I have been thinking about writing an incestuous twin relationship and publishing it as original fic. Pff. Anyhow, back to our scheduled horror show.
Speechless guest - your reply is on tumblr!
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.
the sands of Harasa
Chapter 3: A Whole New World
There was fire, fire everywhere, licking along the sides of the polished wood walkway and eating black-edged holes through wood-and-paper doors. Kurogane ran, his breath puffing hot and nervous through his chest as he shouted for his mother, his father, and everyone he knew to be in the house. No one answered. He pattered through the rooms, searching each one, fire flickering at his heels. It was always almost upon him, potent with the threat of severe burns.
He flung open the door to his mother's prayer room, and there, burning in a pool of blood, was not just his mother, but Fai, the princess, the kid, and his father's arm.
He swore, reached out for them. Fire sprang up between him and all the others, yellow and murky, puffing dark smoke. His lungs burned. They had to be alive. They had to be.
His feet didn't burn as much as they ought when he sprinted across the burning wood. When he reached them, he dropped to his knees, reached for Fai and his mother first. His mother was pale. Fai's eyes were closed, and he was shedding bloody tears. They couldn't be dead.
.
Kurogane jolted awake with a gasp, chest heaving. He fumbled with the fabric pulled across his arms, blinked his eyes into focus.
The desert air was cold against his skin. Above, the sky was a deep blue tinted with yellow, and the stars were bright green. The rock outcrop was silent around them, still, uneven surfaces faintly lit by moonlight. There was no wind blowing. He sensed no threat around himself, just the kids in the car and Fai— Fai, who was pressed next to him, huddled under the very same blanket.
He wanted to reach out. His arm twitched. Fai shifted, turning his face towards Kurogane, and Kurogane saw the glimmer of a blue eye watching him.
Breathe in, breathe out. Kurogane didn't remember when it was that Fai had joined him under the blanket, sleeping upright against one large wheel of the car. It had to have been late; he'd stayed up for some time practicing those runes, then he'd switched to doing his kata. By the time he'd thought about sleeping, Sakura had crept out of the car to hand him some water and blankets for himself and Fai.
The idiot hadn't shown up by that point, so Kurogane had tucked the blankets around himself, left enough hanging that Fai could take that as an invitation. He hadn't sensed Fai squeezing under the blanket... but he'd slept beside the wizard for so long that he'd grown used to his presence, perhaps dangerously so.
"You dream about your parents sometimes," Fai said, his voice rough with sleep. "You must have been close."
His initial instinct was to bristle. Fai didn't know the first thing about his family—but Fai was also reaching out to him. He hadn't thought he sleep-talked. "Yeah, well. Nothing to complain about."
"Kuro-rin doesn't like fire." The wizard was still studying him through the fall of golden hair across his face, pressed snug against Kurogane's side, their limbs separated by thick cloaks. "You get nightmares after large fires."
He shrugged. No use denying it. "What about your parents? They alive?"
Fai looked away, face blank. Kurogane wasn't sure how someone could look like that when they thought about their parents, but the idiot mage was proving, time and again, that he wasn't a regular someone. "It's not important."
There was something off about his voice when he said it. Fai wasn't sad or choked up like when he thought about Ashura. His tone was flat. Did that mean... he didn't care? He wasn't disgusted, or fearful, or sad, or anything. Kurogane saved the thought for later. He reached out for his bottle, poured a few mouthfuls past chapped lips, then handed it over to Fai.
"Why give me something that isn't wine?" Fai cracked a smile, took it anyway. Kurogane watched the bob of his throat.
"How many more spells do you still need?"
Fai pulled the bottle away and licked his lips. "None of your business, Kuro-tan."
"We're gonna have to go all the way back to drop the birds off, aren't we? If we move from here, we'll have to travel further to get back." Kurogane paused, saw the way Fai's expression closed off. "Do you have enough?"
"This is really my problem, not yours."
He sighed. "If your Ashura tracks you down here and you can't defeat him, he's going to be my problem. What if he hurts the kids?"
"He—" Fai cut himself off, blinked rapidly, looked away. "You don't have to be concerned about that."
"I have no info on him. You're dead wrong if you think I'll assume things go easy."
"Always the fierce ninja—"
"Come on, let's use the spells you've got. We can't drive all the way there. We don't have enough fuel to go on detours."
