I am late because I have been playing Phoenix Wright every weekend, it's always a new game with me isn't it?
-sigh- Sorry...
I miss the old Kai... Which means he'll probably be back this chapter! Thank god, the other Kai is starting to scare me!
Thanks to: KATZUNITED, i-live-for-the-pie, and Dark Link (Sweet! Shorter new name~ Old Kai will be back momentarily, and no! None of those people will die! Zeon might commit suicide by the end of it... but... xD jk)
Damn... I have to get those pics up... I promise they'll be up today!
Link dodged another tree branch, the path they were taking through the woods was quite difficult to maneuver on horse back. At least I know why Zeon rides an elk now... He made sure to look over his shoulder to check on Ryuk every once in a while, the poor kid really was terrified of horses. Whenever the horse would snort or move sharply, he jumped and covered his mouth to keep his yelps unheard.
I should tie Plash to Epona and let the kid ride with me. Link halted the horses and Vii and Zeon who were traveling a little ways in front of them, stopped to see what was wrong.
"Don't worry you two, I'm just stopping for a minute," Link gestured at them to keep going.
"What are you doing princess?" Kai appeared beside him as soon as he dismounted, Link tried his best not to shiver, instead he pulled the shadow close and whispered into his ear, telling him about Ryuk's fear of horses, and how they weren't going to make any progress if Ryuk could only move at a walking pace.
A feral grin replaced the shadow's usual cocky one, and before Link had a chance to ask what he was thinking of doing, Kai disappeared again, only to re-appear in front of the already terrified Ryuk and yell "Boo!" at the top of his lungs.
Ryuk retaliated in the only way he could think of, wrenching his bow out from behind his back, he screamed and whacked the shadow hard on the head a couple times before completely loosing his balance and falling off the horse with another scream, both him and Kai hit the ground with a 'thump' and lay motionless.
Link was soon at Kai's side, feeling for a pulse. Haniam had incredible strength if nothing else, so he was afraid Kai might be dead. When a pulse was found he went over to Ryuk next, who was whimpering and holding his arms.
"Ryuk? You okay?" He knew the kid would probably yell at him for asking such an obvious question, but he just wanted the Haniam to say something, he didn't really care about the answer.
"What do fucking think you stupid blond headed fucker!?"
Well I guess he's fine then...
Zeon and Vii rode up to them and took in the scene with wide eyes.
Zeon jumped off his elk and leaned over Ryuk who was still grumbling angrily. "Let me guess, the cause of this incident is Kai correct?"
Link nodded and picked a now loudly cursing Ryuk up bridal style. "Whoa Ryuk, you're dead weight is pretty heavy."
"Are you calling me fat ya bastard!?"
"No... I called you heavy..."
While Link was getting Ryuk up on Epona's saddle, Zeon and Vii went over to check on Kai.
"Do you think the guy finally bit the dust pretty boy?" Vii broke a tree branch off one of the nearest trees and used it to poke the seemingly dead Kai.
Zeon touched Kai's head with his hand, when he pulled his hand back, it was bloody. "Nothing more then a head laceration, they bleed a lot, so it looks serious, but truthfully, he'll be fine." He wiped the blood off on Vii's shirt and she snarled at him.
Link walked over to them looking tired. "Ok, let's tie Kai onto Plash's back, he'll wake up eventually..."
It took all three of them combined to lift Kai into the saddle, and with Zeon's help, Kai was soon tied onto Plash's back so he wouldn't fall off.
"It will be dark soon, so let us continue before we have to stop for the night." Zeon remounted his elk and both him and Vii took the lead again.
Link pulled himself onto Epona and yelped as Ryuk immediately latched onto him. "Aren't your arms hurting you?" Link asked him as he kicked Epona into a trot.
"Too fast! Too fast!" Ryuk was beyond caring about his arms, all he really cared about was staying alive at the moment.
Link didn't slow Epona down much to Ryuk's dismay, and the hero silently prayed to the goddesses, begging them to keep his ribs from cracking before the day was over.
They continued riding until the sun sunk low over the horizon, and it was almost impossible to see where they were going. Link lit a small fire and untied Kai from Plash's back and laid him next to the fire.
