Chapter 5
Ari watched in horror as Rui fell to his knees, a knife in his back. She crouched low and held him upright by his shoulders as he struggled with the pain. The bandit leader slowly advanced on them. He himself had his fist at his gut, blood dripped a path behind him.
She looked from the man she held up to the one who posed the most immediate threat. Rui pulled away from her and attempted to stand up. He ended up leaning on her shoulder for support. He had pulled the knife out of the muscle in his back and was preparing to fight once more.
"This is hopeless and you know it—" Ari started to say but Rui cut her off.
"I'll hold him off. Make a run for it when you can."
"Are you insane? You can't even stand up by yourself!"
"I—can—too." The words were forced out between gritted teeth. He pulled away from her support and stood alone, hunched over, hands fisted around his knife, and ready to fight to the last.
The bandit chief stumbled forward but laughed at the condition his opponent was in. The two faced off, each bleeding rivers of red.
Rui's gonna lose! This is bad! The other guy could just fall on him and it'd be over. Ari looked around frantically for something to use as a weapon to help Rui. She couldn't see anything that would hurt the thug enough to be of any help. Oh! I just can't stand here and watch! I have to do something! Hands clenched into fists, she stood there, trembling in fear and anger, but she did not take a step towards the fight. I'm sick of being so helpless!
Rui rushed at his opponent, in hopes that one suicide attempt would be enough. It had to be enough. That was all that was left of his strength. The bandit didn't even bother with the knife that Rui stabbed into his bulk of an arm and just swiped his fist across Rui's head. He dropped like a stone. Red hair hit the ground with a sickening crack. The blackness was closing in, but the enemy was faster.
The man stood over Rui, blocking out the sunlight, and raised his weapon high for the final blow.
"You shoulda learned, whelp. You never—"
Rui closed his eyes to the pain, barely hearing the last words.
"You never…"
He fell back with a ground-shaking thud that could have rivaled the earthquake Ari had felt not forty-eight hours before. Two feather-fletched arrows stood out from his chest, casting bizarre shadows into the pool of blood that surrounded him.
Ari gasped out in relief and ran over to kneel beside Rui, not even bothering to wonder who had shot the final blow. Rui's eyes were closed, but she could still make out the sound of his breathing. He struggled against the dark as he tried to open his eyes.
"Rui! Rui! He's dead! Wake up!" She shook his shoulders trying to get him to open his eyes. "Rui!"
"Can't you just let me die in peace!?" He hissed at her.
"You won't die."
Ari spun around. A silhouette stood tall, looking down at her and the bleeding man on the ground.
"He was mine! You…you stole my kill!" Rui forced the words out through gritted teeth. His body clenched into a ball in pain.
Ari looked down at him in horror. She then turned back as the form crouched down to her level. Hands rose, palms down, over Rui's body; green light gathered around the palms.
"Don't you dare!" Rui spat out. "I'd rather die here, than live knowing that I lost my one revenge!" The stranger continued doing whatever it was that he was doing, ignoring the ramblings. "Don't you understand?"
The light flowed from the hands to the wound. Blood faded. Muscles slowly un-cramped.
Rui's body lay still, at rest. The only movement Ari noted was the gradual rise and fall of his breath.
"Why did you feel you needed to kill him yourself?" The stranger asked mildly. "He is dead. It is the same end, is it not?"
"No. He was mine." His fist clenched in the dirt. "You don't understand. He killed them both. Then he refused to kill me. So I survived only on the vow that one day he would reach the same end, by my hand! Because of you, that vow is nothing. I am nothing!"
Surprisingly, the stranger laughed out loud. "You always were melodramatic. Get up Rui. You're healed." The form stood up and dusted the dirt from their cloak. Ari finally got a good look at him….or her.
The stranger was a tall, rugged-looking woman. She wore dark green pants stuffed into knee-high boots. A colorless shirt was worn under a jacket of padded leather armor. The quiver strapped across her back matched the leather guard that protected her left wrist. A strung bow was casually slung over the opposite shoulder.
