Disclaimer: Same as Chapter One! Oh yes, and I found a website with the name of "Elfwood". I 'spose I give them credit for the name-dun sue me!
Destiny's Fork
Chapter Six
"Elfwood"
By Magic
The purple lady stood there, holding her arrow trained on Frost as the rest of the group fumbled for words. Frost wasn't quite sure what to do. She might kill him if he said he was Frost, but then she might kill him anyway. He glanced over to Hawke, then to Kayra, then back up at the lady in the trees. He slowly nodded.
The girl seemed to think for a second, before lowering her bow and arrow and hopping down lightly from the tree. She walked up to the group and looked them all over. "Well, seems right," she said before turning to Frost again. "I have something of yours."
"Excuse me?" Frost said, utterly perplexed.
She paid no attention to his question and then turned to Hawke, "Something of yours as well."
Hawke just blinked. She wasn't sure what else she had that she didn't have with her.
The girl looked to Kayra, narrowed her eyes first, then spoke. "Come." She then took off into the forest, leaving them to sit and think about what they should do.
They glanced at one another before taking off at a full run after the mystery girl, each wondering what the hell was going on. Frost was in the lead, Hawke in the middle with Kayra bringing up the rear. He could just barely see the girl's purple hair as the thin girl darted with the swiftness of a deer through the forest vegetation.
"Hey!" He opened his mouth to ask her to slow down and got a mouthful of leaves.
After about ten minutes of running, they came to a clearing. A large tree, bigger than any living thing any of them had ever seen, probably bigger than the Gardens, was in the center of the circular field. Thousands of billions of lights glittered from the tree, along with millions of fire flies. It seemed like the sky had fallen and the stars danced in this large field.
The purple haired girl had stopped and was waiting for them as they entered the clearing. She glanced to make sure the group had caught up with her and walked purposefully towards the tree. The group, huffing and puffing from the run, trudged after her.
As they came upon the tree, Hawke could see that it wasn't anything like a tree at all. Sure, it was a very large tree, but there were ladders and walkways connecting houses made completely out of wood and leaves. It was a city.
Her eyes widened as they approached. There were thousands of people walking around the high branches, oblivious to the height and possible fall. Her stomach tightened as she approached the ladder with the rest of them. She was going to have to go back up high.
Frost, also amazed by the scene, turned towards Hawke just to see her go pale. "What? Don't like leavin' the ground?"
She twisted her head to give him a glare. "No, people aren't supposed to go into the skies."
His eyes glittered with laughter. "Is that so," he whispered as he turned back to the ladder and started trudging up it. Kayra followed and soon Hawke was left standing next to the purple haired girl.
Hawke turned to her as the girl started to speak. "If it helps you at all, I hate heights as well."
"And you live up there?!"
The girl nodded and smiled at Hawke's amazement. "I'm crazy I guess." She reached her hand out for Hawke to shake it. "I'm Katriina Rudevic. Call me 'Triina"
"Hawke Leonhart."
Katriina raised an eyebrow but then went back to the ladder. "You're going to have to go up first."
Hawke swallowed but nodded. "Aight."
She slowly grabbed onto the ladder, closed her eyes, and started to climb, Katriina right behind her. The wind started to pick up as they went higher and higher, never stopping on any floor, but continuing up the long, tiresome ladder until they got to just about the top floor.
"Get off here."
Frost and Kayra got off and waited for Hawke to reach the top. She was just about a floor behind them all with Katriina leading up the rear. Frost looked down and saw that her eyes were closed. He forced back a chuckle as he watched her slowly climb the ladder. She was up at the top soon, but her eyes were still closed. She didn't know that there wasn't anything else to climb and reached out her arm to grab an imaginary rung, meeting nothing but air to support her. Her eyes snapped open as she tipped backwards, almost falling off the ladder if it wasn't for someone hand that quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back up and over the edge to the floor.
She looked up and saw Frost lifting her up. Suddenly the night of her village's death came to her mind and she got hot. Imaginary flames licked at her sides and she had to blink away the vision before she could let herself be pulled up to the top.
"You ok?"
"Fine," Hawke grumbled. She wasn't in a very good mood. Heights were one thing, but heights and flashbacks put together were something quite different.
