Hi!! *dies* don't look for errors! When you write pages upon pages
of stuff it's not easy to proofread. I offered Lynn to help me with
that but she refused, so yea. Anyways, I know I shouldn't read it
before I post it, because then I wont post it. I'm really not too
fond of my own writing. So, like yea. MEWIE READ MY OTHER FIC!!!
*dies* I'm so embarrassed! *dies again* I'm gonna get majorly
grounded soon. Like really soon for a long time. Lets see if I can
get this posted before then.
SM: Why do you love embarrassing me?
Megumi: Because its so fun! Anyways! YOU ATE ALL MY DONUTS YESTERDAY!! Here I was thinking I could leave you by yourself for one day and what do you do? You frickin raided my house for donuts! Some friend you are.
SM: It was like half a box! Half a box! That's all! Anyways, how could I resist?
Megumi: NO MORE DONUTS YOU DISOBEDIENT SERVANT!!!! *screamscreamyellyell*
SM: Eep, scary. I'm sorry for eating your donuts! Really I am!
*Grins* I have you eating out of the palm of my hand!
NYANYA!!! Chapter 12. Yay! I'm sorry. I'll go into it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or Sailor Moon. I do own all original characters and the plot! Wee! Now, on to the next chapter.
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If Darkness Could Befriend Chapter 12: Hope
"Matt? Are you okay?" Hotaru asked. Matt rubbed his eyes and sat up.
"I feel so wasted." Matt sighed and laid back down.
"Come on Matt. We have to leave." Hotaru sighed. She really didn't want to make Matt be miserable or anything, but they did have to move.
"But where are we going?" Matt asked, pushing himself up. 'Obviously not Shiyoko if Kive can help it.' Matt thought to himself.
"Um, I'm not to sure. You're the one with the map." She said. Matt sighed and shook off his weariness.
"About time you got up, you bum!" Kive shouted. Everyone stared at him. Kive rolled his eyes. "I can never win, can I?" He growled inaudibly. They walked on the whole time. Hotaru sighed to herself. 'I feel so useless. It's always someone else doing something. I should really try next time. I feel like I'm using Matt and Kive as my shields or something. I don't need a shield, right?' She asked herself.
"What are you thinking, Hotaru?" Shadow Matt asked.
"Huh? Me? Oh nothing. So what are the next ruins?" Hotaru avoided the subject. Shadow Matt sighed and asked Matt.
"Matt? Where are we headed next?" SM asked. Matt stared at him wearily and shoved the map at him.
"You decide." He croaked.
"Matt? Are you okay?" SM asked.
"Don't worry SM, he's never in his right mind." Kive muttered. "So where are we going?" Kive asked.
"Relax...I'm not going to randomly say that we should go to Shiyoko. It's out of the way now. Where do you think we should go?"
"I thought we already decided on the ruins of hope." Kive pointed out.
"Oh whoops. You're right." Shadow Matt said. "Man Kive, I'm worried about Matt. Do you think he's okay?"
"No, He's never been okay, but who cares?" Kive shrugged.
"You ought to be nicer to him." Shadow Matt said. Kive shrugged it off.
"Yea, I agree with SM, what's so bad about Matt?" Isis asked.
"He's an idiot." Kive pointed out.
"Can you guys please not talk like I'm not right next to you?" Matt rasped. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, dark circles underneath them.
"You look like a zombie." Kive chortled.
"Shut up." Matt replied. Kive rolled his eyes and ignored Matt.
"I hate walking. Why can't we get horses?" Kive asked.
"A horse would be nice." Matt murmured. Hotaru frowned, thinking.
"I don't know, Kive. It's not like any of us has too much money, right?" Hotaru asked politely.
"I have as much as you want to spend." Kive said, smiling warmly.
"I'm serious, Kive. If we want horses we need money, and Matt and I don't have too much money. Isis, SM, and Kiyon probably don't have any, and, well, how much can you have?" Hotaru asked.
"I am serious." Kive shrugged. "But maybe we could find free horses. That would be nice. Wanna check the map?" Kive asked. Hotaru stared at him awkwardly and looked on the map. Her eyes darted around quickly and found a place.
"Kive, this place says Midori Ranch." She said, pointing out the place.
"Hey! And what do you know, it's right next to the ruins of hope! We can go to the ruins then, when we get out, we'll have horses. Nice find Hotaru!" Kiyon said, standing on his tippy-toes to see the map SM was holding. SM bent down so Kiyon could see it better.
"Okay then. Let's go there. That is, if Matt can walk that far." Kive said. Matt glared at him and they began to walk.
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They reached the ranch by twilight. There was barely enough light to supply them with proper sight so the blazing lights of a large house in the back of the ranch seemed to draw them like moths. They picked up their paced until they were at the house. It was much to late to attempt going to the Ruins of Hope. Hotaru knocked on the door softly. They heard the rustle of footsteps within the house. The door was swiftly pulled open to reveal a pair of jade green eyes twinkling adventurously atop skin that had slightly been bronzed by labor in the sun. She looked to be about the ruler's age and had tough muscles, boasting of her hard work and her long chocolate hair had been messily braided to keep from her face. Hotaru blinked and ceased studying the girl as she realized that she was being spoken to.
"Excuse me? How may I help you?" The girl asked a sweet song- like voice that didn't match her look
"My friends and I have been traveling here for horses, but I'm afraid we couldn't make it in the day so we are in need of shelter. If you'd rather not then it's understandable. We could camp somewhere..." Hotaru was cut off as the girl shook her head.
"It's fine! Don't worry about it. Of course you can stay!" she laughed. "There's lots of room here. We'll discuss the horses later." She smiled and let them in. She frowned as Matt and Kive entered. But her eyes were stuck on Matt. "You look horrible." She said to Matt. Matt frowned.
"I feel terrible." He muttered.
"Severe magic fatigue." She said.
"Yea, I think so. I have two magic vials. I found that the green recovered magic and health and the red recovered just health so a sipped a little of the green. It didn't help at all." Matt informed her. She nodded.
"I think you lost all your magic. I've seen it happen to someone once. It'll come back after a few days, but you'll feel terribly weak in the days without your magic." She replied. "It's one of those things that you can't help with potions. You just have to regain it with rest. That means you should rest. There are rooms up the stairs. Choose whichever you like and I mean it, rest." She said sternly.
"Good night guys." Matt said, stumbling up the stairs wearily.
"How could you make him walk all the way here? That poor boy is totally drained." She scolded. "But what's done is done. He really has to rest! I'm sorry. I've been so rude. My name is Uma and I manage this horse ranch."
"I'm Hotaru. The boy who you sent up was Matt. This is Isis, that's Shadow Matt, that's Kiyon, and this is Kive." Hotaru introduced.
"Kive? I know you!" She laughed.
"Ahem, that's not important." He grumbled.
"Okay. I recognize you now. It's been so long. I thought you were someone else that I know, but then I realized who you were." She laughed. Kive rolled his eyes.
"What are you doing here anyways? I thought about three years ago you said you couldn't come here anymore." She pointed out.
"Well I'm free to do what I want to do now. Let's get away from this subject please?" Kive said nervously.
"Okay. You know, now you look a lot like someone I met a long time ago." She said in thought.
"That's nice. But why talk about me! I mean, I'm your life has been just as interesting." He pointed out, a little tweaked out of place.
"Oh, nothing much. I'm all alone as usual, just like when you left." She sighed.
"Wait! How do you know Kive?" Hotaru asked.
"Oh there was a little problem at the horse stable back at Kive's town. You see, for some reason, Kive isn't too good with animals. Horses had never let him ride them, which was preposterous for someone of his status. Then when all the horses at the stables sort of stampeded him four years ago it was sort of like the last straw and his adopted father knew they had to do something. For Kive's sake they shipped him off to me because even though I'm young I have a way with horses. Kive stayed here for about a year and almost all the horses here didn't really like him, but they did accept him, which was a definite improvement. So I taught him here how to care for a horse and how to get them to tolerate you. He was a lot better with horses by the time he left. Apparently now he can stand being around one." She laughed. Kive rolled his eyes.
"Thanks for revealing something about me that I didn't want revealed." He growled. She waved him off.
"Anyways. You guys should eat something. After dinner bring up some for Matt. Then off to bed. From what I picked up, you guys have been traveling for a while. They nodded and she led them to the kitchen.
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Hotaru walked out the door to find Uma sitting in the middle of the large ranch, watching the sunrise. Hotaru frowned at how early it was. Uma turned around, sensing her footsteps.
"You're up early." Uma said.
"Yah, I couldn't go back to sleep." Hotaru replied. Uma patted the ground next to her, beckoning Hotaru to sit and watch the sunrise with her. Hotaru obeyed.
"So what brought you here anyways?" Uma asked.
"Kive wanted horses." Hotaru said.
"So that's it?" She prodded.
"No, but I don't know if you would understand." Hotaru sighed.
"Oh do try me." Uma said.
"Well, um okay. Do you like the ruler?" Hotaru asked.
"I don't know. We never interact obviously. He just sort of leaves me alone I guess." She sighed.
"Oh, well. He's not the best guy in the world, as you probably know. He doesn't care about the people in Esirnus. I don't know what he cares about, but he's pretty dark and evil. Not the ideal personality if you'd ask me. So anyways, we're supposed to remove him from power and apparently we can only do so if we retrieve crests from each of the nine ruins in Esirnus to keep him from ruling this whole world. He's some kind of mage sword-fighter from what I can tell. I just don't understand him, but I can willingly say that I don't like him one bit." Hotaru said grudgingly.
"I see. Well, the ruins of Hope are right behind this ranch. Good luck. Oh yes. Don't take Matt. If you do then it will take him even longer to recover." She said sternly.
"I don't know. We sort of need Matt. He's sort of like our leader." She sighed.
"He'll do no leading in this shape." She commanded.
"But I won't feel right if I leave him here by himself." She sighed.
"Aww, c'mon! It's for his own good." She said, giving Hotaru a playful sock to the shoulder.
"I suppose..." Hotaru murmured. "It's for the best."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of your boyfriend." She laughed.
"Kive wouldn't be happy if he caught you calling Matt that." Hotaru warned.
"Aww! My little Kive's got a crush? And here I was thinking that he was totally anti-social when it comes to girls!" Uma laughed again.
"I heard that!" Kive growled. Both of them looked behind them to see Kive standing there.
"Good morning Kive." Both girls said cheerfully.
"Good morning." Kive said. "Uma! What do you mean that I'm anti-social with girls!" Kive growled.
"Oh Kive! You told me yourself that girls scared you." She teased.
"I never said that! Stop lying. And if I did it was back then. I was young and stupid." Kive pouted.
"Okay, okay. I was just joking Kive. What happened to your sense of humor? You used to be such a fireball. Or are you just nervous around your crush?" Uma laughed. Kive's eyes widened in protest and his face glowed red.
"I-I.....you don't have to say that!" Kive shouted, embarrassed.
"I'm sorry Kive. You know I was just joking, right?" Uma said, truly apologizing. Kive nodded. "Hey, Kive! Do you want to see the horses? I'm sure Nightfall missed you." Uma suggested. Kive nodded. "You too, Hotaru?"
"Yeah, sure. I want to see the horses!" She said with a smile.
"Okay! Let's go!" She said, steering them toward the stables. "It's time to let them out anyways."
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Uma opened the door and all the horses neighed in welcome. She smiled.
"Hey guys! Kive's come back!" All the horses where dead quiet as they stared over at Kive. Kive backed up nervously. Then all the horses neighed another welcome. Kive let out a sigh of relief.
"Forgive me, guys. The horses over at my home are not very fond of me." Kive said with a shudder. Suddenly one of the horses struggled out of its stall and bolted for Kive. Kive shouted as the horse rammed into him, knocking him down. The horse shoved its face into his, studying him before backing away with assurance. It trotted around happily. "Hello Nightfall." Kive managed to choke out as he pulled himself up. The horse whinnied a response of happiness. Then it spotted Hotaru and straightened up, acting serious.
"Oh. Hi Nightfall. I'm Hotaru. I'm Kive's friend. Don't worry. You can goof around. I won't mind!" She laughed. The horse began to trot around again. She tilted her head and studied the horse. It was a black horse with white socks and diamond on its forehead. Its black tail swished around, creating a drawing affect because of its white tips.
"Why is my horse so abnormal?" Kive grumbled to himself. His horse stared up with big, innocent eyes filled with hurt. It hung its head dejectedly and slowly began to slink away. "I-I...NO!!! Don't take it that way! I missed you too! I like having an abnormal horse!" Kive blurted out apologetically. The horse perked up again and continued its horse dance. Everyone sweatdropped staring at Kive's weird horse friend. Hotaru stared over at Kive and saw he was smiling. That made her smile too.
"You know, it's been so long. Last time I saw him he was so small." Kive sighed. "I didn't recognize him until he plowed into me." Uma smiled too and she opened the door and let all the horses out. A shout of, "Oh my GOOOOOSSSHHHH!!!" and a smash on the ground sounded from outside. They all whipped around and found SM sprawled on the ground, hoof prints all over him.
"Owwww." Shadow Matt groaned. Everyone sweatdropped. Hotaru pulled him up.
