Authoress here.
While dodging your tomatoes, I must exhort you to listen to my pleas for mercy!!! I seriously have had a lot going on, and even if I was going mad with the will to write, I would have been forced to work on reports. Hence the reason for the non-updation. I don't believe updation is a word...Hrm...
If you go to high school, or even middle school, you might know of the TERRORS of History Day. I've gone through it once before, and now I have to do it again. Which leaves me caught in between a rock and a hard place, the rock being my History Day homework and the hard place being my parent's insistence that I attend to my other scholarly pursuits as well...such as studying for Biology? Pfft! Who studies for Biology?!
Now don't glare and tell me it isn't possible for my to be busy twenty-four seven, because I agree. It isn't. But in my designated free-time, I do things like Drill team, JETs, 4-H (w00t to 4-H!) and HOMECOMING!
But I'm back, and I'm finished rambling. Isn't life good?!
Yujo Chronicles 5: Ankara's Story
Chapter 6
Hiei woke up, slowly, blinking his eyes rapidly against the ice building on his eyelashes. His head felt warm, and amid the numb feeling of shock, he felt a hand on his forehead.
His eyes struggled to focus on the face floating directly in his line of vision. He blinked again, and Ankara's worried face came into focus.
"Hiei?"
"Ung." Hiei groaned in response. He shifted, and his cheek touched pale, cool skin. His head was resting in Ankara's lap, and her red-painted thighs had been a pillow for him while he had lain unconscious. He tried to get up quickly, and found his aching body all to ready to protest painfully. His legs throbbed, his lungs burned, and his back ached.
"Idiot girl." Hiei grunted. "You should of kept going."
"Idiot boy." Ankara said ferociously. "Like I would leave my rescuer here to die in the snow."
"Idiot girl!" Hiei repeated. "I am an apparition. I don't die easy!"
He struggled to get to his feet. Once standing, he glared back down at the raven-haired girl. "Listen, I don't have the time nor the energy to baby-sit you while we wait for your village idiots to come and get us. Either get moving or else!"
Ankara got up, gaze reproachful. "You do have quite the way with words."
Hiei scowled deeply. "Get moving, wench!"
Ankara sniffed, and then stood. Hiei immediately felt terrible. The wounds she had sustained were now heavy, painful-looking scabs, her hands still oozing blood. Her face looked gaunt, her sides hollow. Her hair, so carefully brushed for the Ceremony, hung limply around her face, making her look like some fragile eidolon brought back from the deaths of eternal pain.
Hiei stood, staring dumbly at the young girl. No, the woman she would so soon become. From the pools of those sorrowful eyes was a small flame, flickering feebly in the wind of her suffering but still alight. The strength she had was overwhelming, and Hiei had a peculiar feeling bloom in his chest. It felt like his heart was falling into many pieces.
"Hiei?"
Her voice snapped him from his revere. He moved forewords and slipped an arm around her waist. Shifting her less-than-substantial weight, he picked her up as if he was carrying a bride. Her surprise was evident, but Hiei ignored her open mouth and furrowed brow.
"What the-?"
"What, did you expect me to let you walk in your feeble condition?!" Hiei cut her off as he began to walk, climbing up the ever climbing slope.
"Feeble?! Who're you callin-Oof!" Ankara stopped in surprise as Hiei dropped her into a patch of snow.
"Fine. Prove it, whelp."
Ankara sent him a chilling glare before climbing out of the powdery snow in which she had been so abruptly deposited. She picked her way onto the path, the uneven and rocky ground making her going slow. Hiei let out a whoosh of air in a noisy sigh.
"Like I said. A pace like yours is begging for failure. At least if I carry you my own hide gets saved from them damn Sorunials." Hiei neatly picked her up, causing her to squeak in indignation.
He sent her another glare, and she looked away, nose up. Her face was set in an indignant pout, the streaks of sunlight in the sky turning her white skin a bluish-gold.
They continued on in silence, the trudge of Hiei's feet through the snow and loose gravel the only noises heard. After an hour on ongoing travel, Hiei's ears started to pick up other small sounds. He told himself he was creating things to fear out of paranoia, but the sounds only became more frequent.
