Hey ya'll! Sorry about the lack of updates, I've been really busy. I made a
promise to a few people that I would update, so here it is. A note to those
same people: DON'T BUG ME ABOUT IT! I'm working on it, as always. So,
here's the new chappy, please enjoy. And review. Don't forget to do that
to. If you notice any grammatical errors, or if I contradict myself at any
point please let me know.
~~~~~
All had quieted down back in Mitsukake's hut and Solei twitched awake as her sister walked near. Selene motioned for her younger sister to come outside, and she did, both of them moving as silent as a shadow. Solei swung up into a tree and waited for her sister to speak.
"You have to leave." Selene said, her voice barely above a whisper. Solei's ears lengthened and tapered, turning to better catcher her sister's soft spoken words.
"Why?" Solei asked, her voice just as quiet.
"He knows." Solei did not need her sister to tell her that it was their father she spoke of.
"How will my leaving help?" she asked, concern for the others accenting her hushed question.
"He won't expect you to kill him if he thinks I'm you." Solei understood what Selene was asking.
"A shift?" Selene nodded, her eyes turning smoky blue. Solei sighed and her eyes went lavender as she relaxed.
"Very well. Once they understand, tell Nuriko I'm sorry." Solei slipped out of the tree and landed on cat's feet. Selene nodded.
"You're going to see Nakago." She said. Solei tossed a grin over her shoulder.
"Farewell, Solei." Selene brushed a single glistening tear from her eyes.
"Farewell Selene."
~~~~~
Selene watched her sister walk into the forest and sighed, envious that her sister had found someone to love, despite the thought that it might be unrequited. Mitsukake walked out behind her and she spun sharply, startled at his sudden appearance.
"Selene, why did you tell her to go?"
She turned back to the forest. "She needed to go to Nakago." She answered simply.
Mitsukake nodded. "What will Nuriko do?" he asked, his eyes on the stars.
Selene shook her head. "I don't know. He needs to live, for all of this to work, but..."
Mitsukake put an arm around her shoulder and held her tight. "He'll understand. Besides, someone else is meant for him."
Selene looked up at Mitsukake slightly confused. "Who?" She asked, her voice still soft, not wanting to awaken the others.
"The Watcher."
Tears clouded Selene's eyes. "She's dead." She whispered, droplets running silently down her face. Mitsukake gently wiped her tears away. "She's alive. I healed her myself." Selene looked at him in astonishment. "But I could not heal her broken heart."
Selene nodded, her voice hushed. "A broken heart takes time to heal. Some it makes bitter, others find another love, but lack the trust."
Mitsukake turned her to face him, his hands resting on her shoulders. "Do you trust me?" he asked softly.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He repeated his question. "Do you trust me?" She dropped her switch, allowing her eyes to return to their normal colour, and met his chocolate gaze with one of the softest lavender.
"Yes." she said without hesitation. He leaned down and pressed the gentlest of kisses upon her lips. He broke away a moment later, and saw something bright twinkling in Selene's eyes. She moved forward and hugged him, burying her head in his chest.
"I love you." She murmured into his shirt. He stroked her hair and was content with her slight presence.
"I love you too."
~~~~~
Raya glanced around the clearing, trying to decide if it was safe to stay there for the night, her paranoid nature taking precedence. Eventually she determined that it would be alright for the time, but she would have to leave at dawn.
'Like I would have stayed longer.' She thought ruefully. Using her staff for leverage, she bounded up into a tree, carefully tucking it between her legs and under an arm before falling into a restless sleep. Voices awoke her just before dawn, and she slid silently closer to the trunk.
"Why do we have to leave so early?" she heard a female voice whine. She cringed at the tone, but was intrigued by the group of people that passed beneath her hiding place. A tall man with dark brown hair pointing straight towards her had his arm around a lithe blond who clearly knew how to use the glaive she carried. Behind the pair walked a girl with hair dark as midnight wearing strange clothes, also black. Her skin was darker than the others, like honey. Raya's eyes found another blond standing next to the dark haired girl, and knew instantly she was the one who had complained. She was shorter than the others, but clearly had a lot of energy for someone of her stature.