"This isn't your—"
"I've watched you do this more than once, you idiot. Shut up and get moving." Kurogane tossed the blankets off, and Fai shivered, pouting resentfully. "It's either we get rid of this, or we leave it and you keep looking behind yourself, or we plow on ahead with your magic until we get the feather and scat."
"You sound like a mother hen," Fai grumbled, forehead furrowed, but Kurogane thought he saw the faintest quirk of thin lips. He got to his feet, offered a hand. Fai allowed Kurogane to pull him to his feet. "Who knew? Fierce, grumpy ninja-dog gets sent on an adventure. Becomes a mother hen with two little chicks."
"Shut up," he said, tugging Fai along to the edge of the rock outcrop. "How are we getting across?"
The wizard pulled his hand out of Kurogane's. "It seems we don't have much choice other than a flying blanket."
Kurogane stared at him. "What?"
Fai reached over, tugged away one of the blankets from his grip. "It takes a lot less magic to levitate something this light, Kuro-pon. Cars are really heavy. So, I'm going alone."
"I'm going too," he said. The idiot made a face at him; Kurogane reached up and tapped his chin. "Who knows? You might need some brute force. There's worms below."
"But who's going to keep an eye on the children?" Fai frowned, glancing back at the car. It was quiet inside, like the rest of the desert around them.
Kurogane stretched his senses out. "Nothing nearby. We've left them alone before."
The wizard didn't look convinced. "The worms—"
"The kids are all right. They've got this far." Kurogane returned to the car to tuck the rest of their blankets away. Fai had laid his blanket flat across the ground when he returned, and was tracing glowing violet runes along its sides. "You're not going to write it, like with the other spells?"
"No," Fai said, and left it at that.
He figured that the wizard had no choice but to use his own magic. The thick, plain material floated into the air the moment Fai completed the ring of runes around its edges. "Doesn't look like it'd hold my weight."
Fai huffed a breath of laughter. "Go on, try it now while it's still floating above rock."
So he did. To his surprise, the blanket dipped a little beneath him, but otherwise remained floating. Kurogane crossed his legs, curled one hand around the edge of the blanket, just in case. It still felt rather thin, like it would hardly support anything at all.
The wizard climbed on, settling into the space on the blanket that he'd left. Kurogane raised his eyebrows. "Aren't you going to work on those spells while we're getting there?"
Fai stared blankly at him. He grinned then, a mix of amusement and surprise flitting through his eyes. "It's not a romantic carpet ride, Kuro-sama. Hold on tight."
The blanket shifted under them, and Kurogane rocked backwards. Fai had hunkered down, hands clasped around the forward-facing edge of the blanket. Kurogane kept his grip on the side of the blanket, brought his weight forward as the wind rushed through his hair. When he got his hands around the front of the blanket, like Fai had, he began to appreciate the simple beauty of travelling this way.
The desert skimmed past below them, charred ground and brush alike. This was far quicker than driving, and more exhilarating, because there was empty air all around.
Fai's eyes were bright and alive. In fact, he looked surprised, like he was discovering something long forgotten.
Kurogane kept silent, kept his senses stretched, and watched the little changes on the wizard's face. Blue eyes darkened just as soon as they'd grown wide. Fai's lips pressed together. "Done this before?" he blurted.
The wizard looked away. "No," he said. Kurogane shrugged.
When they reached a familiar patch of torn-up ground, the blanket slowed. Long, blackened corpses lay around far below, and Kurogane identified the circle he'd cleared to give himself space to fight. It was entirely burnt. Fai pulled his notebook out of his robes, flipped the pages open and began tearing his spells out carefully. He brushed a finger across the empty square on the first one, didn't stop to look at the way a blue glow spread through the written runes.
Kurogane reached for the spell. Fai blinked, hesitated, handed it over. They were silent in this—Kurogane folded the birds, while Fai tore the spell sheets out and activated them, folding some himself. The birds piled high in the wells of their crossed legs. By the time he folded the last one, Fai was blowing on the paper birds, watching as they fluttered around in the desert below.
"Is that enough?" he asked. Fai's eyes grew wide; he jerked his gaze towards the hills, hands clenching.
The words that came out of the wizard's mouth were familiar and incomprehensible, all over again.
For a moment, Kurogane tensed, wondering if the kids and Mokona had disappeared on them. They were all still wary of being separated—Fai had been glancing at the kids multiple times a day, tense, as if he expected Mokona to sweep them away once more. "It'll be fine. They're fine," he said. He reached up, bumped Fai's chin, and the blond blinked at him, tension etched through his face. "You've got me. Okay?"