His nerves grew as his brain identified the added noises. The crunch of snow, the skid of a loose pebble, the soft grunts of an all-too demon exertion.
"Ankara.." Hiei didn't look behind him, and kept his voice low. "Don't look, but can you hear anyone else behind us?"
Ankara held her breath and strained to hear. "Nothing. All I can hear is you and the throb of the headache I have."
"Complain, complain." Hiei muttered. He tried to concentrate on simply walking, but the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. On instinct, he drew sharply off to the left, hugging the bare rock of the cliff wall.
An arrow, skillfully shot, whizzed past him and Ankara. It found no purchase, and clattered harmlessly off the side of the mountainous cliff.
"RUN!" Ankara shrieked, looking over Hiei's shoulder. Five archers had been sent up to stealthily follow them and retrieve Ankara in order to continue her punishment, and now all five had an arrow to the string to shoot Hiei down.
Hiei didn't need to be told twice. Adrenaline pumping through his body, he took off. He leapt over the rocks in his path, taking great, jumping strides in order to outrun the deadly pursuers.
As the chase continued, the path kept ascending. The air slowly got thinner, and Hiei's lungs burned. He gasped for air, his body screaming for him to stop, rest, fling himself down to never move again. But Ankara's terrified grip around his neck kept him aware of his purpose.
Willpower or no, Hiei was soon going to be physically unable to continue moving. His movements were numbing, his limbs sluggish. His vision started to waver, and his gasping gulps of the thinning air started to rip out of his throat painfully. He was on fire with the agony of keeping moving.
The five archers saw their prey weakening, and sprang forewords. well-fed, well rested, and carrying only their own weight, the archers had a devastating advantage. Now only five paces behind the ever-slowing Hiei and the terrified Ankara, they felt victory.
Hiei kept moving foreword, but his left foot refused. The tingling numbness took control, and he tipped forewords. The ground came rushing up to meet him, powdery white and cold. He landed, managing to throw Ankara ahead of him and out of his way.
Ankara gave a frightened squeak as the advancing archers all drew their hardwood bows taunt. She glanced at the fallen Hiei, at his unseeing half-open eyes. She didn't hesitate before running back to her rescuer, her only real friend. Grabbing hold of his lifeless hands, Ankara attempted to drag him away from the archers. In her already weakened state, her efforts to move him were useless.
One archer came forewords, bow still held at ready. Ankara recognized him and tried to appeal to him. "Mushiyuuro, please-!"
The man's face had an odd, closed expression behind his cold blue eyes. With a twitch of a muscle, his fingers released the shaft of the arrow. It thudded sickeningly into the small of Hiei's back.
Hiei, still unconscious let out a short, despairing cry of anguish. Blood already was staining his clothes, his limbs convulsing and eyes rolling madly.
The second and third archers loosed as well, their arrows finding home in his thigh and the fleshy part of his calf. Ankara was screaming, and Hiei could do little more than groan as the pain threatened to push him across the barrier between the living and the dead.
Pearls started to fall into the snow as Ankara started to cry. Shoving her hair back, Ankara faced the men, two standing frozen with their bows lined up to hit Hiei.
"Monsters!" Ankara screamed. "Monsters! Bastards! Why?!"
The men exchanged frightened glances, and the one Ankara had recognized frowned deeply. "Finish the boy and let's get the Sacrifice back to the village."
The fourth archer obeyed, drawing back the coiled string of his bow to anchor his thumb to his ear, sighting Hiei's exposed neck down the straight shaft of the arrow.
"Leave him be, his pain causes the pain of a Daughter."
A cool, female voice cracked like a whip, causing the five men and Ankara whirl around to face the cliff wall. A few feet above their heads was a small outcropping, and a slender apparition stood, looking impassively down at the bloody scene below.
Long white hair whipped in the sudden, chill wind. Cold blue eyes stared down at them, and the blood-red of the lips stood out against the pale of the cheek. An Ice apparition woman, and an important one at that. Her kimono was intricately embroidered, and ropes of perfect, teardrop pearls were strung around her waist, decorating her silver obi.