"Wha was at for?" The male voice startled her, and she found herself identifying the flame-haired guy as the owner of the voice. He was tall, and currently rubbing his head in mock pain. A brunette 'harrumphed' and kept walking past the flame boy, giving Raya the impression that the two liked each other, but had yet to come to terms with their feelings. She shook her head sadly.
"Bakas." She muttered almost silently to herself. Last in line walked someone with purple hair that looked newly shorn in the back. He had a disheartened look on his face, and appeared to be very sad about something. She could tell that he was a guy, but he seemed to hold himself with a feminine grace that made her almost envious. Raya had the sudden urge to try to comfort him, but kept a firm grip on the tree.
'Get a grip on yourself, girl!' she told herself. 'You can't let that happen again. Besides,' she added, trying to be rational and calm once more, 'he is down there. You are up here.' He lifted his eyes as if he had heard her comment, and they met hers for a brief instant. Immediately Raya left her branch, darting through the trees at top speed. She heard no pursuit, and paused once she was a safe distance away.
"What's wrong with you, Raya?" she questioned aloud. "First you want to comfort the guy, then he sees you. You must be loosing your touch." She shook her head. "Why do I feel like I know them?" she asked herself quietly. "Why do I feel drawn to him?"
~~~~~
All while they were leaving the clearing Nuriko felt eyes upon him, watching carefully. He glanced up through the trees and saw a girl with dark red hair and clear green eyes staring at him. Her eyes went wide, then she fled, jumping through the trees with silent grace. He shook it off as just an illusion, his mind trying to forget. Solei went to Nakago. A voice in his head kept telling him that it was a lie, but he knew better. She had always watched the general with a different gleam in her eye. Reflecting, he found himself thinking of her as a sister.
'It hurts, doesn't it?' he gave his inner self a half-smile.
'She could have said good bye.'
He could feel his subconscious disagreeing. 'She wouldn't have left. You wouldn't have let her leave.' Nuriko knew his inner self was once again right about Solei, but he still didn't like it. He watched Amber and Tasuki fight for awhile, laughing at their childish antics. The thought of a child reminded him of the face he had seen in the trees, and Nuriko called it into detail. Her face was round and clear, her eyes the most expressive shade of emerald green he had ever seen. There had been a flash of something, when he caught her gaze, recognition? No. He shook his head to clear it. Tasuki noticed that Nuriko was lagging behind, and yelled at him to hurry up. Nuriko smiled and increases the speed and length of his stride, easily catching up with the others. Liz took one look at his face, and immediately fell into step with him.
"Nuriko," He was surprised by her voice, and turned to face her, neither of them breaking their stride, "Just let it go."
He looked at her confused, but soon realized that she was talking about Solei. "She spoke of game playing. That it was time to stop. I did, but she didn't. She kept right on playing." Much to his amazement he saw Liz smile.
"What she meant when she said that it was time to stop playing games was that she wanted you to stop pretending to be someone you weren't. She knew that she would still play them, but that's her nature."
Nuriko looked closer at the dark haired girl beside him. "How did you four meet? You all seem like opposites."
Liz grinned. "We are." By this time the others had joined the conversation, eager to know how the four had met. Amber, Liz, and Des started to laugh at the memories, and Amber began to talk.
~~~~~
Solei walked through the forest, relishing the calming wind that blew through the trees. Keeping a sharp eye, she detected a movement in the branches above her, and barely had enough time to dodge before a demon pounced. She couldn't see his face because of the lack of light cast by the moon, but she was willing to bet that he meant her no good. Solei summoned her glaive and stepped into a ready position, placing the staff and its attached eighteen inches of curved snow-white star metal between her and the demon. Much to her surprise, she heard her opponent chuckle, and her eyes went wide as she recognized the voice. Solei bounced backwards, heading towards a nearby clearing, trying to get more space to move her long weapon. The demon didn't try to stop her; instead it followed docilely, like a tame dog. She stood in the middle of the clearing, and the demon stepped into the moonlight. Solei swallowed a mouthful of bile, her voice quavering.
"I killed you..."
Wyvern stepped completely out of the shadows. "No love, you only thought you did. Your father and the demon god had other plans."
