Author's Notes: Got the dismemberment curse from my beta (beta for some of my fics, but not this one), Menecarkawan. Hehehe!
Song: 'Taisetsu na Mono' by Road of Major
Ch. 6: The Green Land
After the fight most of the people in the ship were thankful to the young rescuers and the smirking merchant finally approached Harry. The teen was glaring at the man, but the man didn't seem to care. He suddenly opened the bag he had with him and showed them several things, weapons, items, and orbs. He had bronze cuffs, a bronze sword that was similar to Harry's partially woodened one, he had guns made out of bronze, a bronze staff that could replace Luna's woodened one, and he also had many potions between other things. "I am a vendor", he said. I've been observing you and I believe that what I have to offer might be to your liking." Harry was wary of the man, but he also felt that the sword the man wanted to sell to him was somehow calling him. "I can buy your old weapons if you decide to buy new ones." Neville seemed thrilled looking at two bronze guns and bronze covered leather knuckles that looked comfy enough. Harry closed his eyes over the weapons and concentrated looking for traps or curses on them, but found nothing. "Will you buy then?" Harry nodded and they ended up replacing all of their old things by bronze ones. They also stocked a bit more on potions and the man showed them orbs. "I can sell you these together for one special price. Only five hundred raillens." They had to unite money from their sacks, but paid the amount and little by little the orbs distributed themselves between Harry, Neville, and Luna. Harry was happy to realize that now he would be able to heal himself instead of always depending on Luna, but he had a feeling that Luna still had the greatest healing magic. "It was a pleasure doing business with you", said the vendor with a smirk. Harry had a feeling the guy wasn't really a nice man, but meant business when he approached them.
They spent a complete week on the ship before finally getting to land. It was the greenest land Harry had ever seen as if it was in an eternal spring, but very warm. They got off the ship and started their journey. Harry automatically used his scanner and was able to see that in that land there were two fragments, but both were quite distanced one from the other. He suddenly thought about Apparating and something snapped in his mind and he turned to Dianeia. "How were you able to follow us when we Disapparated and Apparated close to the village where the mine was?"
"When you what?" The girl was confused, but she suddenly smiled. "Oh! You mean when you teletransported yourself? Well, you did say out loud where you were heading..." She laughed. "I also teletransported myself."
Harry was satisfied with the answer. Maybe he was being too suspicious, but he was starting to think that he was overreacting. Still, the image of Al crying when he found out he had been betrayed haunted him.
The young group kept walking and just when they were agreeing on Disapparating to shorten their way Dianeia gasped. On top of a hill was a man that could be in his late twenties. The man had extremely pale skin like Dianeia and shiny white hair that also fell to his knees. He had a wide dark green bandanna covering part of his head and wore dark green loose pants and a long green tunic that fell down to his thighs. He had a golden cloth around his waist and was glaring at Dianeia. The girl suddenly whispered: "Older brother..."
"WHY ARE YOU TRAVELING WITH HUMANS, DIANEIA?"
The girl didn't yell, but spoke high enough to be heard by the man. "They can help. Their mission is to save the children, Zheylks!"
"THEY ARE HUMANS!" The man looked at Janryu with disgust. "AND A VAMPIRE? YOU ARE ALSO WITH A VAMPIRE? YOU DISHONOR OUR KIND BY DOING THAT! OUR PEOPLE WOULD BE ASHAMED!"
"So be it! I will rescue Nhuriel with whoever I want! I'm not a child, Zheylks!"
The man suddenly had enormous wings on his back and flew towards them. He hid his wings and grabbed Dianeia by her arm. "You will come with me. I will return you to our parents. You won't be risking your life. I will be the one to rescue Nhuriel."
"No! I will not hide and do nothing! You cannot control my life, Zheylks! You know this!"
The man freed the girl's arm and stared at her. "Why do you do this, Dianeia? What would our parents say if they saw you around humans?"
"They're not just any humans! They're the chosen ones! They came from the other world, just like the boy from one hundred and forty years ago!"
Zheylks stared at the youngsters and that was when he realized something else. "They're children! Dianeia! You will end up having to protect them! They're only human cubs!"