At her cactus spiked tone, Frost opened his mouth to make a witty comment, but was elbowed in the stomach by Kayra. "I don't need you to fighting right now. I'm so tired I could die so shut up."
Katriina reached the top and looked at the three before motioning them to walk into one of the leaf and branch houses to the side. They all followed, wondering what the heck they were doing there. Katriina pushed aside the beads that hung in the doorway and led them all into the house, lit only by a small glass vase filled with fire flies. Frost looked around until his eyes came to rest on a figure sitting up in a hammock, gazing out of the window.
"Orion!" Frost exclaimed and the figure turned its head around to look at the crowd.
Orion gazed at the crowd, a large smile forming on his face, "Hey everyone. How's life been?"
Hawke beamed as she returned Orion's smile; she was very happy he was okay, Frost would maybe be a little lest ornery. Everyone in the room paused for a moment of silence before a yip was heard outside the door. A small, black and white monkey came running through the door, crawled up Katriina's leg and rested in her arms as yet another bundle of fur ran into the door.
"SageJames!!" Hawke exclaimed as she ran over to lift the fox up into her arms, squeezing him tight. The fox did his best to look indigent about all of this, but seemed quite happy to be in his position.
Kayra laughed and knelt next to Hawke, petting SageJames and smiling continuously. "We're all back together."
Hawke stood, Kayra following her lead and confronted Katriina. "Thank you."
Katriina just shrugged, "No problem, his highness here gave me more trouble than your fox. What was his name? SageJames?"
Hawke nodded and let SageJames out of her arms, onto the floor to inspect everyone.
"Figures that he would be a problem," Frost mocked, smirking at his brother.
"Hey, I didn't do anyth--..."
Katriina walked over to Orion and shook her head. "You wouldn't even let me touch you to fix you up until you were too weak to even move. Then, you just had to get a fever which required me to hall buckets of cold water from the stream all the way up here to bring it down. After which you wake up and have a huge appetite, causing me to have to cook for you!" She walked even closer, getting in his face. "Katriina Rudevic does not cook!" Her monkey hissed down at the dark haired prince from her shoulder.
Orion smiled sweetly at her, "but the food was great, my savior." He reached up a tweaked the nose of the monkey, causing it to have a hissy fit. He rested on top of Katriina's head and glared down at him, wishing this intruder out of his house.
Katriina flung her arms into the air, exasperated. "How the fuck do you people live with him?!"
Frost glanced at his brother's reddening face and burst out laughing. Kayra laughed as well, but Hawke just pointed to Frost and said, clearly, "he's much worse. Must run in the family or something."
Katriina laughed and sat down on one of the chairs she had, motioning the others to do the same. Frost glared at Hawke as she sat down, two seats away from him. Kayra leaned up against the wall, looking out the window.
Katriina was the first one to speak. "I saved his life, you all owe me an explanation."
"Explanation?" Kayra asked.
"You're both princes from the palace around here. But the royal family is now wanted for treason to the new ruler."
Frost and Orion straightened up. "Excuse me...repeat that...explain more," Frost ordered.
Katriina didn't like the tone of his voice, but she continued. "The sorceress, Ultimecia, once again is taking control of everything. People are giving into her because they hear there is no way to defeat her. The populations are in panic. They say there is only one person that can save them from the sorceress, the sister to Squall Leonhart. But there is rumor that she is already dead, in a great fire." Katriina's eyes darted over to Hawke as she continued. "The sorceress has also ordered that traitors to her cause be killed, calling for the extermination of all the SeeDs and the princes of Trabia, thought she wants the princes alive."
Everyone was silent for a bit. Frost was the first one to speak as he growled out, "So you're going to turn us all in, aren't you?"
Katriina smirked. "That's what you would think. My people owe allegiance to no one, especially a sorceress. I've been assigned to help you out."
Frost raised an eyebrow and looked to the purple haired girl in front of him. "Who are you really?"
A smile played on her lips. "Smart man. I'm truly the princess of these people, Katriina Rudevic of Elfwood."
"So you're an elf?" Kayra asked from the corner.
