1Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait! Ap exams and finals were a bitch! But now that I know where I'm going to college and that I have no more homework, I'm at ease! congrats to anyone else who graduated high school this year! So without furtherdo, here is the next chapter of "Dancing With Fire."
--Chapter 7: Spectators In the Fog--
Chaos's hoof beats became a mere echo within her head as she continued to squint down the dark, narrow pathway. She doubted she could continue like this for much longer once she got to the valley between the mountains. By a sense of judgment Miaka guessed it had to be around 1 am and from the look at Chaos' face she knew she would have to stop soon. The thought of stopping made her heart race faster than it could handle. One extra minute she spent resting meant an extra minute closer to Genro's death; something she was unwilling to believe.
After another 30 minutes of galloping aimlessly in the dark, Miaka gave Chaos' reins a tug and slid off the exhausted horse.
Giving Chaos a generous nose rub she also went into her travel sack and handed him an apple to munch on. He took it graciously and bit into its sweet core, devouring the piece of a fruit within seconds. Miaka then led him to a tree where she proceeded to tie him loosely.
Taking her turn for a break from the strenuous night, Miaka found a comfortable tree to lean against as she waited for dawn to approach. She doubted she'd be able to sleep, but resting her heavily bruised body would definitely be an option. Slowly, she closed her heavy lids, praying that by some miracle she could get some shuteye.
Apparently the praying had paid off, because a couple of hours later Miaka found herself being stirred slowly out of rough sleep. Expecting to have to face bright rays from the rising sun, Miaka was shocked to find that she would have to adjust to mere darkness. As her brain quickly registered that she couldn't have been asleep for more than 2 hours, she realized the reason she stirred had been because of Chaos.
The once complacent horse now whinnied and bucked wildly into the air. Miaka looked frantically around for the reason Chaos was so rampant but it appeared that the stallion was bucking into thin air.
Trembling, she stood up slowly concentrating hard on the area on which Chaos was reacting to. An eerie, thick fog embraced the still air as it seeped slowly into the open forest path. It brought along a damp coolness that sent shivers along her spine. Miaka's first impulse was to move towards the stallion but as she took her first step she heard a threatening "whoosh" skim the microscopic hairs of her ear. Immediately her knees buckled and her mouth went dry. Chaos's frantic panic attack seemed to become noisier but all Miaka could do was stare into the darkness of the night, her feet glued securely to the ground. Finally realizing that running might be a good idea, she turned quickly and caught her ankle on a loose tree root. A tangible snap rang into her ears and a searing pain shot up her right leg. Her legs gave way, and she stumbled painfully to the ground.
Without warning, a heavy black cloak brushed against her back. Miaka screamed, or so she thought. When no sound came out of her throat she began to panic more and rely on her arms. As she went to lift herself back up however, she found that her body was completely stiff and no longer under her own control.
A slight cackle of a laugh sounded off somewhere behind her. "Byakko no miko, you die"
She closed her eyes, willing herself to realize that it was all a bad dream. When warm hands grabbed her, she screamed a loud, audible shriek. Behind closed lids Miaka felt a soothing light pulse around her body and the clammy fog receded from her figure. Her body untensed and once again was under her control.
"That was close, you know?"
Miaka spun around to the foreign voice. A tall lean man stood before her, wearing a blue shawl around his shoulders. His face was pulled into a stiff smile and a soft ponytail of sky-blue hair rested loosely on his shoulder.
"Get away" Miaka crawled backwards towards the now silent Chaos. Her voice trembled at each syllable.
"I'm not gonna hurt you, ya know? That sorcerer almost killed you!" The odd stranger pointed to a limp form on the ground right behind Miaka's shaking form. A large, hardened man lay motionless next to her with a black cloak adorning his body. His face was tangled into an unthinkable expression, sending waves of nausea to sweep through Miaka's body.
"That arrow was poisonous, ya know?" the man pointed to a silver tipped arrow that snuggly fit itself into a large oak tree directly behind her. Now she understood what that "whoosh " past her ear had been.
Unsure of how to take this new stranger, Miaka began to lift herself up. How was she sure if he had saved her? As she stood up to runaway, a particular pain shot through her right leg once again causing her to collapse on the ground.
The strange man walked slowly up to her in a more subtle way than before but Miaka still crawled away. "Don't come any closer!" Her eyes darted around her in search of some kind of weapon.
"I'm gonna help you to your horse, ya know? See? No arrows or swords." The man lifted the blue cloak from his shoulders, giving Miaka a complete visual of how unarmed he was.
"Why's a girl like you traveling through these woods anyways?" the man inquired as he began to slowly pick her sore body off the ground.
"Why's an unarmed man like you traveling through these woods?" Miaka did not feel the need to make time for a lengthy story.
