Disclaimer: Don't own nuthin' o' Monster Rancher, though de monsters be me own.
An Angel's Light
By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland
Phayne smiled to himself as he and all of his monsters walked along the grassy hills that would lead into Aipotu Valley where the many numerous Plateaus of Dorugora stood tall and proud on the distant horizon, just past the many numerous ranges that dotted and protected the valley. He had already managed to convince Rio that she needn't accompany him on this new adventure to the north lands. Actually, he sort of spun a small yarn of lies, telling Rio that a very personal friend was in need of his, and his monsters', assistance. It wasn't a whole lie considering that Rio was the friend in need of assistance. Smiling to himself, Phayne raised a fist upwards towards the sky and shouted a loud cry for hope and victory towards their goal with his monsters echoing with their cries of their own.
Rio blinked as she slowly became aware of herself. Slowly, she sat up and gazed around her room which was nearly bare except for her bed and a vanity that once belonged to her mother. Her face set once more in her near constant expression of sadness, Rio stood and moved to her vanity. Picking up a large brush, the near-telepathic girl slowly moved its rough teeth through her chestnut-colored hair, straightening it and removing any small knots formed during her night of nightmare-filled sleep.
Rio paused in her brushstrokes before setting her brush down. The nightmares she had experienced just mere hours ago struck home more than any before. It did not help that the dreams were so close to the reality that she was currently experiencing. The near silence that filled not only the entire house but the entire ranch saddened the girl even further. Sighing quietly, Rio stood and made her way down to the kitchen, all thoughts of brushing her hair floating away with the windy morning.
However, upon passing a certain brown-haired boy's room, the teenaged girl put a pause to her step. Hesitating slightly, Rio slowly moved towards the open doorway of the boy she had come to not only respect greatly, but much, much more.
If only he felt the same…
Stepping carefully into the room, Rio gazed around Phayne's bedroom noting idly how it was decorated far more than her own. Though the decorations were hardly that. True, Phayne did have the odd poster or two of his favorite breeders. Had Rio not been focused on the room entirely, she would have noted that each poster of a rancher not only had the rancher's top monster, but a female assistant with a golden band adorning her finger to match the breeder's own. Nonetheless, Rio continued with her inspection of Phayne's room.
She smiled softly at the sight of a shelf with framed pictures of each of the monsters on the ranch along with a small item from them. What stood next to the monster's picture varied depending on the monster. For both Squall and Van, there was a fang, one small and one slightly larger, next to their portraits while Tohru's had a small cherry blossom-like feather next to it. For Brillig, there was a coppery red scale that had come off from his first molting while there was a small collection of sparkling dust for Goliath's own first molting. However, the bright smile that adorned Rio's face disappeared at the sight of the framed picture that adorned the top of Phayne's nightstand.
"When was this taken…?" Rio bent down slightly to pick up a picture of her and Phayne, both yelling excitedly about something. Further scrutiny revealed that it was taken at Squall's first Official Cup victory a year ago. "Has it really been that long…? Have we known each other that long…?" Rio's eyes began to water as she carefully hugged the picture to her chest. "Oh Phayne…"
"ACHOO! Sniff… Wow! That was a big one! What was it about sneezes?" Phayne tapped his chin thoughtfully as he sat somewhat comfortably on Goliath's large boulder-like shoulder. Tohru looked down at the human from where she stood behind Goliath's head while Squall leaned forward from his perch on Goliath's opposite shoulder. Goliath himself looked out of the corner of his yellow pebble-like eyes at the brown-eyed rancher. Meanwhile, Brillig flapped a small distance above them while Van swam alongside the walking Goliath.
"What about sneezes?" asked Tohru quizzically. Phayne smiled to himself, he would have to tell Rio that, though he was not at her level, he was slowly learning to understand monsters just as much as her.
"Well Tohru, there's an old wive's tale that basically says that depending on the number of times you sneeze, someone is thinking good or bad thoughts about you." Squall, Tohru, and Goliath all exchanged weird looks with one another.
