Chapter 5 – New losses, new recruits
Maybe life is like a ride on a freeway?
Dodging bullets while you're trying
To find your way.
Everyone's around, but no one does a damn thing,
It brings me down, but I won't let them.
If I seem bleak, well then you'd be correct.
And if I don't speak, it's cuz I can't disconnect,
But I won't be burned by,
The fire in your eyes…
"Staring at the Sun" –The Offspring
Reno felt a gracious breeze of wind blow through his scarlet hair, chilling the beads of sweat on his pale face. Adjusting the jacket tied precariously on his hips, he was surprised at how hot it was, even though the sky remained dark as ash.
It had been a long walk, and he panted heavily, sucking in air greedily. Elena had, fortunately, put on a brave face when he asked that they keep going, pretending she didn't mind. Soon, they would find somewhere. It just made sense, right? Soon…soon…soon…
I became a chant as he carried on. He wanted nothing more than to sit down with a very cold drink. Hell, he would drink fruit juice right now (god forbid,) it was so hot. But, he had to carry on. For Elena. He couldn't fail her. Gotta carry on. Soon…Gotta carry on. Soon…
The grass was light and bouncy under Reno's boots, but he was still weary and tired. And he was suspicious that they had seen nothing since they fell from the chasm. Surely something lived down here, right?
He felt like taking off his white muscle shirt too, but felt strangely self conscious. It would probably freak out Elena too.
"Don't even think it!" His mind commanded.
"Hey, what's that?" Elena asked suddenly, pointing at a figure silhouetted in the moonlight.
"Looks like a – cat? The hecks a wildcat doin' here?"
The creature turned it's shadowly head towards them and it's eyes flashed. At first, it was the normal amber-coloured glimmer that alley cat's eyes reflected in the light; and then it became more like two curved, orange streetlights or something, though more milky and obviously more natural.
It slowly approached them, and Reno began to pull a shotgun from a holster on his hip, though he almost dropped it trying to pull it free of the jacket.
"Reno! We can probably scare it off!" Elena protested. She picked up a rock and threw it at the cat, which Reno saw was some sort of panther or something. The rock bounced off it's head, and it barely moved.
Reno glaced at her with a smirk, and she muttered, "Okay, carry on."
The fiery Turk nodded and sent a couple bullets at it. It looked as though they would hit, and then the creature jumped neatly aside and dodged them. He tried again, to the same effect.
Now it had walked right up to them, and all thoughts that it was a simple panther was gone. Dark, lethal horns adjorned it's feline head, long claws gripped the ground from it's paws, and blood-soaked spikes flashed on it's legs and back.
It pounced and knocked Elena over, snarling and biting. With a minimal amount of thought, Reno dropped the gun, pulled off his nightstick from the other hip, and beat it down on the creature. The panther only turned and bore it's almost beautiful orange eyes on him. With a growl, Reno beat it over the head and, focusing his energy, released a wave of electricity into it. The thing shuddered, stunned.
"Are you okay?" Reno asked, helping Elena up.
She nodded. "It just startled me."
Reno didn't notice as she hid her bleeding arm behind her back.
"Let's get out of here." He said. In the excitement, he also didn't notice that he was holding her hand still.
Nearly tripping over a lone raven that skipped away with a squawk, the two began again through the gentle moonlight. The panther didn't move.
"What business have you with Nanaki?"
The thick accent of the Canyon gatekeeper lashed out thickly at them, full of distrust. This agrivated Rude, but he, as usual, kept his mouth shut. This was not his alleyway, Cloud could deal with the man, who looked young, about Yuffie's age.
"We need to speak with him, urgently." Cloud replied.
The gatekeeper snickered. "Yeah, right. Well, for your information, Nanaki is unavailable."
Cid looked at the kid, and sneered. "Right kid. Just get outta the #(&#ing way and let us through, okay? I don't care a rats ass whether you want to or not."
"You're not coming through."
"Like hell we're not!" Yuffie laughed cruely, "Don't make me force my way in!"
"Is that a threat?"
The gatekeeper glared, his eyes half-closing, and drew forth a long, curved sword that looked like some sort of scimitar by Rude's reconing. He mentally groaned, kids like this were never fun. No one wanted to hurt the little brat.
"Do you want it to be?" Barett held up his gun arm and shouted.
"Why don't you tell me?" The kid continued to glare, though fear was evident in his eyes.
With a soft grunt, Vincent stepped forward from behind Cloud and growled gently but firmly. "No, you don't it to be. Now move."
Rude's eyes flickered up, and he saw two figures approaching, there colours darkened by his glasses. One was a man of about middle age, his hair already turning silver. The other was a tall, red haired woman of about Elena's age that at the same time reminded the stoic Turk of both his partners. Maybe he was thinking about them too much.
The man looked at the gatekeeper and said, "Stop this now! There is no need for violence!"
He looked to Rude and AVALANCHE and said, "I'm so sorry. My name is Haron, and this is Shaela." He looked back to the gatekeeper. "Kevin, what is the problem?" *
The kid, Kevin, shook his head sheepishly. "They're trying to break in."
"You ingrate! We just want to see Red XIII!" Yuffie hollered.
"Red XIII? You must be AVALANCHE!" Haron exclaimed. "So sorry, so sorry, but Nana-Red isn't here now."
"What happened?" Tifa asked worriedly, and Rude was amazed at how beautiful she looked in the sunlight. Especially those amber eyes…
Stoppit.
The woman, Shaela, stared fiercly up at the sun, and her voice came to them, fluent, sharp and dangerous. Once again, she reminded Rude of Reno. "Some green monster got him."
Rude nodded. "I understand. It happened to my friends too."
"And my daughter!" Barett snarled.
