Interlude
The girl opened her eyes; she was in Dherris-Kharlan again, staring at the rust-hued sky, but not in the place she usually started from. She got up from the floor and walked to one ruined wall. Not only was she in another place, she was several stories in the air. She turned around, and saw them.
Two others. Maybe even travelers like herself.
"Hey, I don't think I've seen you around," said a strong-looking young man with a longsword strapped to his back leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his short blond hair, and sharp red eyes, wearing black cut-off pants, geta sandals without tabi socks, and an open orange jacket with black trim, which displayed his impressive muscles.
"She might be from another tribe," added a thin, limber fellow with longish, messy blond hair that seemed very soft and fluffy, and blue eyes that stared into space, wearing a relaxed expression. His clothes looked rather like a thick wool sweater under leather armor, designed to provide complete maneuverability. There were two daggers at his back, in a leather case. He shared some similarities with the other blond guy, because both of them had six black lines on their face reminiscent of whiskers, and were about the same height. "Perhaps Morrigu Barrow or Ache Koeln?"
"If that's the case, she's an enemy, and I'd prefer not to think that. She doesn't look that fun to fight, being so scrawny," the muscular guy replied, examining her closely. "Perhaps one of our allies. Mac Anu, or maybe Dun Lorieg. What's your name, kid?"
The girl thought for a long time. "I don't know."
"Well, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" asked the thin guy. "How about… Aura. What do you think, Yasha?"
"Eh, I suppose it works," Yasha agreed with a nod.
"Oh! Intro! I'm Gorre," said the limber fellow, jumping up to the newly christened Aura and shaking her hand, "pleased to meet you, Aura-chan! We're twins, by the way, me and Yasha."
"Fraternal, of course," Yasha added with a mischievous grin. "Otherwise we'd both be blind!"
"You're blind?" Aura asked, looking at Yasha. Yasha looked shocked that anyone could suggest that.
"Not him, me!" Gorre replied, pointing both index fingers at his face and grinning widely.
"So. What brings you to Lia Fail, kid?" asked Yasha.
"Lia… Fail? I thought it was Dherris-Kharlan!" Aura protested. The twins glanced at each other.
"A little out of the loop, ain't she?"
"Maybe she hit her head on something?"
"Um, Dherris-Kharlan is the world. This city is Lia Fail," Yasha explained.
"Oh. But the Lost Ones told me…"
"Lost Ones? Oh, the ghosts. You can't get a straight answer out of them for anything," Yasha grumbled. "Always talking in terms of riddles and epitaphs and waves."
"Yasha-san has no patience for riddles," Gorre confided, sidling up beside Aura and throwing an arm around her shoulder in a chummy way. "Come to think of it, he's a complete muscle-head."
"Hey!"
"But enough chitchat. What do you say we go meet some of the others?" Gorre offered, leading her out the door.
"You mean there's more of you?!"
"Welcome to the secret underground city of the Lia Fail tribe!" Gorre spread his arms wide, showing off the entire giant expanse under the building, which, as Aura realized halfway through the journey, was once a hospital. Worn yet squeaky-clean rags hung on wash-lines strung across supports and even hanging from the ceiling. As soon as they entered, people started to cluster around them.
"What happened? Where did you go?"
"Did those creeps from Hulle Granz attack again?!"
"No, no, everything's okay," Yasha assured them, leading the way down the stairs. The gigantic crowd made a path for the three of them to get through. They went into another room, where a few people were grouped, holding a quiet discussion.
"Meet the rest of the crew," Yasha announced, distracting them from their chat.
"Baka! What were you two doing? You've missed half the meeting!" A woman with longish pink hair in a French braid stood up, glaring at them with green eyes. She wore a long red dress and a white apron, covered in ancient stains that someone had unsuccessfully tried to wash out.
"Nothing, nothing, Tarvos-chan. Just a routine patrol of the building, that's all."
"Is the structural integrity of Lia Fail still sound?" asked an attractive man with extremely long silver hair tied back into a ponytail. He wore an eye patch on his left eye, partially hidden by his bangs; the right eye was jet black. He wore a blue jacket and pants, with silver trim. There was a gun in his belt.
"A little bit more of the roof fell off in the last rain, but none of the acid has gotten past the top floor," Gorre reported. "And before we get too deep into this conversation, I'd like to introduce a buddy of mine. Guys, meet Aura-chan."
During the next few hours, Aura got to know the rest of Lia Fail's defense force. The pink-haired woman was Tarvos, the chief medic, and under her worked Satsuki, a black-haired woman with glasses and a streak of her bangs dyed red. She had a masculine face. The man with long silver hair was Magus, chief of security. His men were Nakaru, a man with powder-blue hair and similar-colored markings painted on his forehead, and Sorata, a cheerful, brown-haired man who insisted on being called "Sora-chan". Yasha and Gorre did patrols together. Yasha was strong enough to hold back a great number of intruders, and Gorre was what they called a "runner", who went to get help in case of an attack. Originally, Magus was also with the patrol group, but ever since a man named Skieth defected to Arche Koeln, he was stuck with Skieth's old job: security.