"Human wives have tales?"
Had the monsters known of Phayne's secret, they would have understood why he suddenly broke out into loud laughter.
Rio sighed to herself as she made herself a simple dinner. A simple dinner that consisted of a simple ham and cheese sandwich. Rio had felt little hunger throughout the day with memories and bad dreams haunting her throughtout the chores she had given herself. Taking small bites, Rio thought back to what she had done so far around the ranch. She had cleaned all the training gadgets and had refurbished the barn.
Rio had to smile as she remember how many toys and items that Phayne and herself had given their monsters and how they were-Wait. … Did she just think…? She did. Rio, not for the first time since she had moved in with Phayne, blushed as red as her assistant's uniform. She buried her heated face into her hands, silently berating herself for thinking such things. She was Phayne's assistant, nothing more and nothing less.
Even though Phayne never let her do her assistant duties alone… never let her go into town by herself… never treated her like a freak but as a friend… Always asking her to accompany him on his adventures into the Togle Caves or Kalaragi Jungle… until recently anyway…
Rio supposed that it came from her recent depression from seeing Philia's Lesione, Nessie, and her thoughts. Nessie had shown Rio her dreams and her hopes for a future where her kind would live and where she too would live once she had retired from fighting. She showed Rio what she dreamed of what would become her family both young and old, and it was this dream of families and love that sent Rio into the depths of depression.
Ever since her mother died and the shrine opened up, Rio's family life had been anything but that. Her father was appointed the priest of the shrine and was in charge of anything and everything that had to do with it, so he had little time for his daughter and her unique gift. Gift. Such a word had always made her scoff before… before she met Phayne. Her 'gift' may not have separated her from monsters but it separated her from her own kind. Yuri was one of the few people who knew of her gift and was her friend nonetheless.
True, she had many friends now thanks to Phayne, but Rio often found herself wondering if they would remain as such should they find out about her ability to understand monsters. She sometimes wondered if she'd even have a boyfriend, let alone a husband, that would treat not like some sort of tool to raise monsters or as a freak of nature, deserving punishments unjust to anyone but her. She wondered if that person would be like Phayne.
Or Phayne himself.
"It's almost ready guys, be patient." Phayne stoked the fire with a large branch he and Squall had found when they were gathering firewood. A large piece of meat was hanging above the fire as it slowly became brown from the flames. It was the last piece of meat left after a large lunch and dinner, so it was to be shared by everyone. Phayne knew this would be hard because, though the meat was larger than his head, his monsters' love of the bovine meat was bigger.
Squall resting against the palms of his clawed paws with his fanged mouth opened nearly drooling as he anxiously awaited for the meat to finish cooking. Brillig was leaning down and staring deeply at the meat and the flames that cooked it, silently wondering if he should assist with the cooking. Van looked like he was sitting quite patiently but his fluffy tail's constant wagging gave away his eagerness. Above and behind Phayne, Goliath was sitting with his arms hugging his legs with a rocky smile on his craggy face. Though Golems were often vegetarians or even metal consumers, like Hengers and the odd Joker or two, they still enjoyed a piece of meat every now and again. Tohru seemed to be the only monster with any patience in her, though she was swaying from side to side presumably hearing her own music. As Phayne continued to stook the flames, he was unaware of Brillig rearing his head back and taking a deep lungful of air until a bright rush of flames exited from the Dragon's mouth and onto the small fire.
"ACK!" Phayne dropped the stick and fell back as did the other monsters except for Goliath who had no concern about fire since he was made of stone. Now one would think that there was no reason for the normal-skinned monsters and breeder to jump away from Brillig's flames, that a Dragon as experienced as Brillig would be more than capable of controlling the amount of fire in his breath.
Well that person would be wrong.