"Really? Like what?" Solei tried in vain to eliminate the waver from her voice.
"Come with me, and I'll tell you." He held out his hand to her, clearly expecting her to fall for his trick. She snorted in laughter, fear forgotten.
"Like I would go with you." She brought her glaive up. "What do you say I kill you properly?"
Wyvern bowed, mocking her as he drew his own weapon. Solei blanched, colour draining from her face as she saw the whip- a cat-o-nine-tails. "Begin when ready, love." She relaxed her shoulders and started to summon her chi. A flare of red struck her from above and she dropped to her knees, glaive clattering out of her hands and out of her reach.
Wyvern chuckled. "Do you really think that I would let you do that, love? I'm not stupid." Solei muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Yes you are" but propped her self up, using one hand on her knee to support herself as she stood. Wyvern sent his whip flying at her, and she raised her arm and winced as the tails coiled around her forearm. She reached out and grabbed the single strand from which they all emitted and yanked, pulling the whip out of Wyvern's grasp.
"I still retain all of my knowledge, you fool." Wyvern saw a pair of silver eyes staring at him determinedly as Solei unwrapped the fingers of the whip from around her arm.
"What knowledge love?"
Solei smirked, a cold gleam in her eyes. "Kamai's. We're one person, Wyvern. Right now, I'm Kamai. Solei's to nice to torture you like I will."
His eyes went wide. 'But, you can only be Kamai as a Dark Angel, right?" Kamai's smirk widened.
"I said no such thing." She cracked the whip loudly, and three welts appeared on Wyvern's cheek. To her surprise he crumpled; her face became an icy mask, and she fired the whip again; nine parallel lines started bleeding on his back as he screamed in pain. "That's for my sister." She whispered. The whip cracked again. "Those are for the Watcher." Wyvern's yells faded to whimpers, and she cocked the whip one last time, delivering the blow with all her strength. "This is for the true Angel of Death, and may you meet her in the deepest pits of hell." Wyvern was silent. Kamai coiled the whip and hung it at her hip, picking up her glaive and walking over to the unmoving form of her enemy. "Letu immundus creatura."* With a swing of her glaive Wyvern's head went rolling, a twisted smile on his dead lips. Kamai wrinkled her nose in disgust and walked away, demon blood dripping down the snowy blade of her glaive, creating a design of criss- crossing vines that meant only death.
~~~~~
Amber was trying to explain how they four had met, but everyone was helplessly confused, even Liz Beth and Des.
Liz held up her hand to stop Amber's mile-a-minute speech. "I'll explain." The others smiled gratefully and she began.
"We all go to the same school, and it's fairly small, so you get to know the people in your grade really well. I met Amber during class, and the same with Des. I didn't meet Solei until this year, Amber and Des introduced us.
"From what I can gather, Amber and Solei met on the bus, a big carriage," she explained for the male's confused looks, "they were talking about cheese graders, if I recall correctly...and Des and Solei have known each other for years."
Des nodded. "Since we were nine." Selene grimaced slightly at the thought of how long she and her sister had been killing their father, but only Mitsukake noticed, and he gave her shoulders a squeeze in consolation.
Des stopped suddenly. "Is that the palace?" she asked, awe filling her voice. Nuriko smiled an affirmative answer, and led the group towards the walls, weaving in and out of the thickening vendors. The guards immediately recognized Nuriko, Mitsukake and Tasuki, but were hesitant to let the four girls in. Nuriko finally sighed exasperatedly and said that the girls were their entourage. The guards grudgingly allowed the girls to enter after the warriors, and Nuriko led them through the halls to a set of guest rooms they could use.
"Stay here and clean up; fresh kimonos are in the closets. I'm going to go talk to Hotohori." Nuriko swept off, and the girls split up into pair for the rooms, Amber and Des sharing one while Liz Beth and Selene took the other.
Des immediately flopped down on one of the beds with a content sigh. "Ah, luxury. Thine name is-"
Amber cut her off. "Luxury." Des started to crack up, and fairly soon they were both laughing, not really caring as their combined voices scared away all of the birds in the garden outside their window.
