Sparda219 - Hotel of the Harem is somewhere buried amongst all the fics
on my hard drive. I've been having a crappy few weeks, and thus have turned
my attention to my Dragonheart ficcie (which I just finished today, yay!),
though I'm still debating on whether I'll post it or not. But no worries,
Hotel of the Harem is not dead, I'll continue to add to it as soon
as the mood to write more of it strikes me --Lashana
Chapter 5 : We try to rest and look what happens
Skie rose his head and actually managed to look sheepish. "My stomach."
Telca blinked for a moment, then exchanged glances with Lashana before bursting out into hysterical laughter.
"Go hunting then," Lashana grinning, her voice wavering with suppressed laughter. Judging by the way Skie was glaring at Telca, she figured it was a good idea if she didn't follow her friend's example. "It's a forest. There's got to be something."
The dragon looked at her in surprise before nodding and gracefully getting to his feet, spreading his wings to their full extension as he stretched. "Be on your guards while I'm away. This forest has eyes."
"Feh, as if we need to worry about that," Inuyasha snorted as he lay down on his right side along a branch, propping his head up with a fist while he gazed down into the fire. "It's not as if there's yokai in this place."
"Don't be too sure," Telca muttered after her laughter had abated, dimly aware that Skie had turned to look at her curiously at that remark. "This place is the death place of the Scorpion King. Major bad mojo."
"Thank you for the foreshadowing comment, Telca." The Elf smirked and looked at Skie. "Why are you still here? Go hunt. But bring us back something if you make a kill! Like a haunch."
He grunted. "You'd have me share my kill with the likes of you?"
"Unless you want me to say The Word, then yes. Yes, I do."
Grumbling, he reluctantly nodded in agreement before crouching down and springing into the air, wings snapping out to their full four hundred foot extension as he gave the crucial downbeat, the undercurrents of it nearly knocking the three people out of the trees before he caught a strong wind and soared east.
Eddie frowned and shifted to sit lotus style, resting his right elbow on his knee so he could prop his head up with a fist. "You two owe us an explanation."
Telca blinked and looked at him across the fire. "Oh?"
Annoyed at her rather light tone of voice, he stifled a growl and met her gaze. "You two seem to know a lot about us, and the others," he gestured in the direction the dragon had gone, then at the other two males in the trees. "And yet we've never seen you before. How is that?"
"Ever the journalist, aren't you?" Lashana murmured, drawing his sharp blue gaze. "It's not all that simple."
"Try us."
Glancing over at Joyrock, she sighed and lightly trailed her fingers over Kalamadea's back, hearing his soft reassuring croon as she shot a look of askance at Telca, who shrugged. Oh well, in for a penny.... "Alright, fine. Y'see, Telca and I are from a crossroads. It's a dimension where all worlds mix into one. Add to that the fact that we tend to go dimension hopping on a regular basis, we've picked up a lot about various people in each world. With me so far?" While Inuyasha was pretending that he wasn't listening, the two that were looking at her nodded. "Okay. Now, in one of those dimensions - and this is where this gets a tad freaky - you lot, are characters. Your lives are works of fiction. Stories. Lords know what possessed some wacko to make a dimension like that, but it exists."
Eddie blinked slowly. "Characters? We're.... characters?"
"Hai. You have a whole series of comics, all to yourself. And you're in all three of the Spiderman books.... or was it four? I can't remember...." she shrugged and looked over at Inuyasha. "Even though you're pretending not to listen, you have your own stories too. Very popular ones too. Joyrock, m'afraid you were only in one story. A long one mind you, but in the end Lina Inverse killed you off."
"And it's a good thing Lashana tends to read and watch stuff with slightly 'off' characters too, else we'd never have been able to pick you out from that list," Telca muttered. "You're the best of the flock.... which basically means that the flock needs a lot of chlorine in the gene pool."
"Hey! We resent that!"
Joyrock smirked. "Speak for yourself human."
"We are." Eddie shot an annoyed look at the Mazoku.
"Ne, it's cuz he's bonded to his symbiote. There's two minds, one body. That's why he talks in plural," Lashana explained before Joyrock opened his mouth again and got himself into trouble. She really didn't feel like breaking up a fight right now. Actually... she was rather tired...
