God, I am SO sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! I had to get my new hard drive installed, and thenI couldn't find my passowrds and then my Word processor wasn't installed right and then I had to spend a couple days cleaning my room...
Put simply, my week's been kinda a mess so far.
But I'm back! So on with the story!
Dis: Okay, really, do you REALLY think I own this? If you do, then there's something dreadfully wrong.
'I don't want to die!' she thought, panicked. 'I don't want to die, I don't wanna die, I DON'T WANNA DIE!' The warmth from her heart suddenly exploded from her body and she realized with, quite literally, a jolt that she wasn't falling. In fact, she was actually going back upwards. Looking down, she saw nothing but clouds beneath her. Looking up, she saw the White Dragon, with Kalas leaning over looking frantic and amazed all at once. But it was when she looked to the sides that her breath caught in her throat as she figured out just WHY she wasn't falling any more.
She had Wings.
They weren't elaborate by any means, but she wasn't an elaborate person, either. There were two on each side, the top one being larger than the bottom one. The top ones had five spines each, the first almost three feet long to the bottom being six inches. They vaguely reminded her of bat wings, since they had a sort of membrane between each spine. (AN: for all of you pokemon fans, think Crobat) The bottom wings only had three spines, the longest being a foot and a half long. The spines were black, which faded to purple membrane. Arietta was sure that, had she been standing on something solid, the wings would have folded neatly straight down her back.
Beyond rational thought by now, she gave the wings one hard pump and found herself soaring upwards, towards the White Dragon. Next thing she knew, she was standing on the Dragon's back, once again behind Kalas. Everyone looked beat up, and the swarm of monsters showed no signs of letting up. That's when it happened.
Kalas had been drawn away from her, preoccupied with the first Devil Claws. He didn't see the second one behind him until it had hit him hard in the back. With a startled cry, he went down.
"Kalas!" Xelha yelled, unable to get to the blue-haired boy. Arietta watched in horror at the two Devil Claws loomed over her charge's prone form. She vaguely registered that they were Devil Claws as she gathered her magic.
"I am the Water, hear my voice…" she said in a monotone. Nobody paid her any mind.
"Guardian Spell…" Perhaps it was from long years of using a Sonic Rifle, but Lyude heard the chant.
"EVERYONE OUT OF THE WAY!" he bellowed. The other four, though startled, did so without question.
"SACRED SPRING!" Arietta released the spell. The torrent of water plowed into the Devil Claws with the force of a freight train, or whatever the equivalent in this world was. Not only did the magical tsunami sweep them away, it also took the rest of the monsters as well. Above the rushing water, she could hear a sizzling sound, like that of water being thrown onto hot metal. Within seconds, the monsters were gone. Or so she thought.
Arietta screamed, more in surprise than in pain, as her clothing burst into flames. Panicking, she frantically tried to get one of her spells, but her mind blanked out. She could feel the heat as her shirt and pants were being consumed by the fire.
"Aqua Burst!"
A rush of water, though not nearly as big as her own spell, drenched Arietta, putting the flames out. She fell to her knees, feeling the Dragon's rough scales on her flesh as well as the fresh burns from the flames. Her pants and shirt were little more than rags, though still covering what needed to be covered. Her shirt, which was formerly a pretty off-white V-neck with black flowers and three-quarter sleeves, was now riddled with scorch marks and holes, exposing her undergarments. Her jeans, which were worn-soft with flared bottoms, were, while not as bad as her shirt, scorched black in spots and ripped.
Xelha and Mizuti were going around with healing Magnus, doing what they could until they reached Anuenue. It was when they made their way to her that she really started to think about what had happened. She didn't say anything as the two magic-users tended her burns, but she had opened her mouth to say something a few minutes later and never got the chance.
"Look! We be close to Anuenue!" Mizuti exclaimed. Arietta still found it odd to hear her friend speak without the mask. Indeed, she found it odd to LOOK at her mask-less friend. Arietta looked in the direction that the girl-wizard was pointing in, expecting to see the familiar sight of the Rainbow Nation. She did indeed see Anuenue, but something was different.
The floating Island looked the same for the most part; it still had the two rainbows and the giant Celestial Tree and the waterfall of Opu Village and the green patch of Holoholo Jungle, but something was off. All of the bright colors of the festive nation were dull, like someone had drawn a sheer white veil over everything.
