Disclaimers Notice: The only thing I own is the way in which I chose to use the characters and setting (oh, and a few of my own creations...)

Authors Beginning Note: Important! I will temperarily be placing all of my works on haiates (how ever you spell it-basically on pause) for 2 weeks(posibly one-if I can write a couple chapters during the week).

My reasoning- I have a major deadline to make on writing a short (short-is that possible?) story to send in to be (hopefully) published, and I only have weekends to type. I also have family up so my time is cut even shorter.

Not to mention my b-day this week.

Please forgive me, I really hate to do this! But I promise to make my next chapter a great on to make up for it!

Shout it outs!

Velf- Your cat sounds funny. I'm glad you like Katsu. He's a great character, just slightly harder than some of the others to write.

Shitza-I find that a delayed review is better than none!

Ahahrah Musici-I'm glad you thingk so, I like it when y reader find my chapters interesting.

Chapter 24
Desert Sheba

Chihiro's P.O.V.-

I opened my eyes and sat up quickly, disoriented, confused, worried, and scared, only to make myself dizzy and nauseous. The blankets that had covered me, slipped down to my waist, this is when I found out I was bare skinned, except for the many bandages and wrapping covering me. I quickly pulled up a sheet and blushed.

Looking around, I saw the place to be simple. The floor was hard dirt, and the ceiling seemed to be made of large roots that fell to the wall and farther into the ground. There were two exits, black dark tunnels that lead to somewhere, where, I am unsure. It was warm. The bed was made into the wall somehow, and held strongly.

"You should not sit up so quickly." I nearly fell out of bed in surprise at the sharp feminine, slithered voice. I looked behind me and stared straight into the deep orange eyes of a snake.

"Ah!" I screamed, and tried to run away. Unfortunately, I was tangled up in all of the blankets and merely fell onto the floor. Pain shot up every angle of my body and I could barely breath.

"Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me!" I yelled, holding my eyes shut, as I felt something thick coil around my body and hold me up.

"Such a foolish half spirit. What good would that be? For me to heal you only to hurt you? You would do well to think otherwise, les you hurt yourself for no reason." I felt myself lay back on the bed safely, and opened my eyes. I sat up.

If there is one thing I had hoped to never see...a snake...a large one...a large human sized one...

I stared at the spirit before me. She had her long thick tail coiled beneath her, and stood up straight. Her scaled covered her body, as to be certainly not human, shimmered a tan silver. Her face was slender like a snake's, and eyes blazed a dangerous orange. Her human arms (for her upper torso was slightly shaped of human form, having shoulders, neck, stomach, waist, and of the such) were slender and masculine, with five sharp barbs with navy blue tips on the front of them. She blinked, the lids coming in from the sides, instead of from the top to bottom.

"I see me form is not pleasing to you." I gulped. Her black forked tongue flicked out.

"Do you work for Aikia or Ahrima?" I barely managed to whisper. She recoiled at that statement and hissed angrily.

"What a rude little creature! To think I, the Desert Sheba would be accused of such a thing!" I scrunched myself against the wall as best as I could as she hissed in fury. She seemed to quiet down after that and slithered right up close to my face. I held my breath, hypnotized by her eyes.

"Listen closely girl. Do not have fear while you are in my presence, or in my abode, for neither are under the order of Aikia, but both are in danger of him and Ahrima." Her tongue barely flicked out of her mouth as she said thus. She held my gaze a little longer before she slid back and stared at me. I found my breath again.

"Who are you and where am I?" I finally said, my voice constricted and hard to spit out with the knot in my throat.

"I am Karumi, the Desert Sheba. I rule all grains of sand that touch one another in this region, and you are here, in my home, underneath the Jin-Ho Oasis." I relaxed a bit, my body less tense, but throbbed angrily.

"Why am I here? What happened to Toshi? And Foozler! Oh my gosh!" I jumped.

Oh no...poor Foozler...what could have happened to him...he was bleeding so much...and in so much pain...

"Here, drink this." She handed me a small bowl with an emerald liquid inside. I stared at it, scrutinizing.

What if she really is working for Aikia and Ahrima...what if...this stuff is poison...and I die...

"You will not die. It is merely a tea made up of the herbs from my land." I still did not drink. She took the bowl harshly from my hands.

"If you will not drink, you will sleep, and I will answer no questions." She said harshly, making me jump. She set the bowl down on a crude, carved out table, and left into one of the disappearing passages.

