A.N.- Sorry for the long wait. Hope you liked this chapter.
Magicman/Smokegirl- Thanks. Mr. Volcano is supposed to be basically, the most honorable king if you overlook his temper. He'd do anything to protect his kingdom, even sacrifice himself.
Dragon C. Chan- Thanks for reveiwing.
Evil-Fishie- Thanks for reviewing again.
Of Elves and Demons
Chapter 13
By: Joey/Mai fan15
Berriez was waiting for Shannon outside the temple with the rest of the brave souls who had volunteered for sacrifice. He was staring down at the horse's mane in deep thought. He couldn't do this, he couldn't leave her. He couldn't leave Shannon.
Why did things have to go wrong when they were just getting good? Because of the damn Feinds, thats why. Those bastards have screwed him over again and again, now they've hit home. They were taking him away from his beleoved.
If he ran into one on the way, he vowed that he would slaughter them with his bare hands. But that wouldn't happen, Ryuujin was making them take a route that would be impossible for the feinds to get to.
The giant doors of the temple, gaining the attention of those who looked on. Shannon and her sister came out first, followed by Chanron and Sabrina. Gaia immediately dismounted his horse and ran to Danielle, embracing her as soon as he got to her.
Shannon solemly walked over to Berriez and looked up at him. Tears were falling down her face so he lifted her up onto the horse in front of her. He rested his head on her shoulders, "Stop crying. You're sister is back, you should be happy. Look at her, she's happy."
Shannon glanced over at her sister and Berriez moved his head to her other shoulder to allow her to. Without a word, she looked back down at her hands which were covered by the swordsman's own. Shannon sniffled, "How can I be happy? I'm going to lose you."
"Because, you have your sister back. She's family to you. I'm not. Compared to her, I should mean nearly nothing to you," explained Berriez as he moved his hands around her waist.
"But you do mean more to me than she does. Berriez, she's my sister, you're my inamorato. I love you a lot more," one of her tears fell onto his hands.
Berriez kissed her neck passionately, causing her to moan. Then he released and sat upright, "Shannon, please. Forget me for now. You're sister is back and you should be happy. You should go talk to her now."
"Berriez, we only have a few more days left. However long it takes to find the Temple of Exodia. I don't want to waste it."
"Just go talk to her, you'll be riding with me the full trip anyways. This is time you can spend with her before you lose me."
She obediently went to her sister. Berriez watched on as she again burst into tears infront of Danielle and he watched as her sister mouth something alond the lines of 'what's wrong'. He then moved on to join Koji who was again at the mercy of alcohol, only this time to drown fear and regret.
As soon as Berriez sat down, the dwarf began talking, "Shoulda never volunteered myself, there are sooooooo many types of drinks I haven't tried... other things too, but most of all, drinks."
Berriez wanted to punch his friend's face in at that remark. Alcahol? He had worse thing to lose than damn drinks, "Well, I have to leave something more improtant behind."
"What's that?"
"Nothing you would understant while you're hammered. Sober, up, then I'll tell you," Berriez looked over at Ryuujin, the one who was sending him to his death.
"Yeah, I forgot, money. Don't wanna leave money either."
Berriez snatched the wooden flask from Koji and threw it over the ledge into the lake, "Keep of the beer, it's gonna ruin your liver."
"Hey! I half half a mind to-"
"Yeah, beer leaves you half a mind. No wonder," Berrez looked at his friend who was trying to get the flask out of the water with his sword.
"You should be glad that you're going to be sacrificed, if not I'd slice your throat right now!"
Berriez rolled his eyes and Ryuujin called out to everyone, "Okay everyone, mount your horses, it's time to head out."
At that everyone got onto their horses and Shannon went to Berriez, her face tear-stained. He gently lifted her onto the horse after he got on, "Just a few more days, the war will be over. You can finally go back to living in peace."
"No, I can't. I'll never be able to again," Shannon's tone was quiet, broken.
Berriez knew that she was being broken down from the inside, he couldn't take it, "Shannon, when this is over, I want you to find someone that will be good for you. Someone who cares for you."
"No, there's not one that can replace you."
Berriez took one hand off of the reigns and took one of her hands, "That may be, but you need to be happy. I can't die peacefully without being sure that you'll recover."
"I'd rather do what my sister did."
