Dai: Feh. The whole thing reads like a first draft, but I guess it's better than some people's attempts. (pointed glance at Serge)
Serge: (sigh) You just will not let that go, will you?
Disclaimer: I own Dmitri, the Continent, and…well…the other OCs. And that's obvious. And I'm getting tired of disclaimers. Meh.
Enthraille: The Orphan's Story
Chapter Three
The sunlight filtered lazily through the window and onto the rumpled sheets as Sora turned over and yawned. Slowly, the recollection of Aidran and Riku returned to him. He groaned and sat up in time to see Riku fiddling with a familiar set of clothing.
"How do you people wear this stuff?" he asked, struggling with the multiple straps and buckles.
Sora mumbled something incoherent, unable to call forth the will necessary to roll onto the floor. It was when Riku nearly strangled himself with a loose strap that Sora mustered the strength to crawl out of the bed and help him. But this was done at the risk of grazing muscled flesh, and Sora did enough of that to make his face a brilliant scarlet. Luckily, Riku couldn't see this due to Sora's position behind him.
"Why are you pulling that over your head?" Sora asked in a flat tone.
"Because I don't see where it goes!" Riku exclaimed, frustrated and trying to find the correct spot for the black strap.
Wordlessly, Sora took the strap, crossed it over Riku's left shoulder, and snapped it to the button just below the right area of his chest. "Duh."
Riku shot him a dark look, which Sora ignored. "So what's next?" the prince asked, spreading his arms.
"Shoes," Sora advised. "I have an extra pair. They're a little big on me, so they should fit you perfect." He scurried to his pack and drew out the blue shoes, pulling back the straps so Riku could slide them on. "And I think you should wear gloves," Sora added, tossing a few pieces of black cloth to the prince. "These should be tough enough to withstand thorns."
Looking dubiously at the black wristbands that went with the gloves, Riku tugged at the short edges. "They're too small," he protested.
"They're supposed to do that."
"Why?"
"Because. That should be enough, so I have to get dressed." Recalling last night, Sora narrowed his eyes and pointed meaningfully toward the door. Riku looked as though he was about to say something, but he thought better of it at Sora's challenging glare and retreated silently.
Once they were prepared and had shopped for nourishment, Riku pointed them to the road that led into the forest. "Why are we going in there?" Sora asked nervously.
"That's the only road that leads to Middel from here," Riku replied. "We'll have to go through Traverser's Swamp, but that's easier than trying to swim around the Continent."
"Traverser's Swamp?"
"It's an old thing," Riku explained wryly. "Middel is sometimes called Traverse Town because almost everyone ends up there at one time or another. Except perhaps Enthrailles. We've always been rather separate."
Sora shivered, staring at the huge, imposing forest. "I thought Aidran would have good boats," he managed.
"Most Enthrailles swim. Besides, looking for a boat would expose me and then you'd have to do this on your own," Riku added, drawing a cloak about himself and offering the other to Sora.
"Aren't you the prince?" the brown-haired boy asked pointedly, struggling to get his hair to cooperate under the cloak.
"Yes, but Dmitri's the Regent. Politically, he has more power than I do." Riku attained that sly look again. "If you're afraid, we can always hold hands."
"You don't have any shame, do you?"
l…l
They actually spent several days out in the forest, camping out at the end of each one. Sora gradually grew used to having Riku beside him—although not physically under the same blanket—whenever night fell. This fantasy world of his grew to be more than he bargained for, since bugs and wild animals became pretty disturbing when they weren't passing over fields or through Enthraille cities.
It happened that one day they seemed to be reaching the border of Serre, and were likely to cross over into Medentine, the country of humans. The forest grew no less large nor imposing as they continued, and Sora became increasingly aware of being watched. An owl hooted nearby, followed by a sharp rustle from somewhere to the left. Shuddering involuntarily, Sora drew unconsciously closer to Riku. He wasn't aware of just how close he was until the prince wrapped one arm around his shoulder and stopped. "Don't move," Riku whispered, stepping away. Sora, his mouth frozen in the act of asking the obvious question, thought better of it and waited.
Riku stooped toward the earth briefly, almost as though he were looking for something. He shot abruptly upward, his hands spread wide. "Fire!" he shouted in a powerful voice.
A harsh scream rang out and the rustle came again, this time darting away. The forest stood still around them, pierced only by a slightly bemused hoot from the owl.
Sora was duly confused. "But nothing happened," he said to Riku. "What were you—?"
"Bluffing," Riku explained laconically, seizing Sora's arm. "This is the part where we run."