"Weapons aren't the only way to defend yourself, ya know?" the stranger ignored her rude comeback. He placed her lightly on Chaos, giving her the same stiff smile he had give her since they met.
"Where are you headed to?" The stranger took note of her anxiousness to continue riding.
"Fujian. I've gotta find a doctor named Mitsukake. My fr-… a guy I know is seriously injured." Miaka turned Chaos and pointed his nose to the direction she had been headed earlier.
"You're not too far, ya know? I think I might know where to find this doctor. You want some company?" The stranger tipped his odd pointed hat towards Miaka and took a quaint bow.
'Honestly, who bows? How do I know I can trust him? He did save my life…..'
"Sure…So, um, what's your name anyways?" Miaka offered him a seat in the saddle behind her.
"I'm Chichiri no da! What about you?" Chichiri pulled himself closer to her in the saddle in order to get a good grip.
"I'm Miaka, Miaka Yuuki." Miaka blushed at the closeness of the stranger behind her but urgently tried to push it out of her head. "Thanks for getting that guy by the way."
"It's no problem, ya know? Now let's get going!" Without Miaka's consent, Chichiri gave Chaos a slight nudge on his sides and the horse once again began to canter towards their destination. His warm hands engulfed hers as he too held onto the reins, sending a warning sign to go off in Miaka's head.
'Calm down Miaka' she told herself. 'Besides, he's got to hold on somewhere. There's more important matters at hand anyways.'
It was then that Miaka realized that she didn't even know how Chichiri had killed her assassin in the first place. What had that warm light been? It felt vaguely familiar….
"Hey, Chichiri?" Miaka called behind her.
"Hai, Miaka?"
"What did that man mean when he called me 'Byakko no Miko'?" Miaka gripped her hands on the reins, there was no time to be wasting on questions.
"I don't know, ya know? That Miko hasn't been seen in over 60 years" Chichiri's voice faded off into the air as if he were thinking hard about the subject.
'THAT Miko?' Miaka pondered to herself. Were there more priestesses that were supposed to be assassinated? Why had she been mistaken for one? Miaka shook her head; right now she needed to focus on retrieving Mitsukake. The nagging thought of being assassinated, however, crept around the dark corners of her mind.
'She's definitely not Byakko no Miko, but the resemblance is pretty remarkable….That strange clothing, I wonder…' Chichiri closed his eyes and fixated on Miaka's aura. It was not one of a tiger. Somewhere hidden there was a slight trace of love.
Within three hours and the rising of the sun the two travelers finally approached a small town in which a clear stream ran through. Miaka's eyes lit up as soon as she saw it. The town was just as Koji had described it.
"We're here, ya know?" Chichiri slowly climbed off of Chaos, giving the horse half the work.
"Where does Mitsukake live?" Miaka looked frantically through the busy street of merchants, buyers, and makers.
"I'm not sure ya know? I just know he lives separate from the villagers." Chichiri looked around for a break off in the busy parts of the village of Fujian.
From on top of Chaos Miaka caught sight of a woman about to pass them. "Excuse me miss, do you know a Mitsukake?"
The weathered woman looked up to Miaka with questionable eyes. "I've never heard of such a name."
"Is there a doctor in this village?" Miaka bit her lip in frustration.
"Well we've got a fairly new one just down the river across from the market. You're looking for a special doctor aren't you?" The old woman studied Miaka's face hard.
"H-how'd you know?" Miaka sent a hopeful look over to Chichiri.
"No foreigners come to our village solely looking for our new doctor. If your looking for the 'Miracle Healer' he's out of business I'm afraid." The old woman answered with a slight frown on her face.
"But this is an emergency, if he doesn't help us someone will die!" Miaka pleaded the woman.
The lady let out a begrudged sigh and turned to a deserted path down the other end of the river. "It's rumored that he lives down that path some ways…. But I can't be sure…" the lady glanced back up at Miaka "Don't tell him I told you though…"
"Thank you!" Miaka called back to the woman as she immediately started out for the deserted path in front of her. Chichiri followed her quickly on foot.
Once they had gone down the path a ways the large trees began to increase in number and the leaves sifted out a great deal of the sun's rays. Chaos's hoof beats seemed to be lighter and quieter as the darkness continued to approach. The eerie silence slowly began to tug at Miaka's insides. She looked down at Chichiri who seemed to be focusing strongly on another matter.
"Chichiri?" Miaka asked, her voice splitting the thick silence.
"Hm?" Chichiri's focus broke and he looked up at Miaka with the same face as ever.
"How do you know about Mitsukake?" She turned her head towards the path as her sense of danger continued to increase.
"Rumor gets around, ya know?" Chichiri gave Chaos a quick pat on the neck. Once doing so however he came to an abrupt halt and roughly grabbed Chaos' reins.
The quick stop sent Miaka into Chaos' neck and she fought to keep her balance.