Fai didn't seem to understand. He did, however, relax after a while, pulling deep breaths in through his nose. Kurogane grabbed his hand, gave it a light squeeze. The wizard looked down at their joined hands; it wasn't part of Kurogane's imagination when Fai's fingers tightened around his. He understood, at least, that he still had Kurogane. That was enough.
Kurogane pointed at the notebook, mimicked writing. It wasn't as if Fai's magic would disappear on its own, and there was a higher chance that they'd simply traveled out of Mokona's translation range. The wizard glanced at the collection of rustling wings around them, then back in the direction they'd come from. He exhaled, flipped the notebook open. Kurogane turned away. There wasn't anything he could do right now but watch for danger.
The birds made quick work of cleaning up the area. By the time they were done, Fai had moved them along on their flight path, and had added two more birds to the flock. They exchanged words each time the blanket moved; Kurogane saw relief flood through Fai's face the moment he understood. His entire body sagged.
"Is this enough?" Kurogane asked, when they had all the birds unfolded before they'd made it back to the hills.
Fai glanced sideways at him. "It has to be. I don't have any more."
"We'll do this again later."
Fai didn't answer; Kurogane didn't need him to. They checked on the kids the moment they returned, the wizard all but sprinting over to the car, pressing his face against a glass window. Syaoran and Sakura were still fast asleep, Mokona cradled in the princess's arms.
The wizard sighed and leaned limply against the car. It was cold enough that his breath fogged the glass briefly. Kurogane tapped him on the head, rolled his eyes. All the same, he shared that same relief. "Get some sleep."
Fai settled back down in front of the wheel they'd been sleeping against, pulled his notebook out once more. Kurogane sat next to him, drew the blankets up around them. He pretended not to notice Fai's wide-eyed blink. The idiot did not protest at the contact or the warmth, however. That was all Kurogane needed for now. He returned to sleep, trusting that Fai would wake him up if there was trouble.
Fai wasn't next to him when he woke. Kurogane blinked sleep from his eyes, squinting up at the pale yellow light bleeding through the velvet sky. Voices murmured on the other side of the car—they were still there, all four of them. Mokona too. After the convoluted mess that was Shara, he was inexplicably glad to find that they hadn't been somehow separated in the middle of the night.
For how much Fai hid his relief behind his loud cheering and exaggerated joy, Kurogane felt exactly the same where the princess and the boy were concerned. He could no longer deny that the kids were important, much like how he couldn't keep away from the idiot wizard. Maybe he even had a soft spot for the pork bun.
He got slowly to his feet, joints popping as he stretched his limbs.
"Hyuu, Kuro-daddy is awake!" Fai called. He was waving a paper napkin, crouched over a cardboard box of their provisions that had been moved to the other side of the rock outcrop. Golden light splashed across the uneven stone, lighting wispy hair in a way that looked very pretty on Fai. "I have breakfast."
Kurogane grunted his acknowledgement, winced when he walked over to the rest of his traveling group. He had not been able to fully remove the cactus spines from his body the night before, and it hurt when he rested his weight on his feet now.
"Does it still hurt?" Sakura asked in concern when the good-morning greetings had died down. Her dusty face was angled up at him, green eyes shimmering. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help with—"
"It's fine," he said gruffly, settled down on the fourth side of the box. Mokona hopped onto his shoulder. She gave him a gentle hug and kiss, stubby paws patting the side of his head. "Tch. There are other things to worry about. How's your face?"
The princess touched her fingertips to the dark splotch on her cheek. "It's not that bad, Kurogane-san. Syaoran-kun and I are fine."
"My injuries don't take long to recover," the boy added from Kurogane's other side, nodding earnestly along with his princess. Fai sat across from him, legs crossed, leaning in so he could rummage deeper within the box.
"That ointment I gave you should help," Fai said. He had a round flatbread spread open in his palm, and was laying strips of something yellow and stringy on them. "Are the both of you feeling better?"
Syaoran nodded. He was staring at Sakura, however, eyebrows drawn together. "Princess, the bruise on your cheek— There are spots in it."
Sakura's forehead wrinkled; she poked at the bruise. Kurogane watched the way her gaze slid downwards. "Really? I can't see them."
The boy glanced around in search of a reflective surface; Mokona puffed up and spat a mirror out. Kurogane snatched it out of the air before it landed in Fai's sandwich and handed it to the girl, who smiled gratefully. Fai, himself, was studying the princess, his own features scrunched up. "I don't believe I've seen that before," he said, with a hint of surprise, "except in Syaoran's bruises."
