A/N- Thanks for the reviews, The-Saiyan-From-Hyrule, maximushyrule, and Smunchlax. People on this site have interesting names, me included. And, also, anybody out there, I have a poll going right now. Please check it out.
Disclaimer- Are you still wondering about that?
Malina took an automatic step back, her now violet eyes wide. What... what in the world was that? It looked like Impa's shadow, but... wasn't it impossible for shadows to come to life? In this girl's world it was. This thing was breaking all of the rules.
The shadow came forward, its hands outstretched. "Come to me..." It hissed. Chills went up and down Malina's back at this voice. It was cold, slippery, and angry. Now, because Malina was smart, she decided not to go with the shadow. However, she had no means of defending herself, so it seemed that running away was the only option. There was a slight problem, though.
Malina was wearing a skirt.
The shadow jumped at her, and the girl covered her face with her arms. She awaited the severe pain, put only heard a clang noise, like when you hit a metal spoon against a pot. Malina opened one of her eyes slowly and blinked as she saw who was protecting her.
It was that boy... that boy from last night. The one who had seemed to know Yuumei fairly well. What was his name, what was his name... Ceris? Yes, yes, it was Ceris.
He had his sword against the shadow's arm. Ceris gritted his teeth and glanced back at the girl. Take a chance or not? Ah, risk was always more fun than none. Ceris took a step sideways, causing the shadow to nearly fall into Malina. Before the creature could turn around, he grabbed one of its arms and twisted it.
"You are going to tell me what I want to know." Ceris said flatly, putting his sword against the base of the shadow's neck. "And you are going to tell me right now. If you do not, I suppose that you would be fine without a head." Malina's eyes widened at this. He wouldn't really, would he?
"What do you want, boy?" Hissed the shadow creature, who was not struggling at all. Ceris did not answer at first, choosing to slide the blade in even farther. A black, tar-like substance dripped from the wound.
"First of all, I would like you to address me as anything but boy. Swear at me if you must, but I am not a mere boy. Secondly, I want to know who you work for. And, lastly, I would like to know why you were attacking this girl." Malina felt her blood run cold at the last. He was about to find something very interesting out about her.
"Fine, peasant!" The shadow spat angrily. "I work for the sorcerer, Vaati. He ordered the Sage of Shadows to create an army, and if she did not... she would have to find the Princess of Hyrule, and kill her." Malina felt her lip tremble as the red eyes stared at her. That was the worst order that you could probably place on Impa. Impa was entirely devoted to the girl.
"And lastly, the reason why I was after this girl..." It glared at me. "Vaati ordered us to find the Princess and bring her to him. He has something in mind that we do not know about." Ceris frowned as he glanced at Malina.
"Thanks for the info." He said flatly and began cutting deeper into the shadow creature's flesh. It began wildly flailing its arms, screeching.
"I thought that you were going to let me go, boy!" The shadow screamed. "You liar! You filthy, dirty, little liar! Let me go, boy!" Ceris chuckled, moving the sword around a bit in the wound, causing the creature to scream even louder.
"Don't be silly. I never said anything about letting you go. And this way, I'm not going to cut off your head, I'm just going to cut through it." Ceris murmured. Malina closed her eyes quickly, and she heard a sickening squish. Afterwards, the screaming and thumping of limbs stopped. A disgusting scent reached her nose and the Princess thought that she was going to vomit.
Ceris turned to her, his eyes flat and the blood-like liquid dripping off it. "So, you're the Princess, huh? By the way that you act, I never would've thought it." Malina managed a weak smile, covering her nose.
"I think that was the point..." She mumbled. Ceris shrugged and glanced over to the smashed window, as though he wanted to jump out it. He didn't choosing instead to look out it. He then motioned for Malina to stay there and he jumped out. Another sound of one of those creatures dying reached the girl's ears.
He jumped back in, a happy look on his face. "Nothing like a good battle to wake you up in the morning. So, back to this whole Princess thing. Do you want me to tell the others, or do you wanna keep it a secret?" Malina felt slightly confused. She had never guessed that the person that found out would act like this, allowing her to make the decision.
"Um..." She mumbled. "I-I guess that I'd like to keep it a secret for now... I'll tell other people when I'm more ready..." Ceris nodded and grinned.
"Tell me more about this whole Princess thing later, when we're alone, 'kay? In the mean time, Yuumei told me to watch over you. All the shadows have nearly been defeated, so don't worry about my want for blood." Malina nodded slowly and sat down, her eyes wide.
