And here is Chapter One for you. This is all I'm posting until the middle of July, since I will be going away and won't be able to upload anything from my Palm (which is where I keep and work on my stories) In the meantime, let me know what you think of it, and I'll have more of it when I get back (I have up to Chapter 11 typed, although they need to be gone back over and double-checked before I will post)
Chapter 01: 1
Arrivals
As they traveled through the dimensional gap, try though they might, Elwing and Iris just couldn't hold onto one another. They were separated and dropped quite distant from each other. As they fell, they swiftly forgot all they knew of this world they were entering, or rather, their knowledge was buried deep in their psyches, as a story they had heard once, but mostly forgotten over time.
Elwing suddenly became aware of a change in the sensation of falling. Instead of falling as though in a dream, she was really falling! She opened her eyes just in time to see that she was going to fall in water, and, somehow, her pack was already on the ground. She had only enough time to take one deep breath before she hit the water. In two ways she was lucky, first, that she was a good swimmer, and second, that she was falling sortof feet first. She scissored her arms and legs as she struck the water, and popped right back to the surface… only to discover that she was not unobserved in this rather undignified arrival. Sitting on a rock on the shore of this lake she had fallen into was someone who, by what she could see of him, looked strangely familiar.
"Daaa!" He called, "It's a good day for a swim, no da."
'And that clinches it.' Elwing thought to herself as she swam to shore, 'I'm sure I know that voice and inflection, not to mention the strange turn of phrase, but where from? Somehow I'm sure I've seen and heard him before.'
She struggled ashore and dragged herself, dripping and bedraggled, out of the water by her pack. The strangely familiar blue-haired man walked over and helped her to her feet.
"Cute outfit, but wouldn't it be easier to swim without all those layers, no
da?"
"If I thought I might go swimming, believe me, I would have dressed more appropriately. I certainly wouldn't have worn jeans. Now I'll never get them dry! Oh well, at least I have a dry change of clothes." Elwing began scanning the surroundings for somewhere to divest herself of her sopping raiment.
"There's a bush over there, no da." he pointed out.
"Thanks." Elwing said, and went quickly over to hide before she blushed bright red. 'He's so cute!' she thought, 'What luck! I can't decide whether the luck is good or bad. I land practically in the lap of a guy who is SOOO cute!' she sighed, blushing red at the tips of her ears, 'but I look AWFUL! It's not exactly the first impression I would have wanted. I wonder if Iris fared any better?'
When Iris realized she was falling through air, she had only enough time to emit a startled "Eep!" before she crashed down into a pile of hay outside what she assumed to be a barn. The sole human occupant of the barn at that moment heard the sound and frowned.
"Shit!" he swore, "What the Hell was that?" he put down the currycomb he'd been using on his horse and went outside.
At first, all he could see was a mangled pile of hay surrounded by a pile of dust, then all of a sudden there was a loud sneeze.
"Who the Hell is that?" he exclaimed.
'I know that foul mouth from somewhere!' Iris thought to herself as she shook her head and sent spears of straw flying in all directions, 'Or maybe it just reminds me of someone in a story? I'd better play it cool, though. Gotta make sure I don't scare him off, he sounds sexy!' Iris shoved her way out of the pile of straw.
To the young man observing, it looked rather as though she emerged from a giant cloud of smoke, the gray hay dust having not yet settled.
"It's just me!" she called.
"Sure, but who the Hell are you, anyway?" Tasuki demanded.
"Oh, my name's Iris. Could you tell me where I am, please?"
"Where you are? How the Hell could you get here without knowin' where you are?" The redhead reevaluated her and noticed for the first time her strange garments. "You're from the other world, aren't you?"
"I suppose you could say that. This certainly doesn't look like where I came from. I'd still like to know where I am, though."
"Oh, perfect, just what we fuckin' needed, more girls from the other world." He muttered to himself. "You're in my bandit headquarters on Mount Reikaku in the highlands of Konan-koku."
"Oh, I see. Is there another girl like me around here anywhere?"
"Another? Shit, no, you're the only one like you around here."
Iris blushed and pushed her hair behind one ear, only to discover that it was full of straw. 'I must look like a scarecrow! What a first impression to make on the cutest guy ever!' she thought, and her cheeks burned.
"Well, I suppose I hafta take you to the Imperial Palace." Tasuki sighed.