Katriina burst out laughing, "Do my ears go pointy? No, Elfwood is just the name of this place for it was built on an old elf village after they moved on."
Kayra and Katriina seemed to go into a staring contest, neither one moving their eyes from the other. "Do they know?" Katriina finally asked out loud.
"No, but I guess now is as good a time as any. You're going to have to tell them too, if we are all going to get along," Kayra said, her face grim.
Katriina sighed, "I suppose your right." She pointed first to herself and then to Kayra over in the corner. "We're both mind readers."
Hawke blinked, "what?" She looked to Kayra. "Why didn't you tell us?"
Kayra shrugged. "It's better that not very many people now about it. Mind readers are both feared and respected, but people's fear takes hold sometimes and people with our talent are killed off for no reason."
"So," Orion smiled as he surveyed the crowd, "we all have something to hide, don't we?"
Everyone nodded, but soon all eyes lay on Hawke.
"What?!" She exclaimed, "Do I have something on my nose?"
First Orion's head was lowered to her, just a bit. But soon after came Katriina's, then Kayra's, and after a slight pause, Frost lowered his as well and commented, "At your service, milady."
Hawke was very not used to being bowed to and turned a great shade of red. "Hey, that's really not necessary now, you truly don't have to do that. I'm just a normal teenage girl who just happens to be Squall's sister."
Katriina looked up at Hawke through her bangs. "You're the one that shall save us all. You're much more than you think."
Hawke was getting tired of this. "Stop that now, no more bowing, please."
They all lifted their heads and Frost gave her the cockiest smirk she had ever seen, she returned it with a glare.
"What now?" Orion asked from his bed by the window.
"We rest, get packed and set a time to go," Frost declared.
"And we're going...?" Kayra asked.
"Closest town here, we need to get some transportation," Frost answered.
"But the closest town is----..."Orion started to say something but Frost shot him a glare across the room and he shut up.
The girls looked at the two as if they were crazy and then started planning on what to pack. Katriina soon pointed to several rooms around the small house that they could sleep in, gave them water and some fruit for super, and told them all to go back to sleep.
"My village would be glad to help with the food and supplies, but I'm afraid that we don't have any weapons or anything useful," Katriina called to them in their new rooms when she started changing Orion's bandages as the prince grumbled.
"I'm fine, you really don't have to do this," Orion mumbled to Katriina.
"Shut up or I'll go into your mind and poke around a bit," she hissed out at him, not taking her eyes of the task at hand.
He shut up and let her change his bandages. The monkey, on the other hand, didn't shut up. He was hanging from the ceiling and glaring down at the prince, making squeaking noises. Orion looked up at the monkey. "Oh, you're just jealous because she likes me more than you."
The monkey dive bombed for his head.
"Ack!" Orion fumbled to get a good grip on the monkey, but to no avail.
"Yun Xing! You can play with him after he's healed," Katriina scolded the monkey.
Yun Xing hid his head and curled up his tail as he leapt from the prince's head, over to the windowsill, looking hurt. He continued to glare at Orion as if planing what to do once the prince got well.
Orion brushed monkey hair off his head and looked up to Katriina, "you call that playing?! I call that attack of the kamikaze monkey!"
She smirked and pulled lay a wash cloth full of soap on Orion's stomach were the cuts were the deepest. The prince grimaced as the soap stung. "Yun Xing is an angel, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yeah, angel, sure. What kind of name is Yun Xing anyway?"
"It means Lucky Star. Now shut up and let me clean this."
The monkey seemed to be laughing from over on his perch. Orion looked over to the monkey and glared with all his might, and just got a nasty glare right back. The dark haired youth just looked up to the straw ceiling and let himself daze off for a bit, until Katriina's face appeared over him. "How are you feeling?"
Orion blinked out of his day dream and sat up a bit. "Fine, I guess." He paused for a moment before adding, "Thank you." But as he turned back, he saw that she was already out of the room, taking the monkey with her. He felt slightly sheepish as he lay down to sleep, joining all the others in slumber.
******
Three days later, after Orion was well enough to make the trip, the five assembled at the bottom of the large tree village. Katriina handed them each a small, white flower. "It's from my father, a gift my people give before we start on a long hard journey." She smirked and stuck Orion's in his hair. "For luck."
