Shadow of Darkness
Sorry about the wait, my lovely readers. It seems my hard drive blew out, so I have to borrow my parents' computer to do this chapter. Thankfully, this chapter (unlike so many other stories of mine sigh) was handwritten, so I didn't have to start from scratch! Anyway… enough of my babbling- enjoy!
To further enjoy your SoD experience (-), I would like to recommend listening to "Edtude in C Minor Op. 10, No. 12 (Revolutionary / Fall of Warsaw)" by Chopin, for this chapter. It truly sets the mood for the first part of the chapter.
Chapter 15:
"Gippal, what are you doing?" Rikku shrieked.
Click. The weapon was cocked.
With a noise of panic, she hauled herself out from under her blankets and thrust her foot into his path, striking the gun forcefully as it discharged, and sent it flying from Gippal's hands. He scrambled for it. Rikku used his moment of distraction to catch the sight of a bullet hole in the mattress next to her pillow. He could not get that gun again!
Hastily reaching over the side of her bed, where she had dropped the holster for her blades, she yanked one out and threw it. It did nothing more than barely make the gun budge, but it was all she needed to distract him. He turned to her with an angry growl.
"Ur cred, ur cred! :Oh shit, oh shit:" Rikku squeaked.
He lunged. Frantically, she leapt off her bed. This didn't faze him, for he scrambled across the bed, after her.
'I have to get to the door…' She dodged his arms and skirted around him. He followed, not to be outsmarted. Damn.
"Gippal, what is wrong with you!" she screamed. She dodged him again and, in the process, rammed her gut into the edge of a small table in the room. "Ugh…" She stumbled back, stunned and out of breath. That moment was her undoing. Gippal swung one arm around her neck, and he grabbed a handful of her hair, while the other arm latched around her shoulders. Darkness flared before her eyes.
'Oh crap- he has the Plague!'
His grip tightened. She gagged. It felt as though he was trying to twist her neck from her shoulders. It was then she realized that he wasn't choking her- he was trying to break her neck! She gasped and nearly choked on the attempt to force air down her throat. She clawed wildly at his neck. She never knew that he had been so strong.
'No, no, no, I don't want to die!' Her head spun. 'No!' With a lot of effort, she slammed her heel on his instep and heard a crunch. Gippal released her with a mighty shove, howling in pain.
Rikku stumbled back, grabbing onto the chair near the bed for support. "Calm down," she told herself, though it was useless. She was shaking so badly she thought perhaps her bones had turned to jelly. No, calm, calm… she had to cure him, she had to! She couldn't concentrate. So many things were running through her head.
'Stop it! I've got to-' The thought was cut short when a force knocked into her. She crashed onto her bed, knocking her head on the elaborate wooden headboard. Stars burst before her eyes. She had trouble breathing- it took her a moment to realize that Gippal was choking her.
'I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I don't want to die, but I can't fix him!' She tried to pull his fingers away, to no avail. Her ears were ringing and her vision was becoming cloudy- not only with the Darkness, but with the first signs of passing out as well. 'I've got to…' No more time for this. She grabbed a hold of Gippal's face and pushed out as much power as she could muster.
The magic hit him like a load, flinging him across the room. He hit the wall with a tremendous crack- she wouldn't have been surprised if his spine broke- and slithered to the ground in a slump. There was a hole in the plaster where he struck the wall.
Rikku sat up, gasping for air, lightheaded. With a moan, she leaned over the edge of the bed and retched violently into the wastebasket beside it. Finally, slowly, she sat up and rubbed her neck, wincing. That had hurt. She swallowed hard and started to tremble- she had nearly been killed!
Across the room, Gippal stirred with a groan. He pushed himself up on one hand, holding his head with the other. "Ugh… what happened?" he croaked. "Feels like one hell of a hangover."
Rikku cleared her throat and he looked at her, faintly surprised. "You- you tried to kill me," she managed.
"What? I- Rikku…"
"You had the Plague."
"The Plague," he paused. "The Plague! Rikku, I-" He stood up quickly but, with a yelp of pain, slumped back down again. "My foot…"
"Uh… yeah, I- I broke it, accidentally on purpose." She drew in a shaky breath. "Nng… now I know how Yunie must have felt." She rubbed her neck again.
