Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Riviera Characters; they belong to Sting and stuffers.
Chapter one:
Approximately five years have passed since Ein witnessed Ledah, Malice, and Hector die. Five years since he was made a hero amongst the Sprites of Riviera. Currently, he was at Lacrima Castle with Serene, Fia, Lina, Cierra, and of course, Rose. The demons had been exterminated from the castle, but a few stragglers always seemed to remain. One week ago, Serene had invited all of them to, as she said, 'A joyous day where all demons will be destroyed.' Then Lina wanted a picnic afterwards.
At this moment, he was eating a sandwich that Fia had made for their trip. He chewed thoughtfully, letting the flavor spread across his tongue. He would need to tell Fia how good they tasted the next time he saw her. Rose came up and jumped on a rock near where he sat on the grass.
(Hey Ein. How's it going?) She said to him.
"Hey Rose. I'm fine." He replied.
(Just fine Ein?)
He sighed. "I don't know. I'm just, you know, waiting for something to happen I guess."
Rose stood silent for a while before saying anything else to Ein.
(The moon makes you think of Malice, doesn't it?)
Ein sighed again. "Well, I guess a little. I mean this was the first place we saw her."
(And one Grim Angel leads to another, right?)
"Yeah…"
(Com'on Wingless Angel, cheer up.)
"Don't call me that Rose!" Ein said with a bit of annoyance.
(Well anyways, let's go and find the others.)
"Sure."
Ein stood up and brushed all the crumbs off his pants. He offered Rose his arm, and she jumped onto it. Settling on Ein's head, and letting him do all the walking for the two of them.
"Take that! Serene Combo!"
An unearthly screech filled the air as another demon fell.
"Good job Serene!" said Fia happily.
"Lina couldn't have done better." added Lina with equal glee.
Serene placed her hands on her hips and turned around. "Thanks guys. Hey! Wait! Did you see that?"
"What?" asked Cierra.
"There was a shadow that just jumped into those bushes. Do you think it was a demon?"
The four girls were by the edge of one of the cliffs near Lacrima Castle. Seeing as they could not find any demons inside the castle, they headed towards the outskirts to try and find some there.
Then, Ein came.
"Hi Ein! Lina is happy to see you!" Lina said while waving at the approaching angel.
"Hi Lina. What's going on?"
"Well, Serene thought she saw a demon jump into these bushes, and we were trying to find it." Replied Fia pleasantly. "Will you help us?"
"Sure"
Ein let Rose off his head and bent down to search for the demon. The four sprites, one angel, and familiar searched the area for a straight thirty minutes before Lina wanted to give up. Fia had to agree with Lina, and Cierra offered to just burn the rest of the brush around. Her offer was declined by everyone. Serene still wanted to flush out the demon though, and of course, the decision was left up to Ein.
"Well Ein? Do you want to stop or keep on searching?" asked Serene.
"Umm…well…"
"Lina's tired of looking for it!" cried Lina.
"Umm…maybe we should just take a break, ok?"
"That's a good idea Ein." said Cierra happily.
"Fine." Serene said grumpily and plopped down on the grass.
Ein sighed. It was impossible to please everyone here, but at least he hadn't made Serene too mad. He hoped.
Fia took out some eggs and Cierra cooked them without setting the grass on fire. The group sat quietly as they ate the eggs, well, except for Fia, she said she wasn't hungry. Ein finished quickly, and stood by the edge of the cliff. He looked up into the moon, and reminisced and how similar the situation was right now. The shadow in the sky that Fia, Lina, and he had seen, and the shadow that Serene had seen disappearing. A slight breeze picked up, and he spread his arms out to feel it. He could feel how the wind picked up his hair and scarf. He could feel how it wanted to take him away into places unknown. And, if he still had his wings…well, he would want to jump right off and float away into the sky.
"Ein! What are you doing? We're ready to begin again!"
Ein snapped out of his daze, and turned around to see Serene standing with her hands on her hips, and glaring angrily at him. He smiled a weak smile. Serene will always be Serene he supposed.
Ein got down on his knees and pretended to search around a group of grass he'd already looked through. And, when Serene went back to her own work, he turned his head to catch one last glimpse at the moon.
Suddenly, an evil cackle sounded out in the air. Ein swiftly turned towards the sound to see a vampire standing with her scythe held high in the air. Ein jumped awkwardly sideways as the scythe came swinging down where his head had been just a second ago. He rolled sideways and grabbed his Einhenjar.
"Ein!" Cierra cried out as she drew her wand.
Ein could see that Fia, Lina, and Serene were also drawing their weapons. Once again the scythe came down on to the ground and Ein dodged again. He was getting dangerously close to the edge of the cliff now, and he knew it. Ein risked a quick look backwards, and knew he couldn't back up that much more. Ein heard a whistling sound as an arrow just missed the vampire's head, and footsteps were getting closer. The vampire brought her scythe down burying it deep in the ground as Ein clumsily took a few steps back.
The others were getting close now, and Ein was standing up. He grit his teeth, and held Einhenjar ready for battle.
He heard a rumbling, and pitched forward as the ground underneath him shook and became unstable. Ein saw the cracks that had grown from the scythe's force. He felt the ground give away beneath him, and suddenly, he was facing the sky as he fell along with the earth.
'No!' he thought desperately. He had wanted to jump off the cliff moments before…but only to fly in the sky. Ironically, this was probably one of the only times he wished he had not given up his wings. And as he fell with dirt all around him, he heard a voice screaming inside his head…
(EIN!)
'Rose…?'
(EIN!) The voice was softer now, echoing through his mind, and fading away far too quickly.
Ein closed his eyes and breathed out, with the wind whipping all around him.
There was a low growl, followed by a sharp yelp as the figure destroyed the demon in front of it.
"Good job, sir." Said another standing nearby. There was sarcasm laced into every word.
The first figure shrugged, and walked over to the second. A glint of white light appeared in the sky. The figure frowned as he watched its progress down.
"Did you- "
"Of course I did." Snapped the second impatiently, brushing a lock of hair away from its face. "Let's go see what just came in."
The two shadowed figures spread their wings and flew into the air and off towards the direction of where the glowing object came down.
After a slight pause, a third spread its wings and followed the first two closely.