Chapter 3- Alone, or Maybe Not
Dusk approached rapidly; the two girls had been traveling non-stop for many hours. They had only had small fish and berries to eat, they were running on fumes. Hour after hour dragged on. Blue felt that she could go on no longer when Li Mei relieved her burden a little. "Blue," Li Mei said with an odd, tired enthusiasm, "The portal is right in front of us. It's not the main portal where we have to earn our way through with an unnecessary fight, it's a small makeshift portal, and it might not work properly. This portal is some-what of a secret, it is known only to rouges and run-always, important people don't know about it and we like to keep it that way." Blue was too busy worrying about what would happen if the portal wasn't working too well to respond. Blue looked at Li Mei with a look of worry, it was a look that she did not wear often. "Don't' worry," Li Mei said, "Nothing is going to happen, if it isn't going to work properly, we won't even be able to enter, believe me, we will know." Blue felt a lot better, a significant amount of "better" at least.
They both approached the small portal. "I'll go in first," Li Mei said, "You must run in right after me, okay?" "Okay," Blue reluctantly replied.
Li Mei did not waste anytime, she ran straight into the portal without another word. Bluesong watched as LI Mei disappeared right before her eyes, LI Mei was gone.
Blue was very hesitant to follow Li Mei, she wanted very much to go back to the small village she had known only a week. She wanted to bathe in the stream, but she knew that she had gotten herself into something much more dangerous that she had originally though.
Bluesong held her breath, closed her eyes, and ran straight for the portal, she did not open her eyes, in fact, she didn't notice any change in the environment around her. Blue stood for a while with her eyes closed, Blue didn't t know if she had already entered outworld, there was no way for her to find out without opening her eyes.
Blue opened her eyes; the sight of an unfamiliar place came as a shock to her.
Outworld looked much like her home realm. Outworld just looked like no one had tried to grown any type of grass for a very long time. Bluesong could, however, see a large forest with plentiful grass and other vegetation. Outworld was not that different at all. I t was just a bit odd and gloomy; the colors of everything were just a shade off.
"Li Mei!" Blue called in anguish. Blue had just realized that her friend was no where to be seen, she did not arrive at the same location as Li Mei, Blue concluded. "Li Mei! Where are you?" Blue called once again. "Li Mei," Blue repeated sadly. Fear crept over Blue. She was in a strange land that she did not know; to top it all off, she was completely alone.
Blue decided it would be best if she wandered about until she found Li Mei or someone who know LI Mei's whereabouts.
"Li Mei!" Blue called loudly as she walked alone in ht desolate wasteland.
Nearby, two vile netherealm oni were chasing a bird, it was one of their desperate attempts at getting something to eat. They had not eaten for many days now and their growing lust for human flesh was becoming too much to bear.
"Moloch," Drahmin called to his oni friend, "Do you hear that yelling? It sounds like it is coming from a human, a female human." "Yes," Moloch replied with an eager voice, "I can hear her yelling." "We should hurry and find her," Drahmin said slyly, "I can taste her flesh now, female human have the easiest flesh to tear."
Moloch agreed with his friend completely, he shook his big body, like a dog, in excitement. He was a massive, roughly gorilla shaped oni. Drahmin was no where near as big as Moloch, yet he was probably just as strong as Moloch. Drahmin was a disgusting looking specimen of netherealm filth. His rotting flesh attracted many insects; he looked like a normal human from a distance but he was easily recognizable as a disgusting oni from a regular distance.
"Let us go Drahmin," Moloch said zealously, "I can see her, you know the plan. Go!"
"Li Mei," Blue yelled tiredly, "Where are you Li Mei?" Blue was exhausted; she decided to sit down on the odd looking ground. Bluesong began to pluck the strange flowers out of the earth when she heard someone walk up behind her. She turned around only to be looking up into the horrible mangled face of Drahmin. Blue let out a terrible shriek, she stood up and tried to run away from him; he immediately grabbed her arm. Drahmin was too strong for her and Blue could not tear away.