Gippal half-crawled half-hobbled across the room and gingerly sat next to her. "Rikku, I'm- I'm sorry about this," he said seriously. "I… well… Look, I have to tell you something." His voice was quiet, laced with traces of pain. "I know where the Plague-"
The door slammed open and the light flickered on. "What is going on here? I woke up, thinking I heard Rikku shouting and Gippal was gone." It was Effram. It was obvious he just woke up- his blond hair was atrocious. His eyes flickered to Gippal, suspicious. "What are you doing in her room in the middle of the night?" He didn't see the hole in the wall. The door managed to block the view.
Gippal didn't answer.
"Did you…?" His eyes narrowed. He didn't see the hole in the wall. The door managed to block the view, so there was only one thing he could have come up with. He turned to Rikku. "Did he do anything to you? Did he try to force himself on you or anything?"
"No! no, Gippal's not like that." She rubbed her neck again and then placed her hand on Gippal's knee. "It was…" She paused. What to do? "I- I had a bad dream. A very bad dream." Gently, she coaxed curative magic down Gippal's leg towards his broken foot. She glanced at him. His eyes were finally losing the glossy haze of a body going into shock. "He was just making sure I was okay." Unobtrusively, she put her hands back in her lap. His foot was healed. Which was a good thing, because they wouldn't be able to explain away a broken foot- not with her story of a simple nightmare. She frowned. She could have told Effram the truth. Gippal had the Plague. And it was gone now. So, why didn't she? She glanced at Gippal from the corner of her eye.
"I see…" he didn't look convinced. "Gippal, why don't you just go back to bed?"
"Why should I listen-"
"Gippal, I'll be fine now. Just listen to him," Rikku said, patting his shoulder.
"But… are you sure? I could talk to you about it." He gave her a very pointed look, which she returned with a puzzled one of her own. What was that for?
She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yes, I'll be fine."
He frowned. "All right then. Sleep well." He stood up. "See you in the morning then." And he brushed past Effram.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Effram asked worriedly.
She smiled, though not a lot of feeling went into it. "Yes, I'll be fine."
He nodded. "Sleep well then." He reached for the doorknob. "Oh, I would lock my door if I were you." And quietly, he slipped out, closing it behind him.
Rikku took a deep breath, and stood up, locking it as he suggested. She frowned. Her door had been locked. After all, Gippal had this nasty habit of sleepwalking. She rubbed her neck again. He … had been very determined to kill her that evening. And he would have, had her panic not fueled her magic.
She clenched her fists. Who else around her would get the Plague? Her chest tightened with panic. What if it was Barthello next? He looked twice as strong as Gippal- she would be dead before she could wake up! Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. This was not the time to panic.
She pushed a hand through her loose blond hair and glanced across the room, at the hole Gippal made. O'aka would not be too pleased with that development.
''''
When Rikku looked in the mirror the next morning, she wasn't surprised to see dark bruises around her neck. And they weren't the sort that girls would giggle and blush about for the next day or so either. She touched the marks gingerly. She would definitely have to cover those up. Effram would notice.
She rifled through her bag until she found a top with a high neck. It was perfect, serving two purposes: one to hide the bruises and two to keep her warm in the snowy weather. She pulled the shirt over her head, swatting away the strands of hair that floated around her head in a vague halo.
She frowned. "This isn't like me," she murmured, pulling her hair into a ponytail and tiny braids. She finished it off by tying her favorite blue scarf around her head. "Why should I care if they see the bruises. Why did I lie to Effram about Gippal? It's not that big of a deal, right?" So why did she protect him? It wasn't as though he'd get into trouble- though, if he did, it wouldn't hurt. His ego could have been knocked down a notch or two. So why? Why? Perhaps she really liked- 'Ugh! No, stop right there!' She didn't want to see where that thought led, though she was afraid she already knew.
Hastily, she washed her face and left her room, heading for the front of O'aka's in hope that the others would be waiting for her- which they were.
"We've been waiting for about an hour now, your highness," Effram teased with a smile.
She stuck her tongue out at him. What was with those guys always calling her that?
"Well, we ought to go," Gippal said, glancing between Rikku and Effram with a frown.