"Shadow Matt, are you okay?" She said worriedly. He groaned and dusted himself off.
"It feels like I got trampled by a herd of horses."
"You did." Kive said, rolling his eyes.
"I know. I saw them running and then I turned to run around but then....I sort of...tripped." SM sighed. "But amazingly I think I'm fine!"
"You should have just gone in the shadow." Kive said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh yea huh! I didn't think of that!" SM said with a nervous laugh.
"And HOW did he beat Dark Shadow Matt?" Kive muttered under his breath.
"Hey!!! That's not nice! But then again, I sort of didn't. Isis did." SM said, looking away embarrassed. Everyone sighed.
"That was RHETORICAL you retard!!!" Kive shouted.
"Geez, I'm sorry!" Shadow Matt replied.
"Kive. Don't be mean!" Hotaru commanded. Kive sighed and calmed down.
"So what's for breakfast?" Kive asked.
"Kive its like six in the morning. Are your other friends even up?" Uma pointed out.
"Yea. Good point." He sighed.
"Kive groom and feed the horses. I'll cook your breakfast." She said, walking away.
"But Uma!!! I don't remember..." He sighed, seeing that she was ignoring him.
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Uma sighed, seeing Kiyon and Isis in her kitchen. She stared at the two. They were covered in flour and looked like specters in a fog, the fog being the flour particles still left floating. She sighed and walked to the door in the back of the kitchen. Her hand pushed off the door, letting in a breeze and fresh air; a relief from them white dust.
"We're sorry Uma. My brother always used to use flour to make pancakes and I figured that with a girl the cooking wouldn't get messed up like the other time I tried when I was little so I brought Isis down, even though she told me she couldn't cook. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to drop the flour bag, and I'm sure there's still some more flour in it! I'm sure! I'm so sorry!" He said quickly in one breath. She laughed.
"Aww. It's okay! You're so adorable!" She said, roughing up his hair. She looked down at her hand, seeing it was coated in white. She sighed and began to dust off his hair while Isis dusted off hers. After a while everything got all cleaned up.
"Why do you guys get up so early? And why didn't you ask me to help you?" She laughed.
"Oh, well, we just wake up early since we try to travel as early as we can so we can catch the daylight. Also, we wanted to try by ourselves. We're sorry Uma." Isis sighed.
"Oh, its okay. Once this friend of mine was here and he tried to cook me something. The place was a total absolute mess. You'd think that something had exploded in the kitchen, and I bet something did." She laughed. "I'll teach you how to cook pancakes, okay?" She offered. They nodded feverously.
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"So do any of you know how to ride?" Kive asked. SM and Hotaru both shook their heads no. Kive shrugged. "So do either of you care to try?" He asked.
"I think SM wants to go first." Hotaru said nervously. SM gulped.
"Oh this should be a riot. I wanna see this!" Kive chuckled. SM's eyes widened with agitation.
"Y-You are planning on helping me, right?" SM asked shakily.
"And miss watching you fall on your butt, no WAY! Anyways, where's the fun in helping you?" Kive taunted, smiling as he tossed a saddle at Shadow Matt. Hotaru sighed as SM picked it up unwillingly.
"Kive, don't make SM do it!" Hotaru commanded.
"Aw! C'mon! It'll be such a riot!" Kive begged. As they were discussing SM went around and looked at the horses cautiously.
"Umm, Kive? Which one should I ride?" SM asked. A sly smirk crawled onto Kive's face.
"I think you should try to ride that one." Kive said, gesturing to a lone horse. All the horses shied away from that one as it shot territorial looks at them. Shadow Matt stared in horror at the horse.
"T-T-T-That one? Are you sure?" SM asked in total horror.
"Sure? Why not?" Kive shrugged. Hotaru socked him in the shoulder angrily.
"Don't give him the meanest horse. Why are you so terrible?" Hotaru protested.
"I'm not." Kive said innocently. "Really, it may look mean, but it's a pretty old, wise, kind horse. The horses stay clear out of their respect for it." Kive said, nodding.
"Umm, I don't want to." SM said, scooting away.
"Go you chicken." Kive growled.
"I may be a chicken but at least I'm not a DEAD chicken." Shadow Matt pointed out, still backing off.
"Just try it. I wanna see you try it. He really isn't a mean horse. He's very slow and good-tempered. Don't let his appearance unnerve you." Kive said, fakely encouraging.
"Kive, stop it already!" Hotaru argued. Kive gave her pleading eyes and turned back to SM.
"Go already you big lunk!" Kive shouted.
"I-I..." Shadow Matt said, confused. "Do I have to?"
"Yes." Kive growled. Shadow Matt sighed and went towards the horse. Slowly, he inched closer to the monstrosity of a horse until he was a few yards away. The horse's ears flattened against his head and it let out an angry snort of a warning. Shadow Matt froze in his place.
"Nice Horse?" Shadow Matt said timidly. At that the horse let out a blood-curdling screech and made a wild dash for Shadow Matt, who began screaming like a mad man while running for his life.
"You LIIEEEEEEEEDDD!!!!!!" Shadow Matt's voice carried through the wind as he darted past them. Kive was cracking up. He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Hotaru stared in horror as the situation unfolded. The horse was constantly gaining on poor Shadow Matt, who had the life scared out of him.
"Go in the shadows!" Hotaru screamed. In an instant Shadow Matt had disappeared and the horse stopped from its charging to wonder where its victim had gone. Then after a while it gave up and settled to eating its grass again.
"Aww, Hotaru, you spoiled it." Kive said, rubbing his eyes. He had been crying from laughing too hard.
"That was so rotten Kive!" Hotaru growled.
"Aw, c'mon. He's fine isn't he?" Kive laughed.
"KIVE! Be serious!" Hotaru argued.
"But that would ruin my personality." He whined.
"And that's a BAD thing?" She grumbled to herself. Kive's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something but then thought better about it. Suddenly the black figure of Shadow Matt slunk up besides them. The horse's attention suddenly snapped back to poor Shadow Matt. SM's eyes grew wide and he made a break for it. Hotaru and Kive gulped, realizing that the horse would charge them to get through to SM.
"Oh shoot!" They shouted as they darted off to the side, just a second before the horse trampled the area where they had been standing. They both let out sighs of relief, but with Shadow Matt there was definitely no relief at that moment.
"Why is it so sunny here?" Shadow Matt shouted, the horse on his tail and gaining fast. Shadow Matt ran as fast as he could, but unfortunately luck came into play. Bad luck. SM tripped and landed on the ground with a thud and the horse stared down at him with a sinister horse expression. SM wondered if these horses were more human than was normal, seeing from the behavior of Kive's horse and this insane horse. As the horse reared to stomp him he rolled out of the way. All of a sudden the crazy horse flew and hit the gate, as if it had been greatly impacted. SM blinked and stared at the horse that had charged the other of its kind. It wasn't as big as the other horse, and it didn't look as strong, but it had a certain threatening fire in its eyes. Its coat was a gray color, definitely nothing spectacular, but its mane and tail were a deeper, shinier gray that in the sun, appeared to shine like silver. It had a beautiful white moon adorning its forehead. It gave the fallen horse an acknowledging nod as it got up and slumped away in defeat. Then the horse turned to SM, who cringed back against the ground from previous experiences. The horse pushed its nose into his face and snorted an approval as SM stared in horror. Then it grabbed the collar of his shirt and hoisted him to his feet. SM blinked and began to pet its face. It gave him a disapproving stare and nudged his hand higher so that he petted its forehead. 'Definitely not normal horses.' SM thought to himself. After a little of that it grabbed him by the collar again. SM's tilted his head in confusion. All of a sudden the horse tossed him up in the air as he gave a startled shout and came hurtling, only to land on the horses back. SM's eyes and jaw were wide open, and his heart was beating extremely fast as the horse trotted over to Kive and Hotaru and kneeled down for him to get off. He slid off, still in shock. The horse then turned its gaze to Kive and snorted in his face.
"Nice to see you too, Blade." Kive muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm. The horse turned around, whipping its tail in his face.
"Umm, hi Blade?" Hotaru greeted shyly. The horse turned back around, once again hitting Kive in the face with its tail. Kive bared his teeth in anger. The horse looked at Hotaru and brushed its nose against her hand. Hotaru smiled.
"He's quite a nice horse, isn't he?" Hotaru said happily.
"Umm, Hotaru?" Kive spoke up.
"Blade's not a guy. She's one of Nightfall's sisters at that. But the last time I saw her she was a squirt. And let me tell you, she may have grown, but her personality sadly hasn't changed." Kive snorted. "I can understand why Uma called her Blade. She's like a sword cutting a helping hand."
"Hey Kive, watch it. Blade just saved me from that monster of a horse. And need I remind you that it was YOUR fault that I was in that jam in the first place." SM pointed out.
"Hey, are you blaming me?" Kive growled.
"Oh come on. Not trying to be mean or anything but you flat out lied to me and nearly got me killed." SM pointed out.
"Well, it's not my fault you were stupid enough to-" Kive started.
"Okay, okay. First Kive, you shouldn't have done that. It was down right dirty. You could have gotten him KILLED! Next, do you remember that Shadow Matt saved all our butts? You ought to be more grateful. Also, I don't want anymore arguing. You'd figure that with poor Matt out, you'd just turn into a normal person." Hotaru growled.
"I'm more normal than that stupid idiot, Matt."
"Matt's not a stupid idiot for the last time. You really need to learn how to respect other people. No one's ever going to accept you if you continue acting like that. I don't understand why you can't just be nice for once in life!
"What! Don't yell at me like that! I already get enough of it back home." Kive shouted back.
"Well I can understand why!" Hotaru scoffed.
"And who are you to say anything about me? You're just some out of place girl who can't do anything. You're totally useless!" Kive exploded. Hotaru's eyes grew big and then narrowed.
"So that's what you think of me. You are a liar. And you know what, you're a fake and a jerk and a total loser. Matt was right!" Hotaru spat back, tears forming in her eyes. "I-I never want to see you again." Hotaru sobbed and ran to the house, slamming the door behind her.
"Whoa. Did you just scream at her? Man, you're terrible. You made her cry." Shadow Matt said. "Hotaru wait!" He shouted and went after her, leaving Kive alone. Kive put his hand over his mouth. What had he done? He turned to Blade.
"D-Did I really say all that?" Kive choked out. The horse nodded and kicked him before walking away. "I'm really horrible. I made Hotaru cry. What am I going to do?" He sighed, feeling totally guilty. He sat down, trying to think of something.
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"Hotaru are you okay?" SM asked, grabbing her wrist. He had caught her walking up the stairs.
"I'm fine. J-Just a-absolutely f-fine." She said, trying to sound assuring. Her lip quivered and she turned away. I just don't want to see him anymore." She said and pulled away from him. "I'm just going to go to my room for a while." She said, dashing up the stairs and into a room.
"But Hotaru-" Shadow Matt called, but it was too late. "That's Matt's room."
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As soon as she entered the room she began to cry. He was right and she hated it. She had no right to yell at him. He was just fooling around a bit. And she was useless. Totally and utterly useless. She sunk down against the door and buried her face in her hands. All of a sudden she heard a sound of someone sitting up.
"Hotaru!" Matt choked.
"Matt?" She squeaked.
"Hotaru? Somethings wrong isn't it?" He asked, getting worried.
"No, No! Nothings wrong. Go back to sleep. You'll need it!" She squeaked again and stood up. She struggled to keep her tears contained as she fumbled around for the doorknob.
"Hotaru, I feel much better from yesterday. But I've been, umm, lonely. Could you just sit here for a few more minutes?" He asked. She stared at him with teary purple eyes. How could she refuse? She took a seat on the bed next to him and they sat there for a few minutes in silence. "Hotaru, you know you can tell me if you're upset about something." Matt sighed.
"Oh, but nothing's wrong, Matt." She said, but her voice betrayed her and she couldn't help but let out a sob. Matt's eyes softened with worry.
"There's something wrong Hotaru, and you don't have to tell, me, but then Hotaru, you don't have to lie to me, either." Matt sighed.
"I'm sorry Matt." Her voice trembled. He put his hand on hers and pulled her closer to him.
"Hotaru, its okay to cry if you need to. I wont laugh or tell you to shut up. I'm just here to help, if I can." Then he hugged her, blushing terribly and tried to pull away, but Hotaru clung to the back of his shirt. He stopped trying to pull away and let her cry on him. After a while she stopped and rested her head on his shoulder while he still continued to blush terribly.
"S-So, what happened anyway?" Matt asked.
"I was mean to Kive." Hotaru sighed.
"Oh? So this has to do with Kive, now." Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, but I can't blame him. He was right. I have no business talking about him when I barely even know him, I mean, we've only known him for like a week or two, and I have know business to yell at him or anyone else. And he was right. I am totally useless. I can't do anything and I haven't helped you guys yet. It's always someone else doing the bulk of the load. I never knew he thought that way about me though. I guess that I have no judgment either. He must have hated me." She whispered.