The forest parted before them, a hallway filled with leaves and branches and the occasional boulder. Riku navigated it swiftly as though he knew the place, ducking around a tree before Sora completely realized it was there. But the same type of insight gradually fell over the younger boy as well—he seemed to know where a branch was before he saw it, or how high to jump before he knew there was a boulder in the path. The rustle of the leaves and the excited hum of the earth filled his ears as they tore through, but then, quite suddenly, it was over.
Panting, Sora sank to the ground while Riku leaned against a tree to catch his breath. "What was that thing?" the brown-haired boy asked once he could breathe properly again.
Riku shook his head. "I'm not sure. Might've been the spawn of Chaos."
"Might've been what?"
"We'd better hurry," Riku said quickly, looking up at the darkening sky and the swamp before them. "We've crossed the border. Traverser's Swamp occasionally claims a few traversers, and it's significantly harder to navigate at night."
While they walked, Riku went into an explanation. "According to myth, Chaos was the disorder and general chaos that occurred before the creation of the world. From that chaos came the world and an alternate, darker world. The darker world was filled with evil, and our world was not. To create a balance, thereby keeping our world from completely deteriorating, night was created in between the days. It's during night that individuals from the dark world are able to cross the border."
Sora shivered. "But the dark world—doesn't it need a balance, too?"
"Evil feeds on evil," Riku replied, shrugging.
"Then the dark creatures are the spawn of Chaos?"
"Some people call them that. Faeries call them the darkness, and a few of the older nations—like Daguta, the Dwarven country—call them the Heartless."
Riku fell silent then, and it seemed like a long time before they were passing through a small village and night had almost fallen. Sora gazed longingly at the warm-looking houses, drawing the cloak tighter about himself as the chill wind bit through the night. "Just a little farther," Riku murmured to him. The brown-haired boy nodded sleepily, yawning.
They walked for a little while longer, during which Sora very nearly dozed off several times, and Riku paused near a gate. Words were exchanged—it seemed like Riku had hitched them a ride on a wagon—and then the prickly hay poked through his cloak as Riku helped him up onto the wagon bed. The world faded away around him as Sora rested his head against Riku's shoulder and slept.
l…l
A fist hit the wood of the armrest. "Why were you two in the forest so late?" came the demand as the dark-robed figure rose and went to his companions' side.
"Don't pretend like we have a curfew or something," a male voice replied coolly. "And besides, we weren't. We were keeping watch over the Elven village."
"There was a report of two black-cloaked strangers walking through the forest and Traverser's Swamp, and one of them tried to cast a fire spell. Sound familiar?" The first figure glared at the other two under his robe.
"Neither of us are very likely to cast a spell of that nature," the second male stated quietly.
"First of all, who died and made you king? We can go wherever we want unless we have orders from the wise man," the third replied in a sharp female voice. "And second, it's not uncommon to have a few posers trying to scare the villagers. Remember the last one we had to deal with?"
"Vividly," the second remarked, smirking.
The first seemed to have cooled somewhat. "Then we'd better find out who's under those cloaks before they get bigheaded and try to take over our turf. Someone needs to search Middel."
"I'll do it," the third volunteered. "You two would probably go in shouting and hacking left and right."
The first grunted vaguely but the second stared at her, sarcastically appalled. "Fine," the first said finally. "Just don't get noticed until you find them."
"Like you have a right to talk."
l…l
Sora came to in the warm hotel bed that he never, ever wanted to leave. This turned into a clash of two different wills when he had to go to the bathroom, so he grudgingly left the comforting warmth for the sake of necessity.
Since there was nothing else to do with the possible exception of lie in bed—and he couldn't go back to sleep at all now—he dressed and descended to the lobby. There was no sign of the Enthraille prince, so Sora wandered out into Middel's streets.
The stars glinted above him as he strode along the stone walk, treeless except for the occasional sapling. It surprised him to see the stars—according to his watch, it was ten in the morning. Maybe the stupid thing was busted.
As he turned to go back to the hotel, hoping Riku would actually be in the general vicinity, he caught sight of a cloaked figure standing in the alleyway. "Riku?" he called, reassured when the figure looked up out of piercing green eyes. "Riku! Where've you—?" He stopped short when the figure pointed at him and a lightning bolt glanced off the stone next to him.
"Don't move," a female voice said sharply as the figure approached. "I hate it when they run. It's much more of a mess afterwards."
Sora took a few steps back, halting abruptly as he felt his limbs tighten and stick out sharply, the hairs rising on his skin. "Wh-wha—?"
