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Junsuisa
Chapter Five: Harque the Witch

No one reviewed!!! AHH!! Since no one reviewed this chapter isn't very good because I didn't feel like going back and re-reading it. I didn't feel very inspired.

Elwine was out in a field watching her two children and Usagi pick flowers. Their friend, Belor, sat by a tree watching the three girls run about. It had been three days since Keleios had had a prophetic dream. While Elwine hoped that wasn't a prophesy she had this feeling that something was going to happen. Prophesy wasn't in her family so Keleios shouldn't have it. Magic talents didn't just appear by themselves.
Keleios had dreamed of Harque the Witch. Elwine had gone against Harque on the sands and had beaten her, but had not killed her because she followed Cia and gave mercy. Harque had felt humiliated and held a grudge against Elwine since.
Keleios had dreamed of Harque leading her through hallways to a room where someone lay. When the door opened the smell of decay had over powered her and she had kneeled over to throw up. When she got back up she looked into the room almost against her will. What she saw on the bed she had described in such detail that Elwine could tell it would stay in her mind for a long time. A rotting corpse, oozing black sores covering every part of the persons body. The body moved. It was alive. The eyes open and the face moved towards them. Rotting lips opened in a silent scream. The only thing still recognizable was her eyes. Brown eyes. Elwine's eyes.
Elwine shuddered at the memory, hoping that Keleios never had to see that for real. She closed her eyes, resting her head in her hands.
"Mother, here!" Methia said, shoving a small bouquet of small red flowers into her face. Elwine gently took them from Methia's hands. She pretended to smell them for her daughters benefit.
"They're very pretty, honey." Elwine stated, smiling at her daughter, the dream slowly fading from her mind. She held her hand out to Methia, getting up to follow the child. She started to laugh and skipped in the field of wild flowers, her duties a far off thought. The castle was lost over a hill and she felt free.
A scream to her left. She snapped her head in that direction. A large demon had appeared in front of Keleios and Usagi. Another appeared behind them. The first was an eight foot red demon. He was covered in crimson scales with long black talons on each hand and feet. He had pointed, bat like ears that curled when he smiled. He had a gold linked necklace with two blood red stones on either side of an large ebony one. He was known as the Hound Master. His demon name, not known by many, was Alharzor. And never ask Elwine how she knew it. The second demon was a blackmane. It had black feathered wings which it used to float just above the ground in front of the children. With a lion like head, and midnight black fur covering its body, it was much in contrast against the burning of his red eyes. Black hooves and a silver sword finished him off.
Elwine took all this in within a few seconds. "NO!!" she screamed letting go of Methia's hand rushing towards her other child. She threw an instant enchantment at the red demon, but because it had been rushed nothing happened. Another demon appeared in front of her, grabbing her arm before she could do another spell. Pain spread through her like a wild fire. She saw a flash of green scales before falling unconscious from the excruciating pain. A scream cutting through the dark before all went black.