As the White Dragon got closer, Arietta could see more details of the nation. As they went over it, she could see that a good number of the trees in Holoholo Jungle were wilted, as if they didn't get enough sun and water. The Celestial Tree was devoid of leaves, as if they had been stripped off, and many of the branches were broken and hanging by twigs. In contrast, the water from the waterfall was falling at an alarming rate, nearly twice what it was the last time she had seen it. Opu itself was a ghost town.
"This… isn't right…" Xelha said as she looked over everything.
"Man, what happened here?" Gibari asked in surprise.
"What could have caused this awful disaster?" Lyude asked sadly.
"I dunno, but we're about to hit Komo Mai, so we can ask Queen Corellia what's going on," Kalas said. Savyna didn't say anything as she looked at the sad remains of a once beautiful nation.
The White Dragon landed in Anuenue Port without being told, having done so numerous times before. Everyone was about to climb down when Arietta remembered that she still had Wings of Heart.
"Ah… Um… Xelha?" she said getting her friend's attention, "How do I get rid of these?" She motioned to her back and her Wings rustled slightly. Xelha blinked, as if she hadn't noticed them. The Wings had folded straight down Arietta's back, so neatly that you couldn't tell that they were there unless you looked right at them.
"You just will them back into your heart, I guess. I've never really thought about it before," the Ice Queen said, gathering her composure quickly. Arietta nodded, somewhat confused, but concentrated on her Wings going back to where they came from. There was a flash of light, violet, unsurprisingly, and they vanished. She looked at the burned remains of her clothing.
"First, we need to get you some new clothes," Gibari said, as if reading the former Spirit's mind. There was a collective nod.
"You can't very well see Queen Corellia like that," Savyna said. "Come on, I know where you can get something decent." With that, Savyna walked into the unusually quiet city of Komo Mai.
As she followed the huntress, Arietta looked around and shuttered. Instead of the usual brightness and activity, the City of Flowers was almost dead silent. All of the doors that they passed were closed, and the windows were dark. Arietta was about to ask what had happened, but the reason made itself painfully clear.
Literally.
"Watch out!" Savyna shoved Arietta out of the way just as something went through the space she just was. Savyna was back on her feet in a second, with a green flash signifying her Wings of Heart appearing. Within seconds, the attacker, a Devil Claws, was lying dead in the road, having been hit with one Lady Death's Aqua Impulse Magnus.
Savyna put her Magnus away and looked at her peacock-like Wings.
"So I guess it's true, then," she said quietly, "we are getting our Wings of Heart back."
"Amazing…" Lyude murmured. Savyna let her Wings vanish and looked at the slightly stunned faces of her friends.
"Let's keep moving." Everyone nodded. They were able to make it to a clothing shop without any further incidents.
Thankfully, the shop was open, despite the fact that the windows were dark.
"O-oh, Savyna, thank the Whale it's you!" the shopkeeper said in obvious relief.
"What's going on here? What are all those monsters doing in the city?" Savyna asked.
"It's horrible! They've been attacking everyone, nobody's safe any more!" The shopkeeper paused to regain his wits and then continued, "They showed up about a week ago, when Her Majesty, the Queen, fell deathly ill. They started attacking the citizens, and haven't stopped!" He paused again and looked at the whole group. "But you and your companions can stop them, right?
"We'll do what we can. But right now, my companion needs new clothes," Savyna said, gesturing to Arietta. The shopkeeper nodded. Within minutes, Arietta had a new outfit.
She had kept her gray-and-pink sneakers, since they were still in good shape, as were her socks. Her new pants, well, capris, really, were skintight, and made of a stretchy material that she couldn't identify but was surprisingly easy to move in. They were light green with the pattern of a dark green vine with pink flowers winding up her left leg. Her new shirt was a solid pink tank-top put overtop of a white, off-the-shoulder shirt that was also skintight. Her hair was held back by a simple white hair tie on the back of her skull.
"Your other clothes are quite interesting, young lady," the shopkeeper said once she had her new outfit on. "I've never seen anything like them. What are they made of?"
"I think the pants are made of… cotton, and the shirt is… polyester, I think?" Arietta replied, thinking.
"Intriguing… May I keep these? I may be able to reproduce something similar to them…"
"Uh, hate to interrupt," Gibari cut in, "But we really need to get to the Palace."
"Yes, of course, sorry to have kept you waiting." The shopkeeped moved aside to let the fighters pass.
With that, the group went out into the silent streets of Komo Mai.
There, another chapter down. Things are going to really start moving soon, I think. This is the quickest-moving fic I've written!
Well, review, please?
