The Truth Beyond the Reflection
Chapter 9: A Little Bit of Magic
By Sanzaki Kojika
Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the Kyou Kara MaOh! Characters. I do however, own everything "beyond the reflection." Heh. WARNING: There IS Yaoi in here. YxW and vice versa. I guess you could say hints of CxY, too.
This story is no where near what it was I had originally planned, so it's going a little slower than I'd like it to. But, I said I'd have the next chapter up before the new year, so here it is! Ta da! Chapter 10 is almost half way done, too. So, I might get that one typed up pretty soon XD. This is from Wolfram's point-of-view. Wah…I wanna see more Kyou!
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I still just couldn't believe it. Here I was, following a sword. Well, technically, he wasn't a sword anymore. But somehow…I just couldn't shake my image of Morgif as a sword. This handsome man- not as handsome as my wimp though- could not be Morgif! I mean, if it had a human form…wouldn't it resemble a skeleton more? My head was spinning from all of the thinking I had been doing.
"Wolfram-kyo…" I glanced up as my train of thought was broken. Morgif hadn't looked back at me, but I think he had sensed my confusion. He had pretty sharp senses.
"The reason I appear as I do is because this is the form I wish to take. Dark like the MaOh, gentle like the halfling, fierce like your eldest brother, swift like the advisor, and strong like you." I looked Morgif up and down. Well, he had dark hair like Yuuri's hair, a smile like Conrad, and Gwendal's eyes…but I didn't see any of me or Günter in him. I watched him as he walked ahead of me. His movements were similar to Günter (when that silly man had the dignity to be serious of course!), but I still found no trace of me. Strong? Günter and my brothers were stronger than me. And, as much as I hated to admit it, so was my wimp.
"I'm not that strong…" I looked down at my feet. I hated this place! It was showing me just how weak I really was.
"It is not your physical strength I dream of." I gave Morgif a funny look, but with his back turned towards me, it was rather pointless. He chuckled softly.
"It is the strength of your heart," he glanced over his shoulder and flashed me a Conrad grin. Oh! How I missed my world. Morgif served as a living reminder of what I had left behind. I frowned against my discomfort.
"Tell me what you know of that beast that replaced you. Only a few have enough magic power to put themselves in the real world, and an exchange is always necessary." I bit my lip. I actually didn't know too much about that thing. I only knew what Conrad had told me.
"Well…Conrad said it looked like me, but the change was noticeable…" I cut myself short. Dammit! I hadn't meant to call Conrad by his name in front of another person…! I looked down to hide my embarrassment. Morgif merely chuckled for a moment.
"It's most lkely a low level changeling. Usually, they spend their time in the mountains. I wonder what could have caused it to flee…" I watched Morgif's posture frown. Then, he abruptly topped and it took all of my effort not to collide into him. He turned towards me.
"Shall we investigate?" he grinned. I nodded slightly. He patted me on the shoulder and started off in a new direction. I was quick to follow. I had spent enough time alone in this damned place, thank you very much!
As we walked, the forest around us gradually changed. The leaves slowly faded from green to a dull brown, and the bark of the trees and plants started to take on a grayish hue. A dull murmur started up. I thought I could see tiny beady eyes glowing through the dark shadows. Still, I saw no movement.
After a while, I could have sworn I heard a growl. Morgif didn't seem bothered by it though, so I decided to trust him for now. He hadn't led me astray so far. As the shadows grew darker with the changing sun, some of the plants seemed to almost glow. At night, this placed would have been beautiful. I wasn't so sure if I wanted to stick around to find out.
Morgif quickened his pace and I followed suit. I couldn't help but notice as his hand settled on the hilt of his sword. I was quick to follow his example. I didn't want to be caught unaware again.
The forest thinned away until we were simply walking through a field of ridiculously tall grass. I could see the mountains in the distance, but they still seemed far off. The wind resulted through the grass and I jumped at the sound. Tall grass meant danger: it was easy for beasts to hide in, and I remained exposed.
Morgif crouched down and motioned for me to do the same. I crouched down and scooted up besides him.
"There isn't much movement in this grass meaning that there must be larger predators about. The ecosystem has been skewed. Usually, the larger monsters live in the mountains or the lakes," he sighed softly. I shuddered slightly at the thought. If Morgif was worried…did that mean that these monsters were more dangerous than the one I had encountered by the lake? He had no problem taking care of that one.
"What kind of monsters…?" I choked on the words. Morgif gave me a reassuring smile. Yeah, easy for him to be relaxed! He was pretty much immortal in this realm. I, on the other hand, was as mortal as I had ever been. I would not allow myself to fall in a place like this! I had to get back to my world and get rid of that imposter!
"Do not worry; I shall protect you. I can't let anything happen to my master's precious fiancé!" he smiled. I felt the color rise in my cheeks. Precious fiancé…? Ha! Too bad that wimp didn't think that way…
We started forward again, moving very slowly and trying not to disturb the grass. Morgif led the way; we twisted and turned as if we were in a maze. As we progressed, the grass steadily grew shorter. Then, abruptly, it ended. We stopped within the remaining stragglers of grass.