"I'm not going anywhere looking like a scarecrow." Iris insisted, attempting to pick straw out of her normally luxurious, shoulder-length, wavy, black hair.
"Women!" he muttered to himself, "Now I fuckin' remember why I fuckin' hate women! Look. Obviously we're not goin' anywhere right away. I just got back here myself, and I'm sure as shit not goin' right off again without some food and a sleep in my own bed, so would you at least come inside?" 'Where I can keep an eye on you.' he added to himself.
'I hope Elwing landed near someone just as helpful.' Iris thought to herself as she graciously accepted the offer of a room.
Behind the bush, Elwing struggled to get her soaking wet jeans off. After a couple of minutes, she managed to get them over her feet, and only at that time realized that she had no towel. The best she could do was a large face cloth, but, obviously, that was not exactly going to get her much drier than she was at present, which was not at all. Quickly stripping off the rest of her water-saturated clothes, she first squeezed the water out of her long blonde braid, then mopped, as best she could, her body with the small square of cloth. Once the face cloth was completely soaked, she gave up. Luckily, she had packed lots of clean, dry clothes, and, although she was still damp, she didn't want to be sitting around with nothing on, so she pulled out some more good tramping clothes, but this time, substituted black stretch pants for jeans. Gathering up her wet clothes and carrying them as far from her as possible, she emerged from behind the bush.
"Well, are you dry, no da?" her present companion asked, "Hey, who are you anyway? You're from the other world, I can tell that much for sure, no da."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I was kindof rude. My name's Elwing. I was supposed to arrive with another girl… You haven't seen anyone else around here, have you?"
"Just you, no da."
"Hmmm… Well, that doesn't make any sense, we left together." 'Maybe she landed on a cute guy too.' she thought, and smirked as a picture of Iris falling from the sky directly onto some poor unsuspecting guy's head popped up before her mind's eye.
"I'm sure you'll find her, no da. Oh, and my name's Chichiri, no da."
"Pleased to meet you." Elwing said politely, and began laying her clothes out on the bush she had hidden behind. She looked in despair at her jeans and heavy purple polarfleece top, then at the sun, which was only about two hours from setting. "It may be warm now, but these things are never going to get dry before dark, to say nothing of me." She sighed, "You wouldn't happen to know of someplace I could stay for the night?" she asked Chichiri, digging in her bag for her hairbrush. Loosing her waist-length hair from its confinement, she began working the brush through it to speed its drying, "Mind you, it's not as though I have anything to pay with… " she suddenly sat down, dejected, "Nothing is going right here." she moaned, "I'm soaking wet, I have no idea where I am, let alone where Iris is, even though I have the strangest feeling I should, and I don't even know where I'm going to stay for the night!" she held her head in her hands and tried to blink back tears, "This is stupid! It's not so bad it should make me cry." she sniffled.
"Hey," Chichiri said, sitting down beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulder, "it's not that bad, no da. I know where you are, and I can give you a place to sleep and get dry, no da."
All of a sudden, as Chichiri touched her, Elwing found that she could actually "feel" the concern and compassion for her which he felt. This sudden, unexpected appearance of a strange new ability shocked her off the verge of hysteria.
She turned and smiled at Chichiri. "Thanks!" she said, "I needed that."
Meanwhile, in the bandit hideout, Iris evaluated her wardrobe choices, and decided that since she wasn't going anywhere, and since she had a hot guy to impress, wearing a nice dress was perfectly acceptable.
"Hmm… shall I wear the long purple dress or the short one? Longer is better, I think."
She shook the dress out and put it aside to avoid getting straw on it, then began taking her things off one article at a time. As she shook out each garment, she was amazed at the amount of straw which was disgorged.
Once she had gotten rid of all the straw from her clothes, she began working on her hair, picking the straw out piece by piece until her locks were once again free of tangles, then brushed the straw dust out of it. Once she was satisfied that she was as presentable as she could be without having a bath, she slipped on the dress and sat down on the bed. Just then, there was a knock on the door. 'Perfect timing' Iris grinned mentally.
"I'm coming!" she called. She ran the brush a couple of more strokes through her hair, then calmly walked over and opened the door.
"It's been a couple of years since I saw anyone from your world." her young man said, "Are you a Miko?"
"I don't know, what's a Miko?" she asked.
