Disclaimer: If I owned it the game would be all mine! Mwahaha! C(
I wanted to make the last chapter longer, but decide to split off there when I was going to get killed for being on the computer till 12:00am. So think of this chapter as chapter 6B.
Chapter 7
A little Liddell stood in the snowy streets of Lenore, a suitcase sitting on the snowy ground beside her. She clutched a black cat tauth doll to her chest, weeping, "Mommy where are you? I'm so cold…Wahh! Mommy!"
She sat there crying, until her tears dried up and she just lay there in the snow, completely drained.
"…"
She stared at the snowflakes falling from the sky, wondering when her mom would come and get her. She didn't know why her mom had left her there, but it felt like ages since she last saw her mom.
"…?"
Liddell felt a warm presence engulf her body, instantly melting away the cold. A light surrounded her, in a shape similar to a woman's. The warmth gave Liddell comfort, and she cried out in joy;
"It's so warm!"
Liddell slowly opened her eyes. She was staring at the ceiling of an unknown wooden building. She sat up immediately regretting the action when an immense pain filled her head. She clutched her head, waiting for the pain to subside. She felt a bandage wrapped around her head and noticed that she had several bandages covering her body. Looking around, she saw that she was in a small room-all made out of wood-and was sleeping on a fluffy futon.
What happened?
Her mind swirled with memories of the blue garden and of the large creature that had almost taken her life, how did I end up here?
"Liddell?"
Liddell turned her head and saw Loue standing in the doorway of the sliding door, a tray full of food in his hands. Coming quickly into the room, he placed the tray on a little table, and kneeled beside Liddell; embracing her in a hug, "Thank goodness, you're okay."
Liddell was squashed right against Loue's chest, a slight blush covering her cheeks. She remembered what she had thought in the garden and pulled out of Loue's embrace saying, "You're squishing me."
"Sorry about that," he replied laughing, "I'm just glad to see you're all right. I was really scared."
"You think something like that would kill me off so easily? Ha! Think again! I'm invincible, I am going to be the greatest witch ever, after all!" she said proudly.
"Right, right," Loue said patting her on the head, "For now let's get some food into the 'greatest witch' ever," he went over and grabbed the tray of food, placing it carefully on Liddell's lap, "Here eat."
Liddell gingerly picked up a spoon and ate as instructed. She gobbled down the food, only realizing now how famished she had been. Finishing off the food she placed down the spoon, letting Loue take the tray and place it back on the little table. When he came back she asked, "So what exactly happened to me? All I can remember is being attacked by this big purple thing…"
Loue smiled slightly, "We'll talk about that later. For now…" he reached over, and touched the lower bottom of her lip, "Let's make sure you don't have any more food on you." He removed a piece of rice from her face, and ate it, making Liddell blush slightly, "Liddell is something wrong? Your face is all red."
"N-Nothing's wrong." She stuttered, looking down into lap.
"Are you coming down with a fever?" he asked, placing his forehead against hers while feeling for her temperature, making Liddell blush even more than she was, "You feel a little hot."
"N-no I'm not," she said looking up, her face mere inches from Loue's. Her brain completely froze when she looked into his questioning red eyes, "I-I-"
Luckily a fox came in at that moment, saving Liddell from saying anything more, "Is the lady awake?"
"Yes, she is," Loue replied facing the doorway, "Tell Princess Kaguya that we will be there shortly."
With that the fox left, silently shutting the door behind it, Loue faced Liddell again and asked, "What were you going to say?"
"I was going to ask where we are," Liddell said, avoiding the question, "Are we at Kaguya's castle?"
"Yes."
"So how did I wind up here?"
"I'll let Princess Kaguya explain that to you," he got up and helped Liddell stand, grabbing her around the waist to keep her from falling, "Let's go to the throne room."
"I can get there on my own." She grumbled, while Loue laughed, walking with her to the door and out to the hall. They walked along the corridor, until they reached a door. Two foxes were standing guard; they opened the large wooden doors for the two. Loue and Liddell proceeded inside to enter into the throne room. They walked to the other end of the room where Kaguya stood up to greet them.
The young teenage princess had changed over the years and had grown into a beautiful young woman. She still wore the same kimono as the last time Liddell saw her; the green outer layer trimmed at the edge with layers of gold and red, and the blue under layer with triangle like patterns, made up the long skirt. Her hair was fashioned up with the upside down crescent moon ornament, and the choker she wore was the same red stringed choker with a jade stone in the center. Beside her sat her dragon guardian (smaller in size now then it had been when Liddell had fought it before); it stood protectively near her, sensing for any danger that could come to its master. Loue and Liddell stopped in front of the throne, and Loue released his grip on Liddell's waist.
