Discliamer: Whitezetsu does not own digimon, but she does wish that they would add penguin Digimon in the series. She does however own the plot and Sakura, Sister Mia, Stargazer, Toyo, Ayashi, the 4 pixies, and Kouta.
Journey to Middle Kingdom
The sky grew dark and for once in about 40 years the stars shown in the sky. It was a rather cold night not that cold but cold enough. They stopped to make camp. Ryo sat on one side of the fire while the 2 girls sat next to each other on the other side.
"This is the first time I've ever seen the stars." Alice smiled, she looked so nice with that smile. She rarely ever smiled.
"I wouldn't know." Rika sighed burring her head in her arms.
Ryo sat there leaned against a tree staring at the stars. He smiled, the stars looked beautiful.
"Really why not?" Alice asked.
"I've been cooped up, for the most part." Rika smiled at the girl. "I may get to see the sky once every year if that."
Alice stared at her funny. What kind of person would be cooped up so they couldn't see the sky? Her parents had to have been weird. Alice looked over and pulled her sword over to her. It was a weird story how she had gotten it. Her parents told her the day she was born, the lady of the woods came and said that she would need this sword one day. Ever since then Alice was always found with it. It was like it was a part of her.
They were quiet for a while, everything could be heard, the rustling of the leaves. The calm wind whistling in the night, the crackling of the fire. Rika shot a quick glimpse at Ryo and thought about how he vanished so long ago.
"Hey Pretty Boy!" Rika called angrily.
"I do have a name you know." Ryo stated still looking at the sky.
"I don't care!" She yelled. He looked at her and sighed.
"You're very rude you know." He said. "But what is it that you want to know?"
Rika shot him an icy glare, she stared at him and he just blew her off. She sighed.
"What do you know about Nyearths?" She asked calmly. Ryo's eyes widened.
"I know they live in the Middle Kingdom." He said. "They also control the shadow creatures."
"How did they break free?" Rika asked. She was very curious, a little too curious Ryo thought.
"Why do you want to know?" He wondered.
"A Nyearth killed my father, and tried to kill me when I was younger." Rika said, she pictured that moment she was only one but she heard the stories she knew.
"Let's go, the princess needs her rest." Sister Rose smiled, starting to walk towards the door when a creature burst in, its orbs glowing the brightest red you could ever think of. It was dressed like a ninja, all you could see was it's piercing red eyes.
"Hand over the princess!" It hissed coldly, no remorse in its voice.
"Pixie Bomb!" The four pixies cried out throwing a lot of magic at the creature burning its face. It screamed out in pain. Grabbing a hold of its face, it gave an evil smirk.
"I will be back for her, and when I am you will all die!" It laughed evilly showing off its great black wings then disappeared.
"So you want revenge?" Ryo asked sitting up straight now. Rika nodded, she didn't feel like talking about it. "Well we are closer to your revenge then you think."
Rika shot up, "What do you mean?"
"Well this path leads to the Middle Kingdom." Ryo stated leaning back against the tree. Alice looked at Rika.
"It's true, I take this way a lot, it's way quicker." Alice stated. She pulled out her sword and started to polish it. Rika looked down at the sword it had an inscription like hers. "It says 'Brave and Ruthless'."
It was like Rika's though hers said 'Strong and Brave', was this a sign?
"Well we had better get some sleep." Ryo said, rolling over.
--
Deep in the woods dark figures gathered drawing ever closer to the light. Hoping from tree limb to tree limb.
--
They all slept soundly, peacefully. Without a care, they were very tired. 3 stranger met and began on this long journey to the North Kingdom. Going through the Middle Kingdom would be the least smart thing to do.
Alice rolled over, she woke up to the sound of the woods creaking, louder than she was used to. She lay down, pretending to sleep. She heard silent thumps on the ground. Next to Ryo, she shot up…nothing.
She lay back down on the cold ground, now was troubled by the sound. Was her mind playing tricks on her? Now she knew she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep until she figured out what this noise was.
The horses whinnied in their sleep. Bothering Alice, she was determined. She silently laid there listening very carefully to all the sounds around. But all still the same, the creaking of the trees was quieter, much quieter. It bothered her. Things were too quiet. She sat up and noticed Ryo was gone. Was he the noise she heard? It would explain why it was close to Ryo. She pulled out her sword and began to walk to where Ryo once was.
"Ryo." She whispered. "Where are you?"
She held her sword firmly in her right hand. She looked around the tree, still no sign of the 15 year old boy. She heard a crackle in the woods and shot around, swung her sword. She dropped it when she realized she hit something. She bent down.
"I'm so sorry, Ryo." She whimpered, it wasn't like her to be this way. "You scared me you jerk!" She yelled waking Rika up.
"Well I didn't mean too." Ryo said holding his shoulder with his left hand. She had cut into his shoulder pretty deep.
Rika got up and walked over to the 2. "So this is what happens when I leave you two alone." She smiled. Alice just gave her an evil look. Rika looked down and noticed how badly Ryo's arm was bleeding. She pulled out a white clothe and went to place it on Ryo when he batted her hand away.
