Well guess what? I passed my Lit sac with the highest mark in the class, a High which is the best mark you can get on a sac here in Australia so I'm a little ecstatic at the moment as you may well have figured out! But anyway, here is the next chappie and I hope you guys enjoy it J
Oh before I forget, I do not own Sailor Moon or Sorceror Stabber Orphen… damn it!!
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Chapter Two
Motoki gave the clearing another once over, taking in the mansion and lack of trees but one. "I would not have a clue, but we definitely are not in Jubban any more…"
Usagi looked at Motoki, then the scenery and finally Motoki again, before nodding her head slightly, her chin quivering with the effort of suppressing the tears that wanted to overflow. "So if we're not in Jubban, then how did we get here?"
"Well… see that is the strangest thing, ya know? One moment you were flashing in and out, and I didn't know what else to do, so I grabbed onto your arm, and what do you know? We end up here…"
Usagi frowned as she digested the information, and a chill crept up her spine. Turning her head, she saw the dismal clouds gathering over head of the strangely dressed man, and brought a hand to her mouth in shock as the aura that encircled whatever was coming out of the clouds reached her. It's not a youma, but it's very similar all the same. Yet there is almost something human about it…Her eyes widened as she saw the scaly paw come from a rip in the clouds, and then a forearm, alluring to the ominous figure that was to emerge.
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"Azalie…" Orphen whispered as he hefted the Sword of Baltanders in his hands, "I shall save you" Gripping the sword firmly in two hands he strode up the hill purposefully, not taking any notice of the events going on around him, apart from the slowly emerging figure before him.
"Azalie! Why have you come? This sword can not release you," he shouted as he thrust it into the ground. "It is just one piece to the puzzle, you know that! Or is your mind so far gone that you can not remember me, or what we discovered in that cave all those years ago?"
The dragon beast started for a moment then shook its head and lunged in once more to try and reach the sword she pined for.
"I didn't want to have to do this, I'm sorry Azalie…" Orphen whispered as he brought his arms out in front of him and disappeared, only to reappear above the dragon, hands in spell mode. "Please, just sleep and rest for awhile, until I have worked this mess out. I shall save you Azalie, I just don't know when…" a misty frost slowly ebbed out of the palms of his hands and wafted towards the enraged figure, picking up speed as it went. It twirled around limb and stomach encasing the creature in ice and moving steadily upwards around the chest and shoulders.
Orphen's head swivelled quickly to the right seeing the red ball of light heading for Azalie and his spell of binding. Even if he apparated he knew he would not reach her in time to stop the ball of magical light from doing its work. He'd failed again, but it wasn't his fault, not this time. He'd finally become strong enough to bind his friend for as long as need be, and this person just had to go and get in his way. "Childman" he whispered as the ball hit and he was forced to cover his eyes.
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Azalie gave a cry of victory as the ice around her body cracked. Raising her taloned, scaly arm, she swiped at the person who had tried to bind her in the crystal ice. The young man grimaced in pain as her claws raked across his stomach and dropped to the ground in a low crouch, arms curled protectively around his stomach. With another low and menacing cry she turned and walked through the rip once more, disappearing from the clearing, fog weaving its way around where she had been and engulfing the low valley.
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Usagi's eyes widened in panic as she saw the dragons claws make contact and the man fall to the ground, her hand reaching out and clasping Motoki's with force. 'We're going to be next' she thought as she saw the dragon open its mouth and let loose a deep growl, before breathing a sigh of relief as it disappeared into the rip once more.
Usagi looked up at Motoki, and saw that his face was ashen white, and suspected that hers was the same. Looking around the clearing once more, she noticed that the young man had not moved from where he was crouched on the ground. Face deepening with concern, she got up from where she was kneeling next to Motoki, and disregarding her own wounds, went to see how badly he was hurt.
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Orphen heard footsteps coming towards him, and expecting it to be Childman, started to form a fire spell in his hand. Looking up, as he felt the spell near completion and just the final mark needing to be stated for it to be thrown, he was surprised to see a young girl with flowing blonde hair coming towards him. Her eyes were dirt rimmed and tired looking, yet there was something about her that he couldn't place, something mysterious. She was definitely trained in the ways of magic; he could feel it in her aura. But it was a strange magic, something that wasn't taught at the Tower of Fang. Something he'd never felt before. Shaking his head, Orphen cancelled his spell, but started on a new one, just in case things weren't as they seemed.
The strange girl knelt down beside him, and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Are you okay?"
Orphen just looked at her, his eyes widened slightly at her touch and the full force of the aura radiating off her, and gave a grunt. The young girl shook her head and gathered a silver light into her cupped hands, before placing them on his injury and spreading the light into and through his body.
Orphen could feel the magic rushing through his veins, and how it sought out and fixed his injuries, not just the talon wound, but also his torn hamstring from when he fought the weird snake creature and the deep bruising from numerous falls. He hadn't felt this complete since he left the Tower and the Healers there, as he had not studied enough of their art to know how to fix all his injuries, just enough to make a few simple herbal remedies and tea's.
Orphen felt himself begin to relax and the girls cool hands, and his spell of binding fizzle and go out, this person, who ever they may be was not going to harm him.
