Disclaimer: I don't own anything:literally bouncing and randomly hyper:
Warnings: Language and... Fight scene? So... That would be "violence". Wow. I don't think I've ever had to put that as a warning before. :startled: Um, as always, the altering of Dragon Knights.
Beta-ed by: Kayla
:n:
jolt!
:n:
Delte gasped, backing up rapidly, pressed up against the edge of her stall. She could feel the smooth wood pressed firmly against her back and legs, her hands scrambling against it, attempting to grasp it for support.
They were shaking.
"Wh--"
Her voice seemed caught in her suddenly dry throat, the much needed words failing to appear.
"Wh-what are you..."
She stopped, breathing labored as the figure advanced towards her. Although he was shorter than she, the gray weapon in his hands spoke for itself, as did the deft way he handled it. A light mist, a dusting of ash, wavered in the air behind him.
"Stay still, Miss Fortuneteller," his voice was mocking, "Or I might accidentally slice your face as well as your throat."
The tension in the air was unbearable. The normally busy streets were suddenly deserted.
No...
No, they weren't deserted. If she strained, Delte could still see the shapes of people walking by outside, oblivious to the danger a mere ten feet away from them. They were blurred, however, their edges shaky, as if seen through thick glass.
There was a ward upon her stall, she suddenly realized, although she did not know when it had been placed there.
"That's right," Garfakcy laughed as he noticed what she was staring at, the sound chilling, "They can't see you. And they won't be able to hear you when you scream for your life."
He lunged at her suddenly, weapon pointed at her neck. In a fleeting instant Delte noticed with horror that while his face still held the innocent roundness of a child's, his eyes were filled with a deadly lust.
Delte jerked back, but found she was unable to move further away.
Her arm flew up in a futile automatic attempt to block the blow.
A bite stronger than that of any man-made metal tore through her arm and upper torso; she gave a piercing scream, one hacked short, and knew no more.
:n:
Tetheus took in the destruction, dark eyes cool; emotionless.
There had been a report of an attack in the middle of Chantel.
A demon attack, from what he had been able to gather from the frantic cries of the hysterical townspeople, although no one seemed to have actually seen the demon in question nor the attack.
Was it not for the minor oddities of the case, the Black Dragon Officer would have been tempted to call it a simple case of murder, and leave it for the town's officials to solve.
There had been an attack, however, that much was apparent. He glanced over the small fortunetelling stand once more. It did seem to have been involving some sort of demonic magic.
A smooth gloved hand felt the clean slash made in the wooden wall.
There had been no body recovered; a customer had simply entered to find a thick pool of slowly congealing blood and called for help. The Officer was certain that the victim was dead. A normal human could not lose as much blood as had been on the scene and still expect to live.
He was finding himself irked with the townspeople's lack of attention. How had no one noticed what had been happening? No one even seemed to be able to recall when the fortuneteller had last seen a client, although he had been able to pry a description of her from the woman who ran a stand across the road.
Young, female, with short brown hair, and a good-natured disposition... That could be any one of the hundreds of girls who poured into Dragoon's cities every year searching for a name for themselves.
Tetheus mutely shook his head.
He didn't have the time for this added task.
In addition to the numerous rumors of gathering demons and demonic energy, there had been a tsunami off the western coast that he wanted to look into. In fact, he had been faintly surprised that Alfeegi had not requested him to gather information on it. The White Dragon Officer typically spoke up when something as odd as this happened, and even Ruwalk seemed uncomfortable with the sudden disaster.
Alfeegi had merely brushed it off, however, not even seeming to register its occurrence.
Tetheus restrained himself from giving a sigh, kneeling down in the dust to take a closer look at the crime scene.
Perhaps he'd travel there anyway, once this was finished up.
Once this was finished up and he got his uniform to a cleaner's, he thought irritably to himself, brushing the clinging gray dust off his sleeves and pants legs. It seemed to stick to him, floating automatically to latch onto his form.
Now that Tetheus thought about it, it did seem odd. He hadn't noticed as much while he was still standing, but now that he could take a closer look...
He picked up a small amount of the gray substance between his thumb and forefinger, eyes flashing as it coated the fingers as if magnetized.
Ash.
But ash wasn't supposed to act this way...
Footsteps behind him alerted him to the presence of one of the Dragon Fighters he had selected to accompany him on the mission. Waving his other hand, Tetheus signaled the young man over.
"Sir?"
"Bring me a container," he spoke calmly, not taking his eyes off of the strange ash, "One with a tight lid. And tell the other two to remain at attention; they are not to leave the Darnias."
Tetheus waited for the young man to register the information before continuing.
"As soon as I finish drafting a report on this, we are going to look into the recent tsunami on the west coast."
"Wh-... Y-yes, sir!" The Dragon Fighter stammered, barely remembering to whom he was speaking, and only catching himself in the nick of time.
As the other ran off to relay the word to his comrades, Tetheus looked around the stall once more. There was something else here. It was hidden... But he could sense Spirit Tribe.
The young woman killed, he suddenly realized, was no mere showgirl. She had been one of the last remaining elves... and might have been known by the Dragon Knight of Water: the Elven prince Rune.
Both demons and Spirit Tribe... This suddenly gave this case a much higher priority. And since this fortuneteller had been killed in the very heart of Dragoon, it was a diplomacy issue as well.
He hated to do it, but he needed to send word to Kai-Stern. There were matters to be straightened out, and the Blue Dragon Officer was the only one for the job, the fact that he was on his own urgent mission was unavoidable.
