Raki was alone in an huge, empty field. Where am I? Frowning, the brown haired man turned in a small circle, looking for some sort of landmark. How the hell did I get here? Long, fresh grass stretched as wide and as far as an ocean. The stalks undulated in a strong wind, and Raki vaguely noticed that his long hair didn't stir, nor did the cloak he wore over his armor. Spotting a lonely figure in the distance, the young man walked smoothly forward, barely disturbing the grass beneath him. As he glided over, Raki saw that the figure was a woman, and she had her back to him.
"Excuse me." He said when he was close enough. "Can you tell me where I am?" The woman didn't move. She was dressed in a tight black leather cut-off dress and black boots. Simple armor adorned her shoulders and forearms. She had short blond hair and in her right hand she gripped a sword. Raki's breath caught in his throat.
"Clare…?" He asked softly. Still, the woman didn't move. Raki moved around her side, not wanting to startle her. When he saw her face, Raki nearly cried. She looked exactly as he remembered her. Calm, emotionless, beautiful. Still, she didn't look at him. "Clare!" Raki said again, reaching out to her. His hand brushed her arm, and her eyes flashed to him. Without meaning to, Raki whimpered and stepped back. Her eyes held an uncontainable hatred for the thing she now looked at. Clare looked Raki straight in the eyes and glared furiously.
"What do you want?!" She asked scathingly. Raki could only whimper and stare at the undisguised hatred.
"Clare?" He finally managed. "Don't you recognize me? It's Raki." Clare glared at him a moment longer before snorting and turning away.
"Raki? Don't mock me, Yoma." She said, returning to her usual emotionless state. "Raki is human. While you," Clare glanced at him distastefully, "are obviously not human. Now go away, monster. Unless you wish to die." The wind howled loudly in his ears.
Monster?! Frantically, Raki reached up and felt for the cloth that hid his silver eye. It wasn't there. With a soft yelp, Raki covered his eye with his hand. "C-Clare," he stuttered. "I know I'm… not the same, but please, you have to believe me! I'm Raki!"
Clare rounded on him furiously "Shut up! Don't you dare say his name again! Raki would never hurt another person!" Raki heard the wind grow louder, but he still couldn't feel it.
"What?! I didn't hurt anybody!"
Clare looked at him incredulously.
"Well not recently, anyway… B-but Clare! Those bandits deserved-" Raki froze. His hands were covered in blood. Human blood. His mouth tasted of sweet iron. Raki stepped backward in silent confusion, and his foot hit something soft. Looking down, Raki's gaze met cold, unseeing eyes.
Behind him lay the bloody corpse of a young man, his stomach had been ripped open, and the insides devoured. "Wha-" For a brief, wonderful moment, Raki was blissfully confused. Where had this man come from? Why hadn't he seen him before? Where was the yoma that had eaten him? The wind shrieked.
And then he saw. He saw himself subdue the man, and rip a hole open in his stomach mercilessly, spraying hot blood everywhere. He listened to the agonized screams for a moment… The thick blood covered his hands and got on his face and hair, but that didn't matter. Red, delicious red blood, spilled from the wound, and he licked it up. Stooping down, he gleefully ripped the flesh from the mans body with his teeth and swallowed…
Raki screamed and threw himself backward, away from the man, away from himself. No. No way. Nononono NO! There's no way I could have done that! I'd never hurt another person like that! I'd never eat… them. I couldn't have done that!
But I did. I ate him. I ATE him.
"Oh my god, I ate him!" Raki tore at his hair, eyes wild. "I ATE HIM!"
Clare looked at him and said simply, "You ate them too." She pointed out across the windswept field, in the direction Raki had come from. Slowly, and with a fierce dread settling in the pit of his stomach, Raki looked where she had pointed. Countless bodies littered the field, men, women, children. Each with unseeing eyes, and each with their stomachs ripped open and insides devoured.
"You're not my Raki." Clare said, venom dripping from her words. "You're a monster."
The wind screamed in his ears.
Raki bolted upright from his position on the bed. He breathed heavily, sweat poured down his face and arms, his legs tangled in rough sheets. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and he was moments away from screaming at the top of his lungs when he felt a small hand on his arm. Flinching away from the contact the frightened man prepared to fight, until he saw whose hand it was.
Riful stood beside his bed at the inn. Her face was one of sympathy and concern. Her hand hovered slightly where his arm had been, until it dropped to her side. Raki felt himself calming down, but still wasn't over the terror of his dream.
"Are you alright? What happened, Raki?" Riful stepped toward her companion slightly. She had been sleeping in the room next to his and had woken when she felt his aura darken with fear and unhappiness. "Were you having a nightmare?"
"I killed them." Raki whispered, eyes wide "I killed them all. I ate them too." At that, Raki's face scrunched up and he broke down, sobbing. Riful grasped the situation quickly, and clambered up onto the bed so she could be a level height with her companion.
"Raki." She said, grabbing his shoulders "Raki, you didn't kill anyone, okay? It was just a dream. Everything's fine. You're fine." Riful wiped the tears away from his scrunched face as he sobbed. "Shh. It's okay." Rather suddenly, Raki grabbed her arms and pulled her close to him. He wrapped his strong arms around her small body and sobbed into her hair. Surprised at the display of affection, Riful could only pat his shoulder awkwardly. Eventually Raki stopped crying, and his breathing became steady once more. His grip on her loosened, and he let go of her slowly.
"Sorry…" Raki looked down shame-faced, and wiped his eyes dry before looking up again. "Sorry Riful. Sorry."