The five archers averted their faces humbly, the one about to fire at Hiei's prone form quickly releasing the tension and putting the arrow harmlessly in the quiver on his shoulder.
"Milady, this girl is ours, and this...man's life is forfeit." The leader, Moshiyuuro, mumbled.
The inquisitive gaze of piercing blue eyes made the man squirm. "Oh? And how does it come to be that a Daughter of the Ice, such as this one, came to be a possession of yours?"
"She's...uh, our Sacrifice." Moshiyuuro dropped his eyes, abashed.
"Be that as it may, she is now in our territory, and you, Outsiders, have no claim to her. This man is yours, do as you wish. He is not one of ours as the blood he carries is tainted." The woman spoke softly, yet her words carried a hidden power that demanded obedience.
"She was our Sacrifice first!" A younger, more foolish member of the five archers said hotly. "It don't matter she's some 'Daughter,' our god has need of her and he's gonna get- Ahhhgh!"
He stopped midsentance as the apparition raised her hand, pointing a menacing finger at the speaker. Demon Energy crackled, and the Sorunial demon's insides were immediately turned into solid ice. He dropped like a stone, expression of horror fixated on his face as he tipped over the edge of the cliff.
"Take the boy and be gone from this ground." The woman's voice was dangerously low, and her eyes took on the appearance of twin flecks of steel. "You are never welcome here."
Exchanging frightened looks, the Sorunials all nodded furiously at this statement. At Moshiyuuro's gesture, the archer who hadn't previously shot at Hiei put an arrow to the string, and aimed carefully.
"No!" Ankara said forcefully. The woman looked at her in surprise, as did the archers. "He saved my life, Milady. I won't stand for him to be killed!"
The apparition looked at her, eyes going soft. "Little one, it may already be too late to prevent that."
Ankara stared at her in wordless horror. Then she threw herself to her knees next to Hiei's still unmoving form. Using careful fingers, Ankara gripped the arrow that protruded from the small of Hiei's back, pinning his blood-drenched cloak to his flesh.
With a swift tug, Ankara drew out the arrowhead and flung the shaft away. Ripping at the thin, raggedy dress she stil wore from the Ceremony, Ankara attempted to blot at the wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
So intent on her mending, Ankara didn't notice the four Sorunials gazing dumbstruck at her. Her persistence in keeping any grasp on this strange man's life was apparently more compassion than any of them had ever seen.
"Be gone, scum!" The apparition commanded, rousing the spellbound archers from their amazed revere. With hurried, embarrassed bows, the four remaining turned and fled back down the trail.
Ankara didn't even notice. Ripping more fabric away, Ankara was busily shifting Hiei's limp body to make a makeshift bandage. Once it was firmly in place, she moved resolutely to the arrow protruding from his thigh.
"Why do you persist in helping this outcast-unclean? He is a mistake, an error. No one will cry if he dies." The apparition's voice held no malice, only genuine confusion. She sounded as if she had no idea why an Ice apparition would ever care for anyone other than other Ice apparitions.
"Because!" Ankara shouted, her anger getting the better of her better judgment. "I'M the outcast-unclean! I'm supposed to be dead, or dying, and only he cared enough to try and change that!"
The wind whistled around the craggy head of the mountain, whipping their hair and clothing around in a wild tempest. Snow was kicked up into the grasp of the whirling air. Amid the fury of the harsh elements, Ankara felt increasingly alone. Another tear escaped her eye, and as she stared sadly down at Hiei's closed lids, she said softly, "I would cry if he dies."
The tear dropped from her chin, and landed with a soft thud on Hiei's chest. There, it nested in the folds of his cloak, still damp with the spilt blood.
"Come then, child." The apparition's voice was suddenly tired. "We shall help you heal him before we make him leave."
End Chapter
Authoress here.
Ah, the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a chapter! And the second to last one, no less! Review if you please...I know I would be....Off to start the last chapter...and the last chapter of the Yujo Chronicles....