"Don't it wont work." Ryo stated. Rika looked at him funny. She had learned from the nuns, how to medicate a wound.
"Why not? It will stop the bleeding." Rika said, very persistently.
"It's better to let it bleed." Ryo said looking away.
"Are you stupid? You could die from a cut like that." Rika said. Alice looked at her, she then cleaned her sword.
"Rika, if he wants to die let him." Alice stated placing her sword back in its sheath.
"Just let me fix it!" Rika yelled, Ryo looked her straight in the eyes. His deep blue cerulean eyes stared angrily.
"You can't!" Ryo shouted.
"And why is that?" Rika asked rudely. He looked away still holding his cut.
"You wouldn't understand." He said quietly. She grabbed his hand and pulled it off the wound. She didn't know why but she just felt like placing her hand on it. So she did. "Rika! Don't you understand no medicine can heal me!" He yelled, Rika removed her hand. The cut was gone.
Ryo looked at her, her eyes just grew huge and she looked at her hand. No blood. Alice dropped her sword. And looked at Rika and then where Ryo's cut was.
"What's going on here?" Alice asked, Rika looked at Ryo and him at her, then they looked at Alice.
"I guess I have healing powers." Rika said weirdly. Ryo nodded. This was all very weird to him, nothing ever before was able to heal him, elves couldn't, medicine couldn't, but Rika could.
--
"Did you see that?" A creature hissed. The other slapped the first.
"Of course you imbecile!" The other growled. "The princess healed the unhealable boy."
"The master will be pleased to hear this." The first hissed joyfully. They watched them from the woods and then disappeared.
--
"Ok I think we need some rest." Alice said tiredly. Tonight was rather weird.
"Uh, yeah." Ryo said, and Rika nodded. Alice and Rika walked over to their beds and lay down.
--
"They are headed right here." A creature hissed.
"Yes." Another hissed.
"Good, good." The master laughed. He entwined his fingers together and gave and evil smile. "The East Kingdom's King is gone, the Queen is out of the picture, and the Princess is on her way here."
"The Princess has some healing power." The second hissed. This made his master smiled even brighter.
"This is good news." He laughed.
"She is also with a peasant and Ryo." The first said.
"Good then everything is going as planned." He laughed a very evil laugh that echoed in the dark through the cold stone castle.
--
The sun and just rose in the sky, and the birds had just started singing their lovely tune, waking the 3.
"If we leave now, we will make it in Middle Kingdom by noon." Alice said packing her stuff up. Rika rolled up her bedding and placed it in a sack on her horse.
"Here!" Ryo said as he tossed the girls an apple. "It's not much but it's food."
Rika got on her horse and thought about last night how she found out she had healing powers it was weird. She looked over and noticed Ryo was staring at her, he turned his head quickly when she looked at him.
"You're staring at me!" Rika growled. He looked back at her.
"Am not!" He yelled back at her.
"I think I know when someone was looking at me!" She hollered. He shrugged.
"You probably do, Pumpkin." He smirked. "But I wasn't looking at you."
"Pumpkin!" She glared at him.
Alice sighed deeply and got on her horse. "Come on you two, let's go already!"
"Come on Blazer!" Rika said as she and her horse walked past Alice and Ryo. Alice looked down at Ryo.
"You sure you want to walk?" She wondered. He looked at her and gave her his trademark smirk.
"Yeah, I'm good." He smiled. He started walking towards Rika who stopped at the curve of the path. Alice watched the 2 and smiled to herself, her horse cantered over to Rika and Ryo.
"Well let's find someplace to bathe, I feel like dirt." Alice stated, looking at Rika who smiled.
"Well you two know this land better then me." She stated.
"Good point." Alice smiled, she looked back noticing Ryo was staring off into space. She leaned over to Rika. "How long have you known him?"
"I met him when I was 7." Rika said. "But then he disappeared, and I never saw him again until yesterday."
"How very strange." Alice said. "It's funny how he calls you Pumpkin."
"Don't start, Alice." Rika stated rolling her eyes. "And how is that funny?"
"Hmm you said you met him once when you were 7 and now he's calling you Pumpkin that's a little funny I guess." Alice said thinking about it then thought how unfunny it was. "Yeah never mind."
Ryo looked around and started to walk slower, as if he knew what was coming up and didn't want to go. Rika looked back and noticed that Ryo was further behind then from where he was before.
"Hey Pretty Boy! You coming or what?" Rika yelled. Ryo snapped back and looked at them. He sighed.
"Yeah I'm coming." He said and caught back up to them.
Alice looked up at the sky the sun almost reached its peak which meant high noon was coming. She looked over at Rika who was having a hard time staying awake.
"We're almost to Middle Kingdom, I wouldn't expect a welcome wagon just so you know." Alice stated reaching for her sword. "I hope you know how to use that bow."
"Yeah I do." Rika said grabbing her arrows.
"What about you Ryo?" Alice asked. She knew he had no weapons on him.
"I'm not going to worry about myself." Ryo said looking at the trees they passed. "They don't bother me."