A Dragon's fire can be used to cook, but is rarely done considering that most Dragons prefer such meat as uncooked fish and even the odd mango or two. That and a Dragon's flame is more often used for attacking prey or opponents, even other Dragons, and because of that, a Dragon's fire was quite powerful even for baby ones and they only get stronger as the Dragon gets older. Thus it could be said that it was because Brillig was experienced that the others had jumped away.
"WHY, GODS! WHAT DID THE MEAT DO TO DESERVE THIS!" wailed Squall as he stared at the severly blackened meat. Beside him, Tohru was also staring albeit with tears in her eyes while Van looked nonchalant. Goliath gaped sadly at the burned meat while Brillig sat away from them with his back turned to them and his wings drooping pathetically feeling quite guilty for getting over-enthuisiastic.
Again.
"Calm down, Squall. No use crying over spilled milk after all."
"But it wasn't milk! It was MEAT! Sweet succulent meat from a cow! A cow! You don't just go out to a pasture and find one you know!" Phayne sighed and tossed the meat away deep into the underbrush.
"Get some sleep guys. We got a lot of land to cover tomorrow and a large plateau to climb."
Rio sighed for what could have been the hundredth time that morning alone, but since she had stopped counting back in the forties range… Sighing inwardly this time, Rio leaned back against the trunk of the now permanently sleeping Mockruji, the last, to Rio's knowledge, Mock on all of Gaea. It was sad in a way that many monsters had become 'extinct' in the past decade but then again, those monsters, Monols and Galis to name a few, were rare to begin with.
A watering can, modeled after a Lesione, sat next to the assistant, still filled completely with water. It was just one of many chores that Rio had found herself quite unable to do. Her mind kept replaying moments when she attempted to do a chore by herself when Phayne would appear, often accompanied by one of the monsters on the ranch, and help her out. She was embarrassed to think that she had forgotten how to do chores without the brown-haired boy's help.
"Sigh… I really should try do something… I'm sure Phayne and the others are doing something with their time…"
"ACHOO! Sniff…… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…" Though the sneeze did startle everyone, no one, monster or human, found it difficult to fall back to their morning nap.
The afternoon's yellow sun shined brightly down upon the many plateaus that decorated the Aipotu Valley. The forested hills of the valley were erratic in their thickness of trees just like the plateaus' variation in size but not in shape. There was an ancient legend behind these plateaus but Phayne had heard little about it. All he knew was that it involved a monster by the name of Dorugora and a beast by the name of Moo. However, legends and fairy tales were not really the main focus of Phayne's thoughts at the moment.
Climbing the highest plateau in the valley was.
Clenching his teeth tightly, Phayne struggled to pull himself up the nearly ledge less plateau with Squall not far below him. Phayne had argued against the Squall about joining him on his climb to the plateau's top, but the Garu would have none of it. Out of all the monsters, he was the only one capable of joining Phayne to the plateau's top. Brillig had argued loudly against this but backed down when Goliath reminded him that he was still young in Dragon years and, though he could try, he would most likely not make it to the plateau's top without exhausting himself. Nonetheless, Brillig had literally slammed his foot down saying that he would at least fly Phayne and Squall as high as he could go and, even after dropping them off, the Dragon would circle the pillar-like plateau waiting for them.
"You okay down there, Squall!" Phayne looked down over his shoulder to see how his first monster was doing. The teenaged human was hit by the briefest bit but it soon passed. Too many flights with Brillig and rides upon Goliath's shoulders were all that was necessary for Phayne to lose any fears he had of heights. As it is, the only thing that Phayne feared the most was Rio's rejection.
"Just… peachy…!" Squall's short legs were flailing wildly with his claws dug deeply into a small crevice on the plateau.
"Squall! You're not 'just peachy'! Go back a bit and start over!"
Had Squall not been focused on the maintaining his grip, he would have noticed that Phayne had repeated what he had said word-for-word much like Rio. "NO! I will not start over! You're giving your all to make Rio-mama happy and we're doing the same! We came because we care about her too! She's our mother just like your our father! And we WON'T abandon our parents! GRRAAAAA!" Squall's fists became wrapped in bright orange flames shortly before he launched himself upwards to hang next to a stunned Phayne.