While dodging your tomatoes, I must exhort you to listen to my pleas for mercy!!! I seriously have had a lot going on, and even if I was going mad with the will to write, I would have been forced to work on reports. Hence the reason for the non-updation. I don't believe updation is a word...Hrm...
If you go to high school, or even middle school, you might know of the TERRORS of History Day. I've gone through it once before, and now I have to do it again. Which leaves me caught in between a rock and a hard place, the rock being my History Day homework and the hard place being my parent's insistence that I attend to my other scholarly pursuits as well...such as studying for Biology? Pfft! Who studies for Biology?!
Now don't glare and tell me it isn't possible for my to be busy twenty-four seven, because I agree. It isn't. But in my designated free-time, I do things like Drill team, JETs, 4-H (w00t to 4-H!) and HOMECOMING!
But I'm back, and I'm finished rambling. Isn't life good?!
Yujo Chronicles 5: Ankara's Story
Chapter 6
Hiei woke up, slowly, blinking his eyes rapidly against the ice building on his eyelashes. His head felt warm, and amid the numb feeling of shock, he felt a hand on his forehead.
His eyes struggled to focus on the face floating directly in his line of vision. He blinked again, and Ankara's worried face came into focus.
"Hiei?"
"Ung." Hiei groaned in response. He shifted, and his cheek touched pale, cool skin. His head was resting in Ankara's lap, and her red-painted thighs had been a pillow for him while he had lain unconscious. He tried to get up quickly, and found his aching body all to ready to protest painfully. His legs throbbed, his lungs burned, and his back ached.
"Idiot girl." Hiei grunted. "You should of kept going."
"Idiot boy." Ankara said ferociously. "Like I would leave my rescuer here to die in the snow."
"Idiot girl!" Hiei repeated. "I am an apparition. I don't die easy!"
He struggled to get to his feet. Once standing, he glared back down at the raven-haired girl. "Listen, I don't have the time nor the energy to baby-sit you while we wait for your village idiots to come and get us. Either get moving or else!"
Ankara got up, gaze reproachful. "You do have quite the way with words."
Hiei scowled deeply. "Get moving, wench!"
Ankara sniffed, and then stood. Hiei immediately felt terrible. The wounds she had sustained were now heavy, painful-looking scabs, her hands still oozing blood. Her face looked gaunt, her sides hollow. Her hair, so carefully brushed for the Ceremony, hung limply around her face, making her look like some fragile eidolon brought back from the deaths of eternal pain.
Hiei stood, staring dumbly at the young girl. No, the woman she would so soon become. From the pools of those sorrowful eyes was a small flame, flickering feebly in the wind of her suffering but still alight. The strength she had was overwhelming, and Hiei had a peculiar feeling bloom in his chest. It felt like his heart was falling into many pieces.
"Hiei?"
Her voice snapped him from his revere. He moved forewords and slipped an arm around her waist. Shifting her less-than-substantial weight, he picked her up as if he was carrying a bride. Her surprise was evident, but Hiei ignored her open mouth and furrowed brow.
"What the-?"
"What, did you expect me to let you walk in your feeble condition?!" Hiei cut her off as he began to walk, climbing up the ever climbing slope.
"Feeble?! Who're you callin-Oof!" Ankara stopped in surprise as Hiei dropped her into a patch of snow.
"Fine. Prove it, whelp."
Ankara sent him a chilling glare before climbing out of the powdery snow in which she had been so abruptly deposited. She picked her way onto the path, the uneven and rocky ground making her going slow. Hiei let out a whoosh of air in a noisy sigh.
"Like I said. A pace like yours is begging for failure. At least if I carry you my own hide gets saved from them damn Sorunials." Hiei neatly picked her up, causing her to squeak in indignation.
He sent her another glare, and she looked away, nose up. Her face was set in an indignant pout, the streaks of sunlight in the sky turning her white skin a bluish-gold.
They continued on in silence, the trudge of Hiei's feet through the snow and loose gravel the only noises heard. After an hour on ongoing travel, Hiei's ears started to pick up other small sounds. He told himself he was creating things to fear out of paranoia, but the sounds only became more frequent.