~~~~~
K, usual stuff applies, like da disclaimer. Thanxs to the queen, once again...blah...blah...blah....REVIEW...blah....blah...State Competition for History Day is on May 1st. Wish me luck! REVIEW!!
~MidnightShade~
~~~~~
All had quieted down back in Mitsukake's hut and Solei twitched awake as her sister walked near. Selene motioned for her younger sister to come outside, and she did, both of them moving as silent as a shadow. Solei swung up into a tree and waited for her sister to speak.
"You have to leave." Selene said, her voice barely above a whisper. Solei's ears lengthened and tapered, turning to better catcher her sister's soft spoken words.
"Why?" Solei asked, her voice just as quiet.
"He knows." Solei did not need her sister to tell her that it was their father she spoke of.
"How will my leaving help?" she asked, concern for the others accenting her hushed question.
"He won't expect you to kill him if he thinks I'm you." Solei understood what Selene was asking.
"A shift?" Selene nodded, her eyes turning smoky blue. Solei sighed and her eyes went lavender as she relaxed.
"Very well. Once they understand, tell Nuriko I'm sorry." Solei slipped out of the tree and landed on cat's feet. Selene nodded.
"You're going to see Nakago." She said. Solei tossed a grin over her shoulder.
"Farewell, Solei." Selene brushed a single glistening tear from her eyes.
"Farewell Selene."
~~~~~
Selene watched her sister walk into the forest and sighed, envious that her sister had found someone to love, despite the thought that it might be unrequited. Mitsukake walked out behind her and she spun sharply, startled at his sudden appearance.
"Selene, why did you tell her to go?"
She turned back to the forest. "She needed to go to Nakago." She answered simply.
Mitsukake nodded. "What will Nuriko do?" he asked, his eyes on the stars.
Selene shook her head. "I don't know. He needs to live, for all of this to work, but..."
Mitsukake put an arm around her shoulder and held her tight. "He'll understand. Besides, someone else is meant for him."
Selene looked up at Mitsukake slightly confused. "Who?" She asked, her voice still soft, not wanting to awaken the others.
"The Watcher."
Tears clouded Selene's eyes. "She's dead." She whispered, droplets running silently down her face. Mitsukake gently wiped her tears away. "She's alive. I healed her myself." Selene looked at him in astonishment. "But I could not heal her broken heart."
Selene nodded, her voice hushed. "A broken heart takes time to heal. Some it makes bitter, others find another love, but lack the trust."
Mitsukake turned her to face him, his hands resting on her shoulders. "Do you trust me?" he asked softly.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He repeated his question. "Do you trust me?" She dropped her switch, allowing her eyes to return to their normal colour, and met his chocolate gaze with one of the softest lavender.
"Yes." she said without hesitation. He leaned down and pressed the gentlest of kisses upon her lips. He broke away a moment later, and saw something bright twinkling in Selene's eyes. She moved forward and hugged him, burying her head in his chest.
"I love you." She murmured into his shirt. He stroked her hair and was content with her slight presence.
"I love you too."
~~~~~
Raya glanced around the clearing, trying to decide if it was safe to stay there for the night, her paranoid nature taking precedence. Eventually she determined that it would be alright for the time, but she would have to leave at dawn.
'Like I would have stayed longer.' She thought ruefully. Using her staff for leverage, she bounded up into a tree, carefully tucking it between her legs and under an arm before falling into a restless sleep. Voices awoke her just before dawn, and she slid silently closer to the trunk.
"Why do we have to leave so early?" she heard a female voice whine. She cringed at the tone, but was intrigued by the group of people that passed beneath her hiding place. A tall man with dark brown hair pointing straight towards her had his arm around a lithe blond who clearly knew how to use the glaive she carried. Behind the pair walked a girl with hair dark as midnight wearing strange clothes, also black. Her skin was darker than the others, like honey. Raya's eyes found another blond standing next to the dark haired girl, and knew instantly she was the one who had complained. She was shorter than the others, but clearly had a lot of energy for someone of her stature.
"Wha was at for?" The male voice startled her, and she found herself identifying the flame-haired guy as the owner of the voice. He was tall, and currently rubbing his head in mock pain. A brunette 'harrumphed' and kept walking past the flame boy, giving Raya the impression that the two liked each other, but had yet to come to terms with their feelings. She shook her head sadly.