::Mommy?:: Kalamadea frowned when he didn't get an answer and rose his head to look up at her, rumbling softly when he saw that she had fallen asleep, her head resting against the trunk of the tree as her hair slowly cascaded forward, bangs resting against her closed eyes. Sighing, he carefully crawled up to her shoulders and curled himself around the back of her neck, looping his tail around her throat as he settled himself for the night.
Telca sighed softly as she looked up at the sleeping woman and buried her fingers in Mischief's fur, drawing on the reassurance of the cat's presence as she turned her gaze from her friend to the fire. This is going to be a long night...
~*~
The moon was high in the sky when Lashana jerked awake, her heart thundering in her chest as she fought to bite down on a scream. Instinctively, she reached for her Bond with Blackwargreymon, a part of her crying out in agony when all she sensed was an overwhelming sense of 'alone'. Oh Gods... the nightmares have never been that bad... Trembling, she rose her hands and raked her fingers through her hair, fighting to get herself under control, or at least to stop shaking.
"Elf?"
She nearly screamed at the touch on her arm, lashing out at what her nightmare filled mind perceived as a threat and gasping when fingers closed around her wrist, stopping the blow and holding her there in a grip of steel. Still trembling, she blinked at Joyrock for a moment before trying to pull away, panic rising in her when he didn't let her go.
Well, this is a pleasant surprise. The little Elf's just given me the greatest meal I've ever had. The Mazoku chuckled a little as he fed on more of her terror, then paused when her sheer panic registered. This wasn't something that he had caused by sneaking up on her, this was something more. Curious now, he released her arm and calmly watched as she immediately leapt up to crouch on a higher branch, fear and panic coming off of her in waves. "Bad dreams, little Elf?"
"What the hell do you care? Want another meal from me or something?"
He blinked at the roughness of her voice, the slight echo of Power gaining his attention. Moving slowly, he crept backwards into a spatial shift, emerging in front of her moments later. Ignoring her glare, he peered at her closely, eyes widening a little in surprise when he saw five black runes of Chaos along the backs of both her arms. Those weren't there before.... Sighing, he turned and sat on the branch, one leg dangling over the long drop to the ground while he rested his right ankle on his left knee, sinking his cheek into the palm on his left hand afterwards as he stared down at the sleeping forms of Telca and Eddie, and the large form of Skie. "I don't care. And I'm quite full now. What I do want to know is if these nightmares of yours going to get us killed."
Lashana growled softly and rose to her feet, leaning back against the tree as she felt a still sleeping Kalamadea curl a bit tighter around her. It had been good planning on her part to completely block everything but her presence from the little dragon, she didn't want him sharing her dreams. "Why would they?"
He chuckled softly. "Because they'll always get worse. They always do, don't they?"
"How the hell do you know that?"
"Ah, suddenly interested in talking to me now, are you? Sorry little girl, I don't give answers that easily." His gaze found hers, and he smirked at her in amusement. "Not without something in return."
"Yeah, right. As if I'm going to give you anything. I know your kind, Joyrock. You Mazoku are all the same."
That caught his attention. "Oh? You think you know my kind do you? Well aren't you presumptuous. And who exactly have you met that makes you think you understand us?"
"Xellos Metallium."
"Nani?!" He stared at her in shock, not even bothering to try to hide his surprise. "The Beastmaster's General Priest?! How the hell do you know him?"
She grimaced. "He lives with us. He just moved in one day and now we can't get rid of the little pervert."
She's calling the Beastmaster's servant a 'little pervert'?! Doesn't she know how powerful he is?! He's the only Mazoku to have power equal to one of the Higher Mazoku Lords! "Y-you're lying."
"You're the one who can sense emotions, you idiot. You know I'm not lying."
"Then I'm to believe that you have one of the most powerful Mazoku living with you? That someone that important would choose to..." He trailed off at the look she was giving him, knowing that if he finished that sentence she was going to 'stay' him. "Why would he? He's never shown interest in mortals before, not unless he was going to kill them."
"He wouldn't dare try," she growled lowly. "And as for why? Hell, if we knew that, we'd be able to get rid of him."
