AN: Much longer in comparison to my last chapter. Doesn't exactly explain much or get into any kind of plot, but sort of continues the 'prolouge' set up, only more in depth and slightly more chaotic. Somewhere in the second paragraph, I start talking science and go into oxygen and bonds. Well the superscript is actually supposed to be subscript, but I couldn't find in anywhere in the computer. =/ It's read as 'O' sub 3 and "O" sub 2. If you don't understand that, then don't worry about it. :P
Disclaimer: I don't own Angelique or any Angelique characters unfortunately.
The Dramatic Chase Scene - - Ten Fold
A picturesque scene unfolded in front of Alyson as she cleared the bushes, only the thing was, it wasn't of this world. It was far too ethereal, far too peaceful, far too perfect, to be anything from earth. Beside that, the plants, fountains and buildings weren't anything she could recognize. This city, or town or whatever it was she was in, was strange to say the least. It was completely surrounded by blue, with no land stretching around it. Odd. Alyson walked slowly across the town, to one of the 'edges' and peeked over. She blinked a few times, her eyes wide with shock. Her breath stopped once again and she fell backwards on he butt, dumb founded. The city was floating. It, and everything on it, was floating in the sky. Below it was some kind of odd world with strange continents. What the heck was going on?
She got on he feet and steadied herself. 'Just breathe lightly,' she told herself. This was eerie. One minute she gets ready to go home like any other day, the next she gets zapped to some town in the air on a weird planet. Speaking of which, why wasn't she freezing her butt off? And how come she could breathe? Considering that she was a couple of miles up in the sky, temperature and the amount of oxygen in the air should be something to worry about. Well, maybe not the air. She might have been asleep in Physical Science when the professor went over that chapter, so she wasn't sure if it was this 'sphere', or the next that the air particles separated into O³ rather than O². The temperature, however, was something that should have bothered her. Alyson had flown in airplanes enough times to know that the higher up you go, the colder it gets. That and the fact that her father was a Korean and Vietnam War Vet whom had about a million and two airplane stories. Even with her slightly baggy fleece jacket and denim jeans, Alyson should have at least felt a little bit nippy, but she wasn't. An unhealthy amount of bright, spring like sunshine shown on the city, making it feel warm. This was way too weird. Casting another glance around her surroundings, the young girl noticed that this island in the sky seemed to be deserted. If it wasn't for the chirping birds, you'd think that there were no animals whatsoever up there. Not that animals were supposed to be in some floating sanctuary anyway.
After a bit of musing over he current situation, Alyson began to wander aimlessly around. Her little bit of exploration brought her to a large mansion like building. The massive doors resembled oak, but somehow, Alyson doubted that they were. She raised a balled fist to the door, ready to knock, but at the last minute decided against it. If there were people here, the loud slamming of her car on to one their gardens should have been enough of a hint that something was amiss. The large doors, surprisingly enough, were easy to open. Alyson was on tenterhooks as she took a few steps into the building. Inside was a maze of doors, corridors, and stairs. The halls were decorated like that of castle. Taking in all that was around her, Alyson forgot to announce that she was coming in. Someone important must live or work here she thought. Alyson began to meander around the hallways, pausing briefly every now and then to take in her surroundings or stare at one of the many rich paintings adorning the walls. Her legs got sore as she continued to walk along the endless corridors. Maybe she needed to rest. Well, she had past several doors already, and she was pretty sure there were several more to go. Perhaps she would just peek inside one to see if there was a chair that she could sit on. Alyson approached the nearest door and, and hesitantly turned the handle. Before she could get a solid grip on it, the door swung open by itself, making a sound that told anyone with a little common sense that the hinges needed some WD-40.
Inside, the room was rather. . . . flamboyantly decorated. Alyson poked her head in the door and looked around a bit. She spotted. . . . something in front of the mirror. A girl? A guy? A hermaphrodite? Well whatever it was, it continued to stare at its reflection. Alyson glanced over it again. Blond hair, with hot pink highlights. Lots of frills, lots of fabric, lots of bright colors, lots of make up, lots of inches on those stiletto heels. . . . a lot of everything. Once again Alyson found herself staring, and frozen, like a deer caught in headlights.
"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?" it said with a slightly bored tone of voice, still staring into the mirror. "Look right now I…hmm?" It turned and saw a stunned Alyson peeking into its room. "Hello?" it asked curiously, "What have we here?"
