Tainted Blood
Chapter 6
by. SilverWolf-Ryuki
A/N: Aww... T,T I'm in tears...thanks guys... AngeloflLight Blackdranzergurl, whooptidoo-basil (I'd be freaked out if your mate was a monster every first day of a full moon...lolz), youkiaofdaundrworld, ShadedRogue (Hilary?! Yeah, right...whatever...no, read the summary and see who Kai's paired up with. ;D), WindWitch (Finally! Someone who shares my looks on things. What you said is exactly what I had planned...), Monarch, Shaedowe, Go stick your head in a toilet (I love your name XD I hope I never meet Billy Bob Joe because he's on a mission to assasinate me...-ghasp-), Kilala-kat-ex, Lily-the-fox, kokujogirl, annonymous, LunaRavenCroftand MaoAyanami/okami. XD Luff you all...especially to those who said Happy Birthday to me. :)
From Last Chapter...
"Yeah," Mariah agreed softly. "I can't imagine going through that myself."
I can.
The blue haired teen closed his eyes and turned around so that his back was facing Mariah and the girl. He opened his eyes and looked up at the darkening sky and frowned. Slowly, he watched as the sky as it turned into a shade of pinkish blue.
I know how she feels...
I can imagine going through that...
I can.
---
After a meal of game hunted by Tala and Lee, and a few fishes that were surprisingly big that came out of the stream, all 5 of the teens were full and satisfied. The unknown girl remained unconscious, which got Mariah fussing about how she'd survive without food, and why she was unconscious for so long. That was before Tala burst her bubble and reminded her that people could be unconscious for quite a while.
They then set up a camp at the spot and all slept on their mats that they brought from the camp. It was lucky that they brought extras, incase theirs broke or was lost. Tala was happy to just sleep on the grass on such a nice day, and the girl was placed on a mat to rest.
Grey orbs opened slowly as Kai frowned. He sat up, not able to sleep. Kai looked around; the others were in dream land already. Kai sighed and stood up quietly. He slowly walked over to the stream. He sat down cross-legged beside the water and stared out into space. The full moon and the dark blue sky reflected upon the water in the stream, making it seem as if the water was different shades of blue. The color of the water reflected in the grey of Kai's eyes. If one were to look at him from the other side of the stream, they'd have the impression that his eyes were different shades of blue that rippled.
Kai stayed like that for a couple of hours, before returning to his 'bed' to catch some shuteye, incase the next day was rough.
---
A pair of piercing green eyes opened suddenly. The being looked up and realized she was under an open sky, instead of trees. Panicking, she tried to sit up, but was rewarded by pain and stinging of her body. Her nose caught the scent of herbs and medicine. Her body felt as if something was wrapped around it tightly. She reached up to touch her face and felt bandages.
Looking around, she saw the sun begin to come out and the sky lighten. Under the light, the green eyes widened as she saw many more people lying upon mats, except one person, who lied upon the bare grass. She looked down, and realized she was also lying on a mat.
Who did this? Who brought me here? Why? Who are they?
Questions raced in her mind, as she suddenly felt tired and dizzy. Her head felt as if it were to explode. Her eyelids drooped and she felt herself falling. Then, in a sudden movement, a black sheet covered the colors of the world...
---
Tala's eyes opened suddenly and he sat up abruptly. He looked around. Then, in the corner of his eyes, he saw the girl they found on in the forest. He could have sworn that she fell down onto the mat as soon as he looked that way. He slowly stood and made his way towards the girl, but she showed no sign of waking on consciousness.
Could she be pretending to be unconscious?
Tala shook his head. Someone with all those wounds and lost all that blood could not have been fine, and well enough to try tricks.
Could they?
Doubts left his mind as he made his way to the stream to wake himself up.
---
A certain blue haired boy stirred. He turned onto his side and his eyes opened. He sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his grey eyes. He shook his head and jumped onto his feet. He then strode over to the stream to wash up.
Remembering last night, Kai was surprised that he was able to get up so early this morning, without anyone waking him up. He half expected to wake up under the 'Dracula', as Lee did.