"Damn," Tetheus sighed, narrow dark eyes closing briefly in annoyance.
This was an added burden he loathed to place on Kai-Stern.
At the moment, however, he could see the people crowding about on the streets (ignoring the protests of the slightly frantic Dragon Fighters), eager for a glimpse of the gruesome scene for its shock value, one that was bound to grow in the retelling.
Their bloodthirst disgusted him.
:n:
Something was falling apart.
That was what Zoma thought as he leaned on the balcony railing, brow furrowed and eyes trained to the clear blue sky.
It was a perfect summer's day...
But there was a tension to the air that unsettled the small demon boy, causing his mind to fill with worries, the vast majority of them unfounded.
A few of them, however, held solid ground.
He worried over what Rath had told him. Over what he had been asked to do.
This mere charade of pretending to be Rath stuck and bored in the Dragon Castle was proving to be hard enough. It was easier than he had expected, though, as Tetheus was out of the palace and Alfeegi had been oddly distracted.
Perhaps that was what was bothering him.
The usually highly astute Dragon Officer seemed different. While not absentminded or forgetful, he seemed more detached than usual.
It made Zoma uneasy, and he hoped it was merely a result of stress; they were all under a lot of strain recently.
He had a feeling they would be under a lot more before their problems got better.
:n:
"Lykouleon?"
Once out of the confines of the castle, Ruwalk fell back into his old habit of speaking to his friend informally, as they used to when they were younger or as they still did when Alfeegi or people they needed to impress were not within hearing.
"Do you find it odd that Alfeegi didn't argue against both of us going to Hermosa?"
The Dragon Lord glanced back at Ruwalk, blue-green eyes thoughtful.
"Yes."
"...Do you know why?" Ruwalk prodded gently, pulling his rough brown jacket on more fully and half regretting that they were forced to make the long trek to the Hermosa Kingdom in disguise.
Lykouleon sighed, the movement barely visible under the soft material draped over his shoulders. "No. I don't."
They walked a few steps in silence, the brisk air chilling through their layers of clothing.
"I found it odd, myself," he finally said, stirring up the conversation once more.
Ruwalk jumped on the words, glad for a chance to chase away the disquiet that seemed all the worse under the cold gray sky.
"True," he frowned, "Normally he would have made a racket about this. He'd have insisted that you stay at the castle. Or that he come in my place. And then he'd have spent at least half a day complaining about the amount of money that would need to be taken..." Ruwalk trailed off, training worried brown eyes to the sky.
"I don't know," he finally admitted, his breath misting out before his face. The temperature was slowly dropping as the day waned.
"And maybe I'm being foolish, but something just doesn't feel right."
:n:
"Huh."
Three chests, each about a foot tall, were resting on the floor of the deep cave. Surrounded by a pile of gold and other smaller treasures, Thats was momentarily surprised to note that the only things that appeared to be disturbed were their contents.
"I could've sworn she'd have taken more than just the Three Treasures," the Dragon Knight remarked to himself, casually stroking the now-small Earth Dragon seated on his shoulder.
He gave a half shrug and was about to follow the path leading away from the mounds of gold, when something caught his eye.
Nearly buried under a draping of silk and polished coins was the distinct glint of metal: a sword blade.
Moving slowly towards it and resisting the temptation to fill his pockets with as many treasures as he could carry, Thats slipped it out from under the rest of the stash.
There was a moment of tension as he first held the un-sheathed blade, holding his breath and half expecting a spell or curse to jolt his body.
When nothing happened, he relaxed.
"Thought it didn't look enchanted," Thats muttered to himself, recalling old advice given on magical objects, how to recognize them... and how to not come into contact with them if at all possible.
He set it down quickly, just to make sure he still could, and looked himself over. Yes... There seemed to have been no ill-effects, and he did need a new sword...
Laughing lightly at this stroke of good fortune, Thats picked it up once more, giving it an experimental swing.
The sword whistled cleanly through the air, the blade shining in the faint light filtering down to the cavern. A flicker of light blue ran down the keenly sharpened tip.
Thats laughed again, spirits rising at the lucky find.
"C'mon, Earth," he headed quickly down the winding passage, "We can't be that far behind them."
As their forms disappeared into the murky light, a strange chill crept into the cavern. Although there was no breeze, cold air could be felt slinking down into the caves, surrounding the remaining treasures.
A flicker ran through the air.
There was a low sigh of a moan, and the remaining gold collapsed into ash.
:n:
A/N:shifty eyes: Please, don't kill me. I actually don't hate Delte. :shifty eyes: I swear. I'd prefer she live, if only so I could admire her dress in Book 11. :loves the dress: And I, um, am still trying to learn to write fight scenes. :shifty eyes: You might say that I am highly, highly inexperienced...(ed: better than what I could do, I'm sure)
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Animegoil: Ah! The writer of Creepy Nadil Kisses:bows: I'm very pleased you liked it. n-n Kharl rules. He's appearing in some fics, but he used to be in more, I think... :not sure as well: Anyway, he'll be showing up in here a LOT.
Angstluver: Awww, no cute face this time? XD Nah, s'okay. I'm glad you liked it.
Hououza: Whooo:holds up two fistfuls of Good Luck and Best Wishes: That was a lot to give me all at once, not counting the third helping later. o-Oa Ah, not like I'm complaining. XD
Kayla: I'd forgotten that you hadn't, actually... I mean, I did notice at first, but forgot. :blinks: Okay, that sounded a little conceited, but... Thanks for the beta job! (ed: I did my best)