elavyeth: Here's the 3rd chapter. :) Sorry to make you wait after that dreadful second chapter, lol. Enjoy!

Do not own TMM!

--

"Where did you get that, Kishu? What is it?"

The green alien leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. "Someone gave it to me years ago." He said in a low voice. "It's a really long story…"

--

Part one – Long Story (cont)

Pai found some more pillows in a cabinet and put them behind Kishu's back to keep him comfortable. Then he sat down and gave him an inquiring look.

"What?" Kishu said, avoiding Pai's stare.

"I'm waiting to hear that story." Pai pointed at the gem. "I tried to remove it for examination, but it won't get off. Whatever it is, it's no mere pendant. I want to know why you didn't tell me about it before."

Kishu sighed. "There was nothing to tell. This gemstone has no power whatsoever. Or so I thought until today…" He rubbed his chest in discomfort.

"Then how do you explain what happened?"

There was a long silence. They could hear the strong wind outside, a warning of the storm that was about to come. Pai waited patiently and let the other alien talk first. It took a while… but Kishu breathed deeply and finally started.

"Quite some time before the spirit of Deep Blue awoke, I was summoned for an expedition to planet Earth. Remember? Because of my superior navigation skills…" He smirked at Pai to tease him.

Pai simply grunted "Carry on."

"I made my preparations and repaired one of the spaceships in the hangar. After so much time without being used properly, I feared that they would have suffered severe damage." He scratched his bandages, his chest was itching. "And my fears were justified." Kishu looked at Pai apologetically. "I didn't say this to anyone but my landing on Earth was far from perfect. In fact… I almost died."

Pai's eyes widened and he turned even paler than he already was.

Kishu sensed a sermon coming up, so he kept talking. "Everything went nicely on my journey to Earth. When I saw the blue planet I prepared the ship to penetrate the atmosphere and sped up. But as I entered something went terribly wrong… Even to this day I can't imagine what it was. The ship started trembling violently and all the danger warnings turned on. I didn't even have time to do anything. In the next minute I was crashing and wrapped in flames."

Pai dropped his chin. He tried to think of something to say but nothing came out. He was surprised that Kishu was still standing there talking to him. He would most certainly have died in such a situation.

"How the heck… did you survive?"

Kishu straightened his back and held the pendant in front of his glittering eyes. "That's where the story begins."

There were ship fragments scattered all over and flames covering the surrounding trees.

Kishu dragged himself out of the ship and lied on the grass exhausted. He managed to go a sixty feet distance, leaving a trail of blood behind. Seriously wounded and breathing hard because of the smoke, he couldn't even lift his head to see where he was. All that was visible was green grass and trees above him. There was no doubt that he had reached his destination. "This is… too ironic…"

He tried to reach further away from the wrecked ship, but all he accomplished was one of his injuries getting worse and bleeding dangerously. He had cuts all over his legs, his arms were burned and his chest looked like it was ripped open. This was not good… Kishu didn't have the energy to lift a finger and he couldn't even ask for help. He was going to bleed to death.

Lying there and hearing the crackle of the raging flames was torture…

Kishu was on the verge of unconsciousness when he heard something more than the fire. Footsteps… in the distance. And getting closer. Someone was coming and he couldn't defend himself. He rolled his head to the right side… And he saw a foggy silhouette, distorted by heat waves. A human maybe… that was walking towards him.

Then he closed his eyes and finally fainted.

Part two – Girl in Overall

Kishu felt a soothing warm breeze cuddling his hair and skin. In the air there was this perfumed scent he couldn't recognise. He didn't feel like opening his eyes… If he was dead he wouldn't mind. But he felt a pulsating pain coming from the wound in his chest and it woke him up completely.

Kishu looked around, still feeling dizzy. He was in a cottage of some sort… And it was full of strange things to him. With a little effort he sat up and noticed bandages covering almost all of his body. And also… he was naked?! He quickly lifted the white sheet over him to confirm it and then sighed with relief after realising he still had his shorts on. Even if they were half destroyed…

Without being able to stand up, all he could do was to observe the peculiar place he was in. It was built in wood and had a simple but very cosy decoration. The bed he was sitting on was painted in navy blue and was very close to the floor. Next to it, a translucent purple curtain hanged from the ceiling. He pulled the curtain aside and there was a short round blue table ahead, with big blue and black cushions around it. On top of it was a jar of white and purple flowers. Kishu didn't recognise them, but the perfume he felt earlier was coming from them…

One of the walls had many shelves with books, jars with liquids in them, carved wooden dolls, several odd instruments and a blue box.

"Almost everything in this place is blue and purple." Kishu sneered. But the truth was the light of all those objects made him feel good.

He noticed there were only a door and three windows and all were open. That's why he felt the wind on his face… a soft draft. Surprisingly he wasn't cold.

And then it hit him. "What the heck am I doing here?! I have to get out!" He shook his numbness away and stood up quickly – only to fall flat on the floor again because his legs were too weak.

"Damn, I have to disappear! Oww crap…" The bandage on his chest was bright red, his wound opened again. "Shit… This just had to happen now…"

He suddenly raised his ears and stood silent. Footsteps again. He summoned one Dragon sword and did his best to get a good grip on it. "You'll die before you can kill me, filthy human."

Kishu was getting weaker and he's vision was blurring again. He stared nervously at the door. Then she saw the human appear.

"Stop!! Stop right there! Come any closer and your dead!"

The human stopped at the door and simply stared at him in disbelief. Between blurs, Kishu could see who the figure was. A girl… He blinked twice and widened his eyes. She was a bit shorter than him. Her hair was light brown, straight and just bellow her bottom. Her skin was tanned and she was wearing a white dress, with a blue belt around her waist. Around her neck was a silver chain and a pendant of some sort hanged from it. But what petrified Kishu were her wide open leaf green eyes. She was certainly not afraid of him…

"Who are you?" Kishu shouted.

She didn't answer. Instead she stepped forward. Kishu fell back and summoned his other sword. "Stay back, I said! If you touch me I'll rip you apart!"

The girl raised an eyebrow. She did as he asked. She pulled one of the cushions around the table, sat on it with her legs crossed and continued to stare at him.

Now there was a small pool of blood underneath him. His wound was bleeding like crazy.

'What am I going to do now?... My chest… I'm gonna die…' He dropped the swords on the floor and leaned against the bed.

He could hardly bleed, yet he kept all his attention on the girl sitting across from him. Not that he could see much of her… his vision was clouded. He felt himself almost passing out again. The swords had disappeared from the floor.

'This can't be happening…'

The girl looked at him like she was asking 'did you have enough pain already?'.

Kishu felt like he had no choice. As he was draining his energy on the floor he swallowed his pride and gave up.

"Help… Help… me… please…" He begged pitifully

She stood up slowly and stared at Kishu from above, smiling with a weird kind of compassion. Then she came closer to him and he could smell in her the same scent he smelled in the flowers.

She kneeled and put her mouth next to his ear to speak in a whisper… "Good choice."

Kishu saw her green eyes and felt as if he'd lost a battle.