Author's Note 1: From this point on, the amount of violence in this story will steeply rise. I'm not sure if I should raise the rating to R, as I don't plan on adding anything sexual, nor will the violence level rise much above what you see in this chapter. If you can suggest to me if this fic should stay as PG-13 or be raised to R then please do.
Breath of Fire: A Frozen Fate
Chapter 4: Awakening
Nina finally started to sense the world around her again. The place she was in seemed much warmer than where she was right before she was knocked out. As her eyes focused, she saw that she was staring at the roof of a tent. She had a bad headache, but otherwise she felt fine. She noticed that the entrance to the tent was open so she crawled out and got up on her feet.
The camp she was in was set up in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. There was a beautiful morning sun in the sky. As Nina brushed snow off herself, she heard his voice for the first time.
"I see that you're up."
Nina turned towards the direction of the voice to see a blue-haired young man sitting in front of a the remains of a small fire, probably used the night before. She jumped back in surprise when she saw what he was doing. Lying the snow, next to him, was a long sword, it's blade shining in the light of the sun. In his hand he held a large sub-machine gun, which he was currently cleaning with a handkerchief. When the person saw Nina's reaction to the weapons, he let out a small chuckle.
"Don't worry, I don't run around shooting lone girls with this thing. Hell, I don't use it that much anyways. Ammo's pretty scarce, you know." he said as he laid the gun down and got up to his feet. "The name's Ryu."
"N...N...Nina." Was all Nina said.
"Well Nina, I hate to say this, but it's not everyday you see young female Wyndians running around the wilderness alone. If I hadn't found you, who knows what could have happened?" Ryu said. This sentence reminded Nina of her father and his overprotectiveness, so her anger rose up a notch. As she was going to reply, she looked deep into Ryu's emerald green eyes and suddenly a chill rose up her spine, for no apparent reason. Whatever words there were in her mind dissipated, and Ryu continued talking.
"Besides, I prefer to travel alone. Come with me if you like, but I'll have to drop you off at the next settlement."
Nina's rage rose even more when she heard this. It was her first chance at total freedom, and already she was going to return to that prison of a mansion. She started to protest, but another look into Ryu's eyes and suddenly she calmed down. She didn't know why, but a strange, soothing feeling overcame her.
"Well, you don't seem to object, so all's good." Said Ryu, with a large grin on his face. Within several minutes they had packed camp and set off. They walked for several hours, but stopped frequently so Nina could rest for a few minutes.
"You really aren't used to walking, are you?" Ryu asked around the tenth time they had stopped. Nina flinched when she heard this. Not only did she take it as an insult, but she risked revealing who she was to this stranger. But she had no other explanation.
"...no, I'm not." She replied.
"So what caused you to start knocking yourself out in snowstorms?"
"I'm...let's just say I'm lost."
"Well, I'll leave it at that I guess. The next settlement is only a few hours down the road."
Nina noticed that Ryu didn't use a map or compass while travelling, yet can still accurately guess how much time and distance until a certain location, and this struck her as strange. And this news made her realize that it wasn't much time before she was locked up in the mansion again, so she started to absorb as much of the natural scenery as she can, to the point that Ryu puzzlingly turned towards her.
"You sure you're ok? It's like you've never seen snow before." He said. Nina kept silent, but calmed down yet still tried to look around as much as she could. Several more silent hours passed and they finally got to a hill.
"Here, we'll just have to climb this one hill and Duran settlement should be within sight." Ryu stated as they started walking up the hill. When they reached the top, Ryu's face tensed, and Nina opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Rather, she took in a very sharp gasp.
Large plumes of smoke filled the air above the settlement, as fires raged within the destroyed houses. Not a single building was left in one piece, and many were completely demolished. But what really disgusted both Nina and Ryu was the bloodshed. Bodies of women, men, and children littered the streets, most of them riddled with bullets, and some of the men clutching weapons in their hands.
Nina fell to her knees, her face in shock, and her wings dropping involuntarily, while Ryu clutched his fist and let out a quiet angry growl, which was very calm considering the situation.