"So you want me to regret this, huh? Fine, I just thought that you might care about me more than that."
"No, I don't want you to die at all."
"Well, it's either I die now and save you, your sister, and the rest of the world... or... we die later at the hands of the Gods, along with everyone else," he kissed the back of her head and the scent of her perfume flowed into his noses, "God, I'll miss you."
"No you won't, we'll find some other way. Maybe the last of the Three Gods could defeat the other two."
"That's impossible. Even if it was the most powerful of the three, Ra can't stand up to the combined power of the other two."
Shannon was losing hope, Berriez was right. There was no other way, "Berriez, you can't leave me. You can't sacrifice yourself. Why can't Ryuujin get some other elf?"
"Because there were no other elves except for you and I that were at the dragon kingdom," Berriez let go of her hand and grabbed the reigns.
"Berriez, I can't live without you, don't do this."
"That's why I want you to pick a suitor when this war is over with," Berriez couldnt see her face, but could sense the wet tears that were streaming down her face.
"Tell me something Berriez," she managed to choke out, "Do you want to die?"
"No. To tell the truth, I'm scared out of my mind. I can't imagine what it will be like to be dead, will it hurt? Everyone fears the unknown. At least I do. I don't want to go through with this as much as you do."
"Then why are you."
"Because, I've realized that there is other way and that I'll die anyways if I don't do this. So will you. I'm doing this for you. No one else."
Shannon began to speak but Berriez continued, "No one else."
"They're headed for the elven kingdom that took in the survivors of Eruhu. But for such massive creatures, they don't seem to be moving to fast. Especially Obelisk."
"Well we shouldn't force them, we're lucky enough that they can be controled. If we force them, they might turn on us. Let them go at their current pace," Kirgen picked up his sword, "And now that the Gods have taken care of the Mythic Dragon, we can finally get out of here and continue our attck."
Everyone had arrived at the Temple of Exodia three days after they had left the Dragon Kingdom. They were all asleep except for a handfull, which included the demon and his two guards. Berriez was resting against the golden walls with Shannon in his arms. He looked down at her and gently moved her off of himself as to not wake her up.
He walked over to Ryuujin who was reading the inscriptions on the walls, "We've been here for almost three hours now. When are we going to get this over with?"
"I've been looking for the sacrificial room the whole time, be patient."
"I want it done before everyone wakes up."
He still didn't take his eyes off the heiroglyphics, "You mean Shannon."
"Yeah, I do. Now hurry it up," snapped Berriez. He then walked back to Shannon.
A few seconds after he sat down, Diania came over to him, sat down, and placed her head on his shoulder, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah."
"I know how it feels, you have to do something that you fear the most. I was going to have to marry some snotty prince when I turned seventeen. Luckily, he was killed by the feinds. Guess they're good for something, huh?" the attempt to lighten his mood didn't work, he seemed to be ignoring her. Either that or he was in deep thought, "Berriez... cheer up, you'll be a hero for this."
"What good is it being a hero if you're going to be dead?" he still didn't look up at her and began to fidget with the gem on the end of his sword.
"You will be remembered. Everyone will look up to you. Kids alover the world will want to be like you. It's better than dying of old age, isn't it?"
"Diania, I'm sixteen! I have so much left to do in my life. Besides, I don't care about being famous. And I'm not doing anything that is heroic. I'm a sacrifice," snapped Berriez, "Sa-cri-fice. Get it? If I died while slaying some feirce enemy, and did indeed kill him, I would be a hero, not like this."
"I'm sorry, I'm just trying to help," she lifted her head up and peered into his usually feirce eyes. They were mixed with fear, sorrow, regret, and a touch of anger, "I'm sorry..."
Berriez looked down from her gaze and set his sword down. It crashed to the floor with a loud clang. It awoke Shannon and a few others in a three foot raidus, "Shit."
"What, you didn't want to talk to me again before you had to go through with... this," she looked up at Diania, "Oh, hi."
The younger princess smiled brightly and giggled. Shannon sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Berriez picked up his sword and put it back into his sheath, "No, I just didn't want you to witness the sacrificial ceremony. I didn't want you to know if it went on at all."
The elvish princess opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted, "How do you think she'd feel if she woke up and then come to the harsh realization that her best friend is dead?"
"Sorry, it was selfish of me."
Shannon became confused, "Selfish?"