"Squall…" A small smile adorned the rancher's face, "Right! We can't start over! For Rio's happiness!"
Squall grinned his 'Phayne-Grin', "For Rio!"
It did not take long for either of them to reach the top, though Phayne did get there first since he did, after all, have bigger arms than the average-sized Garu. Breathing a tired sigh, Phayne slowly looked up to see emerald green grass covering the plateau's top in small patches as well as a little bit on top of the 'chibi' plateau.
The rest of the space was occupied by a small patch of Angel's Light flowers.
Rio looked up from her sit on a log that rested near the shores of Lake Ariel, which, in turn, rested near Genki Ranch. The chestnut-haired girl could have sworn she just heard a loud cry of joy followed by a variety of roars that echoed the human voice's joy. The monsters voices were too mixed for Rio to be able to discern them, but the human's…
"Phayne…?"
"Booyaka! Booyaka!" Squall all but sang as he ran alongside Phayne with Brillig flying alongside him.
"What the heck does that even mean anyway?" asked Brillig.
"I don't know, and I'm too happy to care!" Squall grinned widely at Brillig while Tohru giggled at the Garu's antics, causing the unofficial leader of the monster group to blush redder than his fur.
"Must we run though? It took us nearly two days to get here!" asked Goliath worriedly glancing down at the much smaller Tohru. Golems were often infamously known for accidentally stepping and crushing objects underneath their stony feet. Though many would call it an old wive's tale, this wasn't really the case with Goliath who had, for the first few months of his life, accidentally stepped on a lot of things. Add that with a Mocchi's infamously known klutziness and lack of balance when running and well…
Phayne gazed upwards towards the sky and saw that it was darkening rapidly.
Too rapidly.
"Hold up guys…" The monsters stopped right in their tracks and looked towards their friend, father, and rancher, curious about the change in the tone of his voice. "I may not be Rio when it comes to understanding you guys fully, or sensing stuff, good or bad, but… something tells me we're about to have company…"
The monsters stiffened at this and looked around quickly, each going into their own modes of searching the land around them. Squall edged closer to Tohru so that he was in a better position to guard her if an attack should come he'd be in a better position to guard her. Though the Mocchi purebred could easily take care of herself, she, as well as Van, were still Rank B monsters while he was Rank S, with Goliath and Brillig both in Rank A. Out of all the monsters, he was the best to provide defense for Tohru.
Beside the Garu, Van was doing the same but with Phayne. His Tiger instincts were all but screaming for him to protect both his pack and his patriarch. Van's royal-blue mane stood on end while his furry tail trashed wildly to show both his anxiety and his eagerness for the enemy to appear. Behind Van and Phayne, Goliath stood tall with his large arms held up in one of the many defensive positions that Phayne had taught him and that his Golem instincts improved upon. Unlike the others, Goliath did not possess any sort of beast-like senses and thus, was the weakest link in their chain of defense. So, to make up for this weakness, Goliath spread his arms and legs out to provide a decent enough cover for his friends.
Next to the Golem purebred, Brillig glared at the surrounding trees and small outcroppings of rocks that fell from the many plateaus that decorated Aipotu Valley. Dragons were well known for their hawk-like eyes but were also infamously known for their weakness of dark places. A Dragon's eyes worked best when there was light, a fact that few people, even those that raised a Dragon, ever knew about.
Apparently, whatever was doing this knew of it too.
Out of the darkness came a loud cackling, like the demented laughter of a clown. This immediately put everyone on edge, forcing them to stand back to back as they all tried to pierce the growing darkness that threaned to overwhelm them. Alas, even with their strong defense and their high rankings… not one of them could escape…
Their worst nightmare.