"Hmm… It's getting close to night time," Magus announced offhandedly. "Perhaps you'd like to see a raid, Aura-chan?"
"If it's a raid, you'd better steal something useful this time! No more liquor! I've had enough problems with all the men around here nursing hangovers when the enemy arrives!" Tarvos grouched.
"We're starting to run a little low on water and medicine," Satsuki read off a list on a data-pad. "And we could use a few more small power cells."
"And can we destroy at least one munitions warehouse this time? I don't want this coming back to bite us," Yasha added.
"You know, Yasha-kun, you're starting to sound a lot like Skieth-kun," Magus said offhandedly. Yasha, Gorre, and Tarvos all looked stricken with sudden, painful guilt. "Geez, sorry I mentioned it…"
Everyone from the defense force came on the raid. They all wore black, tight clothes, and zodiac masks. Tarvos offered Aura some of her spares, but they turned out too big. Satsuki's fit a bit better, but Satsuki was still larger of chest and hips than Aura, so she had to tie some dark blue ribbon around the clothes to make them stay tight. The group waltzed through Lia Fail with no problem, but stopped at the gates.
"We're perfectly safe while we're in Lia Fail, but as soon as we step across the barrier, we're toast if we're not careful," Magus explained for Aura's benefit.
Aura looked out at the wasteland stretching beyond the ruined village, then raised her hand. "How come? There's nobody there."
"That's a good question, Aura-chan!" Sora-chan replied, taking the opportunity to explain. "You see, Dherris-Kharlan isn't a natural home to humans. The people living here are spirits. You know, kappa and tanuki and flying fish, all that stuff."
"But those spirits hold a pretty big grudge against us humans, for some reason," Yasha continued. "No matter where our ancestors set up their tribes, we always got attacked by monsters. There were a lot of tribes that got completely wiped out. So we moved to the only safe place there was: the Lost Grounds."
"There are only a few tribes left that we know of, one for each Lost Ground, and since there's only one Lost Ground for every Land (and that's when they have one at all), that makes about five or six tribes still in existence. The spirits refer to this place as the Land of Fire, and this is the Lost Ground for the Land of Fire, home of the Lia Fail tribe."
"Our allies are the Dun Lorieg tribe in the Land of Lightning, and the Mac Anu tribe in the Land of Water." Tarvos pulled out a map that looked strangely familiar, although Aura couldn't tell where she had seen it before. She pointed to the Land of Lightning, at the top of the map, and to the Land of Water, a large island surrounded by smaller islands. "Our enemies are the Lumina Cross tribe in the Land of Wind, the Morrigu Barrow tribe in the Land of Stones, the Arche Koeln tribe in the Land of Rain."
"Oh, and the Hulle Granz tribe in the Land of Rice Fields," Magus added.
"Sounds like you've got a lot of enemies," Aura thought out loud.
"That's because we have the best resources!" Sora-chan took over again. "The Land of Fire is home to a really big spirit city, so we can steal lots of stuff without anybody noticing! That's what these raids are about. Everyone else has a harder time of it because their cities are smaller and heavily guarded."
"Not that ours isn't, of course. That's why we have to take these precautions," Nakaru grumbled. He didn't think he looked good in black.
"Anyway, because spirits won't come near Lost Grounds because of the ghosts, and because there are so few humans in each tribe that we can't even guard the whole Lost Ground, it's much easier to steal water and stuff from each other than to have to deal with liberating it from the cities."
"Why do you have to steal water?" Aura asked, before anyone else could start explaining things. All this information was about to make her head explode.
"Because of the acid rain," Satsuki answered. "The spirit cities were once highly industrialized. This caused acid rain, which is what destroyed the land. Anything our ancestors once grew here has been killed off, and all their wells are contaminated. But the spirits built big shields around their cities to keep out the acid, so their water is still safe to drink, and their food is still okay. They keep most of it in watertight, acid-proof, gold-plated containers."
"The chemical properties of gold make it an ideal storage unit, because it won't react with most elements," Aura realized. "It doesn't oxidize and is almost always found in its pure state."
"Very good, Aura-chan! You aren't the total nitwit we thought you were!" Yasha exclaimed, patting her on the back.
"Thanks… I think…?"
"We've been collecting containers for several generations, not just the food that goes in it," Tarvos answered. "Because it can be pounded very thin and still act as a shield, we're hoping to cover Lia Fail in gold, to permanently keep out the acid. Then, we can perhaps work on our own farming techniques, and make use of the aquifer beneath our tribe's land, which hasn't been contaminated yet."
"But until then, we've gotta steal what we need," Magus concluded. "This explanation has taken quite a bit of time. As leader of this raid, I suggest we get going. Once we pass these gates, don't say a word. We don't want to attract unnecessary attention." Everyone mounted their transportation.
"You sure you don't need any more instructions on how to ride that, Aura-chan?" Gorre asked.
"No," Aura replied, shaking her head. Magus took the lead, and everyone rushed silently out into the night, a line of silvery white ghosts crossing a crimson sea.
