Disclaimer:  Yes, I am represented in court now.  However, I traded off whatever hopes I had of saying I was owner of the Esca deed.  So, the lawyer makes me say this: I-Do-Not-Own-Esca.

Author's Note:  You know, I'm an author yet I have nothing to note here.  So, ignore this.

Sisters till the End

This is dedicated to Pablo/Cecil because he is such an awesome writer and he has inspired me to go farther.  Thank you Pablo/Cecil for your awesome story and your awesome talent!

Chapter Four: Surprise

            Zorya and Scott walked through the depths of the forest as moonlight shone down on them.  It had been a few days since they had woken up under the two moons and Scott still had many questions left unanswered and Zorya wasn't helping in his quest.  Where was he?  Why was Earth in the sky?  Who was this woman that led him now?  Should he trust her or not?  Where were they heading?

            Every time he asked a question Zorya would never respond, leaving him to his thoughts.  It consumed him like night does a beautiful day-so many questions!  He couldn't figure them all out.  He had lost count of the days he spent inside his head.

            Just like home, he thought as he walked.  His surroundings were changing too fast for him to notice.  He just followed Zorya.  I still don't know who she really is.  She hasn't said anything to me besides orders.  I wonder… "Hey, Zorya?"  He asked.

            Far ahead, he saw her silhouette turn in response.  She was a fast walker especially in all the under bush of the dark forest so he had let her run ahead of him, many times he would lose sight of her only to turn a corner and find her behind him.  He wondered how she could move so fast.  "How far?"

            "No telling," she replied, a mysterious glint in her eyes coming alive.  "It's never clear."

            "What?  What's never clear?"

            For the millionth time he got no answer.  He just shrugged and decided to keep going.  There was no need to fight for answers.  Especially when he didn't even have any knowledge of where he was.  After a few more days of walking in boring silence, Scott realized that they had finally come to a stop.  "Are we here?"  He asked from behind Zorya. 

            She only turned her head so he could see her deep sapphire eyes glinting again.  The moonlight shone through the thick canopy of trees above them and provided minimal light.  But through the gloom he could see a pond in front of them and a waterfall that spilled into it.  He frowned, as the water seemed almost black-polluted by something that he couldn't quite see.  He also noticed that the water made no sound as it tumbled from above its cliff and into the water below.  It was very strange.

            "Where are we?"  He asked. 

Zorya only nodded.  "Be very quite as we enter, they're very skittish creatures."

He was about to ask but suddenly Zorya stepped out onto the water.  Surprised that he didn't sink into the black substance, he watched awestruck as she made her way over to the waterfall, seeming to think nothing of walking on water.  "How the hell?"  He almost yelled.  How could this be?

There was no way on Earth that someone could walk on water.  You only saw that in the movies-a special effect, just wires and a harness.  Yet here was Zorya, walking on what was supposedly water right in front of him.  "Are you coming or not?"  Zorya asked, looking back at him.  She seemed annoyed. 

Scott only nodded as he carefully put a foot out.  He was stupid-he would fall through the water and make a fool of himself.  There was no way physics would allow him to walk on such a substance; the molecules and atoms were way too ecstatic.  It simply would not work.  Not to mention the laws of gravity.  But… something made him ask: were there any laws of gravity here?

Gently touching the water, he prodded at it with his foot.  He expected it to be like Jell-O but his foot fell through the first layer and into the wet liquid below assuring him that it was like water.  Pulling back his foot, Scott looked at Zorya.  "I can't," he replied.

"Yes you can, just walk onto it.  It's just ground."

"What do you mean, just ground?  It's water for Heaven's sake!  You can't walk on water!"

"It's just ground."  She rolled her eyes like he was crazy.

"No, it's not.  I'm seeing water-darkly colored water-but still water!  I touched water!  This is, by no doubt, water.  You can't walk on water."

"Then how was I able to?"

"I don't know!  There's no possible way to explain it except that it's super natural!  Even so how do you explain that?"

Zorya sighed and walked back over to him.  She put her hands on her hips and gave him a look like "I can't believe you're this stupid".  Fear ran through Scott for a moment for he thought she was going to strike out at him.  "It's not water." 