"I haven't seen it on anyone else, either," Syaoran admitted. "Everyone I know has flat colors in their bruises, and, well, I haven't really seen Sakura-hime injured. Not that I want you to be," he told her hurriedly.
The bruise on Sakura's cheek was a dull yellowish-green and faded around the edges. In the middle, there were pinprick points of maroon evenly spaced out from each other, like blood had clotted beneath the surface of her skin. Kurogane ignored the fact that he'd caused it (what was done was done), reaching forward to tilt her face this way and that, all the better to examine the injury. "How much does it hurt?" he asked.
She shook her head slightly, chin still caught between his fingers. "Not very much at all, if I don't touch it."
Kurogane hadn't seen bruises like that, either. All the bruises he knew had uniform colors, and his cycled from red to purple to green to yellow. That it didn't actively hurt meant it wasn't very severe at all. Come to think of it, he'd seen those bruises when he was training the kid, but he hadn't given them a second thought. "It's just the two of you?"
"I thought I was the odd one out," Syaoran said quietly, his expression carrying the hint of a loneliness that Kurogane knew too well. "I didn't think— Well, I thought there was something wrong with me. But the same thing is happening to Sakura-hime."
Fai was looking at the kids strangely. Kurogane couldn't read what it was flickering in his eyes, so he said instead, "Oi, have you seen anything like this?"
The wizard yanked his attention away from Sakura, but the heaviness (sorrow?) in his hooded gaze lingered. "I— No, I have not. Don't you assume things like that about me, Kuro-rin. I don't know everything."
But he knew why this was happening to the princess and the kid, didn't he. Kurogane studied the blond, caught the way he bit his lip and tried a weak smile on his face. It didn't stay on very well at all.
A ribbon of heat welled up in his gut. Kurogane reached across the cardboard box, cuffed Fai lightly on the chin. "Cut that out. This concerns all of us."
Fai's countenance closed off immediately. He gave a blank smile, leaned away. "I know just as much as you do, Kuro-pon. You're giving me too much credit. Here, Sakura-chan, this is for you," he said, rolling the flatbread up and wrapping it in his paper napkin. "I think that might be preserved fruit and a bit of dried meat. I'm sorry we don't have any firewood left for hot drinks. Kuro-tan used up all the firewood last night."
Kurogane glared at the wizard. The kids were looking worriedly between them, bruise forgotten, and he huffed, turning away. The last thing he needed was for them to worry about what was going on between him and Fai, or worse, see through the idiot's lies. Fai kept their spirits up when they were down.
"Whatever." Both the princess and the kid still looked uncertain, though, so Kurogane changed the subject. "So we agree that the bruises are normal for these two. That's fine. Have you thought about how we're getting off this hill?"
"I have, actually." Fai sent him a gloating look; he pulled another flatbread from its wax paper wrapping, distributed more stringy yellow fruit across its surface. "All we have to do is round the side of the hill—from there, it's a straight slope down."
From what he'd seen of the hill the night before, Kurogane was certain that it didn't sound quite as easy as Fai made it out to be. "You drive, then."
The wizard pouted at him, chapped lips glistening in the morning light. "But Kuro-puu is the best driver among all of us, isn't he?"
"You're not that bad yourself." He continued to glare.
"You have the most experience with this car." Fai's smile was very innocent, and there was a touch of smugness to his voice. He scattered bits of shredded reddish meat over the bread, rolled it up, and handed it to Syaoran in a new napkin. "I'm sure we all agree that this isn't the best place for me to practice."
He was right. Kurogane glared. He'd get the idiot back for this, somehow. Fai smiled at him, rolled a third flatbread up for Mokona.
"About that conversation you had with Kuro-daddy last night," Fai said, pulling a fourth piece of bread out. The kids blinked at him. Kurogane saw the moment they realized what he meant, their eyes growing wide, mouths ceasing to chew. He wanted to strangle the idiot. Causing the kids to choke wasn't on any of their agendas. "What he really meant to say was that it was a huge misunderstanding. Kuro-myu and I aren't having sex or anything like that. That was just a comic that fell into our possession."
For a moment, Kurogane stared at Fai, who was looking at Sakura and Syaoran and nowhere near him. He had that smile on his face again, that very fake smile that Kurogane was certain everyone could see through. (And it hurt, Fai dismissing all they'd done like this.)
