I know I left you guys on a cliffie, then didn't update, but I was in
Florida from Saturday to Wednesday, and then I was really busy. So, here's
the next chapter. :)
(Chapter 16: A familiar face)
Just then, she heard a snapping twig ahead of her and looked up to see....
"Toca?" Kila asked, looking at him. Toca smiled and stepped forward, noting Battosai out of the corner of his eye.
"How are you, Kila?" Toca asked, stepping forward until he was about 3 feet away from the creek.
"So-so. You?" Kila asked, standing up and grinning.
"Alright so far. Where're you headed?" Toca asked, falling into step with Kila as she started to head back towards the camp. Battosai followed them.
"We're going to New Tokyo to see what we can find there," Kila said, looking at her companions. "You're not done yet?!" She exclaimed, looking at them. They shook their heads, except Jess, who grinned, and Kila slapped her forehead. "HOW I managed to get stuck with you guys, I'll never know."
Jess grinned at her. "Because we're your friends, that's why!"
Kila chuckled. "Probably so." She looked at Yuko. "Where do you think you're going?"
Yuko stopped in mid-step. "I'm going to visit some friends of mine and I might not be back for a while," She said. Kila nodded and smiled.
"Well, just call me if ya wanna know where we are!" Kila called after Yuko as she started to head out.
Yuko looked over her shoulder and grinned, then mouthed, "Kila and Yoko, sitting in a tree!!!"
Kila glared at her, then laughed as her Lenny hit her over the head a bit. Kila grinned at Yuko, who grinned back, then turned to the others.
"If all of you are not ready to go in two minutes, I'm leaving without you," Kila said, aiming a glare at them.
About 1 minute later, everyone was ready and they all started to walk towards New Tokyo again.
(half an hour later)
"Uhhhh.... Kila, are the trees supposed to be getting thicker??" Jade asked as they seemed to pass the same thicket of trees for the third time that day.
"Maybe..." Kila said, looking around. She saw a small, run-over-by-weeds- and-other-plants trail that looked as if it hadn't been used in years. "We'll just follow that trail and see where that goes!" Kila said with a smile. She headed towards the trail and soon found that the plants moved out of the way before she could get within five feet of them.
"I don't like this," Legolas said, his eyes narrowed. Jess nodded, moving a little closer to him. Yoko looked back at them, then at Kila, who was wandering a little ahead of the rest of them.
Just then, a hand darted out and grabbed Kila, followed by seven more. Kila was dragged into the bushes in the blink of an eye.
"KILA!!" Hiei and Yoko yelled, moving over to the bushes and parting them to see... Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No people, no Kila, nothing.
"Rrrrrr.... DAMN!" Hiei yelled, punching a tree and denting it.
Then, just behind them, the same thing happened to Jade and Maria. They were both dragged into the bushes, their bishies doing the same as Yoko and Hiei. Finally, Jess and Learan were dragged in, leaving Danny and Toca on their own with the bishies.
Yoko heard something on his left and turned around just in time to see hands grab him and Legolas, then everything went black.
(A couple of hours later in on unknown place)
Yoko woke up, feeling very uncomfortable and found that he was in a dimly- lit room with chains on the walls and blood staining parts of the walls red, as well as the floor. He stood up, only to find that he had chains on his wrists. He gave them a sharp tug, and they cracked a little bit.
Yoko reached into his hair and pulled out a rose. He set it in the chain for his left wrist and made it bloom into a Rose Whip.
The chain gave a final crack and slid off his wrist. He then took of the one on his right wrist by slashing it with his claws and was about to bust outta there when he heard a low moan.
He looked over and saw Kila, huddled in a corner, scratches and bruises all over her arms and shoulders.
"Kila!" He said, running over to her. "Kila, are you ok?"
When Kila didn't respond, he cursed a bit and shook her awake.
"Huh? What..? Yoko? What're you doing here?" Kila asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
"Quiet," Yoko said, looking out the door for guards. "Do you know where we are?"
"Unfortunately, yes, I do," Kila said quietly. She looked down, a sad look on her face. "We're in Kuroi's place right now, in the dungeons."
"Well, he apparently doesn't want to keep us here if he has such weak chains as these," Yoko said, slicing Kila's chains to pieces and picking her up. He walked over to the door and looked out.
