The Armor of the Soul

By Dixxy

Chapter Fifty: The Trail to the Forest

(Sara)

We made slow, steady progress. From our map, the city looked relatively small, but it wasn't abnormal for one building to be several miles long. It took us a full day to reach Darkness Drive, where we checked into the Eye of Newt Estates hotel quarters to stop for the night. As determined as we were, we wouldn't be very helpful if we passed out from exhaustion, like, five minutes into the fight.

I looked out the window of the hotel, wondering how long it was going to take us to get to the Forest of Pain. Of course, the idea wasn't exactly enticing to me in any way. I mean, a forest of something as unpleasant as PAIN?! I didn't want to get my butt kicked by a stupid plant! Still, this IS the Nether Realm we're talking about. . . anything could happen, and killer trees in definitely a possibility to consider.

Down on the streets below, activities were still engaging. Mostly muggings and prostitution, but still, they were. . . activities. Was it of much interest to me? Not really. Though I will say that it did sicken me to see it.

"You can't sleep either?"

I turned to see Ria was awake. She was standing next to me, leaning up against the wall next to the window, her arms crossed as she looked down at the city below. "No, I can't," I admitted.

"Keep thinking about Cye?"

I nodded. "Amongst other things. The others, the Forest, Trulpa, you know, the normal stuff," I said. I turned my head away from the window, weakly narrowing my eyes as I rubbed my upper arm. "I just can't believe that they were held captive for a year and now they're back here again. It must be torturous for them. Cye wasn't even free for a full day!"

Ria nodded. Then, she turned her head. "Looks like 'Nubis and Tiger Lily can't sleep, either." Sure enough, Anubis was sitting up in bed, looking over at us. Tiger Lily sat patiently for her mistress to give her the word on what to do. My leader looked at everyone in the room, then smiled, clasping her hands together. "Okay, all who want to just keep moving and screw the hotel, say Tootsie Roll."

"Tootsie Roll?" we all asked in confusion.

"Then it's settled, let's go!" said Ria.

I sighed heavily. "Why'd she have to get us to go THAT WAY!?" I asked.

"I gave up trying to figure her out a long time ago," said Anubis. "Let's just go."

~

So we continued on during the night and well into the next morning, stopping occasionally to take cat naps in alleyways and bushes while one of us stood guard to make sure we weren't jumped by any Dynasty guards.

When we reached Demon Lane, we could see Trulpa's castle more clearly, which was a towering palace of red and black Japanese roofs and towers. I could see little green-gray dots that I assumed were Tin Cans playing guard duty. But more importantly, we could see the lush green that had to have been the Forest of Pain.

"Doesn't look that dangerous. Why is it called the-" Ria started before she was suddenly bowled over. Anubis and I took to a fighting position until we realized who it was that had slammed into our leader. "Samantha!"

"Ria (pant) Keisha (pant) look out (pant) gone (pant)-"

I held up my hands. "Slow down, Sam, slow down," I said. Then, I realized what she'd said. "What do you mean Keisha ran ahead to look out for you guys and hasn't come back since?!"

"You understood that?" asked Ria.

"I'm fluent in panic-stricken Senshi," I said, shrugging.

I saw Rona and Cara catch up. Keisha's absence only confirmed what we all knew to be true. One of us had disappeared and we had no way of knowing what had happened to her.

"Did you find anything?" asked Anubis.

"We found several Dynasty Soldier remains and what looks like the aftermath of a battle, but no sign of Keisha anywhere," said Cara. She sighed heavily. "I hope she's all right. Poor kid, she's all alone somewhere in this God-awful place."

"Or in a Dynasty dungeon," said Ria. She looked up at Sam, who was still on top of her. "Sam, as fun as you sitting on top of me is, I would highly appreciate it if you got off of me before my lungs collapse."

Sam got off of Ria, apologizing for crashing into her. "Sorry, Ria, I was scared."

"It's okay, you have a reason to be scared considering we're dealing we a crisis," said Ria, who was busy dusting herself off. "I would say that she was probably bombarded by Tin Cans and while she took a few down, a few got a grip on her and brought her back to Trulpa."

