Tainted Blood
Chapter 7
by. SilverWolf-Ryuki
"Are you sure you'll be OK?" Mariah asked for what seemed like the millionth time. Mariam smiled.
"Yes, Mariah, I'll be fine." She said patiently. Lee looked at Mariam with amazement.
"I still don't understand how you can be so patient..." He muttered and shook his head. "If it was me, and they asked me that one more time..."
The group has been walking for quite a while now. Despite the fact that Mariam was just horribly injured not long ago, she had no trouble keeping up.
"Hey, guys," Rei called from ahead. "I think I see something."
"Another tree," Kai said lazily. "Amazing discovery, Rei,"
"No, it is a house or a temple of some kind."
Tala perked up. He shielded his face from the sun as he squinted and looked forward. "It's there, alright." He confirmed.
"We can take a rest." Mariah suggested, despite the fact that she was far from tired. This was a breeze compared to her usual chores back at the village.
Moments later, they found themselves at the foot of an old, tattered temple.
"It seems everything we find is tattered." Lee commented and scratched his head. "I'll check it for curses and force shields." He said and turned rightwards to circle the temple.
"He can do that?" Tala asked. Apparently, both Kai and Mariam had the same question, for the puzzled look on their face gave it away.
"Yeah, all the boys from our village had to go through with the monk training." Mariah sighed. "It didn't exactly benefit any of them. Lee, however, had previous training from Grandfather, or elder."
"Safe," Lee called as he reappeared to their left. Seeing no one else wanted to go first, Kai led the group in. The door creaked open slowly.
It was dusty inside, but it was perfectly ordinary and quite well preserved, compared to the outside. It was dark, so they left the door open and opened the windows.
"This is an interesting place." Rei mumbled as he rummaged through the stack of books on ancient arts of magic and wars.
Mariah darted out for a moment and returned with a pouch full of berries. How she got them so fast, we will never know.
Tala opened one of the drawers in the old table and found a dagger. It was silver and had a wolf's head carved onto the handle.
"I guess I'll be keeping this." He muttered and pocketed the weapon.
Kai was looking at the statues. It was a large tall woman with flowing hair. Instead of human ears, hers were rabbit ears. She was frozen in place, hands outstretched, with a necklace dangling off of her fingers. The chain of the necklace was attached to her hand.
Kai leaned in curiously to read the ugly square pendant-like stone on the necklace. It had words carved on it that he could not recognize. Kai reached out and touched the fingertips of the woman.
A sudden urge to touch the necklace spread through his body. It seemed all too familiar.
Then, he realized, this was how he got Black Dranzer. Frowning, Kai thought of the possibility of what would happen if he touched the necklace.
All doubts suddenly evaporated. Kai reached out slowly and his fingertips brushed the surprisingly smooth surface of the stone.
Nothing happened.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Kai looked at the pendant once more. Then, it suddenly started to pulse. Deep, ground shaking thuds came from within the stone. The force of the pulses knocked everyone to the ground, with the exception of Mariam and Mariah, who were already sitting.
The pendant started to glow pink, and suddenly, a black started to taint it from the spot Kai's fingers touched the stone.
Kai looked bitterly at the transformation, knowing well what it meant. He, Kai Hiwatari, with the help of Black Dranzer, was tainting the stone. The black suddenly turned blood red, and then back into a soft shade of pink. The stone started to transform. It broke off from the chain.
"Kai, what did you do?" Lee muttered, more to himself than Kai.
Kai didn't reply. The stone has turned into the shape of a rabbit. The stone rabbit suddenly blinked, and it became alive. Its silvery eyes looked straight into Kai's eyes.
It was then; Kai felt the eyes stare into his soul and heart. His eyes widened.
The rabbit cleaned its paws and then its face. It looked at Kai once again. Kai reached out to touch the soft fur of the rabbit.
The rabbit jumped out of the way and ran out the door. Kai paused a moment, before bolting out the door and after it. Mariam suddenly looked up, as if she remembered something. She also ran out.
The rest blinked with surprise, and followed the two.
Kai ran after the rabbit. He didn't know why, it was almost like an instinct. It was then he noticed that the rabbit had a small circle on its back the color of gold.
The rabbit abruptly stopped. Its ears twitched before it turned to see Kai, and Mariam, who just arrived.
"He's a beast of the powers." Mariam said softly. "Worshiped by many, as the follower of an immortal..."
Kai frowned and looked to Mariam.
"It's issuing a quest...a challenge..." She continued.
"Who is going to accept it?" Kai asked her.
Mariam said nothing. She reached for her launcher and her blade. The rabbit blinked innocently at Mariam and hopped towards her. Then suddenly, the same pink light surrounded the rodent. Then, suddenly, the light died, and where the rabbit was spun a blade. In the center, surrounding the bit chip was a thin line of gold. Mariam pulled the ripcord and her own blade spun into action.
Then, Kai understood. A challenge for a beyblade match was what the rabbit was trying to send. And somehow Mariam got the message.
"Sharkrash..." Mariam whispered. Her blade's reaction was fast; immediately the bit-chip started to glow and the blade rammed into the other.
"So...that's the sacred rabbit?" Rei's voice sounded from behind them. Kai turned to see everyone else.
"What else could it be?" Mariah said softly.
