Game of Chance
By: Xenocia
Ok! So this is my first fanfic! Everybody clap! Hehe, well I wanted my first fanfic to have a stronger story line, but I guess this is good enough for now ^^ In this first chapter there are only original characters, so I hope you enjoy them. Please make comments about my characters or my style of writing or whatever, criticism's always good (but be gentle) ^^ and if I get enough people reading then I might let you guys make character choices later on. Enjoy! Byebye!
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*~Chapter 1~*
*~Proposition~*
Kali scratched the back of her head absently as she stared out the window. The sky was a clear blue and the sun smiled upon the earth, making a mockery of the hail storm that had been forecasted earlier in the morning. In the background, Kali could hear her teacher continue to drone on in a monotonous tone about either history or math; she couldn't really remember. Kali sighed and slumped onto her desk, directing her attention to the shiny bald spot on her teacher's head. Even though it was her senior year of high school, everyday remained the same. She woke up, went to school, did homework, ate, and went back to sleep. Occasionally, she also had her archery practices after school and kendo classes over the weekend.
Already bored of the teacher's bald spot, Kali let her gaze wander around the room. She could count the few people she liked in this room on one hand. Everyone else was stuck in their society driven worlds in Kali's mind.
"What!?" The loud yelp of outrage pierced through Kali's reverie. She turned to glance momentarily at the boy that had stood up with his mouth open in surprise. Pretending to ignore the snickering students behind him, he continued complaining, "What did you say?? Another project!? But we just had one!"
"Sit down, Lakin," the teacher said flatly.
Lakin continued to stand for a few moments, then sat, muttering inarticulately. The teacher turned away to answer another student's question. Kali sighed again and laid her head against the cool, smooth surface of her desk.
After a few moments Kali fidgeted in her seat — it was hard for her to stay in one position for a long period of time. Pulling at the black strands of hair falling into her eyes, Kali glanced at the clock on the wall. The bell should be ringing any moment now. In a few seconds, she'd be free of school and teachers for two days. Kali still had archery club afterwards, but it was hardly as irritating as school was.
"And so, your homework today is..." The bell rang, interrupting the teacher's sentence. He frowned slightly, but didn't even attempt to stop the students flooding out of the classroom. Kali smiled to herself; the day was already improving. She made a quick stop at her locker to pull out her arm guards and made her way down to the field.
Unfortunately, when Kali got to the field, she didn't see any of the targets that were usually lined up in a neat row and the normal crowds of people milling around before practice. Instead, all she saw was a single, solitary figure, standing in the middle of the field. Kali frowned slightly. Maybe practice was cancelled? Deciding that asking would be the best choice, Kali broke into a steady trot towards the middle of the field.
As she got closer, Kali could tell that the person —it was definitely a guy— was faced away from her, so she couldn't tell who it was. When she had gotten within a few feet of him he still had not turned around to look at her, but instead he scratched his spiky bleached hair in a confused manner and muttered to himself. Kali tapped the person's shoulder lightly, "Hey, is club cancelled today?"
The guy whirled around, nearly whacking Kali with his longbow before she instinctively blocked it with her arm guard. "Oh, ah, sorry about that. I'm not really sure what's going on. I just joined today, you see. The name's Lakin," he grinned.
He probably doesn't even recognize me, Kali thought, mentally adding to the list of things that made her hate people like him. "I don't know either actually, but I think I would've heard if it was cancelled. I wonder what happened," she looked around thoughtfully. "It's normal that many of the kids can't come sometimes because of other club activities, but Mrs. Kocis, our teacher supervisor, is usually here anyway."
Lakin clapped his hands together enthusiastically, "That's it! Mrs. Kocis didn't come to school today! I remember! We sat all through Latin without a teacher," his eyes glazed over slightly. "It was great."
"I'm sure it was," Kali glanced over at the locked shed with the archery equipment stored inside and sighed. "We probably should be getting home then. We won't be able to get the targets and such out." She looked suspiciously at Lakin's longbow. "How'd you get that anyway? All the longbows are kept in the sheds since they don't fit in lockers."
"Oh, this? It was easy. Come on, I'll show you," Lakin threw his free arm around Kali's shoulders, blissfully ignorant of Kali's tense shoulders and fierce glare.
While they walked towards the shed the sky grew steadily darker and the winter wind whirled across the short grass. Before they reached the locked doors, Lakin yelped suddenly, then whined as he rubbed his neck, "Ne, you didn't have to hit me..."
"I didn't," Kali looked at the sky. Large pieces of icy hail had begun to rain down steadily, beating at her forcefully.
"Come on, this way!" A strong hand gripped Kali's elbow, leading her into a dark hole on the side of the shed that was hidden by a cleverly placed pile of wood planks. They had a little difficulty getting Lakin's longbow inside properly, but all in all, they were fine, albeit a little bruised in some places. Kali brushed off some of the smaller ice crystals clinging to her hair while her eyes adjusted to the pitch black of the shed. "There has to be a light somewhere in here. They usually keep at least one in all the sheds... Ah, here!" Kali heard Lakin flip a switch and she saw a small beam of light come from his hand. "There! We should be ok until the hail—" The light flickered. "No... No, don't go out," Lakin pleaded, shaking the flashlight violently. As if his insistent shaking had stirred the flashlight into rebellion, the light flickered once more and then went out for good. "Er... Well, I guess we could live without light. Um," Lakin paced as he thought of something else to say, "so what's your name?"
"Kali, I—" She stopped in mid-sentence. "Do you hear something?"
There was a pause. "It kind of sounds like a flute, almost like something you'd hear as an anime song," he chuckled softly.
Kali looked over at the dark blob she supposed was Lakin in surprise. That last sentence had been unexpected. "You like anime?"
"Not really," Lakin admitted. "I actually like RPGs more than anything; liking that kind of led me to watch a little anime here and there, but that's it. Do you like anime?"
"Yeah, I used to be in anime club before archery," she smiled, "but then I decided it'd be a good change to try something different and I haven't had much time to watch ever since." Kali looked around again; the air pressure seemed to have changed and been redirected towards a spot in the center of the room.
There was a scuffling noise coming from the area where Lakin had been. "Do you feel that?" Lakin's voice sounded taut, "It makes my teeth want to grind together. I don't think—" There was a faint popping noise and light flooded the room. Blinking fast to try to get the light out of her eyes, Kali could barely see the tall form in the middle of the shed. When Kali's eyes were clear of the red dots that had been dancing in front of them, she gasped as the figure in front of her came into her vision clearly. It was about the most beautiful being Kali had ever seen in her life. There was no description that she could form with the mundane human language that would do the creature justice. Flowing white hair that shimmered like the northern lights framed an angelic face that seemed to be sculpted by the hands of God. Being in the presence of the creature made Kali feel unfinished and dull.
The light dimmed slightly and the creature spoke. "A proposition is to be made," the voice was light and breathy, and sounded faintly like the tinkling of glass bells. "A choice given by God's Last Children. Child of dark and the found treasure," Kali nodded, 'dark' was the meaning of her name, and Lakin followed suit a moment after, 'found treasure' being his, "have been given the choice to travel to any world designed by the minds of men."
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I still haven't chosen what world she should pick to go to yet, so any suggestions would be great, but don't hurt me if I don't use them ^^ it'll probably be because I 1) don't know that anime/manga/game in particular or 2) don't like that place very much or 3) don't know enough about it. The title is also temporary until I can think of a new one; suggestions are also welcome for that. ^^