Xellos Metallium... living with these.... these.... mortals.... And they treat him as if he's one of them. As if he isn't capable of destroying them with a single thought. Joyrock frowned and looked away from her. Even among Mazoku, Xellos was a force to be feared. "It's impossible."
Now highly annoyed, Lashana folded her arms over her chest and snarled. "Fine. It's impossible. When this is over I'll throw you into his room and he can do whatever he wants to you and if you can still function afterwards, then we can have this highly irritating conversation again, okay?"
Curious as to what she was implying, he glanced at her and frowned. "What makes you think he'd bother with me?"
She smirked. "He's a sadistic, perverted, masochist. If it walks, he'll try to screw it."
That made him shudder. "You wouldn't."
A rather evil grin spread over her lips. "Try me."
Oh lovely. I'm stuck with an Elf that can be just as evil as I can. "I'd rather not, thanks." He suppressed a shiver and turned back to studying the others, still keeping a close 'watch' on her emotions, easily sensing when her thoughts had turned back to her nightmares. "You still want to know how I knew about the dreams?"
"Not if we have to go through that entire conversation again."
He chuckled and glanced at her. "I stumbled across a human camp a few decades back. I wasn't even going to bother, but there was the most delicious taste of fear coming from one of them that I just had to investigate. As it turned out, I got too close. He woke up screaming, overrun by terror that I had never thought a human could feel. He saw me there and immediately attacked. I barely managed to shift before he killed me. Even then, it took me weeks to heal the damage he had caused." Noticing that she was now fully paying attention to him, he smirked and turned to look at her. "I found out later that I had disturbed a Chaos Knight and his followers. Since then I've only tasted terror like that once."
"From me." Lashana frowned and looked away, staring down into the still burning campfire. "So it is the same for every Knight. I wasn't sure. Xellos said it was only because I had been resurrected.... but I wasn't sure...." She shook herself slightly and lowered her arms, sighing as she sagged against the tree. "Why would you think my dreams would get us killed?"
"The other Knight went mad because of them."
She closed her eyes at that, inwardly cursing Q for destroying her link to her Bonded. The only one who could manage to help her stay stable after the dreams. "It won't happen to me."
"Oh? You say that, yet even now, you're still trembling. When you start seeing your nightmares while you're awake, you'll think differently."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" she growled, glaring at him. "Well tough luck. Find someone else to feed off of, Joyrock."
"Hmpft. This may surprise you, Elf. But I have no desire to see you lose your mind. Not only does it corrupt the emotions into a tasteless mess, but it'll get all of us killed. So it's in my best interests to make sure you stay as you are. Perhaps that is why Q destroyed that link of yours. Because he knew that without your anchor, you wouldn't be able to cope." He smirked, chuckling lightly. "I would have done the same in his place."
"Lovely. Next time, keep information like that to yourself. It's more than I need to know." She pushed away from the tree as she spoke, fully intending to reach up to climb to another branch, only the slight sound of leaves rustling caught her attention. "Did you hear that?"
"Eh?" Joyrock looked at her and frowned as he listened. "There's nothing there."
"No, wait." She closed her eyes and concentrated, her Elven hearing picking up Telca's sleepy murmurings, Inuyasha's light snores, Skie's heartbeat.... and the creak of a branch above her. "There!"
The leaves exploded outwards as she pointed towards them, and she loosed a short shriek of surprise as something slammed into her, knocking her off the branch while she grappled with it. The world lurched around her as taloned fingers closed around her left ankle, and she twisted in Joyrock's grip as she savagely drove her right fist at her attacker, knocking it off of her and letting it fall to the ground. Still hanging upside-down, she had a good view of what had attacked her as it twisted in mid-air to land on it's feet. It looked like a tiny zombie, it's eyeless sockets seemingly glowing with dark hatred as it glared up at her, then loosed a cry and vanished into the bushes.
"What the hell was that?!" Joyrock hissed from above her as he stared at the place where the thing had darted into the bush.
"I don't know. Help me up." She rose the arm that a now wide-awake Kalamadea wasn't drawing blood from and grabbed his outstretched right hand, feeling him release her ankle the moment he had a good grip on her wrist.