"Not good, not good, not good," said Rona.

"Well, we don't know that," I said. "And maybe one of the boys escaped."

"Yeah," said Sam. "Maybe Sage snuck around a few guards while he was invisible, or maybe Kento shape shifted into something small and slipped out of whatever holding restraints Trulpa used."

"Yeah!" I said. "We keep forgetting that Sage, Cye, and Kento are highly trained, extremely dangerous, and very ticked off Ronin Warriors, one of whom is the Child of Destiny, all of whom can use Senshi magic. They aren't princesses locked in a dragon's tower or something- they're probably more dangerous than we are."

Anubis smiled. "Yes, that is a plus. But you must understand that Trulpa planned her restraints taking those factors into consideration. The only reason that any of them escaped at all was because Kento pulled away from Trulpa's vortex. If he hadn't done that, who knows what would have happened instead?"

"He would have never gotten the position as the fortune teller, so Sara and I wouldn't have gone to see him to ask for his help on where Rona and Sam ran away to. Unless Rona decided to come home on her own, we wouldn't have known Sam was in trouble," said Ria.

"And we wouldn't have gotten his clue about going North to find Sam!" I said.

"And we wouldn't have known what Trulpa was up to!" said Rona.

"And then when Cale captured me, there wouldn't have been anyone to rescue me, Sage, or Cara from the Temple of Halo!" said Sam. "Who knows? By the time Anubis figured out to use the Staff, we might've already starved or been dehydrated then. You guys couldn't found three corpses there!"

"Yes," said Cara. "But could you stop the what-ifs? What matters now is that Keisha has gone missing and that the other three are still captive. And Anubis? Trulpa didn't know about the extra soul related powers until AFTER they rescued Cye. She would've prepared us for that."

Anubis sighed heavily. "She's probably planned for them now that she knows about them," he said. "Let's get a move on to the Forest already. The sooner we rescue them the sooner we can get back home to the Mortal Realm."

"Personally, I don't see the huge rush to want to go into a place like that, and if it weren't for the fact Sage and the other two are in that awful place I wouldn't be going in there," said Sam.

"Well, if the Forest gives us problems we'll head into the Thicket," said Anubis.

"Wonder why they call it the Thicket of Misery?" I asked absently.

"Actually. . . I honestly don't know that one," said Cara. "Anubis?"

Anubis shrugged. "Let's keep going already!"

~

We were slowly creeping along the eastern side of a building adjacent to Guard House #1. Anubis explained that it was in there that the empty armors were created and in Guard House #2 where the spirits were placed inside and trained. "Guard House #2 is easily the more dangerous of the two houses, but at that you would be going up against rookies," said Anubis. "Where we are in slightly safer."

"Not by much. Warlords or high commanding officers amongst the soldiers act as inspectors on occasion. I was never one since I was blind, but I did often help train with soldiers in Guard House #2," said Cara.

I looked over at the guard house. I could hear heavy machinery working inside, chucking out what had to be hundreds and hundreds of Tin Cans. Now I knew why her army was so incredibly huge. She manufactured them a dime a dozen. No, more like a dime a million. Ah, so that's where she gets them . . .

Yet more importantly, we saw the Forest of Pain straight ahead of us. "There it is," said Sam. The Forest looked, actually, like every other forest I'd seen in my life. Lots and lots of trees. Brown trunks, green leaves, and lots of twigs on the ground. "That's the Forest of Pain?"

"Armor up before going in. You'll all need the protection," said Anubis.

"And you?" I asked, turning to the monk.

"I have the Staff, I'll be fine," he said, cracking his knuckles and narrowing his eyes. "We just have to get in there quickly, get out of there quickly, and then defeat Trulpa once and for all. She must not be allowed to torment our world any longer!"

"And this time we're gonna do it, too!" I said. I was pumped. I was ready. I was MAD. Trulpa was going to deal with four very ticked off Ronin Senshi and she wasn't going to like it very much. "Let's CHARGE!"

"After we take care of the mob of angry Tin Cans, right?" said Rona.

I blinked, and turned around, face to face with, as Rona had stated, a mob of angry Tin Cans. "Um, yeah."