"Interesting, isn't it, Ludra?" the stranger remarked, a hint of amusement in her tone. "Your body is completely governed by electrical signals coming from your brain and down your spine." Her fist clenched and a slight pain ran up his spine. "So you'd better start talking, kid, or I'm gonna twist a few things you'd rather I didn't."
"What do you want?" Sora managed in what would have been a strong voice if it hadn't been so tremulous.
"You recognized me, didn't you?" she asked. "My cloak, at least. So tell me. Who was traveling through the forest in those cloaks?"
"I-I don't know."
"Strike one. Of course you know, or you wouldn't have come after me. Come on, Ludra, I don't want to have to hurt you." She smirked. "Much."
Sora tried to change the subject. "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"I think you know why. Now talk." The stranger made another motion and a shudder passed through Sora's body.
"One was—um—one was an Elf," Sora managed to say as he recalled the races that Riku had mentioned on the road to Middel, feeling pain rippling up his spine, "and the other was—was—a Dwarf."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Ye—es!" the brown-haired boy replied, ending in a yelp of pain as his arm began to twist.
"Hm. Interesting how a Dwarf would travel with an Elf even though their races haven't mixed since the Elven-Centaur War five hundred years ago. It's also interesting that neither of the cloaked travelers were the right build of an Elf, but they were too tall for either of them to be a Dwarf." There was a crackle of electricity. "That's strike two, Ludra. I have a feeling your cloaked friends aren't going to be too happy when they find pieces of you in five hundred different places."
Sora whimpered, closing his eyes and trying not to imagine what she might do to him.
There was a whistle from behind the stranger, and a cloaked figure waved mockingly at her. With a muttered curse, she released Sora and darted toward the newcomer, lightning flashing about her. Sora sat up, realizing that the new stranger could only be Riku. He stared in horror as Riku suddenly collapsed into an indiscernible pile on the ground, no doubt due to the stranger's harnessing of his spine. "Riku!" he shouted in disbelief.
The stranger was staring down at the crumpled form, toeing it in apparent confusion. She bent briefly and stood with something sparkling in her grasp, her lips widening in a smirk. There was a flash of lightning and she vanished.
Sora's body was riddled with pain, but he forced himself to his feet and ran toward Riku. "Can't be dead," he panted as he ran. First his parents—then Kairi—now this— "He can't be dead!"
Collapsing onto the ground, Sora reached in a search for Riku's hand or foot or something. For Riku to be taking up only that much space, the stranger must have collapsed his entire body. Although he was afraid of what he might find, Sora fumbled through the pile, feeling tears well up in his eyes. But there were only…
"Clothes?" he wondered aloud, lifting the cloak from the ground. It was empty, even lacking the outfit Sora had brought from the island.
"Sora!" Riku shouted from behind him. Sora turned and stared at the impossible image of Riku running toward him. But he was hopping—he looked almost as if he was still pulling on a shoe. Sora took little notice of this, gaping insensibly at the ghost he was seeing.
The Enthraille reached him, hesitating. "I saw the whole thing from the window," he explained shortly. "Did she break anything?"
"I—n-no, I don't think so," Sora told him, hissing in pain as he checked.
"Damn her," Riku muttered. "Come on. I'll try not to hurt you," he said, bending and taking Sora in his arms before he started for the clinic.
l…l
"Owwwww…" Sora moaned, grimacing. He looked up at the hospital ceiling, unable to keep from thinking about the constant pain. "I hurt all over."
"I know," Riku replied, squeezing out a wet cloth and placing it over Sora's forehead. "You're lucky. She's been known to snap people's spines in two at the drop of a hat."
"Who was she?" Sora managed weakly, shifting in an attempt to relieve a few of the most sensitive areas.
"A Spirit," Riku told him, taking a seat on the stool beside the hospital bed. "They command the elements, and they're very dangerous. I'm not sure why she was after you." He bit his lip, frowning. "Well, it may have been because of the cloaks. The Spirits don't take lightly to people pretending to be them."
"Is that what we were doing?" Sora asked. "In the forest—you tried to cast a spell…"
"I was trying to scare off whatever that was," Riku explained. "People recognize Spirits for their power. If I put on a cloak and waved my hand, I'd have about a hundred people on their knees begging for forgiveness."
"For what?"
"Breathing." Riku shifted the rag and continued to apply more of them to Sora's body. "I'm not entirely sure how many Spirits there actually are, but I know there was one more a little while ago. They ganged up and killed him for some reason—I think he was trying to play king. Not that it matters."
The brown-haired boy shot him a curious look. Riku sighed and continued.