"There are no guards here. There is, however, a spell on this place. No one but Kuroi can come or go without his permission," Kila said weakly. "We can go find the others, but I think they all might be unconscious."
"What's the point of keeping us down here if he isn't doing anything to us?" Yoko asked as soon as they were out of the room, seeing a healing potion and some food on a table with a note.
Kila picked up the note and read it aloud. "Kila, I think you might need these once I'm gone... That is, if you can get out. All of your friends and their bishies are down here, but there is no escaping as any and all windows have the same spell on them. As I have told you. Have fun whilst I take over the bishie world! Ta ta. Kuroi." Kila's hand shook in anger and frustration. "Why that little--!!!"
Yoko set Kila down in a chair and went to go get the others, finding most of them already up. Battosai, Rei, and Hiei all pretty much ran over to Kila to make sure she was ok, while Yoko got the others out. All the other trainers were asleep, but the bishies were awake.
"What did they do?" Bakura asked as soon as they were all around the table, nibbling at little pieces of food.
"Well, we were all awake at the beginning, when Kuroi came," Jess started. "He stayed for a long time, so we woke up some of our bishies and sat around doing nothing until..." Jess trailed off, looking pained.
Jade continued the story. "We heard Kila screaming. At first it was just insults and stuff, but then..."
Maria continued, "We heard screams of pain. You were with me, Yoko, Hiei was with Jess, Battosai was with Jade, and Rei was with Toca. They wanted to go check on you, but we had to knock them out so that they wouldn't go and get themselves hurt."
"Eventually, we fell asleep and our bishies stayed up to make sure that Kuroi didn't come back," Learan finished, looking at Kila, who was looking at the floor, where a few black tear gems were sitting. Learan picked one of them up and studied it.
Kila quickly wiped her eyes and looked up at them. "Yoko was sent in with me to wake me up and help me, while the others stayed. I don't know why he chose Yoko instead of Hiei, though."
"Probably because Hiei would have killed everyone and everything trying to get to Kuroi," Jess said with a small smirk.
Hiei smirked and nodded slightly. Just then, there was a small explosion to be heard upstairs. Everyone looked up and Kila sighed.
"Kuroi's throwing a tantrum," She said, smirking a tiny bit. "I see that he hasn't changed that much, after all."
Everyone chuckled at this, but stopped when they heard someone running down the stairs. Kuroi entered the room, his face a mask of fury, and he walked up to Kila, pulled back his fist, and punched her right across the face. She went flying into a wall on the other side of the room.
Yoko and Hiei, infuriated, ran in front of Kila and tried to confront Kuroi. He, however, knocked them to the side and slapped Kila again.
Kila was nearly unconscious by now.
As Hiei and Yoko tried to tackle Kuroi, he put up a shield around himself and Kila, throwing the two bishies backwards into the wall. Jess looked at Kila, concerned, then back at Kuroi. She glared at him and he chuckled a little bit, seeing the majority of the group glaring at him as well.
Kuroi muttered a few words in the language of magic and then moved his hand to face all of the trainers and bishies. One by one, they fell asleep until only Hiei and Yoko were awake. The last thing they heard before they, too, were knocked unconscious by Kuroi's spell was Kila's scream of, "LEAVE THEM ALONE!!", a thunk, and then darkness.
(Several hours later)
After everyone woke up, they saw Kila sleeping soundly against the wall away from everyone else, in the shadows. She cracked open an eye, yawned, then looked at her companions.
"Hey," She said sleepily. "Is everyone ok?"
"You could say that, yeah," Jade said, smiling slightly. Jess nodded and Toca smiled at her.
"Good." Kila looked around, saw a scorch mark on the wall, and chuckled. "It looks like that little spell worked!"
"What spell?" everyone asked, looking around.
"That one," Kila said, pointing to the wall. Everyone looked and saw the scorch mark. They looked at Kila, then at the wall, then back at Kila, then back at the wall, until Kila finally screamed, "STOP IT ALREADY!!!!!!"
Everyone jumped, grinned sheepishly, and then settled down. Kila sat up, leaning against the wall, half hidden in shadow, looking around the room, purposely not looking at anyone.