"I've seen this happen before. It's them, no doubt about it, only they can do this..." Ryu slowly muttered. Nina was still frozen in place looking at the horrible scene before her. She had never thought that she would see so much carnage in her life, much less in her first day out of her mansion. Ryu turned towards her.
"It's not safe standing out here in the open. We'll have to take shelter in the ruins of the settlement." He continued. The thought of going anywhere near that place made Nina's blood turn cold. Ryu grabbed her arm and pulled it hard, forcing her to her feet. They both ran into the settlement, and while Ryu seemed relatively unphased, Nina closed her eyes and started sobbing softly, and wished that this was a dream and that she would wake up in her mansion at home.
Eventually the stench of rotting meat lessened and she opened her eyes to find herself in a dark room with Ryu standing beside her. They were inside one of the houses that were still in one piece, and apparently the house was empty when the killing occured, as there was no sign or smell of blood.
"This place seems safe enough." Remarked Ryu as he looked through the darkness. Indeed, there seemed to be two beds and not much else in this small metal hut. "They might still be here. Let's sleep for now and escape at midnight."
Nina had no idea who "they" were, and after seeing the events outside, coupled with the fact that she had only woken up several hours ago, she didn't feel like sleeping at all. But the thought of ending up like the corpses outside caused her heart to skip a beat.
"O...o...k." Was all her tight throat let out.
"You don't seem to talk too much." Ryu stated, a bit grimly. Nina would have replied, but there was too much on her mind, so she just laid down on her bed and looked up at the ceiling until eventually her brain was asleep.
A loud banging on the door woke her up. Ryu was already awake and cautiously approaching the locked door. Nina watched quietly as he drew his sword, and suddenly thrust it through the flimsy door. The banging stopped and there was a suprised scream along with an agonizing one that made Nina's blood curdle. Ryu pulled his sword out of the door and the tip was covered in red. Nina stared in horror.
"Eat this you bastard!" A voice from the other side shouted.
"Nina move to the side of the room NOW!!!" Screamed Ryu. Nina instinctively jumped to the side as an automatic weapon on the other side of the door opened fire, blowing holes through the door and pestering the wall that was behind Nina moments ago with bullets.
"Who-Who are these people?" Nina managed to gasp out as she got back onto her legs.
"I'll tell you later. Right now we have to make sure we don't turn into organic pencils. You know any magic?" Ryu quickly shouted over the gunfire as he drew his sub-machine gun from his jacket.
Nina, being a Wyndian, knew some magic naturally, but she doubted that it could do much more than minor burns or bruises. Yet she nodded anyways.
"Good." Ryu held the gun in his right hand, and kept his sword in his left. Within a few seconds the gunfire had stopped. "I counted 50 bullets. If the weapon he's using is the same as the one I'm thinking of, we might have more than enough time to get the drop on him."
"You counted WHAT?" Nina whispered sharply back in amazement. Ryu ignored her as he quickly undid the lock on the door and kicked it open. As the door flew open, Nina saw two things. First, there was a dead human on the ground with a bleeding gash in his chest, no doubt caused by Ryu's sword. The second thing was a panicked woren gunman in a black jacket with a strange round symbol on it and thick pants raising a small sub-machine gun at Ryu. However, there was barely three feet between Ryu and the woren, so with one quick slash of the former's sword, the latter's arm was severed. He barely had time to scream before a quick thrust into his heart put him out of commission. Ryu pulled the blood-stained sword out of the woren's body and quickly surveyed the street they were on. It was middle of the night by now, and the settlement's electricity generator had been destroyed by whatever slaughtered the population in the first place, so he couldn't see much, but nor did any possible assailants.
Nina's consciousness was horrified by all this killing, even though the people killed were murderers. The other, more logical part of her mind however, was going into survival mode for the first time in her life. The magic reserves inside her body activated, and andrenaline pumped into her veins. She was ready to fight.
"The gunfire should have got the attention of any more guys in the area. We have to leave this place NOW." Ryu muttered. As if on cue, a grassrunner and human wearing the same clothes as the woren from earlier appeared from the darkness of the night. They both sported assault rifles. Ryu quickly and accurately fired a burst from his weapon, wounding the human if not outright killing him.