"Do not fear me little human," Drahmin said, "My name is Drahmin, I only wish to feast on your flesh," said Drahmin jokingly. "Let me go!" Blue yelled, "Please let me go." "I do not respond well to pleading," aid Drahmin, "It only makes me want your soft flesh even more. I want to touch it…I want to feel it…I want to eat it."
Suddenly, Drahmin let his firm grip on her arm loose. Bluesong ran for her life in the direction opposite Drahmin, she looked back at Drahmin to fully realize what she had escaped. When she turned around, however, she had to come to a screeching halt to avoid crashing into Moloch. "Hello little human," said Moloch mockingly, "I don not wish to harm you very much. It'll only hurt for a while, then you won't even feel a thing. That is unless; Drahmin wants to have a little fun with you first. Blue turned around to run again but Drahmin was practically breathing down her neck. Blue was definitely trapped.
Moloch came in closer to her; she closed her eyes and looked down and away from Moloch. Drahmin playfully pushed her in the direction of the approaching oni. Bluesong went numb with fear. Nothing happened. She opened her eyes to see both of the oni fixing their eyes on something else.
Three small figures approached rapidly. They came into focus, and Blue recognized them as human.
"Leave her alone or we'll kill the both of you," yelled on of the people. Drahmin and Moloch were reluctant to run away from their precious little prey but they were too tired to fight and they knew that they could not scare nor intimidate the other people as easily they did Blue. Finally Drahmin and Moloch ran off. "This is not the last you will see of us," yelled Moloch as they retreated.
Blue turned to her new friends. She saw that one was a young looking blond man, a read-headed lady, and a man who was wearing an odd looking mask.
"Hello," said the read-head girl, "My name is Kira, what is yours?" Blue quickly replied, "My name is Bluesong." "Bluesong is your name?" asked the blonde man. "Yes," Bluesong said once again, "but you may all me Blue if you wish." "Okay," said the blonde man, "We will call you Blue. My name is Kobra, and that guy with the masks over there is Kabal." They all stared intently upon her. Kabal sort of creeped her out with his mask, his breathing was distorted.
""Why are you here alone Blue?" Kira asked, you really shouldn't be in outworld alone, you leaned that the hard way." Blue nodded in agreement. "I wasn't supposed to be alone, I came with my friend Li Mei but I can not find her," said Blue, "Can you help me find her?" "We will do what we can, but I think it is best if you stayed with us. Where were you headed?" asked Kabal. "Well," explained Blue, "I was headed to a tournament called "Mortal Kombat," my friend was supposed to take me there but now I am alone." "We are headed there too," said Kabal, "You will stay with us and we will take you to the tournament with us."
Blue really didn't want to abandon Li Mei but she just wasn't going to be able to find her, and she wanted to get to the tournament. "Okay then, I guess we should get going then," said Blue.
They began walking toward the forest that Blue had been looking at before. It was nearing nightfall. "Do we have to go into that forest? Blue asked, "It's getting dark." "Yes," said Kobra, "We're lucky it isn't the living forest." "Why?" asked Blue. "Because," replied Kira, "The living forest is even worse to be in at night, the trees have faces, they stare at you as if they can really see." Blue was very thankful that they were not going into the living forest.
They reached the forest after only a couple of minutes of walking. Blue was really anxious to rest, her ordeal with Drahmin and Moloch was something that she did not want to remember but she couldn't help remembering Drahmin's face.
"Okay," Kabal said tiredly, "We will be needing our rest now; we have many days of traveling ahead of us." "Me and Kabal will be right over here if you need us," said Kobra.
Kira led Blue to a soft spot on the ground, Blue and Kira gathered may leaves to make the ground seem a little bit softer. "Why do we sleep on the ground?" Blue asked. "We sleep on the ground because we have not time to set up camp, tomorrow we will wake up, bath in the pond, groom ourselves, and head for another day of traveling. Once we reach a village we will stay indoors and buy supplies," Kira explained. It all sounded sensible to Bluesong. "Why do you, Kobra, and Kabal travel together Kira?" Blue asked. "Because," she replied sleepily, "We are all member of the Back Dragon and we must travel together. Now go to sleep, if you don't go to sleep Kabal will have to carry you all of tomorrow while you snore away." Blue didn't want Kabal to touch her, much less carry her.