(He was right, too—what was there to change between them, when there was nothing at all in the first place?)
It was mostly for the sake of Fai's own conscience that he was even doing this, Kurogane could tell. Because Fai would return to him, sooner or later, slap in the face be damned. The idiot wanted to be held close and pleasured and fucked so he could forget about everything else he was running from. And Kurogane indulged him. Kurogane would draw him close and kiss him because he was important. Fai was worth more than any limb of his.
"We understand," Syaoran mumbled. Sakura nodded solemnly. "We're sorry for bringing it up, Kurogane-san, Fai-san."
"Will Kurogane still read the book to Mokona?" the white thing asked from his shoulder. He glanced askance at her, ground his teeth.
"No," Kurogane said, ignoring the way she slumped. To the wizard, he added, "you're an idiot."
Fai smiled and rolled up the fourth flatbread and thrust it at him, looking at some point above his shoulder. "Every ninja needs a good breakfast," he answered. Kurogane took the bread, bit into it, noting the way the kids seemed to relax ever so slightly. "I'll make you another one when you're done."
"You eating any yourself?" he asked.
Fai had dropped his gaze to his own piece of bread, skimping on the fruit and meat he laid on it. Kurogane narrowed his eyes. "Yes, yes. Such a mother hen, Kuro-pi."
"I'm not a mother hen. Idiot."
Three sets of eyes bounced back and forth between them. Kurogane sighed, shoved bread into his mouth and chewed. It wasn't bad, not really. The bread was dense, firm and dry, and the sweetness of the fruit was a pleasant contrast to salty meat. They'd skipped buying cheeses and dairy in the marketplace they landed in so there wouldn't be things they couldn't eat and couldn't keep, and Kurogane had appreciated their consideration for his limits.
"Did you sleep well?" Fai asked the children while they ate. Kurogane sat out of conversations like these, when Fai would cheer everyone up and get them smiling and happy. He didn't need shallow talk to make him feel better. What he did need was Fai being honest about anything at all, and that wasn't going to happen.
When breakfast was over, Fai packed up, sending Syaoran and Mokona off to check that the campfire was properly banked. He gave Kurogane an odd look, one Kurogane thought he should recognize, before turning to Sakura. The girl was wearing a frown.
"How are you holding up with the bleeding, Sakura-chan?" Fai asked quietly, folding the crinkly food wrappers up. "Are you in need of more bleeding cloths?"
She shook her head, limp hair swaying. "Moko-chan has plenty stored from the previous time, Fai-san. I don't think there's a need to worry about that."
"But?" the wizard prompted.
"It's starting to itch," she said lowly, a light flush dusting her cheeks. "I've been trying to hold my pee in, just in case the worms come again somehow, but—"
"It's not healthy if you do that," Fai cut in, his mouth drawing tight. "You should pee when you need to. Don't worry about the worms. Kuro-rin will take care of them. Where does it itch?"
Her fingers twitched. She brought her hand towards herself and paused midway, looking between Kurogane and Fai, and down at the slate-grey rock. "Well, it's not... It's not a very accessible place."
Fai took her hand and tried on a smile for her sake, even though worry was shining through his eyes. "Would you mind if I take a look at it, Sakura-chan? I know a bit about medicine. Maybe I can help."
She looked at Kurogane again, and it was clear that his attention was causing the princess distress. Kurogane clicked his tongue, stood up to walk away.
"Kuro-tan," Fai called. He turned back to look at the wizard. Fai was frowning, surveying their temporary campsite. "We need you around in case the worms show up. Be prepared to fight, okay?"
"I'm always prepared," he grumbled, stalking away to patrol the rock outcrop. On the other side of the car, Syaoran was poking through the remnants of the campfire, and Mokona was dancing around the fire pit. Kurogane turned his attention to the land around them.
They were on a wide ledge of sorts near the top of a cliff, with a solid rock face jutting up on one side. Scrawny shrubs grew out of cracks in the rocks. Past the outer edge, lit by the yellow glow of the first of two suns, a vast expanse of loose rock sloped down towards the charred desert, wrapped steeply around the side of the cliff. The loose rock was nearly level with one segment of the ledge; Kurogane could see why Fai would suggest driving along that and following the slope down to the other side of the cliff. If the path was as smooth as they imagined it to be.
But didn't the kid say they'd be safe here because it was solid rock? Kurogane was certain that the worms would be able to burrow through debris to reach this ledge.