"Don't say that, Hotaru. Don't put yourself down like that. If you keep thinking that then that's the way you'll be. And you're not useless. You heal us and you're a voice of logic among us. You're nice and always willing to lend a hand. I don't see how you're useless. Just because you haven't gotten to beat up some gigantic bad guy or something. You have your part in this adventure and I have a feeling that sometime in the future we'll be relying on you to save our butts. And as for Kive, I can't believe I'm standing up for him, but it has to be said. Somewhere in that egotistical head of him, I think, is a pretty decent guy. I mean, he hasn't killed me yet, you know, so it's not like you judged him wrong. I think right know, his minds somewhere else, because he's seeming to get easier and easier to irritate the more we travel. I think he's afraid of going home and I think that coming here served as a real reminder of his home and what lies over there. I think he's getting stressed, so I wouldn't be too hard on the guy, even if he is a big fat jerk. And anyways, out of our whole group I believe he trusts and cares about you the most. He's probably hating himself right now for yelling at you, so don't stress yourself over it too much." Matt said with a smile. Hotaru sat straight to look at him and nodded, no longer teary-eyed.
"Thanks so much, Matt. And I thought you hated Kive." Hotaru said with a smile.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm no where close to being his best buddy or whatever, but back in the first ruins, I saw I side of him that proved him to be better than he seemed, which sort of helps me look past the fact that we hate each other's guts." Matt said, smirking playfully. "Now, don't worry yourself and go back out there. You guys need to head to those ruins, and well, I don't think Uma want me to go." He said, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "I'm starting to get awfully sleepy again."
"Okay, thanks again Matt." She said and got up and walked to the door. At the doorway she paused and looked back. Amazingly Matt lay sleeping like he hadn't been disturbed. 'He lied. He's not feeling better. He just wanted to help me. I feel bad for tiring him out.' She thought to herself as she opened the door. She shut it softly and walked down the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~
They all felt awkward without Matt there. It felt like they had left something essential behind as they approached the ruins of hope. Hotaru and Kive hadn't shared glances once since the incident. Both were afraid that the other was still mad and they didn't want to risk spoiling their friendship further. Despite what Matt said, Hotaru still couldn't help but feel that Kive didn't truly like her as his friend. Or at least not after arguing with him. Kive figured that with what he had said to her, she must totally hate him.
"Are you guys sure you're fine?" Shadow Matt asked. They both nodded.
"I don't get it. Did something happen between the two of you?" Isis asked.
"I bet it was Kive's fault." Kiyon snickered. Kive glared at Kiyon for a split second but then stared at the ground in shame. He did believe it was his fault. He HAD called her useless after all, which he believed was far from the truth.
"So do you think that we'll be able to get in without Matt?" SM asked.
"We'll see as soon as we see the ruins." Hotaru said. They approached the center of the ruins and imprinted on the ground was a weird lighthouse like figure. Everyone blinked. It appeared that there was no indent for anything to be put in. They all began searching across the symbol with their fingers.
"I found something." Isis called.
"What is that?" Hotaru asked, squinting. It appeared to be a very small indent for something with many points. She beckoned everyone to come closer and the all began to peer closely. "Does anyone have anything like that?" Hotaru asked, doubtfully. Everyone was silent. All of a sudden Kiyon pulled out a small sun-shaped charm and offered it to her. "Wow, where'd you get that thing?" Hotaru asked, accepting it and squinting at it. "It's nice." Hotaru said with a smile.
"Thank you Hotaru. I've had it since I before I could remember. Hakiyo has one two. He said our parents gave it to us. I wouldn't know." He sighed. "I wish Hakiyo would come and get me soon."
"Don't worry, your brother will find us. We need him to be able to get all the crests so he must still be out there somewhere. We'll take care of you, okay?" Hotaru assured with a smile. The smile was fake and he could see it.
"Okay, Isis and I are totally in the dark. Why can't you guys just tell us what wrong?" Kiyon whined.
"It's none of your business, kid." Kive snapped.
"Okay, but I want an explanation about why, when I asked SM where Hotaru was he said in Matt's room and when I went to knock on the door I heard sobbing." Isis said softly, but warningly.
"You talked to Matt..." Kive growled.
"It was an accident, Kive. She wasn't paying attention and she went in the wrong room." Shadow Matt stood up for her. "And it was your fault in the first place." SM added in inaudibly.
"I'll never here the end of it! He'll eat me alive. Why of all people did you have to run to him? That idiot probably criticized me, didn't he? He probably made you hate me more." Kive growled, not meeting her eyes. "Well, say it. I know you hate me." He said.
"Stop being so childish." She growled, shoving the sun in the indent. The light flashed all around them, taking them into the ruins.
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"Where are we?" SM asked, looking around. It was a grassy field littered with a bunch of toys and large building blocks. It was very colorful. In the center was a girl with golden hair tied up in a ponytail near the top of her head by an emerald swallowtail butterfly hair ornament to match her fiery green eyes which, at that moment were glued to a book that looked to ancient for her young eyes. She word a golden dress adorned by long sleeves with slits than ran down them from her shoulder, allowing them to fall loosely around her arms and her skirt was short to allow free movement. The trim was green and across her neck hung a green stone from a golden chain. Kiyon blinked and walked over to her, despite the others beckoning to come back. Only until he stood right above her did she lower her book and lift her glance up to it.
"Hi. Watcha doin' here?" She asked.
"I'm here because my friends are here." He answered. "That's an awfully hard book." He said with awe.
"Yea, but my sister says that before I can play over at her place I have to learn more about the world, and to do that I have to read. I must say I don't understand, but my sister comes back every week to explain it to me." She explained.
"Wait, are you one of the nine maidens?" Kiyon asked.
"Oh yes! I am! You're sharp! My names Tali, maiden of Hope!" She said cheerfully.
"I'm Kiyon and I'm confused. Don't you have eight sisters then?" He asked.
"Yah, I suppose. We're all bonded by the magical ring to each other and our 'mother.' Thus, like her, we have accepted an eternal life. But I'm only truly related to one of the other maidens." She explained.
"Oh." Kiyon said. "So what can you do? What abilities do you have?"
"Well, I'm not as good as the other maidens because I'm one of the youngest, but I have my friends!" She giggled. She whistled and out of the ground popped three baby Pegasus, one white, one black and one gold. "We like to play games."
"Aww, how CUTE!" Hotaru squealed. The girls gaze shifted instantly to the others standing back.
"Umm, forgive me, but are you Hotaru?" She asked.
"Umm, yes?" Hotaru replied nervously.
"But then where's that 'Matt' that's always around? I'm supposed to be testing him too right? Hey! Aren't you Isaki's kitty?" The girl asked, squinting at Isis. Isis nodded. "Oh come here already! Let me look at you all better!" She commanded. They were all instantly closer. "Yeah, you're the kitty Isaki told me about. Wow, Isaki's so dull, I wouldn't think she'd change one of her friends human!" She giggled.
"Hey, can you just give us the crest?" Kive asked, irritated.
"But I'm supposed to TEST you! My sisters will be mad if I let you by. We'll have failed and let the ruler win." She sighed.
"I don't get it, why can't you just knock the guy out of power?" Kive asked, rolling his eyes. "Pretty weak entities if you ask me."
"I don't know if even immortal mages like the nine maidens and their mother could defeat him. Isn't it wrong for them to meddle? Plus, he's pretty powerful, my ex-master. He has inhuman power, but he seems mortal enough. He never told me anything, always just do this and do that, and usually it was only a one word command." SM frowned.
"You're his minion?" Tali pressed.
"No, he wants me dead. And if you EVER run into someone who looks exactly like me, don't trust him, okay? I have a very dangerous twin." SM advised.
"Yes sir." She laughed.
"So can we get that crest? I want to get OUT!" Kive said.
"Crabby, aren't we? Well, you have to play with my horses and then if I think I should give them to you then I will." She said. "Hey, Kiyon. While I test your friends you wanna play with me?" She offered. "I only have one other friend my age, so it would be nice to have your company while my friends play their games with yours." Kiyon stared back at the group. They nodded. "YAY!" She sang. "But you guys, don't think I'm soft, just because I'm younger. My horses play with death so you can still back out now if you want to." She suggested.
"I think we have to do this." Hotaru pointed out.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" She said sternly.
" We understand." Hotaru said.
"Moon dust, Night sky, Sun ray, have fun!" She called. The three horses nodded and began to make a circle in the air and in a flash a portal appeared and the Pegasus flew into it.
"Go ahead. You're supposed to go into it." Tali told them with her usual grin. "Don't worry! I'll take good care of Kiyon!" She assured as they stepped through.
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"Where are we?" Hotaru asked. They were in a place surrounded by every type of landscape you could think of. Below them was some weird sort of alter with eight indents. Suddenly there was a poof in front of them and a paper flew down. "Can you find us?" She read out loud. "Are we in the mountains? Or in the valleys? In the clouds, perhaps? How about trying the jungle? Or maybe we're right in front of you? Well hurry up you bums and find us. Maybe you should split up in groups of two. Oh, how we love a good game of hide and seek." She continued. "That's all there is." Hotaru finished with a sigh.
"So who's going with who?" Hotaru asked looking up. She hit her forehead with her hand seeing that Shadow Matt and Isis were nowhere in site and Kive sitting on the ground, not paying attention to anything. "Gee, I wonder who I'm paired up with." Hotaru said sarcastically.
"Kive?" No response.
"Kive?!" She said, louder.
"Kive!" She called more forcefully.
"Huh, what?" Kive asked, snapping out of his trance.
"What was that?" Hotaru asked blinking.
"I was just out of it for a second." He shrugged. "Oh, its you. Where are the others?" Kive asked, looking away. She looked around and saw a black paper right besides Kive. She picked it and gave Kive the hide and seek paper.
" Yes, it me. Read this to yourself and tell me when you're done." Hotaru said. Kive looked over it quickly and frowned.
"This is stupid." He groaned. She shrugged.
"I'm going to read the other note now." She said, looking upon the scribble of white ink upon the crinkled black paper. "Hey Hotaru, Isis and I have decided to search the Desert, the Valleys, The Jungle, and the Mountains. Lets meet back here in two days, okay? See ya then. Sorry about leaving on you." She read. Kive's eyes narrowed to glare at nothing. "They did it on purpose." She sighed.
"Obviously!" Kive retorted.
"I don't get why you're still upset at me." Hotaru said softly.
"You went to him of all people! Shows about how much you care about my feelings." He growled. It pissed him off. Of course she would run to Matt. She had probably liked him way better all along. Why had he been so blind? He felt betrayed. All of his feelings for her slowly began to evaporate.
"It was an accident. I didn't mean to. And you did sort of start it." Hotaru said, not meeting his piercing blue eyes. He must really hate her now. Now he probably thought of her as a backstabber on top of being useless. Not that running to Matt was backstabbing but apparently to him it was a big deal. She hadn't even realized that it was Matt's room until it was too late.
"Tch, whatever. Let's just go." He said, rolling his eyes.
"And where should we go?" Hotaru asked.
"I don't know. That massive volcano over there." He said, motioning to a volcano that seemed ready to blow any second. She shuddered.
"Must we?" She asked timidly.
"I'd rather go alone anyways." He shrugged, beginning to walk off.
"Kive wait! I'll go!" She cried, dashing after him. "We were hinted to search in groups of two. We can't separate now." She protested. He shrugged.
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"That was smooth Shadow Matt!" Isis giggled from the shadows.
"I just figured that they needed some alone time to restore their friendship, that's all." He shrugged. "So let's hurry to the desert." He encouraged. She nodded and they went on in the shadows. After a while SM suddenly stopped. "We're in sand. We should pop up, it takes a lot longer to shadow travel in sand." He said.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because you have to travel from every single grain of sand's shadow and it gets really tedious, we'd be faster on our feet." He pointed out. She nodded again as SM popped them out of the shadow. He let out a sigh.
"I've officially decided that I do not like deserts." SM said as the sand constantly whipped into his face.
'Get on.' Isis's voice boomed I his mind. He blinked, only to find sand in his eyes. He rubbed it out furiously and the stared at Isis's cat form. The spikes were retracted and she wanted him to get on.
"I don't know. It'll feel awkward." SM sighed.
'I'm a giant cat who's offering you a ride in a windy scorching desert. Trust me, I'm a lot faster than walking.' She pointed out. SM nodded and climbed on.
"It feels awkward." SM pouted. Isis rolled her eyes and began to dash off at lightning speed. Then she realized that her load felt lighter. She screeched to a stop and turned around. There, a whole way back was SM, lying on the ground. She sighed and ran back.
'What was that about?' Isis asked.
"Too fast, too fast, too fast..." SM continued to say.
'Oh all right, I get it. I'm sorry SM.' She laughed. He sat up and shook sand from his hair.
"Not so fast next time okay." He sighed. She nodded. He sighed and climbed on again and they were off, not as fast. SM looked around. "Would anything really hide in the desert?" SM sighed.
'I like the desert. The heat doesn't bug me at all.' She informed.
"I see." He said half paying attention as he looked around for a horse. "It wouldn't be IN the sand, right, because then we'd never find it." He sighed. "This desert is so big!"
'I know.' She sighed in his head. 'Hey! I hear something.' She said screeching to a stop, nearly sending SM flying off.
"Hey, um, could you please not do that again." SM asked, taking a deep breath.