"What the hell?" Shouted a surprised grassrunner as he saw what just happened. He aimed his rifle at Ryu, but before he could fire, a small column of wind blew around him, knocking him off his feet as Ryu fired another burst of bullets at his chest, incapacitating him. He then turned towards Nina, who was holding up her hand.
"Thanks." he quickly said right before he ran through a nearby alley with Nina behind him. From there, they ran down a few more streets before a shot rang out. It missed Nina's head and she tripped from the surprise. Ryu quickly stopped and hastily scanned the area around him. Another human, this time with a rifle, was crouched on top of a nearby house. With surprising accuracy and speed, Ryu quickly nailed him 3 bullets, causing him to drop off the house headfirst. Although he landed on snow it was still enough to break his neck. Nina got up from the ground and ran after Ryu.
"Well, that was close." Ryu said casually. He took off with a partially shocked Nina behind him. As they turned a corner Ryu nearly bumped into a shotgun-toting woren. One slash to the torso from Ryu's sword and it was over for him. The two crossed a few more streets before the buildings disappeared and there was nothing but snow.
"Quick! We have to get as far away as possible before stopping!" Shouted Ryu as he sheathed his sword and started running. Nina nodded and ran after him through the snow. About twenty seconds of running later a shot rang out and Ryu hit the ground.
"Shit." He swore through clenched teeth as a wound formed on his leg and the snow around it turned red. Nina stopped and crouched by his side.
"Don't worry Ryu, I think I can create a healing spell for this injury." She quickly stammered as she tried to hold back her fear.
"No, I can handle it, just run!"
Nina ignored Ryu's instruction and took her time focusing as much magic energy as possible in her hand. She then unleashed it on Ryu's wound, which started to slowly shrink. Ryu's breathing started to relax and wiped his forehead with his gloved hand. He looked towards Nina and the relieved expression on his face suddenly turned to fear.
"Nina watch out!" He screamed. Nina turned around and the for the second time in the last two days, something hard hit her on the head and knocked her out.
To be continued...
Author's Note 2: Well, I hope you enjoyed it, please review. I'm sorry if I worried any of you with the long delay, as I got hit by another bout of Writer's Block and homework = bleh. Hopefully it's nothing but smooth sailing from this point on.
Breath of Fire: A Frozen Fate
Chapter 4: Awakening
Nina finally started to sense the world around her again. The place she was in seemed much warmer than where she was right before she was knocked out. As her eyes focused, she saw that she was staring at the roof of a tent. She had a bad headache, but otherwise she felt fine. She noticed that the entrance to the tent was open so she crawled out and got up on her feet.
The camp she was in was set up in a small clearing in the middle of a forest. There was a beautiful morning sun in the sky. As Nina brushed snow off herself, she heard his voice for the first time.
"I see that you're up."
Nina turned towards the direction of the voice to see a blue-haired young man sitting in front of a the remains of a small fire, probably used the night before. She jumped back in surprise when she saw what he was doing. Lying the snow, next to him, was a long sword, it's blade shining in the light of the sun. In his hand he held a large sub-machine gun, which he was currently cleaning with a handkerchief. When the person saw Nina's reaction to the weapons, he let out a small chuckle.
"Don't worry, I don't run around shooting lone girls with this thing. Hell, I don't use it that much anyways. Ammo's pretty scarce, you know." he said as he laid the gun down and got up to his feet. "The name's Ryu."
"N...N...Nina." Was all Nina said.
"Well Nina, I hate to say this, but it's not everyday you see young female Wyndians running around the wilderness alone. If I hadn't found you, who knows what could have happened?" Ryu said. This sentence reminded Nina of her father and his overprotectiveness, so her anger rose up a notch. As she was going to reply, she looked deep into Ryu's emerald green eyes and suddenly a chill rose up her spine, for no apparent reason. Whatever words there were in her mind dissipated, and Ryu continued talking.
"Besides, I prefer to travel alone. Come with me if you like, but I'll have to drop you off at the next settlement."
Nina's rage rose even more when she heard this. It was her first chance at total freedom, and already she was going to return to that prison of a mansion. She started to protest, but another look into Ryu's eyes and suddenly she calmed down. She didn't know why, but a strange, soothing feeling overcame her.