"Hey," he began, turning towards the side of the car where he'd last seen Fai and Sakura. They weren't both on the rocky ground, however. Fai was bent over by an open passenger door, one hand clasped around the door frame. From his vantage point, Kurogane could see bare shins propped up on the seat in front of him, and were those bare thighs—
It felt like his mind was on the verge of breaking when he stared (Fai looking between Sakura's bare legs was just wrong), until he remembered their conversation from before, about the princess and her discomfort. He didn't think Fai's looking meant something like this, but in hindsight, it seemed the most straightforward method possible.
Kurogane turned away when Fai reached into the car with his other hand. This was something he had no business seeing. He located Syaoran and Mokona on the other side of the car, talking about something or other, and placed himself close to the open door, facing the open slope around the rock outcrop. The sand worms had surged out of the ground when the princess had gone to relieve herself—what more now, when Fai was examining her? Already, he could discern the faintest scent of blood in the air.
The desert was completely silent for a long stretch. Fai was murmuring at the same time Mokona sang, and Kurogane felt the oily darkness of a life force as it tunneled through the rocky slope. It moved as rapidly as its counterparts had the day before. The worm was far in the distance one moment, and heartbeats later, it had exploded out of the slope, rearing up above him in a shower of loose rock.
"Idiot," he yelled, drawing his sword. From the corner of his eye, Kurogane saw Fai wiping his hand on his robes. The worm swerved away from him, headed straight for the wizard. With a roar, Kurogane unleashed a pulse of lightning, watching with satisfaction as it crackled through the heavy body of the creature, its scales charring from the sheer heat of the attack. "Get out of here!"
Fai slammed the door shut, whirled around, his face a calm mask. "Syaoran-kun, Mokona, get in the car now," he said, loud and clear as he watched the worm thump heavily onto the edge of the rock outcrop. It writhed, shapeless mouth gaping open, and rolled off the ledge. "Front seat, Syaoran-kun. Get the car running."
"More coming," Kurogane said. He could feel them approaching, two just past the edge and a handful more in the slope further below. Syaoran began to protest; all he needed was a pointed look from Fai, before he sprinted over to the car, pulling the door shut behind himself. The car engine whickered to life. The instant the worms reared up over the ledge, Kurogane loosed a lightning dragon through them. Bright white electricity speared through their bodies; they spasmed, dark mouths wide, and Fai shouted behind him.
"Kuro-rin! We have to go!"
"I know that!" he snapped back. The other worms were still fast approaching, and if they lingered, the car would be hemmed in by rock and corpses. "Get in and drive!"
"I can't—"
"Drive or fight. Pick one." Kurogane focused his attention on the new monsters tunneling towards them. The boy had been right in a way—the worms could not travel through the solid rock beneath them, though that didn't mean they couldn't burrow through debris, and then attack them from there. That they'd got through the night was a damn miracle as it was. When Fai still did not move, Kurogane turned and glared at him. "What're you still standing here for? Leave a door open for me!"
Another worm burst out of the slope below, leaving itself wide open for an attack. Kurogane took it, squinting as the second sun peeked past the horizon. He didn't need his sight to fight, but two suns would cause burns the longer he stayed out, and the temperature of the surrounding air would rise. He would be losing energy too quickly once it got hot enough.
Fai had come to the same conclusion, it seemed, because he spun on his heel and climbed into the driver's seat. "I'm turning this around, Kuro-pon. Sakura-chan will leave a door open for you. Don't bring the worms in."
"I'm not an idiot," he shot back. He kept his back to the cliff behind, stepped closer to the edge of the ledge so Fai had space enough to reverse the vehicle.
Four worms erupted from the slope below in quick succession; Kurogane nailed them all in one attack, piercing a fifth as it emerged. Charred and lifeless, the carcasses rolled down the rocky slope, loose shingle skidding down in their wake.
Tires squealed on the rocky ground. Kurogane turned slightly to watch Fai's progress as he attempted what was called a "three-point turn" back on another world. Another wave of worms approached; he readied his next attack, concentrating his energy into a high, thin, crackling thing.
But the creature that shot out of the ground was different. It was longer and thinner and more sinewy than the rest, with a diamond-shaped, snake-like head and fangs that glistened from wide-open jaws. Scarcely had Kurogane noted its differences when it spat a cloud of something at him. He swore and leaped back.
They were minute droplets of myriad colors, he realized, just as he was about to unleash his attack. He couldn't use lightning on this creature, or he'd risk having the mist conduct electricity all around them.
