad get back."
"So you wan' to go to the roll'coast'r?"
"Sis, two things one you have a nice priestess trapped by a spell
and two" By this
time Valeck's normally loud voice, had gone surprisingly soft.
"Someone in really tacky
armor," Yuki failed to hold back a snort at this comment "is
stealing Senritsuko."
"LIGHT!," the previously trapped priestess yelled, as she fizzled
out the 'Shadow
Snap' spell and began running down the street in the direction that
Senritsuko had
disappeared in. The twins took one look at each other for a second
and then took off in
the direction of the two priestesses and the shanghaied girl.
The two rounded the corner and picked up speed as the golden armored
woman
overbalanced by the weight of Senritsuko slowly limped towards the
edge of town. The
white robed priestess dashed through the clean streets after the abductee
clutching her
robes with her left hand, pulling the hem just above her feet as she
ran. The priestess
graceful and feminine in the action, compared to the unfashionably
dressed female twin
trying to catch up with her.
Sethra, the gold armored priestess, lost her tenuous hold on Senritsuko,
dropping
her onto the ground in a disheveled pile. She looked down at
her lost bundle and noticed
the closing pursuit teams, in a fluid movement the golden priestess
grabbed the huge bow
from off her back and put an arrow to the string. She let fly
at the white dressed
priestess, who dodged in a fluid flowing move of the robes. The
arrow skidded off the
ground and bounced into the far building demolishing part of a wall.
"FLARE ARROW!" Valeck yelled as he tossed a spell at the
priestess. The girl
didn't even dodge as a black mist blocked the arrow of magical fire.
The fire licked the
tale edges of the mist, as a pair of red eyes slowly emerged from the
blackness. The mist
slowly forming into the shape of a man, in the oh so stock villain
dark cowl, with the
whole glowing red eyes thing going.
"Crap!"
"This is a' you' faul', bro'." Yuki yelled at her brother,
as she pulled a tiny
dagger out of its sheath and rotated the weapon until it was pointing
at the priestess.
"How the hell is this my fault! It's all your fault, your
the one who said we
should go ride on the roller coaster!" Valeck yelled back and
then screamed. "STONE
GOLEM!" A huge, twenty foot, gray golem slowly rose from the
ground in a cloud of
smoke appearing rather ominous in the slowly darkening sky.
The white cloaked priestess had disappeared in the smoke leaving
only the twins,
a blissfully asleep Senritsuko, one demon, and a gold dressed dragon
priestess. Them
and a huge golem shambling towards the demon in the normal slow but
deadly attack of
a mindless stone toy.
"I am Valeck, the Gray Serpent, Gabriev and this is..."
"Yuki, the One Blade, Gabriev." She turned the tiny dagger
over in her hand as it
rapidly began to grow into a long dark blade rippling with energy,
an heirloom of her
mother and father's travels.
Yuki waved the sword around once and then charged forward wasting
no motions
in her attack. The archer rapidly fired two arrows from her long
bow, both of which
Yuki knocked away with her sword. Each of the arrows ricocheting
to the side of the
street and impacting into a building. Behind her, the golem slowly
lumbered along,
shacking the empty streets.
The red eyed demon, having been forced to dodge the golden priestess'
attacks as
well, gave her an annoyed look as Yuki slashed at one of its arms.
"Ow that hurts!" The demon yelled, cuddling it's arm. The
dragon priestess slung
her bow grabbing up Senritsuko over her shoulder, only to be slammed
into the stomach
by the white clad priestess who had circled around the buildings.
The white robed
priestess grabbed up Senritsuko and kicked Sethra again in the knee
before running off.
The demon phased out of this dimension leaving Yuki and the Golem,
who had finally
caught up to her, standing awkwardly in mid stroke. The
girl overbalanced and
attempted to use her sword to stop her descent. She forgot, for
a split second, that it was
an energy sword and fell to the ground. The sword buried up to
its small hilt, in the
street.
"C'mon sis, don't fall behind." Valeck yelled, as he ran
past her. His sword
flapping against his armor. The sorcer gave chase with his golem,
their loud footfalls
echoing in the empty streets.
