Sorry for not updating sooner but a bunch of junk happened and joy! My nephew was born on the 25th of January, 2016! Yay! Can't wait to see how my niece handles being a big sister!

Rave Mistress

Chapter 3:

A Boy with Silver Hair

Location: Dullahan Forest. Date: July 24th, 6 months later.

Six months... it had been that long since she left her little brother on Garage Island to search for the Rave Stones. So far, she hadn't found any and Plue wasn't helping even if he was supposed to have the power to sniff them out. Kōri sighed and sat up on the rock she had been laying on. It was a nice summer day but she couldn't rest too long or she wouldn't reach Dullahan Village. Plue hopped off the rock with her and trotted along on all-fours with a lollipop sticking out of his mouth.

"Hey, Plue, I just realized something. You served both Shiba and Haru, right? Now you're serving me so... how old are you?" Kōri asked "You've gotta be like, 100-years-old at the least by now,"

"Puu,"

Kōri followed the forest path until she saw the gate to Dullahan Village at the bottom of the hill. The gates were made from black iron and were 10 ft. tall at the least with a barb wired fence surrounding the area. Standing guard were two men at least 6 ft. tall themselves holding what looked to be scepters with unusual black gems.

"Whad'ya mean I can't come in? I come here every month and since when was there a fence around Dullahan Village?!" a boy with silver hair complained to the guards.

The guards merely pointed for him to go but he didn't. The boy tried forcing his way in but the guards picked him up and threw him away. He skidded across the ground and came to a stop at Kōri's feet. Plue approached him and made a noise of worry as he nudged the boy's arm.

"Hey, you still alive?" Kōri asked, looking down at him.

The boy squinted up at her before leaning back on his hands and flipping to his feet. He stretched and scratched his head as he looked around. Then his eyes landed on Plue.

"Plue! It's been so long!" the boy exclaimed.

Before Kōri could stop him, the boy had picked Plue up and was hugging him. Plue lifted his front paws and hugged the boy back.

"Hey, uh, that's my snowman-dog-thing," Kōri objected "How do you know his name's Plue?"

The boy looked at Kōri and Ravelt caught his attention. A devilish smile spread across his face and he handed Plue over to her.

"Oh, I can't just tell you that. You'll have to do something for me, Rave Mistress," he said.

"How the- how the heck do you know that?!" Kōri stammered in disbelief.

The boy just smirked at her.

"How about this. There's a magic barrier around Dullahan Village. Break it and help me stop whoever put it up and I'll tell you everything you want to know," he offered "C'mon, Rave Mistress, don't you want to know why some teenaged guy knows Plue and can tell you're the third Rave Master? Hm?"

Kōri groaned and nodded. She put Plue back on the ground and approached the gate. She stopped short of stepping over the threshold so the guards ignored her. With an annoyed sigh, Kōri drew Ravelt and pulled the Rave from the chain she had clipped it to around her neck. Before the guards could react, she shoved the Rave into its place on the blade and lifted it up.

"Ravelution!" she shouted and sliced the transformed Ravelt over the threshold of the gate "Explosion!"

There was a large boom! and a glass-like dome became visible over the area. Around the gate, the dome was shattered and the shards of it fell from the sky. Unexpectedly, the guards collapsed into two heaps of clothes with wisps of shadows floating out of them.

"Thanks, Rave Mistress!" the boy exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. Now, tell me what you know about Rave!" Kōri demanded.

"All in due time, Rave Mistress, you still have to defeat the one who put up that barrier, remember?" he reminded her "I'm Carter, by the way,"

"Kōri," she introduced herself.

Carter walked into Dullahan Village with a smirk and Plue following closely behind him. Kōri rubbed the bridge of her nose and groaned before following after them. This Carter guy was strange. How did he know Plue or that she was the Rave Mistress? And why did he want to enter Dullahan Village so badly that he would bribe her with this information? Then again, why was a magic barrier placed at all?

It seemed Dullahan Village's borders were placed far from the village itself as Kōri, Carter and Plue had to go through one heck of a hike before they even saw smoke from the village. Carter confidently walked with one hand gripping his wrist behind his back but his free hand kept clenching as if it was missing something. Plue desperately kept up with him so it seemed the two really did have a connection. Kōri held Ravelt over her shoulder as she watched the two of them. Over those past six months, the only additional form of Ravelt she had unlocked was Explosion and it was apparently the easiest to unlock. Heck, she unlocked it before she left Garage Island!

