Peru;on the banks of the Amazon River...
Cole sat cross-legged on top of a dark,sturdy wooden roof overlooking the massive and rushing laps of churning foamy blue waves going past.A constant noise of people preparing different assortments of susbstances from food to medicine and the varying languages being spoken didn't phase him as he was use to them.He wore jean cut-offs and a faded black sleeveless shirt,as he concentrated on tampering with the solar panel of his sceptre in order to direct it towards the sun to receive a full charge from it's long but pale yellowish rays.Almost complete...he noted in mind,having become allayed in his project as he now fitted the ending in one of the creases in the shingles and set in an a meticulous angle.There.That should take just a few minutes now.
The sound of the skylight door that was hinged onto the side of the soild roofing of the ferro-concreted house clacked lightly open and a mildly Hispanic female voice reached his ears."Cole?"she asked out,her tone tinged with harboured curiousity."I just wanted to see if you wanted any dinner...um,what is it that you're doing?"
"Gathering all the energy my staff can withstand from the sun,"he replied back to her casually but without looking at her as he now finally turned his eyes out onto a rather gorgeously colorful toucan near the edge of the rainforest on the other side of the river."I need all the juice I can incur for when I go off shortly to finish my work."
"You're work."The part Latino girl who was around his age with shiney ebony hair held up into place by an ornamental comb and had on a fairly more modern scarlet sundress with broidered golden swirls curling up from where it stopped at her shin with the heam."You're work is what is going to drive you up the wall,"she found the nerve to say grousingly,as he heard her taking a few determined steps towards him but then,as always,holding back."It's the same thing every mid-day.You go off into that unruly,germ-infested jungle and no one even hears you return until the dead of night.The only time you didn't go was on you're birthday."
"It's not that bad,Arcelia."Cole told her with some amusement,tipping the staff a little more to the right."You spend half of the year in the United States with you're parents and then you and you're Mother come here to still keep an establishment with you're hertiage,that's cause for deference..."he paused in mid-sentence,prompt to recall the very thing that related part of their lifes which made them rather close in the first place."Listen,I'm not saying you shouldn't get you're own way a lot of the time.But compared to some of us,life isn't as bad as most make it out to be,at least for most people that is."
"You never have told me much about you're past."Arcelia admonished him softly,as she finally dared to take a few more steps to sit down with the staff directly between them,casting her deep chocolate eyes out to where a silvery fish leapt out near the muddy shore."All you've told me is that you use to be in a scattered legion of magical creature hunting tribes..."she gave a little laugh and told him semi-jocundly."It's quite fortunate that my father is part wizard or we would have never known what to make of the situtation when you finally admitted to me and my mother you were fleeing from such a horrid place such as that."
The way she described it made it sound like he was desperately on the lamb,instead of purposefully misleading the Huntsclan as he had been set to try differing places so that he could see for certain how maledicted he really was,if he even was.He had been merely teleporting by the great Amazon River on his way to a place him and his uncle had visited that exported different attachments to a few countries in their ring of the Magical Black Market.But since he had been using the newer form of teleportation instead of changing back with the rest of the Huntsclan to the more accient style when they had done so to lure the American Dragon and the former one to them by means of holding his sister hostage,the signal he used to get to different places with the newer teleportation method had lost it's signal and had resulted in Cole falling into a wooden cart of large oranges just outside the village a ways,where he had reluctantly be persuaded to stay only because of a discovery he had made and only because of Arcelia.
He merely shrugged one shoulder and eyed his now partially charged staff,telling her evasively."It wasn't a very good one and I wanted to rid myself of being apart of it because I feel it's below me,sometimes I'm too skilled for my own good."
"You're not the boastful kind,"She remarked and then tried again more insistently this time."I think you should concentrate on other more important things,Cole.You work hard in the village with the other men up until noon,then you eat and then you just go off on you're own."her words became denser in strength,which made him turn to her and he could easily see the worry lined in her medium brown facial features."It's not healthy to be like that,Cole.You don't even tell me what you do out there hardly...I just want to be sure you're okay,that's all."