"Well, you don't seem to object, so all's good." Said Ryu, with a large grin on his face. Within several minutes they had packed camp and set off. They walked for several hours, but stopped frequently so Nina could rest for a few minutes.
"You really aren't used to walking, are you?" Ryu asked around the tenth time they had stopped. Nina flinched when she heard this. Not only did she take it as an insult, but she risked revealing who she was to this stranger. But she had no other explanation.
"...no, I'm not." She replied.
"So what caused you to start knocking yourself out in snowstorms?"
"I'm...let's just say I'm lost."
"Well, I'll leave it at that I guess. The next settlement is only a few hours down the road."
Nina noticed that Ryu didn't use a map or compass while travelling, yet can still accurately guess how much time and distance until a certain location, and this struck her as strange. And this news made her realize that it wasn't much time before she was locked up in the mansion again, so she started to absorb as much of the natural scenery as she can, to the point that Ryu puzzlingly turned towards her.
"You sure you're ok? It's like you've never seen snow before." He said. Nina kept silent, but calmed down yet still tried to look around as much as she could. Several more silent hours passed and they finally got to a hill.
"Here, we'll just have to climb this one hill and Duran settlement should be within sight." Ryu stated as they started walking up the hill. When they reached the top, Ryu's face tensed, and Nina opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Rather, she took in a very sharp gasp.
Large plumes of smoke filled the air above the settlement, as fires raged within the destroyed houses. Not a single building was left in one piece, and many were completely demolished. But what really disgusted both Nina and Ryu was the bloodshed. Bodies of women, men, and children littered the streets, most of them riddled with bullets, and some of the men clutching weapons in their hands.
Nina fell to her knees, her face in shock, and her wings dropping involuntarily, while Ryu clutched his fist and let out a quiet angry growl, which was very calm considering the situation.
"I've seen this happen before. It's them, no doubt about it, only they can do this..." Ryu slowly muttered. Nina was still frozen in place looking at the horrible scene before her. She had never thought that she would see so much carnage in her life, much less in her first day out of her mansion. Ryu turned towards her.
"It's not safe standing out here in the open. We'll have to take shelter in the ruins of the settlement." He continued. The thought of going anywhere near that place made Nina's blood turn cold. Ryu grabbed her arm and pulled it hard, forcing her to her feet. They both ran into the settlement, and while Ryu seemed relatively unphased, Nina closed her eyes and started sobbing softly, and wished that this was a dream and that she would wake up in her mansion at home.
Eventually the stench of rotting meat lessened and she opened her eyes to find herself in a dark room with Ryu standing beside her. They were inside one of the houses that were still in one piece, and apparently the house was empty when the killing occured, as there was no sign or smell of blood.
"This place seems safe enough." Remarked Ryu as he looked through the darkness. Indeed, there seemed to be two beds and not much else in this small metal hut. "They might still be here. Let's sleep for now and escape at midnight."
Nina had no idea who "they" were, and after seeing the events outside, coupled with the fact that she had only woken up several hours ago, she didn't feel like sleeping at all. But the thought of ending up like the corpses outside caused her heart to skip a beat.
"O...o...k." Was all her tight throat let out.
"You don't seem to talk too much." Ryu stated, a bit grimly. Nina would have replied, but there was too much on her mind, so she just laid down on her bed and looked up at the ceiling until eventually her brain was asleep.
A loud banging on the door woke her up. Ryu was already awake and cautiously approaching the locked door. Nina watched quietly as he drew his sword, and suddenly thrust it through the flimsy door. The banging stopped and there was a suprised scream along with an agonizing one that made Nina's blood curdle. Ryu pulled his sword out of the door and the tip was covered in red. Nina stared in horror.
"Eat this you bastard!" A voice from the other side shouted.
"Nina move to the side of the room NOW!!!" Screamed Ryu. Nina instinctively jumped to the side as an automatic weapon on the other side of the door opened fire, blowing holes through the door and pestering the wall that was behind Nina moments ago with bullets.
"Who-Who are these people?" Nina managed to gasp out as she got back onto her legs.