::Don't ever do that again! I do not like waking up to the realization that I'm about to slam into the ground!:: Kalamadea roared as Joyrock effortlessly pulled the Elf back up onto the branch, broadcasting it to both of them.
"It wasn't all that fun for me either, y'know." Lashana grumbled as she eyed the blood that was slowly trickling down her arm. "Are you trying to amputate me at the shoulder or something?"
::Hmm? Ack! Sorry! Sorry!::
She winced as he pulled his talons out of her flesh and looked back at the sleepers on the ground for a moment before glancing at Joyrock. "Thanks."
He grunted in reply. "Don't get any ideas, little Elf. I'm just very aware of that 'if one dies, all of you die' warning that Q gave us."
::Mmhm, sure you are.:: Kalamadea smirked, grinning when the Mazoku glared at him.
"Anyway, maybe we should..."
Joyrock frowned when she trailed off and looked at her. "What?"
She made a gesture for him to stay quiet and crept out farther along the branch, crouching down to stare at a group of the tiny creatures that were creeping towards the sleepers. How many spells did we use up today? Four? Five? Aw, who cares. Feeling Joyrock's gaze on her, she carefully backflipped off the branch and soundlessly landed behind the small group, grinning as she rose her hands. "You who crosses between the sky and earth, gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power! Demona Crystal!!"
The Mazoku chuckled softly as he watched the spell entomb the creatures in thick ice and clapped, catching the smirk the Elf threw him as he did so.
::What are they?:: Kalamadea frowned as he hopped off her shoulder and landed on the ice encased creatures, talons digging into the block to keep himself from sliding off as he peered at them through the opaque casing. ::They're ugly.::
"Yes well, they're pretty much the walking dead, Kalamadea. They're not here to win beauty pageants." Lashana reminded him as she walked past and plucked him off the ice, holding him in the crook of her left arm as she walked towards the fire.
A high pitched shriek warned her too late, and she barely had time to twist to shield Kalamadea before another one of the things landed on her back, screaming loudly in her ear. Snarling, she reached back and grabbed it's leg, ripping it off of her and violently throwing it to the ground before slamming her boot through it's rotted skull. "Telca!"
"Nuuugh?" The loud scream pulled Telca out of a very comforting dream about Remy, and she had the full intention of fireballing Lashana as she sleepily rose her head from her arms and opened her eyes....
....just to look right into the decomposing face of a pygmy zombie. "ACK!!" She grabbed Mischief and threw herself backwards, gasping when Lashana spun to savagely kick the thing in the ribs, sending it flying into a tree. "What's going on?!"
"We're being attacked! That's what's going on!" The Elf yelled as she shoved Kalamadea at a half-awake Skie and turned to draw her sword, facing the dozen or so creatures. "Eddie! Wake the hell up, man!"
"Huh?" Much like Telca had, he rose his head and cried out in shock at the sight of the creatures bearing down on him. Almost immediately, the symbiote flowed over him, shedding it's casual clothes disguise and reverting to it's more natural black and white colouring, boosting Eddie's strength and reflexes ten fold as it did so. "What are those things?!"
"Oh, like I know?!" Lashana ducked a thrown spear and hacked at the closest pygmy, cutting it in half and maiming a second with a backhand slash. One of them swung down from a tree and made to leap on her from behind, and she was only halfway turned around to meet it when a ball of reddish energy slammed into it, knocking it to the ground and exploding. Surprised, she glanced in the direction the attack had come from and blinked at a chuckling Joyrock for a moment before the sound of Telca's voice grabbed her attention. What's she... oh no.... "Everybody down!"
WHAM!
"Elf!!"
Lashana winced at the yell as she dropped to the ground and covered her head with her arms. "Sorry, Skie!"
"....give me your freezing wrath! DYNAST BREATH!"
"Eh? What's going on?!" Inuyasha twitched an ear and looked up right into the path of the ice spell. "Shimatta...."
Once the roar of the spell died down, Lashana rose her head from her arms and looked at Telca as she got to her feet again, brushing ice shards off her clothes. "Nice aim. Would you like to go defrost Inuyasha now?"
"What? Hey don't bitch at me! I got rid of the.... whatever they were. Right?" The Avatar of Gaia gestured to the ice sculptures that used to be the pygmies and glared at Lashana in annoyance.