He observed her prudently and knew that in the nearly six weeks he hadstayed with this quiet but sensible girl,that a sort of tenderness between the two had come about.It wasn't the same as when he had finally accepted the bond his sister and him held but it was something that made his throat feel dry and a tight knot in his chest form.She was easy to talk to,he found when he wasn't busy or in his meditative state and just the gentle way she graced about with always a hint of caution in her actions he found was somewhat comforting when he almost always had alot of his mind.Arcelia was more obvious in showing she had a major crush on him but Cole knew nothing could come of what he knew was inevitable.He had a goal to settle and today would be the day he settled it...to find out once and for all if he could have his freedom.A freedom he had been ambivalent about.
"Maybe you should get in contact with you're real family."She finally suggested to him,unbraced."Just to let them know to haven't vanished off the face of the earth."
But he only scoffed at the idea."Right.I'm about to show up on my Father's front porch and announce 'Hello,Dad.Here's you're long-lost son finally saving you the trouble and coming to you,so sorry we have yet to be formally introduced."
He sensed her groping but then she sighed abdicately."I've listened very closely to what infomation you've told me about yourself and personally,I think it's better to have a parent pass away whom you've never met,then to have one you've known for almost eleven years go."she drew her legs up to her flat chest."I wanted to tell you that for a while now but it never seemed like exactly the right time."
A few moment's pasted and he felt one of the feelings he scorned most:guilt.
"I haven't been as gracious as I probably should have been for you guys putting up with me this long."Cole hedged as he rose to his feet and was now pulling his staff's end out as the thin lines as it radiated medium green all the way to the oddly notched under surface of the curved hook front of his staff,which he gripped in his hand like a lifeline."I'm not going to come back most likely."he told her straightfowardly,as he arched out his legs and slid down to the very edge,stretching out his hand before he reached it and then in one move caught it with his free hand which put only at an arm's length of distance before he would have fallen forward fully."Do me a favor and tell you're Mother thank you."
"No,"Arcelia predictively scrambled down after him and would have stumbled right into him if she hadn't clasped her hands around the staff's middle to intervene her into a fairly steady stance right behind him."Cole."she told him frantically."You cannot just leave and not come back...I mean,why wouldn't you come back?You always have.At least tell me what in the world you're going to be doing,please."
"These are my matters."He told her in an eerily calm voice and started to pull her just a little more forward so that she could hear him,his entire demeanor seemed almost to have gone darkened as he warned her in a deep,infernal voice,now looking at her from the corner of his coal eye."I don't want you asking me any more questions.If I come back,then I come back.If I don't,then I don't.But bewarned..."his voice only grew in deepness and what was now detectable as near malevolence."If you do follow me in where you're not needed,I may be the very last person you ever do get to follow anywhere.Yes,Arcelia,it's exactly how it sounds.If you even want to breath another hour,then just stay where it's safe."
Cole didn't know why he had just shown her that side of himself,as he could now pull very lightly and the staff was in his poccession again.Still perplexed,he took a large spring outwards and sommersetting in mid-air,landed about twenty feet from the house.He pondered very rigorously for a moment as he recovered from his perfect landing and then realising in might have been a sign,found himself whirling back around to get one more look at Arcelia,who he had found he had left in a speechless and wide-eyed position,partially getting to her feet as she kept her eyes glued to him.Part of him he felt wanted to rush back to her to tell her he hadn't meant to frighten her so much as he had intended to depart from her and leave her in a more rest-assured way,but that would expose too much to her and he didn't feel like he coud ever do anything more until he found out for sure what he was dying to get out of the way.So watching her for only a few more seconds,he turned on his heel with his staff still in tact and made for the profuse of tropical plants and such to complete the final stage of his self-test.
I'm sorry,Arcelia,He thought heavily and kept on in a undaunted plod.I wish there could be more I could do for you but right now all I can do is protect you from the part of my life that I would do anything to shed,as he mused this to himself ,he didn't take notice of what was fastly approaching,as his unusally lengthy birthmark he had never payed much mind to started to emit a mixture of black and purple as it had the very night he had saved his sister's life.
On to Wendy and Josh...