As if a bolt of lightning had just hit him..er..her…whatever, he/she/it jolted up out of their chair and in a shrill, inhuman voice exclaimed, "I SENSE INSPIRATION!" as their eyes quickly scanned up and down the young girl.
If this were an anime, you could cue the sweat drop. Alyson, befuddled by this outburst of energy, did not reply. The person got up from the chair in front of vanity mirror, taking a few steps towards Alyson. For each step taken toward Alyson, she would even it out by taking another step out of the room and into the hallway.
"Now, now, don't be shy my pretty. I'm not going to hurt you."
An internal alarm went off as those words were uttered. Wasn't it the bad guys that said those types of things? Determining that this person was some sort of cross dressing, evil, mad scientist person, Alyson decided that it was in her best interest to not find out if her assumption was correction. Eventually she backed into the wall of the hallway. The person stared curiously at her. With nowhere else to back into and the other person closing the distance between them, Alyson blindly bolted down the hallway, taking any random path that presented itself. She was a fast runner, and was certain that she left whatever it was back at the place she ran away from. She decided to check behind her regardless, just to make sure. Given the place that she was in, that thing might have weird powers or something that would help her catch up to her. Alyson turned her head back, but kept running at the same time. To her relief, the thing wasn't behind her.
CRASH
Alyson had just collided into something from her lack of paying attention to where she was going. She rubbed her head and hopped onto to her feet before notice the figure before her. A person with long blond hair and almost gown-like robes had their back to her. Alyson helped the person up, apologizing as she did.
"Oh, I'm so sorry miss! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and I accidentally ran into you. Let me help yo…" Alyson stopped mid-sentence. The 'lady' she was helping up was not a lady, but a man. Her mouth dropped as she stared. Her lack of blinking must have told him something was the matter. Breaking the minute long, awkward silence, Alyson hastily muttered yet another apology and dropped him, continuing to sprint down the hallways.
"Sorryaboutthat.Igottago,BYE!"
"Oof!" Alyson heard the man get reacquainted with the floor as she ran forward.
Scratch the earlier 'best interest' decision made, it was now in her best interest to get back to her car and somehow magically zap herself back to school, away from this . Enough with this building and its occupants who were confused about their sex. Enough with this world. She wanted to go back to her house and enjoy her weekend. After what seemed like forever, she finally found the same door that she used to enter the building, and she would now use to leave. Thank God. She darted back outside and tried to find her way around the many bushes, trees, and flowers. Despite the fact that she went through the same area earlier, Alyson was still unfamiliar with this place and could not find any recognizable landmarks. She would have to wander around again. Alyson was beginning to get out of breath. She slowed her pace down to an old person power walk and tried to find her way back to her car. As she made her way around various foliage, Alyson heard a strange kind of mechanical sound and peered upward to see what it was. A large metallic bird swoop downwards at Alyson. She jumped out of the way just in time for the bird to miss her.
"AHHH!" she screamed as she jumped.
The bird leveled itself and turned once again to the girl. It charged at her, and once again she screamed. Alyson side stepped the bird and found herself running, once again. She wasn't sure where she was going, but with that robotic beast hot on her trail, it really didn't matter. Another building came into site and she pressed forward. She had to get inside. He lungs were burning from all the activity. She could hear the bid getting closer. With a final dash for the building, Alyson threw open the door bolted inside. In a flash she shut and latched the door locked. There was a large THUMP as the stupid bird collided with the door. Serves that damn thing right. Out of breath, and utterly tired, Alyson plopped herself on the floor and leaned against the door. She wheezed a few times, her breath hard, and quick.
"What did I do to deserve this?" she whined pathetically.
A few looks around her told Alyson that she was in that same accursed building that she fled not too long ago. Alyson's ears perked up as she heard footsteps approaching from a hallway. She struggled to get to her feet. A sharp pain shot threw her left lung and side. She grimaced and gripped it with her right arm as she slowly began to climb a set of stairs that lead to the second floor. She was about half way up, when the 'lady' she ran into earlier, along with 'it' and a young man with short brown hair entered the room. That guy could have passed for a prince, except for the fact that he was wearing what seemed to be tights. Bad mental images of poorly made Robin Hood movies flashed in her mind. Ugh, as if she didn't have enough to worry about.