The sun ducked behind the nearby mountains as the group once again
began
chasing after each other. The white robed priestess seemed in
no need to take a break, as
she charged through the city dodging into alley ways that only a native
of the city would
know existed. The city was eerily empty in the twilight as the
running footsteps echoed
down the alleys.
Yuki had finally reached her center, she was pissed and channeling
all of that rage
into powering her sword. The girl ran down the alley ways, following
her brother's back.
Her sword hummed and grew from the power, darkening the surrounding
alley way with
it's anti-light.
She was focused, the world a blur of shadows all in perfect detail,
the second
something moved she would feel it. Years of apprenticeship had
gone into reaching this
level of understanding and ability. Her sword was one with her,
channeling her magical
energy as she ran down the street. She followed her brother as
he turned another corner.
Yuki ran around the corner and was alone. Her brother, the two
priestess, even the
golem, suddenly missing, leaving her alone in the empty streets.
Fog began to drift into the streets, forming from the multiple
lakes that
surrounded the city. To her right the moon slowly swung up above
the dead tree Flagoon.
The light creating shadows of impossible darkness. Suddenly behind
her and to the right,
the darkness attacked from out of one of the walls. Yuki felt
its movement, dodging to
the left and throwing herself forcefully into the other wall.
Her sword whipped up and
went to at guard against an attack that didn't exist. Once again,
she was alone in the
alleyway.
One of the shadows to her left suddenly darted forward at her,
slashing in a
downward ark of darkness. Yuki jumped to the right and brought
her sword up to parry
the attack, overextending at something that wasn't there. Forced
into a bad position, she
took off running out of the alleyway. The darkness flashed in
front of her trying to stop
her retreat.
Yuki yelled and charged forward, dodging at the last second to
the left and out
into the fog of an empty street. She had thought that the larger
space would give her a
better chance to attack the demon, but now with the deathly silence
surrounding her in a
web of fog, she felt even more in danger. Breathing hard from
powering the sword and
the constant running, Yuki felt her strength waning. She needed
to let the blade go while
she still had the strength to reactivate it, but it called to her.
Its power whispering
throughout her body and magic, reaching for more power that she didn't
have.
The demon lunged at her again, a claw of fog and darkness.
She rolled forward
onto the ground as one of it's fingers grazed her shoulder, opening
up a fine line of red.
Yuki cursed fluently, changing languages and accents, as she rolled
into a low crouch.
She stopped the power to the sword, letting it sputter out, its black
light effects slowly
dimming until she stood in moon lit fog. Yuki sprang up from
her crouch and began
running through the streets dodging black unrecognizable objects from
both sides. She
finally ran out of the town, her small wound soaking the back of her
shirt as she ran to
the edge of one of the lakes.
The air chuckled at her. "Run out of places to run, human?
I will make you pay
for this scratch a hundred times over."
"Crecalsa reflax purzar." Yuki yelled at the demon, then
switched languages and
curses. "HeLon StOm MorosoPhe SuFuro." Without pausing,
she switched to a third
language, then a forth.
The air chuckled again and rippled to her right, and her left
at the same time.
"Now, now, that isn't nice. Though so few humans can pronounce
the dark speech that
well, I compliment you." The air rippled to her left and right,
as well as in front of her
and something itching at her back, told her behind her as well.
Yuki called out again, "EM OT NRUTER," as the shimmering around
her
increased. In front of her the shimmering solidified into a claw,
as a dark light roared
behind it. The claw had enough time to flinch as anti-light buried
itself into the demon.
Yuki smiled for a second, showing her teeth as her sword, leapt out
of the claw and
gracefully settled back into her hand. The claw, a hole ripped
through it to somewhere
else, jerked in pain and disappeared along with the other ones that
had been surrounding
her.
A pair of footsteps echoed through the fog running towards her.
She changed her
stance going to on guard, with the sword low, point towards the ground,
as she quietly
circled the steps trying to get the lake out from behind her and give
herself enough room
to move or run.
"Hey sis, don't wave that thing around at me, you know how much
I hate that pig
sticker."