O'aka, sensing a business opportunity, bustled his way between the party. "Care to stock up on supplies and gear before you head out?" he asked eagerly. "You never know what you might run into out there."
"Bicro pycdynt, ech'd ra? :Pushy bastard, isn't he:"
Effram conceded to buy extra arrows and Gippal threw down some gil for a new box of bullets. O'aka was beside himself with glee. "Thank you for choosing O'aka's!"
"Yeah, like we had a choice," Rikku muttered as they headed out the door.
"We could have camped outside," Barthello pointed out.
"We aren't as adaptive to cold and wet as you are," she replied crisply.
"Someone is moody," Gippal said. "Is it –ahem- that time of the-"
"You don't want to finish that sentence." She narrowed her eyes. "And no! I didn't sleep well after that nightmare last night, remember?"
He had the decency to be quiet after that.
They approached the path to Macalania Temple. It was very quiet there. The only sound seemed to be the crunch of snow beneath their feet. Rikku didn't like quiet.
As expected, there was a gaping maw practically splitting the path in half. Rikku crunched over to the edge and peered down. All she saw was endless nothing. "So dizzy…" Her footing faltered and crumbled beneath her.
"Get back from there, you idiot!" Gippal seized her arm and hauled her away from the hole as the ice on which she had been standing disappeared into the pit. "You could have fallen! You need to think, you know!"
She was too busy trying to regain her composure to supply a rude reply.
"How was she supposed to know that it would give way?" Effram demanded, glaring at Gippal.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure that out!"
Barthello squatted next to Rikku, ignoring the other two as they bickered. "Are you okay?"
"Ah… I think."
The ground rumbled beneath their feet. It was as though the path was going to cave in. Rikku staggered to her feet and glanced around. The surrounding cliffs were crumbling. She stumbled backwards towards Gippal and Effram, who had stopped arguing at this recent turn of events. "What's going on?" she shouted over the noise.
"How should we know?" Gippal shouted right back.
She heard a roar over the rumble of falling ice and rock. "Do you hear that?"
"I can't hear anything over all of this noise!" Effram stopped and glanced around. "Wait." The roar grew a bit louder. It was similar to the one an airship might make in passing.
"What is that?" She looked around for the source of the noise. Was it the sound of hundreds of thousands of cracks spreading beneath their feet? Was it the sound of a cave in? The ground shook even harder.
"Uhhh, I think that's your answer!" Barthello bellowed, pointing to a huge, furry head emerging from the maw. Another roar split the air- filled with gnashing teeth and ropes of saliva- and the ground quaked even more.
Rikku groaned. Not again. "Get out of the way, you big, stupid fiend! We're in a hurry here!"
"Get a grip, Rikku! Do you think it's going to say 'Oh, okay!' and sit with us for a cup of tea?" Gippal snapped.
"Prepare yourself!" Effram shouted, slipping an arrow into his crossbow.
Rikku unsheathed her blades, grumbling under her breath. Of all the nerve! Gippal could be so rude.
She turned to the fiend. Curved horns protruded from its mottled, scarlet head. It had fully risen from the maw and was staring at them down a squashed, ugly snout, as if contemplating how it would like to eat them for dinner.
"Okay ugly, you're going down!" She gripped her blades and darted into battle. She dashed around the fiend's massive ankles, slashing and jabbing, never staying in place long enough for the fiend to get a hit in. Brilliantly lit arrows soared through the sky and bullets rained in after them- Effram and Gippal were hard at work. They circled the fiend, shooting at it from different, open angles. Some shots struck- enough to truly irritate the beast…
But where was Barthello? Rikku spared herself a moment to roll her eyes. He probably ran away. He always struck her as rather cowardly.
Unexpectedly, the fiend stumbled backwards. Rikku glanced over her shoulder and stared in shock. Barthello hadn't run away. She watched stupidly as he backed up and charged, barehanded, into the fiend's leg. It stumbled again. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. He was trying to push it over- and doing a good job, considering the beast's size. With a squeak, she jumped out of the way of a wayward paw as the fiend attempted to keep its balance. Those muscles weren't just there for show!