At one point, Jess came over and sat down next to her, asking if she wanted to talk. Kila had shook her head, smiling, and told Jess to get something to eat. Jess looked over at Kila again and saw that she was wrapped up in her own thoughts.
'It's my fault that everyone's here. If I hadn't come this way, then we wouldn't be here. And, worse yet, we can't even get out of this friggin' place. I REALLY wish I had some way to get the counter-spell.... wait a second! Kuroi has to have the spell in mind, because I'm pretty sure that we won't be here alone for long. So, if I gently prod into his head and see if I can get anything helpful, then that's a start!' Kila thought, and, looking around to make sure that everyone was talking or something, slipped into the "jail cell" farthest from everyone and the most in the shadows.
Kila sat down cross-legged completely in the shadows and relaxed her mind. She then reached out through the link, going into Kuroi's mind. She saw what he saw for a few moments before his eyes closed. He was, apparently, trying to work on some sort of diagram, so he would be busy for a while at least.
Kila looked around and found a few images floating around in her head. One of them was of her, and a few were bishies, but one in particular caught her interest.
It was of when the two of them were younger. Kuroi was basically like a mini-version, as was Kila. They were both laughing, and Kila was on the ground. It looked like Kuroi had just pulled her down with him.
Kila smiled and examined it for another moment before moving off. She found two spells. One of them, Kila knew from hearing Kuroi chant it, was the one that put up the barrier. The other one, Kila concluded, must be the opposite.
Kila looked at it and memorized it, then returned to the real world to find everyone looking at her.
"What?!" Kila asked, looking agitated.
"Uhh.... We don't know how, but you just blew a hole in the side of the wall," Maria said, pointing to it. Kila blinked, then laughed.
"Alrighty then! Let's see if my plan worked!" Kila said, stepping up to the hole in the wall. She looked at it, then tried to put her hand through. It was shocked by the barrier, and Kila quickly withdrew it, looking at her hand.
Kila grinned, then muttered the spell. She tried to get her hand through again, and it worked. She ran back to get her pack, as everyone else already had theirs, and she was just about to get through the hole when she heard clanking.
Another girl was thrown in, and landed roughly on the ground. Kila helped her up, then grabbed the girl's pack, threw it out the hole, then climbed out herself. She muttered the spell to put the barrier back up and repaired the wall with a few words.
She found her friends waiting for her in the bushes. As she walked over to them, the girl woke up and looked up at Kila.
The girl had mahogany-colored hair that was pulled up into a high-ponytail, bright blue eyes, and was wearing baggy, navy blue cargo pants, a loose yellow T-shirt that showed about an inch of her stomach, and black combat boots.
"Hey," Kila said softly, helping the girl sit down. "What's your name?"
"The name's Skyler, but you can call me Shadow," the 15-year-old girl said. Shadow looked over at Jess and her eyes widened. "JESS!!"
"Shadow?! Is that you?!" Jess asked, walking quickly over.
"COOL! This is unexpected!" Shadow said, grinning. Jess grinned back at her.
"Lost here..." Kila said, looking back and forth between the two girls.
"Well, back in the "real" world, we were good friends," Shadow explained.
"Ah. Ok. Good enough for me!" Kila said, standing up.
Just then, a Kouga appeared in a small flash of red light and whacked Shadow over the head.
"OW! What the hell was that for?!" Shadow asked, glaring slightly at Kouga.
"YOU went and got yourself KIDNAPPED!!! Do you realize how STUPID that is?!" Kouga asked, fuming.
Kila giggled quietly. Jess started to as well and soon the two of them were laughing their heads off.
"WHAT?!" both Shadow and Kouga asked.
"Kouga's over-protective! Kouga's over-protective!" Jess and Kila sang, giggling.
Kouga lunged at them and the two yelped and ran. Kila hid behind Hiei, while Jess hid behind Legolas.
Kouga glared at them, then turned back to Shadow, and was promptly hit over the head.
"Itai!! What was that for?!" Kouga asked, holding his head.
"For trying to kill my friend," Shadow said, then glared at him.
Kouga sighed and sat down. Hiei glared at him, then turned to see that Kila wasn't even there. She had been dragged over to the other trainers by Jess, and was currently sitting in a tree right above Jess's head.
Kila snorted at something and sent Hiei a mental message. 'They think we should just dump Shadow off somewhere and let her go wherever she wants to go while we go back inside and kill Kuroi. So idiotic,' she said with a sigh.