'What, what's happening? What?' She said. All of a sudden she began to glow and in a poof she was a human again. SM's eyes widened as he fell and landed with a crash on top of Isis. "SM, could you please get off." She begged. SM quickly got off.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" He apologized. "What happened?"
"I'm...not sure." Isis said, worriedly. All of a sudden they heard a sound below them and they were falling again and they smashed into rock hard floor. "Hey look! I landed on my feet." Isis laughed.
"Good for you." SM said, flat against the floor. He pushed himself up to his feet. "Where are we?" He asked. They looked around and saw nothing. Nothing at all. All of a sudden Isis shrieked.
"What?" SM asked.
"Giant, red pair of eyes." Isis said, pointing to a black pile of rocks in the corner with glowing red eyes. "What is that." Isis asked, scooting away. All of a sudden the 'rocks' stood up and revealed that it was not rocks but a scorpion that had been lying down, asleep, until now.
"Ideal location. A gigantic scorpion pit. Are you as thrilled as I am?" He asked, backing away. Isis shot lightning at the beast but to no avail. The bolts simply bounced off it slick shell. SM drew his sword and began to take battles with the massive snapping claws, but he was at the disadvantage as he tried to battle two claws at once, which kept him very busy.
"Shadow Matt! Watch out!" She shouted. SM blinked, distracted as the tail shot down at him. He noticed just in time and managed to dive out of the way as the tail struck just where he had been. Then it was back to fighting the claws again. Isis didn't know what to do. There was nothing to do. Then she had an idea and began to climb up the wall slowly but steadily. Meanwhile, SM did all he could, struggling against the massive steel-hard claws. They seemed to snap at him in fast fluid motions, leaving barely enough time for him to even breath. All of a sudden one of the pincers clamped down on his sword. SM tried to let go and run but it was too late and the other claw slammed down on him, pinning him to the ground. He tried to go into the shadow and realized that he was in a part where the sun shined into the whole. He gulped and braced himself as the claws began to close on him. He was going to get sliced in half and that would be the end. He squeezed his eyes shut and awaited the pain, but the pain never came. He heard a roar of pain and the pressure or his sides was gone. He opened his eyes to see the beast roaring up at the side of the wall, three large cactus spines stuck in its eyes. (A/N: Gah!!! That just reminded me of Haku and his needles in Naruto...not cool! But Naruto is a good anime! Thanks for showing it to me Lynn!)
"That's what you get!" Isis shouted down, throwing down more spines. SM smiled. Isis had saved him. SM snuck up behind it and shouted, "HEY!!!!" The scorpion whipped around in surprise only to have a blade stuck right between its eyes. SM pulled out the sword in disgust.
"I hate doing that." He sighed. "Thank you SOOOO much Isis. Without you..." He shuddered thinking about it.
"No problem." She smiled. SM heard a clunk in front of him. He blinked. "What is it SM?" Isis called down.
"I found something." He said, picking up a weird orange stone. He slunk into the shadows and appeared next to Isis. "What do you suppose this is?" He asked, showing her.
"I don't know. Let's keep it and head out. I don't think anything's hiding here, and if one of those Pegasus are here then we can always go back after checking the other locations." She said. SM nodded. He didn't like deserts. They walked off.
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Hotaru frowned. Why was Kive so mad at her? Matt had been wrong. He wasn't hating himself for yelling at her; in fact he didn't appear to care at all. She felt tears begin to well up. Was she losing a friend or had he not really ever been her friend? No, he had been her friend. She couldn't doubt Kive. He had gotten his leg ripped up trying to find her and continued on until he finally did. Maybe Matt was right about him being very stressed. She followed him silently. She didn't want to make things even worse. Finally they reached the volcano.
"It's really hot here." Kive said. All of a sudden a bunch of fireballs flew at them. Hotaru slammed her glaive down causing a silence wall to appear so that the fire just bounced off it. She kept it on. They walked on for a while, nothing else unexpected happening.
"Put it down." Kive said. Hotaru nodded and made it disappear. "Oh shoot!" Kive shouted as something dived for his face. It scratched and scratched him as he attempted to pull the thing away. Finally he pulled it away and it flew off.
"Oh my gosh Kive, are you okay." She asked.
"Ow..." Hotaru walked over and moved his hands from his face and saw a bunch of talon scratches all over his face and from the looks of it they were burn marks too. She bit her lip. They were nasty wounds. She set to healing his face.
"Are you okay?" She asked, finishing up. It hadn't taken up very much energy.
"What the hell attacked me?" Kive asked, eyes darting around.
"It was a hawk-sized bird with orange and gold feathers and it burned with fire. It dove into the lava." She said, looking around the lava pits that lined the path inside the volcano.
"I think it's gone." Kive said at last. "Umm, thanks Hotaru, I guess." He said, looking away. Hotaru smiled. Things would hopefully get better between them from here. They continued on, watching the lava carefully. She sighed. It was extremely hot in the place. After all, it was a volcano. Suddenly a squawk sounded behind them.
"Oh no you don't! Not again!" Kive said whipping around. Hotaru turned around as well and their eyes widened. Not only were there one bird but what seemed like a whole army of them. Hotaru raised her glaive for a fight and Kive whipped out his sword thinking it was about time it got a little use. Hotaru slammed the glaive down and blinked. Nothing had happened.
"Kive, my silence wall isn't working anymore." She whispered.
"Then we just have to swat them off one by one." He whispered. Now was not the time to be upset with each other. They were in a bad situation and they had to get out of it. All of a sudden the birds came diving at them. They hacked at the birds, but every time one got sliced it just popped back together, which was freaky in its own way.
"We can't win." Hotaru said while trying in vain to kill at least one bird but they just wouldn't die! Kive knew she was right. All of a sudden the birds surrounded them. Hotaru and Kive stopped, confused and pressed their backs together. All of a sudden the birds glowed red. Hotaru began trying to make silence walls but her attempts were futile. Suddenly a red beam shot from all of them, hitting the two of them in an explosion of fire. Hotaru and Kive fell to the ground, every inch of their skin feeling like it was being pressed by an iron. They felt birds pick them up by their collars, but they were too in pain to do anything. Hotaru and Kive stared in the direction they were going in and saw gigantic bird with its mouth open, pointing up as if wanting to be fed something. "I give you once guess what the main course is." Hotaru said weakly.
"Hotaru, just in case we don't make it, I apologize for being a big fat jerk. You're not useless, I just blurted out something. I can't believe I said it and I'm sorry. I still think you shouldn't have told Matt, though." He blurted out.
"Thanks, but it's true. I haven't done anything. And I'm sorry for everything I said to you. I have no business judging you when I barely know you. And about Matt, I couldn't just lie to him and he asked me. To tell truth I'm glad I talked to him. I'm sorry if that makes you upset. If it's any consolation he in a way stood up for you." She sighed.
"Stood up for me? Don't tease me Hotaru." Kive sighed.
"I'm not kidding you. You two should try to get along. I think you'd both find that the other is different than they thought." She pointed out.
"We're going to die, aren't we?" Kive asked.
"No. Don't say that!" Hotaru scolded.
"But it's the truth. Before I die, I'm sorry for everything I've done wrong in my life. I'm sorry that I was a jerk to Hotaru, I was totally wrong for doing that. I'm sorry for trying to push my stepsister off the roof, even if she is annoying. I'm sorry that I dropped a bunch of burs on the horses' fur in the stables back home, even if they were evil. I'm sorry for yelling at my parents and running away, even though it was for a VERY good reason. And I'm sorry that I never ate my broccoli and just shoved it under the table, and when the maids asked me why all the broccoli was under my chair I said that the dog loved broccoli so it would steal it from the kitchen and that under my chair was its favorite place to eat; wait, I'm not sorry for that. I hate broccoli. And I'm sorry for..." Kive continued on but the rest Hotaru didn't hear. She was staring at the giant beak poking out of the lava ready to eat them. All of a sudden they were right above the bird and suddenly they were dropping. Kive continued his list on super high speed. BAM! She slammed her glaive horizontally in the bird's beak and dangled from it by one hand. Her eyes widened as Kive zipped passed her. She whipped out her hand and grasped his wrist and let out a relieved sigh. The glaive slid a little more with Kive's weight and she clenched her hand even tighter. Kive was pretty heavy.
"And I'm sorry...hey! I'm not dead!" He said, opening his eyes. "I take it back. I'm not sorry for half the things I said." He said, trying to sound calm. He stared up and gulped. "Um, Hotaru, please don't let go, I'm really sorry." He said, panicky as the bird swayed back and forth from the pain of a blade being lodged in its mouth.
"Kive, I'm not going to let go on purpose. I'm going to try to swing you up. You have to grab the glaive, okay?" She said.
"Umm yeah. I can do that. I mean, I don't think Matt could, but you know I can." He said nodding nervously. Hotaru sighed.
"Ready? Set? Now!" She said swinging him up high enough and he grabbed the glaive.
"Now what?" Kive asked.
"This?" She said, swinging herself up in the air using the glaive and landing on her feet on top of it. She struggled to keep balance as the bird struggled madly.
"I really don't think my body is capable of doing that!" Kive said. Hotaru sighed, he was right.
"Stop it already or I'll keep the blade lodged in you mouth forever!" Hotaru shouted to the bird.
'It hurts! You hurt me!' The bird screamed in her mind.
"Obviously! You deserve it for trying to eat us!" Hotaru shouted.
'It hurts!! You darn humans and your weapons!' It cursed at her in her head.
"Gee, doesn't anything in this world talk using their vocal chords? Look, I can't take the glaive out our else I'll fall into your throat." Hotaru protested.
'Then get eaten!' The bird squawked.
"No thank you!" Hotaru said.
"Hey! What's that stuck in the bird's throat?" Kive asked, squinting.
'You get yucky stone out of my mouth pull out sharp man weapon and I let you not get eaten.' The bird protested.
"Fine!" Hotaru said. "Kive? Can you reach it?" Hotaru asked. Kive shook his head no. "Grab my wrist and whatever you do, don't let go of the glaive." She said sternly. He grabbed her wrist and she slipped off the glaive. Dangling by her wrist she could see the shiny red stone lodged in the side of the bird's throat. She shook her head in disgust and began to try to pry it out, which proved to be difficult with one hand.
"Are you done?" Kive asked after a few minutes.
"No! It's stuck tight!" she called back.
"Hotaru I'm trusting you! Don't' lose this!" Kive said.
"What is it?" Hotaru asked.
"My brother's dagger." He answered. "Grab my foot, I need my hand free." Hotaru nodded and grabbed his foot with her free hand and he let go of her other hand. He pulled out his brother's dagger and held it down. Hotaru grabbed it with her free hand and began to try to pry the stone out with the dagger. To her surprise it came out pretty easily. With a final thrust the stone came free, but as it did the bird let out a pain-filled cry and began to thrash around violently, shaking Hotaru's holding free and she began to fall.
"HOTARUUUU!!!!" Kive shouted. She slammed the dagger into the things throat and prayed that the bird's struggling wouldn't shake it loose. Kive let out a sigh of relief.
"I got it out!! I got it out!! Please stop it!!" Hotaru cried.
'That hurt!' It roared in pain and it began to flap its wings, lifting up out of the volcano and flying into the ground, leaving Hotaru and Kive dangling helplessly within its throat. It landed somewhere and opened its mouth. Hotaru yanked out the dagger and pushed herself up to walk out. Kive crawled out passed the glaive when Hotaru reached him and they both got out.
"Open your mouth wider." Hotaru commanded. The bird forced its beak to open wider. "This might hurt." Hotaru said. She yanked the glaive out with a very forceful pull. The bird reared up its head in pain. Hotaru and Kive backed away from its neck range.
'Dumb humans.' It growled. 'I go back to my home now!' It growled and flew off to the now erupting volcano.
"I wonder...was that bird responsible for that volcano erupting?" Hotaru thought to herself.
"Don't scare me like that! You could have died! Never ever do that to me again!" Kive scolded.
"Do what?" Hotaru asked.
"You almost fell and you were going to leave me forever! Don't do that! Next time something like that happens let me go down to get it, okay?" He said sternly.
"Kive! Don't be like that! We made it didn't we. I know what I'm doing!" Hotaru said.
"You're right, but still. That was the first time I felt like that. Felt that helpless. So about that stone." Kive said.
"I think it goes into that one thing we saw when we got here." Hotaru said.
"You mean that?" Kive said, pointing behind him.
"Yes! Wow! The bird dropped us back where we started." Hotaru said.
"I guess we have to collect the rest of the stone things." Kive sighed. Both their shoulder's sagged. As if collecting crests wasn't already enough...
Little did they know that something was up back at the ranch...
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I didn't want to post this yet. Not much of an ending. I'll try to get the next chapter up so that you can read it without forgetting what just happened. Gomen nasai!!!! I don't even like the whole ending part of this section. I cry. But it's getting too long. It's like 19 pages. That's kind of insane. I'm sorry; it doesn't tie to itself too well without the next part of the chapter. Hey, but at least now I know what to do with the next chapter!!! I'm sorri!! I know this is such a gay place to leave it. Too much character conflict, not enough action, I'm sorry!! And I'm also sorry for SM. I just love being mean to him! ^^ Please review. I'm sorry that this chapter isn't that good...*sighs* Plu, ignore all the errors. I'm not very good at proof reading!!!