"Bakas." She muttered almost silently to herself. Last in line walked someone with purple hair that looked newly shorn in the back. He had a disheartened look on his face, and appeared to be very sad about something. She could tell that he was a guy, but he seemed to hold himself with a feminine grace that made her almost envious. Raya had the sudden urge to try to comfort him, but kept a firm grip on the tree.
'Get a grip on yourself, girl!' she told herself. 'You can't let that happen again. Besides,' she added, trying to be rational and calm once more, 'he is down there. You are up here.' He lifted his eyes as if he had heard her comment, and they met hers for a brief instant. Immediately Raya left her branch, darting through the trees at top speed. She heard no pursuit, and paused once she was a safe distance away.
"What's wrong with you, Raya?" she questioned aloud. "First you want to comfort the guy, then he sees you. You must be loosing your touch." She shook her head. "Why do I feel like I know them?" she asked herself quietly. "Why do I feel drawn to him?"
~~~~~
All while they were leaving the clearing Nuriko felt eyes upon him, watching carefully. He glanced up through the trees and saw a girl with dark red hair and clear green eyes staring at him. Her eyes went wide, then she fled, jumping through the trees with silent grace. He shook it off as just an illusion, his mind trying to forget. Solei went to Nakago. A voice in his head kept telling him that it was a lie, but he knew better. She had always watched the general with a different gleam in her eye. Reflecting, he found himself thinking of her as a sister.
'It hurts, doesn't it?' he gave his inner self a half-smile.
'She could have said good bye.'
He could feel his subconscious disagreeing. 'She wouldn't have left. You wouldn't have let her leave.' Nuriko knew his inner self was once again right about Solei, but he still didn't like it. He watched Amber and Tasuki fight for awhile, laughing at their childish antics. The thought of a child reminded him of the face he had seen in the trees, and Nuriko called it into detail. Her face was round and clear, her eyes the most expressive shade of emerald green he had ever seen. There had been a flash of something, when he caught her gaze, recognition? No. He shook his head to clear it. Tasuki noticed that Nuriko was lagging behind, and yelled at him to hurry up. Nuriko smiled and increases the speed and length of his stride, easily catching up with the others. Liz took one look at his face, and immediately fell into step with him.
"Nuriko," He was surprised by her voice, and turned to face her, neither of them breaking their stride, "Just let it go."
He looked at her confused, but soon realized that she was talking about Solei. "She spoke of game playing. That it was time to stop. I did, but she didn't. She kept right on playing." Much to his amazement he saw Liz smile.
"What she meant when she said that it was time to stop playing games was that she wanted you to stop pretending to be someone you weren't. She knew that she would still play them, but that's her nature."
Nuriko looked closer at the dark haired girl beside him. "How did you four meet? You all seem like opposites."
Liz grinned. "We are." By this time the others had joined the conversation, eager to know how the four had met. Amber, Liz, and Des started to laugh at the memories, and Amber began to talk.
~~~~~
Solei walked through the forest, relishing the calming wind that blew through the trees. Keeping a sharp eye, she detected a movement in the branches above her, and barely had enough time to dodge before a demon pounced. She couldn't see his face because of the lack of light cast by the moon, but she was willing to bet that he meant her no good. Solei summoned her glaive and stepped into a ready position, placing the staff and its attached eighteen inches of curved snow-white star metal between her and the demon. Much to her surprise, she heard her opponent chuckle, and her eyes went wide as she recognized the voice. Solei bounced backwards, heading towards a nearby clearing, trying to get more space to move her long weapon. The demon didn't try to stop her; instead it followed docilely, like a tame dog. She stood in the middle of the clearing, and the demon stepped into the moonlight. Solei swallowed a mouthful of bile, her voice quavering.
"I killed you..."
Wyvern stepped completely out of the shadows. "No love, you only thought you did. Your father and the demon god had other plans."
"Really? Like what?" Solei tried in vain to eliminate the waver from her voice.
"Come with me, and I'll tell you." He held out his hand to her, clearly expecting her to fall for his trick. She snorted in laughter, fear forgotten.