Wendy was struck in ecstasy as her and Josh flew through the portal after she had managed to,as the Huntsmember had told her,lock onto the feel of where her brother was and after speaking out his name with the help of the teleporting potion Fu had given her,smoothly guilded into.Now she swept down towards some open,only slightly sloughy area she saw down below,for everywhere else it seemed was burgeoned with towering trees and exotic flowers in every direction to her.A fresh,planty ordor hung loosely in the roric air and everything from the sounds of squawking from birds to the sounds of things moving about the sempervirent,watery growth lingualed,as she shifted back to normal.
"Well..."Josh took in everything with a hint of dissatisfaction."You're bro sure picked one heck of a place to run away to,"he grinned fatuously."Hey,Wen,how many bucks do you wanna bet he's reverted back to his primal instincts?Ah,come on.You know...the whole Tarzan thing.With the line cloth and annoying warcry."
But she only glared at him impatiently."Knock it off,we have to find him and try to get him to help us with the Huntsclan."her words were betraying to her heart,everything was going in the wrong direction because she knew she was doing just the opposite of what she had set out to do two months ago."I have to at least ask him to help us come up with some sort of plan,he's pretty good with thinking things through.This whole situtation is determined by what we do now."
"I've never gotten the magic world."He said exasperatingly,digging his hands into the pockets of his jeans as they started to walk side-by-side into the folding of ground that opened up more but was cut off from aerial sight by the canopy of large leafs over them."But shouldn't you guys be more prepared for these sort of things?I get you're not perfect but ya'll have been fighting the Huntsclan forever."
She didn't respond this time as they went deeper into the expanding division of space and she wouldn't have even if he told her she was about to walk into a brick wall.The most trying moment of her life was right now...if she didn't go along with the hostage requirement,everyone would die and if she just showed up over-willingly like the last time her and Cole met then he might refuse once again.There was such a difference this time,as so much more seemed on the line.
Overwhelmence would be getting the best of her if it weren't for Josh being with her,even if he envied and sometimes fully underestimated some of the greatest limitations of the magic world,his loyality toward her was unmatched.
However,she needed to find Cole as soon as possible but she was completely unsure of what his reaction would be...she didn't want him to think she was turning on him but she needed him to be willing to help her at least one more time.After this experience,she was sure that the Dragon Council would be more on guard then ever with what they did but until that time she had but until then,she felt that the world was resting on her shoulders and it caused fear to rise in her.
"You know,I-"Wendy began but was truncated by a loud,sizzlingly hissing noise from up above that made her freeze in her tracks."What was that?"she turned to Josh and inquired him carefully."It sounded like the air coming out of giant ballon the time we time went up in one but that sounded more like an animal."
He lifted his medium brown eyes skyward in response and she watched as his face went wan."I-I-I...Wendy,"his words were quaking."Just walk,don't look up."
Againist his suggestion,she allowed her eyes that appeared cobalt in the shadiness of the covering from above and felt herself spotaneously gulp at the monolithicness of a giant,dark green snake-appearing creature that was sunspended up in the confines of a thickly roped net in the very tops of the trees.It's length and width was about that of a medium-sized whale.Her first thought was to shift into her dragon form and try to help the creature but then it occured to her that there had to be a reason for the serpent to be held up like that and wondered how anyone could have gotten it up in that sort of trap without there having been a lot of people involved,could it have been Cole?
"We'll deal with it later,"Wendy told him resolutely and taking a grasp on his arm,she started on with her head held high,focusing on the way she felt him now,which she could only make out as him being uncertain."The sooner as we find Cole,the sooner we can come up with a plan and then we can go back."
She continued on over a few fallen leaves that were similiar to palm tree leaves when there was a crunching noise and she felt her tennis shoe push againist what felt like a giant string.Brought out of her thoughts,she realised when she moved her foot to the side and felt a large piece of what she guessed was metal shift in the soft ground,that it must be was was tying up the huge snake.Josh had held back in order to get a longer look at it and was now coming just on her left,when he tripped forward and all of a sudden,the rope lashed out from it's place under the leaves and shot up into view where it ceased it's viberating pull near the top.Wendy held her breath when the second to the top right part of the net only budged down a little and stopped.When that had happened,she got behind Josh before he could utter a word of shock and then pushed him in a quickened hurl as far as she could make them go but the sound of a giant snap and the section of net giving away as the snake started to poke it's emerald head which was about the size of a small car out,was enough motivation and she instantly changed in a burst of xanthous light.By that time,it had halfway slitered out of it's still hanging exit,it's movements unhesitant and slyly coiling as it inched it's way down.