"So...Mariam has one, Kai has two, Tala has one, Rei has one... We just found one, which makes 6, and that means we need 16 more." Lee listed out.
"Yeah..." Tala mumbled and frowned, looking at the battle.
It wasn't an easy battle, despite how harmless and adorable the rabbit was. On the battle field, it could be described better with the words aggressive and dangerous. There were gashes in the dirt made by the blade. Mariam didn't seem worried at all. Sharkrash just kept a fast attack on the blade, despite the fact that it wasn't doing much damage.
"Mariam, do you need any...?" Kai began, but Mariam cut him off.
"A quest is to be done alone." She said. Then, at that very moment, the sacred rabbit began to sway from the numerous fast attacks. Clearly, Sharkrash has broken its defence.
"When you first look at her, you wouldn't expect such stubbornness..." Lee scratched his head. "Or such power..."
Sharkrash was beginning to look victorious. The sacred rabbit tried to dodge the attacks as it slid left and right, making skid marks in the ground.
"Now, Sharkrash, finish it off."
Mariam called to her blade. The sacred rabbit seemed to have heard it too – it began to pick up speed. In no time, it had a miniature tornado following it. Sharkrash was circling the rabbit at a fast speed in the direction opposed to its spin, preparing to strike it off course. The rabbit sent its tornado forward, and at that moment, Sharkrash jumped into the middle of the tornado and absorbed its spin. Then, with renewed power, it sent one final blow onto the rabbit, causing it to topple and stop spinning.
"What a unique attack pattern..." Mariah exclaimed. Mariam walked over to the rabbit and picked it up. The blade glowed pink, then black, then scarlet before settling. The bit chip winked. A rabbit in mid-jump was in the middle.
"Does anyone else need this blade?" Mariam smiled, back to her old self. It was almost as if, during the battle, she became another person.
"You defeated it – it's yours to keep." Kai gave her a nod. "But you owe us."
"What do I owe you?" Mariam looked confused.
"Perhaps an explanation would do, like how you knew about the rabbit and maybe something about yourself." Mariah smiled.
"First, let's go back to the temple." Tala suggested.
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"My village, as you might have heard earlier, believed in the powers. They are a group of immortals who were said to look after everything. The immortals have visited the village in the past, but no one can confirm, as the last person who saw them died without leaving any note of explanation upon the visit." Mariam began her story. They were back at the temple, either eating Mariah's berries or still exploring nearby while listening to Mariam.
"My village all had bit-beasts of some sort. Everyone had to go into the forest when they were of age, in search of their own match. A year ago, I became of age and with equipment, I wandered alone into the forest. On the first week, I found Sharkrash. When I returned, it turns out that on my second day gone, a group attacked. They were after the many bit-beasts in the forest and in my village.
"After they were gone, there were only a few people left. Then, not long later, they attacked again for what's the left of us. I tried to protect my brother and family, but my mother told me to escape... And then you found me."
Mariam sighed and ate a berry.
"What about the rest of your village?" Kai asked.
"Dead, I suppose...Though I'm sure that at least one of them are alive, but...I know I won't be seeing them." Mariam sighed.
"I'm sure you'll see one of them someday..." Kai mumbled.
Mariah stared at the blue-haired boy for saying a word of comfort for once.
"I mean..." Kai continued. "We're searching for bit-beasts...chances are, another one of your villagers has a sacred one, and mind you, it is pretty hard to destroy a sacred bit-beast." Tala nodded in agreement. Mariah rolled her eyes; should have figured.
"That's true." Mariam agreed as well. "Which sacred beasts do you know of?"
"Well..." Rei spoke up. "Kai's got Dranzer and Dranzer, you've Sharkrash, Tala has Wolborg, I've got Drigger, there's Dragoon, and your rabbit. And then there are, in China, the mouse, the ox, the snake, the horse, the ram, the monkey, the rooster, the dog and the pig. Also, there is the Unicorn, Pegasus, Cerberus, the Hawk, the fox and the deer."
"Is it a monkey or an ape? Because I know someone who has the ape...It's called Vortex Ape...but I doubt it is it, according to the zodiac..." Mariam said thoughtfully.
"Well..." Tala sighed and stood up. "I guess we're spending the night here."
"Yeah," Lee sighed as well. "Let's go hunt."
Lee stood and the two walked out. "I think I'm craving pork tonight."
TBC...
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Ryuki: Whee...another chapter done. The bit-beast tracking is getting even confusing for me. X.x Well, I might start writing shorter chapters. Um, which one do you like better? Long or short? Review – or email, I don't care, I need the opinion. :) Um, lets see...if in the past, I spelled Rei's name Ray, sorry, tell me and I'll fix it. I went through all the chapters 4 times to fix the names. First, I thought it was Ray, then I went through to fix it to Rei, than Ray again, and finally, (the last time) I fixed it all to Rei. Urgh, tiring, I know.
To WindWitch: I totally agree with you in the couple thing! Trust me, it's Kai/Mariam...of course, it is my favourite couple. But it might be a while before anything actually HAPPENS...I'm a horrible fluff writer... Also, about the Zeo thing... : ) I've already put the idea in action. Chapter 10... xD thanks very much for the idea.
Anyways. RR! I appreciate it.