Orion, instead of taking the flower our, batted his eyelashes and asked in a girly voice, "is it me?"
Frost grabbed the flower out of Orion's hair and handed it to his brother. "No, trust me. It clashes with all your blackness."
"Party pooper."
"Ten year old."
"And proud to act it!" Orion flashed his brother a cheesy smile and started out on the path. It was just dawn right now and he wanted to get as far as they could while it was still light out.
The others followed, Hawke in the middle, unaware that everyone was looking out for her. She didn't like that way they had been acting lately and was glad to get underway. They seemed to think that she was someone really important; she could argue against that point.
******
They romped through the forest for the whole day, never stopping even to eat. They finally settled down for the night by a stream in the middle of nowhere. Frost and Orion seemed to know where they were going, but Hawke and the others had no idea at all.
Orion sat down on a log that was laying near the stream, next to the fire they had built for light. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse, do you think pizza hut delivers out here?"
"We could try," Frost said sarcastically as he held a banana up to his ears, mimicking a phone. "I'd like to order three pizza's to somewhere in the middle of nowhere. My name? Well, we're two princes running away from your new ruler and the only girl that can save the world. Ten dollars?!" He slammed the banana onto the rock he was sitting on. "Rip off prices."
Hawke grinned as she sat down to eat her fruit. Katriina and Kayra had gone off hunting, leaving her alone with the two, crazy brothers. It wasn't so bad, as long as she and Frost didn't talk directly.
"So, my dear Hawke," Orion said holding a pear up to his mouth as if it were a microphone, "what does it feel like to be the only one that can save us all?" He stuck that pear under her mouth, for her to talk into.
"Well...actually," she pretended to really think hard about it, "I'm much rather that SageJames here, was the almighty one. I could do without the honor."
Orion laughed, but Frost hadn't seen her sarcastic face when saying it, turned around and went off on her,"You should be honored. It's not everyday a nobody gets this kind of destiny."
Hawke's eyes darkened. "Excuse me? A... "nobody"?"
Frost's eyes hardened as well, "You hear what I said."
She took a step closer to him. "Well this nobody has saved your life twice already. You still owe me one."
Orion had taken a great interest in their arguments and leaned forward. "She took your arm off with that one, Frost."
"But who's butt was I saving each time I was in danger?"
"No one asked you to save the 'nobody'."
Orion winced at Hawke's evil and mocking tone. "There goes two more limbs."
Frost glared at his brother, then went back to Hawke. He opened his mouth to speak, but Hawke had already lined up a comment. She was pissed and ready to deal him a hard deck of cards.
"Why did you take time out of your busy, princely schedule when you could be doing something useful like learning how to dance! Or would you call bruising others feet a new form of expressive dance?!"
"There goes your last limb, brother."
Frost was so mad he couldn't even think. "Yeah, that's right. I am a prince, so you better watch your tone, nobody!"
Hawke got really close to his face before hissing out, ice cold the words, "Yes, well, I'm the savior of this planet so right now my 'nobody' finger nail is worth more than your prince ass at the moment, your highness." She took off across the stream to cool off and possibly hit something multiple times.
Orion fell over on the log, "stabbed you right in the heart and ripped it out with her bare hands. You're dead, bro."
Frost turned and glared at his brother. "Oh, shut up."
Katriina and Kayra returned at the exact moment when Hawke took off in the opposite direction. Katriina watched Hawke's back retreat farther away into the forest and looked to Orion. "What did you do to her?"
"Hey, don't look at me! It was him!"
The two girl's looked over to Frost and gave him a death glare, before Kayra went over to the fire to roast the rabbit Katriina had shot.
Orion looked over to Katriina and smiled, "Your highness is good with her weapon I see."
The purple hair girl whirled on Orion. "I'm really not in the mood." The monkey hissed at him from on top of her shoulder.
"You know, you really need to choose your friends more carefully," Orion commented, glaring at the monkey.
"Quiet now," Katriina said clearly as she unsheathed a small knife from her side, "Or I'll cut your head off."
Orion smiled and commented lightly, "Oh, that's fine."