Tohru didn't know how she had come to be there, a moment ago she had been standing beside Squall and Van and the next… she was here. Fog covered everything while pale shadows twirled and danced, silently mocking the Mocchi's fear and confusion.
Wherever here was…
"Hsssssssssss…" Tohru yelped and whirled around to face-
Nothing.
"Hsssssssssss…" Tohru whirled around once again to face nothing, the fog that surrounded her too thick to pierce. "Sssssssso young… sssssso afraid… Hsssss… Your meat will be deliciousssssssss…" The fog slowly parted to reveal to Tohru the one type of monster she hoped to never see as long as she lived.
A Naga.
But this Naga was different than any Tohru had ever seen or heard of before. The Naga's skin was tanned to start with, and it seemed to lack any sort of scales whatsoever. In fact, the tanned skin looked to be the underskin often seen when a Naga loses a scale. But this Naga looked as though its scales had been ripped off by something… something that had, apparently, whipped the monster badly for years, the Naga's large red scars a silent testament to this treatment. 'But what kind of monster would do that…?'
"Hsssssssss…" The Naga's three pairs of eyes glowed red as it drew nearer. Tohru backed away slowly from it before full-out running from it.
"SQUALL!"
"Tohru! Phayne! Anyone! Where are you!" Squall's voice echoed in the dark tunnel that he had found himself in. Stalactites hung from the cave's ceiling like spears ready to fall upon the worried Garu, but Squall did not care. He was strong enough to take care of any stupid rock.
"Hehehehehehehe…" Squall whirled around quickly. The snickering seemed to come from every direction and the purebred Garu found it hard to find where it was coming from.
"Who's there! Show yourself!" demanded Squall, his clawed paws clenched into tight fists, ready to attack should the need arise.
"You think you're strong do you…?" Squall blinked in surprise. Though he understood the words, the dialect behind them was quite foreign to the Garu. It was one of the many unexplainable traits of monster kind really; monsters fully capable of understanding each other even though many used different variations to speak. Pixies, for example, spoke in bell-like noises while Tigers often barked or growled.
This voice though… Squall had only heard one other monster speak in such a dialect but he knew that monster couldn't be here now.
Suddenly, a large shape dropped down from the stalactites above Squall to land before the surprised Garu with a wet sounding THUMP. Squall's eyes narrowed as he took in the creature before him. 'I knew it. It's not Don but still a member of his species.
'A Gabu.'
Now, to be fair, Squall had never seen a Gabu except for Don and Don was a altered monster, so Squall had no real idea what a Gabu actually looked like but he highly doubted that any looked like the one before him. Though the Gabu was shaped a lot like Don, albeit with both hands and eyes and without any facial hair, it was colored very differently. Its clay-like skin was a deep purple, deeper than that of any purebred Naga, and its eyes were unlike Don's own single eye, which had been human-like.
This Gabu's eyes were reptilian and reflected mockery towards the slightly unnerved Garu.
"You're not strong at all, Squall…" spoke the Gabu, "Dokoo knows it speaks true… Dokoo knows you are WEAK!" With a loud battle-cry, the Dokoo launched itself towards Squall.
Van snarled angrily as he crept along meadow. He did not know how he had arrived in this strange land with nothing but this utterly bare meadow surrounding him, but he did know that he didn't like it. He howled loudly, hoping to hear any of his fellows or Phayne. He couldn't put a paw on it but he knew there was something out there, just beyond his eyesight, waiting for him to make the one mistake that would, most likely, cost the Tiger his life.
It was fortunate that something was unable to make a silent entrance.
"RAARR!" Van jumped to the side, dodging the gleaming silver spear by inches. Snarling angrily, Van backed away as the creature that had thrown the spear drew near. It was a monster that Van had never seen before but had heard about in old stories. The monster's lower body was like that of a animal that Van had seen from time to time and what Phayne had called a 'horse'. However, instead of a equine head, there was an upperbody of a humanoid creature that vaguely resembled a Zuum or perhaps a Dragon for, though the horse part was covered in soft brown fur, the upper body was covered in emerald green scales and the head of the monster was shaped much like a human's albeit with a draconic beak.