"Mmmm..." someone moaned. Oh wait, that was her. Usagi forced her eyes open, a shape insistent pain stabbing through her head. 'What happened?' Usagi thought to herself.
Usagi tried to sit up, but cried out and fell back onto the hard concrete as a flicker of fire burned at her side. She put her hand to her left side and it came away covered with blood. "Ow..." she muttered. She turned her head slowly and saw that she was in a dungeon of some kind. She was laying on a concrete floor that sloped down into a silver drain. Metal shackles attached to the walls in many different lengths. Weird contraptions were place strategically around the room. Usagi did not understand what they were but she decided that she didn't need to know, the same reason why she didn't need to know why there was a drain in the middle of a room.
Methia lay in the corner, still unconscious. Usagi waited a moment for the pain to stop before sitting up more slowly this time, clenching her teeth against the pain. She moved to all fours before crying out in pain. Slowly she lifted one leg and then the other. With her hands still on the floor she was crouched on the balls of her feet. Small tears of pain escaped her eyes. Even more slowly than before she lifted her hands off the floor and straightened her legs. Surprisingly when she was standing it didn't hurt as much. She opened her clenched palms and saw little half moons filling with blood. She lifted her shirt and saw a large gash all along her waist. It was deep and if it had been any deeper she might have died right here in this dank dungeon, she still might if she didn't do something soon. Her shirt was soaked with her blood on the left side, the right full of dirt from the dusty floor. Her long summer skirt was ripped already and mud cover it in splotches as if it had been splashed up onto her from a passing wagon. Her bare feet were dirty and cut, dried blood covering the tops. Looking down at her skirt, she decided it was the cleanest piece of clothing she had at the moment. She ripped a small strip off of the bottom, using her teeth to break the seems, then lifted her shirt again and pressed the cloth to the wound. She would need another pair of hands to tie it with.
Holding the cloth to her side to turned and gave a better look of the room around her, trying to piece together what had happened and why she was here. Methia was the only other occupant of the room. Where was Keleios and Belor? There were no windows and only on large wooden door. The whole room was made of concrete. A small puddle of her own blood was where she had been laying. Other than that, Methia was the only other color to this room. Her brown gold hair lay spread around her, unbound. Her left hand was crushed, the bones at odd angles. The light blue dress she wore was now a dirty brown. Dried blood and mud covered her from head to toe, but as far as Usagi could tell, none of the blood was hers. The only injury she could see was the hand.
Usagi stepped over the blood puddle to Methia. She knelt slowly, increasingly aware of the sharp pulling on her side. With her left hand, since her right was still holding the cloth to her wound, she gently shook Methia.
"Methia!" She hissed. When she got no response she slowly turned Methia so that she was on her back. She felt for her pulse and was relived when she found one, strong and steady. "Methia!" She tried again, more instant. This time she was rewarded with a response. Methia moaned and sat up, putting her hands back to support her weight. Not feeling the pain right away, she took a few seconds to scream giving Usagi the chance to put her hand over Methia's mouth to muffle her.
"Don't scream!" Usagi hissed, helping Methia support her weight so she didn't have to use her badly broken wrist. Usagi did not know why but she had a feeling that they shouldn't make to much noise.
"What going on? Where are we?" Methia asked, tears falling down her face.
"I'm not sure where we are, but I know that we should try to get out of here as soon as possible." Usagi told her. Methia nodded and slowly stood up, listening to her body complain. She was stiff from laying on the hard floor, but the pain in her wrist topped it all. As she stood on her two feet, she stumbled from a pain in her right ankle. Swiping her dress aside she saw the ankle swelling. "Damn!" Methia muttered. Usagi's eyebrows raised. That was the closest thing to a a swear word Methia had ever said. Methia sat back down and lifted her foot off the ground.
"We have to get going." Usagi said, wincing at the purple and black swelling.
"And how are we supposed to do that? I only have one hand and one leg! You don't look hurt at all!" Methia hissed at her. The pain put her in a cranky mood. She hadn't had a chance to look around much yet and had missed the puddle of blood and the blood covering Usagi's shirt.
Methia motioned Usagi closer and put her arm around her shoulders using her as a crutch. Usagi dropped the cloth she had been using as a bandage to put her arm around Methia's waist. Suddenly, Methia slipped and she fell against Usagi's left side, hitting her wound. Usagi gasped in a breath, biting her tongue hard enough to draw blood, trying not to scream. Methia noticed this and carefully lifted the blood soaked shirt. "Oh, Mother Cia, this is deep. Why didn't you mention this! Now I feel terrible. I'm sorry I yelled at you!" Methia whispered.
Usagi smiled weakly, a fine sweat beading on her upper lip. "It's all right." She breathed, spitting out a little blood. Methia quickly surveyed the room and noticed the puddle and the cloth Usagi had dropped. She picked up the cloth and folded it carefully with her one hand, then asked Usagi to rip the bottom of her own dress into a longer strip. So complied and Methia got her to hold the folded piece of cloth to her wound. Methia then took the long strip, wrapped it all the way around Usagi's waist, then using her teeth, tied a knot in the far side to hold it in place.
"There!" She said, and smiled up at Usagi. Usagi smiled back and helped her back up.
"Thank you..." She said softly. She lifted Methia's crushed hand carefully and said, "I would try to do something for this but I'm afraid it would only hurt it more. We need a healer soon if you are going to keep the use of that hand. You foot just looks minor, though." Usagi concentrated on Methia's hand with her enchanters power. Although she had been taught little, she had found a spell to take the pain of some ones injury. She was going to tell Elwine but she thought it was a normal spell, so decided not to bother. Slowly the pain doubled and Usagi winced, clenching her teeth.
"What are you doing?" Methia asked. The pain was lessening. She had never seen anyone but a healer do this before.
"I found... a spell to take pain... from people..." she breathed through the pain. She closed her eyes and took deep breath's. The pain slowly dispersed and she opened her eyes to see Methia looking at her curiously.
"I have never seen anyone do that before, unless they were a healer." Methia told her.
"I thought it was a common spell." Usagi said. When Methia shook her head Usagi added, "I've been able to do that for almost a year now."
"If... When we find out what is going on and get out of here, you should show that spell to Mother. I know-" Methia was interrupted by a scream. A familiar scream. Keleios's scream.
"Hurry!" Methia told Usagi as they half ran, half limped to the door. Usagi tugged on the heavy wooden door, but with only one hand she couldn't open it. "Let me go I can stand on my own." Usagi knew this wasn't true but did what she said. Methia leaned against the wall, while Usagi opened the door, inch by inch. When Usagi went to pick Methia up again she said, "Leave me. Help Keleios."
"I'll be right back." And with that she slipped out and was gone.
"Good luck...." Methia whispered to the empty air before passing out again.