SM: Why do you love embarrassing me?
Megumi: Because its so fun! Anyways! YOU ATE ALL MY DONUTS YESTERDAY!! Here I was thinking I could leave you by yourself for one day and what do you do? You frickin raided my house for donuts! Some friend you are.
SM: It was like half a box! Half a box! That's all! Anyways, how could I resist?
Megumi: NO MORE DONUTS YOU DISOBEDIENT SERVANT!!!! *screamscreamyellyell*
SM: Eep, scary. I'm sorry for eating your donuts! Really I am!
*Grins* I have you eating out of the palm of my hand!
NYANYA!!! Chapter 12. Yay! I'm sorry. I'll go into it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon or Sailor Moon. I do own all original characters and the plot! Wee! Now, on to the next chapter.
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If Darkness Could Befriend Chapter 12: Hope
"Matt? Are you okay?" Hotaru asked. Matt rubbed his eyes and sat up.
"I feel so wasted." Matt sighed and laid back down.
"Come on Matt. We have to leave." Hotaru sighed. She really didn't want to make Matt be miserable or anything, but they did have to move.
"But where are we going?" Matt asked, pushing himself up. 'Obviously not Shiyoko if Kive can help it.' Matt thought to himself.
"Um, I'm not to sure. You're the one with the map." She said. Matt sighed and shook off his weariness.
"About time you got up, you bum!" Kive shouted. Everyone stared at him. Kive rolled his eyes. "I can never win, can I?" He growled inaudibly. They walked on the whole time. Hotaru sighed to herself. 'I feel so useless. It's always someone else doing something. I should really try next time. I feel like I'm using Matt and Kive as my shields or something. I don't need a shield, right?' She asked herself.
"What are you thinking, Hotaru?" Shadow Matt asked.
"Huh? Me? Oh nothing. So what are the next ruins?" Hotaru avoided the subject. Shadow Matt sighed and asked Matt.
"Matt? Where are we headed next?" SM asked. Matt stared at him wearily and shoved the map at him.
"You decide." He croaked.
"Matt? Are you okay?" SM asked.
"Don't worry SM, he's never in his right mind." Kive muttered. "So where are we going?" Kive asked.
"Relax...I'm not going to randomly say that we should go to Shiyoko. It's out of the way now. Where do you think we should go?"
"I thought we already decided on the ruins of hope." Kive pointed out.
"Oh whoops. You're right." Shadow Matt said. "Man Kive, I'm worried about Matt. Do you think he's okay?"
"No, He's never been okay, but who cares?" Kive shrugged.
"You ought to be nicer to him." Shadow Matt said. Kive shrugged it off.
"Yea, I agree with SM, what's so bad about Matt?" Isis asked.
"He's an idiot." Kive pointed out.
"Can you guys please not talk like I'm not right next to you?" Matt rasped. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, dark circles underneath them.
"You look like a zombie." Kive chortled.
"Shut up." Matt replied. Kive rolled his eyes and ignored Matt.
"I hate walking. Why can't we get horses?" Kive asked.
"A horse would be nice." Matt murmured. Hotaru frowned, thinking.
"I don't know, Kive. It's not like any of us has too much money, right?" Hotaru asked politely.
"I have as much as you want to spend." Kive said, smiling warmly.
"I'm serious, Kive. If we want horses we need money, and Matt and I don't have too much money. Isis, SM, and Kiyon probably don't have any, and, well, how much can you have?" Hotaru asked.
"I am serious." Kive shrugged. "But maybe we could find free horses. That would be nice. Wanna check the map?" Kive asked. Hotaru stared at him awkwardly and looked on the map. Her eyes darted around quickly and found a place.
"Kive, this place says Midori Ranch." She said, pointing out the place.
"Hey! And what do you know, it's right next to the ruins of hope! We can go to the ruins then, when we get out, we'll have horses. Nice find Hotaru!" Kiyon said, standing on his tippy-toes to see the map SM was holding. SM bent down so Kiyon could see it better.
"Okay then. Let's go there. That is, if Matt can walk that far." Kive said. Matt glared at him and they began to walk.
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They reached the ranch by twilight. There was barely enough light to supply them with proper sight so the blazing lights of a large house in the back of the ranch seemed to draw them like moths. They picked up their paced until they were at the house. It was much to late to attempt going to the Ruins of Hope. Hotaru knocked on the door softly. They heard the rustle of footsteps within the house. The door was swiftly pulled open to reveal a pair of jade green eyes twinkling adventurously atop skin that had slightly been bronzed by labor in the sun. She looked to be about the ruler's age and had tough muscles, boasting of her hard work and her long chocolate hair had been messily braided to keep from her face. Hotaru blinked and ceased studying the girl as she realized that she was being spoken to.
"Excuse me? How may I help you?" The girl asked a sweet song- like voice that didn't match her look
"My friends and I have been traveling here for horses, but I'm afraid we couldn't make it in the day so we are in need of shelter. If you'd rather not then it's understandable. We could camp somewhere..." Hotaru was cut off as the girl shook her head.
"It's fine! Don't worry about it. Of course you can stay!" she laughed. "There's lots of room here. We'll discuss the horses later." She smiled and let them in. She frowned as Matt and Kive entered. But her eyes were stuck on Matt. "You look horrible." She said to Matt. Matt frowned.
"I feel terrible." He muttered.
"Severe magic fatigue." She said.
"Yea, I think so. I have two magic vials. I found that the green recovered magic and health and the red recovered just health so a sipped a little of the green. It didn't help at all." Matt informed her. She nodded.
"I think you lost all your magic. I've seen it happen to someone once. It'll come back after a few days, but you'll feel terribly weak in the days without your magic." She replied. "It's one of those things that you can't help with potions. You just have to regain it with rest. That means you should rest. There are rooms up the stairs. Choose whichever you like and I mean it, rest." She said sternly.
"Good night guys." Matt said, stumbling up the stairs wearily.
"How could you make him walk all the way here? That poor boy is totally drained." She scolded. "But what's done is done. He really has to rest! I'm sorry. I've been so rude. My name is Uma and I manage this horse ranch."
"I'm Hotaru. The boy who you sent up was Matt. This is Isis, that's Shadow Matt, that's Kiyon, and this is Kive." Hotaru introduced.
"Kive? I know you!" She laughed.
"Ahem, that's not important." He grumbled.
"Okay. I recognize you now. It's been so long. I thought you were someone else that I know, but then I realized who you were." She laughed. Kive rolled his eyes.
"What are you doing here anyways? I thought about three years ago you said you couldn't come here anymore." She pointed out.
"Well I'm free to do what I want to do now. Let's get away from this subject please?" Kive said nervously.
"Okay. You know, now you look a lot like someone I met a long time ago." She said in thought.
"That's nice. But why talk about me! I mean, I'm your life has been just as interesting." He pointed out, a little tweaked out of place.
"Oh, nothing much. I'm all alone as usual, just like when you left." She sighed.
"Wait! How do you know Kive?" Hotaru asked.
"Oh there was a little problem at the horse stable back at Kive's town. You see, for some reason, Kive isn't too good with animals. Horses had never let him ride them, which was preposterous for someone of his status. Then when all the horses at the stables sort of stampeded him four years ago it was sort of like the last straw and his adopted father knew they had to do something. For Kive's sake they shipped him off to me because even though I'm young I have a way with horses. Kive stayed here for about a year and almost all the horses here didn't really like him, but they did accept him, which was a definite improvement. So I taught him here how to care for a horse and how to get them to tolerate you. He was a lot better with horses by the time he left. Apparently now he can stand being around one." She laughed. Kive rolled his eyes.
"Thanks for revealing something about me that I didn't want revealed." He growled. She waved him off.
"Anyways. You guys should eat something. After dinner bring up some for Matt. Then off to bed. From what I picked up, you guys have been traveling for a while. They nodded and she led them to the kitchen.
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Hotaru walked out the door to find Uma sitting in the middle of the large ranch, watching the sunrise. Hotaru frowned at how early it was. Uma turned around, sensing her footsteps.
"You're up early." Uma said.
"Yah, I couldn't go back to sleep." Hotaru replied. Uma patted the ground next to her, beckoning Hotaru to sit and watch the sunrise with her. Hotaru obeyed.
"So what brought you here anyways?" Uma asked.
"Kive wanted horses." Hotaru said.
"So that's it?" She prodded.
"No, but I don't know if you would understand." Hotaru sighed.
"Oh do try me." Uma said.
"Well, um okay. Do you like the ruler?" Hotaru asked.
"I don't know. We never interact obviously. He just sort of leaves me alone I guess." She sighed.
"Oh, well. He's not the best guy in the world, as you probably know. He doesn't care about the people in Esirnus. I don't know what he cares about, but he's pretty dark and evil. Not the ideal personality if you'd ask me. So anyways, we're supposed to remove him from power and apparently we can only do so if we retrieve crests from each of the nine ruins in Esirnus to keep him from ruling this whole world. He's some kind of mage sword-fighter from what I can tell. I just don't understand him, but I can willingly say that I don't like him one bit." Hotaru said grudgingly.
"I see. Well, the ruins of Hope are right behind this ranch. Good luck. Oh yes. Don't take Matt. If you do then it will take him even longer to recover." She said sternly.
"I don't know. We sort of need Matt. He's sort of like our leader." She sighed.
"He'll do no leading in this shape." She commanded.
"But I won't feel right if I leave him here by himself." She sighed.
"Aww, c'mon! It's for his own good." She said, giving Hotaru a playful sock to the shoulder.
"I suppose..." Hotaru murmured. "It's for the best."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of your boyfriend." She laughed.
"Kive wouldn't be happy if he caught you calling Matt that." Hotaru warned.
"Aww! My little Kive's got a crush? And here I was thinking that he was totally anti-social when it comes to girls!" Uma laughed again.
"I heard that!" Kive growled. Both of them looked behind them to see Kive standing there.
"Good morning Kive." Both girls said cheerfully.
"Good morning." Kive said. "Uma! What do you mean that I'm anti-social with girls!" Kive growled.
"Oh Kive! You told me yourself that girls scared you." She teased.
"I never said that! Stop lying. And if I did it was back then. I was young and stupid." Kive pouted.
"Okay, okay. I was just joking Kive. What happened to your sense of humor? You used to be such a fireball. Or are you just nervous around your crush?" Uma laughed. Kive's eyes widened in protest and his face glowed red.
"I-I.....you don't have to say that!" Kive shouted, embarrassed.
"I'm sorry Kive. You know I was just joking, right?" Uma said, truly apologizing. Kive nodded. "Hey, Kive! Do you want to see the horses? I'm sure Nightfall missed you." Uma suggested. Kive nodded. "You too, Hotaru?"
"Yeah, sure. I want to see the horses!" She said with a smile.
"Okay! Let's go!" She said, steering them toward the stables. "It's time to let them out anyways."
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Uma opened the door and all the horses neighed in welcome. She smiled.
"Hey guys! Kive's come back!" All the horses where dead quiet as they stared over at Kive. Kive backed up nervously. Then all the horses neighed another welcome. Kive let out a sigh of relief.
"Forgive me, guys. The horses over at my home are not very fond of me." Kive said with a shudder. Suddenly one of the horses struggled out of its stall and bolted for Kive. Kive shouted as the horse rammed into him, knocking him down. The horse shoved its face into his, studying him before backing away with assurance. It trotted around happily. "Hello Nightfall." Kive managed to choke out as he pulled himself up. The horse whinnied a response of happiness. Then it spotted Hotaru and straightened up, acting serious.
"Oh. Hi Nightfall. I'm Hotaru. I'm Kive's friend. Don't worry. You can goof around. I won't mind!" She laughed. The horse began to trot around again. She tilted her head and studied the horse. It was a black horse with white socks and diamond on its forehead. Its black tail swished around, creating a drawing affect because of its white tips.
"Why is my horse so abnormal?" Kive grumbled to himself. His horse stared up with big, innocent eyes filled with hurt. It hung its head dejectedly and slowly began to slink away. "I-I...NO!!! Don't take it that way! I missed you too! I like having an abnormal horse!" Kive blurted out apologetically. The horse perked up again and continued its horse dance. Everyone sweatdropped staring at Kive's weird horse friend. Hotaru stared over at Kive and saw he was smiling. That made her smile too.
"You know, it's been so long. Last time I saw him he was so small." Kive sighed. "I didn't recognize him until he plowed into me." Uma smiled too and she opened the door and let all the horses out. A shout of, "Oh my GOOOOOSSSHHHH!!!" and a smash on the ground sounded from outside. They all whipped around and found SM sprawled on the ground, hoof prints all over him.
"Owwww." Shadow Matt groaned. Everyone sweatdropped. Hotaru pulled him up.
"Shadow Matt, are you okay?" She said worriedly. He groaned and dusted himself off.
"It feels like I got trampled by a herd of horses."
"You did." Kive said, rolling his eyes.
"I know. I saw them running and then I turned to run around but then....I sort of...tripped." SM sighed. "But amazingly I think I'm fine!"
