The Armor of the Soul
By Dixxy
Chapter Fifty-Two: The Forest of Pain
(Cara)
Never have I ever seen anything as disgusting as the Under City in all of my years (of which you know have many). The days when I used to walk these streets with Cale or one of the other Warladies to shop or go out to eat seemed so far away and distant. Was this what I walked through? I had always thought the Under City had been a green, alive place! Not this dreary, dark, and dead place!
We had just finished off the latest batch of soldiers and we were FINALLY ready to infiltrate the Forest of Pain. From there, it was highly unlikely we'd be followed. "Well, here goes absolutely nothing," said Ria.
Rona sighed heavily. "Actually, that term is highly misused, due to the fact that if we lose or get killed then not only are our lives lost but that leaves the Mortal Realm with its pants down, allowing Trulpa and the Dynasty to take it over. Even IF Wildfire and Strata are still out there."
"Shut up, Rona, we've got to get going," said Sam.
I smiled. Sam seemed to be generally worried about the boys. I smiled at the thought. No doubt about it one of them was Sage. He was cute, and he seemed to care about Sam considerably. Was she returning these feelings?
"Now we have to dart past the guard house and we'll be at the fence. Then we have to climb and jump it, and then we're in," said Anubis. He smiled sarcastically at us. "Any questions?"
"Oh fun," said Sara.
"Toughen up," said Ria. "We can take this."
"Says you," I said. "That's not a pleasant place to go. The trees can lash out against you, and lurking in the shadows are beasts of unimaginable horror. Hopefully we won't encounter too much, though."
Rona gulped. "Sounds pleasant."
"Look, we don't have much time," said Rona. "Yeah, it'll be pretty tough in there but think about it. The Ronins and maybe even Keisha, now that she's disappeared, are in there! We have to save them! They're our friends!"
Sam bit her lip. She looked nervously from the forest and back to us a few times before nodding. "She's right. We do have to go in there. Trulpa used them to make a dangerous weapon once out of them, who's to say she won't do it again?"
"Well, as long as she doesn't have the Jewel of Death we should be okay," said Anubis, digging into his pocket. "She knows that it would quadruple her latest plan's success possibility of a victorious outcome. . .where is it?"
"Where's what?" asked Ria. Then, her eyes widened. "You didn't. You just didn't, Anubis. Because if you did, I would have to break the barrier of the Wildfire armors myself and then use the Wildfire sure-kill on you. You did NOT loose the Jewel of Death!"
"I was sure I put it in my pocket before we left. Damn it, someone must've stolen it," he said. Anubis scratched his chin as he looked up into the sky. "Or, it got stolen before we left and that was a disappearing decoy."
"Great, I told you to lock it up!" said Rona. "Now what are we gonna do?"
"Look, if we're lucky, some stupid goblin pick-pocket took it and doesn't know what it is. That means we'll have time to go look for it AFTER we rescue the boys. If not and Trulpa does have it. . ." Ria started. She didn't want to finish the sentence.
"Let's get going. On the count of three we'll all make a run for the fence and work on jumping it," said Anubis. We all nodded, getting ready to take off for the tall wooden fence that blocked us from our current destination. "One, two, THREE!"
With that, we all began to run for the fence. "Whatever you do, don't stop running!" said Ria. As if on cue, several guards poked out of the guard house and began throwing spears at us. Hundreds of years of training saved my hide, but the Senshi had less than a year of training. I heard Sara yelp out and looked back to see her laying on the group, a spear impaling her leg. Sam had stopped her help her, trying to defend them as well as heal her friend. Ria and Rona hadn't noticed and were already over the fence with Tiger Lily and Anubis. I was torn between helping them and going over myself.
Sam looked over at me. "Go on ahead of us! We'll catch up! If not. . . just, just go!" she said, throwing a guard over her shoulder. I obeyed her command and leapt over the fence in a single bound.
The others were waiting for me. The girls were already in subarmor, Anubis in the Ancient's robes. "Where's Sam and Sara?" asked Ria. "Didn't they make it over the fence? Didn't they?"
"Sara was hit by a spear. Sam stopped to defend and try to heal her," I said.