"Ok…" Alice said suspiciously.
"So anyway why are we going to North Kingdom?" Ryo asked.
"Well one is to go to the Land of the Penguins which is a few miles away from the North Kingdom and I need to talk to Prince Kouta." Rika said sternly, she had a job to do and she would get it done.
Alice stopped her horse and so did Rika, they were in front of a vast swamp that looked like it went on forever in all directions.
"This swamp surrounds the whole Middle Kingdom, it is 200 miles wide and 14,000 miles long." Ryo said, he changed somehow.
"So how do we cross it?" Rika asked, she looked both ways she didn't see a boat of anything.
"We don't, this swamp is here to keep people out of the Middle Kingdom." Alice said. "We go around and hope we go unnoticed."
"Going through would be quicker then going around, if we go through we should in North Kingdom by tomorrow morning. That's if we don't stop." Ryo said slyly.
"That would kill us!" Alice shouted at him. "The creatures of the shadows would feed on our flesh and if we were to come across a Nyearth we'd be dead quicker then you can say one."
Rika stared at the swamp, she noticed most of it was covered in a thick fog. Which gave her an idea.
"There is a thick fog throughout the land no doubt, if we go through it will be hard for them to see us." Rika said.
"Oh so now you're agreeing with him!" Alice shouted. "What do you want the quick way or the safe way?"
"I just want to get to the North Kingdom!" Rika yelled. Alice and Rika shot each other evil glares, Ryo just stood there and watched.
"Fine, you go with Ryo through the Middle Kingdom, and I'll go around. If you are not there when I get there, I'll know you didn't make it." Alice said and directed her horse to the path.
"Alice…" Rika said softly.
"Just take care of yourself, and remember nothing in the Middle Kingdom can be trusted." Alice said. "Got it?"
"Yeah." Rika said.
"See you in about a day or so." Alice said and then road off.
Rika turned back to Ryo and he looked at her.
"Lead on." She said, he walked over and grabbed the horse's reins and pulled it along.
"There's a small raft about a mile down. We'll use it to get in." Ryo smiled walking along the grass. "I'll keep a hold of the reins so I don't lose you."
"Whatever." Rika said and looked in the direction Alice headed in. She wondered if she would ever see her again.
--
"I believe she has really left us this time." Sister Rose said sadly.
"Or she's going to the North Kingdom to break the engagement." Mia said sitting in the wooden chair in the kitchen. She sipped her tea and thought about it.
"Now why would she be so foolish to try that?" Rose shouted angrily. She paced back and forth.
"Well you've heard her say it herself, she doesn't like the boy." Mia smiled placing her cup back in the fine saucer.
"Yes, but going alone! It's suicide!" Rose slammed her fist down on the wooden table making it creak. "Mia you have good connections with the elves can't you get someone to follow her?"
The blue haired elf looked up at her, her piercing blue eyes stared at the old lady. "I could, but if she took the shortcut nothing can save her."
"Shortcut?" Rosa asked.
"There is a shortcut through the Middle Kingdom, one goes around and it take 3 days but one goes through and takes a little more then 2 days." Mia said placing her drink on the counter. "If she took the 2 day one she's pretty much a goner."
Sister Rose sighed deeply. "So we have to trust the Princess on this one huh?"
Mia nodded and took a sip of her tea.
--
Ryo helped Rika to get off her horse and led her onto the raft, then pulled her horse on with him. He grabbed a tall stick hidden in the tall grass.
"It should only take about 2 hours to cross." He said squatting, placing his hand down on the raft. A black aura came out of it and then he stood up.
"2 hours? That's impossible to cross this swamp in 2 hours!" She proclaimed. Ryo smiled.
"Just believe."
"I have a feeling I should punch you right now." Rika stated, but Ryo just continued to smile.
"Don't worry, Pumpkin we'll be there sooner than you think." He said. The raft drifted into the fog until they were no longer seen.
--
"That Ryo kid gives me the creeps." Alice said while riding her horse. "I mean last night, I know someone was there. And it wasn't Ryo." Alice looked up at the sky and at the trees. She just kept thinking about how weird last night was. "He knows this land a little too well."
Her horse neighed and just kept walking, it was tired and so was she. She needed more sleep last night. But she didn't get it.
"Maybe he works for the Nyearths or something." Alice stated worried. "I hope Rika can handle herself."
Whitezetsu: Haha more suspence. Well I've been rather sore lately indoor track started wednesday but i was unable to go. And so i went on thursday and was in pain and the Friday more pain i got saturday off though YaY ;) and then let's see i feel better today cept theres pain running down my right leg nad i kept hitting it with logs by accident and the i twisted my left ankle ouch :( and then i got my leg stabbed by a log.
So yeah that has nothing to do with this story - -;; but ok heres some info: Under Destruction of Hope (AKA this story) will ONLY be updated on weekends and By Your Side will ONLY be updated during the week and when i get a chance during the week and once By Your Side is finished i will continue working on Digimon Makers. There now that that is done lets see. Hmm...
Well C'ya in chap 5
JyouraKoumi- So what's new with you?