World So Cold
By: Raven Moonshadow
Chapter iii: Familiarity
Thorn slowed upon approaching the untouched forests surrounding the tower. The force field she had placed around it unconsciously had held up under all circumstances.
Guarding the tower.
She raised her hand and eased it through the shield. It glimmered silver around her hand. Immediately after recognizing her psyche it pulled back and created a gate in which she could travel through.
Thorn smiled and went through. The land was so familiar here. The crispy, black charred soil where she finally destroyed Thalia's evil father. Trowa's grave in the garden under a young willow tree. Yes. It was definitely all the same.
She jumped off the horse and pulled off its reigns and saddle, patting its flanks. "You can go nibble on the grass." She said softly. The cat, which had jumped down upon their arrival, looked up at he and then looked back to where they came from.
The bubbles floated down and dissipated around the two young men. She knelt down beside the Wufei-look-alike. Her hand glowed blue over his chest and she watched as the tiny cuts on his face and arms began to disappear. When the glowing stopped she inspected her handy work.
Something glinting on his chest caught her attention. She slid her fingers over the gold chain until it met a pendant, half hidden by his shirt. Thorn pulled it out gently and started down at the sleeping dragon etched into the gold of the pendant, an opal-ish stone clutched between its claws. "What a beautiful pendant, wonderfully crafted." She murmured.
A hand clamped down on her wrist causing her to release the pendant in surprise. She stared down into a pair of glaring dark eyes. He threw her hand away.
"Do not touch." He spoke coldly. The cat beside her fluffed its tail up till it resembled an angry long-haired Abyssinian before it took off into the woods. The black haired young man watched it go with a glare before looking back up at Thorn, who also watched the cat run off. She turned back to the boy.
"Are you alright?" I didn't mean to intrude but it caught me eye and I wanted to see what it was."
"To steal it." He glared. Thorn blinked, taken aback.
"No. I never said that."
"But you wanted to. You thought it was pretty and wanted to have it for yourself."
"How dare you say that! I merely wanted to see it, I already have my own—"
"What!?" He moved so quickly, lunging forward and grabbing her necklace chain. He yanked it from her corset and stared at the garnet stone with the rearing unicorn etched seemingly into the center. He dropped it then and his eyes hardened further. "You lie. You're trying to trick me."
"What are you talking about?"
"You said you hand one too."
"You didn't let me finish. I was going to say that I already have my own pendant and have no need for someone else's." She said matter-of-factly. "Besides…I don't like stealing things anyway."
"But…"
"But nothing. Stop jumping to conclusions. I pulled you out of the battle field to heal you. I didn't know what had happened so I found those that were alive." She lowered her eyes. "I just wanted to ask you what happened to cause such a battle."
He stared at her, going through his options. He could tell her about the war currently being waged or he could call for his dragon to… his eyes widened. He grabbed her retreating wrist as she began to move to an elf with an arrow piercing his chest. She looked back at him, obviously confused. "Where is Nataku?" He asked urgently. She blinked her gold eyes at him.
"Who?"
"My dragon. Where is she?" Thorn thought back to the battle field. Her mind could only come up with the dead dragon that had been curled around this boy. She looked down sadly, staring at the dirt. His eyes widened.
"I'm sorry. But the only dragon I saw was the dead one curled around you." She said quietly. All was silent. She didn't dare look up at him. The only sound was that of their breathing and the chewing of the battle horse not too far away. When she finally managed to pull her eyes from the ground she found the young man staring down at the dirt as well, silent tears falling from his tightly closed eyes. Her heart softened in that moment. This seemingly strong boy was reduced to tears
"The dragon was very close to yonder boy. The stone he wears is emblazed with the symbol of the dragon masters. They are given a baby dragon as soon as they are able to walk and from then on the dragon grows and plays with the child." Thalia spoke sympathetically in her mind. Thorn nodded.
"Yes. The poor guy. If I had a friend/pet that I had grown up with and suddenly I found that it died…I'd be devastated." She replied. The boy looked up at her and gave her a funny look whist wiping his eyes.
"Who are you speaking to?" Thorn blinked.
A blush began making its way up her neck to heat her face. She'd been caught talking to Thalia, which in other peoples eyes looked as if she were speaking to herself. Lie…Thorn, lie like a big damn rug.
"Or ye could tell him the truth." Thalia suggested. Thorn paused.
"Well, um, first I'd like to know your name before I tell you anything about myself." He raised an eyebrow at her suspiciously. She just gave him a big smile.
"I'm Wufei Chang, heir and prince of the Tyr Dragon clan of the east." He said. Thorn did a double take. Wufei!? But hadn't he been a vampire the last time she had seen him.
"You don't happen to also be a vampire?"
He gave her the funniest look.
"Why would I be a vampire?"
"Uh no reason. You just remind me of someone else. Anyway, my name is Thorn Draven, I'm a sorceress and the reincarnation of a great sorceress named Thalia. She was the one that I was speaking to seeing as her spirit is trapped inside me." Thorn said it almost casually, forgetting that people weren't accustomed to hearing such things said to them. Wufei looked a little wide eyed as he digested the information.
"How is that possible?"
"What?"
"The sorceress Thalia died over six-hundred-and-fifty years ago and the sorceress Thorn disappeared not long after the defeat of Talazrith, the sorcerer who went mad." Now it was Thorn's turn to blink at Wufei in surprise. Then as her mind processed the information it zoomed in on one little key fact.
"Six-hundred-and-fifty years ago!?!" She half shouted. "Has it really been that long? Only a year passed for me." She sat back with a finger thoughtfully pressed to her lips. Her other hand went back to stabilize herself and instead it landed on another body. Her eyes widened and she whipped around. "Crap! I completely forgot about our injured friend here!" She wanted to slap herself. He could have died. She pressed two fingers to his throat. Nope. Still alive.
A little chibi version of herself in the back of her mind wiped the sweat from it's forehead dramatically.
She shuffled her body around and placed one hand on the elves chest and the other gently grabbed the arrows shaft. "This is definitely going to hurt." She squeezed her eyes shut, gave herself a quick mental pet talk about yanking arrows from bleeding chests, and then jerked her hand upward on the staff. The arrow head, surprisingly only gave her little resistance in sliding from the flesh. She saw the elves face scrunch up in pain briefly before he began to relax.
Thorn's hand hovered over the elf's chest. The blue light began to emit from her hand. Wufei almost looked alarmed.
"What are you doing, woman?"
"I'm sucking his soul. I think it's about time I end his suffering."
"WHAT!?!" Thorn sweatdropped.
"I'm kidding. I'm healing him." Wufei looked at her skeptically. "Really! I am. Watch." He leaned over her shoulder, keeping a steady eye on both her and the elf's wound. The skin began to knit itself together before his very eyes.
"You really are a sorceress…or at least some kind of magical healer." Wufei said almost astonished. Thorn nodded happily knowing that she had finally driven some sense into his think skull.
The elf twitched. The wound was now closed and Thorn had a suspicion that he would wake at any moment. For some odd reason, the raven haired woman also had to looked around just to make sure that anything that could be used as a weapon was out of reach. It must have been something her brain knew would be useful after seeing Wufei's reaction upon waking. She looked back to see if he was awake yet…
…and was startled to see the elf's Prussian blue eyes gazing up at her unemotionally.
~Owari
Raven: Another 3 page chapter *sigh* for some reason I just feel horrible about writing so little for you guys…well, whoever happens to be reading, I hope you like it. This is pretty good seeing as I wasn't planning to update this one until I was done with In The End which still, it seems, far from finished even with it having 11 chapters.
