Chapter Fifteen: Watcher
Raya followed the group for three days, and when they entered the city, she continued smoothly, sliding in and among the salesmen unnoticed with practiced ease. She saw the group of five enter the palace, and instantly started to try and figure out how she could get inside. She watched a vendor enter with his wares, and followed, pretending to be the man's daughter. When no one detected her, she slipped away to a nearby garden filled with trees in full bloom. Much to her surprise, she found the man with the purple hair speaking to someone she could only guess was the emperor. Under her watchful gaze, the two spoke, and she edged closer to hear their words.
"You say that they fulfill a prophecy?" The emperor's words were quiet, but Raya had sharpened her ears to the point of perfection to hear their voices.
The purple haired man nodded. "Both of them. There is a third, she's one of the twins, she left…" His voice trailed off.
The emperor decided not to press the matter. "What are their names again, Nuriko?"
Realization dawned in Raya's mind. 'So that's his name' she thought. 'Nuriko.' She looked at him closer, examining him as best she could without giving away her position. 'It suits him.' She started listening again as Nuriko listed the names of his female companions.
"The twin's name is Selene, and she's deadly efficient, according to Mitsukake." The emperor motioned for him to continue, committing the names to memory. "There's Amber, she likes Tasuki from what I can tell, and she has a giant mallet…" Nuriko shook his head, feeling almost sorry for Tasuki's constant beatings from a girl that he denied liking. He couldn't deny liking her, after all, he never blocked her strikes. The emperor nodded. He started to walk away, but as Raya shifted, his eyes caught the after-motion of the foliage.
Nuriko looked at him in confusion as he stopped suddenly. "Hotohori, why'd you stop?" Raya shifted even further into the shadows, but stepped on a branch, causing it to snap loudly. She winced and held her breath, hoping that they hadn't heard.
Hotohori's eyes searched the trees and shrubs. "Who's there?" Nuriko looked in the same direction, and saw a pair of emerald eyes staring at him again.
He shifted to stand nearer to the brush than Hotohori, and called out to Raya. "Come out. You're the person I saw that morning, right? Who are you?" Raya crouched even further into the darkening foliage. Nuriko sighed. "Do I have to fish you out?" he asked, exasperation creeping into his voice. She didn't move, and he rolled his eyes.
He turned to Hotohori. "One moment please." He walked quickly into the shrubs, and before Raya could move away, his hand clamped firmly on hers, and try as she might, she could not escape his vice-like grip. Nuriko drug her out of the bushes and set her in front of him, his hand never letting go of her wrist. "Our eavesdropper." he announced triumphantly.
Raya automatically turned and glared. "I wasn't eavesdropping." she spit out.
Hotohori looked amused as she tried to free herself from Nuriko's hand. "Then what were you doing?"
Her struggles faded away as she answered. "I was watching."
"Aren't they the same thing?" Nuriko asked.
"NO!" Raya was beyond offended and her green eyes flared darkly in anger. "Eavesdropping implies not only an evil intent but also that the act is committed by someone evil. Watching is simply observing to find out more information on something that interests you…" her fury died away as she finished and Hotohori smiled knowingly.
"Why are you just a watcher then?" Nuriko asked, still trying to puzzle out what her words meant exactly.
A soft feminine voice interrupted. "She isn't just A watcher, she is THE Watcher." Nuriko and Hotohori spun around, Nuriko dragging Raya around with him.
"And you are?" Hotohori stood straighter as he asked.
The woman laughed gently. "I'm Selene; the Guide." She gestured towards the trapped Raya. "She is the Watcher, a member of the Prophecy of the Goddess. Like myself."
Raya wrenched her hand out of Nuriko's grip while he wasn't focused on her, and she raced over to Selene. "Is it really you?" she asked, reaching a hand out to gently brush Selene's pale face. Selene laughed again and squeezed the smaller woman in a hug. "Where were you?"
Selene cringed. "I should have expected that."
Raya stood back and crossed her arms across her chest, most of her weight on her right leg as she sent an expectant look to Selene. "Uh huh. You should have." She shifted her weight onto her other leg. "Spill. Now."
"Later?" Selene tried. Raya glared. "Right." The Guide licked her lips, and took a deep breath before beginning. "I took you to Mitsukake after the fight, and it looked like it would be too much for you." Her voice was quiet, and Nuriko and Hotohori had to strain to hear it. "I left; I couldn't stand burying you. I started on my quest to find Solei, and that lasted up until a day or two ago, but I searched for that year." Selene raised her lavender eyes from the ground, and the three listeners could see the shame that ran through their normally emotionless depths.