"Keep at it, Barthello!" With a yell, she whirled and slammed her blades into the fiend's ankle. The ground shook with its mighty roar. She was thrown back with the blow as its foot swung into the air. She scowled. Her blades were stuck in its ankle- no use to her there. She grit her teeth and charged back into the rumble, throwing all of her frustration into her attack. Aggressively, she managed to rip the blades from the fiend's ankles. It roared. Strike, tear, strike, tear… Oh yes, this fiend was going to be sorry it ever decided to even stick a hair outside its icy little world.
The fight was surprisingly short. Under the pressure of hailing bullets and arrows and Barthello's pushing, it flailed. It's arms pinwheeled wildly. And then it happened. The fiend's swinging arms brushed past them all, except one. Gippal's breath left in a loud "whoof!" when a passive paw caught him in the middle. He was stunned. He staggered back a step or so. Closer towards the gaping hole in the ice.
"Gippal, watch out!"
As if in slow motion, though it only took mere seconds, the flailing arm flung his body into the air and smashed him with unexpected force down into the hole. He didn't even make a sound. Seconds later, the fiend followed.
In an instant, Rikku dropped her bloody blades and ran to the hole screaming, "Gippal!" She dropped to her knees, clutching her bleeding side, and peered over the edge desperately. There was nothing. "Gippal!" she screamed again. He was… he was… Pyreflies swarmed from the hole and she stared at them in horror. "No… noooo!" Hot tears burned down her frozen cheeks. He couldn't be… She stood and prepared to jump in after him. He couldn't! She was going to get him back! He couldn't die on her like this!
A pair of hands grabbed her arm and yanked her back as her feet left the ground, nearly pulling her arm out of joint.
"Let me go! I have to go after him! I have to get Gippal back!"
The grip was firm. She looked back and saw Barthello staring forlornly at her. She pulled against him, but it was useless.
"Don't be stupid!" Effram shouted. "You'll die if you fall down there!"
"I survived it once, I can survive it again!" she snarled. "I'm getting him back!"
CRACK!
With an enraged squeal, Rikku held her cheek. "You slapped me!"
"I had to knock some sense into you somehow! I'm sorry, but what's happened has happened! Jumping into that damned hole isn't going to bring anyone back to life!"
"But-"
"But nothing! Listen to what I'm saying or so help me I'll…" He made an agitated gesture and grunted.
With a sob, Rikku sank to her knees. She buried her face in her hands, trying to stifle the noise. It wasn't fair!
A pair of arms encircled her. "Cry as much as you need to. It is the only path to feeling better." It was Barthello.
With a choking gasp, she dropped her head on his shoulder and did just that.
……….
Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! It was a bit shorter than the others, but quite action packed if I do say so myself. The fiend battle in particular turned out NOTHING like I had originally planned. Can you guess why? -
Jen: I hope you liked this chapter as much as the others! And the odd thing is, you remind me of someone I used to chat with!
oOoDancingQueenoOo: Hahah! Well, Gippal nearly did do that, didn't he?
Delilah Wigglesworth: laughs I am flattered that you think my story is such a welcome Thank you very much!
Cute-kitty: Well, you guessed right! Gippal DID have the Plague (Or was he really just pmsing? -)! He's getting the short end of the stick a lot in this story… I hope that it wasn't too disappointing.
Sunday-dreamer: laughs You too guessed correctly! Or hoped correctly, as it may be. I'm glad the cliffie had its desired effect - bwahaha
green-eyed-blonde: laughs Barthello hurt, huh? Yeah, he doesn't seem like much in the brains department. He's more like the big, dumb, teddy bear
Pikachu: Well, I hope you didn't go too crazy waiting for this chapter!
Black Eyed Mistress: Oh yes, the threat of homework! Ahhh, the downfall of us all! laughs But I'm glad you were able to find time to read and enjoy my story And yep, you were right, miso soup was the answer And! You aren't the only one of my readers who thinks Effram needs a girl!
PerfectStranger: insert another evil laugh Ah yes, death by cliffies. It does have potential! - And oh dear, reading that thing about Effram made me laugh so hard!
i won't tell: Yay! My story is favorited! And I am loved! I am most flattered! I hope you continue to enjoy this story to the very end.