Hey people! Thanks for reviewing. (smiles happily)
Oh right...reader's response:
caspercat22: (grins) thanks for the compliments. If I could, i'd insert a happy face here, but since I can...just try to imagine it alright?
Kyae Sohma: congratulations on being the first to review this story!...(blinks) I bet she would...too bad no one's done that yet.
Enjoy chapter 2!
"Alright, that was weird" Kristen muttered as she blinked many times to get the dots out of her eyes. The light had been so damn bright. As she started to look around, she began to realize that getting sucked into your computer by a bright light and landing in some kind of terrain was not good for the body.
She looked around for Seiriko and to her utter surprise and ire, found her friend sitting on the ground, simply staring at her. Kristen groaned and fell back onto the ground, "I really hate you" she muttered.
"I love you too" Seiriko smirked, "Now, after watching you for twenty minutes and seeing you awake, I have concluded that you are not dead"
Kristen's eye twitched, "Why didn't you just CHECK FOR A PULSE!"
"That involves moving" was the simple, yet lazy answer.
"And what if I did die? Would you keep staring?" Kristen asked.
"…only until I see the vultures circling above us" Seiriko grinned.
Kristen slammed her palm against her forehead in frustration, "You're impossible"
She did not know whether Seiriko responded to that for Kristen had begun to look at their surroundings and along with the dead looking terrain, what could be described as a forest, and no buildings in sight. In fact, there were not even people in sight, meaning that the two girls were stuck in the middle of nowhere. Unless this was a dream, of course.
"Pinch me Seiriko" Kristen ordered, "I swear, this must be a dream; I probably just hit my head on something back at my house and went unconscious" she reasoned.
Shrugging at her friend's logic, Seiriko reached over and…
Poke
"OW!" Kristen yelped, turning to glare at the black haired girl, "I said pinch not poke and damn it; cut your stupid nails!"
"I did!" Seiriko wailed, holding out her fingernails, which had been cut and filed into a rounded shape, rendering them unable to really hurt anyone…unless you were Seiriko of course, "Why does everyone tell me that?"
"Because it hurts!"
"Does not"
"Does too"
"Does not"
"Does too!"
"Does not"
"Does too"
"Does no – hey, I hear something" Seiriko broke away from the endless 'does not does too' argument, "Coming from those trees…sounds like voices"
"I don't hear a thing" Kristen insisted, "Are you sure you aren't hallucinating from the sugar you had today?"
"I've never hallucinated!"
"Yes you have"
"Have not!"
"Let's not start this again"
"Fine"
"Hey, I hear it too" the voices had gotten louder – or the people had just moved closer – and Kristen could hear garbles of voices now, "Maybe it's someone who knows where we are and can bring us back to civilization!" she yelled, running for the trees.
"And maybe someone with a sense of direction!" Seiriko added, "…who knows the area!"
"Shut up!" Kristen paused to whack Seiriko over the head.
The voices had become clearer as they ran through the trees, which was a poor excuse for a forest, if you asked any of the girls; the trees looked dead and the wood had long grown rotten, but made a perfect place to conceal oneself. The two girls could hear snatches of the conversation now.
A man's voice, growling and unpleasant to the years, " – and hand over what money you have"
A woman's voice, trying to calm but unable to keep a hint of panic and fear out of her voice, "No; go away"
"You dare to defy me, woman; I can cut your throat right here instead of giving you to the slave traders"
Deciding that this conversation was definitely not one they wanted to barge in on, the two girls in quiet tones, decided to hide behind one of the trees and see what was going on.
A group of men, all heavy set and with an unpleasant look to them were crowded around three people. All three were probably about the same age, although one was incredibly huge and although her life was probably on the life, she was quietly stuffing some candy into her mouth. She had a look of fear on her fear even as she popped food into her mouth at an amazing speed.
The man next to her had his arm protectively around her – well, most of her at least – and was obviously her husband or something of the sort. He looked younger than his wife and he had an expression on his face that the men around them obviously did not look, for one of them punched him, sending him flying and to the ground.
"Taka!" the fat woman screamed, pausing only a second to stop feeding herself.
"Stay down" the man pointed a weapon at the woman.
"Miaka! How dare you!" the turquoise haired man leapt back up, wincing, "She is the priestess of Suzaku and I am Tamahome of the Suzaku Seven; we saved this country and this is how you treat us!"
"Shut up!" the man hit him again, "The Suzaku Seven are dead; the gods are dead –"
"Calm yourself" a sharp voice spoke from behind the man, "We need not speak to them, not justify our reasons. We need only to take their money or sell them"
So entrapped in this conversation, the girls did not even make sure that none of those men saw them. One did however and had snuck up behind them, "Hey Boss! I found two more!" the man shouted, startling the girls. Both looked up at the large man with wide eyes and mouthed, 'It…', or at least, one who could be the equivalent of It.
They could not even run for the man – who will be referred to as That – had a firm grip on their arms, nearly crushing their bones with his larger than average hand.
"Good" Boss said, grinning widely, "We'll get much money for these two. They're young and ones their age are in demand"
Hearing this, the two girls squirmed against That's grip even more. They were both half relieved and half startled when they were thrown between the man and the last woman, who was the woman who had been arguing with the men before. (It could only be her seeing as the only other woman was the one stuffing her face)
"Yes…we'll get much money for these three…kill the fat one and the man" Boss ordered.
"NO!" the blonde woman shouted.
"Yui! Run!" Miaka shouted, not noticing the fact that they were surrounded.
"Kristen…if we get out of this…can I kill her?" Seiriko whispered.
"No Seiriko; it'd be the equivalent of killing It and remember when we discussed the consequences of that?"
"You're right. We don't want to drown in blubber" Seiriko sighed. They turned their attention back to the conversation taking place.
