Chapter
Four
Mia rubbed her eyes wearily before returning her line of
vision to the glowing computer screen before her. To her side lay a
book with yellowed pages and a time worn cover. There was a layer of
must coating it that no level of cleaning could remove. The inked
words in neat script were bleary with age but still decipherable. Mia
sighed and turned the page of the book. Two hours of researching had
left her with little clues to Anglarana's people or history. Mia
wasn't exactly the all-knowing psychic, but her instincts were
sending off a full alarm that this person was not as she seemed.
However, Mia didn't feel as though she was in danger. In fact, she
felt the opposite. It seemed as though Anglarana gave off an acute
feeling of warm security and of quiet strength.
Mia shook her
head ruefully. 'I must be getting senile. Why do I always feel that
there is more to a situation then what I see? It would be nice to
just accept things the way they are. But still... there is just
something extraordinary about Anglarana. I haven't gone wrong yet by
listening to the legends.'
Mia sighed and started
cross-referencing the passages from the book to her pre-existing
computer files. She frowned slightly as the computer screen brought
up an old painting with a poem-like inscription. The painting was
that of a sun-dappled lush jungle surrounding a bright blue lake.
There were various birds and animals in the scene, but the creature
that immediately took the eye was the shadow of some kind of horse or
deer hiding in the foliage of the background. The shadow had one
front leg raised as if pausing in its casual trip; as though
something had suddenly caught its attention. Its head was turned
toward the lake and its luminous eyes sparkled in the sun. The
caption below it read:
Here resides the immortal plane, Bringer of life and death. Here awaits your salvation, Else the stern hand of fate. When once again the fair one rises, And the earth is cursed with bane. Hence she comes to awaken, And the ground shivers with anticipation and pain. By the hand of the elemental warriors, Else by none shall the living world be saved. Beware the coming of the darkness and of the light of the world to come.
A
sharp knock on the door caused Mia to nearly fall out of her chair.
She quickly shut off the computer and answered the door. Ryo grinned
at her as the sounds of clanging and yelling could be heard from
downstairs. There was a loud thudding sound accompanied by Cye
exclaiming, "I've told you a thousand times, Kento, it's NOT
READY!"
Mia raised her eyebrows; Cye rarely used a loud
voice, especially to Kento. Ryo's grin broadened. "I think Cye
could use your assistance. We're all too busy body guarding the
kitchen to help with any of the cooking. Kento's about ready to tear
down a wall down there." Mia sighed emphatically and followed
Ryo downstairs. They were greeted by quite a sight; Rowen was doing
his best to wipe off Kento's face with a dishrag. A large, plastic
bowl was residing on Kento's head and a thick, porridge-looking
substance was running down his face and covering his clothes. Sage
was trying to pacify Cye who was muttering something about his dinner
being ruined while sporadically waving about a wooden spoon for
emphasis. Anglarana was sitting on the couch, barely containing her
laughter causing Kento to scowl fiercely.
Mia checked a quick
chuckle and raced over to the chaotic scene. "All right,
everyone... guys..." The feuding group was so noisy that they
didn't even hear her. "...GUYS!" Everyone looked at Mia in
shocked silence, Cye grinned sheepishly. Mia took in a deep breath,
"Okay; Kento, go upstairs and clean up. Cye, go back in the
kitchen; I'll be there shortly to help fix things up. Rowen, go with
Kento to make sure that he doesn't do anything evil to Cye's half of
the room." She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "Don't
let him come down again until dinner is ready, okay?" Rowen,
with a relieved smile, nodded and grabbed Kento by the
sleeve.
"Okay, buddy lets get this goop off of 'ya."
After Rowen and Kento were upstairs and Cye was safely in the kitchen
piecing together the remains of the meal, Mia sat Sage and Ryo
down.
"Okay, now what happened that four full-grown men
couldn't take care of?"
Sage and Ryo exchanged amused
expressions. "Well... Kento was playing a video game and making
a lot of noise out here and Cye was making a soufflé in the
kitchen." Sage began rubbing the back of his neck. "Cye
ended up coming out here several times to get Kento to shut up so his
soufflé wouldn't fall. But Kento just got too excited and was
getting hungry from all of the fun with the game." Sage paused
uncomfortably and glanced at Ryo for support, who, in turn, held up
his hands refusing to have anything to do with the telling of the
story. Sage sighed and continued with his monologue. "We then
made the mistake of leaving Kento alone in the room."
"What?
You left him alone when he was hungry?!" Mia interrupted,
incredulous.
"Yea, Whiteblaze was acting funny. We were
worried about him."
"What was wrong with
Whiteblaze?" Sage blushed,
"Hairball,
as it turns out," he mumbled. Mia hid her smile with her hand
and nodded for Sage to continue. "I don't know what exactly
happened next, we just heard some yelling. By the time we reached the
kitchen, Cye was dumping a bowl of cake mix on Kento's head. It
turned out that Kento had made so much noise that the soufflé
fell."
"Well, that explains it," Mia stood.
"Now, for your penance for leaving Kento alone is to clean the
goop off the carpet and then to help Rowen keep Kento away until
dinner is ready and Cye regains his cool. Okay?" The guys nodded
and went off in search of the cleaning products.
Mia was about
to go into the kitchen when she remembered Anglarana sitting on the
couch. Mia turned and noticed that her eyes were resting thoughtfully
upon her. "Yes?" Mia asked.
"Oh,
nothing. I was just thinking. By the way, what is your last
name?"
"It's Koji, why?" Anglarana nodded as if
something were finally made clear to her, then looked up at Mia. "No
reason, I like to know people's last names." Anglarana smiled
affectionately at Mia. 'Now I know what it is about you, Mia, that
stands out so much even amongst such powers as the Ronin Warriors',
Anglarana thought to herself.
Mia was about to question her
further, but a soft groan coming from the kitchen stopped her. Cye
was going to have to come first; Mia had never seen anyone so
obsessed with cooking in all her life.
The planned
attack was just hours away. Justin staved off a wave of fatigue as he
reviewed his plans. Crynis was becoming more and more difficult to
control as the taste of destruction heightened his power and will.
'Just a bit longer.' He cajoled himself. He only needed to keep
the mindless beast to his will for just a little longer and then he
could release it and focus on more important things. Justin murmured
a word to the black, crystal wall and the wall opened to reveal a
large inner chamber filled to capacity with concentrically arranged
liquid filled tubes. Justin would need to reenergize for his plan to
work. An attack of this proportion required a lot of strength.
He
walked along the rows of tubes, the blue liquid gave off an eerie
glow. The tubes on the fringes of the room contained humans and the
demon soldiers from the Dynasty. The more powerful creatures resisted
closer to the heart of the room in order of strength. Justin moved
confidently to the inner most row of tubes. Within these tubes were
powerful warlords such as Sabre Strike and Badamon.
Justin
stopped in front of the tube that contained a man with long mahogany
hair. Justin never could understand why this man contained such power
and strength. He smiled to himself in memory. Justin had found him
floating in a moat in the Nether Realm just after the fall of Talpa.
He hadn't planned on taking the young man, but just then he needed
all the energy he could get. He placed a hand on the tube and
prepared himself for the jolt of energy he was about to
receive.
Oops, what's this?! Am I bringing back an old friend? I likey; you likey? Well whatever you think, send it to me. I'm an awfully lonely little imp. I know I'm really killing the cliché of Cye being the cook and Kento being perpetually hungry but please be gentle with the flames. This was written back when I was in high school and had just gotten into RW so my writing skills were not refined. Admit it though, it's still fun to play with clichés!!!!