"Um... I think so." Lashana turned and took a quick look around camp, frowning when she didn't see any others, but the forest around them was too quiet for her tastes.
::There's more coming!:: Kalamadea told them as he returned to his safe perch on Lashana's shoulder. ::I can hear them!::
"Well crap." Telca growled as she brushed dirt off her shirt then lifted a frazzled Mischief up so that the cat could perch on her shoulders. "No more sleep tonight I guess. Time to run?"
"Time to run," Lashana nodded, turning to look at Skie as she did so. "Can ya get small again?"
He snorted, his breath blowing her hair off her shoulders. "You expect me to run from those pitiful things?"
"Either that or you can wait here. I'm sure a dozen of them are no problem for you, but considering the loudness of all the screaming that's coming our way, I'm guessing that there's at least a hundred of them," she shrugged and turned to go help Telca break Inuyasha free of the ice. "Your choice. Telca! We gotta move! Hurry up!"
"I'm trying!"
"Okay, new game plan! Eddie! Go scout ahead, see if you can find that temple or something! Skie, get yer head outta yer arse and change sizes already! Joyrock, stop cackling like a retard and help Telca free Inuyasha!"
"And what are you going to do?" Venom snarled, obviously not liking being ordered around.
She grinned evilly and held up a fireball. "I'm gonna go hold them off for a little bit."
Venom shuddered.
~*~
"I can't believe you blew a fifty foot deep crater just to get rid of ten pygmies!" Venom yelled to Lashana as the group ran through the forest towards a clearing of long grass.
"It bought us some time didn't it?!" she shot back, glaring up at him from where he was webslinging from tree to tree. Skie grumbled where he was perched on her left shoulder and tightened his claws on her, talons lightly pricking through her shirt sleeve to pinch her skin. She ignored him for the moment in lieu of making sure Telca and Inuyasha were okay. Sure enough, the hanyou was easily keeping pace with them, carrying a grinning Telca on his back while Mischief sat perched on the top of his head. That's just no fair, how come she gets a ride and I have to run?
"Ack!"
Automatically skidding to a stop, Lashana twisted at the yelp and frantically scrambled back to the fallen Joyrock, eyes widening when she saw an army of the pygmies quickly overtaking them. "Shit! Get up!"
Joyrock glanced in the direction she was staring and growled softly as he forced himself to his feet. "I'm not built for marathons!"
Seeing the army getting closer, Kalamadea scrambled up onto the top of Lashana's head and hissed at the Mazoku. ::Then do like Skie! Change to a smaller form!::
"And do it on the run!" Lashana added as she grabbed the Mazoku's right wrist and bolted, dragging him along behind her as she hurried to catch up to the others. She felt Kalamadea shift his stance on the top of her head and irritatedly batted his tail out of her face as he turned so that he was facing the oncoming pygmies. "Littling, what are you doing?!"
::Just keep running!::
Oh like I'm actually gonna stop when there's a horde of kindergarteners from hell behind me...
::Don't get snippy,:: he growled at her as he shakily stood up onto all fours and extended his wings, making sure to aim well above Joyrock as he gathered energy between his wingclaws, the lightning crackling and sparking as it grew in power before he launched it. ::Go!::
"Aw, hell... RAYWING!" The spell lifted her off the ground, and she grunted a little at the added weight of the Mazoku as she flew forwards, easily outdistancing their pursuers as Kalamadea's attack slammed into them, the explosion decimating them. "Oof! Joyrock! You need to lose weight!"
"Oh shut up. Ack! Don't drop me!"
"Then change into that stupid frog form of yours!"
"Eh?" Joyrock tilted his head back and looked up at her. "How'd you know about that?"
"Will you just do it before my right arm comes out of it's socket?!"
"I can't! Not while you're holding onto me!"
"That can be fixed!"
Skie chuckled softly as the Elf tossed the Mazoku into the air, delighting in the demon's look of shock and annoyance. "You're a sadistic one, aren't you Elf?"
