Must be the winners of the memory war
Smash reach out and then grab the flower
At the end of the day their defeat will be for sure.
He rolled his arms up behind his back, looking to the clear morning sky as he did so. He had never in his memory seen a sky so blue. Not a cloud or smudge on the horizon. Not far off to his right the ever cautious Raizel sighed and started up a little speech about how they would all burn to death with out any clouds. Shana laughed and nodded along with her, and they both started in on giggling.
Balder looked down at the younger man Dart who had been taking care of both him and Raizel since their loss in memory. Dart had often mentioned to him that he had not changed much from the loss, however Raizel's entire personality had flipped. All he knew was that he felt something for the black haired beauty which both drove him up a wall into the deepest pit.
"How are we ladies going to keep white with all this sunlight? Hmpf, I think we'd have been better off traveling with some caravan than these men." Raizel said rolling her own eyes lightly to make fun of herself.
"Well maybe we could get these wonderful men types to build a little shelter, and have them carry us on it?" Shana said giggling along looking over at Dart while he glared.
"Oh but it would take them forever just to finish it!"
"Would you two quit it! We're going through the caves today anyway!" Dart growled at them, leaving them giggling again.
Balder shrugged his shoulders at Dart and moved off to get his things together, he could hear Raizel talking about how one should brush their hair and wash their face every morning. Shana was agreeing with her and Balder suspected that they we're making faces at Dart also.
"Just get something for us to eat, please..." He requested at last.
"Why of course!" Raizel said as if jumping right to the task.
Balder came back to sit with them, having all of his things together and himself relatively well cleaned, as clean as you can get on the road.
Before their little travel to Bale Balder had only seen Raizel around one or twice in the small town. He himself lived in his own small place near Dart and Shana's home, across from the church. Raizel had lived on the other side of town with a single woman who's husband had been killed when Seles was attacked in the last year or so.
He knew quite well that she was also a dragoon, same as himself and Dart. She carried the darkness spirit, and he had been trained in how to use it with her for a few weeks quite some time ago. However she had worked more with Shana who had once been a dragoon, while he worked with Dart. He was the owner of the fire spirit. It was a spirit that Dart had carried prior to the fight on the fallen moon when he had acquired the divine one.
At some point around the time during the moon both he and Raizel had lost their memories. Neither Shana nor Dart would give them any idea as to what had happened. Shana seemed pained by it, while Dart was plain stubborn. Once when he had pushed the subject Dart had sat down, and for a moment he seemed like he might just tell Balder something. However the man started laughing and just couldn't stop.
Thus Balder gave up the fight for his memories, and headed for his future.
The group moved steadily north through out the day. Around noon they came to entrance of the caves. Dart smirked before entering as if recalling some memory. The caves where dark and both himself and Dart were forced to take out their spirits to see.
"To bad that Raizel's doesn't help." Shana said.
"To bad Shana doesn't have one." Raizel said back.
"Girls..." Dart muttered.
"Dart... It wasn't this dark last time." Shana said.
"I know."
"How is that even possible?" Balder asked them.
"Maybe there are clouds on the outside." He remarked not really giving thought to his answer.
"Dart... It didn't look like a rainy day to me." Raizel pointed out.
"Then maybe it's cause your with us." He quarreled back.
Balder shrugged his shoulders, and the group pressed forward undaunted. As the time pasted in the cravens below it seemed to grow darker and darker. The path once clear became a twisted set of lines, which made even Raizel start to worry.
"Dart, this isn't right." Shana whispered as the group sat down for a break. "It was clear as hell, and it's smothering us in here... It feels like..."
"I know." He interrupted, "but as much as I dislike this I haven't seen him yet. I can't sense his magic, and I should feel it. Neither can you or the other two. He might have left something in here, but I doubt it's really him."
"Your right... I feel him though, it's his doing. Maybe he's figured it out?"
"Shana..." Dart shook his head and looked over at Balder who was standing looking about as if trying to discover something with his spirit.
"Sorry." She looked around spotting Raizel leaned up against a rock almost out of view. "It's hard some times you know."
"I know." He looked over at Raizel, was it just him or was she moving farther away from them?
"We should try to keep moving." Shana stated, and he nodded.
"Balder! Come on we're going to press on." He said over to the blond haired man in red body armor.
"DART!" Shana's hand gripped his arm with deadly precision. However it wasn't her who had yelled.
Farther down the tunnel where Raizel had stood a pair of green eyes blinked out at them. Within seconds his sword was out, Balder not far behind. Shana hitched an arrow to her bow and waited for Dart and Balder to strike.
As Dart approached he could see with frightening distinction that Raizel's mouth was covered with a claw like hand. Behind her blending with the darkness a pair of green eyes. He brought his sword up and then pulled a surprise attack, sliding on the wet floor behind the being. A second later the sword was impaling the creature through the back. It hissed and screamed, and a light mist lifted off of it's back. Balder swung his sword at the hand holding Raizel's mouth closed, and then as it came free from it's arm pulled her away.
Dart slugged his own weapon at full force through the beast's center, while Shana let loose the arrow at it's head. It squealed and hissed, then crumpled to the floor.
And all at once the darkness lifted.
"Shit!" Dart growled, he looked over at both Raizel and Balder. It was an intense cold stare, however within seconds he turned away and headed at run up towards Shana.
"She's fine. It was him... Damit! I only felt it when she yelled!" Quickly he thrust his sword against a piece of cloth to clean it.
"He didn't get in them did he, your alright aren't you?. Oh god." Shan said pulling out another arrow.
"No, I'm fine Shana, he didn't have enough time."
Balder and Raizel where only seconds behind. "What the hell is with you, I'm not the monster!!" Raizel yelled indignantly at him. "Why'd you look at me like that!?"
Dart stared over at the black haired woman, obviously taking her complaint to heart this time. He frowned and started to speak when Shana spoke for him. "Raizel really he was just making sure you where ok!" Shana said back sweetly, with only a tinge of desperation in her voice.
"What the hell was that thing!? I saw something come right out of it's back and then you go all freaked. What is going on?!" Balder yelled at him.
"Just a very potent monster." Dart said easily. "Come on we've lost a lot of time."
Raizel shook her head dazed, yet followed behind him obediently. Balder's eyes gazed behind them at once had been darkness, the room seemed far less eerie. However a chill ran down his back, he turned away and hurried after. Fear, hate, and some emotions he wasn't even sure he understood ran like ice through his blood.
A/N: YAY! I got the centering to work! XD html drives me mad!!
In any case I updated at record speed for me. Mostly because for the first time ever, I HAVE A STORY OUTLINE! Yippy day!
Oh you wonder why I do? Stupid yet smart LA teacher is making us do them, so... Tada! In any case if any of you would like to see what the layout looks like, I could put it at the bottom of that chapter, it could be like the chapter summary. .; Have to take out the little hints about the plot tho.