Chapter 15:
D just looked at her and nodded slightly, while left hand grinned. His left hand, always being the comic one, said, "Ah, so she can speak. Unlike you, D, she was actually too weak to introduce herself before. In fact, she had to ask you what your name was, and I thought I was being rude not being allowed to introduce myself."
Seras smiled weakly, it was amusing to see two people occupying the same body to be arguing. D ignored his hand and was looking at her under his hat, contemplating things.
"You can not walk on your legs, they are too badly injured." He looked away for a moment, as if to leave. His hand was glaring at him, and D knew what he would say. He could not just leave her in this forest by herself as weak as she was.
Seras was looking out in a haze. She cocked her head slightly and looked up at D. She wondered what he was thinking. "I can try to walk. I doubt that I would get anywhere" She said dully while another surge of pain shot from her legs.
D walked to his horse, grapping hold of the reins in his left hand to shut him up. He led the horse to Seras and looked as if he were going to mount up. Instead he bent down next to her, his armor making a chink sound. "No, do not try to walk. I will take you to a place to rest." He was silent for a moment, he continued after he moved his arm around her back for steadying purposes. "I see that you dislike the light as much as I do." He stated rather than asked.
Seras was quiet the whole while. D moved her left hand around his neck and started to get up, lifting Seras with him. Seras jolted with pain and let out a little moan, dull and meaningful. Once he had her upright, from his help, he moved his left hand around her knees. He quickly tilted her back and lifted her from the ground, her arm still around his neck.
"Hold on tight. I have to mount." He said dully, and Seras tried to swing her other arm around, which was difficult. She clasped it to the other in the back, trying not to be hurt by his shoulder pads as they had one spike each. Seras right arm was hurting badly and she barely had strength to hold it around his neck.
D knew that she had little time. He moved his right arm more under her for support as he let go with his left, balancing all of her on his right. He grabbed the reins and quickly swung himself up, trying carefully not to injure Seras anymore than she already was. As soon as he was up, he held her in his left as well.
On instinct, Seras let her right hand drop to her side, while her left was hanging lazily. After a moment, she had to move her arm, as it was starting to hang at a weird angle, and place it between them. D looked down at these sudden movements and then saw that she was now resting her head on his chest. This stunned him for a second, but he had a feeling that she was badly off and could hardly hold her own head up.
"Are you all right?" D asked, not sure really if he could do anything if she was not.
Right on cue, D's left hand started up again. "Ah, I see how it is. You will see if she is all right, but when it comes to regarding the parasite attached to your hand, you don't really care." He continued sarcastically. "I could die and it would mean nothing. Yes, who cares about a lonely hand that does nothing for a living, and gets tossed around and used."
D was silent; ignoring left hand when he was melodramatic seemed to work most of the time. Then again, sometimes his left hand did it just to annoy him, but this was not on his priority list at the moment.
Seras smiled a little, her red eyes closing partly. He really does remind me of my master: silent, proud, humorous, and with a wide brimmed hat. This thought a lone made her feel a little better. "I will be fine…just tired." She mumbled as her sight blurred, which forced her to close her eyes. For the second they were open, she starred up at him. The same pale skin and red eyes, focusing on her, and then turning away.
D held on to her with his right arm, as it was stronger, which allowed his left hand to steer with the reins. He kicked his feet in a little, forcing his horse to move forward. The forest was thick and hard to maneuver through. Vines hung down from the trees, trying to force them off, but D only rode harder. Seras fell asleep in his arms, looking like innocent as a little kid, but D knew better than that.
"You know, D, it looks like you could get used to this." His left hand stated as he noticed him looking down to see if Seras was okay. D was silent, as always, and wondered about it himself. He had helped a girl once dressing her wounds, but there was something different about this one. Maybe it was the fact that she was a half vampire and very injured, or maybe that she reminded him of someone else. Whatever it was, he wanted to help, but he could see that she was on a mission of her own.
D looked ahead, and a gentle mist rolled up onto him. It was a strange fog that covered all the grounds around him, blocking out most of his view. This is why they called it the Valley of the Lost; it does not lose you, you lose it. It was dangerous now and D knew that anything could happen; he had to stay focused.
Then, there it was. D saw a flicker in the distance and made towards. It seemed to come as some kind of fire, a light source, but that usually meant danger as well. D made his horse go to a walking pace, which made him as quiet as a mouse. The fog started to blow out in wisps revealing the fire, unmanned as it was, and near the entrance to a cave.
Fire and cave mean people…or worse…D thought, holding onto his hand so that he would not comment. This was not the time or the place for it. D scanned the place with his eyes, but saw nothing; the mist was too thick to see clearly, even for a vampire. Seras was still asleep, and waking her would not be good at this moment, but that also left D slightly handicapped. He had to protect her now as well.
He led the horse up more, into the circle of light, but half hidden as he heard something. There was a motion from the cave, a faint one. Footsteps, light footsteps. It is a human. I could leave her to rest here and she would recover better than on the road. With this thought he saw what was in the cave. It was a human, sort of. The female had wings of a reptiles and sharp teeth. He now noticed the ground by her feet was littered with bones of tiny animals, such as birds and rabbits. If you could call what she had feet, they were curved and came out in sharp claws that scraped the ground as she walked. This female creature came closer, in the light, D noticed that she had a tail, but her skin was the color of a human's.
D sat in silence. He had heard of such creatures before, but this was his first encounter with one. He was hidden in the shadows of the trees, but the creature knew they were there.
The creature spoke, "I can sense your fear and smell the blood on your clothes. You need not to hide from me. I have had my dinner already for this evening, but if you refuse to show yourself I will come after you with my claws." Somehow, this creature with the face of a human and hair that were like scales, could talk. Her jaw extended more out like a dragon as she had sharp teeth that glittered in the fire light.
D saw that his hand was about to speak and glared at him not to. D sat up more, clicking his heels a bit and motioned the horse to go out a little bit. This motion revealed himself, Seras, and the horse from the shadows. He walked the horse into the ring of light, staying within two feet from the forest at all costs.
The dragon creature gasped a little, she had not expected a full horse as the most she had gotten there was a wandering human. She hissed low in her throat, a version of a cackle for dragons. "Ah, there you are. Trying to sneak up on a superior being…how curious? Come and let me see you better."
D moved closer, but also held his left hand back, hidden, just incase he would have to attack and run. With Seras in his lap, he was not in a good position to fight. He was still silent and peered out at the creature from under his hat. The red of the fire light seemed to make his eyes gleam, giving the creature a nice view of red eyes.
"A vampire, in the forest?" She questioned as she glanced around him, walking behind and around him. When she reached the front again she stopped dead. "My, my, a Dunpeal. Now that is unexpected. Your father killed my cousin ages ago, but I am not about to let that influence this encounter." She paused for a second, her tail curled around her bottom as she held her wings close to her body. "And what's more, you are not alone, Dunpeal. Is this your spouse? She looks human enough." She stared intently at the hurt sleeping Seras, who was leaning on D.
Seras must have been having a dream as she stirred a little. She pushed her sleeping self slightly closer to D and said the one thing that was unexpected. She said, "Master…." Sleepily and did not stir again.
Back again, hehe. Sorry this chapter took so long, I was at Otakon 2003^^ I also started to suffer from some writers block, but it is all good now, so enjoy this chapter.