This monster was none other than a Centaur.
"You are dishonorable," spoke the Centaur, slowly trotting in a large circle around the Tiger, "You are a disgrace both to your kind and your master."
"Grrrrrr… SHUT UP!" Neon blue lightning crackled along and between Van's horns as he snarled at the Centaur. "LIGHTNING!" The lightning arched out from the Tiger's horns towards the frowning Centaur.
"USELESS!" The Centaur twirled his silver spear in his clawed hands, causing the lightning to reflect away from him.
"Im-Impossible…"
Goliath looked around his surroundings, fear quite evident on his craggy face. He stood upon a plantless island composed entirely of stone in what seemed to be the middle of the ocean. An ocean that seemed to be composed not of water nor of any liquid that Goliath knew was drinkable.
It was an ocean of blood.
"Goliiiiiiiiath…" A voice as smooth as silk came from no true direction that the purebred Golem could discern.
"Who's there? What do you want?" Goliath tried to find the being that called out to him from no where.
"Goliiiiiiiiath…… Can you hold back your power…?" A humanoid form emerged from the crimson ocean surrounding the Golem. The large monster stepped slightly backwards in surprise by the form of the creature before him. It looked to be something similar to that of Pixie/Lesione combination, a Undine, but much more… more. It sounded stupid but it was quite true for the Pixie breed of Undine looked very much like the purebred Undinde albeit the Pixie breed possessed Pixie-like qualities such as horns, wings, and legs. This Undine, however, possessed none of these traits and looked to be nothing more than a human female with the lower body of a fish's tail. However, her skin and hair were both different shades of light blue, much like the Pixie breed of Undine and she had a strange growth of scales that covered her arms and her chest, protecting her modesty.
"Can you hold back your strength, Goliath…?" demurred the Undine, "Can you prevent another near-death…?"
Goliath's glowing yellow eyes widened and he tried to step away from the slowly advancing Undine as horrible images raced across his mind. Images of what he had done to his friend…
"Lelola…"
Brillig glared around the large banquet hall he had suddenly found himself in. He had no idea how he had to arrive there no did he know where here was but he did know that he didn't like his surroundings at all. The stone walls and floor brought forth strange images to his draconic head and the large banners, all depicting bloody battles between monsters, humans, and creatures that befouled the word monster, that adorned the walls and ceilings of the hall had the large Dragon worried. Memories of his past sin still haunted the dragon even after the many pardons and talks from his family.
"Have a thee foul creature!" A metallic voice rang across the banquet hall, seemingly coming from both ends at the same time. Suddenly, a large crimson shape shot out from the only door out of the hall. With a startled roar, Brillig jumped upwards with his wings spread wide. Unfortunately, by doing this Brillig effectively got both his wings tangled among the many banners that hung from the arched ceiling of the banquet hall.
With a angry roar, Brillig opened his beak-like maw and spewed forth a thin plume of bright fire, turning many of the banners close to him instantly into ash. With the banners holding him burned away, Brillig dropped down from the ceiling and landed on his taloned feet with a loud THUD. However, though Brillig's fire had destroyed a few of the banners, many of them were still alit and the burning pieces falling from them were causing the table of the banquet hall to slowly catch fire as well.
"AIR SHOT!" Large burst of air cut through the hall, fluffing out the flames easier than water ever could. The attack was a familiar one to Brillig and one that he used from time to time, but it was not him who had done it.
It was the monster before him.
The monster was humanoid in nature, like many of his kin were, and composed entirely, and solely, out of a suit of human armor worn previously by ancient knights of Gaea's past. 'A Durahan…' thought Brillig to himself, stepping back from the knight monster cautiously. 'But this one smells… strange…' Like many of the monsters on Genki Ranch, Brillig had encountered a Durahan breed a few times before, Squall had even fought and won against an extremely rare breed, but the Dragon purebred had never faced one such as the one that was slowly walking towards him.