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Cleao looked around at the weird cramped buildings surrounding her, then back at her unconscious companion, before letting out an exasperated sigh. 'I'm just going to have to stay here and watch him,' she thought, 'there is no other logical conclusion. If I abandon him now, chances are that I'll end up lost with no one around that I know. No it'll be better to just wait for him to wake up…'
Cleao slowly slid down the wall she'd been leaning on. She had no idea where they were, or how they had come to be there. All she remembered was being told to get back in the house, and bam, she and magic boy end up here, wherever here may be that is. And to make matters worse they were outside in the middle of a thunderstorm, with no way of getting any shelter due to the fact that Majic was still asleep! 'God I hate my life!' she cursed mentally, before making herself more comfortable and settling down for a long wait and cold night.
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Ami sighed, as her third search brought up no trace of Usagi or Motoki anywhere. First she'd tried just Japan, then Asia and finally the World, but the two in question were not to be found. Not even a trace of their auras was left to go by. Frustrated she slammed the lid of her Mercury computer shut and stormed outside to watch the rain dance on the street surfaces and rooftops.
'How am I going to tell the others and Mamoru-san that Usagi and Motoki are no where to be found? Why can't I find her? That computer is the fastest and most technological in the whole world for at least another 400 years!'
Sighing once more and resigned to the bad news that she must pass on she went inside to eat her dinner and call Rei. Perhaps she might have seen something in the fire. It was worth a chance and she didn't have to break the news till tomorrow, that gave her a chance to broaden her search again and ask Rei to give her a hand…
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Rei looked deep into the dancing flames, but it was just as Ami had said, there was no trace of their friend or Motoki left on this planet. No matter how many times she dared the Fire to reveal the answers for her, it didn't answer once like it usually did with even a tiny clue.
It was well past twelve, and Rei knew that there was school tomorrow and she'd have to go to bed before her grandad got on her back about school. Still she had to try one last time. The Fire might just tell her something and she couldn't risk not knowing.
So kneeling down once more, she started her chant and hand symbols once more, her voice harsh and husky from overuse. On the final word the Fire flared up high, and Rei gazed into it hungrily, feeling that this time it had finally worked and would give her even the minutest piece of information which would be cherished. But the flames died down just as quickly as they had risen. Cradling her head between her hands in Disappointment, Rei almost missed the vision that flashed quickly trough the flames. Almost.
Whipping her head up Rei saw a faint image of her beloved friend and Princess kneeling next to a strange man, before the fire went blank. But not before she spotted Motoki in the background. Letting out a breath she didn't even know she'd been holding, she stood up with relief. Both of them were safe, at least she'd have some good news to tell the others in the morning and reassure Ami with, if only they could have some clear evidence though on Ami's computer to back up her vision. She wasn't sure if the Fire had been playing a trick on her or not, her visions had been unstable lately.
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Mamoru gazed up at the stars in the sky. His Usako was out there somewhere and he didn't know where. 'If only I hadn't said those three little words, this never would have happened!' he berated himself silently, 'if I hadn't listened to that stupid dream and believed it. Now I really have lost her, and not because of the possibility of her death, but because she's vanished into thin air!'
"Shit!" he yelled as he smashed his arm into the balcony railing he was leaning on, "It wasn't supposed to happen like this!" he whispered as his head fell forward onto the railing.
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Usagi sat next to Motoki on the couch in the middle-aged lady's house, trying to block out the sound of her crying coming from the other room. She'd just found out that her youngest daughter had vanished in the blink of an eye in a vivid flash of light and had been hysterical ever since. Usagi didn't blame her though, her mum would be doing the same thing, unless her friends had brought in their back up plan for when one of them was seriously hurt and said she was staying at their house… She prayed that they had, she didn't want her mum to be crying like this.
She felt some one put their arm around her, and looked up into the knowing eyes of Motoki, who smiled gently down at her, his blue eyes open and honest. Usagi found herself leaning into his embrace and sighed contentedly, it had always been like this. Motoki looked after her as if she were his little sister, and she looked up to him as a brother, a part of her family, if not by blood.
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He looked up at the night sky, eyes puzzled and glazed over, the events of the afternoon replaying through his mind. The spell of binding. The red flash of light that stopped it. The talons scraping over and into flesh. It didn't matter how many times he analysed the situation, the only conclusion that he could come to was that if Childman had not interfered, everything would have gone according to the plan he had mapped out in his minds eye.
But that still left him with the question of why? Why had Childman interfered? What did he stand to gain by interfering?
Everything.
If he could defeat the 'Bloody August' then he would be renowned through out the land and be a national icon. But what could Childman possibly want with fame? He was already the top sorcerer, besides the elders, at the Tower, what more could he want?
Orphen shook his head; all this thinking was getting him nowhere and was making his head hurt. Besides each question only led to another possible three on average that branched out from the previous one for him to find an answer to. And then of course there was that strange girl, and her even stranger magic. It wasn't that the magic its self was strange, rather that she knew how to work that magic… because as far as he knew that magic had died out well over a millennia ago. It was still in some of the heavier reading at the Tower, but there was no one qualified to teach it beyond a rookie level. Each student was taught just enough to be able to recognise it whenever they felt it being worked, and read the ancient runes that was the people of that times writing. And from what he had gathered, the Sword of Baltanders was a relic left behind from then. Still that did not explain how the girl had become an Adept at it. She could not be more than sixteen years old!
Sighing, Orphen turned his gaze from the stars and walked back into the living room to face his other dilemma. How to tell the girls' mum and Majic's dad that he did not know where they were or how to get them back.
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Well I hope you guys enjoy this chapter I had a heap of fun and trouble writing this chapter, as I want to stick to the basic gist of things in both worlds but at the same time I wish to branch of and add my own flare, and it's hard to work out where I can safely do these things with out being criticised too much, you know? As always please R&R!!
Raye-chan.