"Damn it, I almo' 'ave you a new ho' bro'." She stepped
close to Valcec so that
they could finally see each other.
"You okay sis, your bleedin'."
"No real' and it frea'in' hurts. Where's Senritsuko."
"I lost her."
"BreNor!"
"You said it, sis."
To their right, on the other side of town, the fog exploded into
light, changing the
dark little shadows created by the moon, into a complicated maze of
diffused light. The
two siblings began running back into town.
***
The priestess ducked behind the mound of trash, as another arrow
passed over her
head. She looked over at the still sleeping Senritsuko and wondered
tiredly if this
situation could get any worse.
Sethra paused in her firing of her seemingly inexhaustible supply
of arrows. The
white robed girl, looked up over the mound of defensive garbage, to
see the priestess
holding an arrow as it slowly began glowing. She blinked once
in confusion and then
thought better of remaining there. Grabbing up Senritsuko, the
priestess ran through the
garbage pile and dodged into an alleyway. Behind her the night
blazed into light as a
large portion of the building next to her exploded.
In front of her three white robed woman moved out from a doorway
and blocked
her path. This was the reason she had ran away in the first place,
to avoid a fight and
here they were putting her in-between the rock and the hard place.
The white robed
priestess looked around the corridor for some way to exit it with out
a fight, as behind her
the golden dressed priestess, Sethra, entered the far end of the alleyway.
For the first
time in her life, the fleeing priestess thought maybe joining the priest
hood hadn't been
the best goal for her. She shrugged and started chanting:
"Defender of creation,
Shield of all that lives,
Cradle me in your golden wings,
Protect me... GUARDIAN WIND!"
A spear of light formed out of the ground, and then another, and
another until five
spears surrounded her. In a blink of an eye, the five spears
shot out tentacles of light,
connecting each spear to the other. The three priestesses who
had been after the priestess
who was casting the spell, gave one look at the power forming and tuned
and ran.
Trails of wind slowly began to circle around the priestess, as
she called her spell,
the white spears finally closed forming a pentagram, as the wind picked
up. Swirling
faster and faster the wind howled into a tornado around the two girls,
defending them as
they stood in the center of the storms eye. The buildings around
the alleyway began to
collapse as the wind buffeted against their sides. The air filling
with shingles, bricks and
other loosed debris.
Sethra dodged a rock and tried to charge another arrow full of
energy. She
concentrate the attack in the hope that it would some way disrupt the
powerful spell that
was forming. A chunk of building collided into her armor, and
the golden priestess lost
her footing. The wind caught her moment of instability and tossed
her like a rag doll
across the air and into a building on the far side of the plaza.
The woman crumpled and
then disappeared as a strange darkness enveloped her.
The white clothed priestess, slung Senritsuko across her back
again and tried to
see anything through the whirl wind that surrounded her. She
gave up after a second and
walked slowly forward, as the tornado remained centered on her.
Her slow shuffling
steps carried her through what remained of the strangely clean streets.
The spell was
draining her quickly. The priestess finally let the storm go
and began running again
towards the edge of town. Only to run into the Gabriev Twins.
She skidded to a halt and
then took off at a right angle.
The twins didn't even bother to stop as they both fired off Flare
Arrows at the
priestess. The two arrows bounced at her feet creating little
fires on the ground. The
priestess turned around tiredly and looked at the advancing twins.
She rummaged
through her mind for an appropriate spell, with her dwindling strength
nothing popped
into mind.
***
The priestess smiled at Yuki, as she put Senritsuko down on the ground softly.
"Well it looks like you have the situation in hand, and I really
have to be leaving
now." The priestess said, sidling towards the dark beckoning
edge of town. Yuki gave a
meaningful glance to her brother as she stopped walking about ten feet
from the
priestess. Her brother though continued moving, slowly circling
the priestess until he
blocked her escape route.
"We would enjoy talking to you for a moment." Valeck yelled
nonchalantly as he
studied the ground looking for a good piece of stone to form a golem
out of.
"I'm in a bit of hurry right now, maybe tomorrow."
"No, I th'k we nee' to have a ta'k."