"There she is!" the prince cried, pointing at Alyson on the stairs. Great, just great. The trio of 'things' began their chase of the young girl. Alyson began to whine again as she sped already tired limbs up once more. She flung open the nearest door and darted inside. A quick glance around revealed that she was in a library of some sort. She took a few hurried steps forward until she saw a blue hair man, with short hair and a turban. Wow. Two man ladies, one Robin Hood wannabe, and a white Aladdin. This was some nut house.
"Oh, hello," he said calmly with a hint of a question in his voice. "Can I help you?"
The magical words she wanted to hear. Finally, there was some guy that wasn't trying to chase her. Alyson gave a mental sigh of relief as she approached the man. "Please . . . . .huff-puff. . . . . please," she panted, "hide me…" She paused from speaking for a moment to catch her breath.
"I need to find a safe place to hide," she explained. Her speech began to pick up pace as spoke. "I some how crashed here after I just got into my car and I decided to look around right? So anyway, I was like 'woah' when I saw we where way up in the sky, so I went inside this building and met some weird scientist who was going to do something weird to me so I ran away, then I crashed into a lady who really was a guy and then I went outside and some crazy thing tried to kill me and I ran for my life and then got inside this building RIGHT after I just left it, and then those people I said earlier with this new kid started chasing me and now I…!"
"Woah, slow down a bit when you talk."
"Please," Alyson begged, "Just, don't tell anyone I'm here." With that she plunged behind one of the nearby shelves. Alyson took a few deep, and silent breaths, waiting to see what would happen next. She listened carefully at the scene going on behind her.
POV Change
The doors to Luva's study burst open revealing an upset Julious. Behind him were Randy and Olivie. They browsed around the room looking for the intruder that suddenly appeared in their city.
"Luva, you haven't seen a strangely dressed girl come into this room have you?" the head guardian questioned with an agitated tone.
"Hm? A strange girl you say?" Luva asked. Could he possibly be referring to the young lady that asked for his assistance just moments ago?
"We saw her run into your study just a minute or so ago," Randy explained.
"I feel sorry for the poor dear," Olivie moaned. "I mean she's been running for such a long time, and in those clothes. She's probably tired and confused…"
"Now is not the time to empathize with the intruder Olivie," Julious chastised. "Luva, have you, or have you not seen her?"
"Ah well," the blue haired man started. Before he could finish, quick steps could be heard in the room. The four guardians looked behind them to find an open window with fluttering curtains without a breeze.
POV Change
Alyson, having heard enough of that brief conversation, had to find a way out of that library. Clearly, she was not welcomed in this place. Not that she wanted to stay. The window nearby was as good as any way out. Hopefully, she didn't make that loud of a sound when she jumped out of the two-story window. Her breath was loud and heavy again. Alyson's heart must have been pounding at a hundred miles per hour. Her entire body was soar. She desperately wanted to take a break from all the chasing.
"Now I know what an episode of Scooby-Doo feels like, without the Dooby," she cried to herself. She sighed and continued to speak out load to herself. There is only one of three way this could possibly happen:
1)She was dead
2)She was asleep
3)She was high
She began to ponder over which theroy would be the most correct when Alyson's one minute break as cut short by a deep, masculine voice that called out to her. A horse hoof beating against the grass made her head snap up. He called out to her again, but the most Alyson could make out of it was that it was some sort of cheesy pick up line. Her eyes grew wide and she balled herself up against the wall. She was caught. Sensing her anxiety, the man dismounted his steed and walked towards her. Alyson watched the man draw closer and she braced herself. The man, or more appropriately, the knight, by his clothing, squatted down beside Alyson and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. His piercing blue eyes were level with hers and his firey red hair glowed in the sunlight.
"Hey missy, you don't need to be afraid of me," he cooed, "I don't bite." At that comment, the knight grinned slightly. "Well, maybe a little."
"OSCAR!"
Both Alyson's and the knight's heads shot up. They saw four other heads sticking out of the window, each belonging to a person that was in the library.
"What the devil do you think you're doing?!?" the 'lady' cried.
"Huh? Julio…augh!" Before Oscar could finish his sentence, Alyson had pushed, or more appropriately, shoved, him away from her and began fleeing yet again. An idea struck her. She mounted the knight's horse, and snapped the reins while kicking the horse's side. It reared up on its hind legs, and Alyson gripped the reins tighter to stay on.