"You should have just gone in the shadow." Kive said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh yea huh! I didn't think of that!" SM said with a nervous laugh.
"And HOW did he beat Dark Shadow Matt?" Kive muttered under his breath.
"Hey!!! That's not nice! But then again, I sort of didn't. Isis did." SM said, looking away embarrassed. Everyone sighed.
"That was RHETORICAL you retard!!!" Kive shouted.
"Geez, I'm sorry!" Shadow Matt replied.
"Kive. Don't be mean!" Hotaru commanded. Kive sighed and calmed down.
"So what's for breakfast?" Kive asked.
"Kive its like six in the morning. Are your other friends even up?" Uma pointed out.
"Yea. Good point." He sighed.
"Kive groom and feed the horses. I'll cook your breakfast." She said, walking away.
"But Uma!!! I don't remember..." He sighed, seeing that she was ignoring him.
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Uma sighed, seeing Kiyon and Isis in her kitchen. She stared at the two. They were covered in flour and looked like specters in a fog, the fog being the flour particles still left floating. She sighed and walked to the door in the back of the kitchen. Her hand pushed off the door, letting in a breeze and fresh air; a relief from them white dust.
"We're sorry Uma. My brother always used to use flour to make pancakes and I figured that with a girl the cooking wouldn't get messed up like the other time I tried when I was little so I brought Isis down, even though she told me she couldn't cook. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to drop the flour bag, and I'm sure there's still some more flour in it! I'm sure! I'm so sorry!" He said quickly in one breath. She laughed.
"Aww. It's okay! You're so adorable!" She said, roughing up his hair. She looked down at her hand, seeing it was coated in white. She sighed and began to dust off his hair while Isis dusted off hers. After a while everything got all cleaned up.
"Why do you guys get up so early? And why didn't you ask me to help you?" She laughed.
"Oh, well, we just wake up early since we try to travel as early as we can so we can catch the daylight. Also, we wanted to try by ourselves. We're sorry Uma." Isis sighed.
"Oh, its okay. Once this friend of mine was here and he tried to cook me something. The place was a total absolute mess. You'd think that something had exploded in the kitchen, and I bet something did." She laughed. "I'll teach you how to cook pancakes, okay?" She offered. They nodded feverously.
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"So do any of you know how to ride?" Kive asked. SM and Hotaru both shook their heads no. Kive shrugged. "So do either of you care to try?" He asked.
"I think SM wants to go first." Hotaru said nervously. SM gulped.
"Oh this should be a riot. I wanna see this!" Kive chuckled. SM's eyes widened with agitation.
"Y-You are planning on helping me, right?" SM asked shakily.
"And miss watching you fall on your butt, no WAY! Anyways, where's the fun in helping you?" Kive taunted, smiling as he tossed a saddle at Shadow Matt. Hotaru sighed as SM picked it up unwillingly.
"Kive, don't make SM do it!" Hotaru commanded.
"Aw! C'mon! It'll be such a riot!" Kive begged. As they were discussing SM went around and looked at the horses cautiously.
"Umm, Kive? Which one should I ride?" SM asked. A sly smirk crawled onto Kive's face.
"I think you should try to ride that one." Kive said, gesturing to a lone horse. All the horses shied away from that one as it shot territorial looks at them. Shadow Matt stared in horror at the horse.
"T-T-T-That one? Are you sure?" SM asked in total horror.
"Sure? Why not?" Kive shrugged. Hotaru socked him in the shoulder angrily.
"Don't give him the meanest horse. Why are you so terrible?" Hotaru protested.
"I'm not." Kive said innocently. "Really, it may look mean, but it's a pretty old, wise, kind horse. The horses stay clear out of their respect for it." Kive said, nodding.
"Umm, I don't want to." SM said, scooting away.
"Go you chicken." Kive growled.
"I may be a chicken but at least I'm not a DEAD chicken." Shadow Matt pointed out, still backing off.
"Just try it. I wanna see you try it. He really isn't a mean horse. He's very slow and good-tempered. Don't let his appearance unnerve you." Kive said, fakely encouraging.
"Kive, stop it already!" Hotaru argued. Kive gave her pleading eyes and turned back to SM.
"Go already you big lunk!" Kive shouted.
"I-I..." Shadow Matt said, confused. "Do I have to?"
"Yes." Kive growled. Shadow Matt sighed and went towards the horse. Slowly, he inched closer to the monstrosity of a horse until he was a few yards away. The horse's ears flattened against his head and it let out an angry snort of a warning. Shadow Matt froze in his place.
"Nice Horse?" Shadow Matt said timidly. At that the horse let out a blood-curdling screech and made a wild dash for Shadow Matt, who began screaming like a mad man while running for his life.
"You LIIEEEEEEEEDDD!!!!!!" Shadow Matt's voice carried through the wind as he darted past them. Kive was cracking up. He was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Hotaru stared in horror as the situation unfolded. The horse was constantly gaining on poor Shadow Matt, who had the life scared out of him.
"Go in the shadows!" Hotaru screamed. In an instant Shadow Matt had disappeared and the horse stopped from its charging to wonder where its victim had gone. Then after a while it gave up and settled to eating its grass again.
"Aww, Hotaru, you spoiled it." Kive said, rubbing his eyes. He had been crying from laughing too hard.
"That was so rotten Kive!" Hotaru growled.
"Aw, c'mon. He's fine isn't he?" Kive laughed.
"KIVE! Be serious!" Hotaru argued.
"But that would ruin my personality." He whined.
"And that's a BAD thing?" She grumbled to herself. Kive's eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something but then thought better about it. Suddenly the black figure of Shadow Matt slunk up besides them. The horse's attention suddenly snapped back to poor Shadow Matt. SM's eyes grew wide and he made a break for it. Hotaru and Kive gulped, realizing that the horse would charge them to get through to SM.
"Oh shoot!" They shouted as they darted off to the side, just a second before the horse trampled the area where they had been standing. They both let out sighs of relief, but with Shadow Matt there was definitely no relief at that moment.
"Why is it so sunny here?" Shadow Matt shouted, the horse on his tail and gaining fast. Shadow Matt ran as fast as he could, but unfortunately luck came into play. Bad luck. SM tripped and landed on the ground with a thud and the horse stared down at him with a sinister horse expression. SM wondered if these horses were more human than was normal, seeing from the behavior of Kive's horse and this insane horse. As the horse reared to stomp him he rolled out of the way. All of a sudden the crazy horse flew and hit the gate, as if it had been greatly impacted. SM blinked and stared at the horse that had charged the other of its kind. It wasn't as big as the other horse, and it didn't look as strong, but it had a certain threatening fire in its eyes. Its coat was a gray color, definitely nothing spectacular, but its mane and tail were a deeper, shinier gray that in the sun, appeared to shine like silver. It had a beautiful white moon adorning its forehead. It gave the fallen horse an acknowledging nod as it got up and slumped away in defeat. Then the horse turned to SM, who cringed back against the ground from previous experiences. The horse pushed its nose into his face and snorted an approval as SM stared in horror. Then it grabbed the collar of his shirt and hoisted him to his feet. SM blinked and began to pet its face. It gave him a disapproving stare and nudged his hand higher so that he petted its forehead. 'Definitely not normal horses.' SM thought to himself. After a little of that it grabbed him by the collar again. SM's tilted his head in confusion. All of a sudden the horse tossed him up in the air as he gave a startled shout and came hurtling, only to land on the horses back. SM's eyes and jaw were wide open, and his heart was beating extremely fast as the horse trotted over to Kive and Hotaru and kneeled down for him to get off. He slid off, still in shock. The horse then turned its gaze to Kive and snorted in his face.
"Nice to see you too, Blade." Kive muttered, voice dripping with sarcasm. The horse turned around, whipping its tail in his face.
"Umm, hi Blade?" Hotaru greeted shyly. The horse turned back around, once again hitting Kive in the face with its tail. Kive bared his teeth in anger. The horse looked at Hotaru and brushed its nose against her hand. Hotaru smiled.
"He's quite a nice horse, isn't he?" Hotaru said happily.
"Umm, Hotaru?" Kive spoke up.
"Blade's not a guy. She's one of Nightfall's sisters at that. But the last time I saw her she was a squirt. And let me tell you, she may have grown, but her personality sadly hasn't changed." Kive snorted. "I can understand why Uma called her Blade. She's like a sword cutting a helping hand."
"Hey Kive, watch it. Blade just saved me from that monster of a horse. And need I remind you that it was YOUR fault that I was in that jam in the first place." SM pointed out.
"Hey, are you blaming me?" Kive growled.
"Oh come on. Not trying to be mean or anything but you flat out lied to me and nearly got me killed." SM pointed out.
"Well, it's not my fault you were stupid enough to-" Kive started.
"Okay, okay. First Kive, you shouldn't have done that. It was down right dirty. You could have gotten him KILLED! Next, do you remember that Shadow Matt saved all our butts? You ought to be more grateful. Also, I don't want anymore arguing. You'd figure that with poor Matt out, you'd just turn into a normal person." Hotaru growled.
"I'm more normal than that stupid idiot, Matt."
"Matt's not a stupid idiot for the last time. You really need to learn how to respect other people. No one's ever going to accept you if you continue acting like that. I don't understand why you can't just be nice for once in life!
"What! Don't yell at me like that! I already get enough of it back home." Kive shouted back.
"Well I can understand why!" Hotaru scoffed.
"And who are you to say anything about me? You're just some out of place girl who can't do anything. You're totally useless!" Kive exploded. Hotaru's eyes grew big and then narrowed.
"So that's what you think of me. You are a liar. And you know what, you're a fake and a jerk and a total loser. Matt was right!" Hotaru spat back, tears forming in her eyes. "I-I never want to see you again." Hotaru sobbed and ran to the house, slamming the door behind her.
"Whoa. Did you just scream at her? Man, you're terrible. You made her cry." Shadow Matt said. "Hotaru wait!" He shouted and went after her, leaving Kive alone. Kive put his hand over his mouth. What had he done? He turned to Blade.
"D-Did I really say all that?" Kive choked out. The horse nodded and kicked him before walking away. "I'm really horrible. I made Hotaru cry. What am I going to do?" He sighed, feeling totally guilty. He sat down, trying to think of something.
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"Hotaru are you okay?" SM asked, grabbing her wrist. He had caught her walking up the stairs.
"I'm fine. J-Just a-absolutely f-fine." She said, trying to sound assuring. Her lip quivered and she turned away. I just don't want to see him anymore." She said and pulled away from him. "I'm just going to go to my room for a while." She said, dashing up the stairs and into a room.
"But Hotaru-" Shadow Matt called, but it was too late. "That's Matt's room."
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As soon as she entered the room she began to cry. He was right and she hated it. She had no right to yell at him. He was just fooling around a bit. And she was useless. Totally and utterly useless. She sunk down against the door and buried her face in her hands. All of a sudden she heard a sound of someone sitting up.
"Hotaru!" Matt choked.
"Matt?" She squeaked.
"Hotaru? Somethings wrong isn't it?" He asked, getting worried.
"No, No! Nothings wrong. Go back to sleep. You'll need it!" She squeaked again and stood up. She struggled to keep her tears contained as she fumbled around for the doorknob.
"Hotaru, I feel much better from yesterday. But I've been, umm, lonely. Could you just sit here for a few more minutes?" He asked. She stared at him with teary purple eyes. How could she refuse? She took a seat on the bed next to him and they sat there for a few minutes in silence. "Hotaru, you know you can tell me if you're upset about something." Matt sighed.
"Oh, but nothing's wrong, Matt." She said, but her voice betrayed her and she couldn't help but let out a sob. Matt's eyes softened with worry.
"There's something wrong Hotaru, and you don't have to tell, me, but then Hotaru, you don't have to lie to me, either." Matt sighed.
"I'm sorry Matt." Her voice trembled. He put his hand on hers and pulled her closer to him.
"Hotaru, its okay to cry if you need to. I wont laugh or tell you to shut up. I'm just here to help, if I can." Then he hugged her, blushing terribly and tried to pull away, but Hotaru clung to the back of his shirt. He stopped trying to pull away and let her cry on him. After a while she stopped and rested her head on his shoulder while he still continued to blush terribly.
"S-So, what happened anyway?" Matt asked.
"I was mean to Kive." Hotaru sighed.
"Oh? So this has to do with Kive, now." Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, but I can't blame him. He was right. I have no business talking about him when I barely even know him, I mean, we've only known him for like a week or two, and I have know business to yell at him or anyone else. And he was right. I am totally useless. I can't do anything and I haven't helped you guys yet. It's always someone else doing the bulk of the load. I never knew he thought that way about me though. I guess that I have no judgment either. He must have hated me." She whispered.