"Yeah, I guess that it was just to reduce my pain than to reduce yours. It was selfish."
Diania was called over be Ryuujin. Her knowlege of inscriptions and ancient history should be able to help. When she was gone, Shannon pulled herself closer to Berriez, "It's cold in here."
Berriez took a blanket out of his knapsack and covered the princess and himself with it. Akward silence fell upon them which became eerie from the sound of wind passing through the entrance and from deep inside the temple. Then there were the footsteps heard from Ryuujin's large iron boots and Diania's high heels, a combination of clanking and tapping that would easily drive a man insane.
Then the demon went into another frenzy; growling, hissing, grunting. All followed by the sound of jingling chains and the shouts of his two guards for him to calm down.
Berriez looked across the room into the darkness, broken by torchlight under which Gaia held his beloved. Even asleep he looked ready to attack anything that would touch her, yet it looked like something out of a painting. Berriez wondered if he and Shannon looked that good together.
Gaia was awakened be the demon, but didn't let go of his possession, he just pulled her closer along with the blanket, and closed his eyes to go back to sleep. But not before kissing her on the back of her head.
He glanced down at Shannon to see that she had fallen asleep again. No wonder she was so tired, she had been up the full three days either taking control of the horse or fighting back tears. He banged his head onto the wall behing him with just enough force for it not to hurt. Why had he saud yes to Ryuujin? Just when things were getting better for Shannon, this had to happen.
Berriez got up and walked over to the demon, trying to hold back from taking his sword to it's neck. When he got over to him, he motioned for the guards to give him the chains. They did and left him alone with the demon.
As soon as they were gone, Berriez punched the demon in it's stomache. It collapsed to the floor with a gasp, clutching where the swordsman's fist had connected. It spoke with it's raspy voice, it was somewhat high also, it spoke in such a tone that Berriez couldn't help but feel sorry for it, "Whayyy.... whay you do these to me?"
Berriez's expression softened in sympathy, then became just as fersome as ever. The demon looked up in horror, knowing what would come. Berriez kicked it in the stomache where he had been punched earlier. The demon let out a gasp, "That's for Shannon."
"Pleassssss stop!" it cried
"This, is for Neo!" again he kicked it in the head.
"Noooo!"
"And this is for all the trouble your kind has caused for us," the demon clutched it's stomache in defense, but the elf went for his head. It went back with a snap. It had dazed the demon and a green fluid started down from it's face. He couldn't tell if it was blood, sweat, or tears.
Berriez was about to kick again but King Volcano stopped him. Now, since his head was cleared of the blind anger towards the demon, he could hear it crying, sobbing, gasping for breath. Asking for pity. Volcano spoke up, "He's going to be sacrificed anyway. Leave him be. He's in enough pain."
"He deserves every bit of it," Berriez started back again.
Volcano pulled him back, "No, he doesn't. The demons are forced to fight. The king was the only one of them that actually wants this done."
"But they're following him."
"Because they are faithful."
"Pleassss guud seer. Have merssssy on meee. I'm forsed to kill."
Berriez looked at Volcano, he was horrified at Berriez's actions. Then down at the demon. A pang of guilt struck his heart. He then kicked the demon again, it started to sob louder. Berriez again lined up, but was thrown back by the Pyro King and Berriez glared up at him, "That is quite enough Berriez! I will not tolerate this any longer! Now you go back over to where you were and await your time!"
The king turned around in disgust and knelt down and helped the demon to sit down, then gave him a drink from his canteen. Berriez frowned in disgust, "Bastard."
A.N.- Well in this part, I wanted to show the somewhat, angrier side of Berriez. This whole fic, he's been pictured as the "honorable" warrior. Beisdes, what is a hero without a dark side? Anyways, R/R. Sorry for the long wait.
Magicman/Smokegirl- Thanks. Mr. Volcano is supposed to be basically, the most honorable king if you overlook his temper. He'd do anything to protect his kingdom, even sacrifice himself.
Dragon C. Chan- Thanks for reveiwing.
Evil-Fishie- Thanks for reviewing again.
A.N.- Well in this part, I wanted to show the somewhat, angrier side of Berriez. This whole fic, he's been pictured as the "honorable" warrior. Beisdes, what is a hero without a dark side? Anyways, R/R. Sorry for the long wait.