Usagi slipped out through the small crack she had made in the door. Giving a quick look both ways she sprinted across the dirty hall way. No one was in sight. The dark hallway flickered with the light of many torches. She was taking big breath's of air as if she was drowning. Breathing heavy already was not a good sign. Ignoring it she sprinted to the corner, stopping, back to the wall just before she could be seen.
Taking a quick peek around the corner let her see Keleios kneeling on the ground with Harque the Witch standing above her. The smell of decay washed over her and Usagi gagged. Almost as if hypnotized Usagi walked around the corner, towards Harque and Keleios. Harque noticed her, though she was already half blind, but did nothing. Harque helped Keleios stand, dragging her closer to the door, Keleios resisted, screaming and pulling hard against the iron grip of the witch. She forced her to the door and said, "Look." Keleios looked into the room and Harque said, "Where is the fair Elwine the Gentle? Where is she now?"
Usagi walked the last few feet, trying not to breathe the smell of decay. She finally reached the room and looked in. The only thing in the room was a rickety old bed. On the bed a person lay tied. A corpse, or at least what looked like a corpse, until it moved. Black, rotted, pus filled sores covered the persons body making the clothing it was wearing wet with the rotting bodily fluids. Decaying hands twitched and a piece of meat slipped of, making a sickening sound when it reached the floor. It's head turned, dry brittle hair falling out, thin rotted lips opening in a silent scream. Brown eyes opened, the only thing that was still alive. But the light in those two brown orbs died without seeing her daughter and her best friend witnessing this terrible sight. Never knowing that the image would be burned into Keleios's and Usagi's minds in utmost detail till the day they died, tainting all other memories of Elwine.
The haunting laughter floated to Usagi over the horror, "Where is the fair Elwine the Gentle? Where is she now?"
And Keleios passed out, sagging in Harque's grip. Usagi, eyes still wide, staring at the horror on the bed, whimpered and slowly, mercifully, her vision faded and she passed out laying on the cold stone floor next to Keleios. Two days later Harque's keep was raided and Keleios, Methia, and Usagi were taken home. Methia's hand was saved, and Usagi got her side healed by a white healer. Harque had escaped, and Usagi and Keleios found that nightmares can be very real...

Come on people!! I would like two reviews before I put up the next chapter!! If I don't get any then I'm going to stop!! And if no one is reading this then I wonder why I am still writing.......