"Don't say that, Hotaru. Don't put yourself down like that. If you keep thinking that then that's the way you'll be. And you're not useless. You heal us and you're a voice of logic among us. You're nice and always willing to lend a hand. I don't see how you're useless. Just because you haven't gotten to beat up some gigantic bad guy or something. You have your part in this adventure and I have a feeling that sometime in the future we'll be relying on you to save our butts. And as for Kive, I can't believe I'm standing up for him, but it has to be said. Somewhere in that egotistical head of him, I think, is a pretty decent guy. I mean, he hasn't killed me yet, you know, so it's not like you judged him wrong. I think right know, his minds somewhere else, because he's seeming to get easier and easier to irritate the more we travel. I think he's afraid of going home and I think that coming here served as a real reminder of his home and what lies over there. I think he's getting stressed, so I wouldn't be too hard on the guy, even if he is a big fat jerk. And anyways, out of our whole group I believe he trusts and cares about you the most. He's probably hating himself right now for yelling at you, so don't stress yourself over it too much." Matt said with a smile. Hotaru sat straight to look at him and nodded, no longer teary-eyed.
"Thanks so much, Matt. And I thought you hated Kive." Hotaru said with a smile.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm no where close to being his best buddy or whatever, but back in the first ruins, I saw I side of him that proved him to be better than he seemed, which sort of helps me look past the fact that we hate each other's guts." Matt said, smirking playfully. "Now, don't worry yourself and go back out there. You guys need to head to those ruins, and well, I don't think Uma want me to go." He said, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "I'm starting to get awfully sleepy again."
"Okay, thanks again Matt." She said and got up and walked to the door. At the doorway she paused and looked back. Amazingly Matt lay sleeping like he hadn't been disturbed. 'He lied. He's not feeling better. He just wanted to help me. I feel bad for tiring him out.' She thought to herself as she opened the door. She shut it softly and walked down the stairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~
They all felt awkward without Matt there. It felt like they had left something essential behind as they approached the ruins of hope. Hotaru and Kive hadn't shared glances once since the incident. Both were afraid that the other was still mad and they didn't want to risk spoiling their friendship further. Despite what Matt said, Hotaru still couldn't help but feel that Kive didn't truly like her as his friend. Or at least not after arguing with him. Kive figured that with what he had said to her, she must totally hate him.
"Are you guys sure you're fine?" Shadow Matt asked. They both nodded.
"I don't get it. Did something happen between the two of you?" Isis asked.
"I bet it was Kive's fault." Kiyon snickered. Kive glared at Kiyon for a split second but then stared at the ground in shame. He did believe it was his fault. He HAD called her useless after all, which he believed was far from the truth.
"So do you think that we'll be able to get in without Matt?" SM asked.
"We'll see as soon as we see the ruins." Hotaru said. They approached the center of the ruins and imprinted on the ground was a weird lighthouse like figure. Everyone blinked. It appeared that there was no indent for anything to be put in. They all began searching across the symbol with their fingers.
"I found something." Isis called.
"What is that?" Hotaru asked, squinting. It appeared to be a very small indent for something with many points. She beckoned everyone to come closer and the all began to peer closely. "Does anyone have anything like that?" Hotaru asked, doubtfully. Everyone was silent. All of a sudden Kiyon pulled out a small sun-shaped charm and offered it to her. "Wow, where'd you get that thing?" Hotaru asked, accepting it and squinting at it. "It's nice." Hotaru said with a smile.
"Thank you Hotaru. I've had it since I before I could remember. Hakiyo has one two. He said our parents gave it to us. I wouldn't know." He sighed. "I wish Hakiyo would come and get me soon."
"Don't worry, your brother will find us. We need him to be able to get all the crests so he must still be out there somewhere. We'll take care of you, okay?" Hotaru assured with a smile. The smile was fake and he could see it.
"Okay, Isis and I are totally in the dark. Why can't you guys just tell us what wrong?" Kiyon whined.
"It's none of your business, kid." Kive snapped.
"Okay, but I want an explanation about why, when I asked SM where Hotaru was he said in Matt's room and when I went to knock on the door I heard sobbing." Isis said softly, but warningly.
"You talked to Matt..." Kive growled.
"It was an accident, Kive. She wasn't paying attention and she went in the wrong room." Shadow Matt stood up for her. "And it was your fault in the first place." SM added in inaudibly.
"I'll never here the end of it! He'll eat me alive. Why of all people did you have to run to him? That idiot probably criticized me, didn't he? He probably made you hate me more." Kive growled, not meeting her eyes. "Well, say it. I know you hate me." He said.
"Stop being so childish." She growled, shoving the sun in the indent. The light flashed all around them, taking them into the ruins.
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"Where are we?" SM asked, looking around. It was a grassy field littered with a bunch of toys and large building blocks. It was very colorful. In the center was a girl with golden hair tied up in a ponytail near the top of her head by an emerald swallowtail butterfly hair ornament to match her fiery green eyes which, at that moment were glued to a book that looked to ancient for her young eyes. She word a golden dress adorned by long sleeves with slits than ran down them from her shoulder, allowing them to fall loosely around her arms and her skirt was short to allow free movement. The trim was green and across her neck hung a green stone from a golden chain. Kiyon blinked and walked over to her, despite the others beckoning to come back. Only until he stood right above her did she lower her book and lift her glance up to it.
"Hi. Watcha doin' here?" She asked.
"I'm here because my friends are here." He answered. "That's an awfully hard book." He said with awe.
"Yea, but my sister says that before I can play over at her place I have to learn more about the world, and to do that I have to read. I must say I don't understand, but my sister comes back every week to explain it to me." She explained.
"Wait, are you one of the nine maidens?" Kiyon asked.
"Oh yes! I am! You're sharp! My names Tali, maiden of Hope!" She said cheerfully.
"I'm Kiyon and I'm confused. Don't you have eight sisters then?" He asked.
"Yah, I suppose. We're all bonded by the magical ring to each other and our 'mother.' Thus, like her, we have accepted an eternal life. But I'm only truly related to one of the other maidens." She explained.
"Oh." Kiyon said. "So what can you do? What abilities do you have?"
"Well, I'm not as good as the other maidens because I'm one of the youngest, but I have my friends!" She giggled. She whistled and out of the ground popped three baby Pegasus, one white, one black and one gold. "We like to play games."
"Aww, how CUTE!" Hotaru squealed. The girls gaze shifted instantly to the others standing back.
"Umm, forgive me, but are you Hotaru?" She asked.
"Umm, yes?" Hotaru replied nervously.
"But then where's that 'Matt' that's always around? I'm supposed to be testing him too right? Hey! Aren't you Isaki's kitty?" The girl asked, squinting at Isis. Isis nodded. "Oh come here already! Let me look at you all better!" She commanded. They were all instantly closer. "Yeah, you're the kitty Isaki told me about. Wow, Isaki's so dull, I wouldn't think she'd change one of her friends human!" She giggled.
"Hey, can you just give us the crest?" Kive asked, irritated.
"But I'm supposed to TEST you! My sisters will be mad if I let you by. We'll have failed and let the ruler win." She sighed.
"I don't get it, why can't you just knock the guy out of power?" Kive asked, rolling his eyes. "Pretty weak entities if you ask me."
"I don't know if even immortal mages like the nine maidens and their mother could defeat him. Isn't it wrong for them to meddle? Plus, he's pretty powerful, my ex-master. He has inhuman power, but he seems mortal enough. He never told me anything, always just do this and do that, and usually it was only a one word command." SM frowned.
"You're his minion?" Tali pressed.
"No, he wants me dead. And if you EVER run into someone who looks exactly like me, don't trust him, okay? I have a very dangerous twin." SM advised.
"Yes sir." She laughed.
"So can we get that crest? I want to get OUT!" Kive said.
"Crabby, aren't we? Well, you have to play with my horses and then if I think I should give them to you then I will." She said. "Hey, Kiyon. While I test your friends you wanna play with me?" She offered. "I only have one other friend my age, so it would be nice to have your company while my friends play their games with yours." Kiyon stared back at the group. They nodded. "YAY!" She sang. "But you guys, don't think I'm soft, just because I'm younger. My horses play with death so you can still back out now if you want to." She suggested.
"I think we have to do this." Hotaru pointed out.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" She said sternly.
" We understand." Hotaru said.
"Moon dust, Night sky, Sun ray, have fun!" She called. The three horses nodded and began to make a circle in the air and in a flash a portal appeared and the Pegasus flew into it.
"Go ahead. You're supposed to go into it." Tali told them with her usual grin. "Don't worry! I'll take good care of Kiyon!" She assured as they stepped through.
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"Where are we?" Hotaru asked. They were in a place surrounded by every type of landscape you could think of. Below them was some weird sort of alter with eight indents. Suddenly there was a poof in front of them and a paper flew down. "Can you find us?" She read out loud. "Are we in the mountains? Or in the valleys? In the clouds, perhaps? How about trying the jungle? Or maybe we're right in front of you? Well hurry up you bums and find us. Maybe you should split up in groups of two. Oh, how we love a good game of hide and seek." She continued. "That's all there is." Hotaru finished with a sigh.
"So who's going with who?" Hotaru asked looking up. She hit her forehead with her hand seeing that Shadow Matt and Isis were nowhere in site and Kive sitting on the ground, not paying attention to anything. "Gee, I wonder who I'm paired up with." Hotaru said sarcastically.
"Kive?" No response.
"Kive?!" She said, louder.
"Kive!" She called more forcefully.
"Huh, what?" Kive asked, snapping out of his trance.
"What was that?" Hotaru asked blinking.
"I was just out of it for a second." He shrugged. "Oh, its you. Where are the others?" Kive asked, looking away. She looked around and saw a black paper right besides Kive. She picked it and gave Kive the hide and seek paper.
" Yes, it me. Read this to yourself and tell me when you're done." Hotaru said. Kive looked over it quickly and frowned.
"This is stupid." He groaned. She shrugged.
"I'm going to read the other note now." She said, looking upon the scribble of white ink upon the crinkled black paper. "Hey Hotaru, Isis and I have decided to search the Desert, the Valleys, The Jungle, and the Mountains. Lets meet back here in two days, okay? See ya then. Sorry about leaving on you." She read. Kive's eyes narrowed to glare at nothing. "They did it on purpose." She sighed.
"Obviously!" Kive retorted.
"I don't get why you're still upset at me." Hotaru said softly.
"You went to him of all people! Shows about how much you care about my feelings." He growled. It pissed him off. Of course she would run to Matt. She had probably liked him way better all along. Why had he been so blind? He felt betrayed. All of his feelings for her slowly began to evaporate.
"It was an accident. I didn't mean to. And you did sort of start it." Hotaru said, not meeting his piercing blue eyes. He must really hate her now. Now he probably thought of her as a backstabber on top of being useless. Not that running to Matt was backstabbing but apparently to him it was a big deal. She hadn't even realized that it was Matt's room until it was too late.
"Tch, whatever. Let's just go." He said, rolling his eyes.
"And where should we go?" Hotaru asked.
"I don't know. That massive volcano over there." He said, motioning to a volcano that seemed ready to blow any second. She shuddered.
"Must we?" She asked timidly.
"I'd rather go alone anyways." He shrugged, beginning to walk off.
"Kive wait! I'll go!" She cried, dashing after him. "We were hinted to search in groups of two. We can't separate now." She protested. He shrugged.
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"That was smooth Shadow Matt!" Isis giggled from the shadows.
"I just figured that they needed some alone time to restore their friendship, that's all." He shrugged. "So let's hurry to the desert." He encouraged. She nodded and they went on in the shadows. After a while SM suddenly stopped. "We're in sand. We should pop up, it takes a lot longer to shadow travel in sand." He said.
"Why?" She asked.
"Because you have to travel from every single grain of sand's shadow and it gets really tedious, we'd be faster on our feet." He pointed out. She nodded again as SM popped them out of the shadow. He let out a sigh.
"I've officially decided that I do not like deserts." SM said as the sand constantly whipped into his face.
'Get on.' Isis's voice boomed I his mind. He blinked, only to find sand in his eyes. He rubbed it out furiously and the stared at Isis's cat form. The spikes were retracted and she wanted him to get on.
"I don't know. It'll feel awkward." SM sighed.
'I'm a giant cat who's offering you a ride in a windy scorching desert. Trust me, I'm a lot faster than walking.' She pointed out. SM nodded and climbed on.
"It feels awkward." SM pouted. Isis rolled her eyes and began to dash off at lightning speed. Then she realized that her load felt lighter. She screeched to a stop and turned around. There, a whole way back was SM, lying on the ground. She sighed and ran back.
'What was that about?' Isis asked.
"Too fast, too fast, too fast..." SM continued to say.
'Oh all right, I get it. I'm sorry SM.' She laughed. He sat up and shook sand from his hair.
"Not so fast next time okay." He sighed. She nodded. He sighed and climbed on again and they were off, not as fast. SM looked around. "Would anything really hide in the desert?" SM sighed.
'I like the desert. The heat doesn't bug me at all.' She informed.
"I see." He said half paying attention as he looked around for a horse. "It wouldn't be IN the sand, right, because then we'd never find it." He sighed. "This desert is so big!"
'I know.' She sighed in his head. 'Hey! I hear something.' She said screeching to a stop, nearly sending SM flying off.
"Hey, um, could you please not do that again." SM asked, taking a deep breath.
'What, what's happening? What?' She said. All of a sudden she began to glow and in a poof she was a human again. SM's eyes widened as he fell and landed with a crash on top of Isis. "SM, could you please get off." She begged. SM quickly got off.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" He apologized. "What happened?"