The woman's dark hair was braided away from her dark eyes. Dark eyes much like… Ari looked from Rui to the stranger and back again. The completely healed man was also squinting up at her. His matching eyes widened as he stuttered, "N-no. You…you were dead."
The woman reached an arm down to help him stand as she said, "Long time no see, brother dear."
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"So…"
Night had fallen. The sight of all the blood stained ground left a bitter and metallic taste in Ari's mouth, so the three had settled down away from the clearing for the night. Ari sat on a blanket on one side of the fire. Rui sat opposite her, in complete silence. His dark eyes never left the face of their new companion. She, herself, looked to be very content in the warmth of the fire, leaning her back against a tree stump.
"So…" Ari cleared her throat and tried to get some conversation moving around the bunch. Rui wasn't helping. He continued to stare in silence. "Ummm. Well!" Ari turned to the woman and stuck out her hand. "My name's Ari!" She smiled brightly.
The woman looked quizically at the offered hand, then up at its owner. Ari withdrew her hand with a nervous laugh. "Right. I forgot." She said under her breath.
The woman noticed her unease and then laughed out loud. "I apologize. I haven't introduced myself have I?" She gave Ari a genuine smile. "I'm called Kura."
Rui looked at her sharply. "That's not your—"
Kura cut him off, responding, "We've both changed, Rui. I'm not who I was. Neither are you." She didn't look at him but into the flames. The silence grew unbearably loud.
"Nice to meet you." Ari spoke up. "So I take it you are related to that grouch over there?" She motioned at Rui.
The woman chuckled. "Yes. He's my little brother. We were separated years ago and I think he's in shock." She turned to him. "So, you thought I was dead?"
"I saw them kill you both." He muttered into the fire.
"What am I then, a ghost?" She laughed at him.
"You could be…" He hunched over defensively.
Kura crawled over to his side and put her arm around his shoulders. "I promise you, I'm real. I won't leave you again." He leaned his head onto her shoulder, and Ari could have sworn she saw the firelight reflected off tears.
The fire blazed and a log snapped in the quiet of the campsite. Without moving, Rui voiced the question that Ari was dying to ask. It came out as no more than a whisper. "What happened to you?"
Kura leaned her head back and stared up at the dark treetops…
For Ari's benefit she started her story at the beginning.
"When those murderers came, they did what they always do first… they burned the village."
Fire blazed all around. Everything from the thatch roof to the straw-covered ground was aflame. Smoke billowed out from every home within sight. There were boards blocking the doors and windows. Dark, tall horses with dark, tall riders trotted calmly through the carnage. Screaming could be heard all around.
" Those that escaped the fire only ran to the mercy of the bandit's blades."
A woman streaked with soot tumbled out of a collapsing house. She crawled on her hands and knees away from the wreckage. Tears streamed from her terror-filled eyes. A shadow fell across her path. Trembling, she raised her head to see the dark rider looming above her. Cold steel glinted in the harsh sunlight. She closed her eyes.
"We managed to escape the fires. But when we tried to run…"
A dark haired, dark eyed woman herded two children away from the burning house. They melted into the shadows of the trees. The boy, scrawny and small for his eleven years, was in tears. The mother hushed him and hurried her family through the forest. Out of the shadows, a horse and rider appeared. The woman pushed her children into the surrounding brush and told them to run. The woman stood up to the rider in challenge. The children stared on in horror as their mother stood her ground. She turned to them and mouthed 'GO!' They stumbled through the brush and ran away. The woman fell to the ground in a flash of steel. Her son stopped and turned, crying out to her. The rider caught up to the children within seconds and grabbed the smaller one. The girl turned on the rider, demanding her brother back. The rider clubbed her over the head with the blunt of the blade and turned back to return to the village, a new slave in tow.
"They killed Mother…took you…and left me for dead." She laughed a humorless laugh. "I'm not that easy to get rid of."