"Like I would go with you." She brought her glaive up. "What do you say I kill you properly?"
Wyvern bowed, mocking her as he drew his own weapon. Solei blanched, colour draining from her face as she saw the whip- a cat-o-nine-tails. "Begin when ready, love." She relaxed her shoulders and started to summon her chi. A flare of red struck her from above and she dropped to her knees, glaive clattering out of her hands and out of her reach.
Wyvern chuckled. "Do you really think that I would let you do that, love? I'm not stupid." Solei muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Yes you are" but propped her self up, using one hand on her knee to support herself as she stood. Wyvern sent his whip flying at her, and she raised her arm and winced as the tails coiled around her forearm. She reached out and grabbed the single strand from which they all emitted and yanked, pulling the whip out of Wyvern's grasp.
"I still retain all of my knowledge, you fool." Wyvern saw a pair of silver eyes staring at him determinedly as Solei unwrapped the fingers of the whip from around her arm.
"What knowledge love?"
Solei smirked, a cold gleam in her eyes. "Kamai's. We're one person, Wyvern. Right now, I'm Kamai. Solei's to nice to torture you like I will."
His eyes went wide. 'But, you can only be Kamai as a Dark Angel, right?" Kamai's smirk widened.
"I said no such thing." She cracked the whip loudly, and three welts appeared on Wyvern's cheek. To her surprise he crumpled; her face became an icy mask, and she fired the whip again; nine parallel lines started bleeding on his back as he screamed in pain. "That's for my sister." She whispered. The whip cracked again. "Those are for the Watcher." Wyvern's yells faded to whimpers, and she cocked the whip one last time, delivering the blow with all her strength. "This is for the true Angel of Death, and may you meet her in the deepest pits of hell." Wyvern was silent. Kamai coiled the whip and hung it at her hip, picking up her glaive and walking over to the unmoving form of her enemy. "Letu immundus creatura."* With a swing of her glaive Wyvern's head went rolling, a twisted smile on his dead lips. Kamai wrinkled her nose in disgust and walked away, demon blood dripping down the snowy blade of her glaive, creating a design of criss- crossing vines that meant only death.
~~~~~
Amber was trying to explain how they four had met, but everyone was helplessly confused, even Liz Beth and Des.
Liz held up her hand to stop Amber's mile-a-minute speech. "I'll explain." The others smiled gratefully and she began.
"We all go to the same school, and it's fairly small, so you get to know the people in your grade really well. I met Amber during class, and the same with Des. I didn't meet Solei until this year, Amber and Des introduced us.
"From what I can gather, Amber and Solei met on the bus, a big carriage," she explained for the male's confused looks, "they were talking about cheese graders, if I recall correctly...and Des and Solei have known each other for years."
Des nodded. "Since we were nine." Selene grimaced slightly at the thought of how long she and her sister had been killing their father, but only Mitsukake noticed, and he gave her shoulders a squeeze in consolation.
Des stopped suddenly. "Is that the palace?" she asked, awe filling her voice. Nuriko smiled an affirmative answer, and led the group towards the walls, weaving in and out of the thickening vendors. The guards immediately recognized Nuriko, Mitsukake and Tasuki, but were hesitant to let the four girls in. Nuriko finally sighed exasperatedly and said that the girls were their entourage. The guards grudgingly allowed the girls to enter after the warriors, and Nuriko led them through the halls to a set of guest rooms they could use.
"Stay here and clean up; fresh kimonos are in the closets. I'm going to go talk to Hotohori." Nuriko swept off, and the girls split up into pair for the rooms, Amber and Des sharing one while Liz Beth and Selene took the other.
Des immediately flopped down on one of the beds with a content sigh. "Ah, luxury. Thine name is-"
Amber cut her off. "Luxury." Des started to crack up, and fairly soon they were both laughing, not really caring as their combined voices scared away all of the birds in the garden outside their window.
~~~~~
K, usual stuff applies, like da disclaimer. Thanxs to the queen, once again...blah...blah...blah....REVIEW...blah....blah...State Competition for History Day is on May 1st. Wish me luck! REVIEW!!
~MidnightShade~