Frost added, "Yes, he doesn't use it at all, wouldn't make a difference."
Katriina slowly walked up to Orion, smiling evilly. "I didn't mean that head." She rammed the knife into the log, right between Orion's legs and slowly walked away, following Hawke's trail into the woods.
Frost looked over at his brother, who was slightly white in the face. "You would've lost a very important limb," he commented with a smirk.
******
Hawke stopped just outside of the clearing they had settled by. She wasn't planning on going back anytime soon, maybe she'd sleep there. She busied herself with throwing rocks at the tree in front of her.
Soon though, she heard a twig snap behind her and she whirled around to face whoever was there. It was Katriina.
"Oh, hi," Hawke said blankly and went back to throwing rocks at the tree.
"Whatever he said, he didn't mean it."
"Oh, sure, that's why he acted all high and mighty, again, as usual." Thunk, another dead on hit.
Katriina just sighed. "You know, he feels bad now."
Thunk.
"You could go talk to him about it."
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
"He could teach you something very useful."
Thunk.
"Like how to use magic."
Splash. Hawke missed the tree. Her concentration was gone. She again turned to face her purple haired friend.
"He told me he doesn't use his magic anymore."
"He may not use it, but he can teach others how to find magic within themselves," Katriina did a back flip up into the nearest tree. "You're lucky, I can sense some magic in you. There are some of us that don't have any at all. Like me and Kayra, for example. You should learn to use it, I'm sure it'd help you save everything in the future."
Hawke just starred off at nothing.
"Think about it."
The violet youth slipped away into the foliage and shadows, leaving Hawke to think. And think she did.
******
Frost was busy feeling bad about what he had said, when Katriina returned and walked over to the fire. She glanced at Frost before helping Kayra with dinner. Frost looked over to the place where Hawke had disappeared and was surprised to see Hawke returning. He stood up and prepared to hold his ground.
Hawke surprised him yet again by walking up to him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to where she had stopped there.
"Listen, Hawke, I'm sorry," he began to apologize.
"You said some things that I can't forgive unless you give something back."
He raised an eyebrow at her, but waited for her verdict.
"Teach me magic, Katriina told me you could."
This was not something that he had thought she would say; on the contrary, he was almost too shocked to even talk. He even had to blink a couple of times before he could think clearly. This girl was certainly someone that he couldn't predict. "You have the gift?"
Hawke just shrugged, "I guess so. Katriina told me that I did."
"Er, okay," Frost walked over to the stream and pointed to a rock close to there. "Sit. Here."
Hawke followed orders and sat down on the cold, smooth rock. Frost stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Close your eyes."
She rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see it. She felt like someone was teaching her how to sleep.
"Concentrate on yourself."
Hawke let out a sniffle of a laugh.
"Hey, come on. You want to find your magic or not?"
"Yeah, whatever. Concentrating on me." She made her next laugh into a cough and closed her eyes again.
"I'm going to direct you to it. You're going to have to let your thoughts become mine."
"Men think?"
"Hey now..." his grip on her shoulders tightened. Suddenly Hawke felt a flash of new energy. She felt as if she could reach out and touch it. "This is my magic," Frost said right into her head.
She looked at it, with her mind, not her eyes. "It's silver...what's with you and silver?"
"It's mostly just ice magic. Like I told you before, my brothers and I are elemental, now, try to find yours."
Hawke didn't exactly know what to think about this one until she could sense something else along next to her. She dug further into herself, down to her very soul, or so she thought. There it was, right in front of her, a large glowing mass of mingling black and white magic. The magic took shape, the shape of her. She walked forward in her mind towards the small person within her. Her own hand reached out and grabbed that of the person made of magic.
Frost's hands were thrown off her shoulders as he was propelled five feet away from Hawke. Her eyes snapped open and a feeling of calmness swept over her before she suddenly realized that Frost was laying in the middle of the stream.
"Sheesh...." Frost said as he put out little bits of fire that had started on the tips of his hair.
Hawke just looked at him dumbly for a second before bursting out laughing. Frost straightened up and attempted to look handsome with water dripping down his face and his hair smoldering from Hawke's magic charge, but this just caused Hawke to laugh even harder.
"You could've warned me about this..."