Even though her time in the castle had been boring, she would trade all this adventure and such for a chance to be back to her regular life. Her ordinary, shadow thing free life.
Malina closed her eyes as an annoying buzzing filled her ears. It was loud and seemed to be saying something. But what? It was so hard to understand, like Yuumei when she started speaking in her own language.
Oh, Malina. A voice said, breaking through the buzzing and clearing it away. Dear little Princess, don't be scared. I'll find you, you don't need to worry about that. Malina's eyes were even wider than before as she realized whose voice it was. And when I find you, I'll kill you.
"No!" Malina cried, holding onto her head. "No, no, no! Get out of my head, Vaati! Get out, get out!" Ceris blinked as he heard this. He quickly knelt down beside her and put a gloved hand on her shoulder.
"Malina?! Malina, what is it? What's going on!?" Malina could not answer, for the voice Vaati was gone, replaced with a great pain. If anyone out there has ever felt a knife in their stomach or chest while the person was twisting it, then you have the pain that Malina was feeling, only in her head instead.
In her head, Malina was lost. It was now dark and she was alone. The whole place... was huge. Malina dove deeper within her mind, desperately searching, but unable to find whatever it was that she was looking for.
Malina blinked as she saw it. A light. She began, within her mind, making her way toward it through the dark. The pain got worse after every step that she took toward it, and Vaati's voice filled every part of her brain. And yet, Malina still made her way towards it.
The moment that the Princess was close enough, she grabbed the light. At her touch, it got brighter and brighter until Malina couldn't see anything. She covered her eyes with arms, but soon that didn't seem to help.
Malina opened her eyes and blinked. She was clutching her head, wincing. Ceris was above her, his face now relived that she had her eyes opened. Malina let go of her head slowly, as thought she was afraid that it would fall apart if she let go.
The pain was gone. And it felt wonderful.
"What happened?" Ceris demanded and the wonderful moment was gone. "All of the sudden you start clutching your head and mumbling stuff about Vaati! And then you lite up some! What was that?!" Malina felt her face turn red before she answered.
"Um... it's hard to explain?" Malina tried.
"No matter how hard it is," Ceris growled. "I expect to know. Otherwise I might tell your secret." Malina felt annoyance pierce her soul. Now he was going to start using that around her to get her to do stuff for him, wasn't he? Just perfect.
"I'll tell you later..." Malina blinked as the impact of a few of his words hit her. "Wait! I lite up!? How did-" Yuumei, Shina, Sparrow, a large Goron, and Marit burst in just then, interrupting their interesting little conversation. Yuumei immediately ran over and checked Malina for wounds and such, which, of course, she had none.
"Thanks for ignoring me!" Ceris stated sarcastically. Yuumei rolled her eyes, and Shina hit him on the head while smiling evilly.
Marit sighed before speaking. "I think that it would be best if we left as soon as possible. If you have not already, put your things on your horse. And also..." He turned to Ceris. "Clean off your sword. It smells like the rear end of a horse."
"What?" Ceris asked innocently. "You don't like this smell?"
"No." Marit said flatly and turned around to face Shina. "Shina, if you have a thousand books, we're not carrying all of them. You can only bring two." The girl, quite suddenly, left. The elderly man rolled his eyes and sighed before leaving with Sparrow to do some last minute things himself.
"Hey, are you ready to leave? I don't think that you did any unpacking, so you're probably all ready to go." Yuumei smiled and Malina nodded, wondering if she should tell this woman her secret. It felt like lying to not to tell...
"This is the start of an adventure, isn't it?" Malina said blankly, staring up at Yuumei. The woman sighed before nodding.
"Unfortunately, yes. I think that some people love adventure, but a lot of people would be better off without it. I'm most likely one of those people." Yuumei smiled softly. "But, personally, I think that it creates tighter bonds in friendship. And you can get more this way. It can be good thing, and it can also be quite interesting."
"Yes, I suppose." Malina murmured. Shina stuck her head in, grinning as usual.
"C'mon, you lazy bums! Let's get going!" She shouted. "We're a goin' on an adventure so we can kill Mr. Vaati, the evil sorcerer!" Yuumei rolled her eyes.
"Yes, yes." She turned back to Malina. "Let's do this adventure. Together."
A/N- Slightly sappy ending, but that's okay. On a random and off side note, today I drew a picture of Shina. For anybody that's played Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy, she had Arieth hair! X3 Uh, please R&R.