This hesitation cost him precious milliseconds; the snake struck in that opening, gaping jaws lunging toward him. Kurogane dodged to the side to swing a blow at it, at the same time it read his movements and jerked, so the edge of his sword glanced off its scales. He kicked at the ground, forced to back further, into whatever space Fai was maneuvering in. The car honked at him; he twisted just in time to avoid smashing his side into metal, sending a series of cutting gales howling at the snake. "Damn it!"
There was a flash of movement in the car. Sakura had leaned over to swing the door open for him, and in the time Kurogane thought about taking the two steps into the car, the snake curled in on itself to defend against the gale, landing heavily on the rock outcrop in a slithering mess of scales.
It blocked the car from the rest of the slope. Kurogane raised his sword to cleave the snake in two. It sensed his motion, turned and opened its mouth wide. He had barely enough time to yell the name of his attack when the snake launched itself at him. Gashes opened up in the pinkish roof of its mouth; blood splattered on rock. The rest of his attack slid uselessly off its scales. Incensed, now, the snake lunged at him, spraying venomous mist at both him and the car.
Kurogane wasn't in time to dodge the attack. He had been trying to shut the door so the spray wouldn't get into the car, but a handful of droplets splashed onto his robe, burning tiny perforations through thick cloth. Some hit his face and hands, burning spots of acid on his skin.
The snake seized his moment of distraction to bear down on him, and Kurogane leaped away from the car, turning in midair to slice at the creature. Unlike the sightless worms, the snake swerved to avoid his attack, instead coming at him from his other side.
"Get going," he yelled at Fai, checking to make sure there was a clear path down. The fight with the snake was taking far too long; more worms were approaching, and he needed a lightning-based attack to burn those down.
Fai's expression through the windshield was drawn. He revved the engine so the tires squealed once more, bringing the car to the far edge of the ledge. The sound drew the snake's attention. Kurogane seized that opening to cast a lightning dragon at it, now that Fai and the kids were mostly out of the poison mist, and watched with a surge of triumph when the attack connected, charring the creature's gleaming green scales.
The snake shuddered and thrashed. Its mouth opened wide, and that same acid spurted all across the rock outcrop. Kurogane rolled behind the car, hissed when a stray drop caught on his hair, trailing a line of heat down the back of his neck. The passenger door opened on his side. Sakura scrambled back to make space for him, and he'd barely thrown himself in when more acid splattered onto the open door, sending puffs of rapidly-dissipating steam into the air as it corroded plastic and metal alike.
Fai didn't wait for him to shut the door. He'd gunned the engine in the next instant, throwing all of them back into their seats as the car pulled forward. Kurogane swore, righted himself and grabbed for the door handle, slamming it tightly shut. "Seat belt, Kuro-rin," Fai called over his shoulder. The car lurched downwards, off the ledge. Through the dusty windshield, Kurogane saw the silhouettes of another three sand worms emerging over them. "It'll be a rough ride!"
The car careened to the side as a worm bore down on them, shapeless mouth gaping. Kurogane was thrown against the door, the sleeve of his robe brushing up against the remnants of snake poison. Fabric darkened and disintegrated; he grabbed a handful of the material, scrubbing at his face and hands and the back of his neck. Numbness dragged through his skin.
"Are you hurt?" Sakura asked breathlessly. Mokona hopped up onto his shoulder, as if she could really help.
"Seat belt, Kuro-pon," Fai said again, meeting Kurogane's eyes briefly through the rear view mirror. There was an urgent edge to his tone, and he stopped talking abruptly to jerk the steering wheel to the other side, throwing Kurogane hard against Sakura as the car swerved, narrowly avoiding a worm that had burrowed out of the slope on their right. "We don't need you concussed right now."
"All right," he snapped, grabbing at the satiny grey belt behind him, hints of pain whispering across his arm. "I heard you the first time."
The car was tipped at a disconcerting angle to the cliff face. Rocks flew by them as they drove forward. In the distance, Kurogane could see pale blue sky and flat land, with untouched green brush and rifts raking through the ground.
He was about to shove the metal eye into its buckle when Fai turned the car sharply up the slope, slowing it down. A worm crashed onto where they would have been, and the tires lost traction on loose rock, skidding so the back of the vehicle pointed down the slope. Next to them, the worm picked itself up. Fai stepped so hard on the gas that the rocks sprayed out from beneath the wheels, but the car did not budge.