Raya enveloped her teacher and friend in a tight hug and started rocking back and forth, soothing away the tears that were falling softly on Raya's shoulder. "Mitsukake healed me fine, and now we're both back on our feet and we can properly complete the Prophecy thingy."
Selene abruptly stepped out of Raya's embrace and gave Nuriko an almost apologetic look. "Solei." She licked her lips and started again. "My twin is teetering between completing the Prophecy and destroying it."
Nuriko's eyes went wide. "What?" he asked faintly.
"Later." she answered. "I'll only explain once."
Raya grinned. "If at all."
Selene returned the impish smile with one of her own that was equally devious. "Indeed." A shout came from the palace, and Selene's smile turned genuine. "Now you can meet Amber." The brunette raced out of the door, mallet raised high above her head as she chased Tasuki out the door.
"That is Amber." Amber jerked her head in greetings while charging him. Mitsukake strolled casually out the door and over to the group, and Tasuki managed to escape from Amber's fury, glancing around furtively as if she was going to attack him at any time.
"VICTORY WILL BE MINE!" The two women grimaced as Amber pulled out her mallet and began swinging it wildly in an attempt to hit Tasuki.
"Cover your ears." Everyone but Hotohori followed Selene's advice instantly.
"Why?" A loud SMASH answered Hotohori's question, and he nodded in understanding, brushing dust out of his long hair.
Mitsukake glanced around. "Where are they?"
Selene grinned. "I've put them in separate bubbles." The last of the dust cleared and they could see that Selene had indeed trapped both the Daughter of the God and the Flame Seishi in their own individual chi cases.
A flare of red erupted from Amber, but the barrier held strong. Her mouth started moving, but no sounds could be heard from the angry demi-goddess. All eyes turned to Selene for an explanation.
She shrugged her shoulders. "I knew she would curse, and some of the words she is using are particularly nasty, so I just decided to make it sound proof."
"The obvious choice." Nuriko added.
Selene grinned and pointed to the approaching spheres of chi. "They really are well suited."
Amber glared as Selene released her, but turned away, seeming to notice Raya for the first time. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm Raya, the Watcher."
"Right."
Raya sighed. "Selene will vouch for me."
Amber looked to the Guide for confirmation, glaring at Raya out of the corner of her eye. "The Watcher?"
"Yes."
"Okay." She turned back to Raya with a smile. "I'm Amber. Nice to meet you." Raya nodded, unsure of what to say after Amber's sudden mood swing.
Selene gave a small smirk and turned to Raya. "In order to stop the unnecessary continuation of unkind aggravation between the two I'll have to sacrifice my brother's teddy bear so that it can lay an egg in the mystic lands of the banjo. If the teddy bear doesn't lay a egg, I must find the crazy hermit who prophesizes and kill him, burning his kidney as a gift to the all powerful gods of the spleen, taking great care that the blood does not drip onto the mystic two-stringed guitar flower known only as Billy-bob." She paused to take a breath before continuing. "But Chinese midgets were born in the Year of the Purple Bullfrog, so the two-stringed guitar flower will be named Jeremiah and have six strings. Due to the increase in quartz, the windmills will fall with a single poke of Don Quixote's lance and he will be victorious as his horse, Rockinante, rides off into the sunset to gather more of the Ladyflower that will force the teddy bear to give birth." She finished, panting heavily, and looked to the others for a response.
Raya grinned. "But what about Shakespeare?" Selene quirked an eyebrow. "He too was born in the Year of the Purple Bullfrog, so he is doomed to be within the windmills as Rockinante and Don Quixote nock them over. The increased weight of the windmill will cause an imbalance across the Earth, and it will force the land to sink under the waves, thus creating the legend of Atlantis and paving the way for prehistoric man to walk across the watery deserts of Africa."
Mitsukake groaned. "Now they won't stop."
"Why not?" Hotohori asked.
"They won't be outdone by the other. It's a competition."
"Oh."
In the background they could hear Selene responding to Raya's challenge. "But if the lands sink beneath the waves, the flames of hell will be displaced, and forced above ground, trapping the three-footed mongoose in Antarctica where it will begin its plans of world domination."
Raya countered quickly. "Unless of course, the pink-beaked pelican intervenes and introduces the clawed snake, thus killing the mongoose and starting their own reign of terror that will spread according to the laws of the backwards paperclip I found in Amber's pocket…"
Amber put her head in her hands. "It's going to be a long night."
So, what do you think of Raya? And of the prophecy fight? Of anything? Please review and let me know.
MS