Kai looked over to where Tala slept last night and found the spot empty. So...he's an early bird. Good to have someone wake up early.
Then, Kai glanced over at the girl. She seemed to have moved during the night, for her hands were no longer at her side, but more spread out. Her fingers just reached the edge of the mat.
It must have been his imagination or his lack of memory in the morning.
...It has to be...
---
Lee slowly opened his eyes, even though his body refused to move. The Chinese boy yawned as he slowly sat up, despite the fact that his body is still telling him to stop and lie back down and sleep. He looked around and noticed that Tala was already gone. A patch in the grass showed where he slept last night. Lee yawned again and looked at everyone else.
They were all asleep.
All were asleep except Kai, who was putting away his stuff into his bag.
Lee slowly praised to God that he wasn't scared awake by Rei again, or worse yet – Mariah. He winced as he imagined a pink haired Dracula. Standing up, the black haired boy made his way to the stream. He dug through his backpack to find the things he needed to wash up with.
---
Next to wake up was Rei, who woke finding that he tossed and turned last night. What was his proof? Ray sighed and took loose his ponytail, which was now in a mess.
Slowly, while trying to tame his long hair, Ray made his way to his bag. Yawning and showing fangs, the Chinese boy tied up his hair and got out his stuff.
"Tired still?"
The voice made him jump. Mostly because he was half asleep, he didn't notice the older Chinese boy sitting near the stream.
"Oh it's you...morning Lee." Rei mumbled tiredly. He yawned again. "Am I Tired? I'd say yeah."
"You should have kept on sleeping if you were tired," another voice came behind the two. Rei turned to see Mariah.
"Hey Mariah." Rei greeted the pink haired girl.
"Morning, Mariah." Lee said to her younger sister.
"So, how's the girl?" Rei asked as he pointed to the still unconscious teen.
"She's...unconscious." Mariah said lamely.
"That's helpful." Yet another voice rang out from behind them. Kai walked towards the three.
"Hi Kai," Mariah gave a weak smile.
"Morning," Lee said.
Rei mumbled something unrecognizable with a mouthful of toothpaste.
"Yeah...great, Kun...charming." Tala's sarcasm reached everyone's ears as the crimson haired teen sat down near Kai.
"Hey." Lee greeted.
"'Lo." Mariah raised a hand.
Kai nodded towards him.
"Yo." Rei said moments later, after he got rid of all the bubbles and toothpaste in his mouth.
Kai turned his attention to Rei. "Are we still on track of the next bit-beast?"
"Yeah," The Chinese boy replied thoughtfully. "It will take us about...2 hours to get back on track...or we can just take the route that we got into the second bit-beast, which is the same distance. Two options, you choose."
The teen sighed as he was facing yet another choice – one that can effect if he gets Dranzer or not. It was this, or that, and both of them had a 50/50 chance of leading to Dranzer.
"Which route has more bit-beast along its line?" Lee asked, simply curious.
"The new one," Ray replied.
"Does it change much if we go on the new one? I mean...we are planning to go to all of them sooner or later. Does going to the new route change anything?" Kai asked with a frown.
Ray thought for a moment. "Actually...If we use the new route, we'd cover more in less time. Then, we can just curve across the Pacific Ocean and then-"
"Please do NOT remind me how we have to cross so much land. Or water, for that matter." Mariah said firmly.
"Actually, somehow, most of them are in China, and around the same continent. Only 2, or 3, are elsewhere." Ray said suddenly.
"Choice two sounds pretty good." Kai decided.
"Another problem, the girl, she needs to be carried to the next location." Kai reminded.
Tala raised an eyebrow. "Why don't we try to wake her?"
Rei frowned. "That could just make her problem worse."
"Or it could wake her up." Lee reminded.
"I think...we should stick to the safe route first. Get someone carry her to the next location." Mariah informed the two, who both shrugged.
"I don't suppose I have to carry her again?" Kai sighed. He made his way towards the girl, who hasn't moved still.
