Silent Fall
Chapter 1
"You're pathetic, Cye."
This was the fifth argument of
its kind this week, each one just as bad as the last but more often worse. It seemed to Cye that whatever he did
sparked an argument between him and Kento, there was always something
wrong. And every time they fought Cye
felt more and more like nothing. Kento
was his best friend and he was saying things like this?
All the other guys had gone out
with Mia into town. They had stayed
behind, Cye volunteering to cook dinner and Kento to eat it.
That wasn't going to happen now;
Cye had had enough of this. He turned
around and fled out the back door into the bright, almost blinding, sunlight;
all the while Kento yelling obscenities and curses after him. He didn't stop running until he was safely
under the cover of the woods.
What had happened? The Ronins had always been so close up until
Talpa's destruction, and now it was like they were just falling apart. There was so much friction between them you
could cut it with a knife. Mia tried
desperately to keep them together by concocting various little road trips to
which they only reluctantly agreed to go on because she was so damn
persistent. The outings, by every means
of good intentions, had succeeded in little else than pulling the Ronins
farther apart, something Cye had no explanation for.
Cye decided to head for the
lake. The one place where he felt calm
and unthreatened besides Mia's mansion, which had become so suddenly
inhospitable.
Being the oldest Ronin didn't
mean he was the strongest. In fact, his
armor was probably one of the weakest even in the water. That had gotten him into a lot of trouble
when he had been battling the Dynasty.
After the Ancient had given each of them their dreams and they had gone
out on their solo trips, he had been the first one captured. Red Torrent hadn't even been real; there was
no living flesh behind its mask, yet it had defeated him all the same.
The lake was coming into view now
and for the first time Cye took a look at his surroundings. The air was cool and tart and the grass and
shrubbery were all glistening from the recent rain. Sunlight was strung up in bright patches among the leaves, like
lanterns for a party. The trees were
growing sparser as he neared the waters edge.
Was he really as weak as he now
thought he was? To solve this Cye
stepped into the lake, wading out till the water was waist deep and donning his
sub armor as he did so as a barrier against the cold.
"Armor of Torrent! Dao Shin!"
Cye felt the familiar weight of
the armor settle on his shoulders as he called it to him.
"Super Wave Smasher!"
He braced his yari as a stream of
water roared from its tip. Cye watched
as the attack raced across the surface of the once placid water before dying
away about halfway across.
He was disappointed. It should have gone farther. The rest of the guys probably hated him,
having to constantly protect him and take up the slack where he left off. They probably would have been better off if
he had never met them. This armor was
more a curse than anything.
Cye drew the Torrent dagger and
examined it. He had never had to use
the dagger before, for his yari had never failed him. But now it might just have a use after all.
Maybe.
Cye banished his armor and with a
little effort was able to retain the dagger.
He slipped it into his belt, hiding it cleverly beneath his shirt, and
started towards Mia's mansion.
"Why did you say that to him?"
Ryo demanded hotly of Kento.
"I don't know. I-I was just mad, I guess." Kento stammered.
Ryo sighed in frustration; this
was the only answer he had been able to get out of him since he and the others
had returned from the city to find Cye missing.
"Do you know where he might have
gone?"
"The lake, I think."
"We have to go find him."
Ryo," Mia interrupted, "maybe
we'd just better leave him by himself.
Let him work things out alone."
"I don't know." He said, lost.
"What I want to know is why you two are fighting all the time now. You're worse than all the rest of us
combined."
Kento hung his head, glancing out
the corner of his eye for support from either Sage or Rowen, but they offered
none.
Cye spotted Mia's jeep from the
edge of the woods and that meant the guys were home. He snuck back around the house to the door he had left by. Slowly, he entered, closing the door behind
him quietly, not wanting to alert everyone of his presence right away.
From the Living Room he could
hear the other Ronins and Mia talking.
"We have to do something about
Cye."
"He could get hurt, he has
before."
So it was true, they didn't think
he could take care of himself, they thought he was weak. Maybe they were right, but there was no more
time to think about it, there was only one more thing left to do.
Cye snuck up to the room he
shared with Kento and, once again, quietly slipped in. Only this time he locked the door behind
him.
How much effort would this
take? How deep would he have to cut
himself before even Sages healing powers couldn't bring him back? Would this end all the questions? All the suspicions? All the lies? Only one way to find out.
Cye drew the dagger from its
hiding place and knelt on the carpet, bracing the knife between his knees. He couldn't think about it or else he'd lose
all courage. The Ronin positioned his
wrists on either side of the glinting blade.
Darkness seemed to grip the land as a cloud passed over the setting sun.
Cye took a deep breath in
trepidation before pressing his wrists to the dagger and pulling them up
sharply.
* * * * *
What do you think? Should I
continue it?
This one I started on a whim so
it might take a while to right if it is continued.
Disclaimer: I don't
own the Ronin Warriors.