The small girl smiled sympathetically. Although Raki had just shown more vulnerability than ever before, she couldn't bring herself to analyze the situation or take advantage of his emotional weakness to gain his loyalty or trust. Instead she just did what she felt was right.
"Why don't we go for a bit of a walk, Raki? I'm sure the night air will be very refreshing."
Raki laughed slightly, relieving some of the tension he felt and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
xxxxx
Walking through the deserted streets at night was indeed refreshing. The cool breeze dried the lingering sweat off of Raki's body, and simply being out and about with someone took his mind off things. Getting out of the inn unnoticed had been easy, they jumped out of the third story window in Raki's room, and landed without waking anyone up.
Around him, the town was quiet. It was a moonless night, and apart from the meager light from the scattering of a few stars, the only light came from the occasional candle in a window. The dark didn't bother the demonic pair, of course. In fact, Riful preferred it.
Raki was mildly surprised to see how his night vision was improved in both his eyes, not just his left. He tried not to let it bother him.
They stuck to the shadows, easily avoiding the few people they actually came across. At one point in their night wanderings they happened upon the town square. In the center of the square was a beautiful statue of the twin goddesses, Clare and Teresa. Raki went up to the statue and stared at it peacefully. He was somewhat amused that fate had led him to this town where, years before, he had sought a brief refuge almost directly after he had been separated from Clare. He had been injured, scared, miserable, and on the verge of physical exhaustion when this very statue (and a funny girl with messy hair) had given him some hope.
Riful didn't care for the statue. It looked a bit too much like the destroyer for her taste. And that name… Clare. It just grated on her nerves to no end. Where had she heard that name before? After a few minutes, Raki turned to Riful and said:
"I feel like going on a run. Want to come?" Riful cocked her head to one side sweetly before grinning savagely. The best of men would have felt a chill of pure terror down their spines; Raki thought it was cute.
"Last one to the top of Mt. Zakol has to eat a rotten egg!" The Abyssal shouted.
Raki frowned. "Which one's Mt. Zakol?" He asked to the empty air.
"Hey!" Raki shouted before taking off after Riful's quickly disappearing aura. He was so focused on trying to catch up to her, that for a moment he didn't even notice how fast he was actually running.
He had always been fast. He had what Isley called a "good takeoff" or in other words, he was very good at looking relaxed and standing still, then suddenly bursting forward with great speed. This almost always caught his opponents off guard, and was very useful in a fight.
As a human, Raki had been incredibly fast, as he was now… it was simply ridiculous. The buildings he ran past should have become blurred and indistinct with his speed, but they didn't. He saw tiny little details in his the stone path and minuscule imperfections in the houses on either side. It was only seconds later that Raki was outside of the large town. Looking around, he gasped at how the ground rushed by underneath him with every step he took. He was now running at speeds he could have only ever dreamed of before. Raki laughed mid-stride, and increased his caught up with the small girl moments later.
Bounding across the forrested landscape, Riful felt Raki catch up to her and smirked mischievously. He's fast. Knowing he would follow, Riful took the long route to the mountain, running wide circles around nearby hillsides. Taking a few slower strides, she pulled up level to her companion and grinned. How's the speed feeling, Raki?" She asked calmly "Do you think you can keep up if I pick up the pace a little?"
Raki grinned. "Bring it on!"
Riful did just that, going into full, "attack/escape" mode, nearly doubling her total speed.
When Riful disappeared in a furious burst of speed, Raki could only stare for a moment. Then he cackled happily and poured strength into his legs. Unbeknowst to him, his silver eye became slitted and glowed gold in the dark. Laughing breathlessly, he chased after Riful.
Riful won, of course. But still, it had been an interesting race right up until the end. Raki managed to catch up to Riful's full speed pretty close after she had taken off, but he couldn't maintain it as long as she could. So in the end he fell behind and she zipped up the mountain for the win. Raki arrived moments later, completely out of breath.
"No… way." He gasped. "The mountain… was this close… the whole… time?" Riful giggled and skipped to Raki's side.
"I won! You lost! You have to eat a rotten egg!"
Raki gaped at her, horrified. "You were serious about that?!"
Riful giggled and didn't answer. "Come o~n, Raki," she sang "we should head back to the inn before anyone notices we're gone!" Mentally praying that Riful was kidding about the whole egg thing, he followed her down the mountain, lazily zigzagging through the trees.
xxxxx
Galatea awoke with a gasp. She had been sleeping peacefully when something woke her up. Instantly, she searched for any foreign dangers lurking around Rabona. Finding none, the startled nun relaxed slightly before expanding her aura capabilities further. She located the source of her fear in the west. There it is… wait. What is that...?
xxxxx
Yawning magnificently, Raki stretched and sat up slowly. He had slept in, and based on the angle of the sun through the window, he guessed it to be around nine or so. Tying the cloth around his head and pulling on his boots, Raki walked quickly down the hall and knocked quietly on Riful's door.
When he didn't get an answer, Raki went ahead and let himself in. "Hey, Ri. Are you awa-" Raki froze in the doorway. Riful was still sleeping, her eyes closed peacefully, and her mouth parted slightly in a soft breath. Her long hair splayed outward on the bed and her legs were tangled in the sheets. Oh my God. Raki thought. She is so adorable. Deciding not to bother her, Raki walked quietly back outside. Now, What was I doing again? Oh, yeah. I was going to check on my sword to see if Brendel was done with it. With his focus successfully diverted, Raki headed to the smith shop.