"I was about to offer, but hey, if you really want to..." Rei joked.
Kai glared. "I could just hand her to you and see how you'd do carrying her across the...whatever distance we have to travel across."
"Uh...second though...why don't you just take care of it?" Rei said nervously as a sweat-drop formed on his temple.
"Well...why don't we get going?" Lee suggested and started to gather up the mats and the rest of the stuff scattered around.
"Sure." Mariah went over and gathered all the stuff she used – bandages, herbs, bowls, cloths, etc.
Tala walked over to where Kai was, beside the unknown girl. "Don't you think we should fill up our water containers? I'm not that familiar with the area beyond here." The crimson haired boy suggested.
"Why don't you tell them?" Kai said as he carefully pulled the mat from under the dark blue haired girl.
Tala looked away. "I'm not quite-"
"Hey, Rei, do me a favor." Kai called as the black haired boy came over. "Gather all the water containers and refill it with the stream water. We'll never know when we come across another source of water."
Rei nodded and went off.
"Now..." Kai sighed deeply and looked at the frail girl.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, eyebrows fluttered. The girl slowly opened her eyes with great effort as her eyesight started to clear up. Piercing green eyes looked with fright at Kai as she fully woken.
---
Piercing green eyes widened with surprise and fear as she saw the teen. He had cool grey eyes and blue-grey hair. He also had 4 blue triangular tattoos on his face, 2 on each cheek. His eyes also showed surprise at her waking. His face was almost perfect, as if it was a statue carved by one of the world's finest artists. The surprise in his eyes soon disappeared and was replaced by a neutral look.
"Finally, I see you've woken up." He said with a clear voice.
Behind him was another teen. He, on the other hand, had crimson hair and two strands of hair that fell onto his face. His clear light blue eyes looked at her with curiosity as he raised an eyebrow. Even though the teen looked serious, very serious, a small smile of amusement was tugging at his thin lips. His face was, like Kai's, almost perfectly structured. Mariam blushed slightly, waking up to two guys looking over her.
"Kai, what a coincident, she woke up just in time, I see. Now you don't have to do your job." The teen said to the blue haired teen he called Kai, who shrugged.
"Luck, I guess." He said. "Tala, it's not my job, it's a responsibility no one took, except me.
"Yeah, in other words, your job," The teen named Tala pointed out again. Kai closed his eyes and sighed.
The dark blue haired girl sat up, with less difficulty than last night. "Who...?" She started, her voice coming out scratchy. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Who are you?"
"Kai, Hiwatari Kai." The blue haired teen said with a slight shadow of a smile.
"Ivanov, Tala." The crimson haired teen nodded towards her. "Who are you?"
"I'm..." The girl hesitated. "Mariam." She replied cautiously.
---
Kai blinked at the girl's cautiousness. He doesn't blame her. He would have done the same. Turning around, Kai faced the others. "Guys, guess who woke up."
Mariah was quick to accept it and immediately ran over. Lee and Rei, on the other hand, paused a while, letting it sink it. Then, their expressions changed into surprise and they too came over.
"Hi, I'm Mariah." Mariah smiled sweetly and offered her hand. Carefully and closely, Mariah studied the features of the girl. She had dark blue hair that, from the looks of it, was hastily tied into a ponytail. Two pieces of hair hung and framed her pale, heart shaped face. Her dark lips opened slightly and her piercing green eyes widened in surprise.
---
"I'm Mariam." Looking at the pink haired girl, Mariam accepted her hand. She nearly gawked at the fangs and amber eyes of the teen.
Two others came over, and Kai and Tala walked out to make room for the two.
"This is my brother, Lee." Mariah said, pointing to a Chinese boy with short ponytail, bandages wrapped on his arms and legs, and a necklace with teal fang-like stones. His eyes were also golden.
"Hi." Lee smiled, showing fangs as well. Mariam blinked. He also had fangs.