Kira turned over on her side and fell into a deep sleep. Blue, however, could not help worrying about Drahmin, he had run in the direction that she had traveled. Her new companions were nice but she got an odd feeling from them. She felt like she really did not belong, but she could not find LI Mei. Why was it that whenever she found a friend or someone who actually cared about her, they left her. She fell asleep thinking her thoughts of pain and torment, she was used to that.
The morning came unexpectedly, Bluesong was caught off guard. "Come on," Kira called to Blue, "We must bathe quickly; Kabal has caught fish to eat."
They both ran to the pond. Blue tested the water, it was extremely cod, she didn't want to get in hut she got it over with quickly. "Kira!" Kobra called very loudly. Kira turned to Blue and spoke to her, "Wait here Blue, I must see why I am needed, don't move from here, I will be right back."
Blue redressed when Kira left, she was waiting for Kira to leave so she could redress, she was tired of waiting in the water. "Hey," someone called for behind the brush. "Hey come over here," the voice called again.
Bluesong knew the voce did not belong to Drahmin so she reluctantly followed the instruction. She was ready to fight, hopefully she didn't need to. Blue entered the brush and thicket with great difficulty. Behind the dense vegetation she saw a man dressed much like a ninja and an old woman with white hair.
"Hello there young lady," said the man, "We do not have much time, my name is Sub-Zero and my associate her is Armana." "We have been studying you and your little friend," said the old woman named Armana," You don't seem to be of the Black Dragon." I'm not of the Black Dragon," Blue said a little confused. "What is you name?" asked Sub-Zero. "My name is Bluesong, but most people prefer to call me Blue." "Well Blue," Said Sub-Zero, "We know that by your action, you do not seem to be of bad character, why are you associated with fiends such as Kira, Kobra, and Kabal?" "I was looking for my fried Li Mei," explained Blue, "When two gruesome oni attacked me, I would have surely been harmed in unimaginable ways if not for Kira, Kobra, and Kabal. How do you know them?" "They are our foes," said Armana, "They are affiliated with many evil people such as Quan Chi and Shao Kahn, we do not tolerate their kind. " Blue remembered Quan Chi's name. Her new friends were the bad guys." "We are warriors whose alignment is good, we protect earthrealm," said Sub-Zero, "At Mortal Kombat we fight to save earthrealm. Kira, Kabal, and Kobra, however, fight against us, are you one of them?" "No," Blue said defiantly, "I am good, I was not aware of their alignment. I am too going to compete in Mortal Kombat, I will fight for earthrealm." "Good," Sub-Zero said sternly, "From now on your new mission is to protect earthrealm, be brave and strong, if you find any warrior with a neutral min you must sway them to do good for earthrealm just as we have done to you. Now you must run as fast and far as you can from your new enemies. We will see you again when we will fight to protect earthrealm, until then, run." "You'd better start running now," Armana said with fear, "Kira and Kabal are coming."
Blue did not say a word. She could see Kira and Kabal approaching fast, she dashed off through the thicket leaving Sub-Zero and Armana behind. She ran as fast as she could run. Bluesong felt a bubbling stream of seething rage run through her. Blue could not understand why Kira, Kabal, and Kobra would lead her, unknowingly, into a life of evil. She almost went to Mortal Kombat fighting against earthrealm, her own home. She was going get them back for their trickery.
Once again, Blue had been blinded by hr want for someone. It hurt very badly, she was gong to get revenge, she didn't know on whom, she had so much hatred and blind rage, her unrelenting pain had finally gotten to her. She broke down crying tears of fire. Her blood flowed through her veins like icicles…Quan Chi was the object of her hatred an optimism at the same time. Quan Chi was, to her, the man in her room that day that her parents were violently murdered. Quan Chi was the reason, to her, that she had no family, and the reason why everyone around her left or betrayed, of course he wasn't really, but still he would pay. Quan Chi would pay.