"There it is!" Carter exclaimed.

He pointed forward at Dullahan Village and excitedly ran ahead with a relieved smile on his face. Plue went onto all-fours to run after him and Kōri found herself running after them both.

"Hey! Wait up, you two! C'mon!"

Carter ignored her and kept going, leaping from the ground to the trees effortlessly as if he had springs for ankles. Kōri felt a crippling stitch strike her side and she wrapped her arm around herself as she staggered. Her navy blue hair fell into her face and she angrily gritted her teeth. She looked back up to see Carter frozen in place with Plue at his feet. Their eyes were fixated on a staff that was stabbed into the ground. Water sprouted from the cracks around the weapon.

"My... my grandmother's sacred staff..." Carter gasped, awestruck at the sight of it "Finally... after coming and going from Dullahan Village, it's actually here,"

"Huh?" Kōri asked, walking in front of him to get his attention "Hey?! That's why you wanted to enter Dullahan Village so much? For some staff? And who would put a magical barrier not only over the village but the valley its in?"

Carter remained focused on the staff when the ground suddenly began to shake. He scooped Plue up, grabbed Kōri's wrist and dragged her into a random building. He shushed her and silently gestured to peek outside. The three of them did and saw a barbarian man had arrived on the back of a large white wildcat. The villagers fell to their knees to bow to him as he headed for the staff. Carter's fingers squeezed the windowsill as they peered out to watch the spectacle.

"Uh... who's that?" Kōri asked.

"They call him Drakon the Barbarian. He can't stand the thought of something as incomprehensible as magic being stronger than him so he wants to prove magic is fake and only physical strength matters," Carter explained "My grandmother spelled her staff to appear in Dullahan Village once a month when certain conditions are met. However, well, dear ol' Gran forgot to mention what those conditions were so I've been coming by once a month in the hope that it's appeared,"

"What does Drakon want with it if he's anti-magic?" Kōri asked.

"My guess he wants to force my grandmother's staff out to destroy it with his own two hands to prove magic is nonsense," Carter responded "He seriously sucks,"

Drakon grabbed the staff and pulled it upwards with all of his strength. Kōri looked at the boy crouching next to her and saw the twisted look of satisfaction on his face. After failing to pull the staff, Drakon barked orders at the villagers before going for the grand house built at the edge of town.

"Okay, let's go," Carter whispered, urgently "I need to get my grandmother's staff now or it might be lost forever,"

He got up to move but Kōri grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back. The tug was a bit overzealous and Carter landed back on the floor with a thud.

"Patience. Let Drakon enter that house of his before you go *pulling the sword from the stone, Arthur, or he might see you," Kōri explained, unimpressed by his recklessness.

Carter rubbed his hand under his nose and he stood up to look out the window again. Drakon and his party entered the great house estate and the doors slammed shut behind them. No one else seemed to be paying attention so Kōri took the lead and jumped out the window. With Plue holding onto his silver hair, Carter ran towards his grandmother's staff and grabbed a hold of it the moment it was in reach.

"Okay, now you can pull it out," Kōri said as she looked around to cover him.

Carter got a better grip on the staff's handle and pulled. The end shifted in the ground but it wouldn't lift up. The colour drained from Carter's face as his eyes widened and he desperately tried again to lift the staff out of the ground. His face turned red from effort and his knuckles turned white.

"C'mon... why won't it budge?!" he complained through gritted teeth "Grandma said the staff was rightfully mine... and that I'd inherit its- its power when she's gone!"

The staff tilted left and right but it wouldn't lift upwards as if it was fused to the earth. As Carter continued in vain to draw his grandmother's staff, Kōri kept a lookout for any danger.

"Dude, people are beginning to notice us. Time to go," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"No, I've been- looking for ages, I can't..." Carter hissed but finally gave in with a defeated sigh "Fine..."

*Okay... I am actually really happy that I came up with that line. I feel that Kōri is the kind of girl who could (and would) make those sort of comments.