"Hello. I'm Rei Kun." The third Chinese came over. He had long black hair that was tied into a long ponytail and amber eyes. He also had a bandana with a yin-yang sign on it. He smiled, showing fangs.
Mariam blinked in surprise. She just met three people that had fangs and yellow eyes. And they said she was strange? They resemble cats... Mariam though, amused at the thought of cat people. Quickly, the humorous thought disappeared as she realized she still doesn't know how she got here, or why she was with them.
---
"Why am I here?" Mariam asked with a puzzled frown.
"Well..." Mariah cleared her throat. "Kai there," she pointed to the blue haired teen, "and Tala," she pointed to the crimson haired teen, "smelled your blood while we were wandering. Don't ask me how; I'm still trying to figure out that part...anyways. Somehow...somehow...Kai identified it as human blood, so he ran over to see what, or who, left it. Then, we came across you in a forest. We somehow decided in unison that we shouldn't let you die."
Lee nodded, agreeing with his sister. "Then, Kai carried you to here, where we stayed for the past...around day. Mariah here is responsible for the bandages around you and the herbs. She cleaned you up. Then, today, you woke up."
Mariam froze, taking in all that happened. "Oh..." She finally said. She looked down. "Thank you."
"No prob." Mariah smiled at the girl.
Rei cleared his throat.
Kai cocked an eyebrow at the Chinese boy, who shook his head, indicating there's nothing wrong. Still suspicious, Kai looked away.
Soon after Kai looked away, Tala, Mariah and Lee each raised an eyebrow at him.
"WHAT?" Rei threw both his hands up, almost as if he was surrendering. "Why are you raising eyebrows at me? I'm not suspicious of anything!"
An exasperated sigh came from a certain crimson haired teen. "Rei, you just gave yourself away."
"I have to side with Tala on this one." Lee slowly nodded. "What's up?"
"I'm not quite sure yet." Rei confessed.
Rolling her eyes and waving her hand as if to say 'sure, whatever', Mariah turned back to Mariam. "Do you want to come with us on our journey? Well, you're not completely healed...plus, I could use a decent company traveling with those idiots." She said, looking at the guys.
Mariam blinked in surprise. No one had ever wanted her around before without any important reason behind it. "Umm... I'd love to. But what and where exactly are you going and going?"
It was Kai's turn to be uncomfortable. He shuffled his feet and suddenly found his shoes to be very interesting.
"First..." Tala frowned. "Why don't you tell us why we should trust you? How'd you get hurt?"
"Well..." Mariam sighed. "I was hunting for my village. When I got back, people came to attack. I had to run; there was nothing I could do. I wasn't experienced yet. Then, when the fight was over, I went back to the village, but they set up a trap for me to catch my bit-beast-"
"AHA!" Rei declared, receiving curious and suspicious raises of eyebrows. Looking at the expressions given to him, Rei coughed. "Sorry."
"OK, what's wrong?" Tala snarled at the boy.
"Well..." Rei rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't tell you guys earlier because I wasn't sure...I WAS going to tell you about it later, after this talk was over, but-"
"Just say it." Mariah and Lee demanded with the same dangerous voice at the exact same time. Rei could have sworn their eyes turned red for a second.
"Mariam has a sacred bit-beast."
Mariam looked blankly at Rei. "A sacred bit-beast...?"
Kai raised an eyebrow.
(A/N: Today is 'Raise Your Eyebrow' day! Make your eyebrow go up and join the fun!! –Forced grin-)
"You...don't know what it is." Kai said slowly to Mariam, almost with disbelief. He sighed and turned away. Out of nowhere, he just walked away.
Mariah gave a glare at the blue haired teen. She sighed. "A sacred bit-beast...I assume you know what a bit-beast is? Well..."
As Mariah explained, Mariam, found the previous scene amusing; a smile tugged at her lips.
TBC...
---
Ryuki: Lame ending – I KNOW! I had to end it somehow! It was there, or the chapter being VERY long. The next event...lets just say it takes a while...and if I stuff that all into this chapter...well, I can guarantee you'd be reading for quite a while. - -;