AN- Heh heh heh! I'm back, and here's Chapter 4! Like always, I only own Janus, Orion and Orchid. Well, here it is…
Chapter 4: The Phantoms
Orion was having a difficult time crossing the Desert of the Phantoms. He felt like one big ache; his unprotected arms, legs and were being cut by the desert sandstorms, and the sands beneath his feet were burning. He turned to glare at the sun, needing a reprieve from the intense heat that threatened to burn him. And most importantly, Orion needed water to quench the thirst that had welled up inside of him.
"Water…" He muttered. "Need water!" Saying this, Orion pulled a canteen from his belt and poured the contents into his mouth. He continued to guzzle the water until all that came out was a drop.
"Great," Orion muttered, shifting the limp form of Orchid onto his right shoulder, "no more water". The girl had succumbed to the heat a while ago and fell unconscious. This suited Orion, as he didn't have to listen to her condemnation of his actions and threats of what Rayman would do to him.
Suddenly, Orion began to hear soft footsteps and a strange hissing sound. "What in the…" He muttered as it got louder and louder. Turning around, Orion found himself surrounded by strange creatures. They were all humanoid in shape, with pale skin and pale blue eyes. Each of them wore a long, brown cloak and carried a pair of throwing knives around its waist.
"Outsider…" They hissed. "Outsider…"
As Orion watched, the creatures began to move closer and closer to him. As he began to reach for his sword, one of the creatures stepped away from the others and approached Orion. This one, unlike the others, wore a cloak embroidered with gold thread. It also carried a knife that seemed to be carved skillfully from a blue crystal and wore a gem-encrusted golden bracelet on its right arm. Orion and the creature stared into each others eyes for a moment, trying not to blink.
Finally, the creature before him began to speak. "Who are you, outsider, and what are you doing in the sacred lands of the Phantoms?" It asked in a quiet voice laced with deadly calm.
"My name is not important." Orion replied. "But what is important is this bag of gold I have." So saying, Orion produced a bag of gold and held it in front of the speaker's eyes.
The Phantom stared greedily at the gold. "I'm sorry, my friend." He said, smiling. "I apologize if we have given you the wrong impression. Is there anything we can do for you?"
"Yes." Orion said, nodding. "There are a group of outsiders who are bothering me. Their leader looks is a young man with no arms or legs, but he is very skilled at fighting. I'd like it if you… made them disappear."
The Phantom smiled again. "Of course. I swear that I, Tos'kio, will do whatever I can to help you."
"And one more thing." Orion said as the Phantoms began to depart. "Do what you will to his friends, but bring the limbless one back to me. Alive."
*******
"Cheerful place." Rayman muttered as he looked around at the black rocks that rose above the shore and the bleached skeletons that lined the beach.
"Sailor call this place Dead Man's Cove, for obvious reasons." Carmen remarked. "There aren't a lot of ships that have been able to avoid those rocks. Of course, we whales don't need to worry because we are so skilled at swimming."
"That's what I like about you, Carmen; you're so modest." Rayman joked. "Anyway, we have to go. I need to find Orchid before anything happens to her!" Simon silently nodded in agreement.
"Don't go through the Desert before you blindly now, Rayman." Carmen warned her friend. "The elements aren't the only things you need to protect against. Beware the Phantoms. Well, I must be off. Goodbye, Rayman!" At that, Carmen swam off before her friend could ask her anything else.
"Phantoms?" Rayman asked as he trudged through the hot sand. "What are those Phantoms that Carmen talked about?"
"No idea." Simon said, shaking his head. "Whatever they are, though, they don't exactly sound friendly the way Carmen was talking."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't, Rayman." Ly replied. "A lot of things have seemed a bit unfriendly lately."
As they continued talking, Rayman began to observe his surroundings with worry. To every side of him lay a billowing carpet of sand that seemed to stretch on to infinity. The sun above him seemed to glare its malice at Rayman and his friends as they trudged through the burning sands, battering them with intense heat. Cacti flourished in the desert, standing tall despite the overwhelming heat. Perched on some of the cacti were vultures, some staring hungrily at the three friends and some picking the meat from the skeletons of other creatures.
"Wait," Simon said, taking out a knife from his belt as they approached a patch of cacti. Before Rayman could ask what was going on, Simon went over to one of the cacti and cut a hole in it with the knife. Suddenly, liquid began to flow from the hole in the cactus.
"Water!" Rayman gasped as he and Ly ran over to the cactus. He cupped his hands to collect whatever water fell his way and drank greedily. After he had satisfied his thirst, he placed his feet in the wet sand, sighing happily as they began to cool.
"Thank you, Simon!" Rayman said, noticing that his friends were behaving exactly like he had. "I don't know how long I could've gone on if it weren't for that water."
"Don't mention it, Rayman." Simon replied. "My father told me about the ability of cacti to hold in rainwater when I was just a little boy. We did that a lot in some of the less habitable places we went to."
"Well," Ly remarked, "now that we're all refreshed we should try to find our way around. I have no idea where we're going or which way we came."
"Same here." Rayman muttered. "All I can see is a bunch of sand dunes and cacti spreading off in every direction."
"But we can't just stay here." Simon said, entering the conversation. "We need to find our way out of here somehow."
As they arose, Rayman heard a strange whistling noise. "What's tha…"
Any other comment was cut short by the knife that came whirling into Rayman's chest.
"Rayman!" Ly yelled, staring in horror at her friend. As she watched, a group of strange creatures came walking through the desert towards the friends. They had strange, pale skin and wore brown cloaks. All of them carried a pair of throwing knives except for one, who grinned as he looked at the knife in Rayman's chest
"Well, if it isn't the group of Outsiders that we were told to take care of." The creature that threw the knife said. "This should be fun." At that, he raised his hand to throw his second knife at Ly. Before he could throw it, however, a bolt of light struck him in the chest. Rayman rose from the ground, staff in hand, and tried to give a fearless grin despite the pain that flooded his body.
"Cmon! Anyone else…" At that, he collapsed.
"He can't fight right now," Ly muttered darkly, "but I can! Anyone want to try me?"
One of the creatures grinned, cocking his knife back jauntily for a throw. Ly held out her hand, glaring at the creature as a ball of energy began to form in her hand. The creature stared at it and ran away, but he was too late. Ly's energy sphere struck him in the back, knocking him unconscious. As the creatures watched in horror, Ly began to create more spheres. Two more were struck by Ly's energies, and the rest ran away.
Ly then went over to Rayman and began to form a Lum in her hands. She placed it on top of Rayman and watched as it dissolved, filling her friend with energy. She grinned at her friend, but suddenly gasped in horror. One of the creatures had placed a knife to the fairy's throat.
"One wrong movement," he said, grinning, "and she dies!" Suddenly, he gasped and fell to the ground with a knife in his back. The friends watched a figure emerged from the sandstorm. He looked like the creatures that had attacked them, except that he had a red cloak instead of a blue one, and was even paler than the rest. When he reached the body of the slain creature, he reached to pull his knife out of its back. He raised a lazy eye at the friends as he cleaned the knife on his shirt.
"In a bit of a tight spot, eh?" He said in a calm, slightly cynical voice. "It's good that I came here in time. Don't you think, Rayman?"