"Josh,I love you."she muttered to him under her breath before spreading out her huge calcimine wings."But sometimes I feel I've fallen for the biggest idiot on earth."
He threw her a significant look before he headed over to the side near the trees."I must be one if my girlfriend has to be the one in our relationship to save my butt...But,maybe this one little time wouldn't be such a bad idea."
The next time she turned around from looking at Josh,she came face to face with the giant snake.She saw her own eyes reflecting in it's large,golden ones.They didn't hold any intent to harm her at first,they were just largely protuberant and blank.Not sure how to approach the situtation,Wendy tried drifting forward and to the side,thinking of the possiblity of trying to take and raise it back into it's net.It's hypnotic eyes were silently swift to keep on her as she moved more upwards and as she saw it cock it's head to the side momentarily,only barely missed it as slowly revealed it's sesquipedal and needle-like gleaming fangs and then launched itself forward at her.When it recovered from it's first strike,she had swerved around it's back head and raising her tail high,brought it down in one good whack and didn't waste anytime when it let out what sounded like a gurling growl before it snapped in her direction.Wendy then ebbed back behind it and shot down a blast a fire,which only left her mouth agape when the burnt mark materialized away and sensed something coming up from right behind her.In one swoosh,she managed to escape as the snake made a curve with it's body and had tried to grab her out of thin air but had missed by only about five feet.
What is this thing?she wondered rushingly,as she had avoided yet another nip it tried to take at her and as it kept on like that and she managed some very near misses,it was not long before thoughts that she was thrifting away her time on this while intriuging also dangerous foe surfaced and felt a streak of anger run through her.This is a total waste of time,I've got to end this right now!
Just as she was about to make her next move,she felt a sharp blow to her stomach and was sent hurtling into the truck of a tree.It wasn't hard enough to seriously injure her but she felt the wind definitely knocked out of her pipes.Digging her brown claws into the tough back to keep her from falling downwards,she popped open her lids and saw with surprise someone land on top of the serpent's virid head and jabbed something that looked like a large stick in the very center between it's eyes.For a moment,it only froze up and seemed to become statue-like in the way it held itself in mid-air.Her eyes fell with the giant snake,as the whites of it's eyes rolled back into it's head and it landed in a great thud,soggy mud flew out and she felt some of it splatter up againist her.
"Wendy!"Josh's voice yelled up at her and in shaking some of her brief trama off,she veered her gaze down to where he stood just underneath her nearby the lower base of the tree."Hey,"he crinkled his tan brow in concern."You okay?"
With an idea rising in her,Wendy didn't awnser as the figure had now gone from sight and she soared down back onto the ground but didn't bother changing back as she started towards the large,apparently out cold ophidian.But just as she was about to walk further towardsthe creature,Josh camerunning up to her.She saw someone circle around the head of it and couldn't quite make out who it was at first as the serpent's shadow was casted down upon him.Squinting some,she watched the thewy figure of Cole approach them.She was set to greet her brother in a gladsome fashion but was quite taken aback when she saw him giving her that same chilling,almost minacious look he had given her when he had still considered them enemies,when he had wanted to slay her ever so mercilessly.
"Easy,"She heard Josh whisper to her as he was quick to take up residence beside her,placing a catious hand on her arm as he stared at Cole."He doesn't look too happy to see us...just don't make any sudden movements or anything."
The next time she looked up her brother was only about six feet from her,his eyes moved from her when she tried to meet his and fell over to the slumbering snake,then flashed back to give her this time a more penetrating look."This is a basilisk,"he explained to both of them in a low voice,which wasn't as harsh as it was reprehending."If you stare too long into it's eyes or inhale deeply near it's nose and mouth,then you'll either become paralyzed for life or die...you two have got to leave now,Wendy,it's unpredictable if you both stay that you'll even stand another minute when it regains consciousness.It's the most fatal magical creature."
To Be Continued...
A/N:Yes,the Basilisk is something I wanted to use in one of my chapters and this seemed perfect...everythings looking pretty grim for now again though.Well,until the next time occurs.I should update again within the next week sometime.
LP