I don't own FY.
I don't have time for formal reviews, but thank you for reviewing; Crimson Firefox, Booma-Chan, Chichiri's Wanderer, Pil-z
…. OMG! I graduated from HS yesterday (the 24th)! …. OK I may sound hyper but really I am dead tired. I was up till nearly five because of the all night graduation party, got five hours of sleep because I had a friends party to go to and now I'm soooooo tired… but I won a 20 in color TV at the all night grad party XD
Chapter 12
'Oh, right. That's how I got into this mess,' Lily thought as she looked up from her musing. So much had happened in the few weeks she had been in this world, rarely leaving a day without some kind of event.
Her feet fell upon dry leaves, crushing them into small fragments with bits of noise to follow. Other than that and the occasional snap of a twig everything was quiet. No one had spoken since she had begun her musing some ten minutes before, a fact that mildly disturbed her.
For several days they had been searching the area within Kutou with no trace of whatever it was they were supposed to be looking for. The only thing they had to go off of was the last message obtained by Byakko before his capture, a message that told them what specific area to look in.
A bright flash was suddenly seen, followed by a loud crack of thunder. Chichiri looked up to the sky with a deep frown, "We should find cover, this storm looks like it'll a bad one."
Lily sighed, she did miss the monk's 'no da's' but she would not voice the matter. She knew the issues they had been facing demanded and ample amount of seriousness and would not push the matter until, perhaps, it was well needed.
"'ey, there's a cave over there," Tasuki pointed to the barely visible cave. Vines and fallen tree limbs practically made the cave look as if it were just a simple side of the cliff it dwelled in.
"That'll have to do," Chichiri said. "We don't have much time before this storm hits."
Just as they reached the front of the cave it began to rain softly, turning into a torrential downpour by the time they had cleared the vines and made it inside. "This rain isn't normal for these parts," Chichiri frowned as he turned and started making a fire with the help of Tasuki.
Lily gazed out into the area they had just retreated from, or at least she tried to, but the rain was coming down so hard and in such large drops that visibility was slim to none. "Does it have to something with the gods?"
"Most likely," Chichiri responded. "Since this is the home to those who worship Seiryuu it's probably has to do with his disappearance."
"But he already made his capture known," Tasuki said, "So why's he continuing? Even though I hate the god, it doesn't right that he'd want to wash out his domain."
The monk brushed the dirt off his hands upon getting the fire started, "He doesn't. The land is simply unstable without his presence."
"That's why they have to be freed," Lily said softly as she sat near the fire and held her hands out to warm them up.
"Cold?" Tasuki asked.
"A bit, yes," she softly replied. "But I'll be alright."
Tasuki nodded and let his gaze drift to the fire as it burned merrily, offering some light in the darkness of the cave. "Wonder how much longer it'll take to find this place Byakko wants us to get to."
Chichiri sighed, "I wish I knew the answer. Taiitsukun can't aid us any further with the gods now completely out of reach."
"Byakko said we would know it when we saw it," Lily said after a moment as she took her hair down from ponytail it was in, holding the ribbon Taiitsukun had given her.
"Ya, but that isn't telling us where it is, or how long it will take to get there," Tasuki pointed out.
The monk fiddled with his kesa as he repositioned it in a more comfortable position upon his shoulder. "It'll only take another day to look through this area, if we don't find it by then we'll have back track and hope we catch sight of it. If we don't," he sighed, "We'll have to go back to searching the entire country side."
Lily couldn't take the seriousness now that they were stuck until the rain had stopped. "Chichiri," he looked to her, "Say 'no da'."
"No da?" the words didn't hold the old merriment to them, but before a frown could appear on Lily's features he said, "Why do you want me to say no da, no da? Are my no da's that funny no da?" The words held the childish like voice that normally appeared when his mask was on, despite the fact that it was not upon his face.
Lily smiled and laughed softly, causing the monk to smile as well. "You're right Lily no da," Chichiri began to say, "We can't let seriousness consume us, we do need a few smiles and laughs to break things up, no da." Even though the girl had never voiced the comment to which Chichiri had spoken about her mere request made him understand what words had not.
Tasuki smiled and ruffled Lily's hair, "Keep it up and this job won't seem too bad," he teased.
With a faint smiled Lily responded with, "That would do well for all our hearts." She knew the two Suzaku seshi were deeply worried about their country and would happen if they did not release the gods soon. Even more she knew that her fears of the upcoming events were growing with every passing minute and coming to rest in this cave had doubled the feeling tenfold for whatever reason.
Placing the ribbon between her lips Lily ran her hands through her hair to straiten it out. When she felt content with it she quickly French-braided it and tied the ribbon at the end to keep her hair from unraveling.
She was about to try and relax when something moved in her peripheral vision, but it wasn't either of her companion's and when she looked she saw nothing but the darkness of the cave. Suddenly a feeling of deja-vu overcame her and she shivered at the memory of her first meeting with Fenrir.
"You alright Lil?" Tasuki asked, concern evident in his voice.
Lily nodded before turning her gaze to him and smiling weakly. "I think I'm just tired is all."
The bandit nodded, "You can rest then, I'll wake ya when we're goin' to leave."
"There really is no need for that," a newer voice said, one that Lily recognized as the voice of the unseen male in her nightmare that truly was her first encounter with her greatest foe.
Tasuki gave Lily a very concerned look, "Are you sure you're alright? You look really pale."
The girl was in fact paler than she had been moments before. "Did- didn't you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Tasuki gave her a quizzical look.
"That voice," Lily said in fright.
Tasuki put a hand to her forehead, "You don't have a fever." He frowned, "You really must be tired."
The voice from before laughed, causing Lily to grab onto Tasuki tightly. The confused bandit looked down at the girl who had her arms wrapped around his chest, "If you wanted to stay near me you could have just said so Lil."
"It laughed," Lily murmured.
"You mean that voice?" Chichiri asked.
Lily looked to him almost hopefully, "Did you hear it?" When the monk shook his head she frowned and rested her cheek on Tasuki's chest once more.
"I do hope you know that I am not an 'it.' I do have a name," the voice sounded more amused than offended. The bearer of the voice came out from the shadows and knelt down where Lily been before she had clung herself to the bandit leader.
Lily squirmed closer to Tasuki in an attempt to get farther away, but the pair of arms wrapped protectively around her prevented her from going very far. "Lil?"
"He's right there," her voice shook as she pointed to the amused newcomer.
"Where?" Chichiri questioned as he looked around.
"There!" Lily exclaimed. She didn't understand, she was pointing right at him, how could they not see him.
The man she was pointing at laughed. For the first time Lily realized that the laugh wasn't anything like Fenrir's, in fact it was rather pleasant. Dropping her hand she allowed herself to look him over and try to figure out who he was and what he wanted.
His hair was dark blue in color, most of it tied up in a bun like fashion leaving a few strands to fall out to act as bangs, which outline his rather handsome face. The mere thought of her thinking such a thing was disturbing since she had last thought Fenrir to be handsome and he had tried to kill her. His soft brown eyes were filled with amusement and his lips were turned into a soft smile. His garb was something she had never seen, it looked almost royal.
It was then that she realized the one thing that explained why the others couldn't see or hear him, but left her questioning why she could.
He was a ghost.
Hmm, who's the ghost? Can you guess? Hint: he's not a main character.
OK… I need sleep now….
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