"Why? You people don't have the disposition of common thieves and slave traders; why are you doing this?"
Boss paused, "You're right" he glared, "We were once merchants, not thieves"
"T-then you'd know the good of taking the priestess of Suzaku to the emperor, do you not? This is Konan, right?"
"Right…but it'd do no good because the Four Gods are gone"
"We can summon – I'm the priestess of Seiryuu!"
"The Gods are dead!" Boss growled, "Do you not understand?"
"No…at least tell me if you're planning to kill or sell us" Yui pressed.
Silence.
"Fine" Boss snarled, "After you left us to take care of the destruction you all caused, we began to prosper for about twenty years and then – Emperor Boushin was assassinated; a new emperor was on the throne and the country fell into two sides; aristocrats and the common folk. There was a civil war which destroyed everything; we prayed to Suzaku and when he did not answer, we tried praying to all the other Gods. None of them answered!"
"Well, they're Gods…I don't believe they can come down and – "
"No, we found out that they were truly dead; our proof? The people in which the dead Suzaku seishi had been reborn as and the living Suzaku seishi…all of them, in a moment during the civil war…their symbols glowed brightly and then…they all died. Their runes turned black and we knew…the Gods were gone"
"But Gods are immortal" Taka asked, blinking, "How can they – "
"They left" Yui said simply, "They eventually stopped answering prayers and stopped making miracles and the common folk lost. The aristocrats won, with their money and advanced weapons and you, who only had the Gods on your sides…were defeated and left to live a life like this"
"Yes" Boss said simply, "But we worship a new God now, one who saved an entire city from a plague – Enma"
Kristen was getting tired of listening to this. These people blamed the Gods, or whatever, for leaving them when all they seemed to do was rely on the God? No wonder the Gods left. She discreetly dug into her pockets, hoping for something that would help her out of this situation. All she found was a few strips of what she was supposed to have used in science class had she not decided to play with the fire instead.
She felt a nudge on her left side and glanced at Seiriko, who flicked her eyes to her hand, which was hidden in her sleeve. Kristen's eyes widened at the sight of a lighter, "Where'd you get that?" she hissed.
"Stole it from thefat woman's husbandwhile he was talking to them" Seiriko grinned, flicking it to make sure it worked. Now…if they could just put the lighter to some use…
"I have a sparkler too" Seiriko announced.
"Where'd you get that?" Kristen was not sure if she even wanted to know.
"It was on the ground and it was shiny"
Of course. That explained everything; Seiriko was attracted to shiny things and had long ago made it an instinct to scream 'SHINY!' whenever she saw something shiny and run and grab it.
"You have anything?" Seiriko asked.
"Just this useful pieces of…something…from science"
Seiriko's eyes widened, "Hey, magnesium" she grinned, "That causes a really tiny explosion, but I think it might startle these guys enough for us to escape"
"Right"
Seiriko got up slowly, making sure the group noticed her.
"Hey you; get back down"
"No" Seiriko grinned.
"Do you want to die?"
"Not particularly, no"
"Then get down or we'll kill you"
"Ah…but what if I kill you first?"
"Ha! Don't make me laugh little girl!" a man chortled, "A young one, especially a girl like you, couldn't kill me"
"If I was a witch I could"
"But you aren't"
"Are you sure?" Seiriko flicked the lighter and quickly held the flame over the end of the sparkler and watched as the sparkler did its job of startling the men into a state of fear and shock. Giving the lighter to Kristen, she waved around the sparkler.
Kristen had managed to light the magnesium safely and threw the few pieces all around at the men, watching in amusement as they ran off at the sound of the explosion.
Next time, she decided, I'm paying attention in Science
"There; see, fire fixes everything" Seiriko announced. The two turned to their fellow former captives. Kristen groaned when she saw the man looking enraged that two women had managed to best him and Miaka stuffing her face. Why did she get the feeling that she was going to spend a lot of time trying to get rid of them forever?
"I'm Yui" the tolerable woman introduced, "This is Taka – it's best that you just ignore him at all times – and Miaka – I have…no advice for her…" she said, looking disturbed and her eye twitching at the mention of Miaka, "And you are?"
"Kristen..." the redhead eyed the other three distrustfully, "And this is Seiriko"
"Judging from your clothes, you seem to be from our world"
"Excuse me?" Seiriko choked, "What do you mean 'our world'?"
"This is a different world"
"Kristen, we've entered the loony bin!" Seiriko wailed, shaking her friend, "Quick; we must draw up elaborate plans to escape"
"Or we could just find out how to make an explosive"
"HOOOWWWWW"
"We could say that we're chronically afraid of people teaching us to make bombs and they might make us face our fear"
"Hm…that could work"
"Why? What were you planning to do?"
"Start up a revolution in the loony bin"
"That'd take longer"
"True…explosives it is then"
"YOU'RE NOT IN THE LOONY BIN!" Taka shouted. The girls glanced at him, glared, and then continued their conversation, which was interrupted very quickly by the arrival of one very, very, ugly old woman with flowing pink ribbons behind her and she was floating...?
Wide-eyed, the two teenagers turned to each other and then looked back at the floating woman.
"Kristen…it floats"
"Seiriko…it's really really scary"
"…I think we should slowly back away"
"Yeah…and then run off"
"Stay right where you are!" the woman barked, causing the girls to scream in terror. The teenagers tried to run but ended up slamming right into each other.
"Oww…."
"Right; you're not leaving. It took me quite a while to find you. I am the creator of this world, Taiitsu-kun and you will listen" she said sternly.
"Fine" was the sullen answer.
"Not you though, Taka and Miaka" Taiitsu-kun said, "You don't have to stay. You don't matter"
Please review!