"A kinda priestess...a girl who talks to one of the Gods and gets wishes from him."
"No, I don't think so… Hey," she asked as she realized he hadn't introduced himself yet, "what's your name anyway?"
"Here they call me Genrou, but most places I'm known as Suzaku no Shichiseishi Tasuki. Hey! What the Hell are you doin' askin' questions? I'm supposed to be the one askin' the questions!" he glared at her, "Okay, I know that in your world, this whole world's just some damn book, and I know that's how people from your world get here..."
"All I know is the book my friend and I were reading when we got pulled here said something about prophesy." Iris explained. 'I'm sure I should know more than that,' she thought, 'but how can I explain it? It's like I should remember something really important, but I don't.'
"Just bloody perfect." Tasuki sighed, "Didn't you say you're lookin' for another girl?"
"Yes," Iris confirmed, "my friend Elwing."
"Just DAMN BLOODY perfect!" Tasuki swore, "Two girls, and only me and Chichiri left to keep an eye on them. Well, I'm not doin' anythin' 'til I've eaten."
"I am kinda hungry," Iris agreed, "and you seem to have a good cook, from what my nose tells me." She sighed as she inhaled the delicious smells of dinner cooking and her stomach growled.
"Suzaku's balls, not another one!" Tasuki muttered under his breath. "We'll be outa food in no time if she stays long!"
By the time they got to the dining hall, everyone else was already there. A few grins were thrown their way, but most of the bandits were too wary of their leader's fiery temper to say anything out loud. Certainly none of them suspected the truth. Tasuki and Iris sat down and started to eat, and Tasuki was pleasantly surprised that unlike Miaka, she didn't simply inhale her food. Somehow, though, even while appearing to eat with perfect gentility, she managed to eat almost twice as much as he did in the same amount of time.
Once dinner was over and everyone was slightly drunk (except for Iris, who didn't really know what sake would do to her, so didn't touch it) Tasuki tapped Iris on the shoulder.
"Stop loungin' around, dammit, we have to talk to someone, c'mon" He got up and walked to the door, and Iris quickly followed.
The drink having done its work, some of those who had grinned at the beginning of the meal now giggled.
Tasuki spun quickly around. "Somethin' fuckin' funny, dammit? I'll give you somethin' to godsdamn laugh at! LEKKA SHIN'EN!"
The tabletop burst into flames, but luckily this wasn't all that uncommon an event, and everyone simply dumped conveniently-placed casks of water on it.
"All you guys who found the situation so fuckin' amusin' can damn well clean that mess up." Tasuki threw over his shoulder as he walked out the door with Iris right behind him. As soon as the door closed, the gigglers were attacked by their neighbours, making even more of a mess.
Tasuki strode down the hall at an angry pace, which Iris struggled to keep up with. Finally, she had had enough.
"Hey, slow down, would you!" she said, planting herself, irritated, hands on hips, in the middle of the hall, "What's the hurry?"
"Oh shit." Tasuki swore, rolling his eyes, "I fuckin' hate women!" he sighed, "C'mon, don't just stand around lookin' like a fool." He started walking again, but this time at a pace Iris could more easily keep up with.
A few turnings later they reached their destination. When Iris walked in, she suddenly realized, to her extreme embarrassment, that she was in Tasuki's bedroom. She blushed a deep crimson and started to back out the door.
Tasuki grabbed her arm. "Don't be stupid," he growled, "I'm not some kinda pervert. Just come over here and sit by this tapestry." he said, plunking her in front of said wall-hanging. He then sat down next to her and bared his right forearm so that his character was visible, then closed his eyes. Slowly the pattern of the tapestry began to fade and was replaced by what seemed to be a window into the interior of a small cottage.
"Thanks for helping me out, Chichiri." Elwing said as they walked to the cottage where she was to spend the night. Her clothes were still wet, and so were her shoes, so she went barefoot rather than wear squelching shoes. Even though the day was warm, Elwing was still damp enough, because of her wet hair, to feel chilly. The back of her purple peasant blouse was soaked, and sticking to her, and her bundle of wet clothes dampened her front. As the sun was setting, she knew that what heat she did feel would soon disappear.
"Is it much further to this place we're heading?" she asked Chichiri, who had kindly offered to carry her pack.
"Not much further, no da. I was wondering, have you got any idea what your purpose here is, no da?"