I wearily fell down into my bed, every part of me aching, throbbing, and tensing of its own accord. I tried closing my eyes, but they refused and the light was beginning to hurt my eyes.

That light...I can't ignore it...but it's annoying me...can I even stand up...I was able to fall out quickly enough...

I slowly rose back up, seeming to defy gravity and sat up. With that accomplished, I sluggishly drug the blankets off of me, and swung my legs over. The quick motion made me nauseous. Once it subsided, I got off, and nearly crumpled to the floor. Breaking into a sweat, and shaking I stood up and took three steps.

Where is the light...I don't see any lamps...or candles...not even a fire...unless it's magic...

I let out a small groan.

Of course...it would have to be magic...fire would burn the tree's roots...and I can't think of any other way that would light up the room...

Then my legs gave out beneath me, not having the strength to move, I laid helplessly on the floor.

Then it began to shake.

"Oh no, not another earth quake!" I tried to get up, to run, but every muscle disconnected itself from my brain, and the commands it gave were unheard. I heard sharp cracks ring through out the room, through it, and from the passages.

Bam!

The bed I had laid on just a few moments ago fell and broke onto the floor. The dish fell and it's green contents fell. Dust clogged the air, and I could do nothing about it. I desperately closed my eyes, and shamefully cried in fear.

It's okay...I'm all right...It's just an earthquake...nothing bad is going to happen to me...

"Shhh, little being, it will pass soon enough." I felt cool arms wrap around me and coddle me, protecting me. I felt like a child again, more than anything. A child of ten, crying in fear, in shame, in guilt. Not knowing how I was going to do what had to be done.

The ground finally quite shaking, but I did not.

"Tell me little being, can you see in this room, as clear as if it were day." I nodded, listening to Karumi, no longer afraid of her. She was quiet.

"You were close to death. You should be more careful when you travel the path you find yourself on. Toshi is a powerful spirit. If it had not been for Fyrlite, Toshi would have killed your companion, the foozler and yourself. She shot an arrow of destroying light at Toshi, and that is what injured the changling to such harsh degrees. Now tell me, did you not look directly at that beam of light?"

"Yes, I did. But what does that..."

"Fyrlite traveled carrying you for eight suns in the forest. On the sixth sun, you opened your eyes to see nothing. You were blind. Fyrlite poured the elixir of Seeing Light onto your eyes, and your blindness was gone, in its stead was the sight of light. On the tenth sun she began her journey through the desert, and on the twelfth sun, She placed you in my care. You were on the verge of death. Wounds heavy, and infected, fever high and dangerous, and you had only awoken once."

"How many days have I been here?"

"Four suns, including the one that is rising above now."

"I've been sleeping for over two weeks!" I screeched.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go! I don't know how much time I have left, if any at all!" I tried to move, but my body just wouldn't, and with what little budge it did give, staved knives through out my skin.

"Chihiro, you must not move of your own accord. You are not even halfway healed."

"But Kohaku! And...wait...you know my name?"

"Your Kohaku is fine for now. The humans have not yet crossed over, and the quakes are not so close as to spell the end."

"You know...wait.."

The more she says...the more questions I have...what should I ask first...and how does she know so much...this is just...too much...

"I know your name, just as many know it. Your friend Fiammeta is not with out connections and has spread the word of you, and your first proclamation of sighting Aikia."

Fiammeta...

"The cause of the quakes has a great deal to do with your Kohaku, for he is the catalyst that is to join both the Human world and the Spirit world as one. How I am not sure, but I know it to be. The quakes are signs. They grow closer. Not a day goes by and one has not come to pass. Chihiro, you are strong for a human, but such a task is above you. How can you hope to achieve it?" Karumi seemed to sob, and I held her arms, even as they held me.

She's so afraid...if the human world...and Kamikakushi come together...that would spell chaos...many will get scared...and might kill...and Kohaku...the catalyst...it's...it's just not fair...I have to save Kohaku...

"Will not anyone oppose Ahrima?"

"None are strong enough to, and those who would be, are long dead or hidden."

No wonder she's so afraid...if Kohaku is the catalyst...then I'm not only on a quest to save him...but on one to save both worlds from disaster...there must be so many so scared and frightened...the world is in a mere humans hands...my hands...but I must try...I have to...

The weight burdened me greatly, and I felt sick, knowing such as I did.

"I don't know how, and I may be just a human, but I will save Kohaku, and Kamikakushi." I vowed. Karumi seemed to believe me, even as the words escaped my mouth...too bad I didn't...