Kurogane cursed, clambering over Sakura and throwing her door open. He yanked his sword out, sent a wind blade at the creature. It was sliced in two, top end sliding heavily off with a squelch and rolling down the slope. The rest of the creature was alive. Others were picking their way over, moving in for the kill.
"Get moving!" he shouted at the wizard. There was no way the'd be able to survive this attack, unless he got out of the car to fight. There seemed to be no end to these worms. All they'd be doing was to attract the rest of the colony to this place. "Can't you fly us out?"
He didn't have to look to know that Fai had tensed. The kids looked between him and Fai, and the next two worms burrowing just beneath the ground towards them, leaving a trail of raised loose debris wherever they moved. Kurogane gritted his teeth and stepped out of the car, flinging another lightning attack through the ground. The closer of the two worms sizzled; the other followed suit.
"We don't have to fly," Sakura said worriedly. "It's not good for Fai-san to use his magic, right?"
"If you don't get in right now, Kuro-tan, I'm leaving you behind," Fai added, stepping lightly on the gas. The engine growled louder; the vehicle trundled slowly out of the ruts it had dug. "Besides, I think we're okay now."
Kurogane wasn't one to argue when there was a way out. He threw himself back into the car where Sakura had made space for him, shut the door. Fai sent the car forward at once, correcting their direction the moment they were a safe distance from the decapitated worm, which had almost mended itself completely. Kurogane kept an eye on it, tracked the locations of the other reeking presences that were growing ever closer.
The sheer steepness of the slope aided their escape. Once Fai had got the car rolling, it gained speed, almost dangerously so. Inside, the rumble of machinery on jolting rocks was deafening. The boulders and shrub at the bottom of the slope approached at mind-numbing speed, and Kurogane could read the trajectories of the worms on the slope, saw the way Fai drove to put as much distance as he could between them and their pursuers.
Fai was good at driving, but Kurogane already knew that, had seen his skill through the other worlds. He scrubbed at the back of his head again, anchored his feet against the back of Syaoran's seat so he could buckle himself into place. The rest of the ride was rough. They bumped their heads hard against the windows, were jerked sideways in their seats. At one point, his stomach swooped when the car flew off a low ledge, only to crash back onto the slope and continue forward.
They weren't in time to avoid a worm. Kurogane felt it surge up before them at the same time Fai yelped, "oops!"
The sheer force of that impact splashed murky green blood and bits of flesh across the windshield. All of them jerked against their seat belts; Kurogane swore when his head snapped painfully backwards. Mokona flew straight into Syaoran's headrest and bounced off with a wail. He would have let her be, but Sakura made a grab for her, soothing the white lump.
Kurogane's skin crawled when he thought about the tiny, regenerating pieces of worm tissue on the car, worming their way into nooks and crannies. Fai didn't appear to be concerned about that. He continued to drive with opaque green obscuring his vision—Kurogane knew him to be steering by his senses alone, and yet. Green blood. The writhing worm bits.
Syaoran found the button to operate the windshield wiper. Both kids sagged with relief when they could see again, and Fai's appreciation was bright and cheerful. Kurogane didn't feel any of it.
By the time they reached the lumpy shrubs at the bottom of the hill, they were all high-strung in some way or other. The princess was ashen and shaky; Syaoran's eyes bugged out. His knuckles were white. Fai hid his stress away by grinning brightly at them all. Kurogane just wanted to get out of the car and raze it to the ground. Instead, he reached over to grab Fai by the shoulder, feeling the way wiry muscles were tense beneath his fingers. Fai did not relax at his touch.
"We should be fine now," he said. "There's enough dust to cover our tracks from all that."
Their rampage down the hill had left a cloudy trail behind them. There was dust everywhere inside the car, too, suspended in the air and sticking to all their faces. It wasn't ideal, but he didn't sense any more worms on their tail as they crashed through low, spiny bushes and rolled onto a wide expanse of cracked dirt.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
One of the lights on the dashboard came on suddenly, a loud pinging that was even more annoying than the ticking of the faulty turn signal. Kurogane frowned; Fai slowed the car to a crawl. "What is it?"
Syaoran leaned over to look at the blinking display. He muttered to himself, looked at the parts of the vehicle he could see, before reaching for his seat belt. "I think it's something to do with the tires. They might be going flat."
A/N: I have exactly 2 weeks to finish writing this fic before husband and I leave the country for a bit. Not good. Send motivation please? :(