An: Not much happens in this chap except Miaka Tasuki, and Nuriko are reunited with Satura. But what about Hotohori, Chichiri and Garret? Their still stuck traveling. The first three find out first hand that Delika is a strange place. Enjoy!
A bright beam of afternoon sun hit Satura in the face, waking her up. Moaning, she rolled over and buried her face in a pillow, grabbing another and pulling it on top of her head. It's too early to get up. She thought. Much too early. The door to her room opened and she heard footsteps cross the room. The smell of food came to her nose as she heard a tray being set down on the surface of a piece of furniture.
Someone pulled the pillow off her head. "AHHHH! SUNLIGHT!" Satura yelped. She shook her head. "Why is it always this bright at this time of day?" She grumbled. "Good morning to you to, Lady Sunshine." A cheerful voice replied. Satura looked up to see Keldar arranging plates on the tray of food. "Or maybe I should say good afternoon?" She added pointedly over her shoulder. "That late?" The mage asked. "I'm afraid so." "Boy that Sharil ceremony really did a number on me." Satura muttered.
"It must have, you've been out cold for nearly twelve hours. After you passed out in that chamber some of the council mages went in and brought you out. I loaded you up and Bonfire, brought you back here and dumped you into bed." Keldar explained. She then focused her attention on the tray of food. Satura took the time to study her friend. Keldar was of lean build, her body in fighting trim.
Unlike Garret, whose hair was a straight dark brown, her hair was rich brown with slight red and blonde highlights. Somehow she had managed to braid it away from her face sot that it didn't fall into her eyes. Hawk fathers and beads held the braids in place. The most unusual feature she had though, were her eyes. Her eyes were a bright, dark amethyst with hints of blue in them. Most people would find eyes that color unsettling, but such eye coloring was common among the Druids of Delika.
Today she was dressed in a dark green shirt, with a dark green half robe over it. Her breeches were a rust red color. A gleam form her chest alerted the mage to the medallion the other woman wore. A braided leather cord circled its way around her neck with a gold circle hanging on it. Engraved in Druid glyphs were the name of her clan and the clan's symbol of a snow leopard entwined with a great eagle.
The irony wasn't lost on Satura. When she had asked about the connection between the medallion and her Guardian, Keldar had simply laughed and told her that the clan shaman had told her that her guardian would be one of the clan's symbol animals. That was pretty much all the explanation she needed. "So how soon do you think you'll be up?" Keldar asked, distracting Satura from her train of thought.
The mage took stock of her present condition. She was well rested, none of her muscles ached her mind was clear and alert. "We can leave as soon as I eat, if that's what you want to do." She said, smiling. "Wonderful! Well, eat up and then it's back in the saddle for us." Keldar said, a bright smile lighting her face. "I'll go see to the horses while you eat and dress." The druid left the room, leaving the mage alone.
Satura flopped back down on the pillows, enjoying the brief moment of relaxation. She hadn't had a chance to do that in months. Chasing evil wizards and warlords doesn't leave much time for relaxation. She thought ruefully. Might as well get up. Satura pushed the blankets off of her and stood up. The polished wood floor was smooth and cool to her bare feet. The light blue silk robe she wore kept off the slight chill. Summer tended to last a long time in this part of Natolla.
The villagers near Rosethorn planted in spring and got their crops in time for them to be harvested about this time. That gave a good three to four month period where the farmers could relax and enjoy themselves. Once again it took an outside distraction to bring her back to reality. This time is was two bluebirds fighting over a piece of bread someone had thrown them. She shook her head of the last lingering thoughts and sat down at the table.
She picked up a meat roll and bit into it. Thinking about the seasons reminded her of another problem-the weather. It was perfectly fine down her with only the occasional unbearably hot or rainy day. If we stay down here, we won't have any problems with the weather, but if we have to travel up north... Satura thought, shaking her head. The sobering thought dampened the mage's good mood.
The weather up north was nothing to joke about. The average temperature up there was around twenty-five, but with the wind chill it felt more like fifteen. She was well versed in surviving up north. She had spent the first seven years at the Citadel's training grounds up north. Hell, all the different schools had their students spend the first years of their training up north. The mage finished off the roll and started in on the porridge.
She knew Garret, Keldar and herself could handle the weather up north but what about Miaka and the others? Miaka was used to having her home and school heated whenever it was cold. The seishi came from a southern country. The only time, as far as she knew that the miko and seshi had been exposed to weather even approaching the weather up north was when they had been to Hokkan. And how long did they stay? It couldn't have been for more than four to six weeks at the most. It was also two years since they had been to Hokkan.
Satura sighed. No sense in worrying about something that might not even happen. She quickly finished her meal and then went over to the wardrobe. She opened it and looked the various outfits over. Most of her daily wardrobe consisted of half robes, tunics, blouses, shirts and breeches. Today she went for a royal purple half robe over a black shirt, held in place with a dark blue sash. Her breeches were also dark blue. She then slipped her feet into boots of a rich brown color. Everything had been provided to her at sister's expense. She chuckled to herself; she was certainly earning a good record at sending poor Ayla into near heart failure.