"Al was fourteen, Zheylks! Please!"
"Do they know?" Dianeia shook her head. "Then it should remain that way, is that clear?"
"Unless there's an emergency," she stated. Her older brother glared at her and closed his hands in fists. "I'm sorry, Zheylks. I trust them."
"Then don't let the enemy find out. Hope you are right about them." The man sprouted wings again and flew away from them, disappearing behind the hills.
"He didn't seem too happy," said Neville matter of factly.
Luna had dreamy eyes: "He is very handsome." She looked at Dianeia and the girl smiled a little.
Harry was silent. For some reason Dianeia's situation reminded him a lot of Firenze. He thought that he might have a clue about Dianeia's other form. He also had a new clue, which was the fact of Zheylks having wings. "Do you also have wings Dianeia?"
She nodded. "I was hiding that, but it seems my brother isn't too worried about that detail..."
"Im hungry," said Janryu all of a sudden and they all stared at him incredulously. He looked at them. "What?"
XxXxX
The young group didn't Disapparate, but proceeded through the plains encountering several fiends that Harry destroyed all by himself wielding huge amounts of magic. He was kind of showing off because of a certain female that he had started to like, although he wouldn't admit it. They ended up in front of an area that seemed like an oasis even if it wasn't in the middle of a desert. It had a crystalline lake that glowed and was surrounded by palm trees and other fruit bearing trees. Janryu quickly climbed trees and started to collect fruits. Dianeia seemed worried: "Are you sure you can take those fruits, vampire boy? This place might belong to someone..."
"Name's Janryu and this place is in the middle of nowhere! These fruits will fall and spoil. That would be a shame so we can simply take some with us, light girl!"
Dianeia rolled her eyes and looked at Harry. "Just let him take them. I don't feel any presences other than the creatures that live in the lake," Harry told her.
Harry looked carefully at the oasis and frowned as he checked his scanner for a last time to confirm what he had found. "Luna, Neville! We will have to go under water. The fragment is inside the lake."
Janryu climbed down and looked frightened. "I can't swim."
Harry nodded at the statement and turned to Dianeia. "What about you?"
"I can swim, but I'm no good under water. I'm better swimming above it."
"Okay, you two will wait for us then." Harry created a bubble over his head and Neville and Luna imitated him performing bubble charms on themselves.
Luna's eyes reflected excitement. "I wonder what kind of creatures we will see under the lake. Maybe we'll see Aquavirius Maggots in there!"
Harry controlled an urge to laugh and Neville grinned. The threesome got in the water and finally submerged. Under the water, so far they could see fish of different colours, but as they swam deeper they noticed a fish species that were like zombie fish. They were literally skeleton fish swimming as if they were alive. Luna pointed at them and stated in a teaching like way: "Those are undead fish. They only live in magical lakes which are not very common. I always knew I would see one someday. Father will be so happy when I tell him. I wish I had a camera."
Harry was quite surprised with what Luna was saying and laughed a little before conjuring a waterproof magical camera and taking some pictures. Luna smiled at him, but her eyes went suddenly wide with excitement. "Look! They are here! Aquavirius Maggots!" In fact there were blob looking larval like creatures floating below them. The creatures seemed to grow in numbers as they swam further. They reminded Harry a little about the brains they had seen in the Ministry of Magic and he took pictures of them too, looking slightly taken aback by the apparent reality of Luna's imaginary creatures in fact existing in that world.
A sudden glow almost blinded them as it clashed with the bubbles that allowed them to breathe and even speak. "It's the fragment! We're very close!" explained Harry. They quickened their swimming and finally saw a bright blue fragment spiralling in front of them. Harry vanished the camera.
As if hypnotized Luna was the only one to extend her arm towards the diamond shaped crystal and it approached her as if Luna's hand was a magnet. The crystal took the form of a beautiful blue girl that seemed made out of water with blue robes that cascaded in a watery effect. The blue colour was almost transparent and the three teens could figure that in reality the summon was probably transparent, just like water. The water girl spoke: "I have been waiting. I am Undine, the water spirit. I will be part of you and aid you until the time comes." With that she turned back into a fragment and entered Luna's chest.