"I don't really know. I was reading a strange book with a friend in my world, but we got no further than the first page when this weird red light appeared, and the next thing I knew, I was here, and she was somewhere else. I know we fell together, though, because we were holding hands at first." Elwing explained.
"This book, was it called the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho, no da?" Chichiri asked.
"It was The Four Gods' Sky and Earth, yes. Do you think it's important?"
Chichiri smiled, "That's how you got here! I don't know why, but somehow this world is contained within that book, no da."
"Cool!" Elwing exclaimed, "I'm in a whole 'nother universe inside a book!"
"It's not just fun and games, though, no da." Chichiri warned.
"Nothing ever is." Elwing acknowledged.
"People are only brought through the book for specific purposes; tomorrow we will go to Taiitsukun and see what she can tell us, no da." he told her.
"Tomorrow is tomorrow and will come when it does. For now, I just want to be warm and dry and have something to eat." she said, and shivered.
"I think I can help there, no da." Chichiri grinned, and pointed with his shakujou to a small cottage just ahead, "We've arrived, no da!"
"Yay!" Elwing cheered, "Time to get warm and dry!"
When they got in, Chichiri deposited her pack by the door and began building a fire in the fireplace.
"Is there anywhere can hang these wet clothes close to the fire so they can get dry?" Elwing asked.
"Up there, no da." Chichiri pointed to some hooks set into the beams.
"Thanks!" she said, "That's just what I need." She hung her sodden clothing up to dry, then asked, "Is there somewhere I can change out of this wet top?"
"Just wait until I've got the fire going well, and I'll show you, no da." he replied.
As soon as the fire was well established, Chichiri lit a lantern and took Elwing to the spare room in the back of the cottage.
"You can use this room for now, no da." he offered, "I'll call you when dinner's ready, no da."
"Thanks!" Elwing smiled.
Leaving the lantern with her, Chichiri headed off to the main room again. As soon as he was out of sight, Elwing stripped her wet blouse off and, after evaluating the situation, decided the pants had to go too. She set them aside, and couldn't resist unpacking her favourite dress to change into. Her hair was partway toward dry, but not dry enough yet, so before she put on the dress she sat on a stool by what she had deemed to be the dressing-table and endeavored once again to brush her hair dry. She was just finishing this and getting ready to go slip the dress on, when two things happened almost at once. First, she sensed a "reaching-out" seemingly opposite to the "pull" the book had exerted on her, and second, Chichiri came into the room.
"Ex-CUSE ME?!" Elwing gasped, outraged, and pulled herself into a ball on the stool. This was, perhaps, not the smartest of moves, however, for although it did cover her more salient features, it also overbalanced her, and she fell sprawling backward off the stool. Chichiri blushed and turned quickly around. "Daaa! Pardon me, no da." he apologized, "There's something in this room I need to use. You might consider getting dressed, although I don't think my friend Tasuki would mind terribly if you didn't, no da." he grinned.
"Grr, just you wait!" Elwing warned, but she also laughed. "Since you've already seen pretty much all there is to see, you may as well turn around and help me on with this dress." she offered, by way of an apology for her earlier anger.
Chichiri turned around again and, striving to politely keep his gaze above her collarbones, waited as she stepped into the dress, then, after a brief explanation of the mysterious workings of zippers, zipped up the back as she held her hair out of the way.
"Thanks," she said, "now what was this about someone named Tasuki?"
"He called, and wants to talk to me, no da." Chichiri explained, "This is the room where I keep the tapestry which is used as a link between us. You may as well stay, he's a Suzaku no Shichiseishi, as am I, and will need to know about you, no da."
Elwing agreed, and Chichiri motioned for her to sit down in front of one of the tapestries on the wall and held his prayer beads in front of his face, muttering a spell. The complex pattern of the tapestry faded, and Elwing began to see a well-lit room, rich with silks, instead.
" 'As the two girls came into view to each other, they both grinned and simultaneously cried 'There you are!' which surprised both the seishi.' "
Catherine read. "What a strange book!" she said, "It must be Elwing's, since no one else has claimed it." Just then the phone rang. "Hello?" she answered it.
"Hello, is Elwing there?" Pithya, on the other side, asked, "She's supposed to let me in."
"Something weird is going on with her." Catherine explained, "Why don't I let you up, and maybe you can tell me if you know anything about what's going on."