Vii and Zeon busied themselves with preparing something to eat, while Ryuk simply sulked away from the fire.
"It will take a total 14 days of hard riding until we reach the border of the Daedlands, and that is with 'hard riding' something we are unable to do in the forest, so I believe it will take us even longer then that..." Zeon directed this information at Link who shrugged and continued mother henning over Kai.
Vii was the one who let out a long whine. "So you're saying it'll take a month to get to the 'border' of Daedlands, then after that, we still have to go though the actual Daedlands...."
Zeon stirred the stew and nodded. "Truthfully."
"Truthfully...?"
"Truthfully."
"Great." Vii rolled her eyes at the smirking Zeon and tried to resist the urge to throw something large and heavy at the pretty boy's head.
Beside the fire, Kai stirred.
Link inched away slightly, in case the crazed shadow tried to attack him. "Kai?"
Kai sat up slowly, rubbing his head. "Owie, Link dude, what the hell did we do last night? Did we go out clubbing again?" Kai opened his eyes and observed the surrounding area. Link was staring at him, his mouth was hanging open wide enough to enable the catching of flies, and a crazy looking lady was giving him a really creepy smile, then there was Ryuk who was dressed strangely and also catching flies in the shadows, and there was a new guy that looked kind of like Link, but a lot more girlie, giving him a frightened look.
"Okay, who fucking drew on my face with permanent marker again?! Was it emo?! Damn bastard! Why the fuck are we in the woods anyway? Did we take a camping trip? Trees are big enough... Wait! Why I'm I in a tunic? What happened to my ass hugging jeans? Why-
"KAI!" Link pounced, silencing the shadow's rambling, and almost giving Kai a heart attack.
Kai flailed as the hero continued to strangle the life out of him. "Link! Can't breath! Dying! Link!"
The crazy lady bounced over ruffled his hair, which hurt like hell because his head hurt like hell.
"You're back to normal! Thank Havox! The other you was extremely scary..."
"Crazy lady say what now? Who's Havox? Other me? Did I like... miss something?"
Link stopped nuzzling Kai's neck and looked up at him. "Do you remember when the village caught on fire? A part of the house fell on you, and Ryuk had to save you."
"I told you to never let me into the kitchen again! See what happens? People die..."
"No Kai, it wasn't the kitchen, member, we were staying in the human village for the night before setting out to rescue Shigen?" Link poked the confused shadow's head like this would some how make him remember everything.
"Er... No? Wait, emo needs to be rescued? What the fuck did he do this time?"
Gulping loudly Link asked, "what's the last thing you remember?"
"The last thing I remember? Well I was getting ready for school, it was the last day wasn't it? We were going to go get our failing report cards and laugh at ourselves, then go see emo in the hospital."
With every word that came out of Kai's mouth, Link cringed. "That's... all you remember?" He asked him quietly, caressing Kai's cheek sadly.
Kai wasn't really sure of what to make of Link's odd behavior. "Yeah babe, isn't that what happened? Why do you look so damn sad? Stop it! You're making me sad!"
Link made himself comfortable on the shadow's lap and sighed. "I guess you really don't remember, I guess I'll tell you, and hopefully someday the memories will come back on their own." Link told Kai the water downed version of all that had happened since they traveled back in time, everyone was listening intently, even Ryuk who was pretending to be asleep. When he finished, Kai was in tears.
"You mean...." He sniffed loudly and wiped the tears away. "Our little emo was kidnapped by some horny woman, and we have to go rescue him?!"
Link chuckled and kissed him, something he had missed doing. "That's right, but don't worry, we'll save him."
"Two men in love with each other? The world you come from is strange indeed." Zeon went back to the stew which was finished cooking, and began pouring some in bowls.
Kai picked up a rock off the ground and threw it in Zeon's direction. "Heh, a guy that looks more girly then an anime character, what a weird world you live in!"
Zeon almost dropped the bowl of stew all over himself when he dodged the rock. "Ani...me?"
Kai let out a horse worthy snort, "a newb such as yourself would never grasp the concept of the god known as anime."
"So Anime is a god then? Truthfully?" Zeon asked while passing a bowl of stew to Kai.