"AH! Woah, hey! Good Horsieeeeeeeeeeee……." Alyson's voice trailed off as the horse galloped into the gardens.
The horse wildly galloped through the gardens, which seemed to get thicker as it continued. Soon it looked like the poor girl was in some kind of forest. She had to watch out for low branches, otherwise she'd get smacked in the face and off of the horse.
"Woah! Darn it you stupid horse! I said woah! That means stop, damn it! Don't you ever watch cowboy movies?!?" she wailed.
Another low branch was coming up swiftly. This time though, Alyson though she might pull off one of those movie star moves and jump from the horse onto the branch. There was no way she could stay on that thing any longer. She readied herself as the branch approached quickly.
1
2
3
JUMP!
She leapt into the air, and her hands connected with the branch. Score. She watched as the horse continue to run into the woods / garden. She mentally cursed the stupid thing and hoped it would get eaten by wolves or something. Alyson brought her attention back to herself and the branch. She began to lift herself onto it, but with much difficulty. The branch was not as sturdy as she thought. It kept wobbling and moving as she got both elbows over the side. Alyson breathed a sigh of relief for a moment. She heard something snap and looked to her left to notice that it was branch. Damn. The branch broke off, and down came tumbling our heroine. This was just not her day. Alyson crashed onto the ground with a large tree branch on top of her. She cried out in pain and then stared at her left foot which she injured during the falling. It was sprained.
"And that, kiddies, is why you should never do stunts at home," she joked, wallowing in her own cynicism. Alyson winced as she got to her feet. Walking with a sprained ankle was no fun. She looked back at the tree she just fell from. It was a good climbing tree with a lot of branches and thick with leaves. Perfect for hiding. She would just have to be extra careful when choosing branches, especially with one injured foot.
"Are you sure she came this way Clavis?" Julious questioned.
"My crystal ball is never wrong."
"I didn't say it was," the blond haired guardian retorted, "but are you sure that girl came this way?"
"…"
"Fresh horse tracks around here show that the horse ran this way not too long ago," Oscar confirmed.
Julious, Luva, Oscar, Randy, and Olivie had been searching for this new comer for sometime now. The day was almost over, and in frustration, Julious had recruited Luminale and Clavis in the search. They were now scouting one of the most farthest outskirts of the floating city. Clavis was in the lead with Luminale at his side. He raised his arms slowly to stop the rest of the group from waling farther.
"She's near," Clavis muttered.
"Good, we can finally find her and…"
"No." Clavis cut off Julious. "Stay here. Luminale and I will fetch the girl."
"That would be a good idea." Everyone turned to Luva and watched him. "The girl seems to be frightened of us. If she saw anyone of the rest of us, she would more than likely try to flee again. She hasn't met Luminale or Clavis yet, so our best bet is with those two."
Reluctantly, Julious nodded. "You two be careful though. We don't know if this intruder is dangerous or not."
Clavis laughed under his breath. "Scared of a little girl, Guardian of Light?"
Julious gritted his teeth but said nothing at the Guardian of Darkness' comment. Sometimes it was just better to say nothing at all. Luminale and Clavis continued to walk forward while the rest of the group waited behind. The pair walked silently until they reach a broken branched on the ground. Both of them look upwards into the tree tops.
"You can come out now," Clavis said in a monotone voice.
No reply.
Luminale smiled softly at the trees. "Yes, you don't have to fear us young one. We won't harm you."
Still no reply.
Alyson, still up in the tree tops, had been in her hiding place for some time now. Her body ached and she really needed ice for her ankle. She thought she might have to sleep amongst the birds tonight when two voices called out to her from below. She didn't answer them. No doubt they were apart of that group of people that were after her.
"She is a stubborn one, isn't she?" Luminale commented, smile still on his face.
"Let's rest here for a moment," Clavis replied.