"The Spirits obey whoever has their respective Scroll. The Scrolls were originally scattered about the Continent, but they were put in a highly guarded section of the Enthraille library until just a few years ago." Riku paused, looking at the ground. "Someone broke into the library and released the Spirits from the Scrolls. He was banished, but he took them with him."
Sora blinked, getting the unnerving feeling that Riku was leaving something out. "Who did it, then?"
Riku shrugged, quickly returning to the task of soothing Sora's abused limbs. "I was only five years old. I don't really remember what happened."
It dawned on Sora that it would probably be better not to pursue the matter. "She kept calling me something weird," he remarked after a while. "Luther or something. Lutra—Ludra, that was it."
The Enthraille looked up, frowning. "Ludra? I don't know. For some reason that sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I heard it before."
Riku started to say something else, but just then they heard voices. There was a sound like a duck exploding, and then the door slammed open against the wall. An infuriated duck-man-creature burst into the room, waving a staff wildly and very nearly incinerating an important part of Riku's anatomy.
"What's that?" Sora asked, panicking and remembering just in time not to upset the cloths under penalty of the resulting pain.
The Enthraille shushed him quickly, putting out a hand to calm the duck. "He's a Huminal," he explained in a whisper. "They're part human and part animal. We're not sure where they came from, but they're cuddly and fun and a pain in the ass when they're mad."
It was fortunate that the duck didn't happen to hear this, being too occupied with an argument between himself and his canine companion.
"Can I help you?" Riku asked, pointedly cheerful as he approached the two.
"Royal investigation. We're here to see the patient who was attacked by the Spirit," the duck explained in an obscure accent. "It's just that this idiot," he added, indicating the dog man, "doesn't think we should help."
"Oh c'mon, Donald, I didn't say—!"
This was drowned out with a series of furious quacks. Once his companion was sufficiently silent, Donald cleared his throat importantly. "I'm the king's mage in Disney, and I've been practicing since I was a duckling. I'm almost as good as the Spirits now."
"Yeah, if you wanna expectorate," the dog man murmured, laughing quietly.
With a duck-like growl, Donald clubbed him with the staff. "That's 'exaggerate,' Goofy, and it's not true anyway!"
"But if you're the king's mage, what are you doing way out here?" Riku asked. "Disney is miles away by land or sea."
"I could ask the same of you, Prince Riku," Donald addressed him flatly. "The king sent for us to answer the summons to Aidran on the subject of a comatose girl. But before then, we were trying to find out what the Spirits are doing. They've been watching villages in Elven territory and occasionally attacking the Centaurs. Luana and Kianus are right nearby one another, and close to the heart of the Continent. If the Spirits get those under their rule, they could very well stage attacks on major human, Faerie, and Huminal cities. Not to mention the Enthraille throne," he added pointedly. "You know very well that your—"
Riku's fingers clamped Donald's beak shut firmly. "That's enough," he said sharply, his aquamarine eyes fierce. "Just do what you have to. We have other Spirits to track down."
"Is that your excuse?" the mage demanded when he could speak again. "All of Serre is in uproar looking for you. Are you just looking for a few kicks? Because if you think I'm going to stand by while you get yourself killed, you'd better—"
"People are dying, Donald," Riku interrupted. "There's a girl in Aidran right now who's fighting for her life. It can't go on like this. If anyone can put a stop to it, I can." He turned away. "And…I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell my father where I am." The door shut firmly behind him.
Donald sighed brokenly. "Going to kill himself, idiot boy," he muttered. "Probably going to take the whole Continent with him—"
It was at this point that the two Huminals recalled the existence of a certain pain-filled boy who was beginning to wish Riku had put another cloth on his arm before leaving. "Hold still," Donald said to Sora, crossing to the side of the bed. Sora's eyes widened at the sight of the staff, and he would have struggled just then had Donald not finished the spell, causing a cool, soothing sensation to pass through his body.
"Did it work?" Goofy asked, bending into Sora's line of vision.
This earned the canine another blow from the staff. "Of course it worked! Since when does a cure spell not work?"
While the two commenced to bickering, Sora pulled off the rags and left the room. He found Riku standing in the corridor, eyes distant as he leaned against the wall. "Feel better?" the prince asked, looking up sharply.
Not knowing quite what to say, Sora nodded.
"Good. Come on—we'd better head for Niro." Riku beckoned and started out of the clinic in the general direction of the hotel.
Dai: Well, reviews are still appreciated. Don't feel rushed, there are plenty of chapters left, and I'm sure to stretch out the wait times depending on the number of reviews or lack thereof. (evil leer)