"As if you're one to talk," Lashana grumbled as she sped up, watching as Joyrock fell into one of his spatial shifts and re-emerged in his much smaller - and lighter - form. Oh well, I suppose I should catch him. Gritting her teeth, she fed more energy into the flight spell, reaching out to catch the Mazoku frog as she narrowly avoided a hailstorm of poisoned darts from the pygmies. "This is not good. Kalama! Where're the others?"
::Just ahead! About ten meters!::
"Right."
"The zombies are catching up," Skie commented as he twisted his head around to look behind them. "They've got more of those darts."
::You know, this would be easier if you actually helped out,:: Kalamadea growled to him as he loosed another attack, frowning when all it did was take out two pygmies.
"Ack!" Joyrock latched onto the Elf's arm when she nearly dropped him and glared at her in annoyance, blinking when he saw how her jaw was clenched. "Elf?"
She glanced at him and frowned. "Just shut up and hold on."
"What are you doing?!" Skie yelled as she shot upwards, crashing through the forests canopy. His talons sunk into her shoulder as he held on for dear life, glancing back at the ground that was rapidly receding beneath them. But it was when she banished the flight spell that he truly panicked, roaring in shock as they fell. "Are you insane?! We're going to die!!"
"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows, buried in the flow of time. In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness! Let all the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" Lashana twisted in mid-air and aimed her hands at the ground below them, dimly aware that Joyrock was clinging tightly to her right arm as he stared at the power that was gathering at her fingertips. "DRAGON SLAVE!!!"
The second the spell left her hands, she grabbed Joyrock and held him in front of her, shaking him to get his attention. "Open a shift!" she screamed as they continued to fall, right towards the deadly explosions below them. "Hurry!"
~*~
"Well... looks like Lashana's out having fun without me," Telca grumbled as she stared at the huge mushroom cloud of fire and smoke that rose high above the forest.
Venom glanced at her warily. "You call that 'fun'?" When she smirked, he hid a shudder and looked back towards the dwindling explosion. "I don't see them. Did they blow themselves up?"
"We can only wish," Inuyasha growled under his breath.
"Sit!"
WHAM!
"Incoming!!"
Telca blinked at the scream and looked towards the recently facevaulted Inuyasha, quirking an eyebrow when a spatial shift opened just above him, letting Lashana and co. fall through to land on the twitching hanyou. "Hello."
"Ugh..."
"Don't you ever do something that reckless again! You could have killed us!" Skie shrieked as he threw himself away from the dazed woman and grew to a quarter of his natural size, glaring at her venomously.
::Don't get your tail in a knot,:: Kalamadea muttered as he carefully extracted himself from Lashana's arms and shook himself. ::Elfy?::
Nuuuugh? Wincing, Lashana slowly forced herself to her feet, ignoring the glares she was getting from both Skie and Inuyasha as she tried to shake Joyrock off her arm. "Leggo. Baka."
The Mazoku cracked an eye open and looked around, relaxing when he saw that they were on solid ground. "We're not dead?"
"No we're not dead," Lashana told him. "But you're going to be hurting if you don't stop glomping my arm."
"You do remember that whole problem with the limitation of spells, right?" Telca asked, looking at Lashana. "Because so far you've used a hell of a lot of them."
"Yeah well, you'd rather have fought the decaying kindergarteners from hell hand to hand?"
"...point."
"Besides. It's almost sunrise. New day and all, right?"
"Okay, I'll give you that," Telca nodded, feeling Mischief's claws lightly prick the back of her neck as the cat shifted, a soft inquisitive 'mreow?' leaving her. Curious, she followed the feline's gaze and blinked, staring at the pyramid-like temple that stood nearby. "Well, I'll be damned. We found it."
Venom frowned and looked over at the temple, his eyes widening beneath the symbiote mask as the waning fires from the spell Lashana had loosed reflected off of a huge diamond at the top of it. "There's something you don't see everyday."
Smirking, Lashana adjusted her sword belt so it hung snugly around her hips and deposited a still small Joyrock on her left shoulder. "Well c'mon then!"
Telca grinned and followed the Elf through the thick swathe of tall grasses and bushes. "This test's in the bag. How hard can it be to get a big rock anyway?"
Inuyasha exchanged glances with Skie and Venom as he peeled himself
off the ground. "Feh. Famous last words."