Harry pointed upwards and they started to swim when a tentacle grabbed Luna and pulled her downwards. Neville and Harry started to pull the girl's arms as more thin tentacles sprouted from below, trying to grab them. Luna suddenly said: "I can use Bijon against it!"
Harry shook his head: "Are you insane? If you use great lightning power here you will fry us all along with the creature!"
Luna nodded in understanding, but one of the tentacles grew a fine needle and inserted it in Luna's back. The girl gasped and went limp. Neville reacted: "It's a giant jellyfish!"
The-Boy-Who-Lived tried to think fast as more tentacles were coming against them, producing needles. Using a sword would be useless as maneuvering it under water would be extremely slow. Neville tried his guns, but they didn't work under water so he concentrated mass energy into his knuckles and gave an electroshock to the tentacle that held Luna. Unfortunately the bolt shocked the unconscious Luna too, but he hadn't made it too strong. The tentacle freed Luna, which was exactly Neville's goal.
"Good!" said Harry as he moved against the creature. "Take Luna to the surface!" Neville nodded and with Luna in arms started to swim upwards as fast as he could. The jellyfish moved tentacles against the fleeing prey that was taking yet another prey, but Harry gave them electroshocks following Neville's example. He kept using electroshocks, trying to escape, but tentacles started to pull him downwards as they grabbed his legs. Harry's face went red with anger just when several tentacles had sprouted needles to get him. "Discerpere!" The dismemberment curse caused all of the tentacles to be ripped from the creature and Harry was free to swim upwards not wanting to see more of what he had done to the monster. He didn't want to have a stomach reaction like the one he had when he decapitated the gorgon.
Harry emerged from the waters and could see that Neville was still trying to make Luna react, while Dianeia was performing different curative spells with her hands glowing above the girl's body without accomplishing anything. She looked at Harry with a frightened gaze. "None of the healing spells I try help. Neville also tried pouring healing potions through her mouth with no results."
The teen that had just come out of the water made the bubble from his head disappear and used a drying spell on his body and clothes that didn't completely dry him, but at least he wasn't dripping water all over the place. He approached Luna's unconscious form and turned her body to lie on its tummy rather than the back. Using magic he scanned her back and could feel the neutralized poison pulsating inside Luna's body. It had been neutralized by the potions and healing spells that Neville and Dianeia had tried, but it was still there, inside Luna's body. "I think we have to remove the poison even if it's no longer dangerous. It has her paralyzed." He carefully made an incision in Luna's clothes and ripped it open to see the area where the needle had entered. He placed his hand on Luna's back and closed his eyes, invoking his magic, and started to extract the liquid that was trapped in the dirty blonde girl's body, but got exhausted right when the liquid had almost been removed. Harry was panting and feeling faint.
Dianeia grabbed the teen and shook her head. "You're too tired. If you keep using your magic like this you'll fall into a coma. You've used too much magic in a row without rest." Harry tried to straighten himself to continue, but Dianeia grabbed him with a force that amazed him. She grabbed his face with both of her hands and produced a white sphere that came out of her mouth and entered his. He took a deep breath as the sphere entered him and immediately felt re-energized, but at the same time it made him terribly sleepy and he went limp on the young woman's arms. She placed Harry's head on her lap and turned to Janryu, who was looking at them in silence. "Janryu, you finish it."
"I can't! I'm allergic to human blood!"
Dianeia laughed. "You won't have to drink it, but you can easily extract the liquid and spit it. Harry already brought it almost to the surface, or are you a good for nothing?"
Janryu glared at the woman and kneeled in front of Luna's body. He prepared his fangs and lowered his head on Luna's back, slightly piercing the back's skin. In a vacuum effect the neutralized poison came out. It looked like transparent gel. Neville made it vanish with a movement of his hand and thanked Janryu, who was spitting all over the ground and even submerged his head in the water to gurgle. The young vampire removed his head from the water and looked at Neville, violet eyes looking dull. "No problem, but I do hope you guys avoid getting hurt in ways that might need me to take your blood. I don't plan dying by helping you!"
Neville turned Luna's body around and the girl opened her protuberant eyes and smiled faintly before asking: "What happened?"