"Yuki, please talk normally." The priestess asked the girl,
as her eyes shifted
around looking for a possible route to escape through.
"Why did you take Senritsuko." Valeck asked, trying to keep the girl off balance.
"She looked like she was in danger. My Order requires us to help those in need."
"Seems to me your not that popular with your Order." Valeck
yelled, from
behind her.
"A minor misunderstanding over succession, that doesn't mean I
can forget my
teachings, just because I feel like it." Yuki snapped her fingers,
a big smile suddenly
brightening her face.
"Cous' its been a whi'. I like the new do." Yuki looked
over at Valeck. "And
Aun' Sylphiel said we wouldn't be seein' Phelan for a week or two.
I wonder why?"
"Who knows, damn and I almost asked you for a date." Valeck
shuddered, at the
thought.
"Bro, that's wha' you get." Yuki snickered.
"I think you have me confused...."
"Sis, its not funny, why does every girl we ever meet seem to
turn out to have a
good reason not to be interested in me."
"Maybe because your a loud obnoxious guy, who's goal in life is
to create the
ultimate female golem."
"Excuse me..." The priestess said.
"This from a girl who runs around with a big sword." Yuki
rolled her eyes and
fondled her sword's hilt smiling.
"Car' to eat my sw'rd?"
"Maybe tomorrow, today we have blackmail on the agenda."
"That's why I so luv you big bro'. So wha' shou' we ask
for? I doub' our dear
cous' has any cash."
"Isn't it obvious dear sister, a spell." Valeck smiled evilly,
licking his lips. "The
spell." Yuki blinked, for a second in surprise and then her smile
became even bigger.
"No, you two can't mean...? I promised my mom when she taught
me the spell
not to share it."
"Oh, we can always tell Senritsuko" Yuki said, "The poor
little girl who finds out
the guy she always liked was actually a... " Yuki trailed off
and smiled.
"You wouldn't... " She looked at the twins. The priestess
suddenly started
crying. "Everyone is always picking on me, " she sobbed.
"All I ever wanted was to
follow in my mother's footsteps. Become a great priestess, and
help save the world.
What's so wrong with that?"
"Dude your a guy." Valeck yelled at the sobbing woman.
"It's not my fault!"
"The deal still stan's, you tea' us the Dragon Slave or we tell
Senritsuko who you
real' are." Yuki said smiling through gritted teeth.
"You know sis, she acts more like a girl then you do."
"Shut up, Bro!"
"But I was just saying..." The evil grin Yuki started to
give her brother while
fingering the hilt of her sword, decided him against completing the
sentence.
"So any ways, what name should we call you Phelan, while your
dressed that
way?"
"Well I was going by the name Kyoko, you two can call me that."
***
Senritsuko awoke in the darkness, a large hammer beating on her
skull. Groaning
she turned over on her side and removed the contents of her stomach,
onto the hard forest
ground.
She finally stopped heaving and with what little remained of her
strength, sat up,
looking around her surroundings. Cautiously she fumbled with
her right hand until it
rested reassuringly on the hilt of her revolver. With a slight
tremble she yanked it out of
her holster and tried to steady the comforting weight. In front
of her the darkness moved
and then reformed around the face of that weird priestess who had run
away from them
yesterday. Her hands trembling, Senritsuko slowly raised the
weapon up to point it at the
girl, just as both Yuki and Valeck walked out of the darkness to either
side of the green
eyed woman.
"So you fin'ly awake?" Yuki asked, staring at the gunwoman.
Senritsuko paused
for just a second and then slid her gun back into it's holster.
"Yah, I guess. Did you get that woman who drugged me?"
"Nope, but she did have a dem'n with her so it looks like Aun'
Syphiel was righ',
somethin's goin' on with you."
"Great, " Senritsuko cursed internally, now there would
be no getting rid of the
twins. "Who's this with you."
"Oh this is Kyoko she helped save you." Yuki put on her
most winning smile as
Kyoko stepped forward and bowed slightly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you."
***
Above them in the dark shadow of a tree, a purple hair priest
starred down at the
group, smiling cockeyed he leaned back against the trunk and settled
in for the night.
***
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