"Yeah sure bud." Kai was pretty sure he was starving, he inhaled the stew before Link even had the time to take a bite of his.
"Kai, how many times do I have to tell you to-"
He was cut off by Kai's cough. Link got off him so that the shadow could flail around as much as he wanted.
After a few seconds of dying, Kai finally calmed down. "Holy shit, that was intense." He smiled at Link who was giving him his best 'flat eyes' expression. "Come on honey, you know you love me."
"Oh yes, you choking on your food is an extreme turn on for me." Link went back to nibbling on his food.
Moving in the shadows, Seker Astray fluttered quickly through the silent forest, avoiding every living creature and the dead as well. He was deep in elf territory now, he had to be careful or they would sense his evil intent and chase him out. He needed to make it to the human village where the Zeon character had been spotted.
His partner, a small bat named 'Rush' landed on his shoulder and sniffed him.
"What have you found?" Seker's voice was so low that you would have to be standing right next to him in a quite setting to hear what he was saying.
Rush jumped from his shoulder and landed on the branch beside him, the bat's form shifted and Seker had to look away, still not comfortable with watching the transformation.
A soft sigh was heard beside him, and when he looked back, Rush was no longer beside him, instead, a young man was there, rotating his arm and grumbling. "Man that feels weird," he said massaging a kink out of his neck.
"Rush, what did you see?"
The kid stopped his fidgeting and apologized quickly. "I went to the village, there's no need to go there anymore, the elf and his group left a few nights ago, no one knows where they're headed."
So the elf has left the village eh? Where could he be headed? "Then there is a need to go to the village you idiot, we'll need to pick up the trail."
Rush whimpered. "I'm not a good assassin, am I?"
"Shouldn't you be more concerned about becoming a good vampire first?" The stupidity of Rush frustrated him at times. "Go back to the village and try to find out which way they went."
Rush saluted the older man. "Will do sir, hurry up and get there will ya?" He shifted into his bat form and flew off into the night.
Seker relaxed as the silence surrounded him once again. Maybe taking in an apprentice was a bad idea...
Kai sat up and stretched, popping his joints and yawning obnoxiously.
He looked to his right and smiled, Link's sleeping face was always hard to resist in the morning, so with that in mind, he leaned down and pecked the hero on the cheek. "Love ya."
"Can you please keep the gay levels down? I'm trying to fucking sleep over here." Ryuk muttered something else before closing his eyes again.
"Don't bull shit be Mr. I-like-Shigen-but-I'm-too-proud-to-admit-it. Haniam don't need to sleep!" Kai stuck his nose in the air like a snob, trying not to laugh.
"How the fuck did you know that? Didn't you loose your memories or something?" Ryuk scooted over to him, completely ignoring the comment about him and Shigen. "Do you remember now?"
"Umm...." Kai blinked and tilted his head to one side in thought. "Nope, still blank, but that's weird eh? I guess I recalled that little bit..."
"If you ask me, your mind is always blank, but whatever."
Vii groaned and sat up. "You two are so loud, a deaf person could hear you! Shut up! A girl needs her beauty sleep you know?"
Kai leaned over to Ryuk and whispered, "I don't think any amount of sleep is gonna cure her case of ugly."
When both of them burst out laughing, Link jumped out of bed and drew his sword, searching the area for danger. He managed to scare the shit out of both Zeon and Vii and the horses/elk/wolf.
The laughing increased when both guys saw Link's expression, who returned their laughing with a glare.
"Well I guess it is time to pack up and go." Zeon was already up and folding his blanket.
Link followed his lead and began to clean up the area, and Vii slept on, ignoring all of them.
Once they were all packed up, it was Zeon's job to wake up sleeping ugly, which took longer then anyone expected, and the whole incident also left Zeon with a few bruises which he healed soon after, and on top of all that, Vii was in a very bad mood.
"I don't know why you stinking men couldn't have left me behind! I would have caught up eventually!" She was riding on Xxeon who was trotting silently beside Epona. "It's not like I have to come with you, I just want to get a good look at this Shigen person You're all going on about."