Kaguya walked down the steps, stopping in front of her. She reached out her slim arms and embraced Liddell in a motherly hug, "I am so happy to see you are safe."
The gentle warmth from Kaguya spread into Liddell, and she relaxed in her arms, even hugging her back. Kaguya released Liddell and held her by the shoulders at arm's length, "You do remember who I am right?"
"Of course I do." Liddell laughed.
"Oh, good," Kaguya puffed, releasing Liddell's shoulders, "I thought you might not have remembered me, and thought I was a stranger."
"If I thought of you as a stranger I would have smacked you on the head for hugging me!"
"That's true," Kaguya giggled.
"Ahem. Princess Kaguya," Loue coughed, interrupting the girls' conversation, "Liddell wants to know how she got here."
"Oh, yeah, right. I was in the flower field before, so how did I wind up here?"
"A fox came telling me that you were being attacked by a creature," Kaguya replied, recalling on how she had gotten there and saw Liddell on the ground bleeding, "When I got there I used my dragon to attack the creature, before it could harm you some more. Unfortunately the creature escaped in the end."
"Oh, I see…"
What Liddell didn't know was that it was actually Loue who had rescued her from the creature, her dragon only helped a little bit. He also was the one who had carried her all the way back to the castle. She couldn't say any of this though because she had promised Loue that she wouldn't tell. She found it cute that he would want to keep it a secret though, and was keeping it a secret for her own amusement; well, until she found the right moment to tell Liddell anyway, "Do you remember what the creature that attacked you looked like?"
Liddell shivered at the memories of the huge purple dragon, "Yeah, I remember…" something still nagged at the back of her brain, and she added, "Though for some reason that looked familiar. It was like I had fought it before…"
"It's because you have defeated it before," Loue explained, "We fought it the time last we were in Florin. It had an ingredient for the castle's gate key."
Liddell stood in the Thunder Tree, while Loue was flapping nearby. In front of her towered the large purple creature (known as the Carnival Beast), its red eyes holding the same bloodlust it had when she was attacked by it.
It spoke in a slithery deep tone, saying, "Quite the eccentric guest we have here! Who might have invited you here, I wonder?"
"Look at you! Pretty classy, for a monster." Liddell laughed.
"I'll devour you before you disturb our Thunder Lord!" it growled, poised to strike.
"Great! Head first, please!" she joked, opening her rune book, "As if! You think I'd just LET you swallow me up?"
She had fought the Carnival beast and had received the Hourai Branch. The beast had died then…
"I remember now!" Liddell exclaimed, "But then…How is it alive? I killed it remember."
"That's the mystery of this situation," Kaguya said, "Somehow the beast was brought back to life through some kind of magic. Magic similar to yours Liddell…"
"You mean…Whoever revived the beast can use runes like me?"
"Took you long enough to figure it out! Congratulations!"
They all looked at the end of the hall where a young girl stood. She was younger than Liddell, probably around the age of fifteen. The girl leaned against the doorway of the room, her emerald eyes coldly appraising them.
"How did you get in here?" demanded Kaguya. Her dragon guardian flew to her side, a growl emitting from its mouth.
"Through the front door, silly," the girl giggled, leisurely walking into the room, "I had a little trouble, but that was easily taken care of," the girl brought her hand up to her face, and licked the blood that dripped off her fingertips.
Kaguya cringed at the site of her guards' blood on the unknown intruder's hands, "Who are you?"
The girl stopped midway into the throne room. She twirled, giggling, her long dark green hair and dark blue kimono top flowing with her. Her wooden sandals tapped on the floor when she stopped facing them again, her short skirt easily moving with her movements, "Don't you know it's rude not to introduce yourself first." She said in a tone a mother would use with a child, "You tell me your name first, and then I'll tell you mine."
"I am Princess Kaguya," Kaguya replied impatiently, "Now, tell me who are you?"
"Ah, so you're the Princess," the girl giggled, before saying, "My name's Tsuru. And I'm here to get rid of you."
Haine-of-Winter: I just had to add a cute scene with Liddell and Loue. Everyone thinks this is a LoueXLiddell fanfic, but actually it's wasn't supposed to be. But then I got the big idea of making it one (since everyone thought it was such), so here we are with a LoueXLiddell fanfic. I'll probably not mention their relationship that often since now I'm really getting into the depth of this fanfic's plot.
I'm not exactly sure if it was the Hourai Branch you get from the Carnival Beast, so sorry if I am wrong.
The name 'Tsuru' or also known as 'Tsurukusa' means vine in Japanese. Tsuru's personality literally wasn't planned for and I can say it came out when I was typing her very first words. Tsuru might become one of my favorite characters. I'm definitely keeping her in the story for a while.
Also I would like to thank Tear Droplet for reviewing on my fanfic. I love it how we are reading each other's fanfics. XP