Yawning, he strode lazily down the street, absent mindedly tugging at the cloth that covered his left eye. It was a bit annoying, walking around with only one eye. His range of sight was cut down by nearly half, and he kept bumping into things on his left side. I suppose I'll have to train myself a bit to get used to it. Raki thought, muttering an apology to the pole he'd just bumped into. It hadn't necessarily been an issue before, when it was just him and Riful, but towns were crowded, and he was finding it difficult to maneuver around as gracefully as he had before. Not to mention the fact that the stupid cloth itched like crazy. With a sigh, Raki left the cloth alone.
After bumping into the third or fourth person (or pole, he didn't bother to check,) Raki suddenly realized how stupid he was being. Of course! He thought, slapping his forehead and causing several people to stare. I just need to sense the humans around me! I don't need to see them to know where they are! Closing his visible eye, Raki focused on sensing the humans around him, and smiled. It was easy. The human auras took on familiar shapes until it was like he was actually seeing them. He couldn't, of course, sense the non-human objects around him, but based on how the humans flowed around him, Raki could guess fairly easily where there were objects and where there weren't. For example, a woman to his right adjusted her course slightly to move around something he couldn't sense. Opening his eye, Raki saw that she had walked around a fruit stall. Striding confidently forward once again, Raki used his new technique to make it to Brendel's shop without bumping into a single person or object.
Walking inside the cool shop, Raki looked around happily for the smith. "Hey Brendel!" He called "Have you finished the sword alterations yet?" Appearing from the back of the shop, the huge smith scowled at nothing in particular, glanced at Raki and disappeared in the back again. Raki hummed slightly. He figured the smith was just grabbing his sword, and he was right, because moments later he reappeared holding a long sword wrapped in cloth. Brendel wordlessly handed it over. "All right!" Raki said unwrapping the blade. The handle was a bit shorter, and the blade longer and slimmer. The grip's leather had been thoroughly polished, and the blade gleamed with a newly sharpened edge. Raki swung it around a few times to test the balance. "It's perfect." He declared. Raki tipped the smith generously for the excellent job on his sword, and the man's scowl lessened somewhat. Promising to hurry with his armor, Brendel shooed the young man out of the store, but only after he ensured his customer got all the tools necessary for the upkeep on the sword.
Wrapped sword in tow, Raki wandered around the village for a little while, practicing sensing people and in turn, objects. By noon he felt that he had mastered the basics and was ready to test it in combat. But will I ever use in in combat? He wondered, When I get into a fight, (and knowing myself it shouldn't take long) I'll probably just take the cloth off. It won't matter if an enemy sees my eye, because I'll kill them. Not to mention the fact that my advanced speed and stuff will definitely give me away… Then again, the human side of my face and neck is very vulnerable. I should probably hide my brown eye in combat to avoid having enemies targeting it. Nodding to himself slowly, Raki decided that he was ready to go and see Riful again.
After dropping the sword off in his room, Raki went and knocked on her door. He didn't want to let himself in again, out of fear of… seeing something he shouldn't. A few moments later, Raki heard Riful call out, "Come on in, Raki."
Closing the door behind him, Raki said, "I was going to grab some brunch, seeing how its already pretty late." The one-eyed man looked to the girl staring out the window contemplatively. "Care to join me?"
"Mmm." Was her only reply. She was sitting on a low bench in front of the window, her chin resting comfortably on her folded hands. Walking to her side, Raki looked out the window curiously.
"Whatcha lookin' at, Riful?" He asked, placing a hand on her head affectionately.
"Mt. Zakol." She said.
"Oh, yeah?" Raki said, playing with her hair a bit. "Thinking about our race? You know," he said, pouting "that was really unfair. I didn't even know which one we were racing to! I demand a rematch one of these days." Raki dropped his hand to his side and sat down across from his companion on the bench. "You were really fast, though. I think I'll need a bit more training to build up my stamina before I'm ready to race you again." Riful gave him an amused look before looking back out the window. "Speaking of training, you wanna know what I did this morning?"
Riful turned her attention away from the mountain and back to Raki. "What did you do?"
Raki smiled and brought his hands up to his face. "Well, I was on my way to check to see if my sword was done, and I kept running into things!" Tugging off the cloth around his eye, Raki pointed to it. "It was this, I couldn't see things to my left side and kept bumping into people and poles and stuff. Well anyway, it finally occurred to me that I should just sense the humans around me!"
Raki continued to explain the finer points of his new technique, and Riful listened carefully. It was impressive, what he was telling her. She had pegged him as more of a physical type of warrior, but he was very good at sensing auras. And to master the basics of such a technique like blind-fighting in just a couple of hours… well, it would be an understatement to say he had potential. But as Raki continued to talk, Riful suddenly found herself thinking not about the potential of aura sensing, but about how glad she was that she had decided to let the happy man before her live. He was, she realized, a wonderful friend, and exactly the sort of person she needed after losing Dauf.
When he was done talking, Riful smiled and said, "Excellent, Raki. We should definitely work on that. But before we do, I think we need to focus on hiding your aura first. So… lets play a game."
xxxxx
Sweat poured down Raki's ashen face. His eyes were shut tight in concentration, and he was shaking slightly. Squeezed in between to wooden crates, he was hidden from the naked eye. Around him, he could vaguely sense human aura's milling about, but he ignored them. Focus… focus… disappear. Suppress your aura! You're a human. Fragile as an egg. Your aura is white and indistinct. One of the many. Focus… focus…one of the many… Raki bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. You're a human. Just don't let her find you… please don't find me!
