Define Normal

Chapter Two - Jessica's Jive

"Huh..what was that?" Diamond said to himself with a low growl. He smelled something very odd. Like nothing he'd ever sniffed before (and boy has he sniffed a lot). It was an unearthly smell, but not a bad one. Cautiously, he took one feeble step away from his fallen human. A tree branch shifted; he practically backflipped back over behind Jessica. "What the heck was that?" he whimpered. Then he caught a glimps of something. It was a shimmery silver color. He spotted a red orb watching him, then it disapeared behind the leaves. A protective awareness washed over him. For some reason he knew that whatever it was out there was after his beloved servant! He did a deep throated growl, "Well, you can't have her! Whatever you are." He took a few steps forward so that he was possitioned between whatever it was and Jessica. As if it could read his thoughts, it showed itself suddenly, Diamond almost fell over from surprise. Whatever that thing was, it was beautiful. It's skin was so shimmery it was almost see-through. It looked sort of like a smooth scaled water serpant, complete with two wing-like fins behind it's head, followed by four 'whiskers', two on each side of it's neck. The tips of their bodies seemed to waver and act like smoke. Disapearing and reapearing at random. It seemed to swim gracefully through the air as it came toward Diamond and his human. Diamond resisted the urge to take a step back and growled even louder. The thing didn't seem to care. It floated right past him and possitioned itself above Jessica.

Spirit.

"Eh..what are you talking about?"

Spirit.

"Um..I believe my human does possess one."

Now hers.

"Now who's?"

Need spirit.

With that, the thing dove at Jessica's chest, but as its whiskers entered Jessica, she gasped and sat straight up, making the thing pass right through her! That made Jessica feel even weirder, so she lept up and took a step back. She almost fell over backwards, but Diamond had ran behind her legs in shock and steadied her balance without realizing it.

Not dead.

The thing starred at Jessica for a second, then turned it's gaze back to the trees where it had come from. "What the.. what the heck!" yelled Jessica, in shock and anger, that had hurt! She was so confused she didn't even register that the thing in front of her was looking away, that is, untill it floated away in the direction it was looking. Diamond started barking, startling Jessica into looking at what he was barking at. She gasped. There was a beautiful -but strange- woman standing in the clearing with her. Three of the spirit collectors were with her, including the one that had tried to get Jessica's soul. The woman was wearing very old style Japanese clothing, a red shirt with long, whispery sleeves, and a long red skirt that flowed with her, even though there was no wind that Jessica could feel. "You! You are what I smell!" yipped Diamond, then he startled violently, "You..you are...DEAD!"

Jessica was VERY confused right now. First she had passed out, then she had felt like someone was trying to pull her entire heart out of her body through a pinhole, and how there was a strange woman with a bunch of weird floaty snake/fish thingies floating around her. And she didn't look too happy, in fact, she was glaring. Suddenly Diamond startled, and for some reason Jessica's ears started to itch! She absently scratched them, and tried to talk to the strange woman, "Uh.. er .. hello? Do you .. uh .. know where I we are?" Oh heck, why are my ears so darn itchy! she thought in frustration. She didn't even notice that now she could hear the squirrel breathing in the branches above her head. The woman glared at her for a little longer, and simply said "You don't belong here." and vanished. Not even a magical poof of smoke and delirious laughter, just disapeared. Jessica clapped her hands over her ears, "OW! She didn't have to yell so loud! .. ow! I don't have to yell so loud.. or breath so loud.. or beat my heart so loud ... Uh..." Jessica stopped talking and removed her hands from her ears. She concentrated on listening, and realized she didn't have to concentrate very hard. Her eyes grew wide, and she looked down at the also-very-confused Diamond sitting at her feet. She could hear his every breath, his heart beat, everything.

"Wha- what just happend?"

"Ahh! Who said that!"

"WAH! Who just spoke?"

"Eh..uh.."

Jessica looked even harder at Diamond, and her eyes grew even wider. "DIAMOND! ARE YOU TALKING TO ME!" she yelled. Diamond looked at her for a moment, and said "Finally. I thought you humans would never figure it out. And why are you sharing my ears?"