The two men sat at the base of the tree. They said nothing more to each other, or to her. The girl kept completely silent, praying that these people would just leave her the heck alone. She waited. Nothing happened. No one climbing up the try to pull her out. No one throwing things at the tree in hopes that she would fall out…again. No one screaming, or yelling, or talking to her. A feeling of peace and gentleness swept through her. One of the men below began to strum a harp lightly. The sound it made was utterly beautiful. She relaxed a bit as the notes floated into one ear and out the other. Alyson began to move around in the tree tops. She was trying to arrange the branches in a way that would allow her to see who these men were, and at the same time not muffle the music as much. As she wiggled around, Alyson lost her footing on the tree. Her lost balance caused a miscellaneous leg to dangle from the treetops. Alyson uttered silent curses under her breath at her rotten luck today. The branches began to sway as she attempted to cover her exposed limb, but alas, fate was against her and soon after, the rest of her body followed suit. She yelled at the top of her lungs as she once again, came crashing down. What was it with her and falling today? She smashed into ground in front the two men, wincing and wrapping her arms around her body. Today was not her day.
Clavis and Luminale could hear the trees rustling above them. Moments later the young girl they were searching for tumbled out of the trees and out to the ground, but not before sending a distressed yelp that could be heard clear across the universe. That would, no doubt, have the other guardians running into the scene any moment now. Not that it really mattered anymore. She rolled on the ground for a bit, but didn't say a word or cry. Funny, normally people are more vocal after they get an injury, not before. Clavis and Luminale stood up and walked to the girl's side. They crouched down to where she was and made sure she was fine. Her clothes were tattered, and she had cuts and bruises all over her, but other than that she was fine. The two men stood up and watched her cling to herself. Luminale gave her a worried expression and offered a hand up when the other guardians came running in.
"We heard someone yell," Oscar said, pointing out the obvious. The other guardians looked at the girl on the ground. "Oh, must have been her."
"Finally, this goose chase can end," Julious remarked. His mouth shut soon after as the girl rose to her feet. Everyone was silent, waiting to see what she'd do next. The girl looked forward and noticed Clavis and Luminale in front of her. She froze in place, shocked it would seem, to be face to face with two of her 'pursuers'. She began to back away from the two, oblivious to the fact that she was surrounded. She limped backwards, like an injured animal, until she unexpectedly bumped into something.
"I love it when women make the first move!" an all too familiar voice happily cried.
She spun around, only to confirm her fear that she was surrounded. Crap.
"What do you people want from me?!?" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
She began to back away from Oscar as she spoke, but wasn't paying attention to herself. With her sprained ankle, she took one step back, only to have her own foot collapse underneath her. The knight's arm bolted out and caught Alyson's in time before she fell.
"Careful there now little lady," he said as he steadied her, "Would want you to hurt yourself."
'Imbecile,' she thought, 'I'm already injured.'
Once she was steadied, Alyson tried to free her arm from the knight's grip, but he wouldn't let go. She was too tired and that damn knight just refused to remove his hand from her persons.
"Let me go you freak!"
"Ah," Oscar joking cried, "Your cruel words get me right here miss." He pointed to his heart with his free hand.
"We have a lot of questions we wish to ask to miss," Julious said in a stern voice.
'And just what makes you think I'm going to answer them you arrogant…'
"I'm afraid those will have to wait until later," Luminale commented, interrupting Alyson mid-thought. "It seems as though she has injured herself."
"Not only that," Olivie interrupted, "But by the looks of things the poor child needs foods and rest. Let's get her back to the mansion."
"Why should I go with you?" the girl questioned in an angry tone.
"You need to rest and have that ankle looked after." Alyson looked over at Clavis as he spoke. He was one of the men that tricked her out of the tree, making her more suspicious of him.
"Like you care. Besides why should I trust any of you?"
"You trusted me earlier." Luva interrupted. Alyson turned her gaze from the black robed man to Luva. It was that guy from before…
"Please, let us help you," Luminale said tenderly.
Confused, Alyson looked around at all face surrounding her. So what, it was customary here to chase the living daylights out of new people until the end up injury themselves so they can't get away? Just what the hell was going on? Whatever it was, there was only one way to find out. She would have to play their game and go to their house, and ask them questions there.
"Here milday, let me carry you back to our humble home," Oscar offered with a wink.
"I don't want your help," Alyson replied stubbornly.
Oscar shrugged.
"Well if you don't want me to carry you, I can always get you a horse."
End Chapter.
How was that? Good Bad? I'd like to hear opinions! This chapter alone was 7 pages MS Word. I spent quite a bit of time on the compy writing it. Considering that I finished the first part around 3 am this same morning, and I'm updating the story again around 10 pm at night, you could basically say that I did chapter 12 (5700 words) in one day. Quite a feet for someone as lazy as I. ;; Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out what next will happen to our little heroine!