His nerves grew as his brain identified the added noises. The crunch of snow, the skid of a loose pebble, the soft grunts of an all-too demon exertion.
"Ankara.." Hiei didn't look behind him, and kept his voice low. "Don't look, but can you hear anyone else behind us?"
Ankara held her breath and strained to hear. "Nothing. All I can hear is you and the throb of the headache I have."
"Complain, complain." Hiei muttered. He tried to concentrate on simply walking, but the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. On instinct, he drew sharply off to the left, hugging the bare rock of the cliff wall.
An arrow, skillfully shot, whizzed past him and Ankara. It found no purchase, and clattered harmlessly off the side of the mountainous cliff.
"RUN!" Ankara shrieked, looking over Hiei's shoulder. Five archers had been sent up to stealthily follow them and retrieve Ankara in order to continue her punishment, and now all five had an arrow to the string to shoot Hiei down.
Hiei didn't need to be told twice. Adrenaline pumping through his body, he took off. He leapt over the rocks in his path, taking great, jumping strides in order to outrun the deadly pursuers.
As the chase continued, the path kept ascending. The air slowly got thinner, and Hiei's lungs burned. He gasped for air, his body screaming for him to stop, rest, fling himself down to never move again. But Ankara's terrified grip around his neck kept him aware of his purpose.
Willpower or no, Hiei was soon going to be physically unable to continue moving. His movements were numbing, his limbs sluggish. His vision started to waver, and his gasping gulps of the thinning air started to rip out of his throat painfully. He was on fire with the agony of keeping moving.
The five archers saw their prey weakening, and sprang forewords. well-fed, well rested, and carrying only their own weight, the archers had a devastating advantage. Now only five paces behind the ever-slowing Hiei and the terrified Ankara, they felt victory.
Hiei kept moving foreword, but his left foot refused. The tingling numbness took control, and he tipped forewords. The ground came rushing up to meet him, powdery white and cold. He landed, managing to throw Ankara ahead of him and out of his way.
Ankara gave a frightened squeak as the advancing archers all drew their hardwood bows taunt. She glanced at the fallen Hiei, at his unseeing half-open eyes. She didn't hesitate before running back to her rescuer, her only real friend. Grabbing hold of his lifeless hands, Ankara attempted to drag him away from the archers. In her already weakened state, her efforts to move him were useless.
One archer came forewords, bow still held at ready. Ankara recognized him and tried to appeal to him. "Mushiyuuro, please-!"
The man's face had an odd, closed expression behind his cold blue eyes. With a twitch of a muscle, his fingers released the shaft of the arrow. It thudded sickeningly into the small of Hiei's back.
Hiei, still unconscious let out a short, despairing cry of anguish. Blood already was staining his clothes, his limbs convulsing and eyes rolling madly.
The second and third archers loosed as well, their arrows finding home in his thigh and the fleshy part of his calf. Ankara was screaming, and Hiei could do little more than groan as the pain threatened to push him across the barrier between the living and the dead.
Pearls started to fall into the snow as Ankara started to cry. Shoving her hair back, Ankara faced the men, two standing frozen with their bows lined up to hit Hiei.
"Monsters!" Ankara screamed. "Monsters! Bastards! Why?!"
The men exchanged frightened glances, and the one Ankara had recognized frowned deeply. "Finish the boy and let's get the Sacrifice back to the village."
The fourth archer obeyed, drawing back the coiled string of his bow to anchor his thumb to his ear, sighting Hiei's exposed neck down the straight shaft of the arrow.
"Leave him be, his pain causes the pain of a Daughter."
A cool, female voice cracked like a whip, causing the five men and Ankara whirl around to face the cliff wall. A few feet above their heads was a small outcropping, and a slender apparition stood, looking impassively down at the bloody scene below.
Long white hair whipped in the sudden, chill wind. Cold blue eyes stared down at them, and the blood-red of the lips stood out against the pale of the cheek. An Ice apparition woman, and an important one at that. Her kimono was intricately embroidered, and ropes of perfect, teardrop pearls were strung around her waist, decorating her silver obi.