The Durahan's armor was light red, much like Brillig's own scales, and his shoulder pads had three sharp spikes curving upwards towards its Dragonhead-shaped helmet. This Durahan's scent was also different than any of the others that Brillig had met. For example, purebreds smelled like iron and steel while Curevis smelled very much like pumpkins, which wasn't that surprising considering that a Curevis was a combination of a Durahan and a Pancho. However, the Durahan breed before him smelled more… coppery and familiar than anything Brillig had ever smelled before. It smelled as though it was covered in blood.
Dragon's blood.
It was then that it finally clicked into place inside the Dragon's head. It explained why he had backed away from the monster instead of meeting it. All Dragons had a natural fear of this breed of Durahan, the breed known as Vesuvius.
"Dost thou think that thou can destroy mine home like thou had nearly done to thine's?" Vesuvius, wing-shaped sword slashing angrily, stomped angrily towards Brillig. "Dost thou truly think thou can do unto mine home what thou hast done to thine own?"
"What the? When did we? How did we?" Phayne twirled around, taking in the darkened skies that covered his and Rio's ranch. The rancher looked around for his monster friends but found that not one of them were standing beside or near him, though the pale light from the monsters' house gave Phayne a small clue as to where they disappeared to.
"Phayne? What are you doing out here?" Phayne twirled around to come face-to-face with the very person he had attained the Angel's Light flower for.
" Rio! Hi! I-uh…" Phayne's face gained a crimson flush as he hid the Angel's Light flower behind his back, away from Rio's line of sight. "Um… while we were out… I and the others got you something……" Rio merely arched a delicate eyebrow at her stuttering firend. "Here." Phayne jutted the flower and the specially woven orb that held it and its soil at Rio, a soft but nervous smile on his face. "It's an Angel's Light flower! You're favorite."
Rio stared at the flower in Phayne's hands, her face empty of all emotion. Suddenly, a angry frown appeared upon her pale face shortly before she smacked the Angel's Light out of Phayne's gloved hands.
"What the? Rio, why did you-"
"You really are an idiot. Do you really think a simple flower will make me fall for a thick-hearded jerk like you?" Rio's normally emotionless face was set into a dark sneer that looked foreign upon her pale face. Startled and hurt, Phayne backed away from the angry-eyed girl sneering before him.
" Rio I… thought that you'd…"
"I'd what? Fall madly in love with you?" scoffed Rio, rolling her eyes, "Dream on, little boy. As if someone like me would ever fall for someone who used the Tome of Black Arts!" Shame flooded across Phayne's heart, which had broken into several small fragments. Trying to hide the hurt tears that threatened to overflow from his eyes, Phayne looked down at the ground where the Angel's Light still layed, mostly intact.
" Rio…"
Suddenly, something caught Phayne's attention that caused the young rancher's eyes to widen with both horror and realization. What was this one thing that caused Phayne to instantly dismiss Rio's cruel words, and slowly begin to smile?
The Angel's Light flower wasn't flickering.
Now one mustn't forget that, though there was no moon shining pale light and the delicate flower's specially woven pot was destroyed, it was still alive and the light coming from the barn was bright enough to push against the darkness. It was then that Phayne became aware of the small weight in his still cupped hands. The weight of a small and delicate Angel's Light.
"What are you grinning about?" demanded Rio.
"That flower's not real," said Phayne, a large smile on his face, "Which means you aren't real and the true Rio's waiting for me back at our home! She's waiting for the smile I hope to give her and whoever's doing this is not going to stop me!" The fake Rio's face gained a look of utter surprise as time and sound slowly began to distort around the two. Not even sparring a tiny glance at the imposter of his lady love, Phayne ran towards the one thing in the dark world around him that had any light besides the brightly shining Angel's Light flower in his hands, the barn.
"I'm coming guys!"