The dark-eyed girl walked through the ashes of her village, searching for a sign of life. She fell to her knees in the midst of the charred remains of her home, teeth gritted, fighting back the tears that were coursing down her face.
"From there, I started walking. I wandered from town to town, looking for something…you maybe." Kura squeezed Rui's shoulders. "But to tell you the truth I didn't think I'd ever see you again. I lived on my own, never staying in one place for long. I learned how to shoot and that's how I stayed alive. I ended up hiring my bow out to earn enough to get by. I've been living like that for the past…oh, five years has it been? Then I got to hearing about this gang of bandits. They are not a popular bunch…"
A hooded figure sits in a tavern, back to the door, listening to a drunken conversation. The ramblings turned to the story of a vicious bandit gang that attacked random villages leaving nothing but ashes in their wake.
"I hunted them down. And here we are now." Rui was silent throughout the story. Kura took her arm back and wrapped both around her drawn up knees. She turned to her brother. "What happened to you?"
He stared into the firelight. His eyes met the sympathetic ones of Ari across the flames. He cleared his throat and sat up a little straighter. "They took me with them…like you said. I don't remember much. It's more a blur of emotions than of situations. They treated me like dirt, and that's what I was reduced to. I was so angry…I literally lived off the thought of revenge. I was their slave for the years. Nothing interesting happened…" He looked up at Ari again. "Until you came."
Kura nudged him in the side. "So who is she?"
Ari took that as her chance to tell her story. When she tried to speak, her words were lost in her throat. She tried again. "I was lost in the woods. The bandits caught me. Rui saved me and we both escaped. The bandits pursued and that's when you came. Thanks for helping, by the way. And for healing…wait. How exactly did you do that?" Ari looked closer at the woman.
Kura ignored her question and asked the same one Rui had asked her earlier. "What were you doing alone in the woods anyway? Don't you know that's practically begging bandits to kidnap you?"
Rui started to laugh but changed it into a cough when Ari shot him a dirty look.
"It wasn't my fault! One minute I was at work," Ari started to explain. "I was minding my own business, well I guess I wasn't really supposed to be up in that storage room," Ari rambled waving her hands to help explain her point. "And then there was this earthquake and all the books fell off the shelves, so I was stuck cleaning up blah blah blah."
Kura watched with one eyebrow raised at the antics of this strange young woman. Rui shook his head and tugged on his sister's sleeve. Quietly, he said "She's the Suzaku no Miko." Kura didn't hear him, she was so intrigued by Ari's ramblings.
"…And the next thing the book dumps me somewhere in the middle of a forest in what I gather to be ancient China!" Ari stopped talking and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.
Kura, confused, said "I think you lost me…"
"It's because she's from another world!" Rui sat up to get their attention. Again he stated, "She is the Suzaku no Miko!"
Kura's jaw dropped in disbelief. "No!"
"Yes." Said her brother.
Kura looked at the light-haired girl. "Wow."
Ari blushed and looked away from the staring eyes.
"Well. It's about time!" Kura sat with her hands on her knees. "Does the capital know?"
"Not yet. I was going to take her after we got away from the bandits. She hasn't been here long."
"Okay. So I'll help you to the capital too." Kura bowed from the waste to Ari. "And if I remember the stories correctly, I'll be joining you in your hunt for the remaining five warriors."
Rui winced.
Ari thought back to what Rui had told her. "I thought there were seven warriors?"
"Yes." She looked at Rui, confused. "I take it I am your…um… first Celestial Warrior? Suzaku Seishi Mitsukake." She held up her hand. A symbol on the palm blazed to life. "I have the power to heal."
"So that's how you saved Rui!" Ari's eyes shone in appreciation. She stood up and bowed back to her warrior. "Thank you very much. But I feel like I should warn you, I have absolutely no idea what's going on. Nevertheless, I'll greatly appreciate all your help." She sat back down, smiling like a fool. Then she remembered something and her eyes snapped open. She stood up and walked over to Rui. She slapped him upside the head. "Why the hell didn't you tell me your sister was a Celestial Warrior?!"