The moon rose over the dead land, colored like blood. Aura had the vague feeling that it was watching her, like a giant eye. Everything was silent except for the blowing of the hot wind and the whirring of the transports. Everyone's rain-cloaks flapped behind them, snapping softly like tattered white flags. There was nothing around for miles, and Aura had just started to wonder why everyone had to be silent, when the red sand rippled beside her, rising up quickly and suddenly going smooth again. Nobody else seemed to have noticed, although Magus reached under his cloak for something.
Sand sprayed everywhere. There was a loud roar, and several of the transports were thrown backwards as a humongous pinkish-brown snake burrowed up from the sand. It had no eyes, but furnished with rows and rows of sharp teeth. It was then that Aura realized it wasn't a snake.
It was an earthworm.
There was a loud bang when Magus fired his gun at the monster worm. The bullet ripped a hole in its hide, but did no lasting damage. It went for Nakaru, opening its mouth to swallow him whole. Tarvos slammed a punch into its head, knocking it to the side, while Gorre vanished in a flash of white, drawing his twin daggers. Eventually, they seemed to have sent it away, as it let out one final roar and buried itself back in the sand.
"Okay, head count," Magus announced, leaning against his transport. Everyone called out 'present'. Nakaru's and Tarvos's transports were totaled, so they had to buddy-up with someone else. After about a half an hour, they were back on track.
In the distance, Aura saw a tall, walled city, glowing brightly against the black night sky. As they drew closer, she also saw a glowing green orb thing, spinning on a silver pedestal.
"This is the chaos gate," Gorre whispered to her. "Satsuki-chan's going to hack it, and that's our ticket into the city."
"No talking!" Magus hissed, "Do you want them to catch us?!"
They sat in tense silence for a few minutes.
"We're in," Satsuki announced in a whisper, pressing a button. Rings of light appeared around everyone, and they were in the city, right in the middle of a street filled with spirits. Aura couldn't help but stare. Things that looked like bipedal rabbit-cats were chatting with half-lions. A fox with graying fur and nerdy glasses walked past in a hakama, holding the hand… er, paw, of a fox cub. Said cub was eating takoyaki.
"Keep your hood up, kid, and don't take off that mask" Magus instructed in a whisper, "If they find out you're a human, you're as good as dead." Aura nodded. The shape of these spirits wasn't much different from a human. As long as nobody saw their face, they were fine. As agreed upon earlier, Aura tagged along with Yasha and Gorre down twisting back alleys, headed to get their most precious resource: water.
Yasha and Gorre led her to a water tower, stretching all the way to the top of the city's dome. Guards stretched, unconscious, all around them, knocked senseless by Yasha and Gorre. Once again, Aura hadn't done anything. Yasha let out a low whistle.
"It's full. This should last us for a few months."
Aura stared at the tower. "How are we going to carry it all?!"
"We aren't. We're just going to warp it back to our reservoir," Gorre explained, attaching a round device to the outside of the tower. There was a buzzing sound as it drilled into the metal. Yasha was setting up an apparatus. He stuck the last piece on it, and the whole thing started to glow. A beam of light shot in the air and opened a rift in the dome above the water tower.
"Hurry! Someone definitely saw that light!"
"Roger!" Gorre pressed a button on the round thing. "Warp in progress." The sound of boots tramping on the paved road forced them to turn around quickly.
"There they are! The water thieves!" A squad of spirit ninja glared at them, guns raised. They were surrounded.
"Get outta here, Aura-chan!" Yasha hissed, pressing a pistol into her hand.
"Get back to Magus and tell him we'll be a bit late, okay? Go!" Gorre launched himself into the crowd, his dual blades whirling. Yasha drew his katana and likewise entered the fray. Aura froze in indecision, then turned on her heel and ran.
"Not so fast, punk!" The spirits gave chase. Aura found it difficult to evade them. Obviously, they were stronger and faster than the average human, and as far as Aura knew, she had no combat experience whatsoever. She tried to remember the path Yasha and Gorre had taken, all back alleys, stumbling over cracked pavement and pipes of steam and water running between buildings. She abandoned the white rain-cloak and mask, knowing her back clothes would help her blend in with the shadows between tall buildings. She reached Magus and Satsuki, waiting at the Chaos Gate, bursting into the main street. Spirits screamed, pulling young ones back, running away as fast as possible. Magus and Satsuki turned around, wondering what the disturbance was, then turned pale when they saw Aura without a cloak.
"Hide, Aura!"
"Stop, thief!" The spirit ninja had caught up to her. Aura turned around quickly, frightened.
"I-it's a human!"
A young, low-ranking ninja, who had never seen a live human before, jumped back, shooting madly in terror. The bullets slammed into Aura's chest with the force of a train. Time slowed almost to a stop. The world's colors suddenly inverted. Magus and Satsuki screamed silently at her. The sound of a tuning fork rang out through the city.
Aura fell backwards into darkness.
Hello, everyone! Kendansa is here again! I hope you liked this little break! It's sort of a sneak-preview into the world of Dherris-Kharlan! I hope you didn't mind too much! These will be cropping up occasionally, so please enjoy them as you enjoy all the other chapters, despite their shortness! And please continue cheering me on! I look forward to all your nice reviews! I promise to reply to each and every comment to the best of my ability!
Ja-ne for now!
--Kendansa