"Look there," Morgif whispered. I followed his gaze towards the open field. The sky was starting to darken, so I couldn't see much, but it looked like the shadows were dancing. I blinked hard and shook my head. No effect. The shadows still seemed to be moving.
"What is that…?" I asked, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know. Most of these things I had come across I would have better off not knowing that they even existed. Morgif's eyes lit up at my question.
"A rare sight for sure! Those are gremlins! They hardly ever take on a more sustainable form than a shadow. Not only that, but they are grouped together and chanting as well. I wonder what they are up to…" Morgif stood up. He nodded down at me and I did the same.
As we moved closer, I could finally hear the chanting. It was high-pitched and squeaky, and I couldn't make out any sensible sounds or words. To me, it sounded like they were singing some strange foreign song. At least it wasn't that English crap my wimp always liked to play around with.
"Heichao," Morgif said as we got closer. We stopped and I stayed slightly behind him. The gremlins stopped dancing and stared up at us. They were tiny masses of black with glowing red eyes.
"Morgif! Morgif!" the gremlins suddenly squeaked with joy. They ran over to him and encircled him with their dark masses. I clung tightly to his back. These things smelled awful!
"Long time no see," Morgif smiled. "What's happening?"
"Heichao found! Found!" the gremlins squeaked. Morgif frowned slightly.
"What did you find?"
"Heichao found! Sphere, sphere! Magic!" the gremlins were quivering with excitement. At least, they looked like they were quivering. It was hard to tell. I was terrified. My grip on Morgif's arm tightened.
"Can we see it?" The gremlins scurried away and Morgif motioned for me to follow. The gremlins led us to the area where they had been dancing a little while before. They led us to…a baseball…?
Morgif frowned slightly as he knelt down to examine the baseball. It was deteriorating away. The leather on the outer surface of the ball had all but diminished away. I could just barely make out the faded word: Yuuri. Well…I had finally found the ball that wimp had lost last week. And, to think, he had accused me of taking it!
"This certainly doesn't belong here…" Morgif held up the ball. I moved in a little closer. He smiled slightly and held out the ball to me. I slowly reached for it.
The moment my fingers touched the ball, it started to glow. I barely had enough time to pull my hand back before it exploded. I screamed against the blinding light. Just great! Now Yuuri's ball was trying to kill me! Did he really hate me that much?
"Wolfram-kyo! Are you okay?" I felt Morgif by my side. I was shaking and my hands stung. I blinked against the change of light. The brightness faded quickly.
"Yeah…" I pulled my hands back against my chest. That damn ball! I cursed underneath my breath.
Morgif helped me to my feet and I glanced around. The gremlins were screaming and running around in fright. I couldn't blame them; that explosion had scared me, too. But, at a second glance, I realized I was wrong. Just as they started to vanish into the shadows, I took notice of what they were really afraid of. The ground had started to tremble.
"What…" I tried to ask Morgif, but he was concentrating on whatever it was that was approaching. Our hands moved to the hilts of our swords simultaneously. Slowly, it came into view.
Lurching towards us was a large, sinewy pinkish monster. Hot saliva dribbled out of its mouth. It must have been more than forty feet tall! It's one bloodshot red eye locked onto us.
"Morgif…" the giant Cyclops breathed on us. Its breath was rancid! Did everything in this world smell terrible…? I gripped Morgif's arm tightly.
"It's odd to see you here. Why have you left your home?" Mogrif's hand slid from his sword. I could still feel his muscles tensed though, so I kept mine at ready. He didn't seem thrilled about running into this thing.
A fool hath corrupted this place with his foul magic. You have brought another fool into my domain. I must protect the mountains. The Cyclops loomed over us. I stared up at it meekly. It felt like its gaze was piercing through me. I already hated whatever this thing was. It gave off a powerful and disturbing aura.
Morgif frowned slightly. He had a pensive look on his face. I gripped his arm tighter.
After a moment, Morgif looked back up at the Cyclops. "Chigi…do you mean that sphere…?" Morgif motioned to the remains of the baseball that were now scattered across the ground.
The Cyclops, Chigi I guess, glared down at the slivers of leather. That is the source of the foul magic! You fight it with another foul magic. Original, indeed, but not entirely effective. The strands remain.
Chigi's eye rotated back towards us. He leaned down closer and I did my best not to gawk. For some reason, I wasn't really all that afraid of him. It was more like his toughness was simply an act. And, I had felt as if I had met him, and already overcome him before. Odd.
"I don't understand…" Morgif started to say, but Chigi interrupted him. The giant hand came down and scoped away a handful (a big chunk) of dirt and started off.
Come. I glanced over at Morgif. He nodded and smiled. We slowly started off after him.
"Who is that…" I whispered.
"His name is Chigi," Morgif smiled, "but in your world he has no real name. He is simply known as the sealed Mazoku box, Land's End."
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Translation notes:
Wolfram-kyo: Lord Wolfram
MaOh: evil king
Mazoku: monster
I finished it! Go meh! I couldn't remember what the name of the box was so I had to do some research. If I had been smart, I would have just gone and grabbed the episodes myself and stuck them in instead of playing around on numerous English fansites, giving up, and going to Japanese ones XD I'm done now…