"I commend your concentration, but its still not strong enough."
"Aaah!" Raki stood up so fast he slammed his head against a wooden crate. "Ow…" Scowling, Raki looked up from his crouched position to see Riful beaming at him.
"You're getting better!" She praised. "It took me almost five minutes to find you that time!"
Raki groaned and allowed himself to fall forward onto his face. "No more," he begged from the ground.
"Oh, come on, Raki! We've only just started, and look how much progress we've already made!" Riful said, crouching down next to him.
"We've been doing this for over five hours!" Raki said, speaking mostly to the dirt.
"But Raki," Riful said, patting his sweaty head, "Hide and seek is fun."
"Fun for who, exactly?"
"Oh, hush." She said grabbing his hand and helping him to his feet. "Well, I guess we can stop for today…" Riful looked up at the sun as it sank to the western horizon, and Raki mentally cheered.
"Yes! I'm starving! Let's find somewhere to eat!" Raki said exuberantly, punching the air.
Five minutes later, the pair had managed to find their way to a small booth in a large tavern inn. Waving the waitress over, Raki ordered the house soup, and an extra rare steak for Riful. If the waitress thought this strange, she certainly didn't show it. Focusing her attention on Raki, she asked, "would you like a mug of our home-made brew to go with that steak?" The woman twirled a strand of brown hair around her finger and smiled at Raki, blinking rapidly.
"Um, no thanks. I'll stick to the tea. And the steak is for Riful, not me." Raki explained. The waitress gave Riful a distasteful look, before smiling again at Raki. "Well, don't be afraid to call me over if you change your mind, then." Walking away, the woman sashayed her hips seductively, no doubt for Raki's benefit, who for his part didn't even glance in her direction. Riful however, watched the woman walk away, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. I believe I've just found my next meal, She thought darkly. Leaving her meal plans for a later date, Riful turned her attention back to Raki, who was examining his fingernails.
"Do you think I'm still aging, Riful?" The muscular man asked suddenly, still looking at his fingers.
Surprised at the question, Riful didn't answer for a moment. "Ah, no. I don't think so." Riful shook her head, "actually I'm almost a hundred percent sure that you aren't." Curious as to what was so interesting, Riful inspected her own fingers. "So how does it feel, knowing that you'll be young and handsome forever?" She teased mindlessly. Finding nothing interesting about her own fingernails, Riful grabbed Raki's hand and inspected his.
"Um… good, I guess? But actually…" Raki leaned forward and Riful saw worry etched into his face. "What if this part of my face," Raki pointed to his brown eye, "keeps aging, and the other part doesn't?" The mental image that popped into Riful's head was so absurd, she simply couldn't help herself , and burst into laughing hysterics. "H-hey!" Raki said. "It's not funny! I'm seriously worried here!" Pulling his hand away, Raki sat back and pouted until the girl across from him regained control of herself. Which took a while.
"S-sorry." She finally wheezed, "It's just that… you…" Riful broke out into laughter again, and Raki pouted even more. Regaining herself quicker this time, Riful leaned forward and said, "in all seriousness though, don't worry. I once met an offensive warrior who lost her left arm in battle. It took several months, but she eventually managed to regenerate a normal human arm. Fortunately for her, her right arm was dominant and she was able to continue being a warrior. She actually rose through the ranks to number three during my era! Anyway, although she lived for quite a while, the youki in the rest of her body managed to keep that human arm young and generally looking the same as the rest of her."
Raki breathed a sigh of relief. "Well thank god for that." He said seriously. Riful raised a single eyebrow and opened her mouth to comment, but before she could speak, the flirtatious waitress sashayed back up to the table and placed a large mug of pungent alcohol in front of Raki and small cup of tea in front of Riful.
"Hey!" Raki said to the waitress who was now walking away. "I didn't order this!" The waitress turned back around and smiled. "It's on the house, hun." Glowering at his mug of beer, Raki eyed Riful's tea and asked seriously, "wanna trade?"
Cocking her head to one side, Riful contemplated the offer before grabbing the alcohol and taking a large gulp. She thought it to be pretty poor quality, but drank it all the same. Raki enjoyed the tea.
When the waitress came back a few minutes later with a bloody steak and potato soup, she seemed shocked when she saw Riful downing the ale, and Raki savoring the tea. Blinking, she set the food down, scowled at Riful, and walked away with out a word. Riful giggled and let some of the alcohol into her blood stream before cutting up her steak.
"Hmm." She said, trying a piece. "It's a bit gamey, and the blood is sort of watery…" Raki looked up at her over his soup but didn't say anything.
She tried another piece. "It's pretty tough, but I like the spices." Raki blinked. Riful took another bite, chewing contemplatively. Finally, she said, "Do you think they'll give me a raw steak?" Raki snorted and called the waitress over.
Obviously deciding to ignore Riful, the woman addressed Raki "What do you need, sugar? I can get you anything you want." Beyond the line of view of the waitress, Riful mimed a vomiting motion. Raki grinned at her antics, and the waitress, who thought he was smiling at her offer, puffed her chest out.
Raki smiled up at the woman happily. "Could you bring us a raw steak please?" Obviously taken by surprise, the waitress took a step backward and said, "Um. A raw steak?… Sure, I guess. Okay. Can I, uh…Can I get you anything else…?"
Riful thrust her empty mug at the woman. "Bring some more." She ordered. Baffled, the waitress took the cup and walked away. Riful giggled and Raki snickered.