Hiei nodded. Just then, Kila sat upright and glared down at them.
"What... did... you... say?" Kila growled, looking very intimidating with her hand reaching for her sword hilt while the other one was clenched in a fist.
"I said that we should just leave you behind, Kila, since you are the one that Kuroi wants, and then just go our separate ways," Danny said, glaring at Kila.
Kila was right next to him in an instant, her sword at his throat. "If you didn't know, idiot, Kuroi wants to take over the bishie-world and THEN kill me. Taking over bishie-world is his TOP PROIRITY right now. And I don't need idiots like you telling me what to do. Now get the hell out of my sight before I kill you," Kila said, growling, her eyes glowing and her hands trembling slightly.
Danny backed away from her sword, then turned on his heel and walked off, not once looking over his shoulder.
"How you put up with him for so long, Jess, I shall NEVER know," Kila said, smiling and turning back to the group.
"Good riddance," Hiei said, frowning. Kila grinned at him.
"Well, now we get the hell outta here and just head wherever. Sound good to everyone?" Kila asked, looking around. Everyone nodded and Kila looked around.
Jess chose a seemingly-random direction and headed off that way, talking with Shadow the whole time. Kila, Jade, and Maria were behind them, and Learan was walking last, talking with her bishies.
That night, when they were a good 30 miles away from the castle, (they escaped early morning and ate while they walked. It is possible to do 30 or 40 miles in one day if you travel like that is the terrain is flat) they made camp and then set up watch. After everyone was asleep, Shadow got up and climbed a tree. Kila saw her and tilted her head to the side curiously.
Not minding Shadow, Kila took out a CD player and started to listening to a CD one of her friends had made for her. She hummed a bit as she walked over to a small stream nearby. Hiei, she knew, was following her.
Kila sat down near the edge of the stream and dipped her hand in. The water was nice and cool to the touch. She sighed and lay down next to the river, looking up at the stars. But she noticed something was off. The first constellation she saw was that of a warrior. The second was a five-headed dragon.
Kila studied them for a few moments, in a daze, then sat bolt upright.
"HOLY SHIT!!!!"
(end of chapter)
(Chapter 16: A familiar face)
Just then, she heard a snapping twig ahead of her and looked up to see....
"Toca?" Kila asked, looking at him. Toca smiled and stepped forward, noting Battosai out of the corner of his eye.
"How are you, Kila?" Toca asked, stepping forward until he was about 3 feet away from the creek.
"So-so. You?" Kila asked, standing up and grinning.
"Alright so far. Where're you headed?" Toca asked, falling into step with Kila as she started to head back towards the camp. Battosai followed them.
"We're going to New Tokyo to see what we can find there," Kila said, looking at her companions. "You're not done yet?!" She exclaimed, looking at them. They shook their heads, except Jess, who grinned, and Kila slapped her forehead. "HOW I managed to get stuck with you guys, I'll never know."
Jess grinned at her. "Because we're your friends, that's why!"
Kila chuckled. "Probably so." She looked at Yuko. "Where do you think you're going?"
Yuko stopped in mid-step. "I'm going to visit some friends of mine and I might not be back for a while," She said. Kila nodded and smiled.
"Well, just call me if ya wanna know where we are!" Kila called after Yuko as she started to head out.
Yuko looked over her shoulder and grinned, then mouthed, "Kila and Yoko, sitting in a tree!!!"
Kila glared at her, then laughed as her Lenny hit her over the head a bit. Kila grinned at Yuko, who grinned back, then turned to the others.
"If all of you are not ready to go in two minutes, I'm leaving without you," Kila said, aiming a glare at them.
About 1 minute later, everyone was ready and they all started to walk towards New Tokyo again.
(half an hour later)
"Uhhhh.... Kila, are the trees supposed to be getting thicker??" Jade asked as they seemed to pass the same thicket of trees for the third time that day.
"Maybe..." Kila said, looking around. She saw a small, run-over-by-weeds- and-other-plants trail that looked as if it hadn't been used in years. "We'll just follow that trail and see where that goes!" Kila said with a smile. She headed towards the trail and soon found that the plants moved out of the way before she could get within five feet of them.