The five archers averted their faces humbly, the one about to fire at Hiei's prone form quickly releasing the tension and putting the arrow harmlessly in the quiver on his shoulder.
"Milady, this girl is ours, and this...man's life is forfeit." The leader, Moshiyuuro, mumbled.
The inquisitive gaze of piercing blue eyes made the man squirm. "Oh? And how does it come to be that a Daughter of the Ice, such as this one, came to be a possession of yours?"
"She's...uh, our Sacrifice." Moshiyuuro dropped his eyes, abashed.
"Be that as it may, she is now in our territory, and you, Outsiders, have no claim to her. This man is yours, do as you wish. He is not one of ours as the blood he carries is tainted." The woman spoke softly, yet her words carried a hidden power that demanded obedience.
"She was our Sacrifice first!" A younger, more foolish member of the five archers said hotly. "It don't matter she's some 'Daughter,' our god has need of her and he's gonna get- Ahhhgh!"
He stopped midsentance as the apparition raised her hand, pointing a menacing finger at the speaker. Demon Energy crackled, and the Sorunial demon's insides were immediately turned into solid ice. He dropped like a stone, expression of horror fixated on his face as he tipped over the edge of the cliff.
"Take the boy and be gone from this ground." The woman's voice was dangerously low, and her eyes took on the appearance of twin flecks of steel. "You are never welcome here."
Exchanging frightened looks, the Sorunials all nodded furiously at this statement. At Moshiyuuro's gesture, the archer who hadn't previously shot at Hiei put an arrow to the string, and aimed carefully.
"No!" Ankara said forcefully. The woman looked at her in surprise, as did the archers. "He saved my life, Milady. I won't stand for him to be killed!"
The apparition looked at her, eyes going soft. "Little one, it may already be too late to prevent that."
Ankara stared at her in wordless horror. Then she threw herself to her knees next to Hiei's still unmoving form. Using careful fingers, Ankara gripped the arrow that protruded from the small of Hiei's back, pinning his blood-drenched cloak to his flesh.
With a swift tug, Ankara drew out the arrowhead and flung the shaft away. Ripping at the thin, raggedy dress she stil wore from the Ceremony, Ankara attempted to blot at the wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
So intent on her mending, Ankara didn't notice the four Sorunials gazing dumbstruck at her. Her persistence in keeping any grasp on this strange man's life was apparently more compassion than any of them had ever seen.
"Be gone, scum!" The apparition commanded, rousing the spellbound archers from their amazed revere. With hurried, embarrassed bows, the four remaining turned and fled back down the trail.
Ankara didn't even notice. Ripping more fabric away, Ankara was busily shifting Hiei's limp body to make a makeshift bandage. Once it was firmly in place, she moved resolutely to the arrow protruding from his thigh.
"Why do you persist in helping this outcast-unclean? He is a mistake, an error. No one will cry if he dies." The apparition's voice held no malice, only genuine confusion. She sounded as if she had no idea why an Ice apparition would ever care for anyone other than other Ice apparitions.
"Because!" Ankara shouted, her anger getting the better of her better judgment. "I'M the outcast-unclean! I'm supposed to be dead, or dying, and only he cared enough to try and change that!"
The wind whistled around the craggy head of the mountain, whipping their hair and clothing around in a wild tempest. Snow was kicked up into the grasp of the whirling air. Amid the fury of the harsh elements, Ankara felt increasingly alone. Another tear escaped her eye, and as she stared sadly down at Hiei's closed lids, she said softly, "I would cry if he dies."
The tear dropped from her chin, and landed with a soft thud on Hiei's chest. There, it nested in the folds of his cloak, still damp with the spilt blood.
"Come then, child." The apparition's voice was suddenly tired. "We shall help you heal him before we make him leave."
End Chapter
Authoress here.
Ah, the feeling of accomplishment after finishing a chapter! And the second to last one, no less! Review if you please...I know I would be....Off to start the last chapter...and the last chapter of the Yujo Chronicles....