"You were stung by the jellyfish, but you're alright now, Luna. Can you sit?" Luna incorporated her body getting into a sitting position. "I'm going to fix your clothes so stay still." With a quick hand movement Neville mended the broken clothing in Luna's back. The girl blinked looking at the boy with a curious, but tender gaze, then she looked at the sky dreamily. "Will Harry be alright?" Neville had turned to Dianeia and the young woman nodded with a smile, looking at the boy's sleeping face on her lap.
Their moment of tranquility didn't last long though. Janryu gasped and said: "We have to get out of here! They're here!" But it was already too late. The group was surrounded in seconds by the black shadows that stole children.
Janryu jumped and got into an attacking stance with his fangs ready. The creatures were not human so he was sure that if he had to bite he would do it. Neville and Luna also readied themselves, and Dianeia softly placed Harry's head on the ground and prepared for the attack of the dark lord's servants.
The shadow men didn't want to hurt the 'children' so they were merely trying to grab Neville and Luna at the moment. Neville got three direct shots aimed at the head of the nearest shadow, but the abnormal head with three holes mended itself in a slimy way. Luna used her staff against three shadows, but it had no effect on them. Dianeia tried elemental magic like fire and lightning with no luck while Janryu threw several knives that like Neville's shots went through the shadows, but the bodies mended back. Dianeia then got an idea. She used ice magic and froze one of the shadow creatures, then with a beam from her rod broke the being into pieces. Janryu and Neville used the cue to do the same. Neville felt lucky that he had obtained ice magic in the ship. Luna couldn't manipulate ice magic yet, but she started breaking the already frozen shadow men with her bronze staff.
Neville spoke quickly to Janryu: "I thought you didn't have much magic!"
Janryu got back to back with Neville. "I'm still learning, but I've always been able to use the ice elemental magic for some reason." The vampire boy grinned as he turned another creature into a popsicle and Luna shattered it. The problem was the creatures kept coming and now they were pissed and started to attack them for real. They screamed making the youngsters cover their ears all of a sudden due to the piercing howling they emitted. The creatures then started to perform magic and paralyzed Neville. Luna tried to go against one, but another shadow being came from behind her and grabbed her by the waist and bound her with ropes. Janryu started to attack physically with his fangs, but two of the beings grabbed him, lowering him to the ground to bind him with ropes too while he roared like a beast.
Dianeia was still freezing shadow men and shattering them, but they kept coming and coming almost as if everytime she shattered one, four more appeared for the one that had been destroyed. She then created the vacuum of holy magic with her rod, something she wanted to avoid as it absorbed too much power and she had just passed some of her power to Harry to accelerate his magical recovery. The vacuum started to absorb plenty of shadow men, but she couldn't hold it for long. She closed it and fell on her knees, weakened. She thought that was the end and her young friends would be taken as morsels to supply the dark lord's magic, but just then the mysterious rescuer appeared.
The mysterious man created bolts of white light that started to vaporize the dark beings although they kept appearing. He freed Luna and Janryu from their binds and captors, then looked at Dianeia. "We have to destroy them at the same time or they'll just keep multiplying. You will have to transform and create a holy magic wave." The young woman shook her head. "You have to if you want to save them! NOW!" The girl obeyed and there was a huge flash of light as she removed the scarf from her head. A big creature that Neville, Luna, and Janryu weren't able to decipher due to its whiteness appeared and created an enormous wave of white light that completely evaporated the shadow men. It was very quick and in seconds Dianeia was in human form, panting as she wrapped her headband. "Well done," the strange man praised her. "I will escort you out of here. They already know this location." The man moved his staff around Neville removing the paralysis and with ease lifted Harry in his arms. The rest followed the man silently.
Thank you to dark672 and lovenotknown for your reviews. lovenotknown, thanks for complimenting my English although sometimes I send sentences to my beta to make sure it's alright! lol But in this story I'm doing almost completely on my own, except for the ocassional doubt. From this chapter I only had to verify a word with my beta, only one! Yaii!
Keep those reviews coming!
Please Review. Reviews are a great motivation. I'll appreciate it. Thanks.