"What?" asked Rona. "We're going in without them?"
"She said they'd try to catch up," I said. Anubis bit his lip. "I know, I know, it looks bad, but we have to keep going. Trulpa's not interested in killing the girls. Yet. She's most likely more liable to kill me and you, Anubis. We both betrayed the Dynasty and that can't be something she's happy about."
"Cara's right, we have to hope that they get away and that we can save everyone else," said Ria. "At worst they'll get captured and tossed into a dungeon. Knowing Trulpa, she'll want to toy with them before she kills them, and she's got too much on her hands right now to 'play' with any extra captives. Let's get moving."
We started to head off into the woods. The woods looked, at first glance, like any other woods. Lots of trees, kind of dark, seemingly peaceful. But once you looked at the purple and yellow mushroom growing at the roots of the trees and listen to the inhuman screeching high above in the branches, you knew the forest was full of evil. But after ten minutes of walking, nothing had happened.
"Ow! Ria, stop poking me!" Rona shouted unexpectedly.
"I didn't poke you!" said Ria.
"Then who did, Ria?" asked Rona, placing a hand on her hip as she gave me the Stink Eye. I watched the girls argue and then noticed what looked like a leafy snake wrapping itself around one of Rona's ankles.
"Rona! Your foot!" I cried. Rona looked down and shrieked, causing the vine to tighten itself. It pulled her to the ground and began to drag her. We followed, the vine only going up in speed every time we caught up.
Then we saw the source of the vine.
"Oh my God, that's got to be the BIGGEST Venus Fly Trap I've ever seen!" Anubis said, his eyes wide with disbelief. Sure enough, a huge Venus fly trap was pulling Rona towards its razor sharp teeth.
"Now we know what happened to the talking plant from Little Shop of Horrors," said Ria, trying to lighten the now very tense situation (though I wasn't sure what this Little Shop was and why it was owned by Horrors). "That's it, I've got to do something!"
"Any ideas would be helpful! I DON'T WANNA DIE A VIRGIN!" Rona cried.
I didn't see the big difference in whether or not she died a virgin. Anubis grumbled at the comment but went to try and free Rona, only to have himself caught in one of the vines. He put up a considerably better fight, but several more vines whipped out to tie him down.
"I can't use my sword here. There's no way I could possibly cut all the vines quickly enough without getting caught myself," I said. Then, I saw the ticket to our freedom. The five glistening throwing stars that lined Ria's arm. "Ria! Your Chinese stars! You can control them! You can get five, six, maybe seven at a time!"
"I, I'm not very good with them," said Ria, her face turning red in embarrassment.
"Just do it!" Anubis said, struggling with a vine that was trying to strangle him.
Ria looked around nervously, then, lifted the arm containing the throwing stars. She closed her eyes and the five stars- red, green, light blue, orange, and dark blue- began to glow. All five shot off of her arm and began to slice at the vines that held Anubis and Rona captive. The plant couldn't keep up with Ria's weapons, allowing Rona and Anubis to break free. I used that chance to kill the thing with a black lightning storm. After a sparking black show of electricity, the thing was dead.
"Let's just try and get through here without running into anything else," begged Ria. She sighed heavily, looking back the way we came. "I just hope Sam and Sara get through here all right."
"They'll be all right. I know, I'll wait here for them," I said.
"Are you sure?" asked Rona. "I mean, you'll be alone-"
"Roar!"
"Looks like Tiger Lily wants to stay, too," said Ria. "All right, you two stay here and keep an ear and an eye out for Sam and Sara, okay? If you don't see them within the next few hours, come after us with Tiger Lily."
"You got it!" I said, giving Ria a thumbs up. Tiger Lily and I watched as Anubis, Ria, and Rona headed towards the looming sight of Trulpa's fortress while we took the hard task; waiting.
~
Question time!
Iceangel0318- About the winged boy? Sorry, I can't tell you that one, you'll just have to find out yourself. As for Keisha and Kento, yeah, it is cute. Now we're just waiting for Kento to say something on the subject.
Though none of you really care about this. . . I GOT THE DVD TODAY! YIP-EE!!
Dixxy