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Nova
Chapter 25:Meeting
Kestrel
I couldn't hold it. The place on my head where I'd been hit was beginning to throb wildly. My concentration was waning, my vision was shifting in and out of concentration, and my telepathy was getting out of hand. I was starting to unintentionally pick up thoughts from the people around us.
Then... I felt them.
The creatures.
From what I could see through my blurred vision, the creature vaulted over the boulder and landed atop the people around us.
The people scattered and began firing at the creatures. Suddenly I felt a slow build up of energy from one the creatures. The same build up that I'd felt back in the City of January.
No. No. If they started up their force shields and cam at me... this place... would end up like January.
What? I closed my eyes, and concentrated as hard as I could. There was something different about this one though. It was more... focused.
The words of my Master Teacher came floating up from the depths of my memory, "In some rare cases the energy of the force shield can be focused. None but the most powerful has been very successful in replicating this technique intentionally."
A missile. An energy missile.
Suddenly the energy was released and I killed my force shield just as the blast reached us.
Vash
I'd begun walking aimlessly. There were no tracks, no sign that they'd even been here, not to mention, there was barely any breeze at all so their tracks should have still been there.
Where are they?
"Vash!"
I turned and saw Wolfwood jogging up behind me.
"Wolfwood. Did you find anything?"
He shook his head with a sigh and stopped next to me, "No, nothing."
"Damn."
"What about Knives?" He asked, while adjusting his cross on his shoulder.
"Haven't heard back from him yet."
Wolfwood narrowed his eyes, "I don't get it. They can't have just up and disappeared, and I sure as hell don't buy the 'spooks' thing."
"Yeah, but you gotta admit it's weird."
Wolfwood gave a nod then his eyes widened as he looked at something behind me. "What in the world?"
"What?"
"What is that?!"
I turned and, not far off was a huge beam of purple energy rising into the sky.
Remembering something Kestrel had said, I knew what it was, "It has to be Kestrel's force shield!"
"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Wolfwood hiked his cross further up onto his shoulder and took off into a run.
I was closed at his heels, Knives?! Where are you?! I called out telepathically.
With the women! We're being attacked! Knives' telepathic reply shot back.
Those creatures?
No, huma-- his voice cut short.
Knives!?
The purple beam of light suddenly died and huge dust cloud rose up in its place. As we neared the area we were enveloped in the dust cloud.
"Dammit!"
Please be alright.
Kestrel
I was far too weak to move, I felt like all my muscles were locking up, then I felt strong arms grab me around the waist and pull me away from the thick dust cloud.
I looked over my shoulder at who held me and nearly choked when I saw that it was Knives, he looked at me for a second then dropped me unceremoniously onto the ground behind a wide boulder.
"Knives--?"
"Shh!" He peered around the side of the boulder.
Meryl and Milly were not far off, behind a large boulder of their own, coughing from the dust.
Some of the humans who'd attacked earlier began cutting through the cloud and ran for the high cliffs to the east.
"Come!" one of them said to us, beckoning us to follow them.
"You!" Knives barked at Meryl and Milly, "Get her." He said jerking his head towards me.
Wordlessly they helped me to my feet and Knives led the way after the retreating people.
We were led through a huge canyon, the walls of which were a complete vertical drop and pierced the side of a group of mountains. It looked exactly like the ravine, except we were outside and at the bottom of it.
"Looks kind of like the ravine," Meryl said quietly, voicing my exact thoughts.
"Yeah," Milly said from my other side.
"Here let me take her." A soft voice said from beside us, a man took Meryl's place and lifted me up the rest of the way. I wrapped an arm around the back of his neck and looked at him wearily.
"Hello, my name is Shane. Uh... I want to apologize for us attacking you back there." He gave me a hesitant smile, "We thought you were someone else."
"Who?"
"We've been having problems with a group of outlaws for quite awhile. I do apologize. They often come in acting as lost travelers."
"What do they want?" Asked Meryl as we passed under the edge of mountain.
"The water." Shane snorted.
"Oh course," said Meryl, "It's so abundant here, isn't it? A resource like that could make anyone a fortune."
"Exactly, and unfortunately they aren't willing to share this land with us. They've been trying to drive us out for years."
"So you've been using scare tactics on them. You act as ghosts?" I said quietly.
"Yeah, it's been quit effective over the years, and it doesn't hurt anyone."
"Uh, some years ago, a team of explorers came here. One was killed; I'd call that hurting someone." I said.
"Oh. Oh! No, no, no, he wasn't killed, just injured."
"What?"
"Yeah, that wasn't our fault. They were in a hot sandworm area. An infant 'worm got a hold of him and dragged him around quite a bit. The scouts managed to get him before he was killed. He's been with us ever since."
"Oh."
Everyone stopped, and I peered over their heads to see what was going on.
Ahead of us was a wide river flowing towards us but at its closest made a sharp turn to the left into a squat but wide hole in the canyon wall. What was 'going on' was a stone bridge was being lowered over the river.
I looked up feeling someone watching me. Knives.
He'd fallen back a little to listen to our conversation. His gaze was locked with mine for almost a minute, a strange look on his face, when a voice called out.
We continued forward and I looked up when a slight glow caught my eye, "Is this the ravine? The one near the entrance to those caves?" I asked Shane.
"Hmm? Oh. Yeah."
"Cool."
Someone approached us from behind, "Oh, there you are," then he switched to that other language, "Shane, fadehsa lehma ahna leh lehmasa."
"Kamahda." Shane looked at me, "Let's go meet our leader, okay?"
Hmmm, I did something a little weird in writing this chapter. I wrote all the dialogue first.
So if it seemed a little odd, writing wise, now you know why. Otherwise if you didn't notice anything out for the ordinary... that's a good thing. Unless it made the writing worse. Yeah.
Ok, next update should either be late Friday, or early Saturday. Unless I get delayed, which is unlikely, possibly late Saturday.
Sepik: Make a whole language. Oh, hell no. just a few words for here and there. No writing a whole language is a writing project in it's own right. I know too. I've tried. No, for Nova it's just going to be a few words. To create a whole language, you have to deal with syntax and flow, and a bunch of other stuff. But I'm not going to lie to you. I do want to make my own language. Just like Tolkien. :) My brother thinks I'm crazy.
Chibi Chibi: Yes, I know, It was very evil, you know sometime I think that I'm as evil as my evil side, Magnet-Thorn. Lol. I guess it was obvious, huh? about the people from the ship? :) Yay! Popcorn! Good timing, my dad forbade popcorn bingeing...
KeNsHiNs GuRL: Oh cool, a new reviewer! YAY! I'm glad that you like it.
Lord Hustino(Diablo): Magnet-Thorn: Someone looking for me? Magnet-Rose: Yes. Lord Hustino's evil twin, Diablo. Thorn: Ooh. Hustino? Rose: Yes. Hustino. You remember him. The one whose minions you keep tourturing whenever they come over. Thorn: Oh him. Rose: sigh Thorn: Say Diablo, honey, I got that nice red truck over here. wink wink Rose: Sigh What I tell ya. Diablo's not the only hentai.
Yma: Thank you, I've been trying to keep it as real as possible. (:
Rosebud: What kind of curse is it? Not too bad I hope. :D If it's a bad hair day thing, don't bother. I have a bad hair day every day. :P
SapphireWhiteTiggress: Knives is cooooooooool. Unfortunately you don't see much of him in the anime. You do see him a lot in the manga. He is sooooo HOT. You'll have to excuse me. I'm a diehard Knives fangirl. :D