Rui rubbed the back of his head and didn't respond.
Kura looked at Rui then back up at Ari. "That's not the only thing he's not telling you." She leaned back against the tree stump and closed her eyes. Rui shot a look at her, but she continued.
"You twit. Do you really think you'd be able to take her to the capital without her noticing? Give the girl a little more credit!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about?" Rui asked her, hoping the shadows would hide his flushed face.
Ari sat down next to Rui. "What aren't you telling me?"
"I'm not telling you…I mean I'm not not telling you anything." His blush deepened. "Arg! Never mind!"
Ari looked at Kura in question.
"What he's not telling you is that he's totally…"
"KURA!"
"…completely…"
"Sister dearest!"
"…Head over heals…"
Rui clamped his hand over her mouth. "Not another word," he growled in her ear.
"Well, fine then. No need to be so touchy…But there is one thing you really should know…" Kura turned to Ari.
"Rui here is actually another of your Celestial Warriors."
Rui's mouth fell open as the attack came from a totally different direction. Ari looked at him in confusion. "What?"
Kura bowed dramatically and motioned at her brother.
"Priestess. Allow me to introduce you to your second Celestial Warrior, Suzaku Seishi Tasuki!"
Author's Note:
HAHAHAHAHA HAAAAAA! I do so love torturing my characters! And we have a new one! Let's all give a warm house welcome to KURA! (applaud)
YAY! I like her. She's cool!
I have a confession to make… When I first started to write this I designed Ari with well, me in mind…I know, I know, I'm sorry. But the good news is, she's not all that much like me, except in appearances. (Blue eyes, Red-blond hair, clumsy, works at a library) (I do actually work at a library BTW) But that's it I swear! I seem to have been putting little pieces of my personality in my other characters though. Kura's Big Sisterness. (that is all me) and Rui's …I don't know, but I like him.
I have another confession to make…I seem to be influenced more and more by anime/mangas…other than Fushigi Yugi…I'M CHEATING ON MY DEAREST! WAAAAHHH! It was just a little fling with that Inu-Yasha character, I swear! It's over! Please forgive me, Yu Watase-sama!!!
(kow-tow) ((did I spell that right?))
Enter Kura, stage left:
Kura: That's not the only thing she's not telling you…
Wanderlily: What? No—!
Kura: See what I found by her laptop?!? (holds up Japanese phrase book)
Wanderlily: (gasp!) give it back!!!
Kura: Truth is she's been looking up words for their Japanese equivalents…for her CHARACTER"S NAMES!!!
Wanderlily: (tears) It's true…it's all TRUE!!!
Kura: WHAT THE HELL KINDA NAME IS KURA ANYWAY?!?!?!
Wanderlily: hey! It's better than it was, trust me…
OK ENOUGH!!!! No More confessions! My apologies for being stupid, and lame attempts at humor…if your looking for that check out my humor fic, cause people seem to find that one funny. (pseudomask, that's all you) But hell! I try!
This author's note is gonna end up longer than the actual chapter…hehehe.
Thanks everyone for reading. Review, review, review! Please?
One last thing: TRANSLATIONS!!! (for all those who don't know simple Japanese words nor happen to be the proud owner of a Japanese-english phrasebook!) These are all from my book so DON"T KILL ME IF I'm WRONG!!!
Ari: Actually it means ant. Great huh? But that's not where I got it from. Ari is short from Hikari, (thus the title of the entire story) which means light.
Hikari: Light, see above.
Suzaku no Hikari: Light of Suzaku
Rui: no idea what that means…but it's short for Akarui, which means bright.
And finally…Kura:comes from Kurai which means dark…as to what her name used to be…hehehe, that's for me to cringe at and you do wonder about.
Kura: (looking at old list of character designs) my name was WHAT!?!
TTFN. Ta ta for now!
***wanderlily***