"I don't like this," Legolas said, his eyes narrowed. Jess nodded, moving a little closer to him. Yoko looked back at them, then at Kila, who was wandering a little ahead of the rest of them.
Just then, a hand darted out and grabbed Kila, followed by seven more. Kila was dragged into the bushes in the blink of an eye.
"KILA!!" Hiei and Yoko yelled, moving over to the bushes and parting them to see... Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No people, no Kila, nothing.
"Rrrrrr.... DAMN!" Hiei yelled, punching a tree and denting it.
Then, just behind them, the same thing happened to Jade and Maria. They were both dragged into the bushes, their bishies doing the same as Yoko and Hiei. Finally, Jess and Learan were dragged in, leaving Danny and Toca on their own with the bishies.
Yoko heard something on his left and turned around just in time to see hands grab him and Legolas, then everything went black.
(A couple of hours later in on unknown place)
Yoko woke up, feeling very uncomfortable and found that he was in a dimly- lit room with chains on the walls and blood staining parts of the walls red, as well as the floor. He stood up, only to find that he had chains on his wrists. He gave them a sharp tug, and they cracked a little bit.
Yoko reached into his hair and pulled out a rose. He set it in the chain for his left wrist and made it bloom into a Rose Whip.
The chain gave a final crack and slid off his wrist. He then took of the one on his right wrist by slashing it with his claws and was about to bust outta there when he heard a low moan.
He looked over and saw Kila, huddled in a corner, scratches and bruises all over her arms and shoulders.
"Kila!" He said, running over to her. "Kila, are you ok?"
When Kila didn't respond, he cursed a bit and shook her awake.
"Huh? What..? Yoko? What're you doing here?" Kila asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
"Quiet," Yoko said, looking out the door for guards. "Do you know where we are?"
"Unfortunately, yes, I do," Kila said quietly. She looked down, a sad look on her face. "We're in Kuroi's place right now, in the dungeons."
"Well, he apparently doesn't want to keep us here if he has such weak chains as these," Yoko said, slicing Kila's chains to pieces and picking her up. He walked over to the door and looked out.
"There are no guards here. There is, however, a spell on this place. No one but Kuroi can come or go without his permission," Kila said weakly. "We can go find the others, but I think they all might be unconscious."
"What's the point of keeping us down here if he isn't doing anything to us?" Yoko asked as soon as they were out of the room, seeing a healing potion and some food on a table with a note.
Kila picked up the note and read it aloud. "Kila, I think you might need these once I'm gone... That is, if you can get out. All of your friends and their bishies are down here, but there is no escaping as any and all windows have the same spell on them. As I have told you. Have fun whilst I take over the bishie world! Ta ta. Kuroi." Kila's hand shook in anger and frustration. "Why that little--!!!"
Yoko set Kila down in a chair and went to go get the others, finding most of them already up. Battosai, Rei, and Hiei all pretty much ran over to Kila to make sure she was ok, while Yoko got the others out. All the other trainers were asleep, but the bishies were awake.
"What did they do?" Bakura asked as soon as they were all around the table, nibbling at little pieces of food.
"Well, we were all awake at the beginning, when Kuroi came," Jess started. "He stayed for a long time, so we woke up some of our bishies and sat around doing nothing until..." Jess trailed off, looking pained.
Jade continued the story. "We heard Kila screaming. At first it was just insults and stuff, but then..."
Maria continued, "We heard screams of pain. You were with me, Yoko, Hiei was with Jess, Battosai was with Jade, and Rei was with Toca. They wanted to go check on you, but we had to knock them out so that they wouldn't go and get themselves hurt."
"Eventually, we fell asleep and our bishies stayed up to make sure that Kuroi didn't come back," Learan finished, looking at Kila, who was looking at the floor, where a few black tear gems were sitting. Learan picked one of them up and studied it.
Kila quickly wiped her eyes and looked up at them. "Yoko was sent in with me to wake me up and help me, while the others stayed. I don't know why he chose Yoko instead of Hiei, though."
"Probably because Hiei would have killed everyone and everything trying to get to Kuroi," Jess said with a small smirk.
Hiei smirked and nodded slightly. Just then, there was a small explosion to be heard upstairs. Everyone looked up and Kila sighed.