"I'll tell you later. Right now we have to make sure we don't turn into organic pencils. You know any magic?" Ryu quickly shouted over the gunfire as he drew his sub-machine gun from his jacket.
Nina, being a Wyndian, knew some magic naturally, but she doubted that it could do much more than minor burns or bruises. Yet she nodded anyways.
"Good." Ryu held the gun in his right hand, and kept his sword in his left. Within a few seconds the gunfire had stopped. "I counted 50 bullets. If the weapon he's using is the same as the one I'm thinking of, we might have more than enough time to get the drop on him."
"You counted WHAT?" Nina whispered sharply back in amazement. Ryu ignored her as he quickly undid the lock on the door and kicked it open. As the door flew open, Nina saw two things. First, there was a dead human on the ground with a bleeding gash in his chest, no doubt caused by Ryu's sword. The second thing was a panicked woren gunman in a black jacket with a strange round symbol on it and thick pants raising a small sub-machine gun at Ryu. However, there was barely three feet between Ryu and the woren, so with one quick slash of the former's sword, the latter's arm was severed. He barely had time to scream before a quick thrust into his heart put him out of commission. Ryu pulled the blood-stained sword out of the woren's body and quickly surveyed the street they were on. It was middle of the night by now, and the settlement's electricity generator had been destroyed by whatever slaughtered the population in the first place, so he couldn't see much, but nor did any possible assailants.
Nina's consciousness was horrified by all this killing, even though the people killed were murderers. The other, more logical part of her mind however, was going into survival mode for the first time in her life. The magic reserves inside her body activated, and andrenaline pumped into her veins. She was ready to fight.
"The gunfire should have got the attention of any more guys in the area. We have to leave this place NOW." Ryu muttered. As if on cue, a grassrunner and human wearing the same clothes as the woren from earlier appeared from the darkness of the night. They both sported assault rifles. Ryu quickly and accurately fired a burst from his weapon, wounding the human if not outright killing him.
"What the hell?" Shouted a surprised grassrunner as he saw what just happened. He aimed his rifle at Ryu, but before he could fire, a small column of wind blew around him, knocking him off his feet as Ryu fired another burst of bullets at his chest, incapacitating him. He then turned towards Nina, who was holding up her hand.
"Thanks." he quickly said right before he ran through a nearby alley with Nina behind him. From there, they ran down a few more streets before a shot rang out. It missed Nina's head and she tripped from the surprise. Ryu quickly stopped and hastily scanned the area around him. Another human, this time with a rifle, was crouched on top of a nearby house. With surprising accuracy and speed, Ryu quickly nailed him 3 bullets, causing him to drop off the house headfirst. Although he landed on snow it was still enough to break his neck. Nina got up from the ground and ran after Ryu.
"Well, that was close." Ryu said casually. He took off with a partially shocked Nina behind him. As they turned a corner Ryu nearly bumped into a shotgun-toting woren. One slash to the torso from Ryu's sword and it was over for him. The two crossed a few more streets before the buildings disappeared and there was nothing but snow.
"Quick! We have to get as far away as possible before stopping!" Shouted Ryu as he sheathed his sword and started running. Nina nodded and ran after him through the snow. About twenty seconds of running later a shot rang out and Ryu hit the ground.
"Shit." He swore through clenched teeth as a wound formed on his leg and the snow around it turned red. Nina stopped and crouched by his side.
"Don't worry Ryu, I think I can create a healing spell for this injury." She quickly stammered as she tried to hold back her fear.
"No, I can handle it, just run!"
Nina ignored Ryu's instruction and took her time focusing as much magic energy as possible in her hand. She then unleashed it on Ryu's wound, which started to slowly shrink. Ryu's breathing started to relax and wiped his forehead with his gloved hand. He looked towards Nina and the relieved expression on his face suddenly turned to fear.
"Nina watch out!" He screamed. Nina turned around and the for the second time in the last two days, something hard hit her on the head and knocked her out.
To be continued...
Author's Note 2: Well, I hope you enjoyed it, please review. I'm sorry if I worried any of you with the long delay, as I got hit by another bout of Writer's Block and homework = bleh. Hopefully it's nothing but smooth sailing from this point on.