Link shifted in the saddle and sighed, dealing with women was never really his strong point... Ever. "We need you because you're a necromancer, and you know how to fight those creepy undead creatures in the Daedlands, you said so yourself."
"You have a sharp memory, you're an elf aren't you?" She eyed his pointed eyes with interest.
"No, I'm pretty sure me and Kai are Hyrulians, but that is strange though, since me and Kai outlived all of our Hyrulian friends, I just thought it was because we were favored by the goddesses."
Kai rode up beside him on Plash with Ryuk securely glued to his back. "Well, if that was the case, then Zelda should have lived forever too... But she kind of died, so I guess we'll never know."
Epona halted abruptly and Link turned from Kai to look at what was bugging his horse. Zeon was also stopped up ahead, so Link nudged Epona and walked up to stand beside him. "What's-
Kai trotted over with Plash. "Hey! Why does it get so damn bright over here... holy..."
"Din..." Link finished for him.
In front of them was a clearing where trees would have once stood, but all of them were gone, leaving only smoldering trunks and ashes.
Vii gasped and Xxeon whimpered, backing away from the clearing. "There are undead down there!"
Ryuk moaned, scaring the life out of Kai. "There are people down there too... Bleeding..."
Kai turned and used Ryuk's cloak to cover the Haniam's nose. Oh great... the kid is gonna start blood lusting on us. He was about to tell Link about Ryuk, but when he looked over, Link was already gone, racing down across the charred ground to the peoples rescued.
Kai growled and dismounted, pulling Ryuk along with him. "Hey woman, come over here and hold Ryuk down, if he tries to move, stab this sword through him to keep him pinned." He passed Ryuk to Vii who had jumped off her wolf and took a hold of the shadow sword that Kai passed her.
"What are you going to do?" Zeon asked him, the elf was trying to keep his composer, but the smell of burnt flesh was clearly getting to him. "If you're going to save the people down there, the forest is still burning over there, that's where they'll be, and unless you have fire, you have no chance against the undead."
Kai nodded and warped into the shadow world.
He kept moving until he saw the bright outlines of the living people, there were only five of them left, they all had their backs to the burning woods behind them, the two men with them were fighting off the dead creatures with flaming sticks, but it was obvious that they would soon be out of the energy to fight.
Kai looked behind him and saw Link's outline galloping towards him, but the number of dead between him and the living was enormous, he wouldn't make it in time. Kai reappeared beside one of the men who yelped and took a swing at him. Kai easily dodged it, "you idiot, pay attention to the creatures, don't hit me!"
The guy gave him a confused look before going back to fending off an undead that shambled to close to the defense line.
Kai unsheathed Sulken and eyed the sword, not sure if it would accept him or reject him. Come on Mr. Sword! I know really like the emo and all, but I kind of need you, you have a fire element inside you, right?
The sword pulsed lightly, but stayed silent.
Kai waved it around. Come on you big heap of shit! Light up!
This time the sword pulsed loudly, magical energy burst from the blade and fire swirled around it, the sword was practically singing.
"Sweet! Time to kick ass!" He swung toward the nearest creature and watched as it and all the dead creatures in the area went up in flames.
Kai looked at the sword with wide eyes. "No wonder the emo loved this thing!" He swung the sword again and watched as the creatures fell in groups. Wait... How did I know he liked the sword? An image flashed through his head, Shigen was Sheathing Sulken and talking to it proudly. Well I guess the bastard is helping me out then.
Link watched as Kai singled handedly took out every undead in the clearing. He sighed and dismissed the fire that he had gathered in his palm. "After my big dramatic hero entrance, he could have left one for me to kill..."
Lore looked up from the spell book she was reading. Her prince was laying on the bed fast asleep, nothing had changed, but...
She went over to him and peered down at his face, instead of his usual calm look, he looked bothered.
"Is something bothering you my love?" She stroked his cheek hoping that it would calm him.
Instead, he tensed up even more, and his right arm twitched violently.
She looked at his hand, and was surprised to see it was curled... as if it was holding a sword.
Done! Urg... That took.... five hours... Back to Feenie! Wait! I have to get those pics up! Hehe~
Hope you all liked the chapter!
And sorry if the characters seemed out of character in the last one, I had writers block.