"Kuroi's throwing a tantrum," She said, smirking a tiny bit. "I see that he hasn't changed that much, after all."
Everyone chuckled at this, but stopped when they heard someone running down the stairs. Kuroi entered the room, his face a mask of fury, and he walked up to Kila, pulled back his fist, and punched her right across the face. She went flying into a wall on the other side of the room.
Yoko and Hiei, infuriated, ran in front of Kila and tried to confront Kuroi. He, however, knocked them to the side and slapped Kila again.
Kila was nearly unconscious by now.
As Hiei and Yoko tried to tackle Kuroi, he put up a shield around himself and Kila, throwing the two bishies backwards into the wall. Jess looked at Kila, concerned, then back at Kuroi. She glared at him and he chuckled a little bit, seeing the majority of the group glaring at him as well.
Kuroi muttered a few words in the language of magic and then moved his hand to face all of the trainers and bishies. One by one, they fell asleep until only Hiei and Yoko were awake. The last thing they heard before they, too, were knocked unconscious by Kuroi's spell was Kila's scream of, "LEAVE THEM ALONE!!", a thunk, and then darkness.
(Several hours later)
After everyone woke up, they saw Kila sleeping soundly against the wall away from everyone else, in the shadows. She cracked open an eye, yawned, then looked at her companions.
"Hey," She said sleepily. "Is everyone ok?"
"You could say that, yeah," Jade said, smiling slightly. Jess nodded and Toca smiled at her.
"Good." Kila looked around, saw a scorch mark on the wall, and chuckled. "It looks like that little spell worked!"
"What spell?" everyone asked, looking around.
"That one," Kila said, pointing to the wall. Everyone looked and saw the scorch mark. They looked at Kila, then at the wall, then back at Kila, then back at the wall, until Kila finally screamed, "STOP IT ALREADY!!!!!!"
Everyone jumped, grinned sheepishly, and then settled down. Kila sat up, leaning against the wall, half hidden in shadow, looking around the room, purposely not looking at anyone.
At one point, Jess came over and sat down next to her, asking if she wanted to talk. Kila had shook her head, smiling, and told Jess to get something to eat. Jess looked over at Kila again and saw that she was wrapped up in her own thoughts.
'It's my fault that everyone's here. If I hadn't come this way, then we wouldn't be here. And, worse yet, we can't even get out of this friggin' place. I REALLY wish I had some way to get the counter-spell.... wait a second! Kuroi has to have the spell in mind, because I'm pretty sure that we won't be here alone for long. So, if I gently prod into his head and see if I can get anything helpful, then that's a start!' Kila thought, and, looking around to make sure that everyone was talking or something, slipped into the "jail cell" farthest from everyone and the most in the shadows.
Kila sat down cross-legged completely in the shadows and relaxed her mind. She then reached out through the link, going into Kuroi's mind. She saw what he saw for a few moments before his eyes closed. He was, apparently, trying to work on some sort of diagram, so he would be busy for a while at least.
Kila looked around and found a few images floating around in her head. One of them was of her, and a few were bishies, but one in particular caught her interest.
It was of when the two of them were younger. Kuroi was basically like a mini-version, as was Kila. They were both laughing, and Kila was on the ground. It looked like Kuroi had just pulled her down with him.
Kila smiled and examined it for another moment before moving off. She found two spells. One of them, Kila knew from hearing Kuroi chant it, was the one that put up the barrier. The other one, Kila concluded, must be the opposite.
Kila looked at it and memorized it, then returned to the real world to find everyone looking at her.
"What?!" Kila asked, looking agitated.
"Uhh.... We don't know how, but you just blew a hole in the side of the wall," Maria said, pointing to it. Kila blinked, then laughed.
"Alrighty then! Let's see if my plan worked!" Kila said, stepping up to the hole in the wall. She looked at it, then tried to put her hand through. It was shocked by the barrier, and Kila quickly withdrew it, looking at her hand.
Kila grinned, then muttered the spell. She tried to get her hand through again, and it worked. She ran back to get her pack, as everyone else already had theirs, and she was just about to get through the hole when she heard clanking.
Another girl was thrown in, and landed roughly on the ground. Kila helped her up, then grabbed the girl's pack, threw it out the hole, then climbed out herself. She muttered the spell to put the barrier back up and repaired the wall with a few words.