"Like I," Laughter, "could've," more laughing, "known!"
Frost cupped his hands together and started flinging water at Hawke. He also got her, but she jumped off the rock just in time.
"Thank you for the lovely lesson on magic," Hawke said with a slightly mocking bow to Frost before she ran off to eat some of that rabbit; she was starving.
Cold stream water dripped down his face as Frost muttered, "Welcome." He trudged slowly towards the campsite, grumbling. He was never going to hear the end of this one.
******
Five more days of walking through the forest and the group was finally nearing the city. The last lights of day sparkled through the misty air as they could just barely see the gates to the city they had been walking towards. The last mile of the journey had been through incredibly muddy terrain, leaving the group looking less well for wear.
Kayra, who had been walking in the middle, stopped for a bit next to a rock. Orion and Frost looked to each other and nodded, stopping the group right there, out of site of the guards at the gate. "Why," Kayra asked between breaths of air, "haven't I ever heard of this city before?"
"Well," Orion said as he rummaged for something in his backpack, "that would be because it's not publically known at all. Kind of a place that misfits go to hang out." He looked up a Frost as if telling him to explain more.
"It's mostly just a man's town," Frost commented as he too, rummaged through his bag for something.
"A man's town?" Hawke asked, raising an eyebrow and laying her hands on her hips.
"And why would it just be...a man's town?" Katriina asked, standing next to Hawke in the same fashion.
"Er," Orion looked to Frost, and Frost to Orion, before Frost ended their questions. "Women have no rights what so ever. They're all slaves here, and women can't enter without becoming slaves as well."
The girls' eyes narrowed at the two brothers in front of them.
"I say we kill them now," Hawke muttered, making her hands into fists.
"Sounds like a plan," Katriina said as she too, stood her ground.
"Wait! Wait!" Orion yelled, holding his hands over his head. "We've come prepared for this."
The girls waited in silence to hear this almighty plan.
Frost tossed some clothes to Hawke as Orion tossed some to Katriina, then Kayra. Frost smirked as he approached Hawke. "You're all going to become guys, just like us."
"But I enjoy having brain cells," Hawke muttered under her breath, but she guessed this was the only way to go. The girls went off into the forest for a bit to change, leaving the guys to talk.
"You've got the two mind readers. With me and Hawke, it's going to be personal," Frost said, grinning slightly evilly. Orion just nodded and attempted not to laugh at his brother.
Katriina arrived first, now in just a pair of Orion's riding pants, a pair of old, dusty riding boots and a loose black shirt. "I feel like your twin..."
Orion just nodded to her, "nice." Kayra came out next, wearing the exact same thing as Katriina. Then Hawke followed, wearing the same thing as them all except her shirt was a really loose, white tunic, and of course, she wouldn't remove her lace up boots for the world.
Orion and Frost walked around and inspected the girls. Frost grabbed Hawke's hair and ripped out the hair tie, causing her long, brown hair to fall across her shoulders. "Men don't wear their hair like that," he told her as he handed her the tie back. But she looked nice with her hair down, and he had to snuff the idea to tell her so out.
"Thanks..."Hawke said sarcastically as she put her hair into a low pony tail, the kind that just holds your hair together while it just lies on your back. Her layers, though, refused to stay in, and as normal fell out, framing her face. She crammed them behind her ears and waited for whatever the guys where planning.
The two princes looked from their appointed girls, to each other, with a smirk, and then back. They leaned down and picked up a hunk of mud from the ground, Orion with two, and chucked them quickly at the girls, catching them all off guard and dousing their clothes with chunky mud. Kayra just stood there in almost awe that they had just down that, but Katriina and Hawke grabbed handfuls of mud and threw them right back at the princes, Katriina's hitting Orion right on the shoulder and Hawke's smacking Frost directly on the side of a check.
The fight went on until there was no way to tell one muddy blob from the next, except for maybe hair color. Frost and Orion looked at the girls now and nodded. "There's just one more thing that's wrong. You've got extra body parts for being a guy," Orion told the group. Frost went over to his bag and came back with a roll of sports tape in his hand.
"NO WAY!" All the girls exclaimed as Frost tossed them the rolls.
******