Her poor sister had nearly had another heart attack at the sight of the rest of her gear when she had been looking for her two dresses. Her saddlebags, horse tack and her boots either needed to be reworked or replaced all together. Her clothes however needed to be completely replaced. It hadn't been until she came that she realized just how shabby her gear and clothes had become.
She had packed about two weeks worth of clothes when she left Rosethorn and after three months of raging rivers, thorny bushes and grabbing trees her clothes had been reduced almost to rags, it was still wearable just shabby looking. So Ayla had replaced her and Keldar's clothes, whose clothes and gear were also looking the worse for wear. A knock at the door came as she was fastening on her arm guards drew her attention.
"Come in." the mage said. The door opened and Keldar walked into the room a bag in her hand. "Ah, you haven't done your hair yet have you?" the Druid asked. "No, but what does that have to do with anything?" Satura replied. Rather than answer her, Keldar came over, grabbed her hand, led her over to a table and pushed her into a chair. "Well I was planning on doing your hair for you."
"Do I have much choice?" the mage asked. "No you don't." Her friend replied. "Then can we at least do it in front of a mirror? I'd like to see what it is you're doing to me." The woman eyed her friend suspiciously. "And spoil half the fun?" Keldar asked mischievously. In the next moment she had grabbed a clump of hair and started combing out the tangles and knots. Once she had Satura's hair completely smooth, she then returned to the areas around her face. Keldar started to braid small sections of hair, sometimes weaving in various beads and feathers.
She worked for half an hour doing her hair. Finally, she tied off the last braid with a leather cord. "All done." Keldar said. "What do you think?" Satura got up and went to look in the vanity mirror. Her jaw dropped open in shock. She looked like someone completely different. She reached up and gently touched a braid. Keldar had woven leather cords of blue and black into two of the braids. One braid had a griffin feather, obviously taken form Sunfire, woven into it.
The mage looked back at her friend and raised an eyebrow at her. Keldar grinned at her. "Sunfire let me take a few feathers." She replied. Satura looked back at the mirror. The final two touches were two delicate silver chains ending in small sapphire and emerald crystals clipped to one of the braids. She looked at Keldar, her face breaking into a wide grin. "I love it! I can't believe how different I look." She said enthusiastically giving into a rare burst of childish exuberance.
The Druid chuckled. "Well how about we take that enthusiasm to the road then? The horses are all ready." "All right, let's go." Satura took one look around the room, making sure she had everything.
******
Satura thought if Ayla squeezed her any harder she would pop. Her sister finally released her. "You take care, and be careful out there." She said, eyes tear filled, her voice quivering. "And defeat that wizard and come back in one piece!" Her voice took on a hard edge. The mage gave her sister a last hug. "I will." She said, letting Ayla go and mounting Bonfire. "Don't worry." "But I do." The woman whispered watching as the two horses started out the gate and down the road.
"I do worry, baby sister." Ayla turned and sobbed into her husband's chest, trying to tell herself that she would see her spirited sister again, but still doubt managed to creep its way into her heart.
******
"Can you explain that again?" Miaka asked, blinking at Garret. The bard sighed; he had been trying to explain the concept of a 'random portal' to the group for over an hour and was having very little success. What is so hard about it? Most people understand it after you explain it to them once. "Okay, once again, random portals are regular magic portals the only difference between the two is that random portals show up whenever and wherever they want." Garret said. "Who casts them?" Hotohori asked.
"Delika herself." The bard answered. "No one knows why they happen, they just fit the natural order of things." "Do they look like that?" Tasuki asked suddenly. Garret looked at where Tasuki was pointing. A large blue circle was floating in the air. The bard paled. "Nuriko! Tasuki! Get yourselves away from there!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. Tasuki and Nuriko tried to move their horses away from the portal, but something held them in place.
"Too late." Garret whispered a look of horror on his face. The other two seishi watched as their miko, fellow seishi, wolf and unicorn desperately tried to move the horses and themselves out of the magic that held them in place. "Wh-What's happened to them?" Hotohori asked. "The portal will take them wherever the endpoint is." Garret said heavily. "Where is that?" "Someplace safe, I'm hoping." The bard replied.
Suddenly the circle flashed and everyone cried out blinded by the light. When it faded the two seishi and the bard saw that the others were gone. The three men looked at each other, three questions where running through their minds. Where are they? Are they safe? How will we find them?
An: Oh cliffhanger! I know some of you are gonna hate me for that, but don't worry you'll find out what happens to the poor miko and seishi in the next chapter, I promise! ^_^
An2: After fan fic.net went down it kind of messed up my posting schedule. (I think it messed up a lot of people, but oh well.) I'm gonna try to post another chapter but since I leave for a camp on the 4th and don't return till the 16th I don't know if I'll have enough time. But on a positive note since I do all my writing in a notebook I will definitely be working on the story and I'll start working on the next chapter when I get back. ^_^ C-ya!