"Chichiri, wha-?" her sentence was cut off midsentence when Chichiri cupped his hand over her mouth. Miaka shot him a questionable look but he only pressed his finger to his lips in reply. Miaka looked ahead of them, trying to find why Chichiri had stopped so suddenly. She was about to blurt out he was inane when she saw nothing wrong but she cut herself short when she noticed something horribly familiar.
Fog.
The thought of another assassin made the hairs on her neck stand straight out and she tightened her grip on Chaos' reins. How Chaos was so calm was a mystery to her. A clanking of metal rang through the eerie silence as Chichiri placed his scepter in front of them.
'What can that 'rod' possibly do?' Miaka continued to watch for the oncoming danger but everything continued to stay silent.
Chichiri then took his right hand with his fingers pressed together and held it in front of his face. He then mumbled something inaudible. Within a split second four black cloaks fell from tree branches above them.
Miaka gasped and clung tightly to Chaos. Assassins, all whom looked identical to the one who had tried to kill her a few hours ago, now surrounded them.
"Stay close, ya know?" Chichiri held the metal pole in front of him and once again mumbled, this time audible. To Miaka, it sounded like an ancient Chinese language. After listening to him speak what sounded like a chant, she noticed that a translucent red dome surrounded them.
'What in the world is going on…' Miaka looked skeptically over at Chichiri who was busy analyzing their approaching opponents.
Within a split second, one of the assassins launched himself towards them, his sword raised above his head. Miaka dug her face into Chaos' mane, trying to block out the noise of the assassin's battle cry and of the stallion's incessant whinnies. She couldn't bare to watch the poor man in front of her die from the single swing of a sword.
"Miaka! Keep the horse calm, you know!" Chichiri yelled back at her, proving her dead man theory wrong. She looked up just in time to see the single assassin be blown away from a large quantity of red light. Horrorstruck, Miaka watched as yet another two assassins approached them.
'This power…it's so similar to Genro's magical fan…' This thought caused Miaka to snap back to reality. The reason they were fighting here was for Genro and if she didn't contribute he might as well be as good as dead. The look on his face right after he had taken the arrow for her flashed through her head.
Almost as if she had been on pms, Miaka went from petrified to enraged. These six assassins were not going to stop her from saving Genro's life, even if he was an insufferable jerk. She tumbled off of Chaos, ignoring the immediate pan in her right ankle.
"Miaka! Stay back! My shield can only protect so far!" Chichiri gritted his teeth and sent 3 assassins colliding into trees with another surge of bright red light, knocking all of them unconscious. Beads of sweat coated his face, and his robes were already tattered from the vigorous fighting.
'I feel so helpless. He's suffering on my own account' Miaka limped up towards Chichiri, watching as the two remaining assassins approached them. Her fists clenched at her sides making her nails come close to drawing blood from her palms. On pure impulse, Miaka ran forward, leaving the premises of Chichiri's shield, and rammed her body into one of the assassins as if she were a bull that had just seen an entire robe of red.
"Miaka! No!"
Her body crashed down, along with the very surprised assassin's. When she went to grab the hooded figure's neck however she grabbed a handful of dirt where the assassin had been a split second ago. As she turned to look where he had disappeared she felt an arm enclose around her neck and pick her up to face Chichiri.
"Iie! Let go of me you damn bastard!" Miaka yelled in reply to him tightening his arm around her neck. Slowly, she felt her airway begin to contract.
Chichiri watched in dismay and his shield disappeared from the lack of remaining energy. The last assassin took his opportunity to attack the truly 'unarmed' man. Chichiri dodged the attack, but because his focus was elsewhere the hooded man grabbed him from behind in attempt to break his back.
"Chichiri!" Miaka struggled in the man's grasp fighting his grip with mere survival moves. Her survival moves proved helpless however when she found that he only gripped her neck harder. Gradually she felt her vision become blurry and the edges of her sight go black. Her lungs screamed and burned for air but the more she struggled the tighter the assassin gripped her neck.
'Genro, I couldn't….' Before Miaka was able to finish her thought she felt the man lurch sickeningly behind her followed by the noise of him chocking on a liquid. Promptly, the hooded man collapsed, twitching on the ground. At the same time she heard Chichiri emit another surge of power, enabling him to escape his assassin's grip.
Miaka turned to look at what had caused the man's sudden death and found herself face to face with a HUGE, dark, outline of a man. As her eyes traveled down to his hand and caught sight of a large knife drenched in fresh blood, Miaka noticed that her eyesight was continuing fade away. She looked up once more to see the large, darkened, shadow, but before she could study his face she felt a surge of dizzy spells swarm her head and her entire world went black.
The last thing she sensed were a pair of warm, comforting, arms catching her fall.
Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed that. I should have plenty of time to whip up another chapter before this Friday so keep posted! Please review!