"Are you going after them?" Haron asked suddenly.
Cloud nodded. "Yes, we are."
"Get Nanaki back for us. Please."
"He's our friend, mister Haron. We'll make sure he get's back safe and sound." Tifa smiled and tried to look optimistic, though Rude could tell she was just covering up her distress. He respected that, more than she could know. Just looking at that pretty face, Rude felt like he could get his friends back. In fact, he knew it.
Tifa pushed back a lock of hair, and there eyes met. Rude immediately looked away, and turned his head to Haron and Shaela, hoping she hadn't caught her staring. Humiliation overtook him, and he pushed it away with all his other emotions.
"I going to come with you then."
The silent Turk's head jerked over to look at her, and she was watching Cloud carefully.
"What? Why the hell you wanna come?" Cid asked.
"Nanaki is my leader, I have to save him." The Canyon woman fixed Cid with a dark stare. "And make sure certain people don't get lost trying to find him."
Vincent, surprisingly, seemed to approve. "We need all the help we can get, we don't know how strong this thing is."
Cloud shrugged. "Sure, welcome aboard miss Shaela."
The ivory grass and trees of silver, blue and white had at first seemed enchanting and oddly motivating, but after all this walking, their charm was lost on Elena by the monotony of the world around them. They were about an hours walk/jog from the panther, and back to the seeming endless plains. Elena felt exasperated by the grass. Stupid grass, why'd it have to go on so long? Stupid grass. Stupid plains. Stupid green tendril. Stupid Reno.
Stupid stupid stupid!
As she chanted the word through her mind and seethed with silent rage, she didn't notice Reno stop suddenly and ploughed right into him, her face hitting the taller man between the shoulder blades. He hissed a curse in surprise, and turned on her with a glare.
"Quiet! I saw something!"
The aggrivation immediately left Elena as fear took it's place deep in her mind. Yes, there was something out there, hidden by trees. Human, most likely, at least it seemed to be a fagely humanoid, bipedal being. It was hidden almost entirely by shadow, under the white tree with the silver leaves.
"Reno and Elena of the Turks." A whispy, harsh voice drifted to their waiting ears, dripping with knowledge and venom. "I should have known before…"
And with a sudden cry, Reno fell to his face in the dirt, lunged at by a creature of black that Elena realized was some sort of wolf, though it shared the horns and the spikes in it's legs and back that the panther had had. It bared it's teeth with it's tail down and it's ears back, and leapt away from Reno's fallen form.
But Elena was distracted by the figure in the trees as it approached. It was inhumanly graceful and made no sound as it walked slowly and methodically towards them. Seeing it, the wolf backed away, and lied on the ground with a half-hearted snarl, awaiting the signal to attack again.
It was a tall, slender man of about six feet, and looked to be around twenty six years of age, though there was a timelessness in his eyes, which were an odd colour, violet. Also odd was his hair, which was the same exotic, shimmering silver of the trees and grass. He wored black leather armour and a long, deadly looking spear hung across his back, held on by a leather strap. He looked deep into Elena's eyes, and she noticed that his pupils were not round, but slitted like a cats. Violet and slitted, a strange combination.
"Who the hell are you?" Elena demanded.
His voice came again, smooth and cold as liquid ice. "I am Feliyui. Please follow me, and you won't be harmed."
Elena was instantly cautious. "Why?"
"That is not of your consern at this moment."
"We're the Turks! We're not going to do what you say!" Elena forced the words out, trying to sound frightening though she was terrified of both the wolf and it's strange master.
"So be it."
And he drew the spear and lunged, aiming with lethal accuracy at Elena. With a cry, she leapt out of the way, but she still felt it graze her arm. She clutched it, and pulled a shotgun from a his holster.
"Big mistake!" She cried, and clenched her fists, and began to murmer strange words under her breath, words written in a language she did not know but had memorized perfectly.
She heard a grunt as Reno and the man, Feliyui, fought, but she blocked it from her mind. She focused only on the ancient words.
Reno was surprised. The man was not only good with that bloody big javelin of his, but he was fast on his feet, faster than Reno. Reno tried to bash him over the head with the nightstick, but Feliyui artfully dodged under it. He then tried to bring it down on the man, but once again missed the avasive attacker.
Then, Feliyui suddenly dropped on all fours like an animal, and leapt, driving the spear forward. Reno had only time to swear as the thing came at him, surprisingly slowly. Surely it was pierce his heart. Damn…
And then, the silver-haired spearman's eyes widened slightly and he fell back to the ground in a crouch, grimacing. His skin was scorched in major firewounds. As he fell out of the way, Reno saw Elena smiling in satisfaction.
"Alright Elena!" Reno grinned, then began to grab at the mans arm, to pull it behind his back and pin him.
"Don't move." Feliyui commanded, and Reno saw why immediately.
The cat-eyed man had a woman suddenly on his arms, and he held his spear up to her neck. She screamed, and her bright green eyes pleaded out at the Turks.
"Reno!" She cried, an auburn braid falling over one shoulder, and her full red lips moving slowly. "Reno, help me!"
* Shaela is the name of a character in an upcoming novel I'm doing, and Kevin is my cousins name, hehehe. Haron? Well, I was thinking birds…
Authors note: I have no idea what the lyrics at the top have to do with anything, but they were the closest I could get to Shaela's personality, which we'll see more of soon, eh? ^.^
This chapter was long a tedious to write, but I hope it's got you excited, because the next one is a fighting one. Yay! If anyone is actually reading this, and waiting for new chapters, I love you, you're the best.
Also, my next chapters may take awhile, school starts the day after tommorow. (sighs) Oh, hurray.
Come on, keeep reading. xD --------