It is only a matter of time

I'm so sorry for not updating sooner! Anyways I've had a few hard times at the mo so you'll have to deal with me for a bit; some one close to me has just passed on suddenly and also I have had writers block for a while, so excuse my crappiness in these chapters

Disclaimer: I do not own any of shaman king I'm just borrowing them for a bit of twisted fun.

Summary/Blurb: What if HoroHoro and Pilika had a tougher past than Ren? And what if that past came back so soon?

Warning: this is my first fan-fic on shaman king so excuse all the ooc-ness…oh and there's a few bad words…not much else really so I'll leave ya to it. Enjoy!

Ch-15, Another Secret Unfolds

Ren held Horo's hand tightly as they fell. He closed his eyes and gasped as he was suddenly submerged underwater. The current pushed him further down the rapids and against many jutting rocks but never once did he let go of Horo's hand; he'd come to far to lose him now.

"Yah!" he cried out as a rock caught his head. His vision swam dangerously and he knew that he would fall unconscious soon, but that would mean losing HoroHoro too, and he was not prepared to do that just yet.

But the more he fought it, the less of a fight he managed to put up. Slowly, HoroHoro's limp hand slipped through Ren's grasp as he succumbed to the numbing blackness.

The children were all dressed up and ready to go now…but Ryu wasn't looking too happy.

"Get off of my leg you brat!" he groaned at a small child who had claimed his leg as her own, smiling broadly and mumbling a huge thanks in her own tongue but Ryu being Ryu, he didn't understand what the girl was saying and began to get annoyed.

"Ryu she's saying thank you for saving her." Manta said as he walked up behind them.

"How do you know what she is saying?" Ryu asked a little peeved.

"I studied Ainu in school!" Manta said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Humph"

Yoh and Faust had already set off on their journey and already they were lost. That is until 2 familiar spirits showed up.

"Koloro!" the ice spirit bellowed in Yoh's ears sending him flying with fright.

"Yah!" he yelped. "Oh Koloro, it's you. Don't scare me like that!" he stood with a little help from Faust, and then suddenly brightened. "Koloro! Where's HoroHoro and Ren?" he asked

"Koloro!" she squeaked

"Master Yoh. We do not know, we cannot sense them anywhere, and neither have called for us either." Bason said appearing behind Faust making him jump almost as high as Yoh.

"Gah!" he yelped. Yoh stood and thought hard for a second.

"Why? Why wouldn't they have called you for help?" he asked aloud.

"Master HoroHoro was injured badly and is constantly sleeping but Master Ren would've called by now, I cannot understand why he has not.

"Well we'll find out when we find them won't we?" Yoh said as he began to walk in the direction that Ren and taken HoroHoro.

They soon came to a large cliff and decided to try and turn back but something caught Yoh's attention. When he took a closer look, he found that part of Ren's coat/cape had been snared on a tree far below them in the canyon.

"There!" Yoh said as he pointed out the black cloth to Faust.

"It looks like we're in for a long climb" Faust said as they began to climb down the sheer cliff.

"Horo…no…no…HORO!" Ren sat up straight as he suddenly came to. He looked around the underground cave. It was dark but he'd been here for a while so he could see…vaguely. That was when he spotted a prone figure on the other side of the underground beach. He quickly stood only to fall on his butt again

"Aaahhh!" he cried out as his leg gave way. "Oh that hurt!" he murmured, "oh Bason where are you?" in truth Ren had been wondering where his spirit friend had been, he'd called several times but the spirit didn't show, so he though that something must have been blocking his calls or something like that.

He crawled over to where HoroHoro was laid and quickly checked his vitals. Everything seemed to be ok until he noticed one major error in his judgement;

HoroHoro wasn't breathing.

"No!" Ren yelled and began CPR. Once, twice, three times he willed HoroHoro to breathe on his own but he remained slack on the rocky floor.

"One…two…three…four…five…" Ren muttered as he performed the chest compressions and took a deep breath but he had to choke back a sob of joy as HoroHoro shook and jolted, violently coughing up fluid from his over beaten lungs.

"Yes!" he breathed and clutched HoroHoro's shaking body as he wretched up more fluid and began to violently shiver.

"That's it Horo, you're ok now." He soothed 'boy, I never thought I'd see myself as the caring one!' He thought as he rubbed the Ainus back soothingly.

"S...s...sorry." Horo chattered as he lay there shaking badly. Ren took off his coat/cape and draped it over the hyperthermiasmic boy.

"For what?" he asked as he curled up to the shivering boy to share body heat.

"F…for f…f…fal…ling…" HoroHoro tried to continue but found that his teeth were just chattering too much.

"Sh, it's not your fault." Ren said and just laid there holding HoroHoro and thinking about where Bason and Koloro were.

Soon HoroHoro had fallen asleep again and was having another nightmare; only Ren found he could understand this one…it was in English.

"No! Don't...Leave her alone!" HoroHoro groaned hoarsely as he struggled with Ren's grip on him. He watched as the Ainu's legs began moving as though he were running from something.

"Leave us alone!" he shouted out, growing more agitated as the dream continued. Ren was so focused on HoroHoro he didn't notice the small being that jumped from rock to rock to get a closer look.

The small girl hopped undetected from boulder to boulder, stone to stone, to get a closer look at the strangers that had fallen into the water. Such were the visitors that came to her people's land, that was until she recognised the markings on the ill-boys forearm, tattoos only an Ainu would bear, and only a few others could see.

Suddenly the other boy looked up in her direction and yelled out

"Who's there?"

Damn! And she hadn't made a noise…he was good, probably Shaman or like herself; Homo Magi. She quietly chanted a spell under her breath then directed it toward the golden eyed boy. She watched silently as the boy, suddenly clutched his head and slowly fell to the ground, asleep.

"Oh great Master Xiao, I hope you can forgive me for bringing strangers home." She sighed and walked over to the two sleeping boys. She grasped each of their wrists and chanted another spell, but instead of falling asleep, she and the two boys disappeared into thin air. Such was the ways of a Homo Magi witch.

AN; so what d'ya think? Who wants to know what happens next? Well review and I'll think about writing the ext chappi.

Mimi

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