"I'm...not sure." Isis said, worriedly. All of a sudden they heard a sound below them and they were falling again and they smashed into rock hard floor. "Hey look! I landed on my feet." Isis laughed.
"Good for you." SM said, flat against the floor. He pushed himself up to his feet. "Where are we?" He asked. They looked around and saw nothing. Nothing at all. All of a sudden Isis shrieked.
"What?" SM asked.
"Giant, red pair of eyes." Isis said, pointing to a black pile of rocks in the corner with glowing red eyes. "What is that." Isis asked, scooting away. All of a sudden the 'rocks' stood up and revealed that it was not rocks but a scorpion that had been lying down, asleep, until now.
"Ideal location. A gigantic scorpion pit. Are you as thrilled as I am?" He asked, backing away. Isis shot lightning at the beast but to no avail. The bolts simply bounced off it slick shell. SM drew his sword and began to take battles with the massive snapping claws, but he was at the disadvantage as he tried to battle two claws at once, which kept him very busy.
"Shadow Matt! Watch out!" She shouted. SM blinked, distracted as the tail shot down at him. He noticed just in time and managed to dive out of the way as the tail struck just where he had been. Then it was back to fighting the claws again. Isis didn't know what to do. There was nothing to do. Then she had an idea and began to climb up the wall slowly but steadily. Meanwhile, SM did all he could, struggling against the massive steel-hard claws. They seemed to snap at him in fast fluid motions, leaving barely enough time for him to even breath. All of a sudden one of the pincers clamped down on his sword. SM tried to let go and run but it was too late and the other claw slammed down on him, pinning him to the ground. He tried to go into the shadow and realized that he was in a part where the sun shined into the whole. He gulped and braced himself as the claws began to close on him. He was going to get sliced in half and that would be the end. He squeezed his eyes shut and awaited the pain, but the pain never came. He heard a roar of pain and the pressure or his sides was gone. He opened his eyes to see the beast roaring up at the side of the wall, three large cactus spines stuck in its eyes. (A/N: Gah!!! That just reminded me of Haku and his needles in Naruto...not cool! But Naruto is a good anime! Thanks for showing it to me Lynn!)
"That's what you get!" Isis shouted down, throwing down more spines. SM smiled. Isis had saved him. SM snuck up behind it and shouted, "HEY!!!!" The scorpion whipped around in surprise only to have a blade stuck right between its eyes. SM pulled out the sword in disgust.
"I hate doing that." He sighed. "Thank you SOOOO much Isis. Without you..." He shuddered thinking about it.
"No problem." She smiled. SM heard a clunk in front of him. He blinked. "What is it SM?" Isis called down.
"I found something." He said, picking up a weird orange stone. He slunk into the shadows and appeared next to Isis. "What do you suppose this is?" He asked, showing her.
"I don't know. Let's keep it and head out. I don't think anything's hiding here, and if one of those Pegasus are here then we can always go back after checking the other locations." She said. SM nodded. He didn't like deserts. They walked off.
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Hotaru frowned. Why was Kive so mad at her? Matt had been wrong. He wasn't hating himself for yelling at her; in fact he didn't appear to care at all. She felt tears begin to well up. Was she losing a friend or had he not really ever been her friend? No, he had been her friend. She couldn't doubt Kive. He had gotten his leg ripped up trying to find her and continued on until he finally did. Maybe Matt was right about him being very stressed. She followed him silently. She didn't want to make things even worse. Finally they reached the volcano.
"It's really hot here." Kive said. All of a sudden a bunch of fireballs flew at them. Hotaru slammed her glaive down causing a silence wall to appear so that the fire just bounced off it. She kept it on. They walked on for a while, nothing else unexpected happening.
"Put it down." Kive said. Hotaru nodded and made it disappear. "Oh shoot!" Kive shouted as something dived for his face. It scratched and scratched him as he attempted to pull the thing away. Finally he pulled it away and it flew off.
"Oh my gosh Kive, are you okay." She asked.
"Ow..." Hotaru walked over and moved his hands from his face and saw a bunch of talon scratches all over his face and from the looks of it they were burn marks too. She bit her lip. They were nasty wounds. She set to healing his face.
"Are you okay?" She asked, finishing up. It hadn't taken up very much energy.
"What the hell attacked me?" Kive asked, eyes darting around.
"It was a hawk-sized bird with orange and gold feathers and it burned with fire. It dove into the lava." She said, looking around the lava pits that lined the path inside the volcano.
"I think it's gone." Kive said at last. "Umm, thanks Hotaru, I guess." He said, looking away. Hotaru smiled. Things would hopefully get better between them from here. They continued on, watching the lava carefully. She sighed. It was extremely hot in the place. After all, it was a volcano. Suddenly a squawk sounded behind them.
"Oh no you don't! Not again!" Kive said whipping around. Hotaru turned around as well and their eyes widened. Not only were there one bird but what seemed like a whole army of them. Hotaru raised her glaive for a fight and Kive whipped out his sword thinking it was about time it got a little use. Hotaru slammed the glaive down and blinked. Nothing had happened.
"Kive, my silence wall isn't working anymore." She whispered.
"Then we just have to swat them off one by one." He whispered. Now was not the time to be upset with each other. They were in a bad situation and they had to get out of it. All of a sudden the birds came diving at them. They hacked at the birds, but every time one got sliced it just popped back together, which was freaky in its own way.
"We can't win." Hotaru said while trying in vain to kill at least one bird but they just wouldn't die! Kive knew she was right. All of a sudden the birds surrounded them. Hotaru and Kive stopped, confused and pressed their backs together. All of a sudden the birds glowed red. Hotaru began trying to make silence walls but her attempts were futile. Suddenly a red beam shot from all of them, hitting the two of them in an explosion of fire. Hotaru and Kive fell to the ground, every inch of their skin feeling like it was being pressed by an iron. They felt birds pick them up by their collars, but they were too in pain to do anything. Hotaru and Kive stared in the direction they were going in and saw gigantic bird with its mouth open, pointing up as if wanting to be fed something. "I give you once guess what the main course is." Hotaru said weakly.
"Hotaru, just in case we don't make it, I apologize for being a big fat jerk. You're not useless, I just blurted out something. I can't believe I said it and I'm sorry. I still think you shouldn't have told Matt, though." He blurted out.
"Thanks, but it's true. I haven't done anything. And I'm sorry for everything I said to you. I have no business judging you when I barely know you. And about Matt, I couldn't just lie to him and he asked me. To tell truth I'm glad I talked to him. I'm sorry if that makes you upset. If it's any consolation he in a way stood up for you." She sighed.
"Stood up for me? Don't tease me Hotaru." Kive sighed.
"I'm not kidding you. You two should try to get along. I think you'd both find that the other is different than they thought." She pointed out.
"We're going to die, aren't we?" Kive asked.
"No. Don't say that!" Hotaru scolded.
"But it's the truth. Before I die, I'm sorry for everything I've done wrong in my life. I'm sorry that I was a jerk to Hotaru, I was totally wrong for doing that. I'm sorry for trying to push my stepsister off the roof, even if she is annoying. I'm sorry that I dropped a bunch of burs on the horses' fur in the stables back home, even if they were evil. I'm sorry for yelling at my parents and running away, even though it was for a VERY good reason. And I'm sorry that I never ate my broccoli and just shoved it under the table, and when the maids asked me why all the broccoli was under my chair I said that the dog loved broccoli so it would steal it from the kitchen and that under my chair was its favorite place to eat; wait, I'm not sorry for that. I hate broccoli. And I'm sorry for..." Kive continued on but the rest Hotaru didn't hear. She was staring at the giant beak poking out of the lava ready to eat them. All of a sudden they were right above the bird and suddenly they were dropping. Kive continued his list on super high speed. BAM! She slammed her glaive horizontally in the bird's beak and dangled from it by one hand. Her eyes widened as Kive zipped passed her. She whipped out her hand and grasped his wrist and let out a relieved sigh. The glaive slid a little more with Kive's weight and she clenched her hand even tighter. Kive was pretty heavy.
"And I'm sorry...hey! I'm not dead!" He said, opening his eyes. "I take it back. I'm not sorry for half the things I said." He said, trying to sound calm. He stared up and gulped. "Um, Hotaru, please don't let go, I'm really sorry." He said, panicky as the bird swayed back and forth from the pain of a blade being lodged in its mouth.
"Kive, I'm not going to let go on purpose. I'm going to try to swing you up. You have to grab the glaive, okay?" She said.
"Umm yeah. I can do that. I mean, I don't think Matt could, but you know I can." He said nodding nervously. Hotaru sighed.
"Ready? Set? Now!" She said swinging him up high enough and he grabbed the glaive.
"Now what?" Kive asked.
"This?" She said, swinging herself up in the air using the glaive and landing on her feet on top of it. She struggled to keep balance as the bird struggled madly.
"I really don't think my body is capable of doing that!" Kive said. Hotaru sighed, he was right.
"Stop it already or I'll keep the blade lodged in you mouth forever!" Hotaru shouted to the bird.
'It hurts! You hurt me!' The bird screamed in her mind.
"Obviously! You deserve it for trying to eat us!" Hotaru shouted.
'It hurts!! You darn humans and your weapons!' It cursed at her in her head.
"Gee, doesn't anything in this world talk using their vocal chords? Look, I can't take the glaive out our else I'll fall into your throat." Hotaru protested.
'Then get eaten!' The bird squawked.
"No thank you!" Hotaru said.
"Hey! What's that stuck in the bird's throat?" Kive asked, squinting.
'You get yucky stone out of my mouth pull out sharp man weapon and I let you not get eaten.' The bird protested.
"Fine!" Hotaru said. "Kive? Can you reach it?" Hotaru asked. Kive shook his head no. "Grab my wrist and whatever you do, don't let go of the glaive." She said sternly. He grabbed her wrist and she slipped off the glaive. Dangling by her wrist she could see the shiny red stone lodged in the side of the bird's throat. She shook her head in disgust and began to try to pry it out, which proved to be difficult with one hand.
"Are you done?" Kive asked after a few minutes.
"No! It's stuck tight!" she called back.
"Hotaru I'm trusting you! Don't' lose this!" Kive said.
"What is it?" Hotaru asked.
"My brother's dagger." He answered. "Grab my foot, I need my hand free." Hotaru nodded and grabbed his foot with her free hand and he let go of her other hand. He pulled out his brother's dagger and held it down. Hotaru grabbed it with her free hand and began to try to pry the stone out with the dagger. To her surprise it came out pretty easily. With a final thrust the stone came free, but as it did the bird let out a pain-filled cry and began to thrash around violently, shaking Hotaru's holding free and she began to fall.
"HOTARUUUU!!!!" Kive shouted. She slammed the dagger into the things throat and prayed that the bird's struggling wouldn't shake it loose. Kive let out a sigh of relief.
"I got it out!! I got it out!! Please stop it!!" Hotaru cried.
'That hurt!' It roared in pain and it began to flap its wings, lifting up out of the volcano and flying into the ground, leaving Hotaru and Kive dangling helplessly within its throat. It landed somewhere and opened its mouth. Hotaru yanked out the dagger and pushed herself up to walk out. Kive crawled out passed the glaive when Hotaru reached him and they both got out.
"Open your mouth wider." Hotaru commanded. The bird forced its beak to open wider. "This might hurt." Hotaru said. She yanked the glaive out with a very forceful pull. The bird reared up its head in pain. Hotaru and Kive backed away from its neck range.
'Dumb humans.' It growled. 'I go back to my home now!' It growled and flew off to the now erupting volcano.
"I wonder...was that bird responsible for that volcano erupting?" Hotaru thought to herself.
"Don't scare me like that! You could have died! Never ever do that to me again!" Kive scolded.
"Do what?" Hotaru asked.
"You almost fell and you were going to leave me forever! Don't do that! Next time something like that happens let me go down to get it, okay?" He said sternly.
"Kive! Don't be like that! We made it didn't we. I know what I'm doing!" Hotaru said.
"You're right, but still. That was the first time I felt like that. Felt that helpless. So about that stone." Kive said.
"I think it goes into that one thing we saw when we got here." Hotaru said.
"You mean that?" Kive said, pointing behind him.
"Yes! Wow! The bird dropped us back where we started." Hotaru said.
"I guess we have to collect the rest of the stone things." Kive sighed. Both their shoulder's sagged. As if collecting crests wasn't already enough...
Little did they know that something was up back at the ranch...
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I didn't want to post this yet. Not much of an ending. I'll try to get the next chapter up so that you can read it without forgetting what just happened. Gomen nasai!!!! I don't even like the whole ending part of this section. I cry. But it's getting too long. It's like 19 pages. That's kind of insane. I'm sorry; it doesn't tie to itself too well without the next part of the chapter. Hey, but at least now I know what to do with the next chapter!!! I'm sorri!! I know this is such a gay place to leave it. Too much character conflict, not enough action, I'm sorry!! And I'm also sorry for SM. I just love being mean to him! ^^ Please review. I'm sorry that this chapter isn't that good...*sighs* Plu, ignore all the errors. I'm not very good at proof reading!!!