With that she reached forward with lightning fast speed and grabbed his hand, pulling him off balance so he fell forward.  "What are you doing?!"  He cried as he put a foot out to catch himself.  There was no doubt in his mind that he would fall through the water and make a fool out of himself-yet again.  How could this woman walk on a substance that was clearly water?

After finding that a cold, slimy thing around it or even any type of water did not greet his skin, he opened his eyes and saw that he was standing on the water-correction, the ground.  He saw glittering underneath the dark color of the water that there was grass underneath his foot and it spanned to the waterfall.  Zorya dragged him over to the waterfall and reached out a hand, taking a hold of the falling water and pulling it back.  Now this confused Scott.

As they passed through the water, he saw that it was nothing more but vines beneath the water's surface.  What the… he thought as he craned his neck to catch another glimpse of the water.  But Zorya pulled him back as they made their way through a rock tunnel, clearing dug out from the base of a cliff.  "What… what was that?  It was water just seconds ago..." he stuttered as she pulled him through the tunnel.

"An illusion.  Magic is strong here."

"Magic?"

However, Scott didn't have time to ask anymore of his twenty questions for just then the tunnel widened into a very large cavern with stag mites hanging from the ceiling.  The strange thing was that these stag mites had sparkling things within their dark rocky color and creatures were mining the things.  These creatures looked like a mix of a bobcat and an elephant.  Their skin was thick and a dark gray color spanning over their bobcat-sized bodies.  Their faces were semi-squashed like a bobcat's but their eyes were at the sides of their heads, their ears small and pricked up, their nose elongated like the trunk of an elephant, and two very sharp canines protruding from a small mouth.  They stood on four limbs, their feet large and semi-round with three fingers each ending in a long claw.  Their tails were rope-like and short. 

One creature caught sight of them and gave a low growl, alerting the others to their presence.  All at once the creatures came forward, stumbling over their clumsy feet, their yellow eyes on their visitors.  Growling and making strange gargling noises they seemed to be angry to Scott and suddenly he wanted very badly to be anywhere but here.  Had Zorya turned him in to some mutated mistake to die or something?  "Uhm, Zorya, maybe we shouldn't be here," Scott whispered to his companion. 

Zorya only rolled her eyes.  "I come with the Package.  So BACK OFF!"  She hollered.  Instantly all the creatures stopped and withdrew from the strangers.  "I want to speak to Shee," Zorya commanded. 

One of the creatures took a step forward.  "Shee, I is," it said incoherently.

"I have brought you your Package."

"Sure?"

This seemed to annoy Zorya.  "Hell yes I am sure.  I called him."

There was doubt in the creature's eyes.  "No, think not."

"Like you have the knowledge to tell.  He's the one you wanted."

"Is not sure."

Zorya growled.  "Look, I did some major time getting this guy for you so he's the one."  She reached into a pocket and provided a small black Onyx sphere that was the size of her hand.  "This is the Dragon's Stone that the Ancients used to call forth the First.  I used it to call forth the Second-he came.  So he's the guy you want.  I delivered him to you unharmed so I think he's what you wanted."         

Scott frowned-this conversation was confusing him.  The First?  The Second?  What was this all about?  Why would these creatures want him?  "We see," said the creature, "we see.  Home, eat, then sleep."

The creature, apparently called Shee, turned and started to the other end of the cavern where Scott now saw that a tunnel was.  He looked at Zorya.  She followed Shee so he followed through the crowd of creatures, all staring at him with doubt in their eyes.  They didn't lash out at either of them as they passed but seemed like they wanted to.  "Zorya, what are we doing?"  He asked as they started down the tunnel.

"Shee wants us to stay with him.  Once he's sure you're the one you'll know more."

"The one?"

"Just be quiet and everything will go fine."

Not knowing what else to do, Scott obeyed.  He was sort at a crossroad here-he didn't know where he was, what was going on, and right now Zorya was the only person he knew and he figured he'd stick to her.  Maybe what she said would be true.  As they finished walking down the tunnel he encountered a bright light on the other side.  Too bad he didn't know that once he was on the other side his life would be up in the air.

Author's Note:  Ooooh, I set Scott up for a nasty surprise.  So what's that?  I can't tell you until the next chapter!  Review and it comes up faster.  That's worth noting, isn't it? 

~The Shadow That Takes Form as a Kat~

~~ShadowKat~~