She found her friends waiting for her in the bushes. As she walked over to them, the girl woke up and looked up at Kila.
The girl had mahogany-colored hair that was pulled up into a high-ponytail, bright blue eyes, and was wearing baggy, navy blue cargo pants, a loose yellow T-shirt that showed about an inch of her stomach, and black combat boots.
"Hey," Kila said softly, helping the girl sit down. "What's your name?"
"The name's Skyler, but you can call me Shadow," the 15-year-old girl said. Shadow looked over at Jess and her eyes widened. "JESS!!"
"Shadow?! Is that you?!" Jess asked, walking quickly over.
"COOL! This is unexpected!" Shadow said, grinning. Jess grinned back at her.
"Lost here..." Kila said, looking back and forth between the two girls.
"Well, back in the "real" world, we were good friends," Shadow explained.
"Ah. Ok. Good enough for me!" Kila said, standing up.
Just then, a Kouga appeared in a small flash of red light and whacked Shadow over the head.
"OW! What the hell was that for?!" Shadow asked, glaring slightly at Kouga.
"YOU went and got yourself KIDNAPPED!!! Do you realize how STUPID that is?!" Kouga asked, fuming.
Kila giggled quietly. Jess started to as well and soon the two of them were laughing their heads off.
"WHAT?!" both Shadow and Kouga asked.
"Kouga's over-protective! Kouga's over-protective!" Jess and Kila sang, giggling.
Kouga lunged at them and the two yelped and ran. Kila hid behind Hiei, while Jess hid behind Legolas.
Kouga glared at them, then turned back to Shadow, and was promptly hit over the head.
"Itai!! What was that for?!" Kouga asked, holding his head.
"For trying to kill my friend," Shadow said, then glared at him.
Kouga sighed and sat down. Hiei glared at him, then turned to see that Kila wasn't even there. She had been dragged over to the other trainers by Jess, and was currently sitting in a tree right above Jess's head.
Kila snorted at something and sent Hiei a mental message. 'They think we should just dump Shadow off somewhere and let her go wherever she wants to go while we go back inside and kill Kuroi. So idiotic,' she said with a sigh.
Hiei nodded. Just then, Kila sat upright and glared down at them.
"What... did... you... say?" Kila growled, looking very intimidating with her hand reaching for her sword hilt while the other one was clenched in a fist.
"I said that we should just leave you behind, Kila, since you are the one that Kuroi wants, and then just go our separate ways," Danny said, glaring at Kila.
Kila was right next to him in an instant, her sword at his throat. "If you didn't know, idiot, Kuroi wants to take over the bishie-world and THEN kill me. Taking over bishie-world is his TOP PROIRITY right now. And I don't need idiots like you telling me what to do. Now get the hell out of my sight before I kill you," Kila said, growling, her eyes glowing and her hands trembling slightly.
Danny backed away from her sword, then turned on his heel and walked off, not once looking over his shoulder.
"How you put up with him for so long, Jess, I shall NEVER know," Kila said, smiling and turning back to the group.
"Good riddance," Hiei said, frowning. Kila grinned at him.
"Well, now we get the hell outta here and just head wherever. Sound good to everyone?" Kila asked, looking around. Everyone nodded and Kila looked around.
Jess chose a seemingly-random direction and headed off that way, talking with Shadow the whole time. Kila, Jade, and Maria were behind them, and Learan was walking last, talking with her bishies.
That night, when they were a good 30 miles away from the castle, (they escaped early morning and ate while they walked. It is possible to do 30 or 40 miles in one day if you travel like that is the terrain is flat) they made camp and then set up watch. After everyone was asleep, Shadow got up and climbed a tree. Kila saw her and tilted her head to the side curiously.
Not minding Shadow, Kila took out a CD player and started to listening to a CD one of her friends had made for her. She hummed a bit as she walked over to a small stream nearby. Hiei, she knew, was following her.
Kila sat down near the edge of the stream and dipped her hand in. The water was nice and cool to the touch. She sighed and lay down next to the river, looking up at the stars. But she noticed something was off. The first constellation she saw was that of a warrior. The second was a five-headed dragon.
Kila studied them for a few moments, in a daze, then sat bolt upright.
"HOLY SHIT!!!!"
(end of chapter)