"We should mess with people more often," Raki said, spearing a piece of Riful's undercooked steak.
"We really should." She agreed. After a few moments, the waitress came back with another thing of ale and a raw steak. Giving the pair an uneasy look, she quickly left. At first Raki had worried that their… interesting… food choices would bring unwanted attention to them, but he needn't have worried. It was the end of the work week, and the tavern was packed. Nobody paid attention to the handsome one-eyed man and his small companion any more than they needed to. Riful devoured the steak and sighed appreciatively. "It's still too tough… but not nearly as bad as the first one." She declared.
"Mmm." Raki said thoughtfully.
Gulping down her drink, Riful let a bit of the substance into her bloodstream. Dauf really used to like this stuff… back when he was a Warrior.
"Well," Raki said after a while. "I don't know about you, Ri, but I'm beat. Wanna head back to the inn?"
Riful stood up and stretched. "Alright, lets go."
Outside the warm-bodied tavern, the air had chilled substantially, hinting at a harsh winter this season. Neither Raki nor Riful paid it any attention, and both unconsciously adjusted their bodies temperatures to make up for the cold until they made it back to the inn. Once inside, they walked up the stairs and down the hallway together, until they came to their respective rooms.
"Good night, Riful." Raki said. "Sleep well!"
Riful nodded and responded, "You too." With that, Raki took out his key and slipped it into the lock before entering his dark room. Riful watched him for a moment, and then turned to her own door. Now where the hell did I put my key?
xxxxx
Over the next two days Riful trained Raki to properly hide his aura from others.
"Raki," She explained, "Your aura is a really ugly face."
"Um… excuse me?"
"Think of your aura as this totally disgusting and repulsive face, and anyone who can sense auras will see it and know that you're ugly. So what do you do? You put on a mask." Riful stepped back, satisfied with her explanation.
"Wait… are you saying my aura is ugly?" Raki exclaimed a bit put-out at the thought. He thought his blue-color was pretty…
"No Raki! All I'm saying is to pretend that your aura needs to be hidden because its ugly."
"I don't have any idea what you're getting at here."
Pouting, the small abyssal waved her hands in the air and said, "just think of putting a mask on over your aura. It works for me every time."
Raki nodded slowly. Actually, he was pretty sure he knew what Riful was trying to tell him, but he couldn't see that working for him. So instead he visualized his aura as a blue stone, and then thought about painting that stone white. He then applied that same concept to his aura suppression. After working on it for the better part of a day, it finally worked. And although Raki found himself distinctly unsatisfied, Riful seamed pleased enough, so he decided to just use that for now and try to make it better later.
His aura successfully hidden, the pair took a bit of a break from training and decided to relax in the inn until the armor was finished, which should be soon, according to Brendel. To pass the time, Raki told Riful about his life while with Priscilla and Isley. Riful was impressed with the sort of vigorous training her fellow Abyssal had subjected a mere human to. What impressed her even more was that Raki was still alive and sane after it all.
"…And then another time, Isley came into my room in the middle of the night, tied me up with ropes, stuffed me in a bag and carted me off." Raki explained, telling her one of the many adventures he had had in the past seven years. Raki sat on his bed, and Riful had chosen the seat next to the window.
"At first I tried fighting back, but when I realized it was Isley I relaxed because I knew it was some sort of training exercise. Anyway, he carried me around for a long time, until he finally dumped me in this really weird place. I couldn't see where I was, obviously, but the ground was rocky and all the sounds echoed, so I knew I was in a cave. Then Isley told me that I had until sunset the next day to get back to the house, or else."
Riful arched an eyebrow at this, but Raki just shrugged. "Don't ask me what that means, all I knew was that I didn't want to find out. After that, he left me alone, still tied up and in the bag. Fortunately, I always have weapons on me, even when I'm sleeping." Riful blinked. She didn't know that. "So after a while of struggling, I managed to grab the hunting knife in my boot with my teeth, and after even more struggling, I cut one of my hands free. Keep in mind that all through this I am in a burlap bag that, for whatever reason, smelled very strongly of oranges and tree fungus. Not a good combination. Anyway, after I got my hands free, it went much faster. I cut open the bag, and was finally out of that smelly thing. It was still night time, and pitch black in the cave. After feeling around for a minute I discovered that Isley had placed me on a ledge on one side of the cave wall. Furthermore, I realized that I wasn't alone in the cave. There was this weird sniffing sound below me, and it sounded big, so I decided to stay put until morning." Raki suddenly stopped talking and yawned magnificently, falling backwards on the bed. It was almost midnight after all; he was tired.
Riful waited impatiently for Raki to continue his story, and when it became apparent that he wasn't, she poked him in the stomach until he laughed.
"H-hey! Stop that, Ri!"
"Come on!" She said, poking him with her hair now, "finish your story!"
Raki gasped with laughter and hopelessly tried to fend off her tickling hair. "Come on, Riful, I'm tired! Leave me alone! I'll finish the story in the morning!"
Riful scowled and jumped on her companions stomach, causing him grunt in surprise. "No way!" She growled, "finish your story, or I'll keep tickling you!" And she did just that, until Raki finally caved.
"F-fine." He finally managed, sitting up and continuing the story (although somewhat bitterly). "When it was finally light enough to see, I found myself twenty feet off the main cave floor on a really high ledge. Below me there was a , get this, a bear."
"A bear?" Riful asked, surprised.
Yup, a bear. Fortunately for me it was sleeping. Isley had told me once that bears have some of the best noses on the whole continent. Better than Yoma, even. But they have really bad eyesight. I was surprised it hadn't already smelled me, but then I realized it had been because I was in the bag. Remember how I said it smelled like oranges and tree fungus? Well, that had masked my human smell. So I rubbed that bag all over my body and very carefully climbed down off the ledge. On my way down, my foot slipped, and a rock fell down onto the cave floor, making a huge racket."
Raki sighed and shook his head comically "The bear woke up, and it was pissed. I thought I was going to die. It was still sort of groggy from sleep, so when the bear charged me, he was off balance and I managed to draw another of my knives (so I had two) before he was on me. At this point in time, I'd been with Isley for… two years maybe? Well, the bear was slower than me, but still much stronger."
Raki made a show of his hands. "It swung one of its paws at me like this!" He batted Riful in the head with a soft hand. "And I dodged it's paw like this!" Raki ducked under Riful's retaliation punch to his face. "And then I ducked under the bears guard and… snick! I stabbed it right in its heart!"
Raki made the stabbing motion in the air, and Riful giggled. "At least," Raki said, eyes glinting. "That's what I thought! But I must have missed, or the bear must have been fatter than I realized, because it attacked again." Raki grinned at Riful, who was leaning forward eagerly, waiting to hear what happened next. Raki brought his arms above his head.
"RAWR!" He yelled. "The bear swung his arm down like this! And I, shocked that he was still alive, jumped out of the way like this!" Raki mimed out each action in turn, sometimes forcing Riful to dodge his flailing arms.
"Using the cave wall as leverage, I leapt at the bear's head, and…" Raki paused, taking a moment to appreciate Riful's eager face and pat himself on the back for telling the story so well. "I slammed my hunting knife as hard and as fast as I could into the things skull, immediately killing it!"
"Yay!" Riful clapped her hands together, applauding Raki's kill.
Raki grinned. "My momentum off the wall knocked both of us backwards, and fortunately for me, the dead bear broke my fall. So I emerged unscathed and victorious!" Riful applauded again, and Raki bowed theatrically. "After that, I simply tracked Isley's path back through the forest to the house."
"And you didn't have to find out what 'or else' meant." Riful concluded for him.
Raki leaned back against his pillows. "Yup." He said. "Of course, I found out eventually. But I was spared that time."
Before Riful could respond, Raki closed his eyes, and his breath softened. After a few moments, he was asleep. Riful blinked in surprise, and waved a hand in front of his face. He didn't move.
He certainly falls asleep fast. Riful smirked, amused. I suppose it's easy to say now that he trusts me completely. He wouldn't fall asleep like this if he didn't. Sitting next to him, Riful examined his sleeping face. Humming softly, she stroked his hair and thought, His face is so… happy when he's sleeping. It's really adorable. Riful felt her own eyes growing heavy, and before she really new what she was doing, Riful snuggled up to her companions chest and breathed in his scent. She sighed quietly. He smelled nice.
Raki stirred slightly, and for a moment, Riful thought he was going to wake up. Instead he shifted onto his side, and pulled her closer to his chest.
"Clare…" He mumbled.
Riful blinked in surprise, and then scowled angrily.
"Not Clare." She whispered in his ear. "Riful. It's Riful. I'm Riful."
"Riful."
xxxxx
"Okay, Ri. Are you ready to leave?"
Riful smiled and nodded. She was sporting a small backpack of supplies, and a new dark purple dress. Raki himself was wearing his recently-finished-very-shiny armor, as well as a black cloak. Riful had also bought a cloak, but she had elected to store it in her backpack rather than wear it. (She claimed it was because it wasn't cold, but Raki knew she just wanted to show off her new dress).
"Let's go, then!" After thanking Brendel and returning their (solitary) key to the inn, Raki and Riful they gratefully left the large town. It had been okay, staying in the town for a few days, but both had gotten tired of the constant noise and activity.
For her part, Riful had spent almost ten decades alone, save for Dauf. And being around so many people (even if they were just humans) had seriously gotten on her nerves. Similarly, Raki had spent seven years either on his own, or with quiet people, mainly Priscilla and Isley.
Not even two hours out of the town, the pair ran into trouble. "-Oh my gosh Raki," Riful was saying, "you wouldn't believe her manners! She was so rude! And looked a lot like a man, I'm afraid to say."
Raki looked down at the abyssal and raised an amused eyebrow, intrigued as to where this story was going. Riful put her hands on her hips, deepened her voice to sound more manly, and bobbed her head back and forth. "So." She said in a man's voice. "This is the Abyssal of the west, huh? …What's the big deal?" Throwing her hands in the air, she yelled, "What's the big deal?! Seriously?! I'm the big deal!" Grumbling, she kicked a loose rock on the cobblestones and muttered something about "needing to learn their place."
Raki patted his friend's head sympathetically. "I know what you mean, Riful. I once met this man Kero, he had no respect for anyone! He was rude and conceited and- well actually…" Raki mused, "before I explain that, let me just tell you that that man was the creepiest guy I've ever met. Hands down, people. He-" Raki suddenly stopped walking, and cocked his head to one side attentively. "I hear horses." He said abruptly, and dragged Riful off to the side of the road. Moments later, Riful felt a large group of excited human auras rapidly approaching them. Raki felt them too, and groaned loudly. "Oh, god," he said, exasperated. "This better not be what I think it is."
It was. As the sound of hooves on the road grew louder, Raki found himself growing angry. A few moments later, a group of about sixty or so men, all on horses rounded the bend. Brandishing large and flashy weapons, they yelled an obnoxious war cry. Why are they yelling? Are they stupid…? Raki thought. They're almost an hour away from town…! "How annoying." Raki said, drawing his sword. Turning to Riful, he explained, "I hate bandits more than anything in the world." Raki explained, eyes narrowed. "And they're heading to that town we just left aren't they? Well… I guess I don't have much of a choice do I, Ri?"
Smiling demonically, Riful reached up and pulled off the cloth that covered his left eye. Moments later, Raki shot off after the horse-riding idiots.
The blood bath that followed made Riful really hungry.
Raki leapt into the air and brought his sword down on the first unfortunate victim. Blood spattered the air, and the horse kept running, not even realizing that its rider had been decapitated. Swinging his sword through the throng of bandits, thirty of the men were dead before the rest realized what was happening.
To Riful, who was casually running alongside the fast-turning slaughter, Raki looked rather… majestic. Yup. That's a good word, she thought. Majestic. He leapt among the horses gracefully, his body flowing like water between them. Even as she thought this, the armored man brought his sword up and cleaved it down like a sledge-hammer onto a terrified bandits head. Riful giggled at the sight of the gore. A few of the men tried to fight back, but next to Raki, their efforts were ugly and pathetic. Not even the blood from his victims could touch him.
Screaming incoherently, the remaining men began to scatter, their panic fueling the 'flight' response. Raki growled softly. He loathedbandits. They're the worst sort of people in the world. Raki went ahead and caught the rest of the bandits, but refrained from killing the ten or so that were left. For the hell of it, Raki tied them together with rope. The men blubbered, begging for their lives. It was annoying.
"Be quiet, or I'll kill you, too." Raki said coldly.
The bandits did as they were told. "So," the silver-eyed man said, crouching in front of one of the bandits, "were you guys going to rob that village there to the west?" Terrified, they nodded quickly, not wanting to upset this man with the one silver eye.
Raki frowned and tapped his cheek contemplatively. "Reaaally. I don't believe you." Raki said, giving them his fiercest glare. Whimpering, the bandits stuttered out assurances that they were, in fact, telling the truth. "What the hell?" Raki asked, "Are you all stupid or something? I mean sure there are a lot of you, well, were a lot of you, but not enough to take that sort of town! It's way too big. So you all better straighten up and tell me the truth, I'm probably going to kill you anyway, so don't make me any angrier than I already am," He said, wiping a bit of blood off his sleeve. The captive men broke down into rambling sobs, and Raki sighed. These men can kill a child and not feel a thing, but the moment their own lives are in danger they turn into blubbering idiots, begging me to spare their measly, worthless lives.
"Geez, Raki." Riful said from behind him. "What're you intimidating them so much for, anyway? Look! That one peed himself!"
"That's disgusting." She said directly to the soiled man. "You need to learn some self control."
"Oh, Riful. There you are." Standing up, Raki said as casually as he could manage, "Look, I found food." and gestured to the men, who blinked in confusion. He wanted their food…?
Riful giggled, "Oh, really?"
"Yeah…" Raki changed the subject. "but it doesn't make any sense, Ri! Even if these guys are idiots, no one is stupid enough to attack a town that big with so few people!"
"Oh. You didn't notice?" Riful walked a little ways away and picked up a severed head with one hand. "See? They had a yoma on their side." Raki looked closer and saw that the corpse was indeed a yoma's.
"Hmph."
"Wait- you didn't notice when you killed it?"
"Uh… No."
"And you didn't sense it either?" Riful tutted, "We'll have to work on that."
"Still," Raki said, "One yoma wouldn't be enough to take a town of that size."
The girl in purple shrugged. "There would have been survivors. All the same, you just saved a lot of innocent lives."
Raki nodded. "That was sort of the point."
After a moment of silence, both Riful and Raki turned to look at their prisoners, who were staring at Riful hopefully. (Surely this cute and totally innocent girl would save them from the silver-eyed demon?) "You said something about food." The she-demon said casually.
Raki waved at Riful to help herself and walked away, sheathing his sword. "I'm going to round up a pair of their horses." He said.
Even though I know Riful needs to eat, and even though I saved these bandits for her, I just can't be around when she eats them. Raki suppressed a shudder. I'm not turning a blind eye anymore. He thought sullenly, but I haven't truly accepted this yet. Forgive me Riful, he thought sadly, but I'm not there yet.
Riful patiently waited until Raki was a good distance away until she turned to her food.
xxxxx
Raki returned an hour or so later with a gray palomino and a black mare. By then, Riful had finished her meal, removed the bodies so Raki wouldn't have to see, and cleaned herself up.
"So… do you know how to ride a horse?" Raki asked sheepishly.
Riful blushed slightly and looked away. "N-no." She said. "I mean, there was never really a reason for me to learn. I've never had to blend in with humans until now."
Raki stroked the palomino's nose affectionately. "I figured as much." He said. "If you want, we can go ahead and just keep walking, or you can ride with me. Either way, I'm good."
"Um. Since we don't know how long we'll be traveling for, I'll ride with you. For now."
Raki tightened the straps to the saddle on the Palomino. "Alrighty then, we'll ride him for now, the mare can be yours once you learn how to ride on your own." Raki tied the mare's lead around the lower straps of the white horses' leather saddle, and smiled. "And really, how long will that take? Two hours…? Three, max, and you'll be riding like a pro."
Riful cocked her head to one side. "What's a mare?"
"It's another name for a female horse."
"Female? How can you tell?" Riful bent over and examined the horses for several long moments. After a minute she stood up and pointed to the palomino. "That one's a boy." She said matter-of-factly.
"Ah… Yup. Definitely male." Raki cleared his throat. "Anyway, lets get going. I want to be out of here before anyone comes across these bodies."
"Mmkay."
Raki mounted the gray horse skillfully and pulled Riful up behind him. He decided to just walk the horse for a bit, letting Riful get used to the movement. She put her arms around his waist, since it was inconvenient to put them anywhere else, and leaned against his back. Raki's back was warm, big, and smelled nice. Breathing deeper, Riful tried to identify what was so good about it. Well, he smelled a lot like blood, since he had just massacred over fifty bandits, and that was nice. But underneath that smell was a sort of cool, salty scent. Like the ocean. Hmm. The ocean…?
After a couple of minutes of walking, Riful poked Raki's back to get his attention. "What is it?" He asked, looking under his arm, where her face was pressed against his side.
"This is boring. Make the horse go faster," She said.
Raki grinned. "You sure?"
"Duh."
"Yah!" Raki kicked the horses flank, encouraging it into a gallop. "Hold on Ri!" He yelled behind him. Riful snorted. The horse wasn't even going that fast. She could run a hundred times faster than this animal. All the same, she paid close attention to how Raki used the reins to make slight adjustments to the beasts course, and she noted that when he wanted the animal to speed up, he kicked the horses side with his heels. When he wanted the it to slow down, he tugged slightly at the reins. After an hour, she had had enough, and poked his side once more. "You ready to ride, Ri?" He guessed, staring ahead.
"I want to ride the mar."
"It's mare."
"Whatever."
Raki laughed. "This horse is due for a break anyway. "We'll stop and get the black one set up for you."
A few minutes later, Riful was mounted and riding the horse. It was a bit weird, but she enjoyed it. "Riful," Raki instructed, "Lower the reins a bit. Keep the knot by the saddle. Yeah, like that. If you hold it any higher, the horse thinks you want it to stop." The small brunette listened to the instructions and committed everything to memory. When she was sure she'd gotten the hang of it, Riful decided to continue with her companions instruction on his aura distribution.
"Raki, why don't you try expelling and giving out your energy for a bit."
"Alright…" The armored man closed his eyes and concentrated. The first thing he did was release his aura, although he kept it as small as possible so as to not attract too much attention. Then he gathered some of it into a tight silvery blue ball. The next part was the hardest, he had found. Carefully, so as not to mess up, Raki pushed the ball out his body and diverted it to Riful's. It was hard to keep the energy from going other places, but Raki thought he was improving.
Riful felt Raki release his energy, and she felt a strange gathering of energy from within his body that she didn't understand. From there she felt him release his and moments later her own energy increased, it wasn't a huge amount, but it wasn't small either. "Try again." She instructed. "And this time, don't let it go anywhere else."
Raki did it several more times, improving his control each time. After about an hour, he grew too tired to continue and Riful told him to stop. By then she was practically buzzing with blue youki. She felt that if he gave her any more, she would be forced to enter her awakened form just to use some of it. Raki dozed off in his saddle, and after a couple of hours Riful's aura returned to its normal state. As she was riding next to her napping companion (who was slumped forward in a very uncomfortable-looking position, and drooling) she considered their next course of action. They would continue looking for the Clare person, of course, but there was no reason they had to just wander randomly.
Isley's dead, as is Luciela. Well, sort of. The twin warriors from the organization are dead. Among the three Abyssals, that leaves only me alive. What happened to that woman, Priscilla was it? Is she still alive…? After I had recovered Raki from the Organization's men I felt the destroyer change… and then attack that woman's youki. But after that it was difficult to tell. Did the destroyer kill her? Did she kill the destroyer? Did they kill each other? No matter what, I believe its safe to say that the strongest powers in this land right now are me, either Priscilla or the destroyer, and the Organization. Once the Organization discovers I'm alive, if they haven't already, they'll definitely send more of those "Abyss Feeders" or whatever after me, Riful thought sullenly. And they probably have another set of twin warriors being trained to kill me… Ugh. That stupid Organization is so annoying! Why don't they just leave me alone? Geez, so what if I tortured the occasional warrior into Awakening? It's not that big of a deal. Trouble will come soon. But…what if I destroy the Organization?
A sudden movement to her left distracted Riful from her thoughts. She turned just in time to see Raki bolt upright and throw his hands out in from of him protectively, shouting, "No, Isley! It wasn't me! I swear I didn't take your hairbrush!"
Riful could only stare at her friend as he regained his senses.
"Um…" Raki looked around himself, embarrassed. " Ah… Yep. That's just what I, uh…" Raki stared at the ground. "Oh, look, Riful," Raki said, blushing, "There's a town up ahead. Um. I-I'll race you there!" He pushed his horse into a gallop, and Riful rolled her eyes. Kicking her own horses flank, she chased after Raki, determined to beat him to the village ahead.
xxxxx
Author's note: Please forgive me. I apologize to everyone out there who has been waiting for this chapter, several complications came up and I ended up losing half of the original chapter, so I had to start from scratch. But let me assure you that I am not going to drop this fiction. That said, I'll be getting chapter four out much faster than chapter three, so don't worry!
And, wow. This chapter is really long. It's actually more like two chapters, but I think you all deserve this after I made you wait so long for this one.
I feel like doing an omake, but I'm not sure if I should. What do you guys think?
As always, please, please, please